Chp 647. Perfect Game number 50

Another game related blog post :)

Yesterday I reached the milestone of achieving 50 Perfect Games on Steam. As I have mentioned before, a "perfect game" is where you have unlocked every single achievement of the game you're playing.

I now have unlocked more than 5000+ achievements from all the games I have played on Steam. Who said I didn't have a life huh? hashtag sarcasm :P

You can read about my first 30 Perfect Games and my short review on them from my two earlier posts Reaching 10 Perfect Games and Reaching 30 Perfect Games.

In this post, I'll cover the next 20 games where I got 100% achievement, along with a short review on them in case any of you are interested. I know, most of you must be bored with the games related post I've been putting up here lately. But trust me, they are actually very fun once you get into it :)

1. Quell

Total achievements unlocked: 35/35

Total time played: 7 hours

Game link: Quell

Cost of game: INR 229

2. Quell Reflect

Total achievements unlocked: 38/38

Total time played: 7 hours

Game link: Quell Reflect

Cost of game: INR 229

3. Quell Memento

Total achievements unlocked: 31/31

Total time played: 8 hours

Game link: Quell Memento

Cost of game: INR 229

The three Quell games above are an interesting puzzle game with a very soothing ambient background music. It took me roughly around 8 hours to complete each of them. The difficulty level ranges from moderate to hard, especially if you're trying to unlock all achievements (find all gems, time pieces etc). If you want to play something to exercise your brain and yet at the same time relax while doing so, get these three games. Their fourth game "Quell Zen" is already out and I am waiting for it to go on sale. All Quell games are available on iOS and Android too, with the first few levels free and the rest premium, but I suggest if you're going to buy them, do it from Steam as the background music score is much better on PC.

4. The Dweller

Total achievements unlocked: 11/11

Total time played: 2 hours

Game link: The Dweller

Cost of game: INR 259

This is one of the most underrated games I've played recently. I don't know why it is not popular at all. It is a puzzle game where you're a cave monster and you must kill all the archaeologists in the cave :D You can only travel from one edge to another connecting edge, so you have to put a lot of thought while strategizing. I admit it is not very polished, especially the UI, but once you get the hang of it, you'll have a good time playing it.

5. Flow Match

Total achievements unlocked: 4/4

Total time played: 2 hours

Game link: Flow Match

Cost of game: INR 58

Another cheap and simplistic puzzle game, where you need to spend a good amount of brain power to complete the game. You're a cube, like a 3D version of "Thomas Was Alone" and you must push other blocks to create a path in a restricted surrounding. And the ending… oh my… I'm not going to give away spoilers so do get this game as it is cheap.

6. True or False

Total achievements unlocked: 12/12

Total time played: 70 minutes

Game link: True or False

Cost of game: INR 58

7. True or False 2

Total achievements unlocked: 100/100

Total time played: 60 minutes

Game link: True or False  2

Cost of game: INR 58

An informative game where you are asked a question and you have to guess whether it is true or false. Most of the facts are very very interesting, and my knowledge about different subjects increased a lot. Even if you don't want to buy both, I suggest you get at least the second version (it has more achievements, and you can also play in batch, whereas for the first one, if you get a question wrong, to play that again you have to play all over from the first question with no option to skip).

8.WayOut

Total achievements unlocked: 66/66

Total time played: 5 hours

Game link: WayOut

Cost of game: INR 54

Another very interesting and unique puzzle game where you must convert all the colors to white. Clicking on one block affects its adjoining blocks and so on, and there are different types of blocks as well. I was stuck in the last remaining stage for at least an hour. Very challenging game. Do buy.

9. Cubicolor

Total achievements unlocked: 3/3

Total time played: 71 minutes

Game link: Cubicolor

Cost of game: INR 119

Great puzzle game. In this game, you must move your cube to corresponding colors until you reach your goal. And the tiles you've just moved from disappears, so you have to plan your path carefully. I have seen similar games like this, but I really like the minimalistic feel of this game. Very well polished.

