This is Magicka!

Magicka is an action-adventure game by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Paradox Interactive.  The game is set in a fantasy world with magic, goblins and trolls, a quest to help the King, a rogue wizard, and a heavy dose of parody.

In the single-player story mode, you put on your robe and wizard hat and combine elements to fire lasers, throw boulders and shoot lightning at your enemies!

There are eight elements to play with: water, life, shield, cold, lightning, arcane, earth and fire, and each of these can be directed straight at the enemy, applied to yourself, used as an area-of-effect spell, or even applied to your weapon.. doing this means you can use it on the enemies later, or just run around with a sparkly colourful sword 😉

One of my favourite defensive spells is a fire, earth and shield combination, applied as an AOE – this places a circle of fiery mountains around me which knock back and burning enemies.  Or friends, if they’re standing too close..

The game allows up to four-player multiplayer, in which you can play through the story or just blow your friends up.  Friendly fire is most certainly on in this game, and we ended up ignoring the story at the beginning of our session to just try and kill each other.

There is also challenge mode, which is survival mode with waves of increasingly difficult enemies.  On your own, you really don’t last long, but when playing with friends, so long as one person stays alive they can revive you with a quick spell.  I’ve not yet attempted Versus mode.. one for a little later maybe!

I think this would have been a good game without all the jokes, so the fact there are so many is a bonus.  Some of the achievements themselves are also jokes, such as the “This is Magicka!” achievement for pushing a soldier down a hole 😉

The Eagle and The Apple – 1191

I’ve spent most of the last two weeks laying on the couch being ill, but even so, there’s only so much daytime TV that anyone can tolerate.. Console time!

Assassin’s Creed was glaring at me from the pile of unfinished games, so I swapped TV remote for 360 controller..  Looking at the achievements, I started playing this game before they were storing the date when you earned them.  The earliest dated achieve is from the 5th December 2007.. quite some time back.. and about time to finish it then 😉

When I originally started on the game, I absolutely loved the free-running, climbing around on buildings, then up to the highest point and leaping off again.  Picking off enemy guards one by one very quickly replaced this as my favourite thing to do, especially when I was able to pounce with the hidden blade and feel oh so powerful! 🙂

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard against the game is about the repetitiveness of the missions.  This was something I hadn’t really minded until this week, when I returned to the cities for new targets, and found myself faced with pretty much all the same missions types to do again..

I never got bored of the quick assassinations with the hidden blade.. and the joy of running and jumping across rooftops only lessened a little with time.. but I did get fed up of the rescue civilian, sword fight, blend and walk away routine.. or more specifically, the annoying sword fights where I really didn’t do well.  Block?  Counter?  Maybe if you’re facing the right attacker, and time it just so..  No.  I preferred picking people off with the throwing knives, or y’know.. assassinating them all sneaky-like with the hidden blade.

The beggars and drunks in the various cities, which I found a different challenge earlier, quickly began to annoy me.. the beggars for their whiny voices coupled with the fact they kept on getting in my way, and the drunks for randomly punching me, one time sending me flying into a guard and getting me killed.  Following this, I barged the drunks over where I could, and either threw beggars into walls or punched them to make them leave me alone.  I stopped short of killing them, annoying as they were, because killing ‘innocents’ leads to a loss of synchronisation and therefore a bar of health.  Strange values this game teaches.. 😉

Now.. I mentioned that I didn’t do so well in the sword fights.. this meant that I avoided them where I could.  So what do we have for our final bosses?  Sword fights, with nowhere to run and get some height or even just a breather, nobody to pickpocket for extra throwing knives..

I found myself raging at the game while I got killed over and over and over by Robert de Sable’s grunts, especially when multiple attackers would be able to make me stumble between strikes, taking half my health in one flurry, and when counters just threw the guy uselessly to the ground without causing any damage.  I realised later that I could have gotten rid of the floored guys right then by switching to the hidden blade, but being tired, ill and then angry on top of that, does not make for thinking..  I’d got to this point of the game by 3am, and guessing that I was nearly done I decided to finish off.  Of course, once angry, I wasn’t going to leave it as I wouldn’t want to come back.. and I’m stubborn!  Instead I found myself hoping to be grabbed and thrown, as this would let me regenerate a bar of health, and then deliberately avoiding the last two grunts while my health regenerated enough to face the boss afterwards.

