End of the year thoughts

2015 has been an tumultuous year. I made the decision not to carry on with my Open Uni studies, I've moved to a new city and most of my gaming has been redirected at the PC, although my girlfriend and I have recently purchased a PS4.

The games that have really dominated my year have been Elite: Dangerous and Gauntlet. Not sure you can find too polar opposites in the realm of gaming, but they've both grabbed me in totally different ways.

Gauntlet has such satisfyingly simple arcade hack'n'slack mechanics and the diversity of the procedurally generated dungeons and challenges means it's almost like a daily crossword, just pop on spend 15 - 30 minutes beating it and then come off again. There's something meditative about it, almost.

Elite: Dangerous was released at the end of 2014 and over this year it's grown and grown! Update after update has come out and a few weeks back Horizons came out, which has been a major turning point for me. Even though I've loved popping on, particularly with friends, I've found it hard to stay gripped by Elite. Since Horizons has come out I've felt more and more compelled to play and thoroughly enjoy just running around on my own. I think just having another environment and a few more types of mission has made a significant difference.

In the world of smaller indi-game titles, I was looking forward to Skyshine's Bedlam, but I'm not sure it lived up to what I hoped; they are still changing and updating it though. And I've been a late comer to The Banner Saga. What a phenomenal game! It's been out for a while, but I really didn't expect it to be as gripping and exciting to play as it was.

I haven't played as many boardgames this year as normal. I made a custom deck for Talisman, which was a big hit, and reminded me that games don't have to be played exactly as they are, particularly games like Talisman where there are loads of expansions and stacks of cards. Also, I purchased XCOM: boardgame with birthday money and even though I haven't played it much, it's a really keeper and I've enjoyed every game of it! Over xmas I played a couple of games with my brothers, which highlighted that the game really is best with 4 players, but 3 is just about doable, but it loses a little something.

Probably the most exciting thing about this year though is that I've started brewing beer! My friend and I have recently started a second batch and I'm hoping 2016 will be all about the beer brewing!

So the things I'm looking forward to in 2016 are working on my own recipe for a Best Bitter, getting stuck into  Helldivers, which I got for xmas and is insanely fun, maybe getting involved with a gaming group in Carlisle and/or finding some gaming buddies up here.

Oh, and I wrote more on my blog this year than any of the previous years! Hopefully next year I'll be even more active.

Proper game reviews coming! Maybe...

This blog has always been more of a personal mind release, but I'm considering starting to write some proper reviews for games. I want to always try and keep them short-ish, but maybe I'll then start seeing if people like what I'm writing.

Recently I played through the Banner Saga and with Elite, Star Citizen and some other newish games I have in my pipe line, I might give it a go. So, if you do have a rare glance at this blog, please keep an eye on it as there maybe more meaningful content soon!

Star Citizen universe is in open alpha

It's nearly unplayable, but it's out, so you can experience it for yourself!

To be fair this is just a tiny slice of the persistent universe that Star Citizen will be releasing and is acting as a testing ground for them to optimise, add new content and get feedback. I've popped in twice now for very short periods as the framerate is horrendous and the gameplay is very buggy. But, it is working for some people and even from what I saw the feel of it and the mechanics that are in there are very cool. It has a hand crafted feel to it and the space stations are interesting to walk around.

I don't think it'll be too long before I should be able to jump in and have a proper explore, but for now I'm going to be patient and see where it goes.

Planets!!!

Elite Dangerous: Horizons is out and it's blown my mind! Every time they update the game it just gets better, but this is the start of season 2 content, which includes landing on planets without atmospheres - atmospheric planets will be coming later.

The transition between space and landing onto the planet is near seamless. The interface showing the strength of the gravitational pull and the classic aeroplane heads-up-display pops in very naturally and shows you all the relevant information.

I've only done a couple of landings so far, as I haven't had much time to play it yet. The couple of landings I've done have been fairly rubbish, pretty much just going nose first into the planet, severally damaging my ship in the process. But I have survived and been able to have a run around in the SRV (it's a buggy...), which looks very much like the buggy from the beginning of Aliens.

In the write up and Q-and-As that have been happening over the last couple of days the devs have stated that this next season of updates will focus a lot more on gameplay and content, as opposed to this last year where each update was mostly bringing in more ships and more mechanics. So I'm really looking forward to this and I have little doubt that the "depth" that players are craving will continue to be alleviated, but at an accelerated rate.

No doubt I'll be writing more about Elite in the not too distant future. Oh, and even if players didn't buy the update for Horizons, the updates are making every aspect of the game better, so it's worth coming back if you haven't played for a while!

Elite: Horizons beta is up!

And annoyingly, I don't have access to it! However, I do have access to the 1.5 beta, which is really whetting my appetite for Horizon's release, later this month.

I've been looking at videos from other players who are on the beta and landing on planets and the bases and new scavenging, trading and combat opportunities look like a lot of fun. The planets look gorgeous and the transition from super cruising through space, to coming down to the planet is impressive. I had been sceptical how they could realistically do it, but using the little shudder for a second or two between orbital cruise and planetary flight doesn't seem too intrusive on the "seamless" transition.

Another big aspect that many people have not talked much about, which I am looking forward to, is yet another expansion on the mission types. I noticed on the mission boards at stations that there are now bounty hunts which require you to intercept your target between a certain time. There are also missions where you need to look after cargo until further notice, which look very interesting and generally seem to have quite high rewards.

Basically, Frontier are filling out the game even more, as well as adding another dimension to the game. I haven't had much urge to play Star Citizen since purchasing it, but I think once I get access to their mini-universe I'll feel more tempted.

Yet another Skyshine's Bedlam update

They seem to be constantly changing and tweaking the game. This last update has radically changed the combat. All units have more hit points and the special powers you can use are either one use only, for the minor powers, or they take an action point, as for the big powers.

