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We Heart Nerds is a small creative Coop, bringing you new media content.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I thoroughly enjoyed Rise and was so excited to see Dawn that I purchased a double feature ticket to once again experience Rise on the big screen and get me in the right mood for the sequel. Rise did not fail to rekindle the hope, heartache, thrills, and satisfaction I recall so fondly from my first viewing on the big screen and I was ready to see where the story would lead and how one of my favorite actors, Gary Oldman, would ratchet up his scenes with his usual flair and gravitas.

The film opens as the last one ended showing the worldwide epidemic that spreads through humanity and it intersperses this global map with lifted news clips and reports of real world events inserting them along with fake headlines and commentators describing how the Simian Flu has wiped out civilization as we know it. Pretty grim stuff. This is then quickly and capably counterbalanced by showing the life of Caesar’s Apes and how they have grown into a strong community in the secluded Redwoods. As the film moves along a small colony of Humans in the remains of nearby San Francisco and the Apes collide in conflict as we revisit one of the central themes of the original 1970’s Ape movies; that bitter revenge and hatred are the burden of all thinking beings.

Jason Clarke does a good job playing the cool headed and protective father. Keri Russell plays his girlfriend and former CDC medic trying to be accepted by Clarke’s son played by Kodi Smit-McPhee who has matured as a young man and an actor since Cormac McCarthy & Joe Penhall’s The Road. Gary Oldman, from whom I had been anticipating great things, was barely present in the film. He commands the scenes he’s in, but only because he’s usually the only one in them. No. The real star of this film is Andy Serkis of Lord of the Rings fame as well as the motion captured actor behind our hero Caesar. Serkis is phenomenal and the CG engineers do an amazing job of bringing Serkis’ performance alive.Better in my opinion than the live actors he plays against.

The film moves along at a good pace and has solid cinematography and music to keep you invested, but it failed to leave me feeling the way its predecessor had. The lack of strong human actors (like Lithgow and Franco from Rise) to play against Serkis and the other Apes put too much of the workload on the CG team. The climax of the film was predictable and fell flat against the non-believability of Ape manual dexterity and /or rapid firearm expertise. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes stands as a reminder that CG will never replace human actors, even with a top notch performer like Serkis in the main role.

Levi Mote

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Achievement Watch: Metal Slug and Risk of Rain

Well it's been almost a week since I started this project. It's going well, so far I've knocked out two games on my list. Metal Slug 3 and Risk of Rain are now completed. I expected these two games to be harder to 100% since they have a reputation for being on the harder side of things. 

Metal Slug was primarily grinding in order to get the achievements. Things like play each character 100 times and save 1000 POWs took up the largest part of my time. What about "Master Ninja"? Well since that achievement is coded oddly I found a simple cheap strategy on the Metal Slug community page. Apparently the game gives you that achievement if the end of the game is reached and you still have 20 credits, even in multiplayer, so I had a friend play the final level with me and when I died I didn't press start to continue, instead I gleefully listened to his recounting of all the places he died while trying to get the same achievement. Sure enough as the final boss died, after my friend had used about 8 continues and I had stared at the screen for about 20 minutes doing nothing, the achievement popped up on my screen and I felt a part of my soul cringe at how cheap this method of unlocking the achievement was.

Risk of Rain, RoR, was the first game I finished for this project, primarily because I had gotten all but 2 achievements before I started the project. The only 2 I hadn't completed were 'Deal 5000 Damage in a shot' and 'Drown 20 Whorls'. I used a money bomb after grinding for 10K to get the first achievement. The second one was the most annoying, since it involved hoping that the right level spawned and then that the right monsters spawned where I needed them to. I used the basic class and kept repeating levels until the one I needed spawned, which took until about the 50 minute mark, once I got the right level I just ground it until I had managed to push enough Whorls off the under water ledges.

