Batman: Arkham Origins

The summary version of an Arkham game.

In this prequel to the previous Arkham games, a large bounty has attracted a bunch of assassins to kill the Batman on Christmas Eve and the only presents handed out during the course of the game are painful beat downs to all parties involved. Much like the previous games, controlling Batman is for the most part extremely fun - even if he is adverse to swimming. The combat system plays pretty much the same with a few new variations (for me anyway) which is great. I also quite liked the expanded use for detective vision in solving the mini crimes that come up during the course of the evening.

Breaking necks for great justice (I'm sure he's still alive)!

The map itself is composed of reused, redecorated sections of previous games but feels a lot smaller possibly because you can also use the Batwing to fast travel around the place. This also makes for a short game, main story wise as you can finish it with probably less that 40% total completion (the rest of which is filled by challenges and collectibles). Then it uses the "Diablo" method of locked difficulties to tempt people to replay which for me is utterly moronic. What's the point if you already know what's going to happen?

The other thing I find irksome is again some hard to reach collectibles - specifically the ones that break the rules of the game just to make it challenging. Like, Batman will refuse to grapple to a specific spot because that would be too easy, you have to find a way to glide there. In my book, that's not just bad design - its moronic. What, Batman decided to be inefficient all of a sudden?

Those things aside, it is still a pretty fun game (single player wise) and I give it three and a half batarangs out of five. Keep in mind you can probably clear it in around two days. Obviously take this into consideration if you are purchasing it because there is no way in hell that something so short should be charged the same as Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for example (which has given me 333 hours of play).

I should also mention there is a pretty cool sounding PvP multiplayer mode over four maps where players are either Batman / Robin or gang members of Joker or Bane. Unfortunately you probably won't get to play it as you are required to have 8 players to begin, and simply put - not enough people are playing it.

NBI: Region-Locking Games

You might have heard than En Masse has blocked half the world from playing Tera. From this, Jeromai from Why I Game has setup a NBI writing prompt and I thought I'd participate - so you can totally blame him for this post! :P

My thoughts on Region-locking:

Speaking from a guild with members all across the globe, region locking sucks. It makes it so much harder to find MMOs that we can all play together on. While we play many games, we're still looking for that one that will cater to all of us as many free shards of Ultima Online did so many years ago.

Devil's Advocate section:

If a game is so poorly designed that it can't handle world wide participation then I suppose a Region Lock is necessary. Rubber banding and general lag is not a good feeling in any MMO, though my personal experience is that I more resistant / can put up with more of it than other players that like to vocalize on general chat.

I suppose in PvP games it would make things pretty frustrating too for the lagged out person, while those with good connections would just get bored from the easy kills / annoyed at you giving the enemy team free points.

Your in-game encounters with folks from different countries, good or bad (any cultural tendencies that you’ve noticed)?

What? Jeromai is asking me to be racist? Ok, if he insists! Haha just kidding, douche bags are spread among all types of folk across the world (especially in games that allow PvP). That said there are also really nice people that I've encountered over the years, some of whom joined my guild - the ones that share our view always trying to help people and abstaining from PvP.

We've had members from Australia, Canada, all over the USA, Thailand, Belgium, Holland, England, Ireland, Singapore, Finland, Brazil, Lithuania, Germany, Slovenia, Israel, Croatia, Portugal, Turkey, and Georgia (the country, not the state).

The most eye opening talk for me though was with our Israeli guild mate. We voiced our concern for one of our English guild members years back when there was a terrorist bomb attack near where he lived. While he was ok, the Israeli guy was just like, "It's like that everyday here."

We lost contact with him after he was conscripted into the army, which is obligatory when he turned a certain age, and have never heard from him since.

