Big Cal’s Video Game Diary #1


Since the 2 blog posts I had planned for this week and next week can’t be done yet (one is based on my second video game review which I’ve yet to finish editing lol… sorry about that! and the second can’t be done until I get a delivery that is taking extremely long), I just decided to talk a little about some of the games I’ve been playing recently. Kinda like a video game diary. In fact, I’m changing the thread title from “Games I’ve Been Playing Recently” to “Big Cal’s Video Game Diary #1” so I can turn this into a big of a series if I want :).

 

pokemon gold

 

Let’s start off with the game I most recently played, which was Pokemon Gold! I originally owned Pokemon Silver back in the day, but unfortunately I sold it along with my GBC and any other games I owned for it, so I could afford more games for the PS1. Luckily my friend kept hold of his copy of Gold, and was nice enough to give it to me for free :). Unfortunately the battery was dead inside the cartridge, making you unable to save. After a quick search online, I discovered just how easy it actually is to replace batteries in the carts with the right tools, and last week everything arrived that I needed and I successfully replaced the battery with a shiny new one! Eager to test it out, I stuck it in one of my Game Boy Advances to make sure it worked, and yup, it did. However, I forgot just how awful the screens were on the original Game Boy Advance systems! Thankfully I have my SNES set up, and I also own a lovely Super Game Boy, allowing me to play Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games on my TV! Perfect! Normally starting an RPG game after you’ve already played it a few times can be a little tedious. You know what you are doing, but still have to go through a bunch of text and tutorials, and then must begin from scratch levelling up your party etc. However with Pokemon, ESPECIALLY the second generation games Gold and Silver, I can play them over and over and over again and NEVER get bored. Even on this play through I was still excited to begin my Pokemon journey for the millionth time. Typically I go with the water based starters, no matter which version of Pokemon I am playing. However this time I decided to have a change, and picked Cyndaquil, the fire based Pokemon! I’ve already clocked up almost FOUR HOURS in the game… and I only have TWO gym badges!!! Taking my time to level up my entire party for a change, as often in the past I heavily relied too much on my starter Pokemon and nothing else. That’s fine with the water Pokemon, as I have always found them to be the most useful and effective in the game, especially at the start. However the fire based Pokemon isn’t as easy to start with, so I am making sure I don’t get into too much trouble by having a strong party to back me up. Currently have myself a level 10 Onyx (yeah he kinda sucks, but I traded the kid for the Bellsprout to get it), a level 11 Mareep (handy to have an electric Pokemon, even if this isn’t the best, but I’m still early in the game), level 18 Pidgeotto who is pretty darn awesome (and will be used for flying once I get the Fly HM), level 10 Togepi (terrible atm, however the Metronome attack can be great depending on what attack it ends up picking), level 10 Magikarp (you know why I have this… GYARADOS!!!), and of course my starter Pokemon Cyndaquil who has since evolved into Quilava and is level 21 for the time being. Looking to level up my Magikarp so I can evolve him into a Gyrados and have a Pokemon on my team with some water attacks, something I’m sorely missing. Also need a grass type, at the very least just to learn Cut that I received before turning off the game on my last play. Once I have a Pokemon with Cut I can advance through the forest and also unlock shortcuts to access earlier parts in the game while avoiding long grass as battling level 2 Pokemon isn’t going to help me much now. Planning on levelling up all my current Pokemon to at least level 20 before I tackle the next gym. I’ll no doubt play some more later today!

 

Yep, I played more! Didn’t quite get every Pokemon up to level 20 before going for the next gym leader… in fact Quilava is still the other Pokemon I have beyond level 20 lol. I did level up Togepi to about 12, and I caught a level 5 Oddish and levelled that up to 12 (Oddish is used for Cut mainly). I admit I kinda got bored of levelling them up. Honestly Pidgeotto and Quilava are the only decent Pokemon I have really. The others are far too weak or don’t have any good attacks atm to be much use in battle. Levelling them up is a bit tedious, so I think I’ll focus on the good 2 I have and wait until I get that item that allows me to share experience points lol. So, the Goldenrod City gym leader was filled with “normal” type Pokemon. Got through everyone with ease… until I made it to the gym leader. I thought this battle was later. I was wrong. And I almost paid for it. MILTANK. ROLLOUT. OH GOD HELP ME!!! That damn Rollout attack is INSANE! My Quilava was level 24 at the time and was almost finished off after TWO hits from the Rollout move. I have to basically sacrifice my entire team just so I could use potions on Quilava in between getting a few hits in (with not much effect), but in the end I did manage to win first time. Now I have the badge, and more importantly, the squirtbottle to get rid of the tree Pokemon blocking off a couple of routes!

 

SuperMeatBoy_cover

 

A couple of weeks ago I got around to watching Indie Game: The Movie, which follows 3 Indy game developers as they are working on releasing a game. Well, technically just 2 developers, with the 3rd who created Braid has already released his and found great success. The other games were Fez, and Super Meat Boy. I already owned Super Meat Boy but never really got around to playing it because, well, I have far too many games on Steam already! After seeing the developers working on it in this movie, I gave it a download. It’s a strange, unique game that offers a lot of challenge, frustration, and also great reward when you finally finish a level. However, I found myself often being more frustrated with the actual CONTROLS rather than my inability to finish a level after 100 attempts. Sure, sometimes I would die dozens of times because of MY mistakes, but I also died just as many because the controls were sloppy and unresponsive. The game at it’s core is awesome and SHOULD be something I love, but at the same time it’s problems keep me from truly adoring it like I should. Still worth trying out for yourself, but just be wary of the controls not always responding the way YOU want them to.

 

20120816071747!Rayman_Legends_Box_Art

 

A birthday present from my best friends… 3 months after my birthday! Luckily for them, when I finally got around to playing Rayman Legends, I ended up loving the hell out of it! I own the rest of the series on my PC through GOG, including Origins, the previous game in the series that took Rayman back to a 2D style of platforming. Origins… while a solid platformer, just seemed kinda dull and uninspiring on the whole for me. Legends though… oh wow. It just seems so much more vibrant from the get go, with some genuinely great platforming and level designs, fun music, and tons of collectables that rarely feel overkill. The Wii U version was delayed by Ubisoft, which caused uproar from Nintendo fans, forcing Ubisoft to make it up to us by utilising the Wii U gamepad and essentially making the Wii U version THE version to get. I love the levels where you must leave Rayman behind and have one of his friends, controlled by the CPU, finish the level for you. And no, you don’t just sit and watch, you help him out with the control pad! Attack enemies, point him in the direction of certain collectables, move platforms around, cut ropes to release platforms and even rotate the gamepad to move objects on the screen. And those Rhythm levels. Oh man are they FUN!!! Looking forward to finally playing this on my friend’s HDTV, as it looks wonderful on my old non HDTV!!!

 

Angry_video_game_nerd_adventures

 

Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures was a game I was looking forward to when I first saw a trailer for it. AVGN was the first “Internet Celebrity” I remember seeing all those years ago. I started following his videos fairly early on and still enjoy his work to this day (his movie is fantastic btw!). Other AVGN based games had been released before this one, but this one in particular looked to have really been made with care and attention beyond any of the others. A difficult 2D platformer with plenty of references to the AVGN show and old games too. I was never able to get far when I first played it, however after finally completing another 2D platformer recently (which I am planning on reviewing in the future, so I won’t spoil it!), I decided to take on this game one more time and see if I was able to defeat it. Last night I eventually got around to starting it up, and after 44 deaths, I finished… ONE LEVEL! LMAO. It’s definitely very difficult, but one of those games where you just want and almost need to continue playing until you get the job done. The fantasy level is the one I completed, and I did manage to complete 2 other different levels last time I played, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to get those out of the way again too. Well worth the price if you are a fan of the AVGN, especially when it goes on sale!

 

Well that’s about all for this edition of my gaming diary :). I did pick up a few “new” games that I can’t wait to sink my teeth into, so no doubt this style of blog will return in the near future! The games I got (which will also be added to my list right here) were: Kao The Kangaroo (new and sealed for the Dreamcast!), Kao The Kangaroo Round 2 (for the PS2), Voodoo Vince (for the original Xbox), and Dragonball Z: Super Seiya Densetsu (for the Super Famicon!). Plenty of fun to be had right here!

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