CoinMatze

@SpaceInsomniac: Still, I have a feeling I could have done a better job with the "I"s. Ever since I started giving this writing thing more thought I have this other problem. When I read articles on the internet now it sticks out to me when the author goes out of his way to change around subjects to get some variety into his sentences.

Tenses are still my biggest problem. Most of the time I feel like I'm just shooting in the dark. And fucking commas, how do they work?

So, any thoughts on that ScummVM series idea?

@LethalKi11ler: Glad you liked it. I was a bit worried that people would read it and think that I'm a self-important douchebag who's just out for some backhand bragging about his Bastion rank. Which might or might not be true. Also, I gut bumped to rank 51 :(

@AlisterCat: I think the eloquentedness is a bi-product of learning a second language. Somewhere between school-taught English and reading books, I can't really get a feeling for what's casual and what's not. I noticed that non-natives make less your/you're, there/they're/their mistakes because they view it less as a sound and more like a sequence of letters. I have been thinking a lot about this stuff. Maybe my OCD is not just gaming related.

Ack! I actually read that instead of just posting something stupid fast. What is wrong with me. :( Yeah, yeah, that's a tempting price. I still need Layton vs. Phoenix Wright before I buy one.

I got nothing to show for it. Going into that last mission I feared something like this would happen. "Proper story's supposed to start at the beginning."

I bought Bastion just three days ago. I actually wanted to buy it on release but I'm a little short on cash since our wedding. Reading all the good stuff about it I decided to fuck that and just do it. It didn't grip me at first but it grew on me more and more and I even cried a little at the end there. Well, yeah ok, actually I cried a lot. Whatever! My first playthrough ended with 3 Idols turned on. I looked at the leaderboards and there wasn't really anything worth mentioning happening there. Rank 4000something on all the Who Knows Wheres and maybe 10.000 on the Story Leaderboard. Didn't bother me. I don't play games for competition. Mostly, because I'm not good at them. Does it even mean anything for a game like Bastion?

But I'm a completionist. I have this horrible gaming OCD. I had to do a New Game+ to get the last two Achievements. And get to level 10. And upgrade all the weapons. And at least try to do the Who Knows Wheres with all Idols on.

My second playthrough started simple. I just played the game with whatever was there. For my first upgrade I built a forge followed by an arsenal and a distillery. Then I hit Pyth Orchard where you first encounter a shrine. Actually, on a New Game+ you could decide to build it as one of your first buildings but pssshhh why would I want to do that? So, the shrine...

I read through all of the Idols' descriptions carefully just to see what I would be up against during the challenges. The sloth and the invincibility ones really turned me off. So I turned them on for no reason. "Think the gods are gonna help?" That's a weird thing to say when praying to them makes the game harder. I managed to finish the level on the new difficulty I had set and left it that way. Half-way through the game I forgot they were even there. This was the game now. I enjoyed it. I took the other option on both choices at the end and looked at the leaderboards after the credits. July 27th, 4:00 am CET, rank 42 with a score of 868. I can do better.

My third playthrough started simple. It was too easy now. I built a shrine as my first upgrade, turned all idols on, cleared the bow challenge to make sure that it saved and turned the game off. I didn't want to rush it. Later that day I saw that I got bumped to 47th place. I needed to get it done to secure a better ranking. There was nothing I hadn't done before. Just a few of those earlier levels with all dem idols and then whatever I did on that second time. And there I was doing the exact same thing I had done 24 hours before albeit with more pauses to not kill my enjoyment.

On my second run I noticed that the game updates your score while you play, not at the end. So before going into the last mission on my 10 Idol run I checked the leaderboard to bask in the glory of my beautiful, shiny new rank 50, score 868. Hm, maybe you get a whole bunch of them at the end. I even did the Who Knows Wheres again just to be sure. I picked the story choices from my first playthrough because I like that ending better. Maybe that had something to do with it...

And here I am. Struggling for an hour now to write just one page in the English language about nothing. Hopefully, I'm still rank 50 as I'm typing this. It's about to change soon enough. I don't know what counts toward the score but I wasn't doing it. I still love the game. Wouldn't have done this otherwise. I enjoyed every second of it and actually think it's funny. I just wish I had more to show for my third run. In the words of the narrator: "Third time's a charm, right? Wrong!"

As you can probably guess I'm not a native speaker of the English language. I figured the site I spend the most time on would be the best place to get a little practice in. So please critique away. I start a lot of sentences with "I" and I hate that. I need a lot of help with tenses and punctuation. I always wanted to write a series about old adventure games, especially those running on ScummVM. But there are already so many retro reviews out there. Anyway, I'd appreciate if someone wrote something producitve. Or not. I shouldn't even post this to the forums.

I found mortar to be the best weapon on Zulf's dream. You can cheese the whole thing by just standing behind the pillar in the lower left corner. Uras with guns will just hit the pillar while you kill them with the mortar. Also, enemies need to be a certain range to notice you. Standing behind the pillar, I usually just had to deal with three or four enemies and after killing them I inched my way forward to draw more in.

CK is the CK of video games.

@RoyCampbell: I was 42nd on the Story leaderboards this morning after my second playthrough. Now I'm 47th. First thing I built on my third was a shrine and I'm doing it. I usually don't go for points in games but this one, man. This fucking game.

@Dante87 said:

Enter the Matrix. Since then I've made it a high priority to stay informed on all video games.

Wow, so weird. I was going to write the exact same thing. I mean letter for letter the same thing.

I'm doing a 10 idol run right now and those peckers are pricks.

@Illmatic said:

Chose the Restoration option. Didn't want to move on partly because I was hoping I could change the events some how in a second playthrough...essentially an entirely new game the second time around. Stupid thinking now that I think back on it but at least it fits the logic of a New Game +. On another note, anyone else get a bit choked up while carrying Zulf through the Ura hideout while getting attacked. I'm not talking tears here, but it did touch me a little bit......or maybe I'm just a sissy pansy.

I'm man enough to admit that I'm a sissy pansy and cried. That scene must have hit something weird in my brain. The music, slow walking speed, then they start firing arrows at you... Especially that music. I've been listening to it all day and it still gets me all teary-eyed. When my wife came out of the bath and suddenly found me crying on the couch, she thought my mother died.

@Jams said:

I contribute absolutely nothing to this thread by quoting some one and typing...

this.