SMASH!

For those who didn't know, SMASH! (Sydney Manga and Anime SHow) was held in the Sydney Convention Center in Darling Harbour last Saturday. This convention, unlike Supanova, is based entirely off anime, manga, and the occasional video game. Of course, I attended the con. Dressed as Suzaku again, no less (you expect me to not reuse the outfit after spending months worth of weekends working on it?).

The convention itself was quite well organised, with a couple of exceptions. These examples were, however, quite annoying. For example, Spritza and myself arrived quite early at the venue, and were in the queue to enter (we pre-purchased our tickets as usual). We were fairly close to the front of the third queue, which was good, since the queue got ridiculously large later on.
The powers that be decided to start scanning people's tickets and handing out the laniards that attendees were to wear before the show opened, therefore saving time for the people who had gone to the effort to pay before the day of the con.
Except that they neglected to do the same for the third line. Leaving this line to get in after the others had - regardless of arrival time. Of course, Murphy's Law dictates that this was the line that we were in. We still got in at a decent time (around 9.20 or so), but we were robbed of a good 20 minutes of time that the peons who didn't pre-purchase had no access to (and so actually having space to walk around the con unhindered).

On the other hand, the venue was set up well. All of the stalls and gaming was downstairs, while the activity rooms, the cosplay contest and chess, the workshops, panels etc were upstairs. This split meant that people weren't getting constantly clogged together trying to reach their desired events. The only criticism I'd ave of the venue itself was that the lights in the shopping area were quite dim, making any photos taken in there much more difficult to do right, as well as putting some minor strain on the eyes after a while.

Of course, a large portion of the day was taken up by posing for photos, taking part in the cosplay chess (we lost, although the game was entertaining and went a fair while thereby making up for it all). Part of the fun of the chess was that my cosplay group had booked a large chunk of the team for our spots - our Code Geass group (consisting of myself as Suzaku, Spritza as Euphemia, Mark as Gino, Juanita as Anya - although she didn't play chess, Lyndall as Nunnally, Brendon as Lloyd and Jamie as C.C) as well as two other random Code Geass cosplayers we managed to poach (Zero and another Suzaku) took up the entire back row of the black team. To make matters more entertaining, our entire front row consisted of Hetalia cosplayers.
All the countries of the world are as pawns to Britannia, clearly.

I was killed by a woman who threw CDs at me

After the chess, we dashed off for lunch, and some random photo taking around Darling Harbour, which was fun due to freaking out the "normal people" who were around. Only a small group of us went photoing, since some people were taking breaks and others had simply disappeared from view.

One of the many outside photos

Eventually, the convention had to end, so we changed into regular clothes, headed off for dinner, then returned for the Eminence concert. Eminence are an orchestral group that play predominantly video game and anime music - even being contracted to perform some songs for the shows and games themselves (they recently finished recording music for Diablo 3).
The concert was brilliant, even though I only recognised three songs (Aerith's Theme from FF7, the My Neighbour Totoro medley, and the Mario medley) it was entertaining nonetheless. They also had in attendance two video game composers, whose music they spent the majority of the time playing. These composers were Kenji Ito (Romancing Saga 1-3, Saga Frontier) and Hiroku Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3). They were both interviewed on stage, with entertaining results.

After the concert, I spent some time in line to buy a couple of CDs, and get some autographs. We then headed home for some rest. Great day, all in all.

Also, thanks to Oni-5 and Martzy for meeting up with us, and joining us in the photo frenzy. I'm a terrible photographer, so they wouldn't have been taken at all if it weren't for you guys :P

~~~

On a semi-related note, today marks the release of the "Play for Japan" album - this album was a project headed up by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill's composer, among other things) as a charity album. This album features original tracks by a large selection of video game music composers - and after a single playthrough of the album today, I love it. There are only two of the eighteen tracks I can say I honestly did not enjoy, although that may change.
As an added bonus, people who buy it from iTunes get a Mario medley as a bonus track.
Also note that all proceeds from this album goes to the Japan recovery fund. Although it is no longer reported in the news, Japan hasn't exactly recovered fully yet (that'll take a LONG time), so spend some money people!

Also, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano

Damn it, Steam!

For those who even remotely know or care about gaming, you would know that Steam is currently having their Summer Sale (lol, America) - and as a result selling games ridiculously cheap. This is both a boon and a curse.

For starters, it is obviously a good thing due to cheap games! Never complain about cheap games (unless they're terrible, anyway)! I've managed to buy a fair few games off Steam in the last few days, and likely will continue to for the next few days until the sale is over. Magicka with all the DLC for $8! Monkey Island remakes for $8 (both together in a pack!) Dwarfs?! for $5! (don't buy it, its a trap) I believe The Witcher 2 was up for $50 at one stage... not bad for a brand new game.

