What I'm playing: Christmas

I figured I'd cover a bit more ground here to help catch up since I got lazy and let the last one go all kinds of late. I started off playing some games I got around my birthday and finished the year strong with some great titles I managed to snag for my brithday. My impressions are probably all over the place, but so too has been my list of genres! This will probably be my most diverse What I'm playing yet so I hope you all enjoy!

The team attacks in this game are great!

It wouldn't be a What I'm playing without an update on Persona 4 Golden! By now I'm sure you all are absolutely sick of hearing me talk about this game but this will probably be the last time... I finished the dungeon for the true killer, the Hollow Forest dungeon, and the I'm in the dungeon for the true ending. Needless to say there isn't much more I can eek out of this game without another playthrough. Either way I am getting up to that 120 hour mark and every minute has been a blast. I'll probably start a new play through to catch a few quick trophies but I won't go for a full playthrough until I make some headway on this back log! If I could give any closing thoughts on this game they'd simply be that this is a must own for RPG fans, and a great first foray into the genre for Vita owners looking for the best the handheld has to offer!

Take that, social link!

Since P4G was coming to a close I really didn't want to live in a Inaba-less world so with some birthday money I picked up Persona 4 Arena for the PS3. It's a fighting game that thinks it's visual novel lol. The story mode is pretty immense. It is not the exact same quality as Persona 4, so don't expect this awesome tale with tons of character development, but it is exceptional for a fighting game. It revolves around the reappearance of the Midnight Channel and the investigation team reuniting to figure out why. There are also several characters from Persona 3 as well, and they are tied in to the story pretty well. It's a great epilogue if you love the characters, but how is it as a fighting game? Actually, it's pretty impressive there too. Since it was developed by Arc Systems Works and as such it bares a whole lot in common with Guilty Gear and Blazblue. There is a fairly open combo system a lot of nuances to fighting like bursts, cancels, reversals, furious actions, awakened attacks, all-out attacks, you name it. Yes, there are even instant kill moves. Anyone who likes a fast paced 2D fighter like Gear will love this game as well, especially since it has a great online mode with 8 player rooms for that arcade feeling. The netcode is pretty smooth and after 20 or so games online only one had lag that affected the match at all.

Ever have a sticker that gave you super powers? Me either.

Well Christmas rolled around and my lovely honey got me Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS. I've never played a Paper Mario game before so I can't tell you really anything about how it feels compared to those, but I can tell you I love it so far. It is like a Mario RPG in which stickers you collect become your attacks in turn based combat with familiar baddies from the Mushroom Kingdom. The story is very simple and straight forward, true to Mario fashion, but the gameplay is actually very enjoyable. It's no Persona 4 (I'm saying this way too much, aren't I?) but it's pretty much what I need after such a such an intricate game as P4G. The only complaint I have about this game at all is that the game tutorials are pretty sparse  There was no mention of pressing the A button during my attacks to increase my damage and whatnot so I literally wasted tons of stickers dealing pathetic amounts of damage for nearly an hour into the game. Needless to say I was pissed that the game simply didn't see fit to share this vital info with me.

The new episodes of Justice League Unlimited are getting weird...

I have a special place in my heart for Lego games, so when they started coming out on Vita that made perfect sense for me. I put a couple Lego games on my Christmas wishlist and my aunt ended up getting me Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes! So far I'm several levels in and I just got Superman as a playable character but I'm really hoping to get guys like Green Lantern and the Flash. I read somewhere there are a few exclusive characters for the Vita version so that's pretty cool but I can't confirm that yet. Either way it is mostly what you would expect from a Lego game, simple yet fun. The Vita version feels very much like a full console version of this game save for the lack of that free roaming Gotham City mode I hear the PS3 and 360 versions have. The only other difference is that the movies were compressed rather poorly for the Vita version which is kind of a shame since any Vita owner knows what the handheld is capable of.

The fellowship of the brick!

