Haven't posted in awhile. Been playing a lot of 360 games with some WoW on the side.

Enjoying Beautiful Katamari, Guitar Hero III, and Halo 3 right now. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS is also completely amazing. Just bought Phoenix Wright 3 and Disgaea on the PSP. I'll probably be getting Virtua Fighter 5 very shortly too.

I'll play some Guitar Hero with Brandy this weekend; looking forward to some co-op on GHIII.

Also bought Tony Hawk's Proving Ground and skate. during the Toys R Us sale. I haven't had a chance to play any of them.

Read through a few books while I was out training as well. Ropeburns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole and Can I Keep My Jersey by Paul Shirley were my favorites.

SAP training is astoundingly boring. The travel was also breaking my brain after awhile. Las Vegas was fun but not very productive. Chicago was probably my favorite place out of the gambit. Food was awesome, people were great, and the sights were fantastic. Too bad I missed that Ween concert though.

Got dressed up for Halloween last night. Well, to be more accurate, Brandy did. I didn't. I was going to go as Space Ghost, but the costume didn't fit. Then I was going to go as Miles Edgeworth but it was really close to Halloween and I couldn't find a suit that would work right. Lots of kids came and got candy. We were out by 7:45.

June 4th, 2007

Games Played: World of Warcraft (PC), Orbital (GBA), Pocket Ninja (PC), Twin Star DX (PC)

Games Bought: Forza Motorsport 2 (X360) [$59.99], Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP) [$39.99], Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS) [$30.00]

Well the games I got were pretty much done through "trading". I returned a Disgaea 2 I picked up at CC to EB for my Forza 2. I traded a bunch of doubles in my game pile for Gitaroo Man and RE:DS. So those were pretty much washes.

I've been checking out some free games recently on the PC. Two I enjoyed were Pocket Ninja (get it from: http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/downloads.html) and Twin Star DX (see google for a link).

PN is kinda a puzzle/platform game. Very good level design though control with a keyboard leaves a lot to be desired. Twin Star DX is a doujin (fan made) bullet hell shmup. One of the interesting mechanics is "bullet grazing" which rewards you by just barely avoiding enemy projectiles. And since the boss encounters leave the whole screen covered, this isn't too hard to accomplish.

On the WoW front, we've done pretty great in Karazhan with a few hiccups. We beat The Shade of Aran last night which is the last boss before the last boss. We took a few tries on an optional boss (Terestian Illhoof) and called it. A bit too much beating of our proverbial heads against the wall on Shade made things kinda tense. We had him to like 8000 hp (way less than 1%) and due to some stupid mistakes we wiped. I think I pulled the trigger on the situation (go figure), but we did kill him next try. Tough love really does work!

My Druid is 49. Raiding 3 nights a week is slowing down my progress but blah. Karazhan is fun too.

I got subscribed to the Zune "all you can eat" service and have been enjoying it to a frightening degree. I swear that even casual music lovers should be on this thing. They've got a HUGE catalogue of music you can access for $14.99 a month. Granted, you cancel the subscription you don't get the music anymore, but for the cost of a CD a month, this is an awesome deal. And frankly having access to all the music in a great front end is a far better deal than bothering to pirate the albums. I'll actually be getting my Zune later this month (Halo 3 Zune). I need to find out if we can get a second Zune for my wife and use the same subscription. That would be quite rad.

Side note: Tom Petty is the man.

Went hiking this Saturday too. Up at Gem Lake that runs through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a great hike for us to kick off what amounts to "our season". It was a little cold at the top of the hike, but overall, the weather was fantastic. We also met a nice couple who were out hiking and were pretty much on our pace. He was a World of Warcraft player. Go figure...

