Since my last entry I played through and beat Zelda: Majora's Mask from way back on the N64. I have always heard mixed reviews on this one but I found it to be pretty good. I can fully understand the biggest turn off of the game which is the having to play through the same 3 days over and over but if you can tolerate that and understand that your time to complete things isn't nearly as short as seems I think you end up playing a good Zelda game that although shares graphical assets from Ocarina of Time has an oddball story that doesn't require you to rescue Princess Zelda to beat the game.

I then went on to start playing the first Oddworld game. A game that came out on the PSX and like many games of that era look kind of ugly now with the really grainy graphics. I as in most cases can look past that because I understand that was just how it was at time. I had played some of this game before and liked it and i still do. It is however a shear test of patience as you will most likely die in this game over and over and over again. If you have never played the game it is basically a puzzle game where you play a character named Abe who learns a horrible secret about the factory he works in. Abe must then try to escape hopefully while rescuing other people of his race. called Mudokins, along the way. The game basically puts you situations where you must walk, run, jump as well as other actions at just the right time in order to get by the puzzle-like levels. If you have ever played the older games Out of this World or Flashback the game feels and controls similar to them. I seem to remember that the graphic style used on the characters was called something like rotoscoping which makes the characters have smooth animation at the cost of some control precision though. ultimately while I like the game at the higher levels I was dying so much I felt I needed a break which may even be a permanent one so i decided to start playing something else.

About 18 hours in to the rpg Grandia which I think came out on multiple platforms though I am playing it on the PSX. The game is fairly old school in design and has the same above mentioned muddy graphics but so far I am actually enjoying it quite a bit. Not much else to say about this one right now since I am still working on it.

So I spent about 4 days in hospital this month with now my 5th bout of pancreantitis. Don't know much about it? I'll save you the trouble of googling it then. It hurts in your gut and gets worse when you eat and drink. You cure it by not eating and drinking for about 3-4 days allowing pancreas to rest and become less inflamed while enjoying the wonderful meal of IV fluid. Eventually they move to clear liquid diet, see how things go and you'll either move up in diet type or go back down depending on pain. In this case they rushed me and actually released me with pain still so I went for about another two weeks before it finally went away.

On a better note I beat Wind Waker which I had mentioned in previous post sort of frustrated me. In hindsight I did find the fish in each section of the map do help you with a lot of info although it is a tedius task among others in this game. Some spoilers here for thid old game but after defeating the Wind and Earth temple I thought for sure I was going to kick some Gannon butt just to be told by The King of Red Lions that I now have to assemble the Triforce of Courage. The wosrt part of that is that is all your told, no really I just played the thing he tells you nothing about how to do this, where to start, zero information. So naturally you have to hunt down 8 charts that show the locations of the shards. Not-so pr tip: be sure to have the largest wallet before you ever get to this part. I did not and it cost a whopping 3184 rupees to get the charts translated. I had to grind out 2000+ of that which did not go very quickly as you might imagine but I did it. Finally I fished out the triforce shards rather quickly only having major problems in onearea with 5 sharks but I left it and wend back to it later and for some reason they were not there making it a satisfying finish to the hunt. I then proceeded to go through the entire task of taking out the many forms of Gannon/Gannondorf in one shot. Boom. Most shocking to me in all of this and don't read this if you don't want to know, Links finishing move which in a very unNintendo-like move Link jumps in the air and stabs Gannondorf right in the skull. There is no blood or anything but for a game that probably had more humor in it than any previous Zelda game by far it was not expected. All and all despite my complaints I really liked this game a lot, far more than I expected.

As this current genertion sort of comes to a close and people get ready to move on I thought i woulod write a little post about my personal experience with the current generation of consoles, your experience may of course vary.

XBox 360: To me really the real winner of the generation even though it didn't sell in Japan and almost everyone had to have thiers fixed at least once. I did not buy it at launch and think I waited a good year till I did. Memory is a little shoddy but I think I paid over $400 for it because it was bundled with some some. Mine has broke once and I had to pay $100 to get it fixed which of corse is lame.More lame is that it does not play Halo Reach and I would have to pay yet more money to make it. Even wit that I think it had the best games  and or had the best running versions in the case of multiplatform. The controller is also the best even with a crappy dpad.

