The NEW Game Journal

[Bytor]

Got a bit tired of running in Dementium so popped in Ghost Trick in the old DS, couple chapters in and I like the overall style so far, fun little game.

[Yggdrasil]

I also played "don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story"  (a Visual Novel made by the person who made "Analogue: A Hate Story".
For a game that was made in a couple of days for a speed game making contest... it is really good.

Actually, I'd go so far as to recommend the game to anyone that doesn't understand modern youth and their attitude to online privacy.
It explained the theme in a manner that really made me understand why younger folks just don't care about it.

(Also, the game is totally free -> http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory )

EDIT: I guess I should add

WARNING
The game discusses mature themes such as sex, homosexuality and relationships.
The game is not erotic, but the themes are present as discussions.

That was pretty good.

First Visual Novel that I managed to get into too. It was kinda bizarre seeing the game explaining a concept I already kinda understood but never got why it was such a big deal.

I lost the interest in some parts but it was pretty enjoyable overall.

[Klyde Chroma]

Been playing hyperdimension neptunia mk2 like its a second job lately..... i wanted to make sure I beat it before the next arrives in NA.... I guess I jumped the gun a little because I think I'm nearing the end (I'm presently at the end of chapter 5).... this game really grew on me... I am beyond excited to see what they have done/evolved in the 3rd installment....

Alternatively at night I was playing Lego Lord of the Rings..... I gave up on it when I discerned A) it is boring as hell and B)they swapped possibility of "game overs" for ps3 lock ups/freezes..... seriously, my system has only froze up MAYBE 3-4 times in its entire lifespan.... playing Lego LOTR the other night it froze twice in an hour... this game is certainly not worth endangering my HDD over... so with that aside....

I decided to entertain 2 titles on my shelf I've been waiting to get to for a looooong time, choosing between the two to make my new "night time" game..... Strange as it may be I like playing something different before bed... at least Lego was good at putting me to sleep..... but enough about that...

The 2 titles in question? Tales of the World Radiant Mythology and Zelda Twilight Princess..... I have not played a Zelda since Ocarina of Time on the N64, so I thought it was high time to give it a go...... Well Zelda won that face off pretty fast.... I know I don't need to convince anyone, seeing as how I am probably the only person present on the board that has not played Zelda TP before but damn.... this game is INCREDIBLE!!! Good God do I hope they move away from motion control in the coming zelda titles and return to some control scheme similar to this (I am playing the GC version), as I did play about an hour of skyward sword before realizing I don't think I could really ever do a motion-control zelda title... I freakin' hate motion controlled games....

And as for Tales? Well, TotW:RM certainly is not bad.... but after Graces F last year I can't help but really "feel" the regression in attempting this.... and that would be fine if it were a full-on "Tales of" installment..... but a cross-verse dungeon crawler just isn't doing it for me..... not when I'm deciding between this and Zelda..... even with Kratos present.... LoL

So here I sit shocked.... never guessed I would have picked a Zelda game over a tales game.... To be honest, I never cared much for the green-tunic wearing hero beyond his earliest incarnations.... TP may totally change that for me.....

[MeshGearFox]

Twilight Princess was my favorite 3D Zelda, although I never played Majora's Mask. I'm well aware of TP's flaws -- it's a lot more linear compared to some of the older Zeldas, the combat is really easy, it can get a bit handholdy at times, a lot of items have limited uses, and there are bugs... But something about it just grabbed me? I loved OoT, but... I don't know.

[Aeolus]

Twilight Princess was my favorite 3D Zelda, although I never played Majora's Mask. I'm well aware of TP's flaws -- it's a lot more linear compared to some of the older Zeldas, the combat is really easy, it can get a bit handholdy at times, a lot of items have limited uses, and there are bugs... But something about it just grabbed me? I loved OoT, but... I don't know.

Don't forget about the plot that suddenly changes gears going from a new take on an old setting to "And heeeerrree's Ganon!".

