2/22/11

Things that Annoy me: HoN.

Jerry started playing Heroes of Newerth again and apparently they have a sort of Item Mall now. Some of the things you can buy is your favorite chars in another gender or with another look.. Instead of Moon Queen you can be Sexy Moon Queen. Instead of Succubus you can be Naughty Succubus. And of course there's female Pyromancer and Glacius and other female versions of the most used heroes.

The Sexy and Naughty versions of the already alluring characters is rather... disappointing. Really don't know a better way then to put it like that.
But the worst is still the male char "Pimp Slayer" with the fabulous description "Show dem hoes who's boss as Pimp Slayer" Excuse my french but What the fuck!


Don't get me wrong, there's some pretty cool characters here too like the Adventurer -looking much like a Indiana Jones and the little Bombardier rolling around on a cannon, and while I haven't seen Helga Hammerstorm in action yet she's apparently the first female skinned Strength based hero, which is cool.

Apparently the Sexy, Naughty and Pimp was made as some "Flamboyant" pack together with new commentary-voices which is quite obviously supposed to be a well, a stereotypical flamboyant homosexual. (However I don't know how the gay gamer community feels about that so I'm not going to be offended for them just for the heck of it.)

Usually I can smile about jokes that's not meant for me, and even jokes made on my expense -but I don't find this amusing at all. It just feels wrong.

Another thing about the Item Mall skins, I like playing female chars because I relate to it more, however I really dislike having to pay extra to play the gender of choice when they have both genders ready made by the developers -such as the case of female Pyromancer, Glacius and Helga Hammerstorm.
There was another F2P FPS called Crossfire where they had item malls that I played a little a few years back, and their most expensive item was a female skin. For some reason that pissed me off enough to stop playing.

It just feels like they're forgetting they have (potential) female players at all.

On a completely unrelated note,
my body's a effin mess. My back, my ribs the whole s'bang is acting up and leaving me problems all over the place, such as having a hard time breathing and not sleeping well, as well as making senseless rambles while on painkillers on Twitter.
I'm pissy about the health debates going around in the RA-community which just keeps reminding me about these success-stories that makes it sound as if you're still in bad shape after suffering for a few years it means that you're just not trying hard enough. There was a pretty good blog post (in norwegian) from "Giktbloggen" on the subject.

To top it off a tooth filling's fallen out so going to have to fix that. Bah. Generally the last weeks have been pretty piss poor for me and its affecting my mood, so my apologies if I've been cranky towards anyone.

Might and Magic Browser game


Im scared of browsergames for the very same reason Im scared of large RPG's. They tend to steal my time and make me get tunnelvision.

Recently I was made aware of a Might and Magic Browser game from Ubisoft themselves. It seems this is a little marketing for the upcoming Might and Magic VI that's coming soon. I haven't had too much chance to try it out yet. Here's a little peek at the combat system:

Basically you control your kingdom with town and resources, conquer areas, find artifacts, level up in skills and so on.. It doesn't seem like its created with a large "demand" to play it, perhaps because it seems to be made more as a promo MMHVI.

Here's the link: http://mightandmagicheroeskingdoms.ubi.com/play
You can sign in with Facebook, but you don't have to.

2/17/11

2/14/11

Aperture's guide to Valentine's Day Gift Buying

Cute games vs Sad state of Mind [Visuals]

Me choosing what game I want to play is, I admit, often very shallow. I want the graphics to give a certain feeling. Granted, I have played and enjoyed games as UO and AO, but generally I tend to not want to play anything that doesn't look nice, so Ill admit that visuals is very important to me.

After about 8 years as a gamer (advancing from Nintendo-kiddie, that is and not taking into consideration Backpacker and Flight Simulator...) and thinking back, I think I can safely say that the amount of cuteness I choose to go for in a game is relate able to how shit I feel in real life.
Usually when I'm down its because of my physical state. I try not to get affected but really, the longer the period of time where I'm in bad shape; the more bitter and down I get. I don't think I have to elaborate on that; its quite natural, no?

