Weekend, what are you playing?

I don't know about you guys but I had an awesome week. April has been pretty quiet with the game releases, which is all right since the a few months back there were tons of good games hitting the shelves. I consider April a time to look back and play those games left in the dust. What have you guys been playing?

Quash:Blizzard opened the beta for Diablo 3 to the public this weekend and that was pretty much my gaming weekend right there. The beta is around 30-45 minutes long but have access to all classes and with a cap of level 13.  Which is perfect since all I wanted from the beta was to see the feel of gameplay and decide which character I'll be playing when the gates of hell opens on May 15.

Just like any crazy fan, I played every single class till the end of the beta. It wasn't that hard too, especially after the first run. Naturally after listening to the story, and checking out everything there is in the beta, the second playthrough was much faster since I was skipping the cut scenes to save time. After trying each class, I've decided to play the Demon Hunter when I get the game. The way the Demon Hunter is suits well for how I play and its very easy to keep your distance from enemies and fire away from afar.

The open beta weekend has two purpose which is a win-win for Blizzard and the fans itching to try this game. Not only does it serve as a demo in a sense, Blizzard was able to do a stress test on servers to prepare for the day one release. This is important to avoid issues experience last friday- Beta was inaccessible since servers crashed. Too many players were trying to get in. Imagine that happening on day one? Good thing Blizzard opt to do this event to give them an idea on how to make the launch as smooth as possible.

To sum it up, the beta just answered my question - Will I lose what's left of my social life? Yes. The combat for each class is unique and satisfying. Diablo 3 has a lot of changes, but it still feels like the Diablo game we grew to love when you start clicking like a mad man.

My only dilemma right now is if I should buy the game online or on a retail store? Still not sure if retail stores here in the Philippines will have the game on day one.

Migoy: Didn't really have a big gaming weekend but I did play my fair share of virtual reality. Most of my gaming time went to the handhelds since I was out doing whatever over the weekend. Started a new game in SD Gundam G Generation World because, for some reason, my data got corrupted (FUUU!). The new G Generation games maybe easier compared to older titles but it's still quite the grind.

Now for a feat I don't accomplish a lot, I beat some games this weekend. First up on the list is Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact for the PSP. This game could have been beaten long ago but I had a bit of a snag with my PSPs controls which is why I held off using it for a while, I'll get into that in another post. Just four battles in since my last save and the main story was done, doing so unlocked a few extra missions where I get to use some of the baddies this time around so that should be interesting. Other than that it's just a matter of going through the extra missions and playing it on a higher and lower difficulty to get more bonuses.

Next game is one that had more of an impact than Ultimate Ninja Impact. See what I did there? That game is Bayonetta.  I finally cleared the main story on normal and man does that game get crazy, like interstellar space punch crazy. Loved the characters, loved the action, loved the ending. I tried the prologue stage on hard mode thinking that it would just be the same game with only the goons having more life and doing do damage. Oh boy was I wrong, the game truly steps things up by putting in the later stronger level opponents in the first bloody stage! I got my ass handed too me but had a blast. Bayonetta will be getting more attention from me as I recall that there is a weapon that I missed that I really want to try out, those being the ice skates.

For those who actually follow my list of games that I am currently playing, you will notice something out of place at the end of 4/22/2012. I'll get to that soon. Other than that it's just your standard fare of casuals such as Tetris DS and Super Stardust Portable though I did start that point-and-click mystery game on the DS that caught my interest some time ago, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Just passing through the first area took me around 45mins, I even had to bust out a paper and pen during the whole thing. Kicking it old school I guess, I had fun. That's it for now, for a non-big gaming weekend this post sure ended up being a bit lengthy. Until next week.

Oh and I did this little vector of Missile the dog from Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

"The only thing I'm really good at is... That's it! BARKING! There really isn't much else in life!"

Weekend, what are you playing?

We are now midway through April and the heat is unbearable here in the Philippines. It's summer here in a tropical country so go figure, but enough of the weather, what have you been playing this weekend?

Quash: Still at it with Star Wars: The Old Republic. I've continued one more month since I'm very anxious to see the last two chapters of my Jedi Knight story line, plus I started my Smuggler class to play all Han Solo-like. For games like this, the end game is really the meat of every MMORPG nowadays, but for me its the other way around for The Old Republic. The best way I can describe the progression in this game is like your playing Knights of the Old Republic. God how I wished this was just a single player game. Will I continue after my month is over? No. From what I'm seeing, I only need a month to experience everything this MMO has to offer as a casual player. Plus, Diablo 3 is out in a month. Can't wait.

