One Long Year

Wow, its been more than one year since my last post. A lot has happen since then, I finished Bloodborne, I read a few novels, played No Man's Sky, and went on a trip in KL.

Bloodborne for me leaves the sense of dread and despair that one would get from a game like this. I'm like level 50 something in New Game+ and.. I don't want to go through all that mess again. Its less difficult now compared to how I first started in the game but the enemy attacks are still strong and simple mistakes can still get you killed. The Old Hunters expansion came out months ago but I never got the time or interest to get it. When I do get interested, I just watch other people's playthroughs in Youtube.

Months ago I read this book by Mark Lawrence I think, called Emperor of Thorns. The third book in the trilogy. Good trilogy to read, a real gritty fantasy story. Funny thing is that I read the trilogy because the title of the first was Prince of Thorns, which was  a cool title by the way.

Now, No Man's Sky. It was a cool game, travel the galaxy from one star system to another. Visit exotic planets and each can be similar, different or completely unexpected. I've been to hot places, frozen planets, toxic, radioactive, oceanic (a real word?), lush forest world and barren moons. The strangest planet I visited was a planet that had no mountains but instead long twisted arches. Another was barren planet with small arches. I think I spent more than a hundred hours on the game and it was fun. I haven't reached the center of the galaxy yet. I am either discovering new worlds or trying to travel as much as I can to the center.

Dragon's Dogma coming to PC

Now this is an awesome video game. I hope it gets ported. Dragon's Dogma is an action adventure game where players will battle against fantastical creatures in a sandbox world. I haven't played it in a long time but the experience was truly one of a kind, fighting against undead, goblins, bandits, ogres, trolls, and dragons. The best part of this game is the open world feel of exploring a mystical world full of mysteries and surprises, and fighting in amazing boss fights.

Mage against drake

The player is accompanied by pawns. Pawns are basically your team mates that join you in your battles. There four in total, including you and your personally created pawn. The two others are created from some other world or other players. Some are by default, other are more unique.

Story wise, its basically about defeating a dragon. Or is it? As you play the story develops into some more than a dragon hunt. Its about deciding the fate those around you, the world and more. It may seem that one play through is not enough to complete in the world's quests, story and mysteries.

The game has decent play through time which can get longer if the player explores more of the world.  The world map may seem small but only shows the surface of the world. There are hidden dungeons, secret areas, shortcuts and optional bosses to find.

A New Game+ feature is available that allows the player to try new decisions and taking miss opportunities. There is more side quests but only if the you follow up from your earlier mission. It may lead to surprising developments like finding out what happen to certain characters and unlocking secret equipment.

I never got the expansion, Dark Arisen. Maybe this PC port will have the expansion included. If you like fantasy action adventure, huge boss fights and mysteries, check it out.

My Thoughts on: Bloodborne

Ok, I got the game about two months ago. I have played Dark Souls so I imagined it to be like it and.. it was. Difficult, but surprisingly your character moves faster. The character start choice is just like Dark Souls except you do not get a start item in the beginning. The last character choice in the list was ridiculous, low stats. Who would bother with such a difficult start, and why put it there.

Whats new is the introduction of firearms and blood tinge trait. They kind of remind me of magic attacks in Dark Souls but faster where my character doesn't do the magic pose. Blood tinge basically is the trait that determines your firearm damage.

There are shields in the game but does not help much especially in boss fights. Parrying has been removed and replaced with stunning which is done by shooting the enemy while it attacks and hopefully it connects. The other method is to do a sneak charge attack behind the enemy.

The trick weapons are cool. They can transform into different kind of weapon. An axe transforms into a poleaxe. A cane transform into a whip. A saw sword extends it blade. There are more but its more fun to try them yourselves. I prefer Ludwig's sword. A silver sword transforms into a great sword.

Visually the game looks great. The victorian era setting looks very convincing. The bad side is that the enemies look great too. Allow me to list the scary bits. Creepy howling and screaming. Check. Deformities. Check. Extra amount of grotesque. Check. Later in the game the enemies just get weirder and more deformed, or formed with limbs, skulls, and eyeballs.

I haven't finish the game. I just reached the nightmare of mentis. I got tired of the difficulty of the game so I'm taking a break from it. I hate the frenzy effect. Once it reaches full bar, instance lost of most of your health. Hopefully I can bring myself to finish the game.

My Thoughts on: Grow Home

Grow Home is game where players control a robot to help grow a star plant from the ground to the stars. I think the goal is to keep growing the plant until it reaches the robot's space ship. The game was made by Ubisoft and developed using the Unity engine.