The next games I'm working on are Mercenary Kings and Desktop Dungeons, both of which are going pretty well. Mercenary kings is a large time sink since one achievement is to beat each level in a certain amount of time (different for each level) and there are a couple of achievements that require large amounts of in-game money, AKA grinding, to complete. Desktop Dungeons on the other hand has a lot of tricky achievements that you either have to plan around or find a guide and possibly scum dungeons until you get what you need. There are some grindy achievements, like spend 100 hours in the dungeons, which will take a while to finish but most of the achievements are skill or progression based.

As always thanks for reading and if you feel like following along you can find my Twitter linked to my name at the bottom of the page and my Steam profile here.

Doug Whitley

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Achievement Watch, The Quest for Completion

If you're like me you have a ridiculous number of Steam games (yes I know that's not a Steam achievement graphic) and a rather low average completion rate. While I've played most of the games in my library I have 100%'d 1 and it only had 1 achievement anyway. I thought it might be interesting to write a blog about trying to complete as many of my games as I can, and the rest of our team said to go for it so here I am.

I'll start with the objective to 100% 100 games. I have 127 games in my library with achievements, but the target of 100 will allow my to keep my sanity and ignore a few that either are ridiculously annoying to 100% or were complete mistakes to buy and shouldn't have been made in the first place.

First lets establish a couple of ground rules.

1. No messing with game files. I won't alter any game files to trigger achievements, no matter how much I will want to for several of the monster achievements. This also includes mods that unlock achievements unaturaly.

2. I'm not going to make it harder. I'll unlock achievements through the easiest means possible. If that means playing on easy mode great, if I can use "cheap" tactics to get achievements I will.

3. Unobtainable achievements There are a few games in my library that have achievements that are listed on the Steam page that are unobtainable, I.E. "The Humanoid Typhoon" in Dungeons of Dredmor. I will count these games as completed when I have obtained all possible achievements or I will use mods/file edits to unlock those achievements.

4. Vanilla only I'll be playing without mods, unless using mods is part of an achievement. I mentioned previously that I would not use achievement unlocking mods, but since some mods indirectly make achievements easier, I wanted to go ahead and play without mods in general.

I would love to stream some of this project but since my graphics card recently burnt out and I had to replace it with a cheap gap fix, I'm currently not able to run several of my games let alone streaming on top of games. As the project goes on If I can upgrade my equipment I'll start streaming. 

You can follow along with my Twitter, here, or my Steam profile and I'll be adding blog posts regularly to Weheartnerds.com. Depending on how the first 100 go I'll decide about continuing the blog articles about the rest of my library.

Doug Whitley

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We <3 Board Games: Alien Frontiers

A review by the We Heart Nerds Staff

Released in 2010 and designed by Tory Niemann Alien Frontiers has been nominated for numerous Golden Geek awards. This game is an amazing, fresh take on the worker placement genre in that your workers are dice which allows them to have various values and effects based on their values and their combinations with other dice. Designed for 2 to 4 (5 with an expansion purchase) players ages 13 and up with an average play time around 90 minutes.

Component Quality and Setup

Note: The components and setup being reviewed here are from the 3rd Edition game plus the Upgrade Pack. These components were included in the 4th Edition.

Players receive a color coded set of 6 solid pipped dice, remarkable domed colonies, and a score tracking rocket. The game board is attractive and well designed. Each station your worker dice can be assigned to is arrayed around the alien world with inconspicuous lines attaching them to associated regions. The energy and ore pieces are slick, painted wooden disks and blocks respectively. The alien tech cards are a good size and do not wear from multiple plays.

Shuffle the alien tech cards, hand out color sets and choose who’s going first. Setup takes less than 5 minutes!

How it plays

Players roll their worker dice (ships) and decide which stations to place them in. Each station has different requirements such as matching or exceeding the values of other ships in the station or rolling sets of matching dice or numerical sequences to gain the benefit of the station. Players must be as strategic as their dice allow to occupy spaces their opponents need and keep themselves moving forward.

All of this ship placement will eventually yield colonies you get to place in the various regions on the alien world. The player with the most colonies in a given region controls it gaining the special ability associated with that region as well as 1 victory point.

