Today’s a very special day (no, not St. Patrick’s Day). But first I need to write about a game I’ve been playing recently, because that’s what you all come to this blog for, right? Video games!

GAMES!!!!

Holy shit…

Those words, as well as other expletives kept going through my head as I spent a huge chunk of last weekend playing Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. I played the first game, intrigued on the concept of personifications of consoles and the game industry. It’s referential, sure, but at least it was stuff that I could recognize almost all the time. Except for the part where the game played like garbage, and when I hit a wall that would have forced me to go back and grind some more or rethink my strategies for the party, I stopped playing. Not even the stuff surrounding the game could convince me to keep going. A year later, similar to how I discovered the first game was coming stateside, I learned just weeks before (thanks to Pixel Prinny) that the sequel was comin. Two crazy things about it: 1) The game almost slipped past me in the same sort of way, and 2) a goddamn sequel to Hyperdimension Neptunia was made. With expectations set to be disappointed on the gameplay side once again, I put the game on my Gamefly Q and waited for it to arrive. I received it at the start of March, and waited to start playing once my parents were gone on vacation because then I would have the PS3 to myself.

So guess what? It’s Hyperdimension Neptunia, but way better. Not so much that it will change the minds of people who weren’t down with the concept from the start, but for someone like me who was severely disappointed by the first game, any sort of improvement was welcome that I didn’t care if it wasn’t the best it possibly could. Now I’m probably gonna sound like I’m out of my frickin’ mind, but this game MIGHT be an early GOTY contender for me(?) At the very least it will get some sort of mention at the end of the year.

So the first thing I see after starting a new game? FMV of a Japanese guy giving a health warning and telling me to play it in a proper environment or whatever and enjoy the game. And then you get a trophy, further proving yet again that Japan doesn’t care about Achievements or Trophies. Alright game, you got me. Then I’m presented with a few CG images, which the game then gives me more trophies for. Wow, 3 already and I haven’t played the damn thing yet. There’s a few cutscenes, the CPUs are held in bondage (possibly one of the reasons for the game being rated M, but not likely), and framerate is all over the place. What follows for the next hour is control of Neptune’s sister, Nepgear, who is much more mature than her older sibling yet horribly self conscious of her lack of power, similar to several other stereotypical JRPG protagonists. Very much in contrast to her sister, who is carefree and has the mental capacity of a 6 year old. Eventually Nepgear’s reluctance gets resolved (most of it) when she activates here Hard Drive Divinity and starts kicking more ass. The game continues to open up, and proves to be a fairly decent JRPG. Not the greatest, but it might as well be by the last game’s standards.

The thing that had me confused for a while was the story. I did not realize until researching afterwards that the game is in an alternate storyline from the first one, which makes sense now because I recognized characters like Gust and Nisa, yet the rest of the main cast did not. It’s both good and bad, in the way it’s conveyed. IF and Compa know each other like they had been around for a while, like when they join up with Neptune in the first game. The good thing about it though is that I did not have to finish Neptunia in order to get everything in this game. Besides the roles of previous characters being reset, there are new characters such as the CPU candidates, who are handheld representations of the main CPUs. Hence why there isn’t one in Leanbox, the game’s representation of the Xbox 360. Other new characters are the oracles of the nations’ bascilicoms, not counting Histoire who was already in the first game. Throughout the game the main cast is constantly running into Underling (and later Pirachu. No, that is not a typo.) who has as much persistence and annoyance as something like Team Rocket.

A lot of crazy stuff happens during the course of the game, and there are…moments in the game that made me especially glad I was the only one at home to witness them. As I was playing I was still wondering how the hell this game got a higher ESRB rating than the first, and after one particular instance, I kind a raised an eyebrow. Heck, there were probably two, but the second one had me kind of shocked. Even Underling herself acknowledges that the whole thing is kind of fucked up. I’m not even gonna describe it, but I’ll leave it at this: Gamindustri has to have some form of Megan’s Law if this shit is happening. The other instance that came to mind I actually laughed a bit, which may or may not make me a horrible person. Again, it’s stuff that unless you were on board with Neptunia’s weirdness, this won’t change anything for you. Heck, it’ll probably turn you off even more.

The game reference stuff in the humor has been expanded on. In the last game, a lot of the jokes were just in the text. Now there’s a lot more visual stuff, specifically the enemies, that really straddle the line between what’s legal and what’s infringing on copyright. The thing with Pirachu’s name is an obvious one, but there are several others such as Clyde (One of the ghosts from Pac Man) and Ms. Clyde (with a bow in her hair. Need I say more?) Then there’s a bunch of Space Invader enemy rip-offs, each ending with the word “vader” in their name. There’s also a red plant with teeth called Piranha Flower. Besides the visual stuff, there are plenty of jokes and references to games and game development ideas in quest descriptions. Also, there’s a city (that you can’t go to BTW) on the world map that is just called Midgard. Obviously the name is from Norse mythology, but the most immediate reference is Midgar. I’ll admit, for a minute I thought they did straight up take the name from FFVII, but then there’s the question of whether the extra “d” at the end was intentional or not.

Of course, most of what I talked about already just has to do with the humor and the setting and characters. What about the game part of it? Well, like I already said, huge improvement to the game in many areas. There are no more random encounters, which is a big plus for me as I can’t stand them, even if I try to play an old game that has them in a vacuum. The battle system is better, allowing you to select which items you want to use, instead of setting a percentage to them on a party member and pray to God they use it when necessary. You don’t have to wait for the landmasses to come in range and go through a mini dungeon to reach the next one. The quest system works well as you can potentially knock out several at once as you go along the main questline, and then return to town to rake in the rewards. A lot of it is way more playable and kind of fun, even if it still is not the best JRPG made, or at least one of the best. Only gameplay problem that still persists is the framerate. Sometimes it will be smooth, but a lot of the time it’s very choppy and slow.

The other problem that still persists is the presentation and production values. As much as I enjoy the bizarre nature of Neptunia, the problem is…well, you know how people criticize some handheld games for being too much like a console game and questioning why it’s on the platform that it is? I’m having that same issue but in reverse. I’m used now to the fact that the game’s dialogue and story bits are predominately told in a visual novel style, but for a game that’s a PS3 exclusive, one that I’m playing off of a blu-ray disc, I kind of expect more, especially for an RPG. If it was a PSP game I would probably be more forgiving. Heck, making it a PSP game would have made a WHOLE lot more sense since the main character is a handheld representation, so there you go.

Oh, and very late in the game some of the bosses start using one hit kills that makes things kind of annoying, and forces you to play way too conservatively, spending more time healing than attacking. In fact, I’ve stopped playing the game now because of that, and I’m actually really close to finishing it. I’m just not finding much motivation to go through those battles. Plus I wanna make sure I get Kid Icarus Uprising next.

Despite that, I’ve definitely enjoyed what I’ve played of the game. The game play is better, the story and humor is crazy, sometimes fucked up, it’s a whole lot better. And that’s all I can think of to say about this game. I’ve exhausted as much as I can.

Oh wait, there’s a scene in the game that’s at a concert where a guy shouts something like “Nepgear is going to be my waifu,” which is probably either the best worst line in the game or the straight up worst line in the game. Either way, it’s still horrible, but that’s kind of the point, I guess? I don’t know. I’m sure the localization team just had a field day with this game.

Wait, nevermind, ONE MORE THING (this time for real). The event you go through to get Inafune as a power for Nepgear in the game is hilarious, and so is the attack. My only disappointment is that he isn’t an actual weapon you equip on at all times. That would have been way more hilarious.

Alright, NOW I’m done.

And the Rest

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

Just on a whim Sunday afternoon I got out my stick and did a quick arcade run in VF4. Picked Kagemaru, went through all the opponents, and I beat Dural. This is the second time it’s happened for me, just playing the game, not trying to accomplish anything specific, and I beat the final boss that has beat the crap out of me countless times in both VF4 and 5. I guess that’s the key to my success, is to not have a specific plan. Just play.

The Witcher

I had not played the game since Finals happened last week, and Neptunia mk2 ate up most of my weekend. Got some time in on Sunday, made a little more progress in Chapter 2. That old woman in Shani’s house gave me a lot of trouble. Took me atleast a dozen times of going in and out of the house to try and trigger the right conversation with the hag. Went from a drinking contest, to her constantly telling me to make myself at home, to asking for a gift, to finally me giving her money, and I could FINALLY see Shani. And she agrees, that lady made things hell.

Things Other Than Games

I don’t have much to say here. Fourth quarter has started, a bunch of stuff for the seniors is going on leading up the graduation, none of which I have any desire to be in. I just want out of here now. Anyway, enough of that. Now for what’s important on this day…

Toonami's 15th

March 17, 1997. The day that the revolution was televised. As of today, it’s been fifteen years since Toonami first came on the air. For me, this is kind of a big deal.

Toonami was the shit.

It was a big part of my childhood, to say the least. It was the thing that made Cartoon Network a channel worth watching, as I didn’t really find any of the other shows that interesting to me. It introduced me to anime, even when I didn’t know what it actually was. The shows they aired, while edited in spots, were really good picks, and it was all wrapped around a really sweet design and atmosphere. The two things that made Toonami amazing were the shows, and the presentation. Especially the latter. Moltar was fine and all, but the block really got my attention when they introduced TOM and the Absolution (one of the coolest ship designs I can still think of in my mind). For a fictional character, TOM was a really cool host. He was sardonic, gave some sage-like advice, and (with the exception of TOM 1) voiced by Steven Blum. Not to mention the voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen, would narrate for some of the promos. It’s the stuff that no one is really being required to do for presenting a block on a TV channel, but they went the extra mile with that stuff, and I am grateful that they did.

My memories of the shows they aired, unfortunately, are a bit foggy. Dragon Ball Z is a pretty obvious one to remember since they aired it all the time. Shows in the Gundam franchise were fantastic as well, G Gundam being the one I saw the most of. Tenchi Muyo, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Fucking Reboot, a lot of good stuff. Some stuff I skipped over, like Sailor Moon, with the exception of one episode that I did not pay attention to the details of other than waiting for the good shows to come.

