G Fuel Alternative (Monday Musings 83)

When I saw one of my friends stream, she mentioned that she was drinking G Fuel, and felt that it gave her very smooth energy, and no crashes after the effects wore off. She felt too jittery on the other energy drinks. Intrigued, I looked into G Fuel.

The ingredients aren't harmful because of the low dosages, but I hate the Sucralose and Acesulfame after taste, which G Fuel contains, and further, G Fuel is rather expensive at $35.99 for 40 servings, approximately $1 per serving, so I thought I can find a healthier and more cost-effective alternative to G Fuel.

After doing research, I found that the most effective way to improve energy and mental alertness is the tried and true, boring and effortful healthy ways such as:

1. Going to bed and getting up at the same time, i.e. good consistent sleep - most people need 8 hours
2. Exercising around 30 minutes between 55 to 85% (60% makes the most sense) of your max heart rate, at least 3 times/week, calculator here.
3. Fruits and vegetables - at least 5 servings - and whole grains
4. Reduce stress through meditation, problem-solving, and so forth
5. Smokers, QUIT!
6. Limit alcohol use 
7. Diaphragmatic breathing
8. Hydrate
9. Avoid sugars

However, there are going to be days when we can't get the 8 hours of solid sleep, eat nutritious foods, exercise, and smokers may slip due to increased stress and anxiety in their lives, and so on.

As streamers, should we then engage in performance drinks and pills, of which G Fuel is the most recently hyped, as marketing states that it was created by professional gamers? 

Reviewing the ingredients of G Fuel, the first part lists vitamins and minerals. However, it's much more cost-effective to take a generic multivitamin which is dirt cheap, and even free with some insurance plans. 

Even so, almost all research studies note that multivitamins don't really improve upon things and I recall my chemistry professor saying that multivitamins only lead to "expensive urine". So, unless you're literally not eating and at risk of scurvy, there's no need for multivitamins.

But, if you want to replicate G Fuel, you can take a cost-effective multivitamin for the first part of the ingredients.

The next ingredient of G-Fuel is the energy complex which consists of 140 to 150 mg of caffeine. Jet-alert caffeine at 100 mg is dirt cheap at $9.95 for 240 pills here at Amazon! You can take 1 and a half tablets (total 150 mg) for fraction of the G Fuel costs.

G-Fuel's other energy complex ingredients include, in addition to caffeine, Taurine, L-Citrulline Malate, Glucoronolactone, and N-Acetyl-Carnitine HCL. All these ingredients, including caffeine, are merely 1.7 grams.

Merely 1.7 grams, because to obtain the stimulating effects of Citrulline, you need on average 3 to 6 grams of L-Citrulline and 8 grams of Citrulline Malate! That's a lot! However, G-Fuel's concentration of Citrulline is well below the dosage needed for its effects (total of all ingredients at 1.7 grams).

Supplemental dosage of Glucoronolactone are between 500 to 3000 mg, so to be conservative, that's 0.5 grams minimum for this ingredient to be effective. Please note that G Fuel does not say how many mgs are included in their drinks, so I'm assuming they don't want to advertise the sub supplemental dosages. I'm assuming it'll be less than 0.5 grams.

Finally, N-Acetyl-Carnitine's recommended dosage to gain effects is 1500 to 2000 mg, and up to 4000 mg for depression.

Taking all these ingredients and breaking them down, the energy complex as to why G Fuel works is pure and simple Caffeine 140 to 150 mg. Again, Jet-alert is the cheaper and healthier alternative (i.e. no artificial sugars).

What can be said of the energy complex, the same can be said of G Fuel's focus complex. Again, total listed of the focus complex is a mere 1.2 grams. Like the energy complex, there's no breakdown of dosage of each ingredient in the focus complex. The ingredients here include L-Tyrosine, Choline Bitartrate, and ATP. ATP degrades through the digestion system, so ingesting ATP gets you nothing.

As for Choline Bitartrate, this study shows no acute benefits in healthy, young human adults - since we're using G Fuel for those immediate, acute effects, Choline Bitartrate does not appear to help in that situation. 

L-Tyrosine may be the only ingredient in G Fuel's energy complex that may have effects, even so L-Tyrosine had mixed results in reducing stress and improving focus. Some research showed benefits from taking L-Tyrosine, but at 500 to 2000 mg, but because there's no breakdown in G Fuel label, it's unclear if there's at least 500 mg of this ingredient in G Fuel, which I suspect is not the case. Again the total listed of all three ingredients is a mere 1.2 grams, and there's no breakdown for each ingredient!

