Castle Crashers Vector Art

03/24/09 08:02:31 pm

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• Castle Crashers
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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.

Jeanne 4 Dead

02/15/09 05:04:22 pm

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• 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