Echo of Soul

Hello!

I can't say I'm a huge fan of MMORPGS but I have played quite a few of them. My first experience of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (what a word monster!) was back in middle school when I stumbled upon the world of Maple Story. What most MMORPGS I've played hold in common is that they're either cute or visually beautiful. I think the next game falls under both categories.

 I only have a single screenshot of my own to show here. Mainly because I was stumbling with the keyboard and accidentally took one... 

Anyways Echo of Soul is a relatively new game published by Aeria Games. It was out in 2013 but on Steam it has only been up for about a year.

 I didn't know much about the play mechanics of EOS before I started playing. The main reason I picked this game was 1) It looked nice and 2) it was available on Steam. The reason why I prefer downloading online games through Steam is that I'm not required to create separate credentials for every single game that I play. There are of course exceptions, such as Dragon Nest.

EOS looks fantastic in my opinion. I had lots of fun creating my character - the character creation isn't as developed as in Skyforge for instance, but it was still so diverse that I had a hard time picking my char's hair, face and tattoos. If you're a fan of pixelated beauty like I am, you would soon notice having small crushes on your fellow players' characters. They are just that good looking.

 The game has six different classes to choose from. The class I picked, archer (like usual...) is quite balanced and easy to play with. That is, if you choose to become a huntress, instead of a bard. The bard gameplay is apparently much harder than playing a huntress. I chose huntress since I will probably be playing most of my playtime solo, while bards are ideal for party-playing. The other classes are warrior, rogue, guardian, sorceress and finally warlock, which is the most difficult class to play. My level 17 archer looks pretty bad ass I think, despite her mismatched armor. Speaking of which, that top does NOT look like it could provide +8 defense. The equivalent would be me, running in a forest with my bow only wearing undies. But yeah, that's how it works in a fantasy world.

 The distances to travel are quite long in EOS so I was extremely happy that you receive a free mount after finishing the first two main quests. In other words you receive an insanely adorable llama that grants you +33% movement. How awesome is that? I've seen pictures of other available mounts in the game that are quite incredible as well - giant dogs, dragons, tigers etc. What you also receive in the beginning of the game is a little companion to pick up your loot. Mine is a small anteater called 'Anto'. It's only valid for 7 days but I believe you'll get other pets further in the game.

What I hate about all MMORPG's is microtransactions. In other words you pay real money in exchange for ingame credits. I was happy to go back in to one of the first towns, once I hit level 10, to notice I had a new quest available - and my level reached the requirements, hooray! But, this 'Monica' bastard who gave me the quest wants me to get her a magic lamp repair kit that is only available in the credit store. What? How is that fair? You give me a free game and one of the quests tells me to use real money anyways. I admit having used $5 in an online game called 'Gems of War' recently, but I will not pay to get a freaking repair kit for some Monica. Go get it yourself or turn yourself into one!

 Once you level up enough your class can pick a further class to specialize in. On top of that there are professions and hobbies to choose from. You can specialize in jewelcrafting, alchemy and resource collecting. I picked the latter one but it bugs me that I keep getting resources, but have no means of using them. The resources are used by jewel crafters and alchemists, but us resource collectors have nothing else but to sell them? Kinda sad. There are also two hobbies - soul experting and cooking. A soul expert sounded somewhat lame so I decided to go for cooking. It's pretty fun actually! The only problem is that so far I haven't picked a single resource from an enemy that could be used in cooking. So to increase my cooking level, I have to buy the ingredients from a chef. There seems to be a bit of polishing around to do before the game is perfect, but I don't let the minor details bother me.

I play solo since none of my Steam friends are playing the game. I did ask for play buddies in the discussion section so let's see how that turns out... Anyways, what saddens me is that there are quite a few party-only quests, meaning that if it's a level 10 quest, I can probably do it solo when I'm level 20. And by that time the experience points and loot I get from that quest are close to nothing. So if you start playing EOS, consider having friends to play it with!

