Gaems..dunno what to play =/

Ok, so I finished up Dragon Quest IX and Demon's Souls and now I don't know exactly what to play next. Ys Seven and Eternal Poison will be here soon, so I've left out the psp from this random selection in an effort to decide what to play next. I've taken 3 Fortune Cookie Picks from Backloggery, from the following unfinished games on these consoles: PS3, PS2, PS1, DS, GBA, PC. Basically what it does is take a random game and suggest it to you, apparantely it is always right. ¬_¬

#1 Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone (GBA) ~ Hmm, I've tried the start of this game and liked Riviera, which was the first game in the Dept. Heaven series. Might give this a shot, as many people go on about how good this is. Its a tactical RPG with quite a unique flavour to it, as with many Sting games.
#2 Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (DS) ~ I can't play this yet, not finished the first game and probably will not for a while. Its a hardcore dungeon crawler, with a really cool old school feel in places. Some people say it was a step back from the first, others say it improved upon things slightly. I'm enjoying the first game, getting through it slowly. I'm a bit worried about the fact that your quest log can only have a maximum amount of ongoing quests in this one though. I don't want to have to play with a walkthrough so I don't screw myself over. I'm not using one for the first game and I'm doing ok.  Its rewarding when you progress down a floor or level up enough to take on the enemies or FOEs, but I can tell the first stratum boss is gonna kick seven shades of shit outta me.. -_-
#3 Vagrant Story (PS1) ~ Another highly regarded game which I've not finished. I tried to play this a few months ago when I joined up with the RPG-a-thon on backlog but got frustrated with it and quit. Some of the things about it haven't aged well and pissed me off (camera for one). I ended up getting disorientated and lost. I really should put some more time into this and see where the story goes. Its supposed to be a very good action RPG from the ps1 era. I played it for around 2 or 3 hours last time I played, and I think I was nearly used to the gameplay mechanics. There was one I can vaguely remember that pissed me off slightly, and it was something to do with accuracy in combat, the Risk element...I think. It just seemed unessecary (I can't spell..)

So which one am I gonna play outta these? I'm not too sure. Think I'll put Vagrant Story in for another blast. The story is supposed to be really good. If it annoys me I'll play some Uncharted 2 multiplayer or do some DQIX postgame. I'll probably end up playing Ys Seven when it arrives though.

Games on my Radar #6

I've got a couple games with relatively stupid names I'm going to talk about today. Lets hope the games are better than the names. Rhyming...

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC/PS3/360) 

I've not seen an awful lot on this game yet, there is only one trailer out and a few pieces of art from what I can tell. It will either be brilliant or really dissapointing. I mean, they've got such good pedigree on the team (is that the right word?) - R.A. Salvatore is designing the world, Todd McFarlane is designing the characters and controlling art direction and they've got Ken Rolston from the Elder Scrolls III and IV overseeing stuff. They have promised a high fantasy western action rpg and I hope they deliver. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Todd McFarlane's western comic stuff like Spawn and I hope that his stuff doesn't ruin the game, or indeed that any of the other people on board do. If it all comes together, this one could be good. I don't think it will be out for ages, but I'm liking the fact that we are getting more western RPGs. I really enjoyed Dragon Age, at times it was a bit bland, but I had a lot of fun with it. If this is anywhere near it's level, I'll be happy. I'm looking forward to this one, but I'm slightly sceptical as well.

Links: Official Site / Games Radar / 

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP) Lettuce.. wha? o.o Stupid name...

I've never actually played any of these Tactics Ogre games, but I've heard a lot of good things from people on podcasts, youtube videos and various sites. So this one is a remake of the SNES game and it is being handled by the same team that did the Final Fantasy Tactics 'remake' for the PSP, which was really good I thought. I didn't get bugged by the lagging animations or other technical flaws in that game. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to this one most out of these three games. I love strategy RPGs and this series is one I've not had the chance to try yet. I'm hoping for a deep, customisable game with a good story. From what I've heard, I'll get it from this game. I'll need to look into this series more as the release date draws nearer.

Links: 1UP / RPGamer / IGN / Siliconera / RPGFan / RPGamer

Hunted: The Demon's Forge (PC/PS3/360)

From the developers of The Bard's Tale and published by Bethesda, this will be a 3rd person action RPG with co-op multiplayer. I don't know very much about The Bard's Tale, but I think it had its fans. Regardless, I like the look of this trailer. I do like multiplayer in RPGs, if it is done well. Borderlands for example, looked like it did it fairly seamlessly. I mean, it had its flaws, glitches everywhere for example, and it might not even be much of an RPG depending on your opinion, but hopefully this Hunted game can have something in the same vein. 

Football season starts up!

So its the first weekend of the new football season and I'm satisfied so far. No particularly brilliant games in the SPL or the Barclays Premier League, but my team won their game.

