Ghoulish Games III: X-Com UFO Defense

Ghoulish Games III: X-Com UFO Defense — Blue Ink Alchemy

The first game I discussed for this holiday dealt with the experience on a personal level, free of monsters. The second focused on a particular monster. Now, let's talk about an overall game that actually captures an atmosphere of dread. The situation in X-Com: UFO Defense is as follows: Aliens are attacking human cities. They land in the town, blast civilians and leave. The multi-national community has created X-Com to investigate and prevent these attacks. They get a couple jet fighters with missile launchers, a transport to carry a squad of around a dozen troopers, some scientists to research alien technology and a workshop to build new equipment based on those discoveries. If X-Com does well, the nations of the world will keep giving them money. All you have to do, as the leader of X-Com, is at least keep your soldiers from dying. It's turn-based squad combat, and mechanically it isn't bad. Every solider has a set amount of time units to use every turn, and if you're out of time units when the enemy turn comes around, you can't shoot back at them when you see them. So you need to plan the moves and position of your squad carefully. Add to this the fact that you start with just over a half-dozen volunteers with the combat experience of a weekend's paintballing, armed with weapons purchased on a budget and multi-pocketed jumpsuits for armor, and the result is a surprisingly tense scenario in which a wrong move will have the aliens blasting your so-called professional alien hunters with glee. The idea of putting humanity at an initial disadvantage worked in Independence Day and it works very well here. With limited funds, there's only so much you can do when you start out. To get ahead, and gain any sort of tangible advantage on your foes, you need to meet them in combat, disadvantage or no. The combat in underscored by a minimalist, menacing theme that captures the tension perfectly, and night missions are particularly terrifying. Stopping a terror attack means landing in the city and hunting building by building, room by room for the aliens. On their turn, the aliens blast any civilians they see, but you can't see it. Their movement is hidden unless your soldiers can see what's going on, so for the most part you'll hear the fire of plasma weapons and the screams of the dying. Not only is it chilling in and of itself, it reinforces two key points of the scenario. If you don't hurry, there won't be any civilians left to save; and if too many of them die, you're going to piss off your investors. The terror in attack an alien craft or base is a different sort. Sometimes you shoot down a UFO over land, sometimes it lands on its own for some unknown purpose, and on occasion you'll find a base they've established on Earth. In all these scenarios, you're taking your team into an environment where you are at an even more severe disadvantage. In the case of a crash, they know you're coming and are waiting for you. Just getting off of the transport can be punishment, as the aliens helpfully assist you in reenacting the Normandy landings. Even if you survive the initial encounter, getting into the UFO or alien base means going into a confined space with which you're unfamiliar but the enemy knows intimately. Be prepared for ambushes, booby traps and unforeseen consequences. You might have your squad kitted out with flying suits, repeating plasma blasters and remote-controlled rocket launchers, and you still may find yourself biting your nails in nervousness as they open a new door in an alien stronghold. This is why X-Com: UFO Defense holds up after many, many years of innovation and progression in the realm of game design. It's straightforward presentation, atmosphere of dread and unrelenting challenge make it a lot of fun to play even today. It's also pretty damn scary, to the point where you can almost find yourself sympathizing with the stereotypical swaggering platoon leader who freaks out when the soldiers actually come into contact with the enemy. In other words, you almost feel sorry for Gorman from Aliens. Almost.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Ghoulish Games III: X-Com UFO Defense

Ghoulish Games III: X-Com UFO Defense — Blue Ink Alchemy

The first game I discussed for this holiday dealt with the experience on a personal level, free of monsters. The second focused on a particular monster. Now, let's talk about an overall game that actually captures an atmosphere of dread. The situation in X-Com: UFO Defense is as follows: Aliens are attacking human cities. They land in the town, blast civilians and leave. The multi-national community has created X-Com to investigate and prevent these attacks. They get a couple jet fighters with missile launchers, a transport to carry a squad of around a dozen troopers, some scientists to research alien technology and a workshop to build new equipment based on those discoveries. If X-Com does well, the nations of the world will keep giving them money. All you have to do, as the leader of X-Com, is at least keep your soldiers from dying. It's turn-based squad combat, and mechanically it isn't bad. Every solider has a set amount of time units to use every turn, and if you're out of time units when the enemy turn comes around, you can't shoot back at them when you see them. So you need to plan the moves and position of your squad carefully. Add to this the fact that you start with just over a half-dozen volunteers with the combat experience of a weekend's paintballing, armed with weapons purchased on a budget and multi-pocketed jumpsuits for armor, and the result is a surprisingly tense scenario in which a wrong move will have the aliens blasting your so-called professional alien hunters with glee. The idea of putting humanity at an initial disadvantage worked in Independence Day and it works very well here. With limited funds, there's only so much you can do when you start out. To get ahead, and gain any sort of tangible advantage on your foes, you need to meet them in combat, disadvantage or no. The combat in underscored by a minimalist, menacing theme that captures the tension perfectly, and night missions are particularly terrifying. Stopping a terror attack means landing in the city and hunting building by building, room by room for the aliens. On their turn, the aliens blast any civilians they see, but you can't see it. Their movement is hidden unless your soldiers can see what's going on, so for the most part you'll hear the fire of plasma weapons and the screams of the dying. Not only is it chilling in and of itself, it reinforces two key points of the scenario. If you don't hurry, there won't be any civilians left to save; and if too many of them die, you're going to piss off your investors. The terror in attack an alien craft or base is a different sort. Sometimes you shoot down a UFO over land, sometimes it lands on its own for some unknown purpose, and on occasion you'll find a base they've established on Earth. In all these scenarios, you're taking your team into an environment where you are at an even more severe disadvantage. In the case of a crash, they know you're coming and are waiting for you. Just getting off of the transport can be punishment, as the aliens helpfully assist you in reenacting the Normandy landings. Even if you survive the initial encounter, getting into the UFO or alien base means going into a confined space with which you're unfamiliar but the enemy knows intimately. Be prepared for ambushes, booby traps and unforeseen consequences. You might have your squad kitted out with flying suits, repeating plasma blasters and remote-controlled rocket launchers, and you still may find yourself biting your nails in nervousness as they open a new door in an alien stronghold. This is why X-Com: UFO Defense holds up after many, many years of innovation and progression in the realm of game design. It's straightforward presentation, atmosphere of dread and unrelenting challenge make it a lot of fun to play even today. It's also pretty damn scary, to the point where you can almost find yourself sympathizing with the stereotypical swaggering platoon leader who freaks out when the soldiers actually come into contact with the enemy. In other words, you almost feel sorry for Gorman from Aliens. Almost.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Ghoulish Games II: System Shock 2

Ghoulish Games II: System Shock 2 — Blue Ink Alchemy

I mentioned in my previous post on games that've unnerved me that the level in question had no monsters. It's a great example that the setting and design of a well-crafted atmosphere doesn't necessarily require direct antagonists to be effective. That isn't to say there's anything wrong with monsters, and in this second game I'd like to talk about one in particular that disturbed me when I first fought it, and stuck with me since then. The creature in question is the hybrid, from System Shock 2. Now, the game has a fantastic overall atmosphere, well-written villains and effective set pieces that hold up despite the advances in graphics. But the hybrids stick out in my mind because they're very well built creatures. They shamble and move like zombies but manage to say coherent things. Instead of the typical, savage war-cries of mooks in a first-person shooter, hybrids moan things like "Run..." and "Help me!" The basic premise of Body Horror is one that messes with our self-image on a basic level. The idea that an outside force can overtake our bodies and transform us into something hideous while we remain conscious of it is a chilling one. The hybrids are this idea writ large, antagonists that attack the player against their will, still conscious of who they were and what they have become, powerless to change their state or escape the horror, praying for death. This sort of foe crops up in later games. The Splicers in the BioShock games, people overtaken by headcrabs in Half-Life, the hellish creatures in Dead Space, even the zombies in Doom qualify. But for the most part, they aren't quite as effective. The headcrab zombies do manage the occasional plea, but their overall incoherence defangs the horror somewhat. Most of the others are relatively interchangeable and the sort of shambling if somewhat generic grotesque creature best dealt with using automatic weapons fire. It's one thing to gun down a nameless foe when they're screaming for your blood. It's quite another when a tearful former human is begging you for death even as it struggles not to hit you. I mean, sure, the improvised weapons they carry still hurt, but the impression I got was that if they were given a choice, the hybrids wouldn't be trying to kill you. But they're not given a choice. They were victims before the player showed up. This tragic fact underlines the horror of the creatures and, for my part, has stuck with me even though it's been years since I've played the game. Is there a particular opponent in a game that's unnerved you? An encounter that's left you shaken, made you think in a chilling way or just freaked you the hell out?

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Blue Ink Alchemy

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Demolition Man

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Demolition Man — Blue Ink Alchemy

This week's IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! brought to you by a generous donation by Maggie Carroll. Thank you for your support!

