The Providence Partners, scions to the three “great” families that composed the shadowy cabal controlling world events from the shadows, now lie dead. Only one target remains before the organization and all of its glory can be fully reduced to dust: The ever-elusive Arthur Edwards aka The Constant.

However, our actions have not gone unnoticed. The ICA has discovered that we’ve gone rogue and they have a mind to do something about it.

Fortunately, we’re more than capable of staying one step ahead of them. Let’s send a message that no one will soon forget.

Though I was not aware of the exact nature of the level in question, I knew that it was divisive. And I can understand why that is. There are many people who only play these games for the missions, and don’t care about the underlying narrative. For them, the segmentation between the two lets them ignore the parts they don’t care about to focus on what they do.

For me, I’ve been seriously invested in the overarching story-line with Agent 47, Diana, Grey, and Providence. Seeing that bleed over into the missions themselves was a cause for excitement for me.

It helps that the mission itself is thrilling enough on its own, especially for how it violates the established “rules-of-engagement”. As a Hitman player, I knew I was in for it when there was no briefing to introduce us to our objectives. That’s a signal that the devs are planning to mix up the formula.

Then came the prompt to identify and eliminate an unknown number of targets. While not the first time we’ve had to identify a target before in the World of Assassination, what makes it unique is that we had to do this on our own. No mission stories, no backup from Diana, just Agent 47 and our ability to read the map.

In this role, we’re less of an assassin and more of a hunter stalking prey. And yet, because the ICA agents are hunting us, they see through all of our disguises. It creates a unique dynamic all of its own.

I can’t wait to master this map.

PS: It is only a few days after this recording, when I’ve gone through the Berlin level a few times, that I realize the default suit for it is “Number Six” because it’s the suit Lucas Grey wears. Agent 47 is dressed in the clothes of his best friend in this mission as a tribute to him.

It’s such a beautiful, small detail.

We’ve once more returned to the lands of Runeterra. And this time, the power of Kpop can no longer protect us.

But that’s okay because we have our own form of protection: Barriers. By shielding our units, we can force some uncomfortable attacks and blocks to keep up the pressure.

As always, credit to Mobalytics for compiling the top deck lists, like the ones we use here.

Deck list: CECAGAIABENC2AYBAIQCWMIBAIAACAIDAADAGBABAAOSKMZUAIAQEEZFAEBQADQBAIAQAFJV

In concept, the deck is simple. We play high value units like Fiora and Rivershaper, that can accumulate card advantage through favorable trades or card draw.

And using creatures like Shen, or burst spells like Riposte and Spirit’s Refuge, to keep them safe by providing them barriers to survive combat. With Fiora, this will bring her closer to her alternate win condition. Meanwhile, Rivershaper will draw us a card to replace the combat trick we used to protect him.

If they keep a defensive posture, or force us into a painful block, we have fight spells like Single Combat and Concentrated Strike to take care of the units involved before they deal serious damage.

The trick is to avoid overtaxing our mana and make sure we always keep up enough to have some of our tricks at the ready. If we do, we can keep our opponent off balance by tricking them into making moves that look safe at first glance.

It’s a deck that allows the pilot to play reactively, which usually bodes well for the odds of success.

Agent 47 has once more come back into the limelight. Picking up from where we left off, the trail to Providence grows ever more visible. At long last, we’ve uncovered enough hidden truths to locate our quarry.

Welcome back to the World of Assassination. This is Hitman 3, and we’re going in blind.

Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.

As per usual, this is also an Improvisation Run. What that means is that while I’m not doing an Ironman playthrough, save scumming is heavily discouraged. The idea is basically to live with the consequences of my actions until doing so is no longer worth it.

It’s certainly a bold decision to open with no tutorial, delving right into the action. For me, there couldn’t be a better way to get started, except I’m also an enfranchised player who had the basics instilled in me from my combined over 200 hours with Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018). I wonder what that mission might feel like for someone who didn’t play either of the other games in this trilogy. There probably should have been a prompt to check to see if I wanted to play the ICA Facility tutorial before I got started, but that’s admittedly a minor criticism. I can’t deny that starting out with that view from the tallest building in the world is a statement.

