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.

Dragonheir: Elf-landia

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

I made it out of the death lands and into a forest of elves (and am still playing the game surprisingly)! While I've rolled up a fair number of heroes the standouts are Vasska who summons skelies, Isitarian who summons a baby dracolich, and tank/healer Garius who I'm pretty sure is also a skele underneath that armor. As you can only deploy 5 heroes max that means everyone else (other than Heksandra who is an awesome cleric) is benched while dealing with the "ghost elf" threat. That is, elves aren't ascending/being reborn and instead are just hanging around as angry ghosts. Awesome!

Yes, I'm surprised that there's actually a story in here too. Also, there's multiple game modes. Some fights are tower defense things where ranged area folk do better than say Garius. Others like the goblin camp just require super high DPS for your team to clear the waves of goblins in under a specific time to unlock better rewards and a harder mode so that you can do it all again! I found the grind! Lol. Seriously though, EXP which is used to level up your heroes is found in potions which is by design I suppose so that you can better direct which heroes you want to level. The rewards of the goblin camp are almost exclusively EXP potions so you'll need to go in there. Each run consumes "stamina" which is recovered every day or by eating special food items.

Vasska and Garius grinding up some fire crystals.
The fire boss lady is too lazy to stand up!

At particular levels though, EXP potions aren't enough. You need to go into one of three elemental realms to farm up the correct crystal for your heroes element. This also costs stamina, and sure the elemental realms drop crystals but they don't drop EXP potions. Oh! And there are grave sites which you can raid (again costs stamina) for gear. Each grave site drops one particular set of gear which you wear for a matching bonus. These ONLY drop gear and no EXP potions or crystals. I see a trend forming here...

Dragonheir: What the heck is this?

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

This D&D 'somewhat' idle gacha game (less idle than Idle champs though) starts off with a fight against Tiamat, and then you wake up in some death lands where your character is 5 times the size of the map POI's like villages and fortresses. I'm guessing this is because they designed the people at "combat size" and then just went - meh - and kept them that size for world exploration while everything else is shrunk down. It takes a bit of getting used to but you get used to it after awhile.

Combat is clearly the focus of this and while you start with Olaf the skeleton to support your Ice/Fire/Lightning Mage (you must be a mage) he'll soon be joined the dark elf Noteera, troll Gulal, dwarf Forbit and healer Heksandra. Again, its obvious that devs went "meh" at one point as Noteera and Gulal have mini-cutscenes when activating their ultimate abilities while everyone else does not. Outside of setting up your initial battle position there only thing you actively control in battle are those ultimate abilities, and these greatly vary between characters - which is where the "gacha" comes in. Earn dice to roll for heroes! And spoilers: a lot of them suck!

I guess someone makes weapons and armor of that size...?

Fortunately for this early bit that doesn't seem to matter as you'll be smashing through baddies with no problem. In fact it might get to the point where you just press that "auto" button during combat so that the AI handles your ultimate for you. You know it's going to get bad when they provide an "auto" button for combat...

Baldur's Gate 3: The Transformers

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Deeper in the hive the remaining party members witness an elder brain be controlled by three individuals: Thorm, Gortash (whom Karlach hates), and Orin who is rocking a murderous sexy vibe. While Orin, Gortash and the brain warp elsewhere Thorm stays to fight, transforming into an avatar of Myrkul - Lord of the Dead, best symbolized by a giant skeleton (High Lord Wolnir is that you?).

Halsin gets the KOed Nightsong back into the fight which ultimately kills her while Catharina transforms into the six limbed slayer demon as a child of Bhaal (she remembered how!) for an epic showdown, the end of which sees Karlach pulling Thorm's netherstone out of him - killing him for good. It sounds as dirty and painful as it is.

