WeekDAY gaming(8/2/10)- What are YOU still playing?

[Purple Santa]

Partly inspired by his absence I found this interesting image which made me think of our own watchmaker/creator MagGnome:

http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp358/regina_povedav/clocks4.jpg

My own interpretation is Mags is going to create an army of clocks and watches to take over the world while working at his hideaway lair. Instead of killer robots, we have the evil Gnome overthrowing time. Or it’s just a haunting pic of various points of time reminding you the weekend is over and the weekday is back. According to the non-killer time clocks around me in my own non-evil lair, it is indeed the weekday. Welcome back to the front end of the week.

Rewinding time with a MagGnome special time piece, a look back at what was played:

Non-gaming stuff: Bah. Much time spent on this but it did involve moving once again all my gaming consoles back where they belong. Also helped ADD create a new craft/art creating area from an already limited living space we live in. Sleeping now consists of some Velcro on sleeping bags allowing us to sleep on the ceiling.

P3P- Moving along nicely in Tarturas, with a showdown with the first boss.

P4- Suddenly felt the need to play as much Persona as possible. After 30 + hours, I am beginning to see why this game has the Persona frothing fans in a frenzy when they speak this titles name.

Goodbye July, take your heat infested month with you. Hello August, here is hoping lower temperatures with reasonable amounts of humidity. While I suffer from the latest heat delusions, everyone else can move forward discussing the past then back to the future again: What did YOU play? What will YOU play?

[Jason]

Deathspank- Gotta finish it.

Yakuza 3- I keep putting this game off and I don't know why.

[boratika]

Started the new semester today, so in theory I should be focusing on that. Already managed to lose a library book :|, so tomorrow I get to retrace my steps in the vein hope it turns up somewhere.

I managed to get the secret mission in Starcraft II yesterday, so in theory I can put that aside for now to focus on study... In theory...

I have two hours on buses/trains each day, and a I've got a copy of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix for the DS that still hasn't been played. I see those two things solving each other.

[Kelegacy]

Just Cause 2 - Trying to really push towards the end of this game. 30 hours in and I have so many fucking faction missions left. Story missions are all open to me so far, but I'm almost overwhelmed by how many faction missions there are. They are fun though. I've unlocked most of them or all of them since I've done all the stronghold missions in the game.

I'm mostly done liberating areas. Now it's just story and faction missions. I know there aren't many story missions in the game, and I think I just finished mission 4.

[Gorvi]

I played a lot of Assassin's Creed 2 over the weekend, I think I'm about half way through now. It's a very good game, though I'm missing the fact that you never go back to the present day world like you did in the first Assassin's Creed. I want to more info on Desmond's story, what's happening there.

I did get around to trying the Section 8 demo and damn, there's a reason that thing is on sale for $10. It's ugly as hell, the controls suck, the guns have no weight to them, and it just feels rushed.

This week will be more AC2 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

[frederec]

Dragon Quest IX - Went to the GameStop event on Saturday, and it was surprisingly fun. My wife and I got a boss map, a level 82 map, and just over thirty tags, which fully upgrades the inn. I also discovered that to get the highest level grottoes it doesn't depend on how many times you've been resurrected (as the strategy guide says) but how many times you've been revocated (which sucks). So now I'm solo-ing metal king slimes in the hopes of revocating my main character as many times as possible. I'm sorta hoping to be able to get some kick ass grottoes before the event this coming weekend at Best Buy.

Panzer Dragoon Saga - I just got to the third disc. It seems about two and a half hours per disc. It's an okay fun game, but ugly as sin. And I'm standing by my opinion that I don't see what the big deal is. It's fun, and different, but wouldn't stand as one of the best RPG's ever in my book.

Keep in mind that I played Chrono Trigger years after I played many PSX RPG's, and that game is awesome enough to stand the test of time, so it's not just an age problem.

[rein]

I didn't get much gaming in at all over the weekend. I spent most of it with Hai who was very unhappy all the way through Saturday after getting her first shots on Friday. She finally came around and started giving me that smile that makes it all worth it. My daughter was here too but she cuts into my gaming time even more than Hai. I'm starting to think she is spoilt.

What tiny bit of gaming I played this weekend I tried Darkstar One: Broken Alliance again. I took on a mission but I can't hyper-jump to the location it is in. I can hyper-jump all around it but not to it. I may go to an earlier save and choose a different mission. I'm not sure why I am trying to make myself like this game when there are much better space sims out there if I look to other platforms.

On my list of games I should be playing but am not I have Persona 3 Portable sitting here. Ripped, patched and ready to play but I can't seem to get started. I don't have a real reason why other than every time I start something creeps up and I have to put it down.

I'm starting to find my love for reading again and I'm pretty excited about that. I'm debating where I want to go with it next. I can go read some of the great books I have missed over the last few years or I can try something entirely new. I'm most likely going to go with option two and try a genre I would have never considered with my previous snobbish ways. Next on the agenda is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or, if I feel like really kicking down a notch, starting up the Pretty Little Liars series. What? My bad television habits are spilling over into other media. Besides, Pretty Little Liars is one of my favorite tv series this summer and I have to know what happened to A. :)

[Jason]

I played a lot of Assassin's Creed 2 over the weekend, I think I'm about half way through now. It's a very good game, though I'm missing the fact that you never go back to the present day world like you did in the first Assassin's Creed. I want to more info on Desmond's story, what's happening there.

There are a few times you jump back to the present in AC2 and get Desmond's story.

[Gorvi]

Panzer Dragoon Saga - I just got to the third disc. It seems about two and a half hours per disc. It's an okay fun game, but ugly as sin. And I'm standing by my opinion that I don't see what the big deal is. It's fun, and different, but wouldn't stand as one of the best RPG's ever in my book.

Keep in mind that I played Chrono Trigger years after I played many PSX RPG's, and that game is awesome enough to stand the test of time, so it's not just an age problem.
I think a lot of PDS's hype comes from it's ridiculous rarity. A lot of people raved like that about Suikoden II as well, but I don't see what's so special about that one either. You make me glad I'm not missing out on anything.
There are a few times you jump back to the present in AC2 and get Desmond's story.
Granted I've been fucking around collecting random crap a lot, but I've been playing for probably close to 10 hours now and I haven't jumped back once. I'm just at the beginning of Sequence 6, so that's just under half way through. Hopefully it happens soon.

[frederec]

I think a lot of PDS's hype comes from it's ridiculous rarity. A lot of people raved like that about Suikoden II as well, but I don't see what's so special about that one either. You make me glad I'm not missing out on anything.


I think it could also be different if I'd have played it when it came out. I'm one of those people that really enjoyed Suikoden II. I wouldn't count it as one of the best RPG's ever, but it's leaps and bounds above the first game, and is a pretty solid RPG in general, one of the better ones on the PSX. But I got it and played it right when it was released, so my opinion would be different from someone who were to go back now and try it out.

[Gorvi]

Ok, I officially have the best friends ever. I have a friend who I played FFXI with since a few weeks after the PS2 version launched back in 2004. When I let him know that I wouldn't be able to be on FFXIV at launch due to not really being able to swing a new PC right now due to the divorce and all he's offered to send me his old one that will run the game just fine (though not at the highest settings, but still on medium) so that I can be there. Seriously, I'm dumbstruck, that is just awesome.

[Spigot]

Gorvi: There are far less leaps back to the present day in AC2 than in AC1, but trust me, you'll remember them :)

I had a pretty good weekend. The kids were more or less well behaved and I got a pretty decent amount of gaming in.

