More than Nothing: The Goat Getters

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Ug (Juris), Rou (Rose), Ma (Mom) and Jerg (DL) are young cavemen out to prove themselves on their first unsupervised goat hunt, armed only with their wits and fists. It's a ritual of the "Goat Getter" tribe (PC named) that has followed this massive herd of goats over the years. 

Having tracked their prey to the foothills of the Black Mountain, Ug accidentally spooks the goats which sends them running. A sabertooth cat takes advantage of this, killing one goat and running off. Somehow the team loses track of the herd but finds the cat tracks and not willing to return empty handed follow them to a lone tree beneath which is the goat carcass.

The sabertooth strikes from hiding, mauling Jerg but Ma kills it by bashing it with a rock and saving him. They take both dead animals back their nomadic camp but on the way find a group of weeping, dark skinned mountain folk who have been brutalized and or killed by something. The hunters decide to go past quietly.

Back at base, tribe leader Mama Yapa is happy with their performance, beating even the veteran hunters who returned bruised, scratched and empty handed. Over dinner under a pitch black night lit only by two stars, Ug overhears the veteran group boasting about their exploits against the mountain tribe.

The next day the four are off hunting again but this time Rou spots a child seemingly made of light high atop a cliff. They go to investigate and the celestial child, "Sunny" asks for their aid in rescuing an ally from his enemy who will not expect the intruders to be more than nothing, and in exchange will lend them his power if they are successful. They agree and are instructed to leap off the cliff onto an invisible bridge. Ug goes first and sure enough he doesn't fall, so the party follows the bridge directly to a tear in the sky, leading to a realm of dark and freezing cold - a large, chained wolf imprisoned beyond icy stalagmites.

They work quickly to free the creature (taking cold damage over time) when a voice commands them to stop. It is the darkness, and it doesn't want Sunny to gain more power than he already has so instead offers to give them a weapon to kill the child instead. Ug tricks the darkness into gifting him obsidian blade (an ever sharp rock) with a false promise of slaying Sunny. They free the wolf, who turns out to be Luna, and exit just in time.

As a reward, Sunny teaches them how to summon his light: to stare directly at the sun and yell "I am bright!". The pair then vanish and since night is fast approaching the young hunters return to base, noticing there is now a moon in the sky. The peace is interrupted in the village when a giant "centipede" made of a mass of congealed corpses arrives and starts killing their tribesmen, by folding them in half and putting their heads in their asses. 

Ug distracts it while Jerg locates the puppeteer mountain tribe caster on a nearby hill, using a dead baby as a hand puppet to control the creature. Jerg kills him with a large stone then tears the baby corpse in two, destroying the monstrous centipede.

Mama Yapa decides to move the survivors off the cursed mountain to pursue the goat herd into the misty forest beyond.

[Inspired by Hole in the Sky and Swords of the Serpentine] 

Alien: Earth and A Quiet Place: Day One

Humans are being stupid again...

Alien: Earth

This currently one season horror starts with a spaceship crashing into a city and said spaceship is a scientific research vessel that's been collecting "specimens". Not really a spoiler: face huggers and xenomorphs ahoy. The costume and set design are the true winners here as they really bring to life the retro future of the alien franchise.

Paired with this however is the story of new, hybrid synths which are your regular white blooded AI body but instead of having a (usually murderous and psychotic) AI mind, a human consciousness is placed within instead - offering a type of immortality. Since only kid minds are compatible there's a lot of Peter Pan references and... yeah. They're mostly stupid too. 

It's an interesting show at least so we'll definitely watch a season two when/if it comes out, but the horror aspect is lost towards the end of this season and I strangely felt the death count is still too low. Maybe I just got spoiled by the movies.

A Quiet Place: Day One

This prequel to the other Quiet Place movies follows a terminally ill cancer hospice resident named Sam (played by Lupita Nyong'o) and her scene stealing cat Frodo, on their quest to get... pizza? Yes, that sounds silly but this movie makes it work. The many alien monsters show up pretty early in the piece, still do most of their kills off screen and aren't afraid of the light (good CGI). As they purely go off sounds its generally easy to get around them... except people are stupid because the plot requires action moments. Outside of those questionable decisions, the film is quite enjoyable. The cat is the true hero. :P

Stalker 2: Swamp

[Part of the Wasted Land story]  

On the hunt for the Clear Sky base I run into Richter again at the Sultansk loner base (and bar) who provides directions to get through the swamp to the distant village but warns about the defenses setup to protect it from outsiders. Sure enough, a number of psi-emitting towers need to be disabled before I can proceed - one guarded by a mutant cat in a dark church!

