Dax

Getting amongst The Glitch Mob's newest album released today. Excellent so far.

Deltron 3030. A couple of tracks for ya, favourite from the first album, And my favourite from the second, Get amongst. Awesome stuff that no-one seems to know of, unfortunately.

I'm a late fan of The Glitch Mob, as in, only heard of them when they released Can't Kill Us, but I love them. This is my jam. Also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ci7lssNMRI Rockin' the Gary Numan. Got into him with Are 'Friends' Electric? and Cars (Both from games), and I love him.

Naw. Cute. ily

Getting into some Path of Exile, at the recommendation of my sister. Only a level 10 marauder at the moment, but I'm enjoying it a lot. I can see myself sinking a lot of time into it. Also still doing my attempt at the platinum trophy for Skyrim (Only two more main story trophies, killing a legendary dragon and a few Dragonborn trophies). In the times where I don't want to play the two previous games, I'm re-playing Jak 2 to 100%, something I've never actually done, I've done everything before, bar a lot of the orb challenges (Gun courses, races, gold Jet-Board course, egh). But yeah, good fun. Might play some in a little bit.

Well, for the forseeable future. Yeah, it's over. For now. Over the past few months I've grown tired of RuneScape. It no longer holds my attention like it once did. I no longer felt the excitement I once felt when I logged in. I didn't care for logging in, but did it just for the sake of checking ports and doing dailies. Re-sub time came around and I decided not to re-sub, but to cancel my membership. I can't see the point in paying for POP and the chance of something to bring me back. So yeah, no need for a long drawn out thing. I did this a couple of weeks ago and haven't been back. So I suppose this is truly it. I can maybe see myself coming back for the new skill or a new quest or something, but for now, I'll be playing other games and doing other things. Thanks RuneScape, I still love you, but you've got nothing for me at the moment. And the constant jamming of SOF/SGS down our throats furthers the problem. But that's something different entirely. Catch ya next time, ~Dax.

Untrust Us, by Crystal Castles. I was listening to it today and realised that it's one of my favourite songs of all time, hitting the list of songs I'd mention as my true top absolute favourites of all time.

I Like It, by Foxy Shazam. It's a shame they're getting calmer than they once were, but they're still amazing. Probably the best track from their latest album.

Your wishes have been fulfilled, mortal. I request the presence of Gandalf, so the blood ritual of eternal darkness may be completed.

Hmm. An interesting thing to think about. I don't know what my first game was. I feel as though it may have been either Road Rash or Crash Bandicoot. Both amazing. A lot of my time playing Road Rash was hitting other racers for dad so he could focus on racing, I played a little but I was never as good as dad, hell, not even as good as my brother. And my time with Crash Bandicoot was watching my (now ex-)stepdad play and play a little myself. Road Rash was awesome fun, and Crash Bandicoot started me on a path of loving Naughty Dog games more than life itself. TNPW post about their latest gaming pursuit and their biggest problem with that game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpP-8tJ-9Js Imaginary Places, by Busdriver. When I played through THUG for the first and only time I loved this song, I remembered it yesterday, had no idea what its name was, looked 'em up and found it. Love it.

Cool for Cats, by Squeeze. Something about it, just always loved it. Neither my dad or mum ever played it, so I don't know why.

- AoE II HD (Love this game so much, couldn't resist it for $7.50). - Audiosurf ($2? Yes please) - Bit.Trip Runner 1 and 2 (Only played the first so far, brutal, but awesome fun) - Chivalry - Medieval Warfare. - Fez. - Garry's Mod. - Guacamelee! - Half-Life package. - Left 4 Dead 2 (The super-censored bad Aussie edition! But still, ily Steam for giving it to us for free) - Max Payne 1 and 2. - Mount and Blade collection. - Sim City 4. - Spelunky. - Super Hexagon. - You Don't Know Jack collection. I thiiiiiink that's all I got.

Roygbiv, by Boards of Canada. Not sure who I found this through, someone here on TIF ages ago, but I'm only just getting amongst them, and oh man. So good. This one, especially.

