Asayaki zAc :the Gaming Artist

What's to Harry Potter when you have Spellborn!

2010-04-09T10:56:00.021+08:00

Labels: The Chronicles of Spellborn

Okay.. about time I did an update. I did wonder if doing all this was worth it. Anyway, here's a little picture I did with my graphic tablet Intous4. Took me around 3-4 mins to do.

The Album Cover!

I had been playing The Chronicles of Spellborn (TCoS) for quite some time so I thought I do a review on it.

Status: It is not being updated, but you can play it
Genre: Fantasy
Area: Global
Fee: Free to Play
Developer: Spellborn International
Publisher: Acclaim Games (there are two more publishers but this one is global, well I think)

Once upon a time...
A little overview of TCoS, it is a pretty fun game to me. Needs more players though. It was originally launched as a pay to play (p2p) game but now it is free to play (f2p). It has very nice graphics, quite similar to that of WoW but much more unique in a sense. It is actually a tprttorpg (third person real time targetting online role-playing game) if there is such a genre.

Learn the ways of your masters.

Before anything else, you should know that there are three classes in TCoS; the Warrior, the Mage and the Rogue. What? No archers?
The screenshot above shows that you have to choose a class during character creation. The red icon represents the Warrior. The green icon represents the Rogue. The purple icon represents the Mage. Clicking on them will reveal a little summary of what the classes are like and what type archetypes they can advance to.
Each class can advance to three different archetypes upon reaching level 5.

The Warrior can advance to Blood Warrior (BW), Wrathguard (WG) or Adept (AD).
The Mage can advance to Ancestral Mage (AM), Rune Mage (RM) or Void Seer (VS).
The Rogue can advance to Death Hand (DH), Skinshifter (SS) or Trickster (TS).
I'm not sure of the acronyms, correct me if I'm wrong.

Each archetypes are special in their own way. So let's take a look at them.

Blood Warrior -
If you like absorbing damage and not worry about health, then this is the perfect tank for you. They emphasize more on defensive skills (which means less offensive skills) and they possess abilities to absorb or redirect damage from their allies.

Wrathguard -
Seen a warrior that can cast empowerments and buffs? Well this one can. They can buff allies as well as themselves to make them stronger in battles by evoking ancestral spirits to unleash their powers. They make nice tanks and damage dealers too if you play them right.

Adept -
Nothing 'kung fu' can't solve. Adepts are experts in martial arts. They can deal swift and deadly blows at their opponents and possess the abilities to disarm, slow and silence them (basically to debuff them). They can also heal allies, somewhat like a paladin, making them useful in group battles.

Ancestral Mage -
They are the 'tamers' of the game. This means that ancestral mages have pets! They can summon the spirits of the past to fight alongside them. Although they have limited offensive spells, they can buff the pets up and let them do all the work.

Rune Mage -
If you prefer to see your opponents being bombarded by an array of spells, then go rune mage! They specialize in offensive spells and are capable of creating special runes which enhance their power as well as those around them.

Void Seer -
Are you a better assist than a fighter? Then try the void seer, as they possess abilities to counter enemy spells, buff and heal allies.

Death Hand -
A special brew for you. Death hands are masters of poison and they use mixtures of different poisons to slow, blind and damage their enemies over time. This also makes them ideal in group battles since they can take on multiple enemies at once.

Skinshifter -
Have you played Assassins Creed? Notice your hero in Assassin Creed can 'blend into the crowd'? Well, so can the skinshifters. They possess abilities to transform and shapeshift into different forms, hence blending into different crowds, then assassinate their targets. Useful eh?

Trickster -
Speed, ingenuity and efficiency. Tricksters can create illusions to trick their enemies. They rely on sleight of hand to gain the advantage too. Oh, one more thing. They can craft special - and small - devices and traps to confound their enemies.

Congratulations! It's a boy!
Now you know the classes and different archetypes. Time to create your character!

I took nearly a whole 30mins to create my character. You get to choose two races in the game, a human or a daevi. Humans are, well, humans and daevis are like a mutated form of humans with bigger arms and body structure as well as hooves. They are little devils, only bigger.
You also get to choose your gender and body type (skinny, normal, fat or buff). I personally prefer the skinny or normal ones. The buff (for males) and fat ones just look overly exaggerated.

After body type selection is the hair and head customization. You get to choose different hairstyles or you could just go with bald. You also get to choose from a large palette of hair and skin colours.