I don't know if it was the wisest thing to do but I quit the 'Newbie'-guild immediately when I started playing. Through the guild I may have found friends to play with but, oh well... The difference between EOS and other MMORPGs I've played is that you may enter a guild only through invitation, which sucks. I've seen some German shout outs about guilds but how the heck am I going to find the perfect guild unless they advertise themselves? For instance in Dragon Nest I found a guild for Finnish people just by looking it up, and I got right in. In EOS it's a bit more difficult than that.

Anyways, I have forgotten to eat since I've only been gaming. The plan for Friday night: Eat, and then play. Thanks for reading and I'll return to you with a new game soon in the future!

Final Fantasy X (HD Remaster)

How's it going?

It was recently my birthday and I got some awesome gaming gifts this year! My boyfriend bought me FFV from Steam and I got FFX/X-2 HD Remaster for PS3 from my brother. They're both amazing games (even though there are some flaws in the Steam-version of FFV) but now I'll be mainly focusing on FFX, because that's what I've been spending most of my free time on.

I was around 8-years-old when the 10th installment in the Final Fantasy-series came out. Playing it for the first time was a similar experience to playing FFVII; the cutscenes where amazing and all the little me could think was, "Can something so pretty actually be a game?". Plus, my English skills were so limited back in the day that playing really took a lot of effort; It was slow and full of going round in circles. Just two days ago I beat the monster that ended my first Final Fantasy X experience. Yes, I've never actually beat the whole game. But now I'm going for all those achievements! ...Not. (I wasn't able to master the Jecht Shot, and what the heck's up with the whole thing anyway?)

 The story goes as follows. The main character Tidus is a pro Blitzball player living in the luxurious city of Zanarkand, until one day a huge sea monster called Sin attacks. Tidus is swept inside Sin and once he wakes up and gets back on track, he then realizes that Zanakand is no more and that he has been thrown 1000 years forward in time. You probably guessed that next he will meet up with some new friends and together they'll find a way to beat Sin? You're absolutely right. But more I won't tell, go play the game yourself!

 The graphics in the HD Remaster are blowing my mind. Of course I didn't notice any difference to the original version at first since the game looked so awesome in my childhood. We briefly tested the original game with my brother on his PS2 and yeah, now I see the difference. The cutscenes are especially beautiful but I'm not sure if anything has been done to them? 

The gameplay is the same as far as I can tell. I had totally forgotten how addictive the sphere grid-system is. By collecting levels and spheres, your characters can be made stronger through the sphere grid, where a single point illustrates a rise in HP/MP, strength, evasion and so on. Your characters can also obtain new skills in the grid. It's a bit similar to what the FFXII tried, but I definitely like the FFX sphere grid more. Nothing wrong with FFXII though, I wish I could play that amazing game again.

 What I don't like about FFX? Blitzball. I admit it's super fun but not if you keep losing game after another. You can recruit new players (the original Besaid Aurochs suck) but so far I haven't found any recruitable characters. I'll probably play the game until it's time to face Sin and then collect the best players and THEN kick those Luca bastards' asses. That goes for collecting the Celestial Weapons and Dark Aeons too.

 I made this quite brief since I'm itching to go play again! I'm currently in the Mount Gagazet on my way to the ruins of Zanarkand. Kimahri just beat his two old buddies and he is again recognized a strong Ronso. Yay, go Kimahri!

More Fallout 4

Hello!

So I made a small change to my blog name - I'm terrible at coming up with names so I took the nearest object I could find (a Billy Talent cd) and picked a song name that could describe this blog in some way. Nothing to do with video games, but it's a start. I'm feeling a bit feverish so I'll leave the task for another day, but I really need to do something about the layout of this blog. I'm having trouble coming up with proper words (fever) but I really felt like writing about something so here goes.

 Look at that hair! I'm currently just wandering around the Commonwealth since I've already gone through the Institution and Railroad endings. It's actually getting a lot easier even though there are some places that I still can't get close to without getting killed in an instant. I think I'm a level 50 at the moment.

