by ·0 Comments

As you might know, I used to almost exclusively pirate games. A while ago, I decided to stop, in order to get more enjoyment from my gaming, which seems to be working for now.

Bastion was one of the games I pirated. To this day, I consider it one of the top games I’ve ever played, right up there with Final Fantasy VII and some other games. This, and the fact that I pirated it in the past, made me decide to obtain this game legitimately and play through it again.

Bastion Art - The Characters

Playing Bastion is a magical experience.

So now that I’ve finished the game officially, with a legit copy and on Steam, I’ll probably also tackle the achievements and try to reach 100% completion. It doesn’t look too hard, but it might take a while, since you have to basically complete the game a total of three times in order to get all the achievements. I’m not sure if I’m going to do it right away, but I definitely intend to do it with this one.The first half of this decision was done weeks ago, when Bastion was part of the Humble Bundle. The second half began and ended today. I started a fresh game this morning and completed it this evening. It’s still the perfect experience I remember from over a year ago, and it’s still one of my favourite games. The soundtrack, the graphics, and the story combine with the gameplay perfectly, making it a one of a kind experience. Seriously, any gamer should at least invest a couple of hours on this game.

by ·0 Comments

This morning I had another session of Diablo III. This time, I managed to clear the normal difficulty with my monk. All in all, it wasn’t very difficult, as expected for the first difficulty. Nearing the end of act 3, I got extremely lucky with some item drops, which made my dexterity skyrocket, meaning I was killing most basic enemies with two or three hits from a one-handed weapon.

Diablo 3 - Ending Cinematic

Normal difficulty cleared!

I started it up on Nightmare immediately, just so I could see if it will be a steamroll in the first act, and it looks like it will. Over the next few days, I might not play this one as much, though, because real world obligations are kicking in, and Diablo is a game with lengthy gaming sessions.

by ·0 Comments

I got a bit tired of my wizard, so I decided to give it a try with a monk. I named him Aang, for obvious reasons.

It was definitely fun. I had some hard time properly targeting enemies because i was used to attacking from ranged and leading my shots, so I ended up running around stuff a lot, but I’m slowly getting used to it. I’m mostly using the third primary skill, the one that attacks in the circle. For my secondary skill, I use the one that makes you charge through and knock back enemies around you, with the rune that reduces spirit cost. It helps me get around easier and charge towards health orbs when things get tough.

Diablo 3 - Optional Boss

This is an optional boss, blocking the way to an optional area.

As for the rest of my skills, I use the self heal with the damage rune, the dash, the seven palms one and the dodge increase buff. I found that I do plenty of damage pretty much with my primary skill alone, so as you see, most of my other skills are utility or survivability. This allows me to move around mobs, destroying groups from the side, instead of allowing them to surround me. If they do, though, I can hold my own for a while, do some great AoE damage and heal myself if necessary. Once it gets too tough, I just knock them back and charge out.

I managed to get to act III, pretty much in one sitting, and I had a lot of fun. Also, my first legendary/unique item dropped – an awesome two handed hammer with insane damage, considering it’s required level is only 14. I used it for a while and then put it in the stash. My future barbarian is going to love it.

by ·0 Comments

This morning, I played some Diablo 3 again, and I was still having fun. For now, the patch seems to be working.

I managed to clear the entirety of the first act and get to the beginning of the second. For the most part, it was challenging, but not impossible. I died a total of about a dozen times, but considering my gear was still mostly below level 60, it wasn’t surprising.

Diablo 3 - Desert Screenshot

Back to the desert.

My play style is still the same. I use Venom Hydra and Arcane Orb with the increased AoE rune as my main damage dealers. The Eletrocute recharges my arcane power via Surge of Power, and Diamond Skin and Mirror Image are used defensively when needed. Energy Shield is my offensive/defensive buff of choice.

In any case, I’m act two now, but I haven’t tried actually playing yet. From what I hear, the difficulty should ramp up quite a lot now.

by ·0 Comments

As a lot of gamers are probably aware, Patch 1.0.4 for Diablo III was released this past week. The two of you that are actually reading this blog might also be aware that I kind of got bored of the game a few weeks ago, and possibly even wrote about it.

Suffice to say, I was hopeful with the game, and it is a good game, but it doesn’t have that magical something that Diablo II had. I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t have it. The game felt more like a grind than an addiction. It might be even possible we, as gamers, outgrew the formula, but I doubt it. It was probably just the combination of a bunch of minor things being not quite there at the same time.

