-01/01 | Sam and Max 103 (Steam)
-01/01 | Merry Gear Solid 2 (PCDL)
-01/02 | Sam and Max 105 (Steam)
-01/02  DoDonPachi Resurrection (iPod)
-01/03 | Sam and Max 106 (Steam)
-01/07 | Sam and Max 201 (Steam)
-01/08 | Sam and Max 202 (Steam)
-01/09 | Sam and Max 203 (Steam)
-01/15 | Umineko 1 (PC)
-01/21 | Umineko 2 (PC)
-01/24  Deathsmiles (360)
-01/24  Alien Swarm (Steam)
-01/31 | Umineko 3 (PC)
-02/11  Pokemon SoulSilver (DS)
-02/15  Max Payne 2 (GFW)
-02/16 | Sam and Max 204 (Steam)
-02/20 | Umineko 4(PC)
-02/24  Shatter (Steam)
-02/27  Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia (PS2)
-03/01  Ougon Musou Kyoku (PC)
-03/02 | Puzzle Agent (Steam)
-03/13  Pokemon White (DS)
-03/14  Sam and Max 205 (Steam)
-03/16  Dissidia 012 Prologus Final Fantasy (PSP)
-03/19 | Umineko 5 (PC)
-03/27  Magicka (Steam)
-03/28 | Umineko 6 (PC)
-04/03 | Umineko 7 (PC)
-04/04  Ys I (PSP)
-04/12  Ys II (PSP)
-04/18  Starry☆Sky ~in Spring~ (PC)
-04/22  Starry☆Sky ~in Spring~ (PC)
-04/23 | The Tempura of the Dead (XNA)
-04/30  Banjo-Tooie (XBLA)
-05/05  Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd (PSP)
-05/09 | Sam and Max 301 (Steam)
-05/15 | Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox)
-05/20  Flower (PSN)
-06/15  Pokemon White (DS)
-06/30  Pokemon White (DS)
-07/20 | inFamous (PS3)
-07/24  Trine (Steam)
-07/27  Parasite Eve (PS1C)
-08/20 | don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story (PCDL)
-08/25 | Sam and Max 302 (Steam)
-08/27 | Sam and Max 303 (Steam)
-09/05  Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs (DS)
-09/08  Ghost Recon: Shadow War (3DS)
-09/13  The Legend of Zelda (VCH)
-09/15 | Yoshi (VCH)
-09/15 | Donkey Kong Jr. (VCH)
-09/15 | Ice Climber (VCH)
-09/15 | Balloon Fight (VCH)
-09/15 | Wrecking Crew (VCH)
-09/22  Professor Layton and the Curious Village (NDS)
-09/23  Professor Layton and the Curious Village (NDS)
-09/25  Bayonetta (360)
-10/09  Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (PS2)
-10/13  Galaxy Angel (PC)
-10/14  LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
-10/20  Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
-10/22  Heavy Rain (PS3)
-11/01  Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
-11/04  Flower (PSN)
-11/06 | Sly 1 (PS3)
-11/12  Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (NDS)
-11/19 | Sly 2 (PS3)
-11/23  Hatoful Boyfriend (PCDL)
-11/24  Hatoful Boyfriend (PCDL)
-11/25  Sly 3 (PS3)
-11/27  Sly 3 (PS3)
-12/11  Chantelise (Steam)
-12/12  Chantelise (Steam)
-12/17 | Sam and Max 304 (Steam)
-12/17  Portal 2 (Steam)
-12/25 | Umineko 8 (PC)
-12/30  Sonic Generations (PS3)
-12/30 | Protect Me Knight (XNA)

Deus Ex was groundbreaking material at the time, that much I can understand.  It has a great sense of atmosphere, being able to nail down the cyberpunk setting really well.  The story and the dialogue is really well done, and I found myself picking up random newspapers and books just to find out more about the world.  The soundtrack was also really well done, with the main theme that plays on the title screen coming to mind.

It should have been enough to make me play the game, correct?  Well, the gameplay did not live up to my expectations.  Sure, the game gives you a lot of different ways of letting you proceed through the game in just about every way possible, but I always felt like there had to be some best possible way to get through a mission.  For example, I had to make sure that I had the right number of keys and that I brought along a chocolate bar for this one mission.  I tried to let myself go of that and just play through the game without constantly checking up on what to do, but I just didn’t seem able to do that.

The controls didn’t make things much better.  Trying to be stealthy felt like an exercise in trial and error, so I found myself constantly reloading just to get it right.  I also didn’t like how clunky the combat felt.  I constantly found myself short on ammo, close range combat to be relatively useless, and often getting myself badly damaged in a lot of cases.  I felt like I was punished for not putting my skill points in the right places like I should have.

All of this lead me to taking forever to get through the few missions that I played through.  It makes me less motivated to complete the rest of the game.  I’m probably not going to finish this game, and I don’t see myself playing Invisible War if I didn’t like the first game all that much.  I’ll wait and see if Human Revolution is good enough to warrant a go, because the first game disappointed me.

On May 15, 2011, I decided to start up Panzer Dragoon Orta since I was in the mood to play it.  I ended up doing a no-death Hard Mode run.  It was only my second time playing Hard Mode and my second attempt at a no-death run after trying to do one in Normal Mode last year.

The no-death run went well, leaving room for some mistakes here and there.  Total shot down ratio ended up being around 90%, with 83% being the lowest for any given stage.

My endgame stats were the following:

• Base Wing: Level 5
• Glide Wing: Level 4
• Heavy Wing: Level 4

The only time I had to redo a part was the boss fight for Episode 7.  The graphics for that part glitched out when I got to that part, so I had to force myself to die on that fight and redo the fight.  It has happened every time I’ve played this game on my 360 and it seems to go away when I start over from the fight.

The final boss fight surprisingly didn’t give me much trouble, despite it being the toughest fight in the game with three forms and the dreaded homing laser attacks.

I still have a number of things to do to in the game, including doing the sub missions and accumulating enough time to unlock everything in Pandora’s Box.

I’ve had this game for as long as I’ve had my 360, which was about 3 years ago, along with Eternal Sonata, Soul Calibur IV, and Gears of War 2.  I got the game around the time that it came out, and was pretty much my introduction to the Tales series.  But the thing was, I only played it for a few hours before I moved on to Eternal Sonta and completely forgot about Vesperia.  I’d go on to play Symphonia for the Gamecube about 2 years ago, and I haven’t really played a Tales game since then.

As of right now, I am about 25 hours into Vesperia.  I’m trying to do as much as I can in one playthrough, which means do all the secret missions, get as many items as I need to, get certain achievements for doing things, getting titles, and grade farming.  Since I’m taking my time on my first playthrough, it means that I’m doing as much level grinding as I can.  I’m having my roommate help me out in battles.  I usually play as Yuri while he usually plays as Judith.  Hopefully, we can get through most of the game before graduation and we have to go back home.  Thankfully, we’re both done with classes so we can both play as much as we can before graduation comes up.

So here are some of my thoughts on Vesperia since I’m about 1/4 through the game.

1)  Vesperia has to be one of the most broken RPGs I’ve played in a while.  The thing is, I haven’t gotten to some of the more broken moves and spells in the game.  Rita is the most broken mage ever in the Tales series.  Not that I’m complaining.  At least she acts less of a derp than Estelle.  I like Estelle, but she aggravates me from time to time in battle.  And of course, there are Fatal Strikes.  It’s just a matter of trying to pull them off, really.

2)  Karol is my favorite character in Vesperia so far.  Not Yuri, but Karol.  I though that I wouldn’t stand him when he first joined my party, but I ended up liking him right away.  Kind of a shame that I don’t use him a lot in my party at the moment.  Karol is probably going to remain my favorite character for the rest of the game.

3)  I’m constantly afraid that I’m going to mess up and miss some item or sidequest.  But that’s why my roommate and I have the guide at hand whenever we play Vesperia.

4)  I like this game a lot better than Symphonia.  Symphonia was a nice intro to the series since it seems to be the gateway for a lot of people into Tales, but free running among other things make this game an already better experience.

5) I’m not looking forward to doing some of the secret missions.

6) I’m keeping the black fedora on Yuri for the rest of the game.  That and when I get the Dark Enforcer costume.

I haven’t been playing a lot of stuff because I’ve been dealing with the last week of classes and finals.  Then I have to worry about packing up my stuff and not leaving it until the last minute until graduation and going back home.  I’ve been finding it pretty difficult to put aside time for Tales of Vesperia, the game I’m currently playing.  I’m going through the game much slower than I usually would since I’m trying to complete as much stuff as I can in one playthrough and eventually get 1000 GS.

So I’m probably going to do a lot of these small posts and stuff.  One thing that I’m already liking about moving out of Midnight Hearts aside from not having to deal with a lot of group drama is that I don’t have to worry about overtaking the site with my posts and feeling bad about flooding everyone else out.  It’s the one thing that always kept me from posting more than I wanted to.

I guess that’s all I have to say for now.  I’m going to go play some Vesperia and make some progress.  Maining Yuri here for now.

I recently left Midnight Hearts due to personal reasons and I’m back on my personal blog.  The 11 months that I spent in the group were good times, and we even had a group blog going for a bit.  When I decided to leave the group, I left the chat group on AIM and MSN and left the blog.

I don’t think I’ll be doing another group blog for a while since no one on the Backloggery seems to be doing them anymore.  I guess I’ll be staying here on my personal blog for the time being.

I have a bit of cleaning up to do around here, but I’ll try to post more than I have been doing this year so far.

2011 Stats:
61|32|20|0

1) / Sam and Max 102 (PC) (01/01)
2) / Sam and Max 103 (PC) (01/01)
3) / Merry Gear Solid 2 (PCDL) (01/02)
4) / Sam and Max 105 (PC) (01/02)
5)  DoDonPachi Revolution (iPod) (01/02)
6) / Sam and Max 106 (PC) (01/03)
7) / Sam and Max 201 (PC) (01/07)
8) / Sam and Max 202 (PC) (01/08)
9) / Sam and Max 203 (PC) (01/09)
10) / Umineko Ep 1(PC) (01/15)
11) / Umineko Ep 2 (PC) (01/21)
12)  Deathsmiles (360) (01/24)
13)  Alien Swarm (PCDL) (01/24)
14) / Umineko Ep 3 (PC) (01/31)
15)  Max Payne 2 (PC) (02/15)
16) / Sam and Max 204 (PC) (02/16)
17) / Umineko Ep 4 (PC) (02/20)
18)  Shatter (PC) (02/24)
19)  Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia (PS2) (02/27)
20)  Ougon Musou Kyoku (PC) (03/01)
21) / Puzzle Agent (PC) (03/02)
22)  Pokemon White (DS) (03/13)
23) / Sam and Max 205 (PC) (03/14)
24)  Dissidia 012 Prologus (PSP) (03/16)
25) / Umineko Ep 5 (PC) (03/19)
26)  Magicka (PCDL) (03/27)
27) / Umineko Ep 6 (PC) (03/28)
28) / Umineko Ep 7 (PC) (04/03)
29)  Ys I (PSP) (04/04)
30)  Ys II (PSP) (04/12)
31)  Starry☆Sky ~in Spring~ (PC) (04/18)
32)  Starry☆Sky ~in Spring~ (PC) (04/22)
33) / The Tempura of the Dead (XNA) (04/23)

2009 Progress
??|65|8|0
2010 Progress
??|80|23|0

With the two marathons going nowhere, I decided to drop them, copy Blink/Noxie/Rar/Kari/Endaso and start my own Recommendation Station. Unlike the last two marathons, there is no time limit and I can take as much time as I’ll need. The only rules here are one  game per person and look at the list before making your choice. Here is the list so far:

 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS) – Mudjoe2
 Alan Wake (360) – Riss
 Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii) – Orpheon
 Atelier Rorona (PS3) – Rarutos
 Chrono Cross (PS1) – Blink
 Disgaea 3 (PS3) – Chuko
 Elite Beat Agents (DS) – mokonoamoo
 Fallout 1 + 2 (PC) – MrNelson007
 Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix (PS1) – Hojo
 Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS) – Norbi
 Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS) – Heal
 Grandia II (DC) – CephiYumi
 Killer7 (PS2) – Seijika
 Klonoa (Wii) – Destrono
 Knights in the Nightmare (DS) – Kari
 Mana Khemia (PS2) – Noxie
 Metroid II: The Return of Samus (GB/C) – Alienjesus
 No More Heroes (Wii) – PaperLink64
 Ogre Battle 64 (VC/N64) – Lumenaire
 Pikmin 2 (GCN) – Cyfenwadau
 Plants vs. Zombies (PCDL) – naikou
 Radiant Historia (DS) – Valour
 Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2) – SnakeEyez
 Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2) – Ninten and BadSeafood
 Silent Hill 2 (PS2) – Endaso
 Tales of Rebirth (PSP) – Illuminage
 Tales of Vesperia (360) – Ayai
 Vagrant Story (PSN) – Sonicx64
 Xenosaga Epsiode I (PS2) – AyameMajikku
 Ys I&II Chronicles (PSP) – Sobou (04/12/2011)
 Ys Seven (PSP) – MechaGojira

So then I lost my old PSP and my saves.  I lost some games, but unfortunately, Persona 1 Portable was not one of them.  I told myself that I’d get rid of it as soon as I could and send it off to some victim-I mean lucky person.  I was too lazy to do that.

So I started a Recommendation station where I have people recommend games that I play.  This meant anything.  This is what Noxie recommended:

*shakes fist*

and this was me:

Playing Persona 1 again has left me in despair!