#But the whole lore around the federation is fascinating!

[selemina]

Fit lore Fit lore Fit lore-!

[prismartist]

(if you saw a similar post to this uhm. ignore that. i don't know why that's there. this is the actual post.

also spoilers for ace attorney 3, though my memory of the game is spotty so forgive me if i get anything wrong)

anyway. fucking fascinated with how cellbit incorporates the themes of ace attorney into his own lore, actually.

because the thing is, prosecutors in ace attorney are almost always at least a little bit evil. they're cruel, they're ruthless, and they prioritize winning over discovering the truth. which absolutely makes sense for the front cellbit's putting up; he seemingly no longer cares about unmasking the federation, and instead cuts off everyone around him and selfishly wants to keep richarlyson to himself. already a fantastic fucking decision, 10/10.

and then there's the fact that he chose godot.

godot used to be a defense attorney called diego armando. after he got poisoned, put in a coma, and woke up to learn his girlfriend got murdered, he felt immense guilt over her loss, and projected that guilt onto phoenix wright, her successor, even though he had virtually nothing to do with it. godot's whole thing is baseless accusation, becoming a prosecutor to "test" wright when he's not even that good of a prosecutor; he doesn't even hate wright! he even admits this plan was a "stupid fantasy" of revenge. this guy is a stubborn mule, who only wants to make up for the fact that he failed to protect his girlfriend mia, though his efforts are flawed and arrogant.

the fact that cellbit chose this guy. the guy who switched from defense to prosecution parallel to cellbit's own apparent switch from anti- to pro-federation. the guy who was blinded (literally) by emotion. the guy q!cellbit has aligned himself with, not just in the recent stream but all the way back in the early qsmp streams when he would play his theme all the time. this is definitely the best guy that cellbo could have chosen to trick the federation. the feds will look at him and see a changed (mentally unstable) man, a man who is willing to serve them by whatever means in order to pursue his own stubborn goals––godot wanted to protect mia more than anything, cellbit claims he wants to protect richarlyson more than anything, even more than his other family. i mean, i dunno if the feds are buying anything that's cellbit's pulling, but if they realize who cellbit is kinning that's gotta add some credibility points to the front.

but also... though godot wanted to protect those he cared about, he is a self-sacrificial dumbass who foolishly took everything upon himself. in wanting to prove and redeem himself, he refused to communicate or ask for help, and his plan to protect was half-baked and rash and got people killed. godot, in the long run, caused more harm than good in his effort to protect his loved ones and in his self-absorbed pursuit of redemption.

and well, if one puts it that way... q!cellbit's cosplay may be less of a charade than he realizes.

but you know what? i'm just glad he didn't actually go crazy over a vivo commercial

[jimintomystery]

The Search for Noah's Ark

Many ancient cultures had accounts of a hero surviving a divine flood by building a giant boat, but the story of Noah (Genesis 6-9) stands out, since it is included in the canon of the Abrahamic religions. For centuries, it was not unusual for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writers to report that Noah's Ark was still sitting on the mountain where it came to rest at the end of the story. But it wasn't until the 20th century that a documented expedition went to look for it.

[Above: A man stands between Mount Ararat, where explorers typically look for Noah's Ark, and a sign for Noah's Ark National Park, the official location of the ship according to the Turkish government.]

The Bible says Noah's Ark landed in "the mountains of Ararat," without any clear indication where that would be. A 4th century Latin edition translated "Ararat" as "Armenia," popularizing that association in Western Christianity. The Armenians themselves used Greek or Syriac bibles, so they only learned of the Ararat-Armenia connection centuries later, from visiting crusaders. Thereafter, the sacred Armenian mountain Masis has been known as "Mount Ararat." Since the 1920s, the mountain has been a part of Turkey, which calls it Ağrı Dağı ("mountain of pain").

After the first confirmed ascent of Mount Ararat in 1829, it became more plausible that someone might go up there and look for Noah's Ark. But the idea wasn't taken seriously until the 1940s, when an article circulated about a Russian pilot spotting a giant wooden boat on Ararat during World War I. Supposedly, the czar ordered a thorough exploration of the structure, but then those no-good godless commies took over and suppressed the findings. The story was ultimately discredited, but not before it stoked the imaginations of American Christians that were eager to prove that the Bible was literally true.

Fascinated by the Russia story, realtor Eryl Cummings and his wife Violet devoted the rest of their lives to tracking down stories about Ark sightings. These tales typically involved American soldiers who said someone showed them a photo of the Ark during World War II, or old Armenian immigrants who supposedly visited the Ark as children. "Ark fever" heated up, though, when a sighting was reported from Turkey. In 1948, Eryl was invited to lead an Ararat expedition planned by retired missionary Aaron J. Smith. Cummings declined, however, and Smith ultimately led the trip himself the following year.

The 1949 expedition is instructive, because it sets the tone for all subsequent attempts to visit Ararat in search of the Ark. Upon arrival, Smith was beset with bureaucratic delays. Permits needed to be paid for, and local authorities rejected clearances that had been granted at the federal level. Reading between the lines, its clear to me that Ark-seekers would pay anything to achieve their dreams, and corrupt Turkish officials took full advantage of that. The team quickly depleted their funds, and didn't get to the mountain until the end of the climbing season.

It's also telling that there hasn't been a lot written about Smith's mission, not even by the Ark hunters who followed in his footsteps. It's much easier to find stories about the Fernand Navarra controversy in the '50s and '60s, or people who couldn't even prove they'd been to the mountain. And it's Eryl Cummings, not Aaron J. Smith, who came to be seen as the father of the movement. There's a simple reason for that: Smith put in the work, but he didn't find anything. Cummings, on the other hand, accumulated all of the tantalizing stories of people who might have found something, which could become a useful lead for the next expedition.

[Above: Reconciling descriptions from two purported eyewitnesses, Elfred Lee illustrates the collapse of Noah's Ark into Ahora Gorge. The gorge was formed in 1840 by a powerful earthquake, which happens to precede the earliest alleged sightings in modern times. Violet Cummings suggested that the quake was divinely ordained to reveal the Ark and usher in the Apocalypse.]

The 1970s saw a wave of books about the search, most of which derived their information from the work of Mr. and Mrs. Cummings. Violet and other writers cast the quest in an apocalyptic light, suggesting that God had hidden the Ark all this time only to reveal it as a sign that the End Times were imminent. The implication was that Noah's Ark could not be discovered until the appointed hour but, paradoxically, Judgement Day will be stalled unless believers find the ship as soon as possible.

"Arkeology" arguably peaked in the 1980s, when astronaut Jim Irwin took up the search. By that point Turkey was wary of letting amateur climbers wander around so close to their border with Iran and the Soviet Union. But the eighth person to walk on the Moon was able to open some doors and, more crucially, cut through some red tape. However, Irwin still had to deal with the punishing conditions of Mount Ararat itself. His adventures there are best remembered for the injuries he sustained, and the heart issues that made it increasingly unwise for him to return year after year.

Jim Irwin no doubt inspired a new generation of Ark-seekers, but by the late 1990s the community was bitterly divided about where to look. For thousands of years, legends suggested that the ship was in plain sight for anyone who dared to climb up and find it. But fifty years of aerial reconnaissance, satellite photography, and boots on the ground had proven otherwise. Debate intensified about whether Ararat was even the right mountain, and about the validity of other possible sites, forcing people to re-evaluate the established lore surrounding the quest. So you end up with one "arkeologist" attacking the reasoning of another, often with logic that could be extended to dismiss the entire search.

[Above: In 2010 Noah's Ark Ministries International released photos like this one, purportedly taken inside a massive wooden structure on Mount Ararat. NAMI refused to reveal the location for independent verification, citing security concerns. Within days of the announcement, former associates of NAMI came forward accusing them of staging the whole thing.]

That background of in-fighting put a damper on a 2010 press event claiming that a Hong Kong evangelical group had found the Ark on Ararat. You'd think video footage of this discovery would delight Ark hunters. On the contrary, many were as skeptical as mainstream scientists. The feuding over which Ark theories were right or wrong had left them wary, because if some flaky story captured the public imagination, it might discredit the entire movement. Which is ironic, considering that the movement wouldn't exist at all if not for an urban legend about a Russian cover-up.

At a glance, it may seem like "Ark fever" is part and parcel with religious fundamentalism, or maybe just a specific flavor of Christian anti-intellectualism. However, even some influential creationists have debunked the search for Noah's Ark. There's no scriptural basis for assuming that God arranged for the Ark to remain intact until modern times, or that it was meant to be rediscovered, or that locating it would have any bearing on the end of the world. The entire rationale for the search is that dozens of unconfirmed reports can't all be wrong, which isn't a solid foundation for an archaeology project.

