Friday 27 April 2018

The E14 Gamecast - Episode 40: "Guys' Frights (Thanks Freddie!"

On this episode of The E14 Gamecast, Rob and Blake are joined by Brad and answer listener questions along with talking a bit about horror games!

If you want to give us your thoughts on the games we talk about, ask us questions or even suggest topics for us to talk about, you can contact us by email using podcast@emotionally14.com, tweet @emotionally14 or find us on the Emotionally14 Facebook page! For our gaming videos, check out the E14 Plays Playlist on YouTube!

Mailbag questions:

  • Q: How do you guys store your media?
  • We talk about our digital libraries
  • Q: What is the scariest game you've ever played for jump scares?
  • Q: What is the creepiest game you've ever played?

Rob is on Twitter @RobWadeVision, Blake is at @FuckSakeBlake and you can always follow E14 @Emotionally14!

The E14 Gamecast theme is courtesy of Deon Van Heerden, and you can find out all about him at DeonVanHeerden.com!


About The E14 Gamecast

A place to find the gaming content for Emotionally14. We'll talk reviews, excitement, upcoming releases - Hell, we'll even play a few! If gaining perspective on Team E14's gaming habits is your bag, this is the place you can get that fix!

iTunes

Podbean

Stitcher

Youtube

Spotify



Thursday 26 April 2018

Aaron’s Spoiler-Free review of Emelie

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Bad babysitters? You had me at “bad babysitters”! So, with that in mind, let’s continue, shall we?

There’s something about this genre that just does it for me.Perhaps it’s the play of a strange adult being given power over children forced to do their twisted bidding, all of which can unravel an entire cacophony of mind-chilling madness and cinematic depravity. Maybe I just have some deep-seated dominant matriarchal issues that are in serious need of addressing. Either way, I’m rock hard, so let’s continue!

What we have here is a film about a babysitter (obviously) named Emelie who, after having schemed her way into babysitting for two loving parents, has a whole other agenda at mind when she starts allowing the children to play inappropriate games, eat what they want, do what they want, and even stay up past bed time. That’s not a horror story is it? That’s a kid’s dream come true! Yeah, well…give it a minute. You’ll see.

As mentioned before, I love the babysitter aspect of horror. There’s something about an overruling adult who uses and manipulates kids to do their foul bidding that just makes for an excellent wrong'un, and throughout the film you just find yourself rooting for the kid to get out of the terrifying situation, bringing out that wannabe-heroic ten-year-old that lingers in all of us as they fight the powers that be! It’s like the rebellion of our youths taking on those mean, mean grown-ups that try to pin us down, whilst also proving that, even though we’re just kids, we can be heroes too! Yes! We! Can!

That being said, this film was shit. Nah, I’m only joking! Not a bad flick here, so to speak. We’ve got the bad babysitter who turns up to look after three kids, all of which are played fantastically, particularly the old brother, so kudos to our three young child actors there (I’m sure Rob will add the names. Even as he reads this he’s thinking “Oh, sure, yeah, Rob’ll do it! It's not like I have anything better to do!”)...

...

IMDB has them listed as Thomas Bair, Carly Adams and Chris Beetem. I assume, anyway.

Top points though, go to our leading lady playing the titular character, whose motives are very dark and twisted, who gives a fucking chilling performance and is definitely one I would like to see in more genre films of the like.

Now, this film is clearly not without its faults, and unfortunately, for me, just around the halfway point it does slowly begin to lose steam which is really unfortunate as this film had really strong legs to start with. What's weird is that as it then starts to go downhill, it also loses its momentum, which I’m pretty sure physics shouldn’t allow (Thanks, Obama!).

Still, not a bad flick, just not a particularly great one either, which is a real pity, because it really could’ve been, especially with such strong acting, pretty solid writing on the whole, and more than adequate direction.

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Rating: Just wasn’t for me, I guess. Oh, well. – 5/10


Aaron James Waters is a best-selling Pulp Fiction writer who has written more books than he's actually read.

He's also the rotten apple of the group who thinks this whole Star Wars thing needs to hurry up and die already.

You can find Aaron's debut novel on Amazon!





