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

Now Playing - "Hey granny, give me some miso."

Its been ages since I did one of these posts, well kind of...I did a bit of a massive recap as to what I've been playing recently in the last post...Anyways, I've been playing some games in between uni and other stuff. Actually, I've not done much more for uni other than the lectures and labs in the first week. I have a day off this year(Tuesdays), but apart from that and Wednesdays, its quite a busy timetable. So I've managed to procrastinate to a satisfactory level so far, at least in terms of games... =p


My laptop charger broke for my laptop a few days before Christmas. Either my dad is psychic and knew that was going to happen, or it was his need to buy uneccessary new gadgets every christmas. Either way, him and my mum got me a laptop for Christmas, which I am still trying to get used to. The touchpad is a bit annoying, as it will often jump if I am typing and touch it, highlighting words I've typed, so what happens is I either start typing a few paragraphs back or just deleting huge chunks of text. So thats a bit annoying. Its also managed to crash and blue screen a few times.. I don't think its the greatest laptop ever, but its new and shiny =) I still want to pick up a replacement charger for my old laptop as it has a lot of files on it with my uni stuff, bookmarks, music, save games for some of my steam games and a few other things I could use. Well I'd rather have access to them than not. Then again, money is a bit of an issue...I need to somehow ration my money at the moment, eating frugally and all that, purchase a few of the games that come out in the February-March onslaught (I'm going to figure out what ones need to be bought that won't be available in shops after launch or the ones that will go up in price hugely.), and save enough money for presents around the time as well. I could really use a job.

So the things I'd really want to get if I have the money: I don't think The Last Story (PAL special edition) will be able to wait. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 might be a good pickup, but might go cheaper on ebay over time, like I'm hoping to do with Radiant Historia... Also I'll have to get Tales of Graces f whenever that comes out in Europe. Tales of the Abyss didn't even come out in shops so I don't want to risk not being able to find it...
Games that will have to wait (and there are some excellent looking games here..) Final Fantasy XIII-2, Mass Effect 3 (really would like to pick this up if I can)

The February-March slew of games releases has started and it looks like I'n going to have to wait a bit to play FFXIII-2, hopefully I'll be able to pick some games up when they drop in price a little bit.


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After finishing off Tales of Phantasia a few weeks back (around the 20th of December that I finished that one...I only remember because it was my last day of Semester A, and I had a dentist appointment the same day) I started up Tales of the Abyss (3DS) and played it for a few weeks, putting in just over 60 hours to finish the main story. I found the characters a little annoying at times. Perhaps the main character annoyed me at first, but he really grew on me with time. He had some lines where it actually made me burst out laughing, just from how obscenely impolite, brash and arrogant he is. The story went through quite a strange turn at some point (I'm being deliberately vague, as many people may not want it spoiled) and this lead to the group of characters becoming a bit seperated and essentially abandoning the main character. As comrades, they are all ridiculously secretive and ready to drop each other at the slightest thing. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the way the story went, it takes a few twists and turns before turning out quite nicely. Graphically, it doesn't seem like they have done much with the game though, it looks nice for sure, but it doesn't seem to change much from the original PS2 game. Thats the same with a lot of aspects. It doesn't really include the 3D element to a great extent or put more in in terms of additions. So it remains a pretty solid, but not that different, port of the PS2 RPG. So it comes recommended if you can find a copy of this game. It didn't really seem to come out in shops anywhere on the UK high street. So I really hope online sales are good and Namco Bandai decide to bring more Tales games like Graces f and Xillia our way.

Actually, after playing this and finishing it, I started up a new game+ as I really like the way newer Tales games use the grade shop so you can buy bonuses for the next playthrough and always wanted to try it. And it seems I will do some more of this game now. After going back to uni and having Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) take up a lot of my time, I think I'll be playing some more 3DS. I signed up for a 4th year Optometry student's dissertation project. They were looking for volunteers to assess any deterioration or improvement to the binocular vision system's ability to fuse images and perceive 3D stereoscopic images after using the 3DS for an hour per week. I was quite interested in the sound of the project (being an Optom student myself, and owning a 3DS) and to see the outcome of their study if I can in the end. So I'll be playing Tales of the Abyss (3DS) in the 2D mode (as part of the control group) for a new game+ run. He did mention that since me and my friend had 3DS's, we should use our own and since we were quite big gamers, our fusion was quite good already. My friend Kris was nearly off the chart using a prism bar test to assess his brain's ability to fuse double vision(diplopia) together. Damn kids and their young eyes... If you are interested more in the study I'm taking part in, feel free to email me or comment below. I don't think I've explained things too well in the post here.


Over the Christmas break I played a lot of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3) with my girlfriend (who I must thank for getting me Skyrim!) and got through the main story eventually. Its really an amazing, enthralling game at times. There are a few faults I found that kind of detracted from my experience. Perhaps playing on the PS3 was not the best choice, but I heard that both console releases were (equally?) buggy and glitchy. Sometimes it will  lead to hilarious glitching out objects in the world or unusual sights such as Wooly Mammoths falling from the sky randomly.




Some of the AI isn't done too well. Companions or people travelling with you will sometimes dissapear or get confused by other NPCs, terrain, stairs (OMG Lydia, learn how to use stairs!) and other things. It just doesn't seem well polished enough for an Elder Scrolls game. I realise they HAD to get it out for that really nice release date (11.11.11) but it really could of benefited from some extra testing. Sure, it is a massive game, and play testing must be an absolute nightmare, but come on Bethesda. Nonetheless, it is a very good game, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Amazing music and some very good world building here. Definitely one of the better games to come out last year.

