Synced Century: Age of Ashes Maid of Sker

Another trio of epic games.

Synced

This futuristic shooter that involves nanites reviving the dead and somehow using one zombie as your ally actually has no future any more. Outside of the tutorial I wasn't able to create a character as the servers are shutting down on September 9 2024. Just wasn't cool enough I suppose?

Century: Age of Ashes

Of the dragon flight simulators (or large avian flight simulators) that I've played this one certainly is up there in terms of graphics as well as having an easy control scheme. Of course, it also stands apart in being purely a team versus team arena albeit with various missions while killing each other, and dragon collection and customization on the side. A little slow to load up but pretty quick to find matches so thumbs up for that too. Alas, I'm not into PvP so its not for me but its definitely worth checking out.

Maid of Sker

In this first person horror sneaker you must make your way through a creepy hotel to save your girl, and while there are heavy Resident Evil vibes with the hotel's structure and map (but not enemies) it plays more like Thief in that you must sneak past everything (though there is an alternate "escape the hotel" mode where you get weapons and can just fight your way out like a horror shooter). Because all the enemies are blind and only work using their hearing, sneaking is super effective but your character happens to be a moron who has a penchant for ringing bells, answering telephones and coughing at the worst time which is a negative for me. Oddly there's a "safe mode" that removes all enemy threats but still can creep you out with many jump scares if you just want to enjoy the pretty decent story. Thumbs up!

Avengers: Old Guard

[Part of Superhero Stories]

When Barton and Romanoff kicked open the doors to the main lab, they got the drop on MODOK, the Abomination and lead AIM scientist Monica Rappacini sometimes known as the Scientist Supreme. Clint immediately put one bullet in the oversized head and two in the tiny body of the Mechanized Organism Designed Only For Killing, which put an end to this over rated villain while Natasha gracefully dodged the charge of the Abomination while sticking him with a small round adhesive disc.

He's a pretty big target.

"Courtesy of Hank Pym," she said calmly while she pressed a trigger button in her gauntlet which instantly shrunk the Abomination to ant size, but due to his lack of a protective suit - he was squished into a piece of mushy flesh. Before she could enjoy the justice she doled out for Kate and Kamala, Dr. Rappacini had suddenly crossed the chamber in the blink of an eye and jabbed the Russian with a syringe.

"NO!" yelled Clint as he made a desperate lunge for Monica and her belt that most obviously housed the Tesseract on its buckle - the gem giving her the ability to teleport. He succeeded, and despite Monica warping back the distance she came from - his grip ensured he went with her. Without hesitation he grasped the Tesseract and yanked it out, burning his hand in the process. "Stop! You don't know what..." Monica began but Clint didn't care.

With the Cosmic Cube under his control he warped both of them to the only place that would stop the Scientist Supreme for good: inside the gem itself. By breaking the already fragile physics of teleportation by putting the Tesseract into itself the pair of them and the gem included imploded upon themselves with loud and sickening cracks as they folded into each other repeatedly into smaller and smaller portions until they were completely erased from existence.

Meanwhile Natasha had fallen to all fours, crying out in agony as she felt her insides melt while managing to read the label on the discarded syringe used on her: "Polonium+". As if it needed the extra plus she thought to herself. With the last of her willpower she threw out a few more small explosives just like the ones she had been setting on the way down here, and then she pressed the trigger to detonate.

Avengers: Powerless

[Part of Superhero Stories]

Advanced Idea Mechanics, the same group currently waging war against Wakanda. What were they doing having a hidden outpost right in the middle of the city and why did this information come from digital data pulled from a lone arrow near the crashed Helicarrier? Natasha Romanoff's questions would soon be answered as she casually made her way right past security under the guise of a lowly laborer. Hawkeye had been missing off comms for awhile now, could he be in here somewhere?

A quick side step down an unpatrolled corridor she wasn't meant to be in and a flash of a security card she had lifted from the goon outside was all it took to find her answers. There in an isolated cage was her friend - Hawkeye, beaten and broken. He had a clear line of sight to the tables against the opposite wall atop which were the stripped corpses of the Winter Soldier, Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop and what was left of Captain America. Quickly composing herself, Natasha forced herself forward to unlock his cell as she whispered a reassuring "Let's get you out of here."

