Packers Escape Jets 9-20-2026

 Oh boy I am glad I get to post a meme that doesn't involve the thousand yard stare this week.  The Green Bay Packers squeaked out a win against the NY Jets.  Not a pretty game by any means but a win is a win.  Go Pack Go!

 

 

Packers Something Something Vikings 9-13-2026

 The Green Bay Packers picked up the 2026 season right where they left off the 2025 season: with an improbable fourth quarter collapse.  There was a pivotal moment where the Packers could have gone up 25-17 after making a field goal, but a penalty on the Vikings caused them to reconsider and they tried to QB sneak on 4th and short.  Jordan Love came up short and the game spiraled from that point onward.  In a close game where the offense was not executing smoothly it was a dumb call to take points off the board.  There were some terrible penalties called by the refs through the game but unlike other Packers fans I can't solely blame the zebras here; especially when the Packers gave up 29 unanswered points.  On a positive note at least our field goal kicker made a 59 yard field goal. 

 

Crimson Desert Is The Worst Best Game I've Played In A While

Here we go again...

 Crimson Desert has no right to be installed in my Steam library.

 It is clunky, buggy, has terrible controls, a nonsensical story, and is full of baffling design decisions. It feels like a 10+ year old MMO shut down and, at the last second, the developers slapped together an offline single-player mode so players could still wander around the world one last time.

 And somehow I'm loving it.

 Also hating it.

 Mostly both at the same time.

A beautiful game world

 With the MMO apocalypse seemingly underway between games like New World Aeternum closing and Ashes of Creation forever existing in a perpetual state of "ain't happening", I have been itching for an open-world fantasy game to disappear into. My normal gaming group is still fully locked into ARC Raiders, so I didn't really want to dive headfirst into another MMO solo. Crimson Desert kept popping up all over gaming news and social media, and after watching some gameplay videos it looked like it might scratch that open-world RPG itch even if it wasn't multiplayer.

 So I bought it.

 And after several hours with the game I completely understand why the reception has been all over the place.

 People praising the visuals? Correct.

 People praising the open world? Also correct.

 People saying the story is nonsense? Extremely correct.

 People complaining the controls feel like they were designed by aliens trying to approximate human behavior? Also very correct.

 Crimson Desert is a fascinating mess.

I can't resist chopping down trees

 

 The game starts by immediately throwing you into a world that feels massive and alive, but also weirdly unfinished in places. Villages feel populated. NPCs wander around doing their own thing. There are tons of side activities like fishing, gathering, crafting, exploration, climbing, and random little interactions that make the world feel more like an MMO than a traditional single-player RPG.

 Honestly, the game reminds me a lot of No Man's Sky in that way. Not because the gameplay is similar, but because the appeal comes from simply existing in the world and seeing what is over the next hill. The community feels hungry for games like this right now. Huge open worlds where exploration matters again instead of everything being reduced to fast travel markers and checklist objectives.

 The thing Crimson Desert absolutely nails is giving you a world that feels worth wandering around in. There are villages to visit that aren't just combat hubs. Random caves. Weird little environmental puzzles. Mountain paths that clearly exist because someone on the development team wanted players to climb them.

 And climbing in this game is actually pretty good.

 Grappling, vaulting, and climbing all feel smooth enough that traversal becomes fun on its own. There is even this bizarre but amazing mechanic where holding Ctrl lets you precisely target jumps with your cursor. Instead of awkwardly lining up jumps manually, you can literally aim where you want to go and leap directly there.

 I genuinely love this system.

 Which is funny because almost every other control decision in the game feels completely insane.

Another amazing view

 

 The control problems start almost immediately. Early on you walk into a camp where every NPC interaction works normally: walk up and press the interact key. Simple enough. Except the main quest NPC has an invisible wall around him, so you can't actually walk up to him. Instead, you have to notice some tiny prompt in the corner telling you to press Ctrl plus another key to interact with him from a distance.

 Why?

 Why does this exist?

