Nico

Nicolas had rolled around long enough. Having somehow rolled himself away from the field with all of the other ponies when a bunch of things flew out of the forest, he had trained himself long and hard on how to walk like a pony, and was trotting around with the best of them at this point. However, lost and alone, Nicolas was beginning to wonder if he'd ever stumble upon the other ponies again. It was getting late, with the sun beginning to go down, and he was honestly a bit frightened to be alone in this strange new world at night. Just as he was about to give up hope on finding anyone, Nicolas came across a tan-coated pony, accompanied by a silly looking white stallion and a pony of a rather non-standard color. A sort of magenta, he supposed. They were all by a lake, in a rather grassy looking field. He was unsure if anybody would remember him should he just go walking up to them, so he did the first thing that came to his mind. Despite how much he was dizzy from it before, Nicolas lay down in the grass and began to tumble and whirl as he rolled across the ground toward them. "Look out, guys!" Nicolas shouted out loud, trying to be clumsy in appearance but thoughtful at the same time. Suddenly, a sharp pain ran through his side once again as he seemed to ram into something. A loud splash could be heard, and upon scrambling back onto his hooves, Nicolas could see that he had accidentally rolled right into the silly looking pegasus, knocking him into the lake. "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry about that! Are you all right!? Do you need help?" He wasn't quite sure if he'd be very helpful, as he hadn't tried swimming as a pony yet, but it felt right to offer. Looking back and forth between the tan and magenta ponies, his cheeks grew flush with embarrassment, shame and guilt.

TOBUSCUS!... looks quite awesome as a pony. Really, great job on this. Not that I'd expect anything less than awesome ponification from you, Peach. Awesome to know you're a fan of his, too. I had no idea!

Resident Evil, the long-standing survival-horror franchise from Capcom, is a game series that has had great success throughout its lifetime, but has suffered from a pretty severe loss of focus with its latest installments, basically shunting horror from the formula. Now, going on to its sixth numbered installment, Capcom is hoping to win both old fans and newcomers over alike by creating a game that is, by all means, a little something for everyone, provided you like shooting games, at least. Featuring three distinct campaigns right from the start, Resident Evil 6 will have a lot to offer from the moment you start it up. There has also been revealed to be a fourth unlockable campaign after completing the original three, as well as a couple of bonus modes, so there should be plenty of content on-disc. Leon's got the cure for arthritis: Bullets. Returning to the series for the third even-numbered installment in a row, Leon Kennedy is now accompanied by newcomer Helena Harper in his campaign. Capcom is bringing co-operative play back in full swing with this installment, with both online and split-screen offline play for two players, as well as special sequences when the main characters of your campaign cross paths with characters of other campaigns which allows up to four player co-op as well, though the extra two players can play online only and not locally. In trying to please all different kinds of fans with one game, Leon's campaign specifically will be oriented in a direction focused more on horror than the others, featuring the long-awaited return of Resident Evil's standard foes: Zombies. Despite the change from their more recent action-based focus for his campaign, the controls in Resident Evil 6 are tighter, more fluid and, most importantly, much more advanced for all campaigns, Leon's included. Expect to walk and shoot, dodge roll, slide along the ground (while shooting, even), melee at will and walk in any cardinal direction without turning like a tank. For the first time in the series, Resident Evil 6 not only doesn't feel like the controls are outdated, but almost feels ahead of the pack, really. Zombies will be more formidable against Leon and Helena, as well, coming in new shapes and sizes, including hulking fat ones which look reminiscent of Left 4 Dead's Boomers, but rather than exploding in one shot, they are bullet sponges and difficult to kill. Other zombies wield weapons such as fire axes and crowbars, which they'll mindlessly swing around or even toss at the player. Using the new counter mechanic, though, players with excellent timing will be able to steal the weapon from an attacking enemy and execute them with it. In case of emergency, kick ass. For players who have little to no interest in Zombies and are more fans of modern shooting games, perhaps even just fans of Resident Evil 5, Chris Redfield is accompanied by newcomer Piers Nivens in a high-octane campaign. Facing off against new foes to the series infected by the C-Virus, known as the J'avo (pronounced Ju-ah-voh), expect to face off in large-scale combat sequences against other armed combatants. The J'avo will actively attack the players with their own guns, as well as mutate their bodies depending on where the players attack them. Shoot off the legs of a J'avo and wings may grow in their place, flying the torso around upside-down while it still shoots at you. Take off an arm, and a bigger, more disturbing one replaces it, ready to maul you. Blow off the head, however, and what do you know, for the first time in a few games now, the enemy just dies. A nice change of pace from random chance mutating heads popping out when you land a perfect headshot that should, by all means, be a kill. During large portions of his campaign, Chris and Piers will be accompanied by standard BSAA soldiers, making his story feel more like Gears of War than Resident Evil for a while. As his squad dwindles down over the course of the story, though, things get more intense as Chris and Piers face off against unsettling beasts akin to classic Resident Evil boss fights. "Uh, hey, dude. Look out." In the third campaign, with newcomer Jake Muller and Sherry Birkin from RE2, expect a sort of blend between the other two campaigns, though the focus is still much more on action. Jake Muller is the son of a long-standing Resident Evil villain, Albert Wesker, and his blood holds the key for solving some mysterious corporation's problems. Since his blood is so valuable, it's obvious that they're going to go after it, so this campaign finds the players hunted down by a towering monster known as Ustanak, whom they will encounter several times in their journey, Nemesis style. Jake and Sherry will also find themselves facing off against the J'avo in their campaign, the clear sign that action is what they had in mind for the most part. Jake also has a unique fighting style that other characters cannot access, in which he can fight purely unarmed with a large repertoire of combat moves. Sherry doesn't have the luxury of such things, but has a unique Stun Rod weapon which alters the way her dodges function to accommodate close-quarters combat. Hold on, I'll save you! Then kill you afterwards! For players who clear out the three campaigns and want more to do afterwards, there are some bonuses to be unlocked to keep you going. A fourth campaign, tailored for solo play, features Ada Wong and focuses heavily on more classic gameplay from the series with puzzles and zombies. A new mode will also be unlocked, known as 'Agent Hunt', which lets the player take control of a random enemy in a random player's game online. It's an interesting idea, but little is known about it, such as whether or not the player controlled enemies will have more health or otherwise be different from the AI controlled ones. If players tire of the campaigns at any point, Mercenaries Mode, Resident Evil's time-attack mode since Resident Evil 3 returns once again, unlocked from the very start. Using the characters from the campaigns (and probably others, but none have been revealed as of yet), you try to wipe out as many enemies as you can on set stages within a time limit, racking up more points for consecutive kills. You can see gameplay of Mercenaries Mode here, showing off not only the mode, but also the new combat mechanics as well as Leon's special ability to dual-wield pistols. Look for Resident Evil 6 on Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 2nd, and on PC soon after, though no concrete date has been revealed.

