The Pathfinder Path: Part 1

I’m new to Pathfinder, in fact I’m new to pen and paper RPGS in general. The closest I ever got to it was Neverwinter Nights back in the day and I have absolutely no idea what I signed up for. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to play Pathfinder at the local comic book store Atom Comics. Now I’ve always been fascinated by pen and paper games, spending hours in a basement adventuring and actually playing different characters together with other people was something I was definitely into. It sounds like a children’s fantasy I know, but games like this take it to the extreme, and I was dying to be part of it.

So last Friday night, I hopped out of school the second I was released and pranced my way down, full of hope and dreams about what it would be like. What my character would be, the trials and monsters I would have to face and endless dice rolls to be made. Bruce (Owner of Atom Comics) was quick to introduce me to the other players who were of varying skill levels. Some have played a couple of times, some life long veterans and of course there were complete newbies like me which I took solace in.

So after days of dreaming and fantasizing my hopes were dashed as our DM (dungeon master) announced that we WOULDN’T be starting the actual game today. All he wanted us to do today was to create our characters, I was disappointed, how long could creating a character take? It’s just filling in some blanks right? WRONG it took me 3 almost 2 hours just to get started on my character and I’m still not done!

My character sheet as it stands… horrible handwriting I know!

The DM slapped 2 menacingly large tomes on the table, the official rule books of the game and instructed us to pour through the races and classes available for our characters. Up till this point I thought I knew what customization was in a game. I thought my experience in all those RPGS I played were going to be of actual use for me. I thought Skyrim and great customization! That is until I sat down to create a Pathfinder character. My god the choices here are overwhelming you choose everything from the standard name, class, weapons and armour, spells and stats to crazy things like gods to worship, feats, alignment and even specifics like height, weight and age.

Creating my character made me feel like god, all these details i was writing down, the specifics of it all just made my character seem so real in my mind. Granted I modeled mine after everyone’s favourite country turned pop star Taylor Swift (A Half-Elf bard), but the skills I assigned her seemed to craft her very nature. Naturally I poured a crazy amount of points into charisma just because I do it for every RPG I play, and I built her up from there making her aerobic, and escape artist, skilled liar and diplomat and of course, a great singer.

It’s a pretty daunting start, I spent the rest of my time talking to other players about their character choices, trading tips and laughing at players who landed some pretty horrible dice rolls. I swear some of those dices are loaded! But I’m looking forward to start of my adventure where I will take Taylor swift the lying diplomatic half elf into the depths of some horrible death inducing dungeon.

Nick

Gotham: Episode 1 recap

The initial pitch of Gotham was an uninspiring one, the story of everyone else but Batman after the death of the Waynes? Who’d want to watch that? Can a story of the most infamous citizens of Gotham really survive on network television without Batman? To be completely honest, I’m not sold yet.

The story revolves around the later would be figures of the Gotham underworld, Jim Gordon the future Police Commissioner is a rookie cop in this series, with Harvey Bullock playing the seasoned detective and reluctant partner to the ever enthusiastic James.  We are also introduced to a variety of villains and would be villains in this episode including:

The Penguin

Poison Ivy

Catwoman or girl in this case

The Joker?

The Riddler

Carmine Falcone

Most of these characters so far do have an interesting path to take based on the lore of the DC universe and would make some great stories. But then again, their best stories have always been after they’ve submitted to their roles in the Batman universe. Origin stories are fun and all, but they have to go somewhere and the frame work of this series just doesn’t seem to help.

On the bright side, the show is gorgeous. A lot of thought and money has clearly been poured into this project. The costume designs are elaborate and detailed, and the skyline is gorgeous. A lot of the building interiors and architecture also reflect the art deco style that Gotham city is so famous for, and the way the show looks is definitely the strongest part of the show so far.

Gotham looks gorgeous

The episode follows Jim and Harvey as they try to solve the Wayne case, and to be honest it’s pretty bland. It’s like an episode of Law and Order with some really REALLY cheesy dialogue thrown in and a few interesting character which are only interesting to me because I know the significance they play in the future. I’m sure there are a lot of Batman fans out there but the reality is that most people will not identify these characters or get excited because they don’t have the proper context to be, and if this show is going to survive for a next season they need to show why these characters are interesting fast.

