Tag Archives: batman: arkham city

‘Tis best to give AND receive

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2011 was a pretty good Christmas, though not a completely fun one…I decided to go to work today in order to earn some extra post-holiday money. Luckily, there wasn’t a whole lot of work to do, so I got through the day pretty stress-free. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Stuff I gave out:

  • two albums for Dad: Thin Lizzy’s “Shades of a Blue Orphanage” and Grace Jones’ “Inside Story”
  • The Help on DVD for Mom
  • Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs for Sara
  • a $25 iTunes gift card for my sister
  • Batman: Arkham City on PS3 for my brother

Stuff I got:

  • an LG Optimus V phone from Mom and Dad
  • a $10 GameStop gift card from my aunt
  • Kirby: Mass Attack on Nintendo DS from Sara
  • the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus collection from my brother
  • some money and clothes (including a shaving kit)

Gift I’m most excited about: the phone, since I can use it to get stuff from the “official” Android App Market, which I can’t do with the tablet I bought a few weeks ago. That, and I can also upload pics properly again (Virgin discontinued the picture uploading service I used on my own phone).

Gift I’m the most surprised about: Kirby: Mass Attack. I’d told Sara about in passing in an e-mail one day, but I wasn’t sure if she would actually be able to get it. I hope she enjoys what I got for her, too.

The things I do for money and entertainment

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Yesterday marked the end of an era for me. I sold my Rock Band 2 (PlayStation 3 version) kit at a yard sale, along with the first three Guitar Hero games and two guitar controllers. When I still lived “full time” with my brother and sister, we’d gather around to play them whenever we got the chance. I played the hell out of the GH games, unlocking and attempting to play every song I could for the highest score possible, but once the third gave hit me with “…Fire and Flames”, I jumped ship, thinking that I’d done pretty much everything I could.

Then, of course, the fourth game switched to a “full band” setup to keep up with Rock Band, and the rest is pretty sad history. I jumped on the Rock Band-wagon when I asked my parents to get the second game for me for Christmas. Unfortunately, with so many songs and challenges, I wasn’t sure I’d have the time or energy to play through every last one of them – let’s not even get started on the “Endless Setlist”. And I was right…my band got to Europe, and I just sorta gave up. Now, the only music games that I have in my library are ones that don’t require large and bulky controllers (DJ Max Fever, Rock Band Unplugged, PaRappa the Rapper, etc.)

Meanwhile, my list of “games to play before the end of the year” list is still growing. Batman: Arkham City, Atelier Totori, Dark Souls, Disgaea 4 are just a few of the names on that list, but I’ve had to satisfy my appetite with some of the less-expensive stuff for the time being until I can find an excuse to swing by GameStop or Best Buy or one of those places again, which may not be until January. In fact, I’m trying to finish my game in Atelier Rorona so that I can be somewhat prepared for the events of Atelier Totori. Review scores for Totori have been generally positive, so I’m probably gonna put it on my Christmas list if I don’t buy it myself before then.

I played and beat The Binding of Isaac (made by one or two of the guys who also did Meat Boy and Super Meat Boy) last night, but couldn’t get in on the bonus content after defeating the final boss because CCleaner wiped out my save game. Thankfully, a patch came in this morning that protects it from accidental deletion, but I really wish I could have figured out how to save it myself (like I could with other Flash-based games like VVVVVV). It’s a good game, but not one for the very squeamish, as there’s lots of blood and bile.