I almost gave up on this level, The Red Sky Evening. It was close. It’s a beautiful level, with some cool features, but I got to one section that I just couldn’t figure out. Thankfully the designer hadn’t put in a life limit so I could keep trying. Unfortunately said designer chose a music shift just before this juncture to some kind of shoo-bee-doo crap that was nails-on-a-blackboard to me. This did not help my frustration.
I left it last night and came back to give it another whack today. What a difference a day makes. Still took me way longer than it should have, but it was just so satisfying to slip past that wall of frustration. No matter how long it took me. Or how annoying the music.
One final note. The picture for this level is hard to make out. If you look carefully you can see my sackboy half in view, and half in negative view as the designer has a couple of moments where you have to duck into this cool negative land. Like a mountain x-ray. I love little touches like this. Especially when the designer has the good sense not to overdo it and make the level about the effect.
Varric Tethras goes home, sleeps, eats, and easily gets through his dailies including praising the tastes of two customers and paying his taxes. Now our hapless merchant is flat broke. So much for bargain hunting in the village. Perhaps we’ll try playing fishmonger once the quest is back on track. For now there’s a missing peasant to find who might have some answers about the mysterious fountain that’s been haunting our hero.
After the jump, you won’t believe what Hawke is doing in the palace Continue reading →
Have you heard about this Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP thing? It rocketed up the paid iPad apps chart upon release last week (behind, of course, the latest Angry Birds version and GarageBand), and it’s likely to do the same when it releases for iPhone next month. If it didn’t catch your eye there, you most likely saw a virtual bombardment of twitter spam with the hashtag #sworcery…strange, silly messages that don’t make a lot of sense. S:S&S is like that. It’s weird, brief for a $5 game, and it encourages you to spam your twitter followers with the most adorable nonsense. They’ll hate you for it, but you’ll love the game.
After the jump, mix one part Zelda, one part Loom, and one part Miyazaki. Then post on Twitter. Continue reading →
I’m not sure I should admit this, in fact I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t, but I’m going to anyway. The last couple of nights my dreams have been dominated by Pokemon White.
Last night was the worst. Generally the dreams have just been rather hazy and generic replays of various fights. Actually, that’s not even accurate. It’s not like they are actual replays, but rather just the feeling that I’m playing the game constantly. That I’m being challenged, mainly by wild Pokemons, and having to throw out moves over and over again all night long. I blame grinding for this. Grinding is for the birds, and dreaming about it, even in the abstract, does not make for a restful night’s sleep I find. Last night, however, it got specific.
After the jump, infested and infected Continue reading →
It’s time to convert my wizard into a rare and powerful spell caster known as a lich. I did some research on how to pull this off, having encountered one in the game, as well as reading about them on various forums. It takes commitment, but I know I can pull it off.
The first step is to acquire a rare item known as the Ring of the Dead which can only be found in the 115-level dungeon called — fittingly enough — the Palace of the Dead. Specifically, there are some floors on which it will show up randomly. Such as floor 33. This is the first floor where you can find the Ring of the Dead, which means I’ll be battling through 33 levels to get to it.
After the jump, wait, what? 33 battles just to get a ring? Continue reading →
