If you’ve ever had a conversation with me regarding The Elder Scrolls series, you’ll know that my favorite game in it is Oblivion. I think it has some of the best quest design in modern RPGs, and still plays well today, even if its visuals are dated. Since I had some spare time over the summer, I decided it would be a good idea to download the PC copy I purchased years ago and replay the game. Unlike my previous runs, which have always been on PS3 since that’s all I had at the time, I went in with the benefits of mods.
Among the various mods I downloaded was the Curse of Hircine mod, which appealed to me for two reasons. For one, it offered a brand new way to play the game, under a set of conditions I am not used to. And on top of that, I am furry trash who relishes in the idea of transforming into a big, strong werewolf. However, not even I would have been able to predict the end result from installing one, single mod. What follows is a chronicle of my journey into the darkness, embracing the animal my character had become.
As you might expect, one does not simply install a werewolf mod without wanting to play as the mythical monster themselves. I am no exception to this rule, and I molded my Khajit character accordingly. He trained in various physical disciplines, including unarmed combat, archery, stealth, athletics and acrobatics. A natural-born hunter, Rabrandt “the Wildborn”, as he was known, spent the majority of his time in the countryside exploring ruins and old fortresses in order to further hone his already deadly abilities. Eventually, he knew he would encounter someone who would be able to help him achieve his ultimate goal: To become a werewolf, an apex predator. A long time admirer of these creatures, the Wildborn began to desire that same power. And for the trial ahead, his body and mind had to be ready.
Before long, his quarry was found. A raving mad, nearly-naked lunatic rampaging in the forests, southwest of the Imperial City. Any other adventurer would have given such a man a wide berth, but not Rabrandt. These same signs were indicative of the very same disease the hunter sought. Sanies Lupinus, otherwise known as Lycanthropy, was within his grasp. Fists at the ready, he charged ahead. The fight was a tough one, but not because his opponent had the upper hand. Since the disease can only be passed on while the infected is alive, Rabrandt had to prolong the fight until he could feel the illness take hold within his system. Only when it was clear that his goal had been achieved, the ‘illness’ passed on to its new ‘victim’, did he finish the job with a iron-fisted blow to the skull.
At this point, all that was left was to give Sanies Lupinus time to fully take hold, passed the point where it could be cured, and wait until the light of the next full moon illuminated the night sky. Finally, after what seemed like eons, it had happened. Collapsing onto the ground, howling in masochistic pleasure, the Wildborn’s feline qualities began to change… replaced with more primal, lupine features. No one could say his original form was weak, with all the care he took to shape it. However, the former body of a warrior was replaced by that of a titan. Limbs expanded, packed with muscle stronger than steel. Claws and fangs sharpened to razor sharp points. Senses honed such that no living being could escape their notice. Footpads padded to be so quiet that one wouldn’t sense their sound until it was far too late.
Given the title of this report, this is likely where you think the story ends. Rabrandt became a monster and used his newfound power to inflict unholy terror upon the citizens of Cyrodil. If that is the case, you were mistaken. The former feline knew that he would have to contend with a craving for human flesh every time his bestial nature was unleashed. For that reason, until he could develop a strong enough will to subsist off cattle, he vowed to only use this might on the deserving. He was a hunter, not a murderer. And even in the context of man, there were creatures most foul, whom no one would miss. Prowling the countryside, bandits and highwaymen ran rampant. They would serve as the necessary sacrifices to keep his cravings in check while maintaining his own humanity.
And for a long time, that is how Rabrandt continued his existence. He continued to develop his skills, to become the perfect representation of the ultimate hunter that now lurked within his body and soul. But beyond that, he developed ways to coexist with society, even if they would deem him a monster if they discovered his true nature. This fragile balance between part of, yet fundamentally separated from, society is what eventually drew him towards the Thieves’ Guild. Those same talents that made him an effective predator also proved useful in a life spent stealing from the rich and powerful. Furthermore, the Guild’s policy against murder would serve as an effective check against his own burgeoning bloodlust.
With his combined earnings from dungeoneering and burglary, Rabrandt began to make additional preparations for his monthly excursions, when the moon brought out his true self. In order to provide safe places to rest, recuperate, and transform away from prying eyes, bought property in nearly every major city in Cyrodil. Wherever innocent people lived, there was a place that he could call home. This too continued for quite some time and life continued as normal for the Wildborn, as he climbed the ranks of the Guild he began to think of as a second family.
Once a month, during the 3 nights of the full moon, the feline-turned-canine warrior used his superhuman strength and regenerative abilities to purge the roads of threats to wayward travelers, feeding his inner beast by devouring them, leaving naught but bone. He had been called on to deal with problems up to and including the deplorable Skooma trade, even if his clients weren’t aware of what were hiring in order to keep their towns and loved ones safe.
And yet, all things must eventually come to an end. In this case, one lapse in judgement altered Rabrandt’s fate irrevocably. While on Thieves’ Guild business, the rogue-warrior found himself wandering the streets of Anvil late at night. Tired from a day of sneaking into Castle Anvil, he checked in at a local hotel to spend the night. As he shut his door and prepared for bed, he felt the call. For once, the transformation would take him by surprise, and he didn’t have time to vacate the area before it happened. By fortune’s good grace, nobody witnessed the light of the full moon draw the beast within to the surface, but that was only the first of many obstacles.
It was clear that if Rabrandt wanted to keep the townsfolk unharmed, he would need to make a break for the city gate, which was easier said-than-done. Getting out of the hotel wasn’t a challenge. It’s guests were too scared to do anything but run. However, when the guards in the street saw a monster on the loose, they moved into action. Rabrandt knew that even if he left now, they would merely give chase until they found and killed their lycanthrope. The one blessing he had was that he was still anonymous, even under the circumstances. If he couldn’t shake them until morning, he would be discovered. Given how tenacious watchmen tended to be, there was only one option…. They needed to die.
This didn’t mean the fight was an easy one, as city guardsmen are highly trained and equipped with silver weaponry. Still, despite an aggravating healing factor due to his legendary weakness, Rabrandt was able to win the battle and escape… or so he thought. During his retreat, while formulating plans to indulge in his bestial hunger, he failed to notice another wave of town watchman had begun to tail him. Though the beast had traveled far, and fast, away from Anvil, they had managed to keep up with him. Again, with his options depleted, the lycanthrope resolved to bare his fangs. This time, free of the confines of the city, they didn’t stand a chance. As the final blow had been struck, a couple of wayward werewolf hunters stumbled onto the grizzly scene. Valiantly though the struggled, they too could not hope to win against a monster or such strength and skill.
Alone, left to observe his grizzly handiwork, Rabrandt’s instincts were beginning to take hold. So many corpses… freshly killed meat… and there was only one thing to do. That craving had to be sated.
Ten people were murdered that night. When the wolf assumed his feline guise once more, there was something different about him. Despite what had happened, there was no room in his heart for remorse or guilt. In fact, he marveled at how easy it had all been. A lesser man would have been tempted to blame “the beast”, but he was no fool. Bloodlust and the transformation notwithstanding, he was perfectly aware of what he was doing. That realization was, in his mind, liberating. He still made sure to maintain a veneer of humanity while around civilization, pretending to be an upstanding member of society. And yet, the reluctance to take life was gone. When the moon shone brightly in the sky, and his full strength was unleashed, it didn’t matter where he changed, so long as no witnesses remained alive. Bandit camps, city streets, countryside inns, were all nothing more than farms, their populations reduced to cattle in his mind.
And one night, awakened from his slumber, Rabrandt would be visited by a robed man, a representative of a dark organization. Unlike the Thieves’ Guild, who would absolutely turn on him if they learned of his true nature, this group promised to accept him, embrace him and the talents he had worked so hard to cultivate. His new life had begun, and a new reign of terror with it…

