I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legends of Asgard book Three Swords by CL Werner, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
I am also friends with Clint on Facebook, but I suspect that’s more about him connecting with fans rather than being a big fan of mine!
Also I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.
What is Marvel
Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!
The Legends of Asgard novels specially focus on the Norse mythology influenced Asgard with characters like Thor, Odin and Loki.
The Story
This story focuses on the Warriors Three, at long last, this really is something I have been waiting eagerly for!
Hogunm Fandral and the ever so modest Fandral are helping a rebellion against a tyrant, when they are recruited into a quest to save the nine realms from a dire threat presented by three Sorcerers accross time and space.
Crossing across history and the cosmos itself, the Warriors Three must take down these three sorcerers and seize their living talismans to prevent them from completing their plans.
Conclusion
This book is full of action, from the very start you are involved in battle and it rarely lets up, its pretty much non-stop.
As you can probably guess, the Warriors Three facing three sorcerers, there is a degree of mirroring from their opponents, and this mostly works, but at some points less so, but 90% of the time it does.
The battle against the first sorcerer felt a little rushed but the second and third were much better.
There is plenty of humour in here too, you will laugh when you find out what name Fandral used to be known as. But alas, soon after, you will end up a little upset when you find out why he abandoned that name.
So far the Tales of Asgard stories have all been amazing, and this is the first one that I would say is absolutely anchored in the world of Marvel, as the rest could have passed for stories just of the Norse Gods.
This one absolutely could have been a dibbly dobbly, but instead its an outright corker.
I have to give this book, 5 out of 5.
Three Swords is out now in paperback and as an ebook!
Last night myself and Lindsay were invited along to the opening evening for NQ64, a new venue in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The venue provided us with a bunch of game tokens, and two drinks vouchers, but this review hasn’t been seen by them in advance or approved by them.
Now the place was initially pitched to me as a new adult arcade, but to be frank, it’s more of an arcade themed bar than an arcade, and that’s cool, just different to what I expected.
Entering the bar, which is located at 82 Pilgrim Street, opposite the old Bank of England site, which is currently under redevelopment, you come into a large room, this is where the main bar is located, along with a small selection of games, specifically Galiga, Donkey Kong and X-Men.
The bar serves a selection of draught and bottled beers, and video game themed cocktails, but currently no mocktails which is a bit annoying as I am generally a teetotaller.
However I did cave and try a cocktail, I had a Dr Ro Bev Nik, which is a Jack Daniel’s, cherry and Dr Pepper concoction, which was very nice. (I know, I am a terrible example of a Baha’i, but I am still a work in progress).
Further in you come to a room in which there is a central column in which there is located a Mega Drive, Xbox (complete with Duke controllers), PS1 and Game Cube.
There are loaded up with a selection of games to play, but, the Mega Drive was using a widescreen monitor and was forced into 16:9 which made many of the games borderline unplayable, because they were originally designed to be played at 4:3.
The other games in this room include Outrun 2 SP, the only AM2 game in the bar, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Game, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and some Pinball machines.
In the back are a couple of shooting games, including House of the Dead, a dancing game, a snowboarding game and a couple of others.
Downstairs are the toilets, a further bar, but this was closed on this occasions. There is a room containing Mario Kart, Tetris, Mortal Kombat 2, Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition, and a couple of others.
On the opposite side of the basement is a larger room, in which you can find Ms Pac-Man, Tim Crisis and Time Crisis 2, a Neo Geo 4 slot MVS, Killer Instinct 2 and Crazy Taxi.
So what did we get up to, we’ll we played games and had a couple of drinks.
I am gonna start with the negatives, the first one, being a biggie for me, was when we got our second drink, a soft drink for both of us, the barman asked if we wanted a pint or half pint, we both said pint, but he pulled out a half pint, when we pointed this out, he swore blind that this was a pint glass, it clearly wasn’t and he wouldn’t believe me that a pint was twice and much, despite me handing over Lindsay used pint glass.
I wasn’t in the mood to make a scene, but that was not great and if we had been paying punters paying for a pint and getting only a half I would be quite angry, I could imagine a pissed up bloke could get very aggressive.
Lindsay loved the blue lemonade which reminded her of the Barr Bubblegum drink she and Megan are huge fans of .
The other criticism and this is very personal, but for me, the golden age of the arcade, at least from my youth was the first half of the 1990s and in particular the games made by Sega AM2, and other than Outrun 2 SP, these games were absent. I would have loved to have seen Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Virtua Racing or Virtua Striker. But that’s just me and my love of the Model 2 games!
The place has an emphasis it seems on original hardware, and I couldn’t find any emulated stuff at all, which was wonderful.
The Neo Geo MVS cabinet was in my opinion the best one there, oh my god the joystick microswitches were sublime and heavenly to feel. Best game of Metal Slug I have had in years, especially with the CRT monitor.
