Monday Blues (5/13/09) - What did you play?

[Purple Santa]

Hello fellow zombie gamers. Yes, zombie gamers. The day we go back to the walking/working/fill in what you do during the week here days of the week or the so called dead parts of the week. Do we not only live for the weekend ;). As we progress with our zombie shuffle, the long journey back to our living, let us curse the day until you soothe your thoughts of the weekend that lay ahead. Then we stare at the vast wasteland of days till Friday. Horror indeed. Forming our neat zombie conga line (we may be zombies but we have fun), let us exchange our tales from the weekend, how we celebrated the brevity of the live part of the week.

It was an unusually balanced weekend for me. I saw plenty of gaming while seeing much of the sun with some beach on Mother’s day. I spent Mother’s day with ADDGirl’s family, early dinner then walked off dinner on the Boardwalk of Atlantic City. As for the usual gaming addiction activity, my checklist for the weekend:

Fallout 3- I decided to re-roll my character. Although I know it didn’t require doing that if I wanted to restart, better to redo it from the very beginning. The FO 3 thread helped immensely. I would suggest to anyone who hasn’t played FO 3 (all one of you) browse through that thread; some great non-spoiler suggestions with great guidance as well. Ever start a game that you really shouldn’t have and then suffered from that poor decision? That was me and my attempt with FO 3. I now can enjoy FO 3.

Yakuza- I’ve already recommended this game to National Kato a fellow GTA fan(atic). To other GTA fans, I can’t suggest enough to try Yakuza. Although different in many ways to GTA, think brawler combined with GTA like elements and it begins to describe what Yakuza is. Throw in some Shenmue too and you really are getting what Yakuza plays like. I suggest finding Spigot’s excellent TTS review on the game.

Guitar Hero II- Started a new band to better track my progress through medium. The crowdes haven't booed me out of the stadium...yet.

GTA:CTW- The usual with this game. Made more drug deals with my money now over $400,000 which is helping me buy up some real estate in Liberty City. Then there were the attempts at some side missions with the help of the Liberty police and paramedic units. Police work has gone well. Paramedics missions, let’s hope none of you are in liberty city needing an ambulance. You may not make it.

Boing! Docomodake- When I needed relief from the crime sprees or apocalyptic settings, I went to this game. What better way to do that then with a nice puzzle solving platformer; even if you are playing as a mushroom which brings thoughts of a very weird acid trip. Wait the mushrooms multiple and …well it’s a fun game. Just ignore the sense you are acid flashback.

Some gaming, some sun, some phone time with the Mother and poof the weekend is no more. Rejoice for Monday with your tales of Mother’s Day weekend with any gaming tales too. How was your weekend? What did YOU play?

[menage]

Must eat brainsss!

I dropped virtually everything I was doing and went back to Fallout 3 and the whole batch of DLC. God I love that game. Level 6 now and I already encountered mad Brahmin attacking me, regulators chasing my ass and a behemoth I never saw before. all stuff I never experienced in my previous outings. Also discovered several new spots and even a new quest line from the old game. This is going to take me ages again before I leave it.

I did play Banjo N&B with the GF on Friday though and I installed my new 120 BG hardrive on 360. Which also set me into a downloading quest to re download everything I had to remove when the 20 GB was full.

[Ancalagon]

I played Vodka Hero on Saturday night. I did the Right Knee Twist event, unfortunately for me this means my right knee is now quite swollen and I have trouble walking. I also played the Hangover from Hell minigame on Sunday, this involves drinking lots of fluids and attempting to catch lots of sleep, while wondering if the combination of alcohol followed by paracetamol to help with the headache could cause irreperable damage to my liver.

Sunday I went back to Pokemon Platinum for unexplained reasons, may have been related to the hangover. I beat the second gym badge, thus meaning all of my Pokemon are now forced to obey me. Having them disobey orders was beyond frustrating, my DSi was in danger of meeting the nearest wall at high speed. At least I have the damn badge, so my Pokemon will obey me now.

And Sunday night I watched another 4 episodes of BattleStar Galactica. I'm really wishing it didnt have the religious slant, the foreknowledge that it really is God and not aliens masquerading as God really ruins it for me. In fact, I would say the series would be improved by the addition of more backstory involving the Lords of Kobol and this new God character that wants peace between Cylons and Humans.

[Spigot]

I spent most of yesterday doing the Mother's Day thing, which meant taking my wife and kids out for lunch and getting up early to cook breakfast and cleaning the house from top to bottom and basically keeping the wee ones out of her hair for a while.

Sadly, my gaming time was not at nearly the levels I'd hoped it would be this weekend.

It basically consisted of:

Xenosaga 2 - I had really hoped to finish this off last night but alas, it was not to be. I pretty much wrapped up all of the sidequests that I could do without having to have a game clear save file and have started the foray into the final dungeon. Alas, I nodded off in the middle of playing last night and woke up to find myself in some kind of crazy fight with a bunch of enemies that slaughtered me. That was when I just turned the game off and went to bed. I blame my wife, who came downstairs to get some laundry and said prophetically, "No wonder you always fall asleep down here. You're listening to elevator music."

I hope to wrap the game up over the next day or two. From looking at a FAQ, I only have a few boss fights to go.

Peggle DS - I picked this up on Saturday with some store credit ($20? Sure!) and it devoured what little gaming time I had that day. EVIL, I tell ya. EVIL!

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - Another cheapie purchase with store credit on Saturday, my son and I tried playing this for a while on Saturday but he kept wanting to be Darth Vader, who, I'm sad to say, is not available on the very first mission. I eventually just went it alone and beat that mission.

Azada - This was my other go-to game this weekend when I wasn't busy playing Xenosaga and didn't feel like Peggling. I grabbed it for free a week ago or so from Big Fish Games and it's a great collection of puzzle games wrapped in a larger narrative, a la Professor Layton. It made for some quick play sessions and helped keep my brain nimble.

