So, after the recent updates to Furaffinity's policies... detailed here I've decided to shut down my FA account in protest one week from today.

I know I haven't posted in years, but I've lurked here a lot and a lot of those I follow are ABDL artists.

Guys. This is the exact same shit Pateron pulled last November. They'll start with the 'safe' kinks to get rid of, then the more of them they remove the more of others go out the window. I absolutely don't trust the admins anymore here.

Don't bother trying to follow me, I'm no longer using the moniker "GamerLen" anywhere else.

UPDATE: Following this announcement I have suspended my account deletion... for now.

Sooooooo yeah, a shitload has changed over the past few years.

Went to college and it blew up rather spectacularly in my face. Found out the IT industry was one I never wanted to get anywhere near again ever, then wound up once again working retail at a local gas station chain.

After that job almost ended in a rather bad way I decided to part from it and got a job with a call center company called Convergys (now Concentrix due to a buyout) and... honestly its the best godsdamn job I've ever had in my life. o_o

No, really, not kidding there. I work out of my home now and I'm basically paid to sit around in my sweatpants talking insurance all day, making rather more money than I have at any previous job with no costs for transportation at all. I genuinely can't remember the last time I put gas in my car.

As for that picture of the badger I posted, yeah... my boyfriend of the past several years. We actually have met in person now, got him out here for Taste of Cincinnati in summer 2019 and working on getting him back out soon (gotta save up enough paid time off first.) He's totally supportive of me, very affectionate, and kinky as all holy fuck.

So yeah, things are going pretty damn good. I got better internet now, I have a job I genuinely like, I'm in a good relationship, and honestly things are looking up...

... and as a bonus of working at home I can draw between calls soooooooooo... I'm back on Furaffinity! :D

Man, its been a shit's age since I posted anything on here hasn't it?

Well, might as well make this official. I'm more or less going to stop posting on FA for the forseeable future.

The reason I did so many before was because I was working a job that allowed me a lot of downtime to do sketches and such, but these days I'm in college, my job doesn't allow for it, and I'm more interested in focusing on my writing and such.

For anyone still following me on here you can find my current projects at these two locations:

http://lenwolfgamer.tumblr.com/ My tumblr page where I post video game reviews and editorials.

https://inkbunny.net/Simoni An Inkbunny account I set up for my boyfriend and I to post this collaborative writing thing we're doing (be kind people, its about as rough as a rough draft can get, especially the early bits).

So yeah, for those still following me, don't expect anything new for a long time. If the situation I'm in changes in the future maybe, but otherwise I'm basically on Art Hiatus.

So, I've clocked about 27 hours in Fallout 4 so far... here's my take on Bethesda's new game. I'll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible here.



Whats Good:

- Power Armor actually feels powerful now. There's been a lot of people complaining that you get a suit of power armor right at the start of the game now. However, the thing they don't seem to take into account is that power armor works completely different in Fallout 4 than it did in 3 or New Vegas. Its less like a really strong suit of armor and more like a vehicle. When you're using Power Armor you can take a ton of extra damage, your rad resistance goes up a lot (even more if you've modded it with a lead lining), your carry weight is buffed, and you can jump off anything and not take damage. In addition, you can use power attacks with melee weapons.

Here's the catch though. Power armor requires, well, power to use. Fusion Cores are the fuel for power armor in Fallout 4, and when they run out you go from Iron Man of the Wasteland to a guy in a heavy tin suit. You're stuck at walking speed because, well, you're moving a stupidly heavy suit on your own now for one. Speaking of which, your strength bonus goes away AND the weight of the armor is added to whatever you're carrying. Also, no more power attacks. Sure you can tank it up, but you either have to abandon the armor or find a fusion core to restore it's power... and those cores aren't exactly cheap or common. You can find some in leftover power armor across the wasteland, or you can go into old buildings, find fusion core reactors, and steal the cores. In addition, each piece of the armor has it's own health that can and WILL get torn up! If you use it for too long parts will wear out and break, forcing you to find a power armor repair station and spend scrap parts to repair them.

One other thing, if you get out of your armor... well... any human or ghoul enemies nearby (non-feral ghouls mind you) can get IN your armor and use it against you, as my friend found out to her detriment. Also, the release is on the inside, so if someone swipes it and you kill them you can kiss that particular suit of power armor goodbye! Though... you can steal all the bits, find a new suit, and put them on it.

Point is, getting the power armor early isn't like unlocking god mode from killing the first boss (oh by the way, the first boss is a Deathclaw you kill using the armor), its more just to demonstrate how the power armor is different now. The core you put in it will probably be around 50% by the time you finish that mission, and if you keep going in it then that core WILL drain very quickly! The armor is meant to be used for the harder fights, the ones where you'll need an edge, not for stomping around the Commonwealth like Tony Stark got sent to an alternate Earth (again).

To summarize:

Power Armor Pros:
- Big bonus to carry weight.
- You can survive any fall.
- You can do power attacks with melee weapons.
- Can be customized to enhance various attributes (leg hydraulics to further increase carry weight, a lead lining to increase radiation resistance).
- Can be painted to further enhance (several color schemes are available).

Power Armor Cons:
- Power armor requires rare Fusion Cores as fuel. Without fuel speed and carry weight are reduced significantly, and you can no longer perform power attacks. Fusion cores are hard to find and very expensive to buy from vendors.
- Power armor parts have their own health and can become damaged and broken in fights, requiring repairs at a power armor station via scrap (usually steel).
- Stealth is, of course, damn near impossible in power armor.


Dogmeat will live! ... also he's damned useful.

So, yeah, this is something I was overjoyed to hear. Dogmeat, your faithful canine companion, can not only not be killed (if he takes critical damage in battle he's simply unable to fight until the battle is over or you stick him with a stimpak), but he's a hell of a fighter now! He'll grab enemies by the leg or throat, holding them immobile so you can move in for the kill, he's able to sniff out weapons and nearby treasures, and infact he's even of great help during the story mission. If you have Dogmeat with you during a certain part, you can actually use him to track down a person you're trying to find. He's a helpful little pooch.

Oh, and if you make a doghouse in one of your towns and then send him there when you're not using him, he'll use the doghouse. http://i.imgur.com/RJULL4q.jpg This is officially the best thing ever.

The other followers are nice too, but so far the only one I've used besides him is the newsgirl.


Your character has character, and people will call you by name!:

This one had some people worried. Unlike previous Fallout installments, your character has their own personality outside of your direct control and their own voice.

How it works is this: The main characters are a husband and wife, along with their baby boy. When you choose male or female character, what you're REALLY choosing is whether you play as the husband or the wife. One goes on a grand adventure through the wastes, the other gets an ounce of lead in the brain at a story point a bit into the game. Ouch.

Here's the neat thing though... The characters will refer to you by name, as in their voice actors will actually use the name you gave the character... assuming it's something fairly common like 'Nicholas' or 'Rachel' or so on. They can't call you something rather unusual or unknown, they could only fit so many names in, but I just about shit when Cogsworth the Mr. Handy Butler turned to my character and said, out loud, "Good morning Miss Stephanie!".


Customize ALL THE THINGS!:

Multiple bases, customize all weapons you find with various mods, customize your power armor and even give it a new paint job, customize your armor with extra armor kits over your vault jumpsuit or other lesser armor sets, make your own food, make your own chems, stims, etc. They took the workbench and such from New Vegas and went apeshit with them... speaking of which...


Junk finally has a use!:

Remember all the junk items you'd find lying around? The chess boards, the plates and dishware, the random useless objects that'd just get in the way when you were looking for ammo, chems, stims, and caps? EVERYTHING HAS A USE NOW! Those plates and mugs (sorry Muggy, no mugs for you) are ceramics that you can use as components to build power supplies for your bases. All those bits and bobs of metal you find around are used as steel to reinforce your defenses and build barricades. The blood packs that were formerly useless without that vampire perk? Combine them with some abraxo cleaner for an antiseptic and some steel for the syringe and you've got a stimpak my good man! The only catch is that your inventory will fill up FAST... but just go to one of your bases and drop them off at the workbench (you can press one button to deposit all your junk items in one go). As a bonus, if you have multiple bases you can set up supply lines to have them share what's in the workbenches! No need to run back and forth (you will need the first Local Leader perk to do this mind you).

But with the good...


What I don't like...:

Yeah, as good as this game is so far there are some complaints I have... so lets get this over with.

Is Bethesda afraid of beta testing?:

Yeah, its buggy as all hell. I get a lot of latency spikes (which is really odd in a non-online game), on occasion the game will freeze up momentarily, or almost crash and cause the screen to go blank. Hell, once I got surprised by a Yao Guai and my character must've been really surprised because the next thing I knew she was about half a mile up in the air! At least I got a nice view before gravity kicked in...

So yeah, Bethesda needs to get to work patching this bitch. Maybe when we get the DLC rolling out it'll come with some stability patches.

... maybe.


Some of the plot points are really silly:

Well, okay, one of them really, but its a big one. The minutemen you join up with are going to your former town of sanctuary... because a chem addled 'psychic' granny told them to. I'm with the other guys here, that woman is bonkers. She got it right mind you, but she's still pretty bonkers.


Bloodbugs:

Giant. Mutant. Mosquitoes.

Seriously. Its every nightmare I had about going to Michigan in the springtime as a kid amplified to the nth degree. There isn't a flamer big enough in all the wasteland.


There are some really cheap deaths: Especially early on. You really need to stay on your toes in this game. I can't count how many times I've been sneaking into a raider or a super mutant base only to hear someone spot me and then a faint whistling sound right before a missile flies right up my bumhole and blows me all the way to New Vegas. Mines also seem to be a ton more powerful now too, and don't get me started on the new 'Super Mutant Suiciders'. Get this, some super mutants are carrying a mini nuke and if they see you they'll start the timer, run up, and give you a hug as a compact nuclear device blows you and them straight to hell. Keep something like a tommy gun handy for these guys, the only way to keep them from detonating is to put them down.


Not amazing, not awful, but worth pointing out:


Pistol-whip!:

I am SO damn happy Bethesda added this. By pressing the Right Bumper on your 360 controller (or whatever keypad thing it is) when you have a ranged weapon equipped, you can smack an enemy across the jaw with it. This is really useful for dealing with the flying insect monsters (bloatflies, bloodbugs, stingwings) who are really speedy and good at dodging bullets, and also useful for smashing radroaches without having to waste ammo. As an added bonus, you can temporarily stun enemies with it sometimes, allowing you to smack a raider or ghoul, then unload into their chest while they're still reeling.

Perks reborn:

Perks and abilities are totally redone now. When you level up you can either put a point in any one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats, or you can unlock a perk based on your special stat's level and your own level. Some nice examples are:

Strength/Strong Back: Always useful, but especially in this expansion. This perk has four ranks. First two give a cumulative +25 max carry weight, the third allows you to run while overencumbered by spending action points, and the fourth lets you fast travel while overloaded with loot. Really important when you're working on building up your base.

Perception/Locksmith: Of course this one is vital for any wastelander. The Locksmith perk will allow you to pick higher level locks for the first three ranks (you start out able to do Novice). Once you get the fourth rank your lockpicks will NEVER break.

Endurance/Ghoulish: Want to play a ghoul? Here you go! The first rank makes it so radiation will heal you instead of hurting you, second one makes you regenerate lost health faster, and the third one actually makes feral ghouls want to help you! They think you're one of them! This perk can also make a certain story mission a lot easier.

Charisma/Local Leader: This one is essential if you're planning on building up your Minutemen outposts. The first rank lets you make supply lines between bases, allowing you to use the same scrap parts pool at any linked bases. The second rank lets you build and assign vendors to the towns and outposts you make, which will both make your villagers happier and allow you to barter at any base.

Intelligence/Scrapper: The scrapper perk is also super-useful for any customizing. It lets you salvage weapons and armor for parts! The first rank just gives you common items like screws, bits of metal, and such, while the second rank lets you find rare parts like crystal, radioactive materials, and more.

Agility/Ninja: While the agility tree has the more useful gun-based abilities, the Ninja one is neat because it increases damage from any sneak attacks by a huge amount. At the highest levels your melee sneak attacks do a whopping TEN TIMES normal damage. Thats enough to even worry a Deathclaw!

Luck/Idiot Savant: This one is just goofy. It gives any (and I mean any) thing you do a chance to award bonus experience... but here's the catch. The chance is INVERSELY PROPORTIONATE to your intelligence score. In other words: The dumber you are the more XP it gives you! Most of the Luck perks are the 'shits 'n giggles' type.


Bobbleheads and Magazines:

Since the old ability scores are gone, these guys do something totally different now. The main bobbleheads for the S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats are still the same, but the others are all specific for whatever ability they used to help. The Science one will now give you an extra chance at any hacking attempt, the Barter one gives every vendor a permanently 100 cap bonus to trade with, and so on. In addition, the magazines are their own unique perks! Find an issue of Guns 'n Ammo to permanently gain a +5% bonus to all ballistic weapon damage, a copy of the Surgeon's Journal will make it easier for you to cripple your enemies, and so on. Oh, and each magazine has a unique cover. was very excited to find an issue of 'Grognak the Barbarian' where he went to the (I'm serious) 'Jungle of Bat Babies'.

So, with the year winding up, I figure I'll list some of the better games I've played over the year here. Yes I know Fallout 4 and Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void are due out in just over a week, but as the title says, this isn't about the big boys. Some game companies that are lesser known in the states, like Atlus, will get a mention, but that's different. This is my own attempt to give a helping hand and a leg up to some more obscure titles that you might not otherwise try... with the exception of one that's been all over Furaffinity lately, but we'll get to that when we get to that.



11. Chroma Squad http://store.steampowered.com/app/251130/

Here's one for everybody who grew up on those old cheesy sentai shows like Power Rangers. Chroma Squad lets you take control of a studio making a sentai show and plays out like a classic strategy RPG akin to Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea. An excellent game with some good humor, a lot of old sentai in-jokes, and the ability to fully customize your team's name, catchphrases, which color the rangers are, and more. Lots of fun and a good all around title.


10. Etrian Odyssey 2: Untold. The Fafnir Knight https://www.nintendo.com/games/deta.....F54u7tZ9OWkKmU

Yeah yeah, Atlus. I'm a fanboy, what can I say? The Fafnir Knight is their next addition to the remakes of the excellent Etrian Odyssey games for the original DS, complete with the same 'do classic and make your own team, or do story and use our team' thing they did with The Millenium Girl. They also added a neat little cooking minigame where you gather ingredients from the labrynth and bring them back to town to make dishes and such. A solid JRPG all around.


9. Citizens of Earth http://store.steampowered.com/app/258910/

It was intended to be the spiritual successor to the Mother trilogy and... well... it wasn't. Not even close... but it's not bad! Its worth mentioning because it's got some decent humor, some cute artwork and colorful characters, and gods bless it the game tries. Its not perfect, but its worth playing if you have the spare cash just because it's a neat little title with some neat little things.


8. Steven Universe: Attack the Light https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/att.....941380906?mt=8

So, over the summer a friend of mine got me into a new cartoon series called Steven Universe. For those of you who haven't watched it yet... go ahead, I'll wait. You can find a few websites like https://www.kisscartoon.me that have the show on it for free. For those of you who have, OHMYGOD GARNET IS SO AWESOME AND I LOVE AMEYTHIST AND PEARL IS SO SALTY BUT I FEEL SO MUCH SYMPATHY FOR HER UNREQUITED LOVE IS A BITCH AND THEN PERIDOT TURNED OUT TO BE ALL TINY AND AAAAAA so yeah its a pretty neat show. The game is almost stupidly easy, but its more one you get because its a neat little side story to the show rather than it's own game. It plays a lot like Paper Mario so if you like those games you'll probably enjoy this.