The reason why I mention Grow Home is that the game got voted for free in Playstation Store and since I subscribed for the Playstation Plus, I got the game for free. So far the game has been a fun. At first, the game setting seems to be on a small island. Do a little exploring, find the star plant,  and help it grow. Then the start plant starts to grow and rise higher in to the sky. Next thing, I find myself on a small floating island, looking at the colossal size of the start plant that I help grow.

I find myself climbing up and down the gigantic star plant, gliding in the air using a flower, help the star plant grow and see how high the plant grows. So far, I managed to get halfway, I think. This is the kind of game where you should take your time and enjoy the scenery. The view from where you the star plant has stop growing to where the you started is an amazing view. The distance should impress anybody. It make me wonder the view would like from space. Yes, it can grow up to space. So it suggests.

X series free to play this weekend

X series is a space simulator, PC game that I discovered years ago. I first noticed the one of the trailers for X3 Terran Conflict and I was mesmerized. Think, Build, Trade and Fight to build your intergalactic trade empire, oh i really like the idea.

I got X3 Terran Conflict years ago and when I first played it, I was impressed with the scale of the game. A truly large galaxy to discover. Huge space stations make my early space ship feel small. The space ship designs were diverse with each faction and they were truly unique to behold. The same goes for the space stations. I remember the first time I bought my first space station, the beginnings of my trading empire. Trading ships could be automated to collect my resources from my space station and sell them to other space stations. Getting enough credits to buy more ships for my fleet. The story may not be engaging but the rewards of following up on them can be great.

I'll stop here, there is literally too much to mention about. Moving on.

 In 2013, Egosoft released X3 Rebirth introducing a new HUD interface and by that I mean looking through the cockpit, not an outside camera of the ship like Terran Conflict (although there were mods for that). Also introduces a new universe due to some event in X3 Albion Prelude (got the game but never had the time). I expected this game to be great, I mean the trailer was cool with the next gen. graphics. Oh, players can now walk around their ship and have a co-pilot. This is a new thing for the series.

Screenshot of X3 Rebirth

The review that came after were bad. Metacritic gave it a 3 out 10 and Steam gave it 5 out 10. I was surprised to see this. I was really expected to be better than this. In 2014, that when patches were release and then new opinions of the game said the game was now fixed from early problems. Reviews were made on its latest patches and how it made the game 'what should have been released early on' as reviewers say.

I reconsidered to get X3 Rebirth and put under my wishlist. I got the game for a 66% discount on Steam which was cool. It was timely given the latest patch for some improvements. Hope to spend hours on it, creating my trading empire and building my fleet.

If you like space simulators, don't mind micromanaging and robotic voices, check it out.

New Game to try

And.. I'm back. Its been a long time since the last post. The months have been exhausting and so.. time-consuming. I got an interesting early access game (still being developed) to blog about, developed by Mohawk Games. Offworld Trading Company. 

Game title

So the idea of the real-time strategy game is to set-up a base on a foreign planet, extract resources, refine resources, manufacture product and sell it for profit. There is no military action where enemy factions attack to stop you from completing your objective or anything hazardous (so far). The only danger is competing companies that threatens to take your profits. The saving humanity part, I have no idea how that works.

It seems kinda like the science fiction version of the Patrician series or Sid Meier's Railroads.

In short, its about becoming a profitable off world company. Its suppose to be similar to a classic game called M.U.L.E.(stands for Multiple Use Labor Element) for the Nintendo NES. That is a really old game. 

Cover art for M.U.L.E.

The game may be old but that cover art look epic. It looks like a space prospector laying claim on an alien planet for the USA. The two in the bottom looks like their bowing to him. ALL HAIL THE GREAT PROSPECTOR.

I got the game at the price of USD$35.99 at Steam, seem pretty steep right? But so far the review have been good. I like playing economic RTS games, it a nice change from the action games, RPGs and other RTS games.

Now I'm going to try the game out.

Valkyria Chronicles on the PC

Cutscene in the game

Valkyria Chronicles is a strategic video game with shooter aspects for the PS3. It was a great game with its touching story, anime-like art design, interesting visual tone for World War 2 environment and unique game play. It had great reviews on its innovative depth into WW2 battles that was never tried before. Combining strategic gameplay with your units interacting on the battle like a 2nd person shooter game.

The main character is a tank commander who commands a squad of soldiers to defend their country, Galia. A fictional country that neighbors two powerful nations, who have at war for years and Galia has remained neutral in their conflicts but eventually the war spread to their borders. The hero leads to defend his country along side some colorful characters.

The story is both heartwarming and tragic. The hero will go through similar issues of WW2 that bring a sense of relation to better understand the world of Valkyria Chronicles and the cultural influences that can be seen in the game.

