Hi guys and welcome to my blog! Mirrored Worlds is a blog about gaming, anime and nerd/otaku culture. I'll be focusing on news, reviews and my basic thoughts and ideas relating to nerd and otaku culture. I'll be giving my personal view on posts but don't be afraid to comment and leaving any responses or questions!
AND I LOVE IT!!!! GAHHHHH I MUST PLAY RIGHT NOW!!11!!..1
But seriously though...this game is fantastic! I just want to let you guys know this isn't a review or anything (since I barley scratched the surface with only 5 hours..) and with a game such as this 5 hours is seriously a very short period of time. It took me, personally, 2 hours until I even saw the title of the game appear because I was so invested in the beautifully crafted prologue! Before I started I made sure to brush up on some of the games' lore to really be as fully invested as possible. The game has been getting quite a bit of attention and quite a bit of fan stuff already!
There is already songs dedicated to the game (where the gif is from, a Lindsey Stirling video) and people are already telling grand tales of their adventures of the game! It is to be estimated that the game will take a minimum of 90 hours to complete (so knowing me that would equal to about 300 hours or so) and is jam packed full of content, quests, drama and mythological battles. If your a new comer to the series that is completly fine! So far they have done a good job of intorducing material to new comers but I would reccomend brushing up on its lore (there is quite a bit but again the article I posted will help a lot) and again I cannot stress just how much I am loving this game!..seriously what I am I still doing here?
I'll let you guys head out now and pick it up and I will give my full review when I have put some seriously time into it..and with that..I'm just gunna..go ahead and..ehhehmm...*boots up the game* I'll see you guys later I swear! =D
So I have noticed for the past couple of years there is quite the stream of remastered games that have saturated the game market. Now I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing or anything but I have noticed this to be a current trend. For example I started to notice that some of the Metal Gear games were being released for the 360 and the ps3 (back before the current consoles were released, about 2 years ago or so) and that was when I actually noticed there was a trend starting. I have noticed other games before that have come out, or be remastered and such (looking at you terrible port of Silent Hill 2!) but now I have noticed quite a bit of games out there remaking a game entirely (Halo: Combat Evolved) to include to features and even be able to switch graphical fidelity on the fly with one button, which is really cool if I have to say! There are some which are more towards bringing a beloved game to a more current gen (Final Fantasy X and X/2) with some bumps in visuals but are really just the same game, which is not a bad thing don't get me wrong. And now to add to that there is some news that was just released 10 minutes ago (no joke) thatDark Souls IIis coming to the X1 and PS4 (woohoo!!) and I am looking forward to picking it up, especially since they added all the DLC included in the game for no extra charge!
So with that I wanted to ask...what are you thoughts in this matter? Do you feel that this is something reprehensible, a good thing for the industry or something in between?
So right now for me I would say my main anime I have been watching is Baka to Test, a fun, energetic, silly comedy with some moe themes (cute) and is a slice of life. This show is actually quite a bit of fun and offers some pretty interesting situations due to the main character, Akihisa Yoshii, being the "baka" (idiot in Japanese). The show is fun and light hearted and really does a good job of getting some good laughs each episode! Now I know this is not the most "manly" of shows (and honestly who cares) but I love it. This show is a good example of how Japanese culture really breaks the mold of gender sterotypes and shows equal portail of both men and women as well as hetero and homosexual relationships.
So I so with that, if your in the mood for something a little different, quirky, strange and just a fun show all around I would highly recommenced it!
