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Warhammer Age of Sigmar unleashes the Endless Spells with Forbidden Power and Malign Sorcery!

With the release of Warhammer Age of Sigmar Third Edition and the General’s Handbook we saw new stats for our favorite Endless Spells, followed by a rerelease of Forbidden Power and Malign Sorcery! Prior to this release my only experience with Game Workshop’s Endless Spells was simply knowing they existed and to remedy that issue our friends at Games Workshop supplied us review copies of both sets. After the Necroquake ravaged the lands of the Eight Realms, summoned magics we unleashed and went out of control. These spells can be summoned to help lead you to victory but some may hurt you just as much as your enemies.

The beauty of the Malign Sorcery box is that these Endless Spells are not specific to any one Grand Alliance or army. The trick will be to properly gauge timing and placement of your spell to maximize it’s effects and limit the damage you receive yourself. You have a couple options when controlling these spells, you can send them towards your target, send them off the board or try to dispel them. There are variations that are army specific like the Stormcast Eternals or Daughter’s of Khaine for example.

I used the spells for the first and second time recently. The first attempt the Malevolent Maelstrom was reversed by my son and ravaged my front lines. Our second match I used Suffocating Gravetide and drove it off the map before he could hit me with it again. These spells added a whole new dynamic to our games that I’ve never experienced prior and they were a hell of a lot of fun, even when they killed my own troops. Using the links above you can order your own set of each- Malign Sorcery is the more universal of the two and Forbidden Power’s models look amazing, you can even use some of the pieces to kit bash an evil bone bridge as well (I’m trying to justify a second set for this reason alone).

Faraday Protocol is a puzzle-centric first person shooter and platformer by Red Koi Box and available on Xbox One and Steam.

In Faraday Protocol you play as Raug Zeekon, an explorer/adventurer, landing your spaceship on Opis. As you leave your ship you are greet by a voice that puts you through a series of trials to test your mettle. Do you have what it takes? The AI is going to find out. Each chamber in the Ziggurats pose puzzles and challenges that increase in difficulty as you progress. Some allow you convert energy types, while others transport it from one chamber to another. Some will even power elevators.

The puzzles themselves, for the most part, are quite easy, they just require some out of the box thinking at times. There are a couple that seem much more difficult. These rare puzzles, at least to the point I’ve completed so far, offer easy solutions that require a bit of creativity. The story is a bit lackluster but the ingenuity of the puzzles more than makes up for it. If you enjoy creative puzzles that require some critical thinking to solve the $25 price tag may be appropriate but I feel it is just too high for what you get out of the game.

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios- their home page is here) had sent me codes to several of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. Part 1 was all about Underwater and Part 2 focused on The New Mutants. Part 3 we talked about The Personal History of David Copperfield. Part 4 discussed The Empty Man. Part 5 talked about Nomadland and Speed 4K Ultra HD. Part 6 discussed The Night House and Free Guy. We are back with Part 7 and The Eyes of Tammy Faye!

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Having grown up in a religious household I was aware who Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker were but thankfully my family was not one that watched them or their shows. The film follows the rise and fall of the televangelist duo and as those who were following the story originally will remember things weren’t as good as the duo would want the world to think. The story was well done but contextually was not something I would be interested in. Despite my lack of interest the film was captivating and both Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield deliver the best performances I have seen from either of them previously.

Warhammer Underworlds returns for another season with Harrowdeep and this time you take the fight under the waves.

Taking place in the Realm of Shadows, Harrowdeep takes players to a maze beneath the sea. Xandire’s Truthseekers face off against the Da Kunnin Krew but will later be joined by others. Take your existing warband or one of these new ones under the Shadowsea for a competitive experience like no other (with the exception of previous iterations of Warhammer Underworlds). With the original announcement we also learned that there will be two core sets released each year going forward, two additional warband releases and with them a new rivals format to the game.

Here is the official roadmap for Harrowdeep (hint the first warband is pirates):

As mentioned above the Q1 warband is a pirate themed Destruction warband and nothing officially is known about the Q2 warband. If the image is anything to go on I suspect whatever faction they are will have lightning based abilities. The obvious answer is likely another Stormcast Eternals warband but I think we will see something more unique, perhaps a Tzeentch warband or even better would be a Cities of Sigmar warband with a wizard of some sort (with a lightning spell or two).

What is Rivals?

