Overlord 2

It's taken me a year, but I finally beat Overlord 2. I thought it deserved a blog post. It's not that it was hard...it's because I played the game almost all the way through (up until the final stretch with the catapults) and then I went on vacation. I came back and either forgot what I was doing, lost interest or had something else to do. Maybe all of the above. At any rate I got into an "Overlord" phase again and played through the two games. I never played the expansion for the first one...but meh.

Now I just need to finish my Dungeon Keeper video series while I wait for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Portal 2. I am so stoked for both of these games. I'll probably finish recording Half Life as well after. For now I also have a ton of novels to read, some writing to do, and a stack of old games I've been meaning to play through again. I also have a job now to get used to. And by get used to I mean figure out how to deal with 3+ managers telling me to do different tasks on different days in different departments and work on my patience skills. I also haven't had much contact with the customers yet, but from what I can tell they are going to be a little on the snooty side. Of course by a little, I mean A LOT. At least the stock room is easy. I worked it for 2 and a half shifts (ish) and already remember where a lot of the items are in the back.

I'm excited for the food. Mmmm sauces and biscuits...

Fail End Drive

Turns out that being the little fish in a big pond is not that fun. Maybe I'm just bitter because I spent the last two days trying to beat the original Dungeon Keeper into submission, but it's true. I just take pride in the fact that I was the first one on YouTube to post all 20 levels of Dungeon Keeper 2. Pathetic eh? Especially since about a month later a bigger and more successful guy posted all the videos himself and got about 20000 views on each. Now a bunch of other people are posting Dungeon Keeper 2 videos. I might be a little jealous.

So as I said, I'm working on trying to get Dungeon Keeper 1 to record with SOMETHING. I've tried three video recording software, two operating systems, a ton of different modes and a lot of screaming. Looks like my final option is to figure out how to get it to work in DOSbox, which will be another raging tantrum on my part. I think it would work though. I'm determined, even though the videos are going to be more or less ignored by the world. I like giving everything my all and have it amount to nearly nothing in the end. Yay!

In the meantime I'm recording my pathetic attempts at playing the first Half Life because I'm bored out of my mind. I need to find a job (yes I'm still having issues with that) and I need to find it fast. I think I might be desperate enough to return to Staples. I have a year's experience there and I pretty much remember all that the job requires so...

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a jack of trades. I've never really been good at anything. As I said before writing is what I'm best at, and even then I wind up at an epic fail dead end. Thankfully I've made some progress this year. I think I just need to stop caring. I'd be happier that way. If I do end up posting the Half Life videos, I am going to emphasize that I'm not recording and playing them to show off or impress...just to have fun. What's the point in doing stuff if you can't have a little fun along the way?

Getting Back Into Business

I haven't written here in a long time, mostly because I haven't had a reason to with my new Deviant Art account and how busy I've been. I haven't even had time to make any new videos. Instead I have been focusing on my education and writing, which certainly need the attention. This brings me to the new blog I have created which is solely dedicated to my current project: Where Mighty Rivers Run. It's a science fiction novel that I first devised in grade 11 as a joke. I basically sat down one night and thought up about half the characters and factions used in the story and gave what I typed up to my friend the next day. She said something along the lines of me being "extremely random and strange", which I take as the highest compliment. To learn more about the story and my progress, head over to: http://wmrrproject.blogspot.com/

Now I'm not sure what other people's holidays are like, but I'm one of those poor souls that celebrates Christmas. Every year it seems less and less like a holiday and more like a headache. I am, to be honest, sick of it. The only part I actually like about December is the actual day: Christmas. That day we sit around, open presents, eat tons of good food and see family. Before and after it's like a giant swirling vortex of agony. I was working full time in a mall that was puked on by Christmas in a store that played horrible, HORRIBLE, Christmas music and had to put up with frustrated customers and their screaming children (I worked in a kid's clothing store over the holidays...and I say "worked" because I'm technically "on call" now). So overall not the most enjoyable season.

