In Empty Boats

you run me ragged
I'm even starting to    
worry your worry

you are nervous
and wonderful with
lists and fury

You're the goal
In this game
I have been playing

A Reason to tend
chores when my show
is going on the tv

Work I would rather
wait on started anyway
not some other day

a nagging need when
my snoring drives you
to the couch

Happy to find you
sleeping nights I'm out
Glad for you
when I'm falling apart

cloth turned in shreds and synchronicity

across the sepulcher fields south; cloth turned in shreds and synchronicity with the wind.  I could not travel these lands fearing the Leviathan among the sand.  I walk far wide, the crumbling east hunting the memories of haunted lands.  Vathek or Brigadoon or just a hope for something better beyond the barriers of sight.  The blind drunk or even self lost in a crowd scream for blood; any would do. 

Adventure Plot Seed: The Bear King

I am often reading books like Barbie A Mermaid's Tale 2 or Brave to my daughter at night.   I am trying to reach adequate level as a parent, its a far off but attainable goal. For those unfamiliar a spell turns the queen and three princes into bears.  The brave princess must undo the spell or they will be bears forever.  The king almost kills the queen thinking she is a bear , things are restored , Disney ending.

The consequences of failure where what interested me.  Perhaps the King killed the queen and made the spell permanent.  Damning the princes to a life as bears and a whole lot of grief.  That is what interests me for a plot hook or seed.

Start with a kingdom in ruin and the king overcome with grief.  The hunting of bears forbidden as his sons are now bears, the lands are over populated with the animals.  Perhaps they party is attacked by a bear and they slay it and are imprisoned by the king and his small group of guards that have remained.  Perhaps  higher level players have some magic to undo the curse. 

I could see something like a den of the brother with three paragon bears in pathfinder terms.  Maybe a crumbling castle of the mad bear king. 

Roleplaying Campaign idea for free. After Death

So this is a game idea think is neat but not really my style.  It may even exist out there somewhere but why not take the zombie horror game and flip it over, starting after death.  basically allowing the character to dictate how they survive being dead.

I see this as a bit of a once and done campaign as you would need to have the character in the dark about their actions. The whole character would need to be reinvented through the process of death, which makes this perhaps just an add on to an existing campaign.

I am thinking that the players would not just be zombies but allow their actions to move the character in a direction.  Perhaps what they consume changes their undeath a bit for the good and bad.  Maybe drinking live blood allows you to be more like the living, but with a price.  Maybe consuming animal flesh makes you more like an animal and less thinking.  I guess you get into the World of darkness area with humanity points a bit with negative consequences.  But my focus is to end this where a World of Darkness game begins. you are not a vampire or ghost but you could become one.

You could even have actions drive your outcome , with stuff like hiding yourself away allowing you to become more and more able to hide until finally crossing over to being a poltergeist. The point is the confusion of not knowing what is happening and how the characters are being changed through their actions.

A Fathers Regret

I believed the loading towers in the truck yard were the two towers from the book and that truckers didn't mind a kid motioning for them to honk their horns.  I thought the graffiti for The Who on the far side of the overpass would last forever. I hoped for toys and thought my parents were made of money and did see it as a bad part of town.  I had friends and fun and youth that only seems shining upon reflection.  Golden falls and warm springs all wrapped in the freedom of long bike rides that never concerned my parents.  My journeys were never spoken but would have shocked them in distance and determination. I even jumped in the pool with my clothes on and they were none the wiser.  It was glorious and gone in the wink of an eye and now I can't seem to pass it along to my child. 

Kickstarter Review: Transhuman the eclipse phase players guide

I am a fan of the Ellipse Phase line of products despite finding some of the political aspects of the game annoying.  Its just a bit too liberal / socialist for my tastes.  Though I generally agree on demand creation of material goods will perhaps derail capitalism, their reputation based societies seem equality unsustainable.  Working in the business world you see people who's only value is some schmoozing reputation, that just isn't going to work.  The artistic social paradise has the social parasitism of communism on the other side of the coin.  But that is whatever.

