Hot Heart

I can only imagine that it is more a Crucible-related thing, where maybe people were annoyed at wolf pack rounds being too powerful? EDIT: Dang phone messed up the post earlier and then I never found time to fix it. Done now.

Oh, my apologies. I must have read about it elsewhere then.

Board games night down the pub. Started with a go at The Manhattan Project. I believe Dean's gone over this many, many moons ago so I won't go too in depth. Worker placement game in which you are trying to assemble bombs worth points. Twist is that you choose when to recall workers (rather than it being a round-by-round placement affair) and there is a degree of "engine-building" as you purchase more powerful buildings than what's available on the main board. The components and artwork are really nice too. However, we played it four-player and it's a little too unrestrained and all over the place. The buildings become far too important in actually getting a viable strategy and then you're at the mercy of who buys what, when and whether some bastard has nicked the espionage slot (enabling you to utilise other player's buildings) right at the time you could've used it. Blocking is a legit part of the strategy though, so... We also played it with the Nations expansion. I was zaff afreeka, who were useless, and although I was given the option to switch, I figured I'd give it a bash; probably hurt my chances a great deal. That said though, one player stormed to victory when none of the rest of us had any points. Not even the owner of the game. Anyway, enjoyable enough experience with those guys but probably saved me some trouble since I did consider buying it myself at one point. I think it probably really shines at the lower player counts that I'd never see. Next, we made way for a fifth person and played Why First? Nice little filler game in which you come first by coming second. Yes, really. If that sounds confusing allow me to attempt to try to explain. There are five rounds. In each, players will be dealt a hand of five cards, typically with values between -4 up to +4 (there is a single +5 and a single -5, I am told). Players will select a card to play either on themselves or someone else, with the final card having to be played on themselves. Making sense so far? Okay, so a typical round might see someone bump themselves up 2 while someone else bumps themselves up 4, while someone else gets a plus and a minus played on them. Each new play will alter the score track until the end of the round. And here's where it gets interesting. At the end of each of the five rounds, whoever is in second will score points equal to wherever they wound up on the board while everyone else scores nothing. After these five rounds, whoever has the second highest score wins. Our game had us propel someone into a 10-point lead by them "winning" the first two rounds. Round three, I cannily nipped into "second" (first) by getting to 5 points. Unfortunately, come round 4, some sneaky bastard got 7 points. Round five became pretty tense and I almost pinched a 3-point second place, only two other players screwed me up and instead the guy with 7 points "won" another point. Drat! Fun though, and hilarious when everyone slaps their cards down in front of just one player all in one go. Then we finished with Dogs of War (mine) I've spoken about this a few times before. Anyway, it was fun and someone fell into the same trap of making an alliance with someone who was bound to benefit way more. At the start of the game, one player asked, "What is a typical winning score?" just to get an idea of the sort of gravity behind certain point-scoring decisions "For five player games, usually high 30s or into the 40s" Our game ended with one player scoring 66. We got crushed. The guy who helped him only scored 1 more point than I did, as I spent too much energy trying to keep my own favoured house on the up against nearly every other player (along with two years of bad match-ups). Still, everyone enjoyed it a great deal and it was a fun time.

So, Bungie did a stream yesterday. I missed it, but a YouTube upload should be linked in the weekly update due today. If you just want breakdowns, however: It all sounds pretty good to me. Also... YEAH BOYEEEE

And a breakdown of it.

