Game Update

Work has been dragging down the amount of time I have for games in general.

I've been mostly focusing on LARPs which I can play on weekends.  SC2 is still played but rarely.  Mostly at work with co-workers.  I have a co-worker who got into Masters on 3v3 and Diamond on all other ladders.

LoL is my consistent game at night.  I've expanded my character repertoire to encompass all playstyles aside from Assassin and Melee Carry.  Current list of characters I can play competently (Sivir, Shen, Anivia, Cho'Gath, Amumu, Nunu).

Warstorm, I've been playing less and less.  It was certainly an interesting game that was remeniscent of Ogre Battle in that combat is automated.  Were Ogre Battle a card-game, Warstorm would be it.  For a simple Facebook game, it's pretty decent.

But anyways, the two new items on the list are Arkham Asylum and Valkyrie Profile 2.  Both are amazing games.  I've had the Batman game for awhile now, it was apart of a Steam bundle I bought awhile ago, and it's pretty amazing.  The only complaint I have is that the Xbox Live is mandatory if you want to save your game.  This DRM crap is getting excessive...especially for a single player game.  Aside from that, the game play is well done.  The combat system itself is pretty simple, left click repeatedly and you'll punch people.  Of course you can do MORE than that to be more effective, quick batarangs, cloak sweeps to stun, and using a variety of batman tools to beat them up faster.  The real fun, and the real reason I like the system is the stealth system.  It's not like the Thief games where you can just hide in the shadows.  No, you're batman, you just gotta not be seen.  Use ledges to grapple yourself up to and hide.  Perform stealth subdues...yes you can hang people by their feet like batman is want to do.  Common thugs don't really require this, but when they have guns, The Goddamned Batman needs to be a bit more careful and take them out from behind and pick them off one by one.

Valkyrie Profile is a game that received much acclaim when it came out, but it wasn't popularized as much. Now, I've ragged on JRPGs in the past, but the Valkyrie Profile games go beyond.  It shares the same flaw in most JRPGs in that you don't have customization of your characters.  You are given a cast of NPCs to control rather then these characters being truly yours.  However, within the confines and restrictions of the JRPG genre, Valkyrie Profile 2 shines brightly.  The combat system and the ability to avoid combat are both very engaging.  The combat system itself is highly tactical requiring a good amount of thought and managing your action points wisely as well as positioning.  The tactical map allows you to see where the monsters are.  Not only can you avoid most fights, you can freeze the monsters for a short duration and stand on them to reach high ledge or even teleport between them to reach locations you would otherwise not be able to reach.

Anyways, that's it for now.  When I have time, I'll give more detailed rundowns of the games.

Current Games and Projects:

Computer: League of Legends

Computer: StarCraft 2

Computer: Warstorm

Computer: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Console: Valkyrie Profile 2 (PS2)

LARP: Live Effects (Wyrd, Veil, Lanaque, Messina, & others)

LARP: TwinMask

LARP: Fighter Practice (El Segundo)

Book: Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi (on hold)