Valheruish.com

Guybrush Threepwood: "Do you need help?"
Murray: "Help? Help?! I will end you!"

The reviews were right. Part 3 of Tales of Monkey Island (The Lair of the Leviathan) has proven to be awesome so far, the first hour or so. I've been playing the game with a big grin on my face for 80 percent of the time. And, hey. Murray! Who can argue with that.

Yes, after basically finishing part 2 with the help of uhs-hints.com, I started this series up again. Can't stay with just one title for more than three minutes now, can I? Anyways, this probably being the best in the series and probably up with the best of Telltale (and therefore the best in years as far as adventure games go), I need to experience it. When did playing games become a chore, exactly?

I haven't found it difficult to play for the past one or two hours, though. Very easy, in fact. Very easy to digest. Just up my alley.

Tales of MI is excellent entertainment for a few hours! I loved all episodes. The last two are equally good, so you'll love those too, I think.

I finished ME2 and am now trying to play through some backlog. I got hooked on Left 4 Dead (the first) that I bought in the Steam end-of-year-blowout for 3 bucks. Supertwitchy zombieshooter. I wanted to play online but the community sucks, if you're a newcomer and make mistakes there's constant swearing and dissing and I can do without maltreatment from an 14-year-old. Luckily, the campaigns can be played with 3 excellent AI buddies.

Tonight Volbeat returns to do the show thay broke off in november. I'm dead tired, but still looking forward to it!

Going on the adventuregamers.com review, the third chapter is best. Some people do like the others better, surely it depends. I do know that the atmosphere in this chapter (inside the whale... creature... thing) is old-school excellence. I'm also glad to be rid of island towns and jungles for the time being.

One disturbing thing I've noticed about my playing time is that I'm taking very long with it. I can't remember if I took a break, but the time difference from my first save and the second was five hours[. And I haven't even left the first area! I was probably drunk. Yeah, that must be it.

There seems to be a [url=http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/The+Rumour+Mine/feature.asp?c=18592rumour[/url] that Tales of Monkey Island is coming to iPhone. I don't trust that rumour, but it would be pretty neat. Not that I'd prefer it over playing on the 36" inch TV, of course. Perfect screen for such a game.

Sticking with the iPhone, Final Fantasy 1 & 2 (the PSP remakes) are half a day away before getting released to the App Store. It goes without saying that I need to get them. iPhone is really starting to rival PSP and DS as hand-held gaming devices in many ways, not in the least because prices are 3 times or more cheaper.



Finished ME2 already... well, I just have too short an attention span. I'm at the point where you get three additional dossiers from the Illusive Man; I guess that's still in the first half of the game. Somehow Tales of Monkey Island got me again. I loaded up uhs-hints.com and I just blew through the rest of chapter two (which had almost completely faded from memory). So far, I haven't resorted to one for chapter three and I intend to hold out for as long as I can, taking it slowly.

I never really cared about getting cursed at by a stupid online teenager, but I guess it may be a problem in co-op games. There's still Uncharted 2 co-op that I could play online (or Borderlands, I guess), but seriously. I hardly ever play anything online. It's like it's just not for me. I go by my own speed, on the couch with a few beers.



Yeah, I heard. Decided not to go, but have fun.

Bought Heavy Rain, PS3 exclusive released today. It gets a medal for being probably the best-looking game to date, surpassing maybe even Uncharted 2 and Mass Effect 2. However, it also wins the shame award for being the first console game I've ever played that has a repeatable bug that renders the game unplayable. There's a certain move that I can't make in this scene or it will make my FBI character unable to move. Great.

I think I'll be able to get past this, but I'm still sour from the experience. This shouldn't happen on any console (or PC game, for that matter). Still, it's the next High Definition step after Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) by the same developers. Same idea, different story, amazing graphics. This is the sort of game that I can play in one breath... if I can get past this goddamn scene without the game hanging.

I told the truth. I just finished Heavy Rain and the credits are still rolling. And what a ride it was. This is perhaps the first time quality interactive story-telling has taken any tangible form (but we have said that a lot over the years). Heavy Rain is the sort of game that I need to play again (and again?), because my guess is that a lot could have played out so differently. I read that there are around twenty possible endings. I sort of feel that instead of the "Simon Says" sequences, maybe a few chances to simply choose my direction would have helped. Like with Fahrenheit (if I remember correctly), there is no second chance, no reloading of save games. Failing a sequence takes you there and if you want to see the different path, tough luck to you. Play the game again, is all that you can do.

Now, hordes of people are going to complain about Heavy Rain's plot holes. But what version of the story are they talking about? I didn't pay much attention to it, but I'm sure my game didn't include half of what they're talking about. And that's the big problem with a game like this: there are so many different combinations possible, that it's inevitable that some of them will cause problems.

But I think that's missing the point. It's a game, after all, not Shakespeare. The story is still miles ahead of 100% of current action games, which is obvious, of course, since story is the main thing in Heavy Rain. The gameplay *is* watching the story unfold, in between timed button-mashing (and, interestingly, using the PS3 controller's accellerometer capabilities) and finding a few hotspots here and there.

I hope I can find the strength to run through the whole thing again, because it will be interesting to see how the story is influenced by my actions. Until then, I can testify that this is an extremely interesting title with amazing graphics and unparalleled cinematography for a game. Mass Effect 2 can't touch this game there and that's saying a lot. It's a PS3 exclusive, so tough luck for everybody that doesn't own that system. Fantastic execution, though, and one wonders if this could've been done on an Xbox 360 without a harddisk install.

Too bad it's over. I spent all of Friday night and most of Saturday with this. Fastest play-through ever for me? Ah well, plenty of games left...

P.S. Having bought the European version this time (instead of, uhr, "finding" the US version of Fahrenheit, i.e. Indigo Prophecy, last time), there was actually some uncensored full frontal nudity in the game this time around, although no genitals . Take that, prudish US purists!


(Amazing graphics, huh? Self-shadowing titties ftw!!)

P.P.S. I really should include this trailer for Heavy Rain that I first watched a couple of years ago, when I didn't even have a f*** PS3. It put a tear to my eye and it still can, because the acting is so powerful, even while it's just a motion capture. I really like the contrast of the shy girl coming in for an audition versus her powerful in-character performance. Amazing, especially when you think back a few years and your jaw dropped at the amazing possibilities of such a graphics engine. They did not disappoint in that regard.

Wow, impressed with your uncharacteristecal determination and finishing a game! Good for you. And even enjoying it as you did! It's very annoying that it's PS3 exclusive.....for now. But Heavy Rain gets emotions raging both ways, which in its own right means it's a very emotionally involving games. If people get riled up about it, it means they are interested and have strong feeling about it. So even the plot hole ranting is a good sign. The graphics are absolutely stunning, no doubt about it. I deliberately don't read about the story because I'm still hoping it'll come to PC in a few months.... wishful thinking I guess.

What is your take on this excellent UBERNERD viral of an excellent game.

So Heavy Rain is gorgeous and engaging.Then again, who needs good graphics??

Insta-reply activated!


It's easy for this game. It's a movie where you time some buttons and controller shakes from time to time, with a couple of scenes where you actually control a character. It's not like you can get a GAME OVER screen. I did let one character die just because I felt like it at the time, but just spending the time will get you closer to the finish. And that makes it a game that's really easy to play. I can see why it's a console exclusive. Most people wouldn't watch a movie on their PC screen.

I'm also six hours into Final Fantasy on the iPhone. Now, that's torture. It's actually pretty cool, even with the thin story, but the random encounters... I've been through the infamous Hall of Gigas, though... twice! That's gaming history, right there.

Oh, and in less than a week, we'll see Final Fantasy XIII on this side of the globe. Without a doubt, I need that game, too. Maybe it even has that Square magic, even though it's a completely different game from what used to be Final Fantasy. At least the graphics won't disappoint, per usual.


Yeah, seems very unlikely. Myabe you could borrow my PS3 some time? :p Hmmm, that would actually not be such a problem. I have two current-gen consoles and stacks of unfinished games for both, after all! It would be a goddamn public service to provide access to games like Uncharted 1 & 2 and Heavy Rain to the less fortunate.


I have a hard time believing that teh interwebz was able to figure all that out without a few nudges from those who planted it. Maybe I'm wrong, and if I am it's a pretty cool way to introduce a new release. Another Portal game seems like the logical conclusion to me. I haven't even finished the first one; I own the Orange Box on PC through Steam.


, I really can't see myself getting into that again at the moment.

DF RULES

Heh, I guess that if you're into the game, it's even funnier. Anyway, I'm not sure what to expect from Final Fantasy XIII. From the RPGFan review:



There are no towns, hardly any NPCs to talk to, no exploration, no side-quests... is this still Final Fantasy?

I've just lost my mind. I bought Final Fantasy VIII on Playstation Network for 10 euro. What makes me think that this game will be better than playing it with an emulator? Damn Xbox controller dongle, why can't you just work?

FF8 is the only PSX FF game I never finished.

Final Fantasy XIII is out here today, and there was never any question that I would get it. So I did.

Well, I'm only about an hour and a half in, but first impressions are the most fun to gush about, so here goes. If you've ignored Final Fantasy XIII completely all this time, you might have missed the mountain of criticism that conservative fans have heaped on this title. It seems like FF13 has pulled a Mass Effect 2 (there is even something resembling a codex, in the form of the datalog!), but not in quite the same way. A great deal of the staples of Final Fantasy and indeed jRPGs have been, uh, "streamlined" (the buzzword of the past few years right there, people), but they did manage not to include a shooter in there. To me, the following is what made me sigh with relief: the second half opens up and leaves much of the linearity of the first 20 or 30 hours or so behind. That's a FF6, then, isn't it? I wouldn't know, since I never made it into World of Ruin in FF6.

Yeah, it's FInal Fantasy alright, meaning it's a goddamn long-ass game. Pretty surprising, really, that they can still pull it off with so much high-definition content. Hey, gotta spend those Square-Enix millions somewhere, huh? And that's another Final Fantasy characteristic that immediately shows.

This is probably first-hour buzz talking, but you've never seen cut-scenes and world-design in a video game like this before. Right from the beginning, the story feels very fleshed out with many details betraying an good deal of background. What's more, the pre-rendered cut-scenes, that include English lip-sync for a change (and in jaw-dropping 1080p, if your TV supports it--mine does only 720p), transition very fluidly into in-engine gameplay. This is a very pretty game and a good contender for best graphics ever (however, I find it becomes increasingly difficult to compare these modern titles in that department).

One pleasant detail that I've come across and haven't seen put forth in a review yet, is that, really, NPC banter is still in. The few reviews that I've read mentioned NPCs and towns being cut (streamliiiined!!!!1), but as you walk past NPCs in-between the dungeon-crawling sequences, you hear them talking. Turn on non-event subtitles and you've got your NPC talk right there--with no need to target any NPC and push X or anything! Streamliiiiined!!!11!

So, in the end, I think it's all gonna work out. The 1up Active Time Babble on FF13 prepared me for the fact that the first couple of hours are extremely gameplay-light; you can mostly get through every battle by repeatedly hitting X, without any semblance of strategy. About 10 hours in, apparently, you really start to get into the swing of things. The combat system is said to be to be one of the best in the series; it just holds your hand and releases all of it very, very... very slowly.

Meaning, of course, streamliiiiined!!11!1rofl1!1

I have decided that the "issues" that are levelled against Final Fantasy XIII are just the things that are missing from the game. But does it really matter? I think not. Personally, every Final Fantasy game I played was played pretty much the same way: combat in-between story. There were towns, too, where I would find every damn civilian NPC and cycle through their dialogue (which was mostly filler crap), and find the stores to upgrade to the latest. But these were just a break from the combat-story cycle.

Combat and story are exactly the focus of FF13 and it does them very well. So, this streamlining is arguably for the best... and maybe the best thing Final Fantasy has seen happen to it since it went to 3D. It's a distilled experience where the things that matter, to me, are in the forefront. When was Final Fantasy not linear and repetitive? It just had ways of masking it. Not very subtle ways.

Six hours in, I do feel FF13 is a step forward. It's never gonna be FF6, FF7, FF9, FFX or FFXII. But it still feels like Final Fantasy, nonetheless, like Final Fantasy XIII. And with the game so focused on those things that matter, the only thing I crave is going forward... to the next cut-scene and to the next challenging battle, which is supposedly going to happen more and more often as I get later in the game.

I like this new Final Fantasy and it provides some of the same kicks I got from playing Chrono Chross, FF7-9 and Xenogears on the couch. That's means it is a great success. High five.

Square Enix to release a new original RPG for iPhone! Trailer looks amazing.

Another World 15th Anniversay Edition for $10 at GoG.com. Bought it, downloading now. Gee, it seems like an eternity since I acqured a game from... alternative sources. Have I gone on the straight and narrow? Anyway, won't shed a tear over the money, so why not.

Bought Heavenly Sword, another PS3 exlusive, 30 euro. I'm enjoying it immensely so far. I had played the (very short) demo, but that didn't reveal much of the story. The graphics are phenomenal, especially considering this game is from 2007. I can imagine that this game was a system seller back then.

The story seems especially intruiging, but the slasher gameplay is equally appealing. I'm glad I bought it and that I can now scratch it from my "to get" list, but scanning the titles at the store made me realise how goddamn bitch ass motherfucking many games there still are that I need to get... Bioshock 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham's Asylum, Demon's Souls, Lost Odyssey and Magna Carta 2, to name but a few. And those only add to the list of games I already have and still need to play!

I'm such a pack rat, but I gotta get 'em all!

Oh, you probably heard of RiffTrax at one point in your life? The guys from Mystery Science Theatre 3k? Doing voiceovers of bad films? Funny as hell. Downloaded Terminator Salvation and gonna watch it later. I wonder if this makes the movie better to watch.