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I didn't know that!

Now do "28ORNT28".

You're both insanely wrong, it was a great film!

[Dexter]

The highlight this week is double-length Dexter. Funny script, lots of action, and glorious art by Tazio Bettin. There's also a really good cover by Andy Clarke (although the number plates don't match!).

Next is Brink with an interesting reveal.

Judge Dredd introduces some more characters, and then begins the action.

I'm not really following Skip Tracer. Why is the pop star even there? She's just a pop star. Why is Blake helping them again? "I have a bad feeling about this," well that's original.

[Assassin! playthroughs 11 to 13]

That just looks so impressive! It would be worth buying that book for the art alone! Good find!

I'm really looking forward to this book. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! books, and also Creature of Havoc, feel more like fully-fleshed novels than the more usual FF books with their short paragraphs that have little in the way of a narrative strand. So this should be a good read.

Speaking of gamebooks that feel a bit like novels, I have finally finished my first Way of the Tiger book, and then read all the bits that I missed during my playthroughs. I've mentioned before that the paragraphs are longer and more detailed, but the endgame is magnificent and really adds to the feeling that there is a story, or at least a theme, in the way that for example Forest of Doom does not.

Assassin! playthroughs 11 to 13

Instead of resuming from my last checkpoint, I decided to start again at the beginning, because I had got to near the end of the book with quite a low Endurance score, and I wanted to try and get there a bit healthier!

I began to regret that decision when those bloody pirates at the start of the book defeated me three bloody times! Killed me twice, and once -- just for variety -- they captured me and made me a galley slave for the rest of my life!

Playthroughs 14 to 18

I finally get past the pirates and make it (via the same route) to where I left off the other day, on the roof of the Keep where the baddies live. I use this as a checkpoint to go back to when I'm killed, which turns out to be quite often.

First the guard on the roof raises the alarm twice, and I get killed by reinforcements. On the third go, I manage to silently kill the guard, and now I have to choose which order to kill my three victims in. Perhaps foolishly, I choose to begin with the man who in my character's backstory murdered my natural father and, later, my foster father. This turns out to be a mistake, because I was supposed to save him till last, and I quickly arrive at an instant death paragraph.

I go for one of the alternatives, a sorceror who immediately kills me with a death spell for which I have no magical defence (having missed the opportunity to acquire that in Mortvalon, as I have since discovered).

I then go for the third target, heroically killing him in his sleep. Yes, the bards will certainly be singing songs about my courage and honour for generations to come! I then get killed by one of the other bosses.

Playthrough 19 (!)

Finally, I manage to assassinate two of the Big Bads, before finally having a big showdown with my nemesis, and what an absolutely epic scene this is! This is a really fitting end for the book, consisting of an absolutely barn-storming, gigantic battle with another ninja. It consists of a great many paragraphs, giving you various different options for attacking, while describing a huge climactic fight. It reminds me of the big duel with Balthus Dire, but the way this is done just feels more deadly, more significant, and more exciting. It's just really well put together.

My enemy's Endurance score is still higher than mine, but not unfairly so, and -- for a change! -- I happen to make all the right choices, greatly aided with my new combat knowledge which I learned from the friendly hermit in the mountains, which gives me an impressive head start as I manage to deprive him of 16 of his 20 Endurance points in the first round! Which makes the fight sound a bit easier than I have tried to convey in the previous paragraph, but only because I actually found the hermit, who I could easily have missed. It's not essential to find him, but it definitely helps, and this is why this book is immeasurably fairer than so many of Sir Ian's.

Once I finally dispatch this guy (without actually needing the extra Endurance points I worked so hard for in playthroughs 11 to 13!), the final paragraph (420) is the very opposite of the criminally brief Space Assassin's 400. It is a suitably rewarding description of your triumph and your reward, and I also get to pick up a new ninja skill which I can take with me on to the next book!

Now I have to escape from the Keep...

Conclusion

It's just great, and you should all buy it! My second WotT book has arrived, so I'll start that soon!

