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Archives for September 2016

Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis Retires From Evil Geniuses

September 14, 2016 by Nick Leave a Comment

Evil Geniuses today issued the announcement that EG and esports veteran Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis is retiring from the player’s hot seat. He is, however, remaining with EG as an active coach for future EG Dota2 lineups.

His retirement is effective immediately, with Fear citing his personal health as a priority. In a brief statement on EG’s website, he recognizes his accomplishments and gushes about EG and Dota. “I still have a passion for Dota and for competing,” Fear begins, “but the long term health of my arm has to come first.”

clinton-fear-loomis-eg-dota2

The sudden removal of heavy-hitters like Fear is sure to make a splash. Teammates and many redditors who Bleed Blue are bummed yet supportive. Teammate PPD said this of Fear: “Fear helped me reach my potential, and I believe he will continue to do that for players in the years to come.” Of his prospective coaching abilities redditor /u/prolepatriot thinks, “considering how much ppd and others on EG have praised fear for being a calming presence as well as helping with the drafts…i expect fear to be one of the best coaches in the scene.”

With an empty chair now in the lineup EG plans to announce its new Dota2 roster tomorrow.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Dota 2, Evil Geniuses

Weekend Gaming – Offworld Trading Company, DOOM

September 9, 2016 by Nick Leave a Comment

Mars is the Roman god of war. He is a representation of aggression and conflict. The Romans celebrated Mars for what he represents because war was a way of securing peace, even though peace was usually achieved by submission from the bloodied pulp of the empire’s foes. Meh. No matter, a means to an end. Roma Victrix, n00bs!

Mars is also a planet – Our neighbor, in fact. Howdy-ho neighborino! The planet earned its namesake because of its reddish hue as seen from Earth’s surface. Blood, being red, is also seen splattered all over Earth’s surface during the throes of war. Therefore, the Romans figured, let us name that red dot in the sky after our god of blood splatters and glory.

mars-orbital-photo-edit

Mars, it just so happens, is also the setting for two of the games I plan on playing this weekend – both of which share pretty much the same types of cutthroat, purposeful aggression as our Roman friends enacted while under the gaze of their reddish god.

Offworld Trading Company (Mohawk Games)

I was all over this game last week, hell-bent to git gud, or, at least, to understand. And I do understand. I really do. It’s a bloody good game, deserving of every shred of critical praise it receives. I haven’t even touched the campaign, focusing instead on skirmishes and working up the cajones to dabble in free-for-all multiplayer mode — perhaps this weekend.

In order to improve my gameplay I started off at a measured pace, pausing prodigiously during skirmishes and learning from my mistakes. I made a habit after every game to learn from one single error that I made. But my desire to improve quickly exceeded my ability and I hit a wall. I started repeating the same fatal mistakes such as overlooking my fuel consumption, not reacting to the market, trying too hard to influence the market, not building enough power generators, building too many power generators, etc. etc. etc. Matches would stretch on and on only to see my company ultimately bought up. And so, I tilted.

At the onset of this week I decided to side-step from OTC – to regroup, as it were. Still, watch some Zultar commentaries, and think about my own mistakes. But overall, to turn my attention to another completely different game that takes place, at least initially, upon the same martian surface as this cut-throat economic strategy game.

DOOM (id Software)

I cannot recall the last time I gamed from the couch. I didn’t even know that I missed it. I also didn’t even know how badly I needed DOOM in my life right now. The planets are aligned.

DOOM is just straight up fun. It is agreeable in so many ways. Everything the game does seems to flush you into another rumble with a swarm of demons. And the more you move, the better time you’ll have. It is so propuslive. The fighting is fluid. In fact, I would say the fighting almost has a tactical quality to it with how easy it is to toggle weapons and cater upgrades. And the glory kills! What a wonderful design decision to force close encounters as a primary source of replenishment. And the fact that you can target a specific glory kill animation is so completely pointless yet so necessary…

Indeed. The fighting is fun, yes. But I am also so impressed with how the entire experience is composed. I am reminded of Metalocalypse with its propensity towards ironic/hyperbolic use of violence and gore and heavy mothereffin metal… but it is still so completely, genuinely badass. DOOM walks that fine line. So much so that glory killing a demon by ripping out his heart and shoving it down his throat is equal parts hilarious and practical. Bravo.

