Aeria Games: Good Riddance to A Bad Company

Remember my Eden Eternal review? How I liked the games aspects, but was still on the fence about sticking around or not? Well, turns out I was pushed over one side of the fence. I wish I could say the grind broke me in half, but I didn’t subject myself long enough to the game to know that for sure.

What forced me out of the yard was the scandal I found relating to the business practices of Aeria. On a random Youtube binge I found this video.

Now this is just straight wrong. There is a link to his blog post recounting the events of this one victim from the video. What further added to this is that 100’s of accounts were banned under what appears to be under false pretenses. Since Aeria Games refuses to go public on this matter it only makes me feel more suspicious of them.

I had also heard that they (like Nexon) have horrible customer service from various forums and if that wasn’t enough, the bastards are manipulating their own Better Business Burial ratting to make themselves look good.

So I will no longer be playing anything from Aeria games. I will neither be reviewing anything from Nexon due to my personal experiences with them while trying to do the Mabinogi review. If you want to play their games, I won’t stop you. I won’t be going on some boycott against them either. I’m going to vote against them with my dollar. A dollar that will be going towards something more worthy.

I didn’t want this thing to run into too long, didn’t read territory (also they have not nailed me yet, so I don’t have anything more to add due to lacking first hand experience with their “methods”), so if you want to learn more here’s some reading material on the subject and other Aeria nonsense:

The Blog Post

Aeria Games is Super Strict

Stay Away From This Game (the first place I heard of the news)

Slow Company is Slow

Silencing the Masses

OH…and if Eden Eternal gets picked up by another publisher…let me know.

Ticks Me Off: Lost Saga

Ladies and Gentlemen, this game has set an all new speed record of making me not like it. How this game has people willing to play it is a mystery to me. Lost Saga is one of those MMO fighting games. The gameplay was fine, but the one thing that immediately made me drop the game was seeing that the characters in the game all had timers on them.

Yeah, they start you off with a single character, but the character has a time limit, at least 10 hours. The good thing is that it only counts down when the character is in use. Bad news is, you need to keep paying in game currency in order to keep renewing the timer (so this means there goes any sweet equipment you want if you’re a free player). What happens if you want one character for keeps? You pay $20. Want to flip the gender from male to female? MORE MONEY! Want to make them another skin tone? EVEN MORE MONEY! This happens to be a Korean game, so following the unfortunate stereotype, they want to rape your wallet dead!

If you run out of time on the character they give you a temp one for about 2 hours so you can attempt to get more in game money to renew the character you want. Good luck if they stick you with a character you hate and bonus fail points if it’s a character you hate and or can’t play to save your life.

I saw reviews after i got pissed off giving this game a glowing approval, but I’m convinced these people were tempted with cash, loose women (or men if they roll that way) or were people who worked on the game themselves.

In the immortal words of James (The Angry Video Game Nerd) Rolfe, “FUCK THIS GAME!”

To make matters worse, I'd go back to Elsword before looking at this game again, and considering what I said about that game, that speaks VOLUMES!

First Impression: Remnant Knights

Oh my God! I never thought I would meet a game that would piss me the fuck off before I barely even started playing it. Just a warning this is going to be more angry rant than review since the game wouldn’t stop acting retarded! Remnant Knights is another Anime inspired MMO (surprise, surprise). This one is hosted at Game Samba about two schools that fight one another for one reason or the other.

The first thing that got me mad was the start up time for the game. It took nearly 15 seconds after starting it up before I could play, while more reasonable ones might only eat up about six at most telling me who made it and had rights to it. When I finally got it started I logged in and went to create my character. Turns out the games character customization is even more poor than a third world country. That’s right, AFRICA sends aid to THIS GAME!

It’s bad enough that I can’t adjust the skin tone of the character (I guess only white people play video games, right?) but the eyes were locked as well, attached to each face change. The hair was okay through, I will grant them points for letting me change the color of it to such a finite point but that’s pretty much where it ends. They have two different costumes for each school at the base level, but as I looked into what the more advance class would look like in each school THE RIVAL SCHOOLS SHARE THE SAME COSTUMES FOR THE ADVANCE CLASSES! WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THAT!? THESE ARE RIVAL SCHOOLS! ARE YOU TELLING ME THE PEOPLE WHO DESIGNED THIS GAME COULDN’T BE BOTHERED TO MAKE THE ART TEAM DRAW UP DIFFERENT ADVANCED CLASS UNIFORMS FOR EACH FACTITION!?

I guess they got lessons from Valve on making non repeating character design (looking at YOU Team Fortress 2, you lazy bastards who couldn’t fucking bother to make the Red and Blu characters different from one another other than sticking them in different colored shirts). This really bothers me since lack of customization means I can’t really get involved with the character I’m creating, so for me these things you might consider petty really bother me (but I would like to state on the record if the gameplay is solid enough I could look passed it). The nail on the coffin is that you can only create characters for one school per SERVER!

But the bitchfest doesn’t end there. When I logged in I went through the tutorial and as I was navigating different menu screens, closing them or clicking on some things in them would cause my character to act brain dead and run into walls (repeatedly), or move to places before I was ready. Also combat. It seems rather slippery. My attacks didn’t respond too well. When I clicked on an enemy my character didn’t attack dead on, and clicking on things sometimes required repeated clicking to get stuff to work. NO WONDER THE GAME HAS LITTLE TO NO PLAYERS ON IT!

So, if you want to piss yourself off or are looking for a game to recommend to someone you hate, I highly recommend Remnant Knights. Maybe you can look passed these things, but I can’t. I was hoping to try something that would amuse me and cheer me up after having such a long a stressful week, but now I’m more pissed off than I was before.

First Impression: Elsword

I’ve seen advertisements all over for this, so I decided to give it a shot. For those of you who are new, a First Impression is a review that’s done off the cuff based on the information gained in playing it for one day. Elsword is a side scrolling, semi-3D beat-em-up. There are four characters to choose from, each having their own methods of attack. For this I choose the Magic character, Aisha.

At first, I thought I would have a good time. The buttons were a standard attack, a special attack and four skills that could be set to hotkeys. As you level up you can allocate skill points to strengthen or acquire new Passive or Active abilities for your character to give them new tricks.