Another gift I got was the Persona 4 Golden Solid Gold Premium Edition. I know what you're saying, "Don't you already have that game?" Well yes, but I also had the receipt too... See where I'm going here? I took the game and "returned" it and kept all the Solid Gold edition goodies. With the money I picked up Lego The Lord of the Rings for Vita. Once again I'm a fool for these games and I have a great love for Lord of the Rings as well so this was a great fit. Most impressive about the game is the fact they carry over most of the voice track from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy for use in the game. The game is wacky of course, as Lego games are but currently I'm enjoying it.

I don't have any jokes to make here.

Since I started playing Persona 4 Arena, I naturally got a little curious about the Persona 3 characters, so another game gifted to me from my wishlist was Persona 3 Portable. I've played bits of Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, and P3P before but I never got far, and always ended up trading the games in (due to the fact they kept coming out with new versions) save for P3P, which I am sad to say I played a not-so-legitimate copy of for PSP. I figured I'd finally buy and stick with one so P3P was where I settled on. So far I've begun a male and female protagonist but I'm not sure which one I'll follow through with first so I'll talk more about this one as I play more.

Real Houswives of the UNSC, Cortana edition!

My brother, hilariously, bought me Halo 4 for Christmas. I say hilariously because this is about as much of a self serving gift as you can imagine. Yes I really appreciate the thought, but I can still laugh at the fact he bought it for me so he could play it as well. Well played sir, well played indeed. That chuckle aside the game is really great. The game really streamlines what Halo normally offers, while adding a bit of tactical shooter ala games like Call of Duty. What exactly is new is a sort of kill streak support package, only you don't have to remain alive for it to kick it. It accumulates slower (probably) than it does in a CoD game but unless you have an absolutely abysmal round you'll get at least one, probably two. The new maps are amazing, you have greater customization over the armor abilities and starting weapons, and the menus are gorgeous and efficient. Yes the menus. I love the menus. I want the menus in Halo 4 to have my children.

"What do you mean I'm not Batman?"

My last gaming gift this holiday was that of Dishonored for 360. This game is the story of Corvo. Framed for the regicide (technically she isn't a king but she's the ruler of the city) and kidnapping and sentenced to death, Corvo escape with the help of a resistance made to counter the new ruler's evil intentions. Steampunk-esque cityscapes and a unique feel are a total selling point to this game while the sub-par stealth is not. Don't get me wrong, the game is good, just not the second coming son of stealth gaming's god. It does have a fair amount of choice when it comes to how you want to tackle your mission, but in the end the stealth is too tedious to use and suddenly your options are halved because of your desire to completely ignore it. I won't say much for enemy AI which is bad, but no worse than other stealth games.

Well there you have it. Quite the haul, I know. A lot of these games will carry over well into 2013 so I know I'll already be starting off a great gaming year!

What I'm playing Dec 1 - Dec 15

This weekend was filled with enough gaming that I feel very compelled to share it all... lucky you!

Naoto wasn't in the beach scene! This isn't canon!

There was of course Persona 4 Golden... I have a feeling there will ALWAYS be Persona 4 Golden. This is both comforting and scary as hell at the same time. I'm at the end of the game, having successfully gotten past the "bad ending" and am proceeding to kick some killer's ass. Feels good man. I'm approaching the 100 hour mark very rapidly and that's cool, but I know there is an extra dungeon after this so I wouldn't doubt if this game rounds the 120 hour mark. BRING. IT. ON!

Jockstraps make the best head equipment huh?

Crimson Shroud is a game for eShop that I downloaded recently. It's a part of the Guild 01 game in Japan which did get a physical release, but instead of localizing them as a physical release, three of the four games were localized and released digitally on the eShop. Crimson Shroud is the digital equivilent of a table top role-playing game. I know that most RPGs can be considered to be the natural successors of table top RPGs, but trust me when I say this is moreso. There is a lot of reading being part visual novel, but at certain times you are given choices on how you want your character to act or react. Sometimes these choices may require you to roll dice to determine success or failure, harkening back to ye olde dayes (is that too many 'e's?) of rolling checks. When you get into the battle portions of the game are standard turn based RPG fare, but with another dice based twist. You can earn dice from chain attacks and those dice can be used to power up damage and accuracy. It really is so cool.

