+1 Internets

MMO : Tera's bad ass monsters

2011-11-17T13:32:00.001+01:00

It's a long time I've not speak about Tera! Time to change this with a short post in the lines of the latest information we got from the official website. This week, on Tera Europe, you can read an interesting article concerning BAM, the "Bad Ass Monsters" that wander in Arborea's plains and forests waiting with patience that a foolhardy group of adventurers come tickle their giant feet (or claw, or hooves, this obviously depend of the nature of said BAM). As I had a huge collection of frapsed videos eating the space left on my hardisk, I figured it was a good time to compile them with some dynamic music and free some space for the incoming games.

But, what's a BAM?

In Tera, BAM are giving this epic feeling to leveling and exploring that is actually missing from older MMO such as World of Warcraft. They are giant, big, fat and very angry monsters that you can find all around the world in some areas when you hit your twentieth level. They are elites mobs that require a proper group to be defeated, or very skilled and patient players. BAM are strong, they hit hard, and offer a very enjoyable and exiting challenge.

When I was playing K-Tera, hunting them with my friends was my favorite activity. I loved the thrill of those epic fight, where you have to run everywhere to escape their feet, their slam, and their furious roar. You can't stand quietly and spam your spells and attacks, you need to move all the time, escape, dodge, block, jump, blink. With the action combat based on skill rather on gear, it's even possible to solo, or duo those elite monsters at an earlier level.The fight will become truly epic, as a single mistake will cost you your life.

In addition of offering exiting fights, I find those monsters very well designed. They truly look colossal! First they are very big, but they have also an unique look, different from what we usually see in fantasy games. Their attacks feel very dangerous. They move and they jump, they hit with strength and make the ground tremble. And if for some reason you stand in their path, they will kick your miserably body or crush you under their feet.

I suggest you to see by yourself in the video I've made. I've compiled some fights I've done with my archer and my mystic in K-Tera. I am fighting without UI to offer a better visibility (which explains that I miss my target sometimes *blush* ). The point is not to see what attack I am using, but see the movements of the BAM. Those are only monsters you will encounter around level 20, 25.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Rants about games : Elloa in Skyrim...

2011-11-15T20:16:00.001+01:00

Skyrim... Myfatherland. My heart, my pride. Snowcovered peaks, rich mossyforests, melancholic plains lost in the morning fog...

I'veescaped the decapitation, survived the furious dragon breath, and theburning town...

Need to go to Riverrun. I'm walking by the road,hunting for skin and fresh meat. My prey escape my clumbsy shot, runaway and desepear behind a hill. I run after it, as fast as mystamina allow it. The sky is darkening, black clouds cover the sun,and the rain start to fall.The deer is gone, but hidden behind thelarge evergreens, I discover a small house where I could shelter. Mybad...The house isn't unoccupied, someone is calling downstair. I'mabout to answer that I'm just looking for a roof a for the night, anda hot meal to spare. I'm ready to offer my arms in some labour themorrow. But the man doesn't let me the chance to explain myself, andrush to me armed with an axe. I've no other choice than to defendmyself.
Later, while I'm cleaning the mess let by the fight, Idiscover a strange button on the wall. I press it, and the bookshelfturn on itself, revealing a secret path going deep underground. Iknow by then that my adventure has really started!

That's how I began mySkyrim experience. I love the complete freedom, the intense immersionand a vaste land to explore. It doesn't matter where you go or whatyou are doing, you will discover secrets, you will pass through darkdungeons, and quests will come to you at the most unexpected moments.Wich mean, every adventure will be completly unique.

I've started my game,exactly as I described it. I had no clue where I was going, lost thetrack of the main quest, and I ended by doing my first eleven levelin a totaly different area. Today, after four days of intence gamingmy boyfriend (who played a lot more than I) have still not doneanything that I've discovered myself. Our both experience, andadventure are completly different.

I love to not berestricted by level, by class and abilities. I love this amazingfreedom. I'm becoming what I'm doing. I do not need to plan mychoices in advance. And the only moment I'm planing to go to thisplace, to complete that quest, and then go to the next village on themap, there is always something unexpected on the way that willdistract me from my objectives, and turn my travel into a surprisingadventure.

I love the living worldthat litteraly capture you. The light, the weather, the flore and thewild animals, the bandits fire camp, and the small villages wherefolk are living their lives, chatting with each other, working, goingget a drink at the Inn, or resting in their home ; everything is inmovement, everything react to your presence. You feel that you belongto this universe, but that universe could also lives without you.

I've only one thing tocomment negatively : the user interface obviously not adapted for thecomputer. This is a very clear example of consolitis (cf Bongophone article : Rage - Consolitis) I don't know, my brain and my fingers are probably notconnected well enough, so everytime I meet a non intuitive UI, ittoke me several days to get used to it. I'm not arrived to that pointyet, I'm still struggling! I'm constinuously missclicking, pressing"walk" instead of "sprint", mistaking my spellswhen I choose to cast any. And it's very irritating when you fight abig dragon to die stupidely because in the middle of the action youdidn't got the right shout/spell/weapon in time.

In conclusion, anddespite the awfull UI, Skyrim is amazing! Four days of playing, I'vealmost not slept, and I know I've seen nothing of the game yet. I'vethe feeling the whole world is playing Skyrim. Everyone in my steamfriendlist, and almost every member of my community is playing. Iwonder how guilds in MMO are currently doing. Are they still able togather enough players to go raid? I'll certainly not take the time tocheck it out. As soon I've done this article, I'm going back toTemriel. I have a dog to follow in a mysterious cave.

October: Winter is Coming!

2011-10-31T21:40:00.009+01:00

And so ended October with skyrim drawing
even closer into our hands!
With spoilers leaking onto the great interwebz and
no snow in sight - yet. This is going to be a great month!

As you can see, we have gotten a bit more active on our writing
over the past month. And even Stein has gotten back to us! *cheer*
We will continue to provide you with the random stuff we find
and streams of all the lastest \ oldest games.

I would like to remind you to check out our Skyrim article
concering the Stream and the free give-away of Portal (Via Steam)

Check it out Here.

What are YOU doing as winter is coming your way?!

ElloaWendy@twitter
I've fallen for WOW once more. Guess I need to say my goodbyes.
I'm also preparing my Star Wars Lore knowledge by playing KOTOR, every now and then.
And, I'm very proud and happy to be under NDA for an awesome game in testing.

Majiinfreddy@twitter
Watching the calendar slowly moving towards Skyrim...
And waiting for Uncharted 3! .. Ye, I need more to do in my spare time.

Haven't managed to make contact with our two other posters but;

Bongophone@twitter
(Battlefield 3?)

Stein
Pretty much stuck in the world of academics. But sometimes he hunts down movies that he've never seen before, hopefully good ones, but mostly garbage.
Also he's trying to find awesome games that his Inspiron 6000 can handle... He bought 4 games for 15$ each from GoG.com, but he's only playing Heroes 3.

Videodrome: Halloween weekend special

2011-10-29T13:52:00.004+02:00

It's halloween weekend, and in proper halloween spirit we're going to watch all seven of the "Nightmare on Elm street" movies. (seven, not eight, IT'S SEVEN!) But we'll finish the night with two other movies as well. One that I've seen before, that might be the best horror movie out there, and the second is all new to me, but my hopes are up!
First movie out that I would recommend to everyone that want's a good scare for halloween is Insidious. It's a movie made in 2010 and directed by blah blah blah......

...Do you remember that feeling of your blood freezing and your heart is trying to escape from your chest, when watching scary movies when you were younger? This move got all of that and more. It's creepy, it's scary as hell and it's wicked in so many ways. There's so much originality in this movie that makes it a pure pleasure to watch. I do admit I've never watched this without two or more pillows... This is really a Halloween-must-see!

So for my second movie of this evening will be The House of the Devil. It's made in 2009, and have never caught my eye until now.From what I've seen... this looks like another MUST SEE for Halloween season!The story is about a girl that's in need of fast cash, so she gets herself a weird job where she has to babysit a house for one night, all alone, and you've guessed it... all this sick shit is happening. That's something that's going to ruin the babysitter-community out there.
Since this isn't a movie I've watched yet, I can't really recommend it yet... but I'l pase the youtube video in here for you to find out if it's something you could watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SOur3WwZvM
From what I've seen... I think bricks will be dropped tonight.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Skyrim + Portals?!

2011-10-28T22:22:00.006+02:00

This "evening" Skyrim has finally been sent out for reviews!
Yet, we don't have the announcement of the game going gold yet,
but oh well. The game is out there, in some lucky bastards hands.

Only two more weeks, and finally, FINALLY!!! We will
be able to yet again sink our teeth into theese massive
games that Bethesda throws our way.
Am I excited? VERY!!

So, What will +1 internets be doing with Skyrim?
Beside from the obvious "Play it for 1000 hours without any
sleep!" ?
We will Stream it ! (Derp?).
But this time with a bit more then a normal stream.
Starting the 11th of November, at a time not yet known.
We will Stream the unboxing of Skyrim Collectors Edition,
Character creation and the first hour or so of the game.
Now, I would normally stream the whole game, but this is one
of those games I gotta play on ULTRA 1337 MAX Settings.
So I won't promise you more then the 1 hour on whatever setting
my computer will handle.
Note that, If my computer handles both Skyrim on max and streaming
at the same time - I will do it, sure!
Also, we will be having a audio comment during the stream, where myself
and one more (Yet to be determined) will talk about the game and
other random stuff we see fit.
Of course, we will not be talking during the obvious dialogue or whatnot.

so there you have it!
Unboxing and at least 1 hour of the game , live from us to you.

Remember to either follow Majiinfreddy@twitter or check out our neat
little Twitter-bar on the left side where the full announcement of the
Stream will come, 1-2 hours prior to start.

Sidenote. I was browsing my Steam earlier and found out I have
ONE copy of Portal up for grabs. (Pc version , Via Steam)
Do you want it? Come to our Skyrim stream on the 11th and a random
person will recieve it.
Yes, Portal has very little to do with Skyrim.. and 99% of you
probably already have it..
But! We're just trying to be nice here! So accept it!
Note that I'm from Norway, so I have no idea to whom I actually
can gift the game to. If it's locked by region or not.
Do you know any of this? Please enlighten me =)

Fitting as always!Skyyrim.

As a side note, next week Uncharted 3 will be released.
This will be my second Ps3 game this year (Wow! I used to be a ps3fanboy!)
and I'm a huge fan of the Uncharted series.
So stay tuned at Twitter for more information concering the Stream of this game.

Videodrome: Colombiana (2011)

2011-10-24T23:31:00.006+02:00

Colombiana have been available in proper quality since 9/10/11 at Piratebay. It released this year and is directed by Olivier Megaton!!! No idea who he is? Directed shit movies since 1996 with titles no normal person outside Cannes have heard about or seen, and if you say you've seen any of his movies (except Transporter 3) then you're a shitty liar.

But what really caught my eye in this movie is that its screenplay is written by Luc Besson (notice that I write his name with normal letters... Ohoho lord I'm a sadist.) This is a man you should know for this movie where a cute alien girl got hold of a 'multipass'. (I can't stop!) So the sole reason for watching this movie was because of Luc Besson, and being known for co-make at least six movies that are above 7 in imdb-rating, this couldn't fail. (where did my mind go?) Also! that cute br..blu... Girl from Avatar is starring in this movie! She haven't acted in any shit movies so far just like Johnny Depp, omgwhycan'titdownloadfaster!?updatetracker, updatetracker, updatetracker!
But I was wrong.....

This movie is by far the shitties thing I ever came across. It's like Luc Besson is dying from braincancer and had to write down some crap that he'd learned by watching Sex and the City and G.I Jane just so he could earn his writersfee to pay down the last cancertreatment.
I can't recommend this to anyone... it's just sad that this movie exists when some other movie could've take it's place instead, Pretty woman 2 for example, or Wrong Turn 5.

But if you really want to see Zoe Saldana cracking some sculls, you should go for it. Me personally hating this movie shouldn't stop you.

Rage : Tired of killing!

2011-10-20T23:27:00.000+02:00

I don't know if it's because I'm starting to be old, I'm a degenarated pacifist, a woman who pretend to be a gamer, or all of this in the same time...but I'm grewing tired to have to kill stuff in all games I'm playing! Isn't it something which crossed your mind ever? Am I the only person to aspire for a peacefull life in her games?

All games I'm playing include killing parties. Very organised or wild, bloody or fair, there is always a good reason to take the life of thousand of creatures more or less evil. We need their money, their skin, their meat, their dragonscales, their weapons, their xp or to earn some fancy achievement points... None can be spared!

MMORPG are all on killing : from the biggest raiding boss, to the smallest creeps, from the quest mobs to the (bastard) players of the other (retard) faction! Everything else is build arround the killingspree : how to craft the biggest weapons, how to find the most powerful enchantements....To kill better, we need to kill more! And once we have killed enough to gather the experience needed, the gear needed, the reputation needed, then we are ready to kill bigger!

Other games are as bad than MMO on that point. Strategie games requiere you to build armies and destroy your opponent by wiping his cities/stronghold/base, you pick up your choice. In roleplaying games you make your way to the end of the story the hands covered with blood, some cutscene and romance to distract you a moment from the real purpose : killiiiiiing! Shooter games...well, nevermind me.

Each game have its own way of killing. You have to aim with dexterity or you have to time a perfect rotation of spells, choose the right unit to destroy the ennemy. You can polish the killing perfection. Adjust yourself, and train your skill to shoot faster than your shadow!

In most games, I confess, I'll heal my friends so they can kill more. But can I consider I'm an innocent witness of some unwished massacre as I'm not participating directly in the bloodshed? Am I not as much guilty as my companions?

This is a endless cycle, and till today I think I was happy about it. I enjoyed it. But recently, I noticed that more and more I was saying to myself "Raaah ! Nooo! More mobs to kill! When this will end!? I just want to know the story! I want to skip the fight!". Okay, I guess what you are thinking : why don't I just go read some...books? Why I don't play Farmville or Sims? No sorry, I'm not made of that wood. NOT INTERESTED!

I'm dreaming about an adventure game you could play with your friends, and where you could "live" a story without having to kill thousand creatures to pass each chapters. A Dragon Age kind of game, but without all the fighting. Or well...It's true that the fights are enhancing the rest of the story, giving it an epic touch that an adventure without any killing would hardly have. It's true that it's after a fight where I barely survived that Alistair declared himself to me... to my character, I meant! Without the fight before, this unique and very romantic moment might have been disapointingly common?

But still, I'm dreaming of such a game. Not a puzzle or enigm game. I'm not fond of puzzles. A real story, interesting and passionating with brillant characters, and a deep scenario. And instead of killing wolves, and demons, and orcs, and thieves, you would have ...I don't know... do something else? Travel, discover stuff, craft and cook ?

Boring? Yeah maybe. Maybe that's the point. Killing is fun, and as we can not do it in real life, well... we are enjoying ourselves in our games! So, maybe that's it. No devellopers have ever find a really good idea to keep people buzy without forcing them to kill stuff and enjoying themselves while traveling, discovering, crafting and cooking.

Oh wait! ... There is Minecraft!

Sharing is Caring!

2011-10-14T21:00:00.009+02:00

Thought I'd just put a quick post about this awesome news;

Machinae Supremacy, a swedish SID-metal band just had a concert in Finland earlier this year.
As a token to their fans, I guess. They put the whole show, in HD, up on The Pirate Bay.

I thought it deserved a bit attention, since there are so many "greedy" people in the music \ movie industry. These guys show us some real love.
Also, Their music is Great!

For their full press-release check out Their website.

The Torrent can be found on The Pirate Bay.

Hope some of you find joy in this =)

Also, as a side note.
We got some real nice news coming your way soon in the coming weeks.
I'll tell you this much; It's about Skyrim ;)

Stay tuned!

-Majiin

Rant about studies

2011-10-09T00:33:00.016+02:00

So.. studies. The main reason I don't post stuff that often here. I've got to read, go to lectures and write stuff that the university have to accept so I can read, go to more lectures and write even more stuff. Christ, sometimes I want to give up and plot out which finger I should remove, so I can live on welfare and still be able to eat/drink/make food/make rude gestures/draw.

I'm going first year history at a university, and it's here you find all the useless programs that has the sole purpose of forcing you to lock yourself in a stufy hall till your skincolor has reached a pigment that's beyond white. I've gone through so many post-it's, books and writingpaper that I'm quite sure I could've made myself a real-life-size replica of Ganondorfs castle and live in the center with paralyzed pricess virgins.

The worst program I've got so far is philosophy. All this shit about what you perceive isn't real. You can't think about change, and that's why change can't exist. So we have to accept that change and movement doesn't excist, even thou our senses are telling us the oposite. But after this we learn that some other master-of-mind-fuck means the oposite, and are saying that everything doesn't move, but it FLOATS! WE ALL FLOAT! Woopdie doo! I know about another guy out there that means the exact same thing.... I might state this in our next class.

Well, at the moment I'm sitting at my desk really wanting to begin on my relly important your-future-depends-on-you-not-screwing-this-up paper that needs to be done october the 12th, 16:00. All I've done is writing my name on the top. This is a program I really, really, REALLY dislike, but we're soon done with it and as long as I can manage this paper, the rest will be like a sunday walk to my mailbox. No more papers, just sleeping through the classes knowing that I don't have to listen to his shit anymore.

...
But the thing is.
the only thing I'm doing
is to draw these drawings
of ancient greek philosophers
fucking eachother in circles.

Oh, the hell.

September: So Fell Autumn Rain

2011-09-30T22:19:00.004+02:00

Summer has ended and that nasty rain and wind has come over us
once again (at least in my town).
As much as I love summer, autumn has one thing;
Sitting inside as the rain falls down and the wind grabs my house.
Inside, where it's warm and bright.
Inside, where I have my new games for the long ending of the year ;)

I thought you guys deserved a small update from our side.
As you can see there hasn't been many active members since the summer started.
Gatra and Royalist for example, is studying ... or it sounds more like; Drinking all the time
(College huh?).
I guess we will get them back as active posters yet again, after they are
a) Broke
b) Missing a liver
Stein is yelling at his sucky computer and studying at the same time.

Anyway, we are still trying to hold the fort up and supplying you with at least some news.
There are some ideas still swirling around, that I hope we will get around to do one day in the near future.

This year we got some great games coming, and there are some I really can't wait for.
Star Wars the Old Republic finally got its release date; 22th of December in Europe.
Skyrim is closing onto us.

Also, I thought by writing this post, to start this new monthly "wrap-up" (Thank you, Joystiq.com).
Just trying to write down the whole month in a small article and write what we are currently doing \ playing.
So, let's try!

Bongophone@Twitter
I'm currently downloading and installing the Battlefield 3 beta,
will update on that later - and also played through WH40k Space Marine earlier this month.

MajiinFreddy@Twitter
Trying to Finish Gear of Wars 3 (First Gears game I've actually enjoyed!) before the release of RAGE!
Also avoiding all information about Skyrim and SWTOR cause they are making me overhyped.

ElloaWendy@Twitter
I'm a very busy girl! Hosting a new Minecraft survival server where I build useless and awesome hanging gardens,
gathering some gameplay footages for a new Tera video (on Korean server),
and trying to marry Alistair in Dragon Age. I can wait for SWTOR!

Want to make a difference in the world? These girls do. Help them out!

2011-09-30T20:15:00.007+02:00

We have a friend that's trying to win this contest, where she and two others can get this trip down to Africa, where they can help out the natives for two weeks.
All you have to do is to spend about two seconds on this link down here.
Type in your name and your email. You won't get blasted down with e-garbage by using your email here. Honest to god.

http://engasjert.kirkensnodhjelp.no/konkurranse/index.php?l=team&r=comment&t=139

Contest is done in about 4 hours, and they are 100 signatures under the leading 'group'.

Thanks! :3

Rants : Roleplay, another way to experiment yourself

2011-09-02T16:15:00.003+02:00

Big title for a big subject! I've always find fascinating the possibilities of self exploration that any kind of roleplay activity allow. My statement can seems pretentious, but if you take the time to think about the characters you have imagined, or the way your character have reacted to certain specific situations, you may rediscover yourself under another light.

Real life (in case I need to specify it) allow each being to experiment itself through diverse problematic situations. We are happy, we suffer, we do good, we do bad. Sometimes we are almost heroes, sometimes we are really pitiful. Sometimes we disagree with ourselves, we would like to stop being so stupid but we hardly are able to change the mechanism that
entraps us in a certain pattern of emotions and reactions. That's how life is, and our world is certainly a wonderful terrain of experimentation.
Unfortunately, as we are deeply involved in those problems, or critical situations, we hardly have the time or the wisdom to get the position of the observer, take lessons of mistakes done, and choose a different way of behaving and reacting.

For that, Roleplaying is a wonderful and cheap psychoanalysis. Alike the artist, or the dreamer, it's possible to observe and analyze our previous experience in the "virtual world". What are the similarities among your different characters? Do not you notice certain behavior that is repeated over and over again despite the care you take to build very different background and personalities? How do you make your character reacts in that situation, and how close could it be from the reaction you would have yourself in the same situation?
The interpretation here, works a little bit like the analyze of an artist work, or the translation of dreams heavy symbolic.

Roleplay : first step to inner exploration

Not only you can be an observer and re discover yourself through the analyze of the diverse roleplaying situations you have made your character experiment. But you can also be an actor and decide the direction you want to give to the experience. In that case, you will not limit yourself to analyze, but you will choose, you will select, you will actively experiment, and explore different side of yourself that are forgotten. In this case, it's like taking the position of "God" playing with humanity to see what humans can create out of those natural calamities and emotional paradoxes. You are playing with your avatars, and through them, you can discover who you are, and who you could become.

We do all have a multisided personality, like a prism. Unfortunately, we are generally only exploring a few of them due to morality, material consideration, cultural environment, acquaintances and family, professional ambitions etc... Roleplaying give you the opportunity to try different paths, different ways of behaving, different reactions. Somehow try a different side of your own more complex personality, without the fear of the consequences .

This is not only very interesting for self observation, but also extremely pleasurable. You can be, you can explore, what you do not dare to explore in real life. You can experiment yourself under another aspect. It's a kind of "second chance".

A very interesting experience is to try to build a character whose personality is exactly the contrary of what you are. And see the result. Will this character be really that different? Will be left some similarities? What is the characteristic of this character? By doing so, you enlighten the part of yourself that you find important. It's an interesting exercise to understand better your own perception of yourself.

The benefits of Evil Roleplay

You and me, and most of the people here will try to behave as a "good" persons. What is good and what is evil, is another question, related to morality, religion and culture and it's not the theme of this article. But we can agree that most of us will try to become better- according to his own criteria- and to improve with the experience gathered.