What MMO is complete without quests? I forgot to mention this had some RPG elements, but just like any game with grinding, your “quests” consist of repeating the same dungeon, just on a higher difficulty setting and it gets OLD REALLY QUICK! It’s just go in and go out (At least in Rusty Hearts your quests might have you repeating a dungeon but they added a twist like “finish without getting hit over 20 times or beat it with a certain rank”).

So I thought I’d take the magical girl into PvP, turns out she’s CRAP in the arena! Elsword (the character the game is named after) is supposed to be weak to magic (see: Informed Flaw) but I noticed no significant advantage to unleashing my magic on him but Elsword could tear me up nicely (then again he IS the main character, so he has to be superior to my character by default, right?). My next complaint is the mana system in the game. Apparently, your maximum Mana doesn’t increase as you level up (Aisha is supposed to be a genius mage) and you don’t start off dungeons or in PvP with max Mana either, not to mention the mana gets eaten up so fast when you use a spell, along with cool down time on the spells. WHAT FUCKING SENSE DOES IT MAKE TO HAVE A DAMN COOLDOWN ON THE FUCKING MOVES IF THE GODDAMN MANA GAUGE DOESN’T GET OVER 300 MP AND MOSTLY GETS CHEWED UP AFTER USING A SINGLE FUCKING SPELL!? Needless to say I certainly wasn’t feeling like a magic user at all, just some little girl beating people down with a stick. This would be a non-issue if only the spells hit harder in PvP (seriously, there seems to be no damage advantage to hitting anyone (I might as well spam the standard attacks) with them in PvP (outside of disruption to bail my team out if need be), ESECIALLY ELSWORD!

The boxes I find now and then are also asinine. They’re locked and you need to buy something to break the lock. Let me get this straight…the characters are too retarded to bust open the lock, or melt it off (Aisha, the Genius Magician MY ASS! NOTHING IN THE DISCRIPTION SAYS ITS HEXED AGAINST ALTERNATE METHODS OF OPENING)?

The next thing that led me to this tirade was the controls. Yeah, they were easy to grasp, but I got some seriously aching hands playing it for just an hour. If only this game had a setting for controller use. I took some serious points off for that. Speaking of controls, the game lacks a block button. You are limited to just sticking and moving and God help you if the opponents moves have higher priority than yours (in my case I could barely get in a hit without getting seriously pummeled). Part of the learning curb, so…yeah. To support how much Aisha sucks (as of this post) THERE ISN’T A SINGLE AISHA USER IN THE PVP TOP 10! The Elf is up there at the top, but nothing can beat Elves, right? Not even Elsword.

The final nails in the coffin were the cash shop and the stamina system. The costumes are asinine in price. Let’s say you find an awesome bundle to dress your character up in. The ones I’ve seen cost $13. It gets worse. The clothing goes away after a set period of time. They do have an option for you to keep it I believe (some of the text comes off weird in the Item Mall) all for DOUBLE THE PRICE! The stamina system keeps you from playing as long as you’d like (not like you’re missing much) and can be gone through QUICK with repeating the same dungeon over and over.

It’s all a pretty, pretty lie! I’m fond of Anime, but even my love for it couldn’t shield me from the suck that is this game. All I know is with all the factors I mentioned I can’t be bothered to go back into it to do a more in depth review, nor make a video to demo it because it frustrated and bored me too much. If you want, you can play it here, but you won’t be seeing me in game (if you love it, then good for you).

Sorry for another negative review so soon. I’m disappointed too because I feel like I’m coming of as a caustic critic.

Revenge of the Titans

Today Aron here to Review Revenge of the Titans, an indie tower defense game.
Before I continue on I want to say I’m a lover of TD games and am quite good at them, I installed and started this up thinking, I’ll blitz through it like I do other TD games…boy was I wrong.

There are about six kinds of offensive towers in this game, The Blaster, which is your standard gun nothing special, The heavy blaster, an upgraded blaster that can pierce through armor, the Rapid blaster, a stronger version of the blaster, not as strong as the heavy blaster, but has rapid fire,
The Blaster cannon, which is a stronger version of the Heavy Blaster and has higher armor piercing, the other two I don’t know about because I have yet to get them.

The Turrets run on an ammo system and after a cretin amount of shots they need to reload so be careful where and how you place the turrets.

There are special buildings you can place for buffs on the Turrets, such as a Cooling tower to increase fire rate, and a battery to increase Max ammo on each turret, see which combos work well for what situation.
Threes also the classic barricade to slow done the titans, which can be helpful

The Aliens or, Titans, the enemies of this game, all range from tiny, medium, large, and OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! Size. The size of the titan seems to tell how much damage the thing will do to your turrets or base, which means the OMGWTHT size titans, will one shot everything in it’s path including your base.
The turrets are placed anywhere you wish by the way, the base is in a fixed location on the map.

Money is required to build theses turrets, and money is gotten by refining crystals with a refinery another building you can place next to crystals, it has no defenses so make sure you protect it if anything gets near it

Speaking of Defenses the turrets and other things that can be built require you to go into research branches, some of them give bonuses to your turrets and others just help you get farther in researching.

Now onto my experience with this game, the first few levels were a breeze, it did a nice job trying to ease me into the research and game mechanics, when I hit about level Five it started to pick up in difficulty which made me have to kick into a higher gear sooner then I normally do when I play a TD which was a pleasant surprise, but when I got to the first boss, oh god did it hit me! It took me about Seven times to figure out, I needed to think less defensively and more offensively then I normally do the Difficulty of the game takes a HUGE jump when it comes to a boss level I’ve only taken down two bosses, and looking forward to the others because of this massive jump

I would Recommend getting this game, in the Humble game 3 pack if you enjoy a hard TD game, this will have you coming back for more Now excuse me, I need to get back to defending the mars base! Did I mention each stage is on different planets as you progress, if I didn’t, I did now that’s right your fighting to protect the solar system! Now I got to dash more titans are approaching on my location general Aron out!

downWorld: Puzzle Battles Meets MMO

No, that title was not a typo I was too lazy to correct, that’s how it really is. A little tucked away game in the corners of the world wide web my associate Aron bought to my attention so I thought why not give it a spin.

downWorld is an MMOPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Puzzle Game henceforth) merging together puzzle games and RPG elements. Before I go further I must stress that this game is currently in beta, but with what I have ran into so far I am compelled to write a review. Well, let’s get started.