Score victory points and win the game by controlling regions or gaining specific alien tech cards before any player can place his or her last colony on the alien world ending the game.

How will it affect your game group?

Because the game maxes out at 4 players, larger groups may be taking turns sitting out or playing in teams. If your group enjoys worker placement games and / or area majority games Alien Frontiers will be a surefire hit.

How will it affect your bank account?

Alien Frontiers just had its 4th printing and shows no signs of slowing down. You can get the game for between $60 - 75 including the upgraded components we discussed here.

How will it affect your collection?

This game innovated the dice worker genre and it will likely stand alone in your collection. The game that is most compared to Alien Frontiers is Kingsberg and AF may replace the latter in your collection. We think there is room in your collection for both.

Things We <3

Innovative dice worker placement

Competitive area control

Quality components

Things We Don’t <3

Four players just isn’t enough, though the Factions expansion helps

We Heart Nerds Approved? 6 out of 7 Nerds approve this game.

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Game Review: Knytt Underground

As a video gamer, I never got super heavy into side-scrolling games much. In my teens I played some of the 3D platformers like Super Mario 64, but side-scrolling puzzle games always felt like something out of my depth and, honestly, not very fun.

But holy goodness, has Knytt Underground changed my mind. In part, I think, because this game manages to pack a big story punch and some absolutely gorgeous art and music into what is, ultimately, an incredibly simple set of game mechanics. There is something about the game that is just so satisfying, even the parts that are a little maddening in intensity.

In the game you play a sprite called Mi who is mute; you are aided by a couple of quirky fairies and you are on a quest to ring six bells. As simple as this premise seems, in hours of gameplay I've yet to feel I'm even close to completing this game. And I'm glad. As much enjoyment as I've gotten out of the game already, it still feels like there's much more left to do and explore.

It's really difficult to encapsulate what, exactly, about this game is so enchanting. Perhaps it's just the magical cocktail that it makes when the designer combines all of these elements that just so perfectly complement each other into such a beautiful game. The art, the music, the graphics, the characters, it makes such a complete and believable and enchanting world, particularly for a platformer that I was not expecting nearly this much out of.

Fortunately, the game is a real steal on Steam (as most steam games are), and the designer has a DRM-free stance, which means you can download the demo from the designer's website for free.

As a warning, this game is rated M for strong language and sexual themes. Thus far I have found that to be very minimal, and in keeping with the story that the characters are telling, although, as I said, I still have much of the game left to complete myself. 

Well, that's it. Until next time, let us know what you think of Knytt, or if there are other games like it that you completely love!

Patience Virtue

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Sales are coming; A guide to surviving Steam sales.

You may or may not be familiar with Steam, the online sales platform. If you are familiar with Steam then you've probably heard of the Steam Seasonal sales. For those of you not familiar with the Steam Sales they are simultaneously the most amazing and horrifying weeks in a PC gamer's life.

The amazing side of the sale is that most of the Steam library goes on sale at ridiculous discounts (usually starting at 50% and going as high as 90%). Often brand new releases are discounted as high as 75%. On the horrifying side is the fact that most of us do not have unlimited resources and each day a selection of games are discounted even more as Flash Sales or Daily Deals, but only for a limited time.

"Will the game I want be in a flash sale or a daily deal?", "I've never heard of this game, but it's 1$ and now I need it in my life!", "Where did the 50$ in my account I had been saving go?" All of these phrases plague Steam gamer's during the Seasonal Sales, but fear not I've put together a short guide to help you get the most bang for your buck during these sales.

1. Know what you want.

There are thousands of games on Steam, most of them will be discounted during the sale and you probably can't buy all of them. Keep your wishlist up to date and use it as a guide for what you should try to pick up during the sale. There will be games that you didn't know you needed until you see them in a Flash Sale or Daily Deal, but try to keep these purchases to a minimum and save your money for the items already on your list.

