Mass Effect Inspired Writings - The Flaggorn Legacy - Part 3 - The Scylla Emerges

Hello and welcome to the next part of the Flaggorn Legacy. I'll jump right on into it. But Please remember I do not own any of the intellectual property owned by Bioware or the Mass Effect writers, I'm merely someone inspired by them. AND be sure to read to the end for a chance to be a part of the creative process.

A tremendous clang of pieces cat-walks hitting metallic floor rang throughout the now rather hollow facility, now visibly miles down into the ground. There were still green mercenaries scurrying around this floor however rather than taking shots at the Krogan, they were much more concerned with fleeing for their lives whilst trying to avoid debris. 

It was now a clear run towards the Drell, just through one final high security bulkhead door. The familiar display of blue light and force opened the door like a tin can and Flaggorn victoriously stepped through. The room he entered was unlike any other in the facility, but rather a giant aquarium that surrounded a walk way to another high security door.  The vanguard could notice many sea creatures that he was familiar from the restaurants he frequented on different space stations in his time and others that he didn't. 

There was one life form in the tank that he thought could have been a mermaid from Human mythology, however he soon realised that it was actually an Asari that had been drowned in the water and who's body was left to be eaten by the fish. There were all sorts of creatures, some ranging from the size of a small Pyjak and others the size of Thresher Maws all living in the same vast underground ocean. 
"Typical place for a Drell to live" Flaggorn muttered under his breath as he walked the long hall way.

On the bulkhead door was a symbol that the Krogan guessed was the mercenaries emblem due to it and the circle around it barring that same leaf green colour that the mercenaries were wearing. It was a sea creature that looked too bizarre to be a real creature and Flaggorn figured he would have heard about it if it was indeed real. It appeared to be a form of Hybrid monster, half Krogan looking prehistoric bipedal creature from above the waist, squid like tentacles bellow ,with large Dragon heads coming from the chest and the sides of the waist. Underneath it was a simple name, finally something Flaggorn could associate with his enemy; "The Emerald Scylla" HQ.

The Krogan closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He knew that beyond this door awaited his vengeance, the simple pulling of a trigger could be the end of his life as a mercenary, he could fight on for the survival of the galaxy and then from there... the sky's the limit. He charged his amp harder than he had ever charged it before, he stepped back, lunged forward and charged right through the door with a deafening warp.

As the the Vanguard slammed into the room he entered a large white room and there... were dozens of Emerald solders with weapons drawn along the walls and up above on a walkway that went across the middle of the room. And there in front of him was the smug looking Drell mounted on a gun emplacement armed with an assortments of gatling lasers and missile pods, the Drell wasn't taking chances! 

"We... Meet....Again...." The Drell wheezed. It was now abundantly clear that this little amphibious man was reaching the good-old ripe old age of about 80 years old.

"Why, hello old man! See you gathered up some guests for our little shindig!" Flaggorn Jested

"Ha!...didn't want you crawling away again like the lame Varren you are, Krogan!"

No one insults Flaggorn and lives!

 He reached behind his back to pull Sar'i'too out in front of him ready to enter into a bullet hell thunder dance (1.564 seconds) He dived out of the way of the incoming fire and fired three shots into different groups of assailants (4.217 seconds) he then charged across the room giving a chance for his barriers to refill and a chance to move and attack the upper walkway (5.542 seconds) He then rammed himself down the cat-walk punching, hitting and head butting all the men in the way (19.741 seconds) he then biotically charged behind the Drell who had just turned the heavy gun up towards the walkway and opened fire (1.428 seconds) Flaggorn then positioned himself behind his target grabbed his head and twisted it all the way round until he heard the click (5.041 seconds) He then armed the turret and blasted everyone else in the room into ash (14.545 seconds.)

In 51.988 seconds it was all over. Flaggorn had done it, he had defeated that bastard who betrayed him all those years ago. He was finally able to leave his life as a Mercenary behind and join the N7 allies initiative fully. He spent a moment, as he took the open elevator out of the military base that he had just single handedly annihilated, to think about what he would do next; like if there was any other back stabbers that he had to assassinate, when his omni-tool lit up like a super nova with a urgent message... from the Turian he had helped on Tyr again a Reaper invasion force.

-- Urgent distress message--

-- Importance level 9 --

-- N7 Mission Request --

-- Unidentified creature attack civilians on the planet Prentive in Turian Space--

-- Operatives deployed >> Turian sentinel [[confirmed]] Human Adept [[confirmed]] Krogan Vanguard [[Pending]] --  

-- Reaper threat in area at time of message >> N/A --

-- Other details >> Army of Green terrorists assisting the creature - Unlikely Cerberus --

-- Day's until deployment >> immediate --

-- Reward >> thirty thousand credits --

"Ha! I would have done it for ten!"

--To Be Continued--

Thank you ever so much for reading this instalment of my Mass Effect inspired writings, really having fun writings these. If you have a positive or negative response please let me know in the comments and also...

 A chance for you, the Reader, to get involved in what way the story progresses from here! (thought this would be a good way to interact with you guys even though so far your famously illusive (even more than the Illusive man for sure!)

I may put these at the end of a "chapter" (selection of parts) in order to decide certain aspects of the next chapter

You have 4 multiple choice questions to fill out, and I'll go for which ever results get the most views, just put the question number and ether A B or C at the end (eg... Question 1. C) Enjoy and I'll catch you next time!

Question 1 -- What is the planet of Prentive like?

A) Snowy planet with not much atmosphere, large accommodation cities within large glass "spheres" habitation, large ocean in the middle of the planet.

B) Arid Desert Planet, Assortment of military bases and prisons scattered around the border of a number of small oceans.

C) Aquatic world raining constantly, Large floating and under water cities with booming trade.

Question 2 -- Who does the story follow?

A) The group as a whole (Novel writing style)

B) Viki (1st person Novel with rhyme structure)
C) The Nameless Turian (no, I'll never reveal his name, but Viki may have came up of a nickname for him that the group would use) ((Personal log writing style)

Question 3-- Who is the leader of this band of Emerald Scylla's?

A) Elcor Vanguard

B) Salarian Assassin

C) Raloi Bounty Hunter (yes they're a thing, yes I'll be creating what they actually look like and how they behave myself within existing fluff)

Question 4-- At the end of the mission they'll be contacted by a person existing in the actual Mass Effect universe, who is this? ((D option available))

A) Admiral Steven Hackett

B) Primarch Adrien Victus

C) Captain Kirrahe

D) No one, keep it separate (I'm totally cool with this and fully understand/expect this option to get the most votes)

PLEASE LEAVE ANSWERS ETHER IN THE COMMENTS BELLOW OR ON FACEBOOK, THANK YOU!

