Kraken's Ghost

Corpse City Lounge

This blog has almost as many horrors as the actual ocean.

Madre de Dios
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Wow, four months is a record, even for me. (Yes I'm taking my last Spanish this quarter. Yes I feel like crying.)

So....anyone into Mass Effect? Rev recently got me hooked on the series. Maybe by the time I get through ME 1 and 2, ME 3 will be on Steam with all the DLC. Yeah... that'd be a wonderful world without Origin. Up yours EA.

-Kraken

Someone needs to force me to write a fic this summer, when I have time off.

Lol quote.
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
"Story is conflict. Ideally, with not too much story getting in the way." -Fable III

I chuckled, because it's kinda true.

-Kraken

Yes, that means exposition will kill a story faster than you can ask "What the hell are you wasting your time on *now*, Squid?"

Game of the Year, 2011
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Well, it's almost the new year, and all the talk has been about which game is going to be game of the year. Some of the companies really pulled out the stops against the competition. Others pretty much did the same old shit while pretending it's New & Improved Modern Warfare.

I have half an hour to kill, so here's my personal top 5 PC games.

(I will freely admit I haven't played all the PC titles I could have, and I haven't even touched consoles all year.)

5. Cthulhu Saves the World

I'll say one thing for why this game is better than 99% of the crap you've played in your life. Five minutes after the opening credits, they're talking shit about Aquaman and fangirls. BAM. Your Mind = Blown.

Also: Cthulhu respects the 4th Wall even less than Deadpool.

4. Terraria

AKA Minecraft with a point. While I appreciate the staggering freedom Minecraft can grant, Terraria has a cleaner look (that is to say, it doesn't look like a developer's pet project gone viral), it's a better gameplay experience, and I had more fun with the crafting recipes. And call me terminally old school, but I appreciate boss fights.

Also: Terraria isn't buggier than an ant hill.

3. Arkham City

Excellent followup to Arkham Asylum. You're Batman, bigger and better. Nothing will ever beat the sheer joy of snapping a thug's leg at the pelvic bone or bending their metal baseball bat into a horseshoe with a B-| face. Almost put this sucker at #2, but a slightly rougher control scheme and some weak areas in the story (both contrasted against the perfect controls and story of Arkham Asylum) forced me to reluctantly drop it down a spot. Still a stellar game that beats some justice into anything released by EA this year.

Also: Still the only game to perfectly balance stealth and action. Batman makes less noise than outer space.

2. Portal 2

Valve is to videogames what Pixar is to children's films. This game just flat out excels in every area. No, it's not as 'perfect' as Portal. Yes, it's a puzzle game with commentary, but it's commentary that causes you to bust your large intestine from laughing too hard. Portal 2 is goddamn gold from start to finish, and has one of the most utterly satisfying endings I've ever seen from a game.

Also: JK Simmons may be just as badass a voice actor as Mark Hamill. Or he may just be JK Simmons. That is to say, epic.

1. Bastion

Bastion is brilliant because the creators realize that videogames are essentially interactive stories and they treat the mechanics of the game in kind. Every new weapon comes with a fable growled in your ear by the cynical narrator. Each upgrade and 'level up' grants gameplay changes, not stats. How you play the game is more important than how long you play WoW, Diablo. The art and music is a perfect mix of anime/SNES-era Japanese games with American Old West and Industrial Revolution themes.

Best of all is the story. Every character develops. Every character has history and presence. The story itself slowly unfolds to a final, bittersweet conclusion that makes the player stop and go, "...Whoa."

This game isn't just #1 for 2011, it's on my top three games of all time.

Also: The Kid never says one word the whole game. He's still better than every Final Fantasy protagonist ever.

Never posted anything about games in 2010, but I'd say GotY was Red Dead Redemption, followed by the Death Spank series. RDR was the best Western game ever made, period, and the DS series is one of the very games I've ever played that was funnier than even Portal.

-Kraken

"After a year, the Kid's time was done. Came home to find his momma's time was done too. No sign of the money he'd been sending back to her."

Winter Break
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Vacation means crawling out of bed a couple hours before the sun sets.

And not to kill anyone with a heart attack, but Rev challenged me to write some of chapter two of DEM and I managed a thousand words.

Write or Die, haha.

-Kraken

Winter finally won over climate change, this year. Damn.

Chat log gem
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Kraken: Us and puns, dude.
Rev: lol, please. You're the pun-king
Rev: I'm merely a rank amateur
Kraken: One might like to say I enjoy pun-king people.
Rev: .... *slow-clap*

-Kraken

Posting this when I should be doing physics homework.

Fall News
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Gotta love calculus. And by love I mean rage-pwn mode engage.

I was rereading some old Warcraft fics. I think I might bust out some more Dusty Archives in the near future. Still trying to layout the next Obsidian King in my head. I'm not satisfied by the current version of Chap 4.

This is of course in between Rev and I distracting each other with Fate/stay night nonsense. Might I add, playing Civilization 5 after yakking about Alexander's lightning chariot monster truck thing is a bit of a let down. Any Fate mods out there?

-Kraken

Updating from my new Droid cuz I can. =D

Madoka = Best Mainstream Troll
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Kraken: I figured it out. Doc Brown + Batman = Akemi Homura
Revenant Dragoon: WTF is this series? I thought you wanted me to watch an anime, not a Pink Floyd music video.

Awesome series.

Not so awesome: spending a minimum of 30 hours a week on campus. >_>

-Kraken

Your employment status is not so much due to quitting your job, but rather your job quitting you.

Fate/galactic conflicts [Fanfic Post]
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
So I had a nice, quiet day at work recently. It gave me a chance to crank out a fic, for the first time in awhile.

Thank Rev for getting me into Fate/stay night. And yes, I'm aware my crossovers are insane.

Title: Fate/galactic conflicts
Series: [Fate/stay night x Star Wars]
Serial: One-shot
Genre: Crack; Drama
Summary: "Einzberg broke the rules. Zouken responded by ordering Sakura to summon a Servant greater than all others. She did."

Fate/galactic conflictsCollapse )

-Kraken

So when're they going to release a game with gender-swapped King Richard brawling gender-swapped Saladin?

This was a triumph...
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Finally, finally got my hands on a system that can handle Portal 2. So damn good. It's been a long time since I beat a game with such a satisfying ending.

I am disappointed they cut the test room with a candlelit dinner set out and GLaDOS berates Chell for showing up late.

-Kraken

Now when the hell is my Combustible Lemon t-shirt going to arrive?

Alice 2?!
Kraken's Ghost
krakensghost
Wait, so American McGee's Alice has a sequel coming out soon AND American McGee himself is developing it?! I <3 that so much it's not even funny.

And here I had the gall to think I only had Arkham City and the 3DS to *really* look forward to this year.

And I think I just admitted I've been living under a goddamn rock when it comes to VG news...

-Kraken

They can take the promotion back. Seriously. I don't want to run this business anymore. -_- I kid, I kid...kinda.