My first PC video game – Jazz Jackrabbit 2!

Flare here! Today I have a very special entry prepared – “Jazz Jackrabbit 2”, a title that introduced me to PC gaming when I was just six years old an’ a half. I have to apologizes though, as this was prepared all the way back in August 2020, but I was to lazy to set up a proper post for it. Luckily, with the new schedule system that I set into motion, I am happy to announce that a lot of the older entries have been put into the light. With this one, I am close to pretty much be done cleaning all entries that have received a harsh stalemate over the years.

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This is probably one of my favorite action platformers of all time! While nostalgia is a minor factor when it comes to this, fact is, this is also one of my most played video game along with friends and relatives. It’s quite the unusual formula, like “Sonic” meets “Metal Slug” and they had a love child, or so it seems to me at least. The action is pretty fast- paced and before anything, the overall momentum is really fluid! The control that you get is just amazing! Contributing to that is also the variety of characters that you can use, all of which add some unique form of spice to each level of a soup. There is hovering, double jumping, uppercuts, dash kicks… In addition to the huge variety of weapons of mass destruction, things can get pretty chaotic, in a very well- crafted mannerism. This game is not unique when it comes to the general idea, but the aesthetic and execution are one of a kind, really!

The person who introduced me to this game was a relative of mine. I will never forget his words when he put me on his PC and let me play this game – “Hey, you are actually doing pretty well at this! Already on the third world? You learn pretty fast, amazing!” It was a genuine praise, but for the first time in my life, I felt like I earned it by something I did, not because of a privilege due to a my status as a child.

God bless his soul! He died by a very awful illness a few years ago…

I also remember being really amazed by the intro scene. I guess it was normal for a young child with little to no experience to be enticed by such things. But I’ve played a lot of games on my Famiclone and there was not on it like this.

Revisiting this game, I decided to go through every official version there is on Hard mode. I was quite disappointed, as it doesn’t really change much. It just places more enemies and makes you defeat the second phase of the final boss two times. But the thing is, this game is very generous with HP refills and extra lives. Well, the weapons are pretty good too. There is a lot of room for error, you can do a whole lot of crap without worrying too much. I don’t know. There are lots of collectables and caches all over the place, along with secrets galore! The bosses? Unique and interactive! Honestly, the fun factor was just caved in on this product!

It’s just a very good video game that managed to spawn a very dedicated follow that is still active to this day! If I am to place a

Note: Play a whole bunch of awesome custom levels and maybe do some more fun stuff, like a no damage run of the game or without firing a single bullet, just using the “melee” attacks?

I’m very happy that this entry has been finally done!

Beyond the 300th is a craft seen for a third time during certain war! [Part 2]

It’s the conclusion to my “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne” campaign crusade, as after numerous attempts, I finally managed to clear the last chapter of the Undead campaign. It makes me really happy to be finally done with what I’ve left a decade ago and moreover – to see how much my perspective of the game has changed over the years. To be honest, I doubted a lot the idea of me being able to go through the whole game on hard difficulty. Alas, it turned out to be pretty fun and challenging and I am quite glad about the results. Truly, “Warcraft III” will always be one of those video games atop my tier list. Truly and forever!

In previous post I’ve mentioned how annoying the first chapter of this campaign is. Hard difficulty just throws at you endless hordes of military units, which can really set you back if you don’t time things right. For one thing though, Sylvanas side got a bit of a benefit from the constant spam, as the banshees had quite the influence on stocking a stupidly strong army due to their possession ability. To be fair, this whole campaign revolved around the abuse of possession and charm abilities. At the last chapter, it was pretty much the key factor, no less. Sure, the other chapters throw all the good items in the world at you, but let’s be honest – The last chapter is pretty overwhelming on Hard difficulty, even with biffed-up heroes! However, if you manage your defenses well and play the patience game right, at one point you’ll be rewarded with an attack wave that has sorceress units among its ranks. If you are able to possess them without having your banshees turned into cotton-fluff sheep, then congratulations! As long as you managed to capture a suitable number of sorceress, you can manipulate their invisibility ability to help Arthas go around and capture any point that he desires. It’s all about speed and defending after that point. Enjoy your beefy Crypt Lord with Orb of Frost and your Unholy Aura that makes your fly like a race car! Sure, you can go around and beat your head on a rock trying to do this the intended, classic way, but why would you ditch those sexy magic gals for mere Ghouls n’ Ghosts? That’s madness!!!

