We’ve arrived on Snaktooth Island in order to investigate “Bugsnax,” a bizarre genus of hybrid bug/snak creatures that transform the bodies of Grumpuses who consume them. The leader of the expedition and the one who invited us out here, Lizbert Megafig, has gone missing.

So we’re on our own, looking into both the Bugsnax and her disappearance. With luck, we’ll get answers from the other expedition team member as we locate them and bring them back to the Snaxburg. It’ll probably involve a lot of feeding.

We are what we eat, after all.

I probably should’ve canceled this stream since I was exhausted well before I went live, but I wanted to get something out at least since it’s been so long.

The game actually does a pretty good job seeding the late-game reveals early on. A first-time player likely isn’t going to pick up on them, but people who are replaying the game, like I am, get to see the cogs turning. There are surprisingly few “wasted” details in the story, as each scene serves a purpose. Doubly so since some of them definitely feel like throwaway plot points at first blush.

As for the game itself, the tutorials leave a lot to be desired, but the act of catching Bugsnax makes the player feel extremely smart, especially once they’ve discovered the ideal methods. The best example of this is the Cinnasnail we had to catch as part of the story. When I first ran through the game, I remember catching a different Cinnasnail and feeding it to Chandlow. What you saw in the episode was my piecing together the “correct” way to catch it in real-time. While there should’ve been more explanation leading up to it, the fact that I pieced it together myself made me feel really smart.

Hopefully, next time I’ll be wide-awake to appreciate my own brilliance next time.

Once more, we join Agent 47 as he succumbs to another of the Seven Deadly Sins. This time, our hearts are aflutter, as Lust reigns supreme.

And as such, it’s our job to play matchmaker!

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone through a Hitman mission like this… guns blazing. It’s not the ideal way to play, but it’s a ton of fun in its own right.

As for the mission itself, I love it, for lack of a better term. I’m a sucker for anything resembling investigation mechanics since they bring out my passion for detective fiction. I enjoy sneaking around looking for the clues I need, then using them to draw a conclusion about which of the would-be suitors is the correct one.

More interesting than that is the choice to make it a 1-stage escalation. While that means there’s no real “Escalation”, it also means that we don’t have access to the save/load system. In other words, failure will set us all the way back to the start of the mission. This is why the moment I make my first kill, eliminating any chance of a Silent Assassin run, I just roll with it and start mowing down any guards that give me a lick of trouble.

I’m definitely going to need to replay this on my own time.

At last, we have finally wrapped up our time with Resident Evil: VIIIage. While the series is billed as a horror game, by the end of each of them we’re always so well equipped that it’s hard to be truly frightened. We need a game that will bring in the kind of terror thought impossible in a video game. Something so horrifying that it haunts us.

And that is why we have chosen to play… BUGSNAX!

Now that I’m playing it again, maybe this isn’t a terrorizing as I remember. I mean, just look at the Bugsnax. How could anything that adorable and delicious-looking be anything but wholesome? Just ignore the fact that they transform and mutate whoever eats them. That’s perfectly normal and not a sign that something more insidious is afoot.

In all seriousness, the game already starts to hint that it’s aiming to be more than another throwaway children’s game. We’ve already started hinting at the fact that the people who have come to Snaktooth Island are all deeply emotionally damaged people, for whom this is their last chance. Wambus, as an example, was unable to build the farm of his dreams, so he came here hoping to. Beffica has also alluded to similar troubles, noting that even international laws don’t apply here. And that’s nothing compared to Gramble’s desire to be part of a family. Each of them has a reason they don’t want to return to the outside world, beyond the Bugsnax. They came here for more than just an island vacation, and it’s rare that premises like this explore that aspect in a video game.

And none of the matters. The only thing that matters is BUNGER BUNGER BUNGER!

It’s been a while since our last run of Monster Train. With a new expansion coming out for Runeterra, it is tempting to explore the new cards. Alas, I have not yet had time to play around, so until I do this is a good way to spend the time.

Let’s give it a go.

I was really impressed by the strength of my deck this run. A little bit of a boost to magic power and a few cards that hit enemies multiple times and suddenly we’re killing even the final boss before the can even start their attack. We lucked into some extremely potent synergies.

And then we got to the bonus final boss… and we fought valiantly before it kicked out butts. Next time, I’ll be more prepared.