I played:

DQIX (DS) - I didn't make a lot of progress on the story (I'm in Dourbridge right now) but I did work on a few quests and basically spent a lot of time grinding gold and buying stuff from the DQVC. I wish I could have made it to the EB event but alas, I was too far away. I wonder if Best Buy near me is going to do an event or not...

Etrian Odyssey 2 (DS) - For some unknown reason, I started this up yesterday and restarted the game from the beginning. I've only made it to the second floor but that didn't stop me from spending most of my free gaming time yesterday grinding and grinding and grinding some more. It's all about the maps, baby! And the party wipes...

P3P (PSP) - I'm pretty close to the second (third?) full moon. I've basically done all of the quests available right now aside from one fusion one and I've just been grinding social links until the big show down. I also had a special guest appearance from Kenji yesterday... and the goof is still trying to shack up with a teacher. And for some odd reason, the police station was open in the evening one time when I went to the mall. That struck me as strange. It was nice to spend one evening with the game just grinding through Tartarus and another doing social links. The fact that you can actually push through a whole portion of Tartarus in one sitting now is a godsend. That strategy worked well in P4 and it's nice to have it put into P3.

Picross 3D (DS) - I also fired this up over the weekend. Worked through a few sets of puzzles on Normal and they're pretty tricky at times. I shudder to think about how hard the Hard puzzles will be!

SO that's what I was playing over the weekend. I'm heading home today and am going to get my SC2 and RDR on this evening. And today is also my last day of vacation, so tomorrow I get to go back to work... yay?

[Doctor Setebos]

DQIX (DS) - I didn't make a lot of progress on the story (I'm in Dourbridge right now) but I did work on a few quests and basically spent a lot of time grinding gold and buying stuff from the DQVC. I wish I could have made it to the EB event but alas, I was too far away. I wonder if Best Buy near me is going to do an event or not...Hey, that's where I am, too! The two of us should hang out with the bloke running the church under the bridge. He seems like a decent enough chap. :D

DQ9 is pretty much the only thing I've been playing lately, but I haven't been able to sink as many hours into it as some other people. I also couldn't make the GameStop event this weekend, but one of my nephew's friends did, so I'm hoping to snatch the content from him sometime this week. I do plan to hit Best Buy on Saturday to get that content and hopefully tag a few guests. In the meantime, I'm trying to level up my martial artist a bit more before attempting to hit the next dungeon.

I really need to finish this game so I can get back to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Red Steel 2. I want to finish all three of those by the time Metroid is on the shelves.

[LarsenNET]

Finished Dante's Inferno and I'll be starting Heavy Rain this week.

Edit: Also going to start Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight.

[Bad Buddha]

Still loving the World of Tanks (http://www.worldoftanks.com/) beta! Had one round where I took out 3 enemy tanks and was one of the tanks that captured the enemy base with just a little damage to my left tread. Quite a few hits in that game are one-shot kills, so it feels good to survive the round.

Starting to get into the Starcraft 2 story. I've never developed very good RTS skills; Total Annihilation was my high point. But I'm having fun with the single player campaign.

[National Kato]

In a bit of a gaming slump waiting for GameFly to send me something new. I popped Batman: Arkham Asylum back in Friday night - such a great game - but I'm not sure I want to play it again right now.

I'm looking forward to Mafia 2 later this month. Hope it turns out nice.

Weekend was spent with the family - stepbrother was in town and we played some beach volleyball and rode some waterslides. Cooked a nice dinner with my girl and invited the family over. Also introduced my girlfriend's 14 year-old son to The Karate Kid. He'd never seen it and we laughed at the 80s a bit. Movie holds up pretty well, though, thanks to Macchio and Morita's natural chemistry.

[Kelegacy]

Aha, just beat Just Cause 2. Well, the main story anyway. The game opened up Mercenary Mode which lets you keep playing in the sandbox and do any faction missions and other stuff you missed. I finished the game at 44.4%. That's over 30 hours and I finished half of what the game offers. Jeez louise. I think I'm done for a while anyway, even though the faction mission are pretty fun. It's usually the travel to get to them that takes the most time, especially if I haven't traveled to that part of the map yet.

Okay, that's the last sandbox game I'm going to play for a bit. Now I need a game that has a beginning to end in a nice linear fashion, or near enough. :) Maybe Uncharted 2 finally.

[National Kato]

Maybe Uncharted 2 finally.

You'll thank yourself. Uncharted 2 is one of the few games I've ever played that I started right back up as soon as it was done for a second playthrough. Just polish, polish, and more polish throughout. A stellar game.

[Troggles]

EVE Online - Friends got me hooked on the game. I've been spending too much time here.

Mass Effect 1/2 - Almost done with my female playthrough of the first, then I'll transfer her over to the second.

On wednesday, the girlfriend and I are heading over to the Omaha Zoo for a day. The next day, we're going to an Iowa Cubs game on our way home. Should be a blast.

[Gorvi]

There's a guy above you, there's a guy above you!


There's a guy below you, there's a guy below you!

:p

[National Kato]

There's a guy above you, there's a guy above you!


There's a guy below you, there's a guy below you!

:p

That line gets me every time. I wish more developers would let their skilled voice talent ad-lib like Naughty Dog did. :D

[Kielaran]

I didn't play too much over the weekend, though i did finish a few more classes on normal in Desktop Dungeons.

As for this week, I am sure I will continue with that. I may be orb and achievement hunting in Crackdown 2. Then on the nongaming front, I will be working on my next chapter in the zombie collaboration...this chapter has zombies on a plane! :)

[Spigot]

Doc S.: the 'priest' in Dourbridge is my kind of clergyman.

I grabbed a match-3 game for my iPhone called 'Call of Atlantis'. It's free today and VERY good.

Well, time to drive home and enjoy the last 24 hours before I go back to work. I wonder if the place is still standing after my 2 week absence.

[pomeroy]

On wednesday, the girlfriend and I are heading over to the Omaha Zoo for a day. ... Should be a blast.

Man, I'm pretty jealous. I haven't been to Henry Doorly in long time, and I love that zoo. I want to ride the new tram-ride thing.

Anyway, I just beat BioShock 2, got the best ending. It plays better than the first, but I just didn't like it as much (although I still liked it). After a while, having the Little Sisters harvest got really old. And I still basically only used the bolt plasmid.

Eh.

I have three days of training this week, so I don't know how much gaming I'll be doing (or even what games I'll play). I think it's time to return to Fallout, but I also think Darksiders is lookin' mighty fine. And I do have the guest pass to Starcraft 2 to dick around with.

[Doogie2K]

Starcraft Starcraft Starcraft.

Starcraft?

Starcraft.

I think I'm about a third of the way through the campaign, and I can see what everyone's talking about now with the variety. Sure, there are some missions that are variations of old Starcraft favourites, they're executed in interesting ways (I blew up a Protoss base with a giant fucking laser!), and they tend to throw something different at you every time. I also like how they found a decent story reason to shoehorn in some Protoss missions, for a change of pace. Plus, the achievement system has been encouraging me both to play the missions smarter, and to try doing some cool shit I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. The best example is in the first Tosh mission, drawing the Brutalisk onto low ground right before the lava flow comes, then bailing for the high ground with my Reapers and letting it get slooshed to death.

At some point, I plan on giving the challenge missions a go so I'm less crappy at the MP. I don't plan on getting heavily into it, but I have several friends who will be playing with me at various points, and we'll likely want to do more than comp-stomps eventually. Or, for that matter, some of the folks here on CoG might want a game and I don't want to hold everyone back.

[jpublic]

P3P - I'm stil in my current Tartarus run. I've roped myself into doing one of those bedamned 'hunt the red monster' quests, and the freaking things aren't cooperating and showing up. This is further made annoying by the fact that I'm in the L50/November range of the game, where some of your companions haven't evolved their Personae yet, so they're not gaining skilsl right now. GAH.


