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Monday Gaming Diary: Hooked on Stories

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One game I had to review this week was an indie game called Stories: The Path of Destinies. The PR company pitched it to me as a beautiful, isometric action RPG, and they really didn’t do the game service with that simple description. It’s actually the closest example of a Choose Your Own Adventure book I’ve ever come across in a game. People love to say that a game that features choice is like a CYOA book, but Stories is the first time I’ve ever really seen that happen.

And what I mean is like one of those books, there are numerous endings where the main character, Reynardo, will die a horrific death. Only one of the 24+ endings has one with his survival, and if you choose a path that kills him, a book he is carrying literally flips to the beginning where he makes his first choice and he starts again. The only way to unlock the route to the true ending is by uncovering four separate Truths while playing through paths. It’s very possible to get to the end in 4-5 paths, for those who just want to burn through something, and each path takes about 30-45 minutes to get through.

Stories:The Path of Destinies

As such, I was up late every night this weekend, because just one more path. One more path. I have to exhaust this lane of options before going to the next.

By Sunday afternoon, though, it was apparent I had to stop what I was doing and wrap the damn thing up, for review purposes as well as for science. Good thing is that it doesn’t “end” my game when you reach the true ending, so I can still go through each path if I want. Which I do, because completionist syndrome and I’m curious how bad things can actually go for Reynardo. Some of his deaths were downright hilarious, especially the one where he wanted to be enlightened and sat down in full lotus pose amidst the enemy army. The narrator said that the Ravens put down their weapons and became his disciples, and then he laughed and said no. They cut off his head where he sat.

The narrator also makes this game for sure, as he’s rather humorous in how he tells Reynardo’s tales, very similar to the one in Bastion. I really loved Bastion as well, so that probably played into it. But I also like choice in games, and I really like it when choice matters.

I hope that the other games I have to review this week will be just as addictive.

The Corner of Randomness: Speedrunners Amaze Me

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agdq-2016-1-770x470As I start to write this, I’m watching a streamer do an all bosses speedrun in Dark Souls 3. What amazes me is that the streamer was not privy to getting the game early. They stuck it out and bought the game at the official April 12 release. They beat the game day one and are now speedrunning the game on day two. It just blows me away that this streamer already has an understanding of the game mechanics and boss patterns to do a speedrun of a game that really has not even been out a week.

Not crazy enough for ya? Well, how about a new world record in Super Mario Bros. of 4.57.260. That is just a mere half a second faster than the old record of 4.57.427. Add in the fact that Darbian (the speedrunner) was wearing a heart rate monitor so you can see just how amped up he gets by the time he is at world eight and drops the bridge on King Koopa.

The speedrunning community just floors me all around. They work together to come up with new strategies in the name of saving just a few frames and ticking a few seconds off their times. They absolutely destroy games. They find glitches, abuse mechanics, and even import games so they use a specific version.

A few months ago, I spent the weekend watching Awesome Games Done Quick. This is a charity event where all kinds of games are played and beaten in ridiculous short amounts of time. If you missed AGDQ, don’t worry as there is a second chance to catch something like this in the summer. That event is called Summer Games Done Quick.

Maybe it is just because I’m getting older. Maybe it is because I know I just can’t operate at the speed at which speedrunners do. Whatever the reason, I know I will never be able to do a speedrun of anything other than beer drinking. What I do know is that watching people demolish games at breakneck speeds is addicting. I have mad respect for anyone that can speedrun any game. Thankfully, Twitch.TV fills my lust of watching just this type of thing!

Tuesday Gaming Diary: I’m Overwhelmed, so I’ll Play More The Division

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No one wants to look at my deadline calendar right now. For SGR, I’m supposed to be working on three different strategy guides, and for work, I have four different games all with deadlines over the next ten days. Every time I look at my calendar, I want to cry. But crying helps nothing, so I should just pick and choose what I need to work on, based upon deadline, outlet, and priority and move on from there. Instead, what do I do? I skip working out (which makes things worse, by the way) so I can play more of The Division.

Thanks to having anxiety, one symptom I have when faced with being overwhelmed is to shut down and walk away. You’d think that it would just make things worse, as I’ve now cut down even less time to work, but somehow, this usually helps. Of course if you can’t get past it and remain walking away, then that’s all kinds of bad and of course helps nothing. But for me, walking away and taking a breather always helps me focus on the bigger picture instead of getting bogged down with the finer details.