10. Cross Set

Total achievements unlocked: 17/17

Total time played: 2 hours

Game link: Cross Set

Cost of game: INR 169

I thought I would love this minimalistic digit-based puzzle based game. I love Sudoku and this was something like that, with a twist. But unfortunately, it became very tiring and difficult to figure out the logic of finding a solution. It became more of a "trial and error" run rather than reasoning, and was quite stressful in the higher levels. I had to resort to using the guides (aka cheats) to complete the game. :(

11. Zup! 2

Total achievements unlocked: 229/229

Total time played: 28 minutes

Game link: Zup! 2

Cost of game: INR 58

12. Zup! 3

Total achievements unlocked: 1708/1708

Total time played: 1 hour

Game link: Zup! 3

Cost of game: INR 58

A dream come true for achievement hunters, lolz. I hate this game because games like this make other games lose their value of having achievements. I actually like the gameplay, it is a physics based game where you must land a square at a particular platform. Quite enjoyable to play. But they went all kamikaze on the achievements. In my previous post, I have mentioned about Zup! having 118 achievements. Well, in Zup!2 there are 229 achievements. And if that is not enough, Zup!3 has freaking 1708 achievements! Fuck. And you get an achievement for just clicking on the screen and shit. Though it has boosted up my total number of achievements, I am definitely not proud of it.

13. Super Duper Flying Genocide 2017

Total achievements unlocked: 1002/1002

Total time played: 30 minutes

Game link: Super Duper Flying Genocide 2017

Cost of game: INR 58

Ladies and gentlemen, here is another shit game purely for the achievements. At least the Zup! series above had an interesting physics gameplay. In this game, you do nothing but abduct people by sucking them up using your UFO. There are certain people you shouldn't abduct, but the game doesn't punish you if you do, so who cares. There are certain type and number of people (target) you should abduct at every mission, but again the game doesn't punish you if you don't, so who cares again. You just mindlessly move horizontally back and forth while sucking up everybody and putting the sound in mute because it is super annoying, and you keep leveling up and leveling up until you unlock every achievement, all 1002 of them. Stupid game.

14. There’s Poop In My Soup

Total achievements unlocked: 22/22

Total time played: 6 hours

Game link: There’s Poop In My Soup

Cost of game: INR 58

Haha. Silly game but actually enjoyable :D You must poop on people below, lolz. And people react differently as well. You can't just mindlessly poop, you have to carefully time your poop so that it lands on the desired person or object below. Disgusting and immature, hence I love it! :D

15. Abrix for Kids

Total achievements unlocked: 19/19

Total time played: 2 hours

Game link: Abrix for kids

Cost of game: INR 259

Abrix "for kids" my ass. Some of the levels were really tough, not because of level designing but rather poor interface and control system. Fortunately, you can unlock all achievements by playing at the "level editor". That was the only saving grace for this game. Get this game only if you want the achievements.

16. Mortifero Motus

Total achievements unlocked: 11/11

Total time played: 13 minutes

Game link: Mortifero Motus

Cost of game: INR 58

This game looked polished, except it wasn't. Very nice art style and minimalistic environment, but the gameplay was repetitive and simple. This game has a lot of potential. You must drive your car from point A to B while avoiding obstacles. You can collect money on the way, but they serve no freaking purpose, lolz. And the learning curve is flat, the AI does not change its behavior as you progress further, only the speed becomes faster. I completed the game and got 100% achievement in under 15 minutes. I don't recommend this game because there is no replayability factor. There are many free Flash games like this out there.

17. That's Mahjong!

Total achievements unlocked: 16/16

Total time played: 1 hour

Game link: That’s Mahjong!

Cost of game: INR 119

If you like Mahjong Solitaire (single player version of Mahjong) then this is a good game for you. And it has a very relaxing background music with a variety of background themes. The only flaw is, it is a bit difficult to see the stack level of the cards from top view, which is critical for a game like Mahjong. But if you are an achievement hunter, then this game gives you achievements for simply selecting a particular game mode or background theme. I unlocked all achievements in less than 5 minutes, but continued playing it for more than an hour (and I will return many times later).

18. boxlife

Total achievements unlocked: 1/1

Total time played: 1 hour

Game link: boxlife

Cost of game: INR 169

I am confused with this game. Do I recommend it or not? First up, it is a first person exploration game where you collect some "power-ups" that will give you new abilities to jump, double jump, shoot etc. I initially hated the game because there was no instruction; I didn't know what the heck I was supposed to do. But then I read the discussion forums and slowly learnt the ropes. And I also encountered a serious bug where I couldn't double-jump from a certain point, but nobody else seemed to experience that bug so I found some other method to complete that task. I'd say, get this game only when it is on sale.

19. They Came From The Moon

Total achievements unlocked: 9/9

Total time played: 6 hours

Game link: They Came From The Moon

Cost of game: INR 53

A lot of the reviewers hated this game, but I actually liked it :) In this game, you must guide a couple of aliens by placing direction blocks. You can easily get 100% achievement by simply playing this game and then switching your tab while you do something else, and in 2 hours you will have 100% achievement. But like I said, I really like the concept and so far have played it for more than 6 hours. The game is extremely unpolished with bad UI but trust me, this game has a lot of potential, if only the developers addresses some of the issues people are raising.

20. NEKOPARA Vol. 0

Total achievements unlocked: 13/13

Total time played: 30 minutes

Game link: NEKOPARA Vol. 0

Cost of game: INR 169

So the one genre of games I have never played till now, are the manga and anime games. I am not into manga or anime (or hentai for that matter :P ) but a lot of my friends are. And so I decided to give it a shot, after all, being a game designer, you gotta catch 'em all right? I bought NEKOPARA Vol.0 which was on sale, and hehehe, such a weird game. I mean it was exactly as I expected, and it was a good experience. You unlock achievements for just petting the characters… and urrmm you can pet other parts of their body as well and see their reaction, lolz. Completed the game in 30 minutes. Good stuff, but I won't be venturing into this genre again.

And so with that, I've reached 50 Perfect Games. Will update my blog with this topic again once I reach 100 :) Until then, cheers.

Chp 646. Throwback Thursday #2 - Mortal Kombat

Today's Throwback Thursday is dedicated to Mortal Kombaaaaaat :D

I am not going to brag :P (okhay fiiine I'm gonna brag a bit here) but back in Engineering college, I was an MK4 champ :D :D

MK4 - Mortal Kombat 4, was the first game from the Mortal Kombat series that came out on PC in 3D, and we were all hooked to the game. This was way back in the early 2000, so some of the popular PC games back then were AOE II, Max Payne and Diablo II.

At our PSG Tech hostel, we would have this occasional MK4 tournaments. All my friends would select their favorite fighter and tried to master its moves. Raiden and Liu Kang were the majority's favorites because you know, easy combo spam (F-F-HK for Liu Kang's "Flying Kick" and F-F-LK for Raiden's "Torpedo"). I on the other hand, decided to master all of them!

For the tournaments, we played the "Vs. Endurance" mode, where both players played every character of the game until the last one (Johnny Cage) was beaten. Since I was trying to learn the combos of every fighter, initially, I got my ass kicked many times by my friends who had mastered one or two characters.

But I kept practicing and practicing. Sometimes I would wake up early in the morning and run around the hostel field listening to "Eye of the tiger" while practicing my MK4 combo moves with my fingers in the air :P

Soon, by around third year in college, I had mastered the Special Moves combos of each and every single character in MK4, including a few fatality combos and Jax's 5 Multi-Slam combo. After that I was unstoppable. Nobody in hostel could beat me in "Vs Endurance" anymore.

I even took part in a small local tournament hosted by a cyber café slash gaming parlour near our college, and I won the tournament easily, beating around 20 other contestants. The grand prize was 50 hours of free browsing time :D Sadly, I was no longer allowed to take part in the next tournaments after that :D

I guess other people heard of my petty fame, and students from adjoining colleges like CIT, GCT and PSGCAS actually travelled all the way to my PSG Tech hostel room to challenge me for a "Vs. Endurance" match. And they would always return disappointedly :D

I still remember some of them coming to my hostel room with their own keyboards. A two-player MK4 match was played on the same keyboard, so if you were playing on a cheap or inferior keyboard, you could actually press all the keys to freeze the ongoing match, a cheap tactic that shameless people use in order run down the time if they had more health :)

Mastering MK4 wasn't just about learning all the special combo moves, it was about quick finger reflexes, anticipating your opponent's moves, knowing the right combo to play and which combo to use to counter your opponent's combo. It was more about playing a mind game with your opponent.

Unlike the later MK games and other fighting games, there was no such thing as a power or stamina meter for MK4, so the fighting was pretty much straightforward. I have played a lot of different games in my lifetime, but MK4 really holds a special place in my heart because it was the one game nobody could beat me at.

More than 15 years later, I am now working in this awesome gaming company where we also have a lot of recreational activities to do when we are feeling stressed out, like a TT table, dart board, mini basketball ring etc along with an Xbox. And the most popular game we play on that Xbox is Mortal Kombat XL.

sighhh… so many memories it brought back.

MK XL is nothing but MK X with two DLC character and costume packs.

Of course the graphics and animations are way more awesome than MK4 (lelz) and I haven’t played on a console since my Nintendo Samurai days in the 90's, so it took me some time to get used to it. A lot of my colleagues use the joystick instead of direction keys to move but I find that very difficult to use.

Currently, my favorite characters from Mortal Kombat XL is Quan Chi. He is so dark, I love his portal attacks and curses :D My favorite special move of his is of course his "Sky Drop", though I must admit, it is not as dramatic as it was in MK4, where he would actually stomp his opponent repeatedly :D That was hilarious. The only way to counter that in MK4 was to block or use Fujin's "Whirlwind Spin" / Sonya's "Bicycle Kick".

But I like him here as well.

And so, just two days ago, I got an alert notification from one of my wishlist games on Steam. And guess which one it was?

Yup, Mortal Kombat XL.

My aim is to download it and practice at home so I can kick everybody's ass in office :D

The current cost of Mortal Kombat X is Rs. 1179, Kombat Pack 1 costs Rs. 729 and Kombat Pack 2 costs Rs. Rs. 565. So all three of them are almost Rs. 2500.

Guess how much I bought it for?

Haha, just Rs. 424 :D

That's more than an 80% discount.

Time to kick start this monster now.

Cheers y'all :)

Chp 645. Throwback Thursday #1 - Hostel Parties

One of the fondest memories I had as a child was growing up in a boarding school and having a "hostel party" with my friends.

This was before my Montfort School days. Back in 1989, I joined St. Thomas Boys School at Khidderpore, back then Calcutta, and yeah it was actually a very memorable time. Montfort School taught me discipline and the rigors of a residential boarding school, but St. Thomas was where I experienced life at its full brim :)

Our STBS hostel had three floors. The ground floor was (ironically) called middle dormitory, which was for students from class 5-6 till 9-10, the middle floor was called senior dorm where class 10-12 students stayed, and the top floor was called junior dorm which was occupied by all the younger students below class 5-6. I had to put hyphenated figures because there were aberrations here and there, which I think were based on maturity and preference.

I was in the top-most junior dormitory.

We had wardens overlooking each dormitory. For us, there was Aunty Riche, Middle dorm had Aunty Hale, and Senior dorm had Aunty Goodall. I may get a few names or spellings wrong as this happened more than 25 years ago.

Now, here's what our dormitories were like back then. Unlike Montfort School or other hostels that I have seen till now, there were no "personal cupboards" next to our beds. Instead, there was this vast empty hall with beds placed next to each other, and we had our trunks under our beds while our lockers were at a different location (we called it the locker room).

Hence those of us who were scared of "ghosts" could easily push our beds next to our neighbor's bed once the hostel lights were switched off (and I confess I did that many times!).

Back then, my Mizo amigos at junior dormitory were Rothangpuia, Zothangliana, and the two brothers Joseph and Hmingtea. The five of us had nicknames for each other. I was "thick lips", RTPa was "round legs", Anggu was "haddi", Joseph was "kir bep" and Hmingtea was "four eyes". We drew this "super hero" who had a round wheels for legs, extremely skinny, curly haired, super large eyes with an equally super large lips, and we really loved that :)

My cousins, the twins u Dinga and u Zara, and Sangtea were also in the same hostel but in different dormitories. I will never forget that night I was bullied by a Manipuri senior (I think his name was Jagdish Sigham) and my cousin came to my defense and fought with him, except I really can't remember now whether that was u Dinga or u Zara! :D Twins are so confusing sometimes :P All I remembered was, pow pow pow and there they were on the floor punching and pounding each other until a Prefect came and stopped the fight. I love you my cousins. :)

Coming back to this topic, we would have "hostel parties" occasionally. I googled "hostel parties" for reference and this was one of the many images I immediately got.

[image source – Google image search Hostel Parties]

Urrmmm… yeah… this wasn't how our hostel parties were. :D

Back in STBS, hostel parties were times when we were allowed to eat snacks inside our dormitories late in the night. It happened only in the weekends, and it was something we always looked forward to. This is another image I finally found on google image search, and this one is much closer to what I’m talking about.

[image source – Google image search Indian school hostels]

I had to use google image because I don’t have a single photo of my STBS days! :(

In fact, the image below that my friend RTPa had uploaded to his Facebook album is the only image of me during my entire four years stint at St. Thomas. So sad :(

And so during such hostel parties, all of us would sit on the floor together with our respective group of friends. A towel is laid at the center of the group, and every member of that group would bring out an item from their respective tuck box to contribute to the "feast".

Now and then our warden Aunty Riche would come out of her room (with her long cane) to make sure nobody was eating on their bed or that people weren’t making unnecessary loud noise or mess.

There were also certain people who would roam around from one group to the other asking for "contributions". RTPa and Anggu-a did that many times :D They would both carry this towel, holding it on either ends, and move from one group to the other where the other boys would put in a handful of biscuits or chips etc. and eventually they would have enough food to feast on :D

The most popular items in our hostel parties were "muris" and "chanachurs". You gotta love Kolkata for the street food. Nothing in this Universe can beat the awesomeness of puchhkas, jhaal muris and bhel puris. Other Indian cities may have their own versions or even call it by different names like paani puri or golgappa, but they’re never as awesome as the Kolkata versions. Muri (puffed rice) is a very common snack back in STBS hostel, along with different varieties of chanachur.

Recently, I came across a sponsored ad on Facebook. It was this new website called Place Of Origin. What caught my eye immediately was the word "Mukharochak". That was the name of a very popular brand when I was STBS hostel that sold different assortments of snacks like chanachurs and muris (pretty much like how "Haldirams" is synonymous with sweets and bhujiyas).

I went to the website immediately, and drooled at the options of food available for order - Papri chanachur, Mirchi chanachur, Khatta-mitha chanachur, Masala muri, Kabuli chana, Chaal bhaja, Chira bhaja, Nimki, Chowkhas, they had it all!!!

I placed an order immediately.

In less than a week, my order reached Pune.

Woohoooo!

As I sat their enjoying the awesome snacks, it was STBS hostel party all over again. In my head, I could hear the echo of a thousand laughter, of us being kids again, running across the dormitory or sitting around a towel filled with such snacks and hogging them down and having the best time of our life.

Sigh, such wonderful memories.

The Nimki also tasted exactly like how my dear departed dad used to make when I was a kid. I would watch him roll and flatten the base, and he would let me cut it in the diamond shape before frying them. Over here, they call it Namkeen. And no, it is not the same. Nimki till I die.

I’ll definitely be ordering a few more stuff from Place of Origin. I also saw a similar sponsored Facebook ad on my timeline again, this time leading to a similar (competing) website called Flavors of my City featuring Mukharochak and a few more brands. I’ll definitely give that a shot as well. I know I’m seeing all these ads on my timeline because of my browsing behavior, and while many people complain about invasion of privacy, I really don’t mind man. It’s much better than seeing completely unrelated ads that I have no interest in.

And so, this is my #ThrowbackThursday post for this week.

Until the next throwback, cheers y’all.

Chp 644. The Designated Spoiler

It’s 2017 now. And the holiday breaks are over when it comes to most TV series. Sherlock is back with a bang with the usual awesomeness and a lot of twists and heartbreaks. I mean, it HAS to be awesome when it takes two freaking years to film just 3 or 4 episodes per season right? Will we see season 5 or not? Even if we do, rest assured it will happen only in 2018 or 19.

Other favorite shows of mine have started airing again too. Lucifer, Chicago PD, Blindspot, The Blacklist, Madam Secretary, Elementary, they’re all back with their latest episodes. I’ve stopped watching Criminal Minds though, which had been one of my fav shows for the past 10 years. Ever since Morgan left and Hotch was fired from the sets, the cases had all become boring and cliché. 

Suits is still on a hiatus, but for those of you who love Suits, I really recommend you watch Conviction which too has just started airing after the winter break. Similar lines and plot.

Lethal Weapon too is back, and at first I thought the show wasn’t going to work out, like that shitty MacGyver remake. What an insult to my childhood favorite show MacGyver that we used to watch back in Mizoram via Bangladesh channel, by simply twisting and adjusting our TV antennae :D

But in the case of this latest Lethal Weapon remake, wow, the chemistry between Clayne Crawford and Damon Wayans was just as awesome as the original Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh – Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. And of course it feels a bit weird seeing the same actor in two different shows you’re currently watching. In this case, it was Martin and Roger’s captain Brooks Avery, played by Kevin Rahm who also plays as "Mike B" in Madam Secretary, as Secretary Elizabeth McCord’s personal friend and consultant. And then there’s also Amenadiel from Lucifer who is also in Suits as Jeff Malone, Jessica Pearson’s lover.

At the same time, it is great to see the same character cross-over across different shows. We see regular crossovers among casts of Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Law & Order SVU and the soon to launch Chicago Justice where detective Antonio went to join Philip Winchester’s team. But I think all of us will agree the recent Arrowverse Invasion! crossover was one of the best crossovers we’ve even seen, as heroes from Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl teamed up to battle alien invaders across four explosive episodes. Sadly, all four mentioned shows are still on a break and will start airing only from February.

Even with that, I am still in a very happy place because of the other new episodes coming out. But I do have an axe to grind. And that is regarding this new TV show called The Designated Survivor.

I am a HUGE fan of Jack Bauer from the "24" series, and when I learnt that Kiefer Sutherland was going to be in "The Designated Survivor" I was ecstatic. I loved the plot and the suspense within the show. And just before the winter break started, the show ended with a cliffhanger – Did the assassin manage to shoot President Kirkman or did he shoot somebody else because of the distraction caused by Hannah Wells (played by the oh so beautiful Maggie Q, anybody still remembers her from "Nikita"?)

And that’s what most TV shows do, you know, end a season or the last episode before a long break with a cliffhanger. End it in suspense so that many viewers will be coming back to find out what happened next.

Except in the case of "The Designated Survivor", somebody royally screwed up.

So I went to IMDB to find out when the show will start airing again. 8th March it said. I was disappointed it was going to be such a long wait. But what I read further below was even more disappointing. Check it out for yourself. Read what is written for the plot of episode #12.

Are you fucking kidding me IMDB?????

Now we all know who got shot. Thank you very much. Idiot. What a total idiot whoever wrote that piece is. We need Jack Bauer to kick the person’s ass thoroughly. That writer just spoilt all the suspense. To be frank, I thought it would be Peter MacLeish who was shot instead, since his cover was blown anyway. But now there’s no point in imagining anything. I’m not even looking forward to the March release anymore.

Heh. 

The only redemption and saving grace from this debacle is if Kirkman’s wife was indeed killed but she was not the one shot at the end of episode #10, but then why mention something like that in the plot of episode #12 unless it happened earlier? This is so crazy man.

Mizohican out.

Chp 643. Happy New Year!

This is my last post for the year 2016.

This is also my 50th blog update this year. And for 10 years in a row now since 2006, I have been posting at least 50 blog posts every year! :)

I thank God and everyone in my life who had influenced and encouraged me to keep writing. Blogging is easy. Anybody can do it. But being consistent is the toughest part of being a blogger. I had known so many amazing writers and photographers who would update their blog with such rich and informative content, only to wane out after a year or two.

And there are many reasons why people stopped blogging. New job, new life, new wife, and so on. As for me, I started blogging during my MBA phase. Continued blogging during my jobless phase in Mumbai. Followed by my born-again phase in Mizoram. Followed by my coaching class phase in Delhi. Followed by my family man phase back in Mizoram. Followed by my Advertising agency phase in Mumbai. Followed by my Start-Up creation years in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. And now I am finally in my Pune game designer phase. With all the new changes I have faced many times, it really feels good to know I was able to write at least 50 blog posts every year.

The main reason why I continue blogging dedicatedly is because I've realized that my blog posts serve as a great memory recollection stimulant!

Since I usually blog about a great experience that happened to me or something that I am strongly opinionated about/against, it is very reminiscing to read about that incident again years down the road :) Sometimes memories fade as time goes by, but reading about it again really refreshes that path down memory lane.

Sometimes I would have this vivid fantasy, you know, that I had been in an accident and suffered a serious head trauma and thus lost all my memories, and as I tried to piece my life back together, I stumbled across my blog post through an accidental Google search, and slowly started recollecting my memories one by one by reading through my old blog posts, and eventually discovered my accident was actually a failed assassination attempt and I ended up killing the perpetrators and prevented a nuclear bomb from going off at the Parliament. Ahhh… could be a good movie plot :P (or maybe a game plot? *wink*)

So I guess my New Year message to all my friends and blog readers is for you to get into the habit of blogging. Write about your life, what happened, what do you think of so and so, even a review on your homemade scrambled eggs would suffice. Make it a habit, and trust me, this investment will pay off years from now when you go through your old blog posts again. It is never too late to start something new.

Cheers everyone, and have a great New Year!

