Friday morning’s review of the last Saturday night’s beer – Leffe Triple

Time for one last belated beer blog of the year and it’s a great way to round things off : that most special of Leffes the ‘Leffe Triple’.

The Leffe Triple seal in all it's glory

As readers of my Leffe Neuf post will know, I was lucky enough to go to Brussels on business a few weeks back. At the end of the trip I managed to pick up a couple of Leffe variants not available in the UK and bring them safely home on the Eurostar.

The Leffe Triple will always have a special place in my heart as it was the last beer I drank on my first trip to Brussels with my girlfriend. We sat outside at a bar near the centre of the city and watched the South Korea vs Nigeria World Cup match with a few beers, a cheese plate and some pommes frites (yes, I have a very understanding and awesome gf!). It was a great afternoon.

Leffe Triple is another strong Belgian beer.  It has the most beautifuly thunderous burnished chestnut-red colouring out there. It always seems to pour with a perfect 1/2 inch head as well. Purrty!!

The back of the bottle reads:

‘Brewed in Belgium according to the traditional recipe of the monks of the Abbey of Leffe. Slightly cloudy through re-fermentation and aromatised with spices.’

(The fact that Leffe Triple has English wording on the back of the bottle whereas Leffe Neuf does not  suggests that we may see Triple imported officially to the UK in future?)

The ‘Triple’ in the title presumably refers to the bottle conditioned fermentation process. This is where the beer is re-seeded with yeast while in the bottle – allowing extra brewing of carbohydrates to alcohol (I may well be wrong or not-quite-right on this so if anyone knows better then let me know…).

Leffe Triple looking proper tasty !

Looking back on my notes on the taste from last weekend I noted the Triple had ‘great smell’ and a ‘metalic-edge’ to the taste whilst being both ‘bubbly, yeasty’ & ‘sharp’.

It maybe that I was pretty drunk at the point of writing this as I also noted that it ‘felt great, warms the blood’ and was ‘better than the Neuf’. My real recollection was that it as a delicious, thick ale that was pretty much prefect ^^.

Well that’s it for beer reviews for this year. It’s been emotional!

Next year, as well as the usual morning after reviews, I will be taking some advice from the Trappist Monks referenced in my last post and adding some cheese to the mix (I will draft in my girlfriends cheese tasting skills here). Lets find the best cheese and ale combos around in the UK!

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE – Leady247 ^^

Review – Dragon of the Three Kingdoms – Battle Naman Barbarians

Dragon of the Three Kingdoms – Battle Naman Barbarians

Key Info

Developer: WaGames
Format: iOS
Price: £0.59p
Languages: English or Chinese Text
Play Time: 3-4rs
Completion Rate: 48%

(Disclaimer: There are not many official screens for this game so I had to take many of the ones in this review myself using my blackberry so they are a bit blurry but I thought they still looked ok.)

The Dragon that Piqued my Interest

Dragon of Three Kingdoms (Dot3K) is a iPhone/Pad game that was interesting to me for two reasons: it was Three Kingdoms based as well as being what looked like a 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up which is one of my favourite gaming genres.

A Three Kingdoms side-scroller...? Sounds good!

The developer – WaGames  - describes the game as an ‘Action RPG’ but I would say it is more like an mini 2D Musou game. That sounds pretty good right? However at £0.59 or $0.99 you very much get what you pay for and production values are sorely lacking.  In many ways Dot3K feels like a rush release of a small chunk of what was perhaps a much larger 2D Three Kingdoms based project (we can dream…).

What’s it all about?

Let’s start with the Story-Line: The game consists of 6-stages that tell the story of the titular Dragon of the Three Kingdoms: Shu knight Zhao Yun – as he assaults the Southern Naman Kingdom on China.

Its's Zhao Yun with a sword..(coming soon to DW7!)

Players of Dynasty Warriors will recognise Three Kingdoms characters such as Shu’s strategist Zhuge Liang, fire & bomberang babe Zhu Rong (here Chu Rong) and her husband and Naman commander Meng Huo.

The Dot3K version of Zhu Rong...not too bad I think.

Each stage begins with Zhao Yun receiving a briefing from Zhuge Liang on his mission.   The Little Dragon then proceeds to plow through battlefields populated by the same 3 or 4 enemy  grunt variations before reaching a boss character.  After defeating the boss it’s time to take the loot, hit the shops to power-up and then it’s on to another stage.  Sound familiar?

The likenesses of each the major characters are pretty close to their Dynasty Warriors counterparts.  I think Zhao Yun looks particularly cool here and I particularly like the way he carries his sword Chinese style with the hilt facing forward. Big-time Zhao Yun fans may be unhappy he is not equipped with his famous spear but I believe if they try the game they will be very happy with their fav character’s portrayal overall – he is still the dashing, agile hero in blue and silver we all expect!

Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun appear in another exciting cut-scene, you can cut the tension with a knife -_-

Controlling the Mini-Musou

It is clear that WaGames looked closely at the Musou template during the creation of Dot3K. Alot of the hall-marks of the Musou formula are present and correct here.

Combat is a hit-point based affair – enemy characters have the iconic red energy bar above their heads ready for your slashes to whittle down.  Stronger enemies have more hit-points and the way to over-come them is 70% levelling-up and item equipping to achieve better statistics, 20% player skill and 10% luck (non-existent AI means you never know when an enemy will get trapped behind a wall etc).