Gameplay: Like I said it’s a Puzzle game with RPG elements. You can equip different gear to increase the damage you deal and reduce the damage you take from each color bubble. The gear and levels will also increase your HP. If you have played any puzzle games before of this caliber then there is nothing I can say about the basics (and in the time you spent reading this if you didn’t know how to play this kind of puzzle game you could have learned how to). The things to know is that the white crystals generate Flow (turns out this Flow is used in another game they run called ourWorld which predates this game). Think of Flow as Mana. Also, these bubbles do no damage, so you either get Flow or inflect pain. Flow’s used to preform special moves…yes this game has special moves which run the gambit from damage to protection. If you want to use them, just click on their symbols.

The black box pieces will strike out an entire column. The damage you deal with those depends on how many and what kind of bubbles you popped (think multi-elemental damage). If you manage to eliminate four or more of the same color bubble (connected to one another in a straight line) you get an extra turn (this counts those black boxes and Flow crystals).

Also, there is a multiplayer. You and some people can gang up on a creature, but beware of drop in’s. If you’re in the middle of a puzzle and have an opponent on the ropes all someone has to do is run into the monster too and its HP goes up. There is a stealth mode to prevent this from happening BUT I shouldn’t have to do this. Get on fixing it before the full launch, please!

Also, the enemies when they lose (unless they remove this once the Beta ends) explode into a bloody mess. I didn’t know puzzles could make you burst. When you lose, you become a skeleton. Lame.

Artwork: Usually, I don’t go near this segment, but since the art styles of ourWorld and downWorld were rather…unique I feel I have to touch on it. It’s horrible. Aron and I couldn’t bare to look at the games characters any longer than we had to. I was hoping that what I saw was just a place holder until the Beta ended…looking at ourWorld, I was sadly let down. To ourWorld’s credit the animation is more fluent than in downWorld…but this is not my chief complaint. The thing that bothered me the most was…

The In-Game Advertising: This…this would be the thing that made me want to eat the souls of the people who made this game. Each time you move to a new location you have to sit through this video promoting something…EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE LOCATIONS! They do this to try to encourage you to pay for Elite status where you get all kinds of perks (I wouldn’t know what they are or if they’re worth it, no money to see).

I know they need to make money but the way they “ask me” to give money for a month or three of no ads feels less like asking and more like bulling me into making the purchase. Imagine in real life going from point A to point B and between each point you’re slammed with an advertisement which you were FORCED to see through to the end, Could you imagine if you REALLY need to use the bathroom but this douche bag refuses to move till you hear his nonsense that you have no interest in? Me neither. They need to make the ads less intrusive. What’s wrong with having the ads appear every three map moves?

Judgment: I liked the idea of a combat puzzle game, but the horrible graphics and even more horrible ads getting in the way they pretty much guaranteed that I will not recommend this game to ANYONE! Who knows, they might shape up. I plan to post this in their forums and watch the fireworks. I feel like I gave this game far more attention than it deserved. As always I encourage you to try the game for yourself if you desire. If you enjoy it, that’s fine, good for you.

And now, for the obligatory YouTube video..

League of Legends: The Field of Justice Welcomes You

I have seen my associate, Aron play this game on and off. I never thought about playing it for awhile, if only because my computer back then was so crappy and running it would make its CPU explode into cyber salsa. Now I have a new machine which is working nicely, though I wish the connection in my area were faster. It’s not a snail’s pace, but still…anyway, let’s get on with the review.

League of Legends is a game of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA henceforth, which is the widely accepted short hand anyway for those not familiar) games. They boil down to this. You and your team try to destroy this critical structure the enemy team has before they wreck yours. Sounds simple enough on the surface, but once you get into the game this turns out to be a more involved process than it sounds. What do I mean by that? Well, I’m about to tell you.

Gameplay: League of Legends reminded me of those micro managing real time strategy games. I HATE THOSE! I don’t see how people can get enjoyment over having to constantly tell section A how to do their job, and then checking on sections B, C and D with so many units, checking on the resources you currently possess so you can do the really good stuff. Thankfully that isn’t the case here. Sure, there are minions, but you don’t command them. They do their own thing. The only person you have to worry about managing (in terms of building stuff on) is your Champion.

This character has access to four abilities that can be used and pumped up. Catch is you can’t use all of them right away. You got to kill enemy minions, neutral creatures that hide in the forest areas of the map (the term “Jungling” describes that, but it’s a misnomer since as of yet none of the maps in game thus far has a Jungle. So it’s more like “Foresting”, but that’s not as cool sounding I guess) and of course, members of the opposing team for experience points and Gold which is used to buy items (these items do not carry over from game to game) to increase your stats and other good stuff.

The game has always been free to play. Every so often Champions are rotated in and out for you to play with. If you want, however, you can pay some money (or Influence Points (IP henceforth), which can only be earned by playing the game) to keep them in your roster permanently.

If you’re like me, you’re conditioned to click the left mouse key in games to move. Getting used to having to right click could be bothersome at first, but you get used to it in time. As for the curb of the game…it’s not exactly easy to learn, but it’s not exactly a ball buster either. As of now I’m Level 10 in the game (Max 30). Each level grants you mastery points to put towards small changes towards the way you fight. Runes can also have an impact on how you play. Unlike Champions, you can only get Runes with IP, so…you can’t buy power (well, you still have to buy the Runes, but you just can’t do it with cash).

One of things I had the biggest issue getting over was getting used to the camera panning. Starting out, it was a hindrance for me, but now I manage just fine. Fiddle around with it before you really get started ASAP.  The game does provide a tutorial for first timers, which introduces the basics, but it feels rather incomplete when you get to the Co-Op V.S. A.I. A.I CANNOT prepare you for fighting against players. It can vary anywhere from dumb as dirt to very tough (and even then they can get stupid).

