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kittenfemme27 · 3 years

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Bastion: What it means to truly move on.

“Someday, your bird is gonna fly.”

Bastion is the first game released by what is now the critically acclaimed Supergiant Games, makers of other games like Transistor, Pyre, and most recently Hades. But back in 2011 they were a nobody. 7 developers from various backgrounds within the industry came together to make games that could focus on storytelling first and foremost more than any of their previous studios would allow. Bastion was the result of that. Starting out from the idea of a top down isometric RPG, Supergiant realized that they wanted to portray a world that was fractured and broken, and wanted to show the vast and empty sky as a contrast to that destruction, but realized the camera angle wouldn’t allow this. So they came up with the idea that the ground would come up in front of the player as they walked forward, allowing the empty sky to show beneath them since the groundwork would not originally be laid until the player walked towards it. To explain this choice and why the world reacted this way, a destructive event known as “The Calamity” was created in the game's story. Thus, Bastion found its ethos.

Bastion’s a masterpiece. Plain and simple. It's been ported to nearly everything under the sun for a reason, being playable on literally 3 different console generations as well as every OS a PC can run, but coming back to play this game for the first time within the current political and geological climate that we find ourselves within as time goes on only makes it more and more apparent how much the story has to say. Even if you could somehow ignore it’s absolutely incredible music, insanely varied and addictive and yet delightfully simple gameplay, jaw dropping art direction and set pieces, Bastion’s storytelling is at its core and the story it has to tell is one that I think a lot of people didn’t fully appreciate back in 2011. From what I could find online, most people either ignored it in favor of the gameplay, or let the meaning of it glaze over them. And that's really, deeply a shame. Because Bastion is one of the best games I have ever played. And I’d like to talk about why.

Gameplay:

“Kid just rages for a while...”

I want to start first and foremost by talking about the gameplay and how you engage with the world. Combat in Bastion is simple and not exactly groundbreaking. An isometric hack ‘n’ slash with 2 weapon slots and a single ability, with a shield that has a parry mechanic and a dodge roll with fairly lenient invulnerability frames. Player movement is very, very slow which encourages you to very quickly become proficient in dodging and blocking. It’s fun, for sure, if just a little bit easy. But it’s nothing to write home about at first. As you play, though, you’ll begin to uncover Bastion's hidden depth and variety within its combat. A lot of that depth comes from the sheer number of Weapons, Upgrades, Passives, and Skills you can equip in any combination.

You are given 11 weapons, each of which can be upgraded with collectibles found within the levels for a total of 5 times per weapon, and these upgrades form a loose “trees” of upgrades that you can switch between at will. You can make the Spear better at critical hits and critical damage and faster thrusts, or make it better at throwing with more spears per throw, for example. Every single weapon has a 2 distinctive upgrade “Trees” in this way that clearly make it better at one specific aspect of the weapon, but you are free to mix and match these upgrades as you see fit. Maybe you want the Spear to have a high critical hit rate, but also throw 2 spears per throw, you can do that. It’s also worth mentioning that there are no restrictions placed upon you on what type of weapons you want to take. You can take two melee weapons, or two ranged weapons, whatever combination you desire is up to you. The narrator even has a line for literally every combination you can have that you’ll hear upon exiting the armory. Some compare you to legends of yore from the game worlds past, others point out just how plain silly it is for the Kid to carry both a mortar launcher and a rocket launcher.

Each weapon also comes with two skills that you can use during gameplay, ranging from protective skills like one that makes you block all attacks for a few seconds, to damage based skills such as the Bow’s skill that fires a ricocheting arrow between enemies. Even then, there are other Skills that are tied to no weapons at all which brings the total of skills in the game to 30.

In addition, there’s the Tonic system in which each level up confers a slot that you can equip a drink from the bar, for a total of 10 at max level. These function as passives applied to your character that allow even further customization. Some are basic things you’d expect, such as overall more health, or more restoration or ability potions, a flat 15% damage resistance, and so on. A number of these however offer a very very strong benefit in exchange for a side effect. Werewhiskey, for example, gives you a 100% crit rate but only below 35% health. Doomshine offers a permanent 10% crit but takes away 10% of your health permanently. Or Leechade, which allows you to gain health from striking enemies, but makes your health potions only 1/3rd as effective. These can all be stacked upon each other in any order or combination. You choose and be changed at any point between missions..

All of these systems together enhance the very simple hack ‘n’ slash combat to be something with infinitely more depth than presented to you at first glance, and something that you can experiment with as much as you want, since no choice is permanent. Part of the way it encourages you to experiment are the Weapon Challenge missions that crop up each time you obtain a new weapon. They ask you to complete some sort of challenge related to that weapon with no Skills, no other weapons, and in some of them not even the ability to dodge or block. Besting these will net you 1 of 3 prizes, depending on how well you did, With the first two prizes being upgrade materials and the last being a Skill for the weapon the challenge is based on.

Beating Bastion unlocks a “Score-Attack” version of New Game+ that keeps a running overall score during the whole game and during stage specific score for each mission, with a multiplier and a timer to keep that multiplier up. This effectively turns the game into a leaderboard chasing isometric arcade game. Every enemy adds 1 to the multiplier, and resets the timer, so it's up to you to run through each mission as fast as possible and challenge yourself to see what kind of score you can get, and since it lets you replay any mission you want, you can always find ways to get a higher and higher score. One of my playthroughs of this game was on the PS Vita and even since beating it, I've found myself trying to one-up my own score while i’m just sitting around since each mission only takes about 10-20 minutes. The most challenging content in the game is a set of 4 different repeatable combat arena’s with 20 waves of some of the toughest enemies in the game. You can make this even harder by invoking each God within the games Pantheon and raising the difficulty of every enemy you encounter. Doing this raises how many points you get per kill, and in these combat arena’s I’ve regularly topped a million points in just a single stage from precise gameplay.

I think that’s what I find amazing about Bastion’s combat is that despite 3 playthroughs, I never once found myself bored or annoyed by any of it. All 3 of my playthroughs had me switching up Weapons, Upgrades, Skills, and Tonics between every mission just to experiment and see what crazy builds I could make. Every challenge was always a delight and a real test of skill, every mission a romp where I got to find a new weapon and play with it each time. Often, I would die, but that was fine! Losing in Bastion is fun. It’s part of the experience, because you can always go back and change your build to whatever you desire to try again. In a way, it’s fitting for the entire theme of the game. It’s the End of the world, and there are no more rules. Do whatever you’ve gotta do. Might as well have fun with it, while you do.

Art & Sound:

“I suppose all that's left... is to try'n remember this moment.”

I think the other reason that I didn’t get bored on any of my 3 playthroughs of Bastion was the absolutely breathtaking art and music the game features. The soundtrack, composed by Darren Korb, clocks in only at an hour and while that does sometimes mean that there are repeats of songs, I'd be lying if I told you there was a single song on that score that I didn’t absolutely love. Or that I thought was out of place during any section of the game. Each and every song is its own radically different soundscape that, in songs like “Brynn the Breaker”, invokes a feeling of complete and utter destruction around you and a sense of leaning into that destruction. It’s fitting that the first time this song plays, you are almost assuredly going to hear the line “Kid just rages for awhile...” as you wreck each and every enemy and object around you after waking up on a floating rock in the sky. Meanwhile, in other songs such as “Build that Wall”, it's clear that Supergiant was acutely aware of the impact their music could have on a scene. In Caelondia, the games world, “Build that Wall” is a jingoistic anthem meant to inspire the Cael by noting the danger they face from the outside world and from the Ura, a people who live to the east, and implores them to build walls to keep everyone else but keep themselves safe. But the first time you hear that song, you’ll be rolling through the dilapidated ruins of Prosper Bluff, a place overrun by birds ready to rip you apart and barely hanging together by literal boards between each floating island, and not a wall in sight. Guided only by the simultaneously soothing and haunting voice of an Ura girl singing the theme of the people who hate her. In that moment, it sounds much more sorrow and sad than any anthem for a nation ever could.

Darren Korb has stated that the point of Bastions music was meant to invoke a sense of the “American Frontier”, of exploring new and uncharted land, but it’s interwoven with melodic and slow moments of tragedy and despair, featuring lots of slow acoustic guitar and lots of slow vocals when there are any at all. I really cannot praise enough this choice of frontier-ism interwoven into the music itself, as it sells the entire theme of the game perfectly.

The art of the game is just as fantastic, too. Supergiant set out to make sure you could see the sky in a top down game, which sounds a little absurd and like a nearly impossible feat, and yet they succeeded with such aplomb it almost seems like it was easy. Below each stage is a blurred barrage of trees, nature, clouds, sky, sometimes ruins within those things, it reminds you constantly that the world has ended and nature has reclaimed it. Progressing further and further down the set of missions and further away from the Bastion and Caelondia sees you going more and more into what's left of those wilds and away from the ruins of civilization, before reaching the icy peaks in the east of the Ura. It creates this feeling of loss and tragedy at what's lost, a sense of exploration into this new and unknown world, before finally getting to it's cold center as you get closer to the truth of the Calamity.

In general, the art style of Bastion feels like a living breathing oil painting. Features on people are exaggerated with small bodies, yet large heads and eyes and hands or feet. Making them feel like something out of a children's book. Every single thing in the game is full of color and life, down to the animals and the foliage, with the only notable exceptions being the ruins of buildings that are oppressive and gray, and the final cold reaches of the Ura’s leftover ruins. Because of the oil painting aesthetic, the narration, even the surreality of the world coming up before you, Bastion feels a lot more like playing a fairy tale than anything else I've ever played, even things that have tried to emulate that same effect. Bastion reminds us that the presentation of a game, in both its art and its music, tell just as much about the story and the world of a game as the actual story itself does.

Story: (Spoiler Warning)

“Now here’s a kid who’s whole world got twisted, leaving him stranded on a rock in the sky.”

Bastion is a game about a lot of things, but at its heart, it’s a game about Tragedy. A tragedy you can’t prevent no matter what you do, because it has already happened. Setpieces in the game constantly remind you of this, like going through the Hanging Gardens, a place where people used to gather and finding nothing but ashen corpses. Rucks, Bastion’s narrator, will even tell you the names of these people. I remember playing this game in 2011 and being upset at this. I wanted to know about Maude the Tutor, I wanted to hear the life of Percy the Snitch, but I couldn’t. That was the tragedy. It didn’t register with me at the time, but that was the point. I was supposed to be upset I couldn’t know these people, that they died in a tragedy I couldn’t prevent.

The core story of Bastion revolves around a war that took place some 50 odd years ago. Caelondia and her people, versus the Ura. In the modern day, before the calamity, the war was over. There was an Ura named Zulf who was trying to broker peace, even. But the Caelondian’s military-science division, the “Mancers” had a secret weapon. One they intended to use to get rid of the Ura for good. It would cause a genocide of the very land the Ura lived in and cause it to literally fall into nothing, ripping apart the physical earth where it stood before. Worse yet, this weapon was being created by an Ura inventor that lived within Caelondia named Venn under threat to his daughter, Zia. Venn couldn’t stand to aid the destruction of his people and sabotaged the weapon that ushers in the Calamity with vengeance in his heart, so that it would backfire and take Caelondia down with it. Imagine Venns shock, then, when the mancers asked him to pull the trigger.

Turns out an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Just like that, the Calamity has already happened. The Ura who were discriminated against in every part of Cael society and the racism and cycle of vengeance and violence within the Caels and the Ura reached a boiling point that caused the literal end of the world.. And that’s where you wake up. In a world already torn apart and crumbling before you. On a rock in the sky.

Tragedy permeates everything about the game. In the Hanging Gardens, you find Zulf as he’s about to kill himself after watching his Cael wife crumble to ash right before his eyes. When you meet the second survivor, an Ura singer who just so happens to be Zia, Venns daughter. She’s mournfully singing the tune of Caelondia that was the anthem used to inspire the Caels to oppress her own people, and her sweet voice sounds like the dying breath of an entire nation. Bastion makes it very clear that these people's lives as they knew them are over. But then Bastion asks you a simple question: You have to keep going, so what are you going to do with that world?

Before you get to make that choice, though, you’re asked to decide the fate of a man who hurts you. Zulf at one point reads the journal of Venn that he obtains from Zia and learns everything about the Calamity. He learns about the Mancers plan to genocide his people. He learns about Venns sabotage. Zulf spent his entire life advocating for peace between the two peoples, and this is what he’s met with. Unable to stand it, he attempts to destroy the Bastion and flees after injuring Rucks. As you chase him, he lures you far from the Bastion and sends the signal to an entire army of Ura survivors to attack the Bastion, even persuading Zia to come with him to try and convince her to abandon the Bastion. In the end, though. You chase him all the way to the heart of the Ura nation and as retaliation for bringing someone so powerful who kills so many Ura, the Ura forces attack Zulf and leave him for dead. You come across his body and are given a choice to either leave him and carry on, or take him with you and abandon your weapon. You’re asked right then and there, can you forgive someone who hurt you and your chance at fixing the world and break the cycle of violence? Or will you press on, like Venn, with vengeance in heart. If you choose to save Zulf, you walk forward with zulf on your shoulder through multiple Ura archers shooting you nearly to death. It’s only once they realize that you’re trying to save Zulf do they stop trying to attack you. This moment of compassion, this breaking of the cycle, inspires the Ura to let you pass. If you choose not to save him, you must battle an entire army, which isn’t even hard for you at that point. It’s a bloodbath. You, a Cael kid from nowhere, end the last of the Ura outside of Zia who knows so little of her culture that she can’t even read the journal her father left over. You succeed where the Mancers failed. The cycle of violence remains unbroken within you and within your heart.

You’re given two options upon returning to the Bastion at the end. You can use the power of the Bastion to reset the world to where it was before the Calamity. You’ll lose all your memories, but everyone and everything that died will be okay and alive again. There’s a risk, though. Rucks has no way of knowing if this plan will work. If it will prevent the Calamity in the end. “Problem with a machine that sets things back to a bygone time,” he says, “Is that you can’t test it.”

Your other option is Zia’s choice, though both her and Rucks support whatever decision you make, they know it’s not an easy choice. Her plan is to turn the Bastion into a floating island ship that can travel anywhere. To forge a new world and look for survivors on other floating islands and carry on in this destroyed world and find hope within that tragedy. Make something new, and beautiful, from the ashes of something dead. Maybe that’s not possible, she thinks, but it’s better than recreating a world with institutional violence, with cycles of hate and vengeance, a world where something like the Calamity could happen in the first place.

Supergiant knew what most people would pick, though. Resetting seems like the only real choice, at first. Maybe the Calamity will happen again, maybe it won’t, but you can’t just let all those people die. The whole game has been building up to fixing the Calamity. Rucks, old and clinging to the past, is sure that resetting it will work and that things will be okay again. He’s a bit like a father figure to you, too. He’s narrated every action you took, made sure you were never truly alone in this ruinous world. So of course you trust him. An overwhelming amount of people chose to reset the world the first time they play. I did, too. I knew that maybe the Calamity would happen again, but I couldn’t just let everyone die. Maybe things would be different, I thought. Maybe this time people won’t let something like a genocide happen again. Maybe Venn won’t pull the trigger. I didn’t know, but it was better than letting everyone die, right? It had to be. I had to hope that I made the right decision. So with trepidation in my heart. I chose to reset everything.

