I especially wanted to test it because I wanted to stay on top of the current trends in computer gaming technology. But seriously, it said that I should run the game on ULTRA settings because of my video card and CPU capabilities.

So I’m running this puppy and it is HUGE on the impressive and epic scale. Everything is futuristic and the interface definitely feels like they did years of work perfecting it.

There’s only one problem:

The game is gnarly on my fan. I mean, I was on headphones and I could hear my fan. I was like, “What the heck?” Not even Fallout 3 is this demanding on my computer. It blew me away.

My computer has several fans and enough CPU’s to handle intense video encoding for HD. Running a PC game shouldn’t make me “worried.” But that’s exactly how I felt. I felt like I need to wait till I get my next-gen computer in a few years before trying the run the game again.

This is a serious departure from Warcraft 2 and Starcraft…maybe even Warcraft 3. When you loaded Starcraft on your computer, it didn’t matter if you were top of the line. It pretty much ran on a basic computer. That was because it was 2D sprites happening on a battlefield. But Starcraft 2 is totally 3D with homies talking and throwing Molotov cocktails like it’s going out of style.

I think what’s happening is that Starcraft 2 was meant to be played on “Normal” settings. But, the game is already a year or so old. I don’t get it.

Now that I think about it, Fallout 3 is actually much older than Starcraft 2. So comparing the two doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Fallout 3 was 2008 and Starcraft just came out in 2010. Even though this is only a two-year gap, it means a tremendous amount when you factor in technology leaps.

Honestly, I doubt I would be as stressed about running this game if I had an extra solid-state drive. But I can’t risk putting this bad boy on one of my solid states because I’m using them for my OS and the other one is for my music video project.

So, what I’m thinking, is that I’ll hold off on Starcraft 2 and wait till my next computer that will pretty much have solid state drives for everything.

It is so funny how PC games work. It’s almost like they are already doomed because the new ones require a computer that isn’t affordable until 2 years later. Also, with patches and bug fixes, there is no real reason to jump out and buy a new game for the PC right when they come out.

Also, with the advent of Console gaming requiring an internet connection, programmers get a free-life. I say this because they can always use the HD-system for console games to require a patch.

This wasn’t possible back in the days of NES and SNES. All bugs had to be worked out before the release date. If that didn’t happen then they would have to live with the bugs in the game. I never heard of recalls of cartridges. I only remember that there were different versions of the battery system for Zelda.

All-in-all I’m actually glad about this. It was extremely satisfying to wait so long for Fallout 3 to come out and then get completely blown away when exiting the vault. I can’t express how huge that felt.

I had a similar pumped feeling when digging into Starcraft 2, but the fan sound really did pull me back. So in a couple years I’ll jump back into it on a more powerful machine with some dedicated solid states and hopefully I’ll be able to do a real review at that time.

-Tyler

Legendary Wings score

Beating the game Legendary Wings again was a blast from the past. I can’t imagine how I was able to do it previously without a TURBO button. Because this time I had zero qualms about using the turbo button against the bosses. The hilarious thing about this game is that you fight the same boss literally five times in a row. The only difference is the number of eyeballs that fly at you. And the miniboss that protects each palace to the boss of each stage…you guessed it, it is exactly the same for every 5 stages in the game. The only difference is the color of the miniboss. The only real rewarding part of the game is seeing the interesting mythology-inspired settings for each overworld and palace stage.

The strange thing about this game is that it is actually harder in a 2 player setting than solo. The reason for this is because the powerups are the only thing that makes the game bearable. It isn’t like Contra where your basic weapon can easily destroy any major target. In Legendary Wings you need either level 3 powerups or have maximum powerups in order to be effective versus the bosses. When I play two player games I always like to split the powerups but this game punishes you for doing that. The reason for this is that every time you get hit you loose a powerup level. So the higher your powerups are, the more damage you can take.

If you don’t use the turbo button then prepare yourself to receive gamers thumb to the max. This game is repetitive and will make your thumbs melt off.

The easiest way to beat the game is to learn and memorize the locations for the secret zone or “LUCKY” area in each overworld stage. You can only access them by using your secondary bomb weapon to destroy the ground based targets that look like little metal mine things. Usually, a crater will appear when you destroy one of these ground targets, but if you hit the right one, then some smoke will come and take you to the LUCKY bonus stage. This is where you can fill up on powerups and points which give you extra lives.

power up 1 give double shot
power up 2 gives thick single long laser
power up 3 gives triple ball shot – one fires straight the other 2 zig – zag
power up 4 gives you a wave cannon and turns you into a phoenix looking dude and you look like a thug

Here’s a quick break down on the extra life information that happen based on your score:

First free life at 50K
Second free life at 150K
Third free life at 300K

Legendary wings level 4 Boss

I love the idea that you fly around with wings in this quasi-futuristic and yet mythological environment. The designers did a great job making the settings compelling. That is why I don’t mind how repetitive the boss battles are. But that being said, I’m not going to replay this game anytime soon. This is the kind of game I’d more likely replay if I was on a dare…and if the controller had a turbo button.

In each overworld stage, there is a face that spits smoke at you. Try and avoid this smoke if you can because the mini-stages that you enter as a result do not give you very many points or any powerups. So they are just a waste of time. The face on stage 4 and 5 spits out much faster than the others so don’t feel bad if you get hit by it. But if you get hit by the smoke on levels 1 – 3 then you might want to work on your eye-thumb coordination.

Remember not to dodge the smoke if you get it when you blow up a ground mine, that is the LUCKY stage.

