Diary of an MMORPG player: Flyff, Day 1

So a friend came to me today and said "Hey, I found this MMO while looking for something besides Puzzle Pirates. You may like this.". Yes, I realise that the first line of this entry makes it sound like my friend plays games directed at little kids, but who's to say it can't be played by older gamers? Anyway, he pointed me towards this game called Flyff. It looks like a spelling error, doesn't it? Yeah, well, it's not. It stands for "Fly for Fun". Either way, I'm open to play any game, so I booted it up and gave it a try. Once I did, I realised a few problems within the first few minutes.

Firstly, I opened up the program and after the obligatory patches and whatnot, I was presented with a window of white. Windows then decided to pop on over after having too much Chrome and said

"Oh hai! Looks like Flyff is not responding. Shut everything down? =)"

"No, I just want the game to work. Maybe if I gave it some time..."

"NOTHING WILL WORK! YOU MUST SHUT IT DOWN! .\ /."

"I think I can wait it out. I'm not in a rush or anything-"

"SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED."

I was *this* close to being mad, but I'm good now. The monitor? Not so much...

So after clicking "Restart Later" lo and behold, Flyff started to work! After signing in and clicking my preferred server, which my friend was positive is one of the best servers, I was told yet again that the program was not responding. However, this didn't stop it from actually signing in to the server and working like it should.

Okay, before we go any further, here's the back story on Flyff. I'll try and make it as simple as possible (not that it needs to get any simpler) and break each chapter down into dot points. Quick tip: there are 4 chapters. The last one is two sentences long. Here we go!



Chapter 1:
- There were 5 big, awesome dudes called the "Creators" who ruled just about everything.
- They got bored.
- They decided to create a world of magic because, well, I don't know, they were bored?
- The elements used were Water, Earth, Wind, Fire and...Lightning?
- They called it Roika, probably because "Metropolis" is over-used.

Chapter 2:
- Humans were the dominant species because ants weren't around.
- The Humans grew lonely and wanted companions. I'm guessing for the same reason sheep are found in New Zealand. (I may assume incorrectly and I apologise if I do)
- Dwarpets were born because 'why have a pet, when it can be a Dwarpet?' (Dwarpets are "skilled humanoids" that possess secrets, because what's a game without secrets?)
- Dwarpets and Humans ran the world for generations. I'm guessing not long enough for sharks to start growing legs and begin their conquest on land.
- The Creators grew bored of the new world they created, so like a child in a zoo, moved on to something better.
- Because the Humans and Dwarpets begged and asked really nicely, the Creators left a protector to...protect?
- The protector got lonely because they didn't have a sexy secretary named Lily.



Chapter 3:
- The protector made three "Clown Gods" because IT isn't scary enough, so you need three.
- One represented joy and purity. Another represented fear and anger (so wait, they actually made IT? What's more, a female one??) and the third represented apathy and neutrality. Yes, that's right, make an apathetic Clown God. I can see how that goes down. Let me guess, he's not convinced to doing the shows because he can't be bothered walking around in shoes 10 sizes too big. That's probably it.
- So then IT decides it would be best to "create disorder" and so she breaks off a part of Roika so that she could see all the mortals on the newly floating block slowly wither and die. Painfully. This soon-to-be-dead rock became known as Madrigal.
- The Humans and Dwarpets on Madrigal proceeded to give IT the single digit salute and rebuilt their cities, mocking their Clown God.
- IT got pissy, called cheat and then created her own race called the Masquerpets to destroy Madrigal.
- The joy and purity Clown God suddenly became non-joyous and Falcon Punched Madrigal into 3 separate continents.
- The apathetic Clown God did nothing. At all. Like a boss.
- There were apparently 8 or so Heroes who then opened up a can of Shaq-Fu on IT, saving Madrigal, but nobody really cares any more. It was SO long ago...

Chapter 4:
- Everybody on Madrigal starts training for the day IT decided it's time for Round 2.
- ...that's it. I fit both sentences into the one dot point. There is nothing else to add.

This is what makes a clown apathetic. Treat them nice kids!

So yeah, that's the ingenious back story behind Flyff. I have one comment to make about all of that: everyone's bloody forever alone, aren't they? Geez, the Humans, the protector, just everyone. So alone. I'm sick of that 'alone' crap. Couldn't they think of some better reasons? Also, an apathetic clown? Really? Sounds more like the writers couldn't be bothered thinking of something better...

I'll come back to a point I briefly mentioned in the intro: "is this really a game for kids, or is it a childish game for adults?" Me? I don't know personally, which is why I'll play and find out.