Very few of us, will dare to walk on the path of "darkness" for the only benefit of experimenting the other face of the Universe. It would however be very constructive in our research of ourselves. One cannot fully understand Light if he doesn't know Shadows. One cannot fully understand Happiness if he doesn't know Suffering and Pain. One cannot understand Serenity if he has not known Anger and Fear.

Here again, Roleplay give an excellent opportunity of experimenting what we try to avoid in real life. We can explore those forgotten, repressed part of ourselves, enjoy them and understand better their mechanisms. By experimenting how to be evil, in opposition "how to be good" will be understood more clearly.

To roleplay a Evil character is pushing the experience further and is, in my eyes, more beneficial. It's easy to imagine the ideal version of yourself and trying to behave as such in a virtual universe. It's very pleasant for the ego aswell. Everyone enjoy to be a "hero".

Roleplaying a Evil character is, however, a lot harder. Maybe imagine your background and the general traits of your villain will not be a hard task. What will be more difficult is to keep the same direction, a logic and a coherence in your acts. Often, you will discover that your evil character is becoming nicer and nicer. The real challenge is to give it nuances of grey. To create not a "too black or white" personality.

An evil character is in a way, closer of whom we really are, poor sinners, than a "hero". In an evil character, we are enlighten the dark side of our personality, and by doing so, we stop to be blind, we are finally facing the mirror. And then only, when we accept our weakness, we can decide and choose to abandon them and change.

I hope you enjoyed this modest article concerning roleplay, and the advantages, the opportunities it offer for self exploration. It is very interesting to enjoy roleplaying, and discuss it with a person close to you, that you can trust and who know you well. It helps in the quest of whom you are, and help you to become who you want to be.

... But, long story short : roll on the darkside!

SWTOR: How I finally got convinced

2011-08-19T21:52:00.000+02:00

Until recently I was one of those who sweared to never touch that "bullshit game for Star Wars fan boys". I was even planning to write an article for +1 titled "10 reasons why I'll never play SWTOR"! The only thing that refrained me from writing a "boycotting paper" was the idea of hurting Majiin's feelings... or maybe it was laziness.

Firstly, I really didn't like the graphics. I don't think it's a bad move from Bioware, though. It's even an excellent idea. They have the ambition to see SWTOR lasting till 2025, and if we still have electricity by then (no, I'm not a doomsayer), the style will not age as much as Age of Conan's graphics, for example. But I don't like it. I was expecting something more realistic, in particuliar for a game like Star Wars. I don't rejoice at the idea of playing in a painted cartoon. It's... a question of taste, I suppose.

Second, even if I enjoyed the Star Wars movies, I've never been dreaming about playing a Jedi, nor a Sith, or a droid, or whatever creatures from the thousand galaxies of the Republic. I don't care about space ships, and I don't particuliary fancy space armor and laser pistol. Lightsabers is something else. Everyone likes lightsabers. Even me.

Third, I read the class articles and saw some videos, and really nothing appealed to me. The combat seemed very uninteresting in comparison of that-other-game-I-want-to-play.

Fourth, I was really afraid that SWTOR would focus too much on individual progression. I'm not interested by solo games, solo progression, and solo stories. I play MMOs to be social and have the feeling to build and experiment the game together with my friends. I don't really care that I've companions to do quest instead of me. What I'd do meanwhile? Play cards with my droid in the spaceship?

Fifth, I'm a future Tera player. I'm playing K-Tera, then I'll play Tera beta, then Tera-EU. I'm making Tera videos, writing Tera articles, promoting Tera, and sleep with my Popori teddy bear.

Sixth and last (and this counts for 4 reasons) I really didn't want to see my community beeing swallowed by the giant, while I'm left alone on my Tera planet.

But now things have changed. Tera will only be released somewhere in spring 2012 instead of september as I was hoping. Many of my community have already pre-ordered SWTOR. And after have looked a bit more attentively, the game didn't look that bad anymore. So I throw away my prejudices and took the bull by the horns.I even pre-ordered the game myself. Not the collectors edition though!

So now...Why will I play Star Wars The Old Republic?

First, the guild program on the SWTOR website amazed me. It's very well done. You can pre register your guild, apply to a guild, see the roster of your guild, make a little presentation, and you even have access to guild forums from the official website. Once the game is released, the first time you create your character it will automatically be joining the guild you applied for. So, finally SWTOR also think "community". I like guild stuff!.

Second, the quest and story system is very appealing. It's done by Bioware. I've never been far in Dragon Age because it's a solo game, but I enjoyed it very much until I got my web connection back. So I know the story will be engaging. But what really excite me is the possibility to experiment the story as a group, including those moment where you make core choice in the dialogue with the NPC. Everyone in the group can choose his own answer, and one answer will be selected randomly. It's even the character player who "win the speech roll" that will speak in the little cinematic. That's just great. I like that!

Third, it will be nice to not have to choose between mage, priest, warrior and archer. The eight classes in the game have two specializations each and then tree talents trees. That mean 48 differents possibilities. If among that I don't find at least 2 that I like, I'm really becoming a difficult little bitch princess! I'm still hesitating though. Classes here matter for several reasons. Not only you need to enjoy those in PVE and PVP, but in addition every class has its own story line. Some class would not fit my personality, while I could enjoy the gameplay, and vice versa.

Fourth, the game is focused on small groups. Eight persons for raiding sounds very fine for me.

And fifth, SWTOR is such a different game that I do not feel the competition with Tera anymore. I might aswell play both if I enjoy both, as they will fill a different role in my entertainement.

This was the story of an irreducible opponent of SWTOR getting converted. I'm still not convinced by the graphics though, but I'll get used to it. Who really liked World of Warcraft graphics in first place?
Hopefully our guild will recieve beta keys for all its members, and Majiin, Fredrik and I will share more exciting news in +1!

Stay tuned.

Summer Update

2011-08-07T23:27:00.005+02:00

Hello all !
I thought the blog deserved a little update, so let's go!
Since summer is nearing it's end, I'm guessing things
will return to "normal" here. Been a bit quiet, but
people have been on vacation \ moving \ working,
so summer is a typical "slow down" time.

So, what can we offer during the rest of the year for you?
Well we are going to be our "normal" self, ranting,
posting random stuff, reviewing and oh so much random stuff.

I don't know what the other guys have planed but I got a small
list of things I'd like to do.
Of course, I have a huge list of games that I'm waiting for.
Reviews and streams will follow each huge release as before.
Lately I've been reading \ listening to podcasts A LOT about
Star Wars the Old republic.
And seriously, I can't wait! This game seems so awesome!
Let's hope we get a release in october so it won't ruin
my SKYRIM run ;>

We were out partying a couple of weeks ago and talked a bit
about the blog, and what we wanted to do.
One thing was Commenting our streams.
Basically, just talking \ discussing during our gaming \ random
streams.
I have no idea if this is something people want, but it certainly
puts more "action" into the streams. At least, if we talk about
something good.
Personally I would love to start making "podcasts" (youCasts -youtube),
seems like a nice way to spend some time. And I got too much information
that I want to share when it comes to games. Since I got this "bad" habbit
about reading too much on games I'm psyched for.

I'll end this short post with reminding you to check out the blog often, as well
as the stream, I got some great games coming in soon!
You will always be able to see the newest and coolest games here, live. Which
is a great way to see if you want this game or not (It helps at least!)
Share the link and gief followers!

now, here's a small list of games that I'm getting.
So always remember to check out our facebook \ twitter profile, or Majiinfreddy@twitter.
We will normally post when the stream is running and what's on.

Games 2011;
Dead Island - 9th of September.
Gears of War 3 - 20th of September (not sure at all if I'm getting this, since I hated the older ones)
Rage - 7th of October.
Heroes of Might and Magic 6 - 13th of October.
Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3 - 8th of november.
SKyrim - 11th of november.

(Hopefully 2011)
Star Wars The Old Republic
Diablo 3 (doubt it)
Guild Wars 2

So, there you have it!
Hope to see you soon.

-Majiin off.

Battle Stations!

2011-07-09T02:51:00.011+02:00

I'm bored! Really bored!
I was watching some random pc setups etc on youtube, and I thought
that this was something I would really like to do.
Record my whole apartment and upload it to the great wide web.
But, since I don't got like more then ..12 subscribers on youtube,
or I have like my own uber popular blog, I thought that this
would be the "perfect" place to show off some stuff.

Though I reckon you don't really care that much about it,
I'm still making you watch!
Just 4 pictures! It will be over fast!

Let's go!

This is my Hauppauge. This little thing allows me to hook my Xbox, Playstation 3 , PSP, or whatever to my computer. And then, stream it out to you guys!
It's really easy to easy, and it really kicks ass.

This is my, currently messy, battle station.
My new computer with a Red light <3 , my xbox 360, g15 keyboard (Bought it today, found out there is a thing called G19...) and the small "computer" monitor, 46'' Samsung LCD Tv <3

This is as you can see, my multimedia bench.. Or whatever.
High in the air my 55'' Samsung LCD Tv. The Sony somethingsomething Surround reciever with 2 speakers chilling on the floor... A copy of the Disney movie BOLT, of course.
My Playstation 3, TV satellite receiver thingy and my Mac Mini, holding xx TBs' of movies and series, sharing it to all my other electrical network-able stuff.
My Mac Mini is probably the grandest thing I hold, Running Plex with network sharing is pretty neat.

I'm hoping to start a new thing here now, so that the other blog members also will share their setup. =D
Well... I think that's enough from me for one night!

-Majiin finds his bed.

RAGE: Game Stories

2011-07-09T01:56:00.003+02:00

Hello dear blog!
I was going through some of the posts today and saw there
hasnt been any RAGE post for some time.
So hey, I have Rage, Why not use some of my night
to write some rage?

This evening started well, I saw the new Bioshock Infinite trailer over at GTTV,
and I looooved it. 14 minutes of intense action and storytelling, paradise.
So I started to miss Bioshock 1 and 2 a bit. But, Really, I have enough games
to start going through them for the 4th time atm.
Even though I have like 20 games to play, I'm always searching for new ones.
I googled "Games with great stories" and opened up a couple of forum posts.
Sure, there where a lot of great ideas, but dang, I have played pretty much
every game out there with a great story. That ain't from 1986..
But I got amazed over all the stupid suggestions to great stories in a game.
Even over at Gamesradar.com they had a billion of idiotic ideas.
Now, I do know that what a good story is , varies, but come on, who says that
GTA San Andreas has a GOOD story?! Really? It was a good game and all that.
But story wise, COME ON!
Don't start hating on me! I know a lot of you will yell at me for saying things
like this. But I really just need a RAGE post ;>

I was reading most over at giantbomb.com , they had a long list of users and their
top 5 list.
Let me say some games that they listed, but doesn't have a great story.
Bully - I haven't played this game much, I'll tell you that. But Seriously,
does this game have a great story? I mean, for you to rank it at your top 5 list?
No! I think not!
Persona 3 - A Japanese game for playstation 2, I have not tried this game, but I
read a bit about it, and it seems like a typical JAP-game. Silent teenage boy,
moves to city, gets super magical powers, fighting, etc. Yawn.
GTA 4 - I'm not gonna say much, but NO. It was a great game sure, but not a top
5 game when it comes to the story.
Deus EX - It was a great game back in the days, but the game lacked so much including
a story that took me by the throat.
Final fantasy xxxxx - Sure, some of the games has a good story and all that. But
none of them is insane and made me cry for days. Though I love most of the FF games,
they are far from the stories that really stands out.
Fallout 3 - Another great game. Story wise? nope! I have played this games for
oh so many hours, and there are always new stuff to find. But the main story,
is far from being a great one.
Zelda Ocarina of Time - Though probably one of the greatest games ever made, I can
see why many choose this game. But really, How does Zelda ever have a great story?
Small fairy kid sees something bad happening, gets magical sword, wants to save the
world. bleh. It's a great game yes, But the story is far from mint.
50 cent blood in the sand - I really hope that person was joking..
Assassin's Creed 2 (or 1) - Enzio sure is a jumper and killer. I did enjoy some of the games
for a couple of hours, but I really never liked the story that much. It was "okay", but
there are about 1000 games that has a better one.

There you have a short list of games that doesn't deserve it!
I mean really people, get some good games! >_>
And feel free to correct me if you see me missing a games point totally, there is
nothing better then me saying something wrong, you correcting me, and me finding
a game that it turned out I loved.

You're probably wondering what my top 5 list is?
Meh... It's really hard.. But.. Let's TRY!
(everything is the whole series, I CAN'T pick just one)

1. Baldurs Gate
2. Bioshock
3. Mass Effect
4. Metal Gear
5. Uncharted

Other games that should be named; Half Life, Warcraft, Starcraft.

What's YOUR list?

-MajiinRage offline.

Rants about games: Game Suggestions!

2011-07-03T22:42:00.006+02:00

Greetings and many +1 to you all!
As the summer has gotten over us, I think it's time for a little list over games
that I would recommend YOU to try out.
In Norway we basically have a shitty summer so far.
I just got home from Spain with 30*C, so I'm not Really complaining.

But so far, I've only seen rain and dark clouds over my home town.
So, what better way to spend our dark summer with some new kick ass games?

Here you will find a list with a short review under each of them.
These are games that I'm playing at the moment, and I'm sure that there are games here
for every taste.
Let's start!

(In no particular order)

Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic 2
The RPG-Star Wars game that was released in 2005 is a huge hit.
People have been begging for a third game, but we are getting a MMO game in the "same"
style, so that will probably be it.
It's a great game for those of you who love RPG games with a good story and don't hate
the Star Wars universe.
You play as a Jedi, though there are several different jedi-classes, you won't be playing
as a bounty hunter etc. But you are open to use whatever weapon you deem right.
Great game, but it has some bugs. It hasnt stopped me for completing this game twice
since release though.

Alice - Madness Returns
Is a Action-Adventure game that came out this year, 15th of june to be precise.
It follows the story of Wonderland and is the second game in this series.
Instead of having a Disney twist on it, they have really made it out what the Book
really is, Pure madness and sick twisted artwork.
You play as Alice, exploring her dreamworld as wonderland yet again calls for her.
Great game, though I recon it's not for all.
I'm loving the twisted look and the story. But the combat could have been something
more , but I do manage.
The game has small puzzles, combat and a lot of story.
Check it out if it floats your boat.

Vampire - The Masquerade Bloodlines
Another great RPG game.
If there is one game I would love to see having a sequel , it's this!
You create your own vampire and the story unfolds. You are supposed to be
executed during the first minute of the game, but the Vampire Prince
deems you worthy enough to live among the Vampires in their masquerade.
The game offer a lot of different play styles, with melee, guns , stealth, swords etc.
It really shines when you create your character and choose what "vampire" you are.
Whatever vampire "type" you choose, is how you are gonna play the game more or less.
And the dialogue is different for each "vampire", making it really playable for a
second and third run-through.
I have not finished the game yet, but I LOVED the first chapter, but it did
loose some of it's power over me after that. But I really have to complete it, since
it is one of the few Vampire games out there that isn't "twilight".
Everyone should have tried this game, even if only to complete chapter 1 with some major
jaw-dropping ending.

Elder Scrolls - Oblivion
I'm guessing every has tried this game, and dang what a game it is.
The wait for Skyrim seemed like forever for me , so I decided to dust of Oblivion again.
It's a really huge, deep RPG game. It has it's flaws, but it was probably one of the
nicest, coolest RPG games out there at the time.
If you are gonna try it, be sure to check out the modding community and find yourself
a texture pack. The modding community has really done great things for this game.
So if you are looking for a RPG game to keep you busy for the next weeks, this is it.

Fear 3
Well, Read my review further down and you'll see why I'm playing this atm!
Horror FPS game with a lot of multiplayer options.

The Witcher 2
My RPG list just keeps on growing..
This time it is a new RPG game that released a couple of months ago.
With jaw dropping graphics , which my computer refuses to run on "ultra", this game
looks beatiful.
This is the second game in the series and without having tried the first, number 2 really
makes me wanna try the first later on.
You play as Geralt, a witcher, set in a really cool universe based upon the book series with the same name.
I'm not gonna spoil any story, since this is a fairly new game. But it has it's twists and the
story really shines.
The combat system is like any other RPG game, you push a button and you swing a sword around.
It has some deep Alchemy system and a really diverse leveling up system.
With lot's of loot to find, I do wish that the inventory system would be better.
The game has multiple endings and has a lot of different paths and storylines you can visit.
So It's playable for more then one time.

Well that's about it!
I do have some other games that I'm playing every now and then, but nothing major.
But if you are looking for more games;
Risen - RPG game from 2009 or something.
Arcanum Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - Is a steampunk RPG game in some of the same style as Baldurs Gate (Looking at the Graphics).
Baldurs gate series \ Icewind Dale - Simply the best dang RPG games out there. If you haven't played them, GO NOW!
A Vampyre Story - Adventure game in the same style as Monkey Island.
... etc etc. Just ask if you're bored and I'll recommend you a game ;)

Be sure to check out Steam each day, since they have some really nice offers on games atm.
I just picked up Two Worlds 2 for 12 euros!

Happy summer with lot's of gaming!

-Dizzy Majiin

Rants about games: F.3.A.R

2011-07-02T02:14:00.004+02:00

Finally, it's here! F.3.A.R!
What does Alma and Paxton have in store for us this time around?
This is the 3rd game since the franchise launched in 2006.
One of the few great Horror FPS games out there.
Read on if you are curious what I though about the game.

I remember how scared I was playing the first game back in the days.
There was this one scene I got to in the addon (I think) that made me turn off the game for about a month.
But I've played all the games, cause they are really one of the few FPS-Horror games that really scares me.
And with the third game hitting us in the face, I'm very pleased.
Though I hated that the creators of the franchise left after the first game, the game has been pretty
decent and I have not regreted using money on the games and expansions.
The second game introduced multiplayer, but didn't really handle it that well.
Now, with the 3rd game, we got a kickass multiplayer and a great singleplayer once again!

We pick up the after the last games, where the Point Man has been captured by the Armacham Security and is getting a beating.
Paxton Fettel, your not-so-stable brother rescues you, and the adventure can begin!
This time around, you are actually friends with your brother, and he helps you along the way, as well as planting
more sick ideas in your head and being his usual "normal" self.
For those of you who haven't followed the games, Point Man and Paxton Fettel are brothers, both raised at an asylum
where your "father" did some pretty nasty things with you. Your mother on the other hand, is madness itself.
Alma Wade is the poor girl who was "born" into madness and many tests where performed on her.
Shortly after she gave birtht to "you" and your brother, she was killed.
And she has been the frontface of the game ever since day one.
This freaky little girl \ woman, you see glimpses of in all the games brings quite the scare to the game.
Though she is your mother, her intentions are rather strange. Since she is the cause of everything bad
happening around in the towns, you often are faced with monsters that she has summoned or she will
kill the random guards standing in your way.
Fear 3 is still scary, no doubt. They have really nailed it this time. Though I'm not shaking in my little space-boots,
I can still feel the adrenaline pumping around every corner in the dark sewers, houses and towns you are visiting.
Actually I was more scared when I played the first game, but that might be that it was 5 years ago! So I might
have grown a bit in my head? (pfft).
But I continue to get scared, and I love it.
Running through all the scary and well made places to fight, the scenery looks amazing and dark.
They have introduced a lot of new stuff in this game.
The cover system works pretty much perfectly now, and the "slow-mo" ability has been a bit nerfed.
They also added Co-op (Haven't tried that one yet) for the campaign, though I'm not sure if its the same campaign
as if you where playing alone.
You also unlock Paxton Fettel after each map , so you get to play him on each level as well. Which is quite
different from playing the standard FPS character.
Paxton is a lot more into scary abilities, like taking over another mans body and using it to kill his foes.
The Multiplayer has a lot of new things, including Co-op survivor like in Left 4 Dead and a mode called "F*cking run",
where you and your team has to run , kill the enemies , run some more , and evade the huge "wall of death" following you.
And two other modes that works like normal Deathmatch, only with a twist.
I haven't played the multiplayer much yet, but I'm craving for it. Hoping that someone will buy it soon.
What better then to run from a wall of death with some of your friends?

All in all, this is a brilliant game if you want great gameplay and you like getting scared.
The multiplayer sounds lovely. And if you enjoyed L4D, this game has a nice survivor mode which is a nice bonus to a great game.
The graphics looks pretty good. But if I'm going to pick on something, it has to be; Paxton Fettel looks a bit like a doll.
I'm not a big fan of the style on the characters on this game, though they are not bad at all. It's just something about the style
that I don't love.
I have been trying to stream this game, but for some reason, Livestream procaster dosn't want to do it. But check in sometimes,
Maybe I've gotten it fixxed.
Hope you enjoyed the review! And again, if you like Horror games in the FPS genre, this is a game you should check out!

-Majiin goes to bed!

MMO: Want a Tera beta key?

2011-06-16T15:28:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone!

Are you hyped for Tera after the E3 review? Do you want more information? Well, Tera won five press awards (Best of PC and Best MMO from Game Informer, Best MMO from MMO Crunch, Best Combat from MMORPG.com, Best Mmo from Rip Ten) and had been nominated for five others.
All articles I've read share the same enthusiasm! More hype? Do you know you can win a beta key? Three competitions are currently happening in Europe and end the 26 June. I'm obviously participating, but I'm kind enough to give you all information if you want to tempt your luck. If you are not interested, you still can be so kind and help me to win, so don't skip this post, just got to the last paragraph.

First competition is organized by Frogster themselves. It's a video contest, you must realize a two minutes long trailer from the official trailers you can find on Tera Europe website. Two prizes possible : Best Footage will reward you with a TERA branded hard drive (500 GB, USB 3.0, 2,5” external drive) signed by the Bluehole producer and two access to the next TERA test phase.
Viewer Choice will reward you with T-Shirt, Flip-Flops, two access and a poster signed by the Frogster community team.
All informations can be found on Tera Europe

The second competition is a Wallpaper/Screenshot competition organised by the fansites A2Tera and Tera-Affiliates. The prizes are one month of game time on KTera for those playing in Korea or a Pre-order of Tera (with the option to choose a Beta key instead).
More details about this competition on A2Tera

And if you don't enjoy to stand behind your computer when you are not playing, you still can participate to the cooking contest of Terasushi, another fansite.Cook a dinner representing something about Tera, and get a couple of beta key.
More information on Terasushi

Why and how to help Elloa to get a beta key?

First, I'm a nice girl and I totaly deserve this. Second I'll share much more informations if I can get my hands on the game, and this could include special streaming!
How to help me? It's very simple : I've made my trailer and you can view it on Youtube. Thumbs up it, let as comment that this trailer alone will totaly make you buy the game and sendt it to 20 friends by mail. Okay, okay... I'll be more reasonable : a thumbs up would already be awesome. I just need 220 more to beat Shikari! (Grrrrr) and win my flip flop!