I've also tried the free DLC for Mass Effect 3's multiplayer. The new races you can now play are cool and all but It's the two added maps that would keep this multiplayer alive. Hopefully they keep up with giving DLC for free but with EA, it might be just a one time deal. Oh and if looking for closure in the ending of Mass Effect 3, an extended cut of the ending will be out soon in the form of a DLC, free of charge.

Migoy: I slept most of my Saturday away so I didn't get to play anything until around 10pm. What I did play during that time was the demo of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and I have to say that I was really digging the battle system. I spent almost 3 hours playing it which is pretty hefty for a demo. Now I kinda want to get my hands on Final Fantasy XIII and then 13-2. But I gotta say this, quick time events (or as they call it "Cinematic Action")? Really?

The FF13-2 demo was really the only highlight of my weekend gaming but I did pop in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 because I formulated some combos in my head (which really didn't work out as I planned) and I was also curious about the costume DLC glitch that just got patched out. Since I still don't have internet at home (damn you PLDT) and I don't have access to any recent online updates I decided to try out the glitch and as you know the Magneto costume is not accessible because of of certain issues that arose however since the costumes are just locked in the disc (lol Capcom), using the glitch gives you access to Swagneto's alternate costume which I think is totally badass. I do plan on purchasing the costumes eventually but now I might as well enjoy my "early access" with them.

Quantity over quality? CD-RKing PS2 Controllers

For those familiar with CD-RKing then just from looking at the top picture alone you are already shaking your heads in disapproval. Shameless, I know. But hopefully these will last me for the next 2 or so months.

If you do not know what CD-RKing then let me give you a brief explanation. CD-RKing is a computer and gadget retail shop here in the Philippines whose products go for usually a third of the price compared to leading brands. The reasoning for such a big price difference is because for the most part they use, dare I say, "bootleg"-esque quality parts. That means that though the price is cheap, the quality is very iffy to say the least. The best way to describe it is "there is strength in numbers" which is exactly what I tried to do in my situation.

I just recently got a hold of a 2nd hand original PlayStation, known also the 1st PSX or the Fat PS1. The controllers that came with work but are very beat-up with a lot of bumps and scrapes on the plastic, as if it was thrown down a rocky hill. Though my issue isn't really about its looks but the main fact that the cord is really short and that these are the pre-Dual Shock controllers meaning no analog sticks. I busted out my PS2 controllers, 1 original and 1 class-A. However, my PS2 controllers seem to have a problem. Some buttons on my original PS2 controller don't register quickly and need a really hard press before they input. The class-A one auto mashes the cross button which makes playing most games completely unplayable.

I'm a little short on cash at the moment but I wanted to get at least 1 working controller for both my PS1 and PS2. At Datablitz, a brand new PS2 controller is going for around 750php I think which does fit in my budget albeit a little tight. However due to my trip to CD-RKing first to pick up a few blank CDs and DVDs, I asked if they were still selling PS2 controllers because I was curious about their price. The clerk told me that the PS2 controllers were going for 180php a pop. My mind went blank as I was caught off guard. I then asked to look at them and saw that they came in a few clear colors aside from the standard solid black. Me being a sucker for clear colored plastic caught a glimpse of a clear blue, it was different from DiEnd (my translucent blue PS3 controller) which had a matte finish and thus produced a foggy effect. These one were in smooth clear colored plastic, similar to the ones you find on action figures. Sure they crack easy but it's not like I throw of slam my controllers around. Honestly if it were not for the clear plastic, I wouldn't have cracked and impulse bought them. After I said that I would take the blue one, I thought to myself that this is a CD-RKing product and knowing the "quality" of their products, a single controller might not even last a full month. Knowing that it had such a low price, I opted to buy another just in case. Went with a color that I haven't seen on PS3 controller which is colorless clear plastic.

I truly am a sucker for clear plastic, I even thought of having my Wii's housing changed to a clear case more than once already. Aside from the tremendously low price, I do have another good thing to say about the CD-RKing PS2 controllers, the buttons do feel better than the ones you'd find on a class-A controller which had very hard buttons. I just hope that these controllers don't decide to break on me so soon.

Monthly Gametime Roundup - March

Oh crap! Me not having internet is worse than I thought. I almost completely forgot about the gametime roundup for the month of March. Well never fear for here it is!

It seems that my total gaming hours decreases as each month passes. The drop from February to March isn't nearly as big as January but let's see if that changes come the end of April. As usual here is the link to my Google Docs.

