Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters has too long a name. It's also a pretty good tactical squad combat game. It seems to capture the W40k atmosphere pretty well. That's something I appreciate in spite of issues with Games Workshop and knowing the game setting is ridiculously over the top with no real good (though some real evil). You control a battle-worn Grey Knight team returning from a campaign that gets coopted by an Inquisitor to fight an emerging plant-plague spreading through a sector.  Your space marines are pretty tough and capable, though not immediately quite as bad ass as you might expect. They level up from 1 to 9, gaining more abilities and such that make them more effective and tougher as you go. Similarly, your ship is in rough shape to start, requiring a resource (and time) to repair before you can even start making improvements. So while W40k Space Marines are generally better than their opposition, the game puts you in a challenging position right o...

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was an entertaining watch. I don't think it'll be one of the more memorable MCU movies for me in the long run, but it wasn't bad by any means. I have a handful of thoughts that are neither serious positives or negatives: - It is more reliant than most MCU movies on what-has-come-before. In this case, not just the first Doctor Strange movie or the Avengers movies, but also WandaVision . If you haven't seen that series, I imagine a lot less understanding and interest in a main motivator of the story. - Strange has a pretty good foil in the story who is rather blatant about being such, but lacks the self-awareness to see the differences (naturally). - I liked the "go on red" bit even if it was a little direct. And the Illuminati appearances were pretty good as well. - I can understand what is meant by articles saying the movie sets up a possible Secret Wars arc, but such things are talking about the 2015 Secret Wars...

  Weird West was a fairly good little game. The setting is pretty... well... weird West? "Cowboys and Indians" with magic and supernatural stuff added in. In-the-moment gameplay is decent, with areas to explore that can be rewarding and combat that tends to be reasonably simple and quick. I've seen it called an "immersive sim" a lot. I guess that's reasonably accurate, in that you have some opportunity to approach things in a few different ways and there are some choices that have impacts, but none of them felt very major or distinct to me. As you move from one chapter to the next, certain choices may change things (pigmen living among humans or being wiped out, for example) and yet that did not feel to me like it made a difference. Maybe that's because I only played through once, but still. I would also say the amount of time spent on the map traveling between areas did not do the pacing of the game any favors. The five-chapter format, where you posses...

 Early in the morn I woke from a dream in which I was GMing a Bubblegum Crisis -based game for some others. The relatively new player was running an ex-military major who had been extremely cyber-augmented and was causing disruption around the city. Somehow the city major or similar corporate official tracks him down and challenges him to a series of battles with a thought of "I'll show him in escalating fashion how difficult things can really get for him to demoralize and make him stop." The first fight is against a standard boomer, put forth with no expectation of actual challenge. Indeed, the major trashes his with little effort. Next is someone piloting battle armor roughly equal to what the AD Police field. This is more of a fight, but the major manages to dance around attacks and, deciding he doesn't want to kill the pilot, he slips around behind to pull out a power core. Then the mayor-guy puts forth the Knight Sabers. This is a real battle between the parties,...

 I did have some concern that an open world might undercut the distinctive flavor of a From Software "Soulsborne" game. In my opinion, it only managed to elevate the formula. And so, Elden Ring is a pretty great game. Though, as with any Soulsborne game, it's not for everyone. The game mechanics are tightly tuned. Combat feels good and responsive. The game also adds a dedicated jump button, which is welcome, especially when navigating environments. There's also a mount with a double-jump. The stats and weapons maintain that From Software magic where one or two increases can feel like a big boost. Enemies are varied and can go from threatening to routine as you become accustomed to their patterns and increase your capabilities. This is one of the hallmarks of From Software's games, and it's here in full force. One of the other pillars in my mind is the level design. Previous Soulsborne games are known for winding and weaving areas that interlock and curl back ...

 Man, I keep waffling on whether I'm playing the Godbound game wrong. I envisioned Kara as a behind-the-scenes sort of entity - someone whose influence either supports or hinders other powers and whose personal appearance/involvement would be as harbinger of change/chaos. That really doesn't lend itself to having her own churches, worshippers, or territories in an organized fashion. Not sure if I mentioned previously, but she was loosely inspired by Isaac of The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon . So by some metrics, everything is going swimmingly. Kara is involved with the PCs (particularly Seraphiel, as she seems the most motivated/purposeful) in a way that is supportive, but also a little testing at time. She's tangentially influenced a cult, but doesn't have much direct interaction with it. This fits fairly well. But it also doesn't give much opportunity to sink Dominion into things, which is limiting her level advancement (Kara's now level 4, bu...

 In D&D, we finally took down the dragon we were fighting. As with my previous experience in 5E, it took about three full sessions, which feels like a slog. The game keeps dragons from feeling like chumps by giving them a bunch of extra "legendary/lair" actions, plus flying alone is a huge advantage in D&D that can completely negate melee builds, and they typically sport some big AOE effects. How anyone keeps that exciting is beyond me. Merely the mechanical pace of keeping up with all of that seems like a huge burden to overcome. But hey, dragon dead. We lost a handful of NPCs and took quite the beating, but rawr us! - In Godbound, perhaps I'm being overly critical. I mean, brains often latch onto the negative. When you get down to it, I enjoy my Godbound character. She fits in a good, non-spotlight role where she can get some good lines in, but isn't really required for plot motion. The argument that she doesn't have enough in the way of personal goals i...