No one character is a lone wolf. Not a single one can take the game by themselves. It is highly team oriented. I won’t get into breaking down all the roles available (the Alteil one was long enough as is) but combinations are also key. A Champion that’s a bad fit for the team (even if you’re awesome with them) can wreck synergy and cost you the game before you even fight, and if you aren’t communicating with your team it can be a real disaster (play a Support role character in the random que at your own risk). I don’t have a playgroup as of yet, so it can be a real gamble…I’d like a playgroup, so I need to get to finding people.

Concerns: The game is not without its faults. ONE CHAPMION could set you back as much as $10. I really suggest you wait for sales and buy bundles, and this is even before skins (which can only be obtained by purchasing with real cash). They can cost as much as a Champ (only way I get them is from a bundle or one of their giveaways) and do nothing but change the appearance...if you ask me something purely COSMETIC shouldn’t cost as much as a Champion, EVER (and then people buying them rage about how they have to split between champs and skins and worried going broke on Riot Points (RP henceforth))! If you REALLY WANT A CHAMPION permanently, and not clean out your bank account in the process…I can’t stress enough about waiting for bundles and sales (and if you go against that advice, be sure you actually can play with said character).

If any parents are reading this, you might not want your younger kids on the forums. When the servers go down you could easily see crazy stuff like this:

I found it funny, but gross…very…very…very, gross. Speaking of mind numbing things, I hear the server downtime can be rather…insane. The joke is that Riot can’t seem to make an update without the servers going down like a hooker on a cop trying to get out of a parking ticket. Since I have started playing, this has only happened once, so I cannot testify firsthand the history of these issues.

The game only has two maps…almost 80 Champions as of this review, and only TWO MAPS! One for 5v5 and one for 3v3. New Champions come out every two weeks I hear, and new maps…nowhere near as fast. The game has almost been out for about two to three YEARS…and only TWO MAPS! Different opponents each time make the game a different experience, but I would really love MORE MAPS to play on.

Also balancing issues. I see talk of this a lot (though I have yet to feel the effects). One of my favorite Champions, Annie is complained about a lot, and a good deal of people think she’s unfair. I say they just hate the idea of being beaten by a fire wielding girl with a demon teddy bear that’s on FIRE! Also, the communities high tier players (and a bunch of others) can be quite snotty when it comes to ones thoughts on how to improve/nerf a character. You can tell how much of a stuck up fuck one is if they drag your Elo ratting into it to discredit you or bring theirs up to prove a point. Must be a lot of people on that game with tiny penises in this game.

Final Judgment: It’s a casual alternative to other MOBA’s out there, so for that reason I like it. But I also don’t like it because of the lack of maps. I play sparingly because I don’t want the maps to get old and because I lack a group. But if you bring a bunch of friends in your experience should be a nice one.

See you on the Fields of Justice, my fellow Summoners.

Alteil: Game or Farce?

Ah…Alteil. The game that made me came out of my MMO shell. I have so many mixed emotions about you. At times you’re good to me, and at times you’re horrible. If this game were a person, I would honestly have to classify it as bipolar. I’m in love with your concept, but I detest the way you work. Quite a paradox you are. Anyway, I’ll get to the point before I drive you all insane (if I hadn’t already). As you can probably tell, this is going to be the longest review I’ve done so far. Grab something to eat and drink and come back in a bit. This article ain’t going anywhere.

Alteil is a web based Trading Card Game (though it wrongfully has the “trading” in it, more appropriately “collectable” should be what it falls under) built in Flash. Its story driven, but I can’t be bothered to go into the plot since they can’t be bothered to get the stories from the Japanese version translated soon enough so I can read it (they cards are heavy in flavor text, but you need to be a crazy collector to reveal what plot points there are)…also, I don’t really like going into fluff…unlike how I seem to be padding now. BACK ON TRACK! I’ll start breaking this down.

Gameplay: Unlike other card games, this one doesn’t have a deck per se. you use a File in Alteil terms and one file is made up of 30 cards. 25 are the ones that go in the main file, while the other 5 are your Life Points (which will be known as LP henceforth). The LP value can be no lower than 6 and become no greater than 16. The object is to get your Rival Iczer (the term for opponent in Alteil speak) down to 0 HP first. As you drive down your opponent’s LP downward, you will more than likely trigger Soul Skills (referred henceforth as SS) which vary in effect.

Now since the opponent is trying to get you down to a 0 LP, the first reaction might be to stock your SS lineup with a bunch of 3 LP cards. Truth be told, 3 LP cards tend to do anything from minimal effects to doing terrible things to you (or overpriced skills not really worth the trigger). On the flip side, the good effects more than likely land on the 1 LP value or two LP value.

The cards that will be dealing most of this LP damage will be Units. You can controls up to nine of them at ones, placing them in a 3 by 3 area and have stats. Hit Points (HP), Attack (AT), Defense (DF), Agility (AGI) and Range (RNG). HP is your Unit’s health. If this hits 0 or less, they’re dead.  AT is the damage the Unit deals to other Units. DF determines how much less damage a Unit takes when being attacked and can be increased to the point where units deal nothing to it. Agility determines who takes their action first (in case of a tie its random) and finally, RNG dictates how far back your Unit can reach other Units and how far back they can attack with allied Units in front of them.

There is another Unit type called Characters. If you played Magic the Gathering, think of Characters like the Legend rule. For those not in the know, the Legend rule dictates that only one of that particular card can be out at a time. So you can’t control two of the same Character at once and you and your Rival cannot control one each. Grimories (Grims henceforth) are the cards which do various things. Okay, I spent more time on that than I thought, then again, if you didn’t want a lengthy read you wouldn’t still be here (assuming you didn’t just close the window, scroll all the way to the bottom or hit the back button by now…then again, I did warn ahead of time).

