Chemo Round 2 and a visit from the Austin Crew

Team Tom! It's been a long time, but I have news to share, so I'm going to get the bad stuff out of the way. I've had a little pain in my back and the latest CT Scan confirms that I've some new evidence of cancer in the lining of my left lung. The result is that we're going to do another short round of chemo and monitor how it goes. It's upsetting, but it is what it is. I had a nice 8-month stint of nothing but cancer shrinking or stability. Let's get that back.

Had I made this post a few days ago, I probably wouldn't have even talked about the pain or cancer and instead just let you all know that life has been pretty cool, actually! My good buddies from Austin paid me a surprise visit last weekend, and it was so good to see them and hang out. 

The Austin crew hanging out in Gilgal Garden

The story: Renee and the uber wife had been planning a surprise for months and kept it from me. After I had an immunotherapy infusion last Friday, my wife said, "Let's go to Spaghetti Factory!" When we arrived, she said she had a reservation for five. I'm like, what?!?! Are the kids coming?!?! She just rolled with it and let me believe the story I was making up for her.

After a few minutes of waiting, Mercedes ( good ol' Art of Warlord) comes up from behind and asks me if I dropped something (presenting me with an old Beckett's Magazine Writer Card of mine). I just stared with disbelief. Is this real life? Next thing you know, Kayly (good ol' Mythdust) sneaks in, and I'm surrounded by my old buddies. THE COOL KIDS CREW FROM KI! 

Took the crew to my favorite local game / card store

My non-plans for laying around all weekend were suddenly gone and instead we went all up and down the Wasatch Front visiting game store, seeing sites, and catching up with what's been going down. 

Just a tiny bit of snow at Snowbasin this year

What an absolute honor it was to have them come in to pay me a visit and what great timing. I'm going to need that boost going into another round of chemo. Here we go again!

Happy Dueling!

The Music of Mewgenics -- "Chasin' the Rats!"

Part of the fun for me of playing Mewgenics is that my middle child (longtime readers of the blog will know him as Kyle Skystaff), has been playing as well.  We've been sending Discord messages back and forth to each other on the daily just talking about our current status in the game, which classes we've unlocked, and just general thoughts on how our current runs are going. I think Kyle might be a bit more invested in the game than I am . . . that said, we're pretty close to being around the same point in the game with each other.  

Preaching the good word to the Throbbing King

One thing he mentioned to me the other day is how he had tier-ranked his favorite songs he'd unlocked in the game so far. It made me realize I had neglected to mention how cool the Mewgenics music is! Ridiculon (Binding of Isaac fame) put together a soundtrack that is really well done and has some of the catchiest lyrics I've heard in a game. Definitely worthy of a mention.

In fact, the whole family has been singing Eatin' Rats for the past month or so. You can check out a couple dozen of the tracks over on Spotify. But if you REALLY want to get into it, there's a collection of 82 tracks for sale for 10 bucks on Steam.

Cool cats making cool music!

Below is Kyle's tier ranking of the music (he said he couldn't rank any of the songs below a C-tier hehe):

S-Tier

• The Alley (Eatin' Rats): S
• The Bunker (Alone in the Dark): S
• The Crater (Feline Invader): S
• The Moon (So High): S
• The Lab (Endless Misery): S

A-Tier

• The Sewers (Flush): A
• The Junkyard (Chumbucket Kitty): A
• The Caves (Crystalline Dreams): A
• The Core (Down With The Devil): A

B-Tier

•  The Path (Kat Fight): B
• The Boneyard (Them Kitty Bones): B

C-Tier

• The Desert (Lonesome Road): C

If you've been playing and love the music, drop us a line!  You're in good company here.

Happy Dueling!

Pain and Pawnishment in Mewgenics

Team, I've put 80+ hours on this game now, and it's both simultaneously infuriating and amazing. Just a few days ago, I saw the credits screen roll on the game (WOOT), but, much like, say, Slay the Spire, you'll see the credits screen, but then they suddenly offer you up more content to play with a whole new class and challenges for you to undertake.

Who knew the Man in the Moon was a Sumerian demi-god?

