Theatrhythm Curtain Call

What is this gaming funk?!

Since around Christmas I've not really been feeling the games I've been playing. It seems like one of those slump periods where you're just not into playing games that much for whatever reason. I've played bits and bobs of games, but not really concentrated on any particular games. I don't know why that is exactly.. I got really into Inazuma Eleven and finished it's story near the start of the year. Since then I was trying to push ahead with Fire Emblem and finish it off, but for me, I want to play all the way through without any of my characters dying off. So it was taking me like days just to get through each chapter, bit by bit learning which strategies seem to work, modifying them and tweaking my team and tactics each time to finally get through the chapter. I'm on Chapter 26 at the moment, and this one doesn't seem as hard as 25 or 25-X, but its just the pure numbers of guys I'm up against in this chapter that makes it difficult. I really like Fire Emblem, but the frustration that comes from the way I play has slowly killed off my passion to play this game, or any other game. So I've been playing bits of games here and there as I said. And I got pretty into FTL, finishing it finally. I beat the final boss around the 30-32 hr mark, perfecting my build on the Kestrel. There is always a luck aspect to it, and I got my dual weapon set up (those always work well for me, either 2 Ion Cannons or 2 Burst Lasers of some kind) Triple weapon setups are even better. I always try and max out the FTL Drive and get at least 3 bars of shields as well. That will keep you alive for even longer. Its a really good game, FTL. Definitely up there with Binding of Isaac as one of my favourite Steam games.

I've been playing dribbles of games like Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies as a friend at uni recently picked up a copy with the aim of doing some coop with me. We still haven't got round to that (he's never in uni, but thats another story =p) I really like this game, but the postgame has a steep jump to get into. Got all the way to the end of the optional postgame dungeon the Tower of Nod, died...and turned it off. It hasn't been on since then.

I've done some dribs and drabs of the Legend of Grimrock, a game I picked up recently when it went on sale (surprised I could actually run it on my computer) and its been fun, but slow going, as I'm not terribly keen on the always-moving-combat-and-enemies. I'm only about an hour and a half to this game.

Another Steam game I've been playing little bits of is Super Hexagon. Awesome music based game. Such a simple premise, but incredibly addictive. I've finished the first stage and got some pretty good high scores for only having played about 80 minutes. Excellent music, and I love these kind of games for less than 5 min spells, they are always good choices.

I've been getting back into uni slowly, with more and more deadlines and applications for pre-reg work to do piling up, and actually I've been doing more reading than gaming... So I don't really know what this post is about...just a musings I suppose. Its also to kind of inform you why my content has been a bit lacking, and I've not really been concentrating on any games or making much progress through games for the most part. Stay tuned for a recent purchases post soon! Its in the pipeline! =p

Hallowe'en 2012!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! Hopefully you're enjoying it! I've not posted on here in absolutely ages so let me brush some e-cobwebs off the site and do a little blog post once again! I've been quite busy at university, now into my 3rd year of the Optometry degree I'm doing, so its getting more intense now. Getting close to the stage of having real patients in for eye tests...I've also been doing one day a week at work back with Boots Opticians back home. I've been playing the odd game, but not really focussing on any one thing... I've got Durarara that I need to get back into finishing, I got about 5 or 6 episodes in and got a tad sidetracked by other things like podcasts, reading the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (its taken me ages to get through, but its a good series) and the odd bit of gaming.

Ill just quickly run through some of the games I have been playing, and some impressions before I get onto the main idea for the post. Last year I tried to play a couple games with creepy atmospheres or themes (it turns out I don't really have a good selection of horror games)

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS) - I picked this up cheaply and was really impressed with it. I put a fairly large amount of money into the DLC as well...I think I got about 15 or so songs, out of the 50 odd they have available...there is way too much there, at a £1 each. Anyway, the game is really fun, especially when you get to the Dark Notes and can do some multiplayer with friends (they are quite fun single player too actually) I was definitely happy with this game though, a fanboy's dream, even if you aren't the kind of fanatic SE fan who buys all the OSTs. I thought it would have more content, similar to the Dissidia games (forget about 100%ing them, seriously..)

Dark Souls (PS3) - turns out trying to get back into this after ages of not playing is pretty difficult...I wanted the DLC but want to get to the stage where I can actually try it out before I buy it. So I had the option to either continue on with my NG+ playthrough (I'm just finished Blighttown, but even getting out of there is difficult...) or carry on with my save files at the start of the game. One is right at the start just at the first  bonfire in Firelink Shrine and the other is at the Undead Parish. Its bloody difficult to progress without putting in a lot more time than I did though, so I didn't really get far...the DLC can wait unfortunately...I'd wanted to try it immediately =(

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) - Me and a couple friends in uni got back into playing this for the first few weeks of the semester, and picked up from where we left off at the end of High Rank. We worked some of our friends who were further back in the game up towards High Rank, and did quite a few Alatreon quests one of the days (we don't have the quest unlocked, but one of us not at uni does, so when he came up, we could do that quest) and got some of the endgame equipment. Really fun game, but I still think I prefer the content and brutal difficulty of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. I mean, my first time fighting Alatreon went really really smoothly. That kinda shit doesn't happen against Fatalis XD

This year we've decided to have a kind of October Hallowe'en horror movie marathon. Not exactly like a non-stop sort of marathon, but just a selection of good horror/thriller films over the course of today (30th) and tomorrow (31st) as I write this.

Tuesday 30th
Severance
Saw

We watched these ones, me and my girlfriend had seen both of them before but ages ago, and we thought these would be some pretty good starting points. Starting off with Severance, that one is a really weird movie, its got a kind of dark British humour to it, and its got its brutal parts in there. There are some pretty nasty scenes, like the bear trap bit XD you'll know what I mean if you've seen it. Its filmed quite well in places.. we picked up on stuff this time that I hadn't noticed at all first time round. Like the relevance of one of the characters eating cheese just before he went to sleep. Anyway, its a pretty good film if you liked stuff like Dog Soldiers and Shaun of the Dead (kinda british 'zom-com'/horror-comedy type films)
I really liked Saw the first time I saw it (urgh, how to reword that...) It has its good share of twists you just really don't see coming...It started a whole wave of similar uber violent films from what I remember, with stuff like Hostel and Untraceable taking a lot of ideas from the Saw films. I don't really want to get into the whole sequel thing with Saw but...I watched the first few and then fell behind a bit because it seemed like they could only do so much, they all start to blur together when I try to remember them. The first one really has some surprises though, check it out!

Wednesday 31st ~ Hallowe'en
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
Saw II-VI
Shaun of the Dead
Dog Soldiers
Se7en
Paranormal Activity
Beetlejuice

I would normally finish early on Wednesdays, but this week I'm in till 5 I think, so it'll be a small selection of those films above, thats what we're picking from. I've seen a good few of them, so we know some on there are good films =p

A couple more that we don't have immediately but might be able to get before tomorrow evening;
The Alien series
The Thing (although we watched this recently)

If theres time, I might pick up some of these games for a bit;
Limbo (Steam)
Binding of Isaac (Steam)
Plants vs Zombies (IOS)
Persona 3 FES (PS2)
Shadow Hearts (PS2)
Dark Souls (PS3)
They have some pretty interesting dark themes and game worlds, and should be good games to play on Halloween =D I'll post a bit more tomorrow when we've watched some movies and played some games. Totally boring, I know! =p Next year I will make an effort to make a costume and go out for Halloween!
However you're spending it, have fun!

Now Playing - "Big, pointy spears."

