AC Odyssey: The Flaming Sea

[Part of the AC Odyssey journal]

With most of their land forces defeated it falls upon the Tempest, captain of the huge Persian fleet, to lock in and tighten the noose on the trio of rebels and their supporters hiding out in a small portion of Greece. Regarded as a skilled tactician, she is immediately suspicious when a single enemy vessel - the Adrestia - appears on the horizon to challenge them.

She is right to be suspicious too as it becomes clear the enemy vessel was outfitted with a weapon meant for her flagship, a forward facing flamethrower! She desperately tries to keep her distance but the Adrestia is too fast and its captain too ruthless as one by one her ships are sunk, with her own flagship cleaved in two.

Her luck really runs out when she awakes on the shore, only to face the Eagle Bearer waiting nearby and already sharpening his blades. "How are you here!?" she coughed, as she looked out over the waves to see the Adrestia still in pursuit of her few remaining vessels. All of her intel squarely put the Eagle Bearer as the captain of that vessel.

"Oh, I've been training someone else to captain the ship," answered the Eagle Bearer. "And she's very good at it."

Deimos knows how to keep people in line.

With no options left the Tempest drew her weapons and charged her enemy but was easily outclassed and stabbed through the gut with a half-spear. As she lay bleeding out on the sand she whispered "They will find you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow... but someday..."

Insight: You can upgrade the forward flamethrower for more damage. It works extremely well with the battering ram.

Superman: Red Son

In mother Russia arms are crossed behind back, not in front.

What a different world it would be in the Kryptonian who would become Superman crash landed in Russia instead of the USA. This movie follows the comic of the same name, with a few liberties of course, to show what a Russian Kal-El might do differently. The answer is "a lot". Voice acting is good and the art is around the regular level of these DC shows, with some decent fights to boot.

Too bad he doesn't actually wield a hammer and sickle.

The story has a few things I'd like to nitpick, like Lex, and how the hell did this version of X beat Y? You'll know those variables when you see the movie and guess what, it's never explained, but I guess that's just canon? All up its a rather "meh" outing, especially as it's a stand alone story which is disappointing. DC and animated superman fans might enjoy it but otherwise feel free to skip. I give it 2.5 Stalin's out of 5.

AC Odyssey: Darius

[Part of the AC Odyssey journal]

Darius wasn't sure how the Persians had found him, or how they now had Spartan allies, but he wasn't going to let them take him alive. Leaping from his perch he smashed his hidden punch-dagger down on the unsuspecting Greek warrior that had followed the trail of bodies he had left behind. Unlike the others this one could parry the surprise attack and subsequently go toe to toe with the old assassin.

Moves pretty well for an old man...

"Father! Stop!" cried Neema, his daughter who arrived only minutes into the fight. "This is the Eagle Bearer, the one sinking those Persian ships!" The two men stared off and lowered their arms.

"You can call me Alexios," said the Eagle Bearer, his golden Minotaur axe still firmly grasped in his hand. "Now can someone tell me why the Persians are so interested in invading Greece?"

"They simply want to expand their empire," replied Darius, not wanting to admit his murdering of their previous ruler, King Xerxes, had led them to these shores. "But if we work together, we can stop that from happening."

Alexios readily agreed.

Insight: The Legacy of the First blade adds a new cult to hunt down and fight against - the Order of the Ancients, with new members arriving in each chapter.

Have You Ever... the Gaming Edition!

A continuation of sorts, this time with a gamer slant!

Have you ever rage quit a game?

Yes. Life is too short for annoying things. You'll do this more often as you get older.

Have you ever earned all achievements in a game?

Yes. To the Moon only has one achievement. Go get it (and cry)! :P

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter gaming?

Yes, once all the way to sunrise which was crazy. Now my group usually stops at around 2 or 2:30am.

Have you ever live-streamed your gaming?

No. Why worsen the performance of the game (and the player)?

Have you ever pre-ordered a game?

No. Only a fool invests in promises.

Have you ever bought a game and never played it?

Yes, when I buy things as gifts for others. I don't "buy" games for myself. I only get free ones.

Have you ever been jump-scared by a horror game?

Yes - this happens often. Doesn't even need to be a horror game, if something shows up unexpectedly that I need to react to. That almost describes all games right?

Have you ever had a set squad for a specific game?

Yes and no. On multiplayer games I usually run with my brothers. For single player games that use squads, I try use people from previous my stories.

Have you ever bought a game on multiple platforms?

No, that would be a waste. Even buying it the first time would be a waste, just get it for free (unless its for someone else).

Have you ever got a console for the games specifically?

No. If a game doesn't release on PC, then I never play it. It's that simple.

AC Odyssey: Herald from the East

[Part of the AC Odyssey journal]

"What have you done!?" demanded Herodotus angrily as he confronted his old friend in Samos. What was supposed to be a visit due to the death of his parents had quickly escalated into an investigation on the mercenary attacks on the island village; attacks propagated by the man now before him.

"You've been gone too long Herodotus," came the reply. "The Persians are paying good coin to establish a foot hold here and their fleet is already en route. I'm afraid I can't let you interfere with our plans."

The distinctive face masks gives them away.

 "Then I am sorry too," Herodotus nodded as his comrade Alexios, better known as the Eagle Bearer, lunged from a nearby shrub and within a blink of an eye killed the conspirator and all of his armed guards. "Looks like you've recovered from that tree incident nicely," said Herodotus.

"I'm getting there," nodded Alexios. "Come on, we need to sent the Adrestia to sink that fleet!"
 
Herodotus didn't move. "I... I can't. While I've enjoyed our adventures, Samos needs me now."

"I understand," Alexios said approvingly as he shook hands with the scribe. "And don't worry about those Persians. I'll take care of them."

Insight: Now that I got gifted the DLCs for this game, this story can continue! Thanks Juris!

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. :)

For the King: Victorious Defeat

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The ship Queen Rosomon provided Nemo, Davy and Ahab was fine indeed and could stand up to the powerful blows of the Sea King. Alas it was their human bodies that gave out in the end as Nemo was crushed, Davy drowned and Ahab eaten by the towering monster. They did severely hurt it though, forcing it to retreat into the deep once more to rest for a few centuries and saving Fahrul from the imminent flood.

"Your life is in danger my Queen," said Hildebrandt. "With his grand plans in the wind the wizard is sending assassins for you instead, as that would be the next best thing to cause chaos."

"It's true," said Face, the last remaining A Team member who was left as her on again/off again body guard. "He's put a public bounty on you and the rewards are... lets say even your guards might be tempted. We need to get you out of here any lay low until this all settles down."

Heeding the advice, Queen Rosomon quickly changed into adventuring attire and with Hildebrandt and Face descended into the cave system designed as the royal escape route. A route known by the wizard's assassins apparently as soon bandits and all sorts of scum began attacking from the maze like caverns. In an attempt to lose them, Hildebrandt led the party to the lower depths near the magma river, but even here an assassin followed them. This one had a pet owl bear that ripped Face's face off then pinned Hildebrandt and gorged itself on his innards while he was still alive.

Their owl bears stand upright!

His final screams didn't distract Queen Rosomon who used her own significant magic prowess to battle the assassin but she was no match for the priestess once known as Lucia. With a flick of her hair, Lucia sent the good Queen off her feet, and tumbling right into the lava river behind her with a splash, head first. With her task complete, the smirking priestess then wondered if she should take the throne of Fahrul for herself.

Insight: "Hildebrandt's Cellar" mode is an infinite dungeon which tests how far you can reach. Goblin shops and treasures are available on each floor and there are bosses (in the form of scourges) every 3 floors.