 At this point I was nowhere close to 50. More like 30 and I got my ass kicked. Deathclaws are terrifying, but recently I found a soft side to these scary bastards.

 I want to think that she looks quite grateful for what I did. I had a quest where I found a bunch of broken Deathclaw eggs but one remained intact. So I had a choice between selling the egg forward or returning it to its original place. I thought that Deathclaws could finally be my buddies if I returned the egg, but that wasn't the case of course. Even so I could momentarily feel good about myself, even though I had to kill one Deathclaw on my way to the nest. Made one mommy Deathclaw happy at least!

I love taking screenshots of explosions. The top one is me destroying the Brotherhood of Steel and the bottom one is the Institute blowing up. It makes me giggle a bit that I've destroyed the Brotherhood twice already and both times it felt so good. I dunno what makes me hate the Brotherhood so much but one reason could be their narrow-mindedness towards everything that's a bit different. Of course I visited the Boston Airport with Nick the synth and Hancock the ghoul every chance I got, just to piss them off. Oh and that one idiot at the Police Station, who gives you extra Brotherhood quests... totally hated him, didn't appreciate my awesomeness.

At first I wasn't too interested in renovating my house but now I've got some great ideas. Basically I carry home everything that looks nice, vases and other trash that is. I think that I didn't build the first floor properly since building the second floor was a pain in the ass. I couldn't even make a proper roof so that's why it turned out to be a patio of some sorts. I like the second floor because it has my liquor collection! And it's still expanding...

Final picture of blowing up a level 9 Brotherhood scout. Teehee, remember not to sneak up on my turf!

I'll try to play something else so I don't always have to write about Fallout. But it's so much fun so I can't help it!

 

Fallout 4

Hello all!

I've been wondering... should I keep this blog entirely games related? I do like to write about my personal life too, but I think that so many of my posts have been about video games that it should also be the main theme of my blog. This post will also be about video games :'-)

Fallout 4

What a view, right? I recently bought new memory to my PC and all of a sudden all of my crashing problems disappeared! What a feeling, I'm so happy that I can finally play games properly. During the time my PC had problems I thought Fallout 4 was a shitty game - of course if your game keeps crashing every 10 minutes or so you can't get a lot out from a game. But now I've been playing for 30 hours or so non-stop. And hey, the game's not that bad after all.

Let me tell you a bit about my adventures in the Boston Commonwealth through pictures.

That's my character, named after me of course. Her house is quite simple; it has everything you need. I was thinking of expanding a bit, but I haven't enjoyed crafting that much in the game.

This was a fun quest. I was supposed to fetch some... hallucinogenic gas?? It was hallucinogenic something, requested by a drug dealer living in Goodneighbor. I enter the building and it's full of gunners. It took me a while to realize that they were hallucinating by the gas leak in the building and that's why they were fighting each other instead of me. At the end of the building I found this poor guy speaking gibberish.

 Explosions. Always a good reason to take a screenshot. In the picture you can also see my companion/romantic interest, Hancock. Originally I was supposed to woo Deacon but then I found out he's undateable. Shame, but Hancock has charm, too.

My first time in the Institute. It's a beautiful place! I ended up doing the Institute ending but I saved well before so I could finish other quests as well. SPOILER ALERT: I hated having to kill all my friends in the Railroad, I felt so empty afterwards. I didn't mind getting rid of the Brotherhood - a bunch of small minded fools.

Looking classy! This was part of an Institute quest, which spawned another quest. In it I was welcomed into the building by a Mr. Handy kind of robot. I was immediately being interviewed for a job! What a nice surprise, of course my character needs a job. So once I was properly attired, my task was to ummm... collect some isotopes or something? Otherwise I wouldn't be allowed outside. I ended up finding everything but accidentally found an alternative route out - in which all the robots in the building attacked me. Well, I got the job done.

Goodbye Brotherhood of Steel! Getting rid of them was actually the best part in the Institute route, it was loads of fun! Plus, my award was this beautiful scene of everything blowing up.

Yet another picture of my character doing a job for the Institute. My task was to fetch a synth with no recollection of his origins. The synth had become the leader of a bunch of raiders. Synth, if you don't know, is a robot made by the Institute but they are very human-like. So, I made my way up to that sunken ship which was their base while killing everything in my way. Like I do 90% of the time in the game.

Overall I'm very pleased with Fallout 4. It's a lot more like an FPS rather than an RPG, but that doesn't make it inferior to the earlier games. It's just a bit different and evolved. I really like the leveling up system and I hope they stick to it with the future games. 

Sleeping Dogs

Hey there!

You may have noticed that I changed the layout of my blog a bit. It's much better now isn't it? I'll probably change the background to something more personal soon but for now it will do. The reason why I wanted to change the theme of my page is that I've been studying HTML/CSS on my own. So of course I was curious how the page was made and to my horror the code was so complex that I had no idea what half of the elements do. When you modify the colours and fonts of your page you can also add your own CSS-code. I could do that but what's the point when all I can do is change the size, colour and font, what you can also do without adding any code. Soo, I guess I know the basics but it requires much more to be able to create a layout from scratch.

One of my favourite PC games!

So I got a bit bored with Stardew Valley and I had no idea what to play next. I went through the games I haven't played yet when I noticed Sleeping Dogs. I played it around three years ago and remembered how much I really enjoyed it. So the heck with all my unplayed games, I want to play Sleeping Dogs!

The genre is similar to the GTA-series; an open-world action game. But the thing with Sleeping Dogs is that it's WAAAY better than GTA IV, for instance. I won't compare the game to GTA V since I haven't played the latest GTA enough to have an opinion of it. So you basically go around driving cars, doing missions and beating people either with your bare knuckles or a weapon. Sounds real simple but Sleeping Dogs is way more than that.

The story goes as follows. Your main character, Wei Shen, is an undercover cop in Hong Kong, trying to take down as many triad gangs and their members as possible. Through childhood connections he gets inside a mob that controls a small part of Hong Kong and that's where it all begins. Wei rises in the hierarchy and the rest is a secret. The first time I played I tried to be on the side of the cops but now I'm being as evil as possible. But like I experienced in my first playthrough you easily get attached to the characters, even when they're one of the bad guys.

I'm a big fan of character customization. There are various styles you can choose from. Sets give you an advantage in combat for instance, but once you're confident you won't need such advantages go ahead and mix clothes to your liking. My favourite styles I've created for Wei are the handsome mob boss, drunken homeless guy, wannabe Uma Thurman from Kill Bill and swag gay hipster. Notice also that you have so called face-value on the streets: by helping out civilians, whether it's driving their car into the harbor for insurance money or driving a get-away car from the scene of a murder. By helping out Wei gets street cred which unlocks different parts of the game.

There's so much more you can do next to the regular missions. My favourite being karaoke! Once you've done enough missions you unlock karaoke in the Club Bam Bam. The gameplay is quite simple, but addicting! I also like doing camera hacks; you hack a camera and use it to your advantage to arrest drug suppliers. Since driving is a vital part of the game there are also car and motorcycle races all over the game map. I won't even start to explain all the collectibles in the game but there's a lot to collect!

Despite Sleeping Dogs being almost 5 years old and the graphics not being comparable to newer games like Witcher 3, the game looks absolutely stunning in my opinion. That's what I love about open-world games; You go to a new place and notice that wow, this place looks amazing and instead of going around, doing missions you end up enjoying the views.

I would say that if you're a fan of the GTA-series you have to try Sleeping Dogs! It's an amazing game and taking into account how cheap it is now-a-days, there shouldn't be any obstacles in purchasing Sleeping Dogs. If I remember correctly on PS3 it costs around 3€ on sale. I recommend buying it on PC only if you have a controller. I guess it depends on what you're accustomed to, but controlling a car for instance while using a mouse and keyboard is a real pain in the ass. The regular price for Sleeping Dogs on Steam is 20€. But don't forget the Definitive Version for 30€. It's a remaster of the original game and all the DLC is included. Damn, why don't I have it already?

Anyways, go play Sleeping Dogs and feel free to share your experiences in the comment section!

Feeling excited!

Hello all!

Look who's decided to be a more active blogger! Actually I'm just waiting for lunch hour and there hasn't been many tasks this morning, so I decided to do something fun while waiting for the day to end, ha ha! I'm not joking, this week has been so quiet and I've barely had any tasks *yawn*

Tyranny

So I just read about the upcoming game Tyranny and I'm so excited! I haven't been excited about any upcoming games in a while so it's a great feeling. I hope it comes out soon!

So from what I understood the game happens in a world where evil conquers and the good guys have lost the fight. Your character is a part of the Evil Overlord's army and your choices matter - your acts can either inspire loyalty in other people or fright. All in all I think the game looks great and I can't wait to play it in the future!

I'm still playing Stardew Valley but I'm starting to get a bit bored since I've already played around 50 hours. So I'm trying to look for new games. I have tens of games I've never tried in my Steam library but none of them fit my current mood. Or who knows? Perhaps I should pick something blindly and maybe I'll like it!

I've also considered buying The Sims 4. I tested the game briefly once but I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not. Now suddenly I have a feeling that I really want it! I wish it was on Steam already since I hate using Origin.

That's all for now. I wish I had something else to write about since I'm sooooo bored. 

Not much is going on...

Hi all!

So it appears that I only write every two months or so. Oh well, at least I am writing now!

Not much has happened, really. I go to work every weekday and all the weekends I mostly spend with friends. I only have three weeks left of my internship. Time is going so fast... Well it appears that I've really enjoyed my time there since it feels like I just started :-) I have to say that IT-support is something that I'd like to try again in the future. I know there aren't many positions for an IT-tech person like me in our city, but I hope I'll find something after I graduate! If I don't get employed within half a year or so I'll definitely do my masters in software engineering (if I get accepted in!). The future does feel a little scary but I'm sure that once I graduate and figure everything out it'll be just fine.

Le weekend

I agree that we've been drinking a lot lately but last weekend was so much fun! Me and my fiance went to see Deadpool on Friday and I must say that even though it was quite perverted I really enjoyed the film! I wasn't even that embarrassed to laugh out loud since some father and his two boys were cracking up all the time. And seriously I felt a bit ashamed for liking all the kinky jokes.

Afterwards we met up with some friends. We were supposed to see a band but one person in our group was being too loud and appeared more drunk than he was that we couldn't go in with him. So no band but we went to this small hipster-like bar that was quiet and we could properly talk. After a while I got this crazy idea that I want to go dancing so to a club dancing we go... And I got so tipsy drinking gin and tonic and whatnot. Saturday was terrible but after sleeping a little I was fine by the evening. One of my friends from Friday called and we went for drinks again. This time I couldn't drink that much but gave up an hour before closing time. Maybe that's for the best because apparently one of my friends almost got into a fight with some other guys. I don't like fights, I think they're scary :'-/

So yeah, a lot of drinking. We even drink during the weeks but not 'til we're drunk. I think it's been a bit excessive recently and I wish to cut back on the alcohol. But it's so darn fun to sit and chat in our favourite pub!

What else I've been up to?

Surprise surprise, I've been gaming. This time I'm addicted to a game called 'Stardew Valley'. Seriously it's the best game of the year so far. The concept is pretty basic... A relative of yours has left you a farm that you're supposed to tend to once you get tired of city life. So in the beginning your character has had enough of everything and moves to the village Stardew Valley. You plant veggies and fruit, collect stuff, fish and fight monsters in the mines. On top of that you can build relationships with the villagers by doing quests for them or giving gifts. You can even get married and have kids! My character is trying to woo a lonely man called Elliott who is a writer and lives alone in a beach cabin. And he enjoys the beer I give him so that's something!

 

Anyways I'll try to write more often but it's difficult since not much is happening!