I've been meaning to try this out for a very long time. Mostly just because it carries the Elder Scrolls name. I don't really have any interest in computer card games. It was free on Steam and fpr my week off from work I thought why not. The campaign was pretty easy with the allowance of a loss here and there while figuring out the enemy's new deck. My strategy soon became go in with the Imperial Might deck, if that doesn't work go in with the Alduin's Bane deck and slaughter them with dragons.
The original campaign was pretty fun and straight-forward. But once the campaign ended and all I was left with was solo arena or the versus arena against other players the game quickly lost its charm for me. I really didn't like that the entire versus arena was one big pot of players and you couldn't put yourself in separate groups. So people like me who were only just figuring out their decks and their cards and which cards to use together were mixed with people who had played for ages and knew exactly how to use their decks and how their cards worked together. Which in the long run meant that I had no chance in the versus arena whatsoever.
I decided to buy the DLC, which turned out to be larger than the main campaign (wth?) and also not as fun. Halfway through the first act I just stopped playing and I don't really miss this game.
So the whole point of me getting this game was entirely because I used to love Heroes of Might and Magic V, and my world crumbled a little when I noticed how ugly it had become and how non-responsive the Steam version was. So I got the newest one, with the sole intention of playing random matches against AI, but also to try my hand on the campaign - all like I did in HoMM5. Campaign went mostly smoothly, but I soon got bored of it, the same way it happened in HoMM5 even if they had spiced it up a little bit since the olden days.
My favourite faction has always been the Necromancers. The ghosts were always a pain to be up against as any other faction and the ability to raise defeated enemy units as skeletons is absolutely fabulous. Apart from the Necromancers my favourite were the Dwarves but they haven't been in any game since HoMM5 and they were DLC there...
Being used to HoMM5 this game was amazingly beautiful, and I loved the graphics. However, I soon sped up the battles because seeing the same few animations over and over and over for eternity became kind of lame. I used the same tactics as I did in the old game = pick up as many resources as possible, claim all the mines you can, and fight everything you can, focus on defence and creatures in the keep and hide from the enemies for as long as possible before engaging them. And also - find the Tear of Asha. Mostly it goes well, but my tactics take a bit of time so a huge map is preferred.
For the campaign I realised how much I had forgotten about Might and Magic lore when it started and it all came rushing back inside my head at the same time.
All in all a really good Might and Magic, and I will probably pick it up every now and again just to do some random matches.
When my computer died this summer I started playing this game on my 3DS. Before that it was ages since I used my 3DS at all. I learned of this game on Tumblr and people over there in general seemed to love it.
I did too. More twists and turns in a story are hard to find! And when I figured out you could make couples out of all of your companions I spent hours upon hours pairing them up so they'd get to know each other.
Fire Emblem Awakening is a turn-based game with RPG elements. You create a player character to begin with; my character was a female mage. The tutorial starts as an ominous boss battle, which then ends with a story sequence where the main male protagonist, Chrom, dies at the hand of the player character. So without trying to spoil the finer points of the story; after this sequence the player character is awoken in the middle of a field by the very same person he or she just killed. You're taken in and cared for by the group of people who find you in the field; some of them loudly protesting against it. The first town you come to after being rescued is beset by creatures known as the Risen. No one knows where they came from, but there was a mysterious explosion in the sky before. Just after you woke up in the field. The group fights against them and they all realise that you're a really skilled military tactician, so they all agree to bring you back to HQ and have you become a proper part of the group. Here you meet the rest of the main squad and over time you meet a whole lot more people who all join your group.
The first part of the story is all about uncovering a plot against Emmeryn, the queen and Exalt. The fact that the Exalt is in danger is revealed by a mysterious masked figure who calls herself Marth; after the warrior of legend. The group travels to different parts of the country to rally people to help protecting Emmeryn and fight against her enemies. Emmeryn isn't urging anyone to do anything, she's the Exalt, and believes that words alone can change the minds of people. She manages to change people's minds everywhere, except where it counts, and in the end she is murdered, Although the time and location has changed from the future Marth reveals she comes from. War erupts against the enemy who murdered the Exalt. After he's defeated fast-forward two years to the second part.
My character is now married to Chrom and they have a daughter together called Lucina. Marth reveals that she is actually their daughter Lucina come from the future to make sure it doesn't happen. She's from a future full of despair, death and war after the dragon Grima was awoken. She studied the history up until the point where Grima was awakened and decided where to go into the past to change it. A war is now on-going in the West. A conqueror has conquered almost the entirety of the Western continent and his now pushing into the East to continue there. It's revealed by Lucina that the conqueror must be stopped, and together the group charges into the West, where they join up with the resistance and together fight to defeat Walhart and his companions. It's revealed that the player character is the child of the villain you fought in the tutorial and that he has a unnatural, magical influence and power over the player character. He can assert his will and make the PC do whatever he wishes. While the group struggles with this information, they defeat Walhart. and then part three begins.
