posted by Chris on May 23, 2008 3:52 PM in Games
Oh hai! Just thought I'd come and check in on you guys, here. What's up? Gearing up for the long weekend? Are you going to be going outside and grilling animal flesh with the rest of the US, or perhaps you will shun the sunlight as I do and partake of some games? Here's what I've been playing recently, what are you playing this weekend?
GTAIV - Of course, this game really doesn't leave my Xbox. I haven't had much time to devote to gaming this week (hence the lack of game diary posts) but when I do get a chance I like to sit down and envelop myself in the trials and tribulations of one Niko Bellic. I'm a good 70% through the game now, just got all my friends to over 90% and I'm spending a fair bit of time just messing around with the side quests, whereas a week ago I was completely into the main storyline. The main storyline continues to amaze, don't get me wrong, but I really appreciate how I can just sit down and do a few side quests in a short period of time. Very good for the hard-casual gamer such as myself.
The World Ends With You - Seriously, you guys need to be playing this game. I have no idea why the gaming press hasn't covered it more because it is completely brilliant. It's the perfect commuter's game, great for short bursts of satisfying play, and is as deep as you want it to be. I want all games to be this thoughtful, precise and engaging. There's little sense in explaining it. You have to experience it for yourself.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 1 - Like any good PA fan, I downloaded the shit out of this game and proceeded to devour it. It's a gorgeous game and genuinely hilarious, though the battle system took me a REALLY long time to figure out. I'm still not sure I understand it. I'm playing the XBLA version, which apparently was designed last as the controls are horrible. It's difficult to target things for one, but it also doesn't help that the UI is slightly confusing at times. It took me a while to make sense of the battle UI and it took me even longer to realize which player was highlighted. I'm also having conflicting thoughts about the massive amount of dialog for every single little thing. On one hand it's consistently hilarious, and on the other hand I feel compelled to check every trash can and mailbox, which feels like a shallow gameplay device. I'd rather the locations I can investigate be a bit more hidden instead of right there in my face. But maybe it will pick up? At the very least, congratulations you guys. It's awesome to be able to say "this dude I know made his own video game". Despite any niggling concerns, you guys did a fucking fantastic job.
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posted by Chris on May 12, 2008 9:06 AM in Games
I've avoided making Game Diary posts this last week because A) I've been taking a "vacation" as it was my last week of unemployment and 2) I've just been playing Grand Theft Auto IV. That's not to say I haven't had any fun, I've been enjoying the crap out of it. The story, the game play, everything about this game is a love letter to the video game industry as a whole and if you haven't checked it out for whatever reason, at the very least rent it. You'll most likely enjoy the sandbox as much as I have. Niko, as a character, is one of the most compelling I've seen in a game, right up there with Gordon Freeman for me. He is a criminal, sure, but his motivation for his actions is something you can actually relate to. The dialog wanders from funny to poignant, surprising you in its serious tone.
I'm only about 50% through, as well. The game is just plain massive. I can see it's going to stay in my Xbox for quite some time. I haven't even taken the shrink wrap off of Mario Kart Wii...
What have you guys been playing? Anything interesting I've missed out on?
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posted by Chris on April 30, 2008 8:03 AM in Games
Like most socially under-developed geeks, my mood is directly affected by the weather outside. While I don't like to go outside (I hear there are bears?) when the sun shines brightly through my apartment windows it lifts my spirits immensely and gets me motivated. Besides other activities such as painting and website stuff, I've been playing...
Call of Duty 4 - Still slowly progressing through the single player campaign and still being blown away by the production value. I've avoided online multiplayer like the plague, but a friend of mine suggested just shutting off voice chat, which seems to work like a charm!
