Ajaxpost Plays: Beyond The Game

Today I published the first episode for a new series on my YouTube channel, a Lets Play of Stellaris with the newly released Federations expansion pack. Why, you might be thinking, am I doing a big outer space grand strategy game? The answer, my friends, is back, way back, in my gaming history ... When I first discovered computer gaming it was on a magnificent Commodore 286 PC. Starting with this marvellous machine, and subsequent PC clones, I discovered the original Civilisation, Championship Manager (now Football Manager), SimCity, Master of Orion, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon and many other great PC games. I never got into consoles at all so strategy and adventure were what captured my (relatively) youthful imagination. Time passes, and now while Civilisation is still great fun to play and retains it's essential 'pick up and play' quality to draw you easily into the gameplay complexities many of the "4X" games that followed it provide much deeper ...

After creating a huge terminal building in the first, planning, episode this second episode (the first real one of the series) I try to find somewhere to put all the essential ticketing and security infrastructure, along with some toilets and a little coffee shop. A Lovely Coffee Shop Spot As it has been several months since last played the game, you may notice some quiet ludicrous mistakes and errors of judgement! I would like to promise that I will get better as the series progresses ... I would like to! 😏 If only to laugh at my incompetence, please do join me in this new episode by clicking on the video link below.   Oh, and in case it's obvious ... I haven't actually used the airport in years (and years!) so if you have visited or travelled through Bristol Airport please do let me know - you may be able to help me get the arrival and departure routes right. 👍

I have been very fortunate to be offered keys to two exciting new games ... OK, one of them is a DLC but it's still pretty darned exciting! I shall be spending a few days getting to grips with the basics so that I can show them off reasonably competently (well, as competent as I ever am!) but within the next week I shall have at least one video published for one or, hopefully, both of them. So, if you haven't already, you probably ought to subscribe to the YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss them. 😉 A couple of teaser shots will, I'm sure, be enough for you work out which games they are. 😎

For the latest episode of my Transport Fever 2 Bristol series I revisit Bath, the very place that caused me so much heartache when I first tried to play this map! Since then I have been a little more cautious (read sensible ) and managed to make quite substantial profits so now, I reckon, the rime is right to look beyond the Bristol city area ... to the World Heritage city of Bath. The landscape is challenging, the city is compact and expensive but I think we can do it, we can finally establish a proper intercity train line.    

Having finished up one whole school year in Academia: School Simulator my first Lets Play series has come to an end.  If you have watched the series you will know that the last couple of episodes were plagued by an uncontrollable explosion in dirt and litter that my janitors never got on top of. Unfortunately that meant it was practically impossible to continue the game. I did play on, off camera, for another year but it was a constant battle with students leaving and having enough funds to progress research that might help fix the school. It wasn't fun for me, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have made for entertaining viewing. 😓 That said, I really enjoyed the game up to that point and there are plenty of good things about it, and it's also possible that my problems were down to an issue with my old save game and not a bug in the game code itself. So, I wanted to wrap up the series with something reasonably positive, a review of my experience with the game. So...

In episode 21 in my Another Brick In The Mall Lets Play series I still have a couple of stores that just aren't making the money they should. So, in addition to starting work on the next wing of the Ajax Super Shopping Centre Experience (or whatever I'm calling it this week!) I'm trying to turn these failing franchises around. Oh, and I discover that cosmetics are a drug too! Drugs and Booze together ... a real profit opportunity!

It's been several months since I finished my first series of SimAirport where I promised I would take the money earned on that first airport to build a vaguely 'realistic' version of a real UK airport. Making good use of it's nearly 3 years in Early Access, the game was released on 29th February and I am now ready to start that new adventure by attempting to recreate ... Bristol Airport (BRS) In this first, introductory, episode I take a look at the layout of the real, the actual, Bristol Airport and some of the challenges that I will face before laying down some initial plans and building the first structures. In reality it looks like: You can follow my journey on YouTube, starting with some (over) ambitious laying of foundations:   Oh, I haven't actually used the airport in years (and years!) so if you have visited or travelled through Bristol Airport please do let me know - you may be able to help me get the arrival and departure routes...

I've had some fun playing around with the new modular station feature that was added to Transport Fever 2 and, despite it's limitations, found that it is possible to create quite a few fun (or ridiculous!) configurations! As I haven't seen anyone else create a video tutorial for the modular stations, nor a presentation of  the designs you can create I thought I would have a go ... in my own inimitable long-winded style! So, here they are. Part 1 is a basic tutorial covering how the feature works and what limitations there are and in Part 2 I show off some examples of designs ... well, as many as my limited imagination would stretch to! I'm using just base game / vanilla options but if anyone would like me to look at any of the modded station options I'd be happy to have a go.

Yesterday I went to one of my favourite 'fringe' venues in Bristol, the Wardrobe Theatre at the Old Market Assembly to see Losing The Night . This new play, a two-hander written by Cecilia Knapp, shares with us a difficult conversation between two friends who haven't seen each other since the loss of Dylan, a brother and friend, a year ago. Beautifully written and performed (by Olivia Dowd and Marc Benga), the dialogue flows so naturally as they try to place their different memories of Dylan into the context of their own relationship and the grief they felt. It's not flash, or melodramatic, or even especially emotional but it felt right, real. It showed us that taking the time to talk about trauma, depression, secrets, and grief is important and can help us towards understanding and better mental health. Marc Benga and Olivia Dowd / Photo credit: Luis Macknes Links: Cecilia Knapp : YouTube and Twitter C.A.L.M. : Website and Twitter The Wardro...

Hi, while my YouTube channel is still quite small (less than 1,000 subscribers, etc.) I can't use the built-in YouTube features to actively engage with you, the lovely folk who watch, comment, and subscribe to my channel. As I am already sort of familiar with Blogger I though I would open up a new space here specifically linked to the YouTube channel but one that allows me to share stuff other than my game videos and can also be somewhere for all of us to exchange thoughts and ideas about the channel or anything else that pops into our minds. So ... if you're not into using Twitter or Instagram to communicate, or find them too limiting, or are strange enough to want to read more of my long-winded thoughts and observations then ... WELCOME! Now, if you're new to my channel or maybe just curious about who the heck I am please check out the links in the title bar which might give you some insight ... or might not. ;) You can use the Subscribe option in the title bar...