At first I thought they'd screwed it up big time, but I did a complete run through and I think it may be even better now. I'm a little tentative saying this, as I found an annoying bug, but once that's cleared up and I've had another chance to run through I'll have a firmer opinion.

Also, having now played the Banner Saga, I feel a little more appreciation for the combat system. I do think the Banner Saga does it much better and I'll be writing about that game soon!

Elite: Horizons beta opens tomorrow!!!!

Another busy period and lots of talk about!

Since my last post, my girlfriend and I have been on a road trip to see various parts of my family in the west country, south coast and then to Nottingham to see friends, before trooping back up north. It was fantastic, but now xmas is right around the corner and it feels like a big chunk of time just vanished!

So, what has happened during this time:

- I ran some Only War with my brother and a friend. I was really happy to finally be getting into it. Felt a little strange at first, but all credit to the guys I was GMing, they played along well and I think they essentially enjoyed themselves. I'm more chuffed because it felt like finally opening a door. I know I've run a little Star War before, but that was all pre-generated material. This felt like the first time I'd really step into GMing properly.

- I bought Star Citizen! I met some friends from Nottingham, one had a referral code, so I took it and bought one of the limited, reduced priced starter games for Star Citizen. There is also the hope of being able to jump into their newly releasing mini-open universe! The arena commander module is ok, but after playing so much Elite, it doesn't feel like anything very special. But, I can imagine this being a great narrative experience and I can imagine multicrew ships being a big deal! In Elite I'm still unsure how multicrew ships are going to work.

- Elite has many exciting updates coming! Horizons beta starts on Monday, for which I am really excited and I've been starting to pop back into the game and am really enjoying it. I think getting Star Citizen made me realise just how much I missed Elite and how good it is.

- I bought a Play Station 4. I feel a little guilty about this as I'm not currently earning. But, it was a crazy good Black Friday deal and my girlfriend had some ideas for xmas presents, which involved it, so we made the plunge. I do plan to be earning in the not so distant future though!

- Lastly, for now, I bought The Banner Saga. It was on a mega offer for £3. So, for the price of a pint I've just bought what is, so far, an astonishing game! I'm really blown away by it so far, I think my girlfriend may like this one too.


That's it for now on the gaming front. I'm still job hunting; I've been advised January's a good month for some companies, so fingers crossed. I'm also getting back into my Swedish and reading a few books again, so everything's looking up and I'm feeling a bit more productive these days.

Elite update 1.5 beta (titled "Ships"), likely to be up tomorrow

Perfect timing for me to be away for over a week!

I've been looking forward to this update since they mentioned it as it will add a whole raft of new ships to the game, plus yet another update to the missions, which have been getting better and better with time.

I'm annoyed to probably be missing the beta period as I know it would have probably been my only chance to ever fly some of the largest ships in the game.

In another month we'll have Elite: Horizons coming out and the beginning of another years worth of updates. It blows my mind to think that Elite was officially released less than a year ago. It's come on leaps and bounds, that's not to say it wasn't a very stable, compelling game when it first came out!

I don't know what's going on with Star Citizen, but often in the world of games developing, no news means there's something big coming up. So hopefully, despite their delays, we'll see something in the next month or two relating to their first proper release, Squadron 42.

Skyshine's Bedlam - revisited

It's been a while since I last played this and I wasn't sure I ever would. Not that the game was so bad, but it seemed quite incomplete and a bit frustrating.

Well, Skyshine have since updated the game again and I think they have finally starting get on the right track!

The battles feel more challenging again and each run through is a clear-cut run down to Aztec City. Previously, it felt a bit like a kick to the nads when they told you to turn around again. The good thing about this new game run is it makes a single play through a much more manageable hour or so, with a more linear structure to the game. You might say it has made the end game easier, but for a game that is supposed to have similarities and the "one sit down play through" style of FTL, this is a big improvement.

Other changes include a more clear-cut way to unlock the other dozers and the unlockable dozers having more distinct crew members, with varying characteristics depending on their faction, which is something I really like! Even when you recruit characters from other factions en route, they have their factions traits and so you end up with a mixed bag of different types of characters, all fighting together. It makes the game much more immersive. I'm also tempted to care about my characters a little more and rename them, as I know they won't have an epic struggle and almost inevitably die in the ruthless boss levels of the previous version.

There is still the problem with the travelling blurbs being repetitive and almost pointless. They really need to put a cost or a consequence for doing almost anything. Without this I just end up clicking through them, as I know them all, and wait to see what I get or whether it's an ambush. That part of the game could do with a re-vamp. But, saying that, the story and blurbs are interesting and well written - for the first 1 or 2 play throughs.

So, I think the game is worth a look at. If you have a few coins lying around it's not a ripoff, and if you ever see it on sale I'd say go for it.

And the art and music is excellent!

Couch co-op games.

I feel very strongly about maintaining old skool couch gaming. It's something that feels like it's slowly being fazed out, with just a few games that cling to it (one of which is Call of Duty games, so fair play to them).

While my friend was up a few weeks back, we made a point of making sure we played some Gauntlet together and also Broforce. Both games were so much fun to be played sat shouting at each other and the screen, working as a team, sometimes griefing each other for a laugh.

Gauntlet endless mode is a great addition to the game and we managed to get to the 34th level of the procedurally generated dungeon, which is one level more than I ever managed on my own! Sadly, I belief Arrowhead are no longer going to put out anymore content for Gauntlet. It's a great game though and I still dabble in it.

Anyone who reads this blog will known I have a huge weakness for arcade style games. Easy, pick up and play action games that give you a buzz and make you laugh out loud. Some of the first games I bought for my xbox 360 were the downloadable arcade games, bomberman, joyride, arcade ice hockey and more. I think when added up, I've played more hours of arcade games than "proper" games.

If you're not sure about this fact and you have steam, then download Expendabros and try it out with a mate or two or three. It's free and so much fun.

I've been busy!