Wednesday 25 April 2018

Cloud Zombie's Rimworld Survival Tips

Rimworld has become the new Minecraft for me. No, I haven’t forsaken Minecraft but I have sidelined it for a while so it doesn’t become stale for me. Having clocked 344 hours on Rimworld (at the time of writing this article) I can well and truly say that I’ve fallen for it hard! That, my friends, is 14 Days and 8 hours of good times. Before you judge me, think about what site you came to and then rethink said criticism. Most of us have played Minecraft at some point in our lives, and those of us who do most likely know how to survive our first night and not run screaming like a noob from a creeper in the darkness. The important things you need to get yourself through the first night and out the other side is:

  • Food
  • Shelter
  • Light
  • Tools

For fun, see: Paul Soares Jr’s How to Survive and Thrive

Now, the thing with Rimworld is that it pretty much depends on you getting stuck straight in. If you don’t I’m sure your story teller of choice will find a way to rip you a new one. The story teller you have really affects what and when something gets thrown at you. We have Cassandra Classic, Phoebe Chillax and Randy Random.

Cassie will give you a nice gentle poke and build up through time to more of a swift knifing to the buttocks. Phoebes will throw things at you but she is considerate by giving you time to relax and rebuild what you may have lost during whatever happens. Randy is like a tap dancer on thin ice, you never know when it’s going to break but when it does you will get a cold dunk under the ice.

Incidentally, I’ve seen in the mods that you can download H.P. Lovecraft as a story teller. Good luck with that!

The scenario you have chosen for yourself goes a long way towards what you’ve got to work with once you hit that final button. There are three pre-made scenarios to choose from, you can create your own or download them the usual way (my game is via Steam). These Scenarios are: Crashlanded, The Rich Explorer and Lost Tribe. All three are very different in their complexities, parameters and how well organised you can be.

A lot of the time I either go for Crashlanded, a mod scenario or one I have created for myself. The ZombieLand mod on Steam is extremely good fun but also can be unforgiving; it was more heart wrenching than Xcom 2. Those of you who have played it will know what I mean.

Rimworld has the adventure of Minecraft and the management style of a strategy that seems to draw me in more each time. You never quite know what each game will be like, can never be quite sure who in your colony will flip out and slaughter the colony’s prize Labrador or who is one step away from cooking other colonists on the BBQ. It can happen...seriously! I once had a colonist decide to kill the pet Labrador because his bedroom wasn’t big enough. First (albeit remote) world problems ahoy. #RimworldProblems #NotTheDog

Nobody wants Captain Fluffy-Tail to snuff it through unnatural means so let’s get down to Cloud Zombie’s Rimworld Survival Tips!

  1. Choose Your People Well – Being diligent when it comes to the wellbeing of your colony is a must. That is why you should choose carefully what kind of people you are going to be dumping in the middle of nowhere, unless you were going for that kind of challenge. There are so many traits, life stages and personalities that could cause your colonists' worlds to fall down around them.
  2. Food! – If you don’t get delivered to your planet with survival rations you need to be on the lookout for scattered food stuffs, edible plant life and of course unsuspecting animals. To hunt you will need a bow or a gun of some kind and be able to shoot. Be ready for when your prey decides it isn’t putting up with your shit and turns to hand your arse to you. You will have to build a butchering table as well as a fire or stove to cook any meat that you collect. Your colonists can eat raw meat but it will make them sick thus lowering their mood. Starvation can set in quicker than you think, don’t leave it till the last minute. Also prepare for growing time. Sometimes you’ll be able to grow all year round but on some parts of the map you don’t get that luxury. Those potatoes aren’t going to sow themselves!
  3. Build, Build, Build! – People will get sick of sleeping on the ground and sleeping in a shared room quickly. Sharing a bedroom (unless they are partners) will lead to loss of sleep and (you guessed it) lowering their mood. Bed rooms, a common room and a place to store food (preferably refrigerated) are a must.
  4. I’ve Got The Power! – Electricity makes everyone’s life much better to bear, especially when starting again from scratch. Lights illuminate rooms and boost moods, and refrigeration stops precious food from rotting away.
  5. Joy To The World! – Everyone needs to blow off steam, relax and do something fun. This is where job items come in handy for keeping the colony morale up and on the level. Who knew a game of horse shoes could keep away the stabby-dog blues. #RimworldProblems #NotTheDog
  6. Say Hello To My Little Friend! – If you have no weapons create a crafting spot and make some bows to help you to protect your colony and feed them.
  7. Knowledge Is Power! – Once you are in a good enough place build a research bench and get to it! Researching new things that will make your colonists lives easier, happier and more interesting is the way forwards!
  8. Pure Imagination! – Have fun, create a story for your colony and try to see it through to the end.

