Weekend refit: My Merlin gets teeth and my skill queue a trim

These past few weeks, I've had the focus of a fruit fly on speed. Everything seemed like a shiny new toy. So this weekend, I sat down and took an honest look at what I actually wanted to do over the coming weeks, and also longer term.

On one side, there was PvP. I've been wanting to dabble for a while now, and I had a small collection of Merlins sitting in hangars without a proper fit between them. I knew the ship could brawl. I just hadn't put in the work to make it happen.

Then there was the Hecate I'd recently purchased. I'd started training for it with this idea of testing it as a fast-align, small-cargo hauler — something to replace the Sunesis now that the Catalyst update clipped its wings. A T3 tactical destroyer doing courier work. Admittedly a strange choice, but if the numbers worked, it could make for an interesting story.

And finally, blockade runners. Rixx brought them up during our last recording of The Safe Spot (YouTube | Spotify). He'd mentioned the Amarr Prorator as a solid ship for the job. So I started poking around the intertubes, and that's when I came across the Caldari Crane. Love at first sight. Covert cloak, decent cargo, warps cloaked — everything the Sunesis wishes it could do.

So there I was: a skill queue that looked like a capsuleer suffering from an identity crisis, ships scattered across half a dozen stations, and Merlins without a proper PvP fit. Something had to give. 

I needed to put things in order before this mess became my undoing.

When CCP snubs its most dedicated creator, it's not just his loss — it's ours

First things first: congratulations to every creator who made the EVE Creator Awards shortlist. This is CCP's first crack at a formal recognition program, and the names on that list represent real work, real passion, and real contributions to New Eden. 

Well deserved, all of you!

This post isn't about any of them. It's about a name that's missing.

Earlier today, CCP Games published the finalists for the EVE Creator Awards — eight categories covering streamers, video creators, podcasters, writers, app developers, and more. It's a genuine effort to celebrate what makes this community unique. But when I scrolled through all forty finalists, one absence hit me immediately.

Rixx Javix is nowhere on this list.

The Safe Spot — Episode 4: "FF4A & Beyond"

In this episode, Rixx and I catch up, announce some exciting podcast distribution news, then dive deep into Stay Frosty's legendary Frigate Free For All (FF4A) event. 

I also share the story of my first real hauling adventure in low sec — complete with the sweaty palms and the adrenaline rush — and Rixx drops some hard-earned wisdom on surviving gate camps, dealing with AFK mistakes, and not panicking when things go sideways. 

We wrap up by talking about Rixx's new weekly show, Pirate's Corner, and the importance of opening up and sharing stories with the community.

Let's dive in!

Clipped wings, new teeth: Refitting the Sunesis after the Catalyst nerf

Three days. That's how long my "Learning to Fly" post lasted before CCP clipped my wings.

I'd just finished writing about the Sunesis — my fast-align small hauler, Athena's Wings — and how she could haul almost 1,200 m³ of cargo while warping in 1.75 seconds. Sub-two. Practically uncatchable. The whole point of the ship.

Then the Catalyst major update dropped on March 18th, and CCP decided the Sunesis had been having too much fun.

Star Wars would be better off without the Force

==> [Join the conversation on Bluesky once you've read the full post!] <==

Star Wars doesn't need the Force

Let me put it another way... Star Wars doesn't need the Force to hook us in, to make that universe captivating.

The Force has become a deus ex machina for a lot of the Star Wars content these days.

Hear me out...

The best Star Wars project ever made — and I mean ever — had no Jedi. No lightsabers. No Force pushes, mind tricks, or mystical prophecies. No chosen ones. No ancient Sith knowledge. No midichlorians. No glowing blue ghosts dispensing wisdom from beyond the grave.

Andor's second season hit a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the highest-rated live-action Star Wars anything — beating both its own first season and The Empire Strikes Back. It became the first TV series in history to land five consecutive episodes with IMDb scores of 9.5 or above. It won five Emmys from fourteen nominations, including Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Its finale topped Nielsen's streaming charts with 931 million minutes watched in a single week, beating everything else on every platform.

No Force required.

So maybe it's time to ask the question that Lucasfilm clearly doesn't want to hear: does Star Wars actually need the Force at all?

Dune Part Three: Darker, bigger, and exactly what was needed

The trailer for Dune: Part Three — the final chapter in Denis Villeneuve's trilogy — dropped yesterday.  I've been watching it over and over, trying to pick up every hint and detail buried in those two and a half minutes. If this trailer and the first two films are any indication, we're in for a hell of a ride. What an epic finale this will surely be!

Despite what some will say, I'm not usually one to go full fanboy, but I'll make an exception here. 

Villeneuve's adaptation of the Dune universe has been close to perfection — though honestly, after Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, I shouldn't be surprised. The man knows how to make magnificent cinema. But even Villeneuve would be the first to admit that none of this works without Frank Herbert's brilliance on the page. This pulls me right back to cracking open that first Dune paperback in college (what we call CÉGEP here in Québec) and realizing I'd found something different — a universe so layered with political intrigue and backstory that it felt less like science fiction and more like something that actually happened, or would in humankind's far future. 