[Mickeymac92]

Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda, period. It has its flaws, but overall, it embodied everything I loved about Zelda and cranked it up to 11. I remember enjoying everything about the game, even trying to find the bugs, though I'll admit I had to break out the guidebook after a while. In fact, the only thing I really remember disliking was the one mini-game where you had to use your hookshot. I'd imagine it'd be easier on the Wii, but on the Gamecube it sucked. I ended up quitting the whole game out of frustration over it since it prevented me from 100% completing it...though I still had the last two dungeons to do, not sure why I didn't move on to those...

G-d, now I want to play Zelda...I haven't said that in forever...

Anyways, I got Unchained Blades for the 3DS. It's pretty fun so far. Just got my 3rd party member on the second floor of the first dungeon. A healer, too. Could be useful...once I level her up enough...

[Dice]

TP is my favorite based on atmosphere alone (and yeah, even IF Ganon does come back, it's probably the coolest he's ever looked.... them corn rolls and golden tiara thing actually work on him).  Midna hasn't come close to being replaced, and I think it looks amazing still.  Fuck, I'd take an HD version of it in a heart beat, flaws or not.  While I was able to get through that stupid hookshot game, I think I *hated* (with a feverish passion) the two times you visit the Lost Woods even more.  I can't beat that part without getting the palms a bit sweaty from always moving around.  If it's not for the fucking skull kid, it's that stupid jumping statues minigame.  I hate that, and the one "race" you have with the fucking Wallmasters.  Fuck those fucks.

FarCry 3 is awesome.
Sort of.  This game actually pisses me off, but I keep coming back to it.  It's a good challenge that way I guess.  I really don't like doing the Rakyat [?] challenges, and predator-type animals tend to come up at the worst instances, but it's fun to do stealth.  Apparently some reviewers had the cojones to say "THE GAME'S GRAPHICS ARE REPRETITITIVE".... well GODDAMN, WHEN I HGET SICK OF LOOKING ATA TROPICAL ISLAND, I"LL LETT YOU KNOW.

[Yoda]

Yeah what the fuck? Did they want a snow zone, fire zone, and supermarket zone? Reviewers be damned



I have a feeling I will get the WORST ending in Walking Dead. But in my defense some of the responses don't lead down the paths I think they would.

Game is awesome. Atmosphere is tits. The animation? not so much. The pauses between scenes and some events kind of irritate me but I'll live considering the whole series cost me 10 beans

[Wild Armor]

Pokemon Black 2 on the back burner. Going through Growlanser II and III at the same time. Love 'em both. Favorite character from both games is probably going to be either Hugh Foster or Slayn (growlanser III) if you chose the Playboy dialogue options...example of course:

When you're about to leave a hotel near the castle at Falkenfreuk
and the female lead walks out wearing a dress

- I was stunned by your beauty!
- I didn't even recognize you.
- You're like another person.
- ...I can't see your legs!     
   - What am I supposed to look at now?
   - You're cheating the soldiers here.
-This isn't like you!
-This is scandalous!

Yes, the color and bolded add-on was my choice. Her angered response was worth it. :3

[MeshGearFox]

Man, I never got around to playing the Growlanser games much. What little I DID play of 2 seemed really fun though.

Speaking of strategy RPGs, did a few sidequests in The Last Remnant. I love how you can get little scenes with the unique leaders. Anyway, did some guild quest where I had to kill six things, a story related sidequest, and slaying Bluejaws. Sort of brute forced my way through Bluejaws. Felt compelled to stick Pagus in Dave's party. Ended up tanking Dave's party's defense and getting them all killed, ergo no stat boost. I think I figured that laserbreath was a spell and that I wanted to raise Mystic Defense or HP or something. Nope.

A few points in your defense stats can make massive amounts of difference.

Oh god though the English voice acting does not work at all. Dave's all LET'S 'AVE A CARRIAGE RIDE, GOV. Whereas his Japanese voice is all deep and sexy//// WHERE THE FUCK IS MY BACKSPACE KEY

Fallout: New Vegas - Had the NCR come in and take over Primm (Legion's close by. Figured a strong military presence would help). Briefly went to Freeside and one of the Kings was complaining about Primm getting taken over by the NCR. THAT'S a level of detail I wasn't expecting and I fucking LOVE it. Anyway, heading on to Novac, unless I decide to do some sidequest in this irradiated town I found.