That's it though, I find that there aren't really any exotic secondaries or primaries worth using, provided you have some of the older weapons (high impact, steady HMGs like The Swarm that faded away, for example). Plan C used to be pretty handy but I suspect the fusion rifle nerf hit them hard and a shotgun's more reliable. Found Verdict is my go-to secondary because it's a good-range shotgun whereas my primary will shift between Thorn or The Last Word. I used to wreck with a Shadow Price (that I still have) with glass half full and the ADS buff (like a SUROS-lite... before I got SUROS) and even did pretty well using Atheon's Epilogue (when I was doing the Thorn bounty). I don't think Fatebringer is very good for Crucible; the main bonus is arc damage and the firefly perk (taking on groups of thralls in the hive/arc burn rounds in PoE is fuuuun). Definitely more PvE-oriented. Speaking of which, I have one of the old Red Hands and it has these hilarious perks, especially if you're a gunslinger using it on mobs. It has increased reload when mag is empty and kills increase reload speed, combine that with chain of woes and you can unload the whole 10 bullets superfast and then it reloads in about a second. Still worth trying it in Crucible, I reckon, because it has mad fire rate and almost zero recoil. I should make a video of it in action.

This is an awesome cover, especially considering the original is pretty rubbish.

Short answer: pretty much, yeah. That deal I linked with £35 for base game + all expansions (including TTK) is a very good deal for a newbie... but unless you have people to play with regularly, it won't be much fun.

See, why can't Labour prove that they are this "pro-aspiration" themselves?

Update Had a crack at Cyclades. (Crappy photo in which my friends make their own brand of offering) Much better than I expected. The way the systems all mesh is really smart and it also makes turns somewhat quicker while keeping the amount of information manageable. You can only do what that god grants you, which is actually a handy limiter, and while there's a little planning here and there, it's still more of a "two turns ahead" kind of thing. Tactics more than strategy. And while it's got conflict, it never overwhelms the game because it's locked into the core systems of winning gods and being able to pay for their extra benefits. To invade another isle requires at least two turns because you'll need Poseidon for lining up your fleets then Ares for generating and moving troops; it is probably the most telegraphed move, but can also be the most surprising when someone's staggered it over a few turns. And it escalates quite wonderfully. Things turned tense when someone managed four philosophers to give them their first metropolis, but that meant that a) they didn't control more territory overall and b) hadn't amassed a large force while another player had plans for a sweeping turn to win the game, but couldn't quite manage it because they also hadn't quite got the forces or the territory (they had to destroy an important building that was part of a future plan just to make way for the metropolis). Meanwhile, I'd focused on seizing land/income but hadn't made enough headway towards my own metropoliseseseses not to be concerned by others' progress. The balance is impeccable. However, what really clinched it, is the utility of the mythological creatures. Majorly in my favour, I'd been left alone to generate loads of income so that even if I didn't get the god I wanted, I could bid low elsewhere (preferably earlier in turn order) and easily have enough gold for these, so I was gaining access not only to exclusive options/bonuses but also regular actions usually reserved for god's favours which were, usually, hotly contested. I could pick off a rival troop or fleet here and there, freeze someone's invasion plans or receive my income again that round (I was already raking in 6-8 gold a turn for most of the game). I was rolling in so much dough, I was even able to purchase some purely defensively. It's got the feel of a resource-led, bidding game combined with a light strategy game, all spiced up by the perfect amount of randomness/"take that!" I definitely hope to try this again and I'm sure the next game will be tighter now the others have gotten to grips with it and are aware how important the income/bidding aspect is and especially the benefits of those mythological creatures. Additionally, it also played in a decent time, considering there were five of us. After that, I actually won a game of Dixit. Usually, I go way too obscure on my own clues (which I did at one point) but a lot of luck and a little bit of smart counter-play (if that's a thing?!) saw me through. Pipped it right at the end where only one person picked my card despite not actually interpreting my clue how it was intended. That's probably a regular Dixit occurrence though. Then we ended on King of Tokyo. It's a dice-rolling game, so you bet I hate it. Cool theme and artwork, but not really supported by the dull gameplay itself. I'm also pretty crap at this and wasn't really paying attention. What I can impart, though, is that the best way to be King of Tokyo is to be in Tokyo as little as possible.

