Better (Extremely) Late than Never

Well, it has been about 18 months since my last blog post.  I guess I should apologize for my tardiness.  I'm sorry.  I know I should have given some kind of reason why I stopped writing posts, but I just could not find the strength to put my fingers to the keyboard.  Oh well.  It can only go up from here.

To start, some family things have happened, and now I no longer live in the house I was in the process of buying.  Without going into too much detail, my family chose sides, I chose the wrong side, and now I'm basically on my own.  It's not all bad, though.  The people I live with are very nice and caring, and I take care of a kid that loves video games almost as much as I do.  I still work for the newspaper, and next week will be the 9th Anniversary of my employment there.

My real life family may be smaller, but the family of video game characters I have has gotten a lot larger.  I still try and play every day, but there are times when I choose not to play games.  Gaming isn't as big a priority as it used to be.  There are other things now that I do with as much energy as when I would play.

Well, that's enough of the 18-month update.  I should now talk about the future.  I want to keep the same setup as before.  One news post, one review post, and one blog post each week.  However, I don't really write news articles anymore.  I will try my best to at least write something, though.  I am also thinking about having people come in and collaborate with me on the blog.  As for what/when these things might happen, I am not sure.  I'm going to take it slow right now, and ease myself back into the process of writing again.  I don't know how long it will take, but eventually I will restore this blog back to its former glory.

So, I guess that's it.  I'm off to go play something.  If you see me online, feel free to give me a hello.  I'm me3lingual, me4lingual, and me5lingual on PSN.  Maybe some others in the future.  Well, until next time, I hope you see no Game Over screens in whatever it is you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual

Swimming through the Star Ocean - SaturPLAY

Welcome to SaturPLAY!  This week I played one game in particular, and that was Star Ocean: The Last Hope - International.  I have tried playing this game before, but I could never have the motivation necessary to get through more than the introduction of the game.  It's not because it's a bad game, in fact, it's far from that.  It was just too slow at first for me to keep my interest.  However, in order for me to get the full story of the series, I wanted to play the games in chronological order.  That meant play The Last Hope first, followed by First Departure, Second Evolution, and finally Till the End of Time.  There's another game, but I don't have the handheld system for it, so I will just forget about it.

Anyway, my characters are all at or near Level 20.  Currently, we have reached Cardianon.  I saved the game before leaving the Calnus, and that's where I stopped playing this evening.  I am really liking the story up to this point.  I especially like how each planet has it's own story along with those of the party members.  And, I really feel for the party members as they travel around and experience the events throughout the game.  In particular, I nearly cried when the party came back to Triom, only to find that the infected townsfolk had turned to stone.

And that is only the second world I have been to.  Now that I am on the third, I expect a great story as well.  All of the Star Ocean games I have played a little bit of have made me enjoy playing them.  But like most games, I have never completed any of them.  So far though, The Last Hope hasn't been difficult.  I haven't even seen a Game Over screen yet.  I think that will soon be seen though.  It's only a matter of time before I see a Game Over screen.  After all, it's me we're talking about.

And so far I have received two PSN trophies.  Both are for defeating the bosses I have come across.  Most of the trophies on the list are for collecting things.  Items, Battle Trophies, etc.

Anyway, I really like the game so far.  I hope to be able to finish it.  Well, that's all for this week.  So, until next time, I hope you see no Game Over screens.

Michael, aka me3lingual

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

Jetpack Joyride - Review Thursday

Welcome back to Review Thursday, where I talk about a game I have recently finished.  This week I am a little late (it is technically Friday when I am typing this) in posting.  But regardless, I did finish a game this week.  And that game is...

This game is so fun!  I spent hours upon hours playing it.  The concept of the game is simple: don't touch anything as you run through a seemingly never-ending laboratory with a stolen jetpack.  Along the way, you can ride vehicles like a robotic dragon, a teleporter, and a motorcycle, just to name a few.  Then at the end of your run, you can either risk your spin tokens earned throughout the run in a slot machine or cash them in for coins.  Coins are also earned throughout the run, and are used to purchase clothing options, different jetpacks, gadgets to help you run through the lab, and other items.  And you can even purchase more coins using real money.  And then there are little missions you can complete to level up and earn coins; like going a set distance in a vehicle, or dodging a set amount of obstacles, or giving High-Fives to the scientists.

I don't really care for all of the extra things, but I did end up collecting them all.  There is a PSN trophy called "All the Things" which is awarded for when you have purchased every item available.  Other than that, I mainly stuck with the Insta-ball, and the Freezing gadgets to get some extra length to the run.  Toward the end, I played just so I could finally get that last trophy.  I will probably play it once in a while, but not for the length of time when I was trying to collect the trophies.

My favorite vehicle in the game was the Profit Bird.  It looked nice, and I was able to control it the best among all of the vehicles.  My least favorite was the Gravity Suit.  I just could not get the hang of it.  Overall, I give Jetpack Joyride...

Five Stars.  It is very addictive and fun to play.  The concept is simple and it is playable by people of all ages.  Only one button is used throughout the actual play (the X button), so there are no tricky button combos to memorize.  I really like this game, and I would recommend it to everyone.

Well, that's the end of this Review Thursday.  Make sure to stop by on Saturday for the next SaturPLAY entry.  And until then, may no Game Over screens be seen by your eyes!

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