Summer Challenge!

I am joining a challenge that Alienjesus is doing where I pick 10 classics that are in my collection that I have not yet beat and beat them over the course of the summer. For me, the summer is from now till the official end of summer on Sept. 21.  Further more, I will challenge myself to write about each game I play for the challenge when I finish it.

The games I will play in no particular order:

1). Final Fantasy VI.  I really had the pick of the series here as I haven't finished any of them I thru IX.  I could have done IV, but I figured that is cheating since I am close to the end on it when I got frustrated with the difficulty jump.  Also, VI is widely praised and has beautiful pixel art.  This should be a joy.

2). Metroid Prime.  I started this when the Metroid Prime Trilogy was released, but I think I will just restart this  for the challenge. 

3). Super Mario Brothers 3.  While I haven't beaten 1, 2, Lost Levels or World, I chose this one since it really introduced the overworld idea used in pretty much every Mario game since.  I will be playing the All-Stars Wii version of the game.

4). Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.  I had a choice of multiple Zelda's and multiple versions of this game, but I chose to play the portable one since I won't be limited to playing while home.  I think the reputation of this game has been keeping me from it mostly.

5). ICO. The collection that this came in was one of my reasons for choosing a PS3 over 360 and I have yet to play it or Shadows of the Colossus.  Its about time I play one of my reasons for getting the system, no?

6). Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.  While I haven't played any of the Metal Gear games, this is the first one in terms of story time line and that is the order I am going to play them.

7). Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars.  I needed a point and click in here some where and this fits the bill of being classic.  I hope I enjoy this series as much as I do the Telltale games and Aminita Design's.

8). Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. This one may not be a classic, but the first game in the trilogy is and I have already beaten the first two in the trilogy, so I might as well finish it.

9). Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars.  While I wanted to stick to one RPG for this challenge, I don't think this will be overly long and I've seen enough differing views on it to want to see for myself.

10). XIII. This is more of a cult classic FPS.  I like the art style... Will have to see about the game itself.

May Goals and Such

Well, let me just say this up front.  If there is anyway for me to not want to play a certain game it is to set it specifically as a goal to beat.  So, for May I am going to be a bit more general in my goals.  Overall I would like to get my unbeaten down below 340, though with currently being at 348 and with two guaranteed and one other possible addition coming, that may be a stretch.

I also decided to change how I handle DLC.  I had been counting each DLC that had objectives as a :U:, but I decided that unless the DLC has significant content to it then it will just count towards completion of the main game.  For example, all the DLC except Awakening for Dragon Age are this way now, as are both DLC for Mass Effect.  Awakening is the exception here since it is really a fully realized expansion.  I am keeping the Borderlands DLC except Mad Moxie's as :U: since they all have significant length to them and are story driven.  Mad Moxie's is more of a challenge map type DLC and thus will only count for completion of the main game.  The last one I would like to comment on are the Civ DLC.  While the campaigns in these DLC aren't necessarily long, they change the core game significantly with special rules and have multiple factions each, thus earning :U: status.

During the next month, I will be adding two, possibly three games to my backlog.  I will try to avoid what happened towards the end of this month with the random purchases of the Metal Gear Solid HD pack, Batman, Assassin's Creed II and Sonic Generations.  I did also purchase the original Assassin's Creed for PS3, but since I already had it on another system, it just changed my primary copy.

Definite additions will be Diablo 3 on May 15th and Batman: Arkham City GOTY at the end of the month.  D3 is coming free since I signed up for the annual WoW pass.  Batman is preordered, and may even spark a hard mode run of Arkham Asylum leading up to its release.  The possible purchase is Legend of Grimrock.  I have heard nothing but good things about this game and have always wanted to try a dungeon crawler.  Also, it is made by a Finnish studio and I am part Finn.  I may also be adding the DLC for Assassin's Creed II if I get to that this month, though they will count for completion of the main game, not seperate :U:s

As for what I am playing currently, I am still going through my RPG rotation, though Avadon seems to be skipped a lot.  I am getting towards the home stretch of Final Fantasy XIII and am making steady progress in Xenoblade.  Though I will say Xenoblade will not be done before Last Story comes out. I would like to finish Avadon before then so Last Story can have the third slot in the RPG/long game rotation since I fully expect XIII-2 take XIII's spot.

So while my general goal is to beat around 10 games or so (yeah right) I would like to specifically make progress on getting both Steam and GoG under 60 :U: and beat some of my new games for the year.

