Sorry for the delay, everyone. I’ve finally completed Chapter 2 of Alice Madness Returns. After a very brief moment in the regular world in which Alice meets her nanny, who is now a prostitute, Alice is thrust back into a part of Wonderland where the ice grows thick. This particular level has several slides that can be a pain to navigate since the walls are missing. Lucky for you, if you do fall off, you can float Alice to another part of the slide that is below. *Phew*

A new weapon and several new enemies are introduced. The new weapon in particular is fan-freaking-tastic. A massive horse head, Alice can thump any enemy right on the head and lower it’s defenses. She can also substitute it for the Vorpal Blade, which I did on several occasions. The weapon is much slower than the Vorpal Blade, but it packs a nice punch and is worth using as long as you are able to dodge away from enemies in time. Several enemies will have to be whacked with the horse head even before a real attack. The horse head also allows you to break through certain walls and chests strewn throughout the level. I immediately leveled it up because I had enough teeth and allowed for it’s power to become even stronger!

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I really should not be allowed to play any sort of PKMN game ever. My obsessive compulsiveness is bad enough when I play any RPG, but PKMN makes it ten times worse. I can easily deal with my dislike of odd numbers. I just sometimes have to play my game a little longer so everyone is on an even numbered level before turning off the game. It’s something I’ve always done, so it’s pretty natural after twenty three years. I can even deal with the fact that I need my whole party on the same level before turning off my games. Again, I don’t mind playing an extra twenty minutes. READ MORE!

I have never had the opportunity to play American McGee's Alice. Originally only for the PC, the game has only been rer-released on the Playstation Network and in the Xbox Live Arcade recently, due to its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns being released this past June.

The first game take places not too long after Alice's Through the Looking Glass adventure. (English majors may be familiar with this story.) Anyway, shortly afterwards, her family dies in a fire with Alice being the only survivor. Needless to say she goes nuts and is institutionalized. Unfortunately treatment doesn't work, because ten years after her last adventure in Wonderland, Alice returns to Wonderland, but a much more twisted version thanks to the Queen of Hearts who has taken over.

Alice: Madness Returns takes place roughly right after the first game concludes. Alice has been taken out of the asylum, which was apparently shown in the last game, and placed in a home under the care of a psychiatrist who is interested in making people "forget" their memories. In Alice's case he is trying to get her to forget the horrific event that claimed her family's life.

It opens up with a cut scene that is roughly drawn, sketchy and dark. Oh, and the March Hare's head pops off with blood spilling everywhere! Right after that, Alice is sent on an errand to pick up her pills. Unfortunately a white cat distracts her and she begins to follow it. (Hey Alice, maybe you shouldn't follow small furry animals.) Obviously, her adventures in Wonderland are about to begin.

The graphics are quite beautiful to start. You begin in a valley where you learn how to jump, double jump, and float around. Why Alice can float like Princess Peach makes no sense to me, but it helps her get around. So let's just be happy about it. You will also pick up the Vorpal Blade (it went snicker-snack) which Alice can wield in order to take out some pretty creepy baddies, such a the doll faced globs that remind me of the creepy doll head from Toy Story.

Another early move Alice learns is how to shrink. Not only can she fit into tiny places, such as the key holes, shrinking can show special paths and hints in purple for some extra goodies. Have fun jumping on platforms that disappear every time you get big, by the way. Oh and you can't jump when you are small, so you HAVE to be big! It takes a lot of shrinking and luck to time everything perfectly so you don't fall to your death a million times.

I'm still on Chapter 1, but so far I've been not only busy making my way through the level, but I've been gathering items such as bottles, memories and snouts that are strewn about. What are snouts? Why they are pig snouts that the Duchess wants to eat. You must use a pepper grinder as a gun and shoot pepper into the snouts so they fly, yes fly, to the Duchess's kitchen. The pepper grinder also comes in handy as a gun.

Are you getting the idea that this game isn't your average game? But the truth is I'm already highly addicted. It's killing me because I'm already a good chunk of the way through Eternal Sonata and I'm determined not to fully abandon it, because it too is a great game. Meaning, I'm balancing two very different, but two very awesome games. *sigh*

Oh, and if you haven't seen anything about this game, here's a great trailer for it.



Have you played/Do you want to play Alice: Madness Returns?

Since I did a fun/silly post for the last MXA round, I decided to go more serious in this round. I've briefly mentioned why I came to Xanga in round 1, but do you really know why I've stayed. Do you know who my first friends were on here?

I came to Xanga as an outlet to practice writing. The theme was video games, thanks to my boyfriend's brilliant mind, and I eagerly fell into writing about Final Fantasy XIII. These were my very first blog posts, with Dragon Age Origins not too long after.

I remember thinking that no one would read my stuff. Really, Xanga was just going to be some silly blog I kept for fun. But suddenly people were reading. @Hinase and @RazielV were two of my very first readers. They recommended my blogs and got them out there for more people to see. Pretty soon I was becoming quite chummy with @haloed over our love for Alistair in Dragon Age Origins. It stinks we don't get to chitchat on here like we used to. And I can't forget @mooshpitmatt, who I freaking adore so, so, so, so much. I wish she posted more but life is so busy!

I also got to give credit to @icecold4u who rarely uses Xanga these days, but loves to tweet me, as do I! Whenever I was suffering from writer's block, he was awesome at messaging me topics. "What's your opinion on this?" "What's your opinion on that?" Well, you could be sure to find a blog on my page only a few hours after a message was shot to me. Thanks, buddy <3

Then I joined MXA last year. It opened me up to many new readers and friends. Several of the judge (not allowed to use them in my story) became avid readers of mine and vice versa. And @Stupid_Systemus completely won me over when we competed in the "couples" contest. Him and his partner...(was it @RoadLessTaken ?)...got to portray themselves as Mario and Luigi. You can bet I voted for them. He sure knows how to win over a geek.

Things were going quite smoothly until some serious shit hit the fan. My boyfriend's dad passed away, we had to up and move home, I was commuting very far to work, and Xanga took a back seat. There was simply no time to blog, let alone attempt to play a video game. Not to mention, grieving was hard. Yet, still people were more than happy to help me by contributing guest blogs for me. For that I thank you: @chaosandtranquility, @imthemeowmixcat, and @bmojsilo. You guys really helped me out of a tough spot.

Finally, I've been able to take the reigns again. I just couldn't stay away.  And, boy, am I happy to be back. It feels good to be writing about games again. Telling you what games suck, what games are awesome, and just chitchatting about games. Let's just say no one at my old job had ever held a controller.

I know this kind of ended up being a stream of consciousness post/story. But honestly, this is who I am. I can't even begin to cite all the people who I'm friends with on here. It would take too long. And true, maybe this was cheesy as all hell, but if you haven't figured it out already...I'm a nerd. A geek. A dork. Call it whatever you want. Just take it for what I am.

*Note: I had a ton of fun with this. I'm such a goody goody in real life, so creating a character and getting into the character myself was like Halloween for me!

@SexyGamerGirl sat in a plush arm chair in a back room of one of the many Dave and Busters she owned. Only 22, so close to her 23rd birthday, she was the wealthiest and seediest video game mogul that had ever lived. It had started out small. At the age of 15 she was selling burgled video games, but soon upgraded to selling pirated copies and making a slew of cash. Yet, no one had caught her yet. Sure, they looked for her at times, but she always manged to buy off the cops via a new copy of the latest game title, or with that game dust.

Game dust was a drug of her creation. A mixture of coke and crushed up game discs, this drug became the hottest item to snort, ingest, or even shoot up. SexyGamerGirl grabbed a five hundred dollar bill and took a bump herself. She, like many others thanks to her, as addicted to video games in more ways than one.

"Miss Sexy," a husky voice spouted. It belonged to one of her bodyguard's, and he sounded nervous. "You may want to switch to AV1."

Scowling, SexyGamerGirl paused Dragon Age 2. She was about to choose whether she wanted to side with the Templars or Mages. "This better be worth it," she growled as she switched from her PS3 to the channel that showed all the on goings in Dave and Busters. There were so many cameras she didn't know which once to look at. And then she spotted him. Tall, well dressed, a hint of a gun underneath his suit jacket. It was Bond, or so he liked to call himself.


Back when they were young his name was only James. They had bonded over their love of video games. Back then Nintendo was still at its height. They played Golden Eye together every single day. That, and had some very fun sex.

Eventually they became too competitive for each other. He began thinking he was James Bond, and flipped out whenever she would take him down in the game. She was the only one that he couldn't beat. So he replaced her. Replaced her with some bimbo of a girl that wouldn't know an XBox controller from a Playstation one. But he could decimate her in the game, and that's all that mattered to his pride.


At 17 love really hurts. And this just wasn't going to fly with SexyGamerGirl. In a fit she destroyed all the game he ever had bought her. As the game dust settled, she did the only thing she could think of to dull the pain. Though she had never done any drug in her life, she took that dust and snorted it. Truthfully, she was hoping it would kill her, thinking something that foreign would totally screw up her body. Surprisingly, it gave her a high like no other. Soon after she made friends with a nice little drug dealer and created the real game dust that so many gamers were addicted to these days.

One day while high out of her mind, she happened to see James gallivanting around town with the same girl in a GameStop. The girl was staring blankly at a wall of DS games, something James didn't own. It incensed SexyGamerGirl. How could he be with a chick that knew nothing about games just because his pride wouldn't let him be beat?

She created a plan. She knew James still owned his N64. He still loved to play Golden Eye no matter what. While the couple were out, SexyGamerGirl sneaked in and rigged the player two controller. The next day Jame's girlfriend was in the paper. She had been electrocuted via a video game controller. It was put down as some sort of fluke accident that had to do with a short circuit. But James knew the truth. 

But by then SexyGamerGirl had all the protection she needed. She was the creator of a vile drug that many gamers needed, and she was already making thousands through her pirated games. The money continued to pour in and she was able to move from city to city, buying up Dave and Busters for her own enjoyment. She performed her drug and game deals in the back rooms.


But now he had finally caught up to her. She watched as he made his way through the hall, closer and closer to where she resided. "Stop him," she said to her guards, as she quickly packed as many games as she could in a bag. Bond was feet away from the door as SexyGamerGirl slipped out the another back door.

Guns shots could be heard as she hightailed it through the dimly lit hallway. The door burst open far behind her, and shots began to fire around her. "I will kill you," Bond screamed.

SexyGamerGirl didn't hesitate. She pulled a PS3 controller from the back of her pants and shot right back at him, without looking. She knew she needed to get out on the game floor.

Hurling herself through a door, SexyGamerGirl had to blink in the brightly lit arcade. People everywhere were drunkenly gaming their way into bankruptcy. Those shitty prizes those tickets bought were nothing compared to the money these drunk patrons dropped.

Someone grabbed her hand. "Please, just another bump."

Without hesitating, SexyGamerGirl shoved the controller into the drunken man's stomach. "Back off, or you die." She was immediately let go of. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bond open the door she had recently come through. She took off again.

She was ahead, lost in the crowd of people. He'd never find her. And then she passed a Mario Kart station. By now the game dust was coursing through her veins. Unfortunately, one of the side effects is a want for heavy gaming. She glanced around. Bond was nowhere in sight. She could afford just one game. Only one.

She hopped into the seat, and slid her VIP card through the slot. She had only placed her fingers on the wheel when several shots ran out.

Dragon Age 2 has gotten plenty of complaints from fans of Origins and Awakening. And it's true, some pieces of the game just seemed like EA had gotten lazy, but they really have made up for it in my opinion with their first storyline-based DLC that came out on July 26th.

The cool thing about this DLC is that it can be played any time between Acts 1 and 3. I, however, was at Act 3 so I played it quite later on. The perks were that my characters were leveled up quite nicely though. I had also recently downloaded the Rogue equipment content, so I had some seriously awesome weapons and armor to keep from getting my ass kicked.

Another perk is that if you were smart enough to not bring your sibling to the Deep Roads in Act 1, or you let Anders turn them into a Grey Warden, the Wardens/Templars/Circle will allow your sibling to join you on this quest. This meant that after a whole act had gone by, Bethany was able to join me. Let's just say I was amazed at how powerful she had become. I built her stats like it was nobody's business and really enjoyed watching her kick some serious ass.

I had previously trained Bethany in the healing arts, but I brought Anders along with me for good measure. One healing mage is good, but two is better, especially in this case because you will need healing. And if you're not ready to give up those Health Poultices, I'd say go this route too. I also brought Fenris because he's my boyfriend and because he packs a nice punch. However, keep an eye on him if you he comes along because his in your face tactic can get him seriously hurt by some enemies that pack just as much of a punch. Healing will come in handy on anybody that fights this way.

Finally, you'll get to fight some darkspawn. It's funny, the first game you fought thousands of darkspawn, but this one is so different. Obviously, it's because your previous hero ended the Blight, but still it feels kind of strange to not be fighting darkspawn as often as possible. You'll encounter a new darkspawn that can charge you down, so stay out of it's way and attack from behind when possible. Do not let him get near your mages!

So what's the premise?

People are out for you blood. Well, your father's blood, but your blood or your siblings blood will do just the same. It seems that the blood of the Hawke is the only thing that can unleash a talking darkspawn that has been sealed for ages in an old Grey Warden prison. How this pertains to you and your family, well I just can't give it away. But by making your way through the Deep Roads and ultimately through the prison's puzzles and many things trying to kill you, you will find out for yourself.

You will learn in depth of this talking darkspawn, a creature much like The Architect of Awakening, but fouler and more evil and ten times harder to defeat. It will take much strategy in order to defeat him. He will use all his knowledge of elemental magic to stop you. Gun blazing is not an option is this battle. You be dodging and avoiding a good amount of the time too. And you'll finally learn about the mystery of the Hawke family.

At $9.99, I think it's a fair price for a DLC that will take a few hours to complete and give a lot of background as well as fun game play. And if you haven't made up your mind, here's the trailer.



Have you/will you play Dragon Age II Legacy?

My life has become pretty hectic lately. I work 30 hours at Wags Doggy Day Camp and come home severely scratched and bruised after each work day. I then sit down to write medical blogs for plastic surgeons that can't even write their own material. Most of the days I'm too exhausted to do much if I've worked at Wags, so my "days off" have become my blogging days meaning I don't get much of a day off any longer. To top it off, I'm still blogging for Nokia, because it's a good resume builder, and just landed a writing position that could be a potential job one day for ConsoleTard. Thankfully that's only once a week, or I think I might go crazy.

With all this going on, I think you can pretty much assume that gaming has not been on my agenda lately. Believe me, I try to fit it in, because hell I need a freaking outlet for myself, but I'm lucky if I get to play an hour or two every few days. EVERY FEW DAYS!  Do you know how sad that makes me? I went from gaming a huge chunk of my time to practically nada in a matter of days. It's part of the reason I haven't been posting as often. I mean, A) I don't really have the time and B) I'm not gaming so I don't have much material. It's frustrating as all hell because I adore this blog and have worked really hard on it, as well as made some awesome friends on here.

I think you may understand why I've asked people to guest blog for me in the past. Bottom line is that my time is no longer my own. It's split between 50 to 90 dogs and writing these repetitive blogs. Granted, it's my first paid writing position and I'm thankful for that, very thankful. But I just wish something would give so I could just feel like a gamer again. A gamer plays, I feel like I no longer do.

I have asked for my hours to be cut back at Wags. I did the math and it seems that three days a week plus the blogging will make me enough to get buy and still save some money. And luckily, I've finally finished up my medical blogs for the week so gaming is an option tonight since I'm not working until noon tomorrow. But the cycle of blogs starts all over again tomorrow as well so my time will not be my own until the end of next week most likely.

Man, do I wish I was back in high school or college. When I wasn't doing work, which really wasn't that tough, I was able to game for hours upon end. I miss it. But the truth is that unfortunately my life as a grown up has finally taken flight and is getting in the way of what I love to do. Too bad I can't get paid to game!

But, I do have a fun announcement. My boyfriend and I have been talking about doing a little weekly gaming video blog. Hopefully weekly, that is. His schedule is even busier than mine. And with my new computer, I can do little snippets of video blogs just to post my thoughts. It may be the best I can do for a bit, but hey, at least you'll get to see my sexy self. (I just need to cut my bangs or else you won't see me at all! Seriously, they've gotten way too long!)

So let me play some Chrono Trigger and Dragon Age 2 tonight just so I have some material for you. I know you guys miss me and my posts have been iffy lately.

Does your life interfere with your gaming?

So I've been super busy between my regular job and my new ghostwriting job which means gaming, let alone gaming and blogging about it, has been something that has been put on hold. I am hoping to figure out how to carve out a specific time each night, but that will come later. My ghostwriting is also going to relax in a week once the blogs have been caught up (my boss is about 40 behind), so that should open up some me time. The truth is, I love Xanga, this blog, and the fellow gamers I've made friends with.

But I digress. The point of this blog is to start a new mini series of blogs. Something quick and to the point that I know I have time to do. The title, if you haven't figured out by reading the actual title, is "Characters I Don't Like." Each will revolve around a specific game or series, and this week it is Dragon Age!

Number 1: Merrill



I can't quite put my finger on it, but she really bugs me. Her voice, her naive personality, and the fact that she doesn't really like when I try to make her feel better all boil down to me not particularly liking her. Of course, she actually is pretty damn good in battle, so I'll tote her along, but I then have to endure some awful conversations between her and my other characters. But what really irks me is that when I do try and be supportive of her I still end up with rivalry points. I've only started getting friendship points because I'm helping her with her Elven mirror.

Number 2: Anders



If you haven't beaten the game yet you may not understand why I dislike him, but when you do I'm pretty sure you may be in my corner, even if you do side with mages. Let's just say that his charm throughout the whole game definitely doesn't make up for his part in the end of Dragon Age II. Sadly, I really did love the shit out of him before this, but he ruined it for me.

Number 3: Isabella



I really liked her my first play through, but her over-exaggerated sex kitten things is kind of beyond me now. It was fun sleeping with her in my first game, and the flirting dialogue is pretty damn hilarious, but I'm just over her. She does have a killer outfit that I'd love to cosplay though!

Number 4: Leliana



She was perhaps my least favorite character in Dragon Age: Origins. I accidentally got into a relationship with her twice in my second game and it was ridiculously hard to break up with her. I still don't know how I got into a relationship with her, but she was determined to smother me. Her voice always bothered me as well. I rarely kept her in my party.

Number 5: Anora



God, is she the biggest bitch in the whole world. If you don't promise to be on her side, she betrays your ass without even looking back. Luckily my cunning and persuasive skills rocked and her little story went nowhere and I landed my ass right on the throne. My first play through I did, however, place her on the throne and she ruined the country. I rest my case.

Are any of these characters on your list? Who else would you add?

So I finally decided to take a break from Elder Scrolls IV since I know it's going to take me forever. But instead of starting a new game I wanted to give Dragon Age 2 a try again. I enjoyed the game the first time around and I figured it was time to bust out the game again and go a different route from my first play through.

I started off trying to decide whether or not I wanted to replay as a rogue and simply build my character differently, or to play as a mage, something I rarely do but keep hearing that the storyline is pretty interesting. The Rogue won out because this time around I wanted to romance the sexy elf, Fenris, and since he hates mages I was unsure if I'd be able to finagle that as a mage myself. (So if anyone can actually tell me if you can or not, I'd be interested to know!)

This play through I've been making a conscious effort to actually utilize all the characters. Merrill and Varric actually were my least use characters in my previous game but both have been making some appearances in my party as of late. I took Merrill into the Deep Roads over Fenris this time around because the boss battle at the end is best defeated through ranged fighting in my opinion.

Fenris and I are getting along great. I almost have his friendship all the way up. I have no doubt that he'll be in my pants soon. I'm still tempted to romance Anders like the last time, only because he reminds me a tad bit of Alistair, but I was proven to be an idiot for liking him in my previous game. (Note: Anders you end up being a real butt.) But in order for Fenris to like me I keep having to side against the mages, so whenever I know a part with mages is coming up I try and either have Bethany or no mages in my party. Bethany will be removed from my party in a jiffy anyway so it doesn't matter what she thinks. Plus, she is highly against blood magic anyway, so decisions against stuff like that rarely pushes her into disapproval. (Just some food for thought for you guys if you've yet to play and plan on romancing Fenris but want to stay on good terms with everyone else.)

This time around I am also noticing that I'm not getting as much approval from Varric, and Isabella and I keep going back and forth. It's really interesting to see how my new decisions affect my characters.

All in all I'm having fun replaying it again. I am a bit tired of the recycled dungeons. It just seems a little lazy on EA's part. And I still can't comment on the game being short. Everyone has said that but since I don't actually get to sit for hours at a time to play, and only get to play an hour or two at a time, the games seems pretty long. But I really think that is only because I can't just sit and play. Oh well.

Will you play Dragon Age 2 a second time?