Technically the week isn’t over, but I have a lot of things going on this weekend so I doubt I’ll be able to put this post off. Plus I feel like writing a post right now, so I have to strike while the iron is hot.

Resolution Update

Not gonna lie, chat: things aren’t going well. First off, my grand plan of using Obsidian as a journal has imploded. Aside from just remembering to do it, when I did remember I found that I didn’t have much to write about that I hadn’t already written about. My life is not that exciting, so I haven’t felt the need to approach the process; I write more here when I do write here, so maybe this is my journal?

I’ve also not been working on the projects I had wanted to work on. To be fair, I still have time to complete some projects such as Blender work and TTRPG content. It’s telling, though, that at the beginning of the year, my desire to “do work on projects” hits an all time low across the board. That’s the kind of realization I was hoping to get from the journal, so maybe even just having the journal is enough to make me see the what and when of trends.

Instead, I’ve been listlessly bouncing between games. I thought I’d be psyched up for World of Warcraft’s pre-Midnight patch release because it was bringing in Endeavors for housing neighborhoods, and I have had some level of fun tackling those, but most of them are sending me into a zone that I abhor so I won’t be doing those. I’ve already written about StarRupture so I won’t beat that horse, although I will say that I haven’t let that horse out of the stable since I wrote about it, which is telling. Of all of the games I have installed, Hytale has been the one I return to. It’s quick to load, simple to hit the ground running, and literally asks nothing of me as the only game mode is freestyle open world exploration. While I apparently like Hytale, I’m a little disappointed that this is currently the highlight of my gaming time.

Fable Returns

Fable was an amazing piece of work back when it launched for the Xbox in 2001. It was about as close to open world as we could get back then, but the real selling points were the NPC interactions and our ability to not just quest, but to live this fantasy life though relationships and business acumen. Of course I never finished any of the original series, nor do I fully remember anything about any of them, but I do have a fond recollection of the sense that they were really something special at the time.

Now Xbox and Playground Games are bringing the franchise back with a new title, also called Fable. Based on the discussion video above, I’m very interested in this reincarnation, but I hope that by the time it releases (Autumn 2026) I’ll be out of my gaming malaise cycle and will find the desire to focus on the game for long enough to wring some worth from it.

Starfleet Academy

I watched episode three this morning while on the treadmill, and while I want to remain stand-offish about the tone of this new series, I can’t. It’s fun. It’s not groundbreaking, or a milestone in the Trek universe, nor is it doing anything to capitulate to those who want more Wars in their Trek or whatever. This episode revolved around a prank war between Starfleet cadets and cadets of the War College; the War College was, for the duration of The Burn, the only academy that the Federation fielded on account of how everything in the galaxy was falling apart.

Yes, there’s some cases of teen angst in this episode as the principals start revealing their weaknesses to us and to one another, and there’s the budding relationship between Caleb and Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner), daughter of the President of Betazed. For me, I had expected the series to feel cloying and like it’s trying too hard to appeal to a younger demographic (to keep the Trek blood flowing across the generations), but I felt this episode was just fun, with silliness where it was relevant and seriousness where it was relevant, and none of it was about make-or-break stakes in plot or character building. It continued to do the heavy lifting of core character bonding, and threw in some of the “this is what Starfleet stands for” lessons that we might expect from a series about teaching the Next Generation how to Starfleet properly.

I will say, though, Holly Hunter’s Ake was endearing in the first two episodes, with her casual inability to sit in a seat correctly and not wear shoes, but by episode three, I’m thinking it’s a little overdone. There, I said something negative about the series for you people who have nothing but negative things to say about the series.

Masters of the Universe

OK listen here. I was a Masters of the Universe fan back when I was a kid. I didn’t have all of the toys, but I had a hell of a lot of them. I remember when the original line up was only He-Man, Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, and Beastman, before all the rest of the merch started flooding in. I watched the cartoon, never caring how lame Filmation was, and kind of remember bits and pieces of the movie with Dolph Lundgren (which should be more powerful considering I mentioned I can’t remember a damn thing about the original Fable games which came after the original MotU movie).

I would not pay to see the upcoming MotU treatment because while I was a fan of the franchise, I can appreciate now the fact that it’s pretty low-rent and often times silly…maybe even outright stupid. It was designed to appeal to young boys by using the most base archetypes, and it didn’t really care about going further. The movie looks to follow suit by bringing all of those characters in, although I suspect it’ll be looking to smooth certain edges for today’s modern sensibilities (Teela is wearing pants. Yes, I noticed). I have no issues with that, nor do I have issues with trailer showing us that this is probably a by-the-numbers post-Marvel-era CGI-fueled adventure movie with all the tropes.

Prince Adam was sent to Earth from Eternia when he was a boy in order to protect him, meaning we get treated to a prologue of Adam, knowing his heritage, having to “fit in” to modern day society where there is no magic and inferior tech; typical “fish out of water” scenario that pokes fun at how terrible our civilization is. Once he finds his sword in a comic book shop (of course), it summons him home where he learns to become He-Man and fight Skeletor, etc etc etc. Like I said, not exactly high art.

I will give the writers credit, though. Adam is rocking the pink shirt and white T, same as the original Prince Adam. They seemed to have kept a lot of the costume aesthetics from the toy line/cartoons, although updating a lot of it for a better “rule of cool”. One thing I am dying to find out: Is that really Fisto in the trailer, and if so, are they still calling him Fisto?

Your Unasked-For Star Citizen Update

The PTU is open to all waves now. During this week’s ISC (yay!), Jared mentioned that 4.6 would/should be released next week, so we’re on track.

I haven’t played much 4.5 because quite frankly, there’s nothing really drawing me in. This was the engineering patch and while I give props to CIG for finally releasing it and releasing it without any other major content to distract from having people focus on engineering, I’m not feeling any strong impetus to log in an fiddle with power routing. I had been trying to get back to mining, but that has been nothing but a ridiculous series of bugs that have resulted in all loss, no benefit. Barring that, I could continue to take courier missions, combat missions, or farm for gear, all of which I have done, and none of which I really desire to do again right now.

That’s why I’m cold on this “Clear the Air” story arc that is coming in 4.6. Collecting the same old mechanics under a narrative umbrella can’t hide the fact that it’s just the same old mechanics that I could do right now, but have no interest in doing. While I hope that mining got some under-the-hood updates in 4.6 to make it actually work for the event, there’s nothing on deck in this upcoming patch that really screams “this is it!” that is going to make me wake up early and stay late to play. Even crafting, a major system which I have used as an example of how CIG is accelerating development on Star Citizen, would be a speedbump of interest. Once I create a new weapon, a set of armor, and maybe a few other things, what then? Just more mining, salvaging, ship and FPS combat, exactly the same as I can do right now.

While I’m pleased to see tentpole features finally making their way off the drawing board, I do wonder what a 1.0 game will look like. There’s Genesis on the way for planets, improved social features which should hopefully help people connect and organize, a better inventory, and eventually the ability to build homes, bases, and centers of industry, but then what? Despite having pumped out several narrative arcs over the years, I’m feeling a bit in the dark about what CIG is going to offer — if anything — by way of day-to-day narrative options. We used to have named NPCs contacting us with scripted tasks, so I’d like to see those return. I’d also like to see more than just “paper tag” missions we can take from the MOBIGlass that are nothing more than a veneer reason to engage in combat or collect materials; I don’t need NPCs to send me on those tasks. I can find reasons to do those on my own. And while I know this is a sandbox game, I don’t feel like there are or will be many mechanics in the game which make me want to go out and sandbox.