Don't ask me to recall my purchase list - I've forgotten big chunks of it because there are so many. I recall picking up Frozen Synapse though (and it comes with two copies... anyone want a copy?).

And this is where part of the curse lies. I already had a ridiculous backlog of games I'd never finished. What better way to make this pile larger than for Steam to have a sale!

On the other hand, Steam has also put up a competition where each day there are specific achievements for specific games. Each achievement earnt gives you a ticket in the major draw - the prize being the top ten games o your wishlist. Once I saw this, I started working on the achievements they specified (at least, the ones I could do for the games I already owned), and have so far earnt 16 tickets. As an added bonus these tickets can be redeemed for extra free DLC for certain games (and they don't destroy your entries into the draw).
While I'm not typically an "achievement whore", if they are usable for something tangible then I'm all over it. I've averaged 3-4 tickets a day so far, though this will likely drop over the weekend when I stay at Spritza's place. Well, that's assuming I get over this cold (I'm still sick, to a degree >_<).
It's also quite nice having Steam tell me what to play - even if it is for a short period of time. It's reminding me that I have some great games that I've been neglecting (and not necessarily long ones either). For example, last night, I was working on achievements for Trine, Zombie Driver and Serious Sam HD. I had already finished Serious Sam, but I had completely forgotten how good the other two games were (particularly Trine)!

On the other hand...

Creddit where its due: MrGestore of Reddit

E3 Impressions

As any gamer with even a passing interest in keeping up with new games would know, E3 is this week, and the main press conferences have all finished. And so, I will post my impressions of what I've seen. What impressed me, what was meh, and what made me utterly rage and want to throw things at people.

Let's start (much like the big 3 did) with Microsoft. While I did not catch any of their press conference yet (I plan on watching some of the trailers and things when I get a chance), I did read the cliffnotes. It seems that they brought a lot of "meh" to the table this year, as well as a lot of Kinect. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the Kinect. There's no question that it is impressive technology, and I do want to have a play with it. However, my wanting to have a play with it stems more through development tendencies, rather than finding any games that I want to play on it!
Microsoft have, of course, unleashed information about the first thing that made me rage. The promise of four more Halo games. One being simply a remastering of the original, which I can deal with. The first Halo game was decent. However, from there it began a decent in mediocrity punctuated by the fact that the game didn't actually change at all from there, with the exception of pretty graphics. The announcement that there is going to be a new Halo trilogy, while not altogether unexpected (it did, after all, make extraordinarily stupid amounts of money for Microsoft and Bungie) it also did not assure me in the slightest that it would be trying anything new either.

The Vita. I want one so, so badly

Sony released some interesting information. I only caught bits and pieces of their press release, so there is probably a lot I've missed, but what really caught my eye is the Playstation Vita. This would be the NGP (Next Generation Portable) that they have been talking about. It looks just like a PSP with a second thumb stick, no UMD drive (it reportedly uses flash cartridges for games), and a touch pad on the back of the console.
I have been asked repeatedly why a touch screen on the back. I can wholeheartedly answer this question with a "Why the hell would I know? Do I work for Sony all of a sudden?" I would assume that this is for things like noncritical functions. The guy demoing the latest iteration of Modnation Racers demonstrated this to great effect when he used it to raise and lower terrain surrounding the track, in the track creation mode. It was also quite quick to load and test the new track he created, which I liked.
By far, the thing I liked the most about Vita is its connectivity. It connects to a Sony PSN cloud, allowing someone playing games on the Vita to play multiplayer with people who are on the PS3. And not just in the same room or anything - this works via wifi and 3g as well! Aside from this, the fact that you can stop playing a game on the Vita and load up from exactly where you were up to on the PS3 was also quite awesome. They demonstrated this using some random action-rpg, which I cannot recall the title of.
That said, when they showed Street Fighter X Tekken I began to rage. Not because I dislike Street Fighter or Tekken - I quite like them. No, the problem is that they've decided to do another one of those stupid bad cameos I raged about on Monday - this time adding the guy from Infamous to the game. Why would you do that? It wasn't necessary! It's not even cool! It's a game based almost entirely on cameos (being a crossover title and all), so why add more. He doesn't fit into either universe!

The Wii U

Nintendo talked a LOT about the 3DS. I was excited about the new Kid Icarus game, until it was revealed to be on the 3DS. I have posted at length already about how 3D is retarded and should be set on fire, so I won't bother repeating this.
