Taking a side - SaturPLAY #7

First, I should probably address why there was no Review Thursday a couple days ago.  Well, I haven't finished any games recently, and so it didn't feel right reviewing a game that I haven't finished yet.  And that made me think, maybe I should have some other segment to do on Thursdays in the event that I don't have a review planned.  So, I am going to post some gaming videos I make whenever I don't have a review written.  That way it will also give some exposure to my YouTube channel.  But more on that on Thursday.

 

As for what I've been playing this week, it's most just Final Fantasy XIII and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  I am trying to get a Platinum trophy on both of these games, and I am finally at a point in both where I can say that I am almost there.  In Final Fantasy XIII, I have made it to Gran Pulse.  Now I can focus on grinding for the experience needed to finish the Titan's Trials, all of the Cie'th Stone Missions, and master each of the roles for the characters.

And in Skyrim, I am nearly finished with the story for the Thieves Guild, and I am also working on the story about the war between the Legion and the Stormcloaks.  I want to purchase the DLC for this game, but I first want to get all of the trophies before I add more to the list of trophies I need.  Anyway, to be more specific, in order to complete the Thieves Guild stuff, I only need to restore the contacts throughout Skyrim, and I will be named the leader.  As for the war, I am working on the missions near Winterhold.  I chose to take the Legion's side of the war.

 

And there are some new additions to my collection coming soon.  I have both LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2 coming next week.  From what I have seen of the gameplay, I think I will like it.  And I also think it will be a nice game for my family members to play as well.  And then I will be getting the new Square Enix game Thief later this month.  I will writing a review on it, for both EnixOrigin and this blog.  And then next month is when I will be getting both Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster.  I will so glad when those two games arrive.  I have had them paid for for months.  I only have to wait four weeks and three days more, and then I will be so happy.

Well, we have come to the end of this seventh edition of SaturPLAY.  I hope to see you here for the next one.  And don't forget to stop back in on Tuesday, when I will have the next issue of 3³ Gaming NEWSday up and ready for viewing.  So, until then, I hope you see no Game Over screens!

Michael, aka me3lingual

So much Lightning, it's practically a thunderstorm! - 3³ Gaming NEWSday #6

Welcome to this week's Lightning Returns-themed 3³ Gaming NEWSday.  The world is buzzing with Lightning Returns news.  The game came out today, and I have been on a newsie high for all of the articles I have written in the last week.  Actually now that I look at it, it's only five articles.  Funny, it feels like more than that.  Anyway, as there are more articles than my usual amount (which is a good, no, great thing) I am going to do this blog post differently than normal.  Instead of posting the entire article, I will just post the links of the individual articles and maybe a little bit about each one.

Lightning Returns newest Garb - Lara Croft

Okay, so one of the DLC garb choices available at the launch day of Lightning Returns is the Lara Croft outfit from Tomb Raider.  Lightning's weapon is the survival axe, and includes a riot shield to top off the ensemble.  It is available for download online for $3.99USD on PSN (I don't know about XBOX Live).

A Valentine's Day Themed X/X-2 Trailer

Square Enix released a video on its North American YouTube channel with a focus on the romantic side of Final Fantasy X.  It features scenes with the enhanced graphics and music from the game.  It looked very nice and culminates with the famous Underwater Kiss scene near lake Macalania.

Retrospective Take on Final Fantasy XIII series

This one's news bit is somewhat old, but I just got around to writing about it yesterday.  It is a recap video of Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 done in the old-school style of Final Fantasy VI.  It was probably one of the best videos used to bring more hype to the upcoming game that I have seen in all my time as a writer for enixorigin.com.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Launch Trailer

So the game came out today, and Square Enix made a trailer video to advertise the new game.  The video itself features some of the review quotes received by the big names in gaming critics.  It was a pretty simple article to write.

Deviantart and Square Enix LR Contest

Now this one is about the just announced contest from Square Enix and Deviantart.  The prize is a custom-made XBOX 360 and controller, copies of the three games in the XIII series, a special LR shirt and keychain, $1000USD, and a signed sketch from Tetsuya Nomura.  Nomura will also be judging the art contest.

So, there you have it.  I hope you enjoy the articles, and feel free to leave comments as to what you think.  Be sure to check back in on Thursday for this week's review.  So, until then, I hope you see no Game Over screens!