Rucks comforts you when you choose to reset that “No matter what happens next... you done good.” Credits roll. You see pictures of the lives of each character in the reset Caelondia. The lonesome Kid continues his work as a mason on the wall built to keep the Ura out, where he isolated himself after losing everyone in his life. The only person to ever sign up for 2 tours on the Wall. Rucks continues his work on the Bastion, refining it for the future, meaning that there’s still a need for a safeguard like it in the first place. Zia plays a concert on her harp with a mournful look on her face, she found comfort in music but that comfort was equally as isolating and lonely, what with her being an Ura girl in Caelondia. Zulf gets married to his fiancee, blissfully unaware of the impending genocide on his people while he fruitlessly brokers peace. Upon seeing these credits, these images of the lives of these characters, I knew I made a mistake. History is going to repeat itself. Sure they were alive, and so was everyone else, but the cycle of violence remains unbroken and eventually, even if the Calamity that befell the world the first time doesn’t happen again, another will. Rucks final words in this ending are a simple forlorn goodbye. “So long kid... Maybe I'll see you in the next one. Caelondia... We’re coming home.”

Choosing this ending left me feeling anxious at first, and then hollow and empty. I didn’t save anyone, I just clung to the past. I expected things to be different in a world where something like the Calamity could happen in the first place. I knew, then, that for there to be any hope at all I had to move on from the old world. I had to do right by Rucks, by Zia, even by Zulf. They were my friends. They deserved better, they deserved more. They deserved a world without the conflict and violence that Caelondia brings. I understood even more clearly what I had done when, upon starting a new game, Rucks final words echoed over the loading screen. As far as I could tell, the Calamity had happened again. Rucks even makes comments of feeling a sort of deja-vu while retelling the story and is much less confident resetting will work the second go around, for a reason he just can’t quite explain.

Bastion is a story about tragedy, about generational trauma left over from a war, about the cycle of violence and all that it perpetuates. It’s a story about waking up in a world that has already crumbled and fallen apart through no fault of your own and being told there is nothing you can do about that destruction. And there isn’t. Climate change is a bigger problem now in 2020 than it ever was in 2011. People are going to die, it’s just an awful fact at this point. Those in charge continue to ignore that fact and these issues while also continuing to stoke the fires and flames of the impoverished and destitute more and more every day, bleeding them dry for any pennies they might have.

But that’s not all Bastion has to say. It’s not fair for the next generation just like it wasn’t fair for the Kid, to wake up in a world already destroyed, and yet still, people like the Kid and Zia found hope. Within Bastion, you can save Zulf and end the cycle of violence, you can choose Zia’s option and set out on a world that is better for everyone in the end, as ruined as it is. Even in the end of the world and everything you knew, there is hope. Bastion doesn’t just ask, it begs on hands and knees for the next generation to take up this dying world and make it better. Bastion, and Supergiant, believes in the next generation. that it's possible to move on from the past and make something better, to seize control and make a better world while purposefully never forgetting the cycles of violence that led us to the end of the world in the first place. Our great Calamity is already unfolding before us and there isn’t anything we can do to stop it, only delay it. Bastion tells us that it's okay, that we can make something beautiful, and new, and better from those ashes.

In the scene for the Evacuation ending, Rucks tells us that he’s not sure how to live in a world like this, but he’s willing to learn. And excitedly offers to help teach you how to fly the Bastion through the skies. The very first image you see during the credits then, is the Kid finally collapsing of exhaustion and resting while Rucks tucks him in. The next is Zia looking forward on the deck of the Bastion, a smile on her face and hope in her heart. You get to see Rucks later teaching the Kid how to fly the Bastion, finally giving the Kid the family that he so desperately needed, and finally you see Zulf. He’s got a frown on his face, he’s still lost everything in the Calamity after all. More than anyone. But he’s chopping food for everyone else still, helping out where he can. I couldn’t help but think upon seeing his expression that he might hate me for the rest of my life, and that was alright. I’d always just be happy he was alive. Seeing the smiling faces of everyone in the Evacuation made something very clear to me. In the Old World, Zia was an outcast, Zulf was a fool, Rucks was nostalgic, and the Kid was alone. In the Calamity, they found friendship, they found happiness, they found love and family in each other, they found adventure and they found hope for the future. Zia’s final words to the Kid echoed in my head:

"Any moment I'd want to live again... happened after the Calamity. Not before."

And I was at peace. I knew I had done the right thing I had chosen to move on, accepting the world for what it was and not looking for miracle solutions to fix it or change it, but to forge on ahead with what I had and make something better.

Bastion’s story is not directly told to you, especially after the ending. There is no epilogue that tells you exactly what happened, just a few lines of dialogue that you can make of what you will and some pictures of the lives after your choice. it’s never explicitly stated that the Calamity happens again if you choose to reset things. It’s meaning is in between the lines that Rucks has to say. It’s In the subtext. It's in the art, it's in the environment, like the tragedy of finding nothing but ashen corpses around a lone peace talker right before he’s about to jump to his death. It’s in the music, like the haunting melody of an outcast’s voice singing the song of her oppressors while never realizing how much the very city she was raised in tried to exterminate her. But more than anything it's in the feeling you get while you play. Bastion’s story plays out in your heart as much as it plays out in your mind and on the screen in-front of you. What you feel, what you make of it, that’s just as important to the meaning of the story as what you’re hearing and seeing. Obviously this can be said of all stories, but Bastion is maybe the one that’s resonated most in my heart and in my soul more so than any other story. It offers no simple answers, no painless choices, and no easy ways out. Move on, or cling to the past, those are your only two options and Bastion forces you to make a choice.

In the end, I chose a new world. A better world. A world with my friends that would never let the cycles of violence and the generational trauma that caused the Calamity to happen again. Sure, resetting technically brings everyone back to life, but it wasn’t until I chose to move on and move forward that I felt I could even say in my heart that I’d saved anyone at all.

Conclusion:

“I dig my hole, you build a wall.”

“Build that wall, and build it strong, Cause we’ll be there before too long.”

Bastion is, and I'm not saying this lightly, a perfect game. The gameplay loop and combat is phenomenal and addicting, the music and art and aesthetics are so top notch you could honestly create an entire art style out of them all on their own, the storytelling is amazing and has so much to say that I cannot believe something this important was just thrown out by an indie studio nobody had ever heard of while it was only 7 people strong, and how many people slept on it or completely missed the point of the tragedy of Caelondia and the Ura.

This game will live in my heart for a very, very long time and its music and messages it conveyed will stick with me even longer. My only regret with Bastion is that I’ll never get to experience it for the first time again. But, even with the spoilers here, you can. Play it, Kid. You won’t regret it.

“We can't go back no more. But I suppose we could go... wherever we please.”

#Bastion #Review #Played on: PC #Played on: PS Vita

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mtg-thrill-of-possibility · 3 years

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A Reflection on Magic, the Pandemic, and the Dark Side of Arena

Hello to all the readers who may stumble upon this in the search for new Magic content. I wrote this mostly to fill a void in my life that has opened up over the last year and more of a mental health thing than some form of Magic related advice but since it is about that, I thought they’d go hand in hand. I love Magic. Or at least I have loved Magic? It’s hard to tell. Like nearly everyone on this planet, I’ve been shut off from in-person Magic and it had/has me left down. I normally volunteer at my LGS and help them organize their tournaments and judge the events and generally whatever else they ask me to do because I really love Magic. I love playing with my locals who don’t spend hundreds of dollars and craft GP/MF level decks. I love watching a group of people playing draft chaff and off beat home brews and where adults and teenagers can compete with one another on that level. I enjoy sitting off to the corner on the store’s EDH night and listening to games and drawing tokens for games in my own corner while I wait for my own games or sometimes my ow turns. I also love traveling with my wife to cities and go compete in GP/MFs where we usually both scrub out of the main event by round 3 or 4 and then hit the vendors and side events as well as explore the cities for new restaurants. I miss Welcome Days where adults bring in kids and I show them the ropes. I love meeting adults who poke their noses in and ask me “Magic is still a thing? I played that in high school” and show them the changes. I can still remember the Theros Beyond Death prerelease last year and thought how much fun it was to not work the event for once and just play. And looking back, boy am I glad I entered the THB prerelease.

February was the start of the downturn. Our EDH night was slightly less full but I just figured it was due to the weather since the winter usually has a downturn in the attendance for every event. But then the rotating cast of 10-15 FNM players was 6; Pioneer on Saturday had 3. The next week, the EDH crowd was down to from the usual 6-8 pods to 2. FNM and Pioneer failed to fire. The news that COVID-19 was starting to creep into the Midwest prompted me to ask the store what precautions we wanted to take and when we were going to stop in general.

I work in chemical research and I have a background in pharmaceuticals and once (or twice) studied the MCATs and considered going to med school. I was definitely concerned but in February it hadn’t reached my state (yet) and I wanted the store to be ready for the imminent shutdown and continued downtick in participation (my LGS and I had been strategizing how to move up in events and the store ranking on the WPN). But it’s a red state. Science denial must be a recessive trait that the Midwest incorporated into its identity for a long time and I was told that I had some freedom but to not go crazy. I thought I’m a volunteer. I’m not spending what little money I have on stuff for you guys. So, I did the best thing I could think of for free, I started a Discord server. I was really excited at the prospect. I had just bought a webcam in case my workplace started working from home and thought how cool it would be to be able to organize events in Arena and talk through Discord when the store wasn’t available. I asked if we could hang up a flyer and tell all the Magic customers that they continue with tournaments and Magic if they joined the Discord I set up in the store’s name.

My LGS asked how much this was going to cost them and I said exactly as much as it costs them now if not a little less since we don’t need the store’s utilities or a cashier behind the counter in the after hours to work the tournament. They were happy and I got the greenlight. Things worked okay at first. Those with Arena accounts showed for a few weeks. Others I knew were interested were convinced that we were overly sensitive to the virus and FNMs continued to limp along with 4-6 people until everything ground down to a halt.

Come mid-March, COVID had finally reached the state and the city. Cases were light, a few hundred people tested each day, single digit cases detected but I again was worried. My workplace had already begun educating everyone on how to wash their hands properly and disinfect every surface and everyone was issued a bleach spray bottle with their name and a serial number on it. While the mayor and governor hadn’t ordered a shutdown yet, I advised strongly that the store go ahead and if they wanted to continue that I wouldn’t be there to assist until the curve was sufficiently flattened.

I’m not sure why but they trusted me and listened. I was glad and I pushed again for people to join the Discord server. Players were reluctant but I assured them that this may be the future for some time and if they get on now, they can still get the Ravnica intro quests and start building up their Arena collections. I got more on my side, we had 8-10 and got them all to try and hook anyone else they knew to join us. However, by the end of March, my workplace had moved to 100% virtual and with my extra time, I had begun to unwittingly shift the power dynamic in the store by accident. You see, I really love Magic. I was now working from home for a job that required me to have direct physical access to hundreds of thousands of dollars or sensitive equipment that need recertification when they get moved 12 inches down a work bench and dangerous chemicals I don’t want near me unless I know there’s an inspected chemical shower nearby. When the campus shut down, I got very bored. I did what research I could from my home portal, attended virtual conferences and webinars every day, but I had tons of down time. That meant watching my wife play Animal Crossing, playing with my dogs, marathon sessions of Civilization but most crucially, I also began grinding Arena.

My local meta had been defined by the understanding that none of us were really Arena players. I had played when the Kaladesh and Amonkhet closed betas were happening, but I was turned off by the fact that all my playing of those formats amounted to nothing when it launched with Ixalan and I would start from square one. Everyone in the group typically shied away from tier 1 tournament decks because to all of us, it was more fun to goof around with RG auras and Tilonalli’s Summoner decks than it was to grind Esper Hero or the new Uro decks. And the limitation that everyone didn’t have all the shocklands meant we were all playing on roughly the same card pools with some variation due to our play styles. So when I suggested we all start playing Arena to replace the tournaments, it worked because it meant we all played the same dumb decks we’d play in person with a few exceptions of having less than perfect mana bases.

But I would find myself grinding Arena everyday where my friends and locals were not. Even though I jumped into Arena at mid-March, I finished the Theros Beyond Death mastery at level 78 when Ikoria began to creep around the corner. I had just begun to get back into Magic when Fate Reforged hit and didn’t realize how much I love wedge color alignments over shards but boy did I love Abzan in Khans standard and now I was in love with Abzan again in Ikoria standard. Grinding the way I did meant I drafted most afternoons for the first month of Ikoria (and forced Temur every time) and started climbing the ranked ladder in the evenings. Ikoria would also mark the first time I spent money on Arena. I’m notoriously spend-thrift in video games and anything you can free-to-play I do religiously because you shouldn’t make a game grindable over the course of years if you give me that option. But drafting took gems and I really love drafting but most people at my LGS are too concerned about rares than learning to do it properly and a lot of younger players feel lost when I draft a zero rare deck and go 4-0 and collect my prizes. By the end of April, I would reach Platinum in constructed and Gold in limited. But now my LGS was far less inclined to play with me. I didn’t brag about any of my rankings but the skill disparity had begun to creep in as well as the difference in our collections. Having played so much Arena, I could see the tells the software gives away that paper Magic doesn’t. I learned to read when the game would hang up on the beginning of combat and end steps because they’re holding potential responses. I began to do the full control shortcut to bluff counter spells and removal. In paper Magic, if my opponent would sequence things wrong or tap their mana wrong, we’d make jokes and rewind it because it’s one of those human errors that we all make and redo it the right way.

But Arena was different; some learned the hard way to not trust the auto-tapper, some didn’t realize that the way they normally stack triggers in paper is backwards and too late to fix after a spell or ability resolved. And I couldn’t help them. And I let them make their mistakes because I can’t change Arena. If they use the auto-tapper and they realize that Arena doesn’t tap the Castle Vantress even though they couldn’t activate it anyway and they lose a dual source, I couldn’t help them. If they have the lethal Explosion in hand but forgot to hit Control in their second main so they can stack the Wilderness Reclamation triggers in their end step, I don’t concede out of pity.

In May, I try and keep the Magic going by suggesting that we shift the format to a draft limited but they’re unconvinced of the website that allows you to simulate an 8-person draft and then import the drafted card lists to Arena. Why? Because they don’t have the cards already and I’ve changed the dynamic. They know I’m much more skilled at Arena and Ikoria drafting. The news has also been reporting that the curve was flattening, and our state was lifting restrictions on gatherings. They want to play EDH and paper Magic, not this digital intangible game. I reluctantly agree but keep grinding on Arena anyway. My friends didn’t want to play Magic on Arena and I couldn’t understand why. I was getting burned out on drafting at this point and the drafts were harder to fire off a month and a half later, work was returning on a limited schedule where I was onsite 75% and virtual 25%, it really did seem like things were returning to normal.