Spoiler alert: Bruce Wayne’s parents die!

It’s too early to say if the series will succeed, but I can’t help but feel disappointed from what I’ve seen so far. It’s not as dark as I expected it to be, and the dialogue is a little too on the nose for me. What keeps me hopeful is the potential the series has and the seeds that were planted in the first episode. How will Jim rise to be commissioner? How will Nigma eventually go crazy and become the Riddler? How does Penguin gain control of the Gotham under world? They are exciting things to think about, and may just turn my opinion around. But for now, the future of Gotham is cloudy at best.

7 Reasons why you should be reading comic books

Good news – You do not have to wear the proud label of ‘Nerd’ or ‘Geek’ to be able to appreciate all that comics have to offer. If you’ve ever laughed at a Garfield comic strip, or wondered if Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes was actually a magical Tiger and not just a figment of Calvin’s imagination, you’ve already dipped a foot into the magical world that is comics.

From the brooding, dark universe of Watchmen and Batman from DC, to the vast multicolored array of Super-powered characters that Marvel continuously churns out, there’s something that will suit your fancy within the pages of the next comic book you pick up. To help you along, here are seven reasons why you should go ahead and pick that book up.

1. Comic books may (or may not) turn you into a millionaire 

1938 was a year which saw the birth of an iconic character that endures till today – whose name is known by every single person alive who has never picked up a comic book, and whose iconic image, in one way or another, has went on to inspire the image of almost every comic book superhero since.

That’s right, I’m talking about the one and only Superman.

The brainchild of creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Superman of the day was a very different character compared to how we know him today. Originally, Superman did not possess the abilities of flight, freezing breath or heat vision. He COULD, however, “Leap 1/8 of a mile, hurdle 20-story buildings, raise tremendous weights, outrun a train and nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin.” Gradually, writers added more and more powers over the years, until the name Superman became synonymous with indestructible, prompting the addition of Kryptonite as a plot element to keep the nigh-invincible hero in check. (And to provide something of a challenge against those dastardly villains, though we know the good guy still wins in the end.)

The original Issue number one of Action Comics is a rare find indeed. It is estimated that only about 50 to 100 copies are left in existence, and precious few of these are still in exceptional enough quality to be displayed or collected. The record, however, was set by a copy that sold on eBay for over $3.2 million dollars, by Vincent Zurzolo and Stephen Fishler of Metropolis Collectibles – the highest amount ever paid for a single issue of a comic book. Just let that sink in for a moment.

That number alone, should inspire just about anyone to start collecting from today.

2. Believe it or not, they make you smarter 

While not guaranteed to develop your brains into M.O.D.O.K level processors anytime soon, it seems that research has shown that learning from comic books is not only easier than learning from text alone, they also harbor serious potential as teaching tools due to their memory-boosting effects.

How does this work?

Well, according to Alex Lundry, Vice President and Director of Research at TargetPoint , “In neurology, this is called the ‘pictorial superiority effect’ […] If I present information to you orally, you’ll probably only remember about 10% 72 hours after exposure, but if I add a picture, recall soars to 65%. So we are hard-wired to find visualization more compelling than a spreadsheet.”

So there’s the sciencey bit that backs it all up. No word from the experts about whether or not schools are poised to replace all their textbooks with appropriately themed comic books, but we’ll get there someday, we will. In fact, local teacher and cartoonist Otto Fong has already been inspired to take the first step by turning science textbooks into much easier-to-read comic form.

 

In 2005, Otto created the comic series ‘Sir Fong’, inspired by his first batch of RI students. The comic went on to be named one of the “Ten Good Local Reads” of the year by The Straits Times. It was so successful, that it even spawned a sequel in 2006, named “Sir Fong 2 : Fur-o-cious”. Its use as a teaching tool is very evident, and Otto hopes that the series will inspire more Asian kids to become scientists and researchers. Why not? Comic books are so better to read than textbooks, even if they contain almost the same content.

This brings us to the next point.