Legendary Wings final boss form 2

When you fight the last boss there is a simple strategy. You need to have level 3 or ultimate level powerups and get close to it when it is about to show its brain stuff and blast it like crazy. The closer you are the more damage you can dish out. When the boss explodes and you enter the other side, the fight its final form. This thing isn’t that hard if you are patient and just stay below it when it appears. Then dodge the 4 corner weapons as they fly from the diagonals of the screen. Try and get a few hits in before it disappears. This may seem annoying but if you are patient you will win. Too bad all you get is a lame message and then the game starts all over again.

On the overworld for stage 5. there is a tricky part with lots of walls and enemy turrets that you won’t be able to hit no matter what. The only way I recommend getting through this part is to have stayed powered up so you can take a few hits from the enemy. If you hang back too long you will get stuck and die and lose all your powerups. So be bold and aggressive and get through this proverbial gauntlet of turrets. This is pretty much the hardest part of the game right here and it is primarily psychological. If you can get through this part the boss and final palace stage will be a piece of cake.

-Tyler

Faxanadu Battle

A meteor has landed. The dwarves have been mutated by the strange properties of the meteor. The elves and dwarves who used to be friends now are odds with each other…and now the dwarves are twisted beyond imagination. Welcome to a word of danger and despair, a world where a traveler must speak to the King and save the land. Welcome to the ever stretching and tangled world tree…of Faxanadu. The game for the NES called, Faxanadu is more than just an action adventure game. It is a side scrolling epic that rewards aggressiveness and perseverance in a similar way that Rygar does. This game is interesting because it has “levels” for the character that are reached by gaining EXP. But they are actually Titles of Rank that determine the amount of money that is in your account after you die and are revived at a Guru’s shrine. Levels or Ranks in this game do not affect stats like how they do in Zelda 2 or Rygar.

The most important thing to know about Faxanadu is that about 70% of the conversations that happen between you and townsfolk can lead to important clues to advancing in the game.

Exploration is the key. One must double check every single area in the outer-world, town and castle areas.

When I first played through the game, I thought the graphics were strange and muddy looking when compared to other games. But after a few minutes my eyes adjusted and the graphics were quite immersive and enthralling. You get completely sucked into the game after you purchase the initial dagger which helps you fight the first monster that is guarding the exit.

A complete guide or walkthrough to this game is not necessary because it is more about patience and exploration than actual tricky things. But there are some tips that can help you defeat the Evil One. The last boss named the Evil One is actually extremely easy to beat if you have enough potions. You just need to keep jumping and slapping him in the face with your sword. It’s that simple.

The jump attack that is so often used in Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is extremely useful in this game. This is because enemies cannot defend against attacks, since they have no shields.

Dragon Slayer sword acquired: Click for expanded view

Actually, the second to last boss that is the Dwarf King, is much harder than the final boss. The Dwarf King looks like a big dragon and he spits a great deal of fireballs at you when he gets close to the ground. The easiest way to beat him is to have a pair of winged boots, activate them, and then fly up at hit him while he is flying. You should try and use all the magic/sword slashes you can in order to keep hitting him over and over again. Eventually, he will swoop down, but try and continue to attack him why he flies again in the air. You may need to drink potions during this process. Eventually, you will be able to beat him. And when you do, the Dragon Slayer sword will be yours.

Once you equip the Dragon Slayer sword, you will be able to also use the Battle Helmet and Battle Armor that you found. This setup makes you a rolling powerhouse. It is probably one of the most satisfying armor moments in NES adventure/RPG history. The look of your hero when you put on the armor setup is beyond thug mansion-style.

A good thing to remember is that you need to talk to your Guru in a town in order to rise in rank. So, I just made sure to visit town every once in a while to make sure I got the appropriate title. Dying and then being revived with a ton of gold makes the game a lot less frustrating in the later stages. This is because you can spend money on different setups in order to try different item strategies.

One thing to consider is that in the early areas you need to use the winged boots a great deal. But the higher Rank you are, the shorter the effective duration of the flying boots. So you will have to buy more than one pair of winged boots in order to find one of the fountains of water.

Another thing to consider is that you don’t die from falling. Sometimes falling into a pit is the only way to continue progressing through stages.

The most important items in the game are the swords, shields and armor. The magic is not as big of a deal. Although if you get the “Death” magic earlier it can make some mini-boss fights much simpler. I didn’t even bother buying “Tilte” magic and I was able to beat the game a few days ago with no problem.

This game is no way near as frustrating as Zelda 2 and requires much less grinding. The only actual tricky part is your limited inventory and how you can only carry so many keys. And if you use a key, it is gone and if you need to revisit a place, you need to replace that key. But honestly, the silly Key system in the game adds to its charm because it trains the player to prepare more and to use a little inventory strategy when preparing for adventures.

“Should I brink a Mattock just in case? Or should I pack an extra Red Potion so I’m ready for a boss fight?”

The hilarious thing is that not all of the key makers sell or purchase the same types of keys. So if you have an extra “Jack” key when you reach the later stages, you will need to walk all the way back to a town that sells Jack keys in order to make space in your inventory for better items.

The Evil One

The cool thing about Faxanadu is that all the monsters have somewhat unique patterns to their movements. This is especially true for the ones that don’t shoot magic. Some enemies run around, others jump in strange patterns. It is quite enjoyable getting used the the different enemies and deciding whether or not to be aggressive toward them or avoid them all together.

My recommendation is that when you come to a town that sells a new type of armor or sword. Save up and make sure to buy it as soon as possible. The swords in the game scale extremely well with the monsters and bosses. So skipping a type of sword in order to save up for a better one is completely unnecessary and wil probably make the game less enjoyable.

HINT: Even though smokers in the game usually talk about boring stuff. They sometimes have extremely valuable information. And if you are a SOLDIER, you may actually get something fashionable from a conversation.

Memorization is the key in Faxanadu. Some of the levels require you to be very careful in where you jump. A false step can lead to wasting 5 minutes of time because of needed to back-track. A simple rule of thump would be to not use the flying winged boots when you can easily use a ladder and are in a danger area.