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/demoman.mp3] Let's face it. If you're over a certain age, you're going to look back on past years more favorably than you do on the present. Food tasted better, games were more enjoyable, and movies didn't suck as much. It's a little thing called 'nostalgia,' and it can color criticism of things we experienced as we grew up. If you're aware of this, you can push past those feelings of affection and avoid sounding like an unprofessional commentator stuck in a bygone time, much like the protagonist in Demolition Man. Eerily, as time goes on, the movie itself seems like a relic of the past. The movie opens in 1996 Los Angeles where two very transparently named characters do battle. Police detective John Spartan tracks his arch-nemesis Simon Phoenix to an embattled warehouse and takes the bad guy down. In doing so, he is the unwitting cause of some civilian deaths and put on ice. Literally. The new cryogenic prison is tested on these two, with Spartan eligible for parole in 40 years while Phoenix is put away for life. Fast forward to 2032, and the coastal cities of California have been conglomerated under the direction of Doctor Raymond Cocteau, who has brought order out of anarchy through some benevolent social engineering that's outlawed things like violence, "physical fluid exchange", bad language and spicy food. Phoenix escapes his parole hearing into this sunshiny society, which is seeking to stamp out elements that enjoy eating meat, spraying graffiti and thinking for themselves. To stop the sudden rampage of violent murders, the ill-equipped and pseudo-intellectual police thaw out John Spartan. After all, sometimes you have send a maniac to catch a maniac. I have to say that, while heavy-handed and sometimes coming off as a parody, the two futures presented by this 1993 film are equally bleak. It shows a 1996 LA torn apart by gang warfare, with fires, looting and anti-aircraft guns everywhere. The police have to roll into war zones with armored vehicles and riot weaponry. By contrast, 2032 San Angeles is the sort of clean, perfect society filled with nice, loquacious people that would give Aldous Huxley nightmares. Everybody is 'low-jacked' as one character puts it, nobody swears or commits violent crimes and people have food, shelter and comforts as long as they obey by the strict rules laid down by the good doctor in charge of it all. Since violence and crime itself are very nearly foreign concepts, the introduction of a gleeful killing machine like Simon Phoenix quickly flushes the place down the toilet.
It says something when Sly plays the more interesting character in the lead duo. If it weren't for the the whole "man out of time" angle, this Stallone action flick would be pretty generic. The bad guy chews through scenery and police officers who aren't the hero with ease while the good guys never get shot by anybody without a name. It's only the world of San Angeles and the reactions of Spartan and Phoenix to it that make this watchable. In particular, Stallone does a good job of conveying the discomfort, frustration and even loneliness of a driven, smarter-than-he-looks supercop thrust into a world where his violence is abhorred, his one-liners are chided and his approach towards women is considered repugnant. They also tried to turn him into a seamstress. It'd be horrifying if it weren't so damn funny. Speaking of funny, one of the best parts of this movie is Wesley Snipes cutting loose. You may think from the Blade movies that Snipes has no emotional range whatsoever. Not true. Simon Phoenix is a sadistic, wise-cracking, genre savvy madman, and his manic energy really fuels the narrative. The film actually seems to dim a bit when he's not on-screen. Other elements do buoy the story and keep it moving when he's not around, but when he's on he's having so much fun that it's hard not to crack a smile. That page that will ruin your life describes him as "a Hip-Hop Joker." I can't think of a more spot-on description.
You can't be taken seriously with that hairdo unless you kill every cracker you see. The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Sandra Bullock's character attempts to be endearing but can really start to grate on the nerves. Most of the other 'proper' San Angelenos have this pseudo-intellectual smugness that give the Architect from The Matrix a run for his money. There's so much jargon and multi-syllable words spewing from these sanctimonious dorks that I for one am happy when things start blowing up. On the other hand, Denis Leary doesn't so much play a character as he does himself if he were dropped into this world. That is to say, he starts messing shit up immediately. There's even a rant heavily influenced by his "Asshole" song. It's really nice to hear after an hour of future folk referring to everybody by their full names. At all times. The movie holds together for most of its running time but there's a point at which things kind of come undone. By the way, spoiler warning. So, Doctor Cocteau engineered this society to be free of crime and violence and everybody loves him because he saved them. Yet, he is the one who introduces Simon Phoenix into it, not just to hunt down Denis Leary, but to cause anarchy and chaos so he can rebuild the society. Again. In other words, he developed a utopia just so he could destroy it and build another utopia. For a good hour it seems like Cocteau is actually close to having a society free of irritants and yet he lets loose the biggest irritant of all. He easily could have kept Phoenix on a shorter leash and focused on the assassination rather than letting him run wild in San Angeles doing whatever the hell he wanted. For a character meant to be something of an evil mastermind, this strikes me as really, really stupid.
Maybe next time you'll think your clever plan though, doc. Demolition Man has some good things going for it. The best parts of the relationship between Joker and the Batman are extant between Simon Phoenix and John Spartan. Seeing these two action movie types in the setting of a defanged world is fun, as is the way they crap all over it - literally at one point, in the case of Spartan. But at the end of the day, it's difficult for me to recommend the movie. There are better, smarter action comedies out there. I have to say, though, that seeing a big, beefy guy like Sylverster Stallone picking up a ball of yarn and wondering how the hell he knows what a zipperfoot and a bobbin are is pretty much worth the price of admission. It's an interesting relic of the early '90s, and every once in a while you can call it up on Netflix to indulge that feeling of nostalgia I mentioned, but as a rule, this movie's best when treated like Simon Phoenix: for your safety and the safety of others, keep it on ice. If you want to introduce a little fun chaos and anarchy, thaw it out. But please, for the love of God, do not let it thaw out any of its friends. You've been warned. Josh Loomis can't always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it's unclear if this week's film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain... IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Ghoulish Games I: Bloodlines

Ghoulish Games I: Bloodlines — Blue Ink Alchemy

Halloween is right around the corner, despite the tendency of retail outlets to forget the holiday as quickly as possible. You can't milk consumers for as much cash with costumes as you can with guilt-induced gifts for family and co-workers they don't like. Anyway, since horror is interesting from a variety of standpoints and I missed talking about it in last night's Classholes podcast, I'm going to talk about three games that really get under my skin when it comes to giving me the creeps. The first one is the most recent, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The Ocean House Hotel is the setting for a task you can undertake early in the game. Unlike the other two games I'll be discussing, this setting is unique in that it doesn't contain a single enemy encounter. That's right. No shambling zombies. No bloodthirsty vampiric rivals. It's just you and the hotel. Of course, the hotel's haunted. The horror comes from some brilliantly simple set pieces and the building of atmosphere. The dilapidated, aging building already has a creepy air about it, the sort of building you might think of tearing down or fixing up if you could bear to get anywhere near it. Once inside, it's even worse. The peeling wallpaper, stained carpets and flickering light fixtures all point to something being very wrong, and that's before the clock chimes on its own and light bulbs burst without warning. Add the chilling sound design, from the rather subtle music to the quiet whispers to the peals of thunder, and you're bound to be on the edge of your seat for the entire time you're in the hotel, provided you can even step foot into it. I know of people who turn their sound off and wait for a bright morning to tackle this place, and still struggle to get through it with their hearts at a calm rate. I would love to talk more specifics, but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't played it. Seriously, beyond the hotel, Bloodlines is a game that holds up pretty damn well despite being buggy and a bit dated in aesthetic. It's available on Steam.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Ghoulish Games I: Bloodlines

Ghoulish Games I: Bloodlines — Blue Ink Alchemy

Halloween is right around the corner, despite the tendency of retail outlets to forget the holiday as quickly as possible. You can't milk consumers for as much cash with costumes as you can with guilt-induced gifts for family and co-workers they don't like. Anyway, since horror is interesting from a variety of standpoints and I missed talking about it in last night's Classholes podcast, I'm going to talk about three games that really get under my skin when it comes to giving me the creeps. The first one is the most recent, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The Ocean House Hotel is the setting for a task you can undertake early in the game. Unlike the other two games I'll be discussing, this setting is unique in that it doesn't contain a single enemy encounter. That's right. No shambling zombies. No bloodthirsty vampiric rivals. It's just you and the hotel. Of course, the hotel's haunted. The horror comes from some brilliantly simple set pieces and the building of atmosphere. The dilapidated, aging building already has a creepy air about it, the sort of building you might think of tearing down or fixing up if you could bear to get anywhere near it. Once inside, it's even worse. The peeling wallpaper, stained carpets and flickering light fixtures all point to something being very wrong, and that's before the clock chimes on its own and light bulbs burst without warning. Add the chilling sound design, from the rather subtle music to the quiet whispers to the peals of thunder, and you're bound to be on the edge of your seat for the entire time you're in the hotel, provided you can even step foot into it. I know of people who turn their sound off and wait for a bright morning to tackle this place, and still struggle to get through it with their hearts at a calm rate. I would love to talk more specifics, but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't played it. Seriously, beyond the hotel, Bloodlines is a game that holds up pretty damn well despite being buggy and a bit dated in aesthetic. It's available on Steam.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