VOTING ENDS ON JULY 20th 2013

ThespianHunter's Top 10 Weapons In Video Games

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to another installment of a ThespianHunter top 10. Today's top 10 was inspired by a video I watched recently by Space Hamster (shameless plug go check him out brah) where he explained his favourite swords in video gaming. When I went to add my personal favourite swords of video gaming it hit me... I don't actually use many swords in video games and when I think about killing people in video games, sometimes using a sword is just too... boring.

So I've created a list of my favourite weapons from video games, some cause of their killing power, some for being cool, some for being funny and some for a mix of all three. Just remember they are my PERSONAL LIST. Don't like it, then leave a comment of what YOU'RE favourite weapons are... So, let's go.

Number 10.

Mass Effect 2 - The Arc Projector

Sometimes it's the fancy weapon that can win you the fight! The Arc Projector as testament to that statment. Only accessible via free DLC, this weapon can turn hard runs into ... not so hard runs. It fires a beam of electricity that bounces of multiple different targets. But this isn't why the gun is amazing. The gun can also completely overcharge enemy shields and/or barriers, but this isn't why this gun is amazing ether. I can make robots and other synthetic enemies, EXPLODE. Nothing like watching a glorious explosion caused by overloading enemy robots. It's also the most efficient weapon for power vs ammo out of all of the Mass Effect games. Oh yeah, did I mention this gun auto-aims for targets? So not only is it an awesome weapon to use, it's also a very easy weapon to use. It's also impossible to hurt allies with it as well (no matter what difficulty) unlike other heavy weapons that do just as much damage. Though I'm pretty sure Legion "gulps" every time you point it at him.


Number 9.


Multiple Games - Death Via The "B Button"

Every game, since Pac man invented fire, has had that button which sets into motion the sync kill, The Xbox 360 is very guilty of this and more often and not these kills are sent over to the B button. Wonder why your Xbox controller always has a dodgy B button after a few years? It's cause your squeezing it into oblivion when you chop a guy into lot's of tiny pieces and scream over the head set like a little 6 year old as you're doing it! Normally this pure lazy control design would annoy me, but it's all made forgiveable by the kills being so god dam satisfying. That and I love screaming like a 6 year old at my TC screen.


Number 8

Black and White - Rocks

There comes a time in one's life where he think's to himself "I wonder what happens if I drop his rock the size of a house on top of that tiny man's head" Black and White allows you to actually scientifically test and verify this via crushing a man with a stone. You can even throw him into a rock that's in mid air, you can even have a giant ape test it for you. The rock is also a good way of working off any stress you're having with your current settlement. Don't like it? Then drop rocks on it and kill everyone.

The simple rock has even more functions as a deadly weapon. You can drop one in the middle of a village, slowly the villagers will gather around at it, stair at it, and realise that you (the God) had placed it there! Then like a shoddy impersonation of Jesus the villagers will start worshipping it, dancing around it and create stories about the rock. After a few weeks of this your little Rock will become an artefact that which generates Godly power which you can spend on miracles like food, wood, fire balls and lightning bolts. Meaning even just putting a rock down in the middle of a village will one day become a weapon.  Never underestimate the power of a rock!

Number 7.

Halo 3 - The Grav Hammer

Sometimes you just wan't to smash someone's brain in with a giant hammer and watch as the lifeless corpse flies across the room and smashes against a wall. That is what the Grav Hammer is for. Entire custom matches have been centred around the idea of smashing giant Grav Hammers into the ground and (hopefully) killing people, or at the very least making people fly away in glorious fashion.

The beautiful thing about the Grav Hammer is that it's not just for smashing people's heads in. It's also very efficient at destroying cars, tanks, aircraft and even pieces of terrain. However without a doubt the best reason to use a Grav Hammer is as an anti-grenade weapon. Literally bounce back sticky grenades onto the original thrower and watch as he leaves the match in anger!


Number 6. Supreme Commander - The Suicidal CZAR death squad omega!

There is something about watching a giant UFO fire a giant laser beam into an enemy base and only seeing a giant white cloud of awesome. The CZAR does exactly that. This UFO the size of 3 shopping centres joined together flies over the battle field to exact harsh vengeance. It can also double up as a aircraft carrier in the skies and makes surprise bombing runs effectively easy!  Though that's not all this UFO can do... When it dies it drops from the sky, slowly, but heavily to the ground. When this mother trucker hits the ground, almost anything underneath it will be crushed. You bring 4 of these bad boys to a party, and you can wipe out an enter base, just by their destruction. You don't even have to win, to win! There is no way to prevent this, only to kill it before it reaches its destination and spread out your base as much as possible, which can easily bite you in the ass! Oh yeah, did I mention that in Sup-Com 2 I actually has 3 other guns that rain down plasma death as well? And it can fire anti-aircraft missiles?!


Number 5.

Grand Theft Auto 3 - The Lolzy

Never before has one bullet been so powerful. A small little bullet from this hose of bullets can kill. An entire clip can take down a car, the maximum ammo capacity can take down a tank. And there's no re-coil and the reload speed in half a second. Did I mention the rate of fire is so fast that if you fired one bullet straight forward from the London Eye, by the time you make it to Big Ben it's made it's way around the earth THREE TIMES! The must have weapon for anyone doing weapons cheats! Turn on the gore cheat for even more chaos. Just be sure not to shoot it when you don't want the police on your... It can be kinda loud!!

Number 4. Any Game - The scythe

Why have a sword when you can have a Scythe. Why? Scythes have longer reach, they're ... cooler looking... and they make you look like the Grim Reaper! What can be better than that? There are some advantages of using a scythe rather than a sword. What you can do, is when the guy goes to block, just pull the sword out of their hand and laugh at them as you stab them in the shoulder, drag them towards you and knee them in the face!

When I kill someone, I do it in style! Spinning it around like a gymnast!

Let me give some examples of bad asses who use scythes!
Firstly, Death. Secondly, War. Thirdly, Dante. Fourthly, Zasalamel and with a name like that, you know a scythe is awesome!


Number 3

Fable - The Bow of Skorm/ Sword of Aeons

Yes. Two weapons from Fable. However both are just impossible to split up and choose one over the other. So, I'll just explain them both.

