A Hell Made of Bullets

If you browse Danbooru as much as I do, you’ll notice it’s full of Touhou characters. I think if you browsed randomly, there’d be no page without at least one such image. So, like any curious person, I thought I’d look into it. I knew it was a game, but I expected it to be some sort of game in which the personalities of the characters are thoroughly displayed, which would explain why they are so loved by everyone. I was extremely surprised when I found out that the games are probably the worst genre to showcase characters: a top-down space shooter!

Well, I call it “space shooter” to distinguish it from the term “arcade shooter” (like The Chaos Engine), but it doesn’t actually take place in space. I’m actually pretty fond of shooters, but there are two things I hate about them: if your ammo is limited and you die from a single hit. Well, I can say this about the Touhou games, at least you don’t run out of ammo.

But before I look into the games themselves, let me talk about the Touhou Project as a whole. Interestingly enough, it is a doujin game. Remember that term? Doujin? It featured in my video review of When Seagulls Cry [Umineko no Naku Koro ni]. Ah, you mean to say I didn’t release that one yet? Don’t worry, it’s still in the works. So, a doujin game, or comic, or whatever is an amateur creation, usually a fanfic spin-off, but not necessarily. It has huge support in Japan and you can actually make it big with such productions. Touhou is a prime example. The whole production team behind the project features a single man, ZUN, who did the programming, art, music, everything. Commendable, considering the project is at its 12^th title.

The project mostly follows two main characters, Hakurei Reimu, a shrine maiden, and Kirisame Marisa, a western-type witch, who do all sorts of things to save Gensokyo, the place of the Touhou games, from all sorts of disasters brought about by evil spirits.

Some of the features which are constant in the project are the weapons and behaviours of the characters. Reimu fires homing shots, or otherwise covers a large area of the screen, while being quite slow, whereas Marisa deals large amounts of damage directly in front of her, and has considerable higher movement speeds than her eastern counterpart. Also, by collecting drops from the enemies, you can improve the spread/power of your weapon (depending on character), but you can never change your firing mode. Also, by holding down a certain key, you enter a so-called “focus mode”, in which you move a lot more slowly and smoothly, while concentrating fire in front of you, this being useful when dodging the shots of bosses, and believe me, there are plenty to dodge. You may also use “spell cards”, which other games call bombs or whatnot, which clear the screen of enemies and at the same time render you invulnerable for a limited amount of time. The important feature of spell cards is that if you press them right after being hit by an opponent, they will still trigger, which allows you to barely survive the shot. Mastering this technique, as well as flawless dodging, are the keys to defeating the game.

The first title to appear on the PC was the 6^th game, and I’ve played them starting with that. I’m going to tell you my opinion about them, write a little something about each that I’ve played.

Touhou 6 – Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

If you plan on playing Project Touhou, I suggest you start with this game. It is probably the most iconic, as it introduces the main characters (on the PC at least), as well as important bosses, such as Cirno, Hong Meirin, Patchouli Knowledge, Sakuya Izayoi, and Remilia Scarlet. It is pretty hard. I didn’t manage to finish the game on normal difficulty, not even using 3 continues. I always lost a lot of lives fighting Sakuya Izayoi at the end of stage 5, and by the time I got to the final boss, Remilia Scarlet, at the end of stage 6, I had very little chances of beating her. However, the game is very good as it introduces the mechanics of the series and, like I’ve said, introduces the characters. Also, this is the only one I’ve played which is 100% in English.

Touhou 7 – Perfect Cherry Blossom

This one had an error when I tried to open the archive, so I didn’t get to play it. Moving on…

Touhou 7.5 – Immaterial and Missing Power

This one had a different error, and wouldn’t start either. I read that it’s a fighting game, which must be interesting, but there’s another one down the line which I’ve played, so I guess it’s ok to skip this one too.

Touhou 8 – Imperishable Night

This is my favourite in the series. It has an interesting mechanic, which implies changing the firing mode of a character while being in focus mode. The reason for this is that you actually play as a pair of characters, a human one and a youkai, some sort of spirit. When you focus, you actually activate your youkai, which fires in a different way. This is a pretty cool mechanic. Once you finish the game and obtain the good ending (by not using up a continue), you are allowed to play with single characters, either human or youkai, retaining your firing style. Also, the story goes that something strange has happened to the moon and an eternal night threatens the land. You start the game at 11:00 PM and you5:00 AM. You have a certain number of “time points” to accumulate each level. If meet the quota, the timer moves only 30 minutes, but if you don’t it moves 1 hour. If you reach 5:00 AM, you get a bad ending. You gain time points by either shooting and killing enemies while in human mode, or by dodging shots while in youkai mode. Also, it seemed to me that this game was easier than the rest, since I managed to finish the game and get a normal ending (used 1 continue) on the first try. I totally recommend this one.