— Blue Ink Alchemy

Halloween is right around the corner, despite the tendency of retail outlets to forget the holiday as quickly as possible. You can't milk consumers for as much cash with costumes as you can with guilt-induced gifts for family and co-workers they don't like. Anyway, since horror is interesting from a variety of standpoints and I missed talking about it in last night's Classholes podcast, I'm going to talk about three games that really get under my skin when it comes to giving me the creeps. The first one is the most recent, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The Ocean House Hotel is the setting for a task you can undertake early in the game. Unlike the other two games I'll be discussing, this setting is unique in that it doesn't contain a single enemy encounter. That's right. No shambling zombies. No bloodthirsty vampiric rivals. It's just you and the hotel. Of course, the hotel's haunted. The horror comes from some brilliantly simple set pieces and the building of atmosphere. The dilapidated, aging building already has a creepy air about it, the sort of building you might think of tearing down or fixing up if you could bear to get anywhere near it. Once inside, it's even worse. The peeling wallpaper, stained carpets and flickering light fixtures all point to something being very wrong, and that's before the clock chimes on its own and light bulbs burst without warning. Add the chilling sound design, from the rather subtle music to the quiet whispers to the peals of thunder, and you're bound to be on the edge of your seat for the entire time you're in the hotel, provided you can even step foot into it. I know of people who turn their sound off and wait for a bright morning to tackle this place, and still struggle to get through it with their hearts at a calm rate. I would love to talk more specifics, but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't played it. Seriously, beyond the hotel, Bloodlines is a game that holds up pretty damn well despite being buggy and a bit dated in aesthetic. It's available on Steam.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

On NaNo & Scrivener

On NaNo & Scrivener — Blue Ink Alchemy

So National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo to you Web-savvy types - is right around the corner. I know a few of my fellow pensmiths will be participating in the event, and I'm more than happy to offer my support, encouragement and advice. But I, for one, won't be participating. The simple reason for this is my current novel isn't done yet. However, since November is a big month for writing and the tools writers use, the time will not pass me by idly. Scrievener has released the beta for the Windows version of their lauded writing software, and I'll be testing it out. I want to see what it can do, how it makes the job of a novelist (in my case) easier. In addition to providing feedback to the Scrivener team on whichever feature I'm focused on, I hopefully will give writers some idea of what the software can do for them. Some of the posts will deal with a particular feature of Scrivener while others will simply discuss how it's been useful to me in my editing, outlining or querying process. My goal, other than helping the development team out and supporting my fellow writers, is to have a completed draft and solid query ready for December. My current draft, while decent, still needs work. The beginning isn't quite what it could be. It needs to grab attention and set mood & theme right away. It does a better job now than it did but it could still improve. Other scenes in the novel need to be streamlined, expanded or completely rewritten in a couple cases. But the first order of business will be to get it organized and laid out, and that's where Scrivener will come in. Provided I can get it running, of course. And it doesn't melt my processor or something.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Into the Nentir Vale: Part 3

Into the Nentir Vale: Part 3 — Blue Ink Alchemy

The Nentir Vale is a campaign setting provided to new players of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. It's present in the Red Box and most of the starting materials. For a party almost all completely new to D&D and a DM re-familiarizing himself with the latest edition, it's a great place to start a campaign. This will be an ongoing recollection of what happens to the party as they make their way through the Nentir Vale. Enjoy. Part 1 • Part 2 I seem to have misplaced the quotes I scribbled down from our last session. Which means this recap will likely be somewhat dull. - DM They called it Kobold Hall, or Kobold Keep. Some of the more disgruntled denizens of Fallcrest called it Kobold Hole. It was a known nexus of activity for the reptilian raiders, but no individual or group had stepped forward to deal with the threat. Until now. The band of sellswords from Fallcrest made their way into the old ruin. At the base of what was once a guard tower, they found a trapdoor with rusty hinges. Tugging on the ring revealed stairs leading underground. At the base of the long stair was a dank room dominated by a pit of sludge and patrolled by kobolds. The guards bore spears and slings, while Andrasian hefted his Lifedrinker Battleaxe, Lyria drew her daggers, Melanie began casting spells and Krillorien hewed into the kobolds with longsword and holy words. Beyond the sludge pit was an ancient tomb converted into a shrine for the kobolds' twisted rituals. Krillorien bristled at the sight of such graven imagery as the party moved into the room. However, more than reptilians occupied it. The suits of armor situated in alcoves along the walls spat darts on anyone large enough to trigger the connected pressure plates. Lyria, being small and light, breezed over the plates on her way to deliver a series of stabbings to her foes. After the kobolds had fallen, they found the shrine in the corner was to Tiamat, the dire dragon goddess of greed and envy. The next tomb had been converted into a kobold playground. A large stone, covered in sludge, hung from the ceiling on the end of a long rope. Small animal skulls were arranged on the coffins in the room. The object of the game, it seemed, was to smash the skulls on the coffin - or those of any intruders. Avoiding the stone as it swung through the room was problematic for most of the party, as Lyria's size again gave her an advantage. However, Andrasian and Krillorien immediately took it upon themselves to spoil the game by severing the rope. Melanie's spells took care of the players as they made for the doors at the far end of the room. Lyria ran up and across a wall to reach one of the platforms from which the players had cast their ball, only to find a fearsome guard drake waiting for her. The fight that followed was pitched, but in the end the party survived. Awaiting in the adjoining chamber was a wyrmpriest of Tiamat and his cohort. As the sellswords rushed into the room, a giant boulder crashed out of the side of the room and began rolling towards them. A slightly depressed portion of the floor by an inner chamber kept the boulder rolling around, making positioning difficult. The wyrmpriest was a bit too eager to exercise his ability to breathe ice, and Melanie proved herself a superior spellcaster. For her effort, she found a staff of the war mage on the kobold's corpse. But the question as to why the kobold's ability involved cold breath was a somewhat disconcerting one... All locations, NPCs, spells and equipment copyright Wizards of the Coast unless otherwise noted.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

The Hunter in Cataclysm: Survival

The Hunter in Cataclysm: Survival — Blue Ink Alchemy

I didn't have the good fortune to make it into the beta for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm but with the release of the latest Patch, I can now make some educated guesses as to how the different talents of my primary class, the Hunter, are going to fall together. I plan on using my secondary specialization to try out the other talents and offer some thoughts, as I've been playing the class and struggling to play it well since Burning Crusade, especially since I met my wife. So here's the first in a series of guides to the Hunter talent trees. There may be a video once I've covered all three. Even if I don't have the swank accent of TotalBiscuit. I'm also going to take it in turns to talk about the new abilities coming, in order: Cobra Shot, Aspect of the Fox and Camouflage. [spoiler]

