Monday, 16 March 2020
Sunday, 15 March 2020
Ween : The Prophecy - Alternative Paths And Final Rating
Written by Alfred n the Fettuc
Before submitting WEEN to the PISSED rating, we need to study the alternative paths that you can take through the game. I counted two (but I might also have missed something), one using the fish amulet to breathe underwater, and the other attainable by choosing the second door when you exit the temple, just before the ant garden.
Restarting the game, I scan once more every screen to see what I could have missed but don't find anything before the lake itself (I still don't know if I can do anything with the bolt I found on OHKRAM's balcony by the way). Turns out that on the first venom/pollen puzzle, there is a very tiny leave hidden in the corner of the screen.
Considering all the pixel-hunting I had to do in order to progress later in the game, I'm really surprised I didn't spot the leaves on my first play-through. I think at this point of the game, I didn't really need to search every nook and cranny of every place I went. Anyway, I make the monster appear on the bridge, get the feather, use it to make the venom and pollen appear in the chest, and mix a potion of growth out of the two reagents. And what do you know…
I call URM and give him the strawberries. Joyful, he drops a small ingot of gold that fits perfectly with the half-statue to make a complete fish amulet. Guess it means that URM had the amulet since the very beginning and just didn't give it to me because I didn't have enough strawberries in my pocket… stupid greedy bat. Using the amulet on the water allows me to enter it and breathe underwater. URM comes back afterwards and get back the Elixir from me, so the hint of an alternative path works whatever path you choose. Nice touch.
Just before arriving on this screen, I witness a little cutscene with a big barracuda-like fish eating some kind of metal pole. When I click on the seaweeds on the left of the screen, a little fish appears and get eaten by the same barracuda-like fish, that WEEN describes as a wurk, a greedy fish that could eat anything. I'm starting to suspect that we'll have to make him eat the electric fish one way or another. Clicking on the staircase sets a trap where iron bars appear from the wall to stop me from going up. Messing with the electric fish gets me zapped. I spend some time looking around until a little bug appears… it's our friend the useless mosquito sent by KRAAL!
I catch it pretty easily and feed it to the electric fish… Just when I was wondering if it meant that taking this alternative path would make the mosquito disappear from the rest of the game, another one quietly arrives and lands at the exact same place. I'm guessing KRAAL has an infinite army of mosquitos underlings for some reason. Knowing that the electric fish seems to love mosquitos, I get the other insect and drop it near the hole where the wurk is hidden. It exits and eats the fish, resulting in death by electrocution. I grab the glass piece on the ground and cuts the wurk open.
I use the steel bar found into the belly of the beast in the small hole near the door, making it bigger. Clicking on the hole now makes another marine monstrosity appear as a moray eel tries to catch me. Messing with the seaweeds on the left make another innocent fish wander around and gets eaten by the moray eel.
Inside the fish I find a harpoon point (what do they eat in that lake?) that I combine with my metal bar to make a perfectly fine harpoon. Trying to use it in the moray eel hiding place doesn't work though. Looking in the seaweed to find another fish, I catch it with my harpoon before it gets eaten and then feed it to the moray eel, hoping it would choke on my harpoon, but no. It just eats the fish and spits back my harpoon. What a nice monstrosity. Pixel-hunting the place once more, I discover a crack on the side of the barred staircase. Destroying a part of the wall with my harpoon, and trying to climb the staircase once again breaks the trap. However, the iron bars are now stuck in the stone.
Using my trusty harpoon, I catch another fish from the seaweed and put it between the iron bars. It works! The moray eel catch the harpoon point and forces the iron bars open with its voracity. Now that's what I call one hungry fish! Finally, I'm able to exit this horrible place and get to the entrance of the dragon temple with the wasp trap and the snake.
So all in all, this path allows me to avoid the goblin-looking statue with its sword and the Orivor puzzle. I kinda prefer the underwater path as I think the puzzles are more fun. However, I'll probably never go in a lake again in my life now that I've seen what's in it…
Second alternative path : Laser-eye petrifying dinosaurs
After getting the three grains of sand and exiting the temple (and before the two dimwits lost my haversack), I was presented with two doors. The door on the right, that I chose, brought me to the ant garden puzzle where I had to mix a digitalis meal for the ant queen. Selecting the door on the left brings me to another garden, where some kind of huge laser-eyes dinosaur petrifies URM the second we get in!
PETROY appears and tells me that KOR, the deity that's pictured on the left, can help URM, but I need to give him offerings. Namingly, the power of thunder, the star of light and the wealth of the tide… Just that. I grab what appears to be a net (probably in order to get the wealth of the tide. I knew I should have brought another dead fish from the underwater segment). Trying to operate the well tells me that I need a handle to work the pulley. The right of the screen allows me to exit to another part of the garden.
Getting the grill allows a huge orange crab to exit the trap. I grab a fish from the river with my net. Clicking a second time on the river makes the fairy of the river appear! She tells me that in her river lives a crab with sharp pincers (doh!), and that great riches can be found in the water. Trying to use the grill as a sieve doesn't work though. Not finding anything else, I go back to the statue of KOR in order to offer him the fish I just caught. No reaction. So I guess the wealth of the tide refers to actual wealth. Pixel-hunting the first screen, I find that I can remove the hoop from the barrel.
Using the grill in the hoop, I make an actual sieve. Using it on the river allows me to get a few gold nuggets. Going back to the statue, I can put the nuggets at the feet of the statue but nothing happens. I guess he wants the three elements before doing anything. I realize I still have a fish in my inventory and go back to the river. Putting the fish in the trap next to it makes the big orange crab come back in order to devour this meal. I catch the crab (with my bare hands… WEEN is clearly braver than me). Not finding anything to do with it, I try using my other inventory items everywhere. Putting the sword in the hand of the statue, it attracts lightning! After hitting the sword, the lightning falls on the ground and I can grab it in my hands.
