Read a Book! – Mogworld

This segment is not a review, more of a recommendation. I find books to be a very personal experience, since it leaves so much to the reader’s imagination and perspective. Instead, I am simply recommending (or discouraging) a title and leaving a few thoughts on how I felt. What? Did you think I only played games and watched tv?

Mogworld – By Yahtzee Crozhaw

Comedy/Adventure/Fantasy

“I had passed on from life, from the world of struggles and hardship and big fat women with annoying laughs, and entered a glorious new existence of utter peace, and joy, and love.

And then some git brought me back to life”

 

Written by our very own Yahtzee who happily resides in Brisbane, you may also know him from the popular Escapist series Zero Punctuation. The lovable bad-talking loudmouth has written a book and what a unique book it is. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. It takes MMORPGs and turns it on its head.

I found it to be well written; full of humour and some rather grimacing moments. It has amazing characters some with a touch of surreal and others with a too much twisting. I was completely entertained right to the end and I strongly recommend it.

Recommended for mature audiences. Contains: Adult themes, low-level violence, low-level sexual references.

Dropping the M-Bomb

Say hello to Massdrop, a website that allows you to purchase goods direct from the manufacturer at cheaper prices through a communal bulk order. Massdrop sponsors a huge array of products from clothes to computer hardware that are voted on by community members. When items receive enough votes, an order is established and the more people who pay to order a product, the cheaper it gets for everyone. By ordering direct from the manufacturer, you can save anywhere from 20-60% from the retail price and maybe a bit extra if enough people place an order.

Although the mass order system works, it’s not going to save you on postage costs, so keep that in mind. In addition, the savings from the number of people who place an order may not be all that good either. Sometimes you might only save a few bucks.

Still, it’s worth checking out and there are some amazing custom designs designed and voted for by the community that can only be found on Massdrop.

www.massdrop.com

Among the Sleep (Game Review)

Because what could make you feel more vulnerable than playing as a defenceless toddler? Next time we’ll be playing as a fetus.

Among the Sleep is a linear puzzle platformer with a touch of survival horror. Let’s get one thing straight though: this is more an interactive story than a game. It plays on a story that pieces itself together as you progress, dropping hints along the way if you pay attention enough. Puzzles are simple at best, usually simple physic based puzzles or finding an item or items to proceed to the next area. I did not find it challenging and puzzles were not particularly unique or interesting.

Among the Sleep describes itself as “a first person horror adventure” game. I don’t completely disagree, but it is more of a dark fantasy adventure game with adult themes. It reminds me more of the original Alice in Wonderland books with their dark, twisted fantasy. I liked that it aimed less for jump-scares and provided more psychological horror; being a small two year old gives you a real sense of helplessness. The survival parts were mostly you avoiding monsters by hiding under or in objects, but these encounters were easy and few. The screen distortion when looking at monsters was a good accompanying effect that kept monsters from being simply looked at, which I find reduces their horror effects.

Despite the simplicity, the puzzles and levels were well designed and thought out. Each chapter was unique and interesting; I can definitely say I never got bored of playing it. It did lose strength towards the end, but the story picks up when the level design begins to wear itself out. The story itself is well written and implemented into the game. It provides an interesting perspective at domestic and substance abuse, though this is not a unique idea (see Papo and Yo).

The free DLC is a short bonus level that is supposed to be a prologue, but doesn’t really contribute much to the story. Overall, I got two hours of play out of $20, which to me is a little overpriced. Among the Sleep is an interesting game that is unique to play, but won’t really leave a lasting impression.

Karin (Anime Review)

Recommended for Mature Audiences : Contains blood, low-level violence, adult themes, sexual references

Also known as Chibi Vampire, Karin is a 24 episode anime based of the manga of the same name. Karin Maaka is a highschool girl who also is the middle child of a family of vampires that moved to Japan hundreds of years ago. Unlike her kin however, Karin is an abnormal vampire in the fact that rather than suck blood, she produces blood. She has to bite someone and inject them with the blood periodically or it builds up until she suffers one of her explosive nosebleeds.

The plot is nowhere near as deep as the manga’s and the anime prefers to just take you for a ride. The story ebbs and flows around many topics and arcs, introducing new characters and creating backstory at various points. There is no real build up or climax, just a journey towards Karin and Kenta’s confession of love. That’s not to say it’s a long, boring love story, rather the opposite. It’s fun and extremely enjoyable all the while having this overhanging sense of despair at the complications of a vampire-human relationship. Characters are deep and meaningful, and even those that aren’t are still lively. In one particular scene, two thugs are beating a character up and although they only get a minute of screen time, you’re still left with some degree of understanding of their characters. The series does eventually peak and the last few episodes were enthralling, but there is no real conclusion, as there was none to be had in the first place.

