Big, Bang, and Full of Batman

RATCHET: DEADLOCKED
It’s been almost a month since I last mentioned anything about this game when it comes to my progress. As you may have guessed it hasn’t been much. I’m just not into it like I would like or thought I’d be. With that said, I know I’ll eventually get back to it.

My stopping point was the planet Orxon after 3 hours and 11 minutes.

BIG BANG MINI
I’m still playing this game and slowly I’m making my way through. I’m now up to Level 8-10 (Paris) which is the boss level. It’s been very difficult to beat this boss. They usually have about four parts that need to be beat without taking a hit otherwise the battle needs to be repeated from the start.

It’s still some fun and I like a variety that it provides.

BATMAN BEGINS
I wasn’t sure what to start playing next and I was thinking of putting it up to a vote with systems I own being what would be chosen from. Then I noticed that ebbderelict had just started Batman Begins so I decided that would also be the game that I’ll play.

I liked the look of the game even before I bought it back in August of 2008. And it looks great in person too. Overall, the game it pretty simple, but I actually like it that way. I felt that playing the first Batmobile level was also pretty thrilling.

I can remember not liking the movie all that much, but can say for sure that I do like the game much more.

GIFT GIVING FOLLOW-UP
First off I want to thank everybody for your help in suggesting games. Earlier today I asked them what they already had and what they were interested in. I also got some more ideas from seeing what they liked of what I personally had. I then checked prices and related games on GameSpot.

I ultimately would like to get them something that they’d like that they don’t know about. I’m thinking of going with Namco Museum, Brain Age, or something like it for my niece.

My nephew said “maybe” to Gunstar Super Heroes so I’m sure that Astro Boy: Omega Factor would be a winner. That one will be hard to find and if I have to I can always part with Sonic Rush.

NEW GAMES
From now until the end of the month eStarland.com is offering free regular shipping for all used games. I ordered and received Super Chase H.Q., Lotus II R.E.C.S, and Shadowgate Classic. All of them are game only and weren’t anything expensive. I did have Pit Fighter ordered as well, but I guess it was out of stock once the order was shipped.

Thanks for reading and make it a great holiday season!

Kratos Returns In High Definition

INFAMOUS
Since the last time I checked in with you all I was close to finishing Infamous on the evil side. I can now report that the goal has been accomplished. I also beat the game on Hard difficulty to obtain the corresponding trophy.

Playing it on Hard made for less XP for each kill or stunt I did and that’s currently why I don’t have the trophy for powering up fully on the evil side. I played on Easy the first time through on the good side and a normal kill would net 10 XP, but this time it was just 7 XP. I may get it eventually.

My final stats are as follows.

Trophies: 45 / 50 (90%)
Infamous; 92%; 280 Blast Shards
Hero; 83%; 337 Blast Shards

BIG BANG MINI
The progress made was small, but I’ve cleared another 10 stages. When I last played the battery on my DS ran out and I haven’t charged it yet. I’m currently on Level 5-5 Savannah.

RATCHET: DEADLOCKED
I’ve played this game the least as of late. It has nothing to do with not liking it because I certainly do even if it’s less than the previous three games.

I’ve beaten Shellshock and the next main missions are back on the DreadZone Station. 2 hours into the game so far.

GOD OF WAR COLLECTION
Yesterday I picked up the newly released God of War Collection. At $40 it’s well worth picking up. All of the extras for both games are still included as they originally were. So the making of videos are available too!

I didn’t expect to really care to start playing these games again already, but I did start up God of War and was pulled back into the fun. I’ve played the original game for an hour and 48 minutes today and at over four years later this game still kicks all kinds of ass! :D The added trophy support and included God of War III E3 demo are icing on the cake.

Two of the trophy names are pretty amusing: 1.21 Gigawatts (Acquire Poseidon’s Rage) and Zero Heath = Bronze Trophy (Open a Health Chest when your health meter is already full).

KLONOA 2: LUNATEA’S VEIL
I already have a copy of Klonoa 2, but when I was told by Usagi704 that a local Gamestop had a complete copy for $5, I was all over that.

There was a problem, however. When I started it up the disc spun much more loudly than any other game before it. Even my other copy of Klonoa 2 didn’t do this. I noticed that the disc has been resurfaced before. Maybe one too many times.

As you’ll see in this video, the PS2 system recognizes this disc as PS2 media, but doesn’t play and just returns to the system browser. No doubt I’ll be returning it soon so that it can be put back on the shelf for another person to be disappointed later on.

