And this place seems as good as any.

I will probably just write about games I'm playing, this being a site ostensibly about games in all their various forms.

I finally got past the second stratum in Etrian Odyssey 2 yesterday. I ended up over-levelling quite a bit, being at 33 when I beat Hellion. Rather, I kicked Hellion's ass, because I was able to get to it and use all of my party's force skills (except the medic), and with the Dark Hunter's binds it couldn't attack me at all! I managed to walk from the 6th floor all the way to the 11th without using a single TP from my medic, Patch Up us a lifesaver when you're grinding. Now it's on to mapping a new stratum, the coolest looking one yet (har har). Enemies seem oddly easy, but again that's probably due to my overlevelling, I'm sure things will get difficult again in no time, this game doesn't have the odd backwards difficulty curve of the first one.

Also started playing Metal Gear Solid 4 again, at the behest of my cousin who wanted to see it. I forget just how much fun the first two acts are, before the game-play goes to hell for the sake of the story. Sneaking around is better than ever, and the weapons you can get are so satisfying to use, especially the anti-materiel rifle and the shotgun. If the whole game were like the Middle East and South America, it would be a masterpiece greater than MGS3, but alas that amazing gameplay is abandoned for more gimmicky robotic enemies and rail-gunning sections after that final tracking segment. I hope the next game, which will supposedly hardly involve Kojima at all, goes back to a more traditional gameplay-based model.

Now, don't get me wrong, the plot is great, and I enjoyed the last 3 acts immensely my first time through, but they are simply no fun to replay. You don't have as many options! It's just a straight shot until the end of the game without and down-time or interesting challenges. *sigh* Ah well, next time....

Starting Dwarf Fortress... right now, actually. Generating a world in the most literal sense of any game I've ever played. It's been a while, but now that I'm back in school I need a good game for my laptop, and you can only replay Fallout 1 and 2 so many times. I think I'll try a desert fort, or maybe a coastal one, this time. Desert if I can find a nice location with a magma vent, and a coastal one with tons of trees if I can't.