Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crisis

The following after-action report covers a spur of the moment mission created in Bohemia Interactive’s game Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crisis that was played in Windows XP earlier this evening. I hadn't done anything in this oldie but goodie for quite some time, so I decided to brush away the cobwebs and take it for a spin. Using the mission editor in this game is seriously like riding a bicycle, I was able to create the most rudimentary mission and play it through the editor with just a few clicks.

Silent Hunter III Bismarck Scenario

Bismarck is the second of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It takes place in May 1941 and involves the Home Fleets mission to destroy the German battleship during its sole offensive operation of the war, an effort to break into the Atlantic and conduct raids against Allied shipping from North America to Great Britain. The Bismarck was scuttled by the crew following incapacitating battle damage on May 27, 1941, causing significant loss of life.

Silent Hunter III Barham Scenario

Barham is the first of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It is based on the sinking of the HMS Barham by U-331 captained by Oberleutnant zur See Freiherr Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen in November 1941 while operating in the Mediterranean. In the real life incident, he had surfaced to periscope depth and observed three British battleships and eight destroyers. Having just missed an optimal solution on the HMS Queen Elizabeth, he fired a salvo of four torpedoes at the second capital ship in the line, the HMS Barham.

Tropico 4 Eva Peron One Year Anniversary Post

The following post will detail a sandbox game (not tied to a specific set of campaign progression goals) utilizing the stock Tropico 4 game. The decision is being made up front to forgo the Modern Times DLC, as it in my opinion makes some undesirable changes to the game (most regrettably various facilities are made obsolete and there is a texturing issue with some of the new buildings that make the game look ugly). That DLC does have its positives however, such as some rather useful edicts like Health Care Reform and my favorite (so far) Police State.

Democracy 3 United Kingdom (Second Term)

This after-action report covers the second term of my play through as the United Kingdom in Positech Games turn-based political strategy simulation game Democracy 3. After winning reelection largely based on the policies implemented and answers to several curveball questions thrown in my direction, I begin the fifth year in office with a Budget Surplus of £26.91 Bn and a National Debt of £451.98 Bn, along with 46 Political Capital points available to spend.

Democracy 3 United Kingdom (First Term)

Democracy 3 is a turn-based political strategy simulation from Positech Games that I have had my eye on for several months, just recently picking it up during the Steam Exploration/Autumn Sale for $4.99. It is a largely text based game with no 3D graphics to speak of, however it has a slick interface that serves the subject matter quite well.

Tropico 4 Eva Peron

The following post will detail a sandbox game (not tied to a specific set of campaign progression goals) utilizing the stock Tropico 4 game. The decision is being made up front to forgo the Modern Times DLC, as it in my opinion makes some undesirable changes to the game (most regrettably various facilities are made obsolete and there is a texturing issue with some of the new buildings that make the game look ugly). That DLC does have its positives however, such as some rather useful edicts like Health Care Reform and my favorite (so far) Police State.

While I have put in some hours on this game I do not purport to be an expert at this or the construction/political simulation genre in general. My build order preference is unique to my experience and what I detail below certainly may not be the best suggestion or optimal approach. One of the great things about this game is the ability to learn and evolve through trial and error, all along the way making both “happy accidents” as well as bone-crushing errors that drive you batty (I could not tell you how many miles of roads I have demolished.

F1 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix

São Paulo, Brazil: Race 6 of my current Season Challenge mode took place at Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Interlagos for us old timers) under absolutely abysmal racing conditions with a constant downpour throughout the entire weekend. With some of my recent rant posts (Black Shark 2, Future Soldier) I decided to post something about one of my favorite games for a bit of a change up. This game from Codemasters Birmingham is both accessible and challenging at the same time.

Racing games in general have been a bit of a struggle for me to post about, with previous efforts in Race07 as well as this game not really coming off as decent blog material. However I decided to make a go of it for this single race as a bit of a higher level AAR light of sorts. The setting is the sixth race of a condensed 10 race season, and my current rival is Fernando Alonso. Having beaten him once already, a second win today would guarantee me a contract offer from Scuderia Ferrari.

