I just couldn't do it, Part Deux

Target had TRON: Evolution on sale the other day for 37.99.   Back to Gamestop I went to return the game I got after returning the TRON: Evolution Collector's Edition.

I've now saved myself over $90 on this game from my original purchase.

The Silent Protagonist

For some reason, developers have this crazy idea that if they don't make the player's character talk, then it allows you, the player, to 'become one' with the character and somehow allow you to identify with him/her better.

Loads of crap.

I recently finished Dead Space and other than a few grunts and groans here and there, I never spoke a single word.  I was talked at a whole bunch but I never uttered a single phrase.  Never acknowledged a single message, never any reaction to the nasty things he encounters, not even a, "Phew, glad that is over" when it is all over.

Far from helping me be the character, I found myself wondering why in the world this guy is such an emotionless tool.   And he's not alone.   Gordan Freeman is a mute.  Meets all sorts of people in course of his games, never says a word to any of them.  Not even a simple, "Hey what's up?"  People through the course of the game have entire conversations with him, even to the point where they act like he's actually responding to them.  To me they seem like crazy nut jobs who are talking to themselves.

Sometimes the developers go so far as to give you character who has no identity.  Last year's Halo: ODST didn't even give you a name.  You are simply known as the "The Rookie".   And on top of that, you don't even have a face.  You're the helmeted unknown.  I guess that makes it nice for all gamers as it really could be anyone in there (male or female) but it also makes the protagonist rather uninteresting.

As I said earlier, I recently finished Dead Space and the whole time I was bothered by the lack of reaction from Issac Clarke.  I compare this to some other titles I played this year, such as Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Red Dead Redemption, and Mass Effect.

In all of these, I became engaged with the protagonist in a way that would not be possible with silent method.  I cared about the plight of John Marsten and his desire to see his family.   I understood Ezio's motivation's and what drove him to Rome.

And Shepard from Mass Effect, far from being a silent protagonist, I got to not only become engaged in his/her story, I got to shape the character into something that I wanted without the character being silent.  I identified with the character because I shaped the character.

Here's the deal, I like Half-Life.  I like BioShock.  I like Dead Space.  But I often wonder if I would have liked them more had I been allowed to get know the protagonist better.

I just couldn't do it

Earlier this month I bought the Tron: Evolution Collector's Edition.  It was pricey.  And what does that extra CE get you?

Hmm, let's see.  I get the game, a big box, and a lightcycle with a display case.  Oh, and a $10 movie pass.

So, assuming no sales on this you are paying $130.  That's $60 for the game, $10 for the movie pass, and $60 for a lightcycle?  Wow that is steep.

For $60 I could go to Amazon and get the Sam lightcycle, the runner, and Flynn's white lightcycle.

Yeah can't justify that.  So back to the store it went and I swapped it out for the regular version.

I feel better now.

Wampas like to exercise too...

I think this guy ate too many rebels and needed to work off the extra weight.

Tron is coming...

The new Tron movie is coming and it makes me feel like a kid again.

Daft Punk has taken the reigns on the soundtrack front and has given us this lovely preview of one of the tracks from the movie.   The video itself is not from the movie, and in fact looks like what we may have gotten if they released the movie 10 years ago and decided to stick with the 1980s aesthetics.

Daft Punk - New Music - More Music Videos

Man, the sounds of that arcade at the beginning sure takes me back...

This month in collecting - November 2010

It's been awhile since I posted. I've been very busy of late.  So this post will cover the tail end of October and all of November

Click on the images to enlarge.

Driver 2

I picked up a little bit ago and so when I found this really nice copy of Driver 2, I couldn't pass on it.  It's a Greatest Hits but I'll survive.

Enslaved
I enjoyed the demo, reviews were good, so when Amazon had this on for only $25, I couldn't resist.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: Collector's Edition (PS3 and 360)
I wanted the collector's version but then I found out that the depending on which retailer you bought from, you'd get a different Jack in the Box.   So, I ordered one from Gamestop (Jester) and one from Amazon (Doctor).  Now I have both.  Excessive?  Yes, but since Assassin's Creed is my absolute favorite IP from this generation of consoles, a little indulgence is okay. Right?

A brief update...

