Fallout 3: You Think Your Day is Bad?

To celebrate a friend blog of mine passing 1000 views in only two months, I decided to write a post in tribute to her! Congratulations Dystopianwonders! The blog is about Dystopian...ness, and I thought of what games would be best to play through?

Upon discussion with little Miss Wonders of the Dystopian, she completely fangirled over Fallout 3.

And you know, what?

I decided to play it.

I have come for your toast.
No seriously, they'd kill you for your toast. It's rare.

Minecraft: Silverfish, You.. are Unpleasant

Silverfish.

You might not know exactly what that means if you've never played Minecraft. I mean technically, you'd think of some sort of gross centipede creature, that I thought of posting a picture of, but then said naaah because that is just gross looking and sure as LLAMA won't be put in any of my posts.

NO, Silverfish are THESE LITTLE GUYS:

Courtesy of Planetminecraft.com
And "Ain't Nobody Got Time Fo Dat"

So here's how they work.

Awesomenauts: PvP and the Journey of Shaaaaaame

So, I had a bit of a break. NaNoWriMo certainly had me busy. I won!! Just call me, King! I played a scant few games in my spare time, but of those, Awesomenauts was one of the games I played earlier in the month.. and well... it's sort of awesome.

Remember when I fought those kids in Wizard101 with a friend and lost? Remember that other time when a small child pushed me into lava in Minecraft and laughed at me? Yeah. PvP just isn't my thing.

Except.

I think I found a game that has made me obsessed about it.

Life and that Jazz

I apologize for being without any updates for the entire month of November. I've been busy with NaNoWriMo, and am sooo close to winning! I didn't mean to leave you guys in the dark. I'll restart in December with some sexy, fresh posts!

Have an awesome Turkey Day! I know I will! I'm going to get soooo fat.

EDIT: Changed September to the correct month of November because I am a dunce.

Portal: The Dark Underbelly

Dear  GLaDOS,
I know you tried to burn me in a pit of fire, and I maaaay have destroyed you by throwing your cores into fire instead, but you made me throw Companion Cube into a pit of fire first. I'm noticing you may have an obsession with fire. I think we can call it even. So how about some of that cake, huh? STOP HIDING IT! 

Also, WHAT HAPPENED TO MY LEGS?!

AND I CAN MOVE THINGS WITH MY MIND! But wait.. WHY NOT MY HANDS?!

Sincerely, Chell

P.S. No I will not assume the Party Escort Submission Position!
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Bejeweled 3: Deceptively Awesome

Is Bejeweled 3 a simple mind-numbing game where you match up boring gems in a Tetris-style rip-off or a fantastical sci-fi magical futuristic adventure quest mission where you venture forth to save the entire freaking world?!

It's the second one! Minus that whole saving the world thing. I saved the world! Only I didn't.

Bioshock: A Beginning Impression

WARNING: THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS PHOTOS OF SIMULATED BLOOD AND GORE.

So I walked into a room. It's dark. It's dank. There's a mechanical whirring somewhere beyond, the unmistakable sound of a security camera as it moves one way and then the other. I take a few steps into the room, and I hear someone, but they aren't in front of me. There's a door beyond, and beyond that door I know, I know, there is someone there; there's also that stupid security camera. So I take more steps in, entering the door. I'm slow about it. I don't want to be ambushed. There's no one there. So I get a little relaxed, obviously there has to be someone further in the room. So far I'm not in any real danger. There is a wall of shelves and what looks like small hallway past it. that's where both of them have to be, that woman with her crazy voice and that security camera waiting to spot me, waiting to summon a droid to kill me. So I take more careful steps. I turn the corner of the shelf. The camera spots me with its classic triple ring, and then there's a voice that sounds like it is right behind me, almost like a whisper in my ear.

"You fell into my trap." I look around frantic but there's no one next to me.

Then there is maniacal screaming and I run, my heart beating fast. I scream, knowing she is right behind me. When I'm past the door, I turn. There's a woman with glowing, red-hot sickles at the ends of her forearms, just sticking out at the ends of her sleeves. I try to get more back, but I'm stuck. With shaking hands, I... take out my camera for a picture! Say cheese, crazy lady!

Welcome to Bioshock!

Minecraft: That One Time I was Pushed into Lava by a Child

Let's begin the story at the... beginning. That makes sense, right? I had participated in a Silver Springs Survival Server Admin Event a couple of months ago. It was basically hide and seek, but we were given sticks that contained godly powah.

Can you see the powah? Feel the powah. BE THE POWAH!

This stick made me enormously happy. Well, a few days later, some guy on server wanted to try fighting people to get their heads. You can essentially behead people and display them in your home. Not demented at aaall.

Trine: Enchanted Edition - That Forest has a Whole Lotta Spikes

Look at it. LOOK AT IT!!!

