Its ALIVE!!!

Wow, I've been away from the blog for what seems like ages. I'm not ready to let the blog die yet. Time to start posting more frequently on here I think. I've been mostly busy with daily life, mostly consisting of my rather busy university schedule. I'm now in 2nd year of my Optometry course and I've just started my exams for the first semester. Pathology exam=done, Ophthalmic Materials and Introductory Diagnostic Techniques still to do at the start of the week. After that, I'm done for Christmas! =D (Well once I finish off my Christmas shopping for people)

So hopefully I'll have some time to get some posts done on here and play some of the games that have unfortunately become added to my long list of games which I have backlogged over the last few months. Some big titles in there that I picked up but didn't get a chance to play include;
Dark Souls (PS3, 360) I really, really enjoyed Demon's Souls so want to play this when I have a decent amount of time and concentration to devote to it, to really enjoy it and progress through it. Maybe over Christmas I'll get a chance to play this one. I got it on PS3 but I now realise its on the 360 as well. I kind of wonder if the community has taken to this game.
Xenoblade Chronicles (You Americans can now rejoice that it is coming to you/mutter under your breath about the high import prices you payed to import.) It seems the Wii is coming to the end of its lifetime, which is a bit unusual...I don't normally like to see consoles fade away or developers leave them alone because a newer console is on its way out as it usually means we miss out on a lot of good games. I will need to do some reading up about the Wii U (I'm still not too sure whether its a new console altogether or some kind of Wii peripheral...I watched the videos of it initially but didn't really do much investigating into what it actually is. I did a similar thing with the PS Vita, I still don't fully understand what it does and how it integrates with back compatibility and PS3 games.) Even though the Wii looks to be getting close to the end of its lifetime (it hasn't been that long has it?) there are still some good games coming out. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) got some really good praise and reviews when it came out recently. I'll only be picking that one up if I can cheaply find the special edition with the Wii Motion Plus bundled in with it (because I hate to buy peripherals and don't have that thing yet) Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online or Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online (Wii/Wii U) should definitely be interesting. People are finding it fashionable to hate on this one and its not even out yet. I'm optimistic about it-I had some good fun with Monster Hunter Tri recently. I mean, the devoted Capcom servers are not ideal (they kicked me off more than a few times, although I don't know how much that was down to my router being kind of far from the Wii) but they did the job. For a free online game (it had a subscription fee in Japan), it was a lot of fun and done quite well. So...after that long winded aside.. Xenoblade is one mammoth game from what I've heard, so I really want to have some time available to really enjoy it. I've only heard good things, and for me (if I'd played either), this or Skyrim would be my game of the year. I expect these 2 games to do well this year in terms of awards.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim (PS3, 360, PC) is the next one that everyone has been talking about that I've not played yet. I don't mind though (even though at every moment people have been inadvertently trying to spoil the game for me) as I've had a lot of studying to do for the past few weeks, plus I've got millions of games to play in the meantime. It will be in my possession at Christmas (Thankyou to my awesome girlfriend!) Not too sure what kind of character I'm going to play through as when I start the game up over the holidays yet. I'm thinking Dark Elf (like I normally end up going in Elder Scrolls games), Khajit or Argonian (the cats and lizard characters always look quite cool!=p)

Theres quite a lot of games that I've played through recently actually...

I finally got some games on Steam, and got my account upgraded fully. Damn steam sales finally made me give in. Despite the fact that there were so many games on sale in the Autumn sale, I only picked up the Zeboyd games double pack of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves The World. I've played through Breath of Death so far and found it pretty fun actually. Its got a lot of old school references and throwbacks. Check out my screenshots for some of the ones I noticed. Not too sure how to link to them exactly, but have a look on my profile;  http://steamcommunity.com/id/berserkalucard/


