Category Archives: Games

AoM Light Campaign 2-4 Waters of Gloom

The journey continues today with a stock-standard run in with a bunch of heavily armoured green dudes. Judging by how resiliant they were against my team (more on this in a second), it’s fair to say that this is normally a challenging encounter.

But while I was at the home screen, I noticed something. A friend request from someone I don’t know either personally or professionally, but let me tell you this – they probably saved my digital life.

Oh my goodness. I haven’t seen a loophole quite like this since I obtained the summoning bell in Bloodbourne and let all the more experienced players take out my bosses for me. With my ‘friend’s’ level thirty-something Roland, I saved up his attacks for one-hit, one-kills, and pretty much just humoured the rest.

Yes, it was as satisfying as it sounds.

AoM Dark Campaign 1-1 Cold Ash

And so, we kick-off the Dark Campaign, moreso because it was easier to just play the first mission rather than try and extricate myself from the pop-up tutorial dragon who insisted on teaching me how-and-where to play.

The enemies here start off at a bit of a higher level – around Level 14 or so – and the first level really just serves as a bit of an introduction to former Assassin, Sharazar (which immediately makes me think of the Pokemon, Charizard), and his pet raven, Harir.

The level itself wasn’t too complicated – but what I did particularly enjoy was the greater variety of attacks and moves. I didn’t even manage to get through them all in this round as I was too busy just checking out the new attacks – but there’s plenty of time, and plenty of opponents to defeat, so I’ll just persevere.

By the end of the level, you are told you officially ‘unlock’ Sharizar. This might prove useful if there’s a level where you can pick anyone off your roster, but I’m yet to determine how seperate the game keeps light and dark characters. I guess it would be the equivalent of whether there’d ever be a game that sees Yoda and Darth Vader team up to defeat the Wookies.

AoM Light Campaign 2-3 Black Pastures

This was a tricky level as well as the previous, largely due to healing characters. This one introduced an antagonist called an ‘Eraser’, which took health away from my team, and then used it to heal his own team.

I’ve started a new strategy here that involves taking out the weaker enemies first. I figure in turn-based combat it’s better to be facing one full-health bad guy than four mid-health bad guys – after all, their own HP doesn’t necessarily impact on their attack rating, so even an enemy who is still standing – even on only one or two HP – can have devastating consequences if they land a hit.

The story here seems to focus on the pursuit of a staff, and while I’m still kind of maybe trying to get my head around the narrative, it seems that Roland is largely concerned about either getting to a staff before the demons do, or – if they’re referring to the staff he’s holding, then getting it to wherever he needs to quickly and quietly. I suspect there’ll be quite a few levels between now and whenever ‘the destination’ is in sight.

AoM Light Campaign 2-1 Shepherd Stone

And so, we kick off Act 2. What I found interesting about this was that it was only one round – which made for a fairly quick encounter.

That being said, it was a nice warm up for what is to come. Enemies are certainly a ‘touch’ harder here – so this will be a world that is as much about balancing daily rewards and coins (and levelling) with the tactics of the game itself.

Candy Crush Saga 5

First of all – I should note that I have levelled up, which I suppose is nice and all – but considering I spent much of my evening playing Warface on Xbox just so I could get a pretty frame on my Gamertag, it should go without saying that I am probably not going to get too excited about Candy Crush levels until I hit Level 5.

This level was very much another tutorial – merging five gems creates a ‘colour bomb’, but unlike the last level, this one actually had a few to try out during the course of gameplay. The whole ‘wipe-all-the-same-colour-off-the-map’ concept is another one that seems to be tried and true in the merge genre, and here it is in its full origins tale glory.

Candy Crush Saga 4

Level 4 seems to be more tutorial, considering it opens up with an instruction about merging special candies together. Interestingly, other than the first one – I didn’t really find an opportunity to merge candies into special ones beyond this first one. Not that it mattered really, there’s still plenty of points on offer with vanilla merges to clear the level, but it makes for a strange inclusion in the tutorial.

The journey continues …

Candy Crush Saga 3

Target: 4,000.

Result: 48k.

I think it’s fair to say that Level 3 of Candy Crush is more about giving you that little serotonin hit that comes from winning. It’s also a word that Charlie Sheen likes to drop, so I’m almost certain that I’m destined to inherit a fortune and take my place as his consigliere.

#winning

In all honesty, this was an easy one – people who need that payoff from a level well-played aren’t going to leave the party unhappy.

Que Sera Sera.

Candy Crush Saga 2

The journey continues.

Nothing particularly wild or fantastic on this level – more a lesson about what happens when you get four-or-more candies in a row. Pretty much like any other in-a-row puzzle game ever I suppose – though considering Candy Crush Saga pretty much pioneered the concept, you’ve got to let them have it I guess.

No significant revelations to be had here – it’s a quick and dirty level for the beginner Candy Crusher.

Candy Crush Saga 1

Oh no. Oh no! It’s finally happened. After managing to resist what I originally considered to be the monstrosity of the iPhone Generation, I have finally succumbed and commenced playing Candy Crush Saga.

I suppose you’re asking why, and many of you will judge me incessantly of course, don’t worry – I consider myself a bit of a hypocrite as well – particularly seen as I used to mock people who played. Hell, I even had to unblock Candy Crush from using my Facebook login just so I could save my progress. But, my motivation for playing Candy Crush Saga is it offers a gaming opportunity for me to start from the beginning of, and reflect on, something that very much defined the renaissance of mobile gaming.

We’ve come a long way in mobile games in such a short space of time, and it seems like they are poised for another ‘great leap forward’ – with cloud-based gaming (‘streaming’), subscription services and cross-play between once-competing services now no longer a pipe dream, but reality.

And so, I think now there’s room in life for the simplicity offered by Candy Crush Saga.

Over the next few days/weeks/months, I plan on playing the first one hundred levels of Candy Crush Saga and documenting the experience. I suspect there will be a range of frustrations and moments of triumph in such a journey – as there are in most well designed games – and it will be my job to make them interesting to read.

With level one complete, that journey has already started!

AoM Light Campaign 1-15 Fallen Lord

One of my favourite enemies in the game God of War is the Ancients, which are essentially creatures not dissimilar to this level’s ‘Last Guardian.’ He’s big and he has some sort of elemental vibe, but at the end of the day, he’s killable, just like anyone else.

With the battle all said and done, I reached the ending of Act I! Recognised by a delightful little spiel and some goodies to unlock with my new found wealth.

And so, our journey continues. Onward and upward to Act II!