Game Quicky: Bookworm Adventures (PC) ~ Battle… with words!

Official site – Steam page

Today, it’s time to look at another casual game from PopCap. In the past, I used this game to learn new English words. So yeah. It’s a very nostalgic game for me. In any case, it’s time to take a quick look at it. For the people who are new to my blog and don’t know what this series is, well… In this series, I take a look at a game where I can’t write a full review on. In that case, I write a short article about it with the positives and negatives and my conclusion. So, yeah. It’s time to take a look at this game. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on this article and/or the game in the comment section down below. 

Positives

While the story is really basic, it does work. The fact that there is a story in this game is a positive in itself. It’s even better that it doesn’t take itself seriously.

The humor in this game from the menu options and the explanation of certain things gives this game an enjoyable charm.

This game works with alt+tab, it’s slow to switch, but it doesn’t crash like a few other casual games I played.

The gameplay is where this game shines the most. You have a 4×4 square filled with letters. With those letters, you have to make a word. Depending on the length and the letters used… You harm your opponent. Your opponent doesn’t use the letters and attacks. The special attacks some enemies can use are interesting and mix up the gameplay.

You can get stunned (loose a turn), letters can get cracked (do less damage), you can get poisoned (slowly lose health) among a few other things.

When you defeat a boss, you get a treasure that gives you certain buffs. But you can only take three in each level.

There are some different mini-games and a different game mode, but I won’t spoil that one.

Also, this game can be rather difficult and isn’t that short. These are two big positives for this game.

When you mouse over certain things, like your health bar or the minimap, you can be useful information. This doesn’t clutter the screen and makes for a very nice looking game.

Negatives

This game isn’t widescreen. So, on modern monitors, this game will have black edges. It’s pretty bad on my 24- inch screen. While this doesn’t bother everybody, it’s distracting for me.

Something that might be the direct result of that is, that some textures don’t look good on widescreen monitors.

This game would be a lot better if there was a sort of dictionary in-game. Since I’m not a native English speaker, I know for a fact that I look over so many words.

Some enemies sometimes spam their stunning attacks making you loose turn after turn. This frustrated me many times.

Conclusion

This game is a very polished game. If PopCap releases a patch to make this game look better on bigger screens and add a dictionary, I would consider this game as a perfect casual adventure game.

While the spamming of special attacks is a negative thing, I don’t think they should remove it. Since it adds to the challenge of this game. That would make the game even better.

I have almost beaten this game, so I’m looking forward to playing the sequel. I’m quite curious how it holds up to the original.

Score: 90/100

In any case, I think I said everything that I wanted to say about this game. Give this game a chance, since it’s very nicely made. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to meet you in another article, but until then… a happy Easter and until the next time! Have a great rest of your day and game on!

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Gamer’s Thoughts: A little ramble about blogging

Let’s do something totally different this week. This week I have been thinking about various subjects I wanted to write an article about. While I think I got some great ideas, I realized something. All of the questions I asked myself would make for a great article to discuss how I see gaming & blogging. So, in this week’s article, I’m going to talk about how I think blogs could improve and how I see games. It’s time to put some of these gamer’s thoughts on paper. And as usual, feel free to leave me a comment on the content of this article down in the comment section below.

Why do I blog about games?

One of the most important things when writing a blog is that you are passionate about the subject. That you write a blog about something you know you won’t get easily bored of.

Since I play a lot of games, I picked that as a subject. But truth to be told, I tried to blog about other things. In the past, I wrote articles with my views on life, movies, anime and much more.

But the articles about gaming just stuck with me. I loved writing them and creating them. At first, I was thinking of making a YouTube channel and making video reviews. But after a while, I got bored of it and I stopped making YouTube videos.

Why do I continue to blog about games? Well, it has several reasons. For one reason, I want to share my love of gaming with the rest of the world. It’s so rewarding for me to see how many people read my blog.

But where is the root? Why do I BLOG about games? What got me started? Well, my story isn’t as any typical YouTuber would say that he or she got inspired by somebody or the community. I just gave it a shot. I thought it would be fun to write an article every week and 5 years later, I still enjoy it quite a lot.

Can (game) reviews contain spoilers?

When I write an article, I’m always thinking about if it’s fine to spoil the game or not.

It’s an interesting question to think about really. Since I can find arguments that are pro and contra.

I think spoilers in a review are fine since a review can serve as a reflection. When you would limit yourself to not spoil the end of the thing you are reviewing… It feels incomplete. You can’t talk about the end part in depth. Here is a perfect example:

Today I finished an anime I would love to recommend but the ending of the 2nd season ruined the series honestly. I’m not alone in this. The whole final episode was just in a totally different style than the rest of the anime that I threw me off. I spent nearly an hour reading different forum discussions and watching rants on YouTube on people who got annoyed by the ending as well. Oh, and if you wonder… It’s Haganai. It’s an amazing anime but the final episode of the 2nd season is just terrible in my eyes. It doesn’t wrap up the story at all.