And that's about it. I really wanted to play Patapon or Patapon 2 or Suikoden: Tierkeris or SOMETHING more substantial, but outside of sinking several hours into Xenosaga 2, I was just too busy.

[Gorvi]

It was a PSP weekend for me, that was it. I was pretty busy, but also just plain addicted.

Silent Hill Origins Very impressive. The story isn't anything to write home about, but it was far from bad. The music and sound are incredibly well done, headphones really should be required. So this was completed over the weekend and I think I may actually play through it again at some point. I didn't unlock the cool electric gun thing, but I did get these cool razor gauntlet things that make my hand to hand attacks 2 hit kills for enemies, so that should be fun.

Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law I picked this up for $10 at Best Buy a few weeks ago and so far, it's worth it. The game is essentially Phoenix Wright but with the characters and writing from the TV show. It still has the annoying as hell stupid logic with the way you present some of the evidence and it's much, much easier to find things in the environments, but it's funny and that's keeping me entertained. It's pretty damn short, too, I'm already through 3 of the 5 cases, though the first one is only a PW style intro case.

[Kelegacy]

I started and finished Turning Point: Fall of Liberty yesterday. What a turd of a game. I picked it up for real cheap just to have another FPS around. It was serviceable as an entertainment vehicle, but barely. Tons of glitches and terrible textures that didn't load (if they were supposed to), but I beat it. It's one of those damn games that if you beat on Hard, the achievements for Easy and Normal won't unlock until you beat the game on those modes as well. Weak. Very weak.

On a brighter note, I also finished Lost Planet, after playing and stopping over the past year+. It turned out to be a romping good time. I love explosions. I don't like mechs typically (I'm not one of those types of geek) but the mechs were awesome.

Today I don't know what I'll play. I've been glancing at Trouble in Paradise, Homecoming and even Amped 3 (talk about diversity!) but I don't know. Sometimes all it requires is me just popping a game in and playing.

[Fubl]

Getting ready for my granddads funeral really didnt feel like playing anything.

[National Kato]

Dead Space: completed through Chapter 9, so I'm making good progress. I'm going to try and finish this week. It has taken me way too long to finish this game and I'm wondering if my final impressions will suffer because of the extended break from playing it.

Mercenaries 2: Really enjoy this game, especially because of the explosions. Such pretty, pretty destruction. :)

[Commissar Rob]

Finished off my second play-through of Gears of War and finally unlocked General Raam for Gears 2. To celebrate, played through a bit of Gears 2 to try the big fellow out...and discovered he a) towers over the other locust and b) is therefore a huge, bloody target :(.

Played through a game of Civilization Revolution at super-easy n00b mode, and really had a good time. They've left a lot of strategy and removed tons of the micro-management. So I could focus on rolling over the rest of the world with my Roman Tank Legions. Vae victus indeed!

Started up Wolverine on Saturday night...and quickly discovered it was Sunday morning. The puzzles can be annoying...but other than that I absolutely love this game! Very, very satisfying combat. Hard enough to not be a cake-walk, but I still felt like a mutant killing machine. Just got out of the Weapon X facility...can't wait to keep going. Heh. I surrender to the adolescent that still hides in a corner of my brain.

[rein]

I played some Silent Hill Homecoming and loaded ePSX on my netbook. Now I need to rip some PS games to have on it. Any suggestions? Other than that, a little shopping and found out I am shrinking. :o

I also started reading The Graveyard Book but didn't get far before falling asleep. Why do I fall asleep minutes into a book these days? ...oh yea, I'm getting freaking old!

[Spigot]

Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.I remember playing a review copy of this last year. It was enjoyable and funny but holy crap. I think I beat it in about 2 1/2 hours, tops. It does have the Phoenix Wright vibe going for it but unfortunately it essentially breaks down to you watching a slightly longer episode of the show with pauses while you pick things to present in court and hear funny banter.

Not that it's a bad thing, but I remember when they were trying to charge $30-40 for it. I could have just gone and picked up a DVD of a complete season for less.

[Ink Asylum]

A great Left 4 Dead versus run with CoGgers through No Mercy that was neck and neck until the end, where despite my team getting all four survivors off the roof as opposed to the enemy team's two, we fell a couple hundred points short of overcoming our deficit. So close.

The rest of my weekend was spent dealing with the undead in an entirely different manner in Plants Vs. Zombies. This game is more addicting than Peggle. Thankfully, I have gotten every available trophy so I can leave it with a sense of accomplishment and revisit on occasion to experiment with different plant combinations.

[Mortis]

I hit up a few deployments in Dawn of War 2 before moving to the consoles.

I started with Broken Steel, I guess I have just played too much of the game because it didn't really do it for me. I have some stuff left to do after finishing the main quest but I'm not sure when I will go back.

Next I finished Killzone 2. Overall I thought the SP game was ok, might check out the MP or I may just trade it. Definitely wish I would have chose something else for my first PS3 purchase. I also started a play through of Uncharted on Crushing.

Finally I forced myself to finish Eat Lead on the medium difficulty. Man the last level was horrible, I actually screamed "just end, please!" while I was fighting the last boss. At least it's out of my house and on the way back to Gamefly now.

[Purple Santa]

It was a PSP weekend for me, that was it. I was pretty busy, but also just plain addicted.

Silent Hill Origins Very impressive. The story isn't anything to write home about, but it was far from bad. The music and sound are incredibly well done, headphones really should be required. So this was completed over the weekend and I think I may actually play through it again at some point. I didn't unlock the cool electric gun thing, but I did get these cool razor gauntlet things that make my hand to hand attacks 2 hit kills for enemies, so that should be fun.


