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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Friend Activity or Spoiled Friend?

One of the things I like doing when I wake up in the morning is checking the Friend Activity page on my Steam client. I particularly enjoy reading that list of what my friends have recently purchased from the store and also look at the crazy screenshots that they have posted. Today, I wish that I missed a day of looking at the page because someone had posted a spoiler screenshot without using the spoiler feature that would censor the picture unless the viewers decided for themselves that they wanted to be subjected to such a thing. The game in question was Bioshock Infinite, a game that I have been playing every now and then but still haven't reached the end of the tale yet. It was a disgusting feeling. Probably a lot worse than stumbling into your parent's secret activity when you got home unexpectedly as a child. I immediately removed the person from my friend's list because this is Gamer Respect 101 - you never, ever take away other people's game enjoyment this way. I didn't know this person very well but after that, I am glad I didn't. I am all for people posting crazy and fun screenshots on Steam: Beautiful environments, "OMGalaxy" situations, the perfect mis-en-scenes, sure. But when those things are tied to an important story or surprise element in the game, show a bit of care and use that spoiler feature.

The Friend Activity page: Test your common sense here.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Mortal Kombat: Visit The Krypt More Often

When the latest Mortal Kombat hit Steam earlier this month, I couldn't wait to get a hold of the game. It was difficult to do however because I already have the game on the PlayStation 3 but I knew that such a release should be given a welcoming support from the Personal Computer gaming community because I want to see console-centric games like this one being released the PC continuously. Controller support is becoming a common thing these days in the world of PC gaming but developers and publishers do have to be assured that the PC gamers are indeed interested. The price of $29.99 was low enough at the launch of the game but I thought it could be a little cheaper. The game did get a 33% discount during the Steam Summer Sale but I was too focused on getting cheaper games and when the sales event was over, I did feel a tiny tinge of regret for not inducting the game at that slightly cheaper price back then.

Jade sure knows how to pose for a great picture.

Well, the opportunity became available again as the game had received the same discount yesterday and it looks like the discount will stay until tomorrow. I decided to get the game this time and I am very happy with my acquisition. There are some complaints about lag in online matches but I have yet to confirm if the same problem would affect me. Just like most games, I normally love to play offline for the most part and this game has plenty of offline contents. I will have to look at my friend's list to test out the online gameplay but for now, I can confirm that the game itself does perform magnificently on my PC at native 1080p with all the settings maxed out. There are definitely some miss opportunities here to make the game look a lot better: Implementing new higher resolution textures would have given it a modern polish but the game is pretty good looking to begin with. Everything is running at a smooth 60 frames per second and more importantly, the loading time has been tremendously improved. Which is a huge bonus because I remember the frustration of unlocking contents from "The Krypt" where you can spend the in-game koins that you have collected when I was playing the game on the PlayStation 3. The load time to get in and out of the Krypt was annoying but now, it's almost as if it's not even there. If you have never played this game before, get this PC version. If you have played it before, it's mostly a matter of convenience and support and if those things are important to you, then you should not hesitate any longer.

You no longer have to wait for the old gatekeeper to find the right key to get into The Krypt.


Update Note, 12:15pm - As a super mega bonus in this PC version, the best fatality in the game, which is Kenshi's Scatterbrained fatality (it's more delicious than it sounds), is no longer plagued by slowdown! This is the only fatality in the game that doesn't cross cut into a close-up, giving it a really nasty, gut-wrenching immediacy to its violence. The whole bloody proceeding is filled with slowdown on the PS3 version but everything is silky smooth here! Oh yes!

Now nastier than ever!