In June I finish the Ikoria mastery and at this point my wife had begun to show more interest in playing on Arena and trying to get her account a little more stocked since our normal paper system is I aggregate everything we typically need and I make her desired deck and hand it off to her to wreck people on FNM but since I didn’t have to judge, I got to play and we couldn’t both play from my account at the same time. I casually start hers and I get the wild hair that maybe I should make a loaner account in the store’s name and if anyone says they don’t have the cards, they can borrow the store’s account for the tournament. I make the account but put the pipe dream on hold when Wizards announces that in-store play can resume with the Core 2021 prerelease. I could read between the lines and see that the curve was trending the wrong way and thought it was a bad idea but at my insistence, everyone would have to wear a mask at all times and hand sanitizer was available every 15 feet and the store had lots of space for players to spread out. The turnout was low which helped as well, and I had everyone who showed up at least aware that I was trying to keep the Discord going and that in case there’s another shutdown that there was another avenue for them.

Well, I got my wish because within a week of the launch of Core 2021, my state had regressed, and cases were exploding and gathering restrictions were sent back in place. Shortly after that, Wizards suspended in-store play again and with that I created the store’s Arena account. At the time, things were pretty good. The locals weren’t playing as much and my server was still fairly empty but most of the Magic Twitch community I interacted with had strongly adjusted to the new paradigm. EDH streaming was commonplace, I had my new Arena account to focus on building up as well as my own. Pro level events and Opens were being held on Arena and the expansion of Amonkhet Remastered gave me hope that Magic was on the mend. But I also think it was with Core 2021 that things started to slide into the negative for me. Grinding the second account was frustrating me a lot. The lack of human interaction was tilting me out for no reason. Some days the server would have me wait a whole minute (the horror?!) for a game and then my opponent would be the world’s slowest red player where everything seemed delayed. There would strings of games I would play where I couldn’t get a third land drop after a mull to 4 and other times where I’d flood out and would have won if it weren’t for generic whiny reason why everyone says they lose.

Maybe it was when I began to see that Arena is not Magic the Gathering as much as it is a video game that it began to really sour on me. For those of you who don’t play a lot of Arena and instead interact with humans over webcams is that Arena is designed for you to not play off beat home brews except in direct challenges with your friends. The game is meant for you to play the best combination of 75 cards and for you to help it machine learn through millions of matches what is and what is not the correct play pattern based on the available information you have. It wants you to play the very best decks in a format against the other best decks. I started to see this in Ikora standard when decks would scoop if you were on the play and went turn 2 Agonizing Remorse. Decks were and still are so linear that they can’t handle that kind of disruption or it’s a matter of the players know it’s faster to accumulate wins by scooping than grinding out a long game.

If you need evidence of whether or not this is true, you should play Arena now and see how often people scoop against the double Ruin Crab opener with a Fabled Passage back-to-back. Or if an opponent against your Lurrus Auras deck will time out when they know they can’t win. In paper Magic, when you drive 4 hours to a major venue, pay your entry fee, you never see your opponent rage scoop unless it’s Legacy and you know what your opponent’s on and you mull to zero so you can see what’s in their deck. You call a judge to your table if they start stalling. Nothing is more annoying that an opponent spamming “Good Game” at you through a match when it’s obvious that you’re not killing them that turn but they’re empty handed and have nothing relevant on board.

I’ll admit myself that what my wife calls “Wizard Chores” for the Daily quests, if I’m 1 red spell short of finishing a quest, I’ll log in for one more game and Boulder Dash my opponent’s creature or cast Shock to face and immediately scoop. Who is that helping? I’d spend the week at work in my down times thinking about what dumb cards I hadn’t played with from a set, start making a list, furiously find the cards on a Friday afternoon and grab dinner with the wife and then race to my LGS for FNM. Magic used to be something I only got to do twice a week with people in a shared setting and we’d unroll our playmats, shuffle up our jank, and laugh and generally have a good time for three to four hours. With Magic at my fingertips, Arena is a distillation of efficiency at spell slinging combined with the minor rewards system we’ve come to recognize the free-to-play traps to “encourage” us to play different things. If I want to play 100 matches in a day, all I need to do is sit at my computer long enough. If I want to play my old jank on Arena, I can’t even count on the Casual play channel to help since it’s always filled with people with 55 of the 60 cards that make the best deck learning how to play before they commit the wild cards for the deck.

Zendikar Rising has been a pretty dark point for everyone on Arena I believe. It seems like a lifetime ago that Omnath was printed and that I had immediately cashed in four mythic rare wildcards for the deck I would get to play with on Arena for 2 weeks before Wizards realized their mistake. Honestly before I had started writing this in the week before Kaldheim will hit Arena, I forgot that Omnath was part of the most recent set as all I can remember Zendikar Rising giving us is the extremely irritating Ruin Crab and Soaring Thought Thief. The few locals I had left on my Discaord server when ZNR released had lost interest in Arena since they enjoyed the Ravnica standard that was rotating out and Pioneer was not yet available for Arena. I’ve encouraged nearly everyone I know from my LGS to buy webcams since October given that the current state of the COVID world is not likely to go away and the new culture and channels that have opened up in the world to fill the void of EDH has some level of benefit even when in-person play resumes. Not many people play and I’ll search for an occasional game on the official Discord when the craving strikes. Some of my friends have been taking advantage of the webcam world and started playing older formats with me over webcam such as Pioneer and Modern to rekindle their love for Magic and the hope that we can start playing tournaments over webcam. Finishing up the ZNR mastery passes on my two accounts and my wife’s account has been giving me a much-needed break from Arena and honestly, it’s probably done the most to lift my spirits.

I’ve been taking a lot more time to reflect on why I love Magic and I plan on doing in the future. The first thing I know I’m going to do and stick to is not get a Mastery Pass for mt LGS store’s account. They don’t pay for all the work I put into the one already grinding multiple accounts is not good for my mental well-being. The second thing I know I am going to do is relearn how to have fun in Magic again. Not really hinted at in this article so far is the fact I love the art in Magic and I’m often inspired by my own crazy mind to illustrate my own works or reimagine my favorite cards with my own art. Since the release of Rise of Skywalker, I had been working on a personal project of creating a second expansion to the largely underground Star Wars the Gathering card game and ended up making 200 unique, draftable cards. I wouldn’t call myself an artist because I’m still learning and I don’t necessarily aspire to an artist but I would love to improve my skills and one day make a piece that’s so good someone wants on a card. Over the last two years, I’ve been deeply jealous of how amazing and hard working the Magic cosplayers are and that I should put my art to good use and make my own cosplays. And then there’s the playing of Magic. I miss the Gathering part of Magic. So this brings us to the bedrock of this piece. I hope to continue this blog steadily as time moves forward. I’m rarely ever satisfied or have my attention on any one project for too long but 2021 is a new year. And I hope that the title is a hint to the future. Whatever it is; whether it’s deck construction, art alters, or Magic cosplay, story, general discussion, that’s what I’m here for. It’s the Thrill of what I might work on next and I promise because I’m terrible right now at doing so, I’ll be sure to take pictures and try and stream when I can to keep myself honest about the whole deal. I hope you’ll all join me or at least join the Discord to yell at me.

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princecharmingtobe · 5 years

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So I found out during a one-on-one with the DM today that Cordy, little drowshroom, is fucking traumatized by their fight with Brom.

So, some backstory. Brom was the man who beat and otherwise abused Cordy’s now-boyfriend, Paetyr. He went to prison for life for it, however during the festival that was happening prisoners can enter The Sun Pit, gladiatorial combat where the winner can earn their freedom through exile. And Brom entered. And we were like “Hey, opportunity to legally murder boyfriend’s abuser, sweet.” so we all entered as well.

It was before the fight that we started the figure out something was wrong. Besides just being a general creep to our paladin, an aasimar woman who was from the city and had known him growing up, he also knew what Cordy is. Cordy is The Guardian, current host of a power meant to protect the world. They aren’t a fully developed guardian yet tho. Even Cordy themself only learned a few days ago what they are, from a frickin’ goddess, and she seems to be the only one who knows anything about it so far. Even the other gods were like “Yeah you’ll have to talk to her, we don’t know about that stuff.” So how did this fuckhead cityboy know??? And he kept setting off Cordy’s “This is a threat to the fucking planet” Guardian sense. And then in combat he spoke Abyssal??? Only one player understood, but he said “An enemy of The Guardian is and enemy of the Earth” ???? wtf??? AND THEN he used some power (figured out it’s a reskinned infestation spell) to TURN THEIR SYMBIOTIC FUNGUS AGAINST THEM. Their own fungus, which is now part of their body, briefly tried to eat them! WHAT THE FUCK???? And then after we finally killed him (paladin got the kill) Cordy tried to decompose him, as they do, and some crazy thing was unleashed, TRIED TO INFECT CORDY, and raised all our fallen enemies. And the god-avatars themselves had to tell everyone including us to evacuate and use some god power to destroy whatever the fuck those things were, and one god-avatar died in the process. So after all that happened, the others stayed nearby and immediately ran back into the arena when all was clear. But Cordy.... ran. They were scared and they ran. And they found Paetyr, and held onto him tightly. And with him, they went back to the arena.

Well, it’s been a couple days, and Cordy and Paetyr were talking. Cordy’s been over-protective of him, and he finally called them out on it, and it ended up just coming out that Cordy is still scared. They’re scared of losing him, but also they’re scared of facing more people like Brom. And they’re scared that THAT fear is going to cause them to run away again, and that they won’t have Paetyr there to make them brave.

And the funny thing is... I didn’t know any of this up until it happened. Like, I knew they were shook up, that they’d been scared during he fight and it was their first time feeling fear. But I didn’t really realize that my character was traumatized by it, and STILL afraid. Weird how that works, isn’t it?

#dnd #D&D #dungeons & dragons #Dungeons and Dragons

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darkjanet2 · 3 years

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Drusilla’s Soul Ch. 15 Part 1

Drusilla was tossing and turning in her bed, she was whimpering and moaning in her sleep that she was having a nightmare.

Monstrous Angelus killed her family right in front of her. He tore her Uncle’s intestines and coiled up around his neck and hung it. He was suffocated until he died. He tore her older sister’s dress so that her back was bare. He slit her back with the machete and her spine was revealed and pulled it out. She plopped down the floor dead. Angelus smiled wickedly at her younger sister as she was terrified and tears rolled out of her eyes.

Angelus picked up the bolt cutter from the table and he began to cut her fingers as she was screaming and wailing in agony. Angelus laughed even harder and continued what he was doing. He plunged his hand into her chest and tore her heart out. She died from her last breath.

Lastly, Angelus raped Drusilla’s mother over and over again. She screamed in agony, but he kept going. When he finished, he slit her throat, forcing Drusilla to watch. Drusilla turned her back and refused to watch anymore. She just cried harder and harder. Angelus laughed harder and harder.

At The Convent

Angelus murdered all the nuns, he snapped Mother Teresa’s neck in half and she died instantly. He killed Sister Mary Thomas by breaking her back and neck. She was dead.

And then the beautiful woman, his sire, Darla came in and kissed him. Angelus kissed her back until they heard her whimpering and mumbling. They looked at her, and Angelus decided to sire her. Angelus and Darla were making out on the floor, Dru laughed insanely, and then she cried.

Angelus bit Dru’s neck and fell into darkness.

Drusilla bolted up from her nightmare and she was covered in sweat from her sleep.

‘Oh. It was just a dream.’ thought Drusilla. She wiped her sweat and tears.

Drusilla opened her iPhone X, the screen said it was 4:34 AM. She sighed dreadfully and plopped her head onto the pillow. She couldn’t sleep. She missed her family very much. She needed to get some fresh air.

Drusilla went outside the cruise, the wind blowing breezily and the sound of the ocean waving through the ship. She looked up at the night sky, the night was so young and serene. The full moon shone brighter in the night and the stars were dazzling.

‘Angelus is long gone after I avenged my family’s death.’ thought Drusilla.

“I miss you, Mother, Uncle, Hannah, and Stephaine. Since your death had avenged, you may well rest in peace,” said Drusilla as she walked back to her room.

7:35 AM at Odaiba, Japan

A burgundy-haired boy was snoring loudly. His room was a bit messy, the blind shut as the sun shone dimly through the blind. There were wallpaper soccer players on it.

A small blue creature hopped on a boy’s belly as he was waking him up.

“Davish! Davish! Wake up!” said the creature called DemiVeemon.

A boy named Davis Motomiya groaned as he awoke from his slumber. DeeiVeemon smiled at him.

“Good morning, Davish.”

“Ugh, good morning, DemiVeemon.” groaned Davis glanced at the digital clock. His eyes widened so he was going to be late for school!

“Aah! It’s morning already?! Crap, I’m going to be late for school!” Davis dashed out of his room and went to take a shower. He washed and brushed his teeth. He put on a blue shirt with white and yellow stripes, a pair of brown shorts, blue socks, a navy blue vest, and goggles that Tai had given to him.

A toaster popped up a PopTart, he took the Pop-Tart to his mouth, grabbed a backpack, and finally put on orange boots before he headed out to school.

“Bye, Mom!” he called out to his mother as he ran out to school.

He was running late for school, he had to hurry or he wouldn’t make it. He didn’t want to get tardy.

Davis could see the school building up ahead and he glanced at his watch which was 7:55 AM. He cursed under his breath, he had five minutes left before school started. He stopped by the street traffic and pressed the button, the traffic light would change for a moment.

“C’mon! Change!” said Davis, impatiently pressing the button. The traffic sign changed into a walking sign. Then he quickly ran across the street. And he finally made it! He put his hands on his knees, panting. He glanced at his watch again which was 7:58 AM.

‘Better get to class.’ thought Davis, quickly went inside the school.

Davis made it to class and spotted TK was talking to Kari. He was pretty ticked, but he took a seat.

When a teacher came in, he greeted his students and began to lecture on algebra.

At Basketball Practice

A coach blew a whistle and the boys gathered around.

“Come huddle up, guys,” he called out to his students to gather around him.

“What’s up, coach?” asked Davis.

“We have a game this Friday against a team from out of state,” said Mr. Ueta.

“A team from out of state? Who?” asked TK.

“Someplace called Sunnyville or something,” said Mr. Ueta.

“You mean Sunnydale, coach?” asked TK. and

“Yeah, that’s the place. You heard of it?” he asked.

“I heard it’s a place that had lots of weird occurrences. When will they arrive?” he asked.

"Friday and they will have a tournament with us for the remainder of the weekend to show no hard feelings, win or lose." Mr. Ueta said.

"Ooh, when is the game?" Davis asked, he was interested.

"7:00 pm, they mentioned preparing their hotel reservations and something about a couple of school players having a medical issue with Ultra-Violet Raises." Coach said.

"Okay, Coach,” TK said.

“Now, let’s practice. ‘Cause we’ll start a tournament Friday night,” said Mr. Ueta.

“Sounds fun.” smiled Davis.

“No way! A tournament?” asked the boy.

“We haven’t played a tournament for a while.” said the other boy.

‘A tournament, huh? Well, I can’t wait to meet them.’ thought TK.

At the end of the school, all the kids walked their way home from school. TK wouldn’t forget the gig, he would be there tonight.

“See you at the gig.” TK bid farewell to his friends and walked in the opposite direction.

4:34 PM in Princess Cruise

The Cruise had arrived in Tokyo (Yokohama), Japan at the port. All the passengers were decamping to Tokyo. Drusilla stayed in the shadows to avoid the sunlight, so she ordered an Uber ride so that she had to find a hotel.

Five minutes later, an Uber driver arrived at the port. She got in the car and rode to the hotel. Ten minutes later, an Uber drove to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. It was a quiet tall building. She thanked an Uber driver and gave him a tip.

