New Books and Dark Souls

Picked up Dark Souls for the 360 from Gamestop this week, since Best Buy sold my Collector's Edition I ordered from them. Having played Demon Souls the starting areas of the game where fairly easy since I knew the controls and attack patterns of the basic enemies. I'm currently past the Boar in the Undead Parish and it's getting a bit harder. Preparing for the fight with the Belfry Gargoyles.  Anyone else playing Dark Souls? How are you enjoying it?

Also got some new books. The new Percy Jackson book is out "The Son of Neptune". I got 5 of the "New 52" DC Comics consisting of Wonder Woman #1, Superman #1, Green Lantern Corps #1, The Flash #1, and Teen Titans #1. And two new manga volumes, Negima 31, and Higurashi: Eye Opening Arc 3. I liked the way Teen Titans started with their #1 issue. It was the only one to open in an origin story style with the Teen Titans not having been formed yet. What's everyone else take on the "New 52"? Read more On "New Books and Dark Souls"!

Halo Reach Legendary Edition

Thought I'd post some pics of my Halo Reach unboxing. The box by the way is huge.

The first things in the box are the limited edition of the game, and letter from your "cousin" hoping you enjoy this scale replica of the War Monument to Noble Team.

More after the jump.....

The Noble Team statue features the five of the six members of the team and is made by McFarland Toys.

Carter and Emile

Jorge and Kat

Emile and Jun

The limited edition opens to reveal the game, but that's not all.

Underneath the game is a package labeled Confidential and a not regarding it's contents.

The pouch contains a diary.

The diary contains a patch, an id card, as well as several maps, letters, and blue prints.

The diary belonged to a scientist who was on Reach at the time of the Covenant invasion.

I haven't read it yet, but I think it has to do with the creation of Cortana and Master Chief

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Fable 3 Collector's Edition

Picked up the Fable 3 Collectors Edition this week. The game is very similar to Fable 2 in the way a lot of the game mechanics work, with slight changes here and there. The biggest change is in inventory management and map use. Instead of an inventory/map window you actually enter an area of the game called The Sanctuary where your butler, voiced by John Cleese, lays out your outfits and weapons for you to examine.

The collector's edition comes in the faux leather book.

Which has two hidden compartments holding the game, a deck of playing cards, and metal coin.

There are 4 achievements requiring co-op play, and at least one Demon Door. Anyone wanting to help each other get those my Gamertag is ZirocStormkiler.


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Bioshock 2

Been considering buying Bioshock 2 for awhile now. I had been planning on buying the collectors edition since Best Buy had it for 69.99, but I'm glad I kept putting it off. A couple weekends ago Amazon had a 1 day sale on the collectors edition, selling it for 39.99.

More after the jump.....

Removing the slip case for the box the collectors edition comes in reveals this butterfly painting made from hand prints.

Since the game takes place in 1968 the collectors edition comes with this vinyl 180g LP of the original Bioshock soundtrack.

It also comes with a pretty large art book. And the scrolls to the left are advertising posters like the ones you'll find around Rapture as you play the game. I haven't taken them out yet, but I believe they are supposed to have secret messages that show up under a black light.

The original soundtrack for Bioshock 2 is included, but unlike the Bioshock 1 soundtrack this one is on CD.

And of coarse it comes with the game. I really like the way they packaged this with everything nicely layered on top of each other.

And if your wondering why I included a picture of the empty box. It's because when I ordered Monster Hunter 3 Amazon crammed the game into a box that was not made for shipping something like MH3. I did complain about the packaging through their review options they present you with after ordering with them. And while I know this is just a coincidence, I thought it was kind of funny that the very next game they used a huge box with a bunch of airbags to ship it to me.

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Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake

Last week I bought Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake. However I did not get to play them for long. After getting home with the games, I played through the first episode of Alan Wake. It's a very creepy game, and had me looking over my shoulder when going to kitchen to get some water before bed. The game is designed as if it is a TV series about a writer named Alan Wake. While on vacation with his wife to help get him over writers block his wife disappears and he begins to find pages of a manuscript with his name on it but he doesn't remember writing. He's also being attacked by townspeople cover in shadows which can only be stopped by shining light on them to dissipate the shadows. Because of the games design each episode, beside EP1, starts with a "Previously on Alan Wake" segment refreshing viewe.....I mean gamers on what happened during the previous episode. If you like scary games then you'll probably like this one.



Now for Red Dead Redemption, and why I wasn't able to play either game for long. Red Dead is basically a Grand Theft Auto game set in the old west, so if you like the GTA series you'll probably like this game as well. From what I played the voice acting was top notch, and you really got that feel as if you were watching a western during the cut scenes. And I personally think the smaller towns, and fewer people gave the world a more "lived in" look than the GTA games.

But unfortunately I only got about 5 missions into the game when disaster struck. Twice during the game I had my XBox lock up. I did a search to see if this was a known issue with the game and found some posts on various site of people having the same problem with lock up. I even saw posts from people with the PS3 version saying their PS3 would lock up when playing. So I emailed Rockstar' Red Dead support to let them know of my problem. Since I didn't see tons of people with the lock up issue I decided I would take my copy back for a new one in case it was a issue with some of the discs. Got home that night and was going to play Left 4 Dead 2 with some friends. Logged into a game with one guy while waiting for the other guy to get online when that game locked up. This time however the console did not come back on after restarting it. Instead I got the 3 flashing red lights error, which thankfully is a condition still covered by the warranty.