Wii: The oddball system that I think still to this day out sold its' competition in this generation ironically though on the back of a packed in game more than anything that being Wii Sports. That being said I still don't feel it won the generation becausewhile a lot of people bought it not many bought much more for it. I actually bought quite few games for it but honestly Nintendo's own stuff almost exclusively worked the best with the controller. Speaking of the controller I think it easily wins as Nintendo's worst designed controller from both a technical and general design standpoint. Easily the most frustrsting thing about the system you have a wierd design with not so great control layout,it eats batteries for breakfast and is even worse with the plus attachment, is not very accurate and often loses connection, not mention you will lose your pointer unless you have infinate strength on your arm to keep it up at all times which nobody does or can though i am sure someone will lie and say that they don't have this problem. I actually own quite few games for this system but most are Nintendo's since most other company's games on it stink. Though ultimately the system has served me best as Gamecube since i did not own one I bought a lot of that systems games and played it on the Wii. I like baackwards compatibility honestly and am sorry to see it being thrown away in favor of making you pay to play your old games over and over. Can yoy say rip off? So once againthough we see another generation of Nintendo's choices in design affecting the true overall success of the machine that would be 3 in a row by the way with the Wii U looking already to make it a 4th and maybe thier worst outing yet.

PS3: Uhg..what can you say about the PS3. It wasn't really a bad system at all but really just a combination of Sony arrogance combined with poor descions made when th timing for them couldn't have been worse such as the economic state and trying to sell a system at $600. A lot of money to pay for system that mostly had inferior versions of games on it. Sony's own stuff or the company's they chose to support ultimately made the best stuff but to me this system was the biggest loser of the generation even if in the end it sells more units than the 360 it will be too late considering the system went nearly its' entire exsistance losing money and whether you like it or not it is not units sold that matters it is the bottom line and being in financial black area and not the red. As history would have it consoles are most often released losing money but they are not suppossed to go on doing that as long as Sony did with the PS3. Thier biggest mistake was probably in the Cell Processor as the return on investment that theyn paid to develop this this was null and void andwasn't helped by the lack of ram either as it created an uneven bottlenecked system that few seemed to be able to overcome or perhaps did't care to waste theeffort since they knew they would make better sales putting thier efforts towards other platforms versions. Sony fortunately seems to have learned a lot from its' mistakes with the PS4 though history has yet to be written on that book.

Next up, the future. A look into what has to be one of the hardest to predict generations that I have ever witnessed.

Uhg, did they remove the ability to post your own avatar it gave no option to load my own when I tried just a bunch of presets. Meh on that Gamespot if that is the case. Um Link it is then, for now.

So here is what I wanted to put up...

Itsa me, Mario...er I mean Chris. Hmm well I am 50% Italian so maybe I can get away with that.

or maybe I would have went with...

My big baby Magee with patented pouty Magee lip sticking out being a sleepy head.

Nah, I couldn't put her up. she is too cute and makes me look like a dog.

Just a quickie added note to my last post and all posts.The things I exrpess my opinions on are just that and you are entitled to your own. 

I say this because as i make ststements about things some may disagree with them and that is ok. As I have gotten older I have grown to have little interest in trying to post anything with the intent of trying to create confrontation, discussion is another matter but I have no interest in the norm of the internet which is too say rude, crude, and often highly confrontational and disrespectful.

So if for intance you loved Symphony of the Night and/or The Walking Dead adventure game then that is fine with me but I wasn't thrilled by either as stsed in my previous blog. Didn't hate either but jut felt kind of blah about them while I had a blast going through the two Metroid games I mentioned.

Any way just saying that if you did happen to readmy blog and i say soemthing you may disagree with take a breath or two before you respond and try to treat others as you would want to be treated or spoken too.

Anyway, the reason problem for what the title of this post is pretty simple really I just don't visit game sites much at all these days. I listen to a lot of podcasts from them which keeps me up on the latest news because I find that to much more convienvient. 

I looked over my last post and well with a hard drive dying not much went to planned although it was attempted. I did in fact get back into Oblivion, Shivering Islesand was in the act of trying to finish that up after a super long break and teh the HDD dying thing happened and thus end my 500 hour run on that game because I have no desire to start over and will probably find a video on Youtube showing me what I missed which i had a feeling was coming to end soon enough since I had been told about why I was there and had begun my track to becoming a god. Shame but it is was it is.

