Grand Re-Opening

I would like to announce the official re-launch of my blog!
*Fanfare* *Applause* *Clapping* *Awkward leftover clapping*

My blog was previously without direction.  It had no purpose, no clear theme (except for piratey stuff).  But now, I'm happy to announce that my blog...

Remains without purpose.

What? You got a problem with that? Didn't THINK so! However, I am making the soon-to-be-broken promise that I will post more regularly.  Twice a week, Saturdays and maybe Wednesdays, yeah let's go with Wednesday, I will be posting something spectacular and amazing.  You will be blown away by my profound insight and exquisite tastes. You will burn with rage at my critical reviews only to crumple in embarrassment as you realize that I'm always right, especially about pirates being better than ninjas.

I will kick off my new blog with something we can all enjoy.  Free games.



Today's Free Lunch: Battle for Wesnoth

My friend and I were discussing game ideas the other day and I was suddenly reminded of a game I had played before. Before I go any farther, I want to give credit where credit is due. My little brother Sam introduced me to this game after he discovered it online. Sam has horrible taste in console games, but I have to give him this: he finds the best free stuff on the web.  As I was saying, Battle for Wesnoth in an Open-Source game that has a certain level of internet popularity.

Battle for Wesnoth plays very much like a miniatures board game.  Players control an army of distinct fantasy units.  These units move around on a hexagon tile board and then attack units that they are adjacent to.

There are several things I could relate this game to:

Advance Wars: Units are purchased with Gold which is earned by capturing certain tiles on the map.  This allows for a somewhat constant stream of units to be produced.

Fire Emblem: All units automatically counter-attack their attackers, often for very effective results.  Units are very specialized and level up after gaining enough experience.

Lord of the Rings: The thematic and 'story' elements of the game are very generic fantasy.  Orcs, elves, knights and wizards all clash in the epic fantasy battles that take place.

One thing I'd like to note about Wesnoth is that it's riddled with terrible names.  Wesnoth itself sounds like a horse sneezing or something.  The first campaign features the adventures of Konrad (meh) and Delfador the wizard. They fight their way across the fantasy world to combat Ashivere the evil queen (I think I got that right).  If you don't mind fantasy, then you'll be okay.

Overall, I found the game very entertaining. It would definitely make my top ten list of the best free games. I should make that sometime.

If you have suggestions for 'The Top Ten Best Free Games Ever', please leave your suggestion as a comment on this post.  Games must be legally free and they must either still be distributed on the web or you must have a copy that I can share with everyone else.

Until next time fellow pirates.

Dylan and Dracula

My friend and I were talking about my hair earlier today.  Someone once told me that my hair looked like a famous somebody's hair and I couldn't remember who they had mentioned.  Well, I remembered.
Bob Dylan's hair:

Also, I was recently stuck on Castlevania, but I found out that it  was because I was trying to get into a secret area of the game, not the place I was supposed to go.  So, I'm back on track now.
Dracula's Castle:

Freebies For Friday

It's not Friday so I can't call it "Freebie Friday" but I wanted to post now.  I visit many sites on the internet for fun and profit, but Kongregate is one of the most professional sites I've found for playing Flash games.  I used to use freearcade.com and get freeware from gamehippo, but they aren't as good as they used to be.

Here's some selections you should really give a shot.

Epic Battle Fantasy II

Linear as FF XIII, but far more entertaining. (I'm just playing, calm down)

You should play 'Epic Battle Fantasy I' as well, not because the story matters, but because they have Kanti from FLCL as a summon.

The Space Game

Better than Turret Defense


Minim

Sudoku on crack!


That's all I got for today folks.  Btw, those of you who know me, should be alerted to the fact that I have ruined my phone, and I am currently in the process of getting it replaced.  I have a temporary replacement phone right now, but I'd rather not give away the number.  If you need me, I'm on AIM, like, all the time, also Yahoo, and I get instant updates when I get email.  In other words, find me on the internet, it's not that hard.

Until next time fellow pirates.

Cave Story

 I know I'm about 6 years late to the party, but I'm hear to spread the word.  Cave Story...

Best Freeware Game Ever

Take a platformer like Mario, a scrolling shooter like Contra, an RPG like Earthbound, and an anime to top it off, shake well and serve.  Cave Story is a Metroid-esque platformer for PC that is "Free" thas right, free.  It has:
*Engaging plot
*Beautiful pixel-based artwork
*Wide array of weapons
*Several very expansive levels to explore
*Challenging boss fights
*Multiple Endings and dozens of secrets
*Did I mention it was kawaii?  (Cuz I was trying to avoid saying it)

I know I may seem a little overzealous here, but don't knock it til you try it, cuz hey, it's free!
Get it here, get it NOW!  Get the Deluxe Version, it doesn't cost more, it's all free!

I would also recommend using a PC Gamepad of some kind, I haven't tried the keyboard keys, but I imagine it's gotta be harder to work with.

PS, it came out for the Wii recently as well, may or may not be free there.  If I had a Wii, and it cost less than five dollars, I'd buy it.  Otherwise just go online and get it... FREE.

