Citadel: Diana

This spin-off from Citadel continues the world wide spy game and is set in Italy with titular character Diana (Matilda de Angelis) as the protagonist, who is employed by Citadel's rival group Manticore! While her unique hair-do grew on us during the six episode season, its funny that a spy would want to stand out.

Short one side, long on the other.

Despite that there is actually an OK story in here with alright acting and action, though Diana loses and needs to be saved a lot for a protagonist. Worth a watch especially if you enjoyed the original Citadel and we'll definitely watch a season two if it comes about...

Carnival Zombie (2nd Edition)

Get out or stay forever!

In this 1-6 cooperative board game your team has three days to escape from Venice before the undead leviathan upon which the city was built upon rises from its slumber, and for some reason there are zombies in your way! The components are great and the game itself is pretty simple once you get into it, but the rule book could have used some improvement. Anyway, regardless of the number of players you will almost always have all six characters in the game which takes place in two distinct phases: day and night.

There are no zombies during the day so your team just moves along the city map, hopefully avoiding the areas that sink, towards one of the many ending mini-games (or the "you're doomed, just fight until you die" mini game if you fail to escape). You must balance the time you spend moving with the time you spend resting, building barricades, scavenging items or reviving downed team mates which is not an action you can do at night.

The night phase is the meat of the game, which is simply a tower defense against a veritable army of cubes (representing various regular zombies) and figurines or standees that represent the zombie bosses. The terrain varies based on what part of the city you are in, but generally you want a LOT / ALL of barricades to take the damage as it is easy to be overwhelmed. Range and damage are based on your weapons, but you can never miss so you'll almost always be removing cubes from the board.

The BEST part of the game is the small tombstone cutout which you then have to drop your kills on. It doesn't have to be from a height, but it fills up quickly and should ANY of the cubes fall out, you take minor damage (unless you are near death which means EVERYONE takes minor damage) AND all the cubes that fall respawn on the map! Very fun and very funny with constant tension. Definitely recommended!

Eurovision 2021

As usual I'm posting late about this again, but at least it wasn't Covid-cancelled this year! In fact, it has returned strong with some "interesting" dance moves, sparkly people, religious connotations, and a whole lot of eye candy. I'm pretty sure the Italian winners would also fit into that category for some people.

Stefania from Greece wins the eye candy prize.

My special mentions go to team Iceland and the Finland rock #joiners, as well as France and the Black Mamba band from Portugal either of whom I would have been happy to see win. Oh well, maybe my picks will do better next year! :P

Wheels of Aurelia

A driving game where the driving isn't very important.

Set in old Italy and with groovy graphics and music to boot, you play as a goth lesbian who is just trying to get away from it all... or perhaps to catch up to someone? The short and replayable story can go many directions mostly based on your choices made while talking to the people in your car (hitch hikers ahoy), and some choices made by taking different roads available.

You can pick up some real creeps.

If you think trying to pick the correct timed response while driving a vehicle is annoying, you are correct! Especially if you happen to be taking part in a race or for some reason are being chased by the police! Fortunately the driving part doesn't really matter as you can freely smash into almost anything without penalty. It's a cute little game that gets repetitive not long after your first play through. Worth a try if you can get it for free or are super curious but not one I really recommend. I give it 2 discos out of 5.

Insight: You need to constantly tap space to boost.

Sniper Elite 4

Italy is a beautiful place... to kill Nazis.

I haven't played much of the Sniper Elite series, but this one is definitely the best that I have. The graphics and locales are fantastic, and making each mission a huge open map where you can go do your objectives in any order you want and get by (or annihilate) all the soldiers and vehicles is inspired.

Of course, if you play on the easiest mode and only go for the main tasks you'll probably breeze through this in an afternoon. Play how I did on "Authentic" where you need to take into account wind and bullet drop and you'll probably take a (slightly) more stealthy approach.

There are many places that deserve sight seeing.

While predictable, the enemy AI is decent and good at flanking, and almost all locales have more than one flanking position. This is where all those wonderful traps come in. Rig it just right so that people sneaking up on you take themselves out. Explosive kill cams are just as good as the bullet variety.

That's the main meat of the game, and it is delicious. The sides are less so however with some average voice acting and an almost ridiculous plot. Still a very fun experience and one I recommend for stealth shooter fans. I give it 4 testicle shots out of 5.

Sniper Elite 4 - Five Easy Tips

Killing people in the huge and beautiful maps of Sniper Elite 4 is quite entertaining, but for those who are having a tough go at it - here are five easy tips to make your life in Italy better!

#1 - Displace

Unless you are standing straight up, most enemies seem to have very poor vision even on "Authentic" difficulty. This means what they rely most on to find you is the sound of your gunfire. Regardless if you are sniping from far or hosing people down with a machine gun, as soon as you are done - change position. Preferably to a spot where you can see where you just fired from. Some maps have loud sounds that can disguise your gunfire which lowers the need to displace but eventually people will come looking for you, and the AI here is quite good at flanking.

#2 - Crouch

Crouch walk should be your favored position when moving. Enemies are hopeless at seeing you, especially if unalerted. Crouch run is riskier and should be used when you don't really care about stealth anymore. Meanwhile prone crawl is a bit slow for mobility and terrible for aiming at heads that are very close, but it is handy for hiding behind low walls and especially bushes. Enemy soldiers can literally be within arms reach before they know you are there.

#3 - Welrod instead of Melee

If you get up to an enemy soldier (or vice versa), pressing your melee button will instantly kill him. From behind this is silent, from in front less so. If enemies aren't in active combat then you can actually bull rush loners if you so choose, but this should be your last resort. Your Welrod silenced firearm is a much better choice since it lets you better control your position. Just aim for the exposed head (not helmet). Also remember you can throw stones to lure people into better shots.

#4 - Traps

All those lovely toys you pick up aren't just for show. While they are a nice surprise for people pursuing you, they are better used when you find a nice vantage point that you want to hold. Stealthily set up traps on the flanking approaches. Stairs, ladders, doorways and other choke points are the best spots for these. Keep track if they get tripped as they serve as a good indication of when to displace. If they don't get tripped, you can always just pick them up again.

#5 - Binoculars

For some reason you get more experience for scouting ahead with binoculars and tagging everything - people, vehicles, barrels, etc. before shooting at them. More importantly the binoculars actually tell you how far something is so that you can better gauge bullet drop on anything higher than Cadet level. It also pays to look before you engage as things like pill boxes, turrets and idling vehicles might escape your initial notice.

Blaugust Staying Motivated: Been awhile since I posted a guide. What better time to do it than Blaugust eh? :P