Now I only have 4 days of holidays left and I am swamped with school work. Thank you full year English courses for giving me such a lovely holiday with your papers, research and mountains of reading material! Three cheers for university. Thankfully I got a few video games for Christmas which is a savior to my sanity. I just completed Assassin's Creed 2 last night, which is a spectacular game in many senses. The graphics are decent with it's colourful environments and extra care in detail (though the map and interface DID spaz out a few times...I think this was my fault however for playing 6 hours straight). The music was some of the best video game music I have ever encountered, created by Jesper Kyd, who in my mind now is a genius. Much like the first game, I am in awe of the character movements. The main character "Ezio Auditore de Firenze" was the best part of the entire game. His movements and actions were refined down to the smallest details, he had an excellent costume and he is honestly one of the best looking video game characters I have ever encountered (honestly he'd be a sexy, sexy man if he were real). The story was better than a lot of video games, though I'll admit I liked the story of the first game better. The ending was a surprise and though I promise not to ruin it, I'll say that it was quite the twist. I enjoyed it quite a bit...except for this one part involving an end of the world conspiracy theory which I thought was stupid...but hey, it's a video game, who cares? It's stupid to nit pick when it comes to those subjects.

The other game I was pleasantly surprised with is probably one you wouldn't expect, or maybe even have heard of: Rabbids Go Home. Yes, a spin-off game from the original Rayman: Raving Rabbids video game. This game is a stupid, random, brain-numbing, IQ dropping, mess...and it is FANTASTIC. I have never played a game so idiotic as this, and it is honestly some of the most mindless fun I have had in ages. No complex plots, no challenging puzzles, no clear antagonist, no special music or graphics...it's just you, a couple of bunnies and a shopping cart. Essentially, a group of "Rabbids", who have apparently taken to living in a landfill after the Rayman game, notice a giant glowy ball in the sky: THE MOON. Being the intellegent little critters they are, they decide to build a giant pile of STUFF to reach the moon so that they may sleep on it (or something like that I'm not entirely sure). A team of three Rabbids are sent to the city to collect items for the pile: a driver, a collecter and a cannon ball (you shoot Rabbids at various points in the game to help you through the levels). The stuff consists of XL and XS (why there is none in between I have no idea...better not to ask questions in this game), and include anything including table, bottles, jet engines, infectious patients, cows, the clothes you strip off of the humans and nuclear reactors. You can also find all the hidden "Santa Clauses", who for some reason hide in air ducts and nuclear cores and carry garbage cans around on their backs. They also drop hamburgers when you scare them. You also have the option of participating in unique challenges, including one where you have to shake around a Rabbid that has been sucked into your Wii remote in the right directions. One last feature that adds to the inanity is that wou may spray paint, tattoo and give your bunnies items to put on their heads (some examples are a cement block, a chicken and a saw). An extremely strange game, but if you have a morbid sense of humour and you havce the ability to turn your brain off at will, you'll have a great time playing it.

It's Been Awhile....

...since my last post. The blog isn't really a priority in my life, more of a thing to do when I'm bored or putting things off. As of yesterday I am officially done for the summer. I have no job, no major current projects, no school and I may or may not be leaving in a week. So I have one week of BLAH and "I don't know what the monkey to do with myself". I recently bought Overlord 2 for $21 dollars (which pleased me seeing how I have only about $40 dollars of spending money to my name) and it is absolutely fantastic. Of course it has some issues (one being that Gary, my laptop, cannot run it...well at least), and others including minor gameplay and graphics issues. Otherwise I'm enjoying the story, the game, THE HUMOUR, and the general concept behind it. I LOVE playing the antagonist, or the "evil side". Puts a new twist on things. It has one of those "choose good or evil" type set-ups, only you choose between "evil and really evil". There is a kind of neutral area as well, which I seem to be hanging around. It's nice to be able to enslave a town one day and blow it up the next. Blowing up things is fun. Especially in this game. There are a lot of jokes, puns, silly instances and sick humour, which I find hilarious. Too many games are so serious and hard and dark. This is dark with and beautiful wave of hilarity washing though it. I hope to finish the game before leaving (whenever that is), because I can't continue it while I'm gone on my laptop. I also have a time period of about 10pm - whenever I'm too tired to play anymore and pass out to finish it, seeing how that's the only time period the family computer is not being used one way or another. One thing I can't wait for is the plot twist. Apparently there's a rather exciting and surprising plot twist, much like the first Overlord. If it's anything like the first Overlord, I'm all for it, and very much looking forward to it.

