House of Danger

A choose your own adventure board game!

Taking the role of a psychic investigator (which you will be reminded often), players take turns reading through the numerous cards and deciding what actions to perform through this cooperative / solo play five chapter adventure. There is some dice rolling which adds an element of luck, but for the most part it is quite easy since deaths are "just a set back".

Those two simple scales are very effective!

Premonition clues also come up every now and then, these are just picture cards with no explanation but all warn of (instant death) dangers ahead. I quite like the system used here, the artwork and the crazy story which proved to be very entertaining.

Possibly worth looking into if you liked the old choose your own adventure books. I give it 2.5 premonitions out of 5.

The Bodyguard (series)

Not the Kevin Costner version.

Following a terrorist incident on a train, police sergeant Budd (Richard Madden) is tasked  to protect a highly visible and outspoken politician. I don't dare say more as it might spoil this six episode crime thriller drama, which is indeed worth a watch.

Guard duty: Both boring and difficult!

After the intro the first two episodes do drag a bit, but if you get past that the pace picks up nicely. The acting is pretty good and the plot will keep you guessing (and towards the end, glued to your seat). If you like detective type shows, this one should be on your radar. I give it 3 spasm hands out of 5.

Forbidden Sky

Electrifying fun!

After escaping a sinking island and a burning desert you now find yourself on a floating platform where you must power up a rocket ship by wiring series circuit using the raging lightning storm all around you while trying to fight the high winds and evade getting zapped  yourself!

Cooperative game play here is definitely required as players get to "build" the platform based on the tiles they scout (less randomness than Forbidden Desert), keeping in mind the length of the provided "wire" components and the main objective which requires a loop be built among the required components.

Wiring up the rocket is great fun!

Harder difficulties require a bigger loop, while easier ones can be completed faster with less materials. That said, we've already won the Legendary mode of this game - unlike the previous two where you need to race to win, this one requires a good dose of caution and more thinking. As before, one player dies - it's game over for all!

Definitely an enjoyable game and one I can recommend! It gets it 5 lightning strikes out of 5. We particularly enjoyed activating the rocket. :P

The Little Mermaid (2018)

Should have stayed at sea.

After an opening that recaps the traditional Little Mermaid tale and enforces this is a kids movie, the story follows a reporter and his niece as they investigate a supposed "cure all" being peddled at a nearby circus by an almost literally mustache twirling ringmaster who treats his staff badly.

Guess who is the mermaid?

Poppy Drayton (whom you might recognize from the Shannara Chronicles) is magnificent. Alas, that's about the only good thing this has going for it. Pointless scenes, wooden/over acting, unexplained powers, obvious blue screens and a key point involving what must be the slowest train ever make it a pretty weak offering in terms of childrens stories.

Other than the bit where Poppy sings, I wouldn't watch this again nor do I recommend it. If you want a low budget children's tale, go for the classic Princess Bride instead. I give this iteration 1.5 painted shell bras out of 5.

Sword Legacy: Omen

Where I assume the bad guy is French.

A surprise attack forces an enraged Uther Pendragon to flee from his lands and then attempt to unite Britannia in his quest for vengeance! Oh, and to save the girl but mostly for vengeance!

Hacking off scalps with a knife!

This is a very on the rails tale and shares many similarities to the Banner Saga, only here more focus is given to the turn based strategy combat sections where you pick four people in your team to deploy on missions to basically kill everyone else.

Combat is fun though, and there's a bit of inventory management and equipment upgrading to be had aside from the unlocking of more skills which vary between characters. Not quite as good as Banner Saga in my book, but if you like tactical combat this one might be for you. I give it 2.5 dragon hearts out of 5.

Aquaman

Giving giant forks a chance in the spotlight.

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) aka "Aquaman" is minding his own business, drinking beers, taking down pirates and giving people the bends, when he is summoned back to Atlantis to try stop his half brother from launching an all out war on the surface world.

Get ready for surprise explosions!

Flashbacks also serve as a backstory for Arthur, and the big budget CGI is used to full effect throughout this very entertaining adventure. I particularly liked how every time a scene threatened to get quiet or slow, something would just explode and push the plot into an action scene keeping it at a good pace.

Speaking of the story, it is pretty good - better than Justice League and one I'd definitely watch again. If you like superhero stuff, or Jason Momoa, or both, then I highly recommend this. I give Aquaman 4 tridents out of 5.

Alien: Isolation

If only you had a large cardboard box.