Simplified, my choices seem to follow this pattern:

Sad Panda: Cute games such as Rose, FlyFF, Bush Whacker.
Happy: Adventurous games, often RPG's, such as Fallout, BioShock, Borderlands.
Confident: Competitive games, Shooters and RTSs such as CoD , HoN, Demigod.

Heck, even CSI: Crime City can be labeled as Cute. Just look at this dead body:

CSI: Crime City

The cute games are often very periodical since when I snap out of it, I tend to get a sugary overdose just by looking at them. I'm never attracted to start playing these games when I'm up and generally happy. I'd even say I'm more bothered by them at that point.

I assume its not "just me" who's got it like this, because assuming a person is alone in doing anything is fucking stupid, but I wonder how many of those who choose the Cute Games (and who've passed age 15) over the more serious and challenging ones is doing it for the same reason - a quick Happy-fix far away from the reality of the harsh actual world.

BushWhacker

2/12/11

Fallout: Nuka Break - Fan Film

Awesome!!



(Got this through Spill.no)

2/11/11

My pictures from our Disney Vacation

Realized I still hadn't posted any of my pictures from our vacation, not here or facebook except my profile page.

We went to Disneyworld for my birthday (Sep 1st) last year and stayed for 12 days. It was great! During all our time together this was the first time we actually had a proper vacation to ourselves, its always either been with family or in connection with Entropia. It was needed, especially after a very stressful year. It did wonders, and I would really love to go back either in 2011 or 2012. I know my family is heading there this summer, and I envy them sooo bad!

The new Harry Potter area of Universal Studios had just opened when we got there, and that's just one amazing area. In general Universal haven't been as good at creating any specific feeling when you walk through their themes, but they really made up for it with the Harry Potter area. Its got everything from butterbeer to the Hogwarts Express, silly shops and a friggin lifesize Hogwart. Walking around there really brings up that feeling, but Im still biased towards Frontierland in Magic Kingdom as the best there is.

So anyway here goes. Going to limit the pictures of course, Im sure you're not all too interested in seeing flamingos from 10 different angles, and tbh Im not very interested in posting them.

We travelled Gothenburg - Amsterdam - Atlanta -Orlando. While waiting in Amsterdam, we figured we'd geek it up a little.


Sparta, Athens, Rome... Sure we're on the right plane?


Jerry had 1 wish and 1 wish for our trip only: Visiting a Dunkin Donuts. Atlanta Airport took care of that.

Went down to Rainforest Cafè as soon as we got there. They then lost our reservation and we had to wait 1/2 hour to be seated.


But at least we got drinks in disco-cups!

We got the glasses to go. Inside the bottom there's like a little disco ball thing that lights up if you press the bottom. When we got home, one of these buttons got stuck. The glass wouldn't stop discoing until a week later when it ran out of batteries.

But it was a good drink!


Man vs. Lego-dragon in "Strike a pose".


"Glazed Holes", seriously!? WTF is wrong with you people?


Spent my birthday at Magic Kingdom with a big-ass button on my shirt saying I had birthday. I dont think Ive ever said "thank you" more often, those Disneyworld employees are well drilled in being friendly and forthcoming. Thats one of the things that makes me prefer Disney over the other parks; the people that work there really seem to be having a great time too.

Mary Poppins Chimney guy was really happy to see a birthday-girl.

I thought she was waving, but seeing this picture, I think she was screaming for help.



How IS a raven like a writing desk? The teacups are obligatory.
Also, big ass boob button.


Decided my Birthday dinner would be held at the best little italian resturant; Portobello. They do this great thing where they ovenbake a whole ginger with oliveoil and serve it with this gorgeous bread. Its too good for words.

Also, lovely drinks, and a lovely companion.



Funnily enough our server had her birthday too this fine evening. she was nice. Also she brought me birthday-cake on the house.

Our day at Universal was... rainy. I had to stop taking photos after this one, because of condensation on the lens. We fixed it with the hairdryer at the hotel later though.
In proper Florida spirit, the rain lasted until we were walking down the street with water reaching up half my leg.