Games Played 07/22/2013 - 07/28/2013

- 07/22/2013 -
Beat Hazard Ultra - PC
Bioshock Infinite - PC
Check vs. Mate - PC
Ether Vapor Remaster - PC
Fieldrunners - PC

- 07/23/2013 -
Ether Vapor Remaster - PC
League of Legends - PC

- 07/24/2013 -
Ether Vapor Remaster - PC
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - PC
League of Legends - PC
Marvel Heroes - PC
Reckless Racing Ultimate Demo - PC

- 07/25/2013 -
League of Legends - PC
XCOM: Enemy Unknown - PC

- 07/26/2013 -
Awesomenauts - PC
League of Legends - PC
Sid Meier's Civilization V - PC
Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed - PC
XCOM: Enemy Unknown - PC

- 07/27/2013 -
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition - PC
Dawngate Closed Beta - PC
League of Legends - PC

- 07/28/2013 -
League of Legends - PC
Solstice Arena - iPad
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition - PC
Torchlight II - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

How could something this violet leads to something so violent?
Torchlight II (Personal Computer)

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Wasteful Gaming Product: Zelda Guides What?

Just when I thought that it was safe to be browsing the video gaming section of Amazon.com, I stumbled into this really ridiculous guide book collection for Nintendo's past The Legend of Zelda games that is scheduled to be released later this year. Seriously. Look at the price of this thing. The recommended retail price of it is $179.99. It's not a joke, even though that price is. No wonder Amazon already slashed the price down by 40% because only crazy people would pay that much for it. So it includes the "signature and message from Mr. Eiji Aonuma". Surely that is worth nothing right now because shouldn't he be making a lot of new games for the dying Wii U instead of wasting his time endorsing this collection? You know how I feel about gaming guides in the first place. They are utterly useless. Why ruin the sense of exploration and discovery that you get by playing the games on your own? And the games covered by this collection are kind of old. Surely those who are fanatical about Zelda games already played those games to death so there is really no need for anyone to buy this. Similar guides are already available all over GameFAQs. If Nintendo games were on Steam, those who are handicapped by their need to read gaming guides to play their games should be happy to know that free user guides would be available in the community hub without the need to ever buy physical gaming guides. If you just happen to be one of the people who actually see some value in buying this The Legend of Zelda Box Set: Prima Official Game Guide, you utterly and desperately need some serious help.

Prima Games wants to make as much money from the Zelda license before Nintendo goes bankrupt.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

More PS4 Units? Ewww...

I got a nasty email from GameStop today telling me that they will have more PlayStation 4 units available for pre-order. As you may already know, I do not have any interest in the PS4 whatsoever. Neither do I have any interest in the X-Box One. I find one thing very curious though about the upcoming launch of both of these consoles: It is very obvious that both Microsoft and Sony are making a lot of units available for pre-order versus how things were handled in the past. My personal take on this is that they are pushing a lot more launch consoles out to gauge people's interest from the pre-order numbers and they want to convince more people to commit to buy the systems knowing that those new systems are pretty much a joke compared to what we already have now. There is no reason why the PlayStation 3 and the X-Box 360 should be replaced, it's all unnecessary. There is no reason for Sony to start charging for online multiplayer. The console gaming industry to me is just not very attractive anymore and it's going downhill. My prediction is that it would be easy to get these consoles during launch so for those who missed out on the pre-order, don't worry. Papa Microsoft and Mama Sony will make sure that they have enough consoles for everyone so that they could make some money from their foul endeavors.

It's time to stop those automatic GameStop emails to come to my mailbox.

Oh look, a multi-platform title but wait! Surely you want the PS4 version because...
IT HAS TOUCHSCREEN GAMEPLAY! I laughed so hard I almost farted out my dinner.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Random Yoshi Moment

Baby loves to go on a ride.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Silent Hill: Shattered Manhood