The rest of eclipse phase is a really heady game, that makes you think.  It has the feel of potential near future that Shadowrun or Cyberpunk did in the 80's.  The rules are fast and easy.  The setting is now really getting fleshed out with gatecrashing, rimward and sunward. 

The kick starter gives you a great opportunity to get into the game without a big initial cost.  If you look at the $60 and $30 backer level you are getting a bunch of pdf's for a low entry fee.  I have the hardcovers for all the books except rimward, they are not cheap.  They are nice quality books but cost a fair amount.  If you go with these PDF options you can get into the game easily and cheaply.

Go with the $60 investment if you are new to the system as it gives you the core rules in pdf form along with other books.  I think the $30 is great if you already have the core rules.  You change check it out here

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/507486226/transhuman-the-eclipse-phase-players-guide?ref=category

Kickstarter Review: Really Rolly 4 sided dice

This is sort of a cool one that is going to only hit a particular audience, gamers.  I think they would perhaps do better with lower cost plastic but one or two fancy chrome or anodized metal versions of the dice would be cool.  I hope the guy gets his target. Give it a look here. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/263612668/really-rolly-4-sided-dice?ref=recently_launched

A few movies I would like to see remade

Hollywood has gone through it's big remake phase and is slowing down on the craze a bit now.  But I wanted to comment on three movies I would like to see remade.  It's a pretty cheap thing to post about but you know I am always looking for an easy post.

Sergent York: I liked watching this in school and think it could be turned into a a pretty slick modern WWI movie.  I would love to see some of the intense action of something like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan.  That is the first and last positive thing i will say about Speilberg I hate his work.  That beginning was good the rest of the film sucked hard.  If you feel differently you are very very wrong.  Just go watch full metal jacket and you will understand.

The Seventh Seal: I don't really think they are going to do better by remaking Bergman I just think people would watch it not being in a foreign language.  Its a good existential film that probably wouldn't carry over.  I am guessing it may get people to check out the original.  Though I would like to see John Cusack in the Jons role.

Metropolis: This is probably going against the grain but I feel Thea von Harbou altered Lang's original vision to the point the movie must be reconstructed to replace the elements of magic and spirituality versus technology.  In many ways that idea has been addressed by Blade runner which is why I would like to see Ridley Scott behind this work.  Along with enough people concerned with the film to get it right.

El Miedo no ando en Burro: I saw some of this movie while eating at one of my favorite local hole in the wall Mexican restaurants.  I don't speak Spanish but I laughed at it.  I bet i would have laughed more if it was in English.

All nagging and everywhere like damp in sea spray

In the wake of failure Aloysius retreated to the grey lands of the sea.  Content in the ever endless shore and sky that wallowed together in the sea.  Some darks we always with him like a fluid his innards could not filter free.  All nagging and everywhere like damp in sea spray the water was like his emotion.  Ephemeral and untrustworthy he couldn't hold it or move it.  It was anger that one was easy, depression was a friend.  No this was worry the sickly one that ruined even the moments you know were OK. Doubt the wriggling squirm of chaos in order well set forth.

De Profundis: A Seaside artist colony

My Fellow Gentlemen

I ramble far and wide, desirous of some release from this encompassing predicament.  Oft I travel the hills alone hoping for moments free from Mathers and Crowley haunting my mind.  I have nearly abandoned my home these past months, which can be attested to by my lack of correspondence.

Some weeks past my attention was drawn to a seaside artists community, south of my estate.  The mounts that lie coastal are a home for a great many religious and artistic sects.  Many driven by some hair brained guru or pastor.  This appeared to be established to ingratiate artists to well held patrons. Most works featuring the sea or the golden hills which are locally prominent.