7. Shadowrun: Hong Kong http://store.steampowered.com/app/346940/

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, whether its the Shadowrun games as a whole or just Harebrained Scheme's CRPG series, the Shadowrun games are set about fifty years in the future in a world where magic came back to earth. Sorcery and science work alongside each other and humanity shares the world with elves, orcs, dwarves, trolls, and a whole bunch of other strange beings. Shadowrun Hong Kong is the third in the series and improves a LOT on the old gameplay. The combat system got an overhaul, there's some really neat characters you can get on your crew, and (speaking as a lifelong decker), going into the Matrix has become AWESOME. A must have for anyone who wants a good classic RPG with an unsual setting.


6. Pillars of Eternity http://store.steampowered.com/app/291650/

And for those of you who DO want a traditional setting in an old style RPG, here ya go! Pillars of Eternity was one I stumbled across after hearing Angry Joe gushing about it and holy hell this one grabbed me tight and didn't let go. I still have yet to do the expansion stuff despite having bought it (no idea why I'm dragging my heels to be honest) but the main story and the game itself are amazingly good, especially since they patched in party AI in the update for The White March DLC. Go with your own custom hero and a party of story-provided characters, or make your own party of customized ones based on your friends, either way this game is a ton of fun!


5. UnEpic http://store.steampowered.com/app/233980/

Yeah, this is a bit of an older entry, but I had fun with it. A neat little MetroidVania game about a guy who's playing D&D with his buddies and winds up trapped in a castle and possessed by a shadowy monster. He has to fight his way through the castle and escape back to earth, assuming he can. Along the way there's a ton of great humor, especially if you're a huge geek like myself. Hack and slash your way through hordes of monsters, learn how to use magic, and enjoy the banter between your character and his smoke-like sidekick Zera.


4. Legend of Grimrock 2 http://store.steampowered.com/app/251730/

I borrowed this one from a Steam friend after I beat Pillars of Eternity and was hungry for more... and I was not left disappointed. A first-person explorative RPG where you take command of a party of four to explore the mysterious Island of Nyx. Its all done in first person so it really feels like you're exploring the island up close... but I feel the need to warn you. If you're not careful this game will CRUSH YOU FLAT. The puzzles can be extremely difficult and some of the monsters are downright unfair. If you don't have an alchemist with you then healing potions will be at a premium since you'll have to save every herb you come across, and good gear is extremely hard to find early on... and there are few 'shit your pants' moments equal to finding a Mimic disguised as an innocent treasure chest in first person. A hell of a ride from start to finish, with some AMAZING custom campaigns available via the Steam Workshop! Total must have!


3. Killer is Dead http://store.steampowered.com/app/261110/

Okay, gonna break my 'no Triple-A' rule here as this game is made by Deep Silver (Dead Island, Saints Row), but this is just one of those extremely surreal titles that only comes along once in a blue moon and makes me ask this question aloud every few minutes:

"What the hell is going on in Suda-51's head?!"

That man's brain must be a gateway to Wonderland or something, because he is fifteen shades of insane if his games are any indication. You play as Mondo Zappa, an assassin from the moon with a cybernetic arm who kills people with a katana and various weapons built into said cybernetic arm. It sounds like something a thirteen year old would come up with, as do the (and I'm serious) 'Gigilo missions' where you basically seduce (if it counts as seduction) women into giving you weapon upgrades that mostly involve staring at their tits at every opportunity. Worth getting just for the WTF factor.


2. Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder http://store.steampowered.com/app/359310/

I already liked the original Evoland's take on the evolution of RPGs from tiny little black and white pixel games to the modern fully polygonal games of today, but this one does it for as many different genres of gaming as it can find. A few examples off the top of my head include:
- A Bullet Hell Shooter segment where you fly your little airbike to a boss fight.
- A boss fight that plays out like a game of Street Fighter, complete with the boss using Akuma's signature finishing move.
- Fighting your way across a pirate village in a way that can only be described as 'Dubloon Dragon'.
- A tournament in a viking village that's basically Puzzle Quest.
- Leading an army across a demon kingdom akin to Fire Emblem.
- A boss fight that is (no shit) Guitar Hero.
- Exploring an abandoned lab in a way that's more or less Chrono Trigger, complete with a purple haired girl with glasses.
... and more. You also travel through time, and each time period has entirely different graphics! The distant past is akin to an old SNES game, the present would be right at home on the GBA, and the future is fully 3D with smooth textures like a PS3 game. Worth playing just to experience all the different things they squeezed into it!


And lastly, the big one, the one that left a huge impact on me this year... the one that... well... honestly I haven't cried this hard finishing a game in years.

... Lunes is gonna hate me for this...


1. Undertale http://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/

If you get one indie game this year, this is the one to get. This game will fuck with your mind, make you cry, make you feel, make you laugh, and make you want more. Despite it's retro pixel graphics it has some of the best art and some of the best animation I've seen in a game all year. Despite the old style retro music I went out of my way to get the Soundtrack off Steam (and am listening to 'Hopes and Dreams' from it right now).

At first glance Undertale seems a pretty standard JRPG. You're a young boy who fell down a pit into the land of monsters and almost dies, only to be rescued by a rather motherly woman called Toriel... but here's the twist. While you can get in random battles, you never have to kill ANYTHING in the game! Every fight you get into can be talked out of, in one way or another. In one you help a monster get things off it's antlers, in another you out-flex a monster until it flexes so hard it flies away. The boss characters can all be befriended if you don't kill them and will help you out in the game.

On the other hand, you CAN kill them. You can kill the hell out of them and find yourself playing a VERY different game! There's three paths through the game. The 'Neutral' path, the 'Genocide' path, and the 'True Pacifist' path. As their names suggest, the Genocide path involves killing every monster you meet, while the True Pacifist path involves killing none of them.

I did the True Pacifist one (can't let Goatmom down!) but I did look up what happens in the Genocide path and... yeah... not doing that one. ._.

Here's the real twist though. Lets say you screw up and accidentally kill someone you don't want to (its easier than it sounds), then reload your save file and try to do it right.

THE GAME WILL KNOW! It really likes to screw with your head that way.

But yeah, I admit with zero shame that I cried at the ending. This game really gets to you. If there's just one indie game that you buy all year, make it Undertale. Its an experience like no other.

So... thanks to Christmas, my tax refund, and just my usual 'fuck my future' spending habits, I've had more than a few new titles to play the hell out of in the past several months, so I figured I'd post a few of the recent titles I've played on my various gaming systems. These aren't ones that necessarily came out in the past year, nor are they necessarily the best games... but rather ones that left an impression on me and that I'm still thinking about even if I haven't gone back to play more of them.

Also, I want to mention this now, I'm not going to include AAA games that I've played. Those ones already get enough publicity on their own. This is for smaller niche titles that people may not have heard of. Yes I played Gat out of Hell and loved it, and yes I played Final Fantasy XIII and found that it wasn't what everyone was saying it was... but Deep Silver and Square Enix hardly need help in the publicity department.

So here's the top eleven of the ones I've done recently. Why top eleven? Because I watch way too much Nostalgia Critic.


11. Armello (Steam): http://store.steampowered.com/app/290340/

I'm not normally one for hex games, or board games of any sort, but this one caught my attention for attractive art style and all furry cast. Its still in Early Access but is already a pretty solid game that my mate  lunarnio won't stop drooling over. Hell I was able to play it because I bought her a copy on Steam and our accounts are linked.

Not my favorite type of game, but a neat enough title in of itself and something that I'm looking forward to giving a try once development is a bit further along.


10: Shin Megami Tensei; Devil Survivor Overclocked (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....swLhlRxJr0mcZG

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for Atlus games in general and the SMT series as a whole, and this one is no exception. Originally a DS title, Devil Survivor 1 was re-released on the 3DS with a bunch of revamps to the game including full voice acting, an extra 8th day to the story (originally it was only seven), a host of new demons to summon, and more.

A game that's like a mix of Strategy RPG, turn based combat, and Pokemon for adults (or at least Pokemon geared towards adults and teenagers rather than kids), this is definitely one of the more fun and engaging titles I've played.


9. Shellrazer (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/she.....512290900?mt=8

I had to get an iPad for school when I first went back to college, it was a requirement for Brown Mackie students (some kind of contract with Apple), but I have to admit that I'm very pleased with my little tablet PC. I've got a ton of iBooks, I watch Youtube while I'm cooking my meals, I listen to iTunes and Pandora when I'm doing my homework while I'm in school, and (of course) I game on it.

Shellrazer is one of the more addictive titles I've gotten on there. It has the dreaded micropayments, but don't let that discourage you because I never once had to give them even a cent in my trip through the game! You play a group of orcs who ride a gigantic war tortise through hordes of enemies, each orc having their own specialty in combat to help you deal with the oncoming enemies. You can mix and match three at a time and practically have a setup for any situation. Some examples include a heavy gunner for shredding ground troops, a mortar cannon for blowing buildings straight to hell, a flak cannon for taking down areal foes, and so on. Some are pretty practical and standard (a blacksmith who repairs damaged guns), some are just completely nuts and a hell of a lot of fun (ever want a dragon on your side?). A fun little game that I'm still picking up and playing months after I initially downloaded it.


8. Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....t1S55-kVPn5gs4

Yep, another Atlus game. This one isn't a stand out for the gameplay (dungeon crawler in random dungeons), the battle system (solid, but nothing amazing), or the characters (if you ever watched a harem anime like Tenchi Muyo you know these characters), but rather... well...

Lemme put it this way, the title is Conception II, the second in this series, and the reason it's called that is because your party is made up of your character, a female heroine (one of seven), and the 'star children' you make with them. How do you make these star children you ask? Well, when a protagonist and a heroine love each other very very much...

... no really, I'm serious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy4idiSrBE0 Its called 'classmating'. You do the magical glowy hand-holding and you literally give birth to your party members. After a while the kids will hit their level cap and you give them 'independence' where they go out into the city, get jobs, and improve the city overall.

Atlus can always be counted on for interesting games if nothing else... and dammit Serena is probably my waifu now. >_> Whatever the fuck 'waifu' means.


7. Darkest Dungeon (Steam) http://store.steampowered.com/app/262060/

Moving on from one end of the mindfuck spectrum to the other, here's a game that's been making a lot of buzz lately. Darkest Dungeon, a dungeon crawler that asks the question: "How would people really handle having to fight hordes of the undead, bloodthirsty brigands, and other assorted horrors?". Apparently they go completely mad from it all.

Darkest Dungeon is a very very cruel game. It will stomp on your nuts and laugh at your tears. Oh sure you start out fine... your Crusader is a stalwart and noble warrior, your Highwayman is perhaps a bit shady but willing to support his allies so long as he gets his cut of the coins, your Vestal is a faithful and righteous soul who's prayers soothe the wounds of her friends, and your Plague Doctor is inquisitive and eager to test her concoctions on the creatures that lurk in the dark... and then they actually go in.

... within a few hours it's a whole different story. Upon their return to the town your Crusader immediately goes to the church and spends the night in prayer, begging his god to scour the memories of what he saw from his mind. The Highwayman is just as bad, going to the bar and spending every coin he earned on various spirits until he passes out drunk at the table, whimpering fitfully in his sleep. The Vestal twitches, fumbling through her prayer book, and screams if anyone tries to touch her... and the Plague Doctor? Oh dear the Plague Doctor, that poor poor bastard... he never saw what hit him.

In Darkest Dungeon your characters will die, stress will drive them insane, and they will suffer horribly. The dungeons are unforgiving, autosave is the only option so your characters will die permanently, and even when they don't they wind up so shattered and mad from their experiences that they may as well have.

Coin is spent almost as fast as it comes in, upgrades and training are costly, and the setting is dark, gloomy, and threatening.

This game will punish you and all I can say is; 'Thank you Sir, may I have another?'


6. Nihilumbra (iOS/Steam) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nih.....500161349?mt=8

I just stumbled across this one a couple days ago and, well, its gorgeous. Thats all I can really say. A puzzle platformer where you play a little sentient speck of the 'void', travelling through a world as the void slowly consumes it. A voice speaks to you during your travels, warning you that your fate is inevitable and that you will become one with the void again.

The art style is beautiful, the puzzles are challenging, and the music is haunting. Its worth a try for anyone who likes such games. If it seems like I'm not saying much compared to the others, well, thats because there's not much else to say. Its a solid, small, beautiful gem.


5. Wayward Souls (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/way.....857555369?mt=8

Its very hard to make a good action game for the iOS due to the touch screen controls, but Rocket Cat is one of the few companies that pulls it off. You play one of a group of adventurers (three at the outset, three more unlocked as you play) who travel through a mine, then a tower, and beyond. Each travels for their own reasons too. The Warrior goes to hunt down a necromancer who killed his friend, the Magus goes to find her sister, the Rogue is in it for the coin, and so on. Its a rougelike, but each character has their story and I found these stories quiet compelling indeed.

The music is good, the gameplay is nicely varied for each class, and the difficulty will have you screaming threats at your iPad before hitting the button to try again.


4. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titan (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....xSzFGpj8jMj5U5

I do love my Atlus games don't I? Etrian Odyssey is the fourth installment of a series that got it's start on the original DS (the remake of the original is also available on the eShop: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....mLaKFXzeVwFm9l ). It combines a first person dungeon crawling experience with puzzle solving, classic JRPG elements, some truly beautiful music, and an interesting story.

Make your team out of several classes, mix and match as needed, and lead your guild across the world of Etria to discover the secret behind the legend of the 'Titan'. For my team I went with the Landsckhent (or however the fuck you spell it) who is an all around solid warrior, a Dark Hunter which is skilled at inflicting and exploiting status effects (the more effects a foe has, the more damage she does), a Dancer who can enhance my group's abilities, a Sniper which I use to take out enemies at range and support my Landsck... Landsckeh... Landskibbitydibbitydoo and Dark Hunter, and a Medic who is a medic and keeps my group from dying horribly.

You unlock more as you move through the story, gain the ability to give your guys 'subclasses' to let them use other abilities (choose wisely! It can't be undone!) and so on. A good solid JRPG for any fan of the genre.

One more thing about it, which is also used by all the Etrian games... the bottom DS screen is your map screen, but here's the thing... it doesn't draw the map, YOU do! You have to keep track of where you're going, mark down various things like FOEs (big monsters that wander dungeons), secret passages, obstacles and hazards, and so on. Strange as it sounds this is one of the big draws for me because it makes me feel much more engaged in exploration. Its not enough to just bumble around the dungeon, I have to keep an eye out for various features that mark hidden paths, remember certain spots, and plan where is safe to walk and where will get me pounced by a giant ape... because if I don't then the game sure as hell won't!


3. Hero Emblems (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/her.....645797558?mt=8

Its been a long time since I sat down at my kitchen table and thought 'I think I'll fiddle with this a bit' and then three hours later surface long enough to go 'wait, WHAT time is it!?'. Hero Emblems is a game that has done that to me recently. The game is a Puzzle RPG akin to Puzzle Quest and similar games, but I've found I enjoy it a lot more than those games for some odd reason.

