The Ultimate List of The 14 Best URL Shortener Services

1. Short.am: Short.am provides a big opportunity for earning money by shortening links. It is a rapidly growing URL Shortening Service. You simply need to sign up and start shrinking links. You can share the shortened links across the web, on your webpage, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Short.am provides detailed statistics and easy-to-use API.
   It even provides add-ons and plugins so that you can monetize your WordPress site. The minimum payout is $5 before you will be paid. It pays users via PayPal or Payoneer. It has the best market payout rates, offering unparalleled revenue. Short.am also run a referral program wherein you can earn 20% extra commission for life.
   
2. Ouo.io: Ouo.io is one of the fastest growing URL Shortener Service. Its pretty domain name is helpful in generating more clicks than other URL Shortener Services, and so you get a good opportunity for earning more money out of your shortened link. Ouo.io comes with several advanced features as well as customization options.
   With Ouo.io you can earn up to $8 per 1000 views. It also counts multiple views from same IP or person. With Ouo.io is becomes easy to earn money using its URL Shortener Service. The minimum payout is $5. Your earnings are automatically credited to your PayPal or Payoneer account on 1st or 15th of the month.
   
   • Payout for every 1000 views-$5
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-20%
   • Payout time-1st and 15th date of the month
   • Payout options-PayPal and Payza
   
   
3. CPMlink: CPMlink is one of the most legit URL shortener sites.You can sign up for free.It works like other shortener sites.You just have to shorten your link and paste that link into the internet.When someone will click on your link.
   You will get some amount of that click.It pays around $5 for every 1000 views.They offer 10% commission as the referral program.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.The payment is then sent to your PayPal, Payza or Skrill account daily after requesting it.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$5
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-10%
   • Payment methods-Paypal, Payza, and Skrill
   • Payment time-daily
   
   
4. Oke.io: Oke.io provides you an opportunity to earn money online by shortening URLs. Oke.io is a very friendly URL Shortener Service as it enables you to earn money by shortening and sharing URLs easily.
   Oke.io can pay you anywhere from $5 to $10 for your US, UK, and Canada visitors, whereas for the rest of the world the CPM will not be less than $2. You can sign up by using your email. The minimum payout is $5, and the payment is made via PayPal.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$7
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-20%
   • Payout options-PayPal, Payza, Bitcoin and Skrill
   • Payment time-daily
   
   
5. Wi.cr: Wi.cr is also one of the 30 highest paying URL sites.You can earn through shortening links.When someone will click on your link.You will be paid.They offer $7 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.
   You can earn through its referral program.When someone will open the account through your link you will get 10% commission.Payment option is PayPal.
   
   • Payout for 1000 views-$7
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-10%
   • Payout method-Paypal
   • Payout time-daily
   
   
6. Shrinkearn.com: Shrinkearn.com is one of the best and most trusted sites from our 30 highest paying URL shortener list.It is also one of the old URL shortener sites.You just have to sign up in the shrinkearn.com website. Then you can shorten your URL and can put that URL to your website, blog or any other social networking sites.
   Whenever any visitor will click your shortener URL link you will get some amount for that click.The payout rates from Shrinkearn.com is very high.You can earn $20 for 1000 views.Visitor has to stay only for 5 seconds on the publisher site and then can click on skip button to go to the requesting site.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views- up to $20
   • Minimum payout-$1
   • Referral commission-25%
   • Payment methods-PayPal
   • Payment date-10th day of every month
   
   
7. Linkrex.net: Linkrex.net is one of the new URL shortener sites.You can trust it.It is paying and is a legit site.It offers high CPM rate.You can earn money by sing up to linkrex and shorten your URL link and paste it anywhere.You can paste it in your website or blog.You can paste it into social media networking sites like facebook, twitter or google plus etc.
   You will be paid whenever anyone will click on that shorten a link.You can earn more than $15 for 1000 views.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.Another way of earning from this site is to refer other people.You can earn 25% as a referral commission.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$14
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-25%
   • Payment Options-Paypal,Bitcoin,Skrill and Paytm,etc
   • Payment time-daily
   
   
8. Adf.ly: Adf.ly is the oldest and one of the most trusted URL Shortener Service for making money by shrinking your links. Adf.ly provides you an opportunity to earn up to $5 per 1000 views. However, the earnings depend upon the demographics of users who go on to click the shortened link by Adf.ly.
   It offers a very comprehensive reporting system for tracking the performance of your each shortened URL. The minimum payout is kept low, and it is $5. It pays on 10th of every month. You can receive your earnings via PayPal, Payza, or AlertPay. Adf.ly also runs a referral program wherein you can earn a flat 20% commission for each referral for a lifetime.
   