3. Comic books are that much easier to read than normal books

Mangas count as comics, too

Closely linked to point #2, the pictorial superiority effect is the major reason why comic book fans find stories so much easier to digest, compared to walls of literary text. However, comic books have been lambasted in the past by critics who claim that they harbor a variety of potential negative effects, such as slowing development and normalizing unsavory characteristics such as violence.

However, aside from the graphics, comic books are little different from normal books if you think about it. They contain exactly the same story elements and literary devices as narrative stories, such as the setting, the theme, the points of view, the conflict and its resolution. It allows one to circumvent the difficulty of having to whip out a dictionary (or dictionary app) to look for unfamiliar words, because the pictures themselves provide built-in contextual clues to help the reader along.

This is not to say that you should abandon narrative stories completely in favor of comic books, however. Its merely an argument to demonstrate why the criticism against comic books actually makes little sense. We all need a bit of variety in our reading from time, to time, don’t we?

4. Those end-scene credits? You will finally understand them

*fanboying*

Its the age of superhero movies, and more and more people are jumping on board the comic book bandwagon to finally understand just what it is about those end-credit scenes that that one noisy dude in the cinema was so worked up about after the movie.

End-credit scenes have always been the calling card of movies in Marvel’s franchise, but the one that really had an impact was the scene at the end of “The Avengers” in 2012 that *spoiler alert* heralded the coming of Thanos, a major villian in the Marvel Universe. This very brief but very important piece of information was, to the fans of the comic books, much more than simply a sinister grin from a purple-skinned guy.

It hinted at the true nature of the Tesseract – the cube that featured heavily in both Captain America and The Avengers.

It hinted at others like the Tesseract – the series of infinity stones, which are bound to have their own related movies. (True enough, The Aether, another one of the infinity stones, was revealed in Thor: The Dark World.)

Most importantly, it hinted at an impending conflict between Thanos and the Avengers – Sure to be a cinematic battle for the ages. For now, most comic book fans are looking forward to Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, to satiate our Marvel craving before Thanos takes the scene. Don’t get me wrong – The Ultron arc is most interesting, and I am curious to see what sort of spin the story will take on the big screen – but Thanos is on a whole other level.

Another important end-credit scene in recent memory that left non-comic book fans perplexed, was the short introduction of En Sabah Nur and his Four Horsemen at the end X-men : Days of Future Past. I won’t dwell too long on this point, however. To find out more, Google is your dearest friend.

5. Kick-start Your Creativity

It’s all been done before

Its a running joke a within the Marvel Universe that there can hardly ever be anything new happening because its all been done before. With this impressive ensemble of super-powered characters, its not hard to see why. If you’re a Marvel fan, basically ever story involving superpowers looks like a sort of rip-off – Pixar’s The Incredible, for example, which is basically a re-imagining of the Fantastic Four (Even down to the dual force-field + invisibility powers possessed by Violet, clearly drawing inspiration from Sue Storm.)

How is this a good, thing, you ask? For one thing, it opens the mind of the reader to many possibilities. The writers hate being labelled predictable, and so they come up with newer and fresher content to deliver. One most recent example is the ‘permanent’ death of Wolverine, set to happen soon. This is a shocker because the iconic character is best known for his near-indestructibility.  It remains to be seen how this event might possibly occur, but it sure has comic fans on the edge of their seats.

The writers themselves are draw inspiration from actual events and people. A few, such as Loki and Hercules of Marvel are easy to figure out, being re-imaginations of Norse and Greek deities within the Marvel universe. Some are a little less known, such as The Joker of DC Comics, who was created in the image of the actor Conrad Veidt, who starred in “The Man Who Laughs”, by Victor Hugo. The “Most Bizarre Award” has to go to the creation behind the Red Skull, nemesis of Captain America. As Joe Simon, co-creator of the patriotic hero, reveals in his autobiography :

“I was always thinking about heroes and villains, with all sorts of ideas swimming around in my head…I had a hot fudge sundae sitting in front of me, with the vanilla ice cream, and the hot fudge is running down the side. It was intriguing. The hot fudge looked like limbs—legs, feet, and hands—and I’m thinking to myself. Gee, this’d make an interesting villain, I mused. We’ll call him Hot Fudge … Just put a face on him, and have him ooze all over the place. But I looked again at the sundae, and I saw the big cherry on top. The cherry looked like a skull. “Wow,” I said to myself. “Red Skull … that sounds good.””

