Now Playing - “It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.”

Wow, its starting to feel like Christmas almost!(?) I'm one of the least Christmassy people you could ever meet, as I usually focus on whatever coursework I can until my exams before Christmas are done, and then leave around a week or so to try and get my Christmas shopping in and relax. Man, I'm looking forward to a holiday. We even have some deep snow over most of Scotland and the UK from what I've heard. It helps to make it feel more like Christmas...but I just hope it doesn't cause too many problems for transport and stuff. I have some exams before Christmas, one this week in fact, and I want to be able to make it on time on the train.

Mostly Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) I've been playing this week..still addicted to it! I'm not really sure how (if at all) I've been progressing-I've just been working on armour sets and improving my weapons and armour until I can get through the quests I haven't done. I'm currently on the 4 star quests, with 2 more to do I think. I've unlocked the Urgent required to go to 5 star, but its the Tigrex and from what my friend said, that thing sounds hard. So I'm just more or less grinding up some decent gear before I even attempt it.

I've currently got a full set of Blango mail, upgraded to *checks*... lv7. (Wow, I forgot I had upgraded it so far =D) and a variety of Sword and Shield weapons, a few of which are green rarity. Upper Battleaxe and Deadly poison are probably the most powerful ones I have, but I am wanting to improve my Frost Edge+ and some of the others.

I've also been working on some other sets of armour, like the Kut-Ku (I need 1 more Ear), Basarios and Plesioth. This game just drains my time..seriously, it can easily distract me for entire days at a time.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) I finally made a bit more progress in this game this week. I got past the final bit of the 3rd sector, Carina. And now OMG at the story! It's remaining interesting..I just wish the game as a whole could keep me as hooked as the story does.

So if I'm going to be playing much more games this week, it will likely be more Monster Hunter...boring, I know (at least, it will be for some of you.) But I have to say, if you haven't tried the games, at least give Freedom Unite a shot. You can get it for dirt cheap now, and it can keep you occupied for anywhere up to 1000 hrs depending on how much you do.

To make up for my lack of decent Now Playing posts (and in fact, any other content), enjoy this song - one of my favourite tracks off the Freedom Unite OST

Now Playing - “Attack its weak point for massive damage”

Depressing to think that my final exams for the semester are fast approaching. I still found some time to play games, of course! ;D 

For a large chunk of the week and weekend I've been absolutely obsessed with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) Either redoing quests I've done to try and get materials for new armour, or working on the 4 star village quests, I've been playing this game a lot. I'm starting to see that it is getting quite hard in places actually...some of the 4* quests are rather nasty. Kushala Daora (in the picture) hits hard, but I think I have all the gear I need to beat it. I just need a degree of luck...I have a Poison Battleaxe and Blango Gear to cut out the cold status, get some Quake resistance, and hopefully poison it somehow or other to reduce it's wind aura...that thing is annoying when it hits the right angle. What it'll do will be to turn to face me as I attack it, then the wind aura will knock me straight back. If it is quick enough, it will start up an attack which can hit while I am still knocked down from the aura. Such broken mechanics at times in this game....I really need to play a game that is more simple for times of frustration. I am very tempted to pick up Cladun, but then again, I have a couple games that I haven't even put time into, that I got really recently (Bayonetta, Oblivion goty, 4 Warriors of Light.)

Anyway, when Monster Hunter isn't making me shout profanities, it is somehow really addictive...I still can't really pinpoint what it is that makes it so appealing. I mean, it is surprisingly deep for such a simple game on the surface. I've already sunk a huge amount of hours into it and I still don't understand a lot of the gameplay concepts and mechanics in it. Skill Trees for one thing, I'll have to ask my (MH fan) friend at uni about it and some of the other stuff.

