I used to wonder, if Freelancer came out today, would I still like it? Some of that comes down to how grindy the game is. I just do not have the patience for grinding anymore. However, Derail Valley is nothing BUT grinding, and I'm now nearing 200 hours. There isn't even anything left to unlock.

I've been avoiding playing Hardwar because I'm pretty sure if I ever did, I'd immediately want to make a game just like it.

StrikeLancer is such a bad idea.

Hit with the remote control RB05 missile on a B-1 bomber! This felt like bowling, these things are so weird and hard to control.

🎆🎇WINNER🎇🎆 2025 HEADLINE OF THE YEAR

Is there something I can buy that's like a numpad, but doesn't actually map directly to the numpad keys and is its own input device? I want a dedicated set of keys for typing things into the up front controls of the F-16, Hornet, etc. but don't want to bind my actual numpad to it for DCS reasons.

I saw this weird ball of light and was wondering what it was. Thought it was a flare at first, but it was actually a TOW missile from a Humvee blowing up a BMP and its dismounts.

Thanks for playing Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines in 2025! I'm very happy and humbled and honored that people are enjoying the game enough to put it in their own GOTY lists. And I'm pretty glad I released the new chapter and Switch port this year lol #endlessmonday

thank you for playing Dreams and Deadlines and the new Overtime chapter. the next game will hopefully be a good time as well. i'm working hard for an announcement in january, hopefully. (this is the announcement of the announcement)

2025 Games of the Year Holy cow what a year. I don't think I've ever had this many games that I wanted to highlight, and even crazier, almost all of these games actually came out this year. As always, the rules here are only that I played it in 2025, release date doesn't matter. Big thread below!🧵

Typically around this time I have some New Years week-long project, but I don't have any ideas burning a hole in my pocket right now. Except maybe like, StrikeLancer, but that's a bad idea.

I'm a firm believer that this liminal period between the holidays and New Year's is how we're supposed to live. It's peak existence. May the word "efficiency" die in 2026 and all its horrible relatives "innovating" to solve the perceived problems of rest, joy, creativity, and humanity.

Here's your regular reminder to check out one of the coolest space sims ever made.

I am getting kind of overwhelmed at how much new art is showing up on my timeline now. It's funny because I haven't followed any new accounts, this is just accounts that I guess have just been mostly inactive until now.

Man what a sudden and massive influx of great art.

M1 Tank Platoon inspired "style sketch" I did in a few hours this morning.

The past couple days have been nothing but DCS and Derail Valley. I've combined both my vices into one super vice that ensures I become nothing more than a plane flying train driving potato.

I'm sorry but I'm extremely annoying about seeing points and lines rendered correctly in pixel and retro styled games.

I've still never seen a UFO.

Shout out to this guy who flew the stereotypical DCS A-10 loadout except he then actually cleaned up a whole airbase on his own and shot down a MiG-29 that took off to intercept him.

Watching The Game Awards last week, I kept joking that they should announce a Halo Remake, completely forgetting that they already did. Halo is so dead in terms of pop culture power that I have no idea what they could possibly do to revive it. It kinda does just seem like a relic of a bygone era.

Firefox just popped up with a survey full of questions that seem extremely relevant to the CEO's statements to just completely and utterly fuck up Firefox and Mozilla and a company. Some questions are so pointed, I almost think they're a honeypot to flag your survey to discard.

Checking the freezer just in case ice cream has magically appeared since I last looked.

Car enthusiasts 🤝 Urbanists "We must get these idiots off the road"

Not looking forward to giant corporations opening Patreons.

Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.

So I won't add Derail Valley to my GOTY list because it already won last year even though I had Descent on like three of them before, but I'm just going to say that Derail Valley is proof to me that if Freelancer was released today I'd probably still be all over it and get totally obsessed with it.

Revisted this project this weekend to add stationary turrets as enemies and the code necessary for AI launched missiles.

Derail Valley

I want lighting models that are less realistic and made by people who don't know anything about physics.

My favorite detail of the trailer is that the carrier looks a lot like a modernized Essex class with the kinda janky and especially angular angled deck. Even weirder (read: cooler), it's mix of old and new because it seems to still have the forward 5 inch deck guns.

I don't really have too much to say about AC8 itself. Until I heard the word "Usea" I actually thought that maybe PA got contracted to make a Top Gun Maverick spinoff game. The premise is cool. I hope they do cool stuff base-side, because it's not clear to me yet if those are just cutscenes.

I am once again tapping the million dollar idea sign.

I'm always so impressed by Space Engine. I don't think any other media has done as much to convince me of how much space is in space. Like, yeah you can play Elite and see how much stuff is in the Milky Way but that's peanuts compared to Space Engine.

If the Orion constellation was discovered today it would be called the Gamepad instead.

Derail Valley is still a fantastic game. So good it got me briefly wondering if I should put it on GOTY list again, but this is already a crowded year.

I think I've talked sufficiently enough about StrikeLancer, a game that is something like Freelancer but with planes like Strike Commander, to ensure I don't actually make it. The moment is gone. The pressure is released. The desire is lost. I am safe.

Movie you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.

I like programming 😔

I have to confess that one of my favorite things to do in DCS is join public servers and just people watch. Unfailingly, I get to watch a wonderful comedy of errors. I've done most of these things myself when learning, so I know what it's like, but I still can't help myself. It's too funny.

Strikelancer that's something like Freelancer mixed with Strike Commander where instead of landing at a space station to check what new weapons and ships are for sale, you instead land at an airbase you just found to see what airplanes and missiles are for sale.

Camaro Berlinetta (1984)

Somebody made a Strike Commander livery for DCS. Download here: www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/330...

I need to constantly remind myself.

I've never heard of Sky Odyssey, but I just looked it up and I'm blown away at how creative it gets with the environments and missions. I've been trying to figure out how you could possibly contextualize a Freelancer "trade lane" for a plane and they just PUT HYPERSPACE TUNNELS IN THE SKY.

Strikelancer that's a combination of Freelancer and Strike Commander where instead of trade lanes and cruise engines planes climb above the cloud layer where everything has contrails and then you can cover ground quicker by flying at double speed compared to below the clouds.

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