Quick Update

* Managed to do Final Exam in BC: Rearmed, and finished the game too. Only 3 achievements left to get.
* Started playing the drums in Rock Band again since my neighbour moved out. Woo!
* Bought Duke Nukem 3D from XBLA. I only ever played the shareware version on the PC so it's nice to play through the whole thing and try out multiplayer now.
* DS is taken up with Apollo Justice Ace Attorney recently.
* Got an iPhone, Monkey Ball is superb.

Final Exam

I've reached the final Challenge Room in BC: Rearmed, and it's agonizingly difficult. I've made it very near to the end twice and ran out of the 90 seconds both times. No humans could possibly do this.



Maybe after another 100 attempts, I'll make it...

Bionic Commando

Second purchase from XBLA, and i'm really enjoying it. The controls and gameplay are very difficult to get used to at first, but the Challenge Rooms go some way to ingraining the mechanic into your mind.

I've managed to get some fairly respectable times in some of the rooms, grabbing a three-figure leaderboard placing for a few.

I've hardly made progress through the actual game yet, though. The most fun part so far is the boss battles, a few are absolute genius and great fun to figure out.

Orange Box and Episode 2

My recent leap in gamerscore can be attributed to finishing Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1 and HL2 Episode 2 recently. I also managed to pick up some of the more outrageous achievements, like completing Episode 1 while only firing one bullet and completing Ravenholm using the gravity gun only.

I will attempt to play Team Fortress 2 for the first time this weekend.

Braid Speed Run

Managed to snatch the final achievement in Braid yesterday - finishing the entire game within 45 minutes. My time makes me currently 101st fastest out of anyone who has attempted it so far. Pretty good!

Braid

Braid is an incredible clash of arty sentiment, old-school platforming and mind-bending temporal logic puzzles. It starts off lulling you into a false sense of primitive-gaming security, negotiating ledges, bridges and gaps, before throwing some simple time-sensitive puzzles at you.

But rewinding time isn't the whole pudding. Here are some other elements that make this game so unique:

* The narrative, and the method of delivery. Piecemeal snippets of seemingly arbitrary text are presented to you at the beginning of each "world" (of which there are 6), through green books nestles on pedestals; the last level and epliogue are a huge reveal and twist rolled into one, with a very surprising message hidden just deep enough to be out-of-reach to the casual player. (The story is about the creation of the atomic bomb, essentially.)

* Green items are not affected by time. Green keys once used cannot be used again even if you rewind time to before you used it. Green enemies will soldier on regardless of your mashing of the X button. Green platforms and switches will remain in their current state.

* Purple items can be manipulated by a temporal echo of yourself. You can do something, rewind, and your shadowy alter-ego will perform the action again, allowing for tag-team interaction with the environment. Personally, these levels are some of the most innovative, taxing gameplay elements introduced in a very, very long time. Clever.

* The time-ring, which is a small golden ring dropped using the Y button, incorporating a time bubble around it. At the centre of the ring time stops dead; as you approach it form the outside, time slows down the nearer you are to it. This provides many memorable gameplay conundrums such as slowing down the firing rate of a canon, slowing down a platform's speed or a ladder's rate of decent, or even altering the rate of Mario-inspired potted plant traps to let an enemy through.

Braid took three years to make and $180,000 of creator Jonathan Blow's hard-erned cash to conceive. You owe it to yourself to buy this game. Now. This is the first time i've bought a game from XBLA and it is worth every penny.

A Link To The Past

Started playing through this beast of a game yesterday on my lunch breaks. It's easy to forget how addictive and fun this game is, and how many times i've played through it - i'm not sure if there's any part of the game i've forgotten.

Two lunch breaks have taken me to the 3rd pendant castle on Death Mountain already. Got the flippers, the super boomerang, 999 rupees and 7 heart containers. Not bad!

At home I've been playing through Half Life 2 again, this time via the Orange Box on 360. This is my third time through the game too, so I'm racking up achievements like nobody's business.

Procrastilamer

Really struggling to find time to play these days, bizarrely after the wedding organisation has gone. I think I'm going through a stage of gamer apathy. Might have a bash at some old school games this weekend, relive the glory days.

FFIV is still holding my attention during the daily commute. Cecil is now a Paladin, which I think is as far as I reached playing the game eons ago on an emulator.

Mass Effect

Finally gave Mass Effect a spin at the weekend. So far the plot and setting all seem very derivative of Halo 3, which I found it hard to enjoy anyway. The RPG elements seem a little too intuitive right now - being bombarded with upgrades and a confusing menu system doesn't help.