Rez - Nothing like sitting down early in the morning to play through Rez in beyond mode. I like the fact that they give me a bunch of bonus modes and options to tweak things like my starting form and beam type. I've been messing with the sound and visual filters too, just for a little variety
Grand Theft Auto IV - Like everyone else in the world. It came early Tuesday morning and I played it into the night. I'm essentially a GTA virgin, though I did play a ton of the old top-down GTA 2 back in the day. I'm really enjoying GTAIV, way more than any of the previous titles. It has its flaws - visuals are often hit and miss, voice acting is dubious in parts (why does everyone sound like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog?) and your character controls like some sort of tank. Other than that, the story is fed to you in even enough intervals where you don't get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you can do in the game, and the cell phone menu system is clever and very well integrated. I'm noticing little moments where Niko rests one foot on the curb while the other is on the street while chatting on the phone, or small details about the city that make it feel alive such as pedestrians getting phone calls themselves and having full conversations. I imagine I'll be discussing it more as I progress.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and make my in-game girlfriend not hate me anymore.
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posted by Chris on April 25, 2008 11:22 AM in Games, Geek Culture
It's been a strange week, filled with job interviews and exhaustion, leaving me little time to play as much as I wanted. Though it has allowed me to think a bit about my play habits. As of late, I've been a sort of ADD gamer, bouncing from one title to the next. After all the progress I made in Rock Band I've had a craving to explore a lot of other games that I haven't given much time to. I've also secretly been anticipating GTAIV. Don't tell anyone! What I did play this week was awesome, however.
Lost Cities - If you haven't at the very least downloaded the demo of this awesome XBLA game, you owe it to yourself to try. It's perfect for picking up and playing a quick game (each game takes maybe 20 minutes total to complete) but you'll soon find yourself saying "just one more game and then I'll take the dog for a walk". When your dog starts peeing on your rug in front of you out of spite is when you know you're a bit addicted.
Devil May Cry 4 - Ridiculous, overwhelmingly Japanese, violent and wonderful. I don't care what anyone else says, I like the over the top action cut scenes, even if the characters do crazy tricks that I have no hope of ever attempting in-game. There's a certain visceral satisfaction from being able to juggle an enemy in the air, constantly grappling them back up to you and slamming them down again.
Call of Duty 4 - I've avoided this game for no other reason than I dislike the stigma attached to people who play only online shooters. I don't like online first person shooter deathmatches because I am horrible at them. Also I have tender, virgin eardrums that catch on fire whenever a cuss passes through them. The single player campaign in CoD4, however, is stunning. It has an exciting pace and does well to make you feel like you are actually there. The story is a bit generic, but it's so well presented I am willing to forgive it.
This weekend I'll probably be delving further into CoD4, what are you playing this weekend?
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posted by Chris on April 18, 2008 4:42 PM in Games
It's been a busy past few days as I have been working on a (not so super secret) project. What games I've played tended to lean more on the pick-up-and-play side, though I've tried to make time for some...
Devil May Cry 4 - I missed this game when it was first released, and ended up borrowing it from Qais this week. I haven't played through any of the original games, though I enjoy the fast-paced action of the series. What I find consistently laughable, though, is the strange juxtaposition of great graphics and presentation with poor menus in Capcom games. They seem to be obsessed with horrible typefaces, Photoshop glow filters, confusing UIs and cheesy sound effects. And damn there's a ton of cut scenes in this game. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty spectacular and all but we'll see if playing for 5 minutes and then watching a 10 minute cut scene starts to grate.
Puzzle Quest - Building up my main character in the 30s has been painfully slow, though I really enjoy just poking around the map and getting into random battles. Level grinding never really felt like work with Puzzle Quest. I feel a little guilty sometimes for skipping through all the dialog, so I started actually reading the quest text which to my surprise is actually top notch.
Rock Band - Still working on expert drums, at this point it's just practice , practice, practice. My back hurts.
I think this weekend I'm going to be giving most of my attention to Devil May Cry 4 or Mass Effect while I'm not working on that other thing. You know, the thing.
What are you playing this weekend?
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posted by Chris on April 14, 2008 2:25 PM in Games, Geek Culture
Have you ever had a weekend where you just popped back and forth between a handful of games in your collection? That's what this past weekend was like for me. I had this immense craving to go back to a simpler time and hear some of that sweet delicious SNES music once again. I spent my time this weekend with not only retro gaming, but some more recent titles I'd put down long ago.
