August 2023: The New Blaugs

It's been awhile since I've done a blog status post, so I totally missed announcing that DL managed to get our Guild Hall to level 20 in Neverwinter Online early last month! Also, it's been a minute since I've revisited anything Blaugust but it looks like there's a whole slew of new participants and while I'm not joining those festivities I'll be adding each one to my blog roll as time permits. Just as well since my list was whittled down to 28 over the gap period, so it's time for some new blood. Or new blaugs as it were.

Anyway, it's time for some cool links that I've come across. Mainly "I wish" links. Like, I wish I was this good at archery, or I wish I had Hikaru's precognition(?) of chess, or I wish I had the voice control of Avril Lavigne who can still sing like she's a teenager. Those are all super impressive for me.

If you prefer the funnies you can read through Warframe's red text shenanigans (Red text being the global chat alerts that take place when an update occurs). Or you can watch this amazing clip from an Indian daytime drama. Or relive Neon Genesis: Evangelion, condensed into 10 minutes of live action!

That's it for this post. Have a good day everyone! :)

July 2021 Review: 20 is the new 80

I'm still in lockdown but it feels like I've been busy, with my Black Desert season corsair getting interrupted by lots of other games such as the full Banner Saga which I'll be posting about shortly. Neverwinter wise, Shintar has a nice recap of what was removed (Cryptic's theme) in Mod 21: Jewel of the North. Part of this includes being level 80, since level 20 is the new max. In exchange we get the return of soloable mini-dungeon Throne of Idris, some tidy up quests, and a lot of bribes reward chests. I quite enjoyed the surprise Valindra duel but otherwise its just business as usual I guess, so no review of that coming from me.

After almost a year at the helm of the alliance we finally shuffled again back down into a sword position while preparing for the final push to 20. Will there still be Strongholds by the time we get there? Who knows! Meanwhile our Friday night co-op has returned to being GTFO and Ghost Recon Wildlands since the fix for both problems was simply Jim getting a new computer. :P

For those interested Blaugust is starting up again next month, and for those seeking to escape Blizzard here's a handy list of alternatives by Belghast. And for a fun game: whenever you watch a TV series or movie and characters are "going to eat" something, take note if anyone actually eats anything. It's surprising how many times food doesn't even make it to their mouths.

Most Viewed Posts in the last 30 days:

BDO: Unfinished Gem
BDO: Row Row Row, you're Sunk
BDO: Across the Sea

It's nice that the Black Desert posts have been getting attention! Funny that these are also the ones I fail in the most. =)

GTFO: R4A1 - Cytology (Normal)

Rundown #4 - Contact was released three days ago, and this first mission (if you don't do the optional Extreme mode) is easier than R3A1. As usual we are a team of three, with DL packing a DMR/Sniper/Mines, Jim with DMR/Combat Shotty/CFoam, and myself with Carbine/Choke Shotgun/Mines. The choke shotgun is new, and while it only holds four shells in the chamber even clipping shots at mid-range seem to kill the scum buckets. Anyway, the objective here is simple - find 6 hard disk drives (HDDs) and extract with plenty of terminals around for you to practice your DOS commands on.

While the map is pretty big, the general idea is to simply head North. The path we take from the drop point is around through the small left door, then in the next room right through the mist through the big door, and then left again to the very end to the small door out of the fog (which is non-harmful at this point). Ideally clear all the rooms you go through with hammers as per normal, with your target priority being nape > back of head > back tumours > face.  Anyway, in this room is a normal / non-fighting team scan so just get it open then head north through the "bridge room" and up the stairs in the room past that. We usually just open the big door right there, but if the spawn is crap you can swing to the small left hand door for a better entry.

This big chamber is the Bulkhead room, which is new in this rundown as it gives you a choice of difficulty. For now, since you can't open anything but the small door on the right do that to find yourself facing a Class II alarm door (4 circles). The swarm will be coming from the little door past the upstairs section so that's where we put five mines. Once done, it's on to clearing that next area looking for HDDs and the Bulkhead key which you need to bring back to the upstairs part of the Class II door to plug it in. At this point your team will be given a choice to either complete the mission regularly (Hard) or with extra challenges (Extreme). This write up follows just the regular mode. Also note: the selection spots sometimes switch so pay attention! :P

Back to the bulkhead room to open the North facing bulkhead, which is another class II alarm (4 circles). This time the enemies will be coming mainly through the big door and a few through little door right next to the regular bulkhead so prep accordingly. From there its just a matter of pushing North until you reach the class III alarm door (8 circles) where the baddies will be coming primarily from the little door down the lit hallway. Prep as needed. After that, its just a matter of picking up the HDDs which don't slow you down or anything, and just waltz back to the drop point for extraction. Nothing will be chasing you if you killed everything on the way in, making this a cinch! Also note, in the normal route we encountered zero scouts. Yay!

