Nameless: Sisters of the Sand

[This is the start of my Creative Writing Experiment.]

The crowd cheered as Ash rolled to her side, just before her opponent's heavy stone axe slammed down on the spot she had just been. The ugly brute didn't have time to raise it again as an arrow suddenly found it way through his neck, spouting blood like a fountain as he fell to his knees and slumped forward - dead on the sand. Blowing a strand of red hair out of her face she nodded thanks to her savior, the blonde archer Gigal. The woman reciprocated the nod and let her piercing blue eyes find her next target. There weren't many to choose from.

The brunette sisters Nerith and Nessa were finishing off one more opponent between their jagged bone knives while Indas, the towering and muscular giantess was busy choking the life out of her adversary - his legs kicking the air in vain as he tried to pry free from her grip. With a loud snap the kicking stopped and the broken body was tossed like garbage to the side, much to the pleasure of the crowd. Ash grinned as she retrieved her spear. These were her team mates. These were...

"The Sisters of the Sand win again!" exclaimed the green robed announcer from a high balcony, his skinny arms outstretched. "Surely their luck cannot hold out forever! Send in the next group!"

Ash cast the announcer a deathly sideways stare as the rest of her comrades regrouped around her. That name was something he branded them after their all female group happened to win a few rounds in the previous weeks. They weren't expected to survive as none of them started out as fighters. They were all slaves. Slaves gone "bad" in the eyes of their masters, and now just entertainment for the crowd. Even the lecherous Merzol and his gang of rapists - the ones now lying dead in the sand were just entertainment.

"Always time for a fuck," was Merzol's motto, and Ash heard it a lot in the shared slave pens beneath the arena. Women, men, girls, boys, dogs, rats, dead, alive - it didn't matter to Merzol. That's why she made sure to kill him first.

As she watched the next group of five men march in she knew their next fight would be a lot different from the last one. Different from any they had already fought. It would be their last. This was Scar's team, the reigning "champions" composed of barbarians and renegade soldiers. People who were adept at the art of killing. People who long lived in the underbelly of the bloody arena.

The bald, muscle bound leader signaled his men to stop just as they neared Ash and her girls. The crowd hushed in anticipation.

"Are you ready?" he asked in his usual deep, monotone voice. Ash looked to each of her friends and nodded.

Both teams suddenly sprinted in unison for the old, and often unused western gate of the arena. It took a few seconds before the onlookers cottoned on to what was happening.

"GUARDS!" yelled the green robed announcer. "THE GLADIATORS ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE!"

Today I Smiled: I Has Zomboid

I won a free game! :)

Super short post just to give big thanks to Isey of IhasPC for running a random draw of people to win a free copy of Project Zomboid. By extension thanks to Eri (aka J3w3l) of Healing the Masses for doing the same thing first (which inspired Isey to do so). I haven't played it yet, but free stuff always makes me happy.

Just for kicks, here are some short and cute animal related videos for you to enjoy: a cat's reaction to a giant spider, a kitten nibbling its tail, and a four year old girl feeding a pack of pitbulls.

Lastly, I'm going to try crank out posts daily again. Let's see how long that lasts!

Hope you all have a lovely day. ^_^

Cast Away

I always thought this movie was about Tom Hanks and a volleyball until I actually got to see it for the first time a few days ago. While a big chunk of it is just Tom Hanks on a remote island, there are plenty of other people in the movie too - Helen Hunt of special note since I've always liked her. It's a pretty quiet (music wise) and nice yet sad tale of not giving up and taking things for granted. It also gives a lot of ideas for anyone who gets stranded on an island in the future and is a great ad for FedEx.

If this spawned from that old screen saver, it turned out to be a good movie!

I must say, I probably would have not survived what Hanks' character went through - especially the plane part. Ironic that the guy without a seat belt is the one that made it out. Also not sure why a whale would have hung around him so long. It was funny to watch him collect the packages at the start and sort them, as per his regular job. I'm not sure why he didn't open that last one and just kept the box, but oh well. Funnier still to then find out what might have been in it (spoilers). :P

All up, it was a decent enough flick for me to give three out of five coconuts to, and worth a watch if nothing else is on.

To the Moon

Superb music and masterpiece story telling make this game fantastic.

Wow. I've read reviews on this before but I wasn't prepared for how outstanding the whole thing would be which is surprising for a game that uses something like RPG Maker as its core engine. Don't be fooled though, it still requires some work to get all those pixel sprites and background tiles looking good and all the little mini-games make for a good break from the usual point and click adventure offered here but really, it is the main plot and the slow peeling of the story layers that give this game (or to some, an "interactive novel") its drive. The label doesn't really matter when it is of this caliber.

Epic Feels.