When I would talk a bit more in-depth, I could warn those who are interested, so they can prepare themselves for the ending. But then, on the other hand, I might scare some people of giving the anime a chance.

So, I think spoilers aren’t good for a review since you might scare potentially interested people away. Also, some people read reviews so they can decide if they would buy the game, anime, movie, book …

It’s a very difficult balance for a content creator. Should you or shouldn’t you include spoilers. One fact stands, I’m glad we have people who put up spoiler warnings. Since then I could stop myself from hearing things I don’t want to hear yet. Since spoilers can ruin an experience. That’s something we can agree on, right?

A thought I had was: if I would use spoilers, I would only use it in a review. Since it’s a reflection of the game I just played. But I would avoid spoilers at all costs in my first impression series. (Notice the letters I put in bold please.)

Why a tablet is a must have for any game blogger!

In the past, I wasn’t a big fan of tablets. I thought that they were just a cheap laptop without a physical keyboard. Apart from in business situations, I never saw a real point for them.

But then I found it. The reason I bought a tablet and why I actually am glad I bought it as because it’s a cheap laptop without a physical keyboard.

When I’m playing I game I used to write my notes in my notebook. But then one day, I forgot my notebook at work and I wrote down some notes in a different notebook. I think you can see where this is going. I have notes everywhere. So, yeah. A tablet is a perfect place to store them all in. And when I forget my tablet at home or at work, I use my PC and edit my notes that way. Since I got them synced using Dropbox, I always have the latest versions of my notes at hand.

Also, it’s really easy to access the internet without having a clutter of tabs open. When I write an article about a certain game, I have a lot of tabs open with other peoples their opinion and various other sites with information on the game. I see it as a sort of secondary screen I can easily set up and use. While you could argue that an actual second screen for my computer could do the same thing… Well, it keeps my mind focused. A tablet is for research and PC is for the actual writing part. It keeps me focused.

If you wonder, I got myself the Asus ZenPad S 8.0. I bought it on a sale so I got it pretty cheap. And after almost 2 weeks of using it, I’m really glad I got myself a tablet. The previous tablet I owned was a cheap one. One where the battery died after almost a year.

Other uses for my tablet are: being able to read my notes for class while I’m on the train to work. Testing out some things in simulations on the go. Being able to quickly look something up when I’m not at the computer. Being able to review the Android games a bit better on a bigger screen and most of all, it’s a really helpful organizer.

Closing off

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. When I have more ideas for a ramble, I might write another article like this.

When you have something where you want my opinion… Well, feel free to contact me.

In any case, I think I’m going to wrap up this article here. Have a great rest of your day and I hope to welcome you in another article! But until then, take care :).

First Impression: Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS) ~ Tactics Galore

Official website

So, the start of 2016 brings a boatload of amazing new (3DS) titles. But one game got me addicted to my 3DS lately. It was that one game I wanted to try out but never gave a fair chance. I always thought that strategy games like these weren’t my thing. But why, does it bring me so much enjoyment? And is the game a guilty pleasure or something I could recommend to anybody. Well, it’s time to take a look at this game and what I think of it. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or of the content of this article in the comment section down below. 

Tactical RPG

After hearing so much other content creators (bloggers and YouTubers I watch) talk about this game, I decided to give it a chance. First, I played the demo, and almost right after finishing the demo, I bought the full game.

The first thing the game does right is the character creation. You decide how he or she looks and how his or her voice sounds. Finally, you can play a character that isn’t a silent one. A character that actually is a part of the story.

About the story, you can play this game in two different ways. Classic and normal mode. In classic mode, when a character dies, it’s gone for good. In normal mode, you can keep the character. It returns after the battle is over. This is something I really like. I’m not that good in tactical RPG’s. I’m afraid that one or two stupid mistakes might screw up my progress and put me in a battle I might never win. That’s why I love the normal mode so much. After I finish the game, I might give classic mode a try since I honestly feel that I’m missing the entire point of the series.

So, the story I have seen until now is quite decent. I finished the first part of the game and I’m having the impression that it’s structured in a sort of anime show format. Like each battle is a separate episode of an anime. And a good one at that. But where the story really shines is that you can influence parts of it, yourself! How you fight your battles will decide who marries who. Oh yeah, that’s a thing. Shipping is totally a thing in this game.

Different and unique

So, thanks to the “shipping” mechanic, each playthrough of this game are pretty personal. I might pair up my characters differently than somebody else. But enough about that, let’s talk about the gameplay.

