Voidstar: Kahl Fight Good

[Part of the Voidstar: Warframe-128 story]

Explosions continued across the battlefield as more demolishers did their suicidal work. The Jackal survived its encounter with the bursa demolisher with heavy damage as did Grustag-3 member Shik Tal who barely scraped by against the machinist demolisher thanks to his rockets and giant shield. His brother Leekter was exploded by the hyena demolisher - a fate shared by the Valkyr specter whose talons took her too close and her paralysis skill too ineffective against the satyr demolyst. The Stalker was also obliterated when trying to melee the anti-MOA demolisher, but afterwards he just reconstituted himself to become the Shadow Stalker!

Elsewhere the sniper Ven'kra Tel was torn apart by Amaryn and her ancients, the Bonewidow defeated Misery who was self limited with only his scythe, Raptor RX had no chance against the Profit-Taker, Executioner Zura burned the Paris wielding Trinity specter to death with his Ignis, Executioner Gorth's Ogris rocketed the students of Cephalon Suda, the Sergeant [how did this guy even survive the landing] was easily handled by Parvos' time altering Protea, Zenith Galactical Tia Mayn was sniped by Executioner Harkonar, and the duel between specters Excalibur with dual skanas versus the Volt with a heat sword ended with victory for the latter.

Up on the ridge Kahl-175 faced off against Tyl Regor. "Would you look at you?" Tyl asked. "So fascinating. Tell me, why would you fight someone of your blood? Someone that loves you?" Kahl grunted, "You not like Kahl. Only Kahl like Kahl." Regor just laughed. "Foolish tube man, I AM YOUR FATHER!".  "Kahl has no father!" Kahl growled as he opened fire with his Grakata, but couldn't land a hit against the fast teleporting, hammer wielding scientist who thwacked him right in the chest plate. Kahl quickly rolled aside to evade Regor's follow up flying fist and in a smooth motion hacked through him with his Slaytra machete before sheathing it again.

"Kahl protect brothers."

"I'm not... done with you," the injured Regor coughed, suddenly unable to stand. "You done," Kahl answered. "Bleed to death. Kahl no need waste time on you." Grimacing, Tyl finally collapsed dead as Kahl walked away.

Warframe: Gara and Garuda

Two frames you acquire through bounties and while the blueprint RNG can be a bit annoying it's harvesting all the planet side resources to build that might take awhile. Before we talk about those we have a new code to redeem on the market today: TENNOCON2022, which gives some credits and resources which are always useful.

Gara

Collected from Cetus bounties, lore wise Gara is the glass warrior as that's what all her abilities revolve around. She can summon a glass long sword, wears glass armor that can passively blind enemies if she stands in light and shatter to have a cutting aura, trick enemies into attacking a carousel of mirrors and my favorite: create a circular glass wall which also turns enemies caught within to turn into glass. Only in that last instance (enemies) is glass brittle, because in Warframe glass is apparently super strong!

That glass wall is fantastic in defense as it combines both the area denial from Vauban's Bastille and bullet protection of Frost's snow globe with the downside that with enough damage, the wall will break. If you intentionally shatter the wall with the glass sword it can do massive damage too. Pretty cool frame though it takes some getting used to.

Garuda

Collected from Fortuna bounties, Garuda quite literally enjoys bloodbaths as she is the only frame that I've seen so far to graphically get more and more bloody. She likes blood so much that the more she kills, the more damage she does. She hurts herself to cleanse statuses and do more damage as well, and can quickly kill or impale foes into a gruesome decoration that regenerates health and energy. Best of all, she can leap to a foe which generates an indestructible forward facing shield that eats blood which forms into a floating heart.

This heart has no limit to the amount it can consume, and when you feel like it you can unleash all of it as damage into an enemy group at the cost of dropping the shield and starting again at zero. Gameplay with Garuda is very dynamic and very fun, but also kinda risky. I definitely like this more than Valkyr and its more fun to play than Gara, but it loses when it comes to utility which means the Gara will hang around my ship for longer.