HA! YOU WERE WR.. Right. Oh. Cool. ily devnull, but only if you're next to post.

Sorry. :c

OKAY. TNPW SELFIE.

So, in the Steam sale, I picked up: - Chivalry - Medieval Warfare. - Fez. - Garry's Mod (Though this was a gift from a friend as she already had it and got it in the Humble Bundle, I think). - Max Payne 1 and 2. - Mount and Blade collection. - You Don't Know Jack collection. I have yet to play most of these, though. I played some You Don't Know Jack with my brother and sister and it was pretty awesome. Thinking about making an order online for the 2011 PS3 version, that'd make it a ton easier to play, and would give me an awesome party game for the rare occasions I have people over.

Fun fact, I actually completed Rage about a week before Flower. BUT TOO BAD I WROTE ABOUT FLOWER FIRST. Rage: Shelf-time: Around a year and a half. Time to complete: Roughly 20 hours, all things considered. Price: Technically free, but I had to buy two $25 games to get it, so really like 17 bucks. So, Rage. What can be said for Rage? I bought Rage after seeing it for cheap in a generic trade-in shop when I was visiting my mum. I intended to buy it a weekbefore but backed out and bought Borderlands 1 instead. I later watched some gameplay and regretted that to a degree, but that’s another story. I cleaned it up alongside the first and third Uncharted games (Then I had a quick run across to Target and bought the second Uncharted game as well). It sat on my shelf for quite a long while, as when I went to play it, it seemed too similar to Borderlands, which I had just finished. But it’s not really. It has its similarities, but my initial assumption of ‘Borderlands, without the cel-shading-sorta-business going on’ was largely inaccurate. Rage stands nicely as an excellent FPS game, with a side helping of driving. Now, I’ve never played any Doom or Quake, so I don’t have that drawing me in, I’m just a normal dude with some background with all gaming genres, so no nostalgia vision or callbacks to those two series. Rage is pretty damn awesome. With some large things giving itself a massive punch in the face, but I’ll talk about them in a sec. First, the good things. It’s good, it’s fun (Very important for a game, I hear), and there’s a large chunk of things to do and things to see. Of the FPS’s I’ve played, it’s one of the nicest to look at, though the only environments you’ll see are deserts and old factories (With a small stretch in some new futuristic factories towards the end), they look lovely. Speeding through the overworld in your dune-buggy looks very nice and it was always a pleasure to drive to and from destinations. The combat is fun and the hideouts you visit are fun to explore and have some nice little things hidden away. Shooting people in the face is quite satisfying (Very important for any shooter) and watching the bodies fall is always good. Using the little gadgets to dispose of people works well, and scavenging for parts to build them is a nice feature. Onto the story, one of the most important things I look at in a game. The story is pretty dang awesome. I’m a big fan of the dystopian future storyline, and mixing it with the massive evil corporation taking over the world storyline was a treat. But here’s where I turn the tables and I go into the previously mentioned massive bad things holding Rage back. The story ends so abruptly. Your enemy is named and talked up, the Authority is on your doorstep, you’re raiding Capital Prime, you storm the base and reach the top of the tower and prime yourself for a MASSIVE BOSS FIGHT AND... Nothing (I mean, come on, Borderlands had a final boss, it was dreadful, but it had one!). The credits roll. You win. Yay? No. A massive let down at the end, especially considering the last boss was an hour ago and against a gang leader you toppled in 20 seconds with wingsticks. Wingsticks. The kill-all. Seriously. Bandit? Throw a wingstick. Mutant? Throw a wingstick. Authority? Throw a wingstick. Wingsticks, a very cool invention, and one of the many things you can craft (Hint: It’s the main thing you’ll be crafting, so hang onto them blades). They function as a gadget, one of the little bonus weapons and are massively overpowered and the solution to every problem. So easy to dominate with them, and it just gets better when you upgrade them. Though I suppose the bandits do occasionally win and they kill you, and again, and you’re dead. And you haven’t saved in an hour. This is the final main fault, and it may be me being a pansy. The checkpoints are brutal. I’m not asking for a save every five seconds, but jeez. You’ll tackle a bandit hide-out or a new area, get 90% of the way through and die, and only then realise there was no save point in that entire hour or two you just did. That’s the point I stand up, eject the disc and throw in GTA V or whatever other game had my fancy at the time. And it happened a lot. A half-way save, even, would be better than me having to remember to save every five minutes. A few of the hide-outs I couldn’t stand to see and when I went back to do another mission there, oh god. Behind all these massive problems, though, there’s one hell of a game there. The shooting is awesome (Though I glossed over it, it is, trust me), the driving is awesome (And the races you can enter are even better) and the story hiding away is brilliant (Unfortunately it disappears in the middle of the night without so much as a note). It’s all awesomeness, but these things just made me not want to play, hence its massive shelf-time. I think the thing I’m getting at, is with a sequel, I could really get behind a Rage franchise. But I’m hearing that that ain’t happening, which is a real shame. Final rating: Try it, it’s like five bucks these days.

