It's Friday

 That is all.  Enjoy your weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

 If you are reading this post I am somewhere far away from any celebrations in the middle of nowhere MN and likely enjoying a nice quiet evening.  Hope you are enjoying your 4th of July!

Microsoft Designer / prompt: "an image to celebrate 4th of july.  I am a gamer who blogs."

A Single Shot from Bioshock Infinite

 Still browsing through old screenshots and realized I only seem to have one from the game Bioshock Infinite.  I enjoyed pretty much every game in this series and the premise behind Infinite was bonkers.  So much going on in that game.  My guess for this screenshot is I hit the button by accident, but that's OK because it makes for an easy post all these years later.

Bioshock what now

Some Planetside 2 Screenshots from 2012

 Just digging through some old screenshots and unearthed these Planetside 2 screenshots back from 2012.  The game actually doesn't look too bad for it's age.  How time flies!

Assemble my fellow combatants!

UI

Follow orders!

Ouch who shot me

Screenshot Monday: Relaxing in Ebonscale Reach

 By the time this post goes live I am likely many, many miles in the middle of nowhere on a off grid canoe trip.  So here is a picture of me relaxing in my Ebonscale Reach home in New World (as well organized as my real life one).

 

I miss my monster truck in Just Cause 2

 I miss my monster truck from Just Cause 2.  Such a fun game!  Here are some screenshots to remember it by.

Crrruuuunnnnchhhh

Vroooooom

What goes up must come down

 

Do you remember Global Agenda?

 Do you remember Global Agenda?  I don't particularly myself, but I had a few posts on the game back in 2011 so spent some time with it.  Browsing through screenshots to share recently I came across this one from the game.

Screenshot: Why are you in my bed?

 Months later and I still don't know why this guy is in the bed on my ship in Starfield.

Who are you!?

I'll be in my canoe

Northern Tier

 I am off to Northern Tier with my son's Boy Scout Troop.  We'll be spending a week on the water canoeing the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada.  I've scheduled some simple posts to go out on the blog while I am away so enjoy!

Fishing Russian Style

 As I dabble around games and completely avoid my Steam backlog I decided to give Russian Fishing 4 a try.  What I found was a deep and complex fishing game.

 First, I will admit the fish species and baits are foreign to me as an angler who fishes in the USA.  That does not, however, change the feeling of seeing a fishing pole bend over when a fish is hooked or the relief when the fish lands in your hands.

 My other most recent fishing game experience was with Call of the Wild: the Angler which is much more on the arcade end of the fishing simulation.  In comparison Russian Fishing 4 is much more on the realistic simulation side.

 This more realistic approach is evident from the moment I stepped into the tutorial.  I started with a "cane pole" (fishing line attached to a pole; no reel) and did some float fishing.  The game offers no strike or other indication of a fish.  I was required to watch the float and set the hook when the fish ran off with the bait pulling the float with it.

 The tutorial also goes through fishing with a spinning reel which works without indicator aside from poles pending and fishing line moving.  This is about as realistic as a video game could get aside from having a rumble feature of some sort to give haptic feedback to me as a player.

 I liked this approach more than I do the arcade model of CotW:Angler.  There is also many other "real fishing" features that I liked about my first couple of hours in Russian Fishing 4.  I can place my fishing rods on the ground so I can have one out with bait and use the other for active casting with lures.  Its quite fun to juggle putting down one reel to scramble and get the other one.  Funny as well when you wander a bit far and forget about the rod you set down entirely.

 Underneath the fishing is also a deep and complex progression system.  There are skills for everything from creating your own baits to all the aspects of fishing (cast distance, cast accuracy, retrieval, etc).  I barely scratched the surface so far but it hits that part of your brain where you are always saying "one more cast... one more fish" before realizing its 2 AM and you need to go to sleep.

 The game is free to play but has some form of pass you can buy which looks to expedite progression, but I've not felt compelled so far to buy in.  The free experience scratches that realistic fishing sim itch pretty good.  I'd love a version of this that is more USA focused and it's possible later maps I can get onto have USA waters and fish species, but at the end of the day a fish is a fish is a fish and they are fun to catch anywhere in the world.

 Screenshots:

Decent enough looking water and maps

Fish on!

One rod float fishing (left) and active fishing right next to it.  A cool mechanic many other fishing games don't offer!