So, here very recently, Valve thought it'd be a great idea to add a co-operative game mode to their Free-to-Play giant, Team Fortress 2, known as Mann vs Machine. You know, survive against waves of foes and purchase upgrades via cash earned from killing them. We've seen it all before, so what can Valve possibly bring to the table that others haven't? If you appreciate variety, you've got to love these guys. Well, Valve has class. Rather, Team Fortress 2 has classes. Nine of them, you know? This alone sets the game apart from the rest of the pack. With unique upgrades for all of the classes available for purchase, as well as the ability to use unlocked equipment from your time playing the game before this, there's room for a lot of variety in your team and how the matches can be played. Engineers can buff their turrets and amount of resources they can carry to maintain them, or they can upgrade a weapon so that they can be more offensive and leave their turrets to their own devices. Buff up your Scout with high damage resistances and you can barrel into enemy lines to decimate robot opposition, or you can boost his speed to get him in and out of the action quickly for guerrilla tactics, which are surprisingly effective against the rather obtuse AI in this mode (more on that later). There are a number of ways things can happen just by mixing up classes and their upgrades. When you add in the custom weaponry you can take into battle as well as new canteen power-ups, which can be used to grant temporary boosts such as invulnerability or an instant ammo refill, the diversity is far from what you find in other co-op shooters. Team Fortress 2's classes also make up the foes you'll be facing off against in Mann vs Machine. Pyro bots come by the swarm, threatening to torch any players foolish enough to get too close to them, while Heavies throw up their fisticuffs, ready to box any player clear across the map (or to death, too, you know) should they cross their path. These bots are plentiful, and they're trying to carry a bomb into your base, which you clearly have to prevent. If they succeed, Mann Co. will be ruined, and then how will you ever get those snazzy hats? Face it, you're jealous of that hair. Stopping the bots from carrying the bomb into your base is harder than it sounds. Kill one who holds it, and they drop it, only for it to be picked up by another heartless, metallic comrade. Don't kill the one holding the bomb for a while, and they'll slowly build up bonuses, starting with higher defense, then health regeneration, and if you wait too long, they'll even start landing critical hits with every shot. However adamant they are with running this bomb into your base, however, they aren't exactly the brightest crayons in the box when it comes to pathfinding. Sure, this is intentional on Valve's part for sure, as they clearly denote the path the bots will take with the bomb before you even start a wave, but the fact that there's really no deviation whatsoever makes them a bit more prone to stupidity than they should be, and in my time playing the mode, there were even a couple of moments where they got stuck, and the bomb simply respawns at the beginning of the map again. Set up a turret in the right spot, and you're guaranteed they'll pour right into the line of fire. Guerrilla tactics are very viable, too, with running and gunning being an excellent strategy for fast classes just as it should be. Even though they have clearly basic AI when carrying the bomb, it is nice to know that certain bots, such as the boxing Heavies, Demoknights (Demomen with swords), Sentry Busters (robots that target Enngineer buildings and self-destruct on them) and Spy bots deviate from the given path in an attempt to shake things up, and this often is all it takes to make the game become savagely difficult. Don't worry, these guys will kill you often. Now, despite the straightforward AI in this mode, and the seemingly easy objective, this mode is unforgiving and difficult. Without a fully populated team of six, Mann vs. Machine might just turn into Man vs. Machine as you hurl your computer out the window in frustration. With no handicaps set for an incomplete roster, it can be very frustrating to lose a comrade in the middle of a run, and nigh impossible with any less than five players to even complete a single wave on some of the harder maps. With six players, it is possible to beat all of the maps, of course, and with a team of skilled players, can even be 'easy' on some of the maps, but more often than not, it still proves more difficult than most players would likely prefer. Regardless of the extreme difficulty, this mode is still very fun, and any players who were fans of Team Fortress 2 before will surely enjoy this new addition and find themselves putting in a lot of time. Community servers will likely be the most popular way to play, but special "Mann Up" servers, which require tickets to enter (that cost real money) do offer the promise of great in-game loot when played, with the best rewards accompanying success, of course. If you like first-person shooters and haven't tried Team Fortress 2, there's little reason not to give it a shot unless your computer simply can't handle the Source engine. If you haven't played TF2 in a while, maybe Mann vs. Machine is just what you need to get back into it. I recommend that everyone who has enjoyed the game before to try this out at the very least, and anyone who hasn't tried the game at ll I advise try it, too.