2. Know when to buy.

Flash sales and Daily Deals are the best time to pick up your games since they will be discounted the most during those times. Lots of the big titles will be in the Daily Deals or Flash Sales, however if the game was released very recently it's less likely to be discounted beyond the normal sale amount. When your game is in one of those sales get it, don't wait to see if it receives a bigger discount later, in my experience that won't happen. Personally I wait throughout the sale to see if the games I want are in one of the Daily Deals or Flash Sales and if they aren't then I pick them up the last day of the sale. 

3. Know what to expect

If you have a very specific budget you might want to try and predict how much of a discount the games you're interested in might receive. Obviously this is a little tricky, but I'll list the general rules I follow.

If it's a triple A game released in the last 3 months expect around 40% and it might be in a Daily or Flash sale at around 50%

Triple A's released in the last year are anywhere from 50-60% and the Daily or Flash Sales are around 60-75%

Other games are a little harder to guess about. If the base discount is 50% off it can go up to as much as 75% off during Daily or Flash sales, 66% off goes up to 80% off, and 80% off can go up to 90% off

These are just general, vague numbers that I've put together from personal experience over the last couple of years and these numbers vary from publisher to publisher.

If you are into games on the PC and you haven't checked out Steam yet you can check it out here. If you're familiar with Steam hopefully this will help your wallet dread the seasonal sales a little less.

Doug Whitley

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Improbable Hypotheticals: What if Game of Thrones is really about climate change?

I’m going to start this off by saying, NO! Game of Thrones is not about climate change, but what if it was?

What if the often repeated phrase “Winter is coming” was actually a parallel to the idea that we are undergoing a climate change that could lead to an ice age which, much like in Game of Thrones, could last long enough to decimate life on the planet.

Perhaps the Night’s Watch are symbolic of scientists that have shown through various studies that there is a climate change happening, and the White walkers are a symbolic representation of how easy it is for people to dismiss things that they haven’t personally experienced, or don’t wish to be true.

Perhaps in the future, when winter finally strikes the world of Game of Thrones the characters will realize that their machinations over the throne are useless when, not only their future but the future of every single person is suddenly called into question. Maybe they will realize that they should have spent more time stockpiling and less time fighting. Maybe the White Walkers and that long hard winter will become a unifying force symbolic of how we humans tend to band together when faced with a common greater enemy.

So What if Game of Thrones is really a massively well crafted story about Climate Change? Well it’s not, it’s a massively well crafted story about humans, but if it was about climate change George R.R. Martin really fooled everyone by making all of these highly complicated characters with complex plots that are ultimately are just dressing for an underlying argument about the weather.

Doug Whitley

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One Week Left for "Far Bank of the Rubicon"

Our good friend and fantastic author Erik Wecks is nearing the end of his Kickstarter campaign. He's so close to hitting that stretch goal, so why not contribute and help push him over the goal? Here's a sample--the prologue--so you can get a feel for how great his work is.

The Far Bank of the Rubicon

By Erik Wecks

Prologue

The biting temperature didn’t bother Elijah Summers, and if it made the movements of his opponents just that much slower, all the better. Minus two made it the coldest night in Washington, D.C., in several years. The brightly lit, snow-covered lane worried him more. There would be no hiding from the CEO’s bodyguards when he eventually had to cross it.

From the gatehouse where he stood, Summers looked across the untouched white street to the historic home beyond. The nondescript, black limousine hovered just off the ground in the drive behind the closed gate. The driver would make the most difficult target. Although the vehicle carried official plates, it was not the standard limousine for the CEO of the corporate state called Unity. Tonight, the CEO intended to be discreet. That didn’t mean the limousine would be a soft target. For an ordinary assault team, it would have been a difficult nut to crack, but Summers had some built-in advantages.

Briefly, he checked the second story window to the right of the porch over the Georgian colonnade. As he looked, the focus of the eyepiece over his left eye zoomed into the window. Inside, a light was left on low. He could barely make out a rhythmic movement of shadows, but that wasn’t really necessary. The quiet sounds of sex told him the target was still on schedule. He wouldn’t leave early tonight. He looked back to the car below. Three guards outside and a fourth inside. The target was making this all too easy. 