Lastly, G Fuel notes the antioxidant complex, consisting of various fruit and vegetable powders and extracts, and given how many are listed, these might be in such small amounts that they don't have any effect. Indeed, they don't list how much of these powders are in the drink.

Let's pretend that G Fuel's combination does add up to having some antioxidant effects. You can quickly consume orange juice, or shove a handful of grapes or blueberries before stream, and have the same, or even higher antioxidant effects with less effort. No need to waste money and spend effort mixing your G Fuel powder and water!

Even so, the fact that G Fuel doesn't list how much powder and extract they use, most likely there's no antioxidant effects.

Therefore, after breaking down these ingredients, it appears that the effects of G Fuel on focus and mental energy are due to caffeine 150 mg and questionable multivitamin (per research studies). Again, you can get these extremely cheap or even free (multivitamin through insurance).

You may ask why my friend didn't feel jittery on G Fuel compared to other energy drinks? I'm suspecting it's because other energy drinks often include Guarana. G Fuel does not contain Guarana, and the other ingredients listed in G Fuel are such low dosages that you won't feel the effects except for caffeine. The combination of Guarana and caffeine in many energy drinks can make you feel jittery. I think in my case, it also caused heart racing.

The tried and true method in the above numbered list is the best way to improve energy and focus. However, if there's a day that you'll be streaming when you couldn't incorporate these healthy but boring strats, and you found G Fuel helpful, taking caffeine at 100 to 150 mg and a multivitamin will work the same. Not only that, this alternative is not only significantly cheaper than G Fuel, but healthier (no artificial sweeteners).

Conclusion: G Fuel is making a lot of money by brilliantly marketing popular Twitch streamers and professional gamers. However, you can get the same effects by taking cheap caffeine tablets (or drinking your favorite coffee beverage!) and any multivitamin. More effective yet, incorporate healthy life style changes. Don't believe the hype and save your dollars!

The How of Happiness Review

5 GAMES FOR OCTOBER

On this eve of All Hallow's Eve, take a trip down memories once forgotten with October's spooktacular quintet of games. Adventure meets FPS in the movie tie-in to the classic horror franchise Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge. Then make sure you Don't Go Alone in an under-appreciated computer RPG from the late 80s. If you make it out alive, investigate some real-life hauntings with Christopher Lee in Ghosts. Need some lighter scares? Try Scooby-Doo! Showdown in Ghost Town, a point-and-click adventure for younger players. If bloody gore's more your thing, enter the horrifying fantasy world of Witchaven, an often overlooked FPS using the Build engine. Enjoy.... if you dare!!!

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Kanto Underground

During my visit with Poké Maniac Bill, he mentioned a Pokémon tournament that was being hosted in Vermilion City. He had been invited to attend, but his illness was currently preventing him from traveling. He'd given his tickets to some other trainers, but assured me that if I made it in time they would consider me a contender with two gym badges. So after acquiring the Cascade Badge from Misty, I decided my next destination in Kanto would be Vermilion City. The tournament was held aboard a luxury cruise ship named the S.S. Anne where it was being hosted to entertain passengers with displays of Kanto Pokémon and its trainers. Local trainers were organized into tiers and allowed to battle the crew, interested passengers, and each other for various prizes. Key among the prizes was a Hidden Machine, a secret technical machine, that allowed certain Pokémon the ability to learn useful skills that they wouldn't otherwise have access to. This one in particular was owned by the captain of the S.S. Anne and was able to teach lucky Pokémon how to adeptly cut through overgrowth. I was interested to say the least.
Just south of Cerulean City lived a kind old man in a secluded homestead offering a Pokémon Daycare service. This kind of small business is a lot more widespread nowadays, but back then it was a bit of a novelty. He allowed any trainer registered within the Indigo League of Kanto to leave one Pokémon in his care for a nominal fee. I had never heard of anything like this at the time, but after our brief conversation, I used Bill's transfer system to bring Charlie out of storage and into the old man's care. At the daycare, he would get lots of exercise and activity and be allowed to play and train with other Pokémon instead of just waiting in storage. It seemed like a really good way to get him some extra training in case anything unspeakable ever happened to Kiwi. The old man assured me that he'd been doing this for a long time now and Charlie was in good hands.
I was attacked by some wild Pidgey on Route 5, but I decided to save my Pokéballs for better options since I had Kiwi and Charlie as members of Team Fox. It didn't seem prudent to waste the resources on a third fighting Pidgey. It was during this time between Cerulean and Vermilion that I was starting to think about the future battles. I had to be careful with upcoming Gym Leaders and at the Indigo Plateau and I had to plan accordingly. After passing on acquiring a new Pidgey on Route 5, I made an effort to avoid more wild encounters in the future unless I was ready to add a potential candidate to my team. The way I was training my Pokémon meant that every new capture had to be strategic going forward. An army of Pidgey weren't going to win me the rest of my battles.

