Acid for Blood

Lumines II

2009-07-05T06:06:00-07:00

Lumines II is one of the reasons I haven't been blogging much here over the past couple of months.

The object of Lumines II is to match like colours of falling blocks so they form a square of four. The vertical Time Line passes horizontally across the grid and makes all matched blocks disappear. Music is always playing and when you land blocks or match blocks, it makes sounds. Sometimes the sounds are bleeps and bloops, sometimes they're precussion sounds, depending on the song playing.

I started with the basic play mode, Challenge Mode. The goal I set myself was to beat the top score (100 000 points) on each of the Challenge Modes: Class B (beginner), Class A (intermediate), and Class S (advanced). I started with mastering Class B, and moved up to the next Class after I reached 100 000 points.

As you complete levels in Challenge Mode, those levels/songs get unlocked. You have the option to create a play list of unlocked songs, so you can play through levels you'd like in whatever order you want. You can also loop your play list endlessly.

After I felt I had a good grasp of Challenge Mode, I moved on to Vs. Mode against the CPU. Rather than having the entire screen to yourself, you share it with the CPU, and you are in a head-to-head fight to clear your side of the board of coloured blocks. A centre line, defining the edge of your territory, moves left or right depending on how well you're doing. Meanwhile, the Time Line continues to pass across the playing field as it does in Challenge Mode. If you do badly, it compresses your play area, which makes it harder to clear the board, which in turn makes your play area even smaller. Meanwhile, you have blocks falling from the top. It's really fast-paced, and the computer is, of course, very good. I've only been able to get to level 9, at which point I kept losing and got a bit frustrated.

Battling the CPU allows you to unlock more characters (basically the images of your opponents). If you look at the screen shots above and below, you'll see a robot in the lower left hand corner. That's the computer boss I defeated, and I adopted this as my avatar.

Mission Mode sets you specific tasks, such as clearing the board after a certain number of passes of the Time Line or clearing the field of blocks within a time limit. Mission Mode is pretty fun. I've been able to finish all but two of the hardest missions.

The music in Lumines II is a mix of original and licensed music. I think the music selection is great overall. I'm not super clued in to pop music because I'm not often exposed to it. I don't watch television or listen to commercial radio, and many of the bands I like probably wouldn't get commercial radio air time anyway. The licensed music on Luminess II was fresh and new to me, and there weren't too many songs that I disliked, so it wasn't a big deal to play levels over and over.

The screen shots pictured in this post are two of my favourite levels to play because the tunes as well as the sound effects the blocks make are cool. The first one is "Bottle Rocket" by The Go! Team, and the second one is "Black Tambourine" by Beck.

If your battery happens to die whilst you're playing, which happened to me several times, after you plug it in/charge it and then turn it back on, your game will be paused, right were you left it. This was a very handy feature.

Lumines II is a really addictive puzzle game. I have spent so many late nights in bed playing Lumines because I simply could not put it down. Lumines II was a great purchase and it has a lot of replay value. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes music games and/or puzzle games.

A Few Quick Thoughts on the Aion Beta

2009-06-21T22:36:29-07:00

This weekend I popped into the Aion beta for the Asmodian weekend test. The previous weekend, you could play as an Elyos, but I'm not interested in playing that faction, so I when it came time for the Asmodian weekend, I was all in.

Notable points:

The character customisation options are plentiful. This is awesome.
Aion is very, very pretty. This is also awesome.
You're literally dropped into the game, which is disconcerting and doesn't help with immersion. I expect there to be some sort of opening with the full release. Because I didn't bother to read much of the lore (and I suppose this will be the same for many players), I would hope that we're given an overview of the history of the Elyos and Asmodae.
All MMORPG trappings are in place as far as I can tell. This is potentially awesome, but I haven't played enough of it to say how awesome.
Interacting with the NPCs gives you a fairly good idea of the hard lot that your character (and the Asmodians) were dealt. This is good, because this gives you hints about background lore. This keeps me interested.

Something to note when I play RPGs or MMORPGs, is that I generally know exactly what I want to play before I actually play the game. In Guild Wars, my first character was a Necromancer. Before I played World of Warcraft, I knew that I wanted to play a Warlock. Before I started Lord of the Rings Online, I knew I wanted to play a Lore-Master. When I briefly played in the Hellgate: London beta, I was a Cabalist (Summoner). If you're familiar with any of these games, you've noticed that I prefer to play magic-users that can control pets or minions (though having said that, I no longer use my Guild Wars character as a minion master). So, for two years, I've known that I want to play a Mage (Spiritmaster) in Aion.

This is my Asmodian Mage:

There were several things I was trying to accomplish in character creation. Firstly, I wanted my character to look as far-removed from human as possible. Secondly, I wanted her to appear powerful, indimidating, and sinister. Thirdly, Aion is probably as close as I can possibly get to playing a flying character that kind of looks like a gargoyle from the Disney television series. :-P

Most of the face options look fairly human, but you can use the sliders to tweak almost everything. I made her eyes a little narrow, and angled them upward at the corners a bit. I made her ears pointy, too. This is the only hairstyle with horns, and I'm so glad that they actually look cool. The dark facial markings are the only option of that kind. There are other tattoo options besides the one one I chose (the white pattern on the right side of her face), but I thought this choice best captured what I wanted from the appearance of this character. I wanted to emphasise the more feral features of the Asmodians for my character. I put the sliders all the way to maximum for her hands and feet so that her claws were more prominent. I gave her fairly muscular arms because I wanted her to look powerful. I also gave her the maximum height to make her look more intimidating.

