Hythia

As I write this my house smells of bathroom cleaner, cheap vodka, and I hear my sister downstairs singing to 80s pop tracks. Yes, a party is in the planning for tomorrow night and I have no idea if my place will survive it.

My sister just shouted, “Oh my god! I didn’t know the words and they are dirty!” She was playing ‘SingStar 80s’ on my PS2 and singing ‘Come on Eileen’. Little did she know, the 80s were a very naughty place. I forget at times that she is enough younger then me to not really have paid that much attention to the song lyrics back then…

Anyways, my sister is throwing a party tomorrow night. It is a birthday party for one of her co-workers and I guess about dozen of their friends. They spent tonight making jello shots for the party and re-arranging furniture so their’d be more space in front of the TV to setup for ‘Rock Band’ on the 360 and dragging my PS2 downstairs to try out ‘SingStar’ as well.

Most of the jello shots were made with Everclear, and the recipe they used only had instructions up to 100 proof alcohol. Everclear being 195 proof. Lets just say they have a bit of kick to them, it is the only time I can think of jello actually burning as it went down my throat.

It is going to be an interesting party, to say the least. A dozen plus drunken people, whom I know very few of, pretending to be rock stars and trying to sing in tune or play a plastic replica of a guitar. Even if their liver’s survive the alchohol, will the self-respects survive the memories of the party…

So I think I finally figured out why Suikoden 4 hasn’t been as fun for me as Suikoden 1, 2 and 3.

Basically, the game play and character recruitment so entirely overshadows the story, I really have no idea (or even interest) in what the plot of the game seems to be. The plot tidbits just seem to be spread so sparsely and so much time ends up passing between them as you run around and explore and recruit more of the 108 Stars of Destiny that you are almost surprised when the next one shows up and you get told to go fight a battle somewhere again.

Plus, while I usually enjoy naval stuff, in this case the travel between places by boat just is dull. Largely because the scenery never changes ( the ocean is pretty monotonous to watch ) and the random battles that occur have remarkably little variety for opponents.

I really really really want to like this game, and I know I am going to grit my teeth and finish it just to see the ending ( and get the completion save so I can carry storybits on to Suikoden 5 and Suikoden Tactics ) but gyah… Really can’t recommend it.

Wonderful series, but pick up Suikoden 3 ( or even better, the old Playstation Suikoden 2 ) and see if you like those as an entry to the series instead.

(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)

So I didn’t log into CoH/CoV tonight. ( Er, last night rather. Damned insomnia, keeping me up until 2am.. ) Original plans for gaming in the evening fell through, and then I guess a miscommunication on back-up plans had me assuming those were falling through also. So I took a break and tried to make some headway on my ‘Stack of Shame’. By that, I mean the stack of console games sitting next to my TV gathering dust because I just haven’t gotten around to finishing them yet.

PS2
Fullmetal Alchemist 2: The Crimson Elixer - Neat game, better gameplay then the first game, not as good of a story. The first game did the normal ‘gaiden’ or side-story bit for an anime-to-game translation of inserting a bit of story between episodes of the anime. This game instead re-writes the story from the beginning. It keeps a lot of the same events, but casts them in a very different light. In chapter 5 of I think 7 right now. Will have to do a second playthrough ( still need to do a second playthrough of the first game ) to unlock all the bonus features.

Suikoden 4 - Amazing series of games. Suikoden 2 may still be my favorite console game ever. The 4th game has all the potential to be a lot of fun, but it never quite grew on me as much as I hoped. Likely because I got distracted right at the point where I finally got enough freedom to sail you flagship around the world and explore a little. I heard there is a ‘Suikoden Tactics’ game that came out recently that I may have to look up and try as well.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Neat neat concept for a game. Set in Europe during the time between WW1 and WW2 it is a very brooding, very moody game with some great visuals and some really well done characters. Wish I’d gotten a copy of the original ‘Shadow Hearts’ game so I knew a bit more of a the backstory, but this sequel is definately to my taste. I stopped playing it to play the first FMA game and just haven’t gotten back to it yet.

Star Ocean: Until the End of Time - I got to a point where the story slowed down and the pacing changed a little and it just threw me for a loop. If I remember right, I am about to go beat up a giant ancient dragon so I can mount a magic cannon on it’s back to shoot an alien spaceship out of the sky. It really is less goofy then it sounds.

Kingdom Hearts - For a Disney-based RPG, this is a fun little game. The actual game-play is pretty good and the main characters weapon, the Keyblade, is just really neat looking. I think the next bit I had to do was rescuing the Beast from the Sleeping Beauty evil queen’s palace.

La Pucelle Tactics - I like tactics games, I really loved Disgaea which was by this same publisher ( though I never got around to picking up Phantom Brave ). I just haven’t taken the time to finish this game yet. I got pretty far once, and then completely hosed my game by driving off a lot of my minions by screwing up with some training of them. The most recent play-through I think I was pausing to build up levels to try to get the ’special completion’ reward for the next stage I had to do.

XBox
Halo - I’ve never gotten to completing it. I really need to get a second controller and do it Co-Op because the point I am at, if I remember right, is where I have to escort the captain out of an alien spaceship and everytime I try he takes about two steps and then a bunch of aliens pop out and gack him.

Spider-Man - One of the Vulture maps just pisses me off. Plus I deleted my save games by accident a while back and just haven’t spent the time to re-play to the ‘Clocktower of Suckiness’ level.

Gladius - Another tactics game. Set in a pretty interesting setting which manages to merge Roman and semi-Norse cultures togethor. I think I actually just have one final set of tournament matches to complete and then the final end-game to do.

Genma Onimusha - I really and truly suck at this game. I really wish I didn’t because it is a neat game, but something about the combat system in it just doesn’t click with me so I spend my time playing it dying over and over again.

Ninja Gaiden - Got stuck in this at a point where I don’t have enough health to make it through the next major fight, but neither can I survive fighting back out to where I could get more health. Started replaying from an earlier chapter to try to avoid that bit of a bind, just haven’t spent the time on it yet.

Gunvalkyrie - I vaguely remember this game, one of the first XBox games I got. Very arcade sort of play style if I remember right. Never finished it.

Blood Omen 2 - Keep starting this game, getting a ways into it, putting it aside for a few days, and then coming back to it and having no idea whatsoever as to what I was doing in it or what I have to do next. So I end up having to start again since I can’t advance since I don’t know what I need to do to advance.

Gamecube
Metroid Prime - This was the game I got my Gamecube for. Amazingly cool. Very fun. Got stuck in the same way I did with Ninja Gaiden, can’t make it past the Space Pirates in front of me, can’t make it past the ones behind me. Just whenever I sit down to play my Gamecube I get sucked into Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, or Mario Kart instead.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem - Very very Call of Cthulu’esque. Atmospherically creepy to the point that I realized a while back that if I play this after about 10 pm, my dreams that night are going to be so completely fucked up I might as well just not sleep at all. I’ve actually gotten a good chunk of the way through this before, just one chapter where you have to play a guy who has a freaking musket for a weapon gets me killed every time. Musket vs creepy-demon-undead = dead guy still trying to reload his musket.

And that I think is pretty much all of my stack of shame. I have a few other games that I have ‘beaten’ that I still keep in the stack because their are more goodies and hidden features to unlock in it, but I am not counting them for the purpose of this list.

Actually looking at this list… I don’t think I have really bought any games since last Christmas season, other than the two Fullmetal Alchemist games. So many games to beat, so many other things to do with my time that keeps me from getting to them.

(Originally posted at A Home Away from Hythia)