While I didn't get everything accomplished that I would have liked, I did get a fair amount done. At month's end I finally posted the fourth entry of my retrospective series. I was hoping for two this month, but that didn't happen.
Mid-month a toothache prompted a visit to the dentist. His recommendation was the extraction of a bad wisdom teeth, and the other three as well. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but the toothache is gone. Next month's big project is going to be finally getting two years worth of zoo pictures online. I'd also like to get my manga into my book database so I can get them boxed up and create some more space.
June Gain +355 - 17 Achievements unlocked
June Gain - Level + 0 Trophies + 1
Backlog decreased by 17 in June
I removed all games that I own multiple copies of from my unfinished count.
Rank 15 on the MyGamercard.net RPG Leaderboard -1
Game Spending vs. '08: Month -57% | Year -34%
Back on track after overspending in May. I have no preorders for next month, so July should be even lighter.
~55 hours - Lv 35 Seraphim
A fun, fast-paced hack-n-slash. A huge world, almost too big. Story and side quests have been finish and forget, but the fairly deep leveling structure and pursuit of better loot keep you moving forward. The follower AI is terrible, and I no longer care if they die and I get a failed quest out of it. The Light campaign is at 75%, so I should have my first run completed next month.
Started a High Elf for the Shadow campaign, but that hasn't been a priority.
(360/1000)
Had a lot of fun exploring the beautiful African setting, but lost interest once I began the missions to further the plot. The north has been completely explored and several missions have been completed. It would be nice if every checkpoint didn't respawn within a few moments of leaving. It really slows the game down to a crawl. Unfortunately, I didn't get to at all in June. Im going to give myself one more month to get back to it before I consider it dropped.
(190/1000)
Complete at last. 3 and 1/3 playthroughs and nearly 186 hours. And I enjoyed every minute of it. Well, except the 10 hours I spent with a rubberband around the controller trying to trigger the "fly 100,000km" achievement while I did something else...
Thankfully, I was able to trigger the final scenes I needed for the item collection achievement immediately after getting the boat early in Act 2.
(1000/1000)
Finished both Point Lookout and Broken Steel. Broken Steel removes the ending, allowing you to continue past the conclusion of the main game. While there is little in the way of new equipment, it moves the level cap from 20 to 30, with a batch of new perks to go with it. The plotline itself was of good length, but felt more like a series of side quests than a main plot. Point Lookout offers up a pretty sizable area to explore, several new guns to play with, a handful of side quests of varying length and interest, and a main plotline that keeps you guessing as to what is really going on right until the very end. Unlike the previous two DLCs, these two actually felt worth the cost of the download. I'm up to level 26 now, but I'll likely wait until Mothership Zeta to continue the climb to level 30. (1390/1450)
Only played for a few hours. Pretty much what I expected. Last gen graphics and a weak story. Combat is a little complex than I thought it would be and I imagine it will get even deeper after I get more than 1 attack for each character. By far the largest HUD I've ever seen in a game, taking up nearly half of the screen. I have enjoyed what little I've played of it, but it's a hard title to recommend. Next destination is the first dungeon, but I think I'll need some serious grinding to complete it.
1 of 22 trophies
10:40:46 - Mai Tierra Regulation Room
Party Level 21-23
Boob jokes and fanservice aside, the game is actually pretty good. The plot has me interested and combat manages to be challenging without feeling impossible. If I have any complaints, it that even random encounters can take a long time to complete, not to mention the length of the boss fights. Now if I could just keep Kaguya from getting KO'd repeatedly every boss fight.
Final Fantasy I
13:46 Lv 51 Knight/Ninja/Red Wizard/Black Wizard
Chaos defeated, game complete.
Final Fantasy II
00:45 Firion/Maria/Guy/Minwu
In Salamand on a quest to obtain Mythril.
25:16:59 - Into the Labyrinth
Map Completion 021.45% - Items Collected 007.04%
I'm finding this one of the more enjoyable dungeon crawlers I've played. Might be a little too easy, though the challenge does seem to be picking back up again. It made good time killer while I was recuperating after oral surgery
Final clear time was 20:33:52. Having played Resident Evil 5, it's somewhat difficult to go back and properly evaluate it's predecessor. So many aspects of 4 were improved upon in RE5. At the same time, a lot of the challenge was removed as well. The nine item slots (or 18 with your partner) never felt as limiting as 4's briefcase. The way each chapter was a small part of a larger map that often led you back to where you had been before made the game feel far less linear and far larger than RE5. The story was good and well paced, though after the challenge of the game, the end was a little anticlimactic. It was fun, but I enjoyed RE5 more, especially when playing with a friend. My score is an 8.2.
Sacred 2 is an good example of how to do a hack-n-slash RPG. Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom is a good example of how not to do a hack-n-slash RPG. The game is short and extremely linear. I can't really comment on single player, but on local co-op the camera is atrocious; often zooming out to bizarre angles making some of the platforming aspects nearly impossible to negotiate and positioning itself behind any wall it can. Half of the loot equation is removed by not allowing you to change your weapon. While armor drops fairly regularly, it's not until endgame that it does more than just slightly alter your stats. The game caps at level 45 which was reached long before the game ended. The PSP Untold Legends were solid, but unspectacular, this one was just a disappointment. It was likely rushed out the door for the PS3 launch, but I'm not sure if a few more months in development could have saved it. 5.5 out of 10.
[video=dSc7njr_5bIKvTfb]
I found this track on a cd I put together last year, but couldn't recall at all what the song or game was. One thing I did recognize was the harp at 0:23. I'd recognize that soundfont anywhere, so I knew this was at one time a midi file. Found it eventually in my midi folder, the sequencer info on vgmusic.com and set it to video for your listening pleasure.
4 Pickups, 2 Additions
Atlus and NIS America
Non-RPG