 This bizarre inconsistency continues through the entire game. Sometimes you interact normally. Sometimes you need Ctrl. Sometimes you need to equip a random tool first. Sometimes you need to hold Ctrl while holding the tool while also aiming at the correct object while standing in the exact correct position under a full moon while Mercury is in retrograde. You will literally spend time on YouTube looking up solutions only to discover the answer was “equip the broom and hold Ctrl.”!!!

 Combat controls are equally chaotic.

 Some attacks require left click. Others require holding both mouse buttons simultaneously. Blocking is on Ctrl instead of right mouse button like basically every game made in the last twenty years. Outside of combat, Ctrl does completely different things, so there have been multiple moments where I got ambushed while accidentally pulling out my lantern instead of blocking.

 And as far as I can tell, some of these controls can't even properly be remapped.

 Even sprinting is weird. Instead of holding Shift to sprint, you repeatedly tap the key to maintain speed both on foot and on horseback. Maybe some people enjoy finger cardio while traveling across the map, but I immediately installed a mod to fix that nonsense. (Note: this was patched and changed after I wrote this post up so now it is hold to sprint as it should have been all along).

 Which is another funny thing about Crimson Desert: this game made me a complete hypocrite.

 I complained endlessly about Marathon's UI design, yet somehow here I am tolerating a UI that is significantly worse because the game underneath it is weirdly compelling. Normally a game loses me within five minutes if the controls feel bad. Crimson Desert somehow survives that test through sheer force of ambition.

 Because underneath all the jank is a genuinely incredible open world.

An overview of a location from the map

 Progression is messy and unclear, but there is always something interesting nearby. The game doesn't focus exclusively on combat encounters the way many modern open-world games do. Sometimes you are just wandering through a village. Fishing. Gathering materials. Exploring ruins. Climbing mountains because they exist.

 Then the game interrupts your fun with another cutscene.

 And that might honestly be my biggest complaint of all.

 This fantastic open-world sandbox keeps getting interrupted by a story I could not possibly care less about.

 The story isn't just weak; it actively gets in the way of the game's best qualities. Early on I got stuck outside a castle because guards wouldn't let me enter without the proper clothes. The game technically gives you the required outfit through the main questline, but it was so poorly communicated that I ended up Googling the solution because I thought I had missed something.

 That sort of thing happens constantly.

 The game feels like it assumes you somehow already know how its systems work.

 And yet despite all of this, somewhere around the Mathias fight, the game suddenly clicked for me.

 I stopped trying to make Crimson Desert behave like a polished AAA RPG and started accepting it for the bizarre, over-complicated, awkward thing it actually is. Once I embraced the chaos, I started appreciating the game far more.

 Because there really is something special here.

 Not polished.

 Not elegant.

 Definitely not user friendly.

 But special.

 Crimson Desert feels like a giant ambitious RPG from an earlier era of gaming before every game was focus tested into safe mediocrity. It is overloaded with systems, mechanics, weird ideas, experimental controls, and questionable design decisions. Some of those ideas absolutely do not work.

 But some of them really, really do.

 And honestly, I think players are starving for games that swing this hard again even if they miss sometimes.

 Crimson Desert is frustrating.

 It is clunky.

 It wastes your time.

 It desperately needs quality-of-life improvements.

 The UI is a disaster.

 The controls are absurd.

 The story constantly gets in the way.

 And I cannot stop playing it.

 This is easily the worst best game I've played in a long while.

 

The starting town that you spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time in

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.   

Guild Wars 3 Has Me Optimistic... and Slightly Worried

 Just over 16 years ago, in April 2010, we got the chance to read through the Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto—a document I wrote about on this blog at the time. Now, in the great year of 2026, we get to do the same thing for Guild Wars 3's design philosophy. I took some time to read through ArenaNet's post and came away with a few thoughts.

ArenaNet breaks its philosophy for Guild Wars 3 into four key pillars:

• No subscription fees
• No pay-to-win
• Respecting your time and investment
• Innovating and evolving the MMORPG genre

 The "no subscription fees" pillar also means no battle passes or season passes, making Guild Wars 3's monetization model look very similar to Guild Wars 2's. The game will feature expansions and a cash shop focused on convenience items and cosmetics. One thing that wasn't addressed is whether a premium currency exchange system will exist, allowing players to trade in-game gold for premium currency. Personally, I never had major issues with Guild Wars 2's monetization, so I don't expect Guild Wars 3's approach to be a problem either.