"Nat? Is that you?" Barton said weakly. "I failed them Nat. I failed them. I... I told MODOK how to open the Tesseract box." Romanoff looked at him in disbelief as he continued. "Yeah. They pried it from T'challa's cold dead fingers, but they couldn't open it... not until I... I told them how. They used Steve's hand Nat. Only four people could open that box and they... they..."

"Then we'd better go get it back," Natasha said sternly as she offered Clint one of her Glock 26s. With an exchange of silent nods, Hawkeye took the firearm and followed her lead deeper into the facility. 

He's always happy to see her.

Avengers: New Blood

[Part of Superhero Stories]

"Thanks for coming with me Kate," said Kamala over her shoulder as the pair made their way through the wreck of the crashed helicarrier. "Oh please, I'm pretty much an Avenger already," replied Kate, composite bow at the ready just like how her mentor, Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) taught her. All her gusto left as the pair made their way past the next bulkhead to the twisted center of the wreck and came across the corpse of the Winter Soldier. While Kamala instinctively covered her nose, Kate grit her teeth and searched his pockets to find any sort of clue as to why he was here in the first place.

She had just bagged a small phone when she heard Kamala tearfully gasp "Oh my god." She was staring at the shattered shield of Captain America, still connected to his bloody dismembered arm. "Your god can't hear you," laughed a menacing deep voice as the opposite end of the wreck suddenly bent apart - revealing the Abomination as he stepped into their space and addressed Kate directly. "Give me what you took little thief!"

"RUN!" yelled Kate as she bolted back the way they came with Kamala close behind but their monstrous foe was gaining on them. At a T-junction the Abomination had to pause and rub his eyes as he saw two Kate Bishops run in opposite directions so he charged headlong after one of them and cornered her in a dead end... only to then see this Kate transform back into Kamala. "Oh you're good..." he grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do," she replied defiantly.

Outside, Kate fired a special arrow containing the bagged device far away with a tracker for any Avenger or SHIELD agent to recover, then hastily made her way back to find her friend but it was too late. "Give me a real fight!" challenged the Abomination as he casually tossed Kamala's battered and bloody corpse aside. Kate drew her bow and fired... and it did not go well for her either.

Based on the official stats from the Marvel website.

Lumbearjack and CYGNI - All Guns Blazing

Games about wrecking!

Lumbearjack

In this cutesy game you control an anthropomorphic bear who happens to be an eco-conscious lumberjack and is called to action to stop the polluting influence of a human company which is "EVIL" (literally, that's the name). Nothing can kill you and the loop is pretty simple - save this areas local critter and open the path forward by hacking at any EVIL thing: like trash, cars, construction vehicles, factories and fast food joints. Destroying bigger things needs a bigger axe which you can make by recycling the junk you get from cutting. It's annoying that you keep having to craft the bigger axes but its simple and quick enough to do. You get to slap people too so that they change their ways. All up its a frivolous and funny game that encourages eco-terrorism. Not sure if recommended. :P

CYGNI - All Guns Blazing

This scrolling top down shooter is absolutely beautiful once you get past the very basic but very informative tutorial which I highly recommend since knowing how to lock on and fire rockets, recharge weapons and shields and toggling from shooting air targets and land targets is essential. Good luck remembering any of it though as you are then put into the bullet hell of the main game that features regular gigantic bosses and just too many things moving on the screen to intentionally mess you up. Yes, this game wrecks you! Only recommended for bullet hell experts as novices will be dying frequently even on easy mode.

Blades in the Heart: The Emperor

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

In trying to convince the Lord Governor to do something about the cruel Warden Pope, Juris accidentally blurts out (possibly due to his constipation) that they were going to kill him (the Lord Governor) in their previous encounter which naturally angers him. He tells Pope to deal with them as he sees fit and leaves while the demonic Warden grows in size and starts attacking the chains of the lift they are still standing on but its a short fight as Juris creates a domain of chaos with things randomly floating around with all the party riding chaos bears for some reason and in his madness the Warden falls into the hole to whatever lies beneath.

