We are the warriors that built this town / From dust.

OH hi. Would you look at this I'm still alive. And studying! That's new. -ish. So life happened and it's been almost 2 years since the last update. And now I'm back! back to bring you, ladies and gentlemen:

Games of 2014 that I played and loved, top 3

So I actually think that year 2014 may have been the best year for gamers everywhere, and not just because our new and dear next generation of game consoles that I can't afford and hence scoff at. Is it just me or is there more variety and interesting ideas in gaming than ever before?

So I thought to take a break from playing all these marvellous games and write about them a word or two. 

#3: Child of light

This platformer / rpg game tells a moving story of Aurora, a child who ends up in the world of Lemuria and has to find the moon, stars and sun to come back home. During her quest she meets many interesting personalities and learns new skills. The whole game has a definite storybook-feel and is the prettiest game ever oh my god would you look at this game.

 Aside from it's unique looks, I think that the rpg element worked really well in this game and I liked how each of your party members had unique talents and uses - you can use two party members at a time and while you can beat the game and the boss battles without breaking out the tactics guide it was definitely loads of fun trying to figure out the best character combinations to beat each boss. 

The writing in this game is also something to write home about: the whole game is rhymed, which plays well into already fairy tale-like athmosphere, The story is not without it's darker elements, like all the best fairy tales. 

Aurora is a sweet protagonist, a resourceful and kind but not without her own bite which makes her more reminiscent of Ronia the Robbers daughter and other Astrid Lindgren girls than a Disney princess. Child of Light is definitely the sort of game I'm looking forward to seeing more of: something new that tests the boundaries between video games and art.

Image source kotaku.com

#2 Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!

I have mentioned in this blog before that I usually dislike playing in 1st.person. Well, Borderlands would be the exception. The Pre-Sequel is the third game in Borderlands-series, though it's storyline takes place between the first and the second game, explaining lot of plot points that went unanswered in the second part of the series. Whole game series is best described as shoot-and-loot action game, but beyond that simple basis these games actually have pretty convoluted plot to keep gamer like me interested (Can't get off without character development and complicated back stories) I'm actually not that far into this game yet, but for anyone who has played and loved the previous series in the game, there is only one thing that you need to know in order to loose your shit over this game: CLAPTRAP IS PLAYABLE CHARACTER.

Not ashamed to admit that I love claptraps. I love their hyper-annoy-you-to-death-while-unaware-that-everyone-hates-you-manner. I usually research all the character skill trees before making informed decision about the character I want to use, but this time around I couldn't care less. Because CLAPTRAP IS PLAYABLE CHARACTER. Game actually tries to warn you off of picking Claptrap, like three times, which is a good example of the brilliant humour that's integral part of the game series. As is the Claptraps action skill, which basically steals action skill from one of other characters, often messing it up somehow. I once ended up bouncing around on a rubber duck in a middle of a boss battle.

The unique humour, good characters and absurd and plentiful guns make this game super fun, hour-swallowing loot extravaganza. Also if you're into plentiful DLC:s? Pre-Sequel got you covered, as they released a series of reference-packed additional game content making sure to keep us addicted for hours and hours more.

#1 Dragon Age: Inquisition

I've spoken about my love for Dragon Age series before, and last year you can bet your ass I pre-ordered this long awaited ARPG as soon as I could. I had high expectations and man did this game deliver.

The story begins about ten years after the ending of the second Dragon Age game with brand new wold threatening crisis and brand new hero. As with previous games, Inquisition gives loads of options in character creation and brings back the option to play as one of non-human races in Thedas. Elves and dwarfs are familiar options from Dragon Age:Origins, and for the first time you have the option to pick Qunari character, Qunaris being the grey-skinned-horn-headed warriors from overseas.

My favourite part of Bioware games has to be companion characters you meet and befriend along the way, and Inquisition definitely has a cast of lovely (some of them almost criminally lovely I mean holy fuck Dorian turn it down for fucks sake) new faces. We also see the return of few old favourites.

Inquisition is the first Dragon Age game to have an open world that I for one enjoyed exploring for hours at a time. I think the open world really brings forth the extensive fantasy world of Thedas with all it's warring factions, religions and cultures. The best part of this is that you get to choose your allegiance and have a major part in deciding the destiny of the whole country. 

Image source: http://www.gamecrate.com

If I were a bumblebee and you were a puddle / would I drown in you anyway

Life's actually going fine for a change. I mean mostly work, of course. Even though I might not personally like all my coworkers, the job itself is mostly fulfilling, and I like the thought that I'm contributing something for as small cause that's doing lot's of good locally. But, as there's not actually not terribly much to share about that and I don't feel like delving into pit of snakes that is upcoming applying exams for university, here's another silly game-heads-up-thing.

You see, I found a game version of cotton candy called One and One Story. It's really simple and really short, so if you're up for non-violent puzzle game with bit of aww at the end, this will probably do the trick.

