So we are coming to the end of the year, we are only about a month and 2/3rds until we reach 2016, and this got me thinking about one of my new year resolutions I made at the start of this year.
That resolution was to get a minimum of 2 games of Infinity in. The plan was to play an intro game back in February and take a trip to Leisure Games or a club and play another game there.
Yeah, so that never happened.
The game I was supposed to play in February was all lined up, my friend Tom paid me a visit and we were going to give it a try.
As an idea however, what was initially a 'pity-play' we gave my rules for Override a go first.
The plan was to go for maybe 30mins with that, then put that away and set up a test play of Infinity.
Instead we played through the full game of Override and came back for more!
I know it sounds crazy, but the reason I haven't played any Infinity is because I've been too busy playing Override since.
It's a crazy idea for me. Through the use of Vassal and our own models I have played more games of Override than I have Malifaux, GorkaMorka and Necromunda combined!
Sure this probably sounds a bit obvious; of course I am playing more of this game, after all I need to play test it and build up the rules, but you must also remember that for pretty much the entirety of 2014 I didn't play a single game of anything!
Now I have games coming outta my ears and in a couple of weeks have another gaming weekend along with a demo of Guild Ball, a full game of Override and a test play for something my friend is milling around with.
It's an exciting time for my gaming table, and as of this morning I am beginning to feel like I may be over the worst of the damned sickness that has had me in it's grips for the past month or so.
- What does all this mean?
I have no idea! I just thought it was interesting to look back at how all this began, and how in totally failing that resolution I have instead had a tonne of fun regardless.
Anyway, that's all for now, so until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Hobby Update: It's falling over
Greetings friends!
So my hobby update pretty much sucks today.
My Red Claw when last we saw them had their Red Hair and Blue Skin finished as per:
Currently things arnt that different. I have greyed their cloth and that is pretty much it.
I blame sickness. I know it's a cop-out but it's true. My chest infection is only now really going away, and the first half of this week was spent just feeling like shit!
I realise it's a rubbish excuse, and I really shouldn't be making it, but it's the truth.
It does however mean that my initial pledge is out of the window and I'll be lucky if I just get these Red Claw finished in time for my game on 21st.
My aim now is damage control. I need to base coat the bases and weapons as well as wash them. Then I can try for first layer highlights as well as FoV markings on the base (or whatever we're calling them) and I may -just- make that happen.
Well that pledge lived long...
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So my hobby update pretty much sucks today.
My Red Claw when last we saw them had their Red Hair and Blue Skin finished as per:
Currently things arnt that different. I have greyed their cloth and that is pretty much it.
I blame sickness. I know it's a cop-out but it's true. My chest infection is only now really going away, and the first half of this week was spent just feeling like shit!
I realise it's a rubbish excuse, and I really shouldn't be making it, but it's the truth.
It does however mean that my initial pledge is out of the window and I'll be lucky if I just get these Red Claw finished in time for my game on 21st.
My aim now is damage control. I need to base coat the bases and weapons as well as wash them. Then I can try for first layer highlights as well as FoV markings on the base (or whatever we're calling them) and I may -just- make that happen.
Well that pledge lived long...
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Monday, 2 November 2015
The Park - A Second Opinion
Greetings friends!
So on Friday as part of Halloween I did a full playthrough of The Park by Funcom.
Now before we begin getting into the meat of this game I need to warn you - this Second Opinion is likely to be spoiler heavy. I will try my best to avoid them when possible, but I can not in good conscience guarantee that it will be spoiler free.
What is The Park?
Ok so The Park is the latest in pseudo first person horror games similar to Dear Ester and it's ilk.
Make no mistakes, The Park is not the next Alien: Isolation, Amnesia or Outlast. It's not even the next SOMA.
A word I have seen thrown around a lot is 'walking simulator', as in you the player go for a walk and stuff happens around you that you have no control or influence over.
Now this might sound like a bit of a negative, and to an extent it kind of is, but it's important that we get that out of the way. While The Park has jump scares and a creepy atmosphere, you will not be running for your life or bashing in the heads of monsters. If that is what you want out of this game, then this is not the game for you.
In this game you play the character Lorraine who is searching for her lost son in an amusement park after hours.
It's a simple idea, all about taking a place that should be shiny and friendly and twisting it into a horrid nightmare that most parents harbour as a terrible deep seated fear of experiencing.
I should also say that this game has a lot of ties into Funcom's MMO The Secret World, however you do not need to have played this to play The Park.
What sort of horror is this game about?
See this is where the game begins to get a little vague.
At the very onset it appears that the 'horror' present is the creepy atmosphere of the park itself, however that quickly shifts into the horror of loosing a child, which then shifts into the horror of the realising the events that Lorraine has been through, or done to end up where she is.
I have to be honest; it's not great in that way. It results in a series of events that are played out that actually rather incoherent, and as a player there were more than one occasion where I didn't really feel that my character knew why she was there, or worse; cared.
Ok but what is gameplay like?
Gameplay in The Park is a semi mix of brilliant crossed with redundant.
Throughout the game you stumble across notes and interact able objects which are used via a Left Mouse Click. How do you know where an interact object is? By Right Clicking! In doing so a visual queue presents itself over any objects in view. At the same time your character will call out to her son. The idea being that as the game progresses what she says and her tone of saying it becomes sadder and more panicked.
This is a genius idea, but I found the reality actually worked against itself. As you speed through the park (because after all, if you are desperately searching for your lost child, you would run not casually walk) you're field of view is changing every few seconds, therefore you end up spamming the shout button a lot, and frankly hearing the same voice shouting the same number of 'contextual' lines repeatedly begins to just become background noise.
Then there is the park itself.
As you progress you encounter rides, these rides include but are not limited to: swan boats, bumper cars, Ferris wheel and roller coaster.
The first ride you encounter is the swan boats. You see your son hop onto one and ride off on the set circular path through a spooky cave. Another boat arrives with a prompt for you to jump into it as well.
The thing is, you can see that the boats come out on the other side of the cave and circle back to where you are, so my reaction was that I wanted to stay put, wait for the child to return, tap my foot, give him a stern look, grab him by the collar and drag him back to the car. Of course the game doesn't let you do that. If you want it to progress you have to ride a swan and at this point my sense of immersion was broken. The choice of riding a freaking swan which would force me to stay far enough behind the child that he would have time to run away again once he gets to the other side was not only ridiculous, it was totally ludicrous.
Shortly afterwards you then encounter yet more rides which you hop on, and unless you do certain scripted events do not happen do you are unable to progress. However I need to point out; there is no reason to jump on these rides. Your son isn't on these rides. You don't use these rides to try and look for him from a vantage point, you ride them because you want to and so you can indulge in your own self pity(*).
What's up with that asterisk?
Ok I need to explain this.
Throughout the game you encounter moments where the character enters a moment of monologue.
These moments are supposed to be poignant and thought provoking as you explore the deaths the character has had to endure of those around her and her own 'home truths'.
One example of these home truths that has been widely publicised is about the day her son was born, and how after months of build up and friends/family shoving the 'wonders of childbirth' down her throat she held her son and thought "is this it?".
I have read a lot of people saying about how it really touched home for them, that for the first time ever a 'game' got them.
My reaction? Cry me a river bitch!
Those who are long time readers will be familiar with my early Adventures of Geek Dad posts, and you will remember myself talking about this exact topic only from a male point of view. The point is that this sort of thought and/or realisation is not novelty, it is not thought provoking. It's normal.
This is pretty much how it continued, line after line of the lead character feeling eternally sorry for herself and blaming everyone else in her life for her own choices in life.
I understand that there is a deeper side to this, that there is more going on behind the scenes, that we are looking at post-natal depression, but Jesus! Did they have to make her so pathetically annoying?!
