12 Star Symbols

Rebirth has some very interesting new items. The ones that stick out the most are the zodiac symbols. It includes all 12 zodiac signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. My favorite one is Taurus. It gives you the My Little Unicorn effect when you run around the room for awhile. Sparkly and flashing colors, running around the room at top speed, bouncing off of walls, Taurus gives you a sort of euphoric vision, tunnel vision if you will. Nothing can touch you, literally, they will die. Only one goal remains with Taurus, Finding your crusty mother, and vanquishing her with rainbows. My second favorite Zodiac Symbol is Leo (which is my symbol, ironically. You know, the month that I was born in). It's awesome because you are bestowed upon with a big ass mane. The mane does absolutely nothing, it's just wonderful. With this symbol, no rocks will ever stand in your way again. You crush them underfoot because lions do that, I guess. I have not yet experienced everything the zodiac symbols have to offer, but I know what most of the affects of them are. Aries gives you a bunch of speed, because rams are super fast. Taurus makes you build up a My Little Unicorn affect, because bulls have horns and can probably easily impale enemies. I mean, the running of the bulls in Spain is pretty hardcore. Image the broken bones and people on the ground bleeding after being impaled by a raging bull. You see, the only difference between real life and TBOI (I'm calling The Binding of Isaac that now.) is that you're encompassed by a rainbow that gives you invincibility. The broken bones and bleeding happens in the game, too. The game is slightly less hardcore because you yourself is not in danger. Gemini gives you a tiny little friend that floats around you, or should I say, is attached to you because you are conjoined to him?

Your buddy
Image Courtesy of: The Binding of Isaac Wiki

There is a boss that you fight that has this zodiac symbol. His name, is Gemini. He has a counterpart that is in another one of Edmund Mcmillin's games. His name is Steven and he's adorable. Cancer, when you get damaged, reduces all damage in a room to half a heart of damage. Personally I don't think it's useful. Leo lets you smash rocks. I have not experienced Virgo or Libra yet, soooooo, oh well. Scorpio gives you poison tears, which activate on every single hit with a tear because scorpions use poison to kill their prey effectively. Sagittarius gives you piercing shots. Capricorn gives you an all stats up for god knows why. Aquarius makes you Jesus, you walk on your own tears that damage enemies. Pisces probably turns you into a fish or something, considering that in Latin Pisces means fish. That's all of the symbols, what a ride, eh? So many items with one distinguished set of items that vary your gameplay significantly, it's unique.

The Rebirth of Isaac

I know that Rebirth came out like, two weeks ago, but I was just spending my free time playing it. It is so much better than the first one. The style just pops out at you like, woah. It's such a great addition from the last game. Many items have proven to be pretty much useless, like the unicorn stump. The unicorn stump is a significant downgrade from the unicorn horn, which allows you to run around the room invincible with contact damage included. The unicorn stump allows you to run around the invincible, but doesn't give you the contact damage. You might think you can just shoot with it right? Wrong, you can't shoot when you have the stump or horn active, you're just a doll that flashes in rainbow colors. I usually skip the horn unless I have the virus, or mom's knife. Another item that is absolutely awesome and fun item to get is the dark matter tear effect. It gives you fearing tears that makes your enemies run away from you, this can be especially useful in boss fights. It makes your tears look like black fire, which is pretty badass. One super annoying thing about the game, which isn't bad, is that the shops, libraries, and double key doors look exactly the same so you don't know what you're getting when you open the doors. The worst part about the game so far, but is totally fair, is the walking host. A host is an enemy that sits on the ground while invincible, they're assholes.

An meanie
Image Courtesy of: The Binding of Isaac Wiki

 When you're not shooting at it, it pops up and shoots at you so that you're able to do damage to it. A walking host is relatively inconsistent of when it tends to pop up, giving it the ability to trap you in corners, between poops and rocks, and on narrow corridors. All in all, this is an awesome game that is a gigantic step above the first one. The new art-style compliments everything about the game, and makes it beautiful. The new bosses are fun to play against and figure out their patterns. Finally, the items make the game new again, not knowing what each item does simulates starting over and discovering the game again for the first time. I will be writing about Rebirth for a while, recording my findings, so stay tuned!