However if you decided to take extreme route, that radically increases the difficulty. In addition to ALL THE ABOVE, you must also open the extreme bulkhead - class III alarm (8 circles), open two class II cluster alarms (16 circles each I think, but fast to clear/stand on) both guarded only by one door, deal with scouts and up-link at two terminals (3 codes a piece I think) much like in R3B1. I'll go through that in more detail when we survive it!

Even without doing the extreme extra, the basic success will already unlock Floor B. :)

August 2020 Review: Lack of Sleep

Some drunk women decided to drive their car into my office building this week, at 8:45 AM - I guess they stayed up all night? No one was hurt as they managed to get their handbags to walk away, abandon their ride and harass other people nearby. Thankfully those morons were taken away by the cops. I too am suffering a lack of sleep but for a different vice: gaming.

With another low-key Blaugust participation done, my work stress continues as does our progression through GTFO which regular readers would have noticed my writeups of. We're in the R3B level now... and I thought the top floor was hard! Haha! Getting lots of gaming done besides that, including Neverwinter with its Avernus related modules. Probably should switch out some of that gaming this month for sleep. Lastly, for those interested in the results of "the music war", here's where its at.

   End 2020 with less weight (-1 kg from last month, running total: +4 kg)
   Make 1 web comic page (nope)
   Make a board game (nope)

BACKLOG
Just Cause 4 [free from Epic Games]
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms [free on Steam] (had enough)
Zombie Army Trilogy [gift]
GTFO [gift] (Awesome! Still playing!)
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop [free from Steam]
Dishonored 2 [gift]
Resident Evil 2 [gift]
Metro Exodus [gift]
Metal Gear Survive [gift] (done)
Killing Floor 2 [free from Epic]
NWO: Path of the Damned [2/2]
Warhammer 40k: Rites of War [free from GOG] (had enough)
Tacoma [free from Epic Games] (done)
+20XX [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Barony  [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Sword & Sworcery [free from Epic Games] (done)
+3 out of 10: Chapter 1 [free from Epic Games] (done)
+Wilmot's Warehouse [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Remnant: From the Ashes [free from Epic Games]
+The Alto Collection [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Troy: A Total War Saga [free from Epic Games]
+3 out of 10: Chapter 2 [free from Epic Games] (doesn't start)
+God's Trigger [free from Epic Games] (done)
+Enter the Gungeon [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Hitman [free from Epic Games]
+Shadowrun Collection [free from Epic Games]

Board games:
Zombicide: Black Plague (11/11)
Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm (6/6)

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

I was admiring impromptu player made content while also bashing Cryptic and Neverwinter a little bit while playing Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2.

Five Years Ago

I was doing my creative writing experiment. Actually I've been doing a lot of story type stuff lately: while I have a few more ready to deploy I'm going to try cut down on that so that I can use more creative power on other stuff, like that comic I never started! :P

Most Viewed Posts last Month

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
Neverwinter Online: Fiery Pit Vigilance Guide
GTFO: R3A2 - Purification

Top Search Terms last Month

osrs inferno cape
osrs infernal cape black mark   

This old school Runescape cape seems to be netting a lot of views again, must be in demand! As for the most viewed posts my guides again are taking high ranks, only being outdone by Pokemon! :P

How to Survive 2: Pylon-10

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

With the camp now at level 10, Kovac gives us the challenge of constructing a speaker pylon to try draw more survivors to the area - of course this would also draw all the nearby zombies too but this turns out to be not so bad, with not even one getting into our camp.

Get off our lawn!

As a result from this victory, Kovac gains numerous fans that begin camping nearby and begins experimentation with captured zombies. In exchange he rewards us with leads to gun making supplies and soon DL is able to replicate a rifle while Jim crafts a tommy gun. These are handy when facing the new, night time spawning volatiles who are quite dangerous when encountered in groups - especially if they catch us when we are split up.