Cowhill truly is a child, thought Summers. Give him a tit to suck and too much food, and he’s completely content. What a waste.

With ten seconds left on the countdown, Summers picked up the small mag pistol on the shelf next to him. It would have taken much less time to simply kill the night guard who previously inhabited this booth on nights like this, but Summers prided himself on efficiency. Collateral damage could come back to haunt you later. For Summers’ sense of order, it had been the right thing to simply pay the bribe to get the job in the Unity security division guarding Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Besides, the position had allowed him to observe the mating habits of the target for the last month, and that made his job all the easier. It also meant he knew the Browns would almost certainly remain at the Kennedy Center for another couple of hours. Another unnecessary complication avoided.

Time—three minutes until his boss arrived.

The world shifted slightly as Summers opened his mind to intraspace. Instantly, all the objects around him connected to the cloud became evident. Summers now effectively existed in two places at once. One part of him remained anchored in the physical world. Another part of him existed in intraspace, able to interact with objects there, some of which existed only as electronic fictions. 

What made Summers so unique was his ability to live in both worlds simultaneously. Until he had been altered by a top secret division of the Department of Defense, people could only exist in either intraspace or in meatspace. With concentrated effort, he could take action in two places.

Summers checked in with his AI handlers at the Defense Department to make sure that his avatar had been properly encrypted. This whole operation wouldn’t work if one of the AIs on the car or the gate got wind of his existence. Assured that his encryption was in place, Summers concentrated and sent his avatar dashing across the street at speeds well beyond human physical capacities. He passed through the gate as if it didn’t exist, and along the way, dropped a universal key in through its electronic connection to the alarm company. Summers moved ahead. He paused near the car, then sent three quiet but sophisticated code breakers to attack one of the computers on the vehicle. Their particular target handled the environmental functions, including the doors and windows. There were two other computers on board, a senior AI for command and defensive measures, and another for the engine and mechanics.

In meatspace, Summers stepped out of the guardhouse, pistol in hand. He was in the process of raising it when he hesitated. The windows were supposed to be the weakest link on the vehicle. However, his AIs were having more difficulty than expected. He waited, wondering if his cover had been blown....

The rest of the prologue and Chapters One and Two are available on Erik Wecks website. And don't forget to donate to the kickstarter!

Patience Virtue

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We <3 Board Games: A review of Ad Astra by the We Heart Nerds Staff

Released in 2009 and designed by Bruno Faidutti and Serge Laget Ad Astra is a vastly overlooked game which was honored as Lucca Games 2009 Best Boardgame award. This game combines the mechanics of action programming, hidden information, resource collection, trading, and variable phase order as players vie for supremacy in the galaxy.  Designed for 3 to 5 players ages 12 and up with an average play time around one hour

Component Quality and Setup

Each player receives a hand of action cards with unique combinations of resources to gather and locations to visit. These cards are sturdy and have held up well over multiple plays without sleeving. The art on the card backs is compelling and beautiful and reminds players which action cards are theirs during the game.

The game is played without a static game board, instead players place large, double sided cardboard tokens representing stars splayed out around a central yellow dwarf star token representing the starting star system of the game. Each of these disparate stars is then surrounded by smaller; double sided cardboard tokens placed face down in various numbers representing planets yet to be discovered. There is also a cardboard scoring track with room for placing up to 15 action cards.

Each player also receives a set of four plastic starships, colonies, factories, and terraformers. This game also came with an extra piece of each type for each color, which we guess is in case you lose a piece. These pieces are well-sculpted and have held up well to multiple plays.

How it plays

Players select action cards from their hands and place them face-down in turn one at a time onto the numbered action card track on the scoring board. These actions allow you to build new ships / buildings, collect resources, trade resources, travel to star systems and most importantly score points! This is the most strategic part of the game as you are choosing all the actions you will take in this round. These cards are then revealed and resolved one at a time. All actions can be used by all players, but the player who placed the card decides how the card can be used. For example, if Doug played a card that allows him to collect either water or food and he chooses food, then all other players may collect any food they have a claim to. Players gain claims to resources by exploring stars and landing starships on planets, then building colonies, and later factories on these planets to produce resources when the linked action cards are revealed. This enables players to make impactful decisions on each card flip and means that no one is sitting idly by as they wait for their turn.