The Survival Tree

Explosive Shot is the 'signature ability' of this tree. With most of our damage over time (dot) effects being Nature-based, a little Fire changes things up even if it's only a 2-second dot effect. The further you go down the tree, the more benefit you'll see from using this shot whenever it's off cooldown and you have the focus to fire it. Into the Wilderness increases your Agility, the statistic you'll want the most of as you move down the tree. Not only does it translate into ranged attack power, it also increases crit chance and dodge, which is handy for both PvE and PvP. Finally, Essence of the Viper increases all of the Hunter's elemental damage. That's Nature, Fire, Shadow, etc. So the more Mastery you have, the more danage your Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot and Black Arrow will do. Can you say Reforging? I thought you could. Let's get into the talents. Hunter vs. Wild Carrying over from pre-patch days, this is a straight boost to Stamina. A good place for the first three points in a PvP build. For raiding, you may be better suited putting those points in... Pathing Gone are the days of needing to switch your tracking to match whatever unfortunate mob you're filling with tiny shards of metal, be they arrows or bullets. Pathing replaces that micromanagment talent with a no-nonsense increase of ranged haste. Since Steady Shot now has a straight cast time of 1.5 seconds, I believe this has our regular attacks woven into our rotations more frequently rather than reducing that cast time. I'll test more to confirm this. Anyway, a PvE build would do well to fill this one out. PvP may benefit from this as well, but you may want to circle back to this after grabbing some other talents. Improved Serpent Sting Basically, when you hit a mob with Serpent Sting it'll do instant damage on top of its dot effect. Keep in mind that this doesn't apply to Chimera Shot over on the Marksmanship tree, only to the initial application of Serpent Sting. Chimera Shot refreshes the dot only. Now, Multi-Shot is another story but I'm getting ahead of myself. Either way, grab this talent. Survival Tactics While you're not going to be fooling most real players with Feign Death, mobs are another story. Reducing trap resistance is handy and being able to Disengage more often means more clever ways to get yourself out of a fix. To me, this is more of a solo PvE or PvP talent. Farming or grinding mobs is easier with crowd control they can't resist, and locking a player in place with an Ice Trap (see Entrapment) can make a big difference in arena situations. I say pick this up if you're levelling or heading into the arena, pairing it with... Entrapment Turning what is normally an annoyance, either a slowing of movement or a lot of little poison effects, into a root is essential for arenas. The more crowd control you can subject your opponents to, the better. With crowd control making a comeback in Cataclysm, this may also become necessary for raiding if you want to spec your Hunter as something beyond a pew-pew-pewing DPS class. I'd say this is pretty much a must-have for top-level PvP, and a 'maybe' for raiding. Trap Mastery This, on the other hand, is good for all builds. Your ice-based traps last longer, your fire traps and Black Arrow do more damage and Snake Trap produces more snakes. Instill Indiana Jones' biggest fear on folks with this. This is one of those talents that provides a good immediate benefit and gets even better with talent synergy further down the tree. Point of No Escape Keeping with the theme of crowd control's comeback, this little talent increases the chance of critical strikes on targets affected by our Ice or Freezing Traps. Again, this hasn't come up as much in the pre-expansion content, due in part to Wrath's raids being so focused on area-of-effect pulls instead of complex ones requiring crowd control, but looking to the future a raiding Survival Hunter is going to want this talent. Thrill of the Hunt This talent helps with our focus management. Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot and Black Arrow having a chance to replenish 40% of their focus costs to me can be very helpful in a fight. More focus means you're using something other than auto shot or Steady Shot more often which means more damage. Good for any build. Counterattack If you're unfortunate enough to get into melee, this can save you. When it activates, hit it and then Disengage. It's highly situational, though. With Trap Launcher you can CC an opponent before they close to melee range in arenas, and if you're quick enough you won't have to trade blows with an angry Death Knight. We're just not a melee class. For PvP specs, you may again want to circle back to this after you fill out the other, more universal talents. Lock and Load This may be my favorite old talent in Survival. I can't recall if it included Arcane Shot pre-patch, because Arcane Shot used up too much mana. However, with the advent of Focus and situations in which your pet may be marginalized, weaving Arcane Shot into the old Explosive-Steady-Explosive dance when Lock and Load procs may increase your damage without clipping Explosive Shot's dot effect. Pick it up and save some points for T.N.T. to get the most out of it. Resourcefulness Must-have for all Survival builds. Even if you don't use traps that often, reducing Black Arrow's cooldown means more elemental damage, more Lock and Load procs with T.N.T. and higher overall DPS. Mirrored Blades Deterrence is our "OH CRAP!" button, and Mirrored Blades just makes it better. Not only are you essentially immune to damage, but you can reflect spells back at your attacker. Definitely a PvP talent especially for arenas. You'll need the points elsewhere for PvE builds because, frankly, if you're getting hit with spells often enough that you need to hit Deterrence, somebody's doing something wrong. T.N.T. "I'm DY-NO-MITE!" Crank up the AC/DC and do tons more damage. With this talent, you don't need to drop a trap for Lock and Load to proc. It's not the guaranteed proc of the Freezing and Ice traps, but it happens often enough to boost your DPS. And in PvP situations it increases the tools at your disposal to put out more than enough hurt to put down the warrior frothing at the mouth to put an axe in your face. Toxicology I'm not a statistician, so I don't know the numbers as to how often our dots deal critical damage. When it happens, it's good if they hurt more. Still, there are other talents requiring our attention, and with the other talents on this level you may find yourself only putting one point in here as you progress down the tree. If you're speccing for PvP, this is a good time to pick up Counterattack instead. PvP is more about burst damage than damage over time, after all. Wyvern Sting An additional method of crowd control not bound to a trap. This will probably see more use in Cataclysm's raids than it does in Wrath's, and for PvP putting a healer to sleep can really mess up the other team's day. Not to mention it unlocks Black Arrow. Get it. Noxious Stings Makes your Serpent Sting more damaging and Wyvern Sting more annoying. It almost makes Wyvern into a miniature Unstable Affliction, which Affliction Warlocks can tell you piss people off to no end. Definitely worth its points. Hunting Party Reduced in cost to 1 talent point, this now gives a raid-wide buff to attack speed as well as giving you even more Agility. Are you really going to pass up that big a bargain? No? Didn't think so. Sniper Training In most raid situations, you're likely to be standing in one place. Some fights do have you moving around, which I'll talk about more when I discuss Aspect of the Fox. But doing more damage when your Kill Shot crits and more overall with Steady & Cobra Shot is definitely a benefit to the party in PvE situations. When it comes to PvP, though, this talent is a bit more questionable. Points normally reserved for here could go in Mirrored Blades, Toxicology or even up in Pathing or Point of No Escape if you haven't gotten them already. In battlegrounds you may find yourself occasionally standing still, but in arenas if you stand still too long you end up dead. Serpent Spread My favorite new talent. I call it the Oprah talent. "You get a Serpent Sting! YOU get a Serpent Sting! EVERY BODY GETS A SERPENT STING!!" Note that with Improved Serpent Sting, your Multi-Shot will now be doing its damage, Serpent Sting's improved damage and also applies the dot effect. TO EVERYTHING IT HITS. You shouldn't need a math degree to see this translates into big numbers. I'd say this is a must-have for PvE builds. Battleground builds may also benefit from this especially when the other faction rushes your control point. Finally, arena builds aiming for the 5v5 bracket can use this well when the other team comes out of the gate, but this counts on them staying close enough for Multi-Shot to hit everybody. I've yet to test it in that situation, but I'll keep you posted. Black Arrow The pinnacle of Survival. Without this shot, quite frankly, half of these talents aren't worth taking. It applies shadow damage, enhanced by Essence of the Viper and other talents, as well as giving a change for Lock and Load to proc. Worth both the talent point and its focus cost. So, those are the Survival talents in a nutshell and based on my personal experience and opinions. Now for some speculation!

Cobra Shot

With the same casting time as Steady Shot but applying Nature damage and increasing Serpent Sting duration, Cobra Shot looks to be an interesting alternative to our old standby. I imagine this shot will crop up more in Beast Mastery and Survival rotations than Marksmanship. Beast Masters won't have to worry about refreshing Serpent Sting and can reserve their focus for Kill Command. Marksmen will be using Steady Shot as Chimera Shot will do more damage than Cobra and fill the "refresh the Sting" role. Survivalists, with their increased elemental damage, will want Serpent Sting to last on their targets as much as possible. Next: Marksmanship and Aspect of the Fox. [/spoiler]

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Three Stars

Three Stars — Blue Ink Alchemy

As part of VACATION HELL over at Terribleminds, I submitted a little horror story called "Three Stars". Now that it's posted there, I can post it here as well. Enjoy!

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She walked through the halls with his picture in her hand. She stopped the hotel's staff and other guests alike. She struggled to keep her tone of voice even, despite the desperation of the last 24 hours that had pushed her to this point. Every person she stopped was asked the same question. "Excuse me, have you seen my husband?" They'd look at her, then at his picture, then shake their heads. Some of them uttered apologies and others just shrugged and told her "no hablo inglés". She was getting that a lot. It didn't surprise her, given they'd chosen to honeymoon in Mexico, but it was making her search more frustrating. They didn't find a lot of options. Despite both having jobs, being young and in entry-level positions meant that there wasn't a lot of money to spare after bills and debt payments were satisfied. Still, both of them craved not only a honeymoon but one abroad. The meager savings they had put airfares and decent hotels both out of reach, leaving them with anything within driving distance. Adding in their truncated timetable due to a lack of vacation days, and that left Tiajuana. "Excuse me, have you seen my husband?" "No hablo inglés, señora." A cockroach chased its mate into a crack in the baseboard. The wallpaper was stained with water damage to varying degrees all around her. How this hotel had managed a 3-star rating in its reviews on Google, she'd never know. Maybe some of the employees here were savvy enough to bump up the hotel's ratings and draw in more lodgers, but surely tourists like herself had been smart enough to point out things like the large rat in the emergency stairwell. She thought she saw another rodent as she entered the lobby. The dark shape scurried behind an endtable, a solid wooden set piece that was slammed against the wall by the bellboy. She jumped at the sudden movement, and the bellboy looked up at her. There was no sympathy in his eyes, only a cold dispassion for his menial task. She backed away from him and forced herself to turn to the front desk. "Have the police called?" "No, Mrs. Frazier, they have not." The desk clerk leaned on his meaty hand, sweat glistening on his skin. "I suspect the spring breakers and the soccer hooligans are keeping them busy." "Please, my husband's been missing for an entire day. Surely someone out there's seen him." "If they had I would have been called, and I would have called you right away. Just like I told you two hours ago, señora." She sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to keep bothering you. I'm just worried about him." "I know. I understand. So do all the guests who've come to me asking if you're feeling okay. Nobody's really complained yet, but it's only a matter of time. Please, go back to your room." She nodded, thanking the desk clerk and tipping him. She walked back to her room feeling defeated. Then again, what had she hoped to accomplish? Was she really so certain someone would just recognize him out of the blue? She shook her head. She needed rest. She found the door to her room already ajar. The housekeeping cart was outside. She pushed the door open to find the maid going through her husband's wallet. "Hey!" As she moved into the room, she registered that the young Hispanic woman was holding onto a very specific card as she dropped the wallet. "Mrs. Frazier!" "What right do you have to go through my husbands things?" Frazier grabbed the woman by the wrist and glared at her, and then glanced at the card. It was his blood donor card, which had his blood type listed in bold letters. Frazier looked back at the frightened housekeeper. She was about to demand an explanation when she felt something sharp jab her in the neck. She struggled to turn behind her to look, only catching a glimpse of cold, dispassionate eyes before everything went dark. When she woke up, she was aware of being cold and of her side hurting like crazy. She moved her arm towards the pain and felt tiny round objects sliding around under her skin. Her fingertips touched her side, but instead of smooth flesh they found rough stitches. She moved her head to try and look down, and whimpered in disbelief. She was naked, face-down, in a bathtub full of ice. The stitching was over a long incision on her side towards her back. Three knots stood out among the stitches, like tiny black stars against her white skin. Numbly, she tried to climb out of the bathtub only to collapse. She struggled to get a grip on the counter and hauled herself over the sink, where she promptly threw up. Gasping for air afterward, phlegm and spittle dripping from her face, she turned her eyes to the white piece of paper on the counter. "Your kidney has been removed. Seek medical attention." She reached for the paper, but instead of picking it up it slid away from her towards the floor. It turned over in the air and she found her husband smiling back at her. Sobbing, she picked it up. After a moment, she grabbed a towel from the rack. Wrapping it around herself she stumbled out of the bathroom and into the hallway. There was a water fountain by the door to the back stairs. She took a drink then shambled into the emergency stairway. The rat watched her with beady red eyes. She came out on the first floor. She held the towel tight to her body as she stopped the first man she saw. His back was to her. "Excuse me..." He turned. Her eyes went wide. The picture fell from her numb fingers. The clerk at the desk heard her scream.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Further Thoughts on Zwartboek

