MERRY X-MAS!

Merry "jiggly" Christmas everyone!

(insert jingle bell joke here)

Widow's Walk: an expansion for Betrayal at House on the Hill

We have busted open the Betrayal at House on the Hill’s expansion Widows Walk.
HEY READ MY ORIGIANL BETRAYAL REVIEW HERE... Original Betrayal at House on Hill review here!

Yes, this is an expansion to the original game. A game where there are 50 scenarios to play through. That is already a daunting task.

Widows Walk adds another 50 scenarios to the game! Yeah we will never get through the original 50 and now we have 50 more? It also adds more room tiles to the house. It also adds an entire new, and slightly smaller, area to explore. The roof.

While the roof is new, it is not nearly as expansive as the main and second floors. There are ways to move through the house faster now too. Still more places to explore means more better stuff right?

Speaking of stuff, Widows Walk also adds more Omen, Event and Item cards to the mix. So hooray! More gear to help you survive. More events to make you not survive as easily. More omens that can always influence and activate the second part of the game/ the Haunt.

Yes it is an Avalon Hill game so it has to come with tokens too! More tokens!!!!!! Too many damn tokens!

Yes, it is an Avalon Hill game so it has to come with tokens too! More tokens!!!!!! Too many damn tokens! just soooo many tokens! Player tokens! Obstacle tokens! A cat token! Multiple plant tokens!

So many tokens you'll go insane! TOKENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse review

I have been missing going to the movies lately. There has just been nothing this holiday season that has interested me.

Being bored after finishing X-mas shopping yesterday, I popped into see Spider Man into the Spiderverse.

I have to say it was pretty damn enjoyable.

PLOT

Here we are introduced to Miles Morales your typical New York teenager. Well I guess typical since I never lived there as a teen, but you know how it is with films. We get a look into his daily life at home and at school.

We also jump over to Spider Man, who gives us a quick look through flashbacks at his origin and life as Spider Man.

Then...jump back to Miles and his family life and see his relationship with his uncle Aaron, who he is much closer with than his folks. They pal around and do a little graffiti montage beneath the city where Miles is bit by the always present radioactive spider. Miles then starts to get powers and freak out like one does when being a teen with new spider powers. He puts two and two together and realizes he has Spider Man powers, so…. He back tracks back to the underground graffiti montage area to find said arachnid.


Once there he gets involved in a battle between Spider Man and the Green Goblin. This spills into a giant particle collider under the city being operated by The Kingpin (flanked by the Prowler and Tombstone) and his science goons. because why not right? Here the Kingpin is up to some shenanigans and Spider Man tries to stop him. While doing so he is tossed into the crazy particle stream. Clue small explosion and Spider Man being killed by Kingpin. Of course before all this goes down Miles and Spider man meet. Miles also sees Spider Man die and has to run for his life from the Prowler.


Spider Man funeral and sad times is next. Miles is lost and has nobody to help him with whatever spider powers he has….until…..he meets Spider Man again. Well a Spider Man from another reality, and surprisingly he isn’t the first one either. Miles and other Spider Man check into Alchemax where the creepy spider that bit Miles was created. This leads to….the gist of the plot by Kingpin, another villain reveal that surprised even me, Miles learning that his uncle Aaron is the Prowler (and the culmination of Mile Morales origin story), introduction to Spider Man Noir, Spider Gwen, Spider Ham and Penny Parker and her spider powered robot.

This all leads to the inevitable showdown with Kingpin and his cronies. A bit of the old Spider Man has a tragedy story bit. Spider Man/ Spider Woman, robot and pig saving the day. We all learn a lesson about life. Miles gets a promotion to Spider Man in this reality. Roll credits.

Fallout 76, have 45 levels under my belt so what about it?

After my less than stellar review of the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. what are my thoughts on the actual game?

Well sadly still less than stellar.

What is wrong with Fallout 76 from my P.O.V?

