Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

An excellent example of how the Warhammer 40K universe should be.

This amazing RPG is set in the Warhammer 40K universe where you play as a scion to a titular Rogue Trader house - "noble" individuals granted a relic from the Emperor that charters them as freelance explorer, merchant and conquistador all in one. It's also set just far enough from the Imperium to give you problems which ever route you go: be it the traditional dogmatic "all heretics and xenos must burn", the nutjob heretical "I will gladly obey your cruel whims demons of the warp", and the foolishly hopeful iconoclast who "strives to treat all people and races with equality and respect".

While you can create your own custom party, you are provided a bunch of companions all eager to betray you or be betrayed by you at every turn story wise but are also very handy when it comes to the XCOM type turn based combat that you will frequently find yourself in, despite of or because of your best and worst intentions. Some of these combats are super tricky too, and that goes doubly so for the space combats where you pick what stations your companions are manning and are often outnumbered with your one ship to however many the enemy fleet has ready for you. 

I especially loved that comparing my play through to that with Jim's was a totally different experience which means your decisions actually have impact on the story, as any good game should. Player agency, tick! The game is also pretty lengthy with a lot of side stuff that is interesting, rewarding and fun (especially for masochists in some combats).  Awesome game, highly recommended!

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.

Kill Lupercal and Space King

Warhammer 40K, and 40K adjacent?

Kill Lupercal

This short three episode series focuses on a titan crew as they deploy to defend Terra against the forces of chaos led by Horus Lupercal, once the most favored son of the Emperor of Mankind. While the "extras" don't have the best CGI the main characters and titans are well done, with nice action bits to accentuate the all too short story oozing in dark 40K goodness. Recommended especially for those who like Warhammer related stuff!

Space King

This animated youtube series follows a bunch of -space- psycho marines on their quest to find their missing god, the titular Space King, and is a hilarious take on the "totally not warhammer 40k" universe. Definitely for a more mature audience, and again if you like Warhammer 40K you might get a laugh from this. Go check it out, it's free on youtube!

Friday Night Survival

Has it really been a whole year since I posted about our Friday night game sessions? It's a case of out with the old and in with the new: we finished 40K: Martyr, got tired of the long loads of 40K: Space Marine 2 and got a bit tired out with Helldivers 2, which has a pretty good run!

We did try Elden Ring: Nightreign where and beat the first tri-wolf boss (and I soloed the sleepy flying ooze) but it runs too poorly on DL's machine so that's been put on the back burner for now. 

Mechwarrior 5: Clans has pulled majority of the time for us with good gameplay and an interesting story on top of the usual optional customization of everyone's mechs. We've won it now, including the Ghost Bear and Tukayid DLC expansions because it was that much fun! Definitely recommended for co-op sessions, but solo might feel a bit grindy and long.

We've also sailed on Void Crew which is a pretty neat "fly your customized spaceship through an array of roguelike challenges that include enemy ships and multiple space walks into space ruins for salvage". It's also a bit repetitive and I think there are only three bosses currently but we might go back into that in a bit. It's lack of story lets it down.

Green Hell is what we're hitting hard at the moment. Nice graphics, easy enough controls, and a story to boot have sucked us into this jungle survival game that includes hostile natives, deadly jaguars, and cool lessons on why not to drink untreated river water. It's not a style in our usual wheelhouse, but its very fun so far. Again though, seems it would be a drag in single player but three person co-op is just fun. For a tiny sized game it's got a pretty big map, so lets see how long it keeps us lost in the jungle!

Update: Green Hell's Spirit of Amazonia gives more of the same... just way too much more because the grind added to it is insane and not something I recommend at all. 

Space Marine 2

In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war... and grinding?

Thanks to its three player co-op mode my brothers and I were playing this as a Friday game for awhile now, where playing as Space Marines you fight armies of Tyranid and Chaos forces in glorious and bloody combat which focuses on key press timing to excel in. While the graphics and game play are certainly fun, there are some HUGE negatives. Firstly is that it takes 5 minutes for me to start the game, 5 more to join the lobby and 5 more to enter the mission. If there was an award for longest load times, this would certainly be winning it.