A cute art style, catchy music, and a combat system that's easy to learn but difficult to master. The story is fun (though a bit Engrish-y) and its hard to beat the satisfaction you get from matching three symbols and watching it set off a chain reaction that not only restores all your health and shield but leaves your enemies a pile of mulch and tears on the battlefield before you. Three bucks on iTunes well spent if you ask me.


2. Azure Striker Gunvolt (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....-G1eK7I8Oc8Eu9

Remember Mega Man Zero? I do, I played the hell out of it after one of my exes introduced me to the series. This is a game in the same vein as MMZ, but with a different theme to it. You play Gunvolt, an 'adept' with power over electricity. You use this by using your gun to 'tag' enemies with a sort of miniature lightning rod, then using your adept powers to cook them like a human microwave.

The story is pretty standard. Gunvolt rescues a girl who takes the role of both love interest and macguffin, fights a collection of colorful enemies, and the game is so damn close to Mega Man Zero you'd swear that its a wonder Capcom didn't call foul... but thats not a bad thing. The art is good, the gameplay is fast and fun, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Worth a shot if you'd like a good classic 2D action title.



And now the big one, the one that I bought on a whim and found more addictive than enough coccaine to entertain all of Hollywood's biggest parties, a game that scratched all my itches at once...

1. Hand of Fate (Steam) http://store.steampowered.com/app/266510/

This is one of those rare games that comes along and really really gets me. The setting is perfect, making you wonder if you're really playing the game with the mysterious dealer or if you're a pawn in the game. The narration is wonderful, the dealer's voice being the perfect mix of mysterious and wise, while being goading enough to keep me going. The art is excellent, the drawings on the cards fitting the setting to a T. The concept, the music, the combat... this is a game that I'm probably going to go play some more as soon as I get done writing this.

You play... well, I'm not sure if you're the player in the game or the piece in the game... but this game is a game of cards that combines Magic the Gathering with Dungeons and Dragons. The cards become a maze for you, making a path that leads you through your game with the mysterious dealer.

Each turn you move onto another card and discover your fate. Will you meet a fae princess who will gift you with food or blessings, a pack of roving goblins who will try to steal your belongings, a demon who will offer you a choice of combat for it's own twisted amusement, or a path leading to the next leg of your journey?

You may stumble upon a maze of traps and danger with treasure at the end. You may wind up in a carnival being run by strange eldrich creatures from beyond the world you know. You might find a helpful caravan that will sell you supplies and steel. You might find a group of bandits who demand your gold or your head. Each journey is different, each is unique, and each will have you coming back for just one more game...

Defeat his jacks, his queens, and his kings to earn the dealer's symbols. The cup, the wand, the coin, and the sword. Each one makes you more powerful, but your enemies grow in strength too. Each different suit represents a different army of villains for you to fight. Bandits, brigands, and outlaws make up the suit of Dust. The Skulls are the forces of the dead, skeletal horrors from beyond the grave. Scales represents the lizardmen, inhumanly strong and fast, some with the power to breathe fire. Plague is the horrid ratmen, poisonous and diseased, they always attack in swarms with the desire to strip the meat from your bones.

Each game is unique, each adventure different, and sometimes all it takes to win is to get a smile from Fate herself. If you buy one game this month, this is the one you should get. Hands down.

I have been a Final Fantasy fan since back when 8-Bit graphics was the pinnacle of the video game industry, when everyone was still learning who Super Mario was, and when Sonic the Hedgehog was actually a contender for most popular video game character rather than the wreck of a man (hog?) he is today.

I played Final Fantasy on the original NES back when I was still just barely old enough to read the dialogue, I played Final Fantasy 5 on an emulator before it ever came to the states because I was a poor kid in high school who couldn't buy his own games, one of the first games I got when I got my first computer with a CD-ROM drive was the PC release of Final Fantasy 7, and Final Fantasy 9 remains one of my all time favorite titles and one of the reasons my old PS2 is still sitting hooked up to my TV to this day.

However, when the series went into double digits it began to lose favor in my eyes. We all remember the complaints about Final Fantasy 10 and how Tidus was the whiniest of the whiny protagonists who could be summed up as 'daddy issues', we all remeber how Yuna was just a wuss who apologized to her friends for getting kidnapped by the Al Bhed, we all remember how Wakka was just a collection of stereotypes, how Lulu was fetish fuel, how Rikku was jailbait for the teenagers to spank it over, and how Auron was the only character who was worth a squirt of piss.

I still remember the 'laughing scene' despite my attempts to remove that memory via repression combined with blunt force trauma.

So, after FF10 and 10-2 I pretty much gave up on the series for a while. I played Final Fantasy XIV when the free trial version came out, but I can only devote so much time to an MMO and eventually my black mage was left to fend for himself... and then the other day I saw that Final Fantasy XIII was on sale for just eight dollars.

... I had heard all the complaints about the game. The linearity, the music since Nobuo Utematsu left Square Enix, the whinyness of Hope, the 'grr serious business' of Lightning, the black guy who's sole role seems to be the group's 'black guy', Snow and his severe case of 'bro-ness', and Vanille who is basically completely bonkers, and so on...

But! I realized, I had only ever HEARD about these. I had never actually sat down with Final Fantasy XIII, demo or otherwise, and actually given the game an honest chance. I never bought a new Sony console past the PS2 (though after seeing the trailer for Persona 5 I'm going to start adding the word 'yet' to that sentence) and now I had the chance to actually give the game a shot for less than I'd pay for one of the Buffalo Chicken Pizzas that Pizza Hut makes. This game may be said to not be worth $60 at release, but is it worth me missing dinner?

Well, I said damn the torpedoes and decided to give it a shot... and gods help me I like it. I am a Final Fantasy veteran. I can recite the names of the series villians and their motivations from heart:

Garland: Knocking you all down.
The Emperor: Being an Emeperor (evil is a job requirement)
The Cloud of Darkness: Oogaboogabooga I'm evil.
Golbez: Aid Zeromus in conquering the world.
Exodeus: Pulling the world into the void.
Kefka: Mwehehehe!
Sepheroth: More mommy issues than Norman Bates.
Ultimecia: Time compression, whatever the hell that means.
Kuja: Achieve trance and destroy his masters.
Seymour: ... dunno, never finished that one. Boink Yuna?

Point is, I'm a Final Fantasy Fucking Fanboy. I loved the series growing up with all it's sidequesting, unique characters, reoccuring tropes, moogles, and so on... so Final Fantasy XIII should be a bucketfull of piss for me right?

Well... Its not.

Lets go down the list:

Linearity:
Yes its linear so far, but I'm only at chapter three. The group has just gotten their magic brands of doom, and so far I find myself drawn in and wondering more and more about the group and the motivations behind the creature that did this to them. If they're supposed to be the enemies of cocoon then why did Serah tell them to SAVE the place?

Linearity can be bad, but if it's used to tell a narriative it can be very good too. Sidequests are fun too, but the reason why Batman: Arkham Asylum is more fun for me than Arkham City or Origins is because the tight linear focus allows for more interesting storylines that involve the player more. Besides, some of the Final Fantasy games could be pretty damn linear in the early bits. I remember the first time my group left Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 I was shocked because, after how long I'd spent there, I thought the whole game was going to take place there! Same can be said for Final Fantasy 9. The story doesn't really get into sidequesting until after you leave Lindblum for cripe's sake, the first disk is over half over by then!


The Cast:
So far the cast seems to fit, well, the usual tropes... but I find them endearing for it. Lets go down the list:

Lightning: Yeah she's full of angst and all broody... but, well, she found out her sister had a magical death sentence that would either turn her into a nightmarish monster or the world's biggest hunk of diamond. I'd be pretty ticked too. Still, she's at least shown some signs of human emotions so far in that she's clearly feeling guilty about what I must assume is a fight between her and her sister as shown in the scene where she tells Szah to cover his ears before apologizing to the door and hoping Serah can hear her. She wants to keep up her image of a strong and well-trained warrior type, but she can't completely hide the fact that she's still afraid for her sister.

Szah: ... dammit I love this character. He acts pretty much how I think I'd act in this sort of situation. Trying to play the voice of reason and attempting to keep everyone calmed down and alive despite Snow and Lightning being angry at each other, Hope wanting to give Snow a good swift kick in the danglybits because of his mother's death, and Vanille being kooky. That and the chocobo chick in his hair. That alone makes him endearing to me. His personality is fun, his movements are fun, he's like what I think would happen if Barret grew his arm back and got some damn prozac. Also helps that he's the oldest in the group and I'm almost 30 myself these days so I can relate when he complains about the younger members moving too fast for him to keep up.

Snow: Snow is relatable to me too. Y'know why I started gaming as a kid? I wanted to be the hero. Same thing with Snow here. He leads the resistance against the military when they begin their purge and his rallying cry is that heroes never give up. He's cocky yes, but the scene after Hope's mother dies shows a very human reaction. He sees exactly what his rebellion could cost. Would it really have been worse to let them drag them all out of the cocoon to uncertain death, or to stay in the cocoon and fight only to be slaughtered by a military force that's better trained and better equipped? Yes he snaps out of it, but only after his friend helps him.

Hope: I know, I know. Whiny whiny wah wah baby boy... well, he is. He's like, what, fourteen? That kid's balls probably haven't dropped yet and... in the span of a single DAY he's been detained, told he's being sent to quote 'the hell on earth' unquote on the lands below the cocoon, been thrust into a warzone, had his mother die before his eyes, and gotten branded with a magical mark that will either turn him into a crystal or a monster. Yeah, he's a crybaby... BUT given all that I'd say he's got a damn good reason to be one, hell SEVERAL good reasons! He's barely into his teens and his life has been thrown into turmoil and uncertainty... I'd say he's definitely got reason to blub over it. That being said, I do expect him to eventually face down his fears and uncertainty and help his allies (again, only at the third chapter) but at the same time I don't begrudge him being this upset over what's going on.

Vanille: I gotta say, I like her. Its what I think Radical Edward would be like when she gets a bit older. Perky, cheerful, just slightly off kilter, and she makes a good 'big sister' type to Hope's uncertainty and nervousness as well as being the one who's trying to keep the group together and raise everyone's spirits. Something about her constantly upbeat personality makes me smile. That and her weapon is pretty neat too. Reminds me a lot of the gloves that the butler in Hellsing used. I kinda like weapons like that.


The Combat System:

Again, I'm not very far into the game, but the combat so far seems fast paced and engaging. I just got the ability to use the whole paradagim... pardagam... paradigrym... look this up later... system and I'm still learning the basics, but I do find this makes the battles whiz by a lot faster. I did this in games like Persona and Dragon Quest a lot too, set my group's AI to where I'd only enter the commands for my character. Not only does it make the battles a lot faster, but it feels like I'm actually part of a group of adventurers rather than one adventurer with three remote controlled robots.

The battle animations are interesting and enjoyable to watch (I really like Szah's battle animations, he almost looks like he's dancing which is kinda cool), and so far the combat comes off as simple to learn, difficult to master but rewarding if you do.


Story:

Apparently this is what causes a lot of the complaints about the game is the weird ass storyline... but, well, I can't make a judgement call on it entirely because I'm still only three chapters in. So far though I'm finding it rather intriguing. Like what was that massive statue and why was it there to begin with? Why was there this war? Why do these things enslave people with magic marks in the first place, if they're so powerful why not just get the job done themselves?

Also, as far as story goes... lets not forget some of the earlier Final Fantasy games were pretty whacked out in their own right.

Final Fantasy 4: Son of a guy from the moon rides a whale to the moon to defeat an evil spirit.

Final Fantasy 5: Group splits a world into two halves to seal away an evil entity... somehow.

Final Fantasy 7: Did we ever get a clear answer as to what the fuck Jenova was? I mean yeah yeah 'a calamity from the sky'... but what does that mean? Alien lifeform? Evil goddess? Bioweapon from another world? Lavos's kid sister?

Final Fantasy 8: Time compression. Seriously. What the hell does that even mean?

So yeah, the story may be a bit bonkers in some respects... but if you ask me that makes it MORE like the older Final Fantasy games. Its like the Power Rangers, the halfway goofy plotlines are why the fans like it.


Repetitive and Grindy:
I'm just going to say it. If you're complaining that a JRPG is this, much less a Final Fantasy game... then you may be playing the wrong type of games.

Yes you have to grind, but you have to do that in almost ANY RPG, not just ones that come out of Japan. I had to grind my balls off in Final Fantasy 7 to get my matiera leveled up, I had to grind myself half to death in World of Warcraft to get my characters raid geared, I had to grind my fingers to the bone in Skyrim to master alchemy. Welcome to RPGs, Role Playing Grindfests!

You play these games to get invested in a story and to watch a heroes journey unfold via interactive storytelling. If you want a fast paced button mashing adrenaline bursting stabby shooty hooha then go grab Serious Sam or Street Fighter 5 or something along those lines.

Mind you, I LIKE Serious Sam, I just don't play it unless I want to skip story and just focus on making a pile of bodies big enough to reach past the top of a pyramid.


Overall:

So far I can't say overall whether I liked it or not, but it has made a very strong first impression. I can see why the gameplay would turn some series veterans off, but I'm a series veteran and I'm enjoying myself so you can take that for what it's worth.

So, here's the run down of what I got for International Captialistic Gift Day ™.

http://imgur.com/a/3bLoW

Above shows the images of the actual items I got.

- A nice sweatshirt
- A wolf decal for my car
- A small journal with a wolf motif embossed on the cover
- A wolf callendar for 2015.
- A wolf plush
- $100 in Steam gift cards (most already spent)
- $50 in Gamestop gift cards (already spent)
- The Hollows Insider. A sort of infobook for a novel series I like.
- A wolf bookmark.

Also, yes the wolf plush is lifesized. I don't think my aunt and cousins know I'm a furry... but that was a surprise.

Sadly, there's a small hole in the seam along the wolf's 'spine', but my mother can fix that up in a few minutes when we get home.

However, my name is GamerLEN and we all know the biggest stuff I got for International Captialistic Gift Day ™ is going to be the games.

Here's the rundown by system:

Steam:
- Dead Rising 2
- Transistor
- X-Com: Enemy Unknown
- The Bureau: X-Com Declassified
- RPG Maker VX Ace (a gift from  whisperkit)
- DMC: Devil May Cry
- Valkyria Chronicle
- The Darkness 2

iTunes:
- Dragon Quest III
- Final Fantasy VI
- X-Com: Enemy Within

3DS:
- Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire

All in all a pretty solid year.

So, I currently work as an overnight stockman for Meijer department stores. Tonight I encountered someone who was, shall we say, interesting.

I was working in Housewares (dishes, plates, cooking utensils, etc) and a woman was looking at a set of plastic cups we had emblazoned with the logos of local college sports teams. The area I live in is on the border with another state so we get cups for both their teams and our own. She was complaining about how all the ones for the team on our side of the state line were sold out, though not really complaining as much as just joking around. She looked to be in her thirties, nice enough woman, nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, we got talking about it, then moved onto TV, then moved onto reality TV, and the conversation turned to the recent brouhaha over the star of Duck Dynasty shooting his mouth off about homosexuality on the air.
This is where it got interesting. She started quoting the bible at me, saying that 'Sodomy is a sin' and that 'God will punish sodomites'.

I, myself, am a homosexual agnostic.

I kept mum about the gay part, but I did say, "Well, I'm agnostic myself so I don't really agree with that..."
She gave me a pitying look at that, then started to go into how her father saved her from the world of agnosticism and evolution...

Yes, you see where we're going with this now don't you?

