The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

[Izret101]

Did start and finish Monopoly Deal.
Also more D&D: Mystara
ALMOST got roped into helping someone with Chivalry again too. But i got boosting buddy to do it instead since he still had the game on his system.

Was going to try and clear a stage in Realms of Ancient war but i am dead tired. So likely will not.

[Link41]

Rayman Origins (360) - Still remember where most things are in most of the levels.

[Izret101]

Broke the halfway point on Realms of Ancient War playthru 2.

Rouge class is so much suck. Warrior was a cake walk and Rogue i find myself kiting and still regularly swarmed and hammering down potions in an effort to stay alive.

Wizard will hopefully be a bit better since his magic/long range is supposed to be on par with warriors melee/close range. Hopefully...

[GrayGhost81]

[img width=460 height=215]http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/22300/header.jpg?t=1420672506[/img]

After years and years and many, many people telling me I needed to play this game, I finally popped it in.

The only other Bethesda game I've ever played is Oblivion. I liked it a lot, but at times I found it to be a little too open ended. I'm having kind of the same problem with Fallout 3 so far, but I had someone give me some pointers over the weekend so I'm going to try some different tactics going forward. I will say one thing I love is that the NPC character models are slightly less hideous than the ones in Oblivion.

Also,

[img width=480 height=360]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pFlcqWQVVuU/0.jpg[/img]

I have a Nintendo 64 hooked up in my house for the first time in years as of yesterday, so I had some buddies over and we had a multiplayer jam yesterday afternoon. I have almost every good game for the system, and it's a wonder I don't play it more often, but now I can make up for lost time. We played: Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Goldeneye, Ridge Racer 64, Mario Tennis, Mario Party 2 and a bunch of other stuff I can't even remember now. Forgot how good the system is for that good ol' local co-op!

One of the issues I have with N64 though is the same I have with the Dreamcast, which is that I look at it as a console whose games are more arcadey and meant to played in single sittings, rather than something that is long that you can save and come back to and play over weeks and months. I have always wanted to play the original Paper Mario so when I have time I'll probably start with that.

[MetalFRO]

One of the issues I have with N64 though is the same I have with the Dreamcast, which is that I look at it as a console whose games are more arcadey and meant to played in single sittings, rather than something that is long that you can save and come back to and play over weeks and months. I have always wanted to play the original Paper Mario so when I have time I'll probably start with that.

I can vouch for the awesomeness of Paper Mario.  I bought it last year and have been working on it off and on for several months now, and am working on either the 3rd of 4th chapter at this point.  I'm not playing it through from start to finish in one big chunk, because the battle system is super repetitive, and the battle music tends to grate after you've heard it about a zillion times.  Otherwise, it's a fun game, and in somewhat short bursts, quite enjoyable.

I myself am working on Bayonetta.  My wife got me Bayonetta 2 for Christmas, and having never played the original, I'm working on that first before launching into the new game.  HOLY COW is it hard, especially the challenge stages in Alfheim.  The stage where you have to beat all the enemies in a certain time limit is brutal, and yesterday, I took on the challenge stage where you can only attack and defeat enemies using one of the "Wicked Weave" attacks.  So your standard attacks don't work, and you have 3 minutes and 40 seconds to defeat 4 separate waves of enemies.  The enemies themselves are easy enough to take out, as long as you space yourself far enough from them to execute the normal attacks that build to make the weave attack.  The last wave, however, has a hard boss fight, and the boss (who you fight earlier in the game) takes a LOT of damage and you have to whittle him down a little at a time.  Not an easy chore, especially when his wave has lots of other enemies, and by the time you finally clear the rest out, you're lucky if you have more than 45 seconds to do all the necessary damage to him to take him down before the timer runs out.  I spent 2 and a half hours yesterday afternoon playing ONLY that stage, and probably fought through it 2 dozen or so times before I FINALLY executed enough attacks successfully and quickly enough to get just that final boss in my sights with about 50 seconds left.  I think I had somewhere between 5 and 8 seconds left when I finally beat it.  And that's after having unlocked that challenge the previous day when I played, and spending at least 30 minutes on it before having to put my game pad back on the charger.

Anyone else played (or playing) Bayonetta?  Have any of you who have slogged through it before had that much trouble with it?  I can't imagine earning Pure Platinum medals in some areas.  I've only managed to score 2 or 3 the entire game.  I usually end up taking so much damage during boss fights, OR dying so many times that I exceed the 5 continues it tallies, that my medals earned in the separate verses amount to nothing, and I end up getting the Stone Trophy for each chapter.  I did reasonably well in The Wonderful 101, earning a bronze trophy in at least a third of the areas, the consolation prize for most, and a handful of silver and gold medals.  But Bayonetta is kicking my butt big time.  My biggest problem is the Witch Time mechanic.  Even after purchasing the "bats" ability, which gives you the ability to activate Witch Time sometimes if you've been hit, I still have a hard time with the timing of my evades.  ESPECIALLY with the bosses and enemies that move really fast.  It seems like I either misread the cues, or I just don't execute fast enough.  Or other times, I jump the gun and evade too quickly, which is, of course, when the boss decides to do a combo attack, and my attempt to evade ends up in me taking damage because attacks 2 and 3 connect and I get wailed on.

[techwizard]

i'll 2nd Paper Mario, it's a lot of fun and definitely not super short, it took me around 30 or 35 hours to finish.

if you're ok with collectathons, Jet Force Gemini is really good too, though the controls can be awkward. most of Rare's adventure games can be medium length games, but they're all collectathons so play them in moderation.

another long RPG is Ogre Battle 64 if you have or can find a copy, i don't have any experience with it but it might be worth dabbling in.

the biggest multiplayer game that you left out is Gauntlet Legends, that's great with 4 players but even 2 is pretty good.

[Link41]

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 (PS3) - Still taking Edge through his strides.

[Izret101]

Finished playthru 2.

Started playthru 3. Going to see how much i can get away with rushing from point to point. Would be awesome if i could be done with this tomorrow night.

[Addicted]

Played a lot of X1 games this weekend:

The Crew: Driving around is fun, but the story is terrible. I'm trying to decide if I want to put more time in to this one.

Farcry 4: Playing through this game a second time and it is still lots of fun but I'm noticing how quickly you can become overpowering.

Sunset Overdrive: I want to like this game but I find myself bored with it. I'll keep trying.

Dragon Age Inquisition: Finally finished at over 100 hours in. Great game.

Halo Master Chief Collection: It's Halo 1-4. Not much more to say but it's still fun.

Forza Horizon 2: One of the best looking games I have seen. I might play this over The Crew.

Alien Isolation: Just started. I love the atmosphere.

[Link41]

Game Room: Lunar Lander (WP) - Working on this while out and about today.

[Izret101]

Starting EA Sports Active 2 again.
My last achievement:
Run 1000km/621.4 mi. in Fitness Trail

I've probably already met the requirements from when i was playing before. But it was discovered the game only stores X number of sessions. So i have as much as 70+ hours of running ahead of me.

Going to try and play SnapAttack or Bejeweled on the phone while running since each of those have 50-100 hours left in them too.


EDIT
Maybe finish R.A.W. in a couple more days. Only cleared 2 stages before passing out last night. Was hoping to knock out 5+

[Link41]

Game Room: Lunar Lander (WP) - Ended up finishing this off late last night.

[Izret101]

Got 2 hours of running in today.
I ended up deleting my old save since apparently every single person who has the achievement has had to create a new save to obtain it.
So yesterdays hour was a wash.

I ended up getting through much more of Realms of Ancient War last night than i had anticipated. I guess not being able to sleep helped with that... So i will likely finish tonight

On to new things!... Hopefully.


EDIT
Finished R.A.W.
Went back to something old instead. Pinball FX got the last 2 "easy" achievements. Al i have left now is the 3 tournaments.

Now a little Pac-Attack before bed.

[Link41]

Rayman Origins (360) - Almost halfway through the game now.

[Izret101]

Got 3 hours of running in EA Active 2.

Also put up about 80k points in SnapAttack during those runs.
Only ~1.4 million more to go!!! 

Going to play some Millipede before bed. Still going for that 125k every now and then.
Wish me luck.