After posting the list for the year of the backlog I used a random chooser to select my next game and Batman came up. It seemed like great timing since I just got a Wii U and Batman Arkham City for it. I'm about 67% completed and am hoping to have it done by Friday just in time for Four in February!
Out of the 70 or so games I have randomly chosen 8 semi-finalists and am going to narrow it down to four for February.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
2013 The year of the Backlog!
So in an endeavor to prepare for the inevitable console war 2013/14 I've decided to really try to clear up my backlog of games. Through various impulse buys, sales and other poor spending purchases I have amassed a massive backlog of games. I have a huge collection of steam games, a myriad of PSN titles, and a metric shit ton of hard pressed discs. Add to that my burgeoning collection of portable games (DS, PSP, Vita, Etc) and it spells out a lot of gaming with a minimal amount of gaming time.,
To compound the problem, I also have a long standing account with www.gameaccess.ca (a service I heartily recommend!) and the industry does not seem inclined to stop publishing good games that I want to play! I have 3 or 4 titles on long-term pre-order currently, including Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider.
To sum up, I want to try to focus on clearing as many games on my backlog that I can, even if it means primarily focusing on console gaming. I am slowly starting to get back into PC gaming, largely aided by a decent XPS laptop and a wireless Microsoft receiver which allows me to turn my laptop into a console with the advantage of steam sales. I still like portable gaming as well but it`s very cyclical. Console games are where a lion`s share of my game time goes, so that will be the focus.
This is my list, sorted by release date, of games to be completed. It is about 95% thorough, only missing a half dozen PSN titles that I have acquired through virtue of having a PS+ membership, which I`m currently not counting until the list is pruned a bit. It also doesn`t account for the inevitable purchases that will continue to happen due to sales that are too good to pass up.
To compound the problem, I also have a long standing account with www.gameaccess.ca (a service I heartily recommend!) and the industry does not seem inclined to stop publishing good games that I want to play! I have 3 or 4 titles on long-term pre-order currently, including Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider.
To sum up, I want to try to focus on clearing as many games on my backlog that I can, even if it means primarily focusing on console gaming. I am slowly starting to get back into PC gaming, largely aided by a decent XPS laptop and a wireless Microsoft receiver which allows me to turn my laptop into a console with the advantage of steam sales. I still like portable gaming as well but it`s very cyclical. Console games are where a lion`s share of my game time goes, so that will be the focus.
This is my list, sorted by release date, of games to be completed. It is about 95% thorough, only missing a half dozen PSN titles that I have acquired through virtue of having a PS+ membership, which I`m currently not counting until the list is pruned a bit. It also doesn`t account for the inevitable purchases that will continue to happen due to sales that are too good to pass up.
| GAME NAME | Date of release | |||||||||||||
| Condemned | 16-Nov-05 | |||||||||||||
| Tomb Raider | 07-Apr-06 | |||||||||||||
| X Men | 16-May-06 | |||||||||||||
| Dead Rising | 08-Aug-06 | |||||||||||||
| Just Cause | 27-Sep-06 | |||||||||||||
| Resistance | 17-Nov-06 | |||||||||||||
| Legend of Zelda | 19-Nov-06 | |||||||||||||
| Eternal Sonata | 17-Sep-07 | |||||||||||||
| Crash of the titans | 04-Oct-07 | |||||||||||||
| Ratchet & Clank tools of destruction | 23-Oct-07 | |||||||||||||
| No More Heroes | 22-Jan-08 | |||||||||||||
| Culdecept Saga | 05-Feb-08 | |||||||||||||
| Turning Point | 26-Feb-08 | |||||||||||||
| Condemned 2 | 11-Mar-08 | |||||||||||||
| Haze | 20-Mar-08 | |||||||||||||
| Viking | 25-Mar-08 | |||||||||||||
| Metal Gear | 12-Jun-08 | |||||||||||||
| Operation Darkness | 24-Jun-08 | |||||||||||||
| Too Human | 19-Aug-08 | |||||||||||||
| ratchet & clank : Quest for booty | 21-Aug-08 | |||||||||||||
| crash Mind over Mutant | 07-Oct-08 | |||||||||||||
| Fallout 3 | 28-Oct-08 | |||||||||||||
| Valkyrie Chronicles | 04-Nov-08 | |||||||||||||
| Banjoe And Kazooie | 11-Nov-08 | |||||||||||||
| Eat Lead | 26-Feb-09 | |||||||||||||
| Halo Wars | 03-Mar-09 | |||||||||||||
| Mad World | 10-Mar-09 | |||||||||||||
| Stormrise | 24-Mar-09 | |||||||||||||
| Bionic Commando | 19-May-09 | |||||||||||||
| Damnation | 22-May-09 | |||||||||||||