Why a forest would have such spikes is beyond me.

Trine is a game that I purchased from Steam in one of my weakest moments, which have only gotten worse. I bought it as part of the Frozenbyte collection during the Steam Summer Sale. It has beautiful graphics, as seen in the screenshot above. That screenshot is only on medium. Despite the fact that my computer does funky things when its being pushed too hard, it played the game flawlessly. So at least it isn't too heavy on systems, or at the very least not on mine. The company who makes it is a pile of sweethearts because after they released Trine 2, they updated the original Trine with the Trine 2 engine. That's where "Enchanted Edition" comes from, as well as its prettifulness... ness. That's definitely an admirable quality in any studio or publisher, especially since they updated the original games to Enchanted Edition free of charge.

Wizard 101: How to Lose to Children in PvP

It's remarkably easy.

You step into the arena expecting it to be "fun" AND THEN YOU HAVE YOUR ASS HANDED TO YOU!

I've never played in a PvP match before in Wizard101. I thought I might enjoy it, so I went to the PvP arena with my friend (you know, the same one that only appears in my Wizard101 entries). At first I thought of going it alone. I just logged on and thought, why not try PvP? Silly past me. You fool. Then I discovered there were teamed matches, so I went in with my friend. I didn't think it'd be a big deal with me being level 80, and my friend being level 88. I believe I thought it would be... "easy". HA! I'm waiting for our first battle, which took FOREVER for the queue to pop up, and my friend says it isn't a big deal. It's fun and stuff. That stuff would be pain and humiliation, for those of you who are wondering. I don't tend to like PvP because it can be uber competitive and people tend to get mean, but it's a kid's game and I've fought some really hard boss battles before, so why not? You fool.

Minecraft: Oh How I Hate you Enchanting Table

MAY LAVA DROWN YOUR SOUL. No, not you reader... Unless you're an enchanting table, THEN MAY IT BE TRIPLE DROWNED.

For some reason, EVERYONE WAS ROYALTY.

All right. I'm sure those of us who have played Minecraft have had an unfortunate experience with an enchanting table, right? I mean, that table just took everything it wanted and left you with pennies. And they were the ugliest pennies evah.  Fortunately, not a whole lot of work goes into securing my levels because I play on a public server called Silver Springs Survival, and there is a public experience farm available. Hahaaa! I cheet.

Don't let that lure you into a false sense of security. Oh no! No no. My story is a dark and terrible one. *makes ghost noises* Wooooo. You see, playing online gets you used to certain things. Going to be away from the computer? Easy, use the /afk command and you are instantly invulnerable! Super easy to do, and none of that sticky grease! Wait. What. Saves you lots of time, especially when you're in an inconvenient place like a cave or out in the open. This is the story of how I forgot. Naturally.

Wizard101: The Quest for Fishing Screenies

So I recently uploaded a post about fishing.

But let me use this post to tell you how much a pain it was gathering all those precious little screen shots! I had been taking screenies all along but it was because I was trying to enter the fishing contest at Legends of the Spiral. WHICH MEANS all of the super cool fish I caught had the chat box open, which partially obscured the screen, and it was just not a pretty sight.

You see? DO YOU SEE?!

So I had to recatch most of the fish that I wanted to show off. Luckily, I got the two of them. However the third AND COOLEST!! remained uncaught because those precious little Dekoi who need to swim in a blender got all up in my face. But now that I look at it, the fish size is blocked so this was a fairly fail screenshot to begin with. (the contest was to catch the biggest fish. How are they supposed to judge it IF THEY CAN'T SEE THE SIZE?!).

Wizard101: Fishing, all the youngins are doing it!

I was forced to take a small break from Wizard101, because... well... I'm was busy taking over the world. It's true. I failed. However, upon my return to Wizard101, I noticed a new craze that's driving those young whippersnappers wild! Who seriously says whippersnappers.

FISHING!!!

I'll admit, at first I was a bit hesitant. I thought, why you gotta be all up in my water fish? With your shadows up in my face and ruining the water surface and what not? To speak plainly, I thought of the fish shadows as a bit of an eye sore. I enjoyed having the pristine water surface and I LOVED running through it. Because I'm a bad ass like that, that's why. Then I gave fishing a try.

Wizard101: Level 80 and Beyond!

I HAVE BECOME A KING!

I mean.

What.

Me in Dun Dara

I'm now level 80 in Wizard101 with my Ice Wizard. I'm almost out of Avalon and I've enjoyed its particular mature yet fluffy feel. The shrines with their ridiculously long names have been cracking me up, but I also think a lot of the qualities that they embody are pretty interesting. For instance, one that I dealt with was the Shrine to Hospitality and Good Manners between Foxes, Dogs, Badgers, Otters, Humans and Faeries.  I believe it represents protecting those in your home and making sure no harm comes to them. The storyline is essentially that the player must become a knight to do awesome cool fun stuff with a dash of epic and these qualities are important to a knight. I'm rolling over the idea of a Wizard101 fan fiction and I sincerely wished I had written those names down.