Man, just thinking about it warms my heart. So as I post this entry I am currently watching a lot shows that aired on Toonami. It includes shows that I saw and enjoyed, it includes ones I didn’t know were on there to begin with (like Ronin Warriors, or Blue Sub No. 6), and some shows that I skipped before for various reasons. Here’s the list I’ve put together:

Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Z

Sailor Moon

Reboot

Gundam Wing

Robotech

Ronin Warriors

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki

Tenchi Universe

Tenchi in Tokyo

Cardcaptor Sakura

Outlaw Star

Blue Submarine No. 6

The Big O

Mobile Suit Gundam

Gundam 08 MS Team

Zoid Chaotic Century

Zoids New Century Zero

G Gundam

Yu Yu Hakusho

Rurouni Kenshin

Gundam SEED

Samurai Jack

Rave Master

Megas XLR

Dragon Ball GT

So yeah, that’s a lengthy list, and how do I expect to get through them all in a single day? The answer: I don’t. I’m going to marathon as much of this stuff as I can, and then after that I’ll continue to watch a couple episodes of a few shows each day. It’ll mostly be the Dragon Ball stuff every day with the other shows on top of that, since they don’t run as long. And yes, I did put Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura on there. Sailor Moon I decided I would give a chance only because a friend of mine whose doing something similar watched it and enjoyed it, so I figured I’ll try watching it as a show that’s of good quality, regardless of its intended audience. Same goes for Cardcaptor Sakura.

Most of these I’m watching on sites that have the episodes available for streaming, with the exception of Reboot and Yu Yu Hakusho. I got the definitive mainframe edition of Reboot for Christmas, and I got all the episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho on DVD, courtesy of said friend that’s doing this similar thing.

It’s gonna be crazy for sure. Since I have the house all to myself, no one’s gonna mind I have this stuff going on into the early hours of Sunday morning, or whenever it is I pass out from exhaustion.

I love Toonami…

In Conclusion

So that's it. A big ass write up on a niche JRPG and me reminiscing about the greatest action cartoon block of all time. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Stay gold.

Sorry for skipping last week. That now makes two, I guess. But hey, I now have two games that I have a lot to talk about instead of just one. And as for what prevented me from posting last week, you’ll see later.

GAMES!!!!

It’s good to go back through some of your backlog once in a while. Especially for me, since I now have a widescreen monitor and want to see how much better the games I already own look now. So I decided to replay Bioshock, and to give a quick summary, I am glad I played it years ago as enjoyed it a whole lot back then. Because replaying it now, especially after finishing System Shock, it doesn’t feel very special anymore.

The idea of Bioshock being a spiritual successor to the System Shock games is only really true from a thematic standpoint. The method of progression and delivering story is similar, with audio logs of deceased people filling in details on the place you are in. And that’s it. When it comes to gameplay, I’d much rather play System Shock.

There are some moments in the game that are really great, but they’re more or less just story delivery mechanisms than actual great moments of gameplay. The opening minutes of the game are very strong, and the big twist that happens late in the game is still genius. I’m glad to have seen that moment without being spoiled at all beforehand, especially when I’ve spoiled myself on other major moments in games (the SHODAN reveal in SS2 is pretty much devoid of surprise now what with people having talked about it for years after that game). And it’s a real shame that the rest of the game goes kind of downhill after that moment passes.

If there’s one thing that System Shock has given me a reason to want out of System Shock is the seamlessness of the UI mixed with the action. Both games didn’t take you to menus that completely took you out of the game. The hacking minigame was in a corner window while the rest of the game world kept going. It feels efficient being able to move forward while still going through a couple of small menus to bring up an audio log or other important item. Never mind the combat in Bioshock, since I kind of don’t mind because of how faster it feels compared to other shooters and beating splicers with a wrench feels way more satisfying than Gordon Freeman and his crowbar. Probably because they twirl around in the air quickly that I find it more amusing than falling over limp. But yes, other than being the only one alive and finding audio logs to fill in the story, I find the UI of System Shock 1, and by extension SS2, to be another part of the core “Shock” experience.

Not to say I still don’t like this game after replaying it. The opening minutes and the plot twist are still great and well done, but my personal favorite level in the game is probably Fort Frolic. I always appreciate when a game has a quiet moment that distances you from the action, because it keeps me engaged in the game without thinking about turning it off and taking a break. Fort Frolic isn’t exactly devoid of action, but it distances you from the main conflict between Atlas and Ryan and puts a whole lot of focus on one of the few living, yet still psychopathic, residents of Rapture. In this case, it’s Sander Cohen. The fact that he does not attempt to murder you after doing everything he wants makes you kind of appreciate him. Which is hard to say, especially for someone who likes to pose corpses and coat them in plaster. I even got to visit his apartment, although that encounter wasn’t pleasant. Should not have messed with that record player.

I’ve already talked about System Shock, and now I’ve given my impressions of Bioshock after experiencing its spiritual predecessor. There are things in the game worth playing it for, but it’s more for a crazy world and setting than anything actually involving gameplay. In that regard, I would suggest finding a copy of either System Shock games. Still, if you want to experience the games in order of “quality getting better after each one you play,” starting with Bioshock is the best way to go. You’ll be less disappointed, I think.

So hey, the Witcher. That’s been around for a while. And during the Steam holiday sale, I got 50% coupon for it, and when Steam sent me a reminder to use it before it expired, I took action and bought the Witcher for 5 bucks. The rest of those coupons I got I didn’t really need.

Anyway, the game. Guess what, I really like it. But you could probably guess that since I wouldn’t want to write about bad games on this blog. In all seriousness, this is a pretty good RPG. The gameplay is decent, with the combat being one of my favorite things, but the world itself is magnificent. Everyone and everything is morally compromised, nothing being clear black and white. Although by my standards, I’d say just about everyone I’ve seen so far is dark, dark grey, borderline black, because man, there are so many scumbags.

But before I get into that, I wanna bring up some things about the gameplay. I’ve been playing this game with the OTS camera setting instead of the high or low isometric view. Since I’ve had experience playing KOTOR on PC, which felt awkward the first time, playing the Witcher how I am now feels oddly natural. The action is real time, but the RPG mechanics prevail, as you click on enemies to send Geralt into his attack animation. The thing that I like in particular about the combat is how there are options to not make the thing feel boring. You have certain weapons equipped on you at all times, and those weapons (specifically the steel and silver swords) are useful in various situations, and on top of that those two weapons have three combat stances. And then as you’re attacking, you can click again with the right timing to string together a combo of powerful attack. All that, plus some other moves you can pull off.

I’m playing on the easy difficulty, as is the usual for me, so most encounters don’t provide me much trouble, but I like the idea of preparing certain weapons and stances for the right situation, versus just getting more powerful equipment to the point that you steamroll everything. Which I still find myself doing, since it’s on the easy difficulty, but hey, I see how useful these combat mechanics end up being. Most other stuff outside of the combat isn’t quite as interesting. Many of the Witcher jobs (from what I’ve seen in the first chapter) are simple “kill the monster” gigs, but given the Witcher’s job as a monster hunter, I’m able to excuse those quests being there. And then there’s the alchemy, which I have not done anything with past that part in the prologue where the game teaches you a bit about the alchemy system. Also, easy difficulty doesn’t require you to make use of the system, so I’m not really going to see how well it plays out unless I do a new play through on a higher difficulty setting.

Anyway, let’s switch over to the thing that I find most amazing and infuriating (in a good way) about the game, and that is the world. The Outskirts of Vizima in Chapter 1 does an outstanding job of establishing the prejudices and straight up dickishness of the inhabitants of the world. The finale of that chapter in particular got to me personally for an odd reason, but that’s what makes it so good is that with Geralt as my avatar, so to speak, I am able to live out the fantasy of annihilating stubborn, short sighted morons who, after killing the beast and doing them a service, still try to kill me. Ungrateful pricks. But that chapter was really enjoyable. I kind of got to know some of the people that I helped out, and became fairly accustomed to the layout of the outskirts. There was a mystery going on that I was involved in solving, which ended in tragedy for the peasants.

And then I get thrown in jail upon approaching Vizima with the necessary papers to enter. Horrible people.

So right now I’m in the middle of chapter 2, still doing quests and running into scumbugs. I’m having fun with this game so far, so there’s no reason for me to not keep going. Well, unless I have a bunch of other games that steal my attention away, but you get the idea.

And the Rest

Katawa Shoujo

Enough time had passed that I figured it was time to start replaying Katawa Shoujo. On my first playthrough I (inadvertently) went through Rin’s storyline, which I found mostly enjoyable, with some parts in the middle being frustrating. Now I’ve been going after Lilly. And once I’m done with Lilly’s storyline, then I’ll see Emi’s, Hanako’s, and lastly Shizune’s. Given how much time I spent away from Katawa Shoujo after finishing it the first time, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m talking about it again several months later.

Things Other Than Games

Man, where do I start? These last couple of weeks has been pretty rough. Well, the reason I did not have a blog last week is because I had a project I was working on for Physics. As it turned out, I kept thinking the due date was the Monday the 5, not Friday the 2. Once I heard that on Monday of that week I had to drop everything else I had afterschool (basically, a whole lot of free time) and double down on finishing it. It was frustrating with things not working as I wanted and running out of supplies. Once the thing was turned in I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I haven’t even checked what grade I got on it because I’m still incensed thinking about it.

So no time to play games last week meant no writing about them. Anyway, with that horrible week done, finals took place soon after. And after I finished those, my parents left to go on vacation for two weeks, leaving the house all to myself. Well, my sister is still here, but she’s always out doing stuff, and she’ll be going to a friend’s wedding in Arizona in a few days, so then I will absolutely be the only one in the house. That means no distractions whatsoever. And while I bet most parents would worry that their kids would do irresponsible shit while they were gone, there’s no difference in what I do when my parents are or aren’t here. They’ve got nothing to worry about with me.