Trying to put the lightning on the pedestal to offer KOR the "power of thunder", WEEN tells me that he's got far better things to do with this object for the moment… So first, thank you, protagonist, for this hint but could you please do as you're told? Secondly, ok, what else can I do with a solidified lightning? Use it as a handle for the well of course! I pull up something that looks like a chest from the bottom of the well and I can put the lightning on the pedestal afterwards. Thank you, WEEN! The chest is locked by a heavy metal chain that I use my crab to cut. It still doesn't open, though, so I get my sword back and use it as a lever to open the chest (swords used as levers during the game : 4). Inside the chest is a key that I use to open the lock under the beast statue. In it I find a sun effigy, which is sure to be "the star of light". I put it on the pedestal and KOR reanimates URM, who doesn't take long to be his normal self again!
And then I arrive at the garden with the view on Volcano Island, the worm and the giant mushrooms. I tend to prefer this path also to the one with the ant queen, if only because I spent way too much time on the ant queen screen turning my copper ball into a pipe and a cauldron and vice-versa…
FINAL RATING
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for. I tend to be a bit afraid of the PISSED rating because I know this game is fondly remembered by many, but I'll try my best to give it a fair trial.
Puzzles and Solvability
The puzzles are pretty fun overall. The game is a nice suite of inventory-based puzzles and there are a lot of them. However, the game is a bit on the easy side and a few of the puzzles are repetitive without enough differences between them. The room with the fireflies comes to mind where you're supposed to repeat the same tedious steps five times. The other problem is that you stumble a bit too often on the solution instead of wanting to do something and successfully do it. That's usually the issue with games with a single "action" button (as opposed to a list of verbs or a parser), in my humble opinion, but in this kind of games where things happen because "magic", I think that clicking on random things and see what happens is a big part of the fun, like a less chaotic version of Gobliins 2.
When the game avoids being too easy, however, it tends to fall pretty quickly in the "obscure" territory. The dragon battle, for example comes to mind, or the potion mixing.
Thorough pixel-hunting is a huge part of the game as well and it can be infuriating at times, especially when you think you have the good solution and can't make it work. Globally, the game could do with a little more hints, even subtle ones. Too often was I stumbling in the dark just trying to make something happen with no clear objective of my goal.
Having two branching paths (even if it's for a short period of time) is great though, and adds replayability, which is still rare enough in adventure games to be underlined.
Final Score : 6. Overall, the puzzle design is solid, pleasant and there are a lot of things to do. A few roadblocks are difficult enough without being unsolvable. The fact that you are too often stumbling in the dark is what prevents it to get a 7, but just quite.
Interface and Inventory
As was noted by Ilmari in his playthrough of Gobliins 2, the interface shares some similarities, which is a novelty for a Coktel Vision game. It's probably because it works. You can combine inventory items, use items on yourself, etc. I think the guys at Coktel were working on something that would be used in all of their games at the time if only because they left the "fast movement" icon in the menu without using it once in the game. It was Coktel's take on something similar to the SCUMM engine, even if not as brilliant.
The interface is overall pretty functional, but it has a few flaws that really get irritating in the long run. I've rambled enough on the transformations of the copper ball/sword/pipe/cauldron. It's because you do that ALL THE TIME. And what is a charming little animation in the beginning of the game are excruciating when you do that fifteen times in a row because you're trying to solve a puzzle and don't know which tool to use. The fact that you have to go through the copper ball transformation every time you want to change the sword into a cauldron is more irritating than it has any right to be.
There are other issues as well. Using the glue on the firefly works but not the other way around. Granted, it makes more sense in this order but when you're trying to find the solution to an obscure puzzle, you don't necessarily try the two sides of an item interaction. There is also a little "slugginess" to the whole game (like a few milliseconds too long) that makes the whole thing a little too slow for my taste. But it might also be the emulator I used so I won't take it into account.
The integrated joker system is a nice touch. In a time before the internet, it was always a solution to make some progress in the game if you're completely stuck. I tried it here and there after my playthrough, though, and it could beneficiate from a little subtlety by guiding you on the right path instead of telling the solutions outright. But still, it's always better than throwing the game disks against a wall in frustration.
Final Score : 4. Functional, but a few issues tarnish the whole experience here and there.
Story and Setting
Well… this one is tricky. I'm pretty sure the story as a whole made some kind of sense to someone at Coktel Vision (or they were under a lot of drugs), but after having completed the game, I still have little clues about exactly who is OPALE, what the REVUSS is, what the BORGOL is, why the two stupid twins change their height every five seconds, etc… The whole story comes out as quite a mess, and it's not a translation issue as I've tried the french version and it's more or less the same thing.
Then again, the whole "it's magic" works with this universe and the sense of mystery permeates everything, but that's something that enters in another category. As a story in and by itself, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I'd also love to have some kind of confrontation with KRAAL at the end instead of an over-complicated Bond villain scheme to foil. It's like if at the end of Legend of Kyrandia, you just had to disarm a trap instead of confronting Malcolm while you've spent the whole game chasing him.
The same can be said about the places you're exploring. Once you exit the cave complex from underneath OHKRAM's house, you spend your time going in and out of caves and gardens with little coherence. It's not a big deal in itself, as most of the puzzles are self-contained to one screen, but it doesn't make you feel like you're making any progress, more like you're being lugged around random places.
Final score : 3. The story is serviceable, nothing else. You solve puzzles and sometimes, someone talks to you spouting nonsense.