When you play through again, working on the "bad" ending, I think the story improves a bit. Ok, improve might be to optimistic. I'll say it takes it for a very unique perspective of what really is going on with Travis and why he REALLY is in SH.
Getting ready for my granddads funeral really didnt feel like playing anything.
Sorry for your loss. My condolences to you and your family.

Dead Space: completed through Chapter 9, so I'm making good progress. I'm going to try and finish this week. It has taken me way too long to finish this game and I'm wondering if my final impressions will suffer because of the extended break from playing it.


Say hello to Chapter 10 (better known to me as the library shelf level) for me. And a nice FU to it to. Yeah I have issues...
I don't think the time away will ruin the game for you. The last few levels kept up the fun and the story unfolding make it a worthwhile end ride.

[Wraith]

Mostly Fable II. And a little Spore.

[jpublic]

Nocturne: I got fmaybe 2 hours (of pre-Thor grind) in before the wife once again claimed the TV from me.

Plants vs Zombies: Played a level or two.

Fallout 3: The Clint Eastwood Playstyle Project continues. Thus far, Clint has played through most of the Megaton quests (including most of the Wilderness Guide) and has worked his way in the main plot to Rivet City. He's probably going to work on the Replicated Man next, I never actually did the whole thing.

Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Wow, this game jumps difficulty. And I have to admit, I wish they had dome something with the Japanese sound bytes. I'd like to know WTF they're saying.

[EternalGamer]

I played a ton of Viva Pinata 2: Trouble in Paradise. I love the atmosphere of this game. The pinatas animals are cute overload and the various garden helpers and Professor Pester are all goddamn weirdos. From Pester's tromping around yelling "Victory is mine!" to Seedos looking amorously at your plants like he wants to hump them.

The actual game play hasn't really changed at all from the first game and it is pretty basic, but this game is really easy to just lose a few hours to, especially now that the level up mechanic is more prominent. Every time you gain a new level, you are told what new items are available to you and it makes it that much more addictive to play "just one more level up." In just one week of play, I'm already level 41 out of 50.

I got my mother a couple of Wiiware titles and made her a shirt in Animal Crossing: City Folk--she loves Animal Crossing--that says "#1 Mom." I played around with a couple of WiiWare titles when decided what to get her and ended with World of Goo and Final Fantasy: My Life as a King. At first blush, both seem, unfortunately, a little too difficult for her as I tried to walk her through them a bit on the phone. Perhaps I should have just stuck by the old stand by of Tetris and Dr. Mario (but she has played those so much it would have been pretty boring). I'm going to try to play more My Life As A King myself this week and help her get started. Perhaps it will click.

[hunterx280]

I was out of town this weekend so I didn't get as much game time as I would have liked.

I played a bit of Tetris DS while on the road and waiting around for things to start.

I also started reading Parasite Eve. I found out the original book finally got an English translation and my library had a copy. So far it's a lot of medical speak so I'm not sure how much I'm liking it. I don't mind hard science in my literature but not a whole heck of a lot has happened at this point. I'm going to probably finish it up this week.

Last night I got some good Left 4 Dead time in. Played a bit of Survival and Co-Op on Dead Air and Death Toll. I'm trying to get a couple of my co-workers up to speed since they picked it up during the most recent sale.

[Vigil80]

Been spending a lot of time with Fable 2 lately, taking advantage of my knowledge from the first playthrough, enjoying the DLC, picking up some achievements I didn't get the first time. Episode 10 of the F.U.D. Cast was about Fable 2, which got me in the mood again. Those fellas seemed pretty harsh on the game though, I must say.

La Pucelle Tactics came from Gamefly, inexplicably before the dozen or so 360 games ahead of it on my queque. I understand it to be a tactical rpg, which I enjoy. Shamefully, I have yet to start it up. Gaming in the current gen has spoiled me a little, and so starting that PS2 disc spinning can be difficult with something like, well, Fable 2 calling my name.

And my adventures in CoD4 continue. Prestige'd again, which is satisfying. Those early levels and unlocks come quickly, which is fun, and it makes one appreciate some of the weapons more when you have to unlock them all over again. Had some decent performances lately too, though there's no telling if it's because I'm getting my chops or I just got lucky. For every match that has me cheering, there's still a match that maes me gnash my teeth.

[Gorvi]

I remember playing a review copy of this last year. It was enjoyable and funny but holy crap. I think I beat it in about 2 1/2 hours, tops. It does have the Phoenix Wright vibe going for it but unfortunately it essentially breaks down to you watching a slightly longer episode of the show with pauses while you pick things to present in court and hear funny banter.

Not that it's a bad thing, but I remember when they were trying to charge $30-40 for it. I could have just gone and picked up a DVD of a complete season for less.
Yep, which is what I had heard. I liked the demo when it came out, though, and for $10 it seemed worth it. But it is like an interactive DVD, it's a good thing Harvey Birdman is a show I actually enjoy, unlike the rest of Adult Swim's original programming.

[Lance Uppercut]

The rest of my weekend was spent dealing with the undead in an entirely different manner in Plants Vs. Zombies. This game is more addicting than Peggle. Thankfully, I have gotten every available trophy so I can leave it with a sense of accomplishment and revisit on occasion to experiment with different plant combinations.

I'm gonna keep playing after the trophies to get my zen garden running. I haven't even gotten the tree of wisdom yet.

[Restlessavenger]

I spent friday night/saturday morning playing the Powersupply/Memory/Video card upgrade game.
Now that I have a gaming capable PC again I went back into Titan Quest and WoW. Also picked up L4d, Plants vs Zombies and Dawn of War 2 from Steam, played a little bit of all three as well.

[Daytime_Lantern]

Dragon Quest V all weekend. The thing I enjoyed most in the game is that when you get your wife, you can converse with her and she will ALWAYS have something unique to say. It gets to the point where I take them to locations I have visited and talk to random villagers just to read what she has to say about them. You can talk to a drunk and she will express pity for him. You can talk to her young neighbor and she will ask if you are jealous (and then reassure you that there isn't anything goin' on). I am really enjoying it.

