Kevin's Watch

I'm fighting Kefka! AHHH!!

Edit: Wow, that was easier than Lavos. Then again, I really ubered-up my characters.

I must say, Dancing Mad kicks ass. Maybe not One-Winged Angel ass, but there's some superlative tunes in those 17 minutes.

FFVI has amazing music. I've owned the soundtrack for over three years, but it was exhilarating to hear the ending theme in sequence with the game's actual ending.

Over Christmas I bought Bioshock and Football Manager 2008.

I'm enjoying Bioshock so far, but the third Big Daddy wipes the floor with me, I might have to come back for him later. I feel like the Football Manager games haven't been as much fun since about 2005. I've started a new game with Aldershot Town and things are going well so far, although the half time team talk seems to have far too much influence on how a game will turn out.

I've finally gotten round to playing Temple of Elemental Evil. Slow game but OK for a couple of hours now and then.

I've been palying Super Mario Bros. 2, the Japanese version. It's basically like the original, except much harder. Personally, I've found it pretty easy--easier than the Mega Man games, anyway.

Prince of Persia: Sand of Time.

GREAT game. Looking forward to playing the next two.

Sands of Time was fantastic, a true modern-day classic. I never got into the next one though (Warrior Within?). It was a very button combo-driven game which meant that when I put it down and came back to it, I sucked and just kept dying all the time. I felt the combos in SoT were more intuitive, so I would pick them up again very easily.

I played some more COD4 last night. Unfortunately Xbox Live isn't working very well still, but I played through the Ghillie suit mission set in Pripyat and it was every bit as good as I'd heard it was.

On a side note, while I was playing I downloaded my first ever movie over Xbox Live. It was 300 and it rawked!

My wife got me the <i>Hitman Trilogy</i> boxed set for Christmas, so I've been playing a lot of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

And I've been able to talk my wife into playing Madden with me a few times lately.

Just finished Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Going into gamestop later to turn in FF XII and PoP for credit. Get the second one. Two Thrones or something? Looks good.

I also preordered my copy of Metal Gear Solid 4

I've been on a Forza Motorsport 2 binge. Getting near the end of the game now, must only have about a dozen tournaments left to do. I think this game might actually out-Gran Turismo Gran Turismo, it has all the GT ingredients but Turn 10 have gone the extra mile and gotten Ferrari, Porsche, Lambourghini et al on board, included crash damage and made the game a bit more about the driving and a bit less about having the fastest car. I like the soundtrack as well, I might buy all the tracks from iTunes.

I rented Mario Kart DS, to try out the online multi-player. I have a Nintendo Wi-Fi Connector, which plugs into a USB port on your PC. It sent out a wireless signal, which my DS picked up from anywhere in the room (much to my pleasant surprise).

The multi-player was extremely fun. I raced against three other people, beating them, but it was very close. It gave me an adrenaline rush, which says a lot from a jaded gamer like me. I suspect I'll be buying this game, somewhere down the road.

Speaking of adrenaline rush, after a long time away, I spent Sunday afternoon racing/crashing through another level of Burnout Revenge on the PS2. While its crash mode isn't as glorious as in earlier Burnout titles, Revenge still makes for an intensely exciting racing game.

I was really bored, and really broke, so any new games have to wait, so I decided to throw Riddick Butcher Bay back on the old boy, and holy crap it is amazing! the first time I played it my hardware was significantly less powerful, but even then the graphics blew me away! Now they are positively stunning! I have my video card control panel set to ultra high, and the graphics settings in the game at ultra high too, and I just can't believe it! Better than anything I've ever seen, bar none. I really hope we get to see more of this game as good as this. The sequel is due out sometime in the near future, and I'm drooling with anticipation!

Just started on the early-PS2 RPG, Summoner. Started off so-so, then rapidly became utterly horrendous. The combat system is lifted almost whole from Vagrant Story, but fortunately without the evil RISK system that scuppered that otherwise enjoyable game. The combat system isn't what drove me mad during the early stages of Summoner, though. No. What really got to me was the ridiculous increase in difficulty outside the first village. Even the weakest, most run-of-the-mill enemy outside the village is far more powerful than the first boss (which, I might add, I beat with considerable ease due to my taking the time to gain a few levels around the village). And we're not talking about enemies even a couple of hours down the line from that boss. Oh no - we're talking about enemies literally* two to three minutes later. Add to that the feeble healing rate of the Heal spell, the poor mapping and the lack of useful directions, and you won't be surprised to discover that I died no less than five quick but painful deaths while trying to get to the next location, a mere thirty seconds' walk away. Then, when trying to level up further, I died a load more times. It was absolutely horrific and I nearly sold the game on Ebay in disgust.

