I added goals for Azure Dreams to the goal page. Just a simple update blog post
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Goals Page
I keep little lists on my desk, in my bag, my pants pockets, car, office, etc. I write things I need to remember or plan to do on these things. Most are for work or about patients, however those about gaming I always tend to lose.
I will be playing a game and a thought of what I want to accomplish pops into my head. Maybe a quest or mission I want to complete. Attain a certain level before pursuing the story more. Stuff like that.
Now for quests and all these are usually listed in the game so I can remember which ones I have to work on. However my mind is a scattered mess, thus that relates to my game playing as well. I like to do quests out of order, and this tends to me forgetting which ones I am on, and how far along I am on them.
Now we get to where I wanted to be.
I am going to be creating a new page titled "The Goals".
This page will have games as I play them and under each game I will include a to-do list of sorts for me to follow as well as all of you. It just helps to organize things more and it might help shed a light to all of you on how my brain works. I will mark off goals as I complete them on the list.
Thats really it. I got nothing else at the moment.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
How the West was Played
Time for a good ole fashioned western.
Thats right. Time for:
Cowboys:
Guns:
Desert:
Magic:
Wait. Magic??
That doesn't make much sense? How does a western have magic in it?
Well, if its Wild Arms, then there you go.
The Wild Arms series has been around since 1996, and has gone unnoticed by the major media here in America. There have been multiple sequels to the game, as well as a remake of Wild Arms (known as Wild Arms: Alter Code F, which is on the list).
I like how it is an RPG that takes the normal standards of the genre and and tweaks them a little.
Moving around, each character has 3 "tools" that they can use to interact with their surroundings. You have bombs, radar, Hanpan, grappling hook, lighter, etc. These are not key items, or one time use things. You can use them over and over again and they are needed to progress the story as you go along. They don't give you any advantage either with battles. Just there to help you move around.
With stats and battles, you still have HP and MP, STR, VIT, etc. Those things are there as well. However each character has specific skills. Only one person, Cecilia, can use magic. She doesn't learn magic as she gains levels. You have to find crest graphs and then take them to magic stores and select which spells you want. So there is a strategy element to that so you have to think how you will use all of your spells together, and not just rely on one main spell to go through each battle. Jack can use MP, but he does so for sword attacks. He learns these sword attacks, called "Fast Draws" through planned and random events in the game. Then you have to keep using the fast draw in battle until you master it so you can get the action each time. Rudy doesn't use magic, however he uses ARMS, which are really just guns. There are different types of guns that do different things. You can upgrade the ATK, the ACC, and even the capacity for each one separately, however once you run out of ammo for that weapon you are unable to use it until its refilled...for a fee of course.
All three characters then have things called Force Abilities. As you attack, defend, get attacked in battle, your force bar builds. You have 4 levels on the bar, corresponding with 4 actions per person. You start off with 1 ability, then you get the second one once you are able to use guardians (more to come on that later). You gain the others as you progress through the story as per other elements to the game. Guardians are like summons with other RPG stables (Final Fantasy being one that comes to mind). These are beings that control different elements to the world, and you equip the corresponding runes for each guardian. Each rune will make changes to your stats as well. Using the guardian ability, as well as any force ability, doesn't use MP. That is the unique part. It just uses the force bar. This new variable makes for extra planning and benefits. Things I enjoy in a good RPG.
Something else I like about Wild Arms is the flow of the game. A lot of times RPG's can present you with a lot of choices to do at one time that don't have anything to do with the main storyline. So you have the lulls in the game where you are spending hours and hours progressing through sidequests instead of working on progressing the main story. I love sidequests, don't get me wrong. But Wild Arms has you going along the main storyline at a good pace without much of a lull between things. There are some sidequests, however they don't take hours to complete. Everything revolves around progressing the main narrative to the story. I am playing this game on my PSP and I like advancement like this in my handheld games. Let me explore, but also let me get a since that I accomplished a lot between battery charges.
Weird to measure progression on a device in the time designation of "between battery charges". For my PSP, that is usually about 3.5 hours for memory card based games (thats a pretty conservative estimate). Less when I am playing through the UMD. I tend to play my UMD's more when I am close to an outlet. That way I won't freak if I start to get low on battery and I am, for instance, up in a plane.
