Warhammer 40k: Speed Freekz

In this really crazy racing game, you play as the Orkz who I suppose are just super bored and want to race and fight? While I'm unaccustomed to Ork (which is basically bad English) which makes the customization difficult to understand, I'm pretty sure its one of those, unlock more vehicles and decorations the more experience you have and there are two game modes on offer, both being team vs team with the option for multiplayer.

In the first one, you're trying to get points by racing but don't let that stop you from shooting the enemy team! First you race to a main marker, then you start a mini-race to hit checkpoint around the main marker and then repeat four more times and the team with the highest score wins.

In the second mode, each team has a slow moving giant robot (that also shoots at you) "racing" slowly to a finish line. The idea is that racers pick up randomly spawning bombs (or stealing said bombs from destroyed enemy) and then driving it into the opposing robot to "slow it down". The team of the first giant robot to cross the finish line wins. 

Both modes are chaotic and... ok. And death is a mere slap on the wrist as you respawn in under five seconds but there's not much else happening with this one. Maybe its fine as a once off party game but otherwise, not recommended.

More than Nothing: Those Thieving Teens

[Part of the Party Time journal]

At Partopia (after a time skip), a bunch of teenagers including Ughh, son of Ugh (Juris), Aah, daughter of Sith (Rose), Mamita, the daughter of Mama (Mom), and Jerghonson, the son of Jerghon the great (DL) have been roped in by their friends Waywocket and Rowina into a race across the city for some free drinks. Mamita ends up winning this with Aah's help, who physically body blocked Yuriet, another race competitor into a river.

Enjoying their drinks at the tavern they learn of another contest, this time one of thieving. The rules are no killing, no buying, and only it can only be a singular item (so lots of coins won't count) from within the city of high worth to impress the thief "king" Autolycus who promises a nice reward to the winner. Rowina and Waywocket want to participate and be more than nothing and... I am surprised my usually goody two shoes players goes for it! Getting some promising leads from the bartender they all pick different targets to rob!

Aah and Waywocket steal a jeweled crown from a jeweler's store via some Mission Impossible skylight acrobatics, Jerghonson frees a harem of high value slaves from a slave trader via distracting the guards away, and Ughh has a challenging time breaking into Governor Quintus' manor fortress via wall climbing, sneaking past multiple guard patrols and breaking into the Governor's vault which is only filled with sentimental artifacts like an arrowhead and a broken sword. 

Mamita has the easiest time plucking an "Everliving flower" from the temple of Koochikoo (a diety of growth) but the "Everliving" part turns out to be a lie as it wilts just as she presents it to Autolycus. Also fake is the crown Aah stole from the jewelers as it is the replica Autolycus placed there himself after he stole the real thing. The thief king refuses to put a value on the lives of the slaves Jerghonson rescued, disqualifying him from the contest but at the same time earning some massive applause as that well known slave trader he stole them from is a douche, and Ughh's stolen trinkets get him nowhere. (PCs didn't ask around enough for better targets) 

Despite losing the contest (some kid got the key to the city somehow lol) all participants are given a small gem as a token of Autolycus' appreciation before he then sets up a different challenge: the assassination of Governor Quintus! The team decide to nope the hell out of that one but as they are leaving soldiers (having been tipped off) arrive and arrest the vast majority of them (Autolycus escapes) and they soon find themselves sent to the arena for the amusement of the crowd...

Make Way and Road Redemption

A pair of racing games.

Make Way

This cartoony party racing game (with NPCs able to fill empty slots) is a pretty fun one with colorful and possibly armed vehicles on offer. The race itself is one of point accumulation across a number of segments. Each segment each racer picks a segment of track to attach to the course, effectively building what everyone is going to be racing on. Then the race and mayhem begin. Falling off the track or getting left behind (because the camera only follows the lead car) is instant death, but its ok because you'll respawn at the start of the next track segment. 

I must admit it's a pretty clever way to avoid player elimination and at the same time rewards survivors by giving them a bigger share of the points to reach whatever the "total goal" selected was at the start. Pretty fun though I suspect it will get tiring quickly.