Touhou 9 – Phantasmagoria of Flower View

This one is weird. It features a strange side-by-side battle interface, reminiscent of Puyo Puyo. I don’t really understand how it works, but from what I’ve seen, if you engage your charged attack (which is different from your spell cards), a version of yourself appears over at the enemies side and attacks him/her. Also, besides your enemy, there are mobs flying al over your screen, as well as your opponent’s. This one isn’t particularly hard, but I just didn’t like it.

Touhou 9.5 – Shoot the Bullet

This one is very interesting. It has a different gameplay from the other ones. You play as Aya Shameimaru, a tengu (hyena spirit) reporter, and you need to take close-up pictures of the spirits threatening the land for the headlines. You get to meet a lot of the bosses from the other games and your only weapon is your camera. In this game, you face off bosses only and you need to take a certain number of snapshots of each one of them. When you take a snapshot, the bullets in the captured frame disappear, but you have to wait a few seconds for the film to load. Also, if you don’t get the boss itself in the frame, the snapshot doesn’t count towards your quota. The gameplay is interesting, but it gets hard very fast. It’s really enjoyable, but more than that, I loved the flavour of it. Aya became my favourite character, because she is willing to risk herself like a true reporter. Sure, when you’re a witch it’s normal to fight off evil spirits to save the world, but she’s just a tiny wittwe spiwit, so her courage is admirable. Thumbs up for Aya Shameimaru!

Touhou 10 – Mountain of Faith

This one probably sets the standard for the newer Tohou games. The cast of playable characters is reduced to the original two: Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa. This time though, they have three fighting styles, instead of the original two, so you basically get 6 characters. The power level of your attack is made a lot more visible, since when you gain an extra level, an orb appears next to you, and it’s this orb which releases the extra shots. Also, the spell card system has been modified, since now you don’t have any, instead, when you use a spell card, you lose one power level. This has its ups and downs. The positive aspect is that you can recover spell cards pretty quickly, however, if you’re not good at dodging and rely on your spell cards too much, you’ll end up facing the boss at level 0 pretty fast. Also, the continue system has been changed. You only start with 2 lives (which is a really small amount, in my opinion) and you have unlimited continues, however, when you use up a continue, you start from the beginning of the stage, instead of where you were at. The game itself isn’t that hard, but the fact that you have to finish each stage in just two lives makes it a bit annoying, rather than challenging.

Touhou 10.5 – Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

This is the fighting game I’ve been talking about. I really liked it. The gameplay and graphics are nice (using chibi characters), and if you’re into the characters, you’ll enjoy pitching them one against the other in full contact magic-enhanced combat rather than the usual top-down shooting battles. If you’re playing the singleplayer campaign, you’ll have to fight the characters one after the other in classic tournament style, however, when you deplete a character’s health bar, they activate their spell cards, and will proceed to kill you using a pattern of strong attacks. While they use their spell cards, the characters can’t be knocked down or interrupted, and they usually fill the screen with shots, but we’re used to that by now. Overall I think it’s a really nice adaptation.

Touhou 11 – Subterranean Animism

The gameplay in this one is pretty much a copy of Mountain of Faith. There is not much to say, except that they changed the attack forms of the characters and that they are really shitty this time around. I only played this up to the second or third stage, and really didn’t get into it that much. The feeling in this one is closer to Embodiment of Scarlet Devil than is that of Mountain of Faith, however, I still think I liked Mountain of Faith more, since the attacks were what I was used to. Also, in this one, using a spell card will only make you invincible, without clearing the stage, which is pretty lame sometimes. But in the end, I think both Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animismare far down in my list, just above Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

So, that’s all for Touhou. I haven’t played the newer games, and I’m not really into them that much. Like I said, I just wanted to get to know the characters a little better, and for that purposes, it worked. It is pleasant to recognise the characters when I browse Danbooru lately. If you’re interested in finding out a bit about them, or just want to play a shooter and test your skill, I recommend you try the games, at least for a few minutes.

Next time, Rebuilding the Awesomeness.

Friend Fact:

Favourite ice cream flavour? Definitely stracciatella. Also, I have this concept that there are two kinds of ice cream: fruits and nuts. When you eat fruits, you should only have fruit flavours (strawberry, banana, pineapple, peach, pumpkin), and when you eat nuts, you should only have nut flavours in it (coconut, coffee, walnut, caramel, mint). I know some aren’t fruits and some aren’t nuts, that’s just the name I gave them. Also, chocolate and vanilla are the two flavours which go with both kinds.

Breaking the Card - Rumbling Aftershocks

Check out my first MtG article, on Gameflux. For those of you who don't know, Gameflux is the site for the MtG community of Cluj. If there are any MtG players out there who are reading this and are in Cluj and haven't joined yet, please do so!

Minions, Henchmen and the Like...

I used to play a lot of Guild Wars some time ago. Even had a post about it, my second one, actually. The game has changed a lot since I started playing. It kept getting better and better. It had a unique flavour to it, and I fear Guild Wars 2 will lose that (although I highly anticipate it's arrival). But I'm not here to discuss Guild Wars 2. I'm actually here to talk about henchmen.