Rivals is a new way of playing the game without all the deck building mechanics. Essentially this is to allow players to dive right in with their new warbands immediately after they are built using a predefined deck. The focus is to allow newer players to jump in without having to search for years of cards to build their decks. Personally I’ve always played this way because when reviewing I play the game with the prebuilt decks in the box. Those that play in the Championship format will still be able to build their decks as they did before, just not as part of the Rivals style of the game.

Overall thoughts:

To start with I must admit this box was provided to us by Games Workshop for the purpose of this review but their generosity has no bearing on our opinion. With the somewhat recent release of Dominion I have learned to really enjoy the Stormcast Eternals faction and absolutely love Kruelboyz. The sculpts in this box are fantastic for both factions and the box is worth picking up for those alone. Additionally the new map boards are gorgeous. Gameplay has been tweaked slightly for the new realm and the double support rolls on defense dice when standing in a Gloom token means that you will have a better chance of survival with the weaker warbands. The addition of Grand Alliance cards is a HUGE bonus for those with other warbands and making some of the upgrades leave upon injury adds further complexity to the game. Personally I can’t wait for my next game as I plan on trying out either my Soulblight Gravelord Vampires or my Slaves to Darkness warband in the new setting. The only thing I am disappointed in with this release is that this is the first that did not have an accompanying novel from Black Library. Time will tell if we will see one over the next year but I sincerely hope we do.

Exploding Kittens has created their own take on a gaming classic, Charades, with On A Scale Of One To T-Rex.

Any time Exploding Kittens releases a game we look forward to it. Consistently their titles are among our family’s favorites so when they shared this with us we were more than excited. With Charades players try to get others to guess what they are pretending to be. I have always been terrible at this as most of the connections I make to different people or things most people weren’t making. You also can’t use any words to give hints either. On A Scale Of One To T-Rex flips some of these rules on their head.

With this game it doesn’t matter who knows what you are trying to act out, what matters is how intensely you do it. If you and another player have the same intensity level then you get points. On top of that the players all do theirs at the same time. When doing this in a large group can make things pretty loud quickly. Being the father of three things tend to get loud but that is where the problem with this game was for us. Two of my children have sensory issues and the volume of the game became too much for them.

For a party game this can be quite fun, just need to make sure anyone with sensory issues aren’t around while you play, it can get a bit overwhelming for them.

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO WARNER BROS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON THOSE I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Warner Bros (their home page is here) had sent me codes to some of their movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. For the first part of this series we talked about Scoob, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, Goonies 4K, Beetlejuice 4K, Full Metal Jacket, Sherlock Holmes 4K and Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows 4K. Part 2 ‘twas massive and discussed V for Vendetta 4K, 300 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit Trilogy 4K, Blade 4K, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Tenet and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Part 3 talked about Wonder Woman 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah. Part 4 discussed Tom and Jerry the Movie and Godzilla Vs Kong. Part 5 was all about Wrath of Man, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Space Jam. Part 6 had discussed Mortal Kombat and Those Who Wish Me Dead. Part 7 discussed In the Heights, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 20 Years of Movie Magic edition. Part 8 discussed A Clockwork Orange, Space Jam: A New Legacy and Shawshank Redemption. We have returned for Part 9 to talk about The Suicide Squad and Reminiscence!

The Suicide Squad

This is the first film in the DC cinematic universe by James Gunn, and hopefully not the last. The squad has been assembled to remove another threat to the world, this time with two squads. Once again Margot steals the show as Harley Quinn as her team tries to rescue her. Out of the current cinematic universe this is by far THE BEST installment yet. It is even a close second behind Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Reminiscence

Global warming has caused the world to flood and with it the military and law enforcement have begun utilizing the ability to view memories at command. Nick, played by Hugh Jackman, is a private investigator skilled in the process of viewing these memories and calling up specific details to either help with a case, help a woman relive time with a past love or even as simple as helping a woman find her keys. The story is wonderfully told and really captures Nick’s desperation as he tries to find the woman he loves.

2Awesome Studio brings us a stressful platformer where you race against time and must collect energy capsules to gain more time to explore. This is Aeon Drive!

Welcome to Aeon Drive, a two dimensional platformer from 2Awesome Studio and constant race against time. Each stage gives you 30 seconds and can be completed in that time or less if you are able to speed run it but if you are slower or want to explore there are energy capsules that will extend the time remaining if you collect enough. Hidden through the stages are also collectibles like hot dogs, diamonds, memory sticks and likely more.