She walked inside the hotel and greeted the receptionist and asked him if she needed a room. He nodded in affirmative and gave her the keys.

She found room 601 and unlocked the door and she peeked inside. There was a well-made queen bed, nice furniture, a blackout drape, and a Smart TV. She found a way to the bathroom, partially open bathroom, shower/tub combination, slippers, and free toiletries.

‘It’s been 20 days since I rode on that cruise. I need to relax for a while.’ thought Drusilla.

Drusilla made herself comfortable and turned on a TV. She watched a Japanese romantic drama. She called room service to order some wine.

5:52 PM

Drusilla had already showered, she was dressed in a red stretch lace sheath dress, black pantyhose, and black combat boots. She also wore a velvet red choker, lavender eyeshadow, and red lipstick. She brushed her brunette hair. She was ready to go out and explore. She grabbed a velvet red jacket and locked the door.

She strolled down the city which people were strolling along, laughing, and joking. And the couples were holding hands while they were walking. Drusilla frowned; she wished Leon was there, but she still had a mission trip.

Just when a girl appeared in front of her and asked, “Excuse me, miss. Would you like to come to the gig?”

“A gig?” Drusilla asked.

A young girl had pink pigtails, blue eyes, fair skin, she wore a pink and white school uniform, white knee socks, and a black Mary Jane shoe.

“Yeah. A band called Teenage Wolves. Yamato-Kun is awesome! So, I give you this poster.” said a girl who gave this to Drusilla.

Drusilla took a poster, a boy in the middle was a guitarist and a vocal leader had blonde hair. This boy was so young, she could tell.

“The gig will start soon, you won’t be delayed.” said the pink-haired girl.

“Um, okay. Where’s that at?” asked Drusilla.

“It’s across the bay shore. You should take transportation.” she smiled.

“Alright, I’ll go. Thank you,” said Drusilla, waving at the young girl goodbye.

She entered Oimachi station and paid the fare for a ticket. It took 32 minutes to ride the train, and she walked up the stairway. This city was called Odaiba.

‘I wonder where the concert is? This girl told me she invited me to the concert.’ thought Drusilla.

She looked at the address on the poster, she didn’t need to ask them for directions. So she fished out her phone and opened the Apple Maps app and named the address. And then she proceeded walking in the direction.

Dru saw a lot of people lining up to the ticket booth. It was very crowded. She decided to stay in line. She wanted to see Teenage Wolves. A few moments later, she paid for one ticket and entered the arena. She took a seat in the 14th row.

The band grabbed their instruments, loaded them up in the amplifiers, and set up for a soundcheck. Matt peeked out from the curtains, the audience was crowded, he could see TK and their friends. However, his crazy fangirl, Jun, was there. He shuddered, but he shook it off.

“You ok, Matt?” asked the keyboard player.

“Yeah, Jun is here,” said Matt, he was a bit uncomfortable.

"True, but remember unless we work together we can't reach our end goal, Matt." The keyboard player said.

“He’s right. You have to stay focused on the gig. Think about the practice.” said the drummer.

Matt sighed, “Yeah, you’re right. Let the gig begin.”

The lights went out. Red, blue, and purple flashes pulsated through the darkness, following the rhythm of an ominous beat. The curtains parted, thick fog, colored like the rainbow by the light show, streamed over the stage. The LED screens flicker until the illuminated silhouettes of the Teenage Wolves appear.

Matt stood in the spotlight in the middle of the stage with a microphone stand.

"Are you ready to ROCK!" Matt yelled.

The crowd yells "YEAH!"

"We're sorry, we think you can be a little louder than that," Matt said.

"Are you ready to ROCK!" Matt shouted.

The crowd screamed again "YEAHH!"

As Matt smiled the band began to play, the crowd going wild as Matt began to sing......

You've got a boy, you've got a girl,

Sitting underneath a tree

They sit there every day

And even though, you may think

this is the way the things should be,

It may not always be that way

You can't take nothing for granted,

You've gotta live life today

I turn around

and I can see what's behind me,

I turn back around

and I can see what's ahead

And if you don't believe

I'll be here all along,

Just turn around

You wanna get you gotta give

There is no other way to be

So give it a try

If what I say is really so

you gotta let somebody see

You can't just keep it inside

You can't take nothing for granted,

You've gotta live life today

I turn around

and I can see what's behind me,

I turn back around

and I can see what's ahead

And if you don't believe

I'll be here all along,

Just turn around

*instrumental*

The concert started to rumble above the sky, they could feel the ground shaking underneath.

“Aah! What’s going on?!” the guy cried out.

“Was that an earthquake?!” the girl cried.

Drusilla didn’t know what was going on, she tried to figure out where the earthquake came from. A black foot of the dinosaur was stamped on a stage and the band fled. The audience was screaming and running out of the concert. Drusilla had to run without tripping over. There are no locks on the doors or windows and only one route of egress in the case of an emergency.

Drusilla got outside of the concert, she then looked at the giant creature roaring and blasting fire out of its mouth and destroying the buildings.

‘What the hell is that thing?! And how do dinosaurs exist? It doesn’t make sense!” thought Drusilla.

More creatures were flying above the sky, they were dragon-like demons clad in black, with four red eyes, several wings on their back and head, they had long tails, they had buckles on their arms, and tips of red fingers.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” said Drusilla.

#buffythevampireslayer #crossover #tktakaishi #mattishida #digimon adventure #drusilla #vampires

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womenofcolor15 · 4 years

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SPORTS CHAOS: NBA, MLB, NHL Seasons SUSPENDED! Players Self-Quarantine After 2 Jazz Players Are Infected With Coronavirus + Rudy Gobert 'Mocks' Virus Then Tests Positive + Reporters & Players Are PISSED

The Coronavirus has hit the NBA, sending the entire league into chaos and self quarantines and causing it to suspend the rest of the season until further notice. Reporters and teammates are reportedly PISSED at Rudy Gobert. Plus, the MLB & NHL are suspending everything too (for now). Everything inside…

Almost a month before the playoffs, the NBA abruptly suspended ALL games for the rest of the season until further notice after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the Coronavirus.

Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert reportedly tested positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19), which forced the league’s hand in canceling the rest of the season. The league didn't release his name, but sources close to the situation revealed it was him.

"The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of [Wednesday's] schedule of games until further notice,'' the league said in a statement issued shortly after 9:30 pm EST. "The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.''

NBA To Suspend Season Following Tonight's Games pic.twitter.com/2PTx2fkLlW

— NBA (@NBA) March 12, 2020

The Utah Jazz also issued a statement:

Jazz statement pic.twitter.com/HQ13iHPdCr

— Sarah Todd (@NBASarah) March 12, 2020

Just a couple days ago, the league was exploring options of playing game sout with no fans in the arena - only media, personnel and select family members. Most teams were up for this, except for the Knicks who reportedly were ok with keeping things as is - fans and all.

That all changed last night. The league’s complete suspension announcement was made shortly after it postponed a game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder just before tipoff. Right before the game, NBA officials brought Jazz head coach Quin Snyder and Thunder head coach Billy Donovan together at mid-court for a discussion. After the conversation, both teams exited the court.

Check it:

The Jazz-Thunder game has been put on hold.

Rudy Gobert and Emmanuel Mudiay (illness) were late scratches. #NBA pic.twitter.com/1rBzXdb2sM

— One Sports (@OneSportsPHL) March 12, 2020

Here’s a timeline of the events from last night leading up to the league suspending the rest of the season:

This is the timeline of most definitely the weirdest day in NBA History. Ahead of the Jazz-Thunder matchup tonight in OKC, Rudy Gobert and Emmanuel Mudiay were both out for illness. Seconds before the game was supposed to start, the P.A. announcer for the OKC Thunder stated... pic.twitter.com/KFpoN90vth

— combat carl (@combat_carl_1) March 12, 2020

The New Orleans Pelicans' game at the Sacramento Kings was also postponed because one of the referees scheduled to work that game worked Utah's game on Monday.

Rudy & Emmanuel have both been ruled out (illness) for tonight's game.

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 11, 2020

Before Rudy tested positive for the virus, the Jazz announced he and Emmanuel Mudiay had been ruled out for “illness.” Right now, it’s unclear if Emmanuel has Coronavirus.

Jazz guard Emmanuel Mudiay was also taken to the hospital to get tested for the coronavirus, some reports say his results came back positive as well but the NBA hasn’t made it official yet. Jazz players were told to self-quarantine after tonight’s game against OKC was postponed. https://t.co/y10Ji4pKiF

— Francis Argueta (@francisnewyork) March 12, 2020

It’s alleged Rudy was being “careless” in the locker room by touching other players and their belongings.

Jazz player Donovan Mitchell has also tested positive for the Coronavirus, sources told ESPN.

Jazz star Donovan Mitchell has tested positive for the coronavirus, league sources tell ESPN. Jazz players privately say that Rudy Gobert had been careless in the locker room touching other players and their belongings. Now a Jazz teammate has tested positive.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 12, 2020

He posted a message on IG to thank everyone for their prayers and concern:

View this post on Instagram

Thanks to everyone who has been reaching out since hearing the news about my positive test. We are all learning more about the seriousness of this situation and hopefully people can continue to educate themselves and realize that they need to behave responsibly both for their own health and for the well being of those around them. I appreciate the authorities in Oklahoma who were helpful with the testing process and everyone from the @utahjazz who have been so supportive. I am going to keep following the advice of our medical staff and hope that we can all come together and be there for each other and our neighbors who need our help

A post shared by Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) on Mar 12, 2020 at 10:20am PDT

Days before Rudy was diagnosed with the virus, he was caught on camera rubbing his hands all over the microphones. Peep the clip below:

Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz thought the NBA precautions were a joke — so he touched everything in the room.

He tested positive for coronavirus today & now the whole NBA is shut down. pic.twitter.com/Gdcw3WZYjj

— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) March 12, 2020

Rudy Gobert didn’t travel to another country in the last couple weeks.

He got coronavirus from someone else around him.

Which means probably a lot of people have it around him.

A Europe travel ban won’t stop the pandemic in America. It’s already here.

— Grant Liffmann (@GrantLiffmann) March 12, 2020

Folks online feel like it’s Rudy catching the virus is his karma for mocking the virus. However, reporters in the room see the situation differently. One reporter said he felt Rudy's gesture was in support of the media:

On the Rudy Gobert microphone incident: at the time, I actually took it as a measure of support for the media. We were being told to keep 6-8 feet away from them on the assumption that we might infect a player. I thought it was Rudy thumbing his nose at the separation between us.

— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 12, 2020

It was obviously reckless, but heck, nearly everyone I know has made a coronavirus distance joke at some point this week.

— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 12, 2020

It's scary to think how the virus could have spread throughout the NBA these last few days. Peep the chart below:

All 30 NBA teams can be connected in just the last 5 days.

The NBA made the right decision to suspend this season. pic.twitter.com/jUy3X5zwTj

— StatMuse (@statmuse) March 12, 2020

At least five NBA teams have reportedly been told to self-quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps. The Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are the five teams who played the Utah Jazz within the past 10 days.

And don't forget the referees who have worked Jazz games over the past week and gone on to officiate other games. Yikes.

One reporter who was in the room with Rudy during his conference - Sarah Todd - has been vocal on Twitter regarding how the league has been handling them after news of the virus. She tweeted that no no officials came to speak with them in the beginning and they could have just walked out of the arena if they wanted to instead of self quarantining themselves. Eventually, league officials came to have them tested.

Peep her tweets below (read from the bottom up)

Several NBA players have reacted to the news, including LeBron James, Steph Curry and more:

Man we cancelling sporting events, school, office work, etc etc. What we really need to cancel is 2020!. Damn it’s been a rough 3 months. God bless and stay safe

— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 12, 2020

2020 aint it. Don't know what to compare this situation to…just gotta buckle up and take care of yourself and those around you. Basketball will be back at some point but right now, protect yourself and stay safe out there!

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) March 12, 2020

Man... This stuff crazy... Praying for EVERYBODY in this tough time

— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) March 12, 2020

Space Jam all over again

— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) March 12, 2020

Lol what a fitting way to end the season... #CouldBeTheCasaAzulTalking

— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) March 12, 2020

wow bro wow

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) March 12, 2020

Such a weird night but I am truly thankful for each and every person during this 22yr journey. If this is really it, I thank everyone for your love and support for all these years. B E Z

— Vince Carter (@mrvincecarter15) March 12, 2020

So much going on in 2020 already. Feels like a different world..

— Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) March 12, 2020

If you’re gonna take precaution, if any. Take all precautions

— Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) March 12, 2020

In the midst of everything. LETS CELEBRATE VINCE CARTER!!!! We don’t know what the future holds buts let’s give him his flowers and applause tonight!!!! Well done champ

— Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) March 12, 2020

Wow

— Zach LaVine (@ZachLaVine) March 12, 2020

pic.twitter.com/3T3VRF3R7S

— Fred Hoiberg (@CoachHoiberg) March 12, 2020

Also...

Fred Hoiberg who is coaching the game while fighting an illness just left the court with several minutes remaining in the game. Hope he’s ok. pic.twitter.com/hBwjl9dQ31

— Chris Hassel (@Hassel_Chris) March 12, 2020

Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg didn't look too good on the sidelines and ended up being taken to the hospital after the Cornhuskers' season-ending loss last night.

After being released, he hopped on Twitter and said he would not have been on the bench if he knew his presence could expose others to illness. He was diagnosed with influenza following Nebraska's 89-64 loss to Indiana, noting he had been cleared to coach the game.

pic.twitter.com/3T3VRF3R7S

— Fred Hoiberg (@CoachHoiberg) March 12, 2020

It was also just announced this afternoon that Major League Baseball is expected to suspend operations, including spring training. According to CBS Sports:

"The start of the regular season will also likely be delayed. The decision comes after the league's owners discussed plans on a conference call Thursday afternoon and just days after MLB had been reportedly investigating potential contingency plans, including playing games outside of their scheduled markets and playing them in front of empty stadiums."

Wow.

The National Hockey League is following suit, and is postponing their regular season until further notice.

The NHL pauses the 2019-20 season. pic.twitter.com/bCi776ZFqX

— NHL (@NHL) March 12, 2020

The CDC has some simple recommendations to help prevent yourself from contracting the COVID-19 virus:

Clean your hands often

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.

If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

Avoid close contact

Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Put distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community. This is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting very sick.

Stay home if you’re sick

Stay home if you are sick, except to get medical care. Learn what to do if you are sick.

Cover coughs and sneezes

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow.

Throw used tissues in the trash.

Immediately wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, clean your hands with a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

Wear a facemask *if you are sick*

If you are sick: You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then you should do your best to cover your coughs and sneezes, and people who are caring for you should wear a facemask if they enter your room. Learn what to do if you are sick.

If you are NOT sick: You do not need to wear a facemask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a facemask). Facemasks may be in short supply and they should be saved for caregivers.

Clean and disinfect

Clean AND disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. This includes tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks.

If surfaces are dirty, clean them: Use detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection.

Be safe everyone.

EXTRAS:

1. Princess Cruises suspends voyages for two months after two coronavirus outbreaks. STORY

2. Viking Cruises suspends sailings through April 30th. STORY

Photos: Getty

A SERIOUS MATTER: YBF CELEBS PREPARING FOR CORONAVIRUS!

