Thursday, December 30, 2010

Computer problems...

My laptop has been acting up, it refused to start for a few days, giving me a checksum error and not going past the first few scenes of the windows startup.

I was about to reinstall windows today, turned it on and it gave me a new scene, Windows recovery manager or something similar. I had tried System Restore before, but this time it appeared to work.

So I am back on my laptop now, but rather sceptical...this problem has been going on for a few months, at varying levels of regularity..It might need to go into the shop to see if anything is still wrong.

So if you see a lack of updates or my presence online, it will most likely be due to my laptop having exploded or something.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Now Playing - "Sticky White Stuff"


Merry Christmas people! Hopefully you had a good time so far...the year can really fly past at times. We've had lots of snow the past few days...what did you think I meant by the title? ;D Actually, its also a rather ridiculously named item from Demon's Souls.

I played a little bit more of one of my less played characters on Demon's Souls actually, one I am aiming to turn into a medium-heavy armoured melee build if I put more time into it. Some things are a lot harder with a melee class, but I think I'll appreciate the tanking abilities compared to my rather fragile Mage that I beat the game with last time.

Golden Sun (GBA) - Monday: got to Imil, icy town up north next to the Mercury lighthouse~how relevant for this time of year, the whole place here is iced up =p. Tuesday: didn't get to do much cos we went out at night again, Wednesday: after playing some Blazblue, played a couple more hours, getting through Imil Mines and Peak, and on to the stupid ass desert (I hate deserts in games...omfg, check out the original Crystal Chronicles for a bastard of an example) So anyway, I've got past the desert and done a bit more in the past few days, this game has a pretty good pacing, even if it is a bit too easy, it moves really fast. I'm around 10 hrs in and probably a little over halfway through. Did someone turn on Easy modo?! Next few days after that I blazed through right to the end. So at the moment I'm at the point where I can either go to the final stage of the game or go to the optional dungeon Crossbone Isle to get some more levels, gear and the final Djinn that I need for 100% completion. I'm definitely going to do Crossbone Isle before I go onto the next game, I'm just not sure when I'm going to do it.

Blazblue: Continuum Shift (PS3) - I played a little bit here and there of Blazblue after it finally arrived, but I've been a little bit dissapointed on quite a few aspects of this game. Maybe it was just the whole mess with Royal Mail's delivery failing across the country due to the weather and me having to wait a lot longer than normal for it. It was nearly to the point where I was going to try and get compensation for it not arriving. Anyway, once it arrived I tried it out and was dissapointed that they had really nerfed Rachel, my favourite character. Her moves have been decreased in damage and given some extra cooldown time in places, as far as I can tell. So I've been through the arcade mode with Noel (I got right to the end boss with Rachel and could not beat it... T_T) and the first Story mode section with Ragna. And I've played some multiplayer stuff online and with my friends but the game hasn't quite hooked me as the first game did. Perhaps I just need to give it some more time...There are too many games piling up for me at the moment though...

I got an Ipod Touch for Christmas so I've been buying a whole bunch of apps, including Chaos Rings, Infinite Blade, Plants vs Zombies, Robot Unicorn Attack (and the Heavy Metal edition) and Altered Beast. There are a LOT of awesome games on the IOS. "RISE FROM YOUR GWAVE!!"

So this coming week I'm probably gonna be trying to finish off Golden Sun, start up Castlevania: LoS or some other stuff. I'll be buying a few more games probably tomorrow actually..I don't know why..I have some tokens to spend on the PSN and in some Game stores, so thats my excuse =p

Hopefully you people have been having a good Christmas and holiday period! =D

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

DQVI announcement!



We finally have news about the next DS Dragon Quest game, which will be the last in the Zenithian trilogy-Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. I slightly preferred Realms of Reverie, but oh well, I would give a limb for this game regardless of what they called it. It will be brought over to America in February. No word yet of a PAL release, but it will happen. =D

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2010/122010b.html

http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/XM1D8PkRypvs3R75WXj39OfbjMoMQEnD

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Now Playing - "Whadya buyin stranger?"


