Mario Marathon hits $48k

Wow, I've been following the Mario Marathon and they've pulling a whopping $48,000 in donations. Crazy!

Looks like they'll have to get all 120 stars in Super Mario 64. Donations are easy. Go do it!

Mario Itch

The after watching a bit of the Mario Marathon 3 I'm getting the urge to do one myself. I've never actually finished any of the Mario games (Super Mario Bros and Super Mario 64 being the only exceptions to that and maybe Super Mario Bros 2). So it would be fun to knock all those off the list.

There's a crazy amount of stuff to do in all those games and so it would be fun to play through them all.

If I were to do it would be:

Super Mario Bros. (Wii Emulation)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (Wii Emulation)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (not sure on this as I don't own an NES but I do own the cart so I either buy and NES or buy the Wii version)
Super Mario World
Super Mario 64 (this one is already so I'd skip it for now.
Super Mario Sunshine
New Super Mario Bros (this is the only handheld title in the bunch)
Super Mario Galaxy
New Super Mario Bros Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2

That's a lot of games. I've already started Sunshine but I'm less than 20 Shines in so maybe I'll put it on hold.

Phoenix Wright - Boot to the Head

If you like Phoenix Wright and you like "Boot to the Head" by the Frantics, you'll like this:

Gambits...I think I like them

Years ago when I first heard of the Gambit system employed by Final Fantasy XII, I thought that the world as we know it had stop spinning, and everything would come to a crashing end.   The gambit system seemed like the worst thing to happen to a Final Fantasy game since Final Fantasy II was released*.   "You want me to give up control of my characters?" I thought.   "No way!"

So here I am, a good 4 years after it's release and I'm finally giving the game the time it deserves.   And, to my surprise, I think I like Gambits.

The reason?   Gambits don't do anything, I wouldn't do anyway.   In other words, rather than controlling my characters in real time and telling them exactly what I want them to do, using the Gambit system I tell them exactly what I want them to do, outside of the battle, and then, they do it.  And should I want to issue commands directly, no problem, in real time, I just do it and whatever command I've given, overrides the Gambit.

The reason it works so well, is because it's so dang flexible.   It's not a simple, be a healer, be aggressive, be defensive system, there's so many commands and so many things you can build into your gambit system that I could see myself spend a lot of time tweaking it until it's 'just right'.

I'm only about 10 hours in but so far, Gambit seems good to me, and thankfully, the world is still spinning.

*For the record I actually quite like Final Fantasy II and I'm playing it for the third time on my PSP.  I've already played the PS1 and GBA releases of it.

Free games

Well, not really, it's just realized that for some reason, a few of my acquisitions had slipped through the cracks. Namely, Fallout 3 CE, Warriors Orochi 2, and Bioshock 2 CE.  I'm somewhat surprised that those have been sitting in my collection and I've not yet noticed that they didn't make it onto Backloggery or into my personal database.  Ah well, they are there now.

Sorry if you jumped here thinking it was some free offering.

Red Dead, Done

I beat Red Dead Redemption last night and let me tell you this has been one of the single best gaming experiences of my highly esteemed gaming career.  The characters were top notch,  the details were amazing, the storyline was excellent.

You should play this game.  You really should.   I was so just drawn into the world of Red Dead that I couldn't stop.  But, 1 day, 2 hours, 51 mins, and 26 sec later, I was done.  And, I was bit sad.

From the moment I started playing I was captivated.  I couldn't stop.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful; I've never seen a day/night cycle coupled with the various weather effects done so well.   Rain actually makes puddles, and when in the buildings you hear the rain falling outside.  The attention to detail was so great, that different building types actually sounded different from the inside when being rained on.

I will play this again, probably the 360 version for fun and comparison, and then maybe I'll play it again sometime after that.  As I said, I spent 27 hours playing this game and that was only the core story.  I've still got a ton of bounty hunts, hideout clearing, stranger encounters, skill challenges, outfit collecting and more.  And I've not touched the multiplayer yet either.

For those of you who disliked (or liked) GTA IV, this is not GTA IV.  Yes there are some gameplay conventions from GTA, but this is much more than a reskinning of GTA IV.  It's a whole new gameplay experience.

I just hope to see more of this, and soon.

The sunset in New Austin

I was riding southwest today from Hennigan's Stead and came across this lovely vista as the sun was setting.  That's Lake Don Julio down there and you can see Coot's Chapel down on the lower right. It's not a great shot cause I captured it with my camera but that's the best I could do.

The game continues to impress me with its gameplay, characters, graphics, you name.

Armored Core 2

I found a pristine copy of Armored Core 2 yesterday.  I probably wouldn't have even noticed it in the bargain bin at GameStop but thanks to usagi704's post the other day I had Armored Core fresh in my brain.  It is a near mint, complete copy (disc is flawless) and it was under $3 out the door with tax

Who could say no to that?

Of course, for me, that opens a huge can of worms.  Now I'm going to have to get all the other Armored Core titles, and there's a ton.

The hunt is on!

The challenge...

I've given my son a challenge. He is always playing Mario games. Over and over and over and over again. I can't count how many times he's played Luigi's Mansion. Too many.

Not that that's bad. There's nothing inherently wrong with Mario games. But while all his friends are talking Call of Duty or Halo, his gaming experience is limited to Super Mario and Mario Kart.

He and I often times argue over who the better gamer is. He, of course, throws the 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy (two times, once with Mario and again with Luigi) or his 100% of Luigi's Mansion, but I have numerous 1000/1000 achievement games and 4 platinum trophies to wave in his face. 

So, I've given him a challege. To prove to me that he's as good as he thinks he is, he must:

• Beat Call of Duty 2 on Veteran
• Beat Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on Hard
• Beat all Blacklist 15 racers in Need for Speed: Most Wanted
• Beat all MotorStorm Events with a 1st place win.
• Earn a Platinum Trophy on Prince of Persia
• Beat Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Sith Master difficulty

It's a nice mix of platform, racer, shooter and action.  I've done it all, but we'll see if he can.  Of course, if he does pull it off, I've got to earn all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy.

I'm not too worried.

May 2010 in Review

I'm rebooting this site. To kick it off I thought I'd start with a good old fashioned Month in Review. I'll rehash everything I did this month which includes in game acquisitions, achievements, trophies, and overall gaming progress.