Showing posts with label bought games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bought games. Show all posts

Monday, June 4, 2007

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...

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

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.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

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.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

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.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

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.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

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