Religion fights are stupid.

So I came across this today.

So this guys plan is, on the 11th of September, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, that for all Christians to obtain a copy of the Quran and burn it. Now, Christians treat their bible with respect, but that's nothing compared to the level of respect that Muslims hold for their book. And his only reasoning is that "Islam is a representation of the devil". If I recall correctly, Muslims wrote in to the BBC because a Muslim character on Eastenders slammed down a copy of the Quran. I can only hope that not all Christians are as foolish as this guy, because otherwise we're gonna end up with a lot of angry Muslims.

Dragon Quest IX

I enjoy RPGs. The focus on story telling, guiding me through a great adventure with the large battles which can last for an hour and require some good old fashioned strategy. And the ones based off fantasy can include the weird and wonderful. I can stop a large stone giant from attacking me by enticing it into a tap dance, while My party members pick it's pocket. So it's with great expectations that I bought Dragon Quest IX.

My last post went into some detail of the first hour of the game, so I won't bore you too much repeating myself. For the benefit of those too lazy to look at another post, the plot is simple. You play as a celestrian who share a lot in common with angels to the point where they are the exact same thing. So that's what I'll call them. So you're and angel who's just been allowed to watch over his own town. You go about the town sorting out peoples problems and collecting the crystallised form of their gratitude called "benevolessence" Which you then offer up as a form of prayer to a great tree in the hope that it'll grow some magical fruit and summon down a train to take you to God. Or "the almighty". You achieve your goal pretty quickly, but things go wrong as they are likely to do and you are cast from "heaven" to the realm of the mortals. And now you have to get back. Simple fare as far as RPG's go. Big disaster happens, go on big quest to put everything right and probably kill the God that you worship. I haven't actually finished the game, but I'm taking a guess here.

The style is brilliantly done. Graphics have charm and the music adds to that. As the first DQ game to be made specifically for the DS, the graphics are better than the ports that were released a while back. You can personally design every member of your party, naming them and choosing their hair style. I personally went for totally ridiculous looks and wondered why everyone took me seriously. The items equipped are also shown on your character. For a while, most of my party were walking around in blue knickers. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't for perverted reasons, it was purely because they provided more protection than leather trousers. Other things have also changed. In the past games, equipment took up spaces in each characters personal inventory. This meant that they could only carry a limited number of healing items to use in battle. This time around, all equipment is dealt with in an entirely different menu, leaving your characters inventory free to fill up with useful antidotes and herbs.

The battle system follows the same turn based combat style used in previous DQ games. You see the enemy in a first person view while you select your actions, and then the game zooms out to show the battlefield while you team plunge into battle. Battle options are the usual RPG fare. A simple blow with whatever weapon you have, use an item, or use a spell or ability. Spells and abilities are dependant on the new vocation system. Many people would wonder why Dragon Quest haven't updated their battle system to Real Time, but I see that both methods have their advantages, with the turn based system relying more on careful strategy than real times quick thinking method.

At the start, you don't get a choice at what vocation your main hero has. You can recruit party members later on, but they'll be stuck with whatever vocation they have for a while. At the beginning, 6 vocations are available. Warriors excel in physical attacks and have high defence to boost, Mages are your magical offensive, taking out multiple enemies at a time, priests are your healers, martial artists are faster physical attackers with lower defence, thieves are nimble attackers, with a high chance of critical hits and the ability to steal items and minstrels are able to learn offensive and healing magic along with a few craft tricks. After playing through the game for a while, you'll get the option to change your vocation, allowing for some abilities to be used by other vocations. Whenever a character levels up in a vocation, they may earn some skill points which you spend into certain attributes. Whether you want to be better with a sword, or learn a vocation specific ability is entirely up to you and your battle style.

I've been playing Dragon Quest for about 20 hours now, and I'm nowhere near seeing all the game has to offer. With well over 100 quest to complete, a strong main story line, alchemy recipes to collect and treasure maps to follow, this game should provide you with months of entertainment. And that's without the multiplayer mode. A must have for anyone who enjoys RPGs, and a good introduction for those looking to get into them.

Nine Questing Dragons.

So Dragon Quest IX was released today. I have it, and have decided to post my first impressions as I go along. Joy.

0:00 Nice, well detailed opening sequence. As expected of a Square Enix game. This leads me to the title screen.

0:03 Character creation is simply done. I have created Issus. A tall, purple haired hero.

0:07 So, I'm a celestrian. I guard a town called angel falls. People pray to me. It's pretty awesome. I also had my first fight, but all I could do was attack. My party guest did most of the work.

0:09 I help people, I get benevolessence. Which I offer to the great tree, Yggdrasil.

0:11 Over world controls are simple enough. Y opens up the story so far, X the menu, A interacts with stuff and B allows me to perform Emotes.