Firstly the Bow of Skorm. Deep in a scary forest, down a twisted path is a temple. A dark Temple with freaky music to match. There will be two little cultists standing there, worshipping their dark god Skorm. There they'll ask for some sacrifices, in order to receive tribute from their god... There begins the Lols. You must convince at minimum (cause the number sometimes fluctuates) anywhere between 10 and 70 villagers to follow you to the temple. That's right.. You go up to someone, say "Follow" and then lead them all the way to a forest in the middle of nowhere and sacrifice them. This will then grant you the Bow of Skorm, the most powerful ranged weapon in all the Fable Games! As a hidden perk, this weapon does more damage the more evil you are. Oh the strength OH MY WORD the strength.  However it is famous for making hens meat of the "Final Boss" before heading into the lost Chapters.

Secondly is the Sword of Aeons. The most powerful sword in all the Fable Games. It is so powerful, that it kills enemies before you reach them. However, this weapon comes at a cost... You have to kill your own sister. This sword had actually been in your family for generations and to unlock its power it requires your families blood. And so Jack systematically sets out to slay every single member of your family in order to access it. Now, what would you think this weapon could do in Jacks hands? Imagine the earth cracking open and exploding into hundreds of pieces ... Kinda like that really! |Now that's a weapon!




Number 2. Street Fighter 2 - E Honda's 500 Palm Exploding Heart Technique



Sometimes to win a fight you need speed, sometimes you need power to win a fight. And sometimes you need to slap a guy so hard and fast that the entire screen blurs and all you see is a thousand hands slapping your enemy at blinding speeds! Did I mention speed? Once you find this magical combo it will be as if you were on speed! Lot's of it!

The reason why this weapon feature is stated to belong to Street Fighter 2 rather than other Street Fighter games is due to the move on this game being INFINITE! You can spam this move constantly as long as you keep hitting the buttons. Earning this weapon the name "the 500 palm" exploding heart technique rather than the "5" cause only 5 is lame!

And where we are. We have reached the Number 1 spot. Or should I say, the 2 number 1's. See the thing is, there are two weapons which are so ridiculously powerful and devastating powerful that they both deserve the Number 1 spot. Never do other weapons invoke as many Lolz as these do. So without further ado let's get to the first Number 1...

Number 1.1

Medieval Total War 2 - The Elephant Tank

Just take a moment to look at that Elephant. Yes... It's covered in armour, Yes it has a cannon on its back! That's right Ladies and Gents Your own Elephant Blitzkrieg is only a click away. The pure hilarity of an elephant tank is more than enough to earn this the number 1 spot. Just think about it, How does the Elephant stay on its feet? How does it not be petrified of the sound of the cannon? How do you balance a tank on an elephants back?! Why have it on the back of an Elephant?! Wouldn't a wooden tank work? The answers to all of these questions? Cause the Elephant Panza division says its so!

And Number 1.2...

Age of Empires/ Age of Empires the Age of Kings - Priest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tBqdKGiqnI

If you can't beat them, turn them to your side! Via annoying chanting and the waving of a stick. It must have been that the makers of Age of Empires asked themselves a question; How to incorporate religion into our game. Then they must have thought "let's have an old man run up to the enemy, chant, and have them "CONVERTED" to the players team to do their bidding". Genius and it is en-half funny to watch a bunch of old man create an army out of the enemies own solderers. Plus, the chanting, OH THE CHANTING! I could listen to it for days!

Not only this, but being able to pull off a "victory via WOLOLOL" is the a true example of skill. It's difficult having to micromanage twenty priests and clicking their abilities individually on individual targets. It's something beautiful to watch.

Only in a strategy game would an Elephant Tank and a Priest be weapons of mass destruction.




Well there you have it, my top 10 weapons in video games. If you have your own top 10 list, let me know in the comments! And be sure not to let any priests dressed in White and blue through your door any time soon!

My name's been ThespianHunter, ELEPHANT WOLOLOL, and I'll catch you next time

Mass Effect Inspired Writings - The Flaggorn Legacy - Part 2 - An Impactful Arrival

Hello once again everything, welcome to the next part of the Flaggorn Legacy. I'll jump right on into it. But Please remember I do not own any of the intellectual property owned by Bioware or the Mass Effect writers, I'm merely someone inspired by them.

Flaggorn had finally made his way to Millin's largest moon, where the weapons facility was located. He was so close he could taste the sweet revenge in his mouth, it tasted like a sweet nectar one would saver for all eternity.  As he planed, he left a vehicle two miles away from his destination, out of range of the gun. It was night time, the huge ice planet of Millin replacing where one would expect to find a moon, yet it filled the sky all the same if not more. On the moon it was only one season, winter. The was a cold that froze the sweat from the Krogan's brow. No life lived on Millin, there was only ice and those who travelled here.

Flaggorn approached the entrance to the base to see that, as he expected, it was heavily guarded. An Elcor adorning large green armour with a large weapon emplacement on its back being manned by a Mech. Next to this lumbering beast was a Turian, also wearing green, armed with a sniper rifle and wearing a small, yet effective jump pack. "These guy's seem heavily armed" he thought to himself "It's not as if they're expecting me, are they?" His mind raced to think of a back up plan if this was the case, however he surely thought that if they knew they were expecting company they would have placed more than an Elcor and a Turian on the front door. Flaggorn's thoughts instead turned to the matter of taking these two down without raising any alarms. That would be the challenge, as Elcor are famously hard to take down without a fight, a fight that would most probably raise any form of alarm system.

The Vanguard had only brought three things with him, his personalised shotgun that he had used on many missions, his armour that focused on making his barriers as powerful as possible, allowing him to take a couple of hits and a omni-tool for getting into any locked doors inside. All of which didn't really help in taking down a number of guards... or would they...

Flaggorn armed his Omni-tool and tried to connect to his vehicle two miles away, he sent the signal and waited, only moments later the small fighter came flying past the front door at such a tremendous speed it knocked the Turian flat on his ass. Then Flaggorn listened into the radio conversation.  

"What in fuck was that Grel"

"Alerted - Nothing sir, only a vehicle travelling past at tremendous speeds"

"Well go and check it out you great big bastard"

"Submissively - Yes sir, right away sir"

The distraction seemed to work, the two guards at the door ran off into the distance after the vehicle. Considering Flaggorn set the fighter to do an enter lap around the planet it was safe to say they were going to be gone a while.

He then took the opportunity to start making his way through the base. He dropped down from above the door and made his fall as quite as possible by crouching down into the fall. He then used his Omni-tool and started to crack the lock... after about a minute the high security door opened. It opened into a large corridor which lead deeper into the earth. Its walls were as white as snow and this path was incredibly well lit, so much so it made Flaggorns' eyes sting just by looking into the hallway after being out side in the thick of night.