When it came to Al Mualim, the game-breaker was this time running round and round the yard while my health regenerated, though during an angry flail at the buttons I switched to the hidden blade and got shut of one guy.  Realising this trick made the whole thing easier.. now, if only I’d had to actually learn that earlier in the game I would have had it down for the grunt fight.. but I thought a game about assassination should be about sneaking and picking targets off rather than running at guards yelling “I’m here!” and taking on as many as possible.  Ah well..

Game completed, anyhow.. it’s only taken three years! 😉

For the Horde!

Sunday morning.. a good time to do something peaceful?  Nah! 😉
We joined a nice big group to try and grab the “For the Horde!” achievement.. the challenge being to get into the Alliance cities and kill their leaders!

Aside from Wintergrasp, where I tend to run around after a friend, this was my first proper attempt at dealing with a large group and I was a bit worried about what to expect.  I think I’m good enough in a group of five now, but keeping track of this many?

I’ve also only just got the raid frames out, so that’s another thing to get used to.  I dragged the raid leader and my friend, both tanks, out separately from the groups so I could see them more easily.  I figured that if I can’t keep up with the whole raid, at least I can keep on top of those two..

The first thing I learned was that a big group means disorganisation and complaining.  Some wanted to hold out for a massive group of 40 and others wanted to have already set off.. then there was some discussion about which Alliance leader to go for first, and more complaining about how long things were taking.

The eventual attack order decided on was: Darnassus, the Exodar, Stormwind City and then Ironforge.  We flew from Orgrimmar, with some of us getting split up as we didn’t have the required flight path.  There was then more complaining from the impatient types in the group, but a few summons later and we were running down the road to the first enemy city..

Darnassus was a lot easier to get into than I expected, and we killed High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind very quickly.. one down, three to go!  This kill got us the “Immortal No More” achievement.. one per Alliance leader and “For the Horde!” for getting all four.

We all headed to the boat, where I decided to stay rather more still than usual for fear of falling off and getting yelled at.. I shouldn’t have worried though, because somebody did manage to fall off.. and then repeat the trick on the next boat trip too.

The Exodar was almost as quiet as Darnassus, but there still really wasn’t any time to sight-see..
There wasn’t a lot of resistance with just guards and NPCs present, but a few of us got feared over a low wall and found ourselves stuck, unable to jump back over the wall!  After Prophet Velen went down, somebody found the way out for us.  “Putting Out the Light” was the second achievement in the set.. so far so good!

Back to the boats..

Stormwind City was next on the list, to kill King Varian Wrynn and grab “Storming Stormwind”.

This wasn’t as easy as the first two stops.  I got stuck in combat as we got off the boat, along with a couple of others, while the main pack shot off to find the King.
Killing the guards so we could mount up would have taken far too long, if it was even possible, so we had to run and hope for the best.  I chased after a guy who seemed to know where he was going, while bubbling us both and throwing out a few Psychic Screams for the guards.. and we arrived to the main fight just in time to see the King go down!

The tram was our next form of transport 🙂
I vaguely remember being taken for a tour around all the cities when I had my trial week all those months ago, and the tram is the only one I’ve not seen since.

I’d passed a couple of Alliance players along my run through Stormwind and had been relieved when they didn’t jump the two of us who were on foot.

With the raid having taken three leaders down, the Alliance players knew exactly where we were headed..

The group went down, and the whinging started up again..questioning the decision to leave Ironforge till last, and more disagreement over whether to res and try again.. how long to wait for, and whether it was worth trying at all as the Alliance players were now alert and waiting for us to come back.

In the end we went for a second try, but the remaining Alliance players were too strong and we couldn’t beat them back let alone take down the dwarven King.

So.. another day, Ironforge, King Magni Bronzebeard, and the achievement”Death to the King!”.. *shakes fist* 😉

I will be going back, and not only for the fun and the achievement.. there’s a Black War Bear to be had!

A Pink Elephant and a Skunk

Brewfest is nearly at an end and I won’t quite be able to make enough tokens to buy the last item of clothing required to disturb the peace in Dalaran.. ie, get smashed and dance while wearing Brewfest clothes.  I did manage to get my 50th pet, though.. the Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm.. a little pink elephant 😉

This meant another achievement (Shop Smart, Shop Pet…Smart) and another pet, from the Reeking Pet Carrier.

He’s called Stinker.. maybe best not to get too close..

Chime

The boss had a nice game recommendation for me this week: Chime, which he referred to as a cross between Tetris and Lumines.. something I’ve not played, but which a friend described as “crack for the PSP”.

