Rocket League

Date played: March 30th
Platform: PS4

I decided to change it up a little bit last night by playing 10 matches of competitive 1 vs 1 and earn my rating there. It's striking how different one on one matches are from regular matches... Overall, I did really well I think, winning 8 or my 10 matches. In most matches, I was completely dominating. In the two that I lost, it was a lot more challenging mainly because I faced players much closer to my skill level.

I score a nice goal, winning the sprint for the ball

There's a weird level of strategy that goes on in these matches. It's a slower game in most cases, much more strategic, but I don't think it's as fun and exciting as 3 vs 3. Many of the players I faced were more defensive. They would wait in their zone for an opportunity to make a save and counterattack. I'm definitely not that kind of player though. I would rush these guys as much as I could, overwhelming them and hoping that they wouldn't catch me off guard too often.

Sometimes, my goals came from grueling battles for the ball, sometimes, they came from me being faster or more often than not, higher than the other guy. Goals would often come from capitalizing on the other players' mistakes too. Since there's no one to back you up, every mistake can be fatal. I loved playing this mode, but more as a quick change of pace than as something I would do on a regular basis.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 29th
Platform: PS4

Takkar got revenge on the Bloodfang Sabretooth that attacked his hunting party in the first mission of the game. The beast hunt was a really cool mission... In the South-West corner of the map, there was a small, narrow road that led to a large open area. It had piqued my interest early on, but I never went until this beast hunt mission showed up.

After a long and grueling climb through the cliffs that led there, I had to track down the elusive Bloodfang tiger by following it's trail with hunter vision. This was a lot longer than I expected, and it led to me explore most of the area. There were many Udam to fight along the way and I took advantage of that to get a few combat related trophies, like a long shot with the bow, kills with the shards and kills while riding a beast.

My new friend, the Bloodfang Sabretooth

As I got closer to finding the elusive tiger, following trails of blood and dead bodies, I discovered that I could set up large traps for the hunt. I put up as many as I could, then finally found the tiger. I dealt some heavy damage to it with my club, traps and fire, then it ran away to hide in it's den. I chased it for a while then entered the cave. When I fought it again, it had been stuck in another trap, and my own beast was fighting it. Oddly, it didn't attack me and seemed kind of stuck in it's animation for a while, letting me knock it out rather quickly. I then tamed it and got out of the cave with a brand new friend!

It's very powerful. It's got 5 stars for both strength and speed, and a decent stealth score as well, so I think it's going to be my main beast until the end of the game. I continued exploring the area, capturing a bonfire, gathering collectibles and completing a bunch of side missions.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 28th
Platform: PS4

I completed several small side missions last night. I started at the North-East, where I completed a tribal clash mission, killing some Udam and burning their camp. I then saved some Wenja from the Udam. I kind of explored a lot in the process, gathering materials and fighting animals. I upgraded some of my stuff too, though I'm pretty close to having everything upgraded now.

Continuing East, I completed a main story mission where I had to hunt a rare tall elk for my hunter lady, the one who calls me Mammoth Feet. It was kind of a race between Takkar and the Udam since both were hunting the elk. It was easy to kill a couple of Udam, then leave them behind to chase the elk.

The Wenja hunter tells Takkar about the legendary beasts of Oros

When I got back to my village, I picked up a couple of village missions, then spoke to the hunter. She told me that to truly be a beast master, I had to take on the most dangerous beasts in Oros. There are some white wolves, a bear, a mammoth and finally, a sabre-tooth tiger, the one who killed my original hunting party! I can't wait to do these missions!

One of the village missions had me following a group of Wenja... singers? I don't know, this group of 4 Wenja was travelling through Oros in the middle of the night, stopping to sing ritual songs at different spots. I had to protect them from the dangers or the land, which included a wolf pack attack, some Udam and other animals. I've figured out how to use traps correctly. They are not useful very often, but when there is a mission where enemies will converge into one spot, I place the traps on the ground near choke points. It works rather well honestly.

Finally, some Udam had been robbing a Wenja grave site, my job was to hunt the robbers down and recover the stolen items. It was a fun, simple mission.

Rocket League

Date played: March 27th and 28th
Platform: PC

I'm really running out of things to say about this game... Let's just say that I played well, scored a lot, made many saves and had several assists. I'll just leave this picture of a great save I made right here.

I make a slick reverse save in my little orange car

Yoshi's Woolly World

Date played: March 27th
Platform: Wii U

My daughter and I finished Yoshi's Woolly World!

We started where we left off, level 6-5, Yoshi, the Terror of All Boos. As the title implies, this was a ghost house and it was filled with Boos, the crafty ghosts who have haunted Mario and his friends for more than 20 years. Interestingly, Yoshi can turn these spirits into platforms by shooting eggs at them, but only when he has his back turned to them... This created some interesting sections in the level.

6-6, Feel Fuzzy, Get Clingy, was so fucking cool, the theme was Velcro, Velcro everywhere! The Velcro was attached to conveyor belts around the level, and as can be expected, Yoshi sticks to it all. He is made of yarn after all... I was still able to move on the belts, but very slowly. This was probably the level I liked best today.

Then, we moved on to 6-7, Kamek's Last-Ditch Fly-By. The devilish wizard known as Kamek flew on his broom around the level, attacking Yoshi as I moved through some difficult platforming challenges.

It was finally time to take on Bowser Junior on his own turf, his castle. I had to solve a cool puzzle to reach the final rooms of his keep. There were 4 statues in the main room, and each had a wire frame of a different color. I had to find the right color yarn to activate each statue. The trick is that most of the enemies in the level were black or grey, but I needed red, green and blue. Tucked in the corners of each section of the level were some colorful Shy-Guys that I had to "digest", turn into eggs and bring all the way back to the main room. It was a fun concept, and I wish there had been a few more puzzles where yarn color mattered throughout the game.

We finally reached the final boss room and fought Bowser Junior head on. The first phase of the fight was simple, I simply had to avoid his fire based attacks and counter with some eggs. However, after 3 hits, Kamek rode in and turned Bowser Junior into a monstrous giant! I fought him one last time... He was on top of a spire and Yoshi was on the edge of the wall. This meant I could run around the boss in a circle, avoiding his attacks. It was exciting and pretty challenging, but I took him down without much hassle. The Yoshis are saved, and peace is restored!

