I've opted not to edit Part 2 due to the fact that I've already rambled a good deal of distance down the page talking about Gears of War, so this becomes Part 3, though it'll still mostly cover the material that Part 2 had aimed for (parts are posts, not topics).
That said Warning: Long, long, long, long post.
Before we get to that, an interlude. GameFAQs cited because it's the easiest way to do it (100% less popups than most other sites I could use for this purpose). Horizontally expanded for maximized vertical compression.
Before the gaming takes over, I'd like to give a cheer for REM making the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Definately deserving, but I think I'm biased anyways.
Gaming Divinations aka: What looks to be worth buying.
Nintendo DS :
(Currently Out)
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin; Animal Crossing: Wild World; Jump! Ultimate Stars; Phoenix Wright; Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow; Elite Beat Agents.
Note: The omission of Final Fantasy III is not an oversight, I'm just not all that interested. Retrogaming isn't my directive.
(Upcoming -- Going pretty much by interesting titles)
1/16 - Phoenix Wright - Justice for All; 2/06 - Lunar Knights, Trioncube; 2/20 - Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja (I'll admit I'm merely amused by the name); 2/27 - SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS, Steel Horizon.
XBox 360
Viva Pinata; Burnout: Revenge; Enchanted Arms.
1/12 - Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions (You best believe this is getting picked up on release date); 1/30 - Fusion Frenzy II; 10/16 Grand Theft Auto IV (I'm impressed that this has a release date).
Wii
Rayman Raving Rabbids; Elebits; Trauma Center: Second Opinion.
1/15 - WarioWare: Smooth Moves; 3/13 - Prince of Persia Rival Swords. ?/? - Super Smash Bros: Brawl.
Honorary Mentions: 2/05 - Bust a Move Bash!; 3/05 - Mario Party 8.
Rats, PSP is getting a Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (I like this name). Between that and Resistance: Fall of Man, looks like Insomniac has hands in both of Sony's systems, perhaps I'll be getting a PSP as it's library of games keeps getting better, though the PS3 can definately still wait; no way in hell I'm shelling out that much.
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Second Verse, Same as the First.
So, David and I have taken the plunge back into Gears of War, on Extreme this time. We're just past the first beserker, who faired remarkably poorly (overlooking the Death and a Knockout against me). David has some sort of uncanny death-walker powers around the Beserker. I swear he walked through a doorway that was 3/4ths Beserker and 1/4th Beserker fists and lived, hax.
Extreme isn't a whole lot worse than Hardcore, you just have to duck back into cover a bit earlier. I've definately acquired blind-firing skills, and the ability to grenade Emergance Holes (though I admit I tend to go for a near point-blank toss, just because the trajectory for aiming as the secondary player on Co-Op is nigh unusable, especially having gone back to a regular television instead of the HD Widescreen).
I've learned the hard way that I can no longer combat the locusts without cover using the Lancer or 3-shot, even if I have the element of suprise. The Shotgun is an entirely different story though, that's still brutally effective. The harder stuff is still ahead, but I think it's entirely within our powers to beat. Fighting at night will be an interesting part though, and the Explosive Wretches have me running scared already.
And after Ninety-Nine Nights...
I've actually played all 7 Characters now, though it wasn't until the Priest that the game's title actually came through into the game, and that was like the 6th character I played. Microsoft gets major points for creativeness in choice of names, even if they all pretty much unequivically suck.
Ninety-Nine Nights plays alot like the 1000 Heartless Battle in Kingdom Hearts 2, which is a good thing if you enjoy that type of brawl (I'm reluctant to say bloodbath, as there really isn't). I've never played any of the Dynasty Warriors, so most of my brawling experience comes from ancient arcade/console sidescrollers like X-Men, Gauntlet, Streets of Rage, and Final Fight.
In N3 you get a Weapon Slot (Except for the Special Character) and up to 5 extra slots to fit with items (you start with 1 and gain more as you level from 1 to 9, the cap). Items do a variety of things including Increasing Item Drop Rates and increasing Defense % or Hp all the way to the more powerful items that enable you to wield Weapons above your level, allow Orb Gauge Items to heal you as well, and increase the statistics of your troops as well as your hero. Killing enemies (assuming you, and not some ally or troop lands the finishing blow) release Red Orbs that come to you. Unlike Onimusha (and yes, I did try to type Inuyasha before stopping myself) you don't have to do anything to gather them, you'll collect them all regardless of how hard you try to escape them. These orbs fill your Orb Gauge and also grant you exp. When you fill the Orb Gauge you can perform a Orb Attack, wherein your Hero is charged with energy, and although reduced to only two attacks, capable of decimating armies. Any enemies you kill in Orb Attack mode drop Blue Spirit that fill your Spark Gauge. When that's filled (which takes quite a few Orb Attacks to do) you can perform the awe-inspiring Spark Attack. These vary between characters but are capable of completely clearing the field of everything except enemy Heroes.
I fully intend to spoil the game in the next few minutes here, though I imagine anyone playing that game isn't doing so for the story (and if you are, you're going to be disappointed).
Before I get to the characters' stories, just a quick run through of some of the major players. In addition to Human Forces (Generally Regionally aligned, the Temple Knights have an army, most major cities sport a force, and the Mercenaries also have an army, though they all look the same, except for minor color differenances) there's also some elves who fight for the side of good. Syumerrt (Never pronounced in game) leads them, though he only makes 2 appearances, and he's not actually built with any combos, just a bonus damage archer with the ability to smack with his bow instead of needing to draw a blade.
When you start a mission capable of having troops assigned to you (Myifee and the Temple Knights) there are four choices:
Infantry - Sword and Shield, good at fighting Polearm and Archer Troops.
Heavy Infantry - Good at fighting regular infantry, weak to polearms.
Archers - Worthless, completely worthless as your allies. They just charge in, decent at fighting the Dragons in the 3 missions they occur.
Polearms - Reasonably good at keeping down enemy elites/heroes, but tend to get trashed by archers or infantry.
The Temple Knights boast two Elites, Heppe who is a swordsman and then a Pikeman who doesn't actually come up in the storyline ever. The Mercenary forces have one Elite, who is their leader, but again, he's not important enough for me to remember his name or for anyone else to write it down.
Varrvazarr deserves it's own mention, set on the icy edge of the human lands, it acts as a barrier to the forces of the dark, but it's a military nation, led by Lord Vydenn and his three sons, Vyarrharienn, Vyden, and Vyerten. There's actually a 4th son who left to live a real life who styles himself TeaTea, but actually has a Vy name as well.
The Forces of Dark:
Goblins, led by King Dwakfarrio. They're the staple dark troops, having the same 4 divisions as the Human Troops although the distinction between Heavy and Light Infantry are nominal.
Elites - Commanders and Wizards. The Commanders are little more than higher offense/defense goblins with better speed, reflexes, and guard ability. The Wizards sport three spells, a Call Lightning that blasts a marked area with a lightning blast (ie: Keep moving), a Decripify Spell that reduces your movement, and a particularly nasty curse that affects friendly troops, making them vulnerable to your attacks.
Dwakfario fights with twinned daggers and a variety of reaching strikes (well, reaching for a dagger, they extend beyond the reach of any of the hero's non-ranged attacks though not much further).
Orcs, forgot the leader's name, he only shows up at the end of Myifee's mission and there's nothing special about him.
All orcs are Halberdiers, which make them pretty rough against your heroes and are far stronger than flimsy goblins. They have Commanders for their Elites, who just have more HP and better ability to Guard attacks.
Pwucks, Ppakk the Third. Pwucks are small frog people with spears. They're weak but swarm effectively. They speak Pwuck, which means that no one in the game understands what they say (displays as wingdings), but it comes up so rarely it doesn't matter.
Ppakk is a giant frog with a sword, but fights by leaping into the air and belly-splashing down on you for a large amount of damage.
Gewgs. Gewgs are dragon-esce peoples. They fight with large swords and they're good at stunlocking you with staggered hits if you don't have a good escape maneuver. No Elites, no leader, but they're the most infrequent of the enemies short of the army of the night.
Ariphan, lead by Pyurrot. The Ariphan are the Dark Elves of the N3 universe, fighting with swords and controlling Dragons to attack.
They're fairly infrequent, but about half the times you're fighting them you'll be fighting Pyurrot with them, and she's particularly brutal since like Dwakfarrio she boasts an actual routine of special attacks of her own.
Army of the Night, lead by the King of Nights. The Army of the Night are shadowy horned figures who hurl orbs of darkness as well as fairly powerful regular attacks. They have high-ish hp as well, but they only occur in the late game, at which point you're not really inclined to notice.
Inphyy (In fee) - Inphyy's parent were killed by goblins so she harbors a genocidal hatred for their kind. Now, I'm fully aware that genocidal isn't a word that one just bandies about, but she actually does destroy defenseless goblin women and children in one of her missions. In the present, Inphyy is a Temple Knight and calls Ashpharr brother though they aren't related by blood. In the course of her story she becomes increasingly bloodthirsty, forsaking a wounded messanger pleading for the Temple Knights to rescue Varrvazzar from an attack by the combined forces of the the dark armies, as well as having the Goblin Fort buried in earth. She slays the Goblin King Dwakfarrio before Aspharr can stop her and ends up doing battle with the King of Nights himself.
Inphyy two-hands a 1-handed sword. She's the second fastest of all the characters, acquiring both a double charge and a double jump in the course of her levels. Her Orb Attacks are a charge attack (akin to Gaktenou's Spiral Dash Tackle really) and a Whirlwind of holy energy. Her Orb Spark is a field of death. Basically anything around her is zapped by a chaining nexus of holy energy and dies instantly. It's rather amusing to wade into a field of troops and unleash this. Inphyy's spark is by far the easiest to aim, but one of the least powerful as it's got a limited radius centered on her.
In addition to the double jump and double dash abilites, Inphyy has the ability to leap across the heads of friends and foes alike. She only has one impale maneuver (we'll cover what's special about these in Aspharr's section) and it's a single target, though it's a brutal kill as she draws the blade out with a vertical flip.
Aspharr (Ass Far, I only wish I was making that up)-- Inphyy's foster brother who doesn't realize that she actually has feelings for him, feelings that the Priestess (similar age to him) he serves as a Temple Knight is jealous of (the Priestess doesn't ever come into play, except at the end of the Goblin missions, where they mention she gets killed in passing). When the dying messenger asks Aspharr for help you get a choice where you go (the only choice in any of the campaigns). If you go with destroying the goblins instead of helping your fellows then in the last mission Aspharr will arrive only in time to watch Inphyy collapse to die in his arms, and will go on to slay the Goblin King in his rage. Should you take the other path, you end up stopping her from killing him -- the happier ending.
[Pause here for now, done with work for the day]
