From Software update

I'm a big fan of the Souls games that From Software have released and have been really interested in the recent talk about Dark Souls 2. There is still a lot that is unknown about the game, but yesterday we were treated to a 10-12 min gameplay demo (which was brought to us by IGN exclusively.) So in the run up to that demo airing at 8pm GMT, I was doing some reading and listening to podcasts and videos about the Demons Souls and Dark Souls games. I was browsing the net looking for some information on the imminent Dark Souls II gameplay reveal and found this old sporadic podcast type discussion on Demon Souls and Dark Souls, where some of the Gametrailers folks talk about their experiences with the games, what they are expecting from the new games. The first episode is from the time when Dark Souls was just about to come out, so there is some interesting footage from the review (or early pre-release) version of Dark Souls. Its quite cool to listen in and see what they were discussing and how the final version panned out. Both of the episodes of this fairly unknown, sporadic and specific podcast are embedded below.

Demon Talk

If you've not yet seen it, the link to the gameplay demo of Dark Souls II can be found HERE.There has been more and more news coming out each day it seems. Dark Souls II should be very interesting, but from what I saw of the demo, it doesn't seem to change an awful lot from Dark Souls. When I read the articles in Edge a few months ago (Link, Link) I was expecting a massively different game, but along the same lines as Demons Souls and Dark Souls. I'm not going to lie, I was a little dissapointed with the unpolished, clunky look of the Dark Souls II demo, and the fairly bland, unimaginative monsters in the demo. I'm definitely aware that this is an early version and they will refine things like the character animation. (To me, he just looked odd the way he was walking...It was too fast, too confident and sure of himself... and he didn't look like he was wearing armour.)
Anyway, my minor gripes aside, I'm definitely really into the look of Dark Souls II, and can't wait for some more news.

Recent Purchases #6 ~ Holiday haul

So I've not done one of these posts in a while it seems...the last one was many months ago, in August last year. I wouldn't say I buy a lot of games, compared to some collectors and youtubers I know online, but probably compared to the average dude, I buy quite a fair few. Anyway, this post is a little about some of the games I picked up recently, whether it be presents, games I've bought for myself or whatever. In some of the Recent Purchases, I've talked about the gaming merchandise I've picked up, for example video game artbooks (something I semi-collect outside of games) and at the end of this post I'll talk a little bit about one of the anime I've been watching. I quite like the idea of talking about some non-gaming stuff briefly in these posts. Apologies for the blurry photo...my Blackberry playbook can't take brilliant photos, and then the lighting in my room was really crappy.



Anyway, on with the post! Hopefully it doesn't look like I'm trying to brag about the games I've been picking up! I don't get that many and I know myself I have smaller collections than many others, but what I like to go for are games that I've been really wanting. You won't normally see me pick up copies of Madden 06 or Fifa 99 just because I can get them for 20p, for example. A lot of the games I pick up are titles I've heard very good things about, or are in certain sub-genres that are appealing to me at any one time. For example, sometimes I go through 1st person dungeon crawler RPG kicks, or times where I'm really into focussing on my Strategy RPGs. A good example of a game like this where I've had a massive interest in the game for ages would be Radiant Historia (DS). I live in Europe and unfortunately we never saw a release for this game. It has had such amazing hype and praise from critics for the most part, and only the price had kept me from picking this one up. Importing through Ebay is fairly pricey, with a copy normally running between £30 and 40. So Christmas this year and I tried to pick my brain for games that were in this ballpark...games I'd really wanted to try and were a bit outside my price range. In a toss up between Radiant Historia and Skies of Arcadia, I settled for this one, ordered it and was reimbursed by my parents. Definitely looking forward to playing this really beautiful looking RPG with an interesting looking combat system and story concept. Time travel in RPGs is quite often good-Chrono Trigger anyone? Then again...FFXIII-2 was a bit of a mess..

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PS3) - This one was a bit of a surprise to me. My birthday was back in October and on the last day of term (December) one of my friends gave me this for my birthday. They'd apparently been trying to pick the game up on ebay for a while, with no luck from one seller on two occasions. Maybe it got lost in the post, or maybe he didn't send it. Either way, they ended up getting screwed out of a lot more money than they should have spent on me, for sure. Definitely looking forward to trying this game out. RA Salvatore is one of my favourite fantasy authors that I grew up reading, and he worked on the world design, or script, or some aspect of this game. The only thing that makes me a little wary is some of the design from Todd McFarlane (the Spawn guy) It looks a weird mishmash of styles in this game.

Zone of the Enders HD Collection (PS3) - This, along with Radiant Historia was the other game I had asked for over Christmas, and was really happy that I got it. My uncle had gone to a lot of trouble to get it, as it was really hard to find in shops it turns out :o I missed out on a lot of PS2 games as I never got the console until way afterwards, so in a way, these HD collections are perfect for gamers like me, who want an affordable and sensible way to pick up entire series, or trilogies. I've played the first Zone of the Enders for an hour or two so far, and I actually got stuck by the odd design and lack of direction. I'm at a bit where I need to knock out 2 forcefields, one on either side of something? Its pretty early on, but it kind of put me off because I was just backtracking to find passwords. I'll get back into this once I have access to my PS3 at some point soon. Currently I'm through at uni with only my DS, PSP and PS2.

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (DS) - I played the first Etrian Odyssey a couple years back and it took me a long time of on/off playing to get through, but I really enjoyed it overall. I originally purchased EO1 and EO2 from ebay (we only got the first game released in Europe...damn yous!) and I've really had the urge to play through more 1st person dungeon crawler RPGs recently, so picked up the reprint of the third game when I saw a fairly good price (preorder) on ebay. So this one will hopefully be with me soon. I suppose that means I have to play through Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard first though. Way too many games for my own good...

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (DS) - I picked this one, and Magna Carta 2 (Xbox 360) up recently when I was away up to Perth for a dental appointment (yeah, my Dentist is away up North many miles away from where I stay: see my previous escapade) I was trying to burn some time and thought I'd have a look in Gamestation in Perth. Well...Game and Gamestation (the same company essentially) had some problems last year and had to go into administration, and closed a lot of branches. The Gamestation in Perth was one that had closed apparantely, and I hadn't realised that because I hadn;t been up there in months. So I thought, theres a Game branch over in the shopping centre, and from what I'd seen of the stores that remained open, the majority seemed to be in malls or shopping centre complexes. Well anyway, they were still open so I went in to check out the games they had. Turns out they had a lot of games I'd been after, for fairly cheap (either preowned or in the sale.) Some of the ones I saw that looked interesting were (with some rough prices): Dragon Age: Origins Awakening (£5, Xbox 360), Infinite Space (£10, DS) and Aliens Infestation (£5, DS). I didn't pick them up, but regret not getting Infinite Space...that game is really hard to find online... So far I've not played either of Solatorobo or Magna Carta 2 yet unfortunately.

Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360) - I can't remember if I talked about this one on the blog just yet. But I held off on this one for absolutely ages to try and get it cheaper. It turns out that probably wasn't a good idea, as I heard all the hype and then rage about the story ending. I have somehow managed to remain spoiler free, and picked this one up after christmas in a sale in Game for £15. Really interested to see how the story will finish up. I liked the first two games, but I've been slowly losing interest in the franchise... a couple hundred too many DLC packs and stupid things like the Cerberus network. EA ruined Dragon Age and Mass Effect, which is so unfortunate...they had such good prospects..

Inazuma Eleven (DS) - this was a game I picked up right after Christmas. I received a gift token for HMV and decided to go for this one with it. It was a toss up between this and Ar Tonelico Qoga on the PS3 when I was in the store, and I'm definitely glad I went for this one. I havent played any of either series before this, and from what I saw of Ar Tonelico on the back of the box, I'm definitely happy with Inazuma. Its such an over the top game. Its like a good mix of anime like Beyblades, Yu-Gi-Oh and films like Shaolin Soccer. The only low point was some of the time it seemed to drag a bit at times(where you're just tracking across the map from area to area) and also...the horrendous English opening theme. But the game itself is really engaging and addictive once you get into it and realise how to control it best. The tutorials don't do a very good job so I ended up taking about 7 hours to master the systems (more or less.)

Eden of the East (Anime DVD) - This was a bit of a random pick up for me. I like to buy the odd anime movie or series when they release in the UK (but only at decent prices) We saw this one in a second hand shop "CEX" that has quite a lot of branches all across the UK. They do really well because they give cash for tradeins, and take anything from ipods, phones, computer components, games, dvds, and a lot more. Anyway, it was only a fiver. The synopsis sounded interesting, and I had heard good things. So, after a wee check of animenewsnetwork on my girlfriend's smartphone (I refuse to own one...FOR NOW! Gimme a break! lol) I picked this up. We've watched half of it so far, and its getting really interesting =) It has a dark edge, but its a lot more than just a dark, gritty anime. It has it's funny moments, it has a quite nice romance theme to it as well.

Some games I'm interested for next year

Some games I'll be keeping an eye on in the coming year:

Pier Solar HD

This one is an updated version of Pier Solar, which Watermelon released a year or two ago for the Genesis I believe. They are updating the game to "HD" and adding some content, as well as ports to different consoles (PC, Mac, Linux, Dreamcast, 360.) I was really on the fence about whether I would put down money for this. I'm not a huge fan of kickstarter as it can be used in ways I don't particularly trust. They really need paypal options for one thing.
Anyway, I was considering going for one of Watermelon's $125 physical collector's editions, because they do some amazing quality stuff for such a fledgling company. In the end I figured it was too close to Christmas to shell out at least £80 for a game which got fairly mixed reviews and a game that I could get for 10x less than that high price tag. Ended up pledging $10 or 15, I can't remember. This game looks really good, and they smashed all of their stretch goals in the end, I didn't think they'd make half of them :o The kickstarter ends today.

Rainfall: The Sojourn

I nearly missed out on this one, the artstyle and polished look to this SNES inspired RPG really interest me. Check out their kickstarter, which also ends today. It should hopefully be available afterwards if this post is a bit late for you reading it. Really nice sprites and production values, and looks really nostalgic.

Secrets of Grindea

This one is an indie(?) title that has been greenlit through Steam. Again, its another retro-ish RPG, and it has a really detailed fast paced action battle system, complete with features like charging attacks, special moves, frame cancelling and other stuff that is normally more at home in fighting games. Beautifully presented, this one looks like an RPG to keep an eye on, despite the rather silly name (half RPG cliche, half attempt at humour.) The game itself looks really crisp and well done, the only other things that I think could use some work potentially are the character portraits (bit generic RPG-maker look, almost.)

Secrets of Grindea Youtube

Game rant

I was in Game during the week with some friends from uni and the company (who owns Gamestation as well) has been in the news a lot recently. They said that they wouldn't be getting a lot of games at launch (for what seems to be financial reasons.) Mass Effect 3, Mario Party 9, Street Fighter x Tekken, Asura's Wrath and some other EA titles I think..
Add to that the fact that they are having a fire sale (which they call a spring clean) on preowned stock and the future doesn't look terribly good for the company.
So anyways, I heard about all this crap online and remembered I still had a fair bit of money on a gift card from the Christmas break. I'd picked up Dodonpachi Resurrection on sale with it at Christmas for £15, and then a replacement Xbox 360 charger cable and battery pack as mine had gone missing... So that left me some for the sales.
So as I was saying I was in the shop...I was rooting through the preowned sale stuff for ages, while I finally decided on Dragon Age II on the 360.
The reason I had held off buying this game was because I had grown more and more pissed off with EA and Bioware (who I belive are being pressured into releasing tonnes of DLC and pushing games out for release prematurely) after Mass Effect 2's debacle. Ok, so way back, I picked up Mass Effect and at that point, I was really happy with it so of course was looking forward to getting the 2nd one at launch. I had my eye on the special edition pack for some DLC codes and more than that, some nice extras. Didn't think I needed to preorder though, so went into Game (fuck this store, seriously) to see if they had any. Nope. The idiot working there told me it was just preorders for the special edition. Oh well...none for me then? Nope. I had to have it, I wouldn't admit defeat, so as soon as I went home, I went on ebay and paid about 80 or 90 quid for it. I bloody regretted it and had a sour taste in my mouth from then onwards. Even moreso when the game arrived and the Cerberus network DLC wouldn't work for me. I don't know wtf was going on with it. I played the game and really enjoyed it though, I suppose thats what matters. In between that and ME1, there was Dragon Age: Origins, which I had a similar experience with...again concerning Game. I didn't preorder. Ok before you judge me, they are stupid when it comes to preorders...some of the time you'll have to pay, sometimes they won't get enough in for the preorders they have...I just don't trust them. Anyway, I went all over Edinburgh looking for the special edition of DA:O. Pretty much every store sold out of it. Did some phone calls and found that the branch at the other end of Edinburgh (past my house from town) so I went home and got a lift out there to the shopping centre. Went to pick it up (thankfully they still had a copy or two), got asked for ID as it was an 18. I was 18 at the time, but hadn't brought ID. Ok, this is bullshit. I was so frustrated after spending the entire day finding this special edition. I just walked out, went to the car and told my mum...she knew how pissed off I'd been for the day, so went in and picked it up for me thankfully. I understand why they need to restrict some games, but it always seems to happen to me when I don't have my goddamn ID with me. Plus among my friends I am usually the eldest one there. Its happened at clubs and stuff as well. I should start taking ID wherever I go I suppose...damn young looks I apparantely have...
So back to the present day.
I'm in Game and I decide on Dragon Age II. I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. I take it up there to pay with my gift card which had a tenner on it (I thought) ~ £7.99 for DAII and a 2 pound set of headphones for my psp. Pretty good prices...
The guy looks at me (in my shirt and tie from the day of clinic at uni-I'll come back to this) and says hesitantly that they have an "as 25 age policy." I shuffle in my pocket for my passport and realise its at home..I'm like "I don't have my passport with me" and just walk away. He tries to get me to pay for the headphones but I explain I didn't want them as I had a tenner on my gift card and wanted to use it up.
I leave pretty pissed off...
Like I was saying, I was pretty smart that day, with suit trousers, shirt and tie as I'd had my first paid patient in uni for an optometric refraction lab. So I was clean shaven and shit, but what pissed me off is what would the old lady that came in think of me if I looked like a kid or something...respect from the patient is something I am worrying about...I should say, I am 25, so I shouldn't worry as much as some of the others in the class who came straight from school and are 19 or so now.

