What are you playing?

[Norfy the Walrus]

I suppose its possible but I'm quite positive I saw my post under DF's after I wrote it up. Oh well, who knows.

EDIT>> Oh, I don't click reply when I post new messages. I always use the Quick Reply at the bottom which doesn't have a Preview option. Maybe there is a forum ghost.

All I was really saying was that I am enjoying Mass Effect. Very similar to Knights of the Old Republic in someways but also quite differant. There are things from both games that are done better than the other. Sadly, the game has technical flaws. Graphics and such. You can be watching a cutscene and at the same time see the backgrounds and even teh characters RENDER while you are watching. Like, say a character walks in during a cutscene. The character isn't fully rendered, they are just a humanoid clump of clay. And as a few seconds pass you start seeing facial features forming, colors on clothing become more noitcable etc. Its damn annoying. I wish companys would stop releasing unfinished games. Get it done before you start to sell. XD

[Caller]

Or they had a rollback at some point that night. I wasn't really paying attention so iono. But I'm innocent so mlah. <.<

I hear all sorts of good things about Mass Effect and it's piqued my interest. But what you describe is exactly what happens in The Last Remnant. By chance does this game use the Unreal Engine? If so there's the reason why. The Xbrick does NOT play nice with it. If not then it was poor graphics programming on their part.

[Norfy the Walrus]

Wikipedia sez Unreal Engine 3. I guess that answers it.

If you do pick it up keep in mind that it is a shooter RPG. Strange combonation but its working for me. If you treat this game like a shooter it will kill you but if you take time to pause the action and select commands then it gets fun and you have success. Hey, did you ever finish off KotOR there, Mr. Hobbit Stalker?

[Norfy the Walrus]

You guys ever hear of video games live? Its an orchestral concert of video game music. Its coming to Edmonton on Monday and my friend bought two tickets. He is selling me his second one. Its gonna be interesting. Always wanted to go to one of these.

[df2506]

This Weekend I Played:

Home: I hadn't checked out Home in awhile and I had heard there were some new places. I checked out the Siren home space. Creepy, but I couldn't play the mini-game there. It wouldn't load. Also, downloaded my Chamber Apartment, but never could get it to download. Just took forever and a day. I hate how Home has to load, download, and re-download stuff all the time. It should be more seamless. Overall, Home seems so useless..but for some reason, I keep going back to it. I have no idea why.

Super Mario 64: Downloaded this from the VC on Saturday! Glad I did. Such a fun game. I have 12 stars so far and its been blast playing this game again.

Animal Crossing: City Folk: Seems like most people have stopped playing this game. I did, however, see someone on today that I hadn't seen in awhile. That was nice. Wish more people were playing online though.

LIT: FINALLY, beat the boss battle I was stuck on. *whew* That was hard. Now, I'm stuck on another hard level. lol. Good game.

Tetris: I've been playing this a lot recently. Just addicted to it. Played a little online today, but I was awful. I lost every match. *sigh* Still fun though.

Dr. Mario: Only play this once and awhile. Played a bit online, but didn't do too well.

I'm hoping something cool will come to the VC/Wiiware tomorrow (at least VC anyway). I'm getting pretty fustrated with all the lame VC/Wiiware Mondays. Come on Nintendo! I have points I want to spend! Give us some good games!

DF2506

[Yvondith]

Still playing FFXII, I'm heading to Arcades now... and I got the Zodiac Spear, so I'm set for the rest of the game. Just doing the new Marks, and slowly exploring each new area before moving on.

Also got the new Valkyrie Profile game for DS. Storyline has me very interested so far. Battles are interesting, it's a SRPG, so movement is typical to any other SRPG like FFT, but enemy encounters are like mini fights in typical Valkyrie Profile style. Does take longer, but I really couldn't imagine a VP game without that type of battle. Really enjoying it so far.

Later edit: I found FFT style artwork in the strategy guide for VP3... FFT + VP = awesome!

[df2506]

Today, I downloaded Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

This is the first time I've really gotten to play this game a lot. I played a demo back in the day when it came out (at Wal-Mart), but only saw a glimpse of this game.

So far, I really like it. Its VERY different from every other Zelda game out there. Much more non-linear. Sometimes, its a little hard to figure out what to do next (could use a stradegy guide on this one). But, I like the graphics, the gameplay, the unique time travel elements, how everybody Majora's Mask seems to have a personality, etc.

I think the game speaks to my inner Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon player. lol. It just has that unique time element and very interesting sim qualities to it. I don't know if I'd put it above Ocarnia of Time, but then again, its probably way too early to be making those types of judgements.

I'm glad I got it. Finally Nintendo put something good on the VC!

Can't wait to see the cool Wiiware games that are coming up!

What else did I play today?

Well, other than Majora's Mask, just Animal Crossing: CF. Not much going on there though. Hardly anybody on today...

Can't wait to play more MM tomorrow.

DF2506

[Norfy the Walrus]

I just got back from Video Games Live. What an experience! I loved it. My friend picked me up at work after the day was done and we went right there. They had some stuff going on before the show so we wanted to see what was up. It wasn't too exciting. Not a lot of people and just a few games going on. They had Guitar Hero going, Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4. Not a lot going on. Kinda disapointing. But then again, this isn't a convention. So we went to pick up a bite to eat after playing a few rounds of SF4.

