How many hours have I spent playing this game? I made two accounts. One has 34.5, the other has logged 33 hours. At some points, I was logged in to both account at the same time. Though I mostly was on them separately. Mainly because this game give you 48 hours of initial game time and you have to pay extra if you go beyond that, so you can see why I wouldn’t want to be on both at the same time.
Specifically 2D story-based games.
I’ll admit. I didn’t want anything to do with Undertale. I had seen the hype on several social media channels, but I kept thinking it was a very niche group of people who were overhyping its value. My boyfriend ended up getting the game during the Steam Winter Sale, and I agreed to play it with him.
It. Is. Amazing.
Recently my boyfriend and I started playing Lovers in a Danger Spacetime!
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect— the game is fairly new and I hadn’t heard about it. But if you’ve got someone to play with, let me tell you: it’s loads of fun!!
What is Lovers? It’s a space shooter made by Toronto-based game developers Asteroid Base. It really tests how you manage your resources in a team. I’ve never played by myself, but that option is available. You’ll get to choose a pet companion who will help you man your spaceship. When playing the local coop version (which is what I did) you and your partner get to pick your own characters and then the adventure begins!
The story is simple and…cute? It’s set in a galaxy where love has always helped the ecosystem prosper. That is until Anti-Love started to take over and spoil everything. You and your partner must navigate through the galaxy, rescuing space-bunnies (who can help you unlock portals to progress to the next level) and restoring love. And of course, communication in your relationship is key.
The entire game is a lot of multitasking and cooperating, and most of the time, you have little time to react to what’s going on around you. For example, at one point when you rescue bunnies, you’re greeted with a bomb. First instinct would be to just set it off and then leave, like with the other bombs in the game. Or you’d think to get your shield up so you can safely deflect it. Turns out that the bomb explodes outwards, creating a radius of green matter that will persistently damage your ship’s health. All you can do is manoeuvre out of that space ASAP!
Personalization is a big part of the game, in which you can collect various gems and upgrades that can be added to your ship’s guns/cannons/shield or engine. These are limited, and you must decide on whether you want to add the metal upgrade to your shield (making it bigger and does damage to enemies crashing into it), or on a gun, making it a giant flailing mace. You most likely will start learning which upgrades you prefer to have on which part of the ship. But after you finish a world (a section of the game), your ship gets refreshed and you start anew!
If you and a buddy’s looking to work on your team working skills, or just have some extra time to burn exploring beautifully created 2D environments, get Lovers. And also set off the Yamato cannon as often as possible. It’s beautiful.
During this year’s Steam summer sale, I surprisingly didn’t get a lot of games. Mostly because I have a long queue of games that I have still yet to play, and that this summer’s free time is significantly less than previous years. I did, however, get Killing Floor 2. And it’s awesome. Gory pics ahead.
If you’ve played the original Killing Floor, a lot of mechanics in 2 will be the same. They still use the arrow guidance system to get you to the trader (except now, the traders are no longer actual human NPCs), you still get to choose your class, and the perks that come with it. But now, it’s so much more satisfying to kill zeds. Be prepared for blood and guts everywhere.
It’s been pretty fun playing 2 player rounds, but playing in bigger groups is better in my opinion. With a bigger group, although it scales to be harder in terms of the monsters you get, you get more sides covered. Also, there’s these really annoying crawlers that forces you to look down at your feet instead of focusing your gun on your usual head level enemies. So every once in a while, you’re realize you’re losing health, and that you have to shoot at that thing at your feet. Really annoying. In a bigger team someone else almost always picks them off you so you don’t have to do that. It’s much easier for them to aim at your feet than for you to switch what you’re looking at to purposely look down.
And OH MY GOSH the stalkers are so annoying. Not even because they’re invisible, but because they feel the need to do crazy kung fu moves in front of you to show off, THEN proceed to bash you on your head.
I may be complaining about these zeds, but honestly I love the game. Don’t get me wrong there. Me hating them makes killing them that much better. Plus, the slow mo shots black and white moments are really cool (but sometimes dumb when it happens at inopportune times and you’re just reloading in slow mo).
This game is early access, but it feels very much complete in terms of gameplay. There’s a few bugs here and there (me, and a teammate from a random game both realized even though we pressed on the button to refill our ammo, our ammo didn’t actually get refilled, so we were screwed for the next wave).
Bad things? Currently, there’s only four campaigns. And one boss, which is that guy up there who’s surviving on pumping Mountain Dew directly into his veins.
– Karen
Hello all,
This post is about a month late, but I went to Emerald City Comic Con 2015! This was my third year, but it was no less exciting. It was the first year where my cosplays required props. I can’t say I enjoyed the experience of lugging around a me-sized bow around the convention floor, but it did add that much more to my cosplay, so maybe it was worth it.
Although we had a 3-day pass, we missed Friday because a few of us had classes and could not get out of school in time to make it to Seattle before 7PM. However, Saturday and Sunday were hectic days of us running from panel, to photo ops, to trying to purchase all the things on our list at the artist alleys and exhibition floor.
I cosplayed Ashe from League of Legends, and my boyfriend did Malzahar! Here’s a random group shot we did with several other League cosplayers (and a random Cloud). It’s always so much fun running into people in the same fandom!
My second cosplay was from the adult cartoon Archer. I was Dr. Krieger’s Virtual Girlfriend, and of course, my boyfriend was Krieger.
The best part of the cons are usually what I physically take away with me in terms of merchandise. Vancouver sucks at selling geeky, fandom-related mercy, so I have to go on a spree every time conventions come around.
I also got several of my comics/graphic novels signed! Joëlle Jones was there to do signings at Darkhorse for Lady Killer, and Bill Willingham signed my Fables stuff! He also recognized our cosplay from Archer, and told us how he met the main character’s voice actor not too long ago. Kelly Sue Deconnick was super nice, and always had a line up. I managed to snap a photo with her!
I guess one of the biggest things for me this year was taking a picture with the legend himself: Stan Lee!
I really wish I took the picture with my normal hair, but my cosplay for the day would not have worked. In the end, I decided to just go with the pink wig, which looks out of place. BUT oh well, Stan Lee!!
Next year, ECCC is going to be a 4-day con! I really hope my schedule works out so that I can go again 🙂
– Karen
