Some Random Little Games And An Awesome Convention!

Hello All!

So I have gone up by fifty page views yay! Thank you all for taking the time to click on my little piece of internet space! You are all very quiet though, I'd love to see some opinions in the comments so speak up and let me know who you are and what you think!

So I've been in an odd mood the last few days and haven't really fancied playing my usual games like League of Legends, Minecraft, World of Warcraft etc. After finishing Halo 4 I just wanted to play games that aren't ongoing, I wanted to complete something! I love the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you complete a game so this week I finished two games I got over the Christmas sales; Little Inferno and The Unfinished Swan.

So I bought Little Inferno after watching a few of the videos of Simon and Lewis from the Yogscast playing it. It looked like some easygoing fun just burning things and getting achievements what's not to like? There is a bit of a story to it which in my opinion is really....strange...? Basically you are playing a young boy who buys the latest craze for kids to keep warm in the freezing environment: the Little Inferno which is pretty much just a fire place with a creepy face in the middle. On arrival of your purchase you get a letter from Miss Nancy the head of the Tomorrow Corporation congratulating you on your purchase and explaining that you can buy things to burn in the catalogues you unlock as you go throughout the game. You are told about the the harsh conditions via letters from the Weatherman who rides a hot air balloon above the city and you receive regular letters from your eccentric yet strangely philosophical neighbour Sugar Plumps.

As you burn the random items you purchase you can gain money and stamps to help you buy more things to burn as well as unlocking combos such as the LOL Kitty Combo which you get by burning the Wandering Eye Camera and the Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie together. Your neighbour Sugar Plumps also asks you to send her things like a magnet, fireflies and fashionable sunglasses while also telling you she cant look backwards and there is something we don't know. Just over halfway through the game you hear a rumbling sound from above and a girl screaming. A letter from the Weatherman tells you that he can see a house on fire and it is assumed poor Sugar Plumps is dead. You continue on, no longer receiving letters from poor Sugar Plumps. You do however receive a mysterious letter telling you to burn all the things you sent her together. When you do so you unlock the hidden combo and trigger the end of the game.  I won't spoil it for you but it is very strange and unsatisfying in my opinion. However I still quite enjoyed the game though the story had a disappointing ending. I loved trying to figure out the combos and watching the different effects the fire had on the items I purchased (my favourite being the Phoenix Egg). The game is so simple yet very enjoyable as it goes along. It is the type of game however you will only want to play through once. I really can't see myself getting any enjoyment out of playing it over and over but it was still a fun experience or what it is.

So the second game I played I bought on a whim because quite simply it was on sale and I like swans. Yup that's all it took. I hadn't heard much about it except that it was a short game that didn't require a lot of thought or skill so I thought it would be the perfect purchase with the last of my gaming money. I wish I had looked into it more >.<

You play as a little orphan boy called Monroe who's mother has recently died. She was an artist with a habit of not finishing her work. Monroe is allowed to pick one piece out of his mother's collection to keep so he picks his favourite a painting titled 'The Unfinished Swan'. One night he sees the swan has vanished and so searches for it in the painting (because that's what we all would do right?). This brings you to the start of the game which is you in a completely white space. You get through the level by throwing ink around to reveal your surroundings as you chase the orange footprints of the swan. You find letters written on different surfaces which when you throw ink (or later in the game water) at them gets the narrator to tell the story of this world. You find out a King has created this unfinished kingdom and is locked away near his home fast asleep mourning the disappearance of his pregnant queen many years ago. As you continue chasing the swan you pop balloons to unlock new items, grow ivy to help you move along the unfinished land and try and find the different letters to unlock the story. In one particular level where you are wondering through a forest you must also avoid being hurt my the mysterious creatures that lurk in the dark.

