Consolidating Blog Rolls

So I got tired of having three different blogrolls, one for my Wargaming Stuff, one for my Monpoc Stuff (Which is all but dead) and my normal one here, so I figured I'd import the 115 posts from the other two into here, make some modifications and publish them. There'll be a LOT more Game Warning Posts.

Apologies in advance if I'm on your RSS feed or Google Reader Feed that says "Hey, you got a bucketload of posts you haven't read." They probably won't interest you anyway, unless you're one of my nerdy friends.

Word Verification: Gaign

Uniqueness

One of the cool things about Warmachine and Hordes is that there is a flavour to the game that takes the game to new Levels. You have unique units, and solos, and unique themes that some units follow by. Then on top of that, you can get Characters who may follow a theme, but have a uniqueness to themselves. Warjacks come in all different shapes and sizes. Few are to a particular theme, but as a general rule they are all unique.

Character Warjacks started off simply emphasizing a particular Warjack. Beast-09 is a character Juggernaut, for example. Drago is a character Berserker. Lately, the character Warjacks started getting more unique layouts. Black Ivan is a character Destroyer, however rather than the Executioner Axe, he has a special set of claws. Torch is a character Decimator, but replace the cannon with a flamethrower-mounted Open Fist with a spike.

The rules are all very cool and all, there is no denying how awesome it is to have a Warjack in melee with a Torch to catch a few guys up the back. Same thing with Black Ivan, it's awesome to have a Warjack that has a base Defence of 12. No seriously, it's awesome.

The models themselves are where I actually have a problem. Beast-09 and Drago received unique Models. Every feature about those models screams "I am who I am and you better remember that". They dominate the field leaving everyone feeling they have been struck by gods.

If you turn to the Warjacks next to them, Black Ivan and Torch... and you get two Basic Warjacks with some unique features. Replaced arms, bobs stuck on their shoulders, and a head to match. They don't have things hanging around their neck, or writing over their cowling. They don't even have the Khadoran Anvil over the engine

Business wise, I know that the expenses of making an entirely unique warjack would be phenomenal with having to create moulds which only last a certain number of times and cost an arm and a leg to make, and then no guarantee of sale makes it difficult. Whereas the plastic kits are cheaply made, and then smaller pieces are made of metal and slot on to the figures.

What does Black Ivan look like though? Does he look as plain as a normal Destroyer? Or does he actually have inscriptions across the bulk of his body that point from what regiment of the Khadoran army he was brought up from under the guidance of Harkevich?

What about Torch? Is he really a Juggernaut with a Buzzsaw and a Flamethrower? Or is he an Assault Kommando with armour tempered to withstand Fire and Acid, and able to throw smoke grenades to disrupt enemy attack?

It makes me wonder how different these impressive Warjacks would be if they were just a little more... Unique.

Of Trolls and Talismans

Talisman: The Magical Quest Game, is a Board Game that many a nerd who has played it GROANS at the very mention of it. "It takes so long!" They cry, "It will take us late into the night!" Which is a lie, we started at 6:30 or 7pm and the three of us finished at 9! We being Scotty, Corey, Paul and I.

Last week we pulled out Talisman to play. I'm not sure what edition it is, but I imagine its old since the dust on the cover of the box is so thick that you need to chisel it off. We followed one house rule which was that players chose a random character. The character cards were shuffled and they draw from a random spot, or it's just drawn from the top of the deck.

Last week we drew random cards and came up thusly.

• Medway - Assassin
• Paul - Prophetess
• Corey - Sorceress
• Scott - Priest

I had absolutely horrible luck, with my stuff being stolen by bandits, and being kicked seven ways from sunday from the least likely of all things, the Wild Boar, the Weakest monster in the game. The worst part is that it happened twice. It's more humiliating than Corey who had his arse kicked by the Farmer every time he landed on the Tavern. Every. Time.

This week, we all ran through the character cards and as soon as I saw him, I had to play him. The Troll. He's the strongest character, but he's about as bright as those glow in the dark constellation stickers you put on your ceiling (or want to, if you haven't done so already). Actually, that might be giving him a little bit of credit.

The other special feature of him is that he is always safe in the Crags. Normally, you can get lost or you can fight a terrible spirit that found you, or you can gain a Strength when a Barbarian leads you out, and any of these can happen depending on what you roll on a d6. But not the Troll!

So he's a very VERY straight forward character. Later revisions allowed him to gain a Life if he rolls a 6, but that's unlikely since he isn't interested in anything except "bashing sum wun wiff his stikk".

Which he did. He bashed quite a few things that most others wouldn't have normally bashed, and benefitted from it. The poor fella did draw a Craft 10 Demon, which is impossible for him to beat with his Craft 1... But I had a cross. "So I'z got da kross and smished da demon." Then I immediately doubled my craft.

