Pagoda of Gaming

So I’m over halfway through the DS Experiment, and I’m unsure of what I should be playing next. And If I don’t figure it out soon, I’ll just end up with platinum all the way to the finish line, like the fucking crack that it is. “So why don’t I let my readers decide?” I thought. So it’s simple, pick something from below and give me one good reason. I know you lot are a quiet bunch, but this should be easy enough for you.

Final Fantasy IV

Chrono Trigger

GTA: Chinatown Wars (well, to finish the rest of it)

In a small bit of nostalgia-news, Max Payne, the original un-wahlberged version, has been unleashed as an X-Box original. This is awesome news for me, because I can’t get the damn thing to run on any of my PC’s - So I may just have to pick this up and play through the cronicles before #3 hits in the winter. Shame that it doesn’t have any achievements - the same can be said for the rest of the Xbox originals.

Today’s video is the first proper footage we’ve got of Dead Rising 2. It seems pretty tame, but then there’s the Double-Edged Chainsawlance. And when you think that can’t get any awesomer, CHAINSAWCYCLE! Make sure you watch in HQ!

instrumental

It seems that I’m not the only one that thinks a Fallout re-release isn’t a bad idea. Putting it on the DS makes it a brilliant idea. Hit the link for a mockup image of the game in action. Coincidentally, I found the post whilst googling “Fallout DS” just incase the preverbial they decided it would make them money. I still want to play the original fallout games, but if it were on a newer platform, with some modern a twists to the implementation, it would drive me to play it. Having it sit there, and it costing me something like £5 to own, doesn’t drive me.

whilst we’re on the subject, there’s some more info about Broken Steel, the last of the trilogy of Fallout 3 DLC. It’s basically a confirmation of what we already know. It’s nice to know that this expansion should have a more widespread effect on the known-wasteland, aswel as add a new out of the border location. I really hope that they make some more DLC for the waning summer months, another month-by-month trilogy would be freaking awesome, especially if it draws off some of the new Broken Steel implementations.

Whilst we’re on expansions, DLC, or whatever. It’s amazing to see that whilst Valve are seemingly gearing up to totally revamp and add to TF2, for free, the best sony can come up with is a couple of maps for $6.

There’s also THIS. I think it can speak for itself. Personally, I don’t see the appeal, and I think alot of weed was involved in the conseption.

Today’s video is the new Lonely Island single, if it even is a single. If it is, I certainly approve of the track.

This’ll probably be the last post before I head off to fundee, deck protectors and DS in hand. Everything is officially booked for my trip now, so there’s no going back. The Alara Reborn spoiler is now complete, and it’s clearly a set with no mono-colored or no-colored anythings. Not even land. Years ago we would’ve called this blasphemy, especially when you learn the facts that there are artifacts in the set, and yet there is only color. No planeswalkers - which is understandable. I think 5 is going to be our official ‘walker quota per block.

There is one last thing I’d like to talk about. I finished Y: The Last Man on monday and it was way better than I thought it would be, the story did lack a little at some parts in the middle, but it really came through. Just the way it ended really touched me, like emotionally, and when it comes to books - that hasn’t happened since I finished the Amber Spyglass. Which coincidentally both turned into a fucked up love story in the end. The point is, it’s really been stuck in my head since I saw the end of it, and few things really do these days.

you were wearing that dress

I think I’ve rediscoverd the Joys of Pokemon. I spent most of the weekend with Platinum. I only got as far as the third badge, but within that I racked up well over 12 hours worth of gameplay. My main squad is round about the level 30’s, and I spent a considerable amount of time Evolving a Togetic - making such a beast happy enough to evolve is no small task. Gaining an Alakazam would have to be the highlight of my weekend. And I mean that in the best way possible.

I have to say that the World Trading feature is extremely weak. It’s inherently nintendo, which basically means you get half the perceived functionality off the bat. When you search for a pokemon you want, first you can only do so for the ‘mon you’ve already seen. Then the game presents only a small chunk of the full information, there might be 200 people out there offering an Eevee for trade but if you don’t search by region you get a maximum of only 8 trades on your screen.