[blackattraction]

The Dangers of Trump’s Election

 I got something crazy to talk about.  I hope you, whoever you are, enjoy it. Trump is one of those anti-banking, anti-Rothschild’s people- or so he says- he says he wants to get the big bad guys in the gov’t- ‘drain the swamp’- but history says that Hitler also said the same thing and even Stalin.  Hitler called it the banking cartel of Jews and Stalin called it the Western banks in general(democracy/capitalism).  In short, these two men hated the USA’s Constitution and wanted more of a slave/work force system, which is why they both were obsessed with workers(do for the state).  Both were socialist in the means to get rid of people’s right to have a say so in their own lives- money, job, w/e.  It was a power-fist socialism and in no way was there to lift the mass out of poverty.  It was about control.  The anti-banking crowd also pushes the Illuminati conspiracy, which basically says Masons are the evils of this world and also control the gov’t and all need to get dealt with- but what that conspiracy doesn’t tell you is that Freemasons created the US Constitution, freed slaves permanently with abolitionist movements being started, and even created the Stars and Stripes itself.  Illuminati conspiracy talks about the elite(certain WESTERN powers who control gov’t worldwide) want a New World Order that controls the planet, but what it doesn’t tell you is that the president right now is also part of the agenda.  Instead, it paints him as anti- Illuminati.  It also doesn’t paint Putin as an enemy. That sound crazy to you? Guess what, it gets even crazier.  I like to venture off into cray cray for fun every now and then and lo and behold- my goofing around has led to me one of the craziest things I’ve ever entertained myself with: aliens.  Yes, aliens.  This whole Illuminati anti-banking thing with the evil New World Order is all rooted in ALIENS.  It is started by people who say they channel to aliens.  They go by the name light bringers and they honestly think they are gonna do the world a favor by getting rid of all gov’t.  That is their goal.

Some background: there is a lore with this alien thing- first it’s the old fashioned one some have heard of- a good vs bad- Reptilians vs the Galactic Federation of Light led by the White Brotherhood(one claims to be Jesus).  Lore is, and I’m sure you’ve heard it- that the Reptilians control the New World Order gov’t and by us humans ‘rebelling’ we fight against the Reptilians. It’s very fascinating b/s, in all honesty, for this alien war (literally what they are told is going on by aliens) involves many different species with some being ‘good’ and others being ‘bad’. They also say when we humans rise up, we are ‘moved by the vibrational frequencies’ of ‘light and love’ workings from mediums/psychics/ etc(what are called star seeds and some other names).  The ‘good’ aliens like to say they are for the light, but what’s so funny about them is one of the famous ones in the alien community, the Pleaidians, are the ones WHO PUT HITLER INTO POWER.  It’s all such a cute lil story really...the lore is soooooooo fascinating. Making it even more fascinating is how some of the aliens with names, like Valiant Thor, have familiar names to them.  There is an alien lore about Tall Whites who are siding with one of two fighting gods- guess who those gods are?  Enil and Enki from Mesopotamian mythology.  There is even talk that nagas from Hinduism are involved in the alien story.  Ra from Egypt is also in the lore as a ‘blue avian’. Add to that many studies of ancient pagan religious stories talking about beings coming from the sky, and it is a bit odd, hm?  Another thing I want to mention is the whole idea of abductions(just because).  Some ufo people say it’s for hybridization (taking human sperm or eggs and making half alien half human beings).  The lore goes on to say that abductees see all sorts of aliens in the abduction room, even humanoid ones.  Some abductees even claim humans were watching.  All the little channelers and mediums that try and contact aliens seem to forget stories of cow mutilation and abductions of humans (including little kids) when they talk about their little light and love stories or their healing numbers.  Fascinatiiinnnnng. Now, to tie loose ends, I’m gonna go back to silly Trump. This is all about him anyway.  The fact he was elected was because people thought he’d end the swamp elite. Just what is this ‘swamp’ he wants to drain? He claims he wants to end corruption from special interests, fund groups, lobbyists, etc.  According to Fox News, he also wants to end regulation. He is against anything involving world market too (being anti- United Nations and messing with TPP).  That also is part of that New World Order Illuminati thing.  And that, people, is why he was elected.  

[doomedandstoned]

ELDER

Rallies Russia!

-Review: Nick DiSalvo | Forward: Billy Goate-

-Photos: Mo Nemo | Film: Anton Rodionov-

"The funny thing I've noticed about Russians is how reserved they can be, but then when the music is playing they are going crazy, moshing or stage diving, and crowd surfing the whole time."

Earlier this month, Doomed & Stoned brought you a two-part feature on Acid King's first ever appearance in the Russian Federation. Now, we are pleased to present the sights and sounds of another cross-continental concert tour, that of the mighty ELDER.

You're looking at another stunner of a photoset from the young Saint Petersburg photographer Mo Nemo, snapped at Elder's MOD Club show on August 3rd, 2017. The night before, Nick DiSalvo (vocals, guitar), Jack Donovan (bass), Matt Couto (drums), and new member Michael Risberg (guitar) played at The Volta in Moscow. The Re-Stoned, a band we've long touted as a prime example of Russian heavy psychedelic rock, opened on that particular evening. Ilya Lipkin (guitar), Vladimir Kislyakov (bass), and Andrey Pristavka (drums) performed a sublime series of songs from their recent LP, 'Reptiles Return' (2016). It was, of course, time for Elder to show off fresh tracks, too, namely selections from the new album that topped the Doom Charts: 'Reflections Of A Floating World' (2017 - Stickman Records).

By all accounts, the setlist included almost all the songs from Reflections..., including "Sanctuary," "The Falling Veil," "Staving Off Truth," "Blind," and "Thousand Hands." Let me tell you, that second guitarist has sure come in handy in pulling these off! The band also played what is now a bonafide hit: "Compendium" off of 'Lore' (2015 - Armageddon Shop). That song in many ways foreshadowed the complexity of the new material. Then there was the beloved "Gemini" from 'Dead Roots Stirring' (2011 - MeteorCity Records), which no Elder performance would quite be complete without.

I reached out to frontman Nick DiSalvo this week for comment on their trip. "Well," he replied, "I can certainly share some thoughts about Russia in a stream of consciousness sort of way with you." That was just fine by me, and I invited Nick to give us all a first-hand account of his band's visit to this land rich in vodka, literature, political intrigue, and most of all music. My piano teacher, who came to the US from Russia for her doctorate degree, is a disciplinarian. From her I've gotten an idea of how seriously Russians take the art and the science of music. You'll find this quite easy to confirm both anecdotally and historically.

How, then, would heavy music fans of the Moscow and Saint Petersburg underground take to the soaring progressive stylings of these four ambitious muzykanty from the States? The next words your read will be from Nick's tablet...

We've been to Russia twice now, both times in the same cities (Moscow and St Petersburg). I can only assume that sounds as fascinating to most American readers as it was for us. I think we have a very biased view of Russia in the States and assume that the country is very "foreign." Let me tell you, that's definitely not the case in these two cities -- two of the biggest in Europe (if you want to count Russia as part of Europe). We're lucky to work with a really cool promotions team over there called Madstream. Their guys Andrey and Vadim have surprised us with their professionalism and hospitality that's truly a leg up from the rest of Europe, even. That's really saying something, since most European clubs and promoters treat bands amazingly.

We had an early flight in from Milan to Moscow and were pretty whacked out after an hour and half drive from the airport through the city to the venue. The city never ends! The sprawl of Moscow is truly awe-inspiring, not necessarily in the best way.

In Saint Petersburg (band photo)

We got in for soundcheck at the venue Volta. Big stage. The club could be suited for any kind of gig and certainly doesn't give off the dingy rock club vibes (except for the makeshift water closet backstage that really does remind you you're in Eastern Europe). Soundcheck is fine and we retire to a long forgotten luxury for a few hours, the hotel, to catch some sleep.

I sleep through my alarm and wake up to Mike jostling me, since we need to get back for bus call. This is different for us, getting shuttled around to hotels and back. Normally, we travel in a sort of converted camper van and a stationary bed and shower are truly a treat. I don't know how many fans we really have in Russia, in Moscow maybe 200-250 people come to the show. For a city of 20 million I'd say that it's not much, but the scene is really just developing here.