9. BIT-URL: It is a new URL shortener website.Its CPM rate is good.You can sign up for free and shorten your URL and that shortener URL can be paste on your websites, blogs or social media networking sites.bit-url.com pays $8.10 for 1000 views.
   You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $3.bit-url.com offers 20% commission for your referral link.Payment methods are PayPal, Payza, Payeer, and Flexy etc.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$8.10
   • Minimum payout-$3
   • Referral commission-20%
   • Payment methods- Paypal, Payza, and Payeer
   • Payment time-daily
   
   
10. Clk.sh: Clk.sh is a newly launched trusted link shortener network, it is a sister site of shrinkearn.com. I like ClkSh because it accepts multiple views from same visitors. If any one searching for Top and best url shortener service then i recommend this url shortener to our users. Clk.sh accepts advertisers and publishers from all over the world. It offers an opportunity to all its publishers to earn money and advertisers will get their targeted audience for cheapest rate. While writing ClkSh was offering up to $8 per 1000 visits and its minimum cpm rate is $1.4. Like Shrinkearn, Shorte.st url shorteners Clk.sh also offers some best features to all its users, including Good customer support, multiple views counting, decent cpm rates, good referral rate, multiple tools, quick payments etc. ClkSh offers 30% referral commission to its publishers. It uses 6 payment methods to all its users.
    • Payout for 1000 Views: Upto $8
    • Minimum Withdrawal: $5
    • Referral Commission: 30%
    • Payment Methods: PayPal, Payza, Skrill etc.
    • Payment Time: Daily
    
    
11. Linkbucks: Linkbucks is another best and one of the most popular sites for shortening URLs and earning money. It boasts of high Google Page Rank as well as very high Alexa rankings. Linkbucks is paying $0.5 to $7 per 1000 views, and it depends on country to country.
    The minimum payout is $10, and payment method is PayPal. It also provides the opportunity of referral earnings wherein you can earn 20% commission for a lifetime. Linkbucks runs advertising programs as well.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$3-9
    • Minimum payout-$10
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payment options-PayPal,Payza,and Payoneer
    • Payment-on the daily basis
    
    
12. LINK.TL: LINK.TL is one of the best and highest URL shortener website.It pays up to $16 for every 1000 views.You just have to sign up for free.You can earn by shortening your long URL into short and you can paste that URL into your website, blogs or social media networking sites, like facebook, twitter, and google plus etc.
    One of the best thing about this site is its referral system.They offer 10% referral commission.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.
    
    • Payout for 1000 views-$16
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-10%
    • Payout methods-Paypal, Payza, and Skrill
    • Payment time-daily basis
    
    
13. Short.pe: Short.pe is one of the most trusted sites from our top 30 highest paying URL shorteners.It pays on time.intrusting thing is that same visitor can click on your shorten link multiple times.You can earn by sign up and shorten your long URL.You just have to paste that URL to somewhere.
    You can paste it into your website, blog, or social media networking sites.They offer $5 for every 1000 views.You can also earn 20% referral commission from this site.Their minimum payout amount is only $1.You can withdraw from Paypal, Payza, and Payoneer.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$5
    • Minimum payout-$1
    • Referral commission-20% for lifetime
    • Payment methods-Paypal, Payza, and Payoneer
    • Payment time-on daily basis
    
    
14. Cut-win: Cut-win is a new URL shortener website.It is paying at the time and you can trust it.You just have to sign up for an account and then you can shorten your URL and put that URL anywhere.You can paste it into your site, blog or even social media networking sites.It pays high CPM rate.
    You can earn $10 for 1000 views.You can earn 22% commission through the referral system.The most important thing is that you can withdraw your amount when it reaches $1.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$10
    • Minimum payout-$1
    • Referral commission-22%
    • Payment methods-PayPal, Payza, Bitcoin, Skrill, Western Union and Moneygram etc.
    • Payment time-daily
    
    

Two People Are Annoying Me Today

I'm grumpy today because I didn't get much sleep last night.  I was trying to edit a chapter of my dissertation and not a lot was happening in that regard.  So this post will probably come off as angrier than necessary.

