Darkest Dungeon: Fiends and Frenzy

Great news from the great folks behind the marvellous Darkest Dungeon - their first major content patch, entitled Fiends and Frenzy, with a ton new features. If you haven't jumped in already, this is an outstanding but brutal rogue-like and well worth it!

• New Hero Class! Man-At-Arms
• New Hero Class! Arbalest
• New Ruins Boss! Gibbering Prophet
• New Warens Boss! Formless Flesh
• New Weald Boss! Brigand Cannon
• New Loot: “The Ancestor’s Trinket set” is a group of ultra-rare items once held by the Ancestor himself – be warned, some of these trinkets are only found in the pitch dark!
• New Building! Ancestor’s Statue: Click the statue to open the Ancestor’s Memoirs – a record of all cutscenes and boss backstories!
• Heart Attacks! Don’t let your heroes get too stressed. If your stress bar fills again past affliction…it’s over.
• Sell your junk!  In the Trinket Inventory, hold shift to see sell back value, shift+click to sell trinkets
• Crit-heals!  Heal, critically!
• Tons of Party Names as created by Kickstarter and Humble backers!

Darkest Dungeon - Take that you Swine (God)

Nice little achievement this evening, my party of level 5 characters took down the Swine God on their first attempt. By the end of the fight, three of them were at Death's Door and one more hit could have spelled disaster, but we did it!

With him down and the Necromancer Lord last week, I just have the level 3 and level 5 hag to take down. Not looking forward to that...

Talkback Challenge #2: Early Access and Kickstarter #NBI2015

The NBI Committee are offering topics of discussion and the current one is: 

Early Access and Kickstarter – Do you support unfinished games?

Kickstarter first came into my radar in the form of pen and paper RPG's. I have some contacts in the Indie Publishing Industry, particularly those related to gaming and had the pleasure to get free copies of certain works for review, in particular the outstanding Achtung! Cthulhu from Modiphius Games..

The first PC game that attracted my attention was H1Z1. I'd heard about it prior to release and what attracted me to it was the PVE aspect that was promised, setting it apart from the seemingly vicious gank-fest that was similar Z-game, Day-Z.

When it was offered for early access, I didn't care that it cost $20 for an apparently unfinished game, I snatched it up. It was never out of any wish to test the game or support the developers, I just wanted that experience and wanted it NOW. And I loved it! It didn't even feel like an unfinished game and as it developed even more it got even more awesome. The only downside I can see from it is burnout, that by the time it releases in a finished state, I'll have had my fill.

At around the time of playing H1Z1, I started watching Twitch streams, in particular the awesome CohhCarnage. This introduced me to other early access survival games, Rust and Reign of Kings. I obtained both and enjoyed them thoroughly. I've made a point of not playing them too much to see how I enjoy them once they release in their full state. I think watching these being played gives you an idea of exactly how 'unfinished' they are and if you want to sink your own money and time into them.

The final game I bought in this state, also influenced by Twitch, was Darkest Dungeon. I fell in love with this when I saw it being played and bought it within minutes of being released on Steam. It didn't feel unfinished. Brutal, yes, but worth every penny. To date I have sunk 119 hours into the game and at £14.99 that's incredible value.

So yes, I have supported unfinished games, but only out of my own desire to play them.