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.

Rehaul of the blog

Blog redesigned-changed it to a lighter theme and a template behind it. Looks slightly cleaner and more professional. Only thing is, things seem more crunched together into the centre.

Let me know what you think on here, or wherever you see me.

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.

Goddamn, its freezing...

The other day, our Combi boiler broke down, which means we have no central heating or hot water from the taps. So its pretty damn cold here, seriously, the other day I had about 3 or 4 layers of clothes on, 2 scarves and a pair of gloves and my feet were still numb.

Anyway, the repairmen came up and fixed it, so we had heating for a night and a bit..but the same problem came up again now, so it is back to the cold until at least Monday, when someone will be able to come out and fix it again. Something seems crappy about this company, the boiler, or maybe the repair people's job...

At least the weather is getting a bit more mild, and the snow is melting away...somehow its still very cold inside though.

To be honest, I don't wanna sound moany-I prefer being too cold rather than too hot, but its no fun having numb hands, makes killing monsters in MHFU harder =p

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.

POKAYMON!

Man this is full of awesomeness, me and some others at uni were talking about Pokemon the other day and looked this up and started singing along in the library.

Brings back memories, for sure! XD

Gorubi, Gorubi!

4chan spawns a new meme babby

wtf...what is this? XD

Now Playing - “It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.”

Wow, its starting to feel like Christmas almost!(?) I'm one of the least Christmassy people you could ever meet, as I usually focus on whatever coursework I can until my exams before Christmas are done, and then leave around a week or so to try and get my Christmas shopping in and relax. Man, I'm looking forward to a holiday. We even have some deep snow over most of Scotland and the UK from what I've heard. It helps to make it feel more like Christmas...but I just hope it doesn't cause too many problems for transport and stuff. I have some exams before Christmas, one this week in fact, and I want to be able to make it on time on the train.

Mostly Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) I've been playing this week..still addicted to it! I'm not really sure how (if at all) I've been progressing-I've just been working on armour sets and improving my weapons and armour until I can get through the quests I haven't done. I'm currently on the 4 star quests, with 2 more to do I think. I've unlocked the Urgent required to go to 5 star, but its the Tigrex and from what my friend said, that thing sounds hard. So I'm just more or less grinding up some decent gear before I even attempt it.

I've currently got a full set of Blango mail, upgraded to *checks*... lv7. (Wow, I forgot I had upgraded it so far =D) and a variety of Sword and Shield weapons, a few of which are green rarity. Upper Battleaxe and Deadly poison are probably the most powerful ones I have, but I am wanting to improve my Frost Edge+ and some of the others.

I've also been working on some other sets of armour, like the Kut-Ku (I need 1 more Ear), Basarios and Plesioth. This game just drains my time..seriously, it can easily distract me for entire days at a time.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS) I finally made a bit more progress in this game this week. I got past the final bit of the 3rd sector, Carina. And now OMG at the story! It's remaining interesting..I just wish the game as a whole could keep me as hooked as the story does.

So if I'm going to be playing much more games this week, it will likely be more Monster Hunter...boring, I know (at least, it will be for some of you.) But I have to say, if you haven't tried the games, at least give Freedom Unite a shot. You can get it for dirt cheap now, and it can keep you occupied for anywhere up to 1000 hrs depending on how much you do.

To make up for my lack of decent Now Playing posts (and in fact, any other content), enjoy this song - one of my favourite tracks off the Freedom Unite OST

Now Playing - “Attack its weak point for massive damage”

Depressing to think that my final exams for the semester are fast approaching. I still found some time to play games, of course! ;D 

For a large chunk of the week and weekend I've been absolutely obsessed with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) Either redoing quests I've done to try and get materials for new armour, or working on the 4 star village quests, I've been playing this game a lot. I'm starting to see that it is getting quite hard in places actually...some of the 4* quests are rather nasty. Kushala Daora (in the picture) hits hard, but I think I have all the gear I need to beat it. I just need a degree of luck...I have a Poison Battleaxe and Blango Gear to cut out the cold status, get some Quake resistance, and hopefully poison it somehow or other to reduce it's wind aura...that thing is annoying when it hits the right angle. What it'll do will be to turn to face me as I attack it, then the wind aura will knock me straight back. If it is quick enough, it will start up an attack which can hit while I am still knocked down from the aura. Such broken mechanics at times in this game....I really need to play a game that is more simple for times of frustration. I am very tempted to pick up Cladun, but then again, I have a couple games that I haven't even put time into, that I got really recently (Bayonetta, Oblivion goty, 4 Warriors of Light.)