Woohooo! I've finished my exams for the semester, so I'm off uni until the 17th of January. Once I get my Christmas shopping done for all the presents I need (I've still not started), I'll be more or less free to do whatever I want for a while. Time to get in some decent gaming and relax! hehe...=p

Anyway, I've been playing little bits of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) but I think I've hit another wall so to speak. I'm more or less done for the village quests of 6 star level, but one of the required ones for the next urgent is rather hard. Specifically, its the quest in which you have to take out a Diablos and a Black Diablos. My friend who is playing through at the same time is actually stuck on the exact same quest.. I think 50 minutes is quite a tight time limit to have as these particular monsters spend a lot of it's time underground, where, unless you have Sonic Bombs, you can't do anything to them. Anyway, I put it down shortly after I realised how ridiculous this quest is. I'll go back to it in a few weeks or so...

Dragon Warrior Monsters (GB) I've been slowly getting through some more of this game, I now have a Metaly. I'd initially intended to at least breed this to a Metabble or higher, but I forgot just how slowly these metal slimes level up...it will take a long time to get it to learn the skills I need it to get first, so I might just leave it as it is. Its proving an absolute life saver, as it can usually outlast anything its come up against. So far it hasn't died once. So in stupid cases where I come up against Mimics or other insta-kill spell Defeat using monsters, the Metaly is immune (to more or less all magic as well), so it will survive. I've been able to get through multiple floors of dungeons just with it carrying me, until I get to a point where I can get healed or buy revival items for the rest of the team.

So I have at least one definitely strong monster which I will bring to the end game stages, the others ones, I'm not too sure what I want to do with them. I think I'm 3/4 or 4/5s through the game now, not too sure. I'll no doubt play some more of this game this week. Might try and blast through the rest of it.

Mostly Bayonetta (PS3) that I've been playing this week though. I finished it up today after doing the last few chapters. So my thoughts on a game that I had heard a massive amount of hype, then praise for? Well, it definitely does deserve a lot of the good criticism that it gets: its a very slick, stylish action game in the vein of Devil May Cry and other stuff I don't really play. Based on this experience, I am slightly interested in trying out some similar games. The gameplay really shines, it has a lot of variety in it, which definitely makes up for any repetitiveness that the reusing of enemies and attacks brings to the game. There are driving scenes, reaction commands, minigames and lots of other stuff which keeps the game interesting. Some of the action scenes and enemies in this game are downright amazing. Storyboarding and creating this game must have been a crazy experience-they definitely had some inspired people on the team.

So now that I've finished Bayonetta, I'll either pick up a ps2 game, or Oblivion or Disgaea 3 next. Hopefully Blazblue arrives some time soon, as I have no way to prove it if its actually been lost in the post. Amazon's super saver delivery has no way to track it as far as I can tell.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Rehaul of the blog

Blog redesigned-changed it to a lighter theme and a template behind it. Looks slightly cleaner and more professional. Only thing is, things seem more crunched together into the centre.

Let me know what you think on here, or wherever you see me.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Now Playing - "And now this cat is going to barf on me."


In my quest to find something actually fun to play, I've gone into a bit of an RPG-ADD phase this week, playing way too many different games in little bursts.

I tried to progress in the postgame stuff in Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) and did some more grottoes to get more maps, but it really feels like I'm not making a dent. Although fun, I think it will take a lot more time to make any sort of progress into the postgame quests and grottoes. I did realise that you get a map every time you clear one, even if you've already done it. Why did no-one tell me this? To be honest, the multiplayer and postgame stuff is quite poorly understood to many. They might play DQIX and finish the story, and might not necessarily enjoy it that much, but if you put a fair bit of time into unlocking quests, jobs and getting items, it really starts to feel like more of an interesting game, at least to me. The multiplayer game is a lot of fun as well, but sadly a lot of people won't experience it. Online multiplayer would have been so good in this game. Hopefully they will work it into one of their future games somehow...but then again we all know about Nintendo and their submarine launch codes Friend codes and love of all things internet...

