This monthly blog is brought to you by Hewlitt Packard and Windows 7. After 6 years of dedicated service, I have at last retired my PC and bought a new one. I usually build them myself, but systems have gotten really cheap and with the recent(?) shift to SATA from IDE, I can't cut costs by recycling old components. After some web browsing, I ended up in Best Buy purchasing an HP Athlon quad-core (2.6GHz) with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. The graphics card is a little underpowered (512MB ATI 4359HD), but I'd have to put a bigger power supply in to upgrade it. I never bothered with Vista, so getting used to Windows 7 has taken some time. A lot of things are easier, but other things have been buried pretty deep or hidden entirely.
This monthly blog is not brought to you by Square Enix. After 10 years of buying pretty much every game Square put out, an issue with my FFXI has caused me to cease my support of the company. Back in June, after a year of inactivity I cancelled my account once again. So imagine my surprise when I see a charge for $80.90 from SE in my checking account. Someone had opened up all 16 character slots at a cost of $27.95/month and bought a $25 server transfer. Since they only bill at the beginning of the month I was hit for two months of charges. They could find no evidence of third-party access they would not refund the charges. Since the odds of someone randomly using my account number and brute forcing their way past my password without leaving a trace is pretty slim, I am left with the conclusion that the intrusion came from within Square Enix meaning I can no longer trust my personal information on their servers. I have asked to have this information deleted and to recoup my losses I have decided to purchase any future titles second-hand. Not much of a boycott, I suppose, but like I'm going to miss out on FFXIII just because they screwed me out of 80 bucks. At least I'll know that when they release their final sales numbers, they sold one less than they could have...
October Gain +1725 - 94 Achievements unlocked
October Gain - Level + 0 Trophies + 0
Backlog decreased by 1 in October
Rank 15 on the MyGamercard.net RPG Leaderboard +2
Game spending vs. '08: Monthly -58% | Yearly -43 %
While I admit to holding off on all the DS RPGs, this fall still seems so quiet compared to recent years.
I never got into the 1st one and wasn't really expecting much out of this one, especially after the demo. I was pleasantly surprised by the finished product. The voices don't grate the ears, combat is quick (bosses excluded) and fun, and you have complete control over how you're characters develop their skills. Now if only the plot hadn't been pulled from the grand list of RPG cliches.
This one is pretty much on hold until I finish Dragon Age.
13:46 - Heading for the Wasteland of Silence
Juto 29/Crocell 28/Celestine 26/Argo 28
I enjoyed this so much on the 360 that I decided to grab the Game of the Year Edition and play through it again on my new PC. Actually, it was this game that finally forced me to get a new computer. When I bought it I didn't expect my old computer to run it well, but I figured with the graphics turned all the way down it might slug around just enough to be slightly playable. Instead I couldn't even get it to read the 1st install disc.
Anyway, an hour or so in and I'm in Rivet City deciding which quests I want to pursue.
This game was the subject of a fierce debate last year with a friend over the name of a character. The answer was fairly early into the game so we popped it in to settle the question. The argument was resolved in my favor and it was decided at some point in the future this fine game deserved another playthrough. That time has come.
7:20 - 8 Growth Stars
Serge/Leena/Greco - Hydra Marshes
A breath of fresh air after the disappointing Partners in Time. It is no coincidence that this coincides with Fawful's return to villain status.
18:09 - Peach's Castle
Mario 26/Luigi 26/Bowser 24
Dragon Warrior I
Level 20
The difference between levels 19 and 20 was amazing. DracoLord fell with little trouble this time.
Dragon Warrior II
Completed opening scene
Final Fantasy I
13:46 Lv 51 Knight/Ninja/Red Wizard/Black Wizard
Chaos defeated, game complete.
Final Fantasy II
02:36 Firion/Maria/Guy
The mission to Bafsk was a failure, guess it's back to Altair.
The first of five chapters, it won't take more than 4 hours or so to puzzle your way through the game. And the trip through was certainly worth it thanks to the hilarious dialogue. Well voiced with a rousing soundtrack and an ecclectic cast. The puzzles themselves weren't terribly difficult, though twice I found my thoughts moving in a different direction than the game required forcing trip to the FAQ. I will certainly be purchasing the complete set next year once the 5th episode is released. My score, slightly weighed down by a lack of replay value, is a 8.5.
My biggest complaint this series has slowly regressed as an RPG. In this game, the 4th entry, you're ability to influence characters at level up is down to nearly nothing. The boosts are nice, but you can only choose 3 of a hundred or so. Fusions as well, though they are extremely overpowered and really have no variety whatsoever. I don't mind more of the same, but this game's "improvements" went in the wrong direction. It has it's moments and might be worth a run or two for Marvel fans or those who enjoyed the previous titles, but overall it was a letdown. Here's hoping the inevitable sequel fixes what was broken. A 6.9.
