Mood:  lazy

     And so the wife has pretty much taken over the PS3 to play Assassin's Creed.  This happened right after I finished my second assassination in the game, but it's been ok with me.  Given me a chance to do some reading (yes reading) that I have been meaning to do anyway.  Also, I managed to fit in Uncharted:  Drake's Fortune between her gaming sessions, which while no easy task, was worth the trouble.  It does continue a troubling trend of somewhat short, overpriced games that plagues this generation, however.

     Prior to my wife's interest in Assassin's Creed, I was making good progress with games that I had picked up over the past few months.  I finished Blue Dragon after around ninety hours of play, and also knocked out Conan for the PS3 in around seven and a half hours (another of the too short for the money games).  Both of these games were a good time, depite the length issues for the Conan title.  I was also able to spend an enormous amount of time with Call of Duty 4's (PC version) multiplayer games over this holiday season.  More on all this stuff to come.

captainzoli 

Posted by the Captain at 2:12 PM CST

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Actually, the title is kind of misleading. I haven't taken a break from gaming, just playing Blue Dragon. Don't get me wrong, it isn't going to be a long break. It has become an overriding mission to finish the game, but after putting in eighty or so hours, I needed a break.

So I began my break last weekend by playing through Heavenly Sword, with I borrowed from my brother. The game is a lot of fun. It looks great, the controls are responsive, and there are many great things to recommend about this game, unfortunately, game length is not one of them. Nor is difficulty level. The real tragedy of Heavenly Sword is that it could have be a great, great game, but for whatever reason the developer chose to short change the game, and left it as a could have been. Really, the game has two major shortcomings: it's short and it's too easy on default difficulty. Four to five hours, part of which is filler, just isn't enough to justify a $60.00 purchase. There really is no way around that and the replay value isn't high enough to help that issues either. This is made that much worse by the low level of difficulty that is brought to the table by the default setting. There is no real level of challenge until the last boss battle, and even then it isn't too much. Like I said, good game, just not enough to justify any more than a rental. Sixty bucks for this little game is a joke.

captainzoli

Tags: playstation 3, ps3, heavenly sword, review, blue dragon, x-box, xbox, 360, rpg, action, adventure, hack n' slash

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Posted by the Captain at 9:45 AM CST

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Yes it's true, more Blue Dragon. I spent most of the weekend playing Blue Dragon, when I wasn't watching football or playing Pixel Junk Racers with my brother and Ash. Which is a good time, let me tell you. But after that stuff, it was Blue Dragon, Blue Dragon, and more Blue Dragon. Luckily, I have really been enjoying it. I don't think I've played a game this this much in this short a period of time since Enchanted Arms. I'm now almost fifty hours into the game, on the second disk, and generally just having a good time with it.

In other Blue Dragon news, there was some downloadable content on XBL for it this week. A little tidbit that added a couple of new difficulty levels, and the ability to start a new game with the characters from a late save from a previous game. The first difficulty level, hard, is supposed to be twice as hard as the original, and the second, impossible, is for characters level 50 and above. Not sure exactly how high a level character one needs to be to beat Blue Dragon, but my characters are all very close to level fifty already, and I'm on the second of the three disks. I tend to power level early though, so I can enjoy the rest of the game. While the new stuff is cool, I'm not sure that it is compelling enough to get me to play though a game this long again anytime soon. I'll most likely be moving on to Persona 3 or Growlanser: Heritage of War.

captainzoli

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Tags: blue dragon, enchanted arms, pixeljunk racers, ps3, playstation 3, xbox 360, xbl, rpg, role playing game, gaming, weekend, fun, progress report, difficulty, downloadable content

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Posted by the Captain at 10:48 AM CDT

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It's unusual for me to pick up a game, not be "grabbed" by it quickly, and continue playing it, but this is just what happened with Blue Dragon. I really didn't care for it all that much during the first couple of hours. That's not to say that I hated it or anything, it just didn't make me want to keep playing it. The shadows were a nice idea (although not particularly new) and the combat is pretty much standard turn based fare, with a couple of twists as far as getting in to it, so there are some things to recommend Blue Dragon for, but it just wasn't hitting home with me.

Starting Sunday though, for some reason, I have just not been able to put it down now. I've become interested in the story and the locations have been much more interesting than just the initial. desert setting. I can't put my finger on what has changed, but the last few nights I've just wanted to play, and actually have longer than is probably prudent, always looking to complete that next section, fight that next boss, and find those next medals. At this point, about thirteen hours in, I would recommend Blue Dragon. Of course, there are many hours left to go.

captainzoli

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Tags: blue dragon, xbox, 360, rpg, game, gaming, fun

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Posted by the Captain at 4:02 PM CDT

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