Final Fantasy XI (PC): Tamberly and I teamed up to take down the Undead Swarm yet again! Wasn't too much else to XI this day outside of that. I came up short the cash to do the final Mog Locker expansion, but Tam helped me out with a few Gold Imperial Pieces or whatever. Thanks! :D
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Did a few of the March missions as well as made some progress with Lotte *waggles brow*. Slowly but surely! The game does seem a bit padded but I'm still really enjoying it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
September 6th, 2010
Dead Rising: Case 0 (360): Did another day, this time focusing on getting the 1k zombies killed achievement, as well as just cleaning up. Pushing the motorcycle cart around took care of that fairly easily, and I did manage to figure out another combination (Traffic cone + Spraypaint, which gave me an air horn). It gave me a Scratch card instead of a Combo card, though, which seems to lack details on it... but I don't really know more than that.
So I'm close to having my first ever 100% complete game, Achievements-wise, on 360. Sure, this one is only a 200 pointer, but still. I did glance at recipes while looking for info on the Scratch/Combo thing, and feel a little guilty cheating, but I'm running out of combination ideas!
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Fed Stardust Typhoon, finally saw Brutus for the first time on a "long" walk, and... that's about it! Talked to Evonna for a bit, idled for a while, then xxskyxx told everyone they needed to go to bed, since apparently Miips and myself were two of the few people on that late!
LEGO Batman (360): Not much, just installed it to the hard drive for playing later, not tonight as it turned out but hopefully later this week!
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Just a few more missions, winning the first of the Laevatein matches and moving us into March. I did unlock a special mission with Noel, which should be pretty cool!
The class tree is definitely a lot more involved than it was in the first game. I've got a couple of my Shocktroopers eligible to advance to either Trooper Veteran or Gunner, and then from each of those two there's another two further upgrades! Crazy. Of course, it hardly tells anything about the advanced classes, so I'm hesitant to use the points it takes!
So I'm close to having my first ever 100% complete game, Achievements-wise, on 360. Sure, this one is only a 200 pointer, but still. I did glance at recipes while looking for info on the Scratch/Combo thing, and feel a little guilty cheating, but I'm running out of combination ideas!
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Fed Stardust Typhoon, finally saw Brutus for the first time on a "long" walk, and... that's about it! Talked to Evonna for a bit, idled for a while, then xxskyxx told everyone they needed to go to bed, since apparently Miips and myself were two of the few people on that late!
LEGO Batman (360): Not much, just installed it to the hard drive for playing later, not tonight as it turned out but hopefully later this week!
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Just a few more missions, winning the first of the Laevatein matches and moving us into March. I did unlock a special mission with Noel, which should be pretty cool!
The class tree is definitely a lot more involved than it was in the first game. I've got a couple of my Shocktroopers eligible to advance to either Trooper Veteran or Gunner, and then from each of those two there's another two further upgrades! Crazy. Of course, it hardly tells anything about the advanced classes, so I'm hesitant to use the points it takes!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
September 5th, 2010
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (360): Accidentally booted this one up! Good game, I like it, but that's not what I was going for, was just telling my bro about it prior to hitting up Ultimate Alliance 2 and opened it for some reason without thinking!
Dead Rising: Case 0 (360): I was only playing this till Frank got off the phone, but he promptly lay down on the loveseat and fell asleep. So I stuck with it, and what a way to get me hyped for the Dead Rising 2! I had loved the first, but it's been so long that, while I remember adoring it, the literal feeling was gone, replaced by a vague memory of utilizing just about anything to take out zombies.
What a great reminder Case 0 is! It looks a little more serious in tone than the first, but there's a new ability to combine weapons to make them more deadly, and the graphics are a nice little step up.
Case 0 is pretty thorough for a demo, but the downside is it costs $5 and is treated as an Xbox Live Arcade title, which does make it a little short. Even so, there were survivors to rescue (whoa, they can fight this time around!), tons of items to use, and just some awesome fun.