So, yeah… I’ll be hanging out on Mars this weekend. I’ll be sure to send a postcard splattered with blood and minerals.

What are you playing this weekend?

I hope your weekend goes better than his. <3
I hope your weekend goes better than his.

Filed Under: Weekend Gaming Tagged With: Doom, Offworld Trading Company

Buttonmashing Chats – GenCon 2016

September 7, 2016 by Jason Leave a Comment

IMG_20160804_094224

In our first Buttonmashing Chat Chief Buttonmasher Tony and Board Game Frugalist Jason talk over a recent trip to GenCon, a Board Game Convention in Indianapolis Indiana.  We chat about board games, digital games, and some of the experiences at the convention, good and bad.


jasonJason (Boardsmasher): A few weeks ago I attended GenCon, the self proclaimed four greatest days in gaming.  I spent loads of time at that convention learning about new board games, playing some of the classics with friends, and meeting hordes (and I mean hordes) of interesting people.  I wanted to sit down with Chief Buttonmasher Tony to decompress from the experience and share with him the good, the bad, and the boardgames.

I know you were interested in hearing more about my experience Tony, what’s the first thing you want to know?

tony150x150Tony (Chief Buttonmasher): How was the smell? (I’m sorry, I had to do that).

What were the top games you went to see?

jasonJason: Hah, to answer your first question. The smells were fine as long as you stayed within arms length of the person next to you, even the people you came with. But we did go with a list of things that we really wanted to make sure we looked at. The internet is full of “Things we’re looking forward to at GenCon” lists and we used them to find a few games like Via Nebula, Last Friday, and a game called Arcane Academy.

Do any of those games intrigue you by title alone?

Via Nebula
Via Nebula in Play

tony150x150Tony: All of them, but Via Nebula especially.

jasonJason: You’d think it was a space game knowing nothing more, but it’s actually a pretty unique building and route management game set in a fog enshrouded valley.

tony150x150Tony: Can you elaborate on what you mean by route management?

jasonJason: Yeah, that alone doesn’t sound super exciting I suppose, but in this game it means that you have to clear a path through the fog to get resources. Those resources help you build and win the game, but the trick is that you can use the paths the other players blazed. You have to spend time thinking about what actions you want to take and what actions you think others may take that you can benefit from.

tony150x150Tony: Is the map random? How is the setup?

jasonJason: The map and board are the same every game but the resources get placed randomly at the start of the game so there are different paths you have to follow every game.  Its unique enough that it seems like it could be immensely replayable.  We only got one game in of it in the BGG Hot Games room but it was enough to make me want to come back for more.

tony150x150Tony: Did you end up picking it up?

jasonJason: We didn’t end up buying it because I’m a frugal fellow and I know after the post convention hype dies down I should be able to get a it a little cheaper than MSRP. If there’s one thing you know about me is that I can’t usually stomach paying full price for something when I can avoid it. That’s what makes going to these cons so great, you get a lot of value for the price you pay for a four day pass.

tony150x150Tony: Ok, so Via Nebula sounds like a keeper. What’s Last Friday? Do you play Chris Tucker or Ice Cube? Do you crack jokes about weed?

jasonJason: HAH, close? It’s actually a one vs many 80’s horror themed game where one player plays a vicious serial killer and the rest of the players play teenaged campers at an old campground. I didn’t play the killer because the moment I saw that one of the campers in the game was named Jason, I had to claim that pimply weirdo on a matter of pride.

tony150x150Tony: So what is the object? survive? outlast the killer? trap him?

jasonJason: The game is split up into several chapters.  In each chapter there is a different objective for the killer and the kids. It’s classified a hidden movement game because the moves the killer makes on the board are hidden to the rest of the players. It makes it pretty tense!

In the first chapter the kids had to find the keys to the cabins on the map and make it safely inside before being murdalized by the killer.