I was pretty oblivious to this at the time, but the region of Kanto was in a bit of upheaval the first time I was there. As I mentioned, I wasn't really aware of Team Rocket much before my unfortunate encounter with them at Mount Moon. I didn't realize what a hold they had on the region. I also didn't realize that things were changing rapidly since their operation at Mount Moon crumbled. For a long time the organization moved in the shadows, acquiring Pokémon and using them for illegal activities without drawing much attention to themselves, but things were now changing since two local trainers had them riled up. I mention it now because typically moving south from Cerulean, you would end up in Saffron City before heading to Vermilion City, but Saffron was under a bit of a lock-down thanks to Team Rocket activities. Police sentries were posted on all sides of the city and were not allowing anyone in or out of the city. They tried to explain the situation to me the best they could, but I really didn't understand the gravity of it and they got impatient trying to explain to me why I needed to get to Vermilion another way.
This other way was an underground passage originally intended to be developed into a subway system to and from Saffron City. It's development had been abandoned due to escalating economic tension between the local government and Team Rocket. It now served as a convenient, although shady, underpass between Cerulean and Vermilion, as well as Lavender Town and Celadon City. You could bypass Saffron City entirely this way. The path was reasonably lit and maintained by local volunteers. Pokémon battles were prohibited and efforts were made to repel Pokémon from infiltrating the path as long as it was needed. Apparently Saffron had been cut off from the world for some time in order for this to have been as well established as it was, but again I was ignorant of the state of affairs in Kanto at that time. I merely enjoyed an uninterupted stroll underground, picking up various shiny objects I happened upon.

I arrived in Vermilion City sometime in the evening. I managed to secure a place to sleep for a few nights and then set out to learn what I could about the local Pokémon scene. I could see the S.S. Anne to the south all lit up like an angry Electrode. Tomorrow I would have to find a way to get into the tournament aboard and hopefully earn my access to that Hidden Machine, but I did have a few other concerns. The gym leader in Vermilion was not a push-over and he favored electric attacks above all else. It earned him his nickname as Lt. Surge. As it stood, my team consisted mostly of flying Pokémon who would easily be burst out of the sky by a well placed thunderbolt. Kiwi, Lucky, Vesper and Shakespear were all going to be huge liabilities in the Vermilion Gym. Arnold had recently evolved on his way south through Route 5 and 6, but I wasn't sure that my powerful Gloom could stand up to the kind of voltage Lt. Surge was known to put out. It seemed clear that Arnold and Rascal Jr. Simply weren't going to be enough to ensure a victory here in Vermilion. If I were going to get a new Pokémon, then the battles aboard the S.S. Anne would be a great training ground for them, so I set out that evening to add one more friend to my roster.
Vermilion City is the busiest port in the Kanto region and naturally surrounded mostly by water. Water-based Pokémon weren't going to stand a chance against Lt. Surge when I went to face him, so I had to look somewhere else. I had overheard that just beyond the city limits was a small rock tunnel the locals called Diglett's Cave, because it had been dug out by a large colony of Diglett and Dugtrio. Though it was a bit unsettling to crawl into their nest, I knew a Diglett or a Dugtrio would be the perfect addition to the team and the perfect counter to Lt. Surge. Their ground affinity would make them immune to any electric attacks Lt. Surge could throw at them. So despite my apprehension and the apparent dangers of crawling into a Diglett tunnel at night, I felt I had no choice.