I wanted to come back the next day anyway with my passport, find that fucker and show him how old I am. But I thought I'd look in a different branch and see if they had anything decent, some games like the Atelier games on PS3 always seem to be expensive but interesting...anyway, this was on the Thursday (which is normally the day when shops are open later) so we got there pretty late after half 5 when we finished uni. I had a look and found a lot of good stuff in the sale-Super Paper Mario, Epic Mickey for under a tenner, Battalion Wars 2 for 2 quid, Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2 for 13, no Borderlands or DAII though..2 games I'd been considering. Anyway, they were closing so I went for Joker 2 and prepared to add in 2 or 3 quid ontop of my gift card. The guy said that it covered it though, so I did some calculations and realised I had more than I thought-15 beforehand.

So it kinda sucked that it shut early, but we headed along to Buchanan Galleries to the other game where I'd been the day before and got ID'd for Dragon Age 2. I was thinking of getting it, but I would have had to put in like 6 quid...and thats not a lot, but at the time I didn't have a lot of money to spare. So I picked up Trauma Center: New Blood on the Wii for £1.99 or so. I'd wanted to get into those games for a long time.
And that finished up my reward card from Christmas.
Starting off with £40 on it, I got;
Dodonpachi Resurrection (360) £15
Xbox 360 Plug and Play Charge Kit £10
Dragon Warrior Monsters: Joker 2 (DS) £12.98
Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii) £1.98

So after all that, I don't have Dragon Age II. I can get it for next to nothing online...so that'll probably be the case when I can be bothered...

I'm gonna get a replacement reward card from Game so I can spend my points I've accrued over the years just incase they go under. To be honest, as much as I rant about them and say they suck, I don't think I'd want them and Gamestation to go under...as that would leave us without high street game retailers in the UK.

Whoa...long rant is long.

Now Playing - "why you gotta bust my walls like that?!"

Its been a while since I posted one of these on a sunday (or regularly for that matter) so I thought I would try and fix that. I'm about halfway through my semester at uni now, and things are starting to move quite quickly...it'll be a few weeks till we have exams just before summer. Scary thought, but we've had quite a few days off - we get every Tuesday off and barely any classes on Wednesdays. The thing is, I don't really like the fact that we start at 9am some of the days, and in the afternoons on other days. It makes it harder to get a  good routine going. I would actually prefer it was always at 9 or later on. Anyways, tangent aside....I've been playing quite a bit here and there of different games. Hopefully some of them seem interesting to you readers!



Realm of the Mad God (Steam) is a pretty nifty co-op bullet hell MMORPG with a fast paced action battle system. I saw some adverts on Steam for it and probably was drawn in by the sprite artstyle, which looks really good. It has servers of up to 85 at a time, and it really gets fun if you work together in a group, doing what they call an exp train, where a group of players runs along the paths in the world, with attack toggled on. This means you are a really effective weapon, killing the enemies that happen to be nearby. The cool thing is, all the nearby players receive exp whether they shot the enemies or not. This is a really quick way to get to the level cap of 20 (a bit dissapointing perhaps, but there is a lot more to do once you hit that cap.) Oh, I should mention that the game has permadeath like in roguelike RPGs. If you run out of health, you die permanently. I've only really played about 10 or 12 hours of it so far, and seemed to struggle with the bosses in the game (well, the Gods, and the endgame level) as they hit very hard and there is so much going on...I put the game down though, as I felt I wasn't getting anywhere in terms of gear, or understanding tactics for some of the more difficult fights. Somehow it seems like I only scratched the surface on this. Maybe I'll go back to it some day, but for now, I'm concentrating on other games.


I've picked up my save on Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) again, after I got around 10 or 15 hours into it initially and put it off for a while. I really enjoyed DQIV and DQV on the DS, but this one is proving a bit more difficult for me to fully get into for some reason. I think the story is really slow moving and a bit confusing...especially if you put the game down for a while...so I don't recommend doing that lol. It has the job system of some of the other games, but its a bit easier to master jobs than in DQIX. Nonetheless, it adds a lot of interesting stuff to levelling up your party and building a good team. In fact, they didn't do a lot to actually tell you about the Alltrades Abbey. At one point it just becomes available. So for a while I was progressing through the story without even having jobs for each of my party members...Which reminds me about the way they give you minimal direction (like in many older rpgs) concerning the next story area. I'm not sure if I'm doing optional quests or actually progressing the story right now. All they said was that I had to go out into the world and travel with the aim of becoming a hero. Aside from some flaws, and very slow pacing (but its a Dragon Quest game, so hey, I suppose its expected) I'm enjoying this game and the 25 or 30 hours I've put in so far.

After pretty much a solid day of playing at uni, as well as a good few months of playing through this game  in small bits, I finished the last online urgent quest in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP), beating the Amatsumagatsuchi. After that I kind of lost interest as I was starting to find solo-ing the remaining double monster online quests difficult. Unlocking Akantor, Ukanlos and Alatreon would prove very difficult...and perhaps I was a bit burnt out after over 200 hours of this game. So I also did a little bit of multiplayer with some friends on Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) once I had finally shaken my obsession with MHP3, which I was worrying would get me re-addicted again, but it didn't thankfully. I got up to HR19 or so in Tri, and it kind of bugs me how slow and dragged out the multiplayer is. I think they just wanted to spread the content as far as they could, but more event quests could have easily done this more effectively. Grinding for HR points is never really that fun, so far at least...


There is a pretty small, but quite cool collection of roguelike RPGs on the IOS store, and I've long wanted to get into this (obscure? It definitely doesn't get much love these days) sub-genre of RPGs. One of the ones that I've kept on my Ipod for a while now has been 100 Rogues (IOS)  I really liked the balancing and quirky sense of humour (although nothing compared to the amazing detailed craziness that is Dungeons of Dredmor) and it kept me sporadically playing through the game with various different character builds. I actually got to the final boss (from what I can tell) with a Wizard before dying. They have some really unbalanced attacks. Teleport can take you anywhere (within reason) nearby and doesn't even cost a turn. If you know how these games work, that can be easily abused, as you can always be at least one step ahead of enemies, attacking from range, or backstabbing if you want. I really recommend 100 Rogues. Since I bought it, it has climbed up to £1.99, which a lot of the better RPGs seem to have done also. I miss the days when most games were less than a pound... Ash (IOS) is another one I played a tiny little bit of. Since the update (2.0 or whatever one it was that massively changed character art and rebalanced the game) I've not really wanted to continue my save, instead I want to start over completely...just to see what has changed. Not to mention the fact that I started to run into really difficult battles after a couple hours in. I just hope its got the same feel..If you are wanting to change a game, I don't see why you would release the original copy only to patch it much later down the line. Make up your mind...Its almost as bad as the DLC nonsense you get nowadays...day 1 DLC...

I picked up Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP) after it dropped in price to £9.99 on the PSN...We don't get a physical release of this game here, and I was ideally wanting to pick up the special edition from America to go with my P2 and P3 PSP special editions, but I would have to pay a shitload more than 9.99 to import it...and it didn't really seem like it was worth it for a 2 disc soundtrack (I'm more keen on artbooks than soundtracks) So I started up a game on this, as I had an urge to get into this series recently, and liked the way it went from the opening (very high school/paranormal anime story-wise) but didn't actually play more than about 10 mins or so. The school you start in is super confusing...

Rage (360) Very nice graphics and world building from the start, but I don't think its that realistic the way they take the story in the first 10 minutes...As soon as you are rescued by an inhabitant at the start of the game, you are taken to his settlement in his car, and immediately sent back the way you came to clear out a bandit hideout. Not so much as a morsel of food, drink, or even a word of explanation concerning the post apocalyptic world you have just woken up in. Just here's a gun, go and get em is about all you get. The enemy AI, animation and gunfire is a bit...unusual I found. There are some nice ideas, so hopefully this game doesn't dissapoint me, I hopefully improve my opinion of it as I go in a bit further.

Dodonpachi Resurrection Deluxe Edition (360) I picked this one up at Christmas with a gift card from Game. It was on sale down to £15ish, and this price is pretty good. I wouldn't want to pay much more, as its a very short game. I like the SHMUP genre but I'm not one of those super crazy fans who import the games from Japan. I can't imagine how dissapointed I would be if I did that, popped it in the 360, and finished the game within a half hour or so... I'll still pick up Akai Katana if it does end up coming out in Europe =D

February-March releases

How are you people getting on with the current onslaught of videogame releases? Hyped for the Vita? Coping fine? Getting close to testing the bounds of your overdrafts like me? Anyway, I hope you've been doing well since I last posted (and promised to do a Vita post... sorry for the lack thereof)

We're kind of midway(or almost) through this really busy window of game releases and I've only picked up one so far to try and save some money. Note that some of these might be slightly different for North America. I'll post dates of the noteable titles if I can find them.

February


3rd February


Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3/360) This really interests me despite how much I hated XIII...
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (IOS)
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS3/360)
Soul Calibur 5 (PS3/360)

10th February

Catherine (PS3/360)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PS3/360/PC)
The Darkness II (PS3/360)

12th February

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PC)

16th February

Alan Wake (PC) It kinda sucks how long some games take to get the PC treatment sometimes...

22nd February (Oh god, the sound of bank balances screaming in unison as the Vita releases)

Vita Stuff- First-Party games:

Uncharted: Golden Abyss - €49.99/£44.99/$69.95 AUD/$89.95 NZD

ModNation Racers: Road Trip - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD

Everybody's Golf - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD

WipEout 2048 - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD

Unit 13 - €39.99/£34.99/$54.95 AUD/$69.95 NZD

Little Deviants - €29.99/£24.99/$39.95 AUD/$54.95 NZD

Reality Fighters - €29.99/£24.99/$39.95 AUD/$54.95 NZD

Memory Cards:

4Gb Memory Card - €19.99/£17.99/$26.95 AUD/$34.95 NZD

8Gb Memory Card - €34.99/£31.99/$44.95 AUD/$59.95 NZD

16Gb Memory Card - €49.99/£44.99/$64.95 AUD/$84.95 NZD

Peripherals:

AC adaptor - €9.99/£8.99/$12.95 AUD/$16.95 NZD

Portable charger - €49.99/£44.99/$64.95 AUD/$84.95 NZD

USB cable - €9.99/£8.99/$12.95 AUD/$16.95 NZD

In-ear headset - €19.99/£17.99/$26.95 AUD/$34.95 NZD

Starter kit - €24.99/ £21.99/$34.95 AUD/$44.95 NZD

Travel kit - €29.99/ £25.99/$39.95 AUD/$49.95 NZD

[From Link]

And some other ones(some of which I'm not sure if they will be out at launch);

• Everybody’s Golf
• Escape Plan
• Gravity Rush
• Hustle Kings
• MotorStorm RC
• Top Darts
• Super StarDust Delta

[From Link]

24th February


The Last Story (Wii) This is the only one so far that I've preordered out of these games.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk.2 (PS3)
Syndicate (PS3/360)
Binary Domain (PS3/360)

8th March


Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3DS)


9th March


Mass Effect 3 (PS3/360/PC) Will be awesome, perhaps minus the multiplayer...
Asura's Wrath (PS3/360)
Street Fighter x Tekken (PS3/360)

13th March
Silent Hill Downpour (PS3/360) I'm wanting to get into this franchise but I'm a wuss...