The first time through I died at the boss, only to learn my last save was from an hour earlier. With my bro asleep, I was left to my single player gaming, so I went ahead and tried again, this time finding a lot more stuff, like survivors, which I hadn't seen any of previously besides the Pawn Shop guy and the guy on the roof. This time I came across Tia, Sharon and Nikki. Sharon needed some Zombrex, which left me short on the one needed for Katey, the main character's daughter, so it was game over once it passed the time needed for her dose. D'oh!
Turns out you can replay the game and your stuff carries over (the max level is 5, but your level and some other things carry over to the full game, sweet!). Armed with both new found knowledge and power, the second time went much smoother. I found Gemini and her hubby, saved the three bachelorette party girls, grabbed the two goofy guys, assembled the bike, and then got the gun guy and his daughter, before taking down the boss and escaping town.
So cool.
I was totally going to run grab the full game on Tuesday, but it turns out it was delayed till the end of the month! D'oh! Looks like I'll be delving back into Case 0 to get my fix and finish things up!
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Not much, fed the neglected, lonely bird, and that's about it! Oh, hey, Windurst dropped to third again, behind San d'Oria, then Bastok.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360): This one dominated most of the day. I forgot how long these games take to open up, because we've barely got a chance to use anybody besides the default characters and the downloaded guys. I had also forgotten how much this had been simplified from the original, for better and for worse.
It is pretty awesome that the download guys aren't just reskins but full on new characters. Juggernaut has his own voicework, moves and size compared to the other bruisers, for example.
Anyway, it was awesome to play four player, with myself, Frank, Abby and Mom. We made it through the first part of the game, juuuuust one short of where we choose pro-registration or anti-registration, having finished the Lucia Von Barda battle on the boat, and we finished the day by doing a TON of trivia - too bad it loops after about forty questions, we're thinking you had to unlock more in the first game and hoping it's the same here.
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Just a few more missions, moving us up to the tournament qualifier match thingy. I really am enjoying this game, it really summons memories of Dreamcast-era Sega, just like it's predecessor.
Dead Rising: Case 0 (360): I was only playing this till Frank got off the phone, but he promptly lay down on the loveseat and fell asleep. So I stuck with it, and what a way to get me hyped for the Dead Rising 2! I had loved the first, but it's been so long that, while I remember adoring it, the literal feeling was gone, replaced by a vague memory of utilizing just about anything to take out zombies.
What a great reminder Case 0 is! It looks a little more serious in tone than the first, but there's a new ability to combine weapons to make them more deadly, and the graphics are a nice little step up.
Case 0 is pretty thorough for a demo, but the downside is it costs $5 and is treated as an Xbox Live Arcade title, which does make it a little short. Even so, there were survivors to rescue (whoa, they can fight this time around!), tons of items to use, and just some awesome fun.
The first time through I died at the boss, only to learn my last save was from an hour earlier. With my bro asleep, I was left to my single player gaming, so I went ahead and tried again, this time finding a lot more stuff, like survivors, which I hadn't seen any of previously besides the Pawn Shop guy and the guy on the roof. This time I came across Tia, Sharon and Nikki. Sharon needed some Zombrex, which left me short on the one needed for Katey, the main character's daughter, so it was game over once it passed the time needed for her dose. D'oh!
Turns out you can replay the game and your stuff carries over (the max level is 5, but your level and some other things carry over to the full game, sweet!). Armed with both new found knowledge and power, the second time went much smoother. I found Gemini and her hubby, saved the three bachelorette party girls, grabbed the two goofy guys, assembled the bike, and then got the gun guy and his daughter, before taking down the boss and escaping town.
So cool.
I was totally going to run grab the full game on Tuesday, but it turns out it was delayed till the end of the month! D'oh! Looks like I'll be delving back into Case 0 to get my fix and finish things up!
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Not much, fed the neglected, lonely bird, and that's about it! Oh, hey, Windurst dropped to third again, behind San d'Oria, then Bastok.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360): This one dominated most of the day. I forgot how long these games take to open up, because we've barely got a chance to use anybody besides the default characters and the downloaded guys. I had also forgotten how much this had been simplified from the original, for better and for worse.
It is pretty awesome that the download guys aren't just reskins but full on new characters. Juggernaut has his own voicework, moves and size compared to the other bruisers, for example.