All cards range from level 1 through 9. All Iczers start with five Spirit Points (SP henceforth) and they go towards increasing one of the four Spheres or to play cards. These are Gowen (Red), Falkow (Blue), Refess (Yellow) and Lawtia (Purple). Gowen is about raw power and explosiveness. They also possess effect damage cards and are famed for their low in cost, but hard and fast hitting Units. Falkow is the thinking man’s Sphere. They work on the premise of manipulation, forcing enemy Units not to react (and punishing them for it) and of course bouncing stuff back to your Rivals file. Refess is the Sphere of tanking, healing and are known for being slow, yet deadly if they can establish a steady field that works together and Lawtia is the master of death, and able to do what all the other Spheres can do, but at greater cost. They’re quite tricky and have the most flexibility of all the others, but not without a learning curb (though not nearly as bad as Falkow).

When you place SP into a Sphere, you can’t get it back once you have played a card or skipped a turn with any SP in Spheres. Speaking of plays, no one has a “turn” per se. Both players play cards (set) and activate them at the same time. Grims get priority over Units (assuming the Unit has an Open Skill). Alright, now that I got the basics out of the way, onto the main event.

The Good: The game is strategy based and since you aren’t using a deck in the traditional sense, you can’t draw into a bad hand. Only real luck in this game is Soul Skill timing, hoping to win the AGI roll so your unit acts before the Rival Iczers does.

The game also has its own little way of trying to discourage same tactics in matches. If you and your Rival play the same card it creates a Backlash. If you get into a Backlash, both of you have to send the card to the Cemetery. Still, this won’t stop people from playing the exact same file but it does try to enforce a diverse Metagame and causes you to play your cards carefully.

As an added bonus, an average game can be anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes at most.

The Bad: The game is too reliant on its opening. When it comes to starting plays for the first few turns, only Lawtia seems to have the most diverse and makes the opponent unsure of what exactly they’re up against (as opposed to the other three where you can hazard a guess before the file really gets going). If your opening is bad, or if you’re disrupted within the first few turn, it can easily be game over (Falkow is excellent at this via sending your Unit back to your file).

The Ugly: This is where I place all my emotion that I was attempting to hold back through the first part of the review to prevent going into bipolar territory.

First off is the upkeep of the game. As of now, you convert Pot Cash (Pot Games currency) into Gran. Gran can be earned by either doing this Mini Game called Mirage Master once a day or just by playing once at least once a week. Now, before I go further into that, you need to know how much Gran is in dollars. One Gran is akin to one cent, so that means 100 Gran is a dollar. Packs on average cost 150 Gran ($1.50). Those packs contain on average 5 cards…that’s right, nearly $2 for five cards. That adds up REALLY QUICK when you know that in order for certain cards deemed good to be ran (and honestly, this game has balancing issues up the Yin Yang that would make League of Legends players GREATFUL their game isn’t as bad as this could be, and they are LOUD about balancing), you need THREE COPIES OF A SINGLE UNIT. Grims, you can get away with two or even just 1, but do that with most Units and you get nowhere. No character is under 3 Stars…higher stars means less chance of getting a card. Now I dare you to complete a playset of 5-Star Units without spending no less than say…$200.

Normal set boxes cost roughly $21. Those yield 75 cards. Sounds good, right…WRONG! Even in the Gold and Silver boxes you have zero protection from getting more than 3 copies of cards a pull (the only plus about Gold/Silver boxes is that you’re guaranteed at least one 5-Star card). Sure, you say you’ll just trade them off for things you need from other players. Remember when I said the “trading” part in the game was undeserving? I say this because YOU CAN’T TRADE CARDS WITH PLAYERS! The only way you can “trade” in the cards for new ones is Recycling them. The rate of recycling is scaled horribly against you (yes, they need to make money, but this is too much when you consider other factors) .

1-Star = 5 Gran

2-Star = 10 Gran

3-Star = 30 Gran

4-Star = 150 Gran

5-Star = 300 Gran

EX = Either 30 or 300 Gran

But don’t worry they got a way to circumvent this. Point Cards. You get these with Fight Money (FM henceforth) which is only obtained by fighting. It costs 2500 FM. If you win, you get 60 FM and if you lose, you get 20 FM. Assuming you have one hell of a hot streak it would take you about 42 wins to get one Point Card. If you happen to be a punching bag it would take 125 losses to get that much. Wonder how many Point cards it takes to get ONE card? It varies.

1-Star = 10 Point Cards

2-Star = 20 Point Cards

3-Star = 30 Point Cards

4-Star = 50 Point Cards

5-Star = 60 Point Cards

EX = Cannot be obtained with Point Cards

Now isn’t that some bullshit? I’m not even going to bother to crunch the numbers on how many games you would need to play to get 180 Point Cards. They have events you can partake in now and then to get at least 5 point cards, but good luck having the tolerance for it.

Through Levels 1 through 14 you get to choose a card from the four Spheres to add to your collection. They’re quite pathetic on average. Once you reach level 20 you will only get a gift card every 10 Levels. The higher you get, the more rare the cards you can pick from (remember, Rare doesn’t necessarily equal good). Once you get to Level 100, your choices are all 5-Star cards. Sounds good in theory, but it also locks you out of the possibility of getting those missing (and essential for some files) 3 and 4 Star cards. Also, leveling is slow as HELL in this game. Level means nothing in terms of collection, but just an indicator of how long someone has been playing. RP determines on average how much a person has won/lost.

Another thing that got me, when I was searching for reviews, a lot of them are dated. A good deal of the ones I found were GLOWING with praise. I’m convinced to this day that those who did praise it were either super rich, were employees, bribed or so blinded by their love of all things Anime that they couldn’t see the rotting core!

What further leads me to believe that is the balancing issues. Faeries use to be quite viable, now they’re not so much. Faeries were fairly cheap (in Alteil terms anyway) to put together and make a winning file with. I barely use them now. I’m convinced that they were picked on because they were popular (the Faerie faction pack got in stock, and let all sorts of people get and play them) and affordable. The testing team claims they said this was for the best of the game. Honestly, I think they just throw their feces at random cards to buff and nerf and how much. It would explain why Return is still a nuance.

Lastly, the Replay slots. They give you 5 of them so you can save your battles and show them off. Great for getting file help and tactical advice. Really, you get 10, but since Alteil is like “let’s make them bleed out their bank accounts more and have them pay to access ALL the replay slots even though the cards cost an arm and a leg! HERP, DERP!” its really only 5. Thanks, you bastards.