I said I planned to be writing on my blog almost daily and I've failed rather miserably. But I have been quite busy for the last few weeks.

My friend came up to visit a few weeks back and we spent a week watching films (including all fast and furious films - the first few were the best) and playing computer games. The game of the week, for us, was World of Warships. We had to take it in turns, but we ploughed the game hard and I think the creators of World of Tanks have done another fantastic job and their business model is spot on, again. I'll write more about this in a separate post.

Not long after my friend left, my family came up to the lakes to visit. We had a great week, but in terms of gaming I didn't do much apart from a quick Dreadball game and a game of Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I had forgotten how good Dreadball was! The dice gods were very much with me, which greatly annoyed my brother, but the slick, action packed game was a lot of fun (for me at least, sorry bro). House on the Hill is always fun too. My girlfriend and I have played it with complete novice boardgamers and they've come away from the game having thoroughly enjoyed it. Once again my girlfriend became the haunter (she is freakily drawn to it, considering it's supposed to be random?! And I've never been the haunter in over 20 games!) and she almost won, only to be foiled in a do-or-die move from my brother, which banished the zombie lord back to the depths!

Next week I'll be going south to see my dad and my other brother, so there maybe more delay on some of my planned posts. But I hope to have much material to talk about once I'm home again.

We are planning some gaming for my visit south, maybe some x-wing, Dungeon Saga and/or Only War. The last one depends on me pulling my finger out and actually sorting it though, which I hate to doubt myself, but I know I usually let myself down. But I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.

Star Wars: Battlefront beta

I'm not going to go into any details because I want to respect the non-disclosure agreement.

All I'll say is I've played a little this morning and some more this afternoon and I might play it again later...

In fact, the only thing keeping me from playing it all day is some necessary chores, and toilet breaks (cursed bladder!).

Skyshine's Bedlam

I've been thinking about this game a lot over the last couple of weeks. At first I gave it the benefit of the doubt and persisted, but it just doesn't have the replay appeal it was hoping to have.

The last time I played it was just after an update, which had changed how battles worked. It made it so each side was always far enough way to prevent annoying, first turn losses. This was something I thought would be a good idea, but I soon  realised that it made the game much easier and I found myself thinking that the previous iteration was far more compelling to play. I ended up winning for the first time, on my first attempt after the update and haven't played it since.

Bedlam feels like a game which has all the first ingredients for a great game, but they've not put it together quite right.

The game it still be tweaked and changed, so I'll keep an eye on it. Just wanted to post here as this was something I had been looking forward to and it just hasn't quite hit the mark.

I won a game by crashing a moon into a planet

There's an indi-humble bundle at the moment with some great titles, which can pretty much all by bought for £6. The one that really caught my eye though was Planetary Annihilation.

I have heard about it in the past, but for some reason it past me by. I think it may have been before I had a PC and I accepted I'd never play it. Also, if I remember correctly, the reviewer liked the game, but had various reservations, which sounded plausible at the time.

Anyway, I've now played this game for a couple of hours and it's wooing me with it's insane scale, wonderfully simple graphical elegance and the fact I strapped 3 massive rockets onto a moon and flew it into another planet!

I must admit for the first hour or so I was in old skool RTS (real time strategy) mode, building individual factories and power stations, doing everything one at a time and trying to maximise my resources. I soon released that I'd need to be a lot faster and more efficient with my time, rather than my resources, and within a couple of hours of playing I was building lines of factories, selecting the whole lot and building 100s of tanks, which I'd then casually command to attack another faction on the other side of the planet. It's such a fantastic feeling!

I should briefly explain at this point that Planetary Annihilation is an RTS that allows you to fight across a system of planets. A game may revolve around a single planet, but usually there'll be several with a few moons or asteroid belts thrown in. All these astral bodies are orbiting a star, so there is a day-night cycle, although it's not very perceptible, unless you're admiring the nice graphical details, like lights on the front of units. The game camera takes a little getting used to, but when you zoom out the units and buildings become easily identifiable symbols, which helps greatly for strategic movements.

I think I've played 3 hours in total now. I'm very excited to play more. It's simple, nice to look at and completely bonkers as far as RTSs go. I love it!

Arrowhead make some cracking games!

Gauntlet's one of them and I can't stop myself from dipping back into it. I love it's pleasing game mechanics, the challenge of getting as far as I can in endless mode and, when I get a chance, playing with other people. It has a classic dungeon crawler feel to it, with the classic stereotypes.

Now, the real reason I'm writing this brief post is because I only just noticed that a couple of other games, one of which I keenly have my eyes on, are also by Arrowhead. The big one is Helldivers. I have been hooked on Matt Lee's YouTube videos of him and a friend bumbling through the game - titled Hellduffers, amongst their many other videos. Sadly, they've said they've just done their last video, but hopefully loud and persistent protesting will peer pressure him into doing more.

Helldiver's is similar to Gauntlet in that it's a top down, 1 to 4 player, co-op game. But Helldiver's is more of a hardcore co-op. It looks so hard! There's also character progression and unlocks. Sadly, it's a PlayStation exclusive and that's really not healthy for me as it's making me want a PlayStation 4 so hard! Urg (and with Street Fighter 5 being PS4 exclusive, that's not helping...).

The last game is Magicka. I'll only mention this one quickly. Again, similar style of 1 to 4 player co-op, but it looks so fun! Each player is a mage and the magic system, I believe, shares a similarity to the wizard in Gauntlet.

So basically, all their games share a similar style, but have distinct flavours. I have to say, I really like the style and I look forward to playing Helldivers at some point in the future and maybe Magicka sooner.

Mad Max, Bedlam and other things

I completed the main story in Mad Max and I was very pleasantly surprised. I won't spoil it, but I'll just say that I was expecting something a little cheesy but got a classic Mad Max conclusion. Also, in true open world game style, after the story has been finished you get to continue exploring and finish any outstanding things.