The Unfinished Swan is basically a puzzle game set in a blank world. At first I thought maybe it is a kids game but the story seems a bit too dark for kids so it left me uncertain if I should dislike the game for being too short and too easy or accept it as a game that is targeted for younger ages. I decided to look it up and saw it was advertised as 12+ which seemed accurate enough to me when I looked back at it. The game is simple enough that twelve year olds would find it not too challenging and the story wouldn't be too dark for them. However I think if I was twelve and sat down to play this game I would find some elements of it a bit too childish for me. The fact that you are playing a young boy is fine but things like the balloon currency and simplicity of the game won't keep a twelve year old's attention for long. Also most of the items you unlock bar the balloon locator aren't useful. What got me through the game was trying to unlock all of the achievements. Most of them are quite simple but getting through the first level by only throwing three ink blots is quite hard and I found myself not caring enough to try any more than five times. The game's unusual concept is quite clever and interesting but the story isn't very good, the game play is mediocre at best and the game comes off as a bit pretentious. I just didn't enjoy it very much but it could just be me being too old for this game.  So what did this game teach me? Research the game a little bit before you buy it!

Before I head off I just wanted to mention a little convention called Akumakon that is run in Galway City where I live. It is a great convention that I go to every year with my friends and I always really enjoy it. A lot of work is put into it and the people who run it are really friendly and deserve a lot of credit as they don't get paid and do it completely during their free time. If your in Ireland this weekend I highly suggest you try and make it! I will put a link to their facebook page and website below!

So what do you think of these games? Did you like them? Are you going to Akumakon? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Enjoy the rest of the week guys!

-BGG

Akumakon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Akumakon?fref=ts

Akumakon website: http://www.akumakon.com/

(Akumakon flyer image courtasy of bubblecat's deviant art http://bubblecat.deviantart.com/gallery/39317784)

Pokémon Explosion!

Hey guys!

Hope everyone is doing well and has recovered from the Steam Sales! (my mind has, my wallet hasn't).

So the topic of conversation going around for gamers young and old at the moment is of course yesterdays announcement of the sixth generation Pokémon games X and Y. I for one was really happy that it was a generation six announcement and not a remake of generation three like a lot of people were expecting. Growing up Pokémon Gold was one of my favourite games so I rushed out to by Heart Gold on release and to be honest it was kind of meh. I loved that you could have the Pokémon of your choice walk around with you but that was all that really stood out or me. Also I don't know why but I am way more hyped up for X and Y than I was for Black and White. I'm not really sure why but it could be down to the three starters for X and Y. I will go through them in a moment but in my opinion they are the best starters we have had since Chikorita, Totodile and Cyndaquil. In the other Pokémon games I find you have maybe one or two good choices and the others are pretty average. For example Piplup in my opinion was the best choice in Diamond and Pearl with Turtwig being average and Chimchar being a good design and cool concept but landing up being a bit of a disappointment. In Black and White Snivy was the obvious choice over both Tepig and Oshawott. However the X and Y starters all look equally interesting in their own way which if you have been looking at 4chan you will already know has completely split Pokémon fans instead of them showing a clear favourite.

So here are my thoughts on the three starters!

Froakie has a really cool design and is rumoured to be water/psychic which I think would suit him perfectly. I love the way they made it look like he has glasses and he is holding his head a bit like Psyduck which makes my think water/psychic is definitely a strong possibility. My bets are water/psychic or water/ ice since in one of the previews it looked like he was using some sort of ice move. I think he will be very popular for people who like originality and who like intelligence when it comes to games (for example people who would pick the Asura in Guild Wars 2). I'm really looking forward to him but I think he is in danger of being ruined by his evolution's designs. We will have to wait and see!

Chespin is really adorable! I mean he comes with his own hat! However his design is very generic. He kind of looks like a happy brown Dewott wearing Chikorita as a hat. I still really like Chespin though and I think he will still be a very popular choice because of the 'cute factor'. He is also in danger of being ruined by his evolution's design even more so than Froakie. I have a feeling this cute little fella will evolve into something quite ugly and chunky but I really do hope I'm wrong! I think I like Chespin because in my opinion he is the underdog for this generation and I always love the underdogs! I'm going to put my bets on him being either grass/normal or grass/fighting.

Last but not least there is the beautiful Fennekin so called after an actual type of fox called the Fennec fox which is known for its huge ears. This is the starter all of the girls are going to want to choose. I know, its sexist but come on look at her she is the new Vulpix. Did we need a new Vulpix? No, probably not but this is their way of appealing to the girls and I'm not going to lie this starter is going to bring in the bucks for them. She is the nicest looking fire starter since Torchic and a lot of people are going to pick her since getting a good fire Pokémon is tough in the games. My bets for her are either fire/normal or fire/dark.

