Video & PC Game Discussion

What the hell happened? Did all those inane teen Kingdom Hearts fangirls ruin their vision? I'unno. I tried playing Final Fantasy XIII - it literally made me sick. Falcie and Elcie and heroes and I'm a hero we all need heroes and running straight for hours on end and snow and lightning and hailstorm (the super secret character with even spikier and more colorful hair!) and shiva is a goddamn motorcycle and We're going to be the heroes! 

I only paid 5 USD for it and I still turned it back in for store credit at gamestop. I actually enjoyed 12 (obviously not for plot-related reasoning). I remember enjoying the non-plot aspects of Kingdom Hearts, too. I can't stomach the ending, though. (My heart is a pure heart. The essence of darkness is outside the heart. I trust the heart of my heart and my friends. We are friends to the end and we trust the power of the heart of the universe. Darkness is, like, totally bad. Gag me with a spoon, Goofy, darkness sure is lame. Heart heart pure friends love heartSephiroth cameoheart love blah blah dark dark bjork cork.)

I never actually finished Xenogears. I remember putting 70+ hours on it and losing my memory card. I know I was close to finishing, but never how close.

I'm not familiar with Xenogears.  I'll definitely have to check it out.

I also got a really cheap copy of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which is the first Advance Wars I've really started playing. I enjoy the fluid pace and simplistic, though satisfying, strategy. 

Anybody know of any Nintendo DS games that fit these attributes? (or at least some of them?)

-Entertaining combat, Deep plot, Challenging, Serious (not directly built just for children), Unaffiliated with Mario, Engrossing, strategic, affordable...

I've been lookin' and lookin'. How come Nintendo comes up with all these great console/control ideas and proceeds to waste it all on childishness and 'family friendly appeal'? Despite the graphical setbacks, the Wii had quite a bit of potential. I guess that Mario Soccer/Sonic Olympics sh*t sells. How many poor misguided grannies bought their grandkids M 'n' M's Kart Racing or Strawberry Shortcake games because they thought it was cute, forgot how old their grandchildren were, or forgot they were a boy?

My friend bought Diablo III yesterday. He spent all day trying to get it to work and was unable to. He actually had to order a new laptop (the third or fourth he's gotten in three or four years). Apparently his old laptop, a relatively expensive Alienware he only bought 2 years ago, was jus' too damn sh*tty. From what I've heard about it (the silly gimmick of dealing with REAL money to buy and sell game items, the fact that you are FORCED to have an online connection to play it, the awful server issues, etc.) I'm glad to shelf it on the list of popular games 'I'll never own'. 

Just like with every Halo game after Halo 3 (and that one was a stretch that I haven't actually finished). Just like every Call of Duty game after 2 (regular-ass 2, not Black Op or Modern Warfare or any of that garbage). Just like with practically every MMO in all humanity...

The poor guy - he will sit and talk to me about World of Warcraft's 'brilliant plot, pacing, and depth'. He eagerly awaits each expansion with glee. Man, I played WoW a few years ago. I played it for several months. That was enough for me to realize that I really hate online-exclusive experiences. 

I f**kin' hate PC gaming. It makes me sick to my stomach. What adult with children and responsibilities has the money to afford a new laptop/laptop upgrades every year? I can barely tolerate sitting at my laptop for more than 15 minutes at a time without feeling an anxiety attack coming on. Don't get me wrong, I love emulation. Plugging in a wired Xbox 360 controller and playing all the old PSX games I loved or missed is really relaxing, but keeping up with every new release that requires even more cash and wasted time to actually run properly is not fun for me. I don't like having to adjust a million little things just so my game can be 10% shinier or smoother  than the console versions (the same console versions that I can pick up and start playing in mere seconds). Oh lordy, I won't have access to all those life-changing mods! It isn't entirely related, but I hate the burgeoning DLC culture, too. Pardon me if I like my games to be, I dunno, finished when I buy it. Little after-thought extras are neat, and adding new bonus levels/songs/stages/whatever is nice, but how the f**k can you chop out a major aspect of a game's plot and spirit, then expect people to not only pay full price for the goddamn game, but also pay double that so they can finally feel that they are getting the 'true' or 'complete' experience?