The combat is quite fluid and the squad commands seem useful, though i've never played "squad"-based shooters before (deliberately) so I'm sort of stumbling through at the moment.

Final Fantasy IV DS

Just started to play through this on my commute. The graphics are absolutely top notch so far, and it is quite a challenging game.

I'm a bit rusty on my FF skills though - the Gambits cloned from FFXII feel a bit useless- I only have Auto-Potion just now, but they are too expensive to use them every time I'm hit.

I'll post more details another time.

back from hiatus.

Well,I am now a married man with no more wedding to plan for. The procrastigamer finally has more time to play some games. Thank Christ!

My 360 was returned within a week or so with a new motherboard and DVD drive and seems to be functioning perfectly.

The only game i've purchased recently was Metal Gear Solid 4, which i've still barely scratched the surface of.

The game i've been playing the most recently, believe it or not, is Pokémon Pearl. I've always loved the charm and addictiveness of the main Pokémon canon and i'm finding renewed joy in catching some ridiculous looking characters.

three red lights.

Bugger.

gta4 side missions.

Started achievement hunting last night - managed to get the "lose a 4-star wanted level" one, it was pretty easy once you understand the quirks of the police AI. That is, turn a lot. I might try to get the "5 minutes on 6 -star wanted level" tonight - i'm not sure if you have to have one consecutive 5-minute session or if it's cumulative, though.

I also embarked on the Most Wanted missions, which were comparatively easy after finishing the story. Only have around 10 of those left.

I'm pretty much convinced that I will play through it again to get the Liberty city Minute achievement and to choose the opposite decisions I chose the first time to explore the different narrative opportunities.

completed gta4.

Finished the story in GTA4 now. Unfortunately my playing time was slightly over 30 hours, so I missed out on the "Liberty City Minute" Achievement. I'm fairly certain i'll be playing through the game again though to explore the other narrative choices available from the decisions you are forced to make.

After that, and some achievement hunting, it's on to multiplayer.

I love this game!

grand theft bought-o.

This page has been dead because 90% of my free time is spent playing GTA IV.

I'm 50% through the game.

Once i'm finished with it I will probably write a lot of things about it here. Good things.

final fantasy vii. again.

I'm playing through FF7 for the umpteenth time on my PSP. I seriously can't get enough of this game. I've not been engaged by any of the spin-offs, although Crisis Core seemed quite interesting from playing the first few levels.

procrastigamer procrastinates.

This is my first post in a month or so, mostly because i've been busy moving house and organising our wedding, which is only a few months away now. That doesn't mean i've been too busy to play some games though. Oh no.

I'm on to the final disc of Lost Odyssey now, and I have enjoyed every minute of gameplay so far. The ring system has come into its own, especially upon the discovery that you can swap rings mid-battle without costing a turn, making elemental/enemy type tactics more strategy than guesswork.

The story has came into its own too - the nature of the title has been revealed and the antagnoist's motives have been set. It's the usual fantastical RPG fare we've come to expect from the FF canon, but it still has the ability to draw you in. Even my wife-to-be is urging me through so that she can learn the conclusion.

I've also purchased Mario Kart Wii, Dead Rising and Mass Effect recently.

I've been a massive MK fan since the first installment, finishing every entry in the series so far. I really like the new one, despite being put off by EDGE's 6/10 review, the reason for which seemed to focus on the multiplayer aspect which for me is not so important. I haven't even tried to use the Wii Wheel yet - the nunchuck/wiimote combination suits just fine, with 'bragging rights' of no concern to me for the above reason.

I've only scratched the surface of Dead Rising so far and haven't even opened the box of Mass Effect yet. Add them to the list...

new home greens.

I'm not particulalry sure what the literal opposite of the blues is. White seems too obvious, so green it is.

Onto disc 2 of Lost Odyssey now, and it's been great fun this far. It's one of the most difficult Final Fantasy clones that i've ever played - around 3 or 4 times now i've seen the 'game over' screen, one particular boss requiring 4-5 attempts to best. This kind of difficulty is what keeps me engaged more than a storyline ever could, harnessing my masochistic perseverance to conquer a sticking point.

In a way this is opposite to the reason why I loved Eternal Sonata - sure, ES' second playthrough gets tough, but how many people are likely to attempt it? ES was a breeze to run through, which allowed the narrative to keep pace; LO is more content with showing you extended pieces of non-interactive dialogue book-ended with dungeons and boss battles.

