Wanting to escape the soul-crushing corporate world, you retreat to the farm that once belonged to your grandfather. The cabin is tiny and wilderness has reclaimed the land, but with a lot of elbow grease, you can restore it to its former glory.
Thus, your adventure in Stardew Valley begins. Even with over 10 million sold since its 2016 launch, I still found a patch of land to call my own.
Over the past few months, I’ve made some serious strides towards slaying the spire. I’ve beaten the game with every class at least once. Still working on conquering the “secret” 4th level and unlocking the game’s true ending.
All four classes have their strengths and weaknesses. But which one is my favourite to play as? Let’s rank them!
Silent and deadly in the right hands (sorry), The Silent has so many cool tools at her disposal. I love her poison mechanic and I love raining on my foes with daggers. Nevertheless, she was the one I struggled to beat the game with the most.
She can do so much on the offensive end, but her low health and defensive options feel a bit too all-or-nothing. I also feel like it’s really difficult to build an all-around hand with The Silent. Maybe I’m just a scrub, but it feels like focusing your efforts on one aspect of her toolkit works better than trying to have a bit of everything. Even so, she’s still a ton of fun to play and quite the power trip when you’ve got the right build.
The Watcher has some of my favourite cards in the entire game. The Alpha > Beta > Omega setup that eventually unlocks 50 damage every turn is mind-blowing! When the stars align, she’s an absolute wrecking ball. I managed to beat the game with The Watcher long before maxing out the character and unlocking all of her kit.
At the same time, she can also be the ultimate glass cannon if you get caught in the wrong stance. In her powered-up Wrath stance, she deals double damage at the cost of eating double damage. It’s critical to mastering her, but even great runs can literally disintegrate in one turn if you mess up the timing. She might be the character I’m most effective with, but I feel like I’m walking on eggshells throughout.
Compared to the other characters, The Ironclad’s play style is a bit…vanilla. Though you don’t have to manage any extra layers of depth, there’s definitely an art to climbing the tower with The Ironclad.
What makes The Ironclad rank so high on my list is his raw damage output. Many of his cards hit hard at face value and can be absolutely devastating if you build the right deck to amplify his firepower. I also like a few of his key tools that allow him to block and attack at the same time. Great character to learn the game with or fight with to unlock the true ending!
Every character in Slay the Spire is a joy to play. But if I’m forced in a position to only play one class, I’m going with my favourite: The Defect. This robot is designed around engine-building, where many of its powers come from managing orbs that grant a myriad of active and passive abilities. Though it takes some work to get The Defect going, it can be developed into an absolute unit. Best of all, its fundamental design allows for a ton of play style flexibility. If I’m going to truly slay the spire, I’m aiming to do it first with The Defect!
Green screens work incredibly well for the purposes of background removal. However, the application of green screen technology doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Inspired by MissMollyMakes, I incorporated green screen technology into my physical background. Here’s how you can do something similar!
What a beautiful day for spray paint art! We hang out in the back yard and make spray paint art pieces inspired by Overwatch, Tetris, Super Mario, Wonder Woman, and more! Even the iconic air horn gets some spray paint love!
Click through for the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!
I’m standing on a tightrope. Somewhere above me is a red coin. Despite repeated attempts at snagging it from the sky, I can’t quite seem to snag it. An angry cloud is whooshing back-and-forth, trying its best to snipe me out of the sky.
Again, I leap. Hurtling towards the coin, the angry cloud finally tags me. Reeling from the pain, my Mario falls like a rock to the lake below. In time with the splash, my controller gets spiked into the ground…again.
We stumble into an awkward moment between Abigail and Pierre. Also, we finally crack into the meteor on our front lawn! What could possibly be inside?
View the full post to see the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!
On a quest to donate $5 for every individual win, the Tetris 99 community comes through to spice things up! How many wins can we get as a team? I am truly overwhelmed by the incredible support from everyone on this stream and I can’t thank you enough!
View the full post to see the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!
As of January 1st, 2021, Twitch Sings is no more. Twitch announced on September 4th that they would be shutting the game down in the new year. At the very least, they did one more major drop of 400 new songs for players to keep singers engaged between now and its eventual demise.
Though I haven’t been using Twitch Sings for long, its closure really stings.
Elgato gave streamers a new level of control with the Stream Deck. It’s my favourite piece of streaming hardware, as it allows me to switch scenes, manage audio, trigger replays, and even stage a concert with the push of a button. I love the device and the Stream Deck platform so much that I just doubled down and bought a Stream Deck XL for access to even more buttons.
Many alternatives have risen in its wake, though they’re almost entirely software solutions that use your PC or phone. The Stream Deck still sets itself apart by being a physical device with tangible buttons that can be pressed without having to take your eyes off the camera.
Enter the Loupedeck Live. Best known for making tactile control devices for content creation, they’re taking their expertise to the world of streaming.
For a younger generation, the box pictured above means absolutely nothing. For the rest of us old folk, its nostalgia is undeniable. Long before the advent of Netflix, we went to video rental stores like Blockbuster to rent movies in VHS format.
When my wife Steff and I first saw this box on the shelf, we immediately did a double take. No, this isn’t a remnant from the past. It’s the box for a new tabletop party game featuring the Blockbuster brand.
In Third Person 