There is one thing that I really, REALLY dislike about the appearance of the female Asmodians. Their feet. Asmodians don't wear shoes because they have these big fucking claws on their feet. This is cool. The females don't wear shoes either. Because: really big claws. So, naturally you would think that their heels look just like the males -- a flat fleshy pad on the bottom of their foot. But no. They have a bony protrusion there that looks like the pointy heel of a high-heeled shoe. They have HIGH HEELED CLAWS:

Not so cool. I mean, seriously. WHY. Let me answer my own rhetorical question: because the only way that the female of a species can appear feminine according to human gender norms is to wear high heeled shoes. Even when they aren't wearing shoes. It's really difficult to take my character seriously when she's sporting those high-heeled claws. This also ruins the whole Disney's Gargoyles look I was going for. :-( This is a minor point, though, and doesn't at all affect game play.

Unfortunately, I didn't get far enough along to get her wings, not because the game isn't good, but because I wasn't feeling well. I think Aion shows a lot of promise, and I'm planning on getting it at launch. Whether I'll stick around for the long haul, I'm not sure. I haven't played enough to make a decision about that.

ETA - 26 June 2009: Added picture of my character's feet.

So You Want to Follow Me on Twitter

2009-06-13T00:03:47-07:00

I've created a page with information on what to expect when people follow me (or are considering following me) on Twitter. People are reaching my Twitter profile without necessarily having been long time blog readers or knowing me personally, so I thought it would be helpful to post this information somewhere.

[Read]

A Proper Start: Odin Sphere

2009-06-10T21:30:56-07:00

Console RPGs. They are challenging for me! The menu systems that accompany many console RPGs, especially Japanese console RPGs are not easy for me to learn. They are often complex and provide far too much detailed information early on. They tend to overwhelm and discourage me when I start a new game. I did not grow up playing very many console RPGs or Japanese RPGs. I'm not used to all of the organisational conventions and menu navigation conventions that are common to this genre. However, many of those console RPGs are highly acclaimed by many people for the storytelling, so I try to play them sometimes. Most console RPGs that I've played don't offer much in the way of accessible and user-friendly tutorials that walk you through the menu and battle system. If at all. One of the breaking points of my Final Fantasy VII experience, and one of the major reasons that led me to quit was because the entire inventory management and battle system confused and overwhelmed me to the point that I no longer wanted to deal with any of it. And because the story, characters, and protagonists in Final Fantasy VII were utterly un-engaging and uninteresting, I had no reasons to continue playing.

My experience with learning to navigate the menu and battle system in Odin Sphere isn't anywhere near as terrible as what I experienced in Final Fantasy VII, but similar frustrations did play into the reasons why I started -- then stopped -- playing this game one year ago. Two years ago, when Odin Sphere was released, a friend of mine played it, with me looking on for a good chunk of the beginning of the story. Since I sort of already knew I'd find the story interesting, I had incentive to pick up the game again, struggle through learning the game's basic systems, and stick with it. It turns out the inventory and menus are not difficult for me to grasp. It was easier than I remembered it. As someone who was not raised playing Japanese console RPGs, this is a very accessible game.

The game doesn't seem as difficult as people on Twitter have mentioned, but maybe I have a different idea of what a hard game is like. I am also playing on Easy mode, so. Yeah. :-P It's still challenging in Easy mode, though! Unlike Sigma Star Saga, which was a poorly-executed shmup/RPG mash-up, Odin Sphere is a successful side-scrolling beat 'em up/RPG mash-up, in my experience so far. I can actually say that I am enjoying the game play, which is something that I don't think I could actually say for most Japanese console RPGs that I've played. I am finding the story interesting. Although some of the characters are irritating and problematic, I'm invested enough in the story to want to know what happens next. At this point, I'm about six hours into the game, and I'm enjoying it.

Skype on the PSP

2009-06-04T20:13:14-07:00

When the PSP-3000 came out, touting a built-in microphone and Skype pre-installed as one of its features, many people, perhaps, thought that the inclusion of Skype was superfluous. I admit that it seemed a little random to include Skype on a portable games console.

I've had the opportunity to use Skype on my PSP recently. My Asus EEE PC 901 inexplicably refused to connect to my wirless router, so I had to use an alternate portable method of making voice calls. It's a decent experience. Skype on the PSP very basic -- you can only do voice calls, no video or text chat, but it gets the job done. The voice quality is adequate, though there's a bit of an echo from time to time. The PSP's speakers are not the best, but I think if you put on headphones (which I haven't tried), it'd probably sound better. Anyway, my experience with Skype on my PSP was pretty good.

Oh, you may notice that I have a brand new accessory on my PSP: a clear case/shell. It's tinted blue and made by Hori. It is awesome. Also, if you look at this picture, you'll see that I've put a really cute Mame Shiba screen wipe on my PSP as well. :-)