| Prototype | 09-Jun-09 | |||||||||||||
| Shadow Complex | 19-Aug-09 | |||||||||||||
| Demon's Souls | 06-Oct-09 | |||||||||||||
| ratchet and clank crack in time | 27-Oct-09 | |||||||||||||
| White Knight Chronicles | 02-Feb-10 | |||||||||||||
| Deadly Premonition | 17-Feb-10 | |||||||||||||
| Final Fantasy 13 | 09-Mar-10 | |||||||||||||
| Yakuza 3 | 09-Mar-10 | |||||||||||||
| Metro 2033 | 16-Mar-10 | |||||||||||||
| Just Cause 2 | 23-Mar-10 | |||||||||||||
| Nier | 27-Apr-10 | |||||||||||||
| Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands | 18-May-10 | |||||||||||||
| Transformers | 22-Jun-10 | |||||||||||||
| Singularity | 19-Jul-10 | |||||||||||||
| Dead Rising 2 | 28-Sep-10 | |||||||||||||
| Morph X | 28-Sep-10 | |||||||||||||
| Fallout New Vegas | 19-Oct-10 | |||||||||||||
| Vanquish | 19-Oct-10 | |||||||||||||
| Red Dead | 26-Oct-10 | |||||||||||||
| Blood Drive | 02-Nov-10 | |||||||||||||
| Two Worlds 2 | 25-Jan-11 | |||||||||||||
| Knight’s Contract | 22-Feb-11 | |||||||||||||
| Dragon Age 2 | 08-Mar-11 | |||||||||||||
| Torchlight | 09-Mar-11 | |||||||||||||
| Beyond good and evil | 15-Mar-11 | |||||||||||||
| LA Noire | 17-May-11 | |||||||||||||
| Alice | 14-Jun-11 | |||||||||||||
| Team Ico | 22-Sep-11 | |||||||||||||
| Rage | 04-Oct-11 | |||||||||||||
| Spiderman | 04-Oct-11 | |||||||||||||
| Arkham City | 18-Oct-11 | |||||||||||||
| Uncharted 3 | 01-Nov-11 | |||||||||||||
| Alan Wake | 22-Feb-12 | |||||||||||||
| Mass Effect 3 | 06-Mar-12 | |||||||||||||
| Prototype 2 | 24-Apr-12 | |||||||||||||
| Max Payne 3 | 15-May-12 | |||||||||||||
| Papa & Yo | 14-Aug-12 | |||||||||||||
| Mark of the Ninja | 07-Sep-12 | |||||||||||||
| Fable The Journey | 09-Oct-12 | |||||||||||||
| Medal of Honor | 23-Oct-12 | |||||||||||||
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
To the depths of Hades and back
God of War.
The very name echos among the Playstation brand enthusiasts, marketing gurus, and video game fans everywhere.
The first god of war was released on the PS2 in 2005, many, many years before I became a multi platform gamer, and like so many Sony games at the time, I missed out on it. I would like to say that it's a game that I always planned on going back to, that it sat on my "pile of shame", waiting to be experienced, but the truth is, the extremely limited experience I had with the Playstation 2 at the time was enough to keep me loyal to Microsoft and Nintendo.
Fast forward 4 years, and a few consoles later, the god of war collection is released, featuring both God of War, AND God of War 2, as well as some bonus features that I could not care less about. Naturally, it piqued my curiosity, and during a small sale at Toys R Us, I grabbed a copy for $29.99.
As part of my new years resolutions, I'm endeavoring to finish no less than one game a month that I own and have never played. Because this collection is massive, I utilize a random chooser to help me find a game to play, free of bias and personal choice. God of war was the first, so I dived in to it on New Years Eve, and tearing through it.
I'm not going to bother reviewing a game that was released 5 years ago, but I would like to share a few thoughts on the game.
Overall, I'm impressed with the whole experience. It's an older, last generation game, so naturally the graphics are below current standards, even though the box art boasts "Remastered in High Definition", but it is at least comparable to low budget, current gen games.
Graphics aside, the game play is fairly standard, similar to every "god of war clone" that has come out in the last five years, as well as dozens of hack and slash games that have come before it.
What really sells the game for me, aside from the wonderful greek mythology that it oozes from its pores is the way the game presents itself to you. There is little in the way of tutorials, at least in the sense that we have come to know them now. Occasionally a scroll will pop up explaining how to do a light and heavy attack, or how to grab onto a rope and swing around, but other than that, the game expects that you've played games before, and know how to figure things out.
This figure it out attitude carries over to level exploration and puzzle solving as well, which is both its strength and (in my eyes) weakness. Video games of this generation very rarely deviate from either a strict linear path, or a devout non linear path, but GoW manages to somehow do both. In several of the games areas I was presented with branching paths, with no clear indication of which was the right way to go. Several times even the wrong path yielded action and rewards, and usually deposited me back close to where I started anyways. The right path would then of course become clear, but very rarely did I feel that i had wasted time in going the way I did.