May 29th, 2007

Games Played: World of Warcraft (PC), Aegis Wing (XBLA), Lumines (XBLA), Archon (C64, PC, NES), Archon II (PC), Archon Ultra (PC)

Movies Watched: Matrix Reloaded, The Fountain

Games Bought: Bust-A-Grove 2 (PS1), WCW Thunder (PS1), WCW Nitro (PS1), Tenchu (PS1), Tenchu 2 (PS1) [total: $20.00], Odin Sphere (PS2) [$34.99]

Well I haven't bought a lot of games recently as far as I can see. I'll probably be downloading a lot of VC titles to play (not play) on the Wii for the upcoming Classic Gaming Night. The last few VC updates have been pretty amazing. Streets of Rage 2, Blazing Lasers, Actraiser, Ninja Spirit... all top titles from the 8-bit/16-bit era.

The Fountain held up to my high expectations and let them down simultaneously. The movie definitely has it's problems: the plot was far looser than I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting a very cohesive plot, after all, I knew exactly what this movie was about, but it felt like the narrative was shoe-horned in to avoid a totally exposition-free movie. However, thematically, the movie held up extremely well. Aronofsky's passion bled through bright red. If anything, I'd have liked for him to ditch all pretext of a linear story and just shot brief moments to let the audience assemble them. After all, with what he did, he knew he was alienating audiences anyway. Just let it all hang out there and you can do something really great.

World of Warcraft is back all up in here. It's awful that I came crawling back, but it loves me like no other does. Level 44 Druid in about a week and a half. I should hopefully be 60 in two weeks and get get to the BC content again. I'm still playing on my rogue occasionally too.

I was playing a lot of Archon for awhile. I was kicking around the idea of doing a video podcast and was taking footage and information but forgot that I'm a lazy bum and would never actually edit and release a final product. Good thing I remembered before I bought the equipment. But, it did put me back in touch with one of my favorite games. I never played the PC or C64 versions of Archon either, it's very interesting to compare differences from the pretty polished NES version. Archon II is fantastic as well, it take the whole chess idea and ditches it entirely for a unique take.

I may just pick a game like that a month and go and play the hell out of it to learn more about it just for fun. I think next time I'll look at Elite and Starflight since I have such eternal love for Star Control II.

May 8th, 2007

Games Played: SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters DS (DS), Catan (XBLA), Tony Hawk's Project 8 (X360)

Movies Watched: Deja-Vu

Games Bought: NRA Gun Club ($9.99) [PS2], One Piece: Grand Battle ($9.99) [GCN], One Piece: Pirates Carnival ($9.99) [GCN], Puzzle Challenge: Crosswards & More! ($4.99) [PS2], Gunpey ($9.99) [PSP], Pac Man World Rally ($9.99) [PSP], M&M's Break 'Em ($19.99) [DS]

Lots:

[All NES]1942, Al Unser Jr. Turbo Racing, Bad Street Brawler, Bee 52, Big Nose the Caveman, Danny Sullivans Indy Heat, Dragon Warrior (Complete), Duck Tales (Complete), F-117A Stealth Fighter, Fisher Price: I Can Remember, Jaws (Complete), John Elways Quarterback, The Karate Kid (w/box), Legend of Zelda x2 (Complete), Life Force (w/box), The Lone Ranger, Mike Tysons Punch Out, Peter Pan & The Pirates, Rally Bike, Silent Service (Complete), Terminator 2, Top Players Tennis, Zelda II (Complete) - $86.76 shipped

[Saturn] X-Men – Children of Atoom (Complete), [N-Gage] Rayman 3 (New), Crash Nitro Cart (New), Marcel Desailly Pro Soccer (New), MLB Slam (New), Bomberman (New), Ashen (New) - $50.00 shipped

First off. This collecting thing needs to stop. I'm spending too much damn money. Sadly, I've got my eye on a ton of Saturn imports. Oh lordy.

SNK vs Capcom is bad. Still as bad as I said. But I can't stop playing it. I need help.

Tony Hawk 8 is a LOT harder than any one before it. Some of the harder goals are brutal. I'll beat it, no doubt, but the 100% thing is NOT going to happen. I don't have it in me.

Catan is fantastic of course. I've actually played some random pick-up-games online with great success. It'll be in rotation for a long time.

Last, I need to post more...

