2008...well, I lost my job right at the end, but that's cause the company went out of Business, so yeah, not my fault. And last semester was a bitch anyway so I could use an easy few months anyway.
Not...much really went on that was special in 08, honestly. DLC3 and Minimeet 2 happened, sure, but yeah <_<
Gamewise...
Well, finally got to playing the DMC series; I think I started them in 07, technically, but I definitely played DMC3 in 08, and that's what matters. Nice to be able to break away from RPGs and play an action game after so long, and I must say, the series lived up to its hype (...or at least, the ones that GET Hyped do *eyes DMC2*)
Played God Hand as well, which is ridiculous on many levels, especially difficulty. Eventually got talked into playing Dirge of Cerberus by Tonfa which...uhh...yeah, lets just leave it at that.
Last action game I played was relatively recently and it was God of War, which I was disappointed in, considering all the hype its gotten (then again, Xer and Shale didn't exactly hype it much either, and I can see why. Note that DMC3 was hyped just as much, if not more, the GoW, and it pretty much lived up to all of it.)
Mega Man related stuff, I...played MMZXA only I think? Everything else I think was 07. Oh, right Starforce 2, which further proves Mega Man games can have good writing so long as they mock themselves!
Played Castlevania: Dracula X and Symphony of the Night. Former feels like an old Castlevania game with better graphics, so its kind of mrf since the platforming is still tedious and such. Latter was respectable enough and I can definitely see WHY the series changed dramatically from that game on; Symphony of the Night was a successful experiment, so why not try it again? I can't speak for the games to follow of course, but yeah, I can see why the game gets hyped.
Also played Odin Sphere; I had almost completely forgotten I played this game in 08 until I recalled I finished SotN around the same time thus having a dual review in WGAYP topic (and I remember beating SotN in 08 cause I was playing it during Philosophy of Religion <.<; ) Anyway, game generally didn't impress me. ok, some of the plot arcs get a nod, but the gameplay is some of the most monotonous, repetitive things I've seen. I think Tai said it best right when he beat Odin Sphere's Final Boss:
"That fight. THAT. THAT'S the kind of fight this game needed!"
So true; took them until the final boss to come up with an actually ORIGINAL fight, so it was a breath of fresh air...which aint good considering how long it took them to do that.
As for RPGs...off the top of my head...
Tales of the Abyss: Found it disappointing, but then, I found myself comparing it to SO3 which was beating it in like every category, so it didn't look too hot partially for those reasons (admittedly, I have a high opinion of SO3, so...); ths was the only DL Game I couldn't vote on either...well, until Persona 3 got ranked *Grumbles*
Disgaea 2: Picked it up at DLC3, with the intent of picking up Phantom Brave, but sadly PB wasn't available, so I compromised and got this instead. Ended up better than I expected; really amazing how much Geo Panels fail a lot less when the game doesn't get batshit retarded with them, and actually tries some creative aspects!
Crisis Core: Actually played this game twice, though once was for a Boss Stat Topic and getting a few things I missed throughout. If Dirge of Cerberus is symbolic of everything WRONG with FF7's Compilation, Crisis Core is the exception to all of it. Actually fun game, with a generally fluff plot that mostly existed just for all the FF7 references, and tops it off with a non fail cast (Zack is awesome, SANE Sephiroth is considerably different than you'd expect, Angeal's just sort of likable, and its nice to see a NON EMO CLOUD after so long considering Kingdom Hearts and the Compilations adaptation of him, for all that Cloud is still a different character here than in FF7...but for once, the reasons are legit!) Probably best game I played throughout most of 2008? Well, RPG wise anyway; pretty sure DMC3 wins the award for "New Game of the Year" period, but DMC3 is unfair.
Final Fantasy 4 DS: Hey look, its FF4 with actually original ideas in gameplay and several steps up for in game documentation! Unfortunately, it doesn't fix all the flaws FF4 has, since the plot is still really stupid after the Dark Knight arc (though, the extra back story with Golbez is appreciated), and the difficulty inconsistency is probably the worst the series has ever seen. Yes, even worse than FF2 in that regard (and FF2 really was relatively consistent about it, outside of Cave of Dist where Hill Gigas' kick your ass for a while.) Game starts off toughish, to the point where you can get totally haxed to death by a back attack and enemy AI being good, then gets a little easier after a point...then just sort of stops trying entirely beyond maybe some Boss fights like Rubicante after you finish Bab-il (as in, BEFORE you gain Edge)...then spikes idiotically high in Giant of Bab-il and the Final Dungeon. Like, unforgivably so; EVERY RANDOM NEED NOT SPAM 2HKO DAMAGE ._.
...yeah, improvement of FF4, but when a game fixes a lot of FF4's problems, and still is very flawed, that says how badly FF4 really has aged, when you think about it (IN CREDIT, the difficulty thing is FF4DS specific, so yeah)
Magna Carta: ;_; That's all I'm going to say about this.
Atelier Iris: Generally unimpressed in most ways. Ok, it had good humor and such, but gameplay was just boring, and the in game documentation fails ("Heals HP!" "...by how much?" *uses, you get like 10% of what you expected* ._. And then there's the fact that some of these items apparently revive you when the game doesn't even TELL YOU THEY DO.) I can just say I hope Gust games later on actually, you know, improve should I get to playing them (though, sounds like MK is the only one remotely worth playing off hand, for all that Niu's showing of AT2 looked kind of neat.)
FF12 Revenant Wings: Holy shit, Vaan's an actual main character here! Ok, that silliness aside, neat little niche game, but not much beyond that. Was good for killing time on vacation when I'm sitting in the Hotel Room doing nothing much and such.
Sonic PLOT: Not all that bad, despite how much of a train wreck the game sounds. Again, decent fluff and what not.
And last but not least or something...
Dissidia: About everything I'd hoped it'd be! Its mostly interesting cause when you think of these big cross over games that a company makes purely for fan service, you expect a cheap little "play this game for the cross over and not much else ^_^" aspect, but no, this game definitely shows a lot of effort put into it, and really is a great way to pay respects to fans of the series in general, ranging from the fact that they managed to give every character some sort of equal opportunity to shine (instead of "lol Cloud and Sephiroth all the time, with maybe some Squall in the mix!"), generally fun combat, and all these references to the games ranging from general obvious stuff like Tidus' "This is my story!" line to some of the more obscure things like the Drill being a helmet or Bartz arbitrarily donning his "Ready" pose from FF5 right before the fight with Ex-death.
So yeah, that's about all I can say about 2008...
Well, no I can say that going an entire year without a usable garage sucks complete ass, since it means lots of car jockeying and fights and such. THANKFULLY, it sounds like one side of the garage will be opened up tomorrow, finally, so yeah. Just hoping the addition on the house is finished sometime this year, cause its getting a pain in the ass with all the stuff surrounding it.
