Sunday, November 13, 2016

What to do on a birthday ? Save the world !

Birthday today !

I'm having a chilled out one today. I now have the music on (nice bit of Abba with a Suzanne Vega album next up) while a youtube game video is going on in the background. The gaming video is about the new Civilisation VI game that has just come out. I may get that ... but not yet. I'm not prepared to pay the £50 for it. I can wait for discounts.

I have been chilling out with a game today though. XCom2 came out a good few months ago but I never actually got round to playing it. I'm really enjoying having a good run in it now although the aliens are giving my soldiers a good run for their money. Oh and there's also been a decent last day's play in the cricket today and one of the more eventful Grand Prix that there has been for a while.

In terms of birthday festivities, I had a chance to have lunch with someone lovely yesterday as we raided the Christmas Market here in Bristol. The management of it has changed hands this year but it still has the German Sausage stalls (they smelled very inviting yesterday) and the Happy Cookie Place is back too. PikaPeacanut Stall wasn't in evidence, need more checking. And the salmon on a fire stall isn't there either. I always regret not checking that one out.
But on to the game ! One of the features of games like XCom2 is the customisation of the soldiers you have with you. Take your friends into battle ! Try not to get them killed !

The XCom games are pretty tough. It doesn't take much of an error to put one of your people in danger. I have actually only lost one soldier so far !
The first two don't count, they die as part of scripted events in the first opening tutorial mission. The one I did lose got ambushed while saving civilians from alien retaliation.

Yep. This one is all about kicking the alien butt again. It's the second game in the remade XCom series, picking up 20 years after Earth lost to the aliens rather badly. The aliens now control our planet and resistance is all but stamped out. It's up to us to kick ass and chew strawberry bonbons. And because the aliens banned the bonbon, you know who's ass we're gonna be kicking. But who's doing the ass kicking ?
That's the roster after completing one of the early story missions. Oh and the mission after ... because. These games can get a bit of a hold on you with the "Just one more mission, then I stop for a bit" factor. They're doing pretty well. The crew comes from a mix of youtuber name lists (spot the Cinnamon and the TB in there) plus we have recruited in a number of characters from the Mass Effect universe. The name lists give pre customised characters which add a bit of colour into the precedings.

Shall we meet some of them ? Just the friends that is. Showing them all will take forever !
That's Hotshot, who is the lead sniper at the moment keeping an eye on our squad from high above. Many aliens have died by her hand already.
With a young protege joining in after that particularly hard retaliation mission. She'll be back in the fight soon enough.
And there's the last one of the ones I have named so far. His nickname could have gone two ways, either Cyberkitten (spot that weapon detail !) or Truthseeker. It'll be Truthseeker this time because I'll be wanting his hacking skills. I think the aliens have already got to him with that growth above his mouth though that tends to appear randomly.

Will they all survive ? How many of them will make it to the final mission ? Will I get chance to play the game more any time soon !
Or maybe some heavy metal grindy music back up in the form of the Final Liberation soundtrack that's going at the moment.
I've come out of game now though. Chill out time for me. But ...
Or the cookies. The cookies need me too. Nite !

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