Unless you're some final round sniper dude (i.e. jerk), I never find the perk all that useful, because a) naturally, I never let a mag run empty (especially in crucible); it's just habit and b) using that final shot and having to reload can leave you pretty vulnerable anyway. From a quick look at that video, he doesn't make use of the final round perk. Maybe he does later in the video, but I couldn't stand his voice. Granted, with a bit of practice that's probably a pretty decent setup, but not one I'd really go for. And right now I can't really think of much of a reason not to use an exotic primary in crucible.

Glory, glory, gjallelujah!

Haha. Holy shit! The community (of crybabies) will be losing their minds.

From what I understand, the Labour Party situation is a little more complex than that. Problem being that there is something of a split with both having valid points. There are arguments that Corbyn is unelectable, which may well be true, but then I don't think any of the other candidates stand a chance anyway. The problem being that Labour's record is now tarnished and there is an uphill struggle. There is the fear of alienating either working class people or businesses and the wealthier classes and then whether it is worth trying to sway people who might vote Tory or go after those who didn't vote before/have never voted. And it can be hard to measure the merits in such a fucked up voting system. Essentially, though, the problem is the majority of the electorate. They are the fuckwits who seem to think the Tories do a better job of the economy when more public services have to be cut and yet again Osborne sells off publicly-owned assets at a stupid rate, lining the pockets of his mates at the taxpayer's expense. And it surprises me how Labour fail to argue the case that a) the Tories had previously said they would've matched Labour's spending levels while they were in power and b) the economy was actually showing signs of recovery under Brown before austerity killed it dead and sent everything backwards. And there is a real problem with the media over here being largely right-wing, with so many misleading stories and slants. It makes me despair that it seems the public is so easily manipulated. And, finally, I do not want this man to be PM in 2020.

Cyclades Greek Mythology-themed game in which you make offerings (bid gold) for favour of gods in order to reap their exclusive benefits (build armies/navies, take certain actions) all with an eye towards winning by possessing two metropoliseses... metropoliiii... metropoloose... two big city things. The wrinkle is that to possess these you can either collect a set of four cards from one of the gods (so, win their favour four times and miss out on other benefits), build each of the four building types to become a metropolis or simply send in an army and seize someone else's. There are other elements in there like mythological creatures ("release the kraken!") to shake things up as well. Supposed to be pretty well-balanced and it sounds like an interesting hybrid. Was on sale for £10 less than everywhere else (and even that was low stock on the best price for miles around so not guaranteed to last) so I took the plunge. It's also one of the 6 Board Games That Video Gamers Should Play as written by Quintin Smith a long while back.

I hate levelling up exotics. It takes forever. I'm working on Invective at the moment and I managed to get a full set of 10 bounties around 3500 experience on average, along with the 10% nightfall buff, then popped a shotgun telemetry before turning them all in... only unlocked 2.5 nodes on the damn thing. At least one of them was the ammo regen anyway. The Last Word is great for close up crucible maps because its TTK ("time to kill", not "the taken king") is, I think, the fastest in the game whereas MIDA can be useful in long-range crucible if you run it with an agility-plus perk; an all-round good gun for PvE too, but not one of the best. Truth is useful for void burn but I rarely get to use it.

Yeah, see, I'm not particularly interested in a single one of those games you mentioned. I'm sure there will be others that appeal but then I don't have loads of free time and I still have The Witcher 3 anyway. Destiny is great because I have people to play with, there are no other shooters I like, and it's actually pretty easy to just jump into it on a somewhat casual basis. I'm excited for the changes and it's as if they're remembering the Halo storytelling feel, based on the Game Informer thing I saw today. I've also found myself getting into Crucible somewhat as well.

I know But then I factor in how much I play it and that I prefer this over a subscription and it's not so bad, I guess...

Level is no longer tied to light/gear, just straight up XP gain. There will be some sort of equipment enhancements that go with light levels but play enough and you should be able to reach max level, it sounds like. Also, if you never bought the two earlier expansions, this is a pretty good deal: http://deals.simplygames.com/p/destiny-the-taken-king-ps4 Includes everything released so far as well as The Taken King and some bonus things. Hell, it's even the best deal for people who only want The Taken King, since the only other option is the PSN download for £40.