May 2nd, 2007

Games Played: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Xbox), Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox), Killer Instinct 2 (MAME), King of Fighters '99 (MAME), Twinkle Star Sprites (MAME), Star Fox 64 (Wii), Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Wii), Settlers of Catan (XBLA), Pinball FX (XBLA)

Games Bought: Genesis Collection (PSP) [$10.00], The Guardian Legend (NES - PAL version) [$29.54]

Games Downloaded: Star Fox 64 (Wii) [1000 points], Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Wii) [800 points], Dragon's Curse (Wii) [600 points], Bonk's Revenge (Wii) [600 points], Pinball FX (XBLA) [800 points], Settlers of Catan (XBLA) [800 points]

We had classic gaming night last night, played a bit of MAME, played a lot of Street Fighter. Was reminded how totally awesome Panzer Dragoon Orta is. I will be playing that again soon for sure.

Downloaded several new games for the Wii but we didn't get a chance to play it (hook ups disappeared). Kind of a small turn out too. I played a few before we got there. Beat Star Fox 64 on the easier routes. Forgot how fun that game is too.

Downloaded and purchased Pinball FX on the 360. Achievements are killing me. I did check out the demo first thought and I did enjoy it. It's quite a bit of fun. I might have been on a pinball high from the show though. Good physics even if the tables are kind of boring.

Catan is fantastic for the little bit I played. Every bit as good as the boardgame version with an outstanding trade interface. I only played the CPU this morning, I'll probably play online soon. Very pleased with the translation to Xbox Live.

Catch up!

Games Played: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (X360), SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS (DS), Saints Row (X360), Lots of Pinball (Pinball!)

Games Bought: .Hack //GU: Rebirth Special Edition (PS2) [$39.99], SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS (DS) [$29.99]

MUA's additional content just released. It doesn't fundamentally change the game but it makes it fun to play again. The Hulk is ridiculous. If you add his "boost" power with Cyclops skill up team boost (might work with Thor's too) he becomes so fast the whole game just becomes punch, punch, punch for the win. Hawkeye is pretty rad too with his piercing arrows and Cyclops has an awesome optic beam attack which turns your screen into a laser show. Might even slow it down if you're blowing up some stuff at the same time. Venom is blah. Nightcrawler is pretty awful. Doom has got some neat stuff like a eye beam. Magneto is ok too with a metal shard you can shoot out just like Cap's shield throw.

Worth $10? Maybe, maybe not, but the new characters are, mostly, a lot of fun.

SNK vs. Capcom is one of the biggest letdowns. The game play is pretty broken but you can muster some fun out of it. The big problem is the game is ACTUALLY broken. Apparently one of the NPCs will lock up your game if you talk to him twice. The problem is that you have to talk to him twice to beat the game on New Game+. We'll see how Playmore responds... The card art is pretty great though!

We went to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown this weekend in Golden, Colorado. It was a little dissapointing. There were about 50 pinballs there, give or take, with several Twilight Zones, Black Nights, and Terminators. There were no Theater of Magics, no newer machines like Sopranos, Simpsons, Railroad Tycoon, Monopoly. There were a couple of Pirates though. I did get a chance to play some pretty good games though. The ones I played were The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Street Fighter II, Terminator 2, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dirty Harry, Twilight Zone, and Funhouse. Twilight Zone is still pretty darn amazing.

April 24th, 2007

Games Played: Saints Row (X360), Orbital (GBA), Robotron 2084 (arcade)

Games Bought: Used 360 Wireless Racing Wheel in Box w/ Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360) [$60.00]

Steal on that wheel. Awesome being in the right place at the right time.

Pre-ordered SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters for the DS. I'm excited but tempered given all the reviews from the Japanese version. I have heard nothing if they fixed some of the play balance issues.

Orbital is brilliant. Totally f'n brilliant. It's part of the bit Generation games that came out in Japan for the GBA. You're a little planetoid who has to navigate oddly spaced "solar systems". You have two abilities: attract gravitational field and repel gravitational field. The rest is inertia. You use your gravity fields to whip around planets or to pull yourself in to where you are in planetary orbit. The physics come from balancing using your fields (or not using them) to get on a proper intercept course to your goals...