Also new in the area is Kenji, who seems to be an old enemy of Kovac - and since he seems a more honorable sort, we begin helping him out too as his old crew has become zombie chow. This pays off for us very well as his missions lead to bountiful resource zones.

Insight: Kenji's first quest is a much better food grind than the first one, provided you can deal with the increased zombies.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What is your favorite thing to do in order to relax?" -Belghast

Play games! :)

Tormentor x Punisher

I'm not sure you play as either.

In this LOLZOR top down shooter which is very well summarized during its hand drawn intro sequence, you play as one angry chick in a room of endlessly spawning demons and literal bullet hell. Luckily, you have a trusty shotgun and machine gun which somehow reload each other when firing.

It's this, over and over.

Most importantly, everything (that I've seen) dies in one hit. You included, so be prepared to be running like crazy to avoid enemies and fireballs while running after teleporting bosses (who only need one hit to kill). It's a crazy game but crazy only gets so far before getting boring. Not one I recommend, I give it 1 laughing goblin out of 5.

Insight: Prioritize enemy shooters if you can. You want less stuff flying around the screen, not more.

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Blaugust Bonus: "Tell us about some community that you are part of and why it interests you or how it impacts you?" -Kanter

Dragonarm is our small but long running guild and I generally play the games where they go. It's also the basis for that web comic I plan on doing some day. :)

How to Survive 2: Monster Fauna

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

Now armed with machetes and bows, Kovac sends us to gather other nearby survivors - Raymond at a farm and a pair of trappers from the swamp. While variants of faster zombies and fatter explosive zombies are now showing up, it's obvious in the zombie food chain that the wild life zombie varieties sit at the top.

Zombie dogs and jackals are quick. Zombie seagulls barf acid. Zombie crocs can ambush from the swamp water (uh, guess that could be a regular croc too). There's even a zombie deer that seems to enjoy hunting DL outside camp at night... and hunting a flock of zombie turkeys was a lot scarier that I could have imagined.

Lure and kill works wonders!

Fortunately the camp is also expanding, with walls now protecting the kitchen, the weapons armory, the foundry and the armor and accessories craft shop. We can even create makeshift firearms now but have yet to find the molds required to make bullets.

Insight: Pitchforks are heavy but make great throwing weapons. When thrown they out damage everything you can create, at least in the early game.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What are you looking forward to the most over the course of the next year?" -UltrViolet

Hopefully a covid vaccine.

The Two Popes

Surprisingly good!

This film focuses on the life of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) and his frenemyship with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins). While there is some religious debate between the two the movie really shines on the more mundane sections of their conversations which are impeccably acted by both leads.

One of my favorite scenes, obviously. :)

Everything about this film gets the thumbs up from me. The third act where we learn about Bergoglio's past is a bit more meh than the rest but it's definitely worth a watch, regardless of your beliefs (or non-beliefs) as it is an entertaining flick. I give it 3.5 red shoes out of 5 and would watch it again.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What are some of the things that you wish you knew before you started creating content?" -Sandrian

That the 5000 label limit on blog spot isn't a bluff, because I hit it! Shit. I'm having to back track and remove the less used labels so that I can continue posting stuff. Less is better apparently in this regard. Oops!

How to Survive 2: Camp Plateau

[Part of the Diary of Zombies]

With the disease spreading and the quarantine broken, there's no reason for the three of us to hang around anymore so we venture out to try survive in the forest and come across another survivor, Kovac, hiding in an underground bunker who uses a loudspeaker to communicate with us.

He has a crazy plan to build a new and better civilization out here and quickly ropes us into doing the heavy lifting. This involves bashing in the heads of a few infected and doing supply runs into the city to collect bottled water and canned foods.

Kovac isn't interested in hosting the new city in his little bunker though, which seems connected to multiple places. Instead he asks we start building a camp which Jim decides to place on a nearby plateau. At least the zombies here are really slow!

This looks like a good spot!

Insight: There is a food and water gauge in this game. The less it is, the worse you perform. Also, once it is empty you start to die as discovered by DL too engrossed in camp planning. Good thing we carried spares! Expect to run the food run mission A LOT. From my perspective, this is stupid design.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What piece/s of technology would you have the hardest time living without?" -Telwyn

Refrigerator, stove top and laundry machine - in that order. Phones and computers don't even rank.