@@Aureity, @@Ice Storm Blinking and staring into space, Nicolas shook his head, finally realizing quite belated that some of the other ponies had been talking to him. Looking over to the white unicorn, now sitting in the grass, he decided that perhaps it would be best to answer questions so that he could start asking his own. He also took note of a light-blue unicorn nearby who had also addressed him. How could he answer them both and get straight to the point? "The roll didn't hurt too much, but I'm not fine," Nicolas' expression became one of utter perplexity as he continued speaking, "I'm a pony! How can I be fine! I can't even walk! Did you see me rolling, there? That was intentional; my only useful form of locomotion at the moment as every time I try to take a damned step, I fall over!" His tone became more and more exasperated as he spoke, his mind undergoing what seemed to be a bit of a breakdown. "To add to that, I don't remember who I am! I know I had a life before this, and not as a horse, but I don't know who I am! So, please, for the love of all that is good in whatever twisted world this might be, tell me that one of you know what is going on here!" Nicolas' head was hanging relatively low to the ground as he began to huff a bit, short of breath from having spouted out his rant in a matter of moments. Straightening his posture up as best he could, he cleared his throat amidst his heavy breaths. Speaking more slowly and calmly this time, taking care to enunciate in case they didn't understand him before, or perhaps he might have come off as rude, he summarized. "I don't know why I'm a pony. I wasn't one before. I can't remember my name. Do either of you know what's going on? Please say you can help me, and if you can't, please direct me to someone who can." Tilting his head slightly, he anxiously awaited replies, on the off chance that perhaps one of them could offer him some sort of insight on this dreadfully confusing situation.