Secret of Mana - One of my all-time favorite games still holds up to this day. Putting the cart in and turning it on, I realized I still had my original save file from back when I was a kid. There it was: Frodo level 99. I started a new game, however, so Jinny and I could play through together. This game was really magical to me. One of the first games I can remember fully absorbing, just soaking up all of the detailed art, experiencing the music in eardrum-shattering stereo sound. I'd explore every single corner looking for lost weapon orb chests, grinding levels in order to get the best spells. Multiplayer is near-perfect in Secret of Mana, I'd say bested only by Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Really looking forward to playing more and feeling wave after wave of nostalgia. That's what it's allllllll about.
Tales of Symphonia - I picked up the Gamecube version of this off Goozex a few months ago and never really sat down to try it. I love the combat and gameplay elements, but the story (at least in the beginning) is the same trite anime crap as a million other horrible RPGs before it. I sincerely hope that aspect improves because I'm the weird kind of geek who gets really annoyed at anime-style writing.
Rock Band - Back on the horse? After finishing the drum solo tour on hard, I decided to attempt it on expert and absolutely ripped through it. I have about 15 more songs left and have been really enjoying the feeling of accomplishment from my increase in skills. We rocked band world tour as well, grinding through the venues on expert and unlocked the million fan achievement. We were at a total of about 980,000 fans and only needed a small bump to push us over the edge and ended up getting 250,000 fans in one 4 song setlist. I guess gold-starring songs really helps when you're looking to gain fans.
Beautiful Katamari - I was in the mood to roll some stuff up, so I decided to visit the King of All Cosmos for the first time since last year. I don't really prefer this version, actually. While I love being able to unlock achievements and such, I feel that the gameplay is too unfocused and lacks the charm of the original PS2 Katamari Damacy. I attempted a few online matches, which have one of the worst lobby systems I've seen. The other guy just kept walking around instead of starting the match, throwing cookies at me and putzing around. I'm all for the concept of play, but sometimes I want to get down to business. Katamari-related business.
World of Warcraft - My undead priest is now almost level 20 and I'm really excited to be playing a healer again. This time around I know my strengths and limitations and I am having a ton more fun jumping around Azeroth like some spastic bunny rabbit.
For the rest of the week I have a feeling it's going to be ADD gamer time, with me bouncing back and forth between titles. I'm also going to attempt hacking my PSP. Wish me luck!
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posted by Chris on April 9, 2008 4:41 PM in Games, Geek Culture
Apparently all I needed to do in order to complete Run To The Hills on hard was attach some socks to my drums with rubber bands. Who knew?
All day yesterday and all morning today I was thinking of how to get the proper stickings for this song. It's got this galloping beat that is really fast, and hard to nail precisely on the pads. Even in the shower I was drumming with my fingers on the tiles, trying to get the rhythm down. Frustrated and sore, I took a break and looked on a couple Rock Band forums for tips. Many mentioned something called the "sock mod", which involves wrapping the drum head in a tube sock and rubber bands. It increases the tension of the sensor and improves gameplay. Turns out I wasn't bad at drum rolls, the drums were bad at interpreting my drum rolls. I finished Run To The Hills with ease and finished drums on hard. I love seeing that achievement pop up "3 for 90g". So nice of Harmonix to give you credit for all difficulties below the one you have just completed.
I feel so very accomplished now. The rest of my day was spent playing...
Ikaruga - I don't recall the Gamecube version of this game having so much engrish in it, but Treasure found a way to poorly translate even more text, including all the Xbox-specific text, such as saving the game. Hilarious. It's a good thing that Ikaruga is fucking brilliant. In HD the game looks absolutely incredible. Textures and polygons are smooth, there's little to no slowdown when a lot of stuff is happening on screen, and man. The music. Oh, the music is so very epic. I completed the first and second stages, unlocking the third. I obtained the achievements for completing both of those levels and decided to grab the dot eater one as well. Dot Eater is accomplished by not firing for a whole level. In Ikaruga, each enemy appearing on screen is precisely choreographed. They come in and exit at the same time, every time. It's entirely possible to memorize the patterns and get a perfect game. In the XBLA version, you have the new option to save replay videos and attach them to your leaderboard score. This is pretty awesome, as you can go to the top of the leaderboard and download a gameplay video of whoever is currently best in the world. You can then study the videos and improve your own performance. For obsessive types like me, this is a godsend.