Next up, clothing and accessories. A big wardrobe to choose from too. Each design have five different types of clothes; sleeveless, short sleeves, long sleeves, sleeves on right only (both short and long) and sleeves on left only (both short and long). You also get gloves and you can choose from short pants, three-quarters and long pants. You get to dye your clothes too. Although you can re-dye your clothes but that don't come cheap so choose wisely.

Armour pieces are next. One thing to remember, the armour pieces does not affect gameplay. They don't give stats or improve your spells. Only the sigils equipped on the armour do (more on that later). So don't worry about what type of armour to choose, just pick whatever you see fit. You can also choose to type A armour the left and type B armour the right. You get shoulder pads, shinguards, helmet (or hoods), armoured gloves, boots, chest piece and belt. You can change the colour of the armour pieces, re-dye is also possible but still not cheap.

Weapon selection is the final step in your character creation. Your character will get two types of weapons, ranged and melee. For melee, you can get either two-handed ones or single-handed ones. Single-handed weapons allow you choose a shield (shields are just for show, it doesn't affect you in anyway). Bows are the only ranged weapons available.
In this game, bows requires no arrows to fire and weapons do not affect your gameplay. Again, the sigils on your weapons do.

Personally, I feel that TCoS have one of the best character customization that any f2p RPGs can have.

After all these, you are done! Click done will lead you to a short cut scene and introduction. Then a tutorial will teach all the basics of the game. You can't skip the tutorials though, but why skip when you can get experience points and a skill from it. The tutorial is also part of the story that you will go through. Yes, the game actually has a storyline!

All on the Airship please.
Your tutorial begins on an airship making its way towards Hawk's Landing. The tutorial cannot be skipped. W, A, S, D keys to move, spacebar to jump and you can change camera views by clicking and dragging with your right mouse button. You'll be given a series of simple tasks like breaking crates and barrels, shooting straw dummies and finding a key. Press V key (if I'm not wrong) to wield/unequip or weapon. You can also set the camera to stick to your mouse with the R key (again, if I'm not wrong, correct me if I am). You get to test your aiming skills with some creatures later on. You end the tutorial by breaking an egg and receiving a new skill from the captain of the ship. She (yes, the captain is a female) will ask you to destroy an oversized egg and teaches you a new skill as a reward. After that, you will alight from the airship and reach Hawk's Landing.

Aim properly or your mistake will be your demise.
A very unique feature in TCoS is their targeting system. It is very similar to fps and tps games. You have to expertly time yourself, aim and attack your opponents. No more click and wait. This is something I like about the game. It is also 3D too, not side-scrolling nor vertical-scrolling.
Your skills are divided into two sections. Passive and active. The active skills go on your skill deck, which acts like your skill bar. You get to assign different skills on this skill deck (a six sided cylinder-looking-like bar) which will roll from one tier to another after every attack (yes, your basic attacks are skills). A maximum of 5 skills can be placed on each tier and there are 6 tiers. Select which skill you are going to use on your next attack with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 keys above your W, A, S, D keys. The skill deck will only appear when you equip your weapons and you are only allowed to assign your skills onto your skill decks when you unequipped your weapon.

More info on: http://spellborn.acclaim.com/combat_system.html
More info on: http://spellborn.acclaim.com/combat_reticule.html

Learn not to be blind, lesson 101:

The terrains are beautifully designed with Western-style art. Vast areas to explore too. Press M to look at your map. Areas that had not been explored will no show on the map, something like WoW's map.

Health bar is located at the top left. The red bar on top of your character portrait is your health. The yellow filling in the larger circle beside your portrait is your experience 'bar'. The purple filling in the smaller circle beside your portrait is also your experience 'bar', but it is different, it is called the Personal Experience Points (PEP). Each time you kill a mob, your PEP increases. Maxing it out, you get one PEP rank. The PEP ranks affect your status of your character.
The number in your bigger circle with yellow filling indicates your current level.
The number in your smaller circle with purple filling indicates your current PEP rank.

PEP Rank 0 - No effect
PEP Rank 1 - Raise all attributes by 1 and gain 1 additional rank base level
PEP Rank 2 - Raise all attributes by 2
PEP Rank 3 - Raise all attributes by 4 and gain 1 additional rank base level
PEP Rank 4 - Raise all attributes by 7
PEP Rank 5 - Raise all attributes by 11 and gain 1 additional rank base level

You will lose Personal Experience Points by dying. However, death will not affect your main experience points.

The three other bars to the right of your portrait are your 'status bars'
Physique (the orange bar) affects your movement speed.
Morale (the purple bar) affects your damage output.
Concentration (the green bar) affects your skill deck rotation speed and attack speed.