Michael, aka me3lingual

Completing my Focus - SaturPLAY #6

Welcome back to SaturPLAY, your weekly dose of what I am playing because everyone loves hearing about what other people do in life.  This week I focused on two games, and that is so much different than what I usually do.  Anyway, let's begin.

First up is Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned.  A kid that I used to tutor comes over once in a while when my brother is asked to watch him, and he likes to play games with cars and drive around.  So during one of his visits, I let him pick which one he wanted to play.  He chose the one with motorcycles.  The kid doesn't like the whole mission aspect of the game, so I had to go through and complete the initial mission.  After that, we just drove around and caused an uproar in Liberty City.

Anyway, after the kid left, I thought about deleting the save file.  However, I hadn't ever completed The Lost and Damned before.  So, I kept the save file and have been working on completing it.  I have recently earned the "TLAD: The Lost Boy" PSN Trophy, by becoming the leader of The Lost.  I haven't gotten much farther than that, because I have been working on completing the races.  I wish the trophy associated with the races was to simply finish all twelve races, and not something that is nearly impossible for me.  I have not hit anyone off their motorcycle yet.  I have hit people with the bat, but none of them have fallen off.  It is going to be a difficult trophy to get.

Up next is Final Fantasy XIII.  Yes, I am still working on this game.  I buckled down and got through the Sunleth Waterscape, even though I love the background music there.  I can always listen to it online over at YouTube or something.  Anyway, I recently just finished the fight against Brynhildr.  The scene before that fight is probably one of the most emotional ones in the whole game, I think.  Even after having seen it several times, I still get a little choked up when I watch it.  When Vanille is standing in front of Sazh, who has nearly given up on life, and Sazh stands up and shoots the Eidolon; that part gets me every time.

Now I am trying to rescue the locked up Sazh and Vanille on the Palamecia.  I think I am at the Save Point right before the two parties meet.  I will be glad when I get to Gran Pulse, and can work on getting the rest of the trophies of the game.  I still have about a month before my copy of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII arrives, so time is running out on reaching my goal of getting the Platinum trophy for Final Fantasy XIII and completing the story of Final Fantasy XIII-2.

And finally for this week, I earned five trophies while playing around in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  Here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

 With Friends Like These: Join the Dark Brotherhood

 Bound Until Death: Complete "Bound Until Death"

 Wanted: Escape from jail

 Hail Sithis!: Complete "Hail Sithis!"

 Standing Stones: Find 13 Standing Stones

I was looking at my profile over at psnprofiles.com, and saw that there are quite a few trophies I am lacking.  Mainly the ones that were side stories of the main quest line.  So, I figured I should go and earn them.  I am working on the ones for the Thieves Guild.  A friend of mine told me that it takes a lot of side quests that I will have to do in order to complete that story.  As much as I want to just hurry up and get the story finished, I guess I will have to do more side stuff.  I hate side quests sometimes.

Well, that's all for this week's SaturPLAY.  Make sure to stop back in on Tuesday for the next edition of 3³ Gaming NEWSday.  So, until next time, I hope you see no Game Over screens!

Michael, aka me3lingual

Trophy Hunter - SaturPLAY #5

Welcome back to SaturPLAY, where each Saturday I recount my gaming exploits of the past week.  I had a plan for what games I wanted to play this week, and I stuck to that plan for the most part.  Basically, because of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII being released in a couple weeks, I wanted to go back over Final Fantasy XIII and try to get the Platinum Trophy for the game.  I started over from the beginning because I deleted my previous save file at the beginning of the year.  Right now, I am at the Sunleth Waterscape, playing as Vanille and Sazh.  It is my favorite area of the game, because I love listening to the background track that plays while running around looking for monsters to fight.  As for the trophy collection, I have 50% of them.  That may seem great, but those were all trophies I earned before.  I haven't earned any new ones.  But the thing is, I can't earn the ones I am missing until I get to Gran Pulse.  So I have my work cut out for me.