With no time to waste the team hurry on to Baldur's Gate before the brain turns everyone there into mindflayers but first, some time wasting as Gith monks ambush the team at camp. Who knew unarmed opponents in D&D could be so troublesome!? Afterwards the D20 speaks to us, calling itself "The Emperor", suggesting we let the parasites evolve to make us stronger for the upcoming fight. Catharina talks Gale and Karlach into doing just that, making them pseudo-flayers with black eyes and purpling skin in exchange for some power. Catharina doesn't need it herself since she can already transform into a monster at will.

Elden Ring: Why is it always undead? Therefore try undead

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Returning to the Roundtable Hold from that venture at Castle Morne, I discover it's not such a safe place after all having to defeat invaders Ensha and Alberich. Lucky there are helpful people too, like lady Fia who gives free hugs, Corhyn the priest, Roderika the rookie spirit-hewer (whom I recruited to come here actually), Hewg the enslaved blacksmith, and vampire hunter D undead hunter D, who tells me that to slay undead, you have to slay them. While they're dead. Translation: those respawning skels don't respawn if you smash their "corpses" before respawning.

I also buy a spirit calling bell which is amazing as I can now summon my own ghostly viking sniper who is super effective in helping me smash some undead including a cemetery shade and a boatman which D is particularly pleased with. He suggests I visit a beast cleric in a spot I hadn't reached yet, so off I go and find I need to double jump with my mount to get from plagueville into dragon land!? I obviously just run from the winged reptiles until I reach some trapped goblin ruins (the teleporting boulders are particularly funny) and meet with this cleric - but he just wants me to keep bringing him pieces of the dead to eat.

Ghost versus spirit!

Reverse scouting through the dragon territory lets me find a ruined fortress (beyond a GIANT dragon) that is now home to big bats and ghosts, neither of whom are very good defenders which lets me loot the place easily. I then warp back to the first fort I skipped and wipe it out too, as having a spirit helper really makes things go much smoother.

Pathfinder: The Ruins of Raven's Watch II

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

We find Thelsikar in an unholy chamber beyond the magically sealed door next to the large statues. Juris had previously examined (and fondled *snicker*) these but other than knowing they are magical we couldn't work out how they worked, until our conversation with the dying cleric in the cells. Doing a fantasy version of the macarena opens the door, and puts us into battle against Thelsikar himself! As I used all my dice rolling luck earlier I am hopeless in this battle but at least can tank some hits from this dagger wielding madman.

Mom eventually backstabs him to death with her new magic rapier but a large stone gargoyle then comes to life and carries Thelsikar's corpse off, ignoring my attempts at pissing it off by burning an important looking book (indeed, I think I only angered our wizard Juris who was keen on book collection). We give chase but can't catch up, especially as we run into a lone skeletal champion who blocks the way.

My dice rolling continues to suck, and mom's opening strike with her undead slaying weapon misses. The skeleton doesn't miss and mom goes down. Out of spells Juris comes in with his quarterstaff while Rose revives mom with her wand of cure light wounds and mom's next attack on the skelebum is massive, but not enough. The champion downs Juris next and with things looking grim I suggest Rose uses the healing wand on the skeleton (I remembered in Pathfinder: Kingmaker this was a thing so DL allows it, for now at least). It's a touch based attack which is much easier and she tags it on her second attempt, healing for the maximum value and destroying the scum bag with plenty of time to stabilize our wizard and get him back to his feet.

Alas the gargoyle and Thelsikar are long gone so we just loot the dungeon for all its worth, finding a handy bag of holding to help carry it all, and Juris finds proof the Lamashtu cultists were doing something to harden black dragon scale. He couldn't retrieve all the intel though as the pyromaniac warrior (me) was setting many things alight in an attempt to stop their research. Oops.

Gloomhaven: Black Barrow Lair

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

A mercenary team composed of an Inox brute warrior (Juris), a cragheart (DL), vermling mindthief (me), and tinkerer (Jim) were hired to collect a magic tome from some bandits based in a crypt that possibly once was the home of a baby black dragon... Apparently the bandits had some warning since they had six guards ready in the first room! With Juris and DL tanking and Jim healing, I had the opening to not just backstab a few fools but also to open the door to the next hall, introducing three archers into the fight... but just them, because I was "gaming" it knowing that there's a limit of "figurines" even in the digital version which means the additional 3 bandits that would otherwise be here as well were missing.

