Blogs Reborn

What's up peoples.

So my old blog 'Run: Side by Side" has been re-christened "Writers' Wall". This blog will now be dedicated to any writing I do. This includes my project which I am working on right now which is called 'iNtER-SeCTIon' (yes it is supposed to look like that).

I'll be updating the look of it too but nothing too fancy. I'm also keeping the music mainly because I love that song.

So check it out when you got a minute.

In regards to 'Rants & Raves' I'll write a proper blog as soon as I can.

P

Op: Darkness- Eliza is GREAT

I hope to write a corresponding blog as I went deeper and deeper into Op: Darkness. However I've been playing so much that I haven't had the time to blog lol.

Back to the game. I'm really enjoying it, it's quickly becoming one of my new obessions (lol my wife especially doesn't like my unhealthy passion for it).

As I get deeper into the game, I have a full team. Lewis, who was introduced early in the game is now a permanant character and he is pretty cool. His voice actor does a cool accent. Jack the Ripper is also a squad member and it's the Ripper of legend. His a good guy (more on the historical characters later). His pretty sweet with blades and general bad-ass attitude. Finally the last new member is Alisa Van Helsing, Abraham Van Helsing's daughter and probably my favorite character in the game because she is hella cool. She one of the best character designs I have seen in a minute.

So as I mentioned it's cool how this game has so many historial and mythical characters. I've already mentioned Jack the Ripper, Elisa is the daughter of famed vampire hunter Van Helsing (of Dracula fame). Herbet West is named after the re-animator made popular by H.P Lovecraft (Cthulhu linkage) and Carmilla is also a famous female vampire and of course, Hitler.

Speaking of vampires, I now know why Jude sucks and didn't get no cool powers.
**SPOILERS** It's because he was destined to be turned into your nemesis and become evil because he was turned by Vlado (the main bad guy). **end SPOILERS**

It was a nice twist and one I did not see coming.

Now onto the bad. I mentioned it before but having to watch every single dialogue cut-scene again and again after you fail a mission is so lame. I can't believe the game designers didn't see the flaw in this. Sure you can fast forward the cinematics and the dialogue scenes can be fast forwarded but it's a chore. On top of the can't save during battles crap it's one of my biggest annoyances with the game.

Another thing I found out is 'Dead is Dead'. If Herbert doesn't re-animate a dead squad mate, that person stays dead for the rest of the game and you lose that person's skill set. Ohh and to top it off, you get the bad ending as well. Hah! It's not really a bad flaw (like above points), it does add a lot more strategy to the game and makes you want to keep your squad alive no matter what. It's different but people mention other srpg's have this mechanic so I guess they'll were being true to the genre.

All in all, I like the game more then it drives me crazy so I'm enjoying myself. More blog on Op: Darkness to come.

P

P.S. The Super Sniper Rifle rules.

RAVE: Cthulhu Saves the World

It was a short but boy was it an action packed ride. Cthulhu Saves the World was sublime experience.

The game played like a dream and I really enjoyed every moment of it. Sure some dungeons got confusing but that's their purpose, you work your way through them and when you explore off the beaten track, you find juicy stuff.

I really have to say I enjoyed the following

-Humor. All the humor was not forced at all with some really laugh out loud moments for me. I can't say I had this much time laughing with a game since Breath of Death VII.
-Characters. All the characters were well designed and all had massive amounts of charisma. Cthulhu is in a world of his own tho, probably the most verbose RPG character ever which is so rare in a genre of silent protagonists.
-Battle System. Just like BoD VII system but a lot of stuff is added and subtracted (healing items breaking combo count) that made it feel even better.
-Limit on random battles. Ahh I wish all games had this. And if you want to grind and get more levels you can always pick a fight lol. Smart!
-Everyone levels up. Another awesome idea that I wish other games borrow. The fact that un-used party members still level up like normal is great for when you want to create a new team. Also it's a smart way of making sure you try all the characters.
-The graphics. A massive step up from BoD VII, towns look awesome and very reminiscent of Shining Force games (one of my fave series). In game graphics and animations are sweet to watch as well.
-The soundtrack. Awesome, already downloaded it and loving it.
-The story. It's a spin on a time old tale. It's no Lost but it hits all the right notes.

However as much as I love this game, I do have some small gripes with it.
-Save/ Restore only active party. It's strange that when you save your whole party Magic Points are not restored, only the active members.
-Item/ Equip/ Selling. This system still feels awkward. It's better then BoD VII because you can now sell items/ armor but the fact you need to equip items and un-equip items to sell them feels not streamlined. It's getting there tho so I know the next game will be a even bigger improvement.
-Highlander difficulty. It was a really surprise that I didn't get pwned much in the normal mode of the game. However Highlander's difficulty is a real challenge. Being able to only use 1 character and still having to fight tons of enemies? Hopefully after I buff my characters a bit more I won't see the game over screen so much.

All in all tho, I can't front, this is one of my favorite games I have played on my Xbox 360. I eagerly wait the next chapter in the Zeboyd saga. I highly recommend this game to any one. Not even just RPG fans. Any one can get into this game and enjoy it. It's that GOOD.

P

I'm going insane and I LIKE it.

The game I have waited month upon months is FINALLY here.

Cthulhu Saves the World by Zeboyd games is the follow-up to arguably my favorite RPG I have played on the Xbox 360.

And much like Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, everything feels right with the world. The humor is actually bonafide good. I love all the inside jokes (heros respawning in a church LMFAO), the visuals are better, the music is glorious (need to get that OST) and the game plays like a dream. Like BoD VII, the difficulty in CStW feels just right. There is so much done right in this game. I enjoy set limits on random encounters, I love the branching level up system, I love getting new USEFUL party members and I'm only half way threw the game.