And your goals, similiar to Katamari Damacy, are to absorb smaller planetoids in the system to become larger so you can absorb more planetoids. You do this by running over the smaller ones. Alternatively, if you are of a sufficient size to absorb a planetoid, you can buzz by it and pick it up in your orbit. This will significantly add to your score and give you additional "lives" on the next stage. You beat the stage by putting a glowing "sun" planetoid in your orbit.

The graphics, like in the whole bit Generation series, are definately minimal. They are, however, beautiful. And the music is absolutely stunning despite the NES style five channel sound. The levels have a base music theme and when you add a planetoid to your orbit the theme changes. As you add more planetoids the music gets slightly more layered with additional sounds.

There are 30 stages and the replay value comes from beating all the stages by picking up "moon" planetoids that become active after you've grown in size big enough to pick up the "sun" planetoid in your orbit. Getting the "moon" can be very tricky on some levels since it's normally placed outside of a clean orbital path. I assume something unlocks once you have picked up the "moon" on each level. I haven't done it yet so I can't confirm.

And after beating the 30 stages a "special" solar system unlocks with 5 stages that are BRUTALLY hard. I haven't beaten one yet.

I can't recommend this game high enough. Get it from Play-Asia.

Catch up time!

Games Played: Saints Row (X360), Gears of War (X360), Gyruss (XBLA), 3D Mini Golf (XBLA), Puzzle Quest (DS), Puzzle Quest (PSP), Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Xbox)

Games Bought: Trigger Heart Excelia (DC) [$59.99], Chromehounds (X360) [$20.00], Center Ring Boxing (Saturn) [$5.00], WWF In Your House (Saturn) [$5.00]

Been pretty lazy recently so here's a big catchup post.

Been playing a lot of Saints Row, it's like an even more buggy Grand Theft Auto but it still pretty good. Lots of side missions and some decent comedy (not so much satire).

Played some Gears last night with a friend on co-op.

Gyruss is GARBAGE on Live. They changed the graphics to make them more "effecty" and it ruins gameplay. And the famous score (Toccata & Fuge in D Minor) was remixed and techno-ey. No option for playing the undoctored original. You're way better off waiting for it on the Virtual Console. What a failure.

Weekend of April 13th, 2007

Games Played: Boom Boom Rocket (XBLA), Puzzle Quest (PSP), Saints Row (X360), NBA Street: Homecourt (X360)

Movies Watched: Babel, Pursuit of Happiness

Babel was pretty solid, having seen 21 Grams, I think that it's very derivative of that, but it was a good work on its own. I don't see any Oscar nominations in it though.

Pursuit of Happiness was what I expected; you feel pretty good and lucky after watching it. Even jaded bastards like me have to be impacted on some level. Will Smith's kid wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I thought he'd be.

Saints Row is a mixed bag for me. I may work through it. It's got a large and pretty fun world to interact in; but the AI and controls are a total toss up. Sometimes it works great. Sometimes you want to throw the controller in fustration.

Puzzle Quest is as addictive as ever.

Side Note!

Mentioning a video game related podcast I've been picking up. Press Start is part of the alt.npr series of podcasts. Check it out and let me know what you think:

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510066

April 12th, 2007

Games Played: Boom Boom Rocket! (XBLA)

I may have played something else, but I don't really remember. BBR is awesome, awesome. It's just another rhythm game really, but the presentation is just amazing. You set off fireworks in tune to remixed classical music (1812 Overture, Ride of the Valkyries, et all) over a city skyline. How close you get to the beat the bigger the firework explosions. You can also unlock special "fireworks" that pop in the image of various things (hearts, ufos, cherries) that mix up the scenery. It's done by the same people who did the now famous Geometry Wars and the presentation really shows. It also has a visualizer mode where you can watch the fireworks to your MP3s or CDs. Well worth the $10 it costs.

Side Note!

Interesting Article: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070223a/barton_01.shtml

It is an article series that covers Computer RPG history from Dark Ages (Pre 1979) through today, more or less. It does leave off a few favorites of mine such as Fountain of Dreams by EA (very similiar to Wasteland but with some twists) but it seems to be pretty darn comprehensive!