Further Thoughts on Zwartboek — Blue Ink Alchemy

My wife did an excellent job reviewing Black Book yesterday. I can't say I disagree with anything she said. The film (called Zwartboek in its native Dutch) didn't work quite as well as it could have on a variety of levels. Danielle touched on a couple and I'd like to expand on them, mostly because I think a movie that comes close to working and doesn't is far more interesting than one that either works on all sides or fails completely. So, why doesn't Black Book work?

As a World War 2 Movie

Neither Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan have anything to worry about here. While Black Book is aiming more for espionage than full-on warfare, the atmosphere of hope in the face of despair is better captured in Schindler's List. There's also some elements of Black Book that try to tackle how human nature, true human nature, is revealed in armed conflict. Saving Private Ryan does that better. This isn't to say that Black Book is bad or inept in handling these things, they're just not handled as well as they are in the other two films.

As an Ass-Kickin' Jew Revenge Flick

Quite a few movies have come out recently featuring Jewish protagonists putting their kosher boots up the asses of those despicable Nazis. Munich, Defiance, Inglorious Basterds even You Don't Mess With The Zohan, though that dealt less with Nazis and more with rednecks and terrorists. Anyway, I haven't seen Munich and Defiance is similar to Black Book in that it's a moody piece centered around a little-known aspect of the war. We all know about Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Stalingrad and Hiroshima - the struggle for Belarus isn't as famous. Neither is the liberation of Holland, for that matter. However, the best one of these so far remains Inglorious Basterds. As both a realization of the ultimate retribution of God's chosen against the Third Reich and a sprawling espionage epic, Tarantino handles his story and actors adroitly while Verhoeven keeps his focus squarely on Carice van Houten getting her clothes off as often as possible. Which leads me into my last topic.

As a Verhoeven Film

On the whole, I like Paul Verhoeven's work. More often than not, the success of his films are directly proportional to the amount of tongue he has in the subject matter's cheek. Starship Troopers, for example, takes the piss out of militarism and the sort of ultra-nationalist sentiment towards loyalty that'd make either the Nazis or the Tea Party blush. Total Recall plays with the notion of identity and memory, keeping that element from Philip K. Dick's work if nothing else. RoboCop easily pokes holes in privatization, our obsession with the media and the nature of corporate greed while delivering some pretty powerful storytelling. But Black Book plays everything straight. While I respect Verhoeven for not making light of the plight or challenges of the resistance in Holland in the twilight of the war, it's also missing some of the elements that make quite a few of Verhoeven's films such a delight to watch. Black Book is what happens when Verhoeven is, in essence, too serious. He has gone entirely the other way before, though, if Showgirls is anything to go by. In the end, I did enjoy Black Book but everything it does has been done before and better elsewhere. It's not bad, at all, but it's definitely not the best.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Black Book

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Black Book — Blue Ink Alchemy

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/blackbook.mp3] This review marks the one year anniversary of ICFN's podcast component, and to celebrate this, uh, monumental occasion, this review is being written and voiced by me, Danielle, aka that wife Josh always talks about. You'll probably notice some stylistic differences between the two of us, too, so try not to get your panties in a twist when I'm not as polite as he is. Fair warning. Anyway, I had originally wanted to do something old and loved that I haven't seen before, so I could shit all over everyone's nostalgia because, let's face it, most cult classics are pretty terrible. However, we'd already watched Black Book before Josh thought to tell me this was the one year episode so here I am, reviewing yet another fucking World War II movie. Yay. Now, I love World War II. I own a collection of books on the subject. Schindler's List is the best movie that ever has been -- and probably ever will be -- made. Reich 5 is one of my favourite of the Infinite Worlds. So when even I am so fucking sick of this shit that we put off watching this movie for like a month and a half, you know it's bad. Josh only picked this one up because MovieBob recommended it in some review or other, which made me even more skeptical, as he and I seem to either really agree or really disagree on most movies. But we'd put it off long enough and we needed to watch it for Netflix to send us anything else, so we finally bit the bullet and now, here we are. The movie opens in '50s Israel, where we meet two women – Ronnie Nolastnamegiven, a tourist, and Rachel Stein, a schoolteacher. They happened to be friends from Holland who haven't seen each other since the war. After doing some catching up, Rachel, played by the very lovely Carice van Houten, goes off to contemplate how they met and how she ended up in Israel, and the movie starts for real this time. It's nearly the end of the war, but that hardly makes things better for Rachel, who's hiding place was just blown up and is now trying to flee the country. Needless to say, shit goes pear-shaped and after everyone she ever knew or loved is murdered by Nazis she joins the Resistance. If you're starting to think she'd make a good JRPG protagonist, you're not alone. From there on out, it's pretty much your standard World War II spy movie. Stein is a woman, so obviously she can't fight, and instead seduces a Nazi officer, but of course she falls in love with him, and someone is selling their group out but they don't know who, blah blah blah... There are more twists than you can count on one hand and only one is at all surprising, but even that takes forever to get to and forever to resolve. Having the movie go on for so long after the war ended was a mistake. At one point of hilarious self-awareness, van Houten sobs "Will it never stop?!" I was wondering that myself. Given the pretty unoriginal premise, the film relies almost completely on the actors' performances, which are admittedly great pretty much across the board. One scene with Theo, played by Johnny de Mol, was absolutely ridiculous and just made me laugh, but I don't know if that was the actor or the retarded dialogue he was being made to spew forth. All of the characters except Stein, Müntze and Akkermans are pretty much impossible to feel any sort of empathy for because they're vehicles for World War II drama archetypes, not actual people, and even those main three aren't too interesting. So, should you put Black Book on your Netflix queue? If you're looking for a solid period drama, Schindler's List is better. If you just want to see Nazis getting killed, you'll be sorely disappointed, and should just queue up Inglorious Basterds and its loose interpretation of historical accuracy. If you want to see Carice van Houten whip her tits out with alarming frequency, you could do a lot worse than Black Book. But really, just do a Google search for screenshots. There are plenty, trust me. … Ahem. Josh Loomis can't always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it's unclear if this week's film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain... IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Games as Storytellers

Games as Storytellers — Blue Ink Alchemy

After finishing off A Game of Thrones, the review of which I intend to write up some time this weekend, I started taking my DS on the train instead of a book. I fired up the updated Chrono Trigger. It's amazing how quickly the game sucked me right back into its story. It's made me think. With all of the rendering software, high-definition platforms and cutting-edge AI technology out there, this game, first released back in the early 90s, still captivates me. It's got 16-bit sprites, music based on the SNES chip and only a few buttons to speak of. Why does this game grab and hold my attention the way bigass mainstream games can't? It tells a great story. Not every game sets out to do this. In fact, most of them get their start due to a new technology, a game mechanic or one of those pithy memos from the marketing department. And this isn't a bad thing. A game should be seamless in its integration between mechanics, narrative and design. The experience that results makes games as different as night and day. Halo is a big-budget Michael Bay movie. Mass Effect 2 is a season of a science fiction TV series like Battlestar Galactica or Stargate. Chrono Trigger's a well-worn novel. These are subjective comparisons, but you get the idea. As I continue to edit Citizen in the Wilds, get feedback on its query and struggle to conserve enough energy to work on either of those, I find myself looking at games in terms of potential for telling stories just as much as they are diverting little distractions from activities that earn money. World of Warcraft can even be used to tell stories, and not just through the quest log text and boss fight quotes. Especially if one is on a role-playing server, typed dialog, emotes and even the occasional spell can help tell a story that isn't just interesting to the player but to those around them. Unless your name is Rostal Korobrats. Of course, these things have to remain on the conceptual level for now. I simply have too many other concerns. The day job, the novel, maintaining an apartment, following up on paperwork for a variety of things while keeping the lights on and food in the pantry... all that typical life stuff that comes with being a responsible adult. However, once I get Citizen more reasonably poised for release to someone who can get it to print and things become less stressful in terms of budget and time constraints, maybe I can explore some of the tools at my disposal. It's all conjecture at this point, but it centers around the idea that a game that is equal parts design, mechanics and narrative can be an immersive and memorable storytelling experience even if the technology isn't bleeding-edge and the budget isn't in the millions of dollars. It's the idea behind a lot of the indie games out there. Braid tells an intricate story while being a platformer with an interesting time-manipulation gimmick. Minecraft might not tell much of a story but it does allow its players to build, create, be anything they want, and that in and of itself has the potential for storytelling. We get inspiration from all sorts of places. Games inspire me. The day may even come when I'm inspired to make a game of my own. I just can't do it now. Or any time soon. I like being sane. Relatively speaking.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Surviving The Patch

