At long last, our fight is over. The Flood has been eliminated, as has 343 Guilty Spark. The remnants of the Covenant are working with us to establish something akin to a lasting peace between our peoples. And the Master Chief sleeps, until such a time as he is needed once more.

But although that fight has ended, our time with Halo has not. Sometime after this grand finale, Bungie released another adventure in the Halo franchise, one where we do not play as the Master Chief.

Instead, we play as a highly-trained, yet otherwise ordinary team of humans as they fight the Covenant without the aid of Spartan Enhancements. These are the ODSTs, and this is their story.

What strikes most about ODST is how it differentiates itself from the games that came before it while still being recognizably a Halo game.

Most interestingly, there’s a noticeably darker atmosphere here than in previous games. The lighting is moodier, and the background music evokes an eerie vibe. Mechanically, this is accompanied by a feeling of disempowerment since the ODSTs aren’t quite as sturdy and lack some of the abilities of the Master Chief, like dual-wielding. ODST is about as difficult as the other Halo games, but they throw us against limited groups of foes, throwing us into larger arenas where we have to utilize the terrain for hit-and-run tactics. As a player, we feel that we’re punching above our weight class and using every advantage we can to turn the tide.

The method of storytelling also works extremely well for me. It was smart to use The Rookie as a framing device to transition from one character to the next in a multiple perspective story. The writers are doing an excellent job at seeding just enough plot points to keep us hooked as we move from set piece to set piece.

I look forward to continuing this, and I’m glad that I’ve finally decided to play through the Halo games.

Another update has hit Legends of Runeterra and with it a new region and a whole host of new cards. This time, we’re set to explore the sands of Shurima: The Egyptian-themed region from League of Legends.

But if I’m being honest, I only know it as the place where Nasus and Renekton, characters I have seen in heaps upon heaps of fanart, hail from. Let us explore what these new Champions bring to the table.

As always, thanks to Mobalytics for compiling the deck lists we made use of. The deck lists are:

• Life After Death (Thresh/Nasus): CEBAMBAHBUNCMLZ3KECQCBJCFAVTCNACAECAKEACAECQCHIBAEAQKGI
• Azir Scouts (Azir/Lucian): CECAKBAHAMNBYM25AIBAAAQJAIAQAFRBAECAAAYBAMAQACI5GMCACAQAA4AQGAAOAEAQAFIBAQDTS
• Shurima Overwhelm (Renekton/Sivir/Sejuani): CEBQQBAHAEFRYJRNG5BV2AIDAEBAEAIBDIPQEAIEAEFAEBAHCRCQCAICAEBA

As an avid fan of Aristocrats-style decks in Magic: The Gathering, the new Slay mechanic embodied by Nasus is of particular interest to me. A unit, ally or enemy, is “slain” by us if one of our damage source or kill effects is the one to deliver the final blow. This also includes abilities that allow us to kill one of our own units for a benefit, like Glimpse Beyond.

In essence, that makes the goal of the Nasus deck to murder as much as possible to make him strong, since each “slain” unit boosts his power even further. If we can summon him and keep getting rid of our opponent’s strongest units, it should be easy to finish the game after a few attacks. And since we have so many ways to gain cards and value out of killing our own forces, we should have enough resources to keep ourselves afloat for the long haul.

In contrast, Azir promotes a more aggressive strategy, which I find more difficult to pilot personally. The goal with him is to abuse his trigger, along with other effects, to create a disposable army of ephemeral units that can hopefully overwhelm the enemy. And thanks to Inspiring Marshall and Cithria the Bold, these temporary soldiers should be able to take out a large part of our opponent’s board, if not their life total. Alternatively, I’ve seen him pair with Shadow Isles to take advantage of the bodies being created, but I didn’t use that deck here.

And that leaves Renekton and Sivir, who are both two extremely powerful fighters. Both of them, when combined with cards that either make enemies vulnerable or give them challenger, can devastate enemies by eliminating their most valuable units. The more damage they deal, the stronger they grow.

There’s a lot to like in this expansion, and I look forward to playing around and seeing how this changes the meta.

At long last, we have arrived at the end of the original Halo trilogy. Our long batter against numerous powerful foes has concluded, and we emerged victorious.

What I enjoy most about the finale is how expertly the writers thread the needle between all of the competing factions fighting on Earth. Many of the relationships established in earlier Halo games earn strong payoffs in this one.

The example that readily comes to mind is the moment where the Flood briefly becomes our ally because all parties involved have a mutual interest in making sure the Halo ring doesn’t get fired. However, once that threat has been eliminated and the Arbiter kills Truth, the alliance immediately dissolves. Watching the Flood take over the bodied we just created really sells the moment, as they usurp the role of primary antagonist. Bonus points for infecting Truth with the Flood so that he dies as a vision of the very monster he feared most.