And it's in this architecture that Lost Odyssey has encountered the most consternation; I however recognise that this type of gameplay is a genre in-and-of itself, completely seperate from strategy or "active battle" avenues. It is almost halfway between the two; the strategy element comes with choosing what to do before the round starts, with the active battle element at a higher level comes with the changing strategy between turns and the trigger-activated target ring.

beautiful katamari impressions.

I'm pretty disappointed with it. I completed all of the requests in two nights of casual play and i've already unlocked 500 gamerpoints from just dicking around - far too easy. The DLC is absolute thievery too, apparently the extra levels are on the disc already.

The only real improvement over the previous games is being able to go from a couple cm to star sized in one level, although the loading gaps are too noticeable to make it really feel that way.

The present/cousin collectables are just like any other game with pointless fetch-fests, and it even has the token ridiculous achievements - 100 hours playtime? Get tae fuck.

Here's the ultra caveat: if you enjoyed any previous Katamari title, you'll go completely balls deep with this. Just don't expect them to have tried.

beautiful katamari released today.

to my surprise and delight, beautiful katamari was released today. i know it's not supposed to be as good as the previous two, but i can't wait to roll up some garbage in hd.

purchased lost odyssey.

bought it and had a read through the instruction book. i've decided to finish eternal sonata for good before i get cracking on it, then resume blue dragon another time.

slitherlink: the return of.

i've picked up my slitherlink habit again. it's amazing how many more logical maxims you can pick up just when you thought you knew them all. i'm trying to get maximum stars on every puzzle whilst hoping for a sequel.

lost odyssey.

definitely plan on picking up lost odyssey on friday. i'm a sucker for traditional jrpgs so i can see myself sinking a lot of time into it.

i'm torn on whether or not to try to finish blue dragon first though.

component/vga.

tried to set up my 360 on my new tv over the weekend, when i came to the realization that my tv doesn't have a proper component input. egads.

what you get instead is a vga input and a vga-to-component conversion cable. this is fine in itself, however the audio input is a 3.5mm earphone jack, whereas the supplied 360 cable is a red/white stereo RCA cable.

so what i've got now is a hack-job: the rca cables go into a composite cable switcher, which then has an rca-to-earphone-jack cable running into the tv. so i've ordered one of these.

advance wars: days of ruin.

playing through this just now, up to the 15th or so campaign mission. so far i really like the change in art direction and the new units/gameplay changes, it all feels necessary and suitable to take the series forward.

those tactical maps can gtf though!

gears of war 2.

just saw the teaser trailer, eagerly anticipating the next instalment of chainsaw madness.

quite looking forward to trying out these free XNA games too, though i won't have an internet connection until the 5th of march. boo-urns.

hd gaming is here.

again, just for me. managed to set-up my ps3 in the new abode last night and had a quick go on motorstorm and the heavenly sword demo. it was nice.

hopefully i'll be all set-up in my new house by the end of the week. just now, i literally don't have any time to play games. sad panda.

hd gaming is coming.

coming for me, at least. i'm moving to a new house this month, and waiting for me is a brand new 37" LCD TV.

it'll be HDMI for the PS3, component for the 360 and probably still scart for the wii. can't wait!

finished eternal sonata.

finally finished eternal sonata last night. total playthrough time was under 30 hours, including the optional dungeon, which to me is rather low for an RPG.

the ending, oh god, the ending. possibly the most bizarre and jarring ending to a game ever. over 15 minutes of each character reciting monologues running the gamut from politics, environmentalism, globalisation through to socialisation and self-belief. seriously, having an over-sized anime head peering at you through your tv shouting "I GUARANTEE YOU, YOU STILL HAVE TIME!" ranks among one of the most insane things i've ever seen in the videogame.

then there was the conclusion to the story; chopin dies, of course, but the game world inexplicably continues on in his absence despite the fact that it was a fabrication within his dream.

the most annoying part was the cute animation of a snail and a caterpillar at the end - entirely narrated in japanese but with no subtitles. i think the localisation team dropped the ball here, though i'm not sure if having english voice-acting turned on would've changed it.

now i'm onto the second playthrough to scalp some more achievements, and you ebtter believe i'm skipping every cutscene.

rpg and the art of grind.

i take a dim view of games that seem to impose mandatory grind in order to progress in a game and/or gain secret/extra items. we've all been there; coasting through a game until the brick-wall boss or ultra-dungeon stymies progress. it's rarely worth sitting through repetitive random battles just to increase an attack stat by a few digits.