What was interesting was the Wii U - the new console. Sporting a controller that seems to me a cross of the Playstation Vita, the Wiimote and an iPad, it promises to retain the accessibility for the "casual gamer" peon hordes, as well as provide depth for the hardcore gamers. I consider myself to be far far beyond the casual gamer, so a little added depth fron Nintendo is exactly what I wanted.
As for how I like the new console... I'm very undecided. They were able to do some interesting things with the demo, for example someone changing channel on the TV, and the game being simply moved onto the controller is a great addition. The AR meets Wiimote functionality seemed kind of interesting too, though it has to be done well. I plan on trading in my Wii for the Wii U, if only for the HDMI input (with my TV-less monitor-centric setup, it makes the Wii much easier / more appealing to use) to use in conjunction with the backwards compatibility.
When it comes down to it, the fate of the Wii U is in the developer's hands. If they do good thigns with it, then it will fit in quite well to my gaming collection. If not, then it'll be an expensive paperweight.

On another note, its The Legend of Zelda's 25th anniversary this year. To celebrate, they're doing a world orchestral tour for the music of Zelda.
Also, the insane people who bought a 3DS can get a free AR based Pokedex. This was really cool, but completely inaccessible to people who are like me and can't actually look at 3D without their brain haemorrhaging.

As for game trailers, I finally caught up with Devil May Cry. The new Dante design is epic fail on every level, though the game itself looks to be as much demon-annihilating fun as it's always been (except for DMC 2). Final Fantasy XIII-2 confuses me with its lack of most of the main party, and focusing on Serah and newcomer Noel (which will anger me GREATLY if they try to hamshoe in a love subplot between Serah and Noel, since she was engaged to Snow for the entirety of the first one - the ending even including the line "we've got a wedding to plan!"). I could care less that Hope disappeared, but Snow and Sazh need to reappear!

Terraria, Duke Nukem Forever, and The Backloggery

Sarah bought me Terraria the other day. This was simultaneously awesome and horrible, in that it is quite a good game, but horrendously addictive and has undermined the very reason I avoided a certain game, but more on that in a moment.


Terraria is a 2D sidescrolling, tile based creation game. What this term-I-just-invented-in-order-to-sound-semi-intelligent means is that you start in a world with just a pick and an axe. You now start mining, or chopping trees to get materials (stone, wood, ores) to use to create things. Things like a workbench, a house, maybe some weapons. When the night comes, hide in your house before the zombies eat you!


Sound familiar? That's because it seems very much like Minecraft. At least, to me, it does. However, I have never played Minecraft. This is where the undermining certain principles mentioned above comes from.


I purposely avoided Minecraft for the reason that it is horrendously addictive, and would prevent me from playing other games. If you think my backlog is bad as it is now (and its a bit out of date, more games have been purchased!), it would be at least three times as bad if I played Minecraft! In fact, one large reason certain games were neglected to this degree is due to a little game known as World of Warcraft. Now, I have kicked the WoW habit, but Terraria is leading me towards the slippery slope that is buying and becoming hopelessly addicted to Minecraft, and this worries me slightly.


More on Terraria when I've played it more - I've managed to resist playing it for hours on end due to my current quest to 5 star all of the Final Fantasy XIII side missions...


~~~~~~~~~


Duke Nukem Forever has the gold master ready to go. Believe it or not, the game that's taken something like 14 years to develop will soon be purchasable. I, for one, welcome back our old stripper-savin', alien-ass-kickin' 80s action hero with balls of steel! Ever since I heard that Gearbox took over the IP, I was looking more forward to the game - mainly because playing a modern version of Duke appeals to me, since large chunks of my childhood were spent playing the demo of DN3D.


~~~~~~~~


The Backloggery is a website dedicated to allowing people keep track of their gaming backlogs - to assist them in completing their old games. I took a page out of their book and started tracking it on this very blog, since they were overwhelmed with users (server downtime ensued, as well as the need to upgrade the website - which was delayed due to the developer falling quite badly ill). As a result, registration for the website was locked - since it would be a bad idea to allow more users to join while it was already suffering. Now, finally, registration is slated to be reopened on June 3rd - and I plan on moving my backlog list there, assuming I can register in a timely manner (I'm kind of expecting it to get swamped again). Worth a try at least!

Why the 3D fad must be killed. Now.

There has been a small discussion of 3D technology on my Facebook page. I call it a small discussion, though that's embellishing it somewhat. It really boils down to me complaining about the 3DS hurting my eyes when I tested it the other day, and a few people commenting on said statement. I figure that my stance on 3D in general (as opposed to the 3DS on its own merits, or lack thereof) should be supported, and so today's topic came to be.
Well, the title of this post very succinctly sums up my feelings on the whole thing, but I suppose I should elaborate. I will be talking about 3D in the context of both games and film/TV, to be something resembling fair.