She started in on how her father was set up to be a scientist, how he was allowed access to all the books in his college library, and how he found a book that "put the lie to evolution" and then quit college, got a 'blue collar' job, and eventually became a minister.

I just shrugged it off for the most part, trying to be polite...

... and then the following happened:

Creationist Customer: "I mean, evolution simply isn't true. Cats have always been cats, dogs have always been dogs. Its in the bible."

GamerLEN: "Mm, sorry but I just don't see it..."
# "Well, let me ask you this, and this is the question that all little schoolkids should ask their teachers."

GamerLEN: "Yeah?"

# "They need to ask 'if we evolved from apes, why are there still apes?'."

... aaaaand that was when I lost it. Not in a rage way, nope, I cracked up and busted out laughing.

She just said it so straight faced, so serious, that I couldn't help it. The kind of logic that I'd expect to either come out of a small child or an elderly man having a bout of dementia.

She got really annoyed at that and asked me my name, so I showed her my name badge and she said, "Well I'll pray for you then GamerLEN." before walking away with her nose in the air.

I'm glad it ended there because after that I simply couldn't take her seriously. I mean that argument? Really? Any kid with a basic understanding of science could've explained that one. Its like a youtube comment escaped from the internet and ambushed me, I could only laugh.

Honestly, as irritating as that woman was, I wanted to thank her if I met her again in the store. I couldn't stop grinning after that all night. Hell I haven't laughed that hard since I found  ashleyfableblack 's page on FA and saw a MLP get cannibalized by an insane muppet.

Yeah, I know I normally don't like seeing something I consider 'cute' get eaten alive, but I guess Ashley and I share the same psychotic sense of humor in some respects.

... I do hope I don't get in trouble for it though.

So yeah, I haven't been doing a whole lot on here. What with Warlords of Draenor launching next week, Super Smash Bros 4 coming out a bit ago, and just life in general I haven't had a lot of time to draw things...

... and, well, this sort of happened too.

Some of you know that I frequent https://www.f-list.net . Well, about a month back I started up a roleplay with a friend of mine on there that's kinda turned into it's own long-running contemporary fantasy story with kink thrown in. Honestly I'm amazed with how huge it became and I'm really enjoying it, so I wound up using my F-list profile for the character I was doing on it to start recording the story.

... and then I found out f-list profiles have a 100,000 character limit on them so I started a new one just for the story.

... then I hit the limit on that one and started another new one...

... and another...

... and another...

And finally, I said screw it and started this: https://inkbunny.net/Simoni

This one is specifically just for the story we're working on. I'm using Inkbunny rather than FA because, well, a good chunk of it centers around ageplay and I would prefer not to put things like that on Furaffinity out of fear that they'll get me in trouble. Inkbunny however has no issues with that, so I'm using them.

Take a peek if you like, its really gotten huge and I've even begun doing sketches of the characters we're using.

If you're not comfortable with ageplay themes however, I'd recommend you don't. Some things in it might bother you. I focus more on story than on kink, but it still pops up here and there.

Remember this? http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14065681/

I need to tack another one on there now...

So yeah, its a fun one. I'm enjoying it enough to plonk down $25 on the full version. Its downloading on Steam as I write.

Some more fun discoveries I've made since I started playing it:

Class Changes: Much like The Secret World, this game lets you swap around your play-style without having to make a whole new character, but with some other added bonuses.

My character started out as a Thaumaturgist, which is basically like a black mage, and while he can pewpew fire, lighting, and blizzard with the best of them if he gets hurt his only option is to either quaff a potion or, if that's on cooldown, run like hell... at least thats how it was anyways before he became an Arcanist for a bit. Arcanistry is very much like the traditional Summoners of FF lore mixed with a good dose of WoW Warlocks in that your main attack plan is to summon a pet, send them in to bite the enemy's ankles, then stack up the DoTs and watch your foe shit themselves to death.

Here's the neat bit. One of the early spells you learn as an Arcanist is called Physick, which is a healing spell. When I swapped back to Thaumaturgist I found that I could still use that spell even though I wasn't an Arcanist anymore! My squishy mage now had the ability to heal himself with magic instead of relying on items. After some time as a Conjurer (white mage of sorts) he also has Aero for a second damage over time spell (Thunder does DoT) and Protect to make himself slightly less squishy. There is a limit, for every five levels you can have ONE additional spell you've learned from another class, for example my guy is level 20 as a Thaumaturge so he gets four other spells, but if you switch to a class that's lower level the number goes down as well (If I were to swap to Conjurer, which is level 8 for me, I can only have one extra spell).

Not only that, but there's a very important reason to swap classes. Above I said that my Thaumaturgist is 'like a black mage'. Truth is, he's not just like one. He will BECOME one! After you get a class to level 30 you can get a quest to obtain what's called a soul crystal. This crystal, when equipped, will unlock an advanced class for your character with new spells, new abilities, and a big boost to their stats!

The class unlocks go as follows:

Gladiator -> Paladin (some healing magic, big boost to defense, gains ability [Hand out Chick Tracts])

Marauder -> Warrior (SMASH CHOP KILL BLEED!)

Archer -> Bard (Support your party members... or just sing Freebird so they'll shut up about it)

Pugilist -> Monk (50 hit combo! K.O.)

Lancer -> Dragoon (Wendy! I can fly!)

Conjurer -> White Mage (Healy magic, or just blow enemies up with Holy)

Thaumaturgist -> Black Mage (I shoot magic into the darkness!)

And the Arcanist actually gets TWO that it can become.

Summoner (summon big bruisers like Ifrit and Titan) or Scholar (healing magic, summon a fairy companion).

Finally, they're not out yet, but apparently Squeenix is getting ready to release two new classes.

Rogues for all those who are really really really whining that there's no rogue (and this being an MMO there most certainly are) who eventually learn how to flip out as Ninjas.

Now to get this quest you need to have leveled at least two classes. For example, when the time comes to earn my pointy hat on my Thaumaturgist I'll need to have at least fifteen levels as an Archer too (I guess I need to know a lot about ranged combat). Its different for each class, but it encourages players to experiment and find combinations that suit them.


Levequests: By now I bet you're thinking this all sounds very grindy because of how you start each class from scratch and have to level them up. Well to that I have this to say:

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT!? Its an MMO! They're grindy! It comes with the territory.

Oh sorry I wrote that wrong... I meant to say "Well go visit the Levequest guy!".

Levequests are basically dailies of a sort that you can do whenever you feel like. They're timed mini-quests that you activate when you get to the area they're intended for. There's ones for battling, ones for tradecrafts, and Guildeleves which you can do with a group if you feel so inclined or are helping out a friend/guildmate.

These actually work rather well for grinding up your weaker classes quickly. You can usually get four appropriately leveled quests at once and you can even adjust the quest's difficulty if you're overleveled for it (within five levels, a level 10 levequest can be upped to +5). You get bonus rewards based on difficulty and speed of completion too, as well as other factors. Finished that sucker in under five minutes? Way to go, here's some bonus experience and money! You say you found a really nasty monster that was a 'bounty' and you took it down? Great job! Big bonus for you!

I can grind up one of my characters from 1 to 10 in under an hour this way.

Also...


Tradecrafts and Professions: At first I really disliked this idea because, as it turns out, crafting requires yet another class change. A Thaumaturge can't just learn alchemy, he has to become an alchemist with a whole new gearset, crafting specific abilities, and so on.

However, once I got past my initial frustration I found that it actually makes for a rather deep crafting experience.

When you craft you need to use your abilities to create the item you're trying to make. There's your basic crafting ability that works to fill up the completion bar, as well as others that you can use to refine an item, give you more time to finish it, or improve it overall.

Your MP bar turns into a CP (Craft Points) bar when you're a crafter class, and all abilities but the basic one take CP points which don't regenerate until after the item is finished. It can make crafting a real challenge too. Should I just work on making a new book for my Arcanistry or should I try to improve it and risk ruining it before it's even made?

I haven't had much time to work with the crafting classes, but here's what I've gathered so far:

Alchemists craft, what else, healing items. They can also make wands and books which are used, respectively, by conjurers and arcanists as weapons.

Tailors make cloth armor, worn by the magic using classes, and can also make clothing for the crafting classes which increase craft stats like Control and such (oh and by the way, your stats change when you're a crafter).

There's others too. Goldsmiths, Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers, Epicurians, and more. Since these all count as individual classes you could theoretically have one character do all of them if you don't mind having your inventory so overloaded that your back snaps in half.

Ontop of those there's the gathering classes. Miners, Lumberjacks, Botanists, and so on. These guys gather the raw materials for your crafting. You can buy the items you need from vendors or from just beating up monsters, the more common ones anyways, but if you want the rare stuff (or just to save some Gil) you'll have to get your hands dirty.


I gotta admit, I was impressed. I'd heard all the horror stories about Final Fantasy XIV from before they had Bahamut blow up the world, but apparently a dragon-induced apocalypse is just what this game needed to fix it right up. I'm enjoying myself and if you're a Final Fantasy fan you probably will too (and if you are why don't you have this game yet anyways?).

So, for those of you who don't know the latest online incarnation of Squeenix's Final Fantasy series has recently begun offering a fourteen day free trial. Having been a long fan of the FF series and still holding out hope that Square will get their heads unstuck from their asses and get the series back on track and since Wildstar's endgame turned out to be 'dailies unto infinity' I decided to give it a go. I played it all last night and here's my bullet pointed take on it:


Graphics and Sound: Lets get the obvious out of the way. The game is GORGEOUS. The graphics are smooth, bright, and enchanting, the character designs are visually appealing, and the musical score is top notch... but of course they fucking are. Its a Square Enix game and while they've been falling all over themselves in the gameplay department lately they've always been reliable for making games that look very nice.


Gameplay: Now we're getting into the more important bits. I've had a chance to tinker around with two classes for a while and here's my take on them.

- Thaumaturge. This is basically the Black Mage of FF tradition. The Thaumaturge is all about standing back and lobbing magic at an enemy until they fall down go boom. Your basic three spells are the standard Black Mage kit of Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, but they've mixed it up a bit in how they work. Thunder is a straight up Damage over Time spell while Fire and Blizzard are designed to be alternated between during fights.

When you cast one you get a stack of Umbral Ice or Astral Fire (depending on the spell of course) which builds up as you continue to cast it. The buffs will boost the damage of the matching element, but also increase the MP cost. However, the buff also decreases the damage and MP cost of the opposing element. By casting the opposite element (i.e. casting Fire while under the effects of Umbral Ice) you cancel it out and begin building a stack of the opposing buff. It reminds me a lot of playing a Balance Druid in WoW.


- Arcanist. The Arcanist is the game's version of the horn-headed summoner of previous FF games, and it plays very similar to a WoW warlock and similar classes from other MMOs. You summon something and let it tank up the damage while you stand back and bounce spells off the enemy's head.

That said, its a neat concept for a class and any class that uses a book as a weapon I'm already going to like. Your first spells are Ruin, which does direct damage, and Bio, which poisons an enemy and does damage over time. At level 4 you gain the ability to summon Carbuncle, or as I called him OH MY GOD HE'S SO CUTE I WANNA HUG HIM, and he turns out to be a wind-element user who's attacks involve buffeting enemies around and knocking them back with gusts of wind.

I also tinkered with Pugilist for a bit, which is basically the Monk class, but I didn't get to do much with that one and wound up deleting it in favor of shooting magic into the darkness as Messir Pointy Hat and his friends Tiny Elf and Mr. Fluffles.


Story: This is becoming a bit of a trend in MMOs and I find I rather like it. Your character has their own little storyline, complete with cutscenes and voiced narration in parts, and I find I actually get a feel of investment in their experience and, after just a day, I find I may have trouble convincing myself not to plonk down however much the full game costs on Steam.

Its your standard FF story though, you are one of the Crystal Bearers and it's your job to save the world from Darkness by the Light of your Crystal. We'll see if it doesn't get better at that as I go along though since I'm still just on the cusp of level ten here.


Race Choices: As some of you know I'm a big stickler when it comes to this one. I like to have multiple characters in MMOs and if there's not some variety then I'm not a happy camper.

Worry not here though. While the races seem same-y at first they actually offer a decent bit of complexity and customization. You get your usual fantasy mix: Humans for the basic all around guys, snobby Elves for the more dexterous and speedy, cutesy Mini-Elves/halflings/whatever for the more magically inclined, Cat People for those who like to stealth it up and are probably on this website a lot, and the big-burly-guys for those who just want to beat things to death with an oversized penis-compensator-sword.

However, each race comes with two variations on it that change your starting stats and what classes you'll be better off with at the beginning.

My main is a Human (because I'm a magic user goddammit and the cat-folk are better suited for dexterity based classes) but, as I found, you get to choose between highlander or midlander for Human characters. Highlanders aren't as good at magic but are better with swords and spears, while midlanders are the more all-around types and have a higher starting intelligence. Not only that, but they look totally different. Highlanders are more muscular, taller, and have thicker beards (on the men) while midlanders tend to be smaller and a bit more akin to your standard JRPG hero build.

Each race gets this, which I find I like because it effectively doubles the customization options for each race and adds a lot more variety to the population of the MMO world.


In-Game Community: Don't give a fuck. I'm here for the solo-experience.


So yes, overall I can say that I'm getting drawn in, but after Wildstar's disappointing ending I'm not sure if I really want to sign myself onto another MMO, especially with Warlords of Draenor so close now. I'll finish out my fourteen days and see how I'm feeling then, but for right now I'm on the fence.

CORRECTION: I was unclear as to how the Thaumaturge abilities Umbral Ice and Astral Fire work and put down how they operate incorrectly above. Here's the real way:

Umbral Ice: Fire spells cost less and do less damage. MP regeneration is significantly boosted.

Astral Fire: Fire spells cost more and do more damage. MP regeneration is completely stopped.

Basically a Thaumaturge uses fire until he 'burns out', then switches to ice to get his MP back.

So, just found out the other day that my education at Brown Mackie College will officially be over come the end of this year. January is my internship and the actual graduation ceremony will be sometime in the spring.

... dunno which feels weirder. The fact that it's almost over, the fact that it went by so fast, or the fact that it's been that long since I left St. Louis and came back to Kentucky. ._.;

Want to hear something insane?

Taco banana cannon down my pants.


Want to hear something insane and coherent?

Glenn Beck was once arrested for trying to pull off Obama's face to reveal that he was a lizardman.


Want to hear something insane, coherent, and true?

Wildstar may be the game that finally gets me away from World of Warcraft.

I know, insane right? But damn this is one hell of a title. Those of you who actually watch my journals well, one I'd be amazed to find you exist, and two you might notice that I did two listing some highlights of the Wildstar Beta while I was in that.

Well, since getting in I found that there's even more to like about this.

The crafting really has me going on this game for one, which I mentioned in my second journal, I'll just go ahead and copypasta what I said here:

"The Crafting System

The way Wildstar does this is really neat. You don't learn specific recipes like in other MMOs. Rather you learn a base one and can modify it during crafting.

Here's how it works in a nutshell.

Nelen the Spellslinger is a weaponsmith. Spellslingers are heavy damage dealers who use three major stats for their gear:

Finesse, a measure of how accurate attacks are (and for Spellslingers it directly affects weapon damage).

Moxie, the ability to aim for vitals in a fight and hit them accurately (read: critical hit chance).

Brutality, simply put it's brute force. For spellslingers this is how likely their shots and spells are to penitrate armor and other defenses.

Now, Finesse is the big one for Spellslingers. They need to be able to shoot accurately and rapidly in a heated fight.