-Tyler

Screen Size Comparison - CLICK for enlarged view

Portable gaming systems have been an important part of the technological revolution. Before there were PDA’s and iPads there was the original GameBoy. Most games for the Gameboy were created specifically for that system. Yet others were ports of other popular games. Killer Instinct the Gameboy version is an example of a Gameboy port of a SNES game that was a port of an Arcade Game. After detailed inspection of gaming on these small screens, I noticed something when playing a retro NES game on the GameBoy Advanced. There was a problem playing NES games that required more hair-trigger response reflexes. It seemed that the small screen somehow made it harder to avoid damage and hit the correct areas that I wanted to. This was compared to playing the game on a larger screen.

What could be doing this? There was no way that the smaller screen affected the actual pacing of the game. So, the only thing that could actually be changing in this situation was the human player him or herself. When we look at a screen on a television there is sort of sweet spot for viewing distance. This actually is different for each person, but generally the larger the screen, the farther back the viewer sits in order to have a comfortable view without going cross-eyed.

The people who sit close to large television screens have to move their eyes more in order to make sense of what is going on the screen. The farther back you sit, the more one can absorb the entire screen without moving the eyes. The drawback is that it is harder to pick out details in the periphery if you eyes are stationary. Also, the eyes can get tired depending on what kind of visual gamer one is. Arcade machines tend to but the gamer at a slight distance by the very wooden box itself. The designers understand that people can hurt their eyes by getting to close to machine and try to create an apparatus to compensate for that, without sacrificing visual pleasure enticed by the moving colors and text.

Zelda 2, when played on a GameBoy advanced simply did not work for me. It felt like I had to work twice as hard to not get hit by small monsters like slimes and bouncing skulls. Also timing jump hits and being more adventerous with jumping down-thrusts in order to play with style was reckless when doing so on the GBA. So the experience of playing Zelda 2 on a small screen had some serious disadvantages. I don’t even want to imagine what it would have been like to try and play Ninja Gaiden 2 or Zanac if they were released as part of the Classic NES Series for the GBA. It probably would have been some sort of quasi-nostalgic nightmare state.

A game that translated well to the small screen was Metroid and especially Metroid Fusion. Wow, I had such a great time playing Metroid Fusion. It actually was the reason why I purchased the GBA SP in the first place. But that game had a different feel than Super Metroid or the original. The bright colors seemed to work in order to make threats more visible. And the mission objective system made pacing the game simple enough to keep one’s interest while waiting for someone to finish shopping for shoes.

-Tyler

Stranger Danger

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is a game that many people have played, but few have beaten. There is a great deal of sentiment about this game. Some say that the game is not a ‘true’ Zelda adventure due to its primarily side-scrolling nature. Others say the 2D action/RPG elements were just too darn hard. Albeit this game is much more quick reflex and dexterity challenging compared to the First and Third installments of the Zelda series, it is not an impossible game to beat. There are some strategies and tactics that will help you beat the game, they include proper leveling techniques for rapidly getting the MAX 8 attack / 8 Magic / 8 health defensive rating, strategies for combing for powerups such as heart and magic containers, the strategic use of game mechanics to optimize gameplay without cheating, and optimal sword combat tactics versus different enemy types.

When you start the game you will notice that you already have a sword so you won’t have to borrow one from an old dude in a cave. Also that green billy club in your hands is actually your shield and it plays a much bigger part in Zelda 2 than it does in pretty much any of the other Zelda games I’ve played. You get the spell called, “Shield” early on, but it doesn’t do anything to your shield. It actually doubles your current defensive rating. It is one of the best and most used spells in the game. The spell that affects your actual shield in your hands is called, “Reflect” and that comes much later. We will discuss that in a few paragraphs, when it is more appropriate for the palace you will be on.

The biggest mistake I made when I tried to play through the game a few years ago for the second time, was that I rushed into the first palace too soon. Try and level up  a few times in the forest. You’ll notice that some of the monsters don’t give exp when you kill them, like the bear creatures with the spears if you get hit by the more dangerous overworld monster activation shadow. But if you kill these spear bears over and over again, they often drop 50 exp ‘P’ bags. These drop quite often and sometimes you get more than one per forest encounter, so practice your skills and level up for a bit.

When you finally do make it into the first palace, do not use the “JUMP” spell that you may have learned from the town to the north-west. The jump spell will make it hard for you to hit the horse head boss in the face. So just use your “SHIELD” spell and smack him 8 times or so and he should explode quite dramatically. I’d recommend having your sword attack skill at least at level 2. So your stats should be at  (2/2/2) or better for you to easily defeat the first palace.

REMEMBER: Everytime you defeat a boss and replace one of the crystals in the third eye socket (yes, I just noticed that this time around. These statues look like elongated faces with a third eye and a long nose) you will get enough EXP to level up your current EXP maximum. So if you have 0006 / 3000  EXP. Or six out of three-thousand exp. Then you will get 2994 exp from replacing the crystal jewel into the statue.

BUT if you have 2900 / 3000 EXP and you replace a crystal, then you will only receive 100 EXP for replacing the crystal. This being known, you should try and level up in this latter circumstance before fighting a boss. This way you can maximize the amount of bonus you get from defeating a boss and replacing a crystal.

Also, once you get the secret item from a palace, and kill the boss, and replace the crystal in the palace…the palace itself will be destroyed and turn to stone. You will not be able to visit it again. But if you beat a boss and replace a crystal but don’t take the special item hidden in the palace, then you can still go inside.

Early in the game you will notice some over world extra lives in the form of little “Link” dolls. I recommend that you don’t pick these up and in face remember their location, because they will help out tremendously when you try and defeat the final palace.

