So, I collect orcs. A large and lengthy post about the fictional warband will be a little later, because I’ll soon come up with a full-fledged backing about them along the way. While you are painting, it somehow turns out that you begin to come up with various details about the characters and endow them with simple, but quite orcish personalities.

So, about the topic of the survey and what I have planned for the near future? Well it’s quite obvious. Right now the gradual assembly and painting of my little green army named Gork and Mork is underway. And I wanted to tell you about this process, dear readers. Because, as it turned out, even I had no idea HOW good Warhammer is precisely as a hobby for the hands and head (and there’s no need to trivialize it, but!).

So, here are the http://sugar-bingo-casino.co.uk/ specifics of the options:
1) Killa-kan. Killa-kan is such an orc idiot on two legs. A walking tin can with hands, in short. From the description it doesn’t seem very terrifying, but in reality it’s quite impressive. It is already partially assembled and all the spare parts are primed, that is, I can only show the process of painting, assembly and subsequent finishing and make a couple of hypothetical speeches.

2) Storm Boys – these are attack aircraft, in Russian. In the Vahi Universe, everything that is called that has a jetpack and is very fond of close combat. I already have five of these dudes and they were all assembled, with somewhat imperfect hands; in those days I had not yet figured out how much glue should be applied to the joints. As a result, you will only be able to show the painting process and that’s it. Here even FIG knows. Apart from the fact that the Sturmaka look juicy, nothing sensible may come of it.

3) Boys. One piece. Well, everything is clear here – stupid orc. There’s already room to roam around here, because these dudes haven’t assembled anything even roughly yet. And this is a fresh box for 10 strong guys with a bunch of all sorts of goodies, so potentially I can show the direct collection and variability of the selection of parts using the example of the entire squad, and then on one specific one – capture the painting procedure.

Here. So it’s up to you to decide who and what. Although if many more people abstain from voting than vote, then I won’t show anything here anymore, because it doesn’t matter :3

PS: IMPORTANT NOTE. I don’t consider myself a professional and therefore what I’m going to post is by no means painting lessons with an explanation of important details, as, for example, Harvey had (I hope it’s okay that I call him that (or you, if you’re reading this)). Well, more precisely, it’s not exactly a highly professional lesson, but he talks about a lot of interesting little things, so I recommend reading it. So, by and large, everyone has their own opinion on painting. Here Garv spoke about his approach – and I’ll say a few words about mine.

Please note that the photographs were taken at different stages and at different times, so the mistakes that are visible in some (and they are right in the foreground there) have in most cases already been eliminated.

We can say that the Heavy Gear franchise was still gaining momentum, since the first card game was developed in 1994. The Canadian division Dream Pod 9 is responsible for its creation. This group was formed from the Canadian publishing house Ianus Publications, which was formed in 1987. They originally had a deal with Harmony Gold USA to publish material for the Robotech sci-fi franchise, which included titles featuring mechs.

The publishing house’s leaders were so inspired by the idea that in 1991 they released their own magazine, Mecha Press. Each episode focused on one specific anime or manga, describing and showcasing mecha and characters. However, it only lasted 17 issues and closed in 1995 as the design team decided to focus on board games. It was during this period that they became known as Dream Pod 9.

Their subsequent projects were also related to anime mechs. But already in 1994 they released a card game for two players – Heavy Gear Fighter. It was small in format, and the completion time was only 10 minutes. The first 8 mechs were shown in the set for the first time (4 units on each side).

Heavy Gear are humanoid combat robots. Unlike their huge neighbors from the world of BattleTech, the vehicles were from 3 to 6 meters. Also, their armor was of medium thickness and could be compared to an armored car. For the most part, mechs are reinforcements for infantry. Due to their size and lightness, they can run and crawl quickly. For even greater speed, many versions were equipped with wheels or tracks.

Another distinctive feature of their structure is the external engine, which is shaped like the letter V, which is why it became known as a V-shaped engine. In addition, the mechs were equipped with simple artificial intelligence, which was trained as the battle progressed. Over time, he could begin to predict the actions of the pilot and thereby provide assistance during battles.

What is the main plot?. The earth experienced a centuries-long ice age, which caused enormous upheaval in society. During most of this cataclysm, people lived in large cities under the dome.

While the planet was melting, the scientific field continued to develop. Over time, scientists were able to detect some anomalies near the outer edge of Earth’s solar system. Using an antimatter generator, they were able to create a wormhole, which they called the Tannhäuser Gate (after the scientist who explained space-time discontinuities in the Grand Unified Theory).

This allowed earthlings to gain access to the planet known as Caprica. Unfortunately, life on this planet was little better than on Earth. The only place that could be colonized was a large tectonic crack on the surface of the planet, which was later called the Cat’s Eye Trench. From Caprica, the settlement of other planets began, some of which could be terraformed into habitable worlds. Among them was the Helios system, where the planet Terra Nova was located.

Terra Nova also did not have good climatic conditions. It is an arid planet where most of the water is underground. Strange anomalies of magnetism allowed sea vessels to float above the surface. Most of the population was concentrated near the poles with a more temperate climate, while the equator was a desert where there were few people but many resources. Over time, it began to be called the Badlands.

At the end of the 58th https://casinospingenie.uk/ century, a crisis occurred on Earth. It was decided that the colonial system no longer needed support. All ships suitable for interstellar travel were sent to Earth orbit. Terra Nova and other planets were isolated from each other. The long wars began again. Several countries gradually formed in Terra Nova:

In the southern hemisphere – Southern Republic, Humanist Alliance, Mekong Dominion and Eastern Emirates of the Sun. Under the leadership of the Southern Republic, the Union Southern Territories faction was formed;

In the northern hemisphere – Northern Lights Confederation, United Trade Federation and Western Frontier Protectorate. They formed a triple alliance called the Confederate Northern City-States. Unlike the southerners, they communicated on equal terms.

Particularly powerful of them were the Confederacy and the Southern Republic. The first built a huge transport and energy infrastructure for their cities. With financial and military support they encouraged those who shared their common faith. If there were settlements within the country that adhered to other religions, then they received the lowest provision of resources.

Northerners were required to adhere to a very strict set of moral laws to ensure that believers were not corrupted or corrupted by cruelty. But at the same time there was a paramilitary branch that condemned aggressive states. They believed that their weapons and military training were as great as their faith. The military was always ready to punish the enemy, who could risk attacking both their territories and allied states.

The powerful Southern Republic dominated other countries, making them vassals. The Republic constantly sought to expand its influence. Its army was one of the most influential structures on the planet. Combat exercises were always a priority, and regardless of rank or position, soldiers were expected to perform with maximum efficiency.

At the same time, numerous conflicts over the Badlands did not weaken the state in the face of a common enemy. Centuries later, a resurgent Earth returned to Terra Nova with expeditionary forces to conquer the colonies. The Alliance War began as the polar factions allied with each other. It was in this war that combat mechs were used, which were converted from ordinary machines for mining. In the end, the earthlings were forced to retreat through the gate, but two decades later, the South and North were again on the brink of war.

Let’s go back to the card game Heavy Gear Fighter. In 1995, it received a re-release called Heavy Gear Fighter: Weapons and Equipment. It contained a new deck of cards with 36 base mech modifications, twelve weapons, various power-ups, multiplayer rules, and a small map.

Then they began to produce amplifiers called Heavy Gear Fighter, Booster I Card Set. Some of them could be obtained from magazines. The cards expanded the base game with the powerful stats they were given.

It was planned to release another card booster set, but with equipment. However, it had to be abandoned, and all efforts were thrown into the board game, which was released in the same year. Unfortunately, the start was very bad, since all the figures were made entirely of lead, and at that time the ban on such products began to spread intensively. There was no money for remelting at that moment, so Dream Pod 9 had to urgently recall the product from sale in order not to receive a fine and avoid legal proceedings.

In 1996, they managed to release only a stripped-down version of the card game to make it easier for beginners to get used to it. But 1997 turned out to be a fruitful year. Activision acquired a license to release computer games based on the Heavy Gear universe. The game was released on Windows 95 and was made as close as possible to MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries so that users could smoothly transition to the new game without any difficulties.

The game engine has undergone minor improvements, the information signs on the screen when viewed from the cockpit have been slightly redesigned, some of the sounds have been borrowed, and the fur damage system has also been moved. Everything else was different.

Now the player had three game modes:

Three training missions are also available separately, which verbally explain the basics of control, but you yourself must know what to press. Because of this, a slight dissonance may arise during the game, when in training the target designator for an artillery strike can be called up to the letter F, but in the campaign this can only be reproduced through Q.

If we talk about the controls in general, then at first it may seem that they are inconvenient, since they are scattered across the entire area of ​​​​the keyboard. For example, on F1-F3 – squad control, movement – on the arrows, W and angle brackets, and various sensors and target designators are located on the right side of the letter keys. Even without reassignments, you quickly get used to this option, but others can easily customize the buttons for themselves. But I warn you that the configuration menu is missing on the main screen. It is called from the game by pressing the Esc button when the fur is being configured.

I’ll focus on the plot for now. All major events are conveyed using videos with live actors. It looks pretty good. The player takes on the role of Senior Ranger Edward Scott, who pilots a mech and serves on the Vigilance ship from the army of the Confederate northern city-states.

Colleagues respect him exactly until he is captured along with his subordinate Janus. Edward manages to get out, but Janus dies because he decides to stay with the enemy, because, in his opinion, he should not be bullied. The dead soldier was the son of Vigilance commander Arthur Janus. Edward falls out of favor. Everyone considers him a coward and also a traitor. Moreover, rumors are spreading throughout the ship that there is a spy on board. All this happens during constant skirmishes with the ship "Draco", which belonged to the Southern Republic.

It’s worth noting that the campaign is a bit non-linear. For example, if you take partners on a mission and they die, then after completion they will write to you that the characters died heroically on the battlefield. Additional tasks may also not be activated. Let’s say the player rushes in to clear out said enemy units while allied infantry nearby is fighting armored vehicles that don’t even show up on the radar. You can arrive in advance and defeat the enemy corps or accidentally crush a friendly commander with your fur. And then you can’t count on that after the initial targets are destroyed, a notification will appear that you need to save the infantry commander. Well, in addition, the last 32 mission can be divided into 2 endings:

In addition to the basic information that is given to the player through cutscenes, before starting the mission you can see the geopolitical situation as a whole. Clicking the “Situation” button will open a world map, which is divided into northern blue and red southern territories. It will mark the location of the main character’s squad, as well as additional information. And in conclusion, you can listen to a briefing where they talk about both the mission and the thoughts of some characters.

Now about the gameplay component. As in the MechWarrior games, the player is given control of a combat vehicle. Before the start of the mission, you are given the opportunity to either select a ready-made mech, or fine-tune it. And this is where the eye candy begins. The fur can be assembled with your own hands from the following main parts:

Bakugan Battle Brawlers (2006)

And the very first game will be Bakugan Battke Brawlers from 2006 for Play Station 2. This project was created, as it is now fashionable to say, “in the wake of hype,” from the first season of the animated series. And plot-wise it was also closely related to the original source.

The plot of the https://spin-casino.uk game is not exactly the same as the anime, but is a non-canonical offshoot. According to the plot, you are an ordinary schoolboy who wants to become a Bakugan fighter. And then one fine day two important events happen for you: first, you meet Den Kuzo himself (one of the best Bakugan players), he teaches you the basics of the game and you become friends with him. And the second is that from the dimension of death a Bakugan of anger and rage Leonidas comes to you (its element depends on the player’s choice at the beginning). Bakugan informs you that a Bakugan has also made its way into the world and wants to imprison all Bakugan in the death dimension. After this you join the team of Bakugan fighters. But the plot is far from the most important part of the game, let’s move on to the gameplay.

On YouTube you can find walkthroughs of the game without comments. This is quite useful if you want to get into the plot.

The main gameplay element, of course, is combat. But it should be mentioned that the game does not have an open world, but simply a mini-map on which different points of interest are marked. Missions are made into story and side missions. It all comes down to battles with opponents with a variety of conditions. There is also a store where you buy new Bakugan, ability cards, gate cards and more. Bakugan have 5 characteristics that can be improved and this will affect the G-power of your Bakugan.

Well, let’s move on to the most interesting part. The battles in this game almost completely repeat the rules of the board game. They come in several types. The differences are in how many fighters are involved in the fight. These are fights 1 on 1, 2 on 2, both in a team and everyone against each other.

At the very beginning, opponents select goal cards and choose where to place them on the field. After which they choose one of their Bakugan and launch them. This is where the differences with the desktop begin. When you launch the sphere, you can control it by spending the Bakugan’s stamina reserve, not counting the very first arena on other battlefields, in addition to the beautiful design of each element, there are various bonuses that you can collect by controlling the sphere. If only you had enough stamina to get to the gate card. But if you fail, you will miss your turn and lose your Bakugan. Your opponent can also control the Bakugan, but you can slow down or completely immobilize the enemy’s sphere by shooting invisible projectiles at it.

Once on the map, the Bakugan unfolds like a toy from the real world. If yours and your opponent’s Bakugan land on the same gate card, then the battle begins, but if two of your spheres land on the card in a row, then you get a victory point, of which you need to score three to win.

