Werewolf: Transylvania

Most of you who wander around Warcraft III's Battle.net frequently have probably come across a game called Werewolf: Transylvania.

Probably the best game I've ever played that came from the bowels of that cesspool.
Alright, it isn't a cesspool. But 80% of it's users make it look like one. That's no fault on blizzard's part, it's the users; /b/ (or 4chan) mentality.
[/b/ is located on the very, very bottom of the internet barrel.]

ANYWAY, that's another post.

So, Werewolf. The deal is your a villager. You run around, build your little village, take up one of the money making professions (or all of them), and generally try to stay out of the way of the wild animals.
This all changes for one poor bastard in the first night, because he turns into a Werewolf.

As a Werewolf, you have no friends. You maim, slaughter, and kill your way through the night, silently hopeing you don't run into any villagers that can potentially call you out.
During the day, you revert back to your villager self.

It's a game of deception - you have to be smart about how you play being a Werewolf, because if your not than your going to be hunted down and killed.
As a Werewolf, you prowl the forest, searching for a careless villager or the next bag of free XP known as wild animals.

You're a hell of a lot stronger in your Werewolf form, able to take a good 4 times the punishment of your villager self.

As a villager, on the other hand, it's your job to stay alive. Hiding from the wolf becomes the priority at night, unless you have a massive entourage of guards. If you do have an enormous pile of surplus soldiers it's your job to hunt the Werewolf down and slay him before the ravenous bastard gets too strong and turns the tables on you.

When you die, your base dissapears and you get turned into a ghost. You must possess something living and wait for it to die (I think, maybe it happens after a short period of time) and respawn you as a zombie.

Zombies never die - they just sort of come back to life on some random place inside the map. They loose health and must regain it by eating corpses.
They can be a real nuisence to you. While they are initially allied with the villagers, the zombified player at this point is usually mean spirited and embittered (because he's not really playing anymore, he's just limping around as a zombie), and will start attacking you.

Originally, I thought it was because the player was, or was being, a dick. But after becoming a zombie time and time again, you really don't have anything else to lose by killing another player.

The map itself is very well made - the autumn forest is big and sprawling, and it has enough places on the map (like the corrupted forest, the pirate sea and the town to name a few) to make it interesting.


I had a topic here somewhere.
Since I can't remember it, I'll give you players a few tips.

- Fishing makes a hell of a lot of money, and is way safer than hunting. You just need a lot more patience.
- As a Werewolf, wild animals (all of them, even racoons and rats) give you XP. Find as many as you can before tackling a human base, but don't take too long doing it.
- Farming can be useful as a secondary or contingency money making profession, but I wouldn't have it as my main.
- Werewolves can get an ability that can ping (ie find your location on the minimap) villagers at level 6, so it's best to hide him in your tent/farm/plantation just before nightfall.
- It's better to uncover the Werewolf in his villager form than to take him head on in Werewolf form. Once you know who it is, you can leave his base in ruins and tear him to shreds.
Provided he doesn't do that to you first.

I suppose by now you'll want to at least give it a shot. Or, you're having trouble finding a game.
In Bnet chat, type '/whois WereBot'. That'll give you the name (which is always 'Werewolf Trans #[number]) of the current game being hosted.*

*I was totally not paid to say this.

+Breaking News+

Ten minutes ago, it was relatively calm - maybe even a little warm.

You certainly wouldn't expect a storm to hit.
Then, out of no where, BAM; massive gale rips through the house.
It's just short of hailing outside, and then the thunder tears open the sky.
It was about as expected as a subtlety spec'd rogue.

I'm just hoping it doesn't start going after power lines.

[Ha, this is the sort of thing Twitter is useful for. Oh well.]

Internet Speak

Seriously, guys. We need to put a stop to this.

On the back of a TV guide (last last weeks?) there was an advert for some shoe store.
'Back2School' was plastered on the top right corner.

People. Just because some thirteen year old uses numbers to say the number instead of words doesn't make him cool.
It makes him the opposite.

It makes you look uneducated. Dangerously so. First, it was replacing S's with Z's. (e.g. Shoez). Then, it was replacing words with numbers. (e.g. Let's go 2 the beach!).

