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!

What I'm playing this week! Oct 7 - Oct 14

Welp, that's another week. Time to start talking about gaming! This last week was probably my most diverse yet as my anxiety after finishing three reviews sunk in and all I wanted to do was game for fun.



I started off with a couple titles on PlayStation Mobile. Since the Vita is compatible I run them off there. The huge plus is that they're super cheap and actually pretty good. This time around I'm messing with a the two PSM launch titles from Futurlab. The first is Beats Slider. First off I should mention I am horrible at slider puzzles. Seriously. I am damn #%&@ing horrible. What you have is a slider puzzle to music. When you put a square where it goes you get to hear it add to the music. The only problem is getting it there. You know, because I suck. THANKFULLY they added a sort of cheat function which is similar to the way I used to pop the squares out and put them back in order :/ The music is pretty cool though, so I keep playing it. Plus it was only 79 cents :D



Ok, so the other game is Fuel Tiracas, which may be obvious since I posted a link to my review. It's a pretty damn addicting game that is based around the idea of tapping buttons as they light up. It gets more complicated, and faster in the later levels, but this game is awesome. First off it's only 49 cents. Secondly it's so fun to blast through. Other bonuses are the music is great to hear and the game is totally smooth. In short: get it!



After PSM of course Pokemon Black Version 2 came out sunday which I picked it up. I'm like 12 or so hours in which is nothing, but I have mixed feelings. On one hand if you look at the game in terms of "third version" this game is better. It has an all new story and a new main character. There's also this whole "where are they now" factor that is pretty endearing. If you look at the game as a sequel though you can't ignore the fact it's the same region (with a couple new cities) and the same pokemon. Not counting Genesect, there are no new pokemon this time around.... what? So yeah, how you look at this game will have EVERYTHING to do with how you feel about it. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for anything that might turn this around into a wholly positive experience for me, because so far I'm just "meh".



Next on the list is Code of Princess. This is another game I have mixed feelings about. There is very little here to dislike. It's a fun side scrolling brawler with RPG elements, great character design, music, and local and online multiplayer. The only real downsides are the cliche plot and lag/slowdown when you have a lot of enemies on the screen. It can get pretty bad in the multiplayer but nothing that will ruin the game for you. For some odd reason though I can't help but feel so-so about the game. There's no real reason why I shouldn't love this game... but I don't. It's not bad at all and I don't feel like I wasted my money. Perhaps I just didn't want to play that game right now. Of course I did, to review it. Now I have a completed review for the game but no assigned score because I'm trying to figure out how to score it fairly in my funk. Oh well :/



So the weekend rolled around and I finished two reviews and really just wanted to play something for me. The first stop on my train to fun town was inFAMOUS 2. Also this may be obvious since I posted earlier in triumph as I completed the Platinum Trophy. I absolutely adore this game. As a super hero game it is so high up there for me. Second only to Arkham City in fact. Cole's powers are so cool, and the story is tip-top. I did already know these things but they become even more evident each time you play the game. When you beat the game on both evil and good you even get to use all powers your characters. This is a huge win! Sucker Punch, you guys are magic!



Lastly, I ended up playing something "new" after I was done with inFAMOUS 2. That's in quotations because the game is actually pretty old. The game is Killzone 3. As far as PlayStation goes, its first party brands are usually pretty strong but Resistance kind of turned me off. So Gusto being the amazing dude he is gave me an extra Helgast edition he had lying around. So now I have a creepy Helgast head hanging out in my sons room and a game I've never really played until yesterday. So far I really like this game. It kinda makes you wonder why anyone plays the Resistance games with this one on the scene. The only reason I can think of is Killzone 1 is on the PS2, so maybe PS3 buyers didn't want to jump into a story mid-way. Otherwise this game pretty much beats it out in every way. I still think other games are more solid, like Halo: Reach or Battlefield 3, but I consider this game to really be up there in terms of first person shooters. Of course I have no idea what's going on ever and the cover system is a little janky, but the hitboxes are spot on and there are some very cool weapons to choose from. Good job Guerilla Games!

Well that's it for this week. I'm sure I'll have more keen stories in my adventures in gaming for you next weekend kiddos. Take care!

It's raining fuel, hallelujah!

I finished my review for the PlayStation Mobile game Fuel Tiracas. In short this game is a must. It's simple yet  challenging. It's such a great buy too... at only 49 cents. Crazy, I know. Anyways here is the link to my review on 8bitfix and a small quote from it to wet your appetite.

8bitfix Review: Fuel Tiracas

"When you think of space, and colonizing space, it's hard not to imagine that an incredibly small number of planets are even habitable. Terraforming is a popular science fiction solution to adapting a planet to our needs, and this is your mission in Fuel Tiracas. The uninhabitable planet before you will change before your eyes as you power up the sites releasing that oh-so-specific cocktail of various elements into the air, growing an atmosphere. Aside from this basic premise there isn't much else to Fuel Tiracas except the addicting gameplay. Knowing that it was inspired in part by a certain android from Aliens really does begin to explain some of the design though. That scene, you know the one. Yeah, that one. It's like the guys at Futurlab said "Hey, this is awesome. Let's make a game like this!" and the rest is history. When people inject things they love into a game, it's easy to see that love in the final product. That's the real story behind Fuel Tiracas." - me, in my review.

Ready for the Ragnarok?

Man, oh man, am I excited for Ragnarok Odyssey now. XSEED Games finally gave us an official release date of Oct 30th. I already have the Mercenary Edition on preorder at Gamestop so now I'm really just counting down the days until my Vita will see another quality retail title. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of really stellar PSN titles for it, especially now that PlayStation Mobile launched (more on that later), but I haven't really made a purchase for the system since the MGS HD Collection came out back in June. Some four months later and there is finally something interesting enough to warrant some cash to leave my wallet.

RO is your basic 3D co-op hack 'n slash, similar to Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star Online, but set in the Ragnarok universe. I'm not going to lie, I've never even had the desire to play other Ragnarok games. No particular reason, I was just always playing something else really. Now this one is hitting the Vita, a system seriously starved for a decent release library, and I am not going to miss it.

Of course the Mercenary Edition helped that a bit. Regrettably I missed out on reserving the extremely limited Persona 4: The Golden Solid Gold Edition. That edition runs $80 and gives ya the game, Vita carrying case, protective case, and stickers. There's also a Vita skin and wallpaper set but those come with regular edition preorders. Honestly though, the Ragnarok Odyssey Mercenary Edition seems to be quite the awesome deal. For $50 you get the game, 96-page art book/multiplayer strategy guide, 32-song soundtrack CD, and a random assortment of 10 of the game's 50 monster cards. For $10 more than the cost of the game. Only $10 more.



I mean yeah it's not loads of Vita accesories like P4G's Solid Gold Edition, but you also pay $30 less. Not to mention the CD and art book are far more complete than the usual 20-page art book or 12-song sample CD soundtrack. These are meaty!

So yeah yeah, enough gushing. The game looks great and I'm pretty excited for the online 4-player co-op. I even have a few buds ready to build a party with me so we can go take some giants down a few pegs. I'm totally starting an Archer and naming him Clint Barton. Oh yeah.

How to turn your $250 gaming device into an iPod!

Sometimes I laugh really hard when I think to myself just how much of a geek I am. I have Spotify Premium so I can stream music to my phone, but when I couldn't find "Invaders must die" from The Prodigy on it I pulled out my Vita, went to speed lap, and listened to the song as I merrily worked at my desk.

Guys I think I have a problem!