Endless Bag of Games

Deathspank has been available few days now on Xbox Live and PSN and thus Endless Bag of Games has many hours already spent on the game. This satirical action RPG from the creator of Monkey Island and gives you quite a unique gaming experience with few laughs. Here is why:

Hero is always willing to do the bidding for the others. Our hero: Deathspank, is one those heroes. Deathspank’s goal is to find “The Artifact”, only known as “The Artifact” but finding it requires him to help others along the way. So there is plenty of stereotypical RPG tasks available from killing nasty monsters (like chickens) to leveling up and gaining better equipment to wreak more havoc.

First things to notice is DeathSpank’s unique visuals. The world and characters are three dimensional but the actual scenery is not. In addition, DeathSpank uses a lot of pastel colors so you will be seeing some wacky scenery with wacky monsters. The results are vibrant and whimsical. Personally, I liked what I saw.

Deathspank is not only hacking and slashing unicorns, but instead you might be surprised when you learn that the dialogue takes a big part of the spotlight. With this, I mean that there is some good humor in the game, just what to expect if you have played Monkey Island series. The dialogue menu works similarly to Monkey Island as you see a list of conversation options to choose from. I cannot deny the fact, that some of the dialogues are really hilarious.

In Monkey Island games, there are some tough puzzles to solve, but here the puzzle-centric quests are somewhat absent (allthough there are some) and side missions more or less fetching ingredients or items by slaying some monsters. In fact, even in the menu, these missions are named “Unimportant Things I Need to Do”. The main quests follow the same pattern so there isn’t so much of a depth that you might be looking for if you compare it to the Monkey Island games. The game however is not, and is not indented to be a comparison to Monkey Island, but instead it is a satirical roleplaying-hack’n’slash experience which does its job well.

Now to the actual hack ‘n slashing part. I usually get bored if I’m forced to use the same weapons for a long time or the combat system is too simple. In DeathSpank, the combat system is easy enough by different weapons assigned to the controller’s face buttons. This means that you can equip like four different swords at the time or a combination of crossbows, hammers and swords etc. Whatever suits you best and leaves the minions dead. As you brutally make your way through the levels, the Justice Meter fills up and you can unleash a more powerful special attack to wreak more havoc. With enough customization options and combinations there is pretty much to do and the battle stays interesting through the game. One more thing: There are quite massive repertoire of loot in form of weapons, armor and items to choose from and each of them have their specialties (and funny names). In fact, getting new weapons and armors becomes quite a thrill because of this.

All this can be shared with a friend and you can have your friend to join your game locally at any time as Sparkles the Wizard. Sparkles has few rechargeable spells to choose from (like healing, self-cloning and fire). However, you cannot deny the fact that Sparkles is a sidekick, in the co-op mode both characters share the same health bar and Sparkles actually isn’t customizable like Deathspank is so that might not appeal to everyone. There is no online possibility to play with a friend, but I wonder who would even bother to play online as a sidekick… *shrug. Two customizable heroes would have been too awesome, but we’ll have to cope with this for now.

All in all, if you enjoy some good loot, good humor and hacking things to a pulp, you might want to try DeathSpank. The game has its pros and cons, but it does offer you fun time adventuring and exploring with few bursts of laughter. Check out the trailer below.

I heard so much good of this book from my friends and the reviews I’ve seen about the book has been almost nothing but praise. So I finally took my time to read the book and see how my expectations from book were fullfilled.

“The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a ghost that walks through walls. Half the city believes him to be a legendary champion of the poor. The other half believe him to be a foolish myth. Nobody has it quite right.”

The Lies of Locke Lamora is the book one of the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch. Many books start of with a bang, but The Lies of Locke Lamora isn’t one of those books. The story builds up gradually and includes interesting ‘interludes’ just enough for you to know what has previously happened to explain events in the present. This way, the game only becomes clear when the pieces are assembled at the end of the chapter. A neat way keeping up the readers in the dark when the protagonists have all the information, and is used thorhough the book. As you progress through the book and things get really interesting the pace becomes faster until all the various plot threads come together in a frantic finale.

The “hero” of the tale is no other than the Thorn of Camorr, Locke Lamora. Locke has his own style, perpetrating elaborate and lucrative scams on the nobility of his home city Camorr. All the accumulated wealth however does not go for the poor, they never see a penny, but instead the gains go to himself and his band of thieves: The Gentleman Bastards.

There are many small gangs in the somewhat ancient city of Camorr and the Gentleman Bastards eventually find themselves caught in a mystery: The Grey King is murdering thieves which almost tears underworld apart with a clandestine war. As you can imagine, Locke and the Gentleman Bastards are unfortunately caught in the middle of it and their wits are truly tested in their struggle to stay alive.

The whole book is like a witty gangster film set in fantasy equivalent of old Venice. The atmosphere is interesting, almost tingling, and the book holds the reader with a tight grip from the beginning pages until the end.Lynch succeeds admirably by delivering a cinematic experience with interesting and somewhat unusual characters who really have depth in them; Especially Locke himself.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy novels. The Lies of Locke Lamora was colorful, cunning, humorous and really possessive book. A true “page-turner”.