Tomorrow? More Ikaruga and possibly back into Mass Effect or Burnout Paradise, now that one of my main goals for Rock Band has been accomplished. Huzzah!
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posted by Chris on April 8, 2008 5:20 PM in Geek Culture
In between playing Rez on beyond mode and small sessions of Geometry Wars, this week seems to be dominated by Rock Band (what else?) In addition to playing some Tug of War online (got my Tug of War champ achievement by getting 20 wins in ranked matches! Woo!) I joined up with Grant and Amy (formerly The Geek and White Mage) for some band quickplay over Live. We had some issues.
First, Grant's invite bleemped at me on the screen but didn't show up in my message list, not allowing me to join the game. Then Amy sent an invite, which magically worked. Then I couldn't figure out how to plug my headset into my guitar, as I have never done it before and I generally loathe talking to people over Live. Man, they made that little hole for the headset tiny and hard to find, for a while I was just stupidly turning the controller over trying to figure out where the damn plug goes. Then Grant reminded me that I needed the included adapter, which I had to rummage through my random boxes of electronics and wires to find. After getting that all set up, we noticed my headset audio options weren't working, as Grant and Amy's voices were coming through my speakers and my headset, no matter what I toggled in the special menu. So I had to turn off the game and get re-invited. Apparently the Xbox Live headsets don't like to be plugged in after you're already signed in and ready to go. Plug and play, Microsoft! Plug and plaaaaaaaaaaay.
We eventually got it to work and ripped out a few rockin' tracks, but as it usually goes I wanted to continue my Rock Band marathon after they had left. On a whim I started playing solo tour on expert and progressed quite far. I then applied my new magical drum skills to my existing hard solo setlist and completed all of the final tracks (Next To You, Flirting With Disaster, Won't Get Fooled Again and Tom Sawyer) except Run To The Hills, which kicked my ass. I've played it a number of times and failed miserably, going back to practice mode and trying to get the stickings down. That weird galloping beat... so... so weird.
I am actually reading forum posts to see what the correct sticking is. Is it left-right-left right-left-right? Or is it right-left-right right-left-right? Sigh.
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posted by Chris on April 4, 2008 4:32 PM in Games
Yesterday I took a small break (I read a book!) but today I was back on the Rock Bandwagon with my new obsession: ranked score battle. I've been having a ton of fun going online and putting my skills to the test, as it were. The only issue? People constantly drop even in ranked matches. Once they get a whiff of defeat, they just crap out. I literally had to report around 20 people for unsportsmanly conduct. I feel like such a tattle-tale. Sigh.
After finally completing the last Half Life 2 episode, I'm going through Portal and Half Life 2 to mop up those achievements, and this weekend will also be filled with a ton of WoW. What are you guys playing this weekend?
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posted by Chris on April 2, 2008 1:22 PM in Games, Geek Culture
I just completed Half Life 2: Episode 2 and am now basking in that sort of video game post-coital glow. I'm noticing little things and reflecting on the experience, as I do when I complete any game that has had an effect on me. I'm thinking about how I have such a crush on the typography. I love how the Half Life games bounce back to the title screen after the credits, but always with a new environment for the menu to lay over. That menu layout (the same one used when you pause the game) is iconic, simple and elegant and just one example of Valve's brilliance. These games are perfect little nuggets of gaming goodness. They are so artfully crafted in every area, from the naturalistic visuals to the deep storyline and the amazingly engaging cast of characters. I cannot wait for Episode 3.
I'm literally sitting here right now, staring at the screen as I exit to the dashboard which says "Do you wish to stop playing now?"
I really don't.
So, that answers part of what I have been playing, though I have also been indulging in some...
