Space Marine 2

In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war... and grinding?

Thanks to its three player co-op mode my brothers and I were playing this as a Friday game for awhile now, where playing as Space Marines you fight armies of Tyranid and Chaos forces in glorious and bloody combat which focuses on key press timing to excel in. While the graphics and game play are certainly fun, there are some HUGE negatives. Firstly is that it takes 5 minutes for me to start the game, 5 more to join the lobby and 5 more to enter the mission. If there was an award for longest load times, this would certainly be winning it.

Secondly, improving your marine and weaponry is a severe and lengthy grind. You'll only gain XP for the marine class and weaponry you use, unlocking abilities necessary to do well in the higher difficulties. Then once you max out, you get to pick one ultimate bonus and... drop back down to level 1 to do it all again (up to four times if you want to max out fully). There's a small selection of maps to play on, but the designers thought of this and included a PvP mode to make players the content to save them some work. No comment on that part since it holds no interest for us.

So yeah. Despite that we still were putting up with it because it's just so freaking cool, and despite now taking a break to try other co-op games we'll probably end up playing it again sometime in the future. Where there is only war... and grinding...

Pathfinder: Feast at Ravenmoor

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The party continues North and after a brief stop at the "ex"-werewolf village of Wolf's Ear, which humorously still uses lycan related naming for their townsfolk and businesses, they go through a swampy marsh, slaying half a dozen gross giant ticks and capturing a tamed stirge whom they return to its owner, a child from Ravenmoor. 

A lady clerk of Magnimar they ran into at Galduria had previously asked them to look into a missing red-bearded tax collector whose last known stop was Ravenmoor so they let the kid lead them to the Ferry and into the squalid village filled with shifty villagers who don't like giving straight answers and effigies to an unknown deity which everyone assumes is Desna (fairy like patron of travelers).

As there is a monthly celebratory feast taking place that very day, the party takes the opportunity to skip it and snoop around while everyone else is busy - locating a rundown shack guarded by an angry scarecrow, which is destroyed by Valeros and Merisiel before it can do anything, and an easy slimemold that Valeros accidentally wakes within. 

Among the corpses buried in the basement is the tax collector and just as they are about to leave a great number of mosquito mask wearing cultists with rusty sickles arrive but they have no chance with all the archery and AoE spells (plus Kyra's celestial elephant) that obliterate them and a handful of mongrel men in their number. Ezren even disintegrated one mook just for fun while Daygrace and the Joe-gang also slay a spider lady "tertiary" boss.  

The hasted elephant stamps out a path through to the center of the nearby rotting corn field where a few more cultists are making a sacrifice so Kyra casts a holy smite to "let Sarenrae sort them out" which will only harm non-good entities. Thus there are no bad feelings when the sacrifice is killed by the spell and Valeros comes in to one hit slay the cult leading mayor, only for a giant mosquito to pop out of his gut (because they worshiped Ghlaunder the gross instead) and launches a malaria carrying mozzie swarm around which only manages to affect the elephant!

The big bug doesn't manage to land its hit and is then promptly slammed and gored by the elephant, shot by a lot of arrows and hacked to pieces by Valeros and the faceless that ambushed Ezren in the corn soon regrets that after eating a fatal lightning bolt to the face. Having killed a third of the town the team then destroy all of the evil god's effigies, loot the mayor's house and tell the remaining villagers who are not cultists or are scared cultists to change their ways. Or else!

Pathfinder: Vault No. 3

[Part of the Party Time journal]

After a rest stop in the fortified town of Galduria where Valeros also buys mammoth hide as part of a legerdemain ploy he's preparing to use on the giants, the team almost dies investigating a nearby barn with mutilated animals and facing six giant mastiffs and their six ogre masters (who happen to be rolling really well this fight). Lucky no one dies, and the team returns to town to rest up before heading out again, taking a small diversion to follow a map that was in Uwu's possession.

It leads them to some ruins in the forest where they easily beat three black skeletons and a skele champ. Valeros being generous with 6 platinum dropped into a magic fountain opens some stairs down into the darkness where Ezren quickly guesses that everyone needs to keep their eyes closed or be trapped in a forever loop. 

At the bottom, a statue of Death with the inscription of "play dead for me" is easily solved by Valeros on the nearby piano (technically Lyrielle had to do it since Valeros isn't musical), followed by a five tomb puzzle (which DL later revealed he pinched from Neverwinter Online, something I haven't played for awhile!) that was solved by Merisiel. A statue holding a bloody cup is the last "puzzle" which creates a clone of Valeros when he puts a drop of his blood in.