Sound and Graphics
In the visual department, the game suffers from a strange dichotomy. The places you explore are mostly pretty and nicely detailed. The catacombs and temples are creepy enough and the whole "sunsets and moonlight" ambiance suits the magical atmosphere overall. However, I found the monster and creature design to be quite hideous, to be honest. The dragon, the orivors, the mosquitos… I guess a monster is supposed to be ugly, and it's also a matter of taste, but I frankly disliked the overall creature design.
And then there are digitized actors in Halloween masks integrated in all this. If you remove UBI and ORBI little dance, all of them are mostly shot in close-ups and there is a little "cheap" feeling about all this, like a bad short-feature horror film. On the other hand, it's nice enough to have integrated digitized actors in the first place in this day and age.
On the sound department, the whole ambiance is great and the music is pretty nice (even if it could have benefited from a little more tracks because it tends to repeat itself pretty quickly). The sound effects have nice swishes and swooshes that add to the magical theme and all of this is of pretty good quality overall.
Final Score : 5. Pretty good overall but a few hits and misses in the design department. Good music though.
Environment and Atmosphere
Despite the odd design choices and a few elements that I could easily have done without (UKI, ORBI and your little dance, I'm looking at you), if there is something that you can't reproach Ween : The Prophecy for, is its atmosphere. The whole game is full of magic, weird things and every new screen is an invitation to explore and find what new kinds of surprises the game holds for you. The mysterious statues that are found everywhere, the magical beings you're encountering… Add to that the whole sunset/moonlight feeling that you have for most of the game and you have the feeling of a magical world ending.
The use of colors is also to be commended. The whole game is painted in dominant colors (mainly orange and purple) and it really adds to the atmosphere (despite a few clashes here and there).
However (because we always need a however), once again, a few choices go against the whole thing. There is sometimes goofiness that would be more in its place in a Gobliiins game, sometimes alternating immediately with something more mysterious. I think the developers were trying to alternate between mysterious and funny, but it sometimes doesn't work. Managing a "hot and cold" ambiance (like, let's say, the early movies of Tim Burton, for example) is something that's really hard to achieve and I can't help but feel like the developers should have chosen a direction and stick with it instead of trying to alternate between serious and goofy.
Final Score : 6. Great magical atmosphere, marred sometimes by odd goofy moments.
Dialog and Acting
Like I've said earlier, a lot of the exposition text and dialog is pretty nonsensical. Sometimes, the ORACLE or the BORGOL (whatever the latter is) appear and tell you a lot of things, much of it not making a lot of sense… Some other times, OHKRAM appears and tells you you've gained a grain of sand even if you weren't really trying to do so… Most of the interactions with the animals and sentient beings you cross path with are nice without being really noteworthy.
The exception to this rule is URM, your vampire buddy, which is the most competently written character. His lines are sometimes funny, especially when you call him for no reason. He's helping and mocking in equal measures and is a pretty good sidekick.
The rest of the sidekicks are not that great. PETROY spends most of the time telling you "he can't tell you anything about that" when you ask him for help, but sometimes, he drops a clue that's mandatory to understand the puzzles. And I think I've rambled enough on UKI and ORBI, but let's say that every time their ugly mugs appear, you know you're here for what appears like full minutes listening to their stupid dances and songs. And the fact that you can't speed up the dialog doesn't help, especially if you reload to earlier stages of the game you've already suffered through.
The acting in itself is mainly digitized people in Halloween masks waving and doing over the top gestures to make their point, so it's nothing to write home about. At least, the final animation of KRAAL apparently trying to peel his face off is satisfactory enough.
Final Score : 4. Apart for URM, nothing really stands out, and the twins are consistently cringeworthy.
Final Score
So without further ado, the final score equals (6+4+3+5+6+4/0.6) = 47! I'll add one discretionary point for the fact that, despite all its quirks and errors, the whole experience was overall pretty pleasant and I think it'll stick with me as a good memory. And I realize now that doing so gives it the exact same score of the first Gobliiins and five points above The Legend of Djel, so kudos to Coktel for upping their game since Bargon Attack and Emmanuelle!
Congrats on your score guess, Lugh, you earn CAPs!
I'm glad I was able to finally play through this game. I had memories of it for a long time ago and being able to make some real progress on it instead of being stuck on the second screen like the stupid kid I was made me feel like an achievement! See you around and thank you all for your attention and your comments!
CAP Distribution
32 CAPs to MorpheusKitami
10 CAPs to Rowan Lipkovits
Before submitting WEEN to the PISSED rating, we need to study the alternative paths that you can take through the game. I counted two (but I might also have missed something), one using the fish amulet to breathe underwater, and the other attainable by choosing the second door when you exit the temple, just before the ant garden.
 |
| The first hint about an alternative path comes from our friend URM |
Restarting the game, I scan once more every screen to see what I could have missed but don't find anything before the lake itself (I still don't know if I can do anything with the bolt I found on OHKRAM's balcony by the way). Turns out that on the first venom/pollen puzzle, there is a very tiny leave hidden in the corner of the screen.
 |
| Obvious isn't it? |
 |
| More strawberries!!! |
 |
| Do fishermen dream of electric fish? |
 |
| Hey there little buddy, I thought I would only kick your ass much later in the game… |
 |
| Gross |
 |
| Underwater massacre |
 |
| Not for the marine life around here, that's for sure. |
So all in all, this path allows me to avoid the goblin-looking statue with its sword and the Orivor puzzle. I kinda prefer the underwater path as I think the puzzles are more fun. However, I'll probably never go in a lake again in my life now that I've seen what's in it…
Second alternative path : Laser-eye petrifying dinosaurs
After getting the three grains of sand and exiting the temple (and before the two dimwits lost my haversack), I was presented with two doors. The door on the right, that I chose, brought me to the ant garden puzzle where I had to mix a digitalis meal for the ant queen. Selecting the door on the left brings me to another garden, where some kind of huge laser-eyes dinosaur petrifies URM the second we get in!
 |
| We hold the winner in the Coktel Vision teeth contest |
 |
| A grill? Maybe I'll be able to barbecue the wealth of the tide… |
 |
| You know? For kids! |
 |
| Pretty sure that's not how lightning works. |
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| Ungrateful fruit-eating bastard |
FINAL RATING
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for. I tend to be a bit afraid of the PISSED rating because I know this game is fondly remembered by many, but I'll try my best to give it a fair trial.