And in this game, it throws in so many options for you… I’m amazed at how accessible this game is. If you use only your powerful characters, you don’t level up your weaker but very useful characters. I’m now in a situation where I have to be very careful with my archers since I haven’t used them a lot. This makes me very weak against certain units and is my current weak point of my army.

In this game, you are the tactics master of the kingdom. So, you decide who runs where on the battlefield and when to attack or fall back. This game also works in turns. So, after you moved your character, it has moved. After you moved all your characters, your turn ends and your opponent’s turn starts.

Once your unit has moved, you can’t undo the move. I wish I could do that sometimes. But the game has a solution for that, it’s the dancer. They dance to motivate your warriors to give them one additional turn.

Explaining how this game works could take me a while. But compare the battle system a little bit to how the battle system in Pokémon or any turn based RPG works. Only two differences, your enemy attacks back when it can in YOUR turn and weapons can and do break after repeated use.

While I haven’t played many tactical RPG’s, I want to try out more. Thanks to this game. The gameplay is a lot of fun when you like planning ahead but sometimes changing your strategy to get out of dangerous situations. If you like to play games like Age Of Empires or Advanced Wars, this is game for you.

The Fire Emblem

So, there are still a few things I want to talk about. First of all, the voice acting is something I have a love-hate relationship with. It’s extremely well done but it falls short sometimes.

When a cutscene plays, only some of lines are spoken. And sometimes, a random line is said to give the emotion more meaning. This can be distracting for some people when the voice acting is saying something completely different than the lines on the screen. While it annoys me here and there, I don’t mind it that much personally.

Visually, this game looks amazing. Graphically this game is really nice done. A good example is that the character portraits change depending on how they are doing in battle. Or better said, how much health they still have left.

But what I love the most about the visual presentation is how the game is animated. When your characters level up, they do different moves. It’s something I can’t explain and you should see for yourself to understand. It really helps to immerse me into the game.

The sound design and music is something… well… It’s one of the best soundtracks I have heard in quite a while. I actually want to buy the soundtrack to add to my collection. I like it that much. It really helps to set the mood.

I think I’m going to wrap up my first impression here. While I have some minor issues with the menu design, they are really nitpicky. In any case, I feel that I can fully recommend this game to any person who likes to play strategy games, RTS, Tactical RPG’s… This game is something I wish I tried sooner. Since it’s a series I’m becoming a fan of.

Game Quicky: Feeding Frenzy 2 (PC) ~ Shipwreck Showdown

Steam page

This week, I was sick, so I didn’t have time to fully prepare a new article. But since I didn’t want to skip this week, I decided to take a look at a casual game called Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown. Since this game isn’t that “big”, this is going to be a game quicky. So, I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on this game and/or the content of this article in the comment section.

Gameplay

In this game, the goal is quite simple. You start out as a small fish and you have to grow. You can only eat fish that is smaller than you.

When you eat enough fish, you grow to your next form. Then you can eat bigger fish. When you have grown three times, you can go to the next level.

But be warned, while you are looking for other fish, you are being hunted as well by bigger fish. That can eat you.

The faster you eat smaller fish, the bigger combo you make and the bigger score you get at the end.

Positives

The game has no tutorial. This game might explain itself but that’s not the positive here. The game learns the mechanics to you through playing.

Visually, this game still holds up. This game was released 10 years ago. (Funny enough, on my birthday. The 7th of February 2006). This game is still nice and colorful to look at.

You won’t need a strong PC to play this game. This is a cheap (10€ at the time of writing) game that can provide some fun when you are bored.

This game gets challenging, in the later stages. The early stages are easy enough to get used to the mechanics but the later stages won’t be that easy.

There is a reset all scores button in the high scores menu. While this might look like a small and unimportant thing… I think it’s very nice to have this.

Negatives

One of the negatives is that I can’t ALT+TAB out of the game. I had to restart the game because it didn’t show me anything after the ALT+TAB. This is something that should be fixed since it made writing this article such a pain.

A small help file would be kinda nice. Since techniques like dashing and tail biting or when you earn an extra life… Well, it’s not always that clear.

This game isn’t for long time play. Since it’s very repetitive. There is some variation with the different fish you can play, but it’s always the same thing.

After a while, I actually muted the music. In my honest opinion, the music was kind of bland.

Conclusion

This is the sort of game I play when I have nothing to do or don’t feel like playing big triple A games. Games that I play when I have some time to kill.

PopCap, the publishers of this game, made some amazing games and this is one of them. If I had to give this game a score, I would give it: 7/10.

The big thing that is keeping this game back is the repetitiveness of this game. The other things are things you can fix with a sequel and/or a patch.

In any case, thanks for reading this short article about Feeding Frenzy 2. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope to welcome you at another article in the future! But until then, have a great rest of your day.