The game involves placing puzzle pieces on a grid to form quad shapes, but it’s set to music which actually changes a little as you fill up the grid.

There’s a rather cheesy achievement too: Fairy Godmother, earned for simply starting up the game.  Chime was developed by Zoë Mode for a charity called OneBigGame, which raises funds for childrens’ charities.. so I guess I have done something good by buying the game 😉

With the boss watching my first attempt, I didn’t bother to read the instructions and just jumped in.   It’s very easy to pick up, but on the first try I didn’t get a great score as it turns out to be a little more complicated than just slotting blocks in together..

Once you’ve made the required quad shape, you can add more blocks to the side to make it grow.. this also increases your multiplier.  Stray blocks disappear from the grid over time, though, and when they disappear they take away your multiplier!  It’s rather addictive, and there are scoreboards, so it could well get a little competitive too..

Tonight, with the internet finally up and running here, I’ve been able to get some more time in and have unlocked all six tracks, including the awesome final track: ‘Still Alive’! 🙂

It seems from the developers’ blog that this last track and grid were created for the move to PC.. and initially they were trying to make the grid represent something from Portal!  This made for too-difficult levels though, so it ended up as above.

On the subject of Portal.. I just saw the co-op trailer for Portal 2 this evening.. Ohhh yes <3

Half Life 2

I was looking at the mods for Half Life 2, and realised I’ve not actually played Half Life 2 since Valve added a pile of achievements to the game.

Might as well run through and grab them, right?  I liked the excuse, anyway..

I wanted to explore a bit, but Mr Combine objected to me straying from the path.

These two could be a set-up for a comic sketch, but I don’t have the time or energy at the moment 😉

There are many things I love about this game.

This is one:

And this is another.  Dog is just awesome! 🙂

On my run through, I also tracked down the All-Knowing Vortigaunt.
He’s hiding in a small cave down the end of a drainage pipe at the end of the Water Hazard level.  I also got an achievement for finding him 🙂

I wouldn’t actually have known about him if not for this video from GameCrit: cheers! 😀

Are you Serious?

Steam keep on making great offers, and I keep on taking them up.  This time it was Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter..

Via Steam, there are a few achievements I decided I’d aim for.  Not sure how the “I am Invincible” achievement will go – complete the game in single player without firing a single bullet or shell – but some of the others won’t be too hard.

After a bit of a run in the single player, I went for some co-op with a friend.  I was pleased to find that you have infinite retries in co-op, as it allows for a more crazed game without having to restart levels.

We also discovered that you can climb on top of other characters, and for a short time, even walk with them standing on your head.

This did lead to a friend trapping himself though..

After climbing on my head to get on an otherwise inaccessible ledge, he went through the door up there, and then found it wouldn’t open to allow him back through!  Some doors won’t open unless you’ve dealt with whatever is in that section..  We were able to pick him up again, after clearing the next room 🙂

In this game there are also a good number of secrets, and there is an achievement for finding 50 of these.  Let’s just say I’m quite determined to find them all 😉

Gnome Chompski look familiar?

Gnome Chompski in Left 4 Dead 2, and Little Rocket Man in Half Life 2: Episode 2.

Gnome Chompski

Little Rocket Man

Zombies, Zombies, Everywhere!

Over this weekend I’ve killed my fair share of zombies, and completed quite a good reckoning of achievements too.

Some were the normal achievements for completing a campaign, but others were a bit more involved.

Clownd was the first I grabbed, and without really trying – I just thought the noise was funny when I melee’d the clowns 🙂
Gong show – load up on adrenaline and whack the gong (then prepare for the horde) and Stache Whacker – easiest done with a katana, were another pair from Dark Carnival.

My favourite though, had to be Guardin’ Gnome.

I don’t know how many times I went back for that damned gnome.. especially during the rollercoaster section!   The first time I did it, I made the mistake of putting him down in the helicopter, so I could help out my team mates with a bit of sniping.  They ended up incapped though, and the helicopter took off – but because I wasn’t holding the gnome it didn’t acknowledge that I’d saved him!

So yeah.. keep the gnome in your hands on the plane, and let your team mates look after themselves for that one.

After playing the demo, I had thought this game wouldn’t be as creepy or intense as the original, but actually, it is just as good a game.  The new infected add a little more risk to the old strategy of sticking closely together, and as for witches – well.. they’re not quite so easy to sneak past anymore!