Bringing the galaxy to heel in Star Traders: Frontiers

I've been playing a huge amount of Star Traders: Frontiers these last few days, so thought I'd do a blog about it.

Star Traders: Frontiers is the latest game from Trese Brothers, an indie game development studio that over the years has released a number of popular games for both mobile and PC via Steam.

Star Traders: Frontiers is the latest evolution of their Star Traders series, where you fly a spaceship around, tackling various challenging missions, in the meantime handling threats such as pirates and opposition factions. You have to carefully consider how you want to play, whether you're going to be a friendly merchant, making regular, if limited, money punting materials around - and being a tasty target for pirates - or perhaps a tougher sort of captain, not necessarily able to cart around as much valuable cargo but able to bring bad guys to justice.

Or you could just be one of the bad guys and blow everyone out of the sky.

This would be my captain, Captain Dupee.  He has a big sword.

A great deal of time is spent travelling from planet to planet, as you can imagine, luckily the game's well set up to keep track of what missions you have on at the moment, and where you need to go. It's worth pointing out that the game is in Steam's Early Access programme, so there are still bugs being ironed out - one of which that I seem to have is old missions hanging around even after being completed - but the bugs don't generally detract from the game.

You'll spend a lot of time on screens like this, watching your ship fly from one place to another, hoping not to run into any ships

You will do a lot of combat, especially ship to ship combat. The combat system is good, not particularly complicated but with enough options to keep it interesting for a while.  I would say, however, that eventually it does get a little repetitive (at least on the basic difficulty setting - it may be on harder settings it gets more challenging)

Starting ship to ship combat. I'm the one on the left, by the way.

Suffice to say, I clicked some buttons, and the other ship blew up.

One of the features I particularly like is the ability to carry out various tasks while in planetary orbit, such as Patrol, Blockade, or Spy.  Each of these gives the player opportunities to obtain certain benefits - for example, Patrolling a planet hopefully leaves a good impression on the faction controlling the planet, whilst Spying gives you the chance to grab valuable intel data to sell to your preferred contact.

These tasks work by dealing five cards (which can be good or bad), and at random one of the five cards takes effect, although you can use the abilities of your crew to try to avoid the worst events.

Here I am spying on someone. Hopefully I might get something good... or I might just get a load of my crew injured. Fingers crossed!

You'll spend a lot of time also down on planets (and also various space outposts), refuelling, repairing, upgrading, buying and selling goods, and, a particularly important part of the game, managing your crew. You've got a pack of hardy spacers on board your ship, and if you aren't treating them right, they'll take every opportunity to flee the ship when you put in to port, or even rise up in mutiny.

The game has a lot of impressive graphics such as this, which you totally forget about when you're busy playing! It's very nice.

Providing that you look after your crew, they'll stay with you and gain abilities and talents on the way, becoming more useful as time goes on.

Think this guy is wearing lipstick. But hey, he's piloting my ship, if that's what he wants to do I'm not going to stop him.

Less often you'll get into crew combat, where selected crew members face off against pirates, scavengers, or even aliens.

It's a good day to die. For the other side, that is. Not mine.

You can also spend time exploring wildernesses on unexplored worlds, which is usually very dangerous but can allow you to discover some valuable items not usually available.

Time to pay my crew.

There's a great deal of depth to the game, with various characters that you meet and work with, furthering the story line, and you get to choose which ones you want to support. You'll also build up a database of contacts on various worlds, which you'll need in order to access specialist military equipment, black markets, rare goods, and additional missions.

So, I have to say that this game is well worth shelling out for. If you like space exploration, some good storylines, a bit of fun and challenge, check out Star Traders: Frontiers.

Before I go, do check out my Indiegogo campaign to support the codification of Pokey Hole: The Game :)

Illumibowl - The Motion Operated Toilet Night Light!

Please note that I received a Illumibowl free of charge in return for this review. However, opinions are my own.

So, I was checking out opportunities to review cool stuff, when I saw this picture of a happy guy who was happy because he was partnering with a motion operated toilet night light.

I wanted some of that action.

Illumibowl kindly obliged by sending me a sample of the world's first toilet night light!

Here it is!

