Tag Archives: Review

Losing Fifty Games

When I got into Infinity someone quoted me a go proverb. “Lose your first fifty games as swiftly as possible.”

If nothing else, I have excelled at following that advice. I have been absolutely destroyed by players vastly more experienced than me. I’ve been crushed by a veteran of the Interplanetario, the World Cup of Infinity. My weekly game is against a friend comprehensively more skilled than me. I have dozens of defeats, many of them crushing, some of them close. My victories have only recently become anything close to regular.

And I’ve been having a blast the entire time.

So let’s talk Infinity

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A War of Personalities

I am rivals with Yuan Shao, but we tolerate each other, play at alliance, for there is long personal history between us. To betray that history would risk the wrath of mutual allies and old friends, and do terrible things to our reputation. So we glare, and tensions rise, and we race to take valuable territory from mutual foes, but we remain peaceful and our alliance strong enough.

But Yuan Shao dies, fighting bandits in the north, and his sons have no such compunctions. The Yuans vassalize their old foes and, as I march upon Dong Zhou, declare war. Now I’m at war on three fronts, against the Yuan in the east, Dong Zhou in the west, and a variety of vassal states to my north. I strike deals and manipulate some smaller states into fighting the Yuans, distracting his armies and giving me time and space to plan my next move. It would not have worked against Yuan Shao, too well loved by many of the men and women who now besiege his border territories, but his son has no such reputation.

This is the diplomatic world of Three Kingdoms: Total War, and it has helped turn Three Kingdoms into the best game in the series.

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Alien Day Short Films

Alien’s 40th Anniversary is coming up. Alien Day itself is today (April 26), and 20th Century Fox has been drip-feeding short films on youtube to set the stage for their big announcement. I’m a fan of the first two movies and so have been following the Alien Day preparations closely since I heard about the kickoff.

Unfortunately the announcements so far have been extremely disappointing. Alien will be in theaters for a few days in October, which I guess is kind of neat, but so far there hasn’t been a big announcement. It is, however, not a total wash because the shorts themselves are worth talking about.

They’re all available on IGN’s youtube account and have been released on a weekly basis since March 29th. I’ve largely avoided spoilers in the reviews below, but if you really want to go in with your eyes wide open you should check out that link before you proceed. Just make sure to watch Specimen, Alone, and Ore before you come back.

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Article Depicted May Not Be Representative of Final Product

Supplies are low. With nothing coming in food can be hard to get in San Lazaro. Medical supplies, moreso.

But you’re in luck, Seeker spotted an overturned supply truck a few blocks away. Swarming with Crazies, sure, but you can handle that. Stick with your team, play it smart, and they’re not too dangerous.

Mist covers the intersection when you arrive. You can see the shambling forms of Crazies as you approach, but they’re not the real threat. The real threat are the other shapes in the mist, dark silhouettes creeping from cover to cover, just as hungry, just as desperate as you. Maybe they’re bandits, maybe they’re law enforcement, maybe they’re just normal people, ones you might work with in better circumstances.

A rifle shot rings out. A crazy drops, while the others snap towards the sound. Loping into the mists, weapons in hand. Whoever these strangers are, they’re probably not going to let you at the food without a fight.

This is the setting of Omicron Protocol. An in-development skirmish wargame by Dead Alive Games. Set in 2050, in the fictional city of San Lazaro, at the beginning of a cybernetically-styled zombie apocalypse. I was lucky enough to participate in a demo of the system on the 20th, and enjoyed it enough to write about it.

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What’s Up Danger

Into the Spiderverse was good, you guys.

Into the Spiderverse was really, really good.

It’s been an hour since I got home and my feet are tapping to the beat of the soundtrack. Images from the movie play through my mind. The thought of the stinger sends me into hysterics. The sheer transcendent style of the movie still bows my mind and I am physically angry with myself for not taking a picture at the theater.

I don’t know what the long term impact of this movie will be, but if it doesn’t mark a fundamental shift in western animation then mistakes were made.

“That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.” – Stan Lee

Let’s talk about Spiderman.

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Jet Set Squid Kids

Sorry for the giant delay, school’s been pretty busy, I’ve been dealing with minor medical issues (Fucked up a knee), and I’ve generally had a hard time finding time for the blog. This post’s gonna be pretty short, and I’ve got half-done stuff on Zeta Gundam and Dragon Age Inquisition in the pipe, as well as most of a post on the less-than-stellar Two of Swords Part One by KJ Parker.

So the Splatoon Global Testfire started yesterday and I was one of those fortunate enough to participate. It was the first large-scale demo of the game, basically meant to stress-test the servers, and was relatively limited. It did, however, provide enough content to solidify my first impressions of the game.

And let me tell you, this thing is gold.

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Fly, Gundam!

Mobile Suit Gundam (Also known as Gundam 0079) is a ridiculously influential anime. It spawned the entire real robot genre and a franchise that has lasted for thirty five years and counting. It has sold ten model robots for every man, woman, and child in Japan today and is referenced regularly in every part of Japanese culture, from the military to the auto industry to the fire department to amusement parks. There is a goddamn eighteen meter tall Gundam Statue in Tokyo. Gundam is a truly absurdly influential work and it’s difficult to underestimate its influence.

And all of the above is a little awkward because, well, 0079 isn’t actually a good show.

https://i0.wp.com/www.giganticstatues.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gundam-statue-tokyo-japan.jpg

This exists.

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Say it Aint So, Bernie!

So it turns out kicking off the blog on a Thursday night with an update due Friday, nothing written, and a plan that involves spending a couple days on major updates is a terrible idea. I apologize for the delay, and without further ado let’s get started.

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