Pokemon Yellow was one the first games I have ever played as a child and helped to shape my love and passion for video games. Pokemon Yellow, or Yellow for short, was and still is one of my favorite games. This game was something of an oddity on the playgrounds because either kids would have the Red or the Blue versions, but I had to have the Yellow version. The main difference between this game and the other two was that Pikachu (Seriously you have to know Pikachu by now...) would follow you around behind your character. Now for the time, this was pretty unique because this was the only pokemon that would do that and no other game had this feature (in later games any pokemon could follow but I digress...) and I always felt like I had a little friend following me around. In the Yellow version I loved it how you could actually catch the other three starters from the other versions and create a real powerhouse of a team. I would play Yellow and watch the anime growing up simultaneously and try to keep pace with the show within the game. Overall I have to say that Yellow really strengthened my love for the Pokemon series and helped "jump start" (sorry that was a terrible pun but it had to be done) my passion into gaming in general.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced (Tactics for short) was and still is one of my most played games...hell I am even in a game right now for it! This game is one of the best JRPG's I have ever played and has some of the greatest grid tactical combat around. Tactics is a "remake" in the broadest of terms of the original and is for the Gameboy Advance, hence why that put "Advanced" in the title. This game has taken so much of my life growing up that I have, no joke, spent almost a thousand hours into it (across many playthroughs). This game invoked my sense of imagination and brought out my own ideas of how characters would interact with each other and each character in your guild's personality. This game helped spark my love of strategy games, such as X-COM Enemy Within, and other great titles.
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X is and will be one of my favorite games in my life. This game really has shaped my love for not only JRPG's but roleplaying games in general. I remember walking into a game store when I was younger and seeing this game, well the opening scene, at a little demo setup in the store and thought it was strange but cool at the same time ( I think i was probably around 10 at the time) but didn't pick up the game. Now flash forward a few months later, Christmas time and i opened up a gift from my uncle and low and beyond it was FFX! I was so excited to give it a try and they even gave me a strategy guide to go along with it. Now have spent hundreds of hours with this game and still play the soundtrack frequently (not to mention I picked up the recent HD remake of the game) and to this day will always be one of the best gaming experiences of my life.
Phantasy Star Online
Phantasy Star Online, or rather PSO for short, was a pretty strange one for me (at the time when I played since I was only in the 5th grade) and was actually an early start into a MMO. PSO orignally game out for the GameCube(which was one of the only games to be played online for the system and actually required an annual payments system similar to World of Warcraft but I digress...), and the original Xbox I believe a year later. I picked it up for the Xbox because I was at a friends house and we were playing the game I thought it looked like so much fun and the very next day I picked it up after school with my friends, brought my system over to his house and we played the game together online for hours on end. PSO had some early elements of an MMO but it was basically you can group up with four people, choose a server and do levels together. Overall this game took many a hour away from my school work but was time well spent.
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, or just Halo for short is not only one of my favorite games in childhood and adulthood but also commonly known as one of thegreatest FPS's of all time. I have seriously spent so much my time time growing up playing Halo with my friends and playing the campaign alone (to a point where I would actually memorize some levels and a good portion of the dialogue) and even go to gaming parties/tournaments for the game. I am still a huge fan of halo and the developer Bungie (Yes I play quite a bit of Destiny and will talk about my time with it in a different post later on). Halo has and will be one of the greatest games of my childhood and I will, in all honesty, never stop playing it! (Especially now there is the new remake of the four main titles brought over to the X1)
The Stick of Truth is a raunchy, crude, explicit, and insensitive..and I loved every minute of it!
The Stick of Truth is the newest game to be created under the “South
Park” license. This game, developed by Obsidian studios, and voiced by
the creates Matt Stone and Trey Parker, is a truly phenomenal
experience. This game follows around a central character, being you and
the character you create.
The begining of the game is set up with some background knowledge of
what is currently happening within the game. The story is that all of
the kids in South Park are basically LARPing (live action role playing)
and the new kid, you, will change the tides of battle. Now following
true South Park fashion the events expand further and further into chaos
and absolute craziness occurs.
The game mechanics are following a traditional turn-based RPG,
similar to classic JRPG’s but with a twist. There is an active blocking
system and each attack may require timing, or mashing or a small QTE to
input actions. These actions, if done correctly, will either have
additional damage or may simply be done correctly, while the opposite
could be failing an attack, dealing less damage, or in some cases (such
as Kenny’s) actual death.
