PixlBit

After a brief time with Monster Hunter Stories, I really managed to focus this week on my PS2 stuff and get through a lot. Then I traded a bunch of them, but also picked up some new ones. 

PS2

Top Gear Dare Devil - Not a great game but I enjoyed it anyway. You mainly just roam various real-life cities and pick up coins and crash into stuff for points. You have a time limit to get most of the coins, which I dislike, and which makes crashing kind of counter productive. So it's really just about coin collecting in compact cars with rather wobbly controls. 

SSX - This game is clearly of quality, but just not my thing. Controls are excellent and the courses interesting. Pulling off tricks is intuitive and fun. I just wish I could crash into something. Battle snowboarding maybe? 

Gran Turismo A-Spec - I knew I wouldn't be much into it, but I wanted to feel the gameplay and see the visuals for myself. A quality game but kind of boring to me who wants to bang around like bumper cars. In simulation mode you start with a basic car and do some races. It's accurate to real driving and smoothly executed, but like I said, a bit boring to me. If you like to tinker, though, it's great. 

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - I loved this and kept playing until I got a little tired of some platforming challenges and took a break, maybe until next year. This will never leave my collection. I just need the other two games again physically for PS2. 

Dragon Quest VIII - I wanted to get very deep into this but my disc kept crashing. I turned off the music to see if that would help, but it takes so much out of the experience, that I would rather not. It didn't help anyway. It just wouldn't load an area at a certain point. Darn these old DVDs, I've more problems with them lately that make me want to just jump ship on the whole lot. But I won't. 

Killzone -  I had to have this in my collection because I love the series and have beaten this game with my friend MK way back. This time around I was slightly disappointed. Levels are short and seem to stand alone without linking cut scenes. Each level gives you a new weapon but have limited ammo and once you're out, you can't pick up another one. Weird. I don't remember this at all from when I played it all those years ago. Still, I'll take another crack at it another time. 

God of War - Amazing game. What stuns me the most is the cinematic presentation and not just in cut scenes but constantly during gameplay. The camera moves around perfectly to show of the environment as you play and aid your movement. The cut scenes just give me chills of excitement as hyrda roar and gigantic gods roam the battlefields. I got about half way through it before tiring of a particular puzzle that was stumping me. 

Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures - I got this on a whim because I love underwater games. This is colorful but mostly 2D in exploration levels and back-to-front chases like in Crash Bandicoot games. Controls are ok. Exploration can get a little frustrating though as there is no map. I eventually found myself swimming in circles fighting off way too many electric eels and puffer fish looking for that last puzzle piece to proceed. I'm an Orca! Why am I threatened by such small fish and can only eat krill? It's a game for kids mainly anyway. Looks good though. 

Capcom Classic Collection Vol. 1 and 2 - I play these again and again for all the shmups like Exed Exes (Savage Bees), Vulgus, Eco Fighters, Side Arms, Varth and brawlers like King of Dragons, Knights of the Round and Magic Sword. A bonus is Quiz & Dragons which is a board game and quiz game mashup I really enjoy. 

Grandia III - I've had this two-disc game for an eternity but have never gotten past the first boss because it is a surprise bump in difficutly when you get there. This time though, I muscled past it and am still going, hopefully around the half-way mark now. I love the battle system. It's turn-based but has a wheel that marks the time between moves. Enemies freely move during these moments and the object is to time your attacks to block an enemy's powering up and then send a second character in to do an airborne attack for extra damage. It makes the turn-based gameplay way more active and exciting without actually being in real-time where you can miss moves. The story is fine and the cut scenes gorgeous. It's quite the epic production. I'm really enjoying it and hope to beat it in the next few weeks. 

XSS

Monster Hunter Stories - I played an afternoon of this before getting back to retro. I'm really enjoying the game. I like riding your "monsties" (bestie+monster) and being able to switch them in and out during battles seemlessly. Combo attacks with your monsties are the key to battles, so you have to figure out how to boost your relationship with them by choosing sympathetic attacks. It makes battles really interesting. You can collect new monsties by pilfering eggs from nests and developing them during adventures. Really cool! I'm enjoying it. 

Purchases

After this week, I'm going to limit my buying a bit to only the essentials of the collection I want for each system. I want to resist impulse buys and attempts to try new things for a while. I tend to spend to much doing it that way. 

Army Men RTS (NGC) - I reaquired this. It was an old favorite and I want to find out if it's still a favorite of mine. 

Gran Turismo A-Spec (PS2) - A top rated game that I respect, but don't enjoy, I found out. 

SSX (PS2) - Same here. 

Killzone (PS2) - Although I was a little disappointed playing this again, I still think it's essential for my collection, if for nothing else, memories. 

God of War II (PS2) - With a bunch of trades, I picked this up to have a full physical copy for my PS2. I hope it works, but I've had good luck at Classic Game Junkies so far. 

And that's a week. I'll be finishing Grandia III next week and diving into my stack of 2006 PS2 games and move on to the Game Cube (may be a while).