Person #1: Michelle Malkin

Nitpick: If you are going to frame your video with the conceit that you are in the middle of
prepping for a session, then you should also have some paper and writing utensils in the shot.

By way of full disclosure, I can't think of a time I've heard an opinion of Ms. Malkin's that I agreed with, so when I heard she had a video about Dungeons & Dragons, I went in assuming I was going to disagree with it.  The video is only sorta about D&D.  It's mostly an excuse to attack academia.  The target is Antero Garcia's article "Privilege, Power, and Dungeons & Dragons: How Systems Shape Racial and Gender Identities in Tabletop Role-Playing Games."

There's no firm evidence in the video that Ms. Malkin bothered to read the actual article.  She cites the abstract, notes that she first heard of the piece from Breitbart, and shows a brief clip from a presentation where Garcia discusses part of his methodology.  Maybe she read it.  It's a short video, so maybe the part where she says something like "On page 243 he says..." ended up getting cut.  Harris Bomberguy's multiple takedowns of right-wing folks who don't do their homework has probably made me a little bit paranoid about such things.

But I definitely did read the whole article, even the boring parts.  Turns out this stuff is more than a little in my wheelhouse, disciplinary-wise.  Garcia uses cultural-historical activity theory, which I teach to undergrads, and systems theory, which I've used a tiny bit in my own work, as part of a larger cultural studies-based analysis of the D&D corebooks.  And he cites Huizinga's classic work Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, which I read as a good sign that he's taking the game studies end of the element seriously.  (Though I also think that Homo Ludens is a bit of a minefield.  It's sort of like Frasier's Golden Bough for games: the synthesis maybe goes too far in smashing disparate cultural elements together.)

Anyway, to someone who is both a D&D player of many years and a scholar of the right type, Garcia's article doesn't really say much new: Depictions of women in early D&D ranged from puerile fantasy to outright erasure.  D&D race (orc, elf, halfling, etc.) is problematic at times, and possibly congruent to problematic notions of real world race.  Oriental Adventures exoticizes Asia and Asians.  Garcia ends with a rather ham-handed attempt to link these observations to GamerGate.  Such an articulation is possible, I think.  The author just doesn't do a great job of connecting the dots.

There are a few other quibbles, but basically this is the exact sort of thing I normally wouldn't think to write because it all strikes me as so glaringly obvious.  Of course you're going to find traces of sexism and racism and orientalism in D&D.  Have you read the inspirational fiction?  Have you seen our culture at large?  The way I teach my students about this stuff is to make an analogy with environmental pollution: we all breathe it in whether we like it or not.  The real questions on the table are whether or not you are going to make efforts to not be an emitter and whether or not you are going to help clean up the sludge.

What Garcia doesn't do is end with something like "Therefore D&D is bad and you should feel bad for playing it."  Time and again, I have seen people on the right make this leap, to assume this sort of critique is an attack.  For some reason they seem to think that academics are coy about these things.  What they don't get is that this sort of criticism is almost always done by people who love the subject material.  I don't really like much of Wordsworth's work for various reasons.  But I love Lord Byron's poetry.  I am spending most of a chapter in my dissertation giving Lord Byron the business, because that is far more interesting to me than ragging on Wordsworth.

Similarly, the most cogent and biting critiques of race in comics I have heard came from my buddy D.C., who fucking loves comics.  My favorite rundown of everything fucked up about Star Wars came from my other buddy Thaddeus, who loves Star Wars.  And why do I discuss comics and Star Wars with these guys?  Because I fucking love that shit, too.  D&D has had some shit in it that is maybe fucked up in its treatment of women and minorities.  That's not an invitation to throw out the baby with the bath water!  I honestly don't understand this sort of assumption when I see it in action.  Everyone is allowed to enjoy fucked up things.  What you don't get to do is enjoy them without criticism.  Is that what Ms. Malkin wants?  To play D&D without having to think about it too hard?  I dunno.

So, to conclude: Ms. Malkin, if you are reading Garcia's fairly tame article as an attack, I suspect that says more about you than the article you may or may not have read.

Person #2: Ron Edwards

I got to hand it to this guy.  To make a 42 minute video with an extended argument drawing parallels between the OSR and fundamentalist Christianity takes something.  Endurance, at least.  In an era where some actual religious fundamentalists seem to be into things like blowing up other people, it also requires a fairly interesting sense of proportion.  Or maybe there's an OSR Jihadist dynamiting stores that carry hippie games and I don't know it.

