Engineering advertisement done right

Hello everyone,

Not sure if there's anyone left still reading this blog but, here's a once in a blue moon post.

Back when I was younger but not-so-new to the internet, I've come across a handful of flash games created by a very creative Japanese guy (or girl, I have no idea). What this game was, was sort of a puzzle that solves itself as time goes by. Strange to describe but trust me, it's epicly creative. What the player has to do is basically select items in order, and each time you select an item, a round goes by. And as each round goes by, your previous selections "evolve" into grander items. And here's the kicker: The order matters as the items actually interact with one another!

So I found myself playing flash games and felt I want to play these Grow Games again. So I'm here to share one of the ones that impressed me the most. It seems to be sort of an introduction to engineering for would-be University goers.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I had.

http://shingakunet.com/school/9000621340/9000677582/special/grow/index.html


~Fox

League of Legends Quick Review

Hey guys!

In relation to my uni work, I have one essay to go! Woo hoo! But it's being a pain in the ass to start off just like the first one :(

Enough of that, today I wanna post about this game I've been playing. Those of you who've played DoTA should know of it. League of Legends, in short LoL xD. This is an MMO game released by Riot Games and is developed by the people who actually developed DoTA! Here're two videos to start it off :P

The gameplay mechanics is almost the same as DoTA but there are differences such as skills are put in the QWER keys for the first to ultimate skills as well as an added area of effect "ghost" cursor so you can see where some skills land as well as their range. The thing that trumps DoTA is being able to reconnect if you happen to disconnect in game, pretty sweet stuff. There are also tall grass which allows you to catch Pokemon hide in order to make ganking more strategy based I think.

There's also a "summoner" (which is the player) levelling system which allows the game to match you to people who are in your league rather than match you with pros who rape you within 30 seconds the game starts (though it isn't foolproof and it has happened). There is the classic 5v5 games as well as a smaller scale 3v3 game to suit your time.

The downside of the game is that you need to "buy" the heroes you want to use though the game cycles a handful of free heroes to use every week; which is a good thing cos I have no idea what heroes are good to use until I tried them out myself. But the more you play (and win) the more in-game currency you get. The game is free to play so that means they make money off rich people that buy their cash points to unlock stuff without much work. And as with all MMOs there are the noobs who complain a lot and report you for no apparent reason.

I've got a friend who wasn't that into it and he says it's probably the colours of the game. If you jump into it thinking of a dark-DoTA-esque look, you'd be disappointed as the colours are more warm and vibrant even on the "Scourge" side.

However, all-in-all LoL is a pretty solid game though stability has been a bit of a problem a week or two ago. I give LoL a 4/5, it's not perfect but it's good :D

If you're interested go here to find out more.

Here's some screens I saved off the site to put on Tales:

Have fun all!

~Fox

Okamiden (NDS) Review

Hey guys!

Finally another game review and this time it's Okamiden! I just finished it today and thought I might as well review it. This game is a continuation from the PS2 and Wii release called Okami. For those of you who've never played Okami or at least not know the story in it, then sad to say, many things will be new or lost to you.

First thing's first, I'll just recap what happened in Okami:

The world of Nippon is covered by darkness because of the return of the evil 8-headed serpent named Orochi. The Goddess of the Sun by the name of Amaterasu resurrects to bring peace back to the land with the help of Issun, her partner and voice (cos like, she's a wolf). As the Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu ("Ammy" as Issun calls her) has the power of the Celestial Brush, a powerful tool to remove obstacles and achieve things only a god or goddess can do. Examples of this include cutting down large rocks in one swipe, restoring items to their original quality, command the elements of fire, wind and water, cause a sunrise, cause a sunset, etc.

They travel the land to help those affected by the darkness and in this process, meet people as well as unlocking more and more of Ammy's full potential of the Celestial Brush. That is not all of her prowess! On her back she carries a weapon called a Divine Instrument beginning with a mirror but as she travels she finds a sword as well as a whip. All of them can be made more powerful. Areas Ammy visits that are cursed can be restored with a stroke of a brush but only in the presence of a Cherry tree which can repel the curse and cleanse the land. This is called a Divine Intervention.

End of recap

I thoroughly enjoyed Okami for the plot twists and amusing and fun side missions. If you still have a working PS2 or something, go play Okami before going on to Okamiden.

NOTE! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SOME, IF ANY, SPOILERS!!!

