A nice little surprise: Carto

I've got no shortage of computer/video games to keep myself occupied with, but I also have an XBox Game Pass subscription.  So, when I see a new game pop up there that looks even mildly interesting, at the price of "you've already paid for it", I'll gladly download it and take a closer look.  This week, that led me to get Carto, an odd little adventure-puzzle game.  The story follows the trope of a disaster separating the main character from their family, but with a touch of the magician's apprentice thrown in, with the result of your character washing up on the shore of an island, far from home and family, but with a power to help you make your return trip.

The power you get, in this case, is a map of the local area, broken up into tiles you can shift and rotate, which actually alters the layout of the local area in the process.  You still have to match terrain types on the edges of tiles, much like a game of Carcassonne, but that's not much of a challenge, especially early on.  From that basic beginning, you set out to explore the world, gathering new tiles along the way by various means, while you meet the inhabitants of the various different regions in pursuit of your goals.

Carto is sort of like one of the old point-and-click adventure games, but replacing the obtuse puzzles and pixel-hunting with mostly tile puzzles of various sorts, and I rather liked that.  It's also not terribly long, as I was able to play most of the way through in one sitting over the course of an afternoon and early evening... but only most of the way through.  The last level (if the narrative hints aren't totally misleading at least) takes you to the "edge of the world", which is an arctic/antarctic setting that ramps up the difficulty in a couple of different ways.  First, they replace the simplicity of manipulating tiles with manipulating fixed 4-tile chunks and trying to fit those together in various valid combinations - annoying, but that much I was willing to take on.  Then, part way through, they added a "sliding on the ice" mechanic that requires alignment of "tracks" on the various ice field tiles, and that was the bit that tipped the scales from enjoyable to bothersome for me, so I stopped there.

So, yeah, fair odds I'll never officially finish this game, but it's not like I don't know what the ending is likely to be (it's not a deep story, by any means).  The rest of the game kept me entertained for a number of hours, enough so that I'd recommend it to almost anyone to check out, at the right price.

An innovation more games should embrace

 While there haven't been a lot of Harry Potter-esque "going to wizarding school" games, there have been a few, widely varying in quality.  So, when Ikenfell first crossed my path, with strategy RPG trappings, I was mildly interested, but the pseudo-8-bit visuals turned me off a bit (turns out, I'm old enough that old Nintendo graphics aren't part of my childhood, so I don't get the nostalgia kick from them that many do), so I decided to give it a pass.

Well, it showed up on XBox Game Pass yesterday, and, at the price of "you've already paid for it," I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a go.  I've only played a little ways into it so far, but, at the moment, I would probably just call it "inoffensive".  There have only been a couple of surprises, one of which is a timed-input fighting system that reminds me of Paper Mario, but I'm not entirely sold on whether it's a good thing or not this early on.

However, that's not the innovation I mentioned in the title.  That role belongs to the cats in the game.  Being a magic school, it's got cats all over, apparently... and the first one I met, if you "use" it, lets you pet it (important in its own right, in the minds of some), restores your health, and acts as a save point.  Yes, it's an unimaginably small touch, but fraught with implications, the first being safety... after all, if the cat's not freaking out and letting you pet it, you can be pretty sure that nothing nasty is in the vicinity to cause you grief.  Second is personality, since I've seen many, many games with bulky, mystical save points whose whole purpose is to get across that they're a feature of the environment, not in any way portable - using a cat makes similar sense, as anybody who has tried to make a cat go somewhere it doesn't want to go can attest to.  Third... well, I have no proof that this is implemented in this game, early as I am in it, but using creatures with agency for save points brings up all sorts of opportunities for mischief, whether that's just cats moving to different locations on a whim, or deciding they don't want to be petted just then, or deciding as a group to go hide, or be captured, or be impersonated by something nasty, or, or, or...

So, yeah, I'm not sold on the game as a whole just yet.  On the other hand, this one touch has piqued my interest enough to say I'll come back for another look.  Maybe there's more surprises waiting just a bit further into the game.  In the meantime, all you other developers, more useful pettable cats, please.