This is the Virtual Boy. It sucks. It's also 3D. Coincidence?

Let's start with the obvious. 3D has been done before now, obviously. Take a look at the Virtual Boy, for example. Actually, don't. Really, really, don't. It's screen had an amazing two colours - Red and Black. And it was in 3D. You could play for about 10 minutes before it broke your eyes.
But even before that, 3D has been achieved. For example, watching sports in 3D has been done for years. Centuries even. The Ancient Greeks even had 3D sports. This was usually achieved by leaving the home, and actually attending the event. There you go - an amazing full 3D event.
Snarkiness aside, there is something to be said for the concept of 3D movies and gaming. I reckon it would be great to be able to experience a game in full 3D surrounding you. However, the problems with 3D as it is now are:

A) It doesn't work
I haven't seen many movies in 3D, to be completely honest. Hell, I haven't seen Avatar in 3D or even in glorious 2D. The movies I *have* seen in 3D are Alice in Wonderland (the Johnny Depp one), and Tron Legacy. If there was ever going to be a movie where 3D would be amazing, Tron was it. However, the only real 3D effects I saw in that movie was a slight amount of depth perception on the house, near the start of the film. In Alice in Wonderland, there was a butterfly in one scene, and I'm not even sure it was part of the movie - it may have been the title screen or something. Admittedly my memory is hazy. The fact that I cannot recall anything about the 3D of these 3D movies is a bad sign, is it not?

 

ThinkGeek yet again tempts me, with the solution to 3D... these glasses make the 3D into 2D - and the film actually watchable

B) The glasses suck
When I went to these 3D films, I had to wear 3D goggles, as they make you do all the time, obviously. The reason behind this is that (typically) there are two images being displayed, overlapped on each other. One is for your left eye, the other is for your right eye, but the images are slightly different. The lens on the glasses filter the images so your eye only sees the appropriate image, giving you this 3D effect. The one that doesn't work.

Am I the only one who has a problem with seemingly crossing your eyes for potentially hours on end? Am I the only one who thinks that this is a horrendous idea?

Anyway, this is why some people tend to get headaches and eye strains from this - your eyes feel like they are going funny because they ARE going funny. Intentionally. I don't know if there has been much research into this, but it sounds to me like a logical way to injure yourself.
On a related note, as a permanent glasses-wearer, wearing glasses over my glasses is impractical, and stupid.

C) It's a gimmick. An expensive gimmick
Nowadays, almost every big Hollywood film seems to be in 3D. A lot of them aren't designed initially for 3D, and just tack it on. This may be why my experiences mentioned under (A) were pathetic. It seems everyone is tacking pointless 3D onto their film in a bid to sell more movie tickets. At a higher price at that. Can't the filmmakers rely on good writing, and good acting to make money.

Well, it IS Hollywood we're talking about. I suppose they can't.

It's gimmickyness feels like the Nintendo Wii's motion controls to me - shoehorned into everything that is released to appeal to the idiots who go "ooh shiny" and then wonder why their heads hurt after watching the thing.

On a related note, I tried the Nintendo 3DS. It gave me a small headache, and made my eyes hurt a lot. Part of this is likely fatigue, I have been getting minor headaches a lot lately because I haven't been sleeping well. However, this was triggered almost instantly as I looked at the screen trying to play Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition.
To me, the 3Dness of the game looked like two distinctly different images slightly on top of each other, which was very disconcerting, and definitely the course of my headache. Somehow, I still managed to beat the CPU, but by that point, my mind had been made up - I am NOT buying this machine. I don't care that it would be my first opportunity to play more than 30 minutes of Ocarina of Time - if I can't get use of the main feature of a device, then I will not purchase that device.

And I will avoid 3D TVs, movies and gaming machines as well. I like to be able to see what I've paid to see, thankyou very much.

Gaming Backlog

This post now has a separate page of its own. Mainly because it makes more sense that way. To reach it, either click here, or just look on the sidebar!

Horrible, horrible purchases

Everybody makes horrible, horrible decisions sometimes. Particularly regarding purchasing certain items. The real question here is, are these horrible decisions mistakes, or are they intentional? Because sometimes, you can't help but make a terrible purchase, because of the hilarity of it.

I did this myself the other day, but let's back up a little bit to the beginning of this story, shall we?

The story begins on Saturday Morning. I had stayed home that Friday night, due to needing to be in my home electorate for the state election - I needed to be able to vote. Hence, my girlfriend and I decided it would be best for me to go home on Friday, instead of the usual ritual of heading to her place then for the weekend. That way, I could vote on Saturday, then head on over to her place where we do... well, whatever we feel like for the weekend (this weekend we watched Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni)!

