Facts / Opinions / Debate
... and other misc stuff ...

• 30May 13

  What have I been up to? Fire Emblem and More

  I haven't been around much. Other than the few cases where I come read the news, spout off a snarky comment and then leave again I haven't done much online. I mentioned a blog back that I recently bought myself a 3DS XL. I'm happy to say that I'm still working myself through Fire Emblem on it. I do a mission or two a night 4-5 times a week. The problem is that random missions pop-up every day to keep you coming back to the game - so I clean those up and if I still have time I try to do one actual story mission.
  
  I've already clocked in 30+ hours on the game and I'm half-way. If you stuck to the storyline I'm sure I would be done by now, but alas, that isn't what I'm doing. That brings the grand total, per hour, for the 3DS to $8 and reducing every day. I've also played some other things, but maybe for an hour or 2 before heading back to Fire Emblem. Totally worth it for me.
  
  I also started playing Pikmin 2 on the Wii again. I never finished it way back when, so here I am trying to finish it out. One of the reasons I love the game are the controls, but at the same time the controls are why I hate the Wii. I have kids. Kids that like to walk in front of the TV... Wii controls that use the pointer don't work so well in that environment. I'm already up to 40% of the debt paid off (game progression) and counting.
  
  I haven't been on Steam much, just long enough today to notice that Nate gave me a code to Proteus. Thanks as always!
  
  I also have been playing some Minecraft - as always - I'm actually playing with a neighbor of mine. It makes it a bit more fun. Trying to top his tower height or his impressiveness of the landscape. I built a Iron farm... and I plan on building an aircraft carrier in the ocean or something weird like that. If I ever get to finishing it maybe I'll post it. Don't wait up though... it is going to take forever.
  
  Hum... Other than that I have been working a lot. My co-worker Sr. Dev Manager got fired... so I have had to carry the slack. It makes for a very busy day (and lots of times, night) job. The pay is good though so I don't worry too much. Things are always looking up in the workplace.
  
  How about that Xbone? Yeah, I'm tired of talking about it too. I might go full on casual one of these days. Don't hate me for it, but man it is hard to play all the games I want to play, so I'm pretty content with playing the few i really want to play and leave it at that. Here's hoping that someday I get a bit more time to try out some of the other stuff out there that I want to sink my time into... but with the job and family I don't know, I don't want to trade it for video games.
  
  See you around!
  • Posted May 30, 2013 8:47 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 8May 13

  Gaming news from GS...

  So 10 of the top 20 news stories right now are EA related. They must pay a lot for advertising on this site. It really is unfortunate because I know there is a lot more going on in the world of games beyond EA... Can anyone suggest real gaming sites that aren't just GS clones (AAA talk or EA / Activision bought)?
  
  I know it is probably hard to come up with because I am on a AAA hell hole of a gaming site and all, with the main course being EA all the time, but I seriously need a change from this.
  • Posted May 8, 2013 6:32 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 21Apr 13

  B-day tomorrow... what did I get myself?

  The funny thing is my wife actually kind of tipped my hand here. She bought me a copy of Fire Emblem for the 3DS about a month or so ago. She was afraid the same thing would happen with this one that happened with them in the past - the game runs out of copies and Nintendo decides not to reprint. So when she saw a copy she bought it, knowing full well someday I'll want to play it.
  
  Having found this out, and my b-day being April 22nd, I figured it was time to be able to play that game and forked out the cash for a new Red 3DS XL. When I buy Nintendo hardware it always seems that a sale or remodel comes right around the corner, but this time I just took the plunge. Here are my thoughts:
  
  1. The 3D is exactly what I thought it would be. The problem is when I get the right angle it does make text and stuff pop-out like I'm looking at something from the future or something, but then my head starts to hurt after a bit and I realize I need to turn it off... then I feel like I'm not getting everything out of this flat looking 3DS game... So I turn the 3D back on and tell myself to tough it out. If I go blind I'm blaming this thing.
  
  2. I got it all running and went right to the store. One of the reason I'm a proud owner of * something * I'm not suppose to own for my DS is because I hate cart switching. Well, with the 3DS you can download most of the games and have them right on your SD card, thus avoiding one of the reasons I owned one of those *can't be named* items in the last handheld gen.
  
  So, I went to the store in the hopes of downloading games I knew I wanted to carry with me... is it just me or is the store suck ass right now? Where are the GBA games? Oh yeah, they only gave them to the ambastards or whatever they call them. Yeah, we get it Nintendo - you screwed over your loyal fans with the price point at release. It has been over 2 years since the release and almost 2 years since the crazy price drop. Time to quit special treating the few people that like your hoo-ha in their rear and release the rest of the games to everyone for purchase.
  
  3. The 3DS VC is worse than the Wii's VC... come on Nintendo. Can I show you how to make all these games available faster? Really, you should be charging a good $.99 for all these classic games, as is, and just release everything you can already. At that price every time I get an itch to play a classic game I know you would get my money instead of me playing it elsewhere...
  
  4. I did find a couple of games on sale... One of them looked interesting so I downloaded it. $5 for a game I didn't even know existed prior to yesterday. Sales big publishers... take a hint from Steam will you and make this happen more often. It generates hype if the game is good, and hopefully more sales and word of mouth flies. And if not, you still got a few bucks out of people that wouldn't have bought it otherwise.
  
  5. Fire Emblem is good, though the opening already has me pinned as the bad guy. Hum... I don't like to be the bad guy. I'll have to see how this unravels.
  
  So I'm still torn on the whole purchase. Part of me thinks I got on board too early again, even though it has been out for 2 years. I only have a handful of games I want to play on it, Fire Emblem, the new Zelda LttP sequel... there are others I'll try out to be sure, but those two were the system sellers for me.
  
  Anyhow, what are your favorite games on the system? or what games have tempted you into looking into the system?
  • Posted Apr 21, 2013 4:51 pm GMT
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