What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement?

[kabukiman]

Several of those books are included in the catholic bible so I actually already knew them.
The books the Maccabees are excelent history books and give you a lot of details of what was happening at the time (the romans and greeks didn't care much). There was a scenario in the GMT serie "Great battles of history" where you could play the maccabees against the seleucids.
I have finish the second ending of cyberpunk 2077 (the devil) and it is depressing.
I'm now playing the third ending.

[jp1885]

My current amusements? Primarily I’ve always been a wargamer, but Covid scuppered that, so I’ve been getting into more RPGs with my pals over Roll20 or FVTT.

Currently I play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4E and GM Paranoia Red Clearance Edition on a regular basis. Also play a bit of CoC when the old gang are all free.

[Mr. Handy]

Yes, I've learned a lot about that period from the books of the Maccabees (which I've now finished), much of which I had never known before even though I'm familiar with Hanukkah. Maccabees mentioned the cleansing of the Temple on the 25th of Kislev, but they don't mention the oil lasting eight days. That must have been a later addition. The GMT game sounds great! I've played solitaire wargames before, but haven't really had anyone else with whom to play them. I have a number of board games like that, as well as computer games (which are even better for playing solo against the computer).

In Knights of the Old Republic, I'm currently on Dantooine, where I've become a Jedi Consular at the Jedi Academy, having completed my trials. Currently I'm exploring the plains and trying to resolve a feud between two prominent settler families before I go exploring the ruins.

I only have a few episodes left in the fifth season of 'Allo 'Allo. I just saw the parts that took part on the train, which I had vaguely remembered.

[Mephistophilis]

I've been running a PbP game of the new Twilight 2000 rules from Free League. Crunchy as fuck. I'm busy bodging some house rules to make it even half playable after our first few encounters. The PCs very nearly got themselves a TPK in the first major battle.

Watched the Midnight Mass series on Netflix. Good horror vibe but a bit too mundane for CoC.

Just finished the old Call of Cthulhu video game (the 2018 one) I quite liked it, apart from the unhelpful controls. But as I get older I find myself turning more and more to walkthroughs because I don't have the time to piss around too much. I'm also playing the old Bladerunner video game. Also kinda fun, captures the atmosphere, but again, turning to walkthroughs to avoid pissing about doing the same thing over and over. I don't get a lot of free time.

Ah, Allo Allo, that brings back memories.

[Mr. Handy]

Blade Runner was awesome! We've talked about it much earlier on this thread. It's been a long time since I've played it, but I still have a copy of it. I try to avoid walkthroughs, but I'm also pressed for time, so I will use them if I get stuck. In Knights of the Old Republic, I've since finished with Dantooine, Tatooine (though I have to go back when I have a chance to look for Mission's brother), and Manaan, and I've just arrived on Kashyyyk.

I'm almost done 'Allo 'Allo, with only the final two episodes left of the ninth and last season. The first disc for season 9 wasn't working, but fortunately I was able to watch the four episodes on it online. I plan to watch the fifth episode tomorrow night and the last one Thursday morning. I'm not remembering any of the stuff from season 6 onwards, so I don't think I've ever seen them before.

[Mephistophilis]

I never got too far with KotOR - I think I might still have it installed on my phone. I find I get started playing something then life gets in the way. When I went back to Blade Runner recently I'd forgotten what I was doing. I've bought a few old games I had back when I was a kid/teenager and I'm even getting a few minutes to play one or two of them.

[Mr. Handy]

I've only completed it once before. I typically stick with a single game until I finish it, and then I play the next one, but sometimes I've given up on a game. I also usually play for a few minutes at a time, when I do have time. I have far more games than I have time to play, and I have well over a thousand in my Steam and GoG libraries alone, not even counting physical versions of games.

I've watched the penultimate episode of 'Allo 'Allo and have watched the first five minutes or so of the finale. I'm planning to finish it tomorrow morning while I eat breakfast and then watch the Best of 'Allo 'Allo special feature.

[kabukiman]

So, for halloween I saw several movies that passed in TV. The remake of "the fog" (I didn't liked), a remake of "the murders of Amytville" (it was ok), and "the woods". This last one suprised me.
I played the third ending (the temperance). Probably my favorite, but I think I won't play any of the other endings for now (we must replay exactly the same scenes for half of them, about 30 minutes and it is boring to hear the same dialogues).
So, I decide to play again the mmo secret world. Since they reset it in 2017, I had to start from the beggining. It is a horror game with lots of conspiracies and investigation. I'm already level 14 now.