I started up Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS) after I couldn't decide what to play. I have a lot of DS and PSP games that I need to get through, and I asked my girlfriend to pick out on for me from a handful, I think which included Tales of the Abyss (NG+), Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. So I've put in about 15 or 20 hours to this game so far and I think its quite different to the other games closely related to it (IV and V namely.) I'm liking the degree of mystery and how they are not explaining things right away, building the story up slowly. Actually, the game is a little slow moving at times and I think, like with all DQ games, that can put people off. In fact I've been taking a break from this game due to my current MHP3rd obsession, and I hope to go back to this game soon before I forget too much of the story. Maybe the 3DS project I'm taking part in will make me play this after my hour-per-day sessions.

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OH! I nearly forgot completely! I was going to do a seperate post for an event I went to recently, I might leave my impressions to that post. All I'll say is that I got to play the Vita a week or two ago at a pre-launch event Sony had brought all across the UK (I  think?) Stay tuned for that in the next day or two. I'll be giving mini reviews of a lot of the launch games and what I think of the system itself. =)

Now Playing - "Lurker of the toilets"

Looking back, its been a long time since I last properly posted (way back to late March since I last did). I feel really bad about that...its just been a combination of uni work, internet problems, laptop problems and busyness I guess... but I'm determined not to let the blog die :D So, now that I've finished up my last exam for first year, I've had a bit more time on my hands and I should be posting on here more often, as long as my laptop doesn't pack in again or something...

I keep putting this off, either I forget or I am being too lazy...anyway, the list of games is growing that I need to talk about, as this post will be about the games that I've not only been playing this week, but over the past few weeks, as I've been MIA from these posts for a while now.

I bought Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) ages ago, before I started uni in September I think, and I've been playing it on and off since then, but I finally finished it the other day! I really enjoyed it towards the end when I started really concentrating on it for a week or two.

Its the kind of game like Disgaea where you really need to have just it on the go. If you play other games at the same time, you can get through it, but it will be much slower in terms of progress. This game is really deep, there is a lot to do just in the main story, and it took me a good 82 or 83 hours in the end to get through. If you want to go tracking down all the extras like the sidequests, which I did quite a lot of and fusing demons for your team, it will take a lot longer to finish. So you get a lot for your money, which is good. For the import price I payed (around £35, I am definitely not dissapointed with it :p)

So a little about the game in case you are wondering what in the hell I spent so much time on the game doing, or in case you are still considering buying the game but are on the fence about it. It plays like a dungeon crawler type thing, with you exploring the various levels of the Schwarzwelt first person. You get into random, turn based encounters with enemies and can Fight them or Talk with them, entering brief conversations where you answer questions and can get money, items or the demon's alliance, after which you can use it as a member on your team. Pretty much the same system as some of the other Shin Megami Tensei games, with some differences. Once you get used to it, its quite manageable.

I bought a 3DS and Super Monkey Ball 3D (3DS) at launch, and as my first experience of the 3DS, I was quite impressed by how well it works. Saying that, I was actually getting slightly strained eyes and a bit of a headache when I was playing it. I'm not sure if that was just a coincidence though or maybe I figured out a good level for the 3D slider, because I haven't really been getting any problems since then.

Although, I am a bit dissapointed by the lack of 3DS games that came out at launch here. I figured this would be a sleeper hit, or be a bit overlooked. Turns out it didn't really sell as much as the other games, but it isn't quite as good as I remember Monkey Ball to be. The difficulty has been eased up on, perhaps to give all the kids introduced to Nintendo by the Wii and DS revolution a chance. It didn't take me too long to get through the main 'story.' I've not played the Monkey Fight (other than on multiplayer) or Monkey Race modes and I might go back to them at some point. I'm really ambivalent about the 3DS and this game, so I might trade it in and wait for Ocarina of Time. I also want the big Disgaea 4 edition, which will cost me a lot to import though. In fact, I even thought about selling the 3DS around launch time... Hopefully things will improve on Nintendo's newest console. There are plenty of good announced games though, like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Cave Story, Bit Trip Saga, SMT games etc..

I downloaded and played a fair few different Ipod games, including Chaos Rings (Ipod), Nyan Cat, Plants vs Zombies (well, more watched my girlfriend play it, and was a bit of a backseat gamer, sorry! :P), Tiny Wings, Age of Zombies Lite, Dino Rush, Imaginary Range and Cut the Rope. I played little bits of those ones, Chaos Rings is cool apart from the puzzles-those are why I put it down, I actually couldn't get past one of the puzzles which they really don't give you any tips or really explain them at all...Nyan Cat is cool but I got the free version and I don't really think there is as much in it as the real version. Not too sure if I'll pick up the full one. Tiny Wings was apparantely as addictive as Angry Birds, but for me, it doesn't have as much variety, so I can see it getting old a lot quicker than other games. Its more for the Doodle Jump/Mega Jump obsessed crowds who like to improve on high scores. Cut the Rope is brilliant though, I found myself trying to get 3* in all the levels I had unlocked. Pretty nice idea for a puzzler game. Imaginary Range is really interesting. Its from Square Enix and one of the more unique games I've seen on the App store. Its half comic, half game with some really interesting art style. Best of all, it is free! So pick that up! Its rare to see reasonably priced Square Enix games on the App Store, so I don't see why this one is free.