The Krogan followed the long and bright hall all the way down for what seemed like an entire hour. When he looked up he no longer could see the door from which he entered, only white. He eventually reached another door and began to hack this, being certain that at least one camera had spotted him coming down this hall way due to how long of a hallway it was. The door slammed open like it was being forced open by a thousand Elcor, When Flaggorn stared into what was in front of him, he couldn't believe his eyes.

What he expected was something similar to the lab which he was in two years ago where the 'demonstration' had occurred, with science equipment around and lab hands franticly going about there business. Instead what he saw was nothing short of a military base. As far as he went down there were thousands of cat-walks going up into the top of the building (high enough to reach just bellow the surface). As Flaggorn moved forward to the end of the balcony of the floor he was on and looked down he could see that there were even more Cat-walks heading down. Scattered around were all sorts of guards, dressed in green armour from all sorts of different races some he recognised, some he didn't. 

Flying around the base were small green armoured Volus's aboard little saucer like platforms with gravitational tractor beams for carrying boxes of equipment around the base. On each of the cat walks were lines of guards marching around and at the very, very bottom of the base was a large production line making things that Flaggorn couldn't make out... what ever they were, they were big.

"Aggressively - Halt" Came a voice from behind the Krogan. There and behold was an Elcor, rather out of breath, the same Elcor he had sent on his little wild goose chase, they must have come back after knowing someone had snuck behind them. Although an Elcor's facial expression was subtle, Flaggorn could tell that it was pissed. It leant down, pointing it's large cannon right towards the Krogan.

"Only one thing for it" He thought. As he leap backwards off the balcony and began to free fall down at incredible speeds. Time seemed to almost slow down as Flaggorn turned to position himself facing down, balconies flying past him and blinding speed. Flaggorn had remember an old trick used by Orbital strike troopers during the Rachni wars. He engaged his biotic amp and prepared to punch the floor as he hit the ground.

The boom created by the impact of the landing created a small explosion that blew up a small number of surrounding factories around him... So much for being sneaky. Alarms began to ring all around the facility white lights turned to red, an army of men began to rappel, jump back, and hover down towards him. Flaggorn knowing that the time for subterfuge had passed, brandished his shotgun and began to fire on all those coming towards him in a tremendous display of destruction and power.

As bodies began to fall down onto the ground Flaggorn used them as makeshift cover against those coming towards him already on the ground level. He had even picked up on of the solderers M-99 Saber and use that to quickly attack would-be solders of honour.  However , despite how well he was doing and the fact his kill count of quickly reaching the fifties and sixties,  this did nothing to slow down the progressive swarm that was marching towards him. After seeing even Hanar were entering the battle he knew that it was time to get out of the fire fight.

As the Vanguards Biotic-amp started to shine with a vibrant blue all the solderers began to look for cover, not knowing if he was going to just throw an unlucky victim into the sky or if he was going to cause another explosion. What actually happened was a bit of both. Flaggorn launched himself into the sky whizzing past at well over the speed of sound he then reached to roof, pushed off against it with his feet, and made his way down again via another biotic charge. As he hit the now weakened floor Flaggorn instead of smashing against it went right through it, right into another lower factory which also went down for miles, Flaggorn seemed to only speed up as he fell down past hundreds more cat-walks and smashing through more floors and passing even more cat-walks. As he went further into the base the more the pressure of being further underground effected him. Eventually he hit the ground floor and created such a large explosion that the ENTIRE collection of cat walks on this level blew apart at the shear power of it all. The blast was so powerful that the entire underground base started to shake. 

As everything began to slowly hit the ground Flaggorn shouted the simple phrase -

"KNOCK, KNOCK MOTHERFUCKER!"

 - To Be Continued - 

Mass Effect Inspired Writings - The Flaggorn Legacy - Part 1 - Green Blood on the Window

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the next installment of Mass Effect Inspired writings. Thought I'd return to these as they're something fun to do when I'm not writing scripts for work or genuinely have nothing to do in the evenings.

So, This time We're leaving the Turian and now following the Korgan. I'll also be using a different writing style for each of the 3 characters that have featured in the last 2 posts, just because I can ...  And Please remember I do not own any of the intellectual property owned by Bioware or the Mass Effect writers, I'm merely someone inspired by them.

There wasn't much time for the Salarian to react, as the force of the shotgun hitting his chest propelled across the room. As it did a wondrous fountain of blood gushing from the pathetic creatures nimble body soaked everything in the room... Including the hostages bound and gagged in the corner. There was no scream, only the thud and crack as the Doctors back hit a side table which, due to the speed in which the Salarian was moving, nearly split him in two as he made contact with it's corner. The only sounds that followed was continued whimpering and the sound of a thermal clip hitting the ground.

"Well", The now rather bored and slightly pissed off Vanguard remarked "How many more of you little toads does Sar'i'too have to slaughter before one of you tells me where are the plans to that weapon!" The weapon, being a new construct which was rather effective at making people explode into lots of tiny pieces and being developed somewhere on a mining world called Millin. However it so happens; that the plans for which, were being traded to leaders of other Mercenary groups on the Citadel ... all of which, were ether now decorating the walls, tied up in the corner or were killed by the Grenade Flaggorn had thrown into the room to cause collateral damage to inspire shock and awe.

All that followed was muffled inaudible cries, forged by ludicrous amounts of fear caused from the mere fact that the chances of any one of them actually escaping being rather thin to say the least.

"What's that?" Flaggorn joked "...Well what ever it was... it didn't quite sound like you were telling me where the plans were... more like you were begging for your lives." He removed the the gag from one of the three remaining leaders, all of which were Salarian.

"Please don't kill us! I'll tell you what ever you want! Just please don't kill me! I have a wife, she needs me, Please I got.."
"SILENCE YOU GIBBERING MEAT-PILE! Before I tear off your head and kick it out the window! Where are the plans?"

"Here, Here! Please, just let me go" The leader squirmed as he handed over a data-slate and flinched as Flaggorn yanked it from his hand.

There was then a silence that would make even an Elcor anxious as the Vanguard opened the data-slate and began to read the contents. Turns out the lab had been moved to one of Millin's moons, which was under heavy guard.

"Thank you Salarian... you may leave..."

"OH! Thank you sir, you have no idea..."

"...OUT THE WINDOW!"

If you've ever asked whether or not a Salarian could fly... the answer is no! First Flaggorn picked up the Mercenary and launched towards the window. Second, the head smashed through the glass pane creating an almighty crash as it shattered and boomed over the top of the little aliens crying and wailing. Next the Salarian began to fall, all the while flailing his arms and legs around and screaming at the top of his lungs. Finally he smashed head first onto an incoming Citadel taxi in mid air as a huge gush of green blood sprayed for meters around.

