Anza is disappoint: Twilight Princess and Ganondorf Discussion

Why is that blog not about Skyward Sword? Because I didn't finished it yet. Moving on.

I was wasting some time on youtube, as I often do (DX), and fell on something nasty. Just a bunch of 12 years old kids braggin' about Twilight Princess being the best Zelda game ever made because it is in *Tree Dee*. So far, nothing bad. I usually ignore stuff like that.
But then, this happened. Ganondorf being at his best in Twilight Princess? Nope. I refuse. I do not compute such flawed logic. Evil just faceslap'd itself at your comment. The game can be what it is, but I must admit that they butchered what Ganondorf really is when they made TP.
So before I start hammering on it (these brats will never read this anyway. Whatever XD), allow me to clarify a little detail:
Twilight Princess is a good game!

..No, really! I am not trolling you. Sure, some things like a magic bar, fire-based weapons and magic items among others, difficult enemies (:S) and so on were missing. The trailer let me thought this was an older people oriented Zelda. I was wrong, of course, but it still said that to my brain! I would have imagined people being endangered, fighting overwhelming foes and exploring creeping and dangerous traps-filled dungeons. Sadly, none of that happened. However the game did have good elements, both old and new: Arrow bombs, dual grappling hook, a sky temple, DRAGONS, a parallel dark world, a pretty awesome cutscene involving Dark Link (too bad that was all), some very interesting bosses, some nicely hidden secrets...All of these were nice things to have. Still, I believe, it my own opinion, that it cannot compete with the older games due to the core of TP lacking.

What I really hated about the game can be shortened in three points:
-A darker, more serious theme with challenges for players.
-Storytelling.
-Ganondorf and the way they made him.

I will start with the third point, Ganondorf. See, I am a big fan of A link to The Past. It is one of my favorite game ever made for many reasons, mostly it's absorbing and influencing theme and world. Of course, Ganondorf was AMAZING in this game. He forced you to go through so much misaventures he is pretty much considered the version of Ganondorf that pushed Link to his limits the most. Oh, and here's why A Link To The Past is amazing:
People die in it.
I know right? Right where the game starts, you can feel something is dead wrong. Your uncle goes out in a stormy night and as you try to follow him you can feel these red eyes watching you. The guards are all under the influence of Agahnim. They all have spooky empty visors. Only their eyes can be seen. Sometime later, you find your uncle, dying. He pretty much begs you to save Princess Zelda or else the world as we know it will end. Then he dies. despair fills your mind as you go upstairs, slaying possessed soldiers who were once good guys. Maybe you even knew them...

See what I mean? No other zelda games did that, not even the original. So when I saw the trailer for TP I was super excited. And then I was angry.

Ganondorf is supposed to be the embodiment of jealousy/envy, hatred and wrath, THEN power. That is how he must be.When the first three elements are present, like in ALttP or OoT, then you can make him *feel* powerful. For examply, when I think Ganondorf, I imagine him screaming and punching the floor SO HARD it crumbles under your feet. I imagine him spinning his spear over his head and fire bats will come out and go straight at you. He never falters, retreat or take a break. It is him or you. If he needs to make his own castle collapse over your head, he will. And he love his castle a lot. He always does.

In Twilight Princess, you do not really see nor feel that. Here's how the Ganondorf in TP was:
-Manipulative, suggestive.
-Taking possession of others in order to protect himself.
-Transforming into a beast BEFORE trying something else.
-The horse battle was nice, but he was actually RUNNING AWAY (faceslap).
-Trapping you in a closed area and challenging you in close battle where he kept W+1. Turn-off.

So, in order of appearance:
1: Ganondorf NEVER mapilulate others. He force them to obey him, simple as that, may it be mind dominion or whatever.
2: Hiding behing (or inside) others doesn't feel Ganondorf at all. I think it was cowardly of him.
3: His transformation in Ocarina of Time was a last resort decision, not an option. This is why it was awesome.
4: If Ganondorf was on  a horse, YOU better run away from him. Not the way around. Please!
5: Ganondorf did challenged you in melee battle before (in Wind Waker) but he did so in a weird way. He was flying around, jumping everywhere and seemed to have eyes behind his back, as if he was helped by...magic perhaps? He also bitchslapped Zelda. He could've killed her, but she was only a nuisance. A skin itch. Even if it backfired. Both WW and TP's Ganon fights could have been better (with the use of magic spells with gimmicks implemented in them for example), but the WW one was more likeable. To me at least.

Of course, all of these points are IMO. But I'm right anyway and I know it :D



Now that this is out of the way, let's go back to Twilight Princess. I absolutely hated how the game started and simply wanted to get rid of it. Why do he have to start in a peaceful town? Again! Why only the kids are kidnapped, why not the rest of the village? And why are the people in the world oblivious to what is happening?

See, why not making the story like this. Ganondorf is already in a position of power. When Link was a baby, monsters attacked his town. They brought everyone somewhere and made them into slaves. When Link is older, he escapes for whatever reasons (rescuing others would have been good here) and he starts by looking for help from other races. However some monsters catched up to him and THEN transforms him into a wolf. In this form, he finds Midna, who is from a race also enslaved by Ganondorf. Bam, storytelling!
(sure it looks like Cohan, but it's still better. It's the point DX)

A different story like the example I gave above would have been perfect for setting two points:
-A darker setting.
-Dark link. Yeah, I would be pissed and filled with bad emotions if I was enslaved for several years, so a fight with his inner self would have been well implemented. Nintendo, serve the fans! XD


I still enjoyed TP enough to complete it. 100% run. But then I never ever touched it again. I tend to beat most of the zelda games multiple times, including the three hearts challenges, yet I never ventured into this one for a second time. I don't feel like it. Twilight Princess could have been an awesome game with a new twist and all. Instead it was simply a good game among others. Oh well. I could go on for days when I talk about Zelda stuff, so I will stop here. Let's just hope that Skyward Sword will fill my expectation (So far it's not).
Thank you for reading this somewhat huge post, I hope you appreciated it. Please *like* if you liked, as everytime you do *like* something, somewhere a hyrulean will smile.
Have something to say, opinions to share and questions to ask? Leave a comment down there, I read all of them! It also makes Google bots think my post is worthy of more attention XD

Skyrim

I have a somewhat good relationship with The Elder Scrolls and Bethesda in general. I know their games very well but never managed to finish them because of something else getting my attention, despite the amount of fun they brought me. I was kind of sceptic that Skyrim would be any different.

I am always happy to be wrong.

Turns out it may be my first victorious full-fledged playthrough of the series. Skyrim gave me pleasant surprises in it's first ten minutes, stealing my freedom for a good 6 hours straight, and it keeps delivering. This never happened since Mass Effect, who was another surprise at the time, but that is something else. Sure, Skyrim got Fallout-lienated somewhere in the making but I have no problem with that. Same for most of the NPCs having their hands nailed to their waists when they have nothing scripted to do. And same for the game becoming a lot more simple, which I think is another plus.

Might as well jump into this last point right away. A lot of things changed, some for the bad but most for the best. Yep, in addition to the super shiny AND useful menu, the updated magic system, the skill trees and the *each hand is independent to the other* thingy, it appears that you can SPRINT! A real fast sprint too, not just a smooth relaxing jogging while being bombarded by spells, arrows and gooey stuff like zombies as if time was not an issue. In fact, Bethesda didn't had to pull their hair out with a super bad ass trailer. All they had to do was to show a player character sprinting away from an ambushing mountain kitty. And then you loop this 10 seconds clip three or four times to give you good length, and then you succeed in life. The best decisions are the simple ones indeed.

What's best is that you can now combine these mechanics to better results. For example, blocking is now useful when you wanna make the two-hander *piss off* then rush towards the poor mage zapping you, which would have been impossible and useless before. having two *independent* hands, a la Bioshock 2, is amazing because you can now relish a lighter, quicker weapon without the beforehand unavoidable shield of I-reduce-efficiency +2. Fighting with a sword and popping a spell at the same time is quite satisfying, especially when flame throwers are involved (or icegun throwers, whatever suits you. That one is for you Nick XD).

-But wait, if you can fight with spells and melee at the same time, then what's the point of making a pure mage or warrior?

Good question. Because mages can use BOTH hands at the same time. It's like a two-hander but with fireballs instead, it's really fun. Trained mages also have an improved casting in a spell school if they use both hands, which results in a slightly different spells. For example, a warrior using both hands to cast a *flamethrower* spell will end up with two normal (and little) jets of fire, one for each hands. But the mage skilled in destruction magic will be able to *combine* his hands, forming a huge stream instead. Sort of like ghostbusters. The only sad part is that you cannot combine different elements or effects but I guess it makes sense. A fireball that heals you might be confusing. What's also nice is that taking cover in front of a mage and taking the safe but longer path is worthwhile now because spells will not go through rocks and corners just because their animations told them to do so. Except if you have nuke AoE bombs, then it makes sense.

Same with warriors. Being skilled with your weapons doesn't only mean you will deal more damage, you will attack more efficiently. It's the difference between finesse and smashing things with a big, slow log made of iron really. I tried to hit an enemy with my mage using a two-handed sword power attack. It wasn't pretty at all and I ended up missing him because my blow took ages. And I wasted all of my stamina. And I died because my enemy thought I was extra slow and I couldn't run away.