[Cavalier]

Played a few more missions on Front Mission 4, really need to finish and get it out of the way. A major contrast between "just one more mission before I stop" of FM3 to the "can I really be arsed to play through another mission" of FM4.

Demon's Souls got a bit of play time, deleted a load of characters and started again as a Royal/Noble.

Because of the lacking FM4 wanzer action I dusted of my copy of Mechcommander 2 and trashed a few bandits and Liao mechs, pleasantly surprised it ran on vista with minimal fuss.

[Kielaran]

Started out the weekend with some Splinter Cell Double Agent. I got fed up with it quick and ended up starting Lost Planet. I played the game start to end this weekend. I really enjoyed it and didn't find any of the problems that I had heard about. I still need to get some multiplayer in and see how that it.

Saturday night Shadowrun was plagued with host quits, but it was still enjoyable overall. Sunday night I started playing Fallout 3 for the first time. I wanted to wait until all the DLC was out and with finishing up Lost Planet, I thought it was time to give the game a whirl. I made it into Megaton and did odd jobs and helped people out until it was time to go to bed (ok, well past time for bed). My character is overall good, but I am trying to play more of a suave guy, who may be slightly vain. Many of my speech decisions have come from if they fit my hairstyle! I can't wait to get back into it tonight.

[Purple Santa]

Sunday night I started playing Fallout 3 for the first time. I wanted to wait until all the DLC was out and with finishing up Lost Planet, I thought it was time to give the game a whirl. I made it into Megaton and did odd jobs and helped people out until it was time to go to bed (ok, well past time for bed). My character is overall good, but I am trying to play more of a suave guy, who may be slightly vain. Many of my speech decisions have come from if they fit my hairstyle! I can't wait to get back into it tonight.

I'm playing mostly a good character although i'm tempted to play GTA style bad guy. That means do what I do in GTA. Go up to strangers and just whack them. I just made it Megaton and knowing I won't save I decided to go on a killing spree. I admit it felt good. I was ready to set off the bomb too. I think i'll watch that before I go back to playing for real, with my boring patsy good guy.

[drobvice]

Played a few things on my iPod Touch. Didn't have time for much else. I leveled up my character in iVampires and played some geoDefense. Good for 5 min here and there. Kind of disappointed in the DSi Ware update today, as I was hoping to get something.

[Spigot]

Yep, which is what I had heard. I liked the demo when it came out, though, and for $10 it seemed worth it. But it is like an interactive DVD, it's a good thing Harvey Birdman is a show I actually enjoy, unlike the rest of Adult Swim's original programming.Oh, you know you are just hungering for the Tom Goes To The Mayor game.

[headhunter228]

I played even more Oblivion this weekend, leveling my Breton to Level 37. He's already a godlike character, having maximum stats in Strength, Intelligence, Willpower, and Endurance. He's also mastered Blade, Destruction, Restoration, and Sneak. Completed the Shivering Isles questline, so now I'm going to go back to Cyrodiil and hunt for Oblivion Gates and Daedric Shrines before finishing the main quest. Meanwhile, I've started another bounty hunter-like character, a Nord with Alchemy (for poisons), Heavy Armor, and Sneak. I could use a challenge right now, because this character will take a long time to get good. But, boredom will make one do these things.

When I wasn't on my computer, I played some GTA: Chinatown Wars. I've beaten the story missions, so now I'm going around just pushing drugs and looking for new stuff to do. It'll be a long time before I get bored with that game.

[Gorvi]

Oh, you know you are just hungering for the Tom Goes To The Mayor game.
Oh, no, what I'd really need is a Tim & Eric game. All they'd need to do is make it so I can just beat them senseless. That's it. No other real goal, just beating the crap out of them. I think that would make me happy. :p

The fact that people actually find enjoyment in that show hurts my brain.

[Doogie2K]

Same old, same old here, with a liberal dash of Oh Shit I Have a Bug. I think the rest of that is best left unsaid, other than to say it prevented me from going to see Star Trek this weekend, and from going to the last Hitmen game of the season (which, incidentally, was a doozy).

I spent a good chunk of Friday evening/night/middle of the night knocking off a whack of Citadel side quests in Mass Effect. Turns out I still hadn't explored half the city, so I did that, filled out my fast-travel list, and settled a few petty arguments along the way, usually in a way that made me feel like a good guy while still being kind of a bitch. As an aside, it's funny how I can accidentally forget to hit one inquisitive piece of the dialogue tree and be kicking myself for the rest of the night because I didn't save close enough to make it worthwhile.

This week's plans include going back to work, probably tomorrow, and probably resuming my nightly online Civ IV game with Glavian.

[Troggles]

Played through a couple chapters of Valkyria Chronicles. Then I started up a trial account of EVE, but am extremely confused about what I actually did.

[civil]

Hello fellow zombie gamers. Yes, zombie gamers. The day we go back to the walking/working/fill in what you do during the week here days of the week or the so called dead parts of the week.
Actually, Monday is my favorite day of the week. Long ago I gave up the whole week/weekend separation and life has been fucking kickass since. Some weeknights I'll be out until 2 AM (and go to work the next day) and some weekend nights I'll stay home to game/read/work on art stuff. Try it, you'll see that life vastly improves when you surrender those traps to the ether. Days are days, time is time.

Getting ready for my granddads funeral really didnt feel like playing anything.
I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you and your family are doing as well as you can. :(

As for me, I surrendered to Portal. I already started a thread about how much that game blew my mind so I'll skip any exposition. And since I had the Orange Box in hand I started up another run through of Half-Life 2. I'm hoping Gamefly does right by me and I get the Wolverine game soon.