As for the other map, it’s exactly the kind of gimmick that I adore. Those of you who know me personally might know that I’m a sucker for murder-mysteries. So when I heard that I had a chance to solve one while committing my own assassination, you better believe that I jumped at the chance.

Admittedly, it’s not a terribly difficult mystery. We figured out who the killer was in a matter of minutes, but still needed to obtain the proof to present our case. It’s not perfect, but to be honest it was more than I expected. I appreciate that they retooled the intel screen for the map to accommodate the need to know what people we’ve yet to interview and what places still need to be explored. When one considers that this is just part of a larger Hitman mission, rather than a fully-fleshed out detective game, they have to commend IO from trying.

What I won’t commend them on is the rollout for Hitman 3, particularly when it comes to enfranchised players, and among those, the ones of PC, like me, got the worst of it. Considering that all progress from Hitman 2 was connected to an IO account, I am shocked that all of us returning players needed to use a utility to manually schedule a transfer, instead of just having to link our accounts to synchronize progress between the two games.

Additionally, I still don’t have access to the Hitman 2 maps that I was promised would transfer over when I pre-ordered the game. They’ve stated that they’re working on it, but I need to see results before I trust that will happen. I might have to take advantage of that sale if it takes much longer.

A shame, because where IO should be celebrating, they’re instead having to deal with the fallout for not quite living up to their promises.

Update: Before this goes live, but after I wrote what I wrote above, I spent time achieving map mastery in both maps. While completing the challenges for Dartmoor, the mystery turns out to be significantly more interesting than first impressions might seem. Emma is certainly the killer, but given that our ultimate goal is to see Alexa dead, there are several intriguing interactions that spring from the facts we uncover (some of which I didn’t find in the run above). I can say no more without spoiling it for you all, but trust me there’s so much more to it.

Credits may have rolled, and the prince of the Underworld may have done the impossible to reunite his family, but that doesn’t mean we need to stop. There are still loose threads that remain, and they must be unraveled.

Let us join Zagreus, newly appointed Underworld Security Inspector, as he tries to bridge the gap between his infernal abode and the gods on Olympus.

I have had a number of builds in Hades that felt overpowered, but never before have I had something with the sheer damage output that I generated towards the end of this run.

And while much of that can be explained away with luck, this is the ultimate expression of how Hades allows a knowledgeable player to control for the randomness they were given. If the player knows what each god can offer, they can use that information in conjunction with the build they’ve crafted so far in order to make smart choices on what to gamble on.

When we notice that we’re not using the spin attack on the spear, we don’t mind taking the hammer upgrade for rapid attacks in exchange for giving up a spin attack. And once we’ve chosen to go down that road, we might as well double down on boons and perks that proc off of each hit.

Before we know it, we’re dumping thousands of damage on bosses before we can even blink. I’m still in awe at how quickly Theseus and Asterius both melted under the pressure.

Good times.

Some time ago, my friend and mutual Rob MacWolf aka Ajani On-the-Spot asked if I wanted to take part in a project of his.

Resident good person Sahoni recently wrapped up on the core mechanics of his tabletop RPG, Exceptionals. Inspired by X-Men, Exceptionals is “a game about community, activism, and kinetic eye beams”. (You can find out more from Sahoni’s thread here.)

From that description alone, I already knew this was going to be fun to take part in. And along with Rob, our other party members were played by Nenekiri Bookwyrm and Khaki Canidae, with Sahoni as Editor. (This game’s version of a GM.) Together, we all set a date, created our characters, and started our one-off session.

You can listen to the complete adventure in the podcast episodes below, or direct through this link:

This was some of the most fun I’ve had in quarantimes, and I was more than happy to set aside the time to take part.

Something that didn’t come through in the recording, but that I nonetheless want to call attention to, is that the rule book for the game does more than just explain how to set up and play Exceptionals. It also included a ton of tips and advice for people who may be relative novices to tabletop gaming, like me, to better create a welcoming environment conducive to playing a game with people.

I also had a very strong fondness for how, particularly in character/base creation, all of us brought in experiences and memories from our real life experiences and incorporated them into the setting of the game. Not only did that add so much flavor to what we were building, but it gave us a way to share part of ourselves with each other. That’s just tabletop gaming at it’s best.

