So, I like assassin/ninja stuff, and I am playing Hitman Absolution. Why am I not playing Skyrm, dont ask me questions!! Heh, or do..

As I was saying Hitman assassin games. One of the elements I truly love about the genre is the options you have to take into account. Lets take for example the Shaving Lenny missions in eg Hitman Absolution. I am presented with roughly speaking three options. I could and in this case feel pretty justified going balls crazy and executing everyone here. The safehouse where Lenny is hiding is crammed full of corrupt cops and killers. I have the skills and the difficulty set so that it would be possible, and a rampage would fit the narrative. These bad people have kidnapped a little girl for ransom, and the messy issue is that the people paying to get her back are doing bad people experiments on her so we dont want that either. I was initially sent to collect her, but conscience set in when Agent 47 realized what that means to the little girl.

The main option which I am most likely to take, after rampaging for the eff of it and then restarting, is to arrange a series of curious accidents. This is the main vein of the ninja assassin game and scenario tropes. Unlike military style or blast em style games the assassin works quietly and loses points for even being seen. So what I am going to do, instead of bullet time, is to lurk around the compound and set some traps. Then I am going to hide and set off explosives, garrote someone while no one is looking, or poison someone's drink. The timing and sequencing will be key, and there may be some accidental casualties, but if I can pull it off without being spotted, excellent.

The third gross option would be to sniper kill each of the main targets and then wait in a room until Lenny walks in alone to be pacified, and that would be the ''ultimate'' ninja assassin move. Suddenly someone dies from a silenced bullet and no one sees a thing. It happens again, still not a sound or sign of anyone. Lenny paces and frets. The cops scratch their heads and shrug shoulders. Everything starts to calm down. Lenny goes to the barber shop to freshen up his shave, to calm his nerves. Little does he know the nice old barber has been replaced by a bald man with dual silenced silverballers and who; is murderously unhappy with him.

Go.

Alright, walked in dressed like a deputy. Walked over to a piss pot in the corner next to some electric wires. Sabotage, viola. I walk away, target moves to go pee and I use subterfuge to walk by the guards and into the kitchen. I start a gas leek and sprinkle a powder of poison pill onto the pizza, anyone who has a bite will vomit, cry, and shit themselves. Then I step back into the shadows. One bullet fired at the heating coil and the mark goes up in flames with the kitchen. Lenny had some pizza just before the explosion happened and starts making his way upstairs to the bathroom. I help him up and, as the real cops call on the ambulance and try to save the two henchmen, I put a sleeper on the boss as soon as I am out of sight of the living room. Like stealing candy from a baby. Now, while no one is the wiser I can get Victoria's location off Lenny.

Then I will most likely end his miserable life. Like he did Sister Mary.

The cut scenes are great. The storyline is tragic, though at this point I expect 47 to live. One of the best things about Hitman Absolution is the near realism. No you cant steal a gas can from the garage and set a couch on fire as a distraction ( unless it is part of the prepared scenario ) but when you shoot someone in the shoulder it looks like it. I have seen some better ''physics engines'' for rendering reactive damage but Hitman Absolution does a great job of showing the combat reactions. I shot this guy in the neck and then he slowly vomited blood while on his hands and knees for like 10 seconds before finally dying. I plan on beating Hitman Absolution anywhich way I can on normal and then.. then! setting it to purist and going for point / challenge maximum points before returning to the land of Tamriel. Ah Tamriel, how I miss it so.

Well, I did just execute Lenny in the desert,
with a baseball bat.
Maybe something lighter, like MtG?

Hmm, I have been digging my three Skyrim characters. Toren Walksfar of Blackmarsh, Thane Ssarhh, daughter of Blackmarsh and Lady of Morthal, and Tiber Septum of Orsinium ( no kidding I put ''of Orsinium'' in the character name so the letters would all show the full title. Two Argonians and an Orc, lol. All three are Stormcloaks and I am also keeping story play diaries for the characters in hopes of doing some mod work and inserting them into the game. The phenomenal amount of work that will be necessary to insert the characters narrative into the plots is daunting, but the similarity to scenario development is attractive enough to hold my fancy. Houses, side quests, ''The Song of Ssarhh'' .. seriously I want to modify the Morthal quest to say that Ssarhh ( who lives in a new building based off the one I made using Heartfire, just a little bit closer to Dawnstar ) killed a master vampire in the cave prior to the quest line the player goes on .. and .. modifying the thieves guild quests to accomadate Toren's tale.. Talos is the easiest, ima just gonna add a farm outside Riften, and have Talos Septim Of Orsinium available as a companion six months out of the year. A gourd farmer I think.. ( the idea behind the name is a whiff of orc, kinda ''Jesus Alexander of Orcs are Bad Ass Landia'' was my thought for his naming, then ''the sole survivor of an Orsinium war party allied with the stormcloaks'' basically ).

I have also been playing allot of MtG 2013. ( Ajani Rules woot ) I unlocked the demo a few months past, and the other day I downed ''A world of Tieflings'' a delightfully cute building game where; You, the giant avatar, micromanage a bunch of little worker tieflings into building a series of castles in various terrains. I beat it start to finish in one day. One long day, and I dare say I enjoyed pretty much every minute. The tieflings are dreadfully cute, but also very rude. So its not all fluffy clouds and rainbow daisy ness. The cutest part of the game is that your avatar in the game, is your xbox avatar. I cannot say how much I liked that element. My avi went from a cute little brunette barbie doll that I scarcely paid attention to ( I did deck her out in the queen's regalia I got from beating Fable III ) into a goddess the size of a castle capable teleporting from world to world in order to develop her civilization. Woah. Hot.

And Well, thats the roundup folks, I *have* started tinkering with a nickle book adventure. For what its worth! In Search of the Red Star! Plug and play mid level campaign. Technically a Sty~Rn adventure setting, but it could be easily modified to any extraplaner adventure of the air elemental variety. The Red Star is actually a sky isle about the size of Hawaii. The Hub, of extradimensional commerce in *all* of Sty~Rn fyi, the consortiums that control the Red Star, also known as Gemron Isle, trade in all known D&D currencies. Including slaves. The overt objective of the campaign is escape. The place is just evil to the core. Any ''non lawfully evil'' parties are gonna want to get and go. Fereal fa real. That said, the campaign would make for great setting material for a conquest oriented evil game. Carve out a piece of Gemron Isle's pie, take control of one of the major gates, and build an interdimensional hegemony!! Heh, Im game.