Another game by the wayside

 It was still early June when I started in on Divinity: Original Sin.  I finally gave up on it a day or two ago, mainly to make room for trying out the latest iteration of No Man's Sky (among other things, there's giant jumping planetary worms now).  However, I hadn't even left the first area of the game in all that time.  I got a couple of decent play sessions in, but I always struggled to get myself to get back in for the next session, so it's high time that struggle stopped.

Honestly, I'm hard-pressed to say why the game didn't click for me.  I liked the turn-based combat well enough, excepting for the extreme variation involved when doing something like tossing grenades around.  Could be the bit I mentioned when starting about the game being geared towards a couch co-op experience.  Another likely component would be the whole starting setup, where you're supposed to be concerning yourself with the murder of a politician while undead hordes press the city from the land and orc raiders press from the sea... it just has a bit of "aren't there more pressing things I should be handling right now" attached to it.

That said, since I'm leaving this game behind, I did go ahead and scrounge up a video of the main story beats.  It's a bit more twisty than the initial setup would leave you to believe, which is a good thing, but I'm just as glad to have gotten the summary instead of slogging through the game myself.  I'm not saying you wouldn't enjoy giving the game a go yourself, for the right price at least... but I've gotten what I can from it, and I'm ready to move on.

Funny, how the brain works.

 It's like that old Mel Brooks quote, the one about how "Tragedy is when I cut my finger.  Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."  Little setbacks can seem magnified way out of proportion when you're on the receiving end.

What brings up this line of thought?  Well, I don't think I ever posted about this topic in this place, but the fact is that I was laid off from my job at the beginning of this whole COVID-19 pandemic.  Originally, it was supposed to just be a layoff until June, which then became July, which then became "maybe you should look elsewhere for work."  Still, I was better off than many in my position, having set aside a fair-sized rainy day fund for emergencies.  That, coupled with the various relief packages offered by state and federal governments, says I'm not at any risk for significant financial impacts (like, say, dipping into retirement savings) until after next year, barring anything further unexpected in the meantime.  In fact, thanks to the "long goodbye" from my prior company, I have actually viewed this whole situation as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... no need to rush into a new job (because why expose yourself to the dread disease any more than you have to), and no ties binding me to my previous employer, I could be very selective in where I applied to work.  Of course, the unstated assumption here is that my work history is so outstanding that, given the opportunity, any employer would be thrilled to have me come on board to work for them.

Well, the proof to that pudding just came through last night.  I applied for a position with my state's small business development center back in July, had a Zoom interview in August, and got informed that the position had been filled last night.  Intellectually, it made sense... given the time spans involved, there were likely a great many applicants, any of which could have had a better background or interviewed better or whatever, so not getting chosen is a likely outcome.  Emotionally, though, it stung; here I offered them the knowledge and skills acquired over decades, and was rejected outright.  So, I started out the night on a down note, then had another little down-stroke when the weekly game I regularly participate in was canceled because the guy running it had too much work to do... and likely sustained that down-stroke with the glass of sake I had poured for myself for that game.  Even though I occupied myself with other things, the sense of "I've never failed like this on a job search" grew and grew.

That is, until I finally recalled an episode from a job search nearly two decades back.  In that case, I had applied for a job with a local school district, then was called in for an interview... only to find out at the interview site that it was going to be a group interview (as in, multiple applicants in the same interview).  The interview started with a question about something I knew well, but referenced by a name I never used or remembered, and I was given first crack at answering... and failing that, wasn't called on for the rest of the interview.  Without question, that was a worse "fail" than just not getting selected on this one job application... and with that remembrance, while I still didn't feel great about failing, I felt (and continue to feel) better than I had been.

