Holiday Joys

I would just like to say... I spend too much in Steam. Its the second last week of the Steam Holiday Sale and I really spent too much. Just yesterday I bought Hotline Miami and it was great. Sudden deaths, quick pace game play, gushing brutally and maddening story. I'm juggling time playing video games, reading fantasy novels, and watching youtube vids.

Tragedy, nothing but tragedy

Started on The Walking Dead Episodes, got the 400 days DLC. I finished the game already but I want to try all over again and this time with the DLC. Cause like time I played the DLC was included yet. My brother bought it and played it. Saw his game play and it was as crazy as the rest of the game. Its about four characters in the world of The Walking Dead and their short stories. The amount of time spent on each character is a quarter of one episode so it should be pretty short. On their short adventures you will recognize some of the characters from the early episodes.

Anno 2070

The Anno series features cities building, resource management and cultural buildings. Been wanting to try the game since the release in 2011. It is set in the future in the year 2070 where the world is..... I don't know. The intro didn't explain much except for the three factions in the game; the economic people, the green people, and science people. Can't remember their names. Each faction offers different benefits; economic people are richer but harms environment, the green people nurtures natures but slows development and... you get the idea. Oh, you can build underwater facilities. That's cool. 

First mobile blog post

Hello internet, this is the first time I'm using my Iphone for the blog. Its rather convienient for me to take post on the go. This post is created using the blogger app that I found in the appstore. It was free so I gave a go. I'm curious to see what blogger will come up next.

On the Instance of Experience

Gaming in a sense is to project yourself upon a greater reality through the avatar that we control. What we see, and when we see it, is a window to a greater calling of adventure and excitement. Originally, I always discussed the amazement on how video gaming in a sense became a medium of self expression within the art forms of another.

Dare we say, the Interactive Narrative is what became of contemporary entertainment since the days when home video challenged cinema. We become engulfed to our seats upon the immersiveness of how gaming is today. Let me declare that Beyond: Two Souls (just as its predecessor, Heavy Rain) is outright cinema, with interactions that build a storyline. One would realise that this isn't plausible in the older days. Might as well place a controller in front of a theatre and play as you please.

Only we are now able in the comforts of our own home. So hay ho! Welcome to the future of stories! Where the storm reaches the eye in the small boxes that carry the ocean data as we live and breathe. The holographic sense of hallucinations we swim in. This is video gaming. Rarely defined by mere experience, but the act of living in the virtual world where even today, we find each other face to face. Just not the same.

As a bonus though. Check out this song of Ellen Page's Cover of BECK's "Lost Cause". A virtual masterpiece, although temporary in the age of technology but immortal in impression for most video gamers out there.



Cheers!

Steam comes with Holiday Treats

Its STEAM HOLIDAY SALES. Steam is giving discount for ton of games. The sales started from 15th December till 5th January, 2014. Discounts changed daily and over 8 hours. Check them out, they may have a game you want at a discount.

Here are some tips to follow;

• Check often, you might see a game you want at a good price
• Be patient, some game prices will be even lower
• Explore catalog, the holiday sales discounted most games but not the latest additions
• Spend wisely, there might a great game at a lower price. Try weighing that game's price with another price that comes with more than one game.
• Check its DLCs, some of the games downloadable content is worth it.

XCOM's cousin: The Bureau

Last week, Steam gave a discount to a science fiction shooter The Bureau: X-COM Declassified. The game is a spin-off from the X-COM series. Unlike X-COM, The Bureau is a action shooter where you lead a special team against alien forces who are ravaging the earth.

Scary silhouette

Starbound Adventures

Hello Internet, I bring more tales of galactic conquest and experience where no man has done before (quote from Star Trek). So far Starbound has been updated a few times a week, either to fix errors, adjust balancing or to add new features. The latest update was to improve balancing to make the game easier for advancement. There are new crafting recipes to try out and a new boss to defeat. In order for you to unlock more advance crafting recipes, you have to craft certain items to proceed. The main ingredients for them are all boss drops, which mean you have to defeat bosses in order to get better tools and armor.

