So yesterday evening I found my new addiction. It all started around midnight when the game “Infinity Blade” was made available through the AppStore, which I downloaded. Really liked the demo of Citadel.

After around 300 mb of download and installation. Wow….amazing graphics….all this on the iPhone. Really beautiful and when you look around lots of special effects to see. Lights, dark shadows, moving objects, flames and lots more. Music also nice and it just puts you right in the middle of it all. There is just on low, after a few minutes of play: WTF you can’t move around freely? Hmmm… to bad, but beside that and accepting this fact. The game is like “Rage”, everything is on rails. No free moving, there is a fixed path that you have to follow (although at some point you can deviate  from it ad take a side path up the stairs. Enemy are higher in level in this path plus good for exp, gold & items).

The battle system is great and inventive. Tap the lower left or right to dodge the attack. Tap the middle/shield to block. Or parry the attack by swiping at the same direction as the attacker and there’s also the of a weapon lock. Keep tapping to win, you can even see the sparks from the swords clashing. Very nice!

You are able to preform combo’s and deal more damage than regular attacks. There is apparently a a standard combo swiping left, right and left again (or right, left and right). This is cool, but there are hidden combo’s which is harder to find I did one accidentally when I swiped randomly using crisscross swipes. If you think this is enough at some point during battle you will see blue circles hovering  on some part of the enemy, if you tap them, you’ll stab them there for even more damage. Double nice or instance kill even.

Weapons can also deal elemental damages. Like lightning, bzzz….and a cool purple after glow with each stroke. Flame damage, the same effect. The ice damage and effect are not so clear to me, but poison is cool. Just hit them and see how the live bar drop. The elemental damages can be found in swords, but shields apparently can also give them to you. First thought is represented the protection against the elements…but after equipping the spectral shield and a regular sword with no effect. I notice me dealing elemental damage, you can see this you the color of the after swipes.

The magic rings on the other hand also lets you deal elemental damage by casting spells. Which is cool, but not for me. Don’t like wizards. So my ring of choice is the life ring, which allows me to cast regeneration and shield repair).

Equipent are accessible at every moment, except during battle. There are to ways to get them fast. The first thing is try to wear the special helmets which adds +++ to item drops or  +++ to gold (enabling you the buy then, the store list all the weapons).

The mastery of the weapons are a little disappointing. Because all you get is one extra skill point and nothing more. In my opinion not really worth it to master all of them during battle. Why you ask? You can also master them by paying money. Just do this on the lower level ones, which you never going to use any way because of the low stats.

And the skill points distribution is all up to you. Life for extra health. Attack power. Defense for a higher shield count (which decreases when you block an enemy with a higher attack count than you shield defense). And magic for how fast the meter fills. Personal note I’m trying a build with all focus on power and using items to fill in the other stats. It’s kinda like kill or be killed. Which is a working build thanks to the battle system. I managed to injure the god king in the first bloodline and second bloodline. But still being killed by him (him being level 50). And in the third bloodline finally PWND him with me at level 11. I was kinda surprise at the start of bloodline  four, hero saying father I’ll revenge you. Hey I killed him…..stupid. But I think it has to do with the next update of the game. During the ending sequence something happened, not going to say it now for spoilers. Think that in the coming update the battle will go on after defeating god king, with new enemies….maybe something green and high tech 😉

So this is my quick review of the game. Why mentioning new addiction? Ehmm I downloaded it at midnight last night and kept playing it until 4 in the morning….didn’t notice the time….it kinda flew past me. And that’s in my point a good selling point for a game.

Recovered old blog about the iPhone version of Spiderman Total Mayhem. Note at the time the iPad version wasn’t out yet. Now in hindsight, the iPhone version tops the iPad version because frustrating control on the iPad and the change of using the web shooting (really like the auto aim to green point).

Yes this is the constant feeling I got when playing Spiderman Total Mayhem. This is really a cool game. I don’t know where to start…maybe for the fact you can be spiderman when ever you want on the iPhone. Or the fact that you can fight real cool boss battles (still trying to beat my best time).  Or collecting the comic artwork spread all over the game. Then there is the feature to play spiderman in the black suit. Which is more powerful and cooler.