I was most impressed with Blackpool in the Premier League. They were favourites to get relegated from the premiership last year and they got promoted to the top division and won their opening game 4-0. So I thought that was a good opening day result for them, but then again, the Premier League is one of the top football leagues in the world. Burnley had a good start to their season last year and  got relegated after a drop in standards.

Match of the Day 2 is back, but without Adrian Chiles..who did they get to replace him? Colin Murray from Channel 5 or Itv4 or whatever crappy channel he had been on before. I don't have anything against him, just don't like the coverage the channels he has been on has been like... (that makes little to no sense)

And seriously guys, what...is..with the new MotD2 opening? And where did 2 good 2 bad go? That was awesome! =( Its still not very serious the programme, but something about it doesnt seem as good..they are a bit more obssessed over games from the past, clear from the opening and one or two of the videos they showed.

I looked for a video of the new opening, but its a combination of the show only having been on today and a lack of people uploading the openings I think. No luck. Probably a good thing. So heres a video of a 2 good 2 bad from MotD2, damn you bbc/Colin Murray... *shakes fist*

Now Playing - "The Almighty is coming in my ear"

Hahaha, whenever I'm playing a Dragon Quest game I find it really easy to get quotes for this column's titles. Such awesomely scripted games.

Well, that gives you an idea of what I've been playing this past week. If you've been frequenting any RPG related sites recently, most people are playing Dragon Quest IX, or at least they were. I'm still playing through it though, as I had to wait till a bit after the EU release to get it.

Dragon Quest IX (DS) - I think I'm fairly far through this now but I'm not too sure. I've put over 40 hours in so far and I'm still enjoying it. I'm trying to fill the Monster Compendium to 100% as I go along, and doing as much collecting of items, alchemy and quests as I can, so its taking time to get through the story. I will probably try and go for 100% completion at some point though, depending on how long that will take and if I can do it without DQVC and multiplayer assistance. I have been going on the VC to 'download' quests and buy items, its pretty cool for getting rare stuff but I usually find my money dissapearing quickly... hehe

Anyway, if you are still on the fence about this game, lemme give you some info. Graphically, it has not dissapointed me in the slightest. Some people don't like DS 3D polygonal graphics, but this looks a lot better than say, FFIII DS for example. It has a kinda cel-shaded look slightly. Most things are outlined in black and have quite nice colours, its not muddy looking at all. The style reminds me of DQVIII actually. Which makes sense as Level 5 were on board for this one as well. I really like some of the aspects, for example how every piece of gear shows up on your character models.

Content wise, man there is absolutely tonnes. If you want to do everything possible, I'm just guessing but I reckon it would take a good 60-100hrs, probably more for all the grinding of vocations and skills. I think I talked about this last time, but it is really well set out, you have the Battle Record which tells you of your percentage completion of each thing as you go along. There are Quests, around 184 or so including the ones from the DQVC which you need to connect to the net to get. The stuff is actually on the cart already, it just needs to be unlocked when they decide to give it to us. They are getting through them quickly though, which is good I guess. Some of the quests are your basic fetch quests, but some are actually kind of tough, like the ones to unlock the advanced vocations. For example, one of them wants you to set up a Wizard Ward spell and then kill 2 Metal Slimes with the caster of the Ward. Metal Slimes are fairly hard to kill as they are rare in the first dungeon you find them in, and then they thend to like to Flee from battle. That quest took a while, but there are even harder ones than that. It'll definitely keep me occupied for a while, this game.

The story is dragging a bit in the middle, but for the most part I've enjoyed it. I'm at a point where you have to basically go around the world collecting the Fyggs from the Yggdrasil Tree or whatever. So its a bit disjointed, but the little vignettes do interest me, they are pretty melancholy and dark at times. People die, and there is nothing you can do about it. People learn from their mistakes and supposedly become better people from their trials etc. I was really impressed with the opening of the game though, but they stripped us of our power and made us go on a journey in typical DQ style in which the character supposedly learns and discovers themselves.

Demon's Souls (PS3) - Other than DQIX, I've been putting a lot of time into this, mostly grinding and working on getting good gear and slowly progressing with the 'storyline.' I guess critics of the game might say it doesnt have much of a storyline, but to be honest..I don't mind that much. I'm usually all about story in RPGs, but dungeon crawlers can get away without if they have good gameplay or atmosphere, both of which this has checked. 