Puzzles and Solvability
The puzzles are pretty fun overall. The game is a nice suite of inventory-based puzzles and there are a lot of them. However, the game is a bit on the easy side and a few of the puzzles are repetitive without enough differences between them. The room with the fireflies comes to mind where you're supposed to repeat the same tedious steps five times. The other problem is that you stumble a bit too often on the solution instead of wanting to do something and successfully do it. That's usually the issue with games with a single "action" button (as opposed to a list of verbs or a parser), in my humble opinion, but in this kind of games where things happen because "magic", I think that clicking on random things and see what happens is a big part of the fun, like a less chaotic version of Gobliins 2.
When the game avoids being too easy, however, it tends to fall pretty quickly in the "obscure" territory. The dragon battle, for example comes to mind, or the potion mixing.
 |
| Never forget the mighty battle of the cat and the beagle. |
Having two branching paths (even if it's for a short period of time) is great though, and adds replayability, which is still rare enough in adventure games to be underlined.
Final Score : 6. Overall, the puzzle design is solid, pleasant and there are a lot of things to do. A few roadblocks are difficult enough without being unsolvable. The fact that you are too often stumbling in the dark is what prevents it to get a 7, but just quite.
Interface and Inventory
As was noted by Ilmari in his playthrough of Gobliins 2, the interface shares some similarities, which is a novelty for a Coktel Vision game. It's probably because it works. You can combine inventory items, use items on yourself, etc. I think the guys at Coktel were working on something that would be used in all of their games at the time if only because they left the "fast movement" icon in the menu without using it once in the game. It was Coktel's take on something similar to the SCUMM engine, even if not as brilliant.
 |
| There is even a notepad to keep track of whatever seems important (like potion recipes) |
There are other issues as well. Using the glue on the firefly works but not the other way around. Granted, it makes more sense in this order but when you're trying to find the solution to an obscure puzzle, you don't necessarily try the two sides of an item interaction. There is also a little "slugginess" to the whole game (like a few milliseconds too long) that makes the whole thing a little too slow for my taste. But it might also be the emulator I used so I won't take it into account.
The integrated joker system is a nice touch. In a time before the internet, it was always a solution to make some progress in the game if you're completely stuck. I tried it here and there after my playthrough, though, and it could beneficiate from a little subtlety by guiding you on the right path instead of telling the solutions outright. But still, it's always better than throwing the game disks against a wall in frustration.
Final Score : 4. Functional, but a few issues tarnish the whole experience here and there.
Story and Setting
Well… this one is tricky. I'm pretty sure the story as a whole made some kind of sense to someone at Coktel Vision (or they were under a lot of drugs), but after having completed the game, I still have little clues about exactly who is OPALE, what the REVUSS is, what the BORGOL is, why the two stupid twins change their height every five seconds, etc… The whole story comes out as quite a mess, and it's not a translation issue as I've tried the french version and it's more or less the same thing.
 |
| I still want someone to explain to me why my haversack was an owl the whole time… |
The same can be said about the places you're exploring. Once you exit the cave complex from underneath OHKRAM's house, you spend your time going in and out of caves and gardens with little coherence. It's not a big deal in itself, as most of the puzzles are self-contained to one screen, but it doesn't make you feel like you're making any progress, more like you're being lugged around random places.
Final score : 3. The story is serviceable, nothing else. You solve puzzles and sometimes, someone talks to you spouting nonsense.
Sound and Graphics
In the visual department, the game suffers from a strange dichotomy. The places you explore are mostly pretty and nicely detailed. The catacombs and temples are creepy enough and the whole "sunsets and moonlight" ambiance suits the magical atmosphere overall. However, I found the monster and creature design to be quite hideous, to be honest. The dragon, the orivors, the mosquitos… I guess a monster is supposed to be ugly, and it's also a matter of taste, but I frankly disliked the overall creature design.
 |
| The horror… the horror… |
On the sound department, the whole ambiance is great and the music is pretty nice (even if it could have benefited from a little more tracks because it tends to repeat itself pretty quickly). The sound effects have nice swishes and swooshes that add to the magical theme and all of this is of pretty good quality overall.
Final Score : 5. Pretty good overall but a few hits and misses in the design department. Good music though.
Environment and Atmosphere
Despite the odd design choices and a few elements that I could easily have done without (UKI, ORBI and your little dance, I'm looking at you), if there is something that you can't reproach Ween : The Prophecy for, is its atmosphere. The whole game is full of magic, weird things and every new screen is an invitation to explore and find what new kinds of surprises the game holds for you. The mysterious statues that are found everywhere, the magical beings you're encountering… Add to that the whole sunset/moonlight feeling that you have for most of the game and you have the feeling of a magical world ending.
 |
| When the sun in the sky looks like this, it's time to go to the nearest shelter |
However (because we always need a however), once again, a few choices go against the whole thing. There is sometimes goofiness that would be more in its place in a Gobliiins game, sometimes alternating immediately with something more mysterious. I think the developers were trying to alternate between mysterious and funny, but it sometimes doesn't work. Managing a "hot and cold" ambiance (like, let's say, the early movies of Tim Burton, for example) is something that's really hard to achieve and I can't help but feel like the developers should have chosen a direction and stick with it instead of trying to alternate between serious and goofy.