Finally, into the game we go...next post. =P

Review: Gravity Bone

Where to start with this one? Labelled a marvel, the best 'art-house' game of 2008 (by Game Tunnel) and loved by those who played it. Brandon Chung may have just found his 15 seconds of fame, or more realistically, 15 minutes.

Gravity Bone is different. It's not an A-grade game. It doesn't have a 20 hour campaign or hundreds of side quests. It has 2 levels. Two. It feels as though it was either a large-scale project ended prematurely or a big idea with only a small taste to show what it was. It's more like a portfolio piece; it's only a little side-project and only used to show off it's wares. That's what I got from it anyway.



The first thing you notice when you start Gravity Bone is the way it puts you straight into the...whatever it is. I was going to say action, but it's not really action, or is it? I guess that's one of the details the game has; it doesn't have a lot of anything but it has bucket-loads of everything else. Anyway, you start off by descending on an elevator into what looks like a party of some description. The game expects you to assume that moving the mouse allows you to look around. To your right, you see a sign explaining how to move. You're also carrying a card which tells you to go to the "Furnace Room". Why? You're not told until after the level but even then, it leaves you pondering the exact nature of what you do and your 'clients'.



As you can probably tell, I'm trying my best not to spoil the game. I know you'll be saying "but it's only two levels, why not?" but the truth is that you need to experience it for yourself and interpret it the way you want to. You don't need to depend on what I think of the story except that the way the story plays out leaves a lot to be known. It's mysteriousness is probably the best thing about the game besides the graphics, which I haven't even touched on yet. The graphics show that you don't need the most sophisticated game engine churning out the best photo-realistic graphics money can buy. The heads of the people are cubes. Deal with it. It reminds me of Minecraft left in the 70's; the psychedelic colour palette will just stay in your mind.

Some games are just that: games. There are those which are different and somehow hit a nerve with the player. They stay with you. Gravity Bone, even for it's short length, does that. I still get that feeling when I play it and I've played it a good 30 times.




-- FINAL VERDICT --

Platform Used: PC

Score: 8/10

Recommendation: Definitely try. Now.


It's free to download. It lasts 15 minutes. It doesn't require the best computer this side of Russia.

You have no excuse.

Find it here: http://gravity-bone.en.softonic.com/

Review: Bionicle Heroes

If you've ever played the LEGO games, more specifically the Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Batman spin-offs, you'll remember them for their humour, construction and the collection of LEGO pieces or studs. The first LEGO game I owned was LEGO Racers and although that isn't very recent, I loved it to death and still do. The game which got me hooked to the adventure LEGO games however was LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. It had everything: constructing and de-constructing with LEGO pieces, an array of different characters, re-playability and the massive amount of collectables to reach 100% game completion.

I can mess around here for hours. Oh how I love LEGO Racers.

To actually unlock and collect everything in the game you needed to first complete the game and then go back during 'Free Play' mode once you had other characters unlocked so you could go through pathways you originally couldn't. The Drop-in, Drop-out function was also a really good idea if the second player needed to leave every 5 minutes (perhaps to check on their baking muffins). All in all, I loved the game and the recent LEGO games are no different. Their system seems to work well with many different games and one such game is Bionicle Heroes.

Released on the same day as Eragon the game and a week after the release of the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, Bionicle Heroes went through to little fanfare. Face it, a new console will win over a LEGO game any day (So far. Please let this change in the future.) and it was Bionicle Heroes' turn. It was released on the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Wii, PC and the Xbox 360 while a different game under the same name was release on the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo DS. You might be thinking "I don't care about this game, why are you bothering to look at it?". My answer? It cost me $9 and because I can. Moving on...



From a distance, the game is repetitive. It is. You walk through the corridors, occasionally finding secrets to the sides, before reaching the boss or waves of enemies at the end of the level. However, although the gameplay is practically the same for every level, which game isn't? Anyway, if a game had completely different levels with different ways to play each one, it's reception would be horrible as it didn't follow the same mechanics throughout. But I suppose that it's meant for the 8-12 year old male demographic and they're stereotyped as just kids who don't really care. I may disagree with that (you find them on Call of Duty like bubbles in Coca-Cola) but that doesn't mean that it's not generally accepted as fact. One of my Xbox LIVE "friends" sent me a message while playing it saying "REALLY". Yeah, considering deletion.

I found a couple of bugs with this game. I have the Xbox 360 version and I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that it's almost entirely a port from the PlayStation 2 or something. For example, no less than five times out of six on the level Shattered Wreck did I get up to the end-of-level boss when all of a sudden he jumped up and away. Forever. Minions did not spawn and I was left waiting, which allowed me to see the details in the game the developers DID include, like a few different animations for the characters when you sit around idle waiting for a GLITCH TO FIX ITSELF. I was disappointed. I am yet to re-visit the level again to finish it and record me getting the gold and silver canisters.

