Alice: Madness Returns, a slightly different foray into old territory

 I have recently completed the rather exquisite Alice: Madness Returns (take note of the semicolon) and to get this out of the way I'm partly annoyed and partly glad it's over.

Though I shouldn't get ahead of myself, this is the second incantation of the the original Alice, both created by American Mcgee, being a fan of the original I had heard that a film adaptation of the game was in the works, which got me quite excited ( for a few years at least as this was announced in 2000) and I'm not going to mention the new Alice in Wonderland film by the venerable Tim Burton which is an entirely different story. Then one day I heard good ol' 'American' had a new game studio and had made a sequel to his original Alice, this made me quite pertubed as I was under the impression that the the original American Mcgee's Alice did not need a sequel as it was meant to be a dark, twisted and abnormal version of the disney film and thats what it was. Having played it through though the ending was acceptable (and predictable enough) but the story of Alice Madness returns does answer a lot if questions certain skeptical types may have, and to be honest the story was one of the only things that kept me going.

Alice in the dark and dreary fictional english town that is her real-world life

  The storyline in Alice Madness returns is very intruiging, it explains what happened after Alice had supposedly rid herself of her inner demons and her path to full realization of the events that led to her families death, this is helped by the 'memories' you find hidden along the way which unlock quotes from various people in Alice's life. I must say that it was actually the scenes in the victorian-era England where Alice now lives that were my favorite to play as it shows what Alice's life is like now, something which you never got to play through in the last game. These short levels show what happens to Alice between the environments in wonderland that Alice goes in and out of and while they don't exactly explain why Alice is in a particular section of Wonderland they still are a welcome addition to the game.

The first level in the game, 'The Vale of Tears', one thing that is obvious as soon as you start is how good the game looks.

Once starting the game and falling into wonderland for the first time it was easy to see that the game had been quite graphically updated with stunning detail for eatch environment that you travel through over the course of the game. These 'environments' change at certain points within the game and I have to say my favorite was the 'Oriental Grove' world which had a great eastern theme to it as well as 'Cardbridge', and the screenshot below speaks for itself, there's still the usual scary places like Queensland and the freaky Dollhouse but I found as in the last game the not-as-scary were the most beautiful to look at. I also found (after finishing the game) that the costume changes Alice goes through when changing worlds actually changes gameplay elements (i.e. the original costume allows to regain health while using the shrink ability) and you could also change the styles of the weapons, which would have been great to know beforehand but anyway.

Cardbridge... something that would a nightmare in the last game but one of my favorite sections in this one.

With the last game the the platform element was quite tricky and because there was quite a large amount of it I ended up getting frustrated and ended up using a flying cheat just so i could finish the game and see what happened, this has been fixed to a major degree by introducing a triple jump and also a floating ability which makes probably the largest aspect of the game quite manageable. In the first Alice weapons were ofen crude and slow and fighting got quite annoying and the changes to this were very welcome, the action is now very smooth and looks spectacular the way the game slows to a crawl for a split second when an enemy strikes almost telling you to use the dodge ability, or when you finish off an enemy and are rewarded with a slow motion blood splatter, the range of weaponry is very satisfying to use with every noise you know that you have oir haven't hit your target, the only thing I can think of is that I now cannot throw the Vorpal blade at my enemies which was my favorite move of the last game, but nevertheless slicing and smashing through enemies quickly has never been more fun.

The Vorpal Blade, still my favorite weapon....

Unfortunately while playing through the game and enjoying the beautiful scenery and the edgy fast paced combat things inevitably started to get repetitive and I found that some chapters lasted forever and I just wanted to see what happens. This happened in the last Alice and I was well aware that it was going to happen again, I felt that some worlds were just too long but I guess having played the last game once I met all of the old characters again and saw the scenery and the new enemies I had little pateince for the rest of the world and just wanted to end it soon, as I said before It was the story that kept me going most of the time the parts where Alice gets pulled back to reality helped quite a bit but at the back of my mind I just wanted to know what happens to Alice in the end primarily because I do have a a lot of sympathy for her having been through two games of a playable version of a young girls mental torture. But unfortunately Alice madness returns has one of the most unsatisfying endings I've ever come across, so I left it half glad that I had finished it and half annoyed at my un-fullfillness.

The "Eat me" cake makes a return

In conclusion I would say that for fans of the original it's a great experience to see an old game re-created with new graphics and better gameplay elements and for newcomers it's a good delve into the twisted mind of American Mcgee's Alice and with the original Alice game included with this one free of charge it's well worth the purchase. As for coming back and playing it again I am afraid to say this game does have quite a big lastability issue, I would have gladly settled for a feature length movie of the last game but something tells me I may be able to have my cake and eat it too.

Well thats all for now, I leave you with the fabulous launch trailer.





Is it me or is Alice incredibly beautiful in this game...