Its so tense in places, I actually found myself shaking slightly and getting a real rush out of it. Tower of Latria scared the crap outta me the first time round. After I grinded up in 4-2 and came back to it, I could more or less oneshot everything so I had less to worry about, but still got creeped out by some of the stuff. Shrine of Storms, as well. I really liked those stages. 4-2... I actually found really hard with those beam shooting respawning guys who are basically invisible. Took me ages to get through that one even after grinding to SL65 or 70. I was really liking the atmosphere of those stages, the 3rd one with the Archdemon was damn cool. Slicing through the heavens with that sword kicked ass... *makes slashing motion and noise*

I've kind of got Demon's Souls on hold for a while now. I've only got a few of the stages left before the end game, plus my brother has the disc at the moment. To be honest, I'm kind of procrastinating..I just don't want to go through that horrible swamp in the Valley of Defilement... *shudders* Its so dark and nasty and those big Depraved Goblin dudes scare the shit out've me... T_T

I want to get all of the spells for my character, but that will take at least another 1 or 2 playthroughs to get the needed Demons souls and give them to Yuria or Freke. If I do decide to try and plat this, it will take a couple playthroughs, but I think that is normal for most people...dont think its possible to get it all on one go.

So apart from those games, I've not been playing much else this week. Depending on when Eternal Poison arrives, I'll start that up. Kindof dark toned Strategy RPG, so basically two things I love.

Hmm, or if not, I'll try another PS2 game, possibly Ico or Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Anyway, those are for another time. I've rambled enough. Eternal Poison still ain't here... T_T I ordered Ys 7 for the psp the other night, so once it releases tomorrow (I think) it'll ship, well..I hope. But I imagine it'll have to ship to the UK seller first and then on to me. Might take a while...

My top RPG time-stealers

Thought I'd do a post on some of the games that have stolen the most of my time over the years. I got the idea from some guy's list on backloggery after browsing through people's pages. Here's mine. I like RPGs and games to give me a lot of content and a lot of replayability. These days I don't replay games as much as I used to, but I still occasionally go back to older games I like, or ones I have lots to do in and just try and have some fun with them. Hopefully this list can give you guys some ideas of games that will give you lots to do.

I like the idea of doing lists, but I am a really indecisive guy, so this seems like a good starting point as there is little actual deciding on this top 5. The only rule I'll make for this is that there will be a max of 1 game per series. Otherwise this list would be seriously Pokemon-flavoured...plus that way I can get an actual numbered countdown. I'll still talk about some of the other ones in the series that I played to death. Its kinda not a Top 5 per se, but whatever. I'll talk a bit about each one and some of the others in each series. Hopefully you will enjoy hearing about my obsessive gaming habits of the past...I swear...some of these games were so awesome.

I'll list the platform the game is (and where applicable, the one I played on) and my play time in brackets... *eesh* here goes..

1. Pokemon Emerald (GBA) (559 hrs 28) Man....this gaem stole so much of my time. First of all, I tried to get the entire dex filled in, and I got pretty far actually, surprisingly so for not having many other people to trade with. (I had a handful, but the biggest help was from having 2 GBAs and multiple games to get pokes from). My current dex completion is 381/386. I say current, but its not like I still play this game any more. It was at this point that I was starting to get into the 'competitive' game. You'll know what I mean if you've ever dabbled in that scene. Its all about breeding and training up the pokemon so that their stats mean that they can outrun and outpunch other ones that don't necessarily have as high IVs (Individual values that vary from pokemon to pokemon, but can be passed on by breeding) It is very time consuming, but once you get a decent egg pokemon (having rare candied it to lv100 to check IVs, and reset) you can begin the EV training. Yet more time-sinking. And after that comes the grinding to lv100. Another brilliant thing about this game was the cloning glitch, which was invaluable to my completing the dex in Diamond. Cloning items and legendaries and pal-parking em over really helped me get stuff to trade over wi-fi. We had a lot of fun with these games, me and my friends..but now I've kinda become a bit burnt out on pokemon games, having played them fairly religiously up to Platinum. Other games in the series I played look like this in terms of hours: Pokemon Diamond (390 hrs 06)-But I finished the pokedex completely =D, Pokemon Leaf Green (382 hrs) and Pokemon Silver (328 hrs 19). My favourite pokemon game is probably a tossup between Silver and Emerald.

Edit 11/8/10: So I did go along to that tournament I was talking about earlier. I ended up winning, in fact not losing a single game. I felt quite bad though, it was a lot of kids, not all of whom had lv100s. Prize was a set of sealed Pokemon The First Movie and Pikachu's Vacation comics signed by the Brock and Meowth voice actors from back inthe original series. Man, those comics took me back. I went to see the first movie in the cinema if I remember rightly... XD

2. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) (151 hrs 43) Technically not #2, but I don't wanna talk about Pokemon too much in this list...*shudders* Similar to FFXIII, I am strangely compelled by this game despite it's flaws and the fact I despise it at times. I was really looking forward to this before it launched. Like, seriously looking forward to it. So when it arrived, I was seriously addicted for a good while until I finished it. I still haven't got good at the game, I'm sucky at the timing of blocking, dodging and attacking. There is so much depth to this game, but I am still really dissapointed with it. For a game I claim to hate at times, I sure have played it a lot. Theres so much, perhaps too much to do for completionists...I guess I got my money's worth though. My file looks like this currently: Accomplishments 72%, Catalogue 97%, Battlegen 79%, Shop 82%. Lv100s: 5. Who knows, I might go back some time and try and get decent at the actual battling side, or try and finish off the accomplishments and shop (the 2 hardest things from what I remember.)

3. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) (134 hrs+)..I really don't know why, or how I've played this so much. Its nowhere near my top 3 of the FF series, but I think its because I knew I could get everything I needed for 100% completion in 1 playthrough, and the goals were relatively simple for the most part, I kept grinding and pressing on with the hunt sidequests to the stage I am at now; I've done all the missions and just need 2 or 3 more trophies (treasure hunter, the 5* mission one, dunno what else) before I am done. Plus it looks absolutely amazing, apart from that though, there are way too many flaws with this game: for me, it is too linear, has boring characters and confusing, convoluted (and downright stupid in places) story and many other little things I don't like. Once I eventually get enough Trapezehedrons I will be really satisfied. Why? Because that'll mean I don't need to play this game anymore... Others in the series I've played to death: Final Fantasy VIII (120 hrs +) I played this back when it came out a fair few times, but never did finish it. Somehow my most recent file took me 100 hrs or so (although that included 2 nights of me falling asleep hehee...) It may get a lot of hate, but I like a lot about it. It has the nostalgia factor for me, since it was one of the first FFs I played. I know VIII has it's flaws, but I still like it. Gotta love Triple Triad!

I've actually picked up my save on FFXIII in an effort to finish it off completely. I just need the Treasure Hunter trophy and then I'm done, but I gotta do a lot of Gil farming and get a few catalysts like Dark Matters to get there. I do like some things about it, but its far from my favourite in the series. Too many flaws and a tedious postgame at times.

4. Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure (GBC) (127 hrs 51) If you like Pokemon and Dragon Quest (especially the DQM: Joker games), this one is still viable-it has aged quite well actually. I put a lot of time into it a couple years ago trying to breed and grind up a strong team. Its basically got a fusion monster mechanic at it's core, (kinda like SMT and Pokemon in a way) where you can combine any 2 monsters together to get a new one with the moves and stats passed on (to an extent) to the new monster. Its got a lot of depth-if you want to get the boss family monsters as well as all the other ones, expect to put in at least what I have-probably a lot more time. Definitely a good game. I have the 2 first Dragon Warrior Monsters games, and I've still not finished DQM1 yet, but want to some time. Really cool game, check this one out if you see it cheap.

5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) (104 hrs+) Another game I absolutely love. I'm a big fan of tactical RPGs and this series is about as deep as it gets. You can for one thing, get all the way up to lv9999. There are many classes to unlock, items to find (just completing the item list is a massive challenge in itself), Dark Assembly stuff to do. Tonnes more that I've not touched on. A youtube user I follow was working through this game and put over 600 hours in and still had a lot to do. The psp port of the first game also has multiplayer and Etna story mode added, as if you needed more content. Etna mode has even more of the quirky, over the top humour that the series has as it's style. I reckon this is the strongest in the series, things started to go downhill since then. Although I still need to play the 3rd, so I can't really say that for sure. If you are a completionist, man..this game could kill you. But it will be an awesome, Prinny-filled death. I'll definitely go back to this game some time and play more of it. I like it a lot.

Honorable Mentions: Diablo II (PC) I love this game. I've played through the story at least 4 or 5 times over the years since it was released (I got it right around the time of release) and have many good memories of it. I don't think it has suffered over the last few years-it has aged pretty well. It has been such an influential game in defining and dominating the hack and slash type WRPGs, often with a focus on loot or dungeon crawling. Dungeon Siege, Torchlight, many others would not have existed had it not been for this and Diablo coming out. Its a must play. Another one I'll mention quickly is Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP). This one is a remake of the PS1 game Final Fantasy Tactics, and has a fair amount to do. Sidequests, unlocking job classes, tonnes of items, Treasure Hunter items hidden around the stages and a few additions from the original, as well as a nice new translation. Only drawback in this one is some of the lag you will see in battle.

I recommend: Thought I'd chuck another few games in there to make this more interesting. I'm picking these based on the amount of replayability and content they have. So if for some reason you have read through this and are inspired to go pick up a lengthy, content filled RPG, or you want value for money, you should check these RPGs out: Chrono Trigger (DS) with its 13 or so endings, Bestiary, Item compendium and much more, it has a lot to do and is often described as one of the best games of all time. Check this one out if you didnt see the other versions, this has been described as the definitive version, and it will keep you occupied for a while if you are a completionist. It has a really decent New Game+ system so you can just run through time after time to pick up different endings. I really want to go back to my file at some point soon and try and complete it more. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC/Xbox)-strangely enough I'm recommending this one over Oblivion, based on my opinion of the two so far. I felt Oblivion wasn't quite as interesting in places. I'm still yet to finish Oblivion or quite get into it as much as I did with Morrowind. But either of those games have massive amounts to do, especially if you dabble with the modding aspect of the PC versions. Fallout 3 (360/PS3/PC) might actually be more people's cup of tea though, it has a more interesting world (though not to everyone's taste) than Oblivion and arguably Morrowind. All 3: Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 have their share of flaws but equally all 3 have some brilliant aspects. Pick up the Game of the Year editions for maximum content. I could easily recommend more games in here but this article has gone on much longer than I planned already. 

