Causing Havoc Through Time in 3D

Havoc's Ocarina of Time 3D Review!

Hey, guys. Havoc here.
I know Chain O'Mac wants to do this, but I figure I'd get mine done while in the mood to do some writing.
So, let's begin.

When I first opened up my 3DS for the first time (yes Ocarina of Time came with my 3DS) I wasn’t expecting it to look so good, even thought they said it would get a upgrade in that area. The sight of the Great Deku Tree popping up in 3DS made me jump back. Running about the forest trying to get the rupees to buy a Deku Shield returned me to my childhood and the first time I played the game on the N64, surprised to see the little new things they added like the vision stone, which in hindsight seems a bit of a waste considering by the time I went back to the forest or the Temple of Time I’d already got past the part I was stuck on, and I did get stuck even thought I’ve probably completed the game many times but places like the Forest and Water Temple are naturally difficult.

Anyway when I got into the Deku Tree the whole place looked interesting and even the idea of moving around to see and change the point of view of the camera, even using it with the slingshot seemed interesting the first time, which quickly faded when I tried to do the Archery range to get the bigger seed bag, considering you move the slightest and it moves along with it making quite the few missed shots even using it against Queen Gohma meant I missed hitting her eye by a cat’s whisker. Couple movement controls with 3D wasn’t working for me so off the 3D went, considering just adjusting how you sat would mess it up and I still was amused by the motion control.

With every new place I went to on the journey through Hyrule I enjoyed the look of it all as well as the little additions all around the place. One such addition is at the Lon Lon ranch when your child Link there’s a nice picture probably drawn by a baby Malon behind the two pots in the upstairs room. Although I did miss the Mario picture in the castle courtyard but was relieved that the guard who threw bombs at you was still there, although I’m surprised they’ve not had him for trying to injure innocent kids. 

Playing the ocarina in this game relies on learning the new set up for the controls, considering the lack of a C stick, although the songs have stayed music wise the same as the original.

Heading into the Skullatala house (^^; or however it’s pronounced) instantly gave the creepy empty house vibe. Running through the Dodongo Cavern, the lava floor seemed all the more dangerous, even fighting the King of them was amusing with the improvement of appearance.

When your about to enter Lord Jabu Jabu for the first time 3D was turned back on just to see Link fly at you as he gets eaten by the giant fish. Carrying Ruto about is irritating I mean why can’t she just follow you it would make it so much easier considering all the avoiding you have to do, the other option being putting her down to then fight with whatever may be blocking your path and until you get the boomerang you can’t do that with most enemies.

Beating the boss and outside and the shock of Ruto staring at you causes you to fall of the log and she doesn’t have that weird face she use to have just a smirk. Getting the stone and rushing back to the castle proves to by an easy task with help of the river and to the cut scene that all players will have seen no matter how far you got, most of it appears in the dream at the start. Flicked the 3D on just to see Ganondorf attack you and half expected the attack to come out of the screen which just shows how into the game I was at that moment.

Opening the Door of Time seemed as monumental as it opens to reveal the Master Sword, majestically standing there in the rock well pedestal. Pulling the sword left like you was unlocking some ancient power as the blue light shot up from the floor until the music comes in.

Darn! Ganondorf followed you >.< and has got his hands on the Triforce which you were meant to get before him.  But what’s this you find yourself in the presence of the Sage of Light... and you’re older, seven years to be precise, and you’re the Hero of Time...

Arriving back at the Temple and you’re greeted from your slumber by a very feminine looking Shiek which makes you wonder if he is who he says he is. From here on the Temples and the Bosses are enjoyably better looking making it feel like it’s a whole new game even though it’s a remake, which sounds bad, of an old and considered by many including myself a classic. The addition of the boots being turned into fellow items following stuff that was done in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess means its not a constant rush to the equipment screen, which has been changed to gear, to swap shoes.

Fighting Ganondorf the first time isn’t helped by the motion control which kicks in when you use the L targeting, which is how I find myself fighting him. Even when you do win it feels like its not over yet even though Ganondorf falling onto the ground should be a pretty good sign and even then the building shaking doesn’t help the issue. The quick rush down the tower chasing after Zelda dodging the falling boulders from the ceiling even when you’re outside, when you manage to get outside you feel relief that you think it’s all over until the rather ominous sound from the rubble. Going over to investigate as all heroes do, when they don’t have anywhere else to go considering you’re on a large floating rock, you go investigate only to find the main villain isn’t dead who’d have thunk it. Fighting the Ganon version you feel like the sword getting knocked out of your hand is the start of your problems...