The more that happened within the story the more I disliked the character and the more I wanted her to show even an ounce of regret for her being a totally shit mother. But no, all we saw was yet more blaming of everyone who was not her.
Lorraine is supposed to be a victim in this story, and that is how she came across.
The game wanted you to feel sorry for Lorraine and they tried too hard. I left having no sympathy, no empathy and no pity for her. I wanted to see her burn! Not because of her actions, but her inactions. Her inability to take any responsibility for her actions beyond feeling sorry for herself, and personally from my view there is nothing worse than a protagonist who as a player you can not stand.
The Good
Ok so the game is developed in the U4 Engine, and it's all the better for it. At it's best it is atmosphere rich and quite unnerving.
The Bad
The rides and the park itself. It serves no real purpose.
The Ugly
The worst part of all of this? The thing that is most unacceptable of all?
The final third/quarter is really really good! Once you leave the park behind and delve into your apartment, the game really comes into it's own and is all the better for it. However before this point you have the park itself which feels redundant.
It is my understanding that the game began life as a tech demo that someone made at Funcom and someone up high saw and said "we should make a game of this!"
The park itself feels like that tech demo, the loose fitting storyline, the lack of a reason to be riding the rides and the forced narrative all lead to this. It is as if that was created, then they came up with the story, superimposed that over the top and added the more coherent and really good final third/quarter.
Why is this so bad? Because if they had abandoned the tech-demo content and instead made the entire game about the apartment then the game could have been so much better!
It's a terrible thing to say it, but the worst part of The Park, is the park itself.
In Conclusion
So there you have it.
The Park is a short game, rocking in at about 1.5 hours, and when it is good, it is really good, with a fair few chilling moments; especially if you are a parent yourself. When it is bad however it is very bad and will leave a nasty taste in your mouth.
Or at least that is how I found it.
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So on Friday as part of Halloween I did a full playthrough of The Park by Funcom.
Now before we begin getting into the meat of this game I need to warn you - this Second Opinion is likely to be spoiler heavy. I will try my best to avoid them when possible, but I can not in good conscience guarantee that it will be spoiler free.
What is The Park?
Ok so The Park is the latest in pseudo first person horror games similar to Dear Ester and it's ilk.
Make no mistakes, The Park is not the next Alien: Isolation, Amnesia or Outlast. It's not even the next SOMA.
A word I have seen thrown around a lot is 'walking simulator', as in you the player go for a walk and stuff happens around you that you have no control or influence over.
Now this might sound like a bit of a negative, and to an extent it kind of is, but it's important that we get that out of the way. While The Park has jump scares and a creepy atmosphere, you will not be running for your life or bashing in the heads of monsters. If that is what you want out of this game, then this is not the game for you.
In this game you play the character Lorraine who is searching for her lost son in an amusement park after hours.
It's a simple idea, all about taking a place that should be shiny and friendly and twisting it into a horrid nightmare that most parents harbour as a terrible deep seated fear of experiencing.
I should also say that this game has a lot of ties into Funcom's MMO The Secret World, however you do not need to have played this to play The Park.
What sort of horror is this game about?
See this is where the game begins to get a little vague.
At the very onset it appears that the 'horror' present is the creepy atmosphere of the park itself, however that quickly shifts into the horror of loosing a child, which then shifts into the horror of the realising the events that Lorraine has been through, or done to end up where she is.
I have to be honest; it's not great in that way. It results in a series of events that are played out that actually rather incoherent, and as a player there were more than one occasion where I didn't really feel that my character knew why she was there, or worse; cared.
Ok but what is gameplay like?
Gameplay in The Park is a semi mix of brilliant crossed with redundant.
Throughout the game you stumble across notes and interact able objects which are used via a Left Mouse Click. How do you know where an interact object is? By Right Clicking! In doing so a visual queue presents itself over any objects in view. At the same time your character will call out to her son. The idea being that as the game progresses what she says and her tone of saying it becomes sadder and more panicked.
This is a genius idea, but I found the reality actually worked against itself. As you speed through the park (because after all, if you are desperately searching for your lost child, you would run not casually walk) you're field of view is changing every few seconds, therefore you end up spamming the shout button a lot, and frankly hearing the same voice shouting the same number of 'contextual' lines repeatedly begins to just become background noise.
Then there is the park itself.
As you progress you encounter rides, these rides include but are not limited to: swan boats, bumper cars, Ferris wheel and roller coaster.
The first ride you encounter is the swan boats. You see your son hop onto one and ride off on the set circular path through a spooky cave. Another boat arrives with a prompt for you to jump into it as well.
The thing is, you can see that the boats come out on the other side of the cave and circle back to where you are, so my reaction was that I wanted to stay put, wait for the child to return, tap my foot, give him a stern look, grab him by the collar and drag him back to the car. Of course the game doesn't let you do that. If you want it to progress you have to ride a swan and at this point my sense of immersion was broken. The choice of riding a freaking swan which would force me to stay far enough behind the child that he would have time to run away again once he gets to the other side was not only ridiculous, it was totally ludicrous.
Shortly afterwards you then encounter yet more rides which you hop on, and unless you do certain scripted events do not happen do you are unable to progress. However I need to point out; there is no reason to jump on these rides. Your son isn't on these rides. You don't use these rides to try and look for him from a vantage point, you ride them because you want to and so you can indulge in your own self pity(*).
What's up with that asterisk?
Ok I need to explain this.
Throughout the game you encounter moments where the character enters a moment of monologue.
These moments are supposed to be poignant and thought provoking as you explore the deaths the character has had to endure of those around her and her own 'home truths'.
One example of these home truths that has been widely publicised is about the day her son was born, and how after months of build up and friends/family shoving the 'wonders of childbirth' down her throat she held her son and thought "is this it?".
I have read a lot of people saying about how it really touched home for them, that for the first time ever a 'game' got them.
My reaction? Cry me a river bitch!
Those who are long time readers will be familiar with my early Adventures of Geek Dad posts, and you will remember myself talking about this exact topic only from a male point of view. The point is that this sort of thought and/or realisation is not novelty, it is not thought provoking. It's normal.
This is pretty much how it continued, line after line of the lead character feeling eternally sorry for herself and blaming everyone else in her life for her own choices in life.
I understand that there is a deeper side to this, that there is more going on behind the scenes, that we are looking at post-natal depression, but Jesus! Did they have to make her so pathetically annoying?!
The more that happened within the story the more I disliked the character and the more I wanted her to show even an ounce of regret for her being a totally shit mother. But no, all we saw was yet more blaming of everyone who was not her.
Lorraine is supposed to be a victim in this story, and that is how she came across.
The game wanted you to feel sorry for Lorraine and they tried too hard. I left having no sympathy, no empathy and no pity for her. I wanted to see her burn! Not because of her actions, but her inactions. Her inability to take any responsibility for her actions beyond feeling sorry for herself, and personally from my view there is nothing worse than a protagonist who as a player you can not stand.
The Good
Ok so the game is developed in the U4 Engine, and it's all the better for it. At it's best it is atmosphere rich and quite unnerving.
The Bad
The rides and the park itself. It serves no real purpose.
The Ugly
The worst part of all of this? The thing that is most unacceptable of all?
The final third/quarter is really really good! Once you leave the park behind and delve into your apartment, the game really comes into it's own and is all the better for it. However before this point you have the park itself which feels redundant.
It is my understanding that the game began life as a tech demo that someone made at Funcom and someone up high saw and said "we should make a game of this!"
The park itself feels like that tech demo, the loose fitting storyline, the lack of a reason to be riding the rides and the forced narrative all lead to this. It is as if that was created, then they came up with the story, superimposed that over the top and added the more coherent and really good final third/quarter.
