Gaming thoughts 4/24/11 ~ Chalgyr's Game Room

Gaming thoughts 4/24/11

April 24, 2011 11 comments

Just sort of a random mix-up today.

I was hoping to have the Mortal Kombat review up, but there's a ton of content here, and I'd like to do more of it first. Aside from that, I haven't been able to get online with it hardly at all yet due to the PSN outtages recently.

I'm also working on my Retro Reflection to go with it, that will likely post a couple of days later, but it's not done yet.

Further distracting me is that I polished off a few more games recently (RISK: Factions, King's Bounty - Legend and Uncharted) and am midway through God of War (part 1 in the Collection remake), the Witcher (liking the game overall, but it's slow-going), Castlevania, FX Pinball - and of course a huge chunk of time with Mortal Kombat. Initial impressions: lots of fun, very bloody, good # of modes and unlockables.

Any new games you've been playing?

Also, trying to follow some of the recent news has been interesting (the upcoming Nintendo system, currently dubbed 'Cafe' is being strongly rumored in several locations to being 350-400, which is sadly in-line with what I expected, and talk that the controllers themselves will be at least $80, which seems a bit high - I expect closer to 60-70 based on the proposed specs, but we'll see).

Also, a buddy of mine picked up Portal 2 - so I'll get a crack at that soon. First one was cool - we got the Orange Box for Christmas and it's a title I keep meaning to spend some quality time with, but haven't yet.

Also, my wife got me Starcraft 2 for Easter. I'm going to have to get a lot better before taking on human opponents I think. :P

Lastly, I picked up the Potato Sack from Steam when they had it up for a couple of weeks. It came with a ton of titles, some with high ratings/pedigrees like Super Meat Boy and Amnesia, and several that were a bit more obscure. I plan to do a round up of several of the 'smaller' titles soon as well for those curious. Considering the package for all 13 games was roughly the price of Super Meat Boy and Amnesia at normal pricing, and those were 2 games I've been wanting to get? It was a pretty good deal for the package, but I'll comment on it a bit more once I get just a bit more face-time with the games. Thanks for peeking in on me!

Matt Sainsbury24 April, 2011 20:32
Games I've been playing at the moment?

Dynasty Warriors 7 is the big one. I've logged 25 hours now, and still barely scratched the surface. It is such a big, big game.

Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel has a stupid name, but it's actually a surprisingly good JRPG. It has a good soundtrack, a good battle system and a weird-but-wonderful storyline. If it wasn't for the horrible innuendo and Otaku stuff, it'd be a brilliant game.

Finally Yakuza 4. My first in the series, and I really dig it. This is far better than GTA, for my mind, when it comes to sandbox games.
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Chalgyr24 April, 2011 21:05
Interestingly, I've never really played any of the Dynasty games. One of the earlier iterations at a friend's house years ago. Ar tonelico - I've never played that, but I've seen that name before. It's a series, not a stand alone game right?

*after a moment of searching and coming back to this thread* Ah, I was on an RPGmaker site awhile back and someone had made a combat system that mimics the Ar tonelico system - that's where I had seen that.

I like my RPG games, including JPRG - what system are you playing it on? I may have to consider that one.

I've never been a big fan of the GTA series. Not sure why - I can appreciate that on a technical scale, they're good games, I just can't get into them. Have not played Yakuza 4 yet - thanks for commenting. Always interesting to see what others are playing and what their thoughts are.
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Matt Sainsbury24 April, 2011 23:50
The Warriors games are my favourites. I've spent too many hours to count playing those games.

The new Ar tonelico is a very different game from earlier ones in the series - it's an action JRPG now. It's good and worth playing - you don't need to be familiar with earlier games to know what's going on (I haven't played them before either).

Just be warned there is a lot of very thinly-veiled innuendo in this game.

Give Yakuza 4 a go - it's more JRPG than GTA clone - but happens to play out in a sandbox. I find it compelling.
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Chalgyr25 April, 2011 00:28
Very cool - I may well have to check both of those out then. I'd like to say 'when my backlog of games thins out'... but it's still there. Hmm. :)
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coffeewithgames25 April, 2011 01:13
"I'm also working on my Retro Reflection to go with it, that will likely post a couple of days later, but it's not done yet."

I got an early glimpse!

"Any new games you've been playing?"

Nothing new, but I've been playing Monster Hunter Tri and some GoldenEye recently. Played a good bit of Monster Hunter Tri online last Wednesday and Thursday, and GoldenEye multi-player Friday night.