The game has this very Bradbury vibe to it, which I got from Wasteland, but nothing else in the Fallout series I'd played.

Sort of want to play Fallout 3 but I'm not really a fan of Bethesda.

Commander Keen - The level design is actually a lot more interesting than the maps I was looking at indicated.

Quake - Picked this up from Steam a few days ago, and decided to play it with the Darkplaces engine with lighting set to full, and with some... fanmade patch to re-add the music. My gooood the lighting is pretty with Darkplaces.

[Yggdrasil]

Gravity Rush Original Soundtrack - Old Town

[Klyde Chroma]

Don't forget about the plot that suddenly changes gears going from a new take on an old setting to "And heeeerrree's Ganon!".

........ if this wasn't zelda (and consequently ganon) we were talking about, that could qualify as a spoiler....

Zelda, by the way, is going smoothly.... I still don't care for link... but I am loving the mood of this game.... much more evolved and mature realm from the hyrule I remember as a kid....

As Hyper Dimension Mk2.... I'm freakin' obsessed.... unfortunately I just discovered that my lily ranks are not high enough to net the true ending yet.... and I'm pretty sure that chapter 6 won't have enough chirper events to pull it off... meaning I need to face facts and accept the harsh reality that I can't achieve true end in one play-through or grind the hell out of characters I have ignored.... not thrilled about this fact... 

[MeshGearFox]

Link's just kind of there in TP. Midna's the real main character.

Dark Souls... Found out how to get around the dragon guy. Also found out that I don't like curved sword very much since you can't really kick with them.

[Aeolus]

TP's Link is such a non-factor after the plot shift that I would probably forget he even has a beast mode if it weren't the game's fast travel method. I know that a lot of speed bumps I encountered in that game stem from the fact that I tend to forget that the wolf form has any other use aside from warping and howling.

That said, to me, the best thing about TP was the later dungeons and the bosses of those dungeons which still remain the best in the series and both the music and the direction of the early game were really good.


Also I bought a shitload of 360 games today on the cheap (but no PSPs because some asshat had to go around and buy them all up to then proceed to scalp online). Fuck this :retrogaming: bubble. I walked away from a $80 copy of Megaman Legends 2 (no box or manual), a $80 copy of Valkyrie Profile, a $110 dollar copy of Brigandine, a $60 copy of Lunar: Silver Story Complete (PSX edition, box and all), a $40 dollar copy of Ys Chronicles I & II, and a $40 dollar copy of KotOR. But with that said, I now own Tekken 6, Dead or Alive 5, Soul Caliber 4, The 3rd Birthday, and Persona 4: The Golden for little over $100 (and only teh turd burbdate was used). Now I just need to borrow my sibling's 360 (and my other sibling's PSP).


Also a call out to mjrpgfan: Is Brigandine worth a burning Benjamin?

[MeshGearFox]

and a $40 dollar copy of KotOR

The PC version of that is five dollars on steam, and I've never seen an XBox copy go for more than 18 or so.

60 dollars for a complete copy of Lunar isn't bad -- I think it cost that much new -- but seriously, 40? For KOTOR?

(I spent 40 on Carnage Hearts which is kind of inflated but fuck it, easier than going off of eBay. Also Carnage Hearts is legit rare).

--- edit ---

TLR - Found some optional town. Otherwise up to Elysion. Elysion is pretty. Also fuck I love the music in this.

Crusader Kings 2 - Had my 52-year-old king of Georgia start bangin' some 19 year old in the hopes of getting some more heirs, because that's always fun. Conquered Kasogs caused I had a de jure claim on it. That was easy. 19 year old courtier dies of illness.

I think the king of georgia gave her a herpe

Meanwhile his actual wife hates him. Also I replaced my Chancellor with his son, cause the old chancellor got murdered, but then replaced the old chancellor with some new guy. Meanwhile my head of research found some cool farming techniques and the peasants are all BURN THE WITCH.