So basically,
More blocks in your Physique = Running Faster
More blocks in your Morale = Attacking Stronger
More blocks in your Concentration = Attacking Faster

The chat box is at bottom left. There is four different chat logs: Local, Zone, Trade and Whisper. Once your join a guild there will be a Guild chat. You will also obtain a House chat log when you join a High House (five to choose from, more on that later).

The mini-map is on the top right. You can choose to zoom in or out like most mini-maps. The text on top of your mini-map shows you your current location. The picture of suns, stars or clouds (basically anything you see in the sky) shows you the time of the day. A letter N in the shield on the top of your mini-map circle indicates North (logic right?).

Active quests will be shown below your mini-map. Your skill deck is shown in bottom middle of your screen. The menus (character info, skill menu, library, inventory, etc.) will be shown on the bottom right.

When you target a mob, its portrait will be shown right beside yours. You can also see its health bar right beside it on the main map. A red circle around your portrait will be shown when you are in danger (or at least something is trying to attack you).

Weapons? Who needs weapons when there are sigils!
Sigils? What are sigils. Well, they are basically like a 'power-stone' you place in your armour piece or weapons to make them stronger and boost your stats. As I've said, armour pieces and weapons do no affect your status nor does it improves your character's combat capabilities. Shields are basically useless if you ask me. Sigils are the ones that actually boost your characters.
Each sigils have different stats so look carefully when you decide to place them into your weapons or armour pieces. Oh, you also get sigils to be placed into your skills too! Sigils like decrease cooldown of range attack by X seconds or increase damage of skill by X points are available.

A character involves Mind, Body and Focus...
The stats system is unique too. Three different stats to add, Mind, Body and Focus. The classes are not limited to what stats they can add as the stats affects the skill damage. Each archetypes of each class have a set of different skills that require either Mind, Body or Focus, so a player can choose balance his stats among all three or focus on one or two depending on what skills they chose to be in their skill deck.
The possible builds to the stats are endless. Moreover, the equipments have no stat requirement except for levels.

The High Houses of Spellborn!
When you reach a certain level, you get to join a High House. You will not be able to quit the High House when you joined them so choose wisely. There are five High Houses to choose from: Maul, Silver, Torque, Shroud and Rune. Don't ask me which High House is better, honestly, I don't think there is a better High House. All of them feels the same to me, just that the number of people differ in different High Houses.

If you joined the PvP Server, players of different High Houses can actually attack each other in a PvP Area. Example: Players from Maul can attack players from Silver in a certain areas. Don't worry. Once you enter certain areas, they will warn you in your chat box with the message: "Entering PvP in 5..." and players in the same party cannot attack each other.

Backgrounds of the High Houses:

Maul (Power) - They emphasize more on power. They are usually the first to be on the frontlines of a battleground, ready to defend the Enclave.

Rune (Research) - They crave for knowledge. "Research and know your enemies first before acting" that is their basic principle.

Shroud (Shadows) - They work in the shadows. They are like private investigators and usually acquire crucial information and truths of forgotten times.

Silver (Riches) - They emerged from trade. They are the ones who amassed so much wealth that the High Houses could not exclude them from any decision-making sessions.

Torque (Politics) - They are the political leaders. It has a long tradition of upholding political leadership in Enclave.

Each High Houses have different icons and colour codes to symbolize themselves.
Maul's icon is an eagle on a green background.
Rune's icon is a sword on a blue background.
Shroud's icon is a piece of leave on a purple background.
Silver's icon is a sword, hammer and shield with a crescent on a yellow (or golden) background.
Torque's icon is three axes arranged in the shape of a Y on a red background.

More info on: http://spellborn.acclaim.com/high_houses.html

Adi-adi-adi-T-That's all folks!
Well, that concludes my review. All screenshots on this post are googled. My ratings are below.

My Ratings:

Story: 9.0/10
Quests: 8.6/10
Battle System: 8.2/10
Stats System: 8.3/10
Skill System: 8.0/10
Equip System: 7.9/10
Individuality: 7.2/10
Overall Rating: 57.2/70

Rating System:
I rate according to the gameplay. The gameplay is splitted into 5 parts, Quests, Story, Battle System, Equip System and Individuality. The Story is rated according to, well, the main storyline of the game. The Quests are rated according to how unique they are. Battle System is rated as how interactive their battling system is. Stats and skill systems are affected by the uniqueness of a game system, which includes a variety builds a player can form with. Equip system is rated according to the variety and the uniqueness of equipments. Individuality is one of the hardest to score, this is rated on how unique a player can make his/her character look. Individuality is affected by Equip System and Character Customization. These ratings are part of my views. Other people's views may vary.