Secondly, improving your marine and weaponry is a severe and lengthy grind. You'll only gain XP for the marine class and weaponry you use, unlocking abilities necessary to do well in the higher difficulties. Then once you max out, you get to pick one ultimate bonus and... drop back down to level 1 to do it all again (up to four times if you want to max out fully). There's a small selection of maps to play on, but the designers thought of this and included a PvP mode to make players the content to save them some work. No comment on that part since it holds no interest for us.

So yeah. Despite that we still were putting up with it because it's just so freaking cool, and despite now taking a break to try other co-op games we'll probably end up playing it again sometime in the future. Where there is only war... and grinding...

Fridays IN SPACE!

It's been a minute since I've talked about our Friday night game sessions and they all seem to be taking place in space at the moment! The early night staple is Helldivers 2 continues to be fun and crazy with all the updates in both terms of gear and story. The Illuminates are back on the map now and there's a black hole eating planets as it slowly makes its way to Super Earth. Lol.

We've also recently finished Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr that plays a little bit like Diablo, just in the Warhammer 40k universe with DL going full sword marine, Jim running a psyker, and myself the stock standard Space Marine specializing in bolt guns. It's quite funny that the warp gets angry if Jim uses too much power though, as it starts sending tornadoes and demons after him! Lol. The story is not bad, and there are loads of enemy types "add on" mechanics and game modes that could potentially keep you playing this for a long time after finishing the campaign but alas the game play is very repetitive and dull.

Now we've just started Space Marine 2 which is set in the same play space but this one has higher graphic demands with the over the shoulder camera while fighting swarms of tyranids. We definitely need to be more on our toes here for timed button presses mid combat and so far it's been really great - apart from that I can't see the cut scenes since it doesn't like my graphics card and the exorbitantly long loadings times. Not that it matters, the missions play well enough and give enough info as to what's going on. So far it's a very entertaining game.

The Marvels and Pariah Nexus

Marvel vs Warhammer 40K!

The Marvels

While this puts characters together from Captain Marvel, Wandavision, and Ms. Marvel for a girl power film this is very much a Captain Marvel story (played by Brie Larson) but with the goofy tone of Ms. Marvel (gotta get those new tween viewers) - which is not a very good blend. They really need to stop using alien races as victims because no matter what world dooming thing is happening, if its not "our" Earth in danger then there's no real weight or threat (a similar flaw in Quantumania). Alas the high budget effects can do nothing to improve the story which ultimately is a *shrug*, so that happened. Only recommended if you enjoyed the Ms. Marvel series.

Pariah Nexus

Years ago I posted about Astartes fan-project. The creator of that is now officially part of the Warhammer 40K team who have released the three episode series Pariah Nexus which depicts the fall of an Imperium shrine world to the Necrons. Nice animation, bloody fights and a decent grimdark story (it is Warhammer 40K after all) make it a much better watch than the Marvels, and is recommended for any Warhammer fan or anyone who simply enjoys this type of entertainment. Like me. :P

Waiting for Duviri: The Seventh Set

Thinking of post titles tired me out, so here's just a random set I've played.

Redout - Enhanced Edition

A futuristic racing game using hover cars with race tracks that resemble roller coaster rides. Yes, you can go fast, customize your rides and the groovy tunes will get your heart racing. There's also a health bar because crashing into things makes you take damage and ultimately EXPLODE! I'm not really into racing games, but purely because you can explode in this one makes it different for me. Not that you die mind you, explode and you respawn after wasting precious seconds.

Severed Steel

If you want to go faster than a hover car, play this FPS where you are a one armed girl who can't reload guns- so expect to throw those as soon as their clip empties - but she can double jump, slide in mid air, wall run and slow down time to evade bullets. In fact she goes so fast that most of the time you'll be wondering WTF is going on followed by the game over screen when you accidentally ran into those bullets. Sigh. Needs more save points.

Ancient Enemy

After being defeated by the bad guy, the main character awakes and... plays cards to try remember what happened. Plays cards to open chests. Plays cards to fight enemies. It is ridiculous. Worse, the card game is solitaire but you can put the next number up or down. The card color removed from the board helps power your abilities so... five red cards lets you swing your knife for example. Irritating system, more so in that a bad hand will kill you. Maybe that's the true Ancient Enemy?