In Okamiden you play as the son of Amaterasu, cutely named Chibiterasu. As you would expect, the Child of the Sun possesses some of his mother's talents using the Celestial Brush and Divine Instrument. Nine months after Ammy saved the land, darkness comes back and Chibi needs to find the cause but he can't do it without a partner like his mom had. After finding a partner, they set off to right the wrongs.

Graphics-wise this game is very eye-pleasing and well done; especially taking into account this is the NDS. You have vast areas to run around and explore for loot, cursed areas look unwelcoming and dark and the Divine Intervention sequences are brilliant! It feels great to see a dark gloomy area converted to a bright, peaceful place.

In normal gameplay, your bottom screen will be for maps and hotkeys. In battle, your bottom screen will be for hotkeys and shows your enemy's life bar.

By pressing the L or R button, you enter the Brush mode, allowing you to use the touchpad to do brush strokes. I'm quite happy with this feature especially when I can draw amusing faces on pieces of paper which they use as a mask haha. My only quarrel is you obviously have to keep the pen down the whole way, and I tend to have stutters and this gives you nothing. Nonetheless I do enjoy playing with brush works.

Drawing a circle on a sakura tree will make blossoms come out, not only will it look better, it also earns you "Praise" which is basically the experience points in the game. However you only level up your HP and Ink pots. Then you must be wondering, "since I can just do random nice things to level up, what's the point of looking for baddies to whallop?" Well the demons drop money as well as, with the right circumstances, materials needed to upgrade your Divine Instruments.

As you go through the game, you'll encounter constellations, which when traced, will reveal to you masters of the brush to give you new brush skills. But since you're using the Pup of Ammy, your "masters" will be their respective offspring.

And they are really cute little critters!

Other than this, gameplay starts out feeling like an errand run but picks up once you can do cooler stuff with your brush. And play doesn't get boring because you will get more than one partners, each with a special ability and thus not allowing you to get bored that fast.

You also have to solve puzzles with your partners' abilities. And I have to mention some brush techniques are changed from the ones in Okami. Among them is the "Guidance" technique which you use to guide your partners to parts of the area you both can't go to at the same time.

There is a little side quest where you look for people from around Nippon to see if anyone is interested in living in a new village called Yakushi. It is kind of nice to see the village slowly shape and transform from an empty lot to an semi-empty lot lol.

The music in Okamiden is awesome too. It stays true to Okami's japanese style music and it doesn't get boring that fast I think.

Battles get old pretty fast if you are just aimlessly looking for demons to kill. But given a proper.... incentive to work for (like they're blocking the door to the toilet or treasure chest), you'll find it's quite fun to slay them. The battles play out pretty fast and is based on a you-know-what-you're-doing-and-when-to-do-it style. And as I mentioned if you know how to "cleanse" the demon, it'll drop materials for upgrading your weapons later on.

Story is top-notch! It picks up as you go along but I seriously recommend playing it just for the story. Humour is also abundant especially the character interactions are very amusing, like each partner you find will give Chibi a name shocking him and making him grief if only for a while. The game DOES refer a lot to Okami so if you didn't play it, you won't get about a quarter to a half of the story. There's even time travel but that's all you'll get out of me. But I'll just say these parts are pretty epic.

Finally
I give it a 5 / 5 because I totally love the storyline and humour. If you are a fan of Okami, then this game is just MADE for you! (literally)

Overall this game is not stressful and it won't test your limits (at least not mine) with satisfying story and gameplay.

Oh and by the by, there's a save game plus type save file after the credits. You get to retain your HP and ink levels as well as unlocking some nice goodies.

At last, I'll leave you with my favourite quote from the game:

"You need a name... Something tough but easy to remember... I got it! I'll call you... Mutt!" - Kuni


~Fox

3DS Test Run First Impressions!

Hey guys!

Yesterday I went to Westfield at Shepard's Bush in London with my sis and Shin. As fate would have it I saw a closed area with 3DS written on it. On impulse I pulled my sis and Shin to the queue and once we went in, it was quite packed! at least 30 3DSes were set up for people to try them out! Sadly no photography was allowed in there so I can't show you guys how it looked.