Here and there, I played bits of Neverwinter Nights (PC) and Diablo II (PC), bringing back the old school WRPGs :D I'm still struggling in Neverwinter Nights, that game is damn hard to get used to. I started up a game with a Wizard using a range weapon, and I'm using what I think is the best way to play them, summon lots of guys, have a familiar and a follower to stop enemies from getting to me. Attacks of opportunity are really overpowered it seems... I actually made some progress though, I got the first of the monsters at the start killed. Diablo II is as awesome as always :D I'm in Act III with my elemental Druid, absolutely pwning everything that comes my way. Usually the council gives me some problems, this time they barely got any attacks in. I am kind of worried that when I get to Act IV though, when the bosses start becoming more resistant to Elements, I will have some difficulty... Might play some more bits and bobs of either slowly.

I played right through Vanquish (360), which I think is made by the same people that did Bayonetta. Its a mix of Gears of War and Lost Planet with some added craziness, like the jetpacks on the main character's knees, yeah JETPACKS on your knees XD

Its quite a short game, I finished it in 2 sittings over around 6 or 7 hours, which is around the right length I figure. Its a short, fun campaign with a rather bizarre story. Even the opening couple hours didn't make it any clearer to me. But then again, fans of shooters aren't always looking for the story to be the main strong point. Its worth a look if you see it cheaply. Definitely not as good as Bayonetta, but pretty good overall.

I also played all the way through Nier (360) after hearing ridiculously good praise in places and very average and poor reviews in other (more mainstream it could be said) places. So my thoughts in a nutshell? Average. However, there are plenty of brilliant moments in the game, the music shines all the way through, and some of the story moments are very well written and rather emotional in places. The core gameplay is rather MMO-ish crossed with some Devil May Cry type hack and slash combat (that gets very repetitive and old in my opinion.) However, the creators of the game werent pleased with leaving at that, they included lots of other little influences and references, which is quite amusing at times, even if they weren't done too well in places. You've got dungeons and sections of the game which are based on other games, such as the overhead(ish) Diablo dungeon, a Resident Evil style fixed camera dungeon and a visual novel style section where you go into a really well written dream world. Throw in some bullet hell type enemies and some 2D platforming and you've got a rather weird combination, which is pretty fun at times.

For me though, there were too many flaws...the gameplay gets really old. Even though you get some other weapon types later on, I found myself continuing with the one handed swords I was used to, they seemed most well balanced and easy to use. The quests are basically just boring backtracking fetch quests, the only reward you get for them being money. On top of those annoyances are the fact that you need to revisit the areas in the game each at least once. They really shouldn't have made me do that. Would a few extra areas of hurt? Bottom line is that its a lazy game and I really don't see why it got some talk of RPG of the year in places. That laziness could be argued to be apparent right down to the graphics. They do look outdated in all aspects. To me, the character designs are really bland as well. The main character is really ugly...

As much as it looks like I'm panning it, I did enjoy parts of the game. It even made me cry in one place. Its a short game, but to me it did drag a bit, and by the end, I just wanted to finish it... Still, I rated it 3/5. It has enough good points to balance out the bad ones.

I started up a game on Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PSP) after finishing Nier. Its very fast paced and the controls, particularly air control, took me a while to get used to. It frustrates me how you can't actually heal unless you are at a Save point though...It took me ages to realise I could abuse the Double Boost system to get health back when I'm really low, as I was nearly getting stuck in some dungeons by nasty enemies and not having enough health. The warp function is very useful actually, it speeds up the game even more.

So far though, I'm not really enjoying it as much as I did Ys Seven (PSP.) Its probably a combination of graphics (this one doesn't have very good graphics) and characters. Adol is dumb, as are most of the others. Although the game does have a pretty good script and soundtrack, I must admit. And once you get used to things, the gameplay is pretty solid, fun and fastpaced.

I FINALLY FINISHED Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)! After playing it on and off for a good few months now, especially when I was at uni, because we could do coop, I am now finished the single player quests (not all of them, but the ones I needed to do). It took me absolutely ages, around 300 hrs to get to this point. I'm also really near G-Rank in the multiplayer Guild hall.

Its a pretty damn frustrating and tricky game, but if you are patient with it and get used to everything like the timing and upgrading weapons and armour, you can really have some fun with this game. I'm glad to have finished it though...I won't have to be addicted till the new one comes out here sometime towards the end of summer...

In fact, I was so caught up in the Monster Hunter thing at some points, that I went looking for MH clones, and it seems I got the wrong one...I got Lord of Arcana at launch, as Square Enix brought out a rather nice special edition for it. I should have got Gods Eater Burst instead, as I've heard its a lot better. Its become pretty rare already here...Another one I was really considering was the first Phantasy Star Portable on the PSP, as I don't know anything about the games and it was a fiver. So I figured if I tried it and didn't like it, I wouldn't have shelled out the more or less full price that the 2nd Phantasy Star Portable was priced at. I didn't get it though, so I'll see if its still there next time I go through to Glasgow.

Now Playing - "Sticky Banana"

Technology has deserted me over the past few days...My phone has been really acting up, it occasionally won't be able to call or text, and it takes a long time for some texts to reach me or reach the person I'm texting. So I got a new sim card and that seems to have helped, but its still not completely solved the problem. It'll still crash from time to time when I open the adress book and it will take anywhere up to an hour or two for some texts to reach me =(

After that, some tea got spilt on my laptop when we were being idiots in uni. So its stopped working now, but I'm not entirely sure if it is down to that or just me taking the laptop into uni without a proper case or bag. Its had this problem before, or at least something similar, when the RAM failed. I just had to get new memory put in and got to keep everything on the hard drive. I'm hoping its something similarly easy(ish) to fix this time round. It won't turn on at the moment, which is kinda why I am a bit late in writing this post >_<

My PSP charger also broke yesterday as well, so I'll either need to get a new one if I want to play any PSP, or wait for a bit till I get more moniez...but my phone and laptop take priority unfortunately...so maybe no Monster Hunter for a while..