Puzzles are also very similar, in that the game does not make it explicitly clear on what it expects you to do, but the puzzles are also just simple enough that a non puzzle minded gamer like myself was able to figure them out, subsequently boosting my self esteem. There was one particular puzzle that I thought clever and devious, so much so that I was assuring myself that this was a "secret" area, a special reward for my forward thinking. It wasn't until I had returned to the branching path that took me here that I realized that this was in fact, the specific path I was meant to take in order to progress the level.
Huh. Not as smart as I gave myself credit for.
A few of the puzzles were a bit too much for me, but I blame my personal failings on that, and aside from that, the only real complaints I had about the game involve some very specific platforming areas, and one particular section in which I was pushing a cage up a hill.
There have been many games that have been lauded by critics and laymen alike, and often times I shake my head in amazement, because I fail to see what they see. Halo, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto 3, and more, are all good games, but none of them changed the way I look at gaming in any significant way, but after playing the first GoW, I can truly understand why it was such a huge deal.
The very name echos among the Playstation brand enthusiasts, marketing gurus, and video game fans everywhere.
The first god of war was released on the PS2 in 2005, many, many years before I became a multi platform gamer, and like so many Sony games at the time, I missed out on it. I would like to say that it's a game that I always planned on going back to, that it sat on my "pile of shame", waiting to be experienced, but the truth is, the extremely limited experience I had with the Playstation 2 at the time was enough to keep me loyal to Microsoft and Nintendo.
Fast forward 4 years, and a few consoles later, the god of war collection is released, featuring both God of War, AND God of War 2, as well as some bonus features that I could not care less about. Naturally, it piqued my curiosity, and during a small sale at Toys R Us, I grabbed a copy for $29.99.
As part of my new years resolutions, I'm endeavoring to finish no less than one game a month that I own and have never played. Because this collection is massive, I utilize a random chooser to help me find a game to play, free of bias and personal choice. God of war was the first, so I dived in to it on New Years Eve, and tearing through it.
I'm not going to bother reviewing a game that was released 5 years ago, but I would like to share a few thoughts on the game.
Overall, I'm impressed with the whole experience. It's an older, last generation game, so naturally the graphics are below current standards, even though the box art boasts "Remastered in High Definition", but it is at least comparable to low budget, current gen games.
Graphics aside, the game play is fairly standard, similar to every "god of war clone" that has come out in the last five years, as well as dozens of hack and slash games that have come before it.
What really sells the game for me, aside from the wonderful greek mythology that it oozes from its pores is the way the game presents itself to you. There is little in the way of tutorials, at least in the sense that we have come to know them now. Occasionally a scroll will pop up explaining how to do a light and heavy attack, or how to grab onto a rope and swing around, but other than that, the game expects that you've played games before, and know how to figure things out.
This figure it out attitude carries over to level exploration and puzzle solving as well, which is both its strength and (in my eyes) weakness. Video games of this generation very rarely deviate from either a strict linear path, or a devout non linear path, but GoW manages to somehow do both. In several of the games areas I was presented with branching paths, with no clear indication of which was the right way to go. Several times even the wrong path yielded action and rewards, and usually deposited me back close to where I started anyways. The right path would then of course become clear, but very rarely did I feel that i had wasted time in going the way I did.
Puzzles are also very similar, in that the game does not make it explicitly clear on what it expects you to do, but the puzzles are also just simple enough that a non puzzle minded gamer like myself was able to figure them out, subsequently boosting my self esteem. There was one particular puzzle that I thought clever and devious, so much so that I was assuring myself that this was a "secret" area, a special reward for my forward thinking. It wasn't until I had returned to the branching path that took me here that I realized that this was in fact, the specific path I was meant to take in order to progress the level.
Huh. Not as smart as I gave myself credit for.
A few of the puzzles were a bit too much for me, but I blame my personal failings on that, and aside from that, the only real complaints I had about the game involve some very specific platforming areas, and one particular section in which I was pushing a cage up a hill.
There have been many games that have been lauded by critics and laymen alike, and often times I shake my head in amazement, because I fail to see what they see. Halo, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto 3, and more, are all good games, but none of them changed the way I look at gaming in any significant way, but after playing the first GoW, I can truly understand why it was such a huge deal.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
FW: Epic
Below is an email I sent to Joey about my first nights experiences with Demon’s Souls. It’s not in the format I usually write on the blog, but I figured it captures my excitement for the game.
One thing I’d like to add is the online component. Every now and again you’ll see the ghostly outlines of other players running around, fighting, dying. It’s jarring at first, but eventually it kind of builds this weird sense of being alone, but also being around allies. All these people are going through the same struggles as you, but you can’t interact with them at all.
Also, there’s a warning system that allows players to leave glyphs warning against traps, ambushes, enemies, and a ton of other things. You can rate these warnings which gives the original message leaver a health boost.
Lastly, if a player dies, he leaves a bloodstain, which serves as a spiritual “imprint” showing how that player died, which you can replay to get hints as to the hazards ahead.
All in all, Atlus made an INCREDIBLE game, that’s both familiar, and completely unique.