That's all for today! More news once I got my beta key! *wink*

-Elloa

The Tubes: Awesome Series.

2011-06-13T17:59:00.001+02:00

The Awesome Series is a series of animations created by Egoraptor, who recently got a taste of Internet fame. While the series as a whole isn't exactly my cup of tea, I thought I could mention it, and at least show a spot on parody about a couple of bro's gaming some Halo Reach. Do check out the rest of his stuff.

MMO : Tera at E3

2011-06-11T19:34:00.003+02:00

What I would have done to be present at E3, to wander around the Popora Elinu Tree and get my hands on one of the Tera demo presented there. I would have bombarded the En Masse crew with questions!
As relatively well informed fan of Tera, and as many others, I have been a bit disappointed by the lack of fresh information or precise answers given by the NA producers. I was expecting more : a possible date of release, or the announce of the next open beta test, more information about how PVP would work, the guild features, the new Elins armor and...well anything new really would have satisfied my curiosity and appeased my impatience.
However, there is still plenty of information to share with those who do not spend their whole life browsing forums like me! So grab a cup of chocolate, or a mojito whatever fit you best, and enjoy the read as I'll share with you everything I've learned about Tera lately.

Tera is politic!

If there is something En Masse explained in details in different interviews along E3 : it's the Political System. And that, will really be something HUGE, something which will keep players busy and entertained, something which can change deeply the atmosphere from one server to another, something which will creates drama, action, alliance, treasons. I am extremely enthusiast about this feature! But how does it work?

The world is divided in different provinces. All those provinces will require a Vanarch to govern them, some province will require him to be elected, while some other will requires him to fight his way in battlegrounds and become the highest ranked. The election work exactly like in real life. The player who want to be elected will have to lead a campaign during one week. He can do what he wants to persuade the others players to vote for him : false or true promises ; presentation on Facebook, forums or YouTube ; presenting himself as a hero, or destroying the image of his concurrents ; the player can even hire NPC to speak about him!

Once elected, the Vanarch and his guild will have access to great advantages : special mount, money, and fame among others. In his hands lay great power and responsibilities : The Vanarch can rise or lower taxes, change the localization of NPC, hire special merchants, organize feast and parties, change the PVP/PVE status of his province and even put in jail some other players. Let's say that a province can really change with the ruler governing it!
To buy any of those special features, the Vanarch and his guild will have difficult and special quest to complete to obtain Political Points. Many of those quests require to kill a BAM (Bad Ass Monster).
Note that to be eligible one need to be lvl 50, guild master of a lvl 2 Guild of 20 members , and I've read somewhere that he also need a certain number of medals and money (but I am not 100% sure of this info). So if you want to become Vanarch, better to start to work already very hard!

Rumor Mill : apparently, the political system is even more complex : three main cities in Arborea will require an Exarch, which is the chief of the Vanarsh and would have even more power and advantages. Guild would also get the possibility to have their own Guild Hall in those cities.

None of those informations had been confirmed, and some features even are not implemented yet in Korea, but the whole thing seems extremely promising! I imagine the Wars between guilds, the conflicts, the alliances among players and everything which will become possible with such a system! How alive will be the server, and how passionating it will be to play! Every aspect of the game : PVP, PVE, social, everything is gathered and linked together!

Tera PVP

The Tera community and in particular the PVP community were very impatient to know more about how the PVP would be different from the Korean version. Many hoped for hardcore death penalties in the style of Lineage2, such as a percentage of xp lost for every death, full or partial loot, and PK penalties. Many hot discussions were hold on the official forums but unfortunately En masse did not answered all our questions.
We know for sure that will be PVE and PVP servers. On PVE servers, PVP will only be possible in instances (battleground , arena, deathmatch) or as duel.
The death penalties while killed by another player will be the same than death in a PVE situation : lose of stamina reducing hit point and mana totals, and a chance to break socketed crystals (crystals are a bonus added to gear allowing player to improve and customize it)
We had also be assured there will not have friendly fire. Fighting in battleground will also give points which can be used to buy potions or gear.

There is not enough news to discuss long about the subject. I am not very fond of the "points" earned in battleground. I am afraid it will turn too much in a kind of BG farm like in World of Warcraft and that would kill any spontaneous world PVP action, which is clearly what Tera should aim for with its incredible Politic system.

Best 2011 MMO !

It seems that Tera had impressed the media. There was several stickers "Best 2011 MMO" on the Popora Elinu tree at the end of E3.
Even if I didn't learn anything new, I enjoyed to see all interviews and presentations of the game. Yes : the gameplay, action oriented seem amazing! The graphism, working with Unreal Engine, are stunning. The Lore and the quests seem passionating.

Everyone who tested the game loved it! Here an example :
"At E3 2011 I was given the opportunity to play the game and test it out myself and i have to say the game has exceeded my expectations. I have played just about EVERY mmo out there and this was byfar the most action-packed and the most addicting.. and the game is not even out yet!"

Then I saw the video of the demo presented to the press. It's apparently a part of the Vanarch chain quest, which end by the kill of a BAM. To see a team of five persons in the middle of the action, with the comments of the En Masse tank and healer leading the party : this really made me even more impatient if possible.

And what about the Elin?

The problem with the Elin is that they look like little girls (even if they are somewhat ageless nature spirit) and some of their armors are a little bit too sexy to fit little girls. In Asia, the lolicon culture is not forbidden as it is in the west. So the Elin armor was subject of a censorship, fact which has arrised a lot of passionate discussions. The question which was haunting every fan was : what will be the change? How will look the censored Elin armors?

"All changes are minor cosmetic changes, so there is nothing to test " had been the only answer when Terahispano asked when we could test the Elin.

Apparently the Elin changes are taking in charge by Bluehole studio and are almost completed. We can expect to discover very soon the new Elin Wardrobe. (And yes for me this info is very important as I am planning to play an Elin! I don't want her dressed with ugly pants instead of cute little dresses)
The picture here is not official. It's a parody made by a fan.

I am ending this article here. I'll keep you updated with fresh news when I got some! If you want to know more about classes, races and lore, I invite you to visit my community forum : Whitestar where I've gathered a lot of useful information, many videos and many links towards fansites.

E3 Coverage - 2

2011-06-07T19:29:00.008+02:00

Here we are again! Day two of E3.

Basically today we have Nintendo and just floor show with lots of demos and trailers. I believe there will be a small Activision show later today, but I'm not 100% sure. But If there is anything new, we will update this post.

Nintendo press conference

This is the only presentation today, and though it's not my favorite studio, I'm still excited! They started the whole show with the Zelda games and it's 25th anniversary on the big screen with an orchestra playing the infamous theme. Fun, but hey.. Come on ! You haven't made a decent Zelda game since
Ocarina of time. Then the creator of Zelda came up, and he really made me laugh, with his fun faces and English accent. I got really annoyed when the translator came up, and they ended up talking over each other. But finally, this Holiday season, The Skyward Sword is released! Though this games look nice and all that, I believe you gotta play with the motion controllers and that ain't for me. Wii annoys the crap out of me with all the motion games and the sucky graphics. So, this will probably be a Zelda game I won't try.

When I play games, I wanna sit down, chill and enjoy it. NOT wave my arms around looking like an idiot.
Also, Wii has never been precise, unlike Playstation Move which is great. So the wii that would be a huge rage factor for me. What surprised me, no demo for the Skyward sword, but hey.. Guess we actually gotta buy it to see if it actually works good this time (Remember E3 2010?).

Finally the president of Nintendo entered the scene, and started talking about gaming, how wii changed it
and how they are going to change gaming even more. The new console? That's next year! Well, that was the biggest let down so far today. I can't even tell you why I'm watching this show! Now now! Continue to read, I'm not all hating! Nintendo always delivers fun kid-like games for everyone. But come on, we have gotten games like that since NES, and I for once, really want to see what Nintendo can offer the ones
that want more hardcore titles, better graphics and no motion controllers! I want to see Nintendo push us even further, and really do something new.

Starfox 3d, with gyroscope? -WOW! That's deep! We are talking about the one and only console kings, that started Everything in TV gaming. Sure, we all love Mario, but come on. You can only milk one plumber for so long. It really dosnt matter if he can do new jumps and has a new suit.

They showed off the new Super mario 3ds, and I will probably buy it, but knowing myself the way I do,
it will entertain me for a good solid 4 hours. Kid Icarus is back, on the 3ds, never really liked him, so I continued my yawn. Onward we got Luigis Mansion 2, another 3ds title. Now, I havent played the first game, but jugding from this game, I'm pretty happy I didnt. Just another adventure game for kids.
We got a little reel of trailers for the 3ds, and I suddenly woke up for a bit, Metal Gear Snake Eater, on
the 3ds. Now, That's a game I do want!

And of course, there we got it! Pokemon!
Now I was hoping for a brand NEW pokemon game with 3d support. But no, Pokedex 3d! Which looked like a pretty stupid gadget for your 3ds. "hurp a durp. I wanna take a picture of myself and scan in a charmander! hardcore!"

Finally, they showed off their new controller, which everyone thought was the Wii2 controller, me included.
The Wii-U. Which is a "controller" for the wii. It allows for touch-based games, more motion controlling,
and if you are so unlucky that your wife wants to watch the new episode of Top model on the tv, you can actually play on the controller since it has a screen.

So I do see the possibilities of it. But at the moment, it's like a DS crossed over with a PSP.It does looks like fun, but again, only for a day or three. 50% of what this "controller" does, my PSP has done for about 3 years now (Was kinda late in getting one). It looks kinda flashy, so it's not ugly at all. But as the President of Nintendo said ; "It's not a standalone portable machine" , it's just a controller with some cool features, and the price tag of a 3ds I guess.

Apperantly a Super Smash Brother is coming to Wii-U and the 3DS. Smash Bros' was a cool game back at N64, but after the years has gone by, I feel like I've grown away from these simple fighting games. Though I still know that a lot of my friends will enjoy this title, and I will probably enjoy it some myself. I'm guessing it won't do anything new, and will just be simple "butt-kicking-fun" with your friends for 2 hours after a beeer or five.

At the end of the show I really got confused. A lot of different studio heads was talking about the Wii-u
and its "possibilities" and what they could do with the new "console". So... Console? It's a controller... ? o0
Anyway,we got a nice montage of different "hardcore" games at the end. And that's great for nintendo, to finally open their eyes and do what people have wanted them to do for ages. Hardcore titles!
I can't really see how I would want to play Batman Arkham City on the Wii. And how they are able to run HD games like Battlefield 3 on the Wii, is making me even more confused.

This ended up beeing a pretty long post.. But that's what happens when I write and watch at the same time. Basically, what Nintendo had to offer, that was kick ass, was their uber cool screen! Divided up like that
and really made for their trailers! woo! But that was it ... All the coming games arent anything new in my eyes. Though a few titles will be tried. The Wii-U looks nice, but isnt doing anything that the Playstation Vita will do at the same time and 100 times better.

Nintendo really was a big let down this year. I was hoping for a new console, but hey. We got a shitty new expensive controller instead. But thus, we got some hardcore titles for the Wii and Wii-U, and that's great for the fans of the Wii and for Nintendo. For me, Sony won this year, again. The NGP was enough for me to let them take me away. A long with amazing game trailers, though some where multi-console.

Now, What did YOU think?

Update:

Apparently the Wii-U is a fully fledged console with backwards compatibility and HD support.
Though it's not as powerful as the xbox 360 and playstation 3, it's certainly a big jump from the Wii. But what annoys me here (oh god, more that annoys me!) is the way the presented this, with no information on stage. Vague hinting and no official call "We got a new console!" , this was the worst uncover of a console ever.
Though I'm pretty excited to see more of this , we just gotta wait I guess.

.Majiin out!

E3 Coverage - 1

2011-06-07T05:40:00.006+02:00

So, E3 huh!? Finally, one of the biggest game conventions has started, and here we are again, glued to the computer screen, watching the event. If you haven't tuned in yet, you can watch the expo live over at GameTrailers, on an impressively stable stream.

http://www.gametrailers.com/netstorage/e3/e3-live.html

Here's some of my first impressions.

Microsofts press conference
Though they haven't really given a big show the past years, this year was a bit better. We didn't get a stupid circus kind of thing, but we did get a lot of Kinect games and information.

The first game they showed off was Tomb Raider, a reboot of the franchise.And I gotta say, it looked marvelous. Finally a tomb raider game that looks awesome (Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of the old games). Too bad we've got to wait until the end of 2012.

Onwards they showcased some Kinect, and then some Kinect, and then a bit more. I'm not really a big fan of the motion-locked games. Though I did enjoy Playstation Move for about 5 hours. Kinect is just another gimmick that dosnt really deliver anything for me. Mass Effect 3 with Kinect kinda opened my eyes, but only for 15 minutes. It would have been cool to try, but not enough to put me back 100 bucks. They really didn't show any hardcore game titles for Kinect. Ryse was the closest, but at the moment, nothing big, for me at least. Microsoft always seem to play on the same cards, we get our Call of Duty games, Halo games and Kinect \ kid games.

Which brings us to, Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3. Seems like the same old games over and over again, with nothing new. Although they haven't surfaced much information on the multiplayer aspect yet. I have never been a big fan of the singleplayer part of those games, since they never seem to take the breath out of me.
I will probably pick up MW3 though, but only because of the Multiplayer part which has me for a couple of days, on and off.

Of course they also showed us a Halo remake and a brand new game. I've got to say, and a lot will hate me for this; But Halo is probably the biggest overhyped game of them all. The games has never done anything right in my eyes. With outdated graphics, gameplay that seems half-ass and a story that doesn't really take me
by the throat. Beside this, Microsoft didn't show me anything that I remember. All in all, an "okay" show. We need new epic IP's!

After Microsoft went of the stage, SpikeTV started showing random interviews and gameplay clips from various games. The biggest gasp for me was; SKYRIM!

This is one of the games I'm waiting for this year. I really can't write too much about it, since that would take up another huge wall of text. But in short; This game has it all. 300+ hours of gameplay, lots of ground to cover, lots of quests, dual wielding, etc etc.

We also got a quick look into Batman Arkham City, though I didn't realy like the first game, cause basically it isn't my type of game. But I guess this game looked okay. So I might have to look into it further. Then the next conference started!

EA press conference

This, is what I've been waiting for; Bioware. I mean, everything that Bioware does, is amazing; Baldurs Gate, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights. And now we finally get some more Mass Effect 3 love. Shepard is back and has more agility then ever. He does barrel-rolls!! The game looks huge with better coded enemies and hopefully bigger, harder boss fights. Beatiful as ever, I really can't get enough of this franchise, and March 2012 seems like ages away.

The next title they showed off was Star Wars - The Old Republic. Which is my next MMORPG, where I will hopefully spend lots of hours. I havent played a perfect MMO since Star Wars Galaxies (before SOE took completely over and streamlined it). The Old Republic has a lot to live up to, taking on one of the biggest stories ever told, and turning it into a huge game like this.

Bioware has been bragging about it's graphics, but I really don't seem the awesomeness about it just yet (bad quality clips maybe?). Still, they had fully voiced npc's, an epic story, and what looks to be a very good combat system, and so much more. I really hope they can deliver, and by deliver, I also mean release this soon! After Bioware was done, EA Sports went on stage. I went out for a smoke and grabbed a bite to eat. I don't like sport games...

Battlefield 3 was next up. Now, this game is really trying new stuff each time. And it looks beatiful! Although I'm not a big fan of the "normal FPS games" like BF and COD, I might actually try the singleplayer campaign on this game. I can't really say much more about that game, but from what I've seen, it looks really nice.

Note; I didn't write about all the games, or press conferences for that matter, basically cause they all didn't captivate me.

-Majiin out!

Sony Press Conference

A bit delayed, but Sony finally managed to hit the stage, opening with a montage of clips from new games. Afterwards, CEO Jack Tretton hit the stage, delivering a robotic speech, coming off as greedy jackass. A wicked comeback after the Playstation Network situation. Well done, Sony. Well done.

After what seemed like ages, they rolled one of their flagships center stage, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. I haven't followed the series so far, but what they showed looked really impressive! That one might be worth looking into. Following Uncharted, was Resistance 3. Not too much to say here. I certainly wasn't blown away.

Another robotic speech followed suit about the possibilities of move, and 3D technology. One thing to mention would be the new Sony 3D monitor, giving players playing hotseat different images on the screen. I'm not sure how to explain it, mostly because they failed to do so. This seems like something really big, and I'm kind of blown away how they just brushed over it. Basically you can kiss the split screen goodbye. I'm sure we'll get more information eventually.

We didn't cover everything from the day, obviously. Among others companies, Ubisoft also hit the stage, showcasing the new Assassins Creed, which looked just as mediocre as the previous titles.

-Allan

MMO: this summer we play Age of Conan!

2011-05-28T19:35:00.002+02:00

The other evening, I was really bored. In my busy life, it doesn't happen to me often, so when I'm bored, I can't help but agonize in despair in the sofa. The thing is that I ended my Rift subscription the last month (the game is great but I felt lonely in empty areas) and after two weeks spent scruting the Tera forums, I definitively needed a dose of real gaming. As Rift will soon be proposing a a free transfer service from server to another, I wanted to refill my subscription and enjoy the Saturday night on my little dwarf, but for some frustrating reasons, the website refused to perform the transaction. Raaaah! What to do! My week end of gaming was ruined! DESPAIR and BOREDOM! Then my boyfriend suggested me to give a try to Age of Conan. And I must say : it was a very very good idea!

Age of Conan, a MMORPG developed by the Norwegian company Funcom (Anarchy Online, The Secret World) celebrated its third anniversary by offering to the new players the possibilities to test the game with an unlimited trial. That mean the trial doesn't end in time and you can level characters up to 20 as much as you want.

This is a very smart move. The point of a company to offer trial is to "lure" potential new players and make them buy the game. With a trial lasting only one or two weeks, some casual players might not have the time to get really into the game and feel the need to continue. They just try it one evening of boredom-like me- then get back to their busy life and forget about it. But with an unlimited trial, three weeks later, they can give it a new try and then, want to purchase it.

I had never been so much interest in Age of Conan. I remember a couple of friends (including my boyfriend) leaving World of Warcraft when it came out, and came back after one month, generally disappointed. Not enough players, too much bugs, unbalanced PVP...The release of Age of Conan was more a flop than a success.

Also, the universe of Conan the Barbarian let me indifferent. The slogan "The most savage, brutal and sexy game" didn't appealed me either and even the game play, sort of Tera action fighting premise didn't attracted my attention. I confess today gladly that my prejudices were out of place and that my painful wait of Tera's release will be greatly softened by this game.

What's amaze me in Age of Conan is the immersion. The game start and as you see your character sinks in the sea bording the islands, you are literally plunged in a coherent universe, build with so much care and realism that the world seems alive. There is also something of brute truth which creates a particular atmosphere. Nothing is overdone, nothing is made to be nice, or to be ugly, nothing is hidden by modesty.

Nohan (my character) is a Cimmerian, somewhat barbaric Nordic nation. Her skin is white and her face burned by the tropical sun is halfly hidden by a lock of unwashed red hair. Her naked breast is damaged by an ugly scar, memory of a fight with a bear. She wears the iron shackles of a slave. She wakes up on the shore, the face in the sand.

It's with an immense pleasure that I make my way trough the jungle, jumping and sprinting among the luxuriant plants, crushing my piece of matt in the face of the indigenous. Nohan seem terrible. She really look savage and fierce, not the kind of pretty lady who look disguised in her armor. Well, at that point Nohan has no armor, she is walking naked feet with only a small loin cloth. And yes in this game, you can play top less. It's not particularly sexy or arousing. It's just simple, natural and realistic (ohh well, of course the character boobs are still more beautiful than the average in real life, I guess you can't escape that).

The quest of the starting zone, the damned city of Tortage, are very immersive and all with voice acting. You really have the feeling to be part of a story, and the intrigue is passionating. The night my character follow her personal chain quest according to her archetype. The day, I team up with my boyfriend and we enjoy to explore together old ruins of a decadent and cruel civilization. The sun shines mercilessly, bathing the landscape in a crude light. I almost feel my character sweating in the heat, and the spicy odor of plants risen from the earth. Sometimes we try to kill bosses too powerful for us : a shaman pygmy, a mysterious sorcerer. Sometimes we win, sometimes we die. It's a long time that I didn't had so much fun while playing with my boyfriend. This is another good point for Age of Conan!

If you do not have the money to leave your country and enjoy some holidays, I really suggest you to try out this game. Change of scenery guaranteed! The graphism are stunning (they also require a really nice graphic card though) and the universe is very different with what actual MMO are proposing. Tired of dwarves and elves : get a ticket for the island of Tortage. Its' free!

With the upcoming of the Conan the Barbarian movie, Age of Conan will also release a new pack of content : "The Savage Coast of Turan" . In addition the whole game will be re-launched this summer as a free to play MMORPG titled "Age of Conan: Unrated." The game will become free to play, however will retain a premium subscription option that will give players access to extra content. (F2P FAQ)

The free to play model have a bad reputation. However, after have read different articles and interviews, it seems to me that the hybrid economical model adopted by Funcom stay fair. The players who play for free will have a restricted access to the content : only two character slots, some classes but not all, certain dungeons and certain raids. That's enough to enjoy the game already. The players who pay a monthly subscription have access to everything. The most delicate part concern the shops which will seel for real money weapons, armor and other items. That's often driving a game into a "pay to win" model, which is badly considered among the MMO community. Funcon has assured that it will not be the case. Selfishly, I must confess that I don't care. This will not affect my gameplay as I'm not intending to start a raider career in Age of Conan anyway. But I do understand the concerns of some players. We have to wait and see, I suppose, and meanwhile enjoy what Age of Conan has to offer us : a wonderful travel in the universe of Robert E. Howard.

Retroviews: The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse (SNES)

2011-05-25T00:01:00.017+02:00

Wow, that sure sound like a dodgy Japanese translation... Actually, the original title was shorter, namely Mickey's Magical Adventure. This was actually one of the major console-titles from Disney at the time, though I'm not sure many (that is, enough) people have heard of it.

So if you haven't, I promise you, you missed out!

Story

What can I say? It's Disney, so I don't think anyone gave much thought towards the premise of such a gigantic IP. Mickey is out playing catch in the park one day and Pluto goes missing. You take on a perilous endeavor through the strange kingdom ruled by Emperor Pete. With the help of a kindly, old wizard you gain access to several outfits that give you special powers to help defeat your enemies along the way.

Look/Feel

And boy, are your enemies plentiful and imaginative.

Little pete-insects, pete-soldiers, bees, otters, bananas, leafs. crab-thingies, woodworms, you name it!
All this and more complete with bright colors and classical, cozy disney-like animation. The backdrop is faint, but pleasant to lay eyes on, and the character-animations are fluent and (for some reason) feel very natural.

The only thing that could use a brush-up is the UI, which has these oddly shaded, bitmappish colors, like they are still lingering from a prototype of the game. Not that it ruins anything, but it's almost noteworthy...

The music can be both playful and brooding, but whichever it is, it's high-quality and atmospheric, a definate boon for any snes-title. Other sound on the other hand can be... Odd at best. Sure, they're cute and all that, and most of it fits quite well (apart from being a bit sharp on the ears), but take the sound that plays when you jump on enemies for example. I can't stop thinking it's just a recorded fart...

But all is forgiven when I can spank an oversized chicken right over the ass with a satisfying "SMACK!!" just to see him float lazily off into the air and poop down some coins for me. Pure Disney Magic!

Gameplay/Controls

At first glance, it may seem as if controlling Mickey is very "slippery", and at times it can be, but not in a bad way. It's done this way with well-reasoned intent and doesn't feel out of place. Controls otherwise are responsive and fluent and makes playing the game in general a joy. The game scales nicely with increasingly difficult enemies and devious environments. Environments are a big part of the challenge getting through this game, as half the time you'll get hurt or die is from spikey vines or slipping into a beaver-pond.

On a side-note, one of my favourite moments of the game is when you have to balance ontop of giant tomatoes down vines (in the clouds) riddled with spikes. How they don't pop I neither know nor care, it's excellent fun.

As you progress through the game you unlock three outfits for mickey, each with it's own unique element. The first is a magicians-robe, complete with a turban, which enables you to charge up and shoot magic missiles. It also lets you breathe underwater for some or several reasons?

The second is the firemans-outfit, giving you the awesome power of a fire-hose at your disposal.

Last, but not least, you get a mountain-climber outfit. Looks terribly gay, but it's probably the most fun out of all the outfits, as it lets you climb and swing all over the place. Once you've acquired an outfit, you can hotswap between them as you see fit, even back to plain old Mickey. And you'll need it, cause these suckers need ammo, like tiny fire-hydrants and the likes.

The highlight of the entire game is still the boss-encounters. Challenging and creative, these are what make the game worth plowing through. A creepy-looking, fat bat-thing with yellow overalls? A huge caterpillar? Half-piping Pete? Bungie-jumping rapist? You just have to see some of these to believe them...

By the time you get to Emperor Pete, the game even gets pretty damn difficult. Hell, I find myself actually struggling. And I thought this was a kids game :( Anyways, it's nothing short of brilliant, and I recommend it at the warmest.

I've heard there are sequels too, but I've never played them. If you have, drop me a line, I'd love to hear whether they're worth a look.

Rants about games: L.A. Noire

2011-05-24T13:03:00.032+02:00

Ah, yes, it's finally here; the most highly anticipated game the world has seen since... Well, since Portal 2 came out just a short while ago...

Since you, not unlike myself, have perched your unshapely ass in front of a computer, presumably for large portions of your day, I'm sure you're just as flabbergasted as I am regarding why huge titles such as this are console-exclusive.

The answer is obvious of course, since Rockstar Games is reusing as much as possible of their "wonderful" RAGE-engine to make this game come to life, but I can't see why they couldn't bend the rules a little and release it for PC as well, like they did to GTA4. Granted, this did take forever, but I digress.

The thing is; since I
A) had a gift-certificate at GameStop I won at playing Starcraft II (I know, I'm awesome)
and
B) had an XBOX 360 that's been collecting dust for so long it's become asthmatic (at least from the sound of the poor thing)
because
C) there's nothing worth buying for an XBOX (no, really, there isn't)

I decided I'd put point A) to good use in harmonious combination with point B) and get something console-exclusive for once and see if they've finally cured C).

Enter L.A. Noire, the latest sandbox galore from Rockstar Games. Like so many others, I'd heard great things about L.A. Noire, and to quote the awkward clerk who sold me this game: "It's like Mafia, only much, much better". Mafia(Illusion Softworks (now 2K Czech), 2002) was of course, as you should all know, a masterpiece of a game almost ten years ago. With it's dazzling graphics, brilliant writing and compelling voice-acting, it won the place as one of my all-time favorite within the genre. L.A. Noire promised to surpass this, and if I was to believe the jungle-drums; make me forget all about it.

Let us delve into this supposed marvel and see if it holds true.

Like I mentioned earlier, L.A. Noire borrows heavily from GTA4's style of play. Driving is similar, and I dare say improved upon, fighting, both armed and unarmed, uses the same basic mechanics, and even moving around feels similar. They have made some major changes from the RAGE-engine though, and even though I expected it to feel a lot more like GTA, it really doesn't.

The game follows Cole Phelps, a World War 2 veteran, who turned to working with the LAPD when the war ended, probably because he wanted to keep serving his country, in combination with the fact that this is the only place he could get a job requiring no character-depth past that of a piece of tarmac. You start out working as a humble patrol-man, and nicely paced you progress through the ranks to traffic-detective, homicide-detective, vice and finally: arson investigator? Is arson-investigator really the height of a cops career in 1940s LA? Oh well. I guess that's all the fun you get when you're playing the good guys for once...

One of L.A. Noire's main selling-points has always been it's character-depth, and Cole Phelps aside, the amount of work put into characters is nothing short of staggering. Several hollywood-actors have been selected for voice-actors and the writing in this game is impeccable. Paired with the (and I mean this) ground-breaking facial-mocap-system implemented for L.A. Noire this makes simply watching cut-scenes a joy.
I honestly have to say that game-voiceacting will never be the same after you've seen how convincing these animations look.

They've spared no expense to make you feel like you're in 1940's LA, and they've done a great job. Attention to detail is incredible throughout the game and the flow of the game is really never broken. The smooth jazz music-track blends with the period nicely, even though it feels a tad limited. At first you wouldn't notice it, but the music seems repetative and after a while you start noticing the same tracks are playing over and over.
I'll forgive them for this though, after all; game music hasn't been riveting and great since classic snes-titles.

But what is a good setting without a good story?
And here too, L.A. Noire does not disappoint. Great story-telling with pleasant pacing leads you through the series of events nicely. I said that game-flow is pretty much continuous and granted you follow what the game wants you to do mindlessly, flow really never is broken. Your partner will discuss the case at hand as you drive to your next objective and locations or cases rarely seem to repeat themselves. If you're anything like me though, you'll quickly be bored out of your mind driving in the crawling-pace of 1940s traffic and slam the gas.

Soon, you'll realize that cars hate getting out of your way and you'll blast your sirens.
Soon, this becomes a habit.
Soon, flow is broken...

Of course, if you're patient, you can drive carefully and still get places in reasonable time, but it gets frustrating very fast.It's still something you'll have to get used to, since you're rated according to how much collateral damage you've caused, and it quickly piles up if you're too eager when driving.

But, when you finally get there, it's worth it.
Investigations! Investigations are of course the main focus of gameplay and slowly lumbering around looking at cigarette-butts has never been this much fun. Crime-scenes really are the best part of the game, and here we see the attention to detail once again. You'll have to find clues in sometimes obscure places, talk to witnesses and connect some of the dots yourself. It's really quite obvious what's going on to begin with, but it gets more and more challenging after a while.

"I think someone died here..."

But this is also where the game really starts to get on my nerves. Interviews. God damn interviews! I may just be an idiot, but I can never seem to get these things right! Let's say you ask the question: "Did you know the victim?" The person you're interviewing answers: "No, I don't know her, but I've seen her around." He seems honest enough, looks like a nice guy, but he did scratch his arm when answering... "hmmmm..."

You get three options:
Truth, you believe this person.
Doubt, the most ambiguous option ever, supposed to be where you doubt their statement.
Or Lie, where you have to back the accusation of a lie up with hard evidence.

Whatever you choose here, it's a shot in the dark. The statement may sound believable, I try the first option, followed by the annoying sound-cue telling me I've gotten it all wrong. Next time around (yes, I cheat some on these and I don't feel like replaying the whole case), I choose doubt. Cole Phelps flips the fuck out and damn near accuses this person of eating their own children. What the hell?

Obviously, that was wrong too.

Third time lucky, I try lie. Instead of freaking out, Phelps now hints discretely to the fact that he doesn't believe the subject. Subject is slightly disgruntled, and I have to back it up with evidence.
But which one?
The fact that I found the murder-weapon in his house? NO!
The fact that the bartender saw him buy her a drink that night? NO!
Ahhhh, it's the fact that she HAS HIS BOOK, which it turns out she stole anyways, so she never had to have met the guy...

I seriously can only manage about 40% success rate with these things, and my superior yelling at me for missing them isn't helping much. If you miss a series of questions, you can always replay the entire case, which you won't, because it takes too much time, or you can restart the game and do the scene itself again, which only takes a slightly annoying amount of time. I try not to do either, but I feel like this game is mocking me, and I've got shit to prove here. Don't get me wrong, interviews are still technically very impressive, and can be quite interesting. It's just so damn frustrating at times. I don't consider myself an angry person, but I've found myself wanting to drive my controller right through my TV at times.

So what else can this game offer?
Well, not much. If you're not following the story-line, there's really just two things to do. You can, and I'm not kidding, sit in all kinds of cars... This is their excuse for a time-killer, "collecting 100 cars". If I had to drag 100 vintage cars back to my mansion, that could be fun, but all you have to do is sit in them... woo...

Next, there's street-crimes.
This isn't a bad idea; you have to respond to reports of street-crimes from dispatch, and go stop burglaries and whatnot. Only problem is, they always show up when you're doing something important, like: Your partner is telling you something you really wish you could hear. Should you choose to go off on a tangent and stop street-crimes though, I don't know if I can say it's worth it. They're two minutes long MAX and consist of one of three things. Run after someone and arrest them. Run after someone and shoot them. Or, as a twist, drive after someone and have your partner miss their tires for five minutes, while you're racking up collateral damage. They're short, repetative, and mainly pointless. You get a bit of XP, but you don't really need it for anything, so I say fuck it.

It's a poor sandbox too. It's empty and bland, and that would be just fine, if you could do anything but drive around. You can't go GTA on people's asses and shoot the street up. The game only allows you to fist-fight or shoot whenever the story implies it.

I'm guessing they tried to get some replayability out of this, but short of forgetting I owned the game, I'll probably leave it be. I'm sure next time I pick it up driving will still be boring, street-crimes will still be useless and I'm sure the lady who lives inside the phones in this game will still answer me with "How. Can. I. Help. De. Tective. ?" She creeps me out.

It also has it's share of bugs, which, since it's console-exclusive, will never be patched. I've seen some minor graphical bugs, but nothing really major here. The minimap could really us an arrow saying where north is.
Your partner has a habit of getting stuck in doors or stairways. Not that it matters, if you leave him, he'll magically reappear at the crime-scene anyway. This goes for several other things too. If you drive to a location in a lorry, you might arrive in your police-car. Even if you walk, you'll come driving into the lot.

One of the worst bugs I've seen so far would have to be the taxi-driver.
At one point you have to track down and ask a few questions to a cab-driver somewhere in town.
You're given a "last sighting" and off you go. I spent 30 good minutes at this location, but I just couldn't find this guy. I blasted my sirens, tried walking around, checked the alleys and parking-lots. Finally, I just gave in and had to google for an answer. A forum-post said that "when the moon is full and saturn is aligned with mercury, the cab can be found at a certain street-corner with the driver standing on the roof with his hands in the air". "Haha, very funnny", I thought.

Seriously? I was so sure this guy was trolling my ass.

So where does this leave us? I have to admit, it's a good game. If you can forgive it's small flaws it's a really good game. But is it the game people are saying it is?

Well, yes and no. It's good, but it's not perfect. It's worth a play-through, but apart from great facial-expressions it's not worth a spot above the fireplace in my house. I do hope they make a sequel though, even if it just gives me one more game to buy for my dusty XBOX...

If nothing else, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my partner punching the nervous necrophiliac right in the teeth. So satisfying. I give it four muffs out of five.

The Tubes: X-Men: The Animated Series

2011-05-22T19:55:00.000+02:00

Marvel has just added the first two seasons of X-Men: The Animated Series to their website. I'm not sure about the specifics here. I have no idea if they're keeping it to the two first seasons to try to boost sales on the later boxsets, or if they intend on uploading the entire series. I'm not the biggest fan, honestly, but I thought a mention on the blog might be good. So if you're into cartoons, of just looking to ease nostalgia, you may want to give the link a visit.

Give it a look.

The Tubes: One Chance

2011-05-15T00:57:00.001+02:00

It's time for a depressing flash game. I was browsing through old VG Cats updates, and noticed a link to this little game, One Chance. It's a little flash game about making choices and dealing with the consequences. Basically, you're a scientist who's accidentally unleashed a horrible pathogen to the world, thinking it's the cure to cancer. Now you've got six days to set things right, until all life on planet Earth is depleted. Like the title describes, you've got one go at this game originally, but you can reset the game doing this, should you want to explore the different endings possible.

Give it a try!

Tue Tubes: YouTube Flicks

2011-05-09T00:32:00.001+02:00

Sometimes there's vaults of treasure hidden in plain sight. Not ten minutes ago I muttered something about wanting to see the movie Jason and the argonauts, and within five seconds, Mr. Bongophone threw a YouTube link at me. It just so happens that YouTube contains a section of full lenght - mostly old - movies! I never knew. I always thought the site had a horrible layout, and this sudden realization just strengthens that feeling. Anyway, there's a lot of gold in here, if you're into that kind of thing! The horror section alone makes me woozy from delight.

Check it out!

MMO: I want to play Tera!

2011-05-02T12:45:00.008+02:00

Today I will present you the game where I will lose my life in future. It's a long time since I've been this exited about a game, and if my friends follow me, Tera will be my new home, and replace definitively World of Warcraft and Rift. Every day I am searching for new information like a lost adventurer is searching water in the desert: Visiting different websites, reading forums about early theorycrafting, looking at hundreds of videos and screenshots, and God, I so want a beta key!

But what's Tera?

Tera is a Korean MMORPG developed by the studio BlueHole, currently westernized (the action of transforming an Asian grind feast into a civilized game including quest) and in closed beta, The game had been released in Korea in January, and we can expect a release in Europe this autumn.

The particularity of Tera is its combat system : the first true action MMO. Instead of tab targeting your victims, here you have to aim properly. You will have to position yourself, move, avoid with agility the attack of your enemy. The combat look very dynamic, intense and fun. You can forget already to watch your favorite series while you are grinding your levels, the game will requires all your attention. Even as healer (as it's my speciality I've obviously analyzed the situation) you will feel the change. No more raid frame, now you will have to shoot your heals on your team mates, or on the ground if it's an area spell, exactly like you were in a FPS.

In addition of proposing a really new combat system, Tera also have its own style.Very Asian,very Manga, very colorful, fantastic and very very very sexy. Even a bit too much. I am already frowning at the idea of my boyfriend playing a female character and he could be equally jealous if I was playing a male. Well, I am not really serious, but I find this a tiny bit overdone and having a serious Otaku tendency.

However, we can only be stunned by the work they have put in the character and the armor design. Some outfits compete with the most eccentric realizations of Jean Paul Gauthier. The details are amazing and every fashionatas will enjoy the possibility to play with their characters like it was a dolly. Note that each race posses their own trousseau, that make a loooot of armors!

The game propose seven races very different from each others and quite original when we compare to what we generally see. There is for every tastes : graceful Elves, sensual Castanis (look like demons), fierce Amani (a dragonkin race), wise Baraka (the giant's offspring), boring humans and the two cutest races ever : the Popori and the Elin (spirits of nature) which are respectively a little fat animal faced character and a girl neko.
The character creation is very rich and propose a heavy facial customization. The body is not alterable.

The eight classes are classical, but it cannot feel the same anyway, considering how you will have to fight : warrior and lancer for the tanks, slayer and berserker for the melee DPS, sorcerer and archer for the ranged DPS, priest and mystic for the healer and group support.
Every class has their own flavor and the combat animation is breathtaking. See how a warrior is dodging attacks while jumping above the monster, how a sorcerer is almost dancing while casting its spells, how the character fall and die, trying to get up a last time.

The customization of each class is a bit limited. It's not in Tera that you will perform different roles with the same character. The talent tree proposes three paths : offensive, defensive and support that you can custom with a glyph system which enhances the skills that you choose. I am not disappointed by the lack of freedom, I like that each game propose something different and if I want class customization I think Rift is the best game so far.

The game will proposes instances and raid, PVP, quest, a complete system of crafting, and many things that I've not discovered yet! I need to investigate more about the Lore and the political action players can take in the game. I think they can form their own factions and fight each others.
The world is really beautiful and the graphism have an excellent quality. A friend of mine, who had been lucky enough to play the stress Korean beta told me that the world had twice the size of World of Warcraft, which is quite huge to be honest!

I cannot wait to play and solve my most anxious dilemma at the moment : what class and what race will I play? Everything seem so tempting! I am usually healer, but with a true action combat, everything can change and I might enjoy as much a melee class for once. The day I have a beta key, I promise to invade the stream with some nice sequences of my playing, and I will make dance a woman elf just for you, boys! Waiting that moment, enjoy already the videos and the screenshots I've linked.

Now I just need to persuade my friends to come play with me and build a new community!

The Tubes: Tim Minchin's Storm

2011-04-29T22:04:00.002+02:00

I found this video a little while ago, but never really though to post it before today. You may already know of the Australian comedian / musician Tim Minchin, and his 9-minute beat poem, Storm. This year an animated short of the beat poem was released, directed and animated by DC Turner, and I thought I'd share it with you lot. The poem itself is fantastic, with valid points to make towards the lunacy people place their beliefs in, and the animation is both fitting and beautiful.

Give it a look!

The Tubes: Enigma

2011-04-26T20:36:00.004+02:00

I've been hooked on the tv show The Mentalist for quite some time. That's not to say it's not a mediocre American cop drama, but at least there's a twist to the regular CSI forensic-power-squad theme. Anyway, I read up on what the show was based on, and I stumbled upon Derren Brown, a British mentalist and entertainer, and gave his live shows a look. It's pretty groovy stuff, so if you're bored, here's some The Tubes entertainment for you.

Watch

MMO: The morale responsibility of the developers

2011-04-24T22:17:00.002+02:00

Hello everyone,

When I was younger and hippy, I was working for a benevolent association who worked for the freedom of Tibet. I was filled with idealism. Today, shame on me, instead of trying to do something useful, I'm playing games (and working). However, the same flame inhabits me. When I see how the MMO community has deteriorated along those last years, I cannot only feel sad, I want to do something to change it. It's time to react, and save our virtual world (if nothing else).

MMO gather a very large community and it takes more and more importance with the years. Many MMO players are extremely involved in the game they play. Some are even falling in the extremes where most of their social interactions will happen in game and they will spent all the free time possible in virtual dimensions. I may have experimented that. Thanks God, I've a job and some responsibilities to keep me reasonably away from the computer! Anyway, let's not speak about me. I just wanted to show how important is the place a MMO can take in our modern society.

While playing a MMO, players will be induced to adopt certain behaviours. During the first hours of his gaming experience with a new game, the player will learn which action will provide him success and which action will lead him to failure. This, obviously from a game play point of view (If I agro ten mobs of my level, I'll probably die, but if I polymorph one while I kill two others, I'll survive) but also from a social point of view (If I ninja an item I'll be kicked out of the group, but if I'm polite and friendly and may be invited again)

It's important to remember that the success of MMO games depend for a great part of the social interaction of players. Some excellent games from a technical point of view failed because they didn't managed to gather a nice community. The community will also adopt different behaviours from one game to another. It's well known than on a game such as Heroes of Newerth, it's normal to be insulted, while on a MMORPG, players will show themselves more polite and friendly. It's also often the game itself which will enhances those behaviour. For example, if you kill a player in HoN, a message in flashy letters will appears on your screen with a video arcade sound. "InternetAngry_458 have OWNED Elloa", this to increase the aggressiveness of the players and the feeling of competition. How not to cackle when you see such a message after a kill! And how not to feel the bitter taste of vengeance when you are the one biting the virtual dust?

However, many of the behaviour induced by the game will be more subtitle, we do not notice them. Every decisions taken by the developers when they create their game will have big repercussions on the behaviour of the players. Some of those are hardly predictable. Every new feature implemented in game will lead to new behaviours.

As MMO touch such a large scale of persons, ignoring frontiers, social origins, spiritual or political point of view, sexual orientations ; as a MMO can take such an important place in the life of certain gamers, and as a MMO have such a great influence on players behaviour, we can say that its the morale duty of MMO developers is to educate their players.

Attention! I'm not saying here that through a quest you need to learn the physical law of gravity and through another the geography of the Zimbabwe. I'm not speaking either about some sort of "evangelizations" either! Do you imagine this? At the moment to turn your quest to the NPC and choose your quest reward, a little dialogue box open with two options : <say : thanks> and <stay silent>. If you select <stay silent> you do not receive the sword you wanted, and instead the NPC gratifies you by a sermon : "When one offer you something, thank him loudly". Well, actually that example would be fun, even if I can already imagine the rage of certain players on the forum claiming they do not need a second Mum.

When I'm speaking about the necessity for MMO game to "educate" their players, I'm speaking about features, game play that will lead players to positive behaviours. Instead of enhancing aggressiveness, selfishness, impatience, anger, games should enhance generosity, sociability, real collaboration.

A game like World of Warcraft who had been played by millions of players is greatly responsible of the quality of the MMO community today, as it has educated, used its players to adopt certain behaviours. It will be very difficult for a new game to educate their players in a different way.

For example, when WOW implemented the Dungeon Finder feature in late Wrath of the Lych King, their third expansion, it has radically changed the attitude of players and not in good.

The Dungeon Finder – explanations for those who don't play MMO- was supposed to allow players to find easily a group, cross servers, in a single click, instead of leaving players whine desperately after a tank (or a healer) on the roof of their main city. The idea was good and it made the life of players easy. Too easy.

Actually I accuse (and many will agree with me) this tool to have been greatly responsible of the de-socialisation of WOW and the re-emergence of crap behaviour forgotten since early Vanilla. As a simple click allows players to find their group, they do not need a guild, a friendlist or even to speak to anyone in game to get their daily loot. As the players, in the group found, will generally come from different servers, they are not afraid anymore that their actions will have consequences and can ruin their reputation. In best case, they will stay polite and silent, calling players by their role instead of their nickname ( Rogue, sap this one. Healer, rez me) Most likely, players will not respect each others. Welcome to ninja looter, whiner, leavers, primadona tank and if you take too much time to regain your mana or if you will need the same staff than the warlock, you might get kicked without a warning.

