Sunday, November 9, 2008
Halo 3
In my continuing effort to clear the campaign on Legendary with my co-op buddy, DMoTsunami, we tackled another level tonight, The Covenant. Overall this felt like a fairly short level, but let me tell you, it was quite satisfying pummeling the Scarabs with my Scorpion tank from afar while DMoTsunami kept them busy in his hornet. I managed to down one from a well placed cannon shot. Then the rest was just typical run and gun through the level to the end and then back out again.

We tried to jump through the rings for the IWHBYD skull and I think we messed it up so we would have to do the whole thing over again, but didn’t realize. So we restarted from the last checkpoint which I think compounded the problem even more so. All in all, I think I wasted about 45 minutes of our time trying to get the skull before we gave up. I’ll do it later, although I heard that DMoTsunami went back and started the level from the mission start on Normal and got it for himself.

Bastard.

Q.E.D.

Oh boy this is late. This was a tough week to keep up on entries.
Now, on with it…

Monday, October 20, 2008
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan 2 DUO
I’m not going to say very much about this right now as this is a game I will bring up during my XABY Radio podcast and discuss at length. I will say that it took quite a while to really get anywhere in the game, so it’s a slow starter. If you’ve picked this up, “give it a while” I suppose is the best advice.

Thursday, October 23, 2008
Portal: Still Alive
This was my Unidentified Secret Game A from the week of August 24 and boy does it still kick ass. I’m pacing myself a little as it’s really tempting to blow through it and then blow through all the challenges. Not that it would be excessively short for me–I got stuck several times for a couple hours in two different levels in the retail Portal–but more that I want to savor the experience. So far, this sort of expansion has maintained the magic of the original. To be fair I haven’t really noticed if there was the same sort of hype and it seems like it’s a little bit on the lacking side. It could be due to a digital download versus a retail copy, but it’s most likely that there doesn’t seem to really be a storyline which is what engendered everyone so much to the original.

Call of Duty: World at War beta
It’s very intriguing that I keep coming back to play this and I think I’ve either come close to or surpassed my multiplayer time in this beta when compared to the full retail release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s even more curious to me considering that the multiplayer gameplay between the two games do not differ all that much at the foundation. I’ve found that this game so far has really been a struggle to survive long enough for a recon plane, much less calling in an artillery strike or the dogs. People around me do it, but I haven’t a clue how they can. For me (and some others) this multiplayer beta is “spawn-shoot-die-spawn-kill-shoot-die-spawn-shoot-explosion-die” or something approximating that.

I also played some Team Deathmatch on hardcore tonight and this was my first time with this type of playlist. I’m sure most of you know, but this is the game type that is basically boils down to Team Deathmatch without a HUD or radar. For me, this was almost frustratingly difficult to be fun for me as a gametype, but I can definitely see the appeal.

Regardless, I already know that I’ll be picking this title up to add to my holiday backlog.

My Japanese Coach
I picked this up in hopes that maybe, somewhere along the line, it’s going to help someone like me who knows one step above nothing learn some useful Japanese language and reading skills. I’m not expecting to get much out of this rather than a foundation that I can build off of via professional instruction, classes or textbooks. My Japanese Coach has been in the center of some minor polarized debates on message boards and on a mailing list I am on. There’s no doubt that this game isn’t for those people who are well-versed in the language already–as evidenced by the ceiling on how far into the lessons the non-game will let you start at (lesson 11) after taking their “placement test.” Others have criticized the game for using romaji at the beginning rather than throwing everyone into learning kana from the outset. I can see the reasoning behind that approach and it’s pretty solid, but as long as the software progresses from romaji and doesn’t let you return to it as a crutch, I think it can be overlooked.

I did the first few lessons, even though the placement test put me into the third lesson (colors). The use of romaji is somewhat ridiculous during some of the early lessons. A prime example occurs when the software asks you to match an english word to the Japanese equivalent and you get a word like “samurai” or “anime” which is spelled identically in English and romaji. I’ve only advanced as far as the colors, but already some interesting concepts to Japanese grammar are coming up and I’m really enjoying discovering the challenge of these new concepts.