There actually is a storyline in the game! Most MMORPG's or ORPG's have no storyline so for that, they get a better score. The Quests are quite unique as well. It ranges from killing mobs to delivering items to tracking down a target to sneaking past guards and finding objects. They also have quests that allow you to try and negotiate with people (apparently it will still lead to killing them) and race against time.

Battle system is very unique. Not many ORPG's have a targeting system like TCoS, so another high score for uniqueness.

The stat system is based on three different stats, Mind, Focus and Body. Although there are only three stats but the variety of builds are endless. Since most weapons require no stats to equip them, just levels.

The skill system is special in its own way. They put basic attacks as skills and there is no such thing as mana cost. It is more about how you use your skills than how powerful your skills are.

As for the equip system, the score was lower because of the lack of benefits the armour and weapons gives. The shield is practically useless too. However, the sigils did make up for it and the best of all, no class limitations. There are also a variety of equipments you can find in the game, although I don't like the drop rate.

The character customization also offers near limitless possibilities on how you can edit your character. Two races, four different body types and a variety of colours to choose from. The only character customization that wins TCoS that I can think of is Aion.

Ready, FIGHT!

2010-01-29T10:59:00.002+08:00

Labels: none

I just got Street Fighter IV on my computer. Testing out real soon.
I also recently started on Praetorians. For those who really love real-time strategy (RTS), Praetorians is definitely the game for you. It requires you to mass an army, place them in strategic positions and take over villages. First player or team to eliminate all the enemies wins.

Time for GhostX

2010-01-04T10:56:00.014+08:00

Labels: GhostX

Recently, I've been playing games like GhostX, Freestyle, Unreal Tournament and Disciples. So I thought: Since New Year has came, time to give a new review. Oh, and by the way, my antivirus program deleted my Warcraft III.exe and Frozen Throne.exe because it freaking think it is a virus. Can you believe that? It's so UNREAL.

Anyway, back to the topic, my review today is on GhostX (stated above).

Status: Open Beta
Genre: Fantasy
Area: North America (Global)
Fee: Free to Play
Developer: JC Entertainment
Publisher: JC Entertainment

GhostX revolves around this traditional Japanese RPG gameplay. It is a 3D-side-scrolling game where you use arrow keys to move around, the 'A' button to attack, 'S' button to jump and 'D' button as a 'Use' button, something like 'E' button (default) in Left 4 Dead, Half-Life and Counter Strike. The 'Q', 'W', 'E', 'R', 'Z', 'X', 'C' and 'V' buttons are for skills that your Nanobot has, more about Nanobots later. The 'V' button is usually for changing your Nanobot from a knife to a gun or double swords into a bow. Pressing 'Tab' allows you to mount or dismount your Nanobot as weapons.

The game focus a lot on quests, so half the time you'll be doing quests that are carefully linked to the main storyline. If you started off with a story to how you get a Nanobot (tutorial), you'll be introduced to Luna and Tweener, the 'stars' of the main gameplay. Basically, Luna is the head of this organisation called the White Aurora (no I did not spell it wrongly). Tweener serves under Luna but he acts more like the leader than Luna. There are also various NPCs in the game, each with unique personalities and roles in the game, like shops, storage and upgrading equipments.
<< Luna

The weapons in this game are called Nanobots. Nanobots are like pets, except you don't feed them. You can carry up to three Nanobots at once and store up to two in the storage, that is if you did not expand the storage. You start off with either one of the three Nanobots available: Moby Dick (Knife), Waterfall (Sword) and Dragon Claw (Claw). More Nanobots will soon be available to you through hunting (to gain Nanobot seeds) or by quests (to gain Nanobot seeds or a Nanobot itself).

these Nanobots are in pet mode
<< Waterfall
<< Moby Dick
<< Dragon Claw

Nanobot seeds are like recipes to creating new Nanobots. To register a seed, right click it, provided that if you do not have the recipe registered already. Once registered, the seed will allow you to create the Nanobot. To do that, you must obtain the 'ingredients'. Different Nanobots require different ingredients and some of them are hard to find. Nanobots can also be combined to form stronger weapons. However, the combined Nanobot must be at most three levels above your level.

Equipments, can be upgraded by these babies called Somas, which can be bought from the Clothing store or found during missions. Players can equip a single topwear, single bottomwear, single pair of footwear, single pair of gloves and three accessories; one necklace and two rings. Somas can be extracted through an NPC named X-1 for a fee.