In a bid to collect your mother's last known voice recording, you've traveled to a distant space station only to find it in chaos as some life form is hunting people down. Especially you, thanks to how the AI works.

Oh... that's not good.

The setting, sounds, story, equipment, controls and ambience all work perfectly to create a tense, first person playing field as you sneak your way around the station, and you'll be sneaking a lot while going back and forth to various objectives and to collect things.

Definitely a good game, but it's one designed for patient, evasive players as making any noise will bring the alien, whom you cannot out run or kill, to you. If that's something you can live with then I highly recommend it and give it 4.5 Nostromo logs out of 5.

Anti-Vaxxer

I've got an acquaintance who has gone full anti-vaxx with her 20 month old little girl, posting proudly about this "healthy" decision on Facebook and advocating strongly for her approach.  Others have posted arguments for and against this, and as someone who strongly believes in vaccination I'm tempted to chime in as well, just to ask "Why would you let your kid getting a disease you didn't have because you were vaccinated?"

But seeing as we're not really friend-friends, I don't have kids of my own, and she seems to have all the answers she wants to hear, I'm hesitant before putting my foot in my mouth and going full on confrontation mode - and most likely losing a Facebook friend (or more, depends how it goes). It's her kid after all so she can do what she likes, who am I to say otherwise?

On the flip side staying silent feels wrong too. What would you do?

The Terror (Season 1)

Don't feed the bear.

This is the delightful tale of how two vessels of the Royal Navy go on an exciting expedition to find the Northwest Passage and promptly get stuck in the ice... for years. Aside from freezing temperatures they also must face an ever shortening food supply, sickness, each other, and the occasional soul eating monster.

A what now?

Every episode is filled with good acting, awesome props and beautiful scenery, letting you share the depths of despair these fellows are going through and of course many, many gruesome deaths.

My only negatives are that it is quite heavy on the dialogue, and some parts are slow. Still an entertaining horror drama for those that like that sort of thing. There is a season 2 planned, but since season 1 is quite a strong stand alone plot I thought it deserved an early review. I give it out 3.5 tongues of 5.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Beautiful and crazy.

Senua journeys into Niflheim to try save the soul of her lover and her only companions are the whispers she hears all around her. Let me start by saying the story craftsmanship in this game is fantastic, as are the voice acting, graphics and the very flawed Senua who is simultaneously fragile and strong portrayed marvelously by her motion capture actress Melina Juergens.

We just want to see her happy...

The controls, music and combat system also lend themselves well to making this game a joy to experience. Indeed the only part I disliked are the point of view puzzles, because they introduce some backtracking and sort of kill the pacing, though that might just be because I am lousy at puzzles.

This short but deep game is one that I highly recommend to everyone and score it 5 runes out of 5. Give it a try and overcome your fears!

Design: Longer Combat isn't always more Fun

It's just more tedious.

[Part of the Design Folder]

How many times do you think you need to stab someone with a sword, or shoot with a gun, before they die, or at least are incapacitated enough to stop fighting? RPGs in particular have a nasty habit of making this number waaaay higher than it should be.

Yes, combat doesn't have to be realistic in games but it has to be fun! Dark Souls is a decent example as boss fights are varied enough to require learning and require no repetition (unless you fail), and that the more mundane enemies are often slain quickly, or quickly slay you.

The Assassin's Creed series was doing good too - using the counter-kill system which made combat through the swarms of baddies not only fun but kept the games tempo up. That is until they made AC: Unity. Gone is the counter-kill ability, replaced by parry / slash-slash-slash button mash. Oh, so just like Dark Souls right?

Wrong. Dark Souls has a wide array of enemies with different behavior patterns and attacks and as I said, combat ends quickly. AC: Unity has the same 4 dudes in various skins on an endless, respawning loop and some are HP sponges for no other reason than "this zone is harder, so the baddies should have more HP". They are also so frequent which ultimately makes them a chore rather than a fun experience. Stupid design Assassin's Creed: Unity. Stupid design.

Astroneer (Alpha)

Mining the galaxy for... fun?

Astroneer is a cute but strange little game where you take the role of a titular Astroneer to land on lonely, randomly generated, decent sized planets and build bases on them. To do so, you (and your buddies if in co-op) will need to use your magical vacuum cleaner to collect various materials to research and construct things.

Exploration is essential in finding some of the rarer components, often requiring cave spelunking where hostile flora often resides. That said, the worst threats are of an environmental nature - either from powerful wind storms or from simply going too far from your tethers and running out of air.