I have to tell you, as Thee Friendly Necromancer, the moment I unlocked the Necromancer class was when fun, mild curiosity became my new leech-throwing addiction. So you're telling me I can make a slovenly cat necromancer lord and summon undead kittens? I'M HERE FOR CATMAGEDON!

I am the Nine Lives Necomancer!

After that, things started to get weirder with the classes . . . butcher . . . psychic . . . tinkerer. There's a surprising amount of depth and replayability to this game, which makes sense because that's 100 percent needed in a roguelike where you're going to be running the game over and over (. . .and, if you're like me, somehow dying every time in the final battle).

Ohhhhh . . . so you lure the hands out to the middle and make him hit himself, got it.

That is perhaps the most infuriating part of the game. You feel like you've mastered your class combo and found some good synergy (tons of possibilities here tbh) only to fight a boss for the first time and get wrecked . . . only to return back home with mostly empty pockets and lost time. (Time melts away quickly playing this game.)

Been there, killed that x3

Besides gold and food, your cats themselves are a currency.  Depending on which townie wants to do whatever they will with your old cats (or new kittens), they'll offer new unlocks for your game. What I mean by that is, for example, for every 5 cats with diseases or mutations, you can trade them into the mad scientist (Dr. Beanies) for a new inventory item that strategically changes your game during the next run . . . or giving cats older than 5 years old to the store clerk (Tracy), which then causes her to offer you more items at the store. The best return on investment so far seems to be giving away cats for a bigger house or a bigger inventory.

Boon County . . . where you, uh, trade cats for boons.

Ultimately, I've had a lot of fun with this game. Super lighthearted, surprisingly difficult, and easy to play. I give it two dirty paws up.

Happy Dueling!

Skip and Julia Sailing the Hungry Seas in Windrose

After our last foray into Diablo 4, Dylan and I have been looking around for what we could play next. We have a lot of ideas, and with lots of demos available on Steam right now, we decided to give Windrose a try. Actually, it unfolded like this . . . I get a text from Dylan saying he's ready to play Windrose, along with this character picture attached:

The scurvy looks have just begun!

This was not just a Skip Legday, but a whole gosh-dang Skip Gymday. In my mind, it just looked like a sorry bag o' bones Pirate that needed to be fed, so who better to join Skip Gymday than Julia Child.

Sailing the good ship Quiche Lorraine, mind you . . .

Thankfully, Windrose didn't disappoint, and there was a whole slew of things Julia could cook up for Skip in this Pirate-based Survival Game Demo. I was making coconut smoothies and grilled dodo kabobs a plenty! 

. . . also smelting a lot of copper ore

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this demo, but I came out of it pleasantly surprised. There was a nice quest system tied to our experience, and even a few islands beyond the "tutorial isle" you could get to. Ultimately, it was all about crafting a camp, finding a shipwreck, fixing it up, freeing your crew of jailed buccaneers, and sailing the seas to engage in broadside combat.  End of demo.

A pirate with a whole crew out to cause trouble on the high seas!

The combat was satisfying and fun, and t'was also incredibly familiar. To be honest, it felt a lot like a less realistic Icarus crossed with Valheim and a side of Pirate101 (or perhaps Sea of Thieves). Pirate101 you say?  Well, not a turn-based story-based game, but that broadside combat alongside Skip felt really good: both of us shooting cannon fire at a ship, get the enemy ship's health low, then dock and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the scallywags on deck . . . you know, THAT part of Pirate101 ship combat.

Treasure and Charging Boars await us in the ruins!

The Windrose Demo lasted about 7 hours in total, and if there was more to play, we'd still be playing it. I'm going to keep this one on my wishlist and give it a real play when it releases. Let me know if you've played it and what you think!

Happy Dueling!  

Mewgenics is Meowvelous!

My oldest picked up Mewgenics yesterday, and since we are on a family Steam account together, I decided to give it a spin. 

Sorry Skisee . . . General Grievous and Dotsy were just too alluring as my first two.

I had heard so much about this game already . . . just from buzz alone. First off, the list of meowing cameows is pretty amazing. (That's more influencers than you can shake a cat toy at.) Then there's the conpurrent player count that made Forbes news from Paul Tassi. I've even had a couple people hiss me up about it, so . . . I had to try my paws in the litterbox.

