The Heavy Standard: The Sword of Cats

[Part of the Party Time journal]    

Around a fourth of the 555 opt to remain in the peaceful Painted City, and the remainder are armed with Eastern type armor and weaponry as agreed by the Painted Lady. After passing through the Blue Forest and dodging a few jiang shi (hopping vampires) they come across an obliterated land scape with a mountain in the shape of a cracked egg in the center of a crater in the distance while the remnants of the Waiting magic academy lies in ruins closer to the plateau walls.

They opt to go to the academy and learn it was a good choice, as that mountain is full of hostile aliens that fortunately can't stand the sunlight. Nevertheless a skeleton looking mage-builder (he drank a flawed potion of permanent invisibility) hammering away on a bomb he is building requests they explode the thing, but they refuse - opting instead to simply buy his other wares which include bracers of magnetism (to each other), a variety of potions (that are all just soft drinks), and a sword of cats.

With this they proceed into the endless sandstorm of the Niga desert and happen to wander into the base of the Cult of the Grey, fanatic slavers who worship a tall gray alien who claims to have saved the world by shooting down the egg-mountain and continues to save the world by generating an endless sand storm so that other hostile races don't come visit. He says all of this while using a large metal spear-straw to impale chained captives and drink them like disposable juice canisters, crunching them up and tossing them away when he's done.

The team opt to slay him and his cult, setting the remaining captives free who help lead them to the Nigian city of Babababa which holds a gateway up to the Waiting City plateau. A small encounter with spider cacti lets Juris test out the sword of cats which turns defeated enemies into regular cats! At the city itself the surviving Nigians of the 555 get them past any security and they offer to escort the tithe wagon of amputated female slaves to their great wizard, Feckless Licker, up to his tower in the cursed land. To save the slaves from further pain, Juris stabs them with the sword of cats and turns them all into (full bodied) random cats too and lets them go free.

The Heavy Standard: The Painted City

 [Part of the Party Time journal]   

With the tower guardsmen now supplementing the 555s (along with the reluctant elves, dogs and 4 froggies) they use the main underground tunnel to make their way underneath the "ape tower" and onwards to the main shaft - a deep spiraling hole with many smaller tunnels branching off in every direction, at the bottom of which is another long corridor that ends in... a collapsed section dead end! They didn't run into anything on their way here but now trapped they here the unmistakable "laughter" of the apes as the army of monkeys flank them in the tunnel.

There's nothing to it but to fight their way out, and Eagle and the elves roll fantastically - easily clearing the path back to the spiral shaft. Here the apes, now coming from every orifice and throwing boulders from the high ground have a massive advantage and mercilessly kill every single elf in the unit before Juris puts up a wall of dust to aid in their escape. They exit at ape tower and encounter a huge silverback sitting on a throne of bones but Eagle shoots it in the eye and it just scampers off. They do the same as the barricades they put behind them are sure not to last very long...
 
Continuing Eastward they descend from the misty hills and find a great river controlled by a group of kappa bandits but Juris easily nullifies them by freezing the river, granting them passage to the Painted City - a society of artists, musicians and crafters who all worship the Painted Lady as their goddess, all safely tucked away behind a massive wall of a moving mural.

The only way forward is through but they aren't allowed to bring any weapons or armor through the city so they bargain with the Painted Lady, who agrees to provide them with equivalent gear after they convince some fishermen down at the docks to return to being faithful to her and not to listen to the voice of Lady Longwein telling them they are trapped in a painting. Agrellon still gets a seed of water from this exchange (they were meant to plant it in the Painted Lady's palace), and Juris also gets another deal with the Painted Lady of regaining some youth in exchange for forgetting his magic. He accepts.

The Heavy Standard: The Daggerdowns

[Part of the Party Time journal]   

Bad Horse and a number of braves accompany the 555 back through their destroyed camp to the Southern cliff face where they, Eagle, Dr Qwek Qwek and Agrellon rappel down to a large ocean facing cavern. Juris opts to stay up top with the rest but turns them invisible for added safety. It is winter again now and they find five of the flying serpents (dragons) asleep in the cave. With much stress and good rolling all are assassinated simultaneously.

A crevice not big enough for the serpents to fit through descends deeper and following it they find evidence that there might be more: cracked egg shells and eaten corpses of... something. From the underground lake appears Lady Longwein offering another seed of water to solve this danger before vanishing once more. Bad Horse eagerly takes the seed of water but is convinced by the 555ers not to use it immediately (1 year) and what it will do (from past experiences).

Not willing to continue to hunt they all return to the surface where Bad Horse and his braves return to his camp while the 555 push East, into the misty forested hills of Daggerdown where they were warned dangerous beasts lived. It isn't long before they are attacked by them: angry silverback apes who have no limit to their number! They run and run until they find a tower to hold up in. Juris even does a detour to save a black bulldog he names "Niggi" en route which he finds also being attacked by the apes.

The towers residents let them all in and quickly shut the heavy gate behind them buying some measure of safety. Here they learn they are in the second of three "Daggerdown" towers which are actually connected by mines to the Argillatory prison up on the plateau where prisoners conveniently get "shafted" down to the mines. This particular tower is now home to only guardsmen, having eaten all the prisoners and are now running low on water thanks to something lurking down below. The further tower is controlled by prisoners while the tower closer to the plateau is controlled by apes. Seeing an opportunity to reach the plateau, it's clear to them which way to go...

The Heavy Standard: The Whitelands

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

Rested up they abandon the Fool's March fort and meet up with their elven allies to continue North following the plateau wall into the lush rolling plains of Whiteland. Their mere presence deters a bandit attack on a merchant wagon mid-battle, making the bandits flee while the wary merchants tell them that the path up here has also closed from the great upheaval. The Emperor's Finger tower (fist with middle finger raised) high atop of the plateau is quite visible though (especially during sunrise), as an eternal insult to the people here.

They are also warned that any non-whites would not be treated kindly here, especially with the war against the dark skinned Nigians going on in the North. Some of the 555s are actually Nigian too as Emperor Hiatus Waiting had allied with them early in his reign. Even all the dogs except one which is pure white will be seen as evil. They journey North regardless, saving some kids from a wolf attack and returning them to their nearby town where they learn that they won't be allowed to pass the battle lines in the North.

This immediately makes them do an about turn back towards the swamp but are caught by a 100 strong force of white knights in white armor, white plumes riding white horses and carrying white lances and white flags. Seeing the filth of the 555 they attack! The battle goes very poorly for the poorly armed 555s until Juris does a big spell to make the white knights appear black. Blinded by their racial hatred they begin killing each other till only three remain, fleeing the field and letting the survivors loot their plate armor and weaponry.

They return past the frozen waterfall, past the empty Fool's March fort and up back up the winding rocky incline to the Southlands where they are surprised to find Bad Horse and his people camped nearby. The big man says they lost their territory, a lot of their people, and all the arrested folk from fools march to "flying serpents". The 555 agree to help him with this problem.

The Heavy Standard: The Fool's March

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

Meanwhile Eagle leads the others including Dr. Qwek Qwek and the elves South to the shore, away from where the wind was blowing. A strange woman floating on the water introduces herself as Lady Longwein (whose power is limited to the ocean she says) offers to help stop the spreading forest fire by using a seed of water she provides them before vanishing into the night. They just have to put it at a specific part near the frozen waterfall close to the fortress. The elves are obviously keen on doing this so they accept and circle around the forest fire inadvertently putting them back into the mirrored grove... the team members who had previously had hair taken by crows suddenly explode in flames and more crows arrive as a voice calls out that they broke their promise!

Dr. Qwek Qwek manages to locate the naked crow controlling witch in the mirror grove and Eagle shoots her dead, but not before she immolates a few more of their number. They then make it to the spot to plant the seed of water and upon doing so are rewarded by a massive earthquake which quickly cracks around the swamp region and in a sudden motion the entire burning swamp sinks under the ocean. A most shocking end to that forest fire!

The remaining elves state they will join the 555 on their quest to the Waiting City as it was told that the Emperor had stolen a seed of their great tree long ago and planted it up there, but for now they will make camp here and recover from the shock of losing their home while the highlanders return to the Fool's March fort and meet up with Agrellon and Juris to rest up... losing a few more people to a disease before Dr. Qwek Qwek can cure it.

Soon enough a column of mounted Skyriver braves led by Bad Horse (built like an ox) approaches. As the 555s are trusted friends as decreed by the Death Speaker they can sort the mess the fort inhabitants caused when they kidnapped, abused and killed the chieftain's wife I-told-you-so. They simply strong arm all of the forts inhabitants to be taken as hostages for the tribesmen to enact their justice on those deserving it.

The Heavy Standard: The Forest Fire

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

Inside the tree is a mind trip of chambered puzzles involving keys: leaving an item to take a key off a pedestal, finding a key reflected in a mirror that's not there, defeating a scarecrow whose powers the players themselves decide (easy as non-flammable wasn't one of them), and saving four strangers who happened to be themselves. The queen herself serves only as a guardian to her daughter's room - she bestowed upon her all the powers of the forest for her to make her own paradise. They convince the queen to let them through and beyond find her daughter: a lich.