At least, we approach the end of our adventure in this old, isolated village in the middle of France. With only one more of Miranda’s children left, her defenses are beginning to look weak.

Our daughter is nearly in our grasp. We need only make it just a little bit further.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

If this game has a major weakness, it would be that enemies consistently take far too long to kill. The Propeller Man fight is a glaring example of this. I had figured out the mechanic before David explained it to me, and was doing a decent job hitting its weak point. And yet, despite my performance, the fight was taking far longer than is reasonable, to the point where I began to question myself. The mechanical soldiers prior to that fight are also great examples of that.

Aside from that though, it’s a solid game. I think the beginning is one of it’s strongest parts, and the section with the shark-man could have been cut entirely, but other than that it was incredibly solid.

There’s something to be said for how the end of any Resident Evil game nosedives straight into crazy without ever looking back. We fight Magneto with a tank that is somehow not made out of metal, before getting our heart ripped out by Mother Miranda. Then, after culling the local wildlife population and demolishing a building with a mold problem, we fight Sephiroth for our baby, who will grow up to be a superhero.

And this all happens in the the span on an hour or so. It’s so silly that one almost has to admire it. May RE never change.

But next week, we play a true horror game. We play… BUGSNAX.

I made a claim last week that I don’t think the Lurk mechanic is very good. The thing about making bold proclamations on the internet is that if at any point, you are proven wrong, then the record of your mistake is forever ingrained into history.

And yet, I happen to find a recipe for a Lurk deck that has been seeing some play. So is it time for me to already be proven wrong?

Original recipe courtesy of Mobalytics.
Modified recipe: CMBAMBAGAEBAGBAFB4DAIBYNCNAUISSQAEAQIBZ3AIAQIBQHAECAOFQ
My friend’s recipe: CMBAMBAGAEBQIBIJB4DAIBYCCMLEISSQAEAQIBQCAIAQIBQHAECAOQI

The Lurk deck can eat shit!

Okay, that’s an admittedly extreme take, but honestly my opinion of the deck is only marginally more positive now that I’ve gotten games in with it. It’s not as bad as I thought it was. Players can certainly win games with it, but it has weaknesses that will be difficult to overcome.

The first is that the Lurk package lacks any meaningful form of card advantage, putting it on a much tighter clock than other decks. Even the removal spell that best synergies with the mechanic, Bone Skewer, is effectively -1 in terms of card advantage unless it’s used to blank a removal spell already being cast. And in that scenario, you’re unlikely to get the Lurk synergy anyway because combat would have most certainly already been initiated by this point, and you’re using it to turn the tide back in your favor.

We can and do offset than with The Preservarium, but the playset are the only 3 cards in the deck that offer +1 card advantage. Additionally, it runs into the second big problem with the deck. Eight out of its 40 cards, or 20% of the cards, do not have Lurk. While a 4/5 chance to get a successful Lurk trigger sounds like a lot, any X-Com player knows it is still a 1/5 chance to miss. Those odds to miss only go up with every Lurk card we draw, or that exist in our opening hand. We had some lucky matches at first, but I think the later matches were a better indication of what you’re likely to experience, even with some topdeck manipulation.

Now, that’s not to say that there are no positives whatsoever. It feels good when we’re consistently getting our Lurk procs. Our creatures can grow in power rapidly, forcing our opponent to answer our board or die before they can truly set up. And despite our aggressive strategy, we do have some ways to clear up a late-game board thanks to both a leveled-up Pyke and/or Jaull-Fish. That can help us swing in that final bit of damage before our opponent is able to stabilize. Combined, this means our board and grow powerful quickly, which we will need since we lack much in the form of long term card advantage.

It’s a rewarding deck when RNG gives us the good luck, and miserable at all other times. I’d personally stay away from it despite understanding its allure.

Two of Mother Miranda’s four children now lie dead by our hand. From them, we have retrieved flasks containing the preserved body parts of Ethan Winters’s beloved daughter, Rose.

Halfway to our goal, David Phillips and I must now defeat their remaining siblings so that we can complete our journey, defeating Mother Miranda and saving the youngest member of the Winters family.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

I must admit that frustrations aside, the game is pulling off a very delicate balance when it comes to resources. As of this point in the game, I have not run out of ammo or healing supplies at any point in my adventure, despite responding to most problems with violence.

