The launch of their last two licenses was done with a hiss, a roar and the promise of great support and interest. However as time marches on it seems that this isn’t quite happening.

A Song of Ice and Fire has had it’s core book, a GM screen and an adventure in the year an a half since it’s been released which is great. But the Campaign Guide is almost a year overdue and momentum seems to have really slowed. This is a great game and one which has given me many hours of fun, but despite winning ENnie awards and getting great feedback from the community, I worry that it isn’t going to get many more books released.

Dragon Age is the other major licence they’ve recently released and while this has only been around since late last year there has been very little in the way of news about new products. A book of adventures and adventure seeds called Blood of Feralden has been announced, but a release date hasn’t been. This game has the potential to tap into a whole group of gamers who don’t have any experience with dice, but unless GR keeps up the momentum on this licence I think it’s just going to fade away.

While I’m sure that Green Ronin is certainly very keen to support these lines and no doubt see them prosper, it is hard to stay enthused when there is next to no news of what’s coming up. I know that they are a small company and that they no doubt would rather be writing and producing games than creating hype. However part of keeping a fan base happy is news, rumor and titbits of information. It would be nice if they were a little more forthcoming with this sort of thing.

So the point of this post, if there is one, is that a great company like Green Ronin, who release interesting games with good systems needs to work a little harder to support the communities it has already established. I’m more than happy to accept that games like A Song of Ice and Fire and Dragon Age will have long approval processes. But if that is what is holding things up, tell me and while you’re at it, tease me with what’s next to come.

Not much happened in terms of plot in this one, most of it is dealing with the bomb Calvin dropped in the episode before and Alex not knowing how to deal with it all. As all of this is gone into in by Jenni in her blow by blow recaps, I think I’ll leave it at that.

But to sum up:

• Calvin and Alex barely talk when they wake up in Calvin’s bed the next morning, having spent the night together.
• Alex gets busted leaving the house by Martha, Calvin’s sister.
• Megan tries to sweet talk a priest into giving her some holy water, and when that doesn’t work steals it instead.
• Darius is still recuperating (either in hospital or at home, I was a bit confused).
• Calvin tries to find Gina, and discovers that shes disappeared. The car she borrowed is found in a parking lot near the train station and he assumes that shes left town.
• Megan is oblivious to whats happened between Alex and Calvin, even when the three of them hang out at her house trying to find out what happened to Gina. (Cue awkward silences)
• Alex totally confuses Calvin by bursting into tears in front of him, after he offers to just forget about the night before and she says she doesn’t want to.
• Calvin and Alex have another bonding cemetery moment when they’re attacked by two vamps. This fight doesn’t go so well and Calvin ends up getting bitten.

Next time round well be getting back on track with the plot and edging that much closer to the end of Fall, Season 1!
Previously on Fall
Jennis write ups

Now unlike many geeks I’ve never been that into comics, and those comics I have been into haven’t been the Marvel/DC variety. However Joss Whedon directing and no doubt being involved in the script of a superhero movie had to be a good thing, right?

Unfortunately though, during a conversation with a friend, doubt started to creep in. Joss was going to make the most amazing Wonder Woman movie ever as well… but due to “creative differences” with the studio it got shelved.

And as we all know he often has ‘creative differences’ with the studio, and there are only so many times this can happen before you really have to ask. Is it Joss or the studio that’s being difficult?

I think anyone who has read this blog will know I’m a huge fan of what Joss creates. Buffy, (most of) Angel, Firefly, Serenity and Dollhouse are all fantastic. Hell I even liked Alien: Resurrection. But I can’t help but feel that there is a measure of diva in what drives him and that diva means that he has a habit of throwing his toys.

I hope I’m wrong and that The Avengers is a fantastic movie that hits our screens in 2012. But I’m keeping a certain level of healthy cynicism till then.

What do you think? Am I being too harsh on The Whedon? Or is there merit in what I say?

The episode picks up exactly after the last one left off. The team are driving around Fall River with their people divination wire trying to track down Xavier.

After some time they realise that they’re back tracking and end up right back at Darius’. Something isn’t quite right though. The door is on it’s hinges, the lights are on inside and there is a big black van parked outside.

Alex jumps out of the car and runs full tilt towards the house. Just before she gets to the door she ploughs straight into some sort of force field.

