Yesterday was Valentine's Day, a day specifically designed to make lonely people feel isolated and withdrawn. So for the DOUG I went out and picked up a copy of Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360. I won't post spoilers here, but instead just some general comments.
The general comment is ... I played this game for almost 10 hours yesterday. I normally don't have the attention span to devote that much time to a single game, so that's the first comment. Having finally played and beat Mass Effect 1 late last week, ME2 picks up RIGHT after the first one. And the decisions you made there affect the world of the new game like ripples in a pond. I find myself eagerly anticipating a second play through as a completely different type of character just to see how different ME2 can be.
Mass Effect 2 has an engrossing story with many side missions, and I feel compelled to go through most if not all of them (unlike ME1 which I did not, but kinda feel like I will on a second go around). The main gripe I have is one that many share - planet scanning is tedious and put simply, NOT FUN. Holy left trigger, Batman. I upgraded my ship's planet scanning functionality and it's still boring trying to scan every surface of an unexplored planet for iridium, platinum, element zero, and palladium (not the RPG company). Grr.
But beyond that the game is exceeding all expectations. I feel that it's going to consume more of my life here in the next few days.
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Rock Band Rawk Out!
I'm just gonna throw this out there ... Rock Band is way fun. Seriously, way fun. Guitar Hero's a good time, don't get me wrong, but there are few things better than rocking out on a set with three of your buddies on the same song. The "single player" game seems to be there only as practice, since you just go through the songs. Which is not a bad thing.
I've completed Drums on Hard, and feel pretty confident playing any random song on Hard (though I still shudder when Run to the Hills or any Metallica song comes up). So the next level is Expert ... and damn is it hard. Really, really hard. I went through the first ten songs in solo play and thought "This isn't so bad." Yesterday I went through the next five and COMPLETELY FAILED on two of them, aced one of them, and suffered through the other two to a successful completion. I need to find something that works with my foot without breaking the kick pedal, 'cause that's what I'm terrified of, being I've already broken one. That and I need to train my left hand/wrist to work faster, hold the stick lighter, and utilize the bounce. I've got it down with my right hand but Ol' Lefty is having problems.
But the bottom line: Rock Band = teh r0kz, w00t. Or something. I can't wait to get to the Endless Setlist (all 58 songs in the core release as one setlist). Ha! Ha! Ha. Ha. Ha... ha... ha... ha... hmmm.
I've completed Drums on Hard, and feel pretty confident playing any random song on Hard (though I still shudder when Run to the Hills or any Metallica song comes up). So the next level is Expert ... and damn is it hard. Really, really hard. I went through the first ten songs in solo play and thought "This isn't so bad." Yesterday I went through the next five and COMPLETELY FAILED on two of them, aced one of them, and suffered through the other two to a successful completion. I need to find something that works with my foot without breaking the kick pedal, 'cause that's what I'm terrified of, being I've already broken one. That and I need to train my left hand/wrist to work faster, hold the stick lighter, and utilize the bounce. I've got it down with my right hand but Ol' Lefty is having problems.
But the bottom line: Rock Band = teh r0kz, w00t. Or something. I can't wait to get to the Endless Setlist (all 58 songs in the core release as one setlist). Ha! Ha! Ha. Ha. Ha... ha... ha... ha... hmmm.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
End of a Quest
Today, a special package arrived in the mail from far away. It is a small, unassuming device in a plain FedEx shipping envelope. But it contains the culmination of a personal quest started many, many years ago. What is this quest, you may ask? To play Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, the Capcom arcade game.
Growing up in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, MN, I never truly go into arcade games. Part of that reason was the nearest arcade was all the way over in Ridgedale (Picadilly Circus), far too long a distance for just arcades. I've always enjoyed playing arcade games, just never on the level of obsession that many of my other hobbies possess. Once AD&D came into my life that became the major obsession. And then I found the Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom arcade game. I honestly can't recall where the first machine was that I played - perhaps St. Cloud, perhaps the Denver International Airport, perhaps Crystal Cave in southern Minnesota. These are all places that had the elusive arcade game and I enjoyed playing it every time.
Over the past few years this game became a small obsession. I would look occasionally on eBay for the arcade machine, because, c'mon, how cool would it be to have a full coin-op machine in your living room? Real cool, that's how. But cost and availability always kept me from obtaining the arcade machine. That left only two options - find a ROM of the game or search out the only console port ever made.