Our heroes then return back to base and rest up fully, but then are drawn outside as the city's barrier is eerily off for around five minutes before turning back on. A handful of the Emperor's Quicksilver guard start appearing (they move like the Flash) followed by the Emperor himself who steps out of a ghost door shrouded by a sphere of ghosts who announces he is there to eat them. DL and mom kill some of the guards with really good rolling but as more appear it's Juris that nullifies them with a lava domain, causing the speedsters caught within to die. And everyone is on fire bears immune to lava now. Lol. He does lightning bolt the flying Emperor (of course he can fly) which only shaves off a few of the ghosts and the Emperor laughs, saying his shield can never be broken as the ghosts in the ghost field hate it there. This unlocks Rose's final kamikaze ability Queen of Dreams, which we'll get back to shortly.

Juris opts to turn off his domain as DL does a massive kage-bunshin to really whack the Emperor's shield off (though all the 20+ clones die in the process) so the Emperor orders his Quicksilver guard to start killing everyone in the city so that he can rebuild his shield with their souls as he steps back through a ghost door. Mom jumps through trying to slap him with her Death Manifest but misses, followed by Rose and Juris who preemptively makes a domain of slippery ice (back on polar bears) in case any of the Quicksilvers arrive but it isn't necessary as DL stays outside with a new set of Kagebunshin clones to fight them AND the Lord Governor AND Lady Freya Orlais and her goons.

Rose then activates her Queen of Dreams ability: she becomes the ruler of the ghost field and can turn it into whatever heaven she decides, drawing all but the most determined of ghosts from the regular world to it. The cost is that she can never leave (and basically retires her character), but her very first command is to make the Emperor kneel - and then mom slaps him with her Death Manifest, killing him instantly (and almost killing herself). This frees the sun god imprisoned inside of the Emperor and Rose lets everyone go back to Duskwall where the sun god rises to the heavens to reignite the sun.

As there are still loads of Quicksilver scum running about so Juris uses his kamikaze ability too and turns into a giant winged bear to smash what's left of the bad guys, some extras like Lord Elon, and nom of the almost dead Lord Governor Kotar. He then lands near Matt Demon who is looking after his dog(s) and explodes into a forest once his clock runs out (character retired). While DL did gain his ultimate kamikaze move to turn into music that spreads world peace to all but the most evil, crazy or deaf he choses not to use it and instead bring peace with the edge of his blades. Cabrita (mom) on the other hand never unlocked her ultimate skill, but given she was the one that slew the emperor and reignited the sun the odds of her becoming the next ruler of the city and/or the nation (her goal) are at least much improved now, but still not guaranteed.

And that is the end of Blades! If I run another TTRPG it will be one of my own making but I'll definitely be borrowing a lot of ideas from this system. Thanks for reading!

Blades in the Heart: GTFO

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

Matt suggests looking for a ritual site in Ironhook prison since a number of cultists had turned themselves in recently, but Warden Pope will only let them in as arrested prisoners. At an impasse, the squad backs off and Juris sends one of his hulls to get a warrant from the Lord Governor while DL uses his turning into mist ability to scout out the prison, finding most of the cells empty and an ominous deep hole within.

Reporting back to the others they decide their investigation can't wait and so mom rolls really well to stealth them into the cell blocks via the dockside entrance where they meet the prisoner Tarvul, patriarch of the Charhollow butchers they had previously befriended. He reveals the warden has been sending down people from "isolation" to scout out the hole and to return with relics from it, and confirms that a large group of cultists had descended a few days ago. Mom gains the ability to regenerate around this point, meaning apart from quick healing she can no longer die to anything but her death manifest - but since that is just left as a vague "violently" it doesn't really make her immortal.

After freeing Tarvul he accompanies them down, warning them to watch their lights and noise as there are creatures that live down here. Hairless, faceless humanoids with big mouths (yep, I totally went with GTFO). The excellent stealth rolls stopped here and the team basically fights their way through the sleepers with a big fight getting a security door to open. DL makes good use of the Ungalaboonga bomb to explode a huge chunk of the "endless" wave which only stops spawning once the alarm is finished.

