Friday, June 20, 2008
-A good month into my summer vacation, and I have been making the most out of it by kicking back and catching up on some good old fashion gaming. Screw the summer outdoors, actually I lied, I did play my first round of tennis in nearly a year the other day with my coworker, Sean. I lost two sets to one, (3-0 me, 3-1 Sean, 3-0 Sean). Onto the gaming good goodness!
-Since my last blog I have invested roughly 15 hours into GTAIV, most of those which occured last weekend. One night I play IV for a good five hours straight, I can't remember the last time I endured a gaming session of that duration. For me, that's a lot. As it stands, I'm 53% complete overall, and from what I've been reading online, everyone seems to beat the game around 60-65% overall, so I must be getting close. Then again, I've been doing a fair amount of side missions so beating the main story may take me a little later. This last couple weeks, IV has really grabbed me. Rockstar knows how to craft a compelling narrative, and I find myself anticipating every next mission that awaits Nikko. I'm surprised too that I've been avoiding use of cheats, which use to be the norm for me in prior GTAs. I guess when using cheats in Saints Row nullified the ability to receive achievments, it forced me to play this genre of games legitimately.
-I can't recall if I mentioned this in a previous blog or not, but over the past month Chris and I have cracking away at the co-op campaign in Resistance on PS3. Last week we made some more progress. This game is far longer than the average FPS, when we finished our session for the day I checked out a chapter listing online to see how far our progress was, assuming we must be close to the end (we got around 10 hours in so far), only to discover we are on chapter 18.......of 30! Guess that's a good thing since I'm having a blast with my time with Resistance so far and have at least another several hours of play still to go.
Speaking of Resistance, I saw on one of the latest episodes of Gametrailers TV (formerly Game Head) had a Resistance 2 special. Learned a lot of details in that special, including the game will be switching to the more standard 2-weapon inventory system, the campaign will have a stronger emphasis on boss battles, the narrator/female officer of the first Resistance will not be in Resistance 2 in any fashion, the sequel is set a few years later and Nathan Hale will be fighting alongside a neutral faction of fellow infected/yet-to-turn humans called the Sentinels. Resistance 2 looks freaking awesome and may end up a day one buy for me, with this and Killzone 2 on the horizon (and I got Haze in from Gamefly right now, waiting to finish Resistance before plowing through it), it looks like the PS3 is bringing it own with a strong slate of exclusive FPSs.
-One online video game store I frequent, goatstore.com just wrapped up a 25% off everything sale, and with them being one of the few places I know of online (aside ebay of course) that sells 3DO games, I decided to take advantage and build add 7 games to my 3DO library (along with GTA2 on Dreamcast, the aforementioned GTA4 binge has me craving to gack to San Andreas afterwards, and I figured want not give one of the 2D games a try also). I picked up these 7 3DO games, which totaled to $30 - FIFA Soccer, Hell (this one was listed as $0 so I'm assuming it sucks), Burning Soldier, Daedalus Encounter, Gex, Stellar 7: Draxxon's Revenge, Real Pinball. These all totaled up to $30. Probably more misses then hits of those games, but I'll take my chances
-Chris and I had a lot of fun putting together our latest podcast, which was a retrospective on the ill-fated CD-i console. Chris actually owned one of those in their heyday, and we dug it out and played all the games he had for it to refresh our brains on why this system crapped out like it did. If you want to learn a piece of awful gaming history, download this episode. Chris and I are planning another obscure platform retrospective this weekend when we give the low down on the Sega CD. Then another the following week with the 3DO, hence plopping down $30 on a helping of 3DO goodness. Should be a fun summer for the podcast, the new site is nearly ready to go up, so be on the lookout for it any day now!