"I have now found that the reason the apple fell on my head is because the tree is actually attacking me."

I picked up a few different things, one of the biggest things that brought me some of the POWER I held was the Amulet, which meant I couldn't cast spells but I couldn't be targetted by them.

Except for a Witch. Who cursed me and turned me into a Toad. Goddamn witch. So that meant I dropped all my items, including the Amulet, the Cross and the Flask of Water, and all my Gold (I think i was on like 5 at that point) and then I just hopped about just like a toad does. There was a font of Wisdom, luckily, and so I doubled my craft again. A Toad with a Craft of 2 is pretty impressive. Especially when it goes up against a Craft 4 Monster and Ties with it. But when I turned back into a Troll the extra craft didn't roll over, so didn't quadruple my Craft, sadly.

Sidenote - To fight someone, you get the relative stat (Strength or Craft) and roll a d6. If you equal, you tie. If you roll higher, they suffer lose a Life. If you roll lower, you lose a Life.

Now as I mentioned, when you get turned into a Toad you drop all your Gold and Objects on the spot that you get turned into a Toad. So that means it's available for other players to pick up stuff. So during the 3 turns that I am a Toad, my stuff is up for grabs. I'm also easily killable, but nobody was in the habit of trying to kill anyone.

Except me. And I had incentive too. Paul, who was playing the Elf, found a way to sneak over and pick up my stuff by telepoting through Woods Spaces. And when he got there, he convinced the fucking Witch to Pay him to take my stuff of her hands, the greedy bastard . But luckily for me, he hadn't had a good run. He was down to 1 Life, so all I needed to do was conk him on the noggin and that's the end of that. So as a vengeful Troll with about 8 or 9 Strength to his name, he hunted down that Fucking Elf and got back his Objects, his Gold plus Interest (Paul had a significant amount of luck with regards to Gold) and then trundled off satisfied with himself that there was one more squished Elf in the world.

After that, I was a train of havoc going all the way up to the Crown of Command to "Kill da little peeple". It was funny though, I drew the Hermit just before I went into the inner level, and conveniently enough he was on the tile I landed on and he gave me a Talisman to let me get to the Crown of Command.

"Choo Choo! Take Dat, Dwarf! Take Dat, Warrior! I got da Powah!"

Sonic Generations

I think I may have mentioned that I'm a fan of Sonic. He has been a childhood hero and remains to be. I think I have a photo somewhere that has me in my favourite Sonic Hoodie, and one of my various Sonic Shirts at the Mana Bar while playing Sonic on the Wii.

The only disappointing era's of Sonic games was really the 2006 Self-titled version. Anything after the Mega Drive until that point, I haven't had the chance to play, so to be fair I'm not going to say bad things about them. I have Sonic Adventure now on my PS3 since they made a port for it, but I just haven't put the effort into playing it yet.

Instead, I've been playing Sonic 4 which I have yet to really complete. It's difficult, and the controls are noticably different than the traditional games that I've played, though the system is meant to be much the same. What's closer to the classic is Sonic Fan Remix. And what else is likable about it is that it's got a different, but more appealing art style, really detailed and different than Sonic 4.

But I'm not really here to talk about those versions of Sonic the Hedgehog. I want to talk about Sonic Generations.

The Idea behind Sonic Generations is a combination of older and newer formats of the Sonic Platformers, the classic 2D and the newer 3D format. In turn, they follow the theme of various different levels from those same generations, picking Zones from the various games and then giving both a 2D and a 3D version of the levels with Original layouts.

One of the funny gimmicks of the game is that both generations of Sonic are able to meet each other. Old Sonic was a blue hedgehog with black pupils and no iris, and didn't really speak much. Or at all. New Sonic, after he defeated one of the Robotniks in the Archie Comics, changed to have Green Iris and Gold Buckles on his shoes, and he's taller.

I picked it up yesterday and I plugged it into the PS3 and invited mum to watch it with me. And to boot, we flicked it over to 3D to see what it would be like with the effects. What we did know of the game was that it was a bit... quick off the mark. If you performed the Spin Dash technique, you would have missed a portion of the level due to the speed he was travelling. Classic Sonic was quick, but this is ridiculous.

The 3D just made it more intense, with the detailed levels and the various colours and speeds, it was just driving Mum and I nuts. I don't think I'm going to load up the 3D again except for a special event when i want to show someone.

The Gameplay system they use is very reminiscent of the classic Sonic that I played many moons ago, with various different additions, such as Skill sets for Sonic to apply to himself (First two of which were to land on his feet whenever he gets damaged, and to have the rings stay around for 10 seconds), and challenge modes for the different levels. So there's plenty to unlock since the game encapsulates the better part of the entire franchise, and also includes special feature such as Art, Music and Videos.