I am sure the thieves, assassins and speechfull bureaucrats also have their share of goodies, skill related, however I did not try to play with those yet. I can say, however, that not all the skills encountered in the previous games are in Skyrim. There is *only* 18 of them, but do not let that number anger you. Some skills are the gathering of numerous ones, like the one or two handed weapon skills affecting all weapon classes. Because you would think that a warrior would know the difference between a log and a butter knife. Additionally, the attribute (strength, intelligence, etc) system is gone. Weapons will not break (but enchantments will depletes) so the armored skill is gone and replaced with blacksmith. Acrobatics is also gone, replaced with nothing at all which made me cry a little. My favorite strategy in previous TES games was to jump down a hill, successfully levelling my legs. After a too-much-numerous-levelling-up time I ended up making 10 meters high jumps and could access rooftops and other unreachable areas, bombarding my enemies with fireballs. Fun times in Morrowind and Oblivion.

Well, it's a good thing in the end. I only cried for a minute or two because I realised at some point that my life and mana bar was going up by itself. At first I thought that dragon had a particularly good breath this morning but then realised that it went up all the time. This means, among other things, that rushing and whacking enemies as fast as you can in order to suffer the less damage possible is not the ultimate best strategy there is. You can take out a few dudes, go hide somewhere to let your mana bar go up a bit and get back into the fray. Potions or healing magic are no longer a dependence and are now used for emergencies. There is no limit on how many bottles you can shove down your gutter, but you do not have that much to begin with so it's all right. Well, in my case anyway, I wasted all of my cash levelling up my blacksmith skill. Apparently I can craft elfic gear and I still didn't see a single one of them ( I mean the elfs themselves). No game is perfect XD

Graphically the game is great. Oh, the mountains, plains and creatures are as enchanting as every other TES games (compared to their respective times), here I am talking about *oh snap* moments. Especially spells and other sparkles. Lighting effects aren't the best but it's nice to see the bad guy you just set on fire actually generating light. Force effects (like force push...screams?) are nice to see since they push back the entire environment, dust, objects, remains and vegetation included. Same with large creatures running, jumping or landing. Spells are not only pretty, they're really fun to use...on rocks! The first time you will see a dragon breath fire on a wall you will stop playing for a second or two and admire the fiery stream splitting on the surface. Ice spells will freeze the landscape, fire spells will burn the ground, fun stuff overall. To note, the grassy plains being brushed by the wind is really convincing however the gatherable plants and flowers will not move at all. No game is perfect, and it's not a sore to the eye. It took me some time to realise it.

As for the audio, no worries there. The orchestra will follow your epic battles and adventures wherever you go and you may tremble in the face of a very angry gigantic creature roaring at you. Voice actors can be dull sometimes, but nothing dramatic or annoying. I'm interested in the big monsters anyway so points for Bethesda and their priorities, you can keep your occasionally bland actors :D


So. Is the game close to perfection or what? Course not!
The game does have it's share of problems, bugs and dumb AI, but nothing I should get angry at. Sure, I may be patient to the point of not using powers against Spark Mandrill...or Crash man DX... but nothing made me want to punch the screen in rage or annoyment yet. Some rare times you will be stuck on a ledge for a second or two, and it may happen at a bad time. Sometimes your enemies will derp over a bridge, wondering what to do as you arrow them to death. Or sometimes they will get stuck in a doorway. Even NPCs just wandering around in towns will go complete retard. Once, a man going up and a woman going down were trapped in each other. None wanted to collide with the other. I actually watched the scene for a good 5 minutes, tried to push them and stuff, they stayed like that. Amazing.

When you will realise that crafting a chesplate then a knife will give you the same amount of experience you will rage a bit. Made items should take the item consumption into consideration, and that includes alchemy. Really dumb of them. Similarly, abusing the butter knifes and cheap potions is too easy. Yes, this annoys me more than any other bugs in the world and I am surprised that nobody figured this one out. Pretty fields and birds are working just fine, but DAMN this knife is tempting me to farm it to death!

But these bugs aren't bugging me, they're just funny (except the knifes). At least they make you realise that Skyrim is a game, not the life you would like to live.


So, in short? Skyrim is a neat upgrade on it's predecessors despite it's flaws. The game is so huge you shouldn't stop for such trivial annoyances. It removed a lot of things that bothered me in previous TES games by adding and changing some features, and I think the sacrifices were worth it. It worked very hard on impressing you and it succeeded. Sometimes you will literally drop your jaw. The game is simple yet enjoyable and it's easy to leave it for a while. You will be tempted to try out different characters and to explore various areas. I even loaded some segments of the game just to redo it a couple of times. It could be seen as more of the same, and I would agree to this, but it does have it's unique charm. For me, it was worth my buck. I usually do not give scores to my reviews but the Geek team invited me with open arms (even if this review ends up in my personal Blog). Frenchy gives Skyrim a 8.5 out of ten and will stop being frenchy (but it is impossible).

Thanks for the read and I hope you enjoyed!

Anza's Journal (09 Nov. 2011)

Man, this week is filled with fails you shall never see. You will read about these fails, but that's it.

(btw I am in a very good mood since HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANZA)

So, let's start with The Binding of Isaac. God I love this game. God I want to punch it in it's three eyeballs. Just today, three games resulting in three horrible fails happened. The worse one... I end up with a bottle of pills and a LOT of damage and rate of fire upgrades. I then fall on a devil room containing the cat (or 9 lives). I tell myself *hey, I already saw the health upgrade pill, and I'm playing as Cain. This means no downgrade pills.  EVER!*
So I decide to take it. Only have 3 hearts at the moment anyway so this might work. Here's what happened:

Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are keys.
Bombs are FREAKIN KEYS ARRGH I AM IN WOMB 2 **dead**

I also didn't see ANY health upgrades or whatever. Just range+ and speed. You know, to DIE FASTER!



I jumped into Dungeons of Dredmor. To die a lot more :D
And I did so graciously. I blowed my own face with a tentacular wand twice on level 2, got pwned by 5 spellcasters all in the same closet, then I tried some new builds involving alchemy, but the only thing I got out of it in over three floors were mana potions and poisons useless by themselvess. Especially when you're bleeding like a zerg (*pig* was tempting to place here, but I am a geek first). Then, after finally making it through floor 6 and gaining a kick ass sword (a katana I forged myself) I go back to the first floors where I kept the anvils of Krong intact.

Minus piercing damage
Minus piercing damage again
Plus magig power (useful when you have no spells)
Minus magic power (yay)
Increased mana regen (yay again)
and Minus slashing damage. Thank you Krong. Oh and then I die.

Serves me right for playing on GR with permadeath on.


Then, I played some Left 4 Dead 2. Finally, a game where you can build your own luck. I overplayed this game so much I ended up not playing for a whole two months. But I finally got the urge to play it (I actually waited a few days). This past Sunday, my cousin ended up in my place and he brought his super laptop. So we ended up playing L4D2 together for a few matches. Thing is, he never played Versus, so I ended up coaching him (in french, I might add, so it was a lot easier). He made up so much progress in a single day, but still...man is he a lucky SOAB (with love). First witch he encounters, as a boomer, he barfs on the closest survivors, misses them but manage to get close to them before dying, witch kills someone. Second witch, again as a boomer, he does the same, survivors throws molotov at their feet, everyone burns while the witch is pissed. Third witch, against rushers, he manages to barf on a single dude who somehow ignored both the charger and jockey but walked straight into the witch. Realising something was blocking him, he shoved. Good moments XD

At least I wasn't failing, so I was laughing too. All right that's enough ranting for the whole week!

The Binding of Isaac...And Your Satisfying Frustration!

Some people bought this game due to the videos me and Nick (RockLeeSmile) made, demonstrating its general gameplay and even some successful runs. In my playthrough, I defeated the game in one of my luckiest run ever made. And I guess we made our fans interested because they bought and tried it. You couldn't imagine the amount of RAGE mails I got, all two of them (even if they really enjoyed the game, I am sure of it). So I decided to write this game a review. Doesn't have anything to do tonight anyway. The curse is still young.

First of all, trying to describe this game to others is a little bit complicated. The best description I could give of it is that it is a blend of multiple shooter//classic games with RPG//dungeon crawlers elements. Robotron, Smash TV, Zelda, an arcade game feel with a touch of stats and various items, you press *purée* et voila! : The Binding of Isaac.

The game wears its name beautifully, in a way. I say that because the game is gross, disturbing and creepy. Poor Isaac never deserved his curse and you will feel bad for him. God talked his mother into killing him. At least that's what she thinks, which depicts blind fanatism very well. Still, what disturbed (and pleased) me the most is the atmosphere and the wonderfully chilling sound effects. Levels are dark and keep getting darker as you go deeper into the abyss of your basement with screaming flying fetuses, squishy hearts and roaring bosses... Team Meat succeeds once again in the sound and visual department, music to boot!

Of course, gameplay is the most important aspect of it all and while I adore this game, I do have mixed feelings about it. See, I love challenges. Sometimes I penalize myself just to make a game kick my ass (Megaman comes to mind...). However the game has a bad tendency of not loving you at all. And it will penalize you very often, going as far as to tease you. While the game has perfect controls and balanced enemies, it will drag you down to hell by not giving you items you need. Yes, this game is *partially* luck based. In every levels (or floors) before the dreaded womb zone there is a shop, a treasure room, a boss room and sometimes challenges and mini-boss rooms. This guarantees you a minimal of 12 unique items over six levels, plus what's in the shop if you have enough coins and the other treasures. It sounds like a lot, but wait until the game gives you 20 bombs and no keys at all over the length of two floors, leaving two treasure rooms unexplored. Most of the time, the game will lend you passive items which stacks. It doesn't mean all of them are useful, actually a lot of items are useless by themselves, but they're still yours!

*runs away with panties*

...It will also drop*space bar* items. You can only grab one of those. That's where trouble starts.