That's for the lack of socialisation. But more than anything, this Dungeon Finder tool has educated players to impatience and laziness. They do not need to make an effort to gain what they want. The WOW generic player has become a spoiled child who know that his mother will clean his mess and never try to get things done by himself.

The Dungeon Finder is only an example among others to show you how a game can progressively transform a community and encourage bad behaviours. In the case of World of Warcraft it has an immense impact due to its success, but we can find mistakes of the same types in other game less played.

If a game can encourage bad attitudes, it can as well encourage good behaviours.

I really hope that the developers of future MMO are aware about their responsibilities before to structure their game. In some extend, I'd dream a MMO which would also blow a little wind of wisdom in the players heart. That the game would lead them to question themselves about the meaning of life or how to make the world (the real one) a better place. But I'd just be happy already if new games would succeed to bring back some good feelings among the community, friendly behaviours and a real desire to play together.

Humble bundle

2011-04-15T17:45:00.005+02:00

So, game developer Frozenbyte are selling a bundle of all their games, aptly named the "humble bundle". The games in this package are Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds: Survivor, plus Trine, which most of you should be familiar with. There's some not yet released stuff included too, which looks okay. Why do I mention this? Because the price of this games bundle is completely up to you, the buyer. Want to pay 1$ (and be a greedy little bugger)? Up to you. Want to pay 500$ and show your support, that's up to you. Not only can you set your own price, but also decide who gets the money. Distribute your payment as you see fit between Frozenbyte themselves, and various charity organizations.

This is a fantastic initiative, and it shows great spirit by Frozenbyte. We like this! Head over to http://www.humblebundle.com/ , and have a look right away.

The tubes: Portal 2 stream [UPDATE 16.04]

2011-04-13T17:54:00.013+02:00

Hello, +1. This isn't really a full-fledged post, but simply a heads-up for whoever interested: Portal 2 is, as we all know, launching next Tuesday. I'm guessing it will launch around 19.00 / 7PM, at which time I'll be streaming my first Portal 2 session here on our stream. If you're still on the fence whether to get Portal 2 or not, stop by around that time and have a look! The stream is at:

http://www.livestream.com/plusoneint

Oh, and there's some potato-flavoured rumours floating around the tubes saying it might launch a bit earlier than the official release date, but it's most likely just internet speculation. Will update this post if release date changes.

UPDATE: http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

Portal 2 might launch earlier, if enough people play the listed games on Steam. I want to play it this weekend, so now it's up to us / you. Make it count!

UPDATE 2: I'm gathering potatoes! So far I'm at 12. More to come, I hope!

MMO: Rift - making a new character

2011-04-13T14:32:00.005+02:00

You can become a fox, or if you prefer a champion, defender of Telara. Today, I'll describe you how to create a Rift hero.
Nilla is not my first character. But Elloa the chloromancer – who was supposed to be my main – had been deprived from her adventure companion and is currently taking some holidays, waiting for his return. Then, it's with Nilla that we will explore this new and exiting heroic-fantasy MMO.

First step, as often in a MMO, you have to choose your side. The Guardians races are classic : white humans, high elves and dwarves. Defiants races are more exotics : somewhat arabic humans, renegades elves with a drowish tendency, and Bahmi, offspring race of Air elementals (I find more likeness to earth elemental in their figure, but that’s just me)
To make it simple : Guardian had been chosen and blessed by the Telara’s Gods, while Defiant are atheist technomagicians. Spirituality versus Technology, my character will be Guardian for sure!

High elves have a wonderful racial spell: a winged jump with only 5 sec CD- I love angels and I love wings! - they are beautiful, elegant, glamorous and have flowers or feathers in their hair. But everyone and their mothers are High elf, I want to be more original than that. My character will be a female dwarf, and guess what : she is SUPER cute !! Rift is the only game which has succeeded to create a really attractive miss dwarf.
I’m planing to write soon an article about the character creation in MMO, so I’ll be short this time and just let you know that in Rift, it’s very satisfying. You can give your character a very personal touch, or being totally unoriginal if you prefer to fade in the crowd.

Second step, choose your calling (Aka your class) : warrior, cleric, mage or rogue. Nothing extraordinary here may you think. Wait a second! Each callings propose eight soul.(Aka eight talent trees). Click here to understand! Like in World of Warcraft, you have three talent trees at the time : you select talent points in each tree and you build your spec. The fun stuff is that you can combine all souls as you want, giving you much more possibilities.
I’m choosing Cleric which is the most complete calling. I can be melee DPS, ranged DPS, tank and different kinds of healers. Perfect!

And hop I’m starting the adventures of my little ginger head dwarf ! She is druid, hitting ghost with a twohanded mace and followed by a fairy pet which heals her.

The quest in the starting zone are completed easily and make you participate to the Mathosian civil War, where everything started. It’s a nice introduction to the story, and a nice introduction to the game play.
Fast you unlock a second and a third talent tree, and you can start to have fun! What soul would synergies well with the others ? What talent to pick? In which tree to focus? Good for those, who, like me, are hesitating and changing their mind every three mobs : respecing is free for the first lvl!

This can be a bit confusing at the start, I would recommend you to have a little idea of what you want to play by reading about the different classes and possibilities before to create your first character. I recommand you to read Rift Junkies calling guides . You can also have a preview with the soul tree calculator.
And don’t worry if you discover that the « shaman-druid-justiciar » spec isn’t as fun as you would have hoped : at lvl 13, you can visit some soulmaster in your main city. An easy quest will unlock each remaining soul, one by one. Buy other roles (equivalent of dual spec in WOW, with a maximum of four roles) and enjoy! Be intrepid and experiment bizarre combinations, just for the fun of it, or try to find out what’s most efficient and pleasant for you to play. You can switch between roles easily for every situations wich may happen along your gaming experience. Four character in one, this is better than Kinder Surprise!

How to become a fox!

2011-04-13T00:59:00.006+02:00

Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Well, how about something else? Like, you have school 8:20 am, and got to wake up 7:00 am to shower, dress, eat and reach your buss. And it's cold as fuck since you walked out of your shower. So on your way out you spot your cat, just lying in a pile of fuzzy hair in your bed. Ever felt that feeling of evny over that? Sometimes you even got this wish that you were a cat? If you do, then congratulations! You're a closet furfag.

Not really, or... that might have been the beginning for some. Except for that standard abuse when you were a child.

Anywhoo.. I'll be ranting on about how you can realise your dream of getting your claws (see what I did there?) on one of these suits.

Everyone that owns a fursuit, doesn't all know how to sew. It's not a requirement. So if you have no clue how to turn on a sewingmachine or thread a needle, don't be afraid! There's fursuit builders out there just waiting for your order.

So first thing you've got to do is finding a fursuit bilder that makes suits in a style you'll like. And the best way to do this is to browse throught the Fursuit database. Click browse --> photos only / photos with name. Here you'll find tons of pictures of different fursuits and if you click on them you'll also find out who buildt them.

Now after hours of searching you've found a builder that fits your dreamsuit, go to This site for list of builders contact info. Then you contact him about you being interested in a suit of your own, and he'll ask you a series of questions about your measurments etc.

But this won't be cheap! A customized suit can cost you up to 1500$. If that's too much to swallow, you can also find used suits on auction sites (except ebay)
Furbuy
Furbid
The Dealers Den
Here you can bite on(I'm clever)some good priced nearly-used-because-I-found-out-I-can't-show-myself-public-with-this-fursuits. 500-1000$ depeding on colors, wolf/fox, and quality.
Here is an auction where you can get a full customized fursuit starting at 750$ bid. As I can tell, the quality is somewhat average, but eyh, can't start at the top when popping a cherry eyh?

When you get a fursuit, please take a picture and do the 'official pose' which I discovered after an unhealthy ammount of time on the fursuit database.

Rants about games: Minecraft 1.5

2011-04-11T12:49:00.004+02:00

Greetings and salutations, Internet! Mojang belched out a Beta 1.5 sneak peak (sic) video the other day, showing off the new weather feature, along with achievements and statistics. Weather and statistics are welcome additions, but I'm not so sure achievements are needed. They may be fun, though. We'll see.

I'm pretty sure a 'Sneak Peak' is a stealthy mountaintop.

Not shown in this presentation is the thunder storm weather, complete with lightning bolts, which I'm really excited about. Now all we need is a lightning conductor, and we're set for life. According to Notch's twitter, they're releasing the next version sometime this week. Anyway, give the video a watch, if you haven't already. That is all!

MMO: A new dimension

2011-04-10T14:23:00.009+02:00

Hello everyone! I’m new on +1 Internets to share with you my passion about MMO. If you enjoy as much as me exploring vast worlds, focusing on the progression of your character rather than your own, killing dragons in good company and chatting a lot with friends, you will certainly enjoy this new category.

Unlike the other +1 writers, I wasn't born a gamer. I started rather late – I was 19!!- with Zelda Ocarina of Time. (Let’s ignore my previous « Lemmings » experience. I don’t think it went further the ice-mountain level anyway.) At that time if I enjoyed video games once in a while, I preferred to have a social life, chilling out with friends, sitting around camp fire in the garden, speaking about how to change the world and dreaming awake. I was a bit neo hippie I was also dressed like that.

And then one day, I went to a friend and he made me discover something amazing. A game where you could speak with other players and with a map so big that you had to swim during half an hour to cross the river! I was amazed! The city where I was walking was so huge that I could not find my way out, and there was so many people around to chat with! OMG this guy come from Persia, and this one is a young mother from Los Angeles, it’s still the afternoon where she lives! The game was Anarchy Online, and my life changed completely. I just had discovered another dimension. With the money I had saved for the inescapable travel in India I bought my first computer, my first MMORPG account and the hippie became a geek.

But it’s only when World of Warcraft get released that I really became addicted. I started to roleplay, my experience of the game itself was really moderate and we can stay that I kept during a long time my holy status of nub. But from a social point of view, my virtual life was a success! I was a queen in my own domain, developing my guilds, my projects and my stories!
Some characters and some servers later, I became a simple healer, devoted at keeping people alive. I met some of the best friends I’d ever have and my awesome boyfriend. I really don’t regret the time invested out of reality, it was really worth it.

Today, I’ve expanded my game library a bit. If I’m still playing WOW for the community I’ve met there and the end game experience, I’m also playing regularly Minecraft on a creative server and I just started a new MMO called Rift. I’ll certainly speak a lot about this one, because I sincerely find the concept great. We will explore it together along «Adventures in Rift ».

In the future we will see different new MMO which look very promising. I’ll try to get my way to a beta or another, and obviously keep you updated on hot topics.

The Tubes: Link's Awakening - Fan Remake

2011-04-08T03:42:00.003+02:00

A game development team called Xfixium has decided to give the old gameboy game Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening an overhaul. According to this article, they used RPG Maker 2003 to make it (which is a fantastic program - if you're into that kind of thing). I haven't had the time to test it yet, but it looks, for lack of a better word, hella interesting. Grab it while it's hot.

Download here.

Retroviews: Kirby's Adventure (NES)

2011-04-02T10:27:00.000+02:00

I thought it time to venture outside the SNES console in this segment for once, so I decided on one of my favorite NES titles; Kirby's Adventure! It's one of the few NES cartridges I've managed to preserve and cling onto all these years. Kirby's no stranger to most gamers, I'd expect. He's been in tons of titles since his release on the Game Boy in 1992, but none of them hold up against the NES gem. At least in my own opinion. So, let's get the first NES Retroview underway!

Like I mentioned above, Kirby first saw the light of day in the release of the 1992 Game Boy game Kirby's Dreamland. One year later he stepped onto the NES console. As a kid, this game felt incredibly huge, between all the mini games, abilities, stages and secret locations.

Story/Gamesplay
The story takes place in Dream Land, the home country of the Dream Fountain, which does just what it sounds like it does. It grants people dreams. Kirby's stirred from his slumber, to realize he slept a dreamless sleep, and goes to the fountain to investigate. It turns out King Dedede (a recurring character in the Kirby series, and something close to a nemesis of Kirby's) has stolen the fountain's source of power, the Star Rod. We learn that King Dedede has broken the rod, and given the fragments to his allies. Without the rod to fuel the fountain, the inhabitants of Dream Land are now unable to dream, and Kirby sets out to restore the fountain.

I have no idea where to start explaining the gameplay. Firstly, it's a sidescroller. There's seven levels, with seven bosses at the end, guarding the seven Star Rod fragments. Eah world is divided into several stages, minigame areas, museums and arena areas. After clearing a stage, a new part of the world will be accessible.

Kirby's known for his ability to inhale pretty much anything, and that's how you go about fighting. Should you inhale and swallow an enemy, you'll absorb its power, granted it actually has one. He also has the ability to suck in air to float through the sky, as well as exhaling whatever he carries inside to damage enemies. There's tons of possible abilities to obtain, but you can only hold one at a time. To mention a few, there's ice, fire, boomerang, sword and umbrella powers.

The graphics are.. I suppose cute and fun are the only two words to do them justice. With a pink marshmallow as a protagonist, they're supposed to be. The setting being dream land, the creators had pretty much a blank slate and no boarders when it came to level design, and it all works quite well. It's a very entertaining old gem.

Music
The music goes hand in hand with the graphics in the cute and fun department. Remember this is a NES title, so it might be a little less entertaining than the music listed in the SNES Retroviews. I'm quite impressed with it, though. So here's a couple of notable ones, starting off with the ever-famous Green Greens.

Ice Cream Island 2

Vegetable Valley

Title Theme

Misc
Kirby's Adventure was remade for the Game Boy Advance console, released as Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. It features added mini games, minor gameplay changes and enhanced graphics and sounds.

There's a Kirby manga out there. I shit you not.

Final Thoughts
Kirby's Adventure is a great game. There's no doubt about it. I'm actually going to play through it again myself, as writing this little review has reignited my interest. If there's any one game I wish they'd remake for todays consoles, it's this one. It'd love to hear orchestral scores of the music. You should have played it back then, but if you never did, do yourself a favor and get a hold of it!

The Tubes: TTG - Back to the future

2011-04-01T23:09:00.006+02:00

This is a mere notice. You may know that Telltale games made an episodic adventure Back to the future game. They've previously done a Monkey Island game which was also released in episodes. They're now giving away free downloads of the first episode of Back to the future! Nothing but an account on their site needed. Download here.

Rants about games: Minecraft 1.4

2011-03-31T23:29:00.002+02:00

So, Mojang launched the new Minecraft update today. There's not really too much new, but I thought I'd throw up a mention on the blog anyway. The most obvious new change is the new logo, I'd imagine, which isn't half bad. Love the creeper face.

Next, Notch mentioned cookies. Cookies come in stacks of eight, made from combining cocoa beans and wheat. One complete stack heals four hearts, meaning one cookies heals half a heart. We also get the Wolves, who seem to be critters, and not monsters, as they roam my little peaceful map. I mentioned them in a previous entry, right after Mojan posted the first video showing them. They've got tons of little animations, and become tame if you give them bones. Tame wolves will attack anything you attack it seems. I have yet to tried it myself, so I'm not sure exactly how it's done, nor how long they stay tame.

Next, you can hang onto ladders by holding shift, which I guess can be handy. Spiders also won't trample crops, which is a really minor detail. My own crops fear cows, but I think my new cacti-guards help out a bit. They've also begun work on the statistics and achievement feature, but it's just groundwork for a later update it seems. It'd be nice to see how many blocks I've destroyed, reassembled, and things. Although my total played time would probably make me cry.

The biggest feature to me would be the fact that sleeping in a bed now moves your spawn location. That's a huge timesaver! I've got a knack for getting killed by lava when mining halfway 'round the world from my base, and even though some of my newly acquired diamonds might survive the lavaflow, I have no chance of getting back in time. And obviously riding my railway for a couple of minutes to reach my destination over and over again is a bitch. It's a long railway.

That's it for the update for now. I would like to get a new type of block, to see if the game manages to implement it into already existing maps, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Retroviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)

2011-03-31T19:45:00.002+02:00

I grew up watching Power Rangers religiously. Claymen, karate and mecha-dinosaurs were apparently just what I wanted my tv to show. I was far too young to pick up on how cheesy and downright bizarre the series was, something which later viewings revealed quite clearly. So, safe to say, there's some nostalgia points in the franchise for me. Last week I decided to stream a playthrough of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. There's a handful of games sporting that title, but I'm talking about the SNES game.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a typical beat em up sidescroller, developed by Natsume, and published by Bandai in early 1995 (PAL). The game seems to be a recap of the series, as there's no new story presented. There's an introscene (and I use that term loosely) where the rangers are watching the skies above a razed generic California cityscape, with Rita's head soaring high in the sky grinning.

Story / Gameplay
The player takes control of one out of the five original Rangers per level. The levels usually consist of two parts, one where you fight as your normal human self, and one where you morph. The levels are concluded with a bossfight with one of the enemies from the series' first season.

It's a fairly short and easy game to play through. I'm not wizard when it comes to beat em ups, but I had very little trouble. There also seems to only be one standard difficulty. Towards the end of the game, you gain control over the Mega Zord for two final boss battles. I kind of missed getting the chance to control the individual Zords, but they're nowhere to be seen, except in the form of a special screen-clearing attack the rangers use where their respective Zord flashes across the screen. The graphics are colorful and pretty detailed, and the controls aren't spectacular, but they get the job done. Different commands for kicking and hitting would have been an improvement, but it's not such a big problem. Once donned in your Ranger gear, you also get to use your weapons, which makes the fighting much more fluent.

The game consists of 7 levels, and shouldn't take you more than an hour and a half to get through, and it's engaging enough not to leave you bored underway. This would be a good time to mention the music!

Music
Obviously, there's the series theme, complete with lyrics. They actually sound pretty decent, too. This was towards the end of the SNES era, so it's not all together surprising. The music as a whole was pretty fitting to the game. It's typical SNES beat em up tunes, if that makes any sense to you. Here's some examples:

Character selection
Boss theme
Downtown theme

Final Thoughts
A fun little beat em up and nostalgia bomb. I never owned it back in the day, but a childhood friend of mine did, and it was always a lot of fun playing it. If you're bored with an hour or two to throw away, give it a try!

Rants about games: Mass Effect 2 - Arrival

2011-03-30T11:08:00.005+02:00

We streamed the new DLC for Mass Effect 2 last night, and streamer Majiin wove some words about just that afterwards.

I thought after putting up a stream and talking on about the final addon to the ever-fastic Mass Effect 2, a small review would be fitting. So, does Arrival, deliver?

Over the last few DLC's for Mass Effect 2 , Bioware has shown that they've learned from a game that originally had straight forward not-so-flashy-fights. The Shadow Broker DLC which really set the bar higher for the fights and content. Now, with Arrival finally ..arriving, that bar's neither reached or surpassed.

The Alliance Admiral Hackett wants Shepard to rescue his "friend" who's been taking captive in an underground Batarian facility. A squad armed to the teeth would envoke an all out war, so a covert solo mission is in order.
As the Reapers are closing in on us with a bloodcry, Hackett's friend has found a way to stop -or at the very least delay- them. I guess, the story is more than good enough for me, but then again - I'm quite the geek when it comes to different game stories. What Bioware deliver us is a pretty much straight forward DLC, where you run, shoot, push a button, and shoot some more. No real boss fights and nothing really new. Though I've got to say, I loved the first place you travel to - a Batarian prison cave thingamajig, which like most other caves, was pretty damn dark and gloomy.

From there on onward you get mostly known but okay places to fight on, I guess. The biggest let down was probably that there was no big decisions to make (I really wanted my MaleShep to hit max Paragon with that DLC!). And of course, Joker didn't say anything! Either a money issue, or Seth Green was just busy playing with his dolls I guess. It took me about 1.5 hours to complete it and I feel like I explored most of it after 2 run-throughs.

All in all, I'm a bit let down, but the small story update you are getting served was more then enough to keep me happy. To conclude; Nothing new, nothing over the top. But a nice add-on to the story. It'll keep me fed as I wait for Mass Effect 3. Would I recommend buying it? Probably, yes. While it's no revolution, it sure is a nice DLC.

Videodrome: Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

2011-03-28T00:26:00.004+02:00

This movie came recommended by some Danish friends of mine, and I put off seeing it for the longest time. I'm not really sure why, but I finally got around to it last week. A quick disclaimer before I jump into things. This is one of those movies that's so bad it's bordering on being good. On top of that, it's Japanese. The amount of fake blood used puts most other movies to shame, twice over. Then again, it's the obvious-fake kind. The water and food coloring kind. Now, I'm not usually into Asian movies, but I really enjoyed it. It's just too gory and over the top insane not to enjoy. Well, let's delve into it then!

As to be expected from a Japanese movie, the plot's all over the place, and I honestly had a hard time following it. I'm not used to watching movies in other languages than English, and got bored pretty quickly with the semi-coherent translations. Considering the alternatives, though, I guess it'll have to do. It was pretty visual movie anyway, and I'm sure the story and dialogue departments were the lowest funded ones in the production. It's a chick with a sword fighting machine-men, how deep can it be?

The story takes place future Japan. The police and other such state agencies seem to have been privatized, and there's a suicide, or at the very least, self cutting craze going on. I seem to remember a commercial shown where they sold cherry flavored razor blades. The plot comes complete with a mad scientist-type, who's unleashed a virus to the world, or possibly just Japan. It's hard to follow. The virus seems to instantly mutate the infected into half man, half machine monster-types, called Engineers. It's hard to explain. Basically, any injury morphs into a weapon. You cut their arm off - suddenly they've got a chainsaw arm. You rip their eyes out - oh hey, eye socket cannons. The list goes on. They're in luck, because they all seem to enjoy murdering people, and these new freaky appendages prove to serve that purpose quite well.

That's where Ruka, the Engineer-hunter, and protagonist comes in. Apparently, horrid mecha-serial killers don't stand a chance against tight teenage girls armed with katanas. So, yeah. Ruka is an Engineer-hunter. A very skilled one at that. Using bazookas as jet packs-type skilled. Ruka's on a quest to find her fathers murderer, and works alongside the Tokyo police department to track down and dispatch Engineers, and ultimately to shut down the mastermind behind the virus, known as Key-man. Why Key-man, you ask? Because this virus takes the shape of a key-shaped tumor. Should such a tumor happen to come in contact with your body, you'll find yourself with a keyhole on the area in question. Insert tumor, turn, and you've got yourself an Engineer.

I really don't want to spoil the story, and I'm not sure I can in any case, it's pretty damn hard to follow. Eventually Ruke and Key-man cross paths, and stuff happens. Gory stuff. There's enough crazy shit going on to keep you entertained, even if you don't get the story behind it all. I'm not sure what else to say, really. Just give it a look. Thank or scold me later.