Me again! *echoes* Hrrm. Had another crack at Roll for the Galaxy the other night after an easy game of Castle Panic (the usual situation where so many players = way more options = much easier to plan). I actually knew what I was doing from the offset and got lucky with a couple of "starter" dice. Basically, I could fairly reliably produce and ship for 3-points each time. Although, there was still a little bit of smart decision-making with regards of which dice to buy back (something I'd not really appreciated the mechanics behind last time) depending on what I hoped to do the next 1-2 turns. I didn't get to build much, but I settled a couple of worlds and the shipping meant that when someone else triggered the endgame, I pipped victory from the closest rival. Decent enough game once you grasp the basics. Reminds me of 7 Wonders in its light civ tone and basic strategy/tactics play; also simultaneous turns helps when it's five people. And we actually did a starter session of our long-planned Pathfinder RPG campaign. It was more to get a feel for things to see if we actually wanted to do this (since none of us had attempted anything like it before) and, I guess, to ensure we were happy with our characters. I'd done a load of prep months ago and just liked the idea of playing a martial artist. Everywhere I read, however, just said that Monks are absolutely dreadful because they're MAD and stuff like that. Rather than be put-off, I figured a) the GM would probably value story-telling/fun over min/maxing and punishing players and b) ...I would focus on min/maxing. Seriously, though, I just read a bunch of advice on how to make sure you get a build that doesn't drag your team down. Essentially, you pump as much as you can into STR then WIS, then DEX. Strength for attack and damage, WIS because of the AC modifier bonus and DEX for when you throw shurikens. The real asset of the Monk is being able to make powerful unarmed strikes with any reasonable body part, which means they can carry a weapon or two for overcoming any DR (depends on situation, whether you want to deflect arrows or grapple or whatever). It was good though, because it actually informed my character and set me onto writing a back story. But onto the main story... So we began the first bit of the starter set, which involves being tasked by the Mayor of... I want to say Sandstone. She was Kendra Deverin or something. Anyway, she wanted us to investigate and rid her town of whatever monster was dragging off livestock. All we knew is that it had big black fangs. Us four adventurers began outside a cave and I took a look at a nearby stone statue to see it had been burned by acid. Fair enough. While I was inspecting that, our half elf Sorceror/Ranger approached the cave entrance and pulled apart a moss curtain from which jumped two goblins. They didn't prove too troublesome, and I got to experience how powerful my character was by killing them both in a couple of rounds; none of us even injured. Our pirate-like Gnome Rogue, Jenson "Jen" Eric Caracktor (player hadn't created their character so GM did) looted the bodies and decided to share out some of the loot. He tried to hand me a shortsword, but being a low charisma monk who preferred not to use weapons, especially not those of goblins, I simply turned my back on the gnome. "I jab her in the butt with it," demands the player. The rogue was clearly affronted. "Roll for attack," instructs the GM. "Really?" "Yes." "Okay..." he says, then rolls a 20. "Whoops..." Everyone laughs. "Now roll to see if that's really a crit," says the GM. He rolls again and it is also a successful hit, so he rolls for damage. "You take 2 damage," I am informed. I took out two goblins, no problem, then lose 2 HP because I got stabbed in the butt! I chose not to retaliate, stating that I was the bigger person. Quite literally. We continued on, exploring what we could, gaining some bonuses from a well and wisely electing not to charge into the room where we could hear chattering goblin voices. The next room we entered housed an altar with two statues either side and a booming voice said, "APPROACH WITH HUMILITY AND LIVE" for each person who entered. Before I could kneel and head towards the altar, the gnome rushed in and did just that. He probably didn't need to lower himself too much, since the fire trap that shot out from the two statues didn't touch anything below 3 feet anyway. Having reach the altar safely, the rogue instantly grabbed the red gem that sat atop it (choosing to replace it with a ruby we'd found earlier, Indiana Jones-style). Grabbing the gem caused him to take 1 fire damage and