Henchmen were a very nice idea. In case you couldn't find a willing and determined party, you could always resort to hiring some henchmen to help you complete a mission or a quest, which you possibly couldn't do alone. They really helped a lot, and it sure was better than going against those nasty Mursaat alone. However, henchmen had a huge flaw. They were stupid. I mean, really stupid. They would always go where they weren't supposed to, they would keep fighting when you wanted to retreat, and they would stand by looking at the scenery while you were getting butchered by those Titans. At first, that was forgiveable, after all, the makers of the game wanted to give you only a little bit of help, they still encourage forming player parties.

When Guild Wars: Factions came out (that's the first expansion, for those who don't know), they made henchmen a lot more intelligent. They started using skills better and they showed you a lot more support, overall. They still sucked compared to even the least skilled of players (though that wasn't always true), they were a huge improvement over the first batch of henchmen. However, with the release of the aforementioned expansion, a new mode of PvP was released, in which you could compete against computer-controlled enemies. This was weird. PvP was pretty competitive. How could henchmen-like enemies survive more than one round in this environment? Turns out, they were nothing like henchmen. These computer-controlled enemies were precision killing machines. You needed a pretty good team to beat them. They had typical builds and used them to perfection. For example, the Elementalist had a skill that ignored armor, but had some cooldown time and even gave you exhaustion (meaning it reduced your maximum energy for a short amount of time). At a high enough level, this skill dealt around 100 damage (and since it ignored armour, it really did 100 damage), and your maximum life was around 480. Imagine a build of four Elementalist who cast this spell at exactly the same time. It meant that your party members died of one by one, with only a window of 5 seconds (the skill's recharge time) between deaths to actually hurt them. That showed us the truth: henchmen could be a lot smarter, but they are intentionally made stupid! Outrageous!

Why do I talk about this now? Well, I've been playing Diablo 2 recently, here in Finland. It brings back a lot of memories. One of the things I didn't remember was that your mercenary companion is stupid. It's a strange coincidence that they are also called henchmen, here in Diablo 2. It's so strange. They have so little to do, compared to the high-paced skill-clicking havoc of Guild Wars, yet they prove to be complete jerk-offs. I mean, how can you suck so bad?! They get lost, they get stuck behind walls, they fight monsters on opposing corners of the screen, and so much more. Once, I was playing with a ranged character and had a mêlée henchmen. Of course, he didn't want to go into the fray, so I was forced to draw enemies out, and then, when I retreat, instead of covering me, so that I could turn around shoot, he started running as well and I ended up being picked off by the enemy. Damn!

Do game creators get a sadistic pleasure from making computer-controlled aids of the player be more of a burden than assistance?

The Night Before The Voyage

I'm on a highway to hel(sinki that is). I'll be leaving in just over an hour from now, and I probably won't be able to access the Internet this weekend and neither Monday or Tuesday, probably. I spent this night watching some anime, and in between, the Nostalgia Critic (I did this while I was waiting for the anime episodes to stream). I'll talk about these two things in my post.

First off, I really like the Nostalgia Critic. He's funny and he really makes a point with his videos, even though I sometimes disagree with him. I was watching his review of The Wizard, and it really got me thinking. How could they get away with such a thing back then? Like he said, it's much more fun to play video games than to watch a movie about people playing video games. Indeed, such a movie would be stupid, they wouldn't make things like this nowada-... hmm... I just remembered Duel Masters and Yu-Gi-Oh! (*shiver shiver*) Talk about pathetic... Also, that movie had commercial written all over it. I'm thinking, the nowadays equivalent of the sequence when they presented Super Mario Bros. 3 would be having someone play Duke Nukem Forever (actually... that would be pretty mind-blowing). But nowadays we have E3 for that. Anyway... I don't remember seeing this movie when I was little (of course not, we didn't even have Nintendo here, we all had those Chinese-made rip-off consoles), but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have found it interesting, not even back then... which is something I cannot say about Mortal Kombat, which I just loved (I was always more of a Mortal Kombat fan than a Street Fighter fan, since I had a PC), and still think is a cool movie (disagreeing with the Nostalgia Critic yet again).

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get onto the more important thing I want to talk about. The anime I watched, which happenes to be ef - a tale of memories. This is a romantic anime, and it is by far one of the most beautiful anime I've ever seen. I have nothing but praise for this one. Seriously, I find no words to express how great it is. I honestly regret having the need to stream it and not watching it some time before in higher quality. Before I go on, for all of you romantics, artists and dreamers out there, this is a must see.