It has been work of aquatic nature that has my attention wrapped of late.  Many works of dolphins and seals can be had for a paltry sum.  Nearly every studio has depictions of the animals in some medium.  These were banal, it was the cuddle fish which drew my eye.  In the dark corners of a shop I came upon a trio of odd work.  Inquiry told they were the work of the attending artists colleague, who worked in heavy seclusion and sold piece through a select group of friends. The piece was rare and elemental, I thought some ceramic or even jade at times but it was another mineral unknown.

Negotiation was intractable and the purchase was with some financial burden, but it was mine.  My return home has not been without efforts.  The estate was well secured in my absence and well in need of a mustering out.  I was only in spare moment that I placed the sculpture upon my mantle when the bell would return me attentions to the matters I had longed to escape.

Only a calling card but a meeting is expected, one I wish to postpone indefinitely.

Yours very truly
J.L. Reich

Music Review: Tytan, Rough Justice

I found a song called the watcher on youtube a couple of days ago.  I have since become totally raving mad for this long dead new wave of british heavy metal band.  These guys are great!  Very D&D metal just the way I like it.

Ok lets be straight up this is going to be a touch lighter than most of the other bands of the era.  Sort of like Def Leppard there is a glam element hidden down in the rifts.  But that is small, coming out as being a more slick than some of the other recorded of the early 80's.  I think this was put down in 83 and finally released in 85.  It does not have the gritty sound of something like Burning the Cross. 

Many of the other songs have the similar fantasy feel you hear in The watcher.  Blindmen and fools has a pretty quiet beginning and then gets chugging along finally.   I think you are going to enjoy this if you are a Maiden fan, Saxon Fan or Manowar fan.  It has the high clean vocal of all of those, mildly aggressive riff based guitars and a driven but by no means speed metal rhythm section.

Opening up my game design to you.

Hi folks, I am going to make a request for a particular type of comment.  What I am looking for are thinks you feel a good pen and paper roleplaying game should be able to do.  I am going to use them like a set of user requirements and respond back with documentation of the rules I create for them.  Or perhaps even a battle report if it is something that needs such a break down.

To start you out here are a few of my own.  I will talk about them more later but there will be at least a basic response now.

• The rules should allow for scaling levels of detail mid game. I plan to have rules that can allow the game to be dialed into a spy, magic heavy or combat heavy setting with a few hours of work.  Once this is done you can scale in and out of level of detail within minutes.  This is mainly having a board skill at the zoomed out level and more detailed skills that are derived from that broad skill when zoomed in.
• Rules should support Fantasy, Modern and Sci Fi settings. I am hoping to do this we will see, I have plans for guns and ballistic weapons.
• Video Game style combat should be supported. I am wanted to create cards that represent move that the characters can execute.  These would be something like the feats of D&D but more mapped to the Hex Grid and more over the top.
• Magic system that unified but complex enough to have varied schools and feels:  So I don't want a bunch of little magic systems that all feel slightly different.  What I do want is one wizard to have taken a path that is vastly different than another.  Perhaps even the two having an in ability to cast each others spell.  This might be something like the difference between a vivimancer and elemental mage in HARP or the modes of Talislanta.  

From you I just want ideas and I will do my best to address them in the rules.  They will talked about here on the site and  go into the game credits.

Game Review 7 Wonders Cities and Wonder Pack

We game 7 wonders another try last night.  This time with the wonder pack and Cities expansion going.  We pulled out all the leader related cards and ran the game without that expansion.   I am sort of feeling brain dead can could not remember how to play with that expansion. 

Most of this will be focused on cities as that seemed to change the game the most.  There are a lot of debt cards in the cities expansion.  These are effects that can for players to pay cash or accept debt which are negative victory point markers.  People were going nuts for those, often playing them just so they were not the victim.  I think that was a bit goofy on their part, a negative victory point or two may be bad but it is still less than the positive you will get by playing and even middle range victory card.  Don't get me wrong it certainly added fun to the game which is normally very low interaction.  I just think the players over valued those cards.

