Sonic Generations Review

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The Adventures of Captain Blue: Case File #2 - Part 2

Deus Ex: Human Revolution review (plus DLC Impressions)

The Adventures of Captain Blue: Case File #2 - Part 1

Dm Ramble: Thief 4

Greetings folks,

Dm here feeling distinctly under the weather, but i digress...

Once again another boring afternoon has led me upon something one of my favorite news sites that shall we say sparked my interest.

Story boards for Thief 4.


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114006-Thief-4-Storyboards-Leak

Done last year? Curious... the article speaks for itself, generally giving us nothing more than slice of "oh yeah, this is the tone of the thief games" and nothing more.

As artwork it's certainly interesting.

Without shadow of a doubt the Thief series is one of my all time favorites: dark, atmospheric and certainly a unique setting when stealth wasn't about walking into room armed with machine guns, or running across rooftops in broad daylight!

Many a time I've found myself crouched in a dark alcove, guards a mere foot away form me, my heart in my throat wishing the git would look the other way! Now that's immersion... okay every so often I have a habit of crouched in dark corners wondering where my light gem is, but that's neither here nor there.

Thief 4 is one of those games that's been discussed and mulled over for few years now; after the events of the 1st 2nd games, the 3rd got one hell of a graphical boost but still keeping in with the overall developing proto-victoriana-medieval-magi punk world.

At the end of 3 our hero Garrett literally becomes a parody of the very first cut scene in Thief 1, the dark hooded man from a secret order, giving some present child a choice, almost praising him for being bale to see what does not want to be seen... to be fair a good homage and end to series to literally come full circle.

So what could 4 have in stall for us? Going on concept art shown in this link, another shift towards a more steam punk/victoriana setting the popular style you find in discworld or fable games, I'm betting.

Everything else is still a mystery but with modern graphics and systems would we be looking at a Splinter Cell or Assassin's Creed WITH STEALTH!? I can't stress that enough, really...

As for story... God only knows, it can't be Garrett any more (alas), unless they do it as some sort of prequel (God forbid) or maybe they will just advance onwards, all the more for enriching and truly making up a unique and varied fantasy setting, only time will tell really.

Until next when I feel the need to ramble on.

Dm here reminding you when 2D6 don't work a D12 is better! :)

Pandora on Dreadfleet

Hey there, Pandora here with another awesome thing that has stolen my mind. This month it has been all about Dreadfleet.

Dreadfleet is the newest sub-game from Games Workshop. To be honest I hadn't really paid much attention to the hype about it, and wasn't all that bothered until I happened to be in store on the launch day.

After 1 demo game I was sold.

So what's it all about? It is set in the Warhammer fantasy universe, sort of. The actual setting is a sort of 'Bermuda Triangle', a ship graveyard with many strange tales around it.

There are 2 main groups in the game the Grand Alliance (goodies) and Dreadfleet (baddies). All the ships have there own story of how they ended up in this strange place, as you would expect from a Games Workshop product the back stories are detailed and mesh together as part of an overall story of the game. There are 10 ships altogether, plus auxiliaries and scenery. The game box was priced at £70, which seems steep until you take into account it contains literally everything you will need, including dice, game mat and even plastic bags to keep cards in.

The models for this game are amazing. Each of the 10 ships is distinctive, and reflects the faction it represents very well. Though the one that surprised me was the inclusion of a Chaos Dwarf ship, the Black Kraken.

It's almost impossible to say which the best looking ship is, as they all have unique points that make them stand out. Though the 2 head ships, the Heldenhammer and the Bloody Reaver, are as expected the most impressive and the largest, though that's not saying all the ships aren't awesome.

I am also happy to report in the most part the models go together very easily and neatly. Painting wise, I found it easiest to follow the suggested colour schemes, as none of the factions I collect are included so I had little in the way of colour scheme knowledge for them. The accompanying White Dwarf has painting guides for all the ships, some of the auxiliaries and an overall guide to the scenery. The scenery pieces that are included with the game are equally impressive and distinctive. Hell, Citadel have even gone all out on the pieces for measuring the angle of a turn, measuring stick and wind direction gauge. Even the auxiliaries are detailed and unique. All in all a class act from the model point of view.

As for game play, again all angles have been covered well. All the ships have a card with their stats and Captain's abilities, meaning no fighting over the rule book. The instructions are clear and concise and cover almost everything that may come up during game play. Anyone familiar with playing Warhammer won't find this too much of a jump. The turn phases may have different names but are essentially the same, so there are orders (resolving continual effects etc), movement, Broadside (shooting) and boarding (close combat).

Player turn order is decided by a D6 roll at the start of each round, so tactics vary each turn depending on your roll and the actions of the players before you as well as anticipating the actions of the people after you. Also, as the instruction book is well laid out it isn't hard to find what you are looking for, for the times the player's minds go blank or an argument threatens to break out. Almost all special instructions are written on the various cards that come with the set. This means that when they are all laid out in front of the player, they essentially act as a quick reference guide.

Most of all this is a very sociable game. As there are 10 ships, there can be up to 10 players. The rule book contains various scenarios for different numbers of ships, and uneven sided battles.

There is also the matter of portability. As the girls quarters of the WIP HQ are a long way from the main HQ, I don't tend to war game much. As it means lugging an army case there and back, where as this is much easier to move. And only 1 person needs to bring things, so as many people can join in as are interested.

So get your pirate on. Yaarrrr! Rum all round!

Sonic Generations comic: "Time Warped"

(click to enlarge)

Hi folks, 4G here. For those of you lucky enough to be living accross the pond in America now, Sonic Generations is already out. Needless to say, my pre-order is on it's way, and I can't wait! Here's a comic to celebrate the game's release. I think the message behind it is clear...

As for future content, I'll have more stuff uploaded soon. I'm off on holiday with Astra this weekend though, so it won't be up until next week. I can assure you, it'll definitely be worth the wait!

Until next time. :)