Always Bet On Duke? Duke Nukem Forever First Thoughts Review.

WARNING: The following is a First Thoughts and Initial Reaction Review for Duke Nukem Forever.
Given the nature of the game, this review will contain language not suitable for minors or those who are sensitive to such wording.
There will be spoilers. This is your first alert on that.

Duke Nukem... My first experience with Duke was in the way back machine.
I played Duke Nukem 3D on the Nintendo 64, and will always remember starting that downtown LA level in multiplayer, and the Rumble Pak falling out of the controller.

On the N64 we had "Damn, those alien scum are gonna pay for shooting down my ride."
On everything else, you had "Damn, those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting down my ride."
And the game pays tribute to that line in the opening credits.

12 years later, after numerous delays and politicking, and other reasons Duke is back.
But is he the same? I know ALOT of other reviews immediately jumped on the it's terrible wagon since the game had a lot to live up to given 12 years of broken promises.

I'm gonna try and remain unbiased as I do this. The only way I can sanely review this game, or, at least give my initial reaction is if I keep my mind far far away from the "After 12 years" mentality that the rest of the net seems to have taken on. Though, admittedly, I have tried to stay far away from reading reviews.
But hell, even on my personal Facebook, just mentioning trading in Portal 2 for this drew a slew of mixed reactions.

So, let's go get some, shall we?

The game's initial opening scene and graphic starts with Duke shaking some dice in his hand, and having the Olsen Twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley Holsom Twins, Mary and Kate, two ambiguosly aged girls with short blonde hair in Catholic Schoolgirl outfits blow on the dice before Duke throws em, letting out a very proud: "I'm Back Baby!" as the dice roll.

This really sets the tone.
The next title sequence video is very much of a "Incase you've forgotten who I am!" deal.

We're then given three default difficulties to choose from:
"Piece of Cake", "Let's Rock" and "Come Get Some"
Easy, Medium and Hard, respectively, with no doubt some "Hail to the King" or Very Hard mode available to unlock.

It's here I wonder how much I can dance around the plot without being Spoilerific, and the fact is I can't.
To be fair to this and how it fairs against say Duke Nukem 3D, spoilers are abound. Especially with this merely being a First Thoughts review, and not a Full Game Complete review.

You have been warned. Again.

The game opens in a locker room, with Duke taking a leak ["Press RT to Piss", I kid you not]
And the very first line we hear from Duke is:
"It's time to stop pissing around and get this big fella back into action!"

So, 20 seconds in, and the game itself is saying it's been way too long.
After "pissing around" and getting very interactive with the environment (Seriously, the Dev Team thought of everything, and I can't decide if that's good or not yet.) we find that the locker room was actually part of an American football stadium, and you're teamed up with some military types to defeat an alien who is wrecking havoc on the stadium.

Hold up, where have I seen this before... Oh snap, they couldn't have, could they?

So, after some immaturity on the Strategy Whiteboard... Oh hey, an achievement...
After some immaturity on the whiteboard, the game brings you out to fight on the football field with a massive Cyclops monster. Really feeling familiar here.

Beat the monster down, and Duke scores a field goal using the monster's eye. Oh hey, another achievement.
After the field goal, the game cuts to the ending credits. WTF?!
Oh, right, we find that Duke is playing a game based on his adventures 12 years ago.
That's right, in 2011, Duke is playing a graphically superior Duke Nukem 3D!

And the twins raise their heads, wiping their mouths as they come up from presumably going deep on Duke's Nuke. The twins ask about the game and if it was any good.

Now, there is alot of blatant innuendo here, but Duke is his normal nonchalant self about the thing and responds:
"Yeah, but after 12 fucking years, it had better be!", the game again speaking the minds of the fanbase who expect this to be the Best. Game. EVAR!

But good things never last too long, and the twins promise to play with Duke some more after the talk show he's supposed to get a host on.
Making our way from floor 69. Get it? 69. Huh, get it? Giggidy.

Making our way from floor 69, to the ground floor, and the one thing I can say here is:

The posters in the elevator are funny as hell.
Actually alot of the posters are for different reasons. More often for the foul mouthed humour.
Take the "Attack of the Biker Babes" poster for instance. Seems fine, til you read the fine print.
"Starring - Parter Cheeks" and another few inyourendos.