The biggest thing that gets my goat about this video is that I gave Dr. Edwards 42 minutes of my time and he never strayed far from painting with broad brush strokes.  I'm left with the impression that he's done some research into the texts, plus read some blogs and forums.  But I can't tell from this video whether or not he's ever actually played in any Old School games.  

His comments about "false compatibility" between OSR games and a taboo against critiquing the original texts, to give two examples, do not describe my experiences.  I run a FLAILSNAILS game where I often do not even know what rules half the party was made for, and it all seems to work out pretty well.  And I've written about four of my complaints with Moldvay Basic, without even getting into how dumb alignment languages are.  I'm pretty sure my BX vs LotFP series also notes places where I think Raggi improved on Moldvay's rules.    

I found Edwards' lack of specifics especially frustrating, given that early on he claimed, as part of his extended religious metaphor, that "local practice is religion."  Edwards and I seem to agree that I am part of the OSR scene.  I'm not sure what to make of the fact that what he describes seem to have nothing to do with what is happening in my corner of the OSR.  Especially the part about caring a bunch about what Hasbro/WotC is doing.

My own relationship with mainstream D&D has evolved over the years and I will readily admit that 4e annoyed me.  About the last time I gave much serious thought about the latest edition was when I wrote my piece about how to adjudicate old school fireballs.  That was back in 2014.  You know what I've been doing since then?  My own thing.  As have a lot of people.  I honestly can't remember the last time Wizards/Hasbro came up in conversation during game time.  We'll pause to talk about the latest OSR thing of note, or to speculate on what a crazy bastard James Raggi is for his latest project, but 5e is hardly on the radar in my circles.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I reject your main premise, I doubt you have evidence to back it up, and my own experience seems to be counter-evidence.  Frankly, I think you can find a better (and less inflammatory) metaphor for what is happening in the OSR by looking at the evolution of pop art into folk art.  Take, for example, the rise of hip hop and the relative loss of status for heavy metal.  There's certainly got to be some "us versus the world" attitude in the heavy metal scene today, and perhaps some anger towards hip hop.  But to conclude that heavy metal is primarily about that reaction to hip hop oversimplifies a range of artistic practices.

YouTube Makes It Simple For Fans To Experience Live Performances With Eventbrite

Over 1 billion fans come to YouTube each month to connect with their favorite artists and discover new music. Thanks to a new partnership with Eventbrite, we're making it simple for fans to go from experiencing music online to seeing live performances.

Starting today, fans watching videos from YouTube Official Artist Channels will see Eventbrite listings for live music performances throughout the U.S. below the video. With one easy click on the "Tickets" button, they'll be able to purchase directly from Eventbrite.

Live events continue to be a major source of revenue for artists, so we want to help artists keep fans updated on their upcoming shows and sell more tickets to live performances. YouTube's global audience also lets artists find new fans with 26% of Millenials (44% of teens) claiming they discover live music events on YouTube, according to Nielsen.

Through our partnerships with Eventbrite and Ticketmaster, YouTube now covers more than 70% of the US ticketing market and we'll continue to add new artists and venues of all sizes to our list in North America as well as expand globally.

We're excited to further the power of video discovery on YouTube to bring artists and fans together and continue supporting those connections through live shows.

The YouTube Music Team

How To Hack Adobe Photoshop CS6 2017 In Hindi HAcked Photoshope || Advik Gamer || ShubhRaj || 2018 New Trick || Hindi/Urdu? || Advik

Hii Guys i am Sowing to How to Hack Adobe Photoshop CS6 2017 in Hindi HAcked photoshope ||  Advik Gamer || ShubhRaj || 2018 New Trick || Hindi/Urdu? || Advik

Namaskar Dosto aap sabhe ka mera Website ma swagat ha aaj ma aapko bataounga ke aap keisa Adobe Photoshop Cs6 2017 ko hack keisa kar sakta ha plez.. Watch till End.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 2017 Hack Features:----

*All Premiuim Feature Enabled
*Licence lifetime activated
*Downloading Size =77MB
Link Is activate


Download Link:---
Adobe Photoshop CS6 2017 Hacked Zip Download

??how to unlock Downloading link ??????

| ???? Click on First Button and Like Facebook Page and Click on Second Button and Subscribe my YouTube channel and Press Then Bell Icon Now Again Repeat Steps One More Then you can Download and Enjoy???????????|

If You Have Any Problem To watch My Video:-----

Wuzzles

Game: Wuzzles
Manufacturer: Milton Bradley
Year: 1985

Personal History:
The Wuzzles was a cartoon property in the 80's which featured characters that were combinations of two different animals. I remember very little of the actual show, however I did own a lot of the merchandise as a kid, including bed sheets, stuffed animals, action figures, colorforms, books, etc.