 "No pay-to-win" is always a tricky topic because everyone's definition of "win" is different. ArenaNet would likely argue that Guild Wars 2 isn't pay-to-win, and from a pure power perspective that's probably true. You can't swipe a credit card and obtain gear that exceeds what other players can earn through gameplay.

 That said, Guild Wars 2 does allow players to purchase gold indirectly, and gold can be converted into powerful items and progression shortcuts. While that may not create a direct power advantage, it certainly saves the buyer time and effort. There are also numerous convenience items in the Guild Wars 2 store that push the boundaries a bit. Salvage-o-Matics and enhanced gathering tools are good examples. They aren't mandatory, but they become the obvious choice compared to their standard in-game counterparts. It's a fine line, and one ArenaNet will need to continue tiptoeing around carefully.

 The "respecting your time and investment" pillar boils down to ArenaNet's desire to ensure Guild Wars 3 doesn't feel like a second job. Players should be able to jump in and have fun without needing hours of preparation before meaningful gameplay begins.

 This aligns closely with how Guild Wars 2 positioned itself. In practice, though, any MMORPG requires some investment to stay engaged. If you've been away from a game for months, there's always a period of re-acclimation. And perhaps this is a controversial opinion, but I think there is still a segment of the MMORPG community looking for games that demand a little more time and commitment. Based on ArenaNet's history and the Guild Wars franchise as a whole, however, Guild Wars probably isn't the place to look for that experience.

 The final pillar, "innovating and evolving the MMORPG genre," is where I think we'll need more details from the Guild Wars 3 team before we can draw many conclusions. Based on what's been shared so far, it sounds like ArenaNet is aiming to land somewhere between Guild Wars 1's hub-and-spoke multiplayer design and Guild Wars 2's persistent open world filled with hundreds—or even thousands—of players.

 And that's where I start to get a little concerned.

 If we compare Guild Wars 3's design philosophy to Guild Wars 2's original manifesto, there's a noticeable difference in emphasis.

Guild Wars 2: (link)

The first thing you should know about Guild Wars 2 is that, this time around, there's no question that it's an MMORPG. It's an enormous, persistent, living, social world, filled with a wide variety of combat and non-combat activities.

Guild Wars 3: (link)

Guild Wars 3 lands near the middle of the MMO spectrum, which supports the goals we have for our movement and combat systems. While it fits the definition of an MMORPG significantly more than Guild Wars Reforged does, it doesn't try to replicate the large-scale gameplay pillars that so uniquely define Guild Wars 2.

 Guild Wars 2's statement practically screamed "massively multiplayer," which was a welcome shift from the more limited scale of Guild Wars 1. Guild Wars 3's statement, on the other hand, reads like a deliberate effort to reduce player density and move away from large-scale shared-world experiences.

 If you're someone like me who believes a persistent open world is one of the defining characteristics of an MMORPG, I think it's fair to be concerned.

 Many of us imagined, many years ago, that advances in technology would lead to larger worlds with more players sharing them. Instead, after all these years, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Worlds are becoming smaller, player counts are shrinking, and more games are settling somewhere between traditional multiplayer titles and true MMORPGs.

 Of course, it's still early. ArenaNet has only begun sharing details, and I'll be watching closely before making any sweeping declarations about where Guild Wars 3 ultimately lands on the MMO spectrum.

 Overall, I think we're off to a good start with the Guild Wars 3 team. Beta testing is expected in 2027, and a 2028 launch isn't all that far away in MMO development terms.

 In a year where we've ended development New World and Destiny 2 and seen long-in-development Kickstarter MMOs stumble or fail outright, it's refreshing to have genuine optimism about a new MMORPG from a developer with a proven track record.

 I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on Guild Wars 3. Hopefully, ArenaNet can convince me that "middle of the MMO spectrum" still leaves room for a truly massive online world.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.   

Guild Wars 3!?