Sunrider: The Mask of Arcadius

A strategic novel with an amazing sound track.

As the captain of a freelance capital ship in an anime universe, naturally you begin your quest to build a space harem get revenge against all the bad dudes. While yes, most of your staff are female, the story is actually quite decent (not overly adult in the free GOG version I played) and the tactical space battle sections can be quite challenging.

Time to be EPIC!

Most surprising is the fantastic backing soundtrack this game has as it really gets you in the mood to kill the many enemies that plague your universe. I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed this so I highly recommend you look past the questionable screenshots and jump into it. You might end up enjoying yourself! I give it 4 executive orders out of 5.

Insight: Upgrading the Sunrider's kinetic weapons (cannons) is better than upgrading its lasers.

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Blaugust Bonus: "With the pandemic, we are going through an unprecedented time.  In what ways has this shared global event impacted your content creation?" -UnwiseOwl

It's given me some cool headings for my end of month posts, but that's about it. I don't go out much, even without the pandemic. :P

Shadow (2018)

Someone loves umbrellas.

Eager to take control of a city from a rival but allied kingdom, the commander goes against his king's wishes and requests a duel against the rival general for said city. However, a lot more is at play as it soon becomes evident that the commander is just a body double for the real puppeteer behind the scenes...

You need to fight like a girl!

Now here is a movie that tries too hard to be smart. From the mostly monochrome scenes (because "Shadow"!) to all the posturing politics when its clear that the creator just wanted to have a film that features a fight between a guy with a spear versus a guy with an umbrella. The build up is worth it too, as when it comes to the action this part excels, at least in the duel. When magnified by an army of umbrella users it skids past the line of silly.

Still an entertaining flick for action buffs, but don't expect too much more from it in any other department. I give it 2.5 out banners of 5.

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Blaugust Bonus: "How did you get started in content creation?" -Joar

My guild needed a website so I made a really basic one, then I got into a more regular posting regime on my second website which came soon after: "the Hellsing Crucifix" a fan site for the Hellsing anime. Ran out of content to post as that series ended / was delayed so I took up blogging.

GTFO: R3A3 - Bolt

In this final R3A level we really improved our shooting and discovered the "shine" method, where you aim a flashlight at an empty spot and just move it over a group of sleepers so that they all flash at the same time.

After the first two chambers is the important bridge hall which holds the first password terminal. Hammer-bop your way through all of them (good practice), get the password and open the reactor chamber, do any final looting and then type in reactor_startup.

You'll have a little bit of time to then return to the bridge hall and for this, all three of us took firing positions on the right staircase facing the initial chambers with Jim c-foaming a line in front of us. This makes the horde come along the long narrow walkway and prime targets for Jim's Bullpup, DL's DMR, and my Hel Gun - which absolutely tears multiple lined up enemies apart per shot.

Those that get close get Jim's combat shotgun, while DL still carries a sniper for any giants that show up. My secondary was a normal rifle because it doesn't lose damage at range. Once the music stops the wave is over and you can wander back to the reactor terminal to type in reactor_verify [pass] where the [pass] is the four letter code you found in the bridge hall.

Get good at typing and memorizing because stuffing up or running out of time to type the code in means a repeat of the previous wave. This first one is easy though as you have lots of time to do so. Second wave setup is just like the first, piece of cake. As a side note, you can dodge "down" the stairs but try always get back into position or you will encourage the enemy to flank.

After wave two you then need to cross the reactor room and enter the door to the dark backroom which almost always has scum to bop. There are three doors here, the left side and large bottom one enter the important backroom (which needs to be cleared) while the immediate door on the right leads to a long hallway which also loops around to the important backroom.

Depending on the terminal you need, you might be able to skip the long hallway as the other one is immediately behind the left door of the dark backroom. Regardless, you MUST use the time to clear the important backroom NOW, then return to the terminal to setup for wave three. For this I put my auto-turret at the opposite end of the bridge to shoot the wave in the back.

Once that is done pick up the gun and go into the reactor room again, this time to the left dark room. If the password terminal is here or in the next chamber beyond doesn't really matter, you must clear BOTH in the time allotted and then back to the bridge for wave four. Any mines you find should be placed at giant head height at the bridge hall defense.