My summoned rat swarm could tank some arrows as DL and I cleared out the archers while Juris and Jim finished off the initial guards. Juris then opened the last chamber and got pelted by the numerous archers sitting behind some multi-armed skeletons, downing our horned warrior and giving Juris an aversion to doors. Luckily we could manipulate the skeletons into the already set traps and smashed the remaining archers at close range where they have disadvantage at attacking.

With Juris revived the team proceeded downstairs where the bandit boss was busy summoning more skeletons, and I goofed by overestimating my rat swarm and ending in a bad forward position (while not being invisible). As such, I got wounded significantly early and just piled on as much hurt on the boss before collapsing in exhaustion. Luckily Juris sword and DL's hurled boulders took care of the other bandits while Jim got the finishing shot off on the boss, clearing this level. Since we couldn't open the five mystery doors, it was back to the city of Gloomhaven to get paid by our patron, the merchant Jekserah, who was happy to take the accursed tome off our hands for some coin.

Pathfinder: Black Fang's Lair II

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The reefclaw decides to be greedy, leaving Juris bleeding out on the far bank as it appears right beside the others on the opposite shore. The dice roll luck makes this a pretty tough foe but it is eventually laid low by the team. Luckily Juris manages to stabilize himself during this, and that the reefclaw doesn't have friends. Mom tries swim across next and gets half way before failing her swim roll, sinking down into the deep.

I follow after but have a rope tied to me with Rose tying the opposite end to the pillar. Warriors are good swimmers apparently, but instead of going across I dive down and get our thief back to the surface before we both get to the other side and anchor the rope to make for easier crossing. Juris is revived and among the reefclaw's treasures is a +1 long sword of dragon slaying. Beaten up by the reefclaw, we return to the goblin king and return his toy. Luckily he is a goblin of his word and even lets us rest there to recover before advancing to the crypt section guarded by skeletons.

Even the magic sword is almost useless against these (they get  a flat -5 resistance to non-blunt damage) but good thing Rose's cleric ability and Juris' cone of fire type spell is enough to take down the skelesquad, leaving the way open to a bigger chamber where Black Fang, a baby black dragon, awaits. Juris is hesitant to kill a baby but the dragon has no such qualms about killing us, striking me down with its first breath attack and flying right up to the party! Juris then remembers the goblin king mentioning something about the belly being the weak point and he and mom slam the dragon while Rose gets me back up. With a mighty (critical) swing the dragon slaying sword pierces Black Fang deeply and then... the dragon flees (aka DL decides not to kill us level 1 noobs LOL), leaving its small treasure horde and earning us the respect and monetary reward from the town. Introductory adventure complete!

Warframe: Chroma and Xaku

The dragon and the skeleton who are both piece-meal frames.

Chroma

After collecting his main blueprint from the quest "The New Strange", you'll notice Chroma is actually made up of a bunch of other warframe pieces - Volt, Ember, Frost and Saryn. Thanks to that last one being locked behind Kela de Thaym on Sedna who requires you to win Sedna arena matches before you can fight her, it might be awhile before you can make this guy. It is quite thematic though since he can use any of the elements (Lightning, Fire, Ice and Toxin) in his abilities.

He can breathe [element], ward an area with [element], use his pelt like Dr. Strange's cloak as a buddy to guard an area using [element] or Vex Armor which improves your armor if your shields are hit and improves weapon damage if health takes a hit. Do you see a problem with Vex Armor? Yep. You must get hit to benefit from it. Since his pelt is not mobile and doesn't use your weapons it isn't as good as a spectre or Wukong's twin, and the whole mechanic of tap this button to cycle something and hold it down to use isn't great for me. Not a frame I ended up keeping for very long.

