3 iOS games

Hello people's. Today I'm gonna be talking about some more ios games. Here it goes.

My first review is of the recent expansion of the popular puzzle game Monument Valley. So if you've played Monument Valley you know that your character, the princess, has stolen "sacred geometrical objects" from strange, impossible, landscapes that look like M. C. Escher drawings. When she stole these objects it reduced the population of beautiful, intelligent, multicolored, birds into mindless, flightless Ravens. So the princess has returned to these landscapes, these monuments, to put the sacred geometry back in its rightful place and restore the glory of the bird people. On her way the human queen of this civilization, untouched by the effects of the misplaced geometry, scolds the "thieving princess" and demanding that she return the objects. Along her way she is also helped by a living monument dubbed totem because he appears as a four block tall totem pole. Eventually the princess returns all 10 of the objects and after the final one is returned the Ravens burst into color once again and fly off into the sky. Shortly after a crown descends from the sky and onto the princesses head and shows her true form, a gleaming white dove, implying that she was the princess of the ravens all along. The expansion Forgotten Shores does not have a very unique storyline it just implies that the princess forgot to return 8 objects or that this takes place before the final event in the original game. However the expansion is even better than the original game, in that the monuments are even more beautiful and enchanting and the puzzles are more challenging, intuitive, and fun than the originals were.

SPOILERS








At the end of the final level the floating square that is the environment in level 10 of the original appears above the princess and totem which may indicate that this takes place between level 9 and level 10 of the original.
END SPOILERS.

The second game is another intriguing puzzle game called HOOK. HOOK has no storyline it is just a relaxing, minimal puzzle game. In HOOK the goal for each level is to remove all of the thick black lines without bumping into another. To remove one you tap a black circle that will run a "current" along skinny black "wires" and if the thick black line is not obstructed it will disappear. You cannot remove a black line if it has another black line over it or if it would bump into a curved black line while its retracting. The game has fifty levels so far and another mechanics to make it interesting like circles you can tap to change the direction of the wires and signals that whenever activated will activate it's correspondent. The game was independently developed by Maciej Targoni and I implore you to download and support his/her game. They have promised to create more levels if the game is well received and I want more.

The final game is called Reaper: Tale of a Pale Swordsman. Reaper is a 2D action side scroller. The story is rather rich for an iOS game. Your origins are not known you are just a rather pale fellow dressed in black with a large sword. One day you come out of the mountains to the east and find yourself in the middle of a battle between two opposing factions. On one side is the Wilderlings, the tribal natives to this land they are well versed in magic and primitive weapons. On the other side is the invading force, the imperial army with guns and war machines of bronze. Both sides constantly hire you to do jobs and attack you for seemingly no reason. Pretty soon elves appear, animals start going crazy, and demons start to appear. Demons are said to be an omen that things are about to change.. Reaper is an amazing game and may be my favorite on this list. The combat is fluid and almost never gets old. The story is rich and there are many companions that you'll meet on your adventure. I highly recommend buying Reaper: The Pale Swordsman especially if you like sidescrollers.

So there are 3 great iOS games. Bye.



- By Ashton

David Eddings Universe Theory

Hello people's. It's time for some more David Eddings. Here it goes.

So Eddings wrote four fantasy universes before his death in 2009. Recently I finished the third, The Redemption of Althalus. Now as I was reading this third fantasy universe I realized that although occasionally the characters have hinted to knowing that the world is round they have never contemplated the idea of sailing the other way from the west coast of their continent to the east coast to the other, it's just always been from east coast to west coast. Now it would seem obvious that the human characters would just think that the ocean between the west and east coasts would be wider and also unexplored compared the regular route. Even if the humans didn't think about traveling the other direction you would think that all of the gods in these books would know this. However, in most of these series at one point or another through some kind of magic, characters have not "noticed" something important or have only had that important thing come to them through a trigger, for instance in The Mallorean when Garion is looking through The Secrets to find actual prophecy he doesn't have to actually read the words, he just has to turn pages until the correct words jump at him and he notices them and in the same series a splotch on a piece of paper magically irritates people so much that they don't look at it and realize that it's actually many words over top of each other. Also in the Elenium the goddess Aphrael will sometimes cause people to not notice her and the party she is with, she's not actually invisible she has just forced those people to not notice them. This got me thinking about the potential that these four universes are not separate; the land that the characters inhabit just lay in the oceans that for some reason the characters never bothered to try and cross. The being that put this magic on all of the mortals and gods would be something of boundless power exceeding all of the gods, Bhelliom and Klæl, and even the two battling destinies in The Belgariad/Mallorean. This gave me the idea that once every group of characters had completed their original purpose, for the Garion books defeat the dark destiny, for the Sparhawk books defeating Klæl etc., that the mental barriers would be dropped and all of the sudden the magically inclined characters would "hear" the new kinds of magic and new gods suddenly available to them and they would all be part of a final grand battle.

So that's my idea that joins all of David Eddings' fantasy universes. Bye.


- By Ashton

X-Wing

Hello people's. Today I'm writing about a miniatures game. Here it goes.

The game is called X-wing after the fighters from Star Wars. The game is played with miniature ships with a small base under it with some of its stats on them. Every game is played with one side as the rebels (good guys) and one side as the imperials (bad guys). First you build your team of ships using a point system. It's recommended to play 100 point games but you can play with as many points as you want it just has to be equal for both players.

You can manage your points by adding ships, upgrades, or pilots. For instance a regular x-wing fighter will be worth much less than an x-wing fighter piloted by Luke Skywalker with proton torpedoes and R2-D2 on it. Once you have an equal amount of points on both teams you set up your ships on opposite sides of the playing space. The playing space should be around 3 feet by 3 feet for an 100 point game. The company makes maps for the game but any flat surface will do. Use the range marker that comes with the game and you can place your ships any where in the first section of it while it is touching your side of the board.

The game is played simultaneously so the first step is to take your maneuver dials and decide where you want your ships to move by turning the dial, once you've done that you lay it face down so your moves are secret. Once both players have done that you take the ship with the lowest pilot skill and place the movement template indicated by your dial in front of your ship and place your ship at the end of it. After you've moved you take an action; most actions will help you in combat rolls but some don't like barrel roll which lets you move once to either side. After every ship has moved and taken an action from lowest to highest pilot skill the combat begins starting with the highest pilot skill. To shoot at an enemy they have to be within range and your front arc, use the range stick to determine if it's a viable shot. The closer the ship is the easier it will be to hit. If the shot is good than you roll Attack dice and your opponent rolls defense dice. The outcome will determine how much damage is done to the ship if any and after all combat is done the next turn begins. In most games you win if all of your enemies ships are destroyed.

So that was X-wing it is an amazing miniatures game. My favorite parts about it is that you don't have to paint them which is a huge chunk of money and maintenance there and it's relatively uncomplicated for a miniatures game. I definitely recommend X-wing if you are a fan of these games or Star Wars. Bye.


- By Ashton

Christmas party

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about a Christmas party I went to yesterday. Yes, I am aware that it's after New Years. Here it goes.

So yesterday me and my family went down to Virginia and stopped at the mall. There we ate and shopped some and I got a Joker shirt from Spencer's. Afterwards we went to my mom's parents' house. When we got there we opened our presents that our grandparents had gotten us. I got 2 pairs of Jeans that actually fit me which I was very happy about and 3 shirts. I also was very happy to get a 1 book fantasy epic by David Eddings called The Redemption of Althalus, and a 4 book series by him called The Dreamers. My best present might have been a PS3 game called Dragon Age 3 Inquisition that also came with a 50$ Playstation network gift card for some other games I wanted. I started reading The Redemption of Althalus and it's very nice to get back into an Eddings fantasy book. I haven't yet tried out Dragon Age Inquisition but I plan to today and I am very excited about it. After we had opened our presents we watched a movie and had snacks before the rest of the guests got here. The guests that came were uncle Chris, Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Jessica, and my cousin Brittany and her baby son Ramsey. Shortly after they got here we had dinner. For dinner was dinner rolls, asparagus, corn, rice, and delicious roast beef. It all tasted amazing. When dinner was over we went in the living room and talked and exchanged some more gifts and then eventually we had to leave.

So that was the Christmas party I went to. Bye.


- By Ashton

Eddings series

Hello people's. Today I'm writing about a book series I recently finished. Here it goes.