The funny thing is, there was a literal span of hours where, had I been asked, I likely would have said that I had never been rejected on a job application before.  It's almost like some part of my brain decided, long ago, that "we'll just pretend that never happened", up until it decided to dredge up that tidbit as a useful scaling mechanism to help break a depressive cycle.  I can't help but wonder, if someone had mentioned that previous failing before then, whether I would have recalled it happening or not.  Oh well, mysteries of the brain and all that.

Random bits I noticed from around town

 I had some things to take care of out and about today, and I couldn't help but notice a number of things while doing so.  Since it's now several months into the epidemic, I thought it might be nice to record them - no knowing what might be considered "the new normal" eventually, and I might come back here looking for the comforts of "a simpler time", and there's no better antidote to that than reminders of the times you lived through, as you saw them.

So, in the order I saw things... first, traffic has returned to the same levels as it was pre-pandemic, implying that people by and large have come to terms with the new uncertainty in their lives.  Whether their degree of comfort is in any way reflected in the realities of the situation is another matter entirely, but at least infection numbers seem to be headed down for the time being, which is a good sign.

I had cause to visit two different post offices, the first one being closed for lunch when I hit it.  That first one is small enough to only have one customer service desk, so all I recall seeing there is the now more-or-less-standard plexiglass plate between the customer and the employee.  The second one, however, was set up for three service positions down the length of a long counter... so the individual stations were also separated from each other on the employee side, but, rather than use plexiglass, it looked like a similar material to what transparent plastic trash bags are made from.  I can only imagine that's a ventilation nightmare, but whatever gets the job done, I suppose.

Lunch was a sandwich, chips, and some apple juice from a deli inside a green grocer - and not some "been there forever" joint, but one that opened within the past few years and has, somehow, made a go of it.  It will be interesting to see how it fares long-term.

Lunch obtained, I took it to a neighborhood park in the vicinity.  There was a small group of people there, in the vicinity of the play equipment, but they left soon after I arrived with my lunch.  It was a bit disturbing to see multiple RVs parked around the perimeter, but neither was it entirely unexpected... I can only imagine the direction things might take if/when foreclosure/eviction protections are relaxed, supposing things don't change significantly for the better with the economy.

On my next leg of driving, businesses, particularly restaurants, are what I was noticing.  Unlike past recessions and the like, I didn't really see much in the way of vacant strip malls or anything like that.  There were a couple of notable closures, including the Burger King in my area, and a buffet that looks to have decided that opening under likely present and near future conditions is so not happening that they've given up their lease and removed all of their signage.  On the other hand, the off-brand Mexican drive-through still looks to be making a go of it, and the Longhorn Barbecue in my area just opened back up, so it's a bit of a mixed bag there.

Finally, my last stop of the day was for groceries at the local supermarket.  Our state has been under a mask order from the Governor for months, but that hasn't stopped all sorts of unsavory behavior from fervent anti-maskers to date.  This supermarket's response at this point has been to station an employee at the door, tasking them with handing out disposable masks at the door and disinfecting shopping cart handles... and I saw two men need to take advantage of those disposable masks, one of whom decided the best way to do that was to come in close from behind the poor employee and ask him for a mask from just over their shoulder - I still haven't decided though whether that individual was just being unthinking or outright malicious, though.  I did get to see a new form of "mask evasion" while I was in the store, though... some lady was pushing her cart through the store with one hand while pulling her mask away from her face with the other hand.

So, yeah, long story short, people by and large are doing what they feel they need to do to get through this unpleasantness... but, people being people, whether that's helpful for everyone around them is a very open question.

Edit: And oh yeah, I forgot... last day of August, and there was already Halloween candy stocked at the store!

If there's anything I like better than shrinkage...