My new PS3 is on it's way! Should be here by Wednesday.

Also, I've decided to stop doing weekly collection updates and will move to a bi-monthly format. So one on the 15th and then the last day of the month. So next update will include everything since my last update so it will catch the tail end of October. Not that you care, but in case you were wondering.

I started playing Shadow of the Colossus and I can see why everyone goes on about this game. I'm only an hour in and I'm really enjoying it. It, like Ico, are very unique experiences.

Oh Noes! The YLOD on my PS3

I've had 2 RRODs on my 360s, but through all of that my PS3 has been solid.  I was very surprised (and sad) when my PS3 died tonight.

So, my choice is $178 and I get a refurb of my 60GB (yes the backwards compatible one) or $145 and they will send me out a refurb slim.

I think I'm going with the slim.  Bigger HD, uses less power, gives off less heat, and theoretically, is quieter.  I don't need backwards compatibility so that's not a huge deal for me.

Regardless of which I do, it sucks.

Oh, and my new Star Wars the Force Unleashed II disc is stuck in the PS3 as well.

This week in collecting Vol 2010-4 Oct 17 - 23, 2010

Konami is the winner this week with a couple of PS2 acquisitions both from Konami (obviously).

Click on the images to enlarge.

Shadow of Destiny

I've been wanting this title for awhile, but I've never really actively looked for it.  This was a totally random find, and I had actually forgot that I was even looking for it (I really need to update my Blackberry's want list).

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
This is actually kind of a duplicate.   I already have this on the Xbox, but I like to keep series on a single platform.   So since I have Symphony of the Night on the PS1, Lament on PS2, and will most likely be getting the new Castlevania on the PS3, I felt the need to get all the Castlevania's on the PS platform.  I still haven't decided what to do with my Xbox Curse of Darkness.

My collection total at the end of the week is 1,418 titles.  Backloggery game count is 1,482.

This week in collecting Vol 2010-3 Oct 10 - 16, 2010

Here's the breakdown this week:  1 DS (sort of), 1 PS1, 1 PS2,  and 1 X360 titles.  In total, 4 new titles.  However, the DS title somehow didn't get entered and accounted for last month so I'm adding it in now.

My collection total at the end of the week is 1,416 titles.  Backloggery game count is 1,480.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City

Ok I forgot to add this into my collection last month so I'm finally getting around to it.  It came with a nice art book that includes are from all three Etrian Odyssey game so I'm quite pleased with that.

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
I like Indiana Jones, and I kinda don't really care what the critic ratings were on this one.  There's enough user reviews that I've seen that are positive to warrant giving this one a try.

Amped 3

Awhile back I picked up 1080º Avalanche for the GameCube.   Then I decided I needed to pick up the predecessor, 1080º on the N64.   Then I got this crazy idea that I should collect all the system exclusive snowboarding games.  I already have Amped, so Amped 3 is to fill out the Xbox snowboarding series.  Now I just need to get a clean copy of Amped 2 and I'm good.   I don't think there was a system exclusive Playstation series so no need there.

Koudelka

I'm very pleased to add this to my collection.   I have all the Shadow Hearts games but I've always felt that the Shadow Hearts collection wasn't complete as I was missing Sacnoth's first RPG entry, Koudelka.

This week in collecting Vol 2010-2 Oct 3 - 9, 2010

Here's the breakdown this week:  1 DS, 2 PS1, 1 PC,  and 3 PS3 titles.  In total, 7 new titles.  With the DS addition that brings my total DS count to 50 titles.  So that's a nice milestone!

My collection total at the end of the week is 1,412 titles.  Backloggery game count is 1,476.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island

After picking up Atelier Rorona I figured I'd better complete my Atelier collection.  I knew Fry's had a few in stock so I headed on over there to pick one up.

Tekken 6
This recently became a Greatest Hit title, which means that soon they will replace all the original release packaging with the nasty red box.   I figured I'd go pick one up before that happens.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Target bargain rack.  I like Company of Heroes, so more is good.

Prototype

Another Target bargain bin item.  I've always wanted to try this one out.   It came out around the same time as Infamous and (at least in my mind) was overshadowed by it.  It's one I've always wanted to get so bargain time was a good time to pick it up.