In Conclusion

Well, that’s it. Thanks for reading, and all that stuff.

Peace.

Oh yeah, that's right. Next week is the 17th of March, so expect something a little different in the next entry. There will still be games, though.

Occasionally, when trying to figure out what I want to write about next, I’ll just play something at random and end up going through it all the way and then decide to make that my next game I write about. This past weekend I had one of those moments.

GAMES!!!!

I actually wrote about this on my blog before, back in September of last year. However when I played it then I was just messing around with it, not really focusing on trying to beat it. After listening to a series of interviews with people who previously worked at Looking Glass and watching videos of System Shock 2, I felt like giving this game another try one Saturday afternoon. After actually reading the reference card for the controls and using a special DOSBox config for the game, I started playing…and kept playing…after getting to the Executive Level, I realized I might actually beat the game. And sure enough, I did.

The whole thing became way more engaging as I got deeper in, upgrading my software and finding the audio logs. It’s kind of crazy that it took me this long to beat System Shock considering I already had it on my computer for a while. The game was not scary or anything, really, except for the moments when SHODAN’s face would just show up in the corner of your screen, along with what she has to say. Not exactly scary (maybe a bit unnerving, seeing this green pixilated face staring at you), but startling to the point where I didn’t have my headphones on all the time. I don’t know, it’s a weird problem of mine, and even when you’re playing the game with every difficulty setting at zero, including story, her face still shows up.

Besides that weird problem of mine, everything else about the game is brilliant. Again, reading that reference card, and seeing that the controls aren’t that different from the default controls in Thief, I got a quick handle on moving around. The UI though is the most interesting part of System Shock. Other than pressing escape to pause the game, none of the other functions on your HUD takes you out of the game. Stuff still goes on around you when you’re listening to audio logs, inputting keypad codes, hacking, or even playing games. Yes, you can play video games inside of System Shock, albeit relatively simple ones. Still a nice distraction within the game.

Another interesting thing during my time with this game was listening to those podcasts I mentioned at the beginning of this section. It brought some really neat insight to the creation of System Shock and made me appreciate the design a whole lot more. The idea of SHODAN being a metaphor for the game designer, creating challenges and traps for the player that might seem unfair, and everyone being dead on Citadel Station as a solution to characters not reacting properly to everything in the Ultima Underworld games. Really fascinating stuff.

Also, drugs make you better at video games in System Shock. No joke.

The game got better and better as I kept playing, to the point I was fully absorbed when you’re given approval to blow up the station. Rushing from the reactor to the flight deck to take an escape pod, only to be thwarted by SHODAN. Then it’s up the bridge and the whole time you can feel the station shake and rumble as it’s about to blow. You reach the bridge, SHODAN’s domain, and you go into cyberspace to face off against her. The battle itself is pretty interesting, as you gotta destroy her before your screen turns into her face and you lose. Compared to something like Bioshock, System Shock ends with a pretty awesome third act. Also, there’s a long ladder you have to climb on the security level which I’m sure would later inspire other long ladder climbing scenes in games like MGS3.

After just fumbling around with this game for almost a year I’m amazed I even got myself to go through it all. The design is obviously supposed to be a refined or modified version of the Ultima Underworld type of gameplay, but because people are familiar with Bioshock and System Shock 2 that it’s easy to grasp how progression through the game works. You just have to adjust yourself to controls that are different from what is the standard today.

And the Rest

Tekken 3D Prime Edition

I’ve already played SSFIV 3D and DOA Dimensions, so I figured I would try out Tekken 3D as well. Unfortunately, the game was quite disappointing. A huge lack of modes, with the only value I got out of it being Tekken Blood Vengeance, which I enjoyed for its stupidity (and because I have some interest in the universe and characters).

Things Other Than Games

Not much of interest going on here. I keep forgetting to get caught up on episodes of Persona 4 the Animation. I got to skip most of school on Friday to watch demonstrations from engineering majors at a college here in town. Normally I would not go on field trips on any kind, but since my physics class is really small, and filled with people I find very tolerable, I figured it would be alright this time. Also, there was pizza for lunch, which was actually the main thing that convinced me to go on that trip. The demonstrations were interesting.

In Conclusion

Another blog finished, most of which was written just hours before posting. I really need to stop holding this off to the last minute, feel like it’s a bad habit.

Peace.

Pray to God that this does not read like it was horribly rushed due to being sick last weekend.

So I mentioned last week that a friend of mine lent me a PSP with a copy of Shin Megami Tensei Persona. I would have hoped to have played a lot more than I already have by now, but part of it was due to me starting a new game for a few hours since I messed up the steps necessary to get a specific party member later in the game. Another factor was real life getting in the way of things. Whatever, point is, I’ve been playing Persona for the PSP, and I think I’ve already played enough hours that I can write something more in depth.

So yeah, it’s a Persona game, but barely anything like what most people recognize as a Persona game. This is before Persona 3, and based on what I’ve read and seen, resembles a lot more like the main Shin Megami Tensei games. There’s first person dungeon crawling, there are conversations with demons, there are random battles, and extending from that, there are situations where the game kicks your ass just by bad, dumb luck. Like getting attacked from behind, which you have no way of really avoiding since it is all random encounters.

I emphasize that point in particular because that is exactly what happened to me when I last played the game, which was Thursday night. About 5-6 hours into my current game, I was getting into battles with some pretty high level demons that I’ve managed to get out of with a bit of conversing. But then I get thrown into a battle with the enemy having attacked me from behind. They got the jump on me, and cast a status ailment that prevents my party members from attack, and after getting killed after making decent progress from the last save point, I quit in frustration. And this is on the easy difficulty setting.

Compared to the easy difficulty here, the one in Persona 3 FES didn’t have this stuff happen to me, and you had 10 chances to revive on that setting. That stuff isn’t here in Persona, and playing this, I feel, has given me a good idea of what to expect should I play any of the main line Shin Megami Tensei games.

All the stuff I’ve said about frustrations I’ve had doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not having fun. The one thing that this game has, and the other Persona games have, is an interesting world and characters, and the story is certainly the main thing that is compelling me to continue. The demon conversation mechanic is pretty interesting to, trying to figure out what is the right thing to say to an enemy to get a reward, or change its mood, or whatever. And the music inside the school (when there aren’t any demons around) is pretty catchy.

Yeah, that’s all I can figure out to say at the moment. I’ll keep playing; hopefully I won’t very much more problems with random battles that I have no way of winning.

And the Rest

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

You can see bits of VF4 in the main banner, and I would have had a lot more to say, but I didn’t feel like making a banner specific for this game. I’ll just say, I bought it for ten bucks a couple weeks ago, and now I will always have a use for that Tekken 10 Anniversary arcade stick I got for my PS2. Also, Virtua Fighter is still the best fighting game series ever created.

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

After reinstalling and updating mods, and with my PS3 working again with my PC, I got back into Skyrim last weekend. And I restarted my character, because it had been so long since I last played, and I used the Oghma Infinium exploit to raise all my stats to 100, which in retrospect I feel bad about. Also, I had almost forgotten just how much I enjoy the little details I come across. However insignificant they are to the task I’m focused on, I’m always fascinated by them, and since I always try to role play in these kinds of games, I try to do something that fits with that situation and my character. It actually makes the caves way more interesting than they have any real right to be.

Things Other Than Games

Well, I got sick last Saturday and felt miserable up until about Tuesday or Wednesday, so I blame that for making me feel rushed as I type up this whole thing. Probably didn’t help much that this past week was Spirit Week at my school. Spirit Week brings out the worst of my snarky, sarcastic, smart ass self since I do not care at all for Spirit Week. It was even worse for me as senior since there was a lot more stuff that my class needed to do, which I didn’t want to do (hell, I ended up just leaving during 6 hour since there was no class going and everyone was down in the gym. No one really notices where I am, so that works for me). Weird thing was that the last day is Spirit Day, which is where you can wear red, white, blue, or a combination of those colors (you know, because it’s patriotic), a classmate jokingly suggested that since I always wear red as part of my uniform I should have come in dressed in all black. The fact that I actually considered doing that, just to spite everyone, says a lot about me as a person.

The bright end of that dark tunnel was me getting to hang out with some friends outside of school, one of those friends being the one that lent me the PSP. Last night was a lot of fun, with one of the friends, a girl, being exceptionally cheerful and entertaining, which felt much needed to melt the cold recesses of my black heart. The fact that I did not mind when she gave me a hug, and I don’t like getting hugs, probably says something. Even I realize I need something to balance out smart ass, cynical me.

In Conclusion

Well, I managed to pull this all together the night before. Hopefully next time I’ll be more prepared and have things planned out. Thanks for reading anyway.

Also, if things go as planned, I’ll be on a podcast with Sparklykiss to talk about Mass Effect, because she wants to, and I figured “hey, why not?”

Peace.

It was tough having to skip last week’s entry, since the games I wanted to write about I didn't get around to. Instead, I've been playing a different game, one that I've wanted to play for a long time. And now I have it, and have been playing a ton of it, so now let me tell you about it.

GAMES!!!!

For a while I’ve had a very large interest in the games created by Looking Glass Studios. They created games that have had a huge influence on the industry today, and the simulation aspect of their games is what makes them most fascinating. Thief is one of the most well remembered games created by Looking Glass, and now that game is available for download on Good Old Games for $9.99. Seeing that I could now buy the game without looking for a physical copy made me ecstatic, and I wasted no time buying it. After spending a week and a half playing through it, I was glad to see that my desire to play this game was not wasted. It may be nearly 15 years old, but Thief might just be the best stealth game ever created (unless of course Thief 2 is better, which is now on GOG as well, just a week after Thief Gold). Down to the core systems and even the little nuances you would not have noticed unless you sought them, Thief is goddamn brilliant.