City of Heroes is Having Tons of Babies

Ever play the now deceased City of Heroes? I did, and I loved it until I moved on to Champions Online in 2010. That's right. I'm a traitor. Please don't spear me. It felt a bit dated to me at the end, but I always harbored a secret desire to go back. It had that certain sparkle of originality. I always wanted to immerse myself back in that game, and I full well planned to when I saw a water freaking power set released!! I was amazed. Champions could never get the physics and looks quite right for a water set, but lo-and-behold the mighty Paragon Studies had done it. Well, like with everything else, I procrastinated. Then the news came and it met the mighty cancellation axe of NCSoft. I couldn't help but feel a bit disheartened, or more like shattered, alongside everyone else. The site is still up but with a closure notice. It's just sort of depressing.

http://cityofheroes.com/en/sunset.php

All Glory to the Steam Sale

Gamespot.com

 And praise be to Valve!

Steam is a digital platform that allows you to buy and play games with friends or by yourself. It has a massive selection of games and I've fallen in love with it because of some friends who practically forced it upon me. But something that I love more than the games, are the sales that happen in the summer and winter. You have not truly lived until you have experienced a Steam sale. It's like walking around in a candy store of savings.

Minecraft: Why Playing Creative with A Seven-Year-Old Can be a Bad Idea

BECAUSE THEY ARE DESTRUCTION INCARNATE!!

But let's back up.

Behold the blocky!

For those of you who don't know, Minecraft is an open sandbox game that has no form of linear progression. It was based on the idea of building for building's sake, using stylistic boxy and heavily pixeled graphics. Basically, Minecraft has two main modes. There is survival where you will be forced to survive through monster filled nights by building yourself a shelter, producing food and making yourself new shinies from things you've gathered. Then there is the calm and quiet creative where you have unlimited access to whatever blocks you want and you are allowed to just build (and flyyy!). I prefer building in the challenge of survival because creative, while fun, can get a bit boring after a while.

Final Fantasy X-2: Why, Just, Why.

Let me just start by saying that it is my GREATEST REGRET that the first Final Fantasy I bring up in this blog is Final Fantasy X-2. However, the blog must go on. Despite its reputation, I actually liked Final Fantasy X-2 growing up. I played it when I was younger, naturally after having dabbled in Final Fantasy X, and I liked it for one main reason: the battle system was a lot of fun. It was a bit of a change from the traditional ATB system used in older Final Fantasies. You know the typical JRPG turn based systems where you go and they go but you all stay in perfect little rows. Sort of slow paced, but not slow enough when everyone dies one by one in screaming agony as you frantically press buttons and yell at the tonberry on the screen in sheer terror for the very first time.

Or so was my experience in Final Fantasy VIII at the age of ten or so.

It forgot to mention that it feeds on human tears...

Okay, so the battle system is pretty much the same except now they move around in weird and clunky ways with strange camera angles and even stranger job change animations in the middle of combat, BUT MORE THAN THAT, I enjoyed Square bringing back the job system itself. I was in love with Final Fantasy V because of the job system and all the the variety it gave to playing the game, and I was thrilled to have it back again, only later being exposed to Final Fantasy 3 and loving that as well. (Although, a bit sad in Final Fantasy X-2 without a summoner job). THAT is what really hooked me. Seeing all those skills progress stirred something in me than no man ever will! Oh yes, I'm talking about those sexy job juices!


                                                                                                                      Oh, and I also liked 1000 words.

         I can't explain why, especially having not gotten up to this part for many years, but I love this part and this is a good moment from my childhood.


BUT FOR SOME ODD REASON I had the desire to try it out again. I found myself craving the battle system and just fighting, leveling up each job and beating the game! It went smoothly for a bit... but then it happened. I noticed a baby cry in part of a song. Mind you, before this the music had been annoying me a bit. It was very pop, cute and light; an extreme turn from the somber and melodic music of the past. True, past songs weren't always deep, but majority did lean for the dark, serious, and epic tone. I don't hate Final Fantasy X-2's music, not at all. Some songs are great, like Eternity: Memories of Lightwaves.

But then.

BUT THEN.

 That damn baby happened.

And I had to take a step back and think, did I really just hear that? Well, yes. Yes, I did. You see, they incorporated a baby's cry into a song. It was a quick part, just a "Whaa!" This was not in a dark and malicious way. Oh, no. They weren't twiddling their thumbs and had babies lined up to fill their dreadful and maniacal chorus about a crazy woman who wants to hunt shiny balls with her two friends in Final Fantasy Job Cosplay outfits! Nope, just that "whaa."