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/03/12/nba-season-suspended-players-told-to-self-quarantine-after-two-players-infected-with-coro

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terryblount · 5 years

Text

God Eater 3 Review: Low Effort Manic Monster Munchin’

I’d never played a God Eater before this third entry. I’d seen them on Steam, but they were all low-quality handheld console ports. Yuck! Finally, with God Eater 3, we have an entry developed for PC claiming high-quality visuals, fast-paced combat, and a serious story!

As someone who put 100+ hours into Monster Hunter World last year, I loved the idea of getting another dose of monster hunting fun, but does God Eater 3 deliver? Absolutely on the combat side; not really on the ‘everything else’ side. Let’s dive in.

Last Gen Called; It Wants Its Visuals Back

Let’s begin with the bad. God Eater 3 looks and feels like a last-gen game. I could have sworn this was a port from a 2012 or so PS3 game because it feels like the developers accidentally built the game for last-gen hardware specs.

Some scenes have decent graphics in still images, but the in-game details are quite poor.

This low fidelity feeling is especially unfortunate considering the series’ chief competitor delivered a next-gen visual showcase with 2018’s Monster Hunter World. Whoops!

Outdated & Repetitive Content

Apart from lacking visuals, the game’s content feels outdated, too. There’s only a handful of actual game environments. These are nothing more than glorified arenas without any creative twists or clever layouts. Again, this feels so much like the developers thought they were working with PS3 era memory limitations and crafted functional but boringly basic level designs.

Yes, this is an entire arena…a couple hallways and rooms.

God Eater 3 reminds me of Dragon Age 2. Anyone remember that game? It had a handful of lame arenas you’d play over and over again on a supposedly epic quest. God Eater 3 is exactly like this.

Time and time again the game will excitedly exclaim, “Look, an epic battle awaits!” What actually loads is the same exact arena you’ve played 20+ times. Seriously? Low effort!

This location is pretty cool…but I’ve seen it dozens and dozens of times.

Attempted Grand Story; Totally Tiny Presentation

The same lack of developer effort goes for the story. The game, to its credit, attempts to tell a proper story, with ups and downs, character growth, and emotional weightiness. The game even delves into some quite dark subject matters like human rights, indentured servitude, and outright slavery.

Everybody get in their places and pose for the camera, please!

I do think at the core of God Eater 3 is an appealing story of friendship and freedom that’s worth hearing out. Sure, the dialogue is all very basic and there’s no true exploration of the game’s serious themes. But at least there’s an attempt to build a logical, thought-provoking story and world. Kudos for that.

Sadly, God Eater 3 succumbs to the all-too-common low-budget storytelling pitfalls of tell, tell, tell and show basically nothing. The game ostensibly plays out across a fictional version of Europe, but it feels like a film shot in just a few set locations.

It’s almost laughable how many scenes involve your team standing dramatically across the same backdrops over and over despite supposedly traveling to all these grand locales.

There’s a big world map for the story, but there’s actually very few in-game environments.

This lack of quality presentation kills much of the story’s momentum. If you tell me there’s an epic battle before me, you need to show me an epic battle. If you say something really matters, you’d better not totally forget about it fifteen seconds after the cutscene ends. It feels…low effort!

Here’s a nice tea time cutscene. Too bad these events don’t get expanded upon…

Despite my misgivings, by the end I did care about the story and had grown fond of my ragtag group of former prisoners and oppressed people. I genuinely cared about building a future filled with freedom and peace for my friends. Moreover, the game’s got a very strong ending and nice epilogue.

Only one with the power to resonate may pilot this ship. Thankfully, I can resonate…engage!

The Gameplay Flow

This is the flow of the entire game: load into the tiny mission hub, listen to serious talk, accept an important mission, manage your gear, warp to a tiny arena, engage in a manic brawl, get your loot, maybe see a cutscene, and then get dumped ingloriously back at the tiny mission hub to repeat. It’s not terrible… just simplistic.

Ash Crawler Chrysanthemum: Home, Sweet Home

In regard to the mission hub, most of the between-mission gameplay takes place on your own mobile base, known as an Ash Crawler. There’s real Mass Effect vibes in how you can walk around and explore your crew’s living spaces, talking with them about recent events.

However, the quality of Mass Effect isn’t present. Most of the crew banter is very basic and not voiced, and there’s not much payoff for exploring your tiny base. Low effort base design, basically.

Chatting with some of my crew, discussing philosophy.

Even more unfortunately, often the game forces you to talk to specific people at your base before you can proceed on your next story mission. It would have been nice to have some marker telling you where they’re at instead of wandering around until you find them. A minor annoyance, though, since your base is quite small.

Hyper-Combat Mania!

So far I’ve given you a bunch of reasons to not play God Eater 3, but now it’s time to get to the game’s saving grace. Yes, God Eater 3 redeems itself thanks to its wild and epic combat!

I told you the combat is manic! See me doing some crazy flip while lights flash everywhere?!

Battles in God Eater 3 have a chaotic ultra-frenzied fever dream feel to them. Yes indeed, this game has brilliantly mad fighting. So fast, so furious. Monster Hunter World looks like a slow-motion creaking antique compared to God Eater 3’s hip, stylish, and light-speed stabby-slashy-crushy mayhem!

God Eater 3 versus Monster Hunter World feels very much like Sonic versus Mario from back in the day. On one side you have the meticulously polished Mario and Monster Hunter, but what Sonic and God Eater lack in quality they make up for with a cool and confident “gotta go fast” attitude!

I think I’m winning…wait: is that my lightning or the enemies? Oh well, keep smashing!

God Eater 3 will have you rushing, flipping, slashing, bursting, and linking at break-neck speeds. Jump, double-jump, zoom across the screen, panic as you flip through your items while two gigantic beasties rip you to shreds. The poor camera finds itself dragged about, bewildered, and woefully inadequate, but when combat is this crazy, you just go with it!

Thanks to the incredible versatility of the combat systems, there’s an unexpectedly addicting rush from one combat encounter to the next. A large part of the appeal comes from the countless ways to improve your play and try new things to go faster and kill better next time around.

You can break parts of the monsters for loot and fun! Pretty orange monster part particles!

Combat Gear & Fancy Moves

What makes combat so diverse? Let’s start with the fact you get both a main weapon and a ranged weapon, unlike Monster Hunter World. You also get to pick a shield type. Then you get to select dozens of unique Arts. Those Arts can be augmented and leveled up. And all your gear can have Skills (the equivalent of Monster Hunter World’s Jewels) installed on them.

Naturally, you can also craft and upgrade your gear using monster parts. There’s numerous upgrade trees and paths for each weapon, just like Monster Hunter. Then there’s the four elements, allowing you to have weapons on hand for every monster murdering occasion.

You get a lot of strange loot from each mission. It’s all a bit confusing at first.

Beyond your gear itself, there’s many more combat moves than you’ll find in Monster Hunter World. You’ll be side-stepping, lunging, and performing crazy aerial combat that feels very much like the Devil may Cry series, interestingly enough.

To put it another way, if you enjoyed the freedom of movement of Monster Hunter World’s semi-flying Insect Glaive weapon (my personal weapon of choice), this is what every weapon can feel like in God Eater 3. When you can quickly fly around the combat space, why ever go back to boring attacks on your feet? Ponder that one!

Here’s one of the nicest looking locations. I enjoy zooming around and seeing the sights.

It’s All About Speed-Eating Delicious Gods!

In God Eater 3 we’re all about eating (called devouring) gods (big monsters), and I choose to believe God Eater 3 is called such because it does the god eating three times as fast as other games!

Everything is designed to get you into combat as quick as possible. You can get a mission, get in the arena, and get to fighting within a minute of loading the game, which makes this game perfect for quick-fix gaming.

Load the game up, start devouring monsters, and do it all over again as fast as possible!

What also cuts down on the tedium this genre is often know for is the removal of all that boring hunting for monsters so common in that one series…what’s it called…oh yeah, Monster Hunter. Basically, God Eater 3 serves up the monsters right in front of you, so get devouring!

The combat does have some issues. Many monsters fly about the arena at too-fast speeds with annoying area of effect attacks that often cancel your commands. The targeting system is wonky, and the camera doesn’t help much either. Sometimes combat does devolve into button mashing, but skilled players will learn how to deftly deal with even the most seemingly unbalanced encounters.

So Many Confusing Systems

Another problematic element with the game overall is the over-implementation of strangely worded gameplay systems. You’ve got Burst Arts, Burst Arts Effects, Engage Mode, Link Bursts, Acceleration Triggers, Charge/Quick/Air Devours, and a bunch more systems. It took me a good 10 to 15 hours to finally come to grips with what in the world the game was babbling on about in regard to all this.

There’s a lot of gear to equip and terms to study. (Yes, my weapon is called “King Baboon.”)

Music & Sound

There’s some standout music tracks in God Eater 3. You know the problem with them? Here’s a hint: it’s the same problem with all the content in the game. Yep, repetition. The excellent tracks get played over and over for every emotional or victorious story scene. There’s just not enough variety.

Sound design is minimal. Like most of the development, the game gives you just enough sound effects during combat to make things feel semi-powerful, but there’s almost no environmental audio touches. Cutscene audio has the basic stuff like footsteps, clinks of swords, and bangs of bullets, but that’s about it. Passable but not passionate (the effort…it was low).

One of the many short cutscenes between battles. Clinky clank!

Smart AI Teammates & Multiplayer

One of God Eater 3’s best features is your actually intelligent AI teammates! Perhaps the developers didn’t get the memo: AI teammates are supposed to be stupid and infuriating, duh! Yet somehow this game never once frustrated me with dumb AI. If I was downed in battle, my AI teammates would always rush to rescue me.

Throughout the entire game my companions would heal me, buff me, and help me in every single battle. They’re even powerful and capable of killing many monsters by themselves. Any Monster Hunter World player will tell you your companion AI in that game is infuriatingly stupid, so score a huge point for God Eater 3! Massive kudos to the developers!

We’re all being very serious here…meditating on how best to devour more gods.

Besides AI teammates, you are able to engage in either story-based multiplayer missions or larger 8-player “assault” missions with matchmaking (AI will fill the empty slots, thankfully). Honestly, most people will want to play this game solo since the game already features robust AI teammates. But if you’ve got a good friend to play with, that’s always fun of course!

Technical Performance

On the bright side, this game runs like a champ. It was rock solid for me, with nearly perfect framerates. This is expected given the very dated visuals and lack of complicated rendering techniques, but it’s nice all the same to have a game run very well. So kudos to the developers for delivering a quality PC game with acceptable customization options.

Difficulty & Controls

You’ll probably find the game to be pretty easy if you’re an action game aficionado. I never once in my entire playthrough wiped (had to restart a mission). You get ranked for how efficiently you complete missions, and I probably triple-S ranked (the top rank) about 75% of the missions on my first try.

Just getting another SSS rank in 5 minutes or less. It’s pretty easy, really.

Granted, I’m a serious fan of the Devil may Cry style genre that God Eater 3 borrows heavily from, but I was surprised at the ease of progression compared to Monster Hunter World. In that game I wiped many, many times, so in a way God Eater 3 was a nice change of pace. I liked being able to breeze through the game without worrying about all the micro-management of items and gear, like in most Monster Hunter games.

The game is definitely designed for a controller. The mouse movement is very sensitive, and there’s far too many weird button combinations to make keyboard usage very friendly. Even the default bindings on the controller are a bit weird. Thankfully you can rebind just about everything. I’d recommend changing the guard button to something much less obnoxious.

Dude, Where’s the Armor?!

One very lacking element in God Eater 3 is armor crafting. In fact, there is zero armor crafting. There’s zero armor at all, to be precise. There is optional cosmetic clothing crafting, but these top/bottom items are a bit boring (realistic jackets, tank tops, cargo pants). It’s like you’re shopping at some trendy shopping mall…what is this?

Do you like my raincoat and oddly-taped cargo pants? I got them on sale!

The armor department is yet another way God Eater 3 proves how woefully deficient it is compared to Monster Hunter World. Where are all the awesome looking armor sets to prove how much of an elite hunter I am? Oh…I guess the developers couldn’t be bothered to implement all that…what’s the term I’m look for here? Oh yes, low effort!

Warning: Scantily Clad Girls & Large Breasts

Yes, God Eater 3 continues the dubious anime stereotype of scantily clad girls and jiggly boobs because clearly breast physics is an important development priority over more battle locations or monster armors, right? Methinks they’re pandering to the sexualized anime crowd.

Then there’s the captain of your ship, Hilda. She’s a very strong and smart and capable woman with great voice acting and good writing. Hilda’s basically classy and awesome, but the developers gave her enormous scantily clad breasts for some reason.

Hilda is an excellent character, but her visual design egregiously clashes with her persona.

To add insult to gravity-injury, they didn’t even give her a bra…and put her in an almost bursting top. Seriously, her breasts are so large she may need breast reduction surgery. A lot of people don’t realize the very serious health problems that come along with being in the extreme end of the breast-size bell curve. Maybe God Eater 3 is trying to raise awareness of the issue? Yeah…I’m sure that’s it…

Concluding: God Eater 3’s Target Audience?

God Eater 3 is the perfect case for discounted games. The developers have chosen to give us a content-limited, low effort version of a Monster Hunter game. All told it only took a little less than 30 hours to finish every mission and obtain the highest rank gear. That’s lightning-quick compared to other games in the genre.

Besides all that, they haven’t even reached current day graphical standards. Plus they reuse the same arenas and monsters over and over. Yet they have the audacity to charge full price. Nope!

You’ll be seeing a lot of monsters up close and personal. Over and over.

However, many Monster Hunter fans will absolutely love the ultra-fast change-of-pace from the more plodding and tedious Monster Hunter World. There’s a real scrappy charm to this sort of budget monster hunting experience. It’s a bit of a palette cleanser, letting you chomp up and devour a few gods here and there before returning to the real-deal Monster Hunter World experience.

The Final God-Eating Verdict

God Eater 3 is very much a guilty pleasure sort of game. I really did love playing it, even though the whole time I fully recognized how lacking and lackluster many of the elements are. There’s fun to be had here, and the story is compelling enough that I kept dreaming of what could have been if the developers had put as much energy into this game as Capcom put into Monster Hunter World.

I just devoured this god known as Anubis. He was quite delicious. Next!

When its rival series can deliver a full-fledged modern-generation, immerse evolution of the series, God Eater 3 is simply too limited, too aging, and too stuck in the past to compete. It’s a darn shame, too, because what the genre really needs is a merging of Monster Hunter World’s quality and expansiveness with God Eater 3’s story-building and hyper-fun combat.

Once God Eater 3 goes on sale for 75% off or so, then I’d say it’s a real value and worth your time. For now, it’s probably best to avoid paying such a high price for such a low effort production.

Addictive, manic combat

Smart, helpful AI teammates

Colorful cast of characters

Comfortable mission grind

So many weapons and skills

Lengthy story, many missions

Strong ending, nice epilogue

Technically solid, runs great

A scrappy charm to it all

Very repetitive gameplay

Not enough diverse locales

Locations are basic arenas

Every mission is the same

Lacks armor crafting

Reuses enemies too often

World needs show, not tell

Outdated visuals and design

Sexualized anime stuff

Playtime: 28 hours total. Nick blazed through the main story and every optional mission in 24 hours (not nonstop!). Another 4 hours was spent farming for the best end-game gear. And that was that!