Can my president look like this please?

Along with Crimson Shroud, another Guild 01 title that localized on the eShop is Liberation Maiden. This one is a developed by Level-5 and Grasshopper Manufacture. You play as the 16-year old Shoko, President of New Japan, tasked with fending off the invasion and occupation of your country. It's got some pretty awesome anime cutscenes. Once you start playing the controls take a little getting used to. Unlike how it looks, turning and moving forward and back is all done with the analog stick and aiming is done with the stylus and touchpad. You can strafe but only if you hold down the "L" button. Sound confusing? It kinda is, but you should get the hang of it after the first couple missions. The game seems kinda short, but since it's only $8 I think it's priced right. Oddly enough I am getting some use out of my Kid Icarus stand again thanks to this game!

CYBORG!

Vita owners, I'm going to move away from the 3DS for a minute with a title that you should pick up. It's called Surge and it is made by Futurlab. You might remember me talking about them before. They made Beats Slider and Fuel Tiracas, some of the best PSM launch games out there along with Coconut Dodge and Velocity, the PS Mini that defined Minis. Surge is a super fun tile matching sort of game. You trace your finger on the screen to match exposed tiles to each other of matching color in order to clear them from the screen and make way for the next group of the tiles to continue and eliminate them before pressure builds up and the game ends. Think a Tetris feel with a refined, reinventive gameplay that Futurlab is known for. And no, I am not paying the least bit of lip service to them. They are the wizards of Brighton to me. Always. Anyways, the best part is Surge is a steal at less that $4. There is literally no reason not to get this.

Tags: SSBM, Brawl, Super Smash Bros

At the 8bitfix Christmas party thingy that we had on Saturday I also got the chance to play a bit more of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale with actual people. We had plenty of people in attendance and I took the opportunity to try something out. We had three people playing on the actual PS3 console, and I had my Vita with me so I had them invite me to their game over PSN. So for a couple rounds I fought looking at the Vita screen while playing but I actually switched to looking at the TV screen and using my Vita as a controller. I have to say it worked really well. When there was so little lag that I can actually do this that's pretty damn impressive. Not to mention after I started getting the hang of things I managed to take first a few rounds as well... nice :). I'm maining Cole MacGrath, which I'm sure is no surprise to any of you who have read my blog before. His level 1 super takes some finesse to work in big four player battles but I'm decent with it now and was even able to out-Cole Gusto's son Tito. Why am I so happy to have dethroned a kid less than half my age? Cause his Cole is over twice the level mine is...

All 4 Quark!

Lastly, rounding out my gaming weekend was Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. I realize this game came out like forever ago but it has literally sat unopened on my shelf for some time. I got it for $10... an almost criminal price, but at a time in which I had plenty of other stuff to play. So I pulled it out and popped it in my PS3 and I have to say I rather like it. It isn't this amazing awesome life changing experience but it is a very fun four player game. It is a little less fun by yourself since it is geared toward multiplayer, but it is still very solid. I don't remember having as much fun with a co-op multiplayer game since Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube. I loved this game to death so this is really saying a lot. I hope to be able to play this one a little more especially with local multiplayer.

And there you have it folks, that's what I'm playing for the week just before Christmas! I'll be back very soon with a new What I'm playing for the week of Christmas, trust me, it'll be good!

No, nary a watch in sight!

Well hell yes! You know those awesome wristbands the nonary game participants wear in Virtue's Last Reward?

Well, ok, maybe they aren't so awesome because they kill you but let's forget that for a minute....

If this were my watch I'd send it back!