• Connectivity is my biggest complaint. I have been playing this off and on since the release for a few hours at a time. For all the time I have put into the game I have logged off the game only five times. Five times I have chosen to quit and save my game. Every other time I have stopped playing it is due to me just randomly getting booted from the server. I have no idea why this happens, but it is beyond frustrating. I’m in the middle of a quest and….”boop” server disconnect. I log back in and have to restart my quest again. Just wandering the wasteland and “boop.” I’m booted again. Why this is happening is beyond me.  Even more fun! My son will be playing Fallout 76 on his computer and I will be playing on the PS4. I get booted and he keeps playing. What is that?
• The PVP stuff is garbage. I have been tagged once as “Wanted” and for just utter bullshit too. I was in an event with another player and was helping fight off a horde of super mutants. I was blasting away with my shotgun. Random player (who is in the same event as we are working together but not on a team) decides to run in front of me to swing at the same super mutant. He is in my shotgun blast radius and takes damage. He then flags me as “Wanted” thus putting a bounty on me. Even better, he then runs out of the event and leaves me to get overrun by super mutants. Now I’m wanted and have no idea what to do about it. Well I guess I’ll just die and that I did. Later that day after logging back in after being “boop” server disconnected. I hear a gentlemen approaching as I am crafting weapons at a rifle range. Well, since I’m “Wanted” I guess I  would see what the PVP is all about. I don’t have much of a choice. I turn to attack and start blasting with  my shotgun. I hit him twice, but not before he swings just three times with looks to be a pickaxe and kills me. Even better….he is ten levels lower than me. WHAT THE FRAK IS THAT NONSENSE ABOUT!?!? I get there is some sort of PVP balancing in play, but that was beyond ridiculous. Three melee hits and I’m dead? He takes four out of five point blank shotgun blasts and is still kicking? I have no idea what goes into their PVP balancing issue, but it is beyond stupid! The only good part is that I was barley carrying any loot, the bounty was like 10 caps and I was now no longer “wanted” and could continue the game in relative peace.
• Hey did you know there is the option called Pacifist Mode? Yeah I didn’t for almost 20 levels. It stops friendly fire from setting people off and starting the whole PVP wanted level bounty hunting nonsense. That would have been sweet to know when I had started at level 1.
• It is a Bethesda game and it will have glitches, we all know this, but there are some that are just inexcusable. I give you the final test for the Fire Breathers  quest. Here you are tasked, as a fireman, to go into a mine fire and clear out the Scorched (feral irradiated humans that share a hive mind and have been infected with the Scorched Plague). I have run this five separate times. Why five times? Well for some reason, this quest just stops and locks my PS4 up every time I attempt it. When it has happened it is never in the same place. Hell, one of these times I even finished the mission and was on the way out when the game locked up. Well no  problem I did finish the mission, but upon logging back into the game….nope! I would have to try another time. I have since given up trying this mission after reporting this issue , as per the instructions that pop-up on screen, multiple times.
• Speaking of glitches is anything worse than when an objective creature or object spawns within a wall, in a rock, under a location that is not accessible, etc.? Even better is when a fallen enemy’s body just disappears right as you go to loot it. How awesome is it when a cargo drop comes in an leaves the box of loot inside of an overpass? My favorite yet was a super mutant who was attacking me and was invisible. I could hear him. He could hit me with a melee weapon, yet he was nowhere on my screen. Needless to say that killed me. Yeah Bethesda games have glitch issues. This time it is just a lot more of them and doubly irritating.
• The nebulous level of baddies in the world and how it is affected by players. Yup there is the whole starting area where beasties are a few levels higher. Then you hit the bigger outside world and beasties are equal or a few levels higher. Then you explore more and….wow creatures  start running at you that are 20+ levels higher. That is really disheartening. The reason behind this? Well it seems if you run through an area where a much higher level character was doing stuff, you have the pleasure of having to deal with monsters near their level. Well….that or bail and come back later when the area resets. It is another bit of annoying to deal with when you are running missions and have to bail because your level 38 guy doesn’t have the firepower, stims or armor to deal with level 68 super mutant butchers. That or you run to a mission area and everything is a few levels lower and no real threat. I have no idea from place to place if I am under or overpowered for the area.
• The lack of real NPC’s is still drek. Sure there are robots and computers who give mission, but it just isn’t the same. Give us some damn people so we can interact.
• Food and water consumption. Ugh! Even taking perks to help this, is annoying. I get the survival mode aspect, but sometimes it feels that is all I’m doing is finding something to drink. This is with 3 levels in Dromedary, Lead Belly and (so far) one level in All Night Long. This is supposed to help with thirst  and hunger issues. Hunger seems to be no problem, but my guy is always thirsty. I can’t imagine how annoying this would be without perks to slow this down.
• Real time V.A.T.S. garbage!
• Caps have really no purpose in this game except to pay for fast travel. Vendor prices are beyond stupid, so buying items is not a real option for spending the few caps you manage to gather from events and missions. I have never traded with humans so I have no idea if they want money and what kind of price they would charge. If it is like every other MMORPG, then the prices would probably be insanely stupid like every other player trading post/auction house. I use mine for fast travel purposes and to by the occasional over-priced stimpack when I’m low. I haven’t found how to make them yet....