I am sick of climbing up here to get to the boss, only for him to piss off and never return.

There was also one big peeve about this game. Now I loved the music to some of the levels. The Piraka Playground track is a fairly decent dance track and sounds like one of those remixes you'd find on YouTube of some movie's epic music and bass. However, every time you collected enough LEGO pieces to fill your Hero Bar and activate 'Hero Mode', the music changed to the Hero Mode music. I got sick of it and I'm one to listen to a song I like 500 times in a row. Also, Hero Mode is so cheap as it makes you invincible and trust me when I say: it's too easy! All you have to do is, at the start of each level, blow everything up and use your Bionicle powers and in about 2 minutes of clearing everything and killing what enemies decide to ruin your afternoon, you're invincible. You don't need it unless you're in a boss level or you're farming for LEGO pieces.

However, the bosses are derps. I find it humorous that the inhabitants of Mata Nui (the island the game takes place on) are scared to death of the Piraka (the main bosses besides their leader Vezon, who's some dude who rides some massive dog-thing which breathes fire. Mmmyep). Apart from the introduction movie, the Piraka are stupid and appear incompetent to run even a ticketing booth, let alone an entire island. Some of the unlockables for the Piraka Playground show this off as well, with the Piraka failing at working out, serving drinks and DJ-ing. LEGO humour is some of the best non-spoken humour in games.

They may look nasty, but the Piraka bosses are clumsy and absolutely hopeless. Joy will be taken from watching their failures in cut-scenes.

-- FINAL VERDICT --

Platform Used: Xbox 360

Score: 5/10

Recommendation: Try, but stay frosty.


Depending on what side of the fence you're on, you'll either like it or find it mind-numbingly boring. I thought it was alright and perfect if you were whoring for achievements. If Shattered Wreck works for me and I manage to defeat the boss, I'll have got every achievement in the game. =)

[EDIT]: Shattered Wreck managed to work for me when a friend was watching so now that's 100% completion. Fairly easy if you ask me. All you need to do is go through the game, then upgrade your characters and then go through each level again to get the canisters and kills you need. Simple really. =)

Preview: Castle Story

Everybody knows Minecraft right? Indie game of the year? One of the major pushers towards Indie gaming this past 2 years? Anyway, it was big. Like, REALLY big for a game that wasn't even officially released at the time and was releasing a patch every three months or so. Anyway, this was followed by another game, Terraria. Terraria was 2D, not 3D like Minecraft, but allowed you to craft and build things in a similar fashion. However, it also included more enemies, an (arguably) better system of tunnels which eventually led you to hell and different weapons besides the sword or bow and arrow found in Minecraft. Either way, I enjoyed both games, playing solo or with friends, which makes the next game I'm about to mention intriguing.



Castle Story is built by two Canadians in Montréal and follows a similar vein to Minecraft with building castles, collecting resources and defending our wares. It reminds me a bit of Dwarf Fortress in a sense that you use little helpers called "Bricktrons" who collect stone, cut down trees and build your buildings for you. It's made with the Unity engine, if you have any idea what that is. Here's an 11 minute introduction to the game. I suggest you watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwZdXRPeYrc



It looks intriguing so far and it will be interesting to see what it develops into. Some of the things it uses is how notably RTS it is, with some "other elements" and the physics of the game. In the video they blow up a tower connected to their castle with explosive barrels and the physics of each brick looked really cool. The dynamic landscape over the 'blocks' that make up the world is impressive as well.

The dynamic landscape gives it a smoother looks to Minecraft.

Some people have said that it's the "Minecraft Killer" and I have to tell you that it won't be. However, that's not to say it won't be enjoyable and I'm positive it can work alongside Minecraft to be the benchmark for a new genre in creative games.




--FINAL VERDICT--

This is definitely one to watch. Although only in early stages, this looks like a fairly solid idea and a game you'll enjoy in 2012 if you liked Minecraft.


The official site can be found here: http://www.sauropodstudio.com

Review: Duke Nukem Forever

"There can be only one king...you f*ck."

This is the line that is stuck in my head after finishing Duke Nukem Forever. If you look at it, it sums up most of the game: slightly out-dated and simple. The linguistically challenged script has been abused by other reviewers and I tend to agree. The story is not the greatest thing in the world by a long shot, but it feels as though it's either been a case of laziness or a rushed job putting it all together. Most of the one-liners are pure Duke and I can't really attack the character of Duke Nukem saying that he's not the best character around. If I did, that'd be missing the point. However, the game is far from perfect.