Why is this so bad? Because if they had abandoned the tech-demo content and instead made the entire game about the apartment then the game could have been so much better!
It's a terrible thing to say it, but the worst part of The Park, is the park itself.
In Conclusion
So there you have it.
The Park is a short game, rocking in at about 1.5 hours, and when it is good, it is really good, with a fair few chilling moments; especially if you are a parent yourself. When it is bad however it is very bad and will leave a nasty taste in your mouth.
Or at least that is how I found it.
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Yet Another Day in the Block - Part 5 (A First Law: Override short story)
On returning to Honos, Tannus quickly reacquainted himself with his previous Block based lodgings. Tannus had assumed that Brooks would have cancelled his own apartment, but Tannus had not done the same. He had known his time on the Bastion would be brief and even if it raised flags and questions, it was easier than the alternative and right now accommodation worries were the last thing on his mind.
The first task that needed to be achieved was that of contacting the Trydan. As Tannus had already established that his latest target was a member he knew that it was only through infiltrating their closed ranks that he would find the data he needed and get to the bottom of just what was going on.
Tannus had always assumed getting the attention of the Trydan would be easy, after all if the rumours and stories were to be believed it was them who tapped every comms transmit and every trade across the Block be them legal or otherwise. Surely in situations like this you needed only make it abundantly clear that you wished to speak with them and they would send a representative.
Two days passed and Tannus had heard nothing. He wondered if perhaps the rumours were just false, maybe the Trydan were no more omnipresent than any of the other gangs who claimed to own the Block. It was at that point that he received a nock on his door. Checking the digi-viewer Tannus saw that no one stood on the other side, and with a slight creek he opened the door and looked from side to side. Sure enough there was no one there nothing but a small tripod robot no bigger than a foot or two in height. It's form appeared less like the traditional box-shaped machines employed by Humans or even the thick plated orbs designed by the Kratel Regime, instead it's spindly blade like limbs looked more like the pseudo robots utilised by the Red Claw who salvaged what little tech they could from others but augmented it with decorative blades and bones, but those machines were faulty and poorly maintained, responding to orders via jerky movements and almost involuntary spasms. This however was sleek and responsive, more like the totemic guardians employed by the Hydan engineers, only unlike those machines complete with ornate curved chassis and finely tuned forms, this appeared almost deadly, venomous even.
Tannus shook his head in disbelief, it was impossible! All machines in current circulation were first law enabled. It would be impossible for one of these to harm him. Even if it's owner wished it, it's first law programming would kick in and render it temporarily inactive. When he returned his gaze to the link-bot's location the machine was gone, no sign of it beyond small pock marks in the dirt where it's spindly, blade-like limbs had carried it away. At his feet Tannus noticed a small rectangular data card, no bigger than a manual payment card, reaching down he picked it up and carefully pressed his thumb against the screen activating it. With a green hue it illuminated displaying a single message:
This was what Tannus had been waiting for, a direct invitation by the Trydan, or at least that was what Tannus hoped.
Tannus left immediately for the address provided on the digi-screen. The invite had not specified a date or time, but he was not going to let this opportunity pass him by. He waited only long enough to grab his coat and sidearm. The pistol would be far from ideal should he enter a fire fight, but it was discrete and the explosive tipped ammunition it carried packed a surprising punch.
Water dropped down the walls of Sector 98, pooling in small sickly brown puddles as Tannus paced quickly to room 67. This region had seen better days and appeared to Tannus to be nearly derelict. Certainly if the region was not currently condemned, it was only a matter of months away.
As the Wraith made his way past the early sixty rooms he detected a strong smell. It burned through his inbuilt filter and collected in his nostrils like an acrid smoke. The smell was unmistakable; Zip. Zip was the street name for a particularly popular drug used throughout the Block. It heightened the users senses, made it appear at if colours were brighter, sounds richer and deeper and smells had layers to them undetectable by normal standards. It was also cheap to produce, so almost anyone could manufacture it, sell it at a price obtainable to even the most desperate in the Block and still make a profit for themselves. As the smell intensified, Tannus knew he was heading in the right direction.
The door to room 67 was nondescript. Even the door number had been removed, but it took no time at all to establish which room was the right one, and with a heavy fist Tannus rapped his knuckles on the hard faux-wooden door. The sound rang out in such a way only possible from the plasteel composite made from low grade materials, and after a few short moments the door opened.
What began as nothing more than a small gap quickly opened in full and a huge waft of sickly smoke poured out from behind the door. Within the doorway stood a single Hydan wearing a thick external breathing mask, it's tendril like pipes connecting to a single large atmo-container strapped to his back. His eyes were obscured by what appeared to be welding goggles and his clothing was a combination of tattered black trousers with a torn red tshirt. The Hydan nodded at Tannus before quickly beckoning him to enter the room.
Inside Room 67 there appeared to be little normal lighting, instead a series of half burned out candles provided limited illumination. Tannus expected this was for many reasons, but largely due to a lack of supplied power to the entire sector. The walls were bare except for large patches of exposed metal where the interior insulation wall had been corroded over years of neglect and the floor was nothing more than a series of exposed cables and wires. At some point, Tannus imagined, these wires would have carried both power and data across the entire sector and out into the Block. Now they were nothing more than a fused mess.
The masked Hydan lead Tannus through the apartment and into a small side room. Tannus assumed that this had once been a bed room, which of course would have placed this apartment has of a higher class than his single 'open plan' apartment he had called home for the past number of years. Once inside the masked Hydan removed his breathing mask and let it hang limply on his chest. His facial features instantly recognisable, this was Turen Kopa, the Trydan member who's re-breather filter he had found at the exchange site.
"You gotta be careful ou' there with th' gas" exclaimed the Turen. His voice sounded strange, almost human in it's tone and use of language "tha' shit will burn through ya' breather faster than ma' mamma's cookin'".
Turen scanned Tannus' face, noting the lines of confusion that crossed it like a map of the Block itself "My apologies friend" Turen continued "I have spent a lot of time with the Humans here, they are my primary customer, and I find it easier to speak in a way that they understand".
Tannus nodded, he had to admit, Turen's ability to mimic Human mannerisms was a talent in itself.
"So what would you like? I am afraid I am all out of Zip at the moment, brewing a new batch right now, but I have Fives, Blues, Reds even some Murples if you like?" Turen stopped pausing for a moment before tilting his head to the side, his bone covered scalp glistened in the candle light revealing a series of dark engravings, the same type used by both Hydan priests and Trydan gang members.
"I know what you need" Turen continued, you're after the good stuff, right? Nectar! Tell me friend is it Blue or Green? I'm all out of Red at the moment, but due some stock pretty soon" Tannus knew what Turen spoke of. Nectar was the name of given to one of the most illicit of drugs in the Block. The process of making Nectar was a long one, first the right amount of other drugs were needed, a whole cocktail in fact. These drugs were then ingested in the usual manner by a host, sometimes willing but more often, not. Then once the drugs were swimming in their system a combination of bodily fluids including blood and spinal fluid was drained, filtered and contained. Green was Hydan, Blue being Kratel and Red, Human. The mere mention of this supply angered Tannus in ways he could not put into words, but despite all of the mixed emotions of rage and anguish, Tannus’ resolve remained. With a cool head he locked eyes with Turen.
“Actually, I'm after something a little different, how would I go about sourcing a Shock Drive?”
The words rang through Turen like alarm bells as the Trydan’s eyes widened in both shock and realisation.
