November 2020 Review: At the Helm

Following up from last time, our guild is now at the helm position of the alliance (for a few months)! Yay! Ideally we'd like to push our level to 16 or beyond in this time, but really any progress would be cool.

Almost as cool as this.

Now for some future tech... I previously posted about the Tesla Model 3 which is already quite advanced for my standards but if you want to take it a step further you can literally fly with the KleinVision car! Just need to put weapons on that now and... oh wait, South Africa already did that for real. :P

   Lose 1kg this month (last month result: fail)
   Web comic (nothing, nada, zip)

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

I started the Wild Hunt while Neverwinter Online was just about to head into Avernus... and it's still there right now! Unsurprisingly this is simply too tedious for some, myself included.

Five Years Ago

I was much more into Neverwinter Online, exploring foundry quests and using it as photo story inspiration. The Rage of Demons questline written by R.R. Salvatore was released at this time too.

Most Viewed Posts last Month

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
GTFO: R4A2 - Foster (Extreme)
Metal Gear: A Soldier's Diary

Again another walk through makes top three, though for some reason the massive interest in Apokolips War eclipsed it. Curious that the new story diary is up there too! I guess Metal Gear has a way of catching attention? "!"

Close to the Sun

What happens when scientists science too far?

In a world where Nikola Tesla is conquering the globe with scientific breakthroughs, you are summoned to his massive research/cruise vessel the Helios and quickly find that things are not going so well on the ship. The piles of eviscerated, dead bodies lying in pools of blood sort of give it away. First things first, the environments here are absolutely gorgeous and set the horror scene very nicely.

Might be a tiny bit of blood...

While there are simple puzzles to solve and interact with, there is no fighting and no hiding either. Instead the horror mainly comes from the atmosphere, a few jump scares and a number of scripted chase sequences which for the most part are easy enough to pull off. Combined with a mostly single path through the game you have a semi-railroaded tale which offers little explanation but still a fun time. I give it 2.5 Tesla coils out of 5.

Insight: There is a tough chase sequence in Chapter 8 that verges on annoying. I recommend madly clicking your mouse to hit the interactive thing while you run as you won't have time to stop.

Tesla Model 3

I managed to ride one of these quiet beauties recently and boy, does it scream "THIS IS THE FUTURE" for me. Gone are your standard car displays behind the wheel. This time you just have a laptop sized screen that shows all the information plus navigation, music, and anything else you want to set down to seat, wheel, and mirror adjustments based on the user. I also quite liked the 3D rendering display of the car's immediate surroundings thanks to all the cameras lining the vehicles exterior.

Not only can you set these to record and save to both an internal USB and to your remote server on "Sentry Mode" to look out for bad dudes, it also uses it to literally drive itself. You can let go of the wheel and the car will handle speeding up to the limit you set or slowing down if something is detected ahead. Just indicate to switch lane and it will do it for you, again using the detectors to determine a safe gap to do so.

Not as clunky looking as the earlier models.

Yes, by the same means it can also park itself and using a "summon car" app on your phone (which is one of your main IDs to access the vehicle) it can drive itself to you as long as you are in range. I assume that means "parking lot" size and not "home to airport" distance, though the latter would be funny especially if you put a dog in the driver seat and set the car to "dog mode" (keeps the car cool even if "off"). Imagine some cops trying to pull that over!

Not sure you'd actually want a dog in there though as the interior is really slick and comfy, and the glass roof really makes it spacious. It takes around a full evening to recharge the car back to full (as your battery is now your gas) or much faster if you use a super-recharge station which will do the same in a matter of minutes.

There are limits though: The self drive ability only works on roads with lines, so freeways and such are the best use of the feature. Off road or joining/leaving a freeway is best a manual task. Also the car can "panic" if it gets confused which will cause it to wail loudly while returning manual control so no snoozing for you drivers! Obviously any service must be conducted by a Tesla shop too as your local mechanics might scratch their head at what's under the hood.

Lastly, the thing is basically a 2 ton app now and apps can be hacked, tracked, and the like. I mean, it already intentionally tracks itself (again, anti-theft device linked to your phone) but it really looks to be the future of the automotive industry. A second intelligence that helps prevent accidents? Hell yes! Would I get one? Definitely! Why don't I? Because it's super expensive. :P

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Without Hitler there is Stalin.

This refined version of the original takes a step back from the Tiberium future and sees Russia fighting the Allies (who I played to victory - as before I only play 1 side). Just the ore trucks (which collect gems and ore for funding) are a good example - as they dump their load into the refinery in under 3 seconds as opposed to the harvesters that used a straw.

Keep walking Hitler, you aren't in this game.

It's also interesting that the Allies get the "light" units this time around while Russia gets the "heavies", an inversion of the GDI/Nod arsenal from the first game. Along with some indoor maps there are also new units, most of which are good or mandatory thanks to having water now on the map - the rest are very situational. The engineer rush tactic is also gone here as are the commandos who are replaced by the uber-hero unit: Tanya. It's worth mentioning that I've killed more dogs in this game than any other.

The quality of the video cut scenes has also improved, and the best part is they fixed my complaint from the first game where you need to hunt everything down. Here at some point, the AI just "surrenders" and sends everything your way. Not as good as an immediate "you win" but good enough.

I cherry picked through the expansions and found that Counterstrike, while having missions come in small 2-3 set bundles for story purposes was still just more of the same just with full tech trees unlocked on both sides (which only happens in the last mission of the regular campaign).

Aftermath was more fun for me (at least for Allies), as there are more zero-construction missions. It also adds more ridiculous units though - like a nuke truck. It's exactly what it sounds like. There's no launcher either, it's a suicide unit. Good times! All up, Red Alert is a big step forward from the original and I give it 3.5 Tesla coils out of 5.