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Monday, September 28, 2015

Games Played 09/21/2015 - 09/27/2015

- 09/21/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Reign of Bullets - PC

- 09/22/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Reign of Bullets - PC

- 09/23/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Reign of Bullets - PC

- 09/24/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Elite: Dangerous - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC

- 09/25/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Cosmochoria - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Yar's Revenge - PC

- 09/26/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Cosmochoria - PC
Elite: Dangerous - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
The Weaponographist - PC

- 09/27/2015 -
Cosmochoria - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

I found myself at Hartsfield Plant.
Elite: Dangerous (Personal Computer)

Monday, September 21, 2015

Games Played 09/14/2015 - 09/20/2015

- 09/14/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC

- 09/15/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Riddled Corpses - PC

- 09/16/2015 -
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Pokémon Y – Nintendo 3DS
Rollers of the Realm - PC

- 09/17/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Life is Strange - PC

- 09/18/2015 -
Alien: Isolation - PC
Double Dragon Neon - PC
Hero Siege - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes - PC
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 - PC
Resident Evil 5 - PC
Trine 2 - PC

- 09/19/2015 -
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd - PlayStation 3
Heroes of the Storm - PC
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 - PC

- 09/20/2015 -
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Life is Strange - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

Life is not strange. It's just cruel.
Life is Strange (Personal Computer)

Friday, September 18, 2015

Nvidia GameStream Co-Op

Remember that "share" functionality touted for the PlayStation 4 that failed to live up to its promise? It was supposed to allow you to stream your PS4 games directly to a friend and it was supposed to even allow you to play local co-op game with a friend online even if they don't have the game. The sad thing is that Sony provided the developers the option to turn off that promising feature for their games - and of course they did - so my dream of ever playing local co-op games like the two PS4 Skylanders was shattered into pieces when I discovered that the feature was not supported by those games. Well, enter Nvidia Experience's new GameStream feature for the Personal Computer.

Finally, a feature that makes Nvidia Experience an installation must!

Currently in its early beta form, this feature allows PC gamers to stream any DirectX 9 games or higher directly to a friend via Google Chrome. The player can then allow the friend to take control of the game being played and even play local co-op with the friend online, complete with voice chat! This feature is still not perfect and a number of games I have tested thus far just simply wouldn't work. Those that do work however worked rather flawlessly. The quality of the GameStream video is magnificent. Though only maxed out at 720p and 30 frames per second, I didn't notice any artifacts on the video stream and it looked almost as if the games were running on my machine natively. There doesn't appear to be any lag in terms of gameplay as well. The best thing about this? It's not up to the developers to block this feature from being used with their local co-op only games - don't you wish that Sony mandated this feature for the PS4?

Tecmo Koei purposely screwed PC players by removing
online multiplayer from the Steam version of One Piece Pirate Warriors 3.
Thank you Nvidia for making it possible for me to finally enjoy this with a friend.

If Nvidia keeps working on perfecting this feature, Nvidia GameStream will easily be one of the best gaming tools available for PC gaming ever. Heck, it is a mighty impressive one even at its current form. I also hope that this will light a ravaging fire under Valve's butt so they can provide the same feature implemented directly via the Steam client. It's time to buy or re-install those local co-op PC games my friends and play the crap out of them online!

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Too Many Games, Too Many Distractions