Demon’s Souls kicks ass.
Graphics are beautiful, combat is realistic-(ish), challenging and rewarding. The game is truly non-linear, in that it throws you into a massive area and says “You figure it out, dummy.” No maps, No Radar, no guidance on where to go. The entire time I was playing I was worried about dying at any second, which happened a LOT. The nice thing about death however is that the demons you’ve already killed are reborn where they died. You keep all your items, you just lose all your souls.
First moment I knew I’d enjoy the game is when I stumbled on a message saying “You need to be soul level 50 ahead” and saw some armored dude with a footmans lance. I figured, I’ve seen a lot of bloodstains earlier on from people that got killed by weak enemies, how hard could this fucker be? So I charged him, got instantly impaled and died. :D Then I wanted my souls back, so I rushed in to where he killed me, touched my bloodstains and regained my souls. He didn’t care for it so he started chasing me. And chasing me. And chasing me. He, being an demon, easily outpaced me once my stamina dropped out, and impaled me again, Fortunately, where I died this time was away from his respawn point and I was able to harvest my souls.
The point where I realized I really liked this game was when I spent twenty to thirty minutes hacking my way through the castle, finally found something in the form of an armored knight surrounded by demons. I firebombed them, hacked the rest up. The dude said “thanks for helping me, here’s a looking glass, now I’m outtie” and just stalked off, hacking other demons up in his wake. I followed him for a bit, until he started going where I had already been. The area I found him in was a complete dead end, and aside from the looking glass, there was absolutely no point to the time it took me to get to him. Also, the looking glass isn’t magic, and he didn’t give me any quests. It just let me see things farther away. :D
The point I fell in love with the game is when I finally found my way to an outside area of the castle. I saw a pair of HUGE dragons lounging on a Cliffside, lazing about like cats. There was a warning on the ground (as if I needed it) to not go forward unless I had fire protection. I didn’t. There was a small side path along the cliff below them so I crept along there, found a body with some treasure and snagged it. At that point the dragon took notice of me and the cliff face started trembling. I immediately started running back, almost mis-stepped and fell headlong off the cliff. I barely cleared the cliff face before the dragon let out a gout of flame at my back. The flame BARELY touched me, but the heat was enough to leave me a sliver away from death. I looked at Jenn and asked her “Am I supposed to fight this thing or something?? What the fuck do I DO?!” No clue. I backtracked a bit and found some stairs that led to a long stretch of wall (the parapet? Like, the area where archers repel attackers). There was a gauntlet of warriors along here, not a problem for a bad ass knight like me. Except as soon as I walked out, I realized the dragons had a perfect line of sight on me, and didn’t appreciate me trying to rush the bridge. It turned into a game of cat and mouse where I would run out, poke a demon warrior with my sword, then hightail it back before the dragon had enough time to rush me. I’d deal with the demon in the closed in area that the dragon couldn’t get into and repeat. I had to do this about 5 times, then I had a clear run. I fucking hightailed it as fast as I could, holding my breath, and I JUST barely cleared the other side before dragon wheeled around and unleashed his attack. I won! Although at this point I wasn’t sure if I had just snuck past a mid-level boss only to stumble onto the higher level boss. There was a lever, so naturally I pulled it. It opened a massive gate, and then I just kept going. The next area as a staircase leading down, ringing the square tower. A little exhilarated from my flight from the dragon, I Wasn’t as cautious as I should have been, took a mis-step, and plummeted to my death. Countless demon souls, escaped being roasted by a dragon twice, and I met my fate from being clumsy. L Needless to say I didn’t attempt to go back for my souls. Fortunately, the gate I opened lead to a massive demon right where you teleport in to the area, so I didn’t have to try to fight my way back.
The demon “boss” was cool. He was a massive pile of black ooze that ballista bolts out of him. He had a mass of kite shields all over him, and would spawn little oozes that had kite shields and little spears as well. The trick was to get behind him where he had no shields. It took about 20-30 minutes of running in, striking, pulling back out. Tactical, chaotic, satisfying. I beat him, and as such regained my body!
Up until this point, dying was at worst, an inconvenience. I lost all my souls, which I use to improve stats, upgrade and repair weapons, and buy supplies, but since the demons re-spawn, I could build up my souls back just fighting to my death site, and if I find my body, essentially double my souls. NOW if I die, I lose my body, which cuts my total health in half, and I have to go through a rigamarole to get it back. This game is SICK awesome.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
And so the adventure begins
If you're here reading this blog, you probably know that I'm a huge geek. I love geek things. Some, not all. Video games, fantasy novels, podcasts, but my true passion is the Dungeons and Dragons. I've talked about it a bit before here, and on the podcast, but mostly it was just a pie in the sky dream. That has changed! I have a regular gaming group who seem to enjoy the game, and we've had two actual gaming sessions and they're coming back for a third! Because I love D&D and I love writing, I'm going to combine the two things and write about D&D! And so it begins..