Awhile back it was revealed there would be replicas of these that worked as digital watches for anyone who preordered the game on Amazon. There was a bit of a debacle though as Amazon wasn't able to fulfill this promise to all customers. Amazon recommended cancelling and re-ordering, Aksys said you'd have a better chance if you kept your order in. Amazon said it was Aksys's fault, Aksys said it was Amazon's. Cats and dogs were living together. It was mass hysteria.

If you ask me, I'm more likely to think it was Amazon's fault, but then again I've made it very public that they have screwed me over in the past.

Needless to say many didn't get their watch. Two people who I know were among them. It was disappointing, but it wasn't the end of the world. I mean, at least they got the game itself just fine. The angry mob died down shortly and people realized how awesome the game is and all was right with the world. Lo and behold, a new hope appeared. Aksys games took whatever remaining stock they had on these watches and decided to sell them on their new online store.

My initial reaction was nearly one of rage "Aksys Games has brought back the Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward watches (while supplies last)..." Those fuc- "...in order to help raise money for relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy. By purchasing a Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward watch, you will be donating all $20.00 to the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy fund and helping those affected by this devastating storm." Well played, Aksys, well played. Needless to say any rage I had abated rather quickly. Keep in mind I didn't even preorder the game, I had received a review copy from Aksys directly so it isn't even like I was directly involved. It's simply the fact you too often see companies do all the wrong things. I am very glad to know that didn't occur this time.

Anybunny need a watch?!

For those of you asking why Aksys didn't just try to distribute the watch to those people who preordered the game and didn't get one, can you imagine what kind of nightmare it would be to get order information from Amazon to confirm all those claiming to be owed a watch? Yikes. That's one trainwreck I don't blame Aksys for avoiding. Hell, whenever I call into Amazon I don't even get help on my issue until after I've yelled at the poor rep (I do feel bad for them, but they act like complete tools) enough. It's like they have an egg timer on their desk, and once you've yelled for its duration they finally offer to make it right.

On that note, companies: if you want your customer service reps to hang around instead of turning over every month, you need to instruct them to ACTUALLY HELP. Imagine that?

Anyways, the point here is Aksys is a pretty cool guy. He raises money for Sandy relief and doesn't afraid of anything. I can wear the watch I ordered with pride, knowing that if it injects me with Soporil β and Tubocurarine at least my $20 will have helped someone!

A big shoutout goes to Ben Bateman, Editor at Aksys Games, who heard my mad ravings on Twitter and helped fix the store, allowing me to buy one of these watches. His twitter account is @benspants. I think his body is made up of 70% puns. You should follow him then bask in his nonsense!

Oh my glob you guys, this collector's edition is so math!

In addition to Persona 4: Golden I also picked up Jet Set Radio on my Vita, and also Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Enchiridion Collector's Edition for 3DS.

Yes that is the full title. Yes this is real life.

I kinda chickened out on an unboxing video for this one after I found out my laptop's crappy built in webcam makes me look like a muppet. In the interest of still showing you all how awesome it is though, I'll post some pictures I took.

The outside cover is really just a protector for the steelbook underneath. The whole thing is stylized to look like Finn's Enchiridion, the book that teaches would be heroes how to save princesses and apparently also how to kiss them. I love the tie-in to the game, but the paint they used on the steelbook seems weak. A couple spots have been scratched off by the cardboard cover that is supposed to be protecting it so be warned if you pick this up... keep it well protected.

What's inside you ask? Well here ya go. We have a Finn's gold sword replica stylus, the Book of Beasts strategy guide thingy, a map of Ooo and the game itself.

The map of Ooo looks like it only covers the areas in the game as the Fire Kingdom and Nightosphere don't seem to be anywhere on the map. It is also printed on normal paper, which bums me out. I know, it seems dumb for that to bother me, but well I love me some nice maps. The Gamestop preorder map for Skyrim was on some parchment-like paper which game it an awesome texture and feel, and I have several other maps (like for Lunar: SSS) that are cloth. Again, I know it's silly but I love me a nice map.