Oh yeah, it's cute until they start mercilessly slaughtering each other

So, after staying up to 2am playing Dragon Age (what can I say? It had me hooked!), I went to bed, only to be woken up at around 8.40 by my mother. "Wake up, we need to go and vote!"

I was allowed to return to bed, since I was going to walk down to the local school and do that on my own later, but the awakeness and noise from the rest of the house convinced me that trying to sleep was a horrendous idea, so I got up, showered, and proceeded to vote. Afterwards, I packed my things, got a train and a boat to Manly, and met up with Sarah.

We decided it would be a good idea to go to the mall, since neither of us had eaten anything that day, so food was high on the agenda, and she was interested in getting a second controller for her somewhat-newly-acquired PS3. We entered EBGames before grabbing our food.

And that is where I saw the sale. In typical EB fashion, there was a "3 preowned games for $50" deal going on, and I always make a point of looking at those, since you can occasionally find hidden gems.

I managed to find Resistance: Fall of Man - a game I had been looking for cheaply for a while, mainly because I'd bought the sequel cheap, but being OCD when it comes to games, refused to play it until I had found and conquered the prior game (This burning need tends to get relaxed in certain situations, like Final Fantasy, where the games have nothing to do with each other, or in Metal Gear, where the original couple are inaccessible to me).

I desperately began to look for two other games of note, to justify the purchase. I managed to find a game called "Eat Lead - The Return of Matt Hazard", a game which, by all accounts, sucks. Except that it parodies other games. And has a character voiced by Neil Patrick Harris. OHMYGODAWESOME.

Everyone's favourite suited-up womaniser

Satisfied by that decision, I began to look for a third game. Something to round out the $50 deal. It didn't have to be amazing, it had to be bearable, to make it worth picking up the other two. I almost bought Blacksite with it (rounding out three generic shooters - two of them featuring aliens), but then, I saw it. What has to be the worst game ever.

Can you pick what is it? I'll give you a hint - its real value is likely to be about 50 cents.

Have a minute thinking time.

OK, time's up.

50 Cent - Blood on the Sand. I bought a game about a rapper, who fights terrorists (apparently). The plot is so awful that I needed to purchase this game. The following is quoted from the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia.

"The game is set in an urban warzone in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, where 50 Cent and G-Unit have been hired to play a rap concert. After the concert the promoter refuses to pay them the US $10-million in cash he promised, but relents after being threatened. However, instead of the cash they were promised, he gives them a diamond-and-pearl encrusted human skull as collateral. This is promptly stolen by a paramilitary group. 50 Cent (with the help of a selected G-Unit partner) decides to get it back at any cost."

So there we have it - a purchase that is so bad, it's amazing. Once I'm finished with Dragon Age (another day or two), I will play this to take a break before I head onto FF13, or Dragon Age 2. I just don't expect I shall be sane by the end of it.

I will probably look something like this

So, I put it to you, loyal readers (all three of you). What horrible things have you purchased intentionally. I don't mean buying something that you thought would be awesome, but it turned out to be the most horrible thing you've ever experienced (Assassin's Creed, anyone?). I mean things you know are a bad idea, but you bought it anyway. Either BECAUSE it was a bad idea, or because you wanted to torture yourself. Let me know in the comments!

Ubisoft Failwin

Some of you may know, last Friday, Ubisoft had a bunch of games on their Australian online store marked with a 100% discount. If you did not know, don't waste your time looking now - you won't find any free games. It ended a few hours after I saw it. These games were marked as a "promo" on the site itself.

I nabbed 22 games from this.

Yesterday, I received an email from the Ubisoft shop. The text follows, unedited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO OUR UBISHOP CUSTOMERS

Last week, the Australian Ubishop site was showing that nearly all of its games were available for a 100% discount. This was obviously a systems error that has now been fixed.

As you were quick enough to act on this error, we would like to advise that Ubisoft will honour this sale at the full discount. We hope that you enjoy the games, and invite you to visit our website again to view our upcoming PC lineup, and our regular promotions. Admittedly, they probably won’t be quite as generous as the one you have just taken advantage of...

Best regards,

The Ubishop team
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I find this:
a) Hilarious
b) Awesome

Ubisoft is far from being one of my favourite game publishers. They began their downhill slide (in my mind) by over-hyping a game to the point where I was legitimately excited and really wanted it. I then convinced my parents to get me it for present, in lieu of anything else. (At the time, I was a Maccas worker, and not exactly able to afford every awesome game that came out)
I then played this abomination - finding it to be the biggest steaming pile of repetition I have ever encountered. Everything unique in the game was covered within the first hour of play, and the rest simply repeated it. A lot.
