Destiny – Rise of Iron: The OWL Sector ARG

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Strange things are stirring in the Destiny realm as players began noticing a very odd colored swarm surrounding their heads a few nights ago.  What is this mystery, and where did it come from?

Clearly it has something to do with Destiny’s newest upcoming expansion, Rise of Iron, but is this thing harmful, helpful, what is really going on.  One very popular Twitch streamer, SayNoToRage, looks to be Patient Zero who was infected with this strange Destiny virus which has begun to spread through the player-base of Destiny by simply interacting with someone who already has one of the viruses. A number of ways have been confirmed so far, and players have reported a boost to reputation and experience once they have been infected. But what could these Owl Sector infections mean?

These viruses – Brilliance 3.2, Glory 2.1, Splendor 2.6, Magnificence 2.0, and Fortitude 3.1 – seem to be unlocking additional details to the lore of Destiny.  Owl Sector appeared as a subpage on Bungie’s website a couple nights ago shortly after SayNoToRage noticed he had contracted the virus.

You can checkout Bungie’s Owl Sector website which shows a world map with multiple colored nodes on it. Each of these nodes seem to represent a player’s location whose character has been infected by one of the viruses. These different colors correspond to the five different viruses previously mentioned. Ever since the initial outbreak with SayNoToRage, the website looks to have a real-time update and feed showing each infection across the globe.  This has also led to more information getting released through chat logs of the in game NPC’s, like Cayde-6, Ikora Rey, and Zavala who seem to be studying these viruses to determine for themselves what they are.

From what can be gathered from some parts of the chat logs, it looks like the viruses, along with SIVA, were developed on Mars in the Dust Palace by the exoscience group, Clovis Bray.  With Rise of Iron right around the corner and considering how this looks to be a very technologically advanced element of Destiny’s lore, it’s hard to think the SIVA tech wouldn’t be involved somehow.

Guardians look to have quite the adventure ahead of them as Rise of Iron plots a story about the lost SIVA plague, so these viruses we are seeing now could be a precursor to our next journey and potential dangers that are just around the corner.

As for the Owl Sector, it appears that they’re a reconnaissance group responsible for looking over these types of outbreaks. This would tie into the Owl Sector Twitch account’s message that was in SayNoToRage’s Twitch stream when he first contracted the virus. The message read “We’ve detected an unidentified foreign intrusion into your systems, Guardian. Stay calm, we will investigate.”

One question does come up and that is will we see these “Viruses” once the Rise of Iron content releases next week?  At least we won’t have to wait long to find out what is in store for the Destiny realm, and it’s Guardian protectors.

Be safe Guardians and I’ll see you next time.

The Wolf Among Us Episode 3 – A Crooked Mile Review

2499489-wolf+among+us+-+wolf+among+us+-+2014-04-04+12-40-21+(p)63.jpgA Crooked Mile slaps us right in the middle of some pretty amazing and memorable moments to date in this game.  Around every corner Telltale succeeds at introducing new characters in almost every scene which keeps the interest up, and brings some more light and story to characters we’ve only just seen a small glimpse of over the past two episodes. This episode drops some tough choices on you and some crazy consequences to boot, so overall this episode really gives you the feeling of being these characters and owning the story itself!

My biggest beef with episode two was the lack of story / plot progression you had as it just didn’t move forward enough, but A Crooked Mile is just the opposite as this 90 minute episode makes every second count.  This episode also introduces a new character which was a lot of fun, a witch of Fabletown who lives by the old world standards that really brought a sense of magic to the story which tingles the intrigue of where the story is going.

thewolfamongusepisode3acrookedmile_review_1.jpgWithout going into many spoilers here, this episode brings us one of the biggest scenes to date.  Watching Bigby finally bare his superpowers against an army of angry dwarfs is just a taste it seems of what you get to look forward to in future episodes.  This incredible moment in the game lasted about as long as a blink of an eye, so the wait for episode 4 is going to be a nail biter for sure.

