Day 62: Month 2 Review

It is the end of the second month in the challenge.  I am surprised I haven't driven myself crazy because of it.  I should be freaking out because there is still so many more games I need to finish in the next four months, but I am feeling really calm right now.  I think it's because I have pretty much resigned myself to not being able to complete it.  After all, it is a huge undertaking.  But I am still going to try.  And even if I don't complete the challenge, I will still have fun playing the games I own.  So, it's still great!

Well, I should probably go over what I did complete this month.  The easiest games that I marked off the list this month were the ones from Atari Anthology.  Since gaming technology back then was nothing like it is today, there wasn't a lot for me to do in the games I played.  Since levels are repetitive and most are based on a final score, there isn't much progression needed to be satisfied.  I still have quite a few Atari games to play, and I am looking forward to playing the old-style RPGs.

Other really easy games for me to finish this month were Crash Bandicoot and Jax & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.  The former was one of the first games I played when I first received a PlayStation.  The latter is a game that I have played several times and have little difficulty in completing.  Both of these Naughty Dog games are ones I would recommend to any starting gamer.  They may be old games, but with their availability for PSN download, even new gamers can enjoy these classics.

My favorite game I completed this month is by far 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  It is unlike any game I have ever played, to my knowledge.  If I wasn't doing this challenge, I would probably still be playing it right now in order to get the other endings.  The puzzles are challenging, and the story is great!  I hope to get the sequel to the game someday.

So far in this challenge, I have completed 25 of the 309 total games in my collection.  Sadly, I should be at 103 completed games at this point to keep a steady pace toward completing the entire challenge.  I will have to worker even harder in this next month.  Especially since it will be the first month in this challenge to have only 30 days.  Right now, every day is crucial to reach victory.  My goal for this month is to try not to get steered away from the direct path in games.  As much fun as they might be, I have to try and avoid doing the side quests.  They may offer more experience and better equipment, but they distract me from the endings.

Another goal for this month is to always be playing a game whenever possible.  If I am not playing a game on the television, then I should a handheld game in my hands.  The only way I can make a bigger dent to the list is if I play as much as possible.  Finally, I will try and do a better job at controlling myself and not purchasing any more games.  I swore to myself that I wouldn't buy any more after I received my copy of Dark Cloud 2
(did I remember to tell you all that I finally bought that game?).  And with any money I earn going toward the household bills, I can't afford to look at a game let alone buy one.

Moving on...

I was up late last night playing The Sims 3.  I managed to earn one trophy during the session.  Other than that, I didn't accomplish much in the game.  And today I spent a lot of time working on the main quest line for Skyrim.  Yes, the main story quests.  If you check out the main story's quest list, you will know that I am reaching the end of Act II.  I have found the guy in Riften, and he, Delphine, and I are on our way to Alduin's Wall.  At the moment of my last save, the three of us are at my home in Whiterun.  I wanted to get rid of as much as possible before I leave for the Wall.  I think I will also take Lydia along with us.  It will seem like a full-on battle party then.

As for my progress in Osu!, I didn't play it much today.  And so, I have fallen back a little on the leaderboard.  It's only a few spots, so I am not worried too much.  I wasn't able to find many multiplayer matches today.  No one was playing songs I had, and the ones that did were locked and I couldn't join them.  I am not a frequent poster on the game's forums, so I not known enough to have the luxury of knowing the passwords to get in those special matches.

Well, that's all I have for today.  I hope to have a well-played and really productive to the coming month, and that you continue to follow along as I continue this journey.  So, for the coming day, enjoythe games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 50: Actually, I'm Santa.

I played only two games today, and one of those I completed.  The other is Osu!.  I continued to climb the ranks of osu!mania.  I am now ranked #858 in the U.S.A. and #16,997 in the world.  I got lucky with the songs I played.  For most of them, when I performed well I received performance points.  Most of the ones I played today I managed to place in the Top 50 for each one.  I only played single player today, so my ability was truly tested.  With multiplayer, if you get far enough ahead of the others, you can slack off some and still possibly earn a point or two to raise your ranking.

Anyway, I just completed the newest two maps they made, and I rank first in both.  So now my rank is #838 in the U.S.A., and #16,726 in the world.  I will have to work on those maps to increase my score and keep my first place.

The game I finished today was 999.  I guess it's not technically finished, as I only have reached one of the six endings.  But I am counting it anyway.  After all, I saved and the game says I completed the game.  It wasn't the best ending, because my character didn't actually get off of the boat.  3 put a gun to 6's head, and forced 1 and 8 to leave with him and 6.  That left me (5), 4, and 7 in the room.  And then the coffin started having knocking noises, as if whatever was inside was wanting out.  I apparently couldn't find any clues to open the coffin, so that's when the game ended.  It said "To be continued" and "Wrong Answer" and "I'm Actually Santa".