The car customisation is very well done in Mad Max. I know I mentioned it before, but I just had to say it again. It has a very pleasing simplicity to it; you can't just slap everything on that's bigger and better, nearly all the components have a time and place on different types of ride.

I strongly recommend Mad Max to any driving enthusiasts who like blood and guts action games as well.

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Since last Thursday I've been playing Skyshine's Bedlam, on and off. My thoughts have been up and down about the game. To be honest I think I had thought it was going to be more of an FTL clone. They share many aspects; they are both designed to have each play through played as a single session of about an hour (2 at most), and both games use dialogue choice style encounters, but that's where the similarities end.

After playing about 10 hours on Bedlam I've decided it's not a good idea to compare it to FTL. Bedlam's art style, setting and sound is fantastic and engrossing. The combat uses an interesting 2 action point, turn-based system, which has a very arcade-like style, with voices overs like announcing headshots and brutal kills. This is really the central aspect to the game, it took me a little while to get my head round it.

The travelling part of the game is less about survival and more about collecting weapons and new crew. What confused me for a while was that there's really nothing to weigh up when considering options during the encounters, the worst that'll happen is another battle. The vast majority of times you either acquire something or nothing. I often found myself saying to myself, "why wouldn't I take this?!", or, "what's the point of not going inside?!", because really, nothing bad ever happened.

Anyway, I works in it's way and when you accept that it's a fast paced, arcade style, post-apocalyptic battle against Lord Viscera, then you can really get engrossed in the challenge.

I'm yet to win. I've come so close a couple of times now! Each time I've felt a little gutted, but equally, I've felt like I learnt something and feel a compulsion to have another go.

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Other things I've been up to:

• I've set my guitar up in my new place. Plan to get some practice in again and maybe start writing some new stuff to play with my mate from my old band.
• I got a painting station all put together. Still haven't really got a proper space to paint at, but soon I should have finally cleared my gaming area and have a semi-permanent space to have it setup in.
• The beer is almost ready to be tried. I'm quite excited, but I need to start working on getting some recipes together for our next batch, as that will be brewed properly and not some pre-made, just-add-water, kit brew.

I know it's been a long post, but I wanted to bring up some topics that I hope to expand on more in the future. I'm hoping to make this blog a bit more diverse. However, it will no doubt still centre around gaming as it's pretty much my main hobby.

Quick beer update

On Saturday I popped up to Edinburgh to bottle the beer. All looks good. I've brought home 4 bottles of the 35 we got from the batch. I would have brought more back if I'd had the car by then, but I didn't pick my new car up until Monday, sadly.

My friend and I plan to brew 4 small, 4.5 litre batches with different recipes, as our next endeavour. This will probably occur today November time, maybe late October.

In a few weeks the beer will be ready to drink!

Skyshine's Bedlam out today! (not thursday)

You hear me right! It's coming out today, just not yet. For annoying American reasons it's coming out 9am PST, which is 5pm in the civilised world. I've been itching to get onto it all day! Although, I've had various things to do, so maybe it's a good thing.

Mad Max - the game, not the film

I've been playing Mad Max since release, which is very strange for me! A friend of mine told me, on the day of release, of a website where I bought a steam code for about £17. Otherwise, I was going to wait as I had been a little sceptical about the game.

One of the first things I should point out is that I haven't watched the film yet. I did really want to watch it when it went into the cinema, but I was busy with work, my girlfriend wasn't keen on watching it and I was being stingy. I will definitely be watching it as soon as I can though, pending dvd/bluray release or lovefilm rental release or something.

Anyway, back to the game! In short, I was impressed instantly and it just got better. It reminded me a lot of Red Dead Redemption; you're basically a loner, on your ride, going round a massive open world doing stuff, with everything being loosely tied together with a functional story. You're not totally a loner in Mad Max though, you very quickly gain a companion, Chum Bucket, who is a skilled mechanic and offers to build you a new car. MINOR SPOILER ALERT! I should explain, the game involves you making a good enough car to venture out into the desolate wilderness, as you lose your car in the opening sequence of the game.

The story is almost non-existence, there's a sort of token love interest, and the various favours you need from people mean that you end up having to do various things for them, but the basic need for a good enough car drags you around quite nicely. To be honest, I am so glad there is not more story! The reason I was originally sceptical about the game was because I thought it would be a horrible film license game with rubbish gameplay and too many cinematics. So, having it the other way round was fantastic and might even allow for re-playability for big fans of the settings and gameplay; unlike Red Dead Redemption, which was a legendarily brilliant story, but due to the story being quite heavy, didn't give itself over to being replayed.

Travelling and fighting in your car is the bread and butter of the game and it's wonderfully satisfying. The engine noises and the handling are very well designed and I have never tired of it, ramming enemy cars and tweaking my car loadout. The melee combat is functional and works very well, it's the classic batman-esque brawling combat system. Not something that really interested me, but was satisfying enough to keep me going into those situations, when needed.

So, to sum up, you'll spend most of the game driving around an intensely atmospheric wasteland, filled with interesting places to loot, blow-up, discover and people to do favours for, who then help you out, while your car gets better and better. If you like post-apocalyptic themed games and you like driving a hand built car where the size of the V8 engine is the most important factor, you'll love this game.

Skyshine's Bedlam - coming out this thursday!

I pre-ordered this game a while back, after seeing some preview game footage. It struck me straight away and being an interesting FTL-esque turn based rogue-like.

Check it out here:

http://www.gobedlam.com/
I very rarely pre-order games, but as this is by a small independent publisher it didn't cost the earth.

There are other exciting things happening at the moment too, I'll post about them soon!

Earth two thousand, one hundred and sixty zero

Earth 2160 is a classic old RTS. I remember playing it a decade ago with a mate, who introduced me to the game. When I saw it for £3.99 on steam I couldn't really say no - although I am mega stingy when it comes to buying games normally.

