Yup, I finished the Heart of Winter expansion for IWD. Wow...that was quick... Indeed this expansion is rather short, specially when compared to the main game, but at least this one left me wanting to play more. Despite the length it was really cool, as gnome pointed out here. The story is engaging, the new areas and enemies give it a refreshing new look, even if they're still made of snow or caves, and overall it was just a good way to extend the original game. About the story, I have a complaint, though. Without wanting to spoil the plot, it basically tells the story of an evil entity wanting to wage war between the barbarian tribes of the north and the Ten Towns (a group of 10 settlements of "civilized" people from the south).
As expected, it's our mission to destroy that evil entity, thus bringing peace to the land (ok, it was still at peace since the war was yet to start, but you know what I mean), but the problem is...I actually wanted to join my nemesis and drive the southern scum out of the tundra. Just think about it, the barbarian tribes lived in piece in the cold north until the fucking "civilized men" came from the south to exploit their lands and take them away from them. Why wouldn't I want to join them in their quest for revenge? I would gladly burn the Ten Towns to the ground and kick their sorry asses over the Spine of the World. ...Does that make me a bad person?... o_O
Anyway, even Black Isle realized that the expansion was just to short, so they eventually released a mini-expansion for it called Trials of the Luremaster. I'm off to play that one, so I can finally see everything IceWind Dale has to offer.
It's party time again, for I've finished IceWind Dale! Fuck yeah! "Oh, you beat a game, big deal...", you might be thinking, but you have to put it in context. I'm talking about a western RPG (or CRPG, as gnome likes to call them, for me it's all the same because I've never played a "real" RPG), one of those that involve a lot of talking, semi-turn based fighting and overall are just fucking huge and take ages to finish! That's why I'm so happy, because among my 5 Infinity Engine-powered RPG's, Icewind Dale is the first one that I finish, with all the others being forgotten after just an afternoon or two of intensive gaming. This one was not an easy task, and near the end it became boring, specially because the plot turned out to be less engaging that I'd expected and the last areas are a complex system of caves, and I bought the game to see snow, not underground tunnels, but still, my will was strong and I endured those trials.
But I'm not finished with this one yet! Just started playing the expansion, Heart of Winter, and after that I still have the mini-expansion Trials of the Luremaster, so I'll be busy with this game for some time. Also, on a side note, it's amzing how the expansion gave the gave an entirely new look just by increasing the resolution from 640x480 to 800x600. I know, that might seem irrelevant, but in fact it makes a huge difference in this game. Now the game's areas really look like paintings instead of a poorly digitized image.
Yeah, I know I've been talking a lot about Naruto lately, but don't worry, this will probably be my last post for a while. I'll try to keep the following lines as much spoiler-free as possible, but if you're following the series and don't want to know anything about Shippuden you'll probably want to skip to my thoughts on the game (after the picture of its cover). So, I've only seen the first 3 episodes yet, but so far it's being nothing short of AWESOME! With so much filler shit I've almost forgotten how great the story arcs are. It all starts with Naruto's return to the village, and so far I've only seen him, Sakura, Shikamaru, Temari and Gaara(from, the "kids, that is, because the other characters stay basically the same). I already knew they had different outfits, which is good for Naruto because the full-orange one was ridiculous, and although some are almost the same (Shikamaru) or retain the basic aspects of the first ones (Naruto, Sakura, Gaara), Temari has a completely different outfit, much better than the old one, in my opinion.
They've all grown up (just look at the picture above) and Shikamaru also changed earrings, but unfortunately some things stay the same, and Sakura's boobs remain strangely undeveloped. Seriously, I'm worried about the girl, she's cute as hell but she really needs bigger breasts. Anyway, one thing that's worthy of mention is that, since Naruto was away from the village, he wasn't able to participate in the chuunin exam, so from the old group he's the only one who's still a genin (lower ninja). Everyone else is either a chuunin (middle ninja) or a jonin (higher ninja). This is rather ironic, that the most powerful shinobi from the "kids" has the lowest rank, but as of the first episodes the chuunin exam is about to begin, so hopefully he will finally advance in ranking. Also, funny how Shikamaru, the first one to advance to chuunin, earlier in part 1 of the anime, is not one of the select few who are already jonin in Shippuden. Overall i'm really liking this new part of the series and I can't wait to see the remaining characters and the future plot developments.
Now to the game. I have to admit that I had low expectations for Ultimate Ninja 3, for two reasons. First, the previous game was really similar to the first one, and this one seemed like it would be no different, and I hate sequels who look more like expansions than a new game. Second, the first two games were hard as hell! Really, not only the AI was merciless, but some battles also had stupidly difficult winning conditions, like winning with a certain special move or with a certain amount of energy or chakra left. If just winning was already hard, than winning with this conditions was almost impossible at times, and it was really frustrating to defeat the opponent but still lose the battle because the special conditions weren't met. I actually reviewed Ultimate Ninja 2 for PTGamers back in the day, you can read it here. Of course, my international friends won't understand shit, but they can at least see the score and look at the pretty pictures.
Fortunately, UN3 is completely different in this aspect. The game is so much easier, and thus enjoyable, than the last one that this one really seems like a real sequel. Of course that the difficulty level wasn't the only change, and the gameplay itself is a little different. In the previous games, in order to use a special attack, you had to press triangle in order to activate your chakra and then attack, with the resulting special attack being different according to how many times you pressed triangle before, from 1 to 3. In UN3 this is no more. For the ultimate attack you just have to press triangle once, and for the other 2 special attacks you just have to do a simple combo (up+up+circle for one attack and down+down+circle for the other). It might look like a minor change, but it really makes the gameplay more enjoyable, because now you don't waste time pressing triangle 3 times before unleashing your best attack.
