Passionate Gaming

Now I'm hardly the first to kick this ball on the green, hundreds if not thousands of far more capable minds have probably pondered this issue already. I've decided to throw in my thoughts anyway, as recent events has made me think about it more than normally.

People that know me personally, also know that I've never been big on competitive games, unless it's been along with people I actually enjoy spending time with. I've often soffed at the idea at actually putting out the money to play on Xbox Live because of all the reported problems with the service. That being the community. Communities build around and for games can be awesome, I've had some great experiences with the Civilization, Ninja Turtle, and Sonic The Hedgehog communities in particular.

Notice how none of those communities revolved around a fairly competitive game? While I love the Halo games or Team Fortress 2, I've never once considered venturing into their part of the jungle. People on the internet can be mean, sore losers. The crazy thing about it is, none of them are particularily dignified losers either. Now, most readers have probably noticed about now that I've been very judgemental about a group that I actually count amongst. And yes, I'm sad to say that I too can become far too involved in what was originally meant to be simple, time consuming, fun. Of course some of these games doesn't really count as simple fun anymore. Entire companies seems to have dedicated most of their resources to the rise of eSports.

Which brings us to the core of the subject, Why are there more sore losers in online gaming than elsewhere? And it's not limited to FPS's either. Recently, I had the pleasure of moderating a game of Werewolf on Board Game Geek. The whole thread is readable for those interested HERE Take a look at it, I'm actually rather proud of the Flavour text. In any case, one of the players in this game got rather frustrated, to the point of swearing never to play the game online again. I don't have any ill feelings towards the player, Werewolf is a deceivers game and I've always found such games to be best amongst friends. My point was, Werewolf is a board game. It's essentially about talking to people and deducting their roles from the conversation. So why can people be passionate about such a game the same way they would a First Person Shooter? The action isn't immediate, yet it appears to give you a feeling of absolute loss either way.

The most common answer to the question of why people are so angry online is the anonymity. Once you're anonymous, you don't really care about your fellow man. That I find to be wrong, I and several people I know are able to be perfectly friendly towards strangers. I think some people needs to think about what they actually do when they're online. If someone is mean to them, they bring the bad energy into other conversations as a direct result. Give the world a favour instead, if you have a bad day stay out of the public chatrooms. Don't go spamming up a storm in a groupchat in League of Legends just because your teammates might be doing worse than you. I can put myself in your stead, you might see yourself as a decent player, constantly put alongside bad players that you feel lose the game for you. The frustration of feeling you can do much better than that is common, but this is where you should show yourself as a better man/woman and maybe offer friendly advice. And please, word the advice in another way than "Go buy Aegis of The Legion N00b" or "Force of Nature plz". Likewise, if you find yourself constantly being blamed for failure, maybe you should listen to your teammates, don't get mad when somebody offers advice or tells you what would be a good idea or maybe even crucial to buy in a given situation. I've seen tons of players stating "Don't teach me" or "Get out of your moms basement, fag" in those situations. Knowing when you should just shut up, sit down, and be taught can really win the game for you. No matter how much of a champion you might think of yourself, there are always, Always, ALWAYS players that are better than you. And that's despite if you won some kind of tournament.

Sometimes, people just gotta be humble. Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna tell this Newfag Medic how to properly heal a Heavy.

- Later Days.

Minecraft

Trivia: What does Hans do when he's bored off his ass in his summer vacation?

Answer: He makes a skull fortress in Minecraft

In all seriousness though, more games should give you the challenge of "If I make my Skull fortress out of sand with wooden teeth, will that be a reflection of ME or what I do to people that cross me?"

decisions, decisions.

The trained eye will notice I gave it eyebrows. That's how nice of a guy I am. No really.

Minecraft have become one of my new hobbies, much to my friends dismay as I apparently JUST. WON'T. SHUT. UP. ABOUT IT.