Flaggorn then quickly executed the remaining Leaders in the room and left, all the while covered in green blood.

This kind of work wasn't Flaggorn's usual gig, after all, he was now working for the N7 initiative and was "representing" his race on the global theatre of war. However this was different, this mission was unlike anything he had done before... this was personal. Flaggorn used to be a rather vocal member of the Blood Pack, he even had the clan's tattoo still on each of his testicles and while with them, he was involved in a mission... a mission that went horribly wrong.

Two years ago word reached The Traverse's largest mercenary factions that a new experimental weapon called "The Kraken" (named after the human mythological giant squid.) The gun, when fired, release eight long streams of plasma which waved across towards it's target. Once these streams reached the target and penetrated into inside the victims circulatory system, they would react with the blood cells inside the arteries and veins making them replicate at such a huge rate the victim would eventually explode. Not only was this a morale damaging display that would terrorise a huge amount of people, but also the plasma streams would only stop travelling until they hit a target's blood. This meant the streams could blast through the hull of a ship, through the walls and not stop until it actually hit a person... as long as the victim was within two miles, by which the energy created would slowly fade out. Needless to say, this turned a gun into a weapon of terror into a weapon of mass destruction, all of which mercenaries could do anything to get hold of.

At a a weapon display, which the Blue suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack were invited to, they were were betrayed. The arms dealer, a Drell going by the nickname "Silence" turned on the mercenaries and used them all as the targets for the demonstration. 

It was a slaughter! Only three people made it out that meeting alive. It was on that day that Flaggorn would promise avenge his fallen comrades as the last mission he would ever do. The last mission before retirement as a bounty hunter. 

Flaggorn quickly stowed away upon a ship that was travelling to Millin. There he would steal a small craft capable of getting him to the moon, drop himself two miles away from the base (out of range of the dangerous Kraken weapon) and approach on foot. There he would kill any guards on the way without raising any alarms, sneak his way into the facility and assassinate the Drell while taking the weapon for himself. At least, that was the plan...

-To be continued-

Thank you for reading this instalment of Mass Effect Inspired Writings. If you have a positive or negative response please let me know... Regardless... I'll catch you next time.

Belated Reviews - BrÜtal ****ing Legend! - UMLAUTS MOFO!

Greetings beautiful readers, welcome to the second instalment of Belated Reviews, where I review a game which has been out for ages, but maybe I just never expressed my opinions of, or I just missed the boat completely.

Today I bring you a game that's quite close to my heart, a game of awesomeness. But to do so Must tell an epic tale...

Long ago (4 years ago) lived a man unlike any other man he knew (probably) A man named Tim "The Schafernater" Schafer the man responsible for Double Fine and such games like Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts. One fated day The Schafernater (again, probably) was greeted by an almighty being know was "The God of Metal!" The God of Metal spoke onto the Schafernater and demanded he create a video game that was worthy of his awesome being. He wanted songs, that spread the power of Heavy Metal music to the people in order to spread his influence. The Schafernater got his crack team together, hired voice "talent" in the forms of Ozzy Osbourne and Jack Black and many, many others (Including Tim ****ing Curry. After acquiring other "voice actors" he then scoured (probably) the globe in order to find the most mindbogglingly awesome Metal music and placed it all... on an in-game car radio... And so it was... That BrÜtal ****ing Legend.... Was born. Why the bold umlaut? Because Germans are awesome!

 

As was the tale...

I actually rented this game almost a week after release (2009 and I ALWAYS regretted not buying the full game. I ended up having to rush certain parts and never really got to experience the entire game... Until recently... I've been meaning to by this game on steam since getting my new computer and I've finally done just that... I've (4 years late) purchased BrÜtal legend. (Yes the Ü will be bold every time I use it.)

At the time, the game was a mixed bag on release with some people feeling the game wasn't long enough and that certain aspects weren't as refined as they could have been whilst others referred to the game as "The Holy Grail" of all games, and a "Love Letter to Heavy Metal music!"

Regardless, there was no PC release. People asked and for 4 years they didn't get... Until now... So! Is the port any good? What are my views on the game in general? Do I "head bang" or "old man dance" on the spot? Let's find out.... Lower the gates!


Oh yeah... and SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!

Chapter 1 - Looky Looky!
BrÜtal Legend's world is set in a ... kinda old times, kinda parallel universe ... thingy place which is totally inspired and lives upon Heavy Metal rock music. There are trees shaped as Stage Scaffolding, there are giant Iron Crosses and other "Rock" inspired scenery.  That would have been okay... But then that's not nearly as BrÜtal as it needs to be. So EVERYTHING is hyped up to 11. Giant volcanoes in the distance mountains of skulls and sea walls created of giant speakers stacked onto top of each other. The world is colourful, vibrant and sexy as hell! As are the enemies and characters the player encounters. Everything from Demonic nuns (Yes... Demon Nuns!) Head bangers with shoulder muscles that could crush a bus and Goth Zombies... (Yes... Zombie Goths, not that different from actual Goths really) There's huge variety here and every new area will have the player just wanting to stand still for a moment and absorb everything they're seeing and just say "That is so awesome". Everything is perfectly themed, everything looks awesome. The addition of NO HUD UI allows you to gaze upon the world as you wish with nothing in the way, and you don't need a HUD UI anyway.

In terms of sound... well... It's as awesome as flying through the air in a car with an absurd amount of nitro with the engine roaring like a dragon whilst blurting out Heavy Metal music sounds like. It's pretty brilliant. The music variety in this game is LUDICROUS levels of insane... Like a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack but with only good songs and all of them make you want to nod your head and stomp your feet. The voice acting is spectacular, Jack Black gives (in my opinion, please do remember this is an opinion based review) his best performance, it's a perfect blend of funny one liners and ... his personality. The cameo cast all do an excellent job and honestly there isn't a bad voice acting performance. Sometimes you can pick out one or two... but here.. All good. Battle sounds are pretty good as well, mostly due to the fact the mostly everything is ether drowned out by rock music or actually IS some form of rock music, like a thunder strike caused by playing the guitar.

On PC compared to the Xbox 360 version I played, as you can expect, it's a leap and bound better. It still looks about 4 years old, but who gives a shit when the game looks and sounds this awesome. There are a few glitchy animations here and there which are likely never going to be fixed and I had the frame rate drop off for me a little when crazy shenanigans were happening on screen, but apart from that, this port looks and sounds AWESOME!!!!