I understand it's easier to type, but that's were it should stay - in the chatroom. There is no decent reason to bring it out of it's cesspool of a natural habitat.
Problem is, people think the only way to 'get' with today's kids is to act like them, and to a lesser extent that's the way to go about doing it.

At least for kids.
I'm going to go out on a tangent here and assume that kids from the age of newborn to 18 aren't impressed by what can only be described as feeble attempts at gaining their...
Exactly what are you trying to do again? Make kids by your products? Or god forbid, your honestly trying to be 'hip'?

Or am I completely on the wrong track here? Maybe, as a culture, the western world has degenerated so far that we have to see 'Back 2 school!' or something even worse.
Let's stop this before it goes too far. If we don't, we'll be seeing things like this in the future:
"|3re4d f0r 54Le!"
"C0m3 c|-|ec|< 0ut ou|2 wi|)3 $3lec7i0n!"
"E|3 94ME$"
If you can't read that, be thankful. If you can, like me, it may already be too late.

Demigod - Soundtrack

I got Demigod the other day.

Now, I'm not going to go into a full review for it just at the moment, but it's an interesting installment for the RTS genre. It's more like an RPG than a full blown RTS.

But the music! I thought Hans Zimmer was the pinnacle of scores. Turns out I was wrong.
The guy they got to do the Demigod soundtrack knew exactly what would fit for the game. It's...

I can't come up with a word to describe how good the soundtrack is. Seriously. If your a fan of scores, your going to love this.

I should have got the Collector's Edition, because that came with the soundtrack itself.
In truth, I got mine from Megaupload. No, I didn't pay for it, but if I knew I could get it through the Collector's Edition I would have.

And here's the link.

Ive Lies "Addicted"

Yay! Another wierd look at music lyrics.
Now it's Ive Lies's 'Addicted' song.

Now, because these girls are a primarily New Zealand band, I don't want to rag on them too much. I mean, New Zealand is barely a speck on the bottom of the world - we're so insignificant that global superpowers probably wouldn't even consider invading us.

What do we have to give? Seriously?

Anyway.
(Thanks to the youtuber who provided the lyrics in the video description, and unfortunately they lack a certain amount of punctuation or grammar.)

Did you think that i was really with him when i was holding your hand (Well, when you send me tapes of the two of you having sex...)
Well you we're right! I couldn't get him off my mind (Huh. Pulls no punches, this song.)

Your my shadow, he's my phantom ('Me and my shadow...')
I can feel him feel him breathing down my back (Your whole back? That's a long way to breath.)
a low voice sings "ill make your heart go blind" (...wait, what?)

Im addicted (To what?)
I feel sick but I'm not giving you up (Feeling a little under the weather is no reason to give me up.)
You're a drug to me but i, i need my fix (Well, alright-)
I need my fix! (Ok! Jesus.)

Im addicted (You said that already.)
you're heart poison that I'm strung out on (...What?)
your dangerous but i, i need my fix i need my fix (It's possible that these lyrics aren't entirely accurate,)
oh woah oh (But, unfortunately, I don't think that's the case.)

I'm alone now I'm a junkie coming down hurts more than farewell (These lyrics AREN'T accurate, the bastard missed half the words in here.)
i don't want this but i need this I NEED THIS (No wonder the song sounds like it was written by George Bush.)
I need some time to satisfy my craving like that one last cigarette (Did you know that human being and fish can coexist peacefully?)
Your no illusion no ghost I've learned that now (He does.)

listen to the screams (This is sort of the slow singing,)
my vivid dreams (Where all the rock drowns out,)
there's no relief (And all your left with is a slightly out of place section of song.)

watching me asleep (Oh-kay...)
revealing deep (Why do I keep hearing Twilight overtones during this part?)
he's solved the mystery (Oh yeah! They sound a lot like Paramore. That's why.)

Im addicted (No surprises there.)
I feel sick but I'm not giving you up (Ah, the repeated chorus.)
You're a drug to me but i, i need my fix (Where would we be without you?)
I need my fix!

Im addicted (In case you haven't gotten on,)
its you're heart poison that I'm strung out on (Addiction is the theme of the song.)
your dangerous but i, i need my fix i need my fix (As is sounding as much like Paramore too, aparently.)
oh woah oh
oh woah oh
oh woah oh

So that's Ivy Lies 'Addicted'.