The Blade Runners

Two weeks ago a package unexpectedly, but also expectedly, arrived in the mail. It was from my Space Suplex podcast co-host @24bitAJE. Without charging me a single penny, Anthony graciously sent me five WWE Blu-ray releases spanning from 2012-2014.

First up is The Best of Sting and Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Collection. Both are 2-disc sets for each of the former Blade Runners, if you will. The next one has almost all of the around 30 War Games matches that WCW presented from 1987-2000. The great Dusty Rhodes gives some of his thoughts on what went into putting these crazy matches together in War Games: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches.

Finally, there’s two volumes of ECW Unreleased. The use of the term “unreleased” is kind of a misnomer. It seems to only apply to the ECW Championship match at CyberSlam 2000. Regardless, I’m sure both volumes will be enjoyable.

On a separate note I picked up Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse on PSN during their recent flash sale for $5.

Thanks for reading.

3 Games Finished

I haven’t done a gaming update in awhile so let’s get to it.

I finished three games recently. The first was Riot Zone. I was able to clear the game on one credit on Easy with a score of 473,270. One move which can make combat easier is always using the jump kick on the enemies. It works great on bosses too, but overall makes the game pretty boring. A fairly mediocre game on a system not know for beat-’em-ups.

Yesterday I completed Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars on the DS. For my first full experience with a point and click style of game it was great. The hint system helped out in some tough spots. The story was fantastic with a surprising turn of events for one of the characters right near the end. Definitely recommended if you’re into these types of games and maybe even if you’re not like I was.

Back during the first quarter of this year I was a bit burned out of the God of War games because I played the PS3 collection around that time. I had left God of War III unfinished until I decided to pick it back up and finally beat the game. I did so earlier today. The boss battle with Zeus was better in God of War II, but still good enough and certainly overall less frustrating.

Those three games bring my total of finished games for 2010 up to 27. The full list can be seen here.

I can’t get enough of the addicting pinball game Alien Crush. I’ve bested by top high score again with it now standing at just over 17.2 million!

Finally I’ll leave you with video footage of Pit-Fighter gameplay from the Genesis version.

Thanks for reading.

Now Playing: July 2010

Here’s a summary of what I’ve been playing for about the last month.

I put the breaks on continuing with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 because it required more perfection than I think I have. When power went out for around 12 hours two weeks ago I started up Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars on DS. Point-and-click adventure games aren’t usually my thing, but this is definitely a good one. A risk that was well worth taking to try it out.

I bought, played, and finished Red Faction: Guerrilla. It comes recommended if you find it at a discount. In the same vain I also got Double Dragon II and beat it on one life on the Hard difficulty the very next day after receiving it in the mail.

When it comes to the nostalgic pinball game Alien Crush from the Virtual Console, I’ve still yet to better my top score of almost 8.7 million points.

Mirror’s Edge was the third and final game finished this time around. I’m currently still playing it, but doing so in the Time Trial mode. It’s exactly what I like about the game (the platforming) without the awful combat. I’m far from a genius in knowing the best route to take for the best times. I just enjoy trying to best DuncanR2N’s times. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t. It’s about 50/50. I normally get pretty close even if my run doesn’t work out. Five more trophies were obtained via this awesome mode!

I’m thinking of going back to one of two games I left unfinished back in the first quarter of this year. It’s either X-Men Origins: Wolverine or God of War III. I’m still not decided on which it’ll be. Maybe some of you fine folks can persuade me one way or the other.

And finally a game I went to eBay for was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue. I had this game around the time it came out, but I never played it all that much. The game’s level layout seems to be Metroid/Castlevania like (or as the cool kids like to call it today, “Metroidvania”).

eStarland has it going for around $15 cart only, but I was able to get it off of a first time seller for just $6. With this purchase done I only have five games left to get to for the Game Boy before I have all I want for the platform.

Ninja Gaiden’s Winter Trails

In just six days after I started, the nine chapters of Mirror’s Edge have been finished (#23 for 2010).

I still feel the same about the game as I did when I laid my feelings out in my previous blog post. I still have mixed thoughts about it all. Like I said the controls are great and work well with the platforming. I just really dislike the combat and I can’t see how it’d be possible to avoid taking out some of the gunmen in a few spots during the game. I did get more competent with the combat, but I’d still like to know how to avoid it altogether.

One thing I don’t buy is the combat not being great because of who Faith is. I’m not being a jerk when I say this. It’s really just a poor way to excuse something that could’ve been more polished. Maybe there wasn’t more Dice could’ve done to improve it. I’ll grant you that possibility. However, there’s only so much that should be modeled in a realistic sense in a video game before it’s no longer any fun.

