Just Rambling #3 - Post Christmas Talk

Still no snow. There goes my Christmas wish.

My first  pixel art.

I've recently been obsessed with pixel art for some reason. I mean, isn't just so cool how a lot of little squares can make up a picture? Here's one that I've started out with. I might get involved with PixelPlaza if my obsession continues.

I might also be getting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 soon depending on the price. If so, Decent Gamer will be getting a lot of new content soon!

I'm writing a guide on Decent Gamer right now about Kino der Toten, so if you're interested, pop in there for a bit.

Happy post Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2011!

Merry Christmas world. Hope you all are having a nice night and are spending your time with your loved ones. Remember, once you`re done with Christmas, keep reading my blogs. Today's pageview counts sucks.

There's barely any snow up here, but I guess we don't have to shovel? My grown-up Christmas wish? Dunno. Weird to not have snow at Christmas, but the atmosphere is still definitely the same so it's okay.

Hope you guys are merry and festive!

Just Rambling #2 - Some Fries With That

This is officially my second rambling. Joy? Of course!

So today I visited a McDonalds. To my surprise, the person on the other side of the counter asked if I would like a medium or large Big Mac Sandwich. I'm not sure if this has happened to anyone else, but have you ever been asked if you would like a medium or large Big Mac? Honestly, it's a Big Mac, so unless big came in two different sizes, I have been living under a rock for the past several years.

And then I went to go select a beverage. So let's see. Coke, Diet Coke, Coke-Zero, Pepsi, or Diet Pepsi? Dunno. All the same to me. I'm surprised people make such a big fuss about what kind of cola they want since they all pretty much taste the same. Some people might argue that Coke is better than Pepsi, or Pepsi is better than Coke, but in all honestly, both are made from the same recipes and both are just competing how well they can hide how many calories and chemicals are in one drink.

Man, I'm careful of how many times I eat at McDonalds. Ever since watching Supersize Me, every fast food restaurant scares me. I can't imagine how people can possibly stuff so many Macs down their throats in a month, but it seems humans apparently have large enough mouths to do so. Good thing I live in Canada. Can't Supersize Canadians can you McDonalds?

McDonalds is one of those places I go to unless there is actually nothing else around me. Sure, there might be some Chinese or Indian restaurants around me at all time, but I don't trust restaurants very much at all anyways, so it's one of those things where when I eat at McDonalds, it's like making a deal with the devil. But man, McDonalds actually tastes horrible. You can feel all the processed stuff in your stomach digesting. Harvey's on the other hand is really what all fast food restaurants should taste like. Everything is fresh! Their burgers, lettuce, even fries are fresh! Unfortunately for you Americans and the rest of the world, it's Canada unique. So unless you live in Canada or visiting, it must suck to be you.

And that's my highlight for today I guess. My stomach isn't exactly feeling so good right now…

Just Rambling #1 - Nothing in Particular

Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I even have this blog. Originally, I decided to make this so I can just talk about whatever I want, and I haven't been doing that. So from this day forth, I'm starting a series of "Ramblings" where I can just talk about whatever I feel like.

So Christmas is around the corner. And yeah. Honestly, I think snow has been pretty disappointing this year. I blame it all on global warming of course, but I guess there are more reasonable explanations such as warm air masses moving and something. Whatever. I'm not really complaining, but it feels weird to not see snow at this time of year.

Let's see. Let's talk about the recent Xbox update. I'm loving it quite a lot. I don't care too much for the new layout and theme, though I do enjoy the new "apps" area on my dashboard. Really, I can watch Youtube on my Xbox. How you like them apples, Playstation loyalists?

Talking about Youtube videos, check this out. I've been obsessed with this video. I just love how Russian traditional dances are. These guys make everything seem so easy. When I tried to hop around like that, I fell. And when I tried again, I fell. It was kinda a buzzkill, but eh. I'll practice.

I've also been watching a lot of Zero Punctuation videos. You know, the ones the guy reviewing games that talks really fast and has some sort of accent? Well that's him. Check out that link above here to go watch some of his videos. I found the Halo Wars review pretty funny.

I dunno. I just want to write something I guess. I'm at a point of life where I just want to write like crazy, but I don't really want to write about anything specific, you know? You'll see a lot more of these ramblings in the future. I just wanted to get my, um, feet wet.

Halo Wars is Heavenly

A long time ago, I bought Halo Wars from some used game store. I was freaking out, since I was (and still am) a huge Halo fan, and I never played a real-time strategy game with a touch of Spartans and Covenants.

I popped it into my Xbox's disc tray, and started playing through the campaign. Two things I didn't like right off the bat. Population limit. Expansion limitations.

