Cars hey? what a bunch of shit they are. If you recall last month I was trying to get the car past a smog test, well after taking it back to the garage for the 4th time and the check engine light going off again we decided the best thing to do was take it to another garage, so after 175 bucks to diagnose we find out the some part (the name escapes my mind at this point) had to be taken apart and cleaned professionally, some spark plugs had to be changed and some new wiring put in, after that the car started to roar like it never did before. Took it in for a smog and wham, it finally passed, so that puts that nightmare to rest.
So in a month of gaming, I finally finished Xenoblade Chronicles at last. Looking back the story took a long ass time to kick in but when it does it certainly takes you for a ride. The combat in the game is pretty shit and is pretty obvious it was made in mind for a Wiimote and nunchuck combo but I would give it a solid 7/10, I look forward to Xenoblade Chronicles X when it lands in the US to say the least anyway, at least some of the trailers make a bit more sense to me now, lol.
Despite owning it for over a year or so now I finally decided to do a play-through of God of War : Ascension and man that game seemed like a hot mess. It has been a while since I seen a game that struggled so hard to keep a stable frame rate to a point where it looked like a cut-scene at the end was running at 5fps. Game play wise it seems the same as any other GOW although stuff like the parry system seems to be out of whack and in terms of story seems pointless. Then again I am kinda shocked that in this age of remastering Sony hasn't decided to put this in the package with God of War 3 on the PlayStation 4 because the game could probably benefit more so than GOW3.
With a Sega sale on Steam recently, i ended up getting Valkyria Chronicles at last. It was a game I was originally interested on getting on the PS3 but for some reason the lack of trophies at the time put me off, lol. So far i'm enjoying the game, but despite thinking it was a plain strategy rpg game it seems more like a visual novel some days, lol
I also started playing Final Fantasy II (the real 2, none of that IV stuff yet, lol) on the PSP. This one I feel weird about because it suffers from what I like to call the Japanese 8 bit black sheep syndrome, similar to Mario, Castlevania and Zelda. While it is the first sequel in a franchise of games it will greatly differ to how the original was, eg Super Mario Bros 2 US being Doki Doki Panic, Castlevania 2 basically being a prototype of Symphony of the Night and Zelda 2 being mainly 2D scrolling rpg, the leveling system on Final Fantasy II I tend to find a bit odd for the fact it levels up your moves rather than your character. I can't say the system is stupid, I mean it makes sense comparing it to a real world scenario but I find it so weird in this game. The scope of the story is pretty epic, I did enjoy it for what it was worth much more than the original Final Fantasy and Rebirth of Souls was a cool idea, if it a little lame it how long the extra was.
After about 15 years as well, I finally managed to finish Metal Gear Solid (or Metal Gear : Ghost Babel as it is known in Japan) for the Game Boy Color. While the game play hasn't aged all too well yet again it is one of these games that has an impressive story and for a GBC runs pretty well and is packed to the gills with content.
So a few new toys I got, I finally decided to upgrade my 560 GTX Ti to a 750 GTX Ti, so far there has been a clear improvement and I am loving a few of the newer features of the card like Shadowplay, amazes me how it can record game play footage without impacting performance and found it streams on Twitch pretty well, not that I plan to broadcast on Twitch much but I guess it's alright there is an option to do? lol
And for some fun with controllers, I decided to mod a Dual Shock 3 pad to put some Xbox One analog sticks on it. I have never been mad about the sticks used in a Dual Shock before and for some reason I find the sticks used in a Dual Shock 3 to be some what gooey, like there is glue seeping out of them or something. Putting the sticks in was easy, but I was soon reminded how awkward it can be to put the shoulder buttons back into place, took me 3 tries to get them all working, lol. The only bothersome
part I found is that the battery on the pad seems to have gone bad on me, during tests i notice the battery only tends to hold about 2 hours worth of charge so when I have some more spare money I may buy a replacement battery for my Dual Shock 4, take the battery from the DS4 and put that into the DS3 as it should last longer, if I do it i will let you guys know.
Only other controller news is I got a white Gamecube Smash controller. A independent game store i visit sometimes had imported a bunch in so I thought screw it, can never have enough GameCube controllers, lol. Also managed to get a official Nintendo GameCube adapter for the Wii U as well, only took about 6 months of looking to find one at Best Buy.
Well with the Mrs graduating from college next month I will hopefully have less to say next month, so catch you then, lol
So in a month of gaming, I finally finished Xenoblade Chronicles at last. Looking back the story took a long ass time to kick in but when it does it certainly takes you for a ride. The combat in the game is pretty shit and is pretty obvious it was made in mind for a Wiimote and nunchuck combo but I would give it a solid 7/10, I look forward to Xenoblade Chronicles X when it lands in the US to say the least anyway, at least some of the trailers make a bit more sense to me now, lol.
Despite owning it for over a year or so now I finally decided to do a play-through of God of War : Ascension and man that game seemed like a hot mess. It has been a while since I seen a game that struggled so hard to keep a stable frame rate to a point where it looked like a cut-scene at the end was running at 5fps. Game play wise it seems the same as any other GOW although stuff like the parry system seems to be out of whack and in terms of story seems pointless. Then again I am kinda shocked that in this age of remastering Sony hasn't decided to put this in the package with God of War 3 on the PlayStation 4 because the game could probably benefit more so than GOW3.
With a Sega sale on Steam recently, i ended up getting Valkyria Chronicles at last. It was a game I was originally interested on getting on the PS3 but for some reason the lack of trophies at the time put me off, lol. So far i'm enjoying the game, but despite thinking it was a plain strategy rpg game it seems more like a visual novel some days, lol
I also started playing Final Fantasy II (the real 2, none of that IV stuff yet, lol) on the PSP. This one I feel weird about because it suffers from what I like to call the Japanese 8 bit black sheep syndrome, similar to Mario, Castlevania and Zelda. While it is the first sequel in a franchise of games it will greatly differ to how the original was, eg Super Mario Bros 2 US being Doki Doki Panic, Castlevania 2 basically being a prototype of Symphony of the Night and Zelda 2 being mainly 2D scrolling rpg, the leveling system on Final Fantasy II I tend to find a bit odd for the fact it levels up your moves rather than your character. I can't say the system is stupid, I mean it makes sense comparing it to a real world scenario but I find it so weird in this game. The scope of the story is pretty epic, I did enjoy it for what it was worth much more than the original Final Fantasy and Rebirth of Souls was a cool idea, if it a little lame it how long the extra was.
After about 15 years as well, I finally managed to finish Metal Gear Solid (or Metal Gear : Ghost Babel as it is known in Japan) for the Game Boy Color. While the game play hasn't aged all too well yet again it is one of these games that has an impressive story and for a GBC runs pretty well and is packed to the gills with content.
So a few new toys I got, I finally decided to upgrade my 560 GTX Ti to a 750 GTX Ti, so far there has been a clear improvement and I am loving a few of the newer features of the card like Shadowplay, amazes me how it can record game play footage without impacting performance and found it streams on Twitch pretty well, not that I plan to broadcast on Twitch much but I guess it's alright there is an option to do? lol
And for some fun with controllers, I decided to mod a Dual Shock 3 pad to put some Xbox One analog sticks on it. I have never been mad about the sticks used in a Dual Shock before and for some reason I find the sticks used in a Dual Shock 3 to be some what gooey, like there is glue seeping out of them or something. Putting the sticks in was easy, but I was soon reminded how awkward it can be to put the shoulder buttons back into place, took me 3 tries to get them all working, lol. The only bothersome
part I found is that the battery on the pad seems to have gone bad on me, during tests i notice the battery only tends to hold about 2 hours worth of charge so when I have some more spare money I may buy a replacement battery for my Dual Shock 4, take the battery from the DS4 and put that into the DS3 as it should last longer, if I do it i will let you guys know.
Only other controller news is I got a white Gamecube Smash controller. A independent game store i visit sometimes had imported a bunch in so I thought screw it, can never have enough GameCube controllers, lol. Also managed to get a official Nintendo GameCube adapter for the Wii U as well, only took about 6 months of looking to find one at Best Buy.
Well with the Mrs graduating from college next month I will hopefully have less to say next month, so catch you then, lol