Adios

You can't quit the mafia but you can certainly suicide by mafia. That's the main lesson in this interactive story which has good voice acting and a decent short story going for it. Unfortunately it feels like the designers opted to try make it a not-so-short story by adding too much fluff. Did we really need to meet the protege or have seven attempts at catching a fish before getting to the clearly lamp shaded conclusion? Nope. I think these fellas need to checkout Dead Horizon (renamed to Dead Horizon: Origins) which takes all of five minutes to play but is still a better example of a short story done right. It's free on Steam!

Unrailed

In this cooperative voxel game, there is a slow moving train and players must rush to lumber and mine to clear the path ahead of it AND to use those very resources to continue the rail road track the train is on by using the auto-production facilities aboard it. Since the train also overheats, catches fire and prevents you from using that - you must also constantly pour buckets of water (which you must refill) to keep it cooled down. If the train runs out of track: game over. An excellent idea for a game, but alas I could not find any one playing it - and its a bit sad when its just single player.

Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus

The Adeptus Mechanicus, the hardcore R&D branch of the Space Marines, have stumbled onto a Necron (robot people) tomb world and you are in charge of looting and cataloging as much tech as you can before the entire tomb wakes up. This portion of the game feels very poor, as you move room to room and basically do a choose your own adventure thing with art quality that even I can do and SO MUCH reading as the Adepti are very talkative yet SP3AK//HARD just to make it annoying. The XCOM style combat is the best bit, though there's a strange mechanic that you must gain cognition points (by scanning enemies, watching allies get attacked, or walking beside hieroglyphic pillars) to be able to take extra actions or indeed, fire particular weapons. All up it feels like clumsy (or hasty) design.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

It is the Edo period in Japan and you have an eagle eye view to control a small band of ninjas who each have unique abilities and are very deadly so long as no one is looking at them. There is no "pause" to the clock so you'll need to be quick and time your actions well which makes this a sort of strategy puzzler but it has two huge turn offs for me. One, your group is stupid. "Let's all reconvene at that roof top past all those bad guys to talk about what we heard, instead of the one we are on right now" is freaking poor writing and worse, these must be the NOISIEST ninjas who ever lived - saying a line or grunting loudly every time you click somewhere. So freaking annoying. The Aika's choice gives more of the same, but opens by spoiling the entire original game.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide

Purge the heretics!

This horde shooter is very much in the same vein as the less futuristic Vermintide and Left 4 Dead with scores of Nurgle worshipers and their special units to dispatch (like one that pounces and then you need help from some one else to get up and another that you need to quietly avoid) while doing random tasks like bringing fuel cans power cells to designated spots, scanning for demon residue (shouldn't that just be everywhere) or hacking with very faulty equipment.  

The major difference with this one is almost 50% of your opponents now come with guns, and those really do hurt! Either you'll need to out snipe them as a veteran, block the damage as a mighty ogryn, cleverly draw them close (or just charge like a maniac) as a zealot, or pop their heads with your mind powers as a psyker - at the risk of popping your own head too - void powers are fun that way. Those are the current four classes available and you do missions in squads of four.

The most annoying parts though are the market, which sells you a random assortment of weapons every hour just to make sure the odds of you finding the one you want are low - and this is worsened by the ridiculous login time which Archer rightly quipped "takes three business days to get in". It's fun enough when you can get to play though its a bit repetitive, a bit grindy and a bit thin on content (though more is said to be on the way). Make sure to have a book or blog site open to read while waiting to actually get into the game.

Blood in Space: Templar Battleforce Tharsis

Two turn based games with death among the stars.

Templar Battleforce

With deadly xenos threatening to invade the colonies, it is up to you and your battleforce to save the day in this turn based strategy game. Don't let the simple cover art fool you, despite the many similarities this is no Warhammer 40K as you need to manage more than just the endless swarm of xenos (and other enemies)... each of your templars are in battle suits which have a huge problem in that they overheat & explode!

Not so bad if you just have to hold position (overwatch is awesome) but in the majority of the levels, speed is the key to victory (and engineer turrets help). Do you risk losing your men to win the mission? Especially when said soldiers level up through the campaign with you? Highly recommended for tactics buffs, and there's a decent story to boot. Three Spear Cutters out of five.

Tharsis

Going to Mars was never going to be easy, but no one expected it to be this hard either! Left in command of a damaged space ship, you must organize your crew to survive the many hazards en route. In an interesting twist, most of this is by dice rolling, and those dice can do various other things depending on the character and the location they are in meaning you might be tempted to not fix every problem.

Eat the weak. Muahahahaha!

