So many choices!

If you like sitting down with your friends for a night of gaming, be it an RPG or maybe a board game or perhaps a card game, you've probably encountered an all too common problem:

What to play?

Of course you can peruse some off the many lists available online, but then a new problem might arise, namely:

Is this game any good for me/us?

Fear not, dear friend, for I have found us all some help!

First up is Game Geeks.

Here you can sample the wisdom of long time GM and Professor Kurt Wiegel as he reviews RPG's and RPG supplements. Just go to Episode Guide and you can view (as I'm writing this) 214 suitably short review videos. I've enjoyed watching them all even if I'm not really all that interested in a particular game, but I have also found several new RPG's I might have to try, some I wouldn't have even heard of if not for Game Geeks.

Are you not in the mood for Role-playing, and would rather have something more relaxed? Maybe something humorous and silly to enjoy while sipping on a beer? Why not watch Beer and Board Games?

B&BG is a group of friends who sit down, drink beer, play games, get drunk and insult each other. They also improvise songs and do silly impressions. Now if you're thinking why would I want to watch that?, don't worry. That's what I thought, but I'm up to season three, and I've laughed my ass off at their shenanigans more than once. Just be warned, their language is neither child nor work appropriate.

Like Game Geeks, I've found a couple of games I'm definitely going to have to try as soon as I can lay my hands on them. I've even found a couple of different beers I'd like to try.

I should point out, that the first 2-3 episodes aren't all that good, but they quickly found their format, so either stick with it, or skip them. Your choice. 

So, have a look and a laugh, and hopefully you'll find something worth your time!

Father of the Wolf

Today's post is somewhat unusual in that it will cover three different subjects that I usually keep separate, but please bear with me.

You see, last week I started reading Fatherland by Robert Harris. Then I had to stop reading it, because it kept me awake when I should have been sleeping. But I finished it over the weekend, and damn, it's good!

In a nutshell, it's an alternative history novel, where Nazi Germany won the war, but what the book is about is not what makes it so good. In a sense it's a fairly “common” detective story, and if you're familiar with certain happenings in Germany during the war, the big secret isn't all that dramatic. Rather it's Harris use of language and his skill in creating tense moments that really makes the book in my opinion.

His knowledge of the Nazi plans for the rebuilding of Germania had they won, also serves him well in creating a Nazi society set in the 1960's. Though with the exception of certain technologies such as TV and helicopters, the story might almost be set in the 40's.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, you really ought to read this book.

However, in 1994, HBO made Fatherland into a movie with the same name starring Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this anemic and rather dull film. It has nothing on the book, as is the usually the case. It's hurried, boring and somehow manages to miss everything that makes the novel so exciting. A real disappointment.

Finally, I thought I'd go off on a slight tangent with the subject matter.

Later on this year (Q4) we'll be getting a brand new Wolfenstein game!

This really made my eyes light up, since I've been a huge fan ever since Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992. I played the demo over and over again, eventually (many years later) playing through most of the rest of the game. The only reason I didn't finish it was because my eyes had gotten used to more modern graphics. I even manged to get my time speed running through the first level down to 21 seconds. Good times!

Then Return to Castle Wolfenstein popped up in 2001, and I played it to death. Where Eagles Dare is one of my favorite war movies, and parts of RtCW captures that feel so incredibly well. The rest is a grim struggle against undead Teutonic monsters and members of the occult branch of the SS. Great game!

In 2009 we got Wolfenstein, and this game I didn't finish, mostly due to the content in the final part. Up to a point, it's a really cool game, enough of the old and plenty of new things to keep us old Wolfers happy, but then it basically turns into a long series of Boss Fights, which I really could do without.

So why do I bring up the new Wolfenstein: The New Order here? Well, because it's set in an alternative history, in the 1960's and guess what? That's right boys and girls, the Nazis won the war. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But I have to say I feel bad for good old Blazkowicz. All these games, countless Nazis dead at his hands, and they win? Was Blazkowicz the only one doing any fighting? Did all the other Allies just sit around? I guess we'll find out.