I wasn't quite done though, I still had some secret levels to beat... Skeleton Goonies' Lava Lair was one of the coolest secret levels in the game. Most of the level had me jumping from enemy to enemy while lava flowed beneath Yoshi. This was a lot more difficult than it sounds, but it was very satisfying. After about 10 attempts, my daughter started enjoying every death. She said that she found it funny, but that I shouldn't quit because the only way to win is to try again. That made me very proud... After about 20 runs, I made it through safely!

Finally, there was one final level that unlocked since I had collected all 270 hidden flowers in the entire game. Wonderful World of Wool is a long level split into 6 sections, each of which is a small (difficult) part of each world. So it started in the friendly grasslands, then the desert, the rainbow land, the jungle, the ice world and finally, the castle. Again, this was really tough, but after multiple attempts, I got to the end.

I feel like Yoshi's Woolly World didn't get the attention and praise it deserved from critics and gamers. This game is fucking adorable, sure, but it's also one of the best platformers I've played. It's not nearly as good as Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, but it's still a very good game. My daughter loved seeing the different themes, enemies and helping me find yarn balls and flowers. It was a great father-daughter activity over the last few months!

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Date played: March 26th
Platform: PS4

As Evie Frye, I continued the search for the piece of Eden. I searched a large monument and found some clues that led me to a large church of some sort. After climbing all the way to the top, I found what I was looking for, but was interrupted by Starrick's highest ranked henchwoman, the lady with a minuscule top hat. She fought Evie, but I won the battle. Unfortunately, the lady managed to escape...

Evie fights the lady with the tiny hat

Then, as Jacob, I completed two missions for Pearl Attaway. First, she wanted me to steal the prototypes for a combustion engine! To do this, I needed Ned Wynert's help, who was being transported through the city in a convoy of police carriages. I stole the carriage and ran away, freeing Ned in the process.

Together, Jacob and Ned attacked the train that carried the engines. I had to fight my way through the enemy train to release the wagons so that Ned could pick it up with our own train. It was a really fun mission.

Finally, I did another mission for Pearl where I had to sabotage some cargo on boats on the River Thames. The mission itself was simple, but when I went to report the news back to Pearl, I caught her deep in conversation with none other than Starrick himself! They are actually cousins, and have been working together this whole time... Jacob is furious, but he gathered enough info to counter-attack. Too bad, Pearl seemed like a cool lady.

Rocket League

Date played: March 26th
Platform: PC

Yes, I blew up a guy and scored at the same time...

I was super hot yesterday. I was scoring goals, making saves, creating big plays, getting hat tricks and MVP's and winning a whole lot! Even in the few games I lost, I was still really good, so it was pretty satisfying. My most spectacular play was when I sprinted for the ball near the opponent's net, burst through the crowd, demolishing a player, then smashing the ball into the net at high speeds. It was cool, it was fun and it looked fucking awesome!

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Date played: March 25th
Platform: PS4

I spent a good amount of time playing Syndicate yesterday. I decided to do 3 "Dreadful Crimes". In the first, I investigated a woman who was murdered in the park. It turns out, she had been killed by her doctor who suffered from dissociative identity disorder and was jealous of his "other self". I found this one really difficult and accused the wrong person many times...

In the second, it was a leatherworker who was killing people to harvest their bodies. He sold the bones mixed with manure to a florist, the meat to a butcher and he used the skin himself to make leather... Disturbing as fuck.

The third crime investigation was about a professor who died, then the next night, was found knocking at his own door, then died again before he could say anything! I eventually discovered that a jealous coworker wanted killed him to take over his position at the university. He used a rare African spider's venom to put the professor in a sort of coma. The man was buried, then taken out of his grave to be sold for "science" by the gravedigger. Creepy.

I reached level 9 with both Jacob and Evie along the way, which let me equip some stronger equipment. I then decided to do some missions for Karl Marx, the legendary socialist. He was worried about some of his supporters turning to violence, including a dude who was gathering nitroglycerin for an apparent attack on Marx's enemies. I hijacked the cart and led it to safety. I also killed a bunch of guys in the process, so the "turning to violence" thing seems quite hypocritical.

Then, I had to protect Karl Marx from shit distrubers while he was doing a speech. I had to stay hidden, then kidnap one of the bad apples and take them away from the area without being seen. Eventually, a full on battle erupted, so I killed everyone who was a threat.

Pearl Attaway is a beautiful, ruthless businesswoman

Finally, I completed a real story mission, something I hadn't done in a long time. Jacob heard about Starrick burning omnibuses ran by his competition. He thought this would be a good opportunity to make an ally by helping the victim of Starrick's violent actions. That's how I met Pearl Attaway, a beautiful businesswoman. She agrees to join forces with Jacob to hurt Starrick's business. In the mission, I had to make my way to a bus depot owned by Starrick and burned the fucking things to the ground. It felt great!

Halo: Spartan Strike

Date played: March 25th
Platform: PC

I've finished Halo Spartan Strike! Sorta...

The "final" mission

I played about 8 or 9 missions, but the last set of missions is locked. It requires that I get gold on all missions to unlock it, and this game isn't good enough for me to care, so I stopped playing it. There were a few cool missions, including a fun run in a Kestrel, the small hovering attack craft. The "final" mission was cool. I had to protect some scientists as they activated devices to close some teleporting gates. Waves of Prometheans and Covenant attacked the whole time, so it was a fun little endurance mission.

Spartan Strike isn't amazing, but it works and it's cool to use Halo weapons and vehicles against the series' iconic enemies.

Thursday Night Special: Chill Edition

Date played: March 24th
Platform: PC

My brother and a friend came over last night to hang out, so of course, we spent a good amount of time playing Rocket League! We had tons of fun, but we had a lot of trouble winning. I think we may have won only 1 or 2 matches... I mean, we played rather well overall, but we hit some tough opponents. We weren't at our best, but we still managed a few good plays, lots of epic saves and the occasional beautiful goal. I'm still disappointed that we didn't win much, but it was fun for sure.

My brother (front) watches as I (air) score a sick goal from his beautiful pass

I also spent a few minutes playing Sid Meier's Starships to show the game to my friend. He likes Civ a lot, so he was curious to see what this game was all about. Then, we played a few minutes of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter because my brother was curious. I was completely lost in the game and didn't know what to do next, but just looking at the insanely detailed scenery was worth our time.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 23rd
Platform: PS4

I spent some time in the Northern parts of Oros, gathering collectibles and finding side missions. I stumbled upon my first leopard, so I jumped on the occasion to tame it. It's pretty powerful, though not as strong as my tiger. It's special skill tags animals around me, so the leopard seems like a good hunting companion. I also fought a couple of mammoths up there and I can now definitely say that there are two sizes. The bigger ones are real motherfuckers that have lots of health, hit like fucking trucks and charge at me at high speeds. I managed to kill one, but I was killed by the second.