Nelen wants to make a gun. He's got all the materials and is at a crafting table. Rather than just going through a list, picking the pattern that has Finesse as it's heavy stat, and hitting go for me to sit back and watch a bar fill until its done however, crafting is much more hands on.

When you go into it the crafting grid shows a circuit board, and you need to choose two things:

1. A power core to act as the base of a weapon, which determines how powerful it can be.

2. Chips, which determine what stats you can give it.

Chip slots are color coded Red, Green, and Blue.

Red Slots are for the three main offensive stats I listed above. Finesse, Brutality, and Moxie.

Green slots are for Insight, which determines how likely a character is to read the nuances of an enemy's attacks and dodge or block them (basically defense rating), and Grit, which is how thick skinned a character is and how long they can soak up punishment before dropping (Max HP).

Blue slots are for Tech, which is kind of a weird stat. Tech determines how powerful support abilities are (basically how good one is at TECHnical things). Its a main stat for Medics, but not for any other class. Tanks use it for attacks that generate threat though... but I digress.

Early recipies go like this:

You get one slot on top for the power core and one or two slots for chips (some plans have slots already locked with a specific chipset). You first give it a power core. The more powerful the core the more energy you can have going through a weapon to power the chips.

Then you put in the chips. Slot them in for the stats you want, then start setting how much power goes to them from the core. As you do a bar at the bottom will fill to show how much stress is being put on the core. Once it fills you've used the core to it's maximum... however, you CAN go past this if you want to risk it.

Lets say I can put ten Finesse on a gun without going over, but my current gun gives me twelve. I COULD put more in, but for every bit further I push it the power core has a chance of overloading when I close up the gun and turn it on. If I push it too far the power core will overload and the gun gets wrecked before it ever fires a shot, turning it into a worthless pile of scrap (and consuming all the parts I used to make it).

If you're lucky you can overclock a weapon, but its a gamble and with rarer materials its often not worth it.


Another profession I got to try was one of the 'hobbies' they had, namely cooking. This one is a lot different too.

When you start it up you pick a recipe that uses a specific type of foodstuffs (meat, veggies, fruits, or even weird things like bug bits) and it shows a crafting grid in a circular shape like a compass.

At the four compass points are four types of flavors. Sweet, Spicy, Sour, and Savory. While you can just make normal foodstuffs, you can experiment with spices and other additives to make better and tastier recipes that give you buffs!

Here's an example.

One of the first recipes you learn is Tough Jerky, which is just what it sounds like. Tough, chewy, but hell it's edible.

However, in the crafting grid you'll see that the area between Savory and Spicy is lit up. What this means is that you can use ingredients to tweak the flavor. I added a bit of this and a bit of that and lo and behold I made Spicy Jerky, which gives me a buff to insight for half an hour if I chow down on it.

You have to experiment with spices to do this, get it too far and it'll just come out plain as always, but once you find the sweet spot (or spicy, or whatever), that part will be revealed. Next time you cook it'll tell you what ingredients to use and then remaking the food is a snap.

How it works is that each ingredient adds a little targeting marker somewhere within the glowy area. Get it juuuuuuuuust right and it'll come out the way you want it. Get it too much one way or the other and it'll hint at what you did wrong (it'll say more spicy or less sweet or so on) and it'll tell you how close you were. It takes some work, but it's quite satisfying to make Tangy Bug Bites, even if I wind up selling them to a vendor because... bug bites, seriously.

Lastly, for the main professions (not cooking) you don't buy new plans for gear. You can get specific rare ones by earning points doing crafting missions, but otherwise you get a tech tree that lets you learn new schematics simply by making the ones you already know. Make enough pistols and your character learns enough to make an improved model, get good enough with novice-level schematics and a whole tier of apprentice ones are unlocked.

Cooks however still have to buy cookbooks. Oh well..."

Well, a few other additions now.

The main one is talents. As you work your way through the tech tree you earn talent points which you can spend to upgrade your crafting skills. What does this mean?

Well, Nelen is now at tier 2 of weaponsmithing, which unlocks a whole bunch more chips that I can give weapons. I can boost Critical Hit rate, Critical Damage, Health, and so on as well as the big six stats. Also, at level two each weapon I make has my mark on it. Nothing fancy there, it just says "Made by Nelen", but its quite nice.


Also, there's the housing thing. I wasn't super interested, but now I'm finding it's quite worth the effort. I have my own personal spaceship house, fully furnished too, and here's a neat little feature. The more you work on the furnishings the bigger a rested XP bonus you get when you log out at home! Also, no worries about having it in the actual world and getting in the way, Protostar thought of that. Your home is on a chunk of land floating in the air a-la Columbia. You can also add a bunch of different features to it as well. I set up a small mine so I can harvest ore without competition, a farm for growing produce to cook, a crafting workbench for using both, and a BBQ grill (just for looks, but neat!).

Some offer special challenges which you can complete for rewards (crafting goods, healing items, gear, etc), others are just for fun and offer different things while at home (a low-grav area that lets you jump halfway over your house for example) and so on.


Next, the lore. Oh good gods the lore is so rich in this game. I heard Wildstar was in development for seven years before release and dammit if it doesn't show.

You have a Galactic Archive that catalogues information about areas, monsters, VIPs, and more. Here's the entry about a creature called the Girrok:

"GirroK:
Creatures

The girrok is a large, ursine predator common in the Nexus wilderness areas such as the Algoroc region. They tend to be solitary predators as adults, though younger girrok can sometimes be found in small groups of siblings or cousins. Though meat makes up the bulk of the girrok diet, the creatures are famously omnivorous. Settlements established near girrok hunting grounds often find garbage disposal units are knocked over in the middle of the night, while small pets and children are generally kept indoors once the sun goes down. And every new arrival on Nexus has heard the famous tale of the Exile settler family who lost their newborn to one of the creatures one night - although authorities suspected the parents in the crime, the mother's insistence that "a girrok ate my baby" turned out to be completely accurate.

Subspecies
Many varieties of girrok can be found on Nexus, usually marked by small differences in the coat or body mass - two factors directly related to their territory on the planet. Certain subspecies, however, are known for their extreme ferocity or their specific diets.

Grimstone Manglers
Scans indicate the girrok subspecies known as the Grimstone Mangler has evolved an extremely territorial nature combined with a complete lack of fear where sentient species such as humans are concerned. A Grimstone Mangler will attack almost anything within its fiercely protected territory which it sees as a threat, and that includes most anything that walks/

---

Scanbot Analysis

---

The powerful jaws, thick hides, and surly attitudes of Grimstone Manglers appear similar to features of apex predators found on other worlds, indicating these features may be the result of natural forces acting on their evolution rather than Eldan experimentation. If scanbot may be so bold as to engage pithiness subroutines, scanbot would guess that it was the evolutionary pressures of Nexus itself which made the Grimstone Manglers truly dangerous, not ancient genetic experiments."


Thats for one entry, out of about SEVENTY I have so far. For a loregeek this game is insane.

Also, that scanbot thing? Thats scientist-only. You have to pick that path (out of Soldier, Explorer, Settler, and Scientist) to get those parts.


I could go on and on about it. How even with my graphics set to low that this game is GORGEOUS, how the music is really amazing, how the combat is addictive and keeps you on your toes, and so on... but eh, go play the damn thing. You can see for yourself. First month is free!


Oh, and that joke at the top? Zero Punctuation's review of Driver San Francisco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OJai9dKraI So sue me, it fit.

So, need to get my thoughts out on this.

As many of you know I'm three things besides a furry with a truckload of weird fetishes:

- An avid online gamer.

- One who lives their life online.

- An IT student.

So naturally my initial reactions to the FCC's recent vote on net neutrality was as insanity-wolf as you may expect it to have been.

HOWEVER, since then I've had time to calm down and de-stress, then look at it from a more critical view.

Here's what I've gained from my research in the form of some bullet points. Please keep an open mind when reading these.


- Nothing has changed yet.

Tom Wheeler (Chairman of the FCC) has proposed a framework for rulemaking and opened it for public comment. To contact the FCC you can go to the FCC website: http://www.fcc.gov/ or call this number ( 1-888-225-5322 ). If you don't like the new rules or want to suggest something else, CALL them!

All they've done is the very start of the legislative process. They create the framework, open it for public comment, define the final structure, and then submit it to congress. Congress either votes in approval or they vote it down to get revised. Once they approve of it then it's sent to President Obama (or whoever comes after him, this can take a long time) to sign into law.

Seriously guys, we know this, or at least we know the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFroMQlKiag


- This is the THIRD time that the FCC has tried to set concrete rules for Net Neutrality

The FCC has tried twice in the past to set rules to protect the Open Internet, once in 2010 and again earlier this year. Both times the DC Circuit court has struck them back down. Wheeler and the rest of the FCC just want this finally settled so they can get some solid rules in place and go about enforcing them.


- They could require ISPs to be reclassified as Type II Common Carriers... except they'd get sued straight to hell.

One of the popular ideas for protecting net neutrality is the same way the US government broke up the Ma Bell monopoly back in 1934, would reclassify them as common carriers the same as any telephone company... but Comcast, Verizon, and so on would scream foul at the top of their lungs and send every lawyer they had against the FCC tying them up in litigation for several years at least.

On top of that, broadband providers have argued that this would create a heavy regulatory scheme that would require entrepreneurs to seek government permission to innovate and discourage investment in broadband infrastructure, or in layman's terms anyone who wanted to do business online would be forced to seek government approval first.


- Tom Wheeler is Pro-Net Neutrality.

Here's the fun bit that's probably going to have a lot of people yelling "WHAT?!" at their monitors. Yes Tom Wheeler used to be a Cable lobbyist, yes he's now the chairman of the FCC, but that doesn't always mean what people think it means.

Just because he had a job where he worked for guys like Comcast doesn't mean he's still necessarily on their side anymore.

The following is Chairman Wheeler's own words:

"I want to get to rules that work like this:

If the network operator slowed the speed below that which the consumer bought (for reasons other than reasonable network management), it would be a commercially unreasonable practice and therefore prohibited,

If the network operator blocked access to lawful content, it would violate our no blocking rule and be commercially unreasonable and therefore doubly prohibited,

When content provided by a firm such as Netflix reaches the consumer’s network provider it would be commercially unreasonable to charge the content provider to use the bandwidth for which the consumer had already paid and therefore prohibited,

When a consumer buys specified capacity from a network provider he or she is buying open capacity, not capacity the network can prioritize for its own profit purposes. Prioritization that deprives the consumer of what the consumer has paid for would be commercially unreasonable and therefore prohibited."

This is what the guy who half the internet is currently wanting to crucify has been going for. Ensuring that providers give the speeds their customers have paid for (i.e. if the contract says 20mbps then it will be 20mbps or else), no blocking access to lawful content of any sort (Comcast can't block access to sites critical of Comcast or else they're breaking a law), they can't charge content providers for additional speed or other benefits (because those who are accessing said content have already paid the ISP), and absolutely no prioritization (i.e. the infamous 'internet fast lane').

See, here's my take on Tom Wheeler. Personally, I don't know the man but I can see three scenarios about his current occupation (FCC Chairman) and his previous one (Cable lobbyist).

1. Everyone's paranoid fantasy is correct and he's doing it to purposely help out his old bosses in the cable industry.

2. He's neutral to them and the public and wants the best situation for both where the public still gets good internet connectivity and speed while the ISPs can still make a decent profit and run their business within legal boundaries.

3. He became Chairman specifically to stick it to his old bosses who keep trying to alter Net Neutrality to suit their own needs and is doing the best he can to do so with the power he has as Chairman.

I used to work for Walmart, but I sure as hell won't be singing their praises anytime soon. Could be the same for him.


- Even if our fears come to pass (the fast lane), Wheeler and the FCC have a backup plan.

The following is a quote from a user on Reddit named Phirazo who did a good job of explaining it.

"Chairman Tom Wheeler is giving it a third go, and on Thursday started the process with a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking". There are undoubtedly good parts, such as improved transparency rules and a no blocking rule.

What started the ruckus is that the rules would require broadband operators to provide content providers a "minimum level of access to their end-user subscribers" (the notice looks for input on how to define a "minimum level") but allow content providers to cut individual deals with broadband operators for better service to end users, which is often called a "fast lane".

People are afraid that only big players could afford to cut these individual deals, and that this would freeze out innovation. The FCC would be able to review these deals for "commercial reasonableness", which would forbid deals that threaten an Open Internet."

Even if the fast lane does become a reality, the FCC will still be able to review the deals that the ISPs will want to make before they are made on the grounds that they provide an essential service for both businesses and consumers. If those deals are found to be commercially unreasonable (i.e. charging a new startup the same as they would charge a major corporation) then the FCC could put the kibosh on that plan and make the ISP charge them a greatly reduced rate or provide it for free.


Hopefully this clears up some of the panic that my more technologically inclined furry friends have been having over this. I know that personally, after looking closer at matters, I'm feeling much better about what's happening.

Remember guys, if you want to voice your own opinion on the matter you can do so! Just go to the FCC website or call that aforementioned number (again, 1-888-225-5322 ) and tell them how you feel about what's happening and what you'd like to suggest.

Just keep it civil though. Saying "I disapprove of the idea of an internet fast lane and ISPs charging businesses for preferential treatment" is good. Saying "TOM WHEELER SHOULD HAVE HIS DICK CUT OFF!" would probably get the FBI at your door to ask you some awkward questions.

... in a month or so anyays. :P

Being a temp worker currently I have to get the stuff when I can, but anyways I just got word from  lagarto that my mate's birthday present is on it's way.

Not only that, he was so pleased with how it came out that he put a picture of it up on his store site. :D

http://buylagarto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35_38&products_id=73

Soooooooooooo...

In addition to:

Wildstar, which comes out at the end of the month, open beta starts tomorrow, and the game itself I've found every bit as fun and enjoyable as the first time I ever played World of Warcraft... ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dM21DxsVMc )

... Persona Q: Shadows of the Labrynth, which comes out this fall and is a continuation of one of my favorite JRPG series as well as a spinoff of another favorite JRPG series (Shin Megami Tensei)... ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdW_Y46DXiA )

... Warlords of Draenor, the next expansion of WoW re-exploring Draenor in a sort of what-if story that looks to be both engaging and awesome (I get to fight Grom Hellscream EEEEEEEEEEEE!)... ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enV3nB8_OQU )

... and me having finally gotten around to getting Bravely Default which is the game that may have saved Square Enix and made them realize just how much money they've been pissing away at making their games more mainstream and failing to do so when just making good JRPGs is a good way to make money in itself ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjmzvaxrD-E ) ... yes I know the game isn't 'new' anymore, but I just got it so I count it.


Well... today I was checking my facebook feed and stumbled across this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywGSON9tNq0 or as I like to put it HOLY FUCK YES!

Its gonna be a busy year. ._.;

So yeah, I had some time with Wildstar this weekend and last and I got a bit more experience with the title.

Here's some more stuff I liked:

The Crafting System

The way Wildstar does this is really neat. You don't learn specific recipes like in other MMOs. Rather you learn a base one and can modify it during crafting.

Here's how it works in a nutshell.

Nelen the Spellslinger is a weaponsmith. Spellslingers are heavy damage dealers who use three major stats for their gear:

Finesse, a measure of how accurate attacks are (and for Spellslingers it directly affects weapon damage).

Moxie, the ability to aim for vitals in a fight and hit them accurately (read: critical hit chance).