And then you laid rest on an ice furniture for the rest of eternity… as in another fantasy, no Warcraft game was ever released after this one… THE END!

I also did another custom campaign! “Rise of the Lich King” is pretty rich in terms of variety when it comes to quests and races, but man, the chapter “Battle in Ironforge” is a pain in the butt! Those dwarfs sure fortify well! Way too well! If you manage to pass over that and the horrible, cheesy dialogue, this campaign is quite alright. I mean, come on! How often do you see the Naga’s submerge ability being put into any practical use? There is also a really interesting desert level and… yeah. Everything else is gentle windy breeze and sunshine cocktails, with every now and then someone trying to shoot your through the glass. Egh!

AFTERWORD:

I’ve been thinking about doing various challenges for this game, even considered trying more custom campaigns. While that will happen in the future, no doubt, for a time being I want to focus on playing something else for a change. It’s not like I can get tired of “Warcraft III” , that’s impossible! The world is vast though, what a shame would it be if you don’t explore as much of it as you can. In terms of video games, that’s it! You’ll get killed for sure in the jungle out there!!!

Thrice upon a crafty war – GODDAM’ ELVES!

Sudden challenge, difficulty spike rises up! Hello, this is “WC3: The Frozen Throne”, where your favorite units from “Reign of Chaos” have been tuned down a notch, in favor for the boring ones. Is that really how it is? [] I’m not sure, but for one thing I noticed how tanks can be tanks and ranged units suffer greatly without a good proper management. The new additions and changes to armor have quite the impact, which of course, made me switch to a different play style as well.

I’ve never been really fond of the additional new units that the expansion added to the game. I pretty much don’t use them overall, despite the fact that they are quite good for various situations. Then again, I am still playing the campaigns, which held few surprises for me regarding them being on HARD difficulty level.

I really like this campaign for the mere fact that you get to use the Warden hero Maiev Shadowsong. I’ve always been fond of the Warden’s design, not so much in terms of gameplay though. She is like an assassin who does well with enough intelligence items to cast her spells constantly, all in all with the addition of few HP ones to make up for her fragile state. The campaign do go all the way to supply you with such items, along with additional new ones, witch swing more towards the utility side, rather than sole raw stats. Chapter Four was a good example! Staff of Teleportation is a pretty essential item on Hard difficulty if you wish to keep your base intact, while working on your main objective.

Maiev died a lot! Around five to six times during the chapters where you get to use her. It feels pretty silly, given that she comes with a good ability to go all over the place, escaping from bad situations or going in for the kills. Pardon me, for softening enemy units. If you don’t count the early missions, she pretty much swings towards that state in the late game. Also, I didn’t knew her Fan of Knives can harm fliers! SO THAT’S HOW YOU DEAL WITH THE PESKY NAGA COUATUALIALIS!

Chapter Five and Chapter Seven probably gave me the most trouble. They also taught me that going all in, even with full food limit capped, does not always yield success! This taken into consideration saved me a lot of trouble further ahead, in the other campaigns. For one thing, it never hurts to retreat and heal up at the nearest fountain of health. Don’t just let those chimeras turn into fireworks of guts! Focus fire the casters near the eye and ignore those silly naga towers! No, yeah! The time limit mission was literally “My last chimera killed the last naga siren before time ran out!”

If you felt like “Terror of the Tides” crushed your soul completely, which is unlikely, since it is not all that bad,really, then get ready for some relaxing, fun time with “Curse of the Blood Elves”. AFTER YOU CLEAR THE SECOND CHAPTER! YES, AFTER THAT!

Back in the days, I was not expecting the sudden switch towards playing with new, custom made races. Naga is fun, it has strong units and really good utility ones. Fliers are hella good! BLOOD[Y] ELVES ON THE OTHER HAND! Then again, there is a reason why the secret tower defense stage was added in. Oops! Spoil-spoiled solution for second chapter on Hard difficulty! We are breaking LR19 rules here!!!