Deadlocked

In this blog I’m going to touch on a bunch of things. Ready? Here we go.

INFAMOUS
After finishing the game on Hero, I started a new game. I’m up to the rank of Infamous and have 169 blast shards.

Through my whole first play I didn’t know what the blue dots were on the mini-map until the new game was started. It turns out they were the locations of the blast shards. It seems that a bunch of useful info about things in the game aren’t ever told to the player. Knowing some of these things makes for a much less annoying experience.

RATCHET: DEADLOCKED
Speaking of annoying, I was very much in that awful mood when I started Ratchet: Deadlocked. I knew that there were points like that in the game, like the bosses in games 1 and 3, but I didn’t need this right away. As it turned out it was something completely different that was annoying and not the game at all. So you can rest assured, ebbderelict, that when I did play the game some more I wasn’t bothered by it.

I think my current point is the third planet being unlocked at an hour and 19 minutes in. The only thing that I dislike is the mini-game feeling I get from this entry in the series. There’s a lack of story and characters to like so far. I hope that changes soon.

BIG BANG MINI
I like fireworks so this game interested me. It has 9 groups of 9 levels with a boss in each. With 81 levels just in the arcade mode I was ready for some action. What I wasn’t ready for was to be stuck on the current level 4-5 Luxor.

For those looking for a different style of a shoot-’em-up game, this just might be what you’re looking for. It’s currently around $20.

TROPHIES, YO!
With the trophies that I got recently from playing Infamous, my total amount right now is 400. You can check out the details on playstation.com.

NEW GAME
Yesterday I happened on a decent price for a game I’ve been wanting for sometime. It’s Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Usually I see it for $18+, but instead it was $10.

FUN TRIVIA
Today is the 54th anniversary of the real UCLA vs. Washington college football game that was mentioned in Back to the Future Part II (1989).

Futurepedia: UCLA vs Washington, November 12, 1955

That’ll do it for this time. Thanks for reading!

Rainbow of Games

Over the last three weeks I’ve accumulated the following additions to my collection. The totals are 22 games, 2 movies, and 5 albums.

Batman
It’s my first copy of it and it’s my favorite of the early Batman films. It has a bunch of extras including a 50-page book that’s apart of the case and a director commentary track which I usually look for in movies I buy.

Watchmen
Included with the two End Is Nigh games for the PS3.

Ten Pin Alley
I remember it from a demo disc years ago.

Big Bang Mini
It has interested me for awhile.

Frogger
It was free with the original PlayStation system that Usagi704 got recently and he didn’t want it so he let me have it.

Space Channel 5 Special Edition
For the PS2, which I originally thought was the first game until I found out that it contains Part 2 as well.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
I bought these two games based solely on the inclusion of the two original Konami arcade games as unlockables.

Namco Classic Fighter Collection
I’ve been interested in picking up a copy of Tekken Tag Tournament more recently. This three game collection helped out nicely with that as it had that game along with Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur II.

Wario World
It’s one of the few Gamecube specific games that I’ve yet to get that have interested me.

The King of Fighter XII
To play against others online, but mainly Usagi, of course.

Kid Klown in Crazy Chase
I lead myself to believe that this SNES Kemco game was at least decent for some reason. It’s not.

Deja Vu
Oh here’s why. This NES adventure game, which always had fun box art, was published by Kemco where as the above game was developed by them. Retroware TV episode 12-4 made Deja Vu seem pretty interesting.

Cabal
I remember liking the arcade version back in the day. This version works, but maybe not as well as one would hope.

Mission: Impossible
This was one of those games that we owned growing up so it was on my wish list because of that alone. Decent music I must say.

RoadBlasters
An interesting and mildly fun shooter style racer.

This next group of three were bought with the idea that since my original plan to buy less has obviously failed that I’d start looking on eBay for the harder to find games that I want. Just once a month with a few exceptions like the upcoming Modern Warfare 2. Hopefully this will work this time.

Doom
This was the game I was going after. It doesn’t have everything, but it does have most of The Ultimate Doom and Doom II games. It’s kind of a compilation of sorts.

Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense & Soul Blade
These two games were simply apart of the three game deal. Neither of which I had and I’ve heard some good things about both.

Finally, I looked up the prices of Michael Jackson album on Amazon.com and other than HIStory costing about $23, the rest were only $7-9. I looked locally for them first and no place had a good selection or price. So I ended up getting all of the albums expect for HIStory (price) and Invincible (already own).