So aside from Overlording, I finished my Dungeon Keeper 2 series. Mission 20 was posted about...a week ago ish, and is currently sitting in my channel in 9 parts. YES 9 parts. I promised to post Mission 20 in its entirety, and that recording was over 1 hour and 10 minutes long. I can't remember the full time, but it's all there. I only have the bonus levels to do now, and any other random things I can come up with. I will be beginning my new project soon hopefully. I'll work on it on holidays and start posting on my return. The plan is to do a remake of my "Bercuda's Quest: Avenging Gertrude" a project I started and gave up on last summer. It was a screenshot story making a farce of Dungeon Siege, a game released by Microsoft quite some years ago. It came out sometime in my late elementary - early Jr. High years, so somewhere around 7-8 years ago. I honestly can't remember and don't feel like looking it up at the moment. I have some minor changes to make to my idea however. The main character's name will probably change, I will be posting the video either in Chapters, or just parts as I record it, I'm not sure. I will not be recording town and preparation parts, so I will need map pictures and recaps of missions and quests before each video. The story is, essentially the same: a farce of a journey led by a bald farmer wishing to avenge his cow Gertrude. It is doubling as entertainment and a walkthrough, so this should be interesting. Hopefully it will be received nicely enough. I don't know what the DK2 people will say, but this is all part of a grand experiment...and to relieve my boredom.

2:30am and Waiting...

For my videos to finish rendering. I realized today how much some dedicated viewers/readers/critics are to keeping my motivation high enough to continue creating. I went through some slow periods where I believed no one liked my work and that everything I made was a steaming pile of poop. This is the type of steaming poop that when others step in it they say "EW! Where on earth did this horrible thing come from! The person who left it here should be dragged out into the street and shot!" Not only that, the few people who hold my work in some sort of esteem in turn makes me confident in the things I do. In other words the things I think are terrible really aren't as bad as I thought. I just really really really really really reallyx10^really hope that this applies to my history paper...which I should be getting back within the next two weeks.

Since I mentioned my videos...I'm going to do a little bit of advertising here. My videos so far consist of some of the games I have been playing over the past six months. So far I have made videos of Dungeon Keeper 2, an older game that many people do not know of, and Half Life 2, which many people know about. Most of the Half Life 2 videos, however, will probably be disappearing...because they really are large piles of steamy feces. Really.

My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/OnyxArdesco

If you visit, I will give you an invisable cookie and....a goat. In reality you'll have my gratitude for at least looking. *insert a giant smiling face*

Still Writing Those Papers

But I chose to write this instead.

I must say I'm freaking out, because I left everything to the last minute again. Honestly I don't know anyone who hasn't done that, and those of you that have please share your infinite worldly knowledge of time management. That or fall off a cliff so I don't look so lazy. I'm thinking that a friend of mine and I have a creepily similar mindset, for not 2 days after I made CDT, he makes his own blog...WITH THE SAME TEMPLATE. This happened with Freewebs too. May have even happened with Youtube, but I think I prefer to keep that knowledge unknown. Getting way too weirded out.

