I've added a Blog List gadget to the blog layout now, and will periodically rotate in and out some blogs I think are good reading material. Its in an effort to get to know more people in the blogging community spread some awareness of different blogs I think people should be checking out.
I'll also be a bit more active on various forums and things like Backloggery when I have time to. I think I've had this blog for long enough now to make more of an effort with it. =D
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Recent Purchases #4.5 Photo ver.
As you can see, I like my RPGs...this is why I have such a big backlog
of games. They are really awesome as a genre, but they often require a
significant amount of time to get through and finish. I did a couple of
these posts back a while ago, and this is more in the territory of
youtubers, but thought I'd do a little post with some of the stuff
I've picked up over the past few weeks.
I went back home the other week and ended up getting to see all the stuff that had arrived in the mail for me, some of which was preordered, some of which was traded for, and a couple of these things I got were just from looking round town for games. So I picked up all of this stuff over the past couple months (maybe this is why I don't have much money...)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 and preorder DLC, steelbook and stuff (PS3) - Got these off ebay for a pretty decent price for a game that recently came out. The preorder stuff was selling on ebay for around £10-12, so I got the game and the preorder stuff in the same auction for around £22 including shipping. I think it went unnoticed because the seller worded things a bit weirdly. Good for me I suppose! =D
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PS2)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PS2)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (PS2)
I remember playing through these games back when they first came out and having a lot of fun with them, especially in multiplayer. So, when having a look round one of the second hand electronics shops in the UK, CEX, I found all 3 of them for £5 preowned and decided to give them a shot again =p
La Pucelle: Tactics (PS2) - Got this in a trade along with Tales of the World from a friend in NZ. Thanks very much if you read this! =D I was thinking I'd start collecting the NIS RPGs other than the Disgaea games (which are awesome for the record.)
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP) - I've not heard brilliant things about this game, but I wanted it for my Tales collection, and it looks like a big departure from the Tales formula, so I'm interested to try it out soon.
The Last Story (Wii) - I reckon this has the best cover art to it out of the three Rainfall titles. £38 for this one. Its got some really good reviews since it came out fairly recently. I am a big fan of Mistwalker and Lost Odyssey was one of my favourite games this generation, so hopefully I'll enjoy this. It looks a lot more forward thinking than LO somehow.
Pandora's Tower (Wii) - the third of the Operation Rainfall RPGs to come out in the UK, completing the set. Very happy to finally get all three. The black Wii box for this game and the art are just awesome. Even though it cost me goddamn £36 from Amazon. I suppoooose its cheaper than what PS3/360 titles would retail for at launch.
Hopefully this wasn't too inane or boring to read... I'll try and update some more meaningful content as my exams go on (and I look around desperately for more methods of procrastination.)
Apologies for all the unneccesary pictures I updated the post with. I figured I might as well because I had them on my computer. I might tone down the size of them if it makes the post look stupid and the text harder to find...
I went back home the other week and ended up getting to see all the stuff that had arrived in the mail for me, some of which was preordered, some of which was traded for, and a couple of these things I got were just from looking round town for games. So I picked up all of this stuff over the past couple months (maybe this is why I don't have much money...)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 and preorder DLC, steelbook and stuff (PS3) - Got these off ebay for a pretty decent price for a game that recently came out. The preorder stuff was selling on ebay for around £10-12, so I got the game and the preorder stuff in the same auction for around £22 including shipping. I think it went unnoticed because the seller worded things a bit weirdly. Good for me I suppose! =D
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PS2)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PS2)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (PS2)
I remember playing through these games back when they first came out and having a lot of fun with them, especially in multiplayer. So, when having a look round one of the second hand electronics shops in the UK, CEX, I found all 3 of them for £5 preowned and decided to give them a shot again =p
La Pucelle: Tactics (PS2) - Got this in a trade along with Tales of the World from a friend in NZ. Thanks very much if you read this! =D I was thinking I'd start collecting the NIS RPGs other than the Disgaea games (which are awesome for the record.)