Pokemon can in my opinion, an opinioin forged from the ancient days of the craze’s birth - landfall britain, be so much more. In my wizened days I’m seeing game-holes (like plot holes, but for gameplay) that could be filled by from anything from the open world rulebook or from the simplest of RPGs. And above all that is a consept born for MMO gameplay. It would take a licence this great, a cult like this, to make us think that 12million subscribers is the weaksauce.

I’ve been hearing alot of words on the sales of Chinatown Wars and I have to say I’m dissapointed, in gamers that is. We should be buying this, because beyond RPGs and the staple nintendo rehashes it’s the kind of game the DS needs. And we should be leading the charge.

Battlefield Heroes is, for a free game - optionally so, a decent game. I think that’s all I can publically say, though I’d certainly like to say alot more. Alot more. Some not so full of praise.

EVE - which coincidentally I’m playing right now, as I type - has been good fun recently. Even though the only thing I’ve been doing is mining and shopping. I bought alot of the Caldari ship skills, so I can go a little beyond my Galente bubble. I have my eyes set on a Drake, but finding a cheap one is a difficult task. Atleast I’ll have the basic skills when I get the chance.

1 sec, gotta deal with the space-pirates.

There was a patch the other day that was full of features I presume missed the Apocrypha launch. My favourite of which is the ability to look at a ship via the market. Everything from frigates to capitals is availabe for a dirty look. It’s a feature akin to the WoW wardrobe, and I feel satisfied in the same way at this release. There’s a visual representation of your cargohold amount now, and a vista like search box on all your storage, and some extra info in the fitting window telling you how much you’re abusing your power core. CCP continues to deliver.

Vin Diesel is a pretty smart guy. He’s the real modern nerd superstar - who doesn’t look like a nerd at all. His movies aren’t winning any oscars, but there’s certainly a place for them. I saw Babylon AD yesterday and as a Shawshank competitor, it might dissapoint. But I certainly enjoyed watching it. I found this video via gerstmann, and it’s certainly changed my opinion on the man. Dude got brains.

“Fallout New Vegas” was announced today. The basic deal is - It’s an RPG not tied to the Bethesda game, but set in the same universe. Unofficially, derived by the extremely uncryptic title, we can say for sure that it’ll be set in Las Vegas, ala Nuked. Which I think will be rather interesting. The Strip had better look freaking gorgeous. Story via Kotaku. The best part of the news is that the development is being led by a bunch of Ex-Black Isle guys, now named Obsidian Studios, who have been around for a while. RPG’s seem to be their thing, so the following video is a trailer for what there working on right now. Interesting stuff.

The final video of the day is the second official Starcraft 2 battle report straight from blizzard. Honestly, I’m to afraid to even consider playing Starcraft 2 upon launch - I’ll totally hit up the single player, but beyond that, not so much. However, I’d totally watch one of these every week. I’m sure they’d make money there - Sponsored by Mountain Dew or something. Hell, even sponsored by WoW.

I’ll be in Fundee this weekend for some Cairds and steak - steak in it’s many delicious forms. My accomodation and shizzle should be set tonight. From what I’ve seen of the new magic set, it looks pretty cool. Pretty stoked to be playing again, in the friendly environment that a Prerelease is. But I think this is the last excursion I can afford for a while.

That just is my techno

My arm is in freaking pain right now from all that goddamn final-boss screen-tapping.

So what have I got to say about The World Ends With You. Well, it is first and foremost the first DS game that I’ve ever completed. So yey me!

I’m delighted more than anything that the game was entirely story driven, with a change in difficulty a touch away. And when you get the ability that stops you game-overing to the title screen, you get to retry the last battle as many times as you want, and with the option of “retry on easy”. This I found this most useful when hut head-on by one of the games bosses - I drop dead, drop it to easy, then I get to continue on with the story. Which is pretty good. Full of memorable characters, pleanty of twists and turns, and a pretty WTF ending. Infact it reminds me alot of Lost - similar in themes and feeling.

Graphically it’s a blend of traditional modern anime, but with a small twist of… dare I say, Jet Set Radio. On some level it’s an open-world game, and doing such a thing on the DS and having it set in central Shibuya is a pretty ballsy move. I’d say they pulled it off. The streets are filled with people - be they 2D sprites, and the Music is cacophany of every ‘J-Genre’ they’ve got.

As I said, it’s a pretty unique title, and it couldn’t be on anything but the DS - It reminded me of the console’s potential. Because now I can forget about all the Brain Training and talking cook-books and know that it’s there for us gamers too.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting on Pokemon Platinum, which arrived in the mail yesterday. I do have Diamond, but I got distracted by other games at the time I got my hands on it. My poor pokemon have probably died in their balls by now. It’s totally the American Version, because I can’t fucking wait another month, and neither should the rest of europe. I reiterate that this baby should’ve hut shelves the day the DSi did - but what can you do if you’re NOE. Clearly not very much…

Today’s video is the teaser for what is clearly the next Burnout Paradise Expansion.

Cops and Robbers - sounds fun. Dunno if i’d pay for it, but I sure am glad that it exists. Criterion sure have been good to us with this game. I doubt that this is just a car pack. I’m guessing - a new multiplayer mode atleast. Tag, but with cars that crash into eachother

I’m planning to hit up Fundee next-next weekend for the Alara Reborn tournament. I should clarify that I didn’t know the name of the set until last night. Part of me is ashamed that I’ve let my relationship with the game get as bad as it is. The other part of me, the wallet part, is too happy to tell. Consider this a dirty weekend.

That would’ve been the final paragraph - but I just got a Battlefield Heroes Beta Key in my mail. I don’t think I can say anything else, they might kick me

we strap on the dirty glove

Here’s The Rules:

There, that should do. I should say that I technically started yesterday, but I think a saturday is a better day for blogging and rounding off the whole thing.

I started off good and proper with The World Ends With You. Which at face value wins the award for awesomest game name ever, second place goes to Sins of a Solar Empire. It’s probably a really good title to start off on, since it’s practically tailor made for the DS.

It’s an action RPG where you control two characters at once. One with only the touch screen and one only with the d-pad. It’s the most compelling JRPG I’ve played in a helluva long time. The story and setting has really sucked me in - Set in a modern day japanese city overrun with people, and underneath you’re fighting to basically return from the dead whilst trying to peice the whole mystery together. The game gives you access to chunks of the city every day, and each day you have a mission to unravel and complete within a certain time or it’s game over - a structure I haven’t seen in a JRPG. Each chunk takes less than an hour to complete.

I played through a healthy chunk of the game yesterday, past the first ‘week’. A quantity that only makes sense to those who’ve played it. And I think I’m in it for the long haul.

Eve’s getting pretty good now that I’ve got some decent ships. I spent some time yesterday shopping about the region for parts for the Echoplex, my mission running Vexor. I’ve kitted it out for a drone combat role. Now that I can use the heavy attack drones and the drone control range extender, I can sit 50-odd kilometers away from my target and let my Ogres mop up the targets. The cloaking device, is pretty awesome to have, but it’d be nice to control my drones and be cloaked at the same time. I can see the Cloaks usefulness, but it certainly doesn’t let you bird of prey it into battle.

I name my ships after whatever I’m absorbing at the time. My Vexor is named after a Nine Inch Nails song that I happened to be listening to at the time of it’s purchase - song HERE. I have an Imicus called ‘The Bentham’ because I was watching a particular episode of lost at the time. My Mining Barge, my Retreiver, is called “The Dice and Mirror”. I’ll leave that for you to figure out.

Now that I have a mission worthy ship, albeit a little tweaking of the railguns, I’m focussing on getting my Skills up to make use of my Covetor. 20 days - ouch.

So no-one told me that Electric Six had a new album. You Cocks.

The rest of my holiday plans, that is, the rest of today and tomorrow, will be like a usual weekend. Games, Chinese Food, and Movies. I’ll be on Halo 3 for a while this afternoon, checking out the new maps and getting down with the bungie podcast. After that, consider the experiment underway.

Photoshop and Tiger