The most striking thing about the game is how it doesn't feel too dated. Obviously, the graphics are, but when you get into the game it doesn't feel frustratingly old fashioned or clunky. The interfaces are perfectly function and the gameplay is solid, and the graphics work. After 10 minutes of my first game I'd forgotten about the pixelated edges and poor textures. The designers have clearly made the game within their limits and made it work.

The most compelling part of the game, it's ISP, if you like, is the unit customisation. It's genius! I was daunted when going back into the quite large tech tree and when I first opened the unit customisation window, but it's wonderfully visual and functional and gives you all the information you need. This is the best bit of the game! Customising your vehicles to your preference, to take advantage of an opponents weakness or just to throw some variety into an armoured column, is engaging, kind of necessary and slickly done.

Other great aspects of the game are the 3 completely different, but reasonably well balanced factions and the pace of gameplay. If you want to take it easy and play a casual game, Earth 2160 has all the tools to let you build a great looking base in slow time, research and customise your units, before giving your opponents the coup-de-grace. But equally, you can play fast and blitz them early, like you should be able to do in any good RTS.

Playing it again, so many years later, has made me think; what is it that makes a game feel dated? Because this one just doesn't.

I am an Gauntlet addict.

The update to the Slayer Edition has transformed Gauntlet, for me. On the forums many people are giving it a lot of flak and I can understand because it is significantly different to how it was. But I've never enjoyed it so much!

Gauntlet is not a game about achievement and upgrading characters, it's about the thrill of every game, playing with other people and seeing how far you can go. The daily challenges are ok for me to get my fix. It probably doesn't take me longer than 30 minutes to do it with the 3 characters I enjoy playing as, but it's the endless mode that is so good.

Played some Bad Company 2 again...

And I remember why I preferred the gameplay in Battlefield 3.

To be fair, there aren't many people playing Bad Company 2 anymore and I've been playing alone - which is never wise in any Battlefield game. The main thing I feel when playing is that I want to play Battlefield 3 again. I miss having a more realistic approach to gun selection, without it being a simulation. Bad Company 2 squeezes you into a very limited selection of weapons for each class and none of them really take my fancy - I end up running around with an 870 shotgun or a G3 and wishing for my LA85A2 (british army's standard assault rifle), which I adored in Battlefield 3. Also, the gameplay is just a little less refined than I remembered.

I looked back through my blog at some of my past comments on these games and I have consistently said Bad Company 2 was better overall. I think this is a feeling of how it felt at the time. Battlefield 3 had some really frustrating aspects that were easily managed by Bad Company 2, most notably playing in a squad with friends. Battlefield 3 had the annoying habit of chucking everyone you'd gathered into your in-game "squad" into random squads in a match and even on different teams. Also, Battlefield 3 brought in player run servers, which were almost all terrible - trying to get onto an official server without any bullshit or worrying about being kicked, was nearly impossible.

Bad Company 2 just worked, all official servers, easy squad creation, easy connections to games. If they'd had all these aspects in Battlefield 3 it would have been better in every way than Bad Company 2. They may seem like small things as they don't actually relate to gameplay, but they're so important for providing good gameplay.

So yes, overall Bad Company 2 was more fun, but, frustratingly, it hasn't aged well. I hope to play with my mate, who was my main battle partner through Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, and then we'll see how it weighs up. But, like Battlefield 2142, it's probably better to live with the memories and play something more up to date.

First brew setup yesterday

I visited a friend in Edinburgh yesterday and we setup our first ever brew together!

We bought a starter kit from the brew store in Edinburgh, which comes with all the gubbins you need to ferment your brew and the various syphons, thermometers, bits and pieces and also a barrel, which is very handy.

This time around we kept it very simple and just did the pre-made brew with malt extract and hop pellets, but we decided this was best for a first run through. Once we have familiarised ourselves with the time periods, the fermentation period and various parts of the process we'll then look at brewing with malts and dried hops, so that we can create our own recipes and get into the nitty-gritty of it.

I'll keep you posted!

Things and stuff - blog name change

Been wanting to change the name of my blog for a long time now! Couldn't get things and stuff, so got the next best.

The main reason I wanted to change it is because I'd quite like to discuss other things, like brewing beer and other interesting stuff that I may be interested in.

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition

My god this is good!

I'd never make a good reviewer, due to giving away my feelings way too early and probably getting too emotional about games. But Gauntlet is one of those games that just feels good to play.

The recent update is free for anyone who already owns Gauntlet on PC and it's been a significant overhaul of the game. The different weapons for each character now have slightly different attacks - some which are linked in with various moves and make for great discoveries when you accidently link them up! The campaigns been changed into a sort of map thing, so you can pick which level you want to play; quite a nice change when you just want to go back and play a particular level. And they've introduced Endless mode! Genius! The colosseum is still there too in the form of a daily challenge, which I'm a little skeptic about, as surely, someone will need to update that every day...? Unless the game somehow has a way of procedurally generating them. Who knows, but it's pretty cool.

Other changes include the addition of talisman (talismans?). These now change how potions are used. When a character drinks a potion they activate their talisman power, this could be throwing it like a bomb or turning into a giant version of yourself, to give a couple of Thor's talisman options.

Relics are still in the game but you only choose one, I think they've generally been toned down a bit, and they work on a cooldown timer.

A possible negative, which has been talked about a lot my the community since it's release, in an apparent change to the camera. At first I also found it strange and agreed with many of the thoughts put down by others, but after a good few hours of pure arcade, blood filled, awesome-ness, I may have changed my mind. Now, the camera feels ok. I understand that all the characters are sharing the same camera. The real test for the camera will be when I play some multiplayer, as so far I've been going solo.

The game is very addictive and feels hugely replayable. Endless mode procedurally generates dungeons, level after level, no two ever being the same. As you descend further the difficulty keeps ramping up and the gold you gather needs to be spent on food, potions or skull coins (respawns), otherwise I have found what I gather through my adventuring doesn't give me enough.

Love it.

