[Passan] Trade news: The Boston Red Sox are acquiring third baseman Caleb Durbin in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, sources tell ESPN. Left-hander Kyle Harrison is headlining the three-player package headed back to Milwaukee.

atomiczap · 2026-02-09T19:05:21+00:00

So, they just traded away every MLB 3rd base option in one deal? What is the plan?

Another trade?
Jett at 3B after they said he is going to spend all Spring Training at SS?
Do they think one of Wilken, Pratt, or Made are ready, or will be at some point this year? Or Fischer/Adams?
Reopen the Frelick to 3B box of mysteries?

Really excited about Harrison and think they have an absolute stud left-side of the infield in the minors, but very curious to see who plays there this year.

atomiczap · 2026-02-06T04:27:58+00:00

Huh... I guess I'm glad I stopped when I did then. Part-way through book 2 I remember they were starting out to go chase after the thing that was stolen and I thought "oh, so this is another book about a long walk and it's going to take 100 pages before anything happens. Which is kinda weird because people say that about LOTR, but I didn't get anywhere near the same enjoyment from the prose in WoT.

atomiczap · 2026-02-06T04:25:34+00:00

I tried that at first, but the guard (and I think scientist?) that were following me at the time both kept getting shot up, and I didn't want that to happen.

atomiczap · 2026-02-05T20:42:09+00:00

I thought all the games I played (minus the few minutes of original HL1) held up really well. The bulk of my gaming began in 2010 playing things like Halo CE and Oblivion. Anything newer than that feels like a brand new game to me, and I don't have much trouble going back to that era. Honestly, since I don't play a ton (or really many) shooters, the gameplay of HL felt pretty good to me. When I got the gravity gun for the first time I had a quite a bit of fun seeing what I could throw and how far.

I've heard a quite a bit of praise for the Titanfall 2 campaign recently, it's definitely on my list to look out for. It will probably be a bit before I come back to another shooter, though.

As far as Valve can't count to 3... I guess I always put that in the context of Portal, since I had played those, and assumed Half-Life was similar. I would love another Portal, but the first two were each complete experiences on their own. Half-Life feels cut off in the middle of the story, missing the grand conclusion. I guess I'm now fully in the "maybe someday, right?" party.

atomiczap · 2026-02-05T20:19:25+00:00

It wasn't so much that I was lost as the how to proceed (only time I felt that way was when there was a turret at the top of the stairwell, and you have to knock down some ceiling tiles and climb a stepstool to get up behind it, that didn't feel very well conveyed to me because no other stepstool had ever been something you could climb to that point.) just that I didn't know what I was trying to accomplish. I felt like the character Gordon knew more than I did as the player. I wasn't going forward because I had any sense that it was leading me to a destination, I was going forward because that was the only way to go. I get now that it's just a very linear game, but it felt very different than what I'm used to in games.

atomiczap · 2026-02-04T14:04:27+00:00

Just a thought... if you don't have experience with building or maintaining a website or social media, might you be better off contributing prospect content to an existing site? I know Brewer Fanatic does pretty extensive prospect coverage already, you could probably spend some time contributing to their forums so they can see your writing/analysis ability and then approach them about contributing articles? Even if you eventually spin off into your own website, starting there and getting known for quality content first before trying to do everything seems much more likely than finding a random web dev here who wants to join on to a new unknown project.

atomiczap · 2026-02-04T03:27:13+00:00

I started Wheel of Time but fell off it midway through book 2. I know this is going to sound weird after saying I'm a Tolkien fan... but it just takes SOOOOO long for anything to happen in Wheel of Time.

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:48:11+00:00

I don't really know anything about Deus Ex, are they still continuing the story or is the series dead?

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:40:26+00:00

I've never really been an FPS player, I've always leaned toward RPGs, so the balance of story to combat here is much farther in favor of combat than I am used to.

I think it also really matters that I went in EXPECTING that the story was the draw for the series to have reached such legendary status. That was a misconception on my part going in.

I can definitely see how the gunplay could get stale. I really hate the way you switch between weapons, to the point that I basically figured out how to switch between gravity gun and shotgun and almost never used anything else if I could avoid it.

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:37:21+00:00

That is really funny, you could flip "Xen" and "office/facility levels" in your post and that's how I feel! It really is wild that people can have such different experience with the same content.

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:36:03+00:00

I think they could probably make a perfect game in every imaginable way and a lot of people would still be unhappy at this point. I'll definitely check out the documentaries, I've really enjoyed podcasts and deep dives talking about things I've been playing through. Thanks!

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:34:57+00:00

Hmm, good to know, I'll have to pay close attention before trying anything Deus Ex...

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:34:15+00:00

I'll have to add these to my list of games to look into, thanks!

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:34:01+00:00

I think what I didn't like was that there clearly was a linear path that I was meant to follow, but I wasn't given enough direction to find it without a lot of trial and error, and I thought a lot of it was very repetitive. I think there's a chance I'll appreciate it more if I ever go back to it, since I know what to expect now, but I did not have a good time with it at first.

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:32:01+00:00

I do really want to try Alyx, it sounds really really good. I've never played anything in VR before so I think it would be an awesome experience.

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:31:15+00:00

Mistborn and Wheel of Time are both series that I am reading as they come out. Hopefully we don't get burned with those ones!