My friends love me, I'm sure :D

The thing I like about Minecraft is all the opportunities, one level I've totally flooded and another I've build tall buildings just to reach the sky. This is awesome, and it takes effort. The monsters can be a challenge and finding out what you can do with the materials you find. Making my own personal water-park has become a reality, and so has my skull fortress.

Now if only the game would provide me with 8 robotmasters and an arch nemesis...

In defense of The Boy Wonder

Like any other fan of Batman: Arkham Asylum, I look forward to it's sequel. I haven't really had any complaints about the news about this game until I saw.. This:

Okay granted, That is a VERY cool looking costume and it uses Robins Colors without making them too bright. the staff and hood DOES make him look like a misplaced elemental mage though. That being said, did we forget the purpose of this character?

Batman is one of, if not the most popular superhero character, an excellent line of movies both new and old (with a few exceptions of course) has made Batman stand out in public consciousness perhaps more than anyone else that wears a cape and beats up criminals.

In case anyone forgot, Batman isn't exactly the most witty character around. He's a brooding no-nonsense John Wayne of the night. His parents was shot in front of him, and in return he decided to learn everything he could about the criminal underworld, in order to combat it. A few months later, Robin came along. Robin was a kid, always firing off one-liners and wearing a bright colorful costume. Just as intelligent as his mentor and an accomplished acrobat, Robin became the arche-typal sidekick in the business. Robin was created so that children wouldn't fantasize about being Batman - But rather working beside him. Mostly to make sure they wouldn't start climbing buildings and wearing masks. Understandable.

Robin also had another effect on the Bat, he became happier. Sure he was still dark and brooding and hateful, but Robin was a bright spot in his life. I honestly think that the Robin character completed Batman. Made him something more than a one-dimensional avenger.

Of course, a lot of people doesn't realise this. In the modern world-view, Robin makes Batman look "gay". Mostly because of the internet, and the 1960's TV-series. Oh, and Robin wearing shorts. That could help. But really, aren't you just making Robin ping on your Gay-dar because you kinda WANT them to be gay? You want something to make fun of, plus you kinda wanna fit into the general consensus. After all, if you don't think someone is gay, you MUST be gay. Or well, that could just be me raging at the stupidity of the modern Batman fan. Seriously though, sometimes Batman fans like with any other fanbase can be a bunch of sheep. I've already written in great length elsewhere about my hatred of the Heath Ledger Joker, so I won't go into it here.

In any case, Robin is Batmans happiness. To some extent of course, but I think most people get what I mean by that statement. Of course Batman stories has to be somewhat dark, dark is cool.

But Robin doesn't really need to look like fellow-Teen Titan Raven. Otherwise we could just make Raven Batman's new sidekick.

...

...

...

Let's Not.

(Proof read creds to Sophie & Eric. Sadly, I don't have any links to any stuff they've done)

Review: Deadman Wonderland Season 1

Quick Info:

Title: Deadman Wonderland (デッドマンワンダーランド Deddoman Wandārando)

Written by: Jinsei Kataoka
Illustrations: Kazuma Kondou

Published by: Shõnen Ace
Anime adaptation: Manglobe

Reviewed: Anime version

Liscensing rights: Tokyopop/Funimation

Aired on: Crunchyroll.com

So let's talk Anime, shall we? Deadman Wonderland is one of those ultra-violent, ultra-dark series that comes along once in a while. It starts off with a very bleak tone, and while it may delve into typical Shõnen territory then and again, it manages to keep somewhat fresh. It's based on a actual dead-wood manga, but I've only had the anime available to me (No actual effort was put into tracking down the manga though, the anime version is legally free on Crunchyroll.)

INTRO:

So I sit down in front of my computer, ready to have the usual J-pop insanity thrown at me,

or at the very least some sort of death metal nightmare. Instead I'm treated to a pretty descent little New Metal song, In English no less. The song is best described as akin to Pre-Reanimation Linkin Park, though it lacks rap it's very similar to their normal metal. Listening to it, I can't help but think of songs like Runaway or Papercut. The actual intro video, while very bloody and dark isn't all that visually interesting to look at. It features the most important characters in different kinds of poses, obscured by darkness and bloodsplatter.

