Republican Rep. Akin rebuilding Senate bid in Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. –  Written off by many in his own party a mere month ago, Republican Rep. Todd Akin has been slowly rebuilding his Senate campaign after apologizing for inflammatory remarks about pregnancy and rape.

Now Akin is approaching a critical week that could determine whether his re-emerging campaign can gain enough momentum to put Missouri back in the battleground column as Republicans attempt to win control of the Senate from Democrats.

Tuesday is the deadline for Akin to get a court order to drop his challenge of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. But Akin says he won't do so. Instead, Akin plans to ramp up his campaign. He's holding a fundraiser Monday with former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. He's addressing a potentially influential group of pastors Tuesday morning. Then as the drop-out clock ticks down, he's kicking off a statewide bus tour for his Senate bid that will include venerable conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.

"I believe the state of the campaign is looking better and better," Akin said Friday after engaging McCaskill in their first debate and then rallying on the Missouri Capitol lawn with supporters of a newly formed women-for-Akin coalition.

Akin has apologized repeatedly since a TV interview aired Aug. 19 in which he suggested that women's bodies have a natural defense against pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." He has repeatedly rejected calls of top national Republicans -- including presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- to quit the race so the state GOP committee can appoint a replacement candidate. Yet some have doubted Akin's resolve.

"There are a lot of donors who have sat on the sidelines and are waiting" for Tuesday's drop-out deadline to pass, said Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich aide who joined Akin's campaign as part of the re-building effort. "We are tilling that hard soil now -- that is, reaching out to people who could potentially give significant amounts of dollars."

Come Tuesday, "those donors are going to see that Todd's going to be on the ballot," Tyler adds.

Whether that triggers an avalanche of money for Akin remains one of the most important questions facing his campaign.

Akin already was starting from behind against McCaskill financially after spending all but a few hundred thousand dollars to win a contentious Aug. 7 Republican primary. After his rape remark, Akin lost the financial support of the Republican National Committee, the Republican senators' political committee and the deep-pocketed Crossroads group affiliated with Republican strategist Karl Rove. That zapped millions of dollars of planned TV advertising.

Since then, Akin has raised nearly $600,000 through a small-dollar, online appeal that has cast his candidacy as an anti-establishment crusade against both Republican Party bosses and President Barack Obama's administration. Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has aided the Internet fundraising drive. But Gingrich's event Monday -- at $500 a person or $750 per couple -- will be Akin's first prominent headliner for a traditional fundraiser in at least five weeks.

"This is an act of conscience on my part -- I didn't like seeking a guy getting beaten up by the power structure," Gingrich said.

But Gingrich also is pragmatic.

"If the Republicans are going to win control of the Senate, they need Missouri," said Gingrich, who led the Republican takeover of the U.S. House in 1994.

Others also are considering coming to Akin's aid, including Sen. Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, who has built the Senate Conservatives Fund into a formidable fundraising organization for its favored candidates.

Republicans need a net gain of four seats in the November elections to take control of the Senate. But Republican-held seats in Maine and Massachusetts are jeopardy, and losses there would increase the number of seats the GOP must wrest away from Democrats. Missouri had been considered one of the Republicans' best chances for a pick-up until Akin's rape remark undercut his campaign.

Regardless, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus flatly reiterated on Sunday he would be sending no resources to aid Akin's campaign.

"We're not going to play in Missouri with Todd Akin, I can tell you that. So it'll be yet to be seen whether he stays in or not," Priebus told ABC's "This Week."

Republican consultant John Hancock, who worked for one of Akin's opponents in the primary, said outside groups had been expected to spend about $15 million to support a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri. Even then, a Republican candidate likely needed to chip in $6 million or $7 million from his own campaign to offset the money from McCaskill and Democratic-aligned groups, Hancock said.

Under that model, a typical candidate would need to be holding about two, $500-a-plate fundraisers a week and as many as five, $2,500-a-plate fundraisers a month, including some out of state, Hancock said.

Gingrich's fundraiser is just one of many that Akin will need in the coming weeks. But if he remains close in the polls to McCaskill, those dollars could start coming a little easier.

"If you get to the first week or second week of October and the Missouri race is still unquestionably part of the equation for getting to 51 senators, then I would be shocked if outside money didn't come in," Hancock said, of the Republican strategy to win control of the Senate.

Akin doesn't expect to recoup all of the financial support he lost. That's why his campaign is focusing heavily on organizing grass-roots coalitions. Akin likely can expect a strong effort from his traditional base of anti-abortion activists and Christian conservatives, but he also needs the support of gun enthusiasts and business owners, some of whom backed Akin's rivals in the Republican primary, Tyler said.

This past week, the inaugural event by a new group of female Akin supporters drew about 300 people in the St. Louis area. A few days later, around 100 turned out for a similar event in Jefferson City, though they were countered by protesters who chanted "rape is rape" while Akin spoke to the crowd.