Kyra hits it with half a fireball and Ezren whacks it with magic missile (both harming Valeros directly) before Valeros can just sprint at his doppelganger to "rejoin" ala the original Prince of Persia game. The statue then moves aside to reveal an ancient "Vault No.3" with some really nice magic gear that the team happily plunders!

Pathfinder: Uwu and the Joe Gang

[Part of the Party Time journal]

When Stolas returns with the location of the fleeing raiders the heroes go on the pursuit, finding a giant and half a dozen sinspawn feasting on a smashed caravan on the road. Surviving bard, Lyrielle, joins the "Joe Gang" (Valeros' followers) to smash them and proceed to Ravenroost to regroup with Shay to take down four more giants, their three giant bears, and eight more sinspawn popping out of a sinwell (where Kyra's new celestial elephant stomps through the trees and tramples them). 

They rescue one of the captives who was "dancing" for her life and return her to Sandpoint and advise the priests to sanctify the sinwell they just cleared, then follow leads to find the other captives, passing by Thistletop and its new goblin colony led by ally King Fat Mouth. Alas they're not up for joining in a fight against the giants.

The next encounter takes place at the desecrated town of Sarenburg where the team demolishes 20 ghouls and six ghoulwolves despite their sniper boss "Uwu" (his elvish name was too long to remember, so Valeros shortened it) taking Ezren down with a drow sleep bolt for most of the fight. Luckily this team is ultra-geared for undead, and it is an easy fight which rewards Kyra with bonus magic to her scimitar (now +4) and a dire wolf mount (after being cured of ghoul disease) for Shay.

The Gentlemen and Countdown

Two wildly different TV shows.

The Gentlemen

When younger sibling Eddie (played by Theo James) surprisingly inherits the large family estate, he also inherits ties to an illegal business venture growing marijuana in a secret lair benath his farmland. He quickly becomes entangled with them despite trying to evict them (without getting himself or his family killed). It doesn't help that his brother is a self absorbed moron who has a gift for making everything worse! Excellently written and acted, this action comedy series definitely delivers an entertaining spectacle. Can't wait for season two and definitely recommended!

Countdown

This police crime drama follows a covert task force made up of individuals (less than ten) from various law enforcement agencies, the "star" of whom is played by Jensen Ackles. It has alright action scenes and story but it wastes a lot of time showing bad guy stuff, which eventually is covered again when the characters discover the information. More than that - it also has some really odd pacing where the main villain is beaten a number of episodes before the season even finishes. Plenty of room for improvement, if it gets a second season at all.

Figment 2: Creed Valley and Machinarium

A pair of puzzle games.

Figment 2: Creed Valley

This is a worthy sequel to the first game, continuing the child friendly theme of adventuring across the imaginary(?) landscape of the mind to once again thwart singing nightmares. Seriously, the musical numbers are fun. Easy controls and easy puzzles combined with a good story and good voice acting make for a game worthy of your time investment. Recommended, though I suggest playing the previous game first if you haven't already.

Machinarium

In this voiceless and hand drawn point and click adventure you play a trashed robot trying to make his way back into robot city. Each screen is a puzzle to solve and they quickly progress into somewhat technical trial and error guess work of finding out what combination of levers or knobs do the thing you need to advance through the scene. I didn't have the patience for this one.

Make Way and Road Redemption

A pair of racing games.

Make Way

This cartoony party racing game (with NPCs able to fill empty slots) is a pretty fun one with colorful and possibly armed vehicles on offer. The race itself is one of point accumulation across a number of segments. Each segment each racer picks a segment of track to attach to the course, effectively building what everyone is going to be racing on. Then the race and mayhem begin. Falling off the track or getting left behind (because the camera only follows the lead car) is instant death, but its ok because you'll respawn at the start of the next track segment. 

I must admit it's a pretty clever way to avoid player elimination and at the same time rewards survivors by giving them a bigger share of the points to reach whatever the "total goal" selected was at the start. Pretty fun though I suspect it will get tiring quickly.

Road Redemption

This is a four player bike race (plus many NPCs) where riders are armed with pipes and machetes. There's a story of chasing an assassin but really you'll just be wanting to win each leg for bonus money to upgrade your bike or killing skills. Nice enough graphics but very basic racing and combat. Even for me, who doesn't like racing games to begin with, I can confidently say there are better racing games out there.