September 17th, 2010

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (360): Just a little more progress. I'm still not sure about all the controls, and the constant but brief loading screens between areas are jarring and ugly. Still, it's nice that it's easier to indulge in smaller doses, and the graphics just look gorgeous.

I've nabbed a couple more Wu generals now, but still have yet to really sink my teeth into things. Did the Yellow Turban battle though... classic stuff, if again a little more small-scale.

Final Fantasy XI (PC): Two big events today: Windower, and Divineempress. With a buddy taking up the Windower thing as well, and XIV/PSP2 coming up, I figured I'd give it a go again (the problem didn't work last time, whoops!). It took a lot of tweaking, but it's pretty nice. Being able to see cooldowns without navigating several menus, use a controller while the game is in the background, and simple logging ability (as in, not logging like a lumberjack, which you can do in game, but chat/battle logging).

It also removes the fog in the distance, which is nice. It doesn't show you anything further away, just removes the gray.

And Divineempress made her return to XI, and it came down to me to help her get back into the swnig of things. We just did a quick page in Terrigan, took on some crabs and raptors, nothing special!

Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP): FINALLY! ...or not, all I did was install it to the memory card. I think I'ma create Dyne in the PSP demo, move him to the full game, then back to the PSP2 demo, then to the full game!

Sonic Adventure DX (360): First actual level today, and it felt nice to be playing again. Surely the controls are a little wonky by today's standards, but it's still highly playable and a nice dose of nostalgia.

Ho boy, that camera though... almost makes me nauseous, hahah.

Took a little stroll around the city, hit up the ruins area and had all sorts of memories of digging around as Knuckles during one of Sega's SA internet contests back in the day. So much I've forgotten, like the battle with Robotnik outside of Tail's workship, before you even get to the Mystic Ruins (which I played through as well!).

Gah, wish there weren't so many games on my plate right now, I really wouldn't mind replaying SA in depth.

September 15th, 2010

Nabbbed some new stuff today, just doing general shopping... turns out the new Lord of the Rings is out! I finally broke down and got Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce as well while waiting for PSP2 to come out, and it turns out Sonic Adventure hit Xbox Live! Naturally I had to nab that one!

Final Fantasy XI (PC): Hit up another Lamia Besieged while trying to get an Abyssea party, and alas, it was getting too late, so we had to throw in the towel. Still, any day with snake ladies is a good day!

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest (PS3): The character models look goofy, and everything about the package screams, "cheesy." And yet, the game's a lot of fun, and a lot more varied than previous LotR releases. The Shire acts as a hub world, and from there you can experience Aragorn's story. You don't just fight, you actually get to run around, explore, do mini-games, and on top of that Gandolf plays significantly different than Aragorn, so it's not just cookie-cutter.

Momy and myself played for an hour or so, enjoyed some White Castle, then hit it up again, this time passing the controller between the two of us and Abby. Ahh, good times!

I think we stopped... after evading the Nazgul in that first city area after the quest begins?

Sonic Adventure DX (360): I think I... looked at the title screen? Gotta sink my teeth into it later, LotR was the focus today!

Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Nothing special. Used the code from Sega's online "Lotte Insider" to unlock Faldio (oh boy, how decidedly not exciting), and did the "Tunnel Offensive" mission. Slow but sure progress!

September 13th, 2010

With Phantasy Star Portable 2 coming out tomorrow and Final Fantasy XIV a week later, the big issue is, what MMO gets my time?! There's still things on XI that I'd like to accomplish as well! They've all got their pros and cons: XI has a ton of content left and I'm already established, and level cap increases will only make it easier (going from 75 to 99 by the end of the year, and levels mean a ton in XI), but it's also an eight year old game, meaning it's lifespan is probably shorter than XIV's and it does look/feel older.

Final Fantasy XIV is gorgeous and new, but also has some issues. It runs far from optimized (it's taken player-made tools to make it run quicker, give it a hardware mouse and allow you to tab out!), and the Fatigue System is just bad precedent and an overall annoyance.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 is honestly what I'd like to play, but the whole portable aspect is an unfortunate turnoff. It might look great (for a portable) and be a nice improvement for Phantasy Star Universe, but it'll always be limited. It's harder to communicate on portables, and that's a big issue for MMOs. Although I expect my circle of friends to end up a lot smaller than XI, it'd be fantastic to play with Helena again!

What will happen? We'll see!


Afterburner Climax (360): Played for like... one life. So it was pretty quick!

Final Fantasy XI (PC): Feed the bird, Hamartia (Bevis) gave me all his stuff so he could cancel his account, hit up an Undead Swarm Besieged, then stopped by a rather miserable Abyssea party. It started off well enough till a Notorious Monster spawned and wreaked havoc! Still, I got *a* Merit Point and four of the five Kindred Crests I need, so it wasn't awful.