I am, of course, referring to Assassin's Creed.

Aside from that, their reputation lowered even further in my mind when they introduced their utterly draconian DRM system, where PC gamers who legitimately bought the software are required to remain online while playing the game that they paid for. Router dies while playing? Too bad, now you can't play the game at all.
I have just read that this system has been removed, but the fact that they implemented it in the first place (or that this got through into the "let's build it" phase in the first place) is a huge black mark from me.

On the other hand, one would expect such a company - one willing to piss off every legitimately paying gamer in order to attempt to protect their property (and in the process providing the people who pirated their games with superior game experiences due to, well, not being cut off from an offline game when their Internet died) to recall every digital copy. How exactly do you do this? By invalidating the CD keys that were generated during that time period when you do your online authentication (which they still do, its just not every 5 minutes any more).

Bravo Ubisoft, for at least doing something right. Now release some games worth playing and we'll talk :P

Too Many Games, Not Enough Time

Before we get into the actual post, I am taking this space to ask for help. I'm running out of topics, it would seem. Either my brain has fried completely, or I'm just failing. Usually I'll write up something about a game I've finished recently, but due to my playing through of Dragon Age - a game that takes a hell of a long time to get through, I'm not going to be finishing anything any time soon.

So, I want YOU, the reader types, to ask me questions. Anything you want to know. Awesome questions / topics may lead to a full post in reply. Smaller questions will be combined into a larger answernating post. Just leave them here as comments, or email them to me at:
djnatols (at) hotmail (dot) com

I will now return you to your regularly scheduled bloggernating
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Its becoming increasingly clear to me, that I should really, really stop buying games. I'm caught in a vicious cycle of buying a game or three, then never getting the chance to finish them, since I'll buy another one before I'm done. Its almost like a form of gaming ADD or something.

What follows is a list of games I'm either playing at the moment, or intend on playing, and the reason why I want to. Hopefully, it'll help me get my thoughts together on what order to play them, and drive home that I should stop buying games. At least, until Dissidia Duodecim gets released anyway. What's that, 3 weeks? Gah!

Dragon Age: Origins
Reason to play: It's like Baldur's Gate, but newer!
The reality is, its like a severely dumbed down Baldur's Gate, and the characters quite often decide they don't like the orders I've given them when I switch to give orders to another character. Quite frustrating when I tell my melee characters to stand back because I'm about to unleash a tornado of fire at the enemies, and they ignore me, then wonder why they're on fire! Regardless, I am quite enjoying the game - even though it took me almost a year to get past the early stages (I blame this on the game consistently reverting my save game to the beginnings of Lothering - even when I left the town). I better hurry up, Dragon Age 2 is out tomorrow!

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Reason to play: It's freakin Marvel vs Capcom, that's why!
I like fighting games. However, I tend to not be amazingly awesome at them. The exception to this would be Soul Calibur, though I still wouldn't call myself awesome at it - simply "somewhat skilled". I've always wanted to be good at a fighting game, and I see MvC3 as an opportunity. However, I still have the tendency to panic and button mash when I'm getting annihilated (which is almost constantly). I really should practice, but I tend to lost patience, and also have a quadrillion other games to play.

Enslaved: Journey to the West
Reason to play: Critical reception
Reviews for this seem good, and I picked it up quite cheaply. The problem? Finding time to play it!

Alan Wake
Reason to play: Critical reception, interesting plot
I'm part way through this, having spent some time playing it at Sarah's while she watched (she was interested in the plot). I really should get around to finishing it.

Final Fantasy XIII
Reason to play: Fanboyism
I'm a Final Fantasy fan. I need to finish FF13, so I can play FF13-2 when it arrives. Plain and simple.
The battle system is... interesting. Jury's still out on that one, though the lack of dungeons and general time to explore is giving me pains in the brain.

Final Fantasy III, IV, V, VI
Reason to play: Fanboyism, history, Distant Worlds concert
I am going to the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert in Sydney at some point in April. I am also one of the people who bought tickets to meet and greet Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu (!!!!!) after the show. This makes me want to play the Final Fantasy games I have not yet finished in order to gain some context for some of the songs that will be played. Unfortunately, the one of these I most want to play (VI) doesn't have a port on a portable device yet, which makes it tough for me to find the time for it among the other, newer games (I finished FFI on the PSP, and FFII on the iPhone, and am currently playing through FF Tactics: War of the Lions on PSP).

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin
Reason to play: Surely it can't be worse than F.E.A.R Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. I want to have my faith restored in horror shooters. It might not be the game to do it, but it will hopefully be a step in the right direction - away from those two games which tore my soul to ribbons.