I had also been playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night, and took and extended break in that one too and has just ramped up playing that again too and also had that ruined by the HDD loss this.I don't thing I was nearly as far along in thta game but too be honest I don't think I was enjoying much. Hate to say it but much like Rondo of Blood this game is overrated. You may put the word Metroid together with Vania but the Metroid games are much much better backed up by the fact that I just tore through Metroid: Zero Mission and Fusion consecutively over the last 3 or so weeks without any stuttering or lack of ambition to play them. 

On to Zelda: the Windwaker. I like the game quite a bit actaually but am frustrated with it right now. There comes a point where some secrets are revealed and yor quest shifts and i feel like the game didn't prepeare me for what I need to have to even really get me started on this leg of the having to need items that were never mentioned to me at all and the only reason i know about was by checking an online FAQ. Unfortunately until I do get back into my further adventures in the Zela universe will be stalled because I won't start another game till I beat this one.

Oh did I mention I played though The Walking Dead Telltale game. Um...Us there something wrong with todays reveiwers? Sorry but that game is hardly all that. Best adventure game of all time, yeah ok, let me school you on that sometime if you ever want to ones that actually deserve that title.

At any rate I have no idea what I will play next.

You know it dawned on me as I was preparing to write this blog that I am not sure that I know a single person who works this site these days but I guess rhat is what happens when you fire a guy for the wrong reason. Much like those who left with him my loyalties lie there though ironically this is like only blog I seem to care to come back too.

Till next time...

So after starting the game, stopping, playing some more than taking another huge break only to start playing agin just to be kind of frustrated by the game I just starting playing and kept playing until I beat Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo. Again it was ok. I understand I do lose some of the effedct of the game seeing as how all the dialog in japanese and I don't know it but you can still get the idea enough. Still though I can't say i enjoyed the game as much as any of the 3 NES games I played, well maybe Simons Quest, or Super Castlevania 4. I have never played any of the others...yet but as of right now 3 still seems to be my overall favorite. Even though his weapon sucked I always like the character in it who could climb walls.

Next up on Castlevania front will probably be Symphony of the Night though I am not sure yet whether it will be the next oldie I try to beat. I will need some time to think on that. I do figure I need to get back to beating the Shivering Isles part of Oblivion though soon.

Affter a break in posts here I am again. Oddly enough I started a bunch of blogs posts but never finish. The story of my life I suppose. So since I last posted I beat Oblivion, but not Shivering Isles. Although I am sure I did not beat every quest within the regualar Oblivion part of the game I am satisfied with what I did do. My goal from the start was activly seek as many quests I could get and beat any ones I did find. I made a rule though that I would not use a strategy guide to find ones I did not find on my own. Although I do not always stick to this rule I generally live by excepting whatever I can get from a game on my own. This is not to say I do not use any help ever. I just like to feel like I tried enough on my own before resorting to outside help. Does this method a waste time? Sure. But unless a game is ridiculously hard I am not always bothered by the trying and failing, then learning from your mistakes. To each thier own of course but there are certainly lessons to be learned since you will encounter such situations in your actual life constantly. the bright side of the game is that it is just game and you can go back and correct it in most cases while you rarely have that luxury in real life. In other word no need to get too frustrated then if you have to play a little more. Often you in the end get much more satisfaction from figuring it out. Any ways it has been maybe like 4 week now since I last touched Oblivion though. Not sure why because when Initially started Shivering Isles I thought wow this great but for some reaon I hit a wall and haven't felt like investing time in right now, Fotunatly since the story in much more focused it should not be too hard to pick up and play at any point. An few notes opn the game. I stated before i was not using fast travel. I kept too that till around 320 hours in when I became a master of sneak and at that point all pretty much explored most of that map. I did not see everything of course but I felt I had seen enough and trust me if you have not played far through the game you will by virtue of doing the quest be travelling all over the place back and forth. It is fun to explore but you will want to get things going at some point most likely. Overall I enjoyed the game a lot. The most boring part to me was the closing of Oblivion gates. If you don't know there are far more on the map than you actually have close but you are required to shut a handful or so to complete some quests. The ending was cool though I never got to see it fully though in game since my game would crash at the same point every time. I ended up having to watch it youtube to see it uninterupted then had to use the console code to progress me through it.Luckily I had done the work though the section it would crash was all automated anyway so I didn't feel bad about having to this.