Julie Thomas, a mother of three from the Lake of Ozarks, said she took it upon herself to organize the women-for-Akin rally. She described herself as strongly "pro-life" and praised Akin as "a man with unparalleled character."

"Whenever he got thrown under the bus by his own party, I just said, `uh, uh.' That was a tipping point for me," Thomas said.

Even as top Republicans abandoned Akin after his remarks, McCaskill insisted that she still expected a close Senate race. At their first debate Friday, McCaskill took on the role of a challenger -- striking first and furiously with accusations that Akin's positions are too extreme on contraception, Medicare, student loans and other issues.

"Our campaign is working hard and taking nothing for granted," said McCaskill spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki. "You can expect Claire to continue working as if she's running from behind."

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Dollar Dash Turns Friends Into Frienemies

Like any good party game, Dollar Dash plays by the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

You and any combination of three other players – be they bots, local friends or online pals – collect scattered cash from around each of the game’s 31 maps and return it to the getaway car. Whoever collects the most coin wins, so even though you all arrived at this crime scene as brothers in illicit arms, it’s ultimately every man for himself. Simple enough, right?

Yep, and that’s the point. Dollar Dash is meant to be a pick-up-and-play party game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t without clever nuance. For instance, because loot weighs you down, you’ll need to decide on your strategy. Will you make frequent, speedy trips to the drop-off point? Or will you instead opt to gather more dinero and make a slower stroll back to the getaway car that leaves you more vulnerable to attacks from your frienemies?

And attack they will. When your competitors lay traps or shoot pellets at you, you’ll start spraying change as if you were the punchline of a Daniel Tosh stand-up bit. Change that said competitors are free to then collect for themselves. But power-ups will help you even the odds. Tools like speed shoes can help negate the effects of being flush with stacks of greenbacks, while a shop system allows you to purchase upgrades that affect the gameplay. Weapon upgrades like Nuke+ mean you’ll be immune to your own mega-blasts, and Call of Duty-like perks will let you take more damage, carry more ammo, and move faster. Hats, character faces, taunts, and dances are examples of benign unlockables that spice up the fun a bit.

Four-player mayhem puts the "dash" in Dollar Dash.

As we played, we found that the rounds dragged on a bit long for our tastes, but otherwise, the cute art style, extra game modes (like Hit ‘n’ Run, in which the goal is solely to beat up your competition), and approachable gameplay should make Dollar Dash a bargain at the $10 price it’s likely to go for.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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Why Dishonored is my Most Anticipated Game This Year

If you’ve been following Dishonored on IGN, you probably read Charles’ “Death at a Dinner Party” adventures earlier this year, in which he crashed a masked ball and caused total chaos, attracting the whole city’s attention by murdering guests and throwing canisters of explosive whale oil at guards. I sat down with the exact same mission recently, and was a bit concerned that I’d have nothing new to write about. How wrong I was.

Everything was different. For me and Charles, literally not one single thing, apart from the mission itself, was the same. This has instantly made Dishonored my most-anticipated game of this year. This is the first game I’ve played since Dark Souls last year that hasn’t patronised or restricted me for one second, instead just pushing a set of tools and powers into my hands with an avuncular wink and leaving me to do what I want with them. It gives you freedom, it gives you options, and it lets you work things out for yourself.

Here’s the first difference: I made it through the whole scenario without killing anyone. Not even my assassination target. (Well, I did kill a few rats by possessing them for so long that their tiny brains exploded, but that doesn’t count.) Here’s the second: I didn’t find the equipment menu, so I played for more than an hour without the incredibly useful instant-teleport Blink power or any weapons. Here’s the third: because I took a wrong turn on my way to the mansion garden party I was supposed to be infiltrating (my sense of direction is legendarily awful, in games as in real life), I discovered a whole neighbouring area of slum-houses that I wouldn’t otherwise have known existed.

“

I like to play Dishonored like a spy, rather than a superhero

I like to play Dishonored like a spy, rather than a superhero. That’s in line with how I approach most open-world games - I like digging around in people’s diaries for information in Skyrim (and digging around their houses for possessions to liberate. I hacked into and read several thousand mundane emails on the computers of corporation employees in Deus Ex. I like to explore a place and hunt for the tiny details hidden in basements and dusty old books and peeling propaganda posters on the walls. Dishonored’s Dunwall is rich with this detail. If you take your time, avoid attention and keep your eyes open, you can really drink it in.

The premise of this mission – the same one shown at Quakecon and Gamescom – is an assassination during am exclusive masked ball hosted at the Boyle family mansion. Lady Boyle is your target, but the problem is, there are three Lady Boyle’s and all of them are in similar creepy porcelain-doll costumes of different colours (the game randomises the mission each time, too, so you can never be 100% sure which Lady Boyle should be the object of your stabby assassin affections.) There are three options (that I could work out, anyway): find out which is guilty, kill all of them, or kill one at random and hope for the best.