After some chatting much slashing ensues...

The actual slashing mechanic reminds me a little of Golden Axe in that it is a standard combo that builds through continued strikes to the enemy – even the sound effect is quite similar. You can also change the direction of the strikes during the combo.  The combo in Dot3K consists of a few slashes, a couple of hacks followed by a dragon-punch+sword type move that reminds me of Hayato in Marvel vs Capcom 2 or Star Gladiator.

The controls are mapped onto a touch-screen d-pad and buttons. I have to say they are layed out well, don’t let your fingers get in the way of the action and are responsive – thumbs up to WaGames for this implementation.

While the animation is nicely satisfying and the controls are decent, Dot3K is very much a case of ‘renbu’-style brainless one-button-mashing combat. As with Dynasty Warriors when you equip a new and more powerful sword it alters the visual effects by adding elemental powers and sometimes the speed of the strikes but no new moves are added on top of the character’s basics.

There are six stages to 'renbu' your way through...

Any depth to the combat or is Zhao Yun just another pretty face?

Dot3K combat requires no real skill or tactics of the player other than reading some basic attack animation patterns and knowing when to break off attacks to avoid retaliation. As your speed statistic increases relative to the enemy you are able to circle around and attack from behind which is pretty effective.

There is also a rudimentary kill-chaining/combo-ing system in there but I was unable to tell if this had any effect on the game or was just something flashing up on screen for effect.

It's only really the boss/officer fights that demand any skill from the player.

The game also features a Musou bar under the player character’s life bar.  Once that is full the player can hit the ‘Fire’ icon to unleash a super (Musou) attack.  This consists of the exact same combo as your normal attack but accompanied by more flashy effects and does a hell of a lot more damage.  Hmmm…where have seen that before?

Players can equip one special ‘Flag’ skill which acts as a smart bomb.  Collect flags during the levels and once you reach a set amount you can trigger an area-of-affect attack which is perfect for clearing out a screen full of weaker enemies .  The flag skills I saw were a volley of arrows (4-flags consumed) or a flaming volley of arrows (7-flags consumed) etc.  This reminded me a little of Golden Axe’s magic potion based special attack system but has nothing like the visual charm or satisfaction.

There is nothing anywhere near this cool in Dot3K

Grinding out the Namans

As you would expect from a game based on the Musou formula Dot3K features a levelling system, items to collect and equipment to buy.

The levelling system is simple enough – killing enemies gives Zhoa Yun experience points and upon reaching a set amount of said points he levels-up and gets a stat boost.

Each of the 6 stages in the game are tagged for a specific character level.  So for example, the second level suggests you are level 10 before tackling it.  If you go in there at level 7  no matter how well you play you are not going to get far.

Musou fans - how many times have you levelled this guy up over the years?

Of course, as with a normal Musou game there is satisfaction to be had in trying a level and failing – then going away for a bit to level-up your character only to return and smash that level in!

Items can be collected from pots and crates in the level.  Items include power-ups (all of the usual Musou stuff: Meat Buns, armour-up, damage-up, Musou bar recovery etc.), money/treasure and the aforementioned flags.

The humble Meat-Bun. Loved by Warriors around the world!

At the end of the level money can be spent in the shop on better weapons and equipment to further boost the power of Lord Zhao Yun.

Other musou-inspired additions include mounts such as horses and elephants which work in a similar way to DW with standard attacks and a Musou charging-attack (again these were reminding me of the famous chicken-legs and dragons of Golden Axe in that they are powerful but hard to maneuver in a cramped 2D plane).

GORE! GORE! GORE!

(ed: apologies for the lack of screenshots in the next section.  I ran out! If the text gets to much just skip to the end and read the conclusion ^^)

So overall we have that fine Musou balance in place.  When everything is working well the game enables the player to feel empowered but also allows the enemies to present a decent threat providing a good amount of tension and excitement to the gameplay.

Those ‘Musou moments’ we all know and love – those last gasp Musou attacks that finish off an enemy crowd allowing you to escape or that desperate search for a single meat bun to stay alive are are all present and correct.

I also quite liked the way the Dot3K rewards you with extra lives if you stay alive for long enough – that’s a good reward for effective play.

But on the flipside – when the Dot3K loses that knife-edge balance it quickly falls into the trap of becoming a grinding treadmill. The player brainlessly killing identikit enemy after identikit enemy just to earn the experience points and money required to progress to the next stage.

As a gamer I am not anti-grinding but Dot3K does not offer enough goodies to keep you going.  Having only one playable character and not being able to have the promise of that next big unlock around the corner definitely sees Dot3K lose part of a true Koei Musou game’s ability to drag players through some monotonous periods of play.

(also of course Dot3K cannot offer the ‘Tactical Action’ side of Musou – without distractions such as the free-roaming maps, base invasions, troop flows etc. too much emphasis is placed on the combat and levelling system to carry the game.)

Lack of Variety

The thing that really cripples the game is a lack of variety inflicted by Dot3K’s obvious low production budget.  If you are going to build a game that asks the player to grind or re-play stages without offering any depth to the combat mechanics you need to have plenty of variety in the graphics, scenario/staging, unlockables/loot and stage set-pieces.