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP) - I've not heard brilliant things about this game, but I wanted it for my Tales collection, and it looks like a big departure from the Tales formula, so I'm interested to try it out soon.
The Last Story (Wii) - I reckon this has the best cover art to it out of the three Rainfall titles. £38 for this one. Its got some really good reviews since it came out fairly recently. I am a big fan of Mistwalker and Lost Odyssey was one of my favourite games this generation, so hopefully I'll enjoy this. It looks a lot more forward thinking than LO somehow.
Pandora's Tower (Wii) - the third of the Operation Rainfall RPGs to come out in the UK, completing the set. Very happy to finally get all three. The black Wii box for this game and the art are just awesome. Even though it cost me goddamn £36 from Amazon. I suppoooose its cheaper than what PS3/360 titles would retail for at launch.
Hopefully this wasn't too inane or boring to read... I'll try and update some more meaningful content as my exams go on (and I look around desperately for more methods of procrastination.)
Some stories and links
Atlus has stated that they will be releasing a 3DS remake of Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. No word of a localised version, but its about as early as is possible. I've not played this one in it's original form, but I bet it will be interesting, SMT is always a good thing =p Link
This one interests me quite a lot, as I've had a "colour-coded loot" craving in recent months, but I haven't been able to satisfy it with any of the games I have (other than Diablo II, but I've played that game so many times anyway.) I still need to pick up Torchlight, but I refuse to for the price they ask on Steam...
Anyway, some more info on the upcoming Heroes of Ruin for the 3DS; Link
Some of Kotaku's 'burning questions' on fantasy worlds in a couple recent western RPGs; Link
A bit of an older story by a couple days, but one that interests me as a PAL gamer, Ghostlight (who have released some nice looking boxsets recently), will be bringing some Shin Megami Tensei over to this side of the pond. Link
I played Devil Survivor when it first came out, and was really impressed with the story. The depth to the combat and extensiveness of the monster compendium is perhaps not as great as some of the other games, but it was really fun. Its an interesting mesh of strategy RPG-esque grid based battles, and standard Shin Megami Tensei weaknesses and resistances, magic and physical attacks.
They are also bringing over Fate/Extra, which I'm still seriously on the fence about even though I've known about it for a while now...It didn't get the greatest of reviews... Link
This one interests me quite a lot, as I've had a "colour-coded loot" craving in recent months, but I haven't been able to satisfy it with any of the games I have (other than Diablo II, but I've played that game so many times anyway.) I still need to pick up Torchlight, but I refuse to for the price they ask on Steam...
Anyway, some more info on the upcoming Heroes of Ruin for the 3DS; Link
Some of Kotaku's 'burning questions' on fantasy worlds in a couple recent western RPGs; Link
A bit of an older story by a couple days, but one that interests me as a PAL gamer, Ghostlight (who have released some nice looking boxsets recently), will be bringing some Shin Megami Tensei over to this side of the pond. Link
I played Devil Survivor when it first came out, and was really impressed with the story. The depth to the combat and extensiveness of the monster compendium is perhaps not as great as some of the other games, but it was really fun. Its an interesting mesh of strategy RPG-esque grid based battles, and standard Shin Megami Tensei weaknesses and resistances, magic and physical attacks.
They are also bringing over Fate/Extra, which I'm still seriously on the fence about even though I've known about it for a while now...It didn't get the greatest of reviews... Link
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The World Ends With You sequel hinted at
Over the past day or two, a couple news sites have picked up on this story. Apparantely Tetsuya Nomura has said a bit too much, but like Joystiq says, its going to be difficult to tell without some more info from the translator. Then again, this is only still in the rumour realm I'd say...But with the Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance TWEWY section (something I never expected in the first place), perhaps this could come true one day. I really don't see how they'd name the sequel if they did bring it out, then again, its Square Enix...recently the games have had some...interesting names.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/21/square-enix-hints-nudges-and-winks-about-the-world-ends-with-yo/
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/04/20/the-world-ends-with-you-sequel-hinted-at-by-series-artist.aspx
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-20-the-world-ends-with-you-follow-up-hinted-at-by-square-enix
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116879-The-World-Ends-With-You-May-Get-a-Sequel
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Some more links and videos
Some more links and videos for your perusal! Some interesting games are on the way it seems. Skullgirls is one I'm interested in, as well as Journey. That last 10 or 15 quid on my PSN account has a lot of options that it could be spent on...might have to put some more money on it.