The visual style of the game and the general game “feel” truly
creates an atmosphere of witnessing and playing an episode of South
Park. There is the choppy animation that is done exactly like the show,
the “crappy” visuals are exactly like the show, the sounds and voices
are all spot on (with the help from the shows creators) and I never once
felt I was playing something other than a South Park game. Now if you
are not a fan of South Park, this game will surly not sway you into
liking the show, but if you are a fan (such as myself) you are truly in
for a treat! This game is jam packed with references, characters, and
easter-eggs all relating to the show spanning from the old to the most
recent additions. There is also quite a bit of raunchy humor (and even
some scenes that have been blocked in Europe, Australia, to name a
few..) and with that material that may upset some. For example there is a
scene where the player must perform an abortion on a man. Now this
scene is blocked in some foreign countries but if you are playing in the
US, or on a PC none of the scenes have been blocked. Now if you are
fine with the extreme humor this game brings than there won’t be a
problem but if you are offended easily I would say stay away from Stick
of Truth.
Overall if you are a fan of the show, you will truly be in for a
treat. This game is fun, non-stop humor and actually became quite
challenging during the later parts of the game. It requires resource
management and balancing stats, affects, and play styles all come into
fruition. If you are not a fan than you will not enjoy Stick of Truth in
the slightest. This game does really require you to be a fan of the
show to understand its plethora of references to the show but if you are
a fan this will be a “true” South Park game for the ages. I put in
about 13-14 hours between the main mission and completing about 70% of
side quests.
Bottom Line
Play it if you are a fan! You will be in for quite a treat!
Hey everyone so Dragon Age Inquisition is coming out soon and I am reallllly looking forward to it! I have played the first one about 3 times though with putting in about 200ish hours in (actually it's my most played game on Steam which tells something for sure...) and I am really looking forward to the third iteration. Now I never have actually played to second one, due to really being restricted to one city and overall not having quote the plot strength as the first one, but I am truly excited for the third iteration.
So before the game came out I beta tested the Dragon Age Keep (which is now fully available for the public) and is something to really give a shot at. So what the Keep is, is a way to create a world state for the games that can be carried over to the new game. So what this would mean for you is that in the Keep you can go through each of the major decisions and consequences of the two previous games and thier DLC to bring over those choices into the third game. As an example lets say you had Allistair, a fan favorite of the first game become king, he would still be king in the third one affecting gameplay, while to counter that let's say a different play though he died, and in doing so there would be a different ruler of Ferelden (the setting nation of the first game). The game comes out tomorrow (sadly I won't be able to pick it up launch so my review/thoughts of it will be a bit later) and I fully believe it to be a huge hit for this year in gaming! If you guys pick it up at launch please leave some comments and let me know of your thoughts of the game and if you imported a world state from the Keep!
Hey everyone I have been trying out some different gaming avenues recently to broaden my horizons (in gaming terms). I have never actually played a full visual novel before (I have played smaller flash games that had some VN themes but nothing like a full game). The game is called Sunrider and I found it on a whim on Steam. Now I am familiar with VN, (due to the fact my girlfriend has played dozens of them with her external hard drive filled with over 250 gigs worth...) but I have never put time into one myself. I know there are plenty of different types out there with some more focused on pure dialogue but this one is actually quite a good balance of story and combat. The combat is done actually quite well and is pretty challenging. It's a turn-based futuristic strategy game that focuses on using mechs and your main ship in combat with a strong feel of say the Gundam series. I've put in about 2 hours in so far and I'm loving it so far! Now it is a game for adults so there will be adult content, not in terms of gore but more with language and mild nudity. Finding this on Steam was again quite an interesting find, but looking more into it there seems to be more and more visual novels being added to the overall library of titles and I feel that this was a good idea to get gamers (such as myself) introduced to these sorts of titles. So with that I say go find some new visual novels on Steam and I would suggest picking Sunrider up as well! Oh..and it's free so really there is no reason not to...
So I have put some time into Shadow of Mordor..probably a good 25 hours and I have to say that I fell in love with the game! The game offers a unique take on the action/adventure genre made popular from such titles as Assassin's Creed and the Batman Arkham series. Shadow of Mordor was a very nice surprise in terms of depth and I truly do feel that this will be a sleeper hit for 2014.