Scoring points is achieved by playing special scoring action cards. Each player has 3 of these and like many other action cards in this game each comes with a choice on what you and the other players will be able to score on as the card is revealed. For example if Brandon played the score on Terraformers or Systems action card, and he chose Terraformers, then all players with Terraformers on planets would immediately score and any one player who scored the most points on that action card would also get a +3 victory point bonus.

At the end of each round all non-scoring action cards are returned to the players. Scoring cards are held from one round to the next until all three of a player’s scoring cards have been played. This prevents players from scoring the same conditions back-to-back. Well, it makes it harder to do that at least.

Rounds of play continue like this until one player crosses the 50 point threshold signaling that the current round of the game is the last round. Then the player with the highest total score at the end is the winner barring any alien artifact trickery…I’m looking at you Omnibus Rebus Responsum.

How will it affect your game group?

If you have a group who feels that games like Settlers of Catan is too light, then Ad Astra will be a welcome addition. As with many games that allow players to make multiple choices in a round the game can suffer from Analysis Paralysis. This game requires a greater than normal attention to strategy and long term strategic thinking is a must here so if your group is more casual it may not be a great fit.

How will it affect your bank account?

Ad Astra is long out of print and finding one on eBay or BGG could set you back $50 - $100. The game has no expansions so once you buy it you are done, but unless you find a good deal / trade this game is not inexpensive. Because of the deep strategy you may have a more difficult time getting your money’s worth out of this game depending on your group.

How will it affect your collection?

Essentially this is a heavier, strictly European style resource collection game. As such it may replace games like Settlers of Catan in your group if you have the right mix.

Things We <3

Deep Strategy

Vast Replayability

Things We Don’t <3

May Be Too Strategic

Out of Print

We Heart Nerds Approved? Yes! 4 out of 4 Nerds approve this game.

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If you haven't seen it yet, our good friend Erik Wecks has a kickstarter for his new sci-fi epic, The Far Bank of the Rubicon. Erik's stuff is fantastic, so if you haven't yet, watch the video, go read the excerpt, and help fund his fantastic fiction.

His campaign has already funded, but contributers will be able to help reach stretch goals and fund even more fantastic writing. Check it out, and check out his other titles available through Amazon.

Patience Virtue

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We <3 Board Games: 7 Wonders, A review by the We Heart Nerds Staff

Released in 2010 and designed by Antoine Bauza 7 Wonders is a modern classic and multiple-award winning game combining drafting, set collection, simultaneous action, and variable player powers in a unique and compelling way. It accommodates an impressive 2 to 7 players ages 10 and up with an average play time under one hour even with a full 7 players.

Component Quality and Setup

Mostly a card game with player boards and a pile of chipboard tokens representing gold and military victory /defeat points, the components are of good quality and have held up to multiple plays over the last few years. 

Setup on the game takes 5 to 10 minutes as long as everyone pitches in or you are lucky enough to be playing with the exact same number as last time you played. If people are otherwise engaged and you have to sort through all three ages of decks, it could take as much as 15 to 20 minutes.

How it plays

Each player is dealt a great civilization from history each with its own unique starting commodity and multi-stage wonder. Then the cards from the first age are dealt out to the players and each player picks one of these cards to play simultaneously. Playing a card consists of one of the following; adding a card to your civilization, discarding the card in exchange for 3 coins, or use the card to build a stage in your wonder. After all players have chosen, they pass their hands and choose again until all cards from the first age are chosen and the next age begins.