Brutality, simply put it's brute force. For spellslingers this is how likely their shots and spells are to penitrate armor and other defenses.

Now, Finesse is the big one for Spellslingers. They need to be able to shoot accurately and rapidly in a heated fight.

Nelen wants to make a gun. He's got all the materials and is at a crafting table. Rather than just going through a list, picking the pattern that has Finesse as it's heavy stat, and hitting go for me to sit back and watch a bar fill until its done however, crafting is much more hands on.

When you go into it the crafting grid shows a circuit board, and you need to choose two things:

1. A power core to act as the base of a weapon, which determines how powerful it can be.

2. Chips, which determine what stats you can give it.

Chip slots are color coded Red, Green, and Blue.

Red Slots are for the three main offensive stats I listed above. Finesse, Brutality, and Moxie.

Green slots are for Insight, which determines how likely a character is to read the nuances of an enemy's attacks and dodge or block them (basically defense rating), and Grit, which is how thick skinned a character is and how long they can soak up punishment before dropping (Max HP).

Blue slots are for Tech, which is kind of a weird stat. Tech determines how powerful support abilities are (basically how good one is at TECHnical things). Its a main stat for Medics, but not for any other class. Tanks use it for attacks that generate threat though... but I digress.

Early recipies go like this:

You get one slot on top for the power core and one or two slots for chips (some plans have slots already locked with a specific chipset). You first give it a power core. The more powerful the core the more energy you can have going through a weapon to power the chips.

Then you put in the chips. Slot them in for the stats you want, then start setting how much power goes to them from the core. As you do a bar at the bottom will fill to show how much stress is being put on the core. Once it fills you've used the core to it's maximum... however, you CAN go past this if you want to risk it.

Lets say I can put ten Finesse on a gun without going over, but my current gun gives me twelve. I COULD put more in, but for every bit further I push it the power core has a chance of overloading when I close up the gun and turn it on. If I push it too far the power core will overload and the gun gets wrecked before it ever fires a shot, turning it into a worthless pile of scrap (and consuming all the parts I used to make it).

If you're lucky you can overclock a weapon, but its a gamble and with rarer materials its often not worth it.


Another profession I got to try was one of the 'hobbies' they had, namely cooking. This one is a lot different too.

When you start it up you pick a recipe that uses a specific type of foodstuffs (meat, veggies, fruits, or even weird things like bug bits) and it shows a crafting grid in a circular shape like a compass.

At the four compass points are four types of flavors. Sweet, Spicy, Sour, and Savory. While you can just make normal foodstuffs, you can experiment with spices and other additives to make better and tastier recipes that give you buffs!

Here's an example.

One of the first recipes you learn is Tough Jerky, which is just what it sounds like. Tough, chewy, but hell it's edible.

However, in the crafting grid you'll see that the area between Savory and Spicy is lit up. What this means is that you can use ingredients to tweak the flavor. I added a bit of this and a bit of that and lo and behold I made Spicy Jerky, which gives me a buff to insight for half an hour if I chow down on it.

You have to experiment with spices to do this, get it too far and it'll just come out plain as always, but once you find the sweet spot (or spicy, or whatever), that part will be revealed. Next time you cook it'll tell you what ingredients to use and then remaking the food is a snap.

How it works is that each ingredient adds a little targeting marker somewhere within the glowy area. Get it juuuuuuuuust right and it'll come out the way you want it. Get it too much one way or the other and it'll hint at what you did wrong (it'll say more spicy or less sweet or so on) and it'll tell you how close you were. It takes some work, but it's quite satisfying to make Tangy Bug Bites, even if I wind up selling them to a vendor because... bug bites, seriously.

Lastly, for the main professions (not cooking) you don't buy new plans for gear. You can get specific rare ones by earning points doing crafting missions, but otherwise you get a tech tree that lets you learn new schematics simply by making the ones you already know. Make enough pistols and your character learns enough to make an improved model, get good enough with novice-level schematics and a whole tier of apprentice ones are unlocked.

Cooks however still have to buy cookbooks. Oh well...


The Mounts

I haven't gotten a chance to try them yet... but I did poke around the Wiki and I liked what I saw VERY much.

At level 25 you can get a hoverboard, which in itself is friggin awesome. It goes across water, lets you double jump even while mounted (oh yeah, you can double jump in this game and there's lots of platforming elements in it), and its a freaking hoverboard!

There's four other mounts for each faction, but here's the neat part... you can CUSTOMIZE these mounts! Give 'em a flag on the back, a floating holo-globe for a GPS device, or whatever else you can find. Here's an example: http://wildstar.mmorpg-life.com/gui.....zation_window/


The Taxi Service

Nothing specific, but I laughed the first time I tried it.

Lots of MMOs have a taxi service. WoW and it's gryphons/wind riders, Rift and it's portal service, etc... Wildstar has taxis. As in actual hover-taxis with a holographic driver who plays elevator music and makes bad jokes the entire ride.

I just found it funny, and it really fits the theme of the game.


Crafting Resource Gathering

Sounds silly huh? Well, Wildstar managed to find a way to put a new spin on some of it.

I can't speak for the others as Nelen was the only one I got high enough to start making things, but here's how it goes for Miners.

Nelen is a miner. He uses a laser-pickaxe to harvest ore, crystals, and other minerals from around the planet Nexus to be made into guns and other weapons. It's pretty similar to how other MMOs do it. Find node -> Right click node -> gather ore when the node spits it out like a pinata.

That's where it ends though. A couple times I was digging out some ore when the vein suddenly hopped up and tried to run away! It was some kind of alien bug with an ore vein on it's back! I had to chase it down and keep zapping it with the laser pickaxe to get the ore off it.

Another time I dug up some ore only to have a gigantic worm covered with iron ore burst out of the ground infront of me! After I got done wiping the poop out of my pants I pulled out my pistols and gave him a high-caliber hello between the eyes... He dropped a bit more ore when he died, but thats when I noticed that the hole he burst out of was still there... I shrugged and hopped in to find myself in the worm's tunnel with more iron ore veins than I'd seen in the entire map! However, I also saw a timer counting down from two minutes. Basically it was a run and grab all you can before you get spit out (I'd assume the worm tunnel collapses after two minutes). Nice little bonus stage.


Path-specific bonuses

Nelen is a Scientist (the other choices being Soldier, Explorer, and Settler). He's got a little science probe-bot I named T0RB3RA (after Lunar's dwarf because I couldn't make Lunar sound more tech-y). During quests and such I'll notice some objects, characters, and such with a blue Science symbol floating near them that my bot can scan. Usually this gives me little bits of lore and such, but there's two specific benefits I've found otherwise.

1. Your path levels up. Each level gives you new bonuses (gear, inventory extenders, etc)... but you can learn three path specific abilities as a character that you can use to great effect in a variety of situations.

The scientist ones are:

- Holographic Decoy: Basically I summon a little hologram of myself that taunts (literally, he points and laughs) enemies into attacking it while I sneak up behind to give 'em two in the head.

- Group summon: Basically I can make a little device that summons group members right to me. Doubt I'll use that one a whole lot...

- City Portal: Out of combat I can make a portal right back to my faction's capital city! Super-useful for getting around after a ore run out of town.

There's others too. I know Explorers learn a trick that lets them stop in mid-fall, but I can't think of the others offhand.

Also, different paths can use different things they find around Nexus to help them out in different ways.

Nelen, being a scientist, can have his scanbot scan things that cause different effects. For example:

- In the Northern Wilds I found a peculiar crystal formation that got dubbed Regenium. When scanned it releases a radiation that accelerates healing.

- I came across some fuel tanks that, when scanned, explode violently. Good to keep in mind if I can lure enemies near them before sending in the bot to set them off.

- On another character I toyed with for a bit I found deactivated security droids. My own scanbot was able to hack their CPU, causing them to go rogue and attack their allies.

Killing Chua

Seriously, fuck those things. They'd make Gallywix nervous... or aroused. Not sure which is worse.


But yeah, I preordered and come the end of May I probably won't be uploading art for a while... possibly sooner than that as I heard that Open Beta will start up midway through the month. ^_^;;;

So, had a bit of a surprise when I logged into my Battle.net app today. Heroes of the Storm's Alpha version was waiting for me there!

Only got to play one hero so far, I did the tutorial bit as Jim Raynor of Starcraft fame, but for an alpha this game already seems rather fancy with fully voiced characters, an intro movie, and some good combat. The UI is still kinda messy by Blizzard's standards, but the game itself is surprisingly well done for so early.

I won't claim that I have a ton of experience with the MOBA genre. I've played a bit in League of Legends as Warwick (big surprise I know) and I've taken a couple casual glances at Dawn of the Ancients, but thats about it.

Still, being a longtime Blizzard fan, its neat to see Jim, Uther the Lightbringer, Nova, the Demon Hunter, and others all teaming up in one big beat 'em up. Blizz got their own point-and-click Smash Brothers going.

I can certainly say I'm gonna enjoy this one, might be what finally gets me big into the MOBA genre.

Again, I'm not going to put much here, I'm still a newb when it comes to MOBAs, but if anyone wants to try it out here's the homepage where you can sign up for the beta.

http://www.heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/game

UPDATE:

So I played a bit more and got the chance to try out a couple characters. Here's what I thought:

James Raynor
Ironically enough he was the reason I got on battle.net today in the first place. I wanted to play some more Starcraft 2. Jim is an assassin type, he fights using a Space Marine machine gun and has some support abilities too.

His main special is called Penetrating Shot, which shoots a high caliber round through a group of enemies, knocking some back as well.

Ever the rebel leader, Jim can also inspire nearby allies, giving them a boost to attack speed for a short time.

He has a couple passive abilities, though I didn't get a good look at them with Diablo breathing down my neck, but his big finishing attack is to call in his flagship, the Hyperion, to do a bombing run against whatever is in-front of him. Nice little siegebreaker... or siegemaker.


Malfurion Stormrage
Bet Lunar will like this one, for his antlers if nothing else.

Malfurion is a spellcaster/healer type. He's got some offensive abilities, but his main role is supporting other players with healing spells and magical buffs.

His main spell is Renew, a heal over time that targets a single ally and, well, heals them.

Next he can cast Moonfire, which does magical damage in a small target area. Turns out you can upgrade this stuff as the game goes on. I got it buffed to Fullmoonfire which does more damage and has a wider area of effect.

After that he can cast Entangling Roots, which holds enemy heroes in place. I also got it buffed, the one I got gives it the ability to summon a treant when cast.

Last one... I forget the name, but it seemed kinda clunky to use. Stuns and damages enemies in an area around Malfurion... but eh, its still Alpha.

So, this weekend I picked up a beta key for the new MMO from NCSoft, Wildstar... and so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

For those of you who don't know Wildstar is a Science-Fiction MMO with a very cartoonish feel to it. You can play as an Exile, a spacefairing rebel who's trying to find a world to call their own, or as one of the Dominion, imperialists who want to bring the Exiles to heel (or extinction).


Here's my impression thus far:

Racial Variety

One Thing I've noticed about cartoonish MMOs over the more realistic ones is that they get a LOT more creative freedom when it comes to this. Rift, for example, is a good game... but it's lacking in what you can play as. In this one there's two varieties of humans, one for each side, but the other races are TOTALLY different from each other.

On the Exile side you get:

- Granok, a race of rock-skinned humanoids who specialize as warriors, guns for hire, and are the self proclaimed 'hardest drinkers in the known galaxy'. These guys tower over their allies and are ferocious in battle, the warrior-heroes of the Exiles.

- Aurin, a race of humanoid animals (yes one of these is my main) that are deeply spiritual and known for communing with nature (and using it). They're smaller than their allies (and cuter, seriously, this is my main: http://i.imgur.com/QSxCyeX.png and that's a MALE Aurin!) but they more than make up for this in their speed, skill with magic, and cunning.

- Mordesh. Two words: Space zombies. The Mordesh were at the forefront of scientific advancement in the empire until one of their latest creations, an elixir that was supposed to grant eternal life, went horribly wrong and infected their entire race with a disease simply referred to as 'the contagion'. They managed to find a way to preserve their minds while their bodies withered, and thankfully non-mordesh are immune to the contagion, but now they seek a cure to undo the damage that science has done to them.

The dominion have...

- Mechari, robots created by a long lost race known as the Eldin. Cold, cunning, calculating, and totally remorseless. They act as the empire's enforcers, weeding out dissent and 'dealing with' those who would rebel.

- Drakken, horned aliens with a thirst for blood and combat, they form the frontline fighters of the empire. Full of rage and anger, they charge into combat headlong, looking to prove themselves against their foes or die a warriors death.

- Chua, adorable little rodent-like humanoids... but don't let their looks fool you! These master engineers are one hundred percent batshit insane and love nothing more than testing out their newest toy at point blank range on an exile's face (or groin, they're a bit short y'see...).



So yeah. There is a lot of variety just with those four classes right now. I'm looking forward to any that might come in future expansions.



Class Selection

There are currently six classes in the game, and naturally some races can only be certain classes (except for humans, we're flexible apparently). The classes are as follows:

- Warrior. We all know how this goes. Big bruisers with big weapons. Warriors can take a beating and dish it right back out at an enemy. Slower than some classes but a hell of a lot tougher, they fight using gigantic two-handed weapons and sheer muscle.

- Spellslinger. This one is an interesting twist. Dual wielding pistols mixed with arcane magicks give spellslingers one hell of an edge in combat. They can unload a clip into a foe, teleport through said foe to knock them silly, then finish them off with a quick burst to the back of their head.

- Esper. Think shadow priests in WoW and you won't be too far off. Espers take the phrase 'fight with your head' to the most literal sense, whether using visions of victory to push their allies onwards or tearing their enemy's psyche to shreds with waking nightmares. Enemies will die without a single mark on their bodies as their hearts stop when their innermost terrors are released.

- Engineer. Buildin' a sentry! The engies can call in a swarm of bots for backup and unload into an enemy with a gigantic rifle, launching high tech attacks into enemy lines and blowing entire armies to bits with high powered grenade launchers, then fry what's left with a plasma rifle.

- Stalker. Now you see 'em, now you don't, now you see 'em holding your kidneys. Stalkers are fast, deadly, and silent. Masters of stealth and welding twin-bladed claws, these are the assassins of the Wildstar world.

- Medic. Healers of course, but also surprisingly good at offense. After all with their medical knowledge they know exactly where to hit to make it HURT. German accent optional.



Path

Something new with this one. Chosen at character creation, your path will give you access to unique missions, parts of the map, hidden items, and even abilities for your character! There's four to choose from, as follows:

- Explorer: Brave the wildnerness and the unknown! The explorers are those who find the hidden treasure, climb the highest peaks, and explore the long lost ruins. Explorers can uncover hidden paths for their allies to use, set up distress beacons for their faction to get help, and discover rare and powerful alien artifacts.

- Solider. Fall in men, its time to wage war! The soldiers take on assassination contracts for high profile targets, go in to rescue hostages, and more. Solders get access to Holdout missions, where you have to guard treasures from thieves, lay siege to enemy strongholds, and more.

- Settler. This city won't build itself after all, thats where you come in. Salvaging useful items, setting up market stalls, and hiring NPCs that friendly players can use to get buffs, the settler is a valuable player for their entire faction!

- Scientist. Its a glorious day for science! Scan artifacts to discover their purpose, research flora and fauna of alien worlds, hack computers to access hidden areas, and more! The scientist's goal is discovery and the pursuit of knowledge, and lucky you... the universe is very big and quite full of new knowledge.