0:15 These angels seem a bit high and mighty. Not a humble one in the bunch.

0:20 So we exist to praise the tree until it bears fruit. Apparently, it's really powerful fruit.

0:40 So I've spent some time wandering around the village I protect. Most people believe I exist, but there are some atheists. I go around and solve their problems. Can't use the shop though, because the shopkeeper can't see me. I want a new weapon dammit!

0:45 It seems I also help the dead find peace. The first one was easy, I just had to tell him he was dead. But I bet the next few won't be as simple.

0:55 And there we go. A giant calamity has happened and I'm now back in the mortal realm. I get treated to a nice cinematic and the open credits. Must be the end of the prologue. I'll come back again with a full review another time.

Where nerds gather, consoles will appear.

If you're a nerd, and you throw a party, chances are you invite other nerds. You spend your time playing video games while drinking heavily. And instead of raving to daft punk, you rave to Never gonna give you up or one winged angel. Competitive gaming leads to a slew of laughs and friendly insults. Single player games are played and the one playing them mocked and given unhelpful advice. But what are the best games for a good time? At a recent nerdfest I attended, three titles came up as a surprising source of entertainment.

The first was tetris party. Fun on your own to just try and beat your high score, a riot with 4 players battling to keep going the longest. One of the oldest puzzle games has become one of the greatest multiplayer games in my arsenal. Multiplayer is frantic, with junk bricks piling up from the bottom, and items such as rotation lock and speed up annoying players no end. If your the sort of person who, like me, is a wizard with the blocks while your Friends struggle to keep up, you can set a handicap. This starts you off with a random mess of blocks with no clear line down. Meaning you have to start the game clearing while everyone else gets right on to the offensive. Many hours were poured into this game. Brilliant for quick bursts. At 1200 Points, it's a bit more than other WiiWare titles, but defiantly worth it.

Bit.trip is a collection of music based games that rely on simplicity. I've not played any of the first three, but I intend to now that I've played Bit/Trip runner. This is probably what you would get if you mixed together Mario and Guitar Hero. And added a bit of mentality. You run through stages collecting gold and avoiding obstacles. A simple premise that quickly gets annoyingly hard. However, as you play, you create music. Every  time you jump over a meteor or duck under a fence, a note plays. Stringing together into a strangely attractive tune. It starts of in a simple tune, but as you collect upgrades, it advances into an advanced medley of tones. It's really something you have to see for yourself. 

With a group of people you can pass the controller around and share turns, but it quickly gets frustrating. When you hit something, you die. And you go straight back to the start and have to do it all over again. This can quickly infuriate, but it just makes completion all the sweeter. And at 800 Points, it's worth downloading.
(the menu music and credit music are done by Anamanaguchi. I recommend you check them out.)

The third game may come as a surprise. Demon's souls is a game that could be called Nintendo hard. Think Ninja Gaiden. But without ninjas. But how does a hard, single player game become a good party game? Teamwork. We created a character, a female from royal decent  , lovingly named Sweet-Tits. With one person taking the controls, we guided Sweet-Tits through peril and had her die. Countless times. But it's fun for the frantic moments you're trying to stay alive. At one point, we came to a path. We went down one and found a bridge. With a dragon breathing fire at it. Okay we thought. Not going that way. We'll die. So we went down the other path. At the end lay two Dragons. Not moving, just sat there. Not letting us past. The only choice was to dodge the flames of the single dragon and get across the bridge. So, we waited. The plan was simple. But ended up like this. "Okay guys. Turn the volume up. We'll hear the dragon before we see-" "THERE IT IS!" "AHH! FUUUUUUUU!" Everyone shouting, mass hysteria and a dragon breathing fire on us. Demon's soul in this regard is probably the most realistic in terms of survival. If you decided to face a dragon, you wouldn't last very long. And unless you have heavy armour, which we didn't, you're not going to take more that two hits from any blade. It's all about dodging and attacking. And if you do die, you lose everything. Souls are everything in this game. The currency to buy and repair weapons, learn spells and level up. And if you die, you lose all souls you had, unless you can get back you your corpse before you die. Again. Which you probably will. And you have to work all over again. This is not a game for casual gamers. This is for those who grew up on megaman. 

Hands are fun to play with.

So I stumbled upon this the other day. It's a new Gametrailers series called Pop-Fiction. And it seems to be focused on busting popular gaming myths. While the first episode on Link to the Past and the Chris Houlihan room was interesting, and the second episode on Mario jumping over the flag pole was decent enough, I already knew these things were possible, and didn't hold much novelty for me. What really got me interested was the third episode.

They claimed it was possible to play as Master Hand in Super Smash Brothers Melee.