I got The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D on my birthday from 'Ms Planet Hell' I suppose you could call her hehe =p So I finally got a chance to play this game again after absolutely ages! I never originally got an N64 so didn't get to play what some people have called one of the best (if not the best) games of all time. I saw it occasionally at my friend's house and on the Gamecube collection thing that had it, but was always put off by the horrific N64 graphics...They just made me really nauseous and scared. Ironically, the game was to be released when the 3DS came out and it was able to give people headaches for different reasons =p I was really impressed with the graphics they did for this version. The 3D was a lot better done than the previous 3D game I played, Monkey Ball. I think the 3DS is starting to get some decent games coming out now, its starting to become a system people are wanting to play now. Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land (or some stupid name) are two that seem good so far. I've picked up the 2nd half of the Ambassador programme games now, and there are some quite decent games thrown in there for the GBA!

I got really into the Monster Hunter games over the space of a few months (read: 500+ hours into MH: Freedom Unite) so I picked up Monster Hunter Tri after ages of deliberating (putting off buying the game). It was nowhere near as long to finish as Freedom Unite (which has the most content of the MH games to come out in English) but it does have a lot to do in the online quests. I finished that one in about 40 or 50 hours. I also found a good price for Portable 3rd shortly after Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD ver. was released so I imported the original one on psp (actually I got the best sellers edition.) and really enjoyed that. It has a really nice feel to it, the graphics are amazing for a psp game =p Jinouga is a really nicely designed flagship monster, and I'm definitely looking forward to picking up Monster Hunter 3G even though that will take me out of my current MH-free period...seriously, those games are like crack in game form XD

I was in quite a mood to play old school feeling dungeon crawling games, and I got through Etrian Odyssey and Orcs & Elves. One is huge, long and difficult (nearly went to a thats what she said moment there) and one is short and unusual. Both are really good fun though with a lot of nice quirks and throwbacks to older games, and I'm looking forward to playing more dungeon crawlers soon. Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard is in my list of games to get through, and I'm really wanting to pick up Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It looks really tough but good in terms of gameplay and artstyle, all for a budget price on PSN.

There are a few games that have been announced for English audiences that I'm definitely looking forward to. Some I never thought would come out over here. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3) has recently been announced for America and Europe (on my birthday!) Yeah, I know this is quite old news, but I've been away for ages, and I'll get to the newer stuff eventually =p

Ni no Kuni should be really good! I'm hoping that it sells well over here, as it kind of flopped when it came out in Japan. They need some kind of special edition to get people interested I reckon =p Either way, I'll pick it up to support Namco Bandai in localising similar games.




The Last Story is another one that I was pleased that it would be coming out to Europe, but I thought it wouldn't be a definite (and would somehow depend on how well Xenoblade did, even though I'm pretty sure they are in no way connected) release. Europeans have a release date for this one now, which is super good news!

Tales fans are getting quite a lot of good news as well recently. Tales of the Abyss came out here, so I picked it up but didn't start it right away like I had wanted to. I was too busy finishing off Tales of Phantasia (and studying mostly). I'll get to Tales of the Abyss soon though, I'm glad us PAL gamers got a chance to play that finally without importing. Not sure if I'll fall into that game's hater camp or appreciative camp. Tales of Graces f has a few release dates. America first and then sometime Summer 2012 for us lot in Europe. Hopefully Tales of Xillia ends up coming over, or at least Innocence R on the Vita =p

I could go on for much longer, but I'll leave it at that! My exams are looming, but that means I'll be done soon at least... =p

Some awesome news.

NIS America has announced they will be bringing some rather awesome looking games over to Europe. I was quietly hoping that they would bring us at least one of either Cladun or ZHP, and it looks like they will be bringing both over to the PSN. I've noticed a lot of RPGs heading straight for the PSN here, probably to keep costs associated with localising for Europe to a minimum. Not only that, we will be getting more Disgaea love. Disgaea Infinite and Prinny 2 will be coming over to the PSN as well! Good thing I never imported Infinite. Although...I can see my memory stick running out in the near future. Maybe I won't get all of these ones..

