Tuesday 29 January 2013

Undead Slayer Review






Undead Slayer is a free to play iOS and Android game that puts players in the shoes of Ancient China’s most feared zombie slayer Xiahou Dun. He will fight the undead with nothing more than his oversized sword, his special moves and his...combat pets. More after the jump


Sunday 27 January 2013

Insert Coin to Retry: The Overcoming of Failure in Video Games



I still laugh at this picture. 





                                                      "We learn from failure, not from success"
                                                        Bram Stoker, Dracula



GAME OVER, YOU ARE DEAD, YOU HAVE FAILED and YOU HAVE BEEN KILLED are words that we see often, these words are usually colored red and are written in intimidating font. Yes my fellow gamers these are the words of the game over screens that all of us have seen at least once in our lives. However when we play a game there is a part of us that knows that failure will inevitably come biting at our very heels like some sort of rabid dog.

We have encountered (digital) death and failure so often that we tend to shrug it off but not before thinking about the mistakes leading up to our avatars kicking the bucket and then revising our strategies to ensure that the same mistakes will never happen again.

I have decided to go into the macabre topic of video game death and failure and see what motivates us to look at the Digital Grim Reaper in the face and laugh at his efforts to break our morale.



More after the jump, also note that there will be some minor spoilers ahead.


Monday 14 January 2013

Hello Again Madam Strategy, It Has Been A While Hasn't It?





It was the year 2000, it was a cold dark rainy evening much like any other day during the December month in Malaysia. I was alone at home, my parents were out at some function where like minded older folk spoke of topics that I found uninteresting. I chose to stay at home with a friend I met years before, her name was Ms. Strategy and together we conquered the Earth, saved it from alien invaders and Hippos in pink tutus. We were the best of mates until I abandoned her for console gaming and we have been apart for close to a decade but last month we reconciled to save the Earth once again like the old days.

More after the break.