Combat

A mix of standard MMO combat and action based gameplay. Press hotkeys to use attacks while aiming and running around enemies as needed. Simple enough, but exciting enough to keep me going for a long while indeed.


Graphics and visuals

Damned stunning... though be warned, I've got a good gaming PC and I had to dial down the settings to get it to play. Even on the lower settings though this is comparable to stuff from the PS3 and Xbox 360 so don't worry about eye-hurt here.

The art style is very colorful and cartoonish... and rather reminiscent of games like Jak & Daxter, Rachet & Clank, and so on... wouldn't be surprised if someone from those had a hand in the art design. Either way, I like it. Realistic graphics are overrated.


Beta Issues
Looks like, for the most part, this game is gonna be good to go come launch. I've only run into a few minor issues like having tooltips not go away when you tell them to and they're irritating more than anything. A quick log-out-log-in fixes them anyways.


So yeah, overall I'm interested and I'm definitely going to grab this one once I get the money to do so.

So yeah, for those of you who don't know I have a history with two physical ailments... ARD and IBS, that is... Acid Reflux Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Some months my stomach decides that it wants to be my mortal enemy and that no amount of suffering for me can satiate it's lust for vengeance.

Thing is, I had a temp job doing data entry when this round started up, and I only get to leave early twice before they make me turn in my badge. Tonight was number three.

In my defense, I was in the restroom for a solid fifteen minutes dealing with *ahem* matters. When it starts out that bad it usually doesn't go away for a while.

Still, gotta call my temp agency tomorrow and tell them of what happened, then see if I can't get another placement out of them. Wish me luck gang.

EDIT: I would like to point out that the whole 'three strikes' thing is because this job was only available for a limited time anyways and they wanted to discourage people from taking off work just because they could. This was a government job and a lot of money for the bank doing it, so they wanted to make sure they made deadline.

This was actually a rather good job. Easy work, a comfortable break area, and they even had catered lunch on Easter as well as a raffle (someone won a $500 Visa card, someone else won a big screen TV, and someone else won a Samsung 7" tablet PC on my shift alone. These prizes were given out to one person on each shift, and to enter you just had to clock in that night). This was probably one of the better places I've worked, just a very strict place.

UPDATE: Contacted the staffing agency. They were sympathetic, may well have something new for me within a day or so. Nice to know I'm working for a good one this time.

So, been hearing some hate for games on the Android and iOS lately. Personally I'm glad I got the iPad as I've found some real gems on there, and my android has a few good titles itself, but its hard to convince others of such...

Well, since I've been using the iPad for slightly over a year now I've decided to post this here. This list comprises some of the best iOS titles I've found.

- Final Fantasy Dimensions https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fin.....540992837?mt=8 Right off the bat one of my favorites and one that I've had on my iPad ever since I discovered it was a thing. Final Fantasy Dimensions is a iOS and Android exclusive for the series that plays a lot like Final Fantasy 5 did, but with a twist. You control two parties of heroes who can use the job system, but each party gets different jobs! Like one gets paladin but the other gets dark knight, ranger while the other gets bard, dragoon while the other gets ninja, and so on which means you have to really learn how to manage a good mix for both teams. Some great music, a fun story, and classic gameplay make this easily one of my favorites for the iOS and a hopeful sign that Square Enix still kinda sorta gives a shit.

- Bloodmasque https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blo.....663684549?mt=8 Following the snarky comment about Squeenix not giving a damn here's another fine title from them. Go figure. Bloodmasque is a dark and gritty game about vampire hunters set in the late 1800s in Paris. In this alternate history vampires have conquered the world and humanity is controlled and fed upon by their undead overlords. You take the role of a vampire hunter, a half vampire born of a vampire and a human parent who represents the last best chance at defeating the undead and allowing humanity to choose their own path in the world. As a fun little twist you can use the iPad camera to take a picture of yourself and -literally- play as yourself in the game. The game will take three different pictures and map them to show three different expressions during combat, cutscenes, and so on. Pretty neat idea, but I've seen some really goofy looking vampire hunters.

- Block Fortress https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blo.....586280100?mt=8 Think Minecraft with the combat ramped up like crazy. Build a fortress, defensive turrets, and supply stations like mines and farms, then defend it from waves of attackers by either relying on your turrets or jumping into the fray with an assortment of weapons yourself. The enemies start off easy with just little grunts charging you down, but will go from those to enemies with guns, stealthed enemies that your turrets ignore, medics that heal others, and more. You have to build new structures to counter them, build defenses to help keep them out, and do your best to survive as long as you can. Simple in concept but very addictive and more complex the further you go.

- Papa Sangre II https://itunes.apple.com/app/papa-s.....ii/id710535349 Here's a neat idea. This isn't a video game, its an AUDIO game. Plug in your headphones and close your eyes, then follow your ears around the world of the dead collecting memories so you can come back to life. Fail and your memories, your entire life, are gone forever. Points just for sheer creativity and a very original idea.

- Zombiewood. Guns! Action! Zombies! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zombiewood-guns!-action!-zombies!/id467452023?mt=8 Here's something we gamers like doing, killing the hell out of things that are already dead. Zombiewood is just that, a top down run 'n gun game with zombies galore and lots of different ways to murder them. Clearly a comedy title the weapons range from normal handguns, shotguns, and such to alien weaponry, viking axes and claymores, and more.

- Dungeon Hearts https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dun.....576262622?mt=8 A fast paced puzzle/RPG with colorful graphics, a catchy soundtrack, and some really engaging gameplay. I wound up playing the heck out of this when I first got it and it's been on my iPad ever since.

- Star Command https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sta.....632079234?mt=8 Ever been a Star Trek fan? This game is pretty much tailor made for anyone who ever wanted to play Kirk or Picard. Take command of a spaceship, choose from three types of rooms to build throughout your ship (weapons for fighting off enemy ships, engineering rooms for building in-ship defenses and repairing damage to the ship, and science rooms for enhancing your ship's shields and healing injured crewmates) and go on a journey that'll take you through our own galaxy and beyond. This one grabbed me hard and won't let go.

- Warhammer Quest https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/war.....573516833?mt=8 I know that the 40k stuff gets all the attention these days but this is how Warhammer got started. Take a party and go dungeon crawling through a beautifully animated game with some really challenging combat and some good humor thrown in here and there. Something fun I noticed too, all the character models kinda look like painted lead miniatures. Neat touch really.

- Saturday Morning RPG https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sat.....512545512?mt=8 A flat out parody RPG with a retro 1980s setting that plays out like someone took every popular cartoon, movie, and video game from that era and smashed them all together head first. Its basically one big love letter to the 80s, but still one of my favorites.

- Plants VS Zombies 2 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pla.....597986893?mt=8 YES IT'S A BLOODY EA GAME! Now that we have *that* out of the way its actually a rather good game that, while it does commit the mortal sin of having microtransactions, its still very much playable without having to give EA your money. I played through the whole thing and only ever spent $2.99 to unlock the Torchwood plants, and that was only because they were one of my favorites from the first game. Even after I unlocked them I wound up barely using them. Its the sequel to the tower defense game that was made popular on Steam updated with new zombies, new settings, new plants, and new bosses.

- Sorcery! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sorcery!/id627879091?mt=8 Steve Jackson games brings a Choose Your Own Adventure book to life in this artistic title. The story is the game in this one, each of your choices has direct consequences on the future of your quest that will come back when you least expect them (and really this time, not in a Fable Peter Molyneux is off his meds again way). Both this and the sequel are available with more on the way.

- The Bard's Tale https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the.....480375355?mt=8 Here's one for anyone who ever did a lot of PC gaming. The classic title redone with fully 3D graphics and voice acting, combined with some really intense combat and puzzle solving, and topped off with a downright hilarious story.

- Aralon: Sword and Shadow https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ara.....399045373?mt=8 A fully 3D adventure RPG that takes inspiration from The Elder Scrolls but pulls it off beautifully on the iOS. Choose your race, choose your class, and then travel across the land fighting monsters, learning the ways of combat and magic, and playing one of the most immersive games I've seen on the iOS.

- Oceanhorn https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oce.....708196645?mt=8 Hands down one of the best iOS games and quite possibly one of the best games I've seen in ages. Oceanhorn has stunning graphics on par with late Gamecube or early Wii titles, a fantastic soundtrack, and gameplay that focuses on exploration and puzzle solving as much as it does on combat. The controls are easy to learn despite the touchscreen, and the game itself will be on my favorites list for a very long time. Oh, and that fantastic soundtrack I mentioned, it's done by none other than Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame.

- Royal Revolt 2 https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/royal-revolt-2/id705211891?l=en&mt=8 Just found this one today and I'm already hooked. For those of you who do play iOS games its similar to Clash of the Clans, but with fully 3D graphics and combat that's closer to games like Orcs Must Die. You can let your little minions have their fun, but you'll win by leading the charge yourself. You're the king, and not the fat lazy kind but the kind who got his crown and keeps it by carving up everyone who tries to take it from him. Build your city, train your army, and stomp your rivals into the dirt.

- Castle Doombad https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cas.....622788881?mt=8 Brought to us by the guys from Adult Swim, you take the role of the evil Professor Doombad who's created a device that lets him power his castle soley on the screams of a captive princess. However it seems that every hero wannabe has found out about her and you'll have to use her screams to summon minions, set traps, and knock them out of your castle. Fight knights, archers, grizzled mercenaries, brave archaeologists, buff and dashing knights, large-chinned superheroes, and more as you do your best to prove that the good guys don't always win.

- Lionheart Tactics https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/lio.....677464631?mt=8 For those of you who like strategy RPGs this one is a real gem. A free to play game that, so far, I haven't had to spend a single cent on even after I started playing. The graphics are good, the combat is fun, and there's lots of abilities to unlock for each character. Worth a look definitely..

- Hello Hero https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hel.....708971624?mt=8 A neat little JRPG style game where you can recruit and train characters to fight off an invading army of aliens. They range from the standard JRPG heroes (anime characters with colorful hair), to cutesy woodland critters (mice that attack with kitchen utensils), to the more intimidating (monsters, scythe-welding demonfolk, and more), to the downright silly (a cactus that wears a sombrero and plays a banjo). Worth a look if its your sort of thing. :P

- Honorbound https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hon.....704781559?mt=8 A neat little title where you play the honor bound, one of five heroes sworn to defend the world when the forces of chaos arise. A 2D adventure RPG with some good art and decent combat, it does have some pay-to-win elements but I've found you can ignore them without too much difficulty.

- Mage Gauntlet https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mag.....460697573?mt=8 There is magic in this world, everyone can use it from the smallest child to the oldest adult... except for Lexi. Whatever she touches breaks, magical devices go haywire in her hands. After seeking out the aid of a man rumored to be the most powerful of all wizards she receives a gauntlet that finally allows her to use magic, then is charged with helping him seal away an ancient evil. Fast paced combat reminiscent of SNES action RPGs like Secret of Mana and Legend of Zelda. A real gem.

- Punch Quest https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pun.....554223561?mt=8 Ever just wanna punch the hell out of something? Here's a game for you. Charge through armies of skeletons, bloodsucking bats, evil sorcerers, and more with nothing but two fists and a desire to introduce them to as many faces as possible. Fast paced, frantic, and a hell of a lot of fun.

- Lord of Zombies https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lor.....698009737?mt=8 Another one where you get to play the bad guy. Lord of Zombies puts you in the role of an undead monarch come to claim his kingdom from beyond the grave. As you fight your way through the living you'll find that your touch can convert them to the ranks of the living dead. Customize your squad and lead your brain-eating soldiers to victory in a fun little brawler.

- He-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/he-.....561912995?mt=8 Here's one for all the nostalgia junkies out there. He-Man, the hugely muscled and barely dressed superhero from the 1980s cartoon gets his own video game on the iOS. Play as him or She-Ra and thwart the plans of the evil Skeletor. Definitely a fun one if you were a fan of the series as a kid, and even if you weren't!

And before anyone says it... yes you can get games like Walking Dead, Bastion, Shadowrun Returns, and such on here too. I left them out on purpose. The ones I listed are either exclusive to tablets and smartphones, or exclusive to the iOS itself.

But yeah, thats all of the ones I can think of at this time. Hopefully some of the guys who have an iPad just found some new titles to try and those who don't want to give mobile a chance have found something that interests them enough to make them give it a shot. Don't discount your phone and tablets guys, there's lots more than just birds of the angry and flappy varieties out there!

I'm currently taking a Public Speaking class (last day is tomorrow by the way) and every other day we'll do a current event. We pick out a topic and discuss it in class.

Well, for mine I picked out this article about the legal debate going on in Arizona. For those of you who haven't heard, here's a news article about it: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/arizona-.....discrimination

Yeah, basically the bill will allow people to be discriminatory towards others so long as they use religion as the justification. Its probably more complex than that, but that's the main idea behind it.

My argument was that the law would most likely be repealed once those supporting it are reminded that Christianity isn't the only religion in this country and it sparks a ton of legal battles when Islamic business owners start kicking Jews and Christians out of their store (as an example)... to which one of my classmates, an older woman, immediately shouted out "I'd turn to him and say 'I don't wanna shop at your raghead store anyways!'."

I know I shouldn't be shocked by this, the woman is about fifty or so and its freaking Kentucky, we're still the south here... but I felt like I'd been slapped.

I replied, "Well, thats a rather racist thing to say", to which she said "Go ahead and call me racist! Thats how it is! They come to our country and get all these tax breaks. Its not just them, you go into any factory and it'll be the white guys who are working hard, none of the damn nigras will be doing shit".

I just shook my head and said, "Well, I dunno what to say to that." because I honestly didn't. How the hell do you argue that someone is being racist when they will not only agree with you, but proudly describe themselves as such?

Again, I know I shouldn't be shocked. I know that there are people out there like this, and especially in the southern US, but I guess I just live such an insular life in my free time that I really don't know how to react when I do encounter one.

EDIT: Oh and for anyone who's worried about that bill... http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/02.....iscrimination/ It's looking like it's on rather shaky ground now. Politicians can preach Christianity as much as they want, but the real god of America is Capitalism.

Why top eleven? Go watch the Nostalgia Critic after this, you'll see.

Anyways, I now have somewhere around one hundred and fifty games on Steam after I began using the service around two years ago. I've been an avid gamer all my life and I just wanted to list what I felt were the top eleven games I've found on Steam over the past few years. These are games I have actually bought and played, if not all the way through then most of the way. I'm going to try to avoid major titles such as Skyrim and Bioshock Infinite. Everyone knows those games are good already so putting them here will be redundant.

Also, I'm going to avoid putting games that aren't complete on here. So games like Starbound (which is early access) and The Wolf Among Us (which isn't totally released yet) are both favorites of mine, but will not be featured.


11. Mark of the Ninja http://store.steampowered.com/app/214560

Its rare that games will focus entirely on stealth based gameplay, but Mark of the Ninja makes it work and makes it work well. There are few things I've found in gaming as satisfying as hiding from a high vantage point, grappling down to grab and murder a guard while leaving his body to hang from my grapple line, then finding a good hiding spot and watching his buddies find him, panic, and shoot all the other nearby guards while frantically pissing their pants.

I haven't finished this one yet, but I really do enjoy the gameplay and the art style, which seems very reminiscent of Samurai Jack for some reason.


10. Overlord 2 http://store.steampowered.com/app/12810/

Sometimes its fun to be the bad guy, to raise an army of devilishly evil minions, and then go raze a few villages while enslaving the populace. Overlord 2 is an older game and isn't technically a Steam game originally, but its only available through them and Good Old games now so I'm going to count it.