Now that I have bestowed my knowledge upon you, go forth to a planet of your own and begin your journey.

Thank you for reading if in fact you have made it down to the bottom of the post. Let us know if you liked this post in the comments below, on Twitter, on Facebook and somewhere in your imagination. If you have time take a look at some other posts on the site, click one of the posts in the ‘Why Not Try’ section, check out the podcast and of course our Youtube channel.


Kat (aka Cloud Zombie) is a daydreaming enthusiast and self-professed Minecraft/Sims junkie from Kent, England.

She blogs about her passions over at cloudzombie, covering everything from video games, movies and TV all the way to baking.






Tuesday 24 April 2018

Tabletop Review - Dark Souls: The Card Game

Following on from the popular Board game, Steamforged has now made an adaptation of the popular videogame series in the form of a standalone deck-building card game whilst still maintaining the feel and certain aspects of the board game to get the feel of the videogame. Does it improve upon the board game, or is there room enough for both games in your collection?

Presentation-wise, Dark Souls: The Card Game captures the dark and gothic feel of the videogame franchise with artwork similar to that found in the board game. I would have liked the card quality to have been maybe a little thicker to avoid deterioration over multiple uses, but this can be assuaged with using card sleeves, although you may then struggle to fit all the cards in the box. This is only a minor niggle though as the quality in general is pretty good for all the components.

In terms of gameplay, you work co-operatively with each other (or solo as you can play alone) as one of 4 different heroes, you then set out from the bonfire to different locations of varying difficulty and defeating the monsters you find there. Combat works on a grid, allowing you to position your hero to effectively attack or avoid attacks from the different monsters. You also make attacks or defend using cards drawn from your deck which are either items or stamina cards, combining different types of stamina with the item you want to use to either block or attack.

If you defeat the monsters in the location, you gain loot and souls which you can either take back to the bonfire to “level up” by expanding your deck, or gambling the winnings by going on to the next location. However, the deck acts as your health and you discard cards from your hand or deck when you take damage. If any player runs out of cards from their deck, your team loses and you return to the bonfire losing any loot you have gambled. In addition to this, you can only rest at the bonfire 5 times so you have to choose carefully when to rest and when to risk being killed.

Like the board game, the monsters are controlled by a simple AI on their card so you know how a monster will attack and when you rest, the areas are reset and you have to fight monsters again. However, the monsters are drawn randomly from certain decks of varying difficulty so it keeps encounters different each time which is certainly an improvement on the board game.

I for one liked the level-up mechanic in the game as it made more sense for this game than if they had used a similar style to other deck building games like Legendary. Boss fights are also great fun and each boss plays slightly differently with a randomly drawn pattern of attack like the board game. I felt this played really well and my only gripe was that I would have liked more than just 4 bosses in the base game.

Although you can vary which bosses you fight and you only need to kill 2 to win a game, I hope they introduce expansions that add more bosses and exploration tiles to the game, especially as I would like to see other more famous bosses from the Souls series rather than those from Dark Souls 3. Overall, I really enjoyed the combat and the boss battles in the game and it is also very easy to set up and play in comparison to the board game. While it may still take an evening to play through 1 game, I didn’t feel the game slowed down in any way.