Gawd, did I hate that "Whaa."

And suddenly, every track seemed to scream at me about how it wasn't a real Final Fantasy, about how things are different, but I shrugged it off, and thought, I can do this. You loved this game! I had noticed the strange sound before, but I never fully processed it. I tried to shrug it off and move on, marching toward some awesome moments I remember from I was younger from either playing  through myself or watching my younger brother play (which I do admit is how I was first exposed to it). However children... there is something called pushing it too far. I lasted about another ten minutes before I set foot on the Thunder Plains, thinking that I'd get some side quests done and that'd put me in a better mood.

I was terribly wrong.

I'm in Chapter 2 and some lazy ass guy is all like, "Oh there's so many towers, why don't you calibrate them by dancing and I'll go rest at an inn, Kay?" Well, my name's not Kay you lazy son of a bitch! He doesn't actually say that, but he may as well have. Bastard didn't even bother to help! He just complained about how annoying it was, leaving the second he found a pigeon to do it for him.

Once again I shrugged it off, thinking it wouldn't be too bad. I started the minigame and low and behold the sound to meet my ear was FUCKING ELEVATOR MUSIC!!
OH. 
HELL.
NO.
I don't even. How do you go from this.

To This.

                                                                               Just re-listening to it has made my eye twitch with fury!


There were about twenty of those damned towers. I put the game down after the first. For many people, the game's bubblegum and pop-nature makes it a laughable addition to the Final Fantasy franchise. It isn't very serious a majority of the time, and what is serious is hard to take seriously when you had just heard music with babies crying in it minutes before. Naturally, I'm being a bit facetious. I don't hate the game, but I'm going to draw the line for now at elevator music with a big HELL NO. Perhaps when I'm over it I'll finish the game and give some more of my thoughts, but for now I feel like the music is a bastardization of the brilliant pieces of the past.

Music is a key component of a really good game. It makes it memorable for me, and I have a horrible track record of having played most Final Fantasies, loving the series deeply, BUT NEVER FINISHING!! (I've got 2, 3 and 13 as actually being beaten) You know why? The stories are great, but more than that, the music is just plain awesome! Nevermind that tedious battle system. Even that Final Fantasy XIII mess has AMAZING music, at least in the first, and only, game that I've played so far, but Final Fantasy X-2? It has some good stuff, but a lot of it is bland and uneventful, or just plain strange. I just don't understand. They could have put out a story and atmosphere that could have rocked as much as the first! Granted, there are parts that stand out, such as when you first visit Zanarkand and Yuna is devastated about it essentially being turned into an amusement park... but then they did this. Why, Just why.

But fear not! I'll leave you with a few songs of what I consider to be the best of the Final Fantasy Franchise (there are so many, and I'd be hesitant to call these the top three, but HEY LISTEN!!) Enjoy!

Wizards 101: Not Just for Kids

One of the games that I've been into lately, believe it or not, is Wizard101.

Me in Zafaria

I play it with one of my best friends and we use it as a time to talk on the phone and help each other out, more her helping me than anything else. The game is not just for kids. The game is a destroyer of time. It is a destroyer of willpower. I've had times when I was nearly at the point of tears. The game is recommended for children. Don't let the stigma surrounding it fool you. It will crush your soul.

A New Day

So, here's the thing. I've always wanted my own blog. I always thought it'd be really cool to have a place to write faithfully, regardless of views and comments, and just to feel a certain kind of release and gratitude to be able to jot down my feelings, emotions, and experiences where people could read them if they chose, or I could just write for myself, because, you know, writer's love to write for themselves (Not sarcastic, I swears!). Thing is, I've had several attempts at this sort of thing. I've tried to write a few different blogs, my latest attempt being Final Fantasy 14 from when before it turned into A Realm Reborn (holy crap, was that two years ago? No? Just a year? Meh. I'm fine then.). I think the issue was that the blogs were too focused.
One of my best friends has started a cool blog about her oversea experiences, she's traveled in Germany, China and is currently in Argentina, and hilarity insures. I want that. I want hilarity. So I've decided to create yet another new attempt! I give you... A Gamer's Story, the blog dedicated to my gaming experiences! What's that you ask? That's the first part of my title for my Final Fantasy 14 blog? Well this is the unfocused much more ADD edition! Yaaaaay!
I'm actually pretty excited. I used to have a vlog, but I hated my face on camera. This allows me to practice my writing, while also allowing me to write about one of the things I love to do! Besides writing, of course.
So I hope you've strapped yourself in because I've good a good feeling about attempt number... 5000. Let's go with 5000.

Cheers, all!