New home, no job.

Been a hectic couple of months.

End of July I moved home and was quite happy to leave my last job. My girlfriend has a job though so I've got a bit of time to find something half decent, maybe.

While I don't have a job I plan to be a bit more active on my blog and also in designing my games! Wastelands is crying out to be written up and printed off and a couple of other game ideas are also on the edge of my mind, crying to be put onto paper.

If anyone knows of any gaming clubs in Carlisle, please give me a heads up; the internet isn't giving me much to go with...

I didn't run Edge of the Empire game!

I felt really guilty about this. I had promised my friends I would, I even mentioned it a few blog posts ago.

The reasons are because I've been too busy preparing for a house move. However, I'm still very keen to do it and I hope I can find enough time between now and a week on wednesday to prepare for it.

I'd like to do it before I move as I'm not sure when I'll get another chance. I think that once I've run 1 proper session I'll feel more comfortable, see where I need to improve and be better mentally prepared for running roleplay games in the future.

For me, I think roleplay gaming is something that'll become a big part of my gaming in the future. And maybe something I'll start talking about more on this blog.

Cheers.

XCOM: The Boardgame - fantastic first impressions

Played my first 2 games today and my friends and I were really impressed!

The game runs pretty much entirely through the iPad app, but it runs it so well. The mechanics of the game are so straightforward we picked them up within 30 minutes and each player was able to concentrate on their role and enjoy being part of a team effort.

The app has various difficulty settings and for our first game we chose "tutorial". This laid everything out very clearly and once we completed the game we swapped roles and jumped straight into an easy game, just to cement the rules.

There are 2 main phases in each turn; the timed phase and the resolution phase. During the timed phase everyone's on edge, preparing their next move for when the app pops up that the player needs to do something. There is sometimes just enough time to try and help each other out or use special abilities, but it's frantic and exciting! The resolution phase is not timed and is basically where the dice are rolled and research and combat results are determined.

My original concern about the app requirement seems less important now. It works so well that I'm not going to think about 10 or 20 years time. I can see this game being a firm favourite and hitting the table a lot for the next few years. So, whatever happens with the app on future devices, I'll get my moneys worth.

I do still have a minor concern though; I can't imagine playing without 4 players exactly. I'm not sure I'd want to! It works so wonderfully well with a player on each side of the board doing their allocated role, getting players to do more than 1 role would mean losing a large part of the dynamics of the game, so I can see this being quite a limiting factor.

Overall though, XCOM: The Boardgame is brilliant!

I've bought a few things

It was a birthday a week or so ago and with some of the money I was kindly given I purchased some things I'd had my eye on for a while.

Firstly, I bought the XCOM board game. I've downloaded the app onto our ipad and am really looking forward to playing it! Although, from chatting to a mate about it, there is a small bugbear about the nature of the game; no rules come with it because it depends entirely on the app...

This means, if you want to play the boardgame in 10 years time, which is not unrealistic, how easily available with the app be? Will I still have my ipad, and if not, will I be able to get the app on something else?

Right now, I think it will play brilliantly. The friends I've spoken to who've played it and the reviews are all positive, so I guess sometimes you just have to invest in the short term and make the most of it while you can. So the future can wait on that one.

Secondly, I bought a couple of the Warhammer 40k roleplay core books. I had only planned on getting Only War, but my local store didn't have it and couldn't ordered it so I weakened, acted frivolously and bought Deathwatch from him, then ordered Only War from amazon. I'm not going to regret this! The great thing about the 40k RPG books is that they are all compatible. So, even though I don't really fancy running a game with superhuman space marines, I will probably want to create some space marine characters. Also, there's different wargear and stats and info on other bad guys. And, well, I might want to run a game with space marines in the future.

I really am keen on RPGing these days and I'm going to be running an Edge of the Empire (Star Wars RPG) game on Monday, and I'm nervous! It's just the adventure from the core book, but there appears to be more work involved than I thought, so I'm kind of swatting up at the moment. I'm sure once I get use to it I'll be able to just make it up and figure it out on less info than I'd like right now.

Why don't I own Dungeon Quest yet?!

A question I ask myself nearly every few months! The main reason is because a friend of mine owns it, but we were talking today and I was thinking I really would like to get a copy of my own.

Dungeon Quest is a fantastic game, as I think I've mentioned before on this blog. There's quite a lot of luck involved, but the more we've played it the more we've learnt how to minimise the opportunities for bad luck.

One of the big things I like about the game is that it's completely self contained, so you can put it on the table and not worry about how you're going to play the game.

My girlfriend and I will be moving to another city in a few weeks, so this will probably be a good reason to acquire a copy soon(ish), maybe xmas time, depending on how soon I can find gaming minions up in Carlisle.

We happy few - survive in a dystopian post-war england

I back We Happy Few the other day on Kickstarter, just before it ended. Only went in at a low level, which would give me access to the game when released, but I've watched some gameplay videos and I found it very compelling.

The game seems to be set in '60s post-war england. I think I read that it's an alternative reality where Germany won the war and now the population is all hooked on happy pills and in denial, or something. You, as the player, are a "downer", ie, someone who is no longer taking their happy pills and the aim of the game is to escape. Whether that means escaping just the town or finding where the other downers live, I guess we'll find out more as the development progresses.

The game is being made by a small developer. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens!

Check it out on youtube. The kickstarter has now finished, so sadly you can't back it anymore.

Wargaming thoughts - army composition

This is a follow on from a post I made just over a year ago about setup and deployment.

It was the principles of force composition that I consider to have eventually made Warhammer Fantasy unbearably unplayable for me. My friends and I got to a point where we were essentially playing tournament style warhammer, building the strongest, most effective armies possible. The inevitable result was that whenever you made an army there were required components, without which you weren't making the most of what you had available to you and would almost inevitably lose - or so we thought at the time. This led to tedium setting in and the magic that had once gone hand-in-hand with Warhammer Fantasy for dispelled.