[Mr. Handy]

The original 1980 version of The Fog is much better. I agree, the remake wasn't good.

I only ever played through Blade Runner once, a long time ago. I turned out to be a replicant. I remember flying off in a car at the end, but I don't know what the ending was called.

I've gotten very far in Knights of the Old Republic, having finished on Kashyyyk, been intercepted by the Sith flagship Leviathan and escaped (but not before a confrontation with Darth Malak and the reveal of the big twist). I actually saw the twist coming the first time I played, as I had gone to Kashyyyk first after Dantooine in that game. After taking care of a few things by revisiting planets I'd been to before, I've now landed on the Sith planet Korriban for the first time. This is the last one I have to visit before the endgame.

I've finished 'Allo 'Allo and am now watching Red Dwarf. I'm in the middle of the second season, having just finished watching the second episode, Better Than Life.

[Mephistophilis]

Ah Red Dwarf. I suspect it hasn't aged well.

[kabukiman]

So I saw the mummy 3. I actually enjoyed it (even if I still prefer the first 2).
I also saw the first season of the spanish tv show "the 30 coins", a mix of Lovecraftian horror with Christianity in a small village in Spain. I liked specially the characters who had an excellent performance.

[Mr. Handy]

I saw the Mummy movies a while ago, including the third one. I don't remember that one too well, but the first two were very good. I've heard of 30 Coins, but I haven't seen it. I'd like to, but it's probably only on a streaming service, and I don't have one.

I've been reading Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon for the last month. It's the ninth and penultimate book in the Outlander series, which was just published in late November, and it's set in 1779-80 late in the American Revolutionary War. It's really good, and I think I'm getting to the best part. I'm about 800 pages in, and there are about 100 to go.

I finished Knights of the Old Republic in late November and then started playing Knights of the Old Republic 2. I'm currently on Telos after having escaped from Peragus, and I've dealt with the Exchange to get the information I need and convince them to leave the Ithorians alone. Soon I'll be heading for the planet's surface. I haven't played since I started reading the book, though, as I want to finish it first.

I've finished watching the first eight seasons of Red Dwarf, and I'm almost done with the bonus materials for the eighth season. I just have to finish the documentary about the season, which I should be able to do tonight.

[Dave Syrinx]

This cowboy have been enjoying Kevin Costner´s and 1883.
I really like the sci-fi Raised by wolves by Ridley Scott.
I watched Dune (2021) and it was awesome!

Blade Runner the PC-game was good fun a long time ago. I saw that there was a cartoon Blade Runner thing called Black Lotus. The soundscape is awesome and the artstyle is good. However the dialogue and character/manga style is not my cup of tea. So, the backdrop and sound/music are great but it falls in the execution of the series.



https://youtu.be/ahNgjVcq4sA

Keeping withe sci-fi, I have to mention The Expanse, the fantastic show over at Amazon. And on Netflix, Arcane! I didn´t think I´d like it but it was super great! Basen on League of Legends but stands on its own.


And, hi guys!!!

[Mr. Handy]

I watched the first few episodes of 1883 too and liked them. I've only seen the first season of Yellowstone so far, but one nice thing about a prequel is that no prior knowledge is needed. I've also played the Blade Runner game back when it was almost new and enjoyed that. I've heard of Black Lotus recently, but it looks like I've missed a bunch of episodes already. I saw the first few seasons of The Expanse when it was on SyFy, but I don't have Amazon, so I haven't seen it since it moved.

I finished Go Tell the Bees I am Gone, and WOW! One thing happened that I saw coming a long way off, but there was another big twist I didn't see coming. The final book is set up to be amazing, but it looks like I'll have to wait a very long time before I can read it.

In Knights of the Old Republic 2, I finished on Telos and maxed out my light side points before I left the planet. Now I'm finishing up on Dantooine before I go to another planet, probably Nar Shaddaa (okay, technically it's a moon). I'm almost halfway through the game now.

After finishing with Red Dwarf Season VIII, I started watching Friday the 13th: The Series, which has nothing to do with the movies. It's actually quite good, and it would make an interesting campaign framework for Call of Cthulhu. It aired for three seasons in 1987-90, and I remember watching it at the time. Cousins Micki Foster and Ryan Dallion have inherited an antique shop from their recently deceased uncle Lewis, but they discover that Lewis had made a deal with the devil in which he sold cursed antiques. These are all unique, indestructible objects with unique powers that they provide to their owners, but their powers are activated by killing someone, and they tend to bring their owners to a bad end. Now they have to track down all the items he sold, plus the items they sold themselves before they became aware of the curse. I'm currently almost done the fourth episode of the second season, "Tails I Live, Heads You Die," which is one of the best. It features a coin that the owner can use to kill someone, and afterwards the owner can use it to bring someone dead back to life.