Somas, rings and necklaces can also be upgraded by Rimae with Stats, provided that they have similar stats. Like a Rimae with Increased Critical stats can only be used on Somas, rings or necklaces with stats that increases or decreases Critical stats.

The leveling system is unique in its own way. Not only your character will have a traditional experience bar, your Nanobots too. Leveling your Nanobots will allow access to more 'hidden' skills of your Nanobot or even evolving your Nanobots. Note that skills your Nanobot currently possess may change due to evolution. Your character also get skills. Character skills are normally passive and Nanobot skills are normally active. You get two stat points every time a character level up and one skill point for every two levels. Stats can be added to either Agility, Spirit, Strength, Defense and Stamina.

Agility increases a character's critical rate
Defense increases a character's defense rate
Spirit increases a character's spirit damage (damage done by Nanobot skills)
Stamina increases a character's health point
Strength increases a character's damage rate

The battle system is also much similar to traditional RPGs, going on missions to battle monsters and bosses, but also unique as different areas with monsters will be unlocked as you complete quests. These areas allow the players to grind for items or ingredients which they pursue.

The missions can be repeated and at the end of the missions, there will be a grading system to gauge how you fair among others. To get a 'Perfect Clear' for a mission, the player must not die during the mission and complete it within a set amount of time with points equal or higher than the minimum. Getting 'Perfect Clear's in missions allow players to gain powerful equipments or even titles. The titles can be used to improve your character, for example giving your character extra defense or attack ratings.

In this game, there are three type of quests: Normal Quests, Hidden Quests and Mission Quests.
Normal Quests are quests that are normally not linked with the main storyline. They involve transporting items, killing certain number of monsters and obtaining certain number of items.
Hidden Quests are quests that are found during missions. It will be available to players once they have completed the missions are number of times or completed certain quests already. Hidden quests can only be done once and it's non-repeatable.
Mission Quests are quests that are usually linked up to the main storyline. They involve completing missions, killing certain number of monsters in a mission, collecting certain number of items in a mission and going to a place in a mission.

Quests can be given in (currently to my knowledge) two different forms: Phonecalls and Talking to NPCs.

So I think I have covered most of the basic gameplay of GhostX. There is more secrets to be discovered, more stones to be turned and those underneath the stones to be uncovered. Let those who play the game, find out about it themselves.

My Ratings

Story: 8.6/10
Quests: 7.0/10
Battle System: 7.5/10
Stats System: 6.5/10
Skill System: 8.2/10
Equip System: 5.0/10
Individuality: 4.7/10
Overall Rating: 46.5/70

Rating System:
I rate according to the gameplay. The gameplay is splitted into 5 parts, Quests, Story, Battle System, Equip System and Individuality. The Story is rated according to, well, the main storyline of the game. The Quests are rated according to how unique they are. Battle System is rated as how interactive their battling system is. Stats and skill systems are affected by the uniqueness of a game system, which includes a variety builds a player can form with. Equip system is rated according to the variety and the uniqueness of equipments. Individuality is one of the hardest to score, this is rated on how unique a player can make his/her character look. Individuality is affected by Equip System and Character Customization. These ratings are part of my views. Other people's views may vary.

As for GhostX, quests and storyline are very interesting, it captures my attention and it is very easy to understand what's going on.

Battle system is not bad as this game mimic traditional RPGs, not really according to my taste though.

The stat system, a number of choices there is but the number of build is very limited. In this game, there is no such thing as tank or healer roles. Everyone is basically the 'damage-the-boss' role, since the bosses are not limited to single targets. One swipe and everyone within reach is damaged.

The skill system is very unique, this game splits passive skills from active skills, the character skills offer a variety of builds but the Nanobot skill system is what pulls the score. The Nanobots are limited to certain skills and most skills are same for all Nanobots of the same type. Only stronger Nanobots have their unique skills.

As for the equip system, I find it really disappointing as the variety of equipments is very limited. Every few levels, a player could only unlock three or two different equipments. Sometimes even only one. Since equipments come with Somas when sold in Clothing Store, they are expensive, but without Somas, the equipments are practically for show, not really entertaining to see that your character is almost exactly like the other guy next to you. This pulls the score on individuality.

The face customization during creation of character is limited to three or four faces and you cannot edit a single organ by itself, like editing the eyes, the nose, the mouth and ears. They come in as a 'set'.