Warframe: Banshee and Valkyr

Not many warframes can vocalize but these two certainly break that trend by being loud! Which when you think about it, is not really a good trait for a space ninja. :P

Banshee

One of the more easily attainable frames from your clan's Tenno Lab, this warframe is all about sound - able to track enemies using sonar, sonic booming them, or my favorite "sound quake" which does damage to all enemies within a particular radius of you and at lower levels feels super OP. Unfortunately I didn't get to try out her silence ability much which apparently is also a good crowd controller, but my main problem with her is fragility, which is ironic given Loki has less health and shields.

Maybe I just built / used her wrong but I never found the sweet spot of "this is a good frame to play", because either I had energy and was curb stomping enemies or more often, I didn't (sound quake drains a lot of energy) and had to rely on weapons. You know, like a warframe that has zero powers? Doesn't help that you can't move while doing sound quake which makes you easy sniper practice.

Valkyr

The result of Alad V's scientific torture has made this frame a berserker. Why you would reconstruct something in the state that its been tortured instead of brand new is a good question, but let's not ask it and instead focus on the strange conundrum presented by it: clearly it's meant for close quarters combat. But she's fragile?

Valkyr has a shout that improves friendly attack speed and diminishes enemy attack speed if they are close enough. She can paralyze enemies that are close enough by sacrificing her shields. She can go berserk and use inbuilt talons to rip things up in melee. She also has a grapple to shoot which pulls her to the target, to get her up close and personal. She's the best at what Wolverine does.

But damn it doesn't feel like it when I played her. Good armor never seems to make up for lousy shields, and when I'd get up close yes - many things would die but each fight put her closer and closer to death. Compared to a perma-invis Loki or a tiny razorwing Titania who never gets hit? That's a no brainer. Sure, it takes them longer to kill stuff but they'll be just as strong after each fight.

ZMR: Zombies Monsters Robots (F2P)

In this Free to Play FPS game, players are mercenaries who go on various missions against all sorts of bad guys. Yes, there are zombies, monsters and robots (some of which you can ride) but there are also spirits and valkyries and dinosaurs that shoot rockets! As you can imagine it is pretty crazy, and possibly why there always seems to be more PvE activity rather than PvP, which is awesome for me. As your character ranks up or when you complete quests you are also rewarded with better gear (later on, just a chance for better gear) but if you are impatient you can head over to the cash shop to spend real money or in-game gold for upgrades, most of which are "rented" and expire after 7 - 30 days depending on how much you pay.

There are a good number of maps each with unlockable difficulty levels (which I usually hate but its forgivable here), and you can also drop into a game midway which is great, but remember that your bonus loot comes from your position ranking at the end of the match. If you get downed and are unable to be saved by a team mate you will need to spend a revive token to respawn. When you join any map you have 3 for free (doesn't stack, and you don't get to keep them) which for the normal difficulty is plenty. On harder modes you might need to start spending the extra ones you gain as rewards because the bad guys start doing some serious damage.

Bullets and lasers everywhere!

Most missions fall into one of three categories: survive waves of enemies (more waves per difficulty), defend a portal to prevent enemy waves from escaping, and assaulting a location which doubles as story mode complete with high adrenaline boss fights, decent tunes and questionable voice acting. Despite the number of maps it doesn't take long to feel the grindiness but it is still a pretty fun shooter regardless. Also, because PvE is cooperative there's less of a balance issue with pay to win guys as you are all on the same team. I also find it pretty cool that you can pick up the weapons of your enemies, which is another way to gain those high powered guns, albeit temporarily.

All up I give ZMR three and a half sexy, sword swinging valkyrie dinosaur pirate spirits out of five and is an easy title to recommend to FPS fans - especially those who are more interested in cooperative play. You can find it on steam and as I said at the start, it costs you nothing to try it out!

Sojourn at Entropia: Plans for the Poor

[Part of my Sojourn at Entropia story.]

Suddenly - level 5 dinosaur!

Take that, Jurrasic Park wannabe.

Unfortunately, it broke my armor. Damnit!

Selling broken armor nets me .10 PED.