Ploy for Plunder

I remember when I first discovered this game. I was at my friends house, getting bored of the usual games that we played, and decided we needed a sandbox game. We were looking through the online store, and saw one that was intriguing. I had seen it before while my brother was playing it, and thought that it looked interesting. The game was called Terraria. We downloaded it and set to work, he mined while I built structures for us to live in. It was pretty easy because you used the right stick to precisely place a block directly underneath a cursor, so I turned PvP on while my friend was in the bathroom. It took a while setting up for the kill. I needed better equipment, I kept asking my friend for better and better weapons, claiming the close combat ones. All of a sudden we got a demolitionist and I got the best idea I ever had. There was one giant explosive that you could make and it involved four sticks of dynamite, which my friend didn't know about it.

Explosives, if you couldn't tell
Image courtesy of: HERO on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQNOmGsZvg8

It needed to be set off by a source of power, so a pressure pad did just fine. I set the explosive in a mine that I knew he visited frequently to get the building materials that I required. My friend got suspicious when I walked into the mine, and I just told him I needed more stone. I quickly set up the trap in a high-traffic area and got the hell out. I told him my pack was full and I needed him to get some more, while trying to contain a laugh. I had forgotten where I put the explosives, and the wait was drawing out, so I went and grabbed some food from the kitchen, when I came back, my friend was back at the house. I was confused on why he hadn't died, so I asked him if went all through the mine. He said he did so I went to go check on the explosives. I walked in and heard a click, then an explosion, and then my screen was red. My friend burst out in laughter before I realized what was going on. I went back to my death place to see what happened, and saw a giant hole about the size of four dynamite sticks.

GIF courtesy of: jurassicpark.wikia.com

I looked over at my friend with a look of anger, and he was sure I was going to kill him, but I just joyfully said that we have more stone, and he looked physically relieved. I asked him how he had known what I planned to do, and he said he saw me crafting the explosives. I then realized that we were playing on the same screen and that my plan wasn't as well thought out as I wanted it to be. I then grabbed my sword and killed him right there. It was that day that I learned that the best plans are the simplest, and the loot you can get off of your friends.

LOL: Not Very lol Worthy

League of Legends is a MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena). This means there are many people that play everyday, from all over the world. Since there are that many people, there is no guarantee that everyone is going to be pleasant to talk to. Sometimes you would get a team that would just batter you with insults, even if you're doing pretty well. It's very annoying, that's why I usually play with my friends. When most of my friends are offline, I play with two of my good friends. There is this one mechanic in the game called auto-banning. When three or more people report a person for the same thing, they get banned for a day or so. When the other two people start getting annoying and start cussing us out, we all agree on auto-banning them just so they can (hopefully) learn their lesson, even though it is not very likely. When you get teammates like this, you usually lose because they start flipping out and start feeding the other team, which is when they run into the other team and repeatedly die and give them experience and gold.

Image courtesy of: forum.lol.garena.ph

 In some cases, like the one I had not too long ago, they try to give advice to the other team, although it doesn't work about 99% of the time. It's pretty funny when you play against a team like this, because you're just casually playing the game when all of a sudden you get a message from the other team saying, "Please report ***,  he's being an asshole," and you get a good chuckle from that. Even though people get so angry over a video game, the conversations can be pretty damn funny. It gets very vulgar but the funny part is when the players get angry or take the game too seriously.

Different game modes harbor different people and personalities. Summoner's Rift, the most common game mode and the one that I play the most, has the most unpleasant people to play with. In ARAM, which you play with a random champion, your teammates rarely speak. They usually don't say a word. Dominion has a mix of people that don't speak and scream at you, so it's pretty "diverse".