BEAR FIGHT!

After a bit more exploration, I found a new bonfire, but this one was setup inside a large mountain side, deep inside a cave. I approached silently and killed many Udam while in stealth, but I was eventually seen and my silent approach turned the place into a bloody neck-stabbing frency of death. It was fun.

Next, I explored a large cave to the North-West. Oddly enough, this place was actually more like a puzzle room, with hidden paths, ice stalactites that blocked the way and could be broken, and grappling puzzles. It was a lot of fun to explore, but I think I might be missing an important skill. At the bottom of the cavern, there were many areas filled with poisonous gas. At this point, I have no way of clearing that stuff, so I think I have to come back later.

I've upgraded a hut, and can now build the double bow, which sounds like a lot of fun for hunting larger animals like mammoths and cave bears. I'm still missing a few materials though. I then spent some time collecting bracelets and other collectibles. At the same time, I was having some fun with my Twitch viewers. One guy seemed like he really liked it when I put stuff on fire... I jokingly agreed with him that it was fun, but only when it's safe. Another dude wanted me to kill crocodiles and use my badger... so I did.

Finally. I completed a village mission where I had to save a Wenja from waves of attacking Udam. I used traps successfully to protect the different areas of attack, which worked rather well. Unfortunately, I shot my Wenja friend in the face with an arrow by accident, so I had to start over, but it was a lot of fun!

Rocket League

Date played: March 23rd
Platform: PS4

I was solid again last night, though I didn't play all that long. I had a few lag problems on PS4 again, though a modem reboot seems to do the trick every time. I made myself a sick looking car, the Ripper with some dark colors and white accents, a shuriken stabbed into it's roof, the burnout rockets and the Sweet Tooth antenna. In a few of my earlier matches, my team mates weren't spectacular, so I struggled, but still managed to play well, made many saves and a good amount of goals.

I shoot and score!

In one particular play, I defended against the opponent's attack with a nice bicycle kick save, than ran into the ball backwards to push it against our corner. I then turned around and pushed the ball forward on the side of the field, avoiding two opponents in the process. Finally, I juggled the ball slightly at high speeds to jam it past the goalie and straight into the net. It was a very satisfying play because honestly, I was alone against the 3 opponents on that one, my team was completely useless in this match.

In some of the later matches, I was teamed up with a guy named Schuebacca. We had excellent chemistry together. He was either setting me up for a goal or picking up my passes to score himself throughout the whole time we played together. I love it when I find a teammate like this, it's very satisfying and fun!

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 22nd
Platform: PS4

Before completing a real mission, I headed to a small campfire to have a safe spawn point in the Eastern end of the map. Along the way, I hunted a few beasts, including a few tall elks, which allowed me to upgrade my guts bag. I can now carry more meat, bait and animal fat. I then captured a nearby bonfire to expand my territory. I managed to stay in stealth the whole time, using my owl, my black panther, my bow and a takedown or two.

I then made my way towards the shaman's quest, but encountered some dangerous animals along the way, including a group of mammoths. I needed some mammoth skin to upgrade some stuff, so I attacked them. The bow is very powerful against these guys, since I can fire arrows rapidly while my beast keeps them busy. I think there are different sized mammoths though, since the ones I fought here were a lot easier to kill than those I met previously.

The shaman gave me a mission to save some Wenja who had been kidnapped by the Iliza. After following the Wenja's tracks through a narrow river, I approached a bridge, high in front of me, near a tall waterfall when I saw her. I saw the Izila leader, a fierce woman named Batari. Still hiding in the river, I witnessed her savage methods as she tortured a warrior by sticking a blade in his chest. She seemed to take great pleasure in his wails of pain...

The bridge was an entrance to a large Izila base, and that's where I found my fellow Wenja who had been captured. My objective was to save them and destroy the base. Using mainly my bow, I stayed in stealth as much as possible and killed most of the guards. Then I liberated my friends and burned the base to the ground. As I made my escape though, I was intercepted by none other than Batari herself. Her character was very well presented in the cut-scene... She appears somewhat charismatic and quite intelligent, however, these traits only serve to hide her savage barbaric nature.

Batari

After a short conversation where Batari tried to recruit me into her clan, she threw me into a large pit in the middle of the base. It felt like the fucking Thunderdome... I escaped the pit by swimming through a submerged tunnel hidden at the bottom of the pit, then returned to my village.

I went to visit the shaman, who had a new mission for me, a vision of fire. This was intended to show Takkar the Izila's weakness. Now, what I'm gonna say is going to sound crazy, but I shit you not, this actually happened. Takkar was given a bow made of fire that shoots fireballs and sends down fiery meteorites to hit enemies... On top of that, after five kills with it, it can shoot three of these crazy arrows at once. Finally, to take the crazy meter up another notch, my objective was to destroy the moon with my arrows. I DESTROYED THE MOON WITH FIERY METEORITE ARROWS! It was fucking awesome.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Date played: March 22nd
Platform: PS4

We've captured the City of London borough

Now that I've completed XCOM 2, I feel like it's time to get back into Assassin's Creed Syndicate. I didn't play for very long, but it was long enough to collect all the chests, beers and illustrations in the City of London borough. I also completed a simple mission where I had to capture a thug. I then did the battle for the borough against a tough looking lady who wasn't actually tough at all. I used a smoke bomb, then stabbed her with Evie's cane-sword. Finally, I started a murder investigation mission where a woman had been killed in a park, her body laying limp on a tree trunk. I stopped there for now, but I can't wait to find clues about her murder and find the murderer.

Rocket League

I score a sick aerial goal from midfield

Date played: March 21st
Platform: PC

If there's one thing that's always true about Rocket League, it's that it always puts a smile on my face, no matter how the rest of my day went. Last night, I was glad I had this amazing game to relieve some stress and have fun with strangers.

I ran into a couple of guys I had played with before, I just remembered their names and icons. It's kind of fun to see some people again, and I've been enjoying chatting with people between goals and at the end of matches. In a few matches, I played against a guy named Traxx. He was skilled, but wasn't one of those insane people that control the car better than anyone else on the field. He was good because of smart play, a little bit like me.

This guy had a good "Rocket League Sense". He read the ball well, read where the other players were and was always in a good spot to make it hard for us to score, or defend our own goal. After the first match with him, I knew I had to keep and eye on him. I almost ignored the other players and focused on him, since he was so dangerous. I managed to neutralize him well and we won 1-0, a tight match, but one I felt really good about.

