Retro Rollback: Gameboy Gaga

Twas' only recently when I found y gameboy, and I am quite happy with it! For those who were born or lived in the nineties, then this thing,  a Gameboy Colour, certainly brought all the 'nerds to the yard'.
Along with the gameboy, I found my childhood implanted in Pokemon: Crystal, and have suceeded in re-animating 'the good ol' days'.

Therefore, this week's retro roundup will be called '6 Things Pokemon: Crystal introduced and why they made the game good'. Let's start with #6.

#6. Girl Protagonist

"Hooray," cried all the tomboys! Krystal is actually fairly cool as a girl...  

#5. Whitney

I honestly love this gym leader. She gives a challenge, irritates noobs and her little tantrums entertain me. That's three awesome things in one!
Her Milk tank is a beast, as it's moves are STOMP, MILK-DRINK, ROLLOUT & ATTRACT.
Basically, it will flirt with your pokemon so it becomes infatuated, then it will stomp all over. Afterwards it will roll-over your team, and even if it's health drops, it can regenerate by sucking from it's own udder  using a disturbing move. Ghastly...  

#4. Crobats

This pokemon actually makes having a Zubat worth it. It makes me almost want to go to Dark cave to find one....just kidding, I  
                                                      hate that cave. 
#3. Kanto + Jhoto

Upon completing the game (or obtaining surf) you can go to Kanto, a short swim from your home-town. I loved this option, as it re-introduces the cast of the first games and created a bigger world to play in.

#2. Animations

It is a known fact that Crystal was the first game to introduce special animations as the pokemon was released into battle. New generation players should be thankful that Gamefreak took this step, as the games of nowadays would not be like this...

AND FINALLY...

#1. Day/Night/Weekday VIP areas

Introduced for the first time, Crystal created a schedule of the week, allowing only certain pokemon, people and items to appear either at night/day or on a certain weekday. Example: Martha, an NPC, only appears on Mondays near Olivine City, and will give you a sharp beak for finding her! How nice.

Also, phanpys only appear in mornings.....really early. I haven't been able to get one yet...

So that's it! Thanks for reading, we will see you next week for our next 'Retro Roll-back'..

ZED

Are you committed?

I know I will probably be disowned by my team members for writing this, but I don't see why not. Even though this is a gamers review/advice blog, it would be really cool to create hype for something else.

For those who follow, I, Zed Aware, am looking forward to this October. Preferably the 17th. Why my friends? Well it is the night that American Horror Story: Asylum comes out! Yay!

What? You don't know about it? That's cool, I will soon get you hooked :)

American Horror Story (AHS) is currently in it's second season, which premieres on FX in 2 months. The basic storylie follows around really creepy stories, that often gain momentum through murders and awkward love/hate relationships. This season is based in an Asylum in the 1960's, and the internet hype has become phenominal.

Google 'AHD Teaser trailer #1 -#9' and you will see what I mean. If your too lazy, that's cool! I linked the first one here:

 
FAQ's

What is it rated?
The Tv show is rated MA.

Do I have to watch the first season to keep up?
No, American Horror Story is an Anthology, meaning that each new season is not a continuation from the last. New setting, new characters and new horror; it's all to keep us excited!
Who is starring in it?Julia Lange (Who also starred in Season one) will be hitting up the season premiere as the Head Nun of the asylum. Also starring is Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, James Cromwell and the star of last season: Evan Peters.
Is it scary?
Ummm.....wellll. I will let you decide! :D



Well, since I already started.... I guess I will have to keep updating with news until it comes out in October! Yay!

ZED

P.S They are going to put me in an asylum for this >.>
 

New Map for Slender

 

Aww crap. Here we go again...

Recently developed news on Saturday speaks of a 'brand-new' slender map to be released. Eager downloaders and ambitious players were exuberant when downloading the file to find that the new level was based inside a school. Yay! The map is titled 'HOSPICE"

Here is what's new in-game:
> Developed AI (You cana ctually watch him move)
> Interchangeable area's for the goal
> Instead of 'journal papers' you now search for 'poem lines' (16 lines)
> Graphics have been redeveloped to look cooler


One of my favourite area's, a blocked end provides mild humour when in sho- OH MY GAWD!!!

> Movement and mouse sensitivity have been increased

Add caption

All up, the new map is fairly good. It's not as big as the original map, nor as scarier. There seems to be too much light, and therefore the atmosphere of fear has been lost. There is less tension, and the static that accompanies your diapeearance is scratchy. Also, slenderman doesn't pop up when you die!

It seems that this new map (which isn't developed by Parsec Productions, but ANOTHER indie game company) is not all cut up to what it seems to be.

I give it a 7/10 for graphics, a 8/10 for playability, a 4/10 for originality, and a 2/10 for scariness.

ZED

JONATHAN!