OH, but beware gamer... NO GRAPHICS SETTINGS OF ANY KIND!!!!!!!!!!!! If you think your computer can't run the screen shot bellow... It probably can't!

Chapter 1 conclusion - BEAUTIFUL world which looks and sounds awesome. An album cover artist's wet dream!



Chapter 2 - Clicky Clicky

Get some tea.. this is going to be a long one...

So the game implements two/three-ish main game play styles. 3rd Person action combat, which focuses on using combo's with both an axe and an "electric" guitar. 3rd person strategy, very similar to a brilliant little game called Sacrifice where the player orders troops that are nearby to the player rather than commanding via a god-like birds eye view. And driving where you... drive (three-ish cause there's a surprising emphasis on driving around)

Firstly the action combat. left click (default) commands your axe, and holding it can use a more powerful attack while respectively the right click commands the use of the guitar. By varying combinations of the two and unlocking combo's and different moves the player can dispatch most enemies that come before them. As well as this the player can attempt to execute different "solos" which require hitting buttons in a particular order and tempo in a "Guitar Hero" kinda style. There can be from melting the faces of any low level enemies nearby to ...*Clear Throat* CALLING FORTH A GIANT FLAMING LED ZEPPELIN TO DROP ON ONE'S FOES! The combat for about half of the game can be rather entertaining and the solos are always fun to pull off (even though the LED ZEPPELIN!  Isn't un-lockable in single player until near the end of the game)However what ends up happing is that the combat on its own becomes stale. You'll have unlocked about 7 different combos but you'll likely only find yourself using two or three over and over and over and over again. The don't do nearly enough damage for them to be entertaining to use and it will take a long time to take down enemies by yourself. In addition to the AWFUL control scheme of left click right click, movement being WASD and the lock on being ***ing Ctrl... you end up just not locking on to enemies... It's rather annoying unless your happen to have tentacles instead of arms.

The strategy elements of the game are slowly drip fed to you throughout and the missions you'll be doing will most of the time be in order to explain the functions of different units in your army such as Roadies who carry large speakers on their backs and are yet invisible to the enemy and Head Bangers which smash things with their heads. About 2 hours into the game you'll start to have your actual first strategy battle. Eddie (the main character) can fly about the battle field and issue commands to units he flies over or alternatively he can do it on foot or at the seat of his car. The basics (and you really couldn't make this up) are that you must protect your main stage from the enemy whilst destroying their and capturing "fan fountains" by placing merchandise booths on top of them. What intern happens is engaging battles that involve you multi-tasking like a boss. This can at times be a little too much and you may struggle balancing hiring troops, while fighting enemy commanders, while fighting enemy troops, while observing the battlefield, while trying to pull off certain solos like the LED ZEPPELIN! While also trying to listen to the awesome music. As if this wasn't enough you can also double team up with EVERY unit in your army to do specific moves, like creating a mosh-pit.

This would all be fine... if it wasn't for the controls. The hotkeys for all these things are scattered everything and often require you to hold down a button while you must click an icon in a CIRCULAR RIDICULE obviously designed with consoles in mind. Example was me trying to build a booth on a fan fountain by pulling off the right combo, while training troops and within seconds fly away to safety. It's just too much without a good control system in place. You find yourself having to slow yourself down, when you just wanna go at the speed of light. For someone who's typically quite slow at build orders, to be slowed down by the controls isn't a great thing.

The driving is kinda borderlands-esk. You can explore the world by driving around it. Pretty standard. You can upgrade your car with different weapons, paint jobs and utilities such as bigger engines and more nitro. Controls are a little iffy, though this can mainly be because of it being a port. Controlling the car would be much better with a thumb stick though you're kinda forced to using WASD. However this doesn't mean that it isn't fun, upgrading the car so it can ALMOST fly while going super fast after a jump is a joy. And combine this with the soundtrack at the same time... It's forgiveable.

There are also tuns of collectables and side quests to complete which increase the total game time considerably. Collectables range from freeing relics and finding out the ancient history of the world you're in. Side quests involve range from two "types" of missions for me. The first is story focused side quests, in helping a certain non-recurring character in an inventive way, like helping a guy keep bassists away from a girl he's trying to chat up by creating a giant mosh-pit. These are the rarest of the two types and are relatively few in number. The second type are side quests where you do the same thing again and again for a certain character or characters. Like doing ambushes with a small force and if you lose the force you fail the mission. And and doing a race against are fast car. These get REALLY repetitive REAL quick. And you'll find yourself only doing these for the reward and for no other reason. This reward, which is for completing any mission or finding a collectable, is Fire Tribute which you can spend on upgrades and cosmetic gear from Ozzy.

The problem with the game-play here is the game tries to be a jack of all trades, master of non. None of the different game-plays are in-depth enough to not become repetitive later on in the game. The action isn't fleshed out enough and is two simplified, the strategy game-play is very simple and with only 7 strategy based missions in the game its not nearly as fleshed out as it should be (yet it's bar far, for me, the most fun gameplay style out of the 3) The driving's controls aren't slick enough for me, and can be abit wonky, but because of the music blaring out at the same time, and with all the funny upgrades you can get you'll still enjoy driving around.

There's also a Multiplayer mode in the game where you take part in strategy battles as one of the 3 factions in the game. These are pretty much giant missions from the main story but are quite fun. The problem is, is that it suffers the same problems as the single player in that it isn't fleshed out enough.

Chapter 2 conclusion, Not refined enough and tries to be too much at once. Still fun though. Controls are not suited for the PC at all however it's bearable. Too short and quite repetitive.
Multiplayer is alright.. but could be better



Chapter 3 - Fluffy Fluffy 
In BrÜal Legend you play Eddie Riggs (Jack Black) a rock and roll Roadie who feels that he was born too late in a world that doesn't care. Luckily for him when a piece of set falls on him and crushes him like a bug he is transported to a world of Heavy Metal. There he meets Ophelia (Jennifer Hale), the classic rock and roll chick love interest, and Lars (Zach Hanks) who the rebel against an evil demonic army lead by Emperor Doviculus (Tim ****ing Curry) and his lacky General Lionwhyte (Rob Halford) who is enslaving the people of Blade Henge. Along the way he meets, The Guardian of Metal (Ozzy Osbourne) a spiritual healer and Kill Master Lemmy (Lemmy).

Eddie offers himself forth as the person to put on an awesome show and take it on tour to free the world. The story is full of twists, turns and betrayal and is full of some of the most awesome lines in video game history like; "Now I bet you wished you'd worn a bib 'cause now you've got face all over your shirt!" and "Everytime you come back here, there's another ****ing scratch on that beautiful car" Spoken by Ozzy Himself.