The killers job was to kill, but in the next scenario he was the guy on the run and we were trying to trap him. It was cool that there was enough variance so that it didn’t feel too samey.

tony150x150Tony: So who won the game you played? The pimply kids?

jasonJason: We did, yes! Although I do have to say that the job of the killer is best played by someone who has experience with the game. The complexities of the hidden movement were definitely challenging for our killer.

tony150x150Tony: That makes sense. Familiarity of how it would be played on the other side of the table would give the killer an insight into how he could avoid it.

Sounds like it would be satisfying to win as the killer.

So, what about Arcane Academy?

jasonJason: One of my regrets about the con. We actually never ended up playing it!  There was so much to do and see that we just couldn’t find the extra hours to get back into the hot games room to play it.

It’s coming out in a few weeks, I’m eager to watch some actual play videos to see how it plays, but it seems like something right up my alley.  Magic spells and board games? Yes please.

tony150x150Tony: Was there anything that surprised you? Something you didn’t expect to see but got you interested?

The gaming crew that we brought along
The gaming crew that we brought along to GenCon

jasonJason: I think my biggest surprise was how much my wife enjoyed everything at the convention.  This was the second time I’ve been to GenCon but the first time I brought her along.  Both her and I were expecting her to be bored of gaming by Saturday but as we were leaving we both were thinking of all the things we could’ve done if we stayed just a little bit longer.

tony150x150Tony: Nice! What was her favorite?

jasonJason: I don’t know that she had a particular favorite but I know that she enjoyed almost everything we played. We both generally enjoy light, moderately strategic, and not lengthy games so most of the ones we got to play we enjoyed.

It was a great time and I’m eager to go again next year, though I’m not sure how realistic that’ll be.  Maybe I’ll crash at your place and go to Origins 2017 next year?

tony150x150Tony: Yeah seeing your pics definitely had me intrigued to do a con like that.

Especially the giant size King of Tokyo.

Giant King of Tokyo
Giant King of Tokyo

jasonJason: Oh man, my monster face was epic.

I played 2 games of Giant King of Tokyo, which is exactly what it sounds like.

I got runner up in both of them which was a bummer since the winner got a convention exclusive King of Tokyo monster.  However, one of the winners already had a Space Penguin so she yielded it to me.  Convention win!

tony150x150Tony: Well it sounds amazing, if that what it was…

So you mentioned if you could have stayed longer you would have seen more — what would you go back and see if you could?

jasonJason: I think just demoing more games and spending more time in the Hot Games room.  Being able to play the latest and greatest was a big draw for us and gave us something to look forward acquiring in the coming year.

tony150x150Tony: Anything you were excited to see that disappointed or didn’t deliver?

jasonJason: One of the events we bought in to was an event called “Big Game Night” which was hosted by a company called AEG.  The draw is that you get to take part in playing their games, seeing the new stuff they’ve got coming, and leave with a cool box of swag.

It was a good concept but a few things kept it from being awesome.  One is that being so late on a Friday night we were pretty tuckered out so it was hard to learn new things.

Two is that the box of swag was essentially 75% empty boxes and 25% microgames.

From what I’ve heard those swag boxes have been getting less and less worth the price of admission ($32) to that event, so I probably won’t attend it next time I go to GenCon.

tony150x150Tony: So this is obstensibly a video game blog — I know you saw HEX there. We’re there other video games/apps on demo?

jasonJason: Hah, good point.  It is a “Gaming” convention so it wouldn’t be right if there weren’t at least a little bit of a digital presence there.

A lot of companies were demoing the mobile app version of their games, even some betting apps, for example comparethebets has some useful information on the android version. I even saw at the ascension booth that they were demoing a VR version of Ascension!

tony150x150Tony: Did you try VR Ascension? I would probably never leave.

jasonJason: Chalk it up as one of those things I wish I’d done.  Something else shiny likely caught my eye and I moved past it without thinking how awesome it would’ve been to experience.

It’s available now on Steam now with relatively positive reviews.  Worth checking out if you’ve got the kit.

tony150x150Tony: Well it sounds like a roaring success. Anything else you want to mention in wrapping up?

jasonJason: It was definitely a great time.  If you’re on the fence about conventions in general this one, while being overwhelming, has such a tremendous positive vibe going on throughout the halls.