Just Cause 2 - Started it. Enjoying it. Travel is ending up to be fun, especially once I mastered (or am mastering, rather) the ability to use my parachute and grapple to maintain constant altitude and high speed.

[Xydarc]

P3P- Moving along nicely in Tarturas, with a showdown with the first boss.

P4- Suddenly felt the need to play as much Persona as possible. After 30 + hours, I am beginning to see why this game has the Persona frothing fans in a frenzy when they speak this titles name.
This. I must be fucking crazy.

[EWolfmanD]

I ended up not gaming much this weekend and instead tried to catch up a little with non-gaming stuff. As for this week:

inFamous - I stopped after doing the first mission of the second island. I have two good side missions available, so I'll probably do those and the other side missions before moving on to the main missions to unlock more of the island. Hopefully I'll be able to go back to the first island again soon since I want to try to find the dead drops at least.

DQIX - I think I have four fyggs now. I need to spend the evening grinding some cash so I can buy all the items I downloaded for the store from yesterday so I can update to today's offering. I still haven't seen those shades that Spigot mentioned.

P3P - I will somehow find the time to get back to this.

Dante's Inferno - I'm going to try to work on it some tonight and maybe finish it tomorrow so that I can send it back.

Fragile - I'm still near the beginning and want to see more of the world, but I want to finish Dante's Inferno first before I concentrate on this.

[frederec]

DQIX - I think I have four fyggs now. I need to spend the evening grinding some cash so I can buy all the items I downloaded for the store from yesterday so I can update to today's offering. I still haven't seen those shades that Spigot mentioned.


Don't expect to see the same list of items someone else does. My wife and I once downloaded new stuff on the same day, at about the same time, and our offerings at DQVC were slightly different.

[EWolfmanD]

Don't expect to see the same list of items someone else does. My wife and I once downloaded new stuff on the same day, at about the same time, and our offerings at DQVC were slightly different.

Oh, I know. But since it's part of their summer sale week or whatever, I figured it will show up eventually. I've only had two store updates since then though, so perhaps I'll get lucky with today's. :p

[Pale Ale]

Partly inspired by his absence I found this interesting image which made me think of our own watchmaker/creator MagGnome:

http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp358/regina_povedav/clocks4.jpg

My own interpretation is Mags is going to create an army of clocks and watches to take over the world while working at his hideaway lair. Instead of killer robots, we have the evil Gnome overthrowing time. Or it’s just a haunting pic of various points of time reminding you the weekend is over and the weekday is back. According to the non-killer time clocks around me in my own non-evil lair, it is indeed the weekday. Welcome back to the front end of the week.

Rewinding time with a MagGnome special time piece, a look back at what was played:



I'm sure this is what Fox News warned us of!



Non-gaming stuff: Bah. Much time spent on this but it did involve moving once again all my gaming consoles back where they belong. Also helped ADD create a new craft/art creating area from an already limited living space we live in. Sleeping now consists of some Velcro on sleeping bags allowing us to sleep on the ceiling.



Will you sleep upside down like BATMAN?

You'll thank yourself. Uncharted 2 is one of the few games I've ever played that I started right back up as soon as it was done for a second playthrough. Just polish, polish, and more polish throughout. A stellar game.

When people say this, it makes me think. Was I the only one who's Uncharted 2 case did not have drugs packed inside?

[Wilkz07]

DQIX. its consuming my time.

[Spigot]

And I'm home! Woo! Now to see how long it will take to get the kids to bed... Sigh. Starcraft 2 and RDR is begging for me...

[rein]

I put a couple more hours into Darkstar One: Broken Alliance and I'm getting used to the controls. Well, that isn't exactly true but I am finding that the type of free flying/throttling control I am looking for isn't necessary to proceed in the game. It's not the best game ever but it's not as bad as I was making it out to be. I'm going to continue on and see where the story goes.

[Kelegacy]

Bought a nice firepit today, more than I wanted to spend. But we both liked it. I tackled the backyard that is mostly just weeds and cleaned out a spot for it. Got some Duraflame logs and hopefully we get to try it out this week, maybe get some tiki torches too. Tonight we were just wiped. After weedwhacking most of the early part of the afternoon (one full tank of gas in the trimmer anyway) I just wanted to flop on the couch.

[Purple Santa]

Yakuza 3- I keep putting this game off and I don't know why.
I'm the same way. But my feeling is I bought it at full price so I supported Sega. I can take my time to play it but in supporting with my $$$ I want Yakuza 4. You hear me Sega? :p
Besides, Pretty Little Liars is one of my favorite tv series this summer and I have to know what happened to A. :)
My new favorite hobby is knowing what you watch on tv. I'll have to look up this PLLs.
This. I must be fucking crazy.
Join the insanity!




Will you sleep upside down like BATMAN?


I love that idea. I can lull myself to sleep stating...I ...AM...BATMAN...

What a long day. The usual work day, the gym after work then searched for a iPad protector. I know a protector probably isn't needed but i'm protecting my investment with ADD since she is not delicate with her toys. I don't know why I bothered in a brick and mortar store. Popped on Amazon with some arriving on Weds. free shipping.

Now to see if I can manage some P3/P4 before the wave of sleep overtakes me.

[Vigil80]

I started to finally play the Witcher, until I saw there was no walk button or toggle in the OTS camera mode. And the one page I keep landing on when searching for a mod to fix it has apparently had the download link removed long ago. So, I shelved it again.

The oddest things get to me sometimes.

Edit: Crap, one of the shoulder buttons sprung on my DSi while playing DQ9. Stupid shoulder buttons are always the first thing to go on my controllers, too. Now I have to push it up and press it down for it to register, and Nintendo wants $50 for a repair.

[Kelegacy]

Has anyone ever used a Duraflame (or similarly produced firelog) in an outdoor firepit? We bought some to try out this week. One log is like 3 hours worth of fire. The only thing I'm worried about is the smell, if it produces any, traveling through the neighborhood and irritating neighbors. I'm very neighborly and don't want to bug people. Hopefully they don't produce too much smoke either. I'm almost too considerate a neighbor.

Also, I'm proud and happy to report that my son seems to like The Simpsons. 13 months old nearly and last night before dinner nothing was on tv so I fired up disc two of the first season and while I laid on the couch he came over and just stood next to me and leaned against the couch and watched. It was damn cute. Then after dinner, after he had a bath, I put on another episode and he watched while he had his bottle and fell asleep. Sharing things with him that I enjoyed as a kid is heartwarming. :) I was 9 when in 1989 and most of 1990 when it came out, but starting 8 years younger can't hurt. :)

[jpublic]

Has anyone ever used a Duraflame (or similarly produced firelog) in an outdoor firepit? We bought some to try out this week. One log is like 3 hours worth of fire. The only thing I'm worried about is the smell, if it produces any, traveling through the neighborhood and irritating neighbors. I'm very neighborly and don't want to bug people. Hopefully they don't produce too much smoke either. I'm almost too considerate a neighbor.


I haven't used an artificial/treated log in more than 10 years, because I find the smell offensive. Maybe they've improved, but I doubt it.

[Kelegacy]

I haven't used an artificial/treated log in more than 10 years, because I find the smell offensive. Maybe they've improved, but I doubt it.

Yeah, they've changed them up a lot. Duraflame doesn't use petroleum-based waxes now and they are 100% all natural and made completely from renewable materials. However, you can smell the darn things through the paper and hoped the smell wouldn't be amplified when burning. I bought one stand-alone Duraflame (the traditional/standard) log at Wal-Mart and then bought a case at Lowes, but the case is Duraflame Crackleflame (to get that nice fire snap and crackle sound).