I thought I wanted to spice up my daily gaming routine by playing a horror game. Yeah, what a brilliant idea, right? Especially the fact that I don't do very well with horror games these days after being traumatized by Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterflies on the PlayStation 2 many years ago. After going through several candidates, I finally decided on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Nintendo Wii that I picked up in September of last year. I thought that streaming a horror game on twitch.tv would numb the fear somewhat but I couldn't be more wrong. As you can witness from my session with the game, I didn't last very long. One thing I can say however is that I was very surprised and infinitely intrigued by the presentation of this game. The VHS tape menu screen is just creepy and the whole therapy session framing device is quite fascinating. I really wanted to play the game until I arrived at that abandoned garage merely minutes into the game. I froze. It was so dark except for the areas illuminated by my character's flashlight. Then, as I was scrambling silently in terror for a pause button, I managed to turn off the flashlight. Oh I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Further button pushing experimentation yielded a very interesting command where the character pathetically yells out the name of his daughter. I was done. I really need to build up the courage to continue playing this game however because there's a lot of promise here. When that happens, there will be a lot of screaming. What is the secret formula to help one man up while playing a horror game?

I really don't like where this is going...

Monday, July 22, 2013

June 2013 Gaming Analysis

The results shown below are of course based on the combined data from the Daily Game Log which should provide a clear indication of a game's usage frequency. Bear in mind that even if a game is played twice or more during a particular day, it would still register as 1 in the Day Count column below. In a sense, "merits" are given based on how often a particular game can make me play it again throughout the entire period of the  month on a daily basis. A game that makes a gamer play it over and over again or at least spend a lot of time with it... Isn't that what we mostly want from a great game? I don't think it's really fair to count all the way down to the number of hours played since some games only require a short amount of time to properly serve their purposes.

OVERALL BREAKDOWN:


Total Games Played: 64


This Month's Inductees:


Total Inductions: 23

Games Played 07/15/2013 - 07/21/2013

- 07/15/2013 -
Castle Crashers - PC
Dota 2 - PC
Hitman: Absolution - PC
Organ Trail: Director's Cut - PC
Scribblenauts Unlimited - PC
Reus - PC

- 07/16/2013 -
League of Legends - PC
Hitman: Absolution - PC
Scribblenauts Unimited - PC

- 07/17/2013 -
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes - PC
League of Legends - PC

- 07/18/2013 -
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes - PC
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - PC
League of Legends - PC

- 07/19/2013 -
Dawngate Closed Beta - PC
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - PC
League of Legends - PC

- 07/20/2013 -
Galaxy Hunter Freya - iPad
League of Legends - PC
Monaco: What's Yours is Mine - PC
Roswell Fighter Reloaded - iPad
Solstice Arena - iPad
Sword of the Stars: The Pit - PC
Torchlight II - PC

- 07/21/2013 -
Bioshock Infinite - PC
Fieldrunners - PC
League of Legends - PC
Solstice Arena - iPad
Torchlight II - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

I really do miss long elevator rides in video games.
Bioshock Infinite (Personal Computer)

Saturday, July 20, 2013

I Am No Day-Tripper But This is Just Trippy

I managed to craft the second-tier badge for the Steam Summer Getaway card set for my Steam profile earlier this morning and not repeating my previous mistake, I made sure that I captured the action on video. Since I know that I myself will not be able to craft that many badges, it's nice to have this video so that we, non-Badge Whores, can keep watching it whenever we look at all of the incomplete Steam Trading Cards set for all the games that we have on Steam...


The trading cards... The swirl and swirl like magic.

From Dawn to Solstice?

What is this, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena week? Earlier yesterday, I was finally given the chance to participate in the Dawngate closed beta for the Personal Computer and now, I have found another MOBA to tinker with? While I was browsing on the Internet today, I stumbled into an ad for a game called Solstice Arena by Zynga that is supposed to be available on my iPad. It claims to be... gasp! A MOBA! I was like, "A MOBA on the iOS? Yeah, right, this is going to be a train wreck," but I was just so very tempted to give it a try and perhaps get a little laugh out of it since it's free to download.
There are not a lot of characters at the moment but hopefully more will be added.