With such a strong board game feel you'd think I'd like this more, but I guess it just feels too random. Got a few bad rolls? Welp, that's probably the beginning of the end as things just pile on without any hope of getting better. Two mini meteorites out of five. Not really recommended. 

Cthulhu: Death May Die - Know when to Fold em

Featuring the fickle Lady Luck.

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

A Las Vegas casino sets the stage for the next ritual, and to break it Father Luke (Juris), the Kid (mom), John (DL), Arielle (wifey), and Mario (me) must win SIX times at the casino, requiring to pay an item per attempt and only able to gamble if the casino has no enemies.

This proves to be tremendously difficult as cultists and hounds of Tindalos regularly appear on the casino floor thanks to the poor odds at the table and while the team gets half the required wins they are out of time as a full powered and immortal Cthulhu appears, nearly killing Luke (who is saved by catatonia). 

The hounds would fit nicely in a Warhammer 40k Tyranid army.

John lures the elder one and everything else away but before they can kill him it triggers his dependency, returning him to the safety of the casino with no enemies in tow. At this point a miracle happens as the last three wins happen in quick succession, weakening Cthulhu once more and pulling him to the party who beat him up!

Fleeing from the room, John goes and lures him back into range (most of the team have ranged attacks) which totally wrecks the tentacled beast, and it is Father Luke who finishes it off with a blessed pool cue in close quarters. AMEN!

MISSION SUCCESS (unconvincing victory here as we almost lost multiple times with numerous people almost dying prior to breaking the ritual, and having the doom track two only steps away from the end)!

Insight: Ugh, I hated the gambling mechanic! We had to learn the hard way that you want to have stress to spend AND a lot of items when using the casino. Not doing so (like we did at the start) felt like wasted turns. I dunno, it just felt really swingy.

Old School War: Rites, Wind and Universalis II

It's pretty painful.

War Wind

I think this was SSI's answer to Dune (RTS).

This real time strategy game takes place on an alien planet and involves using workers to harvest resources, construct buildings, hire units and then sending them out to battle enemies and fauna on the map.

It also features four completely different factions/campaigns to pick from which is massive! Unfortunately all are really aliens which doesn't make them too relatable, even though the story is a simple one of rebellion.

Also, there is zero tutorial available and it's so old, when you save or load a game it actually temporarily drops you into windows to use the default file handler! A bit too dated for my taste, I give it only one and a half tech pigs out of five.

Insight: Right clicking on a unit brings up their valid commands - like instruct workers to build or harvest.

Europa Universalis II

Information overload!

In this old school, world conquering game you take command over a country with the goal of achieving more victory points than anyone else before time runs out. Don't worry, many kings will come and go before that happens.

What is totally nuts though is the broad scope covered here, as you play on a map of the world and depending on your chosen nation, there can be a lot going on. Spain for example is sprawling all the way across to America so you could be dealing with Aztecs and the French at the same time.

Too much going on all the time.

The dated interface also isn't the best meaning you'll need many clicks to find out what's going on, and that's while the game is paused! If time is going, expect to be interrupted by pop up boxes galore, some requiring you to make important choices while more popups get in the way.

Avid war gamers might enjoy this but it ended up being way too complicated for me. One and a half census tax collections out of five.

Insight: Pause is your friend.

Warhammer 40K: Rites of War

In the future, there is only hex-based war!

The Eldar have grown weary of the ruthless expansions of mankind, especially as they now desecrate their ancient sites with their mere presence. You are tasked with assembling a small army (you'll be lucky to field 12 squads) to eliminate the Imperials, Space Marines and random Tyranids that block your path to retrieve holy relics... that only can only be carried by a unit not already holding one.

Should that happen your entire army shrugs, goes "oh well" and is forced to leave it behind - even if every single other unit you have doesn't yet have a relic. Yep. It's annoyances like this that make this hex based war game more tedious than it should be.

The "rest" action is also heavily used by the AI to recover unit strength which means if you can't kill an enemy off in one turn, you will likely have to fight it at near full power again really soon. Have fun when your are getting swarmed by superior numbers and that happens! Not really a game for anyone other than Warhammer Eldar fans, I give this one and a half scatter lasers out of five.

Insight: Stick together and move your slowest units forward first. Support types are great since they get extra attacks out of turn.