We'll test them out and see how they fare this week. We live fairly close to neighbors, but I shouldn't care much because I get the woodsmoke smell in MY house some nights and I don't know which person in my neighborhood, or the next one over, is doing a fire outside. I know the Duraflame logs have 85% lower emissions and are therefore more enviro-friendly, but I was hoping the smoke would be better than standard firewood and that they didn't smell badly.

[Spigot]

Spent the majority of the morning playing RDR. Made it to Blackwater and got to spend some time with a delightful professor and do a bit of cliff climbing.

[Kelegacy]

I watched the movie Doubt yesterday and I was floored by the brilliant performances in that film, Streep, Hoffman, Adams...they were all top-notch. It also felt a lot like the witchtrials in Salem. I have my own doubts at the end of the film as to what happened, and I like that...though our nature wants resolution and a revealing ending. I like stories that don't wind up that way but they also nag at me.

Besides, the film wasn't really about whether or not he did it. I understand that at least.

I'm still debating what I want to play next. I have Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time, and I'm sure I could blow through that mostly. I don't know. I might take a breather for a bit and maybe even install a PC game like Ultima VII finally, which I've been saying I'd do for weeks now.

[National Kato]

Dragon Quest IX arrives from GameFly tomorrow. Otherwise, I'm really in a gaming rut: it's not that I'm bored or anything of games, I just look at my library and don't feel like playing any of them. I want a new experience right now; I don't feel like starting any secondary playthroughs...all the games I own still feel fresh to me.

Luckily, I've got chapters to write as part of the zombie collaboration shunoshi started to keep me busy.

[rein]

My new favorite hobby is knowing what you watch on tv. I'll have to look up this PLLs. I have developed a tolerance for this kind of junk over many years by dealing with my ex's poor taste in television and raising a daughter. I'm afraid a normal man such as yourself will go mad trying to keep up with this stuff. You have been warned. :)

I just upgrade my iPhone 3GS to iOS 4.01 and jailbroke it immediately. I'm wondering if I made the right choice by upgrading. It seems a tad slower and iBooks (one of the reasons I wanted to upgrade) is pretty much too slow to use. I'm probably going to stick with iOS 4 because there are apps hitting the app store that require it already. I do like the ability to create folders too. I just wish iBooks had been a bit more responsive.

I also played a little more DarkStar One. I should be working but heck if I know what to work on. It's been a slow day so I'm trying to enjoy it before chaos strikes again... ....and it will strike again!

[Doctor Setebos]

Beat the boss on Zere Rocks last night and also managed to finally complete the Ranger vocation quest in DQ9.

Anyone train up a Ranger? How is that class? I think having a ranged attacker other than my mage might be nice.

[frederec]

Beat the boss on Zere Rocks last night and also managed to finally complete the Ranger vocation quest in DQ9.

Anyone train up a Ranger? How is that class? I think having a ranged attacker other than my mage might be nice.

I'm a little conflicted on the ranger. The serious melee classes (fighter and gladiator) tend to be pretty slow. The ranger is faster, and does better damage than the thief and the martial artist. But it's still not quite as strong as I'd like.

I will say: for late game metal king slime farming, I suggest having your main character train in either axes or spears. Not immediately, necessarily, but have it in the back of your mind.

And in my constant DQIX grinding, I just got a grotto that has metal king slimes on the first four floors. Very nice. Now I just need to find a grotto with platinum king jewels.

[Purple Santa]

I have developed a tolerance for this kind of junk over many years by dealing with my ex's poor taste in television and raising a daughter. I'm afraid a normal man such as yourself will go mad trying to keep up with this stuff. You have been warned. :)


I may joke about your taste in stuff but i'm positive it's almost if not as bad as mine. I mean stuff no "man" is suppose to like but I do. And seeing the word normal referenced with me...I think ADD would laugh loudly at that. She's always saying she's the "man" in the relationship. At work, they often forget there is a "male" around when discussion gets a tad "risque" which probably could be seen as sexually harassing (I don't think it is but legally it probably is). FYI, I work with all women in a organization that involves empowering women. Normal man? Nope, you don't have to worry about that with me :p

I wish to ask some of the PC gurus around here a question. If you put a computer in safe mode, how do you check to see what may be triggering the issue with the PC? My PC at work had a nasty fake anti-virus program installed on it. I finally was able to put the PC in safe mode then restored back to a safer date. However, now the PC freezes at times. It happens when i'm using a browser (the usual suspects). I put the PC back in safe mode and there were no issues. How do I check to see what is the problem?

[EternalGamer]

I've had the Ipad for a couple of months and while I love it for Netflix and internet browsing, I haven't played many games on it.

This week I discovered some awesome games, though. It started when I was bored waiting three hours at the hospital and borrowed my partner's Iphone. I downloaded Angry Birds for a buck and fell in love. Immediately bought the HD version on my Ipad when I got home.

That got me in the mood to hunt down other games. Going on a long road trip this week, so I thought I might toss around $20 - $25 at the APP store for stuff to play on the drive with friends.

Started by looking at Scrabble for $10 but then discovered the free version of Words With Friends (with ads). Like it enough that I may kick them the $2.99 for the HD version sans ads. It definitely is a better alternative than $10 for Scrabble, but the free version may suffice.

Also downloaded the trial version of Espgaluda 2, which is amazing and controls incredibly well with the touch screen. But the full version is up to $7.99 and used to be $3.99. Sucks that I missed it at that price because now I'm left merely contemplating it. It is funny because, for $8, I'd buy a game this calibur on the 360 instantly, but there is SO MUCH you can get for a total of $8 on the Ipad that it is ridiculious.

I read a lot of ravings about Osmos, so I took a chance for $2.99 and it is phenomenal, especially with headphones. Starts off simple, but escalates into a thing of beauty.

Picked up Pinball HD for $2.99 and Air Attack HD for $0.99. The former is self explanatory, the latter is kind of like Capcom's 1942 on steriods. Definitelty worth a buck.

So that leaves me at:

Angry Birds $5
Osmos $3
Air Attack HD $1
Pinball HD $3
Word With Friends (with ads) $0
Solitaire $0

---------------------

$12 total.

Not bad for a load of games and still have around $3 left to spend. I was contemplating Space Invaders, Espgaluda, and Plants Vs Zombies, but all are a bit on the "high" end $5-$10). Any advice on whether they are worth it or other stuff I should check out instead would be appreciated.

[Spigot]

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene is awesome. As is PvZ.

You should definately do yourself a favour and check out freeappaday.com and Open Feint's free game a day sites. There are even apps for both sites and while I haven't been blown away by every game on offer, there have been some real gems.

I picked up War Of Eutracia or some such for the iPhone the other day and it's a great turn-based strategy RPG for about $3.

The fact that so many of the games are either free or $0.99-$3 is awesome.

[EternalGamer]

Yeah, I just found Babo Crash for FREE via a Cheapassgamer thread. At first it looks like a pretty by the numbers Bejeweled clone with some very nice aesthetics, easily on par with or surpassing the graphics and sound quality of Bejeweled HD. However, then the game starts introducing some cool mechanics that really set it apart. First, you can tilt the screen between the two different views to change the gravity. Then they start introducing these bombs that you want to guide down to an explosion shot. And there are these super gem creatures that you can actually "steer" around the playing field when they explode. Each colored creature having a different effect.

For Free, it's an awesome game with good production values.

Thanks for the heads up on those sites. Will have to check them out.

I agree with the great value. I'm also surprised at how well some of the games control with just the touch screen. Some of the 2d shooters, like Espgaluda 2 and Air Attack HD for example, control almost as good if not better than with an analog stick since the finger movement is so precise and works anywhere you are on the screen (no "moving off the controls" problem).