The fans who do come are rabid and we get a rare taste of what it must be like to play in a famous band. Leave the backstage area and everyone grabs you, wants a photo, an autograph, to tell you an anecdote, and you realize the bizarre and fantastic nature of your situation: an American band in Russia surrounded by people who are just like you, music enthusiasts stoked on a concert. The funny thing I've noticed about Russians is how reserved they can be, but then when the music is playing they are going crazy, moshing or stage diving, and crowd surfing the whole time.

Welcome Package! (band photo)

A nice photographer we met on our previous trip is backstage and gives us some gifts: a bottle of vodka, some matchboxes, lemonade, all labeled with handmade Elder labels. That's pretty damn cool. The venue feeds us well and too much on borscht (a Russian tomato soup), lasagna, chicken. It's all fantastic, too. Our show is fine, despite an amp blowing up. Matt, Mike, and I improvise a jam for what feels like 10 minutes while a stage crew struggles to replace it. After the gig, we hang for a bit with the fans and drink some beer, then head back to the hotel where Boris is checking in for their gigs in Russia the same week. We try to drunkenly convince them to hang out with us in our hotel room, but they politely refuse.

In Saint Petersburg (band photo)

The next morning we have a train to St Petersburg, 4.5 hours away with the fast train, which is super modern and clean like much of what we've seen of these cities. Jack and I laugh at English translations of items in the "on board shop" magazine, order some souvenirs, and are amazed to see our photo and some information about our gig last night in the train magazine (the equivalent of finding your photo in an in-flight magazine on an airplane). When we arrive we're again transported to a hotel in St Petersburg. This city's historical center is absolutely beautiful, full of "old" buildings (the city itself is relatively new, from the 1800s) and Czarist monuments and buildings. Instead of sleeping, we have a walk around and look for some food. We're not exactly successful.

Tickets for the big show!   Photo by Denis Kolpakov

When we arrive at the venue for soundcheck, we're surprised to find it's directly in the historical center, not a five-minute walk from the winter palace. After soundcheck, we take a tour of the area with another guy from the show. The great thing about this area is the souvenirs. You can find amazing coffee mugs and all kinds of kitsch with photos of Trump and Putin on them (in 2016 it was mostly Putin kicking Obama's ass, etc.).

The show tonight is smaller, but also a lot of fun and we play every song we have, again. Last time St Petersburg was crazier, this time Moscow wins in the energetic fan competition, but still people are dancing, moshing, and having a great time. We do the dance of autographs and fan photos after the show and then return to the hotel, more exhausted than anything else. The next morning we manage to catch some breakfast in the lobby where a large Jewish travel group is doing the same. Our trip to the airport and back to the van waiting for us in Vienna is uneventful, but the trip in Russia leaves again a lasting positive impression that we're not so different after all.

Live & Loud:

Moscow

Live & Loud:

Saint Petersburg

"The fans who do come are rabid..."

"We're not so different after all."

Follow The Band.

Get Their Music.

[ramajmedia]

Review Roundup: Control - Great Minds Think Alike | Screen Rant

The reviews for Control have begun to go up and the reception to the game has been incredibly positive, even if there are a few flaws that hold it back from being a modern classic. Control is the latest game by Remedy Entertainment and it has been praised for refining the gameplay style used in earlier Remedy titles, such as Quantum Break, without losing its focus on interesting characters and an engaging story.

Control follows Jesse Faden, who seeks out an organization known as the Federal Bureau of Control in order to find her brother. Jesse arrives at the FBC's headquarters, which is a mysterious building known as the Oldest House that doesn't follow the rules of reality. It doesn't take long for Jesse to be declared the new director of the FBC, as the original is swiftly killed off. Jesse inherits a powerful handgun known as the Service Weapon, which will become one of her most trusted tools as she explores the mysteries of the Oldest House.

Related: Control Review: Weirder Than Usual

Control was announced at E3 2018 and Screen Rant has been following the development of the game since its debut, to the point where it was one of the most anticipated games of summer 2019 and one of the most impressive games at E3 2019. There has been a lot of hype leading up to the release of Control and the positive response from the critics is proving that it was worth all of the excitement.

Destructoid: 9/10 - Brett Makedonski

Control is a weird, enigmatic, perplexing masterpiece. It's also Remedy's most well-rounded work yet. Like Jesse levitating far off the ground, Control signifies Remedy is capable of ascending to great new heights.

Gamespot: 8/10 - Peter Brown

It's not often that a game invades my thoughts the way Control has. I'm at the point where I want to consume every last thing it has to offer. And if I'm honest, it also makes me want to go back and replay Remedy's past games, too. Sure, it's a faulty metroidvania in some respects, but there are so many exceptional qualities afoot that Control handily deflects any momentary ire. I can't wait to take part in discussions about the game, to see what others have figured out, and to better understand where it all fits into Jesse's story.

IGN: 8.8/10 - Jonathon Dornbush

Control is set in an engrossingly weird paranormal world that I couldn’t help but explore. Jesse’s versatile psychic skills and main weapon make for thrilling ranged combat. And thanks to a strong supporting cast, a well-written script, and plenty of intriguing breadcrumb trails, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my adventure through the shifting rooms of Oldest House. Jesse’s personal story feels like an afterthought next to that, but there’s enough to Control’s world that I remain invested in uncovering every secret, even though the story’s over.

Polygon - Dave Tach

I can’t separate Control’s deliberate oddities from its beauty or from its characters, and that’s what makes it so easy to recommend. This is one of the best games of the year.

Screen Rant: 4.5/5 - Zak Wojnar

Control is both a departure for Remedy Games and a familiar warm blanket for fans of their previous work. It beautifully combines the developer's trademark pillars – deep storytelling and high-adrenaline gun combat – within a whole new shell of exploration-based gameplay and a whole universe of deeply fascinating lore. There are many stories to be told within the realm of the Federal Bureau of Control; Jesse Faden's adventure in The Oldest House is just one of them.

Vice Games - Rob Zacny

It betrays a lot of stylistic tics and obsessions that sometimes make me worry that Remedy are too quick to settle for the winking metatextual flourish instead of sticking the landing on a story beat. But Control still makes them work because at this point, Remedy has a recognizable house style that it unapologetically owns in every one of its games. Control is instantly memorable, and its best moments will stick in the imagination long after its flaws, commonplace in the scheme of things, have been forgotten like so many of commoditized shooters that Remedy still refuses to make.

From the sounds of it, Control is a fun shooter that keeps the action exciting with a mixture of superpowers that mix up the combat encounters and a weapon which can change its capabilities to match the situation. The level design of Control has especially been praised due to the inventive ways in which a government building is reworked into a supernatural location. One surprising aspect of Control that has been praised is the collectibles that are strewn around the game, as they offer intriguing looks into the backstory of the setting. Sam Lake from Remedy told Screen Rant that the focus with Control was gameplay first, but the reviewers have enjoyed the cryptic tale of the Oldest House, even if it's told in an unconventional way.

The reviews have not been totally positive to Control, as a few issues have been pointed out. The Service Weapon can be enhanced using mods, but the limited amount of inventory space means that there is a lot of messing about when it comes to collecting items from enemies. The PlayStation 4 version of the game is noted to have technical issues when lots of creatures are on the screen, including when played on the PS4 Pro, though the PC and Xbox One versions are said to be fine. With all of that being said, the response to Control has still been very positive and it seems that the minor flaws don't detract from one of the most interesting and unique games of the year.

Next: Wolfenstein: Youngblood Review Roundup

Control releases August 27, 2019, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

source https://screenrant.com/remedy-control-review-roundup/

[pnwdoodlesreads]

David McCullough often gets sideways glances while he is hiking near Philadelphia. There is nothing immediately startling about McCullough, a museum educator with a studious look and a neatly trimmed goatee. But as a black man in the great outdoors, McCullough is usually in a racial minority of one.

“It’s conspicuous, you’re aware of it,” he says. “There are looks. You do get looks of concern, you can see that people are curious about why you are there.”

To counter that lonely feeling, McCullough joined Outdoor Afro, a group founded in 2009 and whose mission is to create a community of fellow African Americans who like to explore the outdoors – be it their garden, their local park, or hiking in national parks.

McCullough’s enjoyment of the natural world, something assumed to be an activity mostly embraced by white people, initially provoked bewilderment among his black peers when he was in high school.

“Every Saturday I’d go out hiking and I was the only African American there,” he says. “At school I’d get laughed at, people saying, ‘That’s just weird. Why are you out in the woods?’ I would get so excited at seeing a shrew’s skull and they would just look at me like I was insane.”