The thing that makes this game really amazing compared to other stealth games that have been influenced by it is the excellent use of lighting and sound. As I said in the previous paragraph, one of the charming things about Looking Glass Studios’ games is the simulation aspect, and in that regard Thief is indeed a stealth simulator. After all, the name of the game is a profession, so it’s simulating what that kind of profession is about. So yeah, hiding in the shadows and minimizing sound doesn’t sound that spectacular nowadays since that’s something any stealth game should have anyway.

However, what these mechanics do for the game is it shows that having a complete map of the area and enemy vision cones isn’t necessary to minimize trial and error in your stealth game. The game’s HUD is very minimal, only displaying your health along the bottom left of the screen, as well as a gem in the bottom center that lights up or darkens to tell you whether or not you can be seen. Also, some missions you get a full map, a map with barely any details, or no actual map at all. With so little resources at your disposal to complete your objectives you would think you’d be constantly quick saving and quick loading at the tiniest screw up (not to say I still didn’t use quick saves). Not in Thief. The advantages of hiding in the shadow do more than enough to make you feel comfortable with your actions, and the sound design is also good in that regard with figuring out when it’s safe to move across tile floor or how far away a patrolling guard is (and supposedly, leaning up against a door or wall lets you hear things on the other side more clearly). Eventually I got to a point in the game where most of the time I could look at a shadow and gauge whether or not it will conceal me completely or not without having to constantly rely on the gem on your HUD.

There’s also one tinier thing about the gameplay that I found way more interesting than I would have expected. Deus Ex Human Revolution had a cover system which solved a trial and error problem of getting seen by an enemy when you’re trying to take a peak. In Thief, you can lean while standing in a shadow and still be completely concealed. Now take that lean function one step further by going up to the edge of a door frame, still concealed in darkness, then lean to the side, and use the mouse to turn your view towards the frame. Instead of some weird clipping or cancelling the lean, your view actually wraps around the frame or wall, allowing you to see more of what’s outside the room you’re in without stepping out of the shadows. In a way, it solved the question I had of how do you know when there isn’t an enemy looking in the direction of where you’re trying to go. Just the act of doing it felt organic and showed that a cover system isn’t necessary.

I realized I’ve spent a whole lot of time talking about the systems behind Thief as a simulation, but what about the game part? How are the missions and story and so on? The missions are varied. From here on there’s gonna be some spoiler talk so skip if you want.

I have finished the game, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with it. I’ve only gone through the game on Normal, so I might give Hard and Expert a try, and even try some fan missions people have made. Already installed Garretloader and been looking at different missions to try out. Not surprisingly, the majority of fan missions are for Thief II. And now that game is available on GOG, so I’ll probably get it sometime soon. Overall, I really enjoyed Thief. Things about the gameplay surprised me in ways I didn't realize were extremely genius, and overall quality of the missions were very good. Based on what I've heard, Thief II might be better for me since the missions in that focus on actual stealing from people in the city instead of all the monsters and undead. And hopefully GOG continues to find a way to get the rest of Looking Glass Studios’ games up on their service. Especially System Shock 2. Want to try it so bad, even though I’m not a big fan of horror.

And the Rest

Shin Megami Tensei Persona

So I mentioned in my last entry that I was looking to borrow a PSP from a friend with a copy of Shin Megami Tensei Persona. I’ve only messed around with it for a few hours, but I plan to spend most of today digging deep into it. It’s definitely different from what modern Persona games are like, but I find it to be still rather interesting.

Things Other Than Games

First half of the week was busy for me school-wise, with plenty of quizzes and tests. Homecoming is next week, and like any school event I don’t care about it. Thursday I did what I felt was a very good thing and donated $15 dollars to the Double Fine Adventure. I was originally just going to watch the whole thing grow, but after seeing how fast Double Fine received the initial amount they set, I felt motivated to give them my portion as well. You could be cynical and say it’s me preordering a game that may or may not be good, but the idea behind this kickstarter is terrific, especially for a studio like Double Fine. Can’t wait until the game starts getting worked on and the documentary gets produced. Again, I feel very proud for doing something like this.

Last weekend I visited the friend that lent me the PSP and SMT Persona. We hung out for a few hours, showed me some Final Fantasy XIII-2, which I didn’t play but can say that I would probably enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed Star Ocean the Last Hope (meaning fun to play, but dumb as hell story and characters). He also gave me some new recommendation for anime, introducing me to the brilliance that is Go Nagai, creator Mazinger and Cutie Honey. Specifically he showed me some clips of a 3 episode OVA series called Mazinkaiser SKL, and not only do I want to watch the whole thing on blu-ray (not the streaming websites I’ve used to watch anime in the past), but I now have a new idea for a character I want to create in Saints Row the Third (the main characters in Mazinkaiser SKL are total psychopaths). Speaking of Saints Row, I can finally play the game again properly because my friend also gave me a new USB cable to connect my PS3 controller to my computer, since the old cable was busted for a while now.

In Conclusion

Well this was a very long blog entry, but I suppose it makes up for my lack of an entry last week. Fun random fact, the word count of this entry is close to 2400. Not that many of you would really care that much and would probably skim a lot of it. Whatever, the point is, someone will have read something from this, and that counts.

Peace.

Only one new game this week, and it’s not even a full game. But I have finished another game I’ve been playing and have plenty of things to say about it now. Anyway, let’s get started.

GAMES!!!!

I’ve only played the demo of this game in very short chunks. I haven’t even reached the end of my time limit on the demo. For a while, space sims have been something of a curiosity for me. I’ve wanted to check out one of these types of games before, but felt like I lacked a proper joystick for piloting a spacecraft, even though I could easily just use the mouse or keyboard. I saw the game on Steam, heard there was a demo available on the game’s website, and downloaded it. Went through the tutorials and then just drifted aimlessly in space, attempting to do missions and fail at them not knowing what to do.

In short, I have played very little of this that I have no idea why I even put it as one of my spotlighted games at the start of this blog. Then again, there wasn’t anything really new I had played that I could cover in depth, so I’ll do my best to put together my thoughts on this demo. Even without knowing what I should be doing, I am still very fascinated by it. There are a lot of complex systems to wrap around regarding how your ship works, but that’s a little bit of the fun of the genre I’m guessing. There are a lot of things to keep track of manage, which is something I would expect to be the case if space craft like this were real.

One thing that I especially like about Evochron Mercenary is its seamlessness. I remember seeing a video years back, and thinking about it now it might have been related to this game, but I remember watching a video demonstration of a ship going from a space station in orbit of a planet to the planet’s surface, right through the atmosphere. No loading or transition screens of any kind, everything streamed in as the ship entered the planet’s atmosphere. I thought that was really impressive, even if the graphics themselves weren’t that great. Just the thought of it gave me something to be excited about. And now I got to do it.

And that’s really all that I have done. Fly around in space, going in and out of planets, failing to complete missions, that sort of thing. I probably would have been able to complete the race missions had I better control of my ship. Even with so little time spent, I definitely see this as a type of game I want to dig deep into in the future. But first I should probably get a joystick for controlling the ship and actually read through the game’s manual. The latter probably being why I barely accomplished anything in that demo.

I normally don’t write more in depth about games I’ve already covered, that’s what the “And the Rest” segment is for. But in some cases where I don’t have anything new to write about, I figured it would be fine to write up my thoughts on Deus Ex Human Revolution after finishing the game. Yeah, got around to beating it Wednesday night, and I’m playing it again on the hardest difficulty and forcing myself to not kill anyone (an idea that I would not consider in my normal mind). I definitely took my time with the first few hours of the game and even held it off for a while to play other games, but as I kept playing more and more, I didn’t want to stop. I kept getting more augmentations, the story got more interesting, and I went from playing in short bursts to hours at a time.

So how’s the game, now that I’ve seen it to the end? Pretty good. I already mentioned it before, but Human Revolution accomplishes what the developers tried to do, and that is to make another Deus Ex game. And it shows, in ways that are both intentional and unintentional. When you’re in Hengsha, there are some rather bad engrish accents going on, but you know what? Deus Ex had them too. At least Human Revolution didn’t try to have horrible French accents. Also, like the original Deus Ex, you can choose which ending you want to end the game, but it is way easier and convenient. In the original Deus Ex, you had to do certain things in order to access any of the three endings, but the stuff you had to do was saved until that very last mission. In Human Revolution, you just have a row of three buttons, with a fourth button down a corridor to the left. And stuff like the enemy AI or the voice acting for pretty much everyone I already mentioned. That stuff is the game unintentionally being like Deus Ex, because those problems were abound in that game.

The stuff that is intended for a Deus Ex game, however, is well executed on. You get rewarded for exploring the environment and looking for hidden pathways and item caches, and the points you earn give you access to more augmentations that make you feel powerful. Well, not powerful in a take on a small army kind of way, but being able to reach places no normal person can’t, and sneak past areas that are heavily guarded. The game starts off with you being relatively weak, and those first few hours can feel slow and maybe a bit boring. But your patience is rewarded as not only do your augmentations get better, but the rate at which you get access to them increases. That sort of thing is usually in reverse for other RPGs, with you leveling up fast in the beginning and the requirement for the next level demanding more and more points.

There was one particular moment I experienced in Human Revolution that made me realize what the other part of the fun was in these games, aside from building your character. Note that this is covering some spoiler territory. When you return to Hengsha looking for Dr. Reed’s team, the drop ship Malik is piloting gets taken down by Belltower and crashes in a construction site. She urges Jensen to keep going, but I refuse and want to take out the bastards that shot us down. I looked at my inventory and noticed now was the best time to use my Sniper Rifle and all the ammo I had been saving. I whipped out the rifle and shot all the soldiers from a distance without getting overwhelmed. But then a giant robot came out to finish the job, and I lacked the proper equipment to take it down. And you know what was even worse? I actually had the proper tools to take it out just several minutes before leaving Detroit. I used the only 2 EMP grenades I had on some turrets set up in the sewers by a dude threatening to set off a bomb. The grenades are handy for taking down turrets and robots without taking up space in the inventory, but without those grenades, I was at a loss for how to take out that mech. And then Malik was killed. It was too late to try and reload a previous save, as any save I had was already past the point where I used those grenades.