Also, someone managed to pull the remains of my car back to town.

I managed to salvage 4 cans of fuel from this husk, which is a miracle.

I decide to try do some exploration quests next, but without a ride, or at least money to pay for players to taxi me through very dangerous terrain I needed a plan.

Sojourn at Entropia: Broken

[Part of my Sojourn at Entropia story.]

After parting ways with Ana I decided to try make the dangerous drive to Fort Fury.

Where dinosaurs walk upright.

Alas my poor car, the dinosaurs destroyed it.

The destroyed me next, but since you respawn at the nearest teleporter I appeared at Fort Fury.

It was the end of the road though as these are what waited outside it's walls. 
That's a level 26 warlord: I have trouble with level 4 things!

I guess now is also a good time to mention I've also run out of ammo for my rocket launcher and have worn out my rifle and mediball thingy. Since they are "limited" items, they cannot be repaired, leaving me with my little pistol and a few rounds for it.  Oh and I still have that .01 cent which can purchase exactly nothing. :P

So I decided to warp back to Port Atlantis and take in the view from the spire to help plan my next move. Jumping off (accidentally) netted me an achievement. Lol.

Sojourn at Entropia: The Crashed Boat

[Part of my Sojourn at Entropia story.]

I picked up a new task to investigate a late delivery being shipped in via the river.

Didn't have to go far to find the answer.

I wasn't the only one interested in the wreck however.

That's a hoverpod!

I decided to team up with Ana Hernandez who was looking for the ship's captain.

The signal transponder led in land so I gave her a lift on my Valkyrie (car).

Unfortunately the captain was dead.

Because we were closer to a different outpost over a mountain, 
Ana decided to give me a lift... in her helicopter! :D

I was a little scared since she flew pretty close to the ground!

Gauntlet

This top down, four player co-op game sees a party of adventurers entering the titular Gauntlet of some really bored yet powerful being who enjoys watching blood sport. At least he's nice enough to leave a ton of gold and food (health) lying around as incentive to push forward into danger that scales slightly and has maps that also alter a tiny bit to keep you on your toes. Said gold is automatically shared among the party, regardless of who picks it up, which is a good system for co-op stuff. It can then be spent either on fluff items or a small selection of upgradable relics that can help in your adventures.

Those relics tie in to the rather different potion system in this game. Food is health and is consumed (or destroyed) as soon as it is touched. Potions you can carry around but they don't heal you. Instead they let you use the relics you are carrying. Got only one potion? Well, tough you can only use one of your two relics, once. Kinda annoying that you can't trade these sorts of things in game but if you have voice chat going (which I don't think is included in the game - big minus for me) it's easy enough to try organize.

Another thing you might need to organize is who plays what character at the start, as there can be no duplicates and all of them play very differently. I think the Wizard is the most powerful of the four, but is also the most complicated to play with all the spell juggling. He's very handy against the all too frequent "monster spawning stones" that appear though. Death on hard mode and above also requires a Skull Coin to pay for a revival. The only way to gain these is by killing a ton of monsters and since the Skull Coins are shared between the party there might be a lot of downtime for killed members since the levels are kinda on the long side.

Fortunately there are save points after every chapter (3 levels) so it immediately is better than Forced, which plays very similar to this complete with the annoying "shared screen" style. I'd personally prefer closer save points too but what can you do. All up it's a fun game for an already organized group to play. I give it three summoning pillars out of five.

Max Payne (2008)

[Post #20 of the Blaugust Challenge!]

Max Payne is out for revenge of the violent nature. This movie picks up just as he learns of clues on who he can enact it on. Before I go any further I should mention that I've never actually played any of the Max Payne games, so I don't know how well it ties in there. That aside, Mark Wahlberg makes a decent grumpy and angry protagonist, though he speaks a bit softly at times. Everyone else does a not so memorable job with the pretty basic yet effects laden plot.

What does work well though are the many moving camera shots which often involve variations of light sources and floating particles. Also very cool is the extensive CGI used in key spots of the movie, often when characters get high on a particular drug called Valkyr. The audience gets to see just what all of them hallucinate about.