Oh, and a friend had bought Left 4 Dead and we played through one of the chapters Wednesday. Holy fuck that was a blast. We're going to go through another chapter or two this week.

[Purple Santa]

Played through a couple chapters of Valkyria Chronicles. Then I started up a trial account of EVE, but am extremely confused about what I actually did.
From those who I know who play EVE...you lost a bit of your life. Talk about timesinks...
Days are days, time is time.




Actually...I'm in full agreement with you. I really don't hate Monday's. Or think the weekend is the sole savior of our souls :). I write the thread openings with total tongue in cheek. The only time I hated any days of the week and/or saw the weekend as the relief was in my early twenties. But I was miserable...so all of life was too. Once I rid myself of that misery, I was no longer looking at a clock or days of the week to define happiness.

[Troggles]

From those who I know who play EVE...you lost a bit of your life. Talk about timesinks...


Most of my RL friends have made the jump to it from WoW. I just gave it a try, but I don't think it will stick for me. It's not very noob friendly and I just don't have the time to learn it all at once right now.

[National Kato]

Say hello to Chapter 10 (better known to me as the library shelf level) for me. And a nice FU to it to. Yeah I have issues...


I'm through Ch. 11 now and I have to say the 'library shelf' section wasn't all that bad. I managed to put a wall of shelving between me and that bad guy and wasn't as rushed and hectic as I imagined it might be. Maybe because I had been reading all this hate for that section. The chapter actually went by pretty fast.

Almost done now...just a little more to go...

[Spigot]

I'm through Ch. 11 now and I have to say the 'library shelf' section wasn't all that bad. It's ok. Purple Santa just sucks at games that involve skill, thought, reflexes or any combination of the three. :D

On a much brighter note, I just finished Xenosaga 2. After reading all of the hate for the final (or, I guess, penultimate) boss, he was a piece of cake. Granted, I was about level 42-43 and got into a pretty good rhythm knocking his HP down at a pretty steady clip, but I had a tougher time against a few of the regular enemies in the areas leading up to him than I did with the actual boss.

I will admit that I came pretty close at one point to a party wipe but thankfully I avoided that. I could see how if you got into a routine with him where he kept boosting and doing the 'let's blast everyone for 1000+ damage' attack he could be incredibly cheap.

But that game is in the bag. Time to fire up Xenosaga 3... after lunch.

[Doogie2K]

So I went back to ME yesterday, and actually wrote out the locations of all my side missions so I could knock them all off in a path to my next main-quest world. Then I saw this "Asteroid X57" highlighted on my map in the sector next door. "That's weird," I thought, "that's not a main-quest world." Turns out I'm a dumbass and forgot that that's the DLC planet. I wound up letting everyone go without bloodshed, partially because I didn't think my Shepard would let the hostages die, despite the fact that it meant letting Balak get away, but mostly because the fight with the Batarian underling turned out to be a huge pain in the ass and I wasn't keen to repeat it after the massive battle I'd just been through, and if I died without being able to save...yeah. Fuck that. Besides, I still got that pleasant little "plonk" and a 50G deposit into my Microsoft Epeen Bank, so I was satisfied.

Then I went to the moon. That was rad, until I got hit by a rocket without saving (duh) and got kicked back to the previous bunker. Then I rage-quit and watched hockey. Still, productive day. Now, I'm back at work, and that sucks crap. :(

[Purple Santa]

I think I found my sweet spot with Fallout 3. Following Kelegacy's strategy from the FO thread, how to steal and still keep your karma up, i've become a klepto and put a few people out of their misery. I was caught stealing from Silver, realizing she was going to hold onto the stolen stuff. Well, I stole the stuff fair and square, so she had to die. And if I could of, I would of killed the kid that leads me to the fire ants too. He disappeared to fast though. Avoiding that town at all costs for now.

I also disarmed the bomb, killed the man who wanted it detonated, saved the sheriff this time around and now know what everyone is talking about having your own bed and butler in Megaton. I gave away some purified water to the beggar outside of Megatown, he blessed me with good karma.

All is well my apocalyptic world :)

[Gorvi]

It's ok. Purple Santa just sucks at games that involve skill, thought, reflexes or any combination of the three. :D

On a much brighter note, I just finished Xenosaga 2. After reading all of the hate for the final (or, I guess, penultimate) boss, he was a piece of cake. Granted, I was about level 42-43 and got into a pretty good rhythm knocking his HP down at a pretty steady clip, but I had a tougher time against a few of the regular enemies in the areas leading up to him than I did with the actual boss.

I will admit that I came pretty close at one point to a party wipe but thankfully I avoided that. I could see how if you got into a routine with him where he kept boosting and doing the 'let's blast everyone for 1000+ damage' attack he could be incredibly cheap.

But that game is in the bag. Time to fire up Xenosaga 3... after lunch.
Congrats! Enjoy 3, if you're even a bit into the story now you're going to love it.

And I finished Harvey Birdman last night. Good for $10, but man, I feel bad for anyone who bought that for full price. Ouch.

Now I need to move on to another PSP game and I'm stuck: I can either start Field Commander (which I did last night and it's ok, another $10 purchase), continue with Exit (good, but not in large doses), or start Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (Diablo type game). I'm leaning towards Dungeon Siege right now.

[National Kato]

I also disarmed the bomb, killed the man who wanted it detonated, saved the sheriff this time around and now know what everyone is talking about having your own bed and butler in Megaton.