I'm very excited to get into this game. It's my favourite character, with elements from all generations, and... well yeah. That's about it, really.

Manning Up

Every so often I actually go out. Not go to a mates place to play games, but actually out to do something Normal. Like go out to a play. Which is what I did on Saturday night, to see the World Premiere of the final Felafel play: How To Be A Man. I put on a nice shirt, my glasses so I could see, and made the trek from Roma Street Station where I stepped off the Bus.

Now, I get a little nervous around crowds. It's just the way I am. So just before I went to the Theatre I stopped off at the Alfie Hotel (aka: Hotel LA; aka: Lord Alfred Hotel) and grabbed a cider and sculled that down to ease the nerves. Then I wandered up to the theatre to collect my ticket.

As I waited for the lovely girl to print my ticket, as I left mine at work on friday, I was approached by an unfamiliar face who had approached me knowing full well who I am. Turns out it was Abe, one of the Burgers who had turned up for the same play as I did! He introduced himself and offered me a drink, which I happily accepted because I'm an alcoholic and still a little nervous.

It was annoying that I had so many nerves that night. I got hand fed from Greg and met Dan from Smart Enough 2 Know Better and even though I listen to his shrill garbling and Gregs Barotone (at least I reckon he has the deeper voice) and I should know that he's a very casual sort of guy, I got too nervous and ended up making a bit of an arse of myself in front of him. Insert Facepalm Image of your choice here. Actually, use this.

Anyway, I had a nice chat with many of the Burgers, and even the Burger King himself, until everyone had to clamber into the Theatre itself wearing a fake Moustache that Simon Bedak was handing out like lollies. I was i seat A9, front row centre aisle. It was a good seat, I thought. It would give me a wonderful view of the play. I could see things without having to squint at the little details. The small entertaining things that can really make a play better.

Now after saying that to myself, had a wonderful introduction to the city of "Bong Kok". If you go see the play, you'll understand very early on what I'm talking about.

The stage itself was amazing. set in the back yard of a shoddy old sharehouse that even had the family safe (One of the panels made from a cut up Beer Carton), it had all the feel of a scungy house full of rats, cockroaches and nests of feral possums living in the tall grass. And the traditional Sharehouse Couch sat amongst it.

The entire play was magnificent. I can't say anything bad about it. Even Bong Kok. It was a massive shock to the system, but it was still hilarious. Girl Clumsy directed a masterpiece, scripted by Simon Bedak, and written by John Birmingham and Dirk Flinthart.

But the main thing that the show taught me was how to Man Up (funny that). And pretty much all of the Burgers suggested and agreed with starting a donation run to get Jenny to Australia. A JenCon Oz Fund. Everyone wanted to put forward for her to come here, whether it means she'll be spending lots of money here, or even just using the contributions to keep her here longer (Which is probably a better use of the contributions, actually).

I'm currently in discussions with Jenny about organising it, so we'll let everyone know when it's all ready. I'm thinking a Paypal thing?

Campaigning for fun

Now a month or two ago, I said about how I was going to play Gears of War 3 with my friends, playing through the wonderful campaign as a Four-player Cooperative rather than running around by myself. It's a lot more fun, especially if we all start off at the same point, then we all experience the same thing, achieve the same goals, save the same damsels, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

When I got my new Xbox and downloaded my Gamer profile, I found that I'm missing achievements for certain games, like Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. I ran through Gears of War 2 again alone because I didn't think of inviting anyone. But it wasn't as fun as with a friend. Not to say it wasn't a fun game, it was still as awesome as I remember it the first time, but I know it's better when you have someone playing with you, whether it's through the internet or sitting next to you laughing their heads off as you decapitate a couple of people with a hydraulic powered crossbow.

So in preparation to playing through the Halo 3 Campaign, I've asked my friends to gauge who would be interested in playing the Halo 3 Campaign with me. I've asked Scott and his only apprehension is the control scheme being so different to the Halo Reach scheme. It's rather different, but I'm thinking of adjusting my own settings to use the Green Thumb control scheme for all Halos upward of Halo 3.

Other games that I want to play Coop are Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One. I want to get that game and play with Scotty. I know he's waiting for me, but it's just a matter of picking up the game so we can start. Also, Portal 2 has an update for it's Cooperative Campaign, so we're going to get in on that at some point when I mention it to Scotty.



Next year, when Borderlands 2 comes out, we're going to dive into that one as well through the Xbox. Scotty was planning on getting it for PC, however it was put down to general consensus that we would all play on the Xbox. Which brings me to the subject of Cross-Platform gaming, but that's another blogpost that I've drafted away and haven't bothered to type in since I started it.