Tripping balls has never been so appealing!

As expected there is a little bit of gun play and shooting and while the "bad guys" still have a poor hit chance they actually do a better job here than in most other action flicks. Just as well because most of the fighting is over pretty quickly, and like me you might be left wanting a little bit more just as the movie abruptly ends. Maybe they were angling for a sequel? Still, it's a pretty entertaining ride and I give it three bullets out of five.

Blaugust Bonus: I've never taken recreational drugs despite hanging around acquaintances that did in my school days, nor do I drink any form of alcohol. I guess peer pressure is less when you are the odd one out? Saying "no" is pretty simple for me (actually I try to say "never," when offered as it drives the point home better). I also don't smoke, thanks to my dad. He used to smoke a pipe. When I was little I asked what it was like so he gave it to me then told me to inhale. After coughing out that disgusting taste he told me "that's what it is like all the time," and I never smoked anything again. He would eventually stop smoking too, after getting a quadruple bypass. Afterwards the doctor said to him quite plainly to stop smoking or die. I'm grateful that I never got into that stuff.

A Little Bit of Conversation

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Dr. Vahlen killed the captive during her "interrogation", and now she wants another one, specifically an alien pilot. With a stroke of luck a UFO had landed in Japan so I sent valkyries Ikede and Murphy with Bald Witch and newbies Ragnar the Red (another Viking) and ex-terrorist Derka Derka. Despite encountering heavy resistance from sectoids, floaters and thin men they managed to capture said pilot while only suffering minor injuries (well, in Derka's case severe - but he lived).

While Vahlen and Shen "talked" to the outsider I killed time by sending Mister Mustachio, Panicman, the Italian, Cosmos and Airhead to a trainyard in Brazil where a floater army was abducting commuters. Easily put an end to that safely and quickly through good overwatch fire and by the time they got back the captive was dead and Shen wanted to construct a "key" out of its remains.

Oookay.

With most of Europe on the verge of total panic and the rest of the world not far behind I let them go ahead and do whatever with our remaining funds. It's actually very surprising how often this project that is "protecting the world" is bankrupt. Still, it turned out to be a good call because whatever they did - they managed to locate a large alien base in Asia! Damned sneaky aliens. This time we're going to take the fight to them!

Valkyrie Squad

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Soldiers Lost in the First Month: 7

After an easy mission in Brisbane where Panicman, Mister Mustachio, the Italian (newbie) and Punk Chick (newbie) literally exploded all opposition it was the end of the first month and the bald man was impressed with my work, giving me a grade of "A". What is this? School? Anyway with the new month also came my new batch of rookies that Bradford kept nagging me to get, what with my casualty rate and all. Another abduction mission in Russia let me test the mettle of half of them I call the Valkyrie squad (all female).

Just like in Charmed! Wait, what? Aren't they witches?

Composed of Murphy, Wood, Greene and Ikede the team deployed at some courtyard with higher elevation to the street. Always a good start. Moved up into cover to discover a new type of alien - JETPACK BOYS. Ok, or floaters. I prefer Jetpack boys. Gunned down one just as a pair of little fellas came up from the road. Too bad for them the jetpack boys decided to flee, leaving the two little fellas at the mercy of a squad of psycho gun toting sheilas.

After painting the place green with their blood the team began leap-frog crossing the nearby footbridge, finding and eliminating the remaining jetpack boys. Once there another two little ones and another squad of floaters showed up to the East. With not much cover on the bridge the team split in two, Murphy and Ikede sprinting forward into cover and Greene and Wood backtracking to a flanking position. The aliens caught wind of this though and despite mostly missing everyone else, Wood was shot dead through the eye (through a car) panicking Greene into a state of uselessness.

Fortunately the other two held it together and marched up out of cover to the enemy flank while lobbing grenades. It was enough to obliterate all the remaining alien scum. Mission complete! Meanwhile back in the base, Dr. Vahlen was frustrated I keep shooting or exploding the aliens that she wants to interrogate. LOL.