Some cards and all wonder stages have resource costs associated with them, in order to pay these costs you must have that resource in your civilization or the neighboring player to your left or right must have that resource. If you use a neighbor’s resource you must pay them. Unlike many resource games, there are no cubes involved; it is just assumed that the civilization produces enough for itself and any it sells. This resource freedom and the simultaneous play make this civ builder move along at an incredibly rapid pace. Another innovation in the game is the ability to plan ahead by playing cards into your civ that will allow you to play cards in future ages without paying the resource cost. As you build your civ, you will be adding several different types of cards each of which scores and affects your neighbors in unique ways. This goes beyond simple set collection and requires some quick strategic thinking. It definitely puts a spotlight on those players with analysis paralysis as other players will have made their choices quickly and will be waiting for the AP player to choose.

Once all three ages are complete, the scoring begins. The scoring in 7 Wonders takes some getting used to and there are several handy apps out there to help out. This unique scoring system makes the end game quite suspenseful as everyone waits to see who’s strategy and civilization came out on top .

How will it affect your game group?

If you are often splitting up into two groups because you have too many players, 7 Wonders will allow you to get these larger groups together for a non-party game. Players can argue best strategies, but so much depends on the actions taken by your neighbors that it can be difficult to do more than focus on what your best move at the moment is. In our group Matt likes to take all the yellow market cards because they give him resources he doesn’t have to share and makes purchasing resources less expensive, while Doug likes to focus on Technology because of the exponential scoring opportunities, and Sarah likes to focus on getting free buildings and hoarding gold. All of these and more can lead to victory as diversity can be worth as much as focusing on a single type of victory.

How will it affect your bank account?

7 Wonders is widely available for under $50 making it very easy to find and afford. There are a couple of $20 - $30 expansions on the market that will enhance the game and add new dimensions, but they are not necessary as the game plays very well many times on its own.

How will it affect your collection?

This game fills a special niche in our collection for all the reasons we’ve discussed, but it doesn’t replace anything as it scratches decidedly different itches than other civ builders or set collection card games and it will not likely be replaced by anything as it is such a fast, fun game for a large player count.

Things We <3

Fast Civ Building

Lots of Players

Interactive Gameplay

Things We Don’t <3

Iconography Learning Curve

Waiting on AP Players

Setup Can Take Too Long

We Heart Nerds Approved? YES!

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Visit Original Link

Welcome back to the Iron Kingdoms RPG, a steampunk fantasy setting filled with industrial cities, and arcane technology. This story was written by Doug Whitley as an original story for the Playthrough podcast.

  Our recording equipment went rogue for a bit so a small chunk of this adventure is missing. In the missing chunk the players find a room that appears to be arranged as a key to the rest of the crypt. The players find more traps, and zed proves himself once again. 

  The puzzle mentioned in this section of the adventure is a 3x3 binary grid that uses the following rules. Anytime a torch was lit or extinguished each torch that was orthogonal was also toggled on or off.

  The traps in this section of the story are adaptions of traps from the Architects of Death installment of Full Metal Friday a free supplement which can be located at the official Iron Kingdoms download page here.

  At the end of this chapter we will be doing a round table interview with the players and DM so send any questions you have to us via Facebook, Twitter, or E-mail.

  The players in this chapter are:

Randy as Rol, an Iosian Warcaster/Field Mechanik with his 'jack Zed

Shannon as Nia Sol, a human Bounty Hunter/Investigator who's in it for the loot

Sky as Amon Zeus, a human Stormblade/Knight on loan to De'Flin from the Cygnaran army

Luanne as Ven, an Iosian Pistoleer/Highwayman who loves her horse

Levi as Brother Omax, an Arcane Mechanik/ Alchemist obsessed with upgrading his frail mortal frame

Doug as the GM

  Note: This is episode contains some adult language

  Thanks for listening! Should you be interested in subscribing to this podcast, you can subscribe to our feed!

If you are interested in the Iron Kingdoms RPG books you can find out more over at Privateer Press.

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Mobile Game Review – The Room Two

The great thing about mobile games is, unsurprisingly, their portability. I often find myself playing games like “2048” or “4 Pics 1 Word” in between classes, on bus and car rides, or even (to the disappointment of my game designing father) in between turns at the board game table. However, it's rare for a mobile game to stop being a  time­sink and become a deep, profound experience; and Fireproof Games' series of puzzle games has done just that.