Hey guys, Galactic here!

CHARLOTTE!

And I'm here to do a review of a game I decided to replay recently.

JONATHAN!It's a game that I'm rather fond of, and I also really like the series...

CHARLOTTE!
Yeah... If you haven't guessed by now (you probably haven't), I'm talking about Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin follows the same sort of playstyle as most of the other Castlevania Games (i.e. A Metroidvania), and follows the same sort of story as the other games: Dracula's Castle. Kill stuff and progress through to the final boss.
Except a little different. Unlike the other Castlevania games, the main villain is not Dracula, but rather a vampire artist called Brauner, who lost his family through WWII.
Nevertheless, he's a threat, and you've got to stop him. WITH VIOLENCE!

Alrighty, now onto the actual review.

So, first of all, gameplay:
Portrait of Ruin follows the general basics of the other RPG-styled Castlevania games (ie. equipment and item collection and whatnot), and in this sort of aspect, it isn't really very much of a change. Thankfully, however, the creators have fallen through, and added a refreshing touch: two playable characters: Jonathan, the whip-wielding vampire hunter, and his trusty sidekick magician prodigy friend, Charlotte. No, I don't mean that you can choose out of two characters to play as. I mean that you have two characters to play as at the same time. There are many aspects of the game that requires teamwork between the two characters, and only once you're able to master this teamwork are you able to proceed.

However. JONATHAN! There is one aspect. CHARLOTTE! About having two character switching. JONATHAN! Control which is verymildly irritating, and that's the voices. Oh, man. The voices.

Which leads us on to sound:
As stated before, the game uses voices in some situations, namely switching between characters, but some bosses also shout lines during battle (see: Astarte, Brauner, Death, etc.). While this isn't too irritating between bosses (in fact, sometimes it helps the battle go so much easier), it is a bit annoying between the characters, as there are situations where you'll need to switch. But by no means are the voices bad at all, they're just repetitive sometimes, and that can get annoying.

The music however, is an entirely different story. I've played a lot of Castlevania games in my life, and I must say that this game has the best soundtrack of them all (though you're free to argue). The game has a wonderful soundtrack that seems to fit nicely with the levels and to help set the mood.

Next part, graphics:
Honestly, the graphics aren't the most beautiful thing, but they're most certainly not bad. They're... well, what you'd expect from a Castlevania game.
Nothing too special here.

And lastly, plot:
The plot seemed good at the start. It had a lot of room to be different, and to reflect on how war can ravage families and change people for the worse, etc, etc. But, sadly, it didn't. It just went to the same sort of "Oh, trouble's brewing. Better go and kill Dracula again." plot. Of course, it had its interesting bits, but nothing really spectacular.

Alright, so an overall score

Gameplay 4/5
Sound 5/5
Graphics 4/5
Plot 2/5
Which leads to an overall score of  3.75

Last notes: While this game mightn't be everyone's cup of tea, I suggest at least giving it a little play. It's pretty fun, and it really helps to relieve boredom when you need to.

Thanks for reading!

Galactic, out!

Organ Trail: Here comes retro for iOS!

To my delight this evening as I opened up the Applications icon on my phone, I was greeted in the Featured section with a brand new game titled Organ Trail. The picture had what looked like a zombie on it, so immediately it caught my interest.

After much reading of the game and it's reviews (tip: on the app store, always read the reviews!) I found myself needing to buy the game immediately! Organ trail is a remake of the classic 70's retro game where you and 5 friends must reach other cities to survive a zombocalypse. It's a 64-bit, pixelated world of creatures, navigation issues and insane executions, all riddles into the price of $2.99!

The Good:
- A choose-your-own-adventure style game. 

Our team tried to ram through a horde. We failed...

- Every action you make has consequences. (I chose to stop off in a city teeming with rodents because I needed food, and now two party members have diseases)
- The pixel art is fantastic
- The music is fantastic
- Your taken back to the 'retro' days, which I love!

The Bad:
-It crashes a lot (Please note that the developers are working on this)
- There is no multiplayer
- There is no female protagonist

One of the game-modes, where you move around and shoot stuff!

The game-play itself has many different styles: a birds eye view side scroller as you shoot down undead, a side-scrolling road-trip where you experience many mishaps. The difference is really good, it shows originality.  
Although it is limited to a 2D world, Organ Trail shows promise of bringing back Retro to iOS. So many elements in this game have been well thought out, and it was my pleasure to have experienced a game still loved even years after it's first release.
ZED  

Aion: Ascension (Part 2)

Hello, again! Here cometh part two of thine previous revieweth of Aion.

:D

Right! So you're at the point where you've found yourself in Aion and everything is manificent... Mostly everything. There still remains one problem.

Aww shit, son!

How in God's blazes do you fly?!