Lord of Arcana
Reason to play: I bought it and its sitting on my shelf.

Machinarium
Reason to play: as with Lord of Arcana, except that it looks ridiculously cool.

Baldur's Gate I, II and expansions
Reason to play: Its freakin' Baldur's Gate! I don't need any more reason than that. Although there is the point where I never cleared the first one, and want to do so, and also to finish the expansion of BGII.

Games Games Games

Americans get to play Marvel vs Capcom 3 very soon. Like, midnight tonight in whatever stupid timezone they have. I hate you, America. Give me my game already. Grrrr.
I've already decided two thirds of my annihilation party as well (character usefulness notwithstanding) - Dante and Deadpool. Mainly coz they're awesome. The third could well be Viewtiful Joe, or Zero, creating a team entirely of RED.

A friend gifted me Monday Night Combat on Steam the other day. I haven't played any of it beyond the tutorial - but that part was at least fun. It kind of has a Team Fortress 2 feel to it, but making it third person, and allowing for single player defence of the money ball. Tonight, I'm totally gonna give it a bit more of a play.

I haven't touched WoW in at least two weeks. And somehow, I don't miss it. Until I realise that I still haven't quite hit level 85. I don't know, I want to hit level 85, but there are many other games to be playing at the moment.

I prepaid for Dragon Age 2 on Steam. I still haven't played much of the first one. Well, scratch that, I played it for a fair while, however this consisted of replaying the early stages of the game repeatedly. I believe I have completed the Mage origin story and the Ostagar Castle segment of the game at least 4 times now. I have been besieged with horrific luck with this game - one time losing my save and having to start over. Another time finding a weird glitch where it would always revert my save to be inside Lothering again, then upgrading my PC and losing content due to that. Eventually I'll finish it.

Damn, I want Marvel vs Capcom 3 now. NAO I SAY!

I bought a strange little game on the iPhone on Sunday. It's called Dungeon Raid - and combines a puzzle game with an RPG. This is a combination I thought I would see the last of with Puzzle Quest (and my clone of it in Game Dev Story). I thought wrong. It works quite well, although for some reason I still cannot top the score I got on my first play. There's got to be something wrong with being able to get a good score on your first play - and then being unable to repeat it when you understand how the game works!

I also found Devil May Cry on the iPhone. This makes me happy, except for the part where it didn't work - it froze. I then read reports that it worked if you turned WiFi off and were patient with the seemingly frozen load screen. I tested that this morning - lo and behold! The game works! Due to being at work, I didn't actually play the game, but that's likely what my trip home will involve. Or maybe just more Dungeon Raid. Or Final Fantasy Tactics...

I seem to be reaching the late sections of Final Fantasy II. Again, playing this on the iPhone. It was much cheaper to spend $5 or so on the iPhone for it, than to track down and spend $50 on the PSP version. Totally worth it - and the game works just as well. I think its actually identical to the PSP version, so go for it, if you get the chance!

I want to play some Final Fantasy XIII, but my girlfriend just bought a PS3, and wants to play it together. So I'm waiting for her to catch up before I play again. Couple this with staying at her place for the next week and a half starting on Thursday, and I won't be touching the game again for a while. I'll probably forget how the battle system works (again) by the time I get back into it :P

Where's my copy of Marvel vs Capcom 3? :(

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes is fun. Don't expect a sophisticated game though - it is literally the Dynasty Warrior / Samurai Warriors engine with some tweaks, and shiny graphics, and superpowered samurai. Its still good fun to play as Date Masamune, slashing people up with six swords (all at once, held between his fingers. Yes, he fights as if he's Wolverine, but with swords instead of mere claws).

Ooh, Bulletstorm and Deus Ex: Human Revolution appear soonish! I played Duty Calls, the Call of Duty parody that was an ad for Bulletstorm. Quite a funny game, if you can't afford the 700 MB or so download, then watch the video playthrough at the very least.

I just lost The Game.

Quite sad news that Guitar Hero has officially been killed by Activision. Though interesting that Harmonix plan on pressing ahead with Rock Band. Maybe that means we'll see some of the pro instruments in Australia?
Yeah, as if. That would imply that American game companies saw us as an actual market, rather than a strange sized dump on the southern end of the planet.
I wonder what'll happen to DJ Hero...

I want Marvel vs Capcom 3 gah it hurts just sell me the game already!

My Back Hurts.

Well, it did, anyway.

Last Friday was my girlfriend's birthday, and so we spent the weekend together doing random-but-already-somewhat-planned-by-her-mother stuff. Friday consisted of work, followed by giving her presents, then getting takeaway pasta from a nearby place. Luckily they were good on the gluten-free thing, so weren't killing me via foodiness.