I for one eagerly await this game!

Why is it so hard?

Every now and then I stumble upon an RPG setting I just can't wait to sink my teeth into, and then promptly don't. So today I want to talk about two such settings. I've read them, I love the worlds, and I have no idea what to do with them.

It just so happens that they're both post apocalyptic, and as such are pretty grim, but the flavors are pretty different.

First up is Engel.

Engel is originally a German RPG from 2002, published in English under the d20 system. Now I like the d20 system for several different settings such as D&D and Star Wars, but in my mind it really fell flat in Engel.

The setting is pretty damn awesome though. Set in 2654, in a flooded Neo-Medieval Europe where the Angelitic Church rules all. The Church enforces it's decrees (amongst them a strong hatred of technology) with the power of the Angels (or Engel) who serve the Church and it's Pontifex Maximus in all things.

The forces of darkness usually takes the shape of gigantic intelligent insects that emerge from perpetually smoke enshrouded areas called Brandlands, to wage war against the Engel and eat people in general.

The closest we get to a neutral faction are the Junk Lords, warlords who controls a few lonely cities with the help of forbidden technology.

I can't really give the setting it's true kudos here, it really is magnificent, and well worth reading if you're not going to play it. There are several pretty big spoilers in the main book which I obviously won't mention here, so beware if you read it, you can't un-know what you know.

So why not run Engel? First off is the system. As mentioned above, I don't want to use d20, and I'm much to lazy, ahem, busy to rewrite it to another system. The original German version had a different system called Arcana, which used Tarot like cards, but it's very free form, in fact much too free for my tastes.

Secondly, I have no bloody clue what kind of a story I'd like to run with it. None, nada. The default position assumes the players take the role of Engel, which is really nifty, but doesn't help me at all.

My second “What to do with it” game is Unhallowed Metropolis.

This incredible setting takes place in Neo-Victorian 2105, where all cities are walled to keep out huge roaming hordes of shambling undead. In a nutshell, the dead rose in 1901 and the world went to hell in a hand-basket. Pure chaos everywhere as they infect those they bite, you know, the typical Zombie plague thing. Then things got worse as large swatches of land sickened, and either died or mutated.

For 200 years or so, people have struggled to reclaim the cities, reinforce them and survive. And they've done it. But apart from some changes like equal rights between the sexes, society is still very Victorian.

This combined with the wide spread use of Tesla technologies, a semi persistent need to wear gas masks outdoors, and undead stalking their victims through poisonous smog, makes for a setting cool enough to make me drool. And yet I don't know what to do with it! Very frustrating indeed.

Like Engel, Unhallowed Metropolis is a highly entertaining read, that deserves more than I can give it here. It has things like the all female guild of Mourners who are tasked with overseeing wakes with their kukris in hand, should grandfather come back for a bite, to the soldiers of the Deathwatch, to haughty aristocrats plotting in their mansions, this setting is a nonstop Gothic gloom fest!

Conspiracy

On today's menu, we have a dark slice of history, presented in movie format, filmed with excellent style and topped with some amazing acting.

Today's serving is a somewhat overlooked TV movie: Conspiracy (2001).

Conspiracy is one of those movies that are hard to explain in a nutshell. If someone asks you “What's it about?” or “What happens in it?”, you're in a bit of trouble.

What it's about is the Wannsee Conference. This was a secret meeting held in a villa by Lake Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The importance of this meeting is monumental, as this was when the Final Solution was enacted. In other words, when the fate of the Jews were set in motion.

That's what Conspiracy is about.

But what happens in it then? Well, they talk, and talk, yell occasionally, and then talk some more. And that's the trouble with this film. An explanation like this does absolutely no justice to this masterpiece what so ever.