The gameplay is something that every gamer should try, its a turn-based strategy where the hero selects troopers to the battlefield. When your turn begins, you choose a soldier or tank, move across the battlefield, set up and shoot at any enemies. The shooting phase set the soldier or tank to shoot in a 2nd person shooter aspect.

2nd Person Shooter View

The each soldier you choose is unique as each of them have their personal traits that effect their battle skill. The solider could fight better in cities or forest, have better accuracy, is more resilient or can spot enemy units from farther distances. It makes you feel like your playing XCOM or Final Fantasy Tactics.

In cover

There are several DLCs for the game, introducing misadventures of certain characters in the game and another campaign on the Empire's side of the war. There is no online features which is probably why not many people heard of it but the game was succeeded into two sequels for the PSP. An anime was released years ago and it was interesting to see characters from the game in a different view.

Valkyria Chronicles has been released in Steam. If you are interested, go get it. It leaves an awesome impression.

Are Indie Games Bubbles?

First the pic above is not mine. Just using it show all the popular indie games out there, there's Fez, Minecraft, Braid, Journey, and few other I know but forgot the title. I don't the warrior lady in the center. Its a great pic.

Back to the subject, bubbles or bubble is a term used to describe the value of a commodity that keeps rising and rising till it pops then nose dives straight down to zero which is known as bubble burst. Its like trends like accessories, clothes, videos, and stuff. It just popular and fun for awhile and people get their kicks for it, but eventually people get bored and lose interest. Then nobody wants it anymore. Gone like the wind. I hope I explain that right.

The reason I mention the bubble is because there was this web article I read somewhere months ago that indie games could be a bubble. Video gamers would keep buying the latest  indie games and the popular ones. Games like Rust with its open world, online multi-player survivor game and Kerbal Space Program where player build space ships and try to travel to all the planets in the KerbalVerse (My words, no idea what the devs call it). Both are great games.

These kind of games may become less desirable and boring to some. This will lead to a decline of demand for indie games. There several causes for this and one of them is the large number of indie games. If you visit Steam and checkout the number of game under Steam Greenlight, it is a lot. The games under Kickstarter. Following the rules of supply and demand, large supply of one commodity means low demand. It doesn't necessarily mean it is just indie games, the large of supply of games from older systems and older PCs games are being offer like the ones on Good Old Games.

But how can that be when are great indie games out there? Yes, there are a lot to choose from but some standout more than the rest like Planetary Annihilation. It looks like players will be enjoying that game for years to come.

Planetary Annihilation

Another reason would be the alternative video games choices. There are great games that are on the tablet devices like the iPad and Android Tabs. There are lots of games to choose from on the AppStore and GooglePlayStore. And with the added convenience of the mobile handheld devices, this sounds better than to play them on the the PC.

Gratuitous Space Battle

But not truly alternative as some indie games have been ported to the mobile devices. Games like Gratuitous Space Battles, originally release for the PC yet it also available for the iPad. There are also some other games but I forgot.

But this is just me blogging my thoughts.

Need Stylus

Hello Internet, this is one of my earlier attempts using Paper. It's a drawing of my dad and it almost looks like him I guess. Not really. I guess I captured his something? I was using my fingers to draw. It's difficult to draw well yet it is so simple and fun to finger paint. I really need a stylus if I plan to keep drawing.

Also I have only access to ink tool, eraser and the color palette. It has more tools, pencil, marker, brush, pen and color mixer. I need to pay to use them and it tempting because the app show previews of what the tools can be used for. There's even a test box for users to try it. Still need to consider. Unlikely as I keep considering video games and Steam sales are really good.

First iPad Post

This is my post using my iPad 2 and it seems great so far. The auto-correct pop ups now and then. The pic above is a drawing of a couple of friends of mine, relaxing in the corner, I made using the Paper app on the iPad. Its fun to play with. Paper is an app where u can draw using art tools on literally digital books, or port folio if you are an artist. It has a sample book for beginners and the applications are amazing, you can use it for marketing concepts, brainstorming, rough art, idea plans, technical structure. The app has been for some time now, but give it a try see what it can used for.

Not sure if I will keep using the iPad for blogging. The on screen keyboard is a challenge to type seeing that I have always type with my hands rested on the keyboard. Its a bit tiring but it's fun and it feels so futuristic. Typing on screen like in a science fiction movie. It's also so convenient. I can post while using apps on the go. Are tablets the future of computing?

I read an web article that Apple is making the next iPad the largest ever made. Something about people preferring to use larger screens. I guess its harder to type on the mini-iPad.