Nicolas snapped to from his rampant thoughts of conspiracy as he heard more voices around him. Glancing at the other ponies, he noticed that they all seemed to be awake, and some were chattering about with each other at this point. Here he was, sitting in the shade, pondering on things, making up all kinds of possibilities as to why this might be happening, and they were over there deliberating with each other, no doubt. Perhaps some of them are used to this already, and maybe they even have some answers! 'I'll go over there and ask some questions! Can't be too serious; I don't want to seem like I'm interrogating them or anything, but I need some answers!' he thought to himself, 'All righty. Let's go!' He attempted to take a step, but kind of wobbled and toppled over instead. "Ah, Jesus!" he exclaimed, flailing around a bit in frustration before standing back up much more ably than when he first woke up. 'Just put move one foot, then the other... then the other, and the other. Damn these hooves! Why must there be four of them!?' Nicolas awkwardly took a step forward with his front right hoof, followed by his front left, and his hind legs began to slide backwards on the wet grass, causing his limbs to stretch a bit before he flopped onto the ground on his belly. Letting out a loud grunt, he rolled over onto his side, pulling his legs back in and then rolling back onto him as he was so used to doing by this point. 'Okay, I should know how to do this! Horse movement isn't rocket science or anything! Let's see... One front foot, then the opposite foot in the back, then the foot in front of that and opposite rear of it... Sounds about right. I think.' Placing his front right hoof forward, followed by his rear left, he leaned awkwardly forward and had great difficulty moving his other front leg. 'Okay, okay, I took too big of steps. How do I reverse this?' Trying to pull his rear hoof back again, it simply slid in the grass a bit again and led to him ultimately toppling over once more. @@Legendary Emerald, @@Aureity, "Augh! I've had enough of this!" Nicolas moaned exasperatedly. Flailing his hooves around a bit, he orientated himself on his side with his belly facing towards the ponies he wanted so badly to interrogate. "Forward, ho!" He whispered excitedly to himself as he began to roll through the grass on his side towards the other ponies. The world was a blur around him as he tumbled along the ground, awkwardly twirling his body along the ground, seeing sky, trees and grass in a constant loop. Suddenly, he saw something else; A red blur and then a sharp pain in his side as he rolled directly into the legs of a red, angry looking pony. Eyes shooting open widely, Nicolas let out a stammering apology. "Oops, um... Uh... I'm s-sorry!" He rolled away from her a bit and scrambled to stand up, nearly losing his balance and falling over again, but managing to keep his posture. Looking over, he saw a white pony next to a picnic basket. These two seemed to be fighting over food! What did he get himself into? No doubt these test subjects were forced to compete for food as some kind of ridiculous experiment on survival. Standing there, sure that he'd be unable to really do much should he try to actually move, he hoped that he didn't just get himself into a whole heap of trouble.