As I stated in my previous post, Shadow of Mordor, or SOW for short, has made quite the positive impact on the gaming community. There have been a plethora of reviews and I do believe they have been hitting the mark with what the game has to offer. SOW is an action/adventure game that uses combat influenced from the Arkham series and has elements of movement and free-running from other series. Now the major thing that SOW brings to the table is the Nemesis system. The Nemesis system is something truly unique and game changing for the gaming industry. This new system is a simple premises, and if adopted in other games can truly be ground breaking.
The Nemesis system is basically a way to create unique and interesting characters and interactions throughout the players journey in Mordor. What I mean by this would really be best explained by one of my own personal examples. As an example of the system, I started the game and was working on the beginning missions. There wasn't really to much different from what I have seen in some videos but an orc captain, I forgot his name but he had the title of plague-bringer, basically decided to ambush me right in the middle of a fight. He went on saying something about how this is a bad time for me and begun to mock me and then charged. I eventually slew him, or so I thought, and continued along with the game. Three hours later I meet him again, but now he is covered in fresh scars and tells me that I have made him hideous and wants his revenge on me, not that he was attractive to begin with but I digress...so I eventually slew him again and again, you guessed it, another hour later in the game we meet again. He now has become quite powerful and even more grotesque. He screams at me at how I have ruined his life and now he wants to repay me in blood. His appreaice is trully disgusting now and both of his eyes have turned a milky white. After our battle I eventually cut off his head and I havn't seen or heard from him since.
Now that was a long-winded example to be sure but the new system has really created ways to have unique and personal touches to each and everyones game. The Nemesis system is a way for orcs to rise and fall in power, increase in rank and prestige and everything is remembered. If you shoot an orc in the eye and he gets away, he might come back with a metal plate over his eye and, what was previously a weakness to range weapons, has now become an invunerablitiy because he will be on guard for your arrows. This system is trully what has made this game from a good experience to something awe inspriiing and I truly belive other games can learn from the Nemsis system.
Now in terms of story I think it does add some interesting lore for those who are fans of the Lord of the Rings series and Tolken in general. The combat is fun and the use of the new Branding system of making orcs join your side is really interesting.
Overall I would highly recommend Shadows of Mordor and I stick by my judgment of how this will be the sleeper hit of 2014.
So I have been looking forward to Shadow of Mordor for a while now, but I never really knew to much about it. I knew about the interesting Nemesis system, but other than that not a whole lot. As time came closer and closer to it's launch..which was on Tuesday, 09/30, there were more and more updates and reviews on the game. As I was looking up some more info I begun to see that Shadow of Mordor was actually getting really good reviews , 9/10's on average. I was so happy to see that something of a sleeper was becoming such a huge hit! I also couldn't believe that being a third party game based on an existing franchise (which in terms of games usually never bods well...) was getting great responses across the board! I actually put a preorder in ( the night before its launch to get the preorder bonuses) and decided I was going to spend my extra free time on weekends really delving into it.
So with that I have decided I am going to do my own personal review on the next post of Shadow of Mordor and I'll let you guys know what I'm thinking about the game! Now I won't have a massive amount of time so I'll do some updates if need be (such as updates released that would be ground breaking that might alter the score of a game).
So as reported by Kotaku, Blizzard, the company that brought us World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, Diablo III, and a plethora of other golden goodies just canceled its new IP, Titan. Titan was in development for 7 years now and with Blizzard not giving the general public barley a peep about information besides it would have been a sci-fi epic with influences from The Sims, Team Fortress 2, elements from Destiny, Persona, World of Warcraft and a few others.
Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's CEO stated to Polygon "I wouldn't say no to ever doing an MMO again, but I can say that right now, that's not where we want to be
spending our time." Morhaime goes onto explain how Blizzard doesn't want to just focus on a spefic idea and doesn't want to be pigeonholed into a specific niche. Morhaime expresses how he wants Blizzard to be able to take risks and really expand in a different direction. He explains how he wants the company to be able to create new IP's of not just having a focus on being a AAA title but even being able to focus on the Indie scene.
Now I did feel quite upset hearing the news but I do have hopes for the future for great things from Blizzard. I'll update the blog more with more news as it comes out!