Other on-going NBI activities:

Contains Moderate Peril still looking for NBI guest posts!
Gaming Discussion
Talkback Topic #2: Early Access and Kickstarter
NBI 2015: Poetry Slam!
Murf's Screenshot Challenge

We Charge the Castle

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

From my vantage point atop a nearby abandoned tower I confirm that Isran is an idiot. For whatever reason his group rushes the long stone bridge immediately meaning any dragon support I call down will most likely result in friendly fire. Worse, most of them bypass a pair of gargoyles and vamps who charge down the bridge to my team waiting in reserve. Still, they are outnumbered out here so I concentrate my sunhallowed fire onto the bridge proper where the Dawnguard group is getting thrashed and it seems to turn the tide for them somewhat, until I hear a large angry growl next to me.

Goliath? Is that you?

One of the gargoyles had made it up the tower and resisted my soul rend shout (thanks for nothing, Dummy) so I was forced into close quarters combat until I finally killed the sentinel. Once that was done I did a quick scan of the battle field: all the Dawnguard forces were either dead or kneeling over like bitches to the remaining two vamps on the bridge. Just outside, my group didn't fare much better - Cutter and Bane were lying dead on the sand along with one vampire and a death dog, Anni was floating face down near the jetty and I can only guess the various red smears around were what was left of Lynn. Jordis and Njada were still fighting off the remaining vamp and gargoyle but were not doing well so I prioritised them first and sniped off their adversaries before doing the same to the remaining enemies on the bridge.

Miraculously most of the Dawnguard team weren't dead (yet) and staggered to their feet to continue the charge into the castle proper where the vamps were waiting at good spots to blast us with their magic. I returned fire from the entry balcony while Jordis charged forward with the other brazed Dawnguard fools. A second wave of vamps from a different door appeared and rushed Njada and I, forcing us back to the entry way but we managed to down them on our own. When we did catch up with Jordis in the basement, she had bloodshot eyes and an extremely pale complexion. She lunged at us when she saw us but Serana shoved her aside with her magic and I could only stand dumbfounded as the two gals fought it out, at that moment unable to raise my weapon against one of my best followers.

The fight lasted a few minutes until finally Serana landed a direct hit with her lightning spell, throwing Jordis violently against a wall before her smouldering body crashed lifelessly to the floor. After making sure she was dead, we returned to the castle proper which seemed to have been fully cleaned out. Only one more opponent remained.

Fielding All Assets

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After a quick stop at the lake to loot the broken king, my little band returned to Skyhaven Temple to swap out Bane for Anni the elven archer. For Bane's efforts I had promoted the khajiit to becoming a guard for Njada but understandably, he first wanted to see the current vampire threat ended. It was time to head back to Fort Dawnguard with Auriel's Bow but as usual we hit all sorts of side quests on the way: hunted a giant deer, two frost dragons, wiped out a bandit base, another master vampire and got Dummy to teach me the "Soul Rend" shout which seems pretty cool. He doesn't seem anywhere as useful as Odahviing though, so with our bargain done I think I'm going to let him rot in the Soul Cairn now.

We also stopped by the Mage's College to hand in some falmer tomes and it is becoming more and more apparent that other than Tolfdir, most of the other people there have a healthy hatred of me - and are becoming more open in their methods of disrespecting their "leader". I decide to let it slide for now since there are bigger fish to fry and we finally return to Fort Dawnguard, where we discover a small group of refugees(?) striking up camp right outside in hopes for protection. Isran isn't too thrilled about them, but his eyes light up when he sees the divine bow and after a stirring speech rallies most of his members for an all out assault on Volkihar Castle.

Agmaer and elf Beleval are to remain with the doggies and a few trolls to help the gate guard protect the refugees and base while we are gone. Knowing how strong the Volkihar clan is first hand I decided to field ALL my remaining resources for the upcoming battle: Anni, Lynn, Cutter, Bane and Jordis who was excited to get out to the front again. Even Njada, whom I would have preferred to stay safetly at home would have none of it after hearing what we were attempting, so she also came along. We met up with Isran's similarly sized group at the shore of the castle itself and when I asked what the exact plan was the crazy bastard just smiled devilishly, looked at me with excited eyes, and basically said "We charge the castle!"