Good players will cope out with it. Personally I only had one run where the game just made fun of me, still most of the time I end up getting 4 or 5 space bar items, all useless. You cannot sell or destroy them, so if you have a very good one (or never find a good one, that happens too) then you just lost a spot AND probably a key or a bomb, depending on where you found it. This will make you cry when all you have is range+ gear, no life upgrades, no way to replenish it, and then the game will keep giving you range+ items or useless things you wouldn't use at all (Kamikaze comes to mind... DX). Then, the game gives you rooms filled with super hard enemies who have tons of health points, with evil evil rock emotes constantly shooting you and never giving you a break when your little 1 damage tears which fires SOOO slowly cannot deal with these annoyances. And if the game gave you tons of health but no ways to hit harder, then you will watch your beautiful gigantic health bar grinding its way to nothing.
I understand this is what the game is going for and honestly, I love it a lot! But I also understand how many, MANY players will be turned down by this. There is a lot of ways Team Meat could fix this, and they probably are going to fix it, but for the mean time I receive rage messages. At least their suffering amuses me greatly :D


...You're still reading? Good, because the bad news are over. If you do indeed get lucky with the items, you will find a lot of pleasant elements in The Binding Of Isaac. First of all, as a huge fan of Boss Battles, I can affirm that this game will satisfy your every needs. Challenging and interesting bosses awaits you in these dark fleshy rooms and they are there by the dozens. The mobs are also very nice, especially the screaming... dead... foetuses...brrrr. I luv them!

Exploring the entire level instead of going straight for the boss is rewarding if you feel like it (except in the last levels, it may be better to just run straight to the final boss). There are secret rooms, hidden chests and rewards around every corners and it's always a good idea to grab as much stuff as you can. It may be a bet to open locked chests but most of the time it pays off. There are also different utility objects, like arcade machines and beggar kid and I really love how there is two ways to make them work. You have the cash, then try your luck. No money? Then simply blow the machines (and the kids) to grab your reward by force!

Sometimes you will be forced to choose between two locked rooms and a chest and such decisions are always critical! If you open the chest, you MAY have a key or two back, plus other items, but you may also get nothing. The treasure room always contains something, but will it be useful to you? Or the shop, there may be something good and you might even be able to buy a key back, but there is also a chance to fall upon Greed, who will steal your money with every successful hits. To note, this bastard can appear everywhere, not just the shop. Even if the game is frustrating, it also makes you feel wonderful whenever you made a good decision (or a lucky guess, question of perspective). The increasing difficulty with your every victorious playthrough will also add weight in those crucial decisions.
In my experience, it balances itself out, even if you will have some unsuccessful infuriating runs that give you the urge to smash your gamepad into your screen. Just blow the begging kid up, it'll feel good XD


There you go. If you love any of the games or game genre I described at the beginning, then this game might be for you. If you still have doubts then I...

**PLUG TIME*

strongly suggest watching videos from RockLeeSmile. He is a good friend of mine and did some very good playthroughs, successful and not. It is his debuts and his first LP but he is interesting, his videos are very representative of what the game is and you will laugh at his fails. I did XD.

Here's the link to his first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbJRxQfh0Jo&feature=channel_video_title


On this, I thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed your read. Feel free to ask any questions about the game, I revisit the forums at least once a day. May be faster if you post on the blog, but I shouldn't miss you. I'll see you next time!

Sequelitis = Super Genius *despite it's little flaws*

Allright, title is clear and I suppose you guys can read english, bla bla bla Egoraptor is a fuckin' genius and stuff.

Done. There you go. Moving on.

I already knew Egoraptor was more than a funneh guy on Newgrounds. Sure, he made a lot of shorts which made fun of video games in general. Everyone remembers the dick joke in the megaman one. lol. But even then, he was pointing out flaws or funny things about game design in general. He was simply making fun of it, making it super obvious, and even if your eyes didn't see all of it right away your brain did. In my case, I was hoping he would do something...more. Something like a...series where he shows why this game is well made so that....players could stop treating CoD and stuff like that as if it was Godly and....and...

BAM SEQUELITIS IN MAH FACE!!!!!

I nerdgasm'd really hard.

Why am I talking about this? Because when I did my Desktop Adventures I showed that Sequelitis episode 1 was in my *watch later* list. And I guess you viewers scratched your non-frenchy skulls about why I never talked about it. Well there. I'm talking about it now. Happy? You better!


See, I never really considered the path towards video game making. Never seriously, at least. It is definitely something I would enjoy, but learning about codes and...remembering codes and doing stuff about coding...it just makes me crazy. My printer is dead now because I couldn't understand it so you can imagine how NOT of a comp wizard I am. RIP printer.

However I am interested in concept, character and story development (and music, but that's something else). I'm quite passionated about these elements in-game and Egoraptor must feel the same. In both Sequelitis episodes he talks about concept and character and player progression is such a way it made my brain tingle. I actually took notes. Really, there's a noteclip somewhere filled with key elements in his videos and I must say, I agree to nearly everything he said. Wait....*nearly*

TEHN I AM NOT A RREEEEEEAAAAAL FAN OF HIM I GUE -- Seriously people thinking like that are derps.

I obviously have some conflicting opinions about both his videos. Nothing serious or anything dramatic. I agree that Castlevania: Simon's Quest is retarded and I agree that Megaman X is an excellent title. On this, no objections at all.

I do however have two complaints. I shall list them and let all the Ego-fans rage at me just because they can. And I shall eat pop-corn, smiling at your pure divine tears XD

1: In the first Sequelitis episode (Castlevania vs Castlevania 2) at exactly 13:10 in the video, Ego say that Castlevania 2 sucked really bad, but the more recent Castlevania that uses RPG elements had unreal scores. This is due to developers using game design that complements the *shity boringness*. I must say, I somewhat disagree with that. See, anyone watching me playing knows that I love to *crank up* the difficulty. If there ain't any option for it, then I handicap myself. I never felt like grinding in any Castlevania game ever. I usually just go through the game and too bad if my main weapon is a butter knife, cuz Dracula will taste ALL of it! Oh sure, I die. That's what I want though, learning by doing mistakes. And since the more recent Castlevania games are offering me to do just that instead of taking hits but having enough HP to just walk it off, then I think they're worthy of their scores. Most of the bosses are awesome to fight, especially if you do not have 20 more levels than you are supposed to have, and the story *can* also be good. It's hit or miss really...

2: In the second Sequelitis (Megaman vs Megaman X), It was nothing but praise. Once again, I understand and I agree with everything he said in it. Everything. ALL OF IT!!!
His job (or goal) was to make people understand how MemaganX isn't a downgrade from it's classic NES counterpart and to make people realise how modern gaming treats us like babies. Retarded babies at that. And he accomplished this perfectly. But he didn't mentionned any of the bad points in Megaman X. For example:
-Screen scrolling, allowing enemies you just killed for the one hundred time to reappear again.
-The last levels (fortress, castle, whatever you wanna name them) overly relying on wall jumping (which really. REALLY makes the first point annoying).

If he would have mentionned these for 10 seconds and just said *but the game has so much to offer, players will forgive these little tiny mistakes* and just moved on, I wouldn't write on it. maybe he just didn't think or cared about it. Oh well. Whatever. Both of his Sequelitis episodes are amazing, and I cannot wait for the next ones. Oh, and I lol'd at ALL the kids who were begging for a Megaman vs Megaman X where it would be negative and where Egoraptor would make fun of Megaman X and stuff and then they see the video in their sub box and then they get faceslapped by megaman X being praised...I laugh at your sadness :D

My coach is a monster DX (Plus two fans topic suggestions)

As some of you trolls may know, I'm doing some boxing with my father. Recreational stuff, I'm doing the training and some sparring, that's about it. I love the sport, I'm dedicated to it, but I do not believe I could be a pro. I'm already too old for that XD

Still, it helps me with managing my real-life. Stress relief, an excellent way to be in shape in body and mind, gives you more energy during the day... And let's be honest, I love the sparring XD
It helps me in my videos too! Better concentration and stuff, so that's another plus! After a couple of months I'm really starting to be in shape. I'm now holding up for more than three full rounds against my coach (when he wears the boxing pads), and that's after all the heating up we're doing. Also, my body is transforming. Dragon scales and all!

...I wish. I'm just losing weight for now, trading it for muscular mass (tiny amounts at a time), but since I am someone with a low self-esteem, it is a wonderful feeling. So, my coach thinks I can manage more. *You have the guts and the willpower, so I guess I should make you suffer a bit. Starting next class, I'm gearing up and you better be ready!*
He then gives me *homework* to do. I have full training sessions three times a week, that's my minimal, but other than that I'm already doing exercises at home. But this...*halp*

-Starting with roadwork and stretches (more important than most people think)
-Set-ups
-Push-ups
-Jumping jacks
-Repeat all of that at least 2 times
-Burpees
-And some more stretches, so that you won't be stiff as a blade the next day...SO THAT YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN!!!!

And he wants me to do that daily. Well I have no excuse, BURN THAT FAT!


Also, I asked the Facebook fan base for a topic to discuss about. I am bored at work, you see? Well, I got two suggestions, *Music* by Joe Morales and *The 13th centuries technologic advancements with fire* by Gabriel Kim.