Sometimes it takes me longer than I would like to get out of it, like this past week. I didn’t want to put down The Division. I didn’t want to play Stranger of Sword City, even though that deadline was first and I really enjoyed playing it. All I could think of was that it was for work, and I didn’t want to focus on that. Obviously I eventually did, because I’m not here to bemoan how PlayStation LifeStyle fired me over missing a deadline. And now that I’ve turned it in, I want to start it over and play it for enjoyment.

Oh…wait…no…I have those other things to review. Ah screw it, I’ll just play more The Division…after I return home from a preview event for work. I have so many cell phone recordings to find…

Monday Gaming Diary: Bunch of Slackers

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slackers_unite_shirt-r10885c0fea4c4fc0bf3e0297068120a5_jg4dk_324Neither Chris nor I have gotten much gaming done this weekend or even over the last week. He was actually being productive, traveling and taking photos for his photography business. I, on the other hand, did pretty much nothing but try not to die as I was laid up with a nasty stomach bug most of the week. And then I had a certification training class all weekend long, when I was finally feeling better, so once again, all work and no play made me dull indeed.

I actually did plan to play a bit this weekend, as I have a Vita game to review, but the technology gods continued to reign against me. I came home from class late on Saturday evening, and I was exhausted. I just wanted dinner, play with the kids, get stuff done ahead of time, and then work on a review or even the Doom closed beta. As I was writing an email, the screen on my phone DIED. It would flicker in and out, but it was obvious it wasn’t long for this world. If I didn’t have a full day of class on Sunday, I would have said, oh that sucks and moved on. But I knew if I didn’t have a working phone for the next day, I was inviting a flat tire. So it was off to Best Buy I went at nine o’clock at night.

Fortunately for me, my LG G3 lasted me over 2 years (suck it, Apple) so I was more than eligible for a phone upgrade. Also lucky for me, the LG G5 just released a few days before, which I was wanting. Well, I wanted to research it when I got the time to see if it was worth the upgrade, but my phone decided NOPE, you upgrade NAO. Naturally I was at the store for quite some time as it’s not so simple to purchase a phone and walk out.

So yay for a new shiny toy! Booooo I didn’t get any gaming done. I miss both Twilight Princess and The Division like you wouldn’t believe. Fortunately for me, I don’t have many reviews this month, so I’ll actually get some strategy guide reviews done in a timely fashion!

Also sad to report that Chris and I will not be recording the SGR Coffee Break this week, as he is still traveling. We’re not sure about next week either. He’s one busy, busy boy.

I hope you all got more gaming done than we did. What did you fill your weekend with?

Monday Gaming Diary – Was Twilight Princess always this fun?

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The-Legend-of-Zelda-Twilight-Princess-HD-7

As I have said way too many times, I played Twilight Princess when it first released. I remember having a lot of fun with that first dungeon, even though it took me a long time to get through. Looking back, I know now that I was not skilled enough as a gamer to get through that game, much less on the Wii controls. It took me nearly 6 hours to get through the first dungeon the first time I played. I think I did from the start to the end of the first dungeon in 3, maybe 4 hours.

And now, I can’t stop playing.

I try to play a little bit before I head upstairs to work on my other reviews, as I can play on the Game Pad while the family enjoys TV time. But somehow, when it’s time to put the kids to bed and time for me to go to work, I can’t bring myself to stop. And the next thing I know is that it’s nearly midnight and I haven’t done a thing for work.

I feel really guilty, but at the same time, I kind of don’t care, which is all kinds of confusing.

Was Twilight Princess always this fun? I am I just now discovering how great it is because I’m not as terrible with Zelda games? Because they don’t intimidate me like they used to? Is it because I don’t get as frustrated with failing as I used to? Or is it because I’m using a controller instead of the Wii Remote?

Or all of the above?

If it’s mostly because of the controller, which I think is a good portion of it, then I should have played this on the Game Cube in the first place. I have a copy for the GC, including the GC guide; not sure what stopped me before, if it was time or fear. Probably fear. It’s hard to argue I don’t have time when I stopped everything to finish Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2.
But seriously, the game is far more fun than I remember. Every time I start to work on a review, I instantly think how I’d rather be saving Hyrule. That thought is closely followed by, I wanna save New York. If I could split my time between Twilight Princess and The Division, I’d be the happiest gamer in the world. But even then, I think I’d want to play more Twilight Princess.

Although, no more jousting boss battles. I was so terrible at that. The only reason why I finally defeated that boss is because the game pitied me. There there, you tried so hard to not careen over the bridge; here’s a freebie on us. You did good, oh yes you did! You tried so hard!

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