At the beginning of the battle, the one on whose gate card the Bakugan hit must “open” the gate card. A modifier from an element from the card is added to the Bakugan’s initial G-power. After which you can use ability cards, but they do not recharge. This is also done to increase the strength of the Bakugan. After this, you can agree with the power value of your Bakugan and the mini-game will begin. There are only three of them: Timing battle (in which you need to press buttons according to timing), Shaking battle (opposing forces are depicted here, and control was carried out with the joysticks of a gamepad), Shooting battle (the last type of mini-game in which you need to shoot elemental markers). After which, when the time given for the mini-game passes, as a result there is a comparison between the G-forces of the Bakugan and the winner is awarded a beautiful finishing scene. For each Bakugan you defeat, you receive G-points, which you can spend in the store mentioned above.

In 2009, revisions of the game were released for Play Station 3 and XBOX 360. There was also a version for 3DS, but it’s better not to remember it.

One might assume that "Fantasy" in its modern meaning has its roots in fairy tales. But that’s not entirely true.

As Stanislaw Lem wrote, the folk tale is subject to the principle of moral determinism. The whole world, all its attributes are designed so that the main character can pass certain tests and get what he deserves. A folk tale is like a well-oiled machine where there is nothing superfluous. The action develops according to a clearly established, strictly deterministic scheme; there is no room for any chance here, except for the so-called “happy chance”, which was initially reserved for the hero. The heroes of such texts have practically no free will, even if formally they have a choice, because what the hero chooses is also predetermined by the very structure of the narrative. The heroes of fairy tales are devoid of psychology and character; they are simply functional masks. The world of fairy tales is described abstractly, using stereotyped epithets – the forest is dark, the earth is damp. The tower is tall, the arrow is hot… Fantasy is written using the entire arsenal of means and techniques developed by literature throughout the history of its development.

Sapkowski wrote well about the origins of fantasy in his "Pirug, or no gold in the gray mountains", By the way, I advise you to read. I learned a lot from it for this post. There are extremely few classic works of this genre that exploit fairy-tale motifs, get to the bottom of symbolism, and postmodernistically interpret the message; works that enrich the fairy tale plot with a developed background and play with highlighting the already mentioned determinism of chance, trying to create a logical mathematical equation from the previously cited “non-zero-sum game”. There are no such books at all or very few. The reason is simple. The Anglo-Saxons, who dominate fantasy and created the genre itself, have much better material at their disposal – Celtic mythology.". The main basis for Anglo-Saxon fantasy is the "Legend of King Arthur" and to a lesser extent Irish sagas and beliefs; the Breton or Welsh Mabinogion is better suited as source material for fantasy. The fairy tale, at its core, has a more primitive and infantile construction.

The Arthurian myth of the Anglo-Saxons was firmly rooted in culture with its archetype and is comparable to our epics about the “Three Heroes” or Ancient Greek myths. It is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table who stand at the origins and are the prototype for most works in the fantasy genre. Here is what Sapkowski says about this: “If anyone wishes, let him close his eyes and reach out to the shelf with books to pull out any fantasy novel from there at random.”. And let him check. The book describes two kingdoms (countries, empires) – one is the Land of Good, and the other is quite the opposite. There is a Good King, deprived of his throne and inheritance and trying to restore them, which is opposed by the Forces of Evil and Chaos. The Good King is supported by Good Magic and the Good Wizard, as well as the Brave Squad of Well Done gathered around the just ruler. To completely defeat the Forces of Darkness, you still need a Miraculous Artifact, a magical object of unprecedented power. This object, in the power of Good and Order, has the properties of integration and peace, but in the hands of the Forces of Evil it becomes a destructive element. Therefore, the Magic Artifact must be found and mastered before it falls into the clutches of the Arch Enemy. »

The above is fully characteristic of "Le Morte d’Arthur" by Thomas Mallory. And if this is a completely alien legend for us, it is no worse or better than others, such as Eskimo tales. But for the Anglo-Saxons, the Arthurian myth is extremely strongly entrenched in culture and is completely integrated into it. It should also be said that this myth is not fabulous but quasi-historical. Even now in England there is serious debate as to whether Camelot was actually located on the site of present Winchester.

A simplified comparison between Le Morte d’Arthur and The Lord of the Rings shows the following parallels: Arthur is Aragorn, Anduril is Excalibur, the Ring is the Grail, Frodo is Galahad, Merlin is Gandalf, and Sauron is a combination of Morgan le Fey and the wild Saxons who were defeated at Mount Badon/fields of Pellenor. The names change, but not the essence, namely the struggle of the Forces of Good and Progress, represented by Arthur, Merlin, Excalibur and the Round Table, with the Forces of Darkness and Destruction, embodied by Morgana, Mordred and the forces behind them.

The legend of Arthur became not only an archetype, a prototype of fantasy – it was also a field of opportunity to show their skills for those authors who chose to creatively exploit the myth itself, instead of basing their “own” plans on it, such as T.White and his "Once and Future King".

However, it is not fair to attribute the origins of the genre to Arthur and his knights. No less influential on Tolkien were the Old English poem Beowulf, the German Song of the Nibelungs, the Old Icelandic saga “The Younger Edda” and a real treasury of Icelandic myths and tales – the “Elder Edda”. “Beowulf,” according to most experts, dates back to the 7th–8th centuries. He influenced Tolkien’s mythology in many ways; he even dedicated an article to the epic “Beowulf” entitled “Beowulf: Monsters and Critics,” where he tried to reveal the true meaning of the Old English text.

Despite the monumentality of the figure of J. R.R. Tolkien and the established tradition, the question of the progenitor of fantasy is not so simple. For example, Lord Dunsany is often called the creator and founder of the literary genre of fantasy (E. J. M. Dunsany) with his "The King of Elfland’s Daughter" (1924).); U. Morris, author of a series of novels about the “House of the Sons of the Wolf”, (1880-90s.); R.AND. Howard, who created the saga of Conan the Barbarian (1932).), etc.

Many believe that the founder of the genre is Edward John Morton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (1878 – 1957) – a British aristocrat. Lord Dunsany created the imaginary country of Pegana. The collections “The Gods of Pegana” (1905), “Time and the Gods”, as well as stories from the book “Tales of the Three Hemispheres” are dedicated to her. No less famous and important for the history of the genre is the novel “The Daughter of the King of Elfland” and the collection “The Book of Miracles”. It was not Tolkien, as many people think, who was the first writer to create a non-existent world with its geography, mythology and history – but Dunsany. His series of stories “The Pegan Gods” was dedicated to this world, the roots of which go back to the Irish epic. Then there was Gowar, with Conan and Hyboria, and only then Tolkien.

In fact, Lord Dunsany was the author who for the first time formed in his work something clearly meaningful and landmark, which can now confidently be called “fantasy”. Edward the Eighteenth singled out, one after another, those facets that later became the main features of most fantasy works. It is not surprising that later authors followed the logic of his “magic stories” and further developed these achievements, exploring, expanding and improving them. Anne Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, Merritt and Clark Ashton Smith can also be considered the progenitors of fantasy. In a certain sense, even Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be considered fantasy. Fantasy also has some similarities with such a literary phenomenon as mysticism. Mysticism can be defined as a genre that describes otherworldly interference in our real everyday life.

The modern genre of fantasy has its origins in the European romance of chivalry, Scandinavian sagas, myths and legends such as the Arthurian cycle, the so-called Gothic novel, and the works of mystics and romantics of the 19th century. In Europe, among the progenitors of fantasy one can name the names of Hoffmann and Walpoll, t.e. representatives of German romanticism and English Gothic novel. There is probably not a single writer in Great Britain who has not written at least one ghost story. Even such a realist and writer of everyday life as Ch. Dickens wrote the story “A Christmas Carol”, where one bad character is guided on the right path by a ghost. WITH. Maugham wrote an entire novel called “The Magician,” and its content fully corresponds to the title.

The aesthetics of fantasy https://slotstarscasino.uk was greatly influenced by the great European style in art, the so-called Art Nouveau style, also known as Art Nouveau, Belle Epoque, Stilo Floreale, Jugendstil, Secession Style. This style developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, lasted a little more than half a century – its development was interrupted by the First World War.

But if we talk about the development of commercially successful fantasy aimed at the widest consumer, then the roots should be sought in the so-called “pulp-magazines”.

In 1905, a certain Windsor McCay began publishing a comic book about the adventures of a hero named Nemo. The comic was published once a week and was published for quite a long time. Among similar comics, McKay’s comics were distinguished by one rather characteristic feature – the adventures of the aforementioned Nemo take place in an amazing country that McKay called Slumberland – where there were full of castles on the rocks, beautiful princesses, brave knights, wizards and terrible monsters. McKay’s Slumberland became the first truly popular Never-Never Land. Land of Dreams. McKay’s comic couldn’t be classified as an adventure, nor was it science fiction. It was a fantasy. In English – “fantasy”.

In 1930, Robert I. Howard, twenty-one, invents Conan of Cimmeria. The first Conan story was published in 1932 in Weird Tails magazine. In 1936, Howard committed suicide, leaving a legacy in the form of several short stories and novellas, the action of which takes place in something somewhat similar to our Earth – Hyboria. Howard left only one major work about Conan, namely “The Hour of the Dragon”. After his death, the work was published again under the title "Conan the Conquerior" ("Conan the Conqueror"). Howard created a new, popular, and commercially successful genre – sword and sorcery ("sword and sorcery"), sometimes also called heroic fantasy ("heroic fantasy").

In 1937, the then unknown J. R. R. Tolkien published a children’s book in England called The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.

Tolkien’s concept of “Never-Never Land” (fairy-tale world), called Middle-earth, was born in the twenties of our century. But it was not until 1954 that Allen & Unwin published The Lord of the Rings. The creation of the work, a trilogy, took the author twelve years. K was ahead of him.WITH.Lewis published “Narnia” in 1950, but, nevertheless, it was not Lewis, but Tolkien who became the creator of the concept, which is used by the authors today. But this happened on a large scale only in 1965/1966 after the publication of a pocket version in the States.

It is worth noting that all this spectacular success and the “Tolkien mania” that began in the USA occurred with the absolute resistance of the author and his literary agent, who did not agree to a cheap, pocket edition. So we can safely say that the rise of fantasy occurred as a result of piracy by publishers. By the way, this pirate was Donald Wollheim, who is very well-deserved for science fiction. Also, the pocket, paperback edition of the trilogy coincides in time with the re-release (and new edition) of the complete Conan series, which was carried out by L.Sprague de Camp.

Despite different points of view regarding the origin of fantasy, the undeniable fact is that it was the British professor of linguistics J.R.R. Tolkien at one time created a sample or canon of a fantasy novel, which became a classic and the starting point for the development of the literary genre of fantasy. The Celtic-British complex of legends and myths that forms the basis of J’s trilogy. Tolkien thus became the traditional basis for the creation of subsequent fantasy novels. The worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings has pushed publishers to pay serious attention to fairy-tale-magical fiction.

The genre is developing like an avalanche, more and more milestones are appearing in it, and the Hall of Fame is quickly filling with portraits. In 1961, the Elric and Hawkmoon sagas by Michael Moorcock appeared. In 1963, the first “World of Witches” by Endre Norton was born (in Russian translation – “Witch World”). “Fafrd and the Gray Cat” by Fritz Leiber appears in the pocket edition. And finally, with great fanfare – “Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin and at the same time, “The Last Unicorn” by P.Biggle’s two books are absolutely cult-like in nature. In the 1970s, Stephen King’s books appear and break all sales records. True, these are more horror stories than fantasy. Coming soon are "Doubting Thomas" by Stephen Donaldson, "Amber" by Zelazny, "Xanth" by Piers Anthony, "Derini" by Katherine Kurtz, "Born of the Grave" by Tanith Lee, "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, "Belgariad" by David Eddings and many others.

Faith in science and technological progress, fearlessness in the face of any futurological forecasts, conviction in the boundlessness of the prospects for human development – all these conceptual pillars of science fiction determine the popularity of this deeply rational (and rationalistic) genre of literature in eras of increased social optimism. Such a time of technocratic euphoria and social progressivism, for example, was the 50-60s of the last century, when science fiction “turned into the sphere of almost everyday thinking of the average American,” and a brilliant galaxy of science fiction writers came to literature: A. Azimov, R.E. Heinlein, K.D. Simak, R.D. Bradbury; in Great Britain Arthur Clarke created the best works, in Poland – Stanislaw Lem; in the USSR – Ivan Efremov, and later the Strugatsky brothers, Kir Bulychev.

So, in 1969 Katharina R. Simpson wrote: “Tolkien is not original…, boring and sentimental. His celebration of the past is a comic for adults… it codifies the despair of modernists. "The Waste Land" with comments, without tears".

In the 70s, fantasy experienced its highest rise, it was a period of experimentation and, as one little-known character said, “the age of great innovation”. It is logical that it was then that the need for a thematic award became apparent. This became the “World Fantasy Award” in 1975, or WFA (World Fantasy Award), it is awarded at the “World Fantasy Convention”, which is held mainly in the USA but has been held several times in Canada and the UK. The WFA is currently the most prestigious award in the field of fantasy.

The essentially irrational fantasy genre, on the contrary, flourishes in eras
social breakdown, reduced passionarity as – in the apt words of Tsvetan Todorov – “the restless conscience of the positivist age”, pushing the imagination into the compensatory spaces of neo-mythology. The special role of fantasy in the culture of the twentieth century, which departs from the canon of modern European classics and establishes its own mode of interaction between the rational and the irrational, the individual and the mass, turns it into a generally recognized “way of destroying taboo topics,” because “if in the age of positivism a breakthrough into the reality of the unconscious could occur, it would only be in the form of fantasy.”. It is not without reason that the system of genre forms of fantasy, since the time of Gernsback, along with classical fantasy (narration about heroes and wizards, as a rule, of some kind of conventional Middle Ages), sometimes includes the genres “mystery” and “horror”, which widely open the door to the subconscious.

