Game Diary — Page 2

Too many games!

Posted on 15/04/2015 Written by choobs

It’s getting ridiculous. It really is. After my prolonged ennui – in part caused by a lack of anything new and interesting and in part by my ridiculous Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate obsession – I’ve found myself up to my eyes in amazing titles. Admittedly, this is at least partly down to the magnificence of the new 3ds and the PS4, but regardless I’m struggling to keep up. My list of “Things that I’m actually playing right now” currently looks a bit like this:

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS)
Xenoblade Chronicles (3DS)
Tomb Raider Definitive Edition (PS4)
Toukiden: Kiwami (PS4, Vita)
Final Fantasy X Remastered (Vita)
Elite Dangerous (Mac)
Apotheon (PS4)
Don’t Starve (PS4)

On top of these, titles which I’m kinda sorta playing but have been distracted from are (wait for it)

Alien Isolation (PS4)
Bloodborne (PS4 – not even started!)
Destiny (PS4)
Dragon Age Origins (PS4)
Evil Within (PS4)
Shadows of Mordor (PS4)
Heroes of the Storm (Mac)

On top of that, on the 3DS alone there are another dozen games and about half that amount on the Vita that have fallen by the wayside. The problem here is I’m doing too many at once. The trouble is that things like MH4U, Elite, Heroes of the Storm and so on are as near open-ended as they get. So in order to dig my way out of the mess, I’m going to focus on two games at a time and try my damnedest NOT TO BUY ANY MORE (until No Man’s Sky comes out). To keep me honest, I’m going to get back to my Game Diary entries before I drown in it all. So here’s the rules: at any one time I’m allowed to be playing a “standard” game and a long-term game. Long term games I’m allowed to play for an arbitrary number of days before switching to another one, but “standard” games need to be completed before I start (or continue) another one.

So – my current “standard” game is Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition” (which, I might add, is exceptional.

Destiny! Destiny!

Posted on 18/11/2014 Written by choobs

There is no escape for me!

Anyway, I caved and bought a next-gen console (in addition to the Wii-U -.-). Usually, I need a critical mass of games I really want before I’ll splurge on a console, and I never got there with the PS3. So far, though, must haves on the PS4 for me are Shadows of Mordor, No Man’s Sky, The Evil Within, Alien Isolation, Silent Hills, The Last of Us Remastered and, of course, Destiny.

So, I’m about a week in and I’m in love with the game. I can see where the next-gen-ness comes from. Not just the graphics (although ultra-pretty, ultra-smooth-framerate and huuuuuge draw distance is nice) but in the AI. The enemies are just fecking sneaky. The game itself is all kinds of awesome and is constantly surprising me with just how huge it is. It’s ticking all the right boxes for me, especially in the “if you can see it you can go there” stakes.

So, in short, very happy. Currently running a warlock at level 14 and getting more engrossed every day.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Posted on 07/11/2013 Written by choobs

And so it continues. I’m about 140 hours in now and ploughing through the 7 and 8 star quests, and I’ve ever started doing a bit of the online stuff. I finally got a nice checkmark on the 6 start quest section today by getting around to doing the annoying egg-fetchy-quest. It turns out it wasn’t nearly as annoying as it could have been (i.e. no rampaging Deviljho to avoid) and was done in under 5 minutes.

I’m now kitted out with a rather fetching set of S rank Diablos armour and have switched my primary from Dual Swords to Long Swords (due to everything getting a bit too tall for my little swords to reach) and I’m really enjoying the mechanic. Things are starting to get difficult though – many of the high rank quests involve ganking more than one beastie at a time, and given some of them take a good 50 minutes to take down alone, the search for better gear is pretty much constant. Not even vaguely close to finishing this one yet

MH3U – Heat Exhaustion

Posted on 13/08/2013 Written by choobs

Oh Good God. That was a bastard. Heat Exhaustion is a five star quest (but fairly early on) which requires a big of thinking to do. Firstly, it’s set in the volcanic area, so naturally you’ll need a good supply of cold drinks. Secondly, it requires carrying burning hot rocks which constantly deplete your health from one end of the map to the other, a bit like the ‘Poached Wyvern Eggs’ quest. Except they don’t break if you drop them – they explode. So you’re going to need a lot of health and a lot of stamina. Thirdly, just to make things fun, there’s a Uragaan on the loose. If it hits you, the powderstone explodes. If the ground shakes when it thumps its tail, the powderstone explodes. If you’re in range when it roars, the powderstone explodes.

It’s a bastard of a quest. Here’s what I did:

First off, take plenty of potions, mega-potions, cool drinks and well done steaks. Most importantly, get a meal made with fresh ingredients and choose the cooking method which will give you Felyne Lander. This will allow you, carrying a stone, to leap from the ledge in area 10 and land safely in area 5, shortcutting half of the map, without the damn thing exploding.

Clear out any mobs you find on your way to 10. Many of them won’t respawn and it’ll make things easier when carrying the stones.

This bit is optional, but makes things more interesting. Hunt down the Uragaan. He does a lot of damage but isn’t mega-tough. That will probably take you about half an hour, leaving you an easy 20 minutes to grab the stones. Pick them up at 10, run like hell off the ledge to 5, then it’s plain sailing. Repeat. Win.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS)

Posted on 06/08/2013 Written by choobs

Barroth Armour get! And let me tell you, fertile mud is a bugger to get a hold of! The Barroth rolls in mud to armour itself and if you hack this mud off during combat, there’s a chance it’ll drop a sparkly – and there’s a chance (a small one) that this sparkly will be fertile mud.

But most of the time it isn’t.

You can also get fertile mud as a quest reward, with a much higher drop rate if you capture, rather than killing the beast.

You need eight (I think) fertile mud for the full armour set and I reckon the best way to get it is to grind the ‘hunt a Barroth’ three star quest. Took me four or five runs to get it all. Now that I’ve done that and fitted the armour with ThunderRes decorations, I’m ready to have another go at the Lagiacrus. Once that’s out of the way, I think most of the remaining quests are in the Tundra. Barroth armour has a nasty -10 to ice attacks, so I’ll be swapping back to Jaggi armour (or making something better) before long. Saved armour sets for the win.