By the way just a note on how to play Elder Scrolls games as I often hear how people do intially love these games but get bored or overwhelmed. the best secret I can give is to not get caught up in the idea that you have to explore ever cave/ruins/ect.Trust me when I say this you will explore more than enough of these just by doing quests alone and although it will not be all of them if you really feel the need to go through everything keep iun mind the game is not over when you complete the main questline and you can always go back later. I think you will just find the game much more enjoyable if you stick to going to and doing things with a purpose. It is fun to explore these games especially when you first fire them up but if you keep doing that I think most people will get burned out before they ever actually do anything in the game.

I also recently broke my rule of playing too many games at once and started up both Bully and Alan Wake. Both I think are ok games and I would to see a Bully sequel to further rifine that idea but niether in my opinion are great. Alan Wake to me is only ok as I find it to be dull and very contrived and just kind of thrown together. It looks good and it plays well at least. If you like it, great I am just not getting the feeling I got from the older games of Silent Hill or Resident Evil. I like Bully and the fighting system is sort of cool though it does make my hand ache with all the darn fighting you have to do but I can't say I have enjoyed it better than any of the GTA's I played (Minus GTA 1/2 since the top down view made those a pain). Still though would like to see another made because I think there is a lot of content to draw from in both the high school level and the college should it go there. they also could have fun with it by taking it to other decades too similar to what they did with GTA which could be really cool I think. The biggest issue I could see with Rockstar with this type of game is that the kind of violence that takes place in school these days is not really a laughing matter. Rockstar is not one to shy from controversey of course but I do think there is difference when dealing with kids or shouldn't be doing for that matter vs. the dumb things adults do.

On to my new obession, boardgames. Yeah I said it. Now I know what you are saying , WTF? Now I am sure a lot people have played the norm like Monopoly, Sorry ect..I play those all the tme with my kid and they are fun but recently I dived into the more hardcore or lesser known ones and I am hooked. I guess it has something to do with the fact that boardgames have not abandoned the concept of thinking, making your move, seeing what happens and accepting it unlike a lot of today's video games. Also boardgames have not fallen under the marketing/corporate concept of trying to make a game for everyone. This post is already long though so I will starting getting into more detail about the games I got, which ones I have played of them so far, and which ones I like of them.

Remembered that I also had ben playing some Sims 3 with all expansion except the new pets one that just came out. I had a lot of fun with that actually until my main game that I had running become bugged and forwhatever reson my Sims could no longer sleep which kind of ruined my will to continue at that point with the game.

I also had been working on playing Castlevania: Rondo of Blood/Akumajo Chi no Rondo. Choosing to play the old PC Engine Super CD Version of this game that for the longest time was never released in Americs but I think not to long ago it did come out on the PSP. It is Japanese so I no idea what some of the voices are saying or some the text but the game is still a Castlevania so it hardy makes it unplayable. It is an ok game. As with other old game I try not to be too judgemental. since we are so removed from the time period it was released. I can however compare it to the Castlevania games I had played and it feels about the same. Have not beat this yet but I have to take breaks because it features the old familiar feeling of playing games like this in that you die a lot and get hit a lot often becaus you cannot move or attack well or even at all from the directions you can be attacked from not mention there bottomless pits that kill you instantly. Ah those were the days huh?

GTA V hyas been announced andI am of course thrilled. I don't really know what to take from the trailer as far as who it about. Can't wait to play it though.

Skyrim will be out soon by I think it will be awhile till Im play it as I am still sticking to my policy and trying not to have too many games going at one and since I am heavily into Oblivion I think there is good chance I would want to play something else after I do put it down. I think I mentioned the ide that I might like to try an FCOM modded version of the game too in my previous blog but I am coming to terms with the chance that might be a little too much time when I have so much else to play.

I also had played through Gears of War 1 with my fiancee' too. We had fun with that one. I don't know why butI have always held some kind grudge against the game so I was never in any rush to get it or play it. not a bad game though at all. Have Gears 2 waiting to played at some point with her and of course will be getting Gears 3 at some point.