Early in the week I was playing some more of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) but not really getting anywhere. I'm still on the start of the High Rank quests, I've unlocked 7 star and done a few of them but I usually end up getting badly violated when I try any of the hunt quests. I've also been trying to get a total of 5 Kut-Ku Ears to go into Psychic Vision Gems for my Kirin set of armour. I've managed to smash enough to get 4/5 so far, but I've put the game down in the last few days, partially out of boredom, partially due to uni and partially down to frustration at the difficulty/my suckiness. I need to get a whole bunch of money to upgrade my armour as High Rank is a bit of a difficulty spike, and one that is slowing my progress down as lot.

I didn't do anymore of MH co-op in uni, as the other guy had got stuck at the same bit I was stuck at for ages, the Four Horns quest where you need to hunt Diablos and Black Diablos. Instead, he had picked up Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) so we played some multiplayer on that. I'm really tempted to start playing it again, as I really enjoyed that game and I've still got absolutely tonnes of grinding and postgame stuff left.

So its more been a week where I've just played games here and there, mostly on my Ipod when I get a chance. I downloaded Angry Birds (Ipod) after a recommendation from a friend. Man, this game is addictive! Really well worth the price of £0.59 I'd say, as you get around 10 worlds to play through. I'm still on the first one (2nd page of levels) and liking how its going so far. Really random and funny puzzle game, I guess you'd call it.

I finished up Infinity Blade (Ipod) finally, after around 6 generations. Annoyingly, I didn't get the achievement as I've still not set up my Ipod to get the internet at my cousin's place where I'm staying at the moment. I'm far from an achievement whore, but its just I don't know if I can actually get that one now, and thats like...the one that proves you've finished the game. I guess its just me being a pedantic ass. Still, I enjoyed the game at times, but I was forced to play it in small chunks of time as the Ipod does heat up quite a bit, and the controls seem to be a little fiddly at times. This leads to some immense frustration when you try and parry an attack when you are wanting to simply block it. This usually leads to painful death. The game has some really nice sharp graphics and textures, and a fair amount of customisability. I liked buying and improving my gear. I still didn't figure out what mastering items did other than giving you +1 into your stats (very useful at times.)

I also picked up Bit. Trip Beat (Ipod) - I had seen some of the Bit. Trip games on a stream and I was kind of interested, but I think it did look quite hard. I think it was Bit. Trip Runner that I had seen, not sure though. There were some really good reviews for this one though, at least on the Ipod and I liked the look of it, so put down the 59p for it. I've tried it once so far and I quite like the way it works. Its a rhythm game where you use a Pong type paddle to return the beats to the other side and progress. Its REALLY trippy. I was playing at night just before I went to sleep and it tired my eyes out really quickly, as I had to focus quite a lot on the game. I quite like stuff that has an interesting twist on rhythm in games, I like Gitaroo Man as it was one of the first I played, and I like stuff like Space Invaders Extreme as well, as the gameplay in that is well integrated and linked with the soundtrack. I think I'll enjoy this one, I've gotten a bit bored of all the generic Guitar Hero type games coming out.

I also tried out Flying Hamster Free (Ipod). One genre I'm wanting to get into more is 2D sideshooters, this one looks quite cute and simple, but I still suck at it. Its far from the awesome but ridiculous difficulty of Ikaruga, but I am quite intrigued by this. Again, the only thing turning me off is the slightly higher than normal price point of the full game. Not sure if I'll grab this one.

I was a big fan of the Space Invaders Extreme games, so I'd wanted to try the newer one that recently came out on a few platforms. I picked up Space Invaders Infinity Gene Lite (Ipod) just because of a few average reviews on IOS and the higher price point for the full game of £2.99. You really don't get a lot in this free version, which was a bit dissapointing. I wasn't hugely impressed with what I'd played either, I think I might pick Infinity Gene up on another platform if I am to buy it some time. To be honest, I think the poor reviews are for the Lite version and not the full version.

It looks a bit like I am turning into a casual gamer :O ! Of course, this'll never be true. I'll play something nice and hardcore this week.