Getting sucked In By amazing Steam Sales

Bastion-Dungeon Defenders-Dota 2 Just when I said I'm done getting new games in 2011, I see myself with three new games on my PC.  I honestly had no plans on getting it but great sales and pure luck got the best of me. Hey, not really complaining. Bastion and Dungeon Defenders where two games I've always had an interest in. When I saw the huge sale for each game while exploring their Steam Holiday Sale, I couldn't help it. Oh and to top that off I got access to the Dota 2 beta. Win!

What a way to end 2011. With just 367 pesos($8.75) spent, I have three new games to seek my teeth in. I first got bastion on its one day sale in Steam for five bucks, then the next day Dungeon Defenders was on a one day sale for only 3 bucks. With Bastion turning out to be an amazing game and how addicting Dungeon Defenders is, its money well spent.

Bastion - A superb indie game

I finished Bastion the next day and it's literally a masterpiece. This indie game just blew me away. The narration, solid gameplay, and satisfying RPG elements just made Bastion one of the best games coming out of 2011. I want to talk a bit more if bastion but I'll save it for when I make a full review post. It should be back to 15 bucks on all platforms, but it's worth the buy.

I actually played most of my first playthrough on our live streaming channel. Apparently my PC can take streaming and Bastion running all at once. Yes, my PC isn't that strong anymore and a hardware update is long overdue. Quality is indeed not the best but it will get better in the future. Not shelving the game just yet, I'm still playing my second playthrough on New Game Plus with all idols activated at the start of the game(hardest difficulty) and will be streaming that as well so look out for that. Already started and I believe I'm halfway done already. The game is only 4-5 hours  really.

Dungeon Defenders - Tower Defense + Diablo/Borderlands style loot + RPG elements + 4 player co-op = WIN

It was past midnight and the Steam Holiday Sale showed their next one day sales for the day. One of it was Dungeon Defenders at $3.75. Just that much for a game I was considering to get on the Xbox 360 at 15 bucks? I just clicked it and bought the damn game. Thats just 158 pesos for countless hours of game play. The bold description above says it all on what Dungeon Defenders is all about. Max level is 70 and you have four classes to choose from with a couple more classes if you choose to get the DLC. I didin't bother with the DLC(downloadable Content) since they haven't applied any discount on the DLC. It was still priced higher than the actual game. That's how crazy the deal was, because it was literally a 77% discount.

I'm playing the mage class and only at level 11 so I won't say much about the game yet, but so far so good. It's easy to pair up with players, and a level seems to last around 30 minutes to an hour. I was enjoying Dungeon Defenders until I got lucky with Steam's The Great Gift Pile that gives you a chance of winning coupons and actual games when completing achievements given every day until new years.

Dota 2 downloading

Dota 2 Beta thanks to The Great Gift Pile

I wasn't really paying attention to this. When I saw a few achievements that are just flat out easy and can be done through the Steam, so I said why not. When I say easy I mean tasks like - Recommend a game, or join a community. Pretty much asking you to be active in the Steam community. The rest of the achievemnts are based on certain game achievements, and most of the games with achievements that I need to get a gift I don't own. I bet Steam was able to lure people into buying certain games just to unlock these achievements and earn some gifts. I didn't bother.

Out of all the achievements currently given, I was able to do seven of them. Each achievement earns you either a lump of coal or a gift. The gift has a chance of giving you discount coupons or actual games. The lump of coal can be converted into a gift if you already have seven in total. those seven achievements earned me five lumps of coal, two discount coupons for Valve games, and access to Dota 2. It came as a gift and I instantly unpacked it to claim as my own. I played a lot of Dota during my college days and seeing how the sequel is shaping up first-hand is an amazing reward.

So far I got into four games of Dota 2. I'll make an impression post as soon as I do a few more matches but it's literally Dota with better graphics. Not sure if this should be called a sequel. There's really no change to the gameplay and even the old heroes play the same. I haven't even seen a new hero added that was not in the first game's roster. The only change they did to the roster was certain names to heroes since Dota 2 isn't involved with Blizzard anymore. Even skill names are different. They all perform the same way just like the old game. They must have changed it to avoid copyright issues when released.

I see a leveling system for your account but it looks like it's disabled for now. because after four games I'm still at level one with 0 experienced earned. What do you get as you level? have no idea yet, we'll see when they introduce the feature.

matchmaking is pretty awful at the moment. It literally takes 15 minutes to get a game going. I know it's a beta after all, but I keep thinking I should have spent that 15 minutes on somewhere else.

Check out Steam's holiday sale by visiting Steam's site. Also, if you have a Steam account, why not participate and do those easy achievements that will only take a few minutes to do. You never know, you might get something interesting from the gifts.

 

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact (PSP) - Impressions

rasengan breasts Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact, the current Naruto game by CyberConnect2 on the PSP. Naruto games by CyberConnect2 are action packed, over the top, fighting games with controls that are simplistic but with enough depth to keep both casual players and those willing to take it a step further around. That isn't quite the case here.

To be honest I was a little excited about this game. After seeing the trailer shown at TGS 2011, I was expecting this to be the portable version of Ultimate Ninja Storm while thinking that the horde mode shown would be just a game mode for the story mode. But that new "rush mode" system IS the whole game. When starting a level, you deal with a bunch of stupid grunts ala Dynasty Warriors. Thing is that the mindless grunts in Dynasty Warriors have more brains (and health) than the grunts in this Naruto game. Characters basically have one combo with barely a hand full of special moves and one ultmate move. Now while everything is gorgeously animated and highly over the top, you will be sick of it after just one mission with each characters, maybe even less.

