Month: August 2017

Eight Ounce WRUP

So it's bad guy against bad guy in the most anticipated fight in a long, long time tonight. In the past weeks tons of controversy has been stirred up from McGregor's pinstripe suit and alleged racist remarks to Mayweather's domestic violence charges, to the Nevada Sate Athletic Comisson making a special allowance for the fighters to use 8oz gloves instead of the regulation 10oz for the weight class. Regardless of how anyone feels about these guys one thing is for sure, they're both the best of the best in their respective fields. So I figure as long as the bout isn't over in a single round this will be a hell of a fight and one that I'm very much hoping to see for myself.

But hey, aside from maybe spending $100 on a televised cross-discipline boxing match what's everyone playing this weekend?


Greywolfe: all new stuff! larry 6! [urgh] stories! [interesting!] kyrandia 2! [i'm pretty nervous about starting this up.] and dream daddy! [it's had about a month and they've ironed out one or two problems, so i want to go back in and try for as many runs as i think i can stand, getting different endings.]

Yoda: Gonna be picking up Xcom2 but I prolly be able to,play until next weekend due to the sheer amount of Busy I will be at ChicoCon

Andrew: Back to GOG - still reacquainting myself with some neglected classics. (And maybe playing some Sonic Mania on the side.)

Scroo: After finishing Hellblade, I've started Prey and it has sort of sucked me into it's twist filled story. I've yet to see any of the additions to No Man's Sky: Atlas Rises aside from graphical improvements to lighting and texture maps. I'm hoping to see more soon, maybe even start a new game in creative mode or something to see what's to be had. Other than that it'll just be the usual Vermintide runs and whatever else I can fit in. I might pick up Dawn of War 3 since Steam gave me a 50% off coupon... who knows?

 

Shadow Warrior is a Good Buy This Week

Steam's Midweek Madness sale is bringing a few nice deals as it usually does.

GTA 5 is on sale as is Armello and Skyrim, various Ubisoft titles etc. But the one that stands out me is 2016's Shadow Warrior 2. Not only is it really fun and inlaid with immature humor, but it's also only $20.00. I think that's worth the purchase by itself but on top of that the 2013 reboot of the original title is included in the sale for free. But wait there's more... making the deal even sweeter is the classic redux version of the game from 1990's at only $2.00.

Now just from personal experience I'll say that I liked the 2013 Shadow Warrior better than the 2016 sequel. They're both worth playing but Shadow Warrior 2 has a kind of weird Borderlands feeling to it with the loot system and questing. If you haven't played them though check out the sale because for $22.00 you can snap up three games that will satisfy your funny bone and your penchant for brutal violence against ninja demons.

From the 2013 game

 

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice – Beautiful Desperation – A Review From Scroo

A long time ago, years now in fact I played Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and I found it pretty engaging and also quite beautiful. Ninja Theory, the company behind Enslaved and other games like Devil May Cry and Heavenly Sword have produced Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I recently finished Hellblade and it made quite an impact on me so I'm here as always to tell you about it in a long winded and probably grammatically incorrect manner. Stick with me to find out my thoughts. Read more

Review: Sonic Mania

In 1994, after years of jealously playing Sega Genesis games at other people's houses (Sonic the Hedgehog, in particular), I finally decided to plunk down the allowance I'd managed to save up and buy the system for myself. I only took two games home with me that day and they were both Sonic titles, Sonic Spinball (a pack-in game that was included with the system) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Despite the fact that Sonic 2 had already been available for two years by that point, I hadn't actually had the opportunity to play it yet, myself.

When I got home and popped it into my shiny new Genesis, I was mesmerized. Seeing that beautiful Emerald Hill Zone level was just like the first time I had seen the Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, a few years earlier. Both times, I was blown away. The first Sonic game had turned the gaming world completely upside down, and the second, not only managed to recapture that same magic, but improve on it enough to stand on its own. But while the other great Sonic games from those Genesis days (Sonic 3, Sonic CD, and Sonic & Knuckles) were all more or less equally good, none of those games could really manage to pull off quite that same awe-inspiring first impression.

In the time since those 2-D glory days, many other Sonic games have come to many other consoles. Many have come in 3-D, some in 2, and some have even featured a mix of both; and while certain titles may have been arguably better than others, not one of them has even come close to reaching the lofty heights of the originals. None of them, that is, until now...

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Why You Should Start Playing Dota 2

With the International 2017 currently on its final day, I find myself doing what I do every year around this time. I'mplaying Dota 2. I started playing in 2013 and it has slowly become one of my all time favorite games. And when one begins to realize they enjoy a game so much, they want to share that with the world. So here we are. Yet another bad Dota player writing about why he loves this game. 

Obviously if you’re already into Dota, this more than likely isn’t going to be a list for you. But if you have no interest in ever trying the game because you hate multiplayer, don’t like Mobas, or any other reason, maybe give this a read anyway and see why someone like me enjoys this incredibly complex game. Hhere are the reasons why you should start playing Dota 2:

It’s Free. Like actually Free.

freedota

Before I get into the history of Mobas and other complex gameplay mechanics, I need to sell you on how Dota is selling itself to you. Well unless you are a compulsive complesionist who needs to be able to own every single item within a game, you will never need to spend a single cent on, or in, Dota 2. Not only is the game free to download, but there is not a single hero behind a paywall. All 112 heroes in the game are free to anyone who installs Dota 2.