It left me rather upset, feeling like I failed, but then it made me realize what the other element of Deus Ex was, and that is the permanence of choices you make and how the consequences will either help you or hinder you. I realized using those grenades in the sewers was a bad move when I had the ability to turn invisible long enough to take out the guy and disarm the bomb. But you know what was the positive consequence of a choice I made? Holding onto that ammo I got for my sniper rifle that came with the DLC I bought with the game. I had plenty to spare on those soldiers in the construction site. I was prepared in one way yet foolishly unprepared in another. I’ll admit the thought of it all kept going through my head when I was trying to go to bed, starting with the feeling of shame for failing to save Malik, but being taught a valuable lesson by the game because of that. It was an odd but wonderful feeling.

Eidos Montreal might not have made the game strict to the letter of the original, but they succeeded at what they were trying to do: create a Deus Ex experience. More possibilities open up for you as unlock your augmentations, you see the results of actions you made present before you, and you are rewarded for being sneaky instead of rushing in guns blazing. If they were able to pull this off so well, there may be reason to be interested in how they’re going to tackle Thief 4.

And the Rest

The Binding of Isaac

Gave the game another go after a couple weeks of not playing it, and I still have not reached the end. So far I’ve managed to get to the second to last area. I’m at least finding new items and power ups for Isaac, which I’ve found can sometimes help or hinder you. Especially when you find the devil and choose to make a pact with him. You’re not exactly sure what you’re going to get during a playthrough in this game.

Katawa Shoujo

Finished the story with Rin as my girlfriend. Parts of it leading to the end got kind of uncomfortable, especially the sex scene I felt, but I felt pretty satisfied. To prevent myself from getting burned out, I’ve been holding out on trying the other paths. That first act is rather long, again taking me two hours to complete it. Hopefully soon I’ll start another playthrough. I’m rather interested to see what Lilly’s path is like.

Things Other Than Games

Nothing to eventful for me outside of giving up my time for Deus Ex. My dad has been out of town for the week, so I’ve been getting to use the car to and from school all week. Beats standing outside in the cold for the bus, but unfortunately that won’t be happening again for a while. Also, looking for jobs is a pain, especially when none of them say they are hiring right now. Jobs that I’ve already had interest in I’m not going to be getting anytime soon so I’ve had to look for other things. So far the one that seems alright with me is a package handler for UPS. I’ve moved stuff in the back of warehouses before so it wouldn’t be anything new for me. We’ll see if I end up getting a job before summer.

In Conclusion

And that’s it. The month is just about over. Thanks to you all who are reading this blog, and special thanks to dankempster to mentioning my blog in his 200 entry. Didn’t expect my second entry of this year, which had zero comments, suddenly get feedback. Thanks again.

Also, while this isn’t confirmed, but a friend told me that he could lend me one of his PSPs sometime with the Persona games on them. Because I loved Persona 3 FES so much, I am so down with that. So if I remember to give him a call about that deal sometime soon, you might see more of my thoughts on Persona in the near future.

Peace.

It’s Saturday. I can’t come up with a good intro. Video games.

GAMES!!!!

This one is a first for me. I’ve never played a visual novel before, and because this one is available for free, I figured it would be good time to try my hands at this extremely niche genre. The development process behind Katawa Shoujo is interesting, but its subject matter is a major point. It takes place in a school for disabled children, ranging from various conditions like blindness, amputees, deafness, and so on. The main character, Hisao Nakai, is recently transferred to this school after it is discovered he has arrhythmia. His life pretty much changes with the fact that he must keep close watch of his health and routines to make sure his heart doesn’t fail him.

Starting Katawa Shoujo, I was most surprised by Hisao’s portrayal of his coping to his new life. Discovering that he has a heart problem while he’s in high school, which has never come up before, makes it very devastating to him. Surprisingly, I can kind of relate, if only because I’ve discovered that I have condition very late in my life that no one noticed. No, I don’t have arrhythmia, it’s different. I have high functioning autism, which I was only diagnosed with before my 18 birthday. It hasn’t caused any drastic changes for me in my life, but it has had me getting brought to different disability services to see if I’m eligible for them, and checking regularly with a psychiatrist every two weeks, and a social skills group in between. And to be honest, not exactly fond of it all, because I’ve been able to appear as a normal human being to everyone since they wouldn’t even notice for a second that I have autism. Just that I am more socially reserved and tend to be sarcastic when I speak. It’s different conditions and urgency of the situation, but Hisao’s change in his life to being sent to a “special school” and having his condition monitored constantly felt extremely more personal than what I was expecting.

The novel’s acts are rather long compared to what I was expecting, and also the fact that I read text rather quickly that I thought I would just blow through it all. Instead, it took me somewhere under two hours to complete Act 1, and I finished Act 2 at about 4 hours. I guess that’s a good thing since making large jumps between meeting girl, getting to know girl, and banging the girl would make it feel kind of cheap. Like you would expect a relationship to go, it takes time to develop. Right now I am on the path towards having Rin as Hisao’s girlfriend, and I didn’t even intend to go down that path. Near the end of Act 1 at what I think was the last dialog choice in that act I accidentally clicked on one of the choices because my cursor just happened to be over the area that choice was displayed and I was kind of impatiently going through the text. I was kind of regretful of it, but I’ve just decided to continue going along with it, and being more careful with how fast I click through text.

Also, there’s another weird thing about this game that has to do with me personally, and that is my view towards relationships. I have no desire to get a girl friend or sex or anything like that at all. I care too much about video games to devote a considerable chunk of my life to another person. Likewise, I try to apply those values of mine to the game I’m playing and be as neutral as possible between the choices of women. Pretty odd, I know, considering that getting hooked up with a girl and banging her is kind of the ultimate goal of pretty much every visual novel. And based on what few spoilers I’ve peeked at regarding certain endings…well, let’s just say that being neutral isn’t an option unless you want to feel like your time has been wasted.

I’m still interested to go on with it. I mean, the writing has been pretty good, and Rin is a very quirky and endearing character in the right way. The other girls I don’t have much of an opinion on, except maybe Shizune and Misha, who are possibly the last characters I would choose. After this done, I’m not sure if it will be considered victory or defeat if I get addicted to visual novels following this one. At least now I can consider Psychosis’ opinions on the matter more seriously.

This game I got as a gift from a friend whose website I write reviews for (The Nintendo Enthusiast). To start of the new year he decided to gift the staff members something from Good Old Games. Having only made an account a few months back, and putting a bunch of games on my wish list, any game on their that I have some interest in I am happy to get. As to what game I wanted to get, my mind went to the most recent item I had put on my wishlist: the Last Express. So many things I read about it sounded almost too good to be true for an adventure game from the mid 90s. I chose that as the game I wanted gifted, received it a day later, and have been playing it since last Saturday.

I gotta say, starting playing it, the game doesn’t waste time punishing you for dumb decisions that you make. When you get on the train and look for Tyler Whitney’s compartment, you find him murdered and you have to hide or get rid of the body. Whichever you do, you’ll get blood on your jacket, and going out of the compartment with it still on will alert everyone and end the game. There are emergency brakes levers about that you can pull, but that will stop the train and the game as well. In some sense the game can feel pretty punishing, but it does teach you not to mess around. Picking up anything that seems important and listening to conversations for important clues is what you need to do to succeed in this game. The hard part is to know which place to be at the right time.

And because everything is moving in real time, you can’t really linger. Thankfully the game gives you a rewind and fast forward option, which lets you jump back to any moment in the game and do something differently. Even with those benefits, I still get a sense of urgency when I need to find something within a specific time frame, and it has led to me looking up a walkthrough and going through it piece by piece to see as much as I can. Maybe it’s to be expected since I can never complete these adventure games without a walkthrough, no matter how hard I try.

The game itself is still a lot of fun, even if I am using a guide to get me through it. I’ve continued to find more conversations to listen to and other things. Gonna keep playing it for sure.

And the Rest

Persona 3 FES

I finished the game and started a bit of new game plus, but one full playthrough already has burned me out on trying to do it again. Plus, party members don’t level up as fast in the beginning now because my level is so high that XP earned in the first block ranges from something like 3 to 0. Even when I don’t participate in battle. Whatever, I’m done with the Journey for now. Not sure though if I’m up for diving into the Answer.

Deus Ex Human Revolution

I started out pretty strong playing this game. I was set to go through it to the end and not stop. But then, the games for this week took priority and I’ve only completed a side quest or two in Hengsha. Kinda terrible of me, since that game was pretty cool.

Things Other Than Games

4 day week of school thanks to MLK day, so that was nice. Still up to date on Persona 4 the Animation, and I found myself appreciating this latest episode a lot more because I’ve finished Persona 3 FES and I recognize the pieces of music, some characters, and locations. And the King’s Game segment was awkwardly hilarious.

Middle of the week was rather interesting, what with the internet blackouts in protest of SOPA and PIPA. I normally choose to stay out of anything relating to politics, but this is the first time I find myself involved in something like it because I use the internet every day. It’s something that is rather important to me, so anything that messes with it I do not approve of. Glad to see that the blackouts were successful.

In Conclusion

Much like the introduction, I'm too lazy this week to come up with anything proper. Whatever. I'll just go back to playing more video games, like I always do.

Peace.

Second week into 2012, and I continue to work my way through the pile of games I purchased in December for PC. I still have no idea how long this will take until I get through all of them, but I hope it keeps up for the first quarter at least. If not, I’ll still have multiplayer games to fall back on, or some new Shin Megami Tensei game. Now let’s get things started.

GAMES!!!!

It was around this time last year that I seriously got into the original Deus Ex. I bought it in the Steam Christmas sale the year before this last one, and I had trouble getting into it because of how un-fun Liberty Island was. Took me three tries to get through it, and as I went through the game I began warming up to it and by the end really enjoyed it, despite its flaws. And then suddenly, with no real reason I can think of for someone who has no large attachment to that original game, I went into the skeptics’ camp for Human Revolution. Later that year, the game proved to be very well made, and I decided the game would be great to pick up during the Christmas sale. It’s just unfortunate the game did not go on sale for 66% before the year ended and it probably would’ve had a legitimate chance of being on my GOTY list (it at least got an honorable mention).