I am intentionally keeping this short (much like the game itself, which can be finished in four hours) as to not spoil the plot at all, so suffice it to say that it is a very powerful and moving piece which will make you laugh and cry, even on your second play through with your spouse. Ok, I totally broke down at one point and still get teary eyed when I think about it. For something to have such an impact in so short a space of time, the creators definitely did something right. I give it five out of five manly tears. Highly recommended for everyone!

Godzilla (2014)

There's a shortage of one thing in this movie. I'll give you a hint - it's in the title.

To be fair, when Godzilla does show up it is fricking cool and fans of the great beastie will be pleased with his rendition here I believe. The problem is that the movie focuses on people who are more or less really unimportant to the story - useless kid? Check. Generals and soldier types that make really, really stupid decisions? Check. Scientist that does no science and is only there to spout lore? Check. "Lore hook" Scientist's AIDE!? Check.

What's really frustrating is that almost each time the CGI starts to ramp up, there's a cut away back to some other character - maybe watching it on a TV, or running away like a slow running native... and the movie STICKS TO THE LESS EXCITING PART for what feels like a long time. Sure enough, when it cuts back to the action, the action is actually over and you just get scenes of distraught people and rubble.

Take a good look! You won't be seeing me for awhile!

Eventually we get to see Godzilla fully do his thing, and boy that is absolutely beautiful, but I'm not sure it was worth sitting through the tepid storyline to get through to it. I give this movie two missiles out of five. The other three totally missed and hit civilians trying to escape the theater.

Nameless: Creative Writing Experiment

So, I decided to try something new out this year - I guess you can call them exercises in creative writing. They are still game play throughs or "Let's Play(s)" but with changes to fit better as a story narrative. Also there is no set schedule to their posting, they'll just pop up every now and then so don't be surprised if there isn't one say... tomorrow. :P

Hopefully it will eventually help me to better write that guild history thing that I've been planning to do for eons now. I also hope that at least some of you enjoy it! I'll be collating the "chapters" in this post to make it easier to find later on. I do request that you comment on them though, in regards to ... anything really! Guessing what game I'm playing (I suspect this will be dead easy) or even pointing out spelling and grammar errors would be great. As a newbie level writer / artist I expect I'll need a fair bit of help!

Chapters:
Sisters of the Sand
No Freedom from Fate
The Magic Number
Ashes to Ashes
A Step Ahead
Experience
The Deal
Punishment
Gedrin
Sedrite
Easy
Balkazar's Lair
Payment
The Wizard King
Buying Time
The Siege
Victorious
Shadowstar
Sharing a Meal
Ambush
Not that Way
Captives
Preparation is the Key
Already Dead
Not Everyone can Evade 
The Challenge
Liquid Fire
Ladies First
The Rats Nest
Deeper
Belief
Florin
Cold Touch
Dranner
The Mages Guild 
Not Welcome
Bloody Gems
Group Two
Cathedral Showdown
The Best Defense
Mission
Homecoming
Notaku
The Sorrows
Arslan
The Money Lender
Not Much of a Choice
Kalek
Satisfaction
Glancing Blows
Glorified Fetch Quest
Grim Paintings
Crossroads
All the Way up Here
Dinner Reservations
The Other Problem
Mount Verini
Ruined
Summit
Worms
Time to Rumble
Forest of Spears
The Lyre
It's not Luck
Unsealed
Remembrance
Plan B
Evil Intent
Explosive Volume
The Answer to Unasked Questions
Pretty as a Picture 
The Last Ship

This story has now concluded! Thank you for reading! :) 

Today I Smiled: Over the Limit

I've been having internet slowness of late and I am glad to learn that the reason for it is simply because for the first time ever, I've exceeded my monthly allowed download. This is partially thanks to all the downloading of Christmas present games but more so this pretty impressive app I was introduced to called XBMC. I suggest you google it up to see if what it does interests you.

My guild has also decided to give external voice chat programs a try, since many of the coop games just don't offer it nor do we really want someone hosting a voice server that will impair their performance. We did try Teamspeak first but since setting up a server was too messy we went with Mumble instead and that has been performing admirably so far. The text to voice chat does sound like a funny robot though. Not as cool as Arnie as a robot in the upcoming Terminator reboot though.

Also good to learn some interest exists to revive the old Wizardry Online. Not so good to hear of Elder Scrolls Online's performance though, but hey - if it goes free to play then I can finally play it again (I did run about in the Beta). As usual I also have some tunes for you, the first is one suggested by guildmate Carbon called AMV Psycho Pop. If that is too psycho or pop for your liking then maybe you'll instead enjoy the piano soloist, Jon Schmidt and his song, All of Me.

Lastly almost everyone has been dishing out the hate on early access zombie game H1Z1, yet in the sea of Steam reviews saying "Not Recommended", this one made me laugh:

That's it for now! Hope you all have a wonderful day! :)