First I'll introduce the motley cast of characters:
Name: Lix
Race: Changeling
Class: Rogue
Background:
Lix has a few vague memories about her family, mostly happy ones, but after that it's a gray area. She remembers being forcibly removed from them, but she doesn't know why. From there she remembers being lost in the streets of the strange city of Gemdeep and quickly having to learn skills to survive. She honed her street skills, using her innate abilities of disguise to master the arts of subterfuge and stealth, becoming deadly with her blade and shuriken. It wasn't long before her skill was recognized and she found herself a patron, a merchant who made his fortune financing exploration teams into ancient ruins and traded on the artifacts recovered. He required an agent to monitor the loyalty and abilities of those he employed, and so it was a natural fit for Lix. She was able to rasie out of the gutters into a life of relative comfort, and earn an honest keep for herself .
Name: Light
Race: Tiefling
Class: Warlock
Background:
The Illegitamite son of a whore from the dock district of Gemdeep, the life of this young tiefling was a struggle from the beginning. His mother neither wanted, nor cared for the boy, but out of some twisted sense of duty, kept him around anyways. Raised communially by the whores his mother worked with, he grew up without a father figure. The whores his mother worked with all had different tales of who his father was, but the image he took to heart was one of a dashing and brave treasure hunter. Wanting to emulate this beleived image of his father, Light took to "investigating" the cellars and basements of local shop owners, usually at the prodding of the older children in the docks, who fancied themselves local gangs. The "investigations" usually ended badly for Light, either being locked in the dark cellar as a joke, or resulting in a severe beating from the gangs taking his collected loot, or from the shop owners, or sometimes both. At around age 10 or 11, perhaps by chance, or fate, Light broke into the cellar of an elderly shop owner who kept an altar to ancient devils in his basement. The shopowner professed to have known he was coming, and indeed had waited a long time for his arrival. From there, Light was trained in the dark arts, embracing his heritage, and learning to master the power of his devilish ancestors. He kept true to his desires to become a treasure hunter, and as his last act before death, his master arranged for him to become an agent for a local merchant who made fortunes of such aspiring treasure hunters.
Name: Patrin
Race: Dragonborn
Class: Ranger
Background:
Patrin was born and rasied on the outskirts of the Evermire Swamp, several days travel from the luxuries of the city of Gemdeep. He had the misfortune of being born without a clan, without blood kin, and without a true family. He was raised by a gruff human, a self appointed guardian and scout of the Everrmire swamp, who trained him in the ways of nature and survival. An expert bowman, he imparted many skills to Patrin, but was unable to provide him with any information regarding his true heritage, or history. Fascinated with finding out more about where his kin could be, Patrin used the supply runs to Gemdeep to spend time researching his clan, though it took many years until he finally secured enough information to have a starting point. Almost immediately after the death of his elderly mentor, Patrin left his home to spend as much time as needed in Gemdeep. Deep within the ancient libraries of the temple of Bahamut, he found reference to an ancient and forgotten temple deep within the swamps, populated by an ancient clan of green skinned Dragonborn. Estatic with this new lead, Patrin left immediately to the swamps in search of his heritage.
The Party:
Having spies everywhere, Lix's Master had learned of Patrin's attempts at locating this temple. Indeed, the rumour of this ancient order of Dragonborn had been known to him for ages, but he had never had enough information to locate it. Due to some unforeseen "accidents" that had befallen many of his trusted field agents, the merchant, Lorona Rezea, was forced to rely on a new contact, a tiefling he had never worked with. Realizing the potential gain from this temple, he realized it was imperative that he have someone he trust accompany this new agent. He sent a messenger to arrange a meeting between Lix and Light at a local tavern within the merchant district of Gemdeep. The two met, and promptly began tracking the Dragonborns trail. Despite being a fledgeling ranger, the Dragonborn had little concern for covering his tracks, so the two were able to follow with relative ease. Lix and Light found the Dragonborn, several days into the swamp, coming upon him immediately after brutal altercation with a group of kobolds.
The leader of the kobolds had been captured by Patrin, and after some introduction between the three adventurers, the three interrogated the creature. They learned that the creature had been sent from its master, from an ancient forest located to the south of the Evermire swamps. The kobolds had become lost in the swamp after their map had suffered some fire damage, and they too were looking for the ancient temple, though their motivations were unclear, outside of the fact they were instructed by their master. The group released the kobold, only to have Light kill him as he fled, and from a bond formed of necessity, the three set out, deeper into the swamp.
Swamp travel is seldom easy, even to one such as Patrin, so at the behest of his newfound traveling companions, they took rest in a relatively dry clearing, amidst some ancient trees. Within a few moments of resting, the rogue, Lix noticed an abnormality in the local wildlife. Several large lizards had been littered around the small clearing, seeming devoid of both life, and blood. The dried out husks caused the rogue some worry, but before she was able to warn her companions, the source of these creatures death became apparent. As she dived behind one of the large trees to find a vantage, three large, bat-like creatures with foot long proboscis flew out of a hollow in the tree opposite her.