Some planets you explore may have settlements. These places allow you to shop for their cultural garments and clothing blueprints for you to craft later. There are also new food recipes to discover. The settlement I discovered is shown in the pic above. It was an avian settlement that I found while exploring a magma planet. Explore the houses, found some pixel, some books for the codex and shops selling weapons, and armor. Oh, equipping weapons in public is a no no. Do so and the guards will keep watch. Know that killing one of the settlers or guards will immediately deem you a hostile and killed on sight. It was nice to see the cultural difference in these settlements. Avian building use lots of wood and clay, Apex buildings are more modern and Glitch buildings are medieval.

The pic above shows a building with a sign in front that says USCM penal colony. I have no idea what that means but when I entered I was attacked by people who look like convicts. They were wearing orange jumpers and attempted to kill me. As I explored the area, the building was actually a prison with its bar doors and cells. Looked around found some pixels and weapons in the cupboards and crates.

Yes, I have found a tentacle planet. As you can see it looks creepy from the space ship. When I went down, it was pretty average. Just another planets with its flesh soil (it was red and as I dug it out it had a squishy sound) and tentacles sticking out of the ground. When chopped one tentacle, it dropped wood. That was unexpected; I hope to find a piece of the tentacle.

Here I was fighting the newly added boss, the Jelly King and its babies (think it was its babies). I got it stuck in my trap. It can’t reach thus it can’t kill me, not even with its babies. I simply built a small platform and attacked from there. It was so easy; it shot me a few times but nothing serious. When it defeated it, it dropped an endorphin jelly as an ingredient for new upgrades and thus unlocking new crafting recipes.

My thoughts on State of Decay

There is a trend in the video game market for survival games where players have to survive a hostile environment, especially from zombies. Not sure what started the trend but I believe it is largely influenced from the Walking Dead TV series. Average people trying live in world of constant danger; the show is heavily dramatized and has some shocking climatic scenes. Average people, not military trained soldiers, not equipped with high-tech weaponry, just you’re everyday people.

I would like to introduce to you another zombie survival game, State of Decay. Apparently it is a based on another game (not sure). You start in the middle of park discovering for the first time the zombies that roam the game world. The controls are immersive, the character movements decently fluid and pacing is little faster than realistic. Combat is easy to get into; you can go melee with your weapon or shoot with your gun (if you have one). The game works like an RPG, equip your character in the inventory screen and killing zombies increases your fighting experiences. Collecting XP lets you choose your skills and upgrade your current ones.

Incoming zombie

Rome 2, One of the Best Strategy Games of 2013

Hello Internet, back for more gaming stories. This time I would like to mention a certain video game of which in my opinion captures some of the most epic scenes done in movies. A game which attempts to emulate the glory of battle. A game which creates an opportunity for players to set plans for world domination. That game... is Rome 2 Total War.

British Confederation vs. Gallic Confederation

Starbound Day 4

A toilet on the moon?

Hello Internet, its the fourth day into Starbound and I found a toilet on a moon. Strange thing to find it on a barren moon and even stranger what was in hole. Do you see the ladder on the image above? I went down to see what was down there and I found a poop monster... You know the universal symbol of poop? A dark brown pyramid shaped thing, except the one I discovered had big eyes and a smile on its face. Oh, it tried to kill me but I killed it first. Imagine the shame, be defeated by a poop.

This is just a small adventure I went through on a moon, there are still other worlds to explore and more adventure to experience. What great about? The game is still in beta, which more stuff to come. More bosses, crafting recipes, and other types of worlds to discovered. I checked out the Starbound wiki and apparently there is a tentacle planet. The idea of a planet with tentacles is both scary and interesting. What sort of treasures are there on such a planet?

Let's Start Over Again

Hello Internet, it has been some time since my last post. Busy with school and stuff (mostly gaming). Its December holiday for me now and I intend to put some time into this blog.

To put something out there, I have been playing Starbound, an open-ended sandbox game where you can explore planets across the galaxy. Its still in beta (still being developed) but the game is great. I've defeated the first boss, a UFO piloted by a penguin (didn't see that coming). Its day 3 into the game and my save got wiped due to update to add new stuff and to fix game balancing.

I will show pics next time to show what the game looks and here's a hint, it in pixel.