As much as I want to go through and play again and get a different ending, I can't.  After all, I never went through Door 2.  I have the feeling that it will give me a different outcome than the one I received.  On top of that, I also didn't go through the other doors that were possible when I had to choose.  That's probably how there are six endings.  Because there are six possible door combinations.  Anyway, I have to work through the rest of the list for the challenge.  Getting the other endings will wait until later.  And by then, the game will be fresh again and I can play as if I hadn't played it before.

I haven't decided what I will be playing next.  I have found that if I say I will play something, I will probably not play it.  So, I won't broadcast what I am playing until I actually play it.  That way the chance of me completing it is higher (maybe).  Well, that's all for now.  So, for the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 49: CRASHing and FALLing OUT

Today I started the day by playing Crash Bandicoot.  It is one of the first PlayStation games I have ever owned.  I got it when I was only eleven years old, so it's been quite a long time.  I am surprised it has lasted as long as it has.  I have played and completed the game so many times that I was able to complete it easily today.  I started playing it as soon as I woke up this morning, and was finished by lunchtime.  I didn't 100% it, because it isn't necessary to complete the game.  Besides, it doesn't feel like I actually complete the game by taking the shortcut to the end.  If there isn't a final boss, then it isn't a proper game.  And anyway, the second game continues where the non-100% ending ends.  It wouldn't be connected otherwise.

My favorite levels are when you ride the boar.  It puts your reaction ability to the test because you aren't able to turn back in case you miss something.  I also like the river levels.  One thing I don't like about this game that I am glad they changed in the future games is that you weren't able to save your progress with box busting if you died.  In this game, you had to collect all of the boxes in one go.  They fixed that in 2 and 3, and allowed you to keep the count in case of death.

After I finished Crash Bandicoot, I spent some time working on Osu! and raising my rank.  And I accomplished my task as well.  I am now #881 in the U.S.A. and #17,141 in the world in osu!mania.  I found quite a few songs that aren't played often, and received high scores for them in single player mode.  Then I went over to multiplayer and played some rounds with Kimmiee (Atca wasn't online at the time) and some others.  There were some players ranked higher than I, but I held my own and managed to perform well against them.

That's also what I am doing now.  I am playing against a few that are ranked higher than I am.  I actually have had the game loaded up for nearly 12 hours today.  But my brother wanted to use my computer so I played a different game when he was online.  I just didn't turn the game off.

During my time away from Osu!, I played Fallout 3.  I am already at Level 5.  I am just doing random quests right now, because I don't like the main story quests.  Maybe it is because of my strained relationship with my father (for more details on that, read my personal life blog), but I don't see the point of going after your father when he randomly leaves you to defend yourself when he puts your life in danger for putting his desires over that over the family's.  So there is very little motivation for me to complete the main questline of this game.  I probably will at some point, because how else will I complete the game.

I also progressed some in 999.  Or I guess I could call it 379.  After all, there are only 7 people still alive, and 3 hours left.  I am really liking this game.  I have my dry erase board filled with number combinations and the locations of the characters.  I know that as it stands, there will be at most only five people to leave the "ship", which means that two more people will most likely die.  I am leaning toward Lotus being one of the dead.  I haven't figured out who the other person will be.  Today I focused more on which room I should go into out of the three possible choices.  I do know that there is only one choice that gets all seven to the next area, but I want to see what happened with the story if I should choose the other choices.  I am saved right before I have to choose, so I can reload after finding out.  I didn't expect Junpei (my character) to cheat though.

Well, that is all for tonight.  For the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 47: Zooming

The big news of the day is that I am finally in the Top 1,000 among American osu!mania players.  I am currently ranked #984.  I now have to work hard to stay in the Top 1,000, because I already dropped below that once today.  I was #998, and I took a break from playing.  When I started up again, I had already dropped back down to #1,016.  I found out that there are big month long competitions featuring specific beatmaps.  I recently got them all for this month, and I have been trying my best at getting high scores.  It has only been one day seen the start of the competition, but I am among the Top 10 osu!mania players (I come in at #9).  In fact the U.S.A. has five of the Top 10 and ten of the Top 40 (they only show the Top 40 scores).

Today I played on a team as well.  It was a lot of fun.  The teams were almost evenly matched up as well.  There were a team of four people from Chile playing against my team consisting of two Americans, one person from Greece, and our fourth was a switcher.  We had a fourth from Indonesia, one from Chile (who eventually switched over to the other team when one of the originals left), and a couple from South America (I can't remember which countries).  There were times in the beginning when the other team had more people playing than my team had.  Most of those times though, my team still won.  There was even one time my team left me stranded against three on the other team and I managed to win against them.  Of course, the other team's players all failed the song, and I was about to fail as well.  But I managed to squeak by and take the win.