I used that same randomized naming string functionality in a Game Jam game once. Love it!

Mewgenics didn't disappoint. I can see why it's so successful. What do we have here . . . a turn-based quasi rogue-like with disposable units? Yeah, that's a great recipe. OH, what else do we have . . . freakish looking cartoon cats making babies (doing-it-like-they-do-it-on-the-Discovery-channel mind you) that are a visual combination of the parents? YES PLEASE! That's some primal, stupid humor stuff I can get behind.

OH MY WORD! WHAT DID I JUST WITNESS!?

Not to mention the game feels really great. Everything from the tutorial to the feedback of the gameplay to the synergy of items and powers. It's incredibly clever and well done. I've only played it for 3 hours and I could see myself dumping hours of my life into this game.

Go Crunkite!  Make your parents, Jordy and Walkyria, proud as a new fighter class cat!

So far I really like what I'm seeing with this game. Hope you're enjoying playing it as much as I am. Let me know what you think.

Happy Dueling!

A $10 MMO? Ok Quinfall, what's this all about?

I was looking around the store and stumbled upon an MMO called Epitome that was soon launching, so I wishlisted it and started reading the comments, when I stumbled upon this:

Hello, Salty MMO player, what's this about Quinfall?

So I looked up Quinfall, and sure enough, it's a $10 MMO that just released. I started looking at it and thought, meh, I've played worse for far more and dropped the 10 bucks for the game. After playing for an afternoon, let me tell you what I've gathered on the game so far.

1- Character Creation -- There's really only one race, human, which is fine. It's pretty impressive how you can tweak your character, given there is really only one race: lots of bone options, tattoos, scars, facepaints, skin colors, etc.

I think I'd like to go for that Mid-life crisis in the Bahamas look . . .

My one big complaint here is that although they give you 6 standard body looks for both male and female, there's no randomization button from what I can tell . . . I mean, that's part of the fun of a character creator, isn't it? I want to click randomize to see what kind of monster creation is possible!

2- The backstory and its voice over -- You can't really listen to this intro movie explaining the back story and think, man, that's some quality voice over. I'm having a hard time placing the accent because the person might also have a lisp? Sorry, personal nitpick.

Basically, there's five biomes on one world (Quinfall) that was created from five worlds embodying the five personality traits of the original, solitary god, who also created other gods who then started messing stuff up. Now it's up to the brave adventurers to try and clean up the riff raff and bring Quinfall back to its peaceful state. 

The solitary god doing his thing in the backstory . . .

3- Playstyle Comparisons -- To me it feels like an amalgamation of Project Gorgon/Runescape-esque Skill System, Rift's community rift raiding, Potions and Pets from Diablo 4, and a type of combat style similar to New World. It feels like there's probably even more borrowed ideas from other MMOs, but I'm only citing what is recognizable to me. As for the graphics, they are giving me something that would be a cross between LOTRO and Valheim so far? I don't know how to describe it . . . it's its own thing.

There are 10 weapon styles that you can level up. Because I liked fighting with a staff in New World, I opted for the same in Quinfall. 

To level up a weapon, just fight with it.  As you do, you unlock your spells and can start leveling them, but only if you can find a skill book to do so. There are also augments you can slot in each spell to give it a little bit more oomph. 

Necromancer is a locked class?

The best way I've found to do combat is to just back up while nuking or strafe in a circle around my target. They like to swing and miss if you're constantly moving around. The only time I really get in trouble is when I stand still. 

Shazam!

There's also a big list of life skills you can level up, and, much like Project Gorgon, you can level them all up as you see fit. you don't have to stick to mining or herbalism . . . just level them all if you'd like.

Oh man . . . there's a lot there . . .

I've only done the rifts solo so far, but these appear to be hot spots where you can have a little open-world co-op to close rifts and earn Rift Scrolls (used in some kind of crafting I don't know about yet) and other loot.  If you like combat, just grinding these could be where it's at for you.

The game gives you a pet and a mount pretty quickly. As expected with a Project Gorgon skills type game, you can tame and level pets and mounts.  

Bee pet and a beginner horse for the win!

