• 25Dec 09

  Christmas Update

  I hope that everyone else is having a good Christmas so far. Mine is going quite well and I'm here to update you on the items I've received. There isn't a lot so this'll be short, but there's certainly enough here to keep me occupied for a long time.

  The first gift I received was World of WarCraft.

  

  Yes. I'd only played a 10 day trial of this in the past and was fairly addicted then, so now I have no excuse to stop playing, which is good and bad I guess. lol

  The next gift I received was Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

  

  I loved the previous installments in the Mario & Luigi franchise and I loved the demo I had played for this one. I've already started it and it's just as good as I expected it to be. It's funny, it looks great, it plays great, it sounds great, it feels great, it tastes great... wait what? Yeah. It's a great game, let's just say that. Definitely one to pick up for any DS owner, but you already knew that, didn't you?

  The final gift I received was a $50 GameStop Gift Card.

  

  I'm still contemplating what to use it on. I could buy some World of WarCraft game time or just a bunch of DS games. Possibly some cool game merchandise? Or maybe even put it towards a console of some sort. Whatever I use it on, it's sure to be a good purchase.

  (Also got razor blades, chastick and chocolate. lol)

  That's all for my Christmas day gifts. I'll be doing a lot of gaming in the next few weeks before I have to get back into the college routine.

  Once again, I hope you're all having a great holiday. Please share your stories about your own gifts that you've received. Take care!

  • Posted Dec 25, 2009 1:29 pm PT
  • Category: General
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• 27Nov 09

  Big DS Update

  Ah, Black Friday. I've honestly never been out shopping on Black Friday before today. I had tried to get up early to go with friends in the years past, but never really saw the point when I could just sleep in instead. I actually decided to pull an all-nighter last night so that I'd be ready to leave this morning. So at 4:30 this morning, with a 16 ounce cup of Wawa coffe in my hand, I set off with my friends to go experience Black Friday for the first time. I must say, my day has ended up rather well. The whole experience was fun despite being crowded and rushed. I'm sure some of you already know GameStop was having a buy 2 get 1 free sale on all pre-owned games. So the one thing I'm here to tell you about today is my DS pickups. I've got 7 new titles to show you, two of which were free. Yay!!!

  ---

  Number one... Scurge: Hive.

  

  I've actually already played through this one before. My friend gave me the game when I first got my DS, but he didn't have the original case. Because I like collecting games, I like to have the original case. I'd seen this one in stores before for around $12 on average, but I knew I could find it for cheaper. Today I got my break at FYE. They had this one sitting on the shelf for $4.99 so I grabbed it without a second thought. Now I'll finally have the case in my collection.

  Number two... Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor.

  

  What else can I say. I'm sure you've heard it's fantastic, just as I have, so I can't wait to get started on it. Atlus rules.

  Number three... Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.

  

  This is the first Castlevania game I've picked up for the DS. It's been on my want list for a while now.

  Number four... Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.

  

  The second Castlevania game I've picked up for the DS.

  Number five... Big Bang Mini.

  

  This shooter never really caught my interest until recently. I'd heard good things about it, it just never took hold of my curiosity. So I finally decided to pick it up today. This one was free.

  Number six... Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

  

  I've played Advance Wars games in the past. They've always been a fun portable strategy outing, so I'm going to try it out on the DS.

  And lastly... number seven... Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen.

  

  This was the second title I got for free. I've never played a Dragon Quest game before so I'm ready to find out what I've been missing.

  ---

  It was a big day for me. 7 games may not seem like a lot, but it'll sure provide a lot of play time.

  I hope everyone has been enjoying their Thanksgiving holiday. Hope the rest of it goes just as well.

  Thanks for reading. See you later.

  • Posted Nov 27, 2009 2:43 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 21Nov 09

  DS Pickups 11/21/09 and Game Impressions

  I just had a long night with some friends. While we were out we stopped at a few malls and as I was browsing through the used DS section I found Chrono Trigger.

  

  What else can I say. I loved it when I was growing up and I can't wait to play through it again. It's been so long.

  ---

  Today I have impressions on the game Orcs & Elves. It's decent. I wouldn't call it stellar or brilliant, but it has some decent moments and some decent gameplay. It's pretty much a turn based dungeon crawler role playing game. It acts as an old school dungeon crawler due to the linear movement one space at a time, but you won't find any random encounters or battle screens. All enemies are in the actual world and your combat with them is based on turns. Basically, you take your turn... enemy takes their turn... until one of you is dead. You'll deal with more than one enemy at a time frequently, so there can be a bit of strategy involved, but really all you need to do is hack and slash then down some health potions.

  Here is a list of commands that will constitute as one turn for you:

  -Moving One Space

  -Attacking

  -Drinking a Potion

  -Using an Item

  -Interacting with an Object

  -Skipping Your Turn

  Like I said, you really don't need to do much to win a battle, but occasionally the skip your turn option can help lure enemies closer giving you the upper hand of a first attack. Enemies are easy and you'll only really find a challenge if your completely surrounded, but even in those situations downing a strength or defense potion will allow you to triumph.

  I listed RPG in the genre description, but that is almost hardly the case. Yes, you do level up, but you don't get to choose which stats you want raised. The game does it for you. As far as I can tell the game doesn't even randomly roll for your stats either. It's just set out for you as you go along. This leaves no character customization at all.

  The game is short. I could finish this one in a day if I wanted to. But it looks nice, it sounds nice, and has a decent story. Nothing along the lines of brilliant writing, but it has something to keep you going. You won't find anything dreadfully boring basically.

  Once it's all said and done, this is a game that you should probably check out. It's cheap if you can find it used, and though you'll probably only play it once, it holds a good amount of entertainment.

  ---

  My impressions might have been lacking today, but I just want to get some sleep.

  Thanks for reading guys. Take it easy.

  • Posted Nov 21, 2009 11:20 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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