Hope you liked it, or found it entertaining at least. Its pretty clear that a) Pokemon is crack in video form for me, b) I should definitely steer clear of MMORPGs... and c) I don't have much motivation any more to play a single game for huge periods of time. Anyway, if you haven't checked out some of those games, have a look into them. I recommend the majority of them.

Now Playing - "I sound like a sign"

So I played a bunch of stuff over the last few weeks, I was away on holiday in France for 2 and a bit weeks and then played some during this week. But I've got some complicated stuff going on so haven't put a lot of time into any one game at the moment.

Pokemon SoulSilver (DS) I played this all the way through from the start of my holiday and planned from the beginning that I would go for a mono-water team. It was much easier than I thought actually, with Pokemon like Quagsire to keep my Electric weaknesses at bay. It wasn't quite as good as I remember Silver to be, but thats probably because I haven't been much into the games recently, and only picked this up for lack of a better game to take away on holiday with me. Still, there is tonnes to do as before, which is good. And they have added some things and made some adjustments here and there. But to be honest, I had to actually force myself to get through certain parts. It wasn't quite as enjoyable as I would have liked, but still a pretty good game, and I had fun doing this challenge. I have all 16 badges now and got a fair chunk of the dex filled in, but I won't be going back to this one for a while. I go through periods of playing pokemon and staying far away, so I'm either in the staying away phase, or completely sick of the series in general. I did say I would stay away from the competitive scene completely as it has consumed way too much of my time. Then again, there is a Yugioh TCG/Pokemon DS tournament on Tuesday that some friends are going to. I'm still debating going to this and playing some pokaymans, but I don't really want to be the only one older than 12 at it.

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) I've put around 3 or 4 hours into this, when I was away in France and got to the 2nd chapter I think, but a lot of the stuff is really poorly explained I think. I didn't realise the significance of the traits and hero values each character could get until the end of the chapter when I was told that we would be surely doomed if things didn't improve or something to that effect. Anyway, that kinda turned me off so I wanted to restart when I actually knew about the gameplay mechanics. Its very..obscure some of the stuff in this. I will go back to it at some point, but its more or less on hold for now. I also didn't realise weapons could break, and I ended up unknowingly breaking one of the valuable weapons you get early on. I need to get a decent FAQ or fan site for this which will explain some shit for me...

Etrian Odyssey (DS) I played this for a bit more on the way back from holiday (and on the bus going to get DQIX) after which, well it got neglected hehe... I do like this game, but it is pretty damn hard. That is one of the things that makes it really rewarding though. I'm working through it slowly. Think I'm getting near the end of the first stratum~I'm on the 4th floor and I think I'm well levelled enough..but then FOEs come along and rape my face >< ...Hehe...awesome game. Check it out if you like hardcore dungeon crawlers. You can have a team of lolis! XD Pretty cool site for EO fans& players

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) I've been playing this most of all recently, and I've got past the stage where you get the vocation changing at Alltrades Abbey and done the dungeon after that to beat Lleviathan. I'm really enjoying taking my time with it, picking up sidequests and working on the Item list and getting Alchemy recipes and materials. There is a lot to do, in whatever way you want to really. And a lot of it is definitely optional, I know a few people who have already breezed through the main story (as I'm quite a bit behind-I had to wait till a week after the PAL release to start T_T) and they've said mixed things, its good but not brilliant, that the story drags a bit and lots of other stuff. But I'm definitely enjoying it so far. I might review this or Demon's Souls in the future if I can find time. Definitely looking forward to playing more of this. I just went on the in game marketplace for 'DLC' today and got a few items and quests added to my game..well thats not strictly true. All the DLC is actually on the cart, you just need to wait to be able to activate it on the DQVC when they allow you. V_V

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (DS) I finally finished this off a few weeks ago just before I left for France. Its pretty cool, with some points that really amazed me with their ingenuity. I was really impressed with the puzzle where you had to shut the ds screens in order to transfer a map to something. Little things like that, along with the pretty tight stylus controls and nice visuals were what I liked about this. The main thing I didn't like was what most people complain about, the Temple of the Ocean King. Its a big long dungeon which you keep coming back to throughout the course of the story once you have certain plot items. At the end you are able to get right to the bottom and progress to the final stages of the game. It is timed, which I hated..so stressful ><>

