Cureless

No, this post isn’t about Jack Bauer.

It’s about me turning 24 years in 24 hours. As usual, it’s time again that I allow myself to list down all those birthday wishes and announce my grateful thanks for a lot of blessings.

But right now, I can’t really think of anything to wish for. (Just right now, k?) Let’s say someone has already filled in for all those material longings.

No, I wasn’t successful in begging off those PS2 games from Issai. Nor did Fluffy lent me his PS2. (The more awful truth is its power supply needs to be replaced. Even if he brought the console at my unit, it would still take time for me to have fun with it.)

Not that I’ve been to Bicol and had gathered enough rest to keep my insanely boring life. And definitely, not that my parents have allowed me to keep my boyfriend home. (They never would!)

Remember the priorities I’ve been considering before? Couple it with my sub-motives in wanting those PS2 games.

(more…)

This PSP game wouldn’t be rated 9.0 by IGN for no reason. It’s simply addicting! After submitting myself to it for several days, I finally finished Jeanne D’arc last Sunday. I spent some 50+ hours of game-play and I didn’t even touch the bonus stages. ;^^ Compare that with the PSP owner’s game time (36+ hours).

If you’re familiar with Final Fantasy Tactics, then you’d know how Jeanne D’arc goes. I have barely even started the former in my bro’s battered PlayStation, but I came to love strategy RPGs when I tried Ancient Empires II on my phone. I also got addicted to it.

I don’t need to tell you that Jeanne D’arc’s plot is roughly based on the famous French heroine’s battles against the English. The characters are even based on famous historical figures who lived during Joan de Arc’s time - King Henry VI of England, the French Dauphin (Charles V) and her real-life contemporaries.

But no matter how impressive the amount of historical facts in the game, I think it’s still outweighed by fantasy. You’d notice how the latter dominated the plot as the game progressed. If at first you’d just be fighting off soldiers, get ready to beat those beasts, dragons (wyrens), demons and big bosses in the later chapters.

The game has 8 chapters. When I got into the final chapter, I didn’t know it was already the LAST one! I kept on wondering why it was so hard to defeat the boss(es), and the scenes keep on appearing one after the other. It was quite a long struggle with the Big Boss. Then, I let out a sigh of relief. When I thought that I can finally save the game, the animation suggested that it was already the end of it.

Honestly, I felt something in there left someone hanging somewhere… Err… I didn’t see what happened to the Dauphin afterwards. (He’s a lovable character, I swear! Reminds me a lot about some gay character in anime. :D) And what happened to Guilles? The character who supposedly sealed the “evil being” inside himself. In other words, I can feel there’s a part two to this.

I’ll probably blog about the party of characters I used in the game some other time.

Issai (a.k.a. ladygadfly), a Filipina blogger based in the US is giving away PS2 games to lucky fellow Filipino bloggers!

Of course I also wanted to have one of those games. Although I’m not a rabid PS2 gamer, Fluffy is one and he’s an ultimate fan of the Final Fantasy series. Actually, I’ve already seen him play most of the games listed there. I just wanted to get those for him *kunyari* so I can have the *right* borrow his console and play those games at home myself.

“Shadow of the Colossus” is a very engrossing game, very spectacular with regards to visuals. But a bit complex when it comes to controls, I think it totally needs the hardcore gamer hands to get on those colossi and slay them. Of course, “Tekken 5″, probably the most popular multi-player PS2 game out there would be great to play with Fluffy, especially in those times when you feel the need to beat the crap out of someone. I’ve played the first parts of “Resident Evil 4″ in Nintendo Wii. But I guess it’d be great with the PS2’s vibration mode on. *shudders* I heard Fluffy gushing over the greatness of “God of War” (as well as the 2nd), and the “Valkyrie Profile” series but haven’t actually seen him play.

This is my entry to that contest.

Now, I’ll just state some reasons why I’d be happy to win the contest:

1. The winner will be determined by the mid of November. And guess what? My birthday is on the 10th, which is around that time.
2. I just wanted to play and have fun, ’cause it really gets boring and lonely when you’re living alone.
3. I guess people would rather hear me talking about playing PS2 games, than watching Zaido and Marimar, ayt?

And so I really want need them.

When RF Online (Philippines) was set free-to-play two weeks ago, Fluffy and his bro began playing it again. I didn’t have the “luxury” of time to support and level-up my own characters, yet, but I’m sure I’ll be playing it soon.

Yesterday, he began gushing about the song played when by the RF Online loads. We searched for the lyrics of the theme, which we found out later to have been sung by no less than Razorback. “Empire Accretia”, is based on one of the 3 races in the MMOG (the others btw are Cora and Bellato). I guess Fluffy was as elated as every other Accretians when he found that there’s a song about their race, and it’s the theme no less.

Lyrics of Empire Accretia
by Razorback

The tide of war is upon us
They march the battlefields of Novus
On their heels a bloody trail thus follows
Behold! Empire Accretia

Beware, you meat! Your flesh is weak!
Empire Accretia

From the clone pods to the albariums
Diminishing the worth of self
They teach them not to feel
The lessons are taught in steel

Beware, you meat! Your flesh is weak!
Empire Accretia

In the pursuit of physical perfection
Flesh and steel in one unholy union
Technology is the new, chosen religion
Bastard sons of the techno-demon

RF Online is published in the Philippines by Level Up! Games.