It is boom time for America’s network of more than 400 national parks, with a record 305m visits last year. But visitors who are able to avert their gaze from the fizzing geysers of Yellowstone or the crunching waterfalls of Yosemite will realize that modern America isn’t showing its face.

Changing  demographics

According to the latest National Parks Service (NPS) figures, just 7% of people venturing to national parks are black, with white visitors making up 78% of the total. Addressing this lack of diversity is something the NPS has made a priority in its centennial year – it otherwise risks becoming increasingly out of kilter with the changing demographics of the US.

“It’s like your house. Who comes to your house?” rhetorically asks Matthew Reese, a black snowboarder and hiker from Seattle. “It’s people who you invite. We were never invited to national parks. We weren’t made to feel welcome in national parks and it costs a lot of money to get here. That takes a strong will to get over.”

McCullough, Reese and more than 60 other volunteers recently gathered at a drenched Yosemite to work out strategies on how to remedy this situation.

Outdoor Afro started as a blog by former Morgan Stanley analyst Rue Mapp, who spent much of her youth outdoors and is an avid hiker and mountaineer.

“People were sharing their experiences with me and I realized there was a story of African Americans enjoying nature that was missing from mainstream representation,” Mapp says. “People naturally wanted to find others to do things with. People wanted a community.”

Around 12,000 people are now involved in Outdoor Afro’s nature-based activities, with Mapp setting a goal of getting 100,000 people into the great outdoors through the organization and its partners. Outdoor Afro’s volunteers aim to drum up interest in hiking and camping among black people in 28 states.

Some areas are doing better than others – Reese’s chapter in Seattle has around 400 members, while McCullough is, for now, the sole Philadelphia representative.

Practical obstacles include the travel time and cost of visiting one of the great national parks. But there are also deeper, historic hangovers that will take longer to salve.

Removing stereotypes from activities

I was a skateboarder too and people say that’s a white thing to do. Well, I’m black. Everything I do is black

According to Outdoor Afro participants, the wilderness can also invoke a certain horror for some black people.

“There is this serious fear [of the outdoors] , almost like a post traumatic stress syndrome,” says Duane Williams, who has been leading hikes in St Louis for the past year. “People used to hang us in the woods. Some people still feel that.”

Williams says although his mother “hates dogs, animals, bugs, the outdoors in general”, he has always been fascinated by nature and has a group of half a dozen black friends who camped throughout high school and college.

“People are surprised at that,” he says. “I was a skateboarder too and people say that’s a white thing to do. Well, I’m black. Everything I do is black.”

Mapp adds: “African Americans have been segregated from using public parks and lands, there have been black sections only. We have had to unravel the exclusion people have had in the past, coupled with realities that people now have to figure out how to fit it into their busy lives. If you don’t have historic connection to national parks, that’s a very big ask.”

Black History is Park History

Yosemite itself has a significant black history, with construction of the crucial first roads and nature trails in the area handled by the Buffalo Soldiers, black servicemen whose regiments date back to 1866. The soldiers spent the summer months pushing through trails, creating maps, evicting livestock and dousing fires in the summer months at Yosemite and Sequoia until the NPS was formed in 1916. Their legacy lives on in the distinctive hats that rangers wear today.

But in environmental lore, the Buffalo Soldiers are overshadowed by John Muir, the Scottish-born naturalist venerated as the “father of national parks”. Muir, whose bearded visage has adorned stamps and coins in the US, devoted himself to the conservation of the west, decrying the killing of bears and helping shoo away loggers and poachers from Yosemite.

Muir wrote romantically of nature, stating that the face of God could be seen in the granite of the cliff faces. He camped with President Theodore Roosevelt at Glacier Point for three days in 1903 and convinced him that the federal government should take control of Yosemite for its protection, 13 years after it was proclaimed a national park.

On the debit side, Muir was “straight up, a racist,” according to Melanie MacInnis, director of outdoor activities at Sierra Club, the environmental group Muir co-founded. Muir was disparaging of Native Americans and referred to black people as “sambos”.

Sierra Club, America’s largest green group, is 1.3 million members strong and is overwhelmingly white. This phenomena isn’t unique to the organization – most environment groups, the bodies that advocate for national parks’ protection and enjoyment, have a diversity issue.

A 2014 report criticized “lackluster” attempts by green groups to attract people of color, finding that no group or environmental agency had broken the 16% “green ceiling” in terms of minority representation.

“I can’t pretend there’s no one who is a racist at the Sierra Club; I’ve met them,” MacInnis admits. “We are trying hard to change them, but we are are at a point where we will have to ask them to leave.”

Moving in the right direction

MacInnis is spearheading diversity training for Sierra Club’s largely older, affluent, white membership. It’s hoped this move will broaden the base of the green movement and make the outdoors a more welcoming place for all Americans, especially those that have suffered strife in urban areas.

Being in nature has mental and physical benefits that groups like Outdoor Afro see as essential for a black community bedeviled by poor health outcomes.

“A lot of us migrated from the south, where there was rural hard work, so success meant being in the cities, in urban spaces,” says McCullough. “Part of the issue is realizing that having less isn’t necessarily a bad thing. All of the things we’ve sought and looked for in urban spaces haven’t been as nourishing as we’d hoped them to be.”

For its part, NPS has small fund for schools to transport students into national parks. The agency says it is targeting “urban outreach”, with the goal of getting people connected to their local parks as a key first step.

“The big western parks get the big press, but the largest number of parks in the system are urban parks,” says NPS spokesman Jeffry Olson. “We are trying to use these parks as a gateway experience to the great outdoors.

“Our whole centennial is about this new audience. We need to remain relevant with all people. If we are not, they stop coming to parks, stop telling their friends about it and stop telling members of Congress how important parks are. When people are writing budgets every year, who knows what can happen. We are a teeny tiny agency and we can get lost in the shuffle.”

The pace of change may be slow, but Mapp is upbeat. The Outdoor Afro founder says things are “moving in the right direction”, but the process will be incremental.

“We have to measure our success from a generational perspective. It’s about recognizing that national parks are part of our collective heritage. Our good, our bad, our need to atone.”

• This article was amended on 25 April 2016. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Outdoor Afro as Afro Outdoor in two instance

[kuwaiti-kid]

How Long to Beat The Most Popular Video Games

Quarantine has left all of us with a lot more free time on our hands. More specifically, free time at home.

This spike in free time has significantly increased the amount of time people have to spend playing. So, to help you navigate the vast world of available games to play, we’ve created a list of our favorite games and how long they take to beat. Enjoy!

How Long to Beat…

Death Stranding

Death Stranding was a major title in 2019, and it was Hideo Kijima’s—one of the minds behind the Metal Gear franchise—big project. The game is highly realistic, and while the main storyline takes a solid 40 hours to complete, all of the available side quests and exploration will take much longer.

The lore is fascinating and mysterious. Players will get to see a star-studded cast, beautifully scored music,—Death Stranding has won several awards for its music—a fantastic landscape, and genuinely creative storytelling in this one-of-a-kind game.

Outer Worlds

Outer Worlds answers the question of what if Fallout took place in futuristic space?

It is no surprise that there are similarities between the Outer Worlds and Fallout since the makers of Fallout: Las Vegas also made this game. The main storyline will run the average player around 15 hours, but if you want to explore, then double the amount of time you’ll need.

Laugh, fight, and explore unfamiliar worlds in Outer Worlds.

Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 is what happens when a shooter looter lets its players run wild. The game doesn’t require daily quests and instead allows players to co-op to their heart’s content.

Players generally need 30 hours to sow their mayhem and complete the game. Gather some friends, play online, and discover new legendary gear in the ever-engaging Borderlands 3.

Red Dead Redemption 2

If you’ve ever wanted to relive your childhood games of cowboys and Indians (ahem, Native Americans), just with more violence, then Red Dead Redemption 2 is the game for you. Its massive open world and variety of quests mean that players can spend hours and hours exploring.

The main story will take players anywhere from 40-60 hours, depending on how experienced a player is. Players can also explore Red Dead Redemption 2 Online, which despite a rocky start, has made improvements on this online open-world RPG. Either option—console or PC—is great for hours of non-stop fun.

Kingdom Hearts 3

The Kingdom Hearts franchise is wildly renown and for a good reason. The games combine our love of magic and Disney with our passion for action-adventure games. Kingdom Hearts 3 is loads of fun and offers between 30-50 hours on the primary questline.

Gather your Keyblades and fight-side-by-side with some of your favorite Disney characters in this new addition to a beloved franchise.