 Judgment: As of now, I’m just playing sparingly. I had much love for this game during the beginning, but I can’t say I love it now. Then again, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself at any point (that would be a lie). Before I decide to flee fully I await the Alteil 2 format to come to the States. I expect some major changes such as much lower prices on everything, more cards from a single pack (without the cost hitting the roof), Tanking being an actual tactic and requiring either a lot LESS Point Cards to get a single card.

Only time will tell if I will stick around. I feel my faith in this game has been unrewarded. It has a long way to go to become viable, but honestly, I cannot recommend this game for anyone to play as is. I’ll keep my eye on the game now and again…waiting…watching for Alteil 2 before I give my final judgment.

I apologize for the Ugly side being so long just feels so good to let it all out in the open in a place where I can’t be banned for it (not sure how trigger happy the testers are to criticism, but at least they can’t have me banned for telling them off offsite. The 5/27/11 Nerf/Buff rounds made me believe retarded monkeys test these things out.

Parting Wisdom: If you wish to try this game out, and quite possibly become a lifer, please take my advice. It’s too dangerous to go into that game without it (for your wallet and sanity).

-          Avoid picking Refess (the Yellow Sphere) as your starting file. It sucks as of posting this review. It might be fine at first, but once you get to the common area (and unless you’re willing to spend) you will struggle tremendously.

-          Only buy boxes (Gold or Silver) and packs (Faction and Gold ) during sales.

-          The Card Lotto is only your buddy during the beginning of your Alteil life and only when your collection is small. Even then, wait for Rarity Up and Hyper Rarity Up before you go really crazy on it. If you plan on buying boxes from different sets you REALLY need to stay away till Rarity up.

-          The EX Lotto is a LIE! It might offer you cards that were once only available through older EX packs, but unless you’re loaded you’re a fool to pursue this venture. This is for high rollers and morons only (since we’re talking 100 Gran a pull Take 99 Spins on that and not get what you want, you’ll hate yourself).

-          Take it slow in Folrat (the starting area). Pick mostly private battles so you level up slowly, so you can start to get a feel for the game. Once you reach Level 15, you’ll be tossed to the wolves. The Gowen deck will have the easiest time fighting in there with the least amount of modifications.

-          The Return mechanic is busted in this game. If you see Falkow (Blue Sphere) know that your Level 1 through 3 units are highly susceptible to these files. They could make you weep tears.

-          If you get angry at the game, do not try to recycle cards in hopes of getting something that might help (known as Ragecycling by some) .Luck is a harsh, cruel mistress. Her loyalty is only to the Alteil staff and she has no reservations proving this to you, especially if you think you can beat her.

-          Do not fall in love with any 5-Star cards. The odds of pulling them are not only low, but most require to be played in 3’s to be any good. You could spend $100 in packs/boxes and still come up short.

-          Do not invest in the Potions in shop. They’re not worth it at all. Your Gran is better spent on cards.

Well, I prattled along with this longer than I thought. If only I had the money to review something more…fun for me. Alteil has its moments, but I await the shift to Alteil 2 in the States. If nothing improves, then I wash my hands of the game. Still if you enjoy it that’s fine, but I stick to my convictions on this matter till something changes for the better in my eyes. Perception…isn’t is a hoot? Don’t take my word for it, try it for a bit, then tell me if you agree or disagree and why.

There are things I left out, but I try to keep my reviews short. Exact rules and such can be found on site. To its credit, the community is small, but friendly.

First Look: Rusty Hearts

Nexon is still giving me grief, so it’s time to bust out a new segment. Here with First Look, I’ll be reviewing games which I get closed beta access to. Here’s hoping this will be the first of many for me. Now, down to business.

Unless you missed the title, the game is called Rusty Hearts. Rusty Hearts is a story driven beat-em-up in cel shaded 3D with RPG elements. At this moment you are limited to 3 pre made characters (think of it as one of those old school Arcade games). Each one of them has their own stats, attack styles and powers.

I won’t go into the story here (since I have not revealed that much of it in game) but long story short you’re a part of this team trying to hunt down a Vampire named  Count Vlad that the lead wants to kill for personal reasons.

Since this is the early stages, I’ll just stick to the raw info and cut out the fluff. The game is in 3D, so this could be problematic for underpowered machines. There was earlier yesterday an IP ban on certain regions and half of Europe was affected (and much rage, bellowed forth on the forum about it). The game plays by default by keyboard. You use the arrow keys to move, Z to block, X to attack and C to grab and throw foes (except bosses). A, S, D, F, G and H are hotkeys for skills while numbers 1 through 0 are item hotkeys. Q, W and E are camera controls and the Spacebar is the jump key. This key configuration is rather hotly despised on the official forums for the game (they can be reconfigured and you can do what I’m doing and use a joypad), but not NEARLY as much as the stamina system which limits how many dungeons you could do in one go (there’s a petition going around to get it removed as we speak).

More about the controls. As of now, the combo’s don’t feel too fluent. Some lag is noticeable at points when you’re attacking. Then again, this is a Beta, so issues are to be expected this early in localization. Still, it hasn’t deterred me any, I just try to adjust for the expected lag between buttons.

The stamina system reared its head by the time I thought about doing a small video with a Dungeon run, so instead, I leave you with some PvP action (I didn’t fare too well here). Sadly, I’m still a newbie  with Hypercam (HEEEEELP!!!) so the sound from the video didn’t carry, so I inserted some music of my own.

I’ll update with more stuff when possible (and a dungeon run when my stamina builds back up.

OH! They still have some Beta keys. Why not try getting some before the "closed" part lives upto its name?

First Impression: Heroes of Newerth

I figured while I’m trying to figure out how to wrap my head around how to attack the Mabinogi article I’d make this blog a little less dead by filling it with more…STUFF!

