A few words on the Gas Passer

Out of the four new Pyro weapons added, the Gas Passer is probably the least-talked-about of the bunch. The Dragon’s Fury is a new primary that works differently from other flamethrowers and is a pretty good DM weapon, with cries of it being OP spreading across the forums like wildfire when it first appeared. The Thermal Thruster is a freaking jetpack that grant Pyros unprecedented mobility for the class. The Hot Hand is now the #1 joke weapon of the game, and in a good way. Running around slapping people and dashing off with the speed boost makes it a… [Continue Reading]

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Ōkami, Last Scroll

Despite the game being one of the most highly-rated games of all time, it didn’t do too well in terms of sales. Clover Studio, the group behind this game, was dissolved. The Wii port, which is what I played, was done by Ready at Dawn Studios. It was almost a whole year after I beat the game when I heard about Ōkami’s original ending credits, which Capcom had decided to cut out from the Wii port. The reason, from what I gathered, is due to legal constraints. Which is complete nonsense since the HD remake on the PS3 has the credits… [Continue Reading]

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Ōkami, Third Scroll – Playing God

The land of Nippon, lovingly depicted in Ōkami’s sumi-e-inspired artstyle, is the backdrop for the events of the game. There are puzzles, collectibles, people and levitating Demon Scrolls for Amaterasu to interact with. Her main method of interaction, aside from headbutting people, is with the Celestial Brush. The Celestial Brush is a collection of skills that Amaterasu sought after throughout the story, fragments of her divine self that was splintered off from her presence when Shiranui died. The techniques, taking the form of divine gods, hid among the heavens as constellations waiting to be summoned and to aid Amaterasu. When you… [Continue Reading]

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Ōkami, Second Scroll – People of Note

The characters of Ōkami, major or minor, deserves a mention for how they’re written. Below are a few characters that I like to talk about. As usual, spoilers ahead. Last chapter, I talked at length about Susano’s growth throughout the first arc. But I feel that I need to make a note here about Kushi. She displayed a strength of character that was not present in what people expect of damsels in distress. She sacrificed herself to save her village, but she also held out hope that she can survive and tried to do her part to fight Orochi. Having lost her… [Continue Reading]

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Ōkami, First Scroll – Tales and Legends

The first game I ever played to completion was Ōkami on the Wii, and it was one of the best experiences I had. It was fantastic throughout, and I enjoyed it a lot. Amaterasu the wolf god and his companion, Issun the one-inch-tall artist, brought me much emotion and fun as I roam the land of Nippon.  By the way, there will be spoilers in this article. I mean, I am discussing my favourite part of the game’s plot here. Also, this game was released in 2006, so cut me some slack. Ōkami is one of the best games I… [Continue Reading]

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The New Eviction Notice

I once talked about the old Eviction Notice and how I used it. And below were the stats before the Jungle Inferno update: And after the Jungle Inferno update, here are the new stats: The “20% damage vulnerability on wearer” stat has been swapped for “maximum health is drained while item is active”. Right now, having it active will drain 5 Hp per second out of your maximum health. Holstering it will let you regain your maximum health at the same rate. The fact that your maximum health is being drained rather than you taking 5 Hp of damage per… [Continue Reading]

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Dog of the Machine

Despite me loving cosmetics so very, very much, I’ve never been much of a fan about cosmetic sets. Part of the joy of cosmetics for me is coming out with my own sets that I like and uniquely represents me. However, there is one particular set that I personally love, and it just so happens to be a Halloween set. Tremble, humans, as the Canis Ex Machina roams among you all. Added during Scream Fortress 2014, the Canis Ex Machina is a reference to the series of infamous Soviet experiments, Эксперименты по оживлению организма (Experiments in the Revival of Organisms). The… [Continue Reading]

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Tea Talk: The mortality of emulation

No, I didn’t misspell “morality”. Some people are probably wondering why this is a topic. After all, since emulation is just running a bunch of code, wouldn’t that just be an issue of storing the code somewhere? As long as one copy of the code survives in this world, it’ll be good right? Games are immortal since as long as there’s one copy left, the game lives. However, having one copy surviving is an issue. If there is really only one copy left, if anything happens to that hard drive that stores the game, that game is dead. Gone. Nothing… [Continue Reading]

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Tea Talk: Valve’s flat company structure

Valve’s flat company structure is rather well-known among gamers, devs and business people alike. It sounds like a game dev paradise: a salary model based on effort, no man being another man’s boss, ideas allowed to grow and flourish, and you get to pick what you want to work on. It sounds almost like Andrew Ryan’s vision of Rapture. And just like Rapture, things do go wrong. Valve’s customer support is legendarily bad. That isn’t surprising if you think about it. Who in the world will volunteer to do a thankless job answering the mob? For finance-related issues, potential lawsuits… [Continue Reading]

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A plea for the Sharpened Volcano Fragment

The Jungle Inferno update is here. Many rejoiced at the Bottle, Scottish Handshake and Neon Annihilator now breaking on critical hits, or the Righteous Bison and Claidheamh Mòr being restored to their former glory. Meanwhile, I looked through everything, and has yet to find what I hoped to see: a buff for the Sharpened Volcano Fragment. Is it foolish for me to expect a buff for it? Its stats has been the same since it first appeared, and it was just as bad back then as it is now. And this is supposed to be the update that breathes new life into… [Continue Reading]

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