Tales of Eternia (PSP) I don't think I talked about this last time but I finished it before I went away on holiday a few weeks back. I slowly started to like it more as I went through, but still a lot of things annoyed me about it. The characters were fairly boring and annoying in places. The art style hasn't aged well at all-its one of the uglier looking games I've seen. Although some bits in game are quite nice-there are lots of FMVs and the battles look pretty good. I did some of the optional stuff but really I have no desire to 100% this game, definitely not. I didnt bother to scan or steal from enemies the entire game. Overall, I'd say its worth what I payed for it, around £12, but unless you are a big Tales fan, you might be slightly dissapointed with it. Don't go paying large amounts to import it unless you are definitely sure. (I'm in the EU, so didn't need to import this one which didnt make it to the US.)

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) I played this a bit more the other day, and worked on improving my mission ratings up to 5 star. Eventually after some nasty ones, I got all the ones that needed it improved to 5 stars for the Trophy. I still have a fair chunk to do though for the last one. I need quite a bit of money and some Dark Matters (I'm not sure how easy or hard they are to obtain yet) to upgrade weapons and accessories. I've put it back on the shelf for now though, as I'm playing through another PS3 game...

Demon's Souls (PS3) I'm slowly working through this one, I finally got to the stage where my Royal Mage has enough strength to wield my Compound Long Bow 2 handed! So I can grind pretty well in 4-2 against those Manta fucks and the Reaper dude on the stairs. I'm up around Soul lv46 or so now I think, about 20 hours in. Its hard to tell what level you should be at for each stage though, and in which order you should do them. I have the guide book that came with the Black Phantom Edition of the game, and of course the awesome http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/home but for someone who hasn't finished the game yet, it can be intimidating in places. I think once I get into the game enough though, I can have the required level of patience, as I've solo'd each of the stages and not had too many problems with the bosses. It more or less getting the enemies attack patterns down and not getting owned by ridiculous traps or cliffs or stuff that takes time. Its a really cool game this one. So many unique and interesting things to do with this, the seamless multiplayer and online support for one. Check it out if you have a PS3 (and are up for a challenge!)

Back from holiday!

I'm just back from holiday today. Will perhaps edit this post, or if not, post more in the next few days. Might post a bit about what it was like. 

And some gaming content, no doubt. I got a few games and played quite a couple as well. [Gotta love Cubone]

Hope everyone has been having a good summer!

Now Playing - "turn green from sleepiness"

So this week its been mainly Tales of Eternia (PSP) I've been playing. Trying to get through the game (I'm around 26 or so hours in I think) and I've got all the primary Craymels (Seriously, I hate some of the terms in this game) and don't really know what to do next. I'm slowly starting to enjoy the game more, but the combat still feels pretty boring at times. I mean the other day I must've played for a good 8 or 10 hours, just jamming on X in battle, must've killed that button... Eesh. I might play an srpg or something with more depth next.

Seriously, I can't find a picture related to Tales of Eternia that isn't horrible. So if in doubt, get some SotN on there ;D

So other than those games, I've played little bits here and there of Super Mario: Sunshine,  Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Halo 3 and Golden Sun. I just more or less started SoTN's Richter mode and I pretty much suck at it. I reckon if I put enough time into it I'll get used to the different speeds and animations of Richter's (more clunky) gameplay. Golden Sun is still boring me as I've not put much more time into my Completion run. Halo 3 was a bit of a laugh today acting like jerks; teamkilling and annoying our own dudes on Big Team games. XD

That was a bit of a pathetic Now Playing, hopefully in my next one in a few weeks I will have to more to talk about. Its pretty evident from this that I haven't been that bothered about games recently. 

Gaming funk or something..

Recently I've not been that interested in games, I mean I've been playing some here and there but something hasn't been right.. I don't know, maybe I'm just kind of getting burnt out, maybe its the games I have not interesting me much or maybe gaming quality has gone down hill recently. Maybe its because I've been ill or not in a vastly hardcore mode. Maybe its more to do with my focus on the RPG genre, maybe I need a change from them. Who knows?

Sometimes I get this feeling, can never tell why or what to do to remedy it.

To be honest I think there have been a lot of good games recently. I've been playing some quite innovative RPGs(at least compared to what we've already seen in the west): Demon's Souls and Sakura Wars: So Long My Love are the two that jump to mind immediately. I blasted through Sakura Wars and had a lot of fun with that to be honest, but some of the other games I've been trying out haven't impressed me much.

Tales of Eternia is a fairly generic RPG from what I can tell so far. Nothing has jumped out at me from it so far. The graphics are boring (I mean, it is a remake of a PS1 game I think, so I'll let that one slip), the voice acting is average, not too bad but not brilliant either, the story lacks any real interesting stuff, the minigames and a lot of the gameplay mechanics are poorly explained (even with multiple tutorials they are still confusing and awkward) and have terrible controls. The characters are pretty boring for the most part, and the character designs are some of the worst I've seen. Why am I still playing this? God knows, I am slowly getting through it somehow.