Throughout the evening, I had solid play. I got a hat trick or two, got some MVP's and a few solid saves. I didn't run into too many assholes either, most people played well and played smart, so that's always more fun.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 20th
Platform: PS4

My evening in Oros started with a short side mission where I had to save a couple of Wenja from some wolves in a cave. I then picked up a hunting side mission to hunt 6 jaguars. These swift felines are difficult to hunt because they are very fast and they run away rather easily. I used my owl to tag them first, then I picked them off with the bow as best I could.

Another side mission sent me to save a group of Wenja from a small Udam camp. I stayed entirely in stealth for this one, using a combination of my owl, panther and bow. I really like the stealth mechanics in this game. They are simple, easy and when you're caught, it's not that big a deal. It's actually really fun to get away with silent murder, but it's also really fun to deal with the horde when I fail.

I then explored a cave system that was quite complex. It had many branching paths, grappling points, hidden caches behind rock walls and even a bear! The cave painting I found in there even had a Ubisoft logo carved into it... Unfortunately, I did something really stupid in the cave. Behind a rock wall, I walked into a room filled with poisonous gas, thinking I would survive long enough to get out alive after grabbing the loot. I was wrong, and died.

My prey, a rare tall elk

The rest of my time was spent exploring the Eastern part of the map, slowly making my way towards some quest givers. I ran into lots of interesting stuff, like a bear who scared off a pack of 3 wolves, a confrontation between two large packs of wolves and even a couple of Wenja having sex on the ground, grunting hard. I captured another bonfire and fought a couple of rare tall elks. The elks are very strong and difficult to kill, though the thrown spears takes them down pretty quick.

XCOM 2

Date played: March 20th
Platform: PC

I finished XCOM 2!

Boy, that final mission was a real fucking bitch. It was by far the longest, most difficult mission in the game. The first time I played it, I didn't know what to expect at all, so I played normally. That was a big mistake.

On the Avenger, my scientists needed to create an Avatar to pass through the portal. So they took the Commander's body, my body, and linked it to the Avatar body they had created. This meant that I had a extra unit on my team and he is powerful. The Avatar has a mind control ability, a powerful gun, a psionic bomb and a null lance that can hit really hard. The objective of the mission was to defeat the alien Avatars while keeping my own alive.

The first portion of the map is a very normal mission, where I fought Mutons, Andromedons, Sectopods, Codex, Advent soldiers and a couple of Gatekeepers. When I played the mission the first time, I didn't hesitate to use my grenades and other consumables to win. However, when I reached the final room, it quickly became obvious that I had fucked up real bad.

The final room is cordoned off by a bridge, and once inside, there were 3 Avatars and 6 portals. Every fucking turn, the portals would spawn a fresh set of 3 or 4 enemies. Combined with the very powerful Avatar enemies, this quickly became a nightmare. I was overrun, and I wasn't able to even damage one of the Avatars, let alone kill all 3 of them...

I was very frustrated with this, since it took almost 2 hours for me to reach this point. I decided to start over from the beginning to conserve ammo, play more safely and change my strategy. I chose to Mind Control and Dominate the two Gatekeepers just before the final room. The Gatekeepers are very powerful, have high health and can deal damage to large groups. I ended up using them as my main units, leaving my team behind at the bridge.

This was a slow strategy, but it worked. I painfully moved my Gatekeepers straight into enemy territory, damaging the Avatars when I could, then dealing damage to the minions. It sound so simple when I read my text here, but fuck, it was a complete shit show that required extreme precision and very careful planning.

Eventually, I had killed two of the Avatars, with long range support from my team, and moved in for the final kill. Samus Aran got mind controlled, so that fucked me over a little bit, but I used all of my explosives, skills and abilities to take out the boss.

The Commander defeats the Elders

The story wrapped up nicely, with my Commander's Avatar battling the Elders directly in a cut-scene. We won, the aliens have fallen back and the resistance has pushed back the forces of Advent. XCOM 2 was fucking amazing. It's too bad the final mission was such a pain in the ass, but I loved everything else about it!

Transformers Devastation

Date played: March 20th
Platform: PS4

I've had my eye on Transformers Devastation ever since it came out late last year, but it was always a bit too expensive for the kind of game it is. When I saw it on sale for 20$ on PSN though, I finally decided to buy it. This is a brawler made by Platinum Games, most famous for their amazing work on Vanquish, a high speed third person shooter. I also figured this would be a fun game to play with my daughter, who is a fan of the robots in disguise.

Optimus Prime battles Devastator

The game has an amazing look to it, straight out of the 80's cartoon. It truly looks gorgeous and feels like "real" Transformers, none of this Michael Bay crap. I got to play as Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Sideswipe. So far, what I like about the game is the combat. Everything else is kind of forgettable. There's a complicated weapon synthesis system that I don't like very much, a weird skill crafting system, bad map design, boring collectibles and a story that makes about as much sense as Donald Trump. But man, that combat. That combat is sweet as fuck.

Basically, there's a light and heavy attack, a dodge, a jump, some ranged attacks, a special move and an ultimate move. Of course, there is also a "transform" button to turn into vehicle mode. Combat is fast and fierce, feeling almost like a fighting game at times. The dodge is really cool because if it's done at the exact right moment, it activates a slow motion mode for a few seconds, allowing me to get lots of hits on enemies.

My daughter really likes Bumblebee, but I'm having a really hard time playing with him because he's got really low health and doesn't seem to hit as hard as the others. Sideswipe is allright, but doesn't stand out much. I have been loving Optimus though. He hits hard, has lots of health and looks fucking cool.

I fought countless enemies in a nameless city on Earth somewhere. Megatron is up to no good, and there's an Insecticon threat looming. There are also gigantic purple claws damaging the city and using wind to do nefarious things somehow. It's all very stupid, but boy is it fun to fight. I fought various bosses and mini-bosses, including various Constructicons, Megatron and even Devastator, the giant Constructicon built from smaller robots.

There's a lot of stuff I don't like about this game, but the combat makes it all worth it. I can't wait to fight more robots!

Rocket League

Date played: March 19th
Platform: PC

I make a last second epic save

I was pretty damn hot last night, once again, riding Takumi. I was fast, I was accurate, I was aggressive. I got a few MVP's, a couple of hat tricks and lots of goals and assists. The games were all very tight and full of action, with many battles in the mid-field. Rocket League makes me happy...