Driver
A series I've always wanted to try.  So when I came across the first title for $3 in pretty much perfect condition, I figured, why not?  Course now I'll feel compelled to pickup the whole series...

Saiyuki: Journey West
I was really pleased to find this out in the wild.  Case and disc are in great shape, some minor warping to the cover of the manual but otherwise it's in absolutely great shape.  This was one of those post-PS2 release titles and I don't think it got a huge print run so it was nice to find it.

NHL 10
Hockey season got to me.   Needed to roll some hockey so I picked up last year's game for less than half of what I would pay for NHL 11 new.

The Q4 2010 Gentleman's Agreement

Ever wanted to have a friend play a certain game?  You've seen the game sitting there in their collection, unused, unplayed, unloved?

Well that's where the Gentleman's Agreement comes in. I'm involved in two now for Q4.  I have two games that I must play and beat.

I mentioned one in my previous post, NCAA Football 07 must be beat this quarter.  In turn, KaiBueno must complete Ico.

But my other assignment is Dead Space.   I've been told by ProjectGemini07 that I must beat that.  In turn I've told PanzerNinja to beat Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and PanzerNinja has assigned Alan Wake to ProjectGemini07.

I started Dead Space.   Reminds me a lot of Resident Evil and Doom 3.  Which is a good thing.  

I don't think I'd want to play it at night...

I think I'll go play a game of football.  That's less disturbing.

The Last Quarter of 2010

I can't believe that we are almost done with 2010.  We've got one more quarter left which means I've got only 3 months to meet the goals I set for myself at the outset of this year.   Some of them are pretty much out of reach at this point. 

So, where am I at at this point:

According to my count, I have 1,404 titles in my collection, which makes for 1,468 unique games (some of the titles being anthologies and such).

I had 6 goals this year:

1. Beat or Complete 40 or more unfinished games - I'm doing okay with this goal and I think I'll be able to easily get to 40 games.  I'm at 31 games as of right now, so I only need 9 more games to finish out the year.
2. For any console that I have 10 or more unfinished games, I have to beat at least 1 game for that console over the next year - So far so good.  I need to beat a game on the Wii and the Xbox and I'll have this goal done.
3. Finalize game inventory - I have been doing this and have made a lot of good progress.  The PC games still need to be finalized but all other platforms are pretty much complete
4. Finish at least 1 Zelda game - I'm working on The Legend of Zelda right now.
5. Buy a Nintendo Entertainment System - I ended up getting a Dreamcast instead.   I'll push the NES to next year
6. For every 2 games I acquire, I have to beat least 1 game - Ok, I'll fail on this one.  Not a chance.  I've had too many acquisitions this year to beat half of my acquisitions.

So, here's what I have planned for the rest of the year:

• Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - I'm current playing this, I don't see any reason why it won't be beat by the end of the year.
• Legend of Zelda (GCN) - 4/8 Triforce pieces.  Yes, it tries my patience but I should be able to complete it by the end of the year as well.
• Klonoa (Wii) - I'm targeting this as my first Wii game to beat.
• Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - I played through Ico earlier this year and really enjoyed it.  So I'm really looking forward to this one.
• Final Fantasy III (NDS) - I'm probably close to halfway through this one, so this should be a pretty straightforward beat.
• NCAA Football 07 (X360) - I've been told by KaiBueno that I need to beat a sports game, so this is it.  I'm going to pick a ranked team an roll a single season.
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Xbox) - I started this a while back and never finished it.  I should polish it off to knock out an Xbox platform beat.
• Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS2) - I enjoyed the first Sly, I've heard this one takes the series to a new level.
• Spyro the Dragon (PS1) - Old school Insomniac.  Should be a quick beat though.

I'd like to beat more than that, but that's what I'm targeting right now.

Enough posting, onto some gaming!

This week in collecting...Sep 26 - Oct 2, 2010

So here's the damage this week, 4 titles, 3 new and 1 upgrade.   Click on the images to enlarge.

Crash Bandicoot

I had given up hope trying to find this title in wild.   I ended picking it up disc only just a few weeks ago.   I ran across it this week in all it's glory.   Disc is fantastic.  A lovely upgrade from a disc only version.