RAGE: Consolitis

2011-03-26T23:16:00.004+01:00

So, I want to say a few words about the greatest plague mankind as a whole has and will ever suffer. Far more debilitating than AIDS, and far more ominous than the black death, this soul-rending contagion turns the best part of our young generation into either mindless zombies or raging berserkers. I speak of course of Consolitis.

Once upon a time, the Personal Computer was an expensive and unwieldy technical invention where businessmen organized their plans in Lotus SmartSuite. For others, it was an entertainment platform where one could play Computer Games. Computer games were not a particulary mainstream hobby, and most people disgregarded it as a whole, leaving computer games a digital venue for the more dedicated enthusiast. In this neolithic state the games industry was not particularly well known or well funded, and neither were the games themselves. A game development team was not necessarily consisting of more than 2-15 programmers / "inventors", and more often than not these programmers had a "real" job as a software programmer in addition to their computer game making hobbies.

To try and stick to my headline, since the dawn of the PC there has been an increasing market in computers made specifically for playing games. Widely known as Consoles, these computers remove anything not game, cutting away much of the difficulties involved with playing games on a PC (such as having the correct hardware and software). People like when things just work, which probably is the biggest reason the console games market has surpassed the PC games market by far.

The games industry of 2011 has, since its modest childhood, expanded in a magnitude few of the previously mentioned computer games enthusiasts could have imagined. Today this is big money, and huge games publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision make mirrions of dorrars selling digital entertainment to anyone from young toddlers to middle-aged veterans. The games industry is (i hate this word:) mainstream entertainment, which in itself is not a bad thing. However, as the norm goes, when the market becomes big enough (and it did, quite some time back), the focus of the suppliers of said market will shift from enthusiasm to earning money dollars. This can be good, as it increases interest and investments in the market, but in the Computer Games example, it can also be bad. To be specific, things turned bad at one very specific point in time, and this point happened right after the console market started making more money than the PC games market. The result of this was that big games publishers started pushing the developers into focusing their efforts on the console, and to leave PC games as a "secondary" market. This trend seems to be increasing - consoles are becoming more and more accepted household appliances, while the classical "Gamer PC" is losing ground.

The freedom of the console and its games is, in my opinion, also its biggest flaw. Where the uniform hardware inside every console makes the words "system requirements" obsolete, they also limit the games themselves, as any new game will have to be shrunken down so it can run on whatever console is selling the most. This is the core of the issue. As the PC games market has become secondary to the bulbous, writhing mass that is the console market, the games themselves are more often than not made directly for consoles, and afterwards "ported" over to the PC. This typically leaves a very foul aftertaste in the ported game; it will be less sophisticated in terms of graphics, and the controls will be optimized for a gamepad instead of a mouse and keyboard. These are the two biggest issues, but there are several others too (Games For Windows Live anyone?). To simplify, lots of PC games look and run a lot less smooth than the PC hardware could support, and controls and feels a lot less sensitive than the Mouse + Keyboard combination can be.

These issues, this sickness, this infestation, is referred to as Consolitis.

The Tubes: Rad commercials.

2011-03-25T22:27:00.008+01:00

Lately we've been fiddling around on the stream, adding video clips to the in-between live reel and such. So I was looking around for possible videos, having some trouble finding clips of the appropriate length and awesomeness, and Cod suggested old game related commercials. And as such, we opened a new vault filled with treasure!

Living in Norway, I can't really say I was exposed to a lot of game related commercials growing up. You're not allowed to send commercials directed towards kids up here in the ever-cold north, so I usually relied on Nintendo Power or my local stores when it came to finding new games. I've seen the odd commercial on the Internet in later years, of course, but I never took the time to sit down and look through a whole bunch of them. Game platforms fought fiercely over costumers, and this resulted in boatloads of over the top commercials, catchphrases, and putting other products down in your own commercials. Let me bring you back to nineteen ninety-something, where people wore brightly coloured clothes, Scatman John was alive and kicking, and owning a Super Nintendo made you rad. At least in commercials it did. Without further ado, here's some clips from "way back when".

We're starting off strong with a delightfully crazy commercial from Korea. I'm not sure what's going on in this one, but I know I love it.

Next, we're treated to a rhyme-tastic commercial from Sears.

Another commercial for the console itself. HAVE YOU GOT THE POWER? An added piece of trivia for you. The guy you see in the video below is no other than Paul Rudd, famous from Role Models, Dinner for Schmucks etc.

Not wanting to list every last video I find, we'll take a look at a game specific commercial; Final Fantasy III, complete with Mogs and Spectres.

I'm pretty sure my collection would be a lot bigger today, had I been exposed to these kinds of commercials back then. I'm sure there's tons more I didn't touch upon, and if you happen to know about a couple, please post the links in the comment section!

I also found a couple of videos sporting a wide range of old game commercials from the 80's and 90's, complements of YouTube user evilaj2010. If you've enjoyed the ones listed above, PLEASE check out this three-parter! It contains blast-processing, zelda rap and the micro machine guy. It's insane!

Part 1 - 2 - 3

Thanks for reading! Catch you next time!

The Tubes: Adolfobaez

2011-03-24T21:13:00.006+01:00

New segment up and running! We be scouring the tubes for content to distribute equally here at home base! I've been on YouTube a bunch lately, mostly for Let's Plays, but I've peeked inside the Mario Paint Composer vault as well, and found two fantastic medleys by YouTube user Adolfobaez. So here you go!

More information found on his channel, linked above. Stay tuned.

Eurodance: Music's answer to proteus syndrome?

2011-03-24T02:11:00.028+01:00

Remember back in the 90s when music that played on the television had bliss light-shows, synthesizer riffs, choirs, half naked women and tons of BASS?

This phenomenon made a new genre in music early 90s which was named 'eurodance' and was the main reason why ecstasy was invented. So, what do we think of this kind of music?

It's easy listening; great voices from trolling on them computers and you don't have to be a good dancer if you want to tear up the dance floor, since most of the people already out there are either drugged out of their minds or blinded by the glow sticks needed to enjoy this kind of music either if you're home our out getting jiggy with it.

I don't want to talk crap about eurodance, really! I kind of like it. It really grew on me, not that I had any choice.

Being born in 1987, and being a youngster at the time when eurotrance reached it's peak, I was left with two choices.
Either you listen to Modern Talking or you listen to E-type. Instead of being 'that-kid-wearing-white-jumpsuit-for-school-listening-to-fruity-music-on-his-taperecorder-while-dancing-on-his-way-to-class' I sold my soul to eurotrance.

Here's something for you to enjoy your late blognight on.

Ice - Can't get over you

Soda - Summer delight

La Cream - Free

Solid Base - Mirror mirror

Masterboy - show me colours

Maxx - Getaway

Rants about games: Morrowind

2011-03-24T00:43:00.007+01:00

I've got two go-to games when boredom gets a hold of me; Minecraft and Morrowind. Lately I've been dicking around on the latter a ton. Jumpan, stabban, exploran. Post death dialogue, expressionless faces and man-women aside, there's a couple of things I'd like to nitpick at.

First of all, I like Bethesda games! Morrowind and Oblivion were fun, and Fallout 3 was fantastic. All three games suffer from one thing, though. The difficulty. They start out really well. You've got the whole world to explore and soak up, and everything is swell for a while, then suddenly, without realizing it, you've entered easymode-ville. You've left your whimsy make-shift weapons behind, and you're struttin' about with your enchanted man-slicer / death spell / plasma rifle, and you've got two houses filled with health potions / stimpacks. From now on, there's no real challenge left, and usually you've gotten to this point without even starting the main storyline. These are well-known problems though.

Next issue: Hoarding. I can't fucking resist it. I pick a headquarter of some sort in a suitable location, and I proceed to fill this hovel to capacity with shit I pick up along the way. I'm sure I've got well above 50 glass daggers strewn around in cabinets, underneath tables and scattered across the floor, and I still can't resist picking up new ones I come across.

Blargh. Weapons. D:

There's really no method to this madness, because with the exception of the vendor-crab (who I don't even know where is), most weapon vendors only carry somewhere around a 1000 gold. Which is what? One fourth of a glass dagger? And I can't even sell it until I've reduced the price accordingly, which equals pressing and holding the minus button for a minute or nine.

It's even worse with books. They're everywhere! And I really can't get rid of them, because suddenly I need one for a quest, and I'm stuck if I've thrown it into a pond somewhere. This can obviously be fixed with cheats, but that's a gateway drug to ruining the game for a good long while. Now, it might just be me and my repressed OCD talking, but I really feel the need to hoard these things.

BOOKS, EVERYWHERE!

Let's see. What else? How about the fucked up drug policies in Vvardenfell? If you've been in contact with the Elder Scrolls franchise before, you probably know about Moon Sugar, and Skooma. So, vendors who carry moon sugar won't trade with you unless you get rid of your moon sugar. Wat? D:

Lastly, here's a picture of my anthropomorphic lizard jumping over buildings. This annoys me, too, for some reason.

Herp derp. Look at me.

In true Royalist Cod fashion, I'll sum this up with:

TL;DR - I'm trying to quit using snus again, and I'm angry at everything.

Liv Tyler is dead.

2011-03-23T15:00:00.005+01:00

Always the young ones that dies first.

O'well, rest in peace sweet princess!

Rants about games: Minecraft.

2011-03-22T12:25:00.007+01:00

I stumbled on to a YouTube video earlier today of some joker determined to play only in the Nether. Now, while that particular video isn't important to my little rant, it's a nice way to ease into it. As he was digging along, crushing Netherrack, I noticed him finding what he called Nether Emerald veins. This is completely new to me. I promptly started up my game, went down into my mines, into my portal and started digging.

Ten minutes or so later I hadn't found any of these emeralds, so I continued the video, where I heard the guy mention how common and useless they were. So I dug on for a little while. Nothing. So I guess they haven't been added to my world, which kind of makes sense when I think about it, but that doesn't mean I approve. Wouldn't that mean that each and every time Notch & co introduce a new raw material, we'd have to start up a new world to access it? There must be some other way. I've fought against crashes, countless deaths and my better judgement to keep myself contained to one ever-expanding world. There's no way I'm starting over unless absolutely forced to. I mean, if I do, then I'll just face the same problem three months down the line, right? I don't like this at all. For all I know, though, there's Nether Emeralds down there, and I just missed them. Seems unlikely though.

No bloody emeralds down here!

Edit: The guy was using a mod, something I didn't register in my post-slumber state. I'm an absolute idiot! Letting the entry stay though, for the entire world to ridicule me! : D

While on the subject, I can't find information about these new ore types anywhere. They're nowhere to be found on Minepedia, but they were plain as day in that video I saw (which I now don't seem able to find again). I also remember him ranting onward about two other new types of Nether-based ore that I can't find mentioned anywhere. It's not entirely unlikely that I dreamt this..

In other news, Mojang released a video of the upcoming Minecraft wolves yesterday. I have to admit I was kind of impressed with the detailed work. Kind of differs from the other animals. First of all, they do spastic-self-drying thing that wolves and dogs do, and seem to cock their head if you wield a piece of pork. They also seem to attack already wounded targets, so I guess we only have to hit those annoying cows and pigs once from now on, if there's wolves nearby. Semi-appropriately they seemed to respond to getting bones from the player.

Lastly, Mojang are launching the official Minecraft merch store tomorrow, and those of us who preordered the game will supposedly get a nice little discount, which could be nice. I just hope they expand a little on what little merch they had through Thinkgeek.

Rants about games: Jamestown!

2011-03-21T16:18:00.027+01:00

Greetings - you backwood sons of bitches. I´m going to be making a short entry here. What is the entry about? Well, it´s about a new crisp as crust "neoclassical" 1-4 player co-op "old-school" SHMUP coming out sometime this summer.

This extravagant gem is called 'Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony' and it is made by indie developer studio 'Final Form Games' - now, write that shit down on your dick with a permanent marker so you´ll never forget.

I´m usually not that hyped about video games coming out, but this time it´s different - look, just fucking look at this!

Oh god I´m getting this video game no matter what! So many delicious and sexy sprites!!!

Now, go visit their site and oogle at it until the game is released, you bastards. I know I will.

- Royalist Cod out

TL;DR - I LIKE SHMUPS, AND THIS IS A SHMUP, SHMUPS ARE FUCKING NEAT!

Rants: Zombie week is almost over, finally

2011-03-21T03:06:00.021+01:00

Trough this entire week I have been struggling, struggling with making posts, posts about them zombines.

The horror

You see, I have never been that much of a zombie-afficionado. Zombies and the undead strike fear and uneasy feelings deep in my voluptuous gut - they´re smelly and they´re dead, they moan and groan, slowly but firmly trying to get their rotting mittens on my fresh plump juicy innards.

So of course I can´t write something that hoists this rotting plague up another level of awesome. I figured that why not write something about how terrifying they are to me instead, and focus on the video game walking dead, which haunts my childhood memories and present day life.

Here are a few examples that stand out in my horrified mind.

The 'ReDead' in Ocarina of Time that humped you like a smelly old french acquaintance

The 'Corprus Stalkers' from Morrowind

The fuckers in Doom 3 that came stomping out of every dark nook and cranny to jump my shit

These undead assholes can ruin a game for me, I will have to blast 'Caramelldansen' or some inane innocent song on full volume t0 even out the levels of horror to complete the stages they freely roam. When going down into the catacombs in RTCW after several levels of gleefully shredding nazis with their own MP40´s, and then suddenly having ancient teutonic corpses smashing their way out of the walls grabbing at the meaty parts of B.J Blaskowitz ruined my whole experience of that game. Everything past that point was me hoping that there would not be a zombie behind that crate, tank, door, huge nazi-flag, machine gun nest, etc.

I guess it´s more about the fear of that something will scare me - when well knowing that there would probably be a zombie around that specific corner waiting to nibble my face off, I´m still terrified when said zombie stands there just as I thought.

Sudden face to face encounters in Left 4 Dead will have me jumping off my tits.

Half Life 2 'Fast Zombies' shrieking and jumping at me will have me knocking shit over.

I´m not even getting near this generation of zombie/horror-games, I would just end up soiling myself.

So the conclusion is, I don´t like the zombines/undead - they sure love my tasty face though.

I guess it just boils down to me being a whiny little bitch.

Oh, and after a quick google-search, I ended up with this:

"Kinemortophobia; the fear of the undead, specifically zombies."

- Royalist Cod out

TL;DR - I AM A SCARED LITTLE BITCH!

Videodrome: Big Tits Zombie (2010)

2011-03-20T08:02:00.008+01:00

The entry-flow has slowed down a bit, and the blame falls on work, application assignments, and Total War: Shogun 2 (which Bongo and Stein tell is all kinds of awesome). That however has nothing to do with our little themed week, and will be saved for a later time! We've already had a videodrome about a proper zombie movie, so I thought I'd pick a shit one. So let's talk about Big Tits Zombie! First of all, I love b-movies. More specifically exploitation films and any variation of them. There's been a few decent remakes and new proper such films lately, and I thought this might be an equally cheeky and gory flick about strippers surviving the zombie apocalypse, and I guess it kind of was, except shit.

Now, I don't usually watch a lot of Asian movies, really. I mean, I've caught the widely spread ones like everyone else, but not much beyond that. I guess the "Zombie" part of the title drew me in. That, and "Tits", I suppose. "Big" played a little role there, too.

Had I bothered looking into the movie before watching it, there's several things to clue me in on how I might not enjoy it too much. First of all, Wikipedia dubs it a "fantasy-horror film". Basically zombies with a side of magic, which sounds really, really bad. ..Come to think of it, though, that mix has worked out before. The abysmal acting should also be expected, as most of the stars are Japanese adult movie starlets. It's also adapted from a manga, so it's bound to be some over the top, cartoonish fighting, which I don't usually like either. The movie's supposed to be a funny take on Japanese pop culture, which isn't something I can relate to. It might be the Citizen Cane of the generic weeaboo, though. Nonetheless, I watched it.

I'm not sure what to say about the plot. It's set in a strip club that seems to be located in the middle of nowhere. As to be expected, there's not really too many guests at this place. It actually seemed to have more strippers than clients (until people start turning into zombies, for some reason. I guess they were hiding in the walls). Most of the movie takes place in the strippers dressing room, with one dreary long-winded scene after another with the strippers bickering and gossiping. Eventually they find a secret door in the wall, which leads to a basement lair draped in occult artifacts. Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds. The strippers find an old book, that just so happens to be The Book of the Dead with the ability to summon forth extras in badly applied zombie make-up. One of the least popular strippers, fueled by jealousy, then creates an army of corpses to attack the other strippers and guests, thereby making her the.. I'm not exactly sure why she did it. It's hard to follow at times.

Hand gestures for dramatic effect.

The rest of the strippers are forced to step up and save mankind. What ensues is a complete mess of fighting, bickering, and stripping. Because if a stripper is bitten by a zombie and turns, that doesn't necesseraly mean she doesn't have to turn up for work, I guess. As the "story" unfolds, the stripper who summoned the zombies somehow takes on more of a wicked witch role, and we're eventually treated to a stripper showdown in the basement lair. And that's all there is to it. I seem to remember the devil making an appearance as well.

Like I said, this one wasn't for me, and I wouldn't recommend it. It's supposed to be a comedy, I guess, but I didn't really get it. I've got a hard time getting beyond the bad acting, which isn't over the top bad, to where it becomes brilliant. It's just bad. Think straight to DVD. If I were to throw a rating onto it, I'd say two out of five zombie tits. Watch at your own risk.

Retroviews: Zombies ate my neighbors (SNES)

2011-03-17T00:18:00.010+01:00

Zombies ate my neighbors is a shoot 'em up game, released for the SNES and Sega's Megadrive and Genesis consoles in 1993. To be more specific, it's a "run and gun" game, which is a term I actually haven't come across before. Just shows you how many of these kinds of games I play, I guess. It was developed by LucasArts, released by Konami, and was subject to ridiculous censorship.

I wanted to fit at least one Retroviews into Zombie week, and this title came to mind almost instantly. I never owned it myself, but a friend of mine did, and so I played it here and there, every now and then. I have to admit I never got through it though, and I seem to remember the game being rather unforgiving, but hell, I was young. Might not be so bad today.

Story / Gameplay
There's not much story to mention in this game. Zombies, female Chuckies, Vampires and .. Leatherfaces I guess - to name a few - have invaded the world, and it's up to our two playable characters, Zeke and Julie to plow down the masses of shambling undead and save their neighbors. Equipped with water guns, and a variety of other possible weapons, they set out through 48 stages to do just that. The theme is based on 1950's horror movies, and you'll see quite a few cameo appearance from horror icons and stereotypes. This is also shown in the level designs, including, but not limited to the pyramids, shopping malls and obviously the neighborhood.

Aaaand I'm fucked.

The goal for each stage is to save at least one neighbor before the undead get their pale mitts on them. Should they all happen to die, well, then it's over. Saving at least one's pretty doable, though, at least as far as I've gotten (which doesn't really say too much, actually). It's fast paced, silly, and I daresay quite a bit of fun, if not a bit tiring after a while. The array of available weapons is kind of cool, but your trusty water gun will do just fine, most of the time. The graphics are.. well, they're exactly what you'd expect from a LucasArts SNES title. It's not amazing, but it's cheesy and over the top, and very lovable.

Oblivious neighbors.

There's not really anything more to say about the gameplay. What little I wrote and the pictures should fill you in on the gist of it.

Music
Now, the music. It's no masterpiece, but it's a nice combination of creepy and goofy, and suits the game perfectly. Here's two examples.

Zombie Panic

Chainsaw Hedgemaze Mayhem

Misc
I mentioned in the start that the game was on the receiving end of censorship. Nintendo of America demanded all gore in the game be entirely removed, or exchanged with purple goo instead. So there's absolutely no blood, which is strange for a game filled with chainsaw wielding abominations. On that note, the chainsaw wielding enemies were replaced with axe wielding lumberjacks in some European countries. How is that better? If anything, that's more terrifying. The same goes for the purple goo-blood replacement. So if you just tint the colour slightly, suddenly it's not gore anymore? Does a dick stop being a dick if I paint it pink? Not that I ever did, plan to do, or even condone painting penises pink. They also removed the "ate my neighbors" part of the title, reducing it to just "Zombies". Everyone knows that Zombies eat people, so I guess they took offense to the neighbor parts? Dun wants none of that! Shoo! I really don't get censorship - and should mentioned how glad I am, not to be exposed to American television.

Here's the American commercial for the game. It's fantastic!

Final Thoughts
Zombies ate my neighbors never really became a favorite of mine, but it can be fun for a while, especially when playing with a friend (did I fail to mention there's a twoplayer option?). Upon replay, I didn't exactly find it easy, but that may just be me sucking. Not as bad as I remembered, though. If you're a fan of old horror movies, LucasArts and/or retro shoot 'em ups, you should give it a whirl.

Rants: Zombie is the new vampire

2011-03-16T01:06:00.014+01:00

So, Zombie week is upon us!

And I had no clue of what I should write about. There's tons of zombie movies and games out there. Tons of people with wicked theories about zombies out there, how to kill them, how to survive a zombie apocalypse, where to go hide etc, etc.

Michael Jackson had a music video in which he himself became a zombie.. ENDLESS CHOICES!
In the end I've finally come up with an idea of what I can contribute to this weeken, for starters. Here it goes:

Zombie is the new vampire.

After Twilight released in 2008, more people have gotten the idea that they want to become vampires. The whole 'Vampire' concept has been romanticize so much that people don't think about the downsides of becoming one. The only thing on their mind is that they will live forever, stay the same age and they never have to think about wrinkles, disease or loss of hair (which I find the most disturbing).
True, these are pretty good reasons for turning into a vampire, but wait, wait, wait! What about the downsides? You'll have to feed on fresh blood, you can't view yourself in the mirror, you can't eat food, and you can't stay out in daylight.

Which a zombie can!

Zombies might be slow, and dumb, but they've got the greater advantages. They can eat food, sun doesn't harm them, they can pose in front of mirrors, and still they'll live forever and they're strong as minotaurs.
This way you can live the average life in sunny Philadelphia doing whatever you want to. You've got superhuman strength, so if someone want to pick a fight, you just rip off his tibia and hit him with it. You don't sleep, so you won't miss anything, and money won't be a problem when you can get both money and food from jumping lone drunks every night, and the best part is that you won't feel guilty about it because you're as dumb as a bag of dicks.

I'll finish of by posting this song I find fitting for this weeks theme.

Bring Me The Horizon - It Never Ends

...and if you don't like this kind of music, here's something for you weaklings to munch on instead.