Friday, October 24, 2008
Call of Duty: World at War beta
I hopped back on for a few more quick games just to increase my rank. I am sort of reaching a little bit of my limit with the multiplayer game at the moment. Not because I don’t want to increase in rank and not because I don’t want to have fun. More than anything it’s just a case of “I should wait for the retail game to come out.” Regardless, this beta has easily replaced anything else on my gaming shelf as the first choice for a quick pick-up-and-play session. I can attribute a good portion of that to the fact that it lives under my “Games Library” section as a digital download, because I don’t perceive Call of Duty: Modern Warfare the same way, even though the multiplayer was just as fun and addictive. I sound supremely lazy, but the effort required to replace the disc for a 10 minute session of neutralizing my adversaries seems too much. That just sounds ridiculous though, so I should just deal with it.

Saturday, October 25, 2008
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan 2 DUO
FINALLY. I was able to touch a witch. After continuing frustrations, again all of which will be detailed in an upcoming podcast, the opportunity to subdue a witch presented itself. After a brief and currently too easy magic fighting mini-game, I was brought to the witch mark investigation screen. Well, that was definitely an interesting experience but not without it’s difficulties. I labored to find the witch mark, but that finally happened.

Now I’m back into investigating about the next suspected witch–a rather matronly looking girl with a lion. Wait, what? Yes, a girl with a lion for a pet at a middle school. Oh my.

Q.E.D.

Tales of Vesperia
Grand Theft Auto IV
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Just Cause
Alone in the Dark
Too Human
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
Operation Darkness
Lost Odyssey
Diablo
Diablo II
Bully
Ninja Gaiden II
Culdcept Saga
Devil May Cry 4
Assassin’s Creed
Army of Two
The Club
Beautiful Katamari
Resistance: Fall of Man
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds
Blue Dragon
Enchanted Arms
Eternal Sonata
Oblivion
The Orange Box
Braid
Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Siren: Blood Curse
The Last Guy
PixelJunk eden
Castle Crashers
Okami
Manhunt 2
No More Heroes
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Shadow of the Colossus
Yakuza
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
The Red Star
Persona 3: FES
God of War
God of War II
Patapon
The World Ends with You
Bangai-O Spirits
Contact
Trauma Center: New Blood
Fallout
Fallout 2
Sins of a Solar Empire
The Witcher
Spore
God Hand
Killer 7

Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Castle Crashers
I’ve been waiting to play this since I put my hands on what amounts to be the first level way back at GDC 2007 when Castle Crashers was part of the Independent Games Festival (IGF). So far I only played through to the end of the first level again, but this was the first time doing it solo. What is it lately about my attraction to the retro 8-bit aesthetic? I even really, really like nu-retro like what Pac-Man: Championship Edition or Galaga Legions were designed to look like. So of course, that means I’m instantly in love with the retro name-selection screen used as the game credits sequence. That’s not to say I don’t like Dan Paladin’s art design in the game, because I do as well. God, I love Golden Axe so much and this is just like that so far, but better — upgradable items and a multi-path overworld map? Awesome. Although that means this game really won’t shine until you can play it co-op. The one game I was invited to disconnected–which seems to be a well-known issue–and I don’t have any local options right this minute to round out players 2 – 4. I stopped after beating the boss of the first level, which was an easier task than I imagined it would be. As I stopped for the night, I’m left with a nail-biting choice: the dock or the forest entrance…

Unidentified Secret Game A
This wasn’t a game from where I work, but I can’t talk about it. More fun than I expected however and I haven’t played this series of games before, much to the chagrin of some industry friends. I will revisit this one again, but it’s not a high priority at the moment.

Unidentified Secret Game B
Yup, can’t talk about this one either. I wanted to just “try it out for a minute.” Ha! Fate had more diabolical designs in mind and some unseen force compelled me to continue playing until i was a third of the way through.

I have but two words, my friends: frothing demand.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Today begins my restart of Grand Theft Auto IV. I got motivated again because I’ve been thinking a lot about movie trailers, game trailers and the similarity between GTA IV’s debut trailer and Koyaanisqatsi–read the comment responses in this post by Jenn Frank for some insightful discussion.