Now that I've finished with the introduction, let's talk about the anime a little. Like all great romantic anime, this one is also the adaptation of an adult visual novel (which is a euphemism for eroge, short for "erotic game") entitled ef - a fairy tale of the two. The list could go on forever, starting with Air and ending with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni... ok, maybe that's not really a romantic story, but you get the idea. It is no surprise that I mentioned Air, since it's the first thing that came into my mind while I was watching ef - a tale of memories. Actually, it was the second, the very first thing that came into my mind was INSERT FAVOURITE MAKOTO SHINKAI ANIME TITLE HERE. And no wonder, since it was none other than Makoto Shinkai who made the opening of the game. And his influence is felt throughout the anime. I'm going to talk about the visuals later on. Now, let's just get back to the story... ... ... Ok, that's it! I'm not telling you anything about the story. Why? Because it's just too damn good to spoil any of it. Suffice to say, it involves boys and girls (yes, more of them, but not at the same time, not really, only in parallel stories) and their relationships. Like someone says (right here in this anime I'm reviewing): "There is no such thing as friendship between a boy and a girl", and thus you understand where I'm getting. Of course you do, I said it off the bat that this was a romance anime, didn't I? But that's not enough to express what I'm talking about. This anime is about LOVE!!! I mean it! The strong feelings it conveys are overwhelming, but I'll get back to that (as well as the visuals, later). Let me finish with the story... ... ... besides the fact that it is hypnotizing, every moment fills you more and more, and just when you've thought you're about to overflow (remember Mamimi ;) ) they give you more and more. Top that with a breath-taking ending, and there you have it. Now as far as the stories go, they don't entwine as much as I would have liked them too (like the magnificent work in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni), but that doesn't make them stand out individually. Also, I believe they wouldn't have had the same effect, had they been separated (unlike in Diamond Dust Drops, for example). So much for the story... I'm not telling any more, honest... go watch it!

Now, onto the other parts, after all, a story alone doesn't make a good anime. And there is more to this anime than the story, I assure you. I stood up talking about the visuals, so I'll get to it now. Like I said before, they have the mark of Makoto Shinkai on them. Though they lack the play of lights and shadows, the thing which I adore most in the works of Makoto Shinkai, they do compensate with those other trademark shots (empty scenes, even though the characters are talking; landscapes in which the tiny characters seem to disappear; scenes in which only parts of the characters are shown with their faces awkwardly being off screen). Coupled with these visuals are powerful artistic images: crayon drawings of the characters, monocoloured frames (for example, the screen going red for a moment when someone skips a heartbeat), the scenes gradually losing colour and a lot more that I simply can't describe. On top of the stunning visuals and the powerful images comes the spine-chilling music. It is more than appropriate, it is fantastic. The tune isn't exactly catchy, but it gets carved into your heart. It gave me goosebumps when I heard it, and whenever I recall it, it still makes me shiver (pretty much like the opening of Kana ~Little Sister~). Now, all these create a heart-stopping atmosphere that is indescribable. I really don't know what to compare it with. It is tragic and beautiful, painful and lovely, burning and soothing...

Now, about the themes. It does have some fantastic elements, but it's far from being Air. It's more down to earth, and I guess I can relate to it more. It talks about love (naturally), dreams, choice, memory, silence, colours and everything in between. On top of that, it has a guy looking like a young Kaji (from Neon Genesis Evangelion), giving one of the kids advice, although not in a melon patch.

Once again, for all of you romantics, artists and dreamers out there, this is a must see. That's all I have to say about that.

Stand Your Ground

Probably the most played flash games are the so-called tower defence games. In these, you have to defend against waves of enemies by strategically placing towers around the map, preventing them from reaching your base. There is an enormous number of such games out there, and of course Kongregate does not lack its own horde of them. Here are some of the different tower defence games on Kongregate which I enjoyed (if you're a fan of the genre, give them a try):

Bloons Tower Defense 3 - This one is pretty casual. It's colourful and fun to play. The enemies are all balloons and your towers are monkeys. Have fun throwing darts and launching missiles at them, freezing and melting them, and if you get yourself a super monkey with plasma vision, you're all set.

Onslaught2 - This is somewhat more serious than the previous one. The most interesting thing about it, is the strategy involved. You don't have many options for the towers you build, however, there are hidden combos which make the towers a lot more powerful, and if you're hoping to get past the later parts of the game, you have to figure them out.

GemCraft - This is a really cool one. Here, you have two components: towers and gems. You place the towers wherever you like, but they don't shoot on their own. When you place a gem in them, they shoot differently according to it. Also, you can freely move the gems around, you can conjure up more, combine them into different or more powerful gems and also, if you're out of options, simply throw them at the enemy. Diablo 2 fans will love this one.

Protector: Reclaiming the Throne - This one is seriously awesome. Instead of towers, you place mages and warriors onto the screen. Also, instead of upgrading them, they level up, and when they do, you can choose different evolution paths. Add in the fact that between missions you get to unlock skills which will help you out in battle, and this one turns into a real treat for fantasy lovers.

Extermination (Of The Little Multi-Coloured Blobby Things)

The fact that I'm advertising for another game on Kongregate's website might sound a little monotonous, but these are the things I'm forced to play here. Today, I'm going to tell you about Amorphous+. This game is for all you Crimsonland fans out there. You are equipped with a big-ass sword (the kind that puts Cloud to shame), fittingly named the SplatMaster3000, which you use to splat multi-coloured blobby things called Gooples. You go into their nest, and attempt to clean them out. Now, Glooples come in many varieties, and although most of them are harmless, some of them can be really dangerous (and scary). This game is great fun, and if you immerse yourself enough, you can become easily addicted (in the good sense).