Dragon of the Three Kingdoms has minimal art-assets so one section of the level tends to look identical to another part.  Generally we only see one ‘gimmick’ on each level for example a river, rain-storm or ascending a mountain path.

As I did not play all of the game it is possible later levels add more variety but I doubt it. When you compare it to the detailed, surprise-filled designs of Golden Axe (we all remember the surprise of realising one of the levels was on the back of a giant eagle right?) there is clear lack of effort and inspiration.

This lack of visual flair and variety carries through to the character spirites themselves.  Each level has just 3 or 4 different grunt type enemies.  Generally you just have an archer, swordsman and spear-man though there are hints of sorcerers and other types later in the game.

In general only the bosses show any real flare or personality in their design (Chu Rong’s Dhalsim-style fire spitting attack is quite impressive for example).

It’s a shame there is not more variety as I actually quite like the quality of the sprite-work in the game and certainly Zhao Yun looks great standing still or in motion. Even blown up x2 on the iPad screen the characters have a decent chunky feel to them.  If only WaGames had more time and resource to pour into the game and could have brushed everything to Zhao Yun’s level  this would have been one superb looking 2D game.

In Conclusion

I can’t say that I did not enjoy playing Dragon of Three Kingdoms.  But the fun was mainly derived from the fact that I was playing a pretty satisfying version of Zhao Yun on a mission that I was already emotionally invested in from playing Musou games in the past.

I was motivated to see this new adaption of some of the Three Kingdoms visuals (the War Elephants here are pretty cool – I like the blood on their tusks) and interested to see just how far the developer would push for a true 2D Musou game.

I think without that level of curiosity around the subject matter it would be very hard to recommend this game as it is clearly sub-standard in game mechanics, production values and artistic direction  when compared with numerous games in both the ARPG and side-scrolling- beat ‘em up genre.

So for Three Kingdoms, Musou and expecially Zhao Yun fans I would say at 59p give this a go.

For everyone else, you can get Golden Axe and many other better games for the same price.

Overall Score: 3/10
Overall Score for Musou fans: 5/10
Overall Score for Zhao Yun fan-boys: 7/10

(If you want to know anything else about the game, just let me know in the comments box – Leady247)

Musou to Me part 1 – The Gischie Interview

I decided to work on a companion series to my ‘What makes a Musou?’ series called ‘Musou to Me’.  In this new series I will interview a variety of Musou game fans and find out their thoughts on the prolific series.

I will try and conduct the interviews face-to-face as I always think that off-the-cuff answers are much more interesting and enlightening.

I hope that the Musou fan’s answers will feed into the topics covered in the ‘What makes a Musou’ blog series.

My first interviewee will be my wonderful girlfriend and consistently brave guinea-pig Gischie.  You can read her thoughts on iphone game Tumbledrop here.

When did you play your first Musou game?

I played DW3 about 5 years ago in Paris.

Can you remember any of your first impressions of the game?

It was addictive.  I wanted to beat all of the stages but it was hard.  I wanted to finish all of the character’s story-lines to find out more about them.

Gischie's first Musou memories are of DW3. These War Elephants seem to be coming back to DW7 at least.

Did you do research outside of the game then?

Yes, I researched about each of the characters by searching the internet and looking at sites like Kongming.net and KoeiWarriors.

When would you say you became a Musou fan?

When I spent alot of time on DW3 and also getting active on the Koei Warriors forum (ed: Gischie was a key member of the Koei Warriors community during its period of rapid growth. You can read some of the history of that community here).

How have your impressions of Musou changed from when you first played DW3?

The old games were a lot more difficult – for example there were less power-up or healing items that you could collect.

Recently Musou has lost a lot of things compared to DW3….. Lost things that made it addictive.  For example characters are not so likeable now – sometimes they don’t have individual weapons.

The graphics are better now though.

Next-gen Musou game likes DW6 have improved graphics but Gischi feels that the characters have lost some of their individuality over time.

What would you say are the key things to making a good Musou game?

Firstly, it should be fun. There should be a good vareity of costumes – all sorts of things – even being able to get funny outfits like a police-women for Zhen Ji could be cool.

The story-lines are important – such as Chinese history.  If it wasn’t about the Three Kingdoms people wouldn’t like Dynasty Warriors so much.  Because DW has that background it gives you alot of characters to explore.

When do you usually play Musou games?

In the weekend and sometimes in the night.

Do you just play when a new game comes out? Or do you play the old ones as well?

Just the new ones apart from Samurai Warriors 2 –  I could play that one forever.

What is it that makes Samurai Warriors 2 so good?

Characters, gameplay, the Sugoroku mode.  The Xtreme Legends disk also give you more stages and weapons to get…

What is it about SW2 that is better than other Musou games to you?

The universe – there is more kingdoms in Samurai Warriors compared to DW.  In SW2 every character has their own story related to them not just connected to their kingdom .  Gameplay is better – characters all have a different types of moves: normal, charge or special type.

Fighting with a combination of her Magic Bracelets and Martial Arts strikes, Gracia has one of the most interesting move-sets in all Musou.

Do you play each Musou game for along time?

Yes.

What keeps you addicted to the game and makes you keep playing ?

To see what has changed and what’s innovative about each game.  But these days with work I can’t play as much as I could when I was a student.

Have you ever played multiplayer mode in a Musou game?

Yes. But I don’t like it so much as its difficult to see the map very well and it gets confusing, sometimes I look at the other players screen by mistake (laughs).

Did you try Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce multiplayer?

Strikeforce is alot better in multiplayer.  But its very hard to get the people and equipment together – not everyone has a PSP!

Attending a Koei fan event like London Expo can be the best chance to play DW: Strikeforce multiplayer.

Have you played any of next-gen Musou games such DW6, Gundam or FNS?

Yes, I played them all. I love Fist of the North Star which did what the fans wanted, with the blood and gore.  Each character is different and the FNS story is very good.

Gundam I was a bit lost as I don’t know the story of it.

How do you think those games are different from the old games?

The universe is completely different going from the ancient times of Samurai and Dynasty Warriors to the end-of-the-world in FNS to the very futuristic worlds in Gundam but the gameplay is still the same ‘kill-them-all’ type.

Do you have any ideas for future Musou games?

They should not concentrate on the old characters.  Just make new ones and give them better story-lines – and make the whole thing better because Sengoku Basara is around now and it’s challenging.

They should  probably review the gameplay because its getting worse and worse.  In someways they should go back to the old ways – one weapon per character for example.  Who really needs DW7 weapon swap system,  they should instead improve each character’s moves.

Is Basara coming to shoot down Musou in the West?

Have you ever bought any merchandise connected to Musou?

No.

Have you made any friends through the Musou community online?

Yes.

How about in real life?

Yes, but its hard because some of the people aren’t in the same country.  One good thing is that that Koei Europe have expos and things where you can meet-up with people and see your friends in real-life.

If you could give a message to non-Musou fans about why they should try the game what would you say?

They should just try it…it’s like Marmite – you never know if you would like it or hate it unless you try it!

Is Musou the Marmite of Videogames?

If you could give a message to development team of Musou what you say?

Give up the crap, improve it in such a way that fans would be happy.

Who would you say is your all-time favourite Musou game character?

Nohime. It’s shame they don’t really exploit her story because it could be so good and not only overlapping Nobunga’s. For example she could follow him and then kill him!

Do people have similar personalities to their favourite Musou characters?

Which is you favourite Musou game and why?

Samurai Warriors 2. I think it arrived after DW5 and everything was better.  The character specification was better, all of the stories were better and there was much more interaction between characters.

Thanks Gischie!

Gischie with her beloved copy of SW2: Xtreme Legends, yes she is a difficult lady to photograph!

If you like to be interviewed for this feature then let me know !

Leady247 ^^

Saturday evening review of Friday night’s Beer – Leffe Neuf (9 Degrees)

Welcome to another beer blog. Before I get into last night’s beer I want to write about some beer related info. and activities I was lucky enough to have this week.

On Tuesday I went on a business trip to Belgium.  The place I was visiting is called Namur which seems like a very nice river-side town. If you want to go there you can take a train from Brussels-Midi (takes about 30mins).

Anyway, on the drive from Namur station to my customer’s office I got talking to my Belgian friend Philippe about beer and ales….

…I asked him about the Trappist Monks that brewed Belgian beers and he told me that not only did each Monastery have a signature beer they also made a signature cheese to be eaten alongside the beer! For example if you visit the Chimay beer website you can see that it says ‘The Art of Beer & Cheese’. (Apparently these cheeses are widely available in Belgian supermarkets so you can always match your Cheese to your beer.)

The Chimay official cheese. We need this available in the UK now please Tesco cheese buyers!

I must say I can’t think of anything more holy and bloody superb than Monks that make ale and cheese! (well I can think of one other thing they could grow)

After explaining that we were getting a better selection of Belgian abbey beers easily available in the UK now I asked Philippe about what were the most authentic Belgian beers. He told me that Leffe has the widest distribution and the best ‘marketing’ but that Chimay was one of the most authentic in terms of taste.

On hearing this and taking into account the cheese related revelations above I feel a bit embarrassed about last week’s Chimay releated blog. I think a re-assessment of this beer (hopefully accompanied by the relevant cheese) is certainly in order.

I had very little time in Belgian (just 8hrs actually) so my shopping was limited to just the small ‘Casino’ supermarket in Brussels-Midi station (the station the Eurostar uses). Unfortunately this small supermarket did not seem to have the Chimay cheese in stock and without recgonising any of the other brands I decided to focus on just getting some beer.

As I have been spending my money on Xmas presents and putting money aside for our mortgage I budgetted myself just €15 for beer.

In the end I got two bottles of Leffe Neuf and two bottles of Leffe Triple. The reason for this is that I have only been able to try these two beers before in Cafe Leffe Lyon (I heve visited there twice with my girlfriend and its fucking ace).

The line-up of draft Leffes at Cafe Leffe in Lyon

Leffe Neuf is translated as ‘Leffe Nine Degrees’. This is because its strong at 9% alcohol volume. It’s dark, black, thick ‘n fruity tasting ale.

It really hits on the back of you palette with some breathable bitterness and then bubbles away warmly in your tummy. It gives you a nice glow to your cheeks and temples very soon after drinking it. A whole body experience of a beer then ^^.

After my first mouth-full I sighed and said ‘That’s a beer’.  Which sums up my thoughts really.

It's 9 Degrees people !

My girlfriend Christine was nice enough to translate the back of the label for me:

‘Leffe Neuf is brewed to the traditional recipe of the Leffe Abbey. Leffe is a high fermentation beer with a deep golden colour and an alchohol content of 9%. Its whole taste and rich aroma makes the beer full of character. Leffe Neuf will accompany you everywhere and will be the ideal drink for your best moments and digestion.’

(from that we can see it’s designed as an after dinner drink but personally I always prefer to drink beer on an empty stomach and with a clean palette).

There's that deep golden colour, shame I cant share the aroma via the internet

I was planning to go to the football today to see Arsenal trounce Stoke City but since that is off now (snow -_-) this last picture is probably lost some of it’s meaning! Hopefully I will be enjoying a Leffe after we have beaten Chelsea at home in our next match (we can do it if we CONCENTRATE for the whole match)!

Well, that’s it for this blog and Leffe Neuf. I hope to bring you a test of the Chimay ale + cheese combo shortly and if you are travelling around Europe over Xmas I can definitely recommend trying some Leffe Neuf or you can join me in tweet-spamming @leffebrewers to get them to release it here!

See ya, Leady247 ^^

EZXZMN6SEAH4

What makes a Musou? – Part 2 (Theme)

Welcome the second part of my ‘What makes a Musou?’ series where I am attempting to identify what constitutes the ‘Musou’ formula and why it so divides opinions. You can read the introduction to the series here.

I have chosen ‘Theme’ as the focal point of the second part of the blog.  It is theme which binds a Musou game together and underpins then character drama. It is also the abstractions at the core of each Musou theme that invites criticism from some parties.

Source Material vs Theme

The Musou formula is famously adaptable: we have seen games based upon source material such as the legendary semi-fiction of the Three Kingdoms period of China, the Warring States period of Japan and now the Trojan War.  Recently new Musou branches have applied the forumla to the fictional anime/manga universes of Gundam and Hokuto no Ken.

It is essential to understand that a Musou game’s theme or universe is not purely a replication of the source material it is based on.  The source material provides a jumping-off point for the theme but Koei does not seem to place authenticity at the heart of their Musou game development. Gameplay requirements and the developer’s own design sensibility always seem to trump authenticity to the source material.

A warrior armed with a magic paint brush. Authenticity is not a priority.

Theme definition

I would define the theme of a Musou game as its universe with its associated internal logic,  visual style and event schedule.

Internal Logic

I would compare the internal logic of a Musou game to something like a wrestling promotion or tv soap-opera.  Each one has it’s own internal logic that makes sense ‘in universe’ but is clearly nonsense when viewed through the lens of real-life.

For example, wrestling requires it’s audience to suspend disbelief and accept that a wrestler in his 60s can compete with his peers in their 20s just because said 60 year-old had a glittering career in the past. The internal logic is that pro-wrestling ability is analogous to star-quality rather than fighting ability.

Rick Flair is still beating guys in their 20s in TNA. Only in wrestling...

In a similar way, Dynasty Warriors asks it’s audience to suspend disbelief and accept historical strategist characters as able to compete with historical warrior characters by employing magical attacks to boost their potency.

There are many examples of this strange internal logic in Warriors games – even logic that runs in contrast with the source material on which the theme is based.  Case in point: Dynasty Warriors: Gundam prioritises melee attacks even though most of the anime/manga it’s based on stresses ranged combat.

This Gundam is armed with a nuclear bazooka - it will have to be significantly nerfed to fit into a Musou game.

This is not be be critical of the internal logic of Musou games as although some of the logic is very abstract it is generally consistent.  Once a player accepts the internal logic as part of the game’s theme it quickly feels normal and enables a better game experience for the player.  In the examples above there is no doubt that Dynasty Warriors would lack scope if strategists were not playable and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam could not create any tension in the battles if players were able to clear fields of enemies from afar.

I feel that the abstract nature of Musou internal logic (often running in opposition to the source material) is a major hurdle for new gamers to cross when starting out. I also believe that this abstraction causes some of the harsh criticism Musou games receive from the media and gamers.

Visual Style

I will not comment on this in great detail here as I want to cover it properly in a forthcoming blog.  Surfice to say that each Musou game theme has a distinct visual style.  This is not necessarily an authentic visual style based on the source material but a visual style developed specfically for the game.

For example Dynasty Warriors freely mixes ancient Chinese designs with J-pop, K-pop and other contemporary Asian fashions to give it a distinct style.  For Hokuto Musou, Koei’s development team refreshed the original character designs to better fit modern games consoles.

Is he a warrior, a boy-band member or a blend of the two?

So in a similar way to the internal logic, the visual style of Musou is original to each theme and is not necessarily attempting to be a realistic approximation of the source material. Again, I feel this can be off-putting to newcomers and feeds media criticism.

Event Schedule vs Storyline

While the theme of a Musou game includes a spine of the key events of the source material it does not include a central storyline or plot. This is one of the key differences between Musou games and other action or strategy games (and another area where confusion and criticism arises).

Action games generally tell the stories of their lead characters.  Strategy games often tell an over-aching tale that unfolds as the player completes stages.  Generally, there is a dovetailing of a game’s theme and it’s storyline. For example God of War’s masculine fantasy themes work well with the epic story-lines of Kratos.

God of War is his game. But no single character 'owns' a Musou game.

A Musou game’s theme works differently in that it provides the backdrop/set-dressing that the character story-lines develop within.

These character story-lines are consistent across Musou games  irrespective of the theme.  For example Dynasty Warriors and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam play host to very similar character story-lines of coming-of-age, love, comedy, comradeship, betrayal etc.

Musou games unfold over key events of wars or conflicts.  Through completing character story-lines the player is able to experience these events from differing perspectives.

It is often only after completing a number of indvidual character story-lines that the event  schedule starts to align and make sense to the player.

As a player’s time with a Musou game progresses further they are able to hang the character story-lines around the spine of the event schedule and at this point an overarching understanding of how the war or conflict played-out occurs.

There are many characters to choose from in a Musou game and their story-lines are interwoven with one another.

I believe this is why Musou games are often criticised for incoherent storytelling. People expect games to have singular story-lines based on the theme where as a Musou game holds character storylines that take place around key events identified by theme.

So Dynasty Warriors does not tell the story of the Three Kindgoms war it tells various tales of characters living through that war.

Dynasty Warriors does not take one specific view of the Three Kingdoms conflict and force players to identify with it.  Though the images of Zhaou Yun and Lu Bu tend to dominate Dynasty Warriors iconography this is not their tale.

He may be the 'face' of DW but many other characters inspire just as much devotion from fans.

The best Musou games present a rich mesh of goals, personsilities and desires through their cast of characters and allow players to decide which paths they want to follow.

The freedom afforded to the player to play-out events and conflicts from multiple character’s viewpoints is one of the aspects that gives Musou games their hypnotic power over fans.

As videogames are an ineractive medium increased freedom for players to experience events as they choose through different character perspectives is forward thinking, progressive and praise-worthy.

Conclusion

My goal with this article was to place a clear divide between the theme of a Musou game it’s source material. The truth is that there are many layers of abstraction between the two concepts.

Musou games demand players to suspend disbelief and accept the themes as distinct artistic entities with their own logic, style and substance. I think it’s a leap of faith worth taking as once the theme is accepted, a Musou game will unfold its equalled richness of content to the player.

(Did that make any sense to anyone? I think there are many contentious points here – some of which will be shot down but I really hope it starts some debate ^^)

Sunday evening review of Saturday night’s Beer – CHIMAY

It’s been quite a hectic weekend on the drinking front so I am updating my beer blog quite late.

I had some friends over this weekend who had read previous entries in the blog and wanted to try a Kwak . So I headed down to Tesco on Saturday night to pick up two Kwak’s and get something else to blog. As it was quite late there wasn’t much selection there so I went with a couple of bottles of Chimay (£1.59 each I think).

(On another note Kwak was given the thumbs-up by all my friends that tried it. So far 3 in total – it’s a movement.  I should mention though that they have put the price up in Tesco to £2 per bottle!).

I must admit I have never liked the look of Chimay on the shelves. This is down to the red bottle and the back of the label which calls it ‘fruity’.  This put in my mind that it might be one of those horrible flavoured beers that you get in Belgo bar/restaurants.

Here is a look at the beer in a wine-glass (again -_-) and the overly red-bottle:

Good shot of my sink & Xmas mug as well ^^

For me this ale doesn’t really work visually. The bottle is the same dumpy style as the Duvel but is a bit lacking in class and the colour of the liquid is a bit too muddy.

On tasting the Chimay I was surprised that it wasn’t fruity in any shape or form. It’s more of smokey, bitter taste which is not bad for a dark beer but it doesn’t have any of the bite or richness of a Kwak or creaminess of a Leffe. Some of the other people in the room  said the main taste they got from Chimay was ‘Wheaty’ (my sister’s comment) and that it was ‘alright’. It doesn’t really do much for the nose either.

On the back of the bottle we have the following text:

‘The Trappist logo certifies that this ale is brewed in a Trappist Abbey and that the majority of sales income is intended for social aid. Chimay Red will win you over with its fruity taste accompanied by it’s slight bitterness.’

Well, we have already covered that fact that I don’t think fruity taste is a USP for this beer but the good thing is drinking it will help with the Corporate Social Responsibility credentials of this blog!

I am really fascinated by the idea of these Trappist Monks that brew beer.  I have visions of god-rays of sunlight streaking through stained-glass windows, passing through dusty corridors and eventually blessing the ale barrells as they age!

It’s truly divine intention that drinking beer from these seven monasteries is a way to make our lives more holy and transcend to higher levels of spiritual wisdom. I think at some stage a Trappist Abbey tour with my girlfriend will need to be under-taken to get myself a little closer to God ^^.

Leady’s Friday Night Cocktails – Costcjito

Welcome to a new section of the blog ^^.

Apart from beer I am a great fan of home made cocktails although I am certainly not an expert in making them. I would say I am an enthusiastic amateur.

I thought I would blog a few of my simple recipes for you to try out.  My cocktails tend to major on being as alcoholic as possible and usually quite sour.  Thanks to my girlfriend to always being my guinea pig to test the recipes.

History of the Costcjito

The history of the Costcjito is that in the UK there have been many tantalizing and thirst inducing Bacardi Mojito adverts on tv like this one:

These tvs ads have been backed up by many posters at supermarkets showing pure and delicious looking mojitos that make it impossible not to want one.