Well, the game ended being... surprisingly fun and not only that, the touchscreen controls actually make sense. Sure, it's not the perfect setup since input mistakes are bound to happen but this game is proof that you can make a good MOBA on mobile devices. The game features 3 versus 3 match up and the main difference here compared to the typical MOBA convention is that there are no creeps to kill. And there is no leveling inside the match either. You do however have to destroy three of your opponents' towers before making a final assault on the base. The characters level up outside of the matches themselves where you can customize their skills. Not sure how balanced that would be because I haven't tried out a match against humans yet - actually, the bots are fun enough for now. Though the lack of creeps simplify things for the game, unlike Guardians of Middle-earth for the consoles, you can still shop for items during the match with your accrued gold and that immediately elevates the game beyond GoMe. As a matter of fact, GoMe should have been more like this game with its smaller map, smart design, and focus on action. There are also power-ups to collect on the map - they spawn randomly and certain champions will benefit from certain power-ups. There is also a treasure chest that would show up in the middle of the map that can grant gold for the entire team so you know the action gets hectic when you are fighting to claim it for your team. Since there are no leveling in the match, that also means that you cannot unlock an "ultimate" ability so you only have access to 3 abilities. One of them is called a "Signature Move" but it is just not the same without having it unlocked while playing. You won't miss your "ulti" much though because of how fast pace things are but it would have been nice if it was made available maybe 2 minutes into the match.

The graphics are nice but the frame rate  is a rather choppy. It's tolerable.

I have to play more of the game to analyze whether or not this game is truly free to play like how things are in League of Legends and other big MOBAs out there. I can tell you that unlocking champions using real money is very expensive here and it will take a while to unlock it using the in-game currency you can get from merely playing the game. I have only played several bot matches, both with computer controlled teammates as well as other players online, and it's easy to declare that it's the most fun I had playing a game on my iPad thus far. Let's hope that it gets better from here. Download this game now from the Apple App Store!

You can only ping the map in-game and you can only say "GG" at the end of the match.
You know what that means? You don't ever have to ever worry about ragers!

FIRST IMPRESSION: 5 out of 5

Friday, July 19, 2013

Chosen of the Sun?

You know I love my Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, specifically League of Legends for the Personal Computer. I believe that the more MOBA games we have out there, the better. I had been waiting so patiently for this one and I finally got a beta invitation for Dawngate by Waystone Games. The game is still in closed beta however so don't expect to see me streaming it via my twitch.tv channel. I look forward to see how it stacks up against the competitions!
As Leona would say, "The sun always rises"... but will this game shine?


Update Note: 07/27/2013 - Apparently it is okay to stream the game as I found out in the official forum so I will be doing so when the beta server is up and running.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Other Side of the Bed @ 2AM

Do you know how dangerous the current Steam Summer "Getaway" Sale has been for me? How about this: I would wake myself up at around 2am to check out the 8 hour Flash Sales update because I don't want to accidentally miss it if I get really busy the following morning. I also wanted to make sure that I get my Community's Choice vote in so that I could collect my eventual summer trading card reward. Yes, this is quite unhealthy. I have been stealthy about the whole thing though until last night because both the spouse and I were both awake until around that time so I got discovered messing around with my iPad, doing my Steam thing. Oh, it's so embarrassing. Please forgive me hun!
 
Must... Check... Steam... Why couldn't the 8 hour rotation start at 12am?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

How the LoL Client Almost Killed Me

If you haven't logged into your League of Legends client on the Personal Computer today, please heed my advise. Turn down the volume. All the way down... I would have appreciated that advise because I was so shocked, I thought that my uh, spirit, had left my body. If you actually survived that nasty little surprise, you do get to enjoy a really well made, interactive animated comic inside the client itself! Oh how I love this game...
 
So happy to still be alive after that cataclysmic assault at the log in screen.

