Just look at the spectacular symmetry, the artfully precise orb web and the pure beauty! One of the benefits of a long hot summer this year has been the presence of a lot of food for individuals like this specimen, the European Garden Spider:
I mean, not only are these extremely beautiful and purpose driven life forms, they are a massive benefit to us too!!! How? These are the most efficient pest exterminators on the planet, and they are far safer for us than using poisons to kill things we don’t want around, and ourselves, in the process. If one needs to be scared of something, it should be those poisons. I for one am grateful for these little creatures and wish them all the best doing what they do best!
Trepang two feels like a mashup of old school FPS games, mixed with some new game-play mechanisms, finished off with overall uniqueness. The games that come to mind for me with Trepang that provide influence are games like Wolfenstein, Left4Dead, DeusX, Control, and a few others.
I’ve only played the campaign mode in Trepang. Given that I can’t speak to multiplayer capability. The campaign mode starts off with the hero, breaking out of his/her prison cell in a high security facility, that on the surface appears to be a prison. From that fairly normal start of a game, things quickly evolve and unveil some truths as to who the hero is, why the hero was in prison and what supernatural elements are associated with the main hero that makes them special.
Without giving too much detail away, the game delves into scifi, zombie, cultist, hardcore military and other elements as the hero progresses through one mission to the next.
Being fairly new to this game, there is a little confusion for me on the campaign mode, as the missions are, from what I can tell nonlinear and are picked in the mission briefing room. New missions become available as missions are completed. This is a little weird because, from mission to mission, the story and elements can vary widely, which at times, leads to a disjointed nonlinear feeling of imbalance, is the best way I can put it.
Game-play is sooo smooth in this game. It’s important to note however, the slide kick and grab (F key) are huge factors tied to health and staying alive. It’s therefore imperative to key bind these in a comfortable way, and to practice, practice, practice. During missions, enemies will spawn in “waves”, depending on the difficulty level chose, a wave can be either super intense, or insane. There are very few missions where even easy difficulty, is easy. So, plan on being constantly challenged by this game, in a most unrelenting, intense, and sometimes insane way. Mind your guns and ammo at all times. While engaging with enemies, try to keep up with getting new ammo, and armor while engaged, otherwise you run out of either of those, you die. Find a gun that works for you and stick with it, too.
Character progression, from what I have been able to tell, is quite good. You start out with very little in the way of armament, and gain more as you finish more missions. Same goes for knowledge. There are a lot of files that you will run across in the game, pick them up, they help tell the story of how you got to where you are at that moment, and where you’re going. If you skip this stuff you will miss out on a big part of the overall game.
I still have quite a way to go before I finish the campaign. I will more than likely kill a few keyboards out of frustration along the way, but it’s all good. This game is intense in a lot of really good ways, and those few moments of frustration are a small price to pay for this little gem. Overall, playing this is very enjoyable, and I’m looking forward to what comes next from this developer!
Trepang2 is on sale in the Steam store right now, so what are you waiting for?
As you may have seen my previous post the other day about the cocoon containing a Monarch butterfly, I have great news! Sometime between when I posted that and this morning the Monarch hatched. A beauty to behold, I’m disappointed I missed it unfurl and breathe life into those new wings. But I do have a happy pic to share of the empty cocoon, enjoy! 😊😊😊
This is a great track. Yet another good one I missed somehow, which I am happy to say showed up in my playlist unexpectedly. Moby is a great Soundtrack composer. He should do more like this!
After exploring Kagi yesterday I noticed they have more than search. If you’re a Mac user you will be pleased to hear the company has built a brand new browser called Orion. I tried it out and found it to be fast, and most of all, much easier on memory than Safari, Firefox, or Chrome. As a matter of fact, I noticed it uses almost half the memory of the competition. The browser is full of features and also blocks invasive ads by default. Check it out and share your thoughts. By the way, a Linux version is in the works according to the developers.
Isn’t she just adorable? There’s no words to describe her. I got her as a baby during COVID right before my 21 year old kitty passed on. She’s been a gift.
you can almost see the butterfly inside. What an absolutely wonderful thing to witness. Imagine, what an amazing creature Monarch butterflies are. Think of the transformation they undertake. Just watching the cocoon forming is a sight to behold. If anything makes one stand in awe of the miracle of nature it is witnessing these beautiful moments in the Monarch’s journey through life.
What a fascinating write up in Arstechnica about a new search engine that leaves the duplicitous business models behind. When you think about it, search really has morphed in weird ways over the last 20 years. It’s almost like it’s not about search anymore. If we truly do still have a vibrant internet or the desire to do so, this product makes a compelling argument. Reminds me a little of dogpile search from way back, anyone remember that? Looks like they are still around, surprisingly. We need stuff like this now more than ever. Check it out here, it’s a great analysis:
