As Everlasting as Chatterbox may be, Life gets in the way.

So, I am now a college student.

Huzzah, right? ^^

But this meant that all summer I was freaking out about THAT instead of properly gaming. Shame, shame me.

So I'll just talk about Portal! Whoever hasn't played it or heard of it (though you must honestly live under a bigger rock than I do, since even I know this game) the concept is such: you're a test subject in a laboratory facility. You're guided by a computer's voice. Most of the time, at least. Her name is GLaDOS, and she's kind of a sadistic bitch, but that's an entirely different story. After a few simple-ish puzzles, you are handed what is known as the Portal gun, which is a device that shoots two portals: orange and blue. Using those portals, you have to get through the rooms of the testing facility.

Sounds simple, right?

(Well, actually, depending on how many puzzle games you've previously played and how developed your logical thinking is, it may be. But for some people it's complicated, I promise!)

Complicated or not, the game is fun. You get portals, you get Portal physics (Spoiler alert! "Speedy thing goes in - speedy thing comes out!" Oh, GLaDOS, you're so adorable...) and you get a super-computer that's promising you cake.

(Also for all those clueless, the line "The cake is a lie" is, indeed from the game. There are certain walls on which this phrase can be discovered. ^^)


Moving on to my personal experience with the game. This will contain some spoilers, so if you're scared of those, read them AFTER YOU PLAY THE FREAKING GAME. xD
I loved it. So much. Partially because it was puzzles, partially because the graphics are amazing for the time that it was made during, and partially because it's just so wonderfully written. But, honestly, the fun started after GLaDOS tried to throw you into that fire. I've always found the lab rooms to be so organized that it was much easier to process all the available options in the closed environment. When it came down to being outside the testing environment, I got a little lost in places. I'm clearly not as intelligent as I like to pretend I am. xD

The same actually applies for Portal 2, the wonderfully more-complicated sequel. Once you're out of the sterile testing rooms and on your own in gods-know-where, it's so much more difficult to figure out what the hell to do and where you're supposed to go. At least that's my opinion on the matter.



So, Portal. If you haven't played it, GO DO SO. If you have, but haven't played Portal 2 (which I will probably talk about separately) GO PLAY PORTAL 2. Also, I need people to play the co-op mode with, anyone up for that?

Dragon Age: Origins

So, to start, I'll mention one of my favorite games. (Mention for now, more in-depth later, since I'll need to go into the game and take screenshots and all that fun jazz.)

EA's Dragon Age is a wonderful game. ^^

Going into it, I honestly didn't expect much more than a typical RPG. The set-up is fairly simple - you have your main character, and then a choice of a bunch of others to add to your party to make four people total. The graphics aren't magically wondiferous, since the game is fairly aged compared to the newer Dragon Age II, but they are plenty to make the game pleasing to watch as well as play.

The best parts of the game - in my opinion - are the depths to which characters are developed and the amount of things you have to distract you from the main plotline. I personally don't like games that have just plot, as much as I dislike games that are all composed of just random quests from which you have to pick out the plotline and hope you don't miss something important. Nice thing in Dragon Age - you have the main plot, which is highlighted in your questlog as "Main Plot", and then you have companion quests, secondary quests, and just a bunch of random stuff pertaining to certain locations. The organization of things in your questlog is fairly wonderful as well, and very easy to keep track of.

Now, as per character development: each of the characters has a distinct personality, a thought-through background story, and a very unique set of reactions and quotes and interaction dialogs. For example, keeping Leliana and Sten in the same party is fairly amusing, since Leliana just makes fun of Sten for various things that he supposedly does while your party moves around. Alistair and Morrigan are impossible, since they just do not get along. These same reactions to each other apply to your decisions - and here kicks in the approval rating. It's really frustrating, sometimes, to find a party of people that all appreciate the same actions on your part. Yet again, Alistair and Morrigan are impossible in the same party, since their personalities are so different. I encourage everyone to explore different party compositions, and also come up with a stable character and personality for your own character so you might keep a consistency throughout your decisions.

I actually adore two quotes from the game: a quote from Morrigan and another from Leliana. At some point during dialog with Morrigan, she tells you that, "Men are always willing to believe two things about a woman. One, that she is weak, and two, that she finds him attractive." Leliana, when you make fun of her, blushes and states, "I am a woman and I reserve the right to be inconsistent!" I'm not quite sure why both these quotes so appeal to me, but I believe them to be fairly good examples of the amount of work that went into writing each character individually.

The neat thing about the approval system is that you can work with gifts to fix any dislike that a character may have developed. Each character has their own likes and dislikes when it applies to items, and the items they enjoy and give good approval ratings for are very applicable to their personalities.


Now, for random. My favorite character in the game? Zevran. I don't think the game would have been quite the same had it not been for him. ^^

First Entry

I guess I should introduce myself.

My name is really of no importance, but I will list the many names I have been called up 'till now: Sky, Riyu, Eve, Tiana, Moon. Go figure, right? xD

The name of the blog comes from the guild I used to run on WoW. Yes, I'm a WoW nerd, among many things. Another 'go figure' moment should go here.

I'm currently finishing up my senior year of high school. Not that that is of much importance, but it means that, for the next couple months, I'll have plenty of time to do about a million things.

As for my hobbies: I write random shit, read a lot of manga, watch a bunch of anime, play about a million games. Female gamer here. Yes.

I am also a musician, and that leads to the fact that I listen to ridiculous amounts of music.

My plans for the blog would be to post reviews for anime, manga, and games (primarily games) from a woman's point of view... I've noticed that I've developed completely different opinions about games than most of my (male gamer) friends have, and so figured I might as well share them with other girls interested in gaming but having no idea where to start.

If you have anything you'd like me to try, primarily games but also anime and manga and music, I'll be more than glad to see what it's all about and review it.

Also, I'm a bit more funny on a normal basis. Just sayin'. xD