The first of these free life dolls is in the first swamp zone near a boulder.

When fighting most monsters with shields there is a trick to pretty much getting a guaranteed hit instead of playing guess the shield location all day. If you jump and attack as you are starting to come down and aim for the monster’s head…you will pretty much get a hit every time if you do it right. Of course, this technique can only be done if you are not in an enclosed space.

NOTE: This technique will not work when fighting the final boss, it will actually get you killed.But we will discuss the final boss in more detail later.

Near the first swamp zone there is also a big forest, this is where you need to get into the habit of combing entire map areas and remembering where you’ve explored in between monster encounters. This will help you level up and you will also learn how to fight like a pro.

When you are in the forest you will eventually find a log cabin and a guy will give you the password for you to access the bridge that is guarded by the soldier.

Also I recommend taking the south bridge that is on the east side to get to the town, this is because there are less bottomless pits and it is easier.

Just on a side note the overworld encounters with the monster shadows reminds me of PAC MAN. munch…munch…munch…

There are a great deal of fire/lava pits in palace number 2. So you might want to venture into the caves near the water town in order to finish leveling up instead of risking loosing all your EXP if you have to continue. Inside these caves you get the hammer which is necessary for finding some awesome heart container/magic container powerups as well as making traversing the over-world map tremendously faster.

You got something to say?

Here is a pro tip that I haven’t heard anyone else talk about yet. If you have a medium amount of magic energy left in your magic bar, but you don’t have enough magic to cast, “LIFE” but you come across a red magic potion, you may have an inkling to collect the red potion, wait for your magic to refill and then cast LIFE and regain some health. Well, here’s a trick that will impress your friends. Before collecting the red potion, activate your start screen and prepare LIFE to be cast. Then collect the red potion, but while your mana is being refilled, constantly press “select” on your controller. What will happen is that you will regain your life but the potion will still give you magic energy. And you will end the transaction with more magic energy in your bar than you would have than if you had just sat there watching the bar fill up and then cast your spell. This happens because you are using your remaining magic in part before the magic bar refilling potion finishes its process.

QUICK TIP: Monster strength varies for enemies equipped with shields varies from YELLOW (weak) RED (somewhat strong) BLUE (adept soldiers bent on your demise).

Once you get your attack strength to level 5 you can kill the yellow axe wielding alligator soldiers. And the amount of EXP from battling in the mountains is excellent so there is no reason to wait till later to at least get your bearings there and enjoy the well crafted mountain maze.

Another thing that will make fighting palaces more fun is that once you have your sword skill at level 5 and if you have the DOWN THRUST sword ability that you get from spending some time at the church. You can effectively kill the flying skull things that drain your magic power that live in the palaces. You need to just time it so you jump straight up and down and land with a down-thrust right on top of it. If you keep holding “down” you will bounce on top of the thing until it blows up and give you 50 EXP. (This reminds me of the unlimited life trick in super mario brothers part one on stage 2-3 ??)

If you visit the water town in Sarira you will notice there is a sleeping slime that says, “…zzz…” I believe this was the first time I ever saw “zzz” used in popular culture that made its way into American mainstream in order to denote that someone was sleeping/bored. Why was that slime so tired?

To save the little kid that people want in Sarira, you need to enter the mountain maze by exploring over and over again. You will fight a lot of monsters in the process and will get a lot of EXP for doing this. Eventually you will find the missing child.

This heart container was a PAIN in the cheeks to find!

THE HEART CONTAINER IN THE WATER: This one is tough. You need the walking boots to walk on water to the level 5 palace. But you need to walk until your path is blocked in the water to the north keep moving east and then check north every time. About 5 steps or to the right, you will be able to walk
north a few steps. Then keep heading east and you will reach the place where the heart container is kept. You will need enough magic for a jump spell to get to the heart container. (is it just me or does link look extremely excited and joyous about finding heart containers?)

All right, you’ve heard enough basic stuff, it’s time for some pro tips.

When you are in the green palace, you will notice that there is an EXP bag above an elevator near some poison water dispensers. Even with the JUMP spell you won’t be able to normally get the bag. The way to do it is to preferably have “SHIELD” spell activated as well as JUMP and then time your jump precisely so that you will get hit by the poison water exactly when you are at the apex of your jump. This will trigger your damage-hit response and you will be pushed up onto the ledge and be able to receive the P-bag.

The fire spell is MUCH better than it was in the first Zelda game. It makes it so your sword launches fire that will stay on the screen to the end. You can have two fireballs on the screen at once and can make then follow extra length if you have somewhere to run to that triggers the screen scrolling animation. These fireballs can penetrate most enemies and actually pierce directly through them and carry on to damage more enemies. But what you might not have known is that the FIRE spell is directly related to the Sword Skill rating that Link has at the time of the cast. So if you have sword skill level 8 your fireballs will do serious damage.

The REFLECT spell is excellently effective versus magic wielding and fire breathing enemies. REFLECT will make it so you can defeat the enemies that disappear and also the ghost boss of one of the palaces. But it will also make it so your shield will block fire attacks. Normally fire based attack will penetrate your shield even if you line yourself up properly. And since reflect doesn’t cost that much magic in order to cast, it can sometimes can a good magical investment in situations that normally may require you to take damage that would have you end up casting a much more expensive LIFE spell anyway.

The hidden town of Kasuto is extremely tricky to find. You have to use your hammer in the forest that you can only get to by entering a cave to the East. This forest has about 20 – 30 forest squares and if you diligently chop down all the trees that you can and remember which ones you chopped down before getting hit by the shadow overworld monsters, then you might find the hidden city.

Within the hidden city, there are many secrets. So be more diligent than ever when listening to townsfolk, in this town especially. There is a magic container a special item and a magic spell in this town. So don’t miss out.