The other thing that made me happy was seeing that every single person in the group, despite none of our characters having any combat-oriented powers, had an opportunity to “be the hero”.

I hope this is as much fun for you to listen to as it was for us to produce. 🙂

It’s been some time since our last outing in the world of Runeterra. The pop idol phenomenon may have left, but the cards it brought to us are here to stay.

One of those cards will serve as the basis for our deck. It’s time to Pack Your Bags because this deck will Go Hard and go fast.

As always, thanks go to Mobalytics for providing the decks we use in the streams.

Deck code: CECAEAYFAYIAMAQGAQERUHJGHIAQGBQIAEAQKMICAMAQKAIPGUAQGBIIAIAQCBJAAEBAMIA

As the title of the deck might imply, it’s built around utilizing the spell Go Hard. The way it works is that once we cast it, it drains something for 1, and then shuffles 2 copies of itself back into our deck. Once we play it 3 times, all copies in our deck transform into a card called Pack Your Bags, which deals 5 damage to our opponent and every unit they control.

While this doesn’t immediately end the game, it’s a powerful enough effect to turn the tables again most board states. If it’s immediately followed up with by an attack from a decent built up army, then it should easily overwhelm and overtake our opponent.

Our strategy is therefore twofold. First, we must quickly cycle through our deck in order to arrive at enough copies of Go Hard to play. This is why Twisted Fate is a card we have three copies of, alongside his list of versatile effects to play. We’ll be drawing so many cards that he’s likely going to be leveled up. And if he’s out, the other side will accelerate us further.

Secondly, we must build up a board of creatures that can capitalize on the opening created by Pack Your Bags. Elise and a few of our creatures are in the deck to help us on that front since they have strong stats at low costs to avoid eating into our other strategy.

And the sole copy of Gangplank, and with his merry band of Dreadway Deckhands, provide a third axis for us to operate on. Since Go Hard pings something for 1, and Pack Your Bags hits everything for 5, the Powder Kegs generated by these cards can power both of them up for a stronger effect. Gangplank himself is also a good follow up to Pack Your Bags because of his stat line.

It’s a powerful deck. As you can see, we had a really good match where we were dead to rights until we managed to complete our combo and overturn a board state that was one turn away from killing us. Talk about a photo finish.

At long last, our time-twisting, dimension-diving adventure has reached its end. And what better place to do so than at the place and moment it all began.

Yes, welcome back to 1996. On an archipelago off the coast of Australia, a mad scientist set upon a plan, building an army of mutated animals to take over the world. One bandicoot is selected to be the general of this army, and thus a blundering hero was born.

It’s up to us to make sure that remains the true course of history.

Thanks to ProsafiaGaming for their footage of the secret endings.

Watching the two Drs. Cortex interact with and play off of each other is some of the best dialogue in the game. Lex Lang once again turns in an incredible performance that captures the bumbling, yet clever and opportunistic nature of the character, and his contrasting younger counterpart.

And honestly, there’s no better way to end a game where “It’s About Time”, than this. In terms of the story, this gives us a strong bookend, where we return to the first scene of the original PS1 classic from a new perspective. For the gameplay, since Crash 1 was infamously difficult, the continual escalation in difficulty is justified. Factor in the element of nostalgia, and the finale could really only be set here.

While I clearly have my criticisms of the game, It’s About Time shows that Toys for Bob have fresh new ideas to bring to the franchise. Given what we’ve seen, I have no doubt that they could make an even better game now.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t the type of game I normally play. Simulation/”freeform” games where there’s no real goal but to play with the systems to see what can be done with them don’t capture my attention. I’m the kind of player who needs a goal, or some other hook that gives me something to work towards.

But I’m also not one to shy away from a new experience, especially when that comes on somebody else’s dime. Thanks to Wil/anaphysik, from the Disclosure Alert/Closure Alert Let’s Plays for gifting me this over the Holidays.

I’m very pleasantly surprised that I got into it.

