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Audio Game Review - Intro

Posted by max on 20 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Editorials on Videogames

hellsniper1471 has brought up the idea of having game reviews in audio forms. This is something we’d also like to experiment with, and we hope there will be more audio entries of different sorts of topic eventually, including guest reviews.

So check out his introduction, and look forward to his first audio game review that will be released soon.

The XIN RPBs

Posted by Steve on 19 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Life.1 News

THE XIN Role Playing Boards
Public High School #552

Public High School # 259

Hircine High

Mugen Hall

Hallen High

Westbrook Academy

Kazahana page revamped

Posted by max on 18 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Developing Life.1, KAZAHANA, Life.1 News

The old layout was looking very dated and out of place for the overall theme. The update will be marked as version 3.0. The intention of this update is to keep a more simplified and cleaner look, with an easier browsing experience. Some features are trimmed down for the convenience of future updates.

So do check it out (and help us debugging if you run into any mistakes :D).

This game takes more than 5 minutes - Ever 17 - The Out of Infinity

Posted by max on 16 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Editorials on Videogames

Ever 17 - The Out of Infinity
Ah, where to begin? It’s not often I encounter a game like this. No, I retract that. I have NEVER encountered a game like this! Ever17 is hands-down THE best game I have ever played, throwing old favorites out the window as if they were trash from my childhood.

In Ever17, you, for unknown reasons are trapped in an underwater tourist attraction known as “LEMU” with 5 other people. All others have escaped and you 6 must find a way out of LEMU before it’s inevitable implosion. Of course, things are never as easy as they sound.

In the game, you are asked to make many choices, ranging from how you relate to people and who you hang out with to which character you are. Do you decide to play the light-hearted and funny Takeshi, or do you go with the amnesia-stricken, but witty “Kid”? Either way, your choices WILL affect what happens, who gets saved, and develop the other characters’ story lines.

But enough of that. The REAL pull for this game is the emotional and mental strain it puts on both the player and the character. While you’re working out relationships and trying to avoid the “bad ends”, the game decides to not just mess with you, but to completely throw you into disillusion to the point you can’t even think things through logically (and neither can your character, it would seem).

As you go through the game and pieces click together, more fall apart and you know you must play to the end and hope and pray that they explain it all to you in the end.

For me, this game did more than any other game before it. I have gotten teary-eyed at a good storyline before, but I have NEVER had a game make me cry… especially not twice… until now. This game touched my emotionally and then did something unexpected… it touched me personally.

Ever17 made me roll through every emotion I had in me and bottomed me out more times than I’d like to admit. It also made my head split in two multiple times from giving me more and more information that gradually became harder and harder to process to the point of unbelievability.

For that, I give Ever17- The Out of Infinity a five-star rating.

Figurine Talk: Zelda Twilight Princess

Posted by max on 15 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Max Mashing

The man called Link


Premise:
I’m a fan to the series but Twilight Princess is something I haven’t had a chance with. This series of gashapon (capsule) figures was released by Yujin in 2007. The set contains 4 figures: Link, Zelda, Midna, and Zant.

Check out the line up

I was window shopping at this figurine store in Macau, and this particular set caught my eyes among numerous others on the display shelf. The figures stood taller than the rest at around 4″ high. But the details and gadgets were the killer. It was hard to pass on the figure of Link specifically.

Under the restriction of traveling budget and luggage space I spent hours debating which set to buy (obviously didn’t notice time was money). I finally decided to get this set.

Friend T: “Pretty good deal at 8 bucks per figure.”

Me: “It’s 8 bucks for the entire set.”

Then he volunteered to pay for me just so we can move on to our next stop.

The original retail price is around $3 per capsule. They are available around $17 on Asian auction sites.


Product
I wonder why Yujin decided to release this as gashapon rather than box sets. That makes this series of products top notch in terms of gashapon qualities and prices. However, that’s also one fatal problem for this set as each figure is chopped into pieces in order to fit in the capsules. Link and Zant are fine, but Zelda’s skirt and Link Wolf’s rear legs leave an obvious lines of mark. One benefit is obviously parts are movable around those joints. But meh.

I will just assume the designs are exactly following the game designs. Link’s sword and shield stay familiar, and I like the darker tone of green. On top of of the exotic designs the thing that really caught my eyes in the first place are the extreme details. When there are fine patterns on his shield, sword, sword sheath, wrist armor, and even waist bags, that’s indeed a very good sign.

Details good

Really the same great details can be found on the outfits of the rest of the cast. I mean, the writings on the edge of Zelda’s vest basically leaves me with no choice but draw money from my wallet. Helmets of Midna and Zant even have dirty metal textures.

Details details good

Other than Link’s heroic pose, others basically stand there straight up. Zant poses the biggest problem in balance as his figure intends to fall back from time to time if you don’t glue him down. Link’s hat looks as if it’s stuffed with cotton….but maybe it is. There are also some out of place paints on Link’s clothes layers. All in all those are really small complains. The number of the models can probably be expanded, but without playing the game it’s hard to recommend what to be added.


Recommendable Value

I actually broke Zelda’s sword while assembling…. Hooray to super glue

Very refined set, even though there are only four in the set. If you have only heard of Zelda, that already gives you enough excuse to get the Link figure.

For guys who are interested just ebay “zelda princess figure”.

Images jacked from: 01 02

Metal Gear Solid 3 Ownage

Posted by max on 13 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Editorials on Videogames, Max Mashing

Basically toying with everybody with no effort.

Impressive.

Ark Angel: 17 Page Update

Posted by Steve on 12 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Featured Guest Works

Click here for latest news and updates

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