Well, it's no small feat for an MMO to make it 10 years!  So cheers to you, STO!  I didn't start playing until it became Free-to-Play (so I've only been playing for 8 years), but it's still an amazing game.  As is customary for the STO team, they released an anniversary infographic.

I only wish I had started a Klingon and Romulan Delta Recruit back in the day so I could claim those account-wide goodies...

Hey!  I finished my first Game Pass game!  yay!  And, it's already paid off given that I got GamePass for a year for $1 with that lifehack back in September ;-)

Anyway, this game as a  platforming shooter, which apparently is based on a Flash game. The graphics in this version are far superior to the flash-based game, and so are the controls.  You wake up as the protagonist (no name) with a talking banana as your imaginary friend.  The banana (Pedro) tells you that people are out to get you, and you'd better get them before they get you!  I don't know if this were real life I'd seek professional help, but since it's a game...I just did what the banana said. The game provides both subtle social commentary, as well as pokes fun at society broadly. But, you can miss all that if you're just doing the gunplay.

I like the explanation of what might be the case with this oddball story that's presented in this video:


Overall this was a fun game.  The Matrix-style bullet-time, the destructible environments, and the oddball story made for enjoyable interactions in gameplay. Even the story's WTF moments kept you on the edge of your seat.

Gamerscore: 385/1000
Achievements: 15

A lot of the achievements are the "flip x-many tables" or "dodge so many bullets" variety.  I am sure I could mechanically do this and earn some more points, but that doesn't seem like a good way to spend time.  Maybe when there are no other games in gamepass to play ;-)

I give this game an "A for Awesome" (9/10)

Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive by Scott Tipton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting cross-over between Rodderberry-TOS Kirk (and crew) and the Planet of the Apes. The Klingons find a way to get into an alternate universe (where the Planet of the Apes takes place) as a means of getting around the Organian treaty and start colonizing that universe. Kirk and crew find them and stop them. In the process, they influence the development of that society which blows itself up (I actually think that it was the George Taylor who did it intentionally because he couldn't deal with how things turned out, but there is no confirmation about that). But wait! in the closing shot there are apes in space, in Taylor's shuttle looking to do a slingshot around the sun, to go back in time and change things....hmmmm... what could happen next?

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Star Trek: Waypoint Special 2019 by Matt Sheean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good collection of short stories set in the Trek universe. The first season or two of TNG gets some attention in this waypoint collection. I think this would have made good "short treks"

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Fool's Gold by Scott Tipton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Someone shares a story that some Cardassian bureaucrat had been siphoning off funds from the Cardassian occupation of Bajor for his own benefit (plausible!). He left clues on Terok Nor as to where those looted Bajoran treasures are hidden on Bajor. Hence, every self-proclaimed treasure hunter comes to DS9 to try to find the treasure location, and in the process causing chaos and havoc. Only...there is no treasure. It is all an elaborate hoax to destabilize DS9 (or perhaps line Quark's pockets...we'll never know). What happens next? You'll have to read this comic yourself!

This was an enjoyable story. My first foray into a DS9-specific story, and I think it was rather plausible as a DS9 episode.

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Well, I guess that there was one "x in review" that I missed.  TrueAchivements did the Decade in Review if you have an account with them.  The Rarest achievements were a bit of a surprise for me (especially for Defiance and Zombi, which were sort of palate cleanser games for me).  The most-played series was not a surprise, even though there are some errors in it (I've actually played 3 out of 4 Mass Effect games), but it's overall accurate.  What's counted here (I think) is achievements earned and not necessarily overall playtime.   I do find the breakdown of year/month for playtime quite interesting :-)

I feel like I've been playing this game forever but I can say that I am done with it (for now anyway).  While I haven't finished the 3rd (and final) chapter of The Fate of Atlantis, I'd like to savor the final 8-10 hours of gameplay without rushing through it.  I also feel like I need a bit of a palate cleanser.

The short version of the story is this: You start off a child (although admittedly we don't see very much of you growing up) in Ancient Greece.  The bulk of the story takes place during the Peloponnesian War, where you, as a misthios (mercenary) can fight on both sides to earn some coin.  There are a few underlying stories in the world.  You trying to find your way through it helping Sparta and Athens at different times, there is a Cult Order, sort of like the templars (but not) that have raised your sibling since he/she was a child and poisoned their mind, so you have to kill the entire order and rid Greece of their influence, and there are a variety of first civilization artefacts around Greece that are wreaking havoc (medusas, and sphinxes, and minotaurs - oh my!).  If you get them all you can meet your father and become the staff-bearer.  The Legacy of the First Blade brings in the Persians, and their version of the Templars, and finally the Fate of Atlantis is a trippy exploration of Elisium, Hades, and Atlantis (populated by the first civilization), on your quest to train against to corrupting influence of the staff of Hermes, that you must safeguard until you pass it on to someone in the future.

Here is the plot synopsis of the main story from wikipedia, if you want a little more:
During the Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas leads the Spartan army against a Persian charge. The battle is won, but Leonidas is informed by a captured enemy soldier that the existence of the mountain path has been revealed to the Persian army, which is moving to surround the Spartans by morning. Nevertheless, Leonidas resolves to hold off the Persian advance.