The Scorchbeast will ruin your day!

D&D Post game 10-6-2018 Part 2 "The End"

It took a bit of finagling and some gold to charter a small boat to take the trio to the small river island housing the tower of Del Garath.  As the little boat approaches the island the party can see it is wreathed in a thick mist that rises several feet off the ground. They can see small flickering multi-colored lights within the mist. As they approach they can see a small rickety looking dock along the southern shore and coax the boat owner to make actually sail up to it. The captain of the small boat tells them he won’t stay tethered to the dock. He will sail out a few hundred yards and wait for the party there.

The party stood on the dock and took in their surroundings. They first noticed that several of the boards on the old crumbling dock looked relatively new. They could just barely make out the silhouette of the a tower that looked like it was slowly falling backwards into the river. The island vegetation was thick, but it looked like someone or something had tromped through it recently and almost formed a path. They chose this “path” as their route and made their way inland.

D&D Post Game 10-6-18....Finally posting this- Part 1

Well after facing down giants and ogres our daring party returned to their home in Stonekeep for some rest and relaxation. The bard wandered off to the local drinking establishments to ply his trade for the locals. The fighter/archer returned to the local stables to continue his job there and make money for his family. The monk and rouge made their way back to their new house. When they arrived they noticed their front door slightly ajar. Maybe their alchemist roommate just forgot to close it….or maybe someone else was home.

The monk checked the perimeter and windows on the first floor. Everything looked clear from his vantage point. He entered the front door and began to investigate the first floor. The alchemist had left a note telling them he was out shopping for reagents and had left a small stash of potions for their use if needed. Meanwhile, the rouge began to climb to the second floor and in through a slightly ajar window. It was then that the rouge discovered he was not the only person on the second floor of the house!



A figure in dark clothes leapt from the shadows and drove a pair of daggers toward the dragonborn rouge. He dodged them and drew his own weapons. The monk rushed to the top of the stairs and was also met with a pair of attacks from a shadowy figure. The monk and rouge fought back and quickly put down their assailants with fist and blade.

A quick search of the dead bodies revealed a pair human males wearing of black and purple medallions along with light armor, their weapons, some awful smelling mud on their boots and a small bit of green vegetation on one assassins’ boot heel. The medallions they had seen before, symbols of the Dark Moon Order. They are a group of Raven Queen followers with monastic traditions, evil monastic traditions. The rouge and monk both looked at the medallions and then to the ceiling. They had a feeling they were not alone., so they then went about investigating the rooms upstairs.