With all that said, there are a few minor gripes that stop this from being a perfect game for me, although whether you find these gripes as annoying as I did will very likely vary from player to player. Firstly, the rules could have been laid out a lot clearer and while it explained how the game was played well enough, it was counter-intuitive when I had to look up rules during my first playthrough. Also the reference cards, despite being helpful to identify the different symbols on the cards, did not explain more important things like what you can do in a turn and the key difference between certain actions and the attack patterns of certain monsters. When all this led to me reaching scouring through the rulebook on several occasions and there was no quick reference, it slowed the experience down a lot.

Obviously this niggle was relieved on future playthroughs but I still think this is a valid complaint. In addition to this, although I understand how cards were used in relation to working your way through your deck, it seemed weird that you would discard weapons and armour when performing certain actions to do more damage. I understand this was to force you to adapt and work through your stamina, but it did give me the mental image of breaking swords over monsters in order to kill them which felt a little bit silly in relation to an otherwise dark and gothic game.

As I said though, these downsides are only minor niggles and this is a great card game and worthy of your time, especially if you are a fan of Dark Souls and want something a little bit quicker to pick up and play than the board game. I just hope the game continues to be supported as there is a lot of room for growth here. 8/10


A mainstay on E14, Blake Harmer is that guy in your social group who's quiet for ages and then when he does talk, his comment sends the whole crowd into fits of hysterics. You know the person I mean? Well in this case, it's Blake.

For evidence of this, see The Crazy Train podcast or the E14 Gamecast, where Blake is hilarious.

Blake is a regular to the E14 Podcasts, and frequently appears on the Youtube channel. He doesn't use Twitter.



Monday 23 April 2018

Fire When Ready: Star Wars Legion First Gameplay!

In this episode of "Fire When Ready", Emotionally14's tabletop show dedicated to Star Wars Legion, Brad and Ian get a chance to take the game for a spin!

What will their first impressions be? Find out here!




Saturday 21 April 2018

Brick Fury - Star Trek "Away Team" Heroclix Gameplay - Blake vs Dave

Let's Play Heroclix!

In this episode of Brick Fury, the boys take some Star Trek "Away Team" Heroclix out for a spin! Dave takes on Blake in a one-on-one, while Brad and Ian provide a running commentary of the game in play!

Connect with the guys on social media:

Brad:
Instagram
Twitter

Ian:
Instagram

Blake:
Instagram
Twitter

Dave:
Instagram

Check out all the stuff the guys are doing on Instagram with the hashtag #brickfuryheroclix!



Friday 20 April 2018

The Crazy Train Podcast - Episode 65: "Blake's Appreciation Kitchen!"

Rob is joined by Blake Harmer and Brad Harmer-Barnes!

We get a bunch of listener questions, including from listener Jeremy!

In this episode:

  • Q: Which would you rather have, a horn or a tusk?
  • Q: What makes a movie a classic in your eyes?
  • Q: What did you make of the trailer for "The Meg"?
  • Q: Do you guys enjoy reality shows? If so, which ones?
  • Q: If you could do your own reality show, what would it involve?

Get On Board!

You can find out more about the guys below!

If you want to give us your thoughts on the subjects we talk about, ask us questions or even suggest topics for us to talk about, you can contact us by email using podcast@emotionally14.com, tweet @emotionally14 or find us on the Emotionally14 Facebook page!

Intro music: "Outlaw", by Deon Van Heerden. Find out more about Deon's music at Deonvanheerden.com!

We are part of the Brit Pod Scene podcast collective, a group of British podcasts working together to help each other improve and grow. Check it out on Twitter by searching #BritPodScene!


About The Crazy Train

Welcome aboard The Crazy Train - Emotionally14's flagship podcast dedicated to one theme: there are no rails. Ever.

Encompassing a wide range of subjects, from movies to TV to gaming, we'll give you a piece of our minds even if there's nothing in them, and you'll bloody love it.

Where will the Crazy Train go?

iTunes

Podbean

Stitcher

Youtube

Spotify


Thursday 19 April 2018

Aaron’s Spoiler-Free review of Cooties

Zombie flicks seem to be a penny a dozen these days, and just like Old Grandma, they ain’t what they used to be. Where Cooties doesn’t really bring anything particularly fresh to the table, it does warrant somewhat of a commendation when it comes to the fun factor.

