Evil Genius and Evil Genius 2: World Domination

For those who want to take over the world! Muahahahaha!

Thanks to DL (and Wro as it was his idea) I was gifted these awhile back and have spent a decent amount of time with each of them now because yes, I like to pretend I'm a genius. :P These games are basically base builders with the twist that you are a bad guy trying to hide from the forces of justice while you build up your criminal empire. Usually I dislike such games with micromanagement but thanks to an excellent soundtrack and very easy controls where your minions run themselves based on what is available to them, this was rather enjoyable!

I did lose in the original Evil Genius though, as the super agents (among whom are basically copies of John Rambo and James Bond) smashed my minions and defenses to pieces and I could never recover because I could never find out of to actually kill them. The other forces of justice either are rogues who want to steal your stolen loot, saboteurs who blow up stuff, soldiers who kill your guys, or investigators who basically just scout and report back which spawns one of the earlier types to come raid you if they found something worth stealing / destroying / or murdering. :P

I do prefer Evil Genius 2 not only because I won it, but the graphics got a much needed upgrade and the tutorial actually helps you deal with those investigators and teaches you how to manage the "heat" (high heat = high level attackers). It's also slightly easier to avoid the super agents until you get the relevant side quests to take care of them. While there is violence ranging from "brutal" interrogations that can involve chucking people into shark tanks and all the way up to scorching parts of the globe with your doomsday device, all the violence is very comical with not a drop of blood to be found. All up very fun and one I recommend, though if you're only going to play one of these, Evil Genius 2 is the obvious pick with its much needed updates.

Stable Diffusion: Portraits of Wrothak

[Part of the AI Art Gallery] 

Now for one of our Canadian members, Wrothak the scientist - I think these turned out really good!

Hmm, apparently he has a beard too.

 

And this is his "epic beard" form!

Warframe: Oberon and Nekros

The paladin and the necromancer.

Before we get into the frames there's currently a code for two free weapons (and weapon slots) you can redeem on the warframe website on in-game market (use the button on the bottom right): WF-DEATH-BATTLE

Not sure if that's due to the upcoming Tennocon or thanks to the recent Death Battle involving an Excalibur, but either way its a win for us - use it quick before it expires! On to the frames...

Oberon

Not sure how I got my hands on this paladin class warframe as it was waiting for me upon my return, and I found it to be just ok. No super strong offensive abilities but it can buff and heal allies while being pretty sturdy itself. After completing mastery on it I let it go because I'm usually a lone wolf type player anyway.

Then Wrothak shows up in a prime version to help me on a few missions (those freaking Orb Mother Heists on Venus) which just proved I was using it completely wrong (guaranteed I'm using 90% of all warframes wrong anyway since they have to "shine" for me before they get forma or potatoed/reactor) and while I was hiding from the Corpus army doing my sneaky Loki thing he was just tanking them AND the Orb Mother for a time. Definitely a frame I underestimated, just still not one for my playstyle.

Nekros

Easily farmable from Lephantis on Deimos (who is basically a pinata when fighting fairy Titania) the Nekros' main draw is his ability to make corpses cough up more loot. Oh, he can also punch enemy souls from out of them, summon ghosts of killed enemies as allies and scare badddies into running away which doesn't go well with any of his other abilities.

If I needed a word to describe him it would be: boring. For the most part Nekros is a warframe without powers. His punch is weak, the summoned dead expire, and what you will be doing most of the time is double looting corpses. Bleh, not a frame for me. Luckily he's an easy one to reclaim if I ever want to.

Blaugust About Me: First Online

Today's writing prompts are courtesy of the Belghast himself. I'll just be cherry picking topics that go well together: mainly describing my first online gaming experience, how I got involved with my first guild, gaming friend transcendence and times when real life clashes with gaming life.

My first game experience was in June 2000 in a game called Ultima Online. Despite my first interaction with others being ganked by a wandering mob of PKs, my brothers and I were instantly hooked into this addictive sandbox and within a week saved up the gold to start up our own small guild ("Dragonarm") and this is the same guild I am still in today.

I was still in school at the time and boy did my grades suffer due to this new addiction. It would be years before I could get a handle on "real life is more important", and even today sometimes that struggle still occurs.

The guild has moved games a few times now, losing members in the process (around 142 losses to date according to the records) but there are always some who just stick with us no matter what. Canadian Wrothak is a great example, he was with us early on Ultima Online and now 18 years later is still with us on Neverwinter Online. His twin sister and ex-guildmember has also visited and stayed with us while visiting Australia.

It helps that my guild leader brother screens people that seek membership but loyalty like that is rare to find these days. 

Lethal League

A fantastic take of a fighting game.

Firstly, I must give thanks to Wrothak who got me a key to this for free because it is hands down one of the most enjoyable and most addictive "fighting" games I have ever played. Think King of Fighters, but instead of martial arts you fight using an anti-gravity ball that gets faster and faster.

Each match can host two to four players (or AI) and you are free to assign teams or just go free for all. Yes, you can have cooperative matches! For solo players there is also a 10 stage challenge mode. I'm currently stuck at stage 5. Fricking Candy Man (who happens to also be my fav character).

When it goes fast enough, the ball looks more like a laser.

The BEST part is that getting hit by the ball is an instant KO. If only one team remains standing, then the stage is reset and play resumes until all opponents have used up all their "lives". This is so refreshing coming from games where you just attack attack attack and slowly whittle down an enemies HP.

The controls are simple, the music is groovy, the art is good, and the game is fun. Sure there are few characters and no real story but this one is definitely worth a try. As I'm not yet done with it, I currently give Lethal League 3.5 home runs out of 5.

Tropico 3: Revista De La Presidenta

Thanks to guildie Wrothak, I was gifted the game of Tropico 3 which in short is a city building and management game set on a handful of remote tropical islands. Since I haven't done a game journal thing for awhile I thought I'd start one up for this game. I cannot guarantee how long I'll stick with it though as strategy games and I don't really get along! One of the highlights for me is that the game lets you create your own "El Presidente", complete with background story, traits and flaws so let me introduce you to him now.

As a famous war hero (+bonus in combat), El Presidente claims his calling to rule comes from a heavenly dream where the Pope himself anointed him as savior of the people (+rep to religious folk). He is a good Administrator (cheaper to construct buildings) and an Incorruptible spirit (reduces crime) but is Short Tempered (-rep from intellectuals, -rep from military) and is considered a bit of a Cheap Skate (-rep to communists and maximum salary people can earn is -50% less than from a non cheap skate leader). He also dresses up like a pirate for some reason. Let's see just how well he does when given the chance to rule...

Chapters:
Planting the Wrong Seeds
Fist of Iron
I Hate Tourists
An Island with No Name 
The Secret Police
No Puppet
Voodoo Tech
I am Undone
Swimming in Money
A Generous Thief
Stability of Law
The Pirate King
Idle Advisor

This story has ended! Hope you enjoyed reading! :)