I think that's how I managed to get the Performance Points needed to get in the Top 1,000 U.S.A. players.  And as I type this, I have fallen into 10th Place in the monthly competition.  There are now 6 American players in the Top 10.

I also played Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy today.  I am still in Rock Village, but I have gotten quite a few more Power Cells.  I have 45 of 100 Power Cells; 833 of 2,000 Precursor Orbs; and 53 of 112 Scout Flies; giving me a completion percentage of 44%.  I have just moved the boulder that was blocking the path to the boss preventing me from moving forward.  I still have the underwater area and the swampy area to go through, but I could face the boss right now.  I think I will.  Just a second...

One death...

Two deaths...

And I won!  Now I can move on to the next Zoomer area that leads to the Red Sage's area.  But before that, I will go and complete the areas I mentioned above first.

The last game I played today was 999.  I solved the puzzle that I had trouble with, and have reach the next numbered door area.  It was so brave of Ace to do what he did.  I think I would have stayed behind as well.  But not because I would believe the others who would get out might come back for me later.  I probably would just give up and let the others move on.  Right now I am trying to put together a mannequin in the operating room.

Well, that's all from me tonight.  So, for the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 45: Jak in a box

Today I played Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.  It is a quick game for me to complete, so I figured I'd go ahead and get this one out of the way.  It would also possibly motivate me to play Jak 2, which I haven't even attempted to play yet.  I tried it out when I bought to make sure it worked, but that was it.

Anyway, I am already 20% complete with the game.  I should be finished with it by Monday.  I say Monday, because if I saw something closer something usually comes up to delay me.  So, I will say Monday.

Last night while I was trying to go to sleep, I played some Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer.  There weren't a lot of people online, so I didn't play much.  I did complete Bomb Da Base II.  I just need to finish Hangman's NOOSE and Deal Breaker, and I will get a trophy to add to the collection.  I also did a few deathmatches.  They weren't fun because the opponents were not wanting to play right.  In one round, the opponent ran away from me the whole time.  I made the one and only kill in the round.  I learned that I don't like team deathmatches.  Especially when I am grouped with two people who don't pull their weight.  If they had even contributed, our team would have at least gotten 2nd place.  I think the winners were using some sort of cheat technique.  How else do you kill someone with one shot with a pistol in the game?

And that's about it.  I did try playing 999, but I can't figure out the puzzle I am at.  I keep doing the C + 10 + F math problem, but I don't seem to be able to get the right answer.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.  So, for the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 44: Monkeying Around

Today I played and completed Curious George, the PS2 game based from the animated film.  Now, I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how close the video game adaptation is compared to the movie.  But after having completed the game in the amount of time it takes to watch the movie, I wouldn't say no if someone were to ask me if I would interested in seeing the film.

I thought the graphics were nice.  The gameplay was much too easy.  I liked how there weren't any boss fights or super difficult puzzles to solve.  I really liked the mini-games.  I think my favorite mini-game was the one where you have to pop the bubbles in the bathroom.  I didn't like how it seemed that George was pretty much forced to do all of the work, and then at the end of the game Ted says "Alright, we did it."  No, Ted, WE didn't do anything.  I did everything.  I was the one that ran out in the middle of the street to give you your hat.  I was the one that tried to save your job.  I was the one that had to risk breaking my neck just so you wouldn't get your precious yellow outfit wet because you didn't want to swim across a river.  I was the one that had to climb up the giant cliff because you weren't able to do it yourself. So, no, WE didn't do it.  I did it.

Anyway, it was a nice game.  I was able to play it in a short amount of time and raise my completion percentage another 0.32%, to a total of 3.24%.  I am on a roll now, huh!

I continued the story of 999 today as well.  I didn't progress much.  The team I am controlling became locked in a freezer, and then managed to get free from their cold graves.  I have no idea how the other team is doing.  Not a lot can be said other than I am anxious to find out how they manage to get to the end that I read.  I know the true good ending, but I don't know any of the other endings (I read that there are six possible endings).  I also know that in order to get the true ending, you have to play it once before and get a specific other ending.  So, though I spoiled the game for myself, I didn't totally spoil it.

I printed out a copy of my game collection list so I can check off the games as I complete them today.  I only got to highlight 10 of the games and mark them as completed.  The highlighted ones are so far away from each other.  It's eight pages long, so they are quite spread out.  I will try and complete them as fast as possible.  Well, that's all from me tonight.  So, for the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 43: A Phantastic Battle

I finally finished Chapter 2 of Phantasy Star Universe.  I have played a total 4 hours and 15 minutes one those two chapters.  I am pleased with how I performed in Chapter 2.  Both of the trials I had in the chapter each ended up with a rank of A.  I just read that there is a S-rank possible for the trials, so I guess my A-ranks aren't that impressive.  Oh well.