In short, “fantasy” is the future as the past; a world with a rigid hierarchy, inequality, cultural and moral decline, and archaic consciousness. Science fiction in its classic form demonstrated “the bright future of victorious communism in the Strugatskys / the triumph of democracy and individual freedom in Star Trek”. Even in such a classic work by Heinlein as “Starship Troopers,” humanity built its own utopia, which was already attacked by Bugs.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of fantasy led to the birth of role-playing games. In them, a party of one/multiple players travels through a fantasy world in search of various adventures. Moreover, each player has various characteristics that change with increasing experience. Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most successful gaming systems.

Role-playing games in turn spawned a new wave of fantasy fiction. Game companies publish books based on their fantasy universes. Some of the most popular series: “Forgotten Realms” and “Warhammer”. Speaking of Warhammer, my friend Greez made a corresponding post.

As “one of the alternative cultural forms; a genre built on other people’s artifacts, incorporating elements of both archaic and traditional pictures of the world,” fantasy fulfills the social order of society for escapism, replacing reality with an artificial, more understandable world, be it wild Cimmeria from the story of G. Howard about Konnan the Barbarian; Tolkien’s Middle-earth; Earthsea from the tetralogy by Ursula Le Guin (“A Mage of Earthsea”, “Tombs of Atuan”, “The Farthest Shore”, “Tehanu”); the magical land of King Arthur (“The Crystal Grotto” – The Cristal Cave – translated in the same way as “The Crystal Grotto” (Merlin Trilogy), Mary Stewart, 1970); The Mists of Avalon by Morion Zimmer Bradley, 1983; "The Forever King" by Molly Coran and Warren Murphy, 1992); idealized Ancient Egypt (“Book of the New Sun” by J. Wolf, 1985); The Witch World by Andre Norton; unprecedented Oceania (“Cloudy Castles” M.WITH. Rohena, 1992) or pagan Rus’ (“Rusalka”, “Chernevog” K.J. Cherry).

As you can see, a huge number of “masterpieces” very quickly cluttered the market. And by the mid-90s, sales of all this stuff had noticeably decreased. The genre needed an injection of fresh ideas.

The logical next step in the evolution of fantasy, which coincided with the advent of the “new wave,” is the game of destroying the stereotypes of classic fantasy as a means of artistic expression, be it the replacement of ethical attitudes with diametrically opposed ones in the so-called “black fantasy” (X. Ellison "Birds of Death", J. Martin “A Song of Ice and Fire”, partly Nik Perumov during the “Ring of Darkness” – and “Black Spear” period, but we’ll talk about Russian fantasy later), deheroization of the hero and problematization of the finale of the work (M. Moorcock "Saga of the Eternal Hero", R. Zelazny in the series “The Chronicles of Amber” (1970–1991), Chronicles of the “Black Company” (1984-2000) by Glen Cook, and how not to mention Andrzej Sapkowski with his “The Witcher” (1986-1998), plus “Season of Thunderstorms” (2013). Tanith Lee and J. K. Rowling took a different path by displacing the generally accepted mythology with their own. In Russia this process went a little differently. As I already mentioned, science fiction was popular in the USSR, but fantasy didn’t work out for ideological reasons.

But the “Iron Curtain” collapsed and now Western mastodons came to the Russian Federation, and after them streams of some other fantasy flowed. This was generally a feature of the time when, just a few years ago, unknown culture poured into Russia. Inspired by all this, the authors began to create their own, copying Western gurus. Perhaps the most important imitator is Nika Perumov. He didn’t just imitate Tolkien, but began his career with a fanfic based on “The Lord of the Rings,” albeit a fairly elaborate one, entitled “The Ring of Darkness” (1993). For a long time he held a monopoly on “epic fantasy” in Russia. During this time, Perumov moved away from Middle-earth and began to create his own, but strictly within the framework of the usual concept of the struggle between good and evil, with magicians, elves and other canonical things. When in the West the era of such literature was coming to an end and preference was given to “dark fantasy”, while in Russia everything was just beginning, and finding a worthy Western analogue or new wave fantasy was problematic. Alexey Pekhov took advantage of this situation with his “Chronicles of Siala” (2002), Alexander Zorich with “Circle of Lands” (1997) and others. A definite step forward can be called Vera Kamsha with “Chronicles of Arcia” (2001), although Perumov’s ears still stuck out from every page. Since Sunset Blood (2002), the spiritual guide has changed to J. Martina. True, secondaryness has not gone away.

Maria Semyonova took a different path when she wrote “Wolfhound” (1995). The point here is not even that the difference between Semyonova and Perumov is like between Tolkien and Howard. This, by the way, largely characterizes these authors. The only difference is that Semyonova’s Conan is Slavic, while Perumov’s world is Anglo-Saxon. Decent literary level and innovative approach (Slavic mythology). The collapsed, well-deserved, success obliged him to write numerous sequels. The same situation as with R. Howard. He could have been doing the same thing if he had not committed suicide at the age of 30. Of the pillars of the genre, I didn’t mention Lukyanenko, known primarily for the mystical novels “Night/Day/… Watch” (1998-…), more reminiscent of Stephen King, and also the fact that he wrote and writes a lot of science fiction, although he doesn’t disdain fantasy and yet, this is no longer quite a format.

Oh, I already feel how tired you are of my sheet, so I’ll make a knight’s move and recommend you a detailed post about Lukyanenko’s work, overflowing with fan love and adoration from my friend Tizare.

Let me just note that he is a laureate of the EuroCon (European Science Fiction Convention) award for 2003. Eurocon was organized in 1972 and started as an award for achievements in the field of science fiction, and not fantasy, as is obvious from the name.

One would think that in the Russian Federation the genre is no more than a quarter of a century old. But that’s not entirely true. Now I’m not even talking about Bulgakov and Gogol, and not even about “Koshchei the Immortal”. Why not about them, you ask?? After all, I put Harry Potter on the list, but here the principle is the same, especially in “The Master and Margarita”. Fantasy is an Anglo-Saxon genre, and the article is devoted specifically to its development path. But as a small digression, I’ll mention fantasy – with all the classic signs of the genre. Modeling of secondary worlds in a pseudo-historical setting, conventional mystical-medieval paraphernalia, processing of the canonical mythological system, swords, magic, infernal forces of evil and a love-adventurous plot – “adventure” – all this is present in the novels of three authors of Russian fantasy: M. Chulkova, M. Popova and V. Levshina. Mikhail Dmitrievich Chulkov is the author of a pentalogy novel "Mockingbird, or Slavic Tales". The first four parts were published in 1766–1768. The stories in the book are very different – heroic adventures, where Slavic heroes perform feats not only within the Slavic lands, but throughout Europe, everyday ones, replete with descriptions of wedding rituals, fortune telling, and proverbs; there are even satirical stories. For the first time in Russian literature, the author, introducing epic characters, boldly using not only Slavic but also ancient mythology, mixing them every now and then, created his own secondary world, where real historical events and names of tribes coexist with fictional ones, where documentary meticulousness to facts is intertwined with deliberate distortions.

In the preface to the first edition of the novel, Chulkov directly admits: “There is very little or no moral teaching in this book.”. It is inconvenient, it seems to me, to correct rude morals; again, there is nothing in it with which to multiply them; So, leaving both of these aside, it will be a useful way to spend boring time, if they take the trouble to read it.”. And yet, the innovation of Mockingbird is obvious – Chulkov introduced a completely new genre and new heroes into Russian literature. Chulkov was the first to attempt to systematize Slavic mythology, to streamline the pantheon of pagan gods, equating it with the ancient.

Chulkov’s friend and like-minded person, translator, poet, writer Mikhail Ivanovich Popov also went down in history as one of the “creators” and systematizers of the Slavic pantheon of gods. In 1768 he published "A Brief Description of the Ancient Slovenian Pagan Fable". This book is the first example of the genre of scientific and artistic prose and at the same time is one of the best descriptions of Slavic pagan creatures.

Levshin’s attention is focused not so much on pagan times, but on the period of the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun. In essence, "Russian Fairy Tales" – this is an adaptation of Russian epics in the spirit of Western European chivalric novels. “Russian Fairy Tales” has surpassed the works of Chulkov and Popov, although it is clearly inferior to “Ancient Curiosities” in terms of plot development. As you can see, the approach is in no way inferior to Tolkien, so keep this in mind.

Nier Replicant tells the story of events that happened long before the events of NieR: Automata. According to the plot of the game, the main character, with the support of unusual companions, must save his younger sister Yonah from a mysterious black scribble disease. Black Scrawl. The game takes place in a world that has survived the apocalypse and is filled with strange creatures called Shadows. Shades).

I played with Japanese voice acting and English subtitles. Further in the text I will provide my translations of dialogues and texts from these languages. I will also provide the original text for those who want to translate it themselves. The full walkthrough can be viewed here.

First meeting with Emil

One day, the main character’s sister, Yonah, asks her brother to help her pen pal. According to the heroine, the boy is sick and in trouble.

Yona: I have a very important request. I want you to save my friend. He’s a boy. He’s sick. And he’s in trouble. I want you and Weiss to help him heal. He lives in a big house in the south. No one else can fulfill this request except you.

Having agreed to help, the main character, whose name I gave NieR, goes with a book of spells by Grimoire Weiss and his partner Kaine to the boy’s house. The gloomy 18th-century English-style stone building sits on top of a hill. The butler meets you at the entrance and invites you inside.

The interior of the house is made in classic English style. The walls are decorated with wallpaper and portraits. The rooms are furnished with expensive wooden furniture. The house is illuminated by tall floor candlesticks, and in places in the twilight traces of destruction are visible. The butler accompanies the heroes to the dining room, where he offers to wait for the owner. Kaine decides to relax on the sofa, and Nir and Weiss go to inspect the rooms.

In one of the rooms they https://slotstars-casino.co.uk meet a boy who plays the piano. He is dressed in beautiful European clothes from the 18th century, and his eyes are covered with a thick bandage. This is Emil.

From a conversation with Emil, the heroes learn that he knows nothing about the letters, and invites them to ask the butler. They also learn that Emil has the ability to turn objects into stone with his gaze. So he is forced to wear a blindfold.

Emil: My name is Emil. I am the owner of this house.
Nir: So it was you who sent the letters?
Emil: Letters? What are you talking about?
..
Emil: No, don’t come near me. It’s dangerous. My eyes! I can turn objects into stone just by looking at them.
Emil: About the letters… Perhaps the butler knows about them.

Emil: ．．．僕はエミール。この館主です。
Nir: じゃ、手紙をくれたのは、君？
Emil: 手紙？いったい、なんのことですか？
..
Emil:危ないんです。僕の目は、ものを見石にかえてから。だからこうやって．．．
Emil: ?

Having received from Emil the key “to all doors” and a map of the house, the heroes begin searching for the butler. Having explored the premises, encountering Shadows more than once, they find him in a room where Emil soon appears. It turns out that the letters to Yona were written by none other than the butler, whose name is Sebastian.

Sebastian is concerned about his master’s imprisonment and tries to find a way to help him. He heard about Nir’s exploits and sent him letters in hopes of help. However, I received an answer from Yona, the hero’s sister. Then the butler reports that the medicine for Emil is in this house, but the place where it is stored has been captured by Shadows, which he does not know how to cope with. This is what he asks the heroes who cannot refuse him. They also want to find the missing Kaine.

Nir: We are here because my sister received several letters from this mansion.
Butler: Yes. I wrote these letters… Forgive my insolence. As you may have noticed, Master Emil is deeply saddened by his eyes and has therefore closed himself off from the world. He is suffering a lot because of this blindfold, and I consider it my duty to help him. I heard a story about the exploits of an aspiring hero and therefore sent you a letter on behalf of the owner Emil. But instead I received a response from a certain Miss Yona.
Nir: Wait, it turns out Yona’s pen pal is you?
Butler: That’s right, sir. In my letters I simply asked you to come to the mansion. I had no ill intentions… However, I am very glad to see you here. I’ve long dreamed of the day when we could do something with the owner’s eyes. Please, we’re so close! The cure is in this very mansion. But, alas, the place where it is stored has turned into a lair of these disgusting Shadows, and I lack the skills to fight them. I beg you: defeat the Shadows and return master Emil’s sight!

The heroes agree, receive a new key from Sebastian, and Emil joins them to provide the necessary assistance. The three of them go on a quest that leads them to the library, where they encounter a dangerous adversary – a book called Grimoire Rubram. Grimoire Rubrum).

In the midst of the battle, Kaine appears in the library with a book. Together, the heroes manage to defeat the enemy. The grimoire crumbles into sheets and one of them contains the “Research Report on Petrification”. This is exactly what the butler was looking for. But to the heroes’ disappointment, the text turns out to be encrypted. Sebastian asks for the transcript and promises to do everything possible for this.

Nier: Oh no. This page is written using code.
Butler: Please let me handle this, Master Emil. I will do my best to decipher the code! No matter how long it takes, I won’t let you down.

Nier: Oh, no. This page is written in some kind of code.
Butler: Please, allow me to handle this, Master Emil. I shall put on my efforts into deconstructing the cipher! No matter how long it takes, I will not fail.