Surviving The Patch — Blue Ink Alchemy

He's back, and he's pissed. Most of the people I know who play World of Warcraft are looking forward to the latest expansion, Cataclysm. Those of us who've played the previous games remember Deathwing, and are pretty pleased with both his place as this expansions 'Big Bad' and his upgraded appearance. Because if you want to communicate how hardcore you are, grafting dark iron armor to your freakin' skin is a good way to do it. Anyway, Deathwing's pretty pissed off at Azeroth. But not quite as pissed, I think, as some of the game's players since the patch that introduced the class changes and altered some of the mechanics and strategies in a pretty radical fashion. Since my only max-level character is a hunter, I can only speak to how the changes have really affected gameplay for him, so I'm going to do that. I do have a warlock and a death knight to level, but there's Hallow's End to take care of first. Meantime, here's my pontifications on being a survival hunter post 4.0.1 and why everybody needs to calm the hell down. It's a hard truth but it's something that needs to be said. Our DPS sucks right now. It's not because we're doing anything wrong post-patch, nor is it due to Blizzard nerfing the class. The problem is that 80 is no longer the highest level. The gear, the stats, the abilities and synergies are no longer tweaked for us to produce maximum DPS at level 80. In the meantime, we're left trying to pump out as much damage as possible, when it is impossible to legitimately optimize since we're no longer truly at level cap. The level cap won't actually exist until December, so what should be a minor obstacle in our path to optimization is instead a hard barrier that makes a lot of people very upset. It's like driving down a highway in a car stuck in fourth gear. The engine wants to produce the speed we're demanding when we stomp on the gas, but the transmission just can't convey the right amount of energy to the wheels, so the engine makes a lot of noise while the wheels struggle to move more quickly. Fifth gear exists, we just can't shift into it. That link between the gearshift and the transmission simply doesn't work yet. As a survival hunter, I definitely feel like something is missing. The priority of shots is slightly different, I'm still getting used to the focus mechanics (and I really like them, don't get me wrong) and I only figured out how this new Call Pet functionality works this morning. But you know what? It's not the end of the world. I'm not hurt or disillusioned over this. In fact, I'm kind of excited. Lock and Load still works just as well as it did before the patch. And I love the hell out of Lock and Load. Now that Steady Shot's cast time is based on 1.5 seconds, which is the exact duration of the tiny dot effect of Explosive Shot, weaving Steady Shot into the free Explosives proc'd by Lock and Load doesn't require extensive haste gearing. Sure, it's nice to shoot more quickly, but you don't need to stack haste specifically to get there. There's also the fact that we will be working Cobra Shot into that mini-rotation as well. Which brings me to my point and the reason I'm not complaining. Our skills, gear and damage output will no longer appear "optimized" at our current level. They never will again. Our goal will now be to get to 85 and begin optimizing there. And along the way there will be other abilities to pick up, play with and work into our rotations. For hunters, that's Cobra Shot. It does nature damage and extends the duration of Serpent Sting, and with Survival's Mastery and Noxious Sting talent, that's going to increase our damage output significantly. The problem is we're not going to see Cobra Shot until December. So until then, we're going to seem 'nerfed' even though we aren't. Basically what we should be doing now, instead of complaining, is figuring out how the trees have changed and if our old favorites are still up our alley. Again, using the specific example of being a survival hunter, I find I need to think about what I'm doing a bit more often when I'm shooting. Focus conservation seems to be the watchword and I'm still sorting out the best way to maintain it for delivering special shots when they're off cooldown. If I ever get annoyed at my lack of Focus, I can try out Beast Mastery since I hear they have Focus coming out of their ears. I've never really liked the idea of having the bulk of my damage done by the pet, though. That's just me. Your mileage may vary. I guess what I'm trying to say, in general, is we need to calm down. You can't wander into the kitchen, look at the cake as it sits in the pan before it's put in the oven and judge it like a finished product. You have to wait until it's done baking, the frosting's been added and appropriate extra bits applied. Then you can say for certain if it's good or bad. Right now we've got a lot of batter to work with. It's not going to taste as good as it will in December. Once we accept that and work with what we've got, the next month and a half won't seem quite so long. Just my opinion.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Movie Review: Red

Movie Review: Red — Blue Ink Alchemy

Seeing Red was admittedly not a choice I'd have made on my own. But my mother recommended it to me. Mom doesn't see too many action flicks, you see. She has an aversion to rampant bloodshed and casual cluster F-bombs. So going into Red, knowing its premise, seeing MovieBob's review and able to name pretty much the entire speaking-role cast off the top of my head, I figured I knew what I was in for. And I was right: Red was a good time, albeit something of a tame one. Not that this is a bad thing, per se. Not every movie needs to be full of gore, profanity and gratuitous full-frontal nudity. ...What? It doesn't. Stop looking at me like that. Based somewhat loosely on a graphic novel penned by Warren Ellis, the man who gave us Transmetropolitan, Red centers on Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, an aging covert operative put out to pasture by his superiors. He isn't finding retired life agreeable, and it's quickly apparent that part of him will never stop being a spy. His only real joy comes from conversations with a young woman at the pension office whom he calls just to hear the sound of her voice. Then some guys show up and try to kill him. They fail, mostly because Frank's still a badass, and he leaves his quiet life behind to discover that someone has flagged him and some former associates as "Retired, Extremely Dangerous." Thus the premise is established for a cast of Oscar-winners, venerable screen actors and some very bright rising stars to come together to have fun shooting guns, driving cars faster than the speed limit and blowing things up. On the surface, it seems pretty flimsy. The action bounces from location to location somewhat abruptly and without any sense of time actually passing. But it's hard to consider that a major problem in the film when the cast is clearly having a great time.
God save us from the Queen. Indeed, the venerable leading ensemble is Red's greatest strength. Without this cast working this will together and this naturally, this film would fall apart. Everybody is here doing what they do best. Bruce Willis is quietly and thoroughly badass. Morgan Freeman is charming, grandfatherly and... well, Morgan Freeman. John Malkovich is crazy. No, I mean batshit crazy. Even President God chimes in with "There's something wrong with that boy." They cast Dame Helen Mirren as a wetworks asset, but honestly, she's a damn thief. She steals the movie any time she's on screen. Richard Dreyfuss pulls a respectable Dick Cheney impression as the film's heavyweight, and while we're on the subject of heavies, isn't it nice to see Brian Cox in a role where he's not the bad guy? He gets to smile, dance with the beautiful British woman and do the same sort of casually awesome things as the other big names. It's a joy to behold.
"I can think of worse punishments for being in Doom than getting beat up by Bruce Willis." The newcomers in the cast aren't bad, either. I've always liked Karl Urban, and he's got underutilized range for a guy who keeps getting roped into action flicks. Then again, most of his pedigree was pretty impressive before this. He's Eomer, the new Dr. McCoy, and I hear he's going to be Judge frakin' Dredd. As long as they keep Sly away from that one, I'd say the Mega-Cities are in good hands. Anyway, he's good in this. He holds his own with the big names and that's no small feat, even in a movie like this. Mary-Louise Parker, whom some may know from Weeds is the girl who isn't the Dame. She's the voice with whom Frank has fallen in love. She's decent as well, never coming across as a shrinking violet damsel in distress. It's nice to see two women with dimension in an action comedy like this, but unfortunately Red fails the Bechdel test. The two chat about men while they're hunkered down in Victoria's sniper perch. The other problem I had with her character was that there was no real growth. She's just as eager for travel and adventure at the end as she is in the beginning. It's a minor quibble. But this movie's got more than a few minor quibbles to it.
"Okay, sir, I'm going to have to transfer you to the Minor Quibbles department, please hold..." Along with a flimsy premise, the plot's also pretty standard. There's no plot twist a movie-goer who's seen at least a few action or espionage flicks won't see coming. Sure, Red plays with an expectation or two, but for the most part there aren't any big surprises to be had in here. Most of the best action & special-effects shots have been given away by the trailers. The one-liners are decent but I can't remember a single one from the movie that'll have me saying "That's from Red" a year from now. Mostly because it was probably written elsewhere first. There's also just a few too many stereotypes at work in here. Spoiler alert: The black guy dies. And the Russian guy's name? Ivan. At least he's not the bad guy. Seeing him as an ally had me marking this above Salt right from the off. For its numerous plot problems — not holes, mind you, just problems with predictability — Red is actually decently written. None of the characters, stock though they may be, feel one-dimensional or caricatured. Except the Dick Cheney expy. But, seriously, screw that guy, he's a dick. All in all, I can think of worse ways to spend an evening at the movies, especially when it's on a parental dime.
"Son? Your mother sent us to have a word with you about your spending habits." Stuff I Liked: Karl Urban is back to kicking ass and he's given something good to do with his skills. The action's cleanly shot. The writing's decent, especially for a Hollywood action comedy. It's always cool to see Rebecca Pidgeon. And Ernest Borgnine looks pretty good for his many well-respected years. Stuff I Didn't Like: The plot's terribly predictable. Mary-Louise Parker's character doesn't really go anywhere. I didn't feel like I was seeing anything new; I couldn't tell which bits were homages, which were parodies and which were meant to be both. Or neither. Stuff I Loved: Damn, this cast. Great chemistry, well-paced banter, big-name movie people having a good time. There's great little moments where a shot or a line can't help but evoke a smile, from Frank's gun of choice being the old Colt .45 automatic to just about anything Helen Mirren does. And Karl Urban's precision F-strike is perfect. Bottom Line: A cool little action comedy. Sure, it looks good on the big screen and you might have a decent time seeing it on the big screen, but I can't help but think that the mediocrity might be smoothed over by some friends and booze.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Reinventing the Wheel