The Illumibowl is a simple but really effective gadget.  Basically you pop some batteries in, stick it to your toilet, and whenever you walk into the room (and it's dark) the Illumibowl will burst into life, perfectly illuminating your toilet.  It's really straightforward to use, and works really well - I've not had any trouble with it not working, or not detecting me walking in the room, or going off during the day - it just does its job perfectly.

The Illumibowl saves you having to either:
a) find your way in the dark to the toilet, falling over a dog/book/step/small child (I have that sort of house)
b) get blinded by putting the main light on at 2am in the morning

I have to say that I was a little sceptical about the Illumibowl, but when I tried it I was really impressed by how well it works - and, let's be honest, it's an awesome gadget to have!  Imagine having one of these and having people round to your house one evening - don't mention it, just wait for someone to return from powdering their nose, saying "Did you know that your toilet lights up..."

It's quite hard to blog effectively about Illumibowl, because you end up with pictures like this:

Which doesn't make it that impressive, which is disappointing because the Illumibowl works really well!  So, you might want to watch my video of the Illumibowl for a better demo...

To get hold of your own Illumibowl, you can buy them from Amazon here.

Selfie Phone Clip - Panoramic Goodness!

Disclosure - this post reviews an item that I received free of charge.  Nevertheless, the views expressed are mine.

Today's post looks at a Selfie Phone Clip that I was kindly sent by Paladone, a wholesale gift supplier with offices in the UK, USA, and Hong Kong.  Now, I'm a huge fan of any kind of gadget so I was very keen to try this out!

The selfie phone clip is designed to be clipped over your phone's normal lens, giving you the ability to take panoramic shots than otherwise capable.  Boxed it comes with a lens cap and storage bag.

The clip is very straightforward to use, and the lens cap is very tight, it's certainly not going to come off by accident.

Below you can see a couple of photos taken as selfies in our attic:

Normal shot

With the selfie phone clip

And the below photos are with my main phone camera, from the skylight:

Normal shot

With the selfie phone clip

Now, obviously my photographic skills aren't the best, and these are just quick shots taken as examples, but even so the clip definitely does allow for much wider shots to be taken.  I would say that it may be even better with certain phones - a friend of mine tried it with his phone and got some really impressive results with it, whilst the ones above were taken with my Huawei P8.  I think that the position of the lens on your phone makes a difference - mine is in the corner of my phone which isn't an ideal position for the clip, the lens on my friend's phone is further away from the edge of the phone so the clip could grip a little better.

So although it's marketed as a "Selfie Phone Clip" and if you want to take a nice big group selfie it'll certainly help with that, I'd also say that it's also got value for when you want to take panoramic shots, for example when out walking, and the small size of it makes it extremely portable.

You can find out more about the Selfie Phone Clip at the Paladone website - I'm aware that the Paladone website currently only sells them in multiples of 12, so if you're just after one you might want to check out their Amazon listing.

Heroes of the Storm - First Impressions

I've been fortunate enough to get hold of a beta key of the new Blizzard game, Heroes of the Storm.

Blizzard calls it a "raucous team brawler".  I don't really know what one of those is, but I can tell you that Heroes is good.  For me it's a bit like a real-time strategy, like C&C, but instead of doing all the management bit (the bit that you don't like), you get to control one of the super powerful army units you produce (which is fun!)

The aim of each map is to go and destroy the enemy energy core, which is defended by variouswalls, fortresses, gun towers, all that sort of thing, which are generally hard as nails to kill.  But you're not by yourself.

You are in a team of 5 heroes lined up, and your base also spits out groups of minions periodically, who don't do a huge amount but are quite useful as cannon fodder - many's the time that I was near death, and saved myself by running and hiding behind a pack of minions.

Currently I'm only up to Level 4, and all of my experience has been with Raynor, a "Ranged Assassin" who basically stands at the back and shoots stuff.  And he's very good at it, as a matter of fact.

Each battle is on one of a number of different maps, each of which brings with it its own intricacies.  For example, the Dragon Shire map requires you to control a pair of shrines in order to turn your hero into a ultra-hard dragon with a massive axe to smash apart enemy defenses.

The game is fun, not overly complex, engaging and combines a lot of the best bits of other games.  In some ways it reminds me a little bit of WoW when it was first around.  If you get the opportunity to give the game a try I'd strongly recommend it.

Here I am about to fight.  Beam me up Scotty.