My finest example here is with Batman: Arkham City. It was a pretty darn short game to begin with (taking about 10 hours for a single run-through by anybody fairly competent - with a couple hours of screwing around aimlessly to pad it out), but charging people so much for the Catwoman segments that are supposed to stream seamlessly into the overarching plot? That's disgusting. They could have easily packaged the game with that. I like what a friend of mine at work did. He bought the ultimate edition of Fallout: New Vegas at Gamestop, downloaded all the DLCs onto his Xbo 360, returned the pack within 30 days for a full refund, then went and bought a used copy of the lone game. 

How can I have changed so much? Only 2 years ago I daydreamed of being a computer technician. I got home/office certified for both repairs and network troubleshooting. I was on my way to taking my A+ exam - then it all bottomed out. I'd taken computer math, 3 years of computer repair, CISCO networking, Linux, Web Page design, and database classes in high school. Now I don't give a damn about any of it. I don't want to build computers I want to enjoy them. It becomes ever more difficult to do so with each passing year. I swear to dogs, if I have to hear some chubby, oily-haired 30-something blabber on about ' Pfft, you wanna know? I don't even USE that Windows crap anymore. Linux is the only way to go. My network at home [as if two laptops and a beat-up desktop full of porno constitutes a 'network'] runs Red-hat without virus protection and blah blah blah' I'll kill someone. I actually sympathise with the main character in America Psycho. I daydream about senseless butchery and violence every day. 

Golly - I seem enraged, but I'm not. I'm playing my neat little games and reconnecting with my childhood. Maybe I'll play a pokemon game. The new Black/White ones look pretty promising. I ordered/found some things for my soul-crushing cubicle at work - a Cowboy Bebop poster, some Final Fantasy pins, some tiny little Pokemon figurines, a Yoshi figure, and some real old torn-up pictures from Game Informer magazine (as bloated, fat-headed, pretentious, and full-of-sh*t they are).

Nobody reads my long posts, but I don't have the time to come and post things often. Maybe I'll start chopping these into fourths and spreading them out into four consecutive posts. Maybe I won't post this at all. I'll just message it to myself and read it again a couple years from now, remarking quite fondly 'Hey, I used to say that stuff! Far out!'. 

I like how you talked to me. It was calm, informative, and not the least bit forceful, aggressive, or pushy. I'd heard DQ IX was really good. Now, I don't really like the Dragon Quest games in general, but VIII was able to keep that middle ground between contemporary and classic, tongue-in-cheek and serious, without failing. I quite enjoyed that one. I miss the old game boy Dragon Warrior Monsters game. Sure, it ripped off Pokemon, but I liked all the collecting, breeding, tournament fighting, hidden secrets, worlds, and creatures. 

When I had my DS a couple years ago, I played the hell out of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. It was my most-played portable game. Now I'm excited to play the other two (Order of Ecclesia and Portrait of Ruin). 

I'm thinking about purposefully screwing with grammar rules, fire-. -Breathing is fun. (Have you ever seen the rain (a rain you can taste [something you'll find, I'm quite certain, to be true])?). ,,,,;,;,;,;,;,; :::,/ // - - . Firehyphenbreathing is a great abilitycomma but you canapostrophet always see the flameapostrophes directionperiod

Check out Dragon Quest Monster: Joker and Dragon Quest Monsters:Joker 2 on the DS.I have the 1st game and enjoyed it quite a bit,but near the end it got a bit repetitive.I have been keeping my eye out for a used copy of the 2nd game,but haven't got it yet.

One thing in particular is DLC.Now,DLC for a game like GTA IV was well worth the 20 bucks it costs me.You almost got complete new game with 20-25 new story missions,new side missions,vehicles,radio content,etc.I think The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony are some of the best DLC I have ever come across,That's why I love R*.

But then here's the flip side.My son loves the Saints Row games(I like them quite a bit myself,particularly 2),and he wanted Saints Row the Third as one of his Xmas games.We were both looking forward to popping it in and playing it and were very,very disappointed once we did.There were not near as many fun side things to do as in SR2.The new city of Steelport was smaller,SR2 had lots of variety as far as customization(for character,clothing,vehicles),While I was expecting a deeper level of customization options for the third game,there wasn't.There isn't even a dynamic day and night cycle...in an open world sandbox game!!!!!

Then we found out that THQ was offering "Daily DLC for a month",which was stupid sh*t like clothing packs and all that crap.They could have put all that in the game but decided to deliver a sub par game and milk you for money.Really,really pissed me off and unless it changes for the next game THQ will not get another dime of my money.