-My local indy game shop, Rock 30, has an service they provide to let customer put a reserve on a game, and if they get any copies traded in within a year of the reservation they'll call us up and let the reservee get first dibs at purchasing it. Around 7-8 months ago I put a hold on Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim for PS2. A week ago they called me up saying they finally got a copy. I rushed right out and picked it up, and sad thing is it'll probably be around 7-8 months before I get a chance to start it up. I was a little reluctant on picking my copy up the other day because it was so long ago I put the hold on by the time the copy came in I nearly forgot everything that made me want the game save for a real time combat engine.
-Dug out my N64 to play what else, but No Mercy. Got some great four player matches in with Joey, Dick, and Richard. We played some tag team matches and Royal Rumbles. Lots of fun to be had, as this is still my favorite multiplayer game ever. Highlight of the night featured history repeating itself where Richard was able to beat me......with Mae Young. Not to talk myself up, but I usually think I can play a mean game of No Mercy, but I have no idea how I was able to succumb to that old hag Even with the horribly dated graphics, No Mercy's gameplay stands the test of time and is as fun as it was when I first played it 8 years ago.
-I know the latest talk of the town in the gaming community of course has been all about (and deservingly so) Metal Gear Solid 4. Sorry, I'm just not a Metal Gear fan. My only memories of the franchise was always dying within 5 minutes of starting up Snake's Revenge, and my horrible stealth skills preventing me from getting past the first set of VR missions in MGS2: Substance. However, with all the buzz on MGS4 going on and the coincidence of having an upcoming four day weekend, I decided I will the give the series another shot. I won a copy of MGS2 during the Midwest Game Show Classic this past March, and decided I will give the game at least 3 hours of my time. Instead of letting the game sit on my shelf forever and not be played, the least I can do is give this popular franchise one more shot, especially considering what I went through to win this game(thanks DHG Hunter for capturing this great moment of gaming history)!
-In my only non-gaming piece of news today, I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall last weekend at the second-run theater in town, and damn I can't believe I held out so long. Easily worth $1, and then some! Nearly the whole movie was a riot, I can't remember the last time I was at a flick where the whole theater was laughing seemingly nonstop from start to finish. Coming from some of the same people who worked on Knocked Up, I was surprised to see the film surpass my expectations. I highy recommend checking this out.
-That's all for now. Later!
-Since my last blog I have invested roughly 15 hours into GTAIV, most of those which occured last weekend. One night I play IV for a good five hours straight, I can't remember the last time I endured a gaming session of that duration. For me, that's a lot. As it stands, I'm 53% complete overall, and from what I've been reading online, everyone seems to beat the game around 60-65% overall, so I must be getting close. Then again, I've been doing a fair amount of side missions so beating the main story may take me a little later. This last couple weeks, IV has really grabbed me. Rockstar knows how to craft a compelling narrative, and I find myself anticipating every next mission that awaits Nikko. I'm surprised too that I've been avoiding use of cheats, which use to be the norm for me in prior GTAs. I guess when using cheats in Saints Row nullified the ability to receive achievments, it forced me to play this genre of games legitimately.
-I can't recall if I mentioned this in a previous blog or not, but over the past month Chris and I have cracking away at the co-op campaign in Resistance on PS3. Last week we made some more progress. This game is far longer than the average FPS, when we finished our session for the day I checked out a chapter listing online to see how far our progress was, assuming we must be close to the end (we got around 10 hours in so far), only to discover we are on chapter 18.......of 30! Guess that's a good thing since I'm having a blast with my time with Resistance so far and have at least another several hours of play still to go.
Speaking of Resistance, I saw on one of the latest episodes of Gametrailers TV (formerly Game Head) had a Resistance 2 special. Learned a lot of details in that special, including the game will be switching to the more standard 2-weapon inventory system, the campaign will have a stronger emphasis on boss battles, the narrator/female officer of the first Resistance will not be in Resistance 2 in any fashion, the sequel is set a few years later and Nathan Hale will be fighting alongside a neutral faction of fellow infected/yet-to-turn humans called the Sentinels. Resistance 2 looks freaking awesome and may end up a day one buy for me, with this and Killzone 2 on the horizon (and I got Haze in from Gamefly right now, waiting to finish Resistance before plowing through it), it looks like the PS3 is bringing it own with a strong slate of exclusive FPSs.