PS3: Soul Calibur V Binary Domain (Demo) Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Grand Theft Auto IV Skate 3 (Demo) Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition Street Fighter x Tekken Bayonetta Motorstorm: Pacific Rift Saints Row: The Third Marvel vs Capcom 2 Battlefield 3

PSVita: Uncharted: Golden Abyss

PSP: Super Stardust Portable

PS2: Capcom vs SNK 2 Millionaire Fighting 2001

PS1: Syphon Filter Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Mega Man Legends Final Fantasy VII Pepsiman Crush Gear Turbo Bust A Groove 2 Chocobo Racing

Wii: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Rhythm Heaven Fever Spider-man: Web of Shadows Super Smash Bros. Brawl Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes Fourze

GC: Mario Kart: Double Dash

DS: Pokemon White Guitar Hero: On Tour Mega Man Zero Collection Super Scribblenauts Tetris DS Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Mega Man Battle Network 5 Double Team DS

NES: Castlevania (Wii Virtual Console)

PC: Not Tetris 2 Mari0 Final Fantasy VII Marvel: Avengers Alliance (Facebook)

My total gametime for the month of March – 62:29:24

Long weekend, what are you playing?

It's Holy Week and we got ourselves a long weekend to relax, or reduce our backlog of games to play. What are you playing?

Quash: Love the long weekends. naturally I abused the free time I had and invested hours into games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. During the start of the long Weekend I continued playing Star Wars: The Old Republic using my cousins account. A friend of mine just bought a copy, so we started characters together as a bunch of Jedi's exploring the galaxy. While the story telling in this MMO is nothing I've experienced in past online games, it's actually better with a friend along for the ride.

Last friday was just Star Wars non-stop, we went through the first 24 levels just like the WoW days. But like I said, the story is something else. Each quest is fully voiced and you engage in a conversation with the NPC as if your playing Mass Effect or Dragon Age 2. Having a friend along for each conversation makes it a bit more enjoyable. When choices on what your characters can say is given, each player rolls from 1 to 150(I think) and whoever player gets the highest number gets his choice picked. This brings a lot of fun and keeps the ending result of each conversation a mystery. My friend picks to save this certain character, but since I win the roll, my choice to kill him goes through and his reaction to my choice was priceless. it keeps things fresh and we see each other picking all the quests in each area.

Now that' s not the only games I get to spend some time on. I played a bit of Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the first time and it just reminded me how Super Mario 64 is one of my personal favorites. Another game I tried and will continue after this post is Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I started playing and saw three hours go by just like that. It's been awhile since I played a Zelda game so I can't wait to get back into playing. My last Zelda game was actually The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Yes, it's been that long, I haven't even played Wind Walker, but I'm definitely going to give that game a shot.

Migoy:

Another late entry for me as I am still trapped in the bowels of the "no internet at home". For this weekend you could say I've gone retro. Not completely retro but I have been playing a lot more games that are 1 to 2 generations old from our current gen systems.  Got my hands on a copy of Rival Schools: United by Fate, the Evolution Disc version, and had some nostalgic button mashing fun with that. Bust A Groove 1 and 2 still took at LEAST half an hour of my time each which is around the average time to clear arcade mode with a single character.  Didn't get to play as much Mega Man Legends as I thought I would but I got to sneak in a bit of zenny grinding on that.

I guess you could say that the highlight of my weekend was Chrono Cross. Nowadays usually spending an hour or 2 straight on a modern day single player game is a rarity and usually has me exhausted but playing Chrono Cross had me going so smoothly and 2 hours just breezed by without me even noticing.  There's just something about this RPG that hits the right spot.

Now that we're done with the 2 generation old games, let's talk about the games that aren't as old. Had to dig up some AA batteries because I plugged in the Wii cause I felt like playing what I'm guessing isn't a very popular GameCube game. That game is Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom. A game based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! world that isn't a card game, in fact it's a game that mixes 2 very different genres, namely RTS (Real Time Strategy) and the Final Fantasy style ATB-esque (Active Time Battle) though in this case it's more like an Active Turn Battle. I just felt like revisiting this fossil because I'm re-watching the old Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and it got me in the mood for some Duel Monster action.

Finally, I did get to play a game within this current console generation. I finally got Lost in Shadow for the Wii. A sort of unique side scrolling platformer as you don't control a character per se but instead you control his shadow. A shadow who has been separated from his body that's being held atop a mysterious tower and is trying to reunite itself with said body. Aside from the straight forward platforming and puzzle solving, what makes this game unique is that you are indeed a shadow and thus interact with the shadows of things in the environment. Though I guess you could still say that it changes the plains of the game but not really the basic point, only when you start messing with light sources and angles of the shadows that you really get the point that the developers where trying to make. The art style and design of the tower sort of resembles that of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, even the story seems a little similar since it seems a little twisted and mysterious. If anything this sort art style of delves on the verge of most Indy titles right now, especially with games such as Limbo out on the market.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbuXx6vXeZ8[/youtube]