It is a swift battle once they realize it is a battle, because I was just going on with flowery narration while they are being life drained before Agrellon woke up (by DL saying "hang on what?"). He then body slammed her to wake the others up who then set her alight... which set the entire tree alight. At this point they've lost around 14 of the 555s, and I give them the remaining 20 reinforcements to control evenly.

Regrouping outside they find the old elves and the outpost elves staring in horror at the magical forest fire about to spread and those of them gifted in magic hold hands and try to "kumbaya" chant it away - only to fail and each explode in a horrible scream of brilliant flame rapidly one after the other. This sends Juris' dogs running off into the woods and he gives chase with Flipper, while Agrellon and his frog man chase after Juris. Miraculously (good rolling, supply spending and inspiring Flipper lol), he gets them all back unharmed but are now cut off from the others due to the fire.

To dodge it they head back to the Fool's March fort encountering a murderous silver haired elf on the way who is executing a human female (the local healer at the fort) for lying about the elves spreading a disease in the fort. The kill him unceremoniously and make it there, only to learn there's more trouble coming in the form of a Skyriver raid!?

The Heavy Standard: The Green Swamp

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

As the cavalry leader, Sparrow-touches-trees, does not seem hostile and only wants the child returned Agrellon passes a diplomacy check on his own people to truss up their own legion leader who is so anti-Southlander he's willing to murder the child (and proceed to murder the entire camp as per the Emperor's standing orders). The boy is returned and the 555s are allowed to make camp near the Skyriver tribe's base where they are given some food and learn that its been 25 years since their initial battle. Since then a great upheaval has closed off the routes up to the Waiting City which the 555 are interested to return to. After learning the hills to the East are dangerous they instead go West, leaving the anti-Southlander with the people he hates (and they kill him, feeding him to their Death Speaker who then names the 555 as friends to the tribe).

En route Juris manages to tame a pack of 12 wild dogs on the prairie before they come to the rocky, winding slope that leads down from the Southlands to the a green swamp. Halfway down is a rickety old fort of Fool's March manned by other old "Highlanders" (people from the Waiting City) who got trapped after the upheaval. While playing some dice poker for supplies they learn that no one can exit the swamp, for other than the creatures within strange elf magic prevents them from leaving it. Juris convinces the wavering 555 NPCs to continue the journey rather than stay here and so they descend into the knee deep muck and soon encounter a frogman village.

The froggies are friendly, and Dr. Qwek Qwek helps the constipated chief of his illness: eating stones to stay heavy as the heaviest is the chief. They are each given a froggy ally for this, despite Juris' rejections as his one, Flipper, is very amorous? Lol. The froggies prove to be good guides and can at least give them a choice between passing a dry island of evil trees or a crocman nesting ground. They choose the latter and end up fighting through, then enter a mirrored grove where ravens snatch the hair of some of their soldiers. A voice warns them to leave and they agree, promising to not return this way - so they proceed unmolested.

Next they find some elves lying about in a glade, tripping on the lizards they're licking while one of them gets dragged away by a panther. They wake up and befriend these old guys who proclaim the end of the elves has long been coming: Emperor Hiatus' tactic of flooding their emerald forest and turning it into a swamp was effective and now their queen defies nature itself. They agree to escort the 555 to said tree, letting them pass a guarded elf outpost unchallenged up to the gigantic tree palace itself (now dying from over watering). Here the vines and vine controlled corpses are fought off with some losses as they push through to the large hollow to gain an audience with the elven queen.

The Heavy Standard: The 555

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

At the center of the isle of Atera is a tall and huge plateau upon which sits the sprawling and grey Waiting City ruled by its Emperor Hiatus Waiting. Having grown tired of other nations occupying his island, the Emperor drafts up large numbers of his citizens into his Waiting Legions among whom are doctor in training QwekQwek (Rose), Agrellon the novice swordsman (DL), Eagle the apprentice archer (mom), and Juris (as himself) the novice mage who happen to all be allocated to the 5th legion, 5th division, 5th cohort (aka "the 555") with other mainly civilian folk and after an inadequately short training period at the Southern Cross tower they are all given a club and a tabard, and Dr. Qwek Qwek gets the dubious honor of bearing the heavy standard of the legion: a red flag with a black figure of a sideways facing soldier stabbing themselves in the chest with elder speak writing along the border that translates to "Sacrifice yourself".

Their legion is then sent South with the young orange toga wearing wizard, Roland Lexington, to wage a winter war against the Southland Horselords who have been harassing the farms in the region. They witness Roland's power from a distance as he throws lightning at the masses of torch bearing, bone armor wearing, horse mounted natives but suddenly his position is consumed by a translucent black dome. After a moment of chaos, the 555s are instructed to enter the dome and retrieve the wizard - but first must fight through the horselord forces that get in their way. Juris has the good sense to transmute Agrellon's club into a sword and Eagle's club into a bow and arrows so they can make use of their abilities.

Worth noting I give each of my players 20 NPC soldiers at this point - each with a name and a one line personality trait, keeping a 20 "reserve" on me. For each point of damage they don't want to take, they can instead cross out names on their list. Indeed, some names are crossed out as they forge their way into the dark dome just as it solidifies into a solid black. In the center they find an old man in an orange toga - Roland Lexington (because magic in this world makes you age), his face frozen in terror as a bone spear stopped in mid flight begins to pierce his chest. Approaching it makes time slow for the individual who gets close, and even Juris' attempt at telekenesis causes him to be frozen in time.

Despite their best efforts (or due to their meddling) the spear is pushed forward into the wizard and suddenly time speeds up! The projectile spins wildly, tearing Roland into bits of bloody gore and with a flash of bright light the black dome shatters! Gone are the snowy night time fields they were warring upon and instead they see fields of spring time grass and a bunch of Southland children nearby looking at them in terror. They capture one who spills the beans about where their current camp is and head there, finding a sizable teepee village near the waterfall but a cavalry unit (no doubt warned by the kids that escaped) awaits them.

The Heavy Standard - The System

[Part of the Party Time journal]

We've finally played my home brew tabletop campaign so I'll be posting here how things go. :)

Definitely "Forged in the Dark" (inspired by Blades in the Dark), this is a fiction first role playing game that only uses D6 to determine action results. A 6 means you did it, 4 or 5 means you did it but something bad happens, and 1 to 3 means you failed badly and something bad happens.

Unlike Blades I'm trying to restrict the number of dice to 1, unless you have advantage or disadvantage which adds a dice and the result taken is the higher (advantage) or lower (disadvantage). If things are wildly in their favor or against though, maybe through a good idea or through sacrifice I'll give them a third die. To find out if someone has an advantage or not just roll a d6 and see if it is higher than the number of stars against the relevant skill. My players can pick any skill within reason (and in the setting) and they can spend 10 XP to add a star next to them (or add a new skill) to a maximum of 5 stars.

Character wise they just get a name and a few boxes: 8 harm, 8 stress, 6 scars and trauma. Harm is physical damage, stress is mental damage or spent to re-roll, and exceeding either of those gives them a scar of trauma in which case they are out of the scene. If scars and trauma is full the character dies, but 6 is super generous I don't think anyone is going to die this way. I'll even let them split the damage out as they like [except in certain situations] and can just sacrifice items or NPC allies (per damage). That's intentional as my players are unlikely to take kindly to character death. :P

There's also an "age" track with 16 boxes, the first 4 being "prime" and the last 4 being "old". People in their prime have and advantage healing, and old people have a disadvantage in healing. That's taken during the more mechanical "rest" action in which each player can do two things. Rest as above, gather "supplies" (which I'm representing by tactile gold coins, but they actually represent anything so if they "need" something I can say, sure - you have that: for x number of supplies), or use said supplies for research or construction of whatever. Resting and traveling are the main ways in which time moves, with each season having 10 boxes - I roll a dice when "time passes" and (6) 3, (4 or 5) 2, or (1-3) 1 time unit is filled in. For ease of remembrance they all have the same birthday to age up.

Not that my game will span years anyway... BUT the magic system does. You cast spells, you AGE. The stronger the effect the worse off you are. You fill up your age you die. I feel this is more acceptable than "a monster killed you because it rolled better than you" as the player is willingly advancing towards their own end by continued casting. I think the magic system should balance itself out this way.

Healing harm and stress is the main way to get XP, while I might throw a few extra points for well played segments or good ideas. This does mean XP tracking is done by the GM (me) though, as I'm not going to award silly self harming characters with XP.

I think that covers most of it... on to the game!

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Captain America: Brave New World

A pair of action movies!

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

With the world facing a new threat Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, still in good running form) is deployed again to do the impossible... defeat AI? Yep. Decent humor and action scenes (except one sword / knife fight with too much slash grappling instead of stabbing) can be found here, and an alright story to boot. I'm glad they dialed down the "this is what we hope will happen" scenes this time around and all up I do think its a stronger story than the previous one, but while it has all the necessary story arcs it certainly is still a "Part I", as it clearly warns in the title sequence. :P

Captain America: Brave New World

With the world powers in a race to claim the resources (adamantium, said to be better than the Wakandan's vibranium) from the newly risen Celestial Island (from the Eternals), new-ish Captain America Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) becomes tangled in a plot to try keep the peace. Much like the audience he's very self aware that he's not a super soldier, and humorously that Ant-Man kicked his butt that one time. Despite having improved shielding thanks to Wakandan tech his survival in this movie is more dependent on his plot armor and reliance on bad guys missing completely or definitely hitting the center of his shield with bullets. Better than I thought it would be, but still only recommended if you are an Anthony Mackie fan.

