Killing time

I finished the 2nd mission and the first 1/3 of the 3rd, which is more flags, more killing, and a couple more assassinations.

Every assassination target keeps saying how there doing the right thing and explaining that they are trying to help, but the protagonist is dumber than a bag of hammer and still doesn't catch on. I guess they don't train assassins to be independent thinkers.

Hail to the king

Finished the first half of the second mission today, and again the majority of the time was saving villagers and collecting over 100 flags. The actual assassination work took less than 2 minuets.

Also I bought today Little King's Story today new for 15$.

Nice one agent!

Finished the first real mission today, the previous stuff was just tutorial and prologue, and the assassination part seems to be just an ending to all the running around.

For the most part I was running all over a city collecting 33 flags (with the help of a guide), saving civilians, gathering information (through eavesdropping and beating peole up), killing Templars, and climbing to the highest points. It was all fun and when I was finished I did the actual mission and killed the guy in 30 seconds.

Tomorrow it's more running and collecting stuff, and maybe killing some one.

Swims like Akane Tendo

So far assassin's creed is pretty interesting, although I'm just past the prologue. It's sort of a open sand box game but with nothing to do but run around to your mission, and the running a jumping is the best part. The combat in the game is rather weak, you either sneak up and one shot a target, or flail at them with you sword and hope you hit something. Also it surprised me when I fatally discovered that this super athletic assassin can't swim what so ever, going in over a foot of water is instant death.

But as i said, the parkour elements are good and there are tons of things to collect (like the orbs in crack down).

Well that's twenty-seven down...

Finished off mad world today, and in the end the plot was rather crazy.

The people Jack is working for are a high up government agency, but even higher than them are is some corrupt element of government sponsoring the games, so there is not chance of any one going to jail. The guy who was sponsoring Jack was an original supporter of the games, but the current games are nothing more than a blood sport with no higher purpose behind them than just making money, so he wants jack to kill them all for corrupting the games. The people running the games are just high profile bookies funded by a pharmaceutical company as a giant bloody ad for their virus cure. Lastly, Jack was actually a 3 time champion of the games who had his identity changed and was just using the agency to get him back in so he can kill a whole lot more scumbags, knowing no one high up would be arrested if he didn't kill them personally.

So tomorrow it's away from the insane random slaughter of masses of MadWorld and on to the refined planed slaughter of masses in Assassin's Creed.

Rank 52

I got past the second area and more of the plot is explained. Seems that some big budget terrorist group cut off all access to a city and told the people there that they can either kill each other for money or die from a virus. There is also something going on about settling a disputed with a duel, so the whole kill the city ploy may just be a way to find the best champion for some one's side.

The color commentary (Greg Proops and John Di Maggio) can get really repetitive really quick, almost to the point of being unintentionally funny, sounding like dimwitted robots instead of humans.

And i killed a lot more doods.

Rank 93

Well I finished the first area, and the story so far seems to be that "Jack" (voiced by Spike Spiegel) is some kind of under cover cop taking part in a terrorist sponsored "Running Man".

It's an action game, so there's not much to say, you kill doods.

Well that's twenty-six down...

Well in the end the plot turns out to be that you have to rescue your mother and sister becaseu you're part of an bloodline of kings that have the power to release a sword that can destroy the world. The Jack of Blades was the leader of the raiders who attacked the village and the main villain, despite being introduced when the game's 75% done. So in the end the mother dies and the sword is released but this world destroying power can be taken down by a dozen fire balls. Oh, and Corn was working with the bad guy, no surprise there.

The original fable ended there, but on this version there is a new quest at the end to extend the game play a couple hours. You basically have to go all over the world on mini quests to then open a big door and fight Jack of Blades again as a giant dragon. It's a neat adittion and gives one more huge boss fight (something the second game lacked).

Tomorrow it's on to MadWorld!

Crashes and Hobbes

I continued the main quest a bit more today and raided the bandit camp. The first part of the raid was trying to sneak past some guards, but since my stealth skill was nonexistent I kept getting spotted and had to kill them until I got a chance to just run pas them all. Then I had to clear out an area of bandits in order to get enough costume pieces to sneak into the main camp, my double lightning skill came in handy here. Once in the camp I had to cause a distraction so I could sneak into see the chief, so I let some prisoners of the bandits run free. Then when I faced the chief I had to fight him in a standard boss fight.

After the fight the woman I was looking for came out and it was my character's sister. Turns out that the raiders blinded her for being stubborn and dumped her into the woods, from there she found a bandit camp and they raised her. Since she shares the same hero linage as my character she could see the future and was a deadly warrior despite being blind. Also she is the blind mage that helps the main character in Fable II (which I didn't know at the time), which is kinda weird since it's 500 years later. All in all, her story line seems much more interesting than my character (very Toph like), why couldn't I play as her?

Before leaving the bandit camp the chief tells me to finish him off after beating him in a fight, but I was more interested in looting all their stuff. This caused the other bandits to attack me and the chief joined in the fight again, so In the end I had to kill them all off any ways. The weird thing is that I got 120 points towards evil for killing off the camp! Fortunately I later got 200 points of good for killing a earth elemental.

After that the quest line told me to save a village from Balverines, and if they are anything like the wolf-men of Fable II I was going to level up more before I fight them. So I took a bunch of side quests, mostly escort, and used magic almost exclusively to build that skill. One of the quests I took was to save a child from a Hobbe cave, and seeing how they could change children into Hobbes in Fable 2 there was a bit of urgency. Turns out though that all I had to do is clear out some caves and then escort the kid back( no Hobbeification for him). The way back had so many Hobbes attacking at once that I couldn't use magic, they would get past and attack the kid, so I had to slice 4 at once with my sword to keep them back.

When that quest was finished I went back to explore any parts of the cave I missed, fighting an earth elemental along the way, and once in side the game crashed! The last auto save was at the start of the Hobbes mission so I had to do it all over again!!

After all that though I had enough points to level my lightning to 3 and put all my left over points into strength (in case I get in a spot like those Hobbe waves) so I'm ready for the Balverines tomorrow!

Shocking!

Didn't play too much today, did a couple side quests and a main story (such that it is) quest where I just had to travel from A to B so Corn can tell me to look for a blind prophet who is most likely my character's sister. Along the way I got my lightning spell up to level 2, so now it hits 2 targets at once.

The leveling system in this one is very awkward compared to 2. To level up you need to use the skill to get points for it, but the first magic skill is so weak that killing anything with it takes for ever and you need 12000 points to get to level 2. Using a sword on the other hand takes no skill point to use a better on and adding points to strength takes much less points and has a direct impact. It's like the game punishes you for using magic and rewards weapons, and range attacks are completely useless. In the second game the magic skills are more balanced and easier to level, and the range weapons are useful for their rate of fire and distance. Also in this game you can only level up at the hero's guild, not at any time like in the second game.

The reason I didn't play much was that I was out buying Arc Rise Fantasia, which came out on the 20th despite the website still saying it's out on the 27th. The first few places I went to were all sold out already (like any limited release good Wii game), but I finally found a place with 1 copy left and it was even 5$ less than any where else. While there I also noticed they had Deadly Premonition for 15$ (I was a fan of Giant Bomb's endurance runs) and a sale that a 2nd used game was half off, so I also got Kameko (one of the only good RPG like 360 games I don't have) for 5$.

When I was redoing the title bar with these new additions I noticed that it was getting too long to even fit on my 16:10 monitor, and there are still several more games I want to get in the future. So I figured that 25 finished was a good cut off point (over 1/3 done) and started the list over from Fable and modified the rest of this page a bit too.

Mr. Potato Head

So far Fable is interesting enough, and plays like a clunky version of Fable 2 (which makes sense), but I'm a few hours in and there is no story really. Raiders attack your village take your mother and sister and "mortally wound" your father (betting he comes back) and then Corn shows up out of nowhere and takes you to hero camp. There are hints that the reason for the raid will tie into the main plot, but so far it's mostly just "go on random quests and get popular". In the second game the main lot is introduce in the first half hour, some jerk kills your sister and tries to off you and you seek revenge., it gets more complex as you go but the basis is there.

Also the design of the models are really ugly, this was made 3 years into the xbox release and the characters look worse than KotOR which was a year older, compared to Jade Empire this looks like a generation behind. They look like lumpy potato people with ventriloquist dummy mouths and huge deformed feet. The voice acting is not bad but it seems to have 1/4 of the variety of the second game. Aside from the named characters the only other voice actors seem to be generic man, generic woman, guard, and bandits.

Also the fighting system is really unintuitive. To toggle the sword and crossbow is the left and right bumpers, but to use magic it's holding down the right trigger and targeting is left trigger. So when combat starts I try to use magic first but hit the bumper instead and get out my crossbow, and then to aim the crossbow I have to press the left analogue stick, but then targeting takes me out of aiming and leaves me defenseless since I have to hit left bumper to get my sword out. Also the default lighting spell randomly chooses if it wants to auto advance to the next target or just fly in a random direction.

But it's still fun and at about 12 hours long I'm already about 1/4 through I think so I can put up with the ugly and awkward...

Well that's twenty-five down...

I finally got all the notes necessary to revive the harvest goddess and finish the main quest line of the game. Technially there is still 50 notes left to colect and much more to do since the game basically goes on forever, but I wanted a clear goal while playing.

For the last note I didn't want to wait another 10 days to get the Christmas note, so I first planed to waste all the money I had to get the "Poor" note, but then I had a change of heart and went the complete opposite way. I bought a bigger barn and filled it with livestock to get the "Animal Kingdom" note, so if I ever return to that game I have waiting for me 4 sheep, 4 cows, 5 chickens, and a horse (and I hand enough trouble with just 2 sheep and 4 chickens).

So tomorrow it's on to "Fable: The Lost Chapters", and if the second one was any indication it should only take a few days. The next 4 games in fact should take not much time since they are all action adventure titles and not long JRPGs, and then it's on to the huge open worlds of the Saints Row games.

Now were cooking!

As fall wore on and the notes were harder to come by I started trying to cook the vegetables I was growing and was pleasantly surprised to find that they sold for about 50% more after cooking. but it was late in the month at this point so I didn't do it for very long.

In the end I managed to get enough notes to make another instrument just as fall ended. Depending on how much I can play tomorrow I may be able to get the last instrument and finish the main story line by waking the harvest goddess.

Birth and a wedding!

My sheep seems to have impeccable timing...

Today I focused on the things needed for marriage:
-Got the carpenter to 1 heart
-Built the 3rd level house
-Got the large bed
-Got the blue flower
-Proposed to future spouse.

While this was going on my sheep was pregnant waiting to give birth, and with it's great timing it gave birth on the morning of my wedding.

Along the way I also earned 2 more musical instruments! I only have 8 more notes to collect to revive the harvest goddess and 3 of them are easy ones that will come by the end of fall.

Shear luck

Made a bunch of progress today.

The sheep I was raising seemed to take forever to mature, and I was beginning to think that it would miss the Sheep festival on the 29th. Then with perfect timing the sheep matured on the morning of the 29th! It didn't win but I was at least able to compete in the contest.

My intended spouse now has maxed out hearts and I have collected 30 notes (which I got another 20% health for), so all that remains is to get a blue feather from the mountain and upgrade my house to level 3.

I also cleared out the other half of the new land and built a chicken coup on it, So far I have just 1 chicken, a chick, and another egg hatching soon. I upgraded My house to level 2 too, but the construction is still going on so I don't know what it will be like.

A couple day before the end of the season typhoon hit, but fortunately didn't do too much damage and the crops lost only had a few days left. So now I have a bit more yard work going into fall!

Pork and mutton!

Got a lot done today, mostly towards getting the 15 slot rucksack. In order to get the bag I need to befriend the woman at the clinic and give her some yarn, easier said then done. To get the yarn I first need a sheep, and to get a sheep I need a barn, to place a barn I need more land, to get close land I need to befriend the mayor.

So each in-game day I gave a potato to the mayor and a bread fruit to the woman (their favorite), until I got them to 3 hearts. Then I bought the land close to my original house and cleared it of trees and rocks. Next I bought a barn and wound up getting a free pet pig with it, and then bought a sheep to place in it. So now I just have to wait until the sheep in big enough to shear it then process the wool into yarn.

While doing this I also managed to get to the 100th floor of the mine and win the swimming competition, each giving me 20% more health. Also I got another instrument and my future betrothed is up to 5 hearts.

Knowledge is power!

After the mishap with the flower festival, I figured I should do what I did in the past with Harvest Moon games and consult the site "Ushi No Tane" heavily.

So I made a spreadsheet of all the notes and sorted them to which are easiest to obtain, discovered the process needed to expand my rucksack to 15 spaces, how to get more land, and what my potential spouse really likes. With all this data I already collected another musical instrument and I'm half way to the next one as I start off summer.

On a gaming note, I picked u a few more titles recently.
About a month ago I saw a copy of Second Opinion for 15$, but the box was completely in french and when I asked at the counter they said that it was a french only version, so I didn't get it. Since there I have not seen a copy, even used, for under 30$, until today when I found one that was 22$ in an english box and bought it. The kicker is that once I opened the box I found that it contained a secondary french cover inside and discovered that the 15$ game was fully bilingual all along!

Also earlier this week I picked up a copy of Pikmin 1 for the Game Cube for 10$, a pretty good deal since most places sell it for between 30$-80$ as a collectors item. Technically I should put it in the list right after Harvest Moon, but that would make 5 titles on my Wii in a row, and I wanted to get back to my 360 even if it was just to play Fable for a few days. So I placed it after the Saint Row games to break up that block of 4 Xbox games.

Also I got a brand new copy of Resonance of Fate for 35$ (half price), and Dragon Quest IX for the DS (also 35$).

Well that didn't stop the horse race...

While playing today I reached the annual Flower Festival, and even had grown a flower before hand to enter into the contest, but when I get there it's been canceled...

For lack of flowers!

The village is in the middle of a forest, and they couldn't find enough flowers? I found 5 just wandering around the maintain that day. It appears that I needed to stock up a box in the town square with flowers before hand, but this was never mentioned. Only hint I got was that the egg festival was called off the year before for lack of eggs and I was encouraged to deposit eggs in said box. The thing was that I didn't even have a chicken and the festival was held anyways without me donating anything.

So now I just have to busy myself for another week till summer arrives and see what that brings.

Horseless horse race...

One of the things I did today in HM:MM was attend the horse racing festival, which oddly enough had no horses in it and the race was not shown. it may have been different if I had a horse to enter, but as it was it was a little weird.

Also I managed to get another instrument, but this one may be the last for a while. The requrements for getting notes are getting more complicated, like hatch a chick from an egg which requires me to get a chicken coop, some chickens, an incubator, and wait for an egg to hatch. With spring drawing to a close though it may open u new events that i could get plot notes from.

One heart

Made a bit more progress in HM-MM:
-Got enough notes to make another instrument
-Bread-fruit patch is turning in a quick profit and a second batch is on it's way
-Making a bunch of additional money mining
-Got my planed betrothed up to one heart (few hundred dollars in gits help)

and it's only about half way through spring.

That's my bag baby!

Didn't get too much done today but I did save up enough to get a 10 slot bag (huge improvement of the tiny 5 space one) and leveled up the watering can to one that covers 3 spaces at once (saving a bit of time and effort watering each day).

A blue Harvest...

The plot behind this Harvest Moon game is that you need to collect enough musical instruments to awaken the fairy goddess, and you get the musical instruments by collecting 5 "notes" each that are given like Achievements.

So far I have 7 notes and getting familiar with the lay out of the area, the camera is zoomed in really close so it's hard to judge where things are at first. The only real goof in planing so far was that I thought you could walk around plants like in other 3D HM games, so I planted a 3x6 grid, but it turns out the center plant is inaccessible like in the 2D games. fortunately I just had to lose 2 plants to still be able to water them all.

More farming tomorrow!

Well that's twenty-four down...

coming in several days under the previous Paper Mario game, SPM was still quite fun and interesting.

The last area was a huge castles where at the end of each chapter a party member was lost, until it was down to just Mario at the final confrontation. There wasn't a multiple form end boss but rather boss battles against 2 bosses in a row.

The trickiest bit was when I lost way too much health during the fight before losing Peach that I only had 6 HP to make it past a huge hoard of enemies that take off 3 HP each hit. After dying many times I managed to kill just enough to level up, restoring my health to 50 and then surviving long enough to stock up on healing items again.

In the end the power of love prevailed and everyone lived happily ever after.

Next it's on to Harvest Moon: Magical Melody!

Mario and Luigi's bogus journey

So back in the game over realm, Mario and Luigi have to guide the ruler's daughter to her father in their equivalent of heaven. Along the way they finally meet up with Bowser and Peach again as they travel mostly upwards in the longest world yet.

in the end it's revealed that the daughter is actually the pure hart transformed into a person and she sacrifices her life in order to help save the world.

Now with all 8 pure hearts it's off the the final confrontation tomorrow!

Mario goes to hell...

Really odd chapter this time...


First it starts off that the team has to fight 100 opponents one at a time, they all go down in about one hit but traveling from one opponent to the next is tedious. Then by the 25th opponent the rift in space gets even stronger and brain washed Luigi shows up to waste even more time. Mario then high tails it to the king only to find that it was an evil minion in disguise and time has run out for the world. The gang escapes the world's destruction but when they return they find only empty whiteness and the Pure Heart they were after is stone.

After they leave theough another minion show up and blows them to hell, literally! Mario wakes up in the realm where characters go after game over and he has to find his way out, along the way he finds luigi (who was also blown up)no longer brain washed and his high jump ability opens up new areas. After finding the daughter of the ruler of this realm Mario and Luigi are given a continue and brought back to the normal world with the Pure hear restored.

Now the final world opened up and it... the game over world I just left. So tomorrow it's off to find Bowser and Peach and finish the last world.

a twist!

I finished the level and it turns out that the cavemen were at fault for polluting the water supply with their garbage, which resulted in the plant king's madness, so the plant people were mind controlling them to stop the pollution. An interesting change from the normal black and white good/evil in Mario games.

They have been soiled...

The levels are certainly getting bigger, this one I couldn't finish in one sitting.

The plot of this chapter seems to be that plant people have been kidnapping the local cavemen and turning them into drones by growing plants in their heads.

I should have it finished by tomorrow.

Kidnap your face!

I forgot to mention last time that Bowser has also joined the party, which now clearly has assigned roles. Peach tackles the tricky platforming elements with her float, Bowser attacks all the enemies with his fire breath, and Mario handles the puzzle solving with his perspective shifting. It's interesting how they broke up the 3 key aspects of the game into each character.

One thing that was retained from the previous Paper Mario games is the change of genre each chapter. The previous chapter had a video game theme with the retro 8-bit feel and dating sim element, while this one takes place in space and even has side scrolling shooter areas.

The last boss surprisingly was a brain washed Luigi, and he was rather powerful. Too bad he can't get his own decent game.

geeks quad

Finished another level of SPM, and it's still quite fun and int resting even without the RPG game play. This level featured a lot of otaku jokes, and even a dating sim reference. I'd write more about it but my key board is dying on me (3 keys already missing and the space bar dosen't work half the time), so typing anything is a bother till I get a new one.

Got a fly!

The game is getting more fun and changeling, felling more like a really complex platformer than an RPG. Now I'm able to switch between Peach, who does her trademark float, or Mario, who can change perspectives, and the stages have gotten bigger.

Less RP, more G

I finished the first world of Super Paper Mario, and so far it's fun, but not really an RPG any more.

The previous Paper Mario games had clear RPG style battles, this game has just Mario stomping on bad guys and some RPG elements like leveling and items.

Also the game is really easy so far, nearly all "puzzles" are obvious just by changing perspective (which I do constantly).

I'm betting that this game won't take long...