I made an account at the Gamerbase in the local HMV near my uni. Basically its got a load of consoles, PCs, tvs etc and a good selection of games to try out. You just need to pay £3/hour, or a bit cheaper during mornings and evenings, and you can try out any of the games they have. A good thing to occupy the odd free period at uni. So me and a few of my friends played some multiplayer stuff for a bit. We played some Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC), Left 4 Dead 2 (PC), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC), Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (360) and one of the Total War games, I forget which one. I was probably most interested in Starcraft 2, as I loved the original game back when I was in school. So it was good to try this game finally. My computer wouldn't be able to run it unfortunately. I built up a fairly good Zerg army, but I didn't actually get round to fighting any of the enemies... =p

They didn't have Black Ops downloaded yet, so we tried some multiplayer games on MW2, and it was the first time I'd played this as well. (Yeah, I'm not much of a CoD fan) I was quite impressed with the responsiveness and sharpness to the graphics running on the PC. If I had the choice, I'd obviously get it for PC. But right now, the only way I could run it would be on PS3 or 360.

What games to buy next?

I'm not finding much time to actually play games at the moment, but that doesn't stop me wanting to buy new games. European gamers are getting some good releases coming out over here, in my eyes at least. There isn't a big difference between the US release and our one over here, in quite a few titles.

I've now got a few titles on my radar, so to speak... Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman, Disgaea Infinite, Cladun: This is an RPG, Call of Duty: Black Ops (but I think I'll pass on this) and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. On this last one, I'm intrigued by the multiplayer, but I really think I should play the 2nd game before I try it.

Disgaea Infinite is a visual novel, and apparantely pretty short, but I will pick it up at some point when it is cheap.

We've got a few on the way as well; Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Blazblue: Continuum Shift (they have an annoying habit of pushing it back many times). I'm also thinking about Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, if I manage to finish the quests in the Freedom Unite before the release some time next year. The trailers look rather awesome. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is pretty much a must buy for me as well, although I might have to play through the 2nd game at least again before I play the new one. So, some good titles on my radar, might get some for Christmas hopefully =3 Way off in the distance most likely is Disgaea 4. I'm a big fan of the first 2 Disgaea games, and still haven't round to the 3rd, but I will. 

I already preordered Hyperdimension Neptunia on a whim. I hope I don't regret it...Other than that, I'm really considering Cladun, even though I've heard mixed things. 

Now Playing - "Use the boost to get through!"

So when I've had a chance to play games this week it has either been stuff on the PSP or the laptop. Only for a few hours at a time really, I was trying to study for my Pharmacology test which we had on Friday. Anyway, Diablo II (PC) has been entertaining me so far. I never really used the ability "x% better chance to find Magic Items" much, but after getting told about its potential from a friend, I decided to try and abuse it as much as possible this time round. So any time I see items with that ability that are remotely decent, I'll equip them and try and kill as many enemies and open as many containers as possible. The results so far have been really good. Much better than I had expected. Normally, in my other playthroughs, I'd only have 2 or 3 set items at most by the time I got roughly half way/3 quarters through Act III. But on my Druid at the moment, I have around 9 or so set items, as well as 2 Unique items (although, annoyingly, I got 2 of the same one...) Add to that a whole bunch of Rare items, gems, and a lot of runes that I only seem to see later on in the game, and I have to say, I'm amazed at the results. I'm considering that it could be down to the latest patch, which I never had before. Perhaps they retweaked some percentage stuff somewhere. Anyway, its a lot of fun, this character. The only thing I am worried about is when I get to the higher difficulties and enemies are immune to elements, for example. I've already had 2 Fire Immune special characters...my Fire Elemental druid doesn't like them..

Neverwinter Nights (PC) Making some very slow progress. I'm still on the first quest you have to do, making my way through hordes of enemies in the Prison district. I really should try and save some money so I can hire another party member, as I'm dying a lot. I'm still not quite drawn into the game, the world or my character as of yet. Hopefully that'll change, as I don't want to have this as one of those games I'll never finish.