May 2020 Review: Cautious Living

Work from home continues though where I live the government is already relaxing the covid self isolation rules. This is also the first time I've heard of "succession games" where a group of people play a single player game one at a time by simply passing on the save file! What a clever idea! :)  Also, if you like Warhammer 40K, you should definitely watch this fan made video called Astartes.

On to the task list...

    End 2020 with less weight (+1 kg from last month, running total: +7 kg)
    Make 1 web comic page (more world building)
    Make a boar game (tested and not happy with mechanics, redoing)

BACKLOG
How to Survive 2 [gift] (had enough)
World War Z [free from Epic Games] (done)
Close to the Sun [free from Epic Games] (done)
Just Cause 4 [free from Epic Games]
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms [free on Steam]
For the King [free from Epic Games] (done)
+Crashlands [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Amnesia: The Dark Descent [free from Epic Games] (done)
+Grand Theft Auto V [free from Epic Games] (file size too big for my download limits)
+Sid Meier's Civilization VI [free from Epic Games]
+Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Adventure [free from Epic Games] (had enough)
+Fallout Shelter [free from Steam]

Board games:
Zombicide: Black Plague (10/11)
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (13/13)
Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm (0/11)

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

I was playing Baldur's Gate... a lot!

Five Years Ago

I was participating in the Newbie Blogger Initiative, and somehow I was put in charge of the Poetry Slam due to Syl's absence that year.

Most Viewed Posts last Month
Adventures in Space
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Looks like my Adventures in Space got a few views this time around, while the infernal cape searches have remained from last time - so now I know those are Runescape related!

Dawn of War II

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

Now here's a fantastic squad based tactics game I replayed (despite saying I wouldn't), set in the Warhammer 40K universe and one that is very user-friendly as you lead the Space Marines into battle against a multitude of alien scum.

It is simplified to controlling the squad commanders, leveling and gearing them up, and making use of cover and special abilities. The extra nameless squad mates do help out but are just "tied" to their captain, vastly removing micro management.

Look out behind you!

There are also no structures to build, and though there are optional sites you can capture per mission that will give you boons moving forward in the campaign. The graphics, voice acting, music and story are all great too. Indeed the only fault I can give this is its penchant to reuse maps.

This one is an absolute blast to play, and for me superior to all the Command and Conquer titles I've previously reviewed. Highly recommended, even for non RTS folk. I give this 4.5 melta bombs out of 5.

Space Hulk (2013)

The Emperor has dictated your weaponry.

The third video game based off the two player board game (as in - an exact copy), this once again sees space marine terminators boarding derelict space ships (aka "Space Hulks") to eradicate them of dangerous DNA eating aliens called genestealers within the dark and claustrophobic passages in turn based combat. It's almost impossible to have everyone survive every mission.

Certain doom.

Having played the very first video game (1993) I can safely say this one is better in all respects except perhaps for the intro. The easiest way to describe the gameplay would be XCOM light. You (and your opponent if you are doing a two player game) get action points each round to do various things. For terminators they get 4 AP to spend on walking, shooting, turning, etc. For genestealers all actions are just 1 point and with 6 AP each they can move a lot faster than the humans. You do not get to name, arm, or dress up your squad - just have to live with what is given to you.

Each round the marine player does get to roll for "bonus" AP though, earning 1-6 more points for the entire squad so there is that element of dice rolling randomness to take into account. I've had peoples guns jam three times in a row (within a single turn) as well as had one terminator bash up over 10 genestealers in close quarters so it goes both ways.

Unfortunately there are only 15 missions and not much of a finale, but it is a pretty solid game regardless and I recommend it to people that either like the Warhammer 40k universe or like XCOM like turn based action. I give this iteration of Space Hulk three storm bolters out of five. If you have played the board game though, there's probably nothing new for you here apart from tweak-able difficulties so you can probably skip it.

Warframe: Mad Cephalon

[My seventh post of the Blaugust Challenge!]

And now to another game with ninjas and guns, Warframe has had some major updates while I wasn't looking. Honestly I don't know what the "Mad Cephalon" is, but boy did a lot of work go into this game while I wasn't looking. There is a new tutorial for starters (optional for existing players) and everyone gets their own little spaceship which they can upgrade. The melee side of things have also gotten an upgrade with players now able to block incoming weapons fire and use various stances to better kill all your enemies with.