Final Score : 6. Great magical atmosphere, marred sometimes by odd goofy moments.
Dialog and Acting
Like I've said earlier, a lot of the exposition text and dialog is pretty nonsensical. Sometimes, the ORACLE or the BORGOL (whatever the latter is) appear and tell you a lot of things, much of it not making a lot of sense… Some other times, OHKRAM appears and tells you you've gained a grain of sand even if you weren't really trying to do so… Most of the interactions with the animals and sentient beings you cross path with are nice without being really noteworthy.
The exception to this rule is URM, your vampire buddy, which is the most competently written character. His lines are sometimes funny, especially when you call him for no reason. He's helping and mocking in equal measures and is a pretty good sidekick.
 |
| And he really seems to enjoy doing evil deeds, which is a good thing in my book |
The acting in itself is mainly digitized people in Halloween masks waving and doing over the top gestures to make their point, so it's nothing to write home about. At least, the final animation of KRAAL apparently trying to peel his face off is satisfactory enough.
Final Score : 4. Apart for URM, nothing really stands out, and the twins are consistently cringeworthy.
Final Score
So without further ado, the final score equals (6+4+3+5+6+4/0.6) = 47! I'll add one discretionary point for the fact that, despite all its quirks and errors, the whole experience was overall pretty pleasant and I think it'll stick with me as a good memory. And I realize now that doing so gives it the exact same score of the first Gobliiins and five points above The Legend of Djel, so kudos to Coktel for upping their game since Bargon Attack and Emmanuelle!
Congrats on your score guess, Lugh, you earn CAPs!
CAP Distribution
100 CAPs to Alfred n the Fettuc
- Blogger Award - 100 CAPs - for playing through Ween for everyone's enjoyment
- Vohaul Award - 5 CAPs - for letting us know that Infamous Adventures have just released a new version of Space Quest II
- Festive Blogger Award - 60 CAPs - for blogging through A Christmas Adventure with a bonus interlude for everyone's enjoyment
- Classic Blogger Award - 50 CAPs - for blogging through Crash Dive for everyone's enjoyment
- Djel Historian Award - 5 CAPs - For giving us worrying details about DJEL and AZEULISSE real relationship
- Classic Blogger Award - 50 CAPs - for blogging through Growing Pains of Adrian Mole for everyone's enjoyment
- Classic Blogger Award - 50 CAPs - for blogging through The Price of Magik for everyone's enjoyment
- Classic Blogger Award - 50 CAPs - for blogging through The Institute for everyone's enjoyment
- Intermission Award - 20 CAPs - for a 1981 Summary of Med Systems Software
51 CAPs to Vetinari
- True Companion Award - 20 CAPs - for playing along
- Alternative Award - 6 CAPs - for giving hints about the alternative paths
- The Ball and the Cauldron Award - 5 CAPs - for agreeing with my rambling about the copper ball transformation and alerting me about the potion mixing nightmare.
- Psychic Prediction Award - 10 CAPs - for being the closest guesser to the Price of Magic PISSED rating
- Psychic Prediction Award - 10 CAPs - for correctly guessing The Institute's PISSED rating
- True Companion Award - 20 CAPs - for playing along.
- Back Of His Hand Award - 5 CAPs - for sharing his interesting insight on a game that he knows very well
- Djel and Azeulisse Award - 5 CAPs - for guessing that Djel and Azeulisse were probably deadbeat parents
- Alternative Award - 6 CAPs - for giving hints about the alternative paths
- Size Does Matter Award - 5 CAPs - for engaging in a discussion about the two stupid twins real size
- Lost Bet Award (Unaward?) - -10 CAPs - For betting against me that I wouldn't find the answer to the snake puzzle
- Ho Ho Oh... Award - 1 CAP - for remembering a Christmas game we could play... but not knowing we'd already played it
- What's Your Story Award - 20 CAPs - for submitting his answers to our What's Your Story questions
15 CAPs to Lugh
- Psychic Prediction Award - 10 CAPs - for correctly predicting the PISSED rating
- Gene and Dean Award - 5 CAPs - for telling us about the Ween band that might have (or not) something to do with the title change
- 33 and 1/3 Award - 5 CAPs - for the surprising news that games have actually been distributed on vinyl records
- Do Androids Dream of Kindle Paperwhites Award - 5 CAPs - for knowing how reading in dreams works
- Minotaur Award - 5 CAPs - for actually programming a labyrinth while studying
- Do Androids Dream of Kindle Paperwhites Award - 5 CAPs - for knowing how reading in dreams works
- The Doctor Is In Award - 5 CAPs - for giving us chilling details about the digitalis and its effect on rats
- Cold As Balls Award - 5 CAPs - for letting Ilmari know the likely background to the brass monkey puzzle in Price of Magik
- Alchemist Award - 5 CAPs - for finally explaining to me why people bite gold
- Pixel Filtering Award - 5 CAPs - for alerting me that my emulation software was filtering pixels
- Wario Ware Award - 5 CAPs - for appreciating that sometimes you need to pick the nose of a demon dog
- Rutabaga Award - 5 CAPs - for answering Will's question, and adding more historical context to a character from The Institute
- The Shape of Watercraft Award - 5 CAPs - for pointing out that all submarines are long, thin and full of seamen
Thursday, 5 March 2020
PUBG Moblie 0.11.5 Update
After the 0.11.0 update, PUBG Corp. has planned to release the very next update i.e. 0.11.5. This post will introduce players with the new features available in this update.