No More Heroes?

I watched the entirety of Heroes: Season 1 and despite an ending that I felt was a bit of a plot-hole, it was a really good show.  Before starting Season 2, I searched the internet for reviews of the show.  Everywhere I looked I found the same thing, "Season 2 and after sucks," "Great show that went downhill at Season 2"  I even found one review that likened Season 2 Hiro Nakamura to Jar Jar Binks!  Well, I was stubborn and watched it anyway, but I'm glad I did.

To get to the point...

Reviews of Season 2's failure are GREATLY exaggerated.  I found Season 2 to be just as entertaining and compelling as Season 1.  I now intend to continue following the series to find out whether or not the rest of the series is just as badly framed.  If you are a fan of Sci-Fi, Super-Heroes, or day-time drama, I encourage you to not only watch Season 1 of Heroes, but also Season 2.

Now certainly hundreds of reviews on the internet can't be wrong, right?  Well, I'll leave that to you, but I thought I'd give my theory on why I think it got such a bad rap.  Heroes is a show that you CANNOT miss a single episode.  The story is continuous, constantly changing and missing even a single episode can make things fail to make sense.  Does it make it a bad show?  No.  Does it make it a bad show to watch on TV?  Definitely.  If you want to watch Heroes (and I know you do...) I would advise watching on DVD, on Netflix Instant Watch, on NBC.com or whereever you can get access to each episode, in order.

Also, start at Season 1 because the story is continuous between Seasons as well.

Sunshine

It was okay.

Only the Good Die Young

This is a list of under-appreciated shows that got canceled before their time.  I will add to this list later when I think of more.  Comment on this entry if you have suggestions.

The Good:

The Weekenders
Lloyd in Space
Megas XLR
The Pirates of Dark Water

Dice and Dimes

Every Dungeons and Dragons player knows that a full set of polyhedral dice is crucial to RPG gameplay.  If you don't have a d20, then just forget about it.  The other day, I came up with a system for substituting polyhedral dice.  Now I'm here to share my incredible wisdom with you commoners.

Poor Man's Polyhedral Dice

You need:
a nickel, a dime, and one common die (d6).

Instructions:
d4: Flip nickel, heads add 2, tails add 1. Flip dime, heads add 2.
d6: use d6
d8: Flip nickel, heads add 2, tails add 1. Flip dime, heads add 2. Roll die, "Even" add 4.
d10: Roll die add result (re-roll on 6). Flip nickel, heads add 5. (1-10, for 0-9 subtract 1 or count 10 as 0)
d12: Roll die add result. Flip nickel, heads add 6.
d20: Roll die add result (re-roll on 6). Flip nickel, heads add 5. Flip dime, heads add 10.


btw, I'm back from Spring Break.  I hope to post more often again.
Until next time fellow pirates.

Vampires That Don't Sparkle

I have two related recommendations today...

 

Blood: The Last Vampire is a dark, action packed anime movie.  If you watch it first, it may leave you wanting more.  The reason for that is because it has an anime series that is meant to follow it.  I watched this movie after having seen the first season of the series and I don't really think it matters what order you watch it in.

The theme and artwork in this movie are really the highlights.  The story is not very complicated, but not very obtrusive.  Overall a great vampire movie.

Blood+

The series that follows this movie is also very good.  However, the themes and styles are very different.  The anime is much more upbeat and 'shoujo' with vampires flash stepping and showing off their power levels.  However, I thought they did a good job keeping the story going at the same time.  The first season of Blood+ is much like the first season of Bleach.  I hope that doesn't mean that it also follows the same trend Bleach did later on.

Movies to Avoid: A Scanner Darkly

 

I'll admit, the cel-shaded animation drew me into this movie, along with the creepy title.  However, I was quite disappointed.  This movie about drugs, society, and conspiracies seemed like it was made for druggies.  The plot was hard to follow and in the end, not very interesting.  The animation was not used for anything more than cartooning people walking to work and stuff.  Overall, not worth the time spent watching it even.

This movie was based on a, probably far superior, novel by Phillip K. Dick.  I recently read a book by this author and it was good, but I don't think this book translated very well.  Either that or the book stunk.

Once more and with feeling... This movie is not even worth Pirating.

That's all mateys.

Myth-Weavers

This review is technically a follow-up since I posted about this site before.

I would like to recommend this site for what it is.  This is the most active play-by-post role-playing game community I have ever found.  That's a mouthful so let me break it down.

Role-Playing Game Community
I'm not talking about Final Fantasy.  I'm talking Dungeons and Dragons.  It's not just limited to DnD though.  I've seen plenty of Exalted, GURPS, BESM, and many other role-playing systems represented.  Don't want to buy a book?  I've also seen several free-form (discussed later) and homemade, or "homebrew" as gamers call it, systems represented as well.

Play-by-Post
Myth-Weavers provides an exstensive and very functional forum in which players discuss things and play games.  Every game set-up through their system receives its own personal forum moderated by the GM.  However, Myth-Weavers rules prevents organizing games that are to be played through an alternative means of communication.  In other words, all gaming has to be done on their site.  They seem to enforce this rule as well as they can too.  As I said though, their site is functional enough on its own to facilitate most gaming.