14th March 
Journey (PS3) Interesting looking game from the developers of Flower.


16th March (Should be renamed Bit. Trip Day!)

Bit. Trip Complete (Wii)
Bit. Trip Saga (3DS)
Rayman Origins (3DS) Way later than this should have come out, is this date right?

Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)

22nd March
Angry Birds Space (IOS) A few more million copies to be sold?



23rd March

Armored Core 5 (PS3/360)

Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) Should really have been a launch title...or earlier in the year IMO
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PS3/360)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (PS3/360) Don't know much about NG other than they like to release the same games


[Used info from Link]


There are a lot more, like Diablo III, Akai Katana and many others that I didn't include, so hopefully this is slightly helpful in keeping track of things...

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 - "driving through the business district in a tank!"

It was my birthday on Sunday and I haven't played that much of any games really, but played some on Saturday and Sunday. Had some friends over on Sunday to Monday so didn't have a chance to write this post...or sleep much either to be honest XD Damn them...it was a good laugh though.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) I've put in a few more hours to this and now I'm into the 3rd sector, Carina. At times it really frustrates me. I'll make lots of progress only for something stupidly cheap to happen and make me lose a chunk of progress. But when I do get places in the game, I really enjoy the story and battles. Probably the thing I enjoy most about the gameplay side of things is just fusing demons and recruiting new ones. The SMT games always have a lot of depth to the demon side of things. In fact, I'm looking forward to trying out Lucifer's Call...but I am apprehensive about it. If I struggle with DDS, DS and SJ at times, I've heard Nocturne/Lucifer's Call is much harder..so I might find it hard. I just hope I have the patience and time for it.

I got a couple games for my birthday but didn't want too many as I've got a few I want to play and haven't even touched yet. One of the ones I got was Super Street Fighter IV (PS3) My brother got me this one and I'd already played a lot of multiplayer when with my friends (they are insanely good at SF games) but never really played many of the trials or Arcade mode stories. So I was glad to get the chance to try out the Arcade mode and other stuff. I love fighting games with lots of stuff to do, and this one has a whole load of characters and challenging things to do and unlock. I didn't play much of it so far, just some on Sunday before some friends came over. I managed to finish the Arcade mode with Akuma in the end. (Seth was damn hard, even on easy mode T_T) I also started learning Guile so I could get the hang of charge characters. I'm pretty good at the timing, but still getting used to the buttons and how to follow up with other moves. I'm fairly pleased with how well I know the game even though I've barely played it, just because I played so much multiplayer over at my friend's place.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Warriors of Light (DS) I just started this one up to see what the opening was like and I really like the graphical style. I can see why some people won't like it. It could be lumped into that ugly 3D DS game group. I think it really adds to the charm of the game. Its got a kind of Animal Crossing/Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles feel to it. I've literally only played up to the first save point, so I will save my comments for when I've played more of it. Plus I think I could potentially put a lot of time into it. Things with job systems and lots to grind and master are quite often my cup of tea.

Now Playing - "Hands off the panda!"

I didn't find a huge amount of time this week to play games unfortunately, but here are some thoughts on what I did play. The main game I've been trying to get through, and the one I've played a fair bit of is Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP). I've now played through two of the three character's stories (Terra and Ventus') and while some things are starting to feel a bit stale, they change enough each time you go back to the worlds with the various characters so it doesn't feel too boring. I really didn't like the some of the quests where you needed to fetch x items to continue...that bit in Ventus's story where I needed to find the goddamn bits for Cinderella's dress actually made me put the game down for a couple days. Things like that and the minigames being incredibly unforgiving pissed the hell out of me. Actually, in some really intense boss battles the fiddly nature of the command deck did kill me when I had to stop moving in order to cycle through to the command I wanted to use (like a Cure spell). Still, I'm enjoying the hell out of the game for the most part. It has some really epic battles. It does kind of seem like the story is running a bit thin now that I've been through it 3 times (even though the timelines are slightly overlapping)-it seems like every main plot event has been already, and things might be different in the bit after all 3 stories (I hope that the finale is good.)

The voice acting is really dissapointing. I don't care how much people want to try and defend it. Its not good in my books. Aqua feels so awkward, like she is struggling with every sentence. Terra is fairly dull and lifeless. It does have some fairly good performances, but they aren't brilliant. Xehanort and Master Yen Sid were two that slightly stood above the rest. I feel I'm forgetting someone but perhaps that is it in a nutshell. Forgettable voice acting. The soundtrack isn't overly impressive either.

As much as I've ranted here, it is a pretty decent game and I'm looking forward to finishing it off to see where the story goes. Anyway, I reckon I need about 5 or 10 hours to finish Aqua's story and the game completely. Might be able to do that this week, we shall see.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony [demo] (PSP) So I played some of the demo of this game and wanted to get through it to get the clear save game if I ever got the full game when it was released but I put the demo down. It was just frustrating me that I couldn't save in the middle of it-I had to put my PSP into sleep mode each time instead of turning it off. Also meant I couldn't play KH until I finished the demo. So anyway, my intial thoughts on the game. (Keep in mind the fact that I never played the original games) It looks to have a fairly cool 90s anime style aesthetic, for the most part good although some characters and monsters do look horrendous. It has one of the ugliest dragons I've ever seen, fullstop. It has feathers and some ridiculous looking things that look like dog ears. Yeah, no thanks.

It has a fairly strange look to some of the menus, texts, symbols and icons. I'd even go so far as to say it looks like a flash game similar to like Adventure Quest or some RPG that someone has made themselves on RPGmaker or some crap.

It has some fairly boring combat at times, and what really annoyed me was that the enemies appear on the overworld and dungeons (ok, thats not bad) and they RUN FASTER THAN YOU. So if I want to evade them and skip by them to get through the dungeon quicker, no that won't work. I'll need to get a bit of luck so they don't see me. Fairly annoying, but I am curious to give this a better shot. I may play through the demo when I have some free time and have a buildup of patience somehow...

Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (360) I played some more of Blazblue and actually won some games online! Not many, but I'm up to like lv16 or so on the multiplayer. Frustrating how good some people are at fighting games...I think I'll definitely get the next game though when it comes out. I like this game too much not to.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) I didn't put much more time into this game this week. I finished up a story mission and thats about it. Did some exploring, levelling and getting demons but didn't make much significant progress. I think its a fairly long game, so like Etrian Odyssey it will have to have my full attention if I intend to actually finish the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlY5TJWkfU

Sorry for the short post (with no pictures, videos or whatever)-I'm not on my laptop at the moment. Will try and make it more interesting next week!

Some PAL game release updates.

So it seems waiting (for long periods of time) is the right way to do things if you are a PAL gamer with interests in anything remotely niche as I've found out recently.  

Deathsmiles (360) For a long time after the US release it seemed like this game wouldn't be coming to Europe. I had considered importing it, but after reading up on the game, it turns out this one was region locked on the 360. Which is strange, because the developer Cave had intentionally left the region locking off a few of their releases to help the import community out. The strange thing is, I've not played many of these kind of games, and never played anything by Cave before, but after reading about it and seeing some video footage, I was really interested. Plus, the fact that this was the first one by the developer to actually come out in America was ringing alarm bells, and I had hoped it would come out in Europe and PAL regions as well. Well, it seems it will be. It hasn't been confirmed by Rising Star yet, but it will apparantely be coming out some time next year from them. I hope it isn't just a rumour, but I've found a few mentions of it online. Here's hoping! Gothic lolita characters, crazy bosses and 2D bullet hell shooter goodness-I'm sold!

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40940/Cave-to-bring-boxed-shooter-to-West

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deathsmiles/review.html

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP) This one is confirmed to be coming over to our PSN sometime fairly soon I believe. First I heard of it was when I checked PSN the other night to find a demo up. I'd been interested in seeing what this game was like but after hearing mixed things, I decided the high price for importing might not necessarily be worth it if I didn't like the game that much. So I quickly decided to download the demo and then go searching for some news online. I've still not yet tried the demo (I'll play it and update this post once I've finished it) but it seems once the game is released on PSN (and it should be noted that it will be PSN only here) you will start your game with bonus gear of some kind if you decide to get the full game and still have data from the demo. So I'm definitely interested in this one as well. I'll try the demo and see if it will be my thing. It will be out in PAL regions on the 13th of October. 

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/09/24/game-arts-bringing-lunar-silver-star-harmony-to-europe/

Blazblue: Continuum Shift (PS3/360) Us PAL gamers had to wait a fairly long time to get the first Blazblue game, and while we've not had such a long wait this time around, it seems excruciating at times how long we have to wait. I can't really describe why I feel so maniacal about Blazblue...I didn't play that much online on Blazblue: Calamity Trigger mainly because I sucked, but I had a lot of fun with the multiplayer both online and with my friends in person. I got the original game on the 360 but I'm perhaps leaning towards the free online play of the PS3 version this time around. It would probably suit my sporadic use of the online features slightly better. I have seen a few imported PS3 copies in one of the shops around here, but I'm going to wait and pick up the special edition when it comes out here.

I'm hoping they clear up some of the stupid things from the story mode. To 100% complete character's story modes you need to lose to each opponent, as well as finishing some in certain ways ie. with Distortion Drives or whatever they were called. The story was about as clear as mud as well, but hey...I had some fun with it. The first game had really nice graphics, music and characters. Hopefully this one will build upon the first's successes.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3/360) This is probably one of my most anticipated games coming out for the rest of the year, and it was nearly going to sneak under my radar until I did this post because I don't have as much time to play games or trawl gaming news sites now that I've started uni. Anyway, I have high hopes for this one and I really don't want it to be just another generic God of War clone. With the talent involved in the making of the game, I'm really looking forward to its PAL release date of October 7th, or some time after that when I end up grabbing it. It comes out October 5th in North America and apparantely December 16th in Japan. I don't know the reasons behind that, or if its true to be honest.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-28-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-review

Other than those, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona was released recently on the PSN, along with Front Mission 3. The SMT franchise gained a substantial amount of fans outside of Japan in the past year or so with Persona 3 and 4 getting released, and this is where the Persona series started. I've heard mixed things about the game but I am tempted to pick it up, and its good to see games like this coming out here, even if it is just on PSN. 

On another note, I took a look in one of the independent game shops in Glasgow and as always, saw lots of awesome stuff. On the import front they had SMT: Strange Journey, SMT: Persona (PSP), SMT: Devil Survivor, Disgaea Infinite, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories and quite a few other titles I was interested in. I'm still looking out for Lucifer's Call (Nocturne) but I'm never gonna find it. I may ask them to order it in for me some time as a last resort.

Now Playing - "Reload this!"

Now that I am two weeks into my uni course I'm starting to get an idea of how the timetable will be and what we will be doing throughout this semester at least. I'm enjoying it so far, even though it does look quite hard in places. Geometrical Optics is going to have some tricky physics type questions I think. Anyway I've had some free time but not a huge amount of time for games really, although I do have a long weekend just now (I've got Thursday-Monday off because of a Bank Holiday or something) and I've been playing some games during the last week or so. I've got some impressions on some relatively recent releases actually.

I played some of the Halo: Reach (360) multiplayer on Saturday and today when my friends brought it over. Took ages to initially set up as I hadn't configured my Xbox's online settings (I just got it back from being repaired.) but once we got it set up we played a bit of the multiplayer online. At first, I wasn't too impressed as there are a lot of things different to Halo 3 (and ODST I guess, but its closer to that than 3.) The main things putting me off were the health system similar to ODST, getting used to the new weapons and their slightly different gameplay and the armour abilities being rather annoying at times. Although, they all seem to have their strengths when used right. So they are kind of balanced from what I can tell after a few hours of playing and watching my friends use them. 

