Originally Posted by: Gyyrro

How is The Wanting Seed? I've been interested after reading A Clockwork Orange, but I've never heard much on it.

The Wanting seed was a very interesting read, I enjoyed it, compared to a clockwork orange it is a simple read, it has some aspects that cross over, like some of the religious aspects of Mr. Livedog etc. I thought the idea of cannibalism would be over the top, but it was written out very well. The story flips back and forth between the Husband and the Wife. If you liked a clockwork Orange I would say The Wanting Seed is possibly the better of the two books by Anthony Burgess, However without spoiling it, the ending wasn't as great as the rest of the book, perhaps it's one short falling, the ending was acceptable. I would highly recommend it if you liked Clockwork Orange.

It has been 3 weeks since I said I started Jonathan Wild by Henry Fielding, since then I have read "The Wanting Seed" by Anthony Burgess, "Silas Marner" by George Eliot, "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, "The Decay of the Art of Lying" by Mark Twain, "A Dog's Life" By Mark Twain, "In the Year 2889" credited to Jules Verne but likely written by his son Michael. "The Magic Fishbone A Holiday Romance From the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird, Aged 7" by Charles Dickens, and "The Trial of William Tinkling Written by Himself at the Age of 8 Years" by Charles Dickens. I am currently reading "Erewhon" by Samuel Butler.

I like running two saves per RPG a speedrun, to know what to do, and a completionist run following behind.

I should be starting Ar Tonelico 2 sometime tomorrow. I'm excited the first Ar tonelico was Superb.

Diablo in Diablo 2, I just find him annoying. Not terribly hard, or frustrating, it depends, sometimes I breeze through him and other times well I have one heck of a fight.
The Evil Genie in Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2, again he was annoying, but not terribly hard.
Magus the Propagation the Boss in .Hack//Mutation this one actually ticked me off.
The Singing Hill A.B.R. in Ar Tonelico Melody of Elemia this boss has a trick to it, and it isn't one that someone would likely try, It couldn't kill me, but I couldn't hardly damage it and when I did it healed. Frustration.

I can't think of anymore right now that really drove me crazy.

Originally Posted by: starfireliz

I'm doing an RPG binge with a friend and we just started .hack infection.

Oh man, the game is great, but the big draw back is the rarity of the remainder of the series and mainly part 4, I so wish I could acquire a copy but at the 80$ price tag for in good condition it's a dream for now, and I don't like what I have seen from the used market on Amazon so I guess I would go new, but it is running near 200$, I still recommend the series it is fantastic, and it is hours of fun, but it left me wanting the next installment, I wish there was a re-release, or an adequate Emulator for PS2 where I could play it for free, but then I wouldn't have my character which I would greatly miss. Do enjoy it, it is a lot of fun and addictive. I once tried to document every gate, but when I hit 200 gates I gave up. I am not sure I even have the paperwork left for all that.

As for the RPG binge, if you like Turn Based Party Style RPG's give a try to Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia and Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafelica a try, I have truly enjoyed the series. They are both on PS2. The 3rd one Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel I have not yet tried it is out on PS3. Actually I am still eagerly awaiting the arrival of part 2. Another RPG I highly recommend for PS2 is The Bard's Tail and Tsugunai: Atonement.

I'm rather sad, this is going to be only a one game purchase Month. I have many things to do, and I had some books I wanted to get. I still have to pay for a fishing rod, and my fishing license.

Here is what I ordered...

Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica

I loved the first game so much, it was an absolutely amazing game that will still take me hours and hours to fully complete. I am so looking forward to part two,

Originally Posted by: nalgas

Is that some Strategic Conquest?

Your right on the game. As for the original post it would possibly be black and white since the game was on the Apple II, and Apple Macintosh. The early stages of the Apple computers ran I think everything in Black and White, I think it was the Apple II that introduced color. I may be wrong, I only played with Apple computers at school and my uncles house, to this date I still have never owned an Apple computer, or had solid access to one for gaming. I recognized the game because my Uncle was playing it one Christmas, but I don't remember much about it other than the name. My Uncle only played two games around me on his Mac and those were Simcity and Strategic Conquest, and the only one I got to play at school was Oregon Trail.

I read a lot, since my last comment 5 or 6 days ago I have finished reading "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, and "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. I am now reading "Jonathan Wild" by Henry Fielding. I have to say the book for "A Clockwork Orange" is far better than the cult classic Stanley Kubrick film, and I love Stanley Kubrick films, However the book takes awhile to get used to the language with a lot of Nadset mixed in which is a cross between English, Russian, and Gypsy slang, I don't remember Kubrick using much if any of it in the movie version.