Wetness was all around the dozing Nicolas as he lie on his back in glimmering dewy grass, his back soaked, head turned to the side and tongue hanging out of his mouth sloppily. The sound of someone screaming loudly awoke him, his brows furrowing as he tasted something strange. Opening his eyes partially he saw that his tongue was lying on dirt and flattened, damp blades of grass. He merely stared for a moment before his eyes opened a bit wider as he slipped his tongue back into his mouth, an expression forming on his face that was a mixture of confusion and disgust. He tried to sit up, struggling to lift his torso off of the ground, but he was stuck in an incorrigible cycle of repeated crunches in his attempts. Giving up and falling onto his back once more, he looked at his body to see if maybe something was on top of him and he was numb to feeling it. Nothing appeared to be on top of him, and his hind legs were clearly visible to him as they sort of hovered in the air above his haunches. His eyebrow raised inquisitively as he pondered why he was unable to sit up. 'Maybe I'm like a paraplegic plus or something. My lower body and part of my torso is paralyzed, perhaps?' Testing his theory, he attempted to move his feet, noticing his hind legs kick a little. 'Well, okay, so there goes-' He craned his neck to look at his body once more as he came to an epiphany. 'What the hell is this!?' His mind began to race a bit as he realized that his lower body seemed to be that of horse. 'Was I the victim of some kind of mad science experiment to create horse-men or something? Am I a minotaur!?' His head slapped back into the grass roughly, his neck a tad sore, and he felt around on his head a bit. 'Okay, okay. No horns, so that's good. Now I just have to worry about what happened to, well, my legs.' Attempting to look at himself once more, the pain in his neck increased; a clear sign that he needed to find a better way to get a glance. Rolling onto his side, he tried to stand himself up, but merely fumbled his limbs around in a miserable writhing motion. Thinking for a moment, he rolled over to his other side, then back again. 'Heave, ho, heave, ho,' he thought to himself as he rocked back and forth, unable to gain the momentum he needed to roll onto his feet. "HEAVE, DAMMIT!" He vocalized loudly and abruptly as his body flipped to one side, tucking his knees and elbows as closely as he could while doing so and rolling on top of his limbs. 'There we go. Now, just stand up... What is my name?' His brain felt a pang of pain as he tried to think of his own name. 'Ow, ow. Forget it. I just need to get up.' Pressing his hands onto the ground he attempted to lift himself up to a standing position, but his knees wouldn't straighten out properly, and his body couldn't get past an acute angle from the ground, repeatedly falling forward once again onto his hands. Standing there on all fours, huffing a bit from the exhaustion of trying to stand with this odd disability he suddenly seemed to have, he took a look under him to see what was up. Widening once again, his eyes noticed his chest and arms, or legs, rather, for the first time. 'This can't be happening, this can't be happening,' his mind began to race and his pulse quickened as panic began to rise within him. His heartbeat resonated loudly within his head as his staggered breath began to reach an erratic state to match the jarring and irregular palpitations of his heart. "No- This is- Just-" He stammered incoherently to himself as his imagination began to formulate all manner of possible scenarios which could have led to this. Not once did this seem to be a dream; it was something very real, and very terrifying. 'Somebody turned me into a horse!' his thoughts began to repeat that in his mind over and over, echoing into the very fiber of his being. His legs became shaky as his nerves got the better of him, his fear and anxiety, on top of his terrible coordination with his new body, causing him to topple over as he attempted to step backwards, his haunches meeting the ground roughly. Sitting there, shivering both from the cold and recent revelations, Nicolas tried to calm himself, attempting to rationalize with his own mind. 'It's not as bad as you think...' Nicolas slammed a hoof against his head painfully, forgetting that he had this hard new appendage opposed to his hands, as his brain seemed to stab itself upon trying to think of his name again. 'This is all too weird; there's no way any of this is possible, is there? I can't believe that it's a dream; it feels too real. But is there any other explanation for something like this?' He closed his eyes tightly and thought to himself for a moment, trying to remember the last thing he was doing before this happened, but everything was hazy, like his memories were a place and he was stuck in the middle of a thick fog, alone and without a light. to show him the way. His breath was still coming in short, uneven bursts, but he could feel his heart begin to calm a bit within his chest. Standing back up awkwardly and slowly, he finally began to take notice of his surroundings. He was in the shade of a nearby tree, but the grass around him was shining brilliantly in the sunlight, and he noticed several bodies all lying around nearby. They were horses, too. This was some kind of sick, experimental test chamber or something, and they were all someone's subjects in whatever twisted research was underway. That had to be it. Looking carefully at the other horses, most sleeping, but a few stirring and seeming to be communicating with each other, he took note of a few odd things. They were of a plethora of colors, ranging from green to blue and even to an almost normal looking tan coat, and they appeared to have some kind of misshapen faces, with their snouts being significantly shorter than that of any horse he had ever seen. Some of them also appeared to have horns or wings; more freakish research material, no doubt. He shook his head, feeling sorry for everyone here. It's likely that the ones with wings and horns went through the most terrible of procedures, and he wondered if whoever was behind this would remove them at some point. My, that would likely hurt, and he cringed just at the idea. Continuing to look around for a bit and notice the other ponies, Nicolas became lost in thoughts of conspiracies and irrational rationalizations.

So, everyone, Nico is returning to the forums! Rejoice if any care is given, or dismiss this with your callous disregard if so suits you, jerkface. No, no, I kid. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Nico, best known for being one of the forum's previous go-to artists as well as a moderator who stepped down for a while due to, well, a lot of stuff. I don't bite, I promise, and I hope that getting back into this community will find me lots of new friends! For those who do know me: "Hello again! Fancy seeing you again!" I'll be making my triumphant return to the forums to do... well, not much differently than I did before. So, for anyone who knows that I resigned from making banners, yes, I will be making new ones. That doesn't mean they'll be up there all the time, though! I love seeing the community's work up there! I don't really know much else to say, honestly. Just thought I'd let you all know that I'm back!

Gratzi for the... Railroad simulation thingy... Yeah, thanks, Zoop! :3 Hey, does anyone want Dragon Age: Origins with all of its DLC?

You've been commenting on my stuff a lot today, so I've seen you a lot since returning. 6/10, since I didn't know you before I left.