Screen Shot Saturday Blaugust Finale Edition

As there are only four Saturdays in August, this is the last of the series. I certainly didn’t get in as much play time this week as I’d hoped, but I am really pleased with the games I’ve been playing. I usually am writing these the night before, and playing what I right about, so you get Friday night’s selections: Monster Bash and Half Life 2. I also hoped to make progress in Bendy and the Ink Machine, but it looks like I’m stuck and will have to return to a previous save.

Half Life 2

One of my goals was to advance in Half Life 2. I was able to play considerably more smoothly. I even got so I was shrugging off the constant rain of bullets from the local security forces.

This time I made it to the roof of the apartment building and made my bullet ridden escape along the rooftops.

Finally help arrived, as Alyx helped me escape.

Suddenly doors opened in walls at her behest, and we were snug and safe in Dr. Kleiner’s lab.

Time to grab that iconic orange suit and escape the city.

Ready for those head huggers now, but you have to be nice to Kleiner’s pet.

The escape from the city will be via a newly completed transporter. Alyx goes first.

Unfortunately when you get in, you’re sent to several other places, kind of, alerting the powers that be Gordon Freeman is in the city. Looks like you’ll need to make your way through the sewers. Your best friend Barney tosses you your beloved Crowbar.

The only thing better than a crowbar is a wrench. Once I had that crowbar in hand I wasn’t afraid of anything.

I did pick up guns that I’d wrenched away from the Insectile guys. Yes, I unloaded them on said Insectile guys. Even so, is there anything better than a crowbar to the noggin? Nope!

I might be a little twitchy with my crowbar. My first thought when I saw this man and his alien friend was to whack the alien. We’re friends, though, now, and he’s sharing his green something or other below.

So, yeah, so far I can do this on my own. I’m diving into those dark places with confidence. Running up on bad guys or putting plugs in them. I got this.

Monster Bash

My goal here was to complete the first level. Ta da.

I took a peek at level two which is much trickier, both in the jumps you need to make, and navigating through lots of skeletons and snakes. That level is going to take some doing.

Half Life, for Real this time.

It’s been a busy week. Soooo the previous Half Life pics and post were for Half Life 2, doh. We actually did not finish that one. Might have been the helicopters? I will finish it. I’m really liking it. I went back and changed my previous post to say Half life 2. Poof! Mistakes begone.

I purchased the real Half Life game for my Steam library, from 1998, and it does still look good, except faces are a bit blocky (while people still have them).

There’s my game! Down down to Black Mesa Research facility.

All of the perky little scientists hate their ties!

Gordon Works in Anomalous Materials so he needs that orange suit.

The test lab is impressive.

Things go bad quickly.

There’s an explosion as well, and outside the lab is death and chaos.

As I make good my escape, two of the scientists ask me to make my way to the surface for help. The first head hugger appears. Sort of innocuous looking in this older version, but he does quite a bit of damage before I run away, as I’m unarmed.

Next thing you know, I’ve got the crowbar! Muahaha. I head back to show that thing my moves.

It didn’t go as well as I hoped. I think it’s on my head and I don’t remember how to get it off. I hear little warbling noises…so yeah, Googling how to remove them.

Westworld Season Four: What’s The Buzz (Ep 1-4)

If you’ve watched the fourth season of Westworld at all, flies are prominent, and super gross, as flies like to be. My header picture had to be from the old film. I like the Jeff Goldblum version too, but the drama of this poster (she would scream for the rest of her life!) is too good.

I let all of the episodes drop before starting my binge. Sometimes it’s easier to see the whole season at once.

My alternate post title was “So many villains, so little time.” I can’t say how much I hate the Man in Black. In comparison, Hale is a sweetie. She’s just out for garden variety revenge. The Man In Black’s soul is seeped in darkness and sadism.

On the other hand, this season has an unexpected number of good guys.

Maeve tops the list, trying to protect Caleb and perhaps somewhat humanity. She’s smart, has abilities that help her control hosts and computer systems, almost anything electronic.

Nice upgrades, Maeve.

The new “Park” is set in the Gilded Age. It’s beautifully done, allowing you to imagine once more how amazing it would be if such a park were real. And, of course you’d hope that nobody went haywire and killed everyone.

Bernard is my favorite Westworld character. I’m glad he’s back trying to save the world.

Dolores is back to being a more innocent version of herself. There are four episodes to go, so of course that could change. She’s a writer for a video game company, writing parts for NPCs, who she feels an affinity for. Nice touch.

Forgotten City: A Mystery In The Ruins

One of my goals this month was to play a new to me game. Forgotten City was one of my Steam Summer Sale purchases. I’d read lots of good reviews.