Rock Band - Playing more tug of war mode online. It's often frustrating to play games like this on Live, either there's no one out there to match with, or when you do find someone they drop after the first sign of anything resembling possible defeat. After a couple rounds with people and feeling quite confident, I matched with a guy who actually stuck around. I played one level of difficulty below him for every song. He'd pick Welcome Home and play on expert, and I'd do hard. I was banking on him missing more notes trying to play the songs on expert, and I was right. I beat him every single round. He kept challenging me to more songs until finally we had played our tenth round and he gave up. I added him to my friends list. So nice to have a challenge.
Call of Duty 4 - I guess I've been in a shooter mood? While I normally stick my nose up at sort of "mainstream" FPS titles (Halo, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six) I was intrigued by the RPG elements in the newest Call of Duty and grabbed it from someone on Goozex. I've only played through the tutorial so far but I plan on spending more time with it. First impressions? The controls are really tight and button mapping is logical making moving my soldier around like second nature. I like that.
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posted by Chris on April 1, 2008 10:47 AM in Games, Geek Culture
I took a bit of a break from gaming last week to set up my awesome new entertainment center, which you can see here (click to zoom)! We're pretty happy with the setup now. It's an Ikea Stolmen setup, which we customized slightly. Instead of the media storage on the side we opted for a second shelf. The tv wall mount is awesome, instead of having to find a stud and drill into drywall, you just install your wall mount to this unit. Very versatile. Having the TV a bit higher up helps as well. The Rock Band drums aren't in the way anymore! I added a small clip on Ikea light to the back of the TV unit to highlight the painting on the wall, which I wanted to keep above the TV. If you're looking for a new entertainment center, I highly recommend the Stolmen. It requires a bit of work to install, but it's totally awesome. Since the last game diary entry I've been working on...
Rock Band - Finally on the final 5 songs for drums on hard. These songs are hard. Run To The Hills, Next To You, Tom Sawyer... without the rest of the band to save me I'm floundering in parts. Must... practice... more. Racked up a few "Big In" city achievements and played a couple games of Tug of War online. Tug of War is fun, with two players switching off verses in songs like a game of musical horse. I just can't figure out how to gain an advantage, though. Each song I get around the same percentage of notes hit as my opponent, but mostly I still lose. Hm.
A Variety of Games - I spent a lot of the weekend just sort of scatterbrained, playing some stuff I haven't played in a while such as Chrono Trigger, Geometry Wars, Pikmin 2 and Smash Brothers. We even started new characters in WoW. That addiction will probably never end. At least, until Diablo 3 comes out. Or Starcraft 2. Or whenever Blizzard finally decides to create their own brand of designer cocaine.
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posted by Chris on March 26, 2008 2:35 PM in Geek Culture
That's right, nothin'. Today I have played nothing so far! No Rock Band, no Pokeymans. Nothin'. I've been busy putting together my new kick-ass entertainment center, which I will take photos of for you guys to check out once I am done. I'm in the process of really decking out my living room and gaming area, and I think you guys could gleam some neat ideas off of it. But! I do plan on playing some...
World of Warcraft - I have a hankering to do some leveling, my Tauren Shaman is still in the low 30s and my Draenei Mage is still in her teens. I haven't touched my level 63 Undead Priest in months, either...
Half Life 2 Episode 2 - Thanks to everyone for their tips, I'm going to put them to good use and attempt to finally complete this game. I just don't know what I am going to do once I complete it. Without Gordon Freeman in my life... I'm lost. Maybe I'll go play through Half Life 2 again and mop up some achievements.
Rock Band - Downloaded the Boston tracks yesterday and they are awesome. I listened to a ton of classic rock as a teenager and I forgot how brilliant the first Boston album is. Seriously, if you haven't downloaded the Boston pack yet you owe it to yourself to pick it up. I can't imagine even attempting the vocals though. Sheesh.
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posted by Chris on March 24, 2008 2:57 PM in Geek Culture
There are few games that give me the same feeling of childlike joy when I play them. That feeling I had back in the SNES days, that shiny Christmassy feeling of contentment and happiness. I spent most of my time this last weekend with two titles which garner that reaction from me: Rez HD and Pikmin 2. I am attempting to mop up the remaining achievements I have for Rez, and in doing so I am falling in love with it all over again. Over and over again. I just sit here, bobbing to the music, entranced by the lights, sounds and vibrations. After popping in Pikmin 2 for the first time in years, the lady saw how incredibly adorable all the little Pikmin are and demanded I relinquish the controller. I happily obliged and sat watching her play for hours.