The scene in the library ends, and the characters are transported to the courtyard, to the entrance to the house. Emil says goodbye to everyone, but special attention is paid to Kaine. The heroine asks Emil to understand that everything that happened to him is not his fault, and opens up to him, telling him about her curse and her secret, which she whispers in his ear, hiding it from us, the players. Against the backdrop of revelations, the characters become closer emotionally, and then this will develop into sincere friendship between them.

Kaine: Emil, understand.
Kaine: It’s not your fault. This body is not your fault. It’s an important part of you. Never forget this.
Emil: What is this?? Why?
Kaine: It’s a damn weapon. I thought that now that my revenge was over, I no longer needed it. And I thought I was done too. But just like this hand, just like me, life still has meaning. You must have a future too.
[Kaine says something in Emil’s ear]
Emil: That’s it… Kaine-san, I promise! I will never, never give up. That’s why you, Kaine-san, don’t give up!

Kaine: エミール、覚えておけ。
Kaine:
Emil: これは？どうして？
Kaine:復讐が終わった今はもう必要のないものだと思っていた。そして、私自身も終わりだと思っていた。この腕も、私もまだ生き???
[Kaine says something in Emil’s ear]
Emil:束ですよ。絶対に、僕Home

Who is Kaine??

Kaine appears in the game during Nier and Weiss’s first visit to Aerie Village. Moving along the tunnel towards the village, the heroes find a small isolated area where a dilapidated hut is located. While inspecting the hut on the way back, the heroes are attracted by a wreath of flowers. These are the legendary flowers called “Moon Tear,” says Weiss. And a female voice that appeared out of nowhere rudely orders not to touch the flowers.

However, despite all the cult status of “Doctor”, when most people mention him, they remember only his so-called “New Generation”, which started in 2005, from which many began their acquaintance with this phenomenon (including me). And so, timed to coincide with the almost (or maybe already completely) ended new season with the new Doctor, I decided that it would be cool to go deeper, and at the same time tell you about the history of this television epic from the middle of the last century to the present.

Based on Doctor Who: The Life and Times

FIRST DOCTOR

It all started in 1963, when a BBC working group set out to invent a completely new type of television broadcast. After going through the waste paper, they came up with the idea of ​​making a TV series in the Sciece Fiction genre, in order to comb through even more waste paper on how to implement all this, at least on paper. As a result, it was decided to direct the series to a children’s audience.

They decided to offer the main role to actor William Hartnell, who by that time had managed to appear in “The Army Game” and “Talent Scout”, in which he appeared in opposite roles: extremely aggressive and extremely sad. After hearing from his agent that he was being offered the role of a time-traveling grandfather-professor, the actor was not particularly delighted, but agreed to meet with the producer. There he became convinced that he had disappeared, and he himself said: “This series will definitely survive for five years.”

Initially, they wanted to make the Doctor overly irritable, but Hartnell added more humor and emotion to the role, which is especially ironic for this Doctor, because he is considered one of his most callous incarnations, if not the most. At his core, he was an eccentric (both on the screen and on the set): he loved, in ordinary conversation, to go into tirades about how harmful steel is to our planet; He was also quick-tempered, and there was a whole person present on the set to lift Bill’s spirits.

The plot of the first episode was about two ordinary school teachers who discover that their student Susan is living in a police box. But this booth makes a hum as if it were alive, and inside it is larger than outside, in its center there is a certain pre-scientific control panel, behind which was Susan’s grandfather named Doctor. And teachers have to come to terms with the fact that their lives depend on these two alien creatures in every sense.

And where is the Doctor and his worst opponents, the most important of which, of course, are tin buckets with plungers at the ready – the Daleks. Fundamentally, they didn’t want to make them beetle-eyed monsters, otherwise it wouldn’t turn out to be science fiction, but cheap. And even they were not happy with them at first, but, as we already know, only at first. The series was focused on education, and the Daleks did not fit this concept, and they decided to give the green light to the idea only because all the other scripts were not yet ready. Ultimately, the Doctor’s antipodes were instructive in showing the dangers of war, pacifism and racial hatred.

Less popular, but no less dangerous enemies of the Doctor are the insensitive Cyborg machines, which still amaze with their creepiness. The creators of the series managed to terribly show the budget of their costumes. Behind the white socks with cut-out eyes and mouths on the actors’ heads, a human face was visible, which served as a reminder to the audience that these monsters were once human. And in fact, they are not villains, and their goals are not villainous, they are just soulless and cold methods.

Since the idea of ​​the series allowed it, it was developed in two directions: Ancient Antiquity and Saifai Saifaiche. For the whole team (and for Bill to a greater extent) it was most pleasant to embody historical stories rather than futuristic ones. The main images due to the fact that filming in ancient robes was a blast.

The executive producer wanted the opening credits of the series to be unusual in appearance and sound, and the BBC had a radio sound workshop department. The composer and arranger threw themselves into the idea of ​​creating a screensaver, because they had never had such freedom of action before. As for video, the BBC also had a department where they experimented with various concepts. For example, they had a camera directed inward, which created classic wonderful patterns in the canonical credits to an equally canonical melody.

As for the Doctor’s main attribute called TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) – it was originally intended that it would be designed for one person with panels close to each other. The designer wanted something unique and equally appropriate in all times and spaces. The walls were supposed to be made of wood with polychlorois… polychloroorvin mother-rewind transparent grooves that pulsated when the TARDIS moved. The idea of ​​a space police box came to the mind of the screenwriter of the first episode, and the already familiar BBC recording studio came up with its own original sound for it.

And yet, the genius of the series’ idea lay not only in the possibilities of moving the permanent Doctor with quickly changing companions, but also in the way of changing the actor in the leading role. No, the option presented in Santa Barbara also wildly appeals to me, but this one, it seems to me, is a LITTLE more elegant. The fact is that representatives of the alien race of Time Lords, to which the main character belongs, are able to live almost forever due to the long duration of one life (it can stretch for hundreds or even thousands of years), as well as thanks to regeneration. In its process, the aliens may change appearance, gender and even character, which continues to maintain audience interest in the Doctor for more than seventy years.

First of all, the BBC management took such a step because of disagreements with Hartnell himself, who wanted the series to remain for children, and in general the actor was pretty exhausted playing this role.

There is only one man in England capable of filling this role and that is Patrick Troughton!

To create the transformation scene, slotstarscasino.co.uk two actors had to lie on the floor on either side of the set while the assistant director entertained everyone. It took a whole day to shoot this scene perfectly and turn the old man into a middle-aged actor.

SECOND DOCTOR

Initially, they wanted to make the second Doctor a kind of Sherlock Holmes, who loved disguises and chatted incessantly. Ultimately, the disguise was abandoned, but at Patrick’s suggestion they decided to replace the character with a more attentive one.

Troughton was an actor with extensive experience in diverse roles under his belt. At that time, he was in demand and had leadership qualities, and in his eccentricity he was in no way inferior to his predecessor. For three years he wore the same shoes, Hush Puppies, but he wore them “like Patrick Troughton in the rehearsal room and like the Doctor on screen.”. With his arrival, the atmosphere on the set changed to a much brighter side: he talked a lot and had fun with his colleagues, and by the end they learned to understand each other without words, they just looked at each other – and together they did what they wanted. His Doctor turned out to be much softer and nicer.

Due to Patrick Troughton’s great fatigue with the “one per week” release schedule, towards the end of his tenure, fewer episodes began to be released, but of better quality, and according to the plot, they decided to exile the Doctor to Earth for less effort in building new locations. Subsequently, “UNIT” was invented (a military organization to combat the alien threat in the Doctor’s universe), which then resulted in a whole series… of series called “War Games”, which many consider the best and most exciting with this incarnation of the main character.

This period of Doctors introduced viewers to Zoe Hariot, a 21st-century teenage genius with a photographic memory, martial arts skills and skintight catsuits. She was an astrophysicist, she could outsmart a computer (and you know how computers were thought of in those days), and she didn’t let the Doctor get away with it.

It was also under Patrick that the Time Lords and Ice Warriors (a race of mechanical reptilians from Mars) first appeared in the series. And, of course, we cannot forget about another symbol of Doctor Who – a sonic screwdriver, capable of vibrating at a certain frequency to unlock various doors, break windows, etc.n. "Too imbued! — you tell me, Annette, it doesn’t work on wood.

Patrick initially didn’t want to stay long and said that he wouldn’t stay for more than three years (and that’s what happened). When the time came to replace the “mysterious man from TV” who did not like to give interviews, the change in his appearance was carried out with an open outcome, since the next actor for his role had not yet been confirmed.

When people ask me if anything funny happened on the set, I’m afraid that everything that happened is not for publication!

THIRD DOCTOR

When Jon Pertwee was working on a sitcom, one of his colleagues suggested that he try out for the role of the Doctor. John told his agent, and he didn’t particularly appreciate the idea, but still called the producers – there was deathly silence on the phone. He tells them: “I reacted the same way, okay, forget it.”. And they said to him: “No, we’re just a little shocked, your client has been on our list of candidates for a year and a half now.”.

John by that time was well known as a comedic actor, and this was a great opportunity to show that he was capable of more than just comedy. Despite his age, he had plenty of adrenaline in his life: he was involved in skiing, motorcycles and car racing. And his acting career was at its best, he coped well with the attention attached to him, which intensified after receiving a new role. However, he was a very vulnerable person. At the first rehearsal, he said that his father was not delighted when he decided to become an actor, and yet John hoped that he would come to see his performance, and one day he saw his father in the audience. Coming home after the performance, he asked his father if he had seen the performance, and the answer he received was: “No, I couldn’t find a minute.”. When John told this story, there were tears in his eyes. He was a very nice person and you could feel that those around him were important to him.

In the seventh season, the series changed dramatically – suddenly it became colorful and bright, and the episodes in the season were reduced by almost half, subsequently the budget was increased quite significantly, the number of characters in the series was increased, and it no longer looked like some kind of student short film, but like a quite expensive project. And along with the color picture, greenery also came into the series, which was then used not so much to replace the background, but to create a framed perspective when entering a room or window. The Doctor himself was exiled to Earth, given a job with UNIT as a consultant, and acquired a permanent yellow car, Bessie.

The series itself began to touch on more and more pressing problems for people, such as global warming and the prevalence of plastic in the world. The latter resulted in a whole separate race of plastic monsters Nestine, coming off store windows, which is why the series first received public condemnation due to its cruelty. The BBC was constantly bombarded with angry letters and articles like “Why my children won’t watch Doctor Who anymore.”. There were rumors that the writers were even asked about their souls in the Houses of Parliament.

In the Pertwee era there were two types of series: fairly local ones, about the problems of the Earth, where the Doctor saves the Earth from outside invasions, and large-scale ones, about problems in space, where the Doctor saves the WHOLE UNIVERSE.

As the Doctor became more confident and powerful, comparisons to Sherlock Holmes began to circulate. In the end, one of the writers decided that he needed his own Moriarty. So the Doctor’s co-planet named the Master, played by Roger Delgado, appeared, and the public loved him (although they rather loved to hate him). He was daring and smart enough to baffle not only the audience, but also the protagonist himself.

In the “Time Warrior” series, two iconic characters for the series were introduced: the Sontaran race (warlike alien conquerors) and Sarah Jane Smith (a tribute to adequate feminism).

Also (I love my vocabulary) in the ninth season with the return of the Daleks in, oddly enough, “Day of the Daleks”, where the writers first touched on timy-wimy paradoxes, in which events in the present and future happen simultaneously, which is why it’s impossible to simply go back a day and fix everything. It’s funny, but they never properly explained why this is so, except perhaps by brushing aside the mysterious “Blinovich effect”.

In the thirteenth year, everyone was amazed by the duo of Doctors of the “New Generation”, and back in the seventy-third in the series “The Three Doctors”, you won’t believe it, as many as three Doctors appeared on one screen in the form of Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton and Bill Hartnell (even though the latter was very ill and in the series itself occasionally flashed in some kind of space bubble). All three were terribly… happy to return to their roles, that is, two.

So who will replace me – a dandy and a clown

Unfortunately, during the tenth season while filming in Turkey, Roger Delgado died in a car accident. The Doctor’s old companion left, and Jon Pertwee was not satisfied with the salary, and he did not want to become an actor in one role. In John’s last episode, the writer decided to give the actor a real break by writing a real chase for her, starting with Bessie and the Whomobile and ending with a hovercraft. During the filming of this episode, after a successful take, John did not stay to chat with his colleagues, but decided to answer fan letters. Everyone on the set was sad. The matter was not helped by the appearance of Tom Baker. They looked at each other, and then John left and the director began working with Tom.

FOURTH DOCTOR

Tom worked at a construction site, there was a catastrophic shortage of roles, and he wrote to his friend from the BBC, who, on the very day when he received the letter, became the head of the department of television series and serial films (at that time they didn’t even really have candidates for the role of the Doctor), having received the letter, the next day he proposed the Baker as a candidate. He invited Tom to meet the next day and at the meeting said that they wanted to cast him as the Doctor, but they couldn’t tell anyone about it. And he didn’t speak. At the construction site they teased him, calling him "Sir Lawrence" because they knew he was an actor and they didn’t care. By the end of the second week he asked for a day off. They answered him: “Of course you can, Sir Lawrence,” and he told them: “I’m getting a job at the BBC.”. When Tom arrived at the BBC office at ten o’clock in the morning, photographers were waiting to shoot him for the front page of the Evening Standard. Signed: "New Doctor Tom Baker". The guys bought the issue to look at the horses, and on the front page is the same guy they’ve been making fun of for months. And the children fell in love with him – they began to see him as a hero, and even advised all sorts of unimaginable ways to escape from the Daleks.