[Spigot]

There's an awesome free Match-3 game called Call Of Atlantis that was up on FAAD yesterday. I also was very impressed with Blackout (one of the Open Feint picks last week, if I'm not mistaken). It's kind of a match-3 game, but not... it's hard to explain.

I don't really like a lot of the games that try to mimic virtual on-screen control sticks. Some work, some don't, but very, very few are precise enough to be enjoyable. I could see them working better on the iPad though, as you aren't covering up 3/4's of the screen with your giant thumbs :)

And Babo Crash is addictive. I wasn't going to give it the time of day but loved it to death once I played it.

[EternalGamer]

There's an awesome free Match-3 game called Call Of Atlantis that was up on FAAD yesterday. I also was very impressed with Blackout (one of the Open Feint picks last week, if I'm not mistaken). It's kind of a match-3 game, but not... it's hard to explain.

I don't really like a lot of the games that try to mimic virtual on-screen control sticks. Some work, some don't, but very, very few are precise enough to be enjoyable. I could see them working better on the iPad though, as you aren't covering up 3/4's of the screen with your giant thumbs :)

And Babo Crash is addictive. I wasn't going to give it the time of day but loved it to death once I played it.

Yeah, I can see the shooters working poorly on a tiny screen, but on the Ipad, I'm impressed with how precise the aformentioned two are. I was doging bullet hell in Espgaluda 2 without a problem. Really wish I hadn't missed it when it was $4. As it is, I think I'm going to pass on it for now and hope for another sale.

I might go ahead and pick up Plants vs. Zombies, since I've never played it, and give them the cash for the full version of Words With Friends HD. That would round out my games for the trip nicely and give some variety beyond the puzzle games and shooters.

I'm assuming you've played Angry Birds? It's great.

[Spigot]

Angry Birds is awesome. I find myself spending a lot of time with my word games or match-3 type games. I do have Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on this thing but haven't played it for some reason...

[Purple Santa]

I've had the Ipad for a couple of months and while I love it for Netflix and internet browsing, I haven't played many games on it.

Not bad for a load of games and still have around $3 left to spend. I was contemplating Space Invaders, Espgaluda, and Plants Vs Zombies, but all are a bit on the "high" end $5-$10). Any advice on whether they are worth it or other stuff I should check out instead would be appreciated.
I only touched the iPad for a few minutes but I know I would love one. I tried UP from Netflix and that was enough for me to say I can't do any more with it otherwise I would be more jealous than I am now.

Depending on how much they want for PvZ, i'd get it. Spiggles kept raving about it so I bought it for my iTouch. I'm not a fan of this genre but the game is addictive. And very humorous. Worth a purchase if it's not $10.


I might go ahead and pick up Plants vs. Zombies, since I've never played it, and give them the cash for the full version of Words With Friends HD. That would round out my games for the trip nicely and give some variety beyond the puzzle games and shooters.

Pick up PvZ at this point. You seem to want it and it's a very good game. WWF is awesome too. I wish I had more time to spend but I don't (sorry Spiggles) so I had to forfeit any game I was playing. I'd love to see you and Spiggles in a match.

Another night...another night of hope of me not falling asleep while playing either P3/P4

[EternalGamer]

Yeah, I think I may go ahead and get Plants vs. Zombies and then Words for Friends. That will give me a total of around 10 games to tool around with on my trip (I already picked up Soosiz and Knights of Phantom Castle for $1 each when I got the device) for under $27 total. Not a bad little library for so little cost.

I certainly don't regret purchasing the Ipad. My only problem is that it makes me not want to use my computer at all anymore, which leads to lots of post with egregious spelling and grammatical errors. I have a wireless keyboard, but it is cumbersome to use if I'm not at a desk, which basically makes it useless for the majority of time I'm using my Ipad. I really want one of those clamshell type cases that allows you to flip the keyboard back 360 degrees so that you can stil use it like a tablet, but I don't think any of them are out yet. When they do come, I'll buy it instantly.

Btw, my Open Feint username is "EternalGamer" if anyone wants to add me.

[Spigot]

I 'beat' RDR a few minutes ago. Still have to do the denouement, but it appears that the main story is done. I'm kind of ticked though. There I was, about to do my final ride and that lovely song comes on... And I spot a flower on my minimap and go pick it. And the song never came back on again. Sigh. I've got the soundtrack, so I'll listen to it right now.

[Kelegacy]

I 'beat' RDR a few minutes ago. Still have to do the denouement, but it appears that the main story is done. I'm kind of ticked though. There I was, about to do my final ride and that lovely song comes on... And I spot a flower on my minimap and go pick it. And the song never came back on again. Sigh. I've got the soundtrack, so I'll listen to it right now.

You FAIL! That song and that ride back was amazing.

I did miss the Mexico song for a similar reason, however. But thankfully I didn't miss that one while heading back home.

And I have to ask this...was there ever an opening to RDR where you get to see the feds coming in and taking John away? My game started with them putting him on a train, not taking his wife and kid away or whatever. I always felt I was missing something. And I had no idea his farm was where it was, even though I rode by it a billion times. Again, I feel like an early piece of the intro was stolen from me.

[National Kato]

And I have to ask this...was there ever an opening to RDR where you get to see the feds coming in and taking John away?

Nope, starts as John gets off the riverboat.

[Spigot]

The fact that I poked around in Marston's ranch before the end of the game and it didn't even give us a throwaway line like, "Boy, the old homestead sure is lonely!" or some such irked me in retrospect.

[Kelegacy]

Yeah, they didn't even give us a clue. I honestly thought that he lived further north or not on the map at all, and that the denouement would transport us to his farm for missions. But the fact he lived right there not far from Blackwater surprised me. I thought I had missed an early part of the game by hitting a button too early or something. The way the game starts, it's hard to understand what exactly you are doing and why for quite a while. Especially since the only lead-up is you getting off a boat, and getting on and off a train into Armadillo.

I knew what was going on only because I knew ahead of the time the premise for the game. I sorta wish they had a movie showing the feds storming the place and taking your family away and putting Uncle in charge.

[EternalGamer]

The fact that I poked around in Marston's ranch before the end of the game and it didn't even give us a throwaway line like, "Boy, the old homestead sure is lonely!" or some such irked me in retrospect.

John is pretty reciticent. He doesn't make it a habit of talking to himself so it would have been awkward. However, Uncle should have been there, logically.

However, I think it is important that you not associate with that place until the journey is over. The point is the long journey away from home that he has to take and some of that is ruined if you know you are driving right by his place all the time.

Also, the denouement is by far the best part of the entire game.

[Kelegacy]

I liked the denouement, but thought the missions weren't that gripping. I like the lazy, easy missions of being home and doing trivial stuff, but compared to the rest of the game it was anti-climatic. But that was the point.

[jpublic]

The best part of the denoument was the free bear spawns.

[Kelegacy]

I hate starting up a PS3 game. I always know there will be a game update and it will be super slow-ass. I'll have to switch inputs over to the 360 and play a game or to the PC while it installs. I hate that I have to download demos, then wait for them to install, then wait for them to update. WTF. And why the hell does it take so long--then again, some of those updates are big.

I cringe every time I put a new PS3 game in my drive. It's gotten to the point where I'll put the game in ahead of time and start the update download and go watch tv. Lame.

[pomeroy]

Yeah, that's definitely the worst part of the PS3 experience. And it seems so unnecessary.

[Spigot]

I don't have a very long wait on the downloads... the installs of said downloads or the installation to the HDD, on the other hand...