This isn't going to end well, is it?

Bane of the Falmer

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

From the vision from the scrolls led us back to the dark cave I had previously cleared with Cutter. Fortunately all the shortcuts were now open so it was pretty quick to traverse down to the shrine. This time, the snow elf paladin Gelebor was there - explaining that he'd give us the bow provided we kill his brother - who happens to be sitting behind a swarm of falmer that wiped out this colony. "Great. Sign me up," I said.

Turns out the shrine, or "Wayshrine" as he called them was actually a portal that would lead deeper into their Sanctum. The three of us followed the deep dark path through falmer scum (including larger, general types) until we reached a very pretty valley high up in the mountains. Both Bane and Serana didn't like the cold. Continued finding wayshrines here and clearing out small caves of falmer until we reached an icy lake. NO sooner had Serana questioned the thin ice when suddenly two named dragons shattered their way through. This was a great fight since there was no cover and the dragons would occasionally dive, smashing more sections of the ice - Bane was caught in one such section and fell into the lake leaving Serana and I to down the fire breathers. I'm not the Vanquisher for nothing though, and soon enough the twins were dead.

After pulling the Khajiit out of the water we continued clearing the valley of falmer scum and the deeper we went, the more fortified their positions became. Still, with three of us we managed to do keep up a good pace - eradicating everything in our path until we reached the Inner Sanctum at the mountain summit. Inside all the falmer had been turned into icicles but that didn't stop some of them from attacking us. We also fought past a frost giant before reaching Gelebor's brother who turned out to be behind the whole thing.

"Imma stab you with my icicles," said the Ice King.

He made us fight through his army of ice statues (lots) before fleeing to the balcony and once there he revealed his hand, right before summoning more ice elementals into the fray. Given that the three of us were exhausted having spent hours fighting uphill I could see that this freak was aiming for a prolonged battle. I deftly got into position and let out a "Fus Roh Dah" when suddenly he pulled Bane in beside him. The Thuum sent both of them over the railing and I watched helplessly as they both fell to the icy lake below - it was so far I couldn't see where they landed.

"CRAP," I exclaimed loudly as Gelebor showed up thanking me for my help, somehow knowing his brother died just then. He also offered me the super magical bow we came for but it was the extra reward that was awesome. From out of the newly opened Wayshrine popped out a cold, and wet Bane. He had survived the fall by chance, falling into one of the large holes the dragons made earlier. I couldn't help but hug the silly cat while Gelebor laughed and Serana smirked. After getting Gelebor (who was going to stay there) to imbue the power of the sun into all my elven arrows it was time to head out. We looked to Bane if he was ready to go and he nodded, saying "You're taking us somewhere warm, I trust?"

Reading is Bad for You

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Our next stop was to retrieve a holy warhammer for the guy who hears voices in his head at a bandit cave near Whiterun. The first thing I encounter when I get there is an angry face of a guard who attacks me out right (kinda wanted here too). He's soon joined by another, and then by a pair of bandits. Then out of the blue, a familiar cat figure appears - Bane who had been tailing us decided to come out of the shadows to assist. "Khajiit guards your back," he says smugly. With now three of us, there was little danger as we raided the cave and then a second location for more schematics before returning to Dawnguard HQ.

Alas, it turns out the moth priest had been blinded by his own folly and now I have to go do a ritual to read them. The place was easy enough to find, a well hidden and very pretty glade. After attracting some bugs to me (yuck) I managed to read all three elder scrolls in succession (I think purely to make use of the open scroll animation) and got a vision of a map before snapping out of it. At least I'm not blind!

Alternative Solution: Elder Braile Scrolls.