The second step in my plan was to finally complete the story of Final Fantasy XIII-2.  I have had the game for quite a while, and I have yet to finish the game once.  I am not even trying to get all of the trophies.  I just want to finish the game before the final game of the series comes.  Right now, I have completed the story of New Bodhum 3AF, and Bresha Ruins 5AF.  Everything else is just waiting to be traversed.  And I also went and purchased the DLC for the game, so now I have the full complete game to play.  And I haven't even touched the story bits.  I did go ahead and purchase all of the fancy weapons from Chocolina though.

And all of that stuff ended on Wednesday.  Since then, I haven't had much motivation to play anything.  On Thursday, I was too tired to play after I came home from work.  Friday was spent playing 10-15 minutes of like twenty games, and then resulted in me deleting all of the save files because they weren't worth keeping and continuing to work on them.  And then today I woke up with the desire to kill people in Skyrim.  So I played that all day.  I want to raise my trophy level on PSN, so I have been working on missions I haven't tried.  Specifically, those of the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood.  I am also considering purchasing the DLC for Skyrim as well.  More content does mean more greater access to trophies.  Now, if I could just decide whether it would be cheaper to purchase the DLC from PSN, or to just buy the Legendary Edition of the game and then sell my copy of Skyrim.

And that has been my week.  I am kind of lucky that I won't receive my copy of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII until March (because free shipping is free), so I have plenty of time to get the first two games finished.  I just have to buckle down and play them.  Anyway, that's all for this week's SaturPLAY.  Don't forget that this Tuesday is 3³ Gaming NEWSday.  So, until then, I hope you won't see any Game Over screens.

Michael, aka me3lingual

Too sleepy to italicize.

This week's SaturPLAY will relatively shorter than normal.  Basically, I didn't play much of anything, despite playing a bunch of a lot of things.  I played and deleted files of The Sims 3: Pets and Fallout: New Vegas.  And today, I started files of both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 in order to have them there when my copy of Lightning Returns arrives.  And I am still working on Pokémon Black 2.  I have gotten to the third Gym and saved the game right before I take on Burgh.  I did face him once before, but I lost so I reset the game.  I went back on my promise to train only Water-types.  I have been training my Pidove to combat the Bug-types that Burgh carries.  I also have an Eevee in my party that I fully intend to evolve into a Vaporeon when I get a Water Stone.

And finally, I have made some progress in Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories.  I have completed  the Destiny Islands floor and now I am at the next fight against Riku.  I was having trouble, so I stopped playing to take a break from it.  Which is why I have been playing other games lately.

Well, that's all for this week's SaturPLAY.  Until next time, I hope no Game Over screens cross you gaze.

Michael, aka me3lingual.

Lightning Returns Demo - Review Thursday #3

In this week's Review Thursday, I will talk about my experience playing the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo that was released on Tuesday.  Let me first just say that I may possibly spoil what happens in the demo.  However, as it's available for free, and people have been posting videos of the gameplay of it, it's a bit difficult to be spoiled at this point.

Well, because of my super slow Internet that day, the download took more than twelve hours.  So while my friends were playing the heck out of Lightning, I was sitting on 7% downloaded.  I began the download at 3pm, and at midnight it was only at 50%.  When I woke up at 4am to stoke the fire, I saw that the download had completed.  I installed it, and went back to sleep.

The next morning, it was the first thing I played.  I think it may have been the only thing I played.  No, no it wasn't.  The demo was short, so I went and played other things as well.  Anyway, I loved the demo!

First, the graphics are great.  People look like people, objects look like objects, attacking looks like attacking.  It was nice to be able to move in battle, and not stuck in one spot during battle.  The music was fantastic, and I think it played well in the demo's gameplay.

The battles themselves were amazing.  I think it is really nice to have the abilities be set as buttons on the controller.  Especially in Active Time Battle games, if you have a lot of abilities in a menu, you lose a lot of time searching for a spell or ability which gives the enemy an advantage.  And with job changing has been taken a step up from Final Fantasy X-2's job system, it is now only one button press away; whereas that of X-2 was more than one.

As I reported in this week's 3³ Gaming NEWSday, you play as Lightning as she looks for Snow, who is now the "leader" of the city.  The opening scene is Lightning and Snow fighting the beings of Chaos, as well as each other.  Then, Snow exits the same way the monsters entered, by some kind of space/time thing.  Hope Estheim is there as well; but only as a voice, guiding Lightning through the building and analyzing the situation.  From where, I don't know; the demo didn't offer that information.

