The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

You know, I had the idea that, if I ever want to make a “Real blog” (Which means, I guess that this ISN’T a real blog, which is completely wrong. I mean, it’s a Blogtastic Blogfest, right?) where I actually write things people would want to read, I could make a gaming news site, wait for it, that only deals with browser-based games. So I could keep everyone up to date on news with all these browser games I play, and give me an excuse to play so many more of them. Except, you know, I don’t even have time to play what I play now. So… I guess that’s a flaw in the plan. Still, there’s only going to be more and more of these things, and it’s something niche enough that it might get an audience? I dunno. It’s probably a stupid idea.
In any case, though, it’s a new month, and I’ve kind of gotten into the habit of saying what I think about the month’s IoTMs, so I think I’ll do that, and I want to ramble about the latest Forumwarz Ep. 2 announcement as well, so I’ll do that too. But first, IoTMs.

Both of the IoTMs are kind of boring this month? But I picked up both anyway. I’ll start with Twilight Heroes, where the thing on tap is the Letter Shirt. This is a really straightforward piece of equipment, just giving decent bonuses, but that turn length reduction is the main selling point, I think, since it offers a bigger reduction at higher levels than the intensely powerful Xentrium Breastplate. That’s the main reason I got it. So basically, it’s one of those IoTMs that I talk about not normally getting, where it’s just power and no interesting stuff? But it was sort of too powerful to pass up, given that I want to help the game and that my current goal is farming. Just like Wolley’s Index, this is helpful for farming. So I got it.
The thing that really pointlessly excites me about the letter shirt, though, is the “personalized flair.” I mean, it’s really kind of simple and stupid. I can basically put any letter or a question mark on the picture of the letter shirt. People, when they look at my equipment, can see my chosen letter. It’s really simple stuff. Yet, I find it really fun. I like the idea of being able to personalize things, and fiddle with them to entertain me. This being the month after the perfect-for-that Zorromir’s Double Tower Shield, I wasn’t expecting something to throw a little bone to players who like that kind of thing (such as me) any time soon. It just makes me happy that I can pick a letter and come up with some stupid reason why my shirt says that that day. Ryme, if you give a shit about my opinion? More stuff like this, please. It’s just more fun with no gameplay impact, and that’s just fine by me. Still, more than a letter would be nice, though. Heh.

Over in KoL, we have the Disembodied Hand. This is described as the “Mad Hatrack for Weapons” and while it does equip your equipment like the Mad Hatrack, this is a completely different beast. The Mad Hatrack is kind of, in a lot of ways, the ultimate familiar. It becomes just about anything you can ever need ever, and has many great options for various effects that don’t require it to be at full weight. The Disembodied Hand is basically a pumped up attack familiar. It doesn’t do a whole lot more damage, from what I’ve seen, than a normal attack familiar. However, it does give you the effects of any enchantments on the weapon you give it. That’s the real benefit there, not being a really good familiar. Even that is kind of a situational benefit, though. There aren’t a lot of weapon enchantments worth giving up your familiar for. Still, if you were wanting extra damage, this is probably your best bet right now. And there are some neat things you can do with, say, giving it a Witty Rapier at the beginning of a run, since the hand can equip any weapon regardless of stat requirement. Or maybe something like the Club of the Five Seasons or an Immense Cyborg Hand to really crazily increase your damage at the early levels to make battles even more easy peasy and let you run more +Monster Level? Or you could, say, give it a Haiku Katana or a Bottle Rocket Crossbow if you have a ton of extra money or IoTMs on hand to get extra uses for those skills every battle? I mean, there are uses. I don’t know if there are any game-breaking uses? But it’s not useless, and it’s going to be a fun time when I do my 100% run. Still, I mean, I couldn’t recommend this to like… everyone? It’s not a perfect familiar. But it’s nice.

Okay, so, now that those IoTMs are out of the way, let’s talk Forumwarz. I got two things to say. Thing one is that I wish this poster was something I could use. I mean, I don’t feel like I have use for a poster? But I think that’s pretty completely in every way great. But that’s not really game-related. Just wanted to say it.
The Trout that is Evil posted an update on their little dev blog about the last unannounced feature in Forumwarz Episode 2. That feature is, basically, adding loot drops. I mentioned earlier how it was sort of a disadvantage to the game that they don’t have any loot in a more “active in the game” sense in previous stupid blog post. (I’m even going to link it, like you care to go back and check) This really seems to be a great and potentially hilarious vector for that sort of thing. Having to collect the equivalent of those stupid broken-into-chunks .rar files is a great idea, and the whole “oppressive DRM” concept for explaining why you can’t make infinite copies of them is also a relevant and functional narrative justification. Plus, you know, they’re a vector for serious internet humor. I fully trust these guys to write hilarious shit, find and make awesome image macros, disturbing videos, and sound clips, and who knows what to find. Plus, since you can equip them, I am hoping that they affect your attack messages in combat, making that whole “none of the items really do entertaining things in combat” complaint I had in that last blog post disappear.
Anyway, I already pre-ordered Episode 2 (How can I pass up free lengthening of my E-Peen for something I know I’m going to buy anyway?) and I really can’t wait for it to hit. All of these tweaks to the formula just seem like exactly what they needed to make an even more well-rounded experience out of what was already a pretty damn good experience. I really can’t wait.
I just hope I come up with the time to actually play through it. Damn.