Secret Of Mana [Review]

     Okay, I know I didn't post anything yesterday, but. I had class, and I've been really tired these past few days... (including today) So, anyways. I thought that I'd go ahead and do a game review for Secret Of Mana ! (the virtual consul version for Wii) Seeing as I should have done this review a couple months ago...

     This game was actually a tun of fun! You can play up to 3 players, but you have to 'unlock' each player first. Basically, you play as the main guy and play through the story for the first, about, 10-15 minutes, and then you get your first party member. Then at some point after (I forget exactly how long after) you get your final party member. This was one of the few games in which I was actually useful! :D That made me happy :3 I forget exactly how many bosses there are, but there are a fair about (maybe around 20?) and it is really handy to use a walk-through/player's guide during this game because it can get hard pretty fast.

     Your three playable characters are:

The main character of the game. (The one Dan played as)

His main/given weapon is the Mana Sword, but Dan mainly used the axe as it had a higher attack then the rest of the weapons.

He doesn't get magic abilities.

This is the second playable character(he's a sprite) (the one I played as)

It took us a while until we found out that this is actually a guy...

His main/given weapon is a boomerang, though I mainly used the whip.

He also gets magic, and his magic abilities are mostly offensive(attack).

She is the last playable character you achieve.

Her main/given weapon is the gloves.

She too gets magic, and her magic is mostly defensive/healing, which comes very useful once you get them to a higher level.

     I think one of the issues one would have if they played without someone else, is that it may get a bit difficult during major boss battles because you'd need to command the sprite to use magic instead of just melee attacks and you'd want to make sure the other characters aren't being, well... 'reckless' and getting killed right away. I'm not saying it would be impossible or anything, I'm just saying it's really handy to play with another person. Other than that, the only downfall to the game that I can think of, is that you have like, a 4-5 amount per item max. Meaning, you can only carry up to 4-5 of the same item. And you don't always have the best access to shops or Neko (a cat who acts as a shop, but his prices are double. He's often around dungeons, which makes him convenient, but pricey.) There have been instances where Dan and I have ran out of supplies and had to escape out of a dungeon in order to get more supplies, and then kind of, run through the dungeon to get back to where we left off.

     I'm not sure what else to right at the moment... So, I'll just sum things up.

     This is a really great game. The graphics are pretty, the story line is great, the ending is...(you'll just have to play it and find out ;P) I think it's a really well done game, and lots of fun. It's a long game (I think) which is great, because you'll want to just keep on playing. I would definitely recommend this game to everyone!

Here! Have some other pictures from Secret of Mana!

Kirby Return to Dream Land [Review]

     Okay, now I know I haven't done a game review in quite a while.. And I've beaten several games with Dan, so I thought I'd start off with reviewing one of the latest games we beat, Kirby's Return to Dream Land.

     This probably wont be a very long review because I'm hella tired and I need to get up at 7am *yawns*

     Anywho~ I've always enjoyed the Kirby games, but I haven't played a whole lot of them (and deffinatly never finished a Kirby game..) I think this was the first Kirby game that I played on the Wii? I can't remember for sure or not. But furthermore, I really enjoyed the game. I really would only ever play as Meta Knight, while Dan played as Kirby. Some of the new abilities for Kirby were pretty cool, like whip, leaf, wing and water. Altogether there were 4 playable characters for me to choose from:

     Meta Knight's ability was Sword, Waddle Dee was Spear, and King Dedede was Hammer

     I pretty much refused to play as anything other than Meta Knight... And the one time I decided to try being Kirby.......   I died pretty soon off.. Then Dan and I decided I would be more useful if I just stayed at Meta Knight, haha.. 

     The game was pretty fun, the graphics were nice and really colourful so it made it pretty :3 the music was pretty good too. The only downside was that, I was so bad at it, that Dan pretty much had to pull my weight as I used up all the lives... LOL! I did prove to have some use when there was the bonus areas where it basically required to people in order to get the cog piece thingy :P I'm not saying it's a hard game, I'm just saying I'm not very good at it, LOL! I don't think it took us terribly long to beat the game, but it was a good length.  I'm super duper tired right now... (I started writing this a few hours ago, but have been really slow at writing much because I'm tired...) So I think I'm going to wrap this up now.