The games I tried were:
Nintendogs + Cats - This was pretty cool! The 3D added depth to the animals, making them look more solid and adorable~ Though my sis and Shin didn't see that..
Legend of Zelda - Didn't really get to play it but the 3D element was not bad.
Steel Diver - This was a submarine commanding game. You do this by toggling forwards or backwards, up or down on a dashboard which looks pretty cool
Lego Star Wars - Also didn't get to experience this fully.
Dead or Alive - Pretty lame demo. All I did was choose a character and mashed the A button and after a few seconds I won and it was over.
Resident Evil - This was pretty sweet! I think I enjoyed this demo the most. It was basically choose a character and then score as many points as possible before the time was up.
Street Fighter 4 - First one I tried after getting in. The 3D effect added depth to the fighting but after a while my eyes felt strained lol.
Kid Icarus - Shin and I tag teamed on this, she aimed while I dodged and shot. It's a pretty good game, I'll be getting this if I got a 3DS.

It's basically the size of an NDS Lite I would say. New features include the analog stick, an extra camera in front to take 3D photographs, overhauled starting interface, a 3D slider on the top half and different location for the Start, Select and Power.

First of all I am not impressed with the position of the Power switch. Thinking it was Start, I pushed it a few times sort of screwing the console for a while lol.

Now for what this console is bringing to the table, 3D and without the glasses. The effect is more noticeable in some games than others. But all in all they add depth. But there's one thing I noticed. Shin and my sis said they got dizzy after playing once. I felt alright because I was absorbed into it. But after stopping and moving on I felt strange, a bit disorientated. So I guess the rumours about getting crosseyed from the game isn't that far off. The good thing is you can turn the 3D effects halfway or even off, giving you the traditional gaming experience without sacrificing your eyes.

Here's a part of the brochure they gave. It opens up to be a 3DS I found that quite cool ahaha.


~Fox

SD Gundam G Generation World Review

Heeeey all!

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past week or so.. Last week I went to Norwich which was fun! But caught a flu and now am at the final phase of recovery. During the week though, I've been busy with some uni stuff but mostly with this game! I was camping it ever since I posted about it. And sure enough, on the 24th February 2011, it was released and Hallelujah! Gundam madness!

Anyways today I'm gonna do a sort of quick review for those of you who are on the fence about it. First of all, it is in JAPANESE only. That's right, the Generation series have never been translated and ported into the west. I find that quite sad as the series is a pretty solid title.

Secondly, it is a TACTICS game so you're not actually piloting one mobile suit (MS) and killing oodles of enemies, we've got Dynasty Warriors Gundam for that lol.

The gameplay for the Generation series is basically, move unit closer to enemy on a grid like format, you can end turn there or attack (obvious much). There are different types of attack with different ranges; melee with the beam saber obviously requires you to face the enemy head on, but there are exceptions such as God Gundam who is mostly melee based can do some in 2 squares. Anyways it's better you experience the map and battle yourself as one press of a button will let you know more than some boring text lol.

On the grid, there's nothing really special though I was surprised how big some of the Gundam were. Speaking of Gundam, the name Generation should hint that you'll get to play MS from all the universe up til currently. The game includes recent Gundam like the 00 Quanta and Unicorn! And where are MS there are pilots, and I have to say, I can't recognise at least half of them as they include the crew from warships (WS) as well.

Every map has a condition e.g. Destroy Char with Amuro. and if you satisfy this condition, a Generation Break occurs. Basically this causes more enemies to spawn but they're from different universes each break and there are 2 breaks per map. And there's a challenge for the condition i.e. "Can you defeat Char using Amuro in 1 turn?" and if you do this, a secret MS will pop out for you to earn extra points.

As you destroy the enemy MS, your pilots gain ACE points and experience and so does your MS. As your pilot levels up, they get increased stats but when your MS levels, you gain skill points to allocate on the spot to attack, defence or movement. At a certain level (normally 3 - 5) your MS is able to proceed on to it's next tech tree form. For example Exia (Basic) > Exia > 00 Gundam. I've personally maxed Exia's tree and I have to say, it is imba beyond all reason.