[Spigot]

The worst part about it all is that you can't just have it do a background download and futz about with a PSN title or some-such. Nooo... you're stuck there watching the progress bar inch across the screen. Sigh.

[Purple Santa]

I hate starting up a PS3 game. I always know there will be a game update and it will be super slow-ass. I'll have to switch inputs over to the 360 and play a game or to the PC while it installs. I hate that I have to download demos, then wait for them to install, then wait for them to update. WTF. And why the hell does it take so long--then again, some of those updates are big.

I cringe every time I put a new PS3 game in my drive. It's gotten to the point where I'll put the game in ahead of time and start the update download and go watch tv. Lame.

So glad to read others have this issue with the PS3. This console was to be the super behemoth which would eat loading times for lunch. Meanwhile I can go to lunch waiting for the install etc. Just extremely annoying.

[Superman's Dead]

I'm playing the best game ever: go see Inception, buy Army of Two: 40 Days for my roommate and I, come back home to a new hard drive in the mail and a CD from a band I love with a free T-shirt and photograph from their tour. Like, a printed one, not a professionally made one.

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

[Gorvi]

I actually got some gaming in last night! Not too much, just a little more Assassin's Creed 2. I did another assassin's tomb and made it to Venice. I didn't get to actually do anything in Venice, though, aside from getting all but 1 or 2 of the viewpoints. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to go back and progress the story a bit.

[frederec]

Last night I finally got my hands on a grotto in DQIX that has platinum king jewels, which are the enemies with the highest experience in the game (240k). It was a personal goal, though I probably won't use this grotto to level, since I've got a grotto with metal king slimes on the first floor (and they put out 120k experience).

Thanks to the fairly frequent mini medals in grottoes, I also got the "final" mini medal item from the guy in Dourbridge, then he opened up a mini medal shop. The most significant thing on the list...orichalcum. That blew me away when I saw that, since the only other way to get that was as rare drops from metal king slimes or gem slimes. And considering I've only gotten one from a metal king slime after killing over three hundred of them, this was wonderful.

So now I've got a set of metal king slime armor and a metal king slime shield (two upgrades from the metal slime version), which are pretty kick ass.

[Kelegacy]

I'm in the mood for a JRPG suddenly. Debating going back to Infinite Undiscovery where I was still early in the game, starting Tales of Vesperia finally after owning it for 2+ years, or just playing Blue Dragon from where I left off (the escort the wagon mission). I also have Star Ocean, Last Remnant, FFXIII, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, Enchanted Arms, but I'm in the mood for a more light hearted, colorful JRPG right now. Maybe Eternal Sonata will get cracked out again. Can't remember where I left off.

I will probably mix it up with A Crack in Time and maybe a PSN game like Shooter, but hopefully I can get back into a JRPG. Usually when I go back to work after a weekend I wind up drifting away from those types of games for whatever reason. Absence makes the heart go yonder, maybe.

I almost purchased Magna Carta 2 from Amazon for $25 yesterday, as I'm getting sick of waiting for it from Goozex. I've been #6 in line forever.

The GTAIV expansions disc for PS3 and 360 are only $20 today at Amazon and while I already own Lost and Damned, Gay Tony is $20 on XBLA by itself. Might as well get a disc copy, but I think I'm going to wait a bit longer. I'm overflowing with sandbox titles at the moment.

[Gorvi]

I am so damn close to preordering the spiffy Collector's Edition for Ys VII...... I really shouldn't but, shit, it has a giant cloth map. How the hell am I supposed to resist that?!!

[Spigot]

I'm in the mood for a JRPG suddenly. Debating going back to Infinite Undiscovery where I was still early in the game, starting Tales of Vesperia finally after owning it for 2+ years, or just playing Blue Dragon from where I left off (the escort the wagon mission).Heh. I've started Tales Of Vesperia twice now and always get distracted just after the opening part of the game when duder breaks out of jail and meets the princess. Seriously, both times I've played it, that's about as far as I get before some other game flits by my window and distracts me. I like the look of the game, I like the Tales mechanics and it looks like it'll be fun to play but I have had no luck in actually sinking any time into it. Sigh.

And as much as it pains me to say it, you're right at the part of Blue Dragon where it gets 'good'. From the castle at the end of that escort mission until the end of the second disc, it's actually NOT the steaming pile of crap that has so sundered my soul. It's not amazing by any stretch, but the second disc was interesting enough to quell my burning rage for several hours at a time. And I did like the village that was trapped in the green cube on the third disc...

Yes, there we have it folks. I, Spigot, hater of all things Blue and Dragony have actually had a few nice things to say about the game. Commence apocalypse in 3... 2... 1...

On the other side of things, I've been working on the denouement some more in RDR and should have that game put to bed tonight. I noticed that you can't change your outfits once you begin the end-game portion of RDR, but that's ok, I guess. I miss my eye-patch...

[Kelegacy]

Yeah, you should be almost done with RDR at this point. Push further and see the majesty! Then we can talk about it and ruin the ending for everyone in this thread that has been stupid enough to avoid the game this long.

I only tried Vesperia for that initial portion where you fight the first "bosses". I couldn't get the hang of the combat for some reason. I always excelled at other Tales games but I must have been doing something wrong. I remember dying early on which never happens in JRPGs for me.

[frederec]

The GTAIV expansions disc for PS3 and 360 are only $20 today at Amazon and while I already own Lost and Damned, Gay Tony is $20 on XBLA by itself. Might as well get a disc copy, but I think I'm going to wait a bit longer. I'm overflowing with sandbox titles at the moment.

I saw that this morning and I couldn't resist. It helps that I have a PS3, so have never gotten any of the DLC. Games rarely dip below $20, and I hear these stories bring back a lot of the humor that people felt was missing from the core GTAIV, so it was perfect for me.

[rein]

So... ...I played the life with almost no internet sucks game yesterday! I woke up yesterday morning and my modem was dead. I trouble shoot it and finally call AT&T. I trouble shoot it again doing even less than I did when I did my own trouble shooting. They decide to send out a tech so I give up and call in to work and tell them I need the rest of the day off. No internet = no work from home.

The tech arrives and and confirms my modem is dead. He gives me a new modem. After a few hours of still not connecting he tells me there is a problem at one of the relay stations. What a coincidence!

I said almost no internet because some poor shmuck has an open Motorola signal that I could barely pick up. It was dial up speed but it did allow me to connect for about one hour yesterday. I feel bad because thinking about it afterword I realize it was probably a cell phone and I downloaded a rather large user manual for my modem.

Move forward to this morning. I woke up to have 4 of the 5 modem lights on. That is one more than I had before going to sleep. I spent almost two hours trying to get the AT&T log in page to accept my log in credentials. I even tried to reset the password and it told me my zip code and last 4 digits do not match their records even though I know they are correct. I even tried adding the zip + code and got nothing. Then, out of nowhere, by some miracle, without it ever letting me log in, I noticed the 5th light on the modem come to life. The internet light!

I'm back on but still having issues. For one, and this is a big one, it doesn't seem to be working with my router. For now I unplugged my personal laptop and hooked up my work one. I'm not sure how much I want to risk trying to get the router working since for all I know I am logged into AT&T with some default username and password and I don't want to lose this access while I am working. I swear, this has been one of the most f'ed up ordeals I have had to go through in a long time where pc/network issues are involved and since the router is not working with this connection I am afraid it's not over.

Anyway, enough venting. I have a lot of emails to respond to and some PTO time to enter.

[frederec]

I'm back on but still having issues. For one, and this is a big one, it doesn't seem to be working with my router. For now I unplugged my personal laptop and hooked up my work one. I'm not sure how much I want to risk trying to get the router working since for all I know I am logged into AT&T with some default username and password and I don't want to lose this access while I am working. I swear, this has been one of the most f'ed up ordeals I have had to go through in a long time where pc/network issues are involved and since the router is not working with this connection I am afraid it's not over.

