MaartenVC

W.T.F. That's f'ed up. That's a joke right? Or are they for real?

Programming (DNA in) Bacteria

Early Birds

Space Planes

From the almost infinite small to the almost infinite large.

Murphy's Irish Stout: Last Orders (1997) Japanese Anime Commercial A bit like Akira (1988), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (2000), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), Kill Bill Vol. 1: Chapter 3 - The Origin of O-Ren (2003, animated sequence),...

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016–2017) Based on the 1987 humorous detective novel book series with the same name by Douglas Adams, writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series. BBC America produced 18 episodes starring Samuel Barnett as Dirk Gently, Elijah Wood as Todd Brotzman, Hannah Marks as Amanda Brotzman, and Jade Eshete as Farah Black. Watching it on Netflix. We're 3 episodes in and I must say it's really something else. Very intriguing. I like it so far. Weird. Wacky. Pretty IDM.

My uncle died last week to Covid-19. My aunt (his wife) survived it.

This might be a good deal if you're into Paradox Published PC Games: Fanatical - Build your own Paradox Bundle (3 For €9.99, 4 For €12.99, 5 For €14.99) There are some good games in there: Cities: Skylines, Prison Architect, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Europa Universalis IV, Pillars of Eternity,...

Batman - Arkham Asylum (2009) A Stealth Beat 'm Up Action Game. It's one of the better superhero video games. Steam version didn't start up for me; Epic Game Store version did though. It's tagged on Steam as Open-World, but it's not really. Just a bit of exploration. Positives: + The combat and stealth are both satisfying. + Graphics and art style are nice and gritty. + Superhero fans will like the story and the characters. Negatives: - A lot of the boss battles are rather tedious and forgettable. - The gamplay-loop is not very interesting; It's rather linear and repetitive. - The collectibles / secrets are hit and miss; There's room for improvement. Conclusion: So, totally worth it if you're a superhero fan. Otherwise try out one of the more recent games; They're more open-world.

I'll be in my bunk.

Boobers, but no jigglers, so that's why I had to uninstall.

I tried out The Vagrant today. It's an Indie Hack-n-Slash Side-Scroller. I had only two big reasons to play it. But it was just too much.

This movie is full of amazing hidden visual gags. Really like it.

(*the picture above kinda misrepresents the game; the post-apocalyptic setting is correct however) I've been playing -or at least trying to play- Kenshi (2018) the last couple of days. "A free-roaming squad based RPG. Focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals. Research new equipment and craft new gear." It's very highly rated on Steam. I got it on sale on GOG a while back. The game is ok, but First Impressions were not that great for me however. - Bad optimization. Performance and loading times are not great. (luckily there are mods to fix this) - Hard start. If you just go venture out on your own you're asking to get killed. (luckily you can trick the AI) - No Direction. You might have a hard time figuring out what to do next. (luckily there are some tool-tips) - Bugs. Bad AI. Jank. I had to watch some YouTube videos to get an idea of what you're goals can be in this game. Seems like most people play it like a Open-World Colony Management Game: Buying Squad-Members, Researching Tech, Building a Base, Farming Crops, Mining Deposits, Processing Resources, Selling Products, Earning Money, Equipping Squad-Members, Training Squad-Members, Protecting your Base,... In theory you could play it only with your starting character, but I can't see how you'd survive this way... Not sure if there are actual quest-lines or story-lines in this game. So I really wouldn't describe this game as an RPG. Now, Mods make this game quite a bit better. There are over 700 mods for this game. The most popular one is the Kenshi Nude Mod though... Anyway, here's a list of the Mods I have installed right now: - Less Foliage and Rocks (x4) (increases performance) - Stackable Items - Texture Options (1024 world only) (increases performance) - Nice Map - Variations (Grid, Zones, Names, Roads) - ShaderSSAO (change SSSAO.compositor: texture rt0 target_width_scaled 1.0 target_height_scaled 1.0 PF_A8R8G8B8) - TSUKI (reshader) (change ReShade.ini: CurrentPresetPath= your path to TSUKI.V2.ini) - Enhanced Shopping Economy - Bigger Backpacks - Sparring Mats - Let's Talk - Dark Vanilla UI - Copper Ore Drills - Trade Routes Intensified - Simple Map Markers - Optimization for Nvidia GPU in kenshi (increases performance) - Moar Unique Dialogues - Sensible Spider Range - Reduced Weather Effects

If you look carefully you can see someone pushing the head of the cat.