The first time through I couldn’t get Michelle to go on a date with me again for any reason. I found out that this was weird when talking to some friends, because they had no problems having her like pretty much anything you did with her on a date. I wasn’t happy I struck out, not to mention I think I missed a mission when I accidentally jumped out of a moving car on the phone. So now I’m right back at the very beginning, listening to Roman talk about American titties over and over again. At least I hadn’t made it very far that pretty soon I’ll be back to parts of the story I haven’t encountered yet.

Thursday, August 28, 2008
[Struggled with some massive self-inflicted PC issues tonight, which cut into my gaming time.]

Grand Theft Auto IV
Banged out a few missions today but still not back to where I was before I restarted. I’m back to where I can take my first mission from Vlad, but I haven’t done that yet. I realized I need to relearn which cars are the “good” cars to jack since it’s been so long since I last played it. Turned off the radio in all the cars tonight, for some reason I’m not longer thrilled with that and just want to hear the sounds of the city. I’m starting to get impatient to start making new progress.

Friday, August 29, 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV
Took time to make some more progress. Got my second date with Michelle and she liked it and me afterwards. Progress! How much are lapdances at the strip bar anyway? I walked in with $230 and I still had the bouncers come after me after I accepted all the offers to continue. This time I beat up the two bouncers and made a run for it, somehow retaining all of my money. Score +1 for having no morals whatsoever. I’m still about two missions behind from where I used to be, but I’m almost there. Then the fun starts again.

Q.E.D.

Sunday, August 17, 2008
Lord of the Rings Online
Over the course of the day I managed to put in a few hours in LOTRO. I hit level 21 with my Lore-master doing quests, which included my first Fellowship party with one other person as we decimated Elite spiders in Minas Eriol for a quest. I think I saw my first Fellowship maneuver opportunity, but I wasn’t sure because I’ve never seen one. If it was, I totally wasted whatever it was I could do for epic win. I also have managed to accumulate over 1 gold in this time. After that I started doing low-level quests in Buckland and The Shire to hit 22 because everything else I have flagged is either to high of a level or requires a Fellowship to complete. It is nice that I can walk past a ton of level 10 mobs, right up to the item I have to retrieve as part of my quest, get it and walk right back out without a fight. With only about 9k XP left, I’ll probably hit 22 this week so I can spend some of my silver getting new Lore-master skills. Am I a nerd yet?

Monday, August 18, 2008
Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Finally got a chance to try this out this week. I realized I had my NES copy of the game, but since my NES isn’t hooked up at the moment, I didn’t get any practice in before BC:R was released last week. I remember I used to be so smooth with swinging around with the bionic arm and getting through levels. I am definitely rusty. Most definitely. I defeated the first boss on my third try, that’s how sad it was. 16 minutes just to clear the level.

Lord of the Rings Online
More LOTRO. What I have become. Continued the easier quests to hit level 22 until I got greedy with a quest that required a Fellowship around level 18. Deep in the Old Forest, after a bunch of spiders, there was a big nasty Elite Haunted Barren-oak tree, with some bad tree root friends. I managed to get it down to about 24% before I died. The thing is, I was stupid. I only had one add that I could have kept indefinitely stunned or I could have kited the tree away a bit and maybe, just maybe I could have outlasted the Elite tree. Not going back to this until I am a higher level. Or with a Fellowship. Quit the session with 1.2k before level 21. All these low level quests are less than 200 XP each, so it’s slow going.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Lord of the Rings Online
Yes, more, more, more. Soon I’ll be treated for OCD. Or be found in an Internet cafe in Korea. Hit level 22 finishing one quest and defeating random things in the Old Forest. Picked up my one new Lore-master skill (Cracked Earth) which I’ve read is useful later on and completed the requirements to get the Apprentice level for Weaponsmith. I have a bunch of recipes for Scholar and Weaponsmith that require Journeyman level. So maybe soon, after some farming. I sold some stacks of crafting components at the auction house. I also gained two new class traits–Healer and Beast-lore. Too bad I only have one more free until level 27. Anyhow, I hit my goal so I can take a break on LOTRO for now. Just occurred to me tonight that I should have been taking screenshots to go with my updates.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Galaga Legions
Wow, this totally kicked my ass. This isn’t quite as tight or brilliant a remix as Pac-Man: Championship Edition was, but this is right up there regardless. The vintage, retro skin is where it’s at. Don’t even bother with the new or “standard” skin. Obviously I’m still struggling getting some of the game mechanics and patterns down so I can get better, but I do like the idea of side-pod guns that can you place in one of four cardinal directions whenever you want, even if they aren’t near you. This makes it feel like there is a rhythm towards clearing some of the stages because of how, where and when waves come at you. I know I’ll never get to the point where I can really maximize bonuses. Definitely going to keep playing this. I want to play more Pac-Man:Championship Edition now too.