Despite having one of the worst, most corrupt partners in the entire LAPD, we join detective Cole Phelps in attempting to crack down on corrupt drug trade.

But no crime can escape us so long as we’re to do a bit of Detective Work – LA Noire.

It strange that despite the length, most of the juiciest meat takes part towards the end of this episode. We’ve talked about many of these things before, but it bears repeating. Despite not being developed by Rockstar, LA Noire still suffers from the hallmarks of their design: An over-infatuation with open worlds doesn’t make any meaningful contributions to the game. And like most Rockstar games, it tends to bring in complicated themes without doing much with them, as if they have to prove how adult their writing is.

But in addition to all of that, there’s the weird scene where Cole Phelps, a married man, goes out of his way to have an affair with a woman he’s grown infatuated with. During my first playthrough of the game, I remember being taken aback by this twist. Over time, I’ve warmed up a lot more to it, but to explain requires more details that we’ll talk about in later cases.

The other crucial detail this plot does get into is the corrupt nature of the LAPD. I’m not going to discuss the historical corruption of the force at the time LA Noire takes place, though you should look it up for yourself as it’s a very fascinating topic. What is worth nothing is the way the department as a whole, even “good” cops like Cole Phelps, get bent towards protecting this corruption even if they’d be otherwise opposed to it.