The costume designer came up with the idea that the Doctor’s costume should be similar to the clothes of a Parisian student – naturally he chose a scarf.

Tom was both similar and different from all his predecessors, because all Doctors are just different facets of one person. The actor was characterized by an unusual wildness, an alien quality, and with all this, he was incredibly humane. And he became friends with his fellow actors. They worked as a team, criticized each other, gave advice, etc.d.

With changing times, the approach to series has become a little different. One of the main producers delved into the style of horror films. Fear became an integral part of the series, and the design of the monsters became more impressive, without slipping into shock content. The presentation of the main character has also changed. The world began to need characters with weaknesses, so the Doctor began to strongly doubt his own righteousness, which is perfectly shown in the episode “Origin of the Daleks”, where he can erase the Kraang on wheels from history with a snap of his fingers, but rightly wonders whether he has the right to do this.

In the same episode, viewers were introduced to the creator of the Daleks, Davros, who is a rotting body moving around in a high-tech wheelchair. Not particularly threatening? Well, somehow he was able to turn the inhabitants of his planet Skaro into Daleks. What, it already looks more dangerous?

As the atmosphere deepened into some darkness, attacks on the series due to cruelty became more frequent. Mainly from Mary Whitehouse, who condemned… eh, in short, you yourself are well aware of all the modern persecution of games, so you can just transfer it to Doctor Who. Despite this, the ratings for seasons 13 and 14 were through the roof, which even the departure of Sarah Jane did not prevent.

However, with the change of producer, the BBC management decided to once again change the direction of the series, removing all the horror from there, but also so that it was not entirely for children. The main achievement of the new producer was the creation of another character for “Doctor” K-9. The kids liked this tin dog, but Tom Baker not so much, but considering how much they tinkered with it, it was a shame to throw this thing away. Either it didn’t work very well, then it won’t be assembled properly, then it will break, or even completely fall apart. The real opposite on set was her voice actor. He came to the set and rehearsed with everyone, called the Doctor master, looked up and made everyone laugh.

After some time, the producer changed again (this time John Nathan-Turner came). He changed a lot in the series: the screensaver, music, logo, the Doctor’s costume, computer special effects, K-9 left the series, a new Master appeared, the Doctor’s companions increased in number. Then Tom realized that it was time for him to leave.

Sorry if I stayed too long, but I just couldn’t bring myself to leave. And when I submitted my resignation, I was a little surprised at how quickly they accepted it. Well, I can’t blame them for that, I just can’t

INTERIM CONCLUSION

This series became a real symbol of its era, hundreds, or even more children managed to grow up, finish their studies, start working, and Doctor Who was still on screens. Even despite all the local absurdity and obvious budget, over time the series draws you in with its lamp-ness, interesting plots and entire worlds.

Next time I’ll talk about the very changes that Nathan-Turner brought about and the death of Classic Doctor Who (these two events are not intentionally placed next to each other).

add more (or the first name of this game plus plus) is a math game with an emphasis on quick and creative thinking in adding numbers to get the number given.
From an idea in a phone notepad in 2014 to release in 2017.

The idea to create a game came to me back in 2014. Then I was still in my 4th year at university. The fact is that I lived outside the city and the road home took about an hour and a half, and all this time I needed to occupy myself with something. It was not always possible to compensate for the lost night’s sleep and reading books was not easy. I had, and in fact still have a dream, to become a good programmer, and not a crooked coder. The thoughts that the end of university was soon, and I could do practically nothing, made themselves felt. It’s time to release your first program! Well, what about releasing ideas as such… And so, once again on the way home, a fleeting thought came to me and a gameplay was outlined, which I quickly recorded on my phone. “The player has time to add the numbers and get the number according to the task”.

The implementation did not http://slots-n-play.co.uk/ take long to arrive. At the university, from the second year we were taught the C# programming language. I studied it diligently and knew almost everything (as it seemed to me then), but when I sat down at Visual Studio, I realized that I didn’t know how to implement it (displaying numbers from the bottom of the screen), so I decided to set a static N number of digits, by clicking on which we sum and get the number as assigned. It looked something like this:

At this point, the development of the game stopped for six months, as more important matters appeared. This was an introduction to the Unity3D engine and writing the first game directly on the engine as part of a university program. At the same time, I want to note that the subject was called “Game Design Theory” and according to the assignment for the coursework you need to divide into groups and create a game, the choice of tools and the type of game does not matter. Everything is optional. 2 were created.5D platformer and this was the first step into the gaming industry.
In September 2015, an account was purchased on Google Play specifically to release the game. Work has already begun directly in the Unity3D engine. But the fourth version of Unity did not support Canvas UI (support started in version 5) and therefore it was decided to work with the NGUI plugin. It looked like this:

The game still did not receive the proper impetus, since in the absence of an artist from outside (and even hands from myself) – everything stopped at this stage.
The game received a continuation in 2016. Everything has been redone for the new UI from Unity. The only improvement was the implementation of dynamic changes in numbers. That is, the numbers came out from below and were hidden from above. During this period of “visibility” it was necessary to select the necessary numbers. Unfortunately no screenshots. No copies left.

2017 was the last year for the development of this project. In February of this year, after winning GGJ, I met Sanya and Max, we created the GameDev team “Burp! Games" and in between working on our joint project "Deep Ones" I spent time developing "Add more". The game changed the screen position from vertical to horizontal, acquired a new appearance from free UI assets. But the game still lacked game balance, since after each task everything increased in a huge progression, and there was not enough time to complete the action. There was also no store in the game, not even in the plans. After testing the game for some time, it was decided to return the vertical screen layout. It was more convenient that way. The case stopped in March 2017.

After the release of “Deep Ones” on September 2, 2017, I had too much free time, and our new project was only at the stage of sketching graphics and plot, I decided to finish “Add more” at any cost. I asked an artist from our team to work a little on the graphics. He may be a pixel artist, but he still did it better than me. I drew some details myself during development, because it’s faster this way. And after 3 years, it’s time to learn at least Paint. The game has taken on a completely new look. I always wrote down ideas for games in a notebook. This is how the store appeared. There wasn’t much to do on the Odessa-Kharkov train, so I came up with items for the store (time slowing down, time stopping, completing the current task and universal color) and upon arriving home I implemented it all. In app purchases from the unity engine itself were also added and initialized in the Google Play Developer Console. I didn’t think long about advertising, I chose the same advertising built into unity. Historically, I have not had a good relationship with adMob from Google and often had to deal with a conflict between two plugins from Google – the advertising plugin and the Google Play Services plugin. I tried to add a leaderboard and now it is in passive development. Again problems with the plugin. The application connects to the service, but the leaderboard does not display. In the latest updates, I improved the balance of increasing difficulty, and also added 3 levels of this same difficulty. We plan to add achievements and still fix the leaderboard.

Now the game looks like the screenshot below.

Thank you everyone for reading! Have a nice day.
Link to add more on GooglePlay: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adk.addmore

It feels like nothing’s good. But you’ve already clicked on the article and understand that the result will be masterpieces that will revolutionize the genre of fantasy music for video games. The result will be the soundtrack of the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

The birth of the Might and Magic series

It’s the 1970s. The era of protest, the heyday of the hippie movement. Pong, Asteroids and Space Invaders are winning the hearts of gamers on both sides of the Atlantic, and the later legendary tank games in monochrome and with the name Tank take their first steps on Atari devices. And all this wildly attracts geeks all over the United States, and they also really like the increasingly popular series of tabletop role-playing games Dungeons & Dragons.

One of these geeks was student John Van Caneghem.

During the day he attended lectures at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, and in the evening he and his friends gathered to leave the dice and plunge into the enchanting world of magical fantasy. At one of these meetings, John meets programmer Mark Caldwell, who introduces him to the Apple II computer. The technological miracle sinks into John’s soul so much that he… quits the medical faculty and transfers to the Faculty of Computer Science. And two hobbies, new and old, begin to merge into one. By the time he graduated from university, John realized that he wanted to create something of his own. Your own enchanting world, full of magic and secrets. In 1983 he begins to create a role-playing game. He begins to create Might and Magic.

Series creator and chief game designer of the Might and Magic series John Van Caneghem

Mark Caldwell. Lead programmer of Might and Magic and co-founder of New World Computing

I played board games my whole life and then I discovered D&D. As much as I enjoyed Saturday board games, I wanted to play more. And as soon as I found out about the existence of video games, from what opportunities they provide, my head just went spinning. Education, passion for games, as well as a passion for mathematics and programming convinced me that nothing would stop me from creating computer games! ​

John Van Caneghem

Like all great things, John and Mark’s business started small. But if the creators of Apple or Google had at least garages at their disposal, then John and his friend Mark were content with a bedroom in the house of the former’s parents. This was the first office of the newly formed New World Computing. It was real rock and roll. Crystallized creativity, creativity based on enthusiasm for the sake of creating a dream project.

To purchase equipment and software, John even took out a loan, though it was secured by his parents’ guarantees, but oh well, he’ll repay the debt in full a little later. However, in 1985, New World Computing moved to a new office, which was now located in John’s bedroom, where a year later in 1986 he finished work on the game and was thinking about finding a publisher.

The plan worked, but not as intended. The maximum advantageous offer sounded like this: $1 profit from each copy sold. When the cost of the game is 60 bucks, and you remember that the game was distributed on two floppy disks, and their number did not affect the cost. At least 1, at least 2, at least 10. If this is one game, then they ask for $60 for it, regardless of the number of media.

A new plan was needed:

Seems like everything could go wrong? Yes, in fact, anything, however… the bet worked. The phone in John’s bedroom did not stop ringing for 2 months, during which all the printed copies were scattered. And now publishers began to come and offer promotion conditions of varying degrees of deliciousness. It was a success.

Creating music for Might and Magic (not yet Heroes)

The success was well deserved, not least thanks to the musical accompaniment. But first we need to add a little context of the era. Let’s listen to what standard RPGs of that time sounded like, what kind of soundtrack they had.

Example of a 1985 RPG soundtrack

Even if we put aside the fact that the media of those years simply did not allow recording full-fledged compositions, the father of Might and Magic, John Van Caneghem, understood that sound was an integral part of immersion in the world he created. And for the third game in the series, he brought in real composer Todd Hendricks. The musical design became more varied and dense, but this still did not suit the chief game designer. Something else was needed. Something needed to change. The ever-increasing ambitions of New World Computing forced the team to grow. This was no longer a group of a couple of enthusiasts in a bedroom. It was a small team of 15 people with a successful series of role-playing games. The staff has expanded even more to work on part 4 and composer Tim Tully is involved in it, but the soundtrack is still far from ideal.

This is still a standard generic fantasy of those years, but the series itself, its lore, its heart is far from an ordinary adventure. This is a world tied to, perhaps, one of the most curious laws of the writer Arthur C. Clarke

I’ve always been a big fan of science fiction as well as fantasy. Arthur C. Clarke coined the phrase "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". This idea, plus the Star Trek episode "For the World is Empty and I Have Touched the Sky" formed the basis of the original Might and Magic story. But I didn’t want sci-fi to creep into the world until the very end of the game. I wanted to create a surprise ending, similar to what happens in episodes of The Twilight Zone

John Van Caneghem

John Van Caneghem, like no one else, understood that the series needed an equally non-standard soundtrack. Only the creator could not find the right path and became increasingly immersed in corporate routine.

My biggest challenge was being a designer, game creator, and CEO at the same time. This dual role has always given rise to personal conflicts. On the one hand, I wanted to make every game perfect, add more features, improve… and on the other hand, I had to pay the bills. It was a constant trade-off: the company had to remain profitable or I wouldn’t be able to make my next game. In the beginning I was involved in programming the entire game, but as the projects got bigger I had to focus on leading the teams.

John Van Caneghem

With each new project, John moved further and further away from that same feeling of novelty, that same feeling of experimentation, that same feeling of rock and roll. And then one day he realized that the series needed. Need an experiment. And this experiment required a real rock and roller.

From early childhood, Rob King dreamed of playing in a real rock band, but fate decreed otherwise: in the mid-nineties, the aspiring composer was noticed by New World Computing, which by that time, in addition to Might and Magic, had already begun releasing other projects (you remember that the company was also a publisher?). One of these was the adventure quest Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb, where Rob was taken as a co-author to write the musical accompaniment.

But Rob wanted more, and his bosses weren’t against it, especially since he coped with his previous task. And now he is already listed as the main composer of the next game, which was also published by NWC. Iron Cross Strategies. So when John Van Caneghem decided to turn his adventure RPG into a strategy, the author of the music seemed to suggest himself. A passionate musician with ambition and passion, who has not yet been bogged down by corporate tasks, and also with work experience, and even proven on previous projects. The ideal candidate, he gets complete creative freedom to write the music for an offshoot of the company’s most successful game series. To Might and Magic. With everything at stake, he immediately gets down to business… and hires a person who is not at all familiar with the gaming industry.

Paul Romero was born in California and began playing the piano before he was in first grade. According to Paul himself, he simply understands on some intuitive level how music should sound. He feels it and knows how to perform this or that piece.