Diablo 3 - Hell Screenshot, Wizard

Hell hath no fury like a wizard scorned.

In any case, patch 1.0.4 tried to add some of that magic back in. I gotta say, it may be a successful attempt, to a degree. I tried playing my wizard again, and I actually enjoyed myself. The fights aren’t as annoying, or as hard, those unbeatable enemy combinations don’t seem to happen anymore, there’s more drops, everything is just less annoying. Now, It might be that this is because I haven’t played in a while, but I truly think the patch had something to do with it. There’s hope for this game yet, I guess.

Anyway, I played my wizard, and I managed to beat Hell. I also managed to get to level 60, so it’s time to do some grinding (hopefully the fun kind) in Inferno. Thanks to some of the gear I bought (for gold, not real money), Diablo wasn’t that hard. I had to be alert, but I managed to kill him on my first attempt, almost dying only twice.

by ·0 Comments

He really doesn’t. I just don’t have the willpower for anything more complex than that. Again, it was hot as hell today, and again, this was the only game I could play.

Binding of Isaac, Steam Achievements.

One Step Closer (Linkin Park works here in more ways than one).

In the end, thanks to the high damage technology, the Cathedral was easy to beat. Since this was the first time beating it with Judas, this makes me one step closer to unlocking the Chest.I did a bit better, though. I only played for two sessions as Judas, but this was enough to beat the Cathedral on my second run. This unlocked another achievement, and another item – The Curved Horn. It was a pretty sweet run to. I managed to get Technology early on, followed by several damage upgrades. I was also lucky with trinkets and consumables. I managed to get the safety cap just a couple of rooms before getting mom’s coin purse, allowing me to get a huge amount of upgrades. I was low on natural health, but lucky for me, I also got the Mitre, basically making me drown in spirit hearts.

by ·0 Comments

Today, we measured 38 degrees Celsius here in Croatia. Suffice to say, I’m hardly in the mood to do anything, let alone do any serious gaming.What I did was to try and play a few rounds of The Binding of Isaac.

I’m not sure if it’s the heat, or if it’s because I haven’t been playing it for a while, but I got rusty, extremely rusty. I mean, I was never an awesome Isaac player, but right now, I’m having a hard time actually reaching mom, when satan used to have a common appearance.

Still, I was persistent, so I managed to eventually finish the cathedral once with Cain, and also managed to finish a challenge, the one called “Dark Was The Night”, which unlocked The Candle as a new item. I’ve seen it in action on some Youtube let’s play’s, so I’m looking forward to using it.

by ·0 Comments

So that was my second attempt at a Nuzlocke challenge. I’d love to say I lost because of the rules, but I would be lying. I lost, because I played dumb. I didn’t have the patience to grind, I used fast forward on the emulator too much, and I made stupid mistakes. There was literally no reason to lose any of the Pokémon I lost.

It’s not the end. I’ll definitely do more of these runs eventually. For now, though, all I can say is, If you love Pokémon, you should try it yourself. It really, truly makes the game new for you. You don’t have to focus on getting the best team ever, and you get to enjoy some of the less popular Pokémon. It also makes you play more strategically, since you can’t just sweep through your opponents as usual. Some of those defensive and utility moves actually start making sense then.

In any case, that’s it for now. I dub this Pokémon Emerald Nuzlocke challenge a failure.

by ·0 Comments

Fallarbor Town was just a temporary stop. I needed to go south, in search of Team Aqua. I’ve caught a Swablu on route 114, which was an excellent catch, since I believe it learns Dragon moves at higher levels. I named her Poof, because I think the name fits the looks.

Team Aqua was at Meteor Falls, fighting with another team, Team Magma, over who gets to take some guy with them. I wasn’t really paying attention since both teams sound dumb as hell, so I can’t tell you who the guy was. I’ve chased them off and caught a crappy Zubat before moving further south to Route 115. I don’t even remember what I named the Zubat at this point.

Route 115 didn’t have any bushes, so I guess I’m going to have to catch a Pokémon there by swimming, if I ever get to that. Since I was at Rustboro, I decided to pay a visit to the president of Devon Company, who gave me an Exp. Share for helping him earlier.