Club Nintendo's Ever Diminishing Elite Rewards

It's time again for those who reached the Gold and Platinum Club Nintendo status to pick their... measly reward! The choice of rewards has gotten worse since last year. You see Nintendo, this is what happens when you spend unnecessary money on releasing a console that shouldn't have been released. You should have kept working on the Nintendo Wii and never bothered with the Wii U. You could have released a crazy system update on the original Wii that allows 1080p signal out of the console - you know it's possible - but no, you just have to release a new system. If you would have been loyal to the Wii yourself and focus on releasing your exclusive Nintendo brand games on it, you would be rolling in the dough right now. If the spouse didn't pick up the Wii U for me, I would have not gotten the unit and its would have been abandoned like the PlayStation 4 and the X-Box One and I would have just enjoy my gaming exclusively on the Personal Computer as well as the previous consoles I already own. Here are the list of rewards that can be chosen this year:
 
"You're the best"? Then why didn't you offer us something we truly deserve?
 
Perhaps it's time for Nintendo to change "Gold" into "Dirt" and "Platinum" into "Cheap". With the way things are going, the club may be abolished next year. Which of these disappointing gifts did I pick? Stay tuned and find out once it arrives supposedly by the end of the year. For all we know, that may never even happen since it seems like they are trying to lure people to just opt for one of those immediately available downloadable games that I didn't choose of course. Nintendo, rethink your strategy and turn into Sega.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

I Crafted a Badge?!

As I have discussed previously, crafting a game badge on Steam for a non-Badge Whore is a very long and perhaps almost impossible process. Thankfully, the badge to commemorate the current Steam Summer Sale is a different story. Since almost everyone is involved in either voting or buying games during this promotional period, they also reluctantly receive trading cards for those activities and that means, it's easier to find people in your direct pool of friends to trade cards with. It also helps that there is no limit to the badge drop but expect to receive duplicates to what you already have. I traded with about 3 people to complete the 10-card set and I should have captured the moment on my stream to save it for the future - since I know badge crafting is a rarity foe me - when I crafted the badge because what followed was a rather mesmerizing animation of those cards swirling around as if they were in one of those Gust Atelier games before I was presented with the badge alongside several other goodies, one of them being... a background for my Steam profile?!
 
It would be nice if we could just place anything we want on the Steam profile background...
 
Once crafted, the trading cards disappeared - so if you enjoyed looking at the full-colored card previews themselves, you won't be able to access them anymore though you can still click on them to see whatever pictures that popped up before. Then, I noticed that completing another set of the same trading cards will unlock another badge. Yeah, Valve is really milking this thing to death and you know the Badge Whores are buying those cards like crazy from the marketplace. There are still about 6 days left to this sales event so who knows, maybe I will be able to craft the second tier badge?

Monday, July 15, 2013

Games Played 07/08/2013 - 07/14/2013

- 07/08/2013 -
Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia - PlayStation 2
The Binding of Isaac - PC
Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 - X-Box
OutRun 2 - X-Box

- 07/09/2013 -
Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia - PlayStation 2
Children of Mana - NDS
League of Legends - PC
Sid Meier's Civilization V - PC

- 07/10/2013 -
Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia - PlayStation 2
Children of Mana - NDS
Dungeons of Dredmor - PC
League of Legends - PC

- 07/11/2013 -
Dungeons of Dredmor - PC
Ion Assault - PC
League of Legends - PC
Scribblenauts Unlimited - PC

- 07/12/2013 -
The Binding of Isaac - PC
League of Legends - PC
Sleeping Dogs - PC

- 07/13/2013 -
Dota 2 - PC
God Mode - PC
League of Legends - PC
Marvel Heroes - PC
Sleeping Dogs - PC
Surgeon Simulator 2013 - PC

- 07/14/2013 -
Bastion - PC
Borderlands 2 - PC
Deathsmiles IIX - X-Box 360
Dota 2 - PC
Ginga Force - X-Box 360
League of Legends - PC
My Aquarium - PlayStation 3
Sleeping Dogs - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

