GAMES I REGRET PARTING WITH: Trap Gunner

I can’t even recall why this game is no longer in my collection. I must have, at some point during my climb from Playstation 1 to Playstation 2, traded it in along with a heap of others to help get some extra gaming funds. The young fool I was…the young, dumb, blind-as-a-barrel fool.

Of Trap Gunner, what I remember the most is that it was a hoot to play. Not the storyline, not the characters, not the graphics–just that it was a party every time. The premise revolved around your character and another character running around a battlefield, and as you went you planted all different types of traps to snare them in and drain their life-bar. You could use bombs, pitfalls, gas, mines, and force panels. Some worked well on their own, others had to be used in conjunction with other traps to really seal the deal.

Here’s a great example of something I’d do every round in Trap Gunner, no matter the stage:
1. Plant a force panel
2. Directly across from the force panel plant a pitfall
3. Next to the pitfall plant a switch detonator
4. Lure my opponent over to the force panel
5. Enjoy the domino effect

The best part is that traps you plant can’t be seen by your opponent (and vice versa), making running around a bit nerve-wrecking. You might not want to go up those stairs…so you can drop into a sneak mode to sniff out enemy traps.

There was a single player mode, as well as a two player split-screen if I recall correctly. The story mode did little, but open up new levels and secret characters. All in all, Trap Gunner was a fun mix of action and strategy, and is most certainly a game I miss from time to time.

Check out the anime-like intro as well:

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GAMES I REGRET PARTING WITH is a regular feature here at Grinding Down where I reminisce about videogames I either sold or traded in when I was young and dumb. To read up on other games I parted with, follow the tag.

XIII for $2.00–yes or no?

So, while browsing the bargain bin of PS2 games yesterday at my local GameStop, I found a copy of XIII…for $2.00. Yet I did not buy it. Instead, I came home and searched for some reviews. Talk about being scared of the Recession, eh?

Anyways, what do you think? Is XIII worth the $2.00 (plus tax)? Seems like a stylish FPS with a somewhat stereotypical plot.

Watch the first 10 minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum

Well, not here. But you can view the first ten minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum over at the MTV Multiplayer blog. It’s definitely worth a watch even if little actual gameplay is shown. I checked it out during my lunch break and it was just like watching the old animated series. Well, not entirely. This one was a bit more demented. Anyways, you do get to see Batman casually walking around while listening to side characters (and the Joker!) give off heaps of exposition. Doesn’t take long for it all to fall apart, and then we’re into a punch-and-kick brawler. Hopefully there’s more to the game than that, but the cutscenes, dialogue, and voice acting is more than enough to keep me interested.

Update to Xbox LIVE arriving on August 11, 2009

The update will be ushering in a wave of new features, such as Games on Demand, the Avatar marketplace, user ratings, and other stuff. Read up about here.

Alas, this will not be the update that includes integrating Facebook and Twitter into the main dashboard, which is a shame as I was looking forward to that feature the most. I’m nonplussed about the notion of spending real money/Microsoft bucks for digital clothing and toys for the videogame representation of us gamers. Seems kinda moot, really.

But…but. The Avatar marketplace could really do wonders if it allows some games to unlock a few free tee-shirts or magical swords (I’m looking at you, Fable II) either as some part of an achievement or whatever. That’d be nice and possibly some incentive to even glance purchasable pixels.

As per the Games on Demand, it’s not for me. I like browsing a shop and bringing something home, whether it is a new game or a used one with the manual missing.I also suspect that they will be priced a bit unfairly, but I’ll only speculate for now and hope that they don’t go nuts. I got my copy of Mass Effect for $15 human dollars so hopefully it is somewhere around there as well.

So yeah, I’m just kind of waiting on the update bringing in Twitter and the Book of Faces. Some time this fall, eh? Okay…

Being a hero, always

Well, I’m one step closer to getting my second full 1,000 gamerscore, which is most definitely going to be from LEGO Batman. Last night, I punched and kicked my way through three more levels to find the remaining helpless idiots and save them from…well, save them from being eternally held by goons and clown-faced mercenaries. Upon sending a flaming batarang up one of said goon’s butts, I unlocked this:

Vigilante (25G): Rescue 25 civilians.

Which has me currently sitting at 37/46 achievements. Now, let’s just be clear…the LEGO games are by and far not terribly challenging or hard. Glitchy, sure. Badly designed at times, you got it. In fact, the achievements they offer up are anything but challenging–what they are, however, is time-consuming. Most of the ones I have remaining involve achieving 4,000,000,000 in studs (yes, that’s the correct number of zeros), buying everything in the game, finding all the mini-kits, and generally completing LEGO Batman to 100%. I’ll get there, block by block (LEGO, that is), but man will it take me some time…

Forgetting where I’ve stopped

The worst part about jumping back and forth between different videogames is that some get forgotten much more quickly than others. And then they sit, bereft of friendship, collecting dust. Every now and then they get picked up again, but once past the start screen it is evident that I no longer know what is going on and what I should be doing. Some good examples of this are Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King and Xenosaga.

