So, you don't know this, but I love Star Ocean as a franchise! I have the original famicom catridge for the first game in the series and, before you ask, no I can not read japanese. I beat it anyway using a fan guide posted on the internet. I also have the gameboy version of Star Ocean Blue Sphere. I actually didn't beat that one, but I got pretty far with a different guide. I've also played and beat Star Ocean 2 probably about 7 times. I beat it on the hardest difficulty and I just love it. We, my family and I, loved Star Ocean 2 so much that we literally played it until it wore out, then we bought a 2nd copy and played it until it wore out, then we still played it more and just saved a whole lot. Seriously we loved that game long and hard.

It seems history was bound to repeat itself, in both good and bad ways. I've already purchased Star Ocean 4 and been playing it constantly. Normally I take the game out of the system before I quit so that my son doesn't take the disc out and break it. Well because I've been playing it until I'm exhausted, I forgot and of course it is worse case senario, my game disc is broken. After finding it on the floor scratched I took and had it profesionally resurfaced but it didn't fix it because the scratches were too deep. Since it is just the 1st disc, I'm thinking I may just rent it and copy it to the hard drive. Since the system can tell what game it is I think that might work, but I'll probably never be able to free up that hard drive space. I've had other ideas, but those all are along the more morally shady route and I don't want to go there. On the upside Star Ocean 4 is every bit as good of a game as I hoped it would be and should I have to buy it twice the game is still totally worth it.

On a third note... Star Ocean 3 sucks. I've beat it too and its easy and doesn't do well at developing characters, but thats fine with me because they're mostly not likeable anyway. The story also is completely horrible. 4 is the long awaited sequel to 2. GO BUY IT... then let me borrow your first disc when you're done.

I'm not really as excited about Gamerscore as I once was, but I've passed another landmark, 30,000. I think TheSod is still beating me, and that slightly irks me, but I have a lot of trouble playing games just for score or even trying to pick up achievements that are too time consuming. There are several new games on my profile with less than 100 score on them. I would care, if I actually liked those games, but I don't.

OMG! I'm buying this the second it is out!

Online Campaign + Awesome Graphics = WIN!

To me it looks like they took everything great about the first one and made it better while they removed everything that was bad. I still hope Wayne is unlockable as a Character skin. I wouldn't mind playing as Jill for RE or Ryu from SF either. CAPCOM MAKE IT HAPPEN!

The PS3 is my familys neglected child this generation, even the Wii gets more play time. It isn't because we're just some horrible haters who bought it so we could objectively say it sucks. No, my family never needs to prove its bias. The reason we got it was because my brother bought it, as such it is relegated to my parents house. However, even if it were at my house, it would still only be used to exclusives and Blu-Ray mostly because any game that is cross platofrm I will play on the 360 for achievements.

Anyway, the whole point of this blog is that I've got a reason to dust off the black behemoth and that reason is called Valkyria Chronicals. I know I'm a little late to the party but this was the quickest I was able to get it through gamefly. So far I've player through Chapter 2 and am really enjoying it. I am a huge tactical RPG fan, so this game is really right up my alley. I'm hoping to get enough time to finish it. I also can't wait to get snipers on my team (I played them in the demo).

The thing I think helped sell me the most is that I actually was able to just turn on the system and put in the game and play. I can't tell you how anying it is to get a game, then realise you have to update the system, then install the system update, then install the game, then download the update for the game, then install the update, then finally (after that hour or more of work) play. Those were my last experiences with Little Big Planet and Metal Gear Solid 4, but that aside at least someone knows how to make a console game for the PS3. I hope this will be the norm from now on.

Unless you want to end up buying the game. It is just that awesome!

In the 5 hours it took for that to download I also played GTA4. The game is much more fun than I expected, but I understand why people say it takes itself too seriously. On the radio there is all this talk about how the rich are keeping the poor down and what-not, of course you're hearing this as your cousin gambles away the money he already owed to loan sharks. Who's keeping who down? Also, you'll just walk up to people's expensive cars and just throw them out. If you stop to think about it, isn't that the poor keeping the rich down? I mean someone did pay for that car right? If you could just enjoy the sillyness of you being a complete ass in a town full of nobody's who exist only for your entertainment then I think the game would be better. That doesn't mean I don't like it. Also before you suggest it, maybe I should play Saint's Row. Well, maybe I will.

Also, for all those people who gave GTA4 a 10... The graphics suck, so there. Sure you're goign through a big city and all, but seriously, you can do better.

Halo Wars Graphics do not suck, btw. They're awesome and the story is awesome. And the gameplay is awesome. and the sound... Awesome!