And yet, I do still feel the pinch on my resources. Especially in this episode, I’m always running low on ammo. I always need to scavenge for whatever parts and components I can find so that my stock doesn’t fully deplete, and even purchasing ammo will only go so far because Duke only has so much in stock at any one time.

It makes me curious if the game is doing some work behind the scenes to keep the available pool of resources at a set level. It’s something that Half-Life and Half-Life 2 famously did with health kits. The more health the player currently had, the less a single health kit would heal for. I would not be surprised to hear that Village did this with ammo and other pick ups as well.

According to David, we may finish during our next recording. If we do, I’ll need to figure out what game comes next.

It’s been almost exactly one month since we’ve last graced the world of Runeterra. Conveniently for us, we’re decided to dip our tops back into the well just in time for a new mini-expansion to hit, and with it new champions and play patterns to test.

Though out of the 3 new champions, there was only one I was interested in build around: Ekko. I’ve been trying to make the Predict deck a thing since Zilean dropped, and now he’s got the perfect partner.

Zilean/Ekko Decklist = CMBQCAIEGQBQIBABAIDQQBAHAEFQ2JZNJRIWOAICAQDRY3IA

What I was most amazed by in this deck is how much value I gained from Ekko, both in the frequency of attacks and the number of cards I was able to draw off of him.

Although I lost it, the match we had against my friend’s Nasus/Kindred deck is a great example of what the deck wants to do. Ekko creates a ton of support cards that both accumulate card advantage while allow us to continuously attack and clear away our opponent’s board while we regenerate our own.

Despite the tremendous value Nasus was able to create, thanks in part to the late game Overgrown Snapvines, Wyvrn was overwhelmed by our countless assaults. When we have a Chronobreak in hand, we can completely negate the risk involved in being aggressive by rewinding the clock to before we attacked. And it we get a Parallel Convergence off of his Called Shot signature spell, that further increases our offensive.

And Zilean, once he levels up, even furthers out capabilities by allowing us to reuse every spell we play. Combined with the Chronobreaks and Called Shots, this number of uses we have out of each card will let us get the most value out of our low mana curve.

The real weakness is that Ekko is extremely easy to kill, so this deck needs cards like Ancient Hourglass to keep him safe. That was the big issue I encountered in testing prior to the stream, and I’m glad there are some good answers in Shurima to help with that.

I’m still not sold on Lurk as an ability, but I’m open to being wrong. It just seems like there are better things to do with our mana/cards then set our top deck, especially with something as bad as Feral Prescience. It did better than I expected, but I still don’t think it’s good.

The Season of Sin continues, and Sloth continues to be the big theme. Only, this time it’s not Agent 47 who embodies the sin. Our target, in his criminal negligence, has created a body count that far exceeds our own. His victims and their families demand justice.

And we’re here to provide.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

I must admit that I was a little bummed out to discover that I could simply poison the fool with a cup of juice as if he was just another ordinary target in a sea full of them. However, I’ll not turn down a simple Silent Assassin rating if the opportunity presents itself.

What was far more interesting was my attempt to finish out the Gauchito Antiquity. That required far more thinking with regards to how one might manipulate the environment in order to poison 5 people at once. There’s probably a more elegant way to actually perform the kills once the poison activates, but a win is a win.

I’m glad to have that off my checklist.

Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters have all been felled by our hands, and as a result, we now have the first of four jars of our daughter’s body parts in our possession. Thus, we have three more of Mother Miranda’s lieutenants to go before we can finish our campaign.

If the remaining lords will not return to their thrones themselves, let them return as cinders. And of course, David Phillips is here to help me realize that goal.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

I expected each of the remaining lords to take about as long as Lady Dimitrescu did, so when we had defeated the second one before the first hour of the stream was completed, I was surprised. While I can certainly see how that would’ve been scary for a lot of people, it was harder for me to achieve the same frights because I both have played a lot of horror games over the past few years, and I have a co-host to play off of.

We’re also already approaching the point where, like every Resident Evil, the monsters become less scary because we are not only better at fighting them, but we’re doing so with superior weapons and more ammo. The Lycans that terrorized me in the first episode couldn’t hold up to a few well-aimed shotgun slugs directly in the chest. Even the larger, more mutated Lycan keeled over after taking several direct hits via explosives.

If our luck holds out, then the rest of the game should be smooth sailing.