So:

-I love music. May it be classical, rock, jazz, jazz fusion, blues, swing, 8-bit, keygen, whatever. If it is well done I'll bob my head to it. Some fans may know I have three gurus in life: My father (for obvious *mine is better than yours* reasons), my God the Fire-Birdy and Herbie Hancock, one of the greatest musical icon of all time.

back to geek-y-ness. Some games like Monster Hunter, Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Phantasia/Symphonia or Drakengard 2 are granted excellent musical scores that only makes them better and assimilates the player into them, thus I suggest them to everyone interested. If you already played and enjoyed these games, HI-FIVE! (Of course, every Megaman, Metroid, Zelda, Sonic and so on games also contains excellent tracks, but everyone knows them XD)

And

-Burning evil witches (and other monstrosities) with science in the 13th century? My phoenix was there, let me ask him how it went!

....

Ok I cannot write this down for the kids. Oh well, see ya next time!


PS: Notice the different signature under this sentence. Anza's Journal will assemble my real-life thoughts. In case of a zombie apocalypse. After all, 2012 is near!

Hello...Journal?

How about I write something other than the usual review and bad/good news I usually do? You guys would love that?

I'm talking about some aspects of my personal life. Nothing too personal, I do not believe you need that now, but some thoughts could be nice. I think. Iono, you'll have to tell me if you love that idea or not.

SO! Let's catch up to this last week-end. First things first, I went to a bar with Dave and our other homies. It was amazingly relaxing. I had a long week, filled with my full-time job AND all of that editing I did. I am proud to say that both Fear and Megaman X are completed. They're just waiting to be uploaded on youtube. Anyway, had a couple of beers and some shooters, nothing extreme. We get back at home at about 3 AM and decide to take a nap. When I wake up, it was 6:30. *Nice nap that was* says I.
...But why is it dark outside?

I quickly jump out of bed (yes yes, I jump out) and check the clock on my PC. 6:30 PM . WUUUT!
Apparently we all slept for more than 15 hours. Jesus. Last time this happened I was 17 years old, just after a concert I was playing in!

So. I realise I am hungry. Really hungry. THAT MUCH! But then I realise I didn't tried Dungeon Defenders yet, and it looks amazing! I sit down to check on steam it is installed and all, just waiting for me to steal my soul....I mean try it for a few minutes. So I tell to myself *meh, I'll try it for a few minutes*.The devil was watching, I swear.

At 9:15 PM Dave just burges into the room telling me the last time he slept so much is when his girlfrie...and then he related how I looked like a zombie DX


All I can say is that Dungeon Defenders is really good. Lot ot fun times. I also played with DMT and it was a blast. If you want some DD moments, then you better start begging for it! *rubs hands with a evil-ish smile*

Sunday morning, I decide to boot up my pc. It starts for a few seconds then shuts down immediately. Surprised, I start it again. And again. and so on. It took me about 15 tries until the pc started. Then it acted like it never happened. I have no idea on how this could happen, so I'll have to check things out. If I do not upload videos for a while, then you know what happened :S

Then I went to my parents place for supper. I try to go there once a week. I'm already taking boxing lessons with my dad, which is a lot of fun, and I'm working at my mother's place. She's responsible of a building for people who have mental illness. Nothing crazy, just people who need help with their lives. But that ain't really seeing them, so sunday evenings I tend to go there when I can. This time, something interesting happened on television. There is a show we Quebecers (or whatever you guys call us) really love, which is *Tout le monde en parle*. Or *Everyone talks of it*. It's always interesting and this week was about politics. As you may know, it's not going really well in Quebec government side. I could write a huge story about things, but let's just say we live on pillars made of dirt. On show, they were talking about an investigation commission (I hope I got that right). They want people to witness against something. Which makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that there will be NO protection offered to them. And of course, nobody's crazy enough to go and do it.
So, you had a government representant, someone who's working for the Prime Minister and some journalists. They were tearing each other's necks, but politely. kudos on the journalist, he was obviously really angry but kept it all inside. he never sweared or anything else. (I forgot his name I am very sorry for that :S)

Meanwhile, my sister (the youngest) shaved my beard (not all of it, just so that it looks better) and cut my hair a bit. And I paid her. Now before you freak out, here's the situation. My beloved sister is a nerd en devenir. Only, her pc sucks. Big time. It's a 2002 model. Yeeeah, so I proposed her something to help. She takes care of my beautiful face, and I pay her. It would cost me just as much if I went to a salon, so I think it is worthwhile. And she loves that too! She now have more than 120$ just from pocket money, which is a nice sum.

BTW, she's a fan of Terraria, resident Evil and Ubisoft in general. kudos little sister!

Then I went to work. My very boring and tedious work where I clean stuff for a couple hours and make sure everyone is safe and all. I sure wish I had something more exciting to do. This is why I love the blog, I can just come on here and write stuff while I try to stay awake.

This is where it ends. I hope this wasn't too painful to read and I wish you a good day. Entry out!

What is being scary?

some time ago, before I started playing F.E.A.R, I had a discussion with Kinjry on scary stuff. I told him the fans voted on F.E.A.R for my next LP, that I never played it and that it *apparently* was a scary game. Kinjry, being a natural Kinjry with ease, laughed it out, saying that F.E.A.R is miles away from being scary. Now that I've played the game, I agree entirely with what he thought, but not how he sentenced it.

See, for awesome and manly persons like me and Kin, little girls going around scaring people ain't really affecting us. Oh sure, it may make us jump a couple of times, but by no means did we stopped to catch out breath. In my *blind* playthrough I never hesitated to move forward or to dive into dark rooms. There is only one moment where I stopped for a few seconds and still I kept going forward, blazing through everything (especially windows, they all need to be exterminated). Personally, I was more scared of my goldfish that I had when I was a kid. It died right before I started playing Super Mario 64. When I first saw the giant purple sea snale-eel thingy just roaring at me, I throw'd my remote in the air and ran to the living room. I immediately thought Karma for not taking care of my little goldfish. My mom never understood XD

So in short, games like F.E.A.R, Resident Evil, Dead Space or any *BOO* based scary games are nothing at all. For me, things that slowly creeps in will be way more effective, like Silent Hill or Penumbra. Or my goldfish...
As for Kinjry...Well let's say he's afraid of things too disgusting to describe.

Oh, and I'm also scared of Freddy. But for a single scene, only that one gave me the creeps. It's the bedroom kill..on the bed...all that blood...I will never sleep again...OK I am done!


What about you, viewer? Want to share your fears? I would love that!

Halloween special and more!

Halloween is coming faster than ever but this time I am prepared. Last year I sort of missed it by doing nothing at all, and the fans were disappoint. You shouldn't expect anything out of my ways (and my pockets, mostly) but you can wait for a small surprise this year. If you really want a hint, it's gonna be a classic.

Other than that, I FINALLY finished FEAR. I never played or watched it, so the ending kind of shocked me. I wasn't waiting for such a weird finale to happen, really. So to beat the F.E.A.R out of my head I promptly started my Megaman X Let's Play. Not even two hours into it and I'm halfway through. I kind of overplayed it a bit when I was younger. Poor penguin never stood a chance DX
Also joining me into the first recording session of it is Erillian. Trolling me whenever he could...IN FRENCH!

...Moving on. Some time ago I received a donation from someone most of you know. A certain DMT offered me Clive Barker's Jericho on Steam and he wants me to play it. He ordered me to not search for any kind of videos or detail since the game is a bit...unique. That's how he said it. I am scared.

And now, some not-so-good news. As you may know, Kinjry, Arkendi and myself are doing a Co-op LP of Dead Island. However we didn't posted anything in quite some time and you fans are wondering what is happening. Simply said, Kinjry's internet connection was so bad that he had to move in a new home alltogether. I don't blame him, he is not blaming himself, so please be patient and comprehensive: This pisses us off as much as it is pissing you readers. I can only promise that as soon as we can record our gaming sessions again, we will.
This obviously affects L4D2, Kinjry simply cannot play anything at all. I do not want to embark into a big project without him, as he became a major character in my videos. We all miss his rants (most of them are aimed at my french, but I professionally ignore them) and he will be back soon enough. In the meantime, TF2 and other Let's Plays for your pretty eyes.

I would like to use this unfortunate absense of brain-eating content to give some attention to RockLeeSmile. Again XD
RockLeeSmile is a good friend of mine who desperately need more attention. He is the man who did all the Super Meat Boy Fanmade maps I played. I know you enjoyed those meaty adventures, do not try to hide it. Well, he recently started a Let's Play series of The Binding Of Isaac and it is worth your time. I personally watched all of his episode and was greatly satisfied with his performance. I also enjoyed his fails with a vengeful smile! So if you want to be awesome (or already are) then you should go watch his stuff and comment on what you see. Give him tricks, ask questions on the game, say he haz a sexah voice or anything else you would like to say. I think he deserves it.

...You should also comment on my own stuff before I cry DX

Ok I am done at this point. More awesome things coming your way, thanks for reading and SUBSCRIBE ON THE BLOODY BLOG I AM TIRED OF ALWAYS WARNING YOU ABOUT IT GAAAAHHH
see ya.

RAGE Review

I was supposed to make a video review of this game, but it doesn't love Vista very much. It probably have nothing to do with it, but I still blame it, just like everyone else XD

Now that this is out of the way, RAGE. Been some years since ID ever made something. And the game is 60 bucks at launch, which REALLY hurt my pockets. And why no demo available at all?.  Did I mention I cannot record anything? Oh, I did... Not to mention that most of the PC players experienced somewhat huge graphical problems. Some of these players (including me) couldn't even play for the first day or two. I have Minecraft, so I do not really mind, but I understand why some players would be enRAGEd over this.

I know, this was horrible.

Still, as an amateur critic, I have to make a honest review about the game's core. And I must say, once you get past this chaotic launch, the game is really good! Maybe not as good as I expected, but it was worth my buck. And hey, made me write some more on the blog. That's a plus!