This encounter with aliens is the last of Juris' dream tasks and thus gains a final "kamikaze" ability to turn into the avatar of the forest god. He can become any giant animal and gain ridiculous power but only for a 10 clock, which he can't stop once started. At the end of which, he explodes into a forest and is basically retired from the game. Juris also tries to eat some of the aliens and for it gains intense constipation. :P

Beyond the door they find the ritual site with a lone priestess whom mom snipes before she even notices them. They destroy the ritual and make their way back up to find Warden Pope waiting for them at the surface, upset that they broke in. The Lord Governor is there too though and tells thim to let them go. This would have been fine but then Juris had to open his big mouth...

Blades in the Heart: A Powerful Alliance

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

Before returning to base, the team visits a haunted hospital where they find documented proof that the Lord Governor signed off on creating a disease to target specific heritages but it got out of control leading him to choose to abandon the district and those left in it.

After resting, they confront him about it at the town hall where (vampire) Lady Freya Orlais has just won the election for High Seat which was once Lady Drake's throne of power. Rose minorly alters reality to have scheduled a meeting with the Lord Governor and they do so in a back room where Juris tries to blackmail him with the evidence, however he reveals that when he did try to stop it the Emperor himself maimed him, and so pushed forward with his lead scientist Elon.

They then try convince him to help them stand against the Emperor to which he makes them prove themselves first, transforming into a demonic form that catches Cabrita's (mom's) rifle bullet, throwing it back at her and easily dispatching DL's three clones - a skill he just recently learned (and a direct copy of Naruto's kage-bunshin). Juris manages to weaken the Lord Governor by putting him into a domain of sunless snow, and for some reason all the party is riding polar bears, and Rose capitalizes on this by forcing him to kneel (power word), which is tough for a cripple - demon or not.

Defeated, Lord Governor Kotar agrees to assist them should the time come and warns them that the Emperor will come for them should he learn of their godling powers as he has an appetite for eating gods (which is how he got so powerful). Happy with this result the team then head to the last ritual site that Lord Elon had mentioned to them previously in the farmlands of Barrowcleft, but it turns out the missing farm hands were being fed to monstrous plants by an unscrupulous gardener who bought strange seeds from a prison guard. After feeding the crook to her own plants they decide to visit the best information agent in town, Matt Demon.

Floppy Knights FIST The Falconeer Rawmen

A triple F from Epic (F for Failure)!

Floppy Knights

This turn based card strategy game with cutesy art is a mishmash of things that hurt my head. It starts out where you need to fight goblin bandits meddling with antennas by using your strap on computer (oh my) to create holographic flora based forces and send them forth into battle? And make no mistake battling is the only thing you can do as you are set on a railroad of them from the get go. Not recommended.

FIST - Forged in Shadow Torch

In anthropomorphic China, you are one of the oppressed masses - an angry bunny with a robot arm who must traverse this side scrolling and platforming game to beat up the bad guys to earn enough currency to unlock more skills to better traverse and platform previously passed routes. This leads to one of my most hated game designs... back tracking. I know that's just a me thing, it really killed what otherwise was a decent if somewhat dated game. Cool graphics though!

The Falconeer

On an ocean world, mankind is stuck in towns clinging to rocks save for being able to travel on the back of giant eagles and dragons with lightning guns (and also via ocean ships and flying ships, just don't ask where the wood comes from)! So yes - this is basically a flying simulator with some story attached and while the controls take some getting used to there are some cool ideas like flying into a storm to recharge weapons and diving into the water to cool down but the game play loop isn't great as most objectives are go here, fight stuff there and then repeat. Might still be something for flight sim enthusiasts but for everyone else, skip it.

Final Bonus: Rawmen: Food Fighter Arena - it doesn't start with "F", but it has a terribly long load time followed by failing to even start the tutorial so I'm not wasting any time with this trash.

Those about to Die, 1883 and 1923

TV dramas set during historical periods.

