Suuuper Meeaat Booooy! :D

I finally got round to buying Super Meat Boy. They told me the game was hard, I didn't listen. The videos SHOWED me the game was hard, I didn't listen. After all, it couldn't be that hard. How very naive of me.

This game is BALLS hard.



The point of the game is to save Meat Boy's girlfriend, Bandage Girl. She's constantly being kidnapped by the games antagonist, Dr. Fetus who apparently puts Meat Boy through countless gory deaths just because he has no friends.

There are no lives in this game. You die, the level at hand is reset. All progress within the level is lost, forcing you to complete each level in one take. On harder levels Meat Boy will die a lot, patience will wither and you will probably rage quit, time and time again. The only thing more likely to cause your fingers to bleed than a hard level, is the challenge of retrieving its level specific bandage. Bandages are used to unlock new characters each with their own powers, making your life a little easier but putting you through a lot of pain first.

It's not often I get stuck on the second section of a game. SMB has me struggling so soon though. The second boss, cutesy as he looks, is a soul-destroying invoker of frustration. This really isn't as easy as it looks:


Meet the cause of my agony, CHAD.

The greatest reward to mastering levels that hard? Going back to older levels and flying through. This game can provide amazing amounts of bragging rights, providing you don't give up first. Seeing the look on your friends face as you speed through boss levels in one take is hard to beat.

SMB may sound like a pain in the ass, it is, but that's how it's meant to be. Is it worth the (countless amounts of) blood, sweat and tears? Yes. Very much yes. It's a solid platformer with tight controls, plenty of humour value and a lovely graphical style. With more updates on the way, including a community friendly level editor, Super Meat Boy still has plenty more to offer than it already does.

Buy it, play it, love it and then hate it. Put your friends' skills to shame and then love it again. Definitely worth a look.

They say revenge is best served cold, so it's useless to bother with these guys.

Funny thing happened the other night. I've been writing essays solid for a week, usually working until the early hours in the morning. Night before last I was in a world of my own, it was about 6 in the morning and something dragged me out of concentration. I could hear an ice cream van....at 6 in the morning!? Anyway, a few hours passed, there were no more ice cream disturbances and I finished the essay. Before going to bed, I noticed a police van over the other side of the road. "Funny place to eat your breakfast.." I thought jokingly, "Maybe they're here for the early morning ice cream." Little did I know quite how right I was.

Turned out the ice cream van was a little more suspect than I had first thought. The house next door had been burgled at about 6 in the morning, hence the police van. Luckily the house next door is a day cay centre, so there was next to nothing to take. Still, it's weird to think you could be naively laughing about ice cream whilst a crime is happening only a few feet away.

"PIE FLAVOUR!"

That's Cool

Pun Intended.

Seriously though, how does anyone realise they can do this? Yet alone get this good:

Image found at epiwinftw.com




On a side note, I thought this was wonderful:

Weebl's Stuff is really worth checking out. URL: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/

Happy New Year!

And what a year 2011 is shaping up to be. Deus Ex 3, Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, Total War: Shogun 2, the list of exciting releases goes on. There is one game off most radars which I feel is worth mentioning though. This intriguing title would be the upcoming Age of Empires instalment.



Age of Empires: Online takes the AoE series in a whole new direction in many ways, the art style being one of the more drastic changes. Being much more 'cartoony' in style, I (stupidly) cast the title aside, automatically assuming the worst. I recently visited a friend who managed to grab a space on the beta early on. 5 minutes in I was hooked.

This is shaping up to be a very strong entry in the series. The home town from AoE 3 returns, this time however it acts as a permanent base of operations. Income from the home town is gained even if the player is not playing, this income can then be used to increase productivity, customise the town or buy upgrades to aid in quests. The home town also supplies quests, challenges and ways to communicate with other players. Seamlessly connecting both single player and online play, the game allows you to ask for a friends help or challenge another player.

Everything from my presumptions about gameplay to views on the art style was wrong. The game is a delight to play and looks damn pretty too. Definitely worth signing up for the beta (link below) and if it stays on the right tracks, worth your money too.

Sign up for the beta at THIS address:
http://www.ageofempiresonline.com/beta/

What a surprise..

My lovely new phone is already busted. FOUR DAYS. Basically fried whilst it was idle. Brilliant. This has to be my fifth phone to go this year. The previous phones have died of old age, been stolen, one even died after a sadistic moron decided that forcing and holding me underwater was a good party trick (The oaf destroyed almost everything I was holding on my person). At least those were mainly castoffs or relics.

Never before has a phone died on me indoors, dry and in a state of rest. The only sign was a significant slow down in performance before it was put on standby. Thinking this was nothing but a little performance issue, I put the phone away and went to bed. By the morning it was gone. An error screen welcomed me, ordering that I reboot the device. Cue reboot, enter error screen, begin nightmarish cycle. I liked this phone too, time to see if I can get it replaced.

Screw you, Error 603!


At least someone is sharing my technology woes:

Pretty similar reaction to the situation too.

Bake a cake.

Not a lot of writing today, I'm in a bit of a hurry. Thought this needed sharing though. It's a remix of 'Cooking by the Book' from LazyTown and something crude from Lil' John. The result is nothing short of hilarious.

Warning. Contains stong language.