Finish it!

I read on the internets somewhere that only 10% of game players actually finish the games they play. I am definatey NOT one of those 10%. My so-called 'pile of shame' is more like a 'mountain of shame.' I did finish the excellent Darkwatch on the XBox a few weeks ago, and yes, that game is over 6 years old. Before that, I cannot remember when I have beaten a game. (Except for FFVII. See below.)


It's never the game itself; I usually either get stuck at a certain point where I keep dying and give up. I then fire up another game which I hopefully won't suck at (those are very rare.) This is often a game I just bought at a cheap price. (I enjoy buying cheap video games for the PS2, XBox, Gamecube, and DS just as much as as I enjoy playing them...to a point, obviously.)

Although knowing that close to 90% of gamers don't finish the games they buy, I still feel like a loser. I sure as hell will never finsh current gen games if/when I get a 360 or PS3, as I would never take the time or effort to get all the trophies or achievments, which seems to be the mark at which the game is finished. Not that I have anything against trophies or achievements, I'm certain they add to the gameplay.

Also, in my case, I love JRPGs, but most of them take 40-60 hours to complete. That's a lot of time for me to get bored, stuck, or distracted by another shiny disk. In fact, last JRPG I finished was FFVII...no joke...and I have at least 50 excellent JRPGS that I have barely gotten into. Sounds screwed up...and it is...but damn I like JRPGs. (And since fewer and fewer are being made, never mind being ported to North America...well, at least I have a stockpile that I can enjoy in the meantime. Gotta think positive.)

Then there is the ongoing debate of whether games, especially open world ones, just take too long to finish, and many people can't because of time restraints. That seems like a good topic for another blog, though.

So are you able to finish most games you have? If not, why do you think that is? I could chaulk it up to Adult ADD, or the fact that as I've gotten older my reflexes have gotten slower, or I have less time to play....



.....



Yeah, I just suck at video games.

Duel Masters:The Red-Headed Stepchild

Has anyone heard of the card game Duel Masters? Not as cloyingly cute and childish as Pokemon, nor as mind-boggingly confusing as Yu-Gi-Oh, Duel Masters is a fun game which shares a lot with Magic:The Gathering, which is a good thing IMO. Actually, I have never played the physical card game, but I do have three very fun video game versions of the game:Duel Masters Sempai Legends Limited Edition and Duel Masters Kaijudo Showdown for the GameBoy Advance, and Duel Masters Limited Edition for the Playstation 2.

Very recently I stole...ummm bought Duel Masters Sempai Legends for 50 cents at FYE. Yes, 50 cents brand new. I could not remember if I already had the game (it was Kaijudo Showdown I had), but figured at 50 cents I'd get it anyway. That's less than a candy bar, for cryin out loud.

Anyway, I got all three games for very cheap, and if you have a GBA, DS Lite and/or Playstation 2, you can get a all three of these games for less than 5 bucks, I'm sure. And if you like card games like Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic:The Gathering, you will probably like Duel Masters. I know I do.

As I mentioned, Duel Masters plays out a lot like Magic:TG. You have a deck of 40 cards consisting of spells and creatures from 5 alignments:nature (green), light (yellow), water (blue), darkness (grey), and red (fire). Each alignments has it's own strenghs and weaknesses. When you duel someone, you sacrifice cards in your hand to build up mana of each of the five colors. This mana is permenent, and when you have enough, you can tap the mana to summon creatures to battle for you and spells to cast. Creatures have defensive and offensive stats which are compared when two creatures battle. Sounds a lot like M:TG so far, right? Well, instead of hit points, your duelist has five shields for protection which need to be broken. Once that is done, your duelist only needs to be hit once and it's lights out. Also, like M:TG, there are creatures that block attacks and ones that attack only. Duel Masters also has creatures called slayers which win the fight no matter the stats of the creatures.

In the games you play this spikey-haired kid who basically goes around towns and challenges random passerby to duels. You can also enter tournaments and buy or trade new cards. There are 'stories', but I don't pay much attention to them. I'm here to duel.

The creatures are extremely imaginative; light years better than the teletubby like Pokemon and at least on par with the creatures populating the Yu-Gi-Oh world. You get to see them battle it out on the field with different attacks, although obviously the PS2 version has much better graphics for monsters and spells.

It is unfortunate that Duel Masters never became more popular than it did. The game was created by Wizards of the Coast, and the games were put out by Atari. Still, for anyone who likes stratagic card games in video form, starring creatures with strange but also awesome sounding names, I highly recommend Duel Masters. The price is certainly right.

Good stuff:Atelier Iris

Me and the missus are at the vacation house in Maine. So beautiful, so relaxing, so quiet. Nice thing about it is that we only spend money on gas, tolls and food....so even though we don't have much cash, it's a pretty cheap "vacation."

Anyway, I started playing Atelier Iris:The Azoth of Destiny, the second in the Atelier Iris series, and I LOVE it. It's part turn based RPG/part alchemy game. Fight monsters, gather materials, and make all kinds of cool stuff. The sprite graphics are absolutely gorgeous, and fighting and alchemy is fun. I also have the third game in the series, Atelier Iris:Grand Phantasm, and if it's as good as Azoth of Destiny, I've got a lot of alchemy to do when we get back.



Ah, Playstation 2, do you ever stop giving?