The weapons feel much more tactile I guess (don't know if that is the right word), it actually feels like you are firing the weapon, with recoil and sound effects of really good quality. The sniper rifle was initially pretty strange for me, as the targeting reticule expands vastly after firing. So the recoil from the first shot basically stops you from getting another easy shot in straight succession-the result from what I can tell so far is that it is slightly harder to kill with it. But I got used to it pretty quickly, actually getting MVP on like the 2nd Team Snipers game I played. No-scopes ftw! They've also tweaked the meleeing to make that less abusable. I found myself shooting until the enemy's shields were down enough, meleeing and getting surprised how many times they would still be alive afterwards. So the shoot the shields down+melee combo from 3 seems to be a bit less easy to pull off. (Which is good) BR is also fairly different, it still has a scope but it fires less bullets with each shot it seems. Its called DMR now, dunno what that stands for... Still seems like a very strong weapon. Pistol seems to be going back to the Halo 1 & 2 days as well, its very fast and good at mid-long range. ODST had a similarly strong pistol..and I just hope they haven't made too many broken weapons. 

What else...the veto system is gone from online. Now you vote on one from a selection of maps/games. The major flaw being the fact that if you are playing with more than 1 player on the xbox, all your votes go to the same selection. Terrible. Bring back the veto system. Along with the server issues, that is one thing that definitely needs to be adressed in the next patch or update.

Anyway, despite all those minor things, I got used to the game and had some fun with my friends on it. I'm kinda tempted to pick it up at some point..but there are so many games that are in that same boat...and in fact so many games I have and still have to start. 

I've put in a fair chunk of time to Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) now and have been enjoying it for the most part. I'm 13 or so hours into Terra's story and liking the characters. Terra seems to have a bit more depth than say Roxas or Sora, at least so far. Its got some fairly cheesy dialogue, but then again, it is a Disney-Square Enix franchise, and its been pretentious and cheesy since the early days. If you didn't get a substantial helping of cheese you would probably feel ripped off in some way. 

I'll start with some things that annoy me about it. Firstly, it seems a bit more bland than KH and KHII. I liked in the PS2 games how the worlds were slightly longer stages, you had cameo appearances from main characters from the disney films in question and the enemies and bosses had a distinctive feel related to the world depending on what Disney world you were in. For example, the Heartless and Nobodies in Agrabah actually fit in with the world. In Birth By Sleep, they basically reuse a lot of the same Unversed enemies. They don't seem to have a different appearance in each world. So it does feel a bit bland, short and boring at times. Its also missing the characters joining your party I think. They were one great thing about the KH games, as well as the party's appearance changing in each world. (Halloween Town designs for Sora etc were some of my favourites.) 

Secondly, it really stretches the PSP to its limits in some areas, where you get some slowdown occurring. This might be a good thing as it shows they've really pushed the boat out, but for me it is a negative, as they could have accounted for this. When you get the option to choose between 16bit and 32 bit in the config menu and 16 bit is the default, that is an indicator that perhaps a different engine, or textures or whatever should have been used. I'm no games designer but something seems wrong there..just slightly though. I've not had too much slowdown on my current settings.

I don't like that there doesn't seem to be that many cameos from Disney characters though. I'm fairly far through Terra's story and really haven't seen anything of Mickey and anyone else. They added a distinctive flavour to KH and KHII, adding a lot to the feel of the worlds and the story. I think there should have been more cutscenes, not just ones focussing on Terra and his flashbacks. I guess I am less than a 3rd through the game though, so we shall see how it goes.

What else? Well, I am enjoying the game..which is a good thing. =p I'm liking that they've tried not too overcomplicate things with all this nonsense about nobodies, organisation XIII, Heartless, different worlds, experiments, masked guys. As good as Kingdom Hearts II was, it was bloody confusing. I dunno, I'm guessing they will start throwing some plot twists in there towards the end game of BBS, but so far I'm not hugely impressed with the story, but at least it is easy to understand. Xehanort is one of the most stereotypical 'Disney' villains I've seen...I could tell from a mile off that he was a bad guy. I'm still interested to see what is going to happen with him, the others and Terra. Must play more.

I would say that I like the Kingdom Hearts games, but I don't know if I would call myself a fanatic... Urgh...I don't want to start flame wars or anything. I just wanted to get across my initial feelings on Birth By Sleep. Even though I've highlighted some of it's shortcomings, I still think its a good game so far. I'm having a blast playing it so far.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) I've been putting an hour or two into this here and there, and slowly getting through the second sector, codenamed Bootes. I'm enjoying it so far, its got a distinctive SMT vibe going on, with some gameplay aspects from other games in the series. Some are quite dated, like the negotiation system which frustrates me greatly at times. I don't like that you can only have 10 or so Demons at the same time as well..I'm terrible at deciding on which to fuse and which to keep...but I'll get used to that, 10 is more than enough really. I really don't like when your demons level up and want to learn new moves. Its the same as in Nocturne I think, the old move will be replaced, not always with an improved one. You can't tell what move is going to be learnt, but then again you can just stop them from learning the new move to start with..It seems clunky and unneccessary(I can never spell that word.) So I'm around 10 or so hours in and think I'm getting near the end of the Bootes sector. I found a sidequest I want to do though; it involves escorting some of the decoy squad back through the dungeon, and fighting a rather nasty boss. When I last played it got a cheap Mudo (instant death) spell on my main character giving me a game over after I had hacked away at it for a good 5-10 minutes. So I've not played it since then..apparantely that is a SMT recurring theme across many of the games, instant deaths...

I will go back to it some time soon, as I'm enjoying what I've seen so far. I'm just catching up to around the same play time in Kingdom Hearts (although I've put in more time to BBS than SJ now, probably to do with the pacing.)

New Xbox! =D

I got my Xbox 360 fixed finally! Hopefully no more Red Rings for moi! T_T

Dunno if I'll even have enough time to play it though, with uni and all. Think I'll check and see if my Gold subscription is still on, might jump online for a bit. =p

Rather randomly, I got to Radiant Garden in Birth by Sleep. Its pretty cool how you get to see what its like before the main 2 games when it is known as Hollow Bastion. I always liked that area, its nicely designed and has really cool music, which they have kept a similar track for in BBS. Here's 3 of them, Radiant Garden and Hollow Bastion songs from the OSTs:

Fuck..got RRoD again.

Goddamnit..I barely play my 360, but I turn it on earlier today to play some Blazblue, and it chooses to get Red Rings of Death during the one time I've payed for xbox live gold? I barely every pay for the online. Fucking shitty ass console...