Not only some of the dialogue, which includes references to games such as Half-Life and Portal, but even the levels got tedious. By about three quarters of the way through the game I was wondering how long it had to go. It just seemed to be level after level with no end and I didn't feel any connection with the Duke or the cause he was fighting for (which is to save all the women on the planet from being abducted and...yeah...). Every level just seemed to be cut into two acts or something similar, like it was trying to emulate platformers. It didn't really have that even flow moving it along.




Another thing which killed the atmosphere the game was trying to create was the loading screens. Now I thought Sonic the Hedgehog on the 360 and PS3 had really bad loading screens where one would appear, three lines of dialogue would be spoken in a cut-scene and then yet another loading screen. And that was before you got to the level at all, that was in the hub world. Duke Nukem Forever felt worse than that. Every time you had to wait for a level to load, you had to be prepared to wait a good 20-30 seconds before anything happened. The only reason I could live with this was the little hints the game gave as well as useless bits of humourous information like how they wanted to decrease your Ego (your shield) every time you picked up a turd.

However, the game also had some good moments. The massive amount of interactions Duke could make with the environment was a nice little touch which made it a little different to your average FPS. Things like cooking popcorn in a microwave and looking in the mirror to 'admire' yourself to slapping 'wall boobs' gave the game a much needed filler. The game can be beaten in about 8-10 hours first time through if you tried to look for all of these interactions, most of which gave you a permanent Ego boost, which comes in handy later on in the game when the only guns that seem to be fired on you are shotguns and RPGs.

The game states that they'd rather see you slap these instead of real ones. LOLWUT?

Oh, another note: keep a shotgun. The shotgun is arguably the best gun in the game. Even when you first receive it, it's in a glass cabinet as back up for a world invasion. The shotgun is easily the greatest weapon in the game. I had to mention that twice because it is so true. Some might disagree and say that the Devastator is the best gun since it fires two rockets at once with more ammo. Contrary to popular belief, the gun is useless unless used in a boss fight because of two reasons;

1. It's rocket count is 69 and there are no reloads, so you must find an ammo crate and camp near it. You might think that it's a definite improvement than the shotgun's 28 shells but trust me, you will burn straight through the Devastator.
2. The only weapons that can damage bosses are rocket weapons or pipe bombs. Therefore, the only logical place you need a Devastator or an RPG is in a boss fight. Pipe bombs are glorious and must be kept and used throughout the entire game.

I also forgot to point out that the RPG, unless used in a boss fight, is also useless. It has 5 rockets and can only hold 5 rockets until you use them all and find an ammo crate or a weapon drop from an enemy. My weapon suggestions would be to either keep the shotgun or the pistol (there's an achievement/trophy if you hang onto the golden pistol for the whole game. It's actually really easy because it can get headshots with it's laser-sight) and pick up a weapon as you go along. Rockets for boss fights and whatever feels comfortable during the normal levels. Don't even bother with the Shrink Ray or Freeze Ray unless you're achievement whoring; they only work at close range and it's easier with one shotgun shell to the chest.




Duke Nukem Forever isn't meant to be the greatest game ever made. It's rather obvious. It just wants to be remembered. It has boobs and guns and swearing and shitty humour, yes. But at least the game is alive, right? It was vaporware for a good 12 years, so although you might not want to purchase it, it's worth playing to see what you think. I never actually played Duke Nukem 3D but from what I've gathered, it's a solid enough sequel and could have been worse.

Hell, if it's worth my $28 from EB Games, it should be alright.


-- FINAL VERDICT --

Platform Used: Xbox 360

Score: 6/10

Recommendation: Try

Has some nice moments with a couple of nice gimmicks, but could have been better with some more work. Not like it needed any more time though. There are definitely better titles out there but you can do worse.

And so it begins...

Hi, my name is Sean and I play video games.

2012 is upon us. Entertainment is around every corner and you can't walk through a major city without some form of advertisement for a video game. Face it, it's the newest popular form of media and entertainment. Contrary to popular belief, I don't believe that 3D technology has the capacity to occupy the pedestal: it's just not that great yet. Give it some time and perhaps we can see a change. Until then, video games are making their mark and they're here to stay.

Yes, I realise there's a gazillion different blogs online about video gaming but hey, it's worth a shot right? I'll be focusing on a couple of things during this here blog:

- Game Previews and Reviews
- Achievement/Trophy guides
- Posts where I look back on older games
- Ranting and raving about anything video games
- Maybe the odd YouTube video if they're up to my standard (which I admit, can be pretty low sometimes. Must keep your mind open.)
- General thoughts on anything I feel like (It could be a quiet week on the video games front.)

Phew, done. First post out of the way. For my next "real" post, I'm going to be looking at a game which has both haters and fanboys alike on either side of it's humour and etiquette (or lack of). It was also considered to be vaporware for most of it's life cycle.

I will present to you...Duke Nukem Forever.