{"id":240,"date":"2010-07-22T14:42:48","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T04:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2010-07-22T14:42:48","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T04:42:48","slug":"promulgation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Promulgation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got published!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kotaku.com.au\/2010\/07\/reader-review-deathspank\/\">I wrote a Reader Review for Kotaku Australia<\/a>. Evidently it passed muster and was posted to the main feed.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure what else to say about it, other than to paste it here holus-bolus. It doesn&#8217;t really deserve to be reposted here, but I&#8217;m pretty pleased about it and it&#8217;s my blog, <em>so there<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DeathSpank <\/strong>(XBLA)<\/p>\n<p>From the mind Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame, DeathSpank is a RPG-lite title in the vein of the Diablo series, utilising a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard (until it arrives on PC and PSN anyway). Our hero, the titular DeathSpank, dispenses Justice through the use of magic, crazy weapons and utter heroic stupidity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Loved<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Humour:<\/strong> This is a funny game. Everything from item and quest descriptions, monsters and regularly respawning\/teleporting via a system of outhouses exude a Gilbert-esque charm. Fans of Monkey Island will welcome the familiar tone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Voice Acting:<\/strong> The game is entirely voice acted. Every character DeathSpank meets along his journey is full to bursting with one-liners and innuendo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Action:<\/strong> DeathSpank\u2019s penchant for meting out painful Justice upon pretty much everything in his path provides many opportunities to hit X enemy with Y weapon. Melee attacks are supported by some ranged damage via the use of crossbows and magical abilities provided by Justice Attacks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Co-op:<\/strong> Drop-in\/drop-out co-operative play is supported through the use of DeathSpank\u2019s sidekick Sparkles the Mage. Sparkles is equipped with a stock set of unchangeable abilities which level up with DeathSpank including a magic bolt, heal spell, exploding clones and flamethrower-like attacks. A one-choice character select screen implies that further co-op characters will be available in the future via DLC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phat Loots:<\/strong> There are a huge number of items available to DeathSpank throughout the world. Armour sets, weapons, potions, limited one-shot powers and even a poop hammer are at your disposal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Locales:<\/strong> The world of DeathSpank is a colourful 3D environment populated by numerous quest givers, monsters, treasure chests and 2D pseudo-sprite features. The entire area is presented with an exaggerated curvature to give the impression of distance. I suspect this is also an attempt to limit the amount of terrain displayed at any one time for the sake of performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hated<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Voice Acting:<\/strong> As welcome as full voice acting is, it can become wearisome, especially in the case of DeathSpank himself. Luckily, all conversation can be skipped through liberal use of the B button.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abilities:<\/strong> Despite the sheer number of items available throughout the game, most players will find themselves sticking with melee attacks. Most ranged weapons are woefully underpowered compared to level-appropriate melee weapons and all other abilities are provided through rare one-shot items. Some non-item based magical ability would be welcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lite:<\/strong> This is definitely RPG-lite. Steer clear if story and character development are an important factor in your purchase.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Length:<\/strong> The game is only 6-8 hours long, depending on your patience for side quests. This is ameliorated by the $US15\/$AU19.80 price tag.<\/p>\n<p>DeathSpank is a title well worth the asking price if you enjoy a light-hearted RPG romp through colourful locales littered with fragile enemies to dispatch with wild abandon. Playing with a friend makes Ron Gilbert\u2019s particular brand of lols all the more lolable. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got published! I wrote a Reader Review for Kotaku Australia. Evidently it passed muster and was posted to the main feed. I&#8217;m not sure what else to say about it, other than to paste it here holus-bolus. It doesn&#8217;t really deserve to be reposted here, but I&#8217;m pretty pleased about it and it&#8217;s my &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/?p=240\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Promulgation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,54,59],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-deathspank","tag-published","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allegedlyinteresting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}