There you are, waking up by a campfire and a girl says she pulled you out of the river. She seems pretty nosy, but doesn’t reveal a thing about herself.

You get to choose your body type, though, honestly, you’re just a pair of dangling hands, so it hardly matters. Hmm I hope I didn’t miss some way to actually see my character.

The girl wants you to go to the ruins behind you and look for another unfortunate she says she fished out of the river not long ago.

Before entering, the developers have a message for “content creators”.

I respect that, so will entirely avoid spoilery stuff.

There is also a note about multiple endings, which should be fun.

In the infamous White Hallway, it’s awfully dark in sections, so you’re given a flashlight. There are a few things to examine. There are many gold statues, in various poses. Quite a few seemed to glare in their eyeless way right at you.

Not quite a spoiler, but you’re given a chance to enter a portal, though you’re desperately warned against it. As if anyone would be able to resist a portal.

Here the mystery begins as you talk with various citizens. They all have a story to tell.

The graphics are sharp though sometimes when you turn your character, everything is a big blur. Despite the game telling the game rewards thoughtful conversation not brute force, little pop us keep telling you how to quick save and how to sprint. Maybe someone gets brutish after all.

Half Life 2: On My Own This Time

I’m not certain if poor Gordon Freeman is dead or dozing in the screenshot above. The guy you see is one of the insectile looking guards who are everywhere in City 17.

The game came out in 2004, but it looks great.

I wish the intro said Point Extraction instead of Insertion, because I’d love someone to pop in and get me out of this place already.

This game is from the heyday of my husband and I playing together, one providing the movement, one doing the shooting. I always got to be the shooter. Or whacker, if they’d only give me something like a crowbar to whack with. The reason I got this job isn’t my great aim or anything. It’s because when I play these, and something attacks me, I take it personally and just whomp whatever it is or, you know, just unload my gun on the thing. You survive more fights that way than you think. Can I really play this game without him? Wish me luck!

I’m hyper alert already and am in full panic mode, which is how I ended up so soon with the orange screen. How will I ever survive the head huggers?

I need to calm down, go slow.

I don’t remember much about the game, so it’s all fresh, really, as if I hadn’t played.

Not much time to play last night, so more progress for Screenshot Saturday.

Secret World Legends: Irresistible Zombies, Quaint Town

I spent a couple of hours playing Secret World Legends last night. It was frustrating at first because I kept getting booted from the game and had to log in again. Then it was all good.

It turns out my character is still in Kingsmouth. She was level 14, and was still back at the dread tunnels.

Not back in the tunnels! Worse yet, Frisky Cassandra lay in wait on the other side of the door.

I still had work to do in here.

The game has a great mix of combat and puzzles.

Fig A Smash the Hulk. It gets really dark at night.

Figure B Puzzles: One of the best quest ideas ever, the Captain’s Playlist.

There are so many side quests, and I can’t resist them. The atmosphere is spooky enough, but not scary for me as zombies and their ilk might normally be. Perhaps when I start dying, I’ll be fighting off the screams. I’m getting closer to creatures of my level, but combat isn’t challenging yet.

In the original game, I didn’t get far, just to Solomon Island. I’d love to get at least as far as my husband did (Egypt I think) before he stopped for some reason. The game is really enjoyable, maybe just what I need right now.

Blaugust 2022: Staying Motivated Week

Here we are! Rah, Rah! The last big week of Blaugust. How to squeeze out those last posts?

  1. Look back at what you hoped to do this month. Toss out a post on any of those ideas, or things you wanted to play that you haven’t covered yet.
  2. Dig in your Steam Library or Game Pass list for something you wanted to finish, or haven’t tried yet.
  3. Use the Promptalooza https://aggronaut.com/blaugust-prompt-list/ list for some appealing and doable ideas.
  4. Be cozy, play your favorite game and post about your progress every day. It’s supposed to be fun, do what you want to do!
  5. What are your favorite streaming/TV binges for 2022 so far?
  6. I’ve been meaning to watch participant’s Twitch channels and listen to their podcasts. Check some out. Recommend a few?

I personally plan to play Secret World a bit, Elder Scrolls Online, finish Bendy and the Ink Machine? I’ve got most of the Sunken Temple quests for my WOW Priest. Let’s see if she can heal her way through those multiple Circles of Hell. Finish level one of Monster Bash. I know which pet got left behind, so I should be able to get it. I’d like to look back aat various things I was playing for 2018’s Blaugust. I’m pretty sure I left them installed on my desktop pc.

Only one more Screenshot Saturday this month so maybe it will be loaded, just LOADED with good stuff.

Because nobody read my post yesterday, and because my “Peanutized” portrait made such an adorable motivational poster, I’m finishing this scintillating, inspiring post with her again.

Go, go, go!