With this much material pouring in from the artists, how can you, the reader, not be similarly inspired? I know I am – though I usually get no further than a four panel strip featuring stickmen.

6. The Book is Always Better Than The Movie 

Thanks to the recent influx of movie-adaptations of popular book titles such as Harry Potter, the Twilight Series, The Maze Runner and Divergent, moviegoers all realize one thing – The Book is always better than The Movie. Comic books are no exception.

To be fair, movies do have constraints to work with. The runtime, for one – since you can’t pick a movie up and put it down for later watching when you feel like it in the cinema. To squeeze an entire coherent story into two hours or less is no mean feat. Unfortunately, this usually manifests itself in the form of a few major plotholes. X-men: Days of future past was one excellent example, starting with every single comic book fan in the theatre wondering how Shadowcat conveniently pulled a secondary mutation out of thin air for the movie. Or how Magneto got his powers back after he was forcefully stuck with the mutant ‘cure’ by beast at the end of X-men 3: The last stand.

That said, the movies are an impressive work in themselves, in spite of all these, with 2012’s The Avengers grossing more than $1.5 billion dollars in box-office revenue worldwide – the first of the Marvel films to exceed a billion dollars in ticket sales. Clearly the movie was a big hit – as are most of the other installments of the Marvel cinematic universe. (If you’ve yet to check out Guardians Of The Galaxy, you should do it right now. Do it. Do it for Groot.) If you enjoyed the movies, just remember – the Books are even better.

7. They show the best of what we can be

What makes these characters so great is that they all represent a part of us. Superman represents the strength and benevolence we can be capable of, Batman is the epitome of discipline and hardwork, Wolverine is a man damaged from his past on a quest to redeem himself while Spiderman is the average guy with average problems outside his costume. The heros more or less always win and rise above the challenge through the most noble ways and they are a constant reminder of what we can choose to do when faced with hard decisions or battles.

——

So there you have it. You’ll be a smarter person with a powerful memory, who will now understand exactly whats going on in those easter eggs in the films. If that doesn’t motivate you enough to pick up a comic book immediately, you ought to be sentenced to ten minutes with Deadpool. (Who? Find out – you will not regret it.) Also, there’s a very small chance you might become a millionaire someday, if you start collecting all those coveted #1 issues wherever you see them, but hey, don’t take our word for it!

Repeat, do not quote us. Ever.

Top 10 games I’m looking forward to this season

It’s almost that time of the year again, fall and winter have historically been one of the most anticipated seasons for gamers with the horde of awesome games just hoping to be snatched up for the holiday season, and without further ado, here’s my top 10 list of games to get this year….

1) Destiny (out now) – 360,PS3,XONE,PS4

Destiny has been out for a little under a week and everyone on my friend’s list seems to be playing it. The makers of Halo have successfully the intense and challenging firefights they are known for into this borderlands-esque experience. Destiny allows players to team up in fire teams of 3 players to conquer dungeons, explore caves, and get some epic loot. I will be doing a little review of the game soon, once i’m done and you and look out for it soon.

2) Disney Infinity 2.0 (23rd sept) – 360,PS3,XONE,PS4

I was incredibly exited when the original Disney infinity was released being the gargantuan Disney fan that I am, but something just never clicked with me. The game seemed repetitive and grew boring despite it’s charming visuals and characters. The figures were also giving my wallet a really hard time and it grew harder and harder for me to justify spending $20 on a character on a game I was falling out of love with.

But 2.0 looks like a refreshing breath of life, the game now features the Marvel universe right along side Disney characters and the figures look amazing, not to mention adorable. Characters also have ski8ll trees now and it plays almost like an action RPG. All your 1.0 figures will also work with with the new game INCLUDING the base set. which means you could possibly play 2.0 by just buying a disc copy if you already own 1.0. That’s a huge deal because it just means I have more money to spend on all those supercalifragilisticexpialidocious figures.

3) Shadow Of Mordor (30th Sept) – PC,XONE,PS4

This is the best looking LOTR game to date, you play Talion, a ranger whose family was slaughtered by sauron and the game chronicles your revenge into the heart of mordor in a stealth and action based adventure.