I started playing the piano when I was three years old. We had a small instrument at home. My parents didn’t play and bought it as decoration. I just taught myself. Whenever I heard sounds that I liked, I don’t know how, but I could reproduce them. Your hands learn to duplicate – it’s like learning a language with your hands. I didn’t listen to rock ‘n’ roll, so I don’t play Elton John in my head. I can’t even play Elton John, I don’t know how to do it. My hands developed naturally from 19th century European music. If someone asks: “Oh, you can compose music in the style of Prokofiev, Mussorgsky or Handel?». I’ll answer "Yes, it’s easy because I don’t even have to think about it". My fingers know where to go.".

Paul Romero

At the age of 9, my parents sent me to a music school. By that time, he already knew how to play Rachmaninov and Chopin, but did not understand anything about the music itself. I didn’t know its theory, I couldn’t read musical notation, I couldn’t write down what I composed. Paul studied diligently, but he didn’t just memorize the compositions of the classics, he made their sequels.

At music school I began to study more deeply serious classical music – Brahms, Bach, Tchaikovsky. And I realized that this is all wildly boring to me. You sit, practice piano concerto No. 1 and fall asleep.Then I started improvising. He learned the beginning of great compositions, and then invented continuations in the spirit of the original. This is how I learned different playing styles and how several brilliant authors influenced me at once. Whatever their style was, I could pick it up and move on.

Paul Romero

A little later Paul wrote his first piano concerto. And speaking a little later, this is literally at the age of 13. Now realize the moment. At the age of 13, he didn’t just write a concerto. This concert was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, and played piano by the young Paul Romero himself. As an encore, the same concert was played at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York. And all this at 13 years old! In general, Paul grew up listening to the repertoire of Bach, Rachmaninov, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and the entire galaxy of classical music authors. And he constantly improved, but at the same time he could not take up music on a professional basis.

When I was in my 20s, when I graduated from college, I couldn’t get a job. I wasn’t active musically – I worked as a cook, worked in construction, sold products for IBM… I did everything except music because I couldn’t get anyone to listen to it. Zero, nothing. And when I turned 30, I thought: “God, there will never be music in my life again.”. I thought she was out of my life because it’s just impossible to get people to listen. I wanted to, but nothing worked.

Paul Romero

Paul has been playing his own https://sugarbingocasino.co.uk music in the style of classical authors for as long as he can remember. To parents at home, at school, to friends and acquaintances at parties, at one of which Rob King noticed him. This was long before the creation of heroes, but that meeting changed everything.

A friend introduced me to Paul back in 1992 at a party. I remember the moment I saw Paul play the piano. I was extremely impressed not only by his abilities, but also by how genuine a person he turned out to be. We hit it off immediately and have been best friends ever since.

Rob King

The birth of Heroes of Might and Magic music

When it came time to find someone to write the game music for the first Heroes of Might and Magic, Rob King hired Paul Romero, a man with no industry experience, not only because they were friends. Rob knew that Paul had something that he didn’t have. Talent for composing music in a classical style. After all, it seems to be on the surface, but for some reason no one notices: classical music with orchestral parts is exactly what the fantasy genre needs. Someone has to be the pioneer. It should be Heroes of Might & Magic.

I advise you to turn it on in the background while you read

But despite its now legendary sound, the soundtrack was created in very, very modest conditions, and the work of a talented composer cost some ridiculous money even at that time.

Rob called me and said, “Hey, do you want to record some music and we’ll pay you $400?”?"And of course I wanted to earn $400. But I thought it was a one-time job.

Paul Romero

At the appointed time, Paul arrived at my home for a meeting. I had a roommate at the time and my "studio" was essentially my bedroom with a bunch of gear and a small mattress in the corner. We started exchanging ideas and came up with a couple of compositions. I knew we were going to do something special. Thanks to his classical education and my experience in rock and pop music, we complemented each other. Our music had elements of good classical arrangements, but they did not repel the mass listener.

Rob King

The resulting score has a structural complexity not previously seen in game soundtracks. Few composers have previously thought of applying the classical music approach to video game music. Unless the authors of The Dig, inspired by the works of Wagner, achieved something similar.

But let’s return to "Heroes". Few tunes, even today, have such a powerful and confident part in their arsenal as the composition “Barbarian Town”. The dynamic passage on the harpsichord is first joined by just strings, then another and another, so that at the strongest moment, repeating the main part, they give the most powerful counterpoint to five different instruments, and at the end, as if exhale. To enter the second round with renewed vigor.

And the rest of the tracks are not far behind. The general theme of the music – repetition and strengthening of the main motive works simply flawlessly. Almost every composition is a real work with a beginning, development and culmination. This approach applies not only to the city themes, but also to the title track, which sets the tone for the entire game, the tone for the entire soundtrack. And “Sorceress Town” completely contrasts itself with the dynamics of other melodies, bringing the strings to the fore, introducing all the instruments smoothly and naturally, until they are all finally eclipsed by the captivating sound of the harp, giving the already magical music a real atmosphere of magic.

However, what stands out from the overall picture, and will continue to do so for many games in the series, are the battle tracks. There’s no way they can reach the same heights as castle themes, and they won’t do it anytime soon. But with the release of Heroes of Might and Magic, one thing became clear. This turn-based strategy game is the work that took fantasy music to the next level, but the revolution didn’t happen until another game came out. Before the release of "Heroes of Might and Magic 2".

Music from Heroes of Might and Magic II

In the second part, the duo of composers turned into a trio, Steve Baca joined Paul and Rob, he and Rob had been in a rock band called Red Delicious for a long time.

The team had a very obvious task: to make it cooler. How? If you listen carefully to the soundtrack of the first game in the series, and then to almost any composition from the second part, then the answer that the authors arrived at will be quite obvious: add vocals.

I advise you to turn it on in the background while you read.

But Romero and King wouldn’t be geniuses if they just stuck conventional Latin in there, which for most gamers would sound quite organic there. This is often what music creators do. But not in this case.

Rob King, as producer of the Heroes soundtrack, creates rhythmic tracks. He knows the atmosphere suitable for that part of the game that requires more than just an orchestral sound. Once he’s done creating the basic rhythm and motif, I’ll compose and arrange music to go along with it. And every type of rhythm will work. Afro, Latin, Celtic, Roman, Irish. Any.

Paul Romero

A lot of people at the time thought I was crazy for wanting to put opera singing into a video game. But I wanted to highlight the franchise’s personality on a musical level

Rob King

If you dig deeper, and not just enjoy the music, then almost every castle, every faction chooses its own style, including vocal. In subsequent parts of the series this division will be noticeably more pronounced, but the point at which it all began was laid right here, in Heroes of Might and Magic 2. The touching melodies of Barbarian Castle, and the entire soundtrack of this part, are clearly inspired by Wagner and Brahms, even almost quoting the classics. That’s why the vocals are recorded in German.

Considering how complex Romero’s orchestral pieces were in the first game, Heroes of Might and Sorcery 2 makes his operatic compositions feel like real works rather than mere pastiches. The repetition of the melody and tension from the first game has been replaced by a stormy orchestral sound with constant development, which only enhances the perception of the entire work, and the vocals here complete the atmosphere intended by the authors. The score contains a huge number of shades from the almost sinister atmosphere of Warlock Town and Necromancer Town to the sublimity and a touch of mystery of Sorceress Town.

Series newcomer Steve Baca, meanwhile, under the supervision of the same Rob King, began improving another aspect of the musical accompaniment: landscape themes. Not much attention was paid to this point in the first game. In the sequel, the music composers faced a difficult task: to give each location its own personality, but to do it in such a way that they did not attract too much attention to themselves. Didn’t distract. Where Romero needed to complicate, Baca needed to simplify. His compositions can be said to be opposed to what Romero did. Steve had only a few tools at his disposal in each composition to paint vivid images of game locations. For example, “Snow Theme” gives a sense of wonder to flutes with piano accompaniment, and for the desert theme, woodwinds with an Arabic touch are used.

The fact that the composers of Heroes of Might and Magic II were able to master two completely different registers of emotional expression – operatic drive and meditativeness – finally cements this soundtrack’s status as one of the best orchestral scores ever created for a video game. With one exception, which will be discussed later.

Music from Heroes of Might and Magic III

After the success of Heroes of Might and Sorcery 2, the trio of composers Paul Romero, Rob King and Steve Buck were faced with the problem of where to move next? The music of Heroes of Might and Magic II strengthened the weaknesses of the original and became larger in scale. It was impossible to repeat the same strategy – to become even grander. What could be more majestic than the operatic sound of classical music?? The solution was somewhat strange: simplify.

I still recommend turning it on in the background while you read.

What? I mean simplify? The melodies turned out cool, you’ll say (and you’ll be right)! Now I’ll explain: simplify means not using vocals. This was partly the publisher’s decision. But this is not to say that it’s a step back, because even without vocal parts the authors still have room to grow. Romero is slowly cooling down and starting to write music more thoughtfully. If earlier he wanted to put as many ideas as possible, as many aspects as possible into his musical range, now, on the contrary, he decides to use fewer motives and subtexts, but polish each one to perfection.

Once again he constructs his castle themes as variations of motif and melody. Repetition and escalation, but this time much more meaningful. Much more… adult, or something. Even the dark notes of "Dungeon Town" remain relatively light-hearted with their interspersed strings.

Just like “Town – Inferno” meets menacing brass, balances their ever-increasing tone with music box rhythms. What gives the melody weight and context to what is happening?. The compositions develop in such a way that in two minutes they introduce more variety than tracks by other composers in several times longer playing time.

Where the Heroes of Might and Magic III soundtrack manages to surpass its predecessor is in the landscape tracks. Now they are more similar in style to the themes of castles – more intense, which makes the musical accompaniment of the third part, in fact, a music album. After all, there are almost no melodies that stand out from the general tone and mood. Except, which, again, we’ll talk about later.

Moreover, in Heroes of Might and Magic III, sound effects become part of the soundtrack not only of the game world, but also of its music. The howling of the wind and the singing of birds become part of the soundtrack (be sure to listen to the themes “Snow”, “Swamp” or “Water”). The authors show a level that, it seems, they themselves cannot reach.

Music from Heroes of Might and Magic IV

Despite the stunning success of the third part, things were not going well for New World Computing. A number of financially unsuccessful games and commercial decisions forced budgets to be squeezed and development time to be reduced.

I still recommend turning it on in the background while you read.

And if not all fans accepted the gameplay innovations of the fourth part with enthusiasm, then the music remained true to itself. It’s even surprising, but despite the difficulties, no expense was spared to record vocal parts. Not just vocals were involved here, but a real Bulgarian women’s choir “NEVENKA”

The opportunity to work with a huge choir was certainly exciting for Romero and King. They were already experienced composers, and the more interesting is the fact that when recording the choir they… messed up.

We had a Bulgarian choir in Los Angeles recording the women’s parts. All participants were American and spoke Bulgarian. It was their accent that we needed. We accidentally used the wrong speed while recording. This made their voices much higher pitched, making the women sound like children. We found out about this during the meeting. Moreover, we could not do anything, because there was no way to reassemble the choir and re-record the parts. So we had to change the music itself to accommodate the higher speed of the choir.

Paul Romero

But even without the help of the choir, the authors have become so skilled that all other melodies sound lively and interesting. Still magical.

However, the limited budget and, most importantly, the timing, made their own adjustments. Therefore, samples were used for the first time when writing music. I’ll make a reservation: I’m not against sampling as a tool for writing music. It’s just that sampling was used for the first time in the series to create music. Yes, not just involved. Perhaps one of the most popular melodies among fans is based on the sample: a marine theme. Her motives can be heard in the game based on “Pirates of the Caribbean” and even in the anime “12 Kingdoms”

In general, despite the fact that the melody, like the others, was not written from scratch, is it bad?? In my opinion, not at all, and it certainly doesn’t make the soundtrack worse. Cause the rest of it is just great. The terrain tracks are some of the best in the series. Celtic and East Slavic motifs with accordion and violins of “Hope” or the drawn-out melodies of “The Prayer” made one feel something familiar in video game music long before “The Witcher”.

And here we come to the exception that I deliberately avoided when mentioning the previous couple of games in the series. Battle tracks. They haven’t evolved at all since the first part. It’s still the same rhythmic tapping as before. It’s difficult to say why this happened, but they sound very foreign in both the first and fourth games. Their monotonous, moody nature hasn’t changed much, and they’re still much less interesting than the rest of the soundtrack. And that’s how it could have ended, because soon after the release of the 4th part, New World Computing suffered a complete financial fiasco, closed, and the intellectual property went under the hammer. And the revival of the series came from where they were not expecting.

Music from Heroes of Might and Magic V and the beginning of the Ubisoft era

The French from UbiSoft bought the rights to the Might and Magic universe in 2003 and decided to take their time. According to reliable information from unreliable sources, it is known that New World Computing had some developments in relation to the fifth part, but it was decided not to use them for just one reason: Ubisoft wanted the new part to be made in 3D. So a new engine was needed. In addition, Ubisoft itself did not have enough competent employees to develop a turn-based strategy game. Which means a developer was needed. Which can do both strategies and turn-based tactics. And surprisingly, all the necessary components were found at Nival. She had experience creating the very warmly received strategy Blitzkrieg, turn-based tactics Silent Storm, and even the latter’s engine was simply ideal for new Heroes.

I really strongly advise you to turn it on in the background while you read.

While Ubisoft decided to make a few gameplay changes with Heroes of Might and Magic V, it was an extremely wise decision on their part to stick with what was working and bring back Paul Romero and Rob King to write the music. As a result, the composers wrote almost 2 hours of soundtrack for the main game and then about another hour of music for the add-ons. And it turned out great. The authors have again found a way to develop music. And now she has found the "Main Theme". That is, the guiding composition. We’re talking about Dies Irae (pronounced diEs Irae, in case you’re interested in Latin).