 I know I said I wasn't going to get excited for the Arena Net announcement tomorrow being about Guild Wars 3, but after the latest update on Bluesky the community has spotted a 3 hiding in the artwork.  Maybe a stretch and a backwards 3, but I have to admit I am setting myself up for disappointment!

 What are your thoughts?

 

A well hidden 3?  Guild Wars 3!?

 

  

Early Access Season for John, Mark, and Raph

 'Tis the season for Early Access apparently. After years of development, three games I've been following have announced and/or launched into Early Access. Unlike Christmas, though, this is not a time to celebrate.

John Smedley

 Reaper Actual, a John Smedley special (yes, that John Smedley), launched itself into Early Access and landed with a resounding THUD. Steam Charts topped out at 70 (yes, 70) peak concurrent players before falling to just single-digit players at any time beyond that peak. Reviews are "Very Negative," and the general consensus is, "There isn't even a game to play." What a fall from the heights of Smedley's pioneer status in the MMORPG genre.

 

Mark Jacobs

 Camelot Unchained, a Mark Jacobs special (yes, that Mark Jacobs), also stumbled its way into Early Access on Steam and dropped its NDA so we can finally talk about it. Not to be outdone by Reaper Actual, Camelot Unchained peaked at over 500 concurrent players and has maintained 100+ concurrent players. Reviews, like player count, edged out Reaper Actual at "Mostly Negative," with the common thread being, "The game barely works, if you can even call it a game." I have not played it yet, but I did participate in the beta previously (though that time is under NDA). I will need to look into whether my Kickstarter backing gets me access to the Steam version or not. Another sad fall for one of the pioneers of MMORPGs.

 

Raph Koster

 

 Stars Reach, a Raph Koster special (yes, that Raph Koster), also announced that it is moving into Early Access this summer. The Stars Reach playtest, which I've spent some time with, has been around for a while, and the game has changed quite a bit. Yet the Steam Charts for Stars Reach Playtest tell the sad story of single-digit peak player counts, with a prior peak of 117. Playtest access is limited, so we'll have to see how the community reacts when the game hits Early Access. I am sure Raph, who is a bedrock cornerstone of MMORPG history in my view, would like to see more players.

 Of the three, Stars Reach is the most promising. There is an actual game with actual content. Reaper Actual is just a shell at this point. Camelot Unchained is mostly a tech demo built on a decades-old game engine. Stars Reach has lots of cool ideas, from building to terraforming to combat and all of the other things you'd expect from a Raph Koster online world.

 However, as I stated up front, this is not a Christmas morning feeling, finally getting these long-overdue games from the pioneers of the MMORPG genre. I'll be amazed if Reaper Actual is around this time next year; I just can't see it surviving this flop. Camelot Unchained has already figured out how to exist for 13+ years, so it may have some more time left, but I imagine most folks are like me: "Really... this is what we waited 13 years for?" Stars Reach moving into Early Access makes me worry that the funding is drying up. They already ran a Kickstarter well into development, and now moving into Early Access to secure additional funding does not feel great.

 The bad-news MMO bears of 2026 march on.

ArenaNet June 5th Announcement Speculation

 

 Arena Net is teasing a big announcement on June 5th as part of Summer Games Fest.  The teaser was posted to Bluesky here and then the Summer Games Fest appearance was confirmed via Discord.  This has been followed up by prominent community members receiving various teaser images. The immediate speculation is that they will announce Guild Wars 3.

 While Guild Wars 3 is a possibility I want to temper my expectations as I've been burned two Summer Games Fests in a row.  Two years ago it was the let down of the New World Aeternum announcement and then last year it was the assumption that ARC Raiders would shadow drop after SGF.  I am NOT letting myself get swindled again this year so I am NOT expecting a Guild Wars 3 announcement.  If it wasn't part of Summer Games Fest I may have a different opinion but the lesson we've learned is SGF pushes developers to hype their announcements even if they are big fat nothing burgers. 

 So what else could it be?

