Hawk the... Noooo!

I saw the movie. That was enough. It even got Rifftrax'd. There was no threat of it happening again. Everyone was happy. And then this happens:

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Brokened Ages

With Part 2 out, of course I needed to play it, what with being a backer (with my name in the list) and all. And, of course, I whipped through Part 1 again to remind myself of the world and where I was. (I hadn't played it again since I first got it.)

With the climax of Part 1 blowing the world wide open (and I think playing Shay's part first before Vella makes Part 1 better), we get to explore some of what that means... and there are still surprises to be unveiled even in the beginning here. (And we also get to see how many puzzles were set up in Part 1). There is more cross-over between the two stories, and you definitely need to move back and forth between the two to make progress.

And I did make progress. A lot of progress. And a lot of hitting my head against the wall. I could see what I had to do, but couldn't quite work out what I needed to do to get there... but I made my way through, and solved a lot of it.

But then... I just hit a point. I couldn't work out what was going on, and so, yes, I went to a walkthrough. And found the solutions were nothing I would have come with without reaching the end of my tether. In one case, I had to do nothing, which there was no indication that that's what I had to do. And in another case, I had to give a character item A, but only after showing item B. I did item A before I even got B, and so had no reason to try item A again!

So yeah, that let an annoying taste in my mouth. By the end, it was more "I finally got there" than "yay, I dids it all!" And I only have 2/3 of the achievements. Most of the remaining you aren't going to get on a first run through because they rely on getting the puzzles right first time. And one for doing the entire game in under an hour?

Overall, a good game, glad I got it, but the logic goes a bit too off the rails at the end.

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Shh Secret Rooms

Remember New Century Handbook? Well, the full series is now ongoing as a Patreon (support that and other stuff), and the first part of season two is complete.

Called Secret Rooms, it focuses on some of the Cartographers mentioned in the Handbook and their adventures. With towns that aren't the same as home. And homes that aren't the same as normal.

Next up is Tiger's Eye, then Arlington, and then Steam Heart.

And although Patreon is supporting, these episodes are available to listen to for free, so have at it!

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Adventures in MineCraft Modding

My basic play of MineCraft is vanilla. I certainly don't have any increase in the items available, although they would be helpful. There's a whole range of addons you can get, to help with crafting, flying and killing. However, there are a few I've added just to make my life easier.

Forge: Start with this one. Pretty much all mods rely on this package, and once installed and up and running, it's very easy to add in more mods over time.

Chicken Bones: This is another base mod that other mods are built on. However, the default mod had a problem I encountered when used with the next mod whereby redstone caused the server to crash. The author has updated it, but you need to use the latest build, not the default one.

Not Enough Items: With the above mod, this is one of the most useful mods for me. NEI accesses the items available, and a) can show what block you are looking at (very useful when mining) and b) can show all the items and the associated recipes to create them. Which makes it much easier than switching over to the web and looking it up, which would otherwise be the normal option.

LiteLoader: When mods aren't Forge, they seem to be based on LiteLoader. Fortunately, there's a version of LiteLoader for Forge, so you can combine them!

Voxel Map: This uses LiteLoader. This displays a map in the upper corner, which is handy. But more usefully it allows for waypoints to be added, so you can navigate your way around. So often I could so easily be lost, but with this, I'm able to go anywhere and make my way back.

Now if only I had somewhere interesting to go. In the world I'm in, there are Plains and Forests and Ocean... and that's it. No desert or anything. No villages or temples. But at least two ocean temples though. And the Endermen aren't dropping ender pearls. And no sign of blazes in the Nether... man, this world sucks.

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Batman V Robman

It's another animated movie, which is far lighter in tone than the current live action DC movies, despite that it features more murder and near patricide.

Following the New 52 plot, there's a new villain in town, and he's owl based. (I wonder if this was in some way a dig at the Watchmen comic.) He's willing to do what Batman doesn't, and Robin approves. (This version of Robin is Batman's son Damien.) This leads to a clash between Batman and Robin, and the idea of the title, although you always get the feeling that Batman is just toying with Robin when they are fighting and he isn't really trying. Anyway, the villain is connected with the Court of Owls, and they want Bruce Wayne on their side, and they don't like Batman. By swaying Robin away from him, they set up a situation where they can get everything they want. Will Batman be able to get... yes, of course, he's Batman, but what will be sacrificed along the way?

I'm not going to talk about the production, which is the usual DC high standard, because the plot annoyed me so. At no point is the Batman/Robin relationship really in doubt. We know good will out in the end, and Robin just isn't presented as the evil he would need to be to sell this. And what happens in the other side of the plot (and the end talked about below) is just cliched and at no time surprised me with what was going on.

I can't recommend this, I can only hope the comic is worth reading.

One spoiler I want to talk about, but I'll hide it away from the main page: Near the end, the villain of the piece kills the Court of Owls. As in completely wipes them out. This is the elite of Gotham, the high society, gone just like that... that might leave a bit of a power vacuum, but this is never addressed. What? Mass murder of the most important people, and it's barely a footnote? That's stupid, and I hope the comic did it far better.

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The MAGIC Pudding

The Magic Pudding is an Australian childrens book from back in the day that I recall trying to read when I was a young'un. I'm not sure why I had so much trouble with it, but I think I gave it a few goes, but couldn't get through it. Perhaps it just didn't make sense? This is a bit of a nonsense story, but the audio book definitely helped getting through it.

Bunyip Bluegum sets out to see the world, and encounters Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff, and their pudding Albert. This is a sentient, even moving, pudding, with its own opinions (which comes down to "I want to run away" and "eat more of me"). Being magic, eating it doesn't diminish it. Most of the adventures they then go through involve being pudding owners and encountering two pudding thieves. And then the end of the book comes, so they finish adventuring. (Really, that's how that works.)

Having it read to me meant that the sudden changes to songs, and the rather alliterative names didn't give me any problems. And made it a bit more enjoyable, although the repetitive nature of the 'encounter pudding thieves, defeat pudding thieves' made the plot wear thin quickly.

Still, fun enough.

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Nick Shield: Agent of F.U.R.Y.

I must be coming to the end of superhero movies some time! However, it's time to dip back to 1998, and the time of the Hoff!

Hydra is up to its old tricks, so Nick Fury is reactivated out of retirement, and immediately gets into battle with them. After a tangle with Hydra getting their hands on Zola, Nick is left poisoned, so that's another ticking clock. Hydra itself is under the command of Baron Von Strucker's daughter Andrea, in an amazingly over the top and campy performance. What it comes down to is that Nick must find Hydra HQ and Andrea so he can get blood for a cure, while Contessa Valentina de Allegro Fontaine stops a virus being unleashed in Manhatten. With like three people on Shield side in each team, because that makes it more exciting, and all battles taking place in dressed up abandoned warehouses.

Clearly a made for TV movie, this is cheesy action at its best. Whereby best means 'extra cheese'. The dialogue is over the top, but so is the acting, so that fits. Hoff is fine as Fury (although I feel the cigars he smokes/chews are a little smaller than they should be), and Sandra Hess and Lisa Rinna get fine roles that even later aren't often given to women. There's also a slew of other names: Garry Chalk, Tom McBeath, Ron Canada...

On the other hand, don't seek this out unless you are trying to see all those damn superhero movies...

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