It becomes quickly obvious that this force field goes all the way around the house, and stops people (and dogs) leaving as well as entering. While the gang is trying to work out how to get through who should show up at the front door but Megan’s mirror world doppelganger, Evil Megan (EM for short). Behind her floats the mirror that links the two worlds together and she unconcernedly walks out of the house.

Calvin throws himself at her, only to get a broken wrist in the process. By this stage EM has almost made it to the van so Alex finally jumps into action and tries to jump in the drivers seat and take off with the mirror. Unfortunately she just does another face plant in a force field, falling flat on her back.

Darius decides that the best course of action is to try to twist the reality around EM and her cronies (including the blue haired Mirror Xavier) and for some reason sets bees on them. While the spell works and the bees start attacking them, it is also a spell too many. Darius gets thrown back by the force of it, blood pouring from his eyes, nose and mouth. It was a very close run thing here, Darius very nearly didn’t survive this particular spell casting.

Alex spends the next little while checking that Darius is still alive, Calvin is ok and trying to calm a hysterical Megan down. About this time the police arrive and Alex tells them the mostly true story of getting back to Darius’ to find it broken into and that Darius got beaten up. He and Calvin are whisked to hospital.

Alex drives Kermit behind the ambulance and gets Megan to hack into the hospital records and make sure that they can visit him. Megan isn’t thinking very clearly and starts trying to make it so that Alex and Darius are now related, but stops when she realises that they’ll need to break into City Hall to change physical copies of birth records.

Luckily Darius is stabilised, even though the doctors have no idea what’s wrong with him, and Calvin’s wrist will be fine. While they’re waiting to hear what’s happening with Darius Megan checks in on what the police have found. Apparently there was a dead body in Darius’ basement. The dessicated husk of Xavier. The police also look into the car registrations that Alex told them and it seems that they belong to a number of the Fallen. About this time it seems that someone higher up starts to cover things up and all the police files start to get deleted after being sent to Chief Superintendent Fergusson.

Not wanting to sit around the hospital Alex starts to investigate the Fallen. Despite learning some interesting things about the power structure of Fall River and that the Hams are way richer than they even appear she doesn’t get any major leads on what is going on with EM.

Changing tac, Alex arranges to have coffee with Megan. While sitting at Bohemian Like You, Megan gets grilled about the mirror, and it turns out that there was also a self help book/diary as well. After going over to Megan’s house and checking it out it appears that things aren’t quite as they seemed. During research back at Darius’ it turns out that:

• The book is super old and that it’s linked to the demon Janus (also worshipped as a god). He’s all about chaos, new beginnings and doorways.
• That the ritual that Xavier had done had been messed with so that rather than being a spell to give the caster great power, it was actually ‘welcome to our world, and while you’re at it take our souls’ kind of deal.

Not knowing what to do next, and feeling very out of their depth they take Darius out of hospital for the day and go to see Huruni. Using the voice of Simon Cowell, he tells them that he has a way to close the portal between the two worlds. Once that’s done then any one of the Mirror world in this world will cease to exist. All he needs is a living creature from that world o that he can get the right frequency.

Everyone looks at Calvin, thinking the same thing. Gina.

Calvin glumly drops off the others at the store so they can get jelly babies for Huruni (as a thank you for his help) and then goes on to his house to give Gina the bad news (about EM being in this world and dying) and ask for her help. The conversation doesn’t go well and Gina takes of in one of the Grant family cars.

A little while later Alex checks in with Calvin to see how it went. He relates that it didn’t go well and when Alex asks how he is he texts back with

Can we talk?

Alex is confused and suddenly very nervous by this and agrees to meet him at St Mary’s Cemetery soon. When they meet up there is a lot of not talking. Finally Calvin breaks the silence

Calvin:….Gina’s leaving. You know, she’s all excited about travelling and I just to tell her that if she does, then she’ll die.
Alex: Yeah, it sucks.
Calvin:….
Alex: So, what did you want to talk about?
Calvin: So, Gina’s going.
Alex: Yep.
Calvin: And…I’m in love with you.
A:…what?
C: Yep .
A: No, what did you just say?
C: I’m in love with you.
A: Since when?
C: You know when we first met?
A: When we were six?
C: No, I mean, since we grew up…you remember that I told Mason not to go out with you?
A (still angry about it): yes.
C: It wasn’t ’cause I didn’t like you. It was because I did.
A: Oh.
C: But then you went out with him anyway and then you were Mason’s girl and I couldn’t…so I just…and since all this vampires and shit started happening-
Vampires: do you remember ordering takeout?