We came back an hour before the concert started. The crowd was quite a bit bigger this time. There were people in costumes ofcourse. This one group got dressed as the Power Rangers. Their costumes looked like the real thing. Must have been expensive. We saw a Mario and Luigi pair, a Link and Zelda pair, a person dressed as a Final Fantasy XI Red Mage complete with Artifact armor. We saw a girl dressed as a Fire Emblem character (Marth?) and my personal favorite, a dude was dressed up as Big Boss from MGS3. There were a few more but I can't remember them all. It was awsome seeing people in cosplay. I've only ever seen it on computer pics so it was really quite fascinating to see people dressed up right there.

When the thing started they first had a cosplay contest on stage. Everyone with a costume goes up and the one who gets cheered for the most wins a prize of gift cards and such. The girl who won had a ping pong ball on her head and two little white blocks on her side arms. It was Pong. An easy costume but she won cause of originality. When the concert itself started they started with an ensemble of differant old school Artari and arcade games. Playing them on orchestra while a screen above the band showed videos of what game the song was from. After that they had a pre recorded video of Hideo Kojima saying hello to everyone and to enjoy the Metal Gear Solid music. This is where it got fun. They played the MGS songs and half way through it they had a guy in a military costume and a fake gun walk on stage as if he was patrolling the area. Then from behind you see a person in the obligitory cardboard box run behind him and "sneak by" without him seeing. This was all set up ofcourse but it was entertaining. After the guy in the box was set on stage he stayed in the box till the MGS music was over. This is where it gets fun. The MGS music is done and Tommy Tallarico comes on stage to say hello and such. Eventually he reveals that the person in the cardboard box is non other than that asian kid who played the Mario music on the piano blindfolded. You know, that video on You Tube? Yeah, he was there. And he was there to play piano. He started with 15 differant songs from Final Fantasy. He came on much later in the show to do his blindfolded Mario thing.

The entire thing was amazing. Each time the orchestra played a song from a game there was a video of gameplay footage to put the music to the game. It was cool they did that. It helps bring back so many memories. They did your classics. Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts. And many more I just can't remember. They even did a few songs from Castlevania and Chrono Trigger/Cross after the show had ended and the audiance encored them. And everytime a song came on that people liked you would hear people in the audiance cheering.

I think the craziest part was when they took some time away from the music and started talking about the very first video game ever. They showed video footage from 1965 I think, with a man named Ralph Bear a.k.a the INVENTOR of video games. This si the man that created the first video game and even coined the phrase video game. The video showed an early version of Pong, known then as Ping Pong. It was for the first system ever, the Magnavox Odyssey. And so we got to see this video of the very first recorded footage of video gaming back in the 60's. It was really something else. Ralph Bear is still alive and they even had him on the big screen via Skype to talk to Tommy and such. It was a real treat. I think anyone who loves video games would have appreciated this.

It was such an amazing show. I definatly want to go again next near. If Video Games Live is coming near you I suggest you check it out. Such a great experience.

[Yvondith]

I am enjoying Valkyrie Profile: The Covenant of the Plume. The game is proving to be hard already, and I know I can make it much harder if I choose. Seeing a lot of FFT in this game, in sprites, battlefields, and abilities. FF has definitely left a mark on this game.

Like the other VP games, I am forced to give up a few party members, to progress in the storyline. I know that bothers a lot of people, but quite frankly, I'm used to it... both of the other games did the same thing, give up a party member in exchange for items, that's just how it is. Still, I don't feel it takes away from the game play at all.

Storyline has me very interested so far, translation seems pretty good too, for once.

Music has some new tracks, but almost all of the music was taken from Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. The quality suffers a bit, I suppose due to the limitations of the DS.

Really loving it so far! Always great to see more added to this series' story, and with a hint of FFT, it's great.

[df2506]

Played more Majora's Mask today. Got the Magic Beans and the Hero's Bow. I'm working on the Deku Temple at the moment. Neat game!

Not sure if I even played AC: CF today, but my dad saw a few people on today. It was very suprising. Nice to see some people playing the game.

Also, checked out Pain. I had to update it and after that, I threw Daxter from Jak & Daxter at some buildings and stuff. Gotta play that some more with him. Very cool downloadable character. And he was free!

DF2506

[dejibo]

How did you get that spear in FFXII? I gotta look that one up.

I havent been playing much of anything lately. The garden needs planting, and we are doing the normal spring activities around here. The break has actually been good for me poor eyes. I havent had enough down time to be able to pick up a remote.

I loved Zelda the mask game its awesome! I have the guide and the game for it.

[Norfy the Walrus]

Majora's Mask was good. Ocarina of Time was still quite a bit better but that didn't stop MM from being fun. I loved all the little side quests. One of them really sticks out in my mind. I won't give it away though ;p

[Yvondith]

It's a pain in the ass to get... you cannot have opened the treasure chest in front of Ol' Dalan's residence, the ones in the castle cellar, the ones where you get your armor back in Nalbina Dungeons, and the ones on a beach on Phon Coast. If you opened any of those, you cannot get the spear later in a chest in the Necrohol of Nabudis. There is a very, very slim chance you can get one from a chest deep in the Henne Mines, but... very small chance.

You can get the spear as soon as you get access to the Salikawood, and defeat the bomb king blocking the path there. Of course, at level 30-35, the Necrohol is very, very hard... you will be making a suicide dash to get to the treasure chest, and you'll have to use quickenings to rid yourself of your pursuers. But, to get the strongest weapon in the game that early, it's worth the trouble in my book.

[dejibo]

already killed the bomb king, and I opened the chests in the old dalan place. guess Im screwed. oh well, maybe next time. Thanks!

[Norfy the Walrus]

Woo hoo!

wii.ign.com/articles/985/985793p1.html

....and secondly