On a side note, if you decide to sign up for Kongregate, please inform me through the comments, so that I may add you as a friend.

Addictive...

No matter what awesome graphics or complex story new games have nowadays, they could never beat the simple addictive fun that flash games offer. A few posts ago, I wrote about an innovative 1D game, called Z-Rox (I still haven't finished it). I hope you enjoyed playing. Today, I'm going to write about two more addictive games I found on the same site.

The first game, called Straw Hat Samurai, is the perfect game for Ninja Scroll fans. You play a samurai, and you have to cut through your enemies by drawing lines with your mouse. Once you finish, your guy disappears, there is a flash, and when you reappear, the bad guys are all in pieces. You get extra points for decapitating, getting more guys at once, or using your bow (yes, you have a bow too, how cool is that!). After reaching the gate, you also have a small strategy part. Honestly, I think if they worked some more on this game, placed a little bit of variety in it, it could become a seriously intense game (maybe for the Wii?...).

The second, called Gravitee, is a simple golf game. The difference is, it takes place in space. You have to hit the ball through the hoop, but be aware and take into account the gravitational effect of the different planets on the ball. While using the ball's projected trajectory, it is a fairly simple game, but when you turn of this helpful feature, it becomes a serious challenge. I'm pretty sure all you physicists out there are going to enjoy it. Knock your hearts out.

I'm going to point it out again, all these games are hosted on Kongregate's website. You should really register, in my opinion. As long as you play, why not gather some badges while you're at it? (And I should seriously get some money for advertising for these guys...)

1D - The Future Of Gaming

Like I said in my previous post, I'm bogged down to playing SNES games on my PDA and flash games on the net. I've started frequenting a site called Kongregate. It has a lot of flash games, but so do many other sites. However, most of these games are really cool and fun to play, and I really like the ranking system of your account based on achievements within the games you play.

One of the games on the site, is a very interesting 1D puzzle game. It is very ingenious. I love it. And it is also very demanding. Tell me if you manage to finish it. You must try this. The game is called Z-Rox.

Throat Of Ashes

In case you don't recognise these screenshots, they are from Breath of Fire. Since I don't really have any games here in Finland, I ended up playing some ROMs that I have on my PDA, using a SNES emulator. Because of the difficulty in playing on the PDA, I'm only able to take on RPGs. Breath of Fire is the first one I tackled.

Breath of Fire was developed by Capcom in 1993 and the English version was released by Squaresoft in 1994. I have been playing this game since I got here (though not very much, I have to admit it) and finished it two days ago. It was a pleasant experience. It is a classic game, and worth playing by RPG enthusiasts. Let me tell you some about the game.

The plot is simple and well paced. The characters are pretty well individualised, mostly because of their abilities. Each character has a special skill that they can use on the world map, if they are leading the party. For example, Ryu can fish, Bo can hunt and walk through forests, Mogu can dig holes and so forth. You need to use these skills at specific locations in order to progress through the story, however using them independently will yield you rewards (even huge secrets). NPCs are somewhat even more dull than in most RPGs. They mostly have those typical single-sentence roles, that are completely out of context with world events. One interesting thing however, is the day-night transition. While travelling on the world map, days pass, and when you enter a town, the time of day is reflected in the NPCs' activities. Combat is pretty monotonous, all you have to do most of the time is activate auto-battle, except during boss fights, where you have to buff yourself up with spells first, and then activate the auto-battle. Some of the secrets are pretty interesting, though you have no really big thingy at the end of the long chase after side-quests (e.g. Ruby Weapon). The menu system is poor and unintuitive, which coupled with the fact that the names of items are limited to about 8 characters, makes you want to spend as less time on the menu screen as possible. Add in the fact that the effects of certain items (such as accessories and special armour/weapons) isn't visible, and you've got yourself one hell of a headache.

Besides all the bad parts I've pointed out, the game was pretty enjoyable overall (maybe I see it that way because I have no other games to play here). Some parts were unexpected, and even though sometimes it wasn't clear where to go to progress through the story, I pretty much had fun all the way, except through the battles for the most part, since they became boring. But I ended up playing till the end, since I was curious how the story would unfold. Like I said, RPG enthusiasts should try it (though I'm pretty sure you've all finished it by now), hard-core gamers should beat it (since it's a classic), but everyone else, you might want to think twice before sinking your teeth into it.

Because 5 Is Better Than 1

Well, I experienced my first Magic: the Gathering prerelease today (actually yesterday, since it's 1:29 AM right now). It was an exhilarating experience. Let me tell you all about it.