Make sure to tower-up that demonic game in the upper left  on chapter five real good, also! While on Normal difficulty I remember being able to protect Illidan with a small band of units, on Hard you’ll need a good coverage of the area! I almost got overrun, which felt really, really awful… for some reason… Losing never feels good…

Apart from that, feel free to goof around for the rest of the chapters. Most missions are pretty easygoing and you can take your time to multy- click on every unit under your command, so you can listen to their jokes and whatnot crap. Send a huge army in the last chapter to kill the Pit Lord. Watch as the Blade Masters around him clear your brigade with their “Bladestorm” ability! FUN, FUN!!!

Talk about similarities! What’s this? A custom campaign? “The Last Druid” tells a story of the events that happen around the time the “Sunwell” was destroyed and how the blood elves came to be. It’s a short campaign, mainly focused on Heroes/units and puzzles. Difficulty swings towards the easy/normal side. The maps are pretty huge, so there goes those three hours I guess?

Apart from that, I have to say, the maps are pretty detailed and well-made. Puzzles are pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Talk about uniqueness, the underwater sub-map won all my cookies! After all, how often do we get to play with an overpowered Water Elemental in the true hell under the sea? Apart from that, there are other unique gimmicks as well, like item crafting/combining and no-mana regeneration which-

Man, writing them up now really makes them feel dull and boring to me… Alas, they are not! This was a fun campaign, which to be fair…

… I played because I had trouble with another custom one. End result – I’m glad I actually played this instead! =FFFFFFSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH=

AFTERWORD:

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As you can see, I’ve been having fun clearing what chapters I can at the moment, in the last campaign of the game. Undead is a pretty strong race, but would I be able to deal with multitasking and ACTUALLY clear for once the last and final chapter? That’s what I have yet to do! Also, the first chapter took me more than two hours to do. It was a complete MADNESS! Also, low cooldown CHARM spell! Gimme that free army! Also, marketplace abuse. ALSO, DREADLORD- PITLORD HYBRID! Well, at least he got quickly to level six…

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SOON! [I hope…]

The Craft in a War: Version – 3.0// – The Reign of Chaos is Over!

Well, there it is! The conclusion to my playthrough of “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos”! With actual time of completion being two days after my last post, where I was quite uncertain of myself being unable to do it as a whole. As far as can tell, I underestimated both my own skills and the game’s setup, even though I had more than enough knowledge and experience for that to not be the case.

The Orc Campaign can be quite pleasant on Hard difficulty, as long as you manage to get pass the early chapters. The difficulty change sets chapter two as a whole new experience for example – While on normal difficulty you can explore around and look for bonus items, without a care for the protection of the Kodo Caravan, on Hard difficulty, the Tauren units guarding it would fall pretty quickly to the constant centaur assaults, unless you assist them. While this brings down the potential for exploration and stacking on items to power up Thrall, it’s not that big of a deal, given the fact that most items grant you pretty low stats. What good items you can find on this chapter are literally located besides the road that the caravan follows. Hah!

I probably had the most trouble with the third chapter. The chapter that introduces you to the uselessness of any ally CPU in the campaigns, while having to deal with billion enemy bases. An ally would never send help if your base is under attack.but IT will send laughable amount of units on a suicide missions, which I suppose is the CPU’s idea of “Keeping the enemy under pressure!”. If anything , it managed to keep me under pressure moreover. Luckily, Orcs are pretty good at setting up base defenses, what with their towers, burrows and the pincushion upgrade. This played a big role on keeping my base intact from attacks, while planning my own attack on one of the many enemy Human bases. Another thing that helps is attacking along with your “Ally”, which I guess adds a bit more potential to the success of your attack. It’s better than nothing, that’s what I can say about it. The “Pillage” upgrade helps quite a bit with resources management, considering the many buildings in all the numerous Human bases. Raiders were pretty good in that aspect and for siege overall, especially since they get focused less than the catapults, which are costly and harder to manage.