I played a bit more of Golden Sun (GBA), not much, but got a few dungeons in, to the first place with major puzzles, Kojima forest. I remember the layout of this bit of the story annoying me. You don't have a town nearby where you can buy healing items or rest because everyone is turned to goddamn trees. So when one of my dudes fell in battle halfway through the tree, I remembered being annoyed at the same bit. Plus I really hate some of the damn puzzles in this game...Anyway, I've got like 4 or so of the Djinn, and I'm liking playing through again, even though its not quite got the same magic for me as it originally did. If I can play through this one without my data deleting itself again (-_-) and play through the 2nd game, I'll pick up Dark Dawn...I've been looking forward to it for ages.

Bayonetta (PS3) Man, this game is awesome, I've got a bit further now-up to chapter 9 I think. Some battles are giving me some problems, like those 3 bayonetta clone-esque things which can somehow resurrect each other. I finally got past that though, enjoying most of what I've been seeing. Its hilarious at times this game, but in places frustrating. Like the obligatory platforming sections...I hate platforming. Anyway, progressing through nicely.

I heard good things about Costume quest, which came out around Halloween I think, so I tried the Costume Quest [demo] on PS3. I had even heard it described as a turn based RPG, and was slightly confused. It hadn't looked anything like that in screens and other stuff I had seen on the game. I guess you could describe it that way, but it is quite a strange, unusual game, with a quirky style to it. I can't really say too much about it, but if you like things told from a childish point of view, you might like this game. Its not really for me, but it is cheap to pick up on the XBLA and PSN if you are.

Hah, I also got back into Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP), so you guys aren't off the hook yet, I'll be talking about this game for another couple hundred hours hehe....so I beat the Tigrex urgent quest to unlock 5 star quests after a while of trying. It seems it wasn't as hard as I first thought once I knew the attacks it would through at me. Some of them are very easy to avoid, like in most cases, the charge attack. Keeping your health high and weapons sharp is really important, and not attacking more than is sensible in each window of opportunity. Traps are another way that are quite a few people online do things against Tigrex, especially if you are going for fast kills. My stingy nature though meant I didn't want to waste too many materials to make the traps, so I just took along a few barrel traps for some extra damage. It is quite hard to hit it with them though, as it moves around quite a lot, plus the boulder toss attack can destroy the barrels if at the right range.

So anyway, I'm now up to a lv10 Blango set of armour, and I have my Rathian as an alternative. Its upgraded to lv6. I've also been making some progress on weapons, with some Rarity 5's made now-I've got Flame Syphos and Kirin Bolt Indora sword and shields, and enough money and components to make the Tigrex SnS, the Rex Talon. I'm not entirely sure if I will bother with it though, it has less attack than some of my others, also it doesn't have an Element, which could be a good thing or a bad thing.  I managed to blaze through the 5 star quests in a day or two, quickly unlocking the next urgent quest, Rathian and Rathalos at the same time. Instead of trying to press on though, I've been working on clearing up the rest of the 5 star quests. I've just got one left to do, the Lunastra. I've not tried it yet, so I'm not sure what it will be like. I'll either keep trying to do it, or try and beat the next Urgent and progress onwards.

Saturday and Sunday, its been mostly Dragon Warrior Monsters (GB) that I've been playing, and I've actually made some progress! I was stuck on the Skydragon boss in the Wisdom world for ages now, in fact that is what made me put the game down. I just couldn't survive for very long against it-the damage per turn was too high. So I bred some stronger monsters, working on getting my Healslime the Healus ability, and a strong dragon type or two to resist its fire attacks. So when I tried it again today, I pwned it good. Increase a couple times to buff the team's defense, Healus roughly each turn to keep HP at max, Sicklick to make it's defense drop and shiver for a turn, all the while, Twinhits buffing atk and Yellhelp for ridiculous damage on his surprised ass. 

So it looks like I'm making progress now and starting to enjoy this game more. I really like the 2nd game and I'm hoping I can get into this one as much as I did for the sequel.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Goddamn, its freezing...

The other day, our Combi boiler broke down, which means we have no central heating or hot water from the taps. So its pretty damn cold here, seriously, the other day I had about 3 or 4 layers of clothes on, 2 scarves and a pair of gloves and my feet were still numb.

Anyway, the repairmen came up and fixed it, so we had heating for a night and a bit..but the same problem came up again now, so it is back to the cold until at least Monday, when someone will be able to come out and fix it again. Something seems crappy about this company, the boiler, or maybe the repair people's job...