Recently, the 0.11.0 update was launched in PUBG mobile. This update basically included the Survive till dawn or the PUBG Zombie mode. Some updates including Riot shield and others were also planned to release in this update but they were postponed as the 0.11.0 update had a big size (about 1.7 GB) and it was exerting a lot of pressure.
So returning to topic, PUBG update 0.11.5 will include the following features.
1. G36C (Gun) :
It is an assault rifle gun requiring 5.56 mm ammo. This gun was planned to release in Season 5 but unfortunately, it was skipped and now it is planned in the next update. You can watch the video to learn more about it.
2. Tukshai (Vehicle) :
The next PUBG update includes an auto-rickshaw, Auto-rickshaw is a vehicle mainly found in Asian countries. This vehicle will be available only in Sanhok map. It can carry up to 3 players. Click here to know more about it.
3. Canted Sight (Attachment) :
It is a secondary attachment that allows the player to quickly switch between the 1x Canted sight and the other scope used. It is already launched in PUBG PC, Xbox and PS4. To know more about Canted sight you can visit my post about it.
4. Skorpion (Gun) :
It is a full-auto weapon pistol that works on 9mm ammo. Its capacity can be increased from default 20 rounds to 40 rounds using a standard extended magazine. It can be switched from single fire to full auto. The only disadvantage is that it has lower per bullet damage than other pistols.
5. Royale Pass Season 6 :
As we know the Season 5 of PUBG will end on 18 March 2019. This new season will bring new emodes. Also, many new outfits will be available including Joker and Harley quuen outfits. These two outfits were actually planned before the beginning of Season 4 but it was included in that season. So now there is a hope of getting it in Season 5.
Excluding these some more features may be added in the future. You can click here to know more PUBG upcoming updates.
Which of the above features will be more interesting and enjoyable to play? Let us know in the comment section below.
Recently, the 0.11.0 update was launched in PUBG mobile. This update basically included the Survive till dawn or the PUBG Zombie mode. Some updates including Riot shield and others were also planned to release in this update but they were postponed as the 0.11.0 update had a big size (about 1.7 GB) and it was exerting a lot of pressure.
So returning to topic, PUBG update 0.11.5 will include the following features.
1. G36C (Gun) :
It is an assault rifle gun requiring 5.56 mm ammo. This gun was planned to release in Season 5 but unfortunately, it was skipped and now it is planned in the next update. You can watch the video to learn more about it.
 |
| G36C gun |
2. Tukshai (Vehicle) :
The next PUBG update includes an auto-rickshaw, Auto-rickshaw is a vehicle mainly found in Asian countries. This vehicle will be available only in Sanhok map. It can carry up to 3 players. Click here to know more about it.
 |
| Tukshai |
3. Canted Sight (Attachment) :
It is a secondary attachment that allows the player to quickly switch between the 1x Canted sight and the other scope used. It is already launched in PUBG PC, Xbox and PS4. To know more about Canted sight you can visit my post about it.
4. Skorpion (Gun) :
It is a full-auto weapon pistol that works on 9mm ammo. Its capacity can be increased from default 20 rounds to 40 rounds using a standard extended magazine. It can be switched from single fire to full auto. The only disadvantage is that it has lower per bullet damage than other pistols.
 |
| Skorpion |
5. Royale Pass Season 6 :
As we know the Season 5 of PUBG will end on 18 March 2019. This new season will bring new emodes. Also, many new outfits will be available including Joker and Harley quuen outfits. These two outfits were actually planned before the beginning of Season 4 but it was included in that season. So now there is a hope of getting it in Season 5.
Excluding these some more features may be added in the future. You can click here to know more PUBG upcoming updates.
 |
| RP Season 6 |
Release date :
It is expected that this 0.11.5 update will be released between 18-20 March 2019. there is no strong proof that this date is accurate but since season 5 will end on 18 March so there is a chance of releasing season 6bor this PUBG update between the mentioned date.
It is expected that this 0.11.5 update will be released between 18-20 March 2019. Though it is not officially declared or announced but since Season 5 will end on 18 March, so the new season or season 5 release date comes out to be between 18-20 March 2019.
It is expected that this 0.11.5 update will be released between 18-20 March 2019. Though it is not officially declared or announced but since Season 5 will end on 18 March, so the new season or season 5 release date comes out to be between 18-20 March 2019.
Which of the above features will be more interesting and enjoyable to play? Let us know in the comment section below.
MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries Free Download
The year is 3015. Humanity has colonized thousands of systems across a vast region of space splintered by centuries of conflict. The battlefields of the future are dominated by MechWarriors, elite pilots of hulking machines of war known as BattleMechs. It is a lucrative time to be a mercenary.
A World of Destruction – Level entire cities and decimate armies of enemy forces while piloting hundreds of unique BattleMech variants.
Seek The Truth – Follow a path of interstellar intrigue in a quest for glory and revenge as the leader of a mercenary company reborn in the flames of near destruction.
The Merc Life – Manage the intricacies of running an expanding mercenary company, from the maintenance and acquisition of BattleMechs to the hiring of fellow MechWarriors.
Fight Together – Fight alongside your friends with four-player PvE co-op support.
GAMEPLAY AND SCREENSHOTS :
DOWNLOAD GAME:
♢ Click or choose only one button below to download this game.
♢ View detailed instructions for downloading and installing the game here.
♢ Use 7-Zip to extract RAR, ZIP and ISO files. Install PowerISO to mount ISO files.
MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries Free Download
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS GAME
➤ Download the game by clicking on the button link provided above.
➤ Download the game on the host site and turn off your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid errors.
➤ Once the download has been finished or completed, locate or go to that file.
➤ To open .iso file, use PowerISO and run the setup as admin then install the game on your PC.