The final heart container is actually in the desert to the far east of the triple rock formation. If you search long enough you’ll find it. At least you don’t have to chop down trees in order to find it.

Once you defeat all the 6 palaces and put the crystals in the eye socket of the statues, then go to the dead city that used to be the original hidden city. You need to also make sure that you have the Cross Item or else you will get your face beaten by flying invisible monsters that do critical damage. Once within the city enter the first house and talk to the old man. If you did all the above things, he will give you the Final Spell of THUNDER. This spell is important for the second to last boss battle of the final palace.

All of your battles...I have been with you. But now you must face me.

THE FINAL BATTLE: You will engage in hand to hand combat with your shadow self. This is what puts Zelda 2 above many games I’ve played. The technique of jump-attacking to get free hits simply won’t work. You need to stand your ground. But first make sure to cast shield and that’s it. Don’t use jump. Actually, jumping around too much isn’t a good idea, it makes you very vulnerable. Save your magic for casting LIFE when you need to. Remember that you need to prepare LIFE by pressing start every time you want to cast it. You can’t just press ‘select’ twice and heal yourself twice.

When fighting you should try and force your shadow to jump at you. Then attack him at his legs or body. This will get you a nice hit. If he isn’t jumping at all then go ahead and do your leap attack that I mentioned before, or else play more defensive and move away from him. Eventually he will get greedy and jump at you. Be careful not to have him fight off the screen, I don’t think your hits register properly if you do this…but unfortunately his attacks will definitely hurt you. Hold your own and try and push him back with the force of your sword and determination. Eventually he will get impatient and try and jump attack you. Be on the lookout and take advantage of his hubris. Also, you can occasionally get lucky with a basic attack while you both are standing at his upper or lower body. But this is a lot harder to do than hitting him while he is jumping.

You may have just saved Hyrule. But from now on…you rule.

-Tyler

Vocabulary and Timing is everything

In playing the game, Words with Friends the user usually has access to the internet. You can’t play the game without it. So there is a temptation to look up words before actually placing them. That is actually bad Words With Friends etiquette and my friend Brandon and I call that, “You using googlebro?” But since there is an automatic feature to see if what you placed is actually a word, there is no problem with experimenting and going on the fringe of one’s vocabulary limits. Once you place a word that you may only know 60% or so because you heard it briefly in a movie or in a book or article, then look it up and try and memorize the meaning. This will improve your vocabulary and will help you recognize even better word patterns later on. This is especially a good strategy to use when a friend plays a word that you don’t know, look it up and try and remember the word. Remember, a good vocabulary can help out in many professions as well as in school.

The first board strategy that people need to know is that the bonus point tiles are king. It doesn’t matter how snazzy your word is, if someone uses the bonus tiles they can clobber you point wise if you’re not careful.

The best way to play the game I find, is to maximize your own points rather than trying to limit the points of your friend. This means, try and avoid “blocking” expensive tiles and instead use them yourself.

You can combo letter and word bonus tiles. So if you see a triple letter score and a triple word score…try and make a word that uses both of them. Recently, I placed the word, “Azure” on the board. The ‘a’ was already there, the ‘z’ was a triple letter score and the ‘e’ was a triple word score. I ended up getting 30 points for the Z and then the entire word was tripled so the word, Azure in this case was worth 105 points. Not bad…sorry Krystal, I had to use it.

There are even better strategies that I can tell you. Most people play the game by using a letter that someone else used and then starting a new word. That’s normal right? Well, if you create a new word out of someone’s existing word by using only one letter and then make a new word in another direction based on that letter, you get the points of the original word (without the bonus tiles on that one of course) plus the new word that was created in the other direction including the newly activated bonus tiles. The next paragraph will explain this in more detail.

Let’s say someone plays the word ‘frog’ horizontally on the board. But you have a bunch of letters including an ‘s.’ You can place the ‘s’ to make frog into ‘frogs.’ Then you can write the word, ‘seven’ using the new ‘s’ in frogs that you just put down. This will give you all the points for the word frogs and the word seven, plus any bonus tiles you acquired in the word ‘seven’ …pretty cool huh?

Here’s some secret hints with playing with random people you don’t know. Sometimes people that you randomly join a game with like to talk in the chat zone. But other times they can be really shy. One time some guy played a word that was pretty good and I said in the chat, “Do you really think you have what it takes to go against the webmaster of Overidon.com?” Then a few minutes later the guy said, “I’m not sure. I may die of old age before we finish this game because it takes you 5 – 10 hours in between each turn.”

I laughed when I read that and a few minutes later I placed a word that combo’d one of his words and also received a triple word score. He immediately resigned the match after that and then didn’t want to play again. So I recommend being nice and non-taunting towards people who don’t necessarily understand your sense of humor or personality.

-Tyler

Star Trek the Game on Vectrex - Click for Video

When I first heard about the Vectrex system from my friend Brett, I was extremely excited. The concept of having a vector based home video game system had some serious sizzle. Everyone remembers the game, “Asteroids.” That’s an example of a vector based game. The big difference between vector games and pixel games is that vectors use lines. Pixels are the constant in most home video game systems because pixels are tiny square dots that have the color information. The end result with the Vectrex is that the images are extremely crisp and easy to see. You can quickly discern targets and objectives. The sound quality is great too on this machine. The music, albeit generally simple, is clear and good. Big thanks to Brett for allowing overidon.com to check out this astounding technology. Star Trek the Motion Picture the Game was intense, but we didn’t read the manual first. So we ended up getting being blasted by Romulans and Klingons in the beginning.