Minecraft Creations: The House of Peace and the HeteroSexual Love Den

Hello fellow Minecrafters or whoever happens to be reading, today I will be detailing my meagre creations on the freshly revived Tribalfield Minecraft Server which I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are eagerly waiting the Minecraft 1.8 patch and also dreading it in some way as implementing the features of the new patch into our world would mean yet another world reset which frankly cause I havent been playing or building that much (and I make sure to screenshot everything I do, well almost everything) I'm not really that fussed and would be glad to be able to explore all the new features.

The HeteroSexual Love Den

Ah yes the heterosexual "love den" after my "Hidey Hole" was consistently griefed or robbed during the building of the great tree, I decided to retreat into WarpageHD's domain where I set up a little place in a large cavern for no particular reason at all set it up as a "love den" I really don't know where I was going with this but I had a lot of fun creating it.

The Cloud of Peace

During my time on Zocrowe Island we experienced quite a lot of player activity and also some inevitable griefing, during which I decided to make a claim for myself high in the sky overlooking Zocrowe, I named the claim JDman's Cloud of Peace and thats exactly what it was a place where I could live in peace free of others. The "cloud" itself was made out of a LOT of white wool set just above the cloudline (thanks to CaptainPugwash for a large donation) I was shearin sheep like some kind of crazed farmer for the majority of time on the server. And so I built myself a nice little sanctuary up in the sky. The house I named "The House of Peace" along with a little garden and my private "Altar of Quiet Contemplation" though sitting "contemplation style" hasn't quite been implemented into Minecraft yet and come to think of it either has sitting in general.

The House of Peace

Eventually I decided that because I could not be a citizen of two places at one time I would come down off my cloud and settle in with my pals on the island of Zocrowe, so I with a lot for my house I decided to dismantle and remake my old house of peace witha  few changes of course namely logs and leaves for a bit more down to earth feel, excuse the pun (heh).

I actually kind of forgot to dismantle the cloud and It seems creeper has built a fairly ugly looking stairway and aldder up to my old claim, meh what can you do?

Well thats it for now, just a small update, once I get back to serious buildin I'll be back with something much more spectacular I promise

JD.



If clouds were really made of wool, they would have been gone long ago

Minecraft Adventures: Tribalfield rebirth, Zocrowe Island and the Giant Tree

Well as much as I was trying to avoid it, NorC has inevitably sparked the life into Tribalfield Minecraft Server once again. I thought I had built it all, done my goodbye blog post and dusted off WoW after a 4 month hiatus for a good sinister strike up the rear again but not too long after I see from my fountain of information that is facebook a post that says quote "Server has been compelely reset... all players have been given 2500 Gold to get started." Which I couldn't decide whether it filled me with happiness or dread.  Regardless the server was gleefully revived via (you guessed it) a server reset and free gold which was all that was needed as I said before in my previous post the main problem was all the conflicting claims, which I think is destined to happen again unfortunately. Even so players flocked back to Tribalfield plus a few more and pardon my french but there was shit poppin up all over da place yo, claims buildings, you name it and of course the occaisional griefing etc as you would, which is partly kept under control by the lockable chests.

Pretty soon my good friend Kakashi had set up a tribe called LoL "Land of Loners" which I agreed to join, we had made a small base and i managed to gather alot of clay to build a brick lighthouse, but unfortunately the server had to be reset again and we subsequently lost all this (I also had not taken any screenshots). But then it came back up and pretty soon I was a part of the "Zocrowe Island" claim with my good friends Bailey and Lupidoo and after getting the idea from Bailey's 'tree trunk' house we decided to make something I had been meaning to do properly for a while: build a proper "Great Tree"


The Giant Tree

This was a joint project with BaileydeBortoli, Lupidoo and various others with most of the work going to Bailey and Lupi. We decided to make Bailey's island in the middle of his claim bigger and construct a massive tree around his original house. I had tried this project before using my own way of growing trees on top of each spreading outwards till i got to the height limit, but as you can see from the pictures I now know that this isn't giant tree per se it's more a 'giant bush' made of dozens of trees sprouting close to each other, course the main thing was a lack of a trunk. I'd explored a certain server (which I now can't find anymore) and found an example which inspired the design. I made most of the trunk area but well done to Lupi for putting in the effort with the top and branches, I do think that the trunk still was a bit wide but nonetheless it was a great feat indeed.

Big thanks too all who took part and looked great for a while, but inevitably things like these are targets of certain mischevious individuals resulting in the tree's untimely demise

Photo courtesy of Ariel Zohar

So that was that, we decided to cut down the tree for resources, but we'll always remeber it as this memorial at the centre of Zocrowe town hall proudly displays.

The Island of Zocrowe

Having been made by BaileydeBortoli as a simple island has grown into quite a large town and community of (mostly) friendly helpful people which I am proud to call my home though I am not that active in the community as of yet. With thanks to BaileydeBortoli, Lupidoo, WretchedGiraffe, kakashi, creeper, cashman, Jorobinson, Frewer, Angrathar, dadmitchl, Mib44, Zmaster, Naffy, optionall and midnitebocow for making such a great community.

Other Tribalfield happenings....

As well as building in and around Zocrowe I did a bit of exploring, so these are some other things I've seen around.....

Bailey organised to get the hill on the southwest of Zocrowe removed (which actually happened to be creeper217's house) and this was the result.

I just happened to stumble upon the old Skyreach on my travels and also found the original site of my Grey Tower which reminded me that this wasn't a completely newly created map, just the same one from before just reset.

The untouched Skyreach Plateau

The original site of my Grey Tower

And last but not least, the budding town of Raynevale, which is being created by the apparently reformed 'Temple of the Cactus Union'

Courtesy of Austin Cram

Well that'll be all for now folks, Sorry I haven't been on as often as I liked as I said beofore just trying to catch up on some WoW. I hope to see you again more often soon, will probably stop my WoW subscription next time it runs out in order to get some more minecrafting in. be back soon with my new creations!

And also a big thanks to all those who voted for me as the next admin!

JD


I fell into a burning tree of lava, I went down down down and the flames went er farther....

Duke Nukem Forever, I finished it, I had fun, so sue me

Unless the title as you completely wahzingoed yes I did finish DUke Nukem Forever and I had quite a bit of laughs along the way, wther it's his stupid one liners, or the ridiculous riches and in-game popularity that Duke has after previously saving the world 12 years ago Duke Nukem Forever for me had humerous bits and peices everywhere. The overall game isn't really that long and because of this 3D Realms has been able to squeeze in a lot of content including a few different ways to play the game for example there are levels where you are shrunk to a tiny size, use a remote control monster truck and also a full size one, as well as underwater and helicopter parts. Another thing I enjoyed was the way the camera swung around during parts where Duke was wrestling with a flying alien or being surged out of a damn by a raging torrent.

The single greatest title for an Autobiography ever.

Arrgh I am so small and ze rats are so big!, oh wait their normal size

Yes there are the usual half-naked women etc and certain parts of the game are dedicated to just that, there is also a "story line" but it's just your usual "Aliens invade the earth (again), Duke comes in and beats the crap out of everything" The game does really capture the feeling of being Duke and is definately a good throwback to the old days of standing and blasting cowboy style instead of all this cover based shooting business we have today. Some people may complain about only being able to carry two guns and also there are no iron sights but the reason for that comes down to sticking with the original Duke 3D and I don't mind it at all, plus who wants iron sights in a game like this?

In conclusion Duke Nukem  Forever is crazy, over the top and just plain fun.

I have a modesty meter...

Minecraft Adventures: MikeLand and the Rubix House

Hello all, firstly I'd like to say how glad (and sad) I am that we've regained our interest in the Tribalfield server, I'm sad because I was just trying to get into WoW again after a long break playing Minecraft but i'm glad that I now have a friendly server to play on and don't have to resort to server hopping to find a good one.

One server I did find it be rather fun was the seemingly dangerous and destructive MikeLand Survival Server which I had a brief run on ( I do believe Warpage and Kieran are still playing on there) It's the only server I've been on where I've seen "Hey let's go out griefing" in chat. There is two more versions on MikeLand which are: Factions (which I had a play on beforehand) and Creative. This server was a potential beehive for destruction as Warpage and I found that anywhere near spawn if u logged out one day and came back the next your house would be griefed. Fortunately MikeLand has the LWC mod running which basically means that other players cannot destory any chests, doors and furnaces that you place.

What this resulted in was players making entire houses out of furnaces I'd never understood why there were so many stacked together around the server until Warpage explained to me why he wanted all my cobble. There were people trading diamonds for stacks of cobble for christ's sake, it was possibly the most amusing quirk i'd come across since the whole book selling thing we had going on Tribalfield in the past. Warpage is still there and his house is still standing and the interior is all intact as he reports so it must work I guess which must frustrate the hell out of potential griefers who I did see pouring lava over someones tower of furnaces in some kind of fruitless attempt to "heat" them out? I wouldn't know.

Here are some shots of the server:

Spawn area: that tower in the centre was the spawn point, if u got too close to the edge it catapulted you off

House made of furnaces

WarpageHD's House (it goes down further)

Rubix House, Multiplayer and Singleplayer

While I was adventuring/dodging pvpers and griefers in the hostile environment that was MikeLand I was meandering over the idea to make a house entirely of coloured wool, just out of precaution I walked more then 2000 blocks away from spawn (which inevitably wasn't far enough) while also shearing any sheep and collecting any flowers or cactuses I found like some kind of crazed farmer/botanist. I eventually found a good spot and set to work, and with the help of some Lapis Lzuli from Warpage, came out ok. I named it the "Rubix house" in relation to an actual rubix cube except the house itself isn't exactly square

Inevitably due to the nature of the server I came back one day and found this unfortunate scene.

With that behind me I set out in my singleplayer world to make a proper Rubix House which was actually square. I can be safe in the knowlege that this time it will be there for a much longer time.

One last thing, while roaming servers I found a particular treehouse which someone had made, and immediately it showed to me what a proper treehouse should be, I didn't get any shots of the interior but I can assure you it was a sight indeed.

So with the Tribalfield crew back looks like there will be many more creations to come from the good ol' lads (and ladies)

Till next time

JD

His house is made for burning