It is said that League of Legends has the most toxic community in gaming, and I agree with that statement. It's true because each individual has a unique role to the success of the whole team. If one lane keeps dying over and over, that lane becomes known as "fed". If one lane is "fed" the whole team has less of a chance to win the game because that lane will be the strongest person in the game, no matter the size. Nasus, the literal god of death, can get killed over and over by a nine-year-old girl that has a teddybear. You don't want to "feed" a little girl with a teddybear. Oh, I forgot to mention, the little girl can make the teddybear come to life in a ball of flame. She can also shoot fire from her hands. Fire hurts. When the god of death starts dying, you have a problem, so does every on his team. They start yelling, a lot.

Death God
Image courtesy of: leagueoflegends.wikia.com

Little Girl
Image courtesy of: leagueoflegends.wikia.com

Repetitively Dying

 The Binding of Isaac is not an easy game, in fact, it makes me want to smash my keyboard against the wall because it is so goddamn frustrating.  I get that there's only 9 buttons, but holy crap it takes skill. I find myself stuck in my room for countless hours trying to not take damage. You start out on the Basement Level, which is relatively easy, and ends in Sheol with a grueling battle between you and Satan.  Before that, you fight your crusty mother and her heart to gain freedom from her evil clutches. All the floors in between harbor difficult bosses that are disgusting and slightly resemble diseases and conjoined twins. Warning, if you are super Christian or if satanic innuendos insult you in anyway please stop reading. You collect items that alter your appearance in a good way or a bad way. Meaning you can get very freaking ugly very freaking fast.

Ugly flying ghost of Isaac
Image courtesy of bindingofisaac.wikia.com

You can get deals with the devil if you don't take damage on a floor, which you can "sell" your health for better items. In the picture above, the person playing has taken Spirit of the Night from the devil rooms, which gives you flight and tears that can go through objects such as rocks and walls. This satanic, yet still somewhat Christian, game has stolen hours that I could've spent studying for Geography.

There are certain mechanics to the game that not a lot of people know about. Like to get a Deal with the Devil, you can't take red heart damage on the floor because it significantly reduces your chances of obtaining one.

Satan offers help
Image courtesy of: franceftars

 Another one is shot speed, the tears, which is what you shoot, move faster but stay in the air for a set amount of frames, essentially creating a range up with more knock-back. Another mechanic that is obscure is Polyphemus' eye, it noticeably increases the size of your tear and damage, adding it and then doubling it. If you kill something, but have damage left over, the tear's damage is reduced but it goes through the enemy. The last, and most commonly missed, mechanic has to do with have many frames per second the game can run at. One certain item can make your tears grow in size for each frame it spends on screen, effectively giving it more damage. Another item makes your tears go through enemies, giving them a chance to hit that target twice. Both of these items are effected by FPS, which the can only run at 30 frames per second, which is pretty low, but it is set like that for the mechanics.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Progress Report

The Binding of Isaac is an RPG Indie game that utilizes randomness, and what we gamers call, a "TrollEngine". The Binding of Isaac has 131 items by itself, not including the downloadable content, or DLC. The DLC adds multiple floors, bosses, and items to the game's vast archive of stuff to discover.

Wrath of the Lamb wallpaper
Image courtesy of: itgsuperstarwallpapers

That is all the regular game has to offer, a ton of stuff right? Wrong. The Binding of Isaac is just the beginning, the sequel, Rebirth, is scheduled to have almost four hundred items archived so far, and it's not even done yet! Not only that, It has more bosses, more enemies, and more floors.

Added everything
Image courtesy of: People Choice Awards

Even the art-style has changed, it used to be the well-known cartoony art-style of Edmund Mcmillen, and now it has more of a 16-bit art-style. It's a new game, but it will have some nostalgic factors that pull on the heartstrings and bring back memories. The mechanics will be mostly the same, except with more items, there will be more of a chance for item synergy. The Ludovico Technique and Brimstone, which creates a ring of blood that floats around the room, is an example of a perfect item synergy. Rebirth is coming out on November 4th, 2014 on the PC and the PS4.