In the present, Layla Hassan recovers the Spear of Leonidas and together with Victoria Bibeau, extracts the DNA of two individuals from it, the siblings Kassandra and Alexios. With help from the Assassins, Layla picks one of the siblings (the "Misthios") and activates the Animus to find the location of the Staff of Hermes.

The Misthios started as a young Spartan child, raised by their parents Nikolaos and Myrrine, and inherited the Spear of Leonidas from Myrrine as one of Leonidas' descendants. However, one day, both the Misthios and their siblings are thrown off a mountain due to an oracle's prophecy, with the Misthios being dropped by Nikolaos himself. The misthios survived the fall and fled to the island of Kefalonia, where they grew up performing odd jobs until the Peloponnesian War begins.

The Misthios is approached by a wealthy man named Elpenor, who hires them to assassinate "The Wolf of Sparta". The Misthios later discovers that the Wolf is Nikolaos himself and confronts him. Nikolaos admits that he regrets what he had done, but did so for the good of Sparta. The Misthios has the choice of executing or sparing Nikolaos and finds out that Nikolaos is actually their stepfather and that Myrrine is in danger. The Misthios then returns to Elpenor and confronts him over the revelation. Elpenor reveals he knew Nikolaos was their stepfather, and wanted him dead in order to drag out the war. He then offers another job to assassinate Myrrine, but the Misthios refuses and Elpenor flees. The Misthios then travels to Delphi to ask the Pythia the whereabouts of Myrrine, where they encounter Herodotos, who recognizes the Spear of Leonidas the Misthios carries. Upon meeting the Pythia, the Misthios is warned about the Cult of Kosmos, who seek to kill them and their families. The Misthios further investigates the Cult by assassinating Elpenor and using his disguise to infiltrate a Cult meeting. They find that the Cult plans to take advantage of the war to seize control of all of Greece and that their enforcer Deimos is, in fact, the Misthios' sibling, now brainwashed to follow the Cult's orders.

The Misthios continues on their journey all over Greece, clearing out Cult corruption from both Sparta and Athens and befriending powerful Greek figures such as Perikles and Aspasia. They are unable to stop Perikles' assassination at the hands of Deimos but are able to reunite with Myrrine and find their true father, Pythagoras. Myrrine and Pythagoras explain that they conceived Alexios and Kassandra to preserve Leonidas' bloodline, as he and his descendants have a special connection to Precursor artifacts, such as the Spear of Leonidas. Pythagoras tasks the Misthios to recover several Precursor artifacts needed to permanently seal the hidden Precursor city of Atlantis so that its knowledge cannot be misused by enemies like the Cult. Afterward, the Misthios manages to avenge Perikles' death by assassinating his political rival, Kleon. Depending on the Misthios' actions, they can convince Deimos to abandon the Cult and rebuild their family with Nikolaos, Myrrine, their sibling, and their new stepbrother Stentor living happily together in their old family home.

With war averted and the Cult virtually eliminated, the Misthios heads for the Cult's secret meeting place under the Temple of Delphi to destroy the Precursor pyramid the Cult was using to influence Greek politics. Touching it, they receive visions of future conflicts to come before destroying the pyramid. Aspasia then arrives and reveals that she was the original leader of the Cult but disagreed with its actions as its members became more corrupt, and she thanks the Misthios for destroying the Cult. The Misthios has the option of killing or sparing Aspasia, but cuts ties with her regardless. Finally, the Misthios after defeating various Olympos Projects based on monsters from Greek legend (the Minotaur, cyclopes, Medusa and the Sphinx) and collects all of the artifacts needed to seal Atlantis from their bodies, and activates a recording from the Precursor Aletheia who pleads with the Misthios and Layla that Precursor knowledge and technology is not meant for humans and must be destroyed in order for humans to reach their true potential. Pythagoras reluctantly passes the Staff of Hermes on to the Misthios, dying in the process. The Misthios then continues their adventures.

In the present, Layla uses the data from the Animus to find Atlantis and activate it. As the Assassins analyze the data within, Layla is shocked to find the Misthios, kept alive until modern times by the Staff of Hermes. The Misthios warns Layla that the world needs a balance between order and chaos, the Templar Order and Assassins respectively, and either side prevailing over the other will result in the world's doom. The Misthios also explains that Layla is the prophesied one who will bring balance to order and chaos and gives her the Staff of Hermes, sacrificing their life in the process. Layla, however, states that there is so much of the Misthios' life they have not seen, and re-enters the Animus.
----



Anyway... I played through as Kassandra and I got what constitutes the "good" ending.  Your father (Nikolaos the Lion of Sparta) is alive, so is your brother has been freed of the corrupting influence of the cult, you found your mother, and you're all having a family meal (along with Stentor). I almost jumped with joy when I saw that Kassandra made it to modern-day and handed off the staff to Leyla.  I think that there would be an entire spin-off series of Kassandra (or Alexios, if you will) games that allow you to play through that character in different time periods.  Going through this game, I also feel like Ubisoft should retcon Price of Persia to fit into the Assassin's Creed universe. A lot of what is seen and done in the "modern" PoP games could be explained by first civilization junk that is still around.