CoOp gaming is so fun period. Rather see company's work that into game more often then multi play death match type stuff.

I think there has been multiple times I have started a new blog post just to not bother finishing it. I am not sure what has held me back either. But I do like blogging, even if to get thoughts expressed for sake of getting them expressed so maybe I will try to update at least a little more.

Update since lat blog entry
Since I last blogged my XBox had broke and of course I sent it to get fixed. Pretty sure they sent me different one that I am not sure but it seemed like it was new rather than a refurbished model but somehow I doubt it has the much better slim model guts. Anyway, guess we what see how it goes. So far it has been great though.

What have I been playing?
Yeah...way too much to remember but I will take a shot at it. Not sure If I mentioned this but I have been on an old game kick for awhile now. There are ebenifits to this. First it is unlikely you have played even a quarter of the good games that have ever been made since gaming began. It would have costed too much and finding the time to play is very hard especially as you get older. Most old games can be found for either little or even no money dpending on what era you are talking about and if you aren't some weirdo that some issue with using emulators or have something against playing games roms of games that usually well out of print or over priced with the new wave of downloadable ****cs that probably won't carry over to future systems so that you probably have to buy them again. Remakes or upgraded version are the exception to me and worth you playing.

Anyway...
Finished: Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
A long time ago I know that I wrote a blog saying I was playing Kingdom Hearts on my PS2. This was legit, abeit used copy of the game by the way. Well here is the thing about that game. I only just finished a month or so ago so it took me years. The main problem was interest really. I would play it...lose interest for awhile..play it some more stop playing and so on till a little while back I decided to just commit fully. The last time I had played it I had just entered Monstro by the way to give you an idea on where I was at. Overall not a bad game. I think the controls could be better, the camera and I am not overly fond of the old school way of doing random encounters. I am not against the idea of them because I feel random fights are somewhat more realistic but the old enemies pop out of thin air thing is a mechanic that is pretty outdated even when this game came out originally. Oh I am not thrilled but long multi part boss battles without save points of course i speaking about the last boss. Look I beat the game as it is but I don't feel like creating a false difficulty by virtue of a game mechanic is good design. It is things like this that makes it no mystery why developers like Square and Japanese companies in general are not doing well these days. Planning on someday starting KH2 but needed a break from that kind game right now and wanted to play other things. (Rating: 7.5 out of 10)

Finished: Ocarina of Time (N64 version - Emulated)
This was like the third or fourth time I had started this game. I played this on a emulator using a PS2 pad which I like much better than the N64 pad which I actually do own and own a USB adapter for but the game just plays much better on a standard controller the PS2 one. Anyway I started from a save I had going from a while ago of which I don't remember exactly whereabouts it was I think though maybe very shortly after Link goes through that portal into the dark world or whatever it was. So as it has already been said this a a great game and it is shame that it took me this long to beat it. I plan on playing more Zelda games that I missed over the years including Majora's Mask too.

Finished: Links Awakening DX (Gameboy Color Emulated)
I imediately followed up Beating Ocarina with beating Links awakening. and honestly I do not remeber a lot about this one at this point but I don't remember not liking it just that it was a fairly standard Zelda game. Nothing remarkable which to me may mark one of Nintendo's biggest flaws in that they just release too many of thier prime game series too often. It makes it so less special and the Zelda series in particualr they are the worst with moreso visiable by Nintendo's seemingly inablity to tkae the seies somewhere different in story. That to me is really strange because the the Zelda series to me should have been one of the easiest to expand the lore. I just don't think the story always has to be the same Gannon kindnaps Zelda, Link needs to save her and oh yeah there be be some sort of time element and some other version of the world. (Rating: 7 out of 10)

Finished: GTA IV Lost & the Damned + Ballad of Gay Tony
I bought these years ago and beat the original game shortly after it came out but just now got around to doing the expansions. Lots of fun and loves these games. Hopeing the Rockstar never listens to thier critics who if they do would end up making the games stupid, easy and boring. (Rating 9 .5 out of 10)