Basically, you have to direct two figures across the platform to each others arms, moving them in the way narrative tells you to. Gameplay truly changes trough the first person narrative that sometimes makes an attempt at sounding cryptic. ("sometimes, she was running away") Mostly though, the solution to these platforms were self evident and none of them required brainpower to work out. Story is pretty basic, containing trying to navigate in a relationship with a person who sometimes runs over the cliff and dies on you, or who sometimes drops heavy rocks on your head. Ending is pure fluff and corn syrup and gooey eyes. It's cute like a newborn fawn.
Points for the original idea, pleasant soundtrack and backgrounds. And once you beat it, you get a multiplayer mode, so you can play it with your significant other. Or something. Seeing as my closest thing to a significant other is a cat (thank lord for that), I don't think that's happening anytime soon.

On the importance of Perspective

What? Could it be? Another blog update!
I'm actually here today to gently draw your attention to this great, completely free puzzle game.

Perspective has really interesting concept. You are basically moving a little blue guy around, but while you exist in 1st. person perspective, the little blue guy exists in 2 dimensional world. You alternate between moving yourself and the blue guy to move between levels. Once you get a hang of controls first few levels are piece of cake, but they get gradually harder until getting god-damn-I-will-kill-whoever-thought-this-game-was-good-idea difficult. I haven't passed the game myself yet, so this is not full scale review. What I have seen of it, I warmly recommend it for the people who played the Portal for the puzzles or who want to warp their sense of physics.
Anyway, this masterpiece is downloadable from here.

There's nothing that I wouldn't do / Save lay my rifle down

Went to see the movie today, Skyfall. Maybe there is something in this whole James Bond-business..

This is actually just a notice to anyone who might be reading: I'm probably going to be dead to the world for a few months. I don't have any good, grown-up reason. But you might have noticed that yesterday was the release date for a certain video game I had been waiting for a very long time.

I do recommend playing all the Assassin's games,they are fully worthy of your time. This is not a review. I haven't yet played enough to give anyone a comprehensive image about AC III. I have liked - loved- what I have seen so far. I am yet again completely hooked. When playing this series, I don't notice time passing. Hell, I won't even notice if someone is talking to me. (Today, my father told me that his tyre got busted while he was driving. He said that I responded to his talking to me. Afterwards, I had no memory of this happening)

I don't know why I'm writing this, I could be playing.

See you in a month or so.

But I am already there

 It is a sad day indeed when a thing that comforts me most about my future and life and important decision making stuff is a video about mathematics, that I don't necessarily fully get, but I am smart enough to realize there is something pretty awesome going on here and there's plenty more of it at Viharts Youtube channel.

Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen.

Am I late from the Elementary train? And for those who don't know, Elementary is new Sherlock Holmes show by CBS which got a lot of attention by being obvious BBC Sherlock rip-off and by casting Lucy Liu as the doctor John (now Joan) Watson. Despite there being some very wordy critics in the blogosphere, I decided to see for myself and downloaded the pilot.

After seeing the pilot I can say yes, there were some very obvious parallels between the Elementary and BBC's Sherlock and personally I think it is obvious that CBS is riding on BBC's coattails. It doesn't mean that the Elementary can't be at least moderately good show on it's own anyway. In both shows we see younger, more unhinged version of detective Sherlock Holmes in a modern setting. We get to see scene where Watson meets Holmes for the first time in both adaptions - something that has not been portrayed in earlier TV-shows. Both has the Holmes deducing Watson scene, admittedly with different outcomes. It was very hard for me to watch this show without comparing the two all the time, but I do that for every single adaption. And of course there will be similarities - they are based  on the same books. Duh. I will keep my eyes open for plagiarism while watching this show, but at least the pilot passed the test well enough. 

I don't deem it necessary to even comment on Watson being a woman or Watson being Asian or Watson not having military background. If Disney can replace the tenants of Baker Street with mice, CBS can do whatever they please with their casting. I was worried before watching the show that they would use femWatson as an excuse for ridiculous flirty banter between Holmes and Watson, and was pleased to see that this wasn't the case. I am actually rather interested in following if the series can keep it up - it's regretfully rare to see plain friendship between a man and a woman in the media. I liked that Watson had more active role in solving cases in Elementary than in most adaptions, and Holmes acknowledging that he doesn't really need her for solving cases - he just works better when she's there.

Johnny Lee Millers Holmes was... not very Holmesy. I am quite keen on the original stories as well as Granadas Holmes, and one thing I hate to see being taken away from the Holmes' character is his gentlemanly habitus. I think that Holmes is supposed to have that snobbish, upper-class-private-school sort of feeling to him, which is in no way diminished by his eccentricity. That is why I've never really taken with R.D.J-Holmes, and why I wasn't as thrilled about Elementary as I could have been. I don't like my Holmes all rugged and gruff. He is supposed to be sharp, precise, intelligent and ruthless, not some sort of action hero puppy who runs around kicking bad guys, damn it! But I love that they included the bees. Bees were great.

All in all I will be following Elementary with interest and a moderate amount of scepticism, and recommend checking it out for those in Sherlock withdrawal. It's not the best adaption out there but it could be a lot worse. 

A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake

For the lack of better things to say, here's amazing short animation by Zealous Creative