Everyone was walking around with smiles on their faces.  It was fun to be a part of something so wonderfully geeky and fun, nerding out with 60,000 people and not even noticing the crowd.

Filed Under: Features

September Releases

September 6, 2016 by Tony Leave a Comment

September has a few oldies but goldies and lots of sports. Nothing is setting my world on fire, but maybe something will set yours ablaze. On to this month’s releases:

Microsoft Xbox One

Week of September 6th
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Edition

Week of September 13th
Dead Rising – I normally don’t like listing re-releases in the monthly releases, but Dead Rising is in my top 10 of favorite games of all time and I think everyone should play it at least once.
Batman: The Telltale Series
Pro Evolution Soccer 2017
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
NHL 17
ReCore – Developed by some people from Retro Studios (Metroid Prime series)? You officially have my attention.

Week of September 20th
NBA 2K17

Week of September 27th
FIFA 17
Forza Horizon 3
XCOM 2


Nintendo Wii-U

Week of September 27th
Tumblestone


Nintendo 3DS

Week of September 13th
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past

Week of September 20th
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse

Week of September 27th
YO-KAI WATCH 2: Fleshy Souls
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice


PC

Week of September 6th
Mother Russia Bleeds – I think I saw someone get hit in the face with an accordion, so, day one purchase?
Police Tactics: Imperio
Divided We Fall
Ember
Calm Down, Stalin – I had to link this game on the strength of the gameplay trailer. It looks like it would get old after ten minutes, but those first ten minutes would be hilarious.
Project Highrise
Line of Sight
Outbreak: Pandemic Evolution
Escape The Past

Week of September 13th
RIVE
Spaera
Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics
DEAD RISING – Frank West on my PC? *clicks buy button*
Avadon 3: The Warborn
Pro Evolution Soccer 2017
Dispatcher: Revoke

Week of September 20th
King Oddball
Cossacks 3
Klang
The Uncertain
Agenda
Pankapu
NBA 2K17

Week of September 27th
Lance A Lot
Quantum Break
FIVE: Champions of Canaan
Rogue Wizards


Sony Playstation 4

Week of September 6th
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Edition
Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet

Week of September 13th
NHL 17
Pro Evolution Soccer 2017
Batman: The Telltale Series
PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness
NBA 2K17

Week of September 20th
Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs!

Week of September 27th
XCOM 2
Reus
Tumblestone


Sony Playstation Vita

Week of September 6th
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

Week of September 13th
PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness
MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death


What are you picking up this month?
(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

Filed Under: Gaming

Weekend Gaming – Offworld Trading Company

September 2, 2016 by Nick Leave a Comment

Offworld Trading Company is weird.

No. I take that back. Offworld Trading Company is in fact quite elegant. A description worthy of even more celebration when you consider what the game does: It completely redraws what a RTS can be. An approach this new, working so well the way that it does, takes a little bit of time to get onboarded – for me, at least.

No. OTC is not the weird one. I’m the weird one.

I’m still learning the ropes. I’m taking the task of learning this game in measured paces, and this process has generated an unusual matrix of emotions. Indeed. Never before has a game made me feel so self-powered and competent yet so dadgum blockheaded. Although, I trust that practice will help chisel my blockhead into something less grotesque and stupid looking…

Offworld Trading Company Screen Shot

Yes. The skill ceiling in the game seems to be so very high. N00b mistakes are common but so very valuable. Every game I learn something new, one golden nugget of truth that I can carry with me into the next skirmish. These nuggets can be little things like figuring out how to toggle auto-sell – all the way up to big things like overbuilding with complete and utter oversight to energy costs.

Little things. Big things. And everything inbetween. Learning how to play Offworld Trading Company has never been frustrating; it’s always been fun, enlightening, and with a healthy dose of DERP! mixed in. It is rarely about how to do something, but when…When, when, when! Freaking, WHEN!? This is a testament to how well-designed OTC is. I dig it.

What are you playing this weekend?

Filed Under: Weekend Gaming Tagged With: Offworld Trading Company

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