"They" say with every end, there's a new beginning. If that's the case, I'm in for a lot of beginnings. My video game accomplishments of the last few days include:
- winning the Stanley Cup in NHL 07, after playing over 100 games completely, between the regular season and the playoffs. Go Bruins!
- beat God of War II
- beat Puzzle Quest
- completed my long-running co-op game of Gears of War with Time Trotters: The Animated Series animator Ben Coello
What's a guy to do for an encore to all of that? I'd say "Watch the Red Sox!!!!!" but thanks to Major League Baseball being a bunch of jerks, I can't get the Extra Innings package anymore. I guess I'll just play a bunch of MLB 2K7 instead, but we all know that just isn't the same. I guess it's time to reacquaint myself with the Wii, and get back on whatever-the-name-of-my-horse-is in Zelda. I've still just barely started with that game, but it'll tide me over until Super Paper Mario gets here next week.
And of course, I'll keep playing Puzzle Quest, but I've almost run out of things to do! I've hit the game's level cap of 50, and killed the head bad guy Lord Bane, and completed all of the side quests... I guess I'll just have to siege the land and make every denizen pay homage to my knight's greatness, or something. It is the game I've played more than any other over the last couple weeks, and it's hiiiiiighly addictive. I recommend it to everybody who likes puzzle games, or levelling up in any manner, or feeding sandstone to ogres, or anybody who just needs something fun to play on a portable system. I especially appreciate how I can easily play the game while riding a bike at the gym, or walking to work. The gameplay doesn't constantly need input or attention, so you can pause to grab some water or look both ways before crossing the street, which is nice. Other notes about this amazing game:
- if you haven't heard, the PSP version has a bug where the companions you pick up on your quest don't actually do anything for you in a fight. Having completed the PSP version, I can say I didn't miss them at all. It would have been nice to have their assistance early on, but I quickly levelled up and never felt their absence.
- Strangely enough, I never bought anything. All of my money went towards my citadel, which lets you capture monsters, research spells, train mounts, and pay for ability upgrades. The stores in the game didn't see a cent of my hard-earned gold, due to the game's item crafting. You can collect runes all over the darn place, and combine them in various ways to make your own weapons, armor, boots, cloaks, books, helmets, all that. Very early on, I was crafting items with bonuses far greater than anything available to me in a store, and never looked back. Oh well?
- More multiplayer options would be nice, as would more opportunities to play variations of the game's version of Bejeweled. My favorite aspect of Puzzle Quest was capturing monsters, which would require you to clear a set board with only one or two possible solutions. There just isn't enough of it, I need more!
But yeah, Puzzle Quest is awesome. Like the Red Sox. I'll write something about God of War II soon, I promise! Until then, Coello and I need a new co-op game on the Xbox 360, anybody got anything that isn't Gears of War or Rainbow Six Vegas? Thanks!