Cooties is set at a School in a middle-America town called Fort Chicken, where substitute teacher and aspiring author Elijah Wood (Wilfred, The Faculty) is filling in for the day. Unfortunately, the kids become Zombies and start a mass killing spree and whatnot.

The film supports a pretty fun cast with the likes of Alison Pill (Milk), Rainn Wilson (House of 1000 Corpses), Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) and Leigh Whannell (Saw) (whose character stands out for me) just to name a few supporting this Horror Comedy vehicle. All of the cast bring their hilarious A-Game in both material and physical comedy.

The film does seem to struggle at first, laying the foundations with tricks and gimmicks and jokes we’ve all seen and heard before which got this comedy to a pretty stale start if I’m being honest, and if truth be told, for the first half-hour, I wasn’t sure whether or not I would enjoy myself.

However, once it made it past those first couple of hurdles (and things picked up a bit story wise) I found myself chuckling, shaking my head and saying “Oh, for fuck’s sake” in the most delightful way possible.

Sure, as mentioned previously, this film certainly doesn’t give us anything new, particularly seeing as the Zombie genre has been done to death to the point where it’s almost a gimmick that needs avoiding like found-fucking-footage films, but in that respect, when you do find a decent one, it’s worth holding on to and telling your friends about.

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Rating: This is certainly no masterpiece, and it’s far from timeless, but if you’ve 90 minutes to kill or you want something fun for movie night with your friends, I’d say this is definitely one to stick on the pile and may even have just enough value to revisit in the future. – 6.5/10


Aaron James Waters is a best-selling Pulp Fiction writer who has written more books than he's actually read.

He's also the rotten apple of the group who thinks this whole Star Wars thing needs to hurry up and die already.

You can find Aaron's debut novel on Amazon!





Wednesday 18 April 2018

E14 Toybox: Marvel Heroclix "Deadpool and X-Force" Booster Battle w/ Blake and Rob! (Dee Snyder Cut)

In this edition of the E14 Toybox, Rob and Blake compete in a Best of 5 Booster Battle. The brick of choice today is a Marvel Heroclix "Deadpool and X-Force" booster brick! With so many cool chases, will the boys pull something excellent out of the box?

The Scoring System:

Before opening each booster, we take a guess on the rarity of the rarest figure in our booster (Rare, Super Rare or Chase). If we get it right, that's 1 point. If ours is the rarest pull across the 2 boosters, that's another point. If it's a Chase figure you pull, any points you acquire for the round are doubled. Primes are also worth a bonus point, although they don't count towards the rarity unless there's a tie break.

Who will emerge victorious when all is said and done?

This is the extended "Dee Snyder" cut (Because Zack hasn't done any Marvel!) This edition features a more in-depth look at the dials and characters!



The E14 Toybox is a video show hosted by Rob Wade, dedicated to the pursuit and unveiling of Wizkids Heroclix figures. Whether Marvel or DC, booster or gravity feed, alone or with a buddy, Rob takes the unknown and reveals the mystery within for your enjoyment!




Tuesday 17 April 2018

E14 Toybox: Marvel Heroclix "Deadpool and X-Force" Booster Battle! Featuring Blake and Rob!

In this edition of the E14 Toybox, Rob and Blake compete in a Best of 5 Booster Battle. The brick of choice today is a Marvel Heroclix "Deadpool and X-Force" booster brick! With so many cool chases, will the boys pull something excellent out of the box?

The Scoring System:

Before opening each booster, we take a guess on the rarity of the rarest figure in our booster (Rare, Super Rare or Chase). If we get it right, that's 1 point. If ours is the rarest pull across the 2 boosters, that's another point. If it's a Chase figure you pull, any points you acquire for the round are doubled. Primes are also worth a bonus point, although they don't count towards the rarity unless there's a tie break.

Who will emerge victorious when all is said and done?

Look forward to the extended "Dee Snyder" cut coming soon, with extra detail on the pulls!



The E14 Toybox is a video show hosted by Rob Wade, dedicated to the pursuit and unveiling of Wizkids Heroclix figures. Whether Marvel or DC, booster or gravity feed, alone or with a buddy, Rob takes the unknown and reveals the mystery within for your enjoyment!




