{"id":9033,"date":"2025-02-26T01:00:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/blog\/playing-cowpokes-and-aliens\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T15:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T22:44:28","slug":"playing-cowpokes-and-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/blog\/playing-cowpokes-and-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing cowpokes and aliens\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Eaton Fire was a very near miss on our place and it was good to take a break while we dealt with insurance, cleanup, etc. It could have been a lot worse for us but being on the frontlines of a natural disaster is a heck of a thing for the nerves.<\/p>\n

I walk outside and the neighborhood still smells like smoke. I look down the street and I see the flame-gutted skeleton of a less lucky neighbor\u2019s once cozy home. I\u2019d show pictures but\u2026 I kind of don\u2019t want to. Let\u2019s talk about something more pleasant.<\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s what you\u2019ve got to do at these times, is eke out enjoyment where you can. In my case that meant once I got the computers back out of my car and hooked up, I had some escapism lined up in the form of video games from the Steam Winter Sale or before. I actually got a few finished, some of which like Disco Elysium<\/em> have an amount of replay value but consarn it I just don\u2019t have the time and energy to go through them twice, unless there was some really tantalizing reason to do so.<\/p>\n

See, Clint Wolf has two main loves in his video gaming. Tactical turn-based gameplay and character customization. I can spend hours tweaking a character to my liking, a subject of ongoing mockery from my wife and peers. I don\u2019t care. Sling your bullets of derision, ye plebes, I will have this eye shape to my specifications if the option be there!<\/p>\n

Problem is I had played out everything I owned that had such options. And then \u2014 I don\u2019t even remember how \u2014 I stumbled on a 90% off sale for the X-Com 2<\/em> expansion pack War of the Chosen<\/em>. X-Com 2 was something I owned from way back when it released circa 2016 and hey, tactical turn-based gameplay, playing it through again for $4.99? With new twists? Maybe it wouldn\u2019t hold up to my memories but for five bucks I couldn\u2019t afford not to try, right?<\/p>\n

So first off, yeah, pretty great expansion that makes the game play differently enough that even in my hazy recollections I wasn\u2019t feeling repetitive\u2026 though the near decade-long gap probably didn\u2019t hurt. Felt like greeting an old friend I hadn\u2019t seen in a long time\u2026 though now with mods! Yep, I didn\u2019t know it but the modding community for X-Com 2 was robust over the years and even continues to be into 2025. Quality of life fixes, custom voiceovers, new hair and uniform options\u2026<\/p>\n

Hol\u2019 up did you just say mah paper doll soldiers done got themselves more mix and match options for dress up? Shit, son, I came for the tactical alien fighting but now you\u2019re gonna scratch my character creating itch as well? I\u2019ve gone back and found an old blog post where I sang the praises of the customization and even showed off a version of Suzie I made: https:\/\/www.zombieranchcomic.com\/2018\/07\/11\/subliminal-rememberings\/<\/a><\/p>\n

But as far as verisimilitude would go, I had this in 2018 with no mods and no expansion:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And then with all my new modded bells and whistles in 2025, with the same engine, I was able to do this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still not 100% but that\u2019s part of the fun challenge working with pre-rendered parts. You may also notice the addition of a \u201cPhotobooth\u201d function into the game which lets you take post-mission photos and promotion photos and generates various propanda layouts. They can even end up randomly displayed as posters on walls in your base or even on a mission.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, after I wrestled in a couple other mods to unlock any restrictions on my options, before I knew it I had amassed a whole crew of Zombie Ranch<\/em> characters fighting to take back Earth. And that\u2019s been about everything I wanted. So thanks for the distraction, X-Com 2, I\u2019d much rather look at these pictures than the ones outside.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Eaton Fire was a very near miss on our place and it was good to take a break while we dealt with insurance, cleanup, etc. It could have been a lot worse for us but being on the frontlines of a natural disaster is a heck of a thing for the nerves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"1","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/files\/2025\/02\/xcomsuzie-c35ZrT.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ERFy-2lH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9033"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9046,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9033\/revisions\/9046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.labreject.com\/clint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}