This game made me put aside Operation Darkness in a heartbeat after playing the first 5 mins. I love Op: Darkness no doubt but this is the game I was waiting for and to be playing it and enjoying it. Well it's a late Christmas present but it's a great Christmas present. Plus to top it off, it cost me 3 bucks!! Insanity! (Cthulhu pun intended).

I'm going back in!!

Oh btw game update.

Operation Darkness: yep
Left 4 Dead: yep
Battle Fantasia: nope, wasn't available.
F.E.A.R: Nice replacement.
Ninja Gaiden II outfits: yep
Limbo: no. I might skip it even through it'll be dirt cheap today. I'll wait for another special I guess. In it's place
Epic Dungeon: enjoyed the demo. Part of the Indie Game Uprising and it's a rpg-ish. Sold.
Decay: Indie game, 80 points, horror theme... got the trial... maybe?
Got some more other indie games to check out too.
and

Cthulhu Saves the World: Hell yeah!

P

Op: Darkness Day 3

So today I moved a lot further into my new obsession.

I finally meet two of the main villains of the game and both are designed pretty well. Ahh werewolves and vampires, never the two shall get along LOL.

One thing I called from day one was that mysterious Cordelia (aka your love interest) was a German or in this case, half-German. It was still however a nice reveal moment and I felt the characters are truly getting closer.

Jude still drives me insane with his super slow movement AND he doesn’t learn no magic spells or talents or anything. I guess that’s because he was not ‘touched’ (no pun intended) by ‘The Wolf Pack’.



Carmilla (interesting the three main girls name start with C. Cordelia, Cynthia and now Carmilla) is an awesome design, super sexy and evil and owned the Hell out of me multiple times before I finally got the jump on her. I hope she is a reoccurring character.

Speaking of, the difficulty went up considerable after Level 6 for sure. Level 6 was the demo level and I was destroyed a couple times before I finally got my strategy down. Ironically up to Level 6, I was doing awesome with rarely having to restart battles at all. Well this time, I got to Level 6 with my demo strat and I smashed it.

Then along came Level 7 and boy, I was not ready. I must have continued at least 8-9 times. However once again, once you figure out your game plan, it’s on.

I am really enjoying myself however the game is not without some big flaws which are beginning to stick out.

First is the very annoying inability to skip talk scenes. Especially after you have seen said talk scenes 8-9 times because you keep losing. Second is the inability to save mid battle. There is no save feature mid battle which is not cool at all (Shining Force had it right). I can’t understand why they don’t allow the above two. I really don’t look forward to the day when I’m in the middle of a long battle, close to beating the stage and I get called away on an urgent matter. It’s basically putting a lot of hours to waste.

Other then these flaws, I’m really enjoying myself and I hope it continues to challenge me and keep me coming back for more (which it has).

P

P.S. Hah there is a character called Leona! Too bad she doesn’t have blue hair like my favorite KOF character.

RAVE: SRPG's and Operation Darkness

What?! The blog is resurrected! Much like Nazi zombies... but more on that later.

So I was originally going to blog about this on 'Apocryphic Videos' but I realized that this blog would be much more suitable on my original blog.

On to the game itself. I am a massive fan of Strategy Role Playing Games (SRPG's). One of my favorite games of all time is 'Shining Force II' by Climax/ Team Sonic/ Sega. I am a role playing gamer but SRPG's have always had a soft place in my heart
thanks to said game. So it's to my dismay that the SRPG is being faded out to the point where even the originators Climax stopped making 'Shining' Strategy games. Now don't get me wrong, I like these new wave RPG's like Mass Effect and what not BUT I really want my games of old back. I'm old school like that. So when I found out I had the monies to pick up a game with a hardcore strat RPG base I jumped.

I picked up the demo and played it continuously, even through I was getting owned every twenty minutes (SRPG are time consuming affairs believe me) I still kept coming back for more. This made me know for sure I'll had to buy it.

So Operation Darkness is pretty sweet. Sure the graphics and sound ain't nothing to write home about the core is the SRPG and it does what it does well. We have a story which follows the nameable hero and his team. Like all good SRPG's I have played, I find myself getting invested with the characters. Right now my faves have to be Cynthia the sniper, mysterious Cordelia and the leader of the crew, James Gallant. Whilst I am not a big fan of the main setting (World War II, that's more up my step-dad Val's alley) the fact it's an alternative history with werewolves, zombies and vampires included makes it much more in my vein of games. I remember I liked Bloodrayne for the same reason, the alternative take on history, oh and hot vampires LOL.

So I'm moving through the campaign right now and doing good on and off. I really like how this game allows you to customize your squad and crazy stuff which never occurred to me before like carrying too many items can slow your character down is definitely a plus in my book. It's filled to the brim with stats which goes hand in hand with strats.

Another thing I dig is how the game is played, since we are using guns, rockets and tanks, it's completely different then a fantasy SRPG which I am learning first hand. Guns have sweet range and rockets wipe out whole squads. I also know later on, magic powers are unlocked for all characters so that'll be something to see as well.

I'll report back in again after I get further into the game but so far I am liking this trip into darkness.

P

P.S now how to make Jude move faster... damnit boy, move!!

The End... for now.

So blog wise I haven't post anything in a minute. It is ironic because I'm not working or doing anything like school anymore however I can not seem to dedicate some time to blogging.

On top of this, my uncle passed away and it has really put me and my whole family in a weird place.

In all honesty I think I might stop writing for this blog and just keep my Apocryphic Visions blog up to date with combo vids, updates and stuff like that.

I might come back to this blog but for now consider this shop closed for business.