Take My Word For It

Just last week I found a website with extremely great deals on hookah pipes, coals, and a great variety of the delicious flavored tobacco that everyone loves. Here is an image of my confirmation order:

- What a fantastic deal!

The hookah that I carefully picked out is called the QT, and I got it while it was on sale for just $49.99 with free hookah tobacco along with it. I will post another blog entry soon with some of my personal pictures of it, along with some of the accessories I picked up (tobacco, coals, extra hose, etc…).

The website is called Hookah.ws, and I think you should definitely check it out, even if you aren’t a hookah smoker (you never know, maybe you will change your mind).

Smoking hookah is a lot of fun, and can be a social activity too if you’ve got friends that also smoke. In the short week that I’ve had this hookah, it has probably been used about two dozen times already. I have let friends mooch a few times, but it is admittedly a very cheap hobby to get involved in.

I would highly recommend the QT if you are having trouble picking one out. Mine has a blue/purple colored base, and it is very “cute”, which probably helped derive it’s name. If you are curious, you can view a list of hookah pipes and leave a comment stating which one you think looks the nicest.

I figured that it has been a little while since my last blog post, and I did promise to always keep you updated. I turned 21 a few days ago, so I will more likely than not submit an article about the frantic events of that night very soon.

Check back soon, because I have finally settled down a bit regarding classes and work, and I will do my best to commit regularly to NFreak.net.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave comments with the name of your favorite hookah pipe.

NFreak Hookah, Reviews Hookah, Life, Reviews

Earlier today my girlfriend and I took a trip into town to get inner tubes for the camping trip we are having this weekend. While in the store, I noticed “New Super Mario Bros DS” just sitting on the shelves. I have known about this game for a very long time now, as it has sold about 20 million copies worldwide, nearly as much as there are PlayStation 3’s in existence (burn).

It’s only been 3 hours since the receipt was printed from the register, but I am already hooked. I’m hoping that this doesn’t cut into my programming time, as there are a lot of things that I’d like to get done before the summer ends.

New Super Mario Bros DS just reminds me of my days growing up playing Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo, or even the earlier Mario games for the NES. But it isn’t just a cheap replica of an old-school game; it’s completely revamped and is both 2D and 3D. It is a 2D side-scrolling game with 3D models for the characters and enemies (hard to explain, really).

I would say that it most resembles Super Mario World, in that you can freely move about the levels, unlocking secret areas along the way. The two screens make it very easy to see how far you are through the current level, as a meter fills up showing you how far you are towards completion.

I am not all too familiar with everything there is to know about this game, but the few levels that I have played have been a blast. There is also 3 hidden medallions within each level, giving the game even extra replay value.

If you are familiar with the mini-games in Super Mario 64 DS, then a lot of the same content is in this nice package, with the addition of plenty more. I assume that these mini-games were to show off the use of the DS’ features such as the touch screen, microphone, and dual screens, but they are without a doubt a quick way to pick up and play a game while waiting on a bus or sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for the results of your swine flu test.

I can’t give a full review of this game just yet, as I am still in the first world, as I have been repeating levels multiple times just to get all of the hidden medallions. There is just so much replay value that it’s unbelievable.

NFreak Games, Reviews DS, Games, Mario, Reviews

A few days back I posted an article about how I finally caved in and upgraded my Nintendo DS “phat” to a Nintendo DSi. With it I purchased two games; Nintendogs Dalmatian and Friends, and Final Fantasy IV. Nintendogs was a much easier game to pick up and get the hang of, and therefore didn’t require too much play time to warrant a review.

Final Fantasy IV, on the other hand, is a much more complicated game and I couldn’t give a proper review for it until I learned the mechanics and story a little bit more. Now’s the time:

The game picks up with a fantastic CGI introduction and quickly introduces some key characters and basic plot points. While I have invested only 8 hours into the game so far, I am probably at a place that most people reach in just one or two hours, and this is because I take RPG games (Final Fantasy especially) to heart, and I spend massive amounts of time into over-leveling my party to learn abilities that would otherwise not be obtained until much later in the game.

Currently, my main character (Cecil) is at level 21, where he should be at around 14 or 15, I am guessing. I completed what I believe to be the first main part of the game, where the story starts to unfold (I won’t go into spoilers, so don’t worry). So far I am really digging the battle system, where you can set it to auto-battle, making all the characters use the command you specify for them, making it much less tedious battling simple enemies, where I can just watch it, rather than watching it while repeatedly pressing the ‘a’ button.

This technique does not work for the more difficult battles (bosses or rare spawn enemies), as you will need to use other commands to heal yourself or remove negative status impairments. I never played the original game, so this is my first play through Final Fantasy IV on any platform, but from what I have heard, Square-Enix has made this version of the game a lot more difficult than in the past, which is a plus for me, because I like a challenge.

