Friday, December 28, 2012

Jamestown

I have played a few shoot 'em ups in my time, and decided to give a go to Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony, which had apparently been included in some humble bundle. Unfortunately I found it lacking in the parts I like in these kind of games.

The Wheel of Time: Towers of Midnight

My posts about books sometimes manage to gather a whole lot of plot synopsis in them. It's a silly thing to do, really, for Wikipedia already has quite accurate plot summaries for popular novels. From this post onwards, I will try to stick more to writing my thoughts and avoid recapping a novel's happenings at great length, if at all.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Wheel of Time: The Gathering Storm

I very much gobbled up this one. I read the book just over two nights. I don't know if it was because the it was so good or what, but it certainly didn't take long for me to devour the thousand-page book.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Bury Elminster Deep

The second book of the Sage of Shadowdale trilogy, Bury Elminster Deep, picks off right where the previous one ended. Elminster has been reduced into a cloud of ashes by Manshoon and now shares the body of his descendant, Amarune Whitewave. In her body, El rushes into the woods to follow the call of Mystra, the s'posedly dead goddess of magic.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Baldur's Gate 2 Soloed

I think I'm finally done with Baldur's Gates. I've completed the games with all of the races and classes, and now as solo as well. I'm quite sure I've seen most (if not all) the games have to offer. Time to let them be.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Torchlight 2 cont'd

For my second playthrough, I chose the embermage, for whom I had found few very good uniques. I started on Elite but the early game was way harder than it had been for the engineer. And so I restarted on Veteran in hopes for a more pleasant experience. It was still pretty challenging, though.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Torchlight 2

And so, the much anticipated sequel to Torchlight is finally here. The biggest features of Torchlight 2 are probably its multiplayer and the more expansive story and how it's spread across four Acts, each with their own environments, very much in style of Diablo 2. There are numerous other new things and improvements as well, but the same rewarding and meaty combat is still there.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Torchlight

Few times I have wished I had an entry of the first Knights of the Old Republic on this blog as I would've liked to check what I thought about it. No post can be found of Torchlight either. I guess I played them both before I started this or for some other reason didn't just write about them.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons

First of all, I have to say that I don't like reading hardcover books. They are large and cumbersome to hold, especially when they have thousand pages like A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book of A Song of Ice and Fire. Paperbacks wear and tear easier but they are so much comfortable. And cheaper, too.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Where Trees Are Square, Part 4

Welcome to Greycliffe. I've been building it ever since 1.0 came out. I'm not sure if it's bigger than my previous project, but there certainly was more building in this one. And all those stonebricks did not make themselves -- once again, everything was built on Normal from start to finish. And I think I did get this in a more finished state than Stoneforge.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a third person shooter/action game from Relic Entertainment. It has a linear and predictable storyline, though that is to be expected from a Wh40k title; no plot twist should surprise you in this game. Just sit back, smash them up, and enjoy the blood splatter and shiny particles spraying everywhere.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast for Crows

A Feast for Crows, the fourth book of A Song of Ice and Fire, wasn't as aptly named as I maybe expected. The title phrase is mentioned but it was more a promise of things to come rather than any special event.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Baldur's Gate Soloed

I actually started this playthrough quite a few months back but it got interrupted by something (probably Mass Effect 3). Last weekend I launched the game again, however, and finished my solo adventure as an Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief, the same kit I used in Icewind Dale.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

For The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, CD Projekt RED developed their own game engine. And with it they created one of the most beautiful PC games there are -- at least if your machine is up to the task. Mine was not.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords

The third installation of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm of Swords, is the so far the longest book in the series with more than 1100 pages. Towards the end, the early events started to seem so distant that I was mixing them up with those of the second book. Luckily, Wikipedia has a quite thorough plot summary of the novel.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Micro

I rarely read novels outside the fantasy genre. However, if a book is handed to me, I will likely read it regardless of its setting. Micro was one of such cases.

The Wheel of Time: Knife of Dreams

Once again the title comes from an excerpt from a book/prophecy in the world of The Wheel of Time. And once again it has little and everything to do with anything in the book. I guess a generic name is the only way to go when there are so many separate storylines to follow. The eleventh book, Knife of Dreams, splendidly ties a handful of loose ends together and even has the decency to continue from the cliffhanger the previous one left Egwene al'Vere in. Well, after the hundred-page prologue anyway.

The Wheel of Time: Crossroads of Twilight

The tenth book of The Wheel of Time didn't receive too praising reviews; Crossroads of Twilight goes through already occured events through different viewpoint characters. And it wasn't all that exciting. Or that's what I accidentally read beforehand on Wikipedia.

Friday, June 8, 2012

My Favorite Characters and Weapons in the ME3 MP

The multiplayer part of Mass Effect 3 is so amazing that I feel like writing even more about it. In this post, I will list my favorite characters and weapons, and give reasons why I like them best.

Lingua Franca

Common spelling errors seem to spread like a plague on the Internet. Here are a few favorites of mine.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer

I thought I might as well write a separate post about Mass Effect 3's multiplayer since I have, quite frankly, played the hell out of it. I've certainly gotten my money's worth from the game I bought at half-price. (Some obscure Finnish webstore had 50% off from stuff, including ME3 preorder.)

Friday, May 18, 2012

Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 was released last year and it received a bunch of negative criticism. Some even deemed it ol' trusty BioWare's first failure in their impressive line of great RPG titles. I was very skeptical about it, though. I mean, I had seen couple gameplay videos of it on YouTube and wasn't all that impressed. But it did look pretty much like Dragon Age: Origins to me. Where they could've gone so wrong that people found not liking it?

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

More Thoughts on Mass Effect 3's Ending

Mass Effect 3 keeps bugging me to no end with its ending. I feel I haven't yet said everything I want to. The previous post was getting pretty lengthy, though, so I guess it's better I do this on a separate thing.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Mass Effect 3

BioWare has been getting a ton of crap thrown at them for Mass Effect 3. People felt like BioWare/Eletronic Arts was selling an incomplete product, and to get the whole game one should also buy From Ashes, a Day 1 DLC. Since the DLC was included in the Digital Deluxe edition, I did not mind all that much. The second issue came up when people finished the game and its ending was not what they thought it should have been. But I will get onto that later in this post.

Portal 2

I felt Portal 2's single player campaign was mostly a reboot of the original game, even though it technically is a sequel. But somehow you (Chell) are back in Aperture's testing chambers and it's time for another breakout, since you incidentally also cause GLaDOS to revive.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings

Sensing the uncertainty in the realms, lords are naming themselves kings left and right and raising armies to claim the crown from Joffrey. Both of deceased Robert's brothers see themselves suitable, and even some ship lord in the west thinks he should join the fray. And beyond the Wall, the wildlings are gathering under the lead of Mance Rayder to march south. A Clash of Kings is aptly named.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 begins with a gripping intro, in which SSV Normandy SR-1 gets destroyed. Commander Shepard is killed, but not before he/she saves the crew. Death is not final, however, at least not when an infamous group, Cerberus (whose existence I had completely forgotten), and its mysterious leader, the Illusive Man, think you are the most important person in the galaxy.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Witcher

The Witcher is an RPG developed and published by a Polish company, CD Projekt Red. The game is based on the books of their fellow countryman, Andrzej Sapkowski, and more precisely on the main character, Geralt of Rivia, who is one of the few remaining witchers -- monster hunters for hire.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

While I obviously already knew of the influence A Song of Ice and Fire had had to Dragon Age: Origins, I didn't fully realize how much until playing its expansion, Awakening. Having just read A Game of Thrones might have had something to do with that as well.