A few weeks ago, with the help of my friend Tony, I started to get interested in the new MMO, Age of Conan. Since it wasn’t out yet, I decided to start re-reading the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. I first got a used copy of the Ace Fantasy “Conan”, which features some great stories, including The Tower of the Elephant and The Thing in the Crypt. The beginning of the movie Conan the Barbarian, where Conan is being chased by wolves, then falls into the cave and finds the sword, is loosely based on The Thing in the Crypt. The original story is much better, of course, since (spoiler alert!) Conan not only finds the sword, but the skeleton of the sword’s previous owner comes to life and he and Conan have a classic fight scene. I haven’t read all the stories in this paperback, but keep it in my camera bag for times when I have a few free moments.
Last week I picked up The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, which is a larger compilation of early Conan stories, written by Robert E. Howard himself. Many Conan stories were written by other Fantasy authors, and supposedly many of them were pretty bad, so I felt good reading these original stories. Howard’s writing is straightforward and refreshing, getting right to the meat of the stories. And the stories are great! There’s tons of action, of course, but the settings and characters are so fantastic. The world that Conan lives in is brutal and savage, filled with warriors, thieves, and sorcerers, all wanting wealth and power. Conan is no different. In some stories, he is a simple thief, in others he is a fugitive, and in others, he is King Conan of Aquilonia. The stories are not in chronological order, and Howard didn’t write them as a Conan biography. He wrote them in the same manner as someone would retell parts of his or her own life, taking stories from here and there. It’s actually pretty cool to read them in this way. Although Conan’s status changes, his basic outlook and determination is constant.
Now that the Age of Conan game is out, we have been playing it a bit, and I think it is a great MMO. The graphics are really awesome! A nice change from the cartoony WoW style (which I like too). I have just left the starter town of Tortage, and traveled to the cities of Old Tarantia and Khemi. They really capture the feeling of the books. I read that the people who created the game did a lot of research into the Conan stories, and it really shows. I had read a passage the other night about how the city of Khemi looks, and when I visited the game version, it was spot on. Besides the overall atmosphere, the combat in the game matches the brutality of the books. Age of Conan is the first major MMO to receive an M (mature) rating, for its gore and nudity. There really is a lot of blood being spilled in combat, and occasionally your character will pull of a “fatality” move, where your opponent dies a fantastic death, sometime with his head flying off. It’s really kind of cool. (There is a setting to turn off the excessive gore and nudity, if you want) My main character is a ranger, whose main ability is archery, but also has some cool melee skills. It’s a really good game, but of course as an MMO, you gotta be careful not to play too much!
By the way, I am a huge fan of the first Conan movie, which I feel is a classic. It also captured the feel of the Robert E. Howard stories quite well. One thing that I noticed is that the archery in the game feels very much like Subotai’s archery in the movie. I like that.
If you are into Fantasy novels at all, I totally recommend picking up a Conan paperback. It may seem a little cliché, but Conan is one of the true originals of the genre. It’s kind a strange to think that these stories were written back in the 1930’s because they are still so fresh! And Robert E. Howard lived in the Hill Country of Texas, by the way. In fact, his vision of Cimmeria (Conan’s homeland) was largely based off of the Hill Country landscape. The biggest difference is that Conan’s Cimmeria was frozen, while the Texas Hill Country gets super-hot!
We got Mario Kart for the Wii a few days ago and have been having a blast playing. It’s so much fun. The online portion is the best part of the game for me. It’s cool to be racing against people from all over the world. I’d still learning how to race better, but it’s still a blast even when I lose. We’ve been using the special wheel to control the cars and motorcycles, but I did use the old Wavebird when we had a 4-person multiplayer race going. It seemed a bit easier, but you don’t get the cool (at least I think it’s cool) wheel icon next to your screen name if you don’t use the wheel.
Mario Kart Wii has a lot of different vehicles to choose from. There are carts, souped up racers, dirt bikes, sport bikes, scooters, choppers, even stroller-cars! It’s so fun to race using different cars. The animations are really neat too. For instance, when you throw an item out of the stroller-car, the top canopy opens up and the shell flies out. Also, when you do a mid-air trick while on the bike, he does a moto-x style move. I tend to use the motorcycles more than the cars because the drifting animation is awesome-looking. Especially the Sugar Scooter, which looks like a modified Vespa. It’s very cool. And the racing outfits of the motorbike riders are really neat. I mean, look how cool Peach looks in racing leathers in the graphic above!
Mariko was telling me a couple neat things about Mario games that I didn’t know before. First, the name “Luigi” is the same as the Japanese word “ruiji” which means “similar”, which is a nice pun since he is similar to Mario. And secondly, by combining the name “Mario” and the Japanese word for bad, “warui”, the character Wario was born.
Mario Kart is really a great game, especially playing against others either online or multi-player. I definitely recommend this if you have a Wii. If anyone wants to exchange Mario Kart or Wii friend codes, just drop me a line! (barron @ the url of this site)
I have been playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village on my DS for the past day, and I am totally into it. I have completed 18 puzzles so far, out of a total of 130. These puzzles are so great. They are basically brainteasers that you grew up with, but presented within the context of a mystery. The combination of plot mixed with puzzles, unique artwork, and great soundtrack (I love the accordion music) make for a wonderful gaming experience. The puzzles themselves are varied in difficulty, but I have been able to solve all of them so far while only receiving one hint. Another plus is that the puzzles aren’t timed (at least so far as I can tell), which makes it a relaxing game. My favorite games for the DS are Animal Crossing, Hotel Dusk, and Trace Memory. Professor Layton jumps to the top of the list for me, and I am glad that there are sequels coming out for it. Another cool feature is that in addition to the 130 puzzles that come with the game, you can download a new puzzle via Nintendo Wi-fi each week. As long as you have your wi-fi set up, the process is painless and easy.
In the game, you follow Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke as they travel to the town of St. Mystere to solve a mystery. Along the way, you pick up smaller quests, and find items that you keep in your inventory. The movement around the town is semi-free form, but actually very guided. If you want to explore the town, Luke will hint that you should be following a different path. I kind of like this approach. I really enjoy the puzzles, but don’t want to be endlessly searching for them around the town. For me, the game mechanic is perfect!
If you are into brainteasers and have a DS, this game is a definite must-have. It’s so awesome.
My copy of Endless Ocean is on its way from Amazon. But, I am searching for a nice scan of the Japanese or Euro version of the game, so I can replace the one on the American version. The Japanese and Euro versions have a really nice, subdued, classy font for the title, but the American version has a loud, in-your-face, “Sea World"-type font, and the silly tagline, “Dive. Discover. Dream.” Awful! If anyone can scan their Japanese of Euro cover art and send to me, I would be most appreciative!!!