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using an Intel i7-3930k CPU, 32GB of memory, and a nVidia GTX 980 Ti graphics card.

Also read the God Eater 3 PC Performance Analysis.

God Eater 3 Review: Low Effort Manic Monster Munchin’ published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years

Text

The US national team's "bat out of hell," Cle Kooiman flies toward fate

Enforcer. Hard man. Bad boy. Mala leche, in the words of some in the Mexican media. “His nickname was Cujo,” says LA Galaxy boss Sigi Schmid, referring to the 1983 Stephen King horror novel about a demented dog.

Former US national team defender Cle Kooiman, whom Schmid coached as an assistant at the 1994 World Cup, brought a wild-eyed glare and fu-manchu mustache to the field, capped by that distinctive shock of tightly-curled, beach-blond hair, often cut into a deeply-’90s mullet. There was no mistaking the Ontario, California native. Kooiman’s kamikaze playing style earned him 12 US caps and unlikely stardom in Liga MX.

“He was – loud isn’t really the right word,” Schmid told MLSsoccer.com. “He was confident, and you knew when he was in the room. I thought he was fun to be around because he was always upbeat, always like, ‘OK, today’s a good day, what are we going to do now?’”

That force of personality is being challenged.

Cle Kooiman has cancer.

He’s been diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of prostate cancer (Gleason score: 9), which necessitated surgery earlier this year to remove his prostate, as well as adjoining tissue and lymph nodes that had been attacked by the rapidly-growing adenocarcinoma.

Courtesy of Cle Kooiman

That’s been accompanied by hormone therapy, a heavy regimen of other medications and drastic changes to his diet to drop weight and improve his body’s ability to fight off this intruder. In a few months, he’ll begin an eight-week stint of radiation therapy.

“Last night my son Cody, who is 4, while helping me take my night pills, asked me if heaven was a good place and if I was going there tomorrow,” he says. “Oh man, tears started running down my cheeks. I told him I will be going there, but not yet. I said I still have way too much love to give him before I go.”

His doctors have given him a prognosis of three to five years.

“I am high-risk and the cancer was out of the bag, so to speak, meaning out of the prostate and in the lymph system,” Kooiman explains.

“My type of cancer loves to grow and divide by eating testosterone,” he says. “In essence we are trying to starve the cancer cells. The problem is that my type of cancer is a smart little [expletive] and will figure out a way to make its own testosterone in its own cell. Pretty crazy, right?”

One of US soccer’s modern pioneers now finds himself staring at his own mortality, confronted by doubt, painful side effects from his treatments and astronomical medical bills, eager to put up the best fight he can and squeeze the most out of the time he has.

The burden can feel tremendous – for the self, for the family. Each day brings different pressures, different challenges, from the crucial monotony of a paperwork avalanche and navigating insurance problems to sifting through the Internet and human-suggestion knowledge bases for something, anything that might help.

“When I first found out I didn’t want to tell anyone, which is usually what I do with heavy issues in my life. I just usually eat the issue myself and move forward, which I’m sure most people do? Hmmmm, maybe that’s how my cancer really started,” he says, tongue well in cheek.

“I need people to understand this and us (people who have cancer): Look, it’s not contagious. I’m not contagious. We just need some extra prayers and love. Our immune system failed for a multitude of reasons,” he continues. “Who knows? We live in a world that has additives everywhere and no nourishment. Again, something has failed in our bodies to combat this thing and we just need from you is understanding, love and compassion.”

At the 1994 World Cup, Kooiman (Back row; 2nd from left) teamed with Alexi Lalas on the backline. | Courtesy of Cle Kooiman

Cle Kooiman’s body took him south of the border, initially to Cobras de Ciudad Juarez and then on to Cruz Azul and Moreila (before an MLS coda with Tampa Bay and Miami), at a time before Liga MX had hit the soccer mainstream stateside. That body once led a reporter to write “Kooiman looks more like a character from the James Caan film Rollerball than a soccer player” and it propelled him toward becoming the first US citizen to captain a team in Mexico.

At 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, the strapping defender and avid surfer made sure opponents remembered who he was, from the opening whistle. LA Galaxy assistant coach Dominic Kinnear both played against and alongside Kooiman, and told MLSsoccer.com that “you always knew you were up for a tough game when you were playing against him.” Kinnear says off the ball, Kooiman would remind opponents he was tracking them with a hand or a hit, but off the field was “a nice guy.”

Former USMNT backline teammate Alexi Lalas puts it this way: “Just a bat out of hell on the field in terms of the tackles, in terms of the way he talked to people, in terms of the things he did. He was a badass. And yet he was a kind and gentle giant off the field – and he still is.”

A father to two young children, Kooiman has also mentored hundreds of teenage soccer players over the years as a coach and director of coaching at Inland Empire Surf, a SoCal youth club where his teams have won national championships and helped kids advance to college careers.

“My favorite thing about coaching is a team playing a wonderful style of soccer, and my passion is truly helping a player who comes to us and turning that player into a college prospect,” he says. “I feel like I am a fixer, taking weaknesses of juniors and seniors and helping that player fix that piece of their game, whether it’s a mental, physical, technical or tactical issue or issues.”

[embedded content]

He’s most proud of the PACE (Players Academic Club of Excellence) program, which recognizes and rewards players who attain a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher, driving home the importance of academic success for both soccer and life.

Kooiman cites the stats, that in the past year they sent 51 kids to college from their community, which he describes as one of the state’s hardest hit on the socio-economic spectrum, where education takes a backseat to a difficult life. They work to inspire understanding of a degree’s potential to help backstop an injury-shortened sports career.

Colleagues and friends at IE Surf have organized a fundraiser for the Kooiman family’s expenses, and a fitting one: On June 1 MASL indoor team Ontario Fury will host a USA vs. Mexico exhibition match at Citizens Business Bank Arena, with 50 percent of the proceeds going towards his medical fund. (You can buy tickets or opt to donate directly.)

Wishing former Arena Soccer Star & USMNT Player Cle Kooiman a speedy recovery! Proceeds from tickets using link below for USA/Mexico June 1st in Ontario will help Cle & his family..call 909-457-0252 mention Cle when ordering! Or purchase online at https://t.co/32sXbTjzJw pic.twitter.com/Y2Gd29t74h

— American Association of Soccer 567 (@usasoccer567) May 15, 2018

“Everything to do with cancer is expensive,” says Cle. “The costs, to be frank, exceed anything that I was prepared for financially. We have had to cut many corners already and are managing, but it’s a heavy burden which I imagine all families who have been hit with someone in this exclusive – but not so exclusive – “C club” have felt. I find that people just don’t talk about it, and maybe feel ashamed or scared of what people may feel or think about them.”

It seems clear that the same things that made Kooiman a US soccer pioneer decades ago are powering his fight against cancer today.

“He represented this mammoth type of personality and physique,” says Lalas. “He’s approaching it with the same type of intensity and passion that he’s approached everything in life, and I think that will serve him well in what is obviously a difficult time and a big fight for him.”

Kooiman continues to handle his DOC work and coach two teams at IE Surf – “I can go about three hours straight on a good day” of coaching, he says – and has dived headlong into a range of health and lifestyle changes to improve his chances of survival. He’s already lost 33 pounds since his diagnosis.

“I have a ton of favorite stories,” he said of his life in coaching, “but the few that really stand out are the big ones which, through discipline, hard word, focus and commitment, we come from behind to win a big one: a state, regional, or national championship when everything is on the line, which needless to say is where I am now.

“I need to come from behind and find a way to win, even if it’s just time we are talking about. Time to be with my family and time to watch my kids grow up. Time seems to be the biggest hurdle and I’m going to squeeze every last second from the reaper.”

Courtesy of Cle Kooiman

MLSsoccer.com News

The US national team's “bat out of hell,” Cle Kooiman flies toward fate was originally published on 365 Football

#fate #flies #he’ll #Kooiman #national #team&039s #toward

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askgamerluna-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on InternaContent

New Post has been published on http://www.internacontent.com/cats-crash-arena-turbo-stars-cheat-hack-online-gems/

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webpostingpro-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Webpostingpro

New Post has been published on https://webpostingpro.com/nba-playoffs-2017-how-the-bucks-other-rookie-changed-game-1-against-raptors/

NBA Playoffs 2017: How the Bucks' other rookie changed Game 1 against Raptors

The Milwaukee Dollars trailed the Toronto Raptors 51-forty six at halftime on Saturday, however it have become clear early inside the third sector that they had been now not going to head down without a combat. Spurred on by using an not likely hero, they held the Raptors’ elite offense to 32 points on 20 percent taking pictures inside the 2nd half, taking a 1-0 lead in the series with a 97-eighty three victory.

Heading into the playoffs, Bucks rookie Thon Maker’s function turned into an open query

He ended the season as their beginning middle, but in lots of the one’s video games he changed into a starter in name most effective: he’d play the primary six minutes or so of every half of, and that become it. Before Game 1, Milwaukee educates Jason Kidd told journalists he wasn’t concerned approximately beginning two newbies — Maker and Rookie of the Year candidate Malcolm Brogdon — and, later on, it regarded stupid that this becomes even a query.

Milwaukee’s run started whilst Toronto protects Kyle Lowry drove to the basket less than minutes into the 0.33 area. He used a display screen from Jonas Valanciunas, however Maker stayed with him all of the ways to the basket and used his 7-foot-3 wingspan to swat it away. This started a fast wreck that ended with the not possible-in-transition Giannis Antetokounmpo making a layup.

Some possessions later, the Raptors made a mistake of supporting off of Maker on a force. Despite in no way having performed on a level like this, he showed no hesitation whilst creating a midrange jumper. He needs to have that self-belief: already, he is one in every of Milwaukee’s satisfactory shooters.

Pre Playoffs 2013 and Outlook for Next Season

What a surprise – the remaining suit occurred to be the vital spot in the season 2012/2013; that time the opponent grew to become out to be the champion of remaining season, the Eisbären Berlin. This changed into a difficult group to overcome for the Tigers, in view that most effective a victory should have led to acquiring rank ten, which was the prerequisite for the pre-playoff video games. Another time, my older son, Tobias became part of this historic triumph, similar to the year earlier than, when we have been tales of the implausible victory versus Adler Mannheim resulting in the direct participation of the playoffs.

This exciting sport against the reliable champion of 2012 changed into

Extraordinarily thrilling, but the Tigers carried out sensationally nicely, preserving the top players far away from their goalie or even scoring six instances whereas the protection only allowed two dreams which were pretty outstanding in this case. If the Tigers had scored one extra aim, the Eisbären Berlin would not have even obtained the proper to play their first sport at domestic; besides they were lucky that way.

Overdue afternoon, the gang inside the stadium become astounded once more having performed the pre playoffs this season. Who has to have been the crew to be overwhelmed that time? Soon it became clear, that the Augsburg Panthers had been the opponent.

Sooner or later, I used to be proper to overlook about all the ones different games earlier than and start out at zero – besides, it becomes apparent that the Tigers had to play their satisfactory hockey.

First of all, the Tigers needed to head to Augsburg; almost 6,500 crazy spectators accompanied this sport, a huge fan network of Straubing changed into in amidst this crowd of passionate people. Ultimately, after the second overtime which basically lasted approximately 20 minutes, the Tigers set the fortunate punch and lead 1: zero within the collection.

Then, I attempted to understand a treasured price tag for the subsequent home game taking region days later on the Pulverturm, while I was followed with the aid of a near friend who had already killed lots of pretty emotional games.

In fact, we were a part of an incredible recreation of my liked Tigers

They were intensively cheered via nearly 6,000 fanatics. Subsequently, we gained 4:1 and reached the quarterfinals versus the sharks of Cologne, whose head educate Uwe Krupp became no longer too glad approximately this constellation.

It goes without announcing that I attempted to get each ticket for the house video games which changed into now not easy in any case. considering the fact that Cologne received the primary fit pretty easy with a 6:1 victory the Tigers had to chunk again Soon. Their first domestic game turned into an actual spotlight once more because our gamers controlled to beat the sharks 5:2. At that second, the whole lot changed into possible again and also you constantly firmly accept as true with for your team besides.

Next match in the big Lanxess arena changed into proven on Television and i watched it, there was absolute confidence.

Why Biomass Energy Is Better Than Other Types of Renewable Energy

There are many special kinds of “green” or renewable power available these days and those are usually searching out greater energy-green resources of green strength as the concern about global warming and greenhouse gases involves the vanguard. For those trying to break out dependence on overseas oil and for those inquisitive about decreasing their impact on the earth, one sort of power stands out many of the rest: biomass strength.

Biomass strength is electricity derived from natural materials, usually waste substances.

Biomass power is, of direction, not the only sort of green or renewable strength that exists in the marketplace. Other famous alternatives consist of sun strength and wind electricity. But, while these Other alternatives get a number of attention within the media, biomass is substantially higher than these picks for numerous exclusive motives:

* Biomass enables preserve waste out of landfills. even as solar electricity makes use of the energy of the solar and wind energy harnesses the wind, biomass power makes use of natural waste merchandise to create electricity. About 70 percent of the waste merchandise disposed of in landfills in the Usa include biomass and plenty of organizations produce a good sized quantity of biomass that provides to this number each day. Biomass continues the waste out of landfills and harnesses it into something useful.

* Biomass strength has a totally long music record of achievement. Biomass power has been used in a few shape or another since the days of the caveman burning wooden for fireplace. Biomass isn’t always a brand new generation or a passing fancy however is as a substitute a long-set up supply of strength.

* Biomass strength is a very dependable supply of energy.

You aren’t dependent upon the solar to polish or on the wind to blow for you to use biomass. This indicates it can be utilized in extra places and through extra human beings in a completely dependable manner and bring the power necessary for plenty exceptional applications. Many people are reluctant to switch to solar or wind power because of troubles with regular electricity being to be had but this worry is removed while you make use of biomass. In truth, some agencies produce sufficient biomass waste to offer all that they need for his or her energy production without relying on a third-celebration provider, increasing reliability even further seeing that there is usually a equipped source of biomass.

* Biomass power would not require a wholly new machine or system to paintings. With co-firing, you can use your present boilers and use biomass in conjunction with coal so one can reduce the quantity of coal used by up to twenty percent. That is plenty easier in many instances than trying to completely transfer your energy plant to solar or wind energy..

My Spouse Believes I’ve Changed, And Not For The Better

There may be no question that a lot of us are not the same man or woman who we had been while we met after which married our spouse. This could be especially actual when you have been married for quite a while. And that is due to the fact maximum of us mature and revel in things that shape our personalities so that they tackle a slightly specific look. There’s not anything wrong with this adulthood as it usually manner that we’ve grown and evolved. Regrettably though, it can become an problem if our partner feels that the changes suggest that we’ve outgrown them or are no longer compatible with them.