Anyway, when Monster Hunter isn't making me shout profanities, it is somehow really addictive...I still can't really pinpoint what it is that makes it so appealing. I mean, it is surprisingly deep for such a simple game on the surface. I've already sunk a huge amount of hours into it and I still don't understand a lot of the gameplay concepts and mechanics in it. Skill Trees for one thing, I'll have to ask my (MH fan) friend at uni about it and some of the other stuff.

I made an account at the Gamerbase in the local HMV near my uni. Basically its got a load of consoles, PCs, tvs etc and a good selection of games to try out. You just need to pay £3/hour, or a bit cheaper during mornings and evenings, and you can try out any of the games they have. A good thing to occupy the odd free period at uni. So me and a few of my friends played some multiplayer stuff for a bit. We played some Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC), Left 4 Dead 2 (PC), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC), Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (360) and one of the Total War games, I forget which one. I was probably most interested in Starcraft 2, as I loved the original game back when I was in school. So it was good to try this game finally. My computer wouldn't be able to run it unfortunately. I built up a fairly good Zerg army, but I didn't actually get round to fighting any of the enemies... =p

They didn't have Black Ops downloaded yet, so we tried some multiplayer games on MW2, and it was the first time I'd played this as well. (Yeah, I'm not much of a CoD fan) I was quite impressed with the responsiveness and sharpness to the graphics running on the PC. If I had the choice, I'd obviously get it for PC. But right now, the only way I could run it would be on PS3 or 360.

What games to buy next?

I'm not finding much time to actually play games at the moment, but that doesn't stop me wanting to buy new games. European gamers are getting some good releases coming out over here, in my eyes at least. There isn't a big difference between the US release and our one over here, in quite a few titles.

I've now got a few titles on my radar, so to speak... Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman, Disgaea Infinite, Cladun: This is an RPG, Call of Duty: Black Ops (but I think I'll pass on this) and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. On this last one, I'm intrigued by the multiplayer, but I really think I should play the 2nd game before I try it.

Disgaea Infinite is a visual novel, and apparantely pretty short, but I will pick it up at some point when it is cheap.

We've got a few on the way as well; Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Blazblue: Continuum Shift (they have an annoying habit of pushing it back many times). I'm also thinking about Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, if I manage to finish the quests in the Freedom Unite before the release some time next year. The trailers look rather awesome. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is pretty much a must buy for me as well, although I might have to play through the 2nd game at least again before I play the new one. So, some good titles on my radar, might get some for Christmas hopefully =3 Way off in the distance most likely is Disgaea 4. I'm a big fan of the first 2 Disgaea games, and still haven't round to the 3rd, but I will. 

I already preordered Hyperdimension Neptunia on a whim. I hope I don't regret it...Other than that, I'm really considering Cladun, even though I've heard mixed things. 

Now Playing - "Use the boost to get through!"

So when I've had a chance to play games this week it has either been stuff on the PSP or the laptop. Only for a few hours at a time really, I was trying to study for my Pharmacology test which we had on Friday. Anyway, Diablo II (PC) has been entertaining me so far. I never really used the ability "x% better chance to find Magic Items" much, but after getting told about its potential from a friend, I decided to try and abuse it as much as possible this time round. So any time I see items with that ability that are remotely decent, I'll equip them and try and kill as many enemies and open as many containers as possible. The results so far have been really good. Much better than I had expected. Normally, in my other playthroughs, I'd only have 2 or 3 set items at most by the time I got roughly half way/3 quarters through Act III. But on my Druid at the moment, I have around 9 or so set items, as well as 2 Unique items (although, annoyingly, I got 2 of the same one...) Add to that a whole bunch of Rare items, gems, and a lot of runes that I only seem to see later on in the game, and I have to say, I'm amazed at the results. I'm considering that it could be down to the latest patch, which I never had before. Perhaps they retweaked some percentage stuff somewhere. Anyway, its a lot of fun, this character. The only thing I am worried about is when I get to the higher difficulties and enemies are immune to elements, for example. I've already had 2 Fire Immune special characters...my Fire Elemental druid doesn't like them..