Anyway, it was awesome to play four player, with myself, Frank, Abby and Mom. We made it through the first part of the game, juuuuust one short of where we choose pro-registration or anti-registration, having finished the Lucia Von Barda battle on the boat, and we finished the day by doing a TON of trivia - too bad it loops after about forty questions, we're thinking you had to unlock more in the first game and hoping it's the same here.
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Just a few more missions, moving us up to the tournament qualifier match thingy. I really am enjoying this game, it really summons memories of Dreamcast-era Sega, just like it's predecessor.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
September 4th, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV (PC): I finally made it into the beta. You know, the open beta that isn't open because applications must be approved, and they keep closing apps for sometimes a day. Of course, stupid me, I couldn't get the installer working, only to see a similar issue on a forum with the solution being "restart." I did last night, and it worked, so it took a few more hours throughout the day to get it going!
Impressions? It's gorgeous, but I think I'll need an upgrade, because I'm only rocking mid-teens in terms of framerate unless I drop the settings all to the lowest. Then I'm hitting early thirties, but it looks a lot worse!
Tam and I palled around a bit, messing with the paltry list of emotes (better than XI's, but still pretty chintzy... I miss PSU, where we had close to triple digits. :/ Did some fighting, and there's no auto-attack, which is weird, but kinda neat because it keeps you active. No death penalty, which is cool, and you seem to run faster than you did by default in XI.
Overall? I'm still pretty stoked for XIV, although I'm really worried about the system requirements and the dread "Fatigue System."
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360): Myself, my bro and my mom all joined up and fired up the game, making some decent progress on the Legendary difficulty mode! Pretty hardcore! We only had about an hour an a half though before Mom's Bleach show came on, but still! A good start, I think we beat the first boss or so!
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Just a little further! One mission in February, slowly but surely!
Impressions? It's gorgeous, but I think I'll need an upgrade, because I'm only rocking mid-teens in terms of framerate unless I drop the settings all to the lowest. Then I'm hitting early thirties, but it looks a lot worse!
Tam and I palled around a bit, messing with the paltry list of emotes (better than XI's, but still pretty chintzy... I miss PSU, where we had close to triple digits. :/ Did some fighting, and there's no auto-attack, which is weird, but kinda neat because it keeps you active. No death penalty, which is cool, and you seem to run faster than you did by default in XI.
Overall? I'm still pretty stoked for XIV, although I'm really worried about the system requirements and the dread "Fatigue System."
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360): Myself, my bro and my mom all joined up and fired up the game, making some decent progress on the Legendary difficulty mode! Pretty hardcore! We only had about an hour an a half though before Mom's Bleach show came on, but still! A good start, I think we beat the first boss or so!
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Just a little further! One mission in February, slowly but surely!
Friday, September 3, 2010
September 3rd, 2010
So I'm finally in the XIV beta! Now I just need to get this installer working... oh, wait, all I needed to do all week was just restart! Ugh, you KNOW that's the first solution, Chuck!
Of course, it's partly SE's fault since I NEVER have to restart anymore after installing something, particularly a game. But Square Enix's has to be Square Enix. :/
Valkyria Chronicles (PSP): Nice progress, all the way up through the January missions to February! While VCII doesn't have that epic sweeping feel yet that VC did, I'm really enjoying it, it definitely keeps up the spirit well!
Favorite cadets so far? Lotte, because she just seems fun, and Noel, because she gives off that laid back, nice girl vibe!
Of course, it's partly SE's fault since I NEVER have to restart anymore after installing something, particularly a game. But Square Enix's has to be Square Enix. :/
Valkyria Chronicles (PSP): Nice progress, all the way up through the January missions to February! While VCII doesn't have that epic sweeping feel yet that VC did, I'm really enjoying it, it definitely keeps up the spirit well!
Favorite cadets so far? Lotte, because she just seems fun, and Noel, because she gives off that laid back, nice girl vibe!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
September 2nd, 2010
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Fed the chocobo, then stood around chatting for a long time with my buddies Aralya and Evonna. That's about it! Only intended to be on long enough to handle the bird, but it's hard to pass up an opportunity to chill with friends!