I started playing the game for about 3 hours, just fumbling around and getting a hang of the mechanics of the game, taking side quests and doing them halfway and other stuff. Started the game over and began to do everything more thoroughly, and like many other action RPGs that have tons of detail in their worlds, that is the way to play it. Hacking into every computer to read people’s emails, sabotaging security systems, looking for every possible route into a situation and getting experience for it. What Deus Ex did in creating a world that was full of nooks and crannies and intricately designed, Human Revolution delivers on that. However, like the original Deus Ex, this game has some problems that feel oddly similar to the original, but obviously not the exact same.

Gunplay was horribly stiff and unsatisfying, even when you maxed out a weapon skill and didn’t need to wait for the crosshair to focus. Firing a gun and dealing with the inaccuracies that come from moving around makes shooting in the game tolerable. However, the enemies have some mediocre AI which allows for exploitation from the player. The biggest example of course is the pile of bodies that accumulate from killing a dude, hiding in an air duct, waiting for another dude to show up, then kill him, and repeat until all enemies are gone. I ended up using this tactic once so far in the game, but it was with a mine than a bullet. Aside from the gameplay, voice acting and in game cinematics aren’t that great either. Funny enough, the original Deus Ex didn’t have great voice acting or cinematics either.

Despite problems with the “game” part of Deus Ex Human Revolution, it accomplishes the same things Deus Ex was good at. I just arrived at Hengsha and haven’t done anything since, I don’t know, Tuesday (things have been really busy for me these past few days), but I’m anxious to get back into it. Again, really wish I was able to get it earlier last year and play through it all the way. Would have been a good GOTY contender.

You know what I love? Anime? More specific from anime? Giant robots. Hey, guess what, Shogo Mobile Armor Division has that and it’s great/terrible/whatever.

This was the one odd game I bought along with all the Ultima games I got from Good Old Games. I didn’t care about what the Giant Bomb crew had to say about this game, the idea of a first person shooter inspired by giant robot anime is pretty appealing to me. Although my interest in this game is a tad more specific than that. It sounds weird, I’m sure, but there are two things I have a bizarre fascination with: 1) things that came out in the early 90s, the years when I was too young to understand what was going on entertainment wise, and 2) games like Oni, Septerra Core, and Shogo that were designed before anyone had a clear understanding of what anime really was. Speaking of which, I should probably check out Septerra Core, but that’s for another time.

This game starts off really promising in regards to Monolith's commitment to the theme and style of the game. The opening video is straight up like a 1-2 minute anime intro with a Japanese song. Unfortunately there isn't really anything else in the game that matches that sort of commitment. The plot is pretty typical sounding, and it kind of doesn't matter much. Character models look pretty terrible. So much so I would say it makes the character models in the original Thief or System Shock 2 look passable. So yeah, graphics and story aren't really strong here, so what's so fun about the game? Giant robot action.

There are two kinds of levels in this game: on foot levels and giant robot levels. The on foot levels play like any other first person shooter from the late nineties. You move fast, you have no reloads, you have a health and armor system, and it is really unfairly hard, even on Easy. It got way to frustrating early on that I had to play the rest of the game in God mode. So yeah, those levels aren't particularly special, but there are the parts where you get to pilot a robot. At points in the game you get to choose which robot you want to pilot, and it boils down to how much speed or armor do you want. Once you get into a robot, it feels just about the same as the on foot levels, except way more powerful and more fun. You get some crazy looking weapons that can make things blow up, you can either jump or do a super jump, you can transform into a hover vehicle, you can step on humans and watch fountains of blood fly into the air. Actually, that's one of the things that is enjoyable in both kinds of levels. It's fun just to shoot at dudes and watch the obscene amounts of pixelated blood fly out of them.

Shogo isn't an especially great game, but it makes for a pretty good guilty pleasure. There's something cathartic about destroying stuff in a giant robot in this game, especially when there's blood involved. There are a couple bugs that can end up preventing you from continuing in the game, but consulting the GOG forums can help clear that up. Play Shogo if you want a great mediocre game and have some affinity for giant robots.

And the Rest

E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy

Played this game with a few friends last Saturday and was a good hour of fun. It’s extremely janky and weird and that’s why it is so amazing, so you should all be playing it.

Team Fortress 2

Also on that same Saturday I jumped back into TF2 for the first time in a long while (since late august, according to Steam). It was still absolutely TF2 and was a lot of fun. Well, except for a huge amount of lag and high ping numbers, which has never happened to me in an online game before. The numbers were as high as 800 or something.

Persona 3 FES

I picked the bad ending, just to see what it was like, but after realizing I locked myself out of two extra social links, I reloaded my save and continued on the path towards the good ending. And that means I have had to spend hours grinding in Tartarus in order to prepare for the final battle.

Ultima

Space. That’s where I last was in Ultima I, and I had no idea what to do next. I have not even played the game since last Saturday, but I’ll be getting to that this weekend. Hopefully.

Things Other Than Games

I haven't had much time for other fun things. I've had some major tests happen at school, first ones of the second semester, and I have been feeling extremely tired. And it's not from a lack of sleep, I swear. I'm positive it's the school itself. Just the act of being there is enough to suck the life out of me. I've got a study hall and a free period, which gives me plenty of time to do homework, but I'm barely motivated to get it all done during those two periods. Whatever, at least the week is over, and now I got a three day weekend. Even better, the rest of my family will be gone all day, leaving the house all to myself. Awesome.

In Conclusion

And that's it. Wish I could have written more on the two main games I had been playing, but again, school and fatigue got in the way until the last minute. I should probably say what next week's games will be, right? Well, one is a game I recently received as a gift from Good Old Games, the Last Express, and Katawa Shoujo, the free visual novel that has been in development for more than a decade, and also my first foray into the genre. That game I am the most curious about.

It’s 2012, and for people who have followed this blog on Giant Bomb for a while, welcome to the return of [insert title]. For people who are reading this outside of Giant Bomb, welcome! Here I primarily talk about video games and…well video games, and sometimes things other than that. For people who have already known me and followed my blog, this year I have changed things a bit. The order of things has been rearranged and modified, and I’ve also put a bit more effort into the banners. Besides that, it’s still the same deal. I talk about games that I have been playing for the past week or more, and sometimes briefly cover other games I’ve been playing.

Of course, if you’re reading this on Wordpress or tumblr, none of this really matters because it’s your first time reading. Well, maybe it does, since you might not know what I’m talking about some of the time. But that’s okay, because that just means you need to go to the greatest video game website in the world, Giant Bomb, immediately. Anyway, let’s get started.

GAMES!!!!

Even with all the other games I ended up getting during the two week break, I figured it would be good to rent another game from Gamefly, and I decided on one that I’ve wanted to get around to for a while. For the last almost three weeks I have played over 50 hours of Persona 3 FES. And so far, just speaking about Persona and not the whole Shin Megami Tensei, it reassures in my mind that this is the only JRPG series I can actually care about. Last year I had tried my hands at a few JRPGs on PS3, such as Hyperdimension Neptunia, Final Fantasy XIII, and Star Ocean the Last Hope. The last game I managed to complete, but even then I kinda hated myself for going through that, despite whatever fun I did have with the game. I’ve spent more time on Persona 3 FES than any of those other games mentioned, and it has remained interesting and enjoyable the whole way through.

Going into this game, I was already familiar with how Persona works, since I like many others watched the Persona 4 Endurance Run. The main differences being stuff like moon phases instead of weather patterns, one randomly generated main dungeon instead of several dungeons, and no control of your party members during battle. That last part is definitely a bummer, but it works well enough. So long as you assign the right tactics to your party members accordingly stuff that goes on in battle doesn’t feel too much out of your control. Based on how the story progresses, which involves preparing for an operation on each full moon, the idea of grinding in a dungeon comes to the forefront with Tartarus. There’s no saving anyone in Tartarus like there was saving someone from inside the TV in Persona 4. Oh well, listening to a podcast or two I’ve found out recently is a great way to get through grinding sessions. The more interesting parts about Persona aren’t the dungeons or battles. It’s the story and characters and social links.

One term that I can best use to describe the characters in Persona 3 FES is endearing, and I don’t mean that in the bad sense. They have good qualities, and offset by one or two kinda bad qualities. Junpei is a pretty good example of an endearing character in the game. He’s generally optimistic and friendly, being very quick to be friends with you when the game starts, but he does end up being sometimes annoying as his interactions with Yukari proves true. But since the game takes place during the course of a year, kind of like actual high school, you’re going to get stuck with people that you think you may not want to see every day (very true in my case), but over time you’ll get used to them and may even come around to appreciating them.

Probably the best thing I can say in this area is that I especially like the main character in this game. The protagonists in the Persona games are silent and tend to be pretty stoic and expressionless. Which is good, because I’m not that much of an expressive guy. I also don’t talk much, so like the protagonist I’m often the one listening to everyone venting their problems or things in their life. But when I get the chance, if there’s a dialog option that’s sarcastic sounding or just anything that will push someone’s buttons I’ll pick that one, because that’s how I roll. Lastly, because I already watched Persona 4 start to finish, I appreciate the protagonist in this game more because it’s my first time through the game and thus my experiences as the main character is much more personal.

There’ve been some really good moments, and then there are some bad moments, and some that are embarrassing for you as the main character to endure (school trips). It’s not really about all about those moments though. The journey itself is what makes it interesting. Much like in real life I don’t know what to expect of these characters I’m going to be seeing every day for the next year so I am generally untrusting and don’t really care much for anyone around me. As the game continues on, however, I become used to seeing these same characters over and over and watch as they change throughout the year. I’m close to the end, and I just know that I’m gonna miss these characters once I finish it. Well, maybe not, if I decide to do new game plus. We’ll see.