Anyway, I played some more Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) this week, FINALLY got past the quest I had been stuck on for a good few months, the goddamn Urgent quest in High Rank with the Monoblos and White Monoblos. Good times! I'm a bit further into the 8 star quests now-think I just need to do the Yian Garuga and multiple Shogun Ceanataur quest to progress to the next urgent. Yian Garuga is bloody hard though.... Anyway, I won't be doing much more on this unless I can borrow someone's charger at uni.

I played a little bit more of Pokemon Black (DS) earlier in the week. I'm now up to about 7 badges, nearly at the town for the next one. My team is all around the lv45 mark more or less, still 5 pokes and I don't think I'll be able to find another useful pokemon for the last place. So it'll probably just remain as a space for a HM slave with something like Strength or Fly or something. Its been on hold for a few days though, but I think I'm going to be playing more of it now that my psp charger is fooked D=

I also picked up a 3DS at launch even though I was kinda ambivalent on the whole thing...more or less down to the amount of money it would cost and the (in my opinion) poor selection of games at launch. I thought I'd go for what I thought could be a bit of an overlooked and underappreciated game at launch, Super Monkey Ball 3D (3DS)

The previous ones I played from the series were actually pretty good, and this one is a bit easier and I'm quite impressed with the 3D visuals as my first experience of the 3DS. Probably next game I get will be either Street Fighter IV or the Ocarina of time remake/port. It does actually give me headaches after a while of playing it, so I usually have the 3D turned down to at least half.

I've played it for a couple hours so far and I've got about halfway through the challenges...although they are actually getting quite tough. I need to get a case for my 3DS otherwise I won't be playing much of this outside the house. I'll post again some time next week but my laptop is broken so don't know when exactly

Now Playing - "Phoenix Down"

Another week flies by, and I've been juggling studying for the upcoming tests with the occassional bit of Pokemon when I get a chance. So I'm getting more into Pokemon Black (DS) now that I've progressed a bit further. The story has grown on me a fair bit. The whole thing going on with the legendary dragons is rather interesting, and it has given the world a bit more life and depth than the previous games where they didn't really tie the legendaries in at all to the story.

I've now got 7 badges and I've just flown back to the museum to have a chat with the Champion, the rivals and the other 'main' characters. I kind of forgot where they told me to go next...*epic facepalm* I'll figure it out next time I turn the game on... My team has been strengthened a bit as well, and I seem to be able to take out most types with the 5 I have now. I don't know if I mentioned last time that I was doing a mono-water challenge-essentially I can only use Pokemon with the Water type for the entire game. Although stuff like Water/non-water 2nd type is fine, to give me a bit more versatility.

Team is as follows at the moment:

Only, mine is the female Jellicent(on the far right), which is even more ugly...I really don't like many of these new pokes....

I was hoping to finish the game up before the end of the weekend, looks like thats not happening really...had too much studying to do for tomorrow's anatomy test D:

Other than that, I was intending to play some other stuff, either Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, or Lord of Arcana (PSP), the latter of which I decided on, as I bought it at launch a few weeks back and have barely played it. Its a Monster Hunter clone which is pretty bland in places, but I think it has quite a bit of depth to it in places. It has lots of stats, which I can geek out over, and spend time grinding! :D There isn't much you can do in MH to grind other than farm items and money to improve your gear, but in this you can also level up and strengthen that way. So I like that about it, but the combat is still pretty repetitive, and there are a little too many reaction commands for my liking...I have slow reflexes... T_T

I got a bit further in the half hour or so today I played it for, I got past the Monolith boss quest that had me stuck for ages, with a lot of deaths...this game is hard...

Anyway, I'll try and post more frequently on here...I say that a lot..but I am trying to bring it back to where it used to be, with actual decent content and lots of interesting pictures, links, videos and whatnot.

Now Playing - "scalchop!"

I've been away from the blog for a while now, but it was never going to truly die. I've had this blog too long to get rid of it now. Anyway, I've been pretty busy with university work and seeing people at uni, so I've not actually had much time to play games. That hasn't really stopped me from buying games, however, and March is a pretty expensive month for me, it looks like....
I've bought a few so far this month:
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Hyperdimension Neptunia
Pokemon Black

And I have a few things preordered for later in the month and onwards:
Black 3DS console (not sure what games I will get yet)
Dissidia 012 : Final Fantasy
Dragon Age II (isn't preordered, for some reason I just wasn't getting it at launch)

Anyway, its basically just one game that has been taking up my time this week. I got Pokemon Black (DS) on launch day last Friday and I've been playing it quite a bit since. Not obsessively I'd say, but at least a little bit most days. One day I refrained from playing it at all so I could make some progress on my uni coursework. We've got a number of deadlines coming up. 2 essays, 2 class tests and a lab book to finish up and hand in. I've done both essays and most of the lab book(which I'll finish on Monday) so I'm slightly ahead of some people in the class. That means I can relax and play Pokemon! :D The others that have Pokemon are way ahead of me though, so I've got some catching up to do...