Sea World:




*applause*

American Apperizer. Portions in the US are effin crazy. Several times we ordered appertizers and it looked like it could feed a family of four, not just ONE person as it was meant for.

Animal Kingdom. Mount Everest is cool!


Hogwarts! At Universal Studios Island of Adventure.


Ha Ha! We found a ride we couldn't take because we're too tall. And Jerry was wearing my "Judge me by my size, do you" t-shirt. It was golden.


2/9/11

Bitches be crazy

I think its funny how men often seem to assume that if the girl is a gamer chick then she's a all-round nice girl.
Like always, assumptions are stupid.

It's no secret that if you're a girl in games you tend to get a lot of attention. Even from social games with chats where the ratio seems 4-6 girls can still get a nice little man-harem going if they are up for it.
To put it bluntly, some of these girls (note: certainly not all of them!) feed of the attention they get from these harems, they're using you to feel good about themselves - and if another girl happens to even be in the vicinity (and thus getting a tiny widdle bit of attention, wanted or unwanted.) their bitch flare goes up and they'll start defending their pack in the way that girls tend to do.

Personally I've found it a bit amusing that these are the same girls that tend to whine about "never being the popular one in class". Well, good job paying it forward?

But I've seen it so many times its really starting to bore me. Its just immaturity, and they'll (hopefully) grow out of it or grow tired of it, and then they can probably be labeled "nice" girls.
But really, the moral is, stop making assumptions that girls in games are so much different just because their choice of hobby. It all boils down to sex and power anyway.

Tears of Joy!

2/8/11

CSI games, casual playing and...more casual gaming.

I admit that in spite of their flaws I tend to like playing the CSI games.
And by flaws I mean its evidently not created for players over the age of 13. I mean the whole game is really just hovering your mouse over the screen to make sure you get this icon that tells you there's evidence there.


I don't quite recall, but the first time I started playing the CSI games I think I was around 18 yrs old. That's ... 6 years ago now. I seem to recall them being harder. I seem to recall an option to turn off that damn feature where you'll see the mouse icon change when hovering over interact-able objects, and I sure as heck seem to recall you being able to try out all the different equipment on the evidence to have Grissom tell you you're an idiot to try to use plaster on a fingerprint and that doing so would lower your score.

Im not sure weather I remember it this way because I'm just a plain better gamer now then I was before (no doubt there) and can recognize the game design and miss a more "hardcore" mode on the CSI games, or if they really did shave the CSI games down so much that they've taken away the actual exploration in favor of making the game more "casual friendly". It seems more like interaction story-time for young CSI fans then a game.

I bought a CSI game a couple of days ago. Generally, I've liked playing them then I have a moment for myself. When I'm home alone, or, when the man is asleep. Then I can sit here in peace and shift through mud and used syringes, looking for evidence, nailing that bastard.
Last time I played a CSI game I still had that feeling it was perhaps too casual. But anyway...
I bought the newest CSI: Fatal Deception when I had such a moment alone, and fired it up. I felt slight disappoint that the game is basically a simplified 3D Find Waldo.

Maybe I've just outgrown it?

Either way, I fired it up and I got stuck at the first case! I was happy about this, I was hoping there was something I had missed, something I had overlooked. Something making me actually search and engage myself in the story. Some twist at the end. The blood of the suspect didn't match the hair I found, instead it matched the victim's! Were they really family, siblings maybe? Why hadn't he told us about this in the interview?

But no. After a lot of messing about, it just seemed like a bug. So I checked up on a walk-through, and the hair was supposed to match the suspects DNA. Bah. Now it's stuck at Case 1 and since the other cases doesn't unlock unless you finish case 1, I guess I need to wait for some fix.

However, when I shut down the game I got a little pop-up. I had been granted a 1 year free Elite membership on CSI: Crime City, a facebook game. Generally I'm not particularly fond of facebook games, not because I have anything against them -they just seem to be a waste of time. I've played a couple though, such as Texas Hold 'Em, Bejeweled and my favorite Word Challenge. Either way I was starved of entertainment so I figured why not. I got a elite pass and everything.

Turns out all Elite pass really does is give me a funky floor:


If you get a seizure from looking at this screenie, I cannot be held responsible.

And the possibility of buying stuff for Ubi-points (read: real money) in the shop. So, for buying the game for real money I get the privilege of buying exclusive stuff for more real money! YAY!

Either way I played it a little, and its moderately entertaining in a grid-search kind of way. What is funny about this story though is that the f2p facebook game have so far given me more entertainment value then the CSI game I originally bought.

Anyway... I just bought "Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle" on steam (was on sale) today so perhaps I can use my casual detecting skills there instead. I hope!

2/5/11

The awesome caricature of me gaming

The awesome caricature of me gaming that can be seen in the background, was drawn by the artist Glenn at Universal Studios in Orlando (Disneyworld!) during our trip there in September last year.

I suspect he used more time on it then they usually do, and he captured some details really well (like the colors of Jerry's eyes) and I really love how funny me and him look together... :)

Of course we tipped him well! I just love this pic! Not just is it well done but it reminds me of such a good time..

2/4/11

Rift me back!

Im currently playing the Rift beta and it seems I fell down into a rabbit hole...

I was out swimming, doing a mission, when suddenly I got fatigue loss. Since I hadn't seen any form of fatigue measurement before this sort of took me by surprise, I went up to the surface to breathe thinking that had anything to do with it by no. Fatigue went down even when breathing fine and just bobbing in the water without swimming, so I soon found myself dead.

And far, far away. Being a newcomer, I resurrected on spot. I figured I had been teleported to the nearest Defiant resurrection near the newcomer town (for level 6-10 newbs) since thats where I died but no such luck.

Let me show you on a map:



What the HELL?

On the way down to where I died I quickly realized that something was really wrong. I tried to stick to the road but level 14 creatures kept killing me. And there's a level 19 rift right by the ressurect. Yay.

Now you see on number 4 on the map now.. I tried to swim over the pass there as a ghost. Those dotted lines? Serverborders of course. Invisible wall. You should see the way I need to walk to attempt to actually get back to the newb city. There's no way for a level 9 Defiant to get around that path.

Pushing "Stuck" only sends me back to the ressurection on number 2.
So, now Im waiting for GM help to move me back to the newbie playground.

Edit: And Im out! Many thanks to GM Primarch who got me out of there and revived me. It took about 1 hr 20 mins from making the inquiry to getting help, which I assume is a alright time considering they have let the whole darn world betatest this weekend.

HoMM... No.. MM Heroes VI stuff.

So, Ubisoft and Black Hole Entertainment have released more Heroes VI stuff with their new website update. The website now looks pretty darn sweet, and the trailer is beautiful and the screenshots show a lush and pretty game environment.. and in spite of the fact that the game developers sounds like raving lunatics in the videos, -its promising. But there is a few things that worries me.

Both the Concept Art and the Creature pages looks a bit like Black Hole might have been a bit too faithful to their color schemes for the different races. Inferno's is of course Red and Black like always, but does all of the creatures have to look like they are made out of molten lava?
Take Tormentor and Juggernaut for example:


Luckily the trailer shows that the Juggernaut is going to be of rather substantial size, so hopefully there's not going to be a problem with selecting the wrong creature because they're too similar. And that can happen after several hours of playing, when your eyes is a little tired -trust me on that.

There is some other few graphical bits that annoys me a little, like the Crossbow's man undignifying bird-hat (sob, it was my favorite unit in V!) and that the hair of the Blazing Glory looks like wobbly 2D strings, and the griffin looks bland and boring. But I'm generally fond of Haven so that is probably my fandom-eyes looking, and I don't like being that person.

And then there's this:

Ignoring the outragous stats for now, I'm hoping that the reason why there is only three slots for spells is to save room, and that more slots will open once you've filled all three, not because that's the full amount of spells that can affect a stack.

Either way, I'm most definitely going to buy the game and Ill most likely enjoy it. If it'll become a new favorite over the other HoMM games though... that remains to be seen!

2/3/11

Dude, I totally have a friend who plays WoW.

It occurred to me today as it has several times lately, that my siblings really think I loathe WoW-players.

