Shokz Open Run is the sequel to Shokz OpenMove.

My open move lasted about two years. It succumbed to having a flat band that broke. The Open Run has what appears to be a stronger oval band.

The main difference is that this one fits differently over the ears  with the speaker pad lower on the head. The result of this is that a cycle helmet can be put on over the device, where with the Open Mind it had to go over the helmet.

One reason for originally getting the Open Move was that is had a standard USB-3. I could charge it at home and work. However this proved to be unnecessary as the device could easily last a day of heavy use.

So while being more expensive, it is now my main way of listening to podcasts.

Time has been broken, distorted and has no meaning.

Is it 10pm, 11pm or 2am ?

This is what happens when you play Factorio. One of the best designed games in history (not that times matters – it could be from the future)

Because of this bloody game I stopped reading and posting on a daily basis. That’s been happening since Jan 2016. Almost nine years, 3,288 posts.

Things have to change. Could I stop playing Factorio ?

Of course not !!!

So posts will no longer be daily. And one again, time will be distorted. A post with a December date could have been posted in January. And they could be not in any type of order.

After all, time is just a Wibbly, Wobbly, Timey, Wimey mess. Take it from an expert:

Factorio is a construction and management simulation game developed and published by Czech studio Wube Software.

The game was announced via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and released on 14 August 2020 following a four-year-long early access phase to positive reviews.

The game follows an engineer who crash-lands on an alien planet and must harvest resources and create automated industry to build a rocket; however, as it is a sandbox game, players can continue the game after achieving the end goal.

Did you miss the colonial era ?

A time when strangers just turn up in an undiscovered country and take over ?

Then they strip mine the resources and de-forest the place.

Murder the inhabitants because they don’t look like them. And once the place is a polluted mess, just bugger off, never to be seen again ?

You do ?

Well, welcome to Factorio 

Cities: Skylines is a 2015 city-building game developed by Colossal Order. The game is a single-player open-ended city-building simulation.

This should be better that Sim City. It has a modern interface and better graphics. The interface is the first problem, things swim around like that used in King’s Bounty 2. You can move up/down in and out and side ways. But it’s always too fast. It would be nice to be able to fix the perspective so you weren’t forever dealing  with basic movement.

Then there is the operation. It took me ages to get my head around how the basic services worked.

Was the water supply a well ?.

Why was the only way to treat sewerage to just dump it in the river or sea ?

Eventually I worked out that the water supply and sewer pipes were together in the same trench. Something that should not happen in reality. I did eventually get some buildings going but there was little joy or entertainment , it felt like work.

Overall, a frustrating experience

SimCity 4 is a city-building simulation computer game developed by Maxis. The game was released in January 2003.

I got this to try and as it was cheap. It really looks dated, like it was made in the 1990s. The interface stretches to fit a widescreen monitor.

But overall, a pain to use. Not recommended.

Dorfromantik is a 2022 strategy and puzzle video game developed and published by Toukana Interactive.

The player places a series of hexagonal tiles containing elements of a pastoral environment to create a landscape.

This is the most addictive of the recent games reviewed. It has a simplicity of design that hides the complexity of the puzzles and scoring.

Townscaper is a city builder game by Oskar Stålberg, released in August 2021.

Townscaper has no inherent objective or story and has been described by developer Stålberg as “more of a toy” than a game

Users construct an island town by placing and removing colored blocks on an ocean. Various “rules” dictate these blocks’ appearances, with some appearing as spires and others as balconies. This method of rule-based decoration allows arches, gardens, and stairways to be created without specific user instruction.

While a fun and easy game to play, there isn’t the variety of environments that Tiny Glade has, It is well designed and quick to get into, but ultimately not a lot of gameplay.

What is fascinating is the AI behind the game, as explained here: