Login in above or register to subscribe to this topic.
You can subscribe to receive an email when someone replies to this topic.
We will only send 1 email to you if there has been 1 or more replies since your last viewing. You can unsubscribe again here or in your account settings pages at any time.
Today, I finally had some time for myself. For the first time in over a week, I finally got to ignore the outside world and just go with what my heart had desired the most for days now. Also known as Final Fantasy XIII.
However, not everything has been great today. As I went to check supercheats.com (that prison I seem to voluntarily visit everyday), I noticed it was that time of the month again. And no, I dont mean my period, I wont make that mistake again. I had forgotten again: in case Ive never mentioned it, on the last day of each month, I am in charge of collecting several articles created by people from all over the world whom I have never met and put together a so-called Monthly Newsletter. I hate this job, I really do {Newsflash: the job is voluntary; ~ Ed}. Nevertheless, it is my responsibility {Newsflash: there are probably other people who would happily take up the job; ~ Ed}, and I never run from my responsibilities (unless I really dont feel like doing anything, which happens most of the time; thats another story, though). As such, I must guarantee no one will ever suspect this side of mine {then you're soon to be very disappointed; ~ Ed}.
The thing that bothers me the most are the Introductions. Every month, I must {voluntarily; ~ Ed} create a three or four paragraphs Introduction related to the site and what has happened in it during the previous month. This reminds me, this month weve been holding applications for some Pokémon Forums. As usual, most members wrote applications bigger than my screen, but this time a few of them actually doubled the regular size. Ah, how they amuse me. Have I ever told you why? Well, we Super-Moderators- must suggest who to promote, but its something Ive always found rather boring {We're suggesting you don't write essays, because nobody's going to bother thoroughly reading them; ~ Ed}. Instead, I ignore the applications and I just toss a coin to make my decisions. The things we do to have fun, right? Oh, almost forgot: after one month of an incredibly tiring discussion, we have finally agreed on the Teams and Clans Moderators. To be honest, we just ignored the topic most of that time and decided on the promotions by friendship status, but the others dont need to know. Anyway, why am I even telling you all this? Sigh
In any case, Ill just end up doing it on the last day, minutes before I promised I would e-mail this to our Editor. In the mean-time, I bet Abdul is going to be bothering me on msn with links to horrible songs he found while searching for how 2 b kewl on da intrawebz? videos. Ah, he can be so annoying sometimes Well. It is time for me to go to bed.
Good night sweet prince.
~Contents~
- Shawns Interview
- Posting Achievements
- Special Member News
- Video Game Review
- The Volke Sector
- Best of the Month
- Topic of the Month
- Member of the Month
- Disclaimer
Shawns Interview
Article by superbird5005
Posting Achievements
Hi, its me again, your friendly neighborhood imaloony8.0, back to provide you with the achievements again! Im trying a slightly different thing with the achievement titles, and Ill probably try a few more before I find one I like, but enjoy the achievements! Weve got a lot of low posting achievements, and a couple of higher ones, so make sure you post and make your achievement topic!
Mini Posters
1,000 - 4,999
- Twilight Warior {Didn't he leave?; ~ Ed}
- dynamitekid123
- CRAZY CHEATS
- Forgoten_Scars
- Patriot X
- bowow
- tegan41
Small Posters
5,000 9,999
- peanut butter ownage
Medium Posters
10,000 14,999
- sk8rboy
Large Posters
15,000 19,999
- N/A
Extra Large Posters
20,000 24,999
- N/A
Extra, EXTRA Large Posters {So, this new method is basically stating that the more you post, the fatter you are; ~ Ed}
25,000+
- N/A
imaloony8.0 and the newsletter staff apologize if your achievement was not posted for whatever reason. If you did have an achievement and it was not posted, make sure to mention that so we can amend that, but you need to make sure you make those achievement topics, otherwise, I cant be sure of if you get achievements or not!
Article by imaloony8.0
Special Member News
First Year (*) - Forgoten_Scars -jakethesnake14 -Austinanymous- 1 straight year -Snakespec
Second Year (**) -Ninetailed Fox
Third Year (***) ****? This was a slow month.
Life is Good; Until your old: -Ninetailed fox turned (19) -April 7 imaloony8.0 - (17) (hah. Five more years for booze.) - April 3rd - Abdul- (17) {Are you as surprised as I am?; ~ Ed} -InvertAlpha. (16) (NO Cars)
Congrats and Happy Birthday to all. If I missed you for any reason....welll, you can blame me. But remember[quote=Reaper]I...is...the...reaper.[/quote]. Or get bats and beat down lukie {My titanium one aught to do the job; ~ Ed}.
Remember these peeps and lolly sheep?
- rate-me left......NOOOOO! Aprils Fools. - Derek(forgoten scars) and Nintetailed fox proceeded to make the same mistake jk...It failed. Why must we have evil pranksters? - Cyberneticmooninite actually left us, on April 1st! - Abdul our little lion is back from his life of crime and kidnapping by filllllllllip. - Sir Knight left ;_; - Jose came back as Symbol de Au - Alt. And that's all you get to know
Article by Craizen
Video-Game Review
Dragon Age: Origins Awakening (Xbox 360)
Well, its finally that time. Bioware has released the first major expansion for Dragon Age: Origins. But is it any good? Is it worth the $40 when you could get four of the Fallout 3 DLCs for that money? And will Loony ever find true love? Well, youll find the answers to all of those questions in the following review! No love for teh loon D;
Being that this is an expansion, Im going to axe the categories for this one, considering that the graphics and controls are largely unchanged, as is the sound. Ill just talk. Thats cool, rite?
(NOTE: This review may contain some spoilers for Dragon Age: Origins. Ill keep the Awakening spoilers out, however.)
Awakening takes place shortly after the events of Origins, placing the Warden in Orlais. Although the blight has been defeated, the Gray Wardens are still short on numbers, and you are now Warden Commander at Vigils Keep, a Warden base that used to belong to the Howe family. Upon arriving, the warden and guide/Warden-in-training, Mhairi, discover that the Keep has been overrun by Darkspawn. You fight your way through the keep, coming across a mage and an old friend (neither of whom Ill reveal much about due to spoilers) whom readily join your party to drive the Darkspawn out of the Keep. As you clear out the final group of Darkspawn, you suddenly come across a shocking sight: A talking Darkspawn! He makes mention of a Mother before you defeat him. It now seems that, even though the Archdemon has been defeated and the Blight ended, the Darkspawn have somehow become organized and are attacking the surface. It is now up to you and 6 new Grey Wardens you recruit along the way to discover how the Darkspawn are organizing themselves, why they can talk, who this Mother is, and drive the Darkspawn back into the Deep Roads forever.
The plot is actually quite a bit better than the rather generic plot of Origins. These are all new revelations, and the plot does its job to throw a few plot twists your way to keep things interesting. You also get 5 new companions and 1 returning companion from Origins, all of whom are characterized very well and have vastly different personalities. As always, its great fun to hear your companions chattering amongst themselves, whether for humor that will make your topple over laughing, or to reveal something about the character that nearly makes you jump. The only downside is that while youre at Vigils Keep, you cant directly talk to the characters like you could at your camp during Origins. Each character has a few interactive parts of the environment at the keep and scattered through the world, but you often wish you could really get into the characters story deeper by talking to them.
For the Warden him/herself, you have two options. Firstly, you can import a Warden from Dragon Age: Origins (They will start at level 18 regardless of what they were in Origins and will only keep what they had on them upon importing) even if they had died. You can also create a new Orlesian Warden, although he has pretty much no backstory, which is a shame. Hes just an experienced warden you play as. Because of this, its best to experience this game through an imported character.
The graphics are relatively unchanged. A few new weapons, a few new areas, and they all look good, with just a few gripes. Firstly, while in caves youll often get a graphical glitch that makes the ceiling disappear, which gets distracting and screws up the immersion a bit. Also, Bioware created a farm area that they were apparently very proud of, as it appears everywhere, in nearly every random encounter. Speaking of random encounters, for some reason the map wont work in the random encounter areas, which is odd, as they worked fine in Origins. It also gets annoying when you get a non-farm random encounter and are struggling to find your way out.
Voice acting and sound is still top notch as ever, as is the music. What really blew me away with the new sounds, however, was the voice acting of the Darkspawn. They didnt talk in Origins, so hearing them talk, they sound exactly how I imagined they would, which really shows the work they put into the voice acting.
The gameplay is the same, but has received some updates. For one, armor and weapons, which previously only had 7 tiers, received two additional tiers, allowing them to go up to 9, which is really cool. I cant tell you how satisfying it is to don a set of Volcanic armor. Also, three new skills have been added: Vitality, which increases a characters health, Clarity, which increases their stamina/mana, and Runecraft, which allows you to create runes for your weapons and armor. These new skills are great, as I often found a lot of the skills fairly useless, and being able to just add health or mana to a character is a big bonus. Also, there are two new tiers of runes (Masterpiece and Paragon) and you can now get runes to put on your armor. These are cool, but since you pretty much have to make all your runes now, which consumes a LOT of money, youll find your armor littered with Novice runes, which can be annoying. You wish that the shops would just sell these better runes or you could just find them. Also, the main rune seller and enchanter is in the area where all the characters wait for you to take them out, so if anyone other than the warden has the Runecrafting, you need to buy your supplies, exit the chamber, check to see if you have everything you need, return to buy anything additional you need, exit, craft the runes, enter, enchant your weapons, and then finally leave. That really wears on your nerves fast.
One thing that I appreciated was a personal chest that you can get in Vigils Keep. This allows you to keep any items or equipment that your character cant hold on their person, but you wish to keep. This is great, especially if you want to test out a few weapons without having to carry around massive amounts of stuff with you all the time.
Also, there are six new Specializations: Two for mages (Battlemage and Keeper), Two for Warriors (Spirit Warrior and Guardian), and Two for Rogues (Shadow and Legionnaire Scout). While these are really nice to have, some of them feel a little useless. Still, some can have some really nice stuff, such as Battlemages restoring mana when hit. Whats even better is that if you wish to try something else with your character build, you can do that simply by buying a Manual of Focus for six sovereigns. This can be really fun and useful. For example, I had a warrior who dual-wielded, but I wanted to try Two Handed weapons, so I simply bough the Manual, redistributed my points, and it was like I had specialized in Two Handed weapons from the beginning!
There are also new skills for each fighting style (Archery, Shield and Sword, Two Handed Weapons, Duel Wield, all forms of spell types, exc) which can be really useful, especially with talents like Second Wind, which restores all your Stamina.
Overall, Awakening is a fine expansion to Dragon Age, carrying on with a satisfying story and gameplay that fails to disappoint. Its all youd want for an expansion, just more Dragon Age, in all the best ways. Some people claim that the price is a bit steep at $40 for only 14 hours of gameplay, but I say its worth it, especially when playing through multiple times. It may not be as great of a deal as Fallout 3s Broken Steel, but youll have fun with it regardless.
Final Score: 8/10
Article by imaloony8.0
The Volke Sector
NEW THIS MONTH! In 'The Volke Sector', each month everyone's favourite Super Mod {proven by statistical evidence taken via my mind reading skills; ~ Ed} will review a film and an album of his choice, with added humour! {Not so much focus on humour this month, since I had to rush the articles; ~ Ed}
[b][center]Volke's Film Review[/b]
This month's review: Twilight[/center]
Okay, so maybe you are thinking "Oh my God, Volke watched Twilight!" Well, I heard it was what's in, or at least what was in in 2008 or 2009 (I don't really pay much attention to dates), so I thought "popular movie with vampires...how bad can it be?"
The film circles around Bella Swan (played by that girl from Panic Room), a rather miserable teenager (the sort people try to make friends with even though she isn't that bothered) who moves to a town called Forks (the wettest town in the US, apparently) to live with her dad, and falls in love with a guy in her biology class called Edward Cullen (played by Cedric Diggory) who has some serious issues with letting her hang around with him. She later finds out he's a vampire. She gets on well with his vampire family (except a moody blonde who, naturally, is the ugliest of the bunch), but, when cleverly playing baseball with a metal bat in the middle of a thunderstorm, a group of vampire hunters, led by a regenerated Bob Marley, decide to join in. One of them, called James (played by some guy I've never heard of), is up for a hunt and decides to hunt Bella. Bella and the Cullens hatch an escape plan with James in pursuit because he has too much time on his hands and fancies a little sport. I won't spoil what happens afterwards.
Anyway, what did I think of the film? Well, it was certainly aimed more towards a teenage audience, because the two main characters are teenagers who fall in love, and there's the whole 'high-school' thing going on, which usually means the film's going to be about typical Hollywood-exaggerated American teen sex culture, a crappy live-action Disney film (please stick to animation) or a teenage love story (sometimes the three link). However, it's still something adults can watch and enjoy. The fantasy element was well played out, and Forks was an ideal location (if it even exists, which it probably isn't) with the forests and the thunderclouds creating a very atmospheric mood (although Bob looked a little out of place).
But my opinion? Aha, it was good. Not brilliant, but better than watchable. As far as book adaptations go, it's much better than Eragon (although it's not much of an accomplishment) and better than The Golden Compass, although since I've read the book of the latter my judgement harshened somewhat. I haven't read the Twilight book and I can't see myself doing so anytime soon, so I can't say how it compares to the book.
Final score - *** (Good)
So, that's Twilight. I'm in no hurry to watch New Moon, because apparently the first hour is extremely boring, and mostly features Bella going into Emo mode screaming her head off. Zi-pah-dee-do-dah, I can hardly wait, although it'll be fun to criticise.
Article by Volke
Volke's Album Review
This month's review - 'Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice' by HIM
I was originally going to review this album in February, when it came out. However, due to me simply doing something important at both the end of February and the end of March, I'm afraid I never did get around to writing it. Same goes for the film review.
2007's 'Venus Doom' was a huge success, proving to be HIM's heaviest album since their debut, filled with dark, catchy riffs and face-melting bluesy guitar solos, you could immediately pick up the album, listen to it for the first time and, once it finishes, think "that was awesome", and, best of all, it didn't appeal to HIM's annoying teenage girl section of the fanbase (who are arguably only fans because their dream is to sleep with frontman Ville Valo and that they like a few songs).
'Screamworks', despite living up to HIM's tradition of giving albums crap names, unfortunately does not have that effect. It is a far more mainstream-orientated album, clearly aimed to please the teenage girls. It's not a bad album by any means, as, similar to his role in DarkLight, keyboardist Janne 'Burton' Puurtinen leads the instruments in the songs with his very hooking keyboard riffs, and Ville Valo's voice is as charismatic as ever. However, many of the album's tracks are quite forgettable, aside from said keyboard riffs, and the albums feels ever-so-slightly repetitive on a few occasions.
That doesn't mean it isn't without its highlights. 'Dying Song' is up there among HIM's greatest ever songs, and other tracks such as 'Like St. Valentine', 'Shatter Me With Hope', and the craply-named-but-aptly-gamed 'Katherine Wheel'. The first single 'Heartkiller' is very catchy, although the second single 'Scared to Death' is the poorest song on the album. 'The Forboding Sense of Impending Loneliness', the final track on the album, moves away from the mainstream feel of the rest of the album and provides you with a very dark and atmospheric song, filled with eerie synths and instrument effects. Most of the others are good, but not so memorable. Also, surprisingly, guitar solos feature in most of the album's songs, with guitarist Mikko 'Linde' Lindstrom taking a simpler and more melodic approach than the bluesy shreds heard in 'Venus Doom'.
Eventually, this album does satisfy, and you'll probably grow into most of its lesser numbers. However, when first listened to, it just doesn't have that 'wow' factor that 'Venus Doom' had. Nevertheless, give the album a chance, as it will grow on you. If you're looking to get into HIM, though, this isn't the first album I recommend you try out.
5. Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice (2010) (***1/2)
6. Love Metal (2003) (***)
7. Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights (2001) (*1/2) (Record company messed with this one)
Article by Volke
Best Of The Month
Dear Diary,
Bellow are my choices regarding the Best Of The Month Articles (why did I come up with more work, anyway? I feel like Im going crazy ). They were made with a couple of minutes so, hopefully, Ill have more time to reflect on them tomorrow. Or maybe you can suggest something? Im still hoping youre some kind of Lord Voldemorts Diary, like in Harry Potter {What, you want me to show you a 50-year old flashback of a very large spider running out of a box, or tell a giant snake to slither around petrifying people?; ~ Ed}.
Once again Qwertyuio displays pride regarding the time he wastes playing a video-game. After all, who wouldnt be happy about having a clan of people who spend 23 hours a day playing hide-and-shoot (they do need to sleep, food can be administered while playing)? Kudos, my friend.
TOPIC OF THE MONTH:
Oh, yes, we did it. And tons of members actually bought it, though several raged and QQd. It was quite fun and marked the first time in the history of the site Staff pulled a prank on the rest of the members. Dont want to bother reading all that? Hey, I wouldnt either; its good, but not that good. Though, I must say, Coachs reaction is rather amusing.