The first time I remember this coming up for discussion was when my sister had her at-the-time boyfriend over for a visit. We were talking games, and he had barely gotten to "World of Wa.." when my little sister told him to shut up unless he wanted her sister to claw his eyes out.

This have come up to discussion several times, and I was painfully reminded of this crude and unforgiving vision my siblings have of me today... When my little brother talked about macro'ing, and said he used it while playing WoW, but before I had even opened my Steam Chat-Window he had quickly followed up with "NOOOOOO I dont play often!!!" I don't know where this terrible misconception have come from. Man, I know a lot of WoW Players. Some of them are even my friends!

One of them is even a GM! Dude, its okay to play WoW. It just so happen that I don't, but that doesn't mean its bad or anything. We're different. We're BORN different. That's life, you just gotta roll with it. There's no reason to be ashamed. You're okay by me, kid. I like you just the way you are!

I mean how can you not respect this?

Short People



I knoooow its old but we've been singing it a lot at home lately. Jerry's mocking me for being short. He always hides the candy and snacks up in the highest cupboards in the kitchen, so I won't reach. And then he mocks me when I need to get a chair to get them.

Nerdy Girls Need Love Too

2/1/11

Recommended: Magicka


I admit when I first checked out Magicka over steam I thought... boring. Quickly went on to other games. I just looked at the film and saw something that looked like a mundane and unpersonalized setting with some seemingly narrow skillset and gameplay. I was unimpressed.

I was wrong. Im ashamed of being so wrong.

Luckily for me a friend of mine had checked it out and convinced me to try it out. I had missed out on all the charm and all the gameplay elements by looking at the video (without sound) and not bothering to read the text to peak my interest.

The game is lighthearted and entertaining. Swedish developer Arrowhead just seem to have had so much fun when making this game that the feeling really pops out on you, and the feeling of relief you get from playing this cute little game after a stressed out day can probably be chalked up next to Vicodin, without the grumpy sideeffects of Dr. House.
The gamedesign is simple yet advanced.. You have all your elements on QWERASDF, and to make some really nice magicks you combine the elements before you blast it off at your enemy, to fry, douse, bomb them or whatever your choice of pain is. Me, I like lightning. Why? Because my Co-Op friends don't. Mwahaha.

Anyway, most of these magicks you need to figure out yourself, and some (well, most) can harm yourself as well. Which means there's a lot of trial and error on what magicks are good to use. (Tip: ASF, and combine your laser with your co-op friends for bigger game.) This leads to some pretty great moments in co-op where you and your friends come to some ...painful realizations. Like how using lightning while it rains might not be a great idea. Or, you know... Meteor Showers.


......fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu


I felt like an alchemist trying to make piss into gold and actually ending up doing it. Either that or ending up with piss all over myself, depending on how well you know the elements effect on each other, or the buttons that controls the elements. You'll often end up pressing the wrong key and that might just happen to be the death of you. But you're like a scientist. Its all for the sake of grand discovery! Aint it great! Alright, maybe it wasn't the best analogy.

Either way, this game is a little gem. Especially if you can speak Swedish.

We're all used to pretend babble from games. After all there's probably no gamer in the world that haven't heard (willingly or unwillingly) The Sims talk to each other. In Entropia we used to have these pretend babbling as well, which a lot of people from over the Atlantic used to ask if were supposed to be Swedish.

I didn't realize it at first, since Im a lousy norwegian, but a fun thing about the pretend-babble in Magicka is that it is Swedish. Well, parts of it anyway. Part Swedish, part English and part Hobo. I think the combination is supposed to sound like Old Norse? Either way it can really crack you up when you hear their tiny little voices talk about bananas or ...visetitters? and ost.
And then you kill them dead.

Oh yeah, be careful about that. It seems you can kill your questgivers. Whops.

The only major sad thing about Magicka is that online co-op's doesn't seem to save on neither host nor anyone else. So you'll have to restart your adventure if you don't finish it the same night. But still. I recommend it for some fun and lighthearted co-op goodtimes. Well worth 10€! Enjoy!