In a truly awesome sequence Calvin and Alex both dust a vampire each in two moves. As the dust settles Alex can’t look at Calvin, he’s totally thrown her. Every part of her is screaming to run away.

Calvin starts talking again

Calvin: Since all this vampires and shit started happening… You’re amazing. The way you’ve dealt with all of it…

Alex doesn’t run. Instead she drops her stake, turns around and kisses him. The non existent camera pans up to the full moon and the episode ends.

Previously on Fall
Jenni’s write ups

As you can tell from the trailer this movie is pretty unabashed and it’s title character is also convinced of his own greatness.

I enjoyed the explosions, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Junior and the total over the topness of the whole thing. I thought they were a little heavy handed in the way they tied it all in with the upcoming (and potentially Joss Whedon directed, though that’s a whole other blog post) Avengers movie.

For a bit of mindless fun about a narcissistic genius who dons a shiny suit and flies around, you should totally go see it.

First up is episode 22, Icarus gets his Wings.

It’s been two weeks since Alex lost and reclaimed her Slayer powers. In that time she’s:

• Gone patrolling
• Ditched school
• Killed vampires
• Not done homework
• Spent a lot of time in cemeteries.

The others have been doing an assortment of things, like Megan hacking the school computer to make up Alex’s grades and Calvin helping Gina get ready to see the country.

The episode opens at the Limit. Alex is dancing out her pain with some guy, Megan is trying not to look at Calvin and the guys are arguing about which Seinfeld character they are.

They’re so engrossed in this conversation that they don’t notice Xavier (the creep that tried to curse Calvin) walk into the club with a bunch of cronies. Alex does though and quickly follows him, even though he goes into the men’s room. She gets stopped by Xavier’s lackeys but after some forceful negotiation (she breaks one of the guys hands) makes it into the room.

She enters just in time to see Xavier finish some kind of ritual or spell. She tries to get him to open up about what he’s doing in there, but he’s just sort of smug and uncommunicative.

Alex: What are you doing Xavier?
Xavier: This is the men’s.
Alex: Sooo…What are you doing here?
Xavier: I have the requisite equipment for membership.
Alex: You think you do…

About half way through their conversation Calvin bursts in (just as Xavier calls Alex a bitch). The rest of the bathroom exchange is made with Alex and Calvin very much on the back foot. Nothing they do seems to harm Xavier even a little bit, and he even manages to throw Calvin across the room.

Xavier leaves the room with his boys, after shoving Darius into a toilet and winking at Megan (they had finally managed to make there way through the dudes outside). All in all a frustrating experience for our Slayer and her friends.

They quickly launch into research mode, with a number of theories being thrown around.

• Xavier was possessed.
• That he was actually the mirror world version. Though a quick phone call to Gina reveals that mirror Xavier has blue hair, piercings and a fondness for other people’s pain.
• That he’s managed to cast some kind of spell on himself making him uber Xavier.

While the rest of the gang go through books, Alex decides the most productive thing she can do is go and punch a tree till she stops wanting to kill things. So she does. Calvin notices this and comes outside to try and talk to her, but things don’t go so well and Alex ends up storming inside.

Where she finds Darius about to cast another spell. After last episode’s spell casting disaster she is pretty upset by this turn of events. As it seems that Darius is set on destroying them all with his magic, Alex decides to clear the blast zone and bolts.

Awhile later she comes back to find Darius nursing a nasty burn from his exploding cauldron. Turns out the spell failed. Surprise, surprise.

Alex and Darius then fight about his magic use and the events that lead to her loosing her powers. The argument final ends when Alex steps forward in a menacing manner intent on beating some sense into him. Calvin intervenes and manages to defuse the situation.

They all agree that they need to find Xavier to at least see what he’s up to. So they pile into Kermit, after a quick casting of Find the Named (yet more magic) and head off into the night.

Previously on Fall
Jenni’s write ups

I’ve been pretty keen for this to come out since it was first announced last year. I liked Fallout 3, I mean it was no Fallout or Fallout 2 but it was a pretty solid game and I’ve recently been wanting to go back and have more of an explore.

But when it was announced that Obsidian would be developing this game under licence I was pretty stoked. Knights of the Old Republic 2 (despite the ending) was a great game and I’m also really looking forward to the long over due Alpha Protocol.

So I look forward to more news about this next part of the franchise, and the ability to zoom in for those messy and devastating headshots through V.A.T.S.

Awesome.