Time Cop 2 was fantastic, and me and Lindsay had a great time playing it.
The one slight disappointment was Street Fighter 2, I would have rather have seen The New Challengers or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. The cabinet felt well worn, and some of the buttons felt like less good quality replacements and were a bit mushy, but most people won’t notice, and it’s good enough, especially with a few drinks in you.
There is also a cool Photo Booth, which not only gives you a print, but also a download code to allow you to get a digital version, which is really cool.
Conclusion
So would I go back, yeah I think I will, just annoyed I am moving to Hartlepool, putting me further away.
If I were to visit again, it would have to be on a school night, I get the feeling it will be a bit too crowded on a Friday or Saturday and you would struggle to get access to the games.
The prices seem reasonable, a bit more expensive than normal Newcastle bars, but those machines are gonna need a lot of maintenance, and being a chain you expect to pay a premium., and even then it’s not too daft.
The overall aesthetic is really cool, a bit too cool for a nearby 40 year old me, but I didn’t feel too out of place.
So I can absolutely see this being a regular haunt when I am in the Toon, it was a really fun night and other than the one barman who didn’t know what a pint was, it was a great night.
It’s been a a long time since my last post, a few months now.
Truth is, one of my best friends, and most trusted companions, Mary, passed away.
She was diagnosed with cervical cancer earlier this year, and in around three months it took her from us.
It was a particularly aggressive form of cancer, by the time they discovered it, it was already stage 4 and it ravaged her body despite several types of chemotherapy being tried on it.
She leaves behind the rest of the polycule, devastated, particularly her husband Paul. They were only married in October and we are all heartbroken.
So as a result my mental health pretty much hit rock bottom and I let everything just go to hell.
Too many things were ignored, not properly written down and neglected.
It took some friends telling me that I looked and sounded like shit to try and pull myself together, and so yeah, I have kinda been working towards that.
As a result of her passing, we are relocating to Hartlepool, Paul needs looking after as he is a bit of a disaster of a human being, and with him working away from home a lot, someone needs to feed his cats, Lexi and Lilo.
We found a place, just 10 minutes walk away from his, and we pick up the keys on Tuesday.
We start moving in from Thursday when me and Megan Will be taking a bunch of stuff we transferred to storage at her parents, to the new house.
It’s a bit smaller, but to be honest not by much, other than the kitchen which is teeny tiny!
It has a dining room, in which we can pop our dining table and a lot of our kitchen stuff too, plus perhaps some board games, but it’s largely going to be a food eating/prep area.
The living room is huge compared to ours now and we will comfortably fit in there with a place for the telly and some board games with the sofa!
The first floor has two bedrooms, and because unlike most of the houses round there, it hasn’t tried to squeeze in a box room, these are both much bigger.
The loft is going to be my new studio, we are picking up some new desktops and a few bits and bob’s to make me and Megan a much bigger and better desk with more room.
Hopefully I can fit a gaming table in there too, well Paul has been commissioned to build us one.
Most of my stuff is out of the house now and in storage and the majority will be moved over in the first big day of moving.
The broadband gets switched on a week Wednesday and I need to be there for then do I am going to set up my desk then.
Still onwards and upwards
UK Games Expo
I worked the UK Games Expo, well as much as I could within the limits of my disability.
I worked the Catan stand with my good friend Donna from the Catan Studio in the US and mostly demoed 3D Catan, which I now want, despite the ruinous price tag!
I picked up the Port Royale big box, I bought direct from the publisher, so paid over the odds, but I am fairly happy with the choice as they got a bigger cut of the money.
I also purchased some bits for my Imperial Fists and some Primaris Company Champions!
I also managed to pick up a cheap sprue of the characters from Calth, so another Praetor and a Chaplain.
So far, all I have done with them, is to build three HQs, two Tactical Squads and three Terminator Squads, and I have airbrushed on the first coat of yellow for a single squad of each.
Media Servers
As we move, one thing I am doing is to reduce down my physical media, so all of my DVDs and BRDs have been ripped and I am only keeping the ones I really want to have physically.
So we have set up the Raspberry Pi which has been doing very little as a media server.
First up we installed Audio Book Shelf, a fantastic piece of software that runs in a docket container and is a wonderful little audio book server.
I love audio books and have an awful bloody lot of them, mostly Sci-Fi, a lot of Doctor Who, like pretty much most of Big Finishes catalogue, plus I think every Black Library audio published, and everything from Aconyte thus far.
The dude behind the software is constantly providing updates and so far it’s utterly fantastic.The two bugs I found were fixed in a matter of hours
We also picked up a set of Alex drawers to replace the cupboard which is moving to another part of the studio, this gives me more space to store stuff and actually get to what I need when I need it.