She was given a new car stereo for her birthday - with a huge (read scary) subwoofer in the boot. Hilariously enough, the subwoofer unclips and can be removed if we want to use the boot for, you know, holding things.

I gave her a trinket box with a dragon on top, and a large dragon figure. I forgot to take a photo of it, but that wouldn't do it justice anyway. Its a large red dragon, wrapped around a castle tower, wings spread out. The entire figure is taller than my head - it surprised me when it came out of its box!

On Saturday morning, we went and had a massage. This is why my back hurt - it was my first time having a massage, and the dude probably figured out quite quickly what my occupation is, considering the amount of time he spent doing ouchy related things to my back and neck. Eventually I caved in and got the guy to put less pressure on me - as good as it would have done, it was simply hurting too much.

The massage did wonders for my fingers though, which I've annihilated with years of gaming.

After that, we spent some time gaming, then went out to a French restaurant for dinner. It was alright.

Sunday was a lazy day, spent mostly on videogames, and in the pool, though we did spend some time beginning the cosplay outfits. Now I have cut material for my cape. Kinda scary really, now that its started. We also went to the Starlight Cinema that evening, to watch Tomorrow When the War Began. The film was average (admittedly not as horrible as I expected the book to movie conversion to be), though the cinema people megafailed us.

Mainly due to the fact that, somehow, they had managed to have the focus of the projector completely wrong. The ads were crystal clear, but the movie was blurry as all hell - it was almost like I'd taken my glasses off for the duration of the film, without the comfort of actually not wearing my glasses! Annoying!

Anyways, Happy Birthday Sarah!

PC resurgence?

I noticed something odd about this year.

Most of the games that I know about and really want to buy this year, are games that I want for the PC, and would never consider going for on a console.

This is quite strange - the last time I had many a PC game to look forward too is beyond my memory. Most likely it was in the dark ages before I had a console that still had games being developed for it!

Let's start with the most obvious one - Diablo 3 comes out this year. While there have been rumours of a console release (I cannot recall off the top of my head if they were confirmed or not), I was horrified. Diablo was released on console once. I played it for about 10 minutes, and trying to control it was like stabbing myself in the brain with a wiimote. Even though the closest thing to a wiimote in video game usage at the time was the Power Glove.
Even if the game is released on console, I'll be taking it on the PC thanks - a mouse just works so much better for this kind of game.

On a similar level as far as control scheme goes is Dragon Age 2. The first one had console releases, which I refused to even look at. It'd be like trying to play Baldur's Gate on a console (and I mean the original, top down RPGs, as opposed to the hack n slash fests that were the Dark Alliance games). Try to control, in a tactical manner, 4 characters in real time. It's not happening with that dual-shock, thats for sure!

And then there are the shooters. Some people find using a console much easier for shooting games. Left stick moves, right stick aims, trigger shoots. I think these people are insane - using WASD and mouse just feels more intuitive for an aiming mechanism (that is, until someone hands me a kinect and an FPS that works with it).

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Duke Nukem Forever (assuming that Gearbox aren't rickrolling us by giving us a release date for DNF) and Bulletstorm are all games that fall into this category. AKA shooters that I am buying this year. For the PC.

In fact, the only game that I can think of right this moment that I would be buying for a console is Marvel vs Capcom 3. This would be a direct result of fighting games being utterly horrible on the PC, as well as controller and arcade sticks just working better for that style of game.

All of a sudden I'm glad I upgraded my PC...

PS: Just remembered another console game - Final Fantasy XIII-2. It had to be mentioned, because I needs MOAR FINAL FANTASY!

Why Steam whyyyyyy?!?!?

Steam is having sales again. I regard this as simultaneously a blessing and a curse. The reason for this is timing.

As you would likely know, it is practically Christmas. This means that, for most people in Western countries, that they have spent copious amounts of money on presents for people. I know I have!

In addition to this, I have spent a large chunk of money within the last two days for doctors and dieticians. While I would hardly call myself penniless, I am in a state where I am very careful about what I buy in terms of leisure items, since I want to actually save some money for holidays next year (Melbourne and Japan are the planned ones).

So of course, this means that Steam must have a sale. Its always the same pattern - Steam has a crazy multiple day sale where most games have hefty discounts when I either have no money at all, or am unwilling to spend much.

Why do they do this? They seem to have an uncanny ability to make games stupidly cheap, stupidly easy to acquire (I mean cme on, just download the thing once you've paid!), and stupidly tempting, at times when buying games is the last thing you should be doing!

Despite this, I bought Deus Ex collection yesterday for $3, and Super Meat Boy for about the same price.

Damn you Steam!