On aspects of cities that I didn't car for was the diplomacy token and cards targeting military victories.   Those seemed to address the wrong problem, sure you can get 18 points out of military victories, but that is nothing compared to scientific guilds.  Those are the problem!  I almost wish they came up with an age 4 expansion that focused on disasters to combat scientific victory.  There is a critical mass there that is hard to challenge once it occurs.

The wonder pack is nice as it adds more variety.  Don't think any of us felt over powered with the new wonders.  I had Manneken Pis, my friends had Stonehenge and The great wall.   I will say the Great wall has a pretty crazy ability with the side that allows for getting the diplomacy token.  Since you can build any stage you like in any order with the wall it is easy to hold that diplomacy until when you need it.

Kickstarter: Robotech RPG Tactics

This is one I am not sure about.  It made its funding goal in three hours and is going insane still.  I don't think they actually expected the interest as they didn't have a funding goal at first.  They added one and almost instantly hit it, with a second added that is going to be achieved any minute.  Here is the URL for you to check it out

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rrpgt/robotech-rpg-tacticstm?ref=live

I am just not sure about it as it seems like it needs more to it,  I guess the stretch funding goals will allow them to get the other Robotech related destroids and whatever through.  I just don't like something that has stretch funding goals that give you more stuff to buy.  Warzone seemed to go down that route but at least gave you some savings as the goals were hit. 

I am going to watch this one and see if its something that becomes more enticing.  Though it should be right up my alley I think the Mospedia cyclone bikes in a squad level game would be where my interest is. 

I guess to sum it up show me the super veritech and Mac Monster and then we will talk.

Kickstarter Review: Chasm

I loved Simon's Quest, that is one of my favorite games on the NES.  Metroid was great too but the RPG aspects took  Castlevania over the top for me. 

I wanted to point you folks to another Kickstarter that needs some love.  Its a metroidvania type game called Chasm.

You can go to the URL and check it out here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/discordgames/chasm?ref=live

Gamepad support and low system requirements make this pretty enticing and the $15 DRM free version of the game makes it a total easy purchase.  I don't they they are going for stretch goals so we just need them to hit the $150,000 funding goal.  We can do it folks!

For the Block house on Mount Umanhum

The last drape of beauty
entombed atop the hill
stares down on learning
calling forth us the ill.

Sleep Chernobog
Some sup upon thy dreams.
I need another world
not as certain as this seem.

Pipe upon the dawn
For them of tempers same
lost or forgotten seekers
Calling out in their pain

in the memory of bonfires on the hill

Aloysius was in the memory of bonfires on the hill and wonders of youth.  I have called him a dreamed self but no he wasn't me, rather vital side of myself I could no longer see.  Struggled for words left quiet in the need of security.  Anger left muffled and finally ground to cold.  Aloysius was someone I could only seldom find.  Only coming to full on long rides with friends, on the roads rural and sincere.  I piece together these tales to remember what I once was.

Svegrund the barbarian burned to the ground

Well I decided to move on with my TRing of Svegrund last night.  I was thinking of sticking it out to max out my Legendary Dreadnought epic destiny but it seemed like a good time to move on.  I was back up to 200 epic to, err tokens of the twelve and had finished a lit2 bow.

My new version of the Sveg was back to bard to start and then two levels of ranger were tacked on.  I have some weird plan of Spellsinger 1 with Arcane Archer 1.  I am really not sure how to go about doing that.  My plan is 7 Bard and 13 ranger so I can get displacement too.  I can tell you my stats were as follows.

Strength 12
Con       16
Dex       18
int          8
wis         8
Chr        14

My feat choices were force of personality and toughness.  Not sure if those were a mistake, because i am a bit behind on my Bow-ness.  I grabbed weapon focus at third level.  I think my next will be Point Black Shot at 6th, and Maximize at 9th or 12th.  I guess from there I need some sort of Shot on the Run feat.  I am really not sure about that one as it takes dodge and mobility and most archers seem to just stand in epic quest.  Let me know if I need it, ok!

