Games Completed in 2011, #36 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Don’t panic, dear readers. Yes, it is still 2012, the year of our unmaking. We did not travel back in time by nine days and some change. Instead, since I’m slow and sometimes lazy and not the best of planners, I did not get to write about all the games I completed in 2011 in 2011. So there’s some carryover. No big deal, really. I just need to type up some words on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Professor Layton and the Last Specter, and Half-Life 2: Episode One before moving on to a brand new list for a brand new year, which, I might add, already has an entry. That said, expect me to bang out these three final posts for my Games Completed in 2011 list this week.

Right. Completing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim seems like an odd thing to say, as I both have done it and have not. I have finished the main story questline, killing dragons and dragon supporters and dragon masters and all that. I have made my way to the top of the power heap in both the Mages Guild and Thieves Guild. I have raised a skill to 100 and bought a house in Whiterun and earned a bit of gold and did some errands for Daedric gods and goddesses. My save slot says I’ve played for around 75 hours or so, and there’s still more for my character Lohgahn to do.

It’s kind of crazy to consider that after such a long amount of playing, I’ve not even touched any of the civil war story stuff. Not a single thing. I kind of feel like my Imperial will side with the Stormcloaks since he’s none too pleased with almost being put to death by, uh, his Imperial brethren, but later on, during the main storyline, I kind of slighted Ulfric , and now it seems odd to pick either/or. I guess I wish that the civil war missions were interspersed into the main story stuff to make it seem more important, but given how optional it is, I dunno. Maybe it’d be better to save that stuff for a new character, as I do want to try a non-stealth route to get a better feel for the combat or deadly use of magic.

Despite being full of bugs and glitches–some more annoying than others–the realm of Skyrim is deeply impressive. It’s not all just snow and mountains and snowy mountains, which is appreciated, and the designs of dungeons, caves, and ancient ruins are ten times better than in Oblivion, making them fun to explore. Toss in the addition of shortcuts for exiting said dungeons, caves, and ancient ruins as an extra bonus, and you’ve got some great design work here. At this point, I haven’t even fully explored all the major towns yet, as well as not even hitting 100 locations discovered. There’s so much life in Skyrim that one might honestly not ever see it all.

Not all is perfect in Bethesda’s newest mammoth. The dragon fights can be pretty lame thanks to kiting or horses joining in or the dragons themselves glitching into a rock. Conversations, while not as stiff as previous games, are still pretty robotic. The menus are easier to navigate, but I wish there was a better way to see what your character looks like with all your glass armor and enchanted weapons.

I haven’t touched The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in a couple weeks now, but I suspect I’ll hop back in soon enough to do some more quests and maybe whittle away at my ever-growing miscellaneous objectives list. Or just start over with another character. But not until I get at least 100,000 gold in my pockets.

Don’t let this post about being stealthy in Skyrim sneak by you

I haven’t touched The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in a couple of weeks now, but I did put some solid hours into the beast right before Christmas hit. Hey, I had time off of work, and well, I didn’t really know what to do with myself so I just plopped down and teleported away for a bit. From that spree, I was able to finish off the Thieves Guild questline–not counting restoring it to its former glory, which is based around doing a thousand and five miscellaneous tasks for Vex and Delvin–went to jail and then escaped, and polished off a sidequest called The Man Who Cried Wolf, which had the Dovahkiin investigating a cave after rumors of disappearances and strange lights. Also, I got my first skill up to the cap of 100. See here:

Skill Master (40G): Get a skill to 100

Now I’m sure you’re all chomping at the bit to guess which skill I raised to one hundred first. Was it Smithing? Nope. How about Heavy Armor? Um, no. Two-handed Weapons? Unicorn Riding? General Economics? Get real, kids. It was…

SNEAK

Duuuuuuuh. This really should come as no surprsie to anyone that’s been following Grinding Down now and/or for some decent length of time. I love being stealthy in videogames (except when they punish me for going the stealth route ::ahem:: Deus Ex: Human Revolution ::cough::), and since I’ve never been great at swinging swords, blocking with shields, or casting crazy magic spells, I built my character around the battle-plan of creeping through dark dungeons and loosing arrows from afar, hiding in shadows when caught. This works out pretty well except for when I have to fight a dragon or get spotted and then have to deal with a draugr right up in my face.

