Sunday was spent with family. I watched my neice and nephew both playing Minecraft on various devices. My neice was building a haunted house for Halloween. My bro-in-law and I watched the football games: Eagles/Cowboys - dreck, New England/Seatle [cor. Green Bay/Seatle] - great game. I think I put in about five minutes into Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 when I got home. I'm just not finding the time for it yet.
Monday was game filled though. I'm going through my collection in order of shortest to longest game and then trading them in when I'm done. I'm gearing up for the all-digital future, and I think I could stand to own fewer physical games.
First up was Mayhem in 3D on Xbox 360. This is a destruction derby game with arenas and tracks. It's a good second option to Burnout Revenge on 360. Controls are tight and the tracks are interesting. I'm getting really close to completion with this game. I need something like 2 stars to unlock the last mode in the game. I'm only about six or so points away from unlocking the last of the cars and tracks too. The one race type I have some trouble with is the elimination race. Every minute or so another car is eliminated from the pack - whoever is last. Trick is to crash against other cars to knock off parts to build your boost meter. Problem is, that sometimes means you spin out and have to turn around. I realized after a while that it's better to just drive backwards if you get turned around because you can still use boost and will be able to turn forward on the next hairpin turn. I also learned it's better to just go all out and crash other cars then try to race it clean. It all works out in the end when your boost meter is full most of the race.
I got burned out on Mayhem though and moved on to Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, a PSN title. I finished the game. The final boss was a pain, but I beat him on normal difficulty. It looks like the game doesn't have trophies. I thought trophies happened before 2008, but I guess not. This game is gorgeous to look at and the dialog funny. The shooting is great and there are lots of interesting weapon types. In the last battle, I switched between three different weapon types to win.
Then I started Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z back on Xbox 360. This game's gotten a lot of bad reviews but there's actually some fun gameplay here. The visuals are stylized like the way Borderlands does it. I guess the idea is a comic book look. Anyway, it looks great. There's lots of gore in this game which is less disturbing in this art style. The fighting is fun and full of special kills. I'm reminded of Splatterhouse from 2010. My one issue so far is lack of check points. I'm on this one mission that I keep failing right near the end, but if I quit out, my stats will be saved, but not my level progress. I had to replay several miniboss fights just to get back to the final boss again because I quit the level. I'm enjoying the game but I had to take a break from all the quick combo button presses after a while.
There was only a half hour left but I put in Homefront. Homefront is an cover-based FPS that takes place in a realistc looking Colorado suburb during an invasion by North Koreans. There's some disturbing opression you witness near the begining of the game, but then you're off running through backyards and shooting at ATVs and flak jacketed soldiers. The controls for shooting are super tight. This is a game developed by the guys who did Timesplitters, so I expected that. The environments are full of realistic detail as you would see from a slightly run down American suburb. I wanted to explore right away but you get shot at by a helicopter pretty quick if you do too much of that. You basically have to keep moving and just quickly look around when there's a short break in the action. It gives you a good feeling of the desperation of the two resistance fighters you meet and who you are following. I'll be deep into this game next week.
And that was my weekend of gaming.
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