It feels like my pet's only purpose right now is to pick up loot off the ground for me and slowly eat acorns. I'm not sure it's fighting for me . . . at least yet.

4- Use of AI -- There is a warning when you buy the game that AI was used to help make UIs for the game.Because this game really feels really indie . . . I don't know . . . it seems to be a forgivable sin if you view that as a sin.

Anyway, I've just begun to explore here. For $10 bucks, it was worth a shot. I'm unsure how much I'll be playing or not, but for now, I'm level 15 with my sights set on level 20. If I end up playing more, I'll be sure to have some follow-on thoughts.

If anyone out there is playing this game as well, give me a shout and let me know what's what.

Happy Dueling! 

Comic Book Store Fantasies and Anime Elves: What I've been streaming

I haven't done a post like this in a while, but I thought I'd talk a bit about the stuff I've been watching on a few streaming services lately. I love me a good nerd show or two. Let's see:

1- Comic Book Men -- Ok, there's this side of me that always wanted to open up a comic book store. I wouldn't really know where to start, actually, but I love the home-grown grittiness of a good strip mall comic book store.

Ahh, my old favorite strip mall comic book store back in Texas

About four or five months ago I was clicking through AMC+ and discovered something I didn't even know was a thing -- a whole, dang reality show based on, not only a comic book store, but a comic book store owned by Kevin Smith of Clerks fame. I binged season one and found myself smiling more than I thought I would at the really bad jokes and staged comic book bargaining negotiations (it is a reality show after all).

On Friday, I finished up the last season and watched in awe as the crew was immortalized as Pop Figures, and then it all suddenly ended. Crazy. 

I'm so glad I got to watch this series. It let me fulfill that weird comic book store fantasy without any of the actual risk and hardship of running one. Thank you, Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Mike Zapcic, Ming Chen . . . and even you, Jason Mewes, and (RIP) Rob Bruce. 

2- Frieren -- A coworker of mine turned me on to this anime, and it was fantastic. Have you ever been watching something and you just get that cozy warmth vibe while at the same time getting that Dungeons and Dragons fix you so desperately need?  If not, watch Frieren.

Silly Frieren can't resist a good mimic

It's a great show that begins at the end, well for the short-lived humans of the party at least. The elven mage (Frieren) on the other hand, has a few lifetimes left to live if she can survive long enough.

I started watching this one alone and then brought in my kids because I knew they'd love it. By the end of season 2, I had watched it all through a couple of times because I couldn't help myself from watching ahead.

The first two seasons are fully dubbed in English on Netflix, but Season 3 has already begun on Crunchyroll.  My guess it isn't dubbed yet (only subbed), but I haven't investigated it enough yet.

3- Wonder Man -- Meanwhile, over on Disney+, the Uber Wife and I stumbled upon this new Marvel series, and binged it all last week.

It was a good one for sure and especially since it brings back that easily forgotten character of The Mandarin and a new-to-us hero of Wonder Man, an actor who happens to have superpowers and can't help himself from blowing up every once in a while.

My official review is that it's easy to watch and too short for its own good.

4- My Hero Academia -- I've been watching this one on and off for several years, ever since my fellow game designer, Andrew Riehm (Of KingsIsle fame), introduced me to a quirky little show about super hero quirks.

Knowing that Friren was on its third season on Crunchyroll was the tipping point, and I got a subscription . . . and while I'm here, I started getting back into the last two seasons of My Hero Academia that I never finished watching.

Image from IGN

Remember when I was playing the MMO for a while? Man, good times!

5- Solo Leveling -- I had heard good things about this one and ended up watching the first six episodes tonight. It was pretty cheesy at first, but I think my oldest and I are now into it enough that we'll finish watching what's available to us.

I'm a sucker for a good fantasy anime, and the fact that it treats the whole process as a gacha MMO-like Tower of Fantasy game helps a lot. I'm excited to watch more . . . probably more than I am to finish out the last two seasons of My Hero Academia.

~~

Anyway, those are the kinds of shows I've been watching when I haven't been catching a local hockey game. If you have any good shows in a similar vein that you'd think I'd like, let me know in the comments.

Happy Dueling!