Adding titles into my ever growing Game Library is as much fun as playing the games themselves. I realize that I am not only addicted to the prospect of playing video games, but also to the whole process of cataloging them - which is mostly a digital process these days. Gone were the days when I have to move physical boxes around to ensure that things stay alphabetical - I do still get the occasional physical copies every now and then - and what is left is entering the game information into my list located on this site as well as oh a personal Google Drive sheet as soon as I have acquired the title(s). I update my lists often. Sometimes, it feels like I update them a couple of times a day. Most definitely several times a week. I know it has been constant and it has been like that for a long time. I have been wrapped up in my personal pleasures. Not that it's a bad thing. I am still a believer that you should do what you want when you can as soon as possible, as long as it doesn't hurt others, because by the time you know it, your life is over. But I know that I need to slow down because the process of acquiring video games serves a separate purpose from my existence as an avid gamer. The latter is about playing those games and spending time with them. I remember this article I wrote in 2011 - yeah, that was 4 years ago - in which I quote "I have to spend around 210 months - that's 17 and a half years - to go through all of them all the way to their optimal potentials". And back then, I only had 2,188 games. Now, I am 94 away from reaching 4,000. I know that the number of games that have their gameplay potential maximized is probably lower than 100 between then and now and yet the number of games I have access to have almost doubled. I guess what I am trying to say here is that I need to slow down a little and I am going to put a lot more effort into controlling my intake of new Game Library inductions and hopefully, the result will show in the monthly reports starting this month, September 2015.

I don't believe in limits but time is an unfortunate form of human limitation.

How am I going to ensure that this happens you ask? Well, I think the root of the problem lies within the method in which I enjoy my video games. I pretty much play what I am in the mood for without putting into consideration that most games these days are designed in a way that an entire play-through, or the complete experience, cannot be achieved in one sitting. So, whenever I play those kind of games, with the most recent examples being Mad Max and Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time for the PC, I don't get the immediate sense of reward initially playing them and when I am done with a session or two, I find it hard to get back to them when I can then rely on something like Audiosurf 2 or Heroes of the Storm to provide me that sense of satisfaction and completion I yearn for. The thing is, I know that playing long, extended games like Mad Max can provide a satisfying sit down session if I continue playing it and go further into the game. I have recently proven this for myself by continually playing Alien: Isolation on the PC. When I initially played the game, I allowed the fear of bumping into the Alien as a way for me to stop playing it - yes, I actually stopped playing before the real game began. Now that I have encountered the Alien and experienced the thrill of the cat and mouse game that ensued, I finally understand the true sense of what the game is all about and oh how glorious the gameplay can be. With Alien: Isolation, I have learned that making progress in games that can't be completed in one sitting can be a lot of fun. Most importantly however, I learn that horror games can't kill me. Sure, they're scary, but if I can survive the feeling of being continually hunted by the nasty Alien, I can survive any other form of scares in video games. That revelation will definitely help me with sticking with the horror games I play until completion.

Horror games are 20 times scarier than horror movies but
I seem to have forgotten somewhere along the way that I am a fan of the genre.

I know that I must have tried to take things slower in the past, that I needed to stop and smell the roses and not to get too caught up with the latest and greatest games available for the taking. I also know that I have failed to stay focused in taking it a game at a time but I am sensing a change in the way I approach things these past couple of weeks. Gaming can be a distraction from life in general, but I cannot allow the games themselves to become a distraction from one another within the confines of my favorite hobby. Wish me luck!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Games Played 09/07/2015–09/13/2015

- 09/07/2015 -
Audiosurf 2 – PC
Batman: Arkham Knight – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Pokémon Y – Nintendo 3DS

- 09/08/2015 -
Audiosurf 2 – PC
Final Fantasy XIII – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Pokémon Y – Nintendo 3DS

- 09/09/2015 -
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time – PC
Pokémon Y – Nintendo 3DS
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide – PC

- 09/10/2015 -
A City Sleeps – PC
Audiosurf 2 – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time – PC
Metal Slug – PC

- 09/11/2015 -
A City Sleeps – PC
Alien: Isolation – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Metal Slug – PC
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide - PC

- 09/12/2015 -
A City Sleeps - PC
Heroes of the Storm - PC
Metal Slug - PC
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - PC

- 09/13/2015 -
Heroes of the Storm - PC
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - PC


Screenshot of the Week:

I wouldn't mind living in Red Creek Valley... Without the supernatural stuff of course.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Personal Computer)