I’m not going to say I’ve “mastered” Stellaris after playing for a grand total of 5 hours, but I feel like I understand enough to the game to start to grasp the mechanics of the game.

What I found after playing it was that once the initial intimidation subsided, and my comfort level grew, Stellaris turned out to be quite relaxing. This is exactly the type of game I could find myself zoning out to while watching something on YouTube/Netflix or listening to a podcast in the background.

There’s a lot here to learn, but thanks to the real time w/ pause system and low stakes, I have all the time in the world to do so. Admittedly, I don’t know often I will find myself coming back to it, but I’m glad that Wil introduced me to it nonetheless.

With the aid of our new companions, we’ve finally defeated Dr N Tropy and his female counterpart from another world. Together, the quantum masks use their power to repair the fabric of spacetime. Our world saved, there’s not much more to do aside from hang out in the Sn@xx Dimension until we can hitch a ride back home.

Shouldn’t be too complicated, right? Nothing’s going to go wrong and… who am I kidding?

Thanks to GarlandTheGreat for the video we used in lieu of finishing The Crate Escape.

The more I think about that set-piece, platforming over falling shipping containers, the more convinced I am that a simple mechanic to slow down or stop time when the player stands still would have gone a long way to making it a little more doable. I remember having trouble with it in my casual run, but even then it didn’t kill me anywhere near as many times as it did here.

A problem that my stream chat also helpfully pointed out is that the adaptive difficulty system really can’t do much to make that section any easier. It could (and did) provide me Aku Aku masks, but those aren’t terribly useful. Most of my deaths came from mistiming jumps and falling, which isn’t something the masks protect from. A checkpoint would’ve been more helpful, but because the whole segment is fully in motion, there’s no safe zone to place one.

Which means if a player is having trouble, there’s not much that can be done to make it easier on them. They just have to grin and bear it, even after the Cortex section. I’d hardly call myself the best video game player around, but I’ve been around the block and played my fair share. I can’t imagine handing a segment like this to the 10-year old demographic that this game is rated for.

Hopefully, if Toys for Bob is given the chance to make another new Crash game, they can correct for some of these mistakes and make a better one for it.

Our adventures have proceeded apace and we’ve already found ourselves in possession of three of the four quantum masks. With one more left, our oldest enemy, Dr. Neo Cortex, has chosen to show himself.

Though our power has yet to reach its peak, we must nonetheless confront that would-be tyrant and stop his plans for world domination. Once he’s taken care of, surely there will be no twists. No other threats will appear and space-time will be free to mend itself.

Right?

RIGHT!?

This is the part towards the end of the game where the story begins to start playing the cards in its hand. Thankfully, because Toys for Bob made a number of intelligent choices in their cast and storytelling, it’s also one of the most joyous for an old Crash fan like myself to run through. Every character was handled with love and care, both for their backstories and how they might be brought to a modern audience.

In particular, I want to talk about Cortex’s characterization, especially after we defeat him once more. In this canon, where nothing beyond the PS1 games has happened, this is the fourth time he has lost to Crash Bandicoot. At this point, he’s not so much out to take over the world as he is to salvage what might yet remain of his pride. Once N Tropy reveals his own betrayal, that just tips him over the edge.

It’s fun to watch a villain join the good guys, and try to wrestle with what it means to “switch teams”. Even moreso when there are multiple axes to explore that position from. One could interpret this as merely an act of self-preservation, since N Tropy has outright stated he intends to erase Cortex from existence. Another might say it’s simple revenge for being slighted by his so-called partner. Still one more explanation is that he’s concluded that evil can’t win, so the only way to achieve that long-sought victory is by switching sides. Any one, or any combination, of those theories has enough evidence in the text to support it.

Praise should also go to Lex Lang for clearly having the time of his life reprising the role. Cortex is exactly the kind of over-the-top, completely absurd villain that completely steals the stage whenever he’s on screen. That larger-than-life (and certainly taller-than-its-owner) personality is so accurately captured in his performance. We haven’t gotten to see the best of Cortex yet, but what we have seen is truly delightful.

This is the work of a team who knows these characters and how they tick, and I hope they’ll get the chance to continue their work after this game. They’ve certainly earned it.