So, you start your journey in the skin of a super soldier who slept for over 100 years. In space. Insert portal space joke here. Your rather brutal awakening becomes even more brutal the moment you set foot outside your pod (which crashed not too long ago) as enemies are already jumping you, trying to strangle your pretty throat. Fortunately you are saved by a dude who just happens to be there. He explains that the world is now a post-apocalyptic earth filled with bandits clans and wannabe Combines army named the Authority.

Not even 15 minutes into the game, I'm already heading towards my first mission. Terminate a clan of bandits before they terminate us. Aaaaand it's pretty much like this for the next 6 hours 85% of the time.  Fortunately for us (and for Id), the gameplay is really nice. Driving around is a joy, combat feels satisfying despite some restricted melee moves (sometimes you will see your fist going through someone's jaw, but it will not count) and the enemies actually feels like they want to kick your sorry butt. First things first, I started playing in Nightmare, the hardest difficulty. You know me, if it is available, I will take it. Well, I do NOT suggest it to new players. I actually got my ass kicked more than once (but no worries, I love pain very much). Enemies were always taking cover, they all were professional gunslingers and did tons of damage very easily. It was challenging, maybe even a bit cheap, but I never went to the point of punching my screen. The game knew how to give me this feeling of satisfaction whenever I did something awesome and it also forced me to be careful due to the fact that you can die and lose some of your progress. I have never seen that since.... since a long time. And I'm talking about shooters, leave Dungeons of Dredmor out of this. Nightmare was a bit too much, especially since I didn't know how everything worked, and after a couple of hours I switched to hard. This is the difficulty I suggest as everything was balanced very well. If you're new to shooters, normal is fo you.

Combat is straight forward at first. Cover, shoot, cover and you do that until everyone is dead. The first bandits area is super easy since it is the training area. It becomes exciting when they start to communicate and use tactical stuff. They will actually hide from you, cover their friends, throw grenades, tell the others to pull back if they're getting overpowered and so on. Some bandits clans are more organized than others, and it shows. This is a huge point for me. Primitive clans will fight you with clubs and knives, say harsh stuff and insult you whenever they can and they will not give a f*** for their clanmates. More organized clans with be fully equipped with guns, armor, grenades and even toy cars with bombs on them. The Enforcers (from the Authority) are super well trained, constantly trying to flank you, infantry hiding behind their shield-wielding friends. The first time you see them is quite satisfying. At some point you will die, more than one, but fortunately for you you have this internal defibrilator. Watch out, as it only works once and needs to recharge before being used again. So you can die, only not that much.

However, I still say that the story is bland. It isn't completely worthless and you never feel the need to slap your forehead due to exasperation, but it is very simple. But do not go thinking it is entirely boring. Some segments of the game actually gave me a serious blast. I actually had a lot of fun.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!

For example, at some point you're asked to go to a factory and destroy it. And I do mean DESTROY it. At the end of it everything was falling down and crushing people, setting them on fire. Survivors were running away, panicking, shouting to everyone else to run away while they would *try* to hold you back. It was a very entertaining experience (due to a very special gimmick useable in this particular place. But that is something else) and I am glad to say that it wasn't the only moment worthy of my time. Also, FINALLY, there is a lot of different enemies. Maybe not at first, sure, but you will encounter bandits, mutants, Authority enforcers in super-armors, vehicles, creatures, mini-bosses AND bosses... it isn't the biggest list ever made, but it is diversified. Changing your strategy because of this or that dude is always a plus.

But, in my opinion, the progression is a bit stiff. The story progresses with main quests, or missions, leading you from point A to point B, asking you to do this task and coming back It feels like a mix of borderlands and Bioshock but with barely any explorable areas, So you could say it is a Doom 3.5, on earth, in a desert and without demons (you do not have a flashlight, not needed). There is no chacacter levels either, so do not expect another Fallout 3. There is secondary missions and filler stuff, but nothing felt substantial. No ruins to freely explore or secret areas that will reward you for your courage or cunning. Sometimes a quest will lead you to somewhere exciting like a ghost city or whatever but it will mostly contain one-path corridors that will lead you directly to your objectives. Because of this, the game feels on rails. Game progression is extremely fast paced, so fast that you may even forget about subquests, and even if you do bother about having some time for yourself your options are limited. Plus you are rewarded with money most of the time, so looking for secrets may be disappointing. Tired of the main quests? Then you either do minigames or you do fedex quests. Other times, you are asked to go back to *dungeons* you already cleared to fetch a specific item or recipe. Sad day is sad indeed. Random events (like towns getting attacked, or barrages made by bandits, or ANYTHING else really) could have been interesting and it is sad they weren't willing to develop some more. (To note, I didn't beat the game yet. I will come back on this page and specify if there is a turn of events somewhere)

There is racing events, which I loved enough for a short while. The obligatory racing quests were short enough to not be annoying but I never felt like I had to complete the rest (you have optional driving races)). The driving, once again, is a charm, and destroying stuff with your mounted weapons (or directly ramming your enemies, that works too) is uber satisfying. Missiles are a bit OP to my liking, but nothing's perfect. Easily forgivable. The bad point is that there is only two modes of racing: time trials and tacing against three other drivers. Oh sure, there is different sub-modes, for example in some races you can kill your enemies and in others you cannot, but still... a desdruction derby in an arena would have been perfect, especially for a game with this ambience. (To note, Racing is way more interesting in Multiplayer. My problem is that there is no reason to limit the single player campaign that much)

Anyway, the first hours of the game are there so that you can get new stuff. And it comes steadily, from weapons to vehicles to upgrades. It feels really regulated how you get something in each mission. NPCs never give you something to help you out, they give you their trash so you can help them instead. I wasn't bothered with this, it adds to the characters. They're greedy, it's in their nature. Why giving you this shotgun right now when they can give it as a reward instead! Even old grannies will ask you to go kill people, it helps them! You cannot grab new stuff on your own, every weapons dropped by enemies will vanish (you cannot grab it otherwise, I tried) but enemies will give bullets upon death. Crafting recipes are, well, quite basic. Make lockgrinders or bandages or grenades. You cannot invent new stuff. At least not in the first 8 hours. Doing favors for other people will quickly make you beg for something else. Except the Mutant TV show event. That was nice. Fortunately the story does catch up at some point. You will have a real goal (guess what: help the good guys defeat the bad guys) and there will be story twists. At least the game didn't hold me by my hand for 5 hours, I was very grateful for that. It let me die and learn, as it should be.

So, RAGE in short? Nice combat with lots of different enemies and different weapons with special ammo that will make you adapt to threats in multiple scenarios, nice driving mechanics and some good characters and details. The story is basic but there. Feelt like somebody doing a job he doesn't love doing but the minimals were achieved. And there is some good multiplayer moments like coop or more racing stuff with or against other players. No deathmatches though (and it makes no sense at all, especially from them). There is no demo available (which really begs to question why) so I suggest you go watch some gameplay videos before wasting your 60 bucks. But if you love the smell of napalm and blood in the morning, the roaring cries of your engines when you smash into things and the scream of your enemies crumbling under your assault, then you may be interested.


Thanks for the read and have a good day!

What it REALLY means to be a French Nerd!

All right, time to be serious, honest and brave. Everyone knows it, everyone fears it (may it be of terror or disgust) but nobody, except the french fans, knows what it really means to grow up as a french canadian video game nerd. Well, allow me to demonstrate through the eyes of a frenchy eyes of my childhood
(imagine we go back in time).

First of all, if your father shows you Pac-Man or Mario when you're barely 4 years old (1991), you are screwed. You are. Sure, by themselves you will not have that much problems, but then you will be interested in games with stories AND TEXTS in them like Zelda, Metroid, Faxanadu or whatever. You will not be able to understand ANYTHING! Yet you will hang to them no matter what. You do not really know why or how. Oh, at that time, stuff like Nintendo Power didn't exist for us. Poor poor Quebec nerds raging at their little RPGs...

The result of this is that you would become good at games like Megaman, or any action-oriented games (at least this is the case for kids my age, but I am ready to bet some older people could kick ass in video games too!). Reason being you can COMPLETE THESE GAMES by usually going in one direction and it's not like Megaman is hard to understand. Kick ass, kick more ass, beat the game. Same with any kind of scrolling shooters or platformers...Contra anyone? Now you know why I kick scores in these games.

I may be talking about video games, but what about movies or books, or music for that matter? What about Saturday morning shows, do we even have those? Well, surprisingly enough, movies and books were nearly all translated. Even the bad ones. And if you think "Super Mario Bros. the Movie" is bad, try it in french. You will cry. But for the good movies there is no difference really. Even the voice dubbing is really good.(Star Wars, Star Trek, Matrix, Terminator, every Disney movies in existence and Princess Mononoke....God this one is gorgeous in french. There is a lot more of course, but no point making a list). Same for books and television shows. We had our share of harry Potter, Eragon, Twilight (yeah yeah DX), Sherlock Holmes, and a lot more (again, no point in making a list, they are all there).
As for cartoons...Duck tales, inspector gadget, TMNT, Transformers, X-men, Spiderman, Bugs Bunny and all his friends...AGAIN, no point in making a list. I will add that some of the animes we had, older or not, were really good. Inuyasha, pokemon, digimon (yeah yeah), Sailor Moon (I am not kidding, it was actually awesome AND not annoying)...those are the ones I remember.

