Boltgun Stream Summary 03/04/24 + Random Sel-X Third Game Winner!

 

We have an extra special article for you all today on a very Tzeentchy themed end of week (more on that tomorrow) as not only am I doing a stream summary for Boltgun, but I also unveiled the winner of the next Random Sel-X game live on air last night, so I will be re-announcing that for those who did not tune in... not only that but I am here to announce I will be doing another Boltgun stream tonight at between 9:30pm and 10:30pm GMT (depending on wife's plans). So, without ado let's jump into it!

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only one viewer."

A single quote uttered to several "LOLs" as the stream seemed to trend with only 1 viewer at a time, and usually completely different viewers too. 

I'll be honest though, the main reason I mention this totally randomly is because I actually forgot to take any screenshots of the first level I played through on this night, I was so focused on not dying that I didn't factor in that I needed to write an article for the next day! But I'll give a brief rundown as best I can with words...

The next level, the Martyr's Crossing involved fighting across a bridge, going up and down a huge tower then crossing another bridge before the level ended. For the most part this was a pretty standard affair with two noteworthy exceptions that literally both happened on the second bridge. I'll admit, everything was suspiciously quiet when I got to this part, right up until I reached the end of the second and final crossing when I got a sudden "PURGIS EXTERMIS" alert flared up, which meant I was going to have to blast away a horde of enemies... except I saw no enemies for a while and was incredibly confused until I looked up...

Death from above!

As a disclaimer, the picture above was actually taken from the level after Martyr's Crossing but I needed something to visually convey the new threat I was now facing now to you, dear readers. Yes, Tzeentch Screamers descended from the heavens above and they moved fairly similarly to Blue Horrors, except in mid air and they took more shots to kill. Now I consider myself a fine shot when shooting at ground based troops, but flying freaks like these are a completely different kettle of fish and most of my bolter rounds just hit air. Very frustrating.

The second notable thing in this section is, whilst I was running for my life and looking for health items to safeguard myself from the barrage of Terminators that were now arriving, I accidentally stumbled on a Heavy Bolter (that I originally thought was a random power up I picked up), and it has so far become my absolute favourite weapon in the game, so much so that I genuinely forgot that I had a Plasma Gun when fighting Terminators. It does eat through ammo like a Haruspex through a city center though!

The next level, the Venerable Bastion, which began almost immediately after I cleared the bridge, wasted no time chucking me into the action. I barely moved a toe forward before I was being shot at by Heavy Stubber fire but fortunately there was nothing more taxing than Cultists and Blue Horrors in the area so I pressed on quickly, only to be confronted with a new, incredibly vicious enemy that teleported unexpectedly right in front of me. A Chaos Chosen!

Believe it or not, I survived this encounter

Chosen are an absolute pain to deal with and even long after this encounter did they riddle me with dread when I saw one, more so than Terminators! They're fast, they hit hard (though thankfully they have no shooting attacks), they take an absolute pounding before they go down and, worst of all if they do damage to you they will self-resurrect the first time you kill them as they use your life force as a dark offering. The Plasma Gun did little against these guys as they don't shoot fast enough, but I eventually worked out that Heavy Bolter fire tends to do the trick.

This level played a lot more mind games than previous ones too. It was filled with wide open spaces perfect for a fire fight, suspicious amounts of power ups that led to nothing and even a Daemon spawn event when you grab a specific key, something that had not happened before then but fortunately I had played enough DOOM to realise it was going to happen sooner or later. Just to completely screw with me, there was one big empty section where I just didn't get attacked, but that did not stop my paranoid brain from going into overdrive!

It's quiet... too quiet...

After the Venerable Bastion was over and the mind games finished, I went on to the final and most grueling level of the night - Forbidden Knowledge. This was set in a huge, corrupted Imperial library and I could tell that Auroch went to town on the little details of this level as every part of it oozed with "big boss level" energy, from the wonderfully rendered Space Marine statues that are very clearly modeled on the famous terrain Games Workshop manufactured themselves to the trippy, warp like sludge that messed with my eyes part way through the level.

The statues were glorious even through a retro lens

The Chaos sludge was very trippy however

After several Purgis Extremis areas where I had to fight through hordes of Cultists and Horrors, a smattering of Flamers and Exalted Flamers and the odd Terminator and Chaos Chosen, I finally got to a massive room that looked to be the heart of the library full of big health and armour items. That didn't seem suspicious to me at all, and my absolute, 100% non-suspicion was utterly justified as a big ol' Lord of Change just deep striked into the center of the Emperor damned room, and with it a flood of Tzeentch based Daemons - Pink Horrors, Blue Horrors, Flamers, Exalted Flamers, Screamers... you name it, they were there, accompanied with smatterings of Chaos Space Marines and Terminators because, of course they did. There was tons of Heavy Bolter rounds scattered about but even they ran out eventually and I had to resort to my trusty Plasma Gun. Eventually the Lord of Change died by plasma fire and the Daemon incursion subsided. Honestly the whole thing gave me PTSD from my final Echoes of Nihilus game.

So... many... DAEMONS!

When the Lord of Change breathed its last, the time was exactly 11:59pm GMT on the dot, so I decided there and then to announce the winner of the next Random Sel-X stream. Now, one of my viewers on the night decided to spice up the competition by throwing in a last minute vote at Wreckfest, meaning Persona 3 and Wreckfest were now tied at three votes a piece, as such I got to roll some dice on air! Well, kind of anyway. I couldn't get the webcam to show the dice tray whilst it rest on a table at all, so I filmed the dice roll, made it into a gif then showed the dice as it lay live on stream.

Now you guys should know the drill by now after my first tie break: I roll a dice, on a 1-3 the first game that appears on my votes article wins (Persona 3 in this case), on a 4-6 the second game wins (Wreckfest in this case). Drum roll please...

It's a one! So the personal choice game wins this time, therefore the next Random Sel-X game that I will play on stream will be...

Persona 3: Reload!

So that is it for this article! Tonight I plan on purging some more Chaos on stream with holy bolter fire and hopefully complete the first chapter. I do also need to do some painting in the actual hobby soon but that can wait for now. Remember, between 9:30pm and 10:30pm GMT tonight! I'll see you all there!

- D J Driver