PREMISE:

While it may be decently cool, The premise seems mostly like something an angsty teenager would come up with. A high school kid named Ganta Igarashi is somehow spared when all of his classmates are murdered brutally by an entity known as The Red Man. He is blamed for it however, and quickly sentenced to death. He's sent to the privately owned prison/fun fair called Deadman Wonderland. Built in the crater that once was Tokyo, Deadman wonderland is known for putting their inmates out in display as entertainment in a giant theme-park. Ganta quickly gains two friends, a secretive thief named Yõ Takami, and a albino fanservi-I mean happy girl named Shiro. It's also pretty fast established that Ganta has been given a special power to shoot bullets out of his palm. How it works, and why he has it it's too much of a spoiler to reveal here. The characters are cool enough, but the author seems to forget the story is supposed to take place in a high security prison and not a High School sometimes. Because of this, I sometimes feel there's a blur between this and any other High School battle shõnen available.

MAIN CHARACTER:

Ganta Igarashi suffers from the I'm-So-Weak-Phenonemon that's become very popular among authors these days. His personality and even given voice is very similar to Tsuna from Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Sena from Eyeshield 21. Both decent anime in their own right. The voice actress Romi Park, previously the voice of such characters as Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist does a stunning job though. It does make Ganta kind of intolerable in the long run, as these kind of characters lack of confidence tends to take up most of the first couple of story-arcs. All in all a very typical Shõnen hero that struggles to find their place in the world. The other characters, though interesting in their own right, really suffers from being comparable to other manga stereotypes as well. Off the top of my head, The character Crow is similar to Roronoa Zolo from One Piece.

ALL IN ALL:

While nothing groundbreaking or genre-changing it's a pretty good Battle Shõnen. The action is typically epic and like with any other series in the genre it let's you root for the characters and have your blood boil in excitement when the hero saves the day in the end. If series like One Piece (or something similarily popular) were to end tomorrow, Deadman Wonderland would probably be one of the series that the torch would be passed on to.

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The Power is YOURS

As you may recall, I was very disappointed with Capcom earlier this week. They had announced that to battle THE SCOURGE OF USED GAME SALES Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D would only support one playthrough. Well it seems that enough fans have given them flak for this, and they have now retreated and announced that they will never pull something so absolutely stupid again. My faith in Capcom is restored! Well, at least for now.

In other news, Nintendo pulled a fast one on Legend of Zelda fans. At E3 this year, they had a showing of a HD rendition of Link in the Twilight Princess style battling a giant spider. The showing was absolutely gorgeous, but Nintendo has announced that it was only meant as a tech-demo to show off the Wii U's capabilities. That's what we in the fanbase call a total cockblock. That's sad. Well at least Skyward Sword won't be anything like any other Legend of Zelda game ever, right? Right? Who am I kidding? It's repackaging, and I'm probably gonna buy it along with everyone else. Fun.

And now for something completely different.

In my infinite sea of absolute wisdom (*cough*) I've realised how much my art-style in All Sorts of Happenings has begun to resemble that of The Peanuts. Now I'm a big Charles M. Schulz fan, So this really doesn't bother me THAT much. But it occured to me how sad it is that while Superheroes and Manga is flourishing well into the new millenium, newspaper strips is a dying breed. One could argue that the webcomic is the modern reincarnation of the newspaper strip but this is where I have to disagree. Popular webcomics have a habit of either being about a single hobby (Penny-Arcade with Video Games) or having a complex storyline (El Goonish Shive). The classic semi-philosophic family-oriented newspaper strip doesn't really have a modern equivalent. Series like The Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes presented us with (at the time) unique stances on life. They taught us something about ourselves while at the same time being witty. In my upbringing at least, Newspaper strips played a role in shaping me into the person I am today. Sociologists theorize that we are in a post-modern era, in which our lifestyles are comparable to that of a charmeleon. We are no longer brought up solely by our parents, but by the instituions we frequent and the group of friends we create for ourselves. we resemble the Charmeleon in that while at work we may be the one that makes the jokes all the time, we can still fall into the role of the braniac at school. I believe that comic strips and fiction in general plays a much larger role in our upbringing in post-modern society. As an Atheist, I reject the fact that any God exists. Our morals are shaped by experiences and outside input, factual evidence that gives us our place in the universe. That said, I am honored to live on a planet where people feel fullfillment in learning about the world around them. To look back at our history of philosophers, Theists, Deists, Atheists or otherwise and see that some have spent their entire life building the modern zeitgeist that I'm privileged enough to live in is a humbling experience. And I truly believe that the future shapings will come from comics. While we may no longer have a Charles Schulz around, new comics like Scott Pilgrim and Nemi embrace the fact that our generation. My generation. Consists mostly of men and women who's concept of masculinity and feminism largely comes from a backdrop of fairytales and adventures as told to us by loving parents, or inspiring individuals.