Better take shelter from that...

Once you progress far enough, you can build a shuttle to take you to the next planet and start all over again. That's pretty much all there is to this game at the moment and while it certainly is pretty it's not really my cup of tea. Probably one currently better suited to the Minecraft crowd, we'll see if it gets more interesting when it goes live for real.

Absurd Game Ideas: Saint of the Mountain

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

Saint of the Mountain

In this action RPG, you play as a Saint Bernard who must patrol the mountain ranges to keep them safe for mountaineers. Rescue people from hypothermia, avalanches, rock slides, wolves, bears, poachers, dwarves, nazis, aliens and a dragon while commandeering sleds, snowmobiles, and helicopters and gaining XP to unlock more skills! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? You can fully equip with vests, helmets, M16s, great swords, grenades, jet packs, lazers and even nuclear rockets! Go forth and save everyone as the Saint of the Mountain!

Assassin's Creed: Unity

More RPG, more Pay to Win!

This time around we follow the would-be assassin Arno (and friends, if played co-op) as he awkwardly leaps, clambers and struggles to jump into the windows of Paris during the French Revolution. The city, which is packed to the brim with NPC crowds, is massive and well detailed, especially the building interiors. Arno himself is almost fully customizable in gear (think RPG type games) and attire and his story line is pretty decent.

Can't do away with the hood, no sir.

Alas, all that hard work is mostly undone by a number of issues - the first and foremost being greed. Like any Assassin's Creed game, there are a multitude of things to collect such as chests. This time around, they come in four colors: silver (open), red (locked), blue (for those who bought the DLC), and gold (pay to win). That's right. PAY TO WIN.

Obviously that hard curbed my usual kleptomania as by default, I cannot clear the map if I don't pay to win. Even the locked chests have their own problem in that they are inaccessible until you skill up in lock picking, but by the time you do you've probably got Cafe's already generating enough Francs that you can ignore them.

Also problematic are the controls, where the previously single parkour key was divided into "parkour up", "parkour down", and "jump into window / parkour forward". Due to how the map is created I understand why they needed such a system, but a more elegant solution would have simply been a single key that switches between those states. For me, this made Arno behave like a psychotic monkey which made it harder to evade gunfire.

Oh yes, pretty much every one has guns now - and Arno is a shit swordsman. He's the first assassin who cannot counter kill, instead relying on multiple strikes to end an opponent. Dude, if you can't kill a dude by hitting him once with a sword, you probably should stick to guns. Again, I can tell this was a poor design decision - because RPGs traditionally let you hit things a lot before they die.

As a result - do you remember those awesome times when any of the previous AC heroes could just walk into a literal army of enemies and come out on top? Well Arno can't do that. At some point you need to run or die. By default this makes him the worst fighter ever and just makes him even less fun to play since his attire is more heroic than he is.

All up, AC: Unity is not a -bad- game, but it's nowhere near as fun as its predecessors. I give it 2.5 pisspots out of 5 and only recommend it for die hard Creed fans. For everyone else, pick any of the earlier games for more fun.

Absurd Game Ideas: It was Me!

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

It was Me!

In each session of this multi-player game, players find themselves trapped in a mansion, train or ship with each other, a dead body, and with Inspector "Let God" Sortemout (an NPC). At the beginning of each game, one player is randomly flagged as the murderer - knowledge only they are privy to.

Inspector Sortemout will then begin making his rounds to look for clues and question each player which will raise or decrease their suspicion score. During this, players have free reign to hide or plant evidence, lie about details in multiple choice questioning, and accuse other players of being the guilty party.

When time is up, Inspector Sortem takes all the players to the main lobby to reveal his findings - and conduct an on the spot, public execution of everyone but the player with the least suspicion. The player that survives is the winner - doubly so, if that player was the actual murderer! Can you be the best murderer ever? Find out in "It was Me!"

Sims 3

The ultimate idle game.

This game falls in such a weird place. Coupled with decent enough graphics, customization and music you get to play god over a small, mundane town where you must cultivate, curse, or simply observe your chosen sims (people) - and it is very addictive.

It's like... reality TV I guess?

Yet at the same time it is very boring! I was very tempted to do a story series on my hours upon hours of game time here except reading back through it nothing happens! The game even knows it is boring giving you a fast forward option to hurry things along.

Certainly a good pick for relaxing, this game is perhaps the ultimate in idle games as sims will go about their lives with or without your interference. How long you end up watching them is the only question. I give it 2 betrayals out of 5.