[kabukiman]

I played one campaign of medieval total war 2, the campaign of the kingdom of Jerusalem. I started as allied of the count of Antoquia (another christian kingdom), and the enemy of the egyptian Fathimids (muslins). My objectives are to conquer 25 cities, Bhagdad and eliminate the Fathimids.
I gathered an army of knight to prepare to attack Egypt, but they invaded me first. Well, I had a bigger army and destroyed theirs easily. And with a reinforcement army of infantry I attacked a city in the south of palestina. I conquered then 2 cities, when I faced a new army. Two victories, and I invaded Egypt. A victory near Damietta (the door to enter Egypt), but after that I was without any troops (and so Egypt). It would be a stalemete... except a new crusade arrived with the Richard Lionheart! Well, Saladin gathered all his troops from the various cities, both armies entered in battle, both kings died in the battle and the armies were destroyed. Well, with the egyptian cities empty, it was a quick conquest. I killed the last heir, the fatimids entered in a civil war and the faction was eliminated. I conquered all the cities. I build churches to convert the population (and avoid civil unrest).
Time to go west. I declare war to the turks, conquered several cities (including Bhagdad)... and suddenly the mongols appear. They have 4 full armies. I defend Bhagdad as best as I can, loose the city, but loose half their troops died. They abandon the city, and go somewhere else. I send emissaries begging for peace. They insult me but it seems to work and they don't attack me. I occupy Bhagdad, conquered a few cities from the turks and I win the game.
There is no shame in being humble to the mongols.

[Mr. Handy]

Early this month, I received both sets of Choose Cthulhu books, which I backed on Kickstarter years ago. There are 16 books in total, which are adaptations of Lovecraft's stories (except a couple that are original) in Choose Your Own Adventure format, with one of them extra long and more like Fighting Fantasy, which I'm saving for last. I've read and successfully completed nine of them so far, just finishing The Colour Out of Space (which was the hardest one yet). My favorite so far has been At the Mountains of Madness.

After I beat Knights of the Old Republic 2, I started playing Deus Ex, with the Revision mod. It's every bit as awesome as I'd heard, and it uncannily predicts many things about today's world. I haven't had as much time to play since the books came, but I'm getting close to the end of the third mission, at LaGuardia airport. I opted for a hacker build, starting with Advanced Computer skill. This has proven very useful, and there's nothing like turning your enemies' turrets against them and then shutting off the cameras, not to mention copying everyone's emails and hacking ATMs. I also trained up my Rifle skill, and that's Advanced now, though I more frequently use the mini-crossbow and stealth pistol, or the charging prod for melee. I'm planning to advance my Pistol skill as soon as I get enough skill points, which won't be long. I figured out very early that I'm working for baddies, and it sounds like my brother Paul came to the same realization. I've been taking the NSF guys alive as much as possible, though I ran out of tranquilizer darts, having missed opportunities to stock up on Liberty Island, thinking I had plenty and could easily find more later.

After I finished Friday the 13th: The Series, I started watching Sliders. Most of the episodes I don't remember seeing, as the last time I had seen them was when they had originally aired in the 90s. I paused to watch the Doctor Who story The Evil of the Daleks when it finally arrived. I preordered it in late November, but demand outstripped supply and I didn't get it until early this month. 6 of the 7 episodes are missing, but they've animated all the episodes and synced them to the existing audio track. It's one of the best Doctor Who stories. Now I've resumed watching Sliders, and I'm now over two-thirds of the way through Season 3.

[Dave Syrinx]

So, I've bought a bunch of books while thrifting. I¨m plannning to read them this summer. A list will be up when I¨ve decided which one I'll start with.
I'm also looking forward to the next seasons of: Stranger Things (May 26), Westworld (June 26) and The Umbrella Company (June 22) [not Resident Evil related].
And, I will be watching the Resident Evil series, set in London 2036! (July 14) "https://www.youtube.com/embed/2tb9ENbFWvQ"

[Mr. Handy]

I've finished all of the regular Choose Cthulhu books (The Shadow Out of Time was excellent!), and now I'm reading Escape from R'lyeh, the Advanced Choose Cthulhu book. I've done a decent amount of exploring and found various locations, and I've explored a wrecked ship that can be repaired. All I have to do is find various things scattered around the island and bring them back. I'm currently awaiting the Freeway Warrior series, which I backed on Kickstarter years ago, and the Definitive Editions of the first five books of the Lone Wolf series, which shipped about ten days ago.

