Nerdy Girls Need Love Too

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!

I noticed you noticing me,

I bet we've all had those days where we feel like the world is staring at you. You feel ready to break out the tinfoil hat, creep under the table and wait for the day to pass. For no reason.

Yesterday was such a day.

Now, usually I am a pretty patient person. I'm observant, I like to keep track of people around me. I notice things and I like noticing things, details. I like to feel the pulse of the surrounding. So if I catch someone looking at me a little, I'll brush it off and consider them to be doing the exact same thing as I am. Observing, with no ill intent.

But usually when I catch several people at a short duration of time starting at me; I get nervous. Are they seeing something I am not? Is there something wrong with me?

On the way home to a woman was staring so intensly on me after having experienced so many glances earlier, that I was nearly convinced I had a axe stuck in my head and it must have hit some part of my brain which made me not notice, and now I'm bleeding all over the place and dying and they're all staring at me.

Of course that wasn't so.

But upon pondering about it later I realized that this, while being utterly ridiculous, is a good analogy for communication.

"Minister of Culture"

Ha Ha! That rocks!

Did you know Runic Games' (maker of Torchlight, which I by the way did a review for over at Pressfire) Community Manager have a bit of an unothorodox title... Namely "Minister of Culture".

I wonder if it would suit me?

- Hello, sir. Why yes, I am the Minister of Culture for Planet Calypso.

No? How about Head of Trolls? Treasurer of Cookies? Harvester of Hugs? Flame Bait?

Crazy Zelda Cosplay!

Rune Håkonsen shared this one on his Twitter: Crazy Cosplay of Zelda, Dark Link and Co! Really makes me go back to that wish about having the balls to cosplay..

Steam Holiday Sale Lootbag

I bet you guys have rolled your eyes plenty times when girls wiggle of glee over the sound of the word "Sale".
Like my little sister said when she visited me last summer here in Gothenburg; "Rea (sale) is the most beautiful Swedish word that is."

Now imagine that their glee over 50% off trousers, shirts, dresses, six-pences, pantaloons and what-not is somewhere close to what you felt, oh avid gamer, when you saw Steam's holiday sale. And I gotta admit, as much as I do love shoes and shiny things and colors you can actually wear and not just look at, it exited me more then any clothing sale could ever do.

Granted we didn't buy that much, I would have liked to buy a lot more.. The steam sale is just a too good opportunity to pass up on getting some of the games you'd thought about playing but never got around to. The Indie Packs were hilariously cheap though and almost made me feel bad about not spending more on all those great games.

Here's what I ended up with:

• Indie Brain Pack:

1. Zen Bound 2
2. Diamond Dan
3. Puzzle Bots
4. Windosill
5. Big Brain Wolf

• Indie Adventure Pack:

1. Mr Robot
2. Jolly Rover
3. Gish
4. Samorost 2
5. And Yet it Moves

• Indie Heavy Hitters:

1. Audiosurf
2. Braid
3. Osmos
4. Shattered Horizon
5. The Maw
6. Zero Clash
7. Trine (Had this already)
8. World of Goo (Had this already)

• The Ball
• Greed Corp
• Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
  
  
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R pack:
  
  1. Shadow of Chernobyl
  2. Call of Pripyat

Happy New Year!

Bloody hell Im bad at this blogging thing, eh? I gotta remind myself to keep writing here.

So anyway, a funny story about me and Jerry's Christmas-presents.

For a long time now, we've thought about getting a Wii. Usually we play such "serious" games as strategy, RTS, MMO's and FPS, and the Wii would be good for 3 things:

• A different, more casual type of entrainment
  
• A good console for having friends over
• The Wii Fit.

So of course I figured it'd be a perfect gift this year, and called up to Hammerfest in November to reserve a 25th Anniversary Wii. My family owns a toyshop which happens to sell Nintendo so that was only a natural thing to do. When we got up to Hammerfest for the Christmas vacation, we browsed the shop and looked at the Wii's. Jerry said "The Red one is the nicer one, isn't it?" and I agreed, now happily having it confirmed that I had made the right choice over the Black or White Wii. I couldn't wait for him to unwrap it at Christmas eve.

Pretty!