Today is a bit slow both on the games and the blogging front, so while doing various things around the house I am playing...
Puzzle Quest - My knight is about level 30 and steadily kicking ass. I got to thinking, why isn't there a board game version of Puzzle Quest? You could easily replicate the spells and characters using cards, and the gems can be actual little plastic gems you move around a la Mancala. The only difficulty would be how you place new gems into the board as you clear them. Hrm.
No More Heroes - Got this in the mail today off of Goozex, and in it was a nice note from the person who traded it to me. I love receiving notes in my Goozex trades and always try to either write something or put a business card in the package for when I trade. Now that I am using my Wii a bit more I am excited to be playing this game, which everyone tells me is great. I know it is probably great. There's just not enough time in the day to play all the games in the world, is all. I'll let you all know how I enjoy it.
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posted by Chris on March 21, 2008 5:03 PM in Geek Culture
Slow game day, as I have spent most of it enjoying the sunshine induced motivation to clean the apartment. Also I had to take some fool who's name starts with a Q and ends with an ais to the airport. Jerk. This morning however, I played some
Half Life 2 Episode 2 - Goddamn striders. Goddamn striders and their damn hunter friends. Fuck em all.
As for this weekend it's going to be all about checking out the new Rock Band store and utilizing the fan cap increase. How about you guys? Whatchoo up to this weekend?
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posted by Chris on March 20, 2008 1:09 PM in Geek Culture
As many of you know, I try to be as involved in politics as I can, attending speeches and showing my support for my candidate of choice. Today I attended a political rally for Harvey Dent, who is looking to clean up Gotham. Personally I agree with his core values, see eye to eye on most issues (crime prevention, dual personalities) and definitely think he'd be a welcome change in this world of two-faced politicians. Besides attending the rally down at Pike's Place today, I'm going to be playing...
Rock Band - Do I even need to mention playing Rock Band anymore? It's basically every day. The beauty is that I can play one or two songs, be satisified and go on to something else. With Rock Band, every song I play feels like I am earning experience points. Practicing for the big day when I can live my rock dream. My rock dream meaning the day when I can finally say "I got all the achievements in Rock Band".
Mass Effect - I'm in the mood for a nice sit-down RPG, so I think it's time to dust off the ol' Mass Effect and continue progressing. I'm not sure if I should plunk down the points for the DLC quite yet, as everything is still pretty new to me in the game. The only thing I think that has been keeping me back is in trying to make the main character resemble myself I ended up creating a hideous freak monster. That is to say he is ugly. I should have stuck with the default face. Man, for someone who always plays down how important aesthetics are in games, that seems to be a big issue for me. I am a total hypocrite.
Nanostray 2 - Usually I tend to ignore DS shovelware that gets sent to me, but I vaguely remember enjoying the first Nanostray so I popped it in last night and man. It's gorgeous. Expect a full review in a few days.
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posted by Chris on March 19, 2008 4:39 PM in Games
Hello! Is it Wednesday already? Oh my. After yesterday's Rock Band drum marathon I decided to scale back a bit and work on some blogging stuff. But at the same time I was playing...
Rock Band - Attempting to complete the guitar solo tour on hard while scanning in pages for the Wayback Wednesday post today. The difficulty seems to scale up rapidly once you get past the first few venues, but luckily I already know all of these songs pretty dang well. I downloaded a few tracks that I for whatever reason forgot to pick up (such as My Sharona and Juke Box Hero) and commenced the rocking. I really need to start mixing between up and down strums on the guitar, these hard songs are making my arm tired. I can strum up and down just fine when playing bass parts but somehow adapting that method to the guitar just plain eludes me.
Carcassonne - Picked up the kings and barons expansion and tested that out. Jinny has been a bit obsessed with the XBLA version of this game recently and I choose a "rather than beat them join them" approach. It's neat to see someone's skills get so finely honed after a short period of time, but that's how she works. One day she will surpass me in every game I own, completing the prophesy and foretelling the doom of all mankind.