Most Active
This isn't saying much.  Online RPGs, especially Play-by-Post, are prone to stagnating and dying.  Some players, even if they say otherwise, don't have the patience to keep up with a game that only updates once a day or less.

HOWEVER, Myth-Weavers has the most professional and most active group of online RPGers that I have ever encountered.

In conclusion, if you are interested in playing a RPG online, I recommend that you try www.myth-weavers.com  It's free, it's easy, and it works.

-End Myth-Weavers Review-


Note: Freeform Role-Playing Games

I would like to 'advertise' the enjoyable style of gaming called Freeform RPGs.  Freeform RPGs goes back to the roots of story-telling.  It's like writing a novel together.  The process is simple.  The GM will have a setting prepared.  Players will design appropriate characters based on the setting.  The GM will then give players scenarios and the players will then explain what their character will do.  GM will respond with reactions from NPCs and the environment and present more scenarios.  Essentially, it's DnD without a book, dice, or stats of any kind.

Freeform RPing is well catered to Play by Post.  In fact, I would imagine that it would be much more awkward in person.  Freeform removes the game system that would be cumbersome to PbP, but requires more thought in order to act as your characters would.

Much like Myth-Weavers, Freeform gaming is free, easy, and it works.

Until next time fellow pirates.

RSS Feeds

 

Sometimes I feel like I'm the last person to figure things out, but in case I'm not... I like to tell you about the wonders of RSS Feeds.  Do you read webcomics?  Do you read LOTS of webcomics?  Do you wish you could read lots of webcomics, but don't have the time to keep up with which ones updated and which ones haven't?  You need to get a RSS Feed Reader.  I chose Google Reader, corporate whore that I am, but there are plenty of options for you to choose from and most of them are free.

Will it work with my webcomic?

Yes it will.  I think.  From what I've seen, it seems that almost any website can be RSS'd.  You just hit 'Add Subscription' on your reader and type in a URL.  That easy.  I even follow my friends blogs, Bengineering and Sixty's Blog on it.

Get an RSS Feed Reader today, or yesterday preferrably.

Until next time fellow pirates.

A Fistful of Dollars

 

Great movie. Period.

Dead Like Me

Dead Like Me

When George Lass (Ellen Muth) is hit by a space station's toilet seat falling from orbit, she dies.  After dying, she is chosen to become a grim reaper.  George is lazy, has a bad attitude, and dropped out of college, so even in the after-life she finds herself stuck as a temp, filing paperwork and taking people's souls.

This show is funny, dramatic, and very down to Earth without being boring.  I thought all the characters were done really well, although some of them I liked to hate rather than liked them period.  This is another show I wouldn't recommend to younger audiences as the profanity in this show is through the roof.  It sounds more like me and my college buddies getting together than a daytime television show.

Perfect Blue

 

 Perfect Blue

This mystery/thriller anime movie should go to the top of your must-see anime list.  Lead singer and pop idol, Mimarin of Cham undergoes a career change becoming an actress.  Her acting career takes her image down a less respectable path with scandalous TV scenes, revealing photography, and other celebrity mishaps.  An obsessed fan becomes very upset at Mima's new activities and things begin going wrong very quickly.

This anime is mature, definitely R-rated because some scenes don't leave much to the imagination.  But if you're looking for an anime movie with a little more substance than Bleach or Naruto, I would definitely recommend this.  It kept me guessing the whole time and I didn't see the ending coming at all.  You can watch it instantly on Netflix, but if you are lacking in the 'Flix then you're on your own.

 

Heroes Season 1

I just finished watching this and I must say something about it.

Season 1 of Heroes was a great show, I recommend watching it.  I even cried once, and I don't usually get emotional about shows.  However, there is a large plot hole at the end of the season.  It makes me imagine what season 2 must be like since I've heard horrible reviews of it.  I'd like to post it here.

Spoilers:

Peter Petrelli can absorb other peoples super-powers and he spends several episodes learning to control them at will.  Now there is one power he absorbs that he cannot control.  An ability to explode like a nuclear bomb.  It's a central plot of the show.  Now he has to be prevented from destroying New York.  In order to do that, they have his brother Nathan Petrelli who can fly lift him above the city, but he is destroyed by the blast.  Peter is not destroyed because he has regenerative powers.

This all seems kinda lame in general, but the real kicker is Peter can fly.  He absorbed his brothers power earlier and can use it at will.  So why does he need his brother to fly him above the city and be destroyed?  Heroes is very thematic with an engaging plot, but I think the writers overlooked several important details in the show.

Legend: Ben's legend section logo stinks.
Legend has it that Ben desperately needs a cooler logo for his VGLegends section.  His logo looks like it was made in paint... by a middleschooler.  But he doesn't need to worry, I'm here to contribute a little something to his style.

Final Answer: TRUE

Sorry for not posting lately, my muse is gone.  I haven't found the craving to write about anything lately.  I'll try and get back on it soon.