The video shown at E3 really impressed me, I never thought a stealth based LOTR game could really happen. But what was shown proved me wrong. SOM operates on a Nemesis system which generates enemies unique to every playthrough to assassinate. These characters follow a hierarchy and lower ranking enemies can be influenced to spy, assassinate or spread fear of your name around the ranks.

Combat in this game looks super fun as well in a very Batman Arkham Asylum way. It’s a tried and true system, I wouldn’t blame anyone for copying it because it works so well. But I think the option to go all stealth creates a unique gameplay experience. I can’t wait to play this game!

4) Alien Isolation (Oct 7th) – 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC

This game looks scary and for Alien fans, the game they’ve all been waiting for. Alien Isolation is pegged as the sequel to the original Alien movie. You play as Ellen Ripley, daughter of Amanda Ripley from alien as you explore a devastated outpost for signs of your missing mother.

The game provides you with rudimentary tools for survival but not so much for combat and the constant threat of the alien stalking you is always around. Dark corridors and empty rooms are now stalking grounds as you try and evade the alien that is ever on the hunt. Besides the alien, there are also other survivors who may or may not be friendly to deal with as you uncover the mysteries in Sevastopol.

5) Dragon Age: Inquisition (Nov 18th) 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC

I’m a big fan of the original Dragon Age and this one has me drooling so far. Not only does it look great, but the combat looks exciting and faster than ever before. DA3 is an action RPG with combat happening in real time, you can also choose to pause combat at anytime and issue orders to your team mates to carry out.

The world looks beautiful, and i’m super pumped that it’s open world. What i’m hoping that means is that we’ll get different quests that bring us back to familiar areas with a new context, or decisions that are made changing the landscape of previous areas and of course mounts, which i feel is essential to any open world game, unless you’re demon souls.

6) The Crew (Nov 11th) 360,XONE,PS4,PC

This is an interesting one. It’s touted as a social racing game, a racing mmo where players share the same world. The game seems similar to EA’s latest offerings in Need For Speed: RIvals, where players can challenge each other to races as they pass by, interact with other car factions ie cops vs racers and hunt for hidden routes and secrets.

The crew seems to have a pretty good emphasis on off road racing though, and could be the thing that sets it apart for similar racers. Players can also join crews to complete objectives and compete on a global leaderboard to be the best crew.

7) Assasin’s creed Unity (Nov 11th) – PC,XONE,PS4

This must be the 15th AC game, but the series has always managed to deliver pretty stellar stuff with a few exceptions. Last year’s iteration Black Flag turned out to be one of my favourite games of the year, although the best parts of that game weren’t designed after traditional AC mechanics.

This time, the game will take place in revolutionary France, which is great because I can say i’m researching for my history essay while playing. The game of course looks fantastic, the in game crowd in the E3 video looked like what the original AC had promised but failed to deliver so many years ago.

The gameplay however, looked really similar to other AC games. There’s your climbing stabbing and counter based combat, which seems totally fine and competent, but a little bland and uninspired being the 15th time they’ve done this. It’s like in soccer games when they introduce a new shooting system to “revolutionise” the way you play fifa, then they “revolutionise” it again next year.

The co-op missions however look really interesting and could be great fun to play with. Up to 4 players can work together to infiltrate restricted areas and kill off their targets which could lead to some interesting gameplay moments, although i’m interested to see how the developers will counter the ease of the missions once 4 players are involved.

8) Far Cry 4 (Nov 18th) 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC

This game looks bat shit crazy, in other words incredibly fun. You still do the same thing like tackling outposts, but the fundamental feeling of stalking your prey and exploding barrels all around you is just so thrilling. Far Cry 4 also introduces a lot of the late game traversal stuff in 3 like the flight suit earlier so players are more empowered to experiment and do crazier shit.

There’s a cool bait mechanic as well. Instead of throwing rocks to distract enemies, you can throw meat which serves as bait that draws nearby predators into the fray. The game actually spawns these animals whenever you throw it so use them wisely of you might just end up getting mauled yourself.

