Exciting PSP indie game release news!

A game I have been personally waiting for for a long time has recently surfaced among my daily web surfing. The previous game stole many many hours of my time when not in the house (which now a-days has severely diminished), and was just a great simple concept. Indie game enthusiasts, In bring you something that you should definitely buy when it's released:



Patapon 2 has taken well over 100 hours of my gaming time away from other games, and probably several responsibilities. I'm assuming most people who actually read this blog have no idea what Patapon is, so let's start from square one.

"Patapon is a video game that the player controls in a manner similar to rhythm games. The player is put in in direct control of a tribe of Patapon warriors; to command the warriors, the player inputs specific sequences using the face buttons on the PSP, each representing a "talking drum", in time to a drum rhythm. These sequences order the tribe to move forward on the linear battlefield, attack, defend, and other actions. If the player inputs an unknown sequence or enters them off the main rhythm, the tribe will become confused and stop whatever they are doing. However, repeatedly entering a proper sequence in sync with the rhythm will lead the tribe into a "fever" increasing their attack and defensive bonuses."



You emerge as a small eyeball looking creature is dancing happily before you, bowing down to you as the great Kami, the savior of all Patapons. It is believed that you, the Great Kami, will bring the Patapons glory, and allow them to gaze upon 'it'... whatever that may be. You must lead your army of patapon (aka Angry Eyeballs) across treacherous and enemy infested lands, through the plains... the forests and the desert all to gaze upon it. Along your journey you are met by several (4 to be exacty) colored drums that signify each of the 4 buttons that you will be mashing for hours on this game. When i say mashing, i mean pressing them patiently to the rhythm, for what onlookers will say ages, and you'll feel like it's been seconds.

I distinctly remember getting this game downloaded to my PSP midday, and looking up in bewilderment as to how it was tomorrow. Oops! In either case, I'll be getting this game (They're usually $10-20.00), and you should do.

Oh, and by the way, if you want to check it out, the demo has been out for a few months for download. Just thought you should know.

Week 5 - 52 Week Challenge, Sepia: It's mostly brown, with a hint of yellow

I've never really heard or used most of the colors this challenge presents me with, as in photoshop they don't have names, just Hex codes. Regardless, This color probably wouldn't have been my first choice among all the colors in its family.

When I saw the color Sepia, it reminded me of old school, wood, and back to thanksgiving when my family was playing backgammon for a couple hours. The image on the Polaroid is a picture I took at that family gathering. Overall, I feel it captured everything I thought in one design.



Click to enlarge.


Next on the list is Yellow. An obnoxiously bright yellow at that! Although I'm not entirely sure why it's next, seeing as Goldenrod was just a few weeks ago. Anyways, I'll be starting work on that soon!

Voice chat rooms promote team play.

Anyone who plays any online games big time knows the value of programs like [Teamspeak], [Ventrilo], and even [Skype]. It allows teams of players to communicate more effectively than if they had to type to eachother. Everytime you find yourself typing, you're not controlling in the game, and that could be the difference between a win or a loss.


If you've played World of Warcraft, you've probably used ventrilo. For whatever reason, WoW nerds seem to prefer it over Teamspeak. My Starcraft 2 community uses teamspeak 3, which allows for a couple really cool features, and overall looks and works very nice. These voice chat rooms allow other things among quick responses and increased teamwork.


I've seen Teamspeak used as a way of identifying administrators on the server, or for just generally communicating with friends. It's vastly superior to chat rooms and emailing to be sure, and you can have a lot of fun, and share a quite a bit with others using them. I'll be honest. I don't know how much fun online gaming would be without the use of teamspeak (or ventrilo).

Ezio - The hooded badass

Assassin's Creed II is a historical fantasy third person action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You play Ezio, a man whose lost it all and has been thrown into a role that will take him across Italy to many of the largest cities, doing the work of the citizens. Oppressive leadership and a corrupt government have a stranglehold on the people, and only need a push in the right direction to free themselves from the shackles of their superiors. Most of the game takes place inside the Animus, which is a modern day device (fantasy of course), that delves into the mind of Desmond, who is your actual character. The medieval setting is the recreation the Animus has constructed based on DNA based memories left behind by far distant relatives. Ezio, and before him, Altair are two of such ancestors.

The Templar, who maintain power throughout the realm, seek to maintain power by seeking powerful artifacts, that will grant them strength to dominate over the assassins, and to keep their grip on society. Desmond's ancestors are people who were last known to have the location of these artifacts, and people in the modern world who are also part of the Templar are looking for his memories.



Enough of the story. The combat is pretty fun when you're not trying to be Hercules and take on hordes of opponents, which also defeats the purpose of being a more stealth based assassin. The ability to have two of the hidden blades, and thus assassinate two targets at once is pretty awesome also. Roof jumping and the rest of the controls are very fluid and responsive, although I found Ezio refusing to run off some roofs, even though he could make the jump, but that may have been from not having enough speed or a bad angle.