At the very end, there’s a similar payoff for Guilty Spark. After playing the first game, I knew the moment he showed up on screen that he wasn’t to be trusted. And yet, in that moment it’s obvious to the Elites, the humans, and Guilty Spark that all three parties had a reason to work together. Of course, it only took a single misstep to sever that spirit of cooperation. Even knowing from the first that there was only one way it could end, I still fooled myself into thinking maybe it turned over a new leaf.

This was a satisfying conclusion, and I look forward to continuing with the Master Chief Collection. Next up, unless something draws my interest in the coming week, is ODST. I’ve heard many good things about this standalone DLC, so we’ll see how well it holds up. 🙂

It’s funny that out of all the Elusive Targets we could go after for our first in the new Hitman, it would be The Deceivers. They were the last target I ever played on stream for Hitman 2, in a run that was technically a success.

Let’s see if we fare better in the second round.

It’s an improvement, if nothing else. Hopefully, as we do more of these Elusive Targets and Escalations again, my skills will continue to improve.

The fight against Truth continues, as he brings with him a legion on that enemy hated by both humanity and the Covenant.

That’s right: The Flood has made contact with Earth.

Out of all the Flood-related levels I’ve played in the trilogy up until now, this is definitely the best of the bunch. It’s paced well while establishing the threat and what it can do for those who haven’t played the first two games in the series. The new enemy types also give these encounters a much more dynamic structure than the monotonous slogs we’ve received prior.

My attention was also drawn to the fact that the Elites were finally fighting alongside us in order to defeat a mutual threat. It felt good to see the two sides cooperating as they realize there’s more to gain from that than fighting against each other.

Even 343 Guilty Spark has joined this alliance of ours. I fully expect him to betray us at some point, but there’s a distinct “Gang’s All Here” vibe that I’m getting from all of this.

It’s exactly what I would want to see from the finale to a trilogy like this.

You all knew that I wasn’t just going to stop playing Hitman just because the campaign had come to an end. While I enjoy the story in the World of Assassination trilogy, it wasn’t what brought me here. That was, and remains, the immersive sim gameplay which rewards quick thinking and improvisation.

The most recent patch added in two new escalations for those of us who purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game. What better occasion than that exists to return one of my favorite franchises of all time?

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

What I find cool about both of these escalations is how they progress over their stages, forming something of a story over the course of the contract. The Proloff Parable is a good example of this, where we start with a simple task of suiting up as the ninja, finding our sword, and using it on our target before moving on to the next stage.

Rather than expand on what we did in the previous stage, by adding a new objective or mechanic to what we’ve done, we look forward. Having already cleared that section of the train, our katana acquiring a thirst for blood, we now must sate it. It’s a race against time to run as quickly as we can through the bulk of the level, killing everyone in our path, leaving a trail of devastation in our wake.

But once that’s done, we ditch our blade to equip our sniper rifle to take out our next target, clearing the path ahead. Once more, the contact could choose to expand on our bloody conquest by making it even more difficult or introducing some new limitation. Instead, we proceed to the final stretch of our train invasion.

And this time, our aim isn’t to leave a trail of bodies in our wake. Instead, we must act with the stealth, grace, and precious of a shinob… master assassin. We can’t even pacify the guards, and we instantly lose if we’re so much as spotted.

With just this one 3-stage escalation, we’re treated so many styles of Hitman. Further, we get this interesting little mini-story of a ninja who took up a cursed blade with a thirst for blood, learned to control it through death and destruction, before mastering it and using his training to complete the job. There’s so many axes of engagement that most players should find something here to like.

I can only hope we start to get even more of these as the months go on. Next time, we’ll get the chance to take out an Elusive Target. It’s been ages since my last go (and ironically it’s against the same target), and I look forward to it.

It’s been quite some time since we last left Arby and the Chef, but the work remains unfinished. While we’ve shown the Covenant the error of their ways, their forces yet persist in their genocidal campaign.

There’s no one better equipped than us to stop them.* Indeed, it’s time to Finish the Fight.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

*I’m told there are, in fact, many people better equipped than I to play this game.

I’m not surprised that Halo 3 didn’t get the full treatment that the previous two games did in The Master Chief Collection. It’s a logical choice given that Halo: CE and Halo 2 were original Xbox games and needed that kind of love. Once we hit the 360, games like Halo 3 were already native HD so they don’t need to have increased resolution for modern monitors. While some aspects, like the faces, didn’t age that well, the game still looks good.

What did surprise me was both how many chapters that we completed in this initial two hours. It seems both that we’re flying through the campaign and that we haven’t actually advanced the story all that much just yet, which concerns me a little.

Additionally, I thought that Halo 2 was a lethal game, but Halo 3 is giving me cause to reconsider. I’ve noticed my shields melting way fasting than I remember from either of the previous two.

As for new features, perhaps it’s because I don’t play much multiplayer, but I don’t see the bubble shield and all of those other consumable items adding too much to the campaign itself. While most of the new weapons seem decent, the only one that stands out to be is that Gravity Hammer. That thing feels so good to swing!

