Second Life is for losers... :D RICH LOSERS!

So as per invitation by Acro here, I am letting those of you who haven't heard/seen/know about/smelled the MMORPG Second Life. I'll let you know about my life in there. Second Life is free to sign up for if you just want to explore the game, or for those of you who are more economically savvy, "land" can be purchased so that you can have your own shack/ house/ mansion/ store etc.

Whats the point?
Well, there really isn't one... not strategy wise anyways. There is no storyline to the game; the idea of the game is so that the bazillions of users out there are capable of creating their own world. Each world within the game is linked to one another, so the possibilities of creation are endless. ENDLESS! Your initial noobish body is what you begin modifying, and with the right advisor/ingame tutor, w.e, you can make yourself into the pixellated equivalent of Elisha Cuthbert for very little money.

An issue with Second Life is that if you have no money, you're going to be hard pressed to get what you want without any. A little known fact for those who are new to the game is that you can pick money off the money trees within the first 30 days you join the game. It's hard to find that information without anyone telling you though.

Why would I want to join?
Well there are three reasons I can think of off the bat.

1. You are lonely and want pixellated companionship.
2. You are extremely resourceful, talented in graphic programs, and want to earn a ridiculous amount of money.
3. You want to look like Britney Spears before she went crazy.

In all seriousness, Second Life can provide anyone with the opportunity to earn from $50 USD to $100000000 USD. Ansche Chung is a gamer most famous for earning her first million off the game. Yes, a real million dollars. How did she do it? She was innovative and decided to purchase land and rent it out to other users. Pixellated land earned her a million cash. Damnit.

Who is this weird person trying to tell me to join a stupid game?
Well spoken, my friend. I am Roguecrx, intermediate level gamer. That is the same username I use for every other game, and if you look it up in Gaia Online, Neopets, Second Life, Guild Wars, etc, you will find that I am rich. Very rich. I join most games to explore the economic capabilities available to their users, and once I get to "ridiculously rich" status, I usually find a new game to plunder. What Second Life offers that the other games cannot, is that possibility to be translated to First Life income. I am excited about the possibilities that Second Life has to offer, and I have met real friends through the game that I can honestly say I am glad to have met.

If you want to explore the game, sign up for an account at www.secondlife.com
I'm usually there to give a hand.

*edited by Acro

New blogger!

Hey all,

My buddy Roguecrx has agreed to write on my blog with me! I'm really excited because Roguecrx plays a lot of online games (Second Life, Gaia Online, Guild Wars, etc) and will provide more variety (as I'm noticing I do blog about console games and Nintendo a lot). So, yeah, welcome Roguecrx! :D

Preview: Drawn to Life

I was surfing around IGN and came across Drawn to Life for the DS. The game looks pretty interesting as you have to draw the objects, characters and hero which then get incorporated into the game.

Drawn to Life takes players to the next level of interaction and creativity on the Nintendo DS. Your exact drawings populate the game, and no tedious animating or image manipulation is necessary. In other words, your drawing comes to life!

Here are some links to more info on the game, they also have a contest for creation of the main character (which can also act segway to how some of the gameplay would be!)

Gaming at the beach!

Like I was saying in a previous post I have been playing Etrian Odyssey. I'll admit I was skeptic at first, I mean, I had to draw my own map and everything (old schoooollll) and I wasn't much for dungeon crawlers (I'm probably the only person who didn't like Diablo) but now I can't stop playing this game! I recently went to the beach this weekend for a friends birthday, and I brought along my DS (of course) and played on the beach. I thought I'd at least be able to read some of my book (yes, I'm still reading Eldest, but itching to read the new Harry Potter book) but I was engrossed in leveling up my guys to get to the 7th dungeon.

At least I got some sun.

So anyway, the point is, I can't put the game down long enough to write a review at the moment lol. But, I figure I should put up some reviews of the Brain training games I played in between.

In other news, I was also able to get a 500gb external HD and my brother gave me his old monitor so I now have dual screens!!! I was happy playing Guild Wars on one screen and had Guildwiki with maps on the left side. I'm going to try to learn some 3D programs, so far I've only been able to fool around with a layout program called Quark (I prefer InDesign). If anyone knows of good tutorials or something let me know.

Xbox 360 Price drop?

Image from Amazon.com

I wasn't surprised when Sony announced a drop in price for the PS3, after all, I rarely get people asking about them at work, let alone buy them, but when I heard rumors of a Xbox 360 drop, I was pretty happy... until I found out that the rumor was debunked (boo) I guess I'll have to wait a little while longer before I get to play Viva Pinata, Gears of War and Mass Effect (if it still doesn't drop by November)... *sigh*

Not to busy for gaming

It's been pretty hectic these past few weeks but even though I wasn't able to write in this game blog I have been able to play some games! So far I've tried Brain Boost: Gamma Wave and Brain Boost: Beta Wave, I've also been able to try out Etrian Odyssey and WiiPlay! So, be sure to check out a few reviews to come. They aren't overly complicated games, so the reviews won't be too long (well, maybe not Etrian Odyssey).

I haven't been able to keep on track with the E3 shinanigans, but I did catch a glimpse of some wii games! I'm looking forward to Wii Fit, it'll at least keep me more active, like my Wii Sports... I'm also really looking forward to Mario Galaxy and ESPECIALLY FIRE EMBLEM!!!!!!!

