Dan Q

Category: Personal

Review of Xenonauts

This review originally appeared on Steam. See more reviews by Dan.

Xenonauts

Rating: 👍

The original X-COM series (Enemy Unknown, Terror from the Deep, and even Apocalypse) were among the most-immersive, deeply-strategic, and thematically-beautiful games of the 1990s. 2012’s reboot was fun, but it failed to capture the sophistication and complexity of the original: it lacked the ability to perform micro-customisation upon your soldiers (Want a strong guy whose job is just to carry ammo for everybody else? That’s fine!), bases (“Science” base at a secret location, surrounded by interceptor bases? No problem!), or mission strategy (Plan to fight a retreat back to the dropship, dragging the bodies of the stunned aliens with you for later research, losing the battle but advancing the war? Go on then!). And it suffered, for it.

Xenonauts, however, takes the genre back where it belongs: gritty, strategic, and with every game completely unique. More-impressively, it does so in a world that’s subtly-different from that of the original series: starting deep in the Cold War, and with aliens whose motivation and strategy is innovative and new, even to fans of the original series.

It’s not perfect: you’ll read science reports that make reference to weapons you haven’t yet invented, because you’re doing things in the “wrong” order… but at least the game lets you do things in the order that makes most-sense to you! I’d have enjoyed being able to use alien psionics against them, as you can in the original series (and even in the reboot), but (unless I simply missed out on the appropriate research opportunities), that’s sadly absent. And there are a few bugs, although I didn’t come across any game-breaking ones.

But what Xenonauts is is one of the best strategy games I’ve seen in recent years. Whether you loved the original X-COM series, or the reboot, or didn’t play either… it’s got something for you to enjoy. Go play it, Commander.

Review posted at UTC on .

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Dan Q found GLF3K5BF Plaque Buildup (Geolympix FTFrenzy-1)

This checkin to GLF3K5BF Plaque Buildup (Geolympix FTFrenzy-1) reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Finally got around to spending a lunchtime hunting for this cache, and I’m glad I did: what a wonderful tour of some great backstreets, that I already thought I knew so well. Was slowed down by some scaffolding partially-covering one of the clues, but a helpful man working on the site was able to show me what I’d missed (and to be fair, if I’d been paying more attention I’d have found it myself eventually!).

TFTC; and have a favourite point.

Dan Q performed maintenance for GC54F7B Oxford Steganography #2 – Selected Text

This checkin to GC54F7B Oxford Steganography #2 - Selected Text reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Came out to investigate missing lid. Found lid a short distance away – possibly muggled. Cleaned cache contents, checked silica gel still doing its job, replaced lid. Game on!

Dan Q posted a note for GC54F7B Oxford Steganography #2 – Selected Text

This checkin to GC54F7B Oxford Steganography #2 - Selected Text reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Thanks, Go catch; I’ll try to get out there for some maintenance at or before the weekend. If you’re having difficulty with the overlays, it’s worth checking that your printout is the right size (after talking to some ‘cachers, I’ve discovered that some computers are printing it a tiny bit smaller: users of these computers need to ensure that the “resize to fit page” or similar checkbox is NOT checked, when printing). So long as your name appears in the log when I get there, though, you’re welcome to PM me and I’ll send you the number you’re missing. Thanks!

Programming Is Not Math

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

When I learned to program, back when dinosaurs walked the earth and the internet had no cats, there was an idea: if you were good at math, you’d be good at programming. I was great at math as a kid, but perhaps because I didn’t like it much, no one steered me towards programming. I…

Repost posted at UTC on .

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Dan Q posted a note for GC56KEX The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments

This checkin to GC56KEX The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

With a difficulty rating of 2/5 I thought this would be a reasonably easy puzzle, but I guess my poor heat-addled brain isn’t up to the task. I thought that perhaps visiting the Bate Collection early this afternoon might help, but it turns out that they only open at 2pm in the afternoon (by which point I had to get back to work), so I’ve not had any luck yet! Some day, perhaps!

But be warned: if you plan to visit the collection, they don’t open until 2pm on weekdays.