So here’s a segment where I just make posts quickly. Any game I try on a mere impulse will be documented here. With that out of the way, let’s get started. Heroes of Newerth is one of those games in the genre of Defense of The Ancients (known as Dota for short). Now, before I heard the term mentioned I had no clue what this kind of game was. What it involves in a nutshell is you and your team rushing towards the other side of the map and destroying your critical structure before they do the same to you. I’m a CASUAL gamer, so I don’t really know about this genres history (and I plan to go into further depth once I decide I’m ready to cover League of Legends).

I saw this game a few days ago on the League of Legends forum and thought about trying it. Then I saw the fact you needed to pay $30 just to make an account on the game and I said “FORGET IT!” despite how interesting it looked. Then I saw it tonight for $10 (probably a bid to get new people) to make said account. I still didn’t want to try it. Then my silent partner offers me $10 to try it and I told them I might as well.

Now before I go further I should mention that what little experience I do have in the genre is in League of Legends. Some out their might not consider it a “true” representation of the Dota genre. If you feel that way that’s fine, I’m working with what I know.

My associate, Aron told me that he/she/it has tried that game, and warned me that the learning curb was far more vicious than what League of Legends had to go through. With League of Legends I had an in game tutorial to play around in, at least a couple of Champions to play with to try to learn the game. They people seemed fairly nice and somewhat understanding of the newer players (also it’s FREE).

Heroes, however…not too pleasant to say the very leas- Okay, no bullshit, it was TERRIBLE! First off I let my group know right away that I was a new person (the game even ANNOUNCES IT) I didn’t get any slack from my team. The map they use to show who’s where isn’t the most stylish. In League of Legends you could see who exactly was where as long as Fog of War wasn’t hiding them. In Heroes of Newerth  you get no such thing. You don’t know exactly who your enemy might be, so you could be running into a fight you got a nice shot at OR (like me) you end up running to assist in a fight you have no hope of winning.

My second complaint? A kick feature that could be easily abused. Sure, you could get rid of dead weight but if you’re like me, you’ll get people left and right trying to kick you from the game just because the learning curb is steep and you’re TRYING YOUR HARDEST NOT TO DIE BUT GET KILLED ANYWAY BECAUSE SOME CLOWN JUMPPED YOU FROM THE BRUSH! No, they don’t understand that, they just see you as a fucking bother! Telling you to STAY AT THE WELL! I got similar treatment in LoL, but there was a drastic difference. The first match I played in LoL, they at least waited about 20 minutes before they told me to stop fighting. Want to know how long it was in HoN before they told me…? FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!!! This is why I usually try to shy away from ANYTHING with a steep learning curb because these types of games tend to breed elitist fuckwads who seem to have forgotten that they were once scrubs/feeders/noob themselves!

The last nail in the coffin was a lack of an in game tutorial. A little something I could play around in before I get tossed to the lions would be nice, so I’m not dying so quickly. Everything happens so fast it not even funny. Sorry, there is an in game tutorial, but it’s busted and you need to close the client to get unstuck

Difficult to learn, hostile environment created by ass players and, oh yeah, having to pay for an account are major turn offs here. I hate games with a difficult learning curb. Who wants to go through all that abuse just to learn the basics? I should not have to read a textbook to get a handle on the basic workings of a game. When you got to do that much work it becomes a JOB! I also hate games where you are required to make a purchase before you can even try. Again, if not for my silent partner AND the sale I would have never paid it any mind. I also hate asshole “pros” who like to treat the new guy like crap since they aren’t automatically able to be ruthless killing machines off the bat (I can see why the Korean MMO model seems to be catching with some kinds. I mean who WOULDN’T want to consistently Player Kill some asshole who’s been making your E-life Hell?). Mix all three together and you got a recipe for disaster. Friends could make or break the game if you got people willing to work with you, but since you need to pay to go in, odds are I won’t be suckering persuading others in joining me in getting murdered online so we could learn together.

By the time this is posted I will have uninstalled the game. If you really enjoy games that merge RPG and RTS elements, then by all means, TRY League of Legends first if you have little to no experience in this field and if you enjoy it, go play Heroes of Newerth. I’m just saying that I will never play that game again. First impression is everything in games. It had its chance, and got my silent partners cash. So why do they need me around anymore anyway?

Shadow Era Card of the Day – U.S. Nationals Week: Elementalis

The Elementals. They got some pretty interesting cards. I say this because I’m reviewing one of them for day two of the U.S. Nationals Week.

AH, Elementalis. All the world is but a buffet to you. I can only imagine how many living beings you gorged yourself on while under the pilot of Harry Mckenzy (major ups for placing with him). I would have used you myself (much as I love tanking) but I didn’t after the possibility of Plague showing up to slow my progress further (but more on the one Priest who did make it tomorrow). Then again victory belongs to the bold and Harry is indeed that. Let’s break it down, and be quick about it I want to end this while it’s still full.

Elementalis has a respectable 28 hit points which ain’t too shabby if you ask me. For the cost of 2 Shadow Energy it can make any Ally under your control into a 5 Life restoring treat. Got a Spark to spare? Throw it to it! Fire Snake becoming useless? Slather it in gravy and send it along. Plasma Behemoth about to die on your opponent’s next turn? Attack first, CHOW DOWN LATER!

What makes this all the better (though not for long if the Nerfs takes the fun out of it) is that you can access Mind Control to snatch up a foes Ally, beat them with it then eat it. Fun for you but Hell for your opponent who will then cry “OP!” (over powered for those not in the know) to the developers till the cows come home. If you really want to piss your opponent off-, um, I mean make things more fun by equipping it with the Armor of Ages (named so because it takes FOREVER to break, but that’s for another time). Recovering so much health in one go AND be harder to kill!? SIGN ME UP!

But wait, there’s more! Sure, you can just use the Armor, Mind Control and call it a day, but why not just take it one step further…? How can you possibly draw out the opponent’s suffering longer? Toss in 2 copies of Eternal Renewal! Between replenishing your deck, stalling like crazy, snatching your opponent’s succulent (I can taste that Jasmine Rosecult rump roast now) Allies and restoring your health every other turn the opponent will either fight on valiantly to the point of frustrating, break down in tears from the futility of it all or pull off an epic miracle move which will make you shout to the heavens “WHHHHHHHYYYYYY!!!!!?” Oh, and chuck in a few copies of Energy Discharge to further add salt to the wounds.