I was thinking of making a Blog for our escapades through whatever games together, somewhere we could organise times to play and such, but that seems a bit much. Though we could apply it as well for our Wargaming as well, if we decided to use as such if we were doing a campaign amongst ourselves. That would actually be really cool if we were, but we're not.

Actually I thought about running the old campaigns for Warmachine amongst friends, but haven't sat down with a copy of Escalation or Apotheosis and worked it out for MKII Settings. I don't know if there are any very good conversions out there, or even if there's one released from PPress, but I'm going to give it a crack. I'm really wanting to go with "Point Cost / 2, Rounded up" to determine Victory Points.

So wondering about whether or not I should do the blog or not. It wouldn't be interesting, I think it would mostly have notices for what and when we're next playing, unless we do a battle report for each of our campaign games, but I dunno about that.

Now I've completely lost track of what I was talking about.

Irrational is a wonderful prefix isn't it?

It gets you away from any explanation or reasoning that there ever could be. However, it doesn't really get away from the embarrassment that ensues, like what happened to me last night.

Now I have a couple of irrational fears. One of which is heights, and I'm mostly getting used to it now. I can get on top of a building and look over the edge and see everyone down the way. I don't know how I'd go on the roof of a skyscraper, but I don't see it being very good (he says as the warms trickles down his leg). Stupid Acrophobia. I don't know where it came from, because I've always had it since I was little, but I've slowly grown out of it, though occasionally the fight/flight will kick in and I'll just refuse to go any higher.

Mum even tried to help me get over my fear by sending me to awkward places that were much too high, or sending me out with family friends to go out to places of elevation. One time we went out rockclimbing and I just refused to climb. Wouldn't do it. Couldn't do it. He went through all the safety instructions and everything, and assured me over and over that it was perfectly safe. I even watched my sister do it, climb up and take her time and everything, but NOPE. Not budging. I at least did something at an Indoor Rockclimbing centre. But I got little more than halfway and I got stuck until I was told I could come down.



Another time we went out to the glass house mountains for a bushwalk up the mountain. There was a part with a fairly steep climb up a smooth rock. I got halfway, but I couldn't get a grip on my shoes. So I got stuck and decided to go back down and waited there for the others to go all the way to the top and back down again. I sat there for a few hours feeling a bit embarrassed, but adamant that I couldn't do it. When I got home, mum was pissed that I didn't get anywhere with it, but I never asked for her help with my fear of heights. She should've discussed it with me instead of sending me off without even asking whether i wanted to go.

I think that was my angst period too, where I just didn't have any choice of what I wanted to do, I just got told "You're doing this, that's final" regardless of whether I had a massive problem with it or not.

Anyway, I have a case of Acrophobia and occasionally my legs will turn to cement and I'll get stuck.

My other irrational fear is Glass Elevators. And I just mean Glass Elevators, where the walls have windows out into open areas, or you can see the floors going up in front of you in the door. Elevators with Windows. Display cases on a wire. This is another one from my childhood. Mum and dad had me at the Myer Centre and we were about to take the escalators going up, and I started bawling my eyes out and carrying on getting upset at the escalators to the point that Mum said "Alright, lets try the elevators." No good. I got in there and I was worse. Just stepping in there and I just went off like someone was trying to kill me.

And that one has really stuck through to today. I've taken glass elevators only a few times after that, using the small part of metallic wall as a set of blinders while feeling the rock in my stomach sink down into my feet as the buttons highlighted the floor we were on. They move so quickly those elevators, so the inertia really just makes me sink.



When I have the chance now, I just take the escalators. It's much easier for me to peel the bandaid than rip it off.

Last night however wasn't one of my bravest days. I got offered to go see Immortals for free because a friend got given 20 free double passes at the Myer Centre. I was offered to join in and I said yes, because a free movie is the best kind of movie.

We all met up at Hungry Jacks and had some dinner before taking a very long way around to the Cinema, going up Queen Street rather than going down Albert Street, but eventually we got to the right set of lifts, and that's where everyone got on the lift and I just kept on walking away and down the stairs and up Albert street to King George Square Bus Station and Jumped on a Bus and let it take me home. Didn't tell anyone. Just bolted. Like the Massive Pussy I am.



See, what had happened, is that I completely forgot that the Myer Centre has Glass Elevators. And tou know that fight or flight mechanism? That self explanatory thing in your brain? Yeah, for some reason it just had a big red sign that said "FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT." Even the idea of escalators didn't turn me back. Scotty suggested "Look straight ahead"
Nope: "I don't have tunnel vision Scott, I can still see the way down and I have a fear of heights." Scotty even called me later after the movie to see if I was alright and I just explained that to him, that for some reason I just flipped out and had to go.

The only thing now is that when I see my friend again, I'm going to get ridiculed. Probably quite a lot.

*Shrug* It's the price you pay, I guess.