Peter. I had this picture of two puppies in panda costumes, but I couldn't get it to format into my blog properly. Lol I found it and saved it just for you, but it ended up not being in the blog. Panda costumes!
I like Helloween, thanks for putting them in the blog, Alex 
My xbox has one of the 250GB harddrives and I'm quickly filling that up as well. Alien Isolation was two discs, one disc (the install-disc) was a 6GB install, and the other disc is the play-disc and that one is like another 8GB I think. Alien is taking up a ton of space!
I told everybody I was celebrating Spooktober, and I'm suppose to be playing a bunch of horror-ish games and blogging about them, but I've been getting sidetracked by Dragon Age Origins. I'm almost done with Alien Isolation, once I am I'll do an update blog, maybe even a review but I'm not sure. If I do it'll be the second review I've ever written, I don't do those often.
One to two paragraphs? We'll see about that. I'll try to keep it that short lol.
I can totally see why Spelunky might not be Julian's type of game and I wouldn't begrudge him if it didn't quite grab him.
I still play Spelunky a few times each week. There was a period of several months where I played it everyday. It's a game where you have to die often, get a little deeper the next time you play, learn a little more about how the game works. Spelunky is all about the long-haul, about consistency, quick pick up and play sessions, and tons of small victories piling up into large victories over time. In a way it's totally a brutal war of attrition against a super well designed game, that happens to have a high learning curve, and expects the player to get better until they can manipulate the world in their favor and subvert the things about the game that seem insurmountable. All the things about the game that make it dangerous and make it seem impossible can all be subverted; you learn how traps work and where they usually get placed, how to kill each enemy type, etc. Just through playing the game as well and learning about it; no cheat codes or exploits necessary.
It's daunting when you first start playing Spelunky, the whole experience is full of small victories. You start a game, make it through level 1-2 and it's a victory. You make it through 1-4, exiting the Mines to the next area, and it's a huge victory. The gameplay is really satisfying for me in the way that avoiding a single trap, killing a bat with the whip, and simply surviving an area feels fantastic.
There were times I felt like exiting the Mines would be impossible, I'd never be a decent Spelunky player, and I should just quit and move on. But eventually I made it to the Jungle. Then the Jungle was so goddamn nuts and dangerous I never thought I'd find a way to survive it even once, let alone with enough regluarity to see the next world, but I made it past that as well. As you keep playing you get better and eventually I made it through to the Temple, and so on until I beat the main boss at level 4-4. Then I discovered a lot of secrets about the game, made it to the secret areas, and defeated the secret boss, which is an epic journey is itself. You can create shorcuts in the world as well so that you can practice single worlds over and over, learning the ins-and-outs of how they work and are structured.
I played about 1000 games before I beat the secret boss and finished the "real" ending. The game keeps me coming back though because you can always collect more money and beat your personal high score, and the gameplay is good enough that I have fun doing everything Spelunky is about. It's an epic learning process with a pretty steep learning curve, but the game's programmed super well, it's 99% consistent with the rules/behaviors and very few odd bugs, so if it's the type of game that pulls you into its mystique it can be really rewarding.
And it's super bite size as well. In terms of difficult games it's not like a Souls game where you need to invest 100 hours for a playthrough and sit down for long sessions. Each level in Spelunky takes about 2 minutes, and you can average a full playthrough in like 45 minutes once you know how the game works and how to use each item in a way that helps your playstyle most.
You can keep throwing yourself at it, play little bits at a time, and just get better over time until you're able to bring the consistency and instinct it takes to survive the traps/environmental puzzles regularly enough to start from the beginning and make it through to the end.
There are plenty of randomized elements to the game, so luck is a thing, but you have to develop skill to take advantage of the luck. I can't even tell you how many hundreds of times I've gotten "lucky" with a sweet world-seed where you find a game-changing item in level 1-1 or something, and then allowed myself to die in the lamest ways regardless. I ended up getting really addicted to everything Spelunky is about, and 99% of the times I've died it was my fault and there was something I was able to do better next time. I thought that game would be insurmountable but I still beat the full game and the secret areas/boss, and keep beating my personal loot records. I didn't even have to get hardcore about it either, I just played casually for 20 to 30 minutes each session, never had to join a club, buy a guide, or get ridiculous about it. I just got sucked into the mysteries of the systems and gameplay, and got better over time.
Well, I guess the wall of text is back, Spelunky brought it back.
I've been playing Dragon Age Origins this weekend, I grabbed it at Julian's suggestion because it was only $4 on XBL. Did Julian end up playing the game this weekend like he said he wanted to? I'd like to hear more about his experience and his character.
I created a lady rogue, human noble, and I've made it to what seems to be a battle at Ostagar. I'm with Alistair and we are trying to make it to the Tower of Ishtar to light a signal at the King's behest, as part of the battle's strategy. I'm loving the game so far.
I really liked Dragon Age 2 quite a bit. The level designs weren't so interesting, Kirkwall wasn't great to explore, and there was the problem with levels being used repeatedly, but overall I loved the themes of the story, loved the lore, the companions, and I liked each of the 3 acts and all the story beats within them. The combat wasn't so good at first, because you start off with very few abilities and hardly any tactics slots, which means each encounter early in the game means you use up those couple abilities and then have to spam the attack button while those are in cooldown.
But by the end of DA2 I loved the combat because you eventually unlock all the great abilities, you get lots of tactics slots to customize how your party fights, and you learn the strengths/usefulness of each companion. I'm kind of in the same boat with Origins right now. I only have two low level abilities, as do my companions, and I only have 3 tactics slots. If it's anything like DA2 I'm sure I'll unlock more slots and certainly more abilities as I go obviously, and the combat will get more robust and tactical as we level up. By the end of Origins I'm pretty sure I'll love the combat just like I did with DA2.
I'm suppose to be doing a whole Spooktober thing, playing lots of horror-ish games and blogging about it. I have Alien Isolation, I'm sure I'm almost finished with that game and I really like it, but DA Origins is taking over and I'm not sure when I'll get back to other games. Just binging on Dragon Age for now.
I see where you're coming from, there are legitimate issues that people still want to express to the press, but gamergate hasn't helped that at all, and never will, so the whole hashtag needs to stop. By now both sides of GG and anti-GG equate their opposition to the KKK basically. They've been calling each other terrorists and lots of stuff in an effort and centralize and dehumanize anybody who disagrees with their position. GG was built on a pile of shit from the get-go, then there were some legit issues brought up after the fact and then more shit was piled on top. GG is a shit sandwhich lol.
It's not worth saving, so I think people should move on past the hashtag and start trying to get the legitimate ideas they have out in a better way, without all the baggage GG brings.
That moth is pretty interesting, never seen anything like it before.
Welcome, Jesse. My name's Michael. I think you'll like things around here, it's a bit of an oasis away from the rest of the internet.
Most of that sounds like good news, so that's good to hear.
Alien Isolation should get here in the mail later today, so I'll play that tonight I guess. I still haven't played SH2 or 3 before. I wanted to get the Silent Hill HD collection so I could see those two finally, but I heard that collection is broken on consoles and never got fixed, so I'm not sure what I should do.