“It's you!” Turen almost spat the words “You’re him! The boss, the boss said you wouldn’t…” His voice trailing out as he quickly looked around the room he was stood in. It was clear there were no weapons available, and the only door out was blocked by Tannus. The Trydan gulped hard, and with a lightning fast reaction thrust his palm into Tannus’ throat, the bulk of his strike forced hard against Tannus’ own re-breather filter. Tannus balked in reaction, the sudden pain taking him by surprise in a way that he had never experienced before.
Before the Wraith could react Turen had turned, unslung his breathing apperatus and sprinted at full force towards the carbon fibre treated window of the room and dived through. Tannus, gasping for air followed behind, clutching at the wall as his re-breather quickly began to fail. Already he could feel the trace toxic elements seeping in from the neighbouring room, mixing in with the foul human atmosphere mixed in equal portions with pollution and all manner of unknown chemicals. Tannus looked to the floor and reached for the atmo-tube and breathing mask discarded by Turen. It was heavy and bulky as he slid the tube into his back and grasped the mask to his mouth. Tannus was unsure if it would do the job, but it was either this or risk exposure to the inhospitable atmosphere of Honos. Tannus clutched the mask with both hands and fell to the floor breathing deeply. Already the pain in his chest was lessening as he smelt the familiars of Hydan air. With all his might the Wraith picked himself up off the floor and followed Turen through the open window.
**************
And so ends another part of Yet Another Day in the Block.
Thoughts?
I'm willing to go on the record and tell you that this is not the first you will see of Turen Kopa. I can't go into much, but he is a character that I am looking to write into Book 1 as a Reaver Merc with a rather special skill and set of talents.
I hope you like where this is going. I find that I really enjoy writing about the exploits of Tannus. As a Wraith he is almost like our very own James Bond and when you compare to the other focal characters we currently have:
Paul Homes: Independent Bounty Hunter (I have something planned for him and the 612 Bounty Store in either Book 2, or probably Book 3, but trust me, that will be fun!!)
Bal'Tek: Reaver Hunter-Killer. Expect more about him in book 1, but you should see him really come to the fore in Book 2.
Jinn: Reaver Ghost. As it stands we have possibly seen most that Jinn can offer you. I was super happy with the Wetware story and I think it was my best yet.
The others have yet to have short stories about them, but these all have different feels to them. Bal'Tek as the destructive but insanely loyal puppy, Homes as the film noir detective, Jinn the kid who got in over his head and Tannus, the secret agent who would defy his own agency to close a case and find the truth.
- I realise there is a similarity here between Homes and Tannus, which is why I have done my best to portray Brooks (Tannus' partner) as a polar opposite to Homes.
Anyway, hope you have enjoyed this part of the story and I hope to return soon with more!
Until then; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
The first task that needed to be achieved was that of contacting the Trydan. As Tannus had already established that his latest target was a member he knew that it was only through infiltrating their closed ranks that he would find the data he needed and get to the bottom of just what was going on.
Tannus had always assumed getting the attention of the Trydan would be easy, after all if the rumours and stories were to be believed it was them who tapped every comms transmit and every trade across the Block be them legal or otherwise. Surely in situations like this you needed only make it abundantly clear that you wished to speak with them and they would send a representative.
Two days passed and Tannus had heard nothing. He wondered if perhaps the rumours were just false, maybe the Trydan were no more omnipresent than any of the other gangs who claimed to own the Block. It was at that point that he received a nock on his door. Checking the digi-viewer Tannus saw that no one stood on the other side, and with a slight creek he opened the door and looked from side to side. Sure enough there was no one there nothing but a small tripod robot no bigger than a foot or two in height. It's form appeared less like the traditional box-shaped machines employed by Humans or even the thick plated orbs designed by the Kratel Regime, instead it's spindly blade like limbs looked more like the pseudo robots utilised by the Red Claw who salvaged what little tech they could from others but augmented it with decorative blades and bones, but those machines were faulty and poorly maintained, responding to orders via jerky movements and almost involuntary spasms. This however was sleek and responsive, more like the totemic guardians employed by the Hydan engineers, only unlike those machines complete with ornate curved chassis and finely tuned forms, this appeared almost deadly, venomous even.
Tannus shook his head in disbelief, it was impossible! All machines in current circulation were first law enabled. It would be impossible for one of these to harm him. Even if it's owner wished it, it's first law programming would kick in and render it temporarily inactive. When he returned his gaze to the link-bot's location the machine was gone, no sign of it beyond small pock marks in the dirt where it's spindly, blade-like limbs had carried it away. At his feet Tannus noticed a small rectangular data card, no bigger than a manual payment card, reaching down he picked it up and carefully pressed his thumb against the screen activating it. With a green hue it illuminated displaying a single message:
Region: 452, Sector 98, Room 67
This was what Tannus had been waiting for, a direct invitation by the Trydan, or at least that was what Tannus hoped.
Tannus left immediately for the address provided on the digi-screen. The invite had not specified a date or time, but he was not going to let this opportunity pass him by. He waited only long enough to grab his coat and sidearm. The pistol would be far from ideal should he enter a fire fight, but it was discrete and the explosive tipped ammunition it carried packed a surprising punch.
Water dropped down the walls of Sector 98, pooling in small sickly brown puddles as Tannus paced quickly to room 67. This region had seen better days and appeared to Tannus to be nearly derelict. Certainly if the region was not currently condemned, it was only a matter of months away.
As the Wraith made his way past the early sixty rooms he detected a strong smell. It burned through his inbuilt filter and collected in his nostrils like an acrid smoke. The smell was unmistakable; Zip. Zip was the street name for a particularly popular drug used throughout the Block. It heightened the users senses, made it appear at if colours were brighter, sounds richer and deeper and smells had layers to them undetectable by normal standards. It was also cheap to produce, so almost anyone could manufacture it, sell it at a price obtainable to even the most desperate in the Block and still make a profit for themselves. As the smell intensified, Tannus knew he was heading in the right direction.
The door to room 67 was nondescript. Even the door number had been removed, but it took no time at all to establish which room was the right one, and with a heavy fist Tannus rapped his knuckles on the hard faux-wooden door. The sound rang out in such a way only possible from the plasteel composite made from low grade materials, and after a few short moments the door opened.
What began as nothing more than a small gap quickly opened in full and a huge waft of sickly smoke poured out from behind the door. Within the doorway stood a single Hydan wearing a thick external breathing mask, it's tendril like pipes connecting to a single large atmo-container strapped to his back. His eyes were obscured by what appeared to be welding goggles and his clothing was a combination of tattered black trousers with a torn red tshirt. The Hydan nodded at Tannus before quickly beckoning him to enter the room.
Inside Room 67 there appeared to be little normal lighting, instead a series of half burned out candles provided limited illumination. Tannus expected this was for many reasons, but largely due to a lack of supplied power to the entire sector. The walls were bare except for large patches of exposed metal where the interior insulation wall had been corroded over years of neglect and the floor was nothing more than a series of exposed cables and wires. At some point, Tannus imagined, these wires would have carried both power and data across the entire sector and out into the Block. Now they were nothing more than a fused mess.
The masked Hydan lead Tannus through the apartment and into a small side room. Tannus assumed that this had once been a bed room, which of course would have placed this apartment has of a higher class than his single 'open plan' apartment he had called home for the past number of years. Once inside the masked Hydan removed his breathing mask and let it hang limply on his chest. His facial features instantly recognisable, this was Turen Kopa, the Trydan member who's re-breather filter he had found at the exchange site.
"You gotta be careful ou' there with th' gas" exclaimed the Turen. His voice sounded strange, almost human in it's tone and use of language "tha' shit will burn through ya' breather faster than ma' mamma's cookin'".
Turen scanned Tannus' face, noting the lines of confusion that crossed it like a map of the Block itself "My apologies friend" Turen continued "I have spent a lot of time with the Humans here, they are my primary customer, and I find it easier to speak in a way that they understand".