So now I sit and wait while Microsoft fixes my XBox and ships it back to me. Guess I'll just have to settle with the Red Dead Redemption short film which airs tonight on Fox.



END POST

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Record of Agarest War

My most recent game purchase is Record of Agarest War. Published in the US by Aksys Games, Record of Agarest War follows a soldier named Leonhardt. Leonhardt is a soldier in the Gridamas army, but after seeing his commanding officer try and kill a young elven girl, who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, rebels in order to protect her. He ends up mortally wounded helping her, and on the brink of death a strange woman appears offering to give him the power to help the girl in exchange for his soul and the souls of his descendants. Because of this deal the game takes place over several generations. Each generation will feature a new main character, a descendant of the first generation character. During each generation there will be 3 female characters you must convince one of to marry your current character in order to give birth to the next generations hero. Which girl, and how well she likes you, will determine the new heroes starting stats, and weapon of choice.

More after the jump......

People who have played Cross Edge for the PS3 will be familiar with some of the game mechanics. Since both games were developed by Compile Heart, and Idea Factory they share the same leveling system. Winning a battle earns you Experiance Points (XP), Enhancement Points (EP), Techincal Points (TP), and certain battles award Party Points (PP). Like Cross Edge EP is used to level your weapons, armor, accessories, and skills, with each having 5 levels they can be upgraded. There is also an Alchemy system to create new items. TP are spent on items and skills. And PP are skill points that can be used by any party member.

Now while the leveling system is the same as Cross Edge, the combat system is completely different. Agarest War uses a Tactical RPG style combat system. Each battle your allowed to bring 6 units into combat. Combat is split into two phases, a move phase and action phase. During the move phase you move your units around a grid in order to get within range of enemy units, or to move a weakened character out harms way. The action phase is where you select skills, or items your character uses. Each round you are given action points. These are used when moving or taking an action. One similarity to Cross Edge in the combat system is the ability to "break" your enemies defense, and to do an "overkill". If you succeed in reducing the enemies break gauge to 0 your attacks will do more damage. Doing more than the enemies Current HP+Maximum HP will do an overkill, which essentially gets you extra items for killing that unit. Combat also features whats referred to as an Extended Attack. Position your troops properly and you can combine their attacks on a single enemy performing powerful combos.

Well now that I've talked a little bit about the game let's get on to the items included in "The Really Naughty Limited Edition" available only on the XBox 360. First up you get the original soundtrack included in the case with the game.

A pillow case featuring the adult version of Ellis, the elven girl Leonhardt saves in the first generation.

And lastly an oppai mousepad featuring Vira-Lorr.

While this game has been hyped on it's more "sensual" aspects, the game is more than that with an interesting story, and fun game play. If you played and enjoyed Cross Edge then you will probably like Record of Agarest War.


My unboxing of the game.


The games opening
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New Games, Manga, and Anime

Went with a friend over to Shreveport the other day, and stopped by this used game store called Game Exchange. They had tons of used games including NES games. The prices weren't bad either. I got Robotech: Battlecry, and Robotech: Invasion for the PS2 for 5.95 each. Blue Dragon for the 360 was only 9.95.

More after the jump.....




Jade Empire was 7.95. While SSX Tricky and SSX 3 were just 3.95. Only problem is apparently Tricky isn't XBox 360 compatible. They had a few other games I was interested in, but they didn't have the manuals. I don't buy used games unless the original case and manual are included.


We also stopped by Gamestop, FYE, and Books A Million. I got Kanon volume 1 which was the only volume I was missing. Kanon is an awesome series, and I'm glad they licensed the 2006 series which I think is much better than the 2002 series. xxxHolic volume 2 and Yotsuba@! volume 1 were also purchased. If you haven't read Yotsuba@! you need to. It's by Kiyohiko Azuma, who also did Azumanga Daioh, and it is a hilarious series (or at least book 1 was).


Last manga purchases were Fruits Basket 8 and Trigun Maximum 1. And in Trigun news apparently there will be a new Trigun manga to go along with the upcoming movie. (Source: Ain't It Cool). At Gamestop I got Halo 3: ODST and....


....Class of Heroes. Class of Heroes wasn't exactly what I expected. Was expecting more interaction with the whole going to class and grouping with other students mechanic. But there isn't any real interaction between you and your classmates. In fact you can create your entire party from scratch. And the going to class part consists of accepting a quest at the library, and then either answering a quiz or being sent to the dungeon on some specific task. It's still a decent 3D Dungeon crawler though.



Class of Heroes Webcomic


I also got some games from JAST USA in the mail. Back after Christmas I took advantage of JAST's "Buy 2, Get Snow Sakura for Free" sale. X-Change 3 actually came in about 3 weeks ago, but Snow Sakura didn't arrive until today. If your wondering what the other game was I ordered to get Snow Sakura free, I pre-ordered Cat Girl Alliance.




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