 It's not the most obvious hill to die on, and just maybe I'm super-sensitive from being cooped up at home for months on end and feeding on unemployment, but there are some things in life that I just won't stand for, if there is any alternative available.  One well-documented example of that on this blog would be my conversion from Sony to Microsoft for my gaming systems back when that whole "PS3 Linux" issue was perpetrated by Sony.  Less well documented is my opposition to the whole "product shrinkage" thing that various grocery producers have leaned into in current years... you know, where they come out with a redesign of their packaging to try and hide that they're trying to sell you less product for the same amount of money.  It's gotten to the point where, for a couple of examples, I will basically no longer buy a "half-gallon" sized container of ice cream, since they're all 1.75 quarts or less now (shout out to Trader Joe's as the lone exception in my area!), nor will I buy a multi-serving bag of chips that contains less than 10 ounces of product (which is basically all of them now, unless you go for the "Party Size" or equivalent).

The latest offender is Feline Greenies, the dental treats I feed my cats with every meal.  I suspected the game was afoot when I saw the new artwork on the front, and noticed the bag seemed a bit elongated compared to what I was used to... and I was right, based on looking things up at Amazon, where somebody still had the old 2.5oz/71g package available for sale, compared to the current 2.1oz/60g packaging.  That alone would be enough to make me reconsider whether I was going to go along with things, but then I realized that, at the same time, the price of the package increased from $3 or less to about $4.  Yes, it wasn't enough to shrink the package and hope nobody would notice, the price got jacked as well.

Now, looking at Amazon, it might be that the price increase was primarily the choice of PetSmart, the store I bought them at - they've certainly been raising prices otherwise, doubtless to try and make up for people either not spending as much on their pets under current conditions or ordering pet supplies online.  However, I'm not quite ready to ditch PetSmart, but I'm more than willing to look into alternatives to Feline Greenies, next time I hit the store.

Comcast/Xfinity return to their pricing shenanigans

For anybody theoretically following this blog, you might recall this post from the beginning of the year, where I ran up against the data cap Comcast imposed on customers in my region while testing Google's Stadia service.  In the meantime, of course, we've had this whole COVID-19 thing get unleashed... and, in the early days, Comcast did the socially-responsible thing with a nation full of people stuck at home, and suspended their data caps entirely.

So, now we're in July, fresh off of a few months with no data caps enforced, and no stories reaching the public of massive outages or slowdowns due to all of the increased traffic on those previously-capped Comcast internet connections.  Rather than take that as an indicator as to the caps not serving their stated purpose (which would, of course, lead one to think they should be eliminated entirely, possibly reducing Comcast's income in the process), Comcast has brought caps back into play effective July 1st.  However, even they must have had a think about how justifiable their previous system was, since they made a few changes.

First, they raised their cap from 1TB to a massive... 1.2TB.  I mean, sure, if you're going to bother capping, higher is better, but that increase is almost insignificant for most use cases I can come up with.  Heck, even in my case, that's just less than I would need to use Stadia a similar amount as in my previous tests, so I'd still be flirting with triggering that $10 per 50GB overage fee (which is still in place, although the highest you could go over is down to $100 from $200 per month).  Worse, if I'm reading the email they sent out to their customers yesterday correctly, they're also reducing their "free" overage months from 2 to 1 going forward.

Second, they're offering a "cheaper" alternative for getting "unlimited" data.  Branded as "xFi Complete", it's basically a $25 per month modem/router rental fee.  Of course, it also includes something they're calling "Advanced Security", but what "security features" they could be implementing that they can't handle through equipment on their end of the connection... well, all I can come up with is monitoring and managing traffic internal to my network, which they have no business inspecting, in my opinion.  It's also worth noting that using their equipment means it also has a "public" WiFi access network built in, and, while it's separate from your personal network, that's still effectively paying Comcast for the privilege of housing equipment to provide their services to strangers, which is wrong in and of itself.

One could argue that, all in all, this is still better than what the status quo was last year, and therefore I should be happy/grateful/whatever.  However, the fact is that they did fine without any of this silliness for months, and could simply have left their systems in what I would call a more proper state than try to prod people to give them more money and/or give up more of their privacy.  Oh well, these things have a way of evening out, given enough time... in my case, there's a residential fiber company trying to work their way into the market, so it might just be "grin and bear it" until they eventually reach my area, much like I did for Comcast's internet back in dial-up days.