At least the weather is getting a bit more mild, and the snow is melting away...somehow its still very cold inside though.

To be honest, I don't wanna sound moany-I prefer being too cold rather than too hot, but its no fun having numb hands, makes killing monsters in MHFU harder =p

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Now Playing - "Shine Get!"


Man, I really need to put more effort into posting more regularly on here, its really started drying up. I've tried to not let it go completely to shit, but uni work has really been taking the majority of my time, so I don't have much time to play games, and as a result, not much to talk about on here, especially in my Now Playing posts I do every week. Anyway, I'll try and work on that and put in some time when I can. This week on Sunday (when I normally try to post these), I played a few other games for limited time each, for a few reasons: to see what I might play next, for something other than MHFU to talk about here, but mostly just for fun and a break. When gaming starts to grow old, or anything resembling a chore, its time for something to change in my opinion.

Bayonetta (PS3) This game is FUN! It can also be pretty tough, some of the bosses. I was stuck on the one at the end of Chapter 2 for a while mainly because of the camera angle being so close to the action, so it really doesn't give you a lot of time to react. So to beat it, you really need to pay attention to what the boss is doing. The only bad thing is that the camera shakes around a lot, and the boss moves all over the place, so sometimes I had no idea where I was and if I was safe or not. Anyway, I'm really liking the game so far, its so quirky and stylish. For me, not much of an action game fan, I'm quite intrigued by this game, and if I manage to finish it and enjoy it, I'll probably track down some of the Devil May Cry games. Plus I just remembered I need to pick up the God of War collection for the PS3. Thats why I traded in God of War I on the PS2 at least.. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing more of Bayonetta in the next few weeks, if I can find some time in between revision for my final exams this semester.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) Again, what I've been playing most of the week. I don't think I've made much progress since last week, but I'm not sure. I now have a few more sets of armour, the full Rathian and Ceanataur, which along with my Basarios, don't think I will use much. Maybe the Rathian if I upgrade it, as I like the Health+30 ability. But what I've been concentrating on is my Blango mail set. It is up to lv10 now, and I got 5 Warmbreeze jewels to add an extra ability, Cold Resistance [Hi] so it means I am immune to all cold environments, rather cool, and I hope it will help me against the Tigrex, which is the boss I am stuck on. If I beat it, I will have done all the quests from 1 star to 4 star, and unlock the next level of Elder's quests, 5*. 

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)  I don't think I'm ever going to finish this or MHFU if I don't concentrate on one or the other for a while, they are just such deep games...they really require a lot of time (something which I don't have a lot of right now) to get through. Anyway, I put a bit more time into exploring the 4th sector, Delphinus, trying to get new demons recruited, as I slightly screwed up my team. I was really keen on getting some demons that knew stat boost spells, so I ended up with like 3 or so of them which are only really good at stat boosting. So I need some that I can use to kill enemies efficiently, with skills like Maragi, Mazio, and the other elemental spells that are really useful in these games. Right now, I have some holes in my team, so I'm working on that and the early stages of Delphinus.

Dragon Warrior Monsters (GBC) I tried a bit more of this today and man, the difficulty really spikes on some of the bosses. I'm probably going to need to breed another team for this one I'm on currently. Either that or grind massively...each turn the Skydragon boss in the Wisdom world pwns with Fire damage across the team every turn, so I'm likely going to need monsters resistant to fire to even stand a chance. Don't think I'll play much more of this any time soon. Even though I find it fun for the most part, the bosses really annoy the hell out of me, and I don't really like the way the worlds are done, they really improved things in the 2nd game.

OMG..the snow is causing all kinds of trouble here. I was stuck on the train for half hour this evening after my geometrical optics revision lecture (which went on from 2-after 7:30, I left early). But to be honest, I got off lightly, there are 5 hour delays on the M8, no buses running in Edinburgh, few taxis, and reduced buses in Glasgow...

I have 3 exams remaining and I seriously hope I can get in on time...I've got a few backup plans ready though.

POKAYMON!

Man this is full of awesomeness, me and some others at uni were talking about Pokemon the other day and looked this up and started singing along in the library.

Brings back memories, for sure! XD

Gorubi, Gorubi!

Saturday, December 4, 2010