There is also new content added to the game. Every area you enter has a map, and if you complete the entire map by exploring everything within it, you receive a special item. You can also view a bestiary which lists all the enemies you have so far encountered, as well as how many times you defeated each given enemy, and a list of their drops. If you are curious, there are exactly 200 different enemies in the game, and some of them cannot physically be encountered on your first playthrough.

Final Fantasy IV also features a “New Game +”, where you can start the game again from the beginning once you complete it. Certain epic gear will carry over, as well as your bestiary and augments (which are basically like materia, if you are more familiar with Final Fantasy VII).

The cut-scenes are brilliant, featuring very well-done voice acting, and seem very emotional at times. The storyline is so far my favorite of all the FF games that I’ve played (VII, VIII, X, X-2, XI, XII, Tactics, Crystal Chronicles). Possibly the biggest change is the transition from 2D to 3D. The entire game was remade to utilize the DS’ 3D gaming engine, and it simply looks amazing. Having a second screen is also helpful, as seeing a full-sized map of the area at all times makes navigating difficult areas much easier.

And there’s more! There are five mini-games that you can unlock as you progress through the game. I only have one so far, as I am still near the beginning. It is a math-based game in which you are given four numbers, and you must add, subtract, multiply, or divide them to end up with just the number 10 in the end. I have probably spent a good 45 minutes on this little mini-game alone, and this is just one of the many small additions Square-Enix added to the DS version. They really went the extra mile in this one.

Getting a good score in the mini-games gives the player an item such as a potion or antidote, but it also improves the stats of your pet “Whyt”. Whyt almost looks like a moogle, and you can use him to fight other players in wireless battle. I have not gotten a chance to try it out yet, but it appears to have been developed very well. Each of the five mini-games alters one of Whyt’s stats, and that value is determined by the average of your top three scores.

I could go on and say more about the mini-games, but that is honestly just a small addition to this massive gem. Or relic. Or diamond in the rough.

I know this is kind of cliche, but I really cannot think of any flaws in the game so far. There are three save slots, which makes it limited to those hardcore FF players (like me) that like to have save states at several places just to make sure they don’t miss out on anything. In addition to that, there is also an option for a Quicksave. The only time that one would want to perform a Quicksave is if you are in a dungeon where there is no accessible save point, and must stop playing. A Quicksave will erase itself once the game session is resumed, so you cannot use it to your advantage in any other way than it was intended for.

Overall, I would recommend this game to any RPG fan out there, especially the hardcore Final Fantasy base, as this is a true masterpiece. If you are not a big fan of role-playing games, this is probably not for you, as it is about as extreme as it gets. I am so far very pleased with the difficulty level boost that they added, as I would be getting my ass handed to me if I wasn’t so over-leveled, and I always welcome a challenge. In fact, my newest party member started out with less than 90 HP, while the enemies were doing around 25 - 30 damage per attack at the time. The first few levels for that new character cost me many Phoenix Downs and visits to the Inn. Haha.

So what are you waiting for? If you are an RPG fan without FFIV DS, you are missing out on one of the greatest games of all time.

Writing this review made me hype about playing this relic even more, which I am going to do right now! This is also the first article with over 1,000 words, reaching about 1120.

NFreak Games, Reviews DS, Final Fantasy, Games, Reviews

With the purchase of my Nintendo DSi, I also picked up both Final Fantasy IV and Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends. I picked up Nintendogs for my girlfriend, but I have found it to be extremely entertaining, utilizing all of the DS’s features.

There are about 20 breeds of dogs in the game, and they always remain as puppies. You can store up to eight dogs at a time, so you don’t have to worry about missing out on some of your favorite breeds. Right now I only have a golden retriever, while my girlfriend has both a Beagle and a Dalmatian. You can teach your dog a variety of tricks (I think there is something like 25 different tricks in the game, with some being more difficult to learn than others). To keep the player from advancing too quickly, each dog is limited to learning just three tricks per day, and entering in three competitions each day.

The three different types of competitions are agility, obedience, and frisbee catching. During the obedience compeition, you have to tell your dog to do a prompted trick (such as sit or lay down), and sometimes you will have to hold a position for a designated amount of time (sit for 8 seconds, lay down for 4 seconds, etc). The final segment is a free for all, where you have 30 seconds to perform as many tricks as you can, with the more difficult tricks impressing the judges even more. If your dog is properly groomed, you will also earn bonus points.

During the agility competition, you have to guide your pup through various obstacles, such as jumping over hurdles, guiding him or her through tunnels, going over seesaws, and many more. This has to be done in a designated order, and if you mess up, you will lose points.

The final type of competition is frisbee catching. The farther you throw your frisbee (using the touch screen to slide and release), the more points you will get. If your dog catches it in mid-air, you get an extra point. The farther you throw it, the riskier it is, as your dog may have a difficult time catching a long toss.

There are five different difficulty levels for the competitions ranging from beginner to champion. You cannot choose which to enter, but are rather forced to enter whichever competition you qualify for. If you do bad, you will move down a level. The prize money you get is higher for the more difficult classes, where a gold medal in beginner is only $100.00, while it is $1,000.00 in the championship level.

In addition to entering your dog in competitions, you can also take it out on walks. The amount of stamina you have represents how long of a walk you can take. The meter for stamina starts out ridiculously low, and increases slightly with each walk (so slightly, in fact, that you will not notice the incremental increases in the short term). By the time your dog’s stamina has maxed out, you could take a walk that is probably ten times as long as when you began. During your walk, you will encounter other dogs and find presents, which contain items (accessories to dress up your dog, toys to play with, garbage items that are good only for selling, music, clocks to display the current time, and more). There are some rare gifts that unlock new breeds. You can also make stops at discount stores, the gym, and the park.

Trainer points are your way of showing off how much time you have spent with your dogs. Reaching certain trainer point levels will unlock new breeds of dogs and new houses that you can buy. There is also a title given to you depending on your rank (”puppy love”, for example, is the starting title).

The list of things to do in this game is almost endless, and once you play it, it will be clear as to why it is the best selling game out on the Nintendo DS. Currently, it has sold nearly 23 million units thus far, and continues to sell nearly 150,000 copies each month, and probably will sell another million during Christmas.

I give this game a perfect score, although I have no rating system, so it’s 5 stars, 100%, 10/10, or whatever you prefer to see. Enjoy!

NFreak Games, Reviews DS, Games, Reviews

I bought the original Nintendo DS on launch day many years back. It was a revolutionary gaming system with many unique features. It was the first gaming system with a touch screen, the first with voice recognition, and the first with TWO screens. Nintendo followed it’s traditional trend of lagging two generations behind in terms of graphical performance.

The original Gameboy was similar to the NES in terms of power, then the Gameboy Advance was similar to the Super Nintendo. The Nintendo DS is much like the Nintendo 64, following that same trend.

A couple years after the Nintendo DS launched, Nintendo made some major cosmetic changes and called this new system the DS Lite. The DS Lite was much slimmer than the bulky DS, but didn’t have any other major changes other than that, so it only made sense to discontinue the regular DS and replace it with the Lite.

The Nintendo DSi launched in North America costing forty dollars more than it’s DS Lite sister. While the DSi has vastly different cosmetic changes, it also has a lot of hardware changes as well, and has DOUBLE the CPU power, making it more of an upgrade than in the past. Nintendo has decided to sell both the DS Lite and the DSi seperately, giving consumers the choice between the cheaper DS Lite, which is mostly for gaming, or the DSi, which has an array of extra features.

So let’s get into these features. Let’s start with the cosmetic changes; the DSi is even slimmer than the already slim DS Lite. You have to see it to believe it, as this is one sexy piece of gaming hardware. It has a soft, matte finish, making it fingerprint-proof, and it currently only comes in two colors; black and light blue. The buttons are slightly larger, making it easier to play with big hands.

The two screens are both larger than those of the previous iterations of the handhelds. They have been upgraded to 3.25 inches rather than 3.00 inches. While a quarter of an inch sounds un-noticeable, they do, in fact, appear quite larger than before. The internal speakers have also been improved, outputting much higher quality, crisp sound.

The biggest addition to the Nintendo DSi is it’s two built-in cameras, with facial recognition. One camera is on the inside, facing the player, while one is on the outside, to take pictures of things facing away from the user. There is a very extensive library of lenses to use, such as distortion and mirror mode, which all work in real-time, meaning you can distort the image before it has even been taken. There are 256 megabytes of built-in flash memory, so you can store 400 pictures without the need to buy an additional SD card.

The operating system has also been completely remade, being very reminiscent of the Wii’s channel based applications. You can record sounds, make memos with the touch screen for each day on the calendar, and play music from your SD card, which sound amazing. The music channel allows you to play music, speeding it up, slowing it down, and even changing the pitch, while filtering the music, making it sound like it was being played into a fan, through a radio, or in a classic 8-bit fashion. Finally, the speakers are louder than those in the DS Lite.

On top of all this, there is also a DSi Shop Channel, allowing players to download games that are exclusive to it’s online network. I have not gotten the chance to use this feature yet, as my router is not set up for wireless activity, but I plan on doing so soon, as Nintendo is giving anyone that logs onto their online network before August a free 1,000 points worth of downloadable content.

The two screens now have five brightness settings, being much brighter than the previous installments. I would almost go as to say that the brightest option is too bright, but that is not at all a bad thing. I would recommend the DSi to anyone and everyone, even those who already own a DS or DS Lite. It is well worth the investment, and there is already a library of over 500 games, so don’t miss out. The handheld has recently reached the 100 million milestone, making it the best-selling handheld system ever made, and it is highly likely that it reaches 150 million before the end of it’s lifespan.

Take my word for it.

NFreak Games, Reviews DS, Games, Reviews