Even without them the swamp is a hellish place to traverse with all sorts of anomalies, mutants, and hyper radioactive water - but I make it to the ruined and empty village and find the scanner in a basement, but no Faust. Now of course I have to make the trip back and running face to face into a pseudogiant was not on my bingo card. I fight for a bit until it's apparent that I don't have the ammo to take this monster down so I jump a broken bridge and flee through a bubble anomaly field which seems to make it lose interest.

Exhausted, I try to rest up at the nearest ranger station but instead encounter the Sparker faction and their leader Scar, who know I'm on the way to SIRCAA with the device. They don't want to stop me, they just want me to open a door in an underground tunnel while I'm there. Before I can give a proper response, Ward troops arrive and begin a gunfight so I dash out the backdoor to let them sort it out while continuing to jog to the SIRCAA research facility. Good thing I'm loaded up with energy drinks!

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.

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.

Surviving the Cat of Salem Islets too?

Catching up on some epic freebies.

Surviving the Aftermath

A post apocalyptic game that focuses on two different maps - the first is your home map where you construct your base which includes things like tents and outhouses for your dirty survivors and remember to actively tell them where to harvest things because by god, they morons. Your lumber camp might be sitting idle once they've deforested the nearby area and if you don't tell them to go find more trees "here" it simply will go unused. Once you build a gate you can send your specialists (hero characters who you occasionally can recruit - you start with two) to the world map to do quests, fight bandits, and salvage... science? Yes. That's a thing. With enough science you can pay for crowbars or something. Note that your home map can and will still be attacked by bandits, plagues and stink clouds regardless of what's happening beyond. Very management heavy and lost my interest after one session.

Cat Quest II

Is exactly like the first game, except now you can two player it (or play two characters) as a cat and dog adventurer. It's just as cute and just as grindy as the first so for the same reasons I've given up on it.

Islets

An action platforming game with some pretty decent art that tasks you with reconnecting a bunch of floating islands. Alas it features the same problem most of these types of games have for me which is if you leave a screen and come back, all the enemies respawn. When you add that backtracking is almost mandatory, that just gets an immediate thumbs down from me.

Town of Salem II

The worst of this lot for me. Basically a digital version of the Mafia or One Night Werewolf party games where a group of players are trying to reach their randomly given, secret winning conditions by eliminating other players through voting (or murder!). They could be townsfolk trying to execute the secret witch coven and vice versa or perhaps you're of the jester faction and you win if you can get yourself executed? Some odd design decisions here killed this one for me - the first is "go to youtube to see a tutorial". Really? But the second one really sucks and that is the "waiting to have fun". Not enough players? Guess you'll have to wait. Got killed early? Guess you have to wait. Or quit, join another game and wait for enough players. I hate idling. Still, I guess there's a market for these sort of games as this one even has the audacity to have a cash shop!

Blades in the Dark: Duels of Fire and Iron

[Part of the Party Time journal]

During their downtime, Mom and Rose take the spirit bottles found at the Crow's Tower to Celene, mom's Bluecoat friend who assures them this will force justice into action, DL gets an invitation from Mercy his ex, a member of the Red Sashes, to talk to their master at Tangletown, and Juris decides to take a new drug called "Lure" and finds himself waking up at Silkshore where he talks to the Gondoliers amassing there about the demon cat problem and volunteers to help. Luckily the cat is a demon that feeds of feelings of pleasure, so the plan is for Juris to distract it long enough for the Gondoliers to conduct their ritual.

Juris does his work perfectly and the demon cat is chain lightning-ed to death! The squad continue up to the top of Fogcrest to ensure the ritual is stopped and this time it is they who are caught unaware by the ancient vampire Scurlock who makes half of their number vanish with his staff (the end of which is a hand) and slays the remainder with his claws and incredible strength and speed. Juris successfully begs for his life, and agrees to fetch more demon blood for the vampire who "marks" him with a burning hand and sends him on his way.