I am trying to keep my perform and search skills up in my ranger levels, while keeping UMD and Diplomacy up in my bard levels.  I may be missing some jump which sucks and sneak will suffer. 

November was a time of gales across the forgotten southern highway

November was a time of gales across the forgotten southern highway; the dreamed road of decay.  There dark land mixed in painted sky all overturned.  The season itself was the plow, grinding all our lives new.  Aloysius wanted the old ways most left here, needed them to mend himself.  He was broken or antiquated like some rusted implement forgot in the rain; and needed someone to remember.  He was like a spirit bound up with a stretch of road.  Nothing material save for a few tall tales a meme or monad spiritual.

Kickstarter Review: Myth

Hey I wanted to point you folks to this kick starter as it looks cool and is really picking up steam.  The games is called Myth and appears to be something of a HeroQuest or Descent style game.  You can check out the thing at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1700755582/myth-0?ref=live

It seems to either be random or with each character having their own deck that allows you to upgrade.  There is a picture of a dagger, sword to magic sword upgrade path.  I am really not sure what it is.  I am not going to say this is better or worse than what is out there.  I have not looked into the rules enough to make any sort of judgement.  If you have Super Dungeon Explore you may like that better and do better just getting an expansion.  I am not sure so please do your own research into the rules.

I am not going to say this is a cheap investment as the stretch goals all depend on a $100+ investment.  The thing is when you do that you are getting tons of extra minis.  From an extra skeleton expansion to more of the basic and captain level troops.  But it just keeps going with new adventures and bosses coming on too.  The thing is they still have 8 days to go and will probably get a few more of these delivering a game and enough extra material to keep you going for a long time.

Personally adding the Skald and the basic $100 investment would give my group enough game play to get sick of the game.  That is a good thing!

Update: here is a great little visual to see what you get , still thinking about this one ugh, need a new vid card too.

http://www.keithloweart.com/pledge_level_tally_04.12.jpg

Microsoft Tech Support gave me a call over the weekend.

Over the weekend , Alex , from Microsoft gave me a call.  I guess my machine has been sending out numerous error messages and he was kind enough to give me a call.  Al had a thick accent so I assumed he was from offshore; wanting to make him feel comfortable I took the liberty to call him Alejandro for the rest of the call.

I asked what was up and he said my machine had been sending out error messages and that malware had been installed on my machine.  This is obviously a big concern, no one wants their security compromised.  There is an entire sector of the software industry devoted to malware and security.  In fact if you look over at the resume section of this blog you will see I work for Symantec.  This dude has my fucking attention!

He said he could show me the problem on my machine.  This was some lucky shit because I hadn't see any sort of warning of my box acting up.  Now I have to confess i am a little forgetful since I have been on Prograf for my kidney transplant, sometimes things sit on the tip of my tongue, I often type the opposite homonym even if I know the correct one.  This happened again over the call, which sucks.  When asked for my operating system, instead of saying Windows 7, I said Amiga os 4.1 update 5.  My bad eh!

I guess this threw Alejandro for a bit of a loop, he said "Amigos?" It was cool though I said " Yeah bro you are totally helping me out we are Amigos."  I guess he was actually confused by Amiga Os and had me spell it out.  Next I heard some language I didn't understand and "Amiga OS 4.1?"  I was feeling pretty shitty now, Alejandro wasn't speaking Spanish.  I guess I was being a bit of a dick assuming he was.   Maybe he was from Brazil like the guys from Seplatura or something.

Al was still having problems, so I did my best to explain the nature of the Amiga OS project.  He really could have just looked it up on wiki, that is where I was reading from.  I guess our call got cut short or something because the connection ended some point after my confused explanation that nothing on my machine was actually a Microsoft product.  Actually though it totally is I use Windows and MS Office a bunch.  I really hope I can get back in touch with him as this could be a big problem.  If anyone has his number please pass it along.

