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Monday Gaming Diary: Keep your bloody vampirism to yourself!

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Skyrim VampireI had a bit of a panic this past week while playing Skyrim.

Since I’m a bit of a warrior-type gamer who is quite prone to the tried-and-true RARRRRRR! technique, I opted to join the Companions and follow those side quests. My first quest was to go kill the leader of a vampire clan, which kind of confused me, because I thought Skyrim didn’t add vampires and werewolves until the Dawnguard expansion. But I accepted that I could be wrong and went on my merry way with greatsword in hand, hoping that the sword didn’t have to be lined with garlic or made of wood. I destroyed the entire coven with little difficulty, but apparently I got bitten by one of the lesser vampires. I noticed that my max health was markedly lower than it was before, but like I said, I thought you couldn’t become a vampire or werewolf until the Dawnguard expansion.

When I got back to town, people commented that I looked sick. As the sun set, text rolled across the screen saying I had a strange thirst.

OH NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO.

I have zero interest in becoming either a vampire or a werewolf. What can I do to stop this? Should I go rest? Is there a potion I can take? Crap, do I need to reload a checkpoint before I was bitten? I’ve heard you need to do that to prevent turning. Where is my last saved checkpoint? Two hours ago? CRAP CRAP CRAP! What the hell is wrong with me? Haven’t I learned by now with RPGs to have like ten checkpoints for every 15-20 minutes of gameplay?

Wait, I have the damn Legendary strategy guide. Surely there is info in here about avoiding vampirism. If not, oooh boy how my fingers would have flown across the keyboard in rage.

Sure enough, the Skyrim strategy guide saved me. It had a lengthy discourse on vampirism, including how to become a vampire lord, that explained how to save yourself from this bloody disease. And thankfully, it wasn’t too late to do so. I fast-traveled to Whiterun, purchased the right potions, and triumphantly cured myself.

I’m a little irritated with the game for not really explaining that there are diseases running rampant as well, as this is an entirely new concept for me with RPGs. I’m used to simple healing potions, curing petrification, and sleeping off whatever I may have contracted out in the field.

I now carry around at least 10 cure disease potions with me and I’m leveling up my Restoration skills so I can cure diseases in the future. I have no desire to become either Edward or Jacob.

Monday Gaming Diary: Hotline Miami Does Not Play Around

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Hotline MiamiI didn’t get into Hotline Miami when it first released since it was a PC-only game. I heard great things about it, in that it had a retro style, was ungodly violent, and was hilarious. When it released on the PS3/Vita just a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make the plunge because I was super curious what the hype was about.

Holy crap this game is unforgiving.

Yes, everything I have seen so far has lived up to what I have heard, especially with how funny it is, but it is not for those who have zero patience (a/k/a ME). I totally missed where everyone said how unforgiving the game was or how hard it was, unless no one else feels that way other than me, which is highly possible.

All enemies are one hit knock-downs, but so are you. One mistake, you’re dead, back to the check-point, do not collect $200. So when you enter a new room/area/whatever, it’s time for some serious strategy in how you can take out everyone present before they notice you. If they notice you and you aren’t able to throw a weapon at them before they reach you (or shoot a gun), you’re dead. Oh and it’s not wise to use your gun often, because that will alert every enemy on the floor to your existence.

This game makes me yearn for the punishing difficulty of SmashTV.

I do see why people have adored this game completely. I personally do not have the patience to see this one through, at least not without a strategy guide by my side, holding my hand, and whispering softly that everything will be okay.

This is just another sign I need to stop procrastinating on my Vita and finish all the Final Fantasy games I’ve started.

Monday Gaming Diary: Looks like my Summer RPG is Skyrim

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skyrim-dragonWell, I can’t deny the results of last week’s poll: only one vote for Dragon Age: Origins and the rest were all for Skyrim. Guess I’m glad I bought that Legendary edition of the Skyrim strategy guide when it released.

I knew Skyrim won the GOTY award for 2011, but I had no idea fans were that fervent to this day. I’ve never gotten so many demands on Twitter to play a particular game before. I hope I like it as much as everyone else seems to!

Of course, it will be sharing addictive time with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I honestly cannot believe this little handheld game has prompted me to play at least once a day every day, especially since I really didn’t care for the first AC game on the DS. And yet, here I am, turning it on every day to collect what’s in my trees, seashells, bugs, fish, visiting the island and looting it, paying my mortgage, checking on mayoral duties, and checking to see what towns I can visit before opening my own gates and leaving my 3DS in limbo for a couple of hours. I don’t get it either.

I used to really like the Sim games back in the day, and my addiction to Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes has been documented before, so that’s the only reason why I can think I like ACNL so much. Obviously, it’s a bit more complicated than either Tiny Tower or Pocket Planes, which is probably why I’ll play it longer than I have those other two. Well, at least until all my friends stop playing it. It’s hard to really branch out your town and get unusual fruit when you can’t go steal some fruit from your friends. That reminds me…I still need to find a persimmon tree amongst my compatriots….