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

2009-12-02T22:57:00.004+08:00

Labels: Left 4 Dead 2

Alright, it's about time I updated this blog. I'm going to kick off this update with a Left 4 Dead 2 review, then again, this whole post will be about it anyway. I've already tried Left 4 Dead 2, played it on Campaign and Versus mode, still yet to try Survival and Scavenger though, then again, I'll play those modes soon enough. I play on Garena (ign: asayakizac) very straightforward, many Twilight's Eve fans may know.

On with the review! Dum dum dum dum da!!!
Left 4 Dead 2 potrays a story of four lucky (or unlucky) survivors, plunged into a world of zombies. These four survivors, names: Coach, Ellis, Nick and Rochelle, are stranded in South America, and they are trying to get to New Orleans. However, getting there is no simple task, not when there are hordes of zombies obstructing their way. They have to fight their way through these zombies through five extensive campaigns; Dead Center, Dark Carnival, Swamp Fever, Hard Rain and The Parish.

Dead Center
You start off in a building (hotel) which is engulfed in flames. You have to fight zombies and at the same time, avoid the stepping on the flames, well common sense isn't it? Fighting zombies (which dies in a hit from any guns, not counting the special infected) and evading flames sounds like an easy task. Well, not that simple when you start off with melee weapons (no chainsaws) or handguns (weak ones which require 3 -4 shots to kill a zombie). You'll only get a primary weapon when you reached the first floor via elevator (I'm trying not to spoil the game).
As for the story, these four survivors have yet to know each other, and if you notice their speeches, they wouldn't have known what most special infecteds are called. So don't be surprised when one of them yelled, "Leaper!" which would mean Jockey or Hunter, I'm not really sure. They would only introduce themselves in the elevator.
In the second map, you'll have to find your to the shopping mall, which Ellis was talking about. This map, you'll play in a new segment the Left 4 Dead 2 crew added in the game. Normally, when you sound an alarm or did something to attract a huge number of horde, you'll have to stay in one spot and defend yourselves. Well, in this part, you'll have to keep killing and killing and killing until you complete the objective, which is what? I'm not saying. Throughout the whole game, it would be like this. So no more 'DEFENDING ON THE SPOT WHILE THE HORDE STOPS COMING', well there is still one part in Swamp Fever and The Parish campaigns.
The third map is The Mall, well nothing much to say here.
The fourth map, The Atrium. In this map, your objectives are more active in a sense. No more 'DEFENDING YOURSELVES WHILE YOU WAIT FOR RESCUE', because there is no rescue coming anyway.

Dark Carnival
Different from L4D, Left 4 Dead 2 actually continues the story from Dead Center to Dark Carnival. You'll notice at the start of this campaign, you'll find yourselves in a place similar to Death Toll in L4D, no saferoom, a wide open space and in front of you is a road. Well, in front of you is really a road. The four survivors will be standing by a blue car, which if you notice, is the same one from The Atrium in Dead Center. Here, Ellis will say he's not able to drive through a highway obstructed by a few hundred cars (SPOILER ALERT!). So, you'll have to navigate your way through these cars to Whispering Oaks.
The second map, you'll find yourselves in the entrance to the carnival. Wooo! Here, you have to find your way to the next safehouse, which is where? I'll leave that for you to ponder. Look out for signs telling you where to go (arrows on walls, etc.).
The third map, the easiest map of the five. Just follow the only way to the next safehouse (Love Tunnel to Coaster Tracks to Safehouse) oops, I've said too much.
The fourth map, Barns, I've nothing to say about this one.
The fifth map, Concert. Oh yeah! This one is just like the old Left 4 Dead campaigns, 'DEFEND ON THE SPOT WHILE YOU WAIT FOR RESCUE'. You'll have to survive through two songs of the concert and a firework show. This is about 10mins. (4mins each song and 2mins for the fireworks) The time may vary as you have to kill two tanks, just like all the Left 4 Dead final map, SLAY TWO TANKS!

Swamp Fever
This is the campaign which I hate the most, why? Because, this campaign features large, open spaces as maps. Well, not that, I don't mind large open spaces (easier for you to dodge a Charger) but the muddy waters, which you are suppose to tread on, slows you down drastically. No adrenaline shot will speed you up.
Other than that, I've nothing else to say. The final map features a fort, well not really a fort, it is actually a plantation house. There, you'll find a heavy machine gun and supplies (ammunition and first aid kits with a number of adrenaline shots, pills, pipe bombs and molotovs). There you'll have defend yourselves while you wait for Virgil (the captain of a boat) to come to your rescue.
If you're playing single player, you'll have to fight off two tanks. If you're playing multiplayer, three tanks (one during the first time round and two for the second time round).