Seems our next task is to retrieve some bow of a god, which is also what Lord Harkon wants apparently. Just as we were on our way out a large mob of vampires and a pair of gargoyles show up! How did they know we were here? We are forced back by the overwhelming numbers and I lose track of both Bane and Serana. I opt to take the high ground on the opposite bank and setup a firing position from there. The exploding bolts and fast reloading crossbow sure come in handy here. One of the thralls actually makes it up to my position but I just shout him off the cliff to certain death.

Eventually I spot Bane far below fighting like a wild cat, even though he is knocked down again and again. It's still enough to keep the enemies in the open though and eventually I snipe the last one with a slow motion headshot. With the last enemy defeated I regrouped with both Bane who had survived the ordeal, and Serana who seemed to be badly wounded (crawling). Got her to feed on an enemy thrall (possibly the one that went sky diving) and upon leaving she was back to her usual self.

Did I just Die Again?

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Katria, Agmaer and myself rode the lift far down into the depths where we finally found the Aetherium Forge our spirit guide was looking for. She then told me to turn off the steam. Are you nuts? That generally makes things explode! Anyway, after a mandatory fight with its guardians (where I turn the steam back on) I use the rare ore of the key itself to make a crown for Katria. She is happy and finally goes off to Sovngarde (I guess). I run one more rescue mission with Agmaer wherein we slay another master vamp and free a bearded male orc civilian who calls Agmaer "my love". Uhhh, awkward.

With a lot of experience now under his belt I bring Agmaer back to Dawnguard HQ then proceed to meet Serana where she is waiting for me  - but not before I instruct one of my people, Bane the khajiit, to tail us covertly from a good distance. I'm not dumb enough to wander around with a bunch of elder scrolls and have no backup, and I figure if anyone can sneak up on a vamp it would be a cat. So into the castle we go via a side entrance. Skeletons and gargoyles seem to be the main guards here, but are generally no match for Serana's magic anyway. A feral vamp and her doggies are the only fangs I get to slay on this excursion.

We finally reach the tower of her mom and find a portal to the Soul Cairn, the only catch being I have to be partially "dead" to enter. Serana offers again to vamp me out or alternatively partially soul trap me which will weaken me somewhat. I obviously  choose the soul trap option (because vampires suck!) and then descend into the realm of not quite death, but more like used black soul-trap land? It is a bizzare and somewhat large place, but thankfully it is not as huge nor as darkly foreboding as Blackreach. Oddly the skeleton theme continues here, with bonemen being my primary adversaries. Pity for them my aura whisper removes any surprise attacks they have, since I can pinpoint them, bash them through the sand to make them climb out, and finish off with a sneak attack when they are defenseless.

Lots of non-hostile souls here too, the funniest being "Saint" Jiub, the slayer of Cliffracers! Unfortunately he also has a damned collection quest in here too. Blaaaargh! x_x

Whoa that takes me back.

Rites of Initiation

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Next up was my queer dark-elf recruit Wynd who proved he (or she) was quite capable by surviving against two trolls, helping eliminate forsworn scum quickly in one of their larger camps, and actually defeating a Hagraven in one on one combat! Passing with flying colors I sent Wynd off to Sky Haven Temple and took Ono the orc next to try clear out a non "cleared" cave on my map: Wolfskull cave. Though he seemed hesitant to enter the draugr and necromancer inhabited place at first, he quickly found his courage and it was quite amusing to watch the various violent ways he would dispatch his enemies one he got his axe in them! To seal the deal we also went out with Mjoll to defeat an Elder Dragon and it was he that put the finishing blow to pass his initiation and graduate to the blades sanctuary.