The current Echo that’s in the studio is to be paired up with the current living room one to form a stereo pair for better music playback in that room.
So I got the kids Tiger version, cause look at it, it’s a mother fucking tiger, and I fucking love tigers!!!
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am also friend with Josh on Facebook, however I am sure for him that’s more about connecting with fans rather than being one of my best buds, that said he is actually a really nice guy.
I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
What is Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game franchise, published by Ubisoft, and there have been three games published since 2014, the most recent being Watch Dogs Legion, published in late 2020.
Watch Dogs feature protagonists who are hackers working against criminal underworlds, corrupt companies and rival hackers.
Watch Dogs Legion, takes place in a post Brexit London, in which Britain has rapidly declined, and a hacker collective known as DedSec works to clear their name after being blamed for a series of terrorist bombings.
Their main opponents are the PMC Albion, who they try to liberate London from, Clan Kelly, an east end crime family, and Zero Day, a cyber terrorism group.
The Story
Day Zero takes place a over a few days and features several characters who find themselves drawn into a murderous conspiracy, that they must get to the bottom of, or risk London falling into control of a private military contractor who have their own designs on the city.
Our cast of characters is Olly, a new DedSec recruit and bike messenger, Sarah, an ambitious young Labour MP who has an eye on the advancement of her own career, Danny, a former soldier, and now Albion employee, being lead down a dark path, and his sister, Ro, a former MMA fighter and enforcer with Clan Kelly.
A series of assassinations across the city drag our protagonists into a mystery and things are starting to spiral out of control, requiring the killer to be tracked down.
Conclusion
Ok I have yet to play the game, I did buy the Ultimate Edition when it was on sale after reading this novel, but I am aware that this is a prequel, and the game protagonists and antagonists only feature briefly.
But as I said I haven’t played it, so for me, its very much a cool intro to the universe, as I have yet to play the first two games either, but they are on my purchase list!
The book was very enjoyable to read, it took me a little longer than I would have like to read, but I have some personal stuff going on in my life right now which is reducing my reading abilities.
I personally think, this not being a retelling is actually a positive thing, because the plot didn’t feel like a video game plot, sometimes when tie-ins are a retelling, it just doesn’t work.
This book is a perfect meld of the two writers style, James Swallow, writes very tight, very ordered plots, and Josh Reynolds is a master of witty dialogue and unlike many books with two authors, you never really see where ones work begins and the others ends. It feels like the two authors have merged Tuvix style and created a work that takes the best of both of their talent.
My only criticism is that with so many characters, the development of those characters is not the best, and I would like to learn more about them. So I do hope that they return to the setting and what Olly, Ro and Danny in particular do next.
I find myself very excited to play Watch Dogs Legion, and I am very much considering buying the first two games first.
This is a very solid 4 out of 5 Stars.
Day Zero is out now in both ePub, paperback and as an audiobook from all good booksellers!
If buying online, I recommend the below, but if you have a local indie bookstore and like the physical books, go take your custom to them!
I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Splinter Cell novel Firewall by James Swallow, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
What is Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell is a video game franchise published by Ubisoft, they are stealth action adventures endorsed by Tom Clancy. The first game was a breakout hit on the original Xbox, and has led to a series of novels and several sequel games, although there has not been a new game for 9 years at this point.
The franchise revolves around Sam Fisher, and operative for a mysterious NAS organisation called Third Echelon, later Fourth Echelon, and his work to keep the United States safe from various threats.
The Story
This story sees Sam Fisher team up with a new Fourth Echelon operative, his daughter Sarah, ass they work to destroy a sinister threat to the world in the form of the Gordian Sword, a piece of cyberwarfare technology that can bypass any cyber security in existence.
But going up against them, is an old foe of Sam’s a former Soviet assassin long thought dead by Sams own hand.
Thus starts a race against time to neutralise the billionaire trying to use the technology to remake the world in his own image, and the blunt tool of his Russian relic!
Conclusion
The book is a very good, whilst Tom Clancy’s actual involvement in the Splinter Cell series, is questionable and the quality of the previous books has been middling, this one has been written very very well.
Given that this is essentially a reboot of the series, being the first installment, novel or game in nine long years, it had a lot to live up to, and I am glad to say I think it pulled it off!
James’s writing is very much in the style of Tom Clancy, and to be frank, very little of his own style shone through. It was a well researched book and felt like a love letter to the Tom Clancy books of old, the main inspiration felt to be the Rainbow Six book he wrote in 1998, but that might be because it was the last Clancyverse novel I read!
If Splinter Cell is to come back, and I really hope it does, then this is a good first step in that journey.
A solid 4 out of 5 stars.
Firewall is out now in both ePub, paperback and as an audiobook from all good booksellers!