I wanted to play some Blazblue... :@ 

I swear to god, if they don't send me the same kind of Xbox back as a replacement, heads will roll. I've got a limited edition Halo 3 xbox and don't want some inferior white replacement, for one thing, the HD will not fricken match it. RAR! ¬_¬

I don't think my warranty is still active. So I have to pay for M$'s failure. Fantastic, I thought I had a bit too much money. Hopefully it ain't expensive.

Now Playing - "Player vs Fish"

Kudos if you know what games the quote in the title is from. ;D

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS) Getting pretty near the end of this, on day 6. Its getting tricky...So I've got to bring myself to GRIND and get through the boss I'm on at the end of day 6. I'd definitely recommend this to people who like Strategy rpgs or SMT games..my only real gripes is with some of the ridiculous cheap, hard muthaf@$*'in difficult battles... Seriously, when you need to protect civilians and they can get oneshotted...

I was feeling a bit washed out with the darkness, difficulty and grindiness of devil survivor, so wanted something more action-rpg like (fast and frenetic), so started up Kingdom Hearts II (PS2), as part of my RPG-marathon I'm taking part in over at backloggery.

So far, I'm about 12 hours into it, at Steamboat Willy's world (I forget the name) and quite impressed. The only flaw I can see so far is the ridiculous looping sound clips. Although they are quite hilarious to witness. "GET UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK!..." over and over..I was late coming to the ps2, so never actually got round to playing a lot of these games for myself. I can see what all the fuss is about, with Kingdom Hearts-they are definitely rather good games. And playing through, I'm surprised at my inner disney fan...I watched a lot of Disney stuff as a kid, and its really cool to see something like this now, and still really enjoy it. 

Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (360) This finally got released over in Europe, I've been waiting so long for this damn game, and I've been enjoying playing this one. I've got in some games online after beating the arcade modes and some of the stories. I'm definitely not too good at it yet..I can't even win a whole match online T_T

I finished up Mass Effect 2 (360) earlier in the week, quite pleased with the game overall, apart from some niggling issues with the cover system. The story for me was slightly underwhelming, I don't particularly like that the majority of the game is spent recruiting group members and getting them loyal (seriously, its like 80% of the game or something.) Good game though, they definitely improved a lot of things from the first game. I still don't like the scanning of planets in the 2nd one though..

I'll be going back for a few more playthroughs of the 2 games at some point. Lots of replayability..and I really want to see how things will differ if I choose differently in the first game 2nd time round.

Other than that, just been working on grinding and hunts in Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)...still lots to do for the hardest couple left. And a bit more Pokemon Platinum (DS), just a few minutes here and there each day to see what swarming pokemon are present and if they will help with my dex completion.

Yeah, I've still not got Heart Gold or Soul Silver, I'm a little surprised myself. I'm holding off on that for now so I can finish off some games first. Probably get it before I go away on holiday if anything. Pokemon is like crack to me.

Blazblue kicks ass! =D

"Clearly those ostentatious eyeglasses do your eyes no good. Perhaps they would serve you better forcibly inserted into your mouth."

So Blazblue arrived the other week, and I've been enjoying it. I've just finished off all the character's arcade modes now, and working on the story modes now. I'm really impressed with the depth, they've taken a lot of things similar to the Guilty Gear games and utilised them here really well. I kinda suck, but hoping to get better as I go on. Rachel is awesome! =D

Gears of War 3 gets release date..

The 3rd in the Gears of War series has been known about for a while now, and its now got a rough release date period. April 2011. A couple sites have posted stuff about the release of this next year. I think I can just about hear the distant rumble of Lancers starting up.

I've been a fan of the 2 games so far. I think they really mixed things up and freshened the 3rd person shooters with the implementation of the cover system which is rather good.

Source

I've been away on holiday up north for the last week and a bit, hence the lack of a Now Playing update, next one will be Sunday, as I've been playing a fair bit of games

Now Playing - "Harbinger of your destiny"

Sunday again and I've been playing way too much games this week. Should really be working for my upcoming exams T_T So I finished up Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) a couple days ago after leaving most of the marks for afterwards. Parts of this game I really like, for example just wandering around postgame grinding and looking for treasure and sidequests, but parts of the game...I don't know, they still kill this game for me. It definitely grew on me though as I went through, and I'm still gonna work on the sidequests and trophies in between other games. Speaking of which, I started up a game I'd wanted to play for ages, and was really hyped up for when it came out.

Mass Effect 2 (360) - this one was a bit soured for me considering I bought the special edition of the game and still haven't been able to get the DLC codes to work. I really hate that EA make you jump through hoops just to fuckin register the damn thing. So for now I'm just trying to concentrate on the game and not let that ruin my experience of it. 

My initial opinions are that the shooter aspects have definitely been improved upon and polished up, but it really seems like less of the RPG elements have been included (or their importance has been dumbed down a bit) The cover system frustrates me, its nowhere near the Uncharted 2 level, or better yet the Gears of War level of things (I still think the GoW games have the best cover systems I've played) 

It's pretty damn addictive at times, I'm only around 10 hrs in so far, but quite liking it.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS) I've been slowly getting into this one, its a hybrid srpg/turn based rpg with a pretty cool demon recruitment and fusion system. Pick it up if you like SMT games definitely, or are just looking for a good story in a DS RPG. You'll need some patience though, as some of the battles have kinda cheap failure requirements (wrong word, but hopefully you know what I mean)

Anyway, I really wanna get back to ME2 heheh. Till next time =D

WTF! Blazblue pushed back again...

OMG...I've preordered Blazblue for the 360 from Amazon (its still not out here, yeah...) and this is the 2nd time it has been pushed back. I think the release date keeps changing..now it won't be here till the first of second week of April....

T_T

I guess I'll play some of the games I have in the meantime..but I wanted to play Blazblue...

Devil Survivor is awesome, but ridiculously cheap in places... ¬_¬

Dragon Age: Origins is finished!

I finally beat the main story with my Human Noble Warrior today, and man this game is epic. Its bloody addictive as well, I played it for at least 6 hours straight last night until 6 in the morning, woke up today and kept playing to finish it off. Something about this game keeps me captivated. 

Go out and play it if you haven't already, its REALLY good. I've still got tonnes more quests and achievements to do, so I am gonna do some other playthroughs at some point, perhaps before Awakening, but I doubt I'll have time. I actually missed out like 2 or 3 of the playable characters..

I'll post some more about my time with DA:O on Sunday in the Now Playing post