Gloomhaven (2021)
Review | 2023.06.09
Lots of games in this one, notably the old (but new to me) titles Grand Theft Auto Online and FTL. Also some progress on a smattering of games from the library, including 'daddy games' (ones I let the little one watch for short periods).
I've been a fan of the GTA series since II but never got around to playing V. Since the PUBG squad was looking to introduce a little variety, we decided to try GTAO.
Review | 2023.05.06
Video games:
The lastest Fire Emblem installment hit shelves earlier this year.
Engage's main gameplay mechanic is the ability to summon the spirit of a hero from past FE games. They emblem characters aren't allied units though, they give the player temporary stat buffs and special abilities. So it's basically an ult that's also a callback to an earlier FE story.
Review | 2023.01.14
Maybe not all the genres, but FPS, 4X, tabletop, and a meme game are a good sampling.
Since /r/stellaris is often on Reddit's default front page with funny posts, I thought I'd give it a go (Steam sale). Civ made #3 on my all-time list and Stellaris seemed to have many of the same 4X elements. Long ago I played Sins of a Solar Empire and appreciated the scale of the game while feeling it largely suffered under its own weight for playability.
Review | 2022.10.12
Gloomhaven Oozing Grove: kill three trees that collectively produce an elite ooze every round. We got some harsh rng early and were playing out the scenario. Ted exhausted before Jon killed the last tree, I was hobbling back, invisible but surrounded by oozes (the Nightshroud is not good against hordes). We maxed out oozes as Jon exhausted, so there wasn't a glimmer of hope. Rather than farm gold/xp, I played it out, trying not to think about how many self-damage/split cards the oozes would have to draw in order to Jooneztown themselves. They proceeded to draw something like 5 or 6 split cards in a row, killing off the low health ones and creating new almost-dead oozes. I still had to kill two, but it was a hilariously unlikely set of card draws.
Review | 2022.09.03
In this post:
Just when I thought I'd played all the Slay the Spire clones, Mark (or someone) mentioned that there was finally(?) a cooperative deckbuilder.
Let's start with the big question: does the genre work as a co-op game? Yes.
Storypost | 2022.07.29
Having finished the terrace, I'm on to the next childproofing/renovation project. I replaced a rotting wood deck railing with adult-spaced steel cable years ago. I spaced them at 6" so that adding another set of wires would bring the gap down to the prescribed 3".
While steel cable opens the view, I like the look of redwood better.
Storypost | 2022.06.07
I hit the big one. Luckily this game is co-op so I didn't have to do it alone.
Jes put together an awesome party; there were appetizers, desserts, beer, games, and bubbles.
Last time I mentioned maybe hitting the veranda with linseed oil. The sun is pretty quick to destroy fencing around these parts (see above) and termites are not far behind.
Storypost | 2022.02.15
Is this yet another reason to go cash/oil gang? The Ukraine saga has taken a few interesting turns since last time.
For one, Russia has kept up the propaganda about NATO being an aggressor. Assuming this move has been planned for years, it paints all of the last administration's anti-NATO rhetoric in a new light. Perhaps Putin expected a more destabilized NATO and figured he'd go ahead with the stress test anyway.
Infopost | 2022.01.15
Jan 1's covid spike looked bad, but case rates have just kept going. As such, here's a long post that covers fractals, autoencoders, style transfer, and some vidya.
Review | 2021.12.13
Another variant, another Far Cry, another Cowboy Bebop, another L4D, another Nioh, another Mass Effect. Oh yeah, and I mentioned all of them last month. (What I'm saying is my post title is totally on point.)
Initial discussion here, I finished the series and was pretty happy with it until the finale.
Review | 2021.11.27
WFH has left something of a Gloomhaven gap in my life. Chase said the Steam version was true to the tabletop game, so I put together a squad with Ted, Jon, and Rob.