[ image source ]

Chp 642. Age of Empires - Burmese campaign

Growing up, many of us had fond memories of playing many computer games. All the hours we spent immersed in a game and the overflowing satisfaction of having completed it.

For me, one such game was Age of Empires. Classic RTS game, the mother of all strategy games. And the beauty of AoE is that, they are still active even today!

Though this popular franchise had many series and expansions, the most popular was AoE II, which was first released in 1999 as "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings". This was followed by the much awaited expansion "Age of Empires II: The Conquerors" the next year. This was during my engineering college days, and I missed many classes because of this game (and Diablo II). I barely managed to scrape through on attendance requirement.

AoE II came to Steam gaming platform in 2013 as "Age of Empires II: HD edition" along with a new expansion "The Forgotten" introducing us to new civilizations - the Italians, Indians, Slavs, Magyars and Incas, along with many new units, techs, maps etc. Two years later, the third expansion set "The African Kingdoms" was released, which had new civs - the Berbers, Ethiopians, Malians, and the Portuguese.

I bought all the games above on Steam, not just because I wanted to relive fond memories again, but mainly to pay back the developers for having downloaded their pirated games years ago. Those were the days when it was either really difficult to buy a game because of no online payment access or they were too expensive at Landmark, which was the only outlet back then that sold PC game CDs here in India.

Last week, Age of Empires II released their fourth expansion set "The Rise of the Rajas" featuring four new civilizations - the Burmese, Malays, Khmer, and Vietnamese. I pre-purchased the DLC  immediately the moment they announced it. Though I have bought many games on Steam, this was the first time I had pre-purchased a game!

I was sooo looking forward to it, mainly because of the Burmese civilization. I know, we had the Indian civilization in "The Forgotten" expansion, but it was about Prithviraj Chauhan's campaign, featuring battles among the Rajput clans and against the Sultanate invaders. While it was cool to charge into battles with Elite Elephant Archers and Imperial Camels, as a Northeasterner, all that didn't quite hit close to home for us. I mean, the present day NE wasn't a part of any of the ancient Indian dynasties, whereas Burmese civilization felt more of home to us.

I took two days leave from office the moment the game was available for download, and I played the Burmese Bayinnaung campaign immediately. Two days of bliss (and frustration) but I was finally able to complete the campaign. And when I did that, it was my first zero percenter achievement!

As of today, only 0.02% of AoE players on Steam have earned this particular achievement so far! :)

There are five missions in the Bayinnaung campaign.

The first one is The Burmese Tiger where we must fight against the Khmer, Chinese and Indians, with an option to become an ally with the Portuguese (by paying a tribute). The objective of the mission is to kill King Takayutpi of Hanthawaddy and capture the monument in Prome.

Quite an easy campaign. The secondary objective is to kill King Takayutpi within 5 minutes, but I said screw it, I like to play slow and steady. I took my own time building up my resources and techs and slowly invaded each empire one by one. Your base will also be rarely attacked by the enemies, so just put a couple of watch towers and that's enough. But stones are hard to find, so be smart where you place your towers.

Once you come across the Portuguese on the western part of the map, for just 500 gold, they'll become your ally (I guess if you don't agree to pay that tribute, they'll attack you?). And after that, for another 500 gold, you can control their entire unit. But of course by then I had already wiped out all the empires and the only objective left was to capture the monument in the center, so I had a super army storming Prome. :) Fun mission.

Mission 2: The Mandalay Cobra. In this campaign, we must fight another Burmese king Ava, and there are two other enemies as well, the Chinese and Malays. Challenging campaign because the map was in a pilgrim city, so we could not build any walls. So I had this huge open space where attack could come from anywhere. I failed a couple of times in the beginning.

The main objective of the game is to accumulate 4000 gold. You cannot build mines and there are no gold deposits, but you have a couple of monasteries with relics in them that generate gold. Enemies will keep coming, trying to destroy the monasteries and you have to protect them with your scattered forces. There are Burmese allies too who will join your army once reach them. Since the population limit is set to just 100 for this map, I best advice you max up your pop first before getting these new recruits.

Mission 3: The Royal Peacock. Another extremely fun mission. I read online that people found this mission tough, but I got lucky because in the beginning, instead of reaching my force directly, I explored around a bit and found a priest who joined my force. And using him, I was able to convert all the Ballista Elephants my Khmer enemy was sending in the early part of the game.

The objective of the game is to kill the other four Burmese kingdoms, or build a wonder. I allied with the most powerful enemy closest to me by paying a hefty tribute, after that I cordoned off the entire central area, placing Ballista elephants as guards. And I kept mining every resources I could find. I even went to my ally's area, built a wall around the mines so his people couldn't access them :D Soon I had enough resources to build a wonder. The other three Burmese kingdoms attacked me but they were no match for my horde of converted Ballista Elephants, thanx to the Khmer. You win after 200 years once the wonder is completed.

Mission 4: The White Elephant. Really tough mission. You must place a relic in four different Khmer monasteries, all heavily guarded, and you cannot take your own time because you must do that in 695 years. I saved and replayed a lot, because I had to save time and do everything as fast as possible. Even if I managed to place a relic in a monastery, I replayed a saved file again because I took too much time doing it or I lost too many units in the process. There's a population cap of just 40, so yeah, I had to rely on my monks to convert enemies as I progressed.

Mission 5: The Old Tiger. Lolz, one of the toughest AoE campaigns I have ever played! I took more than a day playing this blasted mission. But yeah, it was so much fun. The objective of the game is to bring Bayinnuang to four different Buddhist Temples, all well guarded, where he will meditate for a short while as you protect him from the attackers. He or his son Nanda cannot die. And you have a hell of an army - 171 units to be precise.

You have 10 Battle Elephants, 20 Arambais, 8 Knights, 14 Two-hand swordsmen, 3 Bombard cannons, 3 Monks, 3 Villagers and 2 trebuchets led by Bayinnuang and Nanda from the eastern side. On the western side, you have 18 War Galleys, 4 Cannon Galleons, 3 Demolition Ships, 4 Fire Ships, and 6 Transport Ships carrying 30 Two-hand swordsmen, 12 Pikemen, 8 Arambais, 5 Sunda Royal fighters, 2 Bombard Cannons, 8 Battle Elephants, 2 Monks and 2 villagers led by Thinga Dathta. That's huge.

But hehe, not easy at all! As you move towards your first monastery, you will be attacked by the defender of that empire. Apart from that, you will also be continuously attacked by the Portuguese and Vietnamese from behind! Died so many times. The Portuguese had superior tech, and the Vietnamese archers were deadly too, whereas I didn't have any ranged units. My Arambais, which is the unique Burmese unit, is a ranged cavalry that throws freaking darts at the enemies, and they have extremely low accuracy!  Useless.

Finally, after my 50th retry, I decided to change my tactic. The four defending empires will attack you only after you start attacking them, but the Portuguese and Vietnamese from the north will keep attacking you wave after wave. And so I decided to get rid of those two mofos first :D

From my Eastern army, I ventured out with my Battle Elephants and Arambai units, along with my 3 monks and Bayinnuang (who is also a monk). Instead of marching East towards the 4 monasteries, I assembled to march up North. I placed all my Elephant units on the first line, all in defensive stance. Behind them the monks, and behind them the Arambais, also in defensive stance.

When the Vietnamese archers or Portuguese came down to attack me, the Elephants bore the brunt of the attack, and I quickly healed them while trying to convert as many as I could. They usually attacked in 3-4 units so I ended up converting quite a lot of archers. The Portuguese pikemen dealt more damage to my Elephants than the archers, who were quickly eliminated by my Arambais and converted archers standing behind my monks. I saved my progress many times, as I couldn't afford to lose any monks.

And then I called on my 2 trebuchets and attacked the walls and towers of the Vietnamese empire. They kept attacking, and I kept converting as many as possible. Also it is very important to immediately recall converted enemies to your flank and heal them, and also to change their stance to defensive, because by default, they are offensive and they will rush out to attack enemies on their own. Soon I had a very strong range unit and my total army count crossed 250. After many more saves and replays, I wiped out the Vietnamese and later the Portuguese. I got lucky as I converted 2 monks and 1 trebuchet, making my progress faster.

With the Vietnamese and Portuguese gone, it was much easier attacking the four empires. I mean, that took me quite a while too, but it wasn't as frustrating as attacking them directly.

And with that, I completed the Burmese campaign. What an experience indeed.

The Burmese also have a unique tech upon reaching Imperial Age that gives the Arambai additional +6 damage against buildings. The name of that tech is "Manipur Cavalry" :D

And so that was how I spent my Christmas eve, lolz. Happy holidays everyone.