So yeah, Persona 3 FES. One of the greatest modern JRPGs. Forget everything else. Shin Megami Tensei’s all that matters.

There are things about Hard Reset that I really like. I enjoy how fast everything moves, I enjoy not having to reload my weapons, and I also enjoy just having to press one button at minimum to effectively shoot an enemy, instead of bringing up iron sights to increase accuracy at the cost of movement speed. The game is extremely old school in design, and it is fun to play, too.

The game was developed by a combination of former developers from People Can Fly (Painkiller) and CD Projekt (The Witcher). The Painkiller influence is pretty strong, given the style of gameplay, so that makes the influence from the ex-CD Projekt guys…I don’t know, graphics? Game looks pretty incredible. The more logical thing I suppose would be the upgrade system but that doesn’t feel like anything that would require those guys' help. You can put upgrades into your gun, energy gun, or yourself to improve performance and abilities. There may be two weapons by the looks of it, but each of them has five forms, effectively giving you access to ten different weapons. So yeah, your gun transforms. And you can blow up a lot with them.

Speaking of blowing up, there’s a lot of opportunity for environmental kills with exploding barrels or electrical devices. To some that might seem like it degrades the shooting since you don’t need to shoot at the enemies in order to kill them, but I don’t care really. The stuff blows up real nice, and when you can get a chain reaction going with them, the effect looks real nice, and sounds good as well.

There’s not that much in the way of story, well, at least anything really interesting. I didn’t pay attention to what anyone was saying since I just wanted to go shoot some robots. I don’t think I even remember how many levels there are; only that it took me three hours to beat the game according to Steam.

So yeah, the game is a bit mindless when you boil it down, and it’s also rather short, but that’s kind of good since that kind of game doesn’t overstay its welcome. For what amount of time you’ll spend playing through the game will be satisfactory enough. However, the game does incentivize you to replay levels with Steam achievements and the game ranking your performance at the end of each level. If you want, you could try and get through a level with no deaths, fastest time possible, and all secrets found or whatever. I might just do that sometime, but not anytime soon.

And the Rest

So what happens if I’ve been playing more than two games and still have something to say? That’s where this part of the blog comes in.

Saints Row the Third

Saints Row the Third is pretty fun, but there’s also some fun to be had playing with another person. I was fortunate enough to find someone who was looking for a person to play co-op with, thanks to the Giant Bomb PC Gaming Hub. Thanks a bunch to infamousBIG for diving into the madness with me.

Magicka

Once again, another game I played co-op thanks to the Giant Bomb PC Gaming Hub. Unlike Saints Row, it was definitely needed because from what I’ve played of the game in single player it wasn’t very fun for me. Even with a partner, it was pretty easy for magic to get out of hand and kill each other, whether it was intentional or not (I tried out a meteor shower, and it ended up killing both of us. Not what I expected). Thanks again to El Jefe, Paco for playing.

Ultima

I figured a great long term video game commitment I’ll most likely fall off of would be to play all the Ultima games currently available on GOG that I bough before Christmas break. Started with Ultima I, and so far it has been grinding to get my gold, health, and food supply up into the thousands. Before the week was done, I had completed what sounds like 4/5 of the game. Pretty short when you realize it.

Things Other Than Games

This segment used to be called Real Life but I decided changing it to this was better because even though some things I do are not playing video games, they still wouldn’t necessarily refer to anything in real life. Basically the Internet takes up the rest of my time during the day when I’m not playing games or other things.

Anyway, what else have I been doing besides playing all these video games? Not much. I’m now caught up on Persona 4 The Animation and hopefully I won’t have to play catch up again in the future. Speaking of anime, a few weeks ago back when the break started I got the entire series of Yu Yu Hakusho on DVD from a friend. All 112 episodes. Watched a couple episodes, and it’s still a really good show. However, I plan to save that for later this year, after March 17. If you don’t know the significance of that date, well, you’ll find out soon enough (turns out it’s a Saturday, so that lines up perfectly with my blog’s schedule). Oh, and second semester of my senior year of high school started. Almost free.

In Conclusion

And that does it. First entry of 2012. Looking forward to playing more of these couple dozen games to get me through the next several dead weeks of game releases. And those games will give me plenty of stuff to worry about. Next week I’ll be writing my thoughts on Deus Ex Human Revolution and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, as well as anything else that I think deserves a little mention.

Alright, have a good rest of the year.

Happy New Year, duders!

No, this is not the return of [insert title], that’s this coming Saturday. Instead, this is where I bring up to speed what I’ve been doing the past two weeks as well as my top 10 games of 2011. I’ll save the list for later.

Well, with the Steam Christmas sale and two weeks of no school, that meant plenty of time to play games. And as it turned out, too many games at some point. Before the break started I had bought all the Ultima games that were on GOG plus Shogo, and then the GBA games for 3DS came out. I even planned to keep playing tons more Skyrim but I didn’t. Games like Magicka, Bastion, Hard Reset, and Saints Row the Third took priority, especially when some of those games I was looking to consider for my top 10 list.

Of course there was Christmas, so I got quite a few neat gifts. I got the Skyrim 4 CD soundtrack autographed by Jeremy Soule, Reboot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on Blu-Ray, and best of all, a new monitor for my computer. That’s great because I can have two monitors hooked up without any usb device or whatever to make two old monitors work. Plus, I can now full enjoy widescreen content on my PC. Yeah, for the longest time I’ve been stuck with two standard def monitors. Instead I have one widescreen monitor and one SD monitor. And the setup works pretty well. Depending on which thing I want to watch, I can put it on the appropriate monitor. Wish I could figure that out for some of the games I own, but I guess that just means putting them in windowed mode.

Other than that, it’s just been nothing but games. I’ll save the other details about that stuff for [insert title] when it starts again on Saturday. But for now…

Top 10 GOTY

I had to have this game mentioned somewhere, if only because Video_Game_King would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t. Heck, this spot on the list was hard to figure out because the other 9 are kind of a jump up from the rest of the games I played this year. Ultimately, I decided on El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron as my #10 game of 2011.

The game is a rather simplified character action game, which is what kind doesn’t put it on the same level as the rest of the games on this list from a gameplay standpoint. However, the experience of seeing Japan once again taking ancient religious and mythlogical stories and putting it through its own perspective was enjoyable. The art style is like an evolution of the visuals in Okami, and some of the places you find yourself in as you climb the Tower of Babel are rather surprising breaks from what you think the game is based on the first few hours. Heck, the timespan that gets abstractly covered throughout the game is rather crazy when you look back on it (it takes Enoch hundreds of years to find the Tower of Babel. You would have thought God got fed up and just flooded the whole world).

It’s a simple game, and it almost doesn’t feel like it should be in the same league as the rest of the games on my list, but El Shaddai was definitely a fun, visual experience.

Two years ago, Uncharted 2 Among Thieves was not just my game of the year, but it was also my game of the last decade. It was so amazing that I still lose my mind just thinking about that game. It’s two years later, and now the sequel is near the bottom of my list (if I had gotten my hands on more games, this probably would have been pushed to the #10 spot).

That isn’t to say that Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception isn’t terrible. There are some small holes and problems in the story, but the formula Naughty Dog has constructed for this series is still excellent. The combat is like a more limited, animation heavy version of the Arkham Asylum combat system, but it was still fun to use, and ended up using it more than I expected to resolve enemy encounters. The set pieces are also fantastic, and are even better than most of the set pieces in Uncharted 2. The cruise ship during the storm that starts flooding and changes the geometry, as well as the burning chateau are the two standout action pieces, and the only disappointing thing that can be said about those is that they were already shown months before the game’s release.

Once again, the sequel to another game from 2009 that was high on my list from that year and is now in the lower five this year. It’s kinda funny thinking about it. Two years ago after hearing the amazing debate between the Giant Bomb crew over Uncharted 2 or Arkham Asylum as GOTY, we kinda joked that the same thing would happen again with these sequels. Not really the case in reality. But again, Arkham City is not a bad game. In fact, I like it more overall than Arkham Asylum.

Story wise, it’s once again Batman in a dangerous situation in the course of a single night with a lot at risk. In fact, way more is at risk than in Arkham Asylum. I still won’t say what happens at the end, but man…it left me sad, and amazed that Rocksteady would do that. Aside from the story, the amazing combat system from Arkham Asylum is expanded on with new upgrades and gadgets to use, making an already great system even better. The open world was well executed, there are plenty of riddler trophies and challenges, and plenty of Batman’s rogues gallery gets their due, even if it’s a short cameo. This game is packed with so much content. It just sucks I couldn’t play the Catwoman missions because I was renting it from Gamefly and it was an online pass deal. The first time I’ve been personally made upset by an online pass.

If there’s one thing I can think of that infamous 2 does to improve it from the original are not powers that let you cause destruction, but powers that makes mobility super fun. Grinding on electric wires and floating through the air was fun in the first game, but launching yourself into the air with a pillar of ice, shooting up sides of the building on an electrified pole, and an electrified tether to latch onto things makes mobility and traversal so much fun and so much faster.

Of course, inFamous 2 isn’t all just that. The city is more vibrant and colorful looking, the way the game handles stacking variations on your powers is smart, the in-game cutscenes are a major improvement over the Sly Cooper-esque stilted animations from the first game, and both endings to the game, well at least the good ending anyway, makes a possible 3 inFamous to be drastically different from what the series is now. Kind of a “screw you” to the idea of making Cole’s battle against the Beast drawn out into a trilogy.

I may have bought this game just a week ago, but it was worth waiting to get it to enjoy on my new monitor, because the art is so good looking. And it plays as good as it looks too. A lot of stuff can start filling up the screen all looking to murder you, and on top of whacking/shooting them, dodging and knowing when to time it makes combat rather methodical. Also, the game narrating the kid’s actions is well done and probably the best use of narration or commentary on what happens in a game without it getting repetitive. Man, this whole game is so good.