One by Conrad Williams.

[Rogue Trooper.]

Almost all of the Rogue Trooper stories are actually pretty lame, including most of the Gerry Finley-Day episodes. But there are enough exceptions, such as Biowire, Cinnabar and The War Machine, that 12 episodes of Cradlegrave don't outweigh Rogue Trooper.

The minimum number of Fear points you can pick up on the way to paragraph 400 is nine. Given that your maximum capacity for Fear is between 7 and 12, you have a 50% chance of losing with a die roll before you even turn to paragraph 1!

Disappointing that "By Private Contract" didn't make it into The Son. It's the only omission from the series of SD graphic novels.

There won't be an election because the Tories know they would lose. They'll just hang on and hope that the next PM can turn it around.

It's good, but it has a lot of spoilers, which might put off people who haven't read them before.

Once I've completed it I'm definitely going to go back over it and see what I missed.

Actually I've just realised I'm not quite up to date, so it may just be something in an episode I've not seen yet.

[Way of the Tiger 1, play through 5]

Way of the Tiger 1, play through 5

This time I choose arrow cutting skill (which lets me catch or deflect arrows), climb the rigging when the pirates attack, throw my shuriken ninja death star at the first pirate, all to deprive him of just one endurance point! Then I attack him and use up one of my inner force points, and this doubles the one more point of damage I manage to inflict! Well that was worth it! But I manage to kill him, use another inner force point to kill the captain, and finally make it to the Cobra Man who finished me off on my first play through.

This time I survive that encounter (without needing my anti-poison skill) and, avoiding a side quest, I enter the city of Mortavalon. This is the kind of place where, I am told, the largest temple is to the god of Death, whose priests sacrifice children. But there is also a small monastery where the monks follow the same god I do, and they help me out by telling me about an old hermit who can offer me some more useful help. I go there, and the knowledge I acquired at the very start of the book when I became a grandmaster enables me to earn the hermit's trust. I gain more knowledge about my enemies' whereabouts and also learn a new ninja technique which amounts to an extra point on my attack strength whenever I kick people.

After that I get into a couple of fights, and follow the hermit's directions to the next city, where I survive a cowardly assassination attempt. Leaving the city I pursue my targets to a castle, where I catch my first sight of them entering the gate. I try to enter the castle by pretending to be a wandering minstrel, but the guard seems a bit suspicious of my lies and I sneak away in case he's gone to fetch reinforcements. Instead I swim the moat at night and climb the wall, but I fail a dice roll and the guards hear me, leading to an instant death paragraph.

Play throughs 6 to 10

I am killed another five times trying to get into this fucking castle!

I didn't start over at the beginning, I used the paragraph where I arrive there as a checkpoint. There are a variety of ways to get in, all of them difficult, but when I finally managed to bluff my way in as a minstrel (much harder than getting into Balthus Dire's citadel!), I was at least able to do a bit of recon before the guards escorted me out again. This info not only offered me a new route into the castle on my assassination run, and a map of the castle, but there is also a lengthy paragraph which describes two of the three targets I have to kill, and they are very bad mofos indeed! I don't know how I'm going to deal with these two when I get to them! I'm starting to think all the guards and monsters defending the place are actually doing me a favour by killing me before I get to their employers!

As I've said before, all this description makes for a more engaging and immersive experience than most FF books. The structure of the book at the section where you're trying to infiltrate the castle has been well thought through and there are intelligent choices, particularly when your scouting of the castle as a minstrel leads to new and useful information about a vulnerable point of access.

On my last go I made it as far as the roof of the keep, and it feels like I'm about to reach the endgame as my targets live in three turrets at the top of the keep. But it's late, so I'll try again tomorrow.

Zenith seems like an odd thing to leave out. A terrible decision in fact!

It's a fantastic series and I've really enjoyed it. As much as I like the comics, I think all the changes for tv so far have been improvements.

Jayzus, why do you think the Black Noir twist [spoiler]can't happen[/spoiler]? What did I miss?