The most satisfying way to give someone... the finger!
Dota 2 (Personal Computer)

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Doesn't Take a University Degree to Figure Out

While Valve is making a killing out of their current Steam Summer Sale, Electronics Art also wanted to jump in on the action by offering... Only The Sims 3 games on their Summer Blowout Sale? Yes, it's almost but not quite so lame like those digital sales you find on the consoles but the most awful thing about the Origin sale is that the price couldn't even match up with what Steam is offering. Today, I sure wish that I bought my The Sims 3 games on Steam because I would have picked up The Sims 3 - University Life:

$19.99 on Origin...

...and $14.99 on Steam? Come on now EA!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

No Steam Community! You Got It Wrong!

There's one thing that always frustrate me during the Steam Summer Sale and that is waiting for half the day for the result of the community selected game discount only to see that the game that I voted for didn't make the cut. The funny thing here is of course, all of the games being voted on will eventually be discounted during this promotional period anyway but please, really? Shouldn't everyone on Steam already have Tropico 4 by now? That game and all of its expansions have gotten some mind-blowing discounts in the past. I really, really wanted to pick up that god game Reus at merely $5! Darn it!

I don't rage but I do get disappointed.

Sniped by Valve

The Steam Summer Sale is evil. So, very evil. We all know that. It's because of the Steam Summer Sale that the price of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 got slashed down by 85%! Yeah. 85% What kind of craziness is this? I love playing snipers... The sniper rifle is always my weapon of choice when it can be equipped in an action or shooter game. At $29.99, I wasn't in a hurry to pick up this game even though it was way below my acceptable price threshold. But at $4.99? Yeah... I would be crazy not to get it. May as well pick up one of the downloadable contents too I guess because it's only $1.49 from the original price of $9.99. Valve, this is a disgusting form of gamer abuse.

So why do we ever pay more than $10 for the games we buy?

Thursday, July 11, 2013

It's Steam Summer Sale 2013 Time!

The Steam Summer Sale is here! Get ready to become poor and kill off your wallet without giving it a chance to resuscitate because you know that the next 10 days are going to get dirty crazy in here... Like that $4.99 Scribblenauts Unlimited - it will never get that low on the Wii U that's for sure! You got to love digital distribution, specifically Steam for being able to offer games at crazy prices while still fueling all that cash to the developers because they don't have to produce anything physical that would cost money to make. It's really stupid for the PlayStation 4 and the X-Box One to cater to physical disc nuts. I sure hope they'll enjoy the lack of printed game manuals because you know the developers will have to cut some cost to make some money - they are already doing that now. But who cares about those people, the ones who understand Steam get to enjoy the high evolution of gaming and get our bank accounts in some serious, potentially unrecoverable jeopardy several times throughout the year!

10:00am - 10:14am

10:15am! Delicious.

10:16am - periodically. Too many people going Steam crazy!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

DOTA 2: The Beta is Over!

I was beginning to doubt that I would ever see the day when Valve's DOTA 2 would be officially launched but today, that is exactly what happened. I can now destroy that one DOTA 2 early access key that was never claimed - Update Note: Valve already got to it! I am definitely more of a League of Legends player but I am a DOTA 2 admirer so perhaps it's time to play more DOTA 2. For those new to the whole Multiplayer Online Battle Arena thing, DOTA 2 is definitely MORE FREE than even LoL even though LoL is truly free to play because DOTA 2 provides you access to all the heroes in the game from the beginning! It's definitely the most polished free game ever to be released - the graphics are quite spectacular - and it's yet another monumental gaming accomplishment for Valve.

It's time to join Steam and the PC gaming world if you are not there already.