Saturday, September 12, 2015

The Vanishing of Loner Gamer

You may have heard about this little adventure game called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter by The Astronauts for the Personal Computer. It's been out since last year and apparently had earned a lot of accolades in terms of its graphics and storytelling. Well, outside of those two very generic descriptions about the game, I had absolutely no idea what the game is really all about. Based on the product summary on the Steam store page, it seems to me like it's just a supernatural detective adventure game. Well, the very last thing that I expected when I played the game for the very first time tonight was the game to be scary... Because, well, it bloody is. And it didn't even wait to scare the crap out of me. Not even a build up was used, none of that as the game immediately took away any sense of trust and control quickly after the game began. I was live streaming the game on YouTube Gaming not too long ago and had to stop because I didn't know if things are going to get worse and it is late at night. I will play the game again tomorrow but I wasn't willing to take the risk of being scared senseless tonight. Back to Heroes of the Storm then...

And nobody tagged this game with "Scary" or at least "Horror"?


Update Note - 09/13/2015: I continued the game this morning and I am happy to report that TVoEC didn't go down the slippery slope of jump scares. 2 hours in, I am now impressed by the high level of creativity in both the gameplay and the narrative elements. The continually impressive visuals help too.

Later in the evening: Well, I was wrong. Screw this game!

Monday, September 7, 2015

Games Played 08/31/2015 – 09/06/2015

- 08/31/2015 -
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Home is Where One Starts… – PC
Ikaruga – PC
Mad Max – PC
Scribble Space – PC
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – PC

- 09/01/2015 -
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Mad Max – PC
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 – PC

- 09/02/2015 -
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC

- 09/03/2015 -
Batman: Arkham Knight – PC
Raiden IV: Overkill – PC
Until Dawn – PlayStation 4

- 09/04/2015 -
Batman: Arkham Knight – PC
Dibalo III: Reaper of Souls – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Raiden IV: Overkill – PC

- 09/05/2015 -
Batman: Arkham Knight – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Raiden IV: Overkill – PC
Pokémon Y – Nintendo 3DS

- 09/06/2015 -
Batman: Arkham Knight – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Pokémon Y – Nintendo 3DS


Screenshot of the Week:

The big PC patch is finally here, but 4GB VRAM to max out everything? They’re on crack.
Batman: Arkham City (Personal Computer)

Thursday, September 3, 2015

New PC Hero: Degica

There is a new hero in the realm  of Personal Computer game publishing and its name is Degica/DegiGames. These guys have released plenty of Japanese games on Steam, most notably, at least for me, the Steam release of shmups Crimson Clover WORLD IGNITION and just several months ago, XIIZEAL. Well, they are propelling their already glowing, positive reputation into mega platinum legendary status when they recently announced that they are bringing Eschatos to Steam this month and more importantly, that they will be publishing Cave shmups on Steam later this year!

I am stunned. Winter 2015 is just around the corner.

A lot of Cave shmups – I own quite a number for my X-Box 360 – struggled to find a domestic release but thankfully, they are sometimes region-free thus capable of being played on North American consoles. How these guys managed to get these Cave shmups to be released on Steam is nothing short of a miracle since these games have never found their way into the PC platform. Sure, we don’t know which titles are getting released yet – those clusters of pink bullets look suspiciously Mushihimesama - but you know that once any of them is being sold on Steam, it should be easy for the rest to follow suit. What these guys have done here is a monumental contribution to Steam and the PC gaming community as a whole and I sure hope that this will ensure that any and all Japanese shmups – past, present, and future - will eventually arrive on Steam. Thank you Degica/DegiGames! You are a true PC hero!

Games Played 08/24/2015–08/30/2015

- 08/24/2015 -
Audiosurf 2 – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Reign of Bullets – PC

- 08/25/2015 -
Bloodborne – PlayStation 4
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Phoenix HD – PC

- 08/26/2015 -
Grandia II Anniversary Edition - PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Mega Man Legacy Collection – PC
Shadownrun: Hong Kong – PC

- 08/27/2015 -
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 – PC

- 08/28/2015 –
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC

- 08/29/2015 -
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC

- 08/30/2015 -
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 – PC
Heroes of the Storm – PC
Reign of Bullets – PC


Screenshot of the Week:

When you want to give head, you got to put some real efforts into it.
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (Personal Computer)