The voice acting here is BRILLIANT! and every character is loveable.

The game is also bloody hilarious throughout and I'd actually go as far as calling this game a "comedy game" everything is rock and rolled themed and it gleams out all forms of exaggeration at the same time. You never feel like it's insulting Heavy Metal, just telling you that it's awesome because of X Y and Z.

In terms of actual story length... it's definitely a short one. Lasting only about 12 hours-ish being longer if you complete ALL the sides quests. Probably the biggest shame is the fact that the game is unlikely going to receive a sequel, considering the fact the story leaves on a kind of cliff hanger "I'll be back" kinda way.

As last time I will go through my favourite character/s and explain why I liked them so much so...

Emperor Doviculus.



Leader of the demonic armies and total bad ass. Voiced by frigging Tim Curry! He's everything you like in a bad guy and perfectly bends people to his will. You can also play as him in the Multiplayer which is awesome and the voice acting is bloody stellar! Did I mention Tim ****ing Curry?!

Chapter 3 conclusion - Too short, but still really, really good. Shame there will unlikely be a sequel.

Chapter 4 - Yay or Nay?

This game is a mixed bag. On one side, the game play is not as good as it should have been, it's quite repetitive and is too short. The game tries to be a jack of all trades but ends up being a master of none. On the other hand, You have a spectacular love letter to Heavy Metal bursting with charm and humour that not only makes the player feel frigging awesome but despite the game play not being brilliant, you never regret the time you spend with it.

It's an odd subject considering I always defend the line of "Games are to play, not to watch" but BrÜtal Legend is a perfect example of how this line of thinking can be wrong. This isn't the type of game to replay again and again because you want to unlock the different combo's or want to be able to be really good at online. Instead you replay this game cause you want to experience all the jokes and the story again. I've now completed this game twice... and you know what... I'm likely going to do so again.

This game's Theme, Music and Story throws the Gameplay over it's shoulder and carries it to the promised land of rock, places it down at the side of a beach, hands it a beer and says to it "don't worry buddy, we'll take it from here just sit back. Listen to some rock music and I'll be back in a jiffy"

An example of playing a game, in order to enjoy the things that don't have anything to do with the game play... Not that's terrible, but it's no where near as good as it could have been.

Final Thoughts? If you like rock music, enjoy having a laugh or two or just want an okay game to tide you over for a little while then pick it up. The PC version is available on Steam for £14.99 or your regional equivalent and although the controls are suited for the Xbox 360, Id still pick it up on PC just because it looks a thousand time's better. Just be sure to look into checking that you can run it before hand. Don't expect the best game ever, but expect to have a good time none the less!

My name's been ThespianHunter, Tim ****ing Curry!... And I'll catch you next time.

 
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

ThespianHunter Defends : Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Gates to Infinity

Greetings everyone and welcome to another addition to the ThespianHunter Blog, where I talk about video games and other shenanigans we refer to as entertainment.

I brought a 3DS-XL yesterday! Yes, I can hear you already "OMG BRA, 3D IS SHIT BRO" And yes, illiterate reader (that really doesn't make sense, does it?) 9 times out of 10 I'll agree with you that 3D tech is the latest in cash cows in video gaming. It's a mixed back, a wild west if you will, of a very very wide range of quality implementations.  As for me, I enjoy 3D, I'm one of those strange and wacky people, who feel that 3D enhances the viewing experience (as long as making it 3D doesn't LIMIT the experience, an odd concept I know, but ill be getting to it) and as for the 3DS, I do enjoy most of it's little gimmicks it tosses around like a midget stuffed into a basket ball! For me and my current experience with the 3DS so far is that I love it. No need for glasses, it's all on the screen... but... well... I'll get to that later too.

But anyway, One of the things I got with my little "per-chase" (as it was the Monster Hunter Limited addition) was that I would chose from a selection of games what I would like to have for the simple sum of £5. Me being Me, I wanted to get something that, I was familiar with, however demonstrated what my new 3DS could do. And, out of the choice I picked.... Poke-mans Mystery Dungeon - Gates to Infinity. (which I'll be referring to as GoI, during this post)



And yes, illiterate reader "OMG BRO, BUT VESP! YOU SAID YOU DISLIKED POKEMON AS A CASHCOW! YOU HIPERCRIT BLAD" .. Yes, Yes, But reader as an uncle said to me long ago "You don't complain about the milk when you sucking it from a tit!"But yes, as cash-cows go, Pokemon is the biggest of them all, all is missing is a Pokemon-vile and I'm sure gaming journalists will be referring to the franchise as "sin amongst sin". But, as you may recall... I do actually like the franchise. And I wouldn't have got this game if I didn't! I especially like Mystery Dungeon Games.

An odd hybrid of rouge like "turn based" game play, with JRPG elements and team management, mixed in with a little bit more "kid friendly" entertainment.

And just under 10 hours in... OH MY is it aimed at kids (not that I mind, one of my biggest guilty pleasures is Viva-Piñata, a game easy to play, degree needed to be master! Those who have played it will know what I mean) it's clear in it's presentation, how it's story progresses and in it's character OH MY is it in it's characters.

As the game starts, you're a human, who "is in a deep dream" turned into a Pokemon, haunted with nightmares every night, and told "you must save the Pokemon World" You then pick which Pokemon "you look like" and then you pick what Pokemon is looking over you as you wake up in the middle of no where. So it began, I was a Pikachu and my best buddy in the Pokemon world was "Ajax" the Axew. You set off together putting together a team to save other Pokemon and uncover a bunch of mysteries.

From there you defeat nasty Pokemon, build up a Paradise for Pokemon, meet new friends and eat a fuck ton of berries. And that's the premise!

Now, why is this post called "ThespianHunter defends" well, whilst I was looking through guides on what to do during a brake in the story progression (which was needed, cause the story just keeps on progressing like a train on heavy tracks!) when I came across different reviews... negative ones. After reading through them I started noticing the review scores... at their lowest.. 3/10 at their highest 4/10 Even IGN, the worst reviewers on the internet for giving games too higher scores gave it a 4.5/10 and thus calling the game "bad".

Now, as you may know, I only give a score if I feel like I really have to, to express a point, I personally think meta-critic is a retched hive of scum and villainy being more corrupted than the Blight! but that's besides the point... What does a 3/10 imply... You know what it implies? .... Go on... guess!... I'll tell you what.... it's JUST AS GOOD.. as Steel battalion for the Kinect... a game.. that DOESN'T EVEN WORK! And what do I mean by "doesn't even work?" I mean "IT'S UNPLAYABLE!" ... So, this raises a question... "why the low review scores... Am I missing something?"