Took the dark elf Mia and Lynn, both blades members with me next to clear out Radlbthar (damn wierd names). They were doing fine against the bandits and dwarven automatons in the ruin (though they needed a lot of direction to evade spinning blade traps) but when we reached the deep market we were beset by falmer scum and their pets. Mia got separated and quickly found a shadow master's wicked blade lodged in her leg. There was nothing Lynn and I could do as he dragged her away, kicking and screaming up into the darkness. Further in we found pieces of her dismembered body, some of which were used to jam dwemer gears. After getting revenge, Lynn used her remaining rage to absolutely destroy a master dwarven centurion all on her own (though I think it's arms were damaged). With the zone clear I sent her on ahead while I picked up the Khajiit, Bane.

I had planned to use him to try track down the other drug dealing Khajiit caravans that seem to have gone into hiding ever since I killed off that one group. We started out at Windhelm and immediately came under attack by an Ancient Dragon! It almost killed the horses (and me) but we took it down eventually. Journeyed a -very- long while to the West, killing an imperial patrol with a stormcloak prisoner and some wildlife in the process, but no caravans. We did eventually run into an Imperial Camp that I had not found before and massacred them all. Strangely their leader had already been killed by something or someone... investigating flashes of light nearby we came across a Dremora Succubus and an Arch Cryomancer in combat. Killed them both (dremora was tough, a random bear also came to help out) and since Bane was excellent all around, sent him off to Sky Haven.

That dremora succubus was nowhere as near as hot as Lost Girl, Bo.

Recruitment Drive

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Vacations at home are so relaxing, and memories of the civil war and defeating the soul-eating dragon are so distant now I'd almost forgotten them. My lizard buddy Derkeethus decided to leave us though, to investigate a rumor about vampires or some such becoming more and more prevalent in the region. Wished him the best of luck as I figured it was time other heroes picked up the slack while I enjoyed my R&R. However one night a visiting bard, Judith De Los Santos (aka Makulah/Malufenix), inspired me with her renditions of familiar songs to get my level 48 butt back out there and righting the wrongs of the world. First up was a session in the basement to simply re-learn my higher motor skills, and then I decided to send my little band out to recruit more adventurers and return them to our base of operations at Solitude.

If only I had a huge mustache I'd get more people too!

While Njada stayed home to mind the fort and her shop - Wynna and Anni travelled the snowy mountains and recruited Mia, the dark-elf blade at Dawnstar as well as Alle, an elf blade and Ono the orc at Nightgate Inn. Rayna went to pick up her "knight" friend Alyssa at Old Hroldan while Jordis accompanied me to Morthal where, using an attack my an ancient dragon as a distraction, we snuck past the guards and found Lynn, another blades girl and Wynd, a gay (male with female voice?) dark elf willing to join up. Sent them back with Jordis while I pushed on into the plains. Didn't want to risk Whiterun itself so instead I found the khajit named Bane at the Honningbrew Meadery and after getting him to murder his Black Briar employer sent him off to Solitude.

At Riverwood all I found were angry guards but my old pal Ralof was there to help fight them off. He didn't want to join my army though so I proceeded to Riften where again the guards gave me a merry chase. Another shady character called Maul tried to fight them off when we entered the docks area but they ran him through pretty quick. Did manage to get Anu the lizardman archer at the Meadery there though and between the two of us, killed all the guards on the way back out. He mentioned an associate of his at Ivarstead on the road so we stopped there to pick up the arrogant knight named Cutter. He sat idly by as we killed the pursuing guards and seemed very up himself when asked to join. When we returned to Solitude, he even went out of his way to attack another ancient dragon beseiging the city - at the guard barracks (the guards who wanted to arrest/kill me). He managed to somehow survive all that, and scared a penticus occultus agent (imperial scum) out of hiding for summary execution by yours truly.

I thought I had wiped out all the Imperial agents running about, but I suspect they are being shipped in to investige -me- and the small army I'm building. Glad the guards don't have the cahones to just barge in and arrest everyone, it probably means I've cut their numbers down so much that they only have enough people to patrol the inner keep. Speaking of which my house is getting kinda full now, with fifteen (myself included) people sharing the place. Njada isn't saying anything but I can tell she's annoyed.