Top 10 Insane Characters

Insanity is a lovely character trait, and while it's mostly used for villains it just makes alot of fictional characters a lot more entertaining. It's almost always more interesting to follow a character where you're not always sure what the person is going to do in any given situation.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

10 - Stinky Pete The Prospector From Toy Story 2.

Toys are meant to be played with, and this becomes no more apparent than with the villain of Toy Story 2. Secluded ever since fabrication, Stinky Pete has watched all the other copies of his type of toy being taken home by kids and parents and being loved and cared for. This has made him Mean spirited and dark. He actually ends up deciding that children are mean to toys, and even destroy them and that th

ey will be better off being admired in a museum for years to come. His character arc is one of the coolest in the otherwise pretty happy-go-lucky movie, perhaps foreshadowing the pretty dark themes that the Toy Story movies would end up tackling in the final movie.

09 - The Black Knight From Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

Monty Python characters are already insane enough, hell the writers are probably a little insane as well. Then you have The Black Knight, he protects a certain path somewhere in medieval England for whatever reason. Then King Arthur shows up and they do glorious battle for all of.. 2 seconds. The Black Knight takes persistency to a whole new level. He loses an arm, calling it merely a fleshwound. This he does 4 times until he's nothing but a torso and a head. And even then he tries to keep fighting, this guy just doesn't know when to stop. Most Monty Python characters may be relatively insane, but when you're being called a looney by one of them, you might want to do some self-reflection.

08 - Wile E. Coyote from The classic Looney Tunes cartoons.

One of the most Stubborn characters in fiction, Wile E. Coyote is a Super genius living in the desert. Starting off as mere hunger, Wile E.'s hunt for the Roadrunner has become an insane addiction. He constantly comes up with increasingly convoluted and complicated schemes that always fails in the end. He clearly has access to post-order services and in one case even The Internet so one has to wonder.. Why doesn't he just order a pizza? Well because he's endured tons of amounts of pain just to catch the damn bird and he'd be damned if he ever stops trying.

07 - Scrooge Mcduck From Disney's Comic Book universe.

To those of you only familiar with the cartoon version of Scrooge, You're in for a treat! Scrooge's Gol fever in the comics are exagerrated to an extreme degree. If he looses money in a deal, he's able to cry so loud that it can be heard in the far reaches of space.

In one case, it even causes him to Flood The City of Duckburg With His Tears. That's alot of crying. Being an avid treasure hunter, Scrooge's Goldfever allows him to smell Gold already when he lands in the airport. It can cause him to run on water, lift giant rocks, and gain nightsight. When he's not out in the world making more money, he even bathes in them. He rarely eats more than three beans and a piece of bread with a glass of water, just to save money. If something becomes wrong with his money bin (such as having cracks due to over-filling) He's known to become seriously ill. He may be somewhat stable, not having been on a killing spree yet (at least not that we know of) but this is a serious case of obesession.

06 - Edward Wong Hau Pepulu Tivruskii The 4th from Cowboy Bebop.