Almost instantly I was assaulted by a Diglett who did not like me mucking around in his home. He was a quick! It was tricky to pin him down with my team. Lucky was able to put him to sleep with the powder off his wings, and it took a few balls to snag him without causing him to faint. Fortunately, we captured Douglas before any reinforcements could arrive and we made a hastey retreat from Diglett's Cave. Douglas replaced Shakespear on my team since official Pokémon League rules only allowed a trainer to carry a maximum of 6 Pokémon. Shakespear would rest comfortably in Bill's Storage System while Douglas stayed with me to train up for the Vermilion Gym. I slept easy that night knowing that Douglas would secure my victory against Lt. Surge and all I had to do now was get aboard the S.S. Anne to do some intensive training - and get my hands on that Hidden Machine.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.



Bill's Storage: Shakespear (Spearow)

Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)

The Journeyman Project - Last Impression

Written by Reiko

Agent 5 Journal #4: "I'm almost done. All three robots are destroyed, and now the last thing to do is to catch up with Elliot Sinclair. My impression of him is that he's unstable and very dangerous. I was almost flattened by his robot, after all. He may be a genius, but his intelligence does us no good if he's going to interfere with the history that he helped make accessible."

Only one mission left to complete, and we come full circle back to where we started. For the second time, I jump to the NORAD base in 2112. This time, after the robot taunts me, I immediately put on my oxygen mask, and I'm no longer gasping or in any danger from the sleeping gas. I look around again, but this time I'm more careful about what I touch.

Those people didn't have oxygen masks handy...

To my left, there's a screen that shows me various areas around the base. I can tap through to see a wireframe layout of the base, and then I can see what look like feeds from surveillance cameras in various sectors of the base. One sector seems to have a large mechanical arm of some kind. One feed from Alpha sector seems to have some people passed out, presumably because the sleeping gas has permeated the base.

This plasma isn't hot enough to kill...?

I don't see anything else to do in here, so I open the door and step forward. Immediately I get a warning that I detect "plasma field buildup." That doesn't sound good. I turn to face the corridor and see the robot at the other end of it, shooting some kind of weapon at me! It shoots two or three times, and the projectiles look like large balls of fire, but it doesn't kill me; it just knocks my energy down by about 25%.

Later, when I replay, I make sure the Shield BioChip is active before I step out of the room, and that seems to help somewhat. I think I only lose about 10-12% of my energy instead. So maybe the shield absorbed half of the damage.

I figure out that I've arrived in Beta sector, and I can move around in the corridors between a few of the sectors. But many doors refuse to open due to a security alert, including the door that closed behind me, so I can't get back into the first room to look at the screens again. I was going to see if I could determine where the robot went.

I can see the robot, but I can't get to it.

As it turns out, it's not hard to figure out where the robot went. The other end of the corridor ends in a cross-corridor with a door at the end. The left turn ends at a door into Alpha sector that won't open, but through it I can see the robot and hear the computer announce that the nuclear launch code is wrong, and warn that the manual override station in Alpha 2 is unmanned. I think I need to get there and override the launch manually to keep the robot from launching the missile.

Maximum pressure does nothing right now.

The other end of the cross-corridor ends at a door into Epsilon sector that won't open, so I take the door going forward and proceed to the next door, which has a pressure lock. I have to decrease the pressure in the submarine dock in order to enter the room. Oddly enough, the verbal warning tells me not to increase the pressure to maximum, but nothing seems to happen if I do. It just seems to be something to slow me down, as I have to hold the down arrow for several seconds while the pressure slowly decreases far enough that the door will open.

The submarine dock holds a small pool and what looks like a large grabber arm. I think it's the same mechanical arm I noticed in the surveillance feed. I can't find anything I can interact with in this room. The side wall appears to have individual lockers with names on them, but none of them open. So I proceed into the next room.

Loading arm control screens.

This appears to be a command post overlooking the loading arm. I can turn on the screens, one of which shows the layout of the loader arm room, and the other one gives me a "Loading Arm Menu"; "Choose Input Mode": "Manual" or "Programmed". If I select programmed mode and hit Activate, the arm moves forward, appears to grab, and then moves back. But there's nothing there, so I don't accomplish anything. If I select manual mode, I just get an error screen that says "Waldo Glove Disabled". Sometimes, anyway. Sometimes it does the exact same thing as programmed mode.

There's another exit from the command post, which leads to another short corridor bounded by doors, which then leads to another T corridor with exits to various sectors. The loading arm seems to be Delta sector. The cross-corridor again leads right to Epsilon sector and left to Alpha sector. Unfortunately, all the rest of these doors are locked due to the security alert.

How to fail the NORAD mission.