Here’s how to play: Button 1 doesn’t do anything. Button 2 is for the tractor beam. This let’s you lock onto a space station to refuel or it also locks you into a black hole which will take you to the final stage called, ‘Sector 9.” Button 3 is a temporary shield that will draw an X on the screen. If an enemy torpedo is fired at you and you time it right, it will deflect the torpedo. This is interesting because I don’t remember torpedoes ever bouncing off of shields in any of the movies, so maybe this is an original series thing that I haven’t seen yet. Button 4 fires the guns and it is pretty intuitive…besides for the whole button 4 thing.

What is so superb about this system is that the analog control for the movement is beyond excellent. The analog sticks on even the latest systems are not as accurate as the Vectrex controller. It has a truly visceral and responsive feel. It is easy to aim the joystick and take down targets.

Another cool thing about the Vectrex is that it comes with its own little vector based TV monitor. It is heavy, so I wouldn’t consider it to be portable. But it is convenient that you don’t have to plug in anything besides the power cord to get it to work.

After we played the Star Trek game for a few minutes we decided to read the manual to find out what was going on. It turns out that the strange glowing box is actually a black hole. And if you press button 2 on the black hole you will be transported to the final battle with the Klingon Mothership. I actually did that after a few tries and I was able to defeat the mothership by pummeling it on its nose over and over again. After it was destroyed the game took me back to sector one to start the whole process over again.

Puppet Master Guide

This is a build for an offensive Puppet Master in HoN. It isn’t a ‘carry’ build in the purest sense, but it is highly effective and I’ve used it in the latest patch last night. The most important thing to realize is that you start by putting on point into the puppet strings skill. This may seem counter-intuitive because you might want to pump the whiplash skill for the crit and splash damage. But the first point in puppet strings can save you or a laning partner early game and can help in getting an early bloodlust.

The start items are dependent on whether or not you have to get courier or wards. But I recommend that if you have a partner that gets wards than you get the courier and vise-versa. If nonone gets courier or wards the guess what? Yep, you’re getting both be because it’s about winning and teams that have map control win and others get ganked it’s that simple.

Other items should be some runes of blight and minor totems. If you have tons of money to spare you can always get a pretenders crown for even more stats.

The cool thing about puppet master is that he can lane with almost anyone. His puppet strings work great with Swiftblade because they can drag someone right into the whirlwind.

The second skill you get is the puppet show. This is basically a confusion skill. You want to max this as fast as possible. It can turn the tide of a battle quite easily. It makes an enemy hero attack whoever is closest. But they may even attack someone on their own team. So it is great to cast this on a high damage ranged hero. The reason why you rush to max it is because the duration of the confusion goes up. I personally this this spell is better than a stun. This skill can be used in conjunction with his ultimate as well, which is awesome.

While working on maxing the puppet show, just put one point in the strings and a couple in the whiplash passive. This passive will give you critical strike and can do area of effect damage. What is interesting is that the crit is charge based rather than percentage chance. So the faster you attack, the more splash crates you will have.

This is why you get steamboots on puppet instead of any other boots. The increased attack speed will be monster. The second item to make is Alchemists Bones. This item is made of two pairs of gloves and a recipe that is 900 gold. The gloves only cost 500 each and they add 15% increased attack speed each and that will help you last hit in order to make the money for the recipe.

The reason why Alchemist Bones is great on puppet is that you get triple the gold for creep and neutral creeps that aren’t reds. So if you use the Alchemist Bones on a Vagabond Leader you will get 300 gold! That is a lot of money early game. And you get a charge every minute and a half with a max of two charges. The cool thing is that I instantly kills the creep without you needing to weaken it or anything.

The next item I build is the whispering helm. It adds damage armor and lifesteal. Make sure to by the helm of the victor first. That gives armor and Health regen. The lifesteal piece by itself isn’t good to get first.

Now you can farm like a pro. The next item I like to get on him is millstone. People like to do crowd control direct damage spells on puppet so millstone can absorb a spell every 20 seconds. After that, any item that uses a warpcleft is a good choice. Either that or Behemoth’s hearth for survivability. If you go tank get hear first then upgrade your helm to the savage mask, the heart is a superior tank item.

A lot of people go shroud on puppet. But I think it isn’t as good long term as bones for how expensive it is. Also if you get the bones then you will be able to quickly farm whatever else you wan either in a lane or jungle. Also Puppet can easily be a toe to toe player and he really doesn’t need to hide like a wuss. That and people in better games use eyes and dust so I look down upon stealth late game.

Here’s how to ruin teams in team battle. If you are close to an enemy use your ultimate voodoo doll. Then cast your puppet show and there is a chance they will attack their own voodoo doll which will hurt them a ton of pain.

Meanwhile use your strings on anyone that tries to move or blink or teleport because the puppet strings disable teleportation. When attacking, try and aim for the center of the enemy pack of heroes that way you will hit everyone with your splash damage.

You should be leeching some health but when you get too low run away and let your millstone heal you up a bit and get back in the fight. Using your strings is a good way to avoid being chased from a teamfight.

Your splash damage makes you kill creep waves very fast so late game you will be able to destroy towers and push back waves wig ease.

Since you have a whispering helm make sure to mind control a wolf leader. This will give you a 30% base damage bonus which stacks with your passive whiplash bonus. At level 4 your passive gives 20% base damage bonus. So combined with the wolf leader there is potential for excellent damage. Minotaur champions are good also, they give 15% attack speed bonus. But they also give 150 gold with your alchemist bones so the choice is yours.

Savage mace is an awesome item late game because it does true strike which punctures through evasion. Plus it gives tremendous bonus damage as well as 15% attack speed. Go ahead and sell your alchemist bones late game if you need money or room for this item.

-Tyler

But when I did it and got the point for myself, my teammate said, “What? Hey *$&& You! You hear me? $&@@ YOU~!” And then I said nothing. But my friend checked the chat log and then made this laugh that was truly intense and borderline the most awesome laugh of all time. This is the laugh that I want to hear if I ever get killed by the Predator (preferably the Alien/Predator Hybrid from AVP).

