Saturday 14 September 2013

Latest Pokémon Champion coming through

My excellent and not at all stupid team took on the entire Elite Four and the Pokémon Champion in Pokémon Diamond with few headaches. At first the sheer level difference was enough to throw me back out, but this game is quite lenient, only charging you the same amount you would have won when you lose, so I rammed into them a few times and lost, only to come back with more experience and Hyper Potions.

Laszlo LUXRAY Lv. 49 OT/Lag.Com
Glen GASTRODON Lv. 50 OT/Lag.Com
Dirk DRIFBLIM Lv. 51 OT/Lag.Com
Evelyn ESPEON Lv. 52 OT/Mercury
Ted TORTERRA Lv. 53 OT/Lag.Com
Rachael RAPIDASH☆ Lv. 43 OT/Lag.Com

Laszlo murdered any Flying types that were thrown at him with a nice Thunder Fang, but was also important for taking out rogue Psychic types with his Crunch. Glen used his sheer bulk to wear down a lot of enemies, with a nice Surf and Ice Beam to take out all-comers. Dirk used his extreme speed to take out a few trouble spots with Fly, while ably absorbing a few hits, then finally taking out an annoying Alakazam with his Aftermath. Evelyn's speed and power made short work of several Pokémon, having to rely only on Psybeam and Last Resort for her attacks. Ted was key, with his incredibly strong Earthquake and Wood Hammer. I had to revive him twice to take on the strong Water/Ground types. Rachael was a newcomer to the team, having replaced my questionably-useful Weavile. Though low level, she was able to destroy a particularly badly-engineered Lopunny with ease, and Fire Blast a Bronzong to death.

All deserve their places in the Hall of Fame.

What do I play next?

Monday 9 September 2013

Thoughts on Crystals for Life 2014

Somehow last time I wrote I neglected to mention anything about Crystals for Life. I had an excellent time at the event this year and I want to go to next year's event too. To this end I have submitted two runs for consideration, and I'll talk a little about them both here.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is the greatest game ever made. The marriage of first-person dungeon crawling and a creative and engaging setting, with the reliance on the intelligence of the player to actually finish results in a beautiful game. I never tire of this classic. I started practising this for AGDQ2012 but it was not accepted into the final line-up, and there have also been some route changes since I learnt the game, so I have some work to do before it's ready. Hopefully, being a short and confusing RPG, it's a perfect fit into Crystals for Life.

Dark Cloud is very different. It's still a good game in its own right, but it is mainly remembered as a cult classic and as the prequel to a better game. Also, this run is perhaps 8 hours long with randomly generated dungeons and items to deal with. The route is almost finalised and I did a single-segment play-through on my stream not long ago. My personal best can obviously be vastly improved but I feel little impetus to practice it simply because the game is so random. Once I do another run through, any future time will be mostly affected by how nice the RNGod feels that day.

Saturday 7 September 2013

The In-laws

So Emily's parents and sister are back in England for general visiting and touristry. Might not have all that much time for gaming in the following days, so here's an update of where I am right now.

I finished Deadly Premonition a couple of days ago. I'd already seen a play through on YouTube before but doing it myself was satisfying, and my audience was appreciative. Also quite an infusion of Gamerscore, haha. It's an amazing game, but I wouldn't recommend it to many people simply because it is so strange and its design philosophy goes completely against mainstream AAA gaming sensibility.

Most of my time lately has been taken up with Pokémon Diamond. My team is Espeon, Weavile, Luxray, Gastrodon, Torterra and the immortal Drifblim. Just reached the Pokemon League yesterday, feeling pretty good about my chances.

Also started to play Geneforge, a western RPG by a company I admire for their willingness to sacrifice all else in the name of gameplay. It's interesting so far, and I hope to find time to continue soon.
The last few days have been spent putting up shelves and generally making our flat look nicer for when the in-laws want to visit. Might post some pictures soon.