However...there is, of course, the "bad ones" plaguing our minds. Things that are awesome in english (and/or japanese) and simply ruined by horrible french actors (sometimes, they're not even from Quebec. It is horrendous :S). Here is a few: Dragonball (Jesus), Hokuto No Ken (oh god WHY?!??!), most of the Arnold movies (except the really good ones like Terminator and Predator), every kung-fu movies in existence (please forgive me Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, we are not worthy!), Power Rangers...I will never forget DX

So really, the difference between Quebec and the rest of the world is pretty much a crappier government and a horrendous frenchy Dragon Ball. No matter, we had Transformers to teach us life lessons.

Back to video games. My question is "Why did the video game industry left us to rot like that?" Well, I can sort of answer myself. When I was younger I was one of the only ones who ever loved video games. Oh, there was other nerds already and the gaming industry was really working, but in the really young "french" kids department, not that much (and that is important. The market boomed with Nintendo stuff but it doesn't mean we kids understood it).  Console gaming was exclusively in english at that time, and no official support from magazines or anything else existed (except in english of course DX). There was television shows about it, but guess what. English. Good luck playing RPGs (expect if you bought games from France or something like that. I must say that some shops had games in french, but they were rare to find. That is how I got myself a copy of "Zelda: A Link To The Past" translated. Lucky find!).
When the N64 and the PS1 launched, Internet was there for most of the people. That means help for pretty much every games you couldn't understand. However by that point I was already starting to read in english and understood enough to progress by myself. I re-discovered older games I couldn't play before and became a REAL nerd. Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger are good examples.
To note, this is where I noticed people around my age CARING at all about gaming stuff. SuperSmash Bros. and Final Fantasy 7 were gigantic hits in Quebec. From my perspective (at least where I lived, you can give some feedback on that even if you're not french), this is when it really exploded. WANNABE SEPHIROTHS EVERYWHERE!!!

For PC gaming, that was another story. Most of the games (and applications) were available in a lot of languages, french included. This is how I discovered Diablo, Red Alert, Star Craft and my always beloved X-Com: UFO Defense, my favorite game of all time (and all of those at a young age. Diablo is so badass when you're younger than 12!). All of these games were available in french and me and my cousin Sam really got hooked on all of them.

Later in the history of gaming in french, voice acting happened. Oh boy. Games with actors were often subtitled in french, at the beginning at least, but as time went on they were fully translated (even Gigantic RPG games like Final Fantasy, Mass Effect and etc.). At that point my english understanding (reading and listening) was really good for my age, and I am sure it is the case for most of the french gamers in here. However I must say that **most** of the translated games are really good (in french at least). We're lucky to have great voice actors. As for Super Mario Galaxy....oh well, at least the characters ain't talking out loud (I know Mario never talks...but just imagine he does :D).

Anyway, this was a short fragment of my mind. Felt like talking about this. I hope you enjoyed this really random post (despite every comments concerning me being a french nerd) and feel free to add anything you want in the comment section!

Minecraft Server: Bad News From The Phoenix Realms

So...Did some testing with the server, tried different things like giving more RAM to the server, closing everything else (even the antivirus), doing extended cleaning of my pc...nothing works. The server is still a lag-fest, even for me.

So I then decide to re-install everything. Maybe there is a corrupted file, says I. I start the server again while forgeting to specify the good world name, so the server generates a new world entirely.

*Meh, might as well try it, we never know*. Guess what! It works perfectly! Not a single lag spike or whatever else. Even better, the game runs at 60 fps, full screen. So I go check just how heavy the Phoenix Realms really is.

A whooping 500 mb (and some dust)...

Holy muffin. Someone went exploring XD

So our fear is alive, The Phoenix Realms is simply too big of a world to run on my PC which is sad. It still runs fine in singleplayer, which is at least convenient, but it is completely dead on multiplayer, which leaves us two options:

We can either start a new server entirely, which could be nice. We wouldn't have to explore miles away to see all the new stuff, that's a plus. On the other hand we *lose* everything we already did. Which is a bummer.

Or, I can try to host the server on a site. The bad news is that this is costly, and I do not have that kind of money with me. The more memory you want to give it, the more it will cost ya. Also, I have no idea if the size of a world plays in the balance. I guess I could try it for a few days (most sites give a free demo) and tell you guys how it went.

Well, that's it for now. If you do not mind a new game, then I guess we could start a new server once the adventure update launch (and I mean all of it DX). Leave some comments saying if you're up for a new game or not and I'll see what I can do.

See ya next time!

I expected More Pyro Gameplay From You, Anza...

I know right? People keep making this remark and I guess it would make sense, with me being assimilated by Fire-Birdy and all. Well, to be honest, I do not really appreciate the Pyro that much. He may be one of the most dangerous class to play against, the best anti-spy there is and may have one of the best tauntkill, but I sure wish I could hear some maniac-imbued domination quotes. That is pretty much the sole reason. The Heavy (and the Sniper, but that is something else) is the real crazy maniac in there. I mean, COME ON JUST LISTEN TO THAT!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2qrn1O6RDg&feature=BFa&list=WL1B61093428A383F8&lf=mh_lolz


Now, two things interesting about the Heavy:
First, he is a god damn monster. No regrets nor remorse. He actually enjoy it a lot (more than others imo, except maybe the Engi). When he shouts *RUN! RUN! I'M COMING FOR YOU!*, it would easily scare anyone, Chuck Norris included!

Two, the majority of his domination quotes aren't aimed at a specific classes. That's right, The Heavy kills everyone equally. If a Heavy pops in front of you, you know you're done for and it has nothing to do with your class. And that is the kind of fear the Fire-Birdy loves. Certain Doom...


And you may think the Heavy is really simple to play. Not that much. Being the biggest and slowest class there is means there will be a lot of threats aiming for you, constantly. You will never rest easy with that big painted target on your forehead (and I swear to GOD his face stretches upward when he screams in delight, making it even easier for snipers DX). He is pretty much the class with the most weaknesses to fight with, medic assisted or not. Here is a list of what already got me out there:

-Demomans just poppin nades and stickies. It hurts.
-Soldiers. No escape from them either, so you better deal with them fast or die (or strategical retreat!).
-Engi Sentries. Sure, the Heavy ain't bad at dealing with them, but if you turn a corner without reeling your minigun first when a sentry is there, bye bye Heavy (they actually gib you faster than Pyros).
-Heavies. Biggest contest of FIRST! ever.

-Scouts. I am not kidding, they have an effective way of dealing with you. Their Bonk! drink can be really annoying as you see them go past you and your medic, if any, forcing you to go back to deal with them. Also, they can kill you with their Sandman Tauntkill if they plan ahead. Shame burns more than fire. (oh, and that baseball which stuns you is also a problem)

-Medic ubersaw trains. Fire-Birdy thinks it is against nature, and so do I!
-Spies. Derp.
-Snipers. Re-derp.
-Any kind of uber on anyone on the entire enemy team. SHORT LEGS CANNOT ESCAPE!
(True story, a ubered scout whack't me with a fish...)
-Any tauntkil. Guessing where a Heavy will be is easy.

....I may be missing some, but yeah...Painful indeed. Thankfully, I understand the concept of being sneaky with a Heavy, and I use this concept very well. Backstabbing with a Minigun is painful indeed and is well worth the trouble.

ilCannibal did it again

Name is ringing a bell? It should! IlCannibal is the maker of Dead City, a mod map we already went through (and we loved every bit of it!).

Well, he did it again in Left Behind, a L4D2 mod map filled  with action, chaos and fire. It is a 3 map campaign MADE for versus, and it is screaming to be played. I obviously had to test it (alone) and I am not disappoint at all. So...why am I writing this? Could this means I am gonna showcase this map in versus with many players while we die over and over again for your simple pleasure? Who knows!

Now, of course, it isn't perfect. Nothing is. I already talked to ilcannibal about some problems, as did many players, and he update his new campaign as often as he can. None of the problems are dramatic enough to worry about them, but there is some balancing issues and story nit-picking. All things considered, I give Left Behind a whooping 9 out of 10, bugs and problems included, just because it kicks ass. Now, I didn't finished it (only played part one, I do not wanna spoil the ending), but the first map is quite incredible. It contains two panic events and both of them gave me a *oh snap* moment. It also had a detailed environment with numerous obstacles and corners, meaning the infected team will have plenty of time and space to plan ahead. Also includes treacherous areas and deadly dead-ends, but also multiple paths to take, and I felt rewarded for exploring despite these spitters just waiting for me to go in these GOD DAMN DEAD ENDS!!!

In short, another mod map with friends coming soon, filled with fails and ownage and insanely satisfying moments. Thanks for the read, subscribe (I told you I was gonna use that Blogger more often) and see you soon!

Minecraft Vs Terraria, The ULTIMATE Non-Rage review!

A little note before we start! I started writing this review months ago, but never posted it. Iono why, other stuff happened and I never finished it. Well, I did now. I know both games changes (Terraria in particular) however I will talk about core elements of both games, so it will make sense even for someone who never played neither of these games. Now go enjoy that review!


I'm gonna be honest with you: Nerd wars are both hilarious and annoying. On EVERYTHING!

May it be video games, books  comics, movies, their characters or whatever, people always made war instead of love. And really, I never understood that. Even when I was younger, the Nintendo Vs. Sega war was raging, nerds vaillantly battling in schools. Personally, I had both a Super Nintendo and a Genesis, and I loved both Mario and Sonic (and a lot more characters, for that matter).

Such wars still rages on everyday, but the one that affected me the most recently is the conflict between Terraria and Minecraft. Now, being older, not exclusively french and having an internet connection sure helps understanding this battle, but I still find it useless. As a veteran nerd (and I am very proud of this term), I love both games. Sure, there is similarities but it never stopped me from enjoying both games and the experience they gave me. So, to stop this mad war that leads nowhere (or trying....rofl), I shall compare the game's similarities and differences and state how I "experienced" them.