The series I finished is called The Tamuli. If you've read some of my other blogs you know that one of my favorite authors is David Eddings because of his Belgariad books that I read as a kid. Well after he wrote the Belgariad and the Mallorean he started writing more fantasy like the Elenium and The Tamuli. The first two and the last two are both series that occur chronologically 1 after the other, the last two series are in a different universe then the first two. So wanting to read more David Eddings I got both of those series and quickly finished the Elenium and then The Tamuli. After reading all four of these series you notice all the similarities between them and the story telling pattern that Eddings has for fantasy. In all of the series the central conflict revolves around an extremely powerful artifact. In the Belgariad/Mallorean it's the orb of Aldur and in the Elenim/Tamuli its Bhelliom. Eddings has also listed out different backgrounds that a hero in fantasy can have, in the Belgariad/Mallorean the hero is Garion and he starts the book as a young boy who is unskilled and uneducated in what's happening so he finds out about the world he's in along with the reader. In the Elenium/Tamuli the hero is Sparhawk and Sparhawk is already a man who is educated and is skilled so it's harder to get the reader to learn about the world because Sparhawk already knows about it so people aren't constantly explaining things to him. There's also a good guy sorcerer and a traveling party of people that accompany the hero. In the Belagariad/Mallorean the sorcerer is Belgarath and Polgara and in the Elenium/Tamuli the sorcerer is Sephrenia. The party the hero travels with in the Belgariad/Mallorean is a group of people that fit into certain roles in fantasy like the huge Viking character, the witty thief, the man on horseback etc. Following Sparhawk is a slightly less diverse group of four Knights who have to be strategic as well as physically powerful, Sephrenia, a smart practical squire, and a thief or two. Both universes also have their own religion and gods and goddesses. In the first the gods are UL, Aldur, Torak, Belar, Chaldan, Issa, Nedra, and Mara and two different near omnipotent "destinies" fight for control over the universe. In the second universe the religion is a lot more complex. So in this universe nearly every culture has its own religion with its own gods and almost all of them are real and interact with each other. The largest one is the "Elene faith which has one God and many similarities to Christianity, there's also Styricum with has a thousand younger gods and who knows how many elder gods, the Tamul faith which also has many gods, and at least 3 other cultures which their own one God. And there I just listed the ones that are real. There are also two similar forces to the first universe which are Bhelliom, the good guy, and Klæl the very very bad guy, and both of these forces fight over many worlds that they create.

So there are some of the similarities between the two universes. Bye.


- By Ashton

Music

Hello peoples. Today I'm writing about some more music. Here it goes.

So almost all the songs I listen to are either rock or alternative and I've gotten some new alternative songs since my last music blog. First are a few rock songs that are really good when you are trying to get pumped up for something or you're angry. They're The Bird and The Worm by The Used, Cry by The Used, and Top Notch by Manchester Orchestra. I also have that creepy choir type music from the end of The Mist called The Host of Seraphim.

Now for the full list of Alternative songs I've gotten.

Best day of My Life by American Authors
Breakeven by The Script
Centuries by Fall Out Boy
Come With Me Now by KONGOS
Cool Kids by Echosmith
Counting Stars by OneRepublic
Demons by Imagine Dragons
Every Other Freckle by alt-J
Fade Away by The Black Heart Procession
For the First Time by The Script
Good Life by OneRepublic
Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's
I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons
I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers
I'm Yours by Jason Mraz
It's Time by Imagine Dragons
Kill Your Heroes by AWOLNATION
Like Real People Do by Hozier
Love Don't Die by The Fray
Monster by Imagine Dragons
Nothing by The Script
On top of the World by Imagine Dragons
Paradise by Coldplay
Pompeii by Bastille
Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
Riptide by Vance Joy
Safe and Sound by Capital Cities
Sail by AWOLNATION
Say It, Just Say It by The Mowgli's
Secrets by OneRepublic
Show Me What I'm Looking for by Carolina Liar
Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
Stolen Dance by Milky Chance
Sweater Weather by The Neighborhood
Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap
Take Me to Church by Hozier
Trainwreck 1979 by Death from Above 1979
Use Somebody by Kings of Leon
Warriors by Imagine Dragons
We Are Young by Fun.
You Found Me by The Fray
Zombie by The Cranberries.

So there's my list of favorite Alternative songs. They're great, powerful, emotional songs and I love them. Bye.




- By Ashton

Christmas traditions

Hello people's. Today I'm talking about Christmas traditions. Here it goes.

Every year all of us have our own Christmas traditions. The most common ones are obviously putting Christmas lights up and a Christmas tree. In my family we have a small wooden log cabin and it's filled with windows and doors that go from 1 to 25. It's an advent calendar so whenever you get to the date you open up the corresponding window and there's candy inside for me and my brother and sister.

We have four types of Christmas ornaments. We have Lenox ornaments that my mom's parents have given us, these sculpted clay ones from my dad's parents, ornaments that are my dad's that are all superhero themed or nerdy in some way, and other ornaments we've gotten from various places. This year my mom separated all of the ornaments into piles based on which ones belonged to who. After that we all put most of our ornaments on the tree in the sunroom. We also have an angel on it and a bead string around it. There's another tree in our living room with lights on it but it's artificial and not as large.

My dad puts lights on the edge of roof. My grandad got a paint by numbers wooden Christmas themed train and it's been in the family since then and right now that's in my front yard. We also have rudolph's head on a stake.


His nose still glows. Every year we also buy or make Christmas themed cookies and watched Christmas movies.