Xaku

With the main blueprint available from "the Heart of Deimos" quest, you can collect the rest of his blueprints from Cambion Drift bounties. Lore wise this frame is actually composed from remnants of lost warframes which might explain its unique skeletal look. It is the only frame so far that can add void damage, pull enemy firearms away and then have them float along and fire back at his foes, explode his outer layer and run around as bones which lets him move faster and autododge 75% of any damage, and "cycle through a trio of powers" ugh. Boiled down these are charm, hold person, and damage beam.

While it is an interesting one to use, it mostly caught my attention for the void damage bonus. 75% evasion is not as good as the 100% god-armor (mesmer skin) of the Revenant or 100% not being attacked of an invisible Loki. Eventually I ended up burying this skeleton back in the ground.

Dead Men Tell no Tales

Get out with the treasure or die!

In this 2-5 player cooperative game, you all take roles of various pirates who are boarding a ship that is both on fire AND crawling with skeletal undead with the pure goal of finding treasure chests (more if you have more players) and getting them off the vessel (unless you do hard mode in which case you must ensure the skeleton captain is not on the board too). Dice rolling combat to claim these treasures is mandatory, as is pulling out the treasure/guard token from the bag in the first place which means there's a fair amount of luck involved here. There are steps to mitigate the rolling somewhat, but if you don't dice well or the treasures just don't appear till the end then it's almost impossible to win.

Leaving 5's and 4's will probably end the game pretty quick.

On top of that, each turn a new tile is explored and attached to the current map (starts with four and first turn opens 2 tiles) which "builds" the interior of the ship and each of them is on FIRE (you didn't forget about the fire did you)! These are all tracked via yellow and red D6s, and should the bad guy "revenge" card pulled at the end of each players turn dictate it, all matching dice shown on that card go up by one. If a dice gets to six the room explodes causing a chain reaction and forcing all nearby rooms to go up by one as well. This fire mechanic really reminds me of Flashpoint: Fire Rescue and is quite cool.

Other than the fire you might also be getting swarms of skeleton crew coming out. These little fellas are easy to beat (simply use and action to remove one) but if you run out of them when you need to put more the game ends in defeat! On top of juggling all that, you need to keep an eye on your stamina which takes damage if you run, move into a room with higher fire (or any room with fire if you are carrying treasure), or lose combats. You can rest to recover some of that, but do you really have the time to?

Luckily it's pretty fast to set up and take down so it's a challenging game that you can call upon rather quickly if your group is into that sort of thing. To be crystal clear this game is tough and you will lose a lot. Only recommended for crews that can take the punishment!

Dark Souls (Cards): Catacombs of the Abyss

A board game session from Dark Souls: The Card Game

Descending a hidden ladder within the cathedral, the team prepares to battle more undead with our herald switching to the more magical arts of the sorcerer class (mom), while the rest remain the same: assassin (wifey), warrior (DL) and cleric (me).

The path ahead has two branches, a shorter but tougher one or an easier but longer one. We decide to take the short (level II) path first and get absolutely wrecked by a giant skeleton and an Alonne knight that guard the pass with a few invisible enemies (can't attack them until the others are dead). It's a close victory but we still have to retreat to the bonfire afterwards.

For our second excursion we took the longer (level I + level I) route, and while our sorcerer got hammered by a bad combo involving a big hollow and a crystal lizard, we manage to push through to the chamber of High Lord Wolnir: a lich so massive, his main body doesn't move (and can't be hit). Instead its his two giant hands that we need to destroy while they slam, slap and claw us around. It is an incredibly close fight with DL clinching the win just before we are defeated (I used up all my heals)!

Wolnir is better designed in the card game than in the PC game.