That's a long way from the almost comical early adaptations we endured on both the big screen and television.

And now we're getting Messiah.

Learning to fly: Finding my wings in EVE Online

Just like that Tom Petty song, I've been learning to fly over the past few weeks. Not in the poetic, soul-searching kind of way — more in the 'please don't let me die on this gate' kind of way.

A few weeks back, a new acquaintance within New Eden (thanks for the intro, Rixx!) asked me to help gather a ton of stuff scattered across a few dozen systems — some in high-sec, some in low-sec. We're talking stations I’d never visited, assets worth Billions of ISKs, collecting dust like forgotten relics of a past life in space. The kind of stuff you want to move quickly while unnoticed. 

To pull this off, I needed a ship that could do three things well: carry a decent amount of cargo, move fast, and — most importantly — get out of dodge before anyone could lock me down. Not just fast. Sub-two-seconds-to-warp fast.

Enter the Sunesis.

Disclosure Day: Spielberg goes back to what he does best

The legacy

What happens when the world finds out we’re not alone? That’s the premise behind Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi film, hitting theatres June 12th in IMAX.

Spielberg built a good chunk of my childhood imagination when it comes to making first contact. Close Encounters (1977). E.T. (1982). Even War of the Worlds (2005), which doesn't get enough credit for how effectively terrifying it is. The man knows how to make these moments feel real — the awe, the dread, the quiet terror of realizing the universe is bigger than you thought.

Disclosure Day looks like it's tapping into all of that again.

The Safe Spot — Episode 3: "More Questions"

Episode 3 of The Safe Spot is here! This one was all about me bringing my "dumb newbro questions" to Rixx and getting real, practical answers from a veteran pirate who's been living the lowsec life for almost two decades now. 

I spent the weekend of February 14-15th not actually playing EVE but doing the metagame — researching skills, reorganizing assets, and realizing my stuff is scattered across New Eden like a space hoarder. 

So naturally, I came to the show with a list of things I needed to figure out, from picking a home system to knowing when I'm actually ready for PvP.

Here's what we got into.

Four screenshots. That's all it took for me to buy Planet of Lana II

I usually don't play puzzle-platformers. I think Child of Light was the last one I played. My Steam library is a graveyard of city builders, strategy games, and the occasional RPG that have swallowed months of my life. If you told me yesterday that I'd drop money on a side-scrolling adventure about a girl and her cat-like companion, I'd have laughed.

Then I saw this post from The Indie Boss Bluesky this morning.

Four screenshots. Hand-painted environments. A dense forests, alien ruins, light cutting through fog in a way that made me stop scrolling. I didn't know what game it was. I didn't care. I just needed to see more.

Turns out it was Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf, the sequel to Wishfully Studios' 2023 puzzle-adventure. I'd never heard of it. It's sequel, Planet of Lana II, launched yesterday, March 5th. I had zero knowledge of this game's existence before this morning. None whatsoever. No trailers watched, no previews read, no wishlisting on Steam.

I looked it up on Steam. 10% off for launch. I bought it before I even watched the trailer.

Sometimes your gut just knows. You see something and the decision is already made before your brain catches up. No research, no review hunting, no hemming and hawing over whether it's worth the price. 

Four screenshots of a world that looked like it was painted by someone who actually cares about beauty, and that was enough.

A lament for the Galaxy that could have been - A Star Wars poem

The following is a poem inspired by the raw, harsh, and brutal world of Andor and Rogue One (watch the videos above and below if you need reminding). A series and a film that gave us the true visage of what Star Wars could have been — should have been. The more I rewatch these two cinematographic masterpieces, the more fed up I get with the prequels, the sequels, and the weak series we were force-fed on Disney+. 

Yet I still have hope...

New Eden Banter #1: The MMO that keeps rewriting its own history—EVE Online at 23

Welcome to the very first installment of the New Eden Banter (NEB), the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux (that's me!). The NEB involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. 

The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the New Eden Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. 

Check for other New Eden Banters articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic: EVE Online is now more than two decades old—older than some of its players. In a genre where most MMORPGs fade or shut down, EVE has kept evolving. What do you think is the secret behind its longevity? Why is EVE still here—and still feeling alive—when so many of its contemporaries have declined or disappeared?

The MMO that keeps rewriting its own history—EVE Online at 23

EVE Online launched in 2003. Some players undocking today are younger than the game itself.

In a genre defined by shuttered servers, EVE is still moving—still generating wars, market crises, betrayals, fear, paranoia, and those "wait, THAT actually happened?" moments you simply cannot script. So what's the secret?

It's not one thing. It's a stack of design decisions that transformed EVE from a game you play into a place you inhabit. One that you live in.