These Fragments...

I have absolutely nothing to write about today because I've been spending every waking minute fiddling around with old cassette tapes and turning the songs I've been hearing inside my head for the last forty or fifty years into ones I can hear outside my head as well. Obviously that's more fun than just about anything but even so I don't want to drop cadence here, so I'd better come up with something.

I was going to do a few hundred words on the Steam Spring Sale and Blizzard's latest press release on how WoW Housing is going to work. Only a couple of problems with that plan, the first of which being I haven't actually looked at the sale yet. The only reason I even know it's on is because I have Pantheon on my wishlist so I got an email telling me it's 20% off right now.

And that is tempting. I'm still curious enough to want to have a poke about and I doubt there'll be any bigger discounts for a while. The whole Early Access thing seems to be working quite well for them. They don't need to give away the farm just yet.

At 20% off the game is £26.80, which isn't nothing but also isn't much of anything, either. I'd pay it. As usual, the main issue for me isn't "Is it worth it?" but "Will I play it?" Realistically, the answer to that is, "Probably not" so I'm holding off for now. The sale has almost a week to go so I don't have to decide right away.

As for the housing in World of Warcraft, the problem there is that I can't really say much about it  because I haven't even watched the video. There is a video, isn't there? Erm... no, not really. I just checked and there are a bunch of video examples in the PR piece but no actual video as such.

What the piece does have is a lot of detail on things like how you can push a chair through a wall and if you put a cup on a table you can pick them both up and move them about together. Too much detail, really. I'm more interested in how you get a house, how much choice there is and whether I'll be able to have one on the Endless Free Trial.

Maybe that's in the press release too. I probably should have read the whole thing before I started this.

Anyway, those were the only two things I had in mind to write about today and clearly I wasn't in much of a position to do either of them justice. Then, right before I was going to do it anyway, Wilhelm put up a Friday Bullet Point post in which he talked about both, so it seemed a bit redundant for me to start going on about them too, especially since, as I said, I haven't even done the reading.

Still, I got eight paragraphs out of it anyway. Can't complain.

Instead, I'm going to rip through this month's Prime Gaming offers. And by "rip" I really mean rip off. I read them at the start of the month and didn't think they were worth mentioning but I lookedagain a few days ago and thought maybe they were, after all. Now I don't have anything better to write about, I'm sure of it!

The full list - and there's a lot - is on the Prime Gaming Blog as usual. I'm just going to mention a few that caught my eye.

Syberia: The World Before - I think this might be the last, remaining Syberia game Prime haven't already given us. I claimed all the others but I only played the first. I found it very heavy going. The series has a strong reputation in the Point & Click genre but it seemed to be right at the ponderous, do everything the hard way for the sake of it end of the spectrum to me. Maybe this one will be a bit more... dare I say fun? I'm taking it, anyway. May as well collect the set.

Naheulbeuk's Dungeon Master - I really enjoyed the original game. And the DLC. I'd love another, full campaign. Unfortunately, this is one of those sims where you play the baddie trying to kill the adventurers with your fiendish traps and hordes of minions. I was about to say that thoses aren't really my cup of tea but then it occured to me I've never actually played one. Who knows? I might enjoy it. I'll be taking that one, too and I'll almost certainly play it, although not just yet.

Dog Shelter Simulator - This one jumped out as something I might like to play. Mrs Bhagpuss and I watch our share of dog rescue vodcasts. Then I read the description, which makes it sound more like work than a game. I think that about most simulations but in this case, what with the stress of all those dogs you can't find homes for, it doesn't just sound like work but anxiety-inducing, distressing work at that. Pass.

Endling: Extinction Is Forever - Then again, running an imaginary dog shelter would be a delight compared to this nightmare. "Experience what life would be like in a world ravaged by mankind through the eyes of the last fox on Earth... defend your cubs, three tiny and defenseless fur balls... plan your next movement carefully since it could be the last for you and your pups." It also goes on about how you can get to know their personalities before the inevitable strikes, which reminded me of that old T-shirt that said "Join the Army. Meet interesting people. Then kill them." It's a bit annoying, how bleak it sounds. The graphics are gorgeous. It would make a great cozy adventure game but instead it looks more like a nihilistic horrorshow. Who enjoys this kind of existential torture? The Countryside Alliance, I assume. Fun for people who hate foxes, I guess. My grandmother would have loved it. She really hated foxes.

Saints Row: Remastered -  I quite fancy having a go at this. I've read enough about it over the years. I think it would be good for doing that thing I liked so much in Once Human, namely driving about aimlessly while listening to the radio. Pretty sure that's a thing you can do in Saints Row. Not sure about the rest of it but that alonw makes it worth grabbing.

There were also a couple of Old West/Wild West titles. I'm usually up for anything with that setting so I was briefly excited, until I took a closer look. 

El Hijo - Looks great but turns out to be "a non-violent stealth game". And the protagonist is a child. Doesn't exactly scream "Classic Western", does it?

Colt Canyon - Thematically far more in line with expectations but it's "a 2D pixel art shooter" and the screenshots make it look almost abstract. I might give it a try - it's available for another twelve days - but I honestly can't see myself playing it so I suppose I ought to be sensible and leave it on the shelf.

And that's about it. Thin fare, I know, by which I mean this post, not Prime's March slate, which isn't at all bad. Normal service will be resumed when I've exhausted my pop star fantasies, something that isn't likely to happen for a while yet.