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2010/102910e.html

GOG.com (Good Old Games) has put Neverwinter Nights Diamond edition up for sale for the low price of $9.99. This is brilliant news as I was actually considering getting NWN soon. And the versions are all very cheap apart from this Diamond edition which has all of the add-on stuff included. 

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition

Then there is what was called Super Dimensional Game Neptune in Japan. I remember reading about this on RPGamer a while back and never expected it to come out over here. It is now! It will be coming out in North America and Europe some time in 2011 under the name Hyperdimension Neptunia.

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2010/102910d.html

It seems to be a really quirky, light hearted RPG which parodies and pokes fun at a lot of things gaming. I'll be looking forward to seeing what kind of reviews this one gets. NIS sure has a lot of games on the go at the moment, and I hope they live up to the level of quality they were claiming they would get them to a while back.

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 – “ I'm sweating like a hooker in church!“

I got a PS3 the other day to make sure I could play Final Fantasy XIII when it arrives. I preordered the PS3 version a while back when I heard about some of the differences, but I'm not exactly sure which is the better version, or even if there are many differences. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) was the game I chose to come with the console bundle, and I'm glad I finally got to play it, even if I haven't played the first game much. I might pick it up if I can see it cheap, but I heard it doesn't do a few things as well as it's sequel. 

I got to say, this game is really intense. It is so addictive, I played it through from start to finish, as well as some of the multiplayer all in a day and a half or so. I like how dynamic some of the platforming bits are, like when you are climbing up the train as it hangs off the cliff, and bits of it are falling off and the whole stage moves as you go. I didn't think I would like the game as much as I did, but I was really pleasantly surprised. It looks amazing, especially on the HDMI cable I've got plugged in.

I've got Disgaea 3 as well on the PS3, but I want to wait till I play FFXIII and probably the 2nd Disgaea game before I go onto it, so I downloaded one of the games I had my eye on for a while, since before I had a PS3. Flower (PSN) is a cheap downloadable title on the PSN, and it is a really unique game, where you take control of the winds, and blow petals around a drab grey environment, bring flowers into bloom and colour to the world. Sounds...not as good as it is. Try it out, its only around £6 and it has received a lot of awards.  

Golden Sun (GBA) I had wanted to go through this game again, and had started it up last week, got about 4 or 5 hours in, only to find that my data deleted itself for some reason. I'm not sure if its due to a problem with the cart, or my original DS...which kind of sucks considering I want to transfer some data onto the 2nd game. So I dropped this game after those shenanigans. I don't want to get to the end of the game only to find the game decides to shaft me once again.

When I was away over the weekend, I played some more of Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) trying to get some more characters to lv 100, and work on items for the shop completion. I've got my Cloud of Darkness to 100 now, and my friend got the FAAAAAABULOUS Emperor to around lv 90 in a few battles by doing the Exdeath 'exploit.' 

I'd heard good things about Beyond Good and Evil (PS2), so started it up the other day. I'm a few hours in and it seems to have a lot of atmosphere, but its yet to hook me in. Gonna try play some more as I think the story is starting to pick up. I like the photography side of things, as it seems well integrated into the game.

Perhaps best of all, I got to play a little bit of Final Fantasy XIII (360) on Saturday at D-Con, a free anime/art convention I was at over the weekend. Graphically, it looks really nice. Some of the character designs are very nicely done. The technology for the hair was one thing that really jumped out at me. The battle system was something that could take some getting used to. Its very dynamic, the characters are always moving, and you can move the camera to some degree. In the 10 or 15 mins I had with the game, as well as what I saw from other people playing it, I couldn't exactly tell if it was nearer to a turn based or action type battle system. It looks like there are charge up times similar to FFIV, like some kind of ATB mechanic. Some people have already receieved their preorder copies, which I am annoyed at..mine has been shipped according to Amazon, I'm really looking forward to playing it.