One Friday night about a year ago I decided to try and make a mojito for my girlfriend and I. As I could not be bothered to drive all the way to Tesco I got all the ingredients I thought I would need from my favourite shop in the world – our local Costcutter. This is why I called the drink a ‘Costcjito’.

Over the months I have perfected the recipe  and will blog it here so you can give it a go yourself.

Warning!

(the final Costcjito is extremely lime, ‘citrus-y’ and alcoholic rather than minty and brown sugary as a regular mojito should be).

How to make a Costcjito yourself:

What you need (to make about 4 Costcjitos):

1. Bottle of Bacardi
2. Bottle of Schwepps Soda Water or other sparking water (or lemonade if you can’t take the sourness).
3. 4-6 Limes (depending on how sour you want it)
4. 2 Lemons
5. Some brown sugar
6. Some mint (you don’t need that much but for some reason my local Costcutters only sells it in huge bunches -_-)
7. Ice cubes

6 Limes, 2 Lemons & a bunch of mint from Costcutter

Once you have got the ingredients the first thing you want to do is prepare the lime, lemon and mint mixture.

I use a hand juicer.  Slice 2 lemons in half and juice the shit out of them.  Then add a tea spoon of brown sugar to the juice.

After that slice 3 or 4 limes in half then juice those as well. Slice on of your other limes into thin slices (you can add these to the glass at the end to make it look pretty and fresh).

This is what's left of the juiced up limes.

Then get your mint and cut up a few of the leaves into small strips.  Usually we do a small plate of these but it’s sometimes too much.  Take a pinch 0r two of your mint strips and add it to the lemon and lime juice mix.  Add a little more brown sugar.

The juice mix is ace and smells so good ^^

Put your juice into the fridge.

Now it’s time to start preparing the glass. First you need to crush the ice.  My girlfriend showed me a great method to do this if you don’t have a an ice crusher (I don’t).  Empty some ice cubes into a tea towel, then bunch the tea towel up into a sort of mace-type weapon with the ice in one end.  Then smash the ice on a hard surface a few times (I use the side of our kitchen unit for this).

After some serious banging (!) open out the towel and the ice inside will be nicely crushed.

This is how the smashed ice will look when you unfold the tea towel.

Now time to put the Costcjito together:

First add the crushed ice (about a quarter of a glass). Then add a good slug of Bacardi to give the drink a decent hit.  Then add some of your juice mixture.  The glass should be about three quarters full at this stage. Add two slices of lime.

Then top the whole thing up with the Soda Water.

Mix the whole thing around with a chop-stick (or I suppose some other type of mixing implement if you are a pro).

So you should now have a loverly, citrusy, frosty and refeshing Costcjito ready for drinking. Also you will have enough juice mixture left for another few as the evening unfolds.

My friend Ols with the finished article. Looks great right ^^

Let me know if you tried making one or have any good recipes (that are easy to make!) for me ^^

Leady247 Gamer Interviews! – Tumbledrop with Gischie

I have decided to start up a new sub-section of my blog where I will interview people about their favourite games. First up is my girlfriend who goes by the nick of Gischie.

She is a great fan of the iPhone/iPad puzzle game Tumbledrop by the wonderful Hayden Scott-Baron of StarfruitGames

The aim of the game is to get the pink star to safety. Is there a hidden message there somewhere? ^^

Tumbledrop is a physics enabled puzzle game with some deliciously cute graphics and just-one-more-go gameplay. No need to describe it more as you can try the browser version right here here or watch the trailer below:

Anyway on with the interview:

Leady247: So how long have you been playing Tumbledrop?

Gischie: I don’t know. A couple of months?

Leady247: How often do you play this game per week?

Gischie: Everytime I am at my boyfriends. 3 or 4 times maybe?

Leady247: Why do you play Tumbledrop?

Gischie: Because it un-stresses me and I have nothing else to do sometimes.

Leady247: Do you mean you play it when you are bored?

Gischie: yes, I play it when I am bored but then I am stubborn as well so when I start playing I want to finish it!

Tumbledrop almost 'out Peggles' Peggle in the positive feedback department.

Leady247: How long do you do you play for per session?

Gischie: I don’t know I lose track of time when I’m playing.

Leady247: What makes you stop playing?

Gischie: When I have something else to do.

Leady247: Have you played and enjoyed other puzzle games in the past?

Gischie: Yes, Tetris, Lumines and others.

As well as Tumbledrop Gischie is a fan of Lumines on PSP

Leady247: And did you play those games for the same reason?

Gischie: Yes.

Leady247: Tetris and Lumines were on portable formats – did you ever play those while you were travelling?

Gischie: Well, Lumines was on PSP so I played it when I went to work on the train.

Leady247: What is it about Tumbledrop that you like so much?

Gischie: It makes me think about something else and it occupies my brain.

Leady247: What is it you don’t want to think about?

Gischie: Work and things like this.

Leady247: What do you think is good about the gameplay of Tumbledrop?

Gischie: I like the friendly design of the characters. I do my best not to let them drown.

Leady247: Anything else?

Gischie: Every stage is different and it’s difficult so it stimulates my mind. Also you have different challenges on each stage such as getting the star and the heart medal for each one – it makes you think of different combinations.