From what I can gather, the sneak skill increases in a couple of ways. You boost it by literally sneaking around people unnoticed, whether out in the woods or in a cave or potentially inside the hall of some great jarl. The other way is to kill enemies (or animals in the wrong place at the wrong time) without being detected. With an enchanted bow and the perks to zoom in and slow down time, this becomes a piece of sweetroll. And thanks to finishing off the Thieves Guild quests, I now possess the special ability to turn invisible for a significant length of time, useable once per day. Nobody is ever going to see me coming.

There are some downsides to being a sneak master though. I previously mentioned that once you are spotted it can be pretty difficult to defend yourself, especially if there’s more than one foe coming at you. The best tactic I have is to skate backwards and hide in a corner in hopes of them giving up after a few minutes. Because I like to be quiet and not alert everybody to my presence, I can’t bring along companions. I had a companion once; her name was Lydia, and she was loud as all gets, and sadly, something killed her so that I didn’t have to, and missions where I have to team up with someone never work well as they constantly run forward into rooms to say hi to everyone. And lastly, because of my OCD to creep and inch my way forward, going through a single cave can sometimes take up to an hour or more, whereas a warrior-like character would just charge through, smash everything with a mace, scoff at traps, and loot all chests before the fifteen minute mark.

But yeah, I’ve topped Sneak. Haven’t bought the 100 level perk for it yet though, and I’m not sure if I need it exactly, but we’ll see. I kind of like saving my perk points. My next closest skill to 100 is Archery, and after that I need to work on Light Armor or Pick-pocketing. Then nothing will be out of Lohgahn’s reach. And at some point I’ll pick a side (Imperial or Stormcloaks), but if it hasn’t turned out to be a rush after 70 hours or gaming, it probably won’t ever be.

Achievements of the Week – The Wanted Ghost Buster Saving My Quarters Edition

Hey, long time, no Achievements talk! Yeah, my bad. The last iteration of Achievements of the Week was back on December 9, 2011, and I totally planned to continue doing it all through the month, but then a drunk driver hit me as I was driving home and the holidays were in full swing and my depression surfaced with extreme tenacity. But I’m back, yo. I swears it. And I have plenty to report. Again, I’m not listing all the Achievements I unlocked over the last, um, three to four weeks, but some of the ones I liked the most.

And we’re off!

From The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim…

Wanted (10G): Escape from jail

Well, to be honest, this wasn’t as amazing as I thought it might be. I stole something in public, did not resist the guards, was taken to jail, picked the lock with ease, grabbed my gear, and left the Whiterun prison without a single soul aware I was even on the loose. And that’s it.

Darkness Returns (10G): Complete “Darkness Returns”

Finished the Thieves Guild questline…sort of. Seems like to return it to its former glory, I have to do an inane number of miscellaneous quests, which involve a lot of fast traveling, which also means a lot of loading screens. It’s on my to-do list, but not a priority just yet.

From LEGO Harry Potter, Years 5-7…

Shedding Skin (10): Complete “In Grave Danger”

Tara was able to wrap some Scotch tape around my second Xbox 360 controller’s faulty wire, and that seems to have solved the problem of it cutting in and out…for now. This has allowed us to play some co-op again.

From Rage…

Ghost Buster (10G): Complete Ghost Hideout in the Campaign

Waste Management (10G): Complete Wasted Garage in the Campaign

I haven’t played too much of Rage yet, but it’s not bad. Very pretty at times, and very ugly at times in terms of textures not loading. And no, I’m not going to instal 157 gigs onto my hard drive to make the game run better. But yeah, it’s okay. I do hope to play more of it, but I gotta remember to stock up on ammo like woah. Always running out of bullets because I’m terrible at aiming. Also, John Goodman for the win.