Then there's the Book of Beasts. This one is actually pretty functional. It seems to have a list of every monster in the game, divided by region, with their HPs listed. It's worth noting even boss enemies appear in here, and not that the name isn't already an indicator, but if you didn't want to spoil anything for yourself you might want to limit yourself to it page by page.

Not currently pictured in its entirety is Finn's gold sword stylus. This is probably the coolest thing next to the steelbook case. It's functional and actually really great as a stylus. It's far more substantial than the telescoping stylus that comes with the 3DS and it feels a lot nicer in your hands. It's pretty solid too, which is a huge plus. I don't feel like I'll break it at all, though just like with the steelbook, the black paint on the hilt and pommel of the sword feels like it might scratch off easily. So take your chances there. You don't really need a stylus so much for the game itself, but I do plan to use it when I play Theatrhythm or Kid Icarus since hand cramps can easily set in on those.

Well there you have it, all this glory for $40 is not bad if I do say so myself, even if the paint seems to be kind of cheap. Needless to say any fan of Adventure Time will take adequate care of it and it is really geared towards them anyways.

I'll let you guys know how the game is once I'm done being totally addicted to P4G!

Persona of the WildCard!

So Persona 4 came out.

Mother of God.

Yup, yup, I know what you're thinking. Oh man, WildCard's hooked on another JRPG. Oh that WildCard, when will he learn Japanese games are crap.

Sorry guys, newsflash. Japanese games are awesome. No, seriously. Why are you laughing? Well the whole NA vs JP arguement will have to wait for another time because after literally 30 hours of gameplay is less than a week (six days to be exact) I have so much to say about Persona 4: Golden.

First off this is part of Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series, though it cut down on the nomenclature of sorts. It also originally came out on PS2 back in late '08 despite the PS3 already being established at the time. This is the reason I didn't pick it up originally. Everytime a game comes out on last generation's hardware when where is a current gen, it almost always gets 'ported. This goes mostly for bigger publishers, but Atlus seems to have this as a rule of thumb. So I skipped the PS2 version and regretted it for many years... until now. It took a little longer than I expected (4 years... really? REALLY!?) but that wait is over and man was it worth it.

From initial concept Persona 4: Golden is already an exemplary title in the JRPG library. You can take control of every character in your party which is so refreshing considering so many RPGs have gotten away from the turn based format for the action/RPG hybrid games I find so hit or miss personally. You can also let them control themselves with basic AI behaviors you can select. Combat is exciting with all the cutaways, battle animations, extra attacks, and all-out attacks that really make the game a feast for the eyes. The story is killer (no pun intended). The characters are surprisingly likable. Kanji Tatsumi in particular shocked me, as it's not every day the concept of a man being sexually confused in a Japanese video game makes it to print. It was a bold move, but one I truly admire as the issue of acceptance is his true desire, and one we can all relate to despite being straight, gay, or whatever. Social links are totally addicting as well. As you decide how best to spend your time afterschool or on Sunday, you'll begin to notice there are so many things and so little time. You can enhance your social links which strengthen the Personas you create, and even enhance your party members proficiency in battle as well. You can also do stuff like eat out, study, and train which will help you raise your social attributes, which in turn help you enhance your social links. You of course can also jump into the TV world to complete story missions, grind, or complete quests. It's all pretty daunting, but in a good way.

That is all really just in the main game itself. The "Golden" in Persona 4: Golden is really, well... golden. The Vita version has new features like the dungeon SOS, a "call for help" function what will allow people to send you small amounts of HP and SP between battles to help keep you on your feet. There is also the "Voice" feature that will display the choices of what players connected to the PSN while playing chose to do that day. It's actually handy to be able to see who has chosen to do what, and sometimes you can see choices you didn't know you even had. There is also more animated cutscenes and voice overs, both of which are awesome. There are new songs and new school events such as festivals and other things that would exist during a normal Japanese high schoolers life. There are new social links with Tohru Adachi and the new character Marie. There are also new Personas and new ways to spend your time such as gardening. Combine this with the already humongous amount of content in the original release... and the choices are staggering.

