League of Angels

Much like Blood and Jade, this is a 2D based free to play (pay to win) browser based MMO which is really designed to sink its hooks into players through ease and accessibility. Basically it is an improved version of Blood and Jade without all the Eastern themes. Still present are the auto-pilot questing on a railroaded quest path, auto-combat systems but with more polish, and more musical tracks (pretty decent ones too) based on what you are doing at the time as opposed to the steady drone of the one track in the previous game. As a bonus though you can play both at the same time. Actually, you can let them play by themselves while you do something else! :P

Of course it still has the scantily clad hot chicks.

They added gaining EXP and gold through a variety of unlockable mini games, including fishing using a gun turret, a version of bejewelled, enslaving other players, and fighting other players in arena or domination modes (indirectly, you only fight their parties without actual player interaction). You also can gain gold from congratulating people on your friend list when they hit specific achievements and if that's still too hard you can literally stand still and just leave it alone and still gain EXP. Yep, it rewards you for just being logged in even if you aren't playing!

The best improvement though is the addition of a player "party". Other than your hero you can bring along up to 5 NPCs (once you reach high enough rank) who complement each other in various ways. Well, when I say "various" I actually mean "one", and it's usually a combo attack of some sort. It's easy to work out which units work best together, and throwing the various blessings of your guardian angel on top it can alter your party strategy. Usually though, you just pick the strongest of what's available to you and run with that.

All in all it IS a better game than Blood and Jade, but as a stand alone it is still pretty weak. You'll most likely find yourself to be grinding just shy of level 40 while trying to reach Dracula. Yerp, there were enough mini games to keep me busy up to that level! Anywho I give it a 2 out of 5 sexy angels, and it is definitely better enjoyed while playing Blood and Jade in a second browser window so you can alternate between the cool downs of the two. Or you know, you could just go play a real MMO. :P

Crushing Candies

Unlike my grandfather I'm not really one for "little" games that involve a lot of thinking like chess, mine sweeper or solitaire but thanks to my wifey I've been introduced into the somewhat addictive yet highly frustrating Candy Crush Saga. This simple facebook app plays pretty much like ye olde Bejewelled where in you have to match 3 identical items in a row to clear them from the grid. However while only some challenges are timed (just like Bejewelled) majority instead have a set number of moves wherein you must complete whatever task is given to you - be it reaching a score, lowering ingredients, or most commonly (and annoyingly) eliminating jelly squares from the board. You learn to hate those really quick, and given the board is hardly ever a proper square it can be challenging to clear them from nooks and crannies where they hide.

The "Saga" part is how often it makes you fail.

Indeed often times the only way to win is to orchestrate (or get lucky enough) to combine four or five candies into super powered ones that can clear whole rows. With hundreds of levels and a max of five lives which regenerate by one every 20 minutes (faster if your friends gift you some) it certainly has a lot of content. In my case the low life count is good though, because it means I can attack it for a little bit and when I'm out of lives (which is often) I can move on to "better" games. I just wonder then if they are "better" given that I play this one first? Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, or maybe I'm just addicted to candy. :P