I always liked the idea of point and click adventure games more than I actually liked playing them. Usually, they feel too long, too difficult, or just plain wacky with some puzzles. Regardless, I decided to give Hector: Badge of Carnage a try as my last game of May 2023. I figured I would play it for a while before calling it quits. It was a surprise to me that I actually felt motivated to see it through to the conclusion.

You assume the role of British Detective Inspector Hector, a member of the Clappers Wreake police force. Hector is involved in solving a hostage situation that turns into a terrorist threat. The story is divided into three parts—Episode 1: We Negotiate with Terrorists, Episode 2: Senseless Acts of Justice, and Episode 3: Beyond Reasonable Doom. This isn't a serious police drama, however; it is essentially a comedy. The humor is often crude so it will not appeal to all players. For the most part, I found the length and difficulty level pretty decent. In episodes 2 and 3, you get to switch between Hector and his sidekick Lambert. That added some nice variety to the puzzle-solving. I must admit to running out of steam in episode 3. As it dragged on, I was definitely ready for it to be over. Thankfully, the game includes a nice built-in hint system. You can consult with Lambert for gentle tips or use "get hints" for more detailed suggestions or even step by step solutions. Without the hint system to speed things along, I doubt I would have stuck with it to the end.

May 25 means another year has gone by for Game Central. Today marks the 17th anniversary of the site. Five years ago, I celebrated its anniversary with a massive update to STBL WEB, the home of the Southern Tier Baseball League. This year is the 25th anniversary of the last STBL season played. In honor of that quarter century mark, I completed another significant update to STBL WEB. The Earl Weaver Baseball series was ahead of its time. It kept an impressive amount of stats at the team and player level. Where other baseball video games might present a box score for a single game, Earl Weaver Baseball tracked stats for an entire season. Unfortunately, it didn't have a career mode so there was no record of lifetime stats. I wanted a complete picture of players' careers so I took on that task manually.

STBL WEB now has a section for All-Time Leaders. I combed through 17 seasons of data to create leaderboards in four categories: batting (single season), pitching (single season), batting (lifetime), and pitching (lifetime). Now, STBL fans have the information to answer a variety of trivia questions. Who played more STBL games than any other player? Consult the batting (lifetime) chart and find the answer (spoiler—it's Ted Kluszewski). The other big addition this year is the inclusion of The STBL Encyclopedia. It includes the all-time leaders but also has a complete record of every position player and pitcher who ever played in the STBL. I modeled it after The Baseball Encyclopedia from Macmillan, which was one of my favorite baseball books I owned.