     All in all, I'd say it's a pretty fun and awesome game, and I would recommend it to anyone who'd be interested. You can play up to four players, which is great if you have friends that want to join in and play along side you. There's probably more that I forgot to mention... Buuuut, too tired, don't care.. (that sounds pretty bad.. lol)

So that concludes my review of!:

Review - Portal [PC version]

     Alrighty, so I was planning on writing a blog post yesterday, but I ended up being super tired, and would constantly get distracted. Why was I so tired yesterday you ask? Nah, I'm sure you probably don't care.. *ahem* anyways, you may have guessed why by the .gif just above here. I was playing Portal. And honestly, the thought that I played it, displeases me. Only because someone I strongly dislike has quite a liking for it. And because of that, I had told myself that I was never going to play the game. Yes, yes, I know what you're probably thinking, and I'm sure you rolled your eyes or shook your head at that. But anyways. I also know you shouldn't judge something before you try it. So, I decided I would try out the game and see what all the hype about it was all about.

     First is first, I never knew how old the game was before I played it. I thought it was a new game that was MAYBE a year or two old. I found out that it was started 10 years ago. Or something like that.

     I know that it's meant to be a puzzle game, as that's what one of the genres are for the game. But, honestly, it seems like an over glorified puzzle game. Like, think of it being a tetras game, wouldn't you think that would be a bit too much for tetras game? Or, if you look at the arcade version of Pac-Man, and compare it to the adventure game version of Pac-Man. It's just, too much.

     Now, I'm not saying it's a bad game, I'm just saying I wouldn't pay money to play it. And yes, I am being extra critical towards this game. 

     There was parts of the game that I did, enjoy. And there was a part that almost made me cry. And I'll get to that.

     My two biggest nit-picks about the game are these:

1. Loading - As I said, when I first played this game I thought it was only a couple years old at most. (this is mostly because I haven't even heard of the game before until a few months ago.) And when I was playing Portal on my laptop, it always loaded every time I was in the elevator thing that brought me to the next test chamber. And I replayed the first 11 (00-10) levels and it all happened in the exact same spot. I found this really annoying. (also, the only reason why I replayed levels 00-10 was because I first downloaded the demo off of Steam, before I played the full version)
2. Difficulty Leap - Now. Levels 00-14 were really easy, I cleared them in about 7 minutes flat. But once level 15 hit, the level difficulty got a lot worse. Perhaps it was just me, and it was 4am and I was tired. But it seemed like it got a lot harder. (I'm not sure if this is when they first brought in the turrets or not). And then level 19... Honestly, I had to use a YouTube walk-through to help me with this one because I kept getting stuck, and it was sooo long. And in all honestly, I didn't know what to do to the boss (I'm not sure what the name of it is) either, until I used the walk-through. 

     All in all, it wasn't a bad game. It wasn't a fabulous game either. I had no interest in playing the extra levels or replaying the game. So I did delete it after I finished beating Portal at 7:30am. (Yes, I played it all through the night. Because I wanted to beat the damn game.) 

     If a friend were to come to me asking if they should buy the game, I would tell them to download the free demo off of Steam before they invest money in buying the full version. As they say, "to each their own". So I know that just because I didn't LOVE the game, doesn't mean I think it's stupid that other people love the game.

     On another note, I am going to be playing Portal 2 on co-op with my best bro OhhDee once I get back home to faster internet, and I'm done with one of the job fair things I'm going to on Thursday.

     Aside from Minecraft, I've never played any game co-op before. (at least not with someone I wasn't in the same room with) So I am kind of excited for it. I also have high expectations for Portal 2 because it's a newer game, so it should have better, well, everything. I will also be doing a review on Portal 2 once OhhDee and I beat it co-op.

Review - Things to Consider [Dating]

     Now, I came across this little list of, 'Things to Consider" when you're dating someone, and if any of these come up, that you should "nope the hell out of there, and fast.". Below I have put the list:

•      How does he treat his exes? If he’s constantly talking about them, bashing them, and stalking them, chances are you should give this guy a miss, because if/when you break up with him, he will do the same to you, and you will not like it.

