4-23-07 Weekend Recap Club Edition

[CeeKay]

And you open the door and you step inside
Where inside our hearts

Now imagine that your pain is a white ball of healing light
That's right-your pain, the pain itself is a white ball of healing light

I don't think so

This is your life Good to the last drop
It doesn't get any better than this
This is your life and its ending one minute at a time

Well, this weekend seemed to just fly on by.  After getting in some GRAW2 MP Action in (and realizing that I was totally out of practice after Vegas) on Friday night I didn't get any real play time in until late Sunday.  I played through a portion of Super Paper Mario, making it within shooting distance of the end but I had to quit as the batteries in my Wii-mote died and I was feeling to lazy to go out for some more (I see that rechargable battery pack for it in my future).

I say never let me be complete
I say may I never be content
I say deliver me from Swedish furniture
I say deliver me from clever art
I say deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth
I say you have to give up
I say evolve, and let the chips fall where they may.

[TheMissingLink]

Rented MLB '07: The Show and am impressed out of my mind at how good it is - can't wait for the PS-TRIPLE edition.  It's gonna be ABAP.

Played a wii-bit of Super Paper Mario, couple ranked matches of Resistance, whooped King Hippo's ass in Punch-Out, captured some fiends in Puzzle Quest and downloaded a great, great game on PSN which I'll be making a thread about shortly.

[EngineNo9]

I rented Lost Planet and played the first couple levels in that.  I also took advantage of the recent backwards compatibility update and played a bit of Mercenaries.

I took the Wii over to my friend's house and played a little bit of Wii Sports, SSX Blur and Excite Truck.

I think my most time spent on a game this weekend must go to Desktop Tower Defense.  Waaay too fun and addictive for a little game. 

[ROTC1983]

Playing a little WoW.

Playing a lot of Theatre of War and Wing Island.

Just purchased Pokemon Pearl.

Trying to figure out why the computer is unstable with four gigs of good memory (ran memtest and nothing is wrong).

Other than that, life is peachy-keen

[disarm]

quite a bit of multiplayer GH2 for me, along with a little Panzer Dragoon Orta...not a lot of gaming overall though.  stupid sunday workdays...

[Zimix]

Made the mistake of telling my son I would log into WoW and help him with some quests.  Ended up spending way too much time in the game (after about a 6 week sabbatical).

[DonD]

Made a little more progress in Titan Quest.  I'm back to my Spirit/Dream character in the depths of hell, and closing in on the end.

Made a little more progress in Puzzle Quest.  I'm down to just a couple of missions each night now.  I'm trying to stick the the main quest line so I can finally finish it.

That's really about it.

We had company all weekend, so my gaming time was pretty limited.

[IkeVandergraaf]

Friday night I played some co-op Gears of War with ATB, then some co-op GRAW with ATB, Dreamshadow and others.

Saturday I was in CLE all day, but did get in a little Castlevania: DS during a break.  Played some GRAW2, both SP and co-op with Calvin and others that night.

Sunday was pretty much GRAW2, but worked in a little more CV:DS.  I've also been playing a little bit of Burnout Revenge as I never finished it, and I find it soothing.

[Torfish]

Nice weather kept me from putting in a lot of gaming.  Puzzle Quest DS was my most played game.  I couldn't put the game down, it is addicting.  I just killed the bat and now I am level 8.  Played some Titan Quest with my lvl 32 Dream Master/Hunter.  I did one tiger challenge on the Tiger Woods wii.

[ATB]

Gears coop with Ike on Friday.  GRAW1 MP with Ike, Dreamshadow and Shadow's friend Goose.  I enjoyed it very much and would like to finish all the maps coop.

Played quite a bit of Phoenix Wright 2 since I'm traveling. I finished the 2nd case.  I'm enjoying it about as much as the first one- but it'd be nice if every case wasn't a murder investigation...I'll probably be in for Pt 3, but not as enthusiastically unless they add more creative gameplay like they did in the 5th case of pt 1.

And that's the way it was.

[Kevin Grey]

I'll probably be in for Pt 3, but not as enthusiastically unless they add more creative gameplay like they did in the 5th case of pt 1.

Probably won't see that until PW4.  PW3 is the last of the GBA ports with PW4 being the first built from the ground up for DS. 

