The game is set in a post-robot uprising era. You, however, control a powerful robot, and are going to take back the land. You play on a map which has various nodes to retake for humanity.

If you retake one, you gain the energy of the node. If you fail the attack, you lose the energy. You can try again, though. You can buy energy if you get too low and are afraid of losing (I assume at 0 energy you’ve lost the game.)

The battles have an element of strategy, with a hefty hand of randomness. There is a slot machine of sorts to choose your moves. There are three sets of dials to spin. Each set has 3 possible outcomes on each wheel. The first set is summoning robots that shoot at the bad guys and take hits before your main robot. The second set is some defensive abilities, like shields or stealing an enemy robot. The third is direct attacks, like microwave beams (microwaves bounce of metal, so not sure how they hurt robots, but oh well), and laser attacks. Getting more than one of a results makes it more effective.

You decide what set is best for the current turn, then spin. You can almost always pick the first result, but the other two are random. So if you want a shield because you need a fast defense, you can get one up, but how powerful it is is determined by the other two wheels. You might only get one shield and 2 of something else, or you might get 3 shields, and get the best shield. 3 of a kind also has it’s own ability.

When you spin a 3 of a kind, the result is extra powerful, and you get another turn. This is kinda neat when you are in a fix, and you get that heavy shield, or that extra powerful laser blast and decimate the enemy. The downside is, not only can this make the game easy if you manage it a few times in a row, but the enemy has the same ability. As great as it is to do a powerful move, it is equally disheartening to see yourself get ruined by chance when the enemy gets 3 of a kind. And of course, you instantly wonder if the computer is cheating. Where was that triple when I needed it, now the computer gets one soon as it is starting to lose?

Even if we assume the game has a decent random number generator and the computer doesn’t cheat, it really puts a damper on the fun when randomness just obliterates all your progress. Of course, if randomness is your thing, it might not be an issue. But as a strategy fan, it weakens the game for me. I imagine that if the extra turn aspect was removed, it might swing things back into balance.

On the plus, the game runs well, looks nice, and does indeed have some strategy elements, so it is certainly worth a try.

<iframe src=”http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thespatur-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B007TYU6AO” style=”width:120px;height:240px;” scrolling=”no” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>

Melody arranged these letters on the fridge to look like Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba.

—

Rodney tried to rub his eyes to get the room to come into focus, but it felt like the grasp of the grave itself was holding them firmly in place, its fingers seeping his energy from him. After spinning around like a roulette wheel for some time, the room started to make some sense. Tubes ran from beakers to tubes, and arcs of electricity climbed up two metal rods in the shape of a V, crackling. Jars of hands, eyes, feet, and other body parts lined the walls.

“Awake are we?”

Rodney turned his head to see a man standing behind a table covered in well used surgical tools. The flickering lights glinted off the razor sharp edges.

“What do you want with me?”

“Oh, not much, but the real question is, what do you want?”

“I want out of here!”

“Of course. But hear me out. I can give you almost anything. Pleasure, wealth, power. All I ask is for one piece of you.”

A hand floating in one of the jars tapped the glass, then waved at Rodney.

“I need my hand!”

“Well now, of course. I won’t take it from you until you’ve moved on. I will just ask for you to use it to do things for me while you still have it.”

Rodney flexed his left hand, craving to itch the thick stubble on his face. “What kinds of things?”

“Oh, this and that. Grab a little something I might need to send my way, things like that.”

Another hand pointed and fired off a finger gun. Two hands in adjacent jars mimicked choaking someone. A few of the other body parts did something obscene.

“Just let me use part of you now and you can have anything you want!”

Rodney pulled on he bonds again.

“No!”

The bond. Came undone at his resistance.

He looked at his hand. It held the pack of Mach 5 razors near his coat pocket. He put them back on he shelf. He dug in his pockets, counted out a little over a dollar, and then grabbed the buck bag of Bics off the shelf and made his way to the check out stand.

I made beer battered shrimp today and Erin made fries and coleslaw. It is pretty darn tasty. I used a Downtown Brown ale for the batter. I think the batter coated a little thick so I will use less corn starch next time.
L

We got more blocks at a rummage sale. She even built it with a slanted roof!

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

—

Mr. Gong’s eloquence rang out across the ballroom. The people listened and were amazed at his knowledge and ideas.

He coughed and waved his hand about.

He continued to speak with grand language about lofty ideas and inspiring stories. After some time, and attendant arrived with a bottle of water. Mr. Gong swiped it from the attendant and said “About @&%#+- time you oaf!” Then he slapped the attendant on the back of the head.

No one heard his words after that, they were only shocked at his duality and utter lack of common decency.

Mr. Gong was never invited to speak again.

—

Charlie peered across the street. The coast looked clear. He opened the door and grabbed his shotgun. The heft of the weapon reminded him of his father’s advice. “Carry a rifle. Take them out from afar.” What did he know? He died out here didn’t he? What good was a rifle if they managed to get up close?

He crossed the street and leaned up against a crumbling law office. Back across, on top of the building Charlie was in, a zombie stood. It looked at him and pointing.

It started shrieking.

Charlie took aim, but knew the buckshot wouldn’t do any damage at this range. He heard shuffling in the nearby alleyways.

Several zombies came out and turned towards Charlie. He took a few down with shotgun blasts, but more came and he needed to reload. As they rushed, he used the shotgun butt to knock some away, but the shrieks summoned more. He reloaded as he ran, but too many came.

As he was overtaken, the zombie stood on the distant roof and continued to shriek.

—

Professor Whittleby examined the tiny cyborgs that roamed in the terrarium. Each of them had an instruction set, but they also had the option to try and determine another method to deal with the dangers that were cohabitated in the terrarium. Daily the cyborgs would face small animals or geological hazard that Whittleby placed in the cyborgs world. Each time the cyborgs encountered one, they would follow the instruction set they had been given, or they would use a decision matrix to take an alternate route to the problem, using experience or randomized bias included in the cyborg’s brain.

Whittleby carefully crafted the encounters and hazards to be solved best with his instructions, but this might not be obvious to the cyborgs, who could assess the situation with various viewpoints and memories, weather installed or learned after activation. Whittleby tracked how the cyborgs responded.

Some nearly always followed the instructions but to a programed inclination to do so, while many choose their own solutions, sometimes with disasterous results. More interesting were the ones that seemed to learn that even if they came up with what they thought was a better solution, past experience taught them that following the instruction set would lead to a better result, even if the Cyborg couldn’t see it in advance. It was almost if they had a kind of faith that it would always be right.

These cyborgs were the most prized by Whittleby and were the ones that eventually were moved onto the next stage of testing.

—

Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. The Law still resides, but God’s grace extends to us, if we except it, and it makes up for where we fail to uphold the law. We need this grace for if we have just one iota of sin, it must be atoned for, and that is why Christ died for us.

—

Going to write something based on a daily verse most every day. I hope to get some short stories done and not just commentary.

I think he knows he is being silly.