Special Edition: House of Targ

Date played: March 18th
Platform: Arcade

I spent my evening at a local bar, House of Targ with the oldest of my brothers. Part live music venue, part perogies restaurant and part arcade, this place is just perfect of me. After eating some delicious perogies (with bacon!), we spent some time playing arcade games and pinball.

I started with a game by Sega named Turbo. This racing game from 1981 features a steering wheel, a gas pedal and 2 gears. It feels a lot like Super Hang On, except that it was super fucking hard. Next, we played some NBA Jam together, the classic basketball game from 1993. I won by a single point with the Chicago Bulls.

We followed up with some an old Super Chexx bubble dome hockey game, which is similar to foosball. Pitting Canada versus the USA, my brother won 4-3, a tight match. I love playing these types of hockey games, it's so much fun...

Then, I played one of my favorite arcade games ever, San Francisco Rush The Rock from 1996, an awesome racing game where shortcuts are frequent, huge jumps are the norm and shit goes real fucking fast. My brother won the first race and I won the second.

We headed over to the X-Men vs. Street Fighter machine, a 1996 fighting game pitting some Street Fighter characters against some X-Men. This is a tag game, similar to Marvel vs Capcom, where each player picks two characters and can switch between them on the fly. I definitely have more experience with fighting games than my bro, so I won both matches using Ryu and the Hulk. This game was lots of fun, it's very flashy and looks cool.

We also played a pair of beat'em ups, X-Men, the landmark 1992 brawler, and Double Dragon from 1987. These are perfect for arcades, since they are just so easy to jump into and play. Double Dragon is hilarious, challenging and easy to play. I used Wolverine in X-Men and my brother used Cyclops and we even managed to beat the first boss, Pyro.

As we got closer to the live music show, we headed to the pinball area. We played Terminator 2, Iron Man, Genie, Rollergames, Tron Legacy, The Machine Bride of Pin Bot and finally The Walking Dead. Some machines are more fun than others obviously, while some are just cruel, but the best of the night was easily The Walking Dead.

This table is very recent and it shows... It's flashy, well constructed and has a ton of cool moving parts, including a large zombie in the middle and a zombie head hidden inside a barn. What I liked best about it is that the lights would sometimes turn off, creating a short moment of panic as I searched for the ball. It's a cool effect and it adds a lot to the experience. The sound effects are spot on too. I really enjoyed Tron, Pin Bot and Iron Man also.

Rocket League

Date played: March 18th
Platform: PC

I'm back baby!

I got my groove back with Takumi

After a disastrous Thursday evening, I performed much better last night. I was scoring goals, I got a few MVP's and I was hitting the ball as I intended, for the most part anyway. In many games, I was a dominant player, where my plays would set the stage for the other players.

At one point, I played with a very skilled player, but he was a solo player. This guy was very good at controlling the car, hitting the ball and he was fast. However, he was a shitty teammate. He would often hit the ball instead of letting me or the other guy take a better shot. It felt like this guy was playing alone and we would have won a lot more if he just didn't hit the ball sometimes.

It felt great to play well, considering I had such a bad night previously.

Rocket League

Date played: March 17th
Platform: PC

AAARRRRGGGH FUCK!

One of my few goals of the night

I had one of my worst nights of Rocket League in a while last night. I was missing shots, I wasn't in the right spots, I made bad decisions and I just wasn't very good. I know I'm probably wrong, but I'm gonna blame it on my car. Whenever I use the Road Hog, I seem to miss more. Maybe it's the shape of it that throws me off.

At the very end of the night, I changed it to Takumi and right away, I scored two goals and I was hitting the ball precisely. It's probably all in my head... I really hope I don't play like this again.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 16th
Platform: PS4

I spent some time completing a bunch of side missions and exploring the world of Oros. I started with a short and sweet mission where I had to kill a Udam leader who was hiding in a cave. I killed his cohorts outside the cave without being seen. Then I killed a single guy in the cave with the bow, but his buddy heard me, so he came out. As he walked towards my direction, I sent my panther to kill him silently. I then shot the leader in the head with an arrow.

Exploring this huge cave and killing it's Udam inhabitants was so much fun!

Next, I spent a lot of time with a side mission that sent me exploring a cave in the mountains to the north. This was actually much longer and more involved than I expected. The cave was filled with Udam warriors, so I sneaked around and killed most of them without being seen, moving from room to room slowly. The bee bomb has been more and more useful lately, as I use it like I would a grenade in other games. It's almost always a guaranteed kill if I aim well, so when shit gets a bit heavy, I throw one out.

I then explored the north a little bit and captured a bonfire to facilitate travel. I also killed a mammoth, which isn't easy normally, but this one had been weakened by combat earlier I think because I took it out with a few arrows and my tiger. The attention to detail in this game is really cool. For example, when exploring the snowy mountains, my sabre-tooth tiger's fur became gradually whiter, as snow settled into it.

After the bonfire and a bit of exploration, I headed far south to explore and complete a couple of missions. With the materials I picked up there, I was able to upgrade my spear again, so that was cool. As I explored and ran around finding campfires, bracelets, and Izila mask, collectible hands and hunting, I was ambushed by another sabre-tooth tiger. I wasn't ready at all, and I fought poorly, so I died...

I finally completed one mission where I had to burn down a few beehives. In the same area, I fought and killed many woolly rhinos and a bear. I even found my first rare rhino, a majestic white creature. I almost felt bad. Almost. But, you know, loot. Loot is more important than feelings.

XCOM 2

Date played: March 16th
Platform: PC

I've played 3 missions last night, and honestly, I think all I have left is the final mission, but I'm not 100% sure. In the first mission, I had to attack an alien convoy on a street. My team is now pretty much always the same.

My main team drops into action

• Samus Aran: Grenadier. 
• Princess Zelda: Sniper. 
• Link Inpark, Ranger. 
• Colonel Mustard: Psionic Soldier
• Victoria Everglot: Specialist - healing
• Orion Belt: Specialist - tech

I feel like I've got a very strong team. They are all specialized in exactly the way I want them, and they all have top end equipment. In fact, they are so good that they barely get hit anymore. For example, on the street raid mission, I got a flawless rating, meaning that I've killed everything and wasn't hit once!

The second mission I played had me destroy another alien facility to bring the Avatar project down a notch. It was a bit more difficult than the last one, but I still managed a flawless rating. I used a mimic beacon at a very opportune time to ensure no one took damage.