It's only been in recent years that I've taken time to consider this and come to a conclusion that, firstly, we were fools to fall into this style of play, but secondly, that the system has very few restrictions and leaves players to use everything their army list allows in every battle.

Effectively, my point is straightforward, when playing tabletop wargames, if you can integrate an element of random or restricted composition to a general's forces, preferably in a logical and thematic way, it will help to create a more believable engagement. For example, a player controlling a british force in a peninsular war would love to have a battalion Coldstream Guards to sit at the centre of his front line, but when making this request the player is offered a battalion of riflemen; they are still elite infantry, but fight in a completely different way, thus requiring the general to adapt their battle plans.

Now, I understand this is purely theoretical, there are very few gamers out there with enough variety in their collection to be able to allow for such random selection. However, I maintain that this can be implemented at smaller scales, with random allocation of magic items to a hero in a fantasy wargame, or with random variations of similar types of regiments.Equally, it could be implemented in a way that allows players to pick freely, but the more elite the regiment, the less likely they will receive all the numbers they've "paid" for. When then scaled across each player's entire formations, it would balance to a certain extent, as each force would have varying numbers in every battalion, artillery battery and cavalry squadron, forcing each commander to assess how and where to use troops.

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When combined with my post regarding deployment and terrain, I think these principles could lead to an interesting and dynamic gaming experience, without necessarily having to rely on narrative or storytelling to give it substance.

Games wishlist - summer 2015

I tend to do one of these each year and there are a few games which I've got my eyes on:

XCOM: The Board Game - I love cooperative games and this one comes well recommended. Up to 4 players take the roles of commander, comms officer, tactical officer and scientist, in a time limited, frantic attempt to save the earth from an alien invasion!

I've watched some reviews and I can't imagine playing without 4 players, but I think it'll be a winner with my gaming group. There are 4 of us and we all like the computer games, which, if you haven't played them, you have missed out!!!

Only War - I really enjoy my RPGs. I craved doing pen-and-paper RPGing as a kid and only feel like I've started to touch the surface now! I own Star Wars: Edge of the Empire and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which I'm very keen to play more of, but the thought of running a game where the players are lowly Imperial Guardsmen, is exciting! They are the lowest of the low in the Warhammer 40k universe and it would make for some great RPGing, watching players figure out how to complete their mission without being hacked to death!

Eldritch Horror: Strange Remnants - Another mini-expansion for Eldritch Horror, which is one of my favourite boardgames. Not much to say about this, other than more stuff just makes for more ways to die horribly, go insane and be generally pummelled into a paste by unimaginable horrors.

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I've resisted buying these things for monetary reasons and time constraints, but I aim to be able to get all of these relatively soon!

An honourable mention goes to Talisman: Highlands expansion. Mostly for completeness reasons. My gaming group are keen to play an epic Talisman game with all 4 corners to explore.

Still haven't started my elite career from scratch...

But I will eventually! Just haven't worked up the courage to start all over again.

The recent update to elite, Power Play, has been another big positive step forward. The new ships add a nice variation, new missions have finally allowed me to follow my path in the game of smuggling and the political system has allowed hardcore eliterites to follow a leader and get more involved with the shaping of the galaxy.

As soon as the update came out I jumped into one of the new ships, the Diamondback Scout, and started smuggling narcotics, weapons and even a few slaves. Sneaking in and out of stations without being scanned is a nice challenge, and the large pay-outs for relatively small cargo hauls is very nice and allows me to use a small, nibble ship.

One of the reasons (excuses...?) I've not started again is because I'm very close to being able to get a Federal Dropship. It's not the most desirable ship in the galaxy, but I've always thought it had a simple, functional charm. Also, I'm not in a position to put many hours into the game at the moment, and if I was to start again I would like to be able to sit down and really enjoy playing without worrying about time constraints too much.

Another big Elite update!

Frontier have released another huge update for Elite, Power Play. This is adding in a lot of detail which has now superseded what Frontier confirmed had been "place-holder".

Features include a completely updated mission system, which I've tested and is hugely refreshing and open to almost endless possibility! No more missions requiring the endless searching through unidentified signal sources. Also, you can now join a minor faction, which will allow you to be a small part of a huge galaxy-wide power struggle and will open players up to PvP and in game politics, which will be very interesting. Also, there are new ships and another raft of minor bug fixes and feature tweaks.

I think I'll be starting my Elite career from scratch, with a proper commander name and hope to indulge in the smuggling missions, which I've been craving since the game released!!

Frontier amaze me. Six to seven months into the games life and it's expanded so much already. It makes me a little giddy thinking about what the game might be like at the end of this year!

I popped my head over to the Star Citizen reddit and stuffs still happening there, but nothing particularly new yet. I look forward to seeing more about it towards the end of this year, but until then, I don't feel any need to explore it further. I have little doubt Star Citizen will be amazing when it comes out in a couple of years, but what will Elite be like then?

Iron Brigade is still great

I finally completed wave 100 on one of the Iron Brigade survival maps!

I've been playing Iron Brigade again with my brother and a friend. With my friend, who's an Iron Brigade veteran, we've been trying to conquer all the survival maps, and with my brother, I've been going back through the missions again, using early gear so as to not spoil the experience for him.

It great to be playing the early missions again and seeing my brother enjoying the game for the first time. He has commented on how well designed and easily enjoyable it is, with a healthy challenge factor that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I'm a terrible blogger

I really am terrible at updating this blog.

To be honest, I want to change the name of the blog. Over the last few years I've indulged in gaming of many kinds and I've found there are many types of game that don't float my boat. I've found myself always going back to the same kind of games.

The main types of game I've realised I don't enjoy so much are mostly board games. Euro-games are ok played once in a blue moon, but on the whole they run dry when repeated. Deck builders I find a little too abstract, but I can see where they can possibly work - in fact I have half an eye on the Street Fighter deck builder.

