I love open exploration. This fact is actually relatively newfound information for me. I have always enjoyed RPGs and the “exploration” they offer - by that, I always meant whatever new world tidbit or experience I had as I progressed through a linear storyline. But as open world exploration started to permeate several different game genres, I found myself finally at a place where open-world sandbox and RPG intersected: Skyrim. As far as my immediate recollection goes,...
We hope everyone had a fun and festive Thanksgiving, and now that November is winding down it's time to focus on our Christmas desktops! Christmas is always a fun time for skinning as we have such a wide variety of themes to choose from here on WinCustomize. Some of my favorites for the season is animated wallpapers for DeskScapes. It's always relaxing to have a nice scene of animated Christmas trees on the desktop, and we have plenty of holiday scenes to choose from. Here are a few of our fa...
** This has not been released yet ** As hardware gets better, we are able to update some of the things in the game, including AI and map density. While we were at it, we made a number of long requested balance updates as well. What players will probably notice the most, however is how much better the AI is at putting together fair trade offers. This may only merit a single line in the change log but represented the bulk of the engineering time for this update. All versi...
The weather in Michigan has started to turn colder, though for the time being we've dodged any real abundance of snow (I know, I know - I just cursed us). As we enter into the holiday season, I find it impossible not to reflect a bit on how fortunate I am to have become friends and share so many experiences with my inredible colleagues at Stardock. The last two-ish years have been a bit strange, to say the very least. The pandemic forced us all into remote work and kept us from seeing each ot...
In the previous entry, we discussed whether we needed a battle viewer. That’s because combat in GalCiv IV works somewhat differently than previous entries. Specifically: Combat on the map can involve multiple (ranged) tiles which complicates things a bit. Combat can take multiple turns which complicates things After getting a lot of helpful feedback we think we’ve come up with a way to have our cake and eat it too: AAR (After Action Reports). Whenever combat takes place,...
Today, in cool things I found out about but definitely can't justify the cost of: Disney's Star Wars experience will offer lightsaber training. When Disney first announced their fully immersive Star Wars experience, I expected it would be expensive...but the cost was revealed to be around $6,000 for a family of four for just two nights, so it exceeded my expectations but quite a bit there. Still, it's fun to dream about, because as more details emerge it just keeps sounding cooler and ...
The Thanksgiving holiday is this week for many of us in the community. We wanted to take a moment and send out a big thank you to our community and to send a big Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is celebrating this week with family and friends. We appreciate everyone in our various Stardock communities, and we hope you have a great holiday! Do you have any plans for this week or the weekend? Are you cooking anything good? Let us know in the comments!
The Internet can sometimes be a cesspit of vitriol and negativity, but no matter how gross it can get there's always something that manages to shine through the murk. This story from Kotaku a couple of weeks ago about a couple who put out an ad on Craigslist asking for someone to help them beat The Last of Us 2 is definitely one of those things. Karen and Bruce Klein retired and took an interest in video games in 2021 after looking into things that they could do to keep themselves active. The...
Ages ago, I recall Valve having announced their Steam Deck console. They released some more details about the hand-held device last week during a Steamworks Virtual Conference, and it appears that the hype may well be worth something. Global supply chain issues have seen the device delayed until at least February of 2022, but fortunately that's only just a little bit longer to wait past the original promised release date, which was December 2021. The specs for the Steam Deck have been out for...
We're halfway through November and the galleries are getting a nice stream of uploads over the past couple of weeks. There's lots to look at but today I just wanted to take a moment and feature some of the fantastic desktop wallpapers in the gallery. You can check out all the latest desktop wallpapers here, and in the DeskScapes app. The Surfing Whale Teleported to Metaverse Space Station Climbing Up the Walls Blu
Fences 4 Beta 1 Available Today with New Peek Feature Fences Peek and Desktop Display will improve your workflow Get into the Beta NowStardock has released the first beta of Fences 4, a program that allows users to automatically organize files, folders, and applications on their PC desktops into custom-sized spaces called fences. Fences 4, designed to work with Windows 10 and 11, introduces Peek, a new feature that will streamline you...
I have long known that I work with plenty of people who love games - that's not news to me, and if you've been reading these blogs at all, it isn't to you either! What did surprise me, however, was just how many of my colleagues actually love Dungeons & Dragons and other table-top RPGs. About two months ago, we were coming off the high of having a fantastic in-person game night. Raeann - a member of our amazing operations team - said in one of our chats "Stardock D&D night, when?", tw...
Thanksgiving isn't the most popular skinning holiday, but I wanted to feature a few Thanksgiving themes and wallpapers for those who want a festive desktop this month. The good thing about Thanksgiving is that many of our autumn skins will work perfectly for the holiday, and we have a wide selection of those already. Check out a few of our favorites! Thankful Scenic IV Happy Thanksgiving Holiday Spread Two Pumpkins on a Table
We absolutely love Halloween here at Stardock! Frankly, there are a whole bunch of us who will jump at any excuse to dress up in a costume and have fun - Halloween just happens to be the time when everyone else is doing it, too. Our operations team here is amazing and they always make sure that we have everything we need to have a good time! They played Monster House on our big TV downstairs and had lunch catered from a local company - everything was absolutely delicious. We ...
Start11 Brings Customization to the Windows 11 Start Menu Today Learn more about Start11 at www.stardock.com Stardock released Start11™, a program that allows users to customize the Windows® Start menu and taskbar, today. As with previous editions of StartX products, Start11 allows users to restore the Start menu to appear as it does in previous versions of Windows, as well as customize and enhance its functionality.&nb...