Engagement & Wedding Planning

04/11/09 03:07:35 pm

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• Life
• Site Related
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I don't often talk about my personal life on the site (it simply wouldn't be of interest to many of you), except where it relates to either the general themes of the site (like games I've played, anime I've watched, technologies I want to rant or rave about, etc.), or the lack of my presence here. This time it's about the latter: I got engaged about two months ago. :) Needless to say I've been putting some energies into wedding planning ever since, and we're also looking for a new abode, possibly one to own, if affordable.

Also we got Rock Band.

So, lots to do, lots to do, and might not get a lot of creative work done in the meantime. So, while you wait, just download your favorite skin again. :P

Castle Crashers Vector Art

03/24/09 08:02:31 pm

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• Castle Crashers
• Games
• Art
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No Castle Crashers wallpapers yet, but here's the AI [and a transparent PNG] file with the art I used for the skins: scs-castle-crashers.zip.  There are a few cute animal orbs in there too. :)  Files are provided as-is and may be used for whatever, but not for commercial purposes.  If you're using the art somewhere on the web, I'd love a link back.

Mirror's Edge

03/01/09 04:00:02 pm

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• Games
• Mirror's Edge
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I find it funny that the 360 is taking the majority of my gaming time lately; I'd never so much as touched one before, but nowadays Nintendo is pretty stagnant (with its one-hit franchise wonders gracing us just every now and again), and Sony is all but off the map for me, save for a rare few PSP titles.

So, Mirror's Edge.  It gets immediate credit simply for being unique, in both concept and artistic style.  You play as a "runner," a member of an underground courier organization... sort of, because you won't actually be delivering anything, and your preferred turf is in fact rooftops.  The story is a little too simple and doesn't hold together well in some parts.  Like the would-be courier business, ideas in the game feel half-baked, like they changed course in development many times without looking back.  Combat, for instance, can be a sticky situation.  You have no gun of your own by default, so in most cases you'll want to run from hostiles (it's what you do best, after all), but in others you've no choice but to fight your way through.  The game does not make this easy - it advises taking out enemies one-by-one, but the enemies act pretty smartly, utilizing cover and generally moving in groups.  You will also often find yourself searching for the proper path through an area while being fired upon by guards, snipers and, often enough, helicopters.

Controls can be an obstacle in and of themselves, as much of the leaping requires proper collision detection, and there are a million ways to mess that up - lose momentum, jump just a little too early, not close enough to the wall to trigger the wall-run, get disoriented when doing the jump-turn-jump sequence, etc.  It's also not always clear how far or how high you can actually go, so you'll have to just go and see what happens.

Overall, I was definitely having enough fun to see it through to the end (though it wasn't very long in the first place), it just got terribly frustrating at times, and never succeeded in drawing me in from a narrative perspective.  The game's final message during the credits seems to suggest that nothing much has changed as a result of your little adventure - a small server hiccup and then it's back to business as usual for the totalitarian city.  Oh well, it was a nice little romp anyway, right?

Jeanne 4 Dead

02/15/09 05:04:22 pm

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• Games
• Castle Crashers
• Jeanne D'Arc
• Left 4 Dead
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Finished up the aforementioned Castle Crashers skin.  I will probably also be making some wallpapers with the same art, since they're vectors and well-suited for such use.

Recently finished up the PSP SRPG Jeanne D'Arc.  The gameplay is deep, entertaining and always a challenge too.  The only other games I've played of this genre are the Final Fantasy Tactics titles, and a regular "flaw" in those is that battles tend to become routinely easy at some point; you can bash your way through without much thought to strategy.  Jeanne, on the other hand, more consistently requires consideration, and a false step could really cost you.  There's a nice variety of job classes without being overbearing, though there's not much chance to customize your units, so you'll want to fight with those who have the best stats as opposed to character preferences.  That turned out alright though, as the story and characters are rather mediocre anyway; which was surprising to me, as RPGs often focus on those things.  Despite that, this was definitely a good game overall.

Rirath and I also rented Left 4 Dead for a weekend.  I'm not particularly good at FPS games, and knowing this one was co-op, I figured I'd be dying and sitting out a lot.  However, the game has a great balance between individual ability and teamwork; playing well will obviously benefit you, but there are still traps you can't escape without the aid of a teammate.  If you do get killed, you'll respawn after a few minutes with reduced health, so you're not sitting out the whole rest of the round.  The dynamic seeding of enemies is also pretty cool, so that the levels will never play the same way twice.  Even so, it seems a bit cheap that you only get four campaign maps.  Hence the rental - it's certainly a fun game, but a bit pricey if you're only playing it once through.

XBLA Games

01/25/09 02:13:05 pm

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• Castle Crashers
• Braid
• Games
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I don't own an XBox, and as such, have not played many of its titles. But since I've been able to use Rirath's, I've tried out a few that have succeeded in charming me.

One of those is the "indie" game, Braid. It's hard to call it "indie" when you read that $180,000 was sunk into it, but nevertheless, it delivers a fresh and different experience from the mainstream. A combination of platforming and puzzle solving set against beautiful landscapes and music, Braid offers you 6 worlds with different time-bending mechanics that you must utilize to obtain puzzle pieces and save Tim's princess. The gameplay is consistently fun and challenging; puzzles will often have a fiendishly simple solution once you grasp it. Oddly, the story is both a high and a low point of the game for me. If it had made sense within the context of the game itself, it would've been a mysterious and chilling revelation. Instead, obscurity seems to be flaunted for the sake of "artfulness," and I was left not-quite-satisfied by the end, having to Google for others' interpretations for a full explanation. Overall though, it's a great little title despite its flaws.

Castle Crashers has been a worthy venture as well. It's a side-scrolling beat-'em-up with colorful art and a sense of humor. The game blends in some RPG elements as well, such as attribute-enhancing weapons, character stat customization and leveling up. The number of characters you can play with definitely gives this game replay value, if you enjoy it. As mentioned in a previous post, I plan on making some skins of these characters. :3

Aside from games, it seems like my Comment Spam post ended up becoming a magnet for more sophisticated spam attacks. I had to redevelop my filter system somewhat, and that has been getting the lion's share of my website-related attention. Alright mighty spam bots, I am humbled... so leave me alone. :P