Dark Winds and House of David

TV shows with greater powers at work?

Dark Winds

This currently three season series follows tribal policeman Joe Leaphorn (played by Zahn McClarnon) as he and his colleagues investigate often fatal crimes that happen to have a touch (but the slightest, lightest whisper of a touch) of the supernatural. After all sometimes your medicine bag will protect you better than your six shooter? It's an interesting mix but one I feel isn't played to its full potential. I'm also a bit annoyed that our hero is very slow on the trigger but I have to keep reminding myself that that's a more reasonable / relatable character than one who just blasts everyone away. :P  I'll definitely keep watching it but am holding off on recommendations for the time being as the episode quality ranges a fair bit.

House of David (season 1)

This currently one season show follows David, the biblical shepherd boy destined to be king. Other than it being a lot more musical than I though it would be as David (played by Michael Iskander) sings a lot, there's a bit of royal drama mixed in with a few action scenes that really solidify this as an old testament story (there's lots of killing in there). It helps that the acting and story are decent which make us eager to watch season 2. I don't think its as good as The Chosen though, but it still has a lot of time to change my mind.

G20 and Tortoise Tumble

A silly movie and a silly little game.

G20

When greedy terrorists somehow take the world leaders hostage at a G20 summit, its up to the USA's military trained black female president (surprised they didn't make her lesbian as well right?) to save the day while wearing a dress  made of plot armor. This is quite the spectacle and the actors did a decent job with the predictable script they were given which makes for an OK enough movie. I'm guessing they were hoping to target younger audiences who don't know movies like Die Hard and Air Force One which also might explain their shyness in having blood and death on the camera. For everyone else, this is an ok "background" movie while you do something else.

Tortoise Tumble

This is a ridiculous little game that involves rolling two toy turtles onto a set of randomized tiles to score points. How your turtle lands gets points with being on its back giving you 0 to a head plant which gives you lots! In addition to that landing on a particular tile might be better than another, but missing entirely is a zero, regardless of how your turtle landed. Very silly, very shallow and very fast to run. Can't really recommend it though.

Stuff outside Tokyo

After leaving Tokyo... the Kyoto International Manga Museum is good for multi linguists but the section for English manga is small. Unless you are also getting your portraits drawn by the local artists (a cool service) it's not worth the entry fee.  

Onto Awaji Island - on the Western side is Hello Kitty Smile, a smallish building dedicated to Hello Kitty which we enjoyed much more than Sanrio Puroland. The smaller scale let them really decorate their rooms much better and somehow the gift shops are bigger!? The food here was also better in comparison. Nearby (in a car anyway) is the Hello Kitty Apple House whose main space is used for a stage show with dining. Live dancers and instrumentalists always are great, and getting the opportunity to "meet" Hello Kitty fulfilled one of my wife's life long dreams (as an aside, I'm officially taller than Hello Kitty lol). :D

The last theme park was my pick and still on Awaji: Nijigen no Mori. There's lots of attractions in this mountainous park including Naruto and Godzilla but the ones we did were Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter: The Field, and the Bleach: Night Walk, which is literally a mostly uphill walk through the forest lit by some cool lighting and screens playing scenes from a Bleach episode. It's a bit of a workout!

Dragon Quest was my favorite: a live action RPG where you help people in the town (by interacting with digital screens) to find stuff (physically in town, which includes opening chests and looking for secret doors) and fighting monsters which comes in 2 varieties: doing the correct pose to do more damage and furiously button mashing to beat bosses. It was super fun and has an ok story to boot! We even stopped by the Dragon Quest bar for a decent lunch (Awaji is known for onions, so expect that everywhere here).

Monster Hunter: The Field is more relaxed on the RPG side, letting you just wander the full grounds to find items / allies via digitally picking them up (you get a nice bracelet with a chip to interact with stuff in all the attractions I think) then returning to battle the creature you are hunting. The fight tech here is more involved as your team (of up to 3 only) gear up with a digitized gauntlet and belt and are set into a room with a 3x3 mat. Swing or shoot your weapon to do damage at the screen but also don't stand in the red (physically) and you'll actively have to duck and jump a few attacks to evade them. Pretty fun!

Definitely want to go back here, and back to the nearby glamping site of Grand Chariot which is spectacular in both accommodation and service, driving us up and down the mountain to the nearby Nijigen no Mori themepark and even providing a phone so to call for pickup. The heated floor yurt was amazing and so were the 7 course dinner and breakfast provided. Yes, it was really pricey but I'm willing to pay that again! If you need a cheaper alternative we also stayed at the Fairfield by Marriott Hyogo Awaji Higashiura which was pretty nice, but expect to walk around to find food. :)

Stuff in Tokyo

I covered off where we were in the last post, time for a bit more of what we did and since I already did a sweeping generalization of the temples and castles last post so what's left is... theme parks? Haha - something like that.

My wife is a big Hello Kitty fan so in Tokyo we visited Sanrio Puroland which looks great on the outside but is less impressive on the inside, simply having one big (but nicely decorated) main hall with little offshoots and a very small shop. The cafeteria gets crowded quick too, especially since the Japanese use the "if something is on the table it is reserved" methodology. As such I've seen people leave hand bags, phones, purses unattended which is very alien to my defensive "look out for thieves" brain.

The Sanrio character shaped foods are ok but nothing to write home about. You can get more desert type stuff of that at Sanrio Cafe Ikebukuro which is closer to Tokyo. Expect to wait in a long digital queue for a table there though. You know what else has long queues? Disneyland and Disneysea! Yes we went to both and while we didn't go for the rides, the old Disneyland just edges out Disneysea in terms of awesomeness. Both parks do sell large Mickey Macarons which were our favorite food item there. I think we ended up having five or six each!

The last in this set is Teamlabs Borderless. This digital art gallery is really cool and is staged in a labyrinthine set of rooms and corridors which encourages visitors to go exploring. There are many exceptional rooms here and its a good place to spend a few hours, but it definitely won't eat up your whole day (2 hours is plenty). Probably not recommended for people that get dizzy easily though as the displays on the walls are almost constantly moving.  

As an aside the food offered at the convenience stores like Lawson, 7 Eleven and Familymart are super affordable and pretty tasty (I miss Famichiki). We didn't worry about eating healthy there as we were racking up 20,000 steps a day!

So we went to Japan...

We were fortunate enough to visit Japan towards the end of last year which was amazing, so I figured I may as well do a few reviews of things we did while over there starting with the places we stayed:

Being the major international conduit, Tokyo is a busy but nice place to visit. Expensive shops and tiny streets with a spiderweb of train and subway services that make it easy to get lost around. Most importantly if you like Shiroi Koibito chocolates and are not headed to Hokkaido, the airport here is the only place to get them! Shinkansen bullet trains are an option to get you to another hub pretty quickly but again, not really something I'd do again because I enjoyed it - more just for utility. The Tokyo-banana snack boxes were nice though! Quick note on trains: we avoided the "sardine" crowd time by simply starting our days at around 4 - 4:30 AM (we didn't go there to sleep. Lol).

Kyoto has more traditional stuff and tight market lanes and hawkers. Our transport here is less trains, more cabs, and a lot of walking to get exactly where we needed to go. Might put a broad reaching categorization now: the old castles and temples (in all the cities) are ok and beautiful, but get underwhelming fast. As such I don't see a point in revisiting Kyoto. Funny that Starbucks is everywhere here, even beside ancient temples! Our favorite breakfast place quickly became the St. Marc Cafe chain which we visited many times, occasionally even for "2nd breakfast"! :P

Osaka is more modern with more upmarket shops and honestly, you might even forget you are in Japan here as it's just another crowded bustling metropolis, albeit with loads of maid cafes. Other than a day trip to Nara (to see the deer) and back by train, we just walked around a lot here in shopping malls. The Nara deer are cute but also stinky and a bit pushy when they see you have food. While I've no real desire to revisit said deer, there's another airport in Osaka which is useful for travel, even if you still end up flying to Tokyo first before heading elsewhere. Speaking of shops: Don Quixote (available in all the big cities) has a crazy amount of variety and its almost mandatory to visit at least one of them. I chuckled that their "toy" section covers everything from Pokemon and kid stuff right beside vibrators, fluffy pink handcuffs and kinky outfits.

Awajishima / Awaji Island holds my favorite spot of our trip. No trains go to this island and a cab would be too expensive so we took a bus and then pre-booked a rental car. People that know me know I hate driving but this island was freaking amazing. So few people and better yet, the winding mountain roads were almost all mine since I intentionally avoided the main highways that either follow the shore or cut right down the middle. This is the place we really want to come back to, as even when we walked around it was usually just us on the sidewalk - a huge difference from the other cities we spent time in.

Garden Story and Humankind

Of fruits and men...