April 19th Update

Well, it is already apparent that I bit off more than I can chew for April.  I will still see how much I can accomplish in the time that is remaining though.  The largest development is that I switched out Mass Effect 2 for Final Fantasy XIII.  Every time I considered playing ME2 I just didn't feel at all motivated to do anything, so I figured it was best to set it aside for a while and go back to a game that has been on the back burner.  The fact that I have XIII-2 waiting in the wings also made me want to go back and finish XIII.

I have also found a system that seems to prevent or at least prolong burnout on long games, and that is to have two or three of them going at the same time and rotate so I am not playing the same game two or more days in a row.  At the moment, the three games on this rotation are Xenoblade, Final Fantasy XIII and Avadon, though Avadon hasn't been touched in a week.  (Should change today!).

Another change I made is in how I handle cookie games.  My original idea was to have a Beat cookie and a Starter Cookie, but I decided to change that.  Instead, I will only have one cookie game going at any given time.  The type of cookie will be chosen when I go to open one.  For the first cookie on this new system, I chose to do a handheld cookie where it only considered unbeaten games on one of my handheld systems since I didn't have any handheld's on my now playing.

And now for a general update on the games in my now playing.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike: This is my handheld cookie game.  I haven't done much with it since opening the cookie besides figuring out where I left off.  When I started it, I had two save files.  One was on the level select screen with mission 15 as the next mission and the other was in the middle of a battle.  I finished the battle and found that it was in level 9.  I then saved over the first save and thus will be picking up with mission 10.  I also fooled around with the combat mode a bit.  Need to figure out how long that mode actually is.

Avadon: The Black Fortress: I haven't touched this in over a week.  The last time I played, I finished the Beraza Pit and then got my next assignment, which is to go deal with a wizard tower in Khemeria.

Capsized: Haven't played this one much either in the past few days.  I poked around in level four, but didn't finish it.

Final Fantasy XIII: Just got back into this the other day and finished Chapter 9.  Next session I will start and maybe even finish Chapter 10, depending on how long it is.  Not sure what side tracked me from this in the first place, but it feels good to be back.

Hard Reset: Started and got partway through level 2.  I've been dying a lot on this level and from what I read there are 7 more after it.  This will be interesting.  Hopefully I will get better and be able to finish this soon so I can move onto other new bundle games from this year.

SSX: This is beat, but I am still keeping it in now playing as I am still having fun with it and working towards complete/platinum.  I have most of the online required badges, including the 50,000 person global event and the badges involving beating rivals and defending against rivals, so it should really be up to me now.  

Xenoblade Chronicles: This game has been a blast so far.  From what I have seen, it is either 60 hours if you don't do side quests or ~120 hours if you do them all.  I am seem to be heading towards the 120 hour side, which doesn't bother me at all.  Lately I have been cleaning up side quests and exploring the Satorl Marsh.  I have also just begun the rebuilding of Colony 6.   Next session I will need to put together a shopping list of what I need for the first set of upgrades.

State of the Backlog April 2012

So far my goals system has been working out ok, though the second half of March was a complete failure.  I have decided to go for goals being for the whole month as opposed to half a month increments.  The end of March and early April have/will be bad for new games.  The end of March saw two indie bundles plus a freebie from gog.com.  So far early April has seen Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Capsized purchased.  Originally I was going to wait on XIII-2 until I finished XIII, but it was on sale for $40 instead of the normal $60, so I picked it up.  Capsized was on sale for $2.50 on Steam.  Coming still in the next few days is Xenoblades Chronicles (preorder) and SSX (Easter Gift) as well as the possibility of another freebie from gog.com as they hinted at a gift being given out on 4-5-2012.

For the month of April I would like to do the following.

1). Finish Mass Effect 2.  This has been in progress for a while and I know I am getting close to the end. Only a few Loyalty missions left and some side quests before Omega 4.  Once this is done, I will probably go back to FFXIII since the onus is on to finish that with enough time left in the year to finish XIII-2 as well.
2). Finish the two indie bundles.  This includes Avadon, Snuggle Truck, Zen Bound 2, Hard Reset and Vertex Dispenser.
3). Play through Capsized and Treasure Adventure Game.  Possibly also the thank you freebie from gog.com, depending on if it is a game and what game it is.
4). Finish SBCGFAP.  Wanted to finish it last month, but didn't.  Also would like to finish Gemini Rue and open another starter cookie, but that isn't a priority.
5). Get a Beat on SSX.  I don't think this will take long.  And it is one of those games that I see myself going back to from time to time to kill time ect.
6). Make significant progress on Xenoblades.  I do not see myself beating this in April.  From all accounts a single play through can take up to 120 hours depending on how much you do and with my sporadic play habits and the fact that I like to work on multiple games means this will take some time.  I would like to finish it before Last Story comes out in Mid June.
7). The overall goal for the month will be to get my unifinshed back below 340, which is where it was before the indie bundles came and spoiled my parade.