Then I took the cable car to Mt. Chimney, where I had a throw down with one of the Team Magma leaders. He was easy to beat, but it was obvious I was starting to fall behind in level grinding. Chasing away Team Magma opened the way to Lavaridge Town, through Jagged Pass. Sadly, I was an idiot and forgot this was a new area, so I killed what could’ve been the best and only Machop I ever owned.

The Gym was easy, deceptively so. I cleared pretty much every Pokémon with no difficulty, since most of them were fire types. This boost of confidence ruined me. Alice was at half health when the gym leader’s final Pokémon entered the battle. It was a Torkoal, and it took one critical Body Slam for Alice to go away, forever. I got my new badge, and lost my most powerful fighter. It was at this point that I knew it wasn’t going to end well.

Terrible Pokemon Drawings

I might actually be getting worse at drawing.

I started training Smokey, hoping it would soon replace Alice as my top Pokémon. It was looking good. Soon he was able to one-hit-KO most of the Pokémon below his level. I got him to 22 before I got bored, and then I decided to try my luck with my dad’s gym. Before that, I also went to the desert on route 111 and caught another potential asset – a Trapinch I named Chompette.

I should’ve waited. I should have prepared more. I didn’t. The rooms before the final one, I was able to clear, though with difficulty and a couple of close calls. Vigoroth and Spinda fell, but I was hurt badly. Then Linoone entered the battle. Headbutt, and my Jonathan was gone. Another one, and there goes Mr Ploppy (who evolved in the meantime, by the way). I was left with 3 Pokémon at around level 20. Care to guess how that ended?

by ·0 Comments

My task was not yet over. I had to deliver the parcel to a captain in Steelport. He was found at the local museum, under attack by a bunch of Aqua grunts. I disposed of them and gave the captain his parcel. With this done, it was time to continue on my journey.

Route 110, north of Steelport, was next. I caught an Electrike there – a girl which I named Jude. I was hoping for something rarer, but this will suffice. Jude can learn flash, and I good electric Pokémon is always a welcome addition.

With some training, I managed to evolve my Silcoon, which I called Fluffy, to Beautifly. A bit farther north on the route, I’ve met with May, who challenged me to a duel. It was an extremely difficult fight, with her grass Pokémon having evolved, but I somehow managed to beat her without losses.

I got to Mauville City and found out the gym there was electricity-based. I decided to train for a bit, so I explored the outlying routes to fight trainers. I wasn’t very smart about it. Soon, Fluffy, who I just started to like, was lost to a random trainer. It was a shock, but I had to move on. It was time to give Bob, the Makuhita, his chance to shine.

Horrible Pokemon Drawings

Instead of a bunch of bad drawings, you get one large horrible drawing.

Bob was tough. It was very easy to train him and he was level 18 in no time at all. When he got to 20, I decided to challenge a family of trainers living north of Mauville. The daughter and the mom and dad were beaten with no difficulty. It felt great to have a Pokémon who can dispose of his opponents so easily. It was almost too good to be true. I got confident….

The grandma was much stronger. Bob was hurt from the previous three battles and all it took was one hit. Another friend lost to my stupidity…

With only four Pokémon left, I needed to figure out something, and fast. Luckily, I was yet to find wild Pokémon on any of the outlying routes. Route 117 gave me an Oddish I named Mr Ploppy. A grass type could be a good addition, so I decided to train him for a bit. However, it was too weak to train alone, so I used Jonathan to help him. Pretty soon, Jonathan evolved to a Pelipper, which made him even more awesome.

When Mr Ploppy got to level 18, I decided it was time for Jude to catch up. I haven’t trained her at all since she was caught on route 110. I didn’t train her for long. Again, I got careless, and again, one of my friends paid the price. It wasn’t even a trainer battle that time; just a random fight with a wild Pokémon was enough to rip another friend out of my life. No more! I promise I’ll be careful from now on.

I trained for a while longer until I was completely confident I’ll be able to get to the next town, at the base of Mt. Chimney. I had to traverse to routes to get there, as well as a cave between them. At the first route, I caught a Numel, an excellent fire type. I named him Smokey. In the Fiery Path bellow Mt. Chimney, I caught another fire type, this time a Torkoal which I named Smokey. Once out of the cave, I finally caught a Skarmory on the next route. I named her Lancelot, because it can be a girl’s name, dammit!

Finally, I got to my destination, Fallarbor Town. Wait, Fallarbor Town? I thought Lavaridge was next! It seems I’ve taken a wrong turn, or something. Oh well, I’m here, so it’s time to check the place out.