Ragnarok Online

This is a very old MMORPG made by the Korean company Gravity. It was released in 2002 and is still played by people worldwide although its popularity is decreasing due to various reasons. It also became pretty much free to play, except the VIP servers. This is an MMO that I spent the most time on and will probably spend more since I never get bored of it. That's why I just couldn't resist but writing a review of it :]

Setting
The world of Ragnarok takes place in a medieval world with a lot of futuristic elements and mainly borrows from Norse mythology. There are many interesting quests that will keep you occupied. Either defreezing a wizard in an ice dungeon, freeing a girl in Thor's volcano or even unraveling the mysteries of a village full of ghosts, are only some of the quests available to you. However, since it is an old game there are still bugs in some quests and you'll find yourself at a loss since you don't get an explicit quest to-do list like in most MMO's, but instead you have to talk to NPCs (non-player characters) to get more information every time. For the lazy people, there are plenty of guides and walkthroughs out there for RO quests so don't let this discourage you.

You can see the choppy graphics and the fake 3D easily here.

Improve Your Gaming

Although this is a game review blog, I think that any gamer needs to keep their computer in top notch shape to get the best out of their games and avoid lag which reduces gaming time :] By this I'm talking about software maintenance and hardware maintenance. Some of these tips may be pretty obvious but some may be new and really helpful even to veteran gamers, so let me know what you think in the comments below.

Hardware

1. Remove the dust accumulated in your computer. It traps heat and prevents air circulation. And it is very important to keep things cool in your computer. You can use an air spraycan (sold in most computer component stores) or just blow it off (close your eyes when you do it). It's not as complicated as it sounds. In the worst case, you'll need to unscrew some screws to open the case, but some more advanced cases have fine nets that trap the dust, which can be easily removed without unscrewing anything (like my case). I recommend doing this once a month but it can vary from one PC to another.

2. Clean your CDs. If you play games from a CD (which is rather uncommon nowadays) or actively use CDs/DVDs/BluRay for burning/movies/etc, you might get corrupted files and your movies might skip if your CD is dirty. The best way is to clean with tissue paper and alcohol by rubbing OUTWARDS (radially) from the center to the edges of the CD. This way, there is less chance of damaging the CD. If you're planning to buy a CD cleaner device, do your research as some of them are less effective than others. Clean your CDs when they are noticeably dirty or have fingerprints on them.

StepMania

Since I'm still not finished with SC2, I will do a quick review of a small PC game I'm quite fond of, StepMania. This a free rhythm game available for download here. If you're not familiar, it's pretty much Dance Dance Revolution for your computer, and if you're not familiar with DDR, shame on you.

This is ironically a good game for casual gamers. There are many difficulty levels so new players can get the hang of it. It is also easy to acquire and start playing. Since there is no "game progress" or "endgame" like in most video games, people usually only play it for fun and/or to waste some time. It does not mean you can't get addicted to it though :]

Set up
Downloading the game alone is not enough to play. You also need to get some songs for it. There are various places where you can find them and you can even buy a CD from the website if you're interested. You can play with your keyboard or, for the advanced players, you can buy and install an actual pad and play it like real DDR. It is recommended to have a PC with decent specs, since lag will definitely make you lose in this game. WARNING: If you DO get a pad, do not drink and play this game. For some reason these two really don't go well together. I've witnessed some incidents where people seemed at least two times more drunk than they should because they played DDR while drinking. It was freaking hilarious though.

Stuff

Sorry that I haven't posted any reviews lately, but that's because I've been playing and doing lots of IRL stuff too. But if you're interested, here's the progress I made lately:

-18 finished missions in SC2 on normal difficulty, fun so far, didn't try multiplayer though.

-Started Crysis 2 on hard before the end of polls and now kind of stopped somewhere halfway through the game. I was sure it was going to be one of the top voted games but now I kind of feel bad playing it if I'm not reviewing it :S

-Barely started The Witcher 2 on normal difficulty and damn it's easy to die in this game. Well, better than being too easy :]

-Been playing Tetris Battle on Facebook since it's just so addicting.

-Watched second season of The Big Bang Theory and half of Samurai Champloo (really funny anime, I recommend).

Also, please note that I won't be able to post reviews as often as when I started, since I'm going to be more busy IRL and I've run out of reviewable games I finished lately. Don't worry, I'll still be around and let you guys know what's happening. Cheers.

League of Legends

League of Legends is a free to play multiplayer game brought to you by Riot. It is one of few games that belong to a genre that is very new to the world of video games: DotA style.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, DotA (long for Defense of the Ancients) is a special scenario from the real time strategy game Warcraft III, where the player's goal is to defeat the enemy's "ancient" in the other corner of the map with the help of his champion and AI-controlled small helpers. So what happened is that avid DotA players realized how fun this scenario is and many of them decided to branch out and make new similar games, and eventually this movement evolved into something more than just a sub-genre of RTS games.

Now I'm not a pro DotA or LoL player, but I believe that I played enough of LoL to get a good image and understanding of this game, but by no means is this an in-depth review. Also, due to the nature of the game, I will divide my review into two parts: In-game and Summoner Menu.

Things get really hot when you reach the enemy's camp

Small Update

The vote results are in! I decided to keep the three leading games and review them in the following weeks and in the following order:
Starcraft 2
The Witcher 2
Fable 3

Note that the last two are coming out TODAY on PC and so it will take some time before I get my hands on them and finish them, and only then do my review.

Also, unfortunately I won't be able to do a review of either NDS Zelda game, which I promised I'd do in my Intro post. My DS was broken by my brother and I'm rather short on funds to buy a new one.

"But then, what will you review, Vav?"

Luckily for you, I prepared a little list of old/recent games of various genres that I'm interested in reviewing. Just as there are some old classic books that are worth reading, I believe that some older games are also a must-play and should not be ignored simply because they're old and choppy! (don't worry I won't start reviewing Commodore 64 and Windows 95 games)

Here's the list:
Ragnarok Online
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Borderlands
Stepmania

Notice how these are all very different and not part of a conventional gamer's review list. That's because I'm not a typical gamer :] You might not even have heard of the first and last, but they all hold a special place in my heart and I will show you why.

I'd like to hear what you guys want me to review, so please let me know in the comments! I will put up another voting poll and the most voted games will be reviewed, whether I played them before or not. Just remember, it has to be a PC game!


On a side note, let me express my feelings on Apple in this little picture.

Dragon Age II

This is an RPG game developed by Bioware that's set in the same universe as Dragon Age: Origins and if you have a savefile from Origins you can load it and you will start off at the same level and the same equipment! That was a lie. But it does influence the story in certain ways. Playing Dragon Age II is a very similar experience to the Origins, plus various additions and changes (mostly improvements) so if you liked the previous title of these series, you'll most likely love this one.

Plot
You start off as a human rogue/warrior/mage and you cannot choose another race unfortunately. Now if you played Origins, you will notice a bunch of recurring characters and you will also understand things a little bit more, but it is not necessary to play the prequel to enjoy this game in my opinion. You will always get dialogue choices, which will usually add friendliness or rivalry between you and your comrades, or sometimes will change the outcome of events. There are often some funny options (although they can lead to unexpected results) and you are free to experiment and be a real asshole if you want to - you'll still be the "champion" at the end :]
WARNING: the game might confuse the shit out of you at the beginning, since it's hard to understand the relationship between the separate events and the role of each character in the storyline. Eventually, though, the puzzle pieces come together and you should understand what's happening, so HAVE PATIENCE.