A short digression: Dies Irae is a sequence in the Catholic Mass, one of the most popular Gregorian chants, which has been used in music for several centuries. The earliest mention of the text dates back to the 13th century, and composers took it as a basis in the 16th century, if not earlier. But what is important to us is not so much how ancient this text is and other facts from Wikipedia, but that the text itself tells about the Day of Judgment, about the punishment of sinners, about the ascension of the righteous to heaven, about the fiery hyena… it fits perfectly with the setting of “Heroes” doesn’t it? And Romero, of course, knew about all this. He deliberately decided to choose Dies Irae as a connecting theme.

Liszt used a similar melody. And Mozart. And even Rachmaninov in "Isle of the Dead" – one of the greatest works I heard when I was a child. Even if you don’t know what Dies Irae is, the sound of this tune is very intriguing. For almost a thousand years, people have liked this melody on an intuitive level. In the same way, when you hear "Moonlight Sonata" – everyone likes it. I don’t know why. Probably because there is something special in simplicity – it unites people. That’s why I always wanted to use Dies Irae.

Paul Romero

The main theme runs through the entire adventure. Through the company of Light, through the company of darkness, where previously a soft and calm melody reappears in the harsh performance of the wind instruments. Romero grew as a composer. He became a real author with a capital A right here, in the fifth part, where the soundtrack finally gained integrity and became, in my humble opinion, something more than just music for the game.

Finally, battle music has changed. Her character has completely changed. Now these are the lush battle cries of the orchestra. On the one hand, today they sound like typical music for such battle scenes in games and films, and one could convict Romero and King of abandoning originality. However, this is how the soundtrack is perceived today. At the time of release it was still not so hackneyed. Yes, it’s too simple and banal compared to the rest of the compositions, but such tracks fulfilled the main function: so that there would be no more weak points in the music of the heroes of sword and sorcery. The compositions accompanying the hero’s wanderings around the area are also beautiful and do not stand out from the overall picture.

The soundtrack has become complete. Became the best, as Romero admits in numerous interviews. But UbiSoft had a sequel planned. And was there anything more to offer the author duo than what they had already done??

Music from Might and Magic Heroes VI

In 2011, the sequel not only strangely changed the name, but also the composition of the authors.

I still timidly advise you to turn it on in the background while you read.

No, King and Romero still remained at the helm, but Chris Velasco, Sasha Dikichan and Jason Graves were assigned to help them. You can write a separate article about each of them. These people, both individually and together, worked on such series as: Splinter Cell, Mass Effect, God of War, Darksiders, Borderlands, StarCraft, Dead Space, and the list goes on and on. It is important that they were experienced people, but from, so to speak, a different league. Unlike Romero and King, they have always gravitated more towards electronic music, which is noticeable in their works.

Yes, even in the same Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, which was developed in parallel with the fifth heroes, and the music for which was written by Velasco and Dikchan, it is clear how different the approach to creating music is there. And not to say that the series would not suit him.

In other words, the vector for the experiment was given. In a number of works the influence of Asian music is noticeable (for example, the track Sanctuary). While other tracks have a more ambient feel, more…electronic. Graves, who created the excellent score for the second Dead Space, fits perfectly with the fantasy sound of the characters and does not cause a feeling of foreignness. What is “Jungles of Hashima” worth?.

Romero and King do what they already do better than anyone else in the industry, write fantasy music for castles and map travel, and write perhaps some of the best compositions of their careers. What’s worth at least the violin part in “Flight of the Griffin”. Or the magnificent main theme of the sixth heroes.

At the same time, Graves, Velasco and Dikcan simply take to some unattainable height what has long been the Achilles heel of the series. Her battle tracks. The brutality of the drums is reminiscent of the action music from Dead Space and is no less impressive. Yes, this is not the same at all, but is departure from the canons always bad?? Here everyone decides for himself, because even then it was not only the visual style and gameplay that split the fans of the series (although they “split” after the release of almost every part before), and the times when the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise released revolutionary soundtracks are over, this does not mean that the music in Might & Magic Heroes VI has become bad. She became different. This is still a varied, cohesive fantasy score, and the decision to bring new composers into the series allows us to discover new facets of this very music. It’s a shame the series didn’t have the best of times.

Music from Might and Magic Heroes VII and the end of the series

Sales of the sixth part were not the most encouraging, and by the middle of the tenth UbiSoft was no longer the kind of company that easily goes into experimentation. This is probably partly why it was decided not to change the main composers of the series, Romero and King, but they also refused to invite very experimental electronic artists. At the same time, the star duo was not forced to impose anything from above, nor were they given any strict instructions. They just needed to write music for the new characters. And they wrote music for new heroes.

I advise you to turn it on in the background while you read, of course, but if you haven’t turned it on by this point, then you don’t have to turn it on anymore. Almost everything already.

No seriously, I don’t have much to add to this. The soundtrack of the seventh part is not bad. But he became, in my opinion, what he initially struggled with. It became a common generic fantasy of its time.

King and Romero are still giving it their best, still writing great music, but it no longer has the rock ‘n’ roll spirit of the first game, no experimentation with a choir like in the second game, not even the fun borrowing of samples from the fourth, the guiding composition of the fifth and the electronic experiments of the sixth. This is still great music for fans of the series, it is solid, high-quality, interesting, but… absolutely the same as before. This is the first game in the series where there was no experiment in the score. And in any other franchise this music would look great, but for “Heroes” more is needed and the composers always gave it “more”, but not this time.

Based on pop-up information here and there, UbiSoft still does not plan to bury the great series completely, but it’s hard to imagine what the current company can do with it. At the same time, nothing ever dies completely, and the world of Might and Magic has already outlived its founding company, giving us several excellent parts, several hours of magical music from talented people. So personally I believe in the best.

The creator of the series, John Van Caneghem, is still active and speaks with great respect of the entire franchise; Rob King is active in his musical group Red Delicious and is still friends with Paul Romero, with whom he occasionally works on game soundtracks. Romero himself willingly communicates with fans and regularly gives concerts at which he plays the same magical music from Heroes with a symphony orchestra. And even if the new Heroes never come out, or come out without Romero and King, their legacy will live on. And you can always turn on your favorite composition and, as if in a time machine, be transported back to the time of your favorite part to a wonderful soundtrack.

If you’ve made it this far, then as an encouragement, I suggest you listen to Paul Romero and the Heroes Orchestra perform music from Heroes of Might and Magic III. This is just great!

Step 1. Brew something stronger
Step 2. All games that are important or launched are included in the analysis, but all are mentioned.
Step 3. Read and leave a comment. The author is young, growing and loves constructive criticism
Step 4. Bring out the cars and Bionicles.
Step 5. Cry over how awesome it was.

First part: https://stopgame.ru/blogs/topic/98257

Third part: https://stopgame.ru/blogs/topic/104042

Five-year plan, like a year like the decade, Daur starts from scratch. From scratch meaningful games. I personally have a favorite LEGO Alpha Team, children’s LEGO My Style, boring and mentioned in the last part by mistake LEGOLAND, BUT there are huge BUTs. They are all insignificant and only highlight the hole that the company is digging for itself. On the other hand, the British Toy Association recognizes LEGO “toy of the century”, which makes it clear what high expectations ordinary people may have from Lego products.

As a child, I had the games of this five-year-old on a “6 in one” disc, so when I played them, my memories mixed everything into one game, crooked, but varied. Now I was in pain over every game, but the pain was different. My personal hell, which anyone who dares to follow my path will experience. Well, one of the important things this year is that I was born to write this blog.

Retail stores LEGO are opening in England, Germany and Russia, and on the LEGO website.com, which has been around since 1996, was added LEGO Message Boards, so I’ll start describing it in Russian Message Boards sequel LEGO Island.

LEGO Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge

Start of development of "Brick’s revenge" literal translation was started from the project LEGO Fantasy. Produced by David Upchurch and, in his words, the television show was supposed to air every Saturday morning and was like adventures of jackie chan, with an episode-by-episode morality of life and a slowly moving global plot comparison – assumption of the blog author. A game based on this show was already in early production.

Platformer level Mario 64 with three heroes from the series, each of whom is endowed with their own abilities. There would also be a companion dog that would sniff out secrets and dig up objects. On paper it was even cooler Fable.

In theory we should have had three times, as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The castle is the past, the city is the present, space is the future. You could cut down a tree as a bridge in the Middle Ages, go back to the present and there would be a wooden bridge there.

Within 6 months we already had a prototype with a teenager and a dog that could dig. Right before full development began, the show was canceled along with the entire project. The publisher noticed similarities between the teenager and Peper from LEGO Island and then it started. The dog was removed, but a skateboard was added. We were going to add tricks like Tony Hawk, but not everything came into play. Also, time travel was not included in the game, but mini-games were added… now everything is much simpler. This is where my participation in the development stopped – on the prototype. To be honest, I didn’t play much of the final product, I just hung around in the first location and that’s it. It seems to me that there is nothing of mine left here. Silicon Dreams end developer It’s easier to start from scratch several times than to use someone else’s work.

David Upchurch wasn’t even listed in the game’s credits, but in the history of development he laid the first bricks.

Actually, this show was called LEGO World and all that can be found on it is the above translated interview with David Upchur and this… trailer!?

Already on the menu LEGO Island 2 meets with a crackling sound when you hover over each item. This sound is like shaking a Lego box. From the first to the last scene there are only two of them: introductory and final experience in their elaboration will be visible, but the lack of wit, which will be completely in TTGames. Just like in the first part, there is a Toy function here – changing the color/figure by pressing Enter. Essentially the island remained the same, but it doubled in size and acquired a railway along which the train travels. And if you stand on this railway, the station master in a red cloak will fly in and take the main character to a safe place, a la Superman. Now Pepper has learned to jump, and his height depends on the longitude of the space bar pressed. Well, I was also struck by the double jump, the animation of which is repeated one after another in LEGO Star Wars. There is even the ability to swim, BUT the game lacks platforming as such. Why all this is needed is not clear.

They even added a skateboard, but it’s no faster than running on foot. The difference is that you don’t have to hold down the forward button on the skateboard. And the locations are intimate, which is why you rarely have to travel long distances. But near the main character’s house there is a skate park as a separate location, where they give you 2 minutes to perform all sorts of tricks on one ramp. After all, you CANNOT do tricks in the game. The game engine takes into account the slope on which Pepper runs and reduces his speed from this, BUT where is it seen that the character runs along walls with a slope of 90°!? And here you can! Even the ability to throw pizza for my taste, disrespect for food, made crookedly, because the animation of a punch while standing still is not interrupted, and you can throw a pizza while running into the distance and continue to do anything besides this. The boat can only be placed in certain ports, BUT why then does the main character have the opportunity to sail?!? Well, here’s the thing, what does a hero sound like? Link from Zelda. One gets the impression that this is a mishmash of gameplay mechanics that are not used in the game at all. That’s how it is.

Inhale and exhale. As for the plot?

Pepper delivers pizza, meeting everyone in town, and gets paid in the form of cubes for his house. Having built the house, he receives an order for the Brickster. But not to kill, but to deliver pizza. Try to understand further events from the castscene:

And now I’ll chew on: the Brickster added a bunch of pepper to the pizza, burned his camera, stole and tore up the Blockpedia, which is why buildings began to collapse and the Brickster robots began to invade the world. Even children playing in the clearing have their soccer ball taken away..

We break four special robots. We collect 4 pages of the local bible and thereby restore 4 dismantled houses. Then follows minigame on the arrows where you need to hit the robots and not hit the Informaniak. Then we are given a tip that the remaining pages should be looked for in the Middle Ages. We jump into the portal that appears on the water and get where we need to go. IN minigame as a diver we collect blocks from the bottom to build a bridge, which allows us to fight in a tournament against the black knight in minigame. Suddenly, after defeat, the dark knight does not give up and begins to fire at us from cannons. Once again minigame destroy all the guns. Great, we got another page, let’s go back. Now we are sent to another portal, behind which lies another island of jungle and desert, or, more simply put, a set Adventure Island, or Oleg island Lego island in reverse. Not a single modern bucket will pull out the logs from the effects of smoke from the crater of a volcano. If you are stuck somewhere in the desert, then a scorpion sting will save you.

Let’s return to our minigames…plots. We will be met by two new characters and immediately sent on a chase, because snakes are chasing us. IN minigame we shoot back from them and leave, so that we can then pass minigame in the tomb. Now, having obtained the key to another tomb, we go through it minigame to match the pictures, and then steal the required Blockpedia page and run away from the ball hello Indiana Jones. We are going by car to minigame with very jerky controls, because the game is designed for low FPS. We reached the lake and you know what to do? That’s right, fun fishing in minigame. We got another page and we’re going into the jungle. I said let’s go? We’re flying to minigame on a cornfield while monkeys throw bananas at you. Arrived? Then we jump on the T-REX and run through the obstacles in minigame. We got there? HEY, build a hot air balloon and save the dinosaurs from the cages of the evil local villain. Just kidding, there is no need to build, but minigame There is. Page mined How? and you can go back.