God of War

The God of War remake is all the things that fans love about the God of War franchise, upped to a whole new level for the PS4. Fans get to see their favorite Spartan in an entirely new light and a completely new setting.

Kratos rocks the Norse warrior look, and getting to deep dive into Norse mythology is loads of fun. Players could spend around 20 hours completing the game and about 50 doing a full exploration.

Resident Evil 2

Capcom has been busy in recent years with creating remakes of their popular Resident Evil franchise. The zombie slasher is iconic, and this remake is gorgeously done.

The storyline takes about 15 hours, but to complete everything available in the game, you’ll need about 60 hours. Resident Evil 2 is the perfect game to hone your zombies fighting and evil corporation thwarting skills.

Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 3 was the next remake Capcom offered. The story takes place in the same timeline as Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 3, however, has Jill Valentine—which is an instant bonus, in my opinion.

The game is significantly shorter than its predecessor, with players only needing an average of 5 hours for a complete playthrough, making it the quickest game on our list. The draw for Resident Evil 3 is the fact that players need multiple playthroughs to access all of its content.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a fabulous addition to one of Nintendo’s most iconic franchises. It was one of the launch games for the Nintendo Switch. The story is terrific, and the graphics are fantastic.

The game takes about 60 hours to complete, and it is worth every minute. Breath of the Wild is a breath of fresh air to the Zelda series.

The Witcher 3

The Witcher is one of the most popular video game franchises ever. Between the books, the Netflix series based on the books, and the actual games, few people haven’t heard of this series.

The game is massive!

To play, the main questline is around 50 hours, and the two DLCs offer an extra 30 hours. To really explore the game, players can sink about 130 hours, if not more, to complete all of its content.

This action-adventure RPG is fantastic, and if you’ve never played a game in The Witcher franchise, The Witcher 3 is a great place to start.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Easily one of the most highly anticipated games of 2020, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is amazing. The graphics are beautifully done. The game is technically only a fraction of the original; the game offers a deeper look into Midgard and its people.

Players can explore the different sectors of Midgard like never before with over 30 hours of gameplay needed for completion. The best part is that Square Enix has stated that there will be more parts to the remake in total, so by the time the full remake is out, there will be a lot more than 30 hours.

Spider-Man (PlayStation 4)

Everyone’s favorite wall-crawling web-slinger is back! Spider-Man is back and better than ever in this new adaptation available on the PlayStation 4.

The storyline is a mash-up of the comics and the movies, and it takes about 16 hours to complete. As a bonus, players get to be more than just Spider-Man, other playable characters include Mary Jane and Miles Morales. Three DLCs will run you about 2 hours apiece, bringing the total playtime to 22 hours.

See New York as you’ve never seen it before with this new addition to the Spider-Man video game library.

Far Cry 5

Far Cry is well known for its open-worlds and cheeky dialogues. Far Cry 5 is the latest installment in this open-world RPG series. The story is fresh, and there is no shortage of cultists and ‘Bliss’ users to battle.

With animal companions and hilarious NPCs, Far Cry 5 will give gamers plenty of distractions during the quarantine. Players can devote around 18 hours to the main storyline and roughly two-and-a-half times as long exploring the whole thing.

Bioshock: The Collection

Are you looking to marathon three games in one?

Then you need Bioshock: The Collection. The game contains all the solo-player content from Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock: Infinite all remastered for the PlayStation 4.

The collection offers 45 hours of gameplay for all three storylines.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed is from the same developers as the Far Cry series, Ubisoft. If there’s one thing Ubisoft does well, it is open-world action-adventure RPGs. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is the newest installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Set in ancient Greece, players get to choose between two main characters, Kassandra or Alexios, and battle cultists, visit ancient ruins and become a true master assassin. Players will need to devote around 60 hours to beat the main quest, but to complete the full array of side quests, players will need to devote at least twice that if not more.

Grand Theft Auto 5

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a pretty popular series, well known for its open-world, lawless chaos, and variety of quests. GTA 5 is one of the largest worlds in the GTA universe.

Players can count on spending at least 30 hours on main quests alone, but full exploration will run you around 80 hours. Players of GTA know that 80 hours offer plenty of time to engage in all the car thefts and abundant chaos your heart desires.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is another big name for published by Nintendo. The game was the headliner for the Nintendo Switch Lite.

This remastered classic is masterfully redone. It takes all the things that players loved about the original and improves on them. With between 15 and 20 hours of adorable chibi fun, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a highly recommended addition to anyone’s Switch library.

Control

Control is an exciting and fresh take on third-person sci-fi action shooters. The game features a main character named Jesse, who enters a very special building called, The Oldest House.

The Oldest House is the headquarters of a secret government agency, The Federal Bureau of Control. While in the Oldest House, Jesse gains psychic abilities that allow her to fight an evil mind-warping infection called the Hiss—trust me, psychically flinging thing at your enemies is as much fun as it sounds.

Between the main game and the DLC, players can count on roughly 15 hours of playtime. Named, IGN’s 2019 Game of the Year, Control is definitely worth adding to your ‘to play’ list.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is an action-adventure game set in the Sengoku Era of Japan. Players get to be a rogue shinobi—a shinobi is a ninja for you non-Japanese speakers.

If you are a Dark Souls fan, then you will love this new game by FromSoftware—the developers of Dark Souls. Sekiro showcases what the developers of FromSoftware excel at, gritty, grueling combat, and a unique setting. Battle yokai—monsters from traditional Japanese folklore—for around 30 hours and master the art of shinobi swordplay in this satisfyingly challenging game.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Have a Switch and love JRPGs? Then Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the game for you.

Enjoy 50 hours of main story gameplay, and if you find yourself with extra free time, this game has got you covered. Full completion of Fire Emblem: Three Houses will run you for about 200 hours, easy—it is the longest game on our list with five different routes for players to pursue.

With charming anime-style graphics, turn-based combat, and strategic player interactions, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a fantastic game and worth every minute of gameplay.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is yet another fantastic game to add to anyone’s Switch library. The game focuses on Mario’s scardey cat brother, Luigi. In this game, Luigi must save his brother, Princess Peach, and the Toads from a hotel full of ghosts.

The game is nothing but good, wholesome fun, which will fun players anywhere from 15 to 20 hours. There was recently a DLC released for this game.

However, given how new the DLC is, there is little data about how long it takes to play. We have written a full review of Luigi’s Mansion 3, which you can read here.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is hands-down, one of the best open-world RPGs ever. The game is so popular that even three years after its release, people still want to see this game be available on the upcoming PlayStation 5.

The game takes the best things about action RPGs, post-apocalyptic timelines, and robot enemies and rolls into 35 hours of main story gameplay and 8 hours of DLC gameplay. However, exploring this open-world is the best part of this game.

The graphics are the very definition of eye-candy, and with the average gamer taking 100 hours to explore both the DLC and the main game setting, there is nothing but fun for players everywhere.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been one of the most popular games of 2020 so far. The game is an absolute delight! Cute villagers, adorable avatars, and endless customizations are the hallmarks of this game.

The actual storyline requires upwards of 60 hours, but players have reported spending double that.

How Long to Beat Popular Games

Quarantine has been hard on all of us, and spending your time exploring new worlds is a great way to make things easier. These games are perfect for anyone regardless of what system you favor.

Players of any game style will find something to enjoy on this list. Beat the quarantine blues and immerse yourself in an engaging storyline and stunning graphics.

The post How Long to Beat The Most Popular Video Games appeared first on Your Money Geek.

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[swipestream]

Star Trek Adventures Review

Long before I ever picked up my first d20, my older brother received permission from my parents to let me stay up late on Sunday nights so I could watch syndicated episodes of the original Star Trek with him. Whenever a new Star Trek movie would come out, my brother and I would make a point of seeing it together in the theater.

Because of these family traditions, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Star Trek. Despite this, I never owned a Star Trek roleplaying game until I picked up the PDF of the latest version, published by Modiphius.

Structural Integrity

As I finish up the review process, the hardcover of this game is currently available, but I am still working from the PDF version of the rules. The PDF is 376 pages, including five pages of ads, two page spreads showing the Star Trek galaxy at the beginning and end of the book, a four-page index, three pages of play tester credits, a character sheet, and a ship sheet.

There are several half and quarter page pieces of painted artwork from both the original series era and the Next Generation era, and most of the chapters start with a full-page schematic spread of a ship, station, or piece of technology from Star Trek lore. The entire book is laid out to look like the L-CARS computer display from the Next Generation era of the show. That is impressive adherence to theme, and it is consistent throughout.