Garden Story

This cutesy action RPG has you playing a fruit who is called to the service of guardianship against the night time appearing rot monsters that threaten each of the four seasonal themed villages in your grove. Easy controls and nice art make this nice to get into, but doing random quests from a board and grinding out money for gear, and then wrangling inventory space for said gear gets old fast. Ironically a victim of the Epic free games scheme because on its own I probably would have played more of it, but given a choice with a steady stream of things to try sorry - this one is left to rot.

Humankind

This civilization building game starts you out as nameless tribes in the Neolithic era and then as you collect "era stars" (which varies by era: in the first one its simply exploration and then moves to military or scientific achievements) and once you do you can progress to the next which lets you pick a culture to adopt which gives you specific bonuses. The Greeks are good at science, the Assyrians good at raiding and so on. While there are lots of systems running here none are immediately overwhelming thanks to the easy interface.

That is until you get to the "city cap". If you go over the city cap you start taking deductions that you might not even notice which can send you into an untenable position. A simple warning screen would have been nice. Eliminating enemy empires can also turn into a game of whack a mole (if you go via the conqueror route which I'm sure is everyone's first game :P) as they must be wiped out to the last city, outpost, and unit from the map which can feel unsatisfying - especially as that last unit will probably be hidden on one of their allies lands.

Still a decent game that I ended up playing more than I thought, even though its a type of game I generally dislike but yes, there are some nasty surprises that might catch you if you aren't looking out for them.

Spaceman and the Electric State

Movies with advanced technology?

Spaceman

On an important solo mission to see what's on the other side of Jupiter, cosmonaut Jakub (played by Adam Sandler) disturbingly discovers there's a passenger aboard his vessel - and its here to help him fix his deteriorating relationship with his wife? Yeah, as cool (and wrong) as the space stuff is this is definitely a study about a man who only thinks about himself and is ending up alone thanks to his decisions, conveniently reinforced by him being almost alone on his space ship. While the passenger is my nightmare fuel it certainly makes the movie. I'm not going to be watching this one again though!

The Electric State

In a world where robots gained self awareness then fought a civil war and lost, a teenage orphan (played by Millie Bobby Brown) goes on a quest with one such robot who claims to be her dead brother. While this certainly starts off weak it picks up as more and more action segments kick in (with some decent funny bits thrown in), showcasing a lot of cool CGI for the very goofy robots that really make the show. Does it pick up to the extent of making this visually entertaining flick to be a great movie? No, but decent enough for me not to mind watching it again.

Across the Obelisk and Mortal Shell

Games that expect you to die a lot.

Across the Obelisk

This cooperative fantasy rogue like has you control a group of heroes as they quest across a multi-path map and run into loads of combat that plays out like Darkest Dungeon - albeit with a merrier colour scheme and more humor, and action card decks per hero which eat up a variable number of "action points" to use (if you get lucky enough / built your deck well enough to draw them in the first place). Team wipes are guaranteed as that's the only time you get to upgrade things with currency you earned from the previous run. The result is a whole lot of repetition and not a whole lot of fun. Check points were invented for a reason!

Mortal Shell

This grim fantasy action RPG has you play as a thing that can take control of specific corpses ("shells") and plays a lot like Dark Souls, except there's a lot more bad guys in a lot less space making combat tricky and slow. The shells each have their own perks that you unlock as you get "familiar" with them. That is a cool system actually, as it covers consumables as well. Use a poison shroom the first time and you'll probably die (and lose your "tar"/exp/souls) but use it the next time and it makes you immune from poison. The third time and poison immunity lasts longer and so on.

Alas going is super slow especially at the start when you have no upgrades because of the packed environments and unforgiving combat. In Dark Souls you many more options of where to go and what to try where as here is mainly - run past these guys or fight well? Repeat because said guys are everywhere  and respawn when you "rest". With every direction feeling like a brick wall I still think there's a decent game in here somewhere, but I'm not patient enough to get to it.

Beyond Blue and Jurassic World Evolution 2

Where wild life is the focus.

Beyond Blue

This is an exploration game where you play a diver swimming around and scanning ocean wild life. The controls are easy and its a pretty good looking game but there's no danger to be found here, just story. I think I might have preferred if the game been one big map with plenty to see and scan (ala Skyrim) rather than the medium sized swim zones per level, separated by bits of "down time" on your small sub where you do things like make phone calls. Not a game for me.

Jurassic World Evolution 2

I didn't like the first one of these so it's no surprise I don't like this sequel which retains the sim-zoo feel. Dinos are on the loose and like pokemon you need to catch em all and imprison them in specifically determined man made zones. They retained the semi first person helicopter / chopper shooting part (tranqs only) which is cool, but I drew the line at having to make the first dinosaur 95% content. I'd much prefer to slay the dragons than trap them, but that's not the target audience for this game.

Warm Bodies and Venom: The Last Dance

A pair of corny movies.

Warm Bodies

This zombie comedy romance flick stars Nicholas Hoult as the protagonist zombie who falls for a very much alive girl.  This alternate view point is pretty original as its quirky nonsensical power of love plot. Might be a good pick for those of you who like the three C's in movies: cheesy, campy and corny but otherwise stay away.

Venom: The Last Dance

Closing out Tom Hardy's trilogy of Venom movies, this one has him on the run from both law enforcement and new alien scum sent by a bad guy who loves narration. It  certainly feels that they just wanted to get this over and done with many ridiculous scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor but I guess they really just wanted one last crazy ride with the anti-hero symbiote, so much so that they just whacked in a whole bunch of them in here to give them possibly their last chance of screen time. Definitely turn your brains off if watching this one. Not recommended.

Undying, Turmoil and Neko Ghost Jump

A trio of Epic freebies.

Undying

This zombie crafting survival game features a twist in that you play a mother already bitten in the intro, who must teach her young (and annoyingly useless) son how to survive in this apocalypse. Show him how to dismantle difficult machinery and defeat zombies, sure... but also show him how to get water from a fountain into a plastic bottle, how to water plants, and how to scavenge? He also whines A LOT.

While the game play is kind of ok but the stylistic character art is poor and it becomes readily evident that your main enemy in this game aren't the zombies - it's your own backpack and the lack of space there in. If you aren't keen on inventory management then this is not a game for you. Or me.

Turmoil

This 2D oil barony "almost" idle game is one with simple controls and simple decisions: after winning your desired plot of land from your competitors you send forth your hired dowsers to give you a hint of where to dig, then build the oil pumps to (hopefully) get the oil out and hire wagons to transport said oil to sell to the shops (where the price constantly fluctuates) or store in your own warehouse while waiting for prices to be more favorable.

Most of the action is automated, which lets you focus on how many things you have, where to place new things and if/where to selling to. Excess funds can be used to upgrade pretty much everything and that's the game loop. Surprisingly fun but gets repetitive fast.

Neko Ghost Jump

In this super silly platform game you play a cat on the cat planet trying to rescue his cat bride from scurvy space dogs. The main gimmick is that you must switch from 2D and 3D platforming because there might be tunnels you can only access in 3D view and then impossible diagonal jumps that become easy in 2D view.

I assume there's also some ghost mechanic as hinted by the title and intro cinematic but I never got that far as the game crashed on tutorial level 3. Not recommended.

Adolesence and Twilight of the Gods

Two Netflix series about killing!

Adolesence

This four episode British series starts off with the arrest of a 13 year old boy for murder and goes from there. It's a pretty heavy story in terms of content but also features excellent cinematography and acting, the primary reason for which is that each of the one hour episodes is all shot in a single take with no cuts. This is excellent TV and is high on my recommended list.

Twilight of the Gods (Season 1)

This Norse themed animated series has a high content of violence, gore, nudity and sex - definitely not for younger audiences! It follows a vengeful bride to be who goes after Thor with the help of Loki and more than a few other Norse mythological beings. I like the art style and the flowing animation but it suffers from characters passing the idiot ball which makes the tale far less epic than it's trying to be. I'll watch season 2 if they make it but am not so fussed if it never happens either.

Fridays IN SPACE!

It's been a minute since I've talked about our Friday night game sessions and they all seem to be taking place in space at the moment! The early night staple is Helldivers 2 continues to be fun and crazy with all the updates in both terms of gear and story. The Illuminates are back on the map now and there's a black hole eating planets as it slowly makes its way to Super Earth. Lol.

We've also recently finished Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr that plays a little bit like Diablo, just in the Warhammer 40k universe with DL going full sword marine, Jim running a psyker, and myself the stock standard Space Marine specializing in bolt guns. It's quite funny that the warp gets angry if Jim uses too much power though, as it starts sending tornadoes and demons after him! Lol. The story is not bad, and there are loads of enemy types "add on" mechanics and game modes that could potentially keep you playing this for a long time after finishing the campaign but alas the game play is very repetitive and dull.

Now we've just started Space Marine 2 which is set in the same play space but this one has higher graphic demands with the over the shoulder camera while fighting swarms of tyranids. We definitely need to be more on our toes here for timed button presses mid combat and so far it's been really great - apart from that I can't see the cut scenes since it doesn't like my graphics card and the exorbitantly long loadings times. Not that it matters, the missions play well enough and give enough info as to what's going on. So far it's a very entertaining game.

