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State of the Gaming Nation (in my house)

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So, I’ve not really been doing much gaming for the last year or two. Just fiddling with a few titles here and there. It’s a bit of a recurring ennui, really. I can pin-point pretty much where this lengthy slump came from. It pretty much coincides with the end of the Gamecube era and the start of the Wii era.

Throughout its life, there was a steady stream of seriously good (to my eyes – I have odd tastes) titles appearing on pretty much a monthly basis on the cube. A fair few of them I still pull out every now and again. More than a few have gone in my gaming top-ten-of-all-time.

So, to say I was disappointed with the Wii is an understatement. I’m sure there were some good titles released, but the sheer volume of utter shovelware pumped onto the system did a damn fine job of masking it. Even the first-party titles didn’t particularly shine for me (with a few exceptions). Something I’d normally consider unthinkable happened. Skyward Sword – a Zelda game – is sitting on my shelf. I haven’t played it. And I LOVE Zelda.

Anyway, things appear to be looking up. I have a 3DS and it’s starting to get some damn good titles. Titles of a quality that it’s beginning to feel a bit like the Gamecube era. In the last six months or so I’ve bought Ocarina (again :)), Cave Story, Harvest Moon, Fire Emblem, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Luigi’s Mansion 2. Without exception, they are magnificent.

In fact, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is SO magnificent that I’ve just bought a Wii-U to play it on. Thank God, it looks like Nintendo are getting their act together.

Things I’ve been playing recently

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Round up round up round up!

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U)

Closing in on 60 hours played now. SIXTY. Between this and Animal Crossing, I’m really not going to finish off many other games this year.

I seem to find myself playing mainly online these days. Hunting a monster in a team, regardless of which monster, who the team is, or even what rank everyone is, is always fun. Entering a room and everyone remarking on your rank and then offering to help you rank up is fantastic. I’m HR3 at the moment (but almost HR4), so although it’s still VERY early days, I’ve already been able to help some others reach HR3.

Offline, I’ve reached 5* and just have to capture a Lagiacrus to progress. Well, I say “just” – I find caps pretty difficult.

I’ve also completed my Rathalos armour, which has now replaced my Jaggi armour as my default choice. It’s not much better in terms of defence, but I haven’t pimped it out with Armour Spheres to the level I had with the Jaggi stuff, so I can improve it further.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)

Meanwhile, AC has clocked up 90 hours play. Erk.

Sold my turnips for a 100% profit, only to find I could have got 500% the next day. That’s the way it is. Still – at least I made a stack load of bells. Made a load more selling perfect pears “abroad”.

In development news, I’ve built a street clock, a yellow bench, and a fountain, and filled my basement with urinals.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS)

This was one of the free games I obtained from the “So Many Games” promotion. It wasn’t one I especially wanted, but it was either this or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon so I tossed a coin. I have never been a fan of the series – I hated the SNES and Game Boy Donkey Kong Country/Land titles, and Donkey Kong 64 almost drove me away from gaming completely, but so far – only half way through the second level – I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’m actually rather enjoying it, despite it being pretty difficult already.

Super Mario World (Wii U)

Once Kirby was completed, I returned to this. I’ve now reached Chocolate Island, so I know there’s not that much game left between me and Bowser now!

Red Dead Redemption – Horse in the ground

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A glitch I came across whilst some bandits attacked me.

I give you the Horse in the ground

Really enjoying the game, I have spent some time on the main story & I've attacked Fort Mercer now but Bill Williamson has escaped to Mexico.

Arriving at Mexico I am greeted by some friendly locals & Landon Ricketts, an old time gunslinger teaches me some more dead eye skills.

Monster Hunter 3 ultimate (3DS)

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Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate box artSo, a one-star mission. Hunt some beasties, get their guts. 50 minutes to do it. Dead easy, I thought. As it’s an easy one, I thought I’d hunt the aquatic beasties, on the basis that it would give me a bit of practice with the (perfectly adequate) controls. And it was all going fine until the bloody Lagiacrus turned up. Nasty ornery beastie can spot you a mile away and comes straight at you, stunning on the way. So, several frantic minutes later, after much darting between areas trying to evade the damn thing, I finally handed in the mission – with less than a minute to spare :-/