| Yeah, so about Divinity : Original Sin

It took me a few hours of play and some reading-up to get here, but I'll say... it's pretty neato.

It's your usual RPG three-quarters view style game, with dialogue choices, equipment, character builds (although not in the purely D&D structure). The combat is really brutal and unforgiving. It reminds me a bit of X-Com in that regard. You gotta REALLY play smart with your peeps, use the right skills at the right moment, or.. well.. die. lol

They use action-points that you can save up (to a max) and then spend, which makes for some interesting game play decisions. Do you try to go for one knock out punch, or pew pew pew a bunch of lesser attacks? What's really new in this relative to other D&D RPGs I've played in the past is your ability to use the environment. Literally, if some bad guys are standing in a puddle/river and you hit it with a lightning bolt, they all get fried. I've teleported barrels of oil to just in front of the enemy's advance and then hit it with a fire arrow to satisfying effect.. likewise there are some fun combinations with poison clouds, etc. And, counters for most of them as well. Bad dude setting things on fire? Use a rain spell, etc etc.

There are a few things that I think they could have done a better job with, like explaining how the skill point system works.. it isn't very clear that you will need more than one skill point to advance a particular skill, so most people probably wouldn't save it up to max out their primary skill and instead spend it on something they probably don't care a lot about (lol, charisma). The first bit of game play / development is also a bit sloooooow. You are more or less useless against anything outside of the city walls until you level up a few times grinding out boring side quests.

Haven't messed around with the multiplayer at all yet, but am excited to see what that looks like.

FYI! This is a good weekend to login to hearthstone. They've added the new expansion cards (gnomes & goblins) to the Arena, and anyone logging in this weekend gets you a free arena run! (And any arena run gets you a booster pack, so it's win/win!)

Nah, bro, not cool.

Except it would be totally awesome! Do you still have your yahoo email address? There's a whole big thread and that address is on there. If we should be using your gmail address instead, well, I guess Aeryk fucked up.

Now we just need Benji to come so we'll have our full brass section for a JP Can't Come Over reunion show.

If I promise not to be a buzz kill and watch rerun episodes of Small Wonder, can I invite myself to Cayucos as well?  What are the dates?  I'll fly in for that shit.  Round trip from Hawaii is pretty cheap right now.

And as the Drums of Cayucos grow louder, I keep getting more excited! I'm gonna make a print-and-play version of Spyfall, an upcoming social deduction game that looks like silly fun.

EDIT: Oh, the print-and-play is only the TEXT of the cards, puke. I'll find awful stock-photos to use in place of the art.

| BING-...er, EURO!

I picked up Rise of Augustus off of Amazon last night for $12 bucks from one of their lightning sales. I go nuts on Amazon for Christmas, so it just sorta ended up in my dumb shopping cart because $12. Anyways, apparently it's Roman-Bingo!

Well, can't wait to play it in Cayucos this year! I'm getting my $12 bucks worth.

So the boy and I will be bachelors from 12/7-12/13 while the ladies go a-travelling. I'm assuming you guys will be coming by to game every day and I have created the following schedule based on conjecture, consulting astrological charts, and things an oracle told me in a dream:

12/7: elzar, xander, enr0n, motorbyke: Come by at 11:00 to play Kings of War, Bolt Action, Dust Tactics
12/8: elzar, enr0n, motorbyke: Bolt Action, Dead of Winter
12/9: enr0n, motorbyke, xander: Starcraft the Board Game
12/10: enr0n, motorbyke: Warmachine/Hordes
12/11: special guest stars O-rugs and Rude to play Empire in Flames (goes until 12/13)
12/12: everyone: Shadows of Brimstone
12/13: OH SHIT THEY'LL BE HOME SOON GET THE EFF OUT OF MY HOUSE

There's no need to respond I am just assuming this is cool. Thanks everyone

I'll check that out when I'm not at work!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, GANG!

Hope you guys have a great holiday.

Netflix recommendation: BLUE RUIN. It's a revenge flick and violent at times, but it was good. Maybe not the cheery holiday movie to watch with the fam, but it's worth getting around to.

I read about 50 pages of that comic just now. Really good stuff!

This one is super-dirty (quite frequently, pornographic) and thus very NSFW, but have you guys read Oglaf? It can be pretty damn funny.

| Demon

I know web comics can be of wildly varying quality, but I stumbled onto one I'm reading right now that's REALLY good and interesting. Also, pretty damn twisted, but it's sorta moving past that.

DEMON by Jason Shiga

The art was a little off-putting for me at first, but you adapt to it pretty quick and the story is pretty weird and awesome so far. I think he puts out a page a day and is up to like over 200 pages so far.

Oh, dear.

Fuck that guy.

Anyway, Witcher 1: Early Witchin' was even more blatant in the sex n' boobies, in that you got a "trading card" for each lady/witch/lady elf/whatever you nailed. It was pretty stupid. That was the first thing I ever really heard about the games, so I thought they were like Leisure Suit Larry or something, when really they're pretty interesting games with a good story. Just that they happen to be the gaming equivalent of HBO or Starz or whatever.

Picture Unrelated:

| So yehr a witchah?

Never played the first one, so I can't really contrast/compare that way. And yeah, there is a hooooge plot decision point at the end of the first Act that completely changes how/where the rest of the game is played. I'm in the beginning stages of the Second act now (I went with the elves). I feel like I'm getting a little bit into a grindy-spot so I'm stalling out slightly but I'll try to see it through. I've quite enjoyed it so far. I both love and hate that some of the more important decisions / conversations in the game also come with a timer, lol. DAMN IT, I wanna think about this shit for a minute! Makes it feel a bit more organic and less power-gaming oriented, which I'm fine with. So far I'm just kind of playing through and not worrying too much about the ultimate impact of my decisions.

But yeah, lots of sex, boobies and swearing. Limitless even. The S'executioner would be proud.

o-rugs: I've been thinking about finally getting around to Witcher 2. I've started a few times but never got too far into act I. How far along are you? I understand that one of the acts (the second, I think?) is COMPLETELY different based on choices you make in the preceding one. Like, totally different setting, quests, everything. You have to admire these guys crazy attention to this weird setting.

I played a bunch of Witcher I and it was pretty good too, although I stalled out in this stupid swamp section that apparently everybody stalls out in, which if you get past it the rest of the game is awesome. Definitely clunkier than W2, but might be worth going back to. And part III is coming out soon and looks like a sort of insane open world game. So Witcher 2 crossed with Skyrim as it were. Worth keeping an eye on!

I've been playing Guacamelee, which is a goofy, Mexican Wrestling themed Metroidvania game I've had sitting unplayed for a while. It's pretty cool, has GREAT controls and I totally recommend picking it up whenever it goes on sale for cheapzor, which I believe it does pretty often.

Mordheim always made me sad because it was so broken. I'll keep an eye on the vidya game, though.

While there doesn't appear to be anything about flashbanging chinchillas here, I got this unexpected email today.  Someone is making Mordheim into a video game.  The beta is up on steam, here's a link to it, if this actually works.


Anyone heard of this?  Sort of came out of the blue...  I think I got the email because I own the Blood Bowl video games which were OK but not great.  (and raised my blood pressure about as much as the board game did, so ultimately I quit for health reasons!)