Edward is a girl, though she may look like a boy. Edward is also a hacking prodigy from Earth in the year 2071. Edward also likes to talk about herself in the 3rd person. Edward is a very strange person, straying from place to place like a cat and always being pretty careless. She almost never walks normally, always running or climbing or prefferably

walking on her hands. She also named herself, as her father is always moving from place to place she decided her real name was boring. Her real name is Francoise Appledelhi, a boy's name because her father is too clueless to understand that he has a daughter, and not a son. Ed get's best along with other kids, but in particular a super intelligent corki puppy named Ein. For same strange reason they're able to have at least some kind of communication. Edward also never refers normally to people, with lines like "Father person, this is Spike Person and Jet Person". Though she may not be dangerous like some of the others on this list, she's definetly insane.

05 - Johnny from Ed Edd N' Eddy.

Johnny has a vivid imagination to put it softly. He talks to a board named plank, with a drawn face on it and it's able to throw him into fits of all-destroying rage. Being alienated by the rest of the kids in the cul-de-sac really doesn't help, making him create Melonhead the superhero persona. His faith in Planks reality is so believable to others that it's actually able to do physical harm to people without Johnny's presence. This kid needs a therapist, and soon.

04 - The Joker from the Batman comics.

The Joker is one of those classic insane villain that everyone knows. He's been subjected to something horrible at some point in his life, having permanent bleached white skin and freaky smile. He's come to enjoy he's super-villain persona too much and is now beyond the help of any psychologist. So he does what he loves, fighting his arch-enemy the Batman and making Gotham city into his private playground. His insanity has come to the point, that he can't remember his own past. Therefore he always tells us a new story, which makes him all the more creepy. Afterall, there's nothing more scary than the unknown.

03 - Tyler Durden from Fight Club.

Insomnia is dangerous, just ask this guy. After having problems sleeping he goes on a plane and meets Tyler Durden. Durden is a soap salesman, and has a very different lifestyle. Our main characters goes to live with Tyler Durden after a fistfight between the two gave him a rush. They start a Fight Club, and little by little it evolves into a cult. Tyler Durden decides he want to blow up all credit card firms in America, causing the destruction of debt. This of course turns to true insanity when it turns out Tyler Durden never was a real person, and our main character has been fighting against himself all this time. This is skitzofrenia on a whole other level, and the only way to defeat oneself is to shoot youself in the head. Which oddly Works.

02 - Johnny "'Nny" C. from Johnny The Homicidial Maniac.

Johnny lives in a random American suburb, in a house that already had all sorts of torture devices when he moved it. He goes around killing anyone that annoys him (which in reality, constitues EVERYONE) and pours their blood on a certain backwall in his house. He's convinced that if he ever stops feeding the wall with blood, something even worse will come out. So he keeps on killing, and he isn't picky. He's kept company by three "creatures". One is Nailbunny, a floating dead rabbit with a nail through it's head, representing his inner child. Then there's two Doughboy statuettes named Mr. Eff and D-Boy. One of them claims to be working for the entity behind the wall, the otherclaims to be working against it. He's also known to go off on existential rants about modern society, actually making kind of a understandable point sometimes (I'm NOT crazy). But really, he's a serial killer with voices in his head. What more do you want?

01 - Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Shinji is troubled kid, so troubled that his puberty makes him think he's fighting aliens in giant robots. His relationship with women is convoluted, to the point of him giving his masturbation dream a persona named Rei (Yes, That really is what she's supposed to symbolise) while most of the episodes is just a Giant Robot anime, later on there comes whole episodes where we get a nice trip through the poor guys psyche.. And it isn't pretty. The two ending episodes were so confusing to most people that they made an alternate one i movie form, depicting what happened in the Giant robot world while all the stuff was going on inside Shinji's head. His mother and daddy issues is pretty.. entangled. Let's leave it at that.

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So that was my Top 10 for the most insane characters. Of course there are probably even more insane characters out there, but I tried not to make the list too samey (otherwise, Rorshach, Green Goblin and most of the Rogues Gallery of Batman would have made the list as well).

