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Monday Gaming Diary: Reason #4789 Why I Love Strategy Guides – JRPGs

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Dragon Quest VI

I haven’t playedDragon Quest VIsince E3, which was only about what, a month ago, but in JRPG time, that’s about ten years. I turned it on while at the airport for the return flight and instantly fell into the “uhhhhh, what am I supposed to be doing again?” DQVI has no journal, and while I remembered there was someone you could talk to “in case you ever lose your way,” I could not for the life of me remember who this person was or if they were in the real world or dream world.

My save point doesn’t help, because I saved in a town where I had already saved it from certain doom. So I went there for another reason. Either it had a cheap inn or it was close to a sidequest. Wait, didn’t I unlock the ability to submerge my ship like a submarine? Did I come to this town to explore underwater? Arrrgh, WHY AM I HERE AND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NEXT?

Thank you for your existence, strategy guide! Thanks to you and my handy-dandy bookmark, I see that I came to this town for no known reason whatsoever. There is nothing I need anywhere near here, and in order to complete my current sidequest, I need to go somewhere else. Conclusion? I needed a super-cheap inn.

JRPGs are long suckers, and for those that I’m playing for fun and not for my review, I may take days or weeks or even months in between gaming sessions. If I didn’t have the guides, I’d most likely quit the venture or start over. And if I started over, I’d end up back where I was: confused. Considering I really, really like DQVI, this would be a darn shame. Whenever I get around to Dragon Quest IX, I have a feeling I’ll be back in the same boat repeatedly.

The best part of the whole story? When I pulled out my massive DQVI guide from my carry-on bag, guy next me shot me a look of disgust. He commented that the game was not that hard and I didn’t need the guide. I cocked my eyebrow at him and said, “Who said I needed this because the game was hard? I hadn’t played in over a month and I can’t remember what to do next.” He looked surprised, then smiled and said, “Oh yeah, I can relate.” A few minutes later, I heard him say over my earbuds, “Damn! I didn’t know that sidequest was there.”

HA!

Monday Gaming Diary: Stack of Shame Shuffle

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Stack of Shame Shuffle

Yup, I’ve reshuffled my stack of shame yet again. As you can see from the image above, I even have deadlines on each of the games. I am on what you may call a very tight schedule from now through the fall.

Two forces triggered this latest shuffle. The first was an invitation to attend a THQ press party for Darksiders II, where I’ll actually be sent–not on my own dime, unlike E3 and SDCC–to a video game event. I’ve never finished the first Darksiders game, and I’d really like to have it done or at the very least a majority of it done before I head out and make a complete ass out of myself in front of the developers and publishers. The event is July 25th. In other words, as soon as I get my butt home from SDCC, it will be Darksiders, balls to the wall, and set on the Easy difficulty setting. When you absolutely, positively have to burn through a game in a week, Easy is the only way to go.

That’s been the biggest monkey wrench in my stack of shame kerfluffle. The second force was the announcement of the fall release for Transformers Fall of Cybertron. I never finished War for Cybertron like I wanted to, and now I have until late August to do so in order to be able to review the guide for Fall of Cybertron when it releases. Thank God I’ve already conceded reviewing both the Borderlands 2 game and guide to others. I would have had to add Borderlands to my higher priority list, and well, then I could just schedule a breakdown by late September.

Once that hit me, the realization of other sequels’ releasing also came into full epiphany. Assassin’s Creed III releases October 30th. Halo 4 releases November 6th. I must finish Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach in order to fully understand what will happen in these games.

Keep in mind that I also have to review Inversion for GA ASAP, as that game released while I was at E3 and I just haven’t had a chance to get around to it yet, AND Kingdom Hearts 3DS releases July 31st.

It’s a good thing I have friends with young children, so none of us get out ever. If they don’t hear from me for a month or two, it will be nothing too unusual for either of us.

Monday Gaming Diary: LEGO Batman 2 and…Gabe…

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LEGO Batman 2

I’ve usually made it a policy to not play video games around my son, Gabe, but I’ve made an exception as of late with handhelds, especially while he plays games on the iPad. (The family that games together, stays together.) One game I have been playing alot on the Vita is LEGO Batman 2, and as Gabe has gotten into super heroes lately, it really intrigued him to watch me play. LEGO games are quite honestly the only kid-safe games I own, so I’ve had no problems with him hanging on me while I play.

Sunday morning, however, he went into my gaming office and saw my PS3 copy of LEGO Batman 2, as I had to get a console copy to review the strategy guide. He neatly put two and two together and asked to watch me play that copy on the TV. Of course, I initially thought that was awesome. It didn’t take me long to see how really not fun that is.

On the one hand, I was able to start work on that strategy guide review, but on the other hand, I wasn’t really able to concentrate on much. Thank God it was a LEGO game, where concentration isn’t exactly that important. However, having a backseat driver while playing a game, even a LEGO game, isn’t as much fun as it sounds. Of course he didn’t understand why I was stopping to smash everything in sight for the sake of gaining the Super Hero status in stud collection. He didn’t get why I was fulfilling ridiculous prerequisites for minikits. As such, he felt the need to tell me where I needed to go. At every second.

