Vegard Skjefstad

On the Road Again With Euro Truck Simulator 2

Two years after my Euro Truck Simulator 2 review, it’s time to revisit the game to see how it holds up. Spoiler alert: It only got better.

7 years after its release, Czech developer SCS Software‘s trucking simulator is as popular as it ever was. As of right now – just past 6 O’clock on a Sunday morning CET – more than seven thousand people are playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2) on Steam. It’s among the highly rated games on the platform, with a 96% approval rating on its 150 000 reviews.

I wrote a very favorable review of the game two years ago, and have continued to play it since. ETS2 is now my third most played game on Steam, with over 70 hours played.

But what makes a seemingly exceedingly boring thing as hauling virtual cargo across Europe so popular? The way I see it, there are two main reasons for SCS’s success with ETS2.

October 12, 2019 / 0 Comments

Delete Your Blizzard Account Today

As politics and gaming merge, gamers have to think hard about where they spend their money.

Back in the early days of the gaming industry, the games were developed by passionate developers who focused on the product. They wanted to make the best game possible, which often resulted in long working hours, physical and emotional exhaustion, and financial catastrophes.

Today, that have changed. Those small game developers have turned into multi-billion companies with thousands of employees. The primary driver is no longer make the greatest game ever, but rather how to squeeze as much money as possible out of their customers as possible.

Blizzard Entertainment is a great example of such a company. Founded in early 1991, the company had their breakout release with the genre-defining real time strategy game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. The game was the first game in Blizzard’s popular Warcraft series. The company went on to create several other hugely successful gaming franchises as well, like Diablo and StarCraft.

The Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft games brought in a lot of money, but the company’s first real money press was the World of Warcraft MMORPG. Launched in 2004, WoW became the most popular MMORPG to date, and by 2017, the game had grossed over $9.23 billion in revenue.

Blizzard used to be a down-to-Earth company that focused on their games, and their customers. But now the company find itself at a crossroad where corporate greed and human ethics meet.

October 6, 2019 / 0 Comments

How to Install KeePassXC on Windows 10

Follow this guide to quickly download and install KeePassXC on Windows 10.

In a post published last month, I concluded that KeePassXC is the best open source password manager. The time has now come to tell you how you can quickly get KeePassXC up and running on your Windows computer.

First, a word of caution. KeePassXC is a local password manager without any built in cloud synchronization mechanism. This means that all the passwords you manage in KeePassXC will only be available on the computer where the password manager is running. Also, as a natural consequence of this, your password database will not be backed up automatically. But fear not. We’ll cover cloud backups and synchronization across all your devices in a later post.

Now let’s get password managin’!

October 1, 2019 / 0 Comments

October One-Liners

It’s the first of the month, which means there’s time to add some more one-liners to the ever-growing collection. The majority of the one-liners this month is lifted form Mr. One-Liner.

“To some its a six-pack, to me its a support group.” — Leo Durocher
Hard work is its own reward, but wouldn’t you rather have the money?
“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.” — George Bernhard Shaw
If I can be of any help, you’re in worse shape than I thought.
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
I wouldn’t be caught dead with a necrophiliac.
“When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.” — Walter Lipman
If you do something you’ll regret in the morning, sleep till noon.
I always give waiters a tip, but they never seem to appreciate my advice.
Speaking your mind isn’t the same thing as using it.
“A movie critic is like a legless man who teaches running.” — Channing Pollock
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” — Woody Allen
“By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task overwhelm me.” — Ashleigh Brilliant
It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, and fewer still to ignore someone completely.
My ex-wife’s other car is a broom.
If you think there is good in everybody, then you obviously haven’t met everybody.
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” — Robert Byrne
“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” — Terri Garey
People will follow your footsteps more readily than they will follow you advice.
How do you expect me to remember your birthday when you never look any older?

September 30, 2019 / 0 Comments

The Second Tale of a Doomed Colony

It’s not over until everybody’s dead. Again. (Or: Let’s play RimWorld.)

Well over three years ago, I posted The Tale of a Doomed Colony. It’s a story set in your favorite base-building-survival-strategy-sandbox-game, RimWorld. The time has come to read through the diary of another colony administrator to discover a different tale from a RimWorld colony¹.

These are our three unfortunate colonists:

Hansol “Alice” Lee is a 16 year old mute without social skills. She likes to stay up late, and has a way with animals.

Lidia Delacruz is a 52 years old former test subject turned body guard. Lidia’s social skills are non-existent, and she has creepy breathing. She excels in both shooting and melee, however, both skills that I’m sure will come in very handy. Lidia’s creepy breathing will probably make it hard for her to sneak up on anyone, though.

The third, and final colonist is Vladislav Delacruz. He is 64 years old, and suffers from severe Alzheimer’s. He also has a psychite addiction, which I’m sure will not become an issue… Vlad is quite the craftsman, so let’s hope we can keep both his Alzheimer’s and drug addiction at bay. Vlad is Lidia’s brother.

www.vegard.net

On the Road Again With Euro Truck Simulator 2

Delete Your Blizzard Account Today

How to Install KeePassXC on Windows 10

October One-Liners

The Second Tale of a Doomed Colony

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