http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/skullgirls-review
http://kotaku.com/5900794/bioware-developers-discuss-ideas-and-share-concept-art-for-the-hypothetical-next-dragon-age-game
http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/10/bioware-and-dragon-age-at-pax-east/
http://www.3dsbuzz.com/dragon-quest-monsters-3d-trailer-is-over-four-minutes-of-brilliance/
I never expected this Pokemon crossover to leave Japan...then again, Pokemon games sell a lot of copies. I'll probably pick it up as I can never seem to get over my Pokemon obsession. Dragon Quest Monsters 3D was a nice surprise for me as well, there looks to be a lot of content in that, definitely what I'm looking for from my 3DS RPG (which have not been particularly great so far, all one of them?)
http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/skullgirls-review
http://kotaku.com/5900794/bioware-developers-discuss-ideas-and-share-concept-art-for-the-hypothetical-next-dragon-age-game
http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/10/bioware-and-dragon-age-at-pax-east/
http://www.3dsbuzz.com/dragon-quest-monsters-3d-trailer-is-over-four-minutes-of-brilliance/
I never expected this Pokemon crossover to leave Japan...then again, Pokemon games sell a lot of copies. I'll probably pick it up as I can never seem to get over my Pokemon obsession. Dragon Quest Monsters 3D was a nice surprise for me as well, there looks to be a lot of content in that, definitely what I'm looking for from my 3DS RPG (which have not been particularly great so far, all one of them?)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
More articles and news stories
Some Dragon Age news, some good some bad, but some interesting reading;
http://kotaku.com/5894716/bioware-takes-dragon-age-back-to-the-drawing-board
Its not really a surprise that they aren't doing Dragon Age II DLC after chucking it out the door early and working on other games like ME3.
http://kotaku.com/5896021/skyrim-is-the-wrong-place-to-look-for-dragon-age-iii-inspiration
Tales of Graces f and Tales of Xillia have been talked about a lot online. I'm holding out for the Graces f Europe release, which better come out otherwise I'll have to pay a lot more to import it from the states.
Back on the 20th of March the trademark was taken out for Xillia in Europe, and I'm fairly sure I heard it was taken out for America after that. http://gematsu.com/2012/03/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-europe
and indeed, for the US http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/26/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-the-u-s.aspx
which, added to this old story (that I only just found out about), could point to localisation projects for PAL and NTSC regions! http://gematsu.com/2011/09/possible-localization-files-found-in-tales-of-xillia
XSeed announced they will be bringing the stupidly named Unchained Blades Rexx to the US as a digital download for PSP and 3DS. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/28/unchained-blades-coming-to-psp-and-3ds-as-a-digital-download/ I'm hoping this one is good and that it comes out in Europe. I'm still a bit on the fence with it though. I'm a fan of dungeon RPGs, but with different character designers drawing the different characters, it could be a bit...patchwork and all over the place. Then again, there are some quite cool designs in there. Some of the character designs and differences between versions can be seen here; http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/05/unchainblades-rexx-differences-between-psp-and-3ds-appear-to-be-minor/
NIS has announced a whole bunch more games that will be coming out from August onwards;
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/03/30/nis-talks-ps3-rpgs-legasista-mugen-souls-the-witch-and-the-hundred-knights/
http://www.gamesradar.com/nis-america-announces-legasista-mugen-souls-and-witch-and-hundred-knights/
Mugen Souls, Legasista and The Witch and the Hundred Knights are 3 quirky looking RPGs that will be coming out on the PS3, perhaps with some Vita compatibility? (Although thats just speculation on my part.)
