PixlBit

Started the day out with a breakfast burrito from my freezer. Then I went to my usual Starbucks and got a grande iced coffee with mocha and two rivet shakers from Philly Pretzel Factory right next door. Then I made my way to Mark's place to play video games and watch the football game.

First up this week was Diddy Kong Racing on N64. I did a bunch of races both with karts and airplanes playing as Bumper as Cary suggested, but after a while the controls really started getting to me. It might have been the looseness of my controller's analog stick, but I think it's just the way the game plays. I competed against the easy AI, but really, I competed against the controls and the slippery tracks. I don't know why I had trouble going in reverse during races. Every time I made a driving mistake I found myself jammed into a tree or other object and couldn't get out quickly because my kart wouldn't go in reverse. The main reason though was I was just not in the mood for relearning these tracks and having to get first place every time just to get another balloon. I got to about ten balloons before I just threw my controller down. Old games, old controllers, old controlls. I just had no patience for it today no matter how good I felt when Taj gave me a balloon. I was a cranky baby.

That was about two hours of the day. Then I booted up my Xbox 360 and checked the sales. I was very tempted by the Witcher 2 for $8 and Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate for $5, but I resisted as they weren't making me crazy excited, just interested.

Then I looked up what I might play next for my solo gaming and generated a two on random.org, which meant an Adventure genre game. Near the top of the list on allgame.com when sorted by rating was Resident Evil 4, and I thought, that would be perfect to get into next. It was available on Xbox Games on Demand for $20, so i got it and started the download process.

Since the download was 4GB and taking a while, I jumped back into Earth Defence Force 2025 with my Fencer and joined Mark in co-op. He was going after drop-ship kills and I armor and weapon pick-ups so we found the perfect level in Defiance, level 43 on Hard difficulty. There are five drop ships over a dockyard area and hectars (giant robots) everywhere. It was a very good level for drops and drop-ships so we played it over and over again. I gained a lot of new weapons and boosted my armor to around 450. I have a long way to go to get 1250 for an achievement, but I might be close to 50% of all weapons in the game at 341.

Then it was lunchtime. I went out to a local deli and got a cheesesteak for Mark and a club sandwich and Birch Beer for myself. Then it was back to EDF.

My big weapon discovery with the Fencer today was the Spine Breaker. These are spears you can equip that reach out and jab at close range enemies. I put one on each arm and was able to fend off just about everything that got close. My one weakness though was my low armor, so I had to stay well back or be shredded by spider webbing. I used my other set of weapons for long range attacks: a chain gun and a rocket pod that shoots six rockets at once. My one issue with the fencer is his slow movement and the chain gun's very slow warm up before it starts letting rip. Everything about the Fencer is slow, which is a real pain; however, I was having fun launching rocket after rocket and quickly switching to my dual wielded spears in case something got too close. 

Four hours or so later, I switched to Vita to play some Silent Hill: Book of Memories. I didn't see daftman online, so I replayed the first three levels or so solo. I found out during the week that you use the same character for solo and mulitplayer, so whenever I go back to co-op, I'll have a little more experience and possibly some cash and a few items by playing solo. Thing is, you can't carry much and after a level or two you are always low on repair wrenches or health and have to go find the store to buy more anyway, but at least I'll have some more cash next time multiplayer happens. I had absolutely nothing last time and it was getting kinda frustrating. 

I played the first three levels of Silent Hill: BoM for two hours or so and then started playing Resident Evil 4 while simultaneously following the Eagles game on Mark's TV. The Eagles were controlling the game, so I focused on RE4 and watched the opening scenes and played through the first two chapters. The HD remaster of the game looks fantastic. I still have an issue with the clumsy controls, but I really worked on getting used to it. I shot a lot of zombie-like people and explored every nook and crany for collectibles and needed items. I think I'm going to like playing RE4 some more tomorrow, although I think Mark and I are going to break out Borderlands 2 to warm up for the midnight release of Borderlands: The Pre-sequel that I preordered earlier in the week. I don't think we'll play it over night, but it'll be nice to have it at midnight anyway.

And that was Sunday.

[I don't know what's up with the internet. I guess 2am on Monday is the time the whole internet goes down for maintenance. I can't seem to get flickr going or link to any images.]