As a kid growing up with the spiderman comics and dreaming that one day I’ll just be like Peter Parker and get bitten by a radioactive spider and get those powers. Web swinging through the city, swinging over tall buildings or climbing walls. It was cool… unfortunately it was a fantasy. But now a dream come true.

Anyway the game itself is quit linear. There is a starting point A and you have to get the end point B. That’s fixed you can’t deviate from that. But you can use the easy road to get there or  at some levels a harder road the get there (this is for those hard to collect comic artwork).

The first time playing the game I really got sucked into the story. The story itself is not that complicated, super villains breaking out of a high tech prison and spiderman to the rescue. But it does draw you right into the action. There is no moment of rest and after each level section a nice cut-scene full with spiderman and his remarks. What more do you want? Fighting the lower bad guys are fun as in spiderman automatically use combo’s if you tap the buttons in a certain order. Like three times the punch button or three times the web button. But you can also mix them up for more spidey action, discovered one where you tap the web button once followed by hitting the punch button a couple of times. Or air battles my highest is a 114 hit combo without touching the ground.

The other fun on interesting thing is the spider sense. You get a warning when spiderman is about to be attacked by someone and all you have to do is tap the spider sense button and spiderman will avoid the attack plus make a counter. This feature really makes me feel like spiderman when playing the game. So this is how the spidey sense works….so cool and so much more fun. I think this will make an interesting replay challenge to  beat the game with out being hit by anyone. Further more there or other challenges trying to get the gold spiderman statues for each level, collect the comic artworks, take spiderman action photo’s or beat the bosses as fast as possible.

An other nice thing to notice is when you finish the game and read through the credits…yes all Asians. As an Asian myself I was kinda out of words when I notice this. The idea that most of the game design and artwork is done by asian people is refreshing. Then there is that side note: spiderman is an american super hero…right?

There is one bad thing in this game though at some point in some levels the jumping and distance isn’t that clear. And having spiderman fall down in the abyss every time…is kinda frustrating. WTF I AM SPIDERMAN…..why can’t I jump…..that’s what I thought when falling for the fifth or even more when trying to reach a certain point in the game. Okey there is one more other thing: the goblin doesn’t look like the goblin.

But beside this… a real gem. I can’t wait for the iPad version.

Recovered old blog, first time with iPad.

Wow…..just wow. That’s all I can say for now. The reason for this is: I’ve got an iPad. Yes I really do got one. It’s really is amazing.
Like I just finished watching the movie “UP”. I haven’t seen it yet, but it was amazing. Using the word “amazing” again. Anyway I watched it in my room with all the lights turned off and with my headphones on…..and wow. With the big and bright screen……it was just like my first experience in the movie theater.

Okay the story was good and it really hit a sensitive point/part in me. Beginning with the meeting of your special someone. It was nice. Oh the good part was seeing them life their  lives in those few minutes. It really did something with me. Like me feeling how it must feel,
the happiness…
the togetherness…
the hope…. Growing old together and then…. the sad part…. The passing away of “Ellie”.
 I don’t know what I would have done in the shoes of him. But think it would be like living on with my life. Feeling sad. Thinking about her and just talk to her. Just to talk to her for the sake of keeping her memory alive.
I think it was a brave thing to decide to pack all the thing up and go for the adventure. To go for fulfilling the promise of putting their house at that place. Forgot the name. Niagara Falls? 
The nicest part and the part were I almost started to cry. Ehmm no not cry but did shed a tear was when he finally got the house there and he sitting in his chair and next to him the empty chair of “Ellie”. Like I almost could feel her presence there and when he looked through the book plus the music starting to play. That gentle sound…..those flashback of their life. Those were the adventures that she treasured most. And when he realized that….that was just an amazing touchy moment. For me …..so thinking about it now. I really liked the movie.

And I’m thankful for my iPad for giving me the opportunity to see the movie this way. I like the design and easiness, it’s just…wow. I really got the feeling that I was in the movie and experiencing the adventure. The ups and the downs.
Like in a movie theater there is a big screen and all, but that still doesn’t give me feeling of: me and just the movie. Because your never alone in the theater. Always distractions. But this is a new and cool experience. Me alone, in bed, lights off, sitting comfortable, warm blanket and a movie with the iPad….amazing!