Bioshock - After starting a new game last night with the intent of beating it on hard without dying, I realized how futile the attempt was and just played to enjoy. What a revelation! See? Achievements aren't the root of all evil, we can play games without striving for them all the time! Now to get that one for finding every audio diary...
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posted by Chris on March 18, 2008 12:53 PM in Games, Geek Culture
Yesterday I finally got through Vasoline for drums on hard in Rock Band, and even managed to five-star Green Grass and High Tides. It's neat to finally be at a place where I am comfortable with any song on the drums. For a long time I was sure I had no rhythm, but Rock Band has seemed to give me a rhythm transplant of sorts. I played a little bit this morning, just trying to get through the band world tour but every single setlist I have open is either ridiculously difficult, or ridiculously long. It's going to take much more effort to progress further.
After a bite to eat for breakfast, the lady and I went to Half Price Books to check out what treasures they may hold in the video game department, and lo! Check out this copy of Monkey Island 2 we scored! It's got big ol floppy disks and everything. This is going to make a fantastic prize for some future awesome contest of awesomeness. It's even got the original Lucasarts Newsletter, featuring a Sam and Max comic and everything! So exciting. Here are some pictures!
Today, however, is going to be spent playing Bioshock and trying to mop up the last few achievements for the game. I'll be playing through on Hard trying not to die. I haven't actually played the game since the last DLC was released, and never had a chance to check out the new plasmids and junk. Also, the lady hasn't yet had the chance to experience the awesomeness, as she tends to get a bit too freaked out hearing splicers raving up and down hallways. I don't really blame her. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to get cozy and freak myself out.
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posted by Chris on March 17, 2008 10:40 AM in Games
I know that every week you, the astute Weekly Geek listener, are waiting with baited breath to hear about what games we've been playing this week. Yes, you enjoy hearing about our antics even more than you enjoy playing games yourself. I know. That is why I am now taking the time every day to keep a sort of video game diary, to show you how I split up my time between games. Now that I don't have a full time job it seemed like the right thing to do. These might have a few spoilers as I discuss, so for those of you who are spoiler-allergic, this is a warning!
This last weekend was filled with Rock Band, Puzzle Quest, Smash Brothers Brawl and even a little bit of Pokémon. That's right, I'm playing Pokémon again. Today is going to be filled with:
Rock Band - Still trying to complete the drum solo tour on hard. I can't seem to get past Vasoline, it's got such a strange beat to it. I can complete songs on expert just fine but for some odd reason I can't get this Stone Temple Pilots craziness. More practice is in order! I was also checking out the achievements list for Rock Band and noticed there's a few for the tug of war and online battle modes, which surprisingly I have never played. Time to put my mad drum skillz on show. Gaining skill playing the drums in Rock Band has been one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences I've ever had, I really really enjoy it.
Pokémon Pearl - Picked up Diamond for the lady the other day and decided I should return to Sinnoh and see what my Pokeymans have been up to. Turns out I only played Pearl up to about level 20 and gave up. Why? Who knows. The game is still as fun as I remember it being when I was younger and I am really looking forward to having someone to battle and trade with now. I am also looking forward to coming up with ridiculous/offensive names for future Pokémon I capture. I just got an Abra last night that I named "Coitus". Gonna level up some of my lower level dudes and take the team to the third gym for my badge.
Half Life 2: Episode 2 - about 4 hours in and loving every single second of this game. If I could be progressing through a Half Life game for the rest of my life I'd be very happy. The story is so incredibly epic, and the episodic nature of the game doesn't impede it by any means. I'm considering going back after I finish and playing through the first Half Life 2 again just to see if I can't rack up the rest of the achievements.
That's what I'm up to today. In addition to coding up the new site design (yay!) and recording the podcast later this evening, my day's full of gaming goodness.
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Oh hai! Just thought I'd come and check in on you guys, here. What's up? Gearing up for the long weekend? Are you going to be going outside and grilling animal flesh with the rest of the US, or perhaps you will shun the sunlight as I do and partake of some games? Here's what I've been playing recently, what are you playing this weekend?