Meanwhile DL, Rose and mom are spotted scoping out Tangletown but Rose manages to set a truce between them and the Old Crows of leaving each other alone. The Old Crows also mention there are no Red Sashes there tonight (it had been a trap to make the two factions fight), instead seven Red Sash swordsmen ambush the trio on their way home and while they manage to cut DL a bit - all of them are violently slain as the dice dictated that they didn't run.

The next day DL receives a written letter and accepts to duel the Red Sash master at their dojo, with mom shadowing from sniping positions and Rose talking her way in. Master Shido turns out to not be a swordsman at all, but a whisper who uses ghosts to make swords fly on their own. DL takes minor damage before killing him, and since his remaining students attack they too are mostly wiped out. Only Mercy manages to escape with a bullet wound and a throwing knife stuck in her (both thanks to Rose, as mom missed her snipe here and DL had no more load for a ranged weapon). No doubt Mercy fled to the Iruvian consulate where her parent works.

Juris on the other hand manages to create another batch of powdered fire and returns to Scurlock's house in Fogcrest when the vampire is away (he can reverse "the polarity" to detect him using the hand mark and his whisper skills) and sets up a trap. Then he manages to (critical) summon Scurlock (as vampires are just spirits in corpses) to his location. The next bit doesn't go so smoothly as the ancient vamp breaks one of Juris' arms, but ultimately the vampire is tricked into the powdered fire trap and is incinerated to death (critical again, and since he's "bonded" to the body his spirit is destroyed too. Weaker vamps can just ghost outta their skins but strong ones like Scurlock get this mortally dangerous trait, which I thought was pretty cool balance trade off). Only his staff, which ends with a someone's decaying hand, remains - untouched by the fire. Juris takes it and while recovering learns it is the Hand of Kotar... whoever that is.

Blades in the Dark: Cats and Clowns

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Juris studies and weaponizes the powdered fire, and is also visited by his ghost friend (and Rose's frenemy) Nyryx who is possessing the body of a teenage girl named Jennifer (who looks like Jennifer Connely in Labyrinth). Juris had only intended to save Jennifer who stumbled into the Weeping Lady charity after she had been brutalized by the gang war (by putting Nyryx into her to aid her weakened spirit) but doesn't really condone Nyryx now using that body for prostitution. Regardless, she brings news from the nearby Silkshore district where bodies have been turning up in canals and a bunch of clowns are gearing up to attack the Crows - one of the local gangs - over a love triangle situation. She also tries to poison Rose unsuccessfully before laughing it off and leaving.

Rose and Juris decide to warn the Crows about this at the orphanage they run (to train and recruit more gang members) and are invited to prove their worth by joining the ambush they're going to set for the clowns at the bridge. Juris and DL decide to first go to Silkshore to investigate the dead bodies though and learn from a local Gondoliers that the bodies were "hollowed" out (spirit removed) before death, and that all of these look like they fell from a great height.

With that information they investigate Fogcrest, the tallest point in the district which uses tight staircases to double as roads through its bohemian colony of eternally drugged artists and theologists. When the row houses begin to empty as they reach the higher parts, they encounter a talking cat whom Juris immediately plays with and identifies as a demon. The cat admits to having its servant at the top of the hill performing a ritual for it, and then (the cat) disposing of the bodies by throwing them. As they notice a mass of people heading for the bridge they bid farewell to the friendly demon cat and rush to get to the ambush - but arrive late!

Meanwhile mom, Rose and the other Crow sharpshooters get the drop on the militant clowns and despite being outnumbered do quite well in pinning the advancing group while only losing half their own number. When the boys finally arrive in a flanking position Juris uses powdered fire to set a good number of clowns on (powdered) fire while DL closes the distance and cuts down the remainder with his blade. They then run off before the bronze masked Spirit Wardens show up to deal with the dead, but by using the powdered fire here, Bazso has worked out who betrayed him. They find Remira's burnt corpse strung up in front of the charity the following day (and Juris confirms by talking to her ghost that it was the Lampblacks).

Cat Quest, Escape Academy and Ghostrunner

Three games with different problems.