A long time ago, I posted a blog about how I don't like old games. Well, despite other people's objections that still holds true. I've been playing the Orange Box for a couple days and I sent it back to Gamefly today. I was complaining to my brother about the game and his response, "Yeah, didn't you know it was like that? We had the game on our computer back in like... forever ago". Well, the game originally came out in 2004, but shooters, I believe, have evolved a great deal in the past few years. Since this is the first time I've played the game that I remember, I'm not that thrilled. I tried it and checked to see if the other two episodes were better, but they weren't. I beat Portal again, because its the most perfect game ever made, and tried out Team Fortress. I didn't like Team Fortress either.

Seeing all the complaints about this, I wonder if most people out there ever played any other Resident Evil game? Its too bad that horrid controls is one of the series' staples. I've played all the old RE games, but missed 4 somehow. This demo was so nostalgic feeling that I almost expected there to be a load time when I told it to open the door (thankfully those have been removed). The thing that killed the nostalgia for me is the buddy system. If I die, she just comes over and saves me. How is that survival horror? I said I'm a fan, and I loved the old games, but Resident Evil 5 is not an old game and its not a remake (stupid Bionic Commando Rearmed). I predict this game will sell well at first, but drop quick in price because many people will not like it. That is when I'll buy it.

I've been having some trouble recently. My brother and I normally play games together local, but there hasn't been much in the way of local + online multiplayer. We could always buy another copy of Halo 3, we scratched one and borrowed a friend's and then he broke his copy being dumb, but for some reason I don't feel like paying $40 or more for the game again (especially considering I'll be buying Halo 3: ODST sometime this year). I've been playing Lost Planet online by myself a lot and although we both love that game we can't play on the same console. Thinking of that reminded me that we could always play cross-pllatform on the title, even though it ment rebuying the game on the 360. That didn't bother me until I realized no one in town had Lost Planet: Colonies on the 360, so I bought Shadowrun 360 instead. :P

I've posted before about how much I've enjoyed the game and now that has only increased since I have a reliable team-mate. For both the computer title and the 360 one, I've only paid $28. There are still plenty of people playing online and if I ever get sick of them I can always play against bots. Despite the limited maps and modes, Shadowrun continues to be a unique and entertaining take of the FPS. What other game can you teleport up behind people and gust them off the stage? or dodge sniper shots by turning into smoke? Or revive your ungrateful teammates to just see them run off and get killed again? Its always a blast, even if you do sometimes get paired with idiots. Like I thought before, I'm still enjoying this game and hopefully will be able to continue to play it for a long time.

Oh, and when I get my 2nd computer going, I'll install this on there and then I'll have 3 people playing together! Oh yes, we will pwn.

Seeing as how I've developed an addiction for downloadable games I couldn't really pass up the title getting all the attention on the Wii. That said, I didn't download it on the Wii but the computer instead. I think that was a better choice after playing the game, but maybe I'm mistaken. Anyway, World of Goo seemed simple enough from the start, but the game really ramps up as you progress. It wasn't my intent to finish the game, but I found myself playing it quite often and was obsessing over some of the puzzles.

So, what makes WoG great? Well, the visuals and audio help, both are fun and simple. The story helps (I was amazed the game even had a story). The real reason is actually because the puzzles are so spectacular! What start out as building simple briges and towers in the begining builds to include all kinds of different goo balls and levels that just blow your mind! Also, all these puzzles keep track of you score. The objective is to complete the puzzle and save as many goo balls as possible, but in addition any extra you save get added to your collection at the World of Goo Corp, a level where you compete against the world to build the tallest tower. That competition makes for a lot of replay and a continuous struggle to better your score.

The only downsides I can think of for this game is that sometimes a stage feels like I brick wall. That itself is remedied by a helpful skip option. That gives you some time to mull it over and come up with a solution and then return to it. If you're good at solving puzzles the game wont be too long for you either, but given its price and the replay I would say that this isn't a problem either.

Maybe I'm being too generous with scores right now, I've rated a lot of games pretty high recently, but I really think World of Goo deserves a 10 out of 10. Everything the game tries to do it does perfectly. The game has plenty of content to justify it price and will keep casual and hardcore players entertained for hours. The presentation is top notch and the games mechanics are really deep and also flawlessly executed. World of Goo has esablished itself as a top tier downloadable titles.

You have no idea how much toruble I went through for this thing, but I'm now using my new processor motherboard combo. For those curious its an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 with a MSI P35 Neo-F motherboard. I'm so happy, but also so sick of the whole thing I hardly care to even use my computer at this point.

Just to give you some information, the motherboard I bought I got because it was cheaper and specifically stated it worked with 45nm chips. Well, it turns out it only works after a BIOS update which you can really only apply by using an older processor that works with the board out of the box. Luckily I had one of those, but the trouble I went through to get this information and get the BIOS update and get the new processor in and all, well it was a lot of work. I guess things are never harder than the first time, Here's to future annoyances.

Oh, on that note, it seems upgrading the processor is somehow causing errors with some cable service. I don't have a cable card hooked up and I do not have the energy to figure that out and fix it right now. So those messages are going to keep annoying me for a while, I guess.

How I love/hate computers...