And they proved it as well. The video showed them playing as master hand with no hint of a gameshark. So, being the interested party that I am, I tested the glitch for myself, and with utmost joy, got it to work.

The way of doing it is simple to do with two controllers, harder if you only have one. So here goes a step by step guide!

1. Make sure you have a controller in the third slot on your gamecube/wii. This will be the one that controls master hand.

2. Go to Melee mode and have all but player three choose their characters. Player 3 must be human.

3. Now open up name select for player 3 and hover over name entry. Have another cursor hover over the back button in the top right corner of the screen. The idea is to select both simultaneously so that the game tries to go back and go to the name selection screen at the same time.

4. If done correctly, you will be at the stage select screen. Choose whichever stage (Final destination will have best results) and enjoy!

If you only have one controller, step 3 is as follows. You must only have one name registered on your save, so delete all others. Hover over the slot that opens the name selection. This is the tricky part. You know how holding b long enough sends you back? Well, press A+B together, then press A quickly afterwards. Too soon will take you to name entry, to late will send you back.

Controlling master hand is done with a combination of d-pad directions and buttons. Very different from normal characters. So I've taken the liberty of stealing the moves list from the Master Hand wiki page.

Move	Name	Notes
A^	Jet	Master Hand makes a vaguely plane-like shape, then flies into the background. He attempts to fly into the player, then flies in from the right. 10-30%
A>	Ram	Master Hand flies off the screen, then appears in the background as a fist. He attempts to slam into the player, then flies back onto the stage from the top of the screen. 34%
Av	Crush	Master Hand flies off the top of the screen, then appears in the background. He attempts to flatten the player. 30%
B^	Lasers	Master Hand shoots a laser beam from each of his fingertips. Only the endpoints do damage. 9% each
B>	Gun	Master Hand makes the shape of a gun, and fires sets of bullets. He fires 1 set if above 100 HP, and three sets if below. 10% (one set) 6% (three sets)
Z ^ or >	Grab	Master Hand grabs his opponent and begins to crush them. They can escape by button mashing, but, if they fail to do so, Master Hand will toss them away. 13%/crush, then 18-20% afterwards. Depending on the direction pressed with Z, Master Hand will throw the opponent differently. If up is used, he will throw them upward behind him. If right, he will slam them into the ground.
R<	Poke	Master Hand pokes the air three times. The third poke is more powerful. 7-34%
R>	Punch	Master Hand hovers over the target, then quickly punches down. 24%
Rv	Slap	Master Hand slaps the ground. 26%
R^	Drill	Master Hand flies up, then slams down while spinning in a drill-like fashion. 1-48%
L^	Slap	Master Hand makes a slapping motion across the platform. 25%
Lv	Walk	Master Hand "walks" using his pointer and middle fingers. When he reaches his opponent, he "kicks" them. 10-30%

It's also worth noting that any game mode other than stamina becomes a no-lose situation for master hand. As he can't be knocked of the stage, and the game will crash if he does win. But other than that, playing as master hand is great fun. And I advise you to dust off your copy and give it a go.

Red steel 2 Vs Red Steel.

So I've recently come back from doing my exams, and I've been faced with a backlog of games I couldn't play because I had decided to leave my consoles at home to help me focus on studying. So now, I get to play through this backlog, and I've decided to give you my opinions on them as I play them.

First up is Red Steel 2. This is my first experience with the Wii motion plus. Nintendo's solution to the lack of 1:1  control on the Wii. And I decided that the best way to review this game is with a side to side comparison with its predecessor, Red Steel. Using a variety of categories, these games shall go head to head to determine which is better. So without any further ado, lets get going.

Story

Red Steel

You play as an American bodyguard by the name of Scott. You start of going to tell a rich Japanese businessman that you are going to marry his daughter, who also happens to be your current case. It seems that Scott couldn't help himself and decided to fall in love with his ward.  You start in a fancy hotel restaurant with your wife to be as she leads you to her father. As she goes in to talk to him however, on of the waiters opens fire on the pair of them and all hell breaks loose. You pursue them, only to get there just in time to save the father, but not the one you're probably sleeping with. Big shame for you. You then discover that her father is actually the head of one of the largest Yakuza families and you have to go forth, rescue his daughter, and restore honour to his family.

Red Steel 2

The game starts with you, an unnamed member of the Kusagari clan, being dragged across a desert location on the back of a motorcycle. After a while, you manage to shoot the person dragging you and break free. However, the leader of the thugs known as Jackals has stolen your sora katana, a powerful blade used only by your clansmen, leaving you with only a gun. As you flee, you discover that you're in one of the main Kusagari towns, and the Jackals have completely overrun the place. You soon meet up with a swordmaster, who loans you his sword, and a research specialist, you provides you with current going ons. And with you as the driving force, you plan to recover your lost blade, and take back the town.