Bah! You ought to see the view from my Tenpenny penthouse suite. The horizon is much, much nicer now. :D

[Purple Santa]

Now I need to move on to another PSP game and I'm stuck: I can either start Field Commander (which I did last night and it's ok, another $10 purchase), continue with Exit (good, but not in large doses), or start Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (Diablo type game). I'm leaning towards Dungeon Siege right now.
I vote for Dungeon Siege. It just sounds like the best out of the trio :p
Bah! You ought to see the view from my Tenpenny penthouse suite. The horizon is much, much nicer now. :D
Well I played with the idea of actually watching the town go boom. I even bargained for more caps before I would consider it. But my blood lusting ways got the better of me and I wanted to see what would happen if I just beat the guy with my bat. I play to much GTA :D. I still might go back to an earlier save to see the other option you chose to do though.

[Spigot]

I also disarmed the bomb, killed the man who wanted it detonated, saved the sheriff this time around and now know what everyone is talking about having your own bed and butler in Megaton. I gave away some purified water to the beggar outside of Megatown, he blessed me with good karma.

All is well my apocalyptic world :)
Wait, you never even got your apartment/house before? No wonder you were so miserable. That said, I still have a save file from waaaay back in the beginning of the game where I can light off that nuke as often as I want.
Congrats! Enjoy 3, if you're even a bit into the story now you're going to love it.Oh man, I've only put about an hour into Xenosaga 3 but it is such a vast, vast improvement over #2 in almost every way. Just having the battles load up as fast as they do and doing away with the incredibly strange zone system from #2 is awesome. Plus the database... the database! I loves it soooo much.

[National Kato]

Welp, finished Dead Space last night! It only took me eight months. :(

Anyhow, I really enjoyed it. I think there were some missteps in the narrative that decreased the impact of the story, and some missed opportunities to make the story more involving, but overall it was an incredible debut for this new IP.

The environments were absolutely stunning and, while backtracking did occur in areas, I never felt like I was seeing the exact same levels over and over. I have to give a ton of credit to those individuals responsible for lighting, sound, and the ambient animations/effects.

Also, I've now played and finished both Dead Space and Resident Evil 5 and it's not even a contest as to which was more engaging. Dead Space didn't just rise above due to the ability to run and gun. The game surpassed Capcom's swan song in every respect. Story, graphics, gameplay...the whole package.

[Gorvi]

Oh man, I've only put about an hour into Xenosaga 3 but it is such a vast, vast improvement over #2 in almost every way. Just having the battles load up as fast as they do and doing away with the incredibly strange zone system from #2 is awesome. Plus the database... the database! I loves it soooo much.
I'm glad you're liking it, it's very nice to see someone else enjoying the game. It really is great, but it got mostly ignored because of how disappointing 2 and since it came out so very close to FFXII.

[Spigot]

I'm glad you're liking it, it's very nice to see someone else enjoying the game. It really is great, but it got mostly ignored because of how disappointing 2 and since it came out so very close to FFXII.Yeah. I almost passed on getting 3 back in the day because of how annoyed I was with so many aspects of 2.

I'm just finished chapter 1 and by gum, it's great. What the hell happened with #2 to make it so utterly disappointing (at least on the technical side of things)?

Sigh.

I think I just spent about half an hour or so reading the database.

[civil]

Dammit you two. Xenosaga is one of my favorite games ever but I gave up after reading how disappointing X2 was. That and I didn't feel like sinking so many hours into a game again (which I did anyway with Oblivion/Fallout 3). Plus I was waiting with hope that the talked about (but as far as I know never realized) DS version of all three games was coming.

And I was also turned off that they decided to cut the amount of planned episodes from six to three. That seemed like it was going to make for some shitty corner-cutting in terms of story.

[Spigot]

Well, Xenosaga 2 definately cuts a lot of corners in the storytelling department. The whole start of the second disc essentially condenses what was likely going to be an episode or 2 of content into a narrated series of vignettes.

That said, I'm glad I pushed through 2 because Xenosaga 3 is just fantastic.

And Xenosaga 2 only took about 32-33 hours and that was doing almost every sidequest aside from 2-3 post-ending ones.

And the DS version of the first two games did come out... in Japan... if I recall correctly. It's never showing up here though.

Oh, and it looks like there was probably an episode worth of content that would have occurred between Xenosaga 2 and 3 that gets some flashbacks and description in the database. I'm not sure how much of the events between 2 & 3 get told during the course of 3 but while I was a little disappointed with the reduction of episodes, I don't mind it if it means they tighten up the story a bit more (which is what seems to be happening in Xenosaga 3) as opposed to just glossing over things (a la Xenosaga 2).

[Kielaran]

I think I found my sweet spot with Fallout 3. Following Kelegacy's strategy from the FO thread, how to steal and still keep your karma up, i've become a klepto and put a few people out of their misery. I was caught stealing from Silver, realizing she was going to hold onto the stolen stuff. Well, I stole the stuff fair and square, so she had to die. And if I could of, I would of killed the kid that leads me to the fire ants too. He disappeared to fast though. Avoiding that town at all costs for now.

I also disarmed the bomb, killed the man who wanted it detonated, saved the sheriff this time around and now know what everyone is talking about having your own bed and butler in Megaton. I gave away some purified water to the beggar outside of Megatown, he blessed me with good karma.

All is well my apocalyptic world :)

Speaking of the ants, I got to that quest last night. It wasn't as bad as it was made to seem here. Mainly back peddling and VATS headshots. The end was a pain, but that was because the queen would respawn just ahead of me as I was backing up for some reason. Instead I just bit the bullet, down a fire ant nectar and shot the hell out of the guardian ant. I thought the reward for the quest was well worth the trouble.

[Purple Santa]

Wait, you never even got your apartment/house before? No wonder you were so miserable. That said, I still have a save file from waaaay back in the beginning of the game where I can light off that nuke as often as I want.