 The leading backup would be another Guild Wars 2 expansion or large change to Guild Wars 2 such as a business model change.  This sort of hype only to announce an expansion would be on par for my experience with Summer Games Fest the last two years.  It is worth noting the teaser was posted to the Guild Wars 2 Bluesky account and not a more generic Arena Net account.

 It could also be some sort of Guild Wars 1 update.  They recently resurrected Guild Wars 1 with the Guild Wars Reforged launch and its been moderately successful so a big announcement for that game may fit, but still makes you wonder why they would use the Guild Wars 2 account.  Maybe a cross over between Reforged and 2?

 I saw some speculation in some comments about a company announcement and the possibility of Arena Net moving back under its own ownership.  That would be sort of interesting but also a worrying sign knowing the state of the MMO market.  It doesn't match up to having a spot in Summer Games Fest as that sort of corporate announcement would not match that audience. 

 Whatever it turns out to be my honest hope is it is related to MMORPGs.  We need some good MMO news as its been a dumpster fire of a year for MMOs.  But alas after getting burned two years in a row with Summer Games Fest I will wait for the announcements and news to come out after the fact.  There is no way I am tuning in to watch.

Catching up on New World

 If you are like me and have been unable to bring yourself to care about New World Aeternum's state or news as it marches towards its January 2027 shutdown then I have the video for you to watch.  BagginsTV took time to consolidate all of the updates, news, and rumors from the past few months into the below video.  In addition he talks about some possible games that New World addicts may have some interest in.

 

What I don't like about the current ARC Raiders expedition situation

 

 ARC Raiders recently announced a change to how you earn the +5 skill points for expedition departure. Instead of the previous model—where your stash value (coins + items) needed to exceed 5 million—it’s now tied to completing a challenge.

 Putting aside the frustration of this being announced late in the current expedition, effectively invalidating weeks of progress for players chasing that 5 million stash value, I have a more immediate issue: what am I supposed to do with my time between now and April 28th, when the challenge window actually opens?

 Before this change, I was enjoying the loop of heading topside and extracting with whatever value I could pull from a run. Sometimes that meant grabbing a few quick items for coin; other times it meant filling my inventory from a key room. Either way, everything had value. It all converted to coins—whether sold directly or held in my stash—and coins gave me a clear, consistent way to measure progress during an expedition window.

 Now that coins no longer factor into expedition departure, I’m sitting on millions of coins and stash value with very little incentive to keep building. Completing quests or challenges right now doesn’t make much sense when I know I’m about to voluntarily wipe my character in the next expedition. Previously, those rewards still contributed to stash value. Now, it’s just stuff that disappears.

 That’s the core problem: everything I do right now is effectively meaningless in the context of the upcoming reset. Yes, the wipe is optional, and I could choose not to reset and continue building up my stockpile to take down ARC and other players. But the resets are part of what makes the game feel fresh. Starting over, rebuilding, and chasing progression again—that’s a big part of the appeal.

 We do at least know what the upcoming challenge will be: dealing damage within a two-week window. The requirement is 100k damage to earn the full +5 skill points. That might sound like a lot, but in practice it’s something most active players will likely complete without much trouble. Personally, I already have a stockpile of weapons, ammo, and grenades, and my inventory is basically capped with everything I’d want. There’s nothing I really need to prepare.

 I don’t dislike the idea of a challenge-based system. My main issue is the timing and structure. Players spent weeks working toward one goal, only to have it swapped out at the finish line. On top of that, the new system isn’t something I can progress at my own pace—it’s time-gated. That’s a big shift from the previous model. I also don’t love moving away from a universal standard like coins and stash value, where virtually everything you did in a raid contributed toward your goal.

 In reality, I’m still playing because I enjoy the game—but my behavior has already changed. I’m much more likely to skip picking up loot or save my keys for specific events like night raids. Why bother chasing higher-value loot anymore? For basic supplies like ammo and shield rechargers, I’m just buying them from traders instead of crafting—what else am I going to do with 3+ million coins?

 I’ve also stopped doing as many “naked runs,” which used to be one of my favorite activities. There was something satisfying about going in with nothing, building up a full inventory, and extracting successfully. But that loop only felt rewarding because everything ultimately converted into coins and stash value. Now, those runs feel mostly pointless unless I’m targeting something specific, like a blueprint.