The humor is good, the storyline is fun, and Gnarl is probably one of my favorite helper characters.


9. Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves http://store.steampowered.com/app/2.....snr=1_7_15__13

Normally I'm not one to like games where wolves/werewolves are the antagonists... but this one is a unique title that's really worth a try. The gameplay is tower defense of sorts, but incredibly challenging. Each day you have to set traps, visit town for supplies, and do what you can to prepare yourself for the night... when night falls the werewolves come. You do have means besides traps to protect yourself. An axe and a gun, but it's the 1800s so that axe is just an ordinary wood axe and that gun is an old flintlock rifle. No running and gunning here, if you shoot you have to spend a good fifteen seconds on average reloading. Doesn't sound like much, but that time is precious when you've got a pack of werewolves heading for you.

The voice acting is a bit wooden, but the setting is unique and the game is good and challenging.


8. Symphony http://store.steampowered.com/app/207750/

This is a good one for anyone who likes those old top-down scrolling shooters from the arcade era and has a large collection of music. Upon starting the game it scans your computer for Mp3 files, then those files become the stages. Fight your way through your favorite music in an attempt to stop an evil force from taking over our reality by corrupting it through the music we write.

The graphics are flashy and colorful, the speed changes with the song itself, and there's literally an endless amount of levels. So long as you have new music, you have new levels!


7. Dust: An Elysian Tail http://store.steampowered.com/app/2.....snr=1_7_15__13

I don't think there's a furry that hasn't heard about this one yet, but its a great title. A side-scrolling adventure with absolutely gorgeous artwork, excellent voice-acting, and probably one of my all time favorite video game characters in Fidget. That and it's one of the rare times I actually cried at the end. I won't say what happens, but watching Fidget's reaction to whats going on was damn near heartbreaking for me.

A damn fine title with an all furry cast set in a fantasy world. Worth a try to anyone who likes such games.


6. Don't Starve http://store.steampowered.com/app/2.....snr=1_7_15__13

What can I say that hasn't already been said about Don't Starve? A survival game with some very challenging mechanics, a unique setting, and an art style that looks like something Tim Burton would come up with during a bad hangover.

Whether you're trying to unlock all the characters, trying to solve the mystery of Maxwell and his island, or just trying not to starve its a damn fun game.


5. Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale http://store.steampowered.com/app/70400/

Who ever would have thought a game where you, of all things, work a retail job would make MY favorite game list?! Seriously though, Recettear is an indie game from Japan that takes the traditional JRPG/dungeon crawling system and mixes it up by casting you as the owner of an item shop. Team up with heroes to explore dungeons, gather treasure, and then sell it in your store.

Adorable anime-themed art style, good music, and a fun little story make this one of my faves.


4. Orcs Must Die 2 http://store.steampowered.com/app/201790/

Genocide can be fun, just ask any third world dictator... wait that came out wrong. Anyways, in Orcs Must Die 2 you take either the role of the Warmage from the first game or his one-time adversary, the Sorceress and stop waves of orcs who are trying to get from point A to point B by putting a multitude of traps between them and their goal and, when that fails, jumping in yourself to crack some skulls. With creative traps like the electro-zapper (electrocutes nearby enemies), the spike-wall (shoots out and knocks orcs backwards), and the portal trap (sends whatever steps on it back to start, ha ha!) this game is just as often a way of finding just how many ways you can combine traps to ruin a greenskin's day as it is a frantic fight against an ever increasing army of fantasy monsters.

Great humor, highly addictive gameplay, and damn if it's not satisfying to watch a mob turn a corner only to be greeted by an entire hall of kill-machines. An all time favorite.


3. Awesomenauts http://store.steampowered.com/app/204300/

I'm usually not a fan of multiplayer gameplay, and when someone says 'squad-based red vs blue' and 'steam' people usually think Team Fortress 2... but this one is definitely worth mentioning. A MOBA of sorts where each team has three characters who try to defend their base from the others while at the same time trying to destroy their enemy's base.

A cartoony sci-fi game reminiscent (intentionally) of 1980s saturday morning cartoons with frantic fast paced combat. A good game for those rare occasions when I want to fight another human being.


2. Shadowrun Returns http://store.steampowered.com/app/234650/

Fun fact: I have a ton of sourcebooks for tabletop/pen and paper RPGs like D&D, the World of Darkness, and such.

Fun fact 2: I have never, in my life, played a tabletop/pen and paper RPG.

Not for lack of desire, I just don't know anyone who plays them. Ironically the Shadowrun games never grabbed my attention, though I don't doubt my local used bookstore probably has a dozen and a half books for Shadowrun... but after getting an iTunes gift card for Christmas I decided to give the iOS version of Shadowrun Returns a try. When we got back from Florida I downloaded the Steam version.

Good gameplay and an interesting setting already have my attention, but giving players the tools to craft their own campaigns sealed the deal.

1. The Secret World http://store.steampowered.com/app/2.....snr=1_7_15__13

Because I didn't rant enough about it last time, this is probably one of my favorite games from recent history... even more shocking that its an EA title (and I freaking hate EA), but dammit I have to give them credit, they got this one right.

An MMO with a very deep and engaging storyline, total freedom for character customization, and a setting that mixes high fantasy and science fiction in a modern day setting (which is enough to get me to geek out by itself), the Secret World has me by the short hairs and it's not likely to let go anytime soon. If you want to know more, check my last Journal where I rant about it for about fifteen paragraphs or so.


And yeah, thats my top eleven Steam games. Hope you enjoyed listening to me geek out and maybe found something new and fun to try.

So... about a week ago, Monday the 13th, I got a copy of Funcom's MMO The Secret World and after a bit of disgust at realizing I bought something that was attached to EA (I didn't realize it until I loaded it up and saw the logo) I rolled a character and started playing.

Its been ten days now.

According to Steam I have spent about 87 hours playing this game since I bought it ten days ago. Thats eighty seven hours out of two hundred and forty hours.

For some perspective on that...

I've clocked 91 hours playing Elder Scrolls VI: Oblivion.
I've clocked 76 hours playing Fallout 3.
I've clocked 120 hours in Fallout New Vegas.
I've clocked 340 hours in Skyrim.

So yeah. In ten days I've played this more than Fallout 3, almost as much as Oblivion, close to Fallout New Vegas, and about one forth as many hours as I've put into Skyrim.

In ten DAYS I have played this as much or more than some of my favorite Bethesda games.

I dunno how much better of an endorsement I can give this game. It has me hook, line, and sinker.

Its probably that it just happens to hit all the right buttons with me, which I will list below.


Setting and premise:

Its 2011. You woke up one night in your apartment after having a bizarre dream and discovered you now have supernatural powers. A week later a strange person comes to your front door and recruits you to either the Illuminati, the Templar, or the Order of the Dragon. From there you have to master your newfound Anima powers and use them to further your group's goals while indirectly saving the world from supernatural threats, mad sorcerers, undead monsters, ancient evils, and freakin' Chuthulu himself.

Your travels will take you from the misty forests of Maine to the sunbaked ruins of Egypt to the haunted mountains of Transylvania to the gorgeous city of Venice and more. During this time you learn to channel your anima through a weapon to achieve superhuman feats. Whether this weapon is a melee tool like a sword or hammer, a gun (in which your anima becomes it's ammunition and is fired like bullets), or even a fetish or icon that allows you to use magic you will use to to fight back the dark forces amassing against humanity.



Character Creation/Customization:

You can only be human, though you can choose a lot from there. Height, facial shape, basic outfit, hairstyle, hair and eye color, the usual. Once in the game however you can buy or earn a wide variety of clothing for your character. They don't have everything, but I found an outfit for each of my characters that I like.

You choose one of three factions to join during character creation.

- The Illuminati: Sex, drugs, and Rockafeller. These guys have been driving politics and corporations since before America was anything but a few British colonies. They're the guys who pull the hidden strings, who own entire states worth of politicians, and who help decide elections, all in the name of their bottom line. The Illuminati is a corporation at it's heart. When they terminate an employee, they don't mix a metaphor. Their 'labrynth' is hidden underneath Manhattan Island in New York City.

- The Templar. Formerly the Knights Templar, they've loosened the religious ideals in favor of saving humanity as a whole from the monsters who would devour, corrupt, or enslave them. Sacrifices must be made to save humanity as a whole, but they believe in their goal. The Templar are hardcore rivals of the Illuminati, eager to show them up at every opportunity. They're based out of London, England.

- The Dragon. The Cult of the Dragon breeds butterflies, throws coins, and rolls dice, ever seeking the patterns hidden in chaos. Their agents are sent out as agents of change. They are the wrench in the plans, the butterfly that causes hurricanes, the coin toss that decides fates, the dice that turn a prince into a pauper. They're the most mutable of the societies, constantly changing and shifting as needed. Currently they're hidden in Seoul.


Classes:

Three words: There aren't any.

In the intro quest you get sent to a training room and get to experiment with weapons, three types with three sub-types, and then pick one as your starting weapon. Players can stick with it or pick up a second one as they go. There are NO classes. You can mix and match as you like and use whatever suits you. Want to carry a pair of handguns and a hammer for smashing the monsters that get too close? Fine. Want to fry your enemies with a magic fireball and dice up the remains with a sword? Go for it! Have an assault rifle to shoot holes through a swarm of zombies before conjuring a puddle of boiling blood under their feet? Godspeed ya mad bastard!

There's three main types, with three subtypes for each as I said above.

Melee:
Swords: One handed sword weapons. Mostly a defensive weapon that is used to block attacks as well as perform AoE attacks.
Fist Weapons: Claws, brass knuckles, and so on. Land a devastating combo and then scrape your claws together so the sparks cauterize your own wounds to heal you. You learn healing abilities with these as well as some powerful fighting techniques.
Hammers: Technically this also includes large axes as well as makeshift weapons, but I guess 'random two handed smashy things' was too wordy. This is all offense. Hammer in the morning, hammer in the evening, hammer some shoggoth skulls.

Ranged:
Dual Pistols: This is a support weapon as much as a damage dealer. Lay down a field that weakens an enemy's defenses, launch an explosive bullet that stuns enemies, or even summon a little helper drone. A versatile weapon type that's good in many situations.
Shotgun: Groovy~ The name says it all, the classic zombie hunting tool. Blow your foes into chunky meatybits. Pure offense and very messy.
Assault rifle: Somehow you get healing skills (don't ask me how, this is one of the ones I didn't try), but everything from the popular black military issue rifles to the fan favorite AK-47. Dakka!

Magic:
Elementism: All offense here guys. Elementism is what people think of when they think MMO magic. Fireballs, lighting bolts, and more. Blow a zombie's head right off with a well placed blast of flame, then electrocute his buddies.
Chaos: A more defensive school of magic, sort of magically enhanced martial arts. Land combos charged with chaotic energy and conjure weapons from your thoughts, then dodge an incoming attack by tweaking probability so that it -just- misses you.
Blood: My personal favorite, a darker school of magic that focuses on inflicting disease and suffering on your foes while protecting yourself with an armor of coagulated blood. Sacrifice your own health to power up your magic for a short time as well.

There are also auxiliary weapons that you can unlock by doing quests for them, but I haven't managed to get any practice with them. I have one of them now, the Quantum Bracelet, but I haven't managed to get enough points to actually equip it yet. The other ones are a whip, rocket launcher, flamethrower, and chainsaw.

... yes, you can have a chainsaw and a shotgun. Like I said, Groovy~



Leveling:

As for leveling your character... you don't, sort of. You won't see a level 20 Illuminati guy or a level 50 Templar in this game. You gain AP and SP as you go along, earning them by killing monsters and such.

You spend AP to get abilities related to your weapons (you have to have the right weapon equipped to use them though. You can't use pistol attacks with a shotgun or blood magic with a sword... unless you have both weapons equipped anyways).

SP is used to unlock weapon skill levels and the ability to equip better talismans (armor). The stronger you are with a weapon the better quality weapons you'll be able to equip and use as well as getting other bonuses. For example:

- The higher your offensive skill is with blood magic the bigger a damage buff you get while Blood Sacrifice is active.

- Points spent in healing with claw weapons make every claw heal give you 'Warmth', which increases how much healing your abilities do.


Combat:

Fighting is a mix of classic MMO stuff with some action elements. You use your abilities to deal damage and dodge around enemies as you go. Some enemies will telegraph their moves (shown as a white outline on the ground). Get out of the outline before their attack goes off and you can dodge it completely, though if you don't it'll usually do a hell of a lot of damage, inflict status effects, and more. I rather like this as it means I can avoid the nastier attacks if I stay on my toes, rather than just hacking away as they hack away and whoever hacks the best wins.


Questing:

It wouldn't be an MMO without it and we know it... but this is where TSW really shines.

Every major quest opens with a fully voiced cutscene showing your character interacting with the questgiver and giving you some backstory into the quest, what they want, and why they want it.

Quests are separated into tiers. Sometimes they're just a few tiers and short and simple... Go here, kill X baddies, do something, turn in for shiny things.

Others... well... this is where it gets fun~

Action quests are the typical MMO fare. Go beat up a bunch of monsters for fun and profit. Often they'll have you do other things such as collect items for body parts from them for some purpose or try to lure out some bigger monster, but the main focus of these quests is fighting and combat.

Sabotage quests require stealth and cunning. In these quests you cannot cannot CANNOT get caught! Either you'll have to start over (the guards will throw you out), or you'll have to start over (the monsters will go 'MANFLESH' and then bleeding happens). The goal of these involves finding a solution to a problem. Monsters can't see you if you walk behind them, so if you pay attention you can avoid combat completely... and then you step into the path of a security camera, step on a land mine, set off an electronic eye, or something goes wrong and it's a mad dash while spamming healing/defensive spells to get to safety or at least closer to your goal before you go belly up. Frustrating at times, but very satisfying once you finish.

Investigation quests are my favorites. TSW is all about mystery and intrigue and these quests actually require research and thought. No quest helper for you guys! If you want to find the secret of the Illuminati tunnels you'll have to figure out what that scrap of paper with a reference to Psalms means and how it relates to the tiles on the floor with letters on them on your own! Even if you don't get the Steam version of the game it comes with it's own built in browser and it fully expects you to use it to find these out. One quest had me looking up the ISBN number of a book on Amazon.com because it was the password to a guy's computer, another had me going to a fully designed website for the Orochi Group (a fictional company from TSW) to find a link to the website of one of their subsidiaries (also fictional) so that I could figure out how to repair an antenna at an airbase and spy on transmissions.

The investigation quests are amazing, they make you think, which is a hell of a change to normal MMO fare. You may have the greatest sword of all swords, once wielded by the lost king of swords, but unless you can figure out what the four statues are for and what you have to do with them to get the door open you're shit outta luck, raid gear or not.

Lastly, the Main (story) quests. These are HUGE quests that follow the storyline for an entire region of the game and stretch from the moment you first set foot there until you leave. They're the missions handed to you by your superiors in whichever conspiracy you belong to. My current one, which is in Transylvania, is 29 tiers long. The first one for Maine took me an entire week to complete.


Needless to say, this game gets a definite recommendation from me. If you have the cash (about $30 for the main game, $50 for the version with all the current DLC) its well worth the price. I haven't been able to stop playing it since I got it and now I've got one of my friends hooked as well.

I don't like EA, but they have a real winner with this one. I have to give them that.

http://www.thesecretworld.com/