There’s one other Ally I feel that would go well with Elementalis, but I think that one would work best with another Hero I will be reviewing later this week. Elementalis has a weakness in the form of being dependent on Fatties (cards that cost 5 Resources or more) to really bring the pain. Resource denial cards such as Plague will really grind you to a halt. Elementalis is beefy, has access to powerful toys and can really make its foes suffer, but all someone needs to do is rush it down and it’s over. Did he get lucky? Will Harry ride Elementails to the top or will a much faster Hero prove to be his undoing? We'll find out on Saturday if Harry has what it takes to bring the pain and dominate the tournament. All I’m saying is if he got that slow thing to the top 8 I sure as Hell don’t want to face him.

Allies! The other white meat.

Allies! It’s what’s for dinner.

Allies! Sweeter than candy.

Allies! Part of a nutritious breakfast.

This message was made possible by the Elementals for World Domination Society. Please don’t eat me!

Acer Aspire Triple Core: Solid Machine Plagued With Bad Apples

Anyone here know any part of the world where it’s perfectly legal to marry a machine? Because if there was such a place I would so be eloping with it. It’s not exactly the most powerful machine on the market (and with technology always evolving by the time you finish reading this it might be outdated) but for the price I got it for I felt I got my money’s worth.

Place of Purchase: I bought mine from HSN when they were doing a flex pay special. The estimated time of getting to me was the last day in May. The special was on Saturday (May 21) and it got to me on Wednesday (May 25) so I got to give points to UPS for not waiting till the last possible day to get it to me.

When I got it, it was in a box…within a box…within another box…and then another box. Needless to say it got to me unharmed and functioning.

Functionality & Things:  After booting up it picked up my network right away. A few shutdowns later due to multiple updates of Windows 7 and I’m good to go. Programs could take up to about 5 seconds to load at the absolute most which in my book isn’t too shabby (especially when you compare it to my last laptop which could take 40 seconds or more).

One thing does bother me about this model is that it has no volume buttons on it. For less than average users probably wouldn’t think to hold the Function key (Fn) and then hit either up or down to adjust the volume. For me its fine, but defiantly not for those who are less than computer literate. Another bothersome thing is the mouse pad. It’s a bit twitchy, but nothing that can’t be fixed by tweaking the sensitivity or using an external mouse. That’s peanuts to my concern about the buttons on the built in mouse pad. It’s one big button but it works like a standard mouse pad. This might be enough to drive some people crazy being used to two clearly split buttons. Again, overcome by using an external mouse.

The operating system runs swell though it takes some getting used to. I tend to go into MSCONFIG to turn off things that I don’t want leaping on top of me during the boot up (like my instant messengers). I’m so used to clicking Run then typing the command. Here, there is no run button when you click on the start menu but you use the search bar in the start menu to execute commands. It saves a few seconds but was a brief adjustment for me. Still thought I should point it out for those not familiar with Windows 7. On that note I want to mention the OS liking to constantly double checking if you want to use certain programs. I can see the value in it (spyware can be a douche bag) but it could drive some people up a wall feeling smothered by their OS.

You know how earlier I touched on how the volume controls aren’t on this model unless you use the keyboard command (or OS task bar)? Well this model has only one speaker and its mono. So unless you’re using it in a place that has some badass acoustics don’t expect it to be too loud. It’s louder than Aron’s Dell XPS Insparon which is really low, but that’s another time…maybe. One more thing to note. This laptop comes with its own built in webcam. I only used it once, but it’s so clear and the picture is gorgeous. I’d show you an example of how well it captures images, but I’m not plastering myself on the web anytime soon.

Gaming Potential: With four gigs worth of ram, 640 gig harddrive and triple core processor it makes for one slick gaming machine. The only issue I’ve had with it in this respect is how it murders the battery. If you plan on playing something with high graphic demands you MUST be near an outlit. Sound as I mentioned earlier is on the weak side so if you’re someone who like to be immersed in a bath of sound you might want to get a set of external speakers or a pair of stereo headphones.

Frame rate doesn’t drop on online games unless you’re lagging due to having a slow connection or clunky router you just want to shoot in the face.

HSN Got A bad Batch: As I stated earlier I ordered mine from HSN. The ones from the HSN batch seem to have some bad ones mixed in with the functioning models, problems ranging from harddrive not working, keyboard being unresponsive and one complaining how they didn’t like the color and sent it back and gave it a 1 star on that merit.

If you intend on ordering from HSN, buying beware. I got lucky, but there have been some rather unfortunate cases. Then again when you mass produce something there’s bound to be a few defective product in the mix. Par for the course. As of this post it turns out that it sold so take that however you wish.

Final Judgment: Outside of all the concerns I had with some not-so-tech-savy people being driven crazy I love it. Runs quiet, plays big, bulky games, plenty of room on the drive and runs as quiet as a church mouse. Still, I wouldn’t give it to the tech illiterate. Now, for the more techy people in the audience…the specs.

The Key Specs

Model #:	AS5552-5495
Operating System:	Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit version
Processor:	AMD Phenom II Triple Core N830 Processor - 2.1GHz
Memory:	4096MB Dual-Channel DDR3 Memory
Hard Drive:	640GB (5400RPM)
Optical Drive:	DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive (plays and records all standard DVD and CD formats)
Media Card Reader:	SecureDigital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC)
LCD Monitor:	15.6" HD Widescreen LED-LCD display 1366 x 768 resolution 16:9 aspect ratio

Additional Specs 

Graphics:	ATI Radeon HD 4250
Video Memory:	Up to 256MB
Cache Memory:	L2
System Bus:	1.5MB
Sound System:	Built-in speaker (1) Headphone/speaker jack; (1) Microphone-in jack
Wireless Network Adapter:	802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Certified
Network Adapter:	10/100/1000 Gigabit  Ethernet LAN
Ports:	(3) USB 2.0 (1) HDMI (1) VGA Connector (1) Kensington Lock Slot (1) AC Adapter Connector
Battery:	6-cell Li-ion (4400 mAh) Approx. 3.3 hours of battery life