A quick trip back to the bonfire earns our assassin the onion knight's Catarina Armor. She's not too happy with it as it looks ridiculous but quickly changes her tune when we proceed onwards (level II) and encounter the pyromaniac Xanathous King Jeremiah! The armor saves her from a lot of damage and her special backstab which only does one damage turns out to be fantastic against weak but heavily armored enemies.

We opt to return to the bonfire to recover before fighting through the same area again (level II, but no invader this time) and make it to the final boss of this area: the Abyss Watchers - the lead of whom does big damage. His two allies though? Not so much. We quickly decide to just ignore them since it would cost more cards to attack them than to just tank their hits.

The weaker ones vanish anyway once we reach phase two where the main Abyss Watcher consumes his allies to gain strength and start doing area attacks worth seven damage! I manage to use an acid spray scroll to weaken his armor and he is promptly brought down by everyone else in that same round, with the sorcerer blasting him away as the finishing move. Area cleared!

Compared to the video game Wolnir is much harder in card form while the Abyss Watchers are far easier in card form.

BDO: Nella's Quest

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

As a free agent again, I find work assisting the local military in suppressing enemies at the border in the form of Rhutum orcs, always nicely grouped Mansha goblins, and an unending swarm of catfishmen. It sounds ridiculous, but the lake catfishmen are the most dangerous foes I've faced thus far mainly due to the mob density. I literally slay just over a thousand of them.

Ugh, too many catfishmen!

Afterwards I help a newbie knight named Nella investigate a forbidden book which is banned by the Church of Elion. To find a copy we first travel to the lumber village of Trent and help them harvest some Treants (the huge ones are spectacular to watch), then on to the hunters village of Behr which is having a problem with a nearby massive graveyard filled with undead.

These skeletons are certainly tough but quite slow, and with other adventurers here stemming the undead it isn't long before their source is found: Hexe Marie, an ancient witch who once summoned a world-level threat known as the Kzarka! She's pretty easy to kill though - easier than her minions! I suppose it's just because she's really old. We find the forbidden text on her person and Nella gets to translating it. I'm now level 55 and get a cool +15 sword as a bonus.

Insight: Press V to turn into a ball of smoke to escape a dangerous spot! There's a long cool down on it though so try to save it for when you need it.

For the King: To get a Boat

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Midnight Woods was appropriately named for blocking out the sun and was home to bats, goblins, kobolds, skeletons and ghosts. It was the perfect place for Ferghus to hide his vault of embezzled funds which he acquired in his new position as the Farhul boating manager (turns out being a blacksmith didn't work out for him), but he didn't count on having a trio of brothers from Dragonarm raid his vault, defeating his trio of skeletal bard guardians (yes, musical skeletons because Ferghus is cheap)! Vowing vengeance, there was little more he could do than hide from the law and hide from his failure...

Skeleton guitarists are awesome!

"Sorry, no one is working until we get paid," said the clearly grumpy dock hand as he sat idle on a barrel. "But I need a boat to find my sister!" argued Lucia in frustration, to little effect. She returned to her two companions with the news.

"It's alright little one," said old man Sahkarov, a retired soldier who had helped Lucia recover from a near death experience. "There are other ways to get a boat."

Sunbro, who now served as Sahkarov's guardian, smiled and nodded. The man was always quiet and had a strange practice of praising the sun each morning, but he had a muscular build that was befitting a tournament champion. That strength would soon be needed as the trio found themselves a rowdy tavern hidden in the woods. A tavern full of pirates spending their ill gotten gains!

"Gentlemen," Sahkarov announced as they entered the establishment. "I need your ship."

"Ye can't afford it mate!" laughed one with missing teeth. His fellows heartily joined in. Sahkarov smiled quietly.

"I wasn't asking."

Before they realized in, Sunbro was upon them - smashing heads into tables, breaking limbs in manners that they should not bend, and ripping apart jaw bones with his bare hands. Lucia looked on in shock.

"You disapprove?" asked Sahkarov, still standing at the doorway with his hands clasped behind his back. He smiled as Lucia was unable to answer.

