Though it will be the second post for the day. So if you're one of the few who tries to sort this madness, be aware that it's a double-time job.
So, thanks to the Florida trip not only does that CRV of mine need an oil change (Reccomended at 14K miles, and I was at 13999 when I got to work last Friday), but also I've (Would "but I've also" be a proper usage? It's not like I'm splitting infinitives, just correlating conjuctions... guess I need to buy a copy of Elements of Style for myself when my 22nd rolls around) logged a whopping 105 hours into Dual Strike, 206 medals out of the 300 cap. Started playing around with the combo dual strikes, rather than the most effective pairings (eg. less Sasha, less Eagle, less Jake, less Javier, my powerhouse 4, and more of the rest). Some of the ending quotes are kinda cute.
Used my abuse of FilePlanet to secure a copy of the Heroes of Might and Magic V demo. Beautiful game, absolutely stunning. I was not expecting nearly this level of artwork and although I hear the cutscenes and music are semi-lackluster it's totally compensated by the return to the HoMM 3 style with a few choice twists. HoMM IV was a total sinker of a game. The inclusion of active battle heroes plus the small build capacity of cities was a dampner, and unlike II, II PoL, and III, with their brutally hard campaigns, IV was cheese. Your hero / hero-pair, if you made it through the first few missions, could often carry your entire army though to the end on sheer power. The ability to combine heroes, allowing for the Holy Trinity of IV - a Battle Lord with full Grandmaster Tactics Skill lineup and full GM Leadership plus full Nobility for improved raw income, growth, and resources, an Ranger with GM Archery, GM Combat, GM Pathfinding (and GM Navagation as applicable) with enough Master/Grandmaster Skill in the focus school of the campaign to cast the top tier buff spells (Cat's Reflexes, Dragon's Strength, Guardian Angel) and debilitators to control truly threating grade 4 monsters (Cloud of Confusion, Beserker, Teleport), and a raw dual GM Spell Caster across the primary and one of the two neighboring skills to either bombard with spell damage or continue the buffing/control spells on rounds that your main hero is better off firing into combat. Just grab a few of the choice artifacts (Lifesteal or Polearm weapons, Amulet of Fear, some form of Magic Resistance if you don't get GM from Combat).
Anyways, that aside, HoMM V campaign is pretty brutal from what I've experienced and played and the game seemed pretty cool. Not certain I'm ready to toss the cash on the counter due to concerns about glitches and patches, as well as questions about the broadness of stand-alone scenarios, but unless I happen upon my copy of HoMM III, I'm going to be wanting one of the two to satiate a hunger for massive campaign Turn-Based Fantasy Strategy.
Valkerie Profile is getting rereleased on PSP, and if it includes a removal of the obstentatious and cumbersome timered World Map that the PSX version suffered of I think it'll be due incentive for me to get one, otherwise tracking down a PSX ver alongside Xenogears and Rhapsody will still be my agenda. Past that, the full Atelier Iris series is really starting to appeal to me as FFXII, Disgaea II, and V.Profile II only seem to get a bit further away every month. I'll probably pick up a few of AI to tide myself till the others get cheaper (who am I kidding, Disagea at least is unlikely to go down and definately worth the playtime).
Merely minutes past post and Omni was already taking issue with a few of my picks for the GameFAQs BSE battle. And in all likelyhood, as usual, he's probably right. Metroid > Pokemon and SSB > Warcraft.
The ending to Condemned: Criminal Origins really isn't much of one, and the game itself doesn't really make sense going back in context. However, it's still one hell of a creepy and difficult game, and the last areas of the last stage, brutally so.
