Month: March 2020

Upcoming Release of Remastered Command & Conquer and Red Alert!

When I first read about a year or so ago that most of the original Westwood Studios team (now working for Petroglyph) was developing a remastered version of the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert games I about exploded with joy. The original C&C and RA were two of my favorite games ever. I still play them on occasion and my first webside (www.toms-games.com) was a C&C Universe gaming page that I worked on constantly and even got some good press for back in the day. Feel free to check it out as it’s still in about the same state I left it in over a decade ago when I got too busy to keep up the site or play the game often. So needless to say hearing that the original Westwood team was putting this game out had me waiting with baited breath.

Fast forward to now… the game is currently slated for a June release (provided the COVID-19 situation doesn’t cause delays), the trailers and screenshots are amazing looking and I am stuck working from home so I want this game to release as soon as possible! I’d love to say I’ll have enough time to bring the old website up to speed but at this point I’m just hoping the game releases on time and that I still have some time available to play it.

If you haven’t already go check out some of the game trailers on YouTube. It looks incredible. The 4K capable graphics upgrade is definitely going to look good! – Tom S.

The current state of things: social distancing and shelter in place orders!

It seams so long ago now when I think about it but it really was only about 2 months ago that I recall hearing about the first confirmed case of Coronavirus COVID-19 (it hadn’t been named yet, or at least the name wasn’t being used much then as I recall) being found in my home state of Washington. I’d obviously heard about the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, it’s spread to other parts of Asia, along with stories of cruise ships changing routes and destinations and airlines limiting service to China in the news in the previous weeks. Unlike previous virus scares like SARS and MERS, this one had been found in the US rather quickly and instead of it being found on the East Coast of the country as the others were when they were found to have arrived here, this one was in my own backyard.

This week the governor of Washington State announced a shelter in place (also known as stay at home) order for the whole state. There had already been steps taken to get folks to work from home in the greater Seattle area. Downtown Seattle has looked like a ghost town for a couple of weeks now and the additional businesses closing for this shelter in place order will make every town statewide start to look this way. Part of the reason for such a strong response is that Washington State now has the 3rd highest number of COVID-19 infections and the concern is that if folks don’t socially distance to the extreme of a shelter in place order now we run the risk of the infections continuing to increase exponentially and will have no hospital capacity nor supplies for those patients.

The economic impact this virus and it’s response has already created is immense. I fear there are already businesses that will close for this shelter in place order and won’t be able to re-open when the order is ultimately lifted. The stimulus package the government is trying to pass currently may help some but I still worry that a prolonged shutdown would crush a lot of small businesses and squeeze the middle class further. It’s just amazing how much has changed in a few months. While this new normal hasn’t fully set in yet I’m hoping we can somehow find our way back to some sense of normalcy before end of the year. I had hoped maybe by this summer but considering the rumor is the schools are preparing to possibly be out the rest of the year it’s hard to see things truly returning to normal anytime soon.

Stay safe and be well out there. I know there is little written here that is more than a summary of what everyone is currently living and feeling but I felt I needed to record a short summary of the current state of things. – Tom S.

The Journey Begins…

I titled this first blog post “The Journey Begins” initially because this is the beginning of my journey in to blogging. However this has taken on an additional meaning because of how all of our lives have been changed by the current Coronavirus outbreak that in a few short weeks has radically changed how our world looks and works. We have all begun a journey with the ultimate goal being some sense of normalcy being restored at the end of all of this. The path to that end will be interesting to say the least. The social distancing efforts currently being advocated by the government and health officials stand a good chance of limiting the spread of the virus and limiting its impact on our social and health services. It will definitely take some getting used to not being able to go to a bar or restaurant for the next several weeks to few months (depending on how long that restriction stays in effect). Parents (which I am not one of) also have the challenging reality of kids being out of school for the next 6 weeks which, again, was unthinkable a few weeks ago but is now our current reality in this quickly evolving Coronavirus Response World that we find ourselves in now.
It will be interesting to say the least to see where this all goes over the coming weeks and months. I hope you all stay safe and healthy during all of this and wish you good luck on your journey in this Coronavirus Response World we now live in. – Tom S.