So my opinions on the new Pokemon games so far would be overall, slightly dissapointed. But only slightly...The main things I don't really like about them are the new pokemon. A lot of them are just really uninspired and bland. I mean, there is a generic dog and deer pokemon who look about as boring as can be. I should probably cut them a bit of a break, because they are up to 649 in the pokedex now, so they are bound to be running out of ideas. But should they really be dragging the series on for much longer? Some people believe not. I have some fun with the games even if I am going off the series slowly. This might just be because I overplayed some of them by going into the competitive side of breeding and training, but its partially down to the series' stagnation in a way.

Story wise, the game doesn't really do much new. Its the same idea as before, you play a kid who goes out adventuring with a pokemon in an effort to beat the Elite 4 and complete the pokedex. You end up entangled in Team Plasma's affairs. So far I'm a bit confused by the whole Team Plasma thing. Their motives are a bit wierd, and they seem really poorly organised, ending up doing random things which accomplish nothing. Its not like Team Rocket which you probably enjoyed watching in the series or the games, its different, Team Plasma fail more (and not in such awesome ways.)

I probably just need to play the game for a couple more hours, and wait till it grows on me. For all the criticism I've given it so far, I am enjoying it. It definitely looks good, with all it's 3D sequences and whatnot.

I'm playing through with an all-water team to make it a bit more challenging. This is bulking out my play time with some extra grinding, but I am liking the challenge that this provides. I've got 5 badges now, and moving towards the next town.

I'll try and post some more on the blog when I can. Its not dead yet! :D

Now Playing - "Are you hurt anywhere? Face, chest, ovaries?"

I've been trying to bring back my hardcore RPG self from the perilous casualness that comes with owning an IOS device, and I played some rather awesome games this week.

First person dungeon crawler RPGs have a really nice appeal to me actually. I don't know why that is, as I never really played many of them when I was young. So its not really true nostalgia for them, its probably just as they feel fresh, yet nice, oldschool and hardcore to me. So I'm trying to pick up a few of these type of games and break into the genre. Dark Spire might be next on my to buy list in terms of FPS RPGs, its been sitting in one of the game stores in town for a while now, reduced way down. Pretty good for an imported game. I'll check if its still there some time this week. Anyway, I put some more time into Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) mainly over the weekend. I'm still in the fourth sector, Delphinus...so progress is slow, but at least there is some now that I've finished Golden Sun 1 and 2. Anyway, I made sure to try and improve my demons in the 5 or so hours I played of this over the weekend. I managed to get all the necessary demons for the Special Fusion of Black Frost! =D Awesome! I added a few more to my party that were of decent levels and stats, which helped a fair bit. The story is one of the main aspects I am enjoying the game actually, as well as the characters and the choices you take(even if they have been rare so far). I like a good bit of sci-fi, and this game has a pretty dark, tense and thrilling feel to it. There are some generally creepy moments (The first similar piece of media that comes to mind is the movie called the Thing), which is impressive for a text-driven story and one with static character portraits and arguably fairly limited graphics. I'm getting near the end of Delphinus I think, based on the mission log at least, there are some really overpowered abilities that some of the enemy demons have. One such ability that made me stay away from Strange Journey on Monday(in addition to having uni) is 'Bite the Dust.' I think it works as a status effect designated by a bomb it looks like. It seems like if the demon with the status dies, it takes out the entire rest of the team near enough. It might as well if it doesn't, as the hurt it puts on the rest of the team is brutal. Well...I got 2 game overs in less than an hour to these bastards using this ability, so I put it down for now. I'll try and forget about it and go back to this game in a few days. I also dabbled in a bit of grinding in Etrian Odyssey (DS) while waiting for the Superbowl to start up on Sunday. Its painfully slow, even if it can be pretty simple fun. Its also bloody hard..Anyway I've got a mini-aim for myself before I can progress. I've got to get my team up to lv20 before I attempt the first sanctum boss again. I'm currently at around 17 across the board at the moment.

Earlier in the week I finally finished up Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA) as I said above. I had been wanting to finish it 100%, getting all the Djinn, Summon Tablets etc and I made good progress towards that goal. It took me a fair bit of time to get through the last couple dungeons, but I managed them without too much difficulty. So at the moment I've got all the Djinn, thats 72 Djinn that you can get if you import your data from the first game. I also got all but one of the Summon tablets, as I need to beat Dullahan, who is pretty fuckin gay. He is a lot stronger than the final boss(who I gotta say, I was expecting a 2nd battle against in some different form) like Deadbeard in GS1. I can get him pretty close to death by summon rushing(cheap I know..) but when he does Djinn storm and drains all my Djinn, I lose my main Psynergy such as Cool Aura(for a lot of healing across the party). There is probably a way to do it by abusing the Djinn that protect you with shields, but the damage he fires out after Djinn storming is brutal. Nasty boss. I reckon I can beat it if I get a bit of luck or really take my time to plan and calculate though.

I played some more of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) after playing a little bit of multiplayer at uni. I got my full Hypnocatrice set of armour actually. I wanna go to sleep now, so thats all I can be bothered saying right now...I was supposed to have this posted on Sunday, its now nearly Tuesday T_T

Roguelikes are another subgenre of RPGs that I've been trying to get into. I admit I've never really played much of the games in the genre but I've heard a few things about them, and the genre always interested me. They have their roots in games such as Rogue(where the name comes from) and Nethack. Nethack is one of the games which a lot of current roguelikes take inspiration from. It turns out there are a couple roguelike style games on the Apple App store, so I downloaded iNethack (Ipod) for free and played a little bit of it. Its hard to get used to at first, as I ascended the first set of stairs and ended up escaping the dungeon. Thats doing it wrong however, its more like Diablo in that you have to just keep descending further into the dungeon to progress. Less forgiving however, so if you die, its all over and you have to start again. I've played a handful of times and the furthest I got to was the 4th floor of the dungeon. I'm definitely interested to try more of these games, so I'm open to recommendations/suggestions. I'm thinking ZHP could be a good interesting entry title, as I like NIS's quirky sense of humour.