YOU CAN’T FLY BECAUSE YOU’RE A HUMAN!!1! Once you get to level 9 you’ll get a quest called “Ascension”, which once you’ve finished you’ll become a Daeva. Then you can glide and fly and flap your wings in front of all the lower levels who haven’t got their wings yet while falling off cliffs because you thought you could get to the other side to your heart’s content. Just press space in the middle of a jump.

Downfall? You can only fly in designated areas where the flow of Aether is strong. What is Aether, you may ask? Damn, well, it’s like the energy that flows around the whole of Atreia, basically it keeps everything in order. Very important stuff.



If you fix yourself up with a group like this-
you'll pretty much be set for the whole entire game.

So you’ll get out of Lowbie-Land and into Pandemonium (Asmodians) or Sanctum (Elyos). From there you’ll go to Lowbie-Land-part-2 and level there for a while. Protip: eat your greens do your campaign quests, they’ll make you strong and they give you buckets of EXP. Make some friends! Friends are expendable useful and very helpful when you need to do Group quests. You’ll have a lot of fun.



When you get to level 25 you’ll be able to get into the Abyss, which is basically the place where a war is raging between the Asmodians, Elyos and the Balaur (lizard people). Be warned, you can be killed by enemy players at any time once you leave your faction’s landing. It’s very fun to be in the Abyss, but frustrating as well. You’ll want to gear up if you're planning to go into PVP.

As well as the Abyss, there is rifting. Rifting is basically going through portals that appear on the map at any given time. They’ll take you to the other faction’s world, from Elysea to Asmodae and vice versa. Be prepared to run into the other race – and bring friends! Lots and lots of friends...

I really don’t want to waffle on too much, so I’ll just quickly skim over the rest of this post.

Behold! The Alchemy table.

The crafting system is massive, you can choose from Armour smithing, Weapon smithing, Potion making, Cooking, Alchemy and Wood crafting. All pretty self-explanatory, I only do Armour smithing and even then I don’t do it often. If you do take any (or all) of these up, you’ll pretty much be a step ahead of everyone else and you’ll be able to make most of what you need.

There’s a lot of stuff I’ve missed out but we’ll talk about that later.

Also Polar bears.

Magnificent Microwavable Mustard

Damnit, Ambler, this is a walkthrough!

(Edit: Yeah, oops. Here's the link to the site. http://na.aiononline.com/ )

Oh craaaaaaaap!

Cheers, 

Faggot

Ambler

Aion: Ascension

Hello, dudes! (and dudettes) Ambler here, breaking their promise for a Minecraft review in return for a review on the MMORPG Aion: Ascension! Great game, it has a huge range of in game things you can do (although personally I prefer the combat system) and there’s no end to the amount of stuff you can make. Honestly? I think the best way to experience Aion is to play it. If you like it; you’ll love it. If it’s your type of game; you’ll never stop playing.

Your wings won't actually look this cool.

Also you can fly.

You have wings and you can fly.

:D

So let me just go from the start. You’ll need to create an account (obviously) to begin playing. Best part about it? It’s free. Even better? It used to be a pay to play game with monthly subscription payments. I don’t know why they made it free to play but I’m glad they did. Maybe they made so much money their bank account overflowed and they couldn’t take any more?

So from there you’ll need to download the game, which is a great big whopping thirty gigs of data. Start making room, guys (I freed up ninety-four gigs instead of thirty, huu huu). Depending on how fast your computer is it might take a while to start up, (so sit down, relax and twiddle your thumbs impatiently while you wait for it to load past the NCsoft logo. Get up, make a coffee and call your friends, plan a holiday and play with your dog) or it’ll take twenty seconds and you’ll be at the log in splash screen. I think you know what you have to do from here.

So after you’ve got those log in details in you’ll be asked to read the terms and conditions. It’ll pop up every time you log in so you have plenty of time to read it, so just skip past. Choose a server and a faction, Asmodian, or Elyos. There’s no real good or bad, but if you want to pretend you’re a super villain or hero, choose the corresponding race. I’m on the Siel server as an Elyos Cleric. Add me, dudes, my username is Deque.

Shit, this is turning out to be a walkthrough!

The class selection screen doesn't actually look like this anymore....

Okay, whatever. You can choose between 4 classes. Warrior (Gladiator, Templar), Scout (Assassin, Ranger), Priest (Cleric, Chanter) and Mage (Sorcerer, Spirit master). You’ll make your character and depending on what race you chose you’ll be in either Poeta for Elyos or… the other place. I forgot what it was called but it’s a lot darker and less pretty than Poeta. Woohoo! So you’ll be on Lowbie-land for a while until you manage to get to level 10.

Well, would you look at the word count! Looks like I'll be saving the rest of this post for another time! Stay tuned for part 2.

Until later, folks!
Faggot
Ambler