Status update for me on Wild Arms, I am currently fighting along on the Ghost Ship. I am maybe 25% of the way through. Hard to really tell. About 11 hours in as well. I think if you want to try this game out you should. Its pretty cheap on PSN, and I think worth the money. You just have to keep in mind that the game was made in 1996, so the graphics are not as intense as they are nowadays.
Thats right. Time for:
Cowboys:
Guns:
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Wait. Magic??
That doesn't make much sense? How does a western have magic in it?
Well, if its Wild Arms, then there you go.
The Wild Arms series has been around since 1996, and has gone unnoticed by the major media here in America. There have been multiple sequels to the game, as well as a remake of Wild Arms (known as Wild Arms: Alter Code F, which is on the list).I like how it is an RPG that takes the normal standards of the genre and and tweaks them a little.
Moving around, each character has 3 "tools" that they can use to interact with their surroundings. You have bombs, radar, Hanpan, grappling hook, lighter, etc. These are not key items, or one time use things. You can use them over and over again and they are needed to progress the story as you go along. They don't give you any advantage either with battles. Just there to help you move around.
With stats and battles, you still have HP and MP, STR, VIT, etc. Those things are there as well. However each character has specific skills. Only one person, Cecilia, can use magic. She doesn't learn magic as she gains levels. You have to find crest graphs and then take them to magic stores and select which spells you want. So there is a strategy element to that so you have to think how you will use all of your spells together, and not just rely on one main spell to go through each battle. Jack can use MP, but he does so for sword attacks. He learns these sword attacks, called "Fast Draws" through planned and random events in the game. Then you have to keep using the fast draw in battle until you master it so you can get the action each time. Rudy doesn't use magic, however he uses ARMS, which are really just guns. There are different types of guns that do different things. You can upgrade the ATK, the ACC, and even the capacity for each one separately, however once you run out of ammo for that weapon you are unable to use it until its refilled...for a fee of course.
All three characters then have things called Force Abilities. As you attack, defend, get attacked in battle, your force bar builds. You have 4 levels on the bar, corresponding with 4 actions per person. You start off with 1 ability, then you get the second one once you are able to use guardians (more to come on that later). You gain the others as you progress through the story as per other elements to the game. Guardians are like summons with other RPG stables (Final Fantasy being one that comes to mind). These are beings that control different elements to the world, and you equip the corresponding runes for each guardian. Each rune will make changes to your stats as well. Using the guardian ability, as well as any force ability, doesn't use MP. That is the unique part. It just uses the force bar. This new variable makes for extra planning and benefits. Things I enjoy in a good RPG.
Something else I like about Wild Arms is the flow of the game. A lot of times RPG's can present you with a lot of choices to do at one time that don't have anything to do with the main storyline. So you have the lulls in the game where you are spending hours and hours progressing through sidequests instead of working on progressing the main story. I love sidequests, don't get me wrong. But Wild Arms has you going along the main storyline at a good pace without much of a lull between things. There are some sidequests, however they don't take hours to complete. Everything revolves around progressing the main narrative to the story. I am playing this game on my PSP and I like advancement like this in my handheld games. Let me explore, but also let me get a since that I accomplished a lot between battery charges.
Weird to measure progression on a device in the time designation of "between battery charges". For my PSP, that is usually about 3.5 hours for memory card based games (thats a pretty conservative estimate). Less when I am playing through the UMD. I tend to play my UMD's more when I am close to an outlet. That way I won't freak if I start to get low on battery and I am, for instance, up in a plane.
Status update for me on Wild Arms, I am currently fighting along on the Ghost Ship. I am maybe 25% of the way through. Hard to really tell. About 11 hours in as well. I think if you want to try this game out you should. Its pretty cheap on PSN, and I think worth the money. You just have to keep in mind that the game was made in 1996, so the graphics are not as intense as they are nowadays.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Updates!!
I talked about updating the site yesterday, and in no time at all there have been some major revisions.
First up, the overall theme for the site. I went with the dynamic theme to help cut down on the clutter that was on the page. Yeah, the fish are gone, however things seem to have a much better flow to them. It is a little cleaner as well. My one gripe with things is the fact that it shows all of my posts on the front page. I wish it only did one at a time, but the other themes that contained that concept didn't have as much of a straightforward appeal to them as I wanted. So I will do some minor retooling of the site. One thing that I might do as well is look up a free online class on basic html so then I know how to really work around with the interwebs.
Second, the List Page. I went through and retyped every single game that I had on Backloggery to the page. I had some games that never made them onto The List, as well as never made it onto the Backloggery. Now things are matched up. I moved FFXI off the list because it was a continuous played game, and I will have an update on that since I am pondering somethings with it and other MMORPG's. With each game is its value based on what I could find on the internet/steam/PSN/what I paid for it. This will work with the bank of credits that I will gain to buy new games. I also have each game that I am currently playing highlighted in red so when going through the list you can find the games being worked on quicker.
My next task will to work on The Completed List. I haven't updated this page with all of the games that I have been going through as of late. I don't know if I will be able to find that list, so I might just take off those games, reset the accumulative time, and start from scratch.
First up, the overall theme for the site. I went with the dynamic theme to help cut down on the clutter that was on the page. Yeah, the fish are gone, however things seem to have a much better flow to them. It is a little cleaner as well. My one gripe with things is the fact that it shows all of my posts on the front page. I wish it only did one at a time, but the other themes that contained that concept didn't have as much of a straightforward appeal to them as I wanted. So I will do some minor retooling of the site. One thing that I might do as well is look up a free online class on basic html so then I know how to really work around with the interwebs.
Second, the List Page. I went through and retyped every single game that I had on Backloggery to the page. I had some games that never made them onto The List, as well as never made it onto the Backloggery. Now things are matched up. I moved FFXI off the list because it was a continuous played game, and I will have an update on that since I am pondering somethings with it and other MMORPG's. With each game is its value based on what I could find on the internet/steam/PSN/what I paid for it. This will work with the bank of credits that I will gain to buy new games. I also have each game that I am currently playing highlighted in red so when going through the list you can find the games being worked on quicker.
My next task will to work on The Completed List. I haven't updated this page with all of the games that I have been going through as of late. I don't know if I will be able to find that list, so I might just take off those games, reset the accumulative time, and start from scratch.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
It's Been a Long Time Since I Saw You Around These Parts
Damnit.
It has been a long time since I have been around these parts. By these parts I mean this blog and not where you are currently. That would be a little sketchy and weird. I swear I am not a stalker.
Work and Life get in the way of things that don't have to pay the bills. Whenever it comes down to why people start blogs or websites and then abandon or step away for awhile that is the reason. If this isn't their main source of income then they have to the primary job to pay the bills first. Then when they have time that isn't dedicated to work, eating, sleeping, spending time with the spouse then they can work on the good ole blog. That has been the case with me.
I have been working two different jobs. My primary one I had to travel with teams, cover special events, then set things up to end the school year with. When I haven't been working then I have been at home helping around the house, spending time with my wife as she has had a hectic end of the year with getting things settled, and then sleeping.
The past two weeks however I have been away travelling. I had my national conference for my profession in Las Vegas, so the wife and I flew out there after dropping the pup off at my mother's in NC. After spending four days in Vegas we rented a car and drove from Nevada to Montana to spend about 3 days with my mother-in-law. It took a 13 hour drive plus a quick stay over in a motel cause we were exhausted to get there, but we made it. We had a wonderful time in Montana, especially seeing the mountain and going whitewater rafting down the Gallatin River, but then drove all the way back to Nevada on Monday to fly back to NC. We drove through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana both ways. Was so beautiful. I had to put down my PSP several times to just take pictures. hahaha
We then got back to my mother's house and spent the rest of the week there just relaxing, catching up on sleep, and spending time with her and the rest of my family that is in the area. We then came back home yesterday. It has been a whirlwind for sure. I think that everyone should try and go through those states in a car. You really get to appreciate the beauty that is America when you do that. Its just so breathtaking seeing expanses of green plains and huge mountains, some with snow caps still. Here is just one of the pictures I was able to take:
 |
| MONTANA!! |
I decided to sit down after getting back and really work on updating things today, while playing some games. I have gotten many things accomplished over the past 2 months, and especially over our trip. I mean, when you spend 24 hours in a car and you drive ~12 hours of that, you need something to do besides just talking and looking at everything around you (p.s. I love talking to my wife. I was just saying I could talk and click buttons).
So in the past 2 months I have been able to Beat a couple of games. Mass Effect, Mass Effect, 2, and then over my trip I Beat Parasite Eve 2. My wife commented that I have been on a roll lately, and I didn't realize it until I sat down and checked my Backloggery that she was right. I have been blowing through games and that makes me really happy. After watching all the craziness that went down at E3, plus getting into the beta for FFXIV, I set my mind into overdrive to start getting through games. I need to get things out of the way so I can justify purchases that will occur in the future. KHIII, FFXIV, FFXV, a PS4, a Vita, a 3DS; there were a lot of things that I instantly put on my wishlist in my head. However sitting on almost $1000 worth of unfinished games makes my conscience hurt when I want to buy more. Plus doing a budget everyday/every month, I can't validate making purchases on things that won't get completely used.
So I did some upgrading of things.
First: I got all the games that I already owned on disc off of PSN if I could for my PSP (I had a gift card that really helped me). This enables me to play more games on the go, or just not in front of a PC/TV.
Second: I finally got my emulators going for PS and PS2. I used the bios off my machines, and I only use the discs that I own to play. This will help me play games when my PS3 is being used, or if the worst case scenario happens with it.
Third: I am doing my best on not playing series back to back as best as possible. Sometimes it can make things dragging if I did Parasite Eve, Parasite Eve 2, The Third Birthday. I would just scream "GIVE ME SOMETHING MORE THAN AVA DAMNIT!!". So for instance, I beat Parasite Eve 2, and now I am working on Wild Arms and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep on my PSP. Once I get through KH, I wont' go straight to Chain of Memories. I will probably move over to FF Tactics, or whatever.
Fourth: I am going to redo my "buying a new game" credit system. I used to have it based on when I beat 5 games I will buy a new one. That made sense at the time, but the changes I have planned will make it either harder or easier for me to get new games. Hell, it could make it the best system. The idea is to base the credit system not of the quantity of games beaten, but the value of the game. So if I buy a game for $60 and beat the game, then I will put $60 in the "till" for me to use when I want to buy something new. A lot of times I will buy a game new, but will work on another game first before starting it. So I won't be getting lots of money in the till all of the time. It will take some time to build up credit. I could change it for new games as well and make it when I Beat a new game (that I know the price of) I only get 75% of the full price in the till. When I Complete a game, then I get 100% in the till. Now games like Parsite Eve 2, which I have a disc for but I bought the PSN version, I will base it off the price that I bought it off of PSN, which I believe was 5.99. When I have a game that I bought a long time ago but can't remember the price, then I will use ebay and/or amazon to find an average value to the game. This value will then be used for the price of the game.
I plan on redoing the List and Completed List page, and I will include values to the games with each one. Trilogy packs (like Mass Effect Trilogy) I will take the price of the game and then divide it by how many games are in pack. I will also look into adding a Beaten List Page to go along with my Complete List page, but that will have to do with how things flow.
Fifth: I am taking some breaks to watch things on Hulu and Netflix so as to not burn myself out on my games. It can take me sometime to figure out what I want to play just because I have so many damn choices. Once I watch some queued episodes of whatever I have then I can concentrate on a specific entry.
Sixth: I started to do a Breath of Fire series play through on emulator. I call it my BOFathon. I won't always do this, however I found that when getting through my much older entries, something like this makes things a little fun. So expect little many -athons in the future. I will eventually need to come up with a good list of games for my extra-life campaign (please go and donate!!).
With all of these changes you can expect changes to the blog as well. I am going to update the format. Most likely the fishes will be going (I love those guy), but I want to try and clean up the pages some.
You can also expect for entries on the games that I mentioned on this blog to appear, plus other game entries as well. I will add links in this post for when I make those entries. I have a lot of drafts sitting in my posts waiting to be updated and worked on. So don't think I am just sitting around and doing nothing.
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