Controls on the game are fluid, action is fast paced with a major sense of urgency with the looming clock in the upper right corner adding to the tension. Unlike most platformers, Aeon forces you to start the level over each time you die, means if you were having a perfect run up to your death you will need to do it all again. I found the game to be a mix of engaging, fun and challenging.

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios- their home page is here) had sent me codes to several of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. Part 1 was all about Underwater and Part 2 focused on The New Mutants. Part 3 we talked about The Personal History of David Copperfield. Part 4 discussed The Empty Man. Part 5 talked about Nomadland and Speed 4K Ultra HD. We’ve returned for Part 6 to discuss The Night House and Free Guy!

The Night House

This film follows Beth, a teacher who’s husband recently committed suicide on the lake behind their house. The only thing he left behind is a note telling her nothing is after her. Relating this to a near death experience she feels like this is some sort of closure but as she dwells on the sounds in their house and learns he had secrets. Seeing the trailer I felt like this film would simply try to hard to deliver the scares but this film really delivered. We aren’t talking about your usual jump scare nonsense either, the feelings this film invokes are visceral and the effects are breathtaking.

Free Guy

Guy works as a teller at a local bank but is what is referred to in the gaming community as an NPC (Non Player Character) in a world that looks like a cross between Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto. Expectations were higher than I wanted because of the cast and how funny the trailers already were- a hilarious trailer almost always spells certain doom for the film as a whole. Hollywood has a habit of showing all of the funniest parts in the trailer and then you have less surprising humor in the film itself. Thankfully this is not the case with Free Guy, in fact they barely scratched the surface. The film is full of action, humor and teaches you to disconnect from your virtual worlds and live in the real world again.

Have you ever applied jelly to your crops to create pet monsters? In Monster Harvest, from Merge Games, you will do just that.

Joining your uncle at his farm you quickly discover this is not your everyday farm in Monster Harvest from Merge Games. The game focuses on building the farm, exploring a dungeon-like cave and growing monsters by applying various jellies to your crops. Once you have your first monster, or any time you have one of yours following you, you can enter the nearby cave to fight other monsters, collect items and understand just a bit more about what is happening in this town.

I feel this is intentional but the game looks and feels like a knock off of the handheld Pokémon games, closer to the GameBoy Color version graphicly. The big difference between the playstyles however is that you can farm, clear a forest, have limited stamina and breed your plants with jelly to create new creatures, instead of just catching them or trading for them. Playing this game feels likes going to visit a friend you haven’t seen in ten years, there are similarities of what you remember but so much has changed you aren’t sure who this person sitting across from you is. Overall the game misses out on the wow factor and feels too much like other games to have a voice of it’s own.

Cardaclysm is linear RPG full of random maps, encounters and a specific order of bosses you will face. Can you make it to the realm of death?

Cardaclysm from Headup Games is an dungeon crawling roleplaying game where every map is randomly generated, enemies are pulled from a limited pool based on which boss tier you are facing and a book magic made to fit any play style. Players take on the role of a wizard where every fight adds a new card to your deck of monsters and spells. You also collect gold and orbs to determine how many and which of your cards you can play in a fight. As each card is played you will either summon a creature, monster or warrior to fight on your behalf or unleash an ability like poison arrows or fireballs. At most you can hold onto only four cards in your hand but with a properly assembled deck that won’t matter.

The game lets you know when it sees you are strong enough to face one of the bosses but does not force you to face them until you decide to, or if you aren’t paying attention. When the last foe is defeated in a map the boss is summoned and will chase you until you get to the exit or if you take a wrong turn and it catches up with you. Because of the way you build your deck, one card earned per battle, the game can be a bit grindy.

Playing the game I have now spent close to fifteen hours grinding and building my deck and points, now I learned from one costly mistake in that process. If you close the game and shut down your system for the night immediately you risk corrupting your save file, which happened to me about twelve hours into my journey. I learned (this was confirmed with my contact at Headup Games) that the game after being closed saves and updates where you were at in the game while on the Xbox home screen. You must wait at least 5 minutes before shutting the system down to avoid this happening to you. Despite this minor setup I have found the game quite enjoyable and am left with only one complaint- the gamer score choices. Nearly every game that has achievements uses a score that is divisible by five. With Cardaclysm there are a few that have odd scores, ending in two, seven, and and four. I know for some it’s just a number but for me I need my final score to still be divisible by five which means even if I didn’t enjoy this game I would need to play it to completion. Thankfully the game is quite a bit of fun and continuing this grind is not a negative thing.