I’m able to tune out most of it thanks to being a stay-at-home mom with no daycare for two years, but it’s hard to tune it out when he grabs my hands to get my attention to tell me where to go. Then he wants in my lap. Then he wants my controller because it’s a better color than the one I’m letting him hold. It becomes one giant pain in the ass. He would probably want to watch me play all day, but there’s only so much I can take with that much distraction going on.

Selfish of me? Yeah, a bit. But gaming is something I do for me that occasionally ends up being work. There are so many other things I’d rather do with Gabe than have him watch me play a video game.

After I said no more video games for today, he grabbed Gears of War off the shelf and asked me to play that because the guys “look cool.” Ah, yes, they are cool, but hell no, kiddo. Let’s go color in your coloring books.

Monday Gaming Diary: In Pursuit of Platinum

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I had a weekend to myself for the first time in months. I had all these plans to get lots of work done, including writing my review for the Game of Thrones strategy guide. When it hit me that I was all alone and could do whatever the hell I wanted, I abandoned the responsible plan and set out to work toward getting my first Platinum trophy in a game. When it comes to getting a Platinum trophy, I’ve hit too many obstacles. I never have enough time, I have too much else to work on, I have no desire, or there are certain trophies I know I’ll never get, either through lack of skill or lack of caring. For example, I really could have gotten a Platinum trophy in either Assassin’s Creed 2 or inFamous 2. The insane, timed platforming requirements for the last tombs in AC2 are what stopped me dead in my tracks. After nearly throwing my controller during the second to last tomb, I completely ignored the last one. For inFamous 2, it wasn’t the Hard difficulty requirement that barred me from getting a Platinum; it was the three precise headshots in a row. You think I have enough patience to master that? Fffft.

Really, I’ve been fine with never getting a Platinum. However, it hit me not longer ago that it’s ridiculous I don’t have  Platinum trophy in any of my LEGO games. I usually play those through 100% completion anyway, since let’s face it, it’s not hard to do so and it’s kind of fun. If I’m willing to go that far, what’s stopping me? I touched on playing LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 once before for the Platinum trophy, but I haven’t set aside time for it since. This weekend was time.

I didn’t wrap it all up, but I’m really close. Of course I have one freaking student in peril left to find, and no, the little bastard isn’t in peril in the campaign chapters. I’m going to have to run all over Hogwarts again to find him. When I do, I will have Harry punch him in the face.

From there, I have the bonus levels to complete, more gold bricks to find (grrrrr), and a couple of chapters I will have to replay under specific trophy requirements. So it’s definitely within reach, but who knows when that will happen. Spec Ops The Line releases this week and I got my little hands on LEGO Batman 2. Harry will just have to wait a little longer.

Monday Gaming Diary: Hodgepodge

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Hodgepodge

Nova Scotia Hodgepodge

Normally I have some sort of theme going on for a week where I play one type of game or just one game over the course of the week. This last week was perhaps more all-over-the-place than my gaming schedule for E3. So what constitutes a hodgepodge of games? I believe its very definition consists of playing Prototype 2, Game of Thrones, Dragon Quest VI, and Resistance: Burning Skies. If that’s not a hodgepodge, I don’t know what is. (Also, I like the word “hodgepodge.”)

Despite how hard it is not to look at Prototype 2 and instantly think inFamous-ripoff, I’m having a lot of fun with it. It’s definitely not a game I would recommend to anyone over inFamous–unless you don’t own a PS3–but it’s fun in its own right. Story-wise, the game has me torn in my moral leanings. While I agree it’s horrible to use live, unwilling humans as test subjects for horrible experiments, I also have issue with outright killing all of these scientists. It’s the whole take-justice-into-your-own-hands thing…never been a fan of it morally, so I often feel guilty about what I’m making Heller do. At the same time, I have zero issues killing off members of the Blackwatch, but that’s mainly because they always shoot at me first. And they like murdering innocent people. I didn’t say I wasn’t contradictory, for the record.

I’m rather mixed on Game of Thrones and Burning Skies. Burning Skies plays like another Resistance game to me, albeit short and very unpolished. I had heard that it was short, but I had no idea how horrifically short it was until I perused the trophy list. Six chapters? Really? It only took me an hour to get through the first two chapters, so that doesn’t bode well. I’m not one of the doomsdayers out there who decry that Burning Skies was supposed to save the Vita and it has failed to do so, but it’s very disappointing that Sony didn’t push for a more quality product on one of its exclusive franchises for a handheld that isn’t doing well. I have a feeling that I’m also going to have to pull a Comic Book Guy and look up the dates set in this game to make sure they match the lore.

Game of Thrones…I’m not sure what I’ve gotten myself into. It plays a lot like Dragon Age, yet I don’t feel like I have as much control as I did in Dragon Age. Also, these people talk way too much. If I wanted that, I’d re-read the books.

One last note before I actually try to make some money today…do not download Pocket Planes for iOS. It’s Tiny Tower crack all over again.

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