Finally, I played a story mission where I had to investigate a facility in Europe. The map was obviously custom made and not a randomized one. It featured two narrow bridges that acted as choke points as my team infiltrated the facility. I carefully, methodically advanced and discovered that this was where they manufactured Advent soldiers! I had to recover a prototype, a body, and extract it with the rest of my team for research.

My scientists studied the prototype and discovered that every alien species we encountered had some trace of human DNA in it... We're finalizing the research on the Avatar body I had recovered earlier, and I think that will lead me to the final mission, probably something related to that portal we found too.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 15th
Platform: PS4

Even though I only played for about an hour, I made serious progress in Far Cry Primal last night. It started with a mission where I had to kill some Izila warriors to recover an item. I went in as stealthy as I could, but I got spotted pretty quickly. I scrambled to defend myself... I set a trap on the ground near me, I sent my tiger to attack some of them, equipped my bow and shot the enemies quickly.

I made my way towards one of the camps to the East, slowly exploring the map. I stopped a couple of time for bracelet collectibles. During my voyage, I stumbled upon a cave bear, so I killed it, using fire for additional damage. This set fire to the grass in the area... Then a normal bear attacked me, so I fought back, but it ran into the fire and fled. I sent my tiger after it, hoping for a quick kill, but that didn't really work out. The pair of animals ran off into the distance and angered a troop of mammoths! They quickly killed my tiger and trampled in my direction, so I ran like I've never run before.

I ended up losing most of them, except one. So I figured I should try to kill it, even if my beast friend was dead. I impaled the large animal with a few spears, then ran around a tree to avoid it's attacks as much as possible. I then shot it full of arrows as I circled and finally killed it.

When I reached the large camp I had set my sights on, I quickly noticed that it was more dangerous than any other camp I had seen so far. I tried to go stealthy again and sent my owl, but I somehow got spotted on the outskirts of the camp. I think I need to find better hiding spots when I send my owl... This led to a giant bloodbath as I fought the enemies fiercely. I felt like a fucking barbarian as I stuck my spear through an enemy's throat, sent an arrow into the head of another and clubbed another to death as my tiger ate their lifeless bodies...

My village is now very large

It was time for me to return to my village to upgrade my gear, my huts, earn some skills and pick up some new quests. I've now upgraded my club, can craft more arrows with less wood, increased the capacity of my shard carrying pack and improved Sayla's hut. I also crafted a long bow, which has better aim and is great for long range sniper shots. I also learned how to ride my tiger! It increases my travel speed quite a bit and it's really fun to use. I'm starting to use my throwing spears a bit more, since they deal big damage, but they also cost a lot of materials to craft.

Finally, I completed two short village missions. In the first, I had to track a bear's tracks with hunter vision to know why it was sick. In the second, I had to find special glowing mushrooms inside a cave that could cure a child's disease.

XCOM 2

Date played: March 15th
Platform: PC

I'm getting really close to the end here...

I started with a rather difficult mission where I had to extract a VIP in a city. I actually had to reload at one point since I was being swarmed by enemies, mainly because I moved ahead too quickly. The second time around, it went smoothly. I destroyed a Sectopod, took out Advent soldiers and even mind controlled a Muton.

The extraction point for the VIP and my soldiers was on top of a building. I escorted the VIP there without any issues, then extracted him. When I did though, the aliens sent a grenade my way and blew up the roof where the extraction point was, rendering it unusable... This left all of my soldiers stranded on a roof, with 2 Sectoids and an Andromedon on my ass, with only 3 turns left... The new extraction point was on a different rooftop, kind of far away. I had to sprint to the new spot while holding off the enemies... It was very tight, but I made it out on the last turn.

Samus Aran is my best, strongest, most useful soldier

The next mission was a lot easier. All I had to do was reach a truck and steal it's contents. It was a rather small map, and the enemies weren't too crazy except for one Gatekeeper. I got Colonel Mustard to use the Domination move on an Andromedon early on. This allows me to mind control the creature during the whole battle, so it's a huge advantage.

Back on the Avenger, it's clear that I'm at the end of the game, I just need to hit the story mission that I have left. I'm swimming in supplies, and honestly, I don't really need them anymore. I've built multiple W.A.R. suits, which is the strongest heavy armor. I've made contact with all regions and have installed many radio beacons, granting me additional bonuses and supplies. I've got a couple of missions to deal with before I continue the story one, but I should get there soon.

Rocket League

Date played: March 15th
Platform: PC

I think I must have been too tired for this game last night... I didn't play nearly as well as I usually do. I was still fast, but my aim was a bit off and I wasn't as quick to recover when I missed a shot. I still did ok, scoring a few goals and snagging a few MVP's, but I wasn't my usual self. I played against good teams though and in many matches, it felt like both teams were fighting like crazy just to get the ball in the opposing team's zone.

I thread the needle and score a beauty!

There was one play I am particularly proud of though. The ball fell somewhere in the middle of our zone. At high speeds, I pushed it to the middle of the field, just past the center line. Two opponents were coming, one from their goal, the other retreating from attack. In a stroke of genius, with a little bit of luck and some skillful maneuvering, I picked up my own pass, swerved sharply and shot the ball through the two defenders. Describing plays for this game is really hard, since it's the insane speed that makes everything work so well, but let me tell you, that was one of my best solo plays.

Rocket League

Date played: March 14th
Platform: PC

Last night, I've rekindled my love for my first Rocket League crush, Backfire. This car was the only car I used in the early days on PS4. I thought it looked cool, and that was enough for me. I stopped using it after a while though because I was tired of seeing the same car over and over again. With more than 100 hours of Rocket League under my belt, it's nice to have some variety. Lately, I've been changing cars every day, so it felt great to get back to my roots with Backfire last night.

The Backfire car was my first love

I played rather well for most of the night. I got a few satisfying aerial goals, made a good impact on my teams and had many MVP's. I even had a couple of spectacular saves. Later in the evening, I faced a team of players that knew each other and had solid plays. They won every game, but it was a good learning experience. I tried my best, but it wasn't good enough!

Rocket League

Date played: March 13th
Platform: PC

I jumped into the Batmobile and played a few rounds. In one match, luck was really on my side... I was on the attack, about to shoot on goal, but the goalie was in the right spot to make the stop. In an incredibly funny turn of events, the player quit the match just as he was about to save the shot and disappeared, giving me an easy goal! The other team was not amused.

The goalie disappears as I shoot? Pure luck.