And a couple of interesting editorial type articles now;
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2012/03/10/editorial-appreciating-a-medium/
I don't think I've ever heard a good word said about Fox News... *facedesk* I've always claimed that video games are just one way in which art can be conveyed.
http://www.rpgamer.com/editor/2012/040312mc.html?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed
Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 have been talked about a fair bit in the news recently, and for the most part, people seem to have preferred the sequel, even though it isn't without its faults. I'm reserving judgement as I only just got round to finding a good deal and picking it up. Still waiting on that through the post, but I'm interested to try it out even though I didn't entirely enjoy FFXIII.
Dragon Quest X, will it be more like DQIX than anything else? http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9097827
I've preordered all 3 "Operation Rainfall" titles as they became available for PAL regions, and last on that list to come out will be Pandora's Tower within a week or two. Hopefully it sells well and offers something a little different to Wii gamers looking for something a bit more mature than cash-ins and shovel ware. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/339192/previews/pandoras-tower-a-frustrating-swan-song-for-the-wii/
I reckon Xenoblade Chronicles seems to have sold pretty well in American preorders...will Nintendo of America learn from this that JRPGs can sell? http://operationrainfall.com/xenoblade-chronicles-final-pre-order-numbers-from-vgchartz/
The recent post Phantasy Star Online games in the PS series have always intrigued me as I've heard they are very similar to Monster Hunter (is that right?) so perhaps Phantasy Star Online 2 will make me put down money for the series. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/27/new-phantasy-star-online-2-footage-shows-environments-and-battle/
Lastly, does Kingdom Hearts confuse you? Don't worry, you're not the only one. I'm interested to see how convoluted and fucked up they can make KH: DDD... http://www.siliconera.com/2012/04/03/kingdom-hearts-3ds-opening-movie-summaries-the-entire-series-in-four-minutes/
http://kotaku.com/5894716/bioware-takes-dragon-age-back-to-the-drawing-board
Its not really a surprise that they aren't doing Dragon Age II DLC after chucking it out the door early and working on other games like ME3.
http://kotaku.com/5896021/skyrim-is-the-wrong-place-to-look-for-dragon-age-iii-inspiration
Tales of Graces f and Tales of Xillia have been talked about a lot online. I'm holding out for the Graces f Europe release, which better come out otherwise I'll have to pay a lot more to import it from the states.
Back on the 20th of March the trademark was taken out for Xillia in Europe, and I'm fairly sure I heard it was taken out for America after that. http://gematsu.com/2012/03/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-europe
and indeed, for the US http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/26/tales-of-xillia-trademarked-in-the-u-s.aspx
which, added to this old story (that I only just found out about), could point to localisation projects for PAL and NTSC regions! http://gematsu.com/2011/09/possible-localization-files-found-in-tales-of-xillia
XSeed announced they will be bringing the stupidly named Unchained Blades Rexx to the US as a digital download for PSP and 3DS. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/28/unchained-blades-coming-to-psp-and-3ds-as-a-digital-download/ I'm hoping this one is good and that it comes out in Europe. I'm still a bit on the fence with it though. I'm a fan of dungeon RPGs, but with different character designers drawing the different characters, it could be a bit...patchwork and all over the place. Then again, there are some quite cool designs in there. Some of the character designs and differences between versions can be seen here; http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/05/unchainblades-rexx-differences-between-psp-and-3ds-appear-to-be-minor/
NIS has announced a whole bunch more games that will be coming out from August onwards;
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/03/30/nis-talks-ps3-rpgs-legasista-mugen-souls-the-witch-and-the-hundred-knights/
http://www.gamesradar.com/nis-america-announces-legasista-mugen-souls-and-witch-and-hundred-knights/
Mugen Souls, Legasista and The Witch and the Hundred Knights are 3 quirky looking RPGs that will be coming out on the PS3, perhaps with some Vita compatibility? (Although thats just speculation on my part.)
