Gaming Diary — Page 329

Movies & TV – Back to the Future

Posted on 12/05/2014 Written by gospvg

When I am not gaming I watch movies & quite a few of them thanks to my Netflix & Amazon Lovefilm/Instant subscriptions.

I had pondered a while ago about posting non-gaming posts on the blog but decided against it.

I've now changed my mind & will now be posting about the movies & tv shows I watch with some quick one or two line reviews. I enjoy sci-fi, westerns & action-adventure movies the most but I do also watch a fair few animation & kid movies (because I have children). I rarely watch comedies or horror & I should watch more drama. Thanks to my wife & daughter I do watch the odd Bollywood movie.

For clarification though The Back to the Future Trilogy is the best movie trilogy ever made with the first movie being the best movie ever made.

Link to a spreadsheet with 2014 movies watched
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hMBjZ_3RK0f069Ffcp1cuqiVdStFIBaoE5j6kcsbsCc/edit?usp=sharing

26 so far this year with some good titles like Shawshank Redemption, Finding Nemo 3D, Elysium, Man of Steel, Kai Po Che, Kick Ass 2 & Thor Dark World.

Super Metroid (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 11/05/2014 Written by deKay

And that’s it. Samus saved the day (although, in the end, all she saved was herself – spoilers). The game was completed in 7 hours 40 minutes, and with a collected items percentage of 79. I’m surprised it’s as low as 79%, as although I didn’t attempt to get 100%, I did search pretty much everywhere and only knowingly missed three upgrades – two missiles that I saw but couldn’t figure out how to reach, and a Reserve Tank that I never actually saw. I got all the Energy Tanks though, as I assumed the final boss would be a nightmare and I’d want as much health as possible.

It’s genius, then, that how much health you have is completely irrelevant to the final fight. OK, so shooting Mother Brain Inna Jar is tricky with all the Evil Party Rings of Doom, but they don’t do a lot of damage and Mother Brain herself doesn’t attack until after the jar is destroyed, and it’s at that point health is pointless.

You see, she transforms into a monster thing who unleashes everything at you, and is a rocket sponge. After all my missiles, super missiles and power bombs were depleted, she fired a multicoloured beam that drained me of almost all my energy (see? It doesn’t matter how much you have), then was about to finish me off when Baby Metroid (Oh! How he’s grown! Hasn’t he just? How adorable!) returned having almost sucked me dry not ten minutes earlier before he realised I was his mum. He then latched onto Mother Brain and appropriated her essential juices, before transferring them to me, restoring my health. In the process, Mother Brain reanimated and started attacking Baby Metroid, destroying her. Aww.

Still, I’d recovered by then, and had a new rainbow beam power thing which made short work of what was left of Mother Brain, and then (of course!) a time bomb was triggered and I had to run back to my ship very fast. The end!

Yes, I’m aware I’ve missed out a lot of stuff from between my last post and the final boss. There’s just too much good to say about the game. I loved the pacing, the music and the exploration. There’s always something great about getting a new ability in games like this, that allows you to get past a room you were scratching your head over previously. Slowly building you up to be a virtually unstoppable powerhouse with each upgrade and item.

It may be a game from 1994 (that’s TWENTY YEARS AGO), but it hasn’t aged. The pixels are still beautiful. The gameplay is timeless. Some people said they didn’t think it’d stand up today, especially coming to it now having never played it before (which I haven’t), but they were so very wrong. If this was a new release now, it would stand up perfectly against current titles. One of the best games I’ve ever played. I’m just amazed I’d managed to miss out on it for so long.

Mass Effect 3 – Thane

Posted on 07/05/2014 Written by gospvg

After delivering the cure to Tuchanka & deciding to ignore the sabotage option. I returned to the Citadel following up on a video call from the Salarian politician about Udina working with Cerberus.

The Citadel is under attack by Cerberus forces, during the mission whilst saving the Salarian politician an assassin Kai Leng fights and wounds Thane. After taking back control of the Citadel, Thane is admitted to the hospital.

He has lost a lot of blood & even with his son's help, because his Kepral's syndrome is in it's final stages, his time has come.

The weapons in the game can be upgraded with various mods & by only carrying a few weapons your powers recharge quicker. I only carry the Assault Rifle, Sniper & Handgun with damage & ammo capacity mods equipped.

Time to go find this Kai Leng for some revenge.

Mass Effect 3 – Chemist

Posted on 06/05/2014 Written by gospvg

I enjoyed planet scanning for minerals in Mass Effect 2, this has changed quite a bit now in that you scan the solar system you are in to reveals areas/planets to investigate. You can only get three to four scans before the reapers are alerted & you have to run the Normandy out of the solar system to escape. If you get caught you restart the game.

You find lots of fuel, some credits, intel which you can then use at Liana's Glyph for upgrades or side mission artifacts (fetch & retrieve quest lines).

Ashley is now out of the hospital & has accepted an offer by Udina to become a Spectre. I've met quite a few characters from the previous games including Garrus who is now an advisor on Reaper matters but happily joins me on my quest. Miranda who is worried about her twin sister again. Jack who is now a biotic teacher, Kasumi who is still using her stealth abilities to steal tech, I've sent her to help the alliance build the reaper weapon. EDI has decided to take over the robot that attacked Ashley to give herself a body. Thane who is still slowly dying, Urdnot Wrex & Grunt who I've helped recover a female Krogan from a Salarian research lab, hoping Grunt becomes a controllable character so I can recreate my Mass Effect 2 team again (Garrus & Grunt).

For now my team is Garrus & James. I've done a ton of side missions since my last post & rescued the Turrian Primarch. After saving the female Krogan, I now need to go and dispense a cure for the genophage. Cerburus also are a constant thorn, the illusive man I think wants to control the reapers.

Mass Effect 3 is all about uniting the various races together to take on the reapers but for now I'm a chemist dispensing a cure for the genophage.

Super Metroid (Wii U)

Posted on 05/05/2014 Written by deKay

To my eternal shame, I have never completed Super Metroid. In fact, I’ve never played it for more than the first five minutes. I don’t know why I decided to rectify this situation now, but I did.

Maybe it’s the fun I had with of-the-same-era Earthbound, or maybe it’s a Backlog Fighter/OCD Unplayed Home Screen Games combo prompting me. I’ve always intended to play it, and I’m a big fan of the two GBA Metroid games so I was pretty sure I’d enjoy it. It just never happened. Until now!

So far, it’s been pretty much what I expected – similar to the GBA versions only with bigger and slightly worse looking sprites. I’ve never really played the original Metroid, or the Game Boy Metroid 2, so the intro to Super Metroid was a little lost on me as it (I presume) replays the ending to one or the other of those.

The controls are a little odd, specifically pressing L and R to aim diagonally down and up respectively, but it didn’t take too long to get used to. Not having the map always on the Wii U Game Pad, although never going to happen, is a shame – especially after relying on it so much in Knytt Underground recently.

There’s very little signposting as to where you need to go, so I’ve found that if you’ve not unlocked the map you’ve no idea what lies in each direction so you’re exploring blind. Which is the point of an exploration based game, I suppose, but I get get somewhat lost for ages.

Well, not so much lost, more stuck. I’d descended into Norfair, picked up the high jump, and then couldn’t find anywhere else to go. I couldn’t backtrack as I needed the ice beam to freeze baddies to create steps, I couldn’t go another way because the room was too hot (I later found I needed the Varia Suit here), and another route was blocked as I couldn’t run fast enough. In addition, there was at least one yellow door which I didn’t have a weapon to open. Stuck.

Until I found that bombing (literally) everywhere revealed a few extra areas – netting me the “Spazer” weapon and eventually access to Kraid, who was a lot easier than I was expecting once I saw he/she/it was three screens high. In fact, the enemies have been surprisingly easy so far. Knowing where to go, less simple.

After leaving Norfair though the overheated area, I found some new bits to explore which gained me the Speed Booster and, utilising this in Norfair where I previously couldn’t run fast enough, lead me to the Ice Beam and then another new area – leading me back to the planet’s surface via the Power Bomb, which can open yellow doors. Excellent.