To demonstrate what I mean, I would listen a comment like:

“once I met my husband, I was a young, naive female who hardly ever spoke to someone except they spoke to me first. I was painfully shy so it becomes most effective natural for me to allow my husband take care of maximum matters. My husband was very cozy with this because he became a good deal extra assertive than I was. So, for a while, this worked very well for us. However, while we had been first married, I took a task that allowed me to stay in the shadows. It was a terrific fit for me then. However,

I have grown with the organization over the years. And now

I am in a control position with a number of responsibilities. I have to take a great deal more of an upfront function. And in the beginning, I wasn’t completely secure being so assertive However after some time, my character advanced so that I now am. As an end result,

I can deal with pretty a lot the whole lot by myself. My husband now not needs to do nearly as plenty for me. And he obviously resents this due to the fact the alternative day, he came home and commenced collecting telephone numbers to call humans to get costs to update our home. I advised him that I had already sorted it. In reality, my assistant took care of maximum of it, However I failed to see the want to tell him this.

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davidegbert · 7 years

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App Watch: the best new iPhone and iPad games released this month

Byline

Chris Kerr

App Watch: the best new iPhone and iPad games released this month

It'd be an understatement to say that the Apple App Store is a big place - there are thousands of new titles hitting its digital shelves each and every week.

It's an unprecedented situation that often results in great games being overlooked, buried under a mountain of soulless endless runners, tepid Candy Crush clones, and uninspired MMOs.

With that in mind, we want to shine a spotlight on those games fighting the good fight. Here are this month's most interesting new releases.

These are the newly released games that'll keep your tablet or smartphone 'appy this April

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April 2017 • March 2017 • February 2017 • January 2017 • December 2016 • November 2016

April 2017

Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed (£Free + IAP)

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My friend. You have been chosen. Only you can unite the three kingdoms and fulfil the vision of your ancestors. If you fail… blah, blah, blah. Look, I won't bore you with the story details, because we both know that isn't why you're here.

You're here because this is Dynasty Warriors - the frantic hack and slash franchise that arms you to the teeth, chucks you into enormous battles, and whispers "go nuts" softly in your ear. And that's exactly what you'll be getting with Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed, which manages to bring the long- running series to mobile without losing any of that maniacal, spear-twirling, button-mashing magic.

Well, actually the buttons didn't make the cut. But you know what I mean.

Download Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed here for iOS

KAMI 2 (£Free + IAP)

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Remember KAMI? The breezy puzzler from State of Play Games that massaged the mind with its colourful conundrums. Well, it got a sequel!

The aptly titled KAMI 2 is just as much fun as its predecessor, but packs an even bigger punch thanks to the inclusion of more than 100 hand-crafted puzzles and thousands of daily challenges.

But wait, there's more. Because this time around you can create your own gorgeous papercraft riddles and share them with the world. Just try not to make them obscenely difficult. It's meant to be relaxing, y'know?

Download KAMI 2 for iOS here

Spotify Vs Tidal Vs Apple Music

The Frostrune (£4.99)

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Hey, did you say you're a huge fan of classic point-and- click puzzlers? And you also happen to enjoy digital dishes inspired by Viking folklore and wider Norse mythology? Well boy oh boy, isn't this your lucky day.

That just so happens to be precisely what Snow Cannon Games' moody puzzler The Frostrune is all about. And there isn't even a catch, because The Frostrune is a superb slice of vintage point-and-click gaming that tells a well-crafted, compact tale that intrigues from the first second to the very last.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, then sip away my friend, sip away.

Download The Frostrune for iOS here

The Elder Scrolls: Legends (£Free + IAP)

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Fus-ro- dah! Sorry, I had something stuck in my throat. Now, where were we? Oh right: The Elder Scrolls: Legends.

First of all, put away that axe. You won't need it in this corner of Tamriel. In these parts we let our cards do the talking. That's right, in The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Bethesda has traded-in the steel and spells in favour of (digital) cardboard. Because, much like Hearthstone, Legends asks players to build a deck of cards - based on the world and lore of the titular franchise - and duke it out with players around the world in pursuit of those all-important bragging rights.

There's also a solo story mode that'll teach you the ropes and get you started, but the real draw here is the multiplayer. So grab your best deck and get yourself down to the arena. You don't want to keep your adoring fans waiting.

Download The Elder Scrolls: Legends for iOS here

Oxenfree (£4.99)

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A group of troubled yet inquisitive teenagers make their way to a strange island for some coming-of-age shenanigans. Everything goes exactly according to plan and they get the first boat home after a night of sensible pop-drinking and PG-13 storytelling. The end.

In a world without '80s horror movies, maybe that's how Oxenfree plays out. But this isn't that place. This is a world that thought up the likes of Jason, Mike Myers, and Freddy Krueger. A world where teenagers should know better than to go exploring strange places, and doing silly things like "splitting up" and "throwing parties" and "opening supernatural rifts."

Will those kids ever learn? Probably not. But it makes for one hell of a video game, so we're not too cut up about it.

Download Oxenfree for iOS here

15 tech sounds you just don't hear any more

Ticket to Earth (£6.99)

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So your mining colony is going bust and you need to get on the last ship back to Earth, pronto. But there's a catch: there aren't enough tickets for everyone, and you aren't part of the one percent that gets to go back home.

What do you do in the face of such brash, political lunacy? Lay down and accept your fate, or stand up and fight for what's right? That's the Orwellian premise propping up Robot Circus' episodic puzzle-RPG, and that's not even the half of it.

Peel back the layers and you'll find a rewarding, tactical combat system, deep character progression, and psychedelic visuals that prove dystopian fiction doesn't always have to be drenched in drab grey.

Download Ticket to Earth for iOS here

How many of these classic pre-smartphones did you own?

TypeShift (£Free + IAP)

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TypeShift is the latest word game from SpellTower creator Zach Cage, who's become something of a linguistical legend in these here parts. Once again, Cage implores players to manipulate those crazy little things we call letters to solve puzzles by putting words back together.

According to Cage himself, TypeShift is best described as "anagrams meets wordsearch, with a sprinkle of crosswords." We'll be honest, that sounds a little complex for our taste.

Fear not, though, because Cage also happens to be something of a game design whizz, and what he's done is take that mouthful of a concept and turn it into a well-oiled, super-smooth puzzler that's a masterclass in every sense of the word.

Download TypeShift for iOS here

iCheapskate: The 40 best free games on iPhone and iPad

Virexian (£Free + IAP)

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Virexian is an '80s disco on steroids. An eclectic trip of a game that shares more in common with a herd of stampeding wildebeest making a beeline through a Jackson Pollock painting than it does a video game. If that hasn't' already sold you on First Mutant's on-the-go, all-action roguelike then I don't know what will.

Except maybe if I told you that Virexian is basically the lovechild of Geometry Wars and a fully-automatic paintball gun. Yes, I have no idea how those two things would mate, but that's besides the point.

The point is that if you like chiptunes, neon-splattered visuals, and watching giant pixels go 'boom,' then Virexian might just be the love of your life. So, let's get you two acquainted.

Download Virexian for iOS here

JUMP TO SECTIONS

April 2017 • March 2017 • February 2017 • January 2017 • December 2016 • November 2016

March 2017

Turmoil (£5.99)

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Dig, dig and dig some more - because that's the only way you're going to hit the big time in the land of the free, where oil is worth more than its weight in, well, gold. Business is hard and times are tough, but if you're savvy and willing to bet it all on a big payout, you might just be able to ride the 19th-century oil rush all the way to the top.

Whether you want to play by the rules or bend them is up to you — after all, in this industry it's not honesty that matters, only power.

Download Turmoil for iOS here

Archer Dash 2 (£Free + IAP)

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Dubbed an "endless shooter" by developer Gray Giant Games, Archer Dash 2 takes some vintage tap-to-dodge infinite sprinter essence and throws it in the blender with a healthy portion of Robin Hood shtick and some hearty retro visuals.

Peel back the pixel art curtain, though, and you'll see there's an awful lot going on behind the scenes. In fact, Archer Dash 2's smorgasbord of mechanics can feel a little overwhelming at first, but stick with it and you'll soon realise the reward of a good old-fashioned challenge.

Download Archer Dash 2 for iOS here

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Narcissus (£Free + IAP)

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Think you're a dab hand at multitasking? Good, then Narcissus is the game for you. But be warned, this little blighter is going to put you through your paces.

That's because in this finite runner, you've got the unenviable task of guiding not one, but two versions of the titular egotist to the end goal. The thing is, the levels aren't as perfectly reflected as Narcissus' lovely mug, so you'll have to keep your eyes on two alternating sides of the same coin if you want to save him from certain death.

Download Narcissus for iOS here

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (£4.99)

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Remember those Fighting Fantasy gamebooks from days gone by? Well, the good folks at Tin Man Games have taken one of the very first, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and given it a 21st-century lick of paint.

Instead of plain ol' paper adorned with archaic letters, Firetop Mountain now takes place on a fully 3D digital playing board, making for an experience that's as gorgeous as it is engrossing. That winning aesthetic is joined by a revised grid-based combat system that forces players to think more strategically about how they take down their foes.

Oh, and if you're worried the digital switch will have sapped the old-school adventure of its soul, put those fears to bed. If anything, it feels more alive than ever.

Download The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for iOS here

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Gravity Galaxy (£Free + IAP)

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One-touch, planet-hopping puzzler Gravity Galaxy casts you as an intergalactic explorer with a simple mission: see the stars - and collect a few along the way.

As you hurtle through the cosmos, slingshotting around planets, nabbing power-ups and outrunning the odd supernova, you'll have to think fast and act even faster if you want to return to Earth in one piece.

Download Gravity Galaxy for iOS here

Apple Watch review

Causality (£1.99)

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Cause and effect. They're the things that make the world tick over, with every action resulting in a subsequent reaction. But those words take on new meaning when you can control time - and that's exactly what you'll be doing in Causality.

As a venerable time lord, you'll need to rewrite the history books to help a band of stranded astronauts reach safety. By working with your past selves, you should be able to alter the world around you to guide each intrepid explorer back home. Of course, I say 'should' because it's never really that simple, is it?

Download Causality for iOS here

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Tavern Guardians (£2.99)

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Take a well-polished hack-and-slash and mash it together with an addictive match-3 experience and you'll have something that tastes… I mean looks a little bit like Tavern Guardians.

In this premium hybrid, swathes of monsters advance through tiles on the game board, and the only way to stop them (and their dastardly plans) is by slashing them to ribbons using some quick-fire matching skills. It's not just you against the world, though.

And, with four different adventurers to choose from, each with their own unique hero abilities, I'm sure you'll win the day in no time. Well, sort of sure.

Download Tavern Guardians for iOS here

Glitchskier (£1.99)

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Pitched by developer Shelly Alon as a "nervewired" action shooter, Glitchskier is the stuff of retro dreams — a sensory thrill-ride soaked in synthetic, saccharine neon charm.

While most of you will be pulled in by the shooter's evocative visuals and splendid electronic soundtrack, you'll be staying for the gameplay, which riffs on the likes of Asteroids and Geometry Wars while adding a few neat ideas of its own.

Download Glitchskier for iOS here

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February 2017

Splitter Critters (£2.99)

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Splitter Critters does exactly what it says on the tin. See, there are these critters, and you've got to guide them back to their spaceship by literally splitting the world around them.

It's more than a little bit similar to Lemmings. But there's nothing wrong with that because, hey, Lemmings was terrific. The difference here is that instead of trying to navigate around dangerous obstacles, you can remove them from the equation entirely by slicing up and tearing levels with a flick of your finger.

Unfortunately, just like those pesky lemmings, these critters are as hapless as they are cute, so you'll need to do all of the legwork. Typical.

Download Splitter Critters here

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A Normal Lost Phone (£2.99)

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There's a phone in your hand and it doesn't belong to you. But it's owner is long gone, so you'll need to have a quick nosey if you want to track them down.

That's the general gist of A Normal Lost Phone, an intimate narrative adventure game that morphs the decidedly mundane occurrence of stumbling upon a lost mobile into something preposterously compelling.

As you sift through the life of a complete stranger, poring over their private pictures, emails, and text messages, you'll begin to unravel a mystery that's guaranteed to tug on your heartstrings.

Download A Normal Lost Phone here

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Sky Dancer (£Free+IAP)

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Not at all based on the Elton John song of similar name, Sky Dancer is an endless runner that doesn't care about high-scores and collectibles. I mean sure, there are scores to beat and coins to collect, but this one is all about the journey, not the destination.

That's because the devs over at Pine Entertainment want to take players on a zen-inducing trip through the skies. As you soar through the air, leaping between floating islands like an expert trapeze artist, you'll feel a sense of calm wash over your body.

Indeed, It's rare for a high-score chaser to feel so gloriously liberating. So hold me closer Sky Dancer. Count the headlights on the highway.

Download Sky Dancer here

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Star Wars: Force Arena (£Free+IAP)

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The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet. Now you can prove old man Vader wrong by jumping into Star Wars: Force Arena and taking on other players from around the world in fast-paced real-time battles.

Like a cross between Clash Royale and every MOBA under the sun, Force Arena asks players to bring together a team of iconic Star Wars heroes or villains before throwing them into quick-fire skirmishes where the objective is to take your opponents base without surrendering yours.

It's hardly a novel concept, but Force Arena is a tight, well-oiled offering that makes good use of the Star Wars license. Now we've got that out of the way, tell me, did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise?

Download Star Wars: Force Arena here

Bubble Witch Saga 3 (£Free+IAP)

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Bubble Witch Saga 3 is everything you'd expect, and that's no bad thing. Especially if you're a fan of well-rounded, super slick puzzlers from the best in the business.

After all, it's no secret that developer King — you know, the studio behind a little game called Candy Crush Saga — knows how to make compelling match-3 score chasers, so it won't come as a shock when I tell you that this threequel is one of the best on the App Store.

It doesn't reinvent the wheel by any stretch of the imagination, but a few tweaks here and there, like the inclusion of new game modes and characters, help keep things interesting. Sure, it's not going to blow your mind, but it's another solid entry in an exceptional series.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (£14.99)

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The definitive edition of Edmund McMillen's critically acclaimed roguelike has finally arrived on the App Store. If you already got your mitts on this one before it made the leap to mobile, you don't need me to tell you why it's a big deal.

But what if your mitts were predisposed at the time? Well, allow me to explain. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a tale of sorrow and all-out- action. Poor Isaac has been locked up in a basement by his overzealous religious parents. The only way to escape? Fight your way though hordes of monsters and demonic creatures.

Randomised dungeons and permadeath means finding a way out won't be easy, but Rebirth's rapid-fire, fleet-footed gameplay turns what could be a frustrating slog into a thrill-a- minute rollercoaster ride.

Download The Blinding of Isaac: Rebirth here

Drop Flip Seasons (£Free+IAP)

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Look, just put the ball in the bucket and we can all go home for supper. It's easy. You just need to open a few gates and let your spherical companion drop to the…wait. What's that triangle doing there? Okay, just move it out of the way. Flip that isosceles. Oh, and slide over that equilateral.

That's Drop Flip in a nutshell. Like a DIY project for gravity-addicted, shape loving maniacs, BorderLeap's physic's based puzzler asks players to manipulate contraptions of all shapes and sizes with one not-so- simple aim in mind. Think putting a round object in a bucket is easy? Think again, hombre.

Download Drop Flip Seasons here

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Red's Kingdom (£1.99)

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Mad King Mac has kidnapped your dad and pinched your prized golden nut - c'mon, he called himself the "Mad King," are you really surprised? - and now it's down to you to save the day.