The laugh moved so many octaves and it inflicted me with both awe, fear and respect that I literally stopped living in this reality for a while.

Honestly, the laugh was a mix of maniacal, playful, and bloodlusted all at the same time. The funny part is, I think he did his laugh in the ALL CHAT area by pressing, “T” on the keyboard. So that means that everyone who was still in the game on our team heard it while they were disconnecting. So the guy who got upset probably heard that while he was logging out of the game. The sounds probably reverberated into his mind and etched sonic imprints upon his psyche for every new neuron that connects or fires within his fragile mind.

-Tyler

Good Juking Example

Juking in Heroes of Newerth is important because it allows you to use your environment to get away from an enemy hero that is chasing you. The basic concept is that you walk in one direction, then wait for the environment to obscure your visibility to your enemy. Then when they can’t see you for a split second, you make a choice. You either choose to change directions or you choose to stay in the current more obvious path. A good juke means that the enemy wasn’t able to anticipate what direction you went in, and you are able to escape. Some skills like being able to leap, or turn invisible can assist in making the perfect juke. But the basic concept of using trees or rocks or elevation to obscure one’s location and moving in a non-intuitive direction can work wonders even if you have a hero that has no special movement abilities.

In this video, Valkyrie is being chased by two enemies. She uses her jump ability as well as the cover of the trees to avoid Pestilence. She also tricks Pestilence to follow her through the trees that are near her team’s tower and he ends up getting creep blocked by a normal little tree creep unit. The problem is that the tower is still firing at him. So he is a juicy target for the Valkyrie. Theretofore the Pestilence was the attacker who was chasing his prey, but a turn of events turned the tables quite so.

Big thanks to Zombies100 for posting this video on YouTube!

Trion Worlds' new MMORPG, Rift, is doomed to fail.

The subject line says it all. This game has zero long term appeal. Rift, in essence, is a re-skinned World of Warcraft with public quests, similar to those first seen in Warhammer Online. The UI, the PvP instances, and the “soul system” all resemble traits WoW has. Even the rogue’s “combo points” and finishing moves are a direct rip off from WoW.

If you’ve visited any video gaming website in the last couple of months, you’ve undoubtedly seen a Rift advertisement boldly claiming “We’re not in Azeroth anymore.” I’ve also seen several television commercials for Rift as well. I’ll give it to Trion Worlds. Their marketing efforts peaked my interest enough to pick up the game. They even got me to initially sign up for the “Founder’s discount” 6 month pricing plan. I figured I might as well invest 6 months into the game since I probably needed a couple of months to reach the level 50 cap. I ended up cancelling that subscription plan today and I doubt I’m the only person doing so before the first “free” 30 days expires.

I’m a level 22 rogue after a week of play and everything I’ve done feels like I’ve done it in WoW already. The rifts that open up randomly and create the opportunity for public quests happen so frequently that I feel like I can’t quest normally without being sucked into fighting rifts from hours on end. Frankly, once people begin to unsubscribe to the game as I predict, rifts will be that much more of a nuisance to the players still playing. If the rifts in the game are ignored, they eventually kill the town NPC’s that give out quests; making leveling more difficult.

Before you Rift faithful try and dismiss my opinion by citing the positive reviews Rift’s received already, understand the point I am making. The game itself is polished. My client never once crashed and I didn’t notice any latency issues. If Rift was released before the original World of Warcraft debuted, it would be an absolute hit. However, that isn’t the case – WoW has been out for over 6 years. Case and point: Warhammer Online received very positive reviews as well and had a “successful” launch, yet Mythic Entertainment ended up having two rounds of layoffs a few months after the release. To date, more than half of Warhammer Online’s original servers have been removed/consolidated.

If you haven’t picked up Rift, don’t bother. You might be logging into an empty server.

-Nauticaboy

NES 1991 Controller and dinosaurs

The controller from 1991 for the NES, has a “dog bone” shape. It looks similar to a Super Nintendo gamepad, but it isn’t flat on the top. It is quite different from the original NES controllers in the USA, because it isn’t box shaped. Also the buttons are (as my friend Brett pointed out) concave instead of convex. So they are very comfortable. The buttons are aligned in a way that is angled, so it is quite ergonomic. The rounded frame of the controller helps to make it easy to grip. And this frame helped me to play, Legendary Wings where It was necessary for me to hold the controller with one hand. I needed the other hand to put my fingers in a position that is more like playing “Tekken” in the arcade. This is where the fingers are in a claw-like position. Using the controller in this way enables someone to quickly use both the index and middle fingers rapidly to destroy targets with precision. Doing it this way also takes some pressure off the right thumb.

Yet I noticed that my left thumb didn’t have a tremendous amount of gamer’s thumb, in spite of the 3.5 hours we spent on Legendary Wings. The edges of the D-pad aren’t as pointed as the original NES controllers, so you don’t pinch as much.

Another thing that I noticed is that the Dog Bone style NES controller is extremely responsive, even to rapid button pressing. I felt like I was able to fire in near turbo-mode without actually having a turbo controller. This felt good, but it would have felt even better if I was able to beat the level 3 boss.

If you like playing Nintendo Entertainment System games, but enjoy the SNES controller more. Then I recommend you get the NES Dog Bone style controller. Just be careful and make sure you purchase an authentic one. Because there are a lot of fakes out there being sold.

You may have noticed from the picture above that there are dinosaurs attacking the controller.

It was a real pleasure to use this style of controller. This is because I recently have been playing games using a SNES controller, so the transition was a good one.