➤ Once the installation process is complete, run the game's exe as admin and you can now play the game.
➤ Congratulations! You can now play this game for free on your PC.
➤ Note: If you like this video game, please buy it and support the developers of this game.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
(Your PC must at least have the equivalent or higher specs in order to run this game.)
Minimum:
• OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
• CPU: Intel Core i3-7100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/AMD Radeon R9 280X
• RAM: 8GB
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 55GB free space (SSD)
Recommended:
• OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K/AMD Ryzen 7 1700
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070/AMD RX Vega 56
• RAM: 16GB
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 55GB free space (SSD)
Supported Language: English, French, German, Russian are available.• OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
• CPU: Intel Core i3-7100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/AMD Radeon R9 280X
• RAM: 8GB
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 55GB free space (SSD)
Recommended:
• OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K/AMD Ryzen 7 1700
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070/AMD RX Vega 56
• RAM: 16GB
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 55GB free space (SSD)
If you have any questions or encountered broken links, please do not hesitate to comment below. :D
The Storm Is Everywhere
Stewards is how I describe our relationship to the gaming subculture. The days of stores as taste makers are long behind us, although you can leverage and channel interest through events and demos. I felt this strongly selling role playing game during the holidays.
We certainly sold our share of gaming books, but with the slower, wiser, release cycle of 5E, there are a tremendous number of players who just don't need any books, most of the time. The sheer number of these new customers and the slow book release schedule meant dice and miniature sales have been stratospheric in the trade. You couldn't have enough of either in 2019. Customers have money and they want to spend it and it will be with you, or increasingly, elsewhere. This season I could feel the Etsyfication of the hobby.
There have always been low volume makers of stuff for gaming, but players are now tied into an omnichannel environment, where games are bought and played and talked about virtually everywhere. We are just one channel and perhaps not their primary. I know game trade buyers at distribution and they do their best to follow trends, but there are just too many makers and Kickstarter projects to keep up with and not enough budget to follow every line.
We have customers that have gravitated away from our sales channel nearly entirely, as well as those who live and play the games we sell without knowing or caring we exist. It's not that they have better options (selection and price), like in the past, but they have different options. Their experiences and purchased products only have vague overlap. My store is full of customers three nights a week, and if I could just read their mind, tap into their other channels.
I had holiday customers arrive with a list of titles with little resemblance to my reality, as if they were stringing random words together. There is not a strong understanding amongst casual consumers that these channels don't merge at the end point of brick and mortar retail. When that light bulb goes off, we'll find ourselves marginalized, if we haven't been already. Who wants to shop where they sell half of what you're interested in, when there's a source with 100%? If you have the budget and the knowledge, attempting to get in on the action of another channel is a wise move, although you'll never really tap the potential of the other channels. You don't need to be all channels but you don't want to be the worst channel. You don't need to outrun the bear, just outrun your buddy.
Breaking out of our channel requires budget, insight and being on trend. As I get older, I am often not on trend, such as my mystification as to why people watch hours of gaming when they can just do it. I understand why people watch professional sports, but gaming seems more accessible, especially when there's always hours of research and prep for a D&D game. I mentioned this on my personal page and have been educated, so you don't need to explain it to me. I get that there's evolved mastery of the game on display, rather than a scripted farce, which is what I see because I'm so very far from personal mastery of the game. I'm more in the Colvillian camp of slight deviations from the baseline.
The new D&D book, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, is a web series tie in by Matt Mercer, of Critical Roll. Even Wizards of the Coast has no choice but to get on trend, to figure out what players want, and of course, they are omnichannel oriented, including deep discounting on Amazon. The grognards like me shake our fists, demanding a reboot of Planescape, much like how the grognard retailer in me shakes my first about those deep discount Amazon D&D sales.
But Wizard's knows to follow the trends, to tie into the energy in the room, to play the channels. My employees weren't even alive when Planescape was published, which is true of most customers. Maybe ride the channel while the riding is good? Critical Role is right now, at the subcultural forefront, with 758K subscribers with dozens of videos with over a million views.
These problems are opportunities, don't let me depress you. These are problems you want to have, the catching of raindrops in a thimble during a hurricane. The mass marketization of the game trade is really an omnichannel endeavor, as the mass market is mostly dead. Hobby game stores are closing in droves, as they're unable to catch enough water in their thimbles. The smart ones, the larger ones for the most part, are making larger thimbles, sometimes creating their own literal channels. We saw the clouds and knew the storm was coming, but we were wrong about its origin. The storm is everywhere.
From Deedle and Thread
Wednesday, 4 March 2020
Nonsense And Other Observations About Dracula/Horror Of Dracula
As much as I love Dracula (1958)/Horror of Dracula, I find it has a lot of plot holes, ideas that don't make a lot of sense and other weirdness. I started to write down certain observations as I was watching the film and eventually they became so long that I thought them worth putting them up in a blog post. These observations as I have put them to type have been as timestamped to the times (roughly) in the film to which they most apply. I am using the 2012 Hammer Restoration found on the 2013 Region B/2 Blu-ray/DVD from Lionsgate with altered color timing by a fan (which eliminates the overly-blue tint found on that disc). Any DVD or Blu-ray release should be able to follow along without too much difficulty.
Read more » 
Read more »
All For One Revisited -- Again
It's now been about 17 years since David Brain first sent me a prototype copy of All For One, can you believe it?
The last time I had played the game was maybe back in 2012 at a protospiel event. I might have played it one more time since then, but to be honest, I don't remember if I did.
Well, I decided to bring it back to life at my last weekly playtesting session of 2019, and since I didn't remember what changes I was considering, we played it as-written (circa 2012). Then we discussed the game, and I brought it back out today, and played 2 more games, with some significant changes. Good news: I think the changes were for the better!