Monday Gaming Diary: Tell Me What I Should Play Next

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Dragon Age

Yeah, I know it’s ridiculous I haven’t finished this game.

Fuse is done, I’m wrapping up Remember Me as fast as I can (as this game is NOT fun, unfortunately), and I’m finally going to wrap up Resistance 2 this week. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is slowly taking over my life, but it’s something I play for about 30 minutes at a time, usually while cooking dinner or eating lunch. A staffer is taking care of The Last of Us for me (thank youuuu very much), so I have nothing on my schedule until either Thing 2 is born or Saints Row IV releases, whichever happens first. So how shall I fill in the void?

I went to my sad stack of shame and picked three time-consuming RPGs that I really want to play or get rid of entirely. But which one shall I play? I’m leaving it up to all of you to tell me!

The three on my list are Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins, and Dragon’s Dogma–and I swear I was not consciously picking games relating to dragons. The only one I’ve started is DAO, and I’m about halfway, maybe a little over halfway, through. I’ll probably have to start a new character, relearn the system, and then go back to where I left off. I’ve never played any part of Skyrim or DD.

Please note that picking one does not mean I’m going to toss the other two. I just want some input on which to work on first (or in the case of DAO, finish).

The poll is in the sidebar for everyone, and feel free to comment here and let me know why you think I should play one game over the other. I’m eager to get one of these off my stack of shame! I’ve actually made good progress with my stack this year, and the more I can finish before the next-gen releases, the better; in other words, if I don’t finish them before the next-gen launches, the likelihood I do finish them drops severely.

I look forward to seeing what everyone says I should play next!

Monday Gaming Diary: The Franchise(s) You Never Finish

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Final Fantasy XI’d say we all have them–a franchise or two of games that you enjoy yet never finish–but I’m not sure everyone really does. I know many people have one, but I have two, and no matter how much I know I won’t finish these games, it doesn’t stop me from buying the next installment. It doesn’t matter if it’s a remake, a port, or a brand new game; I can’t seem to help myself. I’m talking about The Legend of Zelda and the Final Fantasy games, two long series of games that I can’t seem to finish and can’t seem to quit.

I own every Final Fantasy (mainstream, not counting Tactics or other off-shoots) game in the series except for the MMOs, FFXI and FFXIV. I’ve started I, III, V, VII, X, and 4 Heroes of Light. I rage quit III at the very end once I discovered that even after completing every single side quest, I needed to level grind about 40 more levels in order to survive the onslaught of multiple boss fights at the end. The story wasn’t great enough for me to do so or start over to begin with, so that one will remain unfinished. With V and I, I just got distracted and stopped playing them for arbitrary reasons. I played VII up to the point of recruiting Cid Highwind, but then the game released on the PSP, so I started over to play it there, and then I just got burned out. I played X all the way to the point where the game releases the linearity and opens up. I had been so focused on the game up to that point, I walked away to take a brief hiatus…about 4 years ago. Now that X is coming to the PS3 and Vita has an HD remake, I’m debating whether to forage on or start over. I have a feeling I’ll play it more if it’s on my Vita than on my larger console, for whatever reason.

The only FF games I’ve finished are XIII and XIII-2. I wish I never started XIII-2.

I’ve suddenly been thinking about my unfinished FF games as I played a little bit of Final Fantasy Theatrhythm this weekend. Listening to the music has reminded me that I really do want to finish the games I’ve started, save for FFIII. Not only that, but I want to finish the other FF games I’ve bought and not started, namely VI, VIII, and IX. Since all of these games are now on my Vita (except for V…not sure what is up with that one, Sony!!), and I’ve moved my handhelds downstairs to stare at me every night, I’m hoping motivation to play them will come to me.

But I need motivation for more than just FF. There are some Zelda games I’d like to actually finish what I start as well.

I’m still not sure if I’ll ever re-pick back up Ocarina of Time 3D after having so much difficulty aiming at a particular boss and all of the pots in the boss room having zero hearts in them, but there are other games I’d like to finish on my own one day. I still have A Link to the Past as a GBA game I can play on my DS, and since its spiritual successor is coming out soon, I’m feeling a stirring to pick it back up again. Also, I recently snagged Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons during Nintendo’s recent eShop sale. I never played either as I never had a Gameboy Color, but they’re part of the Zelda universe, so I feel the need to play them for whatever reason. I admit this is part of the reason why I want to buy Wind Waker HD as well. But maybe I’ll actually finish the game this time. I hope.

In other news, now that E3 is over and is no longer taking over my work day, it’s time to finish up Fuse (so close!) and start Remember Me. Should be getting The Last of Us strategy guide soon as well, so my writer extraordinaire can get cracking on that one. We’ll be fairly slow in July as usual, but we’re excited about things picking back up in August!

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