Other than that I'm playing Golden Sun and I'm at the start more or less. Just got the first djinn after leaving the starting town. I've played this game so many times and last time I played it (a few months ago) I just got past this bit and then my data deleted itself. So thats kind of putting me off playing any more, and I can't really be bothered going for 100% completion either. I do need some kind of clear data so I can go onto the 2nd game sometime soon. I never did finish it, and want to before Dark Dawn comes out on the DS. Just so I have shit down in terms of story (unfortunately they won't be doing anything with the GBA game slots since they've slowly phased them out of the DS consoles.)

Demon's Souls is pretty damn awesome, such good atmosphere and it does feel really rewarding when you get the stage memorised and get through it. Feels really like you've achieved something in the game, as some of the stages can be really tough at first. But I've not played this in a couple days as I've been ill and not really felt like it right now.

I've tried playing games I really like, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, some Super Mario Sunshine, Dissidia: Final Fantasy (I am not a huge fan of this game tbh), but none of them have held my attention for long. So my main aim is to get through Tales of Eternia, I think I'm at least half way in that. I dunno, I might just watch more TV and some anime if I can't bebothered playing many games at the moment.

OMG though, today Dragon Age 2 just got its official release date. March 2011. Now that  will be a game I will look forward to. Bloody loved the first game. 

Playstation Plus rant!

So..what is the point in this service? You pay quite a bit per year: $49.99, £39.99 per year in the UK. 

What do you get for that? 

"What does PlayStation Plus include?
PlayStation Plus includes premium gaming features such as Full Game Trials and Automatic Download of demos, game updates and system software updates. PlayStation Plus also includes PlayStation Store special offers, such as game downloads, discounts, early access to demos and beta trials and other exclusive goodies."

Full game trials? No thanks Sony they were free before you introduced this. Demos? Really? I don't want to pay for them, so get to f**k! Game Updates and System Software updates? Wow. Wow, that sounds AMAZING! Seriously Sony, get a grip! You just started turning a profit on each of your ps3s, you have slowly started getting there, but this is not a good idea. Neither is Move. Sony is going to start losing money again soon if they don't realise they are fuckin idiots to have given stuff like this the go ahead. Discounts and exclusive stuff perhaps could be good, but over here there is a lot of stuff that looks shitty that they could just give away on this scheme.

http://uk.playstation.com/playstationplus/

http://us.playstation.com/psn/playstation-plus/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Plus#PlayStation_Plus

Seriously, why did I buy a PS3? They don't have that many good games I think yet, the online support is inferior to xbox live, Sony don't give a damn about Europeans, why can't we get the same fucking shit that American PSN users get? FUCKING idiotic pricks!

In fact a lot of the stuff Sony does at the moment pisses me off. Example, the latest official system update for the PSP, 6.20 or 30 I'm not entirely sure. You'd think since they don't release these that often, they'd include important patches or stuff that actually matters. Wrong. What does this one include? 

"The PSP® system software version 6.30 update includes the following:

Game

[By Format] has been added to the options menu for [Group Content].
Games can now be grouped and displayed in folders based on format under [Game].
To sort games by format, select a game icon, and then press the button."

Was that really worth 10 or 15 minutes of my time and a goddamn compulsory download before I could access the PSN store on my PSP? Seriously, are the people working at Sony feeling alright? Are they mentally ill? Are they even human, or have they decided to employ invertebrates who squish their boneless foreheads against the keyboard to program these updates?

Quick Update.

Just to say that I've been ill the past few days T_T I don't know why I've got ill during the summer (probably my diet not being healthy enough or something) anyway, not really related to that but I might not be posting much in the next few weeks. I'll probably do a Now Playing this Sunday and perhaps an Anime Impressions post on Angel Beats! if I get a bit further through it (I've only watched the 1st 2 eps so far.)

But after that, I'll be away on holiday either a week on Thursday or Friday (we are currently deciding whether we should go a day earlier or not) I'll be away to Chamonix in the French Alps for a bit longer than 2 weeks. Should be good! I'll be bringing my DS and PSP so I'll crack on with a couple of my handheld games but I don't think I'll be posting on here much during that time (not entirely sure on that, as I might bring my laptop if I can get wifi over there, but I dunno, might just take a break without interwebs for a while)

Anyway, enjoy these pics to make up for this crappy post and my probable lack of content in the weeks to come. I'm actually a bit more into Tales of Eternia today as opposed to just playing little bits yesterday, so I might actually manage to finish it before I go on holiday. Thats my aim for now! *Strikes heroic pose*

I have tonnes of motivationals, might post some another time =3

Hope you all have a good summer!

