State of Play October 2014

PC gaming:

Freemiums currently rule my gaming habits. I haven't been back on World of Tanks for a while, it's gotten a bit stale, and I'm also over the Tanks segment of War Thunder. The lure of ths sky had me back again, and I was 'maxing' all my l1 and l2 planes on every country. Each country has about eight planes in each of the levels , and there are five levels. Each plane starts basic, and gets lots of upgrades. I quickly maxed all my level one and two Brits and Russians. The Russian obsession with fighter bombers means their is always something to do, and the tactical flexibility of being 'bitzers' means you can bomb if needed, and dogfight if needed, which maximises your playing time. I found the Japanese the slowest, as each plane is highly specialised, meaning that if you need a bomber and you are in a fighter, there is very little to do, and if the enemy fighter screen is harsh, your bomber stands no chance. I drift off into counterstrike gun-games when I want a rush, and finally tried the Single player shooter "Rogue Trooper" by Bethesda. Silly fun, but from mid game on it crashes my PC. Annoying. When I want brainless, it's all about  Minecraft or Bloodbowl. I'm still wandering along with "Bhorne Khorne" my Beserker team. Freemium new hotness: Heroes and Generals. In a previous blog post, I wrote about my dream MMORPG, based on 40k. H&G have taken many of these concepts and written a good game, with great development potential. Start as a grunt, play a pretty reasonable FPS, and work your way up to Tanker, Pilot, Sniper, or Paratrooper, and then a General. Generals play a higher level game. Heroes win the maps, Generals win the wars. I have only seen the Hero side of things. You can pay or play to get to General - I'm currently happy to play. Take a look!

On the iPhone and iPad:

I have completely fallen away from iPhone gaming. A small amount of "Tiny Dice" and "Bookworm" by Popcap is all I manage. I received an iPad mini for my birthday. I wanted it as a wireless portable internet device, and a fully functional PDF storage point. It does really well at these jobs. I have not found a game that holds my interest. I tried Atari's arcade simulator, and a couple of others - they never got me in.

Consoles:

XBOX 360 - Tig and I were looking for a way to get movies. We rented for a while, we borrowed boxed sets for a while, and we settled on Uncle Rupies Foxtel Play app on the XBox 360. Some people hate canned movies running from 6-18 months old, but it suits us to a tee as there is plenty of interest we never caught at the cinema. We left Free to air TV and do not even have it available in the house because we are never in the same spot at the same time to watch episodic television. I quote it often: The last program I watched for a full season on free to air was Twin Peaks. Foxtel play offers a semi-available seasonal TV option, but we find it difficult to use as it gives a week to watch and episode - I would wvastly prefer the season binge option. As for actual gaming on the 360, there was some fable, and some bioshock, and a little Fallout 3. The big winner was Diablo 3, which was fantatic for both Tig and I playing at the same time. Tig ran through a Sorceress, and I took the Barbarian . Good fun, good romp. When it came back around to going again for nightmare, we found we had run out of care. We tried split screen Borderlands: Tig thought it was a headache in a box, and that killed split screen as an option.

Wii U- Setting up and setting down the toys seemed to kill it. Keeping the controllers in charge, keeping the Wiifit board easy to find, keeping the arm swing space clean and clear - these household things make the Wii-U hard to use. Nintendo have made a great system - I think we are just not rich enough to have enough space to keep it in play. I think it would be perfect in a true "Rumpus Room" dedicated to only entertainment, but our "Living room" sees food, guests, dogs, furniture and not enough space to swing a controller. The new Wii Fit is incredible, and I particularly loved Rock climbing and the games. Assassins Creed Black Flag seemed okay on Wii, however I can get a bit "I just do not care" about puzzle elements. Apparently i didn't even get through to the payoff of sailing my ship around. It didn't suit me - Its not Nintendo's fault.

Board games:

Recently I have mainly been showing a rotating cast of new people old classics, with quite a bit of Catan and Carcassone. I have shown Tig the joy of an obscure one, Age of Mythology, and we have had a few good sessions.

Miniatures:

It's all about the CoC! Chain of Command is the new hotness. I LOVE my tabletop gaming, I like the painting, I like the tactics on the table, I like the strategy of setting up lists. I was much less of a fan of spending $400 a year to keep up with the rule set, and $75 a unit the GW way. With CoC 15mm $75 an army and $25 for the rule set with free updates. I have spent about$20 a quarter since then for campaign books, chocked full of goodness.

40k and Bolt Action are still okay, but I was really, really over IgoUgo. It just didn't seem to reflect anything, and I was looking for more. I had a sniff at other systems, and just failed to care. Then CoC hit, and activation by command dice really hit what i was looking for. Viva Lardy! I'm such a convert I'm running it at Cancon in 2015. Rules conversion: I had a rules conversion writing FRENZY and wrote a whole lot of 40k to CoC rules. They are not yet ready to release, and with the release of the COCulator need a complete re-jig, however I am excited and look forward to playing with them again.

Medieval:

My injuries have kept me plugging along trying to get to one armoured session a week. I was getting to the gym quite often and losing weight and gaining strength which helped my armour endurance. I have backslid with a pretty terrible flu, and will get back this week. I enjoyed "Knight's School" where I did the old "Just make sure you are one lesson ahead of the class" trick and taught an hour introduction to Lichtenauer. To 'walk the talk' I only fought Glaive and tried to stay Lichtenauer style. I was happy with how it went. This sort of class is slow burn - I might see a cool glaivesman or seven emerge over the next few years, or I may see nothing. I missed St Ives fair in Sydney - partly on illness, and partly on not having anything to wear. I hoped to 'fake it' after the return from the wedding and honeymoon: It just didn't happen. Too much to be done in too little time, and a house to be cleared and sold. Good catchups with the lads on the way through.