Mass Effect (PC): Red Tape...

I decided to take a break from doing side quests and do one of the main plot worlds.  I decided to go to Noveria and learned very quickly that my status as a Spectre may allow me to operate outside the law if needed, it does jack all when it comes to corporate red tape.

Shepard is sent to Noveria to investigate the geth.  Upon arriving, she learns that Liara's mother, Matriarch Benezia is there, doing something for Saren.  It is immediately clear what needs to be done.  Find and confront Benezia, but there is one problem.  The corporate bureaucrats won't allow Shepard to leave the station he/she lands at.  To get out of the station and proceed with the mission, Shepard must perform a few tasks at the station to earn a pass to the garage where he/she can then get the MAKO and continue chasing Benezia.

While you are on Noveria to investigate geth sightings, the main foe on Noveria are the Rachni.  It turns out, Saren had hired one of teh corporations that had labs on the planet to carry out research on a Rachni egg that he found in a hulk.  It turned out that the egg was a Queen and still viable.  They then hatched the queen and used her to create an army of Rachni.  However, the Rachni got out of control and escaped the lab.  It becomes Shepard's job to clean up the mess.

After clearing out various rooms full off rachni, you enter a secure lab.  In here, you find Benezia and the Rachni queen.  After dispatching her commandos, Benezia reveals what has happened to her and what she was doing on Noveria.  This dialogue may only occur if Liara is in the group, which for me she was.  After Benezia is defeated, the Rachni queen uses one of the dying Asari to speak to you.  In the end you are given the option of killing or freeing her.

Noveria gives the player some interesting choices.  From the beginning, the player must decide if they want to have Liara around for the confrontation with Benezia.  There are also choices to be made in regards to how you obtain the garage pass.  Finally, you have the choice with how to deal with the queen.

Playing through this area made me realize how bland and generic the side quests and the planets they occur on are.  Most planets are mountain and valley type surfaces that you drive around the MAKO on and search for anomalies, resource deposits and debris.  There is usually also a location that is the objective of a side quest as well.  The side quest locations use one of a few different layouts depending on the type of facility they are supposed to represent.  But all of them end up being the same.  Clear out turrets and other above ground defenses using the MAKO, enter building and clear out hostiles.  Find objective and use, talk to or kill depending on the mission.  Maybe there is a short cut scene with a minor decision that affects your paragon/renegade guages.

After Noveria, I set out to do more of the side quests that I have but realized just how generic they are compared to the story quests.  While I know more effort is put into the main quest line, it would be nice if in a game like this that has dozens of side quests, the side quests were more varied and had more thought put into them.  They just seem copy/pasted with different flavor text.

All in all, I am finding my interest waning.  Maybe I should just abandon the side quests and finish the main story.  But I want to do them, if only for the story and bits of lore that they add.  Maybe I just need to step back and play another game for a few hours, either by bumping Mass Effect for another PC game for a bit, or going back to Radiant Historia.  The third option would be to add something to my now playing from my Wii or PS1.

I have recently acquired quite a few games due to steam sales, the new humble bundle and a gift from my mother.  In all, I acquired Borderlands GOTY, Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, Audiosurf and Lego Star Wars III.  I have fired up Borderlands and Trine to take a peak, and since Audiosurf is Null, my rules don't apply.  Maybe I should start my humble bundle project and play one of those games for 6 hours before returning to Mass Effect.  I think a break is needed.  We'll see.

Update: Keeping the Train Rolling

Just a quick update.  Since my last post I have put another few hours into Mass Effect.  I will write another post when there is something to write about though.  I decided to tackle one of the main story missions and am still in the middle of corporate wasteland.  Want to wait till I finish that mission before posting an update on that.

As for Radiant Historia, I haven't played it much recently.  Just over 3 hours since I started this blog and 6 hours total.  Its not that I don't like the game.  Its more that playing it requires at least an hour per session and when I have that sort of time I either want to fire up Mass Effect or my guild mates in WoW want me to log on and run some dungeon with them.  Hopefully I will get around to playing this more though, so I can keep my posting varied between the games I am playing.  I also plan to decide on a Wii and possibly a PS1 game to throw into the mix as well.

Thirdly, I have heard rumor on the internet the the 3rd Humble Indie Bundle is coming tomorrow.  This means more games for my backlog really.  It is a pay what you want pack of indie games where part of the proceeds go to charities and you get to decide how the money you spend is divided.  The third installation of the bundle will include Trine, Shadow Grounds and Shadow Grounds: Survivor.  Also included is the prototype for Jack Claw and a pre-order for Splot.   Honestly, Trine is the only one here that hold any interest for me, but the cause is good, so I still plan on purchasing the bundle.  Of course I will give each game a fair chance before I decide if it is something I like.  If not, I will null it, no big deal.