After they return home they recieve an invitation from said villain, Validar. They decide to go there with a full force hiding in the shadows, fully expecting Validar to backstab them. Which he does. And in the same breath reveals that he's the one who awakens Grima with the help of the Fire Emblem, which is taken from Chrom by the PC under the influence of the villain. They chase after Validar to interrupt the ritual and the scene from the tutorial is played out. However, this scene had been shown to the PC in a dream/vision (the scene from the beginning) and so he/she uses this knowledge to prevent the death and the fight turns in their favour. Validar then reveals that thr PC was born to be the perfect vessel for Grima. The PC refuses and the fight turns in their favour. However, when Validar dies the Grima-possessed version of the PC arrives from the future to complete the ritual and Grima is awakened anyway. Chrom decides to ask the deity Naga for help and she grants them her power and tells them that Grima has a weak spot in the nape of his neck. Naga offers to transport them to Grima's back. She also tells them that if Chrom is the one to deal the final blow, Grima will only go back to sleep for another thousand years, if the PC is the one to deal the final blow, both Grima and the PC will disappear. This is completely the player's choice. I chose to let Chrom deal the final blow, because I had grown too attached to my PC's little family to have it destroyed. The ensuing final battle is on the back of a dragon and it's frickin' epic.
My favourite characters would have to be Olivia, Nowi, Henry and Lissa.
I absolutely loved this game, to the point where I went and got Fire Emblem Fates Birthright just after I finished this game, and because several of the characters from Awakening make appearances in Fire Emblem Warriors I'm also really curious about that game, although Warriors is more hack'n'slash and and not really turn-based like the previous ones. And if you've read my post about Viking: Battle for Asgard you know that hack'n'slash isn't really my forte.
1. Adulthood is a Myth, by Sarah Andersen and
2. Big Mushy Happy Lump. by Sarah Andersen. I love Sarah Andersen's comics whenever I see them online so I decided to buy both of her collections to date and I read through them fairly quickly. The first one was extremely relatable in all aspects. I do most of these things and I feel most of these things. And sometimes I'm not sure whether I should actually laugh at it or cry :P I love them and I'll keep on buying her stuff ♥
3. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Being fed the Hollywood version my entire life, this book was definitely not what I expected. Apart from the monster being created by a scientist the movie doesn't get many rights from the book. The most major thing is that the monster is actually eloquent and intelligent. He entered the lives of people with hope of finding family and warmth, but kept being shunned by them and eventually shunned himself from society. He gets in touch with his creator asking for a mate, but Frankenstein refuses and the monster goes on a killing spree; killing everyone Frankenstein loves in an attempt to force Frankenstein to make him a mate so he'll stop the killing. Eventually the monster takes it too far and ends up with a dead scientist. Resigned to being alone the monster leaves and travels to the Arctic, intent on living out his days in an area without people. There are no mentions in the book of any of the theatrics used in Hollywood; no shambling walk, no zombie sounds, no square head, no bolts to the neck - the monster is ugly af and well-over 2m tall, but he's not a freak except for the ugliness. Also, in the movies the monster is always raised through the roof during a stormy night to have the thunder boost life into the dead body - no mention of this anywhere in the book. Also, the classic line "It was on a dreary night in November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils" made me think of this song and thus I always had that song on my brain while reading.
4. In a Glass Darkly, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. I bought this short story collection on a whim because I recognised the author's name, but I had no idea what it actually was. When I later put the pieces together and realised that his name was familiar because he's the author of Carmilla (one of few 19th century vampire tales older than Dracula which have survived to this day) I was very excited about reading this. But of course Carmilla was the last story in the book. The first three didn't excite me much while I read them, they were actually pretty boring imo. Then came The Room at the Dragon Volant, which seemed like quite the modern heist story. I despaired at the gullibility of the main character, but otherwise the entire story was good and there were a few twists and turns that I didn't expect. I really liked it. But then, ofc, came Carmilla and I was hooked. From a modern PoV the entire story was pretty straight-forward and obvious, but at the same time I was amazed by the clearly obvious lesbian undertones in a short story from the 1870s! Mid-Victorian times and this woman isn't even trying to hide her intentions, only the gullibility of her intended victim keeps her secret safe. I liked the story in general, but for a modern person who's read a fair amount of vampire tales this story offers no surprises other than the lesbian one.
5. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. I've never actually read this story myself, only heard retellings of the story and seen Hollywood's version. So from what I knew I didn't expect Jekyll to actually enjoy the transformations. From all the retellings I've heard and seen Jekyll was always the victim, and he was always a young and proper man. In the original Jekyll is in his 50s and despairing his lost youth he enjoys the transformations into Hyde who's significantly younger and freer. But after Hyde murders someone Jekyll realises that he can't keep transforming into Hyde. He needs to get rid of him, but at the same time he has lost control of the transformations and in the end it's enough that he sneezes to transform. He starts having to take the serum to transform back into Jekyll, but he runs out of the serum and because the first batch was just a fluke, he can't seem to make a new batch - and so he's doomed to be Hyde, which brings him to take his own life.