On the ground floor, we meet technicians and stage hands, screaming and creaming fangirls, and in my honest opinion, the funniest damn thing ever in a stagehand who literally dies with fangasm upon meeting Duke.
Look it up or play the game, it's too damn funny to not appreciate yourself.

Before we reach the talk show, shit starts hitting the fan.
Power surges, TV's reporting alien activity at Duke Burger, and then the talk show has been cancelled, which leads Duke backstage to find an actor and set technician in a disagreement over ruined lighting.
Yeah, an all out Christian Bale parody. That man will never live it down, may aswell tell 2K Games that they're done. Professionally.

Making our way back up to the 69th floor, our objective is to reach the Duke Cave, and even as the city is in danger, a fan refuses to move from Duke's throne until he gets his photo on it. Priceless.
In national emergency, I guess some people wanna be able to say "I was there", haha.

Reaching the Duke Cave, and we have a discussion with Mr. President and the Secretary General about the aliens. I won't divulge much here.

Though, there is a line uttered: "Duke. You're a relic from a different era."

To me, this is the game again admitting that it's long overdue.
But not just that, but rather that anybody expecting this game to be Halo or Call of Duty better bring their ass back to the game store and return DNF, because we're here to show you how things were done in the oldschool, when people shipped Duke Nukem and Lara Croft rather than Master Chief and Samus Aran.

After that, it's ass kicking time.

The power goes out, completely, and you're required to activate Duke Vision.
That's right, his shades are more than what they seem.

Though, between the Duke Cave and Duke Vision, I'm guessing it's more a stab at Arkham Asylum than anything else. Or a cheap excuse to throw in DN3D's Night Vision Goggles early.
I prefer to think Arkham though, so let's go with that.

So after a fun mini game puzzle using an RC Jeep, we can turn the reactor back on, and yes, it's female voiced, so I shouldn't have to tell you what it says upon rebooting.
Ass kicking on steroids happens thereafter before you jump into the cockpit of a massive railgun to go fight your first alien mothership.

End.

Alright, so that's where I am right now, and figured it was an opportune time to get my initial reaction out there. And to be blatantly honest, the game is great.
The crude humour, the aliens, crazy weapons. It's all there.

The shoutouts to other games and to it's own fanbase are a nice touch, it's like keeping a few bricks of the broken fourth wall on it's foundations so that you know, the game knows, but Duke and the cast don't know.

Can I honestly say at this point that it lives up to 12 years of hype and heartache? No.
But I don't care. This is Duke Nukem. This is what I expected it to be.
No company on the planet can live up to 12 years of hype. Heck, even George Lucas proved that no company can have it's origin story live up to the hype of it's main attraction.

My only complaint is that the loading screens take forever.
They come with tips on how to play the game. The funniest being:
"Remember. If you get stuck, you can always cheat and look up FAQ's online."

If you get over the fact that it's taken so long, this game at it's base core is pure unadulterated fun. (Yes, I'm quoting the box.)
The game is not afraid to be 'Relic from a different era'. It's not afraid to punch Call of Duty and every other 'hardcore' WW2 shooting game in the balls, then shoot Halo a death glare before giving it the one finger salute.

All Duke Nukem Forever is, is the very same thing that captured it's cult audience.
Booze, Babes, Boobs, Guns and cheesy one liners.
It's nothing more, and doesn't take itself seriously enough to consider itself any lesser than it's "Rival" FPS games.

Hail To The King, Baby.
Hail To The Fucking KING!

PS: Incase anybody is wondering. I picked up the Balls of Steel Edition.

Love and Peace,
- Chain O'Mac

SheikAVC present! and as you can say, the so called 'artist' of the group, though I don't think I deserve such a title ^^; now me- usually my posts can be fun and causal, fandom going through or...random art








So instead of doing something important like writing a rp post, or something really important like my homework, I...made this.

Now, does this ugly thing consider art? Maybe, maybe not, but dang it came out how I vision it. Call it amateur, graphic, dare I say- visual communication? What do I know? I'm a graphic design drop out, but I do what I do in the name of creativity~! Yeah, school can't take that from me.