I played some more of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) during the week, finally getting past one of the bosses that had me stuck (the damn Khezu.) I think there is something about quite fast paced games that gives me trouble at times. I don't play enough of them and its probably down to my reaction speed or something. Anyway, I'm still liking this game, but not as much as the initial time where I got completely addicted to it. It seems like it could get quite repetitive-they do a lot of reusing maps, pallete swapping, and there are some rather formulaic quest types. Still, its some simple, but rewarding stuff. I love seeing my character progress towards the next armour set or weapon upgrade =D

Bayonetta (PS3) I traded in a few old games I wasn't going to play or finish any time soon to get Bayonetta and Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. I completely forgot about the criticism around this version of the game. I've installed the game and the loading times still seem really long..I don't know if thats something present on both versions but oh well. It looks good enough with the HDMI cable I've got plugged in to my PS3. The action is really good in this game so far, but I think I really suck at it. I kept losing at like the first battle where you have to get 3 Torture attacks in 5 minutes. So I turned it to Easy mode...don't laugh lol.. Anyway, I like what I see of this game from the first half hour or so. I've put it on hold for a while. I don't want to get too far and not have a chance to play it during the week. Might leave it till I have some more free time.

Now Playing - "I will show them the true power of a pervert!"

Sunday again...this semester at uni is starting to pick up pace fast. For the past 4 weeks, we've had 1 class test a week, we've got one this week as well. Then an IT test next monday as well. Its just one of those formality things you need to go through to graduate. Many unis have similar things here I think. Anyway, only a few weeks more till we take a break for Christmas now(after 2 or 3 exams though T_T) Even so, it somehow seems like it was a while since I last posted on here. So here's a little on what I've been playing a few games this week, in varying amounts.

I finished up Half Minute Hero (PSP) earlier in the week. Its a fairly short and sweet game, but some of the modes do drag on a bit. Not necessarily in length, but they just feel a bit simple and bland compared to the Hero mode and Evil Lord mode which had some really quirky dialogue as well as pretty fun gameplay. The first mode, the Hero mode which is based on the RPG genre is probably the most fun and intense, it goes downhill slightly after that, but I still had a lot of fun with the game, especially considering the price I got it at.

I eventually got convinced by a friend to pick up Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) and I've got really addicted to this game. It is really simple but fun and rewarding stuff. Its definitely not for everyone though...its very grindy and perhaps repetitive, depending on how you do things. It also has a really high learning curve, which puts a lot of people off initially. But once I gave it a chance, I'm really enjoying playing it. Its quite cool on co-op as well, it really adds to the fun. I really like just going out and getting the items needed for a new set of armour or weapon. There is something really rewarding about getting there in the end. I still can't find my damn Velocidrome Head for a weapon upgrade. Its a 2% chance at low ranks....Still, its quite fun stuff. 

So far I've done the 1 star quests and have a few more of the 2 star ones to get through. I can see myself putting a lot of time into this. Why can't more games be this addictive? I'm actually stuck now, damn Khezu...I beat it fine when I was co-opping with my friend at uni..but doing it on my own is much harder... -_- 

Didn't touch much more of Diablo II (PC), apart from I raced through the end of Act II with my Elemental Druid. I do a lot of damage, so I kill the enemies easily, but I found surviving for long quite hard. Especially against the Act II boss Duriel, who could trap me with his cold element slowdown and wipe me out in a few hits...I should really buff up my Dex and Vit stats instead of concentrating so much on Magic (I already have around 70 magic at lv23 or so if I remember rightly..)

Haven't had much of a chance to play Neverwinter Nights (PC) yet though, I want to put some more time into it when I get some time. Maybe next week cos I won't have a test late on in the week...I  really need to get back into Strange Journey as well though...I don't wanna put my save game aside for too long, like I did with Digital Devil Saga. 

Other than that, I played little bits here and there of Super Street Fighter IV (360) and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) Only really did multiplayer stuff with my friends at the weekend. Finally got to try out the Arena mode in Birth By Sleep. The racing game is as unimpressive as in the game. Seriously, why no power ups? The battle stuff though is a bit more fun, either co-op or against a friend, you fight each other with a time limit I think (I skipped all the tutorial stuff).