Review - Duke Nukem Forever DLC

This is a review for the additional campaign for Duke Nukem Forever which is bought separately as DownLoad Content (DLC). If you would like to see a review for the main campaign of Duke Nukem Forever, check out my previous review found here.

MMORPG Exploration Heaven?

So with Guild Wars 2 being open for beta testing now, quite a lot of news and details are out there. Among them, was how this game will incorporate some sort of platforming while exploring the world. Like most other MMORPGs, I was expecting something like hopping a gap between ledges to get to the other side, or find some loot off to the side that requires a little climbing up to get to. Well... This video completely throws those thoughts out the door.

Promo - Fiorella Films, New Upload

My friend's filming team has been working on more videos since my last promotion post I did several months back. Here's the latest video that they uploaded on their YouTube account.

A woman questions her faith in God when Death tries to show her the way.

A FiorellaFilms and BausEntertainment Production

From watching a lot of their videos, I keep noticing the interesting settings/locations of where they shot these videos. This one looks like some sort of abandoned facility, like maybe an old factory or something. I want to identify the significance of this setting though for this video, and why they chose this place. Perhaps the focus is on the abandonment of the factory by people and gods alike, how God had abandoned the woman despite all her prayers. Or perhaps it reflects the darkness of Death who brought her here, or in this case, perhaps God instead, given their appearance in this video, where God is wearing all black, while Death wears both white and black. Just a little something I noticed, and decided to think about what message all this portrays. Details in these short videos usually have some significant meaning, as with many short stories by good writers as well. 

You can check out my previous promo for Fiorella Films here, and a link to their YouTube channel here.

Rant - Parasitic Infestation

What personal blog is complete without a long rant about something that bothers the writer to the point of... well, blogging about it? So upon many requests, I'll be talking about the cats we have at this house. Unfortunately, this isn't exactly the most pleasant of my posts, despite the topic. You may not want to read on if you have a particularly carefree view of cats, and wish to maintain ignorance of what troubles they cause to people in favor of their cuteness. This post also contains strong language, so for those that are easily offended, I'm sorry to let you down with this post. As for the title, the TL;DR version is fleas. Of course, that's far from the only problem I have with cats, but enjoy your ignorance for those who wish it.

Also, here are the results for the latest poll.

How do you prefer playing FPS games?
Keyboard + Mouse: 3 votes
Controller / Gamepad: 0 votes
Motion Controls: 0 votes
Other: 0 votes
No preference: 0 votes

Feels like maybe my blog is geared towards a certain group of people to have everyone voting on the same response. Then again, 3 votes is hardly a wide sample. Are people not seeing the polls on the side?

KoL - Avatar of Boris + Tips!

Kingdom of Loathing just launched their new seasonal challenge path, and on top of it being a new path, it's also a whole new class! ... And they both happen to be called Avatar of Boris! Convenient!

This new path/class is very unique and new from the other paths and classes. It will definitely provide a different experience in KoL, as I have noticed immediately.

Edit: Updated to contain some tips now.

Review - Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The Golden Sun title that many fans have been waiting for ever since their last game on the Game Boy Advance. How does this new sequel compare to the previous two games, and what effect did the huge gap between the releases have on the game?

KoL - My HCNP Run Day 5? Analysis

Click here for the details and Day 1 of this run analysis.
Click here for Day 2 analysis. 
Click here for Day 3 analysis.
Click here for Day 4 fail.

Day 5? - Goal: Finish the run.
Level 11 to 13

KoL - My HCNP Run Day 4 Fail Analysis

Click here for the details and Day 1 of this run analysis.
Click here for Day 2 analysis. 
Click here for Day 3 analysis.

Day 4 - Goal: Get Black Knight gear ASAP, keep pushing through to start Level 12 Quest.
Level 10 to Level 11

KoL - My HCNP Run Day 3 Analysis

Click here for the details and Day 1 of this run analysis.
Click here for Day 2 analysis.

Day 3 - Goal: Level up as high as I can while completing quests. Speed and power through!
Level 8 to Level 10

KoL - My HCNP Run Day 2 Analysis

Click here for the details and Day 1 of this run analysis.

Maintaining my buffs and juggling MP familiars sure is an awful lot of micromanagement, especially when you have a low max MP. When the familiar doesn't give me much MP during combats too, sometimes I'll run out of MP and lose some of my buffs for a few adventures. I'd like to work on minimizing that as much as possible, but I have to press on for now.

Day 2 - Goal: Level up as high as I can while completing quests. Aim for Milk of Magnesium access before eating.
Level 6 - Level 8

KoL - My HCNP Run Day 1 Analysis

This is a sample run of me doing a Hardcore No Path run on Kingdom of Loathing. For permanent skills, I have been following the Hardcore Skill priority list found here, with a few exceptions here and there for aftercore usefulness, trophies, and other purposes.

• These are the skills I currently have.
• These are the familiars I currently have.
• With no other restrictions, I can usually ascend in 5 days, right around 1000 turns spent. 
• My play style isn't necessarily optimal, so may not be the best guide to use. 
• I use LOTS of MP for buffs. Therefore, MP restoring familiars are necessary.
• Moxie classes are best for restoring MP with familiars.
• This run will be as a Seal Clubber.
• The Mongoose Zodiac
• Grab Astral six-pack, and an Astral belt

Well, I'm sure there will be plenty of room for improvement, but here we go.

First Anime Post - The Next Step

I'm surprised I haven't really talked much about anime here yet. Then again, I had been watching them a bit sparingly the past year or so. Unfortunately, I'm not going to list all the anime series that I've watched, since there's no way I'm going to be able to list them all anyway. >_>; I will mention the anime I have been watching recently though. Even before that though, here's the results from the poll I put up around New Year's.

Review - Duke Nukem Forever

Before I really get into the review, let me say that I am new to the Duke Nukem series. The early day FPS games like DOOM and such never had an appeal to me as a kid. Maybe it was the choppy looking 3D graphics; particularly the ugly, blocky textures and the enemies not blending in well with the background because they're still sprites instead of 3D models. Whatever the case, I never played any of the games before, so that makes me a new Duke player.

On top of that, there are already plenty of reviews out there since the game's incredibly delayed launch. I wasn't too interested then, and I definitely wasn't expecting much when I saw and bought this game for $5 from Steam. A lot of it was curiosity that got me to pick it up, as well as the huge, -75% off discount too. Having played through the campaign, how did I feel about the game?*

Conveniently enough, just as I write this review, Steam just put this game up for another -75% off discount again. See if you like what you'll read here and decide for yourself if this game is worth $5... provided it runs on your PC, of course.

* This review is based on my experience with the PC version of this game.