I’ve never managed to complete the optional mission to destroy all Trees of life in chapter four before. Looking back at the past, I would never set up for an expansion, would stack mostly on grunts and just sit down and “shred” my way up to the 15.000 wood goal. Not this time though! Hard difficulty has turned me into a complete different person, who would never do any of the said above! I would stack on all the trolls and siege with all the raiders! To a certain extend, it feels like the previous chapter, but easier, somehow. Maybe it’s due to the fact that you are against less opponents.Maybe…

As a whole, the Orc Campaign feels like “Tower up” and “Power up”! Two essential aspects, which play a huge role in the last chapter. If you think your Tauren Chieftain was not strong enough with the “Crown of Kings” that you found in the previous chapter, just see what happens if you manage to find the hidden “Mask of Death”…

If you consider the Orc Campaign as a laid back, then I have no words to describe the final, Night Elf campaign of “Reign of Chaos”.

Apart from the third chapter, where you have to quickly rush an annoying Orc base,while being on a race of 15.00 minutes time limit, the other chapters of the campaign felt untouched in terms of difficulty. That can be said even for the last chapter, which many people praised for being hella’ difficult! Not that I wish to brag or anything, but I almost nailed it on my first try, with five seconds remaining. [Should have used Furion to root Archimonde, instead of running randomly around the overwhelming legion forces…]

Really, the last chapter gives you so many resources to succeed, it’s quite silly. Mines, two expansions, two heroes with strong ultimate spells… Honestly, proper management of Tyrande and Furion plays a huge role in completing the chapter. Also, lots of Dryads. They are funny, they are spell immune and they were the unit that managed the most with the legion’s forces on my first attempt. Who would have guessed that massing them would be effective to the point where I would even manage to save the allied Orc base as well?

…and then you beat the game and you unlock all the “StarCtaft”!!!

I feel quite happy for being able to finish “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” on Hard difficulty. It was somehow of a childhood dream of mine and… now it’s all done! I managed to experience the game in a whole new way, learn more about it and… generally, I just had fun! Actual, good ol’ FUNFUN! I can’t deny that my previous experience with the game came in handy, given that I still remembered the layout of the maps and the location of various useful items.

How will I manage with the expansion “The Frozen Throne”? I don’t know. I’ve only played through it once and I don’t remember much about it. People also pointed out that it’s on a whole new level regarding difficulty. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll try my best to finish it! In the meantime, I am probably going to take a bit of a break regarding “Warcraft III” posting. Kinda’ wanna’ post about other actual VIDEO GAMES!

Volume Three: The Craft of War – Casual Learning Curve

Another post regarding “Warcraft III”, which I am honestly considering doing weekly. It all depends on how I handle the difficulty really, though things went quite nice this week. I’m not sure how things will turn up for the upcoming one, given how much trouble I am having with the Orc Campaign in “RoC” right now. We’ll see… Anyways, here’s what I’ve managed to accomplish during this week:

“Monolith” is a classic scenario map that always gave me trouble back in the days. It didn’t matter if I played it with friends or an ally CPU, the enemy always managed to overwhelm my forces. On this map, you face custom- built races, like Murlocs or Trolls, who have their own set of gimmicks and strategy regarding their structures, heroes and units. The Thunder Lizards and The Beast Master[?] ones are the worst races to play against, while the rest are quite manageable. The goal is to destroy the main building [The Monolith] of each opponent, which also disables them completely from further interference in the game. Monolith Shard Pieces are items scattered around the map, which can be picked by both sides. Having them in your possession lets you disrupt various enemy units a number of times, turning them against each other. If the Monolith Beasts pick them up, they can set up some pretty tough tower buildings, which melt down low level units in no-time! Honestly, the only reason to pick those up before the enemy is so you can prevent them from setting up lots of towers, since the activation effect of the monolith shard does not have that big of an impact on the map. [P.S. I am not totally sure if the enemy actually picks and places them. Rather, I think it’s just something that they can build. I don’t know…]

I’ve decided to give myself some [Easy] CPU allies, since I wanted to face the maximum number of enemies. [Number of players affect number of enemy players.You can’t face them all solo, sadly…] My first two attempts ended in failure. The Night Elf Warden is not all that good of a hero for this map, at least not for the mid and late game. Priestess of the Moon did the work quiet nicely, along with a quick tech to tier three, where I managed to get myself some chimaeras to help me melt the Monoliths quickly. Controlled the early game with Huntresses, who are really effective against the masses of low tier units that the enemy tends to make.