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Some decent progress! I'm at the academy now, and got to see the new Armored Tech class. It's weird, they carry shields and big hammers to hit guys with, and they pick up mines and repair sandbags while Engineers are more healing focused this time around. But Isara's on of the Armored Techs, so it's awesome to get to directly play her!
Okay, I guess since she was piloting the tank in VC you were technically playing as her, not Welkin, but you know what I mean!
It's also sillier than the first game, very much like a high school comedy-drama anime. Some people are up in arms about this, and while I did prefer the atmosphere of the first, VCII is pretty cute!
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Some decent progress! I'm at the academy now, and got to see the new Armored Tech class. It's weird, they carry shields and big hammers to hit guys with, and they pick up mines and repair sandbags while Engineers are more healing focused this time around. But Isara's on of the Armored Techs, so it's awesome to get to directly play her!
Okay, I guess since she was piloting the tank in VC you were technically playing as her, not Welkin, but you know what I mean!
It's also sillier than the first game, very much like a high school comedy-drama anime. Some people are up in arms about this, and while I did prefer the atmosphere of the first, VCII is pretty cute!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
September 1st, 2010
So it's back! We'll see if it sticks this time, my original lasted closed to three years! I figured today marked both endings and beginnings, endgame of FFXI and the start of XIV, finishing Valkyria Chronicles I and moving on to II. Both series are high on my list and mean a lot to me, so it seemed like a good day to get started again!
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Not too much... DynaDeviants cancelled Dynamis again, I got Clearite killed accidently in Boyahda Tree, did a Level 1 Besieged against the Undead Swarm that took about 30-40 minutes, far more than L1 should, messed up the Tactics Pearl quest and only got my NPC 2900 instead of the max 5800 EXP I could've, and got Stardust Typhoon, my chocobo, to learn the Gallop ability. So I guess it was at least forward movement, even if it was sloppy.
Final Fantasy XIV (PC): Oh, wait, this shouldn't be on here! First off, the installer doesn't want to work with me, second, the open beta (that requires registration and your application to be selected by Square, making it not an open beta) is overloaded and not accepting new entries at this point. Ah well, they're already disappointing me with this Fatigue System crap (and I suppose numerous things since the 32-bit era), so why am I surprised?
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360): Turns out the download heroes (Juggernaut, Magneto, Black Panther, Carnage, Cable and Psylocke) had been re-added to the Marketplace, so in preparation of playing it soon with Frank while he's in town, I snapped them up!
Phantasy Star Portable 2 Trial Edition (PSP): Not much, got it onto the PSP and fired it up long enough to lock in my guild card number! It's pretty high already, like 20k? 2k? Either way, pretty high! I did import Dyne from the first game, and... yeah, I don't see how it imports, it looks NOTHING like Dyne!
Hopefully Lindz is around soon so we can play!
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3): I had started up the sequel and made it a couple missions into it, but it just didn't feel right leaving the original unfinished. After a frustrating battle against the final boss, we won, and finally I could say I had beaten VC.
And the ending was so fitting with the rest of the game, just very sweet and heartwarming. I really need to watch the anime sometime.
The downside? Having unlocked New Game+, it was hard not to keep playing! It was wonderful to see Marina, Nina and Wendy back, my three casualties from the first play through.
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Woohoo, it's finally here, and I even received it the day after it shipped. Unfortunately, I had to buy it from GameStop to get a couple pre-order missions. Regardless, I was ready to play!
Or not, because you can't just play a game anymore. First, I entered the code for my GameStop missions on PS3, then transferred them to the PSP. Then I brought over my VCI save. Then I added in the passwords from the VCII website to unlock various things, including all of Edy's Detachment (whoa, way cool!).
Good to go, so I hit up the Tutorial... only to read online you need to have Phantasy Star Portable 2 data on the memory card BEFORE you started a game in order to get Emilia, and Sega is releasing the two games in reverse order here with PSP2 a few weeks off. So I nabbed a Japanese save and started over... only to learn that information that I needed a save before starting was false.