I found this copy of the Wuzzles game at a local thrift store for four dollars. Finding vintage games like this in my area has become difficult lately, and I attribute this to a higher number of people who are looking for them. I can personally name five new people who have begun searching for board games in the same stores I shop in in just the past two years. There's only so many places for the cool older stuff to hide anymore unfortunately. But, that just makes picks like this feel extra sweet. I was happy to grab this little nugget of childhood.

Condition:
The box has some general wear and a little dishing, which is typical of games like this. There's also a price sticker on one edge which is unlikely to come off cleanly. The biggest issue is that one of the wedge pieces (described below) is missing. Technically this would stop you from playing it with four players, however if necessary any placeholder, like a penny or something, would work just fine.

Gameplay:
Each player chooses one of the four character pawns and places it on the starting space. The ultimate goal of the game is to assemble a gift for Eleroo's birthday, and take the assembled gift to his house. Each player, on her turn, spins the spinner and moves her pawn in either direction along the path to the next space of the indicated color. If the spinner indicates a gift then the player moves to the next gift space along the path.

When a player lands on a gift space she takes a wedge shaped "Gift Token". Gift Tokens feature the character's face on the back, and each gift space has one token for each character. Once a player collects her character's gift token she moves on towards the next gift space.

Collecting all four Gift Tokens allows the player to assemble a complete gift, and then head along the remainder of the board towards Eleroo's house. The final leg of the path takes the player through spaces occupied by "Creepasaurs". If a player lands on one of the three Creepasaur spaces she must place one of her tokens on the "Croc" space, Croc being a large crocodile character.

If a player has lost a piece of their gift they must backtrack to the Croc space to get it back, and then continue once again along the path, hopefully avoiding the Creepasaurs.

The first player to collect all four parts of their gift and safely take it to Eleroo's house is the winner of the game.

So How Is It?:
Before I start picking this game apart I'd like to first say thank you to those of you who read this blog regularly and have hung in there during my absence. I had a very serious medical issue come up suddenly in early December which put me out of commission (almost permanently), and I'm only now really getting back to something like normal.  Writing on this page has always been a hobby, and I've always said I'll continue to do it as long as I still enjoy it. Which I still do.

Second, my daughter is now almost three years old, which almost seems impossible but it's true. That being the case, she's now starting to understand basic gaming principles like taking turns, moving a pawn according to a spinner, and reaching simple objectives. This means that on games like this one she will be my play buddy, and also you should expect games for the very young to appear here more often. Sometimes this will run counter to the actual age requirements, but whatever.

So, onto the Wuzzles game. First, while I'm usually all for ridiculous board embellishments, the large mountain construction in the center of the board here is really just a giant irritant. It's so large that it obscures view and forces you to rotate the board, move around the table or remove it to see where you're going. It's just too big and does nothing to add to the game, and honestly doesn't even look that nice.

The game itself is half fine. The early part of spinning the spinner and trying to hunt down the pieces is fine, if boring. My daughter is a little younger than the target audience and didn't totally grasp why she was trying to get the pieces, but she was able to move according to the spin and identify which pieces to collect when it was time. There's some very basic decision making in that the spin will often take you past gifts you still need, and with the subsequent spin the player needs to decide between backtracking or moving closer to the next girt. Other than that, however, the game is totally on rails and does not need your input.

After the player has collected her four gift tokens though it becomes an overly long and complicated slog. The gift grabbing beginning is so basic that only very little ones will appreciate it, and once all of the pieces are gotten a straightforward race to the end should have been enough. The introduction of the bad guys near the end, and a possible need to backtrack again just make the game feel like it lasts forever, and since you're not doing anything new or making any decisions at that point all you want is for it to end. My daughter drifted off shortly after collecting all of the pieces, and neither of us were all that interested in fighting the bad guys.