The Cranberries - Zombie

Comic Books: The Walking Dead

2011-03-16T00:04:00.010+01:00

It's comic time! I don't suppose there will be a lot of entires on this aspect of nerd culture, as none of us are really that into comic books. I do however read one: The Walking Dead.

If there's a setting I absolutely love in fiction, It's the apocalypse. If it just so happens to be brought on by an onslaught by mindless zombies - all the better! Some of my favorites in movies, games, books, music - and well, comic books I guess - are all in this setting. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why I love it so much, but I find the idea very fascinating. Anyway, I came across the series by chance in a comic book store in Oslo one year I was down there with some friends for a concert. I had a decent paying job at the time, and a good wad monies to waste, so I basically picked up anything that seemed even a little bit interesting. Once I got back home and started reading I was blown away, and I collect them to this day.

The series was created by Robert Kirkman along with artist Tony Moore who's since left the project to be replaced by Charlie Adlard. The tagline for the series is "a continuing story of survival horror", and that's basically what made Kirkman write it. He was tired of zombie survivors jumping into the helicopter after an hour and half with chaos, never to be seen again. He wanted a story where we'd see the long term effects on people in such a crisis. A timespan a bit longer than the usual "week or so inside a mall" span we're used to. In his own words he describes the series as a "zombie movie that never ends". Eight years in the making. Claim holds. For now.

The series focuses on how people develop and survive day by day living in a world filled with the undead, and we see how the living wind up being just as dangerous, or even more so. In a sense the series isn't concerning the zombies plague, but how people respond to it.

Story: Warning: Now with even more spoilers!

The Walking Dead follows police officer Rick Grimes from the very real town Cynthiana, in Kentucky, America who winds up in a coma after being shot in the line of duty. In the month or so that Rick's out cold, the world has drastically changed. We're not treated to exact details, and no one seems to know exactly why, but there's been an outbreak of zombies, and in a months time, the world seems to have fought and lost against it. By the time Rick wakes up the affected outnumber the survivors by miles, tons and decades. Dazed and confused, he eventually makes it out of the hospital, making his way home, not exactly sure of what's going on. He finds his home town deserted and in ruins. His family's nowhere to be found. While searching for his family, he's knocked unconscious by a boy who mistakes him for a zombie. The next time he wakes up, it's in his neighbors house, which serves as a refuge for Morgan and Duane Jones, a father and son. They explain the situation after learning about Rick's coma. After soaking it up, Rick decides to make his way to Atlanta, where his parents in law live, assuring himself that's where his wife and son went when everything happened. After reaching Atlanta, he finds himself surrounded by hordes of what the series has dubbed walkers, and is, by chance, rescued by a young man who brings him back to his camp site outside the city. There he's reunited with his wife and kid, and meets a handful of other survivors.

I'll leave it at that. The story follows this rotating cast of survivors trying to make a life for themselves in this new world, struggling day by day to survive. I've been ever so impressed with how harsh the series is towards the cast. No one seems safe, and you notice the slight changes in people as they go through the horrors they find along the way. The people we now follow are a completely different group than they started to be.

The series borrows heavily from earlier zombie works, but manages quite well to implant new material, and doesn't feel stale in the slightest. The Walking Dead is possibly my favorite piece of material from the entire genre, maybe beaten by a hair's length by World War Z, by Max Brooks, but that's a different entry all together. It's in its eight year now, and I sincerely hope they manage to squeeze out eight more, at least.

Art

The series is drawn beautifully. It's simple and somewhat realistic, and it fits the setting so well! If you wind up collecting the hardcover books, you'll be treated to several pages of character sketches and posters made by the artists. I'd hang any one of them on my walls in a second - if I had the money. I thought I'd upload one to give you an idea.

By Tony Moore.

I mentioned how the series changed artists early on, with Tony Moore leaving the project after issue #6. While slightly different styles, I don't think the series suffered from it. While slightly preferring Moore, I don't usually think about it. They're both amazing artists. While not drawing any pages since issues #6, Moore actually stayed on to do the covers until issue #24. Probably to ease the transition.

Tv Series

It's no secret that The Walking Dead was adapted into a television series on the AMC Network. The show became their most viewed show pretty quickly, if memory serves me right, and we're now waiting for season 2. I plan on doing an entry comparing the show and the series at some point, but I won't delve too deep into that now. Short and sweet; the tv series follows the same setting as the comic book, as far as main characters and main plotlines go, but the show has taken a couple of liberties when it comes to progressing the story and minor characters. Probably just to make it work better towards viewers with short attentions spans. You've gots to hook in them viewers, y'know. There's not too much to say. The show's fantastic. When it comes to things I absolutely adore, I can be a stickler, so I've thrown a few frowns about regarding changes I didn't like, but I can't be anything less than satisfied. My favorite characters all seem to have made the cut, and it was so nice seeing Lennie James (who I've been a big fan of since watching Jericho) cast as Morgan Jones. The first season only held six episodes, which was kind of disappointing, and I hope they up the anti in season two.

That's about what I've got for now. If what I wrote sounds even remotely interesting, please give the comic a look! It really is worth while. That goes for the Tv series as well. You get to see how people cope long term in such an environment, and how even the simplest tasks warp into dilemmas the size of Everest. The art and the dialogue fit perfectly, and it all feels very down to earth and real. Not counting the zombies, obviously!

Stay tuned for more zombie goodness!

Videodrome: Dawn of the dead (2004)

2011-03-15T20:38:00.015+01:00

Hey again tubes. I thought I'd start off the Zombie week here at +1, and what could be better than the very best Zombie movie out there; Dawn of the dead? Now, for you die-hards out there, I'm not speaking about the old classic (which I must confess I haven't even seen), but of the 2004 remake. Worth noting is that the original was written by the unbested king of zombies, George A. Romero, while the remake was by James Gunn. For me, this became an instant hit the first time I saw it, and has since been my personal favorite when it comes to how a real post-apocalyptic zombie outbreak story should be told. That's why I thought I would, in a messy and badly structured fashion, say a bit about what it's about, and why it's so good.

(Note: There's going to be spoilers past this point, but every man worth his salt should've seen this movie by now anyway)

We start off with the typical everyday person in a normal job on a normal day scenario. In this case it's the nurse Ana, working in a hospital, living in a very typical American suburbia with her significant other. As is typical of zombie (or at least Romero) films, we're given clues about the coming shitstorm right from the start; the hospital is admitting bite victims showing unusual symptoms. Our protagonist thinks nothing of it, heads home after a long shift, and goes home. There she falls asleep watching TV with her boyfriend. Right after we skip to the early morning hours, where something is entering their house. This turns to be the zombie-fied little girl next door, who bites Mr. nurse. That's how the real story starts - she flees the house after her boyfriend turns, and makes an escape in her car, driving through her now suddenly hazardous neighborhood. Apparently, something happened during the night.

The next part is actually one of my favourite aspects of Zombie movies, the part where we see different news stories and segments about what's happening. I really love this, it gives us the "inside view" of how our very own reality would react if a crisis like this would occur, and for some reason I find this appealing. Perhaps some part of me wants a zombie apocalypse?

Anyway, the story. Ana eventually comes across several other survivors, who after some discussion decides to seek shelter in a nearby shopping mall complex. As you might be noticing by now, the story isn't exactly a revolutionary one - normal life turns upside down when zombies attack, people meet up and try to survive together in fortified position. This isn't a problem at all, considering how solid it's done. The different characters we meet, how they react to each other, how the general atmosphere and mood amongst the survivors are, really sets a good tone for the film. For me, this is the essence of what makes a great zombie movie - the feeling of apocalypse, helplessness and the need to cross any kinds of social borderlines for cooperation and survival. The movie makes a big point of this, our different characters are from very different walks of life/social situations. Another thing worth mentioning is that this movie doesn't try to scare you by making you jump in your seat, but by making you feel the desperation and ominous danger the survivors themselves feel.

You see that? That's America in the horizon there.

Another thing I really appreciate in this movie are the actual zombies themselves. Instead of taking the tempting route of CGI-animations (I'm looking at you, I Am Legend), the filmmakers chose actors with makeup for their depiction of the living dead. In my opinion this is the only right way to do it, the zombies look and feel just like they should - like the very recently dead (it happened last night, remember) returning to life.

Another thing other zombie-fanatics out there should know is that zombie-movies typically present one of two types of zombie: The ones that walk, and the ones that run. Arguments towards which one is more "genuine" vary quite some. The "walkers" are for many more realistic, presenting the argument that the living dead lack the motor skills to perform the act of running. In addition, this makes for an entirely different make of movie, where the danger is more of a creeping and unavoidable fashion, like being surrounded by a slowly advancing wall of hands and teeth. The "runners" are my personal preference, though - there's just something more intense about the zombies when they come sprinting towards you at full speed, and you only got a few seconds to decide what to do. This also (for me, atleast) makes the zombies themselves more scary, as they present a more real and immediate danger when enocuntered. Luckily (for me), these are the kind of zombies they chose to put in this movie.


Free hugs!

All in all the general "zombie threat" is very real and tangible, and we obviously gets to see some of the human characters fall to the plague and rise again during the film. The surivors manage to barricade the mall in a sufficient fashion to keep the living dead out, but we also get the feeling that the survivors are in fact also kept in by the very same walls. This is played upon during the end credits, where we're shown small hand-camera clips of the group of survivors' last endeavor to escape the dead swarm, where the survivors are enclosed in a small area (you should watch the end credits).

To try and round this off and summarize a bit, Dawn of the dead is a very solid piece of movie, even if you're not a die-hard fan of zombie movies. If you are, though, this should be in your top 5 - unless you for some reason swear to the more old school style movies. The acting is good, the setting is nothing short of perfect, and the whole execution is done just like it should. I typically find one major flaw to put my finger on when watching this kind of movie (there's more bad than good movies in this genre, imo), but this stands as one of the few where everything is presented just "right". Give it a shot, you won't regret it.

+1 Internets presents..

2011-03-15T18:09:00.007+01:00

We'd like to a lot of themed periods in the future, and we thought we'd kick it off with a Zombie week where we'd rant, rave and review everything Zomibie. We're all fans of the genre, some more than others, and it sounded like a lot of fun. May be strange doing something like this so early on, but who cares! We feel like it!

So stay tuned for braindead content! Aaand we're off!

Videodrome: Super (2010)

2011-03-14T20:28:00.018+01:00

Super is a new movie made late 2010 and will be up and running in cinemas for you average joes in the states 1st of April 2011. So my guess is that in Norway this will be put on the silverscreen in winter. But enough of this date jibber-jabber, it's not like I'll wait til August anyways. (*wink wink*)

There's not much I know about this movie yet, only from what I've seen on the one friggin' trailer that's out there. But still, from that one trailer I've got no doubt that this is going to blow my mind right out the window. For starters this is a movie about a normal guy (with fucking Rainn Wilson in cast) who loses his wife to a local drug lord.

So he tries to win her back but he gets humiliated and runs with his tail between his legs. A real baaaaaw-moment. So the next step is to turn himself into a cartoonish vigilant, which is somewhat better than running down the basement to get the family shotgun turning your anger towards society. Right?

So what about the cast? Just reading the cast list gives me a christmasy feeling.
First of we have Fishma- I mean Rainn Wilson who have played in movies like The Rocker and Juno, speaking of which there's another actor from that movie appearing here, Ellen Page.
By now I didn't think things could become any better... until I read the next name on the cast list.

Do I need to say more?

But I'm not quite sure if the plot would stick and this is the second vigilante movie made in 2010, the first one being Kick-Ass which I suppose is one of the few movies that could make me laugh so hard that it hurts. So Super has got some really big shoes to fill.

Here's the trailer for 'Super (2010)'

Rants about games: Minecraft

2011-03-13T18:29:00.004+01:00

Evening Internets! I'd like to take a moment to discuss Minecraft. More specifically, Minecraft lava (or magma, for you sticklers out there). During the last couple of days I've lost at least 50 diamonds to this slayer of peaceful-wusses. Yeah, I play on peaceful mode lately. Deal with it!

Don't get me wrong, I sometimes do turn up the difficulty, and earlier I usually had it on constantly, but lately I've basically just wanted to build things mindlessly when I fire up Minecraft. Peaceful mode suits this well. And so the only three dangers left on the map are drowning, falling and lava. Never really had a problem with any of them, besides the latter... I hate lava.

I find myself running out of diamond-tools, and decide it's time to go gather new ones. I run down into my mine, pick a direction, and whack away. Ages later I've got my inventory packed to the brim with iron and gold ore, and diamonds. This is when it usually happens. In some way, shape or form, I manage to get myself in trouble with lava. Usually by removing a block directly above me, revealing a magma lake. Then I swiftly scroll through my items to find cobblestone to plug that sucker up. I usually fail, and don't get away in time either. My entire dig gone into oblivion. I then find myself having to shut down the game, and don't go near it for at least a day. It's one of the few things in gaming I react poorly to. It's like drawing something utterly terrific, forgetting to save along the way, and then have your computer crash.

Now, earlier today I dicked around on the Minecraft wiki, clicking random pages to ease my boredom, and happened to come across the one for lava. My gaze fell upon this excerpt.

Naw, man. No way. Half a heart every second? Adding on the fire damage, that equals one heart a second, right? No fucking way. I just fired up my game and purposely stepped into lava, and that bitch drained my hearts like a fierce wolverine. It has to be two a second, AT LEAST. Has to. Unless my concept of time is way off. I can't really find any other sources on this, neither to confirm or deny it. I also seem to remember being able to swim across small magma lakes on peaceful back when I first bought Minecraft. Somewhere along the way they raised the damage. I'm sure of it. Unless I've gone insane.

See that? That's me jumping into that last square of lava and getting out at once. No way I spent five and a half seconds down there. No way. And I guess that's pretty much it. I'm just venting my frustration! If Notch did raise the lava damage, I get it, lava's fucking dangerous, and it's not a good idea to go swimming in it, but it's horribly annoying, and hardly peaceful.

Retroviews: Soul Blazer (SNES)

2011-03-11T18:36:00.022+01:00

It's time for another Retroviews! In my Breath of Fire II entry I briefly mentioned that the first SNES RPG game I was introduced to was Soul Blazer, and so I thought I'd be a good pick for my next review.

Soul Blazer, released 1992, is the first of an unofficial trilogy of SNES games consisting of itself, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, dubbed The Creation Trilogy. All three were developed by Quintet, who also developed the Act Raiser series. While these three titles aren't directly linked, a lot of the same themes, mechanics and character names are used in all three. It's kind of how Seiken Detsu and Final Fantasy are connected, just a tad more obvious.

I'm a big fan of all three of these games, and the two later games actually became very popular, in spite of Terranigma never being released in North America. Soul Blazer seems to have been somewhat left behind in the shadows of the two other games, but it really is a fantastic game, not just as a stepping stone for the later titles, but in its own right as well. So, let's get started.

Story
The Story of Soul Blazer is set in the empire of Freil. Freil is ruled by king and queen Magridd, who supposedly were decent rulers, until becoming drunk of their tits with greed. One day the king overhears two of his guards talking about a brilliant professor named Dr. Leo, who they say can pretty much create anything he wishes to. Magridd devises a plan to contact the king of evil, Deathtoll, by having Dr. Leo construct a machine capable of summoning him. He then sends out his guards to collect the scientist who's imprisoned in the castle and set to work. Upon contacting Deathtoll, the two kings agree to a pact, granting king Magridd one piece of gold for each of the souls of his empire. I never really got his line of thinking, as gold becomes pretty damn useless when the the rest of the population disappears. I suppose he's overcome with greed, however, and doesn't think ahead. Deathtoll lays waste to the world, collecting the souls of living beings, and reincarnating them into monsters.

This entire event is witnessed from afar by two people. An entity called The Master (who's presumed to be the spirit of earth) and his disciple - you. The Master then sends his disciple - The Soul Blazer - down to Freil in the form of a human warrior to free the souls, while making his way towards the root of the problem, Deathtoll.

Overworld.

Gameplay
The gameplay is fairly simple. As you progress in the game, you encounter portals that spew out enemies. Once a portal has been depleted of vicious bees, or whatever the particular enemy you're facing is, it unlocks one of the souls sold to Deathtoll. By stepping onto the portal, you'll see a cutscene with this soul being placed back in the world. A house coming back, villagers spawning, new passageways opening up and so forth.

Cutscene.

This goes on throughout the entire game, and it seems like something you'd get tired of after a while, but it's kept fresh by the fantastic and varied areas you travel to. In order to unlock all the souls, you're forced to backtrack quite a bit after getting a hold of new weapons and armor. I can think of several games where backtracking made me shake with anger, but in Soul Blazer it's no big deal. It's actually kind of exciting, finally getting to unlock the portal that's been staring you in the face for half the game. The world is divided into seven main areas, with a plethora of lesser areas and dungeons within them.

Start of the first dungeon.

As far as characters go, there isn't really a big cast to follow. You play as the hero, or the Soul Blazer if you will, and you come across a few important NPCs during your travel, such as King and Queen Magridd, Dr. Leo and his daughter Lisa. There's also usually an areas specific NPC important to the story, such as Lue the dolphin, Turbo the dog, Marie the doll and Nome the snail. The Soul Blazer hasn't got a single line of dialogue in the entire game, in spite of being able to communicate with any living thing, be it humans, animals or plant life. He doesn't need to however, and it's not quite as annoying as in the Zelda series, which carries the same trait.

Not exactly my best work. :p But screw it.

Along the way you pick up different kinds of armor and weapons, most of which serves you best in a specific situation or area, or actually needed to progress the game. You also have access to a handful of spells, which can be frightfully hard to aim at times. I've found that they aren't really necessary most of the time, though.

There's nothing too complex about the game in general, but I think that fact adds to the charm of it. It's just a fun ride, and has little need for a giant cast of characters or insane plot-twists. It works quite well on its own.
One slightly negative thing to mention would have to be the lenght of the game. Back when I played it on the SNES it seemed like a lengthy game, but upon replay, it's fairly short. I have to take backtracking into account, of course, but each of the areas seem to go by in a jiff. Then again, I've played it time and time again since discovering it, so there's little to no puzzle solving or exploring required. I still feel like it could've been a bit longer, though. Onward to the music.

Music
Soul Blazer didn't really have that great a music track. Don't get me wrong, it gets the job done, the tracks do a great job of reflecting the general mood of their respective areas, but taken out of context, it's not the most memorable of music. I'm not sure what else to say, except for it having the funkiest video game soundtracks I've ever encountered. Take these two, for example.

Magridd Castle - Tower Theme

Underground - Castle. The Mine

I feel I should also list the intro theme. You're also treated to an introduction to the story in this clip.

Intro - Invitation To The Overworld

Lastly, the two themes in the game that qualify as pretty.

Lonely Town

Ending Theme

Misc
There's not really a lot of trivia I know, or can find on the game. The way Quintet went out of business is a bit queer, but their wiki page should sum that up.

Let's Play Soul Blazer, by youtuber HCBailly.
We'll be livestreaming a bit of Soul Blazer during the next couple of days.

Final Thoughts
I just recently started up a game again, and while I must admit I haven't had too much time to play it, it held up really well. It's not the most difficult of games, but it's a whole lot of fun. Music, graphics and gameplay are all a good fit for each other. If you happened to miss out on Soul Blazer during the SNES era, I'd suggest you give it a try. That goes for the entire Creation Series, actually. And even though Terranigma is arguably the best title in the series, miles and miles above the others, I'd recommend playing them in the right order, to experience how they moved content from one over to the next.

RAGE: Playing online

2011-03-11T18:02:00.004+01:00

Hello peoples of the great webs, many +internets to you. As you've seen today, Japan is experiencing a rather dramatic geological event, which is why I'm going to rant about something completely different.

I play a lot of videogames online. As you all know, playing videogames online often consists of either yourself or your team facing off against a series of other players / other teams in some sort of struggle for control / kills / etc. This kind of competitive play is one of my biggest pleasures when it comes to videogames, but it's also the biggest reason I'll be one of those crazy red-tinted guys with high blood pressure when I get older.

For me, losing in an online game (or to be more accurate, losing in general) isn't something I handle well. At all. I'm usually controlled, reserved, and in general I'd say I'm a pretty calm guy. This just doesn't apply when I lose at games. It's just this crazy feeling, like my blood is on fire, or like there's too much energy to contain or something, which I have to somehow let out. The funny thing is, when I play alone and lose, it's with some kind of acceptance - I realize how I shouldn't have been alone in that spot, should've been behind cover, should've been more careful or whatever. I'm not happy when I lose like that either, but in those situations I'll usually try to get back at whoever got me killed in the first place, and then call it a day.
The real troll comes out when I play with others, and we lose because some crackpot on our team decides to, against the furious caps lock "NO DONT DO IT, FFS DONT RUN THERE" yelling of his team, that he's going to stand right out in the open and wait for the enemy to come to him. The result is always obvious, the enemy team descend upon him like a swarm of locusts, and when all that's left is his bleached bones, that's when I lose my shit. That's when I start flaming, raging, roaring about the extreme magnitudes of incompetence I just witnessed, and how their brains are "faulty devices", and how they should consider post-natal abortion.

Let me give a few examples, fresh from my own databanks:

I'm playing Left 4 dead (1 or 2, irrelevant) as the survivor team. All four of us are stuffed into some sort of corner, and trying to hold the undead onslaught off just until the elevator arrives. After a few stressful moments we hear the telltale "pling, elevator is here" sound; time to make ourselves scarce! We squeeze ourselves in, get ready to close the doors and get a short moment of relief, but no. xxxDarkStabb347xxx just decided now was the time to rambo up and away, and the last you see of him are his legs, as he's being dragged into the crowd of zombies, because he just HAD to go for the extra ammo down the hall at THAT exact moment. I explode.

I'm playing Heroes of Newerth, and I'm down in bottom lane as legion, getting my farm on as Swiftblade (skillblade amirite). My lane partner (let's say Voodoo Jester) is somewhere else, let's say back at the fountain. The two enemy heroes decide to try and gank me, and while doing so, chase me too far down towards my tower. At the same time, the Devourer on my team comes hurdling through the forest, getting ready to help me. I activate my spin, and start chasing after, almost getting the kill then and there - just to find myself back in the bottom part of our map. Our devourer decided now was a good time to hook, and conveniently forgot that his hook hits friendly targets too. The enemy escape. I explode (as an added bonus, maybe we have a scout on our team, which blurts out "LOL SWIFT :D" in allchat right after).

These are just two simple examples, but in general the same rule applies to any competitive online game I play - if the reason I'm losing is because some (maybe several) idiot(s) on our team are too dumb to correctly identify and handle the situation, I explode and go ballistic. If we're losing simply because the enemy team are playing in a superior fashion, that's somehow fine - what I really hate to see is pure incompetenece, especially when that incompetence deprives me of my sweet, sweet internet points.