Despite the intro theme, with a rather lackluster song, Karin has very little fanservice, which begs the question of why they went with that introduction. There are a few scenes that perhaps go a little too far, but the anime was always meant for mature audiences. The art looks great and, although a little gritty at times, the characters look amazing. I can’t say it really performed well on the audio front, there was little more than ambient sound which was sparsely used.

With no real climax, Karin is an anime that you have to just sit back and enjoy the ride. With that said, you have some amazing and well-rounded characters to accompany you, so it really is a ride worth taking. There are no bad episodes in my opinion, some are average and contribute little to plot or characters, but most are fun and enjoyable. It catches you within the first episode or two.

Just a Quickie - You Have to Win the Game

It’s retro arcade platforming at its most retro. You Have to Win the Game is a simple one button platformer with the goal of getting to the end. You have unlimited lives and will respawn at the last activated checkpoint upon death. You have to find the end of the game and choose wether you Win or Lose. The simple way is to ‘Lose the Game’, but if you want to win, you have to enter the ‘magic word’ which is hidden cryptically throughout the game. I have to yet to discover the magic word, so I lost the game.

Functionally, it plays great and is visually appealing. I quote: “Experience the thrill of four-color CGA graphics and monotonic PC speaker sounds! Or take a peek at the future of home entertainment with the SIXTEEN-COLOR EGA GRAPHICS option!” There isn’t anything else too it, it is simple old-school fun put together in a pleasant and meaningful way. I will complain a little about its confusing map layout which had me going in circles for quite a while (my fault really though) and it also didn’t stop monitor timeout, so I had to move the mouse every now and then to stop my screensaver coming up while I was using the controller.

A fun little game with some replayability in the form of the money bags to find and the cat and YOLO mode. Also, it’s freeeeeeeeeee (on Steam).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0y9DkJcxH4

Superfight (Product Review)

Can the three stories tall United Nations who can shoot lasers from their eyes beat in a fight the Secret Agent who has sticky bombs and can run 200mph but only in a straight line? Will Chuck Norris in a tank with the ability to shoot blinding light from his hands beat Canada, the top half whom are Spartans and can steal abilities with a touch? All of this and more (including a fainting goat that really needs to pee) can be debated, argued and more in Superfight, an epic card game about pitting impossible characters in impossible scenarios.

Cue epic showdown.

Pick the player who goes first then the person to their left is the first opponent. The first player draws three white cards which are characters and three black cards which are abilities. They pick one of each and put them face down, the rest get discarded and the second player does the same. Then both players draw another black card which they must use. The players reveal and then the fight begins. Each player must argue why their character would win and then after much deliberation, the table votes. The winner continues the fight while the loser discards their character and the next person in line becomes the new opponent. The winning player gets a point, and if their character wins three fights in a row, the character becomes ‘retired’. In the event of a tie of votes, both players draw a single white card and those two characters must fight each other with no abilities, this continues until there is a winner.

It’s a lot of fun and the combinations can be hilarious and broken at the same time. Some characters can be so overpowered (hence the retiring rule) but even then, something might come along to knock them off their pedestal. Some are downright dumb and useless, while others are legitimately debatable. We got into a fifteen minute debate about wether fifty giant squid that could spit neurotoxin could beat a hundred dragons that could create holograms of themselves. Although the opponents are supposed to argue for their characters, we found that the whole table got involved, which made the experience so much more enjoyable.

Superfight is what I wanted Cards Against Humanity to be. I found CAH just too much of a competition on who could be the worst person in the room. Superfight is inspiring and creates amazing discussions between friends all the while giving everyone a laugh.

You can order the colossal 500 card starter deck from their website for $35USD. You might also like to look for it on other sites, i.e. Thinkgeek.

Just a Quickie - Flight Control HD

If you feel like sitting back and being in charge, why not be in charge of the busiest and most uncoordinated airport in world? Welcome to Flight Control where you must guide coloured planes to their respective runways without killing hundreds of people, I mean, crashing the empty planes. Wait, then who’s flying them? Remote autopilot, yeah.

The game is as simple as clicking and dragging a path for the plane to take to get it its matching coloured runway, but it quickly becomes much deeper than that. Different maps have different aircraft, each varying in size and speed. Helicopters are slow while big jumbo jets are bigger and faster than their smaller counterparts. You have to juggle seaplanes and light aircraft alike in a sky that becomes more congested than a freeway in peak hour.

There are lots of maps to try; some have unique features that will change how you prioritise your aircraft. One map has emergency landings where planes come in that you can’t control. Others have shifting wind conditions that make some runways unusable while another has stunt aircraft that you must fly through cones to earn points.

There is enough variety and enjoyment to be had for hours as you challenge yourself to beat your own high scores. It is another one of those games that is simple to play, but hard to master, especially when you’ve got a dozen aircraft queued and three warning sirens of potential midair collisions going off.