however, if the battle system is varied enough, sometimes it can be worth it. take eternal sonata; the first half of the game presents no challenge at all, and battles can all be won with the exact same tactics. however in the other half, particularly in the optional dungeon at the end, the difficulty is ramped skyward and a different strategy is required for each battle. it's a shame that this difficulty couldn't be spread over the whole game to achieve an even balance throughout, as a consequence many people were probably put off by the game.

this all relates to the single-player experience though. in a mummorpoger (to quote yahtzee) the grind has an ulterior purpose that can translate into real world gains. but let's not go there.

the february lull.

i'm almost at the end of eternal sonata now, just doing the optional side dungeon at the end since it's meant to make the second playthrough easier (to get all achievements). it's the first time in the game i've had to grind, since the boss on the 11th level completely owned me.

i'm looking forward to lost odyssey a bit now, after the twee style of eternal sonata and blue dragon it will be great to get stuck into a more gritty rpg. definitely picking it up at the end of the month.

eternal sonata.

i'm really starting to enjoy this game more and more as i progress. the things that annoyed me form the start still do - the battles still get repetitive. however my team is strong enough to power through all of the encounters, even boss battles, so it has gained sort of an elegiac pace, giving more time to enjoy the wonderful environments and saccharine storyline (which unfortunately is as dull as ever).

if i ever decide to play through a second time to unlock all achievements - which isn't possible in one playthrough, by the way - i'll definitely be skipping every cutscene. it'll probably take about half the time. honestly, at one point a cutscene was taking so long that my controller turned off and the screen dimmed.

wii hack update.

i'm not sure if this method is the same as the previous method i mentioned, but some guys managed to run unsigned code through a modified zelda: twilight princess saved game.

source: http://www.tehskeen.com/index.php#post24784

yet more uninformed rubbish.

this time from the telegraph. each and every person quoted in this article has obviously never taken the time to play the game and are basing their argument on sheer heresy.

we had it for the ps2 version, now we're getting it again for the re-release on wii/360. yes, it's none other than bully: scholarship edition.

source: here

illness.

i've been off work since wednesday so i've had plenty time to play some games.

in crackdown i've collected 100/300 hidden orbs and 460/500 agility orbs, and popped my co-op cherry, as it were.

one thing that is annoying me right now is the plethora of DLC placeholders that have littered my sandbox since downloading an update. it seems that every time i approach an agility race it's one of the new ones that requires a purchase. it wouldn't be so annoying if it weren't for the fact the the radar constantly flashes and coerces you in their direction.

so why haven't i purchased the DLC yet? well, at present people who are good at taking care of their money are discriminated against by microsoft. that is, if you don't own a credit card, forget it. debit cards don't exist to them. sure, i could purchase a 'points card' online or in a shop, but that would be forgoing the point of offering these tidbits of functionality online with instant access.

kudos to sony for allowing me to use my Maestro card on their PSN service, which i have done so in the past (oh gripshift, how i miss thee). unfortunately Nintendo have the same attitude when it comes to virtual console; if you're not in huge amounts of debt to Visa, your money is no good to them.

crackdown compelted.

well, completed as in all of the bosses and final crimes have been completed and the "trifecta" achievement has been gained. i still have all 500 agility orbs and 300 hidden orbs to find, not to mention all manner of co-op silliness to do.

this is the first game in a long, long time that i still want to play to completion after finishing the main narrative.

probably the most ignorant article in history.

honestly, this article couldn't be more full of factual errors, ignorant opinion masquerading as truth, unresearched tripe and hysterical fundamentalism. i'm simply in awe that someone could be this stupid.

source: read at your own risk

no more heroes in 'actually very good' shocker.

apparently no more heroes received a very respectable 9/10 in this month's EDGE. a new must-have game for the wii!?

blue dragon impressions.

i plugged around 4 hours into blue dragon over the weekend, so here's what i think of it so far.

the presentation of the game is fantastic. at first i didn't like the character design at all: rotund heads, small eyes and plain colours, but to see them move and talk rubs off on you. and speaking of talking, the english voice acting isn't actually that terrible, and the option to turn it off actually appears when you start a new game. kudos!

the battle system is a take on the good ol' final fantasy turn-based system (even pre-ATB) with a few gimmicks tacked on. when casting magic a bar appears; hold down A and let go in the orange sweet-spot to consume less MP. this adds a layer of skill to the simple menu mashing, as well as a genius layer of tactics: the bar also shows when your spell will be cast in the order of each player or enemy's turn.