First game I played is Minecraft, obviously. Kinjry told me to  BUY THE FKIN GAME RIGHT NAOH!! So I did, and I was really satisfied. I loved the exploration, the mine spelunking and the fact that you could build things with the stuff you mine. Really simple, but really enjoyable.


Then, terraria launched. I saw the trailer, got hyped, bought the game and thoroughly enjoyed it a lot for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the internet got nuked. Rage plagues everywhere, no place to hide!

There was a lot of claims that the game completely plagiated Minecraft, which I think is wrong! It is inspired from it, obviously, but I don't see no creepers anywhere at all! I mean, sure, you can move blocks around, and you can craft tools, there is caves and there's monsters, but the way these gimmicks are placed into the game works differently! It's like saying that Metroid is EXACTLY like Zelda because you need upgrades to progress further into the game. It's nonsense! (Also, Samus has a gun)

So, first point, moving blocks. Do I really have to talk about Minecraft stealing ideas from Lego blocks? Really? I mean, making houses, starships, boats and bad guys, Lego did all of that first :D
They also have pirates...
Furthermore, and more seriously, Minecraft is a 3D game, and Terraria a 2D game. No awesome mage tower and colosseums for you, Terraria XD

Next, the crafting of tools and stuff. All right, let's answer this question with another question: why do you craft in Minecraft? To get better tools, of course, but why? Obviously, the only difference between the tools (except for the picks) is that better tools with do the job faster. That's about it! Once you hit Diamond, you just beat the game, good work! Now go build some crap to kill boredom, and that's Minecraft for you!

On the other hand, Crafting in Terraria is more like a progression path in Metroid and Zelda.
You start with copper, then iron, then silver, then gold( and you need a lot of veins to make only one pick). Then, once you have enough upgraded gear, multiple options will be available to you. Either try to kill an Eye of Cthulhu or go hunt meteors (by crushing the orbs), which will give you materials for even better gear. Then, do the thing you didn't do at first, THEN either killing the last boss OR dig straight to hell to get yourself the best gear. If you're lucky, you may hit the jungle or some floating islands.

Also, most of the items you can craft in terraria are super helpful not only to kill shit faster but to navigate around faster and more effectively. Platforms will let you bridge through gaps, allowing you to pass through them. The grappling hook helps you with these gigantic holes and can save your life on multiple occasions. Getting yourself better equipment is not only convenient, it is essential to explore the game further. Also, your gear in Terraria never breaks and you keep everything when you die, except money. As a tradeoff, it is harder to create, which reinforce the exploration aspect of the game. In this way, getting better equipment is a lot more like unlocking something new in an adventure game. Getting the gold pick means you can go accomplish something you couldn't do before, and it goes on like this until you technically "beat" the game (by exploring the dungeon guarded by Skeletron)

I think THIS is the big difference between both games. However that is my personal opinion.

Following the third point is the caves (and generated maps). Again, same concept, different interpretation. Yes, both games have randomly generated maps, and both contains natural caves, but the way you explore them is different. In minecraft, the minimal depth is minus 64 blocks which can be sort of deep. Sometimes, you find caves so gigantic you literally lose your north, and then you're officially lost. There's also the 3D element, which adds to the confusion. Still, caves are the best ways of finding materials (or magma, for that matter) and it's always a joy to pierce through the darkness.

As for Terraria...it is actually pretty much the same. Randomly generated caves, you explore them, you get the booty. However, the depth of this game is INSANE! getting to the bottom is a very long adventure that takes a lot of preparations, and having good equipment is a must. I actually made a video where I simply go to the bottom through a already explored cave, and it took me about 8 minutes.
IT'S HUGE!
In addition, there's about three vertical levels in Terraria: Close to the surface, deep underground, and Freakin' Hell! A sudden change in the background will happen when you reach the next level of....deepness? Point is, starting at level two you better find that grappling hook or the game will punish you as soon as it can. One missed jump and you'll end up like a pretty stain. Nah, I'm lying.
You actually explode.

And I didn't talked about all the treasures in here. Going deeper means you'll get better loot. Goes from health extention, double jump bottle and flippers to bombs, magic items and boomerangs, and there's a lot more. Some items only increases your stats, but most of them adds a new aspect to the game. As such, you have a pretty good reason to explore the deep caves of Terraria, unlike Minecraft.

Briefly getting back to the first point, you can place outposts deep underground, as long as you have a bed and walls. Sure, you can do that in Minecraft, but it's usually not worth it(at least, not underground)

Finally, the monsters. Well, for a change, there is daylight monsters in Terraria, the slimes. Sure, they're as annoying as they are in Minecraft, but they're also the most useful monster around. You need their goo to make torches. Other than that, different biomes will spawn different monsters. There's about 20 different creatures to fight against, but even if there was 300 of them it wouldn't matter. Minecraft monsters each have their roles to play, and they play it really well. Whiiiiiich is not the same for Terraria. Sure, you have slimes and bees and devil eyes and zombies and eater of souls, but all of these monsters play pretty much the same role. Ram into the player, inflict damage, rinse and repeat. And sure, some monsters are annoying, like the worms and the fire imps, but none of them ever pose a serious threat. Their main strategy is pretty much to mass spawn and slowly grind my health, and when I die because of them it's always because my stock of potions was grinded to nothing.

In Minecraft, a single well placed creeper can be your end. And trust me, it happens a lot. Skeletons and zombies will easily halt your progress for several minutes and since you die really fast, taking risks is often a bad idea. In terraria, you can simply tear through them or completely ignore them. And that's without stacks of 30x potions. This actually reminds me of some of the recent castlevania games. Having problems getting through a certain point of the game? Then simply grind your way through it until you become strong enough.

*(However, this was *fixed* in a recent update, making the game more difficult. It essentially removes the cheap tactics, like potion grinding. I'm keeping this part in the review because...well, it WAS like that for a long time)

But, there's bosses in Terraria. Three of them. And each encounter can be satisfying when you're not spoiling yourself in Multiplayer. Sure, at a certain point you'll be so strong that you can rape them. Really fast. But the first encounter is always nice enough.



So. I think I made my points. Of course, all of this is a matter of personal opinion. I love the adventure aspect of Terraria, and I love my Super Awesome Mage Tower in Minecraft. I love both games for the "different" experience they give me, and that goes for multiplayer too!
If you have anything to add or think I missed a very obvious point, then simply leave a comment (even if I should have posted this reviews months ago. I blame google and my lazyness alltogether). I read all of them anyway, so might as well tell me I'm stupid because I missed this or that or whatever.

See ya next time XD,
Anzariel

First Part of Dead Island LP Blocked by X Media Digital

Oh boy...

This stuff happened to my LP of Bioshock. My old viewers (really old viewers) remember what happened. Part 2, 25 and another part were entirely blocked for a little segment of two seconds featured in a trailer, or in the case of the second part, the music was blocked. In the end I had to remove these parts alltogether without being able to fight back.

So...This is happening with Dead Island all over again. However this time it's happening with a company that doesn't have anything to do with the development or publishing of the game (or not that I know of). The way I see it after some personal research, X Media Digital is blocking a lot of youtubers for a whole lot of different games, most notably dead island but also Call of Juarez and some more games. Apparently, this company make trailers. What happens is that if your let's play contains a part that is in their trailer, it will be taken down.

As ridiculous as it seems, I have no power against that. I possess no rights over Dead Island and even under the law of fair use, if they do not agree with my fair use of their content I'm screwed.

Now...don't go hating on their game yet. There is some ways to fix that. I could place an annotation in the following parts (for example, if part 1 is blocked, I'll place one at the beginning of part 2). It could explain what happened in the previous part. I could also keep all the parts of the let's play and, if something like this happens again, make a *short version* of the video. Probably 5 minutes long. Would be hard to do because we keep a good pace, but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks to the people warning me about this block and thank you for your patience and your time. I really appreciate it. The rest of our let's play is still available (for how long?) so go enjoy these parts instead. See you next time for hopefully better news.

Anzacraft Is Growing!

It's in fact growing faster than I ever thought! I'm getting a lot of feedback from youtube, facebook, Steam, there's no end to it! And despite the many grief attack, people just wanna reconstruct. It's true that half-wood blocks are a good motivation, suckers won't destroy it as easily. But I also noted  the help that some players gives freely. That really motivates me into making more schtuff for the server and to open it more frequently.


We also lived our first Server event, which was a success. Sort of. We had winners, so I think that is enough. It was more of a test to see if something like that would work. The fighters could not stay in place, so I decided to start the fight, ready or not. Some called unfair, but they only had to stop being 9 years old kids. Then they stood in place before the fights.


For the next Server Event, I will organize a treasure hunting. Nothing too complicated, but be ready to use google. You may have to check some references.


As for other events, I have some ideas. Here's a short list:
-Building competitions (sculptures, airships, whatever else)
-Archery contests
-More PvP stuff
-Wargrounds (When we'll have enough people and when the servers will stop lagging due to beta being beta)
-Monster Slaughters


And I'll probably come up with more stuff as time goes on. If you have suggestions, then this is the place to write them down :D




Thanks for reading and take care. Oh, and the next post next week is about the Aether. They finally unleashed paradise! (as a mod)

Dislike Vs Hate

I didn't type anything on the blog for a good time now. Sorry for that. As always, I have a lot to do at the same time. Good new is that I'm done moving, my dog (Missy, by the way) is back to the rest of my family and my PC is plugged.