Insight: "Gold Rush", which takes place in the Midnight Woods, is actually the competitive mode of the game in which your three heroes work against each other. Ironically, it also is a great place for beginners to get the hang of the mechanics before having any time limits imposed on them - which happens on most of the other modes.

The Cursed: Ghosting the Spirits

[Part of the Cursed story line]

While exploring the courtyard walls the team runs into the "Luremaster", the spirit boss of this place who has a penchant for riddles and tests. This eventually leads them down to a massive crypt, filled with undead and traps that warp party members to various locations alone. It is more irritating than it is dangerous, especially when its Cristiana that gets warped as her turn undead actually just destroys them outright now.

How the ability actually looks is open to interpretation.

Eventually they get inside the main keep, guarded by beholders and even more spirits. None of them can see invisible, except for the keep lord himself (interestingly, not the Luremaster) who is easily put down. They then waltz down to the dungeons which house numerous beasties. This time Iholikan solo stealths the place, stealing skull keys and using invis potions as required to let the team pass without combat.

Finally on the next floor waits the Luremaster, pissed at all the hiding the "heroes" are doing so he seals the gate behind them. He then floods the chamber with olive jellies. Luckily Reise's skull traps are very effective in clearing them out. Exasperated, the Luremaster just teleports away - hoping starvation will kill the team for him.

Insight: The revenants in the crypt are like trolls. You can down them with regular fighting but they need flame to be killed permanently.

The Cursed: String Cutter

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Beyond the lava mines is an encampment of fire giants, who turn out to be just as stupid as their frost counterparts and let the team wander around freely. Unfortunately their elf chick leader isn't so gullible and orders an attack straight away, leading to a massive melee which eventually involves the many elementals lurking around nearby.

Somehow the squad is victorious and after resting up, Reise decides to turn everyone invisible for scouting the next area. Good thing too, as it is a temple filled with undead summoned by five mind controlled clerics of Ilmater. None of them see the party sneak past to destroy an evil icon at the very back which frees the clerics and insta-destroys the undead without a fight.

That's a lot of bone golems...

The clerics are ashamed of their actions, and inform the team that two more mini-bosses, lieutenants of "the master", need to be defeated before the stairs at the back will open to his lair. "Then we go hunting," confidently announced Sofie.

Insight: Invisibility is fantastic and like in the above example, can cut down game time and difficulty tremendously. Also worth noting that unless you talk, attack or get dispelled, it lasts for 24 hours. No need to rush, especially if your mage does all the talking (then s/he can recast it on themselves).

The Cursed: Team C

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The party heads to the ruins of Ulcaster's school in hopes of finding the main bandit camp but instead run into kobold commandos who are dangerous thanks to their magical arrows as well as a great number of undead in the form of zombies, ghouls, and skeletons - a horde of whom manage to slay Kagain, and severely wound Ajantis.

Still not one lootable skull among them.

While exploring the tunnels underneath the ruins Kivan steps on a trap that Imoen fails to detect, and is killed by the ensuing fireball. The survivors return to the Friendly Arms Inn where Ajantis retires to recover and Imoen, still wracked with guilt leaves adventuring to get her head straight.

Catharina and Party Girl look for replacement members and the couple Khalid and Jaheira volunteer right away. Wild mage Neera also comes along as she owes them, and so does Baeloth because... well, there was space. Upon returning to the Ulcaster ruins, they find Kivan's charred corpse being eaten by a vampire wolf whom they slay.

Insight: For some reason I find it helps to run your cursor over tunnels and passageways to aid in detection of traps and secret doors. Otherwise going slow with the thief (or save scumming) helps in avoiding traps if you want to play that way.

The Cursed: Stopping the Unstoppable

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Catharina gets quite a shock when her group reaches an area that is home to basilisks as the slow lizards manage to petrify Lu Lingqi, Sir Erland, Yuria, and Elisabeth - removing them from the party! Catharina and Party Girl flee for their lives all the way back to Beregost.