Far Fowls, by Nujabes. Here's your recommended daily dose of Nujabes. Also a bonus from the GTA V soundtrack. Oh lordy lord. NOW THIS IS GOOD.

A few nights ago, bored with all my other games, I threw in the Journey collection, intending to continue my Journey, but I decided instead to finish off Flower, and after I finished that, I felt compelled to write this up. I might do a short thing like this as I finish this massive collection of games I have here. We'll see. Flower: Shelf-time (Time it sat on my shelf unfinished): Roughly 2 months. Total time to complete: Roughly 5 or so hours, spread over those two months. Cost: $25, with two other games on the same disc. So, I'll begin this by saying I bought this in the collection that comes along with Journey (The sole reason I purchased it) and flOw, and this was the first of the three I completed. We'll see those later on in this chronicle of finished games. Well, hopefully. First of all, Flower is the very definition of flashy artistic gaming. Ambiguous goals, bright colours, sparkles all over the place and flower petals all over the god damn screen. It's overwhelming how much it shoves in your face in the few levels (Or flowers, I suppose you could say) you're offered. But that's not a bad thing in the slightest. It looks amazing, really. Those looks, to me at least, are the primary driving force to completing this game. All of those colours and sparkles I previously mentioned draw you in with an 'Ooo, shiny' mentality, and it couldn’t have been done any better way. I love it. You're given nothing to go on, no narrative, not even as much as a word. When you first fire up the game, you're presented with a room, a window and a sickly looking flower on a bench, and from that, your journey begins. This game employs the use of Six-Axis on the PS3, a little used feature (Usually a good thing) that never got proper exposure. On that, this is the first game I've ever played where it's actually used well, instead of a really annoying tacked-on use, like in GTA IV (God damn tutorial in the phone) or the Ratchet and Clank (I never used those guns. Ever) games. Using Six-Axis, and feeling silly doing so, you steer over to the flower and are thrown into a completely new world, no story, no nothing. Especially no annoying tutorial that assumes I've never played a game in my life. Your goal in Flower, though not explicitly stated, is to fly around a massive open field-sort area and bloom flowers by flying close by, as you 'bloom' these flowers, a petal from that flower joins your chain, and so over the stage you build a massive collection of flower petals (Which looks very pretty). You're steering with the controller, so it adds some slight difficulty until you find your bearings and remember that you have to use motion controls, and then it's only a matter of going the right way. As you drive your flower chain through the level, the world opens up to you. As you head through fields full of dead grass, they are brought back to life and explode into a sea of green. As you head through dark fields covered in old power lines, you re-light lamps atop them. As you head through ruined cities, you destroy old pillars and paint buildings bright shades of blue, green and yellow. Though the journey is short, the journey is beautiful. Every stage throws a new purpose at you, even if the mechanics don't change. Every moment of this game is enjoyable. Even after you finish each and every stage and reach the credits, you're thrown into another level, where you control a final petal as you 'play' the credits. Seriously, I love this game. Final rating: Try it, carry on if you like what you see. And you will, trust me.

TNPW POST MORE SELFIES FOR THE SELFIE GOD.

The Age of the Paranoia, by Major Parkinson. My loved song of today. Super catchy.