If buying online, I recommend the below, but if you have a local indie bookstore and like the physical books, go take your custom to them!
The second bout of Covid has really messed up my sleep, when I want/need to be awake, I am sleepy, when I want to be asleep, I am wide awake, and no matter what I do I am really struggling to return my day/night cycle to normal.
Tonight I am gonna stay awake until bed time on Wednesday again, to try and shock my system back into a normal pattern.
I have tried it already but it didn’t work, but lets give it another go.
What I Am Modelling
I finished off my Blood Warriors for the Blades of Khorne army, which I think finished off all the mortal units I have for the army.
I then had a weekend cat sitting for my sister in law so I took a few models to build, specifically the heroes from Shadows Under Hammerhall, which I built on Saturday night.
I have been making great progress through the campaign for Halo Infinite, mostly working on the side missions like killing the High Value Targets, FOBs etc.
I played a couple of hours of Horizon Zero Dawn on Thursday which you can see below.
I had an ad hoc session on Sunday night Ti test some improvements I have made to the setup to improve quality of the recording and I hope this looks better!
https://youtu.be/EQ9r4FBX-5Q
And my Monday painting stream became another Horizon Zero Dawn session cause my hands were shaking a lot!
https://youtu.be/lX5DmpGDTCs
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
On Sunday me and Megan played a game of Assassins Creed Valhalla Orlog, which of course Megan won.
My Stadia Controller arrived. It was awful it stank to high heaven of cigarettes, I mean the guy I bought it off must be a very heavy smoker, and honestly, that’s something that I cannot stand the smell off.
When I opened a return he became abusive to the point where eBay stepped in, suspended his account and refunded me right away.
But a different one I bought did turn up, along with a Chromecast Ultra for mine and Megan’s bedroom TV.
I did buy an Adeptus Soriatias Codex and Datacards to allow me to run that army again, it’s an army I have a great love for and need to expand to 2000pts from the current 500 or so points.
I did pick up a hair drier, I need one for working with resin and Lindsay complains when I pinch hers from our bedroom, so this means I have one in the studio, which I am sure Lindsay will use when she needs it.
So Covid had lasted a while in this house, me and Megan are now testing negative and Lindsay is too, but swears she sees a very faint line in her test.
The law says we didn’t have to isolate, but we chose to until we tested negative, why, because it was the right thing to do.
My first bout of the disease utterly destroyed my lungs, the second bout has messed up my sleep and left me very fatigued.
Inflicting this virus on others, just cause I fancy a pizza is unacceptable, and I did crave a pizza all week.
We have to be responsible, I know most of us have been sensible and gotten vaccinated, but many have not done so, some of those because they medically cannot.
I think that from this point forward we all should be more responsible for health and keeping others well. So when you feel a bit crummy and under the weather, reach for a face mask and wear it when out, because it’s not just Covid that can kill, but things like the flu as well.
What I Am Modelling
Started the week by painting the Weirdnob Shaman for my Orruk Warclans.
I am currently watching a few auctions of some Stadia controllers on eBay, whilst it’s not exactly a controller that is particularly associated with any game, I am reliably told that at least two publishers use this when developing some AAA games, which has me curious as to see if those games actually feel better with a Stadia controller.
I also managed to finally get Neo Geo games running in Retroarch, which I am super happy about!
I published the latest episode of Edge of Empire on Wednesday.
On Wednesday night I published the 25th Imperium Battle Report.
On Saturday I filmed and published the issue 26 battle report.
The Wednesday report is also in the can and ready to publish too.
What I Am Spending
I bought myself a new controller, you know for the emulation joy, this time it’s a Neo-Geo controller, well not the amazing joystick from the AES console but the one from the Neo Geo CD, which is still a great controller.
Of course cause it’s a USB-C controller I had to grab some USB-C female to USB-A male adaptors, which is fine, I guess it’s probably something I should have lying around for future use as USB-C becomes more prevalent.
I also grabbed a couple of USB-A to USB-C cables to make sure I could plug in my Elite controllers charging dock permanently and still have one spare to charge the mouse when needed.
And finally, finally, my Hyperkin Duke arrived, I ordered this months ago and it’s taken this long for it to come!
So happy to have this as it’s a controller I remember very fondly!
And I did buy Lindsay a new keyboard, simply because the sound of her current keyboard, something that her work got that costs according to Amazon £7.99!
The sound just hurts the ears and she goes through keyboard so quickly because she just wears down the print on the keys in a few months, so I also grabbed her some pink double shot PBT pudding keycaps.
Oh and I won an auction on eBay for a Stadia controller and it’s only cost me £7!
I also got asked to do some game play testing for which the publisher wants me to use a DualSense alongside the Xbox controller, so they sent me one today.
