Hello and welcome back to something I've been procrastinating for about what the title says. I apologize, mostly because everything I was playing or getting myself into hasn't been too interesting to write about or share, but this week is different! In this edition of writing about Video Games, I take a quick visit into Grimrock, and say my final farewells to The Binding of Isaac, while somewhere in the middle of that talk about how I just got on the "I played Shadow of the Colossus" bandwagon. So without further explaining the gameplan in the intro let's get to it!

Legend of Grimrock, OR The Adventures of Manish Man the Minotaur

So during the Steam Summer Sales I was actually very uninterested in many of the deals. You see I don't tend to go off the handle like some people I know if I just happen to see Crysis 2 for 75% off, or some horse breeding game that happens to be a dollar. I tend to usually only buy up games I actually plan on playing at some point in time. I missed the first 60% off of Grimrock, and made my mind up too late on agreeing I'd buy it at $6. Lucky for me the Community agreed and voted it during the community choice, so without skipping a beat I went ahead and purchased it. So as you know from the Quick Look, Grimrock is one of those first person dungeon crawling RPGs that don't show up very often nowadays. You and three other prisoners that you also customize try to escape the labyrinth that is Grimrock, or I assume that is what you're trying to do. Along the way you're ambushed by monsters and forced to outsmart the deadly traps and puzzles to reach your goals. So in a very Adventure Time-y fashion like I did in Dragon's Dogma, I made my leading character a Minotaur and dubbed him "Manish Man". I have no idea why this children's show has effected my character creations as of late, but I won't question it. Unfortunately in my stupor I forgot to name the other three amigos in my band of merry men and are now stuck with "The Adventures of Manish Man and the Three New Prisoners". I'll just pretend they aren't as important.

So I am actually currently up to the part seen in the Quick Look and are having a complete blast with what has been thrown at me so far. Even though I had early issues like "Oh man why do I have this Lizardman Rogue he can't even hit anything back there" and "How do I cast my goddamn spells with this archaic calculator". Once eventually got around to figuring out both problems everything has been going alot smoother, but I have to say I haven't been stuck on a game for a whole day like this one in a long time. Due to the game never telling me I could actually fit items through gates made me feel like a complete fool, but every time I tried doing it prior I wasn't able to do it. What, was Toorum too busy with escaping he couldn't leave a note behind to help out? Whatevs man, I'll figure out the rest for myself. So yeah, only four hours into it, and looking forward to getting deeper into it. Legends of Grimrock has been worth every dollar, all six of them.

Shadow of the Colossus

Yeah, it's Summer, so I found it necessary to get onto that back catalog of games I needed to play from last year. It just so happened the ICO collection happened to be VERY available, and due to me actually watching some Shadow of the Colossus online via stream or random Youtube Let's Play, it was time. I booted it up, watched the intro, got on my horse, and then began to learn how to ride this horse. This game is one gigantic learning experience, one might even say a COLOSSAL one. Even having gotten 15 Colossi deep I still can't control this motherfucker correctly. Regardless, once I got a "grip" on how to control this beast I made my way to the first Colossus in order to stab him in his weak spot. I have no idea if this is what is intended for most people when they play it the first time, or if it was just me being rarely inept at a video game, I couldn't for the life of me control this game correctly. Holding R1 to stay gripped to things, jumping with Triangle, X not really doing anything with the sword out except for that one Colossi so far, the d-pad I didn't even realized cycled to your bow. Every Colossi up until maybe the fourth one caught me with my pants down. Video Games have not done this to me in forever, and I felt ashamed, but somehow in a good way. For once, a game was mixing stuff up, it wasn't straight forward from the get-go. Like I've said, this game is quite the learning experience, and so far even though the whole point has been "Stab their weak spot" each one has had a different way of going about it. Every time I start up this game I just have a hard time believing this game existed on the PS2, even though it's graphically not there it's somehow not feasible to me that this game was not on a current generation console to begin with.

So far out of the 15 Colossi I have encountered my favorites have been The Underwater and Sand Dune Colossi. I was just amazed at the sheer scale of both of the fights, hanging on to dear life while he whizzes through the water like a Torpedo, or running away on horseback while trying to shoot it's eye out. The Colossi and their respected environments make for great battles and set pieces. I do not regret holding out this long to try out one of the great games of that 05' lineup, because the way this has been set up for me, it was a game I just needed to play as of this week. Hopefully soon The Last Guardian will see the light of day, but until then I still have Shadow of the Colossus, and even after that ICO. (If ICO is anything like SotC though, I'm not looking forward to rewiring my brain to learn how to control that game... ugh)

The End of The Binding of Isaac

To anyone who has been paying attention to my achievements, you might have noticed I have ascended into the Pantheon. I am a Platinum God, and it feels good. Throughout the month of July I was absolutely hooked into 100% this game, from playing everyday to watching dudes stream it it pick up more pro strats, the deed had been finally done, as I made my final descent into Hell with Maggy to end it all. This was one of my favorite games of 2011 and I wanted to prove it by doing every little thing. Collecting all of the items, doing all of the challenges (even the insane Purist one), and clearing the Chest with the whole cast. I can finally move on, and retire Isaac for good. As I made my last run with Maggy into Sheol, the last thing I supposedly needed to do, I stumbled across Epic Fetus in the basement. The game showing one act of humility to me, as if it were a message to me saying "You've paid your dues". It wasn't some reluctant handshake and swift boot out the door, it wasn't some cruel joke to get me killed and force me into run after run with Maggy. It was a graceful finish that Isaac wanted, and I delivered it.

I'll miss this game, and its antics. I'll miss doing all the pro strategies like abusing Eve's invincibility frames, using The Chariot card to get a free item out of the sacrifice rooms. It was a hell of a ride. Thank You Isaac, and thank you Edmund, my friends and I have cursed your name in disgust to the bullshit many times, but without all of that, we wouldn't have had half the fun we had in the basements.

The End!(?)

Well that about sums up what happened for this week, and even then two out of the three games I have started are not done yet. Again I apologize to myself and anyone, I totally wanted to make this a weekly thing, but sometimes interesting things do not happen or inspire me to recap an adventure in a blog on the internet. So hopefully starting this week I can get back into the swing of things and write up more stuff, but for now:

SEE YOU GUYS LATER.