Reinventing the Wheel — Blue Ink Alchemy

via The San Francisco Chronicle You've heard the turn of phrase before. "There's no need to reinvent the wheel." Basically it's an argument that doesn't necessarily invalidate innovation, but suggests that working within established constraints means less work and a lower investment of time and resources. At the same time, only going with what's known leads to stagnation. If people doesn't innovate, nothing grows or changes. Yes, people like what's familiar and are uncertain of new things. It's why this year's Madden is going to outsell a game coming from the independent market. It's why fans are eagerly awaiting the next novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series and overlook brand new titles in the fantasy genre. This isn't a universal truth to be sure, as there will always be people willing to try something new, but it's true enough to be noteworthy and, in my opinion, worth examination. When you get right down to it, on a mechanical level, there's little difference between Gears of War and Mass Effect, especially the second title. They're both cover-based shooters using a third-person perspective. However, they're as different as night and day. The former's focus on multiplayer, brutality and grim protagonists in interchangeable suits of armor is worlds apart from the latter's storytelling, character design and decision making. In other words, they're both wheels, but one's a big thick tire on a monster truck while the other's a Pirelli on a Bugatti Veyron. BioWare didn't reinvent the wheel to make the experience of playing Mass Effect 2 distinctive from that of playing Gears of War 2, they just built that wheel differently. Another good example? The aforementioned Song of Ice and Fire. It's a fantasy novel series, so it'll sit in the same section as Lord of the Rings. But George RR Martin isn't all about exotic races, magical powers and a clearly-defined evil villain. Instead, his focus is on sweeping political landscapes, lands and armies rooted very much in our history and lots (and boy, do I mean lots) of interesting, well-rounded characters. GRRM doesn't reinvent the wheel to write his books or get his point across. Instead, he draws from both the universes of fantasy with which we're already familiar, and also from the legends and accounts we either know from studying history or recognize as familiar due to our own experiences. It makes a story with an expansive scope feel deeply personal. It's entirely possible that in our own creative process, we head down a particular path. We want to try something new. We want to go places that haven't been explored, approach an obstacle in a radical way. As we proceed down the path, more ideas occur to us. It's tempting to pull those ideas into the work at hand, just to see if it works. And then, when it comes time to look over where we are and how we came to be there, the path behind us is at least a bit messy, if not damn near incoherent. We've wandered a bit too far. We've tried to reinvent the wheel. This doesn't mean the mess is without merit, however. A square wheel, after all, can be chiseled into a round one if you're willing to clean up the debris when you're done.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Writers: Don't Forget To Write

Writers: Don't Forget To Write — Blue Ink Alchemy

I love gizmos. I'm sure a lot of other people do too. Handheld gaming consoles. Cell phones that also play TV shows. My mother just picked up a new iPod Nano and damn, is that thing slick. Touch screen, bright display, bigass internal storage... as they say, "the woiks." Writers especially seem to like gizmos. Scrivener is something of a software gizmo for writers that other writers will not stop raving about. Nevermind that, unlike the true artists out there, I don't own a Mac. The aforementioned Shuffle's the only iProduct I own. Still, I see a lot of creative folks making good use of iProducts - Chuck Wendig is using his iPad to tell tales of the Dreaded Dawntaint in his travels. But I have to wonder. How much of banging on keys actually constitutes "writing"? We bang on keys to communicate, to play games, to balance checkbooks, search for stuff on the Internet, the list goes on. Writing is a different process in our minds, yes, but procedurally it seems like there's little to keep it from all mushing together into one long amorphous string of fevered keystrokes. For my part, just like a Nook or Kindle will never replace the weight of a real book in my hands, no keyboard or LCD monitor will ever replace the tactile satisfaction I get by pouring my creativity onto a piece of paper through the medium of pen. There's a notebook in a vinyl cover from the Writer's Museum in Edinburgh that contains the last third or so of Citizen in the Wilds. And when the going gets tough in my process, I toss out all the modern trappings and get back to basics. I put pen to paper. Case in point, the ever-elusive query. I simply couldn't figure out why the damn thing isn't coming together in a way that any person who isn't me interested in reading this book, let alone selling it. So on the train home on Friday, after I finished George RR Martin's excellent novel A Game Of Thrones, I broke out the binder and my pen and started jotting down notes. I think I have a line on making a query that's decent but just waiting to be rejected into a query that'll grab the attention of someone who sees it cross their desk. Now, I realize that in both typing out this blog post and translating the ideas born from the notes I've jotted into an electronic text file, I may come across as being a little hypocritical. But I'm also not going for an "unplugged" sort of lifestyle. Like I said, I love gizmos and I'm going to be using them for many, many years to come. It's just nice and fulfilling, on occasion, to do things the old-fashioned way. Even if my penmanship is still a little sloppy.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Well, this is embarassing...

Well, this is embarassing... — Blue Ink Alchemy

Well, crap. This is my own fault. I completely forgot to set up a post for today before I left. Nor did I write any "backup" posts to toss up here in cases like this. So, instead, here's a picture of Dame Helen Mirren with a machine gun. More on this awesomeness tomorrow, possibly.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Pandorum

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Pandorum — Blue Ink Alchemy

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/pandorum.mp3] I am loathe to admit this, but I've made it a point in my writing and especially this series not to be disingenuous in my assertions. That's a good way to get punched in the face. So here it is: I don't like spook houses. Those standalone buildings in carnivals, fairs and amusement parts where part-timers are paid to jump out of closets at you? Yeah. Not really my scene. I don't consider it horrific when I get startled. It's just annoying. Around this time last year when Pandorum was out I didn't really pay much attention to it, half-expecting it to be a jump-out scarefest dressed up as a high-concept sci-fi horror flick. This is one of those times when I'm pretty happy to admit I was wrong. The Elysium is a spacecraft carrying thousands of colonists and biological samples for the settlement of the distant Earth-like planet of Tanis. Earth has just about run out of room and resources. While humanity suffocates on its own wastefulness and hubris, the Elysium's passengers are kept in deep cryogenic sleep for their 123-year journey with the promise that they'll save anybody left behind. When Corporal Bowers wakes up for his shift, however, there are immediate problems. He's been out long enough to lose parts of his memory. His ship is dying, its reactor core malfunctioning and its navigational systems unable to tell him where they are. His superior officer, Lieutenant Payton, has a similar memory problem when he wakes up. As Bower heads for the reactor to fix the ship and Peyton acts as mission control at the one working console, two things become apparent very quickly: The officers are not alone aboard the Elysium, and one or both of them are suffering from a mental condition similar to nitrogen narcosis related to extended cryogenic sleep - a condition they call Pandorum. Do you have a feeling you know where this is going? If not, maybe you should consider watching more movies. Specifically, you need to check out Alien, The Descent and Event Horizon, because those are movies that at best inspired Pandorum and at worst were victims of a blatant idea mugging at its hands. Players of System Shock 2 or Dead Space will feel right at home as well. On the surface, there isn't much about the concept, narrative through-line or inevitable "twist" moments that haven't been seen, experienced or lampshaded before. But that's a general overview and maybe a little unfair. The devil, as they say, is in the details.
It's a shame more PhDs aren't this badass. Or this hot. It's been said that as soon as you fill your spaceship with metal grating floors devoid of carpeting and lights that flicker on and off, your protagonists might as well use marinade for a shampoo. However, in the case of Pandorum, the set design is a big part of the atmosphere. This ship is old, with limited power and even more limited resources. Instead of dropping beefy space marines or even powered armor the protagonists have to learn to use into the situation, our heroes have little more than their clothes on their backs and whatever improvised weapons they can lay their hands on. I never said borrowing from Alien was a bad thing, after all. We're pulled into the story and feeling the dread and claustrophobia of Bower long before we see our first creature. Speaking of which, this was the second work of Stan Winston's legendary creature shop after the mastermind's untimely passing. The first was G.I. Joe - the less said about that the better. Anyway, I might have appreciated the psuedo-tribal designs and creepiness more if I'd gotten better looks at these things, however the camera moves so damn much whenever they're around that it's really difficult to do so. Giving fleeting glimpses of a monster instead of showing us what we're in for is good as a rule. It's why the original Predator works on a level that neither Aliens vs. Predator movie comes close to reaching. But the more Pandorum goes on, the more it feels the film crew shot it this way after getting drunk and deciding emulating Michael Bay's camera work was a great idea for their fight scenes.
I don't think Dennis wants to be reminded of G.I. Joe, either. Another problem this movie has is in sound design. Now, the soundtrack of Pandorum isn't all that bad, at least to my ears but then again I'm a sucker for tribal drums in my sci-fi, e.g. Bear McCreary's kickass music for Battlestar Galactica. And the screams of the creatures are fine, creaking bulkheads, visceral tearing noises, etc. The problem I had was with the level of dialog. With so much else going on it's really easy to lose lines or entire exchanges as they're frantically whispered between the survivors. I understood that being quiet was necessary for survival in most of the open areas of the ship, but some scenes were very difficult for me to follow in terms of dialog. Then again, this might be the fault of watching this via the Netflix Instant service in a room right next to a busy intersection. There are a lot of minor flaws in the overall movie that would cripple the entire project if there weren't good things holding them up. Beyond the set design and lighting, we have a pace that gradually builds the tension and is in no rush to get to the bottom of the mysteries, opting instead to keep the action moving and build the characters. Par for the course considering this somewhat derivative material, the characters we get aren't really all that deep or unique. However, what I like about them is that none of them are beefy macho space marines. The obligatory knife-twirling action babe began life as a geneticist and her stoic, large spear-wielding guardian was a farmer. These are normal people that managed to survive in extraordinary circumstances. The closest we come to military characters are Payton and Bower. And while Bower does some of the heavy lifting action-wise, he's not exactly the Emperor's Finest.
Bower and the film's only ray gun. This is a good thing, though. It's one of the best things Pandorum has going for it. Ben Foster as Bower does just about everything right in ways that invoke pleasant memories of Bruce Willis playing John McClaine in Die Hard. He and the other survivors demonstrate good instincts and decent cognitive skills, for the most part. There's only one point at which an audience might yell at the screen at a character for making a bad decision. I've always liked Ben Foster, from his funny and touching turn as Spacker Dave in The Punisher to his unhinged second gun to Russell Crowe in 3:10 To Yuma. Seeing him take the lead here is a very pleasant experience, and as much as Bower might be just an engineer and not cut out for combat or extreme survival, there is a scene in which my jaw was hanging open - not at the visuals, not at the viscera, but merely at the demonstration of an everyday guy having some big, brass balls. It's nowhere near a perfect movie. In terms of sci-fi horror, Alien has nothing to worry about. Pandorum is saved from failure by surprisingly decent writing and acting, excellent set design and a premise that assumes the audience is smart enough to follow along without needing things explicitly spelled out every step of the way. They just seem to forget that we've seen other movies before, meaning we've seen some of these elements before as well. If Pandorum were a baked concoction, you'd throw together equal parts Alien, The Descent and Titan AE, dash it with a little Dead Space and frost it with Event Horizon after it's done baking. The result probably isn't all that good for you and you'll have tasted better, but that doesn't stop this particular little experiment from tasting pretty damn good. Josh Loomis can't always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it's unclear if this week's film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain... IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Pandorum