Tannus nodded, he had to admit, Turen's ability to mimic Human mannerisms was a talent in itself.
"So what would you like? I am afraid I am all out of Zip at the moment, brewing a new batch right now, but I have Fives, Blues, Reds even some Murples if you like?" Turen stopped pausing for a moment before tilting his head to the side, his bone covered scalp glistened in the candle light revealing a series of dark engravings, the same type used by both Hydan priests and Trydan gang members.
"I know what you need" Turen continued, you're after the good stuff, right? Nectar! Tell me friend is it Blue or Green? I'm all out of Red at the moment, but due some stock pretty soon" Tannus knew what Turen spoke of. Nectar was the name of given to one of the most illicit of drugs in the Block. The process of making Nectar was a long one, first the right amount of other drugs were needed, a whole cocktail in fact. These drugs were then ingested in the usual manner by a host, sometimes willing but more often, not. Then once the drugs were swimming in their system a combination of bodily fluids including blood and spinal fluid was drained, filtered and contained. Green was Hydan, Blue being Kratel and Red, Human. The mere mention of this supply angered Tannus in ways he could not put into words, but despite all of the mixed emotions of rage and anguish, Tannus’ resolve remained. With a cool head he locked eyes with Turen.
“Actually, I'm after something a little different, how would I go about sourcing a Shock Drive?”
The words rang through Turen like alarm bells as the Trydan’s eyes widened in both shock and realisation.
“It's you!” Turen almost spat the words “You’re him! The boss, the boss said you wouldn’t…” His voice trailing out as he quickly looked around the room he was stood in. It was clear there were no weapons available, and the only door out was blocked by Tannus. The Trydan gulped hard, and with a lightning fast reaction thrust his palm into Tannus’ throat, the bulk of his strike forced hard against Tannus’ own re-breather filter. Tannus balked in reaction, the sudden pain taking him by surprise in a way that he had never experienced before.
Before the Wraith could react Turen had turned, unslung his breathing apperatus and sprinted at full force towards the carbon fibre treated window of the room and dived through. Tannus, gasping for air followed behind, clutching at the wall as his re-breather quickly began to fail. Already he could feel the trace toxic elements seeping in from the neighbouring room, mixing in with the foul human atmosphere mixed in equal portions with pollution and all manner of unknown chemicals. Tannus looked to the floor and reached for the atmo-tube and breathing mask discarded by Turen. It was heavy and bulky as he slid the tube into his back and grasped the mask to his mouth. Tannus was unsure if it would do the job, but it was either this or risk exposure to the inhospitable atmosphere of Honos. Tannus clutched the mask with both hands and fell to the floor breathing deeply. Already the pain in his chest was lessening as he smelt the familiars of Hydan air. With all his might the Wraith picked himself up off the floor and followed Turen through the open window.
**************
And so ends another part of Yet Another Day in the Block.
Thoughts?
I'm willing to go on the record and tell you that this is not the first you will see of Turen Kopa. I can't go into much, but he is a character that I am looking to write into Book 1 as a Reaver Merc with a rather special skill and set of talents.
I hope you like where this is going. I find that I really enjoy writing about the exploits of Tannus. As a Wraith he is almost like our very own James Bond and when you compare to the other focal characters we currently have:
Paul Homes: Independent Bounty Hunter (I have something planned for him and the 612 Bounty Store in either Book 2, or probably Book 3, but trust me, that will be fun!!)
Bal'Tek: Reaver Hunter-Killer. Expect more about him in book 1, but you should see him really come to the fore in Book 2.
Jinn: Reaver Ghost. As it stands we have possibly seen most that Jinn can offer you. I was super happy with the Wetware story and I think it was my best yet.
The others have yet to have short stories about them, but these all have different feels to them. Bal'Tek as the destructive but insanely loyal puppy, Homes as the film noir detective, Jinn the kid who got in over his head and Tannus, the secret agent who would defy his own agency to close a case and find the truth.
- I realise there is a similarity here between Homes and Tannus, which is why I have done my best to portray Brooks (Tannus' partner) as a polar opposite to Homes.
Anyway, hope you have enjoyed this part of the story and I hope to return soon with more!
Until then; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
BTTF: How Marty Saved & Condemned Our Tech
Greetings friends!
So today is the day! 07:29 (Californian Time), so that's 14:29 GMT+1 on 21st October 2015 was when Marty McFly and Doc Brown made their journey from 1985 in a flying car.
No doubt if you have any sort of social media presence you'll have seen example after example of what the film got right, and what it got wrong, but I have yet to see a single example of why actually both versions of 2015 can coincide. Instead it is just repost after repost of this:
I understand the joke and I get it, but I am here to tell you all -why- that version of 2015 is so different and how the Back to the Future Trilogy not only allows for the differences, but requires there to be differences!
**********
Let's look at the film.
In BTTF2 we see the lead characters go into the (then) future of 2015 where everything is powered by fusion generating rubbish machines, flying cars, cyberpunk headgear, hoverboards by Mattel and fax machines EVERYWHERE!!
Then thanks to what is essentially the plot of the film they end up changing the past by Biff as an old man going back to see his younger self in 1955.
This is explained with good ol' use of chalk and a blackboard:
This explanation of changing something in the past which will go on to change the present via alternative versions of time is something that has been used and emulated in numerous other TV and films, essentially because "BTTF got time travel right", or at least as best we understand through physics.
This is crucial, this is the bit of the film which defines EVERYTHING that comes afterwards.
When the third film begins we see that Doc Brown is destined to die in 1885, however as a result of the events in that film Marty saves his life along with the life of the Doc's new love. In other words he has changed something in the past which will have effects on the 1985 present and subsequent futures. However considering the Doc proceeds to almost straight away go exploring time with a greater understanding of how effects can change time, it is unlikely that this would have -much- of an effect on the timeline beyond that these characters were still alive, after all as they are now essentially time lords, they are pretty much outside of the timeline.
Now, let us momentarily go back to Part 2 of the film series where we are told that the reason Marty never really amounted to anything in later life was after he received nerve damage following a car accident, that same car accident that through the events of Part 3, Marty avoids at the very end of the series.
Now Marty and Jennifer are not separate from the timeline as their access to a time machine are now null and void, instead they are very much present in time from 1985 to 2015, only now Marty is not suffering from nerve damage and is still playing guitar.
Yup, thanks to chaos theory and Marty's accident being the butterfly and 2015 being the tsunami, because of this one event it means that both Marty & Jennifer are now present in an alternative timeline.
If the Doc was to turn up again after that accident was avoided and take them back to 2015 again, they would see our version of 2015, not the version they saw in Part 2.
************
So yes, the fact that your car doesn't run off rubbish, nor does it fly, nor can you buy a hoverboard from Mattel is all thanks to Marty McFly from avoiding that accident and carrying on playing guitar... Yup that future was essentially killed by Marty's music career!
But before you start getting into a froth and sending hate mail to Michael J Fox for ruining our present, remember this goes both ways.
Yes we don't have flying cars and hover boards, but we also have better 3D animation, wireless technology and email! I mean seriously, how rubbish would our lives be if we still used faxes as our primary form of message sending?
**********
So there we have it, I hope you've been following along at home, and I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter, but let's be honest; if I am right with this then not only was the film series thoroughly entertaining, but they even put in clauses to ensure that if 2015 isn't like their version, then it won't be seen as a joke (a la Space 1999).
I hope you enjoyed this chat, and until next time, stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So today is the day! 07:29 (Californian Time), so that's 14:29 GMT+1 on 21st October 2015 was when Marty McFly and Doc Brown made their journey from 1985 in a flying car.
No doubt if you have any sort of social media presence you'll have seen example after example of what the film got right, and what it got wrong, but I have yet to see a single example of why actually both versions of 2015 can coincide. Instead it is just repost after repost of this:
I understand the joke and I get it, but I am here to tell you all -why- that version of 2015 is so different and how the Back to the Future Trilogy not only allows for the differences, but requires there to be differences!
**********
Let's look at the film.
In BTTF2 we see the lead characters go into the (then) future of 2015 where everything is powered by fusion generating rubbish machines, flying cars, cyberpunk headgear, hoverboards by Mattel and fax machines EVERYWHERE!!
Then thanks to what is essentially the plot of the film they end up changing the past by Biff as an old man going back to see his younger self in 1955.
This is explained with good ol' use of chalk and a blackboard:
This explanation of changing something in the past which will go on to change the present via alternative versions of time is something that has been used and emulated in numerous other TV and films, essentially because "BTTF got time travel right", or at least as best we understand through physics.
This is crucial, this is the bit of the film which defines EVERYTHING that comes afterwards.
When the third film begins we see that Doc Brown is destined to die in 1885, however as a result of the events in that film Marty saves his life along with the life of the Doc's new love. In other words he has changed something in the past which will have effects on the 1985 present and subsequent futures. However considering the Doc proceeds to almost straight away go exploring time with a greater understanding of how effects can change time, it is unlikely that this would have -much- of an effect on the timeline beyond that these characters were still alive, after all as they are now essentially time lords, they are pretty much outside of the timeline.
Now, let us momentarily go back to Part 2 of the film series where we are told that the reason Marty never really amounted to anything in later life was after he received nerve damage following a car accident, that same car accident that through the events of Part 3, Marty avoids at the very end of the series.
Now Marty and Jennifer are not separate from the timeline as their access to a time machine are now null and void, instead they are very much present in time from 1985 to 2015, only now Marty is not suffering from nerve damage and is still playing guitar.
Yup, thanks to chaos theory and Marty's accident being the butterfly and 2015 being the tsunami, because of this one event it means that both Marty & Jennifer are now present in an alternative timeline.
If the Doc was to turn up again after that accident was avoided and take them back to 2015 again, they would see our version of 2015, not the version they saw in Part 2.
************
So yes, the fact that your car doesn't run off rubbish, nor does it fly, nor can you buy a hoverboard from Mattel is all thanks to Marty McFly from avoiding that accident and carrying on playing guitar... Yup that future was essentially killed by Marty's music career!
But before you start getting into a froth and sending hate mail to Michael J Fox for ruining our present, remember this goes both ways.
Yes we don't have flying cars and hover boards, but we also have better 3D animation, wireless technology and email! I mean seriously, how rubbish would our lives be if we still used faxes as our primary form of message sending?
**********
So there we have it, I hope you've been following along at home, and I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter, but let's be honest; if I am right with this then not only was the film series thoroughly entertaining, but they even put in clauses to ensure that if 2015 isn't like their version, then it won't be seen as a joke (a la Space 1999).
I hope you enjoyed this chat, and until next time, stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Another Hobby Update
Greetings friends!
Today i'd like to share with you where I am with my hobby pledge.
So Week 1 was to complete my gaming terrain for my 'generic scifi' board. As you can see from the pictures below this was a resounding success:
I have received some concerns that this board looks a little 'too generic scifi' and adding some flavour items to make it feel more Override-y would be a good thing. I really liked that idea and have been trying to reach out to a laser-cutting company to see if we can work together on this. FINGERS CROSSED!!
Week 2 was to base coat my Red Claw Kratel (or Infinity Morats to those of you unfamiliar with my proxies). This was met with mixed success. The hair and skin was done as intended, but I ran into some problems painting up the armour as I wanted it base coated black, but they came out a little -too- black. As such last night I was repainting their armour and clothes grey and applied a black wash to them:
The goal here is to provide suitable highlights for the areas which I want to remain black such as armour chunks, while the clothing will go into grey. The aim here is to create a shocking contrast between the muted armour and clothes to the vibrant red hair (except for Bal'Tek at the front there, he has white hair, so his armour will be a dark red in comparison. As a Merc (special character) I want him to stand out from the crowd.
This leaves me with half a week to do all the highlighting as well as painting the bases. This is not going to be easy, or even possible I don't think. As such I am extending my pledge to 3 weeks for the Red Claw. I could have maybe pushed ahead with their initial problems, but I fear I would have resulted in subpar models as a result, and that is not something I am willing to risk.
So my plan for the rest of this week is to work on the cloth areas and get them finished. That leaves me the armour and bases to go next week. I might even try and squeeze the base coat for the bases into this week if I can as at least then there will be a little bit more wiggle room.
Oh and of course there is the weapons... Damn I forgot about them! I'm hoping to make the blades a strong deep red so that they stand out as well, the guns however I'm not sure about. I am wondering about trying digital urban camouflage on them to give them a strong contrast with the 'all-black' of my Raider guns. Not sure, but I think that could look good, something like this which I believe is from GoW?
After all if the armour and clothes are black and grey, it would make sense for the weapons to follow suit.
- oh and I forgot one last thing! Free hand shoulder work! Yup, I'm red I want to paint a handprint similar to this from Total Recall:
Don't know if I can pull it off, but in bright red I think that would make a perfect image for a group who call themselves The Red Claw!
Anyway, that's all from me for now! Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Today i'd like to share with you where I am with my hobby pledge.
So Week 1 was to complete my gaming terrain for my 'generic scifi' board. As you can see from the pictures below this was a resounding success:
I have received some concerns that this board looks a little 'too generic scifi' and adding some flavour items to make it feel more Override-y would be a good thing. I really liked that idea and have been trying to reach out to a laser-cutting company to see if we can work together on this. FINGERS CROSSED!!
Week 2 was to base coat my Red Claw Kratel (or Infinity Morats to those of you unfamiliar with my proxies). This was met with mixed success. The hair and skin was done as intended, but I ran into some problems painting up the armour as I wanted it base coated black, but they came out a little -too- black. As such last night I was repainting their armour and clothes grey and applied a black wash to them:
The goal here is to provide suitable highlights for the areas which I want to remain black such as armour chunks, while the clothing will go into grey. The aim here is to create a shocking contrast between the muted armour and clothes to the vibrant red hair (except for Bal'Tek at the front there, he has white hair, so his armour will be a dark red in comparison. As a Merc (special character) I want him to stand out from the crowd.
This leaves me with half a week to do all the highlighting as well as painting the bases. This is not going to be easy, or even possible I don't think. As such I am extending my pledge to 3 weeks for the Red Claw. I could have maybe pushed ahead with their initial problems, but I fear I would have resulted in subpar models as a result, and that is not something I am willing to risk.
So my plan for the rest of this week is to work on the cloth areas and get them finished. That leaves me the armour and bases to go next week. I might even try and squeeze the base coat for the bases into this week if I can as at least then there will be a little bit more wiggle room.
Oh and of course there is the weapons... Damn I forgot about them! I'm hoping to make the blades a strong deep red so that they stand out as well, the guns however I'm not sure about. I am wondering about trying digital urban camouflage on them to give them a strong contrast with the 'all-black' of my Raider guns. Not sure, but I think that could look good, something like this which I believe is from GoW?
After all if the armour and clothes are black and grey, it would make sense for the weapons to follow suit.
- oh and I forgot one last thing! Free hand shoulder work! Yup, I'm red I want to paint a handprint similar to this from Total Recall:
Don't know if I can pull it off, but in bright red I think that would make a perfect image for a group who call themselves The Red Claw!
Anyway, that's all from me for now! Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Blood Bowl 2: A Second Opinion
Greetings friends and welcome to another Second Opinion with me Dr Loxley!
Today i'd like to share with you a game I've been playing for a short while which I think deserves it's own review. The game in question is of course, Blood Bowl 2 by Cyanide Studios.
Now I should probably point out that I played this game using the PC build however it is available on PS4 and Xbox One so different formats may give different results.
What is Blood Bowl 2?
Blood Bowl 2 is the fantasy (American) football sequel to Blood Bowl which was also developed by Cyanide Studios.
In Blood Bowl 2 you take the role of a new coach who has to sign up and lead your very own Blood Bowl team to victory. Now your team is no ordinary team as this game is set in the Warhammer World designed and developed by Games Workshop. As such you have a wide selection of fantasy races to choose from including Orcs, Elves, Chaos beast men, the rat-like Skaven and of course Humans to name but a few.
Victory however is achieved via a combination of punching the opposition into a bloody pulp and scoring touchdowns. Of course technically it is only by scoring touchdowns that you win a game, but it's a lot easier to do if the entire opposing team is face down in the dirt.
What is the History behind Blood Bowl 2?
Believe it or not we had to travel a long way to reach the Blood Bowl 2 stop in life, and I'm not talking in an existential or evolutionary way. No, Blood Bowl has had a very long and complex incubation complete with multiple births.
Originally a table top game designed by the before mentioned Games Workshop, Blood Bowl was played out on a board with a series of models per side. These models were ideally built and painted by you the player and the game would take place through dice rolls and square counting and statistic measuring.
Back in the 90s I had the pleasure of playing (and still to this day owning) Blood Bowl 3rd Edition however I personally had problems with the game. Namely there was a lot of maths involved and lots of things to remember including the wide range of skills your players may have.
Simply running to a spot on the board, first you needed to know how far your player could move. Then you could move additional spaces by rolling dice and being lucky. However if you wanted to move past opposing models then you needed to roll dice to dodge. What you had to roll was based largely on your own stats, however you would get modifiers or rerolls depending on your skills, and likewise the opponent would get modifiers depending on their skills. This was a lot of information to keep in your head and even to this day I get feelings of dread when I think about playing the game on a board again.
Then the game had its support dropped by Games Workshop and it came down to the community to instead develop their own versions of the rules, one such version is known affectionately as 'The Living Rulebook'. While I was not involved in that myself, I am familiar with those who were and could probably tell you a lot more about that than me.
Then around the mid naughties came a sudden twist. A company was developing a video game called Chaos League that promised to be 'not-Blood Bowl' on a computer.
The game was interesting at the least, it played pretty smoothly but was plagued with issues namely the fact that it really was Blood Bowl in a different name, however the lack of a brand recognition did not help it.
A few years later Games Workshop came along as said "we like what you did with Chaos League! How about you now make Blood Bowl for real?"
And so the first computer version of Blood Bowl was created featuring a few of the main races (Humans, Orcs, Elves, Skaven etc) the game was good, it was fun, but it still felt slow to me. Yes I no longer had to remember stats etc just to move a player as the game did all that for me, but there was something about the game that didn't play smoothly.
Then they released Legendary Edition. The same game but with a tonne of extra teams but little more else. This was then closely followed by Chaos Edition, same as Legendary only with the extra Chaos team.
Following Chaos Edition things went a little quiet before being announced that Cyanide were now working on the brand new Blood Bowl 2 which promised to take everything learned from all 3 previous versions of Blood Bowl and create an experience with better graphics, smoother gameplay and less of a barrier between player and game.
Which brings us up to today!
The Good
So what is there to Blood Bowl 2 that is good?
Well if we look at the previous goals of making the game prettier, smoother to play and less of a separation between player and game, I am happy to reveal that this has been achieved on all fronts!
As you can see from the screen shots, the game itself is beautiful and doesn't require a monster rig to make it look like this (no TitanX required) and not only is gameplay smoother, but the interface is much more intuitive than previous iterations of the game!
Gameplay while still being turn based consists of you clicking the player you want to manoeuvre and then clicking on a second point, this can be either an open space of ground to run to, or a friendly player to pass the ball, or an opposing player to tackle. If there is only 1 choice available to you (such as tackle the opponent) then your player does this automatically after receiving confirmation that you want to go ahead with the move, if however there is a choice then it gives you the list and let's you pick. You don't need to spend time thinking about the best route to run from A to B as it calculates it all for you and executes it perfectly! This has changed how the game plays meaning you can focus on what you want to do rather than how you are going to do it.
The same applies to building a team roster. If you want to, you can go through player selection one at a time picking who and what you want in each role, or you can set the game to do this for you loosing it to create a balanced (but perhaps not optimised) team so you can jump straight in and play.
They have also added a single player mode which unlike previous game versions actually has a semblance of story. No longer are you Generic Team X playing off against Generic Team Y, now you have contextual commentary who have more than 3 lines of dialogue repeated ad nauseam and a reason and drive to do what you are doing!
The Bad
Ok so Blood Bowl 2 is not the perfect game for a lot of people. A quick check on Steam reveals a lot of people unhappy with certain elements, but what is very telling are what those elements are.
Firstly we have the ruleset that the game itself plays by. This is not the Living Ruleset used by the tabletop community at large. Cyanide have been very open in saying that they have made many changes, some of them open and obvious, others subtle, but they were all made in order to create what they believe makes the game more fun.
Secondly, to a degree player choice has been removed in certain circumstances. Remember when I told you that in the tabletop game you had modifiers and rerolls based on player skills? Well you didn't have to use them. In Blood Bowl 2 the game automatically will use those skills. Personally I don't see a problem with this, why have the Dodge skill if when you need to, you don't use it? But apparently the fact that you are required to use it is an affront.
Others have argued that the game has dumbed down Blood Bowl as a lot of the rules around the game such as building a roster, along with rules within the game such as finding the optimal path to run your player, can now be automated by the game. For these players, this is not the Blood Bowl for them, it's the Pop-Corn Pop-Culture version of Blood Bowl designed to appeal to console players.
The Ugly
Micro transactions and DLC. There I said it. It's the ugly truth of the modern gaming world and it is here to stay with Blood Bowl 2. Currently not in play, but with plans to release, we will see the team rosters expanded in future with extra teams as micro transactions/DLC.
Obviously some people are unhappy with this. Their attitude is that when they buy a game they should get the full game and not have to shell out an extra £50 split over £2.50-£5.00 increments for additional content later down the line. The thing is, we saw in previous iterations of Blood Bowl what happens when you don't design the groundwork to accept DLC, we get three whole different games where in some cases all they are doing is introducing a single team.
What this system lets you do as a player is pick and choose. If Cyanide decide later on to release a Vampire Counts team, or a Nurgle Rotters team, then they can do so and as a player you can pick and choose if you personally want to use those teams yourself. You are not buying a whole new game with tens of new teams just because you want to play one of the new teams.
Once again we are seeing control being given to the player and letting them play how they want to!
Conclusion
So we get to the ultimate question; should you buy it?
As always it depends on your tastes. For me Blood Bowl 2 is a mixed bag. I really enjoy playing it, a lot! But that is because it lets me play Blood Bowl, without playing Blood Bowl (in the traditional sense). When I play this game, the brain hurt and dread I experienced from the tabletop version and the previous video versions, it's all gone!
It is almost as if Blood Bowl 2 is the Blood Bowl game for those who don't like playing Blood Bowl.
Focus has been taken away from the 'serious business' of tactics with a focus instead on 'fun'.
So if you play your games to ROFLStomp the enemy into the ground and drink their tears, then honestly this game is probably not for you.
If however you like playing a silly game for fun which you can also play against your friends, then there a lot worse fixes you could get out there.
Ultimately I had great fun playing, and isn't that the reason we play videogames in the first place?
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Today i'd like to share with you a game I've been playing for a short while which I think deserves it's own review. The game in question is of course, Blood Bowl 2 by Cyanide Studios.
Now I should probably point out that I played this game using the PC build however it is available on PS4 and Xbox One so different formats may give different results.
What is Blood Bowl 2?
Blood Bowl 2 is the fantasy (American) football sequel to Blood Bowl which was also developed by Cyanide Studios.
In Blood Bowl 2 you take the role of a new coach who has to sign up and lead your very own Blood Bowl team to victory. Now your team is no ordinary team as this game is set in the Warhammer World designed and developed by Games Workshop. As such you have a wide selection of fantasy races to choose from including Orcs, Elves, Chaos beast men, the rat-like Skaven and of course Humans to name but a few.
Victory however is achieved via a combination of punching the opposition into a bloody pulp and scoring touchdowns. Of course technically it is only by scoring touchdowns that you win a game, but it's a lot easier to do if the entire opposing team is face down in the dirt.
What is the History behind Blood Bowl 2?
Believe it or not we had to travel a long way to reach the Blood Bowl 2 stop in life, and I'm not talking in an existential or evolutionary way. No, Blood Bowl has had a very long and complex incubation complete with multiple births.
Originally a table top game designed by the before mentioned Games Workshop, Blood Bowl was played out on a board with a series of models per side. These models were ideally built and painted by you the player and the game would take place through dice rolls and square counting and statistic measuring.
Back in the 90s I had the pleasure of playing (and still to this day owning) Blood Bowl 3rd Edition however I personally had problems with the game. Namely there was a lot of maths involved and lots of things to remember including the wide range of skills your players may have.
Simply running to a spot on the board, first you needed to know how far your player could move. Then you could move additional spaces by rolling dice and being lucky. However if you wanted to move past opposing models then you needed to roll dice to dodge. What you had to roll was based largely on your own stats, however you would get modifiers or rerolls depending on your skills, and likewise the opponent would get modifiers depending on their skills. This was a lot of information to keep in your head and even to this day I get feelings of dread when I think about playing the game on a board again.
Then the game had its support dropped by Games Workshop and it came down to the community to instead develop their own versions of the rules, one such version is known affectionately as 'The Living Rulebook'. While I was not involved in that myself, I am familiar with those who were and could probably tell you a lot more about that than me.
Then around the mid naughties came a sudden twist. A company was developing a video game called Chaos League that promised to be 'not-Blood Bowl' on a computer.
The game was interesting at the least, it played pretty smoothly but was plagued with issues namely the fact that it really was Blood Bowl in a different name, however the lack of a brand recognition did not help it.
A few years later Games Workshop came along as said "we like what you did with Chaos League! How about you now make Blood Bowl for real?"
And so the first computer version of Blood Bowl was created featuring a few of the main races (Humans, Orcs, Elves, Skaven etc) the game was good, it was fun, but it still felt slow to me. Yes I no longer had to remember stats etc just to move a player as the game did all that for me, but there was something about the game that didn't play smoothly.
Then they released Legendary Edition. The same game but with a tonne of extra teams but little more else. This was then closely followed by Chaos Edition, same as Legendary only with the extra Chaos team.
Following Chaos Edition things went a little quiet before being announced that Cyanide were now working on the brand new Blood Bowl 2 which promised to take everything learned from all 3 previous versions of Blood Bowl and create an experience with better graphics, smoother gameplay and less of a barrier between player and game.
Which brings us up to today!
The Good
So what is there to Blood Bowl 2 that is good?
Well if we look at the previous goals of making the game prettier, smoother to play and less of a separation between player and game, I am happy to reveal that this has been achieved on all fronts!
As you can see from the screen shots, the game itself is beautiful and doesn't require a monster rig to make it look like this (no TitanX required) and not only is gameplay smoother, but the interface is much more intuitive than previous iterations of the game!
Gameplay while still being turn based consists of you clicking the player you want to manoeuvre and then clicking on a second point, this can be either an open space of ground to run to, or a friendly player to pass the ball, or an opposing player to tackle. If there is only 1 choice available to you (such as tackle the opponent) then your player does this automatically after receiving confirmation that you want to go ahead with the move, if however there is a choice then it gives you the list and let's you pick. You don't need to spend time thinking about the best route to run from A to B as it calculates it all for you and executes it perfectly! This has changed how the game plays meaning you can focus on what you want to do rather than how you are going to do it.
The same applies to building a team roster. If you want to, you can go through player selection one at a time picking who and what you want in each role, or you can set the game to do this for you loosing it to create a balanced (but perhaps not optimised) team so you can jump straight in and play.
They have also added a single player mode which unlike previous game versions actually has a semblance of story. No longer are you Generic Team X playing off against Generic Team Y, now you have contextual commentary who have more than 3 lines of dialogue repeated ad nauseam and a reason and drive to do what you are doing!
The Bad
Ok so Blood Bowl 2 is not the perfect game for a lot of people. A quick check on Steam reveals a lot of people unhappy with certain elements, but what is very telling are what those elements are.
Firstly we have the ruleset that the game itself plays by. This is not the Living Ruleset used by the tabletop community at large. Cyanide have been very open in saying that they have made many changes, some of them open and obvious, others subtle, but they were all made in order to create what they believe makes the game more fun.
Secondly, to a degree player choice has been removed in certain circumstances. Remember when I told you that in the tabletop game you had modifiers and rerolls based on player skills? Well you didn't have to use them. In Blood Bowl 2 the game automatically will use those skills. Personally I don't see a problem with this, why have the Dodge skill if when you need to, you don't use it? But apparently the fact that you are required to use it is an affront.
Others have argued that the game has dumbed down Blood Bowl as a lot of the rules around the game such as building a roster, along with rules within the game such as finding the optimal path to run your player, can now be automated by the game. For these players, this is not the Blood Bowl for them, it's the Pop-Corn Pop-Culture version of Blood Bowl designed to appeal to console players.
The Ugly
Micro transactions and DLC. There I said it. It's the ugly truth of the modern gaming world and it is here to stay with Blood Bowl 2. Currently not in play, but with plans to release, we will see the team rosters expanded in future with extra teams as micro transactions/DLC.
Obviously some people are unhappy with this. Their attitude is that when they buy a game they should get the full game and not have to shell out an extra £50 split over £2.50-£5.00 increments for additional content later down the line. The thing is, we saw in previous iterations of Blood Bowl what happens when you don't design the groundwork to accept DLC, we get three whole different games where in some cases all they are doing is introducing a single team.
What this system lets you do as a player is pick and choose. If Cyanide decide later on to release a Vampire Counts team, or a Nurgle Rotters team, then they can do so and as a player you can pick and choose if you personally want to use those teams yourself. You are not buying a whole new game with tens of new teams just because you want to play one of the new teams.
Once again we are seeing control being given to the player and letting them play how they want to!
Conclusion
So we get to the ultimate question; should you buy it?
As always it depends on your tastes. For me Blood Bowl 2 is a mixed bag. I really enjoy playing it, a lot! But that is because it lets me play Blood Bowl, without playing Blood Bowl (in the traditional sense). When I play this game, the brain hurt and dread I experienced from the tabletop version and the previous video versions, it's all gone!
It is almost as if Blood Bowl 2 is the Blood Bowl game for those who don't like playing Blood Bowl.
Focus has been taken away from the 'serious business' of tactics with a focus instead on 'fun'.
So if you play your games to ROFLStomp the enemy into the ground and drink their tears, then honestly this game is probably not for you.
If however you like playing a silly game for fun which you can also play against your friends, then there a lot worse fixes you could get out there.
Ultimately I had great fun playing, and isn't that the reason we play videogames in the first place?
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
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