Actually, the Alpha sector door is locked, but it also has a retinal scanner on it. When I trigger it, it says, "Please hold for ten seconds for Alpha sector retinal ID scan." I can back away to avoid the scan. If I stand still and let it scan me, it figures out that I don't belong there and triggers another security alert. I then hear that the nuclear missile has been launched, which fails the mission and causes me to be pulled back to the present automatically.

At this point, I got stuck. I didn't have any way through the door with the retinal scanner, and I hadn't found anything else to do in the NORAD area. Fortunately, Ilmari came to my rescue and confirmed that I had ended up in a walking dead scenario. I had missed something in a mission I did earlier. I am not pleased at the game design that allowed this to happen, but I'll save my detailed comments on that for the final rating. For now, Ilmari's hint pointed to the existence of another BioChip that I had failed to get from the robot at the Science Center, the first mission I completed. That meant some significant backtracking in order to fix my mistake. The rest of this post was written a few days after my initial exploration of the NORAD level above.

Retinal BioChip item

I reload the appropriate save in order to go back to the science center after making the antidote. I quickly move to the electrical access room and electrocute the robot as I did before. This time, I carefully pull out all the BioChips that are available. The chip I was missing is, appropriately enough, the Retinal BioChip. (I have to wonder, though, how it manages to be effective. How can it know what an "acceptable vein structure" would be for any given retinal scanner lock? And why did the robot need it in the first place?) After returning to the Pegasus with six chips total, my score is at 50607.

How many BioChips can I grab in 3 seconds?

Actually, I barely managed to get all of them first try, and then I accidentally killed the program before I saved, so I had to do it again. Then it took me three tries to get all the BioChips. The auto-destruct sequence triggers quickly enough that it's really not very easy to get them all. I don't think I commented on it in the original post, but the first time I played through the sequence, I only got the Optical Memory chip and didn't realize more than one could be taken. I'd already tried multiple times even to get two chips, and then it turns out I still didn't get them all. That sequence is probably the hardest sequence to get right in the whole game.

After getting the chip I missed, then I have to play through the entire Mars sequence again. I know what needs to happen, so it only takes about 25 minutes to do the whole level, although for some reason I have a little more trouble with the Mastermind mini-game this time around. Eventually I get through it, grab the bomb, work my way through the maze, carefully use the ore crusher, blast off in the shuttle, and capture the robot. I make sure to get all the chips from this one too, of course, although this one has a duplicate chip (the Mapping chip) for some reason. That's especially pointless given that it'd be more difficult to get through the ore tunnel maze without already having the Mapping chip.

After two missions cleared and seven BioChips, now I have a score of 76915. This is significantly higher than the score I reported at the end of the previous post (60560). This is probably a combination of the 5000 point increase for the extra chip as well as more points for being faster at completing the missions. I've done the first two enough times now that I know what's necessary and what isn't.

The retinal chip at work projecting a simulated retina for the scanner.

Finally, back to the NORAD level. I start the same way as I did before, wearing the oxygen mask, and having the shield chip active when I face the robot's plasma blasts. I make my way through the pressurized room and along the corridors to the second Alpha door with the scanner. This time, I activate the Retinal chip before I trigger the scanner, and it does its thing.

The door opens to reveal the defense station. I walk in and trigger the screens. The left one shifts from a surveillance video of the other Alpha station to a close-up on the robot, who begins gloating at me about how he just broke the nuclear activation code and began the launch sequence for the nuclear missile strike. Am I too late? (Apparently the country it's aimed at is spelled Ghorbestan, although given all the typos, even that can't entirely be trusted.)

Apparently the writers couldn't spell "Addis Ababa" either.

I have only one way to stop the missile launch: I have to play another mini-game where I race to shut down several missile silos in quick succession before time runs out. To do this, I have to click on the trackball below the globe to move the cursor around the globe and select the correct silo site. Then a button appears on the right screen to deactivate it. Each time a silo is deactivated, the installation selects a different site, and the amount of time I have to deactivate it decreases, starting at two minutes and decrementing by 10 or 15 seconds each time down to only 30 seconds for the last one.

The US has eight silos (nine including Hawaii), but I only have to deactivate one of them.