I've got a weakness for classic CRPGs as I cut my teeth on a few of them. Pools of Radiance and Hillsfar namely. I still play Roguelikes from time to time (ADOM is one of my favorites). And Quest for Glory I & II rank as two of my favorite games of all time.

I can admit, however, to never having played Fallout. I don't know how it (didn't) happen but it's something I still seek to remedy. It's probably the most shameful thing on my gaming legacy.

April 11th, 2007

Games Played: Tetris Evolution (X360), NBA Street: Homecourt (X360)

Games Bought: bit Generations: Digidrive (GBA) [$13.90], bit Generations: Orbital (GBA) [$24.90], bit Generations: Dialhex (GBA) [$13.90], bit Generations: Boundish (GBA) $14.90, Mansion of Hidden Souls (Saturn) [$2.90]

Got nearly all of the Tetris achievements last night, missing just one. It'll be a hard one that takes more luck than skill.

NBA Street: Homecourt is brilliant. NBA Jam on speed with plastic surgery. I haven't played a street game since Vol. 2 and none of the fun has worn off. I'm working through single player but I may take it online to see how my skills are.

April 10th, 2007

Games Played: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (X360), Puzzle Quest (PSP)

Games Bought: Tony Hawk Project 8 (X360) [$11.00], NBA Street: Homecourt (X360) [$23.00], Ar Tonelico (PS2) [$49.99], Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS) [$27.00]

MUA is now officially a pain in my balls. I missed a simulator disc in the first part of Murderworld and there's no way to go back and get it. Thus my save game is now impossible to unlock Silver Surfer with or get the Golden Age of Comics achievement. I MAY play this again with the new characters but I'm starting to doubt it. I was hoping to play through hard with them...

Puzzle Quest on PSP is just like the DS version but the PSP looks a lot better. Easier to see the gems. And has some great on screen tooltips to help learn mechanics that the DS lacks. Wouldn't have thought I'd say this, but the PSP version is a lot more friendly to newer players.

April 9th, 2007

Games Played: Puzzle Quest (DS), Tetris Evolution (X360)

Games Bought: Tetris Evolution (X360) [24.99], Puzzle Quest (DS) [24.99], Capcom Mini Mix (GBA) [9.99]

I'm really enjoying PQ and I'm getting it on PSP tomorrow but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to "level" my character. It seems like if you don't grind it out, you have a lot harder time in fights. More on this game to come.

Tetris Evolution is more Tetris with achievements. I knocked out about a third of them on my first playthroughs last night. I'll work out the rest as the week goes on. Tetris is obviously a lot of fun and this version is no different. I'd love to see a Q? (Mizuguchi) take on Tetris. It'd be brilliant.

Weekend of April 6th, 2007

Games Played: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (X360), Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (X360), bit Generations: Dotstream (GBA)

Movies Watched: The Good Shepard, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (TV on DVD)

Worked towards achievements in MUA and DOAX2. I gave up on DOAX2 really fast. Man it takes awhile.

Dotstream is pretty amazing. Its a racing game from an overhead perspective that uses simple lines and blocks to create the action. The sound and music is quite good, capturing the best of the gameboy/NES days. It is also VERY hard.

The Good Shepard was quite long but a solid effort and served as an entertaining thriller but an excellent character study. The ending plot elements were a bit contrived and unnecessary but I guess most audiences need that kind of conflict to enjoy a movie.

Brisco is a huge amount of fun. The limited budget of the show is pretty evident in most scenes but the strength of the characters more than bears the weight of the show. They don't make TV like this anymore.

April 5th, 2007

Games Played: Gunpey (PSP), Star Control II [The Ur-Quan Masters] (PC), Marvel Ultimate Alliance (X360)

Movies Watched: Spellbound

Beat SCII. Next time I'll do it without a FAQ.

Worked on achievements in MUA. I didn't feel very well so I didn't play GHII. Didn't want to stand up and rawk out.

Gunpey is very, very hard. The game seems broken actually. Way too much reliance on luck of the draw on what puzzle pieces you'll get when. As far as I know, no one has actually unlocked all of the skins. The farthest save file only has 29 of them unlocked.

