Wah!

What are we going to do on the bed?

HEREEEEE'S JONNY

You thought I was DEAD, did you?
Well I'm back. And there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME
I promised a lot before I left this scene, but here's my strong promise that these will be done before the week is out-
A Review for my sexy monitor
A review for the components of my sexy gaming computer
A review for the HTC HD7
Reviews of-
Shogun 2 Total War
CosmicBreak

If anyone at all still follows me regularly, I apologize profusely, on all fours, and hope you look forward to these long await reviews!

Also, if any of you, anyone at all, has spare money, please wire some to our bros in Japan.

Thanks-
SolemnStargazer

Halloween and a Shitty Sig!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEK!
Yeah, that's a crappy signature, I know.
Greetings from CG120, the worst class in the world.
We just started on photoshop today and I feel like I'm in a class full of returds (except you, Langston.)
Then again, my shoppin' skills have rotted away with the year I've been away from the scene.
My good stuff is somewhere on the internet, I promise.
OH! And for you poor blokes waiting on my monitor review, sorry, sorry, it's trapped on my home desktop, so wait for that.
Also, Langston, your Pikachu is shit. Loveya bro <3

It's been a while...

HOLY CARP!
Sorry about the slight break guys, I've been busy as of late. But consider this post a reboot of this blog, which will now pretty much host anything and everything I feel like. Yes, the monitor review is incoming!

FGSFDS

So, my Asus monitor came in today. It was beautiful. It was light. It was sleek. It was... DEFECTIVE. Yeah, nothing I didn't kind of expect, but it was shipped with a stuck pixel. I did a screen flasher for about an hour, to no avail. So, I've decided to just return the monitor for a replacement, which, if I'm damn lucky, should come in on Saturday. Well, at least I got to try it. I'll tell you all right now, it's a DAMN AMAZING monitor. It looks like a piece of art, plays like a piece of art, and has a sleek interface. The menus is a bit hard to use, but hey, it looks damn beautiful.

So consider this my temporary review for the monitor.
I still highly recommend purchasing it (Asus MS238H), and doing it through Amazon, as their customer service is THE BEST I've yet encountered anywhere.
I'll put the full review up as soon as I get a non defective product.
Thanks for your patience guys!

Also, much thanks to Thoraxz for accompanying me in the set up and for removing all my wires on my desk.

UPDATE
Amazon has ALREADY processed a replacement order! So I will most definitely do a comprehensive monitor review on Saturday night, along with a few game reviews! Look forward to it!

YAYIFICATIONS!

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale

Developed by: EasyGameStation
Localized by Carpe Fulgur
Released: 9/10/10
Systems: PC
Genre: RPG

As the title implies, this game tells the tale of an item shop. Our heroine, Recette Lemongrass, is essentially pressed into service by a fairy named Tear. Recette must work off a debt that her father has incurred through his failed adventures and attempts at making it big. As Recette, you run your shop as you like it. Buy your stock wholesale and sell them at a markup, or hire one of several adventurers seek your goods in the depths of a challenging dungeon. Your shop, your goods, your methods- all things for you to play with. But mind the weekly debt, or you’ll soon end up in naught but a cardboard box!

Gameplay and Control: 4/5

Extremely, and I mean, EXTREMELY ADDICTING.

This is a game that when you initially pick up, you’ll be hard pressed to put it down (I’ve had many a late night and a tired morning at the campus thanks to this game). The concept is simple enough. Buy low, sell high, or adventure around, collect items, and sell them for 100% profit. Managing your shop is easy, and general gameplay is a quick learn. Unlike most economic based games, this has little/no learning curve, though play strategy can take a week or so in-game to figure out. Market fluctuations add some depth to the buy/sell aspect, as it forces you to think if you should gamble on buying a lot of a certain good during a price drop and hope that the good’s price normalizes before you need to pay back part of your father’s loan.

Controls are smooth and simple. Actions are mapped to Z, X, C, V, ESC, and the arrow keys. Of course, you could customize it, should your hands prefer a different layout (the writer of this review’s Second Opinion has custom mapped keys. Weirdo.)

Graphics 3/5

First and foremost, this game is not trying to be innovative with graphics at all. If anything, it’s a throwback to the top-down RPG’s of old. Despite that, everything is draped with color, and there’s not a single dull shot in the game.

Many of the dungeons are simply copy-pasted rooms (if you look closely you can actually see the dividing line between some of the templates). It’s nothing you wouldn’t expect of a relatively low-budget game. The usual clusterfuck of enemies is enough to keep you on your toes and your eyes off the repeating walls behind you.

2D sprites will be what they are. 2D sprites. For a game like this, they’re pretty well made, with animation fluid enough to tell what each is doing. Clearly, there wasn’t much attention given to the enemy sprites, as most of them are palette swaps of the weakest version.

The character sprites themselves are of a bumper quality, each character receiving specific attention. Recette receives major treatment, with many subtle animations you’ll hardly ever recognize, especially during the management of your shop.

Sound: 2/5

Typical top-down RPG fare. The music can get a bit monotonous at times, especially when you’re grinding out a dungeon for all its worth (which could probably run you 10 minutes towards the tougher dungeons). I play with the music off for the most part. There’s minimal character voicing, and the speech that is there goes completely untranslated. Which is great, since a translation would completely butcher the gaming experience. ‘Nuff said.

Story and Characters 3/5

Well, let’s be honest. The story is about as deep as the kiddie pool… when it’s DRY. You’re a girl who’s dad owes a large debt, and you pay it through a shop you open. Simple as that.

The characters are pretty well made, designed, and thought out.

You’ve got a few clichés, of course: =AVAST, MILD SPOILERS BE AHEAD, MATEY=

Airheaded Heroine: Recette

Tsundere Partner: Tear

The rookie adventurer who becomes bosom pals with our heroine: Louie

Runaway Princess Thief: Charme

Polite Young Lady: Nagi

Tough guy with a heart: Elan

Kindly Elf: Tielle

Grim and Mean Assassin: Griff

Scamming Merchant: Euria

Quiet RoboFriend: Arma

Conceited Mage: Caillou

FINAL JUDGEMENT: 3.5/5

All in all, this was a very enjoyable game for me. It’s good to see that there are games that stress fun over achievements, graphics, or general ePeen wagging still. I’d definitely recommend this game to any of my readers, even if you’ve got a problem with the art style. It’s cute, get over it.

Well, that’s that.

Thanks for reading! Expect another review soon!

I'd like to dedicate this review to the following people: Langston, Elizabeth, Thoraxz, and Psytemplar. Thanks for your support guys, I love you all!

WHY THE HELL IS EVERYBODY SICK?

I've noticed something. Everyone's getting sick. I feel a bit under the weather, a good chunk of my friends are out, my sister was sick over the weekend...

http://www.itstartswiththeflu.com/

Then I remembered this. I'm not one for conspiracies or end-of-the-world things (besides zombies, of course), but this came to mind.

What the hell. Is going on.