Road Redemption

This is a four player bike race (plus many NPCs) where riders are armed with pipes and machetes. There's a story of chasing an assassin but really you'll just be wanting to win each leg for bonus money to upgrade your bike or killing skills. Nice enough graphics but very basic racing and combat. Even for me, who doesn't like racing games to begin with, I can confidently say there are better racing games out there.

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!

The New Mutants (Movie), Freshly Frosted & Redout II

A throwaway trio.

The New Mutants (Movie)

Taking place almost exclusively in a facility where (very few) teenagers have just begun manifesting their mutant powers, the teens begin experiencing their worst fears after their newest arrival. This might work for a standard horror but since it's X-men based its very hard to be scared for them as they each have freaking supernatural abilities to defend themselves. Outside of the very brief moments where they do, the rest of the film feels really slow which is bad given it's only got a 1.5 hour runtime. There are ways to have made this scarier and better, but this end result is not something I'd recommend watching.

Freshly Frosted

One of the strangest production line building puzzle games given that its just someone imagining it while staring at the clouds, I do like the simplicity of at least the first few levels especially since its all just about laying conveyor belts with super easy controls and nothing else. Very chill too, but obviously I'd prefer to be eating donuts than playing this. :P

Redout II

This futuristic roller coaster racer is the improved version of Redout as it now offers training courses, a campaign and competitive head to head racing against up to 12 players online. Obviously still not for me as I'm terrible at racing games and am still confused at the difference between turn and strafe and the combinations of the two, but I do like that they removed the explodey "temp death" for the virtual training tracks at least.

Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge and The Final Table

Competing as teams!

Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge (Season 1)

I've never seen the original Spartan games, but in this format three squads each made up of two men, two women and one ranked spartan (from the solo version) race through an obstacle course using fitness and teamwork. Three races take place each episode, but they only show the "featured" race followed by the finals race where the two winners of the earlier races are joined by the 2nd place team with the fastest time. I guess even the producers realized that showing people doing the same things over and over could get repetitive but thankfully the teams have enough charisma to keep viewers engaged for eight episodes. Netflix doesn't have season two available so maybe they too thought "eight episodes of this is enough for anybody".

The Final Table

In this show 24 established chefs from around the world work in pairs to prepare the best dish based on whatever cuisine the current episode is focused on, judged by celebrities and foodies from that same region. The three worst dishes then compete using the selected featured ingredient of the region and makers of the worst dish are eliminated. It's a fast format which is pretty neat, but its only the final four that ever have to compete individually. Recommended for Masterchef fans but as the episodes are on the longer side, I suggest watching at 1.25x speed (it makes their knife skills superhuman too lol).

Horizon Chase is Other Demons Obduction

Three more games that aren't for me.

Horizon Chase Turbo

A simple car racing game across various tracks which clearly has driver assist since it is actually difficult to go the wrong way / off the road. While it also offers some vehicle customization and upgrades it obviously pales in comparison to other car racers. Alas with the best art kept at the unreachable horizon, I doubt many would opt to stay in this game where your only main choice is deciding when to use your nitro boost (spoiler: the straights, duh).

Hell is Other Demons

Because apparently hell looks like various shades of red and purple pixels, this game is quite minimalist when it comes to graphics. It does capture a feeling of hell though, in that each stage / room is predominantly vertical, and to escape all you have to do is blast away the spawning enemies (most of whom fly because AI gravity is too much work) with your upgradable hand cannon. This does get old really fast and given the controls aren't the best (eg. you can't jump while shooting, but can shoot while jumping) people will quickly realize they have better games to be spending their time on.

Obduction

Thank you, hologram.

"From the makers of Myst" should have been enough to turn me off since I found Myst to be a really difficult puzzle game and Obduction is no different. Basically tasked with escaping from an alien planet I have to give credit where credit is due: the place looks amazing and the theme is quite interesting. Then come my problems - firstly FINDING stuff is tough! Luckily keen-eyed explorer-type players should be able to get by. Second problem: I'm just no good with these puzzles - making the hours I spend trying to work them tedious instead of fun. Now, for those that like puzzle games I think you might enjoy this one. If not, then be like me and stay away.