I'm still enjoying Deus Ex. If Ultima Underworld and System Shock 2 had a baby, it would be Deus Ex. This is no surprise, as Warren Spector was in charge of both Ultima Underworld and Deus Ex (there are several Underworld references in Deus Ex). I'm not sure if he was involved in System Shock 2 or not. Paul confirmed everything I had suspected. When I got back to Battery Park, I made short work of Anna Navarre when she came gunning for me with an assault rifle on full auto into her head, but she hurt me badly when she exploded. I couldn't find a way to kill Gunther (he can even survive multiple grenades), so I surrendered to him to save myself some damage and ammo. Now I'm trying to escape from the MJ12 facility.

I'm almost a third of the way through Season 5 of Sliders now. I don't remember having seen most of the episodes of Seasons 4-5 before, and I didn't recognize the new characters. The last episode I finished, "New Gods for Old," featured nanotechnology that wouldn't be out of place in Deus Ex.

[kabukiman]

So I played again master of orion2. A human race customized: the advantages were democracy, lucky and +1 in research.
Well, so I started to explo other planets and found one with suitable life and sent a colony. I waited a bit more before creating another colony. . I found another race, we quickly made a trade and science treaty. Then I found 2 other races and made the same deal (by this time I had 4 colonies). Meanwhile, one of the other races proposed me an alliance (The bulrathi), and I agreed. I discovered a race that was blocking my grow to north (the sakkra). I decide not to make any deals and prepare a fleet to attack them (by this time, I was the most advanced race). But suddely my ally declared war on another race at south. I had change plans, send the flouth south, create an outpost to reach that race and I atacked their fleet: I had one much bigger (I had 2 cruisers and 1 frigates!) and win. I invaded two systems without star bases, but didn't attack the ones with starbases. I build missile bases to defend those planets (didn't need more for now).
My ally declared war to two other races and I repeat the process. So, I was already the most powerful race. But they went to far when they declared war to the gnolls who had helped me, so I refused and broke the alliance. The antareans started to attack everyone once in a while (except me and the gnolls). I had several battleships and decide that the other races should only have 2 systems, so I conquered any third system from the other races.
I prepare to attack the antareans and started to build a doom fleet. Well, first, I had to defend my planets, because the antareans finnaly notice me. They destroyed several planets, until I had the base defenses at maximum. They attacked once more but this time I was ready: 4 doom stars, several battleships and cruisers, a star fortress, missile base and other defses. Well, they attacked the star fortress and destroyed it: but I was able to destroy on of the 2 battle ships they had (making damage to their other ships. Second turn, they destroyed one of my doom star and the minor ships, but I destroyed the other battleship and some minor ships. Third round, they destroyed the last small ships, and I destroyed the rest of the fleet.
Now I was in maximum scientific development, created planets with only robots to increase production, destroyed the guardian of orion, So I build a dozen doom stars, send them to antares and win easily.

[Mr. Handy]

I always win a diplomatic victory in MOO2 before I win any other kind. It's even more likely when playing straight up humans, which I've done before. Alliances can be great for getting that diplomatic victory and for security, but they're a double-edged sword. You'll probably be dragged into someone else's war, like in my last game, but everybody hated the Silicoids and there weren't very many of them to fight. The worst is when two of your allies go to war with each other and force you to pick between them, which happened to me in that game. A while ago I bought the new(ish) version of Master of Orion on sale, which I've heard is largely a reskin of MOO2 with better graphics, and it's on my list of stuff to play. It has real-time battles instead of turn-based, and I prefer the latter, though.

I've explored most of the island in my first playthrough of Escape from R'lyeh, and I only have a handful of locations left to explore. I've only found one of the six items I need to repair the boat (I actually found two different places that had it) so far. There's also a second way to win, which may be a better bet. I'm starting to get dangerously low on Sanity, however. Maybe I'll still make it, but it's probably too much to ask to be able to complete it on my first try.

I've cleared the detention area, nanolab, and robot maintenance area of the MJ12 facility, and I'm about to enter the armory and get my stuff back. I'm about halfway done with the facility now.

I only have six more episodes of Sliders left, or one third of Season 5. Currently I'm watching "A Thousand Deaths," which features various simulations that are not what they seem.