If there was a way to play FO3 wrong...and it's really hard to do that...I did. All credit though to the FO3 thread which I read as I was rerolling my character. It was just enough heads up on some stuff...like yes, there is a bed or two to heal yourself among other tidbits that assist in any RPG. I just had no clue. Which is another reason I rerolled my character. I knew if I just immersed myself in the game properly (aka pay close attention) I thought I would find what everyone was raving about.
Welp, finished Dead Space last night! It only took me eight months. :(

Anyhow, I really enjoyed it. I think there were some missteps in the narrative that decreased the impact of the story, and some missed opportunities to make the story more involving, but overall it was an incredible debut for this new IP.

The environments were absolutely stunning and, while backtracking did occur in areas, I never felt like I was seeing the exact same levels over and over. I have to give a ton of credit to those individuals responsible for lighting, sound, and the ambient animations/effects.

Congrats on beating the game. I can't agree more with you points. It was easily in my top 5 games for 2008. What did you think of the ending? :D
Speaking of the ants, I got to that quest last night. It wasn't as bad as it was made to seem here. Mainly back peddling and VATS headshots. The end was a pain, but that was because the queen would respawn just ahead of me as I was backing up for some reason. Instead I just bit the bullet, down a fire ant nectar and shot the hell out of the guardian ant. I thought the reward for the quest was well worth the trouble.
Although i'm still avoiding that quest for now, having read more on the fire ants, they don't seem to difficult to defeat. Although I don't know how well of a marksmen I am with a shotgun, having experienced other enemies now and survived (some by dumb luck) I have faced worse. That and again, reading the FO thread...I see the obvious ways that I missed on how to defeat the fire ants.

More tales from the wastelands...I thought I screwed myself. I was in Moira's place, decided to steal some items. The mercenary catches me, then I had to kill him. Well Moira freaks out as does the whole town. They basically ran me out of town. I thought I wouldn't be able to do any of Moira's quests now. Or get back to my nice comfy bed in town. I was so sorry I didn't take National Kato's advice: Go live in the tower. I tried to go to a prior save but didn't have one that was close (yes, very stupid of me). Luckily, I left town, wandered a bit..then came back...the town acted like it never happened. Even Moira was ready to talk to me. This despite the dead body was still in front of her! And I found Twopenny tower. Interesting place...

[National Kato]

Congrats on beating the game. I can't agree more with you points. It was easily in my top 5 games for 2008. What did you think of the ending? :D


The very, very end ending? Like the last two seconds of the game prior to the credits? I actually thought it was a typical horror staple...but don't agree with some in the spoiler thread who think it meant anything more than Isaac's mind still trying to get closure.

[Gorvi]

Yeah. I almost passed on getting 3 back in the day because of how annoyed I was with so many aspects of 2.

I'm just finished chapter 1 and by gum, it's great. What the hell happened with #2 to make it so utterly disappointing (at least on the technical side of things)?

Sigh.

I think I just spent about half an hour or so reading the database.
Oh, you'll spend a lot more time with that database, it's a great resource. There's also a really interesting little minigame you'll come across later on that's actually a great little puzzle game in it's own right. I think it can earn you some extra items, too.

[Spigot]

Oh, you'll spend a lot more time with that database, it's a great resource. There's also a really interesting little minigame you'll come across later on that's actually a great little puzzle game in it's own right. I think it can earn you some extra items, too.That database is EVIL! I ended up being almost late for work because I kept digging deeper into it.

And my god, this game is gorgeous. Sure, it's not in HD, but it just pops.

[Purple Santa]

Thanks to Frederec, I am addicted to another JRPG. I started playing Mana Khemia: Student Alliance this morning and it's likely i'll lose myself in this game. I am glad I don't know how to whistle otherwise i might be walking around whistling the tunes in this game...they are going to be stuck in my head for quite a while.

@Gorvi: My initial impression: Nice looking game, easy battle system to learn with some openness to learning to do "alchemy" with the various items you find. So obviously exploring is rewarded I would think. I'm loving the concept, since you are in school, the "battles" come from you doing your school assignments. If you are an obsessive gamer, getting all A's will be challenging. I'm only an hour into the game but so far i'm really liking it.

[Gorvi]

Thanks to Frederec, I am addicted to another JRPG. I started playing Mana Khemia: Student Alliance this morning and it's likely i'll lose myself in this game. I am glad I don't know how to whistle otherwise i might be walking around whistling the tunes in this game...they are going to be stuck in my head for quite a while.

@Gorvi: My initial impression: Nice looking game, easy battle system to learn with some openness to learning to do "alchemy" with the various items you find. So obviously exploring is rewarded I would think. I'm loving the concept, since you are in school, the "battles" come from you doing your school assignments. If you are an obsessive gamer, getting all A's will be challenging. I'm only an hour into the game but so far i'm really liking it.
That's great to hear. How is it technically? The core game isn't something I was really concenred about, it was how it loads. I had heard so much about how it was simply broken that I'd been scared away. Any issues so far w/o doing the install?

[Xydarc]

Ugh, I was sick for most of the weekend, so all I did was:

Atlantica Online: My guild ran a guild dungeon with lvl 90+ mobs. Most of us are 60-80, but it was a lot of fun, even if we did get pwn'd. A lot.

Star Trek: When I was feeling better, I saw the franchise reboot, and it was great. Except for the lensflares. Lots and lots and lots of lensflares.

So, no mystery game. Maybe this weekend...

[headhunter228]

Bah! You ought to see the view from my Tenpenny penthouse suite. The horizon is much, much nicer now. :D

Amen to that. That was pure, nuclear-powered bliss, injected directly into my brain. Video games need to do that more often.

[National Kato]

Amen to that. That was pure, nuclear-powered bliss, injected directly into my brain. Video games need to do that more often.

Did you do it by day or night? I did it twice to see both and I must say, while they both have their strengths, the Nuke at Night is a wondrous spectacle.

[headhunter228]

Did you do it by day or night? I did it twice to see both and I must say, while they both have their strengths, the Nuke at Night is a wondrous spectacle.

