billthekirk musings

This topic came up in conversation with someone and I just had to write about it.  Starfield is NOT like No Man's Sky for the following reasons: While there is a scanner in both games, it definitely doesn't work the same.  Plus, resources are not as plentiful in Starfield as they are with No Mans Sky.  In NMS, you can break down with a laser beam just about everything plant and rock and there are wide varieties of plants and rocks with different and varying resources that you get from them.  In Starfield its a mining Cutter tool which you get as part of a story in the beginning and it only breaks down varieties of rocks.  There are nodes in both games, however you can't break down a node in Starfield like you can in No Mans Sky.  I have also found the building of extracting devices much easier in NMS. The strength of Starfield comes in the Ship Battles, Zero G FPS fights, and the battles with factions on the ground.  There are a variety of weapons that...

The Demon Girl of Lodi, by Kirk Harrington       I am an avid fan of Hellboy.  There’s something about the idea of a demon child going against its nature to fight evil and do good that really attracts me.  It makes me think that perhaps I can go against my worst nature and do good as well.      Its ironic then that I came across this story.   I call it the Hellgirl story, because there is also a demon child, a girl though, and the circumstances of how this girl came about are mysterious.   Instead of a group of Nazis and Rasputin bringing a child through an other-world portal though, there are witches involved, ancient curses, and a Prussian soldier.   Further, the timing of the story was perfect because I’d been writing horror movie reviews and was interested in writing more horror fiction.   Horror is one of my loves.   I think my greatest inspiration comes from Stephen King, along with the Conjuring movies (my fa...