Let me start with my journey to Tampere. I was down in front of the store by 7:44 AM, 26 minutes before opening. I spent the time listening to music and wondering if they'll open on schedule. They did. I bought myself a couple of sandwiches and a bottle water for the road. I was in the bus stop by 8:06 AM, 14 minutes before the arrival of the bus. Again, I waited listening to music. Now comes the fun part. At 8:18 AM, a strange bus appears. It was green on the sides, and I didn't recognise the company. So I was wondering if that's the one I should take. While I was wondering, it passed by me. Here in Finland, you have to wave for the bus to stop, even thought if clearly you are waiting for it in the station. After it passed, I thought to myself: "What if this was the bus I was supposed to get on and I missed it?" I had the jinkies for the next 4 minutes, till I recognised the ExpressBus coming. I waved, and... surprise! the guy just showed me to back up, and passed me. I was shocked! I realised that I wasn't standing at the correct stop. Now I was really sure that I had missed my bus, till the Valkeakoski Liikenne bus came, not a minute later, I waved, it stopped, I got on, and was on my way to Tampere. After having reached Tampere, it was an adventure finding the right bus to take me to Hervanta, where the university campus is, and once I got there, the hassle to finding the place where the tournament was held. However, when I saw all those people gathering, I just followed them, and I got there, eventually.

I was surprised to see so many people. There were more than fifty participants. It was all so exciting. Enough with the introductions, let's get down to the tournament.

Shards of Alara is a set which story-wise revolves around a plane, Alara, which for some reason got torn apart into five shard-planes. The proportions of the five colours of mana differ from plane to plane, which resulted in the divergent evolution of these planes. Mechanics-wise, this means that each plane is represented exclusively by one of the colours, and it's adjacent "ally" colours. Brings back memories of Invasion. However, unlike Invasion, here each shard-plane has it's very distinct feel. Bant, the white-centred shard, has many small creatures that buff each other up. Esper, the blue-centred shard, has coloured artifacts and each creature is an artifact creature, with many effects that affect or care about your artifacts (I realise I just used the word "artifact" three times in that sentence). Grixis, the black-centred shard, is all about undead, reanimation and creature kill. Jund, the red-centred shard, is all about small goblins and big dragons (so typical), with mechanics which involve feeding the small to the big to make them even bigger. Naya, the green-centred shard, is all about big creatures (with power 5 or greater) and small mana-producers or synergy creatures that buff your gargantuans even more.

After opening the tournament pack and the three boosters, I came down to two options. Either playing an Esper deck or a Naya deck. After drawing Spearbreaker Behemoth, a 5/5 indestructible for 7 mana, and also some pretty good biggies (5/5 vigilance, haste for 6 mana; and 5/4 vanilla for 3 mana), as well as a very good mana base (one tap-land, one obelisk and two panoramas), not to mention that crazy Titanic Ultimatum (a sorcery which for 7 mana gives all your creatures +5/+5, trample, first strike and lifelink until end of turn), I just couldn't resist playing the Naya deck. The Timmy in me was crying out from the bottom of his lungs. He got the best of me. I ended up losing my first two matches because of it. After that, I switched to the Esper deck. I didn't have any real solid card in that deck, but all the small cards worked very well together. My mana curve was highest in the 2 and 3 cost range. I also had a ton of removal, ranging from 2-mana, to 4-mana, as well as some powerful card-drawing. I won the following three matches, and lost in the sixth round to a solid Grixis deck (and an experienced player).

Overall, I had a great time, and can't wait to play in next week's, release tournament.

Simply Bad...

I wanted to write about something else today, but I remembered this review, and I just had to share it with you all. Credits go to this guy.

So, without further ado, here's the review of America's 10 Most Wanted! Enjoy!

Reset Generation

Well, I've been home for two days now, and even though I promised everyone I'd have a lot of things to write about, I've been goofing off. Sorry, everyone. However, today I came across a great game which I wanted to share with all of you. So, here it is!

RESET GENERATION

This one's for all of you who grew up on the iconic games of the last century!

Death from Above!

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable time with Andras. Since I took the effort to bring the Monster PC home from Cluj (the damn thing is heavier than it's worth), we decided to fire up the LAN and play some of the games you can't on a single PC (actually you can, but they're not as enjoyable).

We initially intended to play Higurashi Daybreak, and after making use of the appropriate wiki, we found out how to start a LAN game... technically. Of course, as all things go, we didn't manage to start the game, so we swiftly abandoned the idea, and headed off to some of the games we knew would work.

Our second choice was Starcraft, playing the Bunker Command stage. I remember Adi telling me about it back when Starcraft was still 'the rad'. I must say, it was interesting. I believe back then, 'use map settings' stages were considered awesome and defying the laws of the game.

After hastefully dispatching me, Andras suggested a different game, so I cast my vote for DotA. In the same spirit of 'use map settings', DotA really popularised Warcraft 3. I don't even remember, I think we played about 5 games. It was most pleasant. The good thing is, I finally got Andras to like the game. If all goes well, I might have gotten myself a stable DotA partner.