On the whole I've realised I like the games with story, usually cooperative games, that immerse you and your co-gamers in a universe. Eldritch Horror and Gears of War have been classics with my gaming group and I'm looking forward to taking a better look at XCOM the board game.

My gaming group have also delved into RPGing a little and we've always craved doing more, we just lack the individual in the group who has a deep love for being GM. We've shared the load a little, but to really get into RPGing you need that individual driving force - in fact that could go for all games (possible blog post for the future...)!

Games I miss playing

Battlefield 3 (and Bad Company 2) - I used to enjoy playing in a squad with my brothers and friends of mine. Battlefield 4 was too buggy, big and crazy and never drew our attention and as time's moved on Battlefield 3 fell by the wayside. It was a game that worked best when you had a close team of 4 people working together.

Iron Brigade - This game died out for me and my friends because we played it to death. But a year on and I'm craving it again. The gameplay was so satisfying and the need for cooperative play to survive made it very rewarding and a great social game.

Minecraft - now, technically, I have played this recently. But I miss playing it with a bigger group of friends. I think I may have to invest in the PC version to achieve this, but then so will my mate who I have been playing with. Multiplayer on xbox is easy and makes things more casual, but everyone seems to be moving away from it and into PC gaming.

Fifa - To be more specific, it's playing in the pro team with my mates. It required serious teamwork, but we'd always have such a laugh doing it. Newer fifas have left this feature behind and consequently I've not bought fifa for a couple of years now. I really miss playing it though.

Wargaming - This goes back to gaming I used to do over a decade ago! Warhammer Fantasy; I'd love to play some small, characterful games, like we used to play with our 500 and 1000 point armies. Necromunda; I hardly played this, but what I did play I really enjoyed. I think there is a possibility of doing a campaign with my current friends, using Deadzone terrain and hashing gangs together with other companies models. Warhammer 40k; like with fantasy, I miss playing the smaller games, when I didn't own everything I wanted and had to put up with what I had - this would make for another topic to write about, force composition.

On the whole, from reading through again, I just miss playing good social games with people who enjoy playing the games too.

Elite is a constant surprise

I backed Elite in beta, back in September(-ish) time. I have never experienced a game like it.

Every release seems to come on time and is solid. The game released without any game breaking crashes (disclaimer - for the vast majority of people). Any smaller bugs are swept up in weekly, sometimes daily, patches.

Each month so far they've released larger chunks of content. In every case, so far, this has been on time and never game breaking. The big update last month brought in the MUCH desired "wings" play, which allowed me and some friends to form an in-game squadron (or, "wing") and share bounties, receive benefits for being together and better in-game communication!! finally! The in-game voice comms were pretty rubbish before, now they work and with the nice crackely effect they put on your voices, it adds to the immersion so much. It's so much nicer and more immersive than using skype!

The next big update is coming later this month or beginning of May. It's the first update that they haven't put a specific date on and they haven't told us anything about, but they're saying it's the biggest yet and with what I've seen up until now, I am sure it will be.

Generally speaking, most things in life (read as: everything in life...) are disappointing. Elite felt a little thin when it first came out, but every patch has surpassed my expectations. And, when I think back to when I did think it was a little thin, I now realise they were building something solid and making sure it was on time, as promised, because there was enough in it to play a meaningful game and if you understood the political systems and the way factions worked you could really enjoy yourself. For a simpleton like me I found that a little tricky and am just getting a handle on it.

If you like space sandbox games and have a computer capable of running Elite, then you are cutting off your nose to spite your face, if you do not buy this. I read some hate and mockery from Star Citizen fans and I can't understand it?! I'm really excited about Star Citizen, but it doesn't exist yet. So while we wait for that amazing game to arrive, you might as well play Elite and see how a really well designed, well managed, exciting space sand-box game is like.

Elite, Gauntlet and gaming in general

Evening all, I don't mean to be so inactive on my blog, I'm just not feeling very motivated still. I'm working on getting myself being more proactive, but it feels like an uphill struggle.

Since it released, in mid-December, I've been playing Elite on and off. This is a hugely impressive game; on one hand there isn't a huge amount of content and it can feel a bit aimless, but on the other it is apparent Frontier Development have built an engine and the core mechanics so solidly that it is ready for content to be layered on in the coming years. They have better multiplayer support coming, along with co-operative missions, next month! I think this will be when the game really starts to take form.

Elite is 1-to-1 scale to the milky way, a sandbox game where it's up to each player to decide what they want to do, whether that is to trade, pirate, hunt bounties or mine. There is also a political level to the game where you have to consider which faction you're being good to and whether it's going to have repercussions on you when you go to their enemies systems. The trade and political system is very deep, still needs a little work, but it's basically there.

On the whole I feel Elite feel very polished, but dying for better multiplayer support, which is something I'm hoping to no longer being saying in a few weeks. To be honest, with the quality of the patches and release so far, I am almost certain this will be rectified in the next update in early March. I can't wait for it!

Another game I had been playing more before and around xmas is Gauntlet. It's a top down hack'n'slash dungeon crawler, built for multiplayer - you can play single player, but that gets a bit tedious pretty quickly. Fighting as a warrior, valkyrie, archer or wizard, you battle through hordes of enemies, collecting as much treasure as you can.

The only way to play is with friends and despite the game sometimes feeling a little repetitive, the challenge level is high enough and the mechanics are well designed that it feels satisfying whenever you play it!

I recommend playing gauntlet with a beer and at least 2 other friends online.

So, apart from Elite and Gauntlet I have fiddled with a few other games, Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition, Empire: Total War, Xcom: Enemy Unknown, all of which are fantastic. I don't feel I have enough time to really get the most out of them, but hope to delve deeper into them over the coming year.

I'm looking forward to the Homeworld re-mastered edition coming in a week! This is a fantastic multiplayer game and I hope a friend of mine gets it so we can relive some great Homeworld memories.