From Saints Row: The Third…

I previously shared some Achievements earlier this week, but here’s a another I got just the other day that makes me smile. It sure makes hijacking cars fun and fast.

Bo-Duke-En (10G): 50 quick vehicle hijacks, the Dukes would be proud.

From Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds…

Need a Healing Factor (10G): Win a match without blocking. (Arcade/Xbox LIVE only)

Saving My Quarters (20G): Beat Arcade mode without using any continues.

Female Flyers (15G): Make a team composed of women who can fly, and win a match. (Arcade/Xbox LIVE only)

In total, I’ve pinged 16 out of 47 Achievements already in MVC3, and while there’s a handful of others that are attainable, the majority are not. Just like in Street Fighter IV, most of the Achievements require skill, endurance, and grinding. Not really for me, but it’s a nice edition to the collection for those times when Tara and I want to just mash buttons and have seizure-inducing images flash on screen.

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Whew. Told you there would be a lot of ’em. But how about you? What cool Achievements have you pinged since last we met here? Share ’em below in the comments section, folks.

Alpine climbing Death Peak just to save a friend

I’m happy to report that I’ve made further progress in Chrono Trigger, a game I had hoped to have completed in 2011 and am now resolved to see ended in early 2012. And I’m almost there, I think. Maybe. I dunno. Seems like the game is explicitly telling me to go take Lavos down now and at the same time offering half a dozen new sidequests to do before the big final battle. Crono is at some crossroads, in short. But before all that happened, I did make it to the top of Death Peak, and all I got to show for it was a good friend back. Well, that and some new gear, but let’s talk about not walking diagonally for a bit.

Death Peak has two tricky parts to it. The first involves climbing up a snowy hill and hiding behind trees to avoid being blown back to the overworld map by huge gusts of icy wind. This took me over ten times to conquer, and each time my gang of heroes was tossed off the map I’d gasp a little. Eventually I began cursing at my 3DS and threatening to throw it out a window; Tara is a witness to all this, too. See, the problem is that you can’t run diagonally in Chrono Trigger, only up, down, left, and right, making moving quickly an arduous task. And you have to line up your party directly behind a tree when the wind picks up while continuing to press up to prevent from sliding downhill; maybe this was easier on a SNES controller, but the circle pad on the 3DS is too slippery and, conversely, the 3DS d-pad is too stiff. If only they could run at an angle instead of having to stop, feet planted firmly in the snow, and then change direction, and then change direction yet again. You have only seconds to get to tree safety. It was frustrating, and I was pleased to reach calmer winds on the subsequent screen.

But then, just a little ways further up Death Peak, you have to traverse across a slippery bridge without falling off, going from the far right of the screen to the far left in one fell swoop. It’s not easy. Again, a lot of blame falls on the stiffness of the d-pad and the slipperiness of the circle pad. Or maybe I just suck at walking. In truth, when I step onto ice or slippery terrain in real life, I become a 96-year-old man without a cane, moving in inches, eyes straight down, always in fear of falling and hurting myself. I have a history of slipping and hurting myself, so there’s that excuse. Eventually, I was able to make it across and release the breath I was holding. The rest of Death Peak was moderate, and I can’t really talk about what happens thereafter as the story details are extremely spoilery, but things get better despite the constant looming Lavos.

Back at the End of Time, Crono and the gang are tasked with putting an end to our little fire-loving alien beast thing. Or doing a number of other tasks, of which I’m not sure how many are vital or even interesting. I started one, heading back to the medieval ages to deal with Ozzie, Flea, and Slash for a second time. I think I took them down for good, but I was kind of under the impression that since [spoiler name] is now part of the gang they’d want to join up and help us fight the good fight. Alas, it didn’t work out that way, their stronghold got raided, and they disappeared into darkness. For good? Don’t ask me.