Played: Burnout Paradise
Speaking of a game that is boring...yeah Burnout Paradise is it. You know there was a reason that arcade ****racing games never really did well when they were brought home to consoles and this is prime example of why. The game looks good but the handling is just soooo blah. No offense if this is your thing but I got to have meat to my driving game. It does not have to full on sim either but there is just something completely mind numbing to just hold down the gas and go driving. (Rating: 5 out of 10)

Finshed: Wasteland (PC DOS - Emulated)
You want old school. Wasteland is precursor to Fallout 1 published by EA in 1988 and made by Interplay. This was back in time when EA was a very different company. They were very creative and made some of the best games they ever had. This was one I that I remember back in the day seeing ads for in magazines and rememer as kid stading around waiting for parents to finish thier shoiing at our local mall in Babbages staring at the ;ackage wishing I could buy it. Of course I never ending up getting it since I was only a kid and we didn't have the mony to buy everything but now many years later thank to the power of the internet I could play it and did. First thin is first when you play old games you have to put yourself in a different mindset. Technology did not allow for what it does today so it is what it is and that perspective is always needed. Wasteland is an ok RPG. You can see where fallout got its roots from and its' story is pretty good. That being said this is not a game that I would reccomend people playing. Not because it is old because there are many OLD game that I would tell people they should play but this game I don't think holds up well at all. The PC version had EGA graphics which which actual graphics aside the color pallet is what really stands out as bad if you have ever seen games of that time you will know what I mean. Pinks and turquise all the way! Oh and there is no sound or music. Yeah. As I said a long time ago in the blog graphics are not everything, nor is sound and music but they do help to enrich the experience. But is ok and it was what they had at thier disposal the time.

Finished: Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 (Xbox 360)
Played throught these both coop with my fiancee'. Great games, lots fun and just more proof that a Zombie game can be good with good resposive controls if it is designed for it.

Finished: Kid Icarus (NES - Emulated)
Ok no lying here. I did not beat this game fair and square and I straight up used save states as well as some FAQ maps. This was a game that I wanted to revisit as I rmember my friend playing it and me watching him when I was a kid. I didn't remember much about the game other than its general level layout and design such as the verticle crolling and the room to room maze like maps as well as remember things like the Eggplant Wizrds. I also rmembering that the game was really hard. Upon retrying the game many years later make no mistake the game IS really hard. Other than trying the game again the other point here was see who was right on whther this game was good or not. The answer is that Kid Icarus is ok but hardly great. It certainly isn't all that fun. I should note that my first reall attempt at this game was without any aid of save states or maps and found it a real test of patience. I am sure the game is bneatable without using this stuff but the question is do you really want to do what it woulkd take to accomplish it? I make it perfectly clear if you read my blogs that I play old games I do not mind a challenge in them but there is a difference between challenge in game vs. game mechanics that just made the game harder. For example I do not know how many times I died because I feel through a platform. This happens because the games duck feature seconds as means to drop off the platform you are on to one below. Ok right? Problem is the rarely allows for you to do this safely as fopr instance with vertically scrolling levels that constantly scroll up shortly after you start them cutting off anything below as it moves so when you fall off the screen you instead of landing on what might have been there before you now just die. The extreme limited range of you arrows is kind of annoying too. Overall yuo can see what this game is kind of forgotten by Nintenedo or at least tried to be. I don't hate the game but if you give it a try it will not take you long to see why it does not belong in the same catagory as other games made byt them in that era like Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda or Metroid

Now PLaying: Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (PC)
Becuase I never really played too far into originally and alway wanted to go back. PC version the way to go no question by the way because mods can make the game so much better in every way. I using mods that change thing like graphics, UI and add some new weps and monsters with this playing keeping it mostly a vanilla experience but I would like to go through again using an FCOM modded version later on top of these mods so I can get a whole new experience time permitting of course.

Palyed: Splosion Man (XBox 360)
Love it but don't think I am close to beating it. As you may have heard it is hard and hard in a way that can inherintly make it frustrating since it demands pertfection. Still though...great game.

Neverwinter Nights 2 + Mask of the Betrayer + Storm of Zehir + Mysteries of Westgate (PC)
Great...except for the game breaking bugs still present especially in the base game. Not great is Storm of Zehir. This game changes the ****of the game and I just found it to be very boring. I was thrilled to finish it just to get it over.

More Played?
Probably...but it has been so long since my last post its hard to remember everything.