•      How pushy is he when it comes to the speed of your relationship? If you’re not ready to make out/have sex/whatever and he’s pushing you, you need to be careful. This is how rape happens. Trust me.

•      How much debt does he have? If its over ten grand and he doesn’t have a house or car of his own, watch out, because chances are he’s bad with money, and trust me, you don’t want to bear that burden.

•      How does he treat his mother? If he treats her badly, he’s going to do the same to you.

•      How does he treat his friends? If he doesn’t respect them, he won’t respect you or your friends.

•      Does he have a solid group of friends? If he doesn’t have friends outside of you, he’s going to get clingy, and you’re going to be trapped.

•      How strong are his opinions on things like abortion, LGBLTTQ* rights, women’s rights, and religion? If he feels strongly in a way that opposes your own opinions, you’re gonna have a bad time. And if he’s religious, or an atheist, is he one of those rude loud ones, or is he quiet and polite about it? Beware of the obnoxious atheist. They’re even worse than bible thumpers.

•      How does he handle social situations?

•      How does he treat wait staff? Is he polite, or does he bark orders at them?

•      Finally, how is his appearance and personal hygiene? If you ever catch him wearing a pair of sweatpants with a suit jacket, and its not Halloween, you need to nope the fuck out of there. And yes, unfortunately, this has happened to me.

    Now, allow me to review all of these.

1)      How does he treat his exes? If he’s constantly talking about them, bashing them, and stalking them, chances are you should give this guy a miss, because if/when you break up with him, he will do the same to you, and you will not like it.

     Now, first off, I'm always iffy about, assuming your relationship is not going to last. Because, really, you should be in a relationship for the long haul, not just a temporary thing. And, speaking from experience, even if he doesn't 'badmouth' any of his exes or 'creep' them, doesn't mean he not going to do that to you if you were to ever break up. Just the same, even is he does 'badmouth' any of his exes or 'creeps' them, doesn't mean he's going to do it to you. It really all depends on the person and the situation. It's like saying, if one bad apple in a barrel has a worm, then they MUST ALL have worms.

2)     How pushy is he when it comes to the speed of your relationship? If you’re not ready to make out/have sex/whatever and he’s pushing you, you need to be careful. This is how rape happens. Trust me.

     Now, I'm not going to deny that someone who's sexually pushy MAY rape you, but, I don't believe that this is a standard.(standard, as in all or even most sexually pushy guys are going to rape you) What you really need to do, is just make sure to communicate with him and tell him you want to slow down, or you're just not ready for the "next step". If he still is being pushy, and even get's mad at you, then it turns into the fact that he's just not respecting you. Personally, in my opinion, this can be a major issue, especially if it's early on in the relationship, because it may hint the fact that he has violent tenancies. Then yes, with that I would most likely back off. Now, if he's still being pushy, but isn't being mad or anything like that(as in not showing signs of violence), then I'd suggest maybe backing off a little, just to show that the more he's going to try and take, the less he'll get. He'll eventually learn, or he'll get fed up and leave you for not putting out. In a sense, this is a win/win. Reason being, either he learns and stops being so pushy(which is what you want), or, he was just a douche bad that just wanted you for sex, and not you for who you are.

3)     How much debt does he have? If its over ten grand and he doesn’t have a house or car of his own, watch out, because chances are he’s bad with money, and trust me, you don’t want to bear that burden.

     Now, with this one, it really depends on WHY he's in debt. If it's student loans and such like that, then, well, you're going to find that a lot with people who are going to go to university. And think about it, if he's got this debt because he's furthering himself to get a career, then he'll get the money once he has a career, and be able to pay it back. Now, if he is majorly in debt because of say, gambling, or just maxing out credit cards because of buying materialistic things, then, it's more understandable to find this a "deal breaker". Because, yes, it shows that he has poor money sense and this can be a bad thing to get yourself into. But, what you should really note, is if he's making any effort into paying it all back. I personally know someone in my family who started dating a guy(who was 19-20 at the time they started dating) and had a $25,000+ debt due to gambling and drugs. But my family member was able to help him clear his debt, and get clean.(They've been together for 7-8 years, so this isn't an over night process)

4)     How does he treat his mother? If he treats her badly, he’s going to do the same to you.

