Games to soothe the soul

Just figured I'd post about what games I've been playing of late.

Let's see...

Guitar Hero - I spent WAY too much time playing this over the weekend. It is by far one of the best games of the year, let alone ever. I have a newfound respect for those lucky people who can play guitar well.
Codeboy & Blitzy were over on Saturday and we ended up playing single & multiplayer until past midnight. They went out and got their own copy of the game so the next time they come over we're going to have dueling guitars. Hopefully they'll be ready for the medium difficulty level by then.

Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones - I'm really enjoying the latest installment in the PoP series. After spending a lot of time with Warrior Within lately, playing The Two Thrones is a breath of fresh air. It is much closer to Sands of Time than Warrior Within. Sure, there's more combat but with the addition of stealth kills, the Dark Prince's killer bike chain and a less frustrating combat system, the action sequences enhance the game rather than drag it down. That said, the focus has been put back on the puzzle and platforming elements that made Sands Of Time such a good game. There are a lot of new moves for the Prince and some of the puzzles are quite tricky.

I have to say that this game, not Grand Theft Auto or some bloody first-person shooter, contained one section that made me so angry yesterday that I was THIS close to going out in the backyard to find something to break. The Two Thrones has a couple chariot race sequences that are a lot of fun... unless you have to do them 18 times in a row because you screw up right near the end. This particular race was rather long, somewhat tricky to navigate and often ended in my smashing into a wall or falling into a hole at top speed. THEN, after you finally get past this hellish race, there is a boss fight that is absolutely off the charts, difficulty-wise. I spent a good hour yesterday trying to get past it and only just managed to keep my temper in check (thankfully Garrett has a nice squishy ball that I turfed at the couch a few times to blow off steam). I have never been as mad at a game as I was at that fight. The worst part is that I ended up beating it, not because of my fancy jumping and finesse but because I got fed up and just started button-mashing and wailing on the one boss until it died. It's like it rewards crappy control.

Sigh. I just had to get that off my chest. I was just surprised to have a fight that was so off the charts from a difficulty perspective given the general difficulty level of the rest of the game leading up to it. Since that part it has been more platforming and puzzles, so I'm happy in that respect at least. Hopefully I'll finish the game in the next day or two and send it back for something else on my list.

World of Warcraft - Sadly, I haven't spend a lot of time in here over the last week or so. Witness the fact that Tony, the guy who I used to have to browbeat to go online once or twice a week has now hit the level 60 cap and is Mr. L33T D00D in our guild. Meanwhile, poor Guboo is still plodding along at level 53. Sigh. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time in the next few weeks to go ingame. If not, after New Year's I should be able to get ingame more. I tend to put my Massively Multiplayer games on hold if I have good console games to work on, so WoW will not be worked on that much over the next little bit. Ah well.

Which brings me to Dragon Quest 8 - A fantastic RPG with gorgeous graphics, a huge world and incredibly fun old-school monster killing. I can't really say enough good things about this game. Just go on Evil Avatar and look up any of the DQ8 threads (or half of the other threads about anything as they keep getting hijacked by myself or Kelegacy as we ramble on about the awesomeness of DQ8). Sadly, I haven't spent much time on it over the last week as I've been busy trying to finish Prince of Persia, but once I head home for Christmas, it will probably be the game I play while I'm in Corunna.

Today I spent my $40 Christmas bonus (thanks CH) on the new Final Fantasy IV Advance for the GBA. While it's no FFVI, it is one of the best Final Fantasies and the remake is fantastic. The music is incredible (I forgot just how many of the great FF tunes were from FFIV) and the graphical upgrade is top-notch. It is also VERY fast. Cecil the Dark Knight must have some kind of super running shoe on as he just zips around in town. Nothing like one of the best JRPG's of all time in portable form. I highly recommend it.

So that's what I've been playing in the rather limited time I have to play games between work, looking after Garrett and doing the various Christmas things that we've been busy doing over the last couple weeks. I can't wait until January when everone just stays inside and hibernates. Maybe I'll have time to relax a bit and actually spend more than an hour at a time on my games then!