Now Playing - "No God, no Buddha, no Angels"

So another week goes by and time for my Sunday post on what I've been playing (in between watching Wimbledon and the World Cup~go Germany!)

I finished up Sakura Wars: So Long My Love (Wii) yesterday after getting through the final battles (one or two of which were quite tough.) Its not the longest game to get through, took me between 19 and 20 hours to finish up. Although there is scope for a bit of replayability: I think there are 6 endings to get (one for each of the girls), bromides to collect and the extra chapter (I think called "A free and easy day in New York.") but I'm not too sure what that is or entails to be honest. 

Before I played this I hadn't really played anything similar, or with such strong dating simulator aspects as this. I was a bit sceptical before I got this game as to whether it would be to my liking. Certain jrpgs and dating sim type games can be kinda perverted and wrong and that is something that makes me quite apprehensive. I'm not entirely sold on the idea of dating lolis... But I am glad I got this: I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Its well-written, well voice acted, cheery, cheesy and overall good fun. I'd probably pick up more of the Sakura Wars/Taisen games if they are released here. I don't think I'd import though as this one seemed to have a lot of dialogue (which worked really well to build the characters and develop the links between the characters.)

I'm around 5 or so hours into Demon's Souls (PS3) now, and I've done 4 of the stages, 1-1, 1-2, 2-1 and 2-2. I'm slowly getting more and more into it. It actually sucked the majority of my day away today-aside from watching the Men's final of Wimbledon, I pretty much just played this game. And man, its atmosphere is intense in places-I really found the 2-2 stage creepy and claustrophobic at times. All those tunnels...*shudder* The threat of getting horribly owned seems to be everpresent in this game..and I hate losing all my souls... I actually got all the way to the boss on 2-2 on my first run through, only for the camera to end up pwning my ass. I must've backed too close to a wall when jumping backwards, and then due to the auto-lock I couldn't see the boss (specifically his arms) to see what attack he was going to do. Definitely enjoying this, but it does leave me freaked out and drained after not terribly long periods of play. I'll slowly and cautiously get through it (thats my way for the individual levels as well.) Oh, this site has been very helpful for me, if there is anyone else out there interested in the game, or playing through it etc, check it out for some really useful stuff. Link.

Its a game with some pretty cool ideas and inspiration. Its like there are big aspects commonly seen in roguelikes, dungeon crawlers like Diablo and stuff. The exp, currency etc is all in one form, souls. You can use these to level up (getting stat points to distribute), upgrade weapons, buy items, spells, miracles (I don't really get what these are yet) and other stuff. You get these souls on killing enemies, but it can be hard to keep a hold of them. If you die, you can still get them back if you reach the spot where you died previously before. But if you die before reaching your corpse, damn...the souls are gone. I kind of wish that the equivalent of the Town Portal wouldn't take away your souls on use. Seems like an extra harsh drawback..anyway, enough on the gameplay of this game, I realise many people will have already played it as the US and Japanese releases came out ages ago.

I hadn't touched Tales of Eternia (PSP) for quite a while now due to being annoyed with one of the dungeons (relatively early on-the Forest of Temptation) but decided to get some pointers on youtube and in guides the other day. So I pressed on through there with not as many problems as I anticipated. It reminds me of Star Ocean 1 & 2 actually (I played the psp remakes)..something about the camera angles, the towns and probably the battles as well. I think I am getting more used to the battle difficulty, I've now got the AI set up so they don't do anything stupid really.

If I put a couple more hours into this, I'll be able to make up my mind whether I like it (or not as the case may be.)

I might actually start another game up, something..easier maybe. Demon's Souls and Tales are pretty brutal in places.

World Cup 2010 Quarter-final predictions

So now that the World cup is just about to go into the quarter final stage, thought I'd do another prediction post.

So for my last one just before the group stages ended, I got 12 out of 16 teams right. Not too bad, there were some upsets that threw me off quite a bit, but I still should've done better as there was only a few games left to play in the group stage at the time I posted.

Anyway now that we know the quarter final teams I'll make some more predictions on who will be making it to the semi-finals. 

World Cup 2010 Quarter-Finals

Netherlands vs Brazil ~ Friday 2nd July. Brazil will win this, but it looks to be a very good match.

Uruguay vs Ghana ~ Friday 2nd July. I'd like Ghana to progress, but I reckon Uruguay will.

Argentina vs Germany ~ Saturday 3rd July. This one is probably hardest to call for me, but I reckon Argentina will win due to their strength in defence as well as going forward.

Paraguay vs Spain ~ Saturday 3rd July. Paraguay didn't impress me much against Japan, then again Spain haven't impressed me overly. Spain will probably win however.

The most impressive teams so far I reckon are Brazil, Argentina and Germany, so I think one of them will go on win the entire competition.

Games resume tomorrow, should be good!