About game modes, there are two that stand above all the others, and so far I've only properly played the one that lets you recreate the famous battles from the anime, sort of like a story mode. Unlike the previous games, however, here we don't fight every single battle, but just the major ones. In the first Ultimate Ninja we played from the beggining of the series to the chuunin exam and the second game started there and went to...I don't know, I never finished the damn thing! Anyway, UN3 just covers the main events, divided into 4 story arcs, namely the genin training arc, the Konoha attack arc, the Tsunade search arc and the Sasuke retrieval arc. Each one contains 4 battles, except the last one which has more than that, so it's not a particularly long mode, but it's great to play nonetheless.
In the other main mode, which I'm yet to properly explore, we just run around the village, doing quests and completing missions, I guess. Really, I'm not going to talk about it much because I've barely played it yet, but what I can say already is that, although we can travel around Konoha like in Rise of a Ninja, the PS2 is no 360, and it shows. The village is much more ugly and lifeless than in RoaN, and it only makes that game look even greater. Still, we have to take into account that this game was originally released in Japan back in 2005, so back in the day it probably looked better.
Speaking of Rise of a Ninja, logged into Xbox Live today for the first time with that game and I discovered that if you have a Ubisoft account you can download Shikamaru as an exclusive character. Fuck yeah!
I'll now return to the game because I'm really hooked to it right now. I just hope that they don't take long to release Naruto: Narutimate Accel here (or in America, because UN3 wasn't released in Europe yet, I wonder what the fuck are they thinking!), the next sequel to the series but now based on Shippuden. If not I might have to play the Japanese version, which shouldn't be so bad considering that they're fighting games and I already know the plot, but still it's always better to play in English.
Let's celebrate, my friends, for I've just finished watching every single Naruto episode from part 1. Every 220 of them! Fuck yeah!!! I don't know how I manage to make it, specially since the fillers were fucking boring, but I did, and know I can proudly say that unlike many I didn't skip directly to part 2 when the fillers started, but managed to watch it all through. Now all that is left is to start watching part 2, or Shippuden for fans. I'm very excited but anxious at the same time, I got so fond of the characters like they are that I don't know how I'll react when I see them after the 2-and-a-half years time-skip. I hope that they maintain their personalities, but if Naruto got a little less stupid it would be a good change, he's suck a dick-head sometimes... I also hope that the girls took this time to *ahem* grow their "attributes"... (gosh, I sound like funnyman talking...is that a good of a bad thing?).
Anyway, in the meantime I guess I'll play some Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3. See ya!
Now, for something totally different from my last post. You all probably know (and if you don't, you should!) that Okami has an splendid soundtrack, but when you think of it you probably only remember those folkloric songs made with classic Japanese music instruments. Not that there's anything wrong with that, those tracks are great, but for me there's one that stands above all else. Just listen to this:
OMFG! Isn't it just fucking beautiful beyond anything else you've ever listened to? It gives me the shivers everytime I listen to it. It's just so...sad...in a beautiful way... (wow, I'm getting a little poetic). The only other songs that put me in this mood are Rammstein's Wo Bist Du (fond memories of wasting Nazi's in CoD2 while listening to it) and Paradise Lost's Prelude to Descent. Yeah, I've said it, these 3 songs make me cry like a little girl...
Because the greatest Portuguese metal band can't be praised enough...
Following Father K's and dxvolt's (you got to come by here more often....) enthusiastic response to my last post, I decided to make a whole post dedicated to the band's previous cd, Memorial, because there are just more than enough songs for a dedicated post (I'm going to post some from Wolfheart in the future). Here they are, 5 tracks for your listening pleasure, enjoy:
Finisterra
The first single, fucking awesome, isn't it? :) Nice riff, cool lyrics, it basically represents what this album is all about. If you like it, you'll probably like the rest.
Blood Tells
With this song begins what I call "the blood trilogy". You'll see why in the next two songs.
Upon the Blood of Men
That choir is a beautiful way to start a song, ain't it? Very nice, melodic track with a great guitar solo near the end.
Sanguine
The term "sanguine" actually has nothing to do with blood, but it always reminds me of it because in Portuguese blood is "sangue". Can you spot the similarity? Also, they speak of blood in the chorus, so it probably has something to do with the song after all.
Luna
Beautiful, sad but beautiful. This was the second single and one of my favourite tracks, just listen to it and you'll see why. "Thinking about you..."
So, I've finally beat Okami! It was about damn time! The first time around I got somewhat bored, not the game's fault but my own, since I have a rather short attention span when it comes to games. My PS2's condition certainly didn't help either. But now, with my console revitalized, I decided to finally try to finish it, and just a while ago I was successful in this task. Let me tell you, this game was a blast to the very end, full of unexpected plot twists and with an ending that was truly epic. Even the credits were fucking awesome!
(got to do this to my dog one day) (fuck, he's brown, I'll have to paint him white first...)
Finally I can truly appreciate this masterpiece of a game, for now I can see the whole picture, and to be honest I'm rather speechless... Trying to convey what this game represents through words is a daunting task, you have to play it yourself, experience it yourself, to understand why this title is so special. This is no mere game, this is art, this is excellence, this is awesomeness! And everyone should play it, every gamer worth is salt must play it, for otherwise he'll be missing out one of the best things this industry, nowadays filled with shitware (eheh, I think I've just created a new word), ever produced.
Clover Software, thanks for producing this most awesome of games. I salute you!
(you know someone is a big Okami fan when you see this on his leg)
Welcome friends! Welcome to my personal blog, where you may find articles about the most various things. Videogames should be a constant presence here, but expect to see the occasional movie or music album review, for I'm a fan of all forms of entertainment. Also expect to see everything that comes to my mind, since this is my own blog I feel free to post all the shit that I want.
Now, have a seat, grab a beer and read what goes in my mind...