Pandemic: On the Brink - Bio-Terrorist Mod

It's funny that after owning all these other versions of Pandemic (Rome, Iberia, Warcraft :P), I decided to revisit the original and my first expansion of On the Brink where we never actually get to use the hidden movement variant of the bio terrorist 1 vs many PvP mode. Well, here's an easy mod I came up with to integrate him into a cooperative game - and really you don't need On the Brink to do it, you just need another marker or something to indicate where he is. Play with all the events available to have a chance.

During setup put his marker on the first infection deck city you pull (so the first of the 3 cubes).

Players get a new action: If they are in the space with the bio terrorist, you can spend one action to arrest him and put him beside the infection deck.

While he is locked away the game plays as normal, but when he's on the loose you simply do this: on the first draw of the infection deck, place the bio-terrorist there and add a cube of the appropriate color if allowed as per normal (eradicated diseases or characters that prevent cube spawns will also stop his cube from spawning). Obviously if this makes it go over three cubes in a single city, "explode" the disease as normal.

If an epidemic card is drawn then he escapes captivity (if he was captured) and will again appear on the first draw of the infection deck.

This makes him move around a fair bit but after an epidemic card his movements will be more predictable (and dangerous) since he is visiting cities that already have cubes!

Barely won our trial game with him so I think I'll try put him or his counterparts into my other Pandemic things to see how they go. Warcraft in particular is way too easy in normal mode.

Update: The Warcraft one reaches a suitable difficulty level if all the scourge cards are in the deck. No need for any adjustments there now. :)

Seal Team and the Chosen

TV Series with teams of guys...

Seal Team

This seven season series follows Bravo team, led by Master Chief Jason Hayes (played by David Boreanaz) as they are deployed on dangerous missions around the globe and then have to deal with the normality of mundane life when being back home. That second bit is a bit of a drag, and securely fits this show under the drama category.

That said, the action segments (of which there are plenty) are really great! I particularly enjoy the dog related stunts because that is one very well trained pooch! Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but with gunfire, explosions, death, a completed story and a talented puppy I enjoyed it. Thumbs up!

The Chosen

This currently on going drama series (now on season 4 and available on Prime) focuses on the lives of the apostles as they meet, join up and travel with Jesus of Nazareth. It is also perhaps the best Christian series I've seen, with good doses of humor, (a little) violence, writing and acting all through out. One episode was almost a single take through the whole thing.

I really like the direction they went with this where yeah, Jesus is cool and important and wise but also still a person with quirks AND that he's only in each episode for a few minutes. By focusing on the growth of the everyone else (and there's a vast cast to follow), it makes the story that much better. Apparently season 1 is also currently the most successful crowdfunded TV series in history. Recommended!

House Wars V: The Flood

After so many years of everything going ok (well, other than a few trees growing from my rooftop gutter) this was a new one for me. My wife woke me up an hour or so after we went to bed because "it's flooding" and sure enough, a hose under one of the sinks had corroded to the point that (hot) water was gushing out and had reached at least half of our house, including some bits with carpet!

Had to turn off the water main to the house then spent that night mopping and toweling everything off, followed by spreading boxes and boxes of Bi-carb over the wet carpet, having fans going and putting dehumidifiers everywhere. It's all back to normal now and hopefully we caught that in time to prevent mold. Not sure how we'd be able to tell, (I'm guessing there'd be a mold smell?) but whatever.

However we've just undertaken a project that's revealed a second flood, not of water but of stuff that we've just accumulated over the years. Going through a major de-cluttering exercise now and I'm surprised at the amount of junk coming out that we can donate and/or throw. Apparently I am a hoarder of papers which is annoying because they are the least satisfying to clean out. On the positive side, I've been getting rid of clothes that are too big for me now because for a change I've lost weight (around 16 kg). Amazing what cutting down on carbs can do.

Zero Day and Paradise

Series that involve presidential action.

Zero Day

After a cyber attack causes chaos and disaster all across the USA, former president Mullen (played by Robert De Niro) is made lead investigator and put in charge of a newly formed goverment group that can freely trample the people's freedoms to find the culprit. It's certainly an interesting chase, made more challenging given Mullen's slowly losing his mind. With only six episodes it's worth a watch, but man do I hate that "Who killed Bambi" song that keeps playing in every episode.

Paradise

This so far one season series follows a lead secret service security agent (played by Sterling K. Brown) whose life gets much more complicated when the president he's supposed to protect is murdered! With powerful people pulling the strings he's not sure who to trust. Good story with interesting hooks per episode that will make you want to watch the next one. Especially as there's only eight episodes currently its a recommended one to binge watch. :)

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and Bogota: City of the Lost

Movies with ... colons in the title?

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep

This animated film follows everyone's favorite Witcher, Geralt as he gets embroiled in basically a much darker version of the Little Mermaid. Sorry, the parallels are just too obvious! That said it has a good deal of violence, adult themes and an important Witcher spin on the whole thing that keeps it interesting. While the animation is ok, too much spinning can be found in Geralt's depicted combat style. Not bad but I'd recommend this only to Witcher fans, especially the game version of the Witcher since its the same voice actor.

Bogota: City of the Lost

En route to the USA, a Korean family is robbed of their money and travel documents in Bogota and they are forced to live there. Wishing for a better life the son decides to get involved with petty smuggling and working his way up the crime chain because this is one of those movies where crime pays. Outside the interesting Colombian environment this is a pretty stock standard and mostly predictable crime flick with backstabbing aplenty. Not terrible but not great either.

Silo and 3%

TV Series set after a cataclysm.

Silo

Ten thousand people live in an underground silo and they don't know why, or for how long, or much of anything really - and that is the main initial hook of this sci-fi show: watching how these micro-managed citizens deal with finding out truths of their existence. Very cool ideas, setting, world building and story but for some viewers (like myself) there might be a few "supply" issues that may never be addressed. Still one I'm a fan of and am eagerly awaiting season 3!

3%

In this four season Brazilian series everyone lives in a literal hole of poverty but every year, all 20 year olds have an opportunity to take "the Process" to prove they are the best of the crop and the top 3% will be taken away to live on an island paradise. This way of life has both made a church that worships the 3% "gods" and a rebellion that feels it isn't fair to everyone else for so few to have so much. A very cool idea with excellent characters and character growth only marred by clear budget constraints on their CGI effects (oh, and a few very silly scenes that need to be viewed for best "enjoyment"). If you can look past those, then this is a very entertaining series to watch.

Cobra Kai and Golden Kamuy 2

TV series that follow movies.

Cobra Kai

Set around thirty years after The Karate Kid, this show follows depressed alcoholic Johnny Lawrence (again played by William Zabka, antagonist from the film) as he tries start up Cobra Kai again, much to the dismay of his rival Daniel LaRusso (again played by Ralph Macchio) of Miyagi-do. While a lot of time is spent on the teen students of the various dojos the main heart of this series is the dynamic between this pair which makes for some excellent TV. As a bonus - yeah, the karate is ok too. 

My wife and I don't really remember the movies much but all the cameos and quick flash backs to them are super cool. Best of all, the story is completely wrapped up in Season Six which makes this a very binge worthy candidate if you haven't already seen it (and you don't need to have seen any of the movies to understand it). Big thumbs up, recommended!

Golden Kamuy 2

I ended my review Golden Kamuy by saying "Don't bother watching it until there's a Golden Kamuy 2", and lo and behold - here it is: a series directly taking place after the movie where our protagonists race to get all the pieces of a treasure map that's tattooed ON people! There are still some nice action sequences and a high frequency of bears but its like the writer gets distracted a lot and goes on tangents about cooking and the life style in that period (which for me is fascinating) but if you aren't a fan of Japanese style comedy this might be lost on you. 

For example, there's a killer who always gets a hard on after killing and they make sure the viewer knows about it in hilarious ways. Let's just say if you managed to make it through the movie then maybe this one is for you. We'll be waiting for season 2!

Behind the Frame and Them's Fightin' Herds

Games with excellent animation.

Behind the Frame

This very short and relaxed game is all about painting and puzzle solving. Despite the "painting by numbers" portions that let you brush paint everywhere, the art is really good with its anime style. Thankfully the puzzles are pretty easy to let you focus on the excellent story which will put a knife in your feels I enjoyed very much. Highly recommended, if you enjoy something that is more of a narrative than mechanics.

Them's Fightin' Herds

It's is like Streetfighter for My Little Pony, but the smooth animation and cute critters are very well done! There's also a story mode that plays a bit like an RPG Maker game interspersed with both jumping puzzle and (many) combat segments which is pretty cool, but the difficulty ramps up rather quickly and boss fights become a chore. It's a different one, that's for sure.

Annihilation and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Movies about getting wiped out.

