What i do in February //

 I just "finished" the Factorio DLC Space Age, and I really enjoyed it. It did mess up my older save files (I was hoping to get a head start), but conquering other planets made up for it. The mechanics fit together nicely, and unlocking new tech always felt rewarding. Right now, I pop in occasionally, but overall, I’m done with it for now—which isn’t surprising since I went all-in on it for a while (6k Hours by this point for main game and expansion). Time to look for something new. Still, an easy 9/10. And the factory must grow.

I’ve also started Immortals of Aveum - about four hours in now. I can both confirm and reject some of the criticism I read online beforehand. I mean, I’ve just scratched the surface, and it’s pushing my 2070 Super pretty hard, but it’s also more fun than I expected. This isn’t a full take or anything - I might not even finish it - but for now, I’m entertained. And that’s saying something, considering I’m not big on high fantasy. I guess the sci-fi elements sprinkled in are just enough to keep me hooked. So far, I like the magic system and surprisingly the main character..  and the Muscle Mommy. Let’s see how it holds up in the next few hours.

Update:

So… it’s getting better, but also messier? Hard to say. I’m at around 10 hours now, and overall, I feel like I’m getting too strong. The game world is so modern and visually dense that sometimes I struggle to read things quickly. When I die, it’s usually because I get greedy. I always run with three healing stones and plan to keep it that way. I don't use buffs or cool down actions. I’ve never been a fan of them in any game - I just dislike use them. Probably one of the reasons I never got good in MMOs. The gameplay is fast enough to be fun, but I really dislike not having quick slots for weapons. Scrolling through them with the mouse wheel or pressing "E" basically guarantees I’ll have the wrong one at the worst moment - which is impressive, considering there are only three in the first place. One concern is already creeping in - I’ve found boxes early on that were out of reach, and as I progress, I’m slowly unlocking moves and skills that let me access those areas. But honestly? I don’t think I’ll go back through every level just to find them. They’re hard to spot, and there’s no indicator showing if I’ve fully cleared a section. So yeah, not 100%-ing this one i guess. Maybe if that unlocks Zendara skins tho.

Jake, our main protagonist, works well enough. Yeah, it’s that same millennial, Marvel-style humor we see everywhere these days, but when it works, it works. I mean, there’s a reason everyone keeps trying to copy it. And here, it actually lands for me. Zendara, our field commander, is the best muscle mommy bitch I’ve seen in a while. Way better written than I expected for a game like this. I like her. And the rest of the cast? They’re okay for now. We’ll see how they develop. And that’s the thing - I want to see where it goes. That’s actually a good sign.

Update 2:

Took me a while with this one. 19 hours to beat (did some read and side stuff). Really liked the socializing scenes with the other Immortals—some great character moments there. And some of the prospects? Absolutely breathtaking. The final fight was easy, but at least the setting looked really cool. The plot? Let’s just say I don’t hate it. I’d even buy a sequel to see where it goes.. What’s left of Ascendant Studios is "merging" with Absurd Ventures, and it’s unclear what’s coming next. Don’t count on a second part, though.

Lately, I’ve been thinking more about where gaming is headed, and I’m not sure how much I’m willing to invest in it long-term. Right now, I’m okay with it again, but I can’t help but notice how the big companies treat art like an afterthought. For someone like me - who wants to create something because I see a void that hasn’t been filled - it’s frustrating.

Storytelling has always been part of who we are. We’ve always told stories, and we’ve always paid people to tell them. But these days, gaming feels less about creativity and more about maximizing profit. The way big companies talk about making games - it just sounds cold, like the passion is gone. It feels like we’ve hit the late-game capitalism phase, where they’re not just selling games, they’re stripping away the player’s ability to be part of the experience.

Look at how they push deep copy protection systems, selling them as consumer-friendly, but in reality, they just take away the ability to modify or, in some cases, even run the games we’ve bought. And "bought" doesn’t necessarily mean "owned" anymore. That’s nothing new - software has always been a licensing spiel - but they’re pushing it too far. I hope we’ll see a bigger pushback.

That’s part of why I have two main systems now: one running Windows and one on Arch Linux. I want to free myself from the slowly tightening chains. Gaming on Linux means I don’t play much multiplayer anymore, but I’m well past the days of eight-hour Counter-Strike sessions from school. These days, I play games either for their mechanics or their stories. Mostly the stories - Factorio is one of the few exceptions.

I just hope this whole "we own nothing" trend dies out.

Oh, and by the way - have you ever tried uninstalling an Adobe product after canceling your subscription? Give it a shot. Fun is something else, though.

Anyways, i have a few things I am looking for:

METAL EDEN seems to be my style.

Directorate Novitiate Gunfoo and some other worldly stuff. 

Totally waiting for Selaco Content this year

Tides of Annihilation looks interesting enough. 

also, i like to see into what Saros develop into. 

My main system got an upgrade - now running an AM4 Ryzen 7 5700X3D, 32GB of Corsair RAM, and a 2070 Super. Sure, not the strongest GPU, but it was cheap, and it gets the job done. And honestly? It runs just fine. So right now, I don’t feel the need to upgrade anytime soon. Unless something comes out that really refuses to run well, I’m good. Even Immortals of Aveum runs solid with good settings, and I’ve got plenty of room to dial things down if needed. The RTX 50 series just dropped, and… meh. Nothing exciting. I might even consider AMD next for my personal consumption rig - feels like Nvidia has forgotten where they came from. They have CUDA tho. 

I’ve also expanded my PC setup - in a bit of a strange way. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with bigger LLMs. High-end hardware is out of my reach, but my AI system gets the job done. I’m running a budget-friendly Xeon E5-2696 v2 (12 cores) with 128GB RAM and two 3060 12GBs (Acer OEM Blowers). It works well enough, and honestly, most people don’t have this kind of power at home to mess around with. But for this kind of stuff, it’s definitely a super budget build. And yes, there is a wild Lara in that computer. 

I’ve also added a new member to my storage setup - a Raspberry Pi 4 running OpenMediaVault, mainly for sharing data between my systems. Surprisingly, it’s been rock solid, especially when connecting Linux to Windows. Even my Android phones can access it without issues. Makes me wonder why my Proxmox box never handled it this smoothly. I’m planning to expand it. Right now, it’s running on just a 128GB SATA M.2 SSD, but I’m looking into a full RAID setup. Sometimes, keeping systems separate really does pay off.