In Which I Make Excuses for Being Lazy, Amongst Other Things!

Hey there, all zero of my readers! Just flinging out a quick post to update y'all on things that be happening. First off, my Assassin's Creed IV review was delayed, mostly because I decided to give it a second playthrough to test it on its replayability (as well as just generally making sure my review is thorough and consistent), so be patient! It's coming! Inevitably, the delay on the Assassin's Creed review has done bad things to my planned review of XCOM: Enemy Within as well so keep an eye for that at some fuckin' point (in fairness, this has also been pushed back because I drastically underestimated how much new content is in this expansion and I still haven't finished it).

As far as other gaming stuff goes, I've been very much enjoying FTL: Faster Than Light, an absolute steal for the couple of quid I paid for it. It's a surprisingly deep, immersive game with a rock-solid diffiulty, requiring keen balance of resources and lightning reflexes. I heartily recommend it to any strategy fans on a budget. Also, I got into the Hearthstone closed beta (like 2 weeks before open beta, go figure) and have been loving every fucking moment of that heroin substitute that's been stupidly labelled a "game." I play regularly with a much more experienced friend and pretty much get my arse stomped every time, but with a game with as deep a mechanic as Hearthstone, you never feel like a loss wasn't fun. That's right, even being brutally dominated in this game is some of the best fun you can have on a PC without a bottle of lube and a sense of soul-crushing shame. I also have to praise Hearthstone's pay mechanic. The game is free to play but it never penalises you for being stingy. It's perfectly possible in this game to stick to free cards (you can regularly win booster packs for free anyway) and still crush your opponents.

Hearthstone addiction never just goooooes awaaaaaay (credit to @Forgetful_Heart for the image!)

Outside of games I've been keeping up with my Warhammer resolutions pretty well. I've just finished my centrepiece tank for my Black Templars: The personal Land Raider Crusader of High Marshall Helbrecht. I've also managed to squeeze in a couple of crusader marines though, unfortunately, I wasn't able to paint my Kill Team for the tournament (more on that later). I've also fallen for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Hard. I'm currently sitting pretty at 1750 points of Wood Elves and I've persuaded a mate to start collecting Warriors of Chaos. If I pick up some Treekin, maybe he won't crucify me quite so badly. As to the Kill Team tournament, I changed my list from Templars/Damned to pure Legion of the Damned. This was a good move as my +3 invulnerable saves confounded many an opponent. I came a respectable 5th out of around 11 players after losing the battle to tie 3rd place (2 other dudes were in the same boat) but I was also one of only two players to beat an otherwise unstoppable Tyranid player with his Zoanthrope list. His AP3 psychic attacks were useless in the face of my ghostly  Damned marines and the game went right down to the wire. Literally every other player stopped to watch us play and they "ooohed" and gasped at the many twists and turns the battle took. Best game of 40k I ever played. Next time I'm going to heartily troll the opposition with a Ravenwing attack bike with a fleshbane Heavy Bolter.

Anyway, just thought I'd update to let youse know I'm not dead!

Stay sexy.