Hard Rain
This campaign is a new feature in Left 4 Dead 2. There are actually 3 maps in this campaign but you'll have to run through the first two maps twice. Your objective in this campaign is actually find fuel for Virgil's boat. So, you have to find your way, in a terrible storm, into a sugar mill and back with four fuel tanks. The fuel tanks are green in colour and takes up no space in any of your inventory. You need not hold them like a normal propane tank. So basically, I've already explained the new feature in this campaign, there's nothing else in this campaign. You might meet seven Wandering Witches in one of the maps, you may not, but I know I did. Those Wandering Witches were easy to kill, when you have a chainsaw.

The Parish
This campaign is the most fun among the other five, challenging too.
The first map is pretty much simple, navigate your way through hordes of zombies to a safehouse. The second map, Park, is rather interesting. Statistics show that most players spent the most time in the Park as there are tons of different detours you can cut through in the park.
The third map, Cemetery. This map is exciting in the sense that when you cross the cemetry, there is no such thing as a FIXED DETOUR. The route changes everytime you start a new game. Cool isn't it?
Nothing to say about the fourth map, Quarter.
The fifth map, Bridge, is perhaps the most interesting map of all. This final map, features a long bridge, which abandoned vehicles obstructing the survivors way. When the survivors signal for rescue, they would to run across the entire bridge to get to the chopper. Fun isn't it? So no much waiting for rescue for this part. It is totally different from Left 4 Dead campaigns and the Dead Center final map too, Atrium.

And here, I conclude my review on Left 4 Dead 2: The Campaigns! I have not completed the game enough to rate it yet.

Twilights Eve: Dungeon Revamp

2009-11-05T12:28:00.002+08:00

Labels: Twilight's Eve

Okay, some of you may know, I may be revamping dungeons in the future. However, I'll not touch the Impossible dungeon.

The dungeon I'm going to revamp is the Puzzle Dungeon.
I noticed, that the dungeon is not as fun when you have completed it once. The second time is just another run through, so I'm going to revamp it in the future.

So my decision is set, but the version that I'm going to revamp is not fixed yet, so don't be so happy when I said I'm going to revamp it.

The new theme for Puzzle Dungeon MAY be Dead Mansion, the undeads will still be in there.
Lord of Puzzles is still the boss of the dungeon. However, I'm gonna give the dungeon a total new look and new puzzle. What I'm doing now is trying to recreate this idea of mine onto a new map and ask GDD for his opinion.

On this matter, I would like to ask players of Twilight's Eve ORPG their opinions on the new theme and my decision. Leave your comments in the commentbox to the right >>>

Please leave polite suggestions and refrain from entering long messages. If your suggestion is longer than 100 letters (inclusive of spaces and punctuation), please kindly email me at asayaki_temod@hotmail.com
Also, NO profanities and vulgarities are allowed. I trust my readers are mature enough to know what to do.

The commentbox will be wiped when a new post is up.

Left 4 Dead 2!!

2009-11-01T12:53:00.004+08:00

Labels: Twilight's Eve, Left 4 Dead 2

First up, Twilight's Eve ORPG 1.14 had been released! No more beta, yippy who are dying for the complete 'saveable' version. However, since 1.14 is a new version, and only one BETA has been tested, there may still be bugs in the map, hence, reports of findings of these pesky critters are welcome. The new dungeon: Dragon Fortress, works perfectly. For the full changelog of 1.14, please visit our Twilight's Eve Official Forums http://www.twilightseve.tk/.

If there are any bugs in the map, you can always PM GreeN_DaY_DaNcE or me, Asayaki.

Secondly, those who had been hiding in their rooms and playing Left 4 Dead, bored and tired of killing the same common infected and even special ones? Good news for you, but for L4D fans, you guys should already know: Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out this November (which is this month)!

Left 4 Dead 2 brings in four new survivors: Nick, Ellis, Coach and Rochelle. This means new story and new dialogue.

This time, the game brings you to the urban cities, swamps and even cemeteries in the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five extensive campaigns.

There are new weapons and if you are tired of shooting, you can always try the chainsaws. Yes, L4D2 brings in melee weapons, such as Chainsaws, Kantanas, Axes, Frying Pans, Baseball Bats and even everyone's favourite Crowbars.
A total of 20 new weapons and items are included in this exciting FPS game.

Brand new audio files and dialogues like stated before.
New skins for special infected, eg. FEMALE BOOMER.
There is also new ammunition for players to try it out.

