Invisible Gamer News

Are you jealous?  You should be!  Thirty Seconds to Mars put on awesome concerts.  They do require patience, as they build to a slow burn but it explodes and stays at high energy with fantastic music. In case you live under a rock, let's start by introducing the band: Thirty Seconds to Mars is currently Jared Leto (frontman, lead singer/guitarist/songwriter, creative director) and his brother Shannon Leto (drums, rhythm, remixes, singer, songwriter, Jared's anchor).  My personal head canon is that Jared, who is secretly a vampire, drains his other bandmembers and makes them retire when they are too drained, but of course they all still like him.  Tomo Miličević joins Matt Wachter and Solon Bixler in retiring for non-specific but still staying friends with the Letos reasons.  Okay, Matt and Solon left for health reasons and Tomo recently got married, so they probably have perfectly normal reasons for not continuing to tour, but my head canon is funnier. ...

Have you played Heroes of the Storm ?  It's Blizzard's brawler... MOBA... collectible... what genre is this game, even?  Well, it's fun, that's for sure.  I decided to test it out after binging on trailers   (don't do it, the rabbit hole is deep! but fun) and realizing that I have never played HotS, but I have played other Blizzard games.  So I figured I would give it a try. I knew that I would be starting off at a huge disadvantage, what with being free to play and starting at level 1 but - it doesn't matter.  What matters is if you click (not even how fast) and if you are capable of teamwork.  I made some mistakes, and - people were nice about it.  I even accidentally joined an endgame match and ruined it for my team :( but they were all pretty chill about it.  HotS has a pretty generous questing/reward system that does not specify winning.  They just want you to play.  This is the regular matches, I assume the eSports sect...

Soulworker is an anime action brawler, created by Lion Games and published by GameForge.  Set in a post-apocalyptic purgatory, you play one of (currently) four young schoolchildren who fell from the real world into the world of Soulworker.  The tutorial gives you the setting, which varies slightly for each character, and then moves you to the first hub area.  From there, you begin questing so you can get gear so you can do harder quests for more gear and to progress the story, using energy every time you enter a quest area.  The combat is a lot of fun, but if you're unwilling to pay - the current in-game economy is beyond ridiculous, and the premium currency is wildly overpriced - the game gets very grindy. The characters are the different classes, and the character designs are all very charming, even if they go a bit far on the 'females are to be looked at' side.  There's Haru, a broadsword wielding pre-med student who is apparently allergic to things coveri...

Welcome to Copero!  A lovely resort planet of the Chiss Ascendancy, with a dark secret.  This storyline for this flashpoint was written by Timothy Zahn, author of the Thrawn novels.  This is probably the closest SWTOR has come to being considered canon for years. Aristocra Saganu disapproves of your Jedi ways. Featuring the return of the influential and impeccably voiced Aristocra Saganu, from the Agent storyline, Copero is an exciting run through a beautiful world. omg god rays! Copero also brings back another Agent companion, Ensign Raina Temple - for better or for worse, depending on how your Agent felt about her.  I did my first playthrough of Copero as a Chiss Jedi, and for the first time in a long time, that made a huge difference in the story.  There are lines specifically for Chiss, and for Jedi, and for Chiss Jedi.  It is amazing. This place is prettier than Makeb, and that's saying something. Copero continues the dark storyline...

So, someone who has no idea that I am some sort of Internet blog-journalist-gamer-reviewer (I like to mix genres, okay) gave me a free key for the Early Access of a new game from Epic Games, Fortnite .  It's a... game where you gather materials, build forts, and then defend them from zombies.  You also attach weather balloons to vans, build possibly alien technology to combat zombies, and power things with blue goo.  And I thought I liked to mix genres....  Anyway, the game is fun, and does not take itself particularly seriously.  Except in the excellence of the mechanics. Building is fluid and simple, the harvesting mechanic is fun, the heroes and survivors all look different and interesting, and shooting/stabbing/burning/launching zombies is just as much fun as you think it will be.  The only thing I do not like is the minimap, which can be very confusing especially when searching for mission items in a party.  It's possible I am just directionally...

The Secret World is an awesome game with a great setting and a fantastic story.  Seriously, it has some of the best NPCs and villains of any game, let alone any MMO.  Recently, they underwent Yet Another Change and rebooted as Secret World Legends , a free to play shared world action RPG with modernized combat and streamlined story.  I cannot let their flubs with the billing system get a pass, but there is already way too much about that on the official Reddit so I won't go into much detail aside from saying, yes, I was one of the people who got utterly screwed by HiPay and as someone who has worked in financial services back when I had a job, I can say that their screwups are completely inexcusable and it is only happening because Funcom was being cheap.  Or their CEO is dating the CEO of HiPay.  One or the other.  Aside from that, Secret World Legends is pretty awesome and I hope they follow through on their upcoming plans . I am a competitively casual ...

Z-Man Games had a great booth again this year.   We stood and watched a few demonstration games.   The stand outs were their new Arabian Nights game, and of course, Pandemic, which topically sold out before Saturday.   I only hope the supplies of Tamiflu don’t run out as fast.   In smaller games, Z-Man had Fairy Tale with the Richard Garfield variant rules in stock again – until someone snapped up the last one on Saturday. Also making an appearance (and dominating) on the Exhibition Hall floor was Blizzard, who apparently feel that life isn’t complete while they don’t control every aspect of a gamer’s life.   Until they come out with Blizzard-backed credit cards, there is the World of Warcraft Miniatures game.   Because you don’t have enough collectible WoW things that give you an in-game benefit!   To be honest, the miniatures are excellent.   The game rules are simple and fun – it is a two-player game, and in the gigantic starter box you g...

This year, Gen Con celebrated its 41 st straight year of being “The best four days in Gaming” while simultaneously mourning the loss of Gary Gygax, considered to be one of the fathers of modern roleplaying.   Approximately 85,000 consumer and professional attendees filled the Indianapolis Convention Center for the four days of the convention, shopping, eating, and exploring not just the space allocated to Gen Con but a large part of downtown Indianapolis as well. Gary Gygax passed away earlier this year at the age of 69 at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where the very first Gen Con was held in 1967.   One of Mr. Gygax’s favorite charities (among many) was the Fisher House ™ Program, which provides “comfort homes” near major military and VA hospitals, enabling military families to stay near one another in times of crisis.   Annually, the Fisher House™ program serves more than 10,000 families, and have made available nearly 2.5 million days of lodging at no cost t...