"Also, trying to follow some of the recent news has been interesting (the upcoming Nintendo system, currently dubbed 'Cafe' is being strongly rumored in several locations to being 350-400, which is sadly in-line with what I expected, and talk that the controllers themselves will be at least $80, which seems a bit high - I expect closer to 60-70 based on the proposed specs, but we'll see)."

They're going to have to really "WOW" me at those prices...and I can be a pretty big skeptic with things.
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Chalgyr25 April, 2011 10:57
@coffee -

You know what? I was wondering just last night if sometimes those youtube videos were getting hit before I make the actual blog post to link them to :)

Moster Hunter Tri... speaking of my backlog... LOL. Still, I'm making a pretty good dent these days in it. I've got a ton of reviews and articles coming - probably about every other day for at least a week, maybe 2 already scheduled.

And yeah, I'm sort of torn. i mean, I paid quite a bit for my ps3 and first 360. Knowing me, I'll probably buckle and pick it up at some point, but after the 3DS release, I just got the impression that Nintendo's gearing toward a slightly different market than the budget-friendly one they had established themselves in previously.
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coffeewithgames25 April, 2011 23:50
" I was wondering just last night if sometimes those youtube videos were getting hit before I make the actual blog post to link them to :)"

When uploading, if you change the video from "public" to either "unlisted" or "private", it should keep people from knowing. You just have to make sure to change the listing, when you publish it...I've been picking "unlisted", incase I forget to change the actual setting, that way it still plays...if it's "private" it will show up in the post, but not play.
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Chalgyr26 April, 2011 11:46
I figured something like that would probably work for it - would be nice if they had a staging/scheduler though that I could use hand-in-hand w/ my posts here. :) I'll keep 'em public, I don't mind people viewing them obviously, but your timing for that statement was pretty funny since I had just been considering the topic.
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Robert28 April, 2011 02:08
Chalgyr: I'd be interested in what you think about StarCraft 2 after you get used to it. Have you played the original?

I picked up SC on launch day (in what 3/31/98?) and have logged tons of hours. Although it's been a number of years since I've put much time into it and I'm a bit afraid to jump into #2. Seems like it could be a big time sieve.

I've been reading some on project cafe even though the hype train has gotten a bit out of hand. It certainly does seem to be headed in more of a power direction which makes me wonder about expense. Think I still have a good bit of ROI to get out of my Wii first.

Like coffee said it would have to be a substantial offering for me to plunk down that kind of coin. I'm pretty cheap. They would also need to offer a seamless migration path with regard to wiiware and VC.

new games: YEAH, 007 GOLDENEYE! Have put about 6 hours into it so far with some online play. Well, some online wandering around, adjusting controls, trying to learn the map and getting whooped. Good fun though. :)

Almost jumped on the Potato thing and the frozenbyte humble bundle, but found a way to hold off for now. That resolution thing...
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Chalgyr01 May, 2011 11:46
@Robert -

Yup, I was huge into Starcraft as well as the first couple of diablos way back then, and Warcraft as well. Haven't logged much time w/ SC 2 yet - was wrapping up a bunch of stuff I was working on for the Potato Sack. 13 games sure adds up to a lot of time when you're trying to give them all a good, long look.

I still need to get to Golden eye myself. i figure by the time I'm through the current collection of games I'm working on, I'll be able to give it some consideration.

As for the project Cafe - I tend to the feel the same way as you and Coffee do. I do have a lot of systems already in my house, but even then I didn't adopt them right off of the bat. 360 was out over a year before I bought my first one, and I didn't grab a PS3 until a couple years after release when the price came down. Even the Wii was a year or so after its release, so while I am sure I'll eventually wind up with a cafe in my place, I'm not sure I'll be adopting right away. My initial guess is probably not, but that could change - time will tell.
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Robert08 May, 2011 02:39
@Chalgyr:

That's cool about Starcraft and some of the other Blizzard titles. I was never into Warcraft or Diablo, but have given Diablo 3 a look now and then.

Back on Cafe: I didn't get a Wii until late 2008 and suspect it will be at least a year or two before I consider an upgrade. I'm actually looking forward to more price drops on wii titles after cafe releases. :)

As an unexpected twist I've almost been giving the 3DS a little more consideration for two reasons.

1) Read some news about having 'a link to the past' on 3ds. Not sure there's much else to say.

2) In contrast to my 3ds posts on coffeewithgames.com, I may have found a good use for it. Game while still being connected to everyone else in the house. (moved wii to the office)
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