SaGa Frontier 2
With this addition, I now own all the SaGa titles.  Of course I'm only counting domestic releases and non-handheld (Final Fantasy Legend) games.  So....SaGa collection done!

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

I couldn't not get this.   I recently finished Kingdom Hearts: Chains of Memories on the GBA and I've become really drawn into the story.  Here's hoping for a PS3 KH game down the road.

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland

Total impulse buy.   I was planning on getting this at some point but when the GameStop employee (who knows I have a thing for the more obscure titles that Atlus and NIS tend to release) pointed out that it had released and that the GS version had a nice box with a hardcover art book, well, that was it.  I was sold.

That's it for this week!

Fun with physics

Ever since games started using physics engines gamers have been able to see all sorts of fun little glitches.

I've collected a few of my favorites.

Enjoy!


EA's Skate, funny (and sometimes brutal) physics glitches

Halo: Combat Evolved, Flying Warthogs


Far Cry 2, fun with barrels


Just Cause 2 a really long fall, or should I say, roll?

Discounting the Legend

I really didn't want to pay $150 for Halo: Reach Legendary Edition.

So I didn't.

The game comes with a code for a Flaming Helment and some Elite Armor for mutiplayer.  I don't really care about that so I sold it on E-Bay.

Apparently there are some who really do care about it as I was able to sell it for $81.

I'm fairly stoked about that.

Unboxing the Legend

I picked up my copy of Halo: Reach: Legendary Edition today.  It's huge!

Here's some shots of the grand unboxing:

The Big Box

Opening it up...

All the contents, note the size of the standard game case in relation to everything else

Closeup of the game case

Noble Team standing ready

Seriously, I don't know where I'm going to put that.

Shadows of the Empire Get!

Yes! I've finally got a complete copy of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. That brings my N64 collection to a total of 16 titles.

Being the Star Wars nut that I am, I really don't know how this game slipped through the cracks.  I was always planning on getting it, but for whatever reason, I never actually got it.

Feels good to close this hole in my collection.

The new goal

I've resigned myself to the fact now that I'll never be able to Beat all of the games in my backlog. For a while, I had set out to at least get a certain percentage Beat. I'm now going to modify my backlog goals into something a bit more manageable. This whole I idea came out of an ongoing (over several months really) discussion about backlogs with Mamba219.

So instead of a flat percentage goal, I'm going to shoot for getting a platform Beaten. This way, I can show some tangible progress, without limiting my collection needs. Once I've Beaten a given platform, I have to maintain that status, so any additions to my collection for a platform that has been previously Beaten, will get priority. After a platform has been Beaten, I'll pick another platform and start in on that one.

So, I may never be able to defeat the Baklaag. But at least I'll be able to harm him!

To start, it's going to be the SNES. Right now I've got a total of 6 games on that platform, so it's definitely doable.

Here's what's on the schedule then (in order of release):

Super Mario World
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Metroid
Illusion of Gaia
Donkey Kong Country
Chrono Trigger

Kinda works out nice as it alternates between a platformer and an RPG (and yes I'm counting Zelda as an RPG for the purposes of this statement so don't bug me about it).

Game On!

The neverending backlog

I've been desperately trying to clean up my inventory and officially set things right. So in addition to some of the normal collecting I do, I've been reconciling my personal collection and my Backloggery Collection.

It will be a long process...

I do need to sort it out and I need to make some decisions, especially around my PC titles. I have quite a few duplicates across platforms and I sort feel that I should pick a platform for any given title and then get rid of the other version. I still can't decide on that though.

For example, I have Tomb Raider on both PS1 and PC. Should I get rid of the PC version? It's a pain to install, and the controls are kinda wonky on the PC. I should probably just be done with the PC version right?

Arrgh, I don't know what to do. It's against my religion to get rid of games so this one hurts.

P.S. I saw this today. I really wish these bumper stickers were real. That would be fantastic.

This is how a new Sonic should look

Korean Gamers APM

Crazy!

Inventory Time

All my PS2 games...

...and my PSP games.