Cat Quest

In this cute fantasy click fest game you play as a cat-venturer who must venture out into the world to find his sister. Featuring a pretty big map and easy controls its pretty easy to get going, hopping from quest to quest - dungeon to dungeon while taking catnaps in between to recover your health and save the game. That is until you get to the parts where you can't advance until you GRIND. Yep, high level critters act as a sort of fence which can almost one hit KO you until you level up (a lot) almost forcing you to see that all those "optional" dungeons and tasks may not be so optional after all. Sorry Cat Quest, if only you kept things as mellow as the start but no - you had to take the path of the shit games and introduce grinding. Not recommended.

Escape Academy

Do you like puzzles? Do you like escape rooms? Obviously I don't but this game does offer those two things with a pretty good 3D interface AND a hint system that can even get dumbos like me through the challenges. That said I'm grateful that it starts out super simple, so much so that I could do the first three or so puzzles on my own but as expected, I quickly ran into problems I couldn't handle - but that doesn't make it a bad game. I'm just a bad player. :P In fact, in terms of puzzle type games this is one of the better ones I've tried recently so - recommended!

Ghostrunner

It is the future and you are a katana wielding cyborg ninja who must constantly do parkour because one slip or one bullet is the end of you. Yes, this first person game is all about being annoyed apparently. At least, that's the feeling I had most of the time as it is basically a game of memory where you need to do sequences in order to pass to the next checkpoint. Fail and you get to try again. And again. And again. It's not even the bad guys that are the problem, it's just the stupidly long parkour segments where you must be looking at the correct thing when you jump or you die. Awesome graphics. Stupid game. Not recommended.

Pathfinder: Thistlebottom

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

Close to where the pantsless bugbear was slain we find the mercenary Orik barricaded in his room who convinces us he wants out of the bad guy's team. Kyra (Rose) convinces him to work for us instead and he takes point while slaying a giant octopus and on the next level down is the one who kicks in the door to his ex-boss' room after Merisiel (mom) disarms a hallway trap in the way.

His ex-boss is super angry at this and nearly kills him and King Fat Mouth while her pet dog, which flies and is as terrifying as the ones in the chapel, hops over the defensive line and mauls Ezren (Juris) almost to death! Lucky the mage can land some tazer prods (wand of shocking grasp) to weaken the creature before Valeros (me) slays it. A ridiculous critical from Shay (GM DL) unexpectedly slays the boss lady and the party rests before delving deeper to the section not even she and her minions reached.

Opening a massive evil door the party is greeted by... empty space? Merisiel precieves something huge cloaked in the air so Ezren sends a flaming sphere up there to explode it, and it hits - revealing a barghest that these Lamashtu cultists were trying to free! It mauls Shay and Orik severely but in turn gets caned by magics from Fat Mouth,  Kyra and Ezren (who blinds it), while Valeros, Shay and Merisiel (flanking back stab bonus) hack away at it (Orik's non-magic sword can only nick it).  Ultimately it is Kyra's summoned celestial eagle that slays the fiend with its beak and talons that can smite evil!

After defeating such a horrendous foe, clearing out the remaining rooms of a trio of shadows and a gigantic crab is something of an after thought with the party's soaring morale. With that, the dungeon is clear and the quest is complete! King Fat Mouth is allowed to take whatever he can carry and get out of there (no doubt to Shay's protests) while the rest of the party returns to Sandpoint victorious!

Pathfinder: Thistlemiddle

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Somehow the first thing Ezren (Juris) does after his rest is to find some treasure in the goblin shitter, before Valeros (me) once again bumbles into some sort of research room with a female mage and her cat. Initiative favors the heroes so said mage gets boxed in quickly and despite using mirror images, invisibility and enfeeblement on Valeros she still gets wrestled by the strong warrior (I wrestled the air with a natural 20) and then eliminated by (mom) Merisiel's rapier. We let the cat scoot off as more stairs down are discovered, but we opt to clear this floor first - quickly finding a chapel to Lamashtu guarded by two flying dogs?

Said dogs unleash unnerving howls which terrify everyone but Shay (NPC GM DL) who stays to fight while everyone else bolts back upstairs to the warhorse. The elf ranger almost dies to the beasts before Kyra (Rose) can get back to provide much needed healing which saves her as the others eventually make it back to help put down these horrible creatures that somehow also have damage reduction (all DMG done to them is at -5! Lucky we only ran for 2 rounds, that could have easily been 8). It's a bit unnerving that everything probably heard that fight but the party presses on into a nearby jail cell where they find a dying King Fat Mouth, their goblin buddy back from Black Fang's Lair!