From a gameplay perspective, the game handles pretty much like Assassin's Creed Origins, so there wasn't much of a change in terms of learning new controls.  Many people have said that the maps is HUGE...and it is!  Much of Greece is beautiful to roam around in, but at some point, I got tired of going to each and every fort, temple, and miscellaneous location to loot treasure chests, kill captains, and capture forts.  It is fun the first couple of dozen times, but near the end, I really felt the grind.  I just captured all synchronization points to enable fast travel and revealed the entire map, but  Macedonia and Thessaly are pretty much left open to completion. This makes me wonder whether a game really needs to be this large?  With the next AC game reporterly having a map that is larger than the one in Greece...I might just take a break from the series until I can give my brain a little break from the hack-and-slash :-)

One more thing here: while the AC movie was m'eh (it was fine, but not in the true spirit of the game IMO), I think that Ubisoft should really look into creating a TV series.

Despite the burnout, I am giving this game a 10/10.  It was freakin' awesome.


Gamerscore: 1500/1850
Achievements: 77
Player level: 81
Distance Travelled: 1,935
Time played: 8d, 12h, 41m

Τις προάλλες έπιασε το μάτι μου ένα ενδιαφέρων πόστ που το έχει γράψει μια συνάδελφος μου.  Ο τίτλος: Όπου κοιτούσα έβλεπα μπλόγκ-πόστ.  Η μορφή του δημοσιεύματος είναι ποίημα για το πώς οι λέξεις και τα θέματα απλός έρχονταν, σε ότι και να έκανε.  Στους περιπάτους, στο μαγειρεμα, στο γυμναστήριο, στην δουλειά. Παντού έμπνευση για να γράψει.  Αλλά τώρα υπάρχει ο ήχος της σιωπής.

Κάτι παρόμοιο σκεφτόμουν και εγώ τώρα τον περασμένο Δεκέμβρη όσο ήμουν σε διακοπές.  Εγώ σκεφτόμουν το θέμα ως «παλαιότερα μπλόγκαρα».   Οταν άρχισα να μπλογκάρω είχα το Ελληνικό «είμαι φοβερός και το ξέρεις», το ελληνικό τεχνολογικό μπλόγκ «ένα μήλο την ημέρα» (ναι, θεματολογία apple), το μπλόγκ παιδείας «ID Stuff», και το μπλόγκ αυτό εδώ.  Δεν έγραφα στο κάθε ένα κάθε μέρα, αλλά αν τα συνδυάσεις όλα σίγουρα έγγραφα κανά δύο άρθρα κάθε μέρα.  Τα περασμένα χρόνια δεν γράφω αρκετά.  Λίγο η διδακτορική διατριβή, λίγο η δουλειά, λίγο το πήγαινε-έλα στην δουλειά, τα δύο μπλόγκ που έχουν απομήνει δεν έχουν αρκετό περιερχόμενα. 

Προσωπικά έχω την εντύπωση πως είναι και θέμα κοινότητας. Τις παλιές μέρες που έγραφα αρκετά μπλόγκ θυμάμαι πως δεν υπήρχε το Τουίτερ, και το Φείςμπουκ ήταν κλειστό. Όταν ήρθε και το τουίτερ, και πάλι αρκετοί μας λέγαμε ότι δεν άξιζε ο μικρό-μπλογκ γιατί με το κανονικό μπλόγκ και το RSS το ίδιο βγάζεις.  Ζούμ τώρα στο μέλλον και αρκετή από την συζήτηση γίνεται πια στο Φείςμπουκ και το Τουίτερ. ‘Όλα όσα λέγαμε και γράφαμε μέσω μπλογκ και σχολιασμού στα μπλόγκ είναι τώρα σε άλλες πλατφορμες. Αυτό το μπλόγκ, αν το διαβάζεις τώρα, είσαι ένας από τους πολύ λίγους.   Το άλλο το μπλόγκ έχει τουλάχιστον 30 άτομα που διαβάζουν το κάθε δημοσίευμα.  Όταν η συζήτηση δεν ξεκινάει στα παλιά τα μέσα μερικές φορές αναρωτιέσαι αν υπάρχει λόγος να αρθρογραφείς.

Αν και θέλω να ξαναρχίσω να γράφω πιό συχνά, νομίζω αυτό τα γίνει όταν τελειώση αυτή η μαγκούφα διατριβή.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between by David Tischman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good combination of TNG stories. Some are early in the series' run (Worf and Troi being a couple king of points to that), and the set of stories continues into close to the end TNG. From what I can tell we got a hint of Section 31 looming in the shadows, which would have been an awesome continuation in the comic. I liked that we saw character development (e.g., Wesley, Picard) in some of the stories, and that the comics did feel like they could have been adapted to episodes.

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Greek America At Work by Dan Georgakas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I came across this short book as a reference on a Greek website. It was actually quite informative as a short introduction to Greek migration to North America (specifically focusing on migration to the USA). It's obviously not comprehensive, but it should be a must-read for Greek Americans.

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