I myself am finding it hard to choose between these three but another choice is playing on my mind and that is the decision between X and Y. The two legendary Pokémon are both gorgeous and mysterious as you can see. The buck or fabulous stag as I like to call it is called Xerneas and reminds me of the spirit in Princess Mononoke. The legendary bird is called Yveltal pronounced ee-vell-tall. I don't really like the way its wings and tail look the same but other than that I love the black and red colouring. I don't really think we need another legendary bird though so I will probably be picking fabulous stag.


So what are your thoughts on the new Pokémon game? Do you have a favourite starter? Will you be buying X or Y? Do you think you can wait until October? I'd love to hear your thoughts so post a comment below!


-BGG

My thoughts on Halo 4

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!


I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and are on route to an awesome 2013!

Santa brought me a lovely copy of Halo 4 which I finally got around to completing yesterday so I thought I would tell you a bit about it. I am quite the Halo fan and have played every game realised to date so as you can imagine I was really excited to start playing it. A few of my friends had bought it on release and had really enjoyed it but I had asked them not to spoil it for me so I tried to not get my hopes up! Of course that failed miserably and for most of Christmas Day I was staring longingly at my Xbox while talking to various family members. Finally I got to play it a few days later and I must say I was not disappointed.

The story mainly features around Master Chief and Cortana being sucked into the hollow planet of Requiem and accidentily releasing the forerunner Didact. who back in the time of the original Flood outbreak turned captive humans into Promethean warriors and was later imprisoned by the Librarian. While this happens the ship Infinity who tries to rescue Master Chief and Cortana also gets sucked into Requiem and after saving them the Captain of the ship Del Rio who is your typical power mad asshole orders you to destroy the gravity well that sucked them in and go home instead of going after the Didact who is heading for earth to destroy the human race while is device called the Composer. Another storyline running through the game is based around Cortana our beloved AI system who is suffering from rampancy which she describes as 'thinking herself to death'. If they do not get to earth soon her malfunctions will get worse and she will be shut down.

Overall I was really happy with the story. Cortana and Master Chief's bond is really shown in the game and since she is one of my favourite characters I was really glad to see her get the amount of attention she gets in game. I was also really excited to finally meet the Librarian who we have heard so much about from Guilty Spark since the early days of Halo 1. It was also nice to fight some new enemies in the form of the Prometheans instead of just the Covenant and the Flood. The Prometheans are a really good addition to the game as they do make it a bit harder. The Promthean crawlers climb rocks and trees and can jump out of nowhere if your not paying attention especially since they travel in packs. The Promethean Knights are also pretty tough especially if they sneak up on you. The terrain in Requiem makes it very easy in some levels for them to hide in places where you might not see them so you really have to be aware of the vantage points around you.

Of course with new enemies comes new weapons! :D I wont go through them all but I particularly like the Suppressor which is basically the Promethean machine gun (I'm a big machine gun fan XD ). I also found their shotgun the Scattershot to be the most effective shotgun in the game so far as it far superior to the human equivalent. When fired it can ricochet off nearby surfaces making it deadly in small spaces. Its best you have one as the Promethean Knights sure will! There is also a new grenade in the game called a Pulse Grenade! Its quite good for taking down large groups of enemies who are close together as it takes away health and shields in the area covered by the bubble it creates. It doesn't do a great deal of damage but it makes enemies spread out so they are easier to take down. The weapon I expect to be the most popular amongst players will probably be the Incineration Cannon. First of all the name is awesome but it also combines a rocket launcher, a shot gun and a flame-thrower into the most fun gun ever! But beware! Its explosive damage will take you down if you fire it too close to yourself! The only real downside to this gun though is the fact you wont see it until later in the game but I suppose that's fair I think you would be slightly OP if you could get it early on.

All in all I find very little wrong with this game. If I had to have one complaint it would probably be that the campaign is very short. I completed it in around six hours which really isn't very long. I would have liked it to have been longer and I would have liked to have seen the Didact a bit more but those are things I can easily live without.

Well those are my thoughts on Halo 4. What did you think of the game? Did you like the Prometheans? What is your favourite Halo game? I would love to hear your opinions so please leave a comment below!

-BGG