May 2013 Gaming Analysis

The results shown below are of course based on the combined data from the Daily Game Log which should provide a clear indication of a game's usage frequency. Bear in mind that even if a game is played twice or more during a particular day, it would still register as 1 in the Day Count column below. In a sense, "merits" are given based on how often a particular game can make me play it again throughout the entire period of the  month on a daily basis. A game that makes a gamer play it over and over again or at least spend a lot of time with it... Isn't that what we mostly want from a great game? I don't think it's really fair to count all the way down to the number of hours played since some games only require a short amount of time to properly serve their purposes.

OVERALL BREAKDOWN:


Total Games Played: 44

It has happened! League of Legends for the Personal Computer was played for every single day of the month of May 2013. It's probably not the first game that I have done that with because I believe the same thing happened with Nights: Into Dreams... on the SegaSaturn a long time ago before I started keeping track of the games I play on a daily basis. It's very interesting that the game that costs no money to play ended up being my most played game thus far in my gaming life.


This Month's Inductees:


Total Inductions: 38

Monday, July 8, 2013

Games Played 07/01/2013 - 07/07/2013

- 07/01/2013 -
ALLTYNEX Second - PC
Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 3DS
Project X Zone - 3DS

- 07/02/2013 -
Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 3DS
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - PC
Dust: An Elysian Tail - PC
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light - NDS
League of Legends - PC
Suikoden V - PlayStation 2

- 07/03/2013 -
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light - NDS
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - PlayStation 2
League of Legends - PC
Raiden III - PlayStation 2
Taito Legends 2 - PlayStation 2

- 07/04/2013 -
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - PlayStation 2
League of Legends - PC
Taito Legends 2 - PlayStation 2
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines - PC

- 07/05/2013 -
Adam's Venture Episode 1: The search for the Lost Garden - PC
Dungeonland - PC
League of Legends - PC
RefleX - PC
Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed - PC
Space Channel 5: Special Edition - PlayStation 2
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines - PC

- 07/06/2013 -
League of Legends - PC
The Walking Dead - PC

- 07/07/2013 -
ALLTYNEX Second - PC
League of Legends - PC
The Walking Dead - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

There are so many iconic Sega characters and we get this guy as a free content update?

Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Walking Dead: An Episode in Impatience

I just completed Telltale Games' The Walking Dead for the Personal Computer tonight after playing through all the 5 episodes over the past two days and I can say that it's the best interactive movie I have played. Forget that superficial Heavy Rain on the PlayStation 3, this game is a lot more horrific and emotional even though the gameplay can sometimes be a bit sparse. I must say that I am glad that I waited until all the episodes became available before I actually played the game because I would not have the patience to wait for each one to show up: I would be in a state of frustration while waiting for them to arrive. I did get the game + the season pass really cheap during a sale and at that time, I believe that only the first 4 episodes were available. I thought back then that there were only 4 episodes and was about to play the game until I realized that one episode was still incoming. With another season for the game coming our way, I plan to do the same again: wait for the game and the season pass - that season pass system is really annoying isn't it? - to drop in price and then wait for all the episodes to be available before playing through them in quick succession. I must say that the spouse actually loves The Walking Dead on television though I myself just couldn't get into it. Personally, I believe that the story presented in this game is actually a lot better than what I saw from the TV show - please don't lock me out of the bedroom for saying that hun! The zombies might get me!

It's not about Lee for it's really all about you.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Latest Mortal Kombat on Freaking Steam?

I was just happily playing League of Legends on the Personal Computer this morning until I noticed that it was passed 10am, which meant that it was time to check out the daily Steam deal. What I saw on the main page almost sent me into a nasty state of permanent comatose:

Really? I didn't see this coming at all.