Monday 16 April 2018

E14 Toybox: Star Wars Destiny 2-Player Game Unboxing

In this edition of the E14 Toybox, Rob takes a look at the contents of the Star Wars Destiny 2-Player Game from Fantasy Flight Games! Rob's always said this is the best way to sell the game, is he correct? Find out here!



The E14 Toybox is a video show hosted by Rob Wade, dedicated to the pursuit and unveiling of Wizkids Heroclix figures. Whether Marvel or DC, booster or gravity feed, alone or with a buddy, Rob takes the unknown and reveals the mystery within for your enjoyment!




Friday 13 April 2018

The E14 Gamecast - Episode 39: "Can I Have Some Pocket Money? Or Else!"

On this episode of The E14 Gamecast, Rob and Blake answer listener questions!

If you want to give us your thoughts on the games we talk about, ask us questions or even suggest topics for us to talk about, you can contact us by email using podcast@emotionally14.com, tweet @emotionally14 or find us on the Emotionally14 Facebook page! For our gaming videos, check out the E14 Plays Playlist on YouTube!

Mailbag questions:

  • Q: What is Steam? I've no real clue
  • Q: Minecraft: Is it as shit as it looks?
  • Blake's been gaming some games!
  • Rob's been gaming some games!

Rob is on Twitter @RobWadeVision, Blake is at @FuckSakeBlake and you can always follow E14 @Emotionally14!

The E14 Gamecast theme is courtesy of Deon Van Heerden, and you can find out all about him at DeonVanHeerden.com!


About The E14 Gamecast

A place to find the gaming content for Emotionally14. We'll talk reviews, excitement, upcoming releases - Hell, we'll even play a few! If gaining perspective on Team E14's gaming habits is your bag, this is the place you can get that fix!

iTunes

Podbean

Stitcher

Youtube

Spotify


Thursday 12 April 2018

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Review of "A Quiet Place"

I’ve heard a lot of hype about this flick as I’m sure you have too, which is always a worry for me, especially when it comes to the horror genre. They may have fooled me once already with Get Out (clearly mileage varies pretty bloody wildly on that one), but old Aaron is hard to fool twice, so I went into the cinema not with a bag of hidden snacks, but with a bucket of scepticism…

That’s writing!

A Quiet Place, not to be confused with the song by "In Flames" or the name of an ill-advised Josef Fritzl biography, is a film about a family that has to live in complete and utter silence because there be long-legged beasties about that hunt using sound. Believe you me, these bad boys don’t fuck about when it comes to the snack-a-lackin’.

One of the most important aspects of this film, of course, is its soundtrack, and may I say that the sound editing team really pulled out all the stops on this one, giving the whole viewing (or listening, should I say) experience an extra helping of uneasity (that’s right, you think we’re afraid to make up words? Think again, son, check your privilege!) and the actors do a great job of treading on eggshells the whole way through whilst still conveying urgency.

Don’t get me wrong, this film is far from perfect, throwing a finite number of clichés in there that you could set your watch to, but with all that is coming out nowadays (particularly among genre films), I definitely think A Quiet Place brings a new breath of fresh air and sort of just wafts it about the place a bit, hoping that others of its kind may pick up the scent and yell “Oh damn this baby is kickin’!” or something along those lines.

On top of this, I found it a smidgeon of a slow-burner to begin with. In fairness this really wasn’t anybody’s fault. Ultimately, the theme of the film makes character building/introductions quite difficult given that they’re in total fucking silence and whatnot, but all was forgiven as soon as it picked up.

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Verdict: Definitely a strong swimmer all-round and what I’m hoping will make a great metaphorical poppadom leading us up to our summer movies to tie us over. Let’s just hope that this isn’t the best of the bunch so early on in the year. Then again, if it is, I do think it’s well deserved. – 7.5/10


Aaron James Waters is a best-selling Pulp Fiction writer who has written more books than he's actually read.

He's also the rotten apple of the group who thinks this whole Star Wars thing needs to hurry up and die already.

You can find Aaron's debut novel on Amazon!