The NEW Game Journal

[Yoda]

Klyde let us do a FF13 sleepover.

No smoking.

[MeshGearFox]

Mario Galaxy - Did Joker Comet on Beach Bowl, Dew Drop Galaxy, and the Lugorio's Haunted Mansh.

Shantae - I got monkey.

BLAKBLJ - Initial impression is that the new Dark World had a lot more thought put into it than the old one.

--- edit ---

SMTIV - Does the Max Headroom that lives in the Dark Cathedral of your wrist sound sort of like John de Lancie to anyone else?

[CluelessWonder]

DD:DA - I am doing what I always seem to do towards the end of a game:  meander.  I went and slayed the hydra.  I tried killing a metal golem only to discover the amulets weren't affected by my magical archer.  I had to teleport back to town and change my vocation to get the one in the tree.  I really need to buckle down and focus on beating the game.

[Klyde Chroma]

Klyde let us do a FF13 sleepover.

No smoking.

No smo... What!!!?? Blasphemy.... *takes a puff*

NOTE: I truly am smoking as I type this

FF13/ I want to add to my aforementioned advice. I can't recall how I did it, but I totally screwed myself in how I built my party. By the end of the game I had to essentially restrict myself to a particular three person team to survive. In other words, be careful how you level and evolve your team or you'll end stuck potentially forced to use characters you may or may not be fond of. In my case I had to always use Fang, Hope and Lightning even though I favored Sazh and Vanille.

[Dice]

Played a lot of Xenoblade today!

I have no idea what I'm doing.

[Monsoon]

I played Ys vs Sora no Kiseki and Ys Origin today.  A lot.  Ate leftovers.  No gym.  Crazy lazy.  Much Ys.  Very wow. 

[Klyde Chroma]

Played a lot of Xenoblade today!

I have no idea what I'm doing.

To be honest Dice, I really didn't understand a great deal of the mechanics fully and still managed my way through just fine.

While I grasped things like gem crafting and whatnot, I more or less just picked characters based on their affinity rating and combined crap to start with percentages that ensured I was gonna create what I was aiming for. In other words, I ignored the fact that you are selecting a shooter (controlling bonus) and engineer (controlling flame).

This, and other such mechanics were a wee bit too complex for my taste. The brilliance of Xenoblade is whether you mico-manage like a champion and tend to every quest there is OR you simply keep moving and enjoy the narrative you can still meander your way through things and enjoy the story.

I spent the first 10-15 hours I played bogged down with doing quests and trying to grasp everything before deciding to just move on and throw caution to the wind.

Ultimately that is my advice. Do the convenient quests to start, DO NOT FEEL THE COMPULSIVE NEED TO BE A COMPLETIONIST (as I did) and as you move along things will make a great deal more sense and prove less intimidating through just simply playing.

The folly of Xenoblade is the content. There is so much you can get lost/caught up in with very little relevance that you cam easily play certain areas for many many hours without advancing the story an inch.

[Annubis]

I started ZoE HD today and I'm quite surprised by the amount of new stuff in TSR.

The base after you revive has an entire new wing at the beginning.
A lot of the bosses' weak points are better explained by ADA (really nice for new players)
Some extra conversations I've noticed.

Overall, I'd say the game is a bit harder for 2 reasons:
- More enemies overall
- Less slowdowns

[MeshGearFox]

Recca - GOT TO LEVEL 2. Now let's see if I can do that without dying so much so I can get a better save state.ffffffff

SMTIV - More gemeral dickery. On Level 3 of Nakura? Actually going with 3D dungeons /really/ improves stuff over Strange Journey so far.

Anyway, much like in ALBW, I still can't get a really clean image in SMTIV, no matter what my viewing angle is. NOT sure why. It's especially noticeable on the Dark Cathedral screen. Always have like AT LEAST one ghost image.



It's like this. What gives?

--- edit ---

Okay apparently this is normal and the reason I'm not seeing it in the Sega 3D Classics is because M2 knows what they're doing unlike EVERYONE ELSE.

[Klyde Chroma]

Having a REAL hard time pulling myself away from Suikoden 2.

The weekend is almost over, and while I intended to keep suikoden 2 my weekend game and start FF 13-2 as my weekday agenda, I am beginning to think that is not a smart move...

The story is Suiko 2 just grabs you and doesn't let go. Even in spite of the horrible spoiler I ran across (ruined a major ending event on myself) it is clear to me now there is GRAND amounts of plot to enjoy here. That single spoiler was minor in grand scheme of the narrative content (thank you to Aeolus again for reassuring me of that fact).

So how about some advice folks? I really want to start 13-2 so I could finish it by the time 13-3 comes out. Do I divide my efforts or focus on Suikoden 2? Normally dividing my attention between 2 games is easy... but in this case I find it hard to not think about Suikoden 2.... while I am driving, working, sleeping and eating at this point.... I feel like this is one particular case of a tale that is meant to be digested in a game-a-thon type fashion of 3-5 hour play periods without interruption but I don't want to burn myself out.

[Aeolus]

Having a REAL hard time pulling myself away from Suikoden 2.

The weekend is almost over, and while I intended to keep suikoden 2 my weekend game and start FF 13-2 as my weekday agenda, I am beginning to think that is not a smart move...

The story is Suiko 2 just grabs you and doesn't let go. Even in spite of the horrible spoiler I ran across (ruined a major ending event on myself) it is clear to me now there is GRAND amounts of plot to enjoy here. That single spoiler was minor in grand scheme of the narrative content (thank you to Aeolus again for reassuring me of that fact).

So how about some advice folks? I really want to start 13-2 so I could finish it by the time 13-3 comes out. Do I divide my efforts or focus on Suikoden 2? Normally dividing my attention between 2 games is easy... but in this case I find it hard to not think about Suikoden 2.... while I am driving, working, sleeping and eating at this point.... I feel like this is one particular case of a tale that is meant to be digested in a game-a-thon type fashion of 3-5 hour play periods without interruption but I don't want to burn myself out.

Focus on Suki 2.

As long as you know that time crashes at the end of XIII-2, you'll be up to speed for XIII-3. Besides, Suki 2 is definitely the better game (even in spite of all the bugs).

[Klyde Chroma]

Focus on Suki 2.

As long as you know that time crashes at the end of XIII-2, you'll be up to speed for XIII-3. Besides, Suki 2 is definitely the better game (even in spite of all the bugs).

Thank you kindly for the advice my friend! I guess I need someone who's intellect I respect to condone my inclination to "break routine" here. LoL

After thinking it over I'm gonna be flexible with myself and heed your advice here, focusing on Suikoden 2. My "rule" in this particular case will be to start moving through Final Fantasy around christmas next week.

That should allow me ample time to finish XIII-2 I think.

[Klutz64]

I still need to play through some of the DLC for XIII-2 I have yet to touch, particularly the Lightning chapter and the arena battle with Gilgamesh.

[Lard]

Played a lot of Xenoblade today!

I have no idea what I'm doing.

How far are you?

I've been playing Bioshock Infinite.

I'm up to the part where I took on Fitzroy's guys. It might be blasphemous, but I'm actually enjoying it more than the original Bioshock.

[Klutz64]

Last night I hit 90% in Lego Lord of the Rings and I gave in and looked up a spoiler-free flowchart to help me get the last three endings in 999. Turns out I only need to beat it twice more. Having played through it five times now, that's a big relief. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but it is a little irritating trying to get all these endings.

Anyway, hoping to beat both games before the end of the day. I'll update this post if I'm successful.