Blaugust Preamble

So it's August again (or will be in 7 hours or so in the UK) and with it comes Blaugust, a challenge from Belghast of the Tales of the Aggronaut blog. The event brings together a community of bloggers to post every day through August (or at least post 31 times). If you blog occasionally and would love the impetus to blog more often or would like to start a new blog give it a go!

Last year I came in part way through the month so didn't hit the goal so I'm excited to challenge myself this year, starting tomorrow. As I have submitted my consolidated site as the blog, http://www.knifesedge.net, my posts will very likely stray from gaming but I endeavour to have something out on a daily basis.

 Here are the guidelines as laid out by Belghast.

• Write a new blog post of no less than ten sentences in length.  This is essentially two large paragraphs and is a good solid minimum size.  If you are doing a screenshot/photo blog just make sure your description explaining what the image is all about fits this constraint.
• Include a link back to the 2015 Blaugust Initiative Page.  My hope is that this will allow other people to join in the challenge and play catch up.
• Advertise the post on the Blaugust Nook.  When you join the nook I will be elevating everyone to “Blogger” access to do this.  This is extremely key this year, because this is going to be how I log all posts, and if you do not do this you are not going to get proper credit.
• Either in the title of your post or the first heading inside of your actual post.. please denote which day this post is for.  Something like “Blaugust Day 21” just to make sure that I am giving everyone credit for the correct day, and this should help to stop the oddities of folks in vastly different time zones getting dumped into the wrong slot.
• If you advertise the post on social media, please include the #Blaugust hashtag.  Again we are trying to help spread the word and get folks to join in process… and at very least get folks reading the posts.
• Over the course of the month, write 31 posts.
• ????
• Profit!

For the full rules, head to the official announcement. 

Also,  Anook is getting involved this year to add further encouragement.

Let the insanity begin!

Total War: Warhammer footage

Creative Assembly have just released footage of their upcoming Total War: Warhammer release and it looks incredible.

Having been a fan of Warhammer since the very first edition back in the early 80's and being a fan of all the Total War game, I was interested in this title but having seen this early Alpha footage, I'm sold.

The battle shown is the Battle of Black Fire Pass, an iconic location in the Warhammer Old World and it's rendered beautifully with all the elements I love about the franchise, goblins on boars, steam powered siege engines and of course Goblin Magic - Waaagh!

Diaspora, Ambassador to the Elves

Having returned to LOTRO, I set myself the challenge of getting Reputation to Kindred, the max level for the three Elven factions, Malledrim, Galadhrim and the Elves of Rivendell.

After 5 long days of grinding, I finally hit all three and now not only have a new title, but a shiny new mount, the Elf-ambassador's steed, one of the faster mounts in the game.

Back to LOTRO!

After an extended hiatus, which very nearly became permanent. I have returned to LOTRO. I even went to the point of unsubbing for the first time since I started playing but within 24 hours of the subscription lapsing, I re subbed.

Once I'd dropped down to the F2P model ( or what they call Premium for previous subscribers) the hassle of figuring out what I needed to buy to get the same experience was just too much work, so I re upped, and ventured back.

Rather than go back to my level cap warden, I decided to get my Captain, Diaspora to level cap and to try and stave off the overwhelming feeling trying to level 9 alts at once is, I have opted to only play to progress this character. So far, I'm loving it. I last left her in Rohan at level 77, a zone I have been through more than once, but now it feels fresh again. Fights that I breezed through previously, are challenging to my underpowered (and probably under geared) and the final battle to protect Faldham, one of the towns in Rohan felt epic, as I struggled to stay on my mount and was knocked off before killing the last Uruk commander with less than 100 morale to spare.

I've also been missing the community and have a hankering for group play, something I rarely get in GW2 (at least with people I know) so I joined some of the new Kinmates and old friends for a run through the Grand Stair in Moria, which was great fun.

Diaspora is 79 now and I'm looking forward to getting through Rohan at a steady pace and moving on to Gondor, which I've only played through on my main, so should remain fairly fresh. Looks like, for now at least, I'm here to stay.

Her Story - Most original Indie game this decade

Thanks to the fine folks at The MMO Show, I discovered a great new Indie Game called Her Story.

I grabbed it for my Ipad, as I don't have much in the way of mobile games, though it is available for PC too on Steam for £4.99.

The game, from Sam Barlow, mind behind Silent Hill:Shattered Memories, is basically a detective game using real video, a series of police interviews with a woman who's husband has disappeared. Using keywords, the player has to go through snippets of video and piece together what has happened.

Without spoiling the story, this is so much more than a murder mystery and the most original game I have seen in years. I highly recommend it!

Edit: Having now pretty much finished the game, I can recommend even more highly. The acting talent of the interviewee and her nuanced body language adds another layer to a startlingly well written game and expect to be thinking about this game long after you finish it.