Blaugust Week Three In Review

(Not My Own Meme This Time)

Yay! We made it through week three of Blaugust! This was my favorite week for my own posts. It actually made me happy to write them. I really like all the posts and can’t pick a favorite. This is unusual for me.

Thank heavens next week, with it’s daunting “Staying Motivated” theme will be Easy Street. You just wait.

I think, however, my mind is erased from all my efforts.

As we know, Bhagpuss’s Law states “Nobody reads blog posts on the weekends”, so I’m home free with just these few lines. https://bhagpuss.blogspot.com/2022/08/closed-for-weekend.html

Also, as I read the Ancient Gaming Noob’s https://tagn.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/blaugust-and-what-is-content-anyway/ , why, even a weasley little post like this is almost certainly content and will count toward my dreamy Diamond Rainbow award for Blaugust.

Screenshot Saturday: Digging in the Steam Vault

I didn’t play much this week, I’m not sure why. Even so, here’s what I did play.

I had to purchase Apogee’s Monster Bash and Secret Agent on Steam after reminiscing about them.

Monster Bash

It’s a bit hard to get used to controls that use the arrow keys for movement and left Ctrl for jump, left alt to shoot. It took a bit, but then I was feeling pretty confident.

The game looks perfect as it always did. Apparently the average person goes through the first level in 4 mins, 30 secs. What a hoot. It might be possible sometime because I ended up doing some sections over and over. The more you do it the better it gets the 20th time! The zombies freak me out. The upright ones have heads which roll back and forth till you shoot them down, there are green zombie feet, fast moving. And rotten little green hands coming out of the wall throwning stuff at you, that you can’t shoot.

At least when you die you just re-set with full health. Stuck in a spot, I just jumped on a spike till I died and got out of a bunker.

There was a spot where I thought a jump just couldn’t be made, but it turned out to be the easy jump.

I’m going to have to re-run the level in any case, because the door to go out wouldn’t open. I had gotten an earlier message you couldn’t leave till all the pets were freed, but I went back and found the missed ones, I’m pretty sure.

Secret Agent

Another Apogee game recently released is Secret Agent. I think I liked this one better than everyone else in the house. Spies and Agents were always appealing to me, and the game’s a bit like some cheesy science fiction film.

In Monster Bash, Johnny has unlimited ammo for his slingshot. Here, your ammo is very limited and you’ve got to hunt around to find more. It’s all timing and raw nerve not get get dunked in the shark tank. On the plus side, you get an Achievement the first time it happens. The shark fin really bugged me for some reason. I did indeed feed that fish.

Dropping down, you get keys to open doors, wasting your bullets on enemies. You’re dead. Back to the start!

Sanitarium

I picked up Sanitarium at a Steam sale a while ago. I played it years ago, and it was thoroughly creepy yet intriguing. My computer would freeze constantly playing it and it was so frustrating, but I had to see what happened.

There’s no problem running the Steam version so far. Maybe the sound didn’t work so well in the old days, because if it had I would have been driven mad by all of the screaming of the inmates of the asylum. The man knocking his bloody head against the wall, oh, man. It’s hard to think with all that.

You do go around and talk to everyone, and look for controls to turn off the klaxon alarm. You’re also hoping to find a way out of the Sanitarium, or at least talk to the mysterious Dr. Morgan. Your character has this smooth voice that makes him sound innocent, but he keeps having flashes of memory that make you doubt it.

Finally out of the asylum, our unnamed man enters a village with children who have distorted faces, and a jump roping girl with peg legs. Out of the sanitarium, into the sinister town.

No Bendy this week. I think the setback due to wonky saves discouraged me.

In World of Warcraft, my Holy Priest (TBC) is the only one with play time. Thanks to lots of general quests and a successful Zul’Farrak run with lots of quests, she’s most of the way to level 52. I hope to get her in more dungeons this weekend.

I’m not feeling the pressure to get anyone to 70, but if I do get a character there, my Priest will be it.

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law: A Normal Amount Of Rage

Tatiana Maslany, the brilliant actress from Orphan Black takes on a new role in this series. She’s Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who lets you in on her secret: an auto accident involving a spacecraft and her cousin Bruce Banner leaves her with the abilities of a Hulk. She turns green, grows larger, has amazing strength.

Bruce takes her under his wing on an island he owns, trying to teach her what he’s learned about being a Hulk. In about fifteen years, she’ll be ready to take on the world.

Jennifer has no intention of giving up her law practice or her life. She learns the Hulk ropes with great speed and is able to take him on in a no holds barred fight.

It’s a super hero show played as broad comedy. Tatiana is incredible as always. As revealed in the last scene in court, She-Hulk doesn’t get to keep a secret identity. She will need to balance work and rage. This should be fun.