Sure, he gets in his subtle acts of rebellion against the authorities at play, like with the boxer on that fixed match, but he’d ultimately still fall in line because otherwise he’d be shaking the boat too much. And as a glory hound with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove, Cole Phelps can’t stand the idea of risking his position.

Core Set 2020 has finally dropped in Magic Arena, and new decks are being developed as I write this. However, as I’m coming back from AnthroCon, I didn’t have much time to build a new construct of my own.

So let’s run a favorite deck of mine, Grixis Control, and see what new strategies people have come up with in the downtime. You can find the deck I piloted here, if you’re interested. (I can’t take credit for it.)

There’s not a whole lot to say about my deck’s strategy. The goal is to summon one of the two Nicol Bolas cards and stall the game long enough to get to one of their ultimates, winning the game. To that end, it’s packed with cards like Narset to search for spells and removal to keep the opponent from getting a board presence.

What I am interested in is the various new decks I encountered in this stream. In particular, it is difficult to overlook the effectiveness of Temur Elemental decks. In particular, Risen Reef seems to be doing a lot of work for them. Between that the number of ways they have to accelerate mana, I get the impression it will be a major force over the next year of the format.

Another thing I want to call attention to is the… brief brush we have with the MTGA update system. After being in open beta for so long, the update issues really should have been addressed by now. In any other online game, the client would be able to handle updates as they come in, but in Arena players manually have to apply each update as they come. And as this game updates frequently, that can happen multiple times in the same week. It’s nothing game breaking, but it’s a minor annoyance that compounds after time a new patch is released.

What may potentially be game breaking is the new Mastery system, along with many of the other changes the monetization scheme has gone through since the beginning of Arena. Between all the cosmetics like sleeves, player avatars, and card styles, there are a ton of things players can spend gems (purchased with real world money) to customize their game. And yet, it is difficult for a free-to-play player to keep up with new sets without dropping even more money on packs. Against my better judgement, I’ve even spend real money to buy the gems I need for card packs more than a few times.

This Mastery system goes even farther to make packs harder to obtain through playing the game. In the old model, every 5 wins in a given week, up to 15 wins. would net the player a guaranteed pack of the latest set. But now, those 5 wins might advance the same player a mastery level, which might net them a pack (and maybe only if they bought the gold-tier mastery track like a Battle Pass in Fortnite). It’s noticeably more predatory, meaning that packs are harder to come by.

I don’t feel comfortable supporting the game the way I used to, and while I’ll still play it because I enjoy the Standard format, I have to seriously think about my long-term prospects with Arena.

Our adventures in the seedy underbelly of LA continue as we throw our lot in with one of the most corrupt cops in town. It’s up to us to bring some professionalism to this relationship as we perform… Detective Work.

This is the fourth time I have played through LA Noire, and while no one would ever accuse Roy Earle of being a decent person. However, it’s hard not to notice certain tendencies in his character.

Specifically, there is a noticeable tendency in these early Vice cases for deliberately antagonist and bully minorities and people of color. Not to mention that literally every minority in the Vice desk involved in the drug trade (even the victims). There’s nothing inherently wrong with incorporating these ideas. As I said on stream, it might be worthwhile to use this as a vehicle to make comments on the nature of police work in 1950’s LA.

The problem is that they never follow through on why this is a problem and what the effects of this attitude are. Roy Earle is offered the chance to defend his stance by saying that he’s not interesting in stopping the drug trade so much as controlling it, but this ignores the real life consequences. The people we book in drug-related cases are never the people in charge, profiting off the trade. It’s always the middle, non-white, man.

Meanwhile, the usually-wealthy top brass is spared, because they can afford to bribe the LAPD to look the other way. Roy’s idea of “control”, whether he’s aware of it or not, is to wield the law as a cudgel against the downtrodden and keep those in power where they are. All of this is there, but the game doesn’t appear interested in threading the needle.

And given how openly corrupt Earle is, openly conspiring with drug lords to fix a boxing match for big profits, it wouldn’t be difficult to make that leap. Our resident boy scout, Cole Phelps, is clearly uncomfortable with the arrangement, but never goes so far as to point this out or confront his new partner. He sits in silence, like a good patsy. (Though his act of rebellion and hostility in “The Set Up” does deserve notice and appreciation).

It’s such a shame. I would love this game a lot more if it did more to than just bring up this injustices in an effort to score brownie point. As it stands, it feels like it barely scratches the surface.