DDO Tokens of the Twelve rewards are insulting

I have been running around for a week or so in my post 20 barbarian life and am oft getting screwed on Tokens of the twelve.  This is a bit of a worrying development as I am not sure if they are driving me to run the House Cannith Challenges or there is some sort of bug.

Two nights ago I ran with Poppy Cleric, not sure of name, and some other folks the Black Loch quest on Epic Elite.  We died and were at least somewhat challenged and in my mind I was think, ok this will be worth a full token.  Nope it was worth none, well 8 fragments that were rewarded during the quest.  I didn't know what to think of that but moved on disappointed but not angry.

Then last night occurs I am running with Toafet and a few folks of his friends and head into the sands.  We do The chamber of Raiyum on Epic Hard and actually I am rewarded a full token and 38 fragments.  It ended up being 51 with the fragments awarded during the quest.  All is good I am happy.  We move on and run Offering of Blood on Epic Hard.  I am excited as I actually needed this for flagging but then we see the Epic chest.  We each go A token of the twelve, I have never even seen that load of fuck before, A token.  That was just telling us to fuck off.

Dude Turbine I have been on your side playing telling folks about the game I love in the face of them playing other games.  Fighting the fight of True metal and DDO on two fronts.  You could have my back.  You could not care.  But don't tell me to fuck off!  I am playing monthly doing the right stuff for you!

Ok how do you make amends here?  Well fix tokens for one.  I am not asking for more, I will get my 20 on my own and TR.  Really that's it, just don't be insulting dicks to your players, with A Bull Shit Token.

Feeling more remorse put old Svegrund in the game.  I propose Svegrunds Axe: +1 great axe, songblade.

Experiment with personal openness at work.

Howdy folks

I am starting an experiment today at work.  My idea is that if people had more of a connection then communication is going to be easier.  For now I am starting with a series of objects on my desk positioned in a pretty visible location that are a short hand for my personal interests.  I am going to leave them set out for now and see if they generate acknowledgement from my co workers.  If I do not get interest I will add further items are more reflective of my interests until my cube is full of gaming and metal and I become that guy.

So far I am starting small, my short hand objects are the following:

• Tempest Pint Glass:  to reflect my love of old video games.
• 20 Sided dice: for my table top roleplaying game fanaticism
• Name Tag written in Maiden font: For my love of Metal!!!

I am going to keep this updated and I invite you to try it out too.  Please comment your experiences as I think this could be of use to people who are severely introverted such as myself.

Thanks
;

Notes from the Playtest of my RPG last night

well we did some rolls and combat and it just was not very deadly.  I need to do a rework of the weapons to get them up to speed with actually making combat scary.  We are using a setting that is something of a serious red dwarf game.  I have the characters using what amount to airsoft pistols , figuring they would not use firearms on a space ship.  This needs to be changed as the combat just wasn't right last night.

I have melee weapons doing variations of a physical strength roll plus some number of points. That seems ok and makes players nervous, but the guns just don't.  A D4 damage pistol is nothing.  Numerically that may be right for the airsoft but not for a game.

I am currently reworking the equipment with a mind for creating something that is useful for combat.  I am taking the SCRUM ideas from work an setting up a series of use cases that need to be reflected in the rules.  Thinks like a sniper killing a person in one shot or the grenade / baby  thought experiment from Shadowrun.

Game Mechanics: Ranged attacks and Damage

So ok I worked on my game stuff for a few minutes in the car after lunch.  It's not like I just put thought into it then , I have actually been thinking about this for some time.  I am not sure about the death rules and still am missing recovery completely but here goes.

Ranged combat is going to be entirely target size vs distance for target number.  I don't know what this is going to mean for a moving target yet. I am starting with a man sized target at short range as my base line on this.  The target number is going to be something easy for this, I am proposing 11 and will see how that goes tonight.

From here size will add or detract from target number.