Now Playing - "Whack a Shakalaka"

Its been kind of a wierd week actually. Our tutorials and labs are starting up and things are starting to get a bit more busy now at university. And I've been kinda hit or miss when it comes to playing games this week. I've not been largely impressed with either of the games I'm currently playing. Quite often I'd try and find other stuff to do with my time like chatting with people at uni and stuff other than play games. Still, I put in some more time to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) which is still pretty fun, even if it is quite hard at the stage I am at now. I'm on the first set of Nekoht's quests, the 7 star ones and there are some that I find way too hard. The double Congalala would be one I thought wouldn't give me problems, but the thing is, their damage is much higher than normal. Add to that a Bulldrome (not hard on their own, but mega annoying when it is in the same area as the Congas) and you've got a nasty quest I reckon. I've tried that one a couple times and most times it has taken 1 of my lives within minutes. Other than that one, the Basarios doesn't seem hard in terms of attacks but it becomes hard when you consider it's health. So its more of a challenge to outlast it and do enough damage before running out of time or Hot Drinks. I reckon I can manage the Basarios if I try out some different weapons and perhaps armour sets.

I've been trying to farm against some weaker monsters such as Rathalos (in the Guild hall) for some items. I managed to kill Teostra or Lunastra (whichever is the Blue one) as it keeps it's health when you beat it. So after smashing it's horn with a Dragon attribute weapon in the first quest, it couldn't use the Flame aura. Easy pickings. So now I've got some more Elder Dragon bones and all the Flame Dragon scales I need for the next upgrade to my Djinn SNS-up to Blazing Falchion.

Also this week I improved my Kirin armour a fair bit with all the money I was making. I got it up to lv12, giving some pretty good Defense and I got enough Kut-Ku Ears to make the 5 Psychic Vision gems for the set. Its my first time using the Autotracker skill~I can see why it is so useful to have. Next up I need to finish off a few 7* quests required to unlock the next urgent which I believe is Monoblos and White Monoblos-they aren't nearly as intimidating as Diablos was to me. Black Diablos have a shitload of health...I hope this one isn't a repeat of that quest that put me off for weeks.

Other than that, I picked up my save on Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA) as I was getting near the end of the game. I had intended to finish the game before I started back at uni. While I got close, I'm pretty sure I ran out of time/got distracted. So I put in couple more hours to this, mostly at the weekend really, and I am now up to final dungeon, in fact I've done the final dungeon (its long...) and just need to either a) finish the game or b) go and do some optional stuff to get the final 3 Djinn and couple summon tablets, as well as finish the optional dungeons before going to the endgame stages.

Wow...that was rather boring most likely. I've put some videos of some soundtrack picks I noticed recently.

I think the Hypno theme reminds me of Diablo II slightly, most likely the Act II music from that game.

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.

Now Playing - "I heard a rumour that you're an idiot, is there any truth to that?"

I start back at uni tomorrow, which is always stressful for me, as I'm always nervous I won't be able to readjust my body clock to early starts. I've been practicing going to sleep a bit earlier than normal and getting up earlier for the past couple days. Then again, I stress out way too much about the stupidest things... ;_; I mean I am looking forward to going back to uni as well because I've started getting bored with not enough to do in my days off. A month is probably a little bit too much for a Christmas holiday (its more than I'm used to, or perhaps its just I've had way too many of these Christmas breaks already at school and uni beforehand...)

I've been trying to move on with my save of Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA) and finish it up by the time I start back at uni. I got a bit sidetracked and bored at times, but I am still enjoying this game. I'm now on the second bit of the world map that you can unlock, at the Shaman's village about to do the road of trials. This is as far as I've been in the game I believe. I didn't get this far when I first played the game originally. There is so much more to do in this game than in the first game, definitely. And to be honest, I've been using a guide a little bit more than I would normally do with a game, but for some reason I want to 100% complete this game as I did so in the first, transferred my data via a Gold password (I actually have a GBA cable but couldnt find a second console) so I can get a total of 72 Djinn in this game I think. So I'm going for that, as well as the optional quests and whatnot. I don't know if I'll be able to get all the items in the game on this playthrough, but I'm trying to get as many as possible.

Towards the end of the week, I started up my file on Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) again. I had put the game down a month or two ago because I was stuck on quest with 2 Diablos, one normal and one of the Black variant. It was a bit of a wall for me because I had got more or less as strong weapons as I could get with the quests I had unlocked. My armour could always use some work, but I had upgraded my Blango set pretty far as it stood. So I eventually got past that after trying a few different things, Sonic Bombs, Flash Bombs, Traps and Tranq bombs to catch them. I managed to catch the Black one after whittling it's massive amount of health down with my Princess Rapier to try and poison it when I could. It(and most monsters) seems to get poisoned when they are vulnerable. In this case, when you Sonic Bomb it out of the ground. I had tried an Ice attribute sword and shield, and use it to cut their tails off, but I didn't have massive success with reaching the tails with the rather short range of the SnS. So other than Ice, poison is fairly effective in killing the Black Diablos, or at least taking some of it's health away.