I played really well in general. I had a few hat tricks, many MVP's and a couple of aerial goals. At one point, a player joined a game we were winning 8-3 with less than a minute to spare. His name was IBP Kronovi. I think it was THE Kronovi, one of the top players in the world, maybe the best. He laughed at the score and quit the match though, so I didn't have time to play with him... Maybe I'll try to add him as a friend, I would love to learn from a player like that.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 13th
Platform: PS4

I played some more Far Cry Primal last night and did a bunch of smaller missions and lots of exploration. I started with a mission from Sayla, my gatherer friend. She told me a Wenja friend of hers was missing after he went hunting in a cave. Inside the cave, I was attacked by a few cave lions and a couple of jaguars. Weaker predators, like jaguars and wolves tend to run away when they are hit, then come back a few seconds later to see if they can attack. When a jaguar ran away from me, I decided it was a good time to try the traps. I set the trap on the ground near the entrance to the cave, went back to exploring and sure enough, seconds later, I caught the beast in the trap.

Following that, I completed a short mission for the one-armed Wenja where I had to find 3 pieces of a totem that were stolen by the Udam. I stalked the group with my owl, who attacked them by dropping some bees on a pair of guys. This made the others run away though, so I had to chase them down with my bow and my tamed beast.

Next, I explored another cave to the south of the map where I found some collectibles. I noticed that I didn't really have a good spawn point in that direction, so I decided to capture a bonfire and an Izila camp. The bonfire was a quick capture, but the camp was a bit more challenging. It was located on a large island in the middle of a lake. There were about 8 Izila soldiers on it, so I approached silently with my panther. I actually used my bow a lot more than anything else. Head shots are a one hit kill, so as long as I didn't miss, I was still hidden. I did get noticed at the end, but I killed the remaining enemies before they could sound the alarm.

I place a wolf totem on an altar

Finally, I completed a little side mission where I had to find a totem and place it on an altar. The location was actually super cool, as it was a sort of rock plateau high above the ground. I had trouble finding the piece of the totem that was missing. After roaming around the area for a few minutes, I stumbled upon the totem piece and placed it on the altar. I wish I had more time to play this wonderful game, there's just so much to explore and find!

Divekick

Date played: March 13th
Platform: PS4

After being done with Skylanders, my daughter asked that I play something with my girlfriend. My girlfriend doesn't really playing games too much, so it's rare that we play together, and when we do, the controls better be damn simple or she's not going to play at all.

I am the Fencer and my girlfriend is S-Kill

I figured Divekick would be a decent choice, considering it actually only has 2 buttons... We played this simple, but fun fighting game for about 10-15 minutes together. I won a lot of course, but since the game is so simple, she managed to win a few rounds too, so that was cool. We tried a few characters, at my daughter's request, but of course, we had the most fun with Dive and Kick.

Skylanders Swap Force

Date played: March 13th
Platform: PS4

We finally finished Skylanders Swap Force!

It took us almost 2 years of playing on and off, and we've had some great times with this game together. From the first time we played, we've loved the swapping of character's bodies and heads. She even played this one with me a few times. It's helped her learn how to use a joystick, and how to jump on platforms.

All we had left in the game was the final battle against Kaos. We had just imprisoned his mother, so he went to a volcano to imbue it with dark energy so that when it erupted, all of Skylands would turn to the "dark side". His plan fucked up though, and instead, it turned him into a Super Kaos! I battled his giant form using Drobot, our favorite, Whirlwind, my daughter's favorite, and finally, Ninja Stealth Elf.

Super Kaos!

The battle itself was pretty cool. In the first phase, I had to target Kaos' toes as it stomped around, trying to kill me. In the second phase, he put me in his mouth and I had to target his teeth while fighting off smaller enemies. The third phase was spent inside his mind (!), where I had to battle a bunch of minions. Finally, in the last phase, I had to run away from his laser breath as I raced for a nearby canon and jumped over gaps in the ground.

I liked Skylanders Swap Force, and the newest in game in the series, Skylanders Superchargers, looks like a lot of fun too, so we might pick it up someday when it's cheap.

Pikmin 3

Date played: March 13th
Platform: Wii U

My daughter BEGGED me to play some more Pikmin 3... I'm not a huge fan of replaying games that I've already completed, but the way she asked me, I just couldn't say no. Fortunately, when I booted the game, a patch had added a new game mode called "Mission". There are three different types of missions, collecting treasure, beating monsters or a boss run.

We chose the treasure hunt and played the first two missions. It's been a long time since I played this game, so I thought I would have trouble with the controls, but it came back to me right away. The treasure is actually just fruit, and there's a strict time limit to reach a certain number of points. There are bronze, silver and gold medals available.

Golden fruit is worth a lot more

It was surprisingly difficult to get even just the bronze score... The game expects the player to multitask like fucking crazy, and it's hard to keep track of everything. I enjoyed it, it was very challenging. The second mission was even worse since it had more types of Pikmin available and required that I use all three of my little astronauts to succeed. I wouldn't play a lot of this mode, but it was fun for a few missions.

XCOM 2

Date played: March 12th
Platform: PC

I played 2 missions yesterday, one major story mission and a normal strike mission. In the story mission, I had to find a Cortex's point of origin. This was a rather difficult battle, mainly due to the layout of the map. It was a bit more open than usual and quite a bit larger. Thankfully, I didn't have a turn timer, so I could take my time and make intelligent, safe moves. After dealing with the initial wave of enemies, I found an area on the map that looked completely alien, filled with unusual vegetation. Shortly after, I stumbled upon a large gate. A Gatekeeper teleported into the map from the gate, so I killed it. We brought the gate back onto the Avenger for research.

The mysterious gate

Back on the Avenger, I had a lot of stuff to do to study the gate. I had to scramble for supplies to upgrade my shadow chamber, then find even more resources to actually start the research. I also managed to get a huge upgrade to my armor for all my squad. I then spent an unreasonable amount of time customizing my soldiers because I felt that the new armor was too slick for some of the stuff they were wearing...

Once the research was complete on the gate, my top engineer sent a GREMLIN robot through the gate to gather some data. Unfortunately, it couldn't even go through, the gate was looking for a specific organic signature, which the robot didn't have. We still managed to get a glimpse of what was beyond the gate, and it wasn't human at all, maybe not even on Earth... I can't wait to see what happens with this story!

The second mission was more straight-forward, but I had many injured soldiers, so I brought in lower ranked squad members. It wasn't too too hard, but it was definitely harder than if I hadn't had my top people. 

Rocket League

Date played: March 11th
Platform: PC

Another Friday evening, another few hours playing Rocket League...