I like this minigame in one way, because it requires some knowledge of geography. It just gives you a city and country, and you have to navigate around the globe to find the correct red dot that corresponds to that location. Some of the locations are reasonably uncommon, like Bangkok, Thailand. Some aren't even capital cities, like Bonn, Germany, although there's only one dot anywhere in the vicinity of Germany, so that hardly matters. The globe is tiny enough on the screen that there's not enough resolution to really make it interesting. I doubt that Pegasus Prime actually did this, but I could certainly imagine a remake that could offer difficulty levels by using more common or less common locations for the silos.

What I don't like about this minigame is the fiddly control of the trackball, though. The difficulty should be primarily in identifying the correct location, but instead, most of the difficulty is in actually selecting the location. The trackball is incredibly imprecise. Most of the time I found myself sliding back and forth around the vicinity of the right dot, trying to get the selector to stop in the right place. The mouse is way too sensitive in the game as it is, and the clicks are no better: often when I just need a single click to shift the selector over a small bit, it acts like I clicked and held for a moment, sliding it too far.

I've prevented the missile launch by deactivating too many silos.

Eventually I manage to get a bit better at controlling the selector, enough that I never run out of time. The robot tries to taunt me several times, telling me I'll never succeed, but I get the impression it's getting a little alarmed as I continue deactivating silos. After at least eight different silo locations, I reach the end. The screen shows a new message: "Maximum deactivation allotment exceeded. Global launch override safety feature engaged. ALL SILOS DEACTIVATED."

Now I've really made the robot angry. It's coming for me, so I'd better find a way to stop it like I did the other two. (As far as I can tell, though, it never shows up if I just wait in the Alpha sector.) I start making my way back along the corridor toward the original end of the station.

I'm trapped unless I deal with the robot right here.

I am not very surprised to encounter the robot once I step into the room just before the pressurized submarine dock. I look through the door and see it coming toward me. Once it's in front of me, I'm not allowed to move or turn away any more, so the only thing I can do is use the pressure controls. Well, low pressure won't do anything, but what about maximum pressure? I was warned that maximum pressure is pretty strong - is it stronger than a robot? Apparently yes! The robot crumples like a tin can. The door opens, and again I get a look at the robot's chips as it prepares to self-destruct. This one doesn't have anything that isn't a duplicate, though.

Mission complete.

And that's the end of the mission. The missile launch has been prevented. All I needed was the retinal chip, and then I played one minigame and solved one puzzle, and that's all. But before I go on, I'm going to go back and do the last puzzle a different way.

The loading arm grabs the robot.

When I get into the control room, instead of turning to face the robot at the door, I continue forward to the control station for the loading arm. Then when I face the room, the robot comes over to the window and starts pounding on it. It also taunts me again: "What do you think this is, human? A game?" (It didn't talk when it was at the door.) As quickly as I can, I trigger the loading arm screen, select Automated, and hit Activate. The arm reaches out, grabs the robot, and smashes it through the window, destroying it, and the mission completes as before.

So one of these solutions should be the "violent" solution, and one should be the "peaceful" solution. But honestly, both of these seem about equally violent to me. Both result in the destruction of the robot, and the loading arm solution also results in damage to the window. For next time, I'll complete the game both ways to find out which one is which.

BioChips: Interface, Mapping, Pegasus, Optical Memory, Retinal, Shield, Trace
Other inventory: Transport Card, Journeyman Key, Tranquilizer Dart, Antidote, Stun Gun, Wire Cutters, Maintenance Key, Access Card Bomb, Oxygen Mask
Time travel trips: 4
Score: 98570
Session Time: 1 hr 30 min
Total Time: 7 hr 15 min

Again there are typos in my screenshots! I called out the Addis Ababa one, but there are at least two others. Who can find them?

Deaths: 3 (total: 19)

Finding out first-hand how the colony was destroyed.

#17: (Thanks to MorpheusKitami for alerting me to this death.) I didn't try this last time, but if you don't take care of the bomb before entering the mining tunnels, then it will explode, destroying the colony. The ending is called "Explosion of Mars Colony": "Your expert sleuthing abilities have led you to the discovery of what actually happened to the Mars Colony." I assume we blow up with it.

Sure looks like the robot won this round with the door.

#18: If you wait too long at the door, the robot will eventually break it down. Somehow the robot is strong enough to break down a steel pressure door, but not strong enough to withstand the pressure that the door can withstand? Maybe it punches through it. Or maybe the writers were confused about this too. This ending is "Crushed by Robot": "Not even a 2000 lb. steel pressure door could keep the robot from losing this round. Winner by TKO: the robot." Right, so did the robot win or lose? I guess the lack of proofreading extends beyond just spelling errors.