Deadliest Catch Season 1 King Crab

Dutch Harbor, Alaska: I took command of the Fish Bait, a 99 foot crab boat that has a 150 pot capacity and a 170,000 lbs tank capacity. The crew I hired for this first outing is: Buster (Deck Boss), Tom (Engineer), Josh (Medic), Mike (Bait Boy) and Kayl (cook). At the dock I took on no additional fuel or crab pots and loaded the maximum allowable bait of 1,250 lbs.

The opening balance on the books for Fish Bait is $100,000. The bait purchase of $750 made the “Set Sail” account balance $99,250. These things are important to note when playing Alaskan Storm as it is possible to run out of the money needed to make required repairs during an offseason, and if that happens the game immediately ends and the career is over.

NASCAR 2003 Daytona 500 Test Session

I am trying to slowly wean myself off of my custom built Windows XP gaming rig by moving those titles that I still want to play onto my Windows 7 system. It is a slow and painful process as the XP machine was the first computer I built with my own hands from scratch back in April 2007. The rig booted right up after installation of the operating system and I ran it without a reinstall for over four years.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season is the last great NASCAR racing simulator made. Period.  It is such the Holy Grail of stock car simulations that copies still go on eBay for well over $200, and that is long after the Papyrus/Sierra multiplayer racing lobbies were closed down. It has been previously covered here on this blog when I was running a championship exactly two years ago this month.

Deadliest Catch King Crab Season II

The second season of the Shellfish or “Green Machine” as I refer to her starts in Dutch Harbor on Wednesday, November 8^th. I begin this season with an account balance of $188,897. This amount is derived by taking the amount I left harbor with at the start of last season, $67,511 and adding to it the profits earned of $191,983 for a balance of $259,494 (less the forced automatic deduction for Structural Maintenance and Upgrades of $70,000 and $597 in miscellaneous expenses).

On top of the forced structural charge (from prior experience with this game it cannot be avoided) I add  upgraded hydraulics for $60,000, a large tank pump for $15,000, kitchen amenities for $4,000, crane maintenance for $24,000 and finally $5,000 for electrical work. This $108,000 in additional costs for the boat drops my account balance down to $80,897.

Silent Hunter III Career Patrol II

The second patrol of Lieutenant Jr. Klaus Walther begins in Wilhelmshaven, Germany on September 11, 1939. After making it back alive from the first patrol in the U-2, a Type IIA “Duck”, I opt to change out the entire stock of T I (G7a) gas/steam torpedoes for five T II (G7e) electronic propulsion fish which leave no visible wake in the water.

The main drawback to these new torpedoes is they only have one speed setting, 30 knots and a range of 3 km. No Hail Mary shots from over 10 km away can be taken as was with the T I’s, however the tradeoff is more than worth it. The only difficulty is tactical employment: the 3 km maximum range of these fish can put the boat in some tight spots, literally.

Silent Hunter III Career Patrol I

This post marks a new career effort under the guise of Lieutenant Jr. Klaus Walther (I made the name up) starting in 1939 with the 1st Flotilla based in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. I start in port on September 1st having just been issued a Type IIA vessel, the U-2. After staffing up on petty officers and sailors, I am ready to head out to the unknown perils the North Atlantic.

The BDU Commander orders are to depart port and proceed to grid reference AN16 to patrol for 24 hours. The cash in this game is renown, and you gain it for following orders and sinking vessels. When it comes right down to it, everything is a matter of tonnage in the end. When you are down to one fish left to fire, aim for the biggest ship that can be brought down with one torpedo.

Deadliest Catch Opilio Crab Season I

This outing is the second of my career on the Shellfish, and the first opie crab season to go in the books. I started my career with $100,000 equity in the company and netted $293,257 in profits at the end of the last season. Less $10,352 in expeditures prior to getting underway (fuel, pots and bait) this gave me a season ending balance forward of $382,905.

Starting the first opie season of my career (the second season overall) brings me to the Maintenance and Upgrades menu for the first time. This will be a feature between seasons from this point forward and represents the largest expenditures a boat captain/owner will experience during a career. In this section many items can be selected which directly affect the game play.

Euro Truck Simulator 2

ETS2 is a vehicle simulation game developed by SCS Software and is presently available on Steam during their Autumn Sale for $8.49 USD (66% off regular price). The Gold Pack which contains the Going East DLC is selling for $11.89 USD. There is a third DLC available on Steam, that being the Halloween Paint Jobs Pack, however I declined to purchase that separately.