the ruby did not fit the placement the gem had been in so we took that back and continued on. Charging into the next, web-covered room and towards the treasure chest near the centre, the rogue was assaulted by a large spider dropping from the ceiling. Everyone charged into battle and since I couldn't make the distance to melee it, I threw a flurry of shurikens (which benefit from STR bonus on damage but use DEX to hit). Both missed. This would be a recurring pattern (particularly for me) as we kept rolling terribly and failing to hit the creature until eventually the rogue finished it off. We looted the chest to find some weird doll, a wand and some potion. We continued on and solve some runes to figure out there was a wyrm (dragon) who scared the goblins and had deadly breath (what dragon doesn't?). Our cleric gained a bonus to swimming and breathing underwater from the glyphs but would have to take off all her armour to benefit. Having seen some shining object on a small island across some water, and me being the most capable swimmer, I went over there alone and was confronted by a reefclaw as I left the water on the other side. Thanks to an arrow from the rogue and a couple of solid attacks myself, it died pretty easily but then hurt me with one of its two final dying blows. Worth it though, as we found loads of gold and a dragonbane longsword mace (so someone in our party could actually use it) which we didn't know the specifics of, just the implication of the name. Back on the shore, the rogue chooses to pick my pockets and steals 20GP without me noticing. In the next room, we found the source of the voices from earlier, encountering a goblin king and his entourage. He continued to ask, "WHO YOU?!" which our party almost ignored until it was too late (despite the GM's hints) and failing diplomacy checks; especially considering our cleric held the dragonbane mace high in the air, looking threatening. Personally, my monk chose to stay quiet and half-hopes to get into a fight. We got things back on track and established that there was some sort of toy that had been lost and no goblin was brave enough to go find it. We recalled the doll we had found and which our rogue was currently carrying... The rogue stepped up. "I take the doll from my pocket and hold it up to show him. Then I drop it on the ground and bring my foot down hard." "Okay, everyone roll for initiative..." It turned into a tough fight as I got surrounded, with the rogue pretty hurt too. Fortunately, our cleric had a healing spell that worked wonders and the GM played that the goblin king was enraged with the rogue, somewhat sparing me his full wrath. The sorceror got to let off some burning hands spells, and I used my regular hands, getting some gory descriptions as I punched right through stomachs and snapped necks with uppercuts. With them dispatched, we found some more loot and continued onto the next bit where we fooled around with climbing a rope up a wall, making everything dark with a spell then light again, unaware of three skeleton warriors who shuffled up to us. They proved pretty easy as I managed to land a flurry, destroying two in a sort of double fist punch move. Then came the dragon who was megatough, knocking two of us unconscious from full health, in one acid breath. We rallied and gave it a good show, managing to surround it and land some decent hits before it flew off (as instructed). Overall, I really enjoyed it and it kept us entertained for the 4+ hours it took. The GM did a good job and was sure to offer a bunch of descriptions for all our (inter)actions while keeping things flexible enough for our japes. My monk did seem overpowered, but that's only because these were basic enemies with no resistances; I am concerned that I appear to be the only real up-close DPS, which could cause problems if I start to lag, but we'll see. I definitely look forward to trying more.

Just got that the other day, but haven't tried it yet. Sounded decent though, yeah. The Lord of Wolves is also pretty cool. It says the range is crap, but it's actually pretty decent or at least it puts out so much damage from each 5-shot burst that you wouldn't suffer with it in PvE.

Perhaps scenes that are suppose to be taking place in the 90's? The trailer doesn't make it clear, but I take it this is going to be one of a Past-Present origin story of sorts. Ah, yeah. Good call. That makes more sense.

Eleven was a newcomer. It's like seeing your child all grown up. But, yes, well done, Ethan! As far as I know, exotics are here to stay, so the elder cipher weapons are pretty alright.

This isn't MCU... Ban him! BAN HIIIIIIM!