So unfortunately, as colorful and fun as this game seems, it's a draggy, nearly brainless dud. Still, it was nice to see the Wuzzles again. Maybe I can scare up some episodes on the internet to show my daughter.

Final Verdict:
A simple kids game that became overly complicated and painfully lengthened by an unnecessary second act. It's 3-D element is also more of an eyesore than an eye catcher. It scores a "Poor" 2/5.

Darksiders 3 - Review

Darksiders 3 - Review

Darksiders has always felt like it belonged on the fringe. As we haven't seen many games like Darksiders III in the past decade or so. The Darksiders series has always been focus and has steady design omnipresent in all of its moving parts. It's a third-person action game that isn't afraid to stunt your progress to an end for an hour or more until the point that you figure out how to beat a seemingly-impossible boss. And of course, every game need not to be a giant open world where you have tons of never-ending supply of side quests. And that's exactly the kinda game where Darksiders 3 fits in. It isn't a giant open world game, it's all about the combat which is freaking satisfying. 

But sure, this game isn't flawless, there are padding issues and other nitpicks, however the strong locales and the more than serviceable action help concrete this series as an actual action contender.

The biggest flaw, I think is the sporadic nature in Darksiders 3. Rather than having dungeons themed around these overwhelming enemies, they're simply stuffed inside destroyed skyscrapers and abandoned museums like any other enemy.



Quick Facts:

• Release Date: 27 November 2018
• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
• Genres: Hack and slash, Action-adventure game
• Developer: Gunfire Games

After both War and Death had a fabulous time in Darksiders 3's predecessors, it's now the turn of the perpetually angry Fury, she is incredible, offering a powerful performance that takes each scene she possesses, lending your control of her an extra dose of power. She's sent out to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins, and every one of them serves as one of Darksiders III's collection of varied major boss fights thus to re-establish the balance between Heaven and Hell torn apart in previous games.

Fury uses a bladed whip known as the 'Barbs of Scorn', which offers a satisfying combat feedback of meaty hits in some demonic entity's face, but you need to be close to the enemy.

Talking about the graphics, while there have been games this year that have really stunned me with their magnificent open world graphics, Darksiders 3 isn't one of them. The stylized, cartoonish characters are plopped into a quite generic-looking world that lacks detail. So, you can say that this game isn't for graphics lovers, but is for the combat lovers.

The act of combat is very easy, achieved with a single button to swing Fury's whip in all direction, striking down all enemies in her vicinity. Your heavy assault, so to speak, is given to a variety of secondary weapons you'll unlock as things progress. Fire, Thunder, and Gravity are only a couple of the things you'll come to adopt. 

Despite being the combat pretty easy, this is no mindless beat them up where you just run into a group of monsters mashing your attack buttons. All way of demons, skeletons, angels, giant creepy insects, and trolls should be chopped down, and you won't get much far without being observant of their behaviors. You need to be patient, wait for their attack, time your dodge at the right time, and boom! Dodging perfectly will slow down time for a spell, opening up enemies for a vicious counter-attack which feels really satisfying.

And as Darksiders 3 has taken some inspiration from Dark Souls, Fury's low survivability forces you to approach combat in a way that gives an exuberant combos. Enemies are quick and hit hard, and are mostly found in groups. With no stamina meter to talk about, there's an emphasis on dodging and keeping out of danger that deviates from Dark Souls' stringent use of energy management.

Fury's ever-expanding arsenal incorporates lots of fun toys, and it's up to you to choose which ones to power up and depend mostly on. Alongside her weapons, she gains new movement powers that give her access to new areas, and once you've unlocked them all it's amusing to switch between all her various forms to find the correct tools for the different combat and obstacle jobs.




Our ferocious fury is surprisingly vulnerable, as no matter how powerful she becomes, she still gets killed in a matter of seconds if you aren't careful. This is a bit of nuisance when Serpent Holes, what could be compared to Dark Souls' Bonfires, are spread so far apart. Trawling through bland corridors filled with boss's bitches glad to throw themselves at you is frustrating when you have someplace to be.

The bosses in Darksiders III are not messing around. While the first couple probably won't pose much of a threat, eventually you'll face one that doesn't appear to react to any trap or assault you've learned up to that point. Not to ruin any surprise, but don't be stunned if a boss doesn't go down as easily as it appears they will. It tends to disappoint abruptly having the tables turned on you, no doubt, however with persistence success eventually comes. In this way, Darksiders III feels like it's of some other time. So be ready to achieve something, not the easy way.