Anyway, enough venting. I have a lot of emails to respond to and some PTO time to enter.

My wife and I decided our modem (from Time Warner) wants to be monogamous, and you have to trick it into playing with multiple computers. There was a while where if I plugged in my laptop, it would work just fine, but if I plugged in either of my wife's laptops or the router, it would get no connection at all. We discovered that if we left whatever computer plugged in for a while (not sure exactly how long, but more than just a couple of minutes), it would decide it liked that computer. It would then have internet for that computer, but no others. So we left it plugged in to the router overnight, and by morning it played nice again and all our computers could get on the network through the router.

[Gorvi]

I saw that this morning and I couldn't resist. It helps that I have a PS3, so have never gotten any of the DLC. Games rarely dip below $20, and I hear these stories bring back a lot of the humor that people felt was missing from the core GTAIV, so it was perfect for me.
I considered that, but then I remembered that I really didn't like GTAIV and never bothered to finish it. The game just didn't click with me at all.

[rein]

My wife and I decided our modem (from Time Warner) wants to be monogamous, and you have to trick it into playing with multiple computers. There was a while where if I plugged in my laptop, it would work just fine, but if I plugged in either of my wife's laptops or the router, it would get no connection at all. We discovered that if we left whatever computer plugged in for a while (not sure exactly how long, but more than just a couple of minutes), it would decide it liked that computer. It would then have internet for that computer, but no others. So we left it plugged in to the router overnight, and by morning it played nice again and all our computers could get on the network through the router.I may give that a try tonight. I can't decide if I love it or hate it when something decides to fix itself.



..and it's F'n HOT here!!! 107F yesterday!!!

[Spigot]

Yeah, you should be almost done with RDR at this point. Push further and see the majesty! Then we can talk about it and ruin the ending for everyone in this thread that has been stupid enough to avoid the game this long.I've skirted dangerously close to spoiler territory a few times with my posts and ended up redacting or erasing what I wrote because I realized how pissed I'd have been if so-and-so had told me about such-and-such in the end-game before I actually got a chance to play it.

I will say that I'm enjoying the denouement a lot although more because it essentially fills in the parts of the story (and more to the point, John Marston's character) that were missing near the beginning of the game. I'll reserve judgement on exactly how much I enjoyed the denouement until after it's all over because I haven't quite found it to be the rapturous experience that so many people have told me it is BUT I think it's because it's intentionally giving me a slow-burning fuse before it ends. I've got suspicions and ideas about how things will wrap up but I'll have to wait until tonight to see if my theories are correct.

That said, I don't think I've ever disagreed with Jeremy on IGC more about a game than I do about RDR. I enjoyed Mexico (though I can understand why people might not), I thought the Blackwater section of the game was almost TOO short compared to the first two acts and I'm liking how things are panning out during the denouement.

I found that the game did what EVERY R* open-world game does with me, though. I will fall headlong into the game for about a week. Then I put it on the shelf for a little bit. Then I come back for another week or two. Then it goes away for a month when I hit the mid-game meandering part of the story. Then I come back to it after a brief hiatus and blaze through the last half of the game and have a big goofy grin on my face.

At least RDR learned something from inFamous and has mid-mission checkpoints. That alone has made a world of difference in how frustrating some of the missions would have been otherwise.

I may give that a try tonight. I can't decide if I love it or hate it when something decides to fix itself.

..and it's F'n HOT here!!! 107F yesterday!!!It's not that bad up here. It was hot yesterday but not ridiculously so... and I was at work for 12.5 hours in air-conditioned glory, so by the time I got home things were starting to cool off a little bit. The heat is supposed to break today so that will be nice.

And I'm of the same mind about things repairing themselves. On the one hand, it's nice because things are actually working. But when you have no idea what actually went wrong or what happened to get things working again, it's frustrating because you don't know how to avoid it breaking in the future or how to fix it if it DOESN'T self-repair the next time it goes tits up.

I had an experience like that with my iPhone on the weekend. One of the games just sort of started to hang and the fact that the phone doesn't have a proper on/off switch was driving me nuts, because I thought it was totally locked up and I'd end up having a screen-burn of my stupid farm in My Farm. Thankfully it eventually rectified itself before I snapped it in half, but I really do wish things would have a toggle that I could just flip to turn it on and off...

[frederec]

I considered that, but then I remembered that I really didn't like GTAIV and never bothered to finish it. The game just didn't click with me at all.

I liked it well enough to finish a fair amount of it before my first PS3 death, resulting in lost saves. I've bought a number of GTA games and played them all to varying degrees, only finishing Vice City. The rumors of this one being a little more like Vice City is the main temptation for me.

[Kelegacy]

I liked it well enough to finish a fair amount of it before my first PS3 death, resulting in lost saves. I've bought a number of GTA games and played them all to varying degrees, only finishing Vice City. The rumors of this one being a little more like Vice City is the main temptation for me.

Gay Tony is supposed to be more silly like earlier GTAs.

I really hope GTA5 winds up being more bright and cartoony. GTAIII was silly and cartoony I think, and still my favorite in the entire series. I'd love to see an HD rerelease of that one, or even the entire PS2/Xbox trilogy. I never finished San Andreas and though it runs on the 360, we all know how the 360's BC can be goofy and weird.

[EternalGamer]

I'm in the mood for a JRPG suddenly. Debating going back to Infinite Undiscovery where I was still early in the game, starting Tales of Vesperia finally after owning it for 2+ years, or just playing Blue Dragon from where I left off (the escort the wagon mission). I also have Star Ocean, Last Remnant, FFXIII, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, Enchanted Arms, but I'm in the mood for a more light hearted, colorful JRPG right now. Maybe Eternal Sonata will get cracked out again. Can't remember where I left off.

I have finished all of those except Star Ocean and Enchanted Arms and FFXIII is far and away the best in terms of aesthetics and combat (though it babysits you far too much in the first ten hours). It also has a beautiful color pallete. Aside from that, despite what Spigot says, Blue Dragon is the next best JRPG aside from maybe Lost Odyssey, which does have a drearier color pallete. BD is great because of the bright colorful world and creatures and the great overworld exploration.

If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't waste my time with Eternal Sonata or Infinite Undiscovery, though. If you have some podcasts or something else otherwise occupy your mind while you play, they are ok time fillers, but definitely on the bottom rung. By the end of Infinite Undiscovery, I was slamming the start button to make every cutscene end asap. I gave up on the narrative a third of the way through--it is atrocious.

[frederec]

Oooh, the bit.trip runner soundtrack is now available (https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/gaijingames4). Downloading now...

[rein]

It's not that bad up here. It was hot yesterday but not ridiculously so... and I was at work for 12.5 hours in air-conditioned glory, so by the time I got home things were starting to cool off a little bit. The heat is supposed to break today so that will be nice.
Wow, I turn on CNN and we are all over it with our high temps. Heat index is supposed to reach as high as 115F. It looks like we are cooling down and returning to double digit highs tomorrow. Too bad it will not last through the weekend. We are forcasted back to 101F by Sunday and 104F by next Tuesday. :(

And I'm of the same mind about things repairing themselves. On the one hand, it's nice because things are actually working. But when you have no idea what actually went wrong or what happened to get things working again, it's frustrating because you don't know how to avoid it breaking in the future or how to fix it if it DOESN'T self-repair the next time it goes tits up. It freaks me out on most things but especially in this case with my DSL because I have no idea what username and password I am logged in with right now. It kept rejecting mine so I might be logged in with the default username that is used for setting up the service.