[coopasonic]

Lord of the Rings Online for most of my 4 day weekend. I'm ready for release tomorrow with 4 level 15s and a level 10 plus an Uruk Blackarrow about half upgraded for monster play.

I also made the big step and removed Puzzle Quest from my DS and put in Yu Gi Oh Something Tournament 2007, quickly realized there was no "story mode" of any kind and quickly turned it off. Is the other one (GX or something) have a story like Nightmare Troubadour? I don't want free play, I want story!!!

[Gratch]

Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero 2, then a little more Guitar Hero 2.    Stumbled across a copy at FYE on Saturday, and spent most of Saturday and Sunday playing.  Even though I've played it all before, being able to compare Leaderboard scores takes it to a whole new level.   I used to not care too much about my score when I played, but now I'm checking the board before every song to see what score I have to hit to move up.  Makes it a lot more fun. 

Played a bit of Puzzle Quest as well, up to level 50 now.  I think I'm about ready for it to end, as the whole story bit is really dragging at this point.  It was never stellar to begin with, but I'm now at a point where they're not adding anything new, and I'm just fighting the same enemies over and over again.  It's still fun, mind you, but I'll be glad when I get it finished and take a break for a bit.

Also messed around with a few goofy bowling and pool games on Gametap.  Mindless stuff, but a nice diversion for a bit.

[whiteboyskim]

Didn't play a thing until last night when I fired up my Wii for some Wii Sports. Otherwise, it was a busy weekend running around and such. Next weekend looks to be more of the same. Whee.

[Jancelot]

Guitar Hero 2 and the C&C3 demo were all that I had time for this weekend. 

I made myself put down Viva Pinata and Black in the store yesterday as I remembered how many new games I have yet to finish or even start.

[Laner]

Crackdown, Crackdown, Crackdown.

[Knightshade Dragon]

For me it was review crunch time so C&C3, Halo 2 for Vista, and some titles I can't mention yet.  I also got to work on a hard drive recovery tool for review.  Pretty cool piece of gear. 

[Tebunker]

Rented MLB '07: The Show and am impressed out of my mind at how good it is - can't wait for the PS-TRIPLE edition.  It's gonna be ABAP.

Played a wii-bit of Super Paper Mario, couple ranked matches of Resistance, whooped King Hippo's ass in Punch-Out, captured some fiends in Puzzle Quest and downloaded a great, great game on PSN which I'll be making a thread about shortly.

Everything I've read about MLB the Show has been positive, and it really is the only PSTriple game I am looking forward to until late summer/early fall.

I got some good time in with Super Paper Mario, and like a moof I started Rogue Galaxy and instantly fell in love with the game world. I have like 3 RPGs that I have been dabbling in and the last thing I needed was another one. So the plan is to punch through SPM, Punch out Rogue Galaxy while the Iron is hot. I am going to get some heavy gaming in the next couple of weeks, and clear out all the old games for good. I've said it too many times, and now I just need to shut up and do it. Wife might get a little made that I am playing too much, but she wil be happy when all those games are out of the house.

[pr0ner]

I played some God of War 2.  Badass game.

[Teggy]

Got to the last boss battles in God of War, but died part way through so I have to go back and finish it.  Started up Gurumin and got past the first boss.

[Calvin]

Well, I barely played this weekend, I mean very little and it was because of two problems I had this weekend. One is named Mom, the other Dad. They are in town, and while they have their own place I usually end spending too much time hanging out and not enough time gaming. So, I got in about 1 mission of C&C3 Nod campaign, played about one hour of Titan Quest Immortal Throne (and decided I was pretty much done with it), ran some benchmarks to help from comparison purposes with my new rig, played a game of NBA2K7, and had my most fun with GRAW2 coop on Saturday night with Ike and a few others.

I am not too upset about not playing that many PC games though-I figure with the new rig getting built today or tomorrow I might as well wait (it looks like tomorrow, damn you UPS!!)

[Captain Caveman]

I finished off all the challenges in Worms and got all the achievement points. I sure hope there's some DLC in the works for the game-- it would be great to have a deeper weapon arsenal and maybe some more challenges. I had never played Worms before this version, and now I'm a junkie (even though I suck something terrible over Live).

[depward]

Played three hours of Pokemon yesterday.  Yeah... I never thought I would do that.  But it's fun.

Played a little bit of WoW - up to level 23 now.  WOOT!

Played Super Paper Mario - fun little game.

Motorstorm'ed it up Friday night - love the hell out of online for that game.

[PeteRock]

Played a little bit of Oblivion on Saturday, and the rest of the weekend was again dedicated to Guitar Hero II.  I managed to finish 5-starring everything on Medium and have now moved on to Hard.  I was surprised at how easily I 5-starred the first set of songs, and I then 5-starred a couple of the songs in the next tier, that is until I met a song by the name of "Woman."  Oh.  My.  Now the game has become a formidable challenge.  On Medium I could pretty much breeze through everything with minimal effort, although the replayability was extended due to the leaderboards, but Hard is an entirely new challenge. 

Having finally been humbled, I think this will help me to get back to playing so many other games I've been neglecting. 

[Jarrodhk]

Played some Mechassault 2, Mercenaries, a little NWN2.  Bunch of Desktop Tower Defense.

[JSL]

I finished up Metroid Prime 2 Echoes this weekend. Although I did not like it nearly as much as the first game, it was still a good game. If there had been an easier mode I probably would have enjoyed it more. I ended with 93% completion rating and about 25 hours of game time. If you factor in all of the deaths and replays then add at least another 5 hours.

I started MP2 back in 2004 shortly after it was released and never finished it. I generally got frustrated with it and would stop or something else came up. I got about half way through, finding most of the major items on my own, and then started using a strategy guide to finish, as it was too frustrating after long gaps of not playing.

My backlog shrinks by one more game! Now I am ready for Corruption.

[Autistic Angel]

I played a good deal of Zelda: Wind Waker, completing two dungeons and charting several new islands on my sea chart.  I'm now at the point where

Spoiler for Hiden:

I need to find all the Triforce Charts, pay Tingle large sums of cash to mince around and decipher them, and collect the pieces.  I already have two pieces -- we'll have to see how it goes from here.

When Wind Waker is good, it's very, very good.  The two dungeons I finished were filled with extremely clever, inventive, and intuitive puzzles that made excellent use of all the different items I've acquired so far.  The stylized graphics continue to impress -- I still love the way the color temperature of the world is used to such great effect in establishing the weather conditions -- and the animation, particularly of the bosses, is just incredible.

Then there's all the stuff between the dungeons: an enormous, sprawling ocean where everything is at *least* five minutes away from everything else, every single sector needs to be individually charted by bribing the local marine life, and the townsfolk tend to speak in odd little riddles that leave it unclear how, or if, you're supposed to interact with them.  One woman stands on a dock, looking out to sea and pining away for some Skull Necklaces to attract her son's attention, yet has no reaction when I try to offer her one.  People keep warning me about encountering the Ghost Ship if I'm out at sea on certain nights, but in all my time playing, I haven't seen it even once.

And then there are the totally unnecessary gameplay conventions.  In most games, switching between two controllable characters would be a single button push.  Not here...instead, you need to

a) have the Wind Waker assigned to a hotkey,

b) perform a four-note song,

c) watch while Link then re-performs the four-note song,

d) finally take control of the other character.

Is that really necessary?  He can't just "ask" his friend to fly over there and hit the switch?  He needs to perform a mind-control spell every single time?

I don't mean to exaggerate the annoyance factor here.  It's actually a great testament to the quality of the core game play that despite these warts, I'm still enjoying Wind Waker as much as I am.  I just can't shake the feeling that so many of the warts were wholly unnecessary, and that only a little more polish and a little less padding would have greatly improved the whole package.

-Autistic Angel

[JSL]

People keep warning me about encountering the Ghost Ship if I'm out at sea on certain nights, but in all my time playing, I haven't seen it even once.

Spoiler for Hiden:

If I remember correctly there is only one area where the ghost ship appears and it is not at all obvious how to interact with it. You also can only see it on a night with a full moon. Get that day/night song ready!!

I have to agree with your other comments as well. If they had made traveling faster, gotten rid of some of the repetitious actions (switching characters), and added a couple more dungeons it would have been perfect. 

Metroid Prime 2 had a great collect-a-thon towards the end. Did we really have to collect nine keys to go on?