Yeah, I know it's getting a little obscene. Just trust me when I say I am literally addicted to this game. From the excitement of combat, to the addictiveness of enhancing social links, I cannot put this game down. Like, at all. It's so bad I've spent a total of 24 hours in my first five days playing. What?! Seriously, I may have a problem.

Either way if you own a Vita and have even the slightest patience for RPGs, you will need this game. Even if you don't know you need it yet, trust me, you do. There is a reason why this game was a much needed boost for the Vita overseas, and why this is one of the Japanese games actually making waves over here in the US. It is that good.

I'm almost sad to say I'm not reviewing this game, but Beatboxtaun is handling it so it should turn out to be a great review. Considering she is as addicted to this as I am I think I can safely say we probably would review this to a similar score anyways. That's right, I trust her!

(That's saying a lot!)

Anyways there you have it. Everything about this game seems pretty spectacular, and I haven't encountered a single thing that isn't. I always have something negative to say about a game, at least something. This time though, nothing. You know what to do Vita owners!

Knives a duex -or- When Conner met Ave

So the temptation was too strong! I had my money all ready to go for Halo 4, and I had an odd change of heart. I'm actually confident the game is fantastic, many reviewers I trust have had nothing but good things to say so far, but for a couple different reasons I decided against picking it up Tuesday.

Whatever will I do with all that money you ask? Well not one to be wasteful I found a new home for it!

Yup I got Assassin's Creed III. I knew I would be getting this game, but I didn't think I would so soon. As it turns out I was wrong. I even picked up the PS3 version for the bonus missions, and Liberation connectivity.

I didn't plan on using that connectivity with Liberation so soon, but I did know I would eventually get it, and when I did I'd want the PS3 version. Well...

I'm seriously the worlds biggest sucker. I don't even know what to say, when I want something I want it now and there is very little I or anyone else can do about that. I'm just damn glad the things I want most are usually video games!

So I'll give you guys a fine run down in the what I'm playing segment but until then ladies and gents I'll bid you all adieu!

Boogie on down! 8bitfix Review: Orgarhythm

Troll box art is successful!

Another one bite's the dust! This time it's XSEED's groovy RTS/Rhythm hybrid, Orgarhythm for PlayStation Vita. Not really one for rhythm games myself (though Theatrhythm may have changed that a little) I was pretty intrigued what this would play like. Would it be more RTS than rhythm, or vice versa? In the end, just like a two piece harmony, there was a perfect blending of the two. The only thing holding this title back from being that new refreshing Vita entry is the fact that most people won't stop to give a strange title like this a try. It's a shame, but I'm under no illusions about the mentality of the majority demographic of gamers today. Well it is what it is, but anyone daring enough to risk a try at this $30 PSN only Vita title just might be rewarded with something truly special :)

Anyways here's the link: 8bitfix review: Orgarhythm

Oh, and a snippet, as always!

"Orgarhythm is actually very simple to describe, but difficult to convey the true experience. Here I go anyways. The game is equal parts rhythm and equal parts strategy. In order to properly dispatch troops you need to tap the screen to the beat. One tap on the God of Light, another to select which elemental trooper to use, and a third to select which type of attack they will perform. Then all you have to do is tap the screen, or tap and drag to send a certain number to a specified location on the map. As you continue to successfully tap, the "voltage level" will rise, powering up your troops, and allowing you to have more of them. See not hard to describe at all, but the game sounds plain. I assure you it isn't. There is a sort of excitement to the game you can't really appreciate until you try it. Something about how the music amplifies your drive to attack, and attacking continues to build your combo and voltage level; it's a cyclical excitement that builds with the better you are doing. Not to mention there are no technical difficulties whatsoever with tapping. The game runs smooth, almost surprisingly so when you have 48 of your own troopers heading out amidst a sea of enemies equal in number! It is absolutely essential rhythm games always run smoothly, and for one that incorporates RTS elements this is doubly so."

Say it with me... "Colors, Colors!"