Those about to Die (Season 1)

Ancient Rome is cruel to everyone from its Emperors to its slaves, and underworld figure Tenax (Iwan Rheon) deals with both as he navigates the ladder of improving his own position. While there are gladiators its worth pointing out they aren't the main focus (at least in season 1) as the Coliseum is still under construction. Instead there are a lot of chariot races with budget CGI and maybe a few too many characters but at least the death count cleans them out a bit. Definitely one we enjoyed for the spectacle rather than for the plot, but we'll definitely watch a season two of it if it comes around.

1883

This Western focuses on an expedition from Texas to Oregon led by an old veteran (Sam Elliot), is filled with beautiful cinematography, and almost all the main actors are mounted on horses for most of the time. Story wise it drags a little at the start but picks up rather quickly along with the death count when we witness just how unprepared most of the settlers are as they go through very dangerous territories whose "laws" don't really protect anyone and just give people an extra reason to kill. There's so much killing, it's great! Recommended.  

1923 (Season 1)

The continuation of 1883 which focuses on the Dutton family led by an elderly but grizzled patriarch (Harrison Ford) as a locust plague causes violent clashes between his cattle herd crew and a neighboring sheep herd gang. That sounds really tame how I wrote that, but while the death count so far is lower than 1883 there's still a good amount of shooting with a side of lynching. Strangely, there are three plot threads going on here and one that starts in Africa certainly gets the "adventure" segment of the show and feels like its the main story. As such while we did enjoy it, it sure feels like season 1 was just setting up the characters with no resolution. We'll need to wait for season two to see how everything ties together.

Evil Genius and Evil Genius 2: World Domination

For those who want to take over the world! Muahahahaha!

Thanks to DL (and Wro as it was his idea) I was gifted these awhile back and have spent a decent amount of time with each of them now because yes, I like to pretend I'm a genius. :P These games are basically base builders with the twist that you are a bad guy trying to hide from the forces of justice while you build up your criminal empire. Usually I dislike such games with micromanagement but thanks to an excellent soundtrack and very easy controls where your minions run themselves based on what is available to them, this was rather enjoyable!

I did lose in the original Evil Genius though, as the super agents (among whom are basically copies of John Rambo and James Bond) smashed my minions and defenses to pieces and I could never recover because I could never find out of to actually kill them. The other forces of justice either are rogues who want to steal your stolen loot, saboteurs who blow up stuff, soldiers who kill your guys, or investigators who basically just scout and report back which spawns one of the earlier types to come raid you if they found something worth stealing / destroying / or murdering. :P

I do prefer Evil Genius 2 not only because I won it, but the graphics got a much needed upgrade and the tutorial actually helps you deal with those investigators and teaches you how to manage the "heat" (high heat = high level attackers). It's also slightly easier to avoid the super agents until you get the relevant side quests to take care of them. While there is violence ranging from "brutal" interrogations that can involve chucking people into shark tanks and all the way up to scorching parts of the globe with your doomsday device, all the violence is very comical with not a drop of blood to be found. All up very fun and one I recommend, though if you're only going to play one of these, Evil Genius 2 is the obvious pick with its much needed updates.

Galavant

A musical, fairy tale epic!

It's fun times with this lot.

This two season fantasy musical comedy series made me feel good with every episode and starts of with the old classic quest - the hero Galavant (Joshua Sasse) needing to save his fair maiden (Mallory Jansen) from the evil king (Timothy Omundson). Twists happen immediately and the ridiculous story just gets better and better as it goes along as characters get plenty of development. Despite the low budget effects and being more like a stage production than a TV show, I really enjoyed this and can easily recommend it. A good gauge if it might be for you is to watch the intro song here and see if you want more.

Klask and MicroMacro: Crime City

Been awhile since I reviewed board games!

Klask

This competitive two player game is very simple. It has a raised wooden board and using the power of magnets each player controls a woefully thin pillar that they can move on their half of the board as a wooden blocker beneath prevents you going further. You both have a sunken "goal" to defend and three little white magnets along the center act as the "net". You can score in any of these four ways: if the little yellow ball falls into your opponents goal, if your opponent falls into their own goal, if your opponent falls (they lost magnetization), or if your opponent gets two of those white magnets in the middle stuck on them. First to six wins! Very straight forward and definitely generates a lot of laughs.  