Broad side of Barn               = -6
Car                                      = -4
Horse                                   = -2
Man                                      = 0
Dog                                      = +2
Bowling Ball                         = +4
Squirrel                                = +6

Distance will add +2 to the target number for every range increment.  So a head shot at two steps beyond short will be 19.  I am tracking target number, number rolled and success in game.  So hopefully if this is too easy , 19 seems too eazy, I will change it.


Doing damage is going to have a lot of carry over from the actual shot.  So you are going to be able to increase your damage for every success on the to hit roll.   Each one will give and extra open ended D4.  for two successes you can buy an armor defeating hit.  For three you can force a wound check after damage hast been dealt.  Additional successes can be directly applied to make the wound check more difficult

The damage roll itself generated direct damage that sort of works like hit points. If the weapon give extra success they can be used to also add damage at 1 per D4.  But the cost of forcing a wound check is only two successes here. Also if the to hit roll forced a wound check you can add successes from the damage too.

So what is the Wound check?  This is a "Saving Throw" against serious hurts.  The target number is.your total current damage.  Should you fail you take a wound, which will count as a negative success to all rolls, until it is resolved.  If you fail with negative successes those are applied as additional wounds.  Should you fail by a number of successes equal to your physical resistant you have died.  This number will be treated as a max of two on head shots.

I have no idea about recovery.  Vaguely i have though about scenes being tied to healing.  If the scene ends the play heals some small amount if nothing was done.  More with basic aid and a scene dedicated to major medical care completely heals the character.  Not sure though

Pre made Scrum tasks for QA

I saw someone here at work printed out a list of tasks directly from the electronic version of the scrum board and just taped them to the board.  That got me thinking of what I could do to make my life easier in terms of scrum. 

I have long wanted a stamp that was basically the information here that i could stamp my post it notes with.  I have no idea how much that would be and it wouldn't save me much time as I would need to write down the task department and time.  So I worked out a set of pre made tasks for quality assurance.  These tasks are almost always the same for me so I can use this 90% of the time and not have any problems.  I even left and empty one just in case.

If this helps you in any way that is great.  I know I need help dealing with electronic and physical scrum boards what a pain in the ass. 

Game Review: The Red Star

To follow up on the review I just did for Guardian Legend, I am giving you The Red Star.  This game kicks all sort of ass and In retro fashion.  The game has a number of levels that jump between styles of old shoot games that is just a freaking love fest for old games. 

Much of the game is a beater style with a feel of something like Captain Commando or Knights of the Round.  Then something happens and it changes in an instant.  A giant aircraft busts thought the roof and you are doing one of those dogging a thousand bullet Raiden things.  You fight the end boss as something out of street fighter.   The was a level that was like carrier airwing that went left.  It went fucking left!  somethings felt like the commando/MERCs games.  It just constantly hit me with something that felt like a blast from the past. 

I can't tell you how pissed i was that this didn't come out on xbox, I pretty much bought the ps2 for this thing.  A used on sure but that is how much i was into this game, well and I wanted to check out God of War.  This one was a bit more fun than the god of war thing.  I see its available for the Ios so I may have to pick it up again, having given my ps2 away.

Game Review: Guardian Legend

This was another of the cheap game purchases I made back in the day.  I sort of wished i would have saved up and got something more worth my time but this was ok.  I remember thinking it was some sort of Robotech like transformer thing.  I guess it was intended to be robot girl that turns into a jet.  I was a little disappointed by the game play here as I am not much into the Raiden style vertical shooter.  I prefer horizontal if I am going to do that sort of thing, like Carrier Air Wing or Aerobusters.  I imagined transforming mid game and switching in between guardian and battloid mode or whatever.

This worked out ok i guess, though i liked the parts with the giant robot more.  Sorry i guess robot girl I should say.  they were sort of like a legend of Zelda dungeon with the flying bits being what is pictured above.  You had a lot of upgrades to get in the dungeon parts which I needed as I sucked at flying. 