I’m always eager for another reason to reinstall and open up Hitman 2 again, and a new level seemed like the perfect excuse. Even better, turns out that new level continues directly off of the campaign from the base game, so let’s get right to it.

Back when I was running through Hitman (2016), my biggest criticism was that as much as I loved the episodic model, it had a glaring flaw in that the updates have to be substantive. Anything less than a massive, sprawling map would give off the impression that IO wasn’t creating “enough content” for the players.

While I love that game, and have spent tons of time in those maps, mastering them and taking on targets as they are added to the game, they didn’t leave much room for smaller, more intimate Hitman levels. Some of my favorite missions in the older games took place in more enclosed spaces, like the birthday party in Blood Money. Those missions also served to break up the larger levels for pacing purposes.

The base campaign of Hitman 2 went back to that with the tutorial level, and the suburban stage, and it’s good to see them continuing to make stages at this size. It gives them another tool in the toolbox to make use of as they see fit.

It’s also, quite honestly, just good to be playing new story missions in Hitman again. This is one of my favorite franchises, and to see it keep being supporting like this warms the heart.

At last, we finally complete the Homicide desk in this episode, resolving the lingering plot threads and arriving at the end of this long, tiresome road.

I want to start off by saying that I’m glad I was able to demonstrate the problem I talked about in my last LA Noire post, where we need to pin the murder on one of the two suspects despite the fact that there’s clearly another person who committed the crime, with evidence that is circumstantial at best. I was afraid I’d never get the chance to explain it on video.

In addition, it’s getting harder to ignore how many technical issues I’ve having with the PC version of the game. I’ve played LA Noire on PS3 numerous times, and never before have I had issues like I do now. The investigation music never concluding has been a problem since the start of the playthrough, but the visual glitches seen throughout the final Homicide case were new to me. This is, to be blunt, a bad version of the game, and I’d recommend playing it on any other platform than PC.

One of the people in chat made a great point that the open world aspect of the game doesn’t add to the game much, if at all, and they were spot on in that analysis. Even in the last case for Homicide, where you have to deduce which location is being referred to in each new clue, doesn’t benefit from having an open world. There are collectibles and side missions, but they don’t meaningfully add to the story in the way that something like the Artifacts in Tomb Raider (2015) did.

My final point is regarding the actual conclusion of Homicide and why it’s a disappointment. The entire questline is based on the infamous Black Dhalia case, one of the most well-known unsolved murders in American history. In the fiction of LA Noire, this is but one in a series of serial murder cases perpetrated by a single individual.

However, since the true killer in the real life was never caught, the related cases that Cole Phelps investigates also can’t be solved “correctly”. This final case is framed as the great denouement of the whole desk, where after all of the false convictions, we can at last get it right and bring a menace to justice. And we do…

…except that it’s quietly covered up because the killer is related to an (unnamed) politician. There’s no catharsis, and no real pay off other than the fact that no more women will fall victim to him. It falls flat, but it has to because the source material is a case that was never solved.

And this is largely why the whole desk falls flat in turn. We spend so much time chasing phantoms and when we finally catch them nothing comes of it. It feels lame, and underwhelming to the extreme.

It’s been a while since we last saw everyone’s favorite murder-comedian. And yet, here we are with another Elusive Target.

Watch me execute another perfect, flawless hit where I only kill the necessary targets.

I swear to you, it was completely necessary to kill all of those guards.

In all seriousness, this just goes to show one that sometimes, all it takes is just one mistake to make things fall completely off the rails. Things were going so well, and I had successfully poisoned the target I thought would be hardest to take out. (Ironically, I think this exact same scenario happened when I took this guy out in Hitman 1, just with a big fat failure instead.)

Going from completely stealthy to… almost every guard on campus coming after me at the same time was quite the experience. And during that very protracted shoot out, there were several moments where I could have lost everything if I got reckless. Any moment I had to travel forward, into the pile of bodies, was a moment where I could have been easily ambushed.

At the same time, this also goes to show that one can, in fact, recover from mistakes. Sure, this wasn’t my most elegant performance in Hitman. However, it was still a successful run. Once the guards stopped coming after me, it was relatively easy to steal a uniform from the pile of bodies sitting there, and just walk away as if nothing happened. I was even able to execute the target with next to no resistance on account of the carnage.

So yeah. Not the best run of an Elusive Target, but a successful kill is a successful kill.

Another session in the arena, and another deck type too try out. This time, we pilot another variant of the Esper deck: Esper Hero.

You can find the decklist here.