Regardless of any of my complaints, I will be continuing to play the speed run portion of the game. As you all know from my past gaming experiences, I really like doing that in certain games.

WII SHOP GAMES
I downloaded three games recently on the Wii. First was Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, but I haven’t started it yet. I also got two games that are very nostalgic for me. One is Alien Crush which I played a bunch of when my family got a Turbo Grafx-16 once it was heavily discounted. The other nostalgia title was the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden. The only place I ever saw or played it at was Snow Trails when I was growing up. My memories of that ski lodge and that game will forever be intertwined.

RECENT GAMING STATS
Mirror’s Edge trophies: 18 / 51 (35%)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars progress: 5h56m; 56%
Alien Crush top score: 8,693,100

Thanks for reading and make it a good one!

This Is The Badlands

I figured I’d start off this blog entry by clearing up my “Games Finished In 2010” list. On June 30, I retroactively added Prince of Persia: The Fallen King to the list as the 20th game beat on June 11. I did this because of that stopping point I experienced at 70% into the game. In doing so I also removed Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. While terribly difficult, I suspect the game is still doable. I just won’t be trying now to defeat it. I’ve gotten my fill of that game for the moment.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post of a week ago, I’ve started playing Red Faction: Guerrilla. It’s one of those typical open world games where you spend a lot of time playing in one session, but accomplish very little. It also felt that way to me when I played Grand Theft Auto IV, Mercenaries 2, Saints Row 2, and to a lesser extent Infamous. I think it has a lot to do with all of the running around from place to place with so much you can do that it makes it easy to get side tracked.

Of course the highlight of the game is how destructible everything is and it’s definitely a blast. Just taking your axe to everything and anyone is great. Doing so gets me killed more often than I’d like and this is because I’m simply not paying attention to my health bar at the top of the screen.

I’m currently roaming around the Badlands and Oasis areas with 8 hours and 48 minutes of playtime logged so far.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars has been a lot more entertaining than I expected it to be. Not because it isn’t considered a good game, but because I’m not usually into the point-and-click adventure games. I’m glad I got it for the DS as this type of game works perfectly on the platform.

With 3 hours and 30 minutes of the game played my progress is about a third of the way through.

Lastly, I bought a black PS2 memory card a couple of days ago in case I ever need it. I assume that with as many PS2 games as I have it’ll come in handy.

That about does it for me. Until next time, you guys take it easy. :)

Post E3 Game Thoughts – Final Trio

I have a trio of games left over from E3 to share my thoughts on.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit – Many reasons point to why I’d be excited for this new Need For Speed game. The first I played and still really like was the third game on the original PlayStation. The fact that Criterion Games is developing this entry also doesn’t hurt either since I loved the Burnout series overall.

Tron Evolution – I never cared for the past games or film and I’m not currently interested in the new movie. However once Spoony noted that the game gave him a Prince of Persia vibe with the wall running moves, I checked out the E3 stage demo. I must say that I’m a bit interested in the game now. Definitely more my style.

The Sly Collection – After finishing Sly 2: Band of Thieves more recently I haven’t exactly been wanting to check out either of the other games in the series. It maybe worth picking up this collection disc, but even then I’m not all that sure that the art style of the series lends itself to looking a whole lot better in HD.

I picked up Red Faction: Guerrilla yesterday and plan to play it next.

I consider Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 finished. Reason being that it requires more than perfection to win last few events. Because of that it’s done.

Because of the storm that knocked out the power for 12 hours last weekend, I started playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – The Director’s Cut on the DS. It sure knows how to make you feel smart and stupid all at once with its puzzles. I’m 15% done.

Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day!

New Games Arrive (119)

Today I bring to you my first purchases in three weeks. It may not sound like a very long time, but it has felt like it to me. I’m hoping to slow my game buying habit down quite a bit. So I’d like to get to four weeks in between purchases from now until next time. I’m not going to hold my breath on that, but to just try really hard. :D

Without further ado, here’s those purchases of which I speak.

Maximo vs. Army of Zin (PS2)
Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (PSP)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – Director’s Cut (DS)

I was quite surprised to see new copies at Best Buy (where all of these games are from) of Maximo vs. Army of Zin. After all it is a six year old game. It’s also a game I didn’t ever plan on getting since it’s as difficult as the series from which it’s based, Ghosts ‘n Goblins. I mainly got it from seeing this video of the prequel in action.

I picked up Medal of Honor Heroes 2 because of the overall good things I’ve heard about the game. It’s another older game at two years now.

I can’t really remember where I first heard about Broken Sword, but this look at the Game Boy Advance version had me interested in it.

That’ll do it for me this time. Until the next blog, you take it easy.