Now it belongs to the story that my family lives on top of this toyshop. The shop is on level 1-2 while their apartment is on 3rd and 4th floor, which is also where we stayed during our visit.

So one day, I believe it was the 22nd December, I'm in my pyjamas, and Jerry goes out to the minibank to get money for some reason I cannot remember. Suddenly by stepdad comes running up to the apartment SCREAMING my name, and then says that Jerry is downstairs buying me a Wii for Christmas. The Red One.

God damn man stole my Christmas-present idea! Now I had to let my stepdad pretend like nothing, because I didn't want Jerry to know that I knew what his gift was - after all the greatest thing about gifts is giving them, and I didn't want to rob him of that feeling of getting a great gift... Even if he just stole mine.

Christmas Eve came and I'm not sure I've ever seen such a crazy amount of gifts underneath the tree, especially considering that the youngest in the house is 17 soon 18. In the midst of the unwrapping mayhem I was trying to keep track of some of my presents; some of them were not to be opened until later.
And then I got my present from Jerry, and I gave him his present from me. I brought out my poker-face; weighted the box, sized it up, made a comment that these shoes were heavier then I thought they would be. And I opened it up and I had a sincere smile of glee, not because Im good at faking it, but because the moment was so precious knowing what was coming. And then he unwrapped his present from me, which was Mario Kart and Metroid Prime Triology for the Wii.

I don't think I've ever seen a man that confused before. His face had an expression I did not know existed outside comic-books.

It was precious.

We ended up with the following Wii set-up at the end:

• 25th Anniversary Edt. Wii with New Super Mario Bros, original Donkey Kong and Wii Sports.
• Metroid Prime Triology
• Black Wiimote with Wii Motion Plus + Black Nunchuck
• Mario Kart + Wheel
• Wii Fit Plus (Board and game)
• Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Now I really gotta find a couple of the games I've been dying to try out. The latest Raving Rabbids, Epic Mickey.. Ack!

Gingerbread Mario

Me and Jerry made a Mario Gingerbreadhouse last year. Since I forgot to post it then, and this is the season to be jolly; here it is! :)

Since we didnt have any fancy color-glaze, the color is actually cake-toppings. Now, most of these cake-toppings were actually in one of them sprinkles-boxes with a multitude of colors, so first you had to separate all the colors and then put them in the right spot... we used tweezers.

Yeah, the things you do when you're at your parents house for christmas without your gaming rig, eh? :)

Cosplay, Yay or Nay?

Alright, Cosplay is basically one of the outer limits of geekyness right? Its one of those things whom many of us with a geeky heart look at, talk about and admire -but we never dare to do it ourselves unless we can joke about it, somehow. I've flirted with the idea, but I gotta admit Im too much of a whuss unless invited to a party where it is mandatory. (please someone, make a cosplay-birthdayparty and force me to come.)

But if you got the opportunity to wear this, would you manage to say no?



I know I wouldn't! I think I fell in love.

The cosplayer pictured is swedish Jenni Källberg, or "The Worlds Greatest Metroid Cosplayer". I got the link from a friend of mine, Zhiva, who's such a die-hard he's got Samus tattooed on his leg. I can just imagine his face full of glee when he saw this article the first time. It makes me happy!

Read more at Kotaku, or go straight to the source at pixelninja, Jenni's own site featuring more cosplay-photos including Metal Gear Solid, Zelda, Ghost in the Shell, Battle Royale, and even Princess Peach plus many more things wonderful! Love!

Hallo!

I've been meaning to start blogging again, just like I've been meaning to start twittering again. Since last year, a lot have happened in my life. I've moved to Gothenburg permanently, for one thing. I got a job here as a Community Manager for Planet Calypso, so that's been eating up a lot of my willpower for social medias. I run the forum PlanetCalypsoForum.com... But yes, enough about work. While this blog used to be a lot about Entropia (as well as my other games) Im going to try keep work off it, and attempt to keep this blog more personally me.

So what have I been up to lately other then work?
Uh.

Good question.

On the game front its pretty easy. I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas, Civilization 5, I just finished Portal (because I'm honestly ages behind everyone else it seems), I played Dead Rising 2 recently.. And a whole lot of HoMM5. That's what I've played recently.. Since last, that's a whole other story. Not going to go into that, it'll certainly ruin my fingers.