Infiltrating the mansion’s grounds is a mission in itself; the night streets are patrolled by police and Tall Boys, those heavily-armoured striders with the power to vaporise you on sight. You begin the mission on a boat in the nearby canal, and you have to work out how to get in by yourself. It’s gratifying that the game doesn’t give you hints; it doesn’t tell you which way to go, and no button brings up a magic light-trail showing you the best way in. You can swim through the sewers and try to find an inlet to the mansion. Getting up to the rooftops and climbing the fence is a more obvious solution.

I got chased into an alleyway after being spotted in the water by guards and accidentally discovered a slum-house with stairs leading promisingly upwards. Upon entering, I noticed a few prone bodies in the neighbouring room; I did not expect them to suddenly spring to life, run at me and cough black plague-goop into my face whilst blood streamed from their eyes. These people are the Weepers, the diseased poor of Dunwall whom the government has been systematically exterminating. You won’t find them in the opulent mansions where the rich are hiding away – they hide in the slums, evading the Tall Boys.

“

You can never be 100% sure which Lady Boyle should be the object of your stabby assassin affections

You’re supposed to feel sorry for these guys, but man, they behave a LOT like zombies, with all the moaning and the stumbling and the blood and the spontaneous attacking – not that you can’t empathise with zombies, but they’re terrifying. I ran away upstairs and climbed out of a window, taking in as much of the decaying building as I could. Soiled mattresses were lying about everywhere, with plague information pamphlets and posters trodden into the floorboards. When I got into the roof, I realised that – fortuitously – I was right opposite the Boyle mansion, and one of the windows was open. Leaping between the windowsills, I climbed into the guardhouse and scouted it out. I’d managed to make my way in without having to scale any walls, swim through any sewers, steal an invitation or kill anyone. And now, after stealing them from a hook on the wall, I had the keys to the whole place.

You’re undercover at the party, where your masked-assassin outfit blends into the other guests’ fancy-dress ensembles. You can walk around more-or-less freely, listening to conversations (apparently one of the absent society ladies likes to get carnal with her male siblings and nephews) and scoping out your potential targets. The first Lady Boyle I meet is rather… over-friendly, leading me willingly away to a secluded assassination-friendly bedroom after a glass of punch on the promise of some drunk party-sex. Feeling massively uncomfortable about either murdering her without proof or jumping into her bed (the game wouldn’t let me, anyway), she eventually got bored with the masked guy hanging awkwardly around in her room and wandered off, at which point I read through her diary and stole some jewellery. The diary contains no allusions to illicit murder-worthy activity, making me think she probably wasn’t my target after all.

The other rooms upstairs are locked, so I head back downstairs to look for a way in. There’s a rat scuttling about in the grand ballroom; after possessing it, I head into the first vent I can find and emerge in a room that controls the giant security forcefield barring the way up the grand stairway. If I could find a hacking module, I could modify it to fry anyone who walks through it, which sounds massively entertaining but not enormously helpful to my goal of causing as little chaos as possible.

It’s after I’ve met all of the Lady Boyles stalking the party in red, black and white costume that a guest in a scarecrow-esque mask approaches me and whispers that he knows who I’m looking for – and that he’s in love with her, and understandably would rather I didn’t stab her to death. He promises to take her away and keep her safe if I deliver her unharmed to the basement. It doesn’t sound… entirely above-board, but at least I wouldn’t have to kill anyone.

Getting into the other Lady Boyles’ bedrooms is easy once I’ve found some more rats in the cellar to possess and scuttled through the mansion’s network of vents. Another diary reveals my true target: it’s the Boyle in black. Now I just have to get her to the basement and send her away with her lover without alerting anyone by striding through the party with an unconscious body draped across my shoulders.

“

Oh. Well. It looks like I’ve accidentally delivered someone into a life of imprisonment and possible sex-slavery

This turns out to be pretty easy. I just walk straight up to the Boyle in question and tell her I’m out to murder her unless she comes to the basement, right now, a request to which she acquiesces with surprisingly little consternation. I knock her out in a quiet spot and sprint the rest of the way down to the basement before the guards stroll past. Once we’re there, the masked guy from earlier is waiting on a barge to take her back out into the canal. “She’ll have a long time to learn to love me back, now,” he says, calmly sailing away to wherever on earth he’s going with the unconscious Lady Boyle prone on his boat. Oh. Well. It looks like I’ve accidentally delivered someone into a life of imprisonment and possible sex-slavery. But at least I didn’t kill anyone.

It’s only when I’m comparing experiences with others later on that it becomes clear how unusual this experience of Dishonored was. Some players were relying on magic to teleport them across rooftops, facilitate an escape from the Tall Boys or possess guards to open doors for them. Others got eaten by fish in the canal. Most were causing violent chaos, turning the party into a colourful disaster, summoning hordes of voracious rats to nibble at the attendees. Not one other person found the slums, or the force-shield hack, or managed to make it through without killing. You could play that same mission five or six times and never do anything the same.

And that is exactly why this is the most interesting game of this year.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK, and expects the end of her year to be totally dominated by supernatural assassination (and probably a bit of Wii U). Follow her on Twitter and IGN.

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