HOWEVER

Yes, however. Once I had gruellingly and painfully, with much dying and cursing, battled my way up a few more levels and stumbled across one or two better weapons, everything started working. At some point, Joseph (the main character) abruptly gains so much power that whole gangs of enemies are, if not easy, at least beatable. The enemies that are meant to be easy suddenly are, and the ones that are meant to be challenging are now only challenging, rather than completely unassailable. At that point, Summoner became alright and I decided to give it a bit more time. Once I met Flece in the (huge) city nearby, things really started rolling and now it's all I can do to drag myself away.

Fortunately, in case Summoner takes another turn for the worse, the much-lauded Shadow Hearts 3 is on its way to me. I wanted to start at the beginning of the series, but number three was the only one I could get hold of.







*When I say 'literally', I mean it. There's a widespread tendency at the moment to say 'literally' when what is meant is 'intensely figuratively'. I'm far too much of a pedant to succumb to that.

CovenantJr wrote:*When I say 'literally', I mean it. There's a widespread tendency at the moment to say 'literally' when what is meant is 'intensely figuratively'. I'm far too much of a pedant to succumb to that.

Football pundits are absolutely terrible for that. Never a Saturday afternoon goes by without such gems as:
Jamie Redknapp: "He's literally skinned Sol Campbell alive there"
Paul Merson: "Ronaldo beat the last man and literally left him for dead"
Andy Townsend: "Theirry Henry has quite literally thrown his toys out of the pram" (my personal favourite, love the imagery)

I agree with Esmer, Escape from Butcher Bay is a superb game. I've got it for the original Xbox and it's one the very best titles on that platform. I don't think I ever managed to finish it, so I might have to pop it in the 360 and start again. I can't recall another example of a game being so very superior to the film on which it was based, I guess Vin Diesel is better at making games than films!

Nav wrote:Andy Townsend: "Theirry Henry has quite literally thrown his toys out of the pram" (my personal favourite, love the imagery)

That's brilliantly hideous.

Nav wrote:I agree with Esmer, Escape from Butcher Bay is a superb game. I've got it for the original Xbox and it's one the very best titles on that platform. I don't think I ever managed to finish it, so I might have to pop it in the 360 and start again. I can't recall another example of a game being so very superior to the film on which it was based, I guess Vin Diesel is better at making games than films!

Hmm, intriguing indeed. I never bothered with that game, purely because the film was so dire (a crying shame, since I'm a fan of Pitch Black). I might give it a go when I'm next short of gaming fun.

Lord Foul wrote:I'm fighting Kefka! AHHH!!

Edit: Wow, that was easier than Lavos. Then again, I really ubered-up my characters.

I must say, Dancing Mad kicks ass. Maybe not One-Winged Angel ass, but there's some superlative tunes in those 17 minutes.

FFVI has amazing music. I've owned the soundtrack for over three years, but it was exhilarating to hear the ending theme in sequence with the game's actual ending.

Have you ever seen Sega Fantasy VI? I think it's notable simply for the remixed versions of several FF6 songs which are pretty well done (the remix of atma weap's music is my favorite).

Yes, however. Once I had gruellingly and painfully, with much dying and cursing, battled my way up a few more levels and stumbled across one or two better weapons, everything started working. At some point, Joseph (the main character) abruptly gains so much power that whole gangs of enemies are, if not easy, at least beatable. The enemies that are meant to be easy suddenly are, and the ones that are meant to be challenging are now only challenging, rather than completely unassailable. At that point, Summoner became alright and I decided to give it a bit more time. Once I met Flece in the (huge) city nearby, things really started rolling and now it's all I can do to drag myself away.

It's been a very long time since I played summoner. I never did get around to beating it, I found it somewhat boring. But I remember that after my first random encounter after the stereotypical raided/burning/pillaged/raped starting town sequence I high tailed it to the capital city instead of fighting ANYTHING.

First time I tried Summoner, I was killed in a random encounter while trying to find the city and had to replay from the beginning (d'oh). Made sure to save the second time round. Never did get further in the game than the city, though.

EEP! Just found this sub-forum.

::Answers thread title::

Guitar Hero III FTW!!!!!!

stutt