Everything fell into place, even the children got their ball back, but the Brickster took our parents and flew to the moon, and even scattered robots that don’t just get knocked out by being hit by a pizza. Then we take the speaker with us and wait in the most boring way until the robots get tired of dancing, so that we can break them then. Minus dancing, which means it’s time to save your parents. Let’s go to minigame young cosmonaut course and already in another minigame learning to jump from a parachute. We jump on the rocket and go into space through a bunch of asteroids in minigame. We land on the moon with a parachute, in the same minigame, then we find the parents and prepare pizza for the robots guarding them you won’t guess minigame. Now you can climb into the Brickster tower, but you need to climb in minigame along the circular staircase. Here I killed 5 minutes versus 33 seconds of the speedrunner. Let’s go up and just throw pizza at the Brickster. Returning home in the castscene. We are kissed and greeted by a girl who was not in the game. But all this doesn’t matter, because the Brickster is making his own tunnel from prison. End.

Minigame with a chase https://casinosportingbet.co.uk from snakes is completed by simply holding down the shoot button. All snakes sooner or later jump under the endless fire of the protagonist.

That is, the plot is a mess of a plot LEGO Island, references to Indiana Jones, The Wizard of Oz, 2001: A Space Odyssey and NINETEEN MINI-GAMES. Plus, there are technical bugs and long download times.

Version for the first PlayStation was cut down in general, there is no fishing and parachute jumping, very severe bugs and more suffering on the spiral staircase at the end. In the Russian version, action icons such as getting into a boat or speaking are not displayed. Sometimes it’s better to play, sometimes it’s worse. This is the last LEGO game to come out on PS.

Version GBC was made by another developer, so this is a completely different game: there is a subway and pirates, new characters, stealth Kojima suck, enemies are knocked down, but no more. You can even collect cards and exchange them with friends. It had its own map:

And to the version for GBA put his hand in Dean Roskell, which we will return to in more detail in Island Xtreme Stunts. In this version, for some unknown reason, you can only walk on the sidewalk; it doesn’t go on any roads. An original quest with local minigames + 10 old ones has been released. Essentially it’s a mixture PC And GBC versions. Even the map is different:

In fact, a game is a game. You can play it, have fun, get mad at the difficulty and complete it. But why is she better then? Rabbit School 1999 ..?

When installing games, I cried, because with such a screen I sat and watched when the scale was filled to the end. This overall style evokes genuine anticipation and love:

As the classic said:

The memories of the fishing mission remain in my childhood brain, because then I did not understand the controls of this minigame and the goal. Burn it all now with a blue flame in my soul.

It’s worth starting with a short excursion into the designer itself. Any Lego set is divided into topics and subtopics, the rights to which the company must renew in order to release the corresponding products. For example, the first part LEGO Racers was the subject Race 1985-2000 and, with the release of the sequel to the game, the theme Racers 2001-2012 became independent, and a subtopic appeared Xarax 2001, which is the final stage in LEGO Racers 2.

I have a personal nostalgia for Xarax, which could be shot from their original set using rubber bands. Fast, small and simple. What amused me more was not the cars themselves, but the triangular packaging from them, which folded very coolly:

Xarax this word is a palindrome.

The game itself will begin with the creation of a character or the selection of a ready-made one. Creating your own is quite pleasant, like collecting a piece in life. You also have to choose to build your own or choose a ready-made car. Transport is assembled like instructions, which blurs the boundaries between the game and sets in life, but just like in life, we are free to put some parts ourselves wherever we want. There is also a game convention with a limit on the number of these spare parts, but even with one body on wheels you can go, and there is a limit of up to 20 parts.

Here the problem arises that most players, including me, take ready-made cars, because one way or another the process of creating a car is long and not very convenient, although not poorly visualized.

At the moment of completing character creation, we are thrown into an open world with dynamic weather and side quests to collect items or deliver passengers to improve the car. Improvement is good, of course, but the enemies don’t stand still either, so the feeling of progress is only in the speed numbers. The weather is great, but it causes the wildest lags for me and from the press of those times. But even so it is possible to enjoy the physics of the car in flight.

A few words about the plot: yes Racer from the first part, whom we overtook at the end of career mode. He is sad about this fact, so he transforms in a trance and flies off into the world Xarax, where he declares himself the champion of all worlds.

We had 5 locations, 24 routes, 17 opponents and 4 bosses to complete. Each location is painstakingly recreated from real Lego sets, except for the world Xarax, which is the arena. In each world you can choose only one type of transport.

Scattered throughout the world are side missions and gold bricks that will be used for the same purposes later in LEGO Star Wars. If you collect all 35, then in the final there will be fireworks and that’s it. In the process of a clean passage without side effects, approximately 2/3 of them are collected among speedrunners.

In a side mission to collect balloons in the Arctic, if you collect 5 out of 5 balloons that can be carried in the vehicle, the car will fly away.

But all this is a prelude to the coolest children’s arcade races with destructibility transport. And the car breaks down down to the last detail, and then all you have to do is run on foot to the pit stop. And for balance, when strength is lost, nitro is given. It’s very easy to get injured: with any jump or striking a wall/opponent/dinosaurs in the jungle, not to mention the heaps of bonuses placed throughout the track. Now bonuses look like a white brick and you can either stop the bonus roulette on time and get the one you need, or wait and get a bonus corresponding to your position. The further you are from the leading position of the race, the better the bonus will be. There are 7 of them in total and all are configured to either slow down/destroy the enemy, or speed up/protect themselves.

Six of the bonuses have an alternative use. So you can drive onto a torpedo and fly; use invisibility to steal other people’s bonuses; and shoot the disc backwards.

The game is not without problems. For example, you can’t drive past a checkpoint, but this is very easy with local physics in an open location. Even so, there is a race with ETTY, ring RAMPS and areas with ZERO GRAVITY.
Alas, technical shortcomings took their toll, which had a bad effect on the ratings of the press and users compared to the first part. Even the music playing now in the background is not taken from LEGO Racers 2, and from the first part.

This game holds a special place in my heart, but now I couldn’t run it with normal FPS, which is why I had to watch several longplays and speedruns. Fans like me still love this game. Even StopGame users subscribe to this:

The version for GBA is the same in fact, but with minor differences. And the version for PS2 started for me like this:

My favorite kids arcade racer is Pac-Man World Rally, which I remembered during the writing process, downloaded it, played a couple of modes and cried.

And Gleb, Vasya, finally answer:

The further into the wilds… The LEGO company changed its slogan from "Just imagine…" on "Play", but they don’t fit in with games. In the same year, the second episode of Star Wars will be released, which for our history of the series is a return report to that very game..
It came out missing in this particular part of the history of the series Soccer Mania/Football Mania. And now let’s return to creepy and strange new projects, the release of which is accompanied by a TV show.

Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension

Again it’s worth starting from afar. First of all, this game is an adaptation of a TV series. Secondly, LEGO signed up for this and published toys. The toys were a failure, which is explained in detail in English here. If you don’t have time or don’t know English, that’s okay, I’ll just leave a photo of the toy that’s already in front of your eyes:

And we are here for games, so we lowered expectations below the Mariana Trench, from a failed series that didn’t even finish the first season, from a failed series of toys, and from a game that didn’t pay off.

Inside the game it becomes scary already in the menu picture called. You still need to get used to the local graphics. The plot is simple: we control the ship with our feet in a spatial tunnel, we get hit, we lose almost all our friends and we need to get them back, collecting a space egg along the way.

One of the main character’s friends’ name is KEK.

The main character named Nick Bluetooth stylish, fashionable, youthful has the ability to glyTcha: by killing enemies, gain their abilities. By killing a jock you can get a bitsuha, and by crushing a frog you get its legs with a high jump height. These abilities are needed to complete platform sections. In addition to the above, you can get a grappling hook, a blaster and wings that will appear directly on the hero, but the time of their use is limited by the energy knocked out of enemies. It seems like there is pumping here, but for this you need to collect a lot of flasks scattered throughout the level. The controls are not subject to change, so you will have to jump to “L” until the end of the game, but overall it’s convenient. The grappling hook is also technically poorly implemented, because of which I abandoned the passage, and because of which speedrunners lose minutes to complete the passage.

When receiving damage, the hero sounds exactly like a character from LEGO Star Wars.

In terms of gameplay abilities, this game reminds me of "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs", and in terms of complexity "Chicken Little". How about the series itself? "Legend of the Seeker". I liked it because it was the first game that launched without lag and without minigames. Well, there is an obvious gameplay similarity with LEGO Star Wars does his own thing. Collect “coins”, kill enemies, easy platforming using the hero’s features and cast scenes at the forefront.

Personally, I had a problem finding the menu button – PAUSE. You can’t save during missions, and the camera is located on the numpad, which is missing on my laptop, but the auto camera saves the day.

Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension also went to GBA and satisfied with the quality. She was going to be released on PS2 and on G.C, but financial failures decided everything for the publisher.

Island Xtreme Stunts

Dean Roskell. In my opinion, this is an exhaustive description for this game, but for those who don’t know, I’ll explain. He was the producer and chief designer Island Xtreme Stunts on PC And GBA, and in the future he will participate in the development Dragon Age: Inquisition And Mass Effect: Andromeda killer designer.

Initially, back then LEGO Island 3, was about the Silk Road in the footsteps of Marco Polo, but after doing some market tests we were fired, but hired to do a threequel differently. The design of this game, unlike Lego Island 2, should have been more like Zelda Ocarina of Time,.. then he retells the concept one by one The Legend of Zelda 1986

As a result, the game was renamed Island Xtreme Stunts for marketing reasons, and the word LEGO as such is not in the name itself.

In general, to the game. Finally, you can move faster on a skateboard than on foot. You can do tricks on a skateboard. BUT, according to the speedrun, high fps does not allow you to do tricks, so you need a lock of 60. All this is needed on the way from one minigame to another. Each of which must be completed 3 times.

This is the map we made initially. Unfortunately, due to lack of time and resources, we had to focus on mini-games. There is no human energy left for the gameplay of the island itself.

The game has a Toy function, described above in LEGO Island 2, there are shadows and scary faces from the uncanny valley. In the version on GBA there was no usual method of movement, but there was a more complicated system of passing not the most convenient mini-games several times. I need to talk more about how bad everything is?

The game did not start on PC, I had a black screen on the emulator PS2, A GBA this version is simply unbearable. As IGN said in their review of this game, “There are better titles for kids.”.

The third Sonya did not overtake boxing in sales, but only caught up; if there is a gap, it is minimal, not to mention the difference in sales in different countries.

The box scratches the discs if you lift it and tilt it while reading.

The first box did not work under Windows 2000, but worked under a heavily modified version of it, it’s the same as saying that COD MW3 runs on the Quake 3 engine.

Eight Sonya cores were and still are of little use due to the shared cache and the need to manually parallelize calculations between the cores. We also talked about the shitty branch prediction, but I can’t say for sure.

The box also has a remote control, and it can just as well be a media center, but he didn’t say anything about that.

I didn’t mention Sony’s cleverness with backwards compatibility.

There is not a word about https://casino-spin.co.uk the Internet component of this generation of consoles.

There is also silence about Sonya hacks.

And the fact that the weakest consoles rule is like a law: NES was weaker than Sega of that generation, Sega mega drive was weaker than SNES, the second Sonya was generally the weakest in its generation.

I haven’t yet mentioned that initially the third Sonya should not have had a video processor, and its functions should have been performed by the same Cell, but then they came to their senses and turned it on, which increased the cost.

PS3 HAD NO GAMES in its early years. And it was funny to see gamers who bought a new console for 800 bucks (which is 300 more expensive than the box, and at the same time a year and a half late), and suddenly find out that there are no good games for it, of the films on Blu-ray then there were only new releases, 90% of which, as usual, are crap. Then the situation was corrected, both with games and with films (re-releases of classics on Blu-ray), but the meme remained. Bluray in the early years was generally pointless, games, even with several localization options, did not occupy the entire area, I already said about the lack of good HD films, and at the same time the drive made the console more expensive.

compared yuh to a finger… different processor architectures say something?)

I won’t say anything bad about PS3.To. Each platform has its pros and cons, and PS 3 has no more of them than others, and in general you shouldn’t start making stupid assholes, but the Cell processor is completely in full, those who follow the news in the iron world are in the know

and I’ll add that if you believe the wiki, then on the PS3 the video core is from the GeForce 7800 GTX512 video card, but with 256 video memory.

It’s inconvenient to play shooters on consoles, but on PC it’s just fine (although I wouldn’t mind if I had a PS 3)

I don’t have any hatred for Sonya, everything I wrote above is stones in the garden of the creator of the video, and here you are making a fuss about which is better: Sonya or PC.

but what does exclusives have to do with it – who can argue that they exist and there are many of them, I’m speaking for the processor, read articles about it – it’s inconvenient to copy pages of text here, the processor at the time of release was one of the most productive in the world – that’s a fact, but don’t compare it with modern ones stupidly in terms of the number of cores, it has a completely different architecture, and the frequency is 4-4.6 and not as you wrote 5.6. that the processor, or rather its architecture, is not the most successful, has been admitted by numerous developers and Sony itself – it’s also a fact, it’s quite enough for games, as modern technological toys prove, but there’s no need to say that it’s the most powerful in the world =) this is at least just stupid

burns processors?) I understand – it’s just a troll

I would write that it burns video cards, otherwise it turned out too thick

Moreover, the difference in the versions is minimal and you can only notice them if you look closely through a 12x scope :))

UolitterLen
Oh what a blast, thank you.
The arguments are simply weighty, and I realized that your parents gave you a console blah blah and you’re already calling everyone here inadequate, and it also seems like your computer is crap… and so on..