Today to waste time (and a little self-preservation) I have decided to talk about the new Fire Emblem for the DS. Fire Emblem has had a special place in my heart right next to Sonic the Hedgehog for gaming since....ehhh about four years. I love the story, I love the gameplay, and I love the challenge. I don't know about any other Fire Emblem players out there, but I make the game harder by not letting any of my characters die. Yes, this means that any time one of my characters die, I start the level over (or from the last save point). I even try to save and recruit all the characters....despite how useless some of them end up being. For anyone who hasn't played Fire Emblem before, the games are turn-based tactical RPGs. The Fire Emblem games take place in fantasy worlds with classic good vs. evil storylines. They also seem to favour the way-ward royal plotline, where the prince or princess' country is taken over by another nation flexing it's superior military might (and usually because some dark, overly malevolent force is bending the ruler of these so-called nations to their will). Though I'm not too sure how these nations accomplish this, for though they have the numbers, all of their generals and soldiers all appear to be giant twats. Then any good soldiers that they have end up being converted to your side anyway. That's besides the point though...ON WITH THE REVIEW YOU GREAT BABBLING TWIT!

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon is a remake of the original Fire Emblem released only in Japan. I myself have never played the original NES game, but the remake is absolutely brilliant. What it lacks in storytelling, it makes up for in gameplay and prettiness. YES prettiness. This game was so pretty that if this game was converted into a living, breathing human being, I would probably date it. Well that may be going a bit far. If this game were a person it would be making up words and speaking in cheesy clichés. Which would get very irritating after the first few giggles.

Anyhow the game makes use of the duel-screens better than any game I have seen so far. I always found in other Fire Emblem games how annoying flipping between the stats and maps and objectives was. In Shadow Dragon, these screens are displayed on the top half, while the actual game is displayed on the bottom. Everything is laid out for you on the top: character stats, weapon levels, inventory, health, movement and range. Then by pressing the R button you get victory conditions, a lovely little minimap, terrain information, selected character (which shows equipped weapon), turns, number of allies and enemies (and their affiliations) AND the chapter you are on. Absolutely brilliant. Another wonderful set up involves movement. You have the choice of controlling with the buttons or the stylus depending on your style and preferences (I myself prefer the buttons because I find it much quicker). The X button shows you the total movement area of the enemy to better place your units. Selecting a single unit will show that individual unit's movement. The only thing I found irritating about this was that the B button didn't deselect the unit (it does in other Fire Emblem games...). I'd be continually pressing the button before I remembered that it doesn't perform the desired function. I'm just nit-picking now though.

The story is decent. It's not by any means outstanding, but it's decent. The plot keeps you interested enough to keep playing in other words. An obvious "bad-guy" exists, and it's up to blue-haired, boy-wonder, Marth to save the day. That's one thing I never understood about Fire Emblem games. Why does the protagonist always have blue hair? Sure they're different SHADES of blue...but why blue? Ike, Marth, Ephraim/Erika...well you get the idea. Also, at least one of the other starting characters have red hair. Seth, Cain, Titania...WHAT'S GOING ON? Anyhow I'm off topic. The story is simple, and moves rather fast. Essentially Marth is trying to re-conquer his country that was taken over by a super-powered country with an evil sponsor. He moves from map to map with the objective of seizing the main castle or fort in the land. Don't get me wrong, each map is unique and poses new challenges, but the objective is always the same. There also seems to be a lot of random people willing to join you on your quest. Allies are extremely easy to come by in this game. They will join you for reasons like "I want to free my country" or "I cannot attack such a pretty women" or "I am falling in love with you on the spot so I may as well join you" or "My wife's feet smell bad so I'd rather join you than to stick around with this incredible stench". Well maybe not the last one, but at least you get a wide variety of fighters to mix and match on the battlefield. Then there's the dialogue. Oh God the dialogue. It's not THAT bad, but the characters sound so robotic and state the obvious way too often. They also have a tendancy to make up hilarious new words...I can't remember for the life of me what this one character said, but when I do I'll remember to post it.

That's pretty much it for now. Overall an excellent game. I don't care what a lot of people say about it being a crappy remake, I think it was very well put together. Of course some of the things COULD have been better, but games usually have aspects that could have been improved. That concludes my little talk of the day. It was nice to write about something fun after all I've been doing this week is ripping a poem's entrails out and feeding them to my hungry monster of a paper. That and I have to spit out something for my history paper due Friday. Lordy.