Here's quite a boring screenshot of my team getting ready to kick ass.

And after a lot of fighting, we won.  Go us.

Good Times at Haunted Hill High - Betrayal at House on the Hill review

Today we have another guest post, this time from Jay aka Nerd Speaker, he's a brilliant blogger specialising in reviews.  Jay has kindly volunteered to write a review of tabletop game Betrayal at House on the Hill - I must organise another tabletop gaming day!

Good Times at Haunted Hill High

Have you heard the one about the priest, the gypsy, and the little Asian boy who get lost together inside a haunted house? Well, it’s no joke! It’s a common scenario in Betrayal at House on the Hill from Avalon Hill games. Designed by Bruce Glassco and previously featured on Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop, this game puts you in the shoes of a plucky explorer who must wander with his or her companions around a house uncovering creepy events and omens. Once enough omens have been revealed, it becomes apparent that one of the explorers is actually a traitor, and the rest of the heroes must then work together to fight against that player and all manner of evil nasties. It’s a fun and tense game with fifty different haunt scenarios to keep the game fresh and engaging, though some haunts are better than others.

Right off the bat I really enjoy exploring the house. Each time you play the house looks completely different since it is made up of turned down room tiles in a stack that are only placed upon passing through a doorway. Rooms will offer the chance to draw an event, item, or omen card. The flavor text on these cards is well written and must always be read out loud in a dramatic / spooky voice. Events cause all manner of glory and mischief, sometimes helping you to find items or level up your stats, and sometimes causing you to fight a deranged voodoo doll with a spear or get pinned by falling debris, not unlike real life. If you’re into balanced play, you might get frustrated when you get beaten to a pulp through unlucky event draws and dice rolls before the haunt even begins. Items make you feel godly, and omens too are generally items of great power. Every time an omen is drawn, that person makes a haunt roll, and if the number of pips is less than the number of omens on the table then the haunt begins (if the haunt happens early… good luck, non traitors).

At this point the haunt and its traitor is revealed in The Traitor’s Tome by cross-referencing the omen that caused the haunt with the room it was revealed, and then following the instructions. Your good mate Ox, with whom you’ve weathered the hard times, turns out to be an occultist. Shit luck. The traitor then gets all sorts of powers, and often control over monsters, while the heroes generally get bubkiss and have to band together or die screaming.

Traitor and Heroes each get their own manual for the haunt and sequester themselves to read up on their abilities and objectives. There’s a short narrative in the manuals that add some context to the haunt, and they’re fun to read (and give you the opportunity to get in character). It is highly suggested that you don’t read the haunts in advance so that they’re fresh, and so that there is still an element of mystery – the traitors don’t know what the heroes need to accomplish to win a haunt and vice-versa. Information sharing is very much on a need to know basis, and you’ll have fun and aggravating times trying to figure out just where and why the traitor player is hauling a corpse.

The haunt is generally a tense time for everybody. Success or failure in an action is determined by a roll of the dice, and the amount of dice you’re allowed to use is dictated most often by your stats, which sometimes just aren’t high enough. There was a time where my friends and I were stuck in a room trying to light a damn candle but our knowledge was just too damn low (durr… *throws candle against wall*). In some haunts the rules are so strange and contradictory to normal play that it causes no end of disputes and the looking up of things on boardgamegeek.com. Yet strangely it’s these frustrating and tense times that make the game so much fun to play. You’ll have countless arguments and “I don’t think you’re allowed to do thats” and it’s oh so satisfying to be deemed right. Whether you’re the hero or the traitor the odds generally seem to be stacked against you, and unless the traitor had so many items before the haunt that he or she is essentially the German ubermensch, the game could always go either way. For all the chaos of dice rolls, however, the game does reward those who have a good feel for strategy, so take heart. Since there are fifty haunts though, they can’t all be winners – some are just plain unbalanced and stupid (you know it’s true if even the winner says so).

So basically if you like a game with a narrative, a blend of strategy and chance, arguments, and nearly endless replayability, this is one to look out for. Oh, also, if you win, you get to give a victory speech. ‘Nuff said.

Jay Borenstein AKA Nerd Speaker is a friend to the cosmic owl and the keeper of one of the keys to your heart. He lives on the internet.