The party sprang into action, and althoug the creatures continued to swarm Patrin after initially drawing blood from her, they were able to defeat the creatures. Lix was able to show off her prowess in the battle by climbing up the tree, and hanging upside down from a branch, stabbing one of the creatures directly in the back of its head. Patrin, after wrestling one of the creatures from her neck, showed off her prowess with the bow by firing two arrows directly at it, though one veered of course, the other struck true. Light relied on his dark and fell magic to down the third, and thus the party defeated the first foes they fought as a group. Though it wasn't formally discussed, it was understood that a bond had now been formed, through the blood of their enemies.
From there the group continued on, engaging the more mundane hazards of the swamp, insects, ankle to waist deep swamp water, and the general lethargy that hours in a swamp can cause. The next major landmark on their map was a deep and ancient ravine, once a mighty river roared through it, but now, it was a dried out bed for underbrush and other creatures. A narrow tree crossed the ravine, which the group bravely tried to cross. Lix, the most agile of the group attempted first, and narrowly made it across. Second was Light who, as the least physically able, attempted to cross unsuccsessfully and tumbled down. Patrin, being the most compassionate attempted to climb down the side, but also fell. After ensuring her allies were ok, Lix lowered down a rope, with a snicker. As Light was acending the rope, a small and violent creature leapt out from the shadows at Patrin, grasping at her throat with his long, powerful arms. As the creature began choking Patrin, Lix bravely leapt down the ravine via the rope. Unfortunately for Lix, her agility did not match her bravery, and she as well tumbled into the ravine. The party engaged the Choker in combat and managed to defeat it, though Patrin took some painful injuries. Within the creatures lair, Lix managed to find a suit of enchanted mail, and a small bag of coins.
Rattled from their experience, and with all the party wounded from the fall and the encounter, the group decided to camp for the night. Fortunately, they were able to rest without much trouble, and summarily continued on with their journey.
After several more hours of swamp travel, they were forced to cross a wide, slow moving river. There was great tension with the crossing, as they were unsure of what the murky waters contained. Being a forward thinking group, Patrin was first to cross, taking with her one end of a rope. From there, Light pulled himself across the river as Lix and Patrin each held an end. Lix entered the water with great apprehension, and despite a moment of panic as a bit of weed tangled her leg, she crossed with little trouble.
The day passed on uneventfully, and as dusk began to settle in, the group came upon a small hut, deep within the swamp. An ancient looking half-elf in stained robes greeted them amidst the darkness, beckoning them to join them. They entered the small hut warily, where the half-elf introduced herself as Lissa, and prophetically informed them that while they were nearing their destination, their journey was only beginning. She deigned not to answer their questions, and before they were able to press her, she used a magical powder to put them into a deep slumber.
As they woke the next morning, they discovered her gone, but all of their gear had been neatly stacked next to them as they slept, with scrolls gently laid atop them, adressed to each of them personally. As they read the scrolls, they exchanged furitive glances, and stowed them away on their persons, declining to share the contents with each other. Before they were put into the enchanted slumber, Lissa had provided them with a more accurate map, and a specific route to get them to their destination. Off they went, with a renewed sense of direction and vigor.
Around midday, the sounds of battle assaulted them, so they cautiously approached a large clearing. Sending Lix into scout, the other 2 remained back. The scene before them was largely one of carnage. 3 Lizardfolk warriors were standing above the body of a massive crocodile, with the bloody and chewed up bodies of several more surrounding it. Patrin was elected the spokesperson for the group, as he spoke draconic. Negotiations were initially tense, as the Lizardfolk felt that the party had been trespassing upon their ancestrial hunting grounds, but Patrin was able to negotiate safe passage in exchange for the armor they had found earlier. Not content to give up their hard-earned rewards, Light abandoned negotiation and attacked the nearest of the Lizardfolk. It was a fierce and pitched battle, and one that almost cost the party dearly, had there not been intervention in the form of a brave young paladin who charged into the clearing, healing the downed adventurers and claiming the lives of the lizardfolk.
Stay tuned for more adventures!
First I'll introduce the motley cast of characters:
Name: Lix
Race: Changeling
Class: Rogue
Background:
Lix has a few vague memories about her family, mostly happy ones, but after that it's a gray area. She remembers being forcibly removed from them, but she doesn't know why. From there she remembers being lost in the streets of the strange city of Gemdeep and quickly having to learn skills to survive. She honed her street skills, using her innate abilities of disguise to master the arts of subterfuge and stealth, becoming deadly with her blade and shuriken. It wasn't long before her skill was recognized and she found herself a patron, a merchant who made his fortune financing exploration teams into ancient ruins and traded on the artifacts recovered. He required an agent to monitor the loyalty and abilities of those he employed, and so it was a natural fit for Lix. She was able to rasie out of the gutters into a life of relative comfort, and earn an honest keep for herself .