The picture should really show Agent 5 with the oxygen mask on.

#19: If you wait too long at the window by the loading arm controls, the robot will eventually break it down too. This time, we're "Killed by Robot": "Next time you should have a plan before confronting a two-ton robot who wants to see you dead." So that means the robot weighs twice as much as that pressure door.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Back From DesotoCon

   Over the weekend I went to DeSoto, Kansas, to the home of a friend of mine who was transferred away from his post here in Galveston County. He grew up there, and has a lot of friends still in the area with whom he gamed for years. These guys go back to high school (Class of 1991). Anyway, he invited me to come up for the weekend of gaming that he holds every year at his house there and I accepted.

   There were about 20 guys there. We had four six-hour sessions, Friday night, two on Saturday, and Sunday morning. A variety of games, from Nintendo Switch to boardgames to minis games to TTRPGs were played.

   On Friday, I played Star Wars Miniatures. I managed one photo, and it's not a good one. I took the Dark Side and played a band of bounty hunters acting as mercenary bodyguards for the Emperor. Boba Fett, IG-88, LOM-4, Bossk, and Greedo. We lost to the Light Side, but killed Padme, Leia, Luke, and Obi Wan Kenobi, plus a couple of rebel troopers. Chewbacca killed the Emperor and Mara Jade. I left the scene with three of my five (Bossk and Greedo did not survive).

   Saturday morning was a game of Age of Conan the Boardgame. It's a long game, and I managed to win as Aquilonia, more by luck than strategy. Fun, but one of the guys wasn't into it and kept saying that.

   Saturday evening was a high level Pathfinder game. The five players took the parts of classic D&D characters: Mordenkainen, Bigby (me), Rigby, Yrag, and Melf. We went to collect a crystal from a temple sucked down into the Nine Hells, and ended up killing a pair of pit fiends. We then raised the temple out of the Hells and back to the Material Plane. I almost died from Strength loss but got restored just in time.

   Sunday morning was D&D 5e. I don't recall much about it now (I'm writing this a month later), but I do recall a green dragon who fled the battlefield just before we could put it down. And my dwarf cleric fell off a cliff. Survived, but it put me out of the fight for the most part.

Inclusivity And The Blue Hair (Tradecraft)

My store has a reputation for being an inclusive environment.

Much to my surprise.

You see, I haven't put up signs saying we're against hate or networked with the community to be more inclusive. I haven't sought out a more diverse staff or advertised in the Pink Pages. I don't have a particular store policy on inclusivity and I don't have any rules in my Game Center, as I think rules postings are only necessary when they're really, really necessary. History has shown only crazy people post rules (or make laws) when it's not necessary.

The reason why we have a reputation for inclusivity is we try really hard, now get your notebook out so you don't miss this, we try really hard not to be a dick.

When other people show intolerance, it's not a "he said, she said" issue. The intolerant person is shown the door. Because they're being a dick, not because of some political stance, rule or policy. Most of the time I'm not even there, as this activity happens in the evening hours during events. It's ingrained in the store culture, and staff are part of that culture. There's usually one trouble maker in every group (two in Magic).

As for hiring, I've realized inclusivity provides me a great opportunity to hire excellent people overlooked in a more conservative environment. I don't care about the color of your hair, your gender, your orientation, your identity, your race or even your politics, provided you can do the job well. I do want you to be clever, knowledgeable and customer service oriented. Because other hiring managers do care about all the superficial things, I often find diamonds in the rough. Note how selfish I am. Note that I am finding a competitive advantage and not making a political statement. I am not hiring lesser people to make a greater point. I am not being a good person, I'm just being self serving. Most importantly, I'm not being a dick. As with everything in the game trade, the bar is low.

I want to mention when I was doing research for my store in 2004, I visited the local comic shop, Flying Colors, with a friend. As we were leaving I mentioned, "Do I really want a life managing young people with blue hair?" That was what I saw at Flying Colors and being in the professional world, you would never see that. I had no experience with blue hair (my son later had blue hair for years) or really anyone who didn't file down their personality to fit into a corporate culture. I assumed blue hair meant trouble and weird problems and unpredictability, when in fact, blue hair meant opportunity. I really do want a life managing young people with blue hair.