I don't think I am!

Thus, I present to you ... why I think Pokemon GoI deserves AT THE VERY LEAST a 6/10. I'm defending it!




Firstly, My points against, because I can understand some criticism aimed at the game.

1. The 3D Tech  I do like the 3D tech, honestly, I think it's rather nifty! There's great depth perception with clear levels of foreground midground and background. It's actually quite cool, it's also way better implemented than Monster Hunter 3. (yeah, bet that shocked you!) In Monster Hunter with 3D on highest, the text appears really blurry and the the 3D tech is only really noticeable in this fashion. (unless it's a cut-scene) In GoI Text appears nice and crisp. But.... That's when the screen isn't making your eyes bleed.

I can sum this up perfectly with a quote. My father, bless his bald head, is starting to lose his eye sight (as we all do when we become senile!) and He wanted to to see how I was getting on, so I handed the 3DS to him.... I saw tears.... Literally, the screen hurt his eyes so badly they started watering. his response "Ah well... It sounds good. Just a shame I have to look at it upside down from a mile away with my joke glasses on" And that's the main problem. You have to find that sweet spot where your eyes pick up the 3D and KEEP IT THERE at all times, alittle too much to the left and you'll go double vision. After about an hour of play your eyes hurt. Yeah... It does it better than Monster Hunter... but it still makes your eyes water. so abit of a mixed bag. (but when it works it's awesome!)

2. It's Clearly a Kids Game MD games are normally aimed at children. or at least Japanese teens and more so than other Pokemon games. kiddy themes, no one "dies", everyone want's to be a friend and there are nasty people who don't believe in friendship. There are some more, "adolescent" themes here and there, like rejection and how to take criticism etc but these are few and far between (at least 60% through the game) and you can tell that the game is even meant to be played by a kid, as you're reminded what you're meant to be doing every other minute via cheesy grins and dialogue to match. This for me, at times, feel a little too much, it goes overboard at times.

3. Repetitive nature Although the "mystery dungeons" are completely random every time you enter one, even if you enter the same one, how they're structured, how they look and a lot of the enemies you'll be facing are the same. There are different tile textures and some dungeons have some open areas which are cool to look at the first time round, but you'll be going into each mystery dungeon at least 7 times each to do different missions. Said missions only have a handful of different variations, you'll ether go in to find someone, something or take someone out. Furthermore although there are almost 150+ Pokemon in this game, you won't encounter even 90 of them until you've completed the game.

As an extension point of Pokemon variety, You can't evolve your partner Pokemon until you've completed the game. (bit of the bummer, but that's how it's always been)

Honestly, with this much repetition, unless there are some awesome things in post-game, I won't be replaying it.



4. Paradise building sucks! Meant to be a way in which the player can further-customise his/her game the edition of building Dojo's to train and berry farms (LOL POKEMON-VILE) to grow crops for missions is utterly redundant maybe if it was a little more fleshed out MAYBE it would be good, but alas it just sucks.

Time for the good then, can it redeem itself?

1. The story It's rather charming and seeps with the charm that Pokemon does all the time. It does get away with a lot of plot holes because, dude, it's talking Pokemon. But it's pretty good for what it is. I would have been good if it's "companion mode" (a free-play mode where you play as one of the Pokemon you've recruited as a team leader.) had some form of story mode for itself, but it's not here. There's no real choice within the story line ether, but in all fairness, if you wanted a Pokemon story, go read the Manga! or watch the TV series or...or... play one of the other thousand of games!

2. Augmented reality There's not much of it, but it is kinda fun to use ... kinda, (it's a half good point) You go around with the camera, find something circular and turn it into a portal to a mystery dungeon for you to explore. You can't explore it with your single player story team, but you can pick a little team and the rewards you earn are sent to your current character. These are however FUCKING DIFFICULT! and you will require to know your way around the game before jumping into this game mode. But it's pretty cool.

As an addition to this point, there are also some balance sensor mini-games here and there which are a fun little distraction, but they're not something which will keep your attention for more than a couple of minutes every now n then.

3. Rogue a-like  Aye. Indeed, rogue a-like... another one, right? A completely random chance of things happening, you can open a door and you can NEVER predict what's going to be behind it (some also have Permadeath, although this game does not) Seems the genre has had a huge resurgence lately... not that it's a bad thing! However I'm two sides about the genre to be honest, I like the random element, keeps the game fresh and exciting to experience. However there's always the annoying factor of it, and I can understand those who feel like they get dicked over. An example from the game, certain mission I was on I had to get to some stairs in this certain mystery dungeon, only to find 3 high level pokemon right next to their stair. But as is the fate of the dice. In this case, the genre the game is in HIGHLY improves it. It aids some what

4. Pretty Colours!  The game is VERY colourful and very (for me) aesthetically pleasing. The different dungeons are vibrant with colour, each being slightly different in its presentation, yet still being the same-ish style of layout (EG, the lakes look different, but they're all the same lake) If I would be critical about it I would say that the "dirt road" which seems to be everywhere (in the over-world and in the different dungeons) is quite repetitive, but at least it's a pretty dirt road!

5. The Game Play The game play is quite good for what it is. Each Pokemon can learn 4 moves (the standard in any Pokemon game) There are aggressive moves, that do physical damage to an enemy, that can be levelled in to more powerful versions with constant use. There are also non-aggressive moves which can't be levelled up, but help your efforts as a whole (like lowering the attack of all enemies in the room or putting a certain enemy to sleep). There is also a super attack. This attack can only be used every so often and requires charging after use. It's powerful enough to kill almost every enemy in the room via giant explosion. The gameplay is a mix and strategy and Hexbased turned based strategy. And is definitely fun. This is one giant elephant in the room however, you can't easily issue commands to each of your companions, they'll do what ever they see fit, which can sometimes be ... not useful at all. And sometimes they may run off to attack someone, leading them on a wild goose chase in the wrong direction, but returning to you until they're forced to turn around by a dead end.

So there you have it, my for and against. As you can see, yes, the game will never win game of the year, yes the game is not a brilliant master piece. But NO! It is not a bad game. It has it's problems, sure. But it's far from being a bad game. Look to the Kinect for "bad games". If my views drastically change by the end of the game I'll let you all know. But my time so far is enjoyable and I do indeed plan on finishing the game. After that... My name has been ThespianHunter, You can put my Onyx in your Cloyster... and I'll catch you next time