Apparently when the goblin tribes were called together his was one that refused to attack Sandpoint and were instead offered in flames to Lamashtu at the adjacent chapel. Shay recommends putting him out of his misery but Valeros puts a stop to that quick, instead healing Fat Mouth with potions and gearing him up with the local goblin leaders gear as he is looking for some payback. They then move on and for a change it is Merisiel (mom) who blunders into the next room (rolled 1 on stealth check) where they catch the bugbear Bruthazmus (Shay's nemesis) with his pants down in a goblin harem. A couple of flaming hands and good strikes (we charged into the tiny space) ended this fight quick.

While we aren't done with this floor it was getting late so we ended the session there.

Decluttering Day 27: A Hershey's chocolate shoulder bag.

Warframe: Monsters

Continuing from the previous gallery, it looks like creatures and monsters are another common subject people create in their dojos...

Warframe: Khora and Lavos

The cat and the snake whippers.

Khora

My first recommendation is to only passively farm for this warframe as her blueprints come from Sanctuary Onslaught. You will already be doing SO for a lot of things - ranking up other frames, weapons, Tenno powers, then frames and weapons again when you forma them so just collect her as she comes. You might go crazy if you specifically only do SO for her as the drop rate is low.

The "cat warframe" is a very PG description of Khora, who does look like a cat woman and has an immortal cat as a pet (in addition to your regular pet/companion). What she actually enjoys is wrapping enemies up in wires to stun them (the cat pet also wraps enemies in wires), sometimes dangling them from the ceiling (which for some reason makes them hostile to their friends), and whipping them like the bad, bad things they are. This makes infested particularly easy, but despite my best efforts to prep her for Steel Path interception, she just keeps running out of power and has very low survivability against any SP foe with a firearm.

Lavos

"The snake" is also a misnomer for Lavos, who is acquired from the Entrati syndicate store. He is actually an alchemist that looks snake-like and has twin snakes he can whip out at enemies which restore his health. He also has a nifty speed slide, a pulsating flying drone, and a whirling AoE all of which can be imbued with almost any status you like (he can't innately summon puncture, slash or impact).

Not only does he have instant access to almost any status effect in the game, he also does all this with 0 energy! This is because his powers simply work on cool downs which probably appeals to any World of Warcraft readers. While he can be a pretty tough cookie, especially with the right weapons, I don't have a purpose for him that my firewalking Loki can't already do - outside of energy drain missions I suppose.

In Sound Mind

Not everyone is crazy.

In this psychological horror, you play as a therapist who awakens in a strange, run down motel and while I initially thought this would just be your stock standard "wander around in the dark and find the things to go to the next dark place" I was pleasantly surprised that this was anything but that after the first few minutes. Especially after assembling a pistol.

Yep, it turns out this therapist is very combat savvy and "scary" critters aren't so bad as you can fight and kill them. The hotel serves as a hub to your patients nightmares though and each of those has an excellent boss type creature that chases you around in various degrees. The first one is simply territorial and easy to evade but later ones hunt you down relentlessly which is stressful but fun.

There is also a really cool cat.

The not overly complicated puzzles are good too and while I was questioning the heavy usage of pills in the game as well as the main villain who is almost a cartoon caricature, the well thought story actually covers that. This is one game that I've lost track of time playing as it is super immersive, and I highly recommend it if you like shooters in general. Yeah there are some jump scares, but that's what your gun is for. :P

Ho-Ho-Home Invasion of Magic Cats!?

Merry Christmas everyone! My gift for you this year is to stop that crazy Steam crusade I've been on... well more like, stop posting about it in its current format. Posting those daily soulless lists was about as much fun as reading them.

Now I'll just be posting about the ones I enjoyed, starting with the titular Ho-Ho-Home Invasion which fits this Christmas season. In this top down stealther you play as Santa who needs to deliver presents to everyone without being caught. It's pretty tough!

If you prefer your stealth to be easier and with a fantasy slant, try Curse that Magic Cat. It's a cute student made stealther where you play a cat who on each level needs to find three spell books before the bumbling evil wizard does.

Cute!