9) Costume quest 2 (Oct 7th) 360,PS3,XONE,PS4,PC,WIIU

The original Costume Quest came out sometime ago and I absolutely loved it. You go around as 3 kids on halloween trying to collect as much candy as humanly possible while reprising the roles of your costume while battling other “monsters” in turn based combat. Now that’s saying a lot coming from me because I hate turn based RPGs. Too slow for my taste, but CQ is just so charming it makes my heart melt and I could never ever hate it. It may be bare bones turned based combat but it’s not a big budget game like everything else on the list and if it looks good to you, it’ll be well worth your time.

10) Forza Horizon 2 (30th Sept) 360,XONE

Forza Horizon is my favourite racing game of all time. It’s gorgeous, has a great soundtrack, great festival atmosphere and some good old arcade style racing. This isn’t a game for hard core racing sim fans, it’s an arcade racer at it’s core but true to Forza style, you can turn off assists and tweak various settings to get to the realism you want.

This time the game takes place in one of my favourite places in the world, Southern France and Northern Italy, and I’m expecting nothing but greatness from the soundtrack this year. The beauty of Forza Horizon for me was how a non racing fan like me could enjoy it so much too. It was  challenging, but the leveling up system was addictive and the adjustable difficulty settings reallyy helped me ease into things.

Goin back: The World Of Warcraft (Part 1)

My first foray into azeroth was in 2006, I was an unsuspecting teenager longing for another video game to tide me over my school holidays. I remember being filled with wonder and excitement when I first realised the scope of the game, the possibility for adventure seemed endless and I ended up spending many a night slogging away to earn my first mount.

It’s 2014 now and a lot has changed. The recent trailer for the new expansion and all this hearthstone buzz has made me long for the good old days of questing and /dancing so I’ve decided to take a plunge and return once again to The World Of Warcraft (cue title card).

This is my character Nickosaurus, he’s a badass warlock and also my first class.

 

Something about controlling evil minions to do my bidding struck a chord with me. It’s kind of amazing to see my character again after all these years, and he hasn’t changed at all during my absence. Like an old friend who’s always going to be there for you and welcome you back with open arms, then systematically destroy your life by starting with your free time.  After leaving for a long time, the thing i always looked forward to when returning to WoW is the wipe of my talent tree and coming up with a new build. To my dismay, the tree was gone, you can still spec your characters but 3 new talents are now unlocked at preset levels and you can only choose one of each. The way all the classes worked have also been completely redone. There was now a new bar under my mana which I was completely confused by, and some of the spells I used to cast were now gone.

Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, for the most part most of the spells that were gone are now worked into the talent tree, and spells that i used to cast like demonic armour (gives a defence boost for 30 mins) were now  just passive skills for the class, which I kind of preferred anyway. And that new bar was a real pleasant surprise for me too. It works like a warrior’s rage meter and goes up as you deal damage, and you can use that energy to transform into an actual demon with a whole new set of spells and extra spell damage (HOW COOL IS THAT?). I was thoroughly impressed by the game so far.

I picked up where I left off, in the eastern plaguelands, and man that place has changed! The holy paladin dudes have now gotten more control over everything and the place is a lot less scary as I remembered it to be. The game also seems to have gotten way easier, the rate in which I was earning gold and leveling was so different to when I was playing in the past. I for one am ecstatic about the change, I remember getting really frustrated in the past spending hours at the AH trying to sell mats so I could get enough money for a mount or new gear to make my life easier rather than actually going out there questing! The new pace really kept things fresh, and I never had to grind for gold of loot because the quests were designed so much better now. Gone were the group quests that required me to wait around till some poor sod was in the exact same quest i’m in, instead those quests now provide you with NPC characters to make your life much easier. The game is pretty much a breeze now, which will probably upset some players, but for me it’s great. I get to do what I like to do in WoW, exploring new locales and living the lore.

 

That about does it for my first entry of my “goin back” feature. If any of you are as tempted to jump back in as I did, find me on battlenet as invadernick, I’m playing on the Oceanic Nagrand server. Hope you enjoyed the article if you have questions or comments post them below. Also if you have a suggestion for game for our next “goin back” feature where we revisit some old games  drop them below too. Also we have Facebook.