Ethan is at Level 7 now.  I try to make sure he attacks each of the monsters.  That way he receives experience points regardless of who deals the final blow.  It's kind of like how in Pokemon your team Pokemon receives experience even you switch it out with someone else.

It seemed like Ethan was doing all of the work when it came to cleaning up and disposing of the SEED.  He would have to locate them, and then debilitate them, and then destroy them.  Karen and Hyuga would just stand there.  It's probably something that is easier done in the Network mode of the game.  Because you aren't dealing with AI, you are able to delegate the jobs to your team.

The only other game I played today was 999.  The team has split up and made their way through the two doors, one of which was painted with the insides of The 9th Man.  Unfortunately, I spoiled the game for myself by looking up information on the game.  I was just checking if there was a sequel (and there is), and I read too far and found out about the backstory of the game.  Now I know how the game ends, but not what happens between where I am at now and the ending(s).

After I post this, I will be going back to Phantasy Star Universe.  I want to start Chapter 3.  Maybe buy some better weapons or upgrade the ones I have.  So, for the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 42: Saving (Not So) Often

I learned a valuable lesson today as well.  I realized that the autosave function on a game is there for a reason, and that it's probably best to not turn it off.  I was kicking butt in Skyrim today.  I started the session at Level 18, working on the quest to cure Kodlak's werewolf powers.  And everything went well.  And things continued to go well when I discovered that Kodlak was murdered, and when I went to fetch the pieces of the axe that the Silver Hand stole (which was at a place I stumbled upon once before), and when Vilkas and I returned victorious in defeating the werewolf haters, and when I journeyed to Ysgramor's tomb.

It was when I got caught off guard in a battle with some ghosts that a Skeever came up and took my last bit of health.  I hadn't saved at all during the session, and was sent back to my bed in Whiterun.  I didn't want to go through all of that again, so I switched games.

I got the wild itch to play Final Fantasy XIII-2.  However, I didn't last long.  I got caught in a battle with a feral behemoth that I couldn't retreat from.  Then when I went to 10AF, the battle with Snow against the Royal plant-flan thing (all I remember is that it had "royal" in the name) was taking forever and I hardly did any damage to the thing.  So I stopped playing that.

I continued the story in 999.  I guess you could say it is now 889, seeing as how there is now only eight hours, and 8 persons (why is it "persons" and not "people"?) left.  I understand the premise for the Nonary game, though I never heard of it before playing this game.  The characters in 999 are so diverse.  I like how they are connecting everyone and making them work together.  Normally, these types of people wouldn't necessarily even meet, let alone have to work together to survive.

In The Sims 3, I lived through a few more days.  My kitchen sink broke, and there was water all over the floor when my Sim got back home from work.  And of course my Sim was too hungry to clean up the mess or fix the sink.  I did manage to get a promotion and afford to replace the stove.  I haven't caused a fire, so at least he's able to eat hot meals now.

And now I am playing Phantasy Star Universe.  I managed to get farther than I did the last time, but not much farther.  Only one save point ahead of my previous location.  But Ethan is one Level stronger now, so that's a plus.  The SEED in this game remind me of the Sinspawn in Final Fantasy X.  How the people have to defeat them quickly else it will become stronger and be unable to be defeated.

Well, that's all from me today.  I am headed back to the world in Phantasy Star Universe.  So, for the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎

Day 41: A Sly-ght of Hand

One game I have been putting off playing is Sly 2: Band of Thieves.  I completed the first of the series earlier this year, and I started this game but never finished it.  Today, I wanted to tackle it and see how far I could progress in the game.  I must admit that I didn't really like the game when I first played it.  It was so different that the first that I couldn't stay interested in it.  Now that I let the memories of the first game fade some, playing this game is actually fun.

I am still trying to get the tail feathers used for the printing press, but I am nearly finished with the mission.  I do prefer not having to switch characters, but I do see why this game has that mechanic.  They are making use of the other characters instead of keeping their labels as sidekicks.  I don't particularly like that for games like this, but it's not something that would prevent me from playing the game at all.

I am hoping to receive all of the trophies for this game.  And after how easy it was to get them for the first game, I believe it won't be difficult to get them for this one.  For those that don't know, I am playing the PS3 collection of the games.  I never even heard about this series before this year, so I figured I'd just get the collection rather than the games separately for PS2.

I also played Skyrim today.  I didn't play much, because I forgot to watch my health and died because I wasn't paying attention.

The other game I played today was 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  I received it in the mail today.  Yes, I know I said that one of the goals for this month was to not buy any more games and make this challenge more difficult than it already is; but the discount coupon from eBay I had was about to expire and it was cheap.  So, I bought it.  Anyway, the game is different than any others I have played.  I am interested in how it will turn out.  I have also been working on a video for it.  I may try and record a playthrough of it once I finish it.

Well, that's everything I played today.  For the coming day, enjoy the games you play!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