battles are initiated on the field by touching an enemy just as in eternal sonata, although BD also implements an arc by pressing the right trigger where you can choose to attack an enemy. this also allows you to target more than one enemy; some combinations of enemies trigger "monster battles" where the enemies will attack each other. often you will find yourself luring monsters into your arc to make them fight each other, which does break the monotony somewhat.

the story so far is one of the most outlandish since xenogears; nothing makes sense, random events occur that aren't explained (for now at least), and the characters don't seem fazed by it at all. just the way i like it, actually.

beautiful katamari pal release.

thank the heavens, i thought it would never happen.

source: kotaku

my anticipated games of 2008.

grand theft auto iv: goes without saying really. still haven't decided which platform to get it for, but apparently 360 will be getting its own exclusive content, which could sway me.
no more heroes: more wacky cel-shading from the makers of killer7, on another nintendo console.
prototype: free-running action that looks like a cross between crackdown, assassin's creed and hulk.
mirror's edge: first person action/shooter free running japery, could be '09 though as it's in early development.
fracture: terrain-deformation gimmick that is said to be tons of fun by those who've played a dev demo.
metal gear solid 4: guns of the patriots: another obvious choice, could turn around the fortunes of the old black dust-monolith.
final fantasy xiii: after the phenomenal ffxii, it should be interesting to see if square-enix are happy to rest on their laurels or come up with some more innovations in the genre.
the last remnant: more square-enix tomfoolery, this time with the unreal engine underneath it. interesting.
lost odyssey: mistwalker's serious rpg compared to blue dragon. initial reception hasn't been great, but i have faith.
mario kart wii: a great mario kart game on the wii with online play would be an absolute treat.
resident evil 5: if it can match the greatness of the fourth iteration, we're in for an absolute treat.

hdmi goodness.

i'm looking forward to finally getting some use out of my neglected, dust ridden PS3. part of the reason (read: excuse) that i haven't used it much is that i'm using the SD cable that came with it on my crappy 19" monitor/TV. the 360 has a VGA cable and actually looks not too bad, but there is no equivalent for the PS3, or at least last I checked there wasn't.

fortunately my parents have bought me a new tv as a housewarming/wedding gift for moving into my new house, which should hopefully be soon. it's a 37" behemoth, and i've already bought the hdmi cables to use the ps3 with it (fortunately the 360 came with a component lead in the box). i can't wait to see the difference in motorstorm and... that... one free blue-ray james bond disc. hmm.

crackdown is fun.

this weekend was mostly spent playing crackdown. for the most part i was just bounding around collecting agility orbs and taking part in agility races. now and again i would segue into the actual missions, but it's just so much fun running around exploring the city.

blue dragon.

picked up blue dragon for £18 today, bargain.

hidden picross.

turns out i haven't quite finished picross yet, there's a hidden 11th board unlocked once you complete all the free mode boards. i don't know whether to be happy or sad.

eternal sonata update.

here is a summary of my thoughts on eternal sonata.

battles: not random thankfully, but still dull and repetitive. every battle can be won with the same moves with very little variation. new abilities are awarded through random levelling up. stats are boosted with the usual weapon/armour/accessory upgrades from chests found in the field. items become completely useless when you unlock viola's heal arrow ability. dungeons are choose-a-corridor-fight-the-enemies-beat-the-boss.

characters: there's hardly a likeable fellow in the whole bunch. every character/town/locale has a music theory related name, so no marks for originality there. every jrpg/anime stereotype is present - weepy girl, boyish girl, effeminate guy, moody guy, tough guy etc. plot is straightforward, predictable and so generic it hurts, even when you take into account the chopin's dream angle. the only customizable parts of a character is there equipment and abilities.

voice acting: completely terrible.

gameplay: strangely compelling. i genuinely want to finish the game even thoguh the flaws are starting to grate. the atmosphere of the game and the rich graphics are just about enough to keep me interested, and i'm naively expecting it to get at least a little bit challenging soon - i haven't even seen a game over screen yet.

picross ds.

i have now officially finished ever puzzle on the cartridge. yes, even all of the 'free mode' puzzles. i'm a masochist.

i thought i could finally put the game to rest until i found out there are puzzles that can be downloaded via wifi, including all of the original mario's picross puzzles - which i have already completed and sold on.