They can also be found in Neverwinter Online's Undermountain!

After a good wash of their soiled clothes they encountered Imoen at the tavern and meekly asked to join her team Xzar, Montaron, Garrick, and Kagain who is always looking for more female talent for his escort business.

Imoen accepts, and shows just how lousy her leadership is when the party heads to visit the nearby mage tower as both Xzar and Garrick are slain by knife throwing bags of bones (skeletons).

On the plus side, Catharina finally learns the identify spell from said mage and finds out that half the magic gear they are carrying is actually cursed.

Insight: For the more prepared, petrification is actually easy to get around with protection spells, mirrored eyes potions and stone to flesh scrolls but I didn't know of these at the time. When I finally did learn about them I decided to play this out as it was anyway so that I wouldn't curb stomp the game with six overleveled characters.

Developer Appreciation: Mabinogi Combat System

Today's Dev Appreciation is focused on the cutesy MMO Mabinogi, which still has the best basic combat system of any MMO I've played so far. Unlike everything else which is basically trying to maximize your DPS rotations, fighting here is at a much slower pace using a rock paper scissors type format. A regular attack can be blocked or countered, a smash attack defeats defending stances but can be interrupted by a regular attack, and a counter stance makes you immobile and drains stamina for as long as you take it.

More skills, like this jump smash, came in later.

It's simple and effective, and given most of the NPC enemies have the same skill set also meant a talented player with a newbie character could still beat harder boss-type foes, while an advanced character with a less skilled player could still be losing quickly to lowly wolves. That's the way it should be.

I also quite liked the upgrade options of gear. Usually any piece can only be upgraded 3 times out with around 5 options on each occasion. The options add and subtract various stats, and the measurement of "balance" for weapons played a significant role. For example making a sword heavier gave it a wider damage range but throttled the balance of the weapon meaning an untrained character would always be on the lower numbers, but a character with high enough dexterity to make up for the terrible damage would thrive using such a weapon.

Grim Fandango (Remastered)

Dark humor with a Mexican flair in a cute (but difficult) package.

Stuck in a dead end travel agent job, Manny finds something amiss in the land of the dead and soon is on a quest to make it right. This point and click adventure has a lot going for it: stunning backdrops, a super easy point and click interface, awesome voice acting and script, a decent plot and cute and memorable characters - which is amazing given everyone is a skeleton (or a demon).

There is decent music too.

It does lack the subtitle option, but more problematic are some of the puzzles. More than once did I need to look for online hints on how to proceed, and the reason was usually because I had to use an item on a non-active part of the background. The signpost in the forest is a good example: You can pick it up and put it down anywhere - but you need to put it down in exactly the right spot to trigger a cut scene to proceed.

If only it didn't have such frustrating segments like that - I'd give it a better score. As it is I give it 3 scythes out of 5. I do recommend it though as it is a very enjoyable ride, and if you can get through without use of tips then all the more power to you!

Wolfenstein (2009)

Ghostbusting some Nazis!

Before Blazkowicz got "recaptured(?)" or fought the Nazi mechas or even had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was a secret agent sent to stop the Nazi's paranormal branch on a remote island. The premise is pretty cool, having a central "hub" city that you must traverse past randomly spawning enemies to reach quest givers, quest locations, and black market shops to upgrade your gear.

Gold is lying everywhere but at the same time can be challenging to find, which encourages a thorough scavenging of the well rendered environments. The baddies have decent squad AI too but are regularly no match as Blazcowicz also has magic powers this time around. In fact only two types of enemies will cause you grief, the invisible maniacal assassins and the cover art undead.

I hate these guys.

With that setup though there is definitely a lot of back tracking which hurts the pace of the game. You also have to question the effectiveness of the Nazis who are unable to find such well marked "hiding" places of the various groups in town. Those aside it's still a very well polished shooter, and one I had a lot of fun playing. I give it 4 out of 5.