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
Shamefully I’ve never played a Ratchet & Clank game, nor have I played the most recent iteration, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Therefore I felt a little dirty playing this episodic “sequel” of sorts–I’ll definitely have to myself the favor of grabbing the full title next week since what little I played so far was pretty fun.

Braid
I went back to Braid after a lengthy hiatus because I felt stuck and couldn’t figure out some of the puzzles. I’m still missing one puzzle piece in World 2 that I’m almost tempted to look up a solution for, but I won’t… yet. I solved the World 4-3 and then immediately got stuck and frustrated with trying to wrap my head around World 4-4 (“The Hunt”) so I gave up. Instead, I took a quick peek at World 5 and I was totally not ready for the shadow mechanics I encountered. Still managed to get a few puzzle pieces off of this one before I called it a night.

The highlight of the session was being completely stuck on World 4-3 thinking I had ruined my playthrough because I rewound too far when it turned out I had solved the puzzle by accident. One could say “eureka!” if one was old, which I am not, so I didn’t.

Q.E.D.

I mentioned this to Nayan, who unfortunately hasn’t had a chance to play Portal yet. Talking a bit more, lead to the following bit of exchange:

• me: max payne is another good one.
• Nayan: Is max an unreliable narrator? there’s a lot of doubt that you see in his dreams
• Nayan: like, in Max Payne 1, you kill yourself after you kill your own family…but i always thought that was a metaphor for essentially killing your family for being married to your job
• me: if only you take it far enough to question whether his dream sequences have affected his judgement in reality.

That was just the start of it. It was nice to read something last night that got me thinking a bit more about some of the games I’ve played with, ones that I especially hadn’t considered from a more critical point of view. Even better was that Nayan’s post generated discussion between me and a few other folks about storytelling in games.

My first purchases were at the Yodobashi Camera store right by Osaka Station and my hotel and included Mother 1 & 2 and Archaic Sealed Heat — which I just found out will likely be released in North America soon. Drat!

I also spotted the ultra nice gametech cases that I had been coveting for quite some time and found a pattern I liked. Somebody import them please!

In my last full day in Tokyo — and in Japan for that matter — dcharlie from NeoGAF was nice enough to take me around to Akihabara for some video game browsing which lead to video game shopping. I didn’t go looking for anything in particular and didn’t even expect to pick anything up. I know, I must have been out of my mind to think that. It all started after spotting a copy of the not-so-great yet limited Club Nintendo copy of “Game & Watch Collection. That reminded me of the Bit Generations series for Game Boy Advance which Nintendo released in 2006. After about 5 stores, we found one that sold five of the seven games at the bargain price of ¥500. I had no luck finding dotstream or Orbital unfortuntely. I’ll have to find a way to complete that collection at some point. We noticed that it does seem like a lot of the stores are starting to pare down their GBA stock quite a bit.

The rest were fairly random purchases during the walking around (Raiden Fighters Aces, OneeChanbara VorteX and a cheap copy of Senko No Ronde Rev. X — which came to the US as WarTech). Sad thing is, I don’t have a Japanese Xbox 360, just figured I would get one eventually. I think…

Flickr user Matthew Johnston has put together a pretty sharp photoset showing key Liberty City landmarks and their real-world versions around New York City. I still haven’t spent much time at all in Grand Theft Auto IV yet but this is great stuff!

Matthew Johnston’s “Sightseeing in Liberty City” photoset