Auras and quick tech are really important for team games. I LEARN THINGS, HECK YEAH!

The Last Guardian is a custom campaign for Warcraft III, with a primary focus on puzzle-solving and less fighting. By puzzles, it should be mention that 85% of the game is just fetch-quests, with actual puzzles coming into gameplay every now and then. I don’t know if it’s right from my part to be critical about it, since I’m not entirely sure as to what are the limits of the “Warcraft III” editor. Regardless, each map of this campaign has much to offer, to the point where one is without a doubt not going to care all that much about any annoying little details. I mean, every place is set up and built really nicely and the custom models are just…great! Again, I don’t really have any experience on the editor of the game, I’m just stating my honest personal opinion regarding my experience. There is quite a bit to explore on each chapter, but as a whole, the gameplay is pretty straightforward. The overall interaction setup in this campaign made my whole experience with it really pleasant!

As for the plot, the campaign revolves around “The Last Guardian – Medivh” and his deeds around the time when the Orcs came into Azeroth. You play as his new apprentice, Khadgar who is tasked with solving various tasks, ultimately leading to the discovery of Medivh’s betrayal and his death. I’m not quite in touch with the whole story as a whole. I’ve recently watched the movie and I know about the book and… I guess it’s fine…?

This is the post where I make excuses for not knowing things regarding the game, but would I be having any fun if I knew it all? Maybe. I had fun with the statue/Medivh fight in the last chapter of this campaign though.

This campaign was quite alright and I would gladly suggest it to anyone.Even to people who have never played Warcraft III or just hate the game for whatever reason whatsoever. PLAY THIS CAMPAIGN, IT’S ENJOYABLE!

The official Undead Campaign of “RoC” also taught me a lot of things about the game! Way to go hard difficulty! I regret avoiding you back in the days…

Siege Weapons are good and should not be overlooked, especially if you are dealing with an enemy who uses a lot of ranged units. This is a key element for clearing chapters Three to Five. Also, making the right picks when it comes to attacking bases and overall positioning on the map. You can’t really get away by relying on towers alone for base protection on hard difficulty. Same can be said about attacking bases at random. As a whole, one should aim to deal with the huge threats first, especially those involving the production of an enemy siege units/heroes who are attacking your base constantly.

I was feeling quite uneasy about chapter six. I expected the wost coming from all the Orc enemies that you need to deal with, but turns out that they are no match at all for masses of Frost Wyrms and Gargoyles. On another note, it seems that if you don’t reveal the red Orc Base, you won’t have to deal with the Level 10, Red Dragon attacks, which is quite nice, since on Hard difficulty, the number of Dragons who attack you is set to TWO! [Sending a shade to scout the red Orc base would trigger him to attack…it seems…] Also, Arthas ultimate is really good for turning attacks around, even though all you can get from the reanimated units is to bring one tower or so. Still, it’s something…

Did I have trouble with the last chapter? Of course! I had to replay it five times in total. Why? Because I underestimated a lot of things. One of those, which I think was the most crucial one,is the gold income. You can’t really stand up to all those attacks without a good support of towers and units. And for that you honestly need more than just the gold mine that you have at the start. Expansions and upkeep management is really important!!! Even then, protecting Mr. The Lich Summoner can end up in failure if you are not careful! Having trouble with the final attack from the fully-upgraded humans? Had enough of those pesky Archmages and their annoying Blizzard spell? Gryphons swarm over Kel’Thuzad and one-shot him before you can even heal him?

Possess and enemy sorceress with a banshee. Use the sorceress to remove the Lich out of sight! There! That’s the secret to deal with the hardest part of the mission! The rest really depends on how many towers you can build and if you can keep your Fel Hounds and Infernals healthy enough all the time.