MEMBER OF THE MONTH:
And, once again, Forgoten_Scars takes the gold home! With a clear advantage over many other candidates, Derek manages to steal the title for a second time. I must, however, give a worthy mention to another member who has made quite the contribution this month. His name starts with a V Vasco!..no, though one of these days Ill ignore you guys and just make myself MOTM anyway. Yes, Volke, you may now add a 0.00001+ ego boost to your Stats {Volke for Admin!; ~ Ed}. Along with Cez and Testy, the three of you could make quite the Final Fantasy Party {The sort of party that you'd feel as if you were cheating by using them; ~ Ed}.
Moving on, congratulations on behalf of the site, Derek. Lets see how many days you take to notice it this time. (: {I count four; ~ Ed}
*BADGE TO BE EDITED HERE; IN LAZY PERIOD*
Article by Vasco
[center][b]Disclaimer[/center][/b]
This review was not intended to offend anyone and elaboration was used necessarily for enjoyable reading.
Any attempt to re-create/rip this review will cause TestVirus to go freaky, seriously [ED: Not really, Id probably just lolinsult you]. I wont even mention anyone else, he alone is enough to scare the crap out of rippers. If you still want to proceed, we also have loony. Now leave.
NOTE: Volke made up for not really doing much aside from providing moral support last month by writing two articles this month.
[b][u]The Newsletter Team[/b][/u]
Vasco Host and Article Writer
Superbird5005 - Interviewer
Lukie Article Writer (Absent)
Imaloony8.0 Article Writer
Craizen HonoraryArticle Writer
TestVirus101 Editor (absent)
Volke - Honorary Editor, Article Writer and Official Provider of Moral Support
If youd like to help, please send your application at the e-mail bellow. Also, regarding the Special Article, we accept the Special from ANYONE {Except qwert ; ~ Ed}. You can just make an article you think its pretty interesting, and send it to us. If its good enough, it will be posted, and of course youll get credit for it.
For the above mentioned, or for further questions, e-mail me at:
...well, Volke certainly had a lot of fun including notes everywhere. He didn't understand my brilliant irony, obviously.
I think we have a great Newsletter this month. Once the Interview is finally edited in, I'm sure this will be one of the best editions (if not the best) we've ever had. I'd like to apologize to hmm because, unfortunately, his article didn't make it this time. With only three members, it was simply too short; we have to come up with something else to make it more interesting.
Congratulations to all the members that were mentioned, of course. Now to wait for Derek to come here.
Although I do have to ask if Volke was serious when he said the Twilight movie was worth 3 *** - which I'm assuming is out of 5...
A heads up for Volke - do not watch New Moon. EVER. You'll kill off half your braincells. It's the worst movie I've ever seen... However the third one, Eclipse is looking to be a hell of a lot better and actually watchable..
Overall, very well done.
Volke for Honourary Editor of the next one
<3 to Craizen for the Avatar & TheLlama for the Signature.
"Forever in this heart of mine, an everlasting bond. From now until the end of time, are memories so fond."
Great newsletter overall.Hooray on my mention and everyone else. Can't wait for the interview to be posted though :D. I liked Volke's bits the most so far though.
What with all these references you guys might as well give me the "King of All That Is Awesome" crown right now, I hate dragging things out. :(
No really, for that part of my post to be considered for PotM is totally weird. I think Vas is just trying to find new ways of loving me is all. And yes, I am proud of my dominate yet not too srs clan.
Overall, pretty awesome NL this month guys, congrats to yourselves...maybe when I'm bored I'll actually read through all of it. xD
You know, I think next month we should have a new article titled "War of the Egos", the participants? Volke, Curry, and myself. Providing Curry cuts his supply in half, I think it would be a fair fight.
And yes, I am proud of my dominate yet not too srs clan.
You uuhhh, mean the clan that has uhh, according to the Gamebattles site played 5 matches & lost 5 matches? I do admit I could be reading the stats wrong, but thats certainly what it looks like lol
<3 to Craizen for the Avatar & TheLlama for the Signature.
"Forever in this heart of mine, an everlasting bond. From now until the end of time, are memories so fond."
Login in above or register to subscribe to this topic.
You can subscribe to receive an email when someone replies to this topic.
We will only send 1 email to you if there has been 1 or more replies since your last viewing. You can unsubscribe again here or in your account settings pages at any time.