One would think that finding a working ROM of the game wouldn't be that difficult, but whether through bad luck or just sheer ineptitude I never got any of them to work. But I was always aware of the only console port ever of the game, called the Dungeons & Dragons Collections for the Sega Saturn. Do you remember the Saturn? Not a terrible console, all things considered, but it was going up against the Sony PlayStation. The Saturn enjoyed a short active life cycle (but not nearly as short as the Sega CD or the Neo Geo), during which it garnered a loyal fanbase of primarily 2D fighting fans and Japanese RPG lovers. But in Japan, they got the Dungeons & Dragons Collection, which included both Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara (which I had never even HEARD of before).
This Christmas, I did a lot of shopping online, and specifically on eBay. There are a few things I always check when I'm on eBay as force of habit. One is the Walker in the Wastes Call of Cthulhu campaign from Pagan Publishing and the other is Tower of Doom. This year, I don't know what it was, but I got a wild hair up my ass that sent my quest for Tower of Doom into overtime. I had a little extra money and was determined to get the game regardless of the cost.
Step one - get a Sega Saturn. No problem, found one for about $40 that came with two games (Virtua Fighter 2 and NHL '98, neither terribly great games). Arrived from Texas in a timely manner a few weeks before Christmas.
Step two - get the Dungeons & Dragons Collection. The game is somewhat rare, so I figured this would be the costly option. The first auction I bid on I lost to a last-second sniper - that one went for $60. I said "screw this" and went for the cheapest But It Now option I found, which was a mere $100. Add $10 for shipping from Hong Kong and I was so far into this endeavor about $150. But gosh darn it if the game wasn't on its way. Now to play the waiting game, I thought to myself.
The game arrived in short order and I was ecstatic. But something a friend of mine said caused doubt to eat at my enthusiasm. If this was a Japanese only release, will it work on my US-produced Sega Saturn? The short is: no, no it won't.
Got the game, rushed home, and discovered that the game was an NTSC-J region while the console only supported NTSC regions. I was this far into it, I wasn't backing out at this point. Doing a little research I found that there is a small item called an Action Replay cartridge that allows one to play imported games. I called every vintage video game retailer in the metro area and came up empty handed. I resigned myself to ordering it through eBay, found one for $30, and ordered with with the fastest shipping available from Michigan. This was the week before Christmas.
And then I waited. And waited. And waited. The seller I bought the replay cartridge from had very good feedback, but the most recent one indicated that the buyer had waited for more than three weeks and still hadn't received the merchandise. I contacted the seller to ask when it would ship, since PayPal indicated that my successful payment had not been claimed. No response. No response continued to be the only response I got for two weeks.
Then, last Sunday, I said "screw this" and ordered a new Action Replay cartridge from a site called Play-Asia.com. The cartridge was $30 and shipping from Hong Kong was $20. I sighed and completed the sale, contacting the original seller from eBay asking to cancel my order. Another round of waiting was in store.
But fate luckily smiled on me this time, and I got to work Monday morning to find an email waiting. The email said my order had been shipped via FedEx and the tracking number said to expect it by 1/8/08 by 10:30 am. I checked my watch - Monday was the 7th, which meant Tuesday was the 8th. Whaaa ... ? A fluke, I said to myself, unwilling to believe it. It must be a fluke. Monday passed but anticipation was growing in my belly. At the end of the day I checked the tracking again. It was in Anchorage, Alaska. Holy crap.
I let excitement get the best me and had trouble sleeping Monday night. Visions of fighters and troglodytes and manticores danced in my head. Tuesday arose, I went to work, and saw that the tracking results put my shipment in the Eden Prairie facility already. It was out for delivery. It was a slow day, so I resolved to take off early if my package arrived.
I got home at 2:30 pm (normally I work until 4 pm) and was playing Tower of Doom within moments of getting home. It was everything I remembered, except everything was in Japanese. But I knew that, so it was no surprise. I'm taking a break right now, because I realized something very important. The Dungeons & Dragons experience is but a fraction of itself when enjoyed alone. Sadly, the console only supports two players instead of the arcade's four, but still.
I relax in the knowledge that my quest has reached a successful conclusion. And only $230 sunk ($30 of which I should be getting back from that seller on eBay). A job well done, I guess.
Growing up in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, MN, I never truly go into arcade games. Part of that reason was the nearest arcade was all the way over in Ridgedale (Picadilly Circus), far too long a distance for just arcades. I've always enjoyed playing arcade games, just never on the level of obsession that many of my other hobbies possess. Once AD&D came into my life that became the major obsession. And then I found the Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom arcade game. I honestly can't recall where the first machine was that I played - perhaps St. Cloud, perhaps the Denver International Airport, perhaps Crystal Cave in southern Minnesota. These are all places that had the elusive arcade game and I enjoyed playing it every time.
