Elephant Ghost's Blog - Jan to Mar 13 (3 followers)

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  Date range... Jan - Mar 13 Jul - Sep 12 Jul - Sep 11 Apr - Jun 11
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Greetings, weary traveller of the online wastes, and welcome to this week's installment of the window into my life that no-one asked for!

I's been a good week for the gaming, not so much for variety, but for what I have accomplished. I made good on my promise to restart Metal Gear Solid 4, and am now back to the point in the game where I left off last time. I'm feeling it a lot more this time through, and am excited to delve deeper into the rabbit-hole of Kojima's twisted genius.
On the portable front, I finally hopped aboard AlphaJax (WP,) after finding out that a good number of my friends already have it. Quite enjoyable, but I am far from good at it, I'll be working hard for the Lexicographer achievement!
However, the gaming event of the week that I am most happy about by far, is my progress on Devil May Cry HD Collection. Only an hour before writing this post, I finally drew to the end of my DMC1 Dante Must Die run through, netting me a tasty 40G, and meaning that every achievement for Devil May Cry 1 has now been obtained. I shall soon be moving onto DMC2, but will be taking a few days off from the HD Collection to recover after 6 playthroughs of the 1st game. I love Devil May Cry!

It's been a good week for game purchases too. Based on the demo i spoke of last week, I picked up a copy of Ninja Theory's DmC: Devil May Cry, as well as buying my own copy of DMC HD, my rental copy of which has been returned to Lovefilm, to be replaced by something else in a day or two I hope. Also, I received my long-awaited order of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition, the PS3 JRPG co-developed by Studio Ghibli. I am super-excited to clear my gaming schedule soon and sink my teeth into a top-quality RPG!
In terms of rentals, I received a copy of Splinter Cell HD Trilogy (PS3,) from my service, but with ongoing current playthroughs of MGS4 and Hitman: Absolution, I have more than enough stealth gaming going on as is, so I won't be starting that for a little while yet. Also, after feedback on my blog last week regarding Platinum Games, I have added Bayonetta to my rental list. I have played it before, some time ago, but I feel I must re-visit that title. It seems that it is universally adored among the gaming community, however I remember it with nothing but bile and vitriol. I wish to re-visit it based on the possibility that maybe I missed something in it first time around, surely for a game to receive so much praise, it must do something right? Further opinions on that to come, dependent on when I get the game.

Not a bad week for music, either. I got 2 new albums, in the forms of Take as Needed For Pain (EyeHateGod,) and the new release from Mike Patton project Tomahawk, entitled Oddfellows. Both are stupendous albums, for different reasons, but the get equal adulation from me. Went a bit crazy on Amazon on Friday, and ordered 11(!) new CDs. These are as follows:

Dopesick (EyeHateGod)
Bullhead (The Melvins
Stag (The Melvins)
Eggnog (The Melvins)
Ozma/ Gluey Porch Treatments (The Melvins)
Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form (Crowbar)
NOLA (Down)
IX Equilibrium (Emperor)
Original Album Series (Pantera, all 5 studio albums for under £10!)
Pentastar: In the Style of Demons (Earth)
1/ Dog Days (Goatsnake)

There is something I truly love about collecting CDs, as well as experiencing the music contained on them of course.

Well, friends, that's about it for another week I guess, all I really want to get done this week is hopefully finish MGS4, make a start on DMC2 and maybe dive back into Hitman: Absolution, nothing too crazy this time!
So until next week, traveller, our paths part ways once more!

Well, well, well, it has been a while, hasn't it? First off, I want to wish a belated Happy New Year to any poor unfortunate soul who finds themselves bored enough to read this!
The run-up to Christmas and the fallout which followed has meant that I have had precious little time to update this portal into my life, but I'm trying to make it semi-regular again, if only for self-motivation purposes.

So, dear reader, a lot has transpired in the past few months, so I shall begin at the beginning.
Batman: Arkham City has been completed, giving me a rather nice TA ratio, and also supplying me with aforementioned underwhelming DLC content in the form of the Challenge/ Campaign maps. Speaking of bad DLC, more will be spoken of this shortly.
In further completions, I can now add to the list Pac- Man C.E: DX (WP,) Asura's Wrath, and, finally, Prey (shout-outs to Ali060, Yannbrox and Dogeatr00 for the excellent Prey boosting session.) This now pushes me up to 100 completed games, and 50 completed retail games.
Returning to the issue of poor DLC, I speak of the Lost Episodes for Asura's Wrath. As a fanatical Street Fighter player and fan, I was very excited to play these episodes, but was met with disappointment. Proof, if proof were needed, that Street Fighter does not handle well outside of it's native engine, and not overseen by Yoshinori Ono. On the other hand, the Episode IV pack for the same game was absolutely fantastic, a great close to a highly enjoyable game, that i do not begrudge paying money for.

New games have also now been started aplenty, the likes of Resident Evil 6, Halo 4, Devil May Cry HD Collection, Dishonored, and Hitman: Absolution all filed under work-in-progress.
Plenty more games added to the backlog/ pile o' shame over the holiday period, including Silent Hill: Homecoming, Silent Hill: Downpour, Far Cry 3, and Epic Mickey 2. Seriously, how can I find the time? This puts my backlog up to 29 retail games, not including Arcade titles.

Onto demos, a few have been tried, so here's my thoughts:

DMC: Devil May Cry (Ninja Theory reboot:) This seems like a damn fine game, a faithful combat system, good sense of humour, other solid mechanics, and a protagonist that is not as bad as I first feared all come together to make a game I will definitely be dropping coin on in the near future.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Did not enjoy this at all, irritating characters, movements that do not feel natural, and a cpmbat system I have no impetus to get involved with, I truly cannot see the appeal behind Platinum Games that so many seem to preach.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown: A pleasant surprise, can't say much more than that as I have little to no history with strategy games, but this will be put on my Lovefilm list.
Still to try: Dead Space 3, The Cave.

In non-360 related matters, my gaming sanctuary is coming along nicely, with currently my Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Mega Drive, Mega CD and Master System all now set up across 2 TVs, with my 3DS and spanking new WP8 Nokia Lumia 920 supplementing my on-the-go gaming needs.

In miscellaneous matters, my love for music has been well and truly rekindled, with explorations into doom, sludge, and drone metal proving most fruitful for me, helping me discover new bands such as Trees, Crowbar, Corrupted, Moss and Eyehategod, as well as re-discovering old favourites including Boris, Sleep, The Melvins, Iron Monkey and Khanate. For any fans of slow, extreme music, I strongly suggest you try out some of these bands if you have not already.

Now, I must address the matter of the Defector part of this blog title. I speak of the fact that I am now officially an owner of a PS3, and with such titles on my list to play as MGS4, Demons Souls, Heavy Rain, Okami HD and Ni No Kuni when it releases, my time will now be spread across these 2 consoles, as well as dipping into my retro gaming shrine and handheld dalliances. My love for the 360 will not die, but my time with it may be shorter than before.

I shall no longer put forward pledges, more intentions of things I wish to do down the line, eventually.
My intentions currently lie with 100%ing Dishonored, Dark Souls and Hitman: Absolution for the Xbox, and getting to grips with the PS3, starting with MGS4 anew. Previous readers may recall I started it a while ago and somewhat gave up, but this time, it's for keeps.

So, uhhhhhh..... I guess I'm back?
(Everyone listen to Boris!!!)