A bunch of baddies have also gotten upgrades and some are just totally new, just to make things even. This is on top of the new weapons, maps, and missions that are regularly added anyway. You can certainly get your Spacehulk fix by doing Invasion missions where you assist the Grineer or Corpus against Infested forces.

Furthermore there is a quest system now, and while there's not yet a lot in there I can see how it can grow easily. The one I'm currently working on is to create an incubator to hatch my own pet Kubrow (dog thing) - which again is a new addition to the companion section. Whatever they're doing, the makers of Warframe are certainly going well and they've made it better than ever to try out being a ninja in space! Not bad for a free to play game.

Now with ninja dogs!

Blaugust Bonus: I used to play Warhammer 40k and Necromunda with a bunch of school friends. Since the Space Marines, Orks, Imperials and Tyranids were already taken I decided to make my own army, complete with their own codex and lore. I made sure obviously made sure that everyone else was happy with them though before playing. Became a pretty balanced force in the end I think, and much like everyone else I was winning as much as I was losing. Those were good times. Expensive, but good.

The Fifteen Minute Quest

Fifteen minutes is the optimal amount of time for an MMO quest or activity. This is one of the guidelines to Cryptic's Neverwinter Foundry, and while I initially scoffed at such a low number I am now seeing just how right they are especially when comparing it to other online games. Casual gamers play in small chunks of time, and in that chunk they have to be able to do something they feel is rewarding, or at least get one step closer to some goal.

The main problem stems from the fact that there is no individual "save" feature in MMOs, and really - I don't know how you'd implement one to begin with. A solo game you can usually start and stop at your leisure, just like table top games - and more importantly you can continue where you left off when you decide to resume (though that would be tricky with more complicated setups like Arkham Horror or a Warhammer 40k skirmish unless you left the table as is).

In comparison, it really "burns" when you undertake something that takes so long then come up empty: Failing at the last boss of a long dungeon run, or losing connection in GW2's SAB Tribulation mode, or being defeated by Tequatl (I imagine. Haven't bothered waiting to fight him). Each of those have to be restarted from scratch if you want to try again and for someone time poor, that would be extra annoying - especially if there were alternative shorter activities they could have done instead.

Quitting Time! Guess we'll just have to restart this from scratch tomorrow.

I imagine that's the main problem with my first "spacious" quest. It starts in a tavern, you can talk to everyone (though you don't have to), there's a little bit of puzzle solving and a fair bit of exploration before any combat even begins. People look at the average time of one hour and simply skip it for a faster run through something (or a few "somethings") else. Well, I've learned my lesson. My second foundry quest is coming together nicely and is going to be more "condensed" than I originally planned and hopefully will only run to the 15-20 minute mark. The story will still be there, but there'll be less fluff. Should be interesting to see how well it does in comparison.

If you play Neverwinter Online and want to try my first foundry quest (despite the length) it is:

One Step to Darkness [NW-DNJC9SK7A] 

You'll probably need to use the short-code (NW-DNJC9SK7A) without the brackets in a few of the tabs before you can find it. I always appreciate more play throughs and feedback!

Going once, going twice... go to Hell!

I know I'm a bit late to jump on this bandwagon but an illness managed to stay my hand from posting... till now!

Finally, one of the stupidest design decisions EVER is going to be undone - Diablo 3's auction house is to be removed next year, coinciding with the release of new expansion to the game. Whoever thought it was an inspired idea at the time must have been inspired by the lord of hell himself because that was one game breaking mechanic, especially in a game where half the point is to grind for gear. It certainly lowers the shelf life when you can just buy said gear at will if you had the gold to do so,  a method which I certainly used to trivialize the whole game pretty much. Pay to win, right there. Don't even get me started on locked difficulty modes, for me that's the next thing that should be changed.

Away with thee, spawn of Satan!

With that auction house being sent back to the flaming abyss that spawned it I can only hope similar ventures in other games follow suit. Looking at you specifically, Black Lion Trading Company of Guildwars 2. You and your false manipulated market. Player manipulated? That's to be expected, but you take a step further with GM manipulation. Oh... there's a surplus of item so and so huh? Time to change the loot tables! Sad part is, I'm not even kidding about that.

Anywho, I'll leave you all with an unrelated, warming tale of a griefer being beaten at his own game.  A story that should bring a grin to many - especially those who played table top Warhammer 40k. This is rules lawyering to the max!