I had been watching the price point of this sim for some time, and although there is a PC demo available that is linked at the Steam store page I held off doing anything with it until the Autumn Sale came along when I picked up the Gold Bundle for $8.74 (when it was 75% off). If you have any interest at all in driving or life simulations, then I would suggest giving the demo a try.

Deadliest Catch King Crab Season I

This post will be the first entry in my new career in the game Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm. If you are unfamiliar with this life simulation, I suggest that you read my previous blog post in which I got back into the game after an absence of over a year. I learned a great deal in that dry run (no pun intended) as well as a subsequent test season that told me some important things about how to handle the game.

For this effort I started the career on intermediate difficulty which encompasses the following: pots payload and ice buildup have a reduced effect, chances of breakdown are slightly reduced, crab schools move and deplete at a slower rate, chances of crew injury are reduced and crew morale and fatigue go down slower. Based on previous experience with this game, this is enough of a challenge.

King Crab Season One (Career Abandoned)

Sometime yesterday I jumped over to my Windows XP gaming rig and when there I started a fresh career in Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm by developer Liquid Dragon Studios and designer Greenwave Games. The game was released in the summer of 2008; however I did not stumble across it until some three years later. After spending a ton of time in this life simulation, I hung it up out of frustration.

That frustration was/is born from the absolute monotony of the game: I have never been (and never will be) a Bering Sea fisherman, however if the show is even the slightest indication of how things go along in a day-in day-out basis, then this game fairly nails it. Completing just a single season of King Crab or Opilio Crab can take several hours of game play even if cruising in “Fast Time” to your next string.

Combat School (Night)

This scenario is an update to the CombatSchool (Day) sortie with a change up in the enemy force list to add a significant threat to the Shark, that being a SAM SA-8 Osa 9A33 mobile short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system (NATO reporting name SA-8 Gecko). On a separate missile test, I flew the same attack route at high altitude and the unit acquired and engaged Lab Rat and sent him to death number two.

The targets are in all the same spots as the daytime sortie and are: an MBT T-72B located on a crossroads outside of Medzhinistskali, the previously referenced Gecko unit to the east of Sameba, another MBT T-72B approximately 3.65 km northeast of the SAM unit, an Mi-8MT scout helicopter flying a pattern between Batumi and Makhindzhauri and finally a MRL BM-21 Grad along the coastline.

Combat School (Day)

This sortie would take me on a punishing route through which I am to attack three stationary AA sites and one five vehicle convoy traveling along a road interspersed with civilian traffic. In plotting out the waypoints in the mission editor, I wound up with eight which may have exceeded the threshold that the ABRIS system can handle (not sure about that in easy avionics game mode, however the whole mission went to hell full throttle after I requested clearance to land at Kobuleti).

The bird I am flying today is decked out in the demo paint scheme and numbered 22. It is black, menacing and all but a terror to look at save for the teal and white “Black Shark” logo slapped on the back. My load out is a rather standard 12X9A4172 (pods 4 and 1) and 40*S-80FP (pods 3 and 2). And of course the house dressing, the Shipunov 2A42 30mm cannon with a load of HE and AP rounds.  The Vikhr anti-tank missiles have a range of 8km while the main gun has a range of 0.5-2km in game.

Flight School

I’ve owned DCS: Black Shark for a couple of years now. It is one of the few games I ran out to a GameStop (then EB Games) here in Jacksonville and paid full price for. I got into the game pretty good and even had a great friend pick up a copy so we could fly some multiplayer missions. Like any game, it waned and eventually collected hard disk dusk along with my flight controller. Then quite inexplicably it was one of several games I purchased a second time when I had a major Steam boner (don’t ask).

My interest in DCS: BS (no pun intended) stemmed directly from flying LOMAC, which I flew the A-10A to death in that game. Eventually I bought a computer capable of running A-10C and bought that through Steam, finally ending up installing the free component of DCS: World when it came out on Steam (obviously my DCS: BS1 is not compatible with DCS: W). So I have all these flight simulations sitting around needing attention, and guess what? My flight skills deteriorated over time.