Anyway, now that I've beaten that quest, I am stuck once again. This time on Shen Gaoren, the final Urgent quest from the Village Elder in MHFU. I've been using Sword and Shield the entire time through the game as its a fairly good beginner's weapon set choice. I'm really struggling with doing enough damage to Shen in the time limit I have for this quest. SnS is one of the weakest weapon types in the game, but I like it as it is fairly well rounded. It is fast, light, defensive and has a pretty good range of elemental and status weapons. So I've been trying out a few other options, such as buffing my attack, using extra ballista shots and a whole bunch of bombs, large, small and bounce types. I can get his legs bright red and make him fall, but finishing him off before he nukes the town is proving rather tough...I've tried making bowguns as it is one of the easiest ways to take him down, but I'm a bit of a newb at those. I've not decided if I'm gonna concentrate on blademaster weapons such as my SNS, forge a hammer or go into HBGs for this guy. Ideally I'd like to just continue on with my trusty sword and shield and go through the entire game with just the one type of weapon.

I'll catch up with my friends in uni tomorrow and ask the one guy who got me into Monster Hunter in the first place about Shen. Hmm, I tried out a Hammer after watching a few videos and managed to do the Shen Gaoren rather easier. The damage it puts out makes it cower down a lot more often, which is crucial for preventing damage to the town it seems.

Now Playing - "I can happily declare that the 'Cake' is not a lie!"

I meant, as always, to post this on Sunday, but I ended up staying over at a friend's place, having a few beers and playing some games online. So anyways, better late than never I guess =p We were playing Super Street Fighter IV, Halo Reach, Blazblue: Continuum Shift on XBL multiplayer for a bit of a laugh. I'm surprised by how sound the people on Blazblue are. Usually, a lot of the games on Xbox Live are full of 13 yr old kids who swear at you in undecipherable high pitched screams [One reason I don't generally like Xbox Live.] But after 2 games in a row online, our opponents sent us messages saying good game, or something equivalent. We got chatting to one or two of them, including one guy who had a Castlevania reference in his name, so I had to praise them on that! XD

[Possible spoilers, I'll try to keep em to a minimum though.]

I finished up the last few chapters of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3) this week. I had heard that ending was described as wierd and "wtf" by quite a few people online. And to be honest, I can kind of see what they meant. It is indeed a departure from the norm for the series. Still, despite all the games minor flaws and annoyances for me, I definitely enjoyed playing it. It has some amazingly atmospheric areas and I like how they build up the story and mythology with the cutscenes, scrolls, bestiary type thing and narration, it adds to the depth of the game. Some parts of the game seem a bit unneccesarily drawn out, towards the end, the game doesn't really do a good job of why you go to certain areas. The story could really be considered one of the weak points in this game, as could be the music. For me, the soundtrack doesn't stand up to some of the others in the series-this one seems too ambient and quiet. That might be partially down to the sound effects in the game overriding it. I'd have to get a look at the soundtrack before I make my final verdict on it.

My favourite areas were probably some of the ones where you are in the Vampire's Castle around the middle of the game. It has some amazing backdrops, especially when you are outside and see the entire castle exterior. I might do some more of this game on another difficulty in preparation for the DLC; Reverie and Resurrection, which come out in a few months. I'll save the more spoiler heavy stuff for then, possibly including a review if I can find time.

I played some Ipod Touch stuff when Golden Sun had been pissing the hell out've me. I actually finished up Infinity Blade and Plants vs Zombies. Plants vs Zombies is pretty damn awesome, even though it does drag and get a tad repetitive in places. I just love the quirkiness it has. It really shines through in the ending credits song. I'll embed it below, don't worry, there are no spoilers for the *cough* story. But if you haven't finished the game, play through it yourselves and see what you think. Good fun game, definitely recommended. You can get it on mostly every platform now I think, minus DS, Wii and PSP. Infinity Blade is one of the most talked about IOS apps mainly for the graphical prowess. It really taxes the Ipod Touch 4th gen that I'm playing it on, seriously, the thing started heating up like I hadn't seen before. Graphically it definitely looks nice, I give it that. The lighting and textures are very well done, but when it comes down to it, it is mostly a point and click environment you can move the camera across. That was pretty much the only way they could probably have got away with this level of graphics I think. Gameplay wise, I'm a little let down by it. I don't really like the combat, which is more or less like Punch Out, so I've heard. You can hold left or right to dodge and you can block or parry. Those are your defensive skills, then you've got the standard attacks, mega attacks, super attacks and magic as your offensive options. I think thats it, its pretty smooth stuff in combat, but I can see it getting old fast. To be honest, I don't know if I've finished the game yet. Its Bloodline 1 which I've done, I think it counts as 1 playthrough even though I didn't beat the endboss. What happens is you get pwned, and your descendants carry on where you left off, with your level and gear. Its a fairly short game(only 10 or so enemies per playthrough), but I don't particularly feel short changed in any way. The graphics and opportunity to try this out are both well worth what I payed. I got it for half price at £3.50. I'll definitely be playing more of this and PvZ in the future, doing more playthroughs. I like the whole pick up and play in short bursts idea of gaming that the IOS devices give you. I've also got Chaos Rings (apparantely a fairly lengthy RPG) and a few others to take up my time when I go back to uni.