Concerning the former, I’m pretty far along. I’ve fought the main bad dude (some jester villain with an evil…cane?) a few times and was, for a certain period of time, collecting monsters to fight in the battle arena mini-game. But that’s it. Where I’m supposed to go next is anyone’s guess. Sure, I could look it up in an FAQ guide or whatever, but that would involve some heavy reading to first determine what I’ve done and what I haven’t done yet. So I shut the game off and go back to familiar grounds.

The latter, Xenosaga, is first and foremost a disappointing game. Yet I’m sick in the head and can’t stay away from JRPGs. Every time I load it up, I’m in some stupid, maze-like alien ship. Wander this way, wander that way. Avoid fighting flying mutant bats and giant golem creatures. It’s pretty annoying. I gave up on it mostly due to the lengthy cutscenes, but at this point I’d kill for one to give me some understanding of plot happenings and all that jazz.

It’s a shame because I know that eventually I want to finish these games and to do so I’m going to have to start all over. Boo to that.

“Mothership Zeta” trailer is live and has creepy music

The final piece of downloadable content for Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is almost here. Comes out on August 3. Until then, check out the trailer for “Mothership Zeta” in all its alien-blasting glory:

I’m pretty excited over this, and I don’t even own Fallout 3. Or have ever played the RPG/shooter mashup. But this just basically means we’re a little bit closer to the Game of the Year edition that’s coming out in the fall, which I will be all over like ranch dressing on pasta. Can’t wait!

Hello, my name is Paul, and I’m a collectaholic

Collecting has always been a part of videogames. Mario went after coins for extra lives, Link had to gather slew of weapons/items to further travel Hyrule, and Samus was always on the lookout for new toys and upgrades. Roleplaying games gave players the chance for amass weapons (Rogue Galaxy, for example) or pieces of music (Eternal Sonata) or even books (Fable II and the Elder Scroll games do this pretty well). Other games took this even further, often to the point where they are trying to drive those with ADHD crazy. Case in point: Assassin’s Creed and its myriad of pointless flags.

But one of my all-time favorite games for collecting random pixels is Animal Crossing: Wild World, especially with its incentive to play every day and check out what new items were up for sale. Hats, shirts, furniture, wallpaper, and more. Mmm. Granted, I haven’t played in many months now (my villagers probably assume now that I’ve gone off the deep end and am in county jail), but the crack collecting is still deep in my blood, which I why I stopped and stared at the following game tonight in the game shop for a good ten minutes:

Ah, Magician’s Quest Mysterious Times. The obvious clone to AC: WW. But that doesn’t matter. For those not in the know, here’s its description:

Magic academy is in session and enrolling kid wizards! Attend classes with your friends to learn the mysteries of magic and the art of casting spells to experience the wonders of this mystifying land. Exchange secret letters and spread rumors about other students in order to become the greatest magician of all time. Creating or sabotaging relationships will determine the way the adventures are told. In this magic adventure, time flows as it does in the real world and each week your wizard skills are put to the test in a new magical adventure. Solve these quests by gathering information from friends and mythical characters you encounter and by using all the magic you’ve learned. Experience a world of magic, mystery and adventure just waiting to be told!

Truthfully, all I took notice of was the claim of “Collect and customize over 350 varieties of currency, clothing, furniture and more!” How I walked away from purchasing the piece of collect crack, I’ll never know.

Okay, I do know: I’m poor. $29.99 is too much for crack. But still…

Giving Mass Effect a second chance

My first playthrough of Mass Effect was a bit…disappointing. Not in terms of gameplay or story, but rather in that it was clear from my list of gained achievements, I had not played enough of Mass Effect. For one thing, here’s four that I did not get by the time credits were rolling:

Scholar (25G): Find all primary Alien: Council Races, Extinct Races and Non-Council Races codex entries

Completionist (25G): Complete the majority of the game

Soldier Ally (20G): Complete the majority of the game with the Alliance soldier squad member

Krogan Ally (20G): Complete the majority of the game with the krogan squad member

Upon initially meeting my multicultural cast of playable characters, I picked Ashley Williams and Urdnot Wrex as my partners in crime saving the world. They stuck out to me as interesting people/dinosaurs, and I faithfully used them in every mission possible. Granted, I really only followed the main storyline. Did some hopping and skipping around the galaxy, but the amount of planets was overwhelming, and the select few I picked to visit seemed to be nothing but barren wastelands. So yeah, I guess I missed a ton of sidequests.

So last night I loaded up my previous save and started a second campaign with my existing Paul Shepard. He’s already at LV 40 so we’ll see how it goes. I’m, however, for the sake of things, contemplating using alternate characters just to experience the story differently (I’m also being a total renegade/poophead to people). I know, I’d like the above achievements, but really, any two ally achievements will be good enough for me because it’ll at least show that I’ve played a “majority of the game,” whatever that turns out to be in Mass Effect.

So, any suggestions on who to go with for the second playthrough? I just arrived at the Citadel, and I dig the Throw and Lift abilities, mostly because my Shepard is an engineer and lacks the Jedi oomph.

Once more, this time with feeling

Wow, my last post here was in the middle of March 2009. Yeah, let’s get down to the meat and potatoes: I suck.

But we’ll try again, as I do love thinking about videogames and such, especially since I’m now the fancy owner of one of these things:

Only took me a billion years to get it, too.