For a start, the cinematography is brilliant. From the unusually long takes, to complex shots, it's just beautifully filmed. Many of the actors (more on them in a bit) have experience doing Shakespeare on stage, so they were used to memorizing lots of lines, and they needed all that skill. According to the IMDB trivia page, they filmed up to twenty pages of script in one go. Sometimes more.

The score is great. There is none. Apart from one of the final scenes, when Heydrich puts on a record, there's not a single note of music in the entire movie, which serves to highlight the seriousness and gravity of the subject matter. It also adds a hushed element which heightens the secrecy of the meeting in question.

Now for the actors. No amateurs here, no Sir.

We start with Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the RSHA (Reich Security, Main Office). This can not have been an easy role to pull off, if you know even a bit of what what this monster in human skin did. But Branagh does a marvelous job. He switches from being charming and placating to ice cold and vicious in a heartbeat. Great performance.

Next up is Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann, the chief bureaucratic organizer of the Holocaust. He is not far behind Branagh in skill here. He is imperious and cruel to underlings and servile to anyone with more power. One part in particular struck me, and that is when you notice how sickened he is by what they're discussing, but despite that, he is absolutely committed to the path ahead.

I can't of course go through everyone here, but the cast includes other luminaries such as; Ian McNiece, Colin Firth, Tom Hiddleston and many more, and absolutely everyone deserved their paychecks, without question.

Naturally this is not a documentary, not even a docudrama, but it's not far from, since all notes were destroyed after the meeting, except one, so the film goes very closely by what actually happened. Thus you can learn a few surprising things about the events surrounding this event.

I have seen Conspiracy probably six or seven times, and every time, I've noticed something different. If you watch closely, you can follow the complex emotions that run through the room. Where one of the arguing Nazi official is smugly triumphant or when another is aghast at what is presented. Many reactions are obvious, but where I used to think someone was sitting quietly, you can actually tell what he's feeling.

The overarching subject is of course as gruesome as it is important, but even if you don't give a crap about it, do watch this incredible film.

Human Nature

What does it mean to be human?

Deus Ex: Human Revolution explores the question, but I'm not so sure it comes up with an answer.

Minor Spoilers Ahead!

Philosophical quandaries aside, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (or DE:HR from here on in) is a 2011 cyberpunk prequel to the famous Deus Ex (2000).

I like this game a lot. It's very pretty, the engine is good, the story is more than decent, but what I really like is that it hasn't tried to please everybody. The developers took a few concepts and stuck with them.

Combat is the main part of the game in many ways, and it's both smooth and fun. No complaints there.

Stealth is also fun, and a long standing favorite of mine. All well so far.

Hacking is alright, I suppose. As an every now and then element, it's in fact very good, but when you go through every computer in a news room, it gets very tedious. Not to mention that, once you upgrade your skill to max, and get hacking stealth to max, even the hardest locks are a breeze to crack.

Finally Social. This part is also quite fun, and can make your life considerably easier. But it's the smallest element in the game, and as such is the least important. Unless you're going for a no kill play through.

As a gamer, I like to explore, and here DE:HR falls a little bit on it's face. There are hidden areas, but most levels are rather small, which limits your possibilities a great deal. In fact, Detroit is downright tiny, but it's more than made up by Hengsha (fictional Chinese city) which in turn feels rather big. The rest are mostly different bases and similar locations that you infiltrate.

I suppose one could accuse DE:HR of being linear and “railroady” but that would be pretty unfair, and here's why. The hero, Adam Jensen is a very driven man. When he sets his mind to doing something, it gets done, whether it's helping an old friend or uncovering global conspiracies. Whatever his next goal is, Jensen goes for gold and not for hamburgers. This is not GTA, but man do I wish I could get the size of the GTA cities in this game!

Most missions have many different ways they can be completed, and this is where the options come in, and it's up to you to figure out how to do what needs to be done. If the game was more open, this would probably be much harder to figure out, which would impact on the flow of the game.