The Verdict

Gunfire Games has put forth a valiant effort, and at times, succeeds in making Darksiders 3 a worthwhile successor to the past two entries. Combat is fun and accessible while exploration is nuanced enough to stay engaging. Its throwback philosophy is comfort food for action gamers of a particular age. But because of so many technical issues with it, It feels like a package that is enjoyable yet ultimately underwhelming.

March Toward Victory!

Hey again! I thought I would write a quick update on what's been going on with me.

I have been trying to find more time to stream on Twitch. I have not been streaming nearly as often as I would like to. With our fiscal year end going on at work, I have had to work more late shifts than I expected. Thankfully, we just finished with inventory and my schedule should return to normal. It's been an exhausting few weeks. My time management has been pretty poor the past few months and I'd like that to change. Primarily, I need to fix my sleep schedule. It's been hard to find time for all my gaming projects. I have huge goals for this year, and I'm seriously frustrated with my lack of progress lately.

I'm currently focused on my Super Mario Bros warpless (all stages) speedrun. My goal has been to beat the 19:04 world record time darbian achieved just a few months ago. I managed 19:10 on the category last month, but haven't improved since. While I'm still 6 seconds off the world record, I am definitely closer than it appears. My consistency has improved dramatically this month. It seems like I have a serious shot at the world record a few times each stream. I am consistently tied or ahead of darbian's pace, but I have had trouble keeping that momentum. It's discouraging to have so many good runs fall apart near the end, but it means I'm getting closer to what I want.

My goal with warpless was to break the world record by the end of March. I only have one full week to meet that goal, but I'm still going to try my best to make it happen. In the end, I never really know when the run is going to happen. However, what I do know is that the run WILL happen. I won't give up until it happens.

I Will Be Speaking At EGLX In Toronto!

#SuzyCube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity @EGLXofficial 

EGLX is coming to Toronto from October 26 to the 28th and I will be giving an updated version of the talk I gave in Ottawa for CGX a few months ago! 

Read more »

Louard's game design sounding board and home of the Pro's and Con's reviews.

Kolgrima - A Tour Of Trolls

For my first Tour of Trolls post, I decided to go with Kolgrima, our newest warlock.  

When she went through CID I was utterly meh on her and was too focused on all the other changes to the faction during the few playtest games I was able to conduct and report on the forum.  I had no idea how wrong I was about her!

Even when she came out I didn't really dojo with her, all the other changes really commanded my attention until it came time to find a tournament pair for the inevitable Madrak1 list I had cooked up.

I really think I've got a winner with this list, it pairs great with Madrak1 Band of Heroes and it's frankly terrifying in its own right:

War Room Army

Trollblood - A Song of Ice & Fire
Theme: The Power of Dhunia
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army

Kolgrima Stonetruth, Winter Witch - WB: +28
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14
- Mulg the Ancient - PC: 22
- Troll Axer - PC: 10

Northkin Shaman - PC: 0
Northkin Shaman - PC: 0

Croak Raiders - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3

THEME: The Power of Dhunia

The Theory Behind the List

I wanted something that could answer gunlines, especially Cygnar with Haley3 Grave Diggers coming up as a particularly scary boogeyman in the meta.   I think Kolgrima clearly prefers having a classic Troll Beast Brick given that she gets an incredible amount of use out of the New Mulg™.  This means we're going to be playing Power of Dhunia (PoD), which really limits our infantry choices.

The problem with nearly all Power of Dhunia (PoD) lists is that if your opponent has more than one infantry unit, it's very easy for your opponent to bog down a big beast brick and take you down, and the Runeshapers you can take as your own infantry just don't do very well against a lot of other opposing dudes.

My eureka moment was realizing that the single minions unit we can take with the new theme changes really can change how PoD plays.  Farrow Brigands, Nyss Hunters, and Croak Raiders all seem to be strong choices as a ranged anti-infantry option.  I already owned some Croaks from MK2 and they were both the cheapest option (once you consider the near mandatory Brigand Warlord) and they were recently buffed to POW 11 on their guns and given Pathfinder natively.

What's better is that Kolgrima really turns these guys on as an anti-infantry option with her spell Cursed Fate.  The Croaks become effectively RAT 8 and it doesn't matter what armor your target infantry has, they just take an auto point of damage when hit!   