Site: http://nerdspeaker.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nerdspeaker

Google+: http://www.google.com/+NerdspeakerBlogspot1

SanctuaryRPG is brilliant!

Before I launch into today's post, I have to give a special shout out to Tony, who made the funniest comment about my last blog post (to set the scene, I was talking about Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS, and how they seem to have a lot of dead marines in Norfolk - which in the UK is a rural place that likes growing asparagus)

Tony commented:

"Grab your gear!"

"Asparagus snatchers again, boss?"

[gibbslap]

I read it when going to bed and laughed.  And every time I read it again I smile.  I love the vision of Gibbs marching into the office, and McGee/DiNozzo suggesting that asparagus rustlers are on the loose (followed up with the inevitable headslap).  Thanks Tony!

Today we're going to take a look at SanctuaryRPG, a turn-based text adventure by indie studio Black Shell Games. Now, I have to say, I don't like text adventures. They conjure up for me visions of hours getting more and more frustrated, typing commands such as "go north", "inventory", "open door", "unlock door", and "hack the god damn locked door into little pieces with my sword"

But this is different.

Yes, it involves a bit of keyboard action, it's basically the first game that I've played for ages that doesn't involve the mouse. And you know what?

Not a problem.

It's a massive sword.  Not a euphemism.

Without going too much into the plot detail, you're sent off to deal with The Matron, an all-round bad person, who was taken on years ago by Cyrus the Magnificent (yes, really), but, as in all good stories, The Matron is back and it's down to you to save the day.

Here's Cyrus!  He has a seriously pointy nose.

The game involves a huge amount of combat with all kinds of different monsters, from skeletons to bandits, as well as boss creatures, awesome loot, and some fantastic storylines and dialogue. Will you give Lyssa the rose? Or inject her with a poison? And more importantly, will you restock her bar and get her patrons some beer?

The combat system has enough complexity in it to make it interesting, but without having an infinite number of tactics to choose from. You can link attacks up to deliver some serious damage in a combo, but meanwhile your enemy will be beating on you, and generally causing a pain of themselves, so you need to think about whether to go for the damage, or whether to heal yourself up before they finish you off.  I found that it's easy to learn and before long you're able to deliver a wide variety of attacks and the like.

There are a ton of different items to collect, and other diversions such as quests, the arena, not to mention chatting up the barmaid.  It almost feels a little bit like World of Warcraft in that you can properly get involved in things that aren't anything to do with fighting - if you want to spend your time upgrading the bar, ordering booze and serving people drinks, you can!

The ASCII graphics and 8-bit soundtrack are a blast from the past, and made me think of the likes of ZZT and Ultima 4, two games that I absolutely loved when growing up.

Oh dear.

Can I add that you do really feel it when your character dies, especially when you're on classic mode, and there's no recovering the dead character.  All hail the fallen barbarian Thog - I knew him well.

I strongly recommend that you get over to www.sanctuaryrpg.com now and pick up a copy of this bad boy. You won't be disappointed.

For more information catch my live play video of SanctuaryRPG on my YouTube Channel (or watch it below!)

Are You Mike Raven?

I've just completed Are YOU Dave Gorman? a book, unsurprisingly by Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace.  In a nutshell, as a result of a drunken bet Dave Gorman travels around the world meeting other people with his name, in an effort to find and meet 54 of them, dragging his flatmate Danny along for the trip.  I love these types of books - Googlewhack and Round Ireland With a Fridge are two others that spring to mind - where an immense amount of effort is put into a bizarre task.  No, that's wrong - a quest.

There's something about a quest that appeals to me, going out and doing something.  And although I don't feel able to go and do something like this myself, I can live through their books a little.

I must go and watch Yes Man.

And I feel a session buying Kindle books coming on.

Putting reading aside, I've also made my first attempt at a YouTube video, this one is of me doing a brief review of Realm of the Mad God.  It's not very good, but I learnt a lot from making it.  I need to speak a little slower and clearer, and I need to have more of a script when I'm reviewing a game rather than recording a session playing the game, and then talking over it (which is essentially what I did).  It's important to create quality content, even if it takes longer to do.

If you still want to view the video, it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgzDWRtWRfY

Apart from that, it's been a quiet day - I'm currently not feeling too clever with a very sore throat so I'm going to go back to bed, where I've been most of the day! Night!