The one thing that did disappoint me though, where the boss fights. The first one is the hardest, and once you figure out how to do it, it's not all that hard. Personally I'd be happy if we could leave boss battles where they belong; in the past. But since they keep popping up, I guess I'm the minority. At least in DE:HR they occupy very little of your time.

Finally, I've noticed that Jensen's motive for doing all he does is ambiguous. It could be a sense of duty, or maybe revenge. Or possible love, I don't know. I suppose you have to figure it our for yourself.

If you want a game with a good story, compelling characters and great atmosphere, you can do a lot worse than Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

It's amazing that we're still here.

Today's eccentricity is a somewhat macabre book with the charming title of:

Atrocitology - Humanity's 100 deadliest achievements.

It's written by Matthew White, a self proclaimed atrocitologist who has received praise for his work from amongst others Harvard.

When I leafed through this rather hefty book (669 pages incl. the index), I thought it was going to be heavy going, but I was pleasantly surprised.

In a nutshell, this book goes through the 100 events in recorded history that has claimed the most lives, but only the ones we have inflicted on ourselves. So the Black Death and it's ilk are out, as are all natural disasters. This means it's mostly war, but there are a few other massive cruelties scattered about. Of course there are few bits missing here and there, but in order to make this book, an event has to have a death toll of at least 300.000 people, so that can't be helped.

The Atrocitology is listed in chronological order, rather than by amount of casualties, starting with the Second Persian war (480-479 BCE) and goes all the way up to the Second Congo War (1998-2002). This of course leaves almost 2500 years of nasty behaviour, and an incredible amount of dead people.

So how can such a catalogue of suffering and misery be a good read?

First off, it's the way Mr. White writes. He has a wonderful way of using humour and irony without being disrespectful.

Secondly if you, like me, love history and trivia (and you're preferably a bit morbid) this book will give you a great overview of a large portion of history. The development and destruction of Tribes, Nations and Empires, and how it has influenced the world, even today.

Finally, very few chapters are more than a couple of pages long, and even then, Mr. White doesn't dwell on any details that would upset delicate stomachs. Broad sweeps in other words.

The Atrocitology is a great book, and not one to be overlooked. I learned a tremendous amount from this work, and in the process got a better understanding of not only the history of the world, but also of humanity itself. Very little has changed over the millenia. We're still bastards.

The Slender Man

As the old saying goes, there's nothing new under the sun, but every so often you run into something that's, if not new, then at least fresh.

On today's menu is the Slender Man.

What's particularly interesting about the Slender Man mythos, it's that it's completely made up. In fact, it was created for a contest on the website Something Awful, back in 2009, by user name Victor Surge. I find the fact that we know this intriguing, since most scary things tend to be attributed to some ancient evil, or at the very least they're claimed to be true. Not so with Slender Man, but that doesn't mean he's any less creepy.

Slender Mans popularity spread fairly quickly, particularly thanks to the web series Marble Hornets, which is a brilliant documentary style show about a young man trying to unravel the mystery surrounding him, with the Slender Man taking center stage in the story. What I find really brilliant about the Marble Hornets story is how the main character Alex uploads everything he films and finds to Youtube, thereby making you, the viewer, a part of the story. All in all, an awesome story, well worth watching by all fans of Horror. In fact, I'd go so far as to say there are a few professionals who could learn a thing or two from Marble Hornets.

If passive viewing isn't you thing, there is also a game called simply Slender, in which you have to find a certain amount of pages before Slender Man finds you. I believe it's freely available online. No doubt Google can help you find it.

So what's the deal? Why is a tall, skinny faceless weirdo so creepy? I would say it's a clever (or accidental) combination of the following factors:

• Relatability. It's a humanoid and intelligent figure, as opposed by say the Blob.
• Vulnerability. Yours to be specific. Simply approaching him is very dangerous.
• Mystery. Nothing is explained. No background, no motive.

These well used elements are put to good use, and again shows that's it's less about what you do and more how you do it.