Our final choice for the evening was Unreal Tournament 2004. I can never get enough of this game. It was actually Andras who suggest we play it, and I didn't know he was this good at it (or maybe I was just too sloppy that night). Anyway, we started talking during the match, and tried to find out what is so special in UT2k4. Besides the fact that nothing can compare with a good InstaGib match, both Halo and Quake 3 lack the atmosphere of this awesome game. Even if we're talking about the classic Unreal Tournament, the maps were so amazing. They each had their own style and they were so well designed, that you never had to turn back because of a dead end. There was always another turn you could take. I've realised that the levels are highly asymmetrical, and that makes then really awesome. Hell, even capture the flag stages are asymmetrical, how cool is that? Some of the stages are so intricate, we ended up not being able to frag each other the necessary amount of times and the match ended with a time out. Here is the last image of the game, Andras willing to descend upon me with the fury of his enhanced shock rifle, but too late, as the timer reaches 0 and I am declared the winner.

"The Undreaming is unchained."

Hello, everyone. Long time no see. I was busy, school and all. Besides, I bought myself a new graphics card (Leadtek WinFast A7600 GT TDH) and am now playing tonnes of new games. One of them is Dreamfall, about which I'm going to talk now (not that it requires a very powerful graphics card, but it uses Pixel Shader v1.0, which is not present on the GeForce 6 series).

Dreamfall is the sequel to the highly acclaimed adventure game The Longest Journey. I'm quite certain that playing this game will give little delight to those who haven't played the first game of the trilogy. Did I say trilogy? of course I did. These two games are part of a trilogy, the upcoming sequel, Dreamfall Chapters, being in production as we speak.

I'd like to talk about this a bit. Sadly, Dreamfall suffers from the "Jump to Trilogy Syndrome", also known as "Buy One Get One Free: Sequels" (NOTE: These names are purely fictional). Much like the dreaded "Dragonball Effect", this audio-visual item production trend is devastating to the content (and value) of the final product and consists in the following: The producers create a game/movie/whatever without any intention of making a sequel; when the game/movie/whatever becomes a great success, they decide to make not one, but instantly two sequels. Of course, the original material had a stand-alone ending, as no sequel was intended at that point. Because of this, the sequel features plot hooks that appear artificial, to override the ending of the first part. Also, the first sequel ends with a huge cliffhanger, to make room for the second sequel. You can observe this phenomenon at games such as God of War and movies such as the first Star Wars trilogy.

Having made this scarce general presentation, I'll proceed with the review through the comparison of Dreamfall toThe Longest Journey. First off, the game is no longer a point-and-click adventure game, instead it is an action adventure game. You now take control of your character from a third person point of view, make full use of the keyboard and also take part in scenes where talking isn't enough to get you past, but rather you require to employ force and go into combat mode or sneak past the guards that are simply just too tough to fight. This is the biggest change and can be felt throughout the game. As a downside, you can no longer experience the majestic sceneries you did in the first game. As a plus point, it creates a different approach to the game and the pacing of the three different elements (dialogue, stealth and combat) was just perfect for my taste. The controls are a bit difficult at the beginning, but you get used to them fast, however, due to a lack of a full explanation of the controls, you tend to get in situations where you know what to do, but you don't know how to do it (HINT: To throw things, you have to use the focus field, pressing the right mouse button, and then select what you want to throw from your inventory, pressing the middle mouse button).

The story of the game seems a bit far fetched at the beginning (due to the "Jump to Trilogy Syndrome"), but you get accustomed to it easily and it becomes really engaging, just like in the first game. However, if in the first game you saw the whole world through the eyes of April Ryan, the story being focused around her for most of its part, in the sequel you will alternatively control three characters, thus giving you a wider perspective of the world(s), and less focus on a single person. Also, the dialogues have changed, giving you the option of taking different attitudes towards the characters you interact with. For example, when you wish to board a ship, you may convince the captain by explaining, pleading, bribing or threatening him.

The overall feel of the game is a much more serious one. Humour and puns either come from characters of the first game, who retain they're jokes of old, or from funny reference to the original game. The sequel has few comical elements on it's own. I truly miss dialogues such as those with the guard at the crash site or the detective. Warning! This section contains spoilers. That having been said, I missed the cryptic remarks of Cortez, but were glad to see the comeback of characters such as Crow, Roper Klacks, Brian Westhouse, the Dark People, Gordon Halloway and the White of the Draic Kin. New comic faces include Theoretically Blind Bob and the Chinese Salesman. Spoilers end here.

The game seems a lot shorter than the first part. Also, I have to admit that I looked into a walkthrough at one point (in The Longest Journey I did that twice). Otherwise, the puzzles are not that difficult and quite self-explanatory. I think the highest number of items in my inventory at any given point was five.

Conclusion: for those who played the first game, this is certainly a must. You will definitely love it (and excitingly wait for the concluding part of the trilogy). To those who haven't played the first one, I recommend you skip this one and instead play that one beforehand.