Aw, crap. I did it during the day. Now I'm going to have to find my Fallout 3 disk, start another new character, and set it off at night. I can't wait.:D

[Purple Santa]

That's great to hear. How is it technically? The core game isn't something I was really concenred about, it was how it loads. I had heard so much about how it was simply broken that I'd been scared away. Any issues so far w/o doing the install?
I didn't think the gameplay was going to be an issue with you. Actually, I thought you would really like this game because it's a change of pace since the game doesn't take it self seriously. Or I hope not...some of the dialogue i've heard has been over the top, but very funny.

As for the load times, i'm not seeing the broken. Maybe later in the game? Unless I forgot what other load times have been on the PSP, they seem normal. I don't even think the loading times are that long at all. Some are as fast as a blink. I'll play over the weekend putting in a few more hours to check to see if the load times get worse.
Did you do it by day or night? I did it twice to see both and I must say, while they both have their strengths, the Nuke at Night is a wondrous spectacle.
Adding this to the second play through addendum.

[Gorvi]

I didn't think the gameplay was going to be an issue with you. Actually, I thought you would really like this game because it's a change of pace since the game doesn't take it self seriously. Or I hope not...some of the dialogue i've heard has been over the top, but very funny.

As for the load times, i'm not seeing the broken. Maybe later in the game? Unless I forgot what other load times have been on the PSP, they seem normal. I don't even think the loading times are that long at all. Some are as fast as a blink. I'll play over the weekend putting in a few more hours to check to see if the load times get worse.
That is really nice to see. If you end up going throuigh the weekend with no issues (or even part of the weekend if you update) I may just go out and get it.

I need a new PSP game anyway, I'm kinda between stuff now. I've been playing the crap out of Hot Shots Golf Open Tee, though, I think I may finally unlock everything in that. It's only taken 3 1/2 years. :p

[Purple Santa]

That is really nice to see. If you end up going throuigh the weekend with no issues (or even part of the weekend if you update) I may just go out and get it.

I need a new PSP game anyway, I'm kinda between stuff now. I've been playing the crap out of Hot Shots Golf Open Tee, though, I think I may finally unlock everything in that. It's only taken 3 1/2 years. :p

You are one patient gamer :).

I really need to go find some reviews on MK so I can see what the issue is with the loading. If this is the reason JRPG fans aren't playing this, it's a shame. I think I want to look into the series this was spun off from...which I can't remember at the moment, but I know you or Frederec will remind me. If I remember correctly, I thought Frederec said his wife was a big fan of that series.

[Gorvi]

You are one patient gamer :).

I really need to go find some reviews on MK so I can see what the issue is with the loading. If this is the reason JRPG fans aren't playing this, it's a shame. I think I want to look into the series this was spun off from...which I can't remember at the moment, but I know you or Frederec will remind me. If I remember correctly, I thought Frederec said his wife was a big fan of that series.
That I am. :) That, and for some reason I love the Hot Shots series (just found the PS3 game for $20 this weekend :D).

frederec would be much better to look towards than me for those games. I think they spun off of the Atelier series, but I could be wrong. I know they're stuff NIS publishes over here, but I never got around to them.

[Spigot]

I really enjoyed the first Atelier Iris game but I couldn't be bothered to play the rest of the ones that were released on the PS2 because they looked to be the exact same game.

The main thing that had me hooked on the first Atelier Iris was that you spent more time cultivating relationships with the townsfolk, especially the shopkeepers, and it was addictive to try to find all of the things they needed or that you'd need to get new gizmos and magic, etc.

I'd say that it's worth it to play one Atelier Iris game, but I doubt I'd recommend playing more than one of them.

[Purple Santa]

I'd say that it's worth it to play one Atelier Iris game, but I doubt I'd recommend playing more than one of them.

One it is then. I guess I can look for the last one in the series when I get around to playing it. A silly noob quesiton but...any of them come out for a handheld?

@Gorvi: Reporting back with the loading issue. Now that I put more time into it...yes, the loading issue became more clear to me. Right after I posted my last message, right back into the game...the longest loading screen yet. I decided to "count" the seconds for the loading screens (I counted Mississippi's). The loading screens vary from 3-10 seconds (Mississippi's). I don't find the individual loading of the screens, when it does load long, bothersome. What I think might get under the skin of those who did have an issue is cumulative amount of loading screens they see. So it's not the 3-5 seconds of loading, but what may seem a constant walk some, load screen, walk some more, fight get a loading screen, then walk then another and you see the point. For me, I'm not bothered by it. I don't think the loading is that bad even if there are a ton of load screens you encounter. I wonder to those who said the game is "broken", how many PSP games have you played? I don't know, if i'm gaming on my PSP, I expect loading screens or to hear the whirring disk...alot. The loading screens are there, but to me saying it's broken would me staring at loading screens for 30-60 seconds. I guess it's YMMV type of perspective on it.

[Spigot]

I can be pretty patient with loading screens especially if they're infrequent but anything over 10 seconds can get really, really annoying, especially if it ends up happening a lot.

30-60 seconds, especially if they happen a lot, would be a broken game. Hell, just Xenosaga 2's battle sequences are almost broken in that it takes a second or two to load up the battle 'arena' and then each character and enemy also has to be loaded in separately and that can take 2-3 seconds per unit.

[Purple Santa]

I can be pretty patient with loading screens especially if they're infrequent but anything over 10 seconds can get really, really annoying, especially if it ends up happening a lot.

30-60 seconds, especially if they happen a lot, would be a broken game. Hell, just Xenosaga 2's battle sequences are almost broken in that it takes a second or two to load up the battle 'arena' and then each character and enemy also has to be loaded in separately and that can take 2-3 seconds per unit.

I agree. Which is why I can't understand so far why the cries of a broken game. To be fair, i'm still early in the game. Maybe it becomes unbearable. I don't love the loading screens, but the game is charming me.