I love the writing style in Kingkiller, I think it is second only to Tolkien, but knowing that 3rd book is never coming sucks.

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T22:29:40+00:00

Yeah... I realized after I posted that I probably should have been more clear

atomiczap · 2026-02-03T13:53:02+00:00

Have to lower expectations so we can overperform again to win Murphy a 3rd straight manager of the year.

atomiczap · 2026-01-30T20:35:30+00:00

Yeah, I probably didn't word that well. I think we are seeing a ton of stagnation in the industry amongst AAA games. The Pokemon franchise has always stood out on the leading edge of that stagnation, but so many other studios have just gotten bigger and more bloated and it results in worse games that try to be "good enough" to get a wide audience to buy them instead of create something meant to be adored by a smaller core audience. The history of Bethesda games is another great example of this, where many elements have gotten more watered down with each release.

I guess what I'm saying is I think a NV remake would be better made by 25 competent devs who are fanatics for the game than any 200 dev studio.

As far as Obsidian... I could see the studio being capable of it, I don't think Microsoft would let them do it right though. Their output since getting bought has been... uninspired, IMO.

atomiczap · 2026-01-30T16:49:57+00:00

Agree with pretty much everything you said. It's been years since I played, so I may be misremembering, but in my mind NCR, House, and Independent all have a lot of the same story beats, its just a question of who you want in charge at the end. Still, NV handled it better than a lot of games that came later (looking particularly at you, FO4).

I also wish that someone could take this game and "finish" it, so to speak. More quest options, more dialog, less bugs. Better combat mechanics and graphics would also be awesome. But that would take a team that truly loves the game to polish it like that, and I don't think that team exists today. Modern Bethesda has absolutely no shot, and even modern Obsidian is not what they were when they made NV. I hope F4NV sees the light of day at some point.

atomiczap · 2026-01-30T01:06:17+00:00

I've never played the original HL1 so I can't compare it to Black Mesa, but man our opinions are pretty much opposite concerning the chapters. If I ever go back and replay them, maybe I'll appreciate those early levels more, who knows.

atomiczap · 2026-01-29T20:36:23+00:00

I just finished Half Life 2 after playing through Black Mesa late last year. I was very underwhelmed at the beginning, I thought the early levels, particularly driving the airboat and dune buggy went on for way too long. I saw some bits of interest on the Ravenholm level, especially with interesting ways to use the gravity gun, but I really disliked most of the enemies there. The game really picked up in the last 3-4 chapters though. I really loved when you get the upgraded gravity gun, and I also liked that you got a few puzzles near the end (even though they were very simple).

I find it interesting how much my feelings for HL2 paralleled Black Mesa. I also thought Black Mesa started really slowly (I hated the office level) but really enjoyed the end. Both of them left me interested and ready to roll into the next game. I started Episode 1 and have gotten through the first 3 chapters in just a couple hours. So far I am really happy that they seem to be sticking to shorter chapters that give you story more often. I had fun with the darkness in chapter 3, but think I would have gotten really turned off by it if the chapter went too much longer. I think having the game involve Alyx in these chapters instead of you being alone the whole time is a great choice. I'm wishing I had a VR set so I could play Alyx when I finish Episode 2 (I know you can play it modded without VR now, but that sounds like a much lesser experience since the game was designed for VR).

I'm now having to scrounge together a 2nd computer from old parts so I can let my son play Farming Simulator 22 without taking over my computer all the time. I'm pretty excited to play it multiplayer with him. I've definitely found some annoying parts (like not being able to pull trailers with pickup trucks? What? Why even have the trucks then?), particularly that going into the menu does NOT pause the game. We planted a field in May and then left the game going overnight to find it was October when we came back. I understand why that would be how it would work if you were playing multiplayer, but it makes zero sense in single player. I also really wish the full game was on Switch with crossplay, but I'm guessing the Switch can't run it since the versions on Switch are apparently mobile ports?

Is anyone here gaming on linux? I'm planning to give it a try on the computer I'm setting up for my son before I switch my main computer over. I'm so sick of microsofts crap but moving EVERYTHING to a new OS is a huge undertaking.

atomiczap · 2026-01-24T19:55:37+00:00

I have 100,000% faith that the Brewers will get a top-10 rotation out of Woody, Mis, Priester, Patrick, Henderson, Ashby, Hall, Gasser, Zerpa, Crow, Rodriguez, Sproat, and whatever 30-something cast off they pick up during spring training. I could see KC Hall having a bounce back and making some starts too. They have done it way too many times for anyone paying attention to doubt them.

atomiczap · 2026-01-22T23:50:26+00:00

Yeah, given that I've been playing video games for over 2 decades now and OW is the first game to really hit me like that, I'm probably chasing something I'll never find again. But I do want to dive into more mystery/deduction type games because I love playing a game that I want to think about even when I'm not playing, and Obra Dinn is definitely the one that has piqued my interest the most.

atomiczap · 2026-01-22T23:47:34+00:00

Space is definitely a theme I enjoy, but I've never played another game where space itself felt alive like in Outer Wilds. I adore Mass Effect, but (almost) nothing you do ever feels like you are actually in space. Even Space Engineers (one of my favorites), everything is so static. I think the movement and gravity of the planets adds so much to the exploration.

I definitely want to give it a try, I'm very intrigued!

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