I discovered the first game, simply titled “The Room” (no relation to the Wiseau film, for those concerned) in a Humble Bundle collection of Android platform mobile games. I feel guilty in saying that The Room was not a consideration in my purchase of the collection – I was in it for Metal Slug and Plants Vs. Zombies – but nonetheless, I gave it a download and saw what it had to offer, and did not regret an ounce of it. From its intuitive and mechanically wonderful touch controls, to its calming yet eerie atmosphere, The Room hooked me from the very start and didn't let go; so when the sequel was featured in a future Humble Bundle, it was the sole reason for my purchase.

Both “The Room” and its sequel, “The Room Two,” are a unique type of point and click puzzle game; the player interacts with devices and other objects in one of several stages in an attempt to uncover the truth behind both the titular room and a mysterious writer who is putting the player on trials through the game's many puzzles. The game's setting can best be described as steampunk, with a knowing nod to Lovecraft, and the puzzles quickly move from quirky puzzles boxes to strange artifacts to occult phenomenon.

Everything in this series has been lovingly crafted by the developers at Fireproof. The puzzles are all kept in the perfect Goldilocks zone in terms of challenge; every solution is sure to give a player that “Aha!” moment, and no puzzle is unintuitive enough to merit a walkthrough thanks to the game's hint system and, of course, clever design. The atmosphere is kept just strange enough to remain unsettling, with the player slowly realizing that their actions have deeper implications than they could have imagined, and could have dire consequences.

That being said, there are a few minor quibbles I have with this series. As it is available solely on mobile markets, it is a shame that it is not completely optimized for some Android devices; for example, although I played through The Room in the past to completion, my device now crashes halfway through the second stage. However, I was able at one point or another to experience both games in their entirety, and I understand that not all mobile devices may be compatible with or even powerful enough to run this game – after all, it is clearly designed for tablet devices – so that is a minor concern.

I'm excited to say that “The Room Two” has both lived up to and exceeded the expectations that its predecessor set. The haunting atmosphere has been cranked up to eleven, and the crafty yet intuitive puzzles remain just challenging enough to engage the player without frustrating them. While it would be nice to see the game run smoother on my device – or even be made as a Steam port someday, if you're reading this Fireproof! – I was still able to both complete and enjoy the full series, and can recommend it wholeheartedly. The games are less than five dollars a piece on mobile markets and are well worth the investment. You, dear reader, can and should check out Fireproof Games on their website at www.fireproofgames.com.

Alex Mote

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Welcome back to the Iron Kingdoms RPG, a steampunk fantasy setting filled with industrial cities, and arcane technology. This story was written by Doug Whitley as an original story for the Playthrough podcast.In this installment the players deal with some ...

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WeHeartsNerds' Matt & Brandon give their impressions of Gamestorm 2014 and get to interview the creators of Madness! Their game is on Kickstarter (and has already funded) now, so go back it! 

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Welcome back to the Iron Kingdoms RPG, a steampunk fantasy setting filled with industrial cities, and arcane technology. This story was written by Doug Whitley as an original story for the Playthrough podcast.The players approach the ruins of Drer Drakkenr...

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Release Review: Lone Ranger *SPOILERS*

How to start??  For one thing, Disney.  For another thing, corny as hell!!  Johnny Depp was amazing as always.  I didn't understand why when I saw the trailers that he chose the supporting character, but you soon learn that although the movie is called Lone Ranger, the story is really about Tonto.  And even standing beside Armie Hammer, Depp still manages to be the comic relief.

Armie Hammer plays The Lone Ranger and much like the other movie I've seen him in, Mirror Mirror, he appears to have been typecast as this bumbling baffoon type of man who manage to successfully trip into becoming the hero of his own story.

Not to say that this Comedy of Wild West Errors wasn't amusing, it was, but it was a far cry from the original 1950's TV show.  If you're looking for something light hearted and moral driven, I would recommend this.  It's good family friendly entertainment.

Luanne Johnson

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