Related Link(s):

• RF Online releases Accretian song by Razorback!
• RF Empire Accretia by Razorback on YouTube

When you have just gotten you hands on playing Mafa (in other words, a newbie) it seems an impossible feat to kill all those creeps rushing to get past your tower defenses. Some weeks ago, while playing at a PLDT Warcraft3 room using GGClient, I was surprised to find a player getting to level 20+. When we were only starting to play the map, we’d get lucky to reach Level 6, 7, or any level below 20. I was even stunned when our officemates announced that they had beaten Mafa TD Crazy, all the 40 levels of in it.

After succumbing to numerous defeats, we finally found the trick to defeat the game. It’s all about building which towers first.

There are several types of towers in Mafa TD that can be built to destroy the creeps. There are the arrow towers which can be upgraded for other ground-targeting towers. The lightning towers are for flying creatures. And cutter towers are for both. There are also special towers such as ice and poison, which can slow down the movement of the creeps.

Initially, you are given around 120 Gold, enough to build a Technology Center (80 Gold) and 2 cutter towers (40 Gold). And then you may choose which ever you’d like to upgrade. They key to strong killer towers are by building few but highly upgraded ones but at the start of the game, you should start thinking if the Gold you’re earning from the kills would sustain the ultimate builds for each tower.

At level 37, you should have all those powerful towers.

Here comes the money tower to the rescue. It’s the upgraded version of poison tower which gives 2 Gold per hit and more with the even high upgrades. At around level 11, you should have invested in at least one if you’re not the last line of defense. Well, if you’re the final defense, you should have gotten more gold at the start, thus built and upgraded more money towers even before level 11.

And so if you think it’s seemingly impossible to purchase the 25000 Gold Rain of Chaos (ultimate ground tower) or 20000 Gold Red Alert (ultimate lightning tower), better try building the money towers first and see for yourself how would Mafa TD turn into a not-really challenging map.

Hihi. This is pathetic. I‘m typing like a snail. Uses Opera browser and input forms without button are useless like my search form.

Edit: (I needed to edit this entry because apparently, no one understands what I’ve written above.)

Playing Bleach

Now I’m blogging on a PC. Yesterday, I had spent a few minutes playing Bleach with Fluffy on his bro’s Wii. I haven’t played enough to choose my best character but I really love Renji <3~. There’s no Rukia yet on the PvP mode, so our first Bleach game was an Ichigo Kurosaki VS Renji Abarai PvP. Later on Fluffy got owned by his bro’s Uryuu Ishida character. I have to say the long-range attackers are at an advantage in the game.

Wii mini-games

Then later that night (after the Bleach madness), I got to play some WarrioWare mini-games. The game was still in Japanese and at first I thought I was being taught ways to control the Wiimote without knowing I’m actually playing the game! Fun, fun fun!

Internet on Wii!

And then before going to sleep, I decided to browse my site through Wii’s Opera browser. (The Wii is connected to the Internet using a wireless router.) It looks normal, thank God. But my search form isn’t working. I presume that clicking links and buttons are the only way to navigate the site using the Wii aside from manually entering the URL. I had a difficult time typing those letters above. Imagine pointing and clicking every single letter on the virtual keyboard using the Wiimote. But there’s also the easier choice where you have to key in the letters like creating an SMS. But still, Wii isn’t for bloggers unless you’re happy torturing yourself.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. My plans of going home was postponed further until that day and never became a reality. I was too occupied mastering two custom maps in Warcraft III. One is Mafa Tower Defense, and the other one is Tree Tag.

I played Mafa TD by myself most of the time although it needed around 11 players. Not entirely a mindless recreational custom map, its main goal is for the players to prevent 40 creeps from reaching the portal (marked with the brown X) by setting up towers to crush them along the way. Game is over if more than 40 lives pass through it. Waves of creeps spawn from the four passages on top of the map, as well as the left and right points. In the most recent version of Mafa TD, additional spawning points open up with the addition of players.

I never mastered the map since those creeps almost always sneak out of the destructive towers I built. I was playing alone and could no longer deal with the waves after level 6. When Fluffy joined me, we survived level 7, until the creeps came flying at level 8 and we haven’t built enough lightning towers to handle them. I’m sure we could have had a lot more fun with more players joining us. The problem with catching a chance for a game using virtual lan (GGClient) is not finding a single player interested in the map you’re playing.

The lack of players might be a problem with Mafa TD but not entirely for Tree Tag. I played 2 games (I got disconnected on the 3rd) and the player slots are almost full.

Tree Tag is tagu-taguan (hide-and-seek) Warcraft version. There are two types of characters in this custom map - the Ents and the Infernals. For 30 minutes, the Ents must survive by hiding among the trees and running from Infernals if necessary. They could build resources and get back at them by creating armies. The Infernals, on the other hand must do everything to seek the Ents and trap them all in the middle. If they hunt all of the Ents, the Infernals win. However, if at least one Ent sucessfully hides from them, the Ents win.

The real trick in Tree Tag if you’re an Ent is to find a really obscure hiding place in the map. But the fun starts when you start strengthening your base and building the armies to fight against the Infernals. If you’re the other character, choosing the right item and skills will make you effective Ent hunters. In our game, I experienced being the 2 characters in at least one of the games. Being an Infernal is easy with its large hit points (HP) and superior destructive skills. But being an Ent is just harder but definitely, more exciting.