Over the past few years this game became a small obsession. I would look occasionally on eBay for the arcade machine, because, c'mon, how cool would it be to have a full coin-op machine in your living room? Real cool, that's how. But cost and availability always kept me from obtaining the arcade machine. That left only two options - find a ROM of the game or search out the only console port ever made.
One would think that finding a working ROM of the game wouldn't be that difficult, but whether through bad luck or just sheer ineptitude I never got any of them to work. But I was always aware of the only console port ever of the game, called the Dungeons & Dragons Collections for the Sega Saturn. Do you remember the Saturn? Not a terrible console, all things considered, but it was going up against the Sony PlayStation. The Saturn enjoyed a short active life cycle (but not nearly as short as the Sega CD or the Neo Geo), during which it garnered a loyal fanbase of primarily 2D fighting fans and Japanese RPG lovers. But in Japan, they got the Dungeons & Dragons Collection, which included both Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara (which I had never even HEARD of before).
This Christmas, I did a lot of shopping online, and specifically on eBay. There are a few things I always check when I'm on eBay as force of habit. One is the Walker in the Wastes Call of Cthulhu campaign from Pagan Publishing and the other is Tower of Doom. This year, I don't know what it was, but I got a wild hair up my ass that sent my quest for Tower of Doom into overtime. I had a little extra money and was determined to get the game regardless of the cost.
Step one - get a Sega Saturn. No problem, found one for about $40 that came with two games (Virtua Fighter 2 and NHL '98, neither terribly great games). Arrived from Texas in a timely manner a few weeks before Christmas.
Step two - get the Dungeons & Dragons Collection. The game is somewhat rare, so I figured this would be the costly option. The first auction I bid on I lost to a last-second sniper - that one went for $60. I said "screw this" and went for the cheapest But It Now option I found, which was a mere $100. Add $10 for shipping from Hong Kong and I was so far into this endeavor about $150. But gosh darn it if the game wasn't on its way. Now to play the waiting game, I thought to myself.
The game arrived in short order and I was ecstatic. But something a friend of mine said caused doubt to eat at my enthusiasm. If this was a Japanese only release, will it work on my US-produced Sega Saturn? The short is: no, no it won't.
Got the game, rushed home, and discovered that the game was an NTSC-J region while the console only supported NTSC regions. I was this far into it, I wasn't backing out at this point. Doing a little research I found that there is a small item called an Action Replay cartridge that allows one to play imported games. I called every vintage video game retailer in the metro area and came up empty handed. I resigned myself to ordering it through eBay, found one for $30, and ordered with with the fastest shipping available from Michigan. This was the week before Christmas.
And then I waited. And waited. And waited. The seller I bought the replay cartridge from had very good feedback, but the most recent one indicated that the buyer had waited for more than three weeks and still hadn't received the merchandise. I contacted the seller to ask when it would ship, since PayPal indicated that my successful payment had not been claimed. No response. No response continued to be the only response I got for two weeks.
Then, last Sunday, I said "screw this" and ordered a new Action Replay cartridge from a site called Play-Asia.com. The cartridge was $30 and shipping from Hong Kong was $20. I sighed and completed the sale, contacting the original seller from eBay asking to cancel my order. Another round of waiting was in store.
But fate luckily smiled on me this time, and I got to work Monday morning to find an email waiting. The email said my order had been shipped via FedEx and the tracking number said to expect it by 1/8/08 by 10:30 am. I checked my watch - Monday was the 7th, which meant Tuesday was the 8th. Whaaa ... ? A fluke, I said to myself, unwilling to believe it. It must be a fluke. Monday passed but anticipation was growing in my belly. At the end of the day I checked the tracking again. It was in Anchorage, Alaska. Holy crap.
I let excitement get the best me and had trouble sleeping Monday night. Visions of fighters and troglodytes and manticores danced in my head. Tuesday arose, I went to work, and saw that the tracking results put my shipment in the Eden Prairie facility already. It was out for delivery. It was a slow day, so I resolved to take off early if my package arrived.
I got home at 2:30 pm (normally I work until 4 pm) and was playing Tower of Doom within moments of getting home. It was everything I remembered, except everything was in Japanese. But I knew that, so it was no surprise. I'm taking a break right now, because I realized something very important. The Dungeons & Dragons experience is but a fraction of itself when enjoyed alone. Sadly, the console only supports two players instead of the arcade's four, but still.
I relax in the knowledge that my quest has reached a successful conclusion. And only $230 sunk ($30 of which I should be getting back from that seller on eBay). A job well done, I guess.
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