Chapter 01–Introduction

The introduction has standard “what is roleplaying” and “example of play” sections. This chapter mentions what dice are needed for the game (d20s and d6s), and that special dice are available to make conversion easier. The special characters on the dice mainly apply to the d6s, and the number of special characters and alternate values is much less than in a game like Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPGs, as an example.

Some terms used later are mentioned in passing in this introduction, for example having tokens for momentum, the threat pool, and determination.

Chapter 02–The United Federation of Planets

The next chapter is on the United Federation of Planets. It spans pages 11-43, and is broken up into an overview, early history, the twenty-third century, and recent federation history. Initially this information takes the form of a Starfleet briefing, and starts with general galactic geography, and a summary of the powers at play in various regions.

The chapter then moves into Federation history. The different time frames mentioned correspond to the suggested campaign time periods, namely the time periods around the time of the show Enterprise, the original series time frame, and the Next Generation time frame—although the most attention is paid to the Next Generation time frame in this book. None of the material in the book presents information beyond the events of the Generations movie, so the history ends just before the war with the Dominion begins.

There are a lot of in-universe sidebars that show the perspective of characters from different factions on the major events of the setting’s history. Some of these are fascinating from a fan’s point of view, but I’m not sure that most them are providing gameable information. This section really seems to play to the diehard fan, and I wish there was just a bit more tailoring to make this section more functional at the table.

That’s not to say it isn’t well written or entertaining, it just isn’t as functional or focused as it could be. This is also probably a good place to state my preference that a ruleset with a default setting present basic setting and genre information up front, detail the game and how to play it, and then dive into the specifics of the setting later in the book.

Chapter 03–Your Continuing Mission

Pages 53-66 detail topics like Starfleet’s Purpose, the Prime Directive, Starfleet Academy, Duties, and Away Teams. There are illustrations of the various rank pips used in the 24th century, department colors, and sidebars showing in-universe perspectives on these topics.

This is the section I would have led with. Without getting too deep into history and perspective, this lays out in 13 pages what Starfleet stands for, what a member of Starfleet does before they start exploring space, their duties on a ship, and what they do planet-side in an unknown situation. It’s a much more succinct primer for what a Star Trek game looks like in action, and is a lot easier to digest for a casual fan that just wants to play the game.

Chapter 04–Operations

The operations chapter includes the subsections to introduce players to the game, basic operations, and advanced training. This covers things like rolling dice, determining success versus difficulty, and defining terms. The final section is an introduction to some of the situational rules in the game.

To determine success, you add your attribute to your discipline, which determines the number you will attempt to roll under. You roll 2d20, and for each die that rolls under this target number, you get a success. If you have a focus, and you also rolled under your discipline range, you get another success in addition to any others you generated. Difficulty ranges from 0 to 5 for tasks.

In any given scene, you might have traits, advantages, or complications that can move the difficulty up or down. Rolling a 20 on one of the dice allows the GM to introduce a new complication to the scene, or to add threat to the threat pool.

What’s a threat pool? It’s a pool to track one of the currencies in the game, those currencies being threat, determination, and momentum.

Threat is spent in the same manner by the GM to boost their characters

Momentum can be spent on extra dice or effects when rolling or resolving tasks

Determination can only be spent when a directive or a value is in play, but it allows for an automatic 1 on a roll, or the ability to reroll a player’s entire dice pool

Players can also add to the threat pool to get the same effect that they would get from momentum

Directives are things Starfleet wants you to accomplish, and will vary depending on the mission assigned, and values are things that make up what has shaped your character and drives them. In some ways, traits, advantages, complications, directives, and values are like aspects in Fate, except that there are more specific ways in which they allow for changes in difficulty, rerolls, or other benefits and penalties.

That’s a lot of simple individual concepts, tied together in a moderately complex web, and a lot of that information comes at you in close proximity. None of this has yet introduced personal combat, starship combat, or discoveries. The advanced rules section does touch on challenges (multi-part skill challenges that may need to be done in a certain order) or extended tasks (which have two separate tracks to measure success). Extended tasks are noted as being optional, but there are several rules later in the book that relate to them, so optional is a bit of a fuzzy term in this case.

While each step of resolution is simple, it might feel like a bit much to take in all at once. One thing that I like about this resolution mechanic is that you can attempt a difficulty 0 task to gain momentum. You can’t fail, but you can introduce a complication. That immediately communicates to me that you can have those holodeck scenes or musical recitals, and those scenes can actually affect momentum, if the player is willing to risk a potential complication that might be generated.

Chapter 05–Reporting for Duty

This is primarily the character creation portion of the book, and introduces both lifepath creation, and creation in play. There is also a section on creating supporting characters, talents (special abilities that modify the existing rules), and character development.

Lifepath creation walks the players through each aspect of the character’s history, from where they grew up, their education, and early career. There are special talents that can be taken to reflect an inexperienced new character (Wesley) or a character with a long career behind them at the start of the campaign (Picard).

The range of ability between characters isn’t too broad, so everyone can contribute. At various points in the Lifepath creation, players are prompted to create a value based on that part of their lives, but values are very broadly defined.

Creation in play gives a set of numbers to use for attributes and disciplines, and characters can add values as they emerge in-game. I can see advantages to both ways of creating characters, but the GM is encouraged to use the same method for all players. One value should be reserved for a connection to another player or the ship they serve on.

Species is addressed in this section, and gives several attribute adjustments for Vulcans, Denobulans, Trill, Bajorans, Betazed, Andorians, and Tellarites. There are also species-specific talents that a character can take to show different aspects of a given culture, such as a Vulcan that has learned to mind-meld, or a Trill that has a joined symbiont.

There are a set number of “named” NPCs that the ship will support, and they have their own stats, which are just a bit less robust than player characters. Whenever a player’s character wouldn’t logically participate in a scene (like, if you are the captain, and your first officer won’t let you go on an away team mission), that player can play the “named” supporting character. This character belongs to the whole group, not just the player using them in that scene. They are created in a fashion not entirely dissimilar to the “Creation in Play” option, but with fewer choices to make.

Character advancement reminds me a bit of Fate. You have milestones, spotlight milestones, and arc milestones, that allow for different levels of changes in a character.

Normal milestones allow characters to do things like changing a value or adjusting numbers between disciplines, but they can also “bank” that milestone to cash in for Determination in a later mission

Spotlight milestones allow a character to swap their attribute scores around, switch out talents, or advance the ship or a supporting character’s stats

Arc milestones allow for actual increases to attributes or disciplines, or new focuses or talents

Normal milestones involve just being active in a game session, while spotlight milestones are awarded to characters that “starred” in an episode, which can be voted on by the players. There is a minimum number of spotlight milestones that the group needs to have achieved before an arc milestone is awarded. All of this is perfectly functional, but as with a lot of elements of Star Trek Adventures, the simple elements can be a little complicated to follow, because there are so many options under each type of advancement. I do enjoy that advancements can be “donated” to supporting characters or to the ship.

Finally, the chapter introduces reputation, which is a means of tracking how well regarded a character is, and how successful their career is perceived to be by others. Reputation checks are resolved like other tasks, but the roll involves the reputation score, a privilege score (determined by rank), and a responsibility score (determined by rank as well).

Characters with higher rank are more likely to get more successes, but when they fail, they are more likely to accrue extra failures, or to potentially have a failure range that extends into their success range, robbing from some of their normal successes.

I understand the inclusion of the idea. The original series started with a court martial, Kirk has been in trouble a number of times, and a system like this is almost tailor made for fleshing out a character like Tom Paris. Despite this, it feels clunky, in part because it is “almost” like the rest of the system, but not quite. You may not be playing with this aspect of the system much, unless you have a lot of demotions or court martials in your game, or you really want to heap on the extra praise for extraordinary mission success.

Chapter 06–The Final Frontier

This section further elaborates on the types of things a crew will encounter during their missions. The sections in this chapter are Strange New Worlds, Alien Encounters, Stellar Phenomena, and Scientific Discoveries and Developments.

Strange New Worlds touches a bit on the kind of damage you can expect from hostile environments (and we haven’t gotten to the part of the book that explains harm to characters yet), but that section, Alien Encounters, and Stellar Phenomenon are really overviews of what a crew might encounter. This section really feels like it could have been rolled into the Gamemaster section and connected to the mechanics that appear there.

Scientific discoveries and developments are examples of extended tasks that the PCs might engage with to come up with specific outcomes. While noted as “optional” in the Operations chapter, this is only one of multiple times extended tasks get revisited.