The Missle Game 3D

Hell! It's about time...

No, this post is not about Starcraft 2 (I guess that's old news now, but if you haven't heard about it, visit http://www.starcraft2.com). No, this post is about another great game that's about to come out. It's probably erroneous to call something 'great' if it's still more than a year away, but when we (or at least I) say "A great game is coming out", we mean that it's a game we have great expectations of, knowing the producer, past releases, trailers and various other bits of information.

Indeed, the game I'm talking about now is an RPG, is just as old as Starcraft (in fact it's older), had a sequel, a tactics spin-off with an add-on and even a table-top game. We've been waiting for the second sequel for a long time now, but the company went bankrupt and nothing became of it. Another company has bought the rights and is now making the long-awaited sequel.

Have you guessed the game yet?



Beautiful, isn't it? (For a higher quality teaser, check http://fallout.bethsoft.com/teaser.html) The first impression it gives me is that the game seems to retain the whole feel of the Fallout universe, which, of course, is the most captivating thing in the game. I am glad that it's Bethesda who's working on Fallout 3 (not some stupid commercial company, like EA). I just hope they will keep the style of the game as well. I really wouldn't like to see a simple Elder Scrolls set in the Fallout universe, but a game that retains its tradition. It will most likely be 3D, we can't help that nowadays, I just hope they don't screw it up.

Like I said before, I think this will be a great game (as in I have high hopes and expectations, as from Starcraft 2, by the way). However, I have a fear for both of these games. Will they run on a low-end PC? Both Starcraft and Fallout (as well as Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics) ran on minimal system requirements. Will they be able to do the same for Starcraft 2 and Fallout 3? A more appropriate question would be: Is this even among their priorities? We'll have to wait and see... (unless humanity destroys itself till then, in which case we'll be playing these games on the Vault's computer)

Kana -Little Sister-

Yesterday, I played Kana -Little Sister-...

... it changed me

Game Consoles - The Tool of Satan!

Many people use game consoles. Whether Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo, kids and grown-ups alike spend a lot of time in front of the TV playing their favourite games. However, they are oblivious to the pure evil that these game consoles feed into our very soul. No, I'm not talking about violence, nudity or bad language. I'm not talking about rasist or satanic content. I'm talking about the way these games eat away at your nerves and devour your brain cells!

Thanks to my loving brother, we now own a Playstation 2. My first experience playing it occured two days ago. The game - God of War. I'm not going to detail the content of the game. I must say, it is an awesome game and it is the best action/adventure game I've played till this moment. Though the story seems like it has no link whatsoever with real Greek mythology, the game is really brutal, the atmosphere is tense and dark, and it gives every Crimsonland fan a warm fuzzy feeling inside (despite not having an Ion Cannon or Gauss Shotgun, the Blades of Chaos this guy uses are pretty cool). Enough about the game, let me tell you about my experience. I have to mention that we didn't buy a memory card for our console. This means we couldn't save the game, and had to finish it out of one go (thank you for the many checkpoints; if not for them, I would have gone mad). After playing the game nine hours strait on Friday from about 9:00 pm until 6:00 am the next day and not finishing the game, I had to restart from scratch on Saturday at about 7:00 pm and played it until 3:00 am the next, finally conquering the game. I drew two conclusions after beating the game:

1. The most important accessory for a Playstation is the memory card! This is true. It is more important than the controller. I mean it! not being able to take a break for nine hours is Hell!!!

2. Game consoles are designed to break you! Mentally and physically! After the first session, I woke up the next day with blisters on my thumbs... And game developers aren't satisfied with that. They also give you a playmat for those dancing and jumping games, so you end up with cramps. Not to mention microphones for sing-alongs and karaoke, so you lose your voice. And not only that, but they also have ray gun whatevers, to make sure your fingers aren't working as they should the next day... And when we thought it'd end there, some people come up with this whole new thing they call 'Wii' (Wii? How gay is that?), which is garanteed to make your elbows ache after the first three hours of play.

So, in the end, do you doubt that game consoles and console games are the tools of Satan? I think not!

Protector of Tyria

Ok, I will now disclose why I was so happy and which is my second reason for writing this blog (kind of).

There mioght be some of you who don't know, but I'm an addicted Guild Wars player. Guild Wars is a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game -> quite a mouthful). With the release of the Guild Wars: Factions expansion set, players are rewarded for certain achievements with different titles. Some are easier to obtain, others are quite hard.

As you can see in the image, my character, Arkon Darksoul, has earned the Protector of Tyria Title. This means that I've completed all the missions and bonuses in Guild Wars: Prophecies (the original game). Though this might not sound as a big deal, it involves a lot of work (and game hours). Sometimes you just can't find an appropriate party for that painfully difficult bonus...

Some might argue that I shouldn't be all over a game like this, and that this entire post is nonsense, to them I say exactly the opposite: if I must "waste" a lot of time in front of the PC playing games, I might as well enjoy it's few pleasurable moments.