And if you just want a top down absurd zombie game that features no stealth whatsoever try I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMB1ES 1NIT!!!1. All you need to do is survive for the entire song, which is the main point of interest/creativity for me. Somehow I ended up playing this one way more that the first two!

All of those are currently free on Steam. Enjoy and have a safe and fun Christmas!

Absurd Game Ideas - Pussy... of Death!

[Part of the Absurd Game Ideas folder]

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

For today I give you...

Pussy... of Death!

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

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

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Now I want a big cat.

When the dangerous revolutionary Grindelwald (now Johnny Depp) escapes from prison, it falls to the timid Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to recapture him, much like he does with his other magical pokemon. This second installment of Fantastic Beasts fixes many of the issues I had with the last one.

First, there are less hijinks with the creatures which is a plus as there were some really silly moments in the last movie. This leads to more appreciation to the bits that do focus on the creatures and more importantly gives people (namely Newt) more character development time (finally)!

That's a strange looking cat! I want one!

The villain is more compelling this time around and having segments at Hogwarts is a great addition to the plot. As usual, the music and effects are great which overall makes for a superior movie to its predecessor. I give it 3.5 Dumbledores out of of 5 and would watch it again.

Today I Smiled: Less is More

As a break from my Battle Brothers play through, I thought I'd share a few "less is more" lessons I am in the process of learning: the first being "use less words" which is frustratingly challenging! I find it's akin to developing a "clean" and efficient board game system which is so far eluding me. For the record, I'm up to "Game 17".

Apparently I should also do less in Neverwinter Online. After helping someone amidst a swarm or dinosaurs, I got angrily told off for kill stealing. Sigh. On a positive note, I'm improving when fighting T-Rexes. The secret is to stand between its legs as the "charge attack" is the only one you need to evade or block from that position. Easier than evading flaming bats, which to my surprise was a weapon being developed by the USA.

Now I shall leave you with the Adventures of Business cat. You can find more at his home page. As a bonus, here's another music clip from Walk off the Earth - Taekwondo. Have a good day everyone!

Sheltered: Zero Hour

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

After leaving the accursed hamlet, Big Mike and Dr. Vahlen found themselves in the odd company of Skrmischa and Shaliquor the magical, talking cat on their quest to find their way home. On the road they encountered a ragged boy named Pip, who had taken to wandering after losing his own home and family to some catastrophe in the past.

Dr. Vahlen took pity on the child and was in the midst of convincing her companions to let him come along when suddenly a brilliant flash of light exploded from the distant mountain range. Both the good doctor and Mike knew immediately what it was. "Get to cover!" barked Big Mike as he rounded up his allies and ushered them away from the blast.

"Down here!" meowed Shaliquoir, scratching at a well obscured metallic vault door in the middle of nowhere. Not wasting anytime, Big Mike wheeled the hatch open and got everyone into the darkness below - sealing it behind them just minutes before the radioactive blast reached passed overhead.

It took a magical cat to find it.

"What is this place?" asked Skrmischa, readying to fight whatever lay in the darkness within. It wasn't the sprawling dungeon she expected though, instead it was just a chamber with a few pieces of dusty furniture and foreign looking contraptions.

"It's a bomb shelter," explained Big Mike as he examined the surroundings with his small lighter. "And for now, it's home."

Today I Smiled: Power Up!

The grind through the River District and Chult continues in Neverwinter Online, so much so that I've not been typing blog posts! Oops! It's great to see my characters improving again though, using Baphomet as a measuring stick.

Once I put some thought into what enchantments I actually used in my gear, my mounts and my npcs companions (who I previously didn't equip at all), I'm now easily beating the demon prince.

Speaking of training, here is the real-life weapons training of Keanu Reeves for John Wick 2, which is pretty awesome. Thank you to the poster who told me about it. Also cool is this site about military strength by country which is an eye opener. Some are higher than I thought!

If that is too violent for you, I've also just learned that Japan has a cat island and a rabbit island which is cute-overload at first, but when carefully thinking about it are islands full of a) rabbit poop or b) critters that actively seek to overthrow the human race. :P

As usual I'm going to end with some musical links - the first one being the Coconut song on an airplane and the last one is Peter Hollen's version of Hands of Gold from Game of Thrones! Have a great weekend everyone! :)