Today I Smiled: The Finisher

So this is what happens when Neverwinter Online refuses to let me play. I simply go finish other games like Gauntlet, Forced, Deathtrap, Torchlight 2, Off-Peak, Escape the Game, Blameless and Disturbed. Strange that after all the endless grind, having things that reach completion actually feels very rewarding!

Also ended is my Skyrim story for now with the Dark Souls "Tales at the Bonfire" taking center stage for awhile on this blog. Status wise the number of links (to blogs that post at least every three weeks) is pretty low these days. I'll be refilling that sometime during the Christmas and New Years break, so we'll see how many are still "alive" then.

Insert the regular "blogging is dying?" title here!

Other than that I've learned that lemmings aren't suicidal, eagles easily slay drones, and that fart collecting backpacks for cows exist. I'll finish off with two happy videos - one of a dog getting a life size Gumby and one of another dog being reunited with her pups. Have a good day everyone! :)

Rematch: Gauntlet vs Forced

Thanks to Neverwinter Online not letting me play as of late, I've been playing through my old stash of games once "reserved" for coop play, but haven't been played for ages (possibly because my usual comrades are in NWO). Two of these are Gauntlet and Forced - both similar in the top down, four player co-op dungeon crawling sense. Out of the gate, Gauntlet was the clear winner between the two but now that both of them have been upgraded let's see if that is still the case.

Note that both have been played and completed as single player for this match up.

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition

Straight up Gauntlet still wins in dungeon design, graphics, and number of foes in a zone. The Slayer Edition adds a load out screen that you can spend your hard earned gold on to buy cosmetics or upgrade weaponry, as well as a nifty map which doubles as a level selector. Maps are mostly three types: Get from point A to B, Survive Waves of Monsters, or kill a boss - of which there are three.

I wish they explained why this guy is blue though.

Reviving requires use of a Skull Coin which you earn by slaying enough monsters per level - and once you finish the story you can also try "endless" mode as well as the weekly tournaments to gain earn new cosmetic capes.

Forced: Slightly Better Edition

The main thing the upgrade fixes for me is it now saves your progress, which is pretty important! Forced easily wins in the story, puzzle and character customization/development departments. Each of the four classes can choose 3 active and 3 passive skills from a list of 10 in each - which you unlock by completing various trials and challenges. You can earn 3 skill points (once) per trial through completion, completion within a set time, and completion while doing an extra challenge - such as not healing or reaching some bonus objective.

The time and extra challenges are often weighed against each other too, meaning if you want -full- completion you will need to play the challenges more than once, in a different way which adds replayability. Dying forfeits your attempts for said challenges on a run and 3 deaths is game over.

The clever mechanic of the spirit ball is what really gets you thinking though, as your mastery on controlling it while fighting off enemies is vital, especially if you wanted to complete said challenges. Speaking of enemies, I do appreciate that each foe here is unique in their behavior, unlike the glut in Gauntlet where minions per level basically behave the same, they just run faster and have more HP the deeper you get. In Forced, you see an axe guy you dodge him a particular way as opposed to a sword guy.

It's also a test of how much you can keep track of at once!

Forced also has five bosses, and after beating each boss a smaller, minion type of them begins to appear in further trials. Again good design as the player would have learned their move set by then.

My Result: After that review it shouldn't be a surprise that Forced wins this match, due to the game variety mechanics, customization, and game length. Especially if you are going to play as a solo player, Forced will now give you more bang for your buck. What can I say? Against Gauntlet, it's just slightly better.

Gauntlet

This top down, four player co-op game sees a party of adventurers entering the titular Gauntlet of some really bored yet powerful being who enjoys watching blood sport. At least he's nice enough to leave a ton of gold and food (health) lying around as incentive to push forward into danger that scales slightly and has maps that also alter a tiny bit to keep you on your toes. Said gold is automatically shared among the party, regardless of who picks it up, which is a good system for co-op stuff. It can then be spent either on fluff items or a small selection of upgradable relics that can help in your adventures.