Absurd Game Ideas - Wind of Hero

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

Wind of Hero

Aliens have attacked the Earth and every nation has been brought to their knees against the advanced technology the invaders posses, but the aliens didn't count on one thing... flatulence. In this action RPG, players take the role of "Hero", a fully customizable cow who must save the world by farting the aliens to death.

To do this you must to graze on various combinations of plants that can make your farts stronger, denser, wider, more lasting, reach farther, refract lasers better, be more silent, be more deadly and so forth while eluding enemy patrols or luring them into close quarter ambushes. This game also supports co-op drop ins, adding more cows to the mix. The time has come to stink out the alien invaders and to make everyone smell the Wind of Hero!

Itch.io - Unnecessary Evil

Clever little platformer.

Behold your band of heroes!

I've only recently found out about Itch.io, another games trading site that has a large free games section. In there I found this clever little game that I thought I'd share: "Unnecessary Evil". It is a very short platformer that's a bit loose on copyright, but I can highly recommend to everyone. Give it a try if you have a few minutes! :)

Absurd Game Ideas - Porcelain Empire

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

Porcelain Empire

In this RTS that rival the likes of StarCraft, players step into the shoes of rival toilet manufacturers vying for total control of the market. Resources will need to be managed to increase production, storage, delivery, and sales facilites all while hiring workers, salesmen, researchers, drivers, spies, security guards, lawyers and more.

While there is little combat in the traditional RTS sense, players must endeavour to behave within the laws or at least not get caught while breaking them, but with risk comes reward! Speeding drivers deliver goods faster. Money can be saved by cooking the books and dodging taxes. Planting evidence at rivals structures might slow them down to deal with the cops. Putting large quantities of laxatives in the city drinking water increases demand.

All viable tactics in your quest to create your own Porcelain Empire!

Time Raiders

Because Tomb Raider was copyrighted.

When a family of tomb raiders finds the map and key to a lost tomb, you can guess what happens next! While that summary is pretty accurate, don't let the simplicity fool you. There is a lot of WTF going on in this movie.

Checklist for tomb raiding: Heavy coat. Check. Sniper rifle. Check.

Foreign mercs, ultra fake swords, puzzling flashbacks, magic flutes, creepy puppets, some decent martial arts bits, CGI creatures and a massive, oddly designed tomb are just some of the things lurking beneath the surface.

There's a lot of money that went into this, and you can tell from the props and set design - and while the main tomb raiding plot is fine to follow, the subplot of the two almost more than friends "boy band" leads is anything but.

It almost feels like they tried to fit too many ideas into one movie, making it a jumbled mess. Pity, because there are some fun bits. That said, I wouldn't watch it again and score it 1.5 golden masks out of 5.

Absurd Game Ideas - Dr. Extractor (VR)

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

Dr. Extractor (VR)

This feel good game uses cutting edge Virtual Reality technology where players step into the shoes of Doctor Extractor to use their own hands and precision tools to squeeze, pull, stretch, and coax out pimples, black heads, cysts and more from randomly generated patients until they are fully purified. Catch the sebum in your own hands and experience Dr Extractor (VR) today!

Neverwinter Online: The Heart of Fire

After the spectacular Ravenloft Module, Neverwinter followed up by breaking professions with this Acquisitions Incorporated themed release that lets players help the bumbling company in retrieving the titular Heart of Fire (which is a nifty rank 14 enchant), and more!

Well, no - not a lot more. My gut feeling from seeing the trailer was it would be a disappointment, and lo and behold, I was right. I suppose Cryptic wanted to tap into these D&D internet celebrities to gain more players, resulting in a campaign designed as such - with a humorous tone that is so alien to the rest of the game outside from some foundry missions. This might have won over a few more people if they had humor that didn't insult the player in every third sentence.

Also, Xanathar has lost any potential of being a serious threat.

Design wise, the repetition of the campaign quests is even more painful when you try max out the weekly tokens through sheer stupid design with only one repeatable quest to fill out what your weeklies can't. As a whole its so bad that its made me take a break from the game.

In short, this module is utterly garbage and the next one better have the quality of Ravenloft x 100  if Cryptic wants to keep Neverwinter Online alive. At least, alive for me. One of the worst modules EVER. (Storm King's fishing stupidity is pretty hard to beat).

Absurd Game Ideas - Pussy... of Death!

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

Pussy... of Death!