Oh, but I did check out this video interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about games and the future of the Wii.

Also, in case anyone is interested, Nintendo's E3 site, awesome stuff, can't wait for the Wii Zapper, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart, shweeeet! It's so hi-technicaaaaaaalll~~~ lol.

Super Paper Mario Wii

SUPER PAPER MARIO

Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: April 2007
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Multiplayer: No
Genre: Adventure/Platform with RPG elements
Platform: Wii

Platform Reviewed on: Wii
Official Website: A small interactive website with gameplay videos. It's pretty neat because they've incorporated the 3D aspect of the game into the website.
Hours played: About 7 hours (On the 5th heart)

Synopsis: At first it seems like a typical Mario adventure where the Princess is kidnapped by Bowser, but as Mario and Luigi are ready to thwart Bowsers scheme they find out that Bowser didn't do it this time! Just as Mario and Luigi reach Bowsers lair a new character named Count Blech admits to taking the Princess then kidnaps Bowser AND Luigi, leaving Mario face down in Bowsers castle! What a jerk! Tippi, a butterfly looking fairy called a "Pixl", comes to help Mario and they make their way to the town of Flipside in the hopes of rescuing their friends and find out what Count Blech is up to.

Tutorial: The instructions of the game feel more integrated into the game, I think I feel that way because I'm used to the "stop and learn" tutorials like Yggdra Union. Anyway, the instructions are pretty easy and are built upon when you progress in the game. For example, Mario has friends called "Pixls" which each have different abilities associated with them. The first Pixl he meets, named Tippi, helps Mario identify important objects or characters in the game. The player must point the Wiimote at the screen and "point" at the object which will then highlight or appear red, which means it can be accessed or given more information. When Mario finds more Pixls to join him, he gains more abilities (Tippi is actually the only Pixl that is with you on the screen the majority of the time) like throwing objects, blowing stuff up, pounding the floor, etc. So it's up to the player to find out which one to use at what time, which is nice because it will go back and forth between Pixls.

Story/Characters: The main characters are already pretty established, the new characters are pretty funny, the brainless muscleman O'Chunks, the Shapeshifting Mimi, a jester named Dimentio, Natasia the secretary or assistant to Count Blech, and Count Blech himself who is bent on destroying the universe (of course!). The characters are built upon as the story progresses, and there is a second story that follows parallel to the main story, which gradually reveals itself. Neato.

Graphics/Cinematics: 2D with 3D aspects when you press the A button. This makes the game very entertaining, when you're stuck in the game, the answer is usually to "flip" into the 3D dimension. This aspect of the game not only moves the game along, but also provides a different perspective to the game, especially the remade levels from previous Mario games. The cinematics are pretty much the same as the gameplay, nothing too fancy, and it works.

Interface: Pretty good, straightforward, I like the option of the quick menu because if anyone had to move their right thumb to the middle everytime they changed Pixls they would probably get a bad cramp. The menus weren't cluttered and were clean and organized. The layout of the text was good too, nothing was cut off and the boxes/bubbles were filled well. There were some times where the dialogue boxes didn't fit quite right, because of the Japanese to English translation (like in manga translations) but they didn't hinder the gameplay or enjoyment.

Sound/Audio/Voice Acting: I actually like the music for the game, it's not annoying, and there are also some remixes of the older Mario songs. The audio is alright, the thing that irritated me the most was the constant beeping when you're down in HP, I found myself using whatever heals just to get out of hearing that sound. Ugh. Voice acting was just done in snippets, Mario doing the little "Oh yeah" like the other Mario games, but no talking, just text. That's not always a bad thing, they emphasize different parts in the dialogue through the spelling of words and the size of the text.

Gameplay/Controls: The game is normally played with the Wiimote turned horizontal, like a classic controller. When you want to use Tippi you can point the Wiimote to the screen, select objects that highlight in red and she can give you hints or information on them. The A button is to flip to the 3D world, button 1 is to use your selected Pixl, 2 is to jump and 1 & 2 together opens a quick menu (which I love as you change Pixls a lot). The + symbol opens the regular menu and the - symbol shows the button configuration. Oh and be careful about staying in the 3D world too long, you have a bar that gows down with all the time you spend in there, when it goes down you lose HP.

I really enjoy being able to use the Wiimote in a different way, I'm glad they didn't try to use the pointer too much. I also like the Pixls and how you gain a different abilities with each one that befriends you. However, it's a little strange about the RPG elements in this game, sometimes I forget you can level up as the enemies don't really take a lot of HP off when they hit you. This is overlooked though with all the other great qualties of the game, mainly the 3D aspect. There is also an option to gain points by shaking the Wiimote as you're jumping on enemies. This increases your score and is good for leveling up.

Replay value: Low to Medium, there are some things you can go back to in the passed levels, and you can collect cards or get the town cook to make you different things, but so far I don't know if I'll pick it up again any time soon.

Learning Curve: Easy

Pros:
+ Varied gameplay (Different Pixls)
+ Constant surprises (There were so many moments where I was caught off gaurd with the gameplay and just smiled)

Cons:
- Sound of low HP is like nails on a chalkboard
- Low storage space to hold things

Summary: I really enjoyed this game, the story the characters, the interactivity and switching between Pixls. The cons about this game are pretty minimal, and if anything are just me being picky, but they're more of a FYI for those who wanted to know.

Score: 9/10

Pictures from Amazon.ca