Side Note: Don't type your post directly into the compose screen. It seems to be randomly deleting posts after using page down/page up without the ability to recover. Pretty lame. I already lost about 10 minutes of work...

April 4th, 2007

Games Played: Guitar Hero 2 (X360)

It's amazing how much fun it is to re-play games with achievement points. Played 43 songs on normal. 3 perfects, 41 5 stars on first try, 295k on Freebird. Damn that 300k achievement. I'll get it next time. I did get my 500 note streak in Less Talk More Rawk. I was #165 on that song leaderboard.

My wrist hurts...

April 3rd, 2007

Games Played: Classic Gaming Night! Street Fighter Alpha 3 (arcade), Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbe (arcade), Guardian Heroes (Saturn), Twinkle Star Sprites (Saturn), Ice Hockey (NES via Virtual Console), Kid Icarus (NES via Virtual Console), Wii Sports (Wii)

Games Bought: Guitar Hero 2 (X360) - $89.99 w/ free 1600 MS point card

April 2nd, 2007

Games Played: Star Control II [The Ur-Quan Masters] (PC)

You can get a free (and legal) copy of Star Control II from http://sc2.sourceforge.net. It is not an adaptation or remake, it's the actual code ported from the 3DO version! You can even download the speech and music packs from the 3DO.

Everyone should play this game. I think it's the most brilliant game ever made.

Weekend of March 30st, 2007

Games Played: Phantasy Star Universe (X360), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (X360), Jetpack: Refueled (XBLA), Gunpey (PSP), Star Control II [a.k.a. The Ur-Quan Masters] (PC)

Movies Watched: Children of Men, This Film is Not Yet Rated

Books Read: 100 Bullets Vol. 9, 100 Bullets Vol. 10

I finished up Phantasy Star Universe story mode. It was fun to play with all the content that was locked out of the network mode. The story fell pretty flat (though no one had high expectations for it) and the game suffered from huge design and AI control problems but the game is better than the sum of its parts. Enjoyable combat and lots of cool toys (weapons) to play with made it a great dungeon crawler. Maybe someday I'll go back to the network mode.

Oblivion was picked back up so I could work on some achievements. I made my way through some of the fighter's guild content. I finished up the Defense of Bruma quest line, but it seems to have died and I can't move the main story along. I need to do some more research to figure out what I'm missing. Also, the Thieves Guild questline seems dead too. I should be kicking it off after meeting with an NPC and two others. One of those two never shows up and eventually the other NPCs just leave. Hopefully that's not permanently bugged otherwise Shivering Isles may get left behind...

Gunpey on PSP is fantastic in its presentation but horrible in its control. You simply need to move faster than the dpad can let you do. Or I'm not that good at it yet. The DS version has a horrible presentation but its control is very precise. It's obviously geared towards the touch screen even though this first came out on the WonderSwan. Regardless, Gunpey is more Lumines in presentation than Lumines II is and will appeal to that gamer sentimentality.

Jetpack: Refueled is pretty awesome. Enough for me to buy it after playing the demo anyway. It has action that scratches that twitch itch. The achievements are pretty well designed with some that will be pretty hard to get. As of Sunday I think I was #257 on the high score list but for some reason I can't stay alive through the first 10 levels to get that achievement. The retro mode seems really hard too.

I can't say enough good things about Star Control II. I play it probably once a year. I'll maybe post more about it as time goes on.

Children of Men was pretty fantastic; particularly with the art direction. Very subversive, but clearly stated, in its political commentary. However, it didn't quite have the meaty sci-fi core that it seemed to have been billed with so that might put people off. And the main plot didn't really seem to drive the movie so much as the fantastic "sets" and action sequences did. I don't quite understand why the movie made the top of so many critical lists (especially in light of some of the other unbelievable movies of last year), but I can't help but recommend it.

With 100 Bullets, I skipped ahead from Vol. 5. Interestingly enough, I'm not lost at all. The story seems to be unraveling at a snail's pace. But, the art and the "post-crime noir" storytelling comes off as solidly as it had in previous volumes. I will probably finish this series.