To do that, you'll need to step into the shoes of Red, a spritely fox with heaps of courage. Actually foxes don't wear shoes, but you get the picture.

Your quest will take your through strange lands, littered with dangerous foes, shiny collectables, and head-scratching puzzles. Can you save the day, or will you be outfoxed? Muster your courage, because it's time you found out.

Download Red's Kingdom here

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January 2017

Super Mario Run (£Free+IAP)

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It's-a-him, Mario! And he's on your smartphone for the first time ever. That's right, Nintendo made its full-fledged mobile debut (Pokemon Go was Niantic's baby) in December with the launch of Super Mario Run, but was it worth the wait?

The simple answer is, "yes." Super Mario Run is a supremely polished one-touch platformer that manages to streamline the classic Mario experience you know and love without sacrificing any of its charm. Terrific level design, compelling challenges, and uber-responsive controls ensure Nintendo's mobile transition is a call for celebration, rather than frustration.

Download Super Mario Run for iOS

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Dawn of Titans (£Free+IAP)

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You might think Dawn of Titans' biggest draws are its stunning visuals and dedication to letting giants smash things up. Okay, I'll admit, those are the cherries on top, but the real hero here is Dawn's remarkable control scheme.

All too often are mobile RTS' bogged down by dodgy controls, with most devs struggling to find a scheme that can cope with the complexity of large-scale conflicts. Dawn of Titans clears that hurdle with eye-rolling ease. Here, your units can be sent to their deaths with simple taps and swipes, and while things do get a little more complex as skirmishes wear on, generally speaking, it's a joy to behold.

If you think tactically, you'll be able to set traps and dictate the flow of battles without ever breaking a sweat, meaning you can stop worrying about finicky controls and start worrying about that titan tearing your troops limb from limb. Poor little guys.

Download Dawn of Titans

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (£3.99)

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The third season of Telltale's critically acclaimed take on The Walking Dead has finally arrived, and while the studio has gone on to tackle a number of big name franchises like Game of Thrones and Batman in the meantime, this is the one fans have really been waiting for.

Times though, haven't changed. And as most of you will remember, when you're trying to survive the zombie apocalypse every single choice matters. Life and death are in your hands, but it's not a question of good vs. evil. It's simply a matter of how much you're willing to sacrifice to see out the day.

Buy The Walking Dead: A New Frontier for iOS

Don't Starve: Shipwrecked (£3.99)

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Just when he'd finally mastered the art of surviving in the grassy wilderness, Wilson has gone and gotten himself shipwrecked on a desert island. Will that lad ever learn? Well actually, he'd better learn fast if he's going to get out of this one.

Unlike that famous volleyball, our Wilson doesn't have a certain Tom Hanks to rely on. That means you'll need to use every ounce of wit at your disposal to keep him alive. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a tropical paradise, because behind those palm trees is a whole world of danger where everything (yes, literally everything) is trying to kill you. New seasons, new creatures, and new biomes might be the talk of the town, but it's still the same old story: do or die.

Buy Don't Starve: Shipwrecked for iOS

Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore (£Free+IAP)

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Galaxy on Fire quickly established itself as one mobile gaming's most important standard bearers. Each entry has raised the bar, delivering experiences that some have even dared to call "console quality."

Now while I wouldn't go quite that far, there's no denying that Galaxy on Fire 3 is edging nearer to that holy grail. For starters, the game looks phenomenal. Each vast stage is filled edge-to-edge with colour and intricate detail, imbuing the universe with a genuine sense of grandiose scale. Combat is fast, responsive, and fluid. And if you're finding things a little too easy, don't forget to turn off auto-aim. Because jetting through space shouldn't be as simple as dusting crops.

Download Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore for iOS

ShapeMe (£Free+IAP)

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ShapeMe is a balmy match-em-up from Umbrella Games that packs a surprising punch. At its core, the game is a simple geometric puzzler that asks players to merge shapes in super-quick time to blast through levels and save the dreams of a kingdom.

The story takes a backseat here, but lets face it, that's not what you're here for. What you're after is a puzzler with bite, and despite it's fluffy trappings, that's what you're going to get. It's time to shape up, or ship out.

Download ShapeMe for iOS

Apollo Justice - Ace Attorney (£Free+IAP)

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Fancy yourself as something of a legal eagle? Well, you might always win those dinner table arguments, but how'd you fare in a real courtroom? Find out by slipping on the well-polished shoes of Apollo Justice, a rookie defence attorney who's about to hit the big time.

You won't just be strutting your stuff in front of the judge, though. No, there's more to being a lawyer than fancy words and killer suits. There are crime scenes to visit, evidence to collect, and witnesses to interrogate before you even think about putting together a case. Any objections? I thought not.

Download Apollo Justice - Ace Attorney for iOS

The best free apps for iPhone and iPad

Bully: Anniversary Edition (£4.99)

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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its tongue-in-cheek, schoolyard shenanigans simulator, Rockstar has given Bully a new lick of paint and slapped it on smartphones.

The Anniversary Edition features all the extra content from Bully: Scholarship Edition, improved lighting and textures, enhanced graphics, high-res support, and new multiplayer challenges. So, if you and your friends have ever wanted to find out who can dissect a frog the fastest, or take control of a flying squirrel (wait, that's not on the curriculum), now you can.

Buy Bully: Anniversary Edition for iOS

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December 2016

Don't Grind (£free + IAP)

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Picture the scene. There's a cute banana hovering above two giant buzzsaws. Its fearful, wide-eyed stare pierces your very soul. You have the power to save it. But the question is; do you?

If you're me, the answer is no. I let that banana tumble straight on down into saw town, mainly because I just wanted to see what'd happen. Following that admittedly sadistic incident, you'll be pleased to hear I did my best to save every sentient critter I came across - be it banana, pumpkin, or chicken leg.

I'd like to say my motivations were selfless. But, honestly, I was in it for the high-scores. That's right, if there's one thing I love more than animated fruit being turned to mush, it's topping leaderboards.

And the only way to get to the top in Don't Grind is by doing exactly that; saving your terrified companions from the toothy blades below. You won't always succeed, so try not to take it too hard when your digital friends get ground to a pulp. They probably had it coming.

Download Don't Grind for iOS

App of the week: Telepaint review

Flip King (£free + IAP)

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Once Christmas has passed and New Year has left you hanging, there's not much else in the way of festive commemorations to look forward to. That's until you remember that Pancake Tuesday, more commonly (and wrongly) referred to as Shrove Tuesday is right around the corner.

And what better way to get into the Pancake spirt than by honing your flipping skills in Qwiboo's one-touch score chaser, Flip King? As simple as the name suggests, your aim is to flip, flip, and then flip some more until you become the undisputed master of the flip.

No, not the Master Flipper, but the Flip King. A title steeped in history and renown - or, at least, that's what I tell myself.

Download Flip King for iOS

App of the week: Clash Royale review

Yankai's Triangle (£2.29)

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Every triangle has three sides. So you can slap three triangles onto one triangle to get four triangles. Then you just need to, erm, take three more triangles and stick them…

Look, the more you think about Yankai's Triangle, the more confusing it gets. So I'll just say that the vibrant puzzler is a confounding and altogether mesmerising concoction pulled from the remarkable psyche of Circa Infinity creator, Kenny Sun.

The game was pitched by Sun as a love letter to those equilateral enigmas, but if that's the case, I have no idea what language it's written in. Still, just because I don't speak Triangle, it doesn't mean I can't appreciate Sun's work. And make no mistake, there's a lot to appreciate here.

In fact, I'd go as far as to suggest that Sun is quickly establishing himself as one of the App Store's master craftsmen. One glance at Yankai's Triangle should tell you that much, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. So go get yours.

Download Yankai's Triangle for iOS

Miitomo review

Icarus (£free + IAP)

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Tell me, do you recall the tale of Icarus? The young boy who attempted to escape from his island prison with wings made of feathers and wax, only to meet his fiery doom?

Ah, you do? Well I wish I hadn't mentioned it now, because it has absolutely nothing to do with PlaySide's game of the same name. But you have to admit it was a sweet intro.

In fact, serene puzzler Icarus - A Star's Journey turns the Greek myth on its head by challenging players to catapult a fallen star back to the heaven with the help of your trusty fingers. Easy, you say? Funny. That's what Icarus said.

Download Icarus for iOS

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Football Manager Mobile 2017 (£free + IAP)

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The App Store has made a new signing. Someone called F. Manager. Heard of 'em? If you have, then you don't need me to tell you that it's a name worth remembering, and that Football Manager is one of the most addictive, all-consuming games in existence.

If you've not heard the name in a while, or ever (where have you been), then allow me to briefly introduce you. Football Manager Mobile 2017 is the portable version of Sports Interactive's long-running footy management sim.

It's a detailed, deep, and rewarding title that lets you take charge of (almost) any team you can think of and guide them to the very pinnacle of world football. Fancy taking a League 2 team to the Champions League final? You can do it. Want to sign a handful of young stars for your local side and tear up the league? You can do it? Want to take charge of Leeds and get sacked in weeks? You. Can. Do. It.

Download Football Manager Mobile 2017 for iOS

Party Hard Go (£4.99)

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Have you ever been to one of those parties? You know, the one where you weren't actually invited, but you could overhear it from your bedroom so you decided to hop on over and maim every single person in attendance?

Oh yeah, me neither. But that's about to change, because butchering revellers is precisely what you'll be doing in Party Hard Go. Erm… hurray? Just make sure you don't get caught, because what you're doing isn't strictly speaking legal. In fact, it's not legal in any sense of the word.

Download Party Hard Go for iOS

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SteamWorld Heist (£7.99)

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Turn-based shoot 'em up SteamWorld Heist is a melting pot of ideas that somehow manages to strike the right balance.

You'll bump into everything from robo-pirates to starships, but at SteamWorld's core is a trickshot mechanic that imbues the game with its own unique sense of identity. What? You didn't think traipsing halfway across the universe would be easy, did you? No, you're bound to get into a scrape or two.

It's at times like that when you'll need to think outside of the box, bouncing bullets and bombs off of walls to pull off impossible, live-saving shots. And what better reward for being an upstanding pirate Captain than the respect and admiration of your clanking crew? Only kidding. There's loot. Lots and lots of loot.

Download SteamWorld Heist for iOS

F1 2016 (£7.99)

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"…and Lewis Hamilton has won the Driver's Championship for the second year in a row! Can anyone stop him?"

That's what the (former) defending champion might've heard in his dreams last week, or perhaps it was what you heard when you rewrote the history books in F1 2016.

On the surface, that's the big selling point of F1 2016: the chance to sit behind the wheel and live out your own Formula 1 fantasies. And a fleshed out career mode featuring 22 drivers, 11 teams, and the full Formula 1 circuit, means you can do exactly that.

But you'll also be doing it in style, because F1 2016 really does feel the part. Every aspect of the game has been polished to perfection, and at times I was left wondering how Codemasters managed to cram so much into a mobile game.

Download F1 2016 for iOS

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November 2016

PinOut! (£free + IAP)

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You're a mobile gamer, so you're no stranger to endless runners. But what about endless, er, pinballers?

It's not exactly a phrase that rolls of the tongue, but that's exactly what PinOut is: an never-ending journey through a neon flavoured pinball machine of seismic proportions.

Much like your classic game of pinball, the aim is simple: use a pair of paddles to keep the ball in play and amass points. The only difference here is that PinOut's digital tabletop is infinite, so you'll have to beat the clock as well as the board if you want to rack up a world-class score.

Download PinOut! for iPad and iPhone

Masky (£free + IAP)

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Guess what? You're going to the ball. And not just any ball, but the annual grand costume ball! We knew you'd be thrilled.

Actually, we should probably warn you, because there is one catch. People like to dance at this ball. At least, we assume they're people. We haven't actually seen behind their masks.

They've also got atrocious balance, which means you've been put in charge of leading the lively shindig. All you need to do is help your fellow revellers stay on their feet and everything should turn out fine. Don't worry too much about the magic masks, either. We're sure they're quite harmless…

Download Masky for iPhone and iPad

Epic Orchestra (£free + IAP)

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The golden age of rhythm gaming might've ended when the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band lost their star power, but there's still some life in the old dog yet.

Epic Orchestra is proof enough of that. One of the simplest rhythm games you'll ever play, the streamlined one-touch title uses four basic commands to put you in control of a charming, retro orchestra. Even on the hardest difficulty setting it's hardly taxing, but that feels like that point.

See, Epic Orchestra doesn't try and baffle you with an endless stream of overly complex instructions. Quite the contrary. It's a relaxing, zen-like experience that's more concerned with serving up tiny slices of musical escapism, and that's exactly why we love it.

Download Epic Orchestra for iPhone and iPad

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Mini Metro (£3.99)

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Anyone who's forced to catch the tube on a regular basis will know how much of a nightmare it can be. That's why there's a 100 percent chance you won't believe me when I say that a tube simulator can be…fun.

You heard me right. Mini Metro proves that the rigours of underground transport management can provide warm, fuzzy entertainment. It also proves you can create a game about inner-city infrastructure that looks and sounds stunningly beautiful.

Download Mini Metro for iPhone and iPad

Eggggg - The Platform Puker (£1.49)

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The bizarrely titled Eggggg - The Platform Puker is one of the strangest morsels I've come across in quite some time. Why? Well, as the name suggests, the game is a platformer centred around one odd mechanic: puke.

Look, I was sceptical at first. But once you get past the undeniably peculiar concept, you'll find a rewarding two-touch platformer that puts most of its competitors to shame.

As for the puke, there's a simple explanation. Gilbert - the star of this show - has a pretty visceral egg allergy. The poor guy just can't keep them down. Alas, it just so happens they give him the power he needs to survive in a world populated with angry cyborg chickens. Swings and roundabouts, really.

Download Eggggg - The Platform Puker for iPhone and iPad

Vikings: An Archer's Journey (£2.29)

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If you like your platformers with a little bit of bite, then Viking: an Archer's Journey might just be for you.

What initially looks to be a by-the-books endless runner is elevated thanks to some slick projectile combat, power-ups, and elementary platforming. It's a formula that works well, and although it's hardly overflowing with originality, it's one that's undeniably compelling.

What makes Viking's a must have is the procedural world around it, with each of its randomly generated levels sporting a gorgeous, wintery coat steeped in minimalist beauty.

Download Vikings: An Archer's Journey for iPhone and iPad

Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator (£1.49)

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If verbal sparring and interplay, by which we mean expertly forged insults at fellow humans, is your jam, then Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator is the game you've been waiting for.

A delightfully kooky experience that challenges players to get one over on their opponent by stringing together a series of inspired insults, Oh…Sir! truly is a game unlike any other. In fact, I don't have a single bad thing to say about it. How terribly ironic.

Download Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator for iPhone and iPad

Level With Me (£free + IAP)

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As we all know, life is a balancing act. But it's nothing compared to the perplexing challenges found in Unept's tilting puzzler, Level With Me.

Seriously. Have you ever tried balancing bowling balls, motorcycles, dynamite, and even people using nothing but bubbles. It's pretty difficult, you know, especially when you're trying to stop a whole gaggle of humans from being blown to smithereens.

Think you're up to the task? Yeah, so did I.

Download Level With Me for iPhone and iPad

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