Those relics tie in to the rather different potion system in this game. Food is health and is consumed (or destroyed) as soon as it is touched. Potions you can carry around but they don't heal you. Instead they let you use the relics you are carrying. Got only one potion? Well, tough you can only use one of your two relics, once. Kinda annoying that you can't trade these sorts of things in game but if you have voice chat going (which I don't think is included in the game - big minus for me) it's easy enough to try organize.

Another thing you might need to organize is who plays what character at the start, as there can be no duplicates and all of them play very differently. I think the Wizard is the most powerful of the four, but is also the most complicated to play with all the spell juggling. He's very handy against the all too frequent "monster spawning stones" that appear though. Death on hard mode and above also requires a Skull Coin to pay for a revival. The only way to gain these is by killing a ton of monsters and since the Skull Coins are shared between the party there might be a lot of downtime for killed members since the levels are kinda on the long side.

Fortunately there are save points after every chapter (3 levels) so it immediately is better than Forced, which plays very similar to this complete with the annoying "shared screen" style. I'd personally prefer closer save points too but what can you do. All up it's a fun game for an already organized group to play. I give it three summoning pillars out of five.

Today I Smiled: Video Update Temple

A video-link heavy post today, mostly thanks to my late viewing of the Superbowl related stuff! Apart from Katy Perry's halftime show (yeah, I'm a fan), my favorite ads were the ones for Clash of Clans, Snickers, and Esurance's Say my Name. I quite liked the Toyota Camry one too but for different reasons. Guess I'm a sucker for "dad" ads now.

Seen all of that? Maybe you'll enjoy Penn and Teller's anti-anti vaccination vid, or these Japanese commercial featuring sizzling maids or this ... other weird one. Tired of vids? Maybe this article on Iceland building a new temple to the Norse gods is what you need.

I've also revisited Forced recently and found that in now has coop save points, making it much more playable than it was before. Also updated is the link to the Neverwinter Nights module by my brother, Dragonlord, which had moved to the NWNVaults awhile back. In bigger update news Feng Lee's Attack on Titan game has gotten some awesome upgrades. If you are a fan of Shingeki no Kyojin I suggest you give it a try, though be warned - the steep learning curve hasn't changed one bit!

The graphics got better, but not quite as good as Tybee Diskin sitting in a tree. :P

Lastly I've added 12 new blogs on the Paths I Travel link to the right, mostly taken from Massively's farewell page. Always good to have more things to read. I'm also interested to see if  they can withstand my simple "rule".

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Forced: Aptly Named if you want to Finish it

This is a cooperative game that feels a lot like an intense version of Torchlight. Up to four people can play together as a team of gladiators who are trying to pass a whole bunch of demonic trials that test both their combat skills and intelligence. Your choice of weapon determines your class and with only four to choose from and no duplicates it might seem very limiting, and that is intentional. The number of opponents multiplies based on the number of players but you will still have a better chance with more people because of the unique mechanic in the game: the spirit guide.

More like spirit ball.

Regardless of how many players you have, there is only one spirit ball (who happens to be a smart-ass). Every player can call it to wherever they are currently standing and it interacts with whatever it flies over making it the key to defeating each arena. Hover it over a healing shrine and it will heal you for a bit. Make it go over a flaming hand and it gets a powerful explosive charge that will detonate when it hits something or someone - players included!

There is a bit of replayability too in that each challenge has 3 gems up for grabs. The more gems you have the more skills and abilities are unlocked. One gem comes simply from completing a room. Another always is time based (so completing the room in x seconds) and the last one is a special challenge in each chamber like take no damage. It really seems geared well to encourage cooperation, alas it is in the extra stuff where it falls down.

My two main gripes being no in-built mic support and no save points in co-op mode (as far as I've found) meaning you'll need to play the whole thing in one sitting. This really ruins the experience a fair bit for us because it's not a short enough game for that path. Pity, given all the other thought they implemented for co-op multiplayer those seem like odd things to overlook. For that reason I give it two blood thirsty demons out of five, and cannot really recommend it to people that can only play in small doses.

Update: Looks like there are coop save points now which certainly makes it more playable. Unfortunately I think this ship has mostly sailed for my gaming group which got annoyed during the stages of non-saving.