I hope you enjoyed my list, and will comment on what you think, perhaps mention some characters I haven't thought of?

Top 5 Ridicolously Dark Pasts

Don't we all just love popculture? Well sure we do, it's entertaining as hell. But sometimes a character's background can be so dark and brooding that you just have to wonder "Just what the heck were they thinking?" And then do a Patrick Stewart facepalm to punctuate.

Now some of these pasts are actually in quality works, but they're still pretty damn silly-dark. Of course I can only use one character from each franchise or else I could just fill this up with Naruto or One Piece characters.

BEFORE WE START: PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS.

5. Drusilla - From Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Drusilla is one of those gleefully evil characters, being completely and totally insane. Drusilla was raised in a very religious family, and was put away in a nunnery because of her ability to be given visions of the future. Already somewhat rejected by her family, things became worse when she was discovered by a bored Angelus that was passing through her town. Angelus made her a project, raping and torturing her into insanity before finally siring her into a vampire. Drusilla has since only contained the ability to think like a child, and it's more or less a fact that there's nothing more cruel and cold than a child. Especially one that has found out that it enjoys maiming and torturing people. This coupled with the aforementioned ability to look into the future makes Drusilla one of Buffy's most insanely dangerous enemies.

4. Uchiha Sasuke - From Naruto.

Masashi Kishimoto has claimed that he thought up Sasuke to be the perfect manga rival, giving him all "the best" elements from shounen rivals out there. However one may feel about this character, theres no denying that he isn't lacking in

the dark past department. Uchiha Sasuke is from one of the noble ninjaclans of his village, their clan having a signature ability that's unique to their bloodline. It's a special type of sight that lets them predict their enemies moves, and alot of other clans and villages wants that ability for themselves. Enter Sasukes brother, Itachi. In order to protect his brother from getting killed he agrees to kill all the rest of the clan in front of him, and leave the village as a dishonored ninja. Sasuke is thus left to grow up with the dark memories of a killed off family, and a thirst for revenge that holds him back from gaining friends. This is of course what ultimately leads to him leaving the village and his team behind and becoming a villain.

3. The Bride - From Kill Bill.

Being trained into the ultimate hitwoman by her master and lover Bill, The Bride leaves the dark life behind when she discovers she's become pregnant. She hides in Texas, and plans to marry a lowly musicstore owner in order to give her child a normal life. Bill however, is not pleased and he sends her former colleagues out to her wedding reception when she's in final stages of pregnancy to kill everyone off. The group leaves a absolute bloodbath behind when they leave the church, but The Bride somehow survives, just to be put into a coma for 5 years. When she awakes she not only has an unstoppable thirst for revenge but she finds out that she has been used by the nurse responsible for her to rent out sexual favors to truckdrivers. Later on, insult is added to injury when her child turns out to be alive, raised by the very man that caused all of her suffering.

2. Superboy Prime - From The DC comics Event books.

Superboy Prime is a alternate reality Superman from Earth-Prime, The DC equivalent of OUR Earth. Other than sharing origins with his main continuity counterpart (crashlanded as a baby on Earth after his own planet was blown up due to a dying Sun) Superboy Prime actually has it worse. On his Earth, Superman and the Justice League was fictional characters, and Superboy was believed to be completely normal. That is, Until the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" where the passing of Halley's comet triggers his Kryptonian abilities, just in time for him to meet the main continuity Superman and witness his world be destroyed by the Anti-monitor. Initially being calmed fighting the good fight against The Anti-monitor, he later turns to anguish when the battle is over and he is left on Paradise-Earth, where he becomes more and more secluded and ultimately turns evil.