Decided to inventory my PS2 and PSP games today as I was in the process of reorganizing some shelf space.  My poor PSP games have been doublestacked for a while and my N64 games were buried behind a bunch of stuff.  Well that's all reorganzied now but in the process I found out I was missing two PSP titles from my Backloggery Collection as well as counting Virtua Fighter 4 on the PS2 twice.  I've made the appropriate adjustments to the Backloggery and I'm now at 1434 total games with PSP at 62 and PS2 at 261 (N64 is at 14 but I wasn't really checking that inventory).

I need to inventory my PC games and nail that number down.   I think the number is roughly correct but could probably vary by 15-20 titles up or down.

Sorry for the crappy images but I'm just too lazy to go and get my camera so I used my cell phone.

The Long Box

I hit a milestone for my collection yesterday. Until yesterday, I've never owned a long box for PS1 games. In fact, I've avoided them. All my PS1 games are jewel case versions, so I've been trying to stick with that. But, I also wanted to own all the Need for Speed titles on the PS1, and the only one missing from my was the Long Box release of Road & Track: The Need for Speed. The very first Need for Speed title. I always assumed that I'd never find it in the wild but I came across one yesterday and it was in pretty good shape, so I decided to give it a home.

So now I've added a long box to my collection as well as completing my PS1 NFS collection.

Best Move commercial evar...

I wish they made commercials like this in the states.

This is how I feel about iPhone gaming

This kinda summarizes how I feel about iPhone gaming.

Course they should have used better games. Buzz? Really?

How about some Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker? Or Resistance? Or God of War? Those are big boy games. Ah well, I still like Marcus.

Flipnotes

As some of you may be aware, the DSi comes with alot of extra features, one of which is the Flipnote application. It's an interesting little app that lets anyone make a 'cartoon' and publish it for the world to see. My son has spent quite a bit of time pulling down various flipnotes. Alot of them are cartoons set to an already existing audio track such as Brian Regan's Cup of Dirt:

But there's a few creations out there that are really quite good. Take Gizmo, for example, a 14 year-old kid from California. Here's one of my favorites of his:

As much as I like the PSP and prefer it as a handheld gaming platform over the DS (or DSi) it's easy to see why Nintendo's platform sells so well. It has expanded beyond a gaming platform and has become a portable media creation center.

Size Matters

I'm replaying Size Matters and it's alot better game that I remembered from the first playthrough. I don't know if it's because I'm used to the PSP control scheme now or because I'm treading through familiar territory or what, but it's been really fun going through the game again. I'm so into it that I've updated my spreadsheet that tracks my completion percentage. I went crazy with it, reset it to zero and now I'm using that as the basis for my completion.

I finished Secret Agent Clank and was in a Ratchet-y mood and decided to go back to this game now that I'm really familiar with the PSP controls. Once I complete this I think I'm going to hit up Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

Poorly designed save systems

I recently fired up Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles on the DS with the thought that I was going to try and the game. All I need to do is run through the game on hard. You have to complete the game once in order to do so, which I've already done. So I clicked the New Game option was given the standard warning about loosing my existing progress. I clicked yes, and was presented with a difficulty selection screen. Hang on, the Hard option was greyed out!

Grrrr! now I've got to play through the game again on Medium just to the game.

I need to finish Persona...

I bought Persona for the PSP when it first released. I played it as soon as I got it. I stopped. Not because I didn't like it. It was actually a really fun game. A nice throwback RPG on the handheld. I think I was pretty far too, I had come across some little girl and was yapping at her. I think it was a pretty pivotal discussion as well as it determined whether I got the good ending or the crappy one.

There's no good reason for me not playing this. It happens to me all the time. Persona, Lego: Batman, Age of Empires II, Demon's Souls, Mass Effect 2, Killzone 1 & 2, pretty much all of the Elder Scrolls games, Kameo, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Devil May Cry, Tomb Raider, The Settlers III. The list goes on and on.

Games I start, but then never finish, and yet, every one of them I would count as a good game.

Maybe I have gaming ADD.

Why 3D may really be a gaming revolution

Just posted this up on my other site. It's short, but contains my current thoughts of this whole 3D thing going on.

Why 3D may really be a gaming revolution

June 2010 in Review

Another month has come and gone. I'm really late getting this post up tho. I'll try to do better next time. Anyway, time to take a look at damages and accomplishments!

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.