Since it's been so long, I'll run down the basic rules as I'd write them as of right now:
Setup:
As before, place the plot tokens and character figures in their home spaces on the board.
Shuffle mission cards and deal 4 to each player.
Give each player a reference mat and 1 One For All card.
Deal each player a secret goal card (using only the ones for the appropriate player count).
Set a pile of VP tokens in a supply
NO GUARDS AT ALL
Game play:
On your turn, you have an Action phase and a Draw phase.
Action phase:
During the Action phase you can do any number of actions from the following list, in any order (most are limited to 1x/turn):
a1) Move (1x/turn): Choose any 1 character and move them up to 3 steps. You may double back, but you must stop the move action upon encountering another character. If carrying a Horse, may choose to have the character ride instead, moving exactly 4 steps, jumping over tokens and figures.
a2) Pick up tokens: While moving, you may have the moving character pick up any number of tokens in the spaces you visit by discarding 1 card for each. Note that when riding, you may not pick up the tokens you jump over. Characters have no capacity limit. (you may pick up the a token in the location of another character you encountered - wording above might make it sound like you can't since I said the move action ends)
ONCE PICKED UP, TOKENS ARE NEVER DROPPED. In order to move them to another character, a Demand action is required (see below)
b) Demand a plot token (1x/turn): If 2 characters are in the same location, you may have one of them demand a plot token held by the other. In this case, a duel ensues to determine the outcome. Note: You do not have to use the same character that you moved - more than 1 character can act on your turn.
c) Complete a mission (1x/turn): Choose a character. If the conditions of a mission card in your hand are met, you may complete the mission with that character (some missions require a specific character to do them). Receive points based on the type of mission and the tokens you deliver (see below), and then bump 1 of that character's favored story tracks per token delivered (max 1 bump per track per mission). ONCE A TRACK HAS MAXED OUT, IT'S COMPLEMENT TRACK IS ALSO LOCKED IN AND NO LONGER MOVES.
c1) Duel missions: 3vp (and draw 1 card)
c2) Character delivery (either/or): 4vp for 1 token, 6vp for both
c3) Any Character mission (2 req'd): 5vp
c4) Standard delivery (req'd/bonus/bonus): 4/6/8vp for 1/2/3 tokens
d. Play One For All card for some effect:
d1) Play when completing a mission to gain an additional 2 VP
d2) Play when picking up tokens to cover the discard cost of all pickups this turn (so max 3 tokens, since you can move up to 3 steps)
d3) Play during a duel for 3 offensive moves (or during another player's turn for 0 offensive moves, but you get it back immediately)
d4) Play during the draw phase of the turn to draw 2 additional cards
d5) Play to immediately end your turn (skipping the draw phase) and start another. This allows for a 2nd move action, a 2nd demand action, or a 2nd mission.
Draw phase:
Draw 2 mission cards from the deck.
You may play One For All to draw 2 additional cards.
Then reclaim your One For All card.
Max hand size = 8 cards (including One For All). If you have more than 8 cards, discard mission cards until you have only 8
Game ends when all 3 story tracks are maxed out
Duels:
Duels between characters are triggered by Demand actions and by Duel missions. In any case, when you trigger a duel on your turn with a character (the one making the demand, or one of the two in the duel mission), you choose one of that character's story tracks to fight for. Announce the chosen character, the nominated track, and if applicable the token being demanded (and maybe from whom, to help other players out).
All players must play 1 card simultaneously, then reveal. Blue cards are worth 1 offense (2 if it's that character's signature move), red cards are worth 1 defense, white cards (riposte) are worth 2 defense. Add up all offense and all defense. If there is more offense than defense, the the duel has been WON. If there is more defense than offense, the duel is LOST. If there is the same amount of offense and defense, then the duel is TIED.
If WON: NOMINATED track is bumped. Token IS moved in the case of a demand.
If LOST: OPPOSITE track is bumped. Token IS NOT moved in the case of a demand.
If TIED: NO track is bumped. Token IS moved in the case of a demand.
One For All card played by active player is worth 3 offense.
One For All card played by any other player is worth 0 offense, and they get it back immediately.
Abilities and Signature Moves: as before. Aramis' ability to avoid guards must change (since there are no guards now): You may discard a card to move beyond another character. If that proves too useless, maybe it doesn't need to cost a card.
--- End Rules ---
So the big differences from before are:
1. No guards at all
2. 8 card hand
3. Draw 2 cards per turn instead of 1
4. Pay cards to pick up tokens (making that more intentional)
5. No such thing as dropping tokens or hand-offs, it's all just demand actions
6. No "active character" for the turn - you can act with different characters in a turn (move Aramis, demand with Athos, complete a mission with MiLady)
And to clean up some exceptions:
7. Make all Meeting missions into Duels (so they're all the same)
7. Make all Meeting missions into Duels (so they're all the same)
8. Allow riding a horse over dashed lines (ferry crossing and catacombs)
Both 4p games we played today took about 60 minutes, and this mix of rules seemed to work really well.
I added a few connections on the map, and I think a few more might be in order. Might want to sort of revisit the whole map and also the mission cards to make sure that (a) named locations are sort of evenly spaced out (ideally not less than 4 steps between any 2 named locations), and (b) based on token starting locations, no missions are doable on the first turn (at least not without using the One For All card for extra actions)
Due to the higher hand size and extra card draws, the deck almost ran out in our 4p games, and I suspect for 5 players it would definitely run out, so more missions are needed. I'd begin by making more missions with Horses as required or bonus tokens.
I think this is a big improvement over the previous version with respect to fiddliness and rules overhead. It feels good to see some progress on this game -- the biggest disappointment of my game design career is that nothing has ever come of this game.
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