Afterwards its back to the left dark room and all the way through the security door into the scout chamber, so named because there's always a tentacle bastard in there. Not wasting any time, DL just sniped him and we fought the rest at the door, again with my auto turret support.

A quick loot and then its back to the bridge for wave five, with still the same setup with autogun and foam. Need good shooting here, don't waste the Hel Gun on solo stragglers. After this, you need to RUN and get back to the important back room to do a security alarm.

As prep we iced the bottom door and positioned my autogun and DL's shotgun sentry (finally he gets to put it down) at the door and after one circle Jim is back icing the door for as long as he can. This buys us enough time to finish the scan sequence and head up the stairs to DL's sniper spot which is where we held to kill the incoming wave.

With time still ticking, you must then navigate the misty hall of bullshit to find one of two password terminals, both are on the lower floor. Lucky Jim had a fog repeller to help my navigation. I also could pick a lock for more supplies and get the code before extraction, unfortunately Jim woke something up and we still ended up fighting the room.

With literally seconds to spare we put in the last code and setup whatever remaining gear we had on the bridge. The tail of the last horde has two giant shooters and a few little shooters. We were literally down to hammers for the last little ones but still won!

You then have 30 or so seconds to type in the last code, so while Jim and DL ran to to the drop point for extraction I went the opposite way and typed it in. I think they were already there when I hit enter because as soon as I did, the mission was a success!

Woo! Now it's onto the next floor!

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Blaugust Bonus: "How did you get the name that you regularly go by online, and what if anything does it mean?" -MagiWasTaken

My first D&D character.

Sang-Froid: A Tale of Werewolves

Werewolves with a twist.

Thanks to some devilry, a pair of brothers who live out in the woods are plagued by werewolves and their kin every night. Luckily, their sister has the gift of sight and shows them how many enemies will spawn from where and what they will do. This gives them the morning to prepare their numerous traps and defenses to survive the pack.

The choice of brother to play also is the choice of difficulty.

This is a very clever little tower defense game, though you end up having many places to defend against the large variety of enemies who have different immunities to your array of traps and gear. Blessed gear works well against demonic types but you'll want silver to face true lycanthropes and so on. I was quite happy with the super handy tutorials too. Highly recommended, I give this 3 wind charms out of 5.

Insight: Upgrade your traps before upgrading yourself, especially the ones that don't require manual activation! Also the final boss has no immunities so save a trap or two for him and make sure you are prepared (enough hints in game).

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Blaugust Bonus: "What is your greatest fear, and how does it impact the type of content you create or consume?" -Professor Beej

Not being "alive". Blogging leaves proof that I am, yet at the same time proves I'm not. It's a conundrum.

Lion

A tale of separation and reunion.

This is what happens when you fall asleep at the wrong time.

Born to an incredibly poor family, five year old thief Saroo (Sunny Pawar) manages to get separated from his family in India through some bad luck and a lot of bad decisions, to the extent that he grows up in Australia. Older Saroo (Dev Patel), despite having lots of supporters alienates them all when he eventually undertakes a personal quest to use Google Earth and try track down his hometown so many years later.

While the movie is sound technically and aesthetically, it does really show the worst of India and it might just be me, but Saroo is portrayed as an idiot for most of the film which didn't really make it easy to cheer him on. Anyway, if you like drama you still might enjoy this. I give it 2.5 trains out of 5.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What piece of content would you most like to have a sequel or reboot?" -JamiesVlogUK

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance definitely has earned a season two! Fingers crossed!

GTFO: R3A2 - Purification

And now for the next GTFO walk through which we three manned. This map starts you off near a huge chamber full of vision blocking, poison gas (and usually, giants) so try keep your head above it. The ideal start is being able to sneak along the right wall up a "high road" which can get you to the door to the next chamber and main hub of this map: the generator room. Bonus points if you can quietly nab a power cell in the process. Always plug those into the generateor ASAP (except the last one) to lower the poison fog level.

You'll be spending a lot of time in here, so after hammering the sleepers within take the time to memorize the layout, especially since that huge horseshoe hole is easy to fall in when the fighting starts. There are three other exits from here, and you'll always want to do them in the order of forward, right and left (down the ladder into a pit). All doors have a ready wave of "awake" monsters so prepare before opening.