Now it may sound as if I am hating on this game for not meeting my expectations which is true but I am slowly enjoying this game. The enemies are butt easy so the only real challenge is the actual boss fights which pits you against significant characters in the story. On normal (the game's default difficulty) it's a tad too easy and since the only other difficulty available at the start are 'Easy' and 'Normal', you're kinda stuck with that for the moment. I'm only at Chapter 2 (starts at Chapter 0) which isn't very far so I am hoping that the game has much more to offer since previous Ultimate Ninja / Narutimate Hero games have impressed me before but there is a glaring fault in this game that is haunting and will continue to haunt my playthrough and that is a lack of an auto-save feature. Seriously, how hard could that have been to include?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8RFoYpdjCU[/youtube]

The Games I completed in 2011

2011 pic 2011 is almost over and I started to think "How many games did I complete for 2011?" First thought, it should be a lot. So I started making a list of the games that I completed, meaning from start until you see the credits rolling.

This was an amazing year for gaming. Starting 2011, I already had a buy list which I actually followed to the tee in the end. The last in my list was Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. When I got Skyrim, I considered myself done for 2011. I had to ditch some games like inFamous 2, Resistance 3, RAGE, and many more which I consider to get if I find a cheap copy somewhere. The head count is at 25. I'll update if I missed some but that's about the gist of it. Not that much if you ask me. If I record the number of hours of each game though, well that's an entirely different story.

My completed list of 2011:

Mass Effect 2(PS3 playthrough) DC Universe Online(has a story so it counts) Diablo 2(D3, come out already! playthrough # 7) Killzone 3 Uncharted 3 Two Worlds 2 Batman Arkham City Outland Dragon Age 2 Gears of War 3 Mortal Kombat(has a story mode, so yea) Deus Ex: Human Revolution L.A Noire Portal 2 Halo: Reach Fable 3 Splinter Cell: Conviction Dead Nation Dark Souls The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Crysis 2 Dead Island Moon Diver Left4Dead 2 Alan Wake

I was hoping to add Battlefield 3 into the list but I'm actually not done with the single player. Have 45 hours spent on multiplayer but haven't completed the campaign which should be at least 8 hours long. Why? cause it's flat-out boring and just bad. I'm having a hard time pushing myself to go through this linear campaign. I'm halfway there though so I'll be done hopefully by the end of the year.

I was hoping to have a bigger list but at least now I have a personal record to beat entering 2012. Thinking about beating the 2011 by doubling the amount of  games completed. For the sake of having a challenge. Take note that I took a huge amount of hours in each game. I don't rush finishing a game, especially with RPG's, if I see a side quest that needs doing, I'll do it.

If you have time, drop by the comments and throw your completed games list of 2011. I'd love to see what you guys have finished and also add in some stuff you want to complete by the end of the year. For me, I just want Battlefield 3's single player done and maybe my second play through of Uncharted 3( Crushing difficulty).

 

Holiday weekend, what are you playing?

nintendo 64! omg! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! Now I know that Christmas is the season for giving but I'm sure some of you guys will get some new video games, be it given by other people or "given" by yourself. So, if are playing video games this weekend then what are you playing?

Migoy: No new games for me since I am at the age where I have to get those kinds of things for myself and can't ask Santa for em. Was mostly busy with preparing for the big night and spending time with the family. However I was able to spend sometime with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Did a bit of Arcade Mode on the morning of the 24th and after I got home I was able to play a few online matches with @estimater (tupasheep) and Arlie around 1:00am on Christmas day. Played again after I woke up, did a bit of training with some characters I haven't really explored yet and trying to get all the character endings.

Arlie:

Happy holidays to everyone! Bought some games yesterday as a part of my last minute holiday shopping list. I got myself a copy of Batman: Arkham City, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception which I aim to finish (or even Platinum) all this week while we're on a holiday shutdown at work. Also played Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Battlefield 3 online with my friends.

Quash: Happy holidays! since its Christmas, was busy with all the last minute shopping and the horrible gift wrapping(didn't bother wrapping one and actually gave it with just a paper bag) but doesn't mean I didn't squeeze any gaming during the weekend. Before I left to join family, I did a few Super Meat Boy stages. I hope everybody had an awesome Christmas. I sure have and it was fun spending it with family.

Migoy gets his 2nd PS3 game - Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition

twilight teeth

"Evil Ryu has vampire teeth?"

And wouldn't ya know it, it's another fighting game. I just got a brand new copy of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition.

This was given to me as an early Christmas present from a friend, he goes by the name @estimater on twitter and tupasheep in the comments. I totally have no Street Fighter skills, never did or at least not at a pro-level, but I still enjoy a good beatdown, throwing fireballs and random shoryukens.

So far I've only done the arade modes of Ryu and Ken and tried out Evil Ryu in trainingmode. I got the ver. 2012 update and apparently you can switch back from ver. 2012 back to the normal "Arcade Edition". I don't really know how that works in online play, would the AE matches be separated with the ver. 2012 matches? I guess I'll just have to try it and find out for myself.

Again, thanks to @estimater for this awesome gift.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RUWj4vUG0[/youtube]