No Pay to Win Bull****

items

When I say actually free, I really do mean it. You cannot buy anything with real world money that will help you in the game. There's no experience boosts, gold boosters, Runes, or any other crap that many Mobas use to leech money out of their player base. The only items in the game you can buy with real money are skins and countless other aesthetic additions that you’ll acquire by playing the game. If they don’t interest you at all, sell what you earn on the Steam Market and save some money on your next game purchase.

eSports

No I don’t mean this reason to encourage you to drop out of school and start playing Dota 24/7. But if you enjoy watching eSport events, The International has been the biggest eSports event for many years now and continues to grow. "But Cody" You say,  "I don’t care about eSports at all, why shouldn’t I just skip the explanation of this point and just read the next bullet point?" Well reader, it's because the Olympics themselves are starting to care about eSports, and what game is at the top of the addition list? Of course it’s Dota 2. You don’t have to play a game to appreciate watching the best players in the world compete in it. I don’t play Starcraft, but watching professional players play is incredibly exciting and entertaining, and I find Dota 2’s eSports scene to be best of them all.

esports
prize

Icefrog

For those you who already play Dota 2, this pseudonym is already familiar to you. But like I said, this article isn’t for you. So for you newcomers, before I tell you about Icefrog, I need to give a brief history about the Moba genre.

Warcraft 3 (2002)

Warcraft 3 (2002)

Long before there was Dota, or League of Legends, or any other Moba, there was Warcraft 3. Developed by Blizzard in 2002 this RTS captured the minds of gamers and modders alike. One such mod for the game was a very detailed and complex 5v5 game mode where two teams chose different heroes to protect towers and bases.  These heroes would then level up and gain power over the course of an ~hour long match. If you guessed that the name of this mod was DOTA you would be correct. The author of said mod was Icefrog, and no we’ve never learned his real name. 

Obviously this mod became so popular it spawned many actual games trying to recreate what Icefrog had created from the tools within Warcraft 3. For the longest time the best attempt was HON (Heroes of Newerth), until League of Legends came along and invented the term Moba. Before they came up with the very generic genre name of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, games such as League were simply referred to as Dota clones. League omitted many mechanics and rules from Dota such as Creep Blocking, Lane Pulling, Denying, Turn Speed, casting times, and jungle stacking just to name a few. This obviously lowered the barrier for entry to get more players interested initially, but also significantly lowered the skill floor.

So where does Icefrog fit into all this now and why is he a reason to be Playing Dota 2, a Valve game? Well after League’s rise to popularity, Blizzard knew less and less people would be buying Warcraft 3 to play Dota. So they asked Icefrog if he would remake his mod in their new Starcraft engine for free. He declined and instead took an offer from Valve to be brought on as a full time employee and be completely in charge as game director of Dota 2. So not only do you have the founder of the genre at the helm of the game, he is constantly pushing his development team to new limits by creating new Heroes every year and changing the map and game mechanics ever so slightly. This keeps players on their toes, as they learn and then adapt to heroes as tweaks are applied to them. Speaking of players constantly learning...

Dota 2 Beta (2011)

Dota 2 Beta (2011)

Dota 2 (2017)

Dota 2 (2017)

It’s a game you can never master.

dota2heroes

I will never be good at Dota. I’m already bad at video games as it is and Dota is by far the hardest video game I’ve ever played. There are so many mechanics and heroes to learn in Dota that even if I played 24/7 I wouldn’t be able to learn everything. Even if I could there’s no way I wouldn't make multiple mistakes in a game. And that's the best thing about Dota. In so many multiplayer games the instant you or one of your team mates does something stupid, everyone turns on them because mistakes are not allowed. In Dota, even the pro eSports players make numerous mistakes every game. (They just make fewer than me :P)

XLDfAhv

You are always going to be learning how you could have done something different or more efficiently. Heroes you would think fit into one role can do something completely different once you learn what all the items do, and you will always want to try more.

iteams_dota2

As a gamer, that’s one of my favorite things to do. I love stretching my mental and physical limits.  I love bettering my ability to play the game [very slowly] over time and growing as a person because of it.

 

So yeah, hope to see you in the river soon.

river

- Thanks to Greywolfe for editing :P

Flaunt It Review: Fake That Boogie, Dance On, Dance On!

The 1980’s.

No other decade since the 50’s had been so steeped in Futurism.

In the 50’s, that nod toward futurism was all about flying cars and robots.  Things that would make life easier.  In the fifties, too, this futurism was all about cleanliness.  The future portrayed in the fifties generally had a lot of clean, sleek lines.  From the Hanna-Barbera domes the Jetsons lived in to the vast robots that occupied more space than a mere human, the future seemed to be bright and generally on the side of the people.

Then, the American Dream was shattered and the nightmare we woke up in was a little bit different.  A little bit darker.

But not everything about 80’s futurism was entirely dark.  Sure, there were much harsher lines, now.  And a much darker tone in terms of corporations ruling everything and yes, there was a lot of fear that the arms race between America and Russia would turn game-ending for everyone, but where the 80’s were grittier, they still had a lot of colour and spark.

And this is about where I introduce Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Read more