For the forward and right doors, DL would set the shotgun on the line of their travel - positioned to fire at their backs while Jim foamed the line ahead so the turret would get more shots in. I brought a mine layer and put one bomb per door, because you REALLY need to hold back until the end. We used the generator hub in the center for cover as usually shooters (big shooters) would come out from these two.

From the forward door you'll enter a small circular bit that has doors going left and right. Either will take you to the same huge area and while we normally go right for starters as there's a terminal there you can use to ping stuff, going left has a slightly more important function for later so go left and clear the room. If you follow the right wall from that entry point you'll find another door that leads into a short, dark hallway that leads to a larger area beyond - which usually has both the cell and a lot of enemies.

We used the dark hallway to lure the enemies in and with the standard shotgun sentry to hit their backs and foam the floor in front of it and a closed door for bonus time they got wiped out easily. With the cell plugged in it's time to go to the next area (the right door from the Generator hub) which branches off into two directions. Open both and close the door if you don't like what you see. We got lucky here as one side had the scout and the other didnt, and the side that didn't eventually led to the cell... phew!

At this point we decided to clear the the initial poison room as the lowered fog meant DL had more time to snipe, and luring them back into the generator hub gave a lot more room to fight. The last area is the door in the pit (left from the entry door of the Generator hub) and sometimes really unfair as the scout occasionally spawns back there. Again, on our winning run he's not there.

For this final door DL had the winning tactic of setting up all the way in the cramped dark hallway we already used earlier (through the front door). With some of Jim's foam to assist in buying me time to flee and them closing the few doors as I bolt past the remaining horde is easily put down once they reach our final stand.

Down into the left pit there's always fog residue which will poison you if you duck. There are also ugly spores on the wall that make noises and spit poison if you get too close, just stay away from them. You'll soon find yourself in a big chamber with a terminal near your entry way. There are actually two paths from here: left from the entry way or directly forward to a door hidden in darkness.

Our run brought us forward and into a hallway with a large broken pipe which served as a fantastic defense spot. With DL and Jim on top of the pipe, DL's shotgun turret pointing down the pipe (to hit them in the back) and me waiting with a combat shotgun on the other end of the pipe the next few creatures were easily slaughtered and the final cell retrieved.

Before putting in the final cell, gear up and prepare. You'll need to be able to navigate the generator hub in total darkness (glow sticks to mark the way are handy) and make your way out back to the original drop point. We took the high path we initially used to sneak in and this is where I placed all my last seven mines along the walls. This is because mines explode in the direction of the trip laser, putting it on the floor will only kill the one directly on top. Near our hold spot we placed the shotgun sentry and foam defense as usual, just being careful with the sentry angle so it wouldn't be shooting at us.

When ready, everyone needs to be in the generator hub when you put the last cell in. There is a single security scan red circle thing to stand in and as soon as that finishes and everything goes dark - RUN (obviously along the route with your defenses). You should be able to reach the position and ready your firing line (we actually also planned positions / left-right-center before hand), and get to about 50% completion before any of the scum reach you. Just hold for the remaining time and GTFO. :)

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Blaugust Bonus: "Tell us about some of your hobbies outside of the realm of your specific niche." -Solarayo

What specific niche? I blog about everything here! Haha! Well, my least blogged hobby are my music studies so I guess I'll have to start posting videos and giving up even more anonymity. Yeah. That's unlikely to happen.

GTFO: R3A1 - Resuscitation

Since GTFO is a really tough game I'm writing how my team achieved victory: one map at a time. Hopefully this might be of help to someone but yeah... this will be really slow going! Haha!

Our first map was R3A1 and is a good "tutorial" of the pain awaiting you. The first three rooms are a nice practice zone on how to hammer sleepers without waking the others up. As long as nothing is glowing, you are free to move and kill. Note: killing one while another in the distance is glowing WILL wake him up. Even if they wake up you still have a few seconds to murder it before it can scream and wake the rest of the room.

Room number four is where the path diverges. On our run, there were too many scum so DL opened the door and snipered a few before falling back to the first doorway where Jim, Morphius and myself waited. Getting hordes to funnel makes them easy to shoot. Remember to aim for the head.

Since the alarm door is next (make sure you open the correct one) Jim and DL put their shotgun sentries on the outside of the main door (parallel as to not assist in destroying it) and Morphius froze the door to give the guns more time to kill the wave. It's then standing on top of stupid red circles until the alarm deactivates, and when the enemies do break through they should be weakened and in lesser number.