Farcry 3: A New Target

[Part of the Diary of a Marked One]

Single-player was just training. Coop mode is where the bad guys really bring the pain! >_<

After a few weeks of hunting the "new" pirate scum, I joined up with two other mercenaries who were equally interested in putting these criminals into the ground - specifically their new captain who we all refer to as "The Captain". We almost caught him at a nearby fishing outpost where we knifed, shot and exploded our way through all opposition but our prey was always one step ahead and ultimately escaped without us ever seeing him in person.

Hopefully it's not -this- captain.

The most memorable parts of the exercise for me were rescuing a captured boatman who became our transport ally, being freaked out by the pirate attack dogs (who are by far the worst enemies since you are helpless if they get up to you), blowing up a bridge to prevent pirate reinforcements from flanking us (because they can't swim across the rather shallow river apparently) and participating in a quad bike competitive race to see who could put the most explosives at a landslide that was blocking our way. Who says we can't have fun on the job?

Off to the Races

My second Mabinogi lesson! To find what other classes are available please see the binding post. :)

As of this post, everyone can get a free elf AND giant character card. All you have to do is reach their home cities on the Iria continent. I suppose a quick comparison of the available races is a good thing to add here:

Humans - runs the slowest but are the most versatile skill-wise. Can dual wield swords. They also have the widest array of gear that they can equip. They are my preferred race.

Giants - runs faster than humans and are geared more close quarters combat. Can dual wield blunts. They are weaker at magic and have almost no range capabilites though, and have the least amount of equippable gear.

Elves - runs faster than giants and are geared more for ranged combat. Can shoot while mounted and can hide from enemies. They are the weakest at melee.

If you started in Uladh and want to cross over quickly just go to Actions -> Continent Warp and pick Iria. If you started in Iria then I think you have to complete some basic exploration tasks before it lets you out into Qilla Camp proper. Remember to not have anything in your hands to "collect" artifacts from pillars, other than that it should be pretty straight forward. Once you are out of the tutorial zone you'll find yourself at Qilla Base camp and can begin your run to the race of your choice. You can only get the other free character 24 hours after you get the first one.

Easiest way to reach either city is if you have friends or make friends or even just ask strangers really nicely if they can give you a lift through a mana tunnel to either/both cities. If you are very anti-social or unlucky, then you'll have to reach them on your own. It is a good idea to "tap" the Mana tunnel a short distance from Qilla Base camp (to the West) during the day when it is open to provide an easier return trip too.

To reach the Elf city of Filia, you'll need to run East (that's turn right) when you exit Qilla Base camp and hug the mountains till you find a way across to the desert. Cross that and just keep running through the Karu forest, across a bridge, and then across another huge, sand-stormy desert.  Once you get to Filia, find their leader - Castanea, she's towards the back of the town and ask her about "elf/giant alliance" to get your free card.

To reach the Giant city of Vales, you'll need to run North West (turn left) when you exit Qilla Base camp and hug the mountains till you find a small valley that leads into the Nubes mountains and eventually down into the Solea Caves. Your mini-map will not be helpful down there but it is still straight forward to traverse. Just follow the left cave wall and make sure you run through any cave walls that can be opened (easy to identify via mouse cursor). You'll pop out on a clearing then dive into another cave system. Same thing, just follow the left wall. Eventually you'll come out on the snowfields and from there is a straight forward run to Vales to talk to their King, Krug about "elf/giant alliance" to get your free card. Obviously if you ever need to run those caves from Vales to Qilla, just follow the right wall.

They hate each other so much they want to make babies.

If you are running to either do not stop for anything and try avoid all the monsters you see. The trip will take you about 40 minutes either way, possibly slightly longer to Vales due to the cave system. Near each town should be another mana tunnel that is open during the day. "Tap" these to mark them on your map. You can then travel between the ones your character knows about as much as you like when the tunnels are open. On the Uladh continent the moon gates work very much the same way, only at night.

A good side quest for you new players to do when bored (like there's not enough to do :P) is to mark every single moon gate and every single mana tunnel you can get to (each town has one nearby and the tunnels in Iria show up on your mini map). While there is no combat involved there is a lot of leg work. Your reward will be ease of travel later on, coupled with being able to see the vast landscapes in the world of Erinn. :)