The Versus and Survival Modes are still included.
There are also "All-New Multiplayer Modes", as I was informed, like the Scavenger Mode.

The same special infected: Hunter, Boomer, Smoker, Tank and Witch is still around.
There are also three new editions: Charger, Spitter and Jockey (more information below).
Uncommon common infecteds are also added in.

The Special Infected:

The Charger
The Charger. Dangerous zombie to come in contact with. Its ridiculously large right arm and a very tiny left arm distinguish the Charger. Its physique is nearly similar to the tank, but it is much easier to defeat.
So what does the Charger do? Well, the name says it all: it charges.
The Charger is able to stampede down in full speed, knocking down any survivor that it comes it contact with.
Then it will grab its victim and uses its right arm, smashes continuously on its victim, rendering him/her helpless.
The victim will only be saved when his/her teammate kills the attacker (Charger).
So, the best method to defeat a Charger, kill it before it reaches you!

The Spitter
The Spitter spits, well it is obvious from the name.
The thing is, the Spitter spits out acidic venom at survivors, causing them to take damage over time (or so I think, but it is common sense right?). It is nearly similarly to the Boomer in my opinion.
Its very skinny body and its ugly pigtails distinguish the Spitter. It also has a large dangling lower jaw if you'd noticed.
Easy to kill, nothing to worry about, just remember to avoid its spits.
One more thing, avoid killing it with a melee weapon as it dissolves into a puddle of acid when it dies. Stepping on it would cause the victim to take damage over time.

The Jockey
This evil laughing maniac is not one to be reckoned with.
The Jockey is easily distinguished by its crazed laughter rather than roars and screams from a normal infected.
The Jockey have the ability to pounce on a survivor's upper body, and starts 'riding' its victim, don't get the wrong idea you sick people, 'riding' as in steering its victim to wherever it likes to move. Yes, even steering its victim into death by causing them to jump off a cliff.
Killing it is a tough job once it has pounced on a survivor, since players would risk shooting their own teammates.
So, to kill a 'riding' Jockey, shooting it from the back would be a wise idea.

The Uncommon Common Infected:

The Clown
The Clown, the one that brings smile to our faces, has been infected with its makeup on. Only found in the new campaign: Dark Carnival. The Clown has the similar abilities to that of the Screamer (from L4D), except, when it spots a survivor; it runs towards the survivor in its attempt to attack its target.
Since the Clown has its makeup and gear on, when it starts rushing to its target, it makes a hell of a noise with its honking sounds, causing a horde to rush to its position.
Best to kill it before it spots you.

The Riot
Distinguished by its helmet and kevlar, it is actually those armed forces infected in their gear.
Since they have their armour on, they are immune to bullets, bulletproof in other words.
Kill it with an axe if you have to.

The Mudman
Found in Swamp Fever, this mudmen is a nuisance rather than a threat.
When it starts attacking its victim, it would temporarily blind its target, which means splashing mud all over your screen, something like the vomit of a Boomer.
Advice: Kill it before it attacks.

Hazmat Suits
There are also common infected wearing Hazmat suits.
In layman terms, they are almost impervious to fire and gunfire from the front.

Well, that is all I can say about Left 4 Dead 2.

Just have to play it when it comes out.
-Asayaki

Experimenting

2009-11-01T00:52:00.003+08:00

Label: General

Before I start posting any reviews whatsoever, I need to adjust my site. The skin somehow don't agree with me. Anyways, I'm experimenting with the borders... so it will change a lot.

Once everything is stablised, I'll start posting my reviews and so on.

-Asayaki

New Blog

2009-10-30T20:56:00.004+08:00

Label: General

This is a brand new blog I'm starting. I'm ditching all my previous bloggies (Oh wells). Anyway first up, the current skin is temporary, I'll find a suitable skin later on. For now I'm very busy with my national examinations :O

Anyway, this blog is my personal REVIEW blog; a blog where I post comments on games that I'm currently playing. I'll also post things like Art (drawn by myself and others) and trailers of upcoming games.

Next, if readers do not know, I'm one of the two creators (mapmakers) of Twilight's Eve ORPG [played on Warcraft III]. A currently famous RPG map

So since I'm the mapmaker of TEvE I will also post logs and ideas of the map. Just so I can get comments from the readers. :D

The current version now is 1.13b (with 1.14 as BETA).
If readers are curious about what Twilight's Eve is about and may want to try, you can try it out. The map is totally free - well, Warcraft III ain't - the site is http://www.twilightseve.tk/

-Asayaki