Call me crazy, but I think I’m ready to take on Lavos now. Unless someone nudges me towards a specific sidequest. My team of Crono, Marle, and Ayla is pretty top-notch, and I’m interested in seeing how different of a fight this version will be compared to the first time I tried to take him on. I’m so close, guys and girls. Wish me luck, or tell me to go somewhere else. Otherwise, it’s time to save all the times.

30 Days of Gaming meme is now completed

It took me 287 days to complete the 30 Days of Gaming meme, which is a list of thirty topic trains meant to be derailed one after the other in thirty consecutive days. Another way to look at it is as so: 9 months and 12 days. Let’s go further down the rabbit hole and reduce the final count to these: 24,796,800 seconds or 413,280 minutes or 6,888 hours or 41 weeks. Fun with numbers, I know. It’s all the rage on blogs these days.

Yeah, I never promised I’d be fast with the meme, as it was meant to fill in the gaps at Grinding Down, but at some point, I just forgot about it for a good while and then later struggled with some of the tougher topics. But I have triumphed, and so here’s the roundup of all those posts. Clicky click, y’all.

Day 1 – Your first videogame (Super Mario World)
Day 2 – Your favorite character (Gremio from Suikoden)
Day 3 – A game that is underrated (Primal)
Day 4 – Your guilty pleasure game (Pokemon White)
Day 5 – Game character you feel you most like (Joker from Mass Effect)
Day 6 – Most annoying character (Tom Nook from Animal Crossing: Wild World)
Day 7 – Favorite game couple (Fran and Balthier from Final Fantasy XII)
Day 8 – Best soundtrack (Chrono Cross)
Day 9 – Saddest game scene (Nanami’s death in Suikoden II)
Day 10 – Best gameplay (Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves)
Day 11 – Gaming system of choice (Nintendo DS)
Day 12 – A game everyone should play (Limbo)
Day 13 – A game you’ve played more than five times (Super Metroid)
Day 14 – Current (or most recent) gaming wallpaper
Day 15 – Post a screenshot from the game you’re playing right now (Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar)
Day 16 – Game with the best cut scenes (Jak 3)
Day 17 – Favorite antagonist
Day 18 – Favorite protagonist Craziest thing in a game (Zodiac Spear in Final Fantasy XII)
Day 19 – Picture of a game setting you wish you lived in (Fable II)
Day 20 – Favorite genre (RPGs)
Day 21 – Game with the best story (Suikoden II)
Day 22 – A game sequel which disappointed you (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty)
Day 23 – Game you think had the best graphics or art style (Aquaria)
Day 24 – Favorite classic game (Pac-Man)
Day 25 – A game you plan on playing (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)
Day 26 – Best voice acting (Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain)
Day 27 – Most epic scene ever (Mother Brain boss fight in Super Metroid)
Day 28 – Favorite game developer (Konami)
Day 29 – A game you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving (LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game)
Day 30 – Your favorite game of all time (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past)

Whew. Lots to read. Or not, that’s your call. To speak nicely of my own writing for a moment–and trust me, this does not happen a lot, as self-deprecation is my main form of medication–I’m pretty proud of the posts for Day 2, Day 5, Day 9, and Day 11. These are more personal than traditional, the kind of writing where there’s a story before we get to the meat of things. I dunno. Overall, I’m kind of meh about how this meme went and turned out, and I suspect I won’t be doing another for a long while. I think I am better at videogame musing off the cuff, and I now never want to write about my favorite videogame ever again; it just can’t be done, folks. Unless you’re Jeremy Parish.