All in all not a favorite of mine, I wish i would have bought the willow game instead.  That was one i rented but couldn't finish in a weekend so was left with gaming blue balls.  Maybe i should try it with an emulator!  On this one like Side Arms or the Macross video game, the good Robotech adaption remains elusive.

Kickstarter review: Shovel Knight

In keeping with my classic gaming theme of the last couple of days I wanted to show you folks a kickstarter for a game that looks pretty cool.  Its called Shovel Knight by the folks at Yacht Club games. Its seems to be an rpg style platformer sort of like Faxanadu or Simon's Quest.

It looks pretty fun i like the shovel down bound move the little blue guy does in the video, it sort of reminds me of Rygar a bit.

You can pick up a digital copy of the game at the 10 or 15 dollar price point, which seems pretty fair for a fun little game.  They are not funded to the point were they will port to Mac yet but lets hope they get there.  I think it would work out great with my USD SNES controller.  I am really thinking about jumping on this one but not sure yet.  We will see after H&R Block tells me how much the government is looking to take. 

Honestly some days I wonder why I pillage at all

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yachtclubgames/shovel-knight?ref=category

Updated for transparency: I just backed this project so you are now helping to deliver a video game to me and yourself should you back the project. 

Game Review: 8 Eyes

This was one of the games I picked up for cheap, I sort of always was going for the cheap games as I didn't have big cash in those days.  Well that is still the same today really but whatever.  I think I grabbed it at the game place in Eastridge mall.  It was downstairs by the JC Penny's.  Sort of a counter with games that they let you play for a few minutes, but only if the game was popular or they wanted to open it already.

I picked this one up after borrowing my cousins copy of Simon's quest and thinking this seems pretty much the same but cheaper.  I was very very right!  You are supposed to be a fencer with a sword that strangely looks like Simon's extended whip.    You are going from castle to castle battling through the mission with your bird friend and then doing a boss battle.  Each boss or zone has a particular weapon that everything is weak against.  I guess that gives it a bit of a megaman influence but it seemed to be pretty light.  The first boss you use your bird to take out in the most boring fashion possible.

After each villain you get a new weapon and a jewel for the end of the game.  This was were the game got weird, it threw a logic puzzle at you.  Honestly that was just strange, the only other game I have ever encountered a logic puzzle in was Centauri Alliance.  Its just an odd thing to get in a video game, Stop now work this out!  Ok i am actually very good at them and it was not problem but just odd!

Kickstarter review: Legendary Monster

I wanted to point you two a new kick starter project called Legendary Monsters .   All are based off of  classic creatures of crytozoology.  So if you loved In Search of  or MonsterQuest this may be of interest.  I guess it is actually more than a set of action figures but a full battling gaming!

As some of you know I am all about the suburban legends and have documented many of the tales surrounding Hick's Road here in my home town of San Jose.  This figures are a bit over the top but still you are not going to find an action figure of the Jersey Devil or Mothman.  You sure wont find a game with them battling it out in arena combat.  

The stretch goals are a bit weak on this one is my only complaint.  They basically give you more combat cards.  This will allow you to play other monsters but you don't get action figures.  Also no satanically robed pale folks from New Almaden, but what are you going to do.  Still cool for a very particular group of weirdos such as myself.

Game Review: Faxanadu

Over the weekend I picked up a copy of Faxanadu for my Nes Clone.  This was one of the first games I got with my original NES.  I really loved it for some reason.  It was sort of a side scrolling RPG, I guess.  You had weapons that increased and new spells to learn. 

I remember the story being the elves were worried about the dwarves who had been corrupted by some evil force.  It was a bit weird but it facilitated the game that was basically climb up a giant tree and then go underground.  I liked it except in the little bit that is shown where you only have a knife and you have to duck down to attack small enemies. 

I hope its something that plays like I remember and not something that makes me doubt my childhood self.