I like how they explain that characters might create their own solution to a scientific or engineering problem, and the book lays out a specific procedure for how to resolve these situations. However, for everything they assign a rigid structure to, they leave a lot of nebulous area in the rules. This could be a bug, or a feature, depending on how much the players and the GM jump on narrative elements of the game, but I can’t help but feel just a wee bit more explanation could make these rules clearer.

Chapter 07–Conflict

This chapter is broken down into an introduction, social conflict, and combat. The introduction spells out the order in which structured scenes will unfold, with the logical initiator taking the first turn, and handing off between the PCs and GM characters until everyone has taken a turn.

Social conflict can utilize any of the previous rules for getting something done, but might have an opposed NPC taking part as well. In that case, the character with the most amount of successes “wins” the exchange, and counts the number of remaining success. This can come up when negotiating with a new species while Ferengi are trying to cut a deal with them, for example. Social conflict can also utilize advantages called social tools, which make it easier to score successes, and the process can even involve characters rolling specifically to create certain scene traits before attempting to “win” a negotiation.

Combat involves punching, kicking, shooting phasers at, or firing makeshift mortars at opponents. In Star Trek tradition, if you make a lethal attack attempt, you add to the threat pool. Characters have a set amount of stress.

Being reduced to 0 stress, or taking too much stress at one time, causes a wound

A character can spend momentum and determination to mitigate wounds, but if you have one that hasn’t been dealt with in some fashion, the character is incapacitated for the rest of the scene

If you took lethal damage, you die if not treated before the end of the scene

This is a little reminiscent of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games, where taking wounds doesn’t kill you, but taking critical hits can kill you. The GM is encouraged to not end a scene before other characters have a chance to treat a wounded character.

Characters get a minor action and a major action each round, and can get extra minor actions (such as moving or aiming) by spending momentum for additional minor actions. Determination can be spent to gain an additional major action. There is a chart showing other uses of momentum in combat, and if those expenditures can be made more than once, it is noted on the chart. Ranges are abstracted into areas rather than providing specific measurements, in a sort of hybrid of Fate zones and Fantasy Flight Star Wars range bands.

Chapter 08–Technology and equipment

Most of the technology amounts to narrative permission to do something. You can talk to people that are on the ship or the other side of the planet if you have a communicator. You can scan for things you can’t see, hear, smell, or touch directly if you have a tricorder.

There are some very basic rules for how many items a character can carry, and what they are assumed to have issued to them based on their rank and position on the ship. “Buying” extra gear that isn’t assigned to you isn’t done with any form of currency. If you look for something in an action scene, it may cost momentum or threat to find it.

Personnel that aren’t considered secondary characters are treated as equipment. They can provide minor boosts, like a tool that a character can requisition. Sometimes they will be wearing red shirts.

This may be a shock if you’ve been reading the rest of the review, but there are some really detailed, and yet somehow loose narrative guides for adding traits to existing technology. This can be done to add permissions in the story, beyond what is already assumed, or can be used to overcome scene traits that have developed during play.

While most of the game does a good job of giving as much detail to non-combat sections of the game as it does to combat sections, weapons do get a lot more specific details compared to other equipment. There are charts and lists of traits that various weapons have. Some weapons default to lethal damage, and are harder to use in a non-lethal fashion. Some weapons may knock someone out even if they haven’t done enough stress to normally incapacitate a character, and some weapons do extra damage when an effect is rolled.

The effect dice have been mentioned in the rules previously, in the extended tasks and combat section, but any place in the rules where more granularity is called for, the d6s get rolled. When tracking points (like the amount of stress done), 1s and 2s count as 1s and 2s, 3s and 4s don’t count for anything, and 5s and 6s count for 1 point and one effect. In the case of weapons, those effects rolled can be exchanged for special weapon abilities.

Chapter 09–A Home in the Stars

This section goes over Starships, Starbases, Colonies, Starship Rules, Starship Combat, Starfleet Ships of the Line, and Alien Vessels. The first three sections go into explaining how such things function in the setting, while the last three sections include more specific game mechanics.

Example Starships from various eras are detailed. Specific years that ships were put into service are called out, because older ships may still be in service. After several years in service, overhauls can add new items to that ship’s base stats. This means some ships from the 23rd Century could still be in service in the Next Generation era, but they are likely to have a few extras added to them as time and technology advance.

Starship combat seems to be the most involved subsystem of resolutions in the game.

Ships have resistance (which reduces damage) equal to their scale

Their shields function as stress does for a character in personal scale combat

Damage that gets past resistance and shields directly damages various ship systems

Depending on how damaged that system is, a ship loses some of its functions, certain starship actions may not be taken, or the ship may be on its way to a warp core breach

There is a list of what each station on the ship can do in combat, and there are details for repairing a system that has been damaged in combat, which can optionally use the extended task rules. NPC ships don’t need fully fleshed out crews, and they get a number of actions equal to their scale. Instead of tracking individual damage for NPC ships, the amount of punishment they take is determined by their scale, and instead of the specifics of system ramifications, they can lose one of their turns when they take serious damage, until they become incapacitated.

Several starships are given base stats in the section, with examples from the original series era and the Next Generation era, as well as a few Klingon, Romulan, Ferengi, Borg, Cardassian, and Jem’Hadar ships. There are stats for shuttle craft as well, but despite mentioning the Enterprise era a few times in the book, there isn’t really any support for it here.

Different ships have different stations, which allow for different actions in combat. Weapons have specific qualities for how they are grouped and do damage. Each individual resolution still follows the general rules, but Starship combat seems to be where more specific rules interact with each other than any other section of the game.

It’s a running theme with the more complicated parts of this game that the rules feel very Star Trek in what they highlight, but also feel very exacting. I would really want to make sure I either created some cheat sheets or considered the handouts that come with the GM screen before running Starship combat.

Chapter 10–Gamemastering

The gamemaster advice section has areas that highlight running and creating missions, gamemaster facing information on character creation, managing the rules, the differences between player facing rules and how those rules work for NPCs, experience and promotion, encounter building, and creating memorable missions, NPCs, and locations.

One big thing I would point out about this section is that a few of these topics are touched on in other sections of the book, and many of them would have made more sense to have been wholly in this section. In some instances, it feels like this chapter is calling back to previously touched on topics, which didn’t need to be touched on earlier. It feels a bit disjointed.

For players that might not be as comfortable with narrative rules elements like aspects from Fate, or Hard Moves from Apocalypse World derived games, there isn’t as much advice for using the more open-ended aspects of the game as there might have been.

Chapter 11–Aliens and Adversaries

This section contains some of the more commonly encountered “archetypes” of humanoids, aliens, and other creatures that a GM can adapt for their own use in missions.

NPCs are categorized as minor, notable, and major NPCs. This category determines which special rules that NPC can utilize. Minor NPCs can avoid injuries, for example, and Major NPCs have Values that let them spend threat in special ways to mimic how PCs can use of determination.

There are specific traits that different NPCs might have, such as invulnerable (the creature might be incapacitated for a time, but never takes injuries), or menacing (as soon as the creature shows up, the GM adds threat to the threat pool).

Some adversaries have special rules, like the circumstances that cause the Borg to adapt to weapons, or a Klingon’s additional resistance to non-lethal attacks. There are sidebars about stat adjustments for different species introduced in this section (so you could make a Klingon or Ferengi officer if you wanted to, but there are no species related talents in this section).

While most of the things detailed in this section are active beings, some powerful alien artifacts from various media are detailed here, such as the Guardian of Forever, or the Planet Killer doomsday ship from the original series.

The final section details animals or creatures that are either non-sentient, or don’t have a consciousness that can be measured by those that have interacted with the creature. Targs, Shelats, and Mugato make an appearance here, as does the Crystaline Entity.

Chapter 12–The Rescue at Xerxes

 The book looks amazing, and that appearance does a tremendous job of keeping you in the mindset of the various series. The procedures for various tasks, such as starship combat, or using social tools, feels very much in keeping with the source material. 

Note: I played in this adventure during the playtest for Star Trek Adventures, and this adventure serves as the first adventure for the organized play campaign created by Modiphius to support the game.

This adventure serves as an incremental introduction to Star Trek Adventures. Various aspects of the rules, such as Challenges and Extended Tasks, appear in the adventure, but they are introduced in a very simple, isolated way, making them more accessible.

The adventure has enough decision points to allow characters to challenge their values or debate over the right course of action. My medical officer was in favor of not risking lives in the present, just to potentially help people in the future, and that got to play out for a bit at the table.