Up next is the key card room which is always guarded by a tentacle head scout. Ideally I'd sneak this room, without killing anything but since it was too risky - DL simply sniped the scout and we fought the remaining enemies in the chamber by luring them out to the shotgun sentries again.

Once you have the keycard you gain access to the garden room which almost always has sleepers. There's a tight space just on the left near the entrance which is a great place for combat shotgun wielders to hold should things go loud. Afterwards it is the dark "speaker" hall and the large foyer to the cradle room. On our run we managed to just hammer our way through the sleepers.

Another alarm door blocks the way into the cradle room though so this time Morphius iced the outer "speaker" hall door and I did the same with the door between that hall and the cradle room foyer, while both Jim and DL's shotgun sentries were again outside. After two red circles I then rushed the to re-ice the door to buy the team more time to finish the scan sequence. This worked and we could clear the remaining scum.

Second to the last part is to revive the "baby" which came in with you. Before bringing it to the cradle we moved the restocked the sentries, put the last ice near the broken door of the foyer and assigned DL and Morphius to cover fire down the hall while I'd bodyguard Jim who would carry the baby back. Carrying it means he can't run or fight. We also did a "dry run" prior to putting the ice foam (which melts in 3 minutes) so that no one would get lost.

After taking the baby out of the cradle will come the final, endless wave. DL and Morphius did great in keeping the monsters at bay, and I took point with the combat shotty once we moved past them. As one, we made our way back to the drop point - sealing the start door behind us to buy more time. You need to hold the scan area back at the drop point to win.

Big thanks to Morphius who clinched this victory for us, even though that was his first time playing GTFO, his extra DPS was enough to get us to the finish line.

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Blaugust Bonus:  "Do you 'finish' games/hobbies/projects and move on or do you come back to the same things again and again?" -Nogamara

Game wise if I like them then yes, I try finish them but otherwise no, and I rarely come back to a game after moving on as well. Projects wise, well... its getting started that seems to be the problem. Need to get past that hurdle before thinking about finishing anything!

Borderlands 2: Boss Killers

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Having completed our training, we leave Sanctuary STRONGER and absolutely murder an abomination created by Dr. Zed, assassinate a Hyperion DJ and clean up some skag piss as well as the stinky, leaky skags responsible. Even Captain Scarlett pops up again and threatens us with a new wurm who we DESTROY in under two minutes before running off again.

With our INCREASED MURDERICITY we then return to battle Voracidious and Chief Ngwatu, and this time with DL luring the Chief while Jim uses dual rocket launchers on the monster (I gave him mine as it makes sense tactically), and myself throwing 14 fastball grenades at it before going BERSERK in hand to hand - we win in a short but intense battle!

Afterwards we head back to challenge the main big boss BEHIND EVERYTHING... Master Gee! This guy and his baby wurms are still freaking tough, so instead of regular grenades we switch to gravity-pulling ones to keep him off balance. Despite this Jim and DL still go down, but I manage to find some cover and OUTLAST the Master in a long battle of ATTRITION. Once he is dead our job is complete - and the Borderlands are safe again... until we get more DLCs or the next game that is!

Krieg can become pretty invincible too, with the right build!

Insight: Voracidious and Master Gee are two complete opposites in combat. Master Gee is a lengthy survivability test while Voracidious is a fast DPS race. Prepare accordingly!

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Blaugust Bonus: "If you could meet any person you look up to, who would it be?" -Bhagpuss

My dad. It sounds silly since I already had years and years with him. I guess it really just is never enough huh?

Worst Restaurant Experience

Blaugust centric post today: "Write that one post you wanted to write so often, but always postponed. Finally do it!" -Easha and Poppy

Sure! Here we go... We've probably all had one or more of these, but I thought I'd share my worst restaurant experience to date.

It was Father's Day I think, so the place was visibly busy but we were seated in a short amount of time. Then the waitress comes up to us and says that we can order drinks but not food yet because the kitchen is "too busy". Um. Really? That's not a good look for someone in the service industry.