All right, moving on now…

The Top 10 Videogames I Didn’t Get to Play in 2011

I did this type of list last year–and by last year, I mean 2010–and to say that it was well received is me being honestly humble; The Top 10 Games I Didn’t Get to Play in 2010 ended up gracing the home page of WordPress.com for a week and change, meaning that anyone and everyone visiting the site saw an adorable puppy with sad eyes drawing them into a post about missing out on a bunch of popular videogames. And it got looked at. A lot. Around 15,200 views and over 140 comments in just a few days, a high majority of them from really nice commenters, too. Thanks, WordPress people! We’ll see if I can bottle magic for a second time.

10. Batman: Arkham City

He may be the hope that flies through the night sky in black, but he’s also unplayed. Same with the previous game Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game(s) seem really cool, with a mix of action, stealth, and as many cameos the devs can squeeze in, but I’ve somehow managed to avoid all things batty. Not on purpose. I like Batman much more than Superman (but less than Spider-Man). Maybe I’ll grab one of these in 2012 to help get in the mood for The Dark Knight Rises.

9. STACKING

 

I like weird games, mostly because weird games take chances, thus earning the adjective of being weird. Stacking seems like a weird game, which is why it is intriguing to me. Plus, the way the characters hop around the world reminds me a little of how I design my Supertown and All of Westeros characters, even though those in Stacking do have arms, legs, noses, and ears. Good for them. The price tag (1200 MS Points) for this downloadable has always kept me at bay so I’m hoping for a sale sometime soon.

8. Aliens: Infestation

Here’s probably the first (and last) Aliens game I’m interested in. The goal is shooting alien creatures without remorse, and this objective plays out in a Metroidvania way, with a unique hook of main characters being totally and completely killable. You literally have X number of lives to beat the game, I guess. There’s some gorgeous spritework here, and the level design is ripe for exploration. Alas, I don’t know much about the source material, as I’ve only ever seen one film from the franchise, and I couldn’t tell you if it was Alien or Aliens, but it did have a robot at the end bleeding milk all over the place, but I’m a sucker for anything that shows its love for side-scrolling pilgrimages and does it well.

7. Alice: Madness Returns

I have a strange relationship with American McGee’s Alice; that’s a game that I actually played co-op with a girlfriend even though it was not a co-op game. She controlled the moving of Alice, and I used items and weapons from the other side of the keyboard. It was a disastrous time, and we rarely worked well together, but it was one of the few games she ever became interested in, and was adamant about us playing it together. Ah, young love affection. What a farce.

And so that game has been stuck in my being ever since, evoking a time I’d like to not go back to. However, Alice’s next journey in Alice: Madness Returns looks like fun, maybe even darker than before if that’s possible. The game got mediocre reviews, but I’m more interested in just going at it all by my lonesome.

6. Red Dead Redemption

Here’s a game that was also on my 2010 list, meaning a whole year went by and I’ve still not been able to ride a horse, skin a bear, and shoot a unruly vagrant. I want to, I really do, and I was close to purchasing the Game of the Year edition, which nicely collects all the many DLC packs into one package, but instead went with Mass Effect 2. I still don’t love Grand Theft Auto IV, but I named L.A. Noire as my game of the year, and have hopes that Red Dead Redemption is more like the latter and less like the former. Yeah, yeah, I know people refer to it as Grand Theft Horse, but maybe there’s more to it than that. Or maybe you’ll see this title on yet another edition of this list come the end of 2012.

5. Terraria

This year, I was able to give Minecraft a spin thanks to a free, limited-time copy with the purchase of one of the Humble Indie Bundles. I struggled at first, both with what the point of the game was and then also surviving the darkness, but that was enough for me until it comes out on the Xbox 360. Terraria is seemingly Minecraft’s cousin, but it only works on a PC, and since I use a Mac…well, you do the math. The graphics and slower gameplay seem more appealing to me than that in Minecraft, but it’ll have to wait until I can get a new pooter.

4. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

True fact: I totally skipped Assassin’s Creed II and went straight to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and I’m totally at peace with that. Why? Well, AC:B turned out to be simply fantastic. A strong story, lots to do in a well-designed setting, and a unique take on online multiplayer stabbing. Though Ubisoft might be spitting out these games a little too fast, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations seems to be more of AC:B, and I’ve heard that the changes to online multiplayer are significant. I’ve held back because I’ve heard that for a game with revelations in its title, there is actually little to that point. Going to wait until the price drops down to $30 or so, me thinks.

3. Portal 2

So, 2011 was the year that I caught up with the world and played–and beat with minimal walkthrough assistance–Portal. Yeah, go me. However, I did struggle with a few puzzles, almost to the point of blunt frustration, and that’s been the biggest roadblock for Portal 2; I’m interested in the story and learning more about Aperture Science and their ultimate plans, but not having to deal with the mind-benders and brain-twisters to get there. Sure, I could read a wiki or watch videos online, but that’s just silly. Alas, I kinda doubt I’ll ever get to this one.

2. Kirby Mass Attack

Without a doubt, Kirby is Nintendo’s lab experiment. When they want to try something new or risky or off-the-wall, they just use Kirby as the flagship. Over the years, he’s been turned into yarn, forced to ride a rainbow, and also enter air kart races. His latest adventure on the DS (not the 3DS, mind you) involves clones. Kirby Mass Attack retains the look of those classic Kirby game, but throws in new puzzles solvable with multiple Kirby copies, and it’s all controlled with the touchscreen. This one was released right around the same time as Professor Layton and the Last Specter, and I only had enough funds to get one or the other, and so it’ll have to wait for a later date.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The last great game for the Nintendo Wii. At least that’s what journalistic people are saying about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and I’m sure they are right as there definitely doesn’t seem to be anything else in the pipeline before the dumbly-named Wii U drops. And there’s always reason to be excited for a new Zelda game, but I still struggle with the idea of actually playing this on a Wii, with a Wii controller, doing Wii-like things. Visually, it’s so pretty. Like a painting come to life. It also sounds like a mighty slow crawl for those first few hours. Going to hold off for now and wait until it drops in price, but who knows how long that could take.

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Well, I think that’s it.

Other contenders that I didn’t play and didn’t make this list include Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, Dead Island, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Lost in Shadow, and Rayman: Origins. Yeah, I got some things to catch up on. We’ll get there, surely. But what about you, dear readers? What games from 2011 did you miss out on? Speak up below in the comments.

Find Mii 2 really ups the ante

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Find Mii. It’s one of two minigames found within the StreetPass Mii Plaza for the Nintendo 3DS, and the quickest and easiest way to sum it up is a bare-bones RPG that rewards players with new hats for their Mii. Your Mii is captured, and you have to recruit other Miis via connecting with 3DS systems or purchasing cat/dog soldiers to fight off ghosts and save your Mii. Which turns out to be the king/queen of this unnamed fantasy realm. Options for combat boil down to attacking three times with a sword or using magic; there are one or two moments where strategy is vital for progress, but otherwise, so long as you can boost your heroes’ levels or connect multiple times with other Miis, it’s easy sailing. But at least it’s something to do with the Miis you collect other than, y’know, grabbing a random puzzle piece–and sometimes not even that.

I made a huge dent in Find Mii back in September thanks to attending SPX 2011, where a good number of other 3DS champions attended, too. I basically plowed through my second playthrough of the minigame up to the point of the final two or three battles thanks to other comics-loving Mii avatars, especially Madéleine Flores. Then I kinda stopped carrying my 3DS around all the time to collect Play Coins and hopefully tag other people, and so I was a little miffed to discover that the minigame’s sequel, Find Mii II, newly acquired with the latest software update for the system, is only accessible to those that had collected all the hats already. Meaning, I had to blow a bunch of Play Coins just to complete the first adventure and begin to see how the second one shaped up.