MicroMacro: Crime City

Do you like Where's Wally? If so, this cooperative game is for you because in it is one gigantic line art map filled with tiny little details with loads of hilarious (and violent) things happening. A small magnifying glass is provided but it might be wise to bring out more if you are playing with others. The same characters appear in multiple locations so that you can deduce where they were going or where they came from and a deck of 16 cases is included for you to solve and each card asks you a question that you have to answer BY SPOTTING IT ON THE MAP. It's not enough to have an educated and probably correct guess, you need to find proof which makes questions like "what was their relationship?" (lots of infidelity in this city lol), "what was the motive?" and "where is his corpse?" things you need to find. Despite the cute art this obviously is not for kids, is a "one and done" game, and with three of us playing we finished 9 out of the 16 cases in one sitting.

August 2024: Countries clash... in the Olympics!

We're more than half way through the games now but prior to the start Israeli athletes had been threatened a repeat of Munich. Israel's response was to take out some of the leaders of their known enemies and just get on with it. Meanwhile in the USA someone had tried to off Trump who is running for President again, but it was current President Biden who pulled out from running for his second term, finally understanding that he might be too old.

That shooter wasn't Olympics worthy unlike this pair (Kim Yeji and Yusuf Dikec).

Not all is well in the Olympics though with complaints ranging from uncomfortable beds to the Seine river (used for some swimming events) being so dirty its causing athletes to fall sick. Russian troops in Ukraine know all about bad water as they have a shortage of it, resorting to drinking whatever they can find. To be fair they might be dying too quickly to care about it anyway, but are still gaining ground regardless. On the water itself it's still humorous that the Russian navy is getting sunk by a country without one.

Some of this is made possible by drones. These things can do everything it seems, from spying on Olympic soccer training to killing helicopters. The UK has recognized the threat at has made an anti-drone laser system (which probably doesn't work well in fog, snow or rain but neither would flying drones). The crafty Ukranians solution is just to shotgun them from an old Yak-52. On a random tangent, I checked if someone made a laser to kill mosquitos and the answer is yes, but it currently isn't practical. Damn.

Meanwhile more bad news for Ukraine as Hungary is upset Ukraine is blocking their oil (despite them blocking aid to Ukraine for over two years) and NATO has also deemed Ukraine too corrupt to join them. Perhaps Russia's joint venture with China to establish a moon base, possibly in Mare Tranquillitatis Pit if they can claim it first, might take some heat off? With the ISS being retired in a few years that would be a pretty big achievement.

Not sure how China plans to bank roll this given their current financial troubles, but maybe it involves assimilating the Tibetans? They've still got around 10 years to work it out anyway. Not sure the way Thailand is handling their finance would be the answer. They're simply handing out digital money to citizens!

Godzilla Minus One (movie) and Ultimate Beastmaster (series)

Wouldn't these be sworn enemies? Lol.

Godzilla Minus One

Set at the end of World War II, when the Japanese forces are at their weakest, is when Godzilla decides to strike for... Godzilla reasons. While this famous kaiju appears early and often in his full glory, he is the antagonist to our hero - a failed kamikaze pilot who is having a tough time with all the deaths and the inability to earn his own. The sets and action sequences are great, and the story is pretty good too but it does drag on in some parts and I really didn't like the worthless protagonist. Only recommended if you are a Godzilla fan, and even then - its probably better to up the playback speed to at least 1.25x.

Ultimate Beastmaster

This three season sports show features one huge obstacle course nicknamed "the Beast" which has a starting point that looks like a dragon's maw which athletes from all over the globe attempt to conquer. It also has the same issue as Spartan where its people doing the same thing over and over and the editors know it, summarily speeding up less successful runs and also editing the course and rules each season to make it more exciting. What wins it though are the hilarious personalities of the multiple hosts from each host nation and their interactions with each other. Of course this doesn't stop us from watching it at 2x speed. :P

Extra note: Having exceptional hosts that people actually enjoy watching can really strengthen a series much like any of the shows on this list here. The latest season of Masterchef Australia also falls into this with new judges Jean Christophe Novelli and his crazy french energy as well as Sofia Levin's playful naughtiness. I do miss the opening song though.