Tuesday, August 22, 2006
The Beginning of the End:Well, I finally got moved out of my apartment and moved into to my parents place for a week. School has started, but I'm not too worried since I've already graduated. I no longer have my job with the government, but now I have two new ones. The first is working for the university medical center. I dont really have a set schedule for this job; I mainly just come in to help with the data-basing and lab testing if needed. The other job is pretty cool because it has to deal with gaming. It's at a local LAN center here in Omaha called dotGAME. So if you happen to be in town, stop on by and check it out!
I picked up Ninety-Nine Nights last week and I'm almost done with it. Despite it being a short game, each of the characters (each with their own unique moves and abilities) bring almost a whole new experience to the game everytime you play through the character's story. It's also interesting to play because many of the character's stories are linked to other character's stories. You have to play through each character's story individually to see a new side to the larger story as a whole.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Resistance Is Futile:This weekend I headed into Lincoln to show off my Xbox 360 and Dead Rising to all my friends (who also are hyped about anything that has zombies in it). The weekend primarily consisted of video game playing, lots of eating and drinking, and of course, lots of sleeping.
One of my friends had recently gotten back from an assistant teaching job in Japan and brought over the “plug n’ play” game Kenshin Dragon Quest that includes a sword controller. Everything in the game is controlled with the plastic sword, and it’s pretty neat to watch your friends take up the entire living space to slice away at slimes.
At E3 this year, Square-Enix released a short teaser trailer for Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. Taking into consideration its Kenshin brethren, it only seems natural to have this game come out for the Wii. I’m definitely going to consider it in my future purchases.
Speaking of future purchases, a PSP is going to be in my future. How do I know? Well, I already bought two games for it. They were on sale for $20 and I didn’t want to buy them later when they’ll have the “Greatest Hits” packaging. I had actually bought one last weekend when my boyfriend and I found a steal at Wal-Mart because they were getting rid of a ton of games. In fact, they were still trying to sell the same game I got there for ten dollars more at Best Buy. That game was Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade. The game that I picked up at Best Buy this weekend was Lumines because it’s probably one of the best PSP games ever. I also happened to pick up Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves for the Playstation 2 because I saw the price got knocked down to $20 as well.
One game for the PSP that has recently perked my interest is Monster Hunter Freedom. My boyfriend and one of my other friends were talking about this game over the weekend and somehow decided to get it. The unfortunate thing about this was that they decided on this sometime around midnight. The only place that sells games around that time was Wal-Mart, so we ventured off in search for fun. But alas, our quest was fruitless as every copy had been sold out. The next morning we all woke up and my boyfriend and other friend got the game. I didn’t buy it because I have some glimmer of hope that its price may come down around Christmas time, but I doubt it. I really need to hold off so that I can buy Ninety-Nine Nights in a couple of days. Besides, buying games for a gaming system I don’t even own yet is just going to make me want to buy it now even more (because it’s already doing that, and has been even before I bought the games I have now). Even so, the more and more I watch my friends play the game, the more I want to join in on the fun. The question is, can I resist until Christmas?
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Dishonor The Dead:Well, as expected, Dead Rising came out a day later than its intended released date because I live out in the "boonies" for the summer. I took an hour lunch yesterday and waited around for the UPS guy to deliver the goodness.
I went to EB games the day the game was supposed to be out and saw the UPS guy making his rounds while a few other customers and I were waiting around in the store. This is how I knew when he made the deliveries, and because of that I was the first person to receive the game in Grand Island, fresh out of the delivery box. Unfortunately I had to return to work for the remainder of the afternoon. Even so, time flew by and I soon found myself slashing, beating, and dishonoring the dead.
I died quite a few times while playing the game, but dying in a way is good because you can save your current stats and start the game over with all the experience you've obtained. But don't worry, you can also load from a saved spot that you've made as well, so it's up to you which route you take. I think I've played through the beginning at least four times, but it goes through a lot faster and more enjoyable each time.
I have yet to play this game, but my boyfriend tells me that the leveling method in Dead Rising is also used in Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, (also made by Capcom) in which the character is put up against impossible odds, bosses, or other situations so that the character is intended to die as to level up accordingly. To me, this seems both good and bad. It's good, because you have an easy way to level up and take on harder challenges, but on the other hand it's bad because it messes up the storyline. Yes, the plot and story are still relatively the same once you start it over, but to me, the whole point of just leveling up, dying, reversing time, and then starting all over again (with all your obtained stats) seems like a pretty cheap way to go about it. In my opinion, the whole idea of leveling up in a game entails not dying while doing it, so that it seems as if you obtained/learned everything while going through the entire story. But I guess Capcom is showing us that stories/games don't have to start at the beginning or end when the game is over. This way you don't have to play the game the same way or with the same stats every time.