Lastly, I'd like to add, there is one modifier to this kind of situation - friends. If I'm playing with friends, and THEY are the reason behind the current match / game going to hell, I'm probably three times as annoyed as I'd be if they were random people. I don't know exactly why it's like that, probably just because it's easier to be mad at someone you know than some stranger, even on the web. I usually apologize afterward, but in the heat of the moment I just can't help it.

Anyone else like this, or am I just being internet angry?

RAGE: I never knew how fond I was of getting my ass brutally raped.

2011-03-10T12:16:00.034+01:00

God damn!

You absolute cunts, you eternal arses, you depraved unforgiving wallet-fuckers!

I suppose I have only myself to blame for this (as usual.) - but I still blame you, yes, you, Apple, you stealthy piece of shit.

So, why am I fuming with rage like a menstruating gypsy?

I´ll tell you why, young Internet-rouge - see, I´ve got a phone, an iPhone, an iPhone 3G to be woefully precise.

I must have bought it about two or maybe three years ago, at first all was good, it was a marvelous piece of technology and together we had loads of fun, I took pictures of boobs with it, listened to some sweet music, called fuckers up at the middle of night and harassed old girlfriends with it, and it amazingly withstood the most furious of beatings during my rampant drunk escapades down at the docks (apparently my favorite place to go when I´m drunk off my tits for some reason.)

But then, then the updates came, at first there was useful features (or features it should fucking have to begin with, like the ability to send an MMS.)

Later on, the iPhone 3GS came - with a hojillion more times blast-processing power hidden under it´s sleek exterior.

Again, more updates - still things were good.

But suddenly, one miserable day, the bloody dark-ages revisited present-day earth, seeing as the iPhone 4 is Apples latest raging hard-on out on the market, they´re obviously going to be churning out iOS updates meant for that specific device, a device ten bing-bong-yongs more powerful then my trusty old iPhone 3g which is not intended for such fancy futuristic features - which, of course, have resulted in it becoming slow as shit.

So, I´m a good couple of iOS-updates into the INNOVATIVE FUTURELAND REVOLUTION that is the iPhone 4, no updates as far have fixed my phone from acting like it has cancer, apparently they´ve tried, but then again just failing miserably and shrugged it off - and now, they´ve decided to discontinue the support for my phone, really? What the shit Apple!? You relentless motherfuckers, you are purposely sabotaging my phone and forcing me to buy a newer model if I want to enjoy the finger-sliding galactic fuckfest that is the iPhone as it´s supposed to be!?

Bastards!

And no, I´m not going to roll back to older updates, jailbreak or some other type of shit, that kind of stuff is reserved for Ukrainian lepers and elderly burn-victims.

Guess I´ll have to buy a newer model then, or wait a month or two before they shit out a brand new revolutionary device - BUT THAT DOESN´T MEAN I WILL LIKE DOING IT!! (I´ll probably love it to death, and I won´t think twice about shoving it into other peoples faces, like an awful, pretentious, shit.)

Yes, I know, I´m a consumer whore, and an obvious macfag, apparently the iPhone worked like a gateway drug for me - I´m fucking doomed to have one of these phones or any other absurdly overpriced products from Apple until the day I fucking die.

Now, where did I leave my credit card?

- Royalist Cod out

TL;DR - I´M ANGRY, ANGRY ABOUT PHONES!

Rants about games: Bulletstorm

2011-03-09T17:30:00.032+01:00

Hello thar interwebs! I'm Bongophone, and today we will talk about games.

Our other authors has been keeping their material old school / retro so far (and there's a good chance that streak might continue), so I thought I'd deviate from this trend and say a few words about some of the more recent additions to my games library.

As an introduction, I'm an avid Steam-user, and I'm trying to keep up to date on the most interesting titles that show up. At some point during my substantial time as a "gamer" (I loathe that word, playing farmville doesn't make you one) I got tired of seeing shitty movie-based games and horrible sequels being pushed out for the sole purpose of extracting money from said "gamer" pockets. As a result I decided to buy good games (in opposition to the less legal alternatives), even if just to show my support for the games developers that deserve it. This has left me with an extensive list of Steam titles, and a great black hole in my bank account. The latest invasion of said bank account was a game called Bulletstorm.

To start off, I'm sure most of you already know about this game, and some of you might have seen other people spout opinions of it. To that I pay no attention, this is my post, so now you'll hear my opinion.

First things first, Bulletstorm is a FPS game developed by People Can Fly, and published by the Grand Over-dukes of the Multiverse, Electronic Arts.

Bulletstorm is, to put it simply, a game of violence. Where other games use violence as a means of providing thrill and excitement in betweeen story segments, Bulletstorm is all about the violence. In symbiosis with that violence there is humor. This could in sort be a disclaimer to some; if you don't enjoy violence, if you don't laugh when someone trips and falls, this is not the game for you. That aside, the violence here is as previously stated presented in a humorous fashion, so you won't be shooting civilians in airports with lifelike assault rifles and reflex sights. This is a game where you could kick your adversaries up in the air while blasting away with outlandish weapons, and then kick them up again when they come down. Then you kick them into cactuses. Then you kick a gas tank towards the cactus, and then you shoot the gas tank. Then you kick down a door, and then I could easily make a rhyme here but I won't.

Now, every game has a story that ties all the player's actions together to make some sort of meaning out of them; and in Bulletstorm the story is just that. The game is set at some point in the slightly distant future; I don't remember when (which already should give you a pointer concerning how little the story matters here). You play as Grayson Hunt, an ex-confederate bounty hunter / hit-man, the leader of your own mercenary band, Dead Echo.

The game starts of showing you why the "ex" in ex-confederate applies; you start off playing through a certain segment of your past where you fall into disfavor with your employer, the most foul-mouthed space general that ever graced the galactic rim. To put it short, the story follows up to the present, where you crashland the Dead Echo spaceship while bringing down the much larger Confederate warship, where previously mentioned General is residing at the time. Both yours and the Confederate spaceship crashlands on the same shithole of a planet, and this is where the game really starts. The story in this game is so second; so irrelevant to the experience that this game is that I won't spend more time dabbling on it, but to summarize the game is about how you traverse a planet full of mutants, raiders, confederate troops, carnivorous flora and horrible monsters in general, so you can deliver some sort of justice to the general that screwed you over.
In the beginning things start off in a "controlled" fashion - you trudge around, find some fancy equipment, and shoot some Stygian natives in the old fashioned way. But, about 20-30 minutes in, the game suddenly introduces you to a gameplay mechanic (horribly segwayed into the story by some sort of arcane explanation) called Skillshots. This is almost exactly what it sounds like; shooting with skill. This game is all about Skillshots. Your job (not the one the story says you have, but your real job in this game) is to kill every single enemy in as spectacular a fashion as possible. Let's see why this is fun.

To start off, this game equips you with some of the more outlandish weapons you could imagine, and in addition you have a sort of electric lash you can use to pull enemies close, and lastly, Grayson can kick shit around with the force of a pneumatic hell-borer. The leash and kicking utilities are mainly used to put enemies into "position"; when you leash or kick an enemy close to yourself, they enter some sort of slow motion airborne "stasis", and from there on out you can pretty much do what you want. This is where the weapons come in, once you got the enemy where you want them, you can start applying angst with one (or several) of the many gadgets you'll pick up. My personal favourite was the Flail Gun, which basically shits out two remote controlled grenades coupled with a chain. Wrap around body parts, hilarity ensues. Also worth mentioning is that every weapon has a Charged Shot-mode, which let's you pull of a real bomb every now and then - as an example, the starting weapon, which is simply an automatic rifle, let's you shoot 100 bullets in one shot with the Charged Shot. That's bound to be messy.

Now, the skillshots. Sending off your enemies in the most spectacular way earns you points, and the flashier it happens, the more points you get. The skillshots have specific criteria, and each skillshot has it's own, typically humorous, name. Bulletstorm lets you buy additional ammunition, Charged Shots, and the typical weapon upgrades with the points you earn from the Skillshot system. Here's some examples:

Shoot an enemy with the rifle. Unspectacular, uninteresting. 10 points.

Shoot an enemy with the rifle, in the head. 25 points.

Wrap the chained grenades with the flailgun around an enemy, kick him into another enemy, detonate grenades. 100 points.

In addition, using the environment can be helpful, and often necessary. As Stygia is a ravaged world with a hostile environment, you'll often find situations where a simple kick will send the enemy flying off a cliff, into open electric currents, into the mouth of a waiting plant (they eat stuff), and so on. The whole skillshot system in general gets more and more outrageous the further you progress and the more weapons you pick up; in the end you'll be taking on scores at a time, with giblets flying everywhere.

The most noticeable thing this system does for Bulletstorm is that it sets the focus on the actual gameplay. Noticed how, after shooting 37 Black Ops Troopers in Super Real Shooter 3, it starts getting repetitive? "When is the next big cutscene, I want to see some explosions" might have crossed your mind at some point. In Bulletstorm, this is not the case. Even if I didn't explicitly skip the cutscenes, they were merely wait-time for my upcoming shooting session. I might be easy to entertain when it comes to over the top violence, but I had so much fun with this game I hoped the story would continue; not for the story itself, but so I could keep launching shrapnel at space monsters.

One more thing worth mentioning is the dialogue. Most FPS games are plain boring and cliché-filled when it comes to conversation (Hey, guys.. I don't think we're alone here), but in Bulletstorm the clichés are both embraced and built upon. This might sound dumb on paper, but when you're kicking one guy into impaling death while shooting the other, and your character suddenly shouts "That's enough dicks for all of you", there's nothing to do but laugh. The swearing really gets out of hand at some points, so if you're sensitive to that sort of stuff you might want to turn off the mature language-option (there is an option, but you'll be missing half the fun with it off). To give another example, a certain lady, at one point in the story, threatens to "kill your dicks". You should be getting the general idea by now.

This post is starting to be a really imposing wall of text, so I'll cut myself short before it gets further out of hand. A quick summary, for the lazy minded: Bulletstorm is the craziest god-damned journey of violence, explosions and swearing I've ever stumbled across, but I would not have this game be anything else than exactly what it is. This is what Duke Nukem Forever should be like, but even Duke will have a hard time topping this one.

Retroviews: Breath of Fire II (SNES)

2011-03-09T03:16:00.037+01:00

Hi there, it's nice to meat you! I'm Allan, and I thought I'd dedicate my first post on our new site to one of my favorite old SNES games, namely Breath of Fire II. [This is where you look back to the "meet" typo and, having played Breath of Fire II, hopefully smirk.]

Breath of Fire II was one of the first RPG games I came across on the SNES (second only to Soul Blazer). I remember reading about its predecessor, Breath of Fire in Nintendo Power not long after my parents brought home the console, but none of our local shops carried it, and I was too stupid to inquire about ordering it. One day I came over Breath of Fire II, however, down at the local game and video rental store. I got hooked at once, and completely forgot about the fact that I had rented, not bought the game. I think I had it for a month or two, possibly longer. Angry parents and intensified chores ensued. My friends and I actually wound up buying that same copy from the game and video rental place, years later. But I digress!

Every now and then, I like to revisit childhood games, and last month I got the urge to play this one again (obviously though super-legal means), so I thought it'd be fitting for my first attempt at a review. This might be a bumpy ride, and I might not do the game justice, but I'll improve with time! I also won't go too in depth, as I haven't finished my most recent play-through, therefore writing mostly from what I remember.

The game was developed and released by Capcom (who actually made pretty decent SNES games in general) in 1994. It didn't make its way up to the shivering 'masses' of northern Europe until two years later, however, which is when I got my hands on it. It's a direct sequel to the first installment, taking place five hundred years later, in the same universe. This fact sets Breath of Fire II apart from the rest of the titles in the series. Later games branched out into their own universes, but keeping the name and themes from the previous games.

Story
The game follows Ryu Bateson, who's one of those far too typical RPG silent protagonist. I never really got that particular angle. I guess it's to make the player feel more in control of the character and their opinion, and from that being more invested in the game, but that's not really how it comes off. Other characters constantly wind up putting words in your mouth, and talking to you as if you were a child, or somewhat slow. "What's that, Ryu? You don't like your chicken? Alright then!" The game starts off with Ryu's childhood, which acts as an intro of sorts. Not that there's tutorials or anything, but it's just a safe little portion of the game where dying isn't possible, and you're eased into the battle system without any risk. We're then treated to a wall of texts that seems to go on forever, alongside some eerie music, and a fantastically creepy demon-looking eye, staring into your soul.

Oh god, it's still kind of creepy. D:

We then jump ten years into the future, where Ryu and his companion Bow, who we're introduced to in the childhood portion are all grown up, working as jacks of all trades (or rangers, if you will). I won't go too into details about the story, but Bow wrongfully accused (kind of) for a crime, and Ryu sets out to clear his name. On your travels you'll encounter sinister demon-types hiding in plain sight, makin' a scene, flaunting their evil ways, scheming away. You pick up new team members every now and then, and eventually locate the woman who framed Bow. On the way Ryu learns he's a descendant of a clan composed of righteous dragon-men-types. The story eventually goes full circle, and we learn that the demon infestation can be tracaced back to Ryu's home town, where the game started.

The cast of characters is a colorful and varied one. Monkeys, grass-men, dogs, cats, hollow-boned birdwomen and what can only be a body building horse. Some of the characters are based on the archetypes introduced in the first game, which became a running theme for the series.

I didn't quite get the likeness, but you get an idea!

The story -while not as beautifully woven as say Chrono Trigger- isn't half bad. There's some delicious 'religion is evil' undertones throughout the game which I found refreshing. That might just be my interpretation of it, though.

Gameplay
What impressed me from the get go was the battle system.While the system is the familiar turn based one we usually see in these RPG's, the animation and angle, along with the very memorable, and sometimes innovative monster designs really stand out. And thank god for that, because there's a lot of random encounters. A LOT. The graphics in general are very nice in this game. It's not all that surprising, seeing as Breath of Fire II was released the same year as the Playstation. Developers knew how to squeeze every last drop out of the SNES console at this point.

Crisp, innit?

There are a couple of features that add to the game. First of all, we've got a day and night cycle, where different areas are accessible depending on the time. There's also two mini games, in the form of hunting wildlife and fishing. Every character has their own special ability, and it's using some of these that these mini games can be accessed. The protagonist, Ryu, can for example equip a fishing rod and lure, whereas Bow and Katt can go hunting using their respective weapons. The characters Rand and Jean can both make world map travel easier. The rest of the abilities are mostly encounter-related, but they're all useful in some situation or other.

Mini games!

Music
It's no secret that a lot of SNES games featured incredible music, and while there's far better SNES music out there, Breath of Fire had some good tracks. I thought I'd list some notable ones.

I felt the need to brush up on the game a bit before writing this, and I stumbled across a song by Mio Watanabe, who was hired by Capcom to make a song for the Breath of Fire II commercial that aired in Japan. This is brand new to me, but I found it kind of neat, so here it is.

Mio Watanabe - Owaranai Ai

These should be some of the most memorable tunes in the game. I may be missing a gem or two, but these three should give you a notion of what to expect. The entire score to Breath of fire II was written by Yuko Takehara, who's since made music for the Mega Man series, among other things.

On the Honored Day

Thank You, Everyone!

Sweet Home

Misc
Breath of Fire OST Special Box was released in 2006, featuring all the music from the games in the series.
The game was re-released for Gameboy Advanced in 2002, and Virtual Console in 2007.

Final thoughts
Cod mentioned nostalgia glasses in his last post, which I assume is the main reason I still like this game so much. There's better SNES titles out there, to be sure, but I'd have to list Breath of Fire II in my top ten. I never really felt that the Breath of Fire franchise gained the fame it deserves. I have to admit I kind of fell off of the wagon after Breath of Fire III, because I felt they'd have a hard time topping it, so I'm not quite sure how the two last games panned out, but the three games I've played are well worth the time. So by all means, go ~~download~~ buy it! Or at least catch a Let's Play!

- Allan

Rants about games: Earthbound

2011-03-09T01:10:00.010+01:00

The goggles! They do nothing!
But why, why!? - You ask while contorting your face in a hideous fashion.

WELL I´LL TELL YOU WHY, YOU SPECTRAL FIEND!

So here´s how it is you slags, after seeing some grand YouTube-videos, videos of nerds, nerds like me - nerds moaning and ranting about how EarthBound is an "16-bit gem".

You see, I like to acknowledge myself like a connoisseur of the Super Nintendo, having owned one back in it´s hay-day and playing on it furiously.

Hell, I probably spent the first half of my life sitting in front of one, fumbling with the controller in my awkwardly small hands, gawping at the flickering screen with my mouth open like a proper little shit.

So, after seeing said YouTube-videos I figured that I might as well try this game, to find out if it really was the cock-hard 24 karat golden diamond "16-bit gem" they proclaimed it to be.

Thusly I dug out my trusty old Super Nintendo/Emulator from the void that is my attic/Internet, inserted the cartridge/downloaded the ROM and begun to play.

To start off my rant, the graphics looks nice, it´s cool to play an oldschool RPG game that´s not set in feudal fantasy-ville somewhere for once.

I´m somewhat not used to the battle-system though, not seeing my character while doing battles, but that´s no deal-breaker for me.

Though there´s an effect in the background though that can only be described as an acid trip into the realm of madness.

I get that the game is trying to be something else other than the standard RPG of the time, but sometimes they just overdo it, I can´t seem to get in on the storyline because every time I stop over to talk to someone they´ll just say something stupid.

Hee-hee hoo-hoo, the game doesn´t take itself seriously, what brilliance.

NPCs spout out the usual hints now and then, but mostly stick to lines that makes absolutely no sense or gets you in on the storyline, all a part of the 'I´M A FUNNY GAME ME' feeling they tried to implement I guess.

You continue on your way in the game solving the local town-problems, rummaging trough bins, dealing with zombies, murdering pogo-stick riding hooligans, dealing with colour-fascist cultists, saving poorly managed musical troupes and destroying evil statues from hell turning everything into a Tron-infused nightmare and making everyone talk backwards, like bumbaclarks.

While I´m not finished yet, and only half way in at this very moment, I can´t help but shake off the feeling that this game would be very good, maybe brilliant even if I only had some nostalgia-goggles on. Smack me in front of some Secret of Mana and I´ll lose my shit, because that game gives me back the feeling of how much fun I had all those years ago, all those hours I wasted come back to me in an instant and overwhelms me, like anal-cancer or childhood-rape trauma.

So, EarthBound, we´ll have to see, maybe you´ll surprise me or disappoint me even more.

I´ll type something about it when I finish I guess, some redeeming words or just guffawing about how right I was.

Oh, and here´s some stupid screenshots I took while playing, just for a bit of flavour to the post itself.

- Royalist Cod out

TL;DR - I DON´T LIKE EARTHBOUND THAT MUCH, BUT I REALLY WANT TO!

Applying for a holiday job

2011-03-08T02:48:00.002+01:00

So, I'm now one of many poor students that needs to get a holiday job after the last here's-1200$-a-month-for-not-doing-a-shit-payment from our government (that's in June.. crap!). That means I've got to hunt down a job that would fit my ten requirements, which I'll tell you by listing them up neatly in numeric order:

1. Absolutely no working with feces.
2. No working with children. (see number 1.)
3. Nothing including a phone and an eternal list of numbers.
4. I will not produce food.
5. I will not take care of old people (see number 1.)
6. If it smells, looks or maims people like lava, I'm not going near it.
7. I don't want to talk with people because I have to.
8. I don't make drinks, I only feast on them.
9. It's a no if it includes soap and a brush.
10. No killing critters.

This isn't much to ask for in a job, right?

Anyway, I've actually found a great, no, more than great, the perfect holiday job. It doesn't break any of my requirements, it's close to where I live, it gives an amazing income and I might actually enjoy working there the whole summer. So now on to the tricky part. Now I've got to make a supreme application that will make them pick me out of this mountain of other applicants. And to make an application like this, you'll have to put yourself in the mind of the employer, somewhat you'll have to mindfuck him.

The first thing the employer will look for is the shortest and easily written letters. He won't spend 20 minutes reading three pages about your interests, how much you love your dog, and why polymorph is your favorite spell in WOW. Those will go right in the bin. So I will keep mine short and simple, pretty much straight forward.

The second thing the employer will come to is finding the persons that would fit the 'profile'. And by profile I mean whatever the employer wrote in the "what we can offer you"-section in the advertisement. By example, if he wrote "We can offer you work in a hectic and oily work environment", then I FUCKING love hectic Mondays, and I use oil in my fucking Coco Puffs cereal. You get the point right? You duplicate whatever he writes in the add in your application. It's a neat trick, and I swear to god they never notices it.
Now that this is done, I'm quite sure I've won this one.

So the third and last thing the employer will look for in the last few people that made it through two purges is if they have working experience similar to this job, and he will be putting people with courses that's in context with this line of work before other applicants.....This is where I'm really fucked.... But defeated I'm not!

Here's my final and rewritten (about 130 times) application for this much needed holiday job of mine. Fingers crossed!

8 March, 2011.

My name is Stein, and I am a college student which is in need of a job this summer. As you advertised we will be needing a course in trucking which sucks for me since I don't have it, but I'm willing to do it for your company. I'm a neat, punctual person who's not afraid of getting his hands dirty. I've got a lot of experience working with storage, in fact, I've been working a lot up in a cockloft which is a hot and dry environment which made me quite good for storage work just like this job you advertised. I can work from June until August, and please don't mind that some words are bolded out, this keyboard is having some issues.

Stein

PS:CV is attached to this email.

Videodrome: Moon (2009)

2011-03-08T00:46:00.015+01:00

The future just got somewhat awesome.

So, I'll begin this blog adventure with a post about a movie I've just seen.It's named 'Moon' and it's from 2009. Somehow it has stayed hidden from these foul torrenters out there for 2 whole years, so by a pure coincidence I got my virtual hands on this one, and it was really supposed to be some crappy b-movie I'd have running in the background while getting some sleep. But already from the beginning it got my whole attention. The lunar base (setting) was beautiful, and truly consistent! And the 'space peasant' (robot servant) was voice acted by Kevin Spacey!

This wasn't a B-movie, but a hidden treasure! Anyway, when the movie was done, the clock was 5 in the morning, and I couldn't sleep after this, because of the impressiveness of the movie.

Someone needs a hug.

This is in no way a review of the movie, just a heads up. So here it goes.
You really really-really should watch it. It's one of my top five of 2011 (It's from 2009, but since I popped this movie's cherry yesterday, I've branded it for 2011 like the cute whore it is.)

Happy fish. Happy man. Happy flower. Happy land.

Spaceman, I always wanted you to go into space, man.