Name: Light
Race: Tiefling
Class: Warlock
Background:
The Illegitamite son of a whore from the dock district of Gemdeep, the life of this young tiefling was a struggle from the beginning. His mother neither wanted, nor cared for the boy, but out of some twisted sense of duty, kept him around anyways. Raised communially by the whores his mother worked with, he grew up without a father figure. The whores his mother worked with all had different tales of who his father was, but the image he took to heart was one of a dashing and brave treasure hunter. Wanting to emulate this beleived image of his father, Light took to "investigating" the cellars and basements of local shop owners, usually at the prodding of the older children in the docks, who fancied themselves local gangs. The "investigations" usually ended badly for Light, either being locked in the dark cellar as a joke, or resulting in a severe beating from the gangs taking his collected loot, or from the shop owners, or sometimes both. At around age 10 or 11, perhaps by chance, or fate, Light broke into the cellar of an elderly shop owner who kept an altar to ancient devils in his basement. The shopowner professed to have known he was coming, and indeed had waited a long time for his arrival. From there, Light was trained in the dark arts, embracing his heritage, and learning to master the power of his devilish ancestors. He kept true to his desires to become a treasure hunter, and as his last act before death, his master arranged for him to become an agent for a local merchant who made fortunes of such aspiring treasure hunters.
Name: Patrin
Race: Dragonborn
Class: Ranger
Background:
Patrin was born and rasied on the outskirts of the Evermire Swamp, several days travel from the luxuries of the city of Gemdeep. He had the misfortune of being born without a clan, without blood kin, and without a true family. He was raised by a gruff human, a self appointed guardian and scout of the Everrmire swamp, who trained him in the ways of nature and survival. An expert bowman, he imparted many skills to Patrin, but was unable to provide him with any information regarding his true heritage, or history. Fascinated with finding out more about where his kin could be, Patrin used the supply runs to Gemdeep to spend time researching his clan, though it took many years until he finally secured enough information to have a starting point. Almost immediately after the death of his elderly mentor, Patrin left his home to spend as much time as needed in Gemdeep. Deep within the ancient libraries of the temple of Bahamut, he found reference to an ancient and forgotten temple deep within the swamps, populated by an ancient clan of green skinned Dragonborn. Estatic with this new lead, Patrin left immediately to the swamps in search of his heritage.
The Party:
Having spies everywhere, Lix's Master had learned of Patrin's attempts at locating this temple. Indeed, the rumour of this ancient order of Dragonborn had been known to him for ages, but he had never had enough information to locate it. Due to some unforeseen "accidents" that had befallen many of his trusted field agents, the merchant, Lorona Rezea, was forced to rely on a new contact, a tiefling he had never worked with. Realizing the potential gain from this temple, he realized it was imperative that he have someone he trust accompany this new agent. He sent a messenger to arrange a meeting between Lix and Light at a local tavern within the merchant district of Gemdeep. The two met, and promptly began tracking the Dragonborns trail. Despite being a fledgeling ranger, the Dragonborn had little concern for covering his tracks, so the two were able to follow with relative ease. Lix and Light found the Dragonborn, several days into the swamp, coming upon him immediately after brutal altercation with a group of kobolds.
The leader of the kobolds had been captured by Patrin, and after some introduction between the three adventurers, the three interrogated the creature. They learned that the creature had been sent from its master, from an ancient forest located to the south of the Evermire swamps. The kobolds had become lost in the swamp after their map had suffered some fire damage, and they too were looking for the ancient temple, though their motivations were unclear, outside of the fact they were instructed by their master. The group released the kobold, only to have Light kill him as he fled, and from a bond formed of necessity, the three set out, deeper into the swamp.
Swamp travel is seldom easy, even to one such as Patrin, so at the behest of his newfound traveling companions, they took rest in a relatively dry clearing, amidst some ancient trees. Within a few moments of resting, the rogue, Lix noticed an abnormality in the local wildlife. Several large lizards had been littered around the small clearing, seeming devoid of both life, and blood. The dried out husks caused the rogue some worry, but before she was able to warn her companions, the source of these creatures death became apparent. As she dived behind one of the large trees to find a vantage, three large, bat-like creatures with foot long proboscis flew out of a hollow in the tree opposite her.
The party sprang into action, and althoug the creatures continued to swarm Patrin after initially drawing blood from her, they were able to defeat the creatures. Lix was able to show off her prowess in the battle by climbing up the tree, and hanging upside down from a branch, stabbing one of the creatures directly in the back of its head. Patrin, after wrestling one of the creatures from her neck, showed off her prowess with the bow by firing two arrows directly at it, though one veered of course, the other struck true. Light relied on his dark and fell magic to down the third, and thus the party defeated the first foes they fought as a group. Though it wasn't formally discussed, it was understood that a bond had now been formed, through the blood of their enemies.