...It's not a reason, I'm writing these blogs at my job XD

Anyway, as my future projects are already announced and I do not really know what to talk about (other than that subject), I decided to talk about something foolish concerning life itself. Everywhere I go, may it be on the internet or in the streets, people always believe that if I do not like something, it obviously means I hate it. fondly. A perfect example would be Call of Duty (any recent one). Now, I'm sure everyone knows I'm not a follower of this game and for many reasons. I will simply point out a few. To note, I started playing shooters on the N64. More specifically Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Turok, Duke Nukem, Doom and some more, so I'm not stranger to the genre. As such, playing Call of Duty is far from my number one priority.

In my opinion, Call of Duty is bland and empty. Oh sure, there's explosions and great animations and limitless cannon fodder (that you can set on fire nonetheless), but I've seen all of that over and over. As for multiplayer, grinding for ranks is not something I'd do, the gameplay is simple, no cooperation is needed and it's a goddamn lag fest. Doesn't mean I hate it to the point of burning it, it's just not the kind of game I play (so stop sending me random hate messages, youtube users I never saw before in my entire life).

That's probably because I'm not a potential client. I'm what you call a nerd, or a geek, or a hardcore gamer, or all of those. In my case, I played the first Call of Duty, loved it, then jumped into something else. Every sequels (in the series, I don't care about time line) keeps offering the same deal at the same price, and it is not enough for me to buy it. Even if there's a lot of pretty explosions in it.
BUT, to other players it's perfect. See, not every single gamers have what we call *time*. It is limited, and for some of us wasting it is out of the question. Let's take someone random: family man, father of two kids, working full time. He doesn't have time to d*** around in Final Fantasy or whatever. Not even the first one. CoD, on the other hand, is perfect for him. He's stressed and tired, and jumping in a 20 minutes game is just enough for him. Hard to believe, but blowing enemies to bits helps with our anger issues. Or setting them on fire, that works too.

However, I have time to waste. Lots of it! As such, playing Kingdom Hearts or trying to defeat Devil May Cry on super-duper hard is something I would do. More than once! Or I can simply go relax in Minecraft.

Ok, honestly, time doesn't really have anything to do with me not loving CoD. I just prefer deeper games like Half-Life or Left 4 Dead (for shooters at least). If you still wanna cry about this, then I cannot do anything for your sorry soul. Not legally at least D:

Why am I typing this? Iono, I'm bored I guess. I do however receive hate letters, 4 realz. It is hylarious. Thanks for reading, and remember: I'm a fan of a lot of things, but I do not jump at people's neck when they say they're not interested in it XD








...Except Kinjry. His dislike for Devil May Cry makes me MAD!

Alice: Madness Returns is ruining my childhood!

I'm not gonna go on forever about why this game sucks. Standart idendity crysis hits a lot of sequels, and this one is not spared. It's main problem (and probably the only one) is that it is trying to be everything else. It doesn't need to be, and EA failed to realise that. The original Alice was perfect. Sure, it have it's flaws, but it never stopped me from enjoying it. This one feels like it is holding my hand to make sure I'm not getting lost. Using our brains is too difficult for us, they may say XD

So, I'm gonna go point by point (as I usually do) and list what annoys me the most. I'm sure some of you guys will think of something else, so feel free to comment about it.

SO, what annoys me the most, in order of annoyance:

1: WASTING MY FUCKING TIME, "SIMON'S QUEST" STYLE BABY!
2: Endless collectibles (refer to point 1)
3: Story is pointless
4: Useless combat system
5: EVERYTHING ELSE

So, first two points annoys me to no end. Any players remember Banjo Kazooie? Well, Alice: Madness Returns feels like that, but without the good music, or the free exploration, of the comedy, or whatever else which made Banjo Kazooie good. There is collectibles everywhere, secret rooms, more collectibles, teeth (which serves as money), bottles, MOAR STUFF TO GRAB GOD DAMN IT IT NEVER STOPS!?!?!%!%!%

Here's why this feels like Simon's quest. It's fuckin' farming to increase your weapons, which is useless btw. I actually played on hard without upgrading any weapons at all. In fact, you're saving a lot of time just ignoring all of these secret rooms. I DID end up upgrading my stuff, but nothing feels rewarding. You just attack faster, or fire faster with your "pepper machine gun". No special moves or spells or different gameplay mechanics, nothing like that. More DPS, that's it. So at this point you pretty much wasted your time for no reason at all.

However, even if you ignore the collectibles, the game will still waste your time. Repetitive puzzles which offers no challenge at all, switch hunting to unlock a path that leads to another switch, and another switch, and so un until you complete the chapter, and in the next chapter it's platforming to activate switches all over again. You never "feel" like going forward, and sometimes they make you turn in a big circle just to waste your time. You actually come back to the start, expecting a boss battle. But nope, nothing like that. Just a small cinematic, and the chapter ends. OH, well thank you for taking my time like that EA. Just keep it all, I insist.

In short, You never have any sort of concrete goal to accomplish. In the first game, every actions you complete leads to the next part of the story, and the game never FELT like wasting your time. There was some puzzles, sure,  but at least they were entertaining and there's about 15 of them in the entire game. Here it's about a hundred of them, and it's all the same.


POINT THREE is also a bother. In the first game it was all about this insane quest to defeat your inner madness and restoring your sanity. Characters who were previously gentle and intriguing are now abominable creatures who only dream of squashing you into a pretty stain. Or burst your ears. In the end, it offered an interesting story with a couple of twists, interesting characters, and that goddamn cat XD

In Madness Returns, the story is...well....is there even one to begin with? Sure, they establish that Wonderland is corrupted, that Alice is crazy and dark and haz creepy eyes, but..... NOTHING HAPPENS! She just visits parts of Wonderlands because she...feels like it? Iono, at some point she have hallucinations, which causes her to fall through the ground, and she bunny hops beside a river, and she comes back to the real world and acts as if nothing....happened. WUT?

Ok, so I didn't finished the game yet, But I'm deep into the third chapter and still I'm not really sure of what is happening, or if it's for good reasons, or if it's important. I understand the Train and what it represents, and I get why Wonderland is transforming, but that's not a story. That's retaking stuff in the first game and making echoes of what happened there. In the first game, things were clear from the start: Queen of hearts is going bat shit crazy and you need to stop her in order to regain your sanity. Neat. The game is STILL mental, but now that we have a firm goal, we can enjoy everything else.

But in Madness Returns, things...happens. You help people because they ask you to, and when you're done you get back to the real world where some other things happens, and then you go back to Wonderland where something else happens, and...

Through all of that, the player never feels like accomplishing something. And I'm not even talking about the cinematics where, you guessed it, nothing happens. Sometimes it's someone talking about Alice's mental case, sometimes it's a character in Wonderland talking about something we must do for them. Nothing constructive.

And don't get me started on boss battles. There is no boss battles at all...


POINT FOUR (the combat system) is the greatest asset of the game. It feels inventive, fluid and....oh, wait, you're telling me that there's about dozens of games like that now?

If you want a good answer for this point....Darksiders. It's a Darksiders clone. Just spam the main attack button and everyone dies. Since dying is never penalising, risk is not there. Also, the weapons are bland, generic, and you can't even play with your combos. At least Darksiders gave us the decency of being creative with different attack patterns.

But here, every weapons have a single combo, even if you upgrade them, which is solely used to stun-lock opponents which makes them defenseless You have the Vorpal Blade (aka War's standart sword) to dispatch small enemies, then you have the horse hammer (aka War's power gloves.....it's so bad XD) for enemies with shields or other protections. Your machine gun....oh, pepper grinder, sorry... is used to fight flying targets, so you shoot them, and they die, and they give teeth so you can upgrade your already bland weapons so that they can do a better job, and....Damn it's happening all over again!

Sure, sometimes there's a "bigger" foe, but nothing challenging. And even if he's about to hit you, just SPAM the living *&?% of that dodge key and he'll never even scratch you. Considering that Darksiders is a ripoff of about 10 games, then it would mean that Madness Returns is a ripoff of a ripoff. Great :S


Now, everyone remembers the combat system in the first Alice? Yeah, there was no combat system, it was all about using your super clever awesome brain and thinking for a second. Enemies are rushing towards you? then fry them with your flaming music box! Enemies are overpowering you? then make use of these super convenient super awesome diabolical dices (my favorite weapon in the game) to give them a SPIICYY surprise! Enemies are shooting you to death and you're getting tired of it? then simply use your freezing staff to create a solid wall of ice and hide behind it!

Having a mana gauge was akin to NOT SPAM TO WIN! You had to think about your actions. Don't waste weapons, don't rush, and you'll live. Hell, the battles were satisfying too! Throwing a music box so that it would bounce on a wall and land right under their balls (and violently explode) was so great! The weapon selection (all nine of them) was unique, inventing and fun to use. AND every weapons were useful in certain situations. Unlike another game, where it feels like Dead Space 2.5 "my unborn little girl is fighting monsters" game.


And that's it, pretty much. I could go on forever about annoying cinematics trying to scare you by violently zooming into someone's eye, or people VIOLENTLY turning around with a zoom right in their face, desperately trying to scare you or whatever. Now, to be fair there is some good points about this game. The soundtrack is akin to the first one, even if the number of memorable songs is limited, the artwork is great (probably the only reason why you should buy the game, if you're REALLY into it), but nothing is reedeming enough for me to suggest the game. In short, as I said at the beginning, Madness Returns suffers a critical identity crysis, which is really sad for both the fans and EA. Stick to the original game XD