I got this game for Christmas last year and only got around to playing it now. I've only played Far Cry 3 before so I wasn't sure quite what to expect with Primal, but it was amazing, and until I've played the rest of the series Primal is now my favourite of the two.
When I started it up for the first time, my initial reaction was "Don't say they're gonna speak English." And they didn't. And I was happy. I'm not sure if they're using an actual modern-day language, but if they don't I'm pretty sure they used Native American and African tribal languages as an inspiration. However, I soon started to figure out what certain words meant since they said them all the time, i.e. I'm pretty sure wah'pahti means hello.
The first thing I did was to not crouch when the game told me to and was promptly killed by a mammoth.
The general mechanics were pretty much the same as in Far Cry 3; take over outposts and bonfires to free an area from the invading tribes, hunt rare animals, complete quests, and fetch all the collectibles. What I actually preferred about this game was that you didn't have to scavenge for ammo, you just crafted more, and with the abundance of crafting nodes it was never an issue to run out of ammo.
For taking over outposts I soon discovered my preferred way of doing it sneakily. Hide behind a rock or in the bushes not too far from the outpost. Send out my owl to scout the area and tag all the enemies, and then have the owl tell my tamed lion or sabretooth which enemy to attack. All the while my owl dropped bombs on the enemies my great big cat wasn't attacking, and when there was only one single enemy left in the area have my owl attack that last one to finally free the outpost. Takkar never had to do anything; the animals did everything for him.
The NPCs all had interesting stories. Sayla was suffering from PTSD from seeing her entire village be slaughtered by Neanderthals (Udam) and she kept killing them whenever she got a chance and collected their ears in an attempt to silent the cries she could hear all the time. Karoosh was on a personal mission to avenge the death of his son by the hand of a Neanderthal. Tensay, the shaman, had been kidnapped and burned by the sun-loving Izila tribe and their leader Batari and wanted vengeance on her. Jayma was the veteran huntress, the master huntress, and all she was focused on was continuing her legacy, so when Takkar completes the master hunt mission she gves she leaves the village to die in the wild with the animals she had hunted all her life. Wogah was completely out of his mind. He built traps for the Neanderthals to trap and kill them for taking his arm. And then there was Urki. Urki was crazy, and if there ever was a stone age redneck - he's it.
So to completely root out the invading tribes Takkar starts taking over outposts and bonfires. Then I chose to go to the Udam fortress. I started my attack and then soon realised I had run out of both arrows and wood. So I ran all the way back down from the hill it was on, with the enemies chasing me and started picking up wood for dear life. When my pack was full and I had a full quiver of arrows I started up the hill again and took over the fortress. Then I defeated and captured their commander, Dah. With Dah in the village I learned some Udam tricks. Dah eventually told the story of how the Udam were dying out due to what he called skull-fire. He got Takkar to perform a lobotomy on him, and in the end, after the Udam were defeated, asked Takkar to kill him. The whole story with the Neanderthals made me sad. For most of the story they were presented as heartless monsters. Then came my final fight with Ull, their leader, and when I defeated him he crawled to where the tribe's children were and offered them to Takkar, saying that his tribe, Udam, were weak and dying and asked Takkar and the Wenja to take care of the children.
It was the same way with the Izila, capture outposts and bonfires, and then attack the fortress and capture their commander, Roshani. The Izila were more advanced than the Wenja, in the sense that they had figured out farming, and to get away from living caged up like an animal Roshani gave up the location of their seeds and showed the Wenja how to farm. As time passed, Roshani lost more and more of the blue Izila warpaint and started dressing like a Wenja. In the end, when asked if he wanted to leave he said that he was a Wenja now. The final fight against Batari was really cool, much more so than my fight against Ull. First of all, to breach the final area where Batari hid I had to ride a mammoth to break through the gates. Then I went all over the area saving enslaved Wenja who helped in the attack on Batari's temple. The fight against Ull had mostly been me kiting around him to stay out of reach from his melee attacks while sniping him with my bow. Batari used a bow herself, two arrows for each shot, and she kept calling in reinforcements. So for this fight my tactics became hiding behind a rock, peeping over every now and again to shoot her with double arrows of my own, while my sabretooth handled the reinforcements (mostly).When Batari was defeated Takkar carried her into the flames and let her burn - just as Tensay had asked him to do.
With both invading tribes defeated the end credits started rolling, and after the end credits came a small scene with the Udam girl training to be a Beast Master like Takkar and taming a bear.
I wasn't sure whether the game would have a hard ending (like Dragon Age Origins) or would allow me to continue exploring afterwards, so I had completely 100% completed the map before my final fight against Batari, but after the small scene with the Udam girl I could once again play as Takkar. I still opted to not complete the pre-order DLC The Legend of the Mammoth. I had done the first quest of it and it was so very very very bad that I decided to just not do it. I read up on it, and from what I read of the story and the quests, I'm very happy I decided to skip it.
Far Cry Primal was great and I'm a little sad it's over.
Oh and because of the language I had this song on my brain for the entirety of the time I played it xD