I've been playing Stellaris (2016) the last couple of days. It's a 4X Empire Management Strategy Game set in Space / our Galaxy. I bought it for 1€ at Humble Bundle. (Only 5 days left until the offer ends, link: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/stellaris-discovery-bundle) For 1€ it's a good deal, but in my opinion this game is seriously flawed... Positives: + It's very addictive. You're going to want to keep playing. + The individual Star Systems look beautiful: the suns, planets, nebula, spaceships,... Great atmosphere. + There's a lot of things to manage. You're really going to want to strive for your Galactic Empire to thrive in all aspects. + There are tons of options when picking the characteristics of your Species and for the Galaxy you wish to play in. + This game is great to listen to your own music playlist in the background. + In Ironman mode the game forces you to think carefully about your decisions. It doesn't allow save-scumming. Negatives: - This game is so addictive you're going to miss dinner and sleep, not once, but maybe even multiple times over. - The Galaxy Map looks so plain and boring. And this is where you're going to spend most of your time. - The User Interface is a nightmare. It's not intuitive at all. I wish I could rearrange the entire thing. - The tutorials are a joke. You're going to have to find out most things on your own. - Contradictory there are so many possible characteristics for Species all Species just start feeling all the same. - There's no technology tree, or at least it's hidden, kind of. Choose from a number of random techs to progress. Eh. - When having unlocked all tech, traditions, ascension perks,... there's no purpose any more in research or unity. Dumb. - Fleet management is more often than not a real pain to get to function properly. I asked for one ship #"!'%è§é" - The AI of the other intelligent Species in the Galaxy is questionable to say the least. My silly federation ally... - Don't trust the AI to manage your colonies. It will run your economy into the ground. DIY or die. lol. - The endgame is abysmal: These Extra-dimensional Invaders will waltz through your fleet and empire. Fun. - You only win the game by having the highest score at a certain time. Boring. - There are no cool Victory Conditions. No Technology, Unity, Trade, or Diplomatic Victory. Why not? I'm going to look into Endless Space 2. I have a feeling that game might be more my thing.

Creative Assembly and Feral Interactive are making a Remaster of the first Rome: Total War game from 2004. (the original runs rather poorly on modern hardware) The remaster will release on 29 April 2021. Owners of the original game can get a 50% discount until the end of May. (so you can still wait buying it until the remaster is reviewed) Rome: Total War (2004) is considered one of the best Total War games by many, next to Medieval II: Total War (2006).

For some reason covid-19 infections and hospital admissions are slowly rising again in Belgium... Recently, both my uncle and his wife have been admitted in hospital for covid-19. Their age could be a bit of a risk. I hope they'll get better. My gf is/was really looking forward to being allowed to go to work again in the month of May. (she's a waitress in bar for beer enthusiasts) But if the numbers keep rising I can't imagine the government will allow bars to open again in May.

Get a cat.

@WATMM: I have an important question. Q: Would you? A: Y/N Thanks in advance. It's for a survey. All data will be published anonymously of course. So no worries. I will refrain myself from answering here in order to not influence the result of the survey. Thanks again.

You can listen to some of the recordings of the Perseverance Mars Rover on the NASA Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/nasa/tracks Could be interesting to analyze the sounds in the 16 min recording. What I guess we hear: Low: - Metallic wheels bumping into rocks. - Metal on metal clunking. Mid: - Dusty wind whooshing along the vehicle. - Rocky sand in the hollow part of the wheels. High: - Loose leftover protective anti-static foil / insulation material / other wrapping foil shaking in the wind. - Metal on metal grinding. Maybe the weight on the arms of the wheels. Or a hinge of one of the instruments turning. - Plastic on plastic grinding. - A rat stuck in the vehicle screaming for his life. : ) - A binary message being transmitted to the rover by an intelligent digital martian life-form. : )