     Now, this I don't entirely disagree with. Because, some times how a man treats his mother will reflect how he treats you. BUT, you also have to take into consideration on how she treats him also. A man can utterly despise his mother, but still cherish you dearly and treat you amazingly. Just the same, a man who treats his mother like she's heaven sent, can treat you like utter trash. It would be more accurate to "predict" how a man is going to treat you by paying attention to how he treats other women. But, really, there is no fool proof way to predict how a man will treat you. He can treat you amazingly for years, and then, all of a sudden, he can be the complete reverse. 

5)     How does he treat his friends? If he doesn’t respect them, he won’t respect you or your friends.

     Now, with this I mostly agree with. Because if he doesn't respect his friends, then you have a high chance that the won't respect you or your friends, or family either for that matter. This is more of an immaturity thing, and often times he'll grow out of this behavior. 

6)     Does he have a solid group of friends? If he doesn’t have friends outside of you, he’s going to get clingy, and you’re going to be trapped.

     Now, this I find incorrect. Assuming the definition here for clingy is to mean "needy" and "dependent", then I find this "rule" or whatever you want to be flawed. Because, you really have to understand WHY he has no friends, like for instance, chances are, it's due to the fact that he's more of somebody who keeps to himself, of is just mostly occupied, or is just kind of socially awkward. And if he's socially awkward, then I can see that he may be 'clingy'. But I don't see this as like, a 'red alert' kind of thing. Just tell him that you need some breathing room, and that you need to spend some time with friends or family, or just have your own "me time". Someone being "clingy" in that regard isn't such a big deal if you know how to handle it. And obviously, if it's going to be more of an opposite outcome, where you don't really spend a whole lot of time together.

7)     How strong are his opinions on things like abortion, LGBLTTQ* rights, women’s rights, and religion? If he feels strongly in a way that opposes your own opinions, you’re gonna have a bad time. And if he’s religious, or an atheist, is he one of those rude loud ones, or is he quiet and polite about it? Beware of the obnoxious atheist. They’re even worse than bible thumpers.

     Now, with this, it really depends. First off, people's "opinions"/"beliefs" can change/alter. But whether or not his opinions/beliefs contradict your own, doesn't really matter so long as you BOTH, UNDERSTAND, RESPECT and ACCEPT that their beliefs/opinions may not be the same. I say respect because, if you don't want him to try and push his opinions/beliefs onto, then you can't do the same, otherwise it's a double standard. But also, you have to take his personality into account. Say for example, if he's someone who's arrogant and/or ignorant and just doesn't respect your opinions/views at all, and just trash talks them(essentially being an asshole), then obviously he's not the right guy for you. Now, I once dated someone who was homophobic, and after we had started dating, I eventually had gotten him to become more accepting towards homosexuals.

8)     How does he handle social situations?

     There's nothing here for me to review.

9)     How does he treat wait staff? Is he polite, or does he bark orders at them?

     I really don't find this an accurate judgement. If it gets the the point that he has to get upset with the waiter/waitress, then perhaps someone isn't doing their job properly. Sometimes someone can be under a great deal of stress, and a waiter/waitress who's not doing their job properly may just become "the straw that broke the camel's back". Also, what's more important would be how he treats everyone in general. Or if you want to judge him based on how he treats specific "groups"/"types" of people, then pay attention to how he treats homeless people or homosexuals, transgender, ect...

10)     Finally, how is his appearance and personal hygiene? If you ever catch him wearing a pair of sweatpants with a suit jacket, and its not Halloween, you need to nope the fuck out of there. And yes, unfortunately, this has happened to me.

     Now, personally, I find this to be rather shallow. Who cares how he looks so long as he's a good person? Why can't personality be more important than looks these days? Personal hygiene is more understandable, because yeah, someone who's smelly and looks like he was living on the streets for a while, can be kind of icky to be around. But this is another one of those things to which he can can grow out of because it's likely to be an immaturity thing. I once dated someone for three years who would shower every other day or so, and wear the same boxers days in a row. (and his boxes lots of really bad skid mark stains and big holes because of them)

     And that concludes my review. Now obviously these are my own personal opinions. Moral of the story; don't be so quick to judge. Feel free to comment and express your own opinions!

     And on that note! I'm off!