Things like Iron Fang Pikemen, Dawnguard Sentinels, or Houseguard Halberdiers, or Banes under the Wraith Engine Aura that would all normally be a huge problem for a PoD beast brick to deal with suddenly melt away under these guns.  

But wait, there's more! Kolgrima has an insane SP10 POW12 spell that has effectively Signs and Portents for attack and damage. With Mulg as a quasi arc node, you can cast out multiple Cursed Fates on different units and then simply spray them all down.  She even deals with nearly impossible to take down at range troops like Satyxis Raiders since she's using a spell, not a ranged attack.

If this is all that Kolgrima did, she'd already be a strong caster for any PoD list given that she really helps take down infantry that would otherwise give you fits, but there's still more!

Kolgrima can build a cloud wall in trolls, where playing in PoD lets you take Northkin Shaman as free solo options, which can further extend your cloud wall.  On top of that there is Kolgrima's feat, which is effectively a Hard-No on guns: any enemies in her control area when she feats can't make ranged attacks! On top of this they get pushed 2" directly away from her, lose Pathfinder, Eyeless Sight, and Flight.  

She can be a very strong answer to things like Haley 3 Grave Diggers and can really help deliver a full Troll Beast Brick, possibly even giving you the alpha due to the cloud wall.  This was all the theory I had going in, and here's what I realized on the table.

My Results

I've played this list into two Khador lists: Irusk2 with 30 Iron Fang Pikemen + Conquest and an Old Witch 2 list with 7 heavies in Jaws of the Wolf.  I won both games on scenario, despite both lists being wildly different.

Gamer Dad's have to go to extreme measures to get our games in some times!

Against Irusk2 we played Standoff.  Irusk2 can answer the cloud wall with his feat, but I was fortunate enough to be able to go first in our game.  This enabled me to use the Croaks and Mulg's arc node ability to wipe almost 20 Pikemen from the table on my second turn.  All the while I was slowly scoring points, and by turn 3, I was able to deny my opponent from scoring any points at all, letting me get ahead a little.  Once my opponents first 20 pikemen were dead, I was able to send my beasts into his Colossal and get ahead on piece trades while staying up a little on points and eventually his remaining pikemen unit was too busy trying to deal with the beasts in the only zone he could score to stop me from scoring elsewhere to win via 5CP.  I think the matchup is harder for Kolgrima if she can't go first, but it's still doable if you position properly.

Against Old Witch 3 I was facing down 2x Marauders, 2x Juggernauts, 1 Spriggan, and 2 Marshalled Destroyers on the Pit 2 scenario.

I was forced to go second and used my clouds to protect most of my heavies and my Croaks.  My opponent had to either walk into my threat ranges or just toe the zones for his turn 2, he opted to just toe the zones with heavies and some infantry, not realizing she could get into a position to feat him out of all the zones. 

I was able to live the dream in this game and line it up so Kolgrima was in the center of the board and had her feat push every enemy model out of all the zones, with me sending in an Earthborn to kill an objective to get 4 CP's on the bottom of Turn 2!  From here out I would be fighting to come up ahead against 7 heavies to 4 Heavies + 1 Light, but when my opponent went in on Mulg with a Boundless Charged + 3 Focus Spriggan, Mulg was able to Primal Rage and get a very lucky Crit Slam to send the Spriggan away. This swung the game from an attrition race for me to score the last CP's as his heavy advantage came to bear to an easy victory on my part.  I still think I would be able to pull out a win with how the board position was, but it would have been dicey.

Conclusions

Kolgrima feels really, really strong especially as a pair to a troop heavy Madrak1 list that I'm currently running.  She's a quasi-control caster with LOS denial and shooting denial, as well as a feat that can really help you get ahead on scenario.  All the other changes we got in CID helped her list immensely: Arcane Repeater on the Runebearer and the Stone generating its own Fury really help her spend her 7 fury down on her feat turn where you can largely use distance to keep her safe from assassination.  I haven't even really had to make use of her Owl's Wisdom spell denial, but she can do it to herself to prevent any spell assassinations when you feat to deny shooting, and use distance to keep yourself safe from melee threats.

I'm sure Kolgrima can be built to deliver an infantry or balanced Troll list if you wanted, though it certainly seems like right now she's best using Power of Dhunia and a shooting minion unit to support the beast brick.   She's definitely got a lot of power and options for us to explore going forward, and I look forward to experimenting with her more.