Annihilation

In this sci-fi horror, a biology professor (Natalie Portman) volunteers to be part of a team of scientists (who apparently are also all firearms trained) to investigate an alien shimmering zone that is slowly expanding from a meteor crash site. Inside is much prettier than Stalker's zone of exclusion, but pretty much just as bad. Big thumbs up to the set design and digital stage creators for making an awesome visual display, but the actors rarely were looking at the right thing and the plot is predictable. I thought these people were meant to be smart? Only recommended for Natalie Portman fans.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Talking about predictable plots... LOL. Prior to most of the other Transformer movies, a plot device was hidden away on Earth by time traveling giant robotic animals (Maximals) but of course bad robots are after said key and this gets Optimus Prime and his crew involved. As well as some broke dude who decides a life of crime is the only way to get money because there needed to be some human involved right? Alas outside of the impressive CGI, there's nothing really new here outside of adding more characters that the writers are generally too afraid to kill ("someone needs to think of the -children- fans!"). Would it be a better movie with a higher death count? Yes. All of them would be. Recommended only for Transformers fans.

The Pancake Adventure

A quick Forged in the Dark adventure I ran for Jim's family when we last visited. Due to time constraints and basically making the mission up on the fly I simplified everything and let each player start with two skills, and so our party consisted of Jim the gymnastic hacker, Trhia the driver hacker, Keira the karate astrologer and doctor salesperson Rose. Oh, and because of Keira's age, I tried not to make the story too grim dark. :P

While walking out in the neighborhood to get an ice cream, the team comes across a little girl asking for help in finding her missing cat "Pancake". She's next to a sign board with many other bits of paper of others missing their pets too. As the girl remembers some goons taking the cat into a black Daihatsu Thor, Jim tries to hack the police database with his mobile phone to track it down and fails so powerfully that his phone explodes!

Shaking her head with a "tsk, tsk" sound, Trhi does the same and succeeds finding there are only 2 of the said vehicle in town and the very first address they visit they spot it behind a massive gate with goons unloading animal cages before a three story house. The gate guard refuses them entry and Keira uses her karate to flying kick him into the gate, knocking the whole thing down!

Jim (acrobatically), Trhi (hacking the security cameras) and Keira sneak into the bushes beyond while more guards rush the gate where Rose uses both her doctor and salesperson ability to distract them and send a few of them with the injured man to the hospital. Keira is spotted, but manages to continue to distract her guard patrol with knowledge of astrology and brown dwarves (these guards are really dumb).

Using acrobatics, Jim climbs up to an open window and encounters a man wearing multiple black belts whom he tries to knock out but fails, getting into a scuffle. Trhia heads down an open exterior storm basement door and hacks her way past a digital lock to find herself in an underground laboratory and encounters a monstrous, howl-meowling dog-cat which starts beating her up.

Hearing the commotion Keira decides its time to put on her own black belt and beat up the guards to rush to Trhi's aid, but Rose gets there first and manages to pull her aside for some minor heals. Upstairs Jim is losing to belt man until he gets a fireplace poker and shoves it through belt man's skull, from underneath the jaw up. Belt man's head explodes because he was a robot!

After finding a deceased girl in an upstairs observatory with notes about revivication using animal blood, Jim takes the small elevator down to the basement and is joined mid way by an old looking scientist who is late in noticing Jim isn't one of the guards. Dr. Samurai X pulls out his cane sword and revolver and tussles with Jim in the elevator (and Jim hilariously scrambles around the tiny space like a squirrel).

Downstairs Keira's kung fu doesn't do much to the dog-cat as the creature blasts her away with a laser blast from its mouth (why not). This buys enough time for Rose and Trhia to find some tranquilizers which Trhi shoots into the monster, putting it to sleep. They lock it up and free the other surviving animals including Pancake just as Jim arrives, having knocked out the elderly doctor in the elevator.

Loading the animals into a car, Trhi drives out of there expertly and they return all the pets and finally get to that ice cream shop they were trying to go to in the first place!

The end. That was a fun and silly 1.5 hour session. :)

Elevation and The Mountain Between Us

Movies about being high up.

Elevation

This post apocalyptic action film stars Anthony Mackie as one of the survivors who lives high up in the mountains where the "horrible creatures who killed every one else" don't go because they have a hard limit to stop at 8000ft elevation. Of course, he soon has a reason to go back down the mountain because stories need conflict! :P Despite the simple story and low number of cast members, the action is decent as is the critter CGI (when they get to it). An ok watch but one that could have been better / feels like a missed opportunity.

The Mountain Between Us

When a pair of impatient travelers (played by Kate Winslet and Idris Elba) decide to book a small charter flight that crashes in a mountainous wilderness, they can only depend on each other to survive. Good thing they also packed some plot armor! This survival drama is much slower paced than Elevation but is alright if you're looking for a less actiony film that focuses on the relationship of the pair. Obviously I preferred Elevation because it has monsters and guns but that's a personal preference. 

State of Play: USA aligns with Russia?

It's now day 1103 of the Russia's two day special operation in Ukraine. While the battle rages on there it seems Russia is making some gains outside that theater, seemingly with the help of relatively newly re-elected USA president Donald Trump. In just around two months of his second time in office the USA has held "Peace Talks" with Russia without Ukrainian participation and decided to halt aid going to Ukraine after President Trump publicly clashed with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.

On top of this his high tariffs on Canada, Mexico (he also renamed their gulf) and China as well as sanctions relief for Russia some speculate he's building "the bridge" to trade primarily with the Russians in the future. This has sparked more than a few interesting comments of "Trump is a Russian agent" and "Congrats to Russia on winning the cold war". I suppose we will see if and how this changes the battle field but one thing's for sure: Putin must be pretty happy right now.

Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion

An amazing game about making wines!

Prelude: The base game of Viticulture is a competitive one which we didn't play but is required to play this cooperative expansion. Made by the same people who created Wingspan, Viticulture World is a worker placement game with differing actions per season, across a time limit of 6 years (and differing "world" event cards change the flow drastically). By then each player must be at 25 victory points (or more) and the influence token must also have reached the "full" end of its track.

I won't lie, this was a bit complicated to get started with and the rule book could have used a full cheat sheet of symbols somewhere so expect your first game to be a really long one (especially if like us, you haven't played the base game) but once you've got it it's actually pretty simple! Simplified per season its just:

Spring: As a team you place your rooster on the "time" clock which determines what bonus you get right now (might be a card, money, extra worker or 1 VP) and what order you will be placing workers down for this year.

Summer: Place workers to get seeds, plant them, give tours, construct buildings, develop new tech (important if you want to win), and use summer visitors.

Fall: Move your roosters to the inner part of the time clock and either gain a card, money or age a grape.

Winter: Harvest grapes, turn grapes into wine (very cool), use winter visitors and fill wine orders to gain VP!

In addition to the main board each player gets their own player mat to keep track of their buildings, fields and most importantly grapes and wines, both of which get older each year to a max of 9, and turning grapes into wine makes retains their age (eg 3 year old grapes make 3 year old wine, unless you don't have a "3" slot which makes it reduce to a "2" slot etc).

Orders usually ask for a combo of wines at around 4 or just one of the 7-9 rank ones and having a discard down to 5 cards rule at the end of each year makes it important for you to trade with your friends to make the most of each turn. There's way more to it than what I've written but that's the gist of it.

Now buying the base game AND this expansion is a bit pricey, but if your cooperative group likes tough games with not necessarily a lot of combat (like the cooperative mode of Wingspan) then this is a good investment for you. If your group isn't cooperative then just the base Viticulture should do, but I can't comment on how good or not good that is. :P

12 Strong and Changing Lanes (2002)

Movies of conflict - on the opposite ends of the scale! Wait... all movies have conflict...

12 Strong

After the 9/11 attacks, Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) is eager to take on the Taliban on their home turf and is deployed covertly with a small squad (its in the name) to do just that. It does help that he has some significant air support though! Inspired by real events, most of this film is gun play - almost too much of it actually, because outside plenty war action bits there's not really much happening story wise (outside the, "we gotta go kill those guys"). Perfect if you just want to see people shooting each other and getting blown up though.    

Changing Lanes

Rushing to get to court a lawyer (played by Ben Affleck) has a minor collision with a recovering alcoholic (played by Samuel L. Jackson) which screws up both their respective cases: the alcoholic loses his custodial parenting rights while the lawyer loses an important document collected by the other man. So ensues a feud of escalation between the two parties which is the main focus for this film and while this two thirds of the movie is decently interesting, the first third where it just sets up the two characters is very slow. Watch it if there's nothing else on, but feel free to multi-task until that initial collision scene which is where the movie should have started.

Time (TV) and Sifu (PC)

Media that spans a few years?

Time

This British drama series focuses on people going to prison and what happens during their time there, and it is surprisingly well done with a tight script. It also helps when you've got strong actors like Sean Bean (season 1) and Bella Ramsey (season 2 - set in a female prison) among many others [they're all good, even the ones just there for you to hate]. Not one I thought I'd like but its turned out to be one of the best shows I've watched for a while. Definitely recommended!

Sifu

You've trained your life to get vengeance on the gang that killed your dad and wrecked your dojo. Now armed with just your martial arts and a magical trinket that lets you come back from the dead but just older, you need to go on your button mashing perfectly timed button pressing rampage. Can you complete your quest without being an old man? It's an interesting mechanic for sure, and you get to retain / unlock skills as you age - and then can cheat by finding x amount of shrines to make you younger again. The art style is very cool too, but for me the game feels... repetitive. Like I'm just getting older while doing the same thing over and over again. Oh yeah, I am! :P

Kiri-ai: The Duel

A very efficient little game once you get the rules down.