I stuck to 1-6 never went further, I was under the impression that after 6 the series went haywire, I still can't figure out the order, the series just lost me, one day 6 came out next time I saw a title it was X I wondered what happened to 7, 8 and 9, then all sorts of X spinoffs started happening, I never returned to the series. I was a huge Megaman fan growing up, and still return to 1 - 6 for marathons now and then, I can beat the first 6 in a day if I have a good session, but normally I'm in the 2 day ballpark.

Originally Posted by: pongsifu

If you spend 2 minutes a day putting on your shoes and do it every day, by the time you are 30 (if we subtract 5 years to assume you didn't put on shoes when you were 0-4), you spent over 18,000 hours putting on your shoes. Any little task, if you do it often enough, really adds up, even if it is for a few minutes a day.

I figure since 1985 I've played on average 7 hours a day. It was around 1 to 3 hours during school days, and 9 hours on weekends and everyday in the summer, and once I graduated in 1997 I pretty much have put about 8 hours to 12 hours a day into gaming. About 27 years of gaming now, or about 9,855 days which works out to 68,985 hours if I have my math right. I don't consider it a waste of time, I'll never be famous for gaming, but it is quite a bit of satisfaction personally.

Wow I couldn't imagine playing any game for over 10,000 hours. I am sure in all my years of playing games, the total amount played on all games combined might reach close to 15,000 hours maybe more, just estimating.

Originally Posted by: acidzero

I know most won't go beyond 200hours (even that is rare)

I don't know I have easily put in one play through on many games over 200 plus hours

Diablo 2 with Expansion - I know I have put about 350 hours in and I have not even begun Hell Mode with my Necromancer.
Skyrim - My quickest play through for main+ was about 167 Hours, I am sure if I went to level every Attribute to 100 I would be well over 300 Hours.
Oblivion - My Quickest play through for Main+ was about 150 hours, don't have my saves in front of me, but my first play through was 227 Hours
Animal Crossing - I still have not completed everything and spent about 2 hours a day for two years playing about 730 hours a year, now over 1460 hours, admittedly I have taken brakes as long as a month so I doubt I will ever add a time, I am certainly over 1,000 Hours in, but I also spent plenty of days where I played 9+ hours. It is hard to truly estimate.
Gran Turismo 4 - I still have a few of the long 24+ hour endurance races to go, but I know I have put well over 500 hours into it.
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 - This was easy math I have played and beaten it with all characters, on all difficulties and maxed all stats and levels. At 8 hours per character at my fastest, and 3 runs through per character, and 7 characters, that 21 times through about 168 hours, yet I know my actual time is in the ballpark of 228 hours, since the easy run through and extreme run throughs averaged about 10 to 12 hours.
MVP Baseball 2004 - I never add times to sports, but I am tempted to on this if I was 100% accurate. I played one season all the way through 162 games plus playoffs at about 1 hour per game, I think there was 16 playoff games makes it 178 games or 178 hours, adding in menu screen time, extra inning games it also is over 200+ hours.
Roller Coaster Tycoon - Each scenario was taking about 2 hours, I suppose I could have sped it up but I liked playing on slowest speed setting to really manage the park, Given the expansions, add-ons, etc. I easily played this over 200+ hours, but again I didn't keep accurate play times for it.

These are the ones I know off hand are over 200+ hours of game play that I have played.

I had thought about reading W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" But instead I decided to settle on some lighter reading and went with Ian Fleming's "Doctor No" I've had sitting on my shelf for quite some time the bond series, but never read one, I always settled for the movies instead. It has been at least 7 years since I watched "Dr. No" so I am not sure how well it follows to the book. I started reading it this morning and I am nearly done with it already, I will have to watch the movie again when I have time. Perhaps this weekend.

No doubt gaming or reading, I tend to mix between the two, I'm usually socially awkward, I always was more of an observer, there are many causes of that. I've said before Games are like therapy to me, or medication to others, I get real depressed if I don't keep my mind occupied, again due to a lot of things out of my control. In some ways I play games not due to wanting, but due to needing. Books work about the same but I find games to be more interactive and over all more enjoyable. I can get bored reading, but almost never when it comes to games.

I do like socializing don't get me wrong, but I prefer a few words in passing, or a maybe an hour at most, and then I feel any topic has been drained and there isn't much left worth saying. I grew up learning it is better to say nothing then to say a lot about nothing. It has been hard for me to break that mold.

I use to think I was closest perhaps to Wakka from Final Fantasy X, he had quite a few aspects of him that were totally different though, but he was the closest up until recently. I never thought of Wakka as overly Physically Fit, yet he was athletic all the same. He would often think of others, and do his best to cheer others up. He also had good self-esteem, but low confidence, always promising to do his best even if it wouldn't be enough, he was also very loyal. Yet his hatred for the Al Bhed, for change, and his stringent views on following the rules to a T were totally unlike me.

Recently I have been playing Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia and I am finding to this point I am perhaps even more like main character Lyner Barsett, then I am like Wakka. Like Lyner I to put other peoples feelings first, or what I assume their feelings would be. If I had to go to the store and walk there about a mile, I wouldn't ask if anyone else wanted to go, I would assume a mile walk is probably not what they want to do. Sometimes I find I am wrong and then they wonder why I didn't ask if they wanted to go. Lyner is also a good person who feels it his responsibility to help those around him, I do the same thing, I always ask people I see who look like they could use some help if they need it, and often I go out of my way to help others too. He doesn't have a great relationship with his Father, because his Father has different plans for him then he has for himself, again it mirror's my life, my Dad wanted me to be a computer programmer and follow in his foot steps, I didn't want to, so instead of following my dreams, which needed his aid and support, he put a stop to my dreams. We still talk, but often he puts me down for not following his plan for my future. Lyner does have some traits not like me, like his recklessness, defiance towards certain people, and his excessive determination when it comes to some things. He is also it seems forgetful, but I haven't gotten far enough to know the whole story there.

Originally Posted by: nalgas

I'll just leave this here

Thank you, that was entertaining, and made my morning.

Originally Posted by: Chronoja

Originally Posted by: ArchaicGamer

The Bard's Tale - Again IGN rated this as good, but everyone else had it middle of the line or lower. It was another game I simply loved, not so much for the game play, but for the antics, the game play wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The story wasn't anything to write home abut, heck I vaguely remember the story, but I can still remember the songs, the jokes, the puns, the main character that reminded me of a very shifty friend I had growing up, even down to the unkempt hair and his corny lines he thought were cool, but were so bad people snickered at him behind his back, yet he thought they all loved him. It was a true classic to me.

Is that the 1985 or the 2004 game? I would imagine it's the 2004 version if IGN have a review of it

That would be the 2004 on PS2, I never tried the NES version even if it is easily obtainable. Maybe one day I will try it out.

I guess that really depends on what is classified as mediocre, more is it mediocre based on ratings of the main gaming sites like IGN, Metacritic, Gamespot Etc. Or Mediocre based on my personal criteria.

Tsugunai: Atonement - Although IGN gave it good ratings, most places had it mediocre. I absolutely loved the game, I have played through it many times, and I am sure I will play through it again, it had a pretty decent plot, no one of the best plots I've seen played out in a game, with very few that can rival the plot. The story telling was so-so, I wish it had voice acting, and that there were some slow moving parts that would speed up just a bit, but over all my rating is about as close to perfect one can get for a game. The graphics are dated but were good for the time frame.

The Bard's Tale - Again IGN rated this as good, but everyone else had it middle of the line or lower. It was another game I simply loved, not so much for the game play, but for the antics, the game play wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The story wasn't anything to write home abut, heck I vaguely remember the story, but I can still remember the songs, the jokes, the puns, the main character that reminded me of a very shifty friend I had growing up, even down to the unkempt hair and his corny lines he thought were cool, but were so bad people snickered at him behind his back, yet he thought they all loved him. It was a true classic to me.

As for personally found to be Mediocre I can't think of many, perhaps anything from the GTA series, the stories to me were so-so regurgitated mobster/gang drivel. Who do you want me to whack? The soundtracks to some of them are great, the driving wasn't great, the characters some were great concepts that died to quick and others should have been sunk in concrete shoes before development. I've never much cared for the controls, nor any of the senseless killing sprees, the hard to find death defying stunts. What I do love and what draws me back is really the radio, some of the stations, the commercials, the radio personalities, comments from people you walk past, there are some aspects that keep me buying and playing games in this series that keep me from hating it enough to never play it again, and enough annoyances and irritations that keep the GTA series from being highly rated as a game in my books, yet enough appeal I do go back to it for a laugh now and then.

100% complete or not, well I guess that depends. Like on older games pre-PSX to 100% complete the game really meant just beating it, everything was for the most part linear, if you beat it, chances are you did it with 100% completion. Like Castlevania not really much you could miss, or the first Zelda. Even for some more recent games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, you had to beat the scenario objectives to get the next scenario, and the last scenario would count as completing the game. Some games like the .hack series up through the third one there wasn't much on the side, grunty races, raising grunties, and beating the time challenge levels with the best three times, finding the OVA secret locations, some trading, and that is about it, and that stuff just seems to get done without really being a chore. Then there are games like the Elder Scrolls series, and there is so much to do you can literally spend hundreds of hours and still not have everything. I loved Oblivion and Skyrim enough I 100% or as close as one can on the systems 360 Oblivion and PS3 Oblivion had some bugs in it that made some missions impossible to complete.

Then there are achievements I will try to go for these sometimes there are some pointless ones, and sometimes there are some taxing ones that could take days to try and complete without much success, so I guess that depends, got to remember Achievements didn't really come about on counsels until PS3/360 at least that I know of, there more on the system then in game. I have fun getting what I can.

My real thought is whether or not to tackle the DLC content, some DLC stuff seems lame and pointless and yet others seem worth while.

Overall it depends on the fun factor, if I am really hating a game, or find the game to just not be fun, I'm not going to bother going for any extras, I just want it over with, so I am certainly not going to bother with the achievements either, and if I love a game and one of the achievements is say run 500 laps around _____ City, and one lap takes 1 minute and it serves no purpose to the story, rest assured that is one achievement that will not be completed, unless I am super bored, and willing to do something stupid and pointless.

Recently had one of those rare moments playing a game where I had to look up a hint. While playing Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia I was fighting a boss and the fight could have gone on for ever, it was healing itself faster than I could damage it, and I was able to heal faster than it could damage me, a stalemate, it seemed no matter what I did nothing helped, and it could absorb the magic of my Reyvateil so I just couldn't seem to do anything. Looking it up gave the solution and it was something I would never have tried and didn't make a lot of sense either. Sometimes guides, walkthroughs and hints can come in handy or perhaps that would have been the end of playing the game which is absolutely awesome for an RPG, and I would have hated to bury it because of one boss battle with a stupid means to a win. It might have been nice if in game I would have had some clue as to what to do for that boss.

I have had a few of those moments, some of them just unexpected, like the singing yoda's in The Bard's Tale on PS2, I know they aren't Yoda's but close to as I could get. Bard's Tale actually contained a few more shocker moments then serious WTF moments.

Tsugunai: Atonement I had a few of them too, but mostly in actually having to posses a dog.

Another one was in Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2, me and a friend were playing co-op on expert, when we went up against Mordoc SeLanmere with them playing as Allessia Faithhammer and me as Borador Goldhand I hit him once and he was dead, easiest win we ever had against him in expert, we have faced off with Mordoc in expert probably thirty plus times with various characters, never before and never since has that happened again, we even tried to Mimic what happened before and no go. Mordoc usually kills us at least once in awhile. My friend hates letting their character die perhaps why they are have half a meter towards the first so called unobtainable level, and they are terrible at dodging certain attacks from Mordoc so we often have plenty of reloads.

The first time I played Morrowind on Xbox I nearly jumped out of my seat when Tarhiel fell on my head while I was trying to pick up a book just laying on a path. Some of the other Elder Scrolls games had better WTF moments but I can't recall many of them off hand. I know there are a few references to other games, and real historic events that I caught and thought abot how obscure the reference was that many would never catch it.

GTA games, I've had a few car rollovers that went beyond unique or insane jumps and got no score for it, but were surprising in the fact my character should have died but didn't and the car just kept on going too.

In Diablo 2, on numerous occasions I've just been walking along and died with no enemy presence for what seemed like absolutely no reason. Of course I was like WTF! I know there was a reason but I just never saw one, and it irked me.

I wish I had some better ones than these but I'm just a little brain dead this morning after having been really really sick the last week, and even being away from games I think I've played about 1 hour of games in the last week.

Originally Posted by: Chronoja

Main+ is an intentionally broad category. It lists Quests/Medals/ Unlockables as examples but it literally just means "if you did extra stuff that extended the play time of the game, it goes here". You don't have to hit every single example for it to qualify under main+.

I'll bring up Bioshock Infinite again, I explored that game fairly in depth, did some achievement hunting but I didn't get all the voxophones. The exploration etc. pushed my time above what someone who did no exploration would be expected to get but I obviously did not 100% the game, hence I did the main game + a few extras.

That makes a lot of sense for the Main+ glad to know it, since it seemed vague as to if it was completed those Quests/Medals/Unlockables or partial completion of them. I also agree most the times here are very close to accurate.

Thanks for the site, I've got it bookmarked.

Descent is one I have wanted to try it came highly rated to me by some old friends on another forum that has since disappeared. I don't know a lot of the other games listed. I also heard of Invictus but don't know much about it. The Fallout games and Earthworm Jim games are well know, but I've never played them either. Great prices, I'll have to say. Not being familiar with that site are those all for PC? I would assume so.