This also gives me an idea for a future project, probably when Mass Effect is done, or Mass Effect 2 if I decide to continue that series.  And that would be to put at least 6 hours or beat every game from all three indie bundles.  Of course, games that were included in incomplete states will not have to meet my normal rules, though I may play them enough to post about them once.  Games under this category would include Cortex Command (campaign mode has yet to be released), Jack Claw (only a playable prototype at the moment) and Spots (I don't think there is even a playable prototype out yet).

Mass Effect (PC): Bringing Down the Sky

During my last couple sessions, I worked mainly on side quests and exploring the galaxy.  A large portion of that time was spent doing the quest added by the Bring Down the Sky DLC.  The content came with the game when I purchased it on Steam, though I had to register the game with Bioware's site to get the download and key to unlock the content.  I will note that installing this content pack was very annoying with the Steam version of the game.  Before I could install it, (I installed this and Pinnacle Station before I started playing), I had to launch the game and actually start briefly so the registry files could be created and the DLC installer could find the game.  This wasn't the real issue how ever.

The real issue was the installer itself.  When it asked for the game code, I would enter it and hit next.  Then the installer would immediately fail.  After some internet research, I found that the installer never worked properly with the Steam version and to get it to work, when you got to the screen where you enter your code, instead of entering it, you had to force quit the installer using the process manager, which would then bring up a backup installer which would work with the Steam version.  On a side note, the installer for Pinnacle Station worked flawlessly the first time.  Why Bioware never properly released Bring Down the Sky with an installer that worked with all PC versions, be it the disc, Steam, or other Direct Download service, I can't say.

Technical issues of getting it installed aside, the DLC was good fun to play through, though short.  The whole quest took around 70 to 80 minutes to complete, including the optional objectives.  The premise of the mission is that an asteroid that was being moved into orbit around a human colony planet for mining was hijacked by Batrian terrorists and set on a collision course with the planet.  The size of the asteroid is said to be about twice that as the one that wiped out the dinosaurs on earth, so an impact with the planet would practically wipe out all life on that planet.

When Shepard and company arrive on the asteroid, it is approximately four hours from impact.  Shepard is informed that she, yes I am playing a female Shepard, can avert the impact if she can shut down the three fusion torches that are propelling the asteroid.  Shepard's team must fight through each of the torches stations to get to the control room and shut it down, with each successive torch adding something new to the mix.  While the layout of the facilities are the same across the board, the arrangement of the objects in the main room for each one is different.  Also the defense put up at each station gets stronger with each one you disable.

After the first torch is disabled, Shepard encounters the lead engineer of the asteroid's crew.  He fills Shepard in on what is going on and mentions that he hasn't heard from three of his engineers who were out at perimeter stations.  This sets up the optional portion of the quest where Shepard can repair a broken relay to learn the locations of these posts and then investigate them to find out what happened to the engineers.  He also tells Shepard that the next torch has proximity mines planted around it and that they must approach on foot to be able to avoid setting them off. 

After I took out the second torch I went and explored the asteroid, finding the bodies of the three engineers and stumbling on the main part of the base, taking out its external defenses.  I couldn't enter at this time, however since it was locked and required a key to get past.  So it was onto the third and final torch.  This torch had the most interesting layout, as there were raised platforms I could position the team on.  To add more fun to the mix, defensive drones were also being used against us.  After shutting down the last torch, I was confronted by a mercenary in the employ of the terrorists.  Being a charming commander Shepard, I talked him into abandoning his employer to save his own hide and was given the key to the main facility.

This triggered the final portion of the quest in which Shepard had to go to the main base and take out the leader of the attack.  This provided a good challenge since the main room where the combat took place was circular so cover was only good until some of the enemies circled around, then you had to move and take up new positions. Once the henchmen were all cleared out, the leader showed his face.  Using the surviving crew of the asteroid as hostages, he gives you the choice.  Sacrifice them to try and kill him or let him escape and save the crew.  I chose to let him go, at which point he states to insure I don't follow him, he has set up bombs around the facility that I must diffuse to save the hostages. 

At this point Shepard has 3 minutes to find and disable all the bombs, while being attacked by drones.  Diffusing the last bomb ends the quest.  Shepard is given a choice of rewards.  I chose the Quarian armor since Tali was still in her original suit and I hadn't found any up to this point in the game.

Over all, this was a short yet enjoyable DLC.  It gives the player a rather straightforward story with some options that effect the morality rating of the player and has different outcomes based on those choices.