I grew up playing Command & Conquer games. Firstly, I never played with a population limit (caps the max amount of troops you can have). This bothered me immensely as I love nothing more but to make a horde of troops to just crush my opponents. And secondly, I wasn't use to the expansion mechanics in Halo Wars. In games like Command & Conquer, I've always had to build my base, and continue expanding to make myself even more and more fortified. In Halo Wars, I was stuck with a base that maxed out at seven building spots and four turret placements.

Being immensely disappointed, I returned Halo Wars the next day.

So about a year has passed since then. The other day I talked with my Xbox friend. He offered me Halo Wars in return for another game. I accepted, and we traded games. I guess that after a year, my thoughts for Halo Wars must have changed.

Boy was I right. I've been playing Halo Wars for the past week. It's such an amazing game even though it's two years old now. Beautiful graphics, intelligent and clever game-play mechanics, and simply Halo.

I figure I hadn't played Halo Wars enough when I first got it to appreciate it enough. Halo Wars stands out uniquely among the real-time strategy games out there. I don't really care about population limits at this point, guess time do change hearts. And I finally understood how base expansion works.

Like I said before, a base is limited to seven building spots and four turret spots. I didn't know that in order to expand, I had to attack neutral bases or enemy bases and then by placing another base on there. And that opens up another seven spots and four turret mounts.

Happily content with the game settings now, I delved further into the game-play mechanics. So I found that Halo Wars really focuses on unit upgrades. So say I plop down a Scorpion. I can upgrade it to have canister shells so it can be more effective against infantry. Then I can upgrade it again and make it more combat reactive. And its final upgrade (Sergeant Forge only) upgrades the tank together into a Grizzly tank, a heavy almost invincible UNSC tank.

Halo Wars took another great leap by allowing the player to play as the UNSC or the Covenant forces. What's more is that each faction has three unique heroes that the player can play as. Each hero has their own unique effects and troops. I prefer Anders though, because I just won my first three versus three game online with her about an hour ago.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Halo Wars still has an active gaming community, with at least 3500 players online at all times.

I'll stop raving now. I'll finish off by saying good job Ensemble for making such a good Halo game.

Why Hate Wikipedia?

Wikipedia's front page.

A lot of people bomb Wikipedia by saying it's an unreliable source of information. I say why?

This myth started because Wikipedia is a worldwide collective project. People can come and write pretty much write, edit, and delete anything.

There are and will always be those few annoying people who just come and be a nuisance. But there are, in fact, who truly do contribute to the database.

If you've ever checked the previous edits section, you can see all the edits made to a Wikipedia page. Few know that Wikipedia is intensely moderated by Wikipedia contributors and staff. You might ask how can they monitor millions of web pages at once. I don't know how they do it either, but that's simply how that works.

In a heartbeat, I can search up whatever I want and the chances are there's a relevant Wikipedia page about it. Usually, it doesn't display any junk, and it the information is summarized for everyone's convenience.

And here's the kicker. If you don't trust something on Wikipedia, there are citations that lead you to the source of that information so you can check for yourself.

I don't mind Wikipedia. Not sure why a lot of people don't like Wikipedia. Just throwing it out there, that Wikipedia is a nice place to get information quickly.

Phantom Brave, Best Turn-Based Strategy Game Ever

Nippon Ichi Software honestly makes the best strategy games ever. Of one of their numerous successes, I think Phantom Brave is one that will be forever famous.

Phantom Brave introduces a revolutionary new game-play mechanic. A free grid movement and attacking system. If you haven't noticed yet, pretty much every turn-based game is either one, like Final Fantasy where you tell your guys what to do, or two, moving your characters on a grid. In Phantom Brave, you're allowed to move your guys and objects in pretty much any direction. There is no grid to keep them locked in an area. In fact, certain characteristics of the map might even make you slide or bounce.

Aside from the battle itself, there are numerous other features of Phantom Brave. For one, you can explore and decorate your little island with items you collect or buy. On this island, you can fuse objects or even characters together to make stronger objects.

Here's something you don't find in too many games. Phantom Brave can randomly generate maps to play on. Clearing these randomly generated maps can grant your items and characters bonuses.

If you're a fan of Nippon Ichi Software games, then you'll notice many references to other games made by them, namingly Disgaea. I won't say anything. That's for you to find out.

Although this game was released to North America in 2004, this is truly one of the most unique turn-based strategy games ever made. There is currently a remake for the Nintendo Wii and Playstation Portable. If you're a fan of Nippon Ichi Software or strategy games, Phantom Brave and its remakes are definitely something you would want to check out!