In addition to sore, tired muscles from a weekend of major DIY work (see photo below), I also woke up to some really awesome news about the upcoming (sometime in 2020) Microsoft Flight Simulator. More about this in just a bit.
Major “Honey Do” list work
One of the reasons why I haven’t been very active posting articles on my blog site has been primarily due to the fact that most weekends since I’ve returned from my European Vacation, I’ve been either up a ladder or crawling around on my hands and knees. Long story short, we returned from vacation in early August to find an upstairs leak that had ruined our kitchen ceiling. While much of the work to repair the kitchen ceiling was covered by insurance (and performed by contractors), we decided to also repaint and redecorate much of the rest of the house in the process. After all, new paint in the kitchen will just make the 12+ year old paint in the rest of the house look dingy.
The above picture is me working on painting the edges where the wall meets the ceiling.
The second photo is me preparing to install a new light fixture in the entry hall way.
We still have a few more weekends of work before it’s all done. But once it’s done, the entire interior of the house will have a fresh, new coat of paint. But enough about this. I’m getting tired just thinking about it.
Microsoft Flight Simulator News
You may recall, I discussed the new Microsoft Flight Simulator which we all first heard about back in June. You can find these two articles here and here. In both articles, I expressed my guarded reservations but tried to be as optimistic as possible on this news which hit the flight simulation community by complete surprise. After all, many of us are still bitter about Microsoft turning their back to the community not once, but twice and we all questioned why they would want to re-enter the flight simulation space.
Watch This Video
If you have 32 minutes of spare time, I would like to direct you to a video by FroogleSim. Pete discusses his recent trip out to Microsoft to see and experience the brand new Microsoft Flight Simulator which has been in development for the past 5 years. Unlike some of Pete’s other videos on this subject, he actually did a very good job and he admits he was initially wrong about the opinions he first expressed back in June. Again, if flight simulation interests you…then the video below is a must-see.
My Thoughts
OMG! Yes, literally…Oh My God! Bottom line, we still just have to wait and see. But I’ve seen enough and heard enough to realize that 2020 is going to be an amazing year in flight simulation. We don’t have all the answers to the million and one questions yet to be asked. Initially this new sim from Microsoft may not be able to tick all the boxes (multiplayer, third-party add-ons etc.), but I believe Microsoft Flight Simulator will once again regain its place at the top and re-write history. I personally don’t see it immediately replacing P3D/X-Plane, but once we can begin to have access to a wide range of study level aircraft, online multiplayer (VATSIM) then I believe both P3D and X-Plane will begin to see a decline.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I hopefully will return soon to posting more content about flight simulation and other simulation based game topics here. Until then….
Before I get to the meat of this blog post, please take a few minutes to visit and SUBSCRIBE to my good friend Duckzorly Gaming’s YouTube channel. He produces excellent content on a variety of games including Farming Simulator 19, Two Point Hospital, Cities Skylines & Satisfactory. As I said, his content is some of the best on YouTube and if you’re not a subscriber, please do me a really big favor and click the Subscribe button. I assure you…you won’t be disappointed.
In addition, if you are anxiously awaiting the release of the upcoming Farming Simulator Platinum DLC (Claas DLC) then you’ll want to watch Duckzorly’s recent video release where he covers the history of the Claas company and provides a detailed preview of the upcoming DLC. DZ did an outstanding job researching and presenting the history of the Claas company and their evolution into one of todays leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery.
Farming Simulator 19 – State of the Game
I could literally fill pages and pages and even more pages on this blog site about my own views regarding the current state of Farming Simulator 19. However, much of how I feel is exactly how many of you already feel. As a matter of fact, Duckzorly released a video titled FS19 – State of the Game which if you haven’t watched it, YOU NEED TO! His thoughts, feeling and desires for future versions is 100% spot on.
Yes…I know! It’s almost one hour long. If you don’t have a full hour of time to watch in one sitting, then please pick it back up at another time. Duckzorly covers all the “Hot Button” topics which many of us have been discussing at great length in forums, discord etc. for many months. Please watch his video below and I’ll provide my final thoughts below.
My Final Thoughts
I’ve been playing the popular Farming Simulator since FS15. I absolutely fell in love with this game with the FS15 version. This love affair continued into FS17 as the game itself was made better with the addition of the Seasons Mod. During the late summer and fall of 2018, our excitement for what we believed would be FS19 was replaced with sadness, bitterness and dissatisfaction in a product and a developer who we’ve historically held in high regard.
As I stated earlier, I could fill pages and pages with hundreds and thousands of words regarding my own bitter experiences with FS19. While it’s better now than it was on release. My personal opinion is Giants simply don’t care. They seem to have their priorities mixed up and in less than one years time, we most likely will start to see information regarding the release of Farming Simulator 21. How will Giants tease us with FS21? Most likely with just a bunch of CGI illusions and snake oil but hopefully I’m wrong.
I’ll return shortly with more thoughts on Farming Simulator 19 and more, very soon.
Well…let’s see. The last time some of you heard from me was just before my wife and I embarked on our three week European vacation. This was back in mid-July. That seems like it was ages ago…and I suppose it was.
The trip was mostly uneventful. I say mostly…only because both my wife and I got sick during the trip and we had to change our plans as a result. We spent the first several days recuperating and then the heatwave hit. Needless to say it was HOT! We were in England on the hottest day of record and it was miserable.
On our flight home, we both were just ready to put it all behind us. After all, 2019 hasn’t been the best our best year. Shortly after the new year, my Mother-in-law passed away and then in April my own mom died. This vacation was supposed to be a time for my wife and I to relax and it was anything but. But as I said, we were on our way home and as the old saying goes…”There’s no place like home”.
After arriving home we found we had a leak in the upstairs master bathroom that had ruined the ceiling in the kitchen. For the next several weeks our house resembled something out of the movie Outbreak. I half expected Dustin Hoffman to come walking out. We had a giant containment room setup in the kitchen with loud fans and air scrubbers running for 5 days and then the entire downstairs ceiling had to be repainted.
To cap it all off, our upstairs AC decided to stop working and this resulted in about a week of learning to sleep in warm temperatures which just reminded us of the England trip.
Fortunately, things are slowly starting to come together. We managed to make it through the long Labor Day holiday weekend without any major issue and we’re both looking forward to fall.
I’m sorry I’ve been mostly absent from discord and social media. Needless to say…I’ve just not really been in the mood. I will try to change this in time.
