You've been.......Thunderstruck!

On the weekend, I had the satisfaction of casting another game from my Hall of Shame: Goodbye God of Thunder!

Original image located here. Accessed 2nd February 2018

This game and myself have had an interesting history: I played the first episode when I was in High School on the IT computers but I never got to beat it. Fast forward a decade later and I rediscover the game in it's complete form but I've never been able to beat the final boss. And a decade after that, I find the game available for free on Steam. Time to settle some unfinished business, no?

Looking back at this game, I can understand what this game was trying to do: It was an attempt to bring a Legend of Zelda-esque game to mid-nineties PC gaming. It's a decent stab I will admit, what with interesting puzzles, and a RPG-like path of progression. What makes God of Thunder somewhat different is that there is basis of Norse mythology with the PC being Thor, the PC's main weapon being Mjolnir and the Big Bad being Loki (figures a trickster god would be so difficult to defeat). Having said that however this game's grasp of Norse mythology has more to do with the Marvel comic character than the actual mythos.
Also, it has to be said that the only major difference is that the humor in Legend of Zelda is significantly less corny than that of God of Thunder (at one one point an NPC says that the PC, Thor, should have his own comic book......
Finally, I'd forgotten how tough the boss battles are. So it may not come to a surprise to you, the reader, that a lot of cursing and keyboard pounding was required to defeat the Big Bads at the end of each chapter. I could say that challenge of all three was me getting my money's worth but this was a game I got for free.....

So in the end, I did enjoy this game and experiencing it now was no different than when I enjoyed it twenty-odd years ago.

This Ain't No Game

So we have a new Mario movie in the works eh? And it's an animated one?

I'm actually surprised that this is happening because, as is my understanding, seeing as the notorious Live Action Mario movie was a flop, Nintendo has kept a tight grip on their IP. But then again, Nintendo has achieved massive success with a smartphone app called Pokemon Go.

My only hope is that this new movie is better than the previous efforts at having an animated Mario...

History is Written

Here's something that caught my eye recently: A fan-made book chronicling the history of CRPGs.

It's an impressive feat: 528 pages and over a hundred contributors. But I'm just glad that CRPG's are getting a proper history. Maybe it;s just me, whenever RPG's are brought up, everyone falls onto the console RPGs, like Final Fantasy - so it;s welcoming that, through this book, some lesser known RPGs are given a time to shine.

A Walk Through Cyrodril

Recently I had a crack at the PvP portion of ESO. This wasn't something I had planned on when i started playing ESO but I thought i would at least give it a show. Plus the skillset offered on PvP looked quite tempting.
It should be noted that I never tried PvP when I played WoW so I had no idea what to expect (beyond the possibility of being ganged up on by people who knew what they were doing were of a higher level). Still fortune favours the brave....

So what i could gather, Cyrodril is a location wherein the three major factions are in a never-ending cycle of war to claim dominance. This is new to me as someone who has been doing PvE. However there are some quests that can be achieved by a single player so at least there is some degree of familiarity. But ultimately, my experience with Cyrodril is going around the area to be where I need to be. The absence of wayshrines is noticeably absent and reduces traveling as roaming around the area. An area that turns out to be very vacant.  Okay there is the occasional raid but I found that when you die, you are cast back to your starting area and have to start the long and arduous journey back to where you were. if anything i found I spent more time journeying than i did in combat.

Matters aren't helped with the combat being stupidly tough. Granted I may be approaching this as a lower-level character punching above his weight, but there is no fun value whatsoever by being decimated by a higher level character before you have a chance to start.
And then there's the Imperial city: loaded with baddies that I can barely scratch let, alone defeat. As such i found myself going through soul gems at a crazy rate.

Granted this through the perspective of a lower-level character but I think I'll stick to the PvE in future...

Freedom isn't Free

Another game has been struck down from my Hall of Shame. Clean out your desk Oxenfree, you're outta here!

Original image located here. Accessed 2nd February 2018 

Of course, saying I've completed this game is somewhat meaningless - and people who have played this game will know why. For now, however I have beaten this game but only for the first time. Needless to say, I will return to Oxenfree sometime in the near future. 

In the meantime however, I did enjoy this game a lot. I've played a lot of adventure games and have found their strengths lie in the writing. And this is what Oxenfree understands and accomplishes in flying colors: The characters are well-written and believable, the dialogue is natural and delivered with superb acting and we have a game wherein we have teenagers acting ....well...like teenagers.

In fact, that last point really says a lot about the game,. Sure the mystery surrounding the setting was engaging, the supernatural parts were freaky, the atmosphere was abundant and the music was stunning. But at the end of the day, the MVP is the best portrayal of teenagers I have ever seen - perhaps moreso than any other game, movie or TV series.

In fact, replaying this game now suddenly feels like a substantial enticement - a sign that this game must've done something right