Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

I just put the finishing touches on my third straight run through of the rookie ranked levels in S4 League on PC. It's an online team based PVP shooter game that never really ends, but I found that I get my fill of the game by the time I'm done with the rookie ranked levels. The thing is that in the rookie ranked levels, people are just playing the game to have fun (which is what I do), and it gets too serious after the rookie levels and it no longer becomes fun. People start to join clans, use very cheap tactics, and abuse the over priced cash shop, which I have no intention of doing. I've played to higher levels in S4 League when I played the game years ago, but I didn't enjoy it.

I've found that I get the most enjoyment out of the game by playing through the first 21 levels which are the rookie levels, and then starting over and doing it again. I did this three times in a row and I had a lot of fun for the most part playing S4 League again (I used to play it all the time)

While the first two playthroughs of the rookie levels were fine, the third one had some problems. I ran into a lot of server problems where I could not login, or play on specific severs because they were having server problems. I also frequently ran into hackers that ruined the fun for everyone on my third playthrough.

Overall it's a game that I hate just as much as I love, and despite the fact that I could come home and play it for months and months after work every day, I feel like it's time to move on. Maybe I will revisit the game again someday if they work out the server problems and get rid of the hackers.

Oh yeah, the game is also free to play, and I refuse to buy anything from the cash shop since all of the items are either 7,10, or 30 day rentals. I can't stand cash shop rental items. It's kind of a shame because I like the game and I would like to support it, but I have my principles.

VISTABLADE : Ah your principles ! But you're right and I understand ! Same for me here : shop rental items are a plea in those games !

I just beat Retro City Rampage, or at least the main story. It's one of the many indie games I got in PSN that's cross-platform. Admittedly, I played it all my Vita. It was good. Funny, full of references. Still side things I can do, so it might be good to return to to just kill time.

Just got finished with the main storyline in Batman: Arkham Asylum and I must say that game was a LOT more fun than I anticipated it was going to be. Granted I know the game was well received when it came out so I had a feeling that it was good, but me being me, I was never really interested in superhero stuff. Granted I've always liked Batman, but I've never been a BIG fan, if you will. I liked the Dark Knight movies and the Tim Burton films, but yeah. Also liked the animated series from the 90s.

Arkham though is just a terrific game in general. Gameplay, plot, character development, overall mood, and music were pulled off quite well. Will definitely be trying Arkham City next!

I've heard the Arkham Batman games are really good, but I have yet to try one. I'm not the biggest Batman fan, but I want to try them since I hear such great things about them. I have Arkham Asylum, but I've never got around to playing it.

I've never tried any Batman latest games but maybe one day ! Me too I'm not a big Batman fan

I got one of the Arkham games as a PS Plus freebie not long back, but I think we might already have that one on a disc. I may get to those games some day. I've heard overall good things about them, and the fact that they have a dark tone like the Dark Knight movies is appealing to me. But…I have some many other games to get to that I consider higher priority than these.

I haven't played the Arkham games, either, but everybody I know loves them.

I just beat Hybrid Heaven recently, enjoyed that one well enough, I thought it was interesting if nothing else, though very repetitive in the end. Now I'm on to Breath of Fire III, which is amazing so far.

Today I beat Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark on my Vita while on the bus to commencement festivities. It was a freebie puzzle-platformer on PS Plus, and was good for what it was. However, the checkpoint system could stand improvement and the mechanics didn't seem entirely consistent sometimes., leading to some deaths and retries I'd consider a bit cheap.

Double post, but I'm on a roll. This past week I've beaten 2 games. The first is Octodad: Dadliest Catch on the PS4, which was an absolute RIOT. It's not long, and the gameplay is pretty simply, but the premise is one of the most absurd I've seen in a game, and they make full use of their physics engine. Well worth it for the laughs alone.

The other has been hanging over my head since fall, and that's Bioshock. I finally let myself get immersed in it and once I did, I was engrossed. It's definitely one of the most bizarre games I've played recently, but very enjoyable. Have not enjoyed and FPS in a long time.

Next I'm probably going to tackle Borderlands.