Neverwinter Nights (PC) Making some very slow progress. I'm still on the first quest you have to do, making my way through hordes of enemies in the Prison district. I really should try and save some money so I can hire another party member, as I'm dying a lot. I'm still not quite drawn into the game, the world or my character as of yet. Hopefully that'll change, as I don't want to have this as one of those games I'll never finish.

I played some more of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) during the week, finally getting past one of the bosses that had me stuck (the damn Khezu.) I think there is something about quite fast paced games that gives me trouble at times. I don't play enough of them and its probably down to my reaction speed or something. Anyway, I'm still liking this game, but not as much as the initial time where I got completely addicted to it. It seems like it could get quite repetitive-they do a lot of reusing maps, pallete swapping, and there are some rather formulaic quest types. Still, its some simple, but rewarding stuff. I love seeing my character progress towards the next armour set or weapon upgrade =D

Bayonetta (PS3) I traded in a few old games I wasn't going to play or finish any time soon to get Bayonetta and Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. I completely forgot about the criticism around this version of the game. I've installed the game and the loading times still seem really long..I don't know if thats something present on both versions but oh well. It looks good enough with the HDMI cable I've got plugged in to my PS3. The action is really good in this game so far, but I think I really suck at it. I kept losing at like the first battle where you have to get 3 Torture attacks in 5 minutes. So I turned it to Easy mode...don't laugh lol.. Anyway, I like what I see of this game from the first half hour or so. I've put it on hold for a while. I don't want to get too far and not have a chance to play it during the week. Might leave it till I have some more free time.

Now Playing - "I will show them the true power of a pervert!"

Sunday again...this semester at uni is starting to pick up pace fast. For the past 4 weeks, we've had 1 class test a week, we've got one this week as well. Then an IT test next monday as well. Its just one of those formality things you need to go through to graduate. Many unis have similar things here I think. Anyway, only a few weeks more till we take a break for Christmas now(after 2 or 3 exams though T_T) Even so, it somehow seems like it was a while since I last posted on here. So here's a little on what I've been playing a few games this week, in varying amounts.

I finished up Half Minute Hero (PSP) earlier in the week. Its a fairly short and sweet game, but some of the modes do drag on a bit. Not necessarily in length, but they just feel a bit simple and bland compared to the Hero mode and Evil Lord mode which had some really quirky dialogue as well as pretty fun gameplay. The first mode, the Hero mode which is based on the RPG genre is probably the most fun and intense, it goes downhill slightly after that, but I still had a lot of fun with the game, especially considering the price I got it at.

I eventually got convinced by a friend to pick up Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) and I've got really addicted to this game. It is really simple but fun and rewarding stuff. Its definitely not for everyone though...its very grindy and perhaps repetitive, depending on how you do things. It also has a really high learning curve, which puts a lot of people off initially. But once I gave it a chance, I'm really enjoying playing it. Its quite cool on co-op as well, it really adds to the fun. I really like just going out and getting the items needed for a new set of armour or weapon. There is something really rewarding about getting there in the end. I still can't find my damn Velocidrome Head for a weapon upgrade. Its a 2% chance at low ranks....Still, its quite fun stuff. 

So far I've done the 1 star quests and have a few more of the 2 star ones to get through. I can see myself putting a lot of time into this. Why can't more games be this addictive? I'm actually stuck now, damn Khezu...I beat it fine when I was co-opping with my friend at uni..but doing it on my own is much harder... -_- 

Didn't touch much more of Diablo II (PC), apart from I raced through the end of Act II with my Elemental Druid. I do a lot of damage, so I kill the enemies easily, but I found surviving for long quite hard. Especially against the Act II boss Duriel, who could trap me with his cold element slowdown and wipe me out in a few hits...I should really buff up my Dex and Vit stats instead of concentrating so much on Magic (I already have around 70 magic at lv23 or so if I remember rightly..)

Haven't had much of a chance to play Neverwinter Nights (PC) yet though, I want to put some more time into it when I get some time. Maybe next week cos I won't have a test late on in the week...I  really need to get back into Strange Journey as well though...I don't wanna put my save game aside for too long, like I did with Digital Devil Saga. 

Other than that, I played little bits here and there of Super Street Fighter IV (360) and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) Only really did multiplayer stuff with my friends at the weekend. Finally got to try out the Arena mode in Birth By Sleep. The racing game is as unimpressive as in the game. Seriously, why no power ups? The battle stuff though is a bit more fun, either co-op or against a friend, you fight each other with a time limit I think (I skipped all the tutorial stuff).