One major plot line of the story that is really starting to take shape and become the star of the show is Bigby’s sadness and frustration.  With that being said, time really seems to be limited in A Crooked Mile, and always moving forward, so you can’t see everything or meet everyone.  One thing that really made Bigby’s emotions standout is due to a big change from episode 1 and 2 as you had very limited time to react to conversations which isn’t the case in this episode.  Oddly I like the fact they gave us more time in the conversations and story this time cause there are some brutal decisions to be made throughout.

Wolf-Among-Us-Episode-3-04As great as this episode was to play through I had a little beef in a couple of the scenes as they decided to cut before I had a chance to fully explore the surroundings.  Both of these scenes were packed full of things to explore and items to discover, so one moment I’m happily exploring, the next I was sliding right over into the start of the next scene which was disappointing.

This episode pushes the boundaries of brutal encounters and wacky decisions that really push the story forward and brought almost all the characters to the playing board.  This is one of Telltales best episodes to date on any of the games they’ve written, so I can’t wait to see where they take Bigby in the next episode!

The Wolf Among Us – Episode 2 Smoke and Mirrors Review

ss_dedc5e68e74788af4d714392a231d090d2511af9.1920x1080.jpgThe second episode of Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us, titled Smoke and Mirrors, takes us to a whole new level of awesome! This masterpiece of a world that Telltale created is still bouncing with vibrant neon colors, but all the characters this go round are coming in shades of grey!

This episode dives much deeper into the character of Bigby, and no matter whether you play as the nice guy, or as a monster you get to see a personal side to who Bigby really is. You really get to see a lot of the dark, fantastical world of Fables which you find yourself really questioning some of the decisions you have to make, right or wrong.  The writers of this episode did an amazing job of keeping the suspense up, but thrilling you with moments of ease and lush adventure.

Starting this episode you will pick up right where you left off with the shocking events at the end of Faith.  A lot of the drama and suspense in this episode revolves around how Bigby and the other Fables deal with the fallout, and thankfully, a lot of that is fully up to you and the decisions you make. The voice acting in this episode and overall game is top notch and probably some of the best Telltale has put out, which is saying a lot with the games they’ve done.

1392053246Want some villians?  Well, this episode has got plenty of them as they set the foundation for some really nasty ones who you will quickly love and hate all at the same time. SPOILER ALERT – One of the nasties in this game is named Georgie, a strip club owner and pimp with an absolute numbness to human dignity and need.  No matter how you handle Bigby’s interaction with him, through understandable violence or forced restraint, the scene plays out great both ways. A few of the major decisions from Episode 1 also have some nice moments of payoff in Smoke and Mirrors. Particularly how you handled Belle lying to Beast and who you chose to chase out of the bar result in very different scenes that shape both the story and Bigby as a character.

As great as this episode is/was with all the character developments, the one downfall is the overall story didn’t move a long quite as I hoped.  This episode leaves a lot of loose ends still unanswered from episode 1 which I was hoping to tie up, but instead they add more to the mix and leave you with even more questions.  There aren’t any big action sequences that would meet the expectation that episode 1 left after encountering the Woodsman which was a bit disappointing.

wa5Overall The Wolf Among us series continues to bring moments of joy while playing, but at the same time tears away at the multitude of emotions while dealing with people. Sadness is something you see quite often in Bigby’s life as he is alone in this journey, or so he feels. You quickly learn that he has more allies then he realizes after meeting some of the other characters in this game. Telltale makes it more than worthwhile to go back and replay the episode as a complete maniac or a restrained reasonable person.  This is really something I never wanted to do with any of the other adventure games Telltale has made, so good job for sucking me in even further Telltale.

Smoke and Mirrors is a fantastic second step in this already great story. You are going to get 90 whole minutes of memorable characters, scenes and some of the best but agonizing decision moments Telltale has ever made you think about before.  Even with the slight disappointment with the overall story not progressing like I hoped it would….I’m completely sold on this story and can’t wait to finish the rest of the game.