Nintendo continues its move to make 3D Mario more and more resemble 2D Mario with Super Mario 3D Land, and unsurprisingly, it is the best game currently on the 3DS as well as a pretty fantastic Mario game. It’s a slow starter, in terms of both movement and difficulty curves, but later levels in the game can get devilishly tough and very fun at the same time. There’s extremely limited control of the camera, but the angle and view works really well, and allows for some neat hiding spots that would have been easily spoiled by a fully controllable camera. It’s 2D Mario in 3D, and I say the blend between the two styles of Mario games works splendidly.

There’s just so much great stuff to say about Portal 2 that it is hard to start off where. The single player story is amazing, introducing new characters like Wheatley and Cave Johnson and Valve continues to use its environmental story telling on top of it all. The decaying halls of the facility give you more small glimpses at what Aperture Science was like, foreshadowing what would happen later in the game, and a neat easter egg or two to remind you just enough that Portal is still connected to the Half-Life universe.

And that’s only half of the game. The other half is the co-op, which I was lucky to find someone earlier this year to be my Portal buddy and go through the two player campaign. The co-op campaign was less focused on the story as it was creating new puzzles for you and a friend to solve, and thinking up how to solve puzzles and experimenting was a lot of fun. There are even some fun achievements out there for screwing over your partner. I was able to get one by fooling my partner to stand on a lightmass bridge and wave to me. Then I removed the bridge and made him fall. Didn’t think it would have gone that smooth.

I never thought I would get to play this game by the end of the year. For half of the year my Wii’s disc drive was busted but it was only a month before the game’s release that I had enough money to spare on setting up a repair order with Nintendo. The one thing that kinda disappointed me that wasn’t the game’s fault was that I didn’t spend as much time with it during the first week that I had it. It was a lot of short bursts with the rest of my time devoted to Skyrim.

Despite taking a longer time to beat the game, my time with it was very enjoyable. It’s a Zelda experience that makes slight variations to differentiate it from other games in the series, but it’s still identifiable as a Zelda game. The motion controls and their implementation are really outstanding, with only a few instances where it felt like a burden. Sword combat, controlling a flying beatle, solving lock puzzles, and other instances makes the experience just different enough to be enjoyable. I’m only on a second playthrough with the intention of completing all the side material, and it is fun looking for every hidden nook and cranny. Some slow moments in the beginning and after the third dungeons, with some minor motion control issues does not keep this game from being near the top of my list.

For the last month and a half I’ve felt the need to play this game, thanks to Jeff and Ryan’s insistence for everyone to play Saints Row the Third. I figured “all right, I’ll wait for the Steam Christmas sale and buy it then.” Bought it on the first day of the sale, installed it, started playing, and I was very quickly drawn into the insanity. Like Skyward Sword, as of right now I am on a second playthrough and still find myself enjoying it. Even more so now that I’m actively looking to acquire as much territory and raise my hourly income. I’ve not played many open world games, but Saints Row the Third has to be my absolute favorite.

It’s weird that I would ever say that I love Saints Row the Third, because I did not like anything about Saints Row at all. The first game, all I remember from it was almost every other word coming out of people’s mouths was an f-bomb, and the gameplay accompanying it wasn’t that interesting looking. I didn’t look at Saints Row 2, or even realized it existed, since I figured it wasn’t that much different from the first game. This game though, all it took was that trailer introducing Professor Genki and that pre-order bonus stuff that it finally caught my interest, but I still wasn’t sure. Now I’m surprised I even doubted this game at all.

So many things that Saints Row the Third does is all in service of giving you easy access to making mayhem as quickly as possible without making the consequences immediately punishing. You get access to UAVs in the third mission, and shortly after you can outfit your cars with nitrous and spikes that protrude and retract from the side of your tires. And even though I thought it was incredibly stupid the first time I heard about it, I had a bizarre amount of fun beating up people with the penetrator. Yeah, whacking people in the head with a giant dildo. Who knew?

The game shows you what it’s capable of doing early on, and it continues to ramp up the absurdity as you dive deeper into the game. In fact, I’m gonna get back to playing this game immediately because it is still so much fun. Everything around what you do is so ridiculous and funny, and that’s why it works.

Saints Row the Third is pretty good, and so is Skyward Sword and Portal, but nothing else I’ve played this year, and I mean nothing, compares to the game that is the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

I already spoke about this game highly in my previous blog post, but I’ll continue to say this: Skyrim is an amazing experience that gives me what I’ve been wanting since I was first introduced to the series 5 years ago with Oblivion. Not just a more refined gameplay system, but a whole new world to explore. Oblivion and Morrowind stole so much of my time, but on subsequent playthroughs I found myself less encouraged to do it all again because I already knew what to expect, and even then, there was only a finite amount of content set up to cover a specific amount of area. Skyrim provides a new providence in the world of Tamriel to explore, but Bethesda created a new dynamic quest system and other refinements that I did not expect.

I’ve already talked about how amazing dragons in this game are, so I’ll skip the details and refer you to my last blog post (short version: they’re awesome. Wait, I already said that. Oh well). The Radiant Quest system works surprisingly well, and not because the quests themselves are truly amazing, far from it. What’s great is the game solving an issue with past Elder Scrolls games being that there is so many things crammed into a single one of those games that it is almost, or just straight up is impossible to find without consulting outsides sources and walkthroughs. Instead, the game designs the quests with some broad descriptions in the dialogue to point you towards a place in one of the 9 holds you have yet to explore. This includes guild quests, bounties, hunts for dragon shouts, anything. And once you start going on one of these randomly generated quests, they lead you to an area that has its own unique story and quest, and just like how many people play these games, everything starts branching out and you start going on a rabbit trail to see where it leads, not knowing where you’ll end up.

It’s really amazing that this and the other systems at play work amazingly, as well as this game feeling the least broken of anything Bethesda has put out. During the first few dozen hours of gameplay, I had experienced atleast one hard lock and one crash to desktop, and none of those instances where repeatable in the same area. Normally in something like Oblivion it would have been a spot where two much was happening as soon as I entered an area in the overworld, or for some other messed up reason. Here the most frequent bugs are things like backwards flying dragons and killing a bandit and having him immediately stand back up in a fists raised fighting stance (no joke, this just came up on me hours before posting this). They don’t break the game, and they may seem immersion breaking, but I just role with it, because it doesn’t prevent me from finishing something, and atleast it gives me a good chuckle.

The skill system has changed quite a bit, and the introduction of perks and skill trees kind of makes up for the reduction of skills from Oblivion, and before that Morrowind. Skill trees allow stuff like blade and blunt to be placed under the one hand or two hand skill trees. Although I have come to terms with it in this game, I miss having the traditional 8 attributes and picking from several preset classes along with the custom class option. The game works fine without it, since that’s how they built it, but the original system in past games worked just fine before that I don’t see how there’s any real reason to scrap it. But the game itself is so good that those things don’t cross my mind, so it’s only outside of it that I really think critically about it.

And while I don’t consider this a big factor in it being high up on my list, but even without the Creation Kit people have put out some really good mods for the game, making an already great game even greater. Some menu tweaks, post processing effects, even the 4gb patch, which is defunct now that Skyrim got it during an official update, have made the game so much more amazing ALREADY than what vanilla Skyrim offers. You know how I’ve had a couple moments early on where the game either locked up or crashed? Ever since I used the 4gb patch, and now the official Large Address Aware in Skyrim’s official executable, I’ve had nothing of the sort at all. I’m still amazed that it works this well because even with all the mods and fixes I’ve applied to Morrowind and Oblivion, they still crash on me every now and again.

I could probably go on to write a freaking song about this game, but I’m sure I don’t need to say that much else. Skyrim is amazing, far surpassing my expectations, even for all the excitement that I had for this game leading up to its release. I’m gonna keep playing it and I’ll be ready to by whatever DLC Bethesda puts out during the year. God…I love this game so much.

---

Now, those are my top 10 games, but there were others that I hoped would make the cut, but didn’t. Instead, I will give them an honorable mention. Here are the games.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I only got the game on the 30 because it was 66 percent off on Steam. Why couldn’t it have been that way a week earlier? WHY!?

Magicka

I like the magic system, but so far, playing it solo hasn’t been the most fun for me. Feel like I need to find a buddy to play with.

Hard Reset

Really love how fast the movement is and it looks gorgeous, but I’ve been playing it in rather small bursts and not enough of it.

Binding of Isaac

Also bought this the same day as Deus Ex. It’s fun, but I’ve played enough to know it isn’t one of my top 10 games of the year.

E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy

Ah, who am I kidding?

L.A. Noire

I don't even own this game and wanted to buy it during the Steam sale, but I had already spent my limit on everything else during the sale. Oh well, wasn't as big of a priority, but would've been nice to have.

One More Thing...

I’ve briefly described my Christmas break, put together my top 10 games of 2011, but I have one thing to talk about, and that is the return of my blog, [insert title].

I used part of the break to come up with some changes to the blog, primarily the images. Figured it would be a good idea to change up the design a bit, and unfortunately, I can’t decide what I want to go with. So I’ll let you help me decide. Basically which of these two pictures do you like better

The first is a pretty simple and easily reusable format, but from a more artistic standpoint I’m kinda leaning towards the latter. Only problem is whether or not I can come up with something visually unique for every single game I decided to play and write about. For the record, the latter image does have a format. It's the logo in the middle with a collage of images from the game in the background, inspiration coming from some of the old Toonami promos when TOM first came on as the host. If I don’t get any good opinions on which one to go with, I might just do a coin toss or something to decide.

The game you see in both pictures I intend to write about for my first entry of [insert title] this year. Consider it a little preview.

Also, I am expanding my blog outside of Giant Bomb, and once again, it’s another case of me trying to decide which of two sites I want to post it on as well. Rather than ask for opinions on which I should choose, I’ll just go with both. On January 7, this coming Saturday, [insert title] will be on Giant Bomb as always, as well as Wordpress and tumblr. Hey, the more people that see the stuff I slave away at, the better I’ll feel.

Anyway, that’s all I can think of for now. Hope 2012 is an interesting year, and something involving the end of the world or some crap.