First off, I’m disappointed that I lost my cool like that in the middle of the stream. In hindsight, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the deck itself. Rather, the problem was that I was piloting a midrange deck in a best-of-one format, which isn’t conducive to the strength of the deck.

The real magic of a midrange deck occurs in the sideboard, during a best-of-three. While the first match in a best-of-three can be a bit of a tossup, midrange decks excel and their ability to transform themselves in between the rounds of a match.

When going up against an aggressive deck, they can slot in more draw cards, lifegain, and board clear to change themselves in a more control-oriented setup. This lets them withstand the initial surge and swoop in for the win through sustaining themselves. Likewise, doing up again a control deck can let them switch in cards to force a more aggressive strategy.

In a best-of-one matchup, the pilot doesn’t have the ability to make this pivot. And as a result, their performance suffers. This is what likely happened during my session.

So, lesson learned. The next time I show off a midrange deck, I’ll need to enter a best-of-three to really show off what it can do.

Our exploits at the Homicide desk continue as we investigate the Black Dhal…. I mean, we investigate a series of random, completely unrelated murders that all just happen to have very similar MOs.

There are two things that truly hold the Homicide desk back, aside from the fact that your partner is just one or the worst people.


The first one is a problem that we so ineptly dodged in The Golden Butterfly (the case wrapped up at the start of this episode). While in the recording, Hugo Moller ran away because he was afraid of a murder charge, there is another way the case can wrap up.

As you could see, the evidence for both of the suspects was circumstantial at best, and could be interpreted as implicating either one. Without anything that can effectively tie either of them to the crime, it’s essentially up to the player’s questioning skills. Proper interrogating will allow the player to choose which of the two suspects that charge with murder.

A high ranking is only achieved in this case if the player successfully accues Eli Rooney of the murder. This isn’t because he’s the killer, but rather he’s a pedophile. The police will accept this as the most desirable outcome because although the real killer is still at large, this case serves as an excellent excuse to take a pedophile off the streets.

Now, to be clear, pedophiles are vile and I agree that such evil people should be taken off the streets and rehabilitated because of the damage they do to the lives of young people. However, it is frustrating that the game active gives the player a bad rating for “booking the wrong guy” when it’s obvious to everyone that neither of the two suspects actually committed the crime. It’s hard to not think of these kinds of choices as “false” for that reason. After all, the story goes on even if the “wrong” choice is made.

Which is the other problem with Homicide desk is that this kind of investigation, even if the cases where the player don’t get a choice in which killer they indicts. Aside from Finbarr “Rusty” Galloway, absolutely everyone else knows or suspects that all of the murders being investigated are the result of one serial killer. However, we have to pretend they aren’t just so they we can investigate the case and falsely accuse another husband or secret admirer of the dead woman. There’s not one case that’s unrelated to the Black Dhalia killings, and one begins to feel it as they wear on.

I can’t wait to be done with it so that I can get on to Vice, one of the game’s better desks.

Cole Phelps (Badge One-Two-Four-Seven) has finally graduated from the machinations and diverse plots of the Traffic desk and onto the grim, yet fulfilling work of a Homicide Detective.

Unfortunately, it’s the worst desk in the entire game, and with the second worst partner: Rusty Galloway.

The problems with Homicide will become more evident later on, but for now take my word that the arc for the desk is unsatisfying.
For now, I’d like to say that the reason I gave Rusty any compliments in the beginning of this stream is that I completely forgot what an irredeemable piece of human filth he is. He’s a wife-beating, lazy, misogynistic drunkard who always takes the easy route when investigating a murder.

This interestingly puts him at odds with Cole, which does offer an interesting dynamic between them, since Cole is a straight-laced by-the-book type. Rusty also takes up the duty of getting Cole’s head out of the clouds. Hot off the heels of Traffic (and the cut Burglary) desk, we see that he’s become obsessed with rising through the ranks. When he sees a sign that his murder cases might be part of a high-profile serial murder case (the Black Dhalia killings), he immediately wants to try to use it as a springboard to rise through the ranks.

It’s the classic Rockstar dynamic of two truly bad people’s very specific flaws somehow create a gestalt that doesn’t immediately crumble under its own weight. Cole’s go-getting attitude balances out Rusty’s unbelievable laziness.

And to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I think it’s true to life that flawed people can come together and make some truly awesome things happen. On the other hand, these exact flaws are very unhealthy, especially in investigative work where a level head is one of the most crucial skills of the job. Neither one of them are the kind of person one would trust to keep people safe, which becomes clear as the story progresses. The blatant corruption we see in the LAPD (which was apparently very real from what I’ve heard) only further compounds the issue.
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