And a couple of interesting editorial type articles now;
http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2012/03/10/editorial-appreciating-a-medium/
I don't think I've ever heard a good word said about Fox News... *facedesk* I've always claimed that video games are just one way in which art can be conveyed.
http://www.rpgamer.com/editor/2012/040312mc.html?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed
Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 have been talked about a fair bit in the news recently, and for the most part, people seem to have preferred the sequel, even though it isn't without its faults. I'm reserving judgement as I only just got round to finding a good deal and picking it up. Still waiting on that through the post, but I'm interested to try it out even though I didn't entirely enjoy FFXIII.
Dragon Quest X, will it be more like DQIX than anything else? http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9097827
I've preordered all 3 "Operation Rainfall" titles as they became available for PAL regions, and last on that list to come out will be Pandora's Tower within a week or two. Hopefully it sells well and offers something a little different to Wii gamers looking for something a bit more mature than cash-ins and shovel ware. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/339192/previews/pandoras-tower-a-frustrating-swan-song-for-the-wii/
I reckon Xenoblade Chronicles seems to have sold pretty well in American preorders...will Nintendo of America learn from this that JRPGs can sell? http://operationrainfall.com/xenoblade-chronicles-final-pre-order-numbers-from-vgchartz/
The recent post Phantasy Star Online games in the PS series have always intrigued me as I've heard they are very similar to Monster Hunter (is that right?) so perhaps Phantasy Star Online 2 will make me put down money for the series. http://www.siliconera.com/2012/03/27/new-phantasy-star-online-2-footage-shows-environments-and-battle/
Lastly, does Kingdom Hearts confuse you? Don't worry, you're not the only one. I'm interested to see how convoluted and fucked up they can make KH: DDD... http://www.siliconera.com/2012/04/03/kingdom-hearts-3ds-opening-movie-summaries-the-entire-series-in-four-minutes/
Wtf is going on?
Last week we had the hottest weather on record for this time of year in Scotland. This week we have snow? 0_o
Anyways...it doesn't really matter, I've got a lot of work to do for uni so I doubt I will be going out unless I have to. Yesterday I had nearly finished a lab report that needed to be handed in by thursday, and I was about to get back to studying for the final exams. What do they do? Throw us a curveball by letting us know a log book needed to be handed in by Thursday as well (as it is the last day of term.) Throughout the semester, we had been told that we didn't really need to hand these in as they weren't assessed unless it was a borderline pass/fail thing, then they might take the clinic log books into account. Now we apparantely have to hand them in with whatever we have in them. This kind of threw my planning off, so I'm headed back into the clinic for (hopefully) the last time this semester to get some readings with some of the tests I didn't fill into my log book...
This course is pretty terribly planned out sometimes...why give us only a few days to sort out our log books? I suppose I shouldn't worry about it too much, they probably won't use most of them in the marking...
Back to finishing up my lab report and studying I suppose =p
Anyways...it doesn't really matter, I've got a lot of work to do for uni so I doubt I will be going out unless I have to. Yesterday I had nearly finished a lab report that needed to be handed in by thursday, and I was about to get back to studying for the final exams. What do they do? Throw us a curveball by letting us know a log book needed to be handed in by Thursday as well (as it is the last day of term.) Throughout the semester, we had been told that we didn't really need to hand these in as they weren't assessed unless it was a borderline pass/fail thing, then they might take the clinic log books into account. Now we apparantely have to hand them in with whatever we have in them. This kind of threw my planning off, so I'm headed back into the clinic for (hopefully) the last time this semester to get some readings with some of the tests I didn't fill into my log book...
This course is pretty terribly planned out sometimes...why give us only a few days to sort out our log books? I suppose I shouldn't worry about it too much, they probably won't use most of them in the marking...
Back to finishing up my lab report and studying I suppose =p
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