From there the group continued on, engaging the more mundane hazards of the swamp, insects, ankle to waist deep swamp water, and the general lethargy that hours in a swamp can cause. The next major landmark on their map was a deep and ancient ravine, once a mighty river roared through it, but now, it was a dried out bed for underbrush and other creatures. A narrow tree crossed the ravine, which the group bravely tried to cross. Lix, the most agile of the group attempted first, and narrowly made it across. Second was Light who, as the least physically able, attempted to cross unsuccsessfully and tumbled down. Patrin, being the most compassionate attempted to climb down the side, but also fell. After ensuring her allies were ok, Lix lowered down a rope, with a snicker. As Light was acending the rope, a small and violent creature leapt out from the shadows at Patrin, grasping at her throat with his long, powerful arms. As the creature began choking Patrin, Lix bravely leapt down the ravine via the rope. Unfortunately for Lix, her agility did not match her bravery, and she as well tumbled into the ravine. The party engaged the Choker in combat and managed to defeat it, though Patrin took some painful injuries. Within the creatures lair, Lix managed to find a suit of enchanted mail, and a small bag of coins.
Rattled from their experience, and with all the party wounded from the fall and the encounter, the group decided to camp for the night. Fortunately, they were able to rest without much trouble, and summarily continued on with their journey.
After several more hours of swamp travel, they were forced to cross a wide, slow moving river. There was great tension with the crossing, as they were unsure of what the murky waters contained. Being a forward thinking group, Patrin was first to cross, taking with her one end of a rope. From there, Light pulled himself across the river as Lix and Patrin each held an end. Lix entered the water with great apprehension, and despite a moment of panic as a bit of weed tangled her leg, she crossed with little trouble.
The day passed on uneventfully, and as dusk began to settle in, the group came upon a small hut, deep within the swamp. An ancient looking half-elf in stained robes greeted them amidst the darkness, beckoning them to join them. They entered the small hut warily, where the half-elf introduced herself as Lissa, and prophetically informed them that while they were nearing their destination, their journey was only beginning. She deigned not to answer their questions, and before they were able to press her, she used a magical powder to put them into a deep slumber.
As they woke the next morning, they discovered her gone, but all of their gear had been neatly stacked next to them as they slept, with scrolls gently laid atop them, adressed to each of them personally. As they read the scrolls, they exchanged furitive glances, and stowed them away on their persons, declining to share the contents with each other. Before they were put into the enchanted slumber, Lissa had provided them with a more accurate map, and a specific route to get them to their destination. Off they went, with a renewed sense of direction and vigor.
Around midday, the sounds of battle assaulted them, so they cautiously approached a large clearing. Sending Lix into scout, the other 2 remained back. The scene before them was largely one of carnage. 3 Lizardfolk warriors were standing above the body of a massive crocodile, with the bloody and chewed up bodies of several more surrounding it. Patrin was elected the spokesperson for the group, as he spoke draconic. Negotiations were initially tense, as the Lizardfolk felt that the party had been trespassing upon their ancestrial hunting grounds, but Patrin was able to negotiate safe passage in exchange for the armor they had found earlier. Not content to give up their hard-earned rewards, Light abandoned negotiation and attacked the nearest of the Lizardfolk. It was a fierce and pitched battle, and one that almost cost the party dearly, had there not been intervention in the form of a brave young paladin who charged into the clearing, healing the downed adventurers and claiming the lives of the lizardfolk.
Stay tuned for more adventures!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Episode 47 - We're back!
And maybe even better than ever?
As left off in the previous post, how could the upload problems possibly be on our end? Even Libsyn was pretty sure isn't wasn't on our end because I was still able to do all of my up- and downloading for work and the problem was isolated to Libsyn, but damned if they could figure out what the problem might be. On Wednesday we called our ISP because the internet was running really slowly. Turns out they made some sort of system change on their end that made our model of modem effectively obsolete. They invited us to stop in to exchange it for a new model. We did that on Thursday evening, and huzzah! we were up and running again! Sorry Libysn, our bad.
Last night on pretty much no notice at all we decided to record our Thursday episode with what gaming news we would have done on Tuesday. Thanks to Rey, David rants away about Sony/Playstation vs. Microsoft/Xbox. He also goes through a big stack of gaming news, then we both review Inglourious Basterds.
It's great to be back.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Episode 46 - Listener night!
David defines “native” for the listeners, talks about the future of the show, and shares a bit about the first PlaystationHome night. We share a letter from a new listener, a new top ten list from Doc, and present the listeners with a Question of the Week: What are the top three best video game weapons?
The show finishes off with the big "fight" we teased in the last few episodes. I'm really not the type to bring a bunch of drama down over something like this. It was far more amusing than dramatic.
This is the last episode we pre-recording during our down-time. I'd been emailing back and forth with Libsyn and at first they were sure the problem was on our end and we were sure it was on their end: We were uploading with no trouble on Friday and nothing changed on our end between then and Saturday, so how could be on our end...?
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