I did rather well last night, getting some MVP's, a couple of hat tricks and playing generally well. I used Zippy with some nice, sexy leopard print, a crown, a rocket antenna, a crown and a purple flamethrower rocket trail. There's not much to say really, nothing too special happened, so here's a nice picture of a goal on Wasteland.

Leopard print? Yes please. Beautiful goal? Yes please.

Rocket League

This antenna is the best...

Date played: March 10th
Platform: PS4 / PC

I played a few rounds of Rocket League with my brother on PS4 last night. I played pretty well, but I was plagued with ping spikes again. I've added my PS4 to DMZ in my modem in the hopes that it would resolve the issue. I only played one match after making the change, but it was smooth as butter, so maybe I've found a solution. Time will tell.

When my brother had to leave, I jumped onto the PC version. I played really well here. Clearly, the good connection makes a huge difference in my performance. In my first match, I got a hat trick. In other matches, I was MVP more than once. I actually lost a lot, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 9th
Platform: PS4

I jumped back into the land of Oros as Takkar and completed a good number of interesting missions. I started with a little side quest where I had to help a Wenja by burning down a cave inhabited by the Izila, the tribe that worships the sun and fire. Of course, once I started burning shit, I got attacked savagely by them, so I fought them with my saber tooth tiger, my bow and my club.

Next, I decided to meet with Karoosh, another Wenja specialist. This guy was way up north. When I approached the area, I was surprised to see a completely different landscape than what I was used to. There was a light snow, the colors more lifeless, the vegetation more sparse and the cold was palpable. Hell, when I wandered north a bit too much, a cold meter appeared and I was warned that I could freeze to death if I stayed too long...

Anyway, I met with Karoosh and he's a fearless warrior. He asks me to help him attract the Udam to his campsite so that we could murder them together, for the Wenja. I burned Udam bodies and fought off a dozen of them as they rushed the area. I've been using the bow a lot to fight enemies. I'm a pretty good shot, so I've been getting a lot of headshots. When enemies get too close, I typically switch to the club. After this, Karoosh joined my village and gave me access to a bunch of new stuff.

Karoosh, the powerful warrior, burns Udam bodies

Back at the village, I spent some time and many resources on upgrading huts and crafting new items. I've crafted a nice warm winter coat to explore the northern area. I've got a new, upgraded club and spear. I've even crafted a powerful 2 handed club that is slow, but dangerous. I've got some new skills too, like dealing more damage to animals, reduced sway when aiming clubs and spears and a special takedown when I fall on enemies from above.

I was then given a small quest near the Wenja village. A nearby river was making villagers sick, so I investigated it by following some clues with hunter vision. It turns out that there were some dead bodies in the river upstream...

Next, I decided to complete a mission for the one armed man. He wanted some rare feathers from some eagle nests. There is a very high cliff on the west side of the map where the eagles have made their nests. I had to climb the dangerous cliffs using my grapple while avoiding eagle attacks, and gathering rare feathers from nests. At the top of the cliffs, I finally figured out how to kill these birds of prey. I waited for them to squawk, signaling an attack, then when they dived in my direction, I took out my spear, looked at them and struck them just as they were about to hit me. With my feathers, I was able to upgrade my quiver to hold 48 arrows at a time!

Finally, I spent some time heading back north to find Sayla and get to my next mission. I got distracted often though, as I gathered new items that didn't show up in the starting area. I also tamed a bear and a cave bear... The regular bear seems rather useless, but the cave bear is the strongest beast yet, with a 5 star strength rating. However, it's very very slow and has absolutely no stealth, considering it's impressive size. It also attracts enemy attacks, so I think he will be good to use when assaulting large camps.

XCOM 2

Date played: March 9th
Platform: PC

I played only one mission, a retaliation strike by the aliens. As usual, I had to save some civilians from the aliens. The map was actually pretty cool... Set at night in an industrial area, there were many high platforms and large gas tanks scattered around. The gas tanks are great because they cause big explosions when hit. I faced some Chryssalids, a Sectoid, and Andromedon, a couple of Mutons and a few Advent soldiers.

To make my team stronger, I've been bringing some lower level soldiers to battle, leaving my top guys at base. This is really just so they can get some exp, that way, if I have some key players injured later in the game, I won't be frustrated since I'll have competent backups.

Oliver Jackson shoots a Faceless

This means that G.I. Jane and Oliver Jackson have been getting more action. I brought out Beetle Juice for the first time too, though the psi soldiers have a different way of leveling up. I also got to use a new type of heavy armor on Samus Aran. I'm pretty sure this is the best heavy armor in the game and it looks slick as fuck.

Far Cry Primal

Date played: March 8th
Platform: PS4

Takkar continues his journey through Oros and help the Wenja tribe grow. Last time I played, I had stopped when the one armed man had thrown me into a pit and pissed on me... I burned a hole in the floor and found myself inside a cave. I fought a couple of jaguars in the cave and tried to find an exit when I found something else that was very interesting.

I got a grappling claw! This thing gives me the ability to grapple onto marked spots and climb high cliffs. So far, it seems it's been mostly shortcuts. Using my new tool, I escaped the cave and went back to the one armed man. He was impressed with my escape and gave me another mission. This time, I had to find some rare ores by looking through some rocky arches to find a bright spot shining in the sun.

The area where the ores were was brimming with Udam warriors, so I sneaked in during the night by swimming at the bottom of a small river. After drowning the nearest guard, I sent my black panther and owl to kill a few dudes, then went in and cleaned up the remaining enemies with my bow. The one armed man congratulated me, upgraded my title to "Smart Piss-Man" and went to live with the other Wenja at the village...

Takkar hunts and gathers in Oros

His arrival led to many new upgrades, like bigger bags to carry meat, bait and weapons. I also crafted a trap, though I haven't tried it yet. I spent a lot of resources on these upgrades, and on new huts, so I spent some time just hunting and gathering. One of my favorite things about this game is simply to hunt and explore. It's very satisfying... Along the way, I tamed a badger. While it's rather weak in combat, it has an awesome unique skill, it scares away other animals. I could see it being useful when I don't want to get attacked by a random animal while doing a mission or something.

To end my night, I completed another vision quest at the shaman's hut. Once again, I was cast into a young mammoth's body. This time, I had to lead a group of 5 of my peers to safety through traps and human warriors. While I love the concept here, the execution is abysmal... These missions are easily the worst in the game because of how difficult it is to control the animal. It doesn't help that the field of view is shit either. I made it through safely, but I hated every moment of it. At least I got a skill point out of it...