After Snow leaves, Lightning has to fight her way passed monsters in order to locate Snow and "set him free".  The boss of the demo is Zaltys.  He looks like some kind of demon/dog/giraffe creature.  I defeated him in 2 minutes and 16 seconds; making full use of the game's time-altering function.  It slows time down for everyone except Lightning, giving her lightning speed (yeah, ha ha, I know).  It isn't the best result out there, but I have only played through the demo once so far.  I know someone was able to do it in less than twenty seconds.

The demo ends after you reach the end of the corridor that Zaltys is guarding.  You can however also end the demo by continuing to explore the area until 6 o'clock.  Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is a time-based game, so spend your time wisely.  You don't want to be left on the planet when the world ends.

Anyway, a plus to downloading the demo on PSN as I did is that you receive the Utsusemi Samurai garb for free.  And if you post your battle score against Zaltys on the Outerworld, you will receive the Siegfried garb on release day.

Overall, I give the demo...

It is a great demo, and it accomplished what it was made to do.  And that was to build up hype and make those that play it want the game.  I certainly do want it.  Now I just have to wait until my copy arrives.  Which won't be until after Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster comes out.  You've got to love saving money by bundling purchases in order to get free shipping.

Make sure to stop back in on Saturday for the next edition of SaturPLAY!  Until then, I hope that no Game Over Screens cross your gaze!

Michael, aka me3lingual

Demo - 3³ Gaming NEWSday #3

Welcome to 3³ Gaming NEWSday!  I have a couple articles that I have written recently to share.  First, is the article I wrote about Final fantasy VI coming to Android.  And the second is what I wrote on the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo that was released today.  So, let's begin!

Final Fantasy VI now available for Android

Smartphone users, the wait has ended! Final Fantasy VI is no longer solely for iOS devices. Square Enix has uploaded two videos (one each in English and Japanese) today on its Japanese language YouTube channel announcing the Android availablility of this classic Final Fantasy title. To watch the video and for more information, continue reading.

After nearly one month since the release of Final Fantasy VI for iOS, the 1994 game is finally available for the Android market. Now you can play as Locke, Edgar, and Terra on the go and without an iOS device or portable gaming unit. This comes to relief of a huge group of gamers who have been asking "When does it come out for Android?" and "Why not Android?" since the iOS release. The game will be playable in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXUKWzcy33M[/youtube]

Lightning Returns Demo Released Today

As the days continue to count down on the release date for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the demo of the game featured at E3 was released through PSN and Xbox Live today. And there is also a free outfit for Lightning if you choose to download the demo. For more information, continue reading.
As posted by PlayStation Blog earlier today, the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo that had been featured in places like E3 and PAX is now available for download through PSN. The demo's content features Lightning as she looks for Snow Villiers, her former traveling companion during their quest to save Cocoon. He is somewhere in Yusnaan, one of the cities in the game, and it's up to you as Lightning to find out why and what's happening there.

One of the perks of downloading Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, beside getting a piece of the story before the game comes out, is that you get one of the costumes that Lightning can wear during the main game. For PlayStation 3 users, you obtain the Utsusemi Samurai costume (shown below). And for both Xbox 360 and PS3 users, if you activate the Outerworld functions and post your score after defeating Zaltys, you will receive the Siegfried costume. Outerworld is where you and thousands of other players communicate with things like posting battle scores, buying items, and selling items.



The download itself is 2.04 GB for the PS3 version, and it's 1.14 GB for the Xbox 360 version. From what I have heard from those who have played it, it is a nice demo. Here are what some EnixOrigin members have to say about the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo.


Well to me, it feels a lot different than the first two games. I know game sites kept saying the system is just a revamp of the first two, but doesnt feel like that to me. This is how the first two should have been. - Tev

The battle is more in the players hands this time around. Whereas before it felt like a scripted battle at times, because the game held your hand. -Vox

Needless to say, it sounds like the full game will be highly entertaining if the opinions on this demo are like this. So, don't forget to download the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo on either PSN or Xbox Live if you get the chance.

Well, that's all for this week's NEWSday.  Make sure to stop back on Thursday for the next Gaming Review.  And I hope no Game Over Screens are what you see!

Michael, aka me3lingual