So I did that, and now Find Mii II is in progress, and while it is the same minigame as before, it’s also not. It’s Find Mii, but updated to the max. Beyond eleven. It throws in so much new stuff that it’s actually hard to remember it all, but I guess that’s why I blog, to make words permanent and visible and possibly interesting.

Story-wise, your Mii’s children, wig-wearing pieces of epic royalty, have been kidnapped, and you must rescue them. I think your own Mii is taken, too, but I can’t remember. I was a bit hypnotized by seeing my kid represented as a blonde wig-wearing version of myself. Players can now take multiple paths through a dungeon, resulting in different challenges and acquired hats.

Combat used to involve two strategies: melee attacks or magic. Both had their uses, but other than that, there weren’t many other options. Now Mii soldiers can used combo attacks based on the color of their shirts or fuse into one leveled up soldier. Here’s what is known so far:

Team Combo	Special Effects
Black + White	Break Shadowlight Shields
Red + Pink	???
Blue + Light Blue	???
Yellow + Yellow	Clear Poisonous Room

Did I mention that you can also use Play Coins to hire a Mii in your plaza to fight for you? Well, you can. It’s pricey, but worth it when you got some level 4 Miis standing around collecting e-dust. And also comes in handy when you reach a room that requires a certain colored shirt Mii to progress. Some enemies require strategy too, since I’ve come across a ghost that makes a mirage copy version and a slime that heals itself if you’re not effective enough.

Potions are new, too. You purchase them with Play Coins during combat, and here’s the ones I’ve seen so far:

• Vial of Valor (8 Play Coins) – Calls back up to three heroes who have left
• Power Potion (20 Play Coins) – Boosts your heroes’ levels

Whew. See? A lot of shtuff.

Considering there’s an Accomplishment for completing Find Mii five times and multiple paths to take, I suspect I’ll be plugging away at this for some time now. Looking forward to the 2012 comics con scene for more tags so that I can show everyone my sweet Laytonesque Top Hat. I’m sure there’s a lot of other cool hats, but for me, that’s all my Mii needs.

Drowning in videogames is one way to go

Too many games. Way too many videogames as of late, and there’s probably only more to come. If you think that I’ve been spending these past few days playing each and every new game that has popped into my possession until physical happiness oozes from my very pores…you’d be wrong. Though that does sound nice. I know I did not update Grinding Down on Monday; I know I did the same thing yesterday. Shame, shame. But that has to do with dayjob craziness, not getting lost in a fantasy world or trying to get a robot through a puzzle-laden room.

But I am playing stuff, such as continuing to work at Chrono Trigger before the GiantBomb staff catches up with me. I’ve also picked Radiant Historia back up, probably to Greg Noe‘s glee. Yeah, playing one time-traveling game reminded me that I should also keep playing that other time-traveling game. I kinda forgot about it, sadly, but am already sucked back in thanks to the charismatic characters and fantastic battle systems. I haven’t even turned on my Xbox 360 since last Friday; it’s way too cold to sit out in the living room and game, which stinks as I have plenty still to enjoy there: Skyrim, Beyond Good & Evil HD, Mass Effect II, Mafia II, more L.A. Noire, that D&D romp, and…uh, LEGO Harry Potter, Years 5-7 once we get a second working Xbox 360 controller. Been a lot easier just crawling into bed under the heated blanket and giving my 3DS some love.

A new Humble Indie Bundle is out. And it seems like I have a knee-jerk reaction to their emails; they say, “Hey, get five games for whatever you want to pay!” and I say, “YES, MASTER. YOUR DEMAND IS MY DESIRE.” Upon further inspection, if you pay more than the average price you get two additional games. Here, take a look at what this package contains:

• Jamestown
• Bit.Trip Runner
• Super Meat Boy
• Shank
• NightSky HD
• Gratuitous Space Battles (additional game for paying more than average price)
• Cave Story+ (additional game for paying more than average price)

Alas, Shank and Bit.Trip Runner do not work on my dying Macbook, so they will have to wait until I can get a new computer in 2012. Maybe 2012. Car problems do not come cheap. Played a teensy bit of Cave Story+, and that’s a charming platformer if ever there was one; however, I hate not being able to control with a d-pad and action buttons. Oh well. I’ll endure, I’m sure.