This diversity grows the store and brings in a diverse crowd like I could not have imagined five to ten years ago. It's a hiring dividend, not the core value of the hire. The hobby has become mainstream. If you would have looked at my store a decade ago, it would have been the stereotypical "sausage fest" of all males, acting male, smelling male, being their stereotypical male selves and expressing their dumb ass stereotypical male opinions. I get it. You become so blinded by testosterone that you can't even smell the sweat or notice the pee on the seat. Testosterone in the air blurs the senses. That was the community, whether you liked the smell or not. For some stores that haven't adapted, this is still the community.

There was good and bad in that group, like any group, but it was an insular community, that repelled others, especially women. That is gone for the most part, or at least lessened. The hobby has spread rapidly and the customer base has expanded to all types of people and most importantly, we have been there with open arms. We didn't change, we just provided the open environment that allowed diversity to stream in, and the understanding that there will be no hostility or intolerance allowed.

Not everyone agreed. Not everyone went quietly. One edge lord threatened violence against me. As someone who's not a squishy liberal, and more libertarian (a liberal who returns fire), this had me a bit fired up. I will go down with the ship and take you with me. I bought a couple Louisville Sluggers, in case we wanted a little spontaneous staff batting practice. But like most cowards, they made a lot of threats, trolled me on the Internet for a while, and eventually disappeared.

In any case, there was no change needed for this transition, no Sluggers wielded, just an understanding we would make hard decisions to defend people who chose us as their home. If you're not a dick, how could you not? Embrace the blue hair. Blue hair is here to stay. If you really are a dick, embrace it anyway, for your bottom line. Fake it for the money.

Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator Free Download

Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator - is a battlefield simulation game from the year 2017. Here is a sandbox like no other. Create massive battles with absolutely no limits. Want to see 10,000 chickens fight an army of Romans?

Featuring: There are simply no limits to the carnage you can achieve in Epic Battle Simulator. Mess around with a massive variety of units. Everything from, Roman Centurions, Medieval soldiers, Knights, Orcs, Trolls, and yes, chickens! The main focus in this game is giving the player no restrictions to what he can do and that is why we decided not to limit the amount of units in battle. Want to see what a battle of 100,000 units looks like? Plus we don't recommend going past 10,000 for most machines but its your CPU, do what you want.

..:: Purchase the game here and support the developers ::..

1. FEATURES OF THE GAME

• Play as any one of the units in the Game and getting up close plus, Personal to help change the tides of a battle.
• Unfortunately, there aren't many engines that you can chuck 10,000 characters in and Expect good performance.
• Each individual in this video game decides his own path plus, navigates or react in Massively open environments.
• Plus some multiple troops are available to choose from and more to come it is totally up to you to build your army.
• Mess around with variety of units. Everything from, Roman Centurions, Medieval soldiers, Knights, orcs and trolls.

Game is updated to latest version

Important Notes

▪ Proper crack by Codex or Reloaded + game fix by viciomnia.

2. GAMEPLAY AND SCREENSHOTS

3. DOWNLOAD GAME:

♢ Click or choose only one button below to download this game.
♢ View detailed instructions for downloading and installing the game here.
♢ Use 7-Zip to extract RAR, ZIP and ISO files. Install PowerISO to mount ISO files.

ULTIMATE EPIC BATTLE SIMULATOR DOWNLOAD LINKS

      

PASSWORD FOR THE GAME

Unlock with password: pcgamesrealm

4. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS GAME

➤ Download the game by clicking on the button link provided above.

➤ Download the game on the host site and turn off your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid errors.

➤ When the download process is finished, locate or go to that file.

➤ Open and extract the file by using 7-Zip, and run 'setup.exe' as admin then install the game on your PC.

➤ Once the installation is complete, run the game's exe as admin and you can now play the game.

➤ Congratulations! You can now play this game for free on your PC.

➤ Note: If you like this video game, please buy it and support the developers of this game.

Turn off or temporarily disable your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid false positive detections.

5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
(Your PC must at least have the equivalent or higher specs in order to run this game.)

• Operating System: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows 10 | requires 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5 4590 or AMD FX 8320 or any kind of higher processor
• Memory: at least 8GB System RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 5GB free HDD Space
• Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 5770 1024MB, NVIDIA GTS 450 1024MB or higher graphics

Supported Language: English and Simplified Chinese language are available and supported for this game.
If you have any questions or encountered broken links, please do not hesitate to comment below. :D