-One online video game store I frequent, goatstore.com just wrapped up a 25% off everything sale, and with them being one of the few places I know of online (aside ebay of course) that sells 3DO games, I decided to take advantage and build add 7 games to my 3DO library (along with GTA2 on Dreamcast, the aforementioned GTA4 binge has me craving to gack to San Andreas afterwards, and I figured want not give one of the 2D games a try also). I picked up these 7 3DO games, which totaled to $30 - FIFA Soccer, Hell (this one was listed as $0 so I'm assuming it sucks), Burning Soldier, Daedalus Encounter, Gex, Stellar 7: Draxxon's Revenge, Real Pinball. These all totaled up to $30. Probably more misses then hits of those games, but I'll take my chances
-Chris and I had a lot of fun putting together our latest podcast, which was a retrospective on the ill-fated CD-i console. Chris actually owned one of those in their heyday, and we dug it out and played all the games he had for it to refresh our brains on why this system crapped out like it did. If you want to learn a piece of awful gaming history, download this episode. Chris and I are planning another obscure platform retrospective this weekend when we give the low down on the Sega CD. Then another the following week with the 3DO, hence plopping down $30 on a helping of 3DO goodness. Should be a fun summer for the podcast, the new site is nearly ready to go up, so be on the lookout for it any day now!
-My local indy game shop, Rock 30, has an service they provide to let customer put a reserve on a game, and if they get any copies traded in within a year of the reservation they'll call us up and let the reservee get first dibs at purchasing it. Around 7-8 months ago I put a hold on Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim for PS2. A week ago they called me up saying they finally got a copy. I rushed right out and picked it up, and sad thing is it'll probably be around 7-8 months before I get a chance to start it up. I was a little reluctant on picking my copy up the other day because it was so long ago I put the hold on by the time the copy came in I nearly forgot everything that made me want the game save for a real time combat engine.
-Dug out my N64 to play what else, but No Mercy. Got some great four player matches in with Joey, Dick, and Richard. We played some tag team matches and Royal Rumbles. Lots of fun to be had, as this is still my favorite multiplayer game ever. Highlight of the night featured history repeating itself where Richard was able to beat me......with Mae Young. Not to talk myself up, but I usually think I can play a mean game of No Mercy, but I have no idea how I was able to succumb to that old hag Even with the horribly dated graphics, No Mercy's gameplay stands the test of time and is as fun as it was when I first played it 8 years ago.
-I know the latest talk of the town in the gaming community of course has been all about (and deservingly so) Metal Gear Solid 4. Sorry, I'm just not a Metal Gear fan. My only memories of the franchise was always dying within 5 minutes of starting up Snake's Revenge, and my horrible stealth skills preventing me from getting past the first set of VR missions in MGS2: Substance. However, with all the buzz on MGS4 going on and the coincidence of having an upcoming four day weekend, I decided I will the give the series another shot. I won a copy of MGS2 during the Midwest Game Show Classic this past March, and decided I will give the game at least 3 hours of my time. Instead of letting the game sit on my shelf forever and not be played, the least I can do is give this popular franchise one more shot, especially considering what I went through to win this game(thanks DHG Hunter for capturing this great moment of gaming history)!
-In my only non-gaming piece of news today, I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall last weekend at the second-run theater in town, and damn I can't believe I held out so long. Easily worth $1, and then some! Nearly the whole movie was a riot, I can't remember the last time I was at a flick where the whole theater was laughing seemingly nonstop from start to finish. Coming from some of the same people who worked on Knocked Up, I was surprised to see the film surpass my expectations. I highy recommend checking this out.
-That's all for now. Later!
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