This 16 card game represents a fight between two samurai on a cliff. One card is the battle field, a series of pips along the center with either short or long sets (flip side). Each player has a samurai card which shows their stance (Heaven or Earth), if they are injured (on the flip side) and you place this at an angle on a pip to show where you are standing.   

On a turn each player will play two cards and then take back the second one, leaving the other card as "exhausted" for the next round. Repeat until one or both samurai take two hits. Movement always happens first, followed by attacks which can only succeed depending on your stance. Heaven hits 2 pips away, Earth hits 1 pip away. Both have a stab that hits right beside you.

There are also 3 special "one shot" move cards which get randomly assigned to each player each match, with the extra sitting out face down. Two dual hitters and a counter attack (you hit me, but not really - I hit you!). Excellent card quality and container which is an old style Japanese coin purse that you just tie with a string which oozes theme. The rules and imagery might take a bit of getting used to but otherwise its very cool, easy to setup and put away AND is very affordable. Highly recommended!

Mafia Mamma and Furies (S1)

Shows with organized crime.

Mafia Mamma

In this comedy, a regular American housewife (played by Toni Collette) is invited to the funeral of her only relative, a distant grandfather in Italy and subsequently inherits the name and boss position of her mafia house. Stereotypical mafia funny business ensues, making it hard to take any of them seriously when this regular lady, who is more focused on getting laid for most of the film, literally does everything better than them. I suppose I'm not the intended audience for this one. It was fine, but not recommended.

Furies

In this French series, a regular student vows vengeance against the crime families main enforcer, the titular "Fury", when her parents are gunned down. Nice premise with interesting complications, funny interludes and some decent action scenes. Definitely entertaining but the main cast wears layers of plot armor. Sure, character x is a bad ass but if you are standing in a narrow corridor I expect you to get hit (or at least grazed, or maybe just have a hair snap) by automatic gun fire from your enemies. Works much better when both parties forget to bring firearms. Still a pretty fun ride, and I'll be watching season 2 when it comes out.

Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth

Two players fight for the One Ring!

In this game one player takes the role of the Fellowship (has more gold at start) while the other is Sauron (goes first), and all you are doing each turn for each of the three rounds is either picking up a valid card from the tableau, selling a card from the tableau or building a fortress (which costs a lot but gives you a bunch of stuff). Blue cards move Frodo and Sam towards Mt. Doom or move the Nazgul towards the hobbits, gold cards give you money, green cards give you skills and friends (with possible special abilities), and red cards let you do army stuff on the small map.

Some cards cost skills to buy (or in later rounds, have "chain" markers meaning you can get them for free IF you already got the first part of the chain earlier). For each skill you are missing, just pay gold. There are three ways to win: complete the "race" track - Nazgul eats Frodo or Frodo reaches Mt. Doom and their player wins. If you collect a fellowship of six different races (green cards) you win. If you have a soldier on each zone on the map you win.

Simple game that so far Sauron has always won in my group, and most of the time it boils down to stopping your opponent from getting the card that he's going to win with. Nice components, with just a little bit of setup time.

All Quiet on the Western Front and American Primeval (S1)

High death count: check!

All Quiet on the Western Front

This German World War I flick focuses on a young German lad who joins the war and how he and his buddies quickly go from "yeah, this'll be great" to "WTF am I doing here" in the trenches against the French. Nice cinematography and effects that really focus on the dirty and sometimes insane business that is war. It goes a bit long but we were definitely entertained throughout the film. My only problem is I couldn't really feel for the protagonist and his crew because they all chose to be there.

American Primeval (S1)

In this (so far) one season, six episode Western, a woman and her child need to get from point A to point B without dying of dysentery, being caught by bounty hunters, scalped by the natives, ambushed by brigands, or fighting against a Mormon army. What? Yes, you heard me. This really portrays the Wild West as super wild with high levels of violence and at least one mandatory death per episode. The script is pretty wild too, with characters passing the idiot ball around regularly. If you don't think about the "(s)he should have done [something smart] instead", you can give this one a try.

Redacted Beholder

Weaker copies of already existing games.

Redacted

In a distant space prison, something's gone wrong and not only are the convicts loose - they've mutated into monsters! You play as a guard trying to reach the only escape shuttle on board, but good luck with that because this is an action roguelike in the style of Hades - and what your early guards die trying to unlock are meant to assist your later guards with better gear and skills. You have some choice when picking which way to go with the signs that indicate which currency you might find there but almost always there will be enemies. If you liked Hades then you might like this one too as it plays very similarly. If you haven't played Hades then go play that instead as it is much better.

Beholder

In this game you play as a humble servant to an authoritarian state in your role as landlord who must also spy on his tenants, and if you don't then you and your family will pay the price! *shakes fist* Well funny story. I couldn't seem to do the very first mission because the guy I was meant to spy on never appeared thus making me lose the game. Hmm, if you can't find a bug at the start of your game I don't have high hopes for testing in the later parts. Don't waste your time with this garbage, you can play a similar and better game in "Papers, Please".

Uno Stacko and Ra

Competitive board games involving wooden pieces.

Uno Stacko

While I don't enjoy the card versions of Uno, this is one I don't mind at all. It involves creating a wooden tower with three planks making each floor in a cross thatch design, then on your turn removing one from "not the top" and then placing it on the top, without making the whole thing fall. The last person who successfully does that is the winner!

Does that sound like Jenga? Because it is Jenga, just with a few uno rules. Each plank has a color and a number and on your turn the piece you move must either be of that color or same number (and there are a few special tiles thrown in). Quite a fun little dexterity game that comes with a cardboard thing to help you restack the tower faster. Recommended!

Ra

This is a highly lauded bidding game where players simply bid on lots to increase their claim of ancient Egypt before time runs out. And does time run out REALLY FAST. On your turn you can do three things: pull an auction tile from a bag to add to the lot, use a previously won god tile to take one tile from the lot, and call "RA" (though some auction tiles call RA for you, and advance the timer).

Once RA is called its auction time. The person to the left has one chance to bid on the lot or pass and so on until it gets back to the RA caller who gets a final bid or pass (though if you called RA and everyone else passed, then you must bid). Your currency are predetermined sun disks which you then leave on the auction grounds for the next lot as part of the prize, which means in the next epoch (out of 3) one of your opponents might have won that to use against you!

Adding extra things like, "if you don't have any of these tiles or have the fewest of these tiles you lose points" and "all these tiles won't score unless you have this tile" adds spice. Especially since those tiles go away / are lost at the end of each round / Epoch, after you score. Good design, but I still need to play it more... currently it seems like newbies will always get thrashed with no way to recover.

Hell Let Loose and Dark and Darker

Games of killing each other.

Hell Let Loose

This is a 50 v 50 multiplayer army first person shooter set in World War II. Unlike the previous PvP games I've been trying where there are no servers to play this one was the opposite: most of the servers are full! I did manage to finally get in to experience the pretty decent game play which pits teams in historical battles and lets you drive vehicles without going to the ridiculous stunt level of the Battlefield series. Your class determines your (somewhat editable) load out and what vehicles you can drive (tanks need a tank crew person), and bullets are one hit killers: you'll probably never see who shot you (though bleeding out is lengthy enough for a medic to reach you).

That's a pretty accurate simulator right there, though it obviously can be a frustrating one. Squads with good leadership will dominate, and the leader is usually the guy with the binoculars because it is really hard to spot people in the distance. If you like this sort of game and don't mind the fatal bullets, definitely give this one a try.

Dark and Darker

A different sort of PvP game for sure, in this one you make your fantasy character class and then can optionally team up with up to two players to enter a dungeon to loot its spoils. The kicker is there are other adventuring parties in there, and they aren't friendly! I think the term for this now is extraction PvP? Loot the dungeons, loot the monsters, loot the other guys and get out when you find the exit portals which appear at some point late in the match. I went in as a solo rogue and was surprised with the amount of things I could interact with. Furniture, traps, light sources, giant spiders biting my face... Unlike Hell Let Loose you will definitely see what kills you in this game.

And no, it wasn't the spiders - it was some cleric player who came around the corner with a flame strike. :P Definitely interesting and this time frustrating for a different reason: you don't escape, you don't get any loot but anything you used is gone. PvP isn't my cup of tea but there's better odds of me trying this one again than Hell Let Loose.

Lioness and Landman

Taylor Sheridan continues to create entertaining stuff.

Lioness

This so far two season show stars Zoe Saldana as a CIA case officer who likes to yell that is in charge of the special "Lioness" task force / kill squad which involves her hiring / training up women to then infiltrate friends and family of the target followed by ultimately killing said target. There's a fair bit of action each episode with a strong tendency towards torture violence and nudity, which combined with explosions is one of my favorite combos! Obviously I'm enjoying this one even though the operators don't move as cleanly as those in Seal Team (TV). If you like easy on the brain violence then you might enjoy this one too.