-Tyler

The battle for purification rages on

Klavixar is a wizard from the land of Mirror who was exiled by the Draconians for being a pacifist. He eventually made friends with a band of nomads who found his wisdom to be quite excellent. The nomadic tribes told Klavixar that he should feel welcome in their humble village of Utica, and that although he was an inexperienced wizard he may prove useful in the long term. When the nomads of Utica wanted to conquer nearby hamlets and villages, Klavixar recommended peace. And luckily for the nomads, their relaxation within their wall-less township made returning to defend it, realistic and easy. Many years later, Klavixar was approached by a sage named Zaldron. He said that he could assist Klavixar in researching spells that could be used for changing the terrain surrounding Utica.

The research process was painstaking and the librarians withing Utica were exhausted. Unrest started to spread across Utica, so Klavixar decided to build Temples and Parthenons in order to let the population express their spirituality and devotion. This was a time of great tranquility and the nomads prospered. Eventually their population swelled enough to lead a caravan of settlers.

Around the time the new nomadic outpost was established, two wizards presented themselves to Klavixar. One was named Ariel, the other was Sharee. Ariel was a leader that completely focuses on life magic. Since Klavixar studied life magic, sorcery and nature magic, he felt she would be an excellent trade ally and friend. So they traded their spells freely and enjoyed each others’ company.

But Ariel and her Orc and Barbarian citizens grew restless and they expanded their empire. Eventually Ariel decided that instead of trading magic, she could attain what she wanted by stealing the spells from Klavixar’s mind itself.

Ariel began regular raids of Utica. But Klavixar knew that if he could just hold on to Utica and the new hamlet…then his Sage, Zaldron may grow wiser with experience.

Battle after battle, many units were lost. Horse-bowmen fell in combat, priests gave their lives…the future looked grim. But wave after wave, Zaldron and a few soldiers survived.

Eventually, Zaldron became an adept sage and through his diligence, Klavixar was able to change the lands to make Utica into a paradise. The population flourished and powerful Griffons were trained in fantastic stables. Zaldron was able to repel the new attacks with the new support.

Meanwhile, the wizard, Sharee entered into an alliance with Ariel. She used Chaos and Death magic to summon zombies and doom bats to punish Klavixar for not bowing and scraping to Ariel. But the last straw was when Sharee created a new village withing the territory of Utica.

Klavixar sent a huge force of rangers and griffons to attack the southern village of Halflings. And with the success of that battle. Klavixar now controlled 3 cities.

A huge academic breakthrough at the Sage’s Guild enabled Klavixar to use the spell of prosperity on his cities. This made profits from taxation/production quite lucrative. And since he was an alchemist, Klavixar was able to convert the new gold into magical power reserves. This offset the mana cost of the prosperity spells on each village.

Even though Klavixar had three cities, and felt strong. His nemesis, Ariel controlled dozens of cities and towns. Fearing that he needed to become more aggressive in Arcanus politics, Klavixar decided to summon a powerful hero.

After spending years in channeling enough energy to summon a true hero of the people…his dreams were finally answered. Out from his magic portal, emerged…RoboCop-The Paladin. RoboCop was a young Paladin from a strange land called, “Old Detroit” but his innate talents showed much promise. He was immune to magic, had superhuman might, his prayers could inspire allies in battle, he was agile, and he was a famous celebrity back where he came from.

Klavixar knew that this young Paladin needed to grow strong. So he let him train and defend Utica from the advances of Ariel and Sharee time and time again. RoboCop learned much and his skills grew.

ED209-Cobra

Meanwhile, Klavixar was crafting the finest in weapons and armour for RoboCop. He made him a sword called the ED209-Cobra. It added +3 to Attack and +3 to hit as well as giving RoboCop a blessing and the strength of a giant. Each hit from this sword had a chance to dispel any form of evil. RoboCop trained with the sword but did not enter into combat until he received his armor. This armor was crafted by OCP and made RoboCop virtually impervious to bow and arrow attacks. This was amazing because RoboCop-The Paladin was already invulnerable to Magic Attacks. The armor was golden platemail and increased his defense by eight. With the OCP armour, he could move an additional 5 paces with each turn. This made him formidable enough to bring the fight to his enemies.

RoboCop-The Paladin lead an army of griffons and a ranger unit as well as some priests to conquer some sorcery nodes in the area. The battles were not difficult but it gave Klavixar enough time to craft RoboCop his final item. It was his orb of the Fourth Directive, this made him fly with the spirit of the People. The Fourth Directive also gave him extra damage and accuracy. Overall these three items made Robocop quite confident.

His army attacked and conquered a city in the Northeast. Many griffons and rangers were lost. And all the priests died. But some griffons and RoboCop survived. And the city became a stronghold that welcomed the young Paladin. RoboCop was ready to settle down in this Halfling city and train an army of Slingers. But other problems came to his attention.

Back near Utica, Sharee was constantly corrupting the countryside. The nomads were unable to farm on this defiled territory. So they had to train priests who could purify the land.

Yet Ariel and Sharee were allied now against Klavixar and they constantly sent regiments to kill the priests and any units that tried to protect the purification process. Zaldron feared leaving the capital because of the incessant attacks of dangerous monsters like Doom Bats and even Ariel’s bloodthirsty unicorns.

Hearing the news from a griffon courier, RoboCop left the leader of the Griffon regiment in charge of the Halfling city and went Southwest. His mission: To protect the noble priests as they purified the land of the corruption.

Little did RoboCop know…that he had to face a fearsome army of Invulnerable Stag Beetles, Wizards, and even Orc Wyverns. The ensuring battle would be treacherous. And this is the detailed account of the perilous engagement…of the Hero of the People…against the Stag Beetle Army!

(This is just fan fiction about Master of Magic and RoboCop)
RoboCop is a rad comic book/movie that I recommend you watch.

And Master of Magic is one of the best strategy games of all time.

Click HERE to read another Master of Magic related fan fiction!