Anyway, sure - we got some drinks and waited around until said drinks were finished, all the time more people were coming in and being told the same of not being able to order food. So at that point we paid for the drinks and left to eat at a establishment that actually values its customers. I mean, even fast food joints like McDonald's knows to take your order/money ASAP so I'm not sure what these people were thinking.

I grinned with malicious satisfaction when the place closed a few weeks later. It doesn't matter how good your food is if your service is worthless. Turn people away at the door if your kitchen is running that far behind schedule!

Thankfully that space has now been replaced by a restaurant whose service and food are fantastic, and one we regularly frequent.  Here's a good example of why it's always good to prune out the worthless shits to make room for better things so ALWAYS, ALWAYS leave scathing reviews to burn those businesses to the ground! HELL YEAH!

What you think that's too far? Like the time I got a bus driver fired for being too slow? Sorry (not sorry). Time is the most precious commodity, and I'm not going to waste mine on the incompetence of others.

Oh that felt good. Maybe I should put more rage induced posts up! Thanks Easha and Poppy for the suggestion! (Now you know why I postponed writing it!)

Borderlands 2: Vanquishing Evil

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

The wizard Claptrap is as much of a failure as the regular Claptrap, but thanks to my awesome trap deactivation and jumping puzzle skills we get out of the mine and Jim rewards me with his legendary Fastball grenade because we're awesome (and he says it makes more sense tactically).

We then go up the mountain to Dragon keep, defeating the Handsome Dragon guarding a bridge and then SWORDSPLODING through an evil army before killing the Handsome Sorcerer and disemboweling his Drider-Daughter. With the villain defeated, DL sets free the beautiful rainbow queen of the land... BUTT STALLION! *NEEEEIIIGHH!*

Not so handsome after I'm through with him! Muahahaha!

After she poops out rainbow rewards for us, we learn of more evils that need squishing - starting with the whiney and cowardly prince Jeffrey (from Game of Thrones) who we take turns beating down. We then visit Murderlin's temple arena and survive all the rounds, even the bonus badass round, to learn various magic spells like fireball, chain lightning, and magic missile (regenerating grenades)!

Thus prepared, we revisit the deep mines to face the RAID DRAGONS - a ferocious foursome of winged beasts that we take down for a reward room unlike any other - we spend hours looting the treasure chest filled ruins and complete Tina's campaign!

Insight: You need to pull the swords out of the Immortal Skeletaurs to kill them permanently.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What is your earliest memory related to one of your core fandoms?" -Syp

That would be the D&D adventure where the party came across a hall full of lifelike statues with a locked door at the end, and I decided to bash it open and fall right into a basilisk den. Due to lousy initiative they got first move and I got turned to stone immediately. I was not useful that session at all. :P

Borderlands 2: Gaming is Training

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

And so we arrive in a desolate land plagued by skelemen and upon reaching the nearby town we find it filled with familiar faces. DL protects tavern owner Moxxi from some rowdy drunks, I chase down some crumpet thieves, and Jim explodes some of the town's scout blimps for Mister "Gatekeeper" Torque before we are allowed to move on to the Forest of Being Eaten Alive by Trees... THIS GAME IS GREAT!

The forest is home not only to angry ents, but also formidable orcs and scary looking spiders. Deeper in we even have to beat up some other adventurers who are camping a boss monster and save a crestfallen player from the invader "n00bkiller" before running into Roland "the White Knight" who is totally OK that Jim shot down the scouting blimp he was on.

Such a dork souls moment!

As recompense we help him retrieve a magic sword from a giant golem and as a reward each get a totally awesome SWORDSPLOSION shotgun which shoots a sword that explodes into more exploding swords! Thank you Mr. Torque! After fighting past dragons and giant skelemen kings we then enter the Mines of Avarice to forge an alliance with the dwarves who all look like Jim!

Everything goes smoothly until I "accidentally" explode the face of the dwarven king turning all the dwarves and their golems hostile. The little bastards even seal us in, but we find the wandering wizard Claptrap nearby willing to help us out... after we forge him a mighty beard taken from dead dwarves and power up his wand by inserting it into a number of magical creatures, before killing them. I DO ALL THE INSERTING!

Insight: Ents are weak to fire while knights are weak to corrosive but I like skelemen best as they're weak against melee!

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Blaugust Bonus: "Tell us about a person/s or thing/s that has greatly influenced you." -Chestnut

My very patient wife! She has me expanding my palate and perfecting another language.