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Pandorum — Blue Ink Alchemy

(We're experiencing difficulties with recording equipment.
We apologize for the inconvenience.) I am loathe to admit this, but I've made it a point in my writing and especially this series not to be disingenuous in my assertions. That's a good way to get punched in the face. So here it is: I don't like spook houses. Those standalone buildings in carnivals, fairs and amusement parts where part-timers are paid to jump out of closets at you? Yeah. Not really my scene. I don't consider it horrific when I get startled. It's just annoying. Around this time last year when Pandorum was out I didn't really pay much attention to it, half-expecting it to be a jump-out scarefest dressed up as a high-concept sci-fi horror flick. This is one of those times when I'm pretty happy to admit I was wrong. The Elysium is a spacecraft carrying thousands of colonists and biological samples for the settlement of the distant Earth-like planet of Tanis. Earth has just about run out of room and resources. While humanity suffocates on its own wastefulness and hubris, the Elysium's passengers are kept in deep cryogenic sleep for their 123-year journey with the promise that they'll save anybody left behind. When Corporal Bowers wakes up for his shift, however, there are immediate problems. He's been out long enough to lose parts of his memory. His ship is dying, its reactor core malfunctioning and its navigational systems unable to tell him where they are. His superior officer, Lieutenant Payton, has a similar memory problem when he wakes up. As Bower heads for the reactor to fix the ship and Peyton acts as mission control at the one working console, two things become apparent very quickly: The officers are not alone aboard the Elysium, and one or both of them are suffering from a mental condition similar to nitrogen narcosis related to extended cryogenic sleep - a condition they call Pandorum. Do you have a feeling you know where this is going? If not, maybe you should consider watching more movies. Specifically, you need to check out Alien, The Descent and Event Horizon, because those are movies that at best inspired Pandorum and at worst were victims of a blatant idea mugging at its hands. Players of System Shock 2 or Dead Space will feel right at home as well. On the surface, there isn't much about the concept, narrative through-line or inevitable "twist" moments that haven't been seen, experienced or lampshaded before. But that's a general overview and maybe a little unfair. The devil, as they say, is in the details.
It's a shame more PhDs aren't this badass. Or this hot. It's been said that as soon as you fill your spaceship with metal grating floors devoid of carpeting and lights that flicker on and off, your protagonists might as well use marinade for a shampoo. However, in the case of Pandorum, the set design is a big part of the atmosphere. This ship is old, with limited power and even more limited resources. Instead of dropping beefy space marines or even powered armor the protagonists have to learn to use into the situation, our heroes have little more than their clothes on their backs and whatever improvised weapons they can lay their hands on. I never said borrowing from Alien was a bad thing, after all. We're pulled into the story and feeling the dread and claustrophobia of Bower long before we see our first creature. Speaking of which, this was the second work of Stan Winston's legendary creature shop after the mastermind's untimely passing. The first was G.I. Joe - the less said about that the better. Anyway, I might have appreciated the psuedo-tribal designs and creepiness more if I'd gotten better looks at these things, however the camera moves so damn much whenever they're around that it's really difficult to do so. Giving fleeting glimpses of a monster instead of showing us what we're in for is good as a rule. It's why the original Predator works on a level that neither Aliens vs. Predator movie comes close to reaching. But the more Pandorum goes on, the more it feels the film crew shot it this way after getting drunk and deciding emulating Michael Bay's camera work was a great idea for their fight scenes.
I don't think Dennis wants to be reminded of G.I. Joe, either. Another problem this movie has is in sound design. Now, the soundtrack of Pandorum isn't all that bad, at least to my ears but then again I'm a sucker for tribal drums in my sci-fi, e.g. Bear McCreary's kickass music for Battlestar Galactica. And the screams of the creatures are fine, creaking bulkheads, visceral tearing noises, etc. The problem I had was with the level of dialog. With so much else going on it's really easy to lose lines or entire exchanges as they're frantically whispered between the survivors. I understood that being quiet was necessary for survival in most of the open areas of the ship, but some scenes were very difficult for me to follow in terms of dialog. Then again, this might be the fault of watching this via the Netflix Instant service in a room right next to a busy intersection. There are a lot of minor flaws in the overall movie that would cripple the entire project if there weren't good things holding them up. Beyond the set design and lighting, we have a pace that gradually builds the tension and is in no rush to get to the bottom of the mysteries, opting instead to keep the action moving and build the characters. Par for the course considering this somewhat derivative material, the characters we get aren't really all that deep or unique. However, what I like about them is that none of them are beefy macho space marines. The obligatory knife-twirling action babe began life as a geneticist and her stoic, large spear-wielding guardian was a farmer. These are normal people that managed to survive in extraordinary circumstances. The closest we come to military characters are Payton and Bower. And while Bower does some of the heavy lifting action-wise, he's not exactly the Emperor's Finest.
Bower and the film's only ray gun. This is a good thing, though. It's one of the best things Pandorum has going for it. Ben Foster as Bower does just about everything right in ways that invoke pleasant memories of Bruce Willis playing John McClaine in Die Hard. He and the other survivors demonstrate good instincts and decent cognitive skills, for the most part. There's only one point at which an audience might yell at the screen at a character for making a bad decision. I've always liked Ben Foster, from his funny and touching turn as Spacker Dave in The Punisher to his unhinged second gun to Russell Crowe in 3:10 To Yuma. Seeing him take the lead here is a very pleasant experience, and as much as Bower might be just an engineer and not cut out for combat or extreme survival, there is a scene in which my jaw was hanging open - not at the visuals, not at the viscera, but merely at the demonstration of an everyday guy having some big, brass balls. It's nowhere near a perfect movie. In terms of sci-fi horror, Alien has nothing to worry about. Pandorum is saved from failure by surprisingly decent writing and acting, excellent set design and a premise that assumes the audience is smart enough to follow along without needing things explicitly spelled out every step of the way. They just seem to forget that we've seen other movies before, meaning we've seen some of these elements before as well. If Pandorum were a baked concoction, you'd throw together equal parts Alien, The Descent and Titan AE, dash it with a little Dead Space and frost it with Event Horizon after it's done baking. The result probably isn't all that good for you and you'll have tasted better, but that doesn't stop this particular little experiment from tasting pretty damn good. Josh Loomis can't always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it's unclear if this week's film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain... IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy