Just a Dull Log of the Week's Gaming

On 10/14/2013 at 02:24 AM by KnightDriver

Monday:

At my friend’s place I played ranked tournaments exclusively in World Series of Poker: Full House Pro on XBLA. I met a lovely little female Avatar from Sweden who was wearing the same Pinball FX2 T-shirt as me. It has an image of fire up the front. In the first tournament she was also randomly placed right next to me. I tried to flirt Avatar style and planned to beat everyone else but her and then let her win. It was all just a joke really. Turns out she made it to where there were only three of us left, before I cleaned her out. Oh well, it would've been funnier if she had managed to stay in until it was just me against her. I went on the win the tournament, my first win in a ranked tournament. All around a fun experience. A couple more tournaments later though the system froze on me and I had to reboot. I then decided I'd had enough of Poker and went back to try and complete the achievements in Cabela's African Safari (CAS).

CAS was a lot of fun but very frustrating. I got several hunts with very small, skittish animals that were really hard to target and bring down, much less find in the bushes. I must've played this one hunt ten times and still couldn't complete it. I am playing on Expert difficulty which takes away the radars that tell you where the animals are and makes you have to target very precisely. They get placed in the same places every time to start, so it's just remembering where they are. As time goes on though, they move and if you miss a shot, they scatter making it really tough to find them again. When I finally gave up and went back to the lodge, there were other hunts to do, and I was able to put it off, thankfully. I think I might've needed a better gun that did more damage. That Porter was giving me bad advice. YOU FIRED!

Tues:

My birthday. Did nothing. Went to work. Blah! Played some Etrian Odyssey Untold (EOU) before bed.

Wed:

Read the comic Halo: Initiation #3 and did a blog about it. Moved my preorder of Wolfenstein to Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, out the beginning of November. Then bought Red Faction Guerrilla for $5, the cheapest game on my list of 2009 must-have games.

At night, played more EOU.

Thurs:

Started reading Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, first book in the Thrawn trilogy, on audio book. It’s unabridged but has music, sound effects, and great voice impressions by the reader. After the first disc, I can say I’m hooked and will be reading the whole trilogy.

Played EOU at night again.

Fri:

More EOU. Level 24 now.

Sat:

Went to Gamestop to buy Killzone 2 and one of the guys there remembered I was looking for Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story with the box and asked me if I wanted one they just got in. I said heck yeah, dropped Killzone 2, and bought it for $24.

Played more EOU. It's keeping me up at night now. Got to reign it in a little bit or play more during the day.

Sun:

Played some EOU at Starbucks waiting to go to dinner at my Mom’s (for my birthday). Did a mission where you have to stay in one level for five in-game days. I created an auto-walk track, put the system down, and waited for the day to end, then did it again the next day. I had already explored the entire level anyway, so it was just about turning the clock.

Went to see Machete Kills in the theater at the late late showing. It has to be the highest budget “B” movie ever made (how’s that for an oxymoron!). Mel Gibson makes a great villain, these days, both on and off screen. I have a strange fascination with Lady Gaga’s weirdness and fashion sense, but I didn’t see enough of her in the movie. I laughed a lot, but it wasn’t all that satisfying a film.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/14/2013 at 06:57 AM

happy belated birthday, man!

Inside Story is a great game. Very fun.

KnightDriver

10/14/2013 at 11:31 AM

Thanks. Can't wait to play it.

Ranger1

10/14/2013 at 07:37 AM

Sounds like ETU is keeping you entertained. Personally, sometimes dull is a good thing. Sorry you had a blah birthday, though.

10/14/2013 at 11:51 AM

I woke up this morning and suddenly realized I put ETU instead of EOU. Yikes! What was I thinking.

I had a nice birthday at my Mom's on Sunday with my sister and her family. I even got to blow out candles on a cake and open one of those birthday cards that plays music. My niece (she's eight) tried to beat me to the punch on blowing out the candles. I was ready though and got my birthday wish - "Challenge met little one. I, Zen Master Birthday Party, defy you to take my birthday wish". <chuckle>

transmet2033

10/14/2013 at 09:45 AM

I sat down at 830 Saturday morning and played Etrian Odyssey Untold until 2pm. I got hooked. I have gotten to Fenrir and my progress has slowed to a grinding halt. I am literally just grinding and collecting items to upgrade all of my equipment. I guess that I am just biding my time until I figure out how to actually kill the beast.

10/14/2013 at 12:03 PM

I'm at level 28 and just finished combing through floor 8 where the Wyvern is. I'm playing on the easiest setting and it's starting to feel a little bit too easy. I did have a tense fight though last night as I got surrounded by Killer Scorpions after opening a door.

I've been leveling up all the Passive skills like ones that give the whole party health if you defeat a monster or an extra attack if you get hit. I like watching those happen when I use Auto Attack.

It's neat the way they give you items from creatures. Some of them require you fight the creature in a certain way to get them, like the Fire Bird. You have to beat it with fire spells, or fire treated weapons to get Corolite (I'm spelling it wrong). Usually you use Ice elements 'cause that's its weakness. Beating it with fire is harder.

10/14/2013 at 12:25 PM

I tend to skip most text that involves useful information like tutorials. So, I may have screwed myself over as far as the strategy that I am supposed to use to kill Fenrir. Also, I am not quite sure about grimoire synthesis. I suppose that I am going to have to consult to internet to find out the information that I need.

I absolutely love Arthur's facial expressions. They are priceless.

10/14/2013 at 01:19 PM

Grimoire synthesis is confusing. You use 3 stones, one of which is lost in the process. Then you have whatever number of slots from one of the stones and can choose from the skills contained in two of them. I'm still not sure which stone in consumed. I think it's the base, but maybe it was the last one. I stopped doing synthesis for a while and just chose whatever stone was useful. I still don't get the equipment bonus. I guess it allows you to equip a weapon your class usually can't use. Sometimes it's seems to disallow the weapon you're currently using though. Some of those skills are handy however. I have a medic with a stone that has a Volt spell. It gives him something to do when his normal attack is useless.

I've been using the Reference option in battles lately. You hit RB and you get a breakdown of the creature's weaknesses, if you've met it before. I used the Analysis spell and items before to try and uncover some of the question marks there, but they don't seem to do anything.

Alex-C25

10/14/2013 at 01:54 PM

I recently ordered EOU on Amazon, because i'm interested in trying the series for the first time. Let's see how it turns out.

10/15/2013 at 12:18 AM

I'm not positive, because I haven't played all of them yet, but I think it's the most accessible EO yet.

goaztecs

10/14/2013 at 03:02 PM

Wait, I think you buried the lead...Happy Birthday!

I need to try that poker game. I like poker, I'm not very good, but I saw Rounders recently so now I too think I can beat Johnny Chan.

Nice pickup on Red Faction, I really enjoyed that game on the PS3.

10/15/2013 at 12:21 AM

Thanks. I got some money and talked some Minecraft with my nephew. Nothing much to really blog about there.

daftman

10/15/2013 at 07:59 AM

Happy birthday! Stinks you had to work but at least you did something special on the weekend, and $24 for a complete copy Bowser's Inside Story is pretty good. A birthday present to yourself

10/15/2013 at 03:33 PM

I can't wait to give myself my Christmas present. It's a Wii-U! I looked in the closet where I hide the Xmas presents to myself!

10/15/2013 at 10:54 PM

Peeking! For shame, sir. That's a good present though. I'm hoping to snag some good Wii U games on Black Friday (like Wonderful 101 and Pikmin 3) but we'll have to see how the budget's doing and what sort of sales on going on *fingers crossed*

10/16/2013 at 04:12 AM

The only thing I got on preorder before year's end is Ratchet & Clank Into the Nexus, so I think I'm going on a Wii-U binge in December. Hopefully the Zelda bundle will still be around and then I want Pikmin 3.

NSonic79

10/20/2013 at 10:18 PM

I need to try that poker game. I DLed it but was too scared to give it a try. I keep losing in the demo of Poker Night 2 on XBLA.

10/20/2013 at 10:49 PM

It's only Texas Hold 'em in WSOP. I didn't think I'd get too far, but I finally did win a ranked Tournament after only a hanfull of tries. I did have trouble with the AI pros that you have to beat in single player to unlock more boosts, clothes and whatnot though. I kinda gave up trying to beat them. My friend is still playing it and telling me about each new achievement he's unlocked. He's beaten all the pros and winning hands of 300K chips. Insane!

PixlBit

Just a Dull Log of the Week's Gaming

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