There's apparently even more stuff you can unlock, mostly characters from VCI and the manga Valkyria: Wish Your Smile, so hopefully all that good stuff gets a US release.
Anyway, the game! Just did the first couple missions, and it feels like Valkyria Chronicles. The graphics are quite a step down, and the areas are now segmented into smaller zones that make up one level, presumably because the PSP couldn't handle the massive, fluid levels of the original. The storyline has a potential to be epic, but right now it is a little high-school drama shoujo-ish. Not a bad thing, just departures from the original.
But serious complaint time: why can't I save in mid-battle on a portable system, when I could on a console? If anything, it should be the other way around!
Hopefully I'll get to sink my teeth deeper into it over the next few days... I do so love VC!
Final Fantasy XI (PC): Not too much... DynaDeviants cancelled Dynamis again, I got Clearite killed accidently in Boyahda Tree, did a Level 1 Besieged against the Undead Swarm that took about 30-40 minutes, far more than L1 should, messed up the Tactics Pearl quest and only got my NPC 2900 instead of the max 5800 EXP I could've, and got Stardust Typhoon, my chocobo, to learn the Gallop ability. So I guess it was at least forward movement, even if it was sloppy.
Final Fantasy XIV (PC): Oh, wait, this shouldn't be on here! First off, the installer doesn't want to work with me, second, the open beta (that requires registration and your application to be selected by Square, making it not an open beta) is overloaded and not accepting new entries at this point. Ah well, they're already disappointing me with this Fatigue System crap (and I suppose numerous things since the 32-bit era), so why am I surprised?
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360): Turns out the download heroes (Juggernaut, Magneto, Black Panther, Carnage, Cable and Psylocke) had been re-added to the Marketplace, so in preparation of playing it soon with Frank while he's in town, I snapped them up!
Phantasy Star Portable 2 Trial Edition (PSP): Not much, got it onto the PSP and fired it up long enough to lock in my guild card number! It's pretty high already, like 20k? 2k? Either way, pretty high! I did import Dyne from the first game, and... yeah, I don't see how it imports, it looks NOTHING like Dyne!
Hopefully Lindz is around soon so we can play!
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3): I had started up the sequel and made it a couple missions into it, but it just didn't feel right leaving the original unfinished. After a frustrating battle against the final boss, we won, and finally I could say I had beaten VC.
And the ending was so fitting with the rest of the game, just very sweet and heartwarming. I really need to watch the anime sometime.
The downside? Having unlocked New Game+, it was hard not to keep playing! It was wonderful to see Marina, Nina and Wendy back, my three casualties from the first play through.
Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP): Woohoo, it's finally here, and I even received it the day after it shipped. Unfortunately, I had to buy it from GameStop to get a couple pre-order missions. Regardless, I was ready to play!
Or not, because you can't just play a game anymore. First, I entered the code for my GameStop missions on PS3, then transferred them to the PSP. Then I brought over my VCI save. Then I added in the passwords from the VCII website to unlock various things, including all of Edy's Detachment (whoa, way cool!).
Good to go, so I hit up the Tutorial... only to read online you need to have Phantasy Star Portable 2 data on the memory card BEFORE you started a game in order to get Emilia, and Sega is releasing the two games in reverse order here with PSP2 a few weeks off. So I nabbed a Japanese save and started over... only to learn that information that I needed a save before starting was false.
There's apparently even more stuff you can unlock, mostly characters from VCI and the manga Valkyria: Wish Your Smile, so hopefully all that good stuff gets a US release.
Anyway, the game! Just did the first couple missions, and it feels like Valkyria Chronicles. The graphics are quite a step down, and the areas are now segmented into smaller zones that make up one level, presumably because the PSP couldn't handle the massive, fluid levels of the original. The storyline has a potential to be epic, but right now it is a little high-school drama shoujo-ish. Not a bad thing, just departures from the original.
But serious complaint time: why can't I save in mid-battle on a portable system, when I could on a console? If anything, it should be the other way around!
Hopefully I'll get to sink my teeth deeper into it over the next few days... I do so love VC!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)