I've already mentioned this game before in a few blogs back, but with almost anything and everything that can be used as a weapon, this game's replay value is phenomenal. My favorite weapons so far are the guitars, baseball bats, bowling balls, shopping carts, and the lawn mowers. I never thought mowing the lawn could be so much fun...when it's filled with zombies that is. Also, putting buckets, masks, and cones on the zombies' heads also provides another good laugh.
With that said, I'd just like to state that this game makes me want to run through a mall full of zombies...thanks a lot Capcom...sheesh...
And here's a few pictures just to show you the humorous side to this already humoresque game:
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Emergence Day:I finally finished the quest "Mehrune's Razor" and I must say it was pretty sweet. Part of the quest took place in a cave, a mine, an Aleyid ruin, and an entire underground city! I guess the weapon that I obtained doing the quest was pretty neat as well. Mehrune's Razor has the chance of killing an opponent in a single swipe of the blade. Unfortunately, it's a magic item and therefore has to be recharged once depleted.
News has been announced today as to the release date (a.k.a. Emergence Day) for Gears of War. I'm just happy that it was finally announced. You can read about it HERE. At least all the speculation as to the date is finally over. I'm also pretty sure how much I've been telling you all that I've been waiting for its release since its first announcement at E3 two years ago. One of the sad things is that there has been no news relating to a demo release for this game. I guess it really doesn't matter anyway since I'm just going to buy it. I'll most likely get the limited edition.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Well, So Much For That...
As most of you have probably heard, they are downsizing E3 next year, so that means this E3-goer won't be able to go next year. It's quite depressing actually.
In other news I discontinued my CheeseWhiz Girl account on Xbox Live, so if many of you are wondering where I've gone (which is highly unlikely), now you know.
I had been holding off buying the downloadable games and content on the Xbox Live Marketplace for quite awhile, but I found that many of them are actually worth their price. Some of them are quite cheap, but they add up quickly. The only way it would have been better is if all the downloadable content was free. I finally cracked and spent some money via Xbox Live Marketplace to buy a few Microsoft Points. You can use these points to purchase extra downloadable content or other games that can be found in the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Remember how I said I was done with Oblivion for awhile? Well, I lied. :-P Last night I downloaded everything except for the horse armor for Oblivion from the Xbox Live Marketplace. You don't really need the horse armor if Shadowmere can't die anyway. She's also the best horse in the game. So if any of you that have Oblivion and haven't done the Dark Brotherhood quests, I recommend doing so now. It will save you a lot of time and money while playing. I think I already mentioned this before in another post, but it's also really valuable information for anyone who plays the game.
Some of the new hide-outs I downloaded for the game are pretty cool. My favorite is the Thieve's Den because it's an abandoned pirate ship underground! Well, I take it back, it wasn't really "abandoned." It was full of undead pirates, which I guess you could count as the residents. In my opinion, these guys just need to get a life. Alright, enough puns for today; I promise. But after I swabbed the deck of these undead dudes, the place was all mine. I'm such a home-wrecker, but hey, it's a pirates life for me! Here's a picture of the Den, and it doesn't do it justice...
The Vile Lair might have been pretty cool had I become a vampire. I guess I'll just have to make another character just to make use of this pretty sweet and creepy hangout. The Wizard's tower is a really cool looking place way on top of the mountains. It's really cool to stand up on the tower and look down at the towns and the Imperial Palace below. It's definitely a Kodak moment. The Mage's guild Orrery isn't really a hideout, it's just more of a really cool thing to look at and it also gives you special powers according to the phases of the moon. I haven't gotten to Mehrune's Razor yet, which happens to be the one of the biggest downloadable quests and the largest dungeon of the game. I plan on doing so tonight.
One of the other minor things I happened to download from the Marketplace were the gamer pictures for Halo 3. I guess I better get around to showing my support. I was just too lazy to spend money on it yet until it actually came out.
Currently, there are a lot of old-school arcade games available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and many more are coming out soon! I saw Contra being played at the Xbox booth during this year's E3, so there's a big possibility that it will come out soon. I hear that Street Fighter II - Hyper Fighting will be coming out soon as well.
The Dego Diva:
Date Of Birth: May 24th, 1984
Location: Wouldn't You Like To Know
Occupation: Student
Masters: Forensic Anthropology
Major: Anthropology
Minors: Art History & Japanese
Primary Hobby/Intrest: Video Gaming
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