Shore Leave on Risa

The book looks amazing, and that appearance does a tremendous job of keeping you in the mindset of the various series. The procedures for various tasks, such as starship combat, or using social tools, feels very much in keeping with the source material. The book spends a lot of time on resolving scientific and social situations, and avoids the criticism that falls on a lot of RPGs that want to promote non-combat scenes, namely, that there isn’t as much support for non-combat resolutions. The way the individual rules components work is quite logical.

Vacationing on Seti Alpha V

The in-setting information presented up front may be fun for a die-hard fan, but it may not be what a more casual fan wants to wade through when learning the game. The Shackleton Expanse is mentioned briefly and would have been great to detail in the book, making the setting more usable out of the gate, but the details of that sub-setting are reserved for the organized play campaign.

The resolution mechanics for various situations is very detailed, but the way that some of the narrative elements work within those mechanics is left vague. Information that seems as if it should be grouped together, isn’t.

Qualified Recommendation–A product with lots of positive aspects, but buyers may want to understand the context of the product and what it contains before moving it ahead of other purchases.

The game has a lot of information that a die-hard Star Trek fan will likely love. It is definitely a narrative based game, but it is not a rules-light game. Because of the balance between more open ended narrative elements, and more rigid, procedural resolutions, it may be more difficult to get a good feel for the game.

The game does a good job of emulating the source material. Casual fans should probably keep in mind how much of the book is dedicated to a deeper look at the setting. Fans that may not be comfortable with broad narrative elements, or fans that are comfortable with broad narrative elements, but aren’t as enamored of exacting resolutions, may want to know what is in store for them before diving into the game. Given how well the game evokes the feeling of Star Trek, I imagine it will still work very well for a wide number of fans.

Let me know what you thought of the game and this review. If you have ideas for future reviews, I’ll be happy to see those as well! Looking forward to hearing from you.

Star Trek Adventures Review published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi

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Control Review: Weirder Than Usual | Screen Rant

Control combines the tight shooting and storytelling of Remedy's past titles with more open mission structure and Metroidvania-inspired level design.

To legions of fans, developer Remedy will always be best known for creating the Max Payne series. Others cherish them for their work on Alan Wake, while still others appreciate the risks they took with the ambitious and unique Quantum Break. The latest project from Sam Lake's team, Control, combines the best elements of Remedy's greatest titles with a significantly more open game design. The resultant game features a provocative story, visceral combat, and some of the best environmental storytelling this side of BioShock.

Remedy's titles have always thrived on their distinct settings and storylines, and Control is no different. The entire game is set in The Oldest House, a "place of power" in New York City. Jesse Faden wanders into the building, the headquarters of a secret government agency, the Federal Bureau of Control, and uncovers a hidden world of supernatural entities, unexplained events, and possessed objects. With the title of Director unexpectedly foisted upon her, Jesse is tasked with repelling an onslaught of Hiss, a dark force which turns humans into possessed monsters. Armed with the Director's Service Weapon, an "object of power" with the power to switch between many different forms, Jesse sets out to take back the fallen Bureau HQ and find her place as Director, all while pursuing a secret, more personal agenda.

Related: Sam Lake Interview All About Remedy's Control And More

Unlike previous Remedy games, which were purely linear affairs, Control takes on a more Castlevania/Metroid-inspired approach with its third-person gameplay. The entire game is set within the hallowed halls of The Oldest House, and Jesse can freely return to previously explored areas. At the start, there's not much utility to backtracking, but as Jesse gains new abilities (and keycard access), more and more of the House's secrets can be discovered. For much of its early duration, Control is firmly linear, save for a few side paths here and there. It's not until around halfway through the adventure that Jesse gains enough skills to truly uncover the secrets of The Oldest House. Once the Levitation skill is unlocked, all bets are off, and the player can essentially fly to secret areas and fall from incredible heights without taking damage.

Navigation is only one way Jesse can interact with the world. Her other method of communication should feel extremely familiar to fans of Remedy's previous games. Like Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Jack Joyce before her, Jesse Faden is a crack shot with a gun, and she (and the player) get a lot of mileage from that particular skill. Shooting in Control feels like a natural evolution from Alan Wake and Max Payne 2. Eschewing the cover system and forced fine aiming mechanics of Quantum Break, Control focuses on old-school run-and-gun shootouts. Fortunately, Control lives up to its title in many ways, including the tight handling of its many combat encounters.

The Director's pistol itself is modular and can switch between different modes, from a standard semi-auto handgun, shotgun, and SMG, to more exotic forms like a long-range sniper to an explosive grenade launcher. These forms can be further customized with Weapon Mods that can alter damage output, recharge speed, accuracy, and numerous other factors. It's not distracting in its depth, but it's nice to have the ability to determine exactly what happens when every Jesse pulls the trigger of her Service Weapon.

Enemies have a lot of health and can cut the player down in seconds, but Jesse has powers and abilities Max Payne could only dream about. Using the Launch ability, Jesse can harness her inner Jedi, picking up and throwing objects from the environment. With enough upgrades, the skill can be used to pick up weakened enemies and even heavy objects like forklifts. She can also create a shield from debris in the environment, and even brainwash weakened foes to fight on her side. All of these skills cost Energy, which quickly recharges. Since ammunition for her gun is drained and recharges in a similar way (like the original Mass Effect), combat quickly falls into a tense rhythm of draining one pool while the other recharges, shifting back and forth from gunplay to abilities until everything is dead and the environment has been reduced to rubble.

The environmental destruction on display in Control is jaw-dropping. Nearly every bullet has an effect on the world, from breaking physics objects apart, to creating a bright explosion of particle effects, to blasting an enemy off their feet. Much of the visual package is similarly striking, from the cold halls of The Oldest House to the incredible facial animations on characters... Usually. Sometimes, certain faces (including, unfortunately, that of the game's lead actor, Courtney Hope) fall squarely into the uncanny valley. Even when the game's impressive motion capture technology fully articulates every minute detail and animation on someone's face, the result can sometimes be unintentionally creepy. Then again, sometimes the effect is arguably photorealistic, especially when combined with the impressive lighting adding depth and strong acting performances from the entire cast.

On PlayStation 4 Pro, the much-hyped Ray Tracing from the PC version is completely absent, though the game is nonetheless gorgeous in motion. The 30 FPS cap is sweetened by cinematic motion blur effects, but the framerate can chug during some particularly hectic battles. Oddly, Control also has a problem coming out of the pause menu, with minor freezes and noticeable framerate dips in the first seconds after unpausing the game. These issues are exacerbated on the base PS4 model, with more dropped frames and long stutters when exiting conversations that aren't present on the more powerful console. We also experienced one hard crash during a cutscene late in the game, though only a few minutes of progress were lost.

Some games tell a straightforward story, while others rely on lore and environmental storytelling. Control does both, and does them better than nearly any other team in video games. Just as Jesse goes down the rabbit hole of The Oldest House, so too does the player find themselves transported to another world, where the unbelievable becomes normal, the insane makes sense, and the impossible is not just possible, but mundane and bureaucratic. While Jesse's story has a lot of momentum and energy, it's actually more straightforward than one might expect, lacking the many twists and turns of previous games from the developer.

The real meat and potatoes of the narrative, which buffers and bolsters Jesse's tale, is the stellar environmental world-building. Every room in Control has a purpose, even ones which Jesse doesn't have to enter in over the course of the story's critical path. Lore documents and seamlessly integrated live-action segments litter the landscape like precious breadcrumbs adding up to an artisanal loaf of insight, mystery, and context. Control is set in an immersive, believable setting, filled with stories for players to discover. Some of these stories are adjacent to the main quest, some build upon the themes and characters, and others are just delightfully bizarre. All told, the story in Control is greater than the sum of its parts, which already add up to quite a bit, even if the ending of the main storyline is a bit too abrupt and more interested in setting the stage for further DLC expansions than in resolving itself with a neat and tidy bow.

Control is both a departure for Remedy Games and a familiar warm blanket for fans of their previous work. It beautifully combines the developer's trademark pillars – deep storytelling and high-adrenaline gun combat – within a whole new shell of exploration-based gameplay and a whole universe of deeply fascinating lore. There are many stories to be told within the realm of the Federal Bureau of Control; Jesse Faden's adventure in The Oldest House is just one of them.

More: The Most Shocking Video Game Moments Of All Time

Control releases August 27, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Screen Rant was provided a PlayStation 4 digital code for this review.

source https://screenrant.com/control-review/