Month: January 2019

DMs Guild Review – The City of Eyes

Unravel the mystery of an eldritch urban nightmare in this high level Ravenloft adventure.

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A review copy of “The City of Eyes: Second Edition” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

Support my work via Patreon.

Published by: Oliver Clegg

Ravenloft provides the perfect D&D setting for Gothic and eldritch horror, and Curse of Strahd is (correctly) considered one of the best published Fifth Edition adventures to date. Any DMs Guild adventure that artfully blends classic horror tropes with intriguing storytelling in a Ravenloft setting quickly gets my attention. But I was unprepared for the sheer breadth of content and attention to detail with “The City of Eyes.”

“The City of Eyes” is a 15th level (!) adventure that takes place entirely within a dark dimensional noir city, under constant rain fall and stalked by terrors of the night. The adventure plays out like a tense, cooperative Arkham Horror-style board game as players work to unravel the mystery and escape from the mystical city before they’re driven mad, or worse.

Continue reading “DMs Guild Review – The City of Eyes”

Crafting Annihilation 01/31

Behind-the-scenes DM-only live stream of building and preparing our ongoing Tomb of Annihilation series.

Streamed live every Thursday.

Support the channel via Patreon.

How At the Gates Nearly Ruined Civ 5 Designer Jon Shafer’s Life [PC Gamer]

Read the full article at PC Gamer

At age 21, Jon Shafer was asked to be the lead designer for Sid Meier’s Civilization 5. It was a dream come true for a young designer who had been creating mods for Civ, just a few years before. Within three years of shipping Civ 5, though, he’d quit lucrative jobs at Firaxis and Stardock and suffer the crushing reality of being an isolated programming prodigy with ADHD, trying to make his dream game. It all came crashing down in 2015. “I had nothing left, financially, physically, or mentally,” he wrote. “The last shreds of creativity and productivity finally slipped between my fingers.”

Since 2015 Shafer has been slowly building his life back up from ruin. He spent six hard years on his passion project At the Gates, finally finishing and releasing it this January. Here’s how he got there.

Let’s Play – XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Episode 06: Enter the Warlock

XCOM 2
DLC: War of the Chosen, Tactical Legacy Pack, Resistance Warrior Pack
Mods: Commander’s Choice
Difficulty: Veteran

Episode 06: Enter the Warlock

M08: Operation Mountain Storm – Rescue Stranded Resistance Agents

  • Cpl. Halfred ‘Wombatman’ Bwayne (Sharpshooter)
  • Sq. Harshnag ‘Frost’ Giant (Skirmisher)
  • Cpl. Miri Greycastle (Ranger)
  • Sq. Undril Silvertusk (Specialist)
  • Cpl. Therin ‘Beast’ Bristlebeard (Ranger)

Weekly video game adventures. Streamed live Mondays and Fridays.

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PAX South 2019 Preview: Final Assault VR [Pixelkin]

Read the full preview at Pixelkin

While once prolific in the 90s, real time strategy games have ebbed in recent years. Controlling multiple units while managing resources, maintaining map awareness, and researching new weapons of war is a daunting task when armed with a mouse and keyboard, and nigh impossible anywhere else.

Yet I was blown away by how well Phaser Lock Interactive’s VR real time strategy game, Final Assault, captured all the fun of a real time strategy game while streamlining all the messy bits, creating an immersive virtual tabletop wargame.

My Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2019

Every year is a great year for video games but as of January 2019 I admit I’m a bit underwhelmed compared to previous years. Most of the big sequels due out this year (that have been announced) aren’t for series I care much about, like Mortal Kombat 11, Devil May Cry 5, and Gears 5.

Thankfully there are tons of exciting indie games that I’m very much interested in, and it’s my first full year with a Nintendo Switch – gimme that new Pokémon game!

Here are my top ten most anticipated games for 2019.

10) Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Who would’ve thought we’d be getting a new Marvel Ultimate Alliance game in 2019? And it’s a Switch exclusive? I’m very excited to return to one of my favorite console action-RPG brawlers, even though it’ll most likely feature only MCU heroes and villains.

9) Kingdom Hearts III

I may be in the minority in that I’m not a big Kingdom Hearts fan, but still look forward to trying the very, very long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3. I enjoyed the first one (17 freaking years ago, holy crap), but never actually finished the second, when the series really started getting up its own ass.

8) Wargroove

Everyone knows Advance Wars was a great series and it should be a crime that we haven’t had a proper sequel in over a decade. Beloved indie developers and publishers Chucklefish are answering the call with Wargroove, which looks like the spiritual successor we’ve been waiting for.

7) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

The Igarashi-led Castlevania successor appeared on my Most Anticipated list last year only to be delayed into 2019. With countless indie games aping the metroidvania style, it’ll be interesting to see if Bloodstained can stand out. I’m betting it will and more.

6) Anthem

BioWare does Destiny? I’m not a big fan of Destiny (though I’m actually giving Destiny 2 a shot right now) but something about the mech suits, third-person action, and exotic alien world is making me take notice. Maybe this could be my Monster Hunter: World of 2019?

5) Warcraft III: Reforged

I very much enjoyed the nostalgic trip from StarCraft Remastered two years ago. StarCraft was my high school years; Warcraft 3 was college. Blizzard is the closest thing I have to a fanboy company, and I’m looking forward to revisiting WarCraft 3.

4) The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds was recently announced during The Game Awards just a few months ago. It’s a first-person RPG by Obsidian that looks like a fun combination of Fallout and Borderlands, and I’m definitely here for it.

3) Desperados III

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun was one of my favorite games of 2016. Mimimi Productions is trading in katanas for revolvers. I have zero knowledge or nostalgia for the Desperados series, but I’ve grown to love the tactical stealth genre and can’t wait to see how they handle a Western.

2) Age of Wonders: Planetfall

I’ll always carry a torch for Age of Wonders III; no game has before or since captured the satisfying tactical combat, resource management, and exploration from Heroes of Might and Magic III. Triumph Studios has been working on a neat-looking sci-fi sequel, and now their resources include the backing of one of the biggest strategy game companies around, Paradox Interactive.

1) Untitled Pokémon Game for Switch 

most anticipated games

I’m a big Pokémon fan and nearly every year a Pokémon game finds its way onto my Top Ten list. We don’t know squat about the highly teased Pokémon game coming to Switch but given the last few releases I’m expecting good things.