In this open world stealth sandbox, you play a stray cat whose goal is to charm and woo your way into the hearts and homes of humans - and then murder them. Trip them downstairs, drop active appliances into their baths, startle them into traffic, or just push them into wood chippers all while avoiding patrolling hound and pound units and keeping suspicion low as to access the next unwitting human's home.

Multiplayer supports co-op where you can team up with buddies to perform even more devilishly gruesome executions or competitively to see who can kill the most humans in a set time limit. Earn the respect of your fellow felines and become the true Pussy... of Death!

Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal

Makes you want to ram your head into a gold plated wall.

Demon Hunter Zhong Kui is sent to hell to steal the Dark Crystal and then must protect it  against the demons sent to retrieve it. Complications arise when his ex, Snow Girl, whom he is still in love with, sides with said demons.

Even the eye candy can't save this film.

While the plot is serviceable, and there are a few nice martial art bits with exaggerated wire work use, this movie has a few major problems. I'm just going to pick on two: Firstly it has no traversal scenes which is weird. One second the guy on a cliff then in the next breath he's in town. Hell must be super accessible too as characters traverse back and forth really quickly.

My major gripe though is the CGI. It's not terrible but it detracts from the movie because of its heavy use. Having your main characters can transform into CGI creatures who cannot speak is a bad idea, especially for the length of time they do so in this movie.

Not one I recommend, I give it 2 bloody fans out of 5 and would not watch it again.

Absurd Game Ideas - Defeat: The Ultimate Victory!

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

Many game bloggers, including myself, usually talk about our ideal games or how to improve the games we currently play. Well I thought it would be fun to flip the script and share our most absurd and silly game or game mod ideas! You are invited to blog your own crazy ideas too! :)

For today I give you...

Defeat: The Ultimate Victory!

A computer card game (like Hearthstone) where players battle competitively but with no option to "pass" a turn - you must perform an action each round. Active cards, cards in hand (of you and your enemy), actions taken previously and combinations thereof all can power up what you play to cause devastating combos - which you don't want!

This is because the goal is to lose - the most units, the most land, the most health, the most everything! That's right! In this game winners are pathetic and losers are the champions because defeat is the ultimate victory!

Absurd Game Ideas

Something new I'm trying this year - since I like to muse on how to make "better" games, I thought I'd put down my attempts at making the most ridiculous ones too.

Superhero Tank
Saint of the Mountain
It was Me!
Wind of Hero
Porcelain Empire
Doctor Extractor (VR)
Pussy... of Death!
Defeat: The  Ultimate Victory!

Constantine: City of Demons

When one demon isn't enough.

Having the same animation quality as Justice League: Dark, this tale follows John Constantine (voiced by Matt Ryan, who also portrays him in live action) as he tries to save a child's life, and more importantly sheds some light on why he is so haunted by the events at "Newcastle".

More adult than you might think.

As you might expect, there are demons, magic and action sequences throughout but this thoroughly goes for an R rating as it also includes a lot of blood, gore and even sex into the mix and is better for it. Well, at least the blood and gore.

Probably not one for the kids but a definite lock for fans of Constantine. I give it 2.5 dirty bathroom lessons out of 5 and would watch it again.

Today I Smiled: Historical Lego

Been awhile since I did one of these, and since this clever use of lego did leave me smiling I thought I'd share it with you all:  WWI In LEGO - The Capture of the Amiens Gun - By Brickmania :)

Not lego but equally entertaining is this commercial I stumbled on for Trulicity. I'm guessing the format is normal for US citizens but it is so hilarious for me given that the disclaimers take up more time than the rest of the ad.

Tech wise did you know about this thing called Gate Box which gives you a holographic companion at home? The invention is cool, but the users border on creepy. Anyway, I'm going to finish off with a music link as per usual - this time the legendary Sir Tom Jones being coaxed by fellow Voice judges and the audience to give an impromptu performance. Despite his age, his voice is still fantastic!

Hope you enjoyed at least some of those! ^_^

The Last Ship

Starts good then slowly sinks.

The sudden world wide outbreak of a deadly disease leaves the Nathan James, a sole US Navy destroyer and her crew, led by Captain Tom Chandler (Eric Dane), to fix the world. Being a military based show there's a naturally high level of violence present as the ship goes on adventures across the world.

Gas mask whites are only a thing for the promo pics.

I also quite like that there's a decent casualty rate and the effects are for the most part, quite passable though much like the plot - deteriorates per season. It certainly isn't the best show out there but I found it quite entertaining and would actually recommend it as a background/"while you are doing something else" show.