You can hear music from the generations, I've only remembered SEED and 00 tunes lol. And graphics wise... Well, lets just say it's jizz in your pants material! You can turn on cinematics when attacking or getting attacked. It is very satisfying to see your hits land on the enemy as well as dodging what seems to be an impossible situation (like massive beams hitting and causing an explosion but you're unscratched)

It is also the little things that make Generation World a treat. When you destroy a certain amount of enemies and/or dodge their attacks, your "Tension" increases and at a certain level, you become High Tension. At this point some MS change form and/or get a very powerful attack (Like Unicorn Gundam becomes Destroy mode at High Tension), you also see changes in the Pilots, Setsuna gets his Innovator eyes and Kira goes into SEED mode with clouded eyes; oh and all your attacks become criticals. If you destroy one more unit at High Tension you go into Critical Tension where all your attacks become Super Criticals! I'll say if you reach this point, you're probably gonna destroy everything if your energy and steps hold out.

Enough words, time for lots of screenshots!

00 Quanta starting his attack

 His side swords spinning and he goes into Trans AM

Forms his.... Cannon thing?

 SHOOP DA WHOOOOOOP

 Red Frame dramatic sword unsheathing 

 Dramatic pose!

 "TRANS AM"

 Cherudim shield and sniping bits launch all out!

Sniping target!

 Freedom's beam sword attack 

Our fave attack from Freedom!

 Arios Trans AM

 Finish with the claw!

 Potemayo (I like to call it that :X It just means potato-mayonnaise) attack sequence.

 FIRE!

 Unicorn firing!

 Very nice hit animation!

 Destroy mode hitting a critical area of a WS causing Pinpoint attack as well as having Super Critical!

Strike Freedom sending out his Funnels!

I give this game a 4.5/5, I love it to bits, but there are some parts I don't really fancy such as some animations where you see a direct piercing attack into the cockpit would normally kill someone, just sends his HP down by half. I know it's nitpicking but I would've like it better if it the damages were more solid. 

Thanks as always guys! Subscribe if you haven't (b ^.')

~Fox

NGP in Action!

Hey guys!

I don't know if you guys heard of the unveiling of the new Next Generation Portable or NGP by Sony Computer Entertainment. The specs sound impressive but there's talk about the battery life being a measly 4 hours but that remains unofficial it seems.

The first impression I got was it looked pretty slick. Boasting another analog stick on the right, this will make it perfect for controlling camera angles especially in shooters. The main thing I want to share with you guys is this video of the NGP in action. The graphics indeed does look next gen, but I remain sceptical about the true graphical specs. But the video is worth a watch nonetheless!



I can't wait til it's out so I can try it! That as well as the 3DS! Great games keep pumping out is indeed a "do want" on my list. Time to start saving lol.


~Fox

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Review

Hey guys!

Been busy lately with presentations but now that that's done, here's a review of the NDS game, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective!

If you didn't know already, it is developed by the same people who brought us the Phoenix Wright series! And if you haven't played those games, then it is a great loss as they were brilliant games which proved you can't judge a game by it's cover.

Anyways, Ghost Trick is a game where you play Sessil, a poor fella who got murdered and lost his memories when he wakes up as a spirit. He is able to manipulate objects by doing ghost tricks (surprise surprise) and is able to jump into the corpse of those who died recently and travel to the past, namely 4 minutes before their death and try to stop their unfortunate fate from happening. He meets up with different people during that night and tries as hard as he could to regain his lost memory because he will disappear when dawn comes.

Gameplay is fun as you try to jump from point to point in the ghost world. and the top screen serves as a heads-up to what you can do with the object you possessed. You are able to rewind time over and over again to the beginning of the "4 minutes" or you can rewind to a time where a fate is changed slightly (i.e. a checkpoint) Some parts are annoying however, if you have to wait for the event to play out each time you rewind. It is somewhat of a brain teaser and you have to think fast as some parts require good timing.

Storytelling is top notch! I can't tell you how many times I got goosebumps from unexpected plot twists happening when you least expect it. It kinda gives this CSI effect which you think you know what's going on but you're far off from it. The events give you a satisfying feeling of discovery and mystery as well. Moments are tense and/or funny and are also not as predictable haha.

The hourglass is the countdown to the imminent time of a person dying if nothing's done. 

Time stops in the Ghost world.

Another view of the Ghost world in "present" time.

Manipulating objects is key to what happens!

Top screen tells you what you can do with the object

Sessil and Lynne

I give this game a 5/5. It has everything needed for a great game. Excellent character development, design, storytelling and gameplay makes it a must play.

Don't take my word for it, try the demo here!! 

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/ghost_trick_phantom_detective_18194.html

This is a game you don't want to miss!

As always, thanks for reading and if you like what I write, please subscribe! :D

~Fox