Verdict

While Red Steel's plot can get a little overplayed at times, it feels a bit more fleshed out than Red Steel 2's line of defeating people only to learn there's someone else pulling their strings. Point to Red Steel.

RS 1-RS2 0

Gun toting fun

Red Steel

Shooting is as simple as point and press B. However, there are some slight control niggles and your aim can go a bit off. To lock on to an enemy, you have to target them and hold A. This centres them on your screen. You can then proceed to aim at their head, arms, or any other body part you desire. You can also zoom in or out (using your magical zoom eyes) by moving the remote towards the screen. However this is tricky and can get confusing. It feels as a method to further adapt the remote motion functionalities. Later this is advanced. You can either zoom in slowly, or thrust forward quickly to activate bullet time. Enemies freeze and a bar appears at the top the screen. You then have a set amount of time to set places to shoot when the bar runs out. You can either aim at heads for an instant kill, or at weapons force a surrender. This can be used as much as you like and quickly becomes abused, making gunfights easy. Not helped by the fact that before each level you can take the two weapons of your choice with full ammo, provided you've unlocked them in the shooting range.

Red Steel 2

You get 4 guns in the game. Total. However you can choose any of these guns at any time. A simple choice between a Pistol, a shotgun, a sub-machine gun and a rifle. Each can be upgraded with greater damage and faster reload time. And each gun also has a unique trait to buy. The pistol can get bullets that bounce of objects, allowing you to pull off fancy trick shots, while the shotgun can get armour destroying rounds, perfect for those well defended enemies. You have more choices with your special move as well. While you can still fire off multiple shots at once, time is only slightly slowed while you aim, so you have to keep on the move unless you like death. Another allows to to dodge to the side and flank your target. While not overly impressive as a move, as a finisher it's highly entertaining. From blowing off you opponents head with a pistol shot to sending them flying across the room with a rifle round.

Verdict

Red Steel 2 gets this one, just for the never ending joy of close up rifle blasts.

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Sword Play

Red Steel

Well. This is probably a massive downside for Red Steel. Fights are one on one only and go at a slow pace. You swing in either a general horizontal or vertical direction with the remote and the game responds in kind. There are a full special moves, but they're pretty annoying to pull off and are only really used in boss fights. Of which there are few. Overall the fights seem placed just to distract you from the gunfights.

Red Steel 2

This is the star in Red Steel 2. With the Wii Motion Plus, so much more can be done. Your sword mores as you do on screen, and swing strength is matched with the amount of effort you put in. Often, you'll face at least three enemies, one of which will probably be wielding a giant hammer. Some will be armoured, and the rest will be shooting at you. Fights are all out brawls. You can use your gun, but you'll soon realise it's a lot faster and a heck of a lot more fun to use your sword. Special moves are aplenty, and all can be used as finishing moves, including one where you just smash a guys skull into the ground. You can also do a 360 spin, much like in any Zelda game, dazing all those you hit. There are so many ways open to you to kill a man, that you can't possibly get bored. And it all makes you feel like an unstoppable badass. Boss fights are also much better. Fast paced fighting means you have to have fast reflexes if you want to live.

Verdict

A clear winner for Red Steel. Being able to recreate a certain Raiders of the Lost Arc scene is the icing on the cake.

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Magical Health Restoration

Red Steel

All you need to do is hide behind a wall for a few seconds and you're as good as new. I swear you heal faster than wolverine. This turns the game into a hide ans seek game, and your the only one hiding.

Red Steel 2

Health is still restored, but only when you get through a battle. This means you can't hide if you're taking a beating. There are health upgrades available, but these disappear quickly in battle, keeping the game challenging, even for simple encounters.

Verdict

Again, Red Steel 2 gets this, hands down.

RS 1-RS2 3

Style

Red Steel

Red Steel goes with the realistic approach, which is done reasonably well, considering the Wii's power. However, for cut scenes, It goes into a comic book style montage, which doesn't work as well. The voice overs are also badly done, often cutting of half second sections of speech. 

Red Steel 2

Red Steel 2 goes for the cel shaded look, which matches its somewhat arcade style of play nicely. The audio is easy on the ears and the voices are nicely done.

Verdict

Red Steel 2 triumphs over it's poor predecessor.

RS 1-RS2 4

So there we have it. A clear winner for Red Steel 2. And to the be honest, it's just that much more fun to play.

Introduction.

Because I suppose a blog should really have content.

I'm Paul. A large, 19 year old male who resides within the UK. I am currently a student at Aberystwyth University studying mathematics. In my spare time I play video games, watch anime and read webcomics. This blog will contain my opinions on these things, along with anything else I find on the internet and life in general. So. There you go.

Now shut up, and get in the box.