I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of what this campaign has to offer.

I am almost constantly on the hunt for new games to play on the Wednesday variety streams. Ideally, it’s a game that doesn’t have much of a story/campaign (those make more sense for my Sunday streams), and only need an hour or so to make meaningful progress in.

Looking through my Steam profile, I remembered that Monster Train was both a game I already owned and one that friends of mine had strongly recommended to me.

So let’s go for it!

This hits in exactly the same way that Slay the Spire does. It feels good to build up your deck by adding, enhancing, and removing cards until you’ve created a robust engine that can annihilate anything that stands in its way.

What changes the way this game plays out is the use of units and turn-based strategy elements on top of the combat system popularized by Slay the Spire. There’s a lot of tactical thinking that goes into positioning units to make sure they can survive wave after wave, while still dishing out enough damage to make sure the enemy dies before they can reach the top of the train.

And this VOD really highlights how different a smart run can be from one where I’m still learning the ropes. In the second run, thanks to some helpful advice from chat, we nearly blew away the final boss on the first, letting our units on the second floor mop him up without issue.

It’s exactly the kind of game I’ve more than eager to keep playing.

The ICA has played its hand, and it lost. Not only have we eliminated some of its best and brightest, but we only leaked the details of all its operations to the public.

It is an End to an Era, but only a single step in our path. Arthur Edwards is still out there, and Providence will remain a threat so long as he lives. Thankfully, an old friend has the perfect plan in mind to get us as close as we need to be.

We just need to help her out before she’s safe to return the favor.

For someone like me, who has played all of the Hitman games, seeing Diana Burnwood in a level, as an NPC we can interact with, is genuinely shocking. She’s always been a presence in the series, but she was always an offsite operative. Her role was to monitor and help Agent 47 remotely as his handler.

Even more unique is seeing Agent 47 act as his own handler. They tried something similar in Hitman: Absolution. Unfortunately, they game fell flat on its face for a whole multitude of reasons. Perhaps due to the fact that this story has been delivered to us slowly over the course of several years, it feels far more natural and believable this time around for 47 to grow into his own as a character.

Speaking of which, I’ve been playing in this World of Assassination since the first part of this new trilogy came out in 2016. This is the finale to a story I’ve grown invested in over the course of almost five years. I’m ultimately happy with the way it ends, wrapping up all lingering plot threads while still leaving room for future Hitman games. Though I won’t deny that it’s strange to not be looking forward to another sequel and set of levels in roughly two years’ time.

As a whole, this trilogy is one of the strongest set of stealth games I have ever played. While Blood Money is a legendary video game, the new Hitman games offer so much more in terms of level and mechanical design. Ever aspect of them has so much care and polish put into it that one cannot help but marvel at the complete package.

More than that, in an era where many major studios go for a gritty, hyper-realistic look and feel, a game that is unapologetically “video game-y” is such a breath of fresh air. I don’t want to say there’s no place for realism in-game. At the same time, I just want to disguise myself as a supermodel to walk the runway or drop a giant moose on an evil banker’s head.

We don’t need to shy away from the absurd. And often it’s a stronger statement to embrace and play with it.

PS: I wanted to call attention to this piece by Diego Arguello over at Polygon, detailing the care IO took into realizing his native Argentina in the Mendoza map.

I think it’s safe to say the Covid-19 has dramatically changed the way we go about our daily lives. To many of us, it has directly affected either us or people we know and care about.

In recognition of that fact, the developers at Ndemic Creations created a new mode for their cult classic, Plague Inc., where we aren’t eliminating all of humanity with a deadly disease. Instead, we take the role of an international task force charged with putting an end to the pandemic before it spirals out of control.

Additionally, The Cure was developed in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to help promote policies and strategies necessary to combat the ongoing crisis that impacts so many of us.

The thing that stands out most to me is how much this mode is centered around researching, producing, and then releasing the vaccine, to the point where it is the ultimate win condition of the game. Once it’s successfully out in the wilds, it’s only a matter of time before the disease is eradicated. It’s a subtle, yet powerful message in an era where anti-vaxxers and other misinformation is dreadfully commonplace.

I also can’t help but call attention to crucial it is in game to keep the population happy in the middle of the pandemic. If people are suffering because they’re quarantined and unable to work, they’ll start to ignore the safety protocols the player has already put into place. This stresses the real world importance of economic relief that so many world leaders seem completely unwilling to provide in the current climate.

The last element of The Cure that caught my attention was that vaccine production could begin even before research had been completed. This is why, in both games, our production was mostly wrapped up before our research was. While I couldn’t find any evidence that this is the case in real life, I imagine there is some truth to it. Otherwise, we likely wouldn’t have Covid vaccines developed at the speed we have in the reality.

Since the devs have taken the time to use their platform for a social good, especially since this update is free “until the pandemic is under control”, the least I can do is use my own platform to help spread the message.