Perhaps I'm biased towards Nintendo, but I just couldn't get into this game. While the early stages were fun at times, the later stages were just a pain in the arse, requiring pinpoint timing and a psychic ability to predict when offscreen enemies will suddenly attack. Sonic's greatest asset has always been his speed, but running anywhere is pretty much a death sentence. Most annoying was the artificial difficulty of the final stage where you were not even given a single ring to protect yourself with. Getting hit even once would send you back to the beginning of a back-to-back fight. Legions of fans swear by this game, but I can only see it as a relic of past best left there.
One genre that has not changed much over the years is the Strategy RPG. Select your units, and move them turn-by-turn across the map trying to exploit the weaknesses of the enemy. Valkryia Chronicles moves the genre ever-so-slightly forward by introducing a real-time aspect to the battlefield. As you advance your troops forward, the enemy units in range will begin shooting at you forcing you to use cover or find a way to slip behind them. Less realistic, though I certainly didn't mind, was the ability to select the same unit multiple times (with reduced movement). This was helped by tying the XP and base weapons to the troop type as opposed to the unit. No worrying about weaker units not getting the kill and the XP, you assign it at will amongst the five troop types. The main cast well voiced, though the scrubs sounded like they were phoning it in. Not that they were a part of the story at all. They each had their own idiosyncrasies, though it would take a trip to the encyclopedia to learn anything about them. The other aspect I didn't care for was basing the bonus XP and gold entirely on speed. This runs counter to my preferred slow and steady, wiping each unit out as I go and requires massive save file abuse to ensure that each move and shot proceeds exactly as planned. Missing is just not an option. Minor griping aside, the story is well told and I had a lot of fun with this. Highly recommended. It gets a 9.1 from me.
A first-person shooter wrapped in the trappings of a hack-n-slash RPG. An interesting combo and one that works quite well. It doesn't completely escape the repetiveness of the hack-n-slash; you are still killing lots of mobs, collecting loot, selling off the excess while grinding towards the next level, but the shift to FPS and need to aim does prevent the button mashing that most games turn into. The story is nothing special, the ending disappointing, and the bulk of the quests are offered through a bulletin board with no human interaction at all. some plot development would have been nice, but the core gameplay works well enough to more than make up for this. And it's even better when friends join in. 8.9 out of 10.
Tales of Monkey Islands Opening Theme
I had only only played Escape From Monkey Island once and very briefly so I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting when I started playing this, but the opening theme sure got me in the mood.
4 Pickups, 2 Additions, 1 Cancellation
Atlus and NIS America
Non-RPG
Comments
But I think no matter how the demo will be, I'll buy it.Argh, I should get back to Valkyria Chronicles but I got stuck at Chapter 7 (with the big tank fight) and I kind of got frustrated but it's such a refreshing approach to the turnbased genre, I really have to play this one again but first I'm going to play Uncharted 2, that's for certain.
Did you play Borderlands entirely solo ? Or did you try some of the co-op out? I still haven't decided what to do with Borderlands, buy it or not.
Anyway, it's always a joy to read your monthly blogs
That tank fight was definitely one of the tougher battles in the game. All I can really suggest is keep in mind the path of his tank and make sure it or the Eidelweiss is in between your troops and Selvaria. Try to get your grenades down the radiator hatches and your lancers in the trench south of the southern camp before she arrives on turn 6 and maybe have a sniper/engineer on temple platform to take of her troops. If everything goes well you can end it on turn 9, so you only need to play hide-and-seek with Selvaria for two turns since your lancers will be on the other side of Max's tank. I tend to leave an emergency save just before the battle and then save every turn or so just in case things go wrong. Good luck, though enjoy Uncharted 2 in the mean time.
I beat Borderlands solo, though I started a 2nd character to play through with my brother. We're about halfway through the game. I had a good time with it solo, but going back through a 2nd time I can see it was definitely built around the co-op.
I'll still check out if there's a demo for Magna Carta II on xbl "keeps fingers crossed" It must have been a pain to play that demo in Japanese
I agree with you about Final Fantasy XI, I had some payment issues with them as well. Like for example charging me the fee of a whole month when I reactivated my account at the end month and then charging me again at the beginning of the next month
. I left that game years ago and never wanna come back to it again.I like the song of the month but I will give you a better arrangement of the song which I find the best by the way. The theme song of the third monkey island "Curse of monkey island" and here is the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8jcR1vRRnA
Ravirr: You've got quite the pile of games to work on, but Chrono Cross remains a game worth playing, even 10 years later.
Jesus_Knight: Business before pleasure, unfortunately. I know it's been a rough year for you, so I hope things are improving.
Alidallal: That was a very nice rendition. Very similar, but indeed better. I've been hit with that end of month reopening double-bill as well and accepted that as my own fault as I should have realized they bill the 1st of month, but this incident went too far.
jeremycunnings