judyonthenet

Bleh, two video game tab posts in a row.

Video games and related purchases:
Journey (PS3) – $0 from PSN ($14.99 – credit from PSN card)
Catherine (PS3) – $29.99 from Amazon, includes artbook and soundtrack CD
Fallout (PC) – $0 from GOG.com
Wasteland 2 preorder (PC) – $50 at Kickstarter.com
Shadowrun Returns preorder (PC) – $15 at Kickstarter.com
Total: $94.99

One of the few games I was still curious about, Catherine, finally went on sale at a price point where I would impulse buy. The strong likelihood of getting an unedited cover and the extra swag made the buy easier. Too bad the game isn’t as interesting as I thought it’d be.

I funded a couple more Kickstarters, as mentioned previously, and those finished this month. I opted for the boxed set for the Wasteland 2 because I loved the boxed edition of the original Fallout (best instruction manual ever). I know nothing about Shadowrun and its universe, but the pitch sounded good enough for me to give the minimum. I really hope these Kickstarters result in some good games.

There probably won’t be much purchasing the next few months. I haven’t been gaming as much, so my backlog is still ridiculous, and there isn’t really anything of interest coming out for me. (I’m not into Diablo.) I want to get Fez, but I haven’t turned on my 360 in a while. I’m mildy curious about Sleeping Dogs. Actually, I am stoked about Fire Emblem: Awakening, but no US release date yet makes every screenshot a tease. We’ll see what happens at E3.

Games I beat:
…

I haven’t been doing much gaming. I can’t keep an eye on the puppy very well playing games, so instead I’ve been spending all my time watching television. Not that I haven’t done any gaming. I’m still tinkering away at Mass Effect 3. I also started playing the original Wasteland after funding the Wasteland 2 project. It’s been easy for me to play it on my Macbook thanks to DosBox. Unfortunately gotten this far:

I can’t stop rerolling the stats for my team. I need more 18s!!

I watched Kelvin go through Journey and even played a little bit. It’s exactly how everyone describes it. (Good but short.)

New thing I learned today: Shadowrun was a table top RPG and had video games on the SNES, Sega Genesis, and an Xbox 360 FPS game.

For Mass Effect 3, I only paid $13.61 this month because I bought that Google offer back in November. The Google offer was for $40 of Newegg credit for $20, and it was supposed to expire last week. I waited until the last second to use it, but it turned out it had expired a day early. Many customer complaints later, they extended the offer a week. I still couldn’t get myself to order Mass Effect 3, knowing Newegg had a pre-order deal for $47.99. (I can’t help it, my cheap ass brain thinks like this.) Then on release day, it went on sale for $49.99, which was good enough for me, especially since it was something I wanted to play sooner rather than later.

I hate buying things from Gamestop, but I had a lot of Gamestop credit and the chain also had exclusive DLC. Exclusive DLC is generally not something I care about, but considering the extra hours I spend with Yakuza games, I care a little more. Plus, I want to support a series that doesn’t receive as much fanfare here, even if Dead Souls doesn’t seem up-to-par to the other Yakuza games.

I did the smallest amount for the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter because Kelvin did one of the more expensive tiers, so he’ll be getting most of the extra goodies anyway. Though, now that I think about it, I probably didn’t need to preorder my copy since I could probably use the hardcopy he’s going to get. Oh well, it’s worth supporting Double Fine anyway.

I don’t know when I’m going to get Kid Icarus: Uprising, but I’m cool with free stuff.

Games I beat:
…

I was majorly distracted by some cute and fluffy creature wandering around in my apartment.

New thing I learned today: Jane Jensen, the game dev behind the Gabriel Knight series, made an adventure game called Gray Matter.

Jane Jensen also has her own Kickstarter going. I’m contemplating backing it because I enjoy her writing and games back at Sierra, but I’m not big on the idea of potentially funding a sequel to a game I’ve never played. The Jane Austin-era adventure game idea sounds intriguing though…

If you haven’t played this game and 2D graphics from the 90s (and words) don’t make your eyes bleed and you have an attention span longer than a 4-year-old’s, you need to download and play this game:

The site randomly goes down because of the popularity of this promotion, which goes until April 6th. Just keep trying. I already own a physical copy of the game, but this downloadable version has been optimized to run on modern Windows platforms and has a bunch of downloadable goodies. Nothing will beat the sexy manual the boxed version has, though.

Fallout is my favorite game of all time. A Western RPG that’s less fantasy and more sci-fi with turn-based combat, interesting characters and team management, and a well-written story with an ending that’s actually good (how rare is that??). AND NO SPIDERS. In my opinion, the only negative things about this game were the time limit and that it’s not quite open world like the Ultima games. Oh, and the first version had this hilarious bug where Dogmeat would clone himself in combat until your computer crashes. Other than that, this game f*cking rocks.

Also, apparently when you sign up for GOG.com, you get some other old games for free, including Ultima IV and Beneath a Steel Sky. I loved Ultima IV as a kid (and most of the Ultimas after that), and Beneath a Steel Sky is an adventure game I’ve heard of but never had a chance to play. *glee*

By the way, if you end up liking Fallout, make sure to support the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter, which is being done by some guys who worked on Fallout. Oh, and the Shadowrun Returns project, just because it sounds cool.

New thing I learned today: GOG stands for Good Old Games.

I’d heard of GOG.com a long time ago, but I pretty much ignore any PC game downloadable service that isn’t Steam.

Still working on those ears

I have a pretty good excuse this time for lack of blog posts. Last weekend, we welcomed home our new puppy. Her name is Pecan Pi, and she’s a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

Pink belly!

The breeder had three puppies left from her litter of eight for us to choose from. Pecan approached us the most, and she was the mellowest. In the video, she’s the one that falls over twice.

I’ve been spending most of my free time cleaning up our apartment, yet it seems to have only gotten messier in the meantime. However, the area of our apartment she’s allowed to wander around in seems to be plenty of space for her, so now I’m less motivated now.

Pesky sleep interrupting play

We almost didn’t name her Pecan because people pronounce “pecan” differently. I usually pronounce it puh-KAHN, but her name we decided is PEE-kahn. I wonder how people generally pronounce it… let’s do a poll!

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New thing I learned today: Puppies sleep more than adult dogs, between 18 to 20 hours a day.

Pecan’s favorite activity seems to be sleeping, which works for us just fine.

The black blob on the left is the bag for the Stacking dolls

After all the brouhaha over Double Fine’s Kickstarter project, I was itching to either play adventure games or Double Fine games. I hadn’t bought Costume Quest or Stacking yet despite hearing about them before they came out and planning to get them. In one weekend, I bought, played, and beat both games. I had a bunch of XBL points cards from using up leftover Kmart credit, so I didn’t bother waiting for a sale.

Scene It? was an impulse buy for the low price. Nice to have a party game with accessories that don’t take up your entire living room.

I don’t like counting toys in my video game tab, but it’s worth mentioning. When I got my first full paycheck, I bought three things I’ve wanted without guilt, and one of those are the Stacking nesting dolls from Double Fine. They’re cute, fun, and made in Russia!

My own little Charlie

Games I beat:
Costume Quest (XBLA)
Stacking (XBLA)
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay (PC)

Like I mentioned before, I was in a Double Fine and adventure game mood, so I got my fill this month with both. As expected, both Costume Quest and Stacking weren’t very long. However, I found Stacking to be a much deeper game than Costume Quest. Costume Quest was cute (I have loved Tasha Harris‘s art style since reading her webcomic from Double Fine) and funny, but it was a little bit repetitive and light on content. I completed all the achievements quite easily during my playthrough, and once you beat the game, there’s not much else to do. The enemies don’t seem to regenerate, so I can’t even show my friends the neat-o combat system in the game. I still found the game enjoyable, just a bit short for $15.

Loved the dialogue in this game, made me wish there were voice actors

Stacking isn’t as cute, but it has a unique art style and a great twist on adventure gameplay. The idea of a world populated by nesting dolls is bizarre, but how it works with the plot and how it embodies the way you play… I loved this game! People and actions are one and the same, and there are so many different types of dolls. I liked that puzzles have multiple solutions, and there’s a lot of things to collect and interact with. Even though the main story isn’t long, there’s plenty to do when it’s over. I really enjoyed this game, hence the sudden buy of the nesting dolls. Definitely worth $15. (btw, it was recently released on Steam and has a launch sale price of $10!)

Bitch slapping random people with no good reason

My main beef with both games, however, is that their achievements include stuff in DLC you have to buy, so you can’t get 100% achievements without buying DLC. LAME. I don’t know if I’m going to get the DLC for Costume Quest, though I’m pretty sure I’m going to get the Stacking DLC. Ah, whatever, I have so many points it probably won’t matter.

To satiate my point-and-click adventure craving, I got back into Tales of Monkey Island again. I like that it feels like a real old school adventure game. I can play for an hour or two at a leisurely pace, get stuck and be mentally done for the night, go to sleep, wake up and know immediately what I should do next. I’m impressed with how Telltale Games have continued the series, and the chapters seem to get better as I progress. I remember being kind of meh with the first chapter, but the second chapter was better, and third seems to be shaping up well.

New thing I learned today: Old Style is a brand of beer.

A group at work likes to name their projects after beers. When I had to work with an “Old Style” board, I was left wondering what the difference between an old style board and new style board was…