Cblogs of 1/23/16 - Life is Strange is my Paper Jam

While I'm a Best Buy Gamers Unlocked Club member — which allows me to get 20% off any new, in-stock video game — unforunately, shopping for games at Best Buy has some drawbacks. I went in to get a copy of Life is Strange last week, but they didn't have any copies in any of the stores in my area. While the discount applies to ordering it online, I generally don't like to wait for my games, especially since I was very eager to get back into gaming. Then I had to wait for it to ship, which was held up thanks to bad weather conditions, so it took until Friday for it to arrive. Now, I'm a pretty patient person, but I knew that if I bought two games at once, there's a chance I'd neglect one of them, and in this case, it's Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam.

There's nothing entirely wrong with Paper Jam. Although it's a little slow to start, and a lot of charm and humor isn't quite present in the beginning — seeing Paper Bowser get into an argument with Bowser was pretty funny though — it's not bad. The graphics are pretty good, the music isn't shabby, and the combat is still pretty entertaining. Although, for some reason, I can't seem to get the timing down. If you played any other Mario and Luigi game, you know that you can do increased damage for pressing the button at the right time. However, while I can do it in practice mode consistently, I can't seem to do it during the actual battles when it matters. >^<

But anyway, I only played Paper Jam for about an hour. However, I've been really sunk my teeth into Life is Strange (nowadays, "sinking my teeth" means playing for more than an hour or two). While the pacing is a bit too slow for my taste — it's partly my fault for obsessively interacting with EVERY single thing in the environment though — the core story seems really solid so far. I'm not too far in the game — I've only beaten Episode 1 and the first hour of Episode 2, where I have to choose whether or not to hang out with Chloe or Kate — but I can tell it's going to be a special ride. I'm kinda disappointed that I didn't get the Limited Edition for $10 more though because I'm afraid, if I find it at Gamestop or something, I'll snatch it up for $40 when I REALLY shouldn't.

The other gaming I've done is League of Legends. For those who don't follow MOBAs, a new Season has started, which means players have to do a set of ten "placement" games in order to determine what rank they are. Although I was ranked "Silver" last season — which is the second lowest tier you can get — I think I improved enough to have a better shot of making it to Gold. I mean, don't get me wrong, that's like the third lowest tier, but at least it means you have SOME skill. Unfortunately, my placement matches haven't been going too well, so I'll probably be ranked Bronze. Then again, it's not like ranks are permanent, so I'll just have to do what's called a "series", which is a set of matches that determines whether or not you deserve to be "promoted."

Anyway, while it seems like I did a lot of gaming, in reality, I probably only did like six hours of gaming total. I've been struggling to juggle a couple of different things in real life, and I'm also still working on my pet project, which is depressing enough. While I AM making some progress, it doesn't feel like it's enough giving how bad the end product is going to be anyway. You know, if it's going to suck anyway, why try to make it better? Still, gotta stay determined... for whatever reason. >^<

* - In an interesting departure of his usual blogs, TheKodu collects pictures of male video game butts thanks to a challenge issued by SirDavies. The TopSauce has been earned.

A - Despite DeadRadical's name, he doesn't like the gloom and doom of Batman: Arkham Knight, especially when the older cartoons provided some levity. He's also disappointed with a certain plot twist (no, not Arkham Knight.... though maybe he is?).

B - For this month's White Whales Blogger's Wanted prompt, Dalek Sex has killed plenty of things in Dark Souls... but the one he remembers most is the fearsome twosome, Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough. See how he decides to manhandle them.

S - Oculin returns with another round of Video Gaming Bits by writing a short blog about the music of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. As if you needed another excuse to listen to City Escape.

T - Kind of a review, kind of a retrospective, Manbat wants to talk about a really unique PS Vita game called Gravity Rush, and how it seems to do everything right — such as the art direction and exploration — but the actual combat.

- Dreamweaver

FPotD

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