Landman

The oil business is what keeps the world turning and this show focuses on one of the people that makes that happen: the "Landman" (played by Billy Bob Thornton) who buys up leases and manages them. If that sounds boring then you're in for a heck of a surprising first episode as a drug cartel happens to be one of those leases he needs to balance. It also gives a nice peek into how the oil industry runs and all that heavy/dirty stuff is off set by the ridiculous hi jinks of his family and friends. Recommended, and it will probably be more palpable than Lioness to more viewers.

Dredge and LOTR: Return to Moria

Games about inventory management!

Dredge

This was a surprise for me: a fishing game that managed to hold my attention for over two weeks! But its not really just fishing is it? Each critter has a slightly different reeling in mini-game which goes a long way to keeping it interesting and some only come out at night and in certain parts of the map. Then you also need to upgrade your boat which gives you more space not only for fish, but to also get different rod types so that you can fish deeper or in more tangled environments.

The best part is the game isn't really about fishing at all. Bad stuff lurks in the dark depths, and making sure they don't get you while intentionally going into their territory is quite the blast. Awesome game - recommended!

Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

The dwarves have decided to reclaim their greatest territory long fallen to evil forces and when trying to get in (because speaking "friend" to enter isn't working anymore) you (and possibly your co-op allies) are the only one(s) to make it in with basically nothing.

That's ok because this is a crafting survival game and there's loads of material just lying around for you to make everything you need like axes, pickaxes, weapons, armor, food, and your very own base. Good luck trying to carry all of it at once though! Excellent idea with some items being overpowered (insta wooden platforms to avoid enemies? Yes please!) and other things just being stupid like cooking forces you to wait 30 seconds while making a pick axe is instantaneous. Huh? As a player you really feel that idle time.

Alas that type of game loop is boring for me but if you enjoy things where you need to build up to advance a bit then harvest and build up again then this is a game for you! Literal walls of "you need the next level of pick axe" determine how far you can scavenge so enjoy the long dark of Moria!

Wonka and The Little Mermaid

Movies with singing!

Wonka

A young Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in a city with the hopes of fulfilling his chocolate making dreams but finds difficulty breaking in especially due to his lack of money and his zero sense in being street wise. At the same time he is a freaking magician who can seemingly conjure whatever he requires (except money it seems). Funny in a cute way and while the plot has no surprises I was surprised with the decent musical numbers. After seeing Timothée so dour and possibly bored in Dune: Part 2 it was great to see him in a completely opposite role. This kid friendly movie won't be for everyone but I certainly enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

The Little Mermaid (2023)

The woke live action version of the Disney classic still keeps most of the same songs and plot with Halle Bailey starring as Ariel, a mermaid who longs to be a human and can only do so by being someone's bitch using her strong independence skills. There's one shot where she crawls on a rock like a crab (which has ruined all mermaids for us honestly) and screams out despite trying to be hidden which is really off putting, and another where the human prince who is forbidden to get on a ship suddenly teleports onto one mid-song which is jarring. Is it better or worse than the animated one? Can't say as I haven't seen the cartoon one in years. All I know is I don't want to watch this one again with its weak acting and singing. If you need a Little Mermaid hit with better music quality and a much shorter run time have a listen to the talented Voiceplay instead (thanks Jim).

Ghostrunner II and Hot Wheels Unleashed

Gotta keep moving!

Ghostrunner II

The katana wielding cyborg ninja is back to do more parkour across the futuristic city scape while avoiding all the single hit kills that would force you to repeat sections of the game. At least most of the bad guys only require one hit to kill too! Awesome graphics like last time and I have to admit, I did get into this one a bit more than the first game especially since they dialed the difficulty right down at the start. However, as I predicted I eventually reached a parkour from hell segment that just wasn't fun to keep repeating and so I dropped this from my play list. Not recommended.

Hot Wheels Unleashed

I usually dislike racing games but this one did manage to hold my attention for a little bit. In it you race toy cars from the Hot Wheels collection and even picking the fastest car with zero maneuverability I had no problem with steering and getting enough boost to do the gravity defying loops and jumps featured on each starting track. I also found it cute that you need to be mindful of things like a spider shooting webs as you pass by which slows you down, and the small mini map in the bottom corner actually lets you see where cars situated behind you are. Sharp graphics and decent controls make for a game racers should check out. Thumbs up!

Deadpool & Wolverine and Dune: Part 2

Sequels to good movies!

Deadpool & Wolverine

After an encounter with the TVA who reveal his universe is going to end due to the lack of an anchor being, a retired Wade Wilson (played by Ryan Reynolds) goes off to find a replacement Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Shenanigans ensue with numerous cameos and jokes that hopefully people still get many years from now. As usual its very rude, quite funny to the point of ridiculousness, and action packed using the tried and true "if nothing funny or emotional is happening, a fight breaks out" technique. Recommended if you are a fan of Ryan's Deadpool and/or Hugh's Wolverine. On the flip side, if you disliked any of the previous Deadpool movies you will definitely not like this one too. :P

Dune: Part 2

Hiding with the desert folk after the destruction of his house, Paul Atredies (played by Timothée Chalamet) learns their ways while also having a vision that specifically tries to avoid. But no, his allies convince him to do the thing anyway and then possibly get upset after he does the thing that he warned them he didn't want to do. Really though, most of this 2 hour and 46 minute film is an absolute snooze fest. Visually nice if you can stay awake, but really they needed to cut off some fat from the run time. Easiest one is the whole bit where group A ambushes a harvester, killing their guards and then use a long ranged rocket to destroy the machine. Five seconds later, they just use a long ranged rocked to destroy the next machine. Did we really need that previous prolonged action scene? Nope. Does it change anything that they destroyed the harvester? Nope. Do I recommend this movie? Nope.

Stardew Valley: the Board Game and Mysterium

Board games where you need to communicate!

Stardew Valley: the Board Game

Much like the digital game in this cooperative board game of 1 to 4 players, you have inherited a run down farm from your grandpa and must restore all the rooms (by completing random quests) and fulfilling his life long goals (more random quests) all in the span of one year (tracked by event cards)! On your turn you can  move (and collect nearby resources which replenish each season) or do an action based on where you are. 

Buy seeds, water plants, make friends, dig in the mine (need to find those stairs!), fish in three different spots etc. One player can get more moves by getting a spouse (some NPCs are marriageable) who can get you an extra action and you'll probably need it because right from the get go, you need to plan carefully what you're doing and work as a team. This does make it susceptible to quarter backing but as each player has a "job" they're good at it's usually an easy plan: the miner mines, fisher fishes, etc. Good quality components and a pretty good game! Thumbs up!

Mysterium

There's been a murder and as everyone knows the best way to solve it is with a seance!? In this 2-7 cooperative board game one player is a ghost who knows all the answers but can only communicate by giving out awesomely illustrated but often useless picture cards which they randomly draw while the rest are psychics who each need to interpret said cards to correctly identify THEIR three things - suspect / location / weapon in 7 turns. If even one fails, everyone loses at this point. 

If they all made it then the ghost picks which set of suspect / location / weapon is the "true" one and gives 1-3 more cards (depending on "psychic power mechanic", and if players aren't gaming the system this will likely be 1 card) for everyone to secretly vote for it. If the "true" one gets the most votes, everyone wins! Yay! This is a really interesting one to play, and the hardest role is that of the ghost who will likely be cursing each turn with the garbage cards he or she can use as clues. Expect to feel mentally exhausted after a game or two of this one. :P

Red Sparrow Outside the Wire

Movies with manipulation.

Red Sparrow

A famous Russian ballerina (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is manipulated by her uncle into joining the SVR Sparrow school where she learns the art of sexpionage to use against their USA counter parts. The story is a rather dark one but good, and while there is a bit of violence here, there is obviously much more in terms of nudity (full frontal) and sex. Worth a watch but I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again as the content is a bit "heavy" and the run time a little long.

Outside the Wire

In a future with robot soldiers supporting their human counterparts, war still rages in Ukraine. A drone operator who disobeyed an order is sent to the front lines as punishment to work in a two man team with his superior, Captain Leo (played by Anthony Mackie) who rather quickly reveals he is an experimental android and their mission is to find "lost nuclear silos" in the region. Uh. Really? You have freaking robots, drones, satellites and you need to walk around ask where these things are? The drone operator could have used a stronger actor too. That aside there's an ok movie in here, but its not one you need to rush out and see.

Kill Knight and Wizard of Legend

Games about fighting in little rooms.

Kill Knight

You are a knight armed with a sword and guns who drops down into some randomly generated tiny arena to see how many monsters you can kill. Time your dodges, sword the baddies to get more ammo, and obliterate them with your ultimate skill once its charged up enough: basically the more you kill, the stronger you get. Alas it doesn't look like there's much else happening in this game which just expects you to button mash the boredom away. Not recommended.

Wizard of Legend

You are a wizard invited to the Chaos trials which consists of randomly generated areas that you need to get through to become a Wizard of Legend. In it you'll run into shops, mini bosses and of course - rooms that lock you in with a variety of bad guys that you have to beat to advance. There's more customization from the get go than Kill Knight, but the controls aren't very good (though to be fair, BOTH games recommend using a controller which I did not). Even if they were it would suffer from the same problem as Kill Knight though, which is repetitiveness. If you want a better version of both these games, play Hades instead.