I'm gonna put this up in my deviantart later, though if a fourth member join, then I gotta make room for him ^^ this idea moreorless came from an old character from Sailor Moon named Professor Tomoe? anyone remember? that insane professor who is supposely Hataru (Saturn) dad and was trying to bring out Mistress 9? ....Yeah, that guy. Why? Cause he's so...creepy, in a good sense way that a high schooler would enjoy back in the day.  also...I ain't drawing/coloring skin/facial hair, that's where I moreorless...fail ^^

Watching my bro playing MGS now and I have to say, this is one intense series, kinda wanna collect the rest now. Of course we're cheaters and I'm helping him with GamesFAQ, got the game on sale a long while ago, its about time my bro got some gaming time.  I should ask to do a rpg with me next....as if those days will come back. I got Disgaea 1 and 2 to play...and their not easy strategy games. Me and my strategies, really, though I never got into Advance Wars, tried Days of Ruin....didn't beat it, don't think I'll go back to the game.  Fire Emblem is for me for handheld.

Any strategy games suggestions? I got DS/Wii/PS2 ^^;;

Ah well, I should go back what I do best, drawing~ here's a quick sketch

I wish I got that figure XD but I do have that one piece. Going to the water park this weekend and well...time to bring out the floatees >_< cause I can't swim! This would be the first time going to the waterpark @___@ wish me luck!!

~SheikAVC

Bureaucracy Sucks.

Hey, Chain O'Mac here.
As I look at the space where I'm supposed to add a title to this entry, I'm at a loss to go with something witty.
Maybe because I'm not in all that witty a mood.

See, I thought I was paranoid over the last few days about some stuff at work, but today was really the death knell.
I've recently gotten a new job, and outside of work, maybe all of four people know that excluding my family of course.
The job is within the same outsourcing company, but a different, arguably more important role, but I got the nagging feeling that my current department managers are distancing themselves from, and phasing me out, for lack of a better term.

Today proved my suspicions as there are three separate events going on, and I've been pretty much cut from entering/competing any of them.
First is an in-house incentive to win a holiday to a European city valued at €1000.
Second is an iPhone 4 incentive.
Third is the "Half Yearly Awards" whereby we all vote for colleagues under different categories such as "Best Male/Female", "Best Dressed", "Most Improved" etc.

Now, FYI, there was no Half Yearly stuff last year, it was all end of year stuff, and I won a bunch.
This time round I'm not even nominated to defend my own titles? What kind of bollox is that?
Seriously.

Of course I called Shenanigans, but you know what I was told?
"Well you're leaving soon, so it's not fair on the others to have you in contention."

Bull! Absolute bull!
True, I am leaving, but I haven't even been given a date by HR yet on when that's happening, so it could be next month for all they or I know.
No holiday? No new phone? No title defense?
Feels more like I'm being penalized.

So, that was my day in a nutshell. Came home to find that a Crest of Courage I had ordered on eBay had arrived, so that cheered me up a little.



So, we come to the end of my first real entry, and it's way off track from what I wanted to do.
And that was talk about Nintendo's E3 showing and get my thoughts on the WiiU out there.
Maybe next time. I'll try and get another entry up before I head to Hyrule.

Sayonara.
Love and Peace.
Chain O'Mac

Welcome! To the world of tomorrow!

Actually, I'm not sure you can call it that given that this was all created a few days back and only going live now.
Anyway, my warmest welcomes. I hope you guys enjoy your stay here at the StarXrosed Hotel.

Allow me to give you boys and girls a quick idea of what to expect here.
This blog will the uncensored, unedited culmination of the ideas and thoughts of three, hopefully four seperate people.

Myself, Chain O'Mac. The badass Leader of Team StarXrosed.
SheikAVC. Our moe designer and artist.
YamiJK. Our squirrel loving Economist and Political Cynic.
And hopefully, an awesome guy named Havoc.

As for what will be published here.
Your guess is as good as mine.

The original intention was for this to be my own space to be rant or go on tangents about things in life, or any new games, movies, comics or anime/manga I've come across or picked up.
Not necessarily full blown reviews, unless I feel it's warranted, but rather just overall thoughts, wild mass guessing and headscratchers.

All in all, it's supposed to be a place of fun, and never really too serious. Again, unless warranted.
I brought the rest of the Team in because well, I wanted this to be different and have a dose of variety.
Each member of StarXrosed has their own likes and dislikes, and I wanted something that if the Team itself became popular enough and gathered a following that it appealed to more than just those with my interests.

I may be looking too far ahead, but I figure why not? There's a whole lot worse out there and some of it is mindboggling popular to me, so let's just see where the journey takes us.

And with the introductions done. Tomorrow I'll make my first real contribution to the site.
Stay tuned as there is a Twitter option to come. But in the meantime, you can like us on Facebook by clicking the Like button on the right side of the screen.

Sayonara,
Love and Peace,
Chain O'Mac

PS: Incase you're wondering.
It's pronounced Star Crossed.