1. Nico Robin - From One Piece.

Nico Robin was raised by her mother's sister and her family. Being alienated and teased by the other kids, Robin copes by visiting the historians of the island. The island being known for the best historians in the world. She's taught to read and falls in love with the craft of archeology while she grows up. One day however, her mother shows up on the island after several years only for her and the entire group of archeologists to be publicly executed. It turns out that the group had found less than flattering historical facts about the founding of The World Goverment and they and the entire country is to be destroyed. The World Goverment executes a "Buster Call", the attack of thousands of marine ships that starts firing cannons relentlessly on the island only stopping when the entire population has been wiped out. Nico Robin however, is saved by a rebellious Marine captain and sneaked away on a raft. She then becomes one of the worlds most wanted criminals, her country having been branded as traitors by The World Goverment. She ends up being constantly on the run, using her devil fruit abilities to gain a name for herself as a fearsome pirate and then ending up in the mysterious Baraque Company due to nescessity. Ultimately however, the company is defeated and she joins forces with the Strawhat Pirates.

So that was my picks for the characters with the most ridicolously dark pasts, I hope you agree with some of my points and at the very least has found this informative. If you have any thoughts on this, please feel free to throw me a comment!

Review: Spiral Knights

Quick Info:

Title: Spiral Knights

Price: Free to Play

Platform: PC/Steam Client/Facebook

Genre: MMORPG/Top-Down Shooter/Hack N' Slash.

Developer: SEGA, Three Rings.

Players: Massively Multiplayer, 4 Recommended for Action sequences.

Recently, Valve decided to support Free-To-Play games on their ever so popular Steam Client. Among the titles re-released for the client there was a game called Spiral Knights. Like with any modern MMO worth it's gull, you start off the game designing your character. The choices are somehow limited with only 3 types of helmet or armor available to choose from, you also get to choose from a sortiment of colors. Choose wisely however, as the color is the only thing you won't be able to change later on, it will become your permanent health-bar color and eye-color and all of your future equipment will sport the chosen color in some way or form. Very akin to the Guild Wars games. A friend and I had a 'incident' where both of our characters looked exactly the same. Thankfully, a really early quest requires you to aquire new amor in tier 2, of which there is lots to decide between so the problem was shortlived.

When you start the game, you wake up in no-mans land. The Spiral Order, the Knights of which you belong have crashlanded on a distant world. You'll have to fight your way to the rescue camp, armed with a sword, a shield and a handgun. Now already here you can find two pretty consistent complaints. The hit detection is pretty shaky, only hitting your target with the handgun 7 out of 10 times making you constantly switch to your sword. Even when it's strategically undesireable. The other complaint is the netcoding, a problem which alot of these games suffer from is that if you don't have a pretty good internet connection, The game is virtually unplayable. I myself, are for unrelated reasons only able to have a wireless 3G internet connection with a 20GB monthly download limit, making playing this game after the limit has been exceeded pretty problematic. If you can live with that however, the gameplay is definetly worth it.

Another reason to download the game is the free hat, If you're a Team Fortress 2 player (and if you aren't, why not? The Game is FREE now! Go get it!) you get a neat little helmet for your Soldier character which actually looks pretty cool compared to the standard equipment.

When you get to the Rescue camp, you're almost immediately transported to the city of Haven. Haven is your new permanent home-away-from-your-own-planet, Here you will be able to shop for equipment, chat it up with your fellow players, use the auction house, and train in the Advanced Training Center. More importantly though, this gives you access to "The Arcade" the area in which you're able to go to the action stages. The action stages are explained as being "The Clockworks" a maze of underground areas, riddled with monsters and traps. To get down to the clockworks however, you need to spend Energy. Energy function the same way as most Facebook games do. You're given a standard amount of energy, and every action costs some of it. When you're out of energy you can either wait a few hours for it to recharge or buy something immediately via micro-transactions with real money. An interesting twist on the tried and true formula is the Energy bazaar in which you can trade energy with other players with the in-game currency known as Crowns. While it definetly would have been preferred to just do away with the energy system once and for all, it's refreshing to see a new take on it. While the art-style is pretty cute it's also very standard and seen-before, so it's understandable they didn't go the League of Legends route.

All in all it's a very enjoyable experience, (Especially for the price of absolutely nothing) and it's a nice way to pass those times you need to wait for other games to patch, or your pizza to arrive.