 The community reaction has been mixed—if not outright negative—since the announcement. Most of the feedback mirrors my own: frustration with the goal being changed late and the addition of a time-limited requirement. Initially, the challenge window was going to be just five days, which has since been extended to two weeks. There will also be catch-up skill points available after departure, allowing players to earn coins and purchase missed skill points, which at least gives coins some relevance again.

 Ultimately, what I want from Embark is consistency. Set the expedition model, define the requirements at the start, and stick to them for the duration. If changes need to happen, roll them into the next expedition—not the current one. Ideally, every play session should feel like it’s contributing toward that goal, rather than falling into the trap of time-limited events that sideline player effort.

 At least they finally updated the stash screen and expedition screen to show your total stash value just in time for it not to matter :) 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.   

Post-Expedition Thoughts ARC Raiders

Signed up and ready to depart.

 ARC Raiders’ second expedition window closed this past weekend, and with it I chose to have my first character depart. Goodbye, buddy! With that departure comes a full restart. No levels, no skills, no workbenches—nothing except my best friend Scrappy and me starting fresh from the underground town of Speranza.

 Expeditions are ARC Raiders’ optional form of character wipes that open every few months. The idea of optional wipes was a contentious point before the game launched, but judging by the game’s success, the concept hasn’t scared anyone away. Other games in the extraction shooter genre tend to rely on forced wipes where everyone restarts at the same time.

 The fact that the wipe is optional meant I didn’t have to worry about how quickly I was progressing. I could take my time, and when the first expedition window opened, I felt no guilt about not grinding more. I simply declined the first expedition departure and kept playing. By the time the second expedition opened, I had hit max level, built up a massive stash, and exhausted most of the progression systems, so I was ready for a change.

A slightly new look for a new "me"; still the same ole' heartlessgamer

 

 Looking back now that I’ve reset my character, I’m glad I made the decision. Starting over has been a breath of fresh air this week. Items, loot, and tasks that had become mundane suddenly feel meaningful again on a fresh character. Every time I hit the extract this week, the excitement was back because I knew I was returning to Speranza with a bag full of materials to upgrade workbenches, complete quests, and rebuild my stash.

 I was worried I’d be irritated by not having access to my favorite weapons and augments since I didn’t have the blueprints anymore, but I’ve found myself making do with what’s available. Instead of a Venator IV, I’ve been relying on Il Toro shotguns, Rattler IIIs, and a number of weapons and upgrade levels I hadn’t spent much time with before.

 It also helps that the core gameplay loop of ARC Raiders is so good. I love fighting the various ARC robots, and the recent addition of the Comet and Firefly has really spiced up encounters. Add in the fact that my buddies and I no longer have access to our old arsenal, and we’re having to find new ways to take down larger ARC enemies so we can grab upgrade materials. We spent multiple hours last night using Renegade rifles to take potshots at Bastions and Bombardiers. Before the wipe, we had so many Wolfpack grenades and Deadline explosives that hunting big ARC enemies had become almost trivial.

 The PvP is also great. I’ll admit I lose more fights than I win, but I still keep coming back for more. I love the tension in those moments where you know the enemy is there, and they know you know they’re there, and it’s just a question of who makes the first move. Even better is the aggression-based matchmaking system: the less you shoot other players, the friendlier your matches tend to be. But there’s always that chance—always that chance—that someone betrays the friendly “Don’t Shoot” moment by putting a shotgun in the back of your head. And when I inevitably die and lose all my gear, it doesn’t sting nearly as much as I expected compared to similar modes in other games.

The RNG blessed me with a Tempest blueprint!  A blueprint that I never found with my first character!

 ARC Raiders is a special game with an addictive quality and social gaming structure that keeps pulling me back in. Choosing to reset with the expedition—knowing it was entirely my decision—has breathed new life into the experience. I can definitely see myself continuing to play this game for a while.

 Eventually the MMORPG itch will become impossible to ignore again. But for now, I’m a happy extraction shooter fan—as long as it’s ARC Raiders.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.