Leveling Down

This game seems kinda freaky, but I’ll man up!

Gaming took a backseat to a lot of wedding planning this week, but since I was on the road I ended up getting a bunch of portable gaming in. espion4ge beat me to Rhythm Heaven which is next on my DS list, so I won’t talk about it here. But yes, the theme of my gaming week would be variety. Onward!

Retro Game Challenge (DS)
I finished the last challenge in the last game only to find out there is ONE MORE retro game challenge: beat all 8 of the games. Considering the length of some of these games and the fact that one or two of them don’t “end” after finishing the first time, it’s going to be quite a difficult mountain to climb. I’m not sure if I have the patience or the dexterity to finish off this challenge, but I have a six hour plane ride next Friday so I guess I’ll find out!

Halo Wars
I planned on finishing the Legendary campaign and all the single player achievements but got too distracted playing the multiplayer. It’s so addicting! Now my team and I are coming up against a lot more experienced players and seeing all types of strategies that we don’t know how to deal with. I guess I need more practice…or maybe I’ve plateaued? Either way, it’s still a lot of fun. Again, if you’re on the fence, at least give Halo Wars a shot as a rental.

Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients (Mac)
I’m starting to really get into the game, even though I know I’m a few years too late. I got to play my first two matches against human players and it was even more fun than playing against the AI. I got a new mouse for $13 dollars off of a slickdeal and have been using DOTA to test it out. Good times all around.

Dead Space
Started this game. It’s pretty freaky but I think I can handle it. Got caught up in other stuff but I’ll play this whenever it’s light outside, heh.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I played a lot of this game in the car, its gameplay is simple but addicting. It’s a bit awkward to switch between platforming controls and stylus controls for the puzzle element, but I’ve gotten used to cradling the stylus in my hand without using it. Still I wish there was some sort of stylus glove or something. Actually, there probably is…

After two long months, I’m finally out of Africa

Far Cry 2
I finally finished Far Cry 2 by powering through over the weekend. It was a satisfying experience, although the endgame section frustrated me to no end. And like a lot of games these days, it didn’t seem like the end plot was very well thought out and I had lost interest in the story because it took too long to develop. It dulled a little bit of my appreciation of the game. Like espion4ge, I’m excited to move on to a new title though!

Halo Wars
The first thing I tried to do when I got my Xbox back was to finish up the Halo Wars campaign, but I got sidetracked by multiplayer. I finally finished the campaign on co-op, netting the OMG BFF FTW achievement (best name ever) and then I started playing a lot of multiplayer. I’m getting really into it, even though the game is pretty simple I am finding it a lot of fun. espion4ge and I have been playing some 2v2s but we’ve also tried 3v3s with other friends and I’ve tried a few 1v1s. I like the counter-heavy gameplay that Halo Wars encourages. There probably are some balance issues that need tweaking, but we’ll talk about that in our review later this week!

Street Fighter IV
I tried to pick this up again but now I’m even worse than I was before. So it looks like I either need to start putting in some serious practice or I need to move on and accept that I am not “IN. DE. STRUCTIBLE.”

Retro Game Challenge (DS)
I finished all of the Guadia Quest challenges, so I only have one game left to finish. Man, I forgot how annoying it was grinding in old school RPGs, and how frustrating the dungeon design could be. There was this one section where you would like fall through the floor and then you had to work your way back up. I just wanted to throw my DS out the window. This entire game really harkens back to the NES days when you only got one or two games a year and had to make the most of them.

Dead Space
A friend of mine just sent me his copy, so now I feel compelled to play it, but I don’t know if I can handle the scare factor! Why must I be such a chicken?

Being XBox free has given me the chance to check out some stuff I’ve missed

Yesterday, UPS called me and said that I will be receiving a package between 8 AM and 7 PM tomorrow that requires a signature. Crossing my fingers that I will be home in time to receive said package. I haven’t been gaming too much these past two weeks, but I’ve been keeping up with some of the GDC news and found my gaming fix elsewhere. Check out my thoughts after the jump.

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Spent some time bullying people around since I’ve got nothing to do

Quick thoughts due to the lack of a 360…

So I’ve been spending the most of my time playing Retro Game Challenge on the DS, and it’s pretty fun. I’ve finally unlocked the RPG, so I’m looking forward to playing through that. The nice thing about the challenges in each individual game (which you need to finish to unlock new games) is the fact that very few of them involve completing the game, so the process doesn’t get tedious. I’ve played through six of the games, and since I don’t have too much to write about, I figured I’d write my thoughts on each one. Check them out plus some thoughts on Bully for Wii after the jump.

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Alas…

I booted up the last mission of Halo Wars Sunday night, planning to cap off a fun week in gaming with a triumphant victory over the Covenant and Flood. After being treated to an exciting cut scene introducing the mission, my friend and I were prepared to finish the fight. But really, a picture is worth a thousand words. I should have taken the picture with my new phone, which I needed to get because my phone got run over by a car yesterday. All in all, not a good weekend for me and technology. Hit the jump for my thoughts on Far Cry 2, Halo Wars, Street Fighter IV, and Retro Game Challenge (DS)!

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