I continued on my save game on Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA). I really don't remember that much of the game actually. So it has been cool revisiting some of the areas in the game that I went through last time I played the game a few years ago when the game came out. I never actually finished it. I think I got stuck on some puzzle involving the boat. Which is my next point. The game is definitely harder than the first. I've died more than a handful of times in battle, and definitely got stuck on some of the puzzles, which on one hand, are much better disguised. They succeed in blending interactive objects into the world slightly better than the first game. On the other hand, some of the puzzles are really not intuitive, and some are just downright poorly designed. It shouldn't really be a negative that puzzles are tricky, because they should be. Just some of the design in this game seems a bit questionable. There is a real lack of direction sometimes. They'll just neglect to tell you where to go. Its like they want me to pull up the FAQ again. Then when I do find out where to go, its apparantely back halfway across 1 or more continents on the world map. So it doesn't have a very good flow to the game, in my opinion, especially on the world map and where you have to go next.

Then there are some of the dungeons. They are fairly well designed for the most part, some seem a bit long, moreso than necessary. For example, Air's Rock is a dungeon around 6-7 hours in roughly. It is apparantely the longest dungeon in the game, and is very long in comparitive RPG terms. There shouldn't be such a long dungeon this early in the game, that much should be obvious.

In the dialogue, it is quite interesting for the most part. The story is quite intriguing to me as I never actually finished it. They have set up quite a well fleshed out mythology which is quite nice and simple. Simple but effective, having 4 elemental powers and a host of Psynergies derived from them and different cultures and civilisations becoming powerful as a result of these. Some of the conversations with NPCs are a bit too long, ie. the one on the boat with the pirates and 2 lots of townspeople. They can be slightly drawn out, and in fact frustrating at times. I don't like that they give you choices between yes and no when only one of them is accepted. Sometimes you'll be pressing No and the party or the NPCs that decide you really meant Yes.

As much as I am tearing this game a new one, I am enjoying it. It has some amazing graphics for the age of the game, these were one of the selling points of the Golden Sun games back in the GBA days and its a fairly nice throwback RPG in many ways. It has quite an oldschool feel to it.

Now Playing - "An evil desert? Is that even possible?"

I meant to post this yesterday(Sunday) but completely forgot. I went out for a while to the pub with some people from school that I hadn't seen in ages. Pretty good to catch up with them again after so long.

Anyway, I've been making some progress in games, finishing the main stories of 2 games, albeit rather short RPGs...so here are some of my musings.

Finally...I finished Dragon Warrior Monsters (GB). I've had this game for quite a while now after a friend sent me it randomly for a birthday a while back. He knows me pretty well, and I hadn't even told him that I had played the 2nd one of these games but never saw the first anywhere, and he sent me it up. He had played through a fair bit of it, but I dont think he had finished it. Compared to Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, there are definitely some balancing issues, this one seems harder a) to grind in and b) to breed a good selection of monsters early on. Still, once I had got past the ridiculously long late game dungeons (the longest one is 29 floors, and then a couple back to back strong bosses) I had access to a good selection of monsters and good places to grind, so managed to bring my team just up to speed for the final battle. I like in some ways the simplicity of the games. They remind me of the early pokemon days, where it doesn't matter about EV training, stats are determined in other ways, mostly by breeding, which you can put various degrees of effort into understanding and using. These games are kind of cheap for the carts only, so I'd definitely recommend trying them out if you like the pokemon games, the dragon quest/warrior games, or the more recent Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker games (they are basically the same idea and have wi-fi online as well...something is still keeping me away from Joker though, I've not tried it.)

I started up a New game on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3) earlier in the week. I chose the Easy difficulty, which is a bit unusual for me...I usually choose at least normal if I have a choice, but I figured, I get trophies for all difficulties but more than that, I suck pretty bad at Action games like this, so went for Easy. It seems to be a good fit so far, its not far too easy, some of the fights give a fair bit of a challenge (namely the Titan bosses, which are Shadow of the Colossus inspired battles.) I'm enjoying the game for the most part, its got a really nice Castlevania atmosphere and feel to it in places, but it does seem different in many ways. I'm not entirely sold on some of the stuff-it highlights objects you should be looking for, for example ledges, or objects you can interact with your whip analogue, the combat cross. So it doesn't really let you do it for yourself. On one hand, it means you won't really get stuck, but on the other hand it does feel like they think the player is too idiotic and has to be told everything to do... The enemies are not too interesting, they are fairly generic so far, but I'm really impressed with some of the graphics and areas you visit. The game looks amazing. I'm currently on chapter 8/12 and going to try and finish the game before the end of the week. Lost series 6 is taking priority in my PS3 right now though, so its slightly on hold til I finish Lost up. No spoilers by the way! I tried to isolate myself from everyone else who had finished it way back when it aired in the US, I prefer waiting for the DVDs and marathonning the shit out of series like this. =D

I finished up Golden Sun (GBA) this week, doing Crossbone Isle and then going on to the final stages of the game. Its very easy...I don't think I died more than once the entire playthrough. I realised that I've done Crossbone Isle before, last time I played through the game. I also imported my save data for Golden Sun: The Lost Age. I'm going to play through it next probably. At times I really enjoyed playing through this game again, but at other times, some of the dialogue seems needlessly padded out and rather annoying. I definitely enjoyed it more back when it came out, but it has been pretty cool to revisit this game after a few years. I'm a bit dissapointed at how short the game is, even to 100% finish everything, it wont take you more than 40 hours probably. I'm not actually too sure on certain things, like what the level cap is, because you can import your levels as you take data to the 2nd game.

Now Playing - "Sticky White Stuff"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now Playing - "Whadya buyin stranger?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now Playing - "Shine Get!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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