The Cursed: Unbound

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Despite having lost his host body, the demon spirit then began to flee - only to be easily eliminated by Gevlon who was now carrying all the demon-killing trinkets from before (he is greedy after all).

Just as the dust settles, Ragner and Rollo show up with reinforcements but find that the task is already complete. Instead, they escort the survivors Shelumu, Gevlon and Sir Siegfried out of there to a not so nearby town where they celebrate their victory and their freedom.

Before leaving with the rest of his people, Shelumu pays Siegfried enough to start a new mercenary company, Ragner and Rollo enough to purchase a brand new ship and Gevlon a king's bounty for saving the day against Tyranthraxus, an amount that could buy him a whole fleet of ships. The day is saved... for now.

Everyone likes shineys.

The Cursed: Tyranthraxus

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Getting tricked (and a fireball to the face) from a goblin was so humiliating for Tyranthraxus, he had to flee. This gave the team time to compose themselves with Shelumu providing healing before giving chase, fighting through his priests, hell hounds and margoyles before reaching him in his upstairs chamber where he waited with an army.

When in doubt, bring an army.

Sir Siegfried was familiar with this setup and quickly ordered everyone back through the doorway. Faeris was too slow though, catching a Tyranthraxus thrown lightning bolt (and it's bounce back), killing the ranger instantly.

Kelaide provided the stinking cloud while Gavion and Siegfried held the door, with Gevlon using all his accumulated wands to throw spells across into the swarm of margoyles. Eventually the herd thinned, and Tyranthraxus himself barged through the frame - killing Kelaide with a stomp and Gavion with a punch.

Still, the focused attacks weakened the demon giant, and Sir Siegfried finally brings him down and kills him.

The Cursed: Middle Finger

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

After escaping the spiders, Faeris leads the team through the trees into the city proper where they avoid hell hounds and wandering rakshasas, ducking into what turns out to be a massive temple. There at the entrance, the old man/demon now in possession of an ice giant waited for them, activating their cursed bond immediately.

Behold my purple power!

"Welcome my puppets! Thanks to you, I - Tyranthraxus shall be invincible! Now, hand over all the artifacts you were absentmindedly collecting - all those items that are the only threat to my existence."

To their horror, each of them started dropping various trinkets before their demon master, not even knowing where or when they had picked them up. Into the pile Tyranthraxus also throws a piece of paper with a single word.

"That is the word that will free you," he laughed manically before turning to a nearby, robed priest of small stature. "Servant, burn these in front of my new slaves."

The little priest wandered over, and without hesitation picked up the paper and read the word aloud. In a flash, the party was free! "WHAT!?" exclaimed Tyranthraxus.

The "priest" threw back his hood, revealing an ugly goblin face - it was Gevlon. The real priest was dead in the corner with a slit throat. "You never bound me you piece of shit!" he exclaimed waving a middle finger at the giant with one hand and a wand of fireballs in the other.

January 2019 Status

Happy New Year everyone!  I quite like this list thing that I started doing last year, so I'm obviously going to be continuing it. I finally upgraded my computer too, so now all those games that I previously couldn't play are fair game once again and I've already been hammering away at them! :)

Also, in hopes to get the web comic / board game thing progressing, I'm going to be limiting all my drawing work to those two projects only - so no more random art work for a bit. I'm sure it will still be tough with all the games I've yet to go through, and all the ones I got gifted for Christmas!

    End the year with less weight (+1 kg from last month, final total: -4.9 kg)

    +End 2019 with less weight
    Make board game prototype (no progress)
    Complete web comic chapter 1 (no progress)
    Clean out wardrobe (lots more to go)
    Deal with overhanging trees  

Backlog Update:

FROM GIFTS (or freebies)
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
Alien Isolation (done)
Shadow of War
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (done)
Satellite Reign
Assassins Creed Unity (done)
Astroneer (Alpha) (done)
+Battle for Wesnoth
+Lego Lord of the Rings
+Assassin's Creed Odyssey
+Baldur's Gate
+Baldur's Gate 2
+Kingdom Come: Deliverance
+Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
+Fallout Tactics
+Sword Legacy Omen (done)

Board games:
Mice and Mystics Campaign (6/11)
Zombicide: Black Plague Campaign (6/11)
London Dread Campaign (0/4)
Play Adamastor (0/2 modes)
+Play Forbidden Sky (done)
+Play Escape from Colditz (1/2 modes)
+Play House of Danger (2/5 chapters)