I had an experience like that with my iPhone on the weekend. One of the games just sort of started to hang and the fact that the phone doesn't have a proper on/off switch was driving me nuts, because I thought it was totally locked up and I'd end up having a screen-burn of my stupid farm in My Farm. Thankfully it eventually rectified itself before I snapped it in half, but I really do wish things would have a toggle that I could just flip to turn it on and off...I wish it had a normal on/off switch at time too. You can reboot it when it is stuck by holding the sleep/wake button and the home button at the same time. Still, a nice on/off toggle would be nice.

[Kelegacy]

115F? I'd die. I have a bitchfit when it hits the 80s here, or 90s.

I'm not opposed to heat, but we keep getting the humidity along with it. I refuse to mow the lawn when it's like that. I just want to punch the air and kick some nature ass.

[rein]

115F? I'd die. I have a bitchfit when it hits the 80s here, or 90s.

I'm not opposed to heat, but we keep getting the humidity along with it. I refuse to mow the lawn when it's like that. I just want to punch the air and kick some nature ass.
Well, the 115F is factoring in humidity for the Heat Index. The actual high forcast for today is around 103F. Over the last few days though we have been hitting 104-107F. It's definitly warm enough. I felt like I was going to combust walking to the mail box yesterday.

Here is our 7 day outlook
http://www.fox16.com/media/files/cctvi_weather/klrt/7_Day_Forecast/176.jpg

[Pale Ale]

I've skirted dangerously close to spoiler territory a few times with my posts and ended up redacting or erasing what I wrote because I realized how pissed I'd have been if so-and-so had told me about such-and-such in the end-game before I actually got a chance to play it.


I invoke the SAMUS Rule!

115F? I'd die. I have a bitchfit when it hits the 80s here, or 90s.

I'm not opposed to heat, but we keep getting the humidity along with it. I refuse to mow the lawn when it's like that. I just want to punch the air and kick some nature ass.

80F is not that bad, but what is this hoomeditah you speak off?

[Pale Ale]

My wife and I decided our modem (from Time Warner) wants to be monogamous, and you have to trick it into playing with multiple computers. There was a while where if I plugged in my laptop, it would work just fine, but if I plugged in either of my wife's laptops or the router, it would get no connection at all. We discovered that if we left whatever computer plugged in for a while (not sure exactly how long, but more than just a couple of minutes), it would decide it liked that computer. It would then have internet for that computer, but no others. So we left it plugged in to the router overnight, and by morning it played nice again and all our computers could get on the network through the router.

umm lemme see if I remember what I was told about this scenario. Oh fuck it, I hardly remember but a Giant Ape is involved.

And Scorpions


Long Story Short: TW needed to reset the line to recognize the other computer (and router) data it was getting.

[Purple Santa]

I invoke the SAMUS Rule!


Doesn't everyone know by now SAMUS sex is transgendered :eek:

I'm playing the sick game today. I rarely get sick so i'm an awful patient. I did work half a day because i'm dumb that way. It is only a stomach bug so I didn't think it would spread. I hate being sick.

[rein]

My wife and I decided our modem (from Time Warner) wants to be monogamous, and you have to trick it into playing with multiple computers. There was a while where if I plugged in my laptop, it would work just fine, but if I plugged in either of my wife's laptops or the router, it would get no connection at all. We discovered that if we left whatever computer plugged in for a while (not sure exactly how long, but more than just a couple of minutes), it would decide it liked that computer. It would then have internet for that computer, but no others. So we left it plugged in to the router overnight, and by morning it played nice again and all our computers could get on the network through the router.
And just like that it decided to work with the router. Life is good again. :)


Sweet relief. The temp has dropped to 86F and shouldn't get back to triple digits until Monday. Life just got even better.

[Spigot]

I invoke the SAMUS Rule!
Samus is just a woman trapped in a man's incredibly over-powered exoskeletal power suit. Like that arm cannon isn't a phallic symbol...

[Kelegacy]

Picked up PixelJunk Shooter for $5 and I'm pleasantly surprised. I have a feeling I'll beat it this weekend (apparently it's short) but it's already a good time.

[Spigot]

Just finished up RDR and was utterly satisfied by how they handled the finale. Won't go into spoiler territory here, but I'm sad to say that the ending was actually a HAPPIER ending than the theoretical one I'd concocted in my head that would have done the story justice.

I was also struck with how well they not only handled the conclusion of Marstons narrative arc but also with how they actually built a proper rationale into the fiction of the game for continued open-world shenanigans. Most games just roll credits whenever their big final set-piece is over and then drop you back into the world to fart around and chase pigeons or whatever but RDR actually took the time to give said attack of flatulence context within the game and that made me happy.

Now to decide what to work on next on ze big console o' doom. I think I'll probably fire up FFXIII again as I was just starting in on the stuff on Gran Pulse when I shelved it and with RDR out of the way, Alan Wake might finally get some of the attention it's due.

Of course, I'm going to wrap up my evening with a celebratory game or two of Starcraft 2 :)

[Pale Ale]

Samus is just a woman trapped in a man's incredibly over-powered exoskeletal power suit. Like that arm cannon isn't a phallic symbol...

Shoot the Parasite-Womb Monsters with you Pearlescent Ice. You know you want too.

[Kelegacy]

Spig, did you get the final achievement "Redeemed" or something like that? After the first credits roll, did you take control again and truly finish it?

[Spigot]

Spig, did you get the final achievement "Redeemed" or something like that? After the first credits roll, did you take control again and truly finish it?You need to 100% the game to get Redeemed, right? I didn't do that.

From looking at the list of 'hidden' trophies that were lumped together with the story thing, all of them were unlocked from what I could tell. I'll PM you and you can tell me if I missed anythign :)

[Kelegacy]

EDIT: It's the Nurture or Nature? achivement/trophy. Hidden of course. So you may have got it already.

I guess I didn't realize it by reading your initial post. Sounds like you may have achieved it. :)

Such a great game.

[Spigot]

Oh yeah. Nature or Nurture was the last story one, if I'm not mistaken... and yes, I got it :)

[Kelegacy]

Oh yeah. Nature or Nurture was the last story one, if I'm not mistaken... and yes, I got it :)

Saw your PM and replied, but I couldn't quite tell from your description in your first post...so I had to be sure. :)

[Spigot]

Saw your PM and replied, but I couldn't quite tell from your description in your first post...so I had to be sure. :)Yeah. I don't blame you for not necessarily understanding the first post as I had to be so careful to dance around any spoilers.

Arg. Just came downstairs and my daughter was sitting at the computer. I shooed her away and then I noticed that there were red marks next to the open dialogue box... and then I realized that she'd coloured on my monitor with a red marker!

Thankfully it wasn't with a Sharpie and it washed off easily, but ARG!

[Purple Santa]

That back and forth was as comprehensible as a Abbot and Costello routine. At least you don't have to worry anyone understanding what you were talking about. Glad you finished Spiggles.

[Kelegacy]

Now direct this to the Weekend thread or else.

[Spigot]

Oh yeah! It's Friday. I'm so disoriented today... Mattress store is trying to deliver two full queen boxsprings today instead of the split box spring we need to get up our stairs. Morons...

[Purple Santa]

Now direct this to the Weekend thread or else.
I never knew we had a enforcer for these threads. Well with my usual disdain for authority...no :p
Oh yeah! It's Friday. I'm so disoriented today... Mattress store is trying to deliver two full queen boxsprings today instead of the split box spring we need to get up our stairs. Morons...

I didn't know you can have a split boxspring for one mattress. I would of done that for my small crawl space we have.

[Spigot]

Yeah. It's basically two twin boxsprings.