Speaking of bad angles, my god did this game have some horrifying camera angles. There were parts of some of the side quests that I found myself hating the angle that was making certain jumps really difficult. Those kinds of camera shots aren't always avoidable, so I can't complain too much since they were fairly minimal.

The Villa 'mini game' was fun for a very very short while. Since you can amass so much wealth by doing quests, the income gained from your villa is inconsequential. I was able to buy every armor and every weapon without the use of the villas income. The one thing I did use it for, however, was attaining discounts, and visiting the bordello... I mean spending time with quality, outstanding women. The story is solid if you're okay with clearly far out fantasy stories, and the ending had me saying "NO! NOT YET! It can't possibly be over!" AC2 had the cliffhanger from hell, and will most certainly have me playing Brotherhood. Yeah, I'm a little behind the times in terms of game releases I guess.

Minecraft - The possibilities are.. Boring after a couple obsessive days

Minecraft, a game created by [Mojang Specifications], is a game where the whole world, trees, water, dirt, stone etc, are created all of 1x1x1 cubic units. In what they're calling 'alpha', you run around on day one cutting down trees with your bare hands in an attempt to get enough materials to start crafting crude tools to mine various ores and stone to build yourself a shelter with light to live through the night. At night, the creepy crawlies come out to get you, which range from cactus looking creatures that explode like TNT when they get near you, to spiders and skeletons. The "alpha" servers barely work, however, and you cannot die or hurt enemies.





Alpha multiplayer servers have basically been reduced to turning off the baddies and making labyrinths and creating monoliths all over the map with friends. Don't get me wrong, this is a TON of fun, since there is some basic logic to how to power things using electrical... stuff? I started on a friends account, dabbling with the server and learning how to craft and build. Within minutes, I was creating deep mines and castles all over the place. He and I build a settlement, which I promptly learned what fire can do and burned it down along with every tree on the island. Lots of laughter ensued. But after that, the novelty quickly wore off.

Alpha does mean that it's in the early stages of development, and there is plenty of time for fixing the obvious bugs, and adding tons more content before an actual release is spoken of. This game has a lot of potential for being such a simple concept. I only wish someone would come up with more survival based games, where looking for food, shelter, and resources was the name of the game, similar to old Warcraft 3 custom games.

But that's okay, I've been playing Assassin's Creed 2, so I'll post about how I feel about that next time!

Christmas is near

It's funny how just yesterday it was summer, and now we're closing in on Christmas; one of those holidays that we're not allowed to say Merry Christmas, we say happy holidays. If you haven't caught on, it's one of the huge things that bugs me. We are expected to be 'respectful' of those who don't celebrate Christmas (you know, that NATIONAL holiday), but we have to be respectful of other peoples' beliefs by letting them do and say whatever they want to honor it.

But I digress. Normally I love Christmas and all the lights, music, and fun it brings; except recently it feels more stressful and depressing than normal. We're not going to be able to have our 22 year traditional Christmas morning this year because the house is still in a pretty unlivable condition unless you're on the 2nd floor or in the basement. On top of that, the renovations for the house are taking way longer than expected, and starting to cost way more.


The things I do love, although some people complain about them, are the cold weather, and the Christmas music on the radio. There's no much more to lift a bad mood than Christmas music! Every Christmas break signals the end of a semester of college, and I can honestly say I'm glad for this one to be over; not because it was difficult or irritating (which it was), but because that means the new semester will be that much closer to starting, and I've got some pretty awesome courses planned for it!

In a couple days I'll be ready to post on the week 5 color, which last time I said was "sepia". Honestly, who comes up with these names? Would you look at the time! Just 15 minutes ago it was 9PM.. it's now 5AM. Time for bed!

Starcraft 2 Gaming community is live!

At long last, my idea for a Starcraft 2 gaming community has come to fruition. I have created a community website for like-minded gamers to find other people to play multiplayer games, discuss strategies, and share Starcraft content with each other! This is not a clan, and there are no -leaders- or hierarchy. No one gets precedence over the other person, and your rank and skill level are irrelevant as long as you're willing to learn, and have a ton of fun!


It's unfortunate when i check the Battle.net forum, that people refuse to listen to people who aren't "Plat+ rank", as they feel they don't have anything valid to ever say since they're not 'pro'. This is yet another reason why I want this community to grow. So if you're up for a lot of fun, being in a community of gamers, sharing and learning strategies and build orders, come check us out! Click here to check out at Zerglot.net! The larger the community is, the more fun will be had. We have a teamspeak to communicate in and out of the game, so you can see whose online to play with!

See you on the battlefield.