I already have this game on the PlayStation 3 and right now, I surely wish I never bought it. Sure, I didn't pay the full price for the game when I did pick it up for that console but I did pay quite a bit to get all the downloadable contents. I want this game on the PC. Just the thought of playing it on the PC makes me feel all yummy and gooey inside. Yes, I will eventually get this... But more importantly, this further strengthens my conviction about abandoning both the upcoming PlayStation 4 and the X-Box One thoroughly and completely. I will just stick to my PC and the Wii U as well as all the consoles I already have. The game is a fully-featured Steampowered release as well which means the publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment sees a lot of value in the Steam distribution channel as they continue to release more and more games here. I am truly loving this release and it deserves all of our support, especially since early reports indicated that the game is running flawlessly.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Operation Suikoden Rescue: Success!

I found it! Oh yes, I have found the Suikoden V PlayStation 2 disc that I discovered to be missing last night! I mentioned in the update note in the wee hours of the morning after my initial search that I began to worry about the whole situation. Well, when I finally got time to continue on my search today, I sat down to analyze the situation more thoughtfully. I could vaguely recall trying to play the game again when I moved to my current residence so I concluded that if the game disc could not be found in any of the PS2 game cases that I had accessed over these past 3+ years, it must be in one of my PlayStation 3 game cases because those would be laying around the room for me to manipulate and use as temporary places to store wayward game discs. So I checked about 3-4 PS2 game cases and when the disc was not there, I started immediately on the PS3 game cases. Just as I was going through the first row of PS3 games, a disc plopped to the left side, thankfully undamaged, when I opened the case for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2! It was a delicious moment of immediate relief:

It felt good... Like really, really good!

Now that I have found the game disc, expect to see me playing it on my twitch.tv channel. I plan to do a play-through of the game, which is of course further fueled by the adventure that I just went through to reclaim the game! I want to use PCSX2 to play the game again with improved graphics. But if the performance of that program is poor, I may just use my PS2 console to do the job.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Operation Suikoden Rescue

You know, there is a good reason why I am so diligent about placing game discs back into their appropriate cases after I am done playing them and that reason being the prevention of those game discs being misplaced. I, unfortunately, have adopted this habit of using a disc organizer to place the game discs that I frequented and this, I believe, has resulted in my current painful heartache. I was having a hard time deciding what to play earlier this evening and decided to visit my PlayStation 2 library before deciding on Suikoden V. Imagine my horror as I saw this when I opened the game case:

My heart. It hurts.

The game disc was missing! In panic, I checked my PS2 console and found that it wasn't in the disc tray. Next, I checked the disc trays on my current and old computer: both yielded nothing. The next step here would be to return all of the discs I placed inside the disc organizer back into their proper dwellings to see if I accidentally placed the Suikoden V disc inside one of those cases. Please, let that be the case because if not, I would have to open every single one of my PS2 game cases before moving on to the other consoles. I sure wish that all my games are digital. The same thing happened to me back in 2008 with a Personal Computer game, so let's hope that this incident will have a happy ending.

Update Note: 07/02/2013, 2:00am - I returned all the homeless discs into their appropriate game cases as well as went through some of my music CD cases and two rows of PS2 games and so far, I came up empty. I am beginning to get a little worried.

07/02/2013, 3:20pm - Success!

Random Game Room Moment

My Wii U Game Library... It's expanding?

Games Played 06/24/2013 - 06/30/2013

- 06/24/2013 -
ALLTYNEX Second - PC
Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 3DS
Ginga Force - X-Box 360

- 06/25/2013 -
Game & Wario - Wii U
Ginga Force - X-Box 360
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - Wii U
Project X Zone - 3DS

- 06/26/2013 -
League of Legends - PC
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - Wii U
Project X Zone - 3DS

- 06/27/2013 -
Ginga Force - X-Box 360
League of Legends - PC

- 06/28/2013 -
Defender's Quest - PC
League of Legends - PC
Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers - PC

- 06/29/2013 -
League of Legends - PC
Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals - NDS
Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 - PC

- 06/30/2013 -
Evasion - PC
Ginga Force - X-Box 360
Guild Wars 2- PC
League of Legends - PC
Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals - NDS
Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 - PC
Project X Zone - 3DS


Screenshot of the Week:

A fiery resurrection.