Leady247: Would you like to see more content released for this game?

Gischie: Oh yes sure. Maybe a new character other than the star – maybe a ball?

Leady247: Do you have anything you would like to say to the developer of the game if you could?

Gischie: I am trying my best to have all the star and the heart medal, I wonder what will be unlocked. Don’t break my heart and tell me there is nothing.

Leady247: Thanks for the interview.

This was the best picture I could get of Gischie and her Tumbledrop achievements

If you have a favourite game and would like to tell me why you play it. Then let me know ^^

Leady247

Saturday morning review of Friday night’s Beer – DUVEL

Welcome to my second beer psot. I have to say the Kwak from last week has become a favourite so I had a bottle or two last night with my best friend.

Before those it was one of my all time favourite ales: Duvel.

One of the reasons I love Duvel is that when I first tried it the conditions were perfect: My girlfriend and I were in Lyon on the night of the 2010 Champions League final (Inter v Bayern). We found a nice bar right next to our favourite hotel (College Hotel ) in Lyon’s old city and watched the game with the local people while eating a couple of cheese boards. I can’t think of a much better evening than that – so when I see a Duvel now it takes my mind back to that great and relaxing evening.

That was my first encounter with the Golden Ale Duvel. My favourite thing about this beer are the visuals: when it’s cold it has an icy golden hue and an uneven spread by bubbles on the surface. A perfectly poured Duvel in the right glass is a thing of rare beauty.

Last night I didn’t have a good glass for it so I had to use a wine glass – but hopefully you can see how good it still looks straight from the fridge (it’s really meant to have more head than this as well).

Someone should buy me a proper Duvel glass for Xmas ^^

The back of the bottle reads:

‘For generations Duvel has been considered a masterpiece of Belgian brewing art. Duvel is exported for you, without alterations, and is the same Duvel that is enjoyed on the Grand Place which is the centre of Brussels. This Duvel has already matured for two months in the cellars of our family owned brewery.’

That really says it all. The recommended drinking temperature is 6degrees but I prefer it colder than that – straight from a good 20mins or so in the freezer to get that crispness.

In terms of taste Duvel has got quite a hard barley edge to it, you can definitely tell what its made of. You get taste from the moment you drink it right down your throat and even as it sits in your belly and the alcohol pleasantly seeps into your blood stream. As the alcohol content is quite high at 8.5% it’s nice to take it slowly and enjoy it.

I really like the hard almost metallic edge to the smell as well.

That’s it for Duvel, only to say it’s now widely available in the UK at supermarkets and is usually under £1.50 per bottle so you don’t have an excuse not to try it out.

If you want to find out more you can take a look here: for the official site. Unfortunately it’s built in flash so sorry all you ipad users you can’t see it. Just trust me and give Duvel a try.

WARRIORS: LEGENDS OF TROY – MCM MEMORABILIA NOV ’10 PARRYING SYSTEM

In the last few Warriors: Legends of Troy (WLOT) blogs I have written about my experiences with the demo that I played at the MCM Memorabilia show in November (NEC, Birmingham). Playing the available Achilles demo many times I found a few interesting innovations in WLOT that gives it a different feel to other ‘Warriors’ games.

In this blog I want to cover the ‘Parrying’ system that I think works very well. Past Warriors game I have played such as DW5 have had a blocking and counter system but it was never really that important to the gameplay as on the normal difficulty modes the enemies don’t possess much threat. Also the action in DW5 etc. is so chaotic it is hard to the predict enemies attack frequency, speed and direction.

In WLOT the sub-boss and officer characters are quite smart, defensively-minded and dangerous (yes they are Warriors character that actually want to stay alive). These type of battles are usually fought in a ‘duel’ format similar to what we saw in DW4 – just the player character vs the enemy – this means the fights can be more tactical.

Powerful enemy officers will block the player’s combos with their shields and counter-attack swiftly and powerfully. The trick to defeating them is not to try and button-mash them to death or use powerful combos with lengthy recovery times as you will be picked-apart by counter attacks.

One way to succeed in these fights if you are confident of your skill and timing is to play defensively and use the WLOT’s Parry system. In the demo I played if you timed your press of block (R1) and raised your shield just as the enemy was about to strike your character a Parry would be achivated. The Parry knocks you opponent’s shield aside and breaks their guard. This give you the chance to counter with a combo to their soft underbelly and do tons of damage.

In the demo I played there seemed to be two types of Parry. A normal Parry and a ‘Super Parry’ (which gives a slow motion-effect and allows you more time to attack the stricken enemy). I am not sure how either Super Parry is activated but I guess it’s down to perfect timing of the block button press.

I really liked this Parry system as it added a good dose of realism and skill to the officer encounters in the WLOT demo. Picking your moment to Parry and strike successfully feels more inkeeping with the gritty setting of the game in WLOT. It was nice to feel that player skill and timing was really having an impact rather than just relentless button-mashing until the enemy was dead.

Anyway, I filmed a short video of me fighting one of the sub-boss officers outside the Temple of Apollo. You can see at the beginning of the video some failed parry attempts that result in me getting knocked over. Later you can see some examples of correctly timed Parrys and Super Parrys and my bloody counter combos decimating the poor enemy!