Looks like us 3DS Ambassadors are getting our 10 free GBA games this Friday, and the list is crazy good. I mean, we’ve always known five of the ten titles, but now we know it all, and I’m super stoked for seven of them. I don’t know what percentage seven out of ten equates to, but whatever. I’ve never proclaimed myself as a math magician, which is probably why I’m struggling with Anathem by Neal Stephenson after only 50 pages. Anyways, take a look at these nifty names:

• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
• F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
• Kirby and The Amazing Mirror
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
• Mario Kart: Super Circuit
• Mario vs Donkey Kong
• Metroid Fusion
• Wario Land 4
• WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgame$
• Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3

Yeah! I will never not have something to play. Here’s hoping I can enjoy some of these during my vacation time, also known as the last week of December. Here’s hoping…

Staying one time-leap ahead of the Chrono Trigger Endurance Run

Well, it happened again. Chrono Trigger got away from me. You could also say that I got away from Chrono Trigger. Either or, really. And that’s a shame, as I was making such strong progress, certainly getting further into the time-traveling RPG than ever before. Here are the links to prove it, too:

• Crono and the gang help Lavos with his “destroy the world” Kickstarter
• A tale of two Masamunes
• Pushing a button until your fingers fall off is Ayla’s idea of a fun time
• Magus and his castle of crazy

Such progress. Such dang good progress, but then some other videogames came out and grabbed me by the throat and threatened to end my existence if I didn’t give them lots of love and attention. Like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Professor Layton and the Last Specter, as well as that bonus mini-RPG thingy known as London Life. So I did. I loved them, for hours upon hours, and I still love them and am continuing to love them, but I’ve completed two out of the three so far and just took out the Layton cartridge from my 3DS for the first time in over a month. I immediately popped Chrono Trigger back in, so it’s ready and waiting.

The biggest motivation for me making a bigger dent in Chrono Trigger stems from the fact that GiantBomb is doing an Endurance Run of the game, and I’m watching, but only up to a point; once they get to where I am, I’ll be out, but right now, considering that Patrick and Ryan are lost in dino-land instead of back in their own era, I got some time. Last night, I hopped off some pterodactyls and ventured deep into the Tyrano Lair to rescue Ayla’s friend Kino. I also survived a room of invisible transporters and took down Nizbell II, who was a little annoying. Didn’t figure out his pattern into mid-way through the fight, where lightning-based attacks lowered his defense, but any other kind of attack raised it. I spammed Lightning II and Ice II in the end, with Ayla using Kiss more than enough to earn her a reputation back home. I then saved my progress and turned in for the night, but I’m back. You hear that, Chrono? I’M BACK.

And so, my mission statement is now this: to finish Chrono Trigger before 2011 ends. I can do it. I must.

FIRST HOUR REVIEW – Suikoden III

Hey, remember when I drank a bunch of Felix Felicis and found a copy of Suikoden III recently? And then remember when I told the world how scared I was to even play it? Well, I finally did it. Play, that is. For sixty minutes and then some. Even took notes. You can read all about discolored used game discs, getting lost in the smallest village ever, and duck soldiers over at The First Hour.

I’ve played past Suikoden III‘s first hour, too. Thanks to Sergeant Joe, Hugo was able to schedule a meeting with the people doing business in Vinay del Zexay’s council building, but we have to wait at least a day; until then, the capital is ours for the exploring, and it’s a pretty big place, with lots of shops and citizens to speak with. Alas, Hugo’s not rich, so there’s not much to do. I’m guessing at some point I’ll sleep at an inn and go back for that meeting. At some point…

But yeah. Again, please check out my coverage of Suikoden III‘s first hour from Hugo’s chapters.