Back in the Game
It’s been the instant messaging question of the century… or the week: Q. Where have you been little missy? A. Moving out of my flat!
Rubbish excuse I know but hell, moving house and working full time as well as trying to make time for games doesn’t leave much space for updating a blog. I’ve still yet to unpack all of my stuff but, true to geek form, managed to set up my PC and Xbox 360 before anything else. Priorities, right?
Tomorrow is my last day at BHPR. I’m going back to delicious freelance writing baby! Not to say that PR is a career choice I’m not interested in but my heart is in the writing and I want to follow that dream first. I’ve already got some work lined up, mainly preview stuff but I have an interesting article in the works for some cool people. Of course if you are looking for a London based freelancer to do some events for you then please hit me up.
I’ve been catching up with Final Fantasy XIII during my last few evenings. I’ve already completed it but I went back to 5* all of the Cie’th stone missions and am working on upgrading all of the weapons and accessories for the last achievement. While I’ll happily miss out on collectables in FPS or puzzle games, RPGs are the one genre I feel the need to complete to perfection. It’s the reason I go back to The Last Remnant so often hoping I’ll have the patience to do it all over again.
I’ve also been bashing some more hours into Final Fantasy IX on the PSP, Super QuickHook on iPhone and Dragon Quest IX on DS. I’ve got a number of Xbox 360 games waiting to be finished up and a whole bunch more coming out! I love and hate the holiday period because there is so much awesome coming out but so little time to play it all.
Anyway, I must go back and unpack some more. There are a few posts piling up to come out soon but I just want to work on them a bit.
The Commodore Amiga 500
Last night I spend a few hours talking about old games. It started from loading up Arkadian Warriors (XBLA) with a friend and noting that the Sierra logo at the start reminded me of the Infogrames game logo, with the colourful armadillo, which would always make me smile when I loaded up North & South (Infogrames, 1989). Although, in all honesty, I couldn’t remember the title originally and spent a few minutes tapping ‘Infogrames + amiga commodore 500′ into google which left me glued to my PC for much of the night having my mind blown every few clicks.
I can’t remember much about North & South in detail apart from the fact it was some kind of absolutely mental strategy game. You’d pick your teams on a menu screen with a photographer’s arse pointing your way – which, by the way, was begging to be clicked – and the game would emit all sorts of weird noises during selection. After that you’d be shoved on a big map and have to work your army down county by county. Selecting a country with the enemy in would result in a mini battle on screen which I think was automated and sometimes entering certain counties would result in a side scrolling race against the clock. Basically the game was fucking crazy.
My nostalgiagasm didn’t stop with North & South and ended up with me checking out a whole back catalogue of Commodore Amiga 500. Top Banana, Lemmings, First Samurai, Addams Family, Turbo Challenger, Alien Breed, Pinball Fantasies, Captain Planet, Theme Park, Rainbow Island and of course Chuck Rock were among my favourites.
A View From Above
I spent the majority of this weekend marvelling at Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on XBLA. After spending a good portion of Friday evening and Saturday blasting through the single player – and loving every minute – I ended up enjoying a nice Sunday evening with Keza playing the local co-op campaign. You’d think by the time I got back home I would have been burned out but instead I sat back down to play even more. What an addictive game!
The only downside to Guardian of Light is the lack of Online Multiplayer from launch, which would have made the whole experience perfect. Although, sitting next to Keza and screaming at the TV while power rolling away from a giant fish monster (oddly dubbed Chompy) was an awesome moment and one I’ve not had in a while. I miss the days where I could sit with my brother and sister and actually play a game rather reply on a series of tubes to deliver a co-op experience. Why do we have to grow up?
One rather interesting thing to note is that Guardian of Light is a perfect example of how changing up gameplay from an established IP can be a positive endeavour. The game is still quintessentially Tomb Raider from the music (which admittedly is borrowed from previous games) to the environment and experience. While you can no longer prop Lara against a wall and peek at her pointys from the new isometric view point, the whole gameplay experience still feels familiar and right. It just doesn’t feel like a spin off series or a cheap attempt at the arcade market.
In fact, just writing about Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light has me itching to play more. The leaderboards are an addiction and the whole game is a collector’s dream. You’re looking at five to ten hours worth of the best Arcade experience you’ll have this year for a lot less than it’s worth.
On Being Nominated for a GMA
A few weeks ago, I was having a good old natter with my buddies about who will be nominated for a GMA. We talked about the big websites and magazines that’d be up and who we felt deserved an award. We then went onto how we wished we were all up for a GMA and came to the conclusion that it’ll never happen.
On Wednesday morning I burst into tears. I was in shock. Why was this little blog nominated in the Games Blog category and what the hell is going on?! Everyone was congratulating me, my phone and twitter was going mental and all I could do was sit there and stare at the page with a bemused grin across my face.
“I’m up for a GMA.”
It’s kind of surreal. Daily Girl Attack Panic Super HD Remix has been up since February 2010. It’s a blog where I post about what the hell I’m playing, why I enjoy it and some mini-features I thought people would find interesting (aka Boobies and Violence). This was something for me and my friends and I have never expected anything more than that. Believe me, if I wanted this to be an award winning blog then I would have picked a much better name!
In short: I’m bloody proud of myself; I’m thankful to people who have supported or contributed to this blog and to everyone who has visited and voted for DGAPSHDR.
With that finally out of the way, I can talk about other people who you need to show your support to: David Houghton, Neon Kelly, Martin Gaston and Gillen McAllister. These guys are my awesome friends who have supported me not only with advice but also copious amounts of delicious alcohol. I’m looking forward to hanging out with them all at the award ceremony.
We ♥ Classic Survival Horror
How many of you loved the classic survival horror? Please more than one! Back in the 90s and early 00s, the survival horror genre contained some of the most intriguing, enjoyable and immersive games on the market. They were games that always offered a wide variety of re-playability, be it with speed runs, unlockables or story changes.
I thought I’d blog about some personal favourite survival horrors from over the years. Classic titles that you should give a go if you never did originally. I’ve also had a few guest bloggers add in their experiences. Make sure to leave your experiences in the comments!
Titles mentioned;
- Dino Crisis
- Haunting Ground
- Project Zero II
- Parasite Eve II
- Rule of Rose – By Korina Abbot
- Clock Tower – By Ashton Raze
- Dino Crisis 2 – By Linford Butler
- Silent Hill – By Martin Gaston
Check them all out after the jump. Read more…
Summer of Despair
Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade has been going rather swimmingly, hasn’t it? First we had Limbo, then Hydro Thunder Hurricane and now Castlevania: Harmony and Despair. Soon we will have delicious Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and all will be well in the world.
So today I spend my evening playing Castlevania HD with Raze. Holy crap that game is tough! We’ve been playing co-op for the last few hours. It’s a no-brainer six-player loot feast and even though the game has scored poorly critically, I can’t help but find myself enjoying it. Sure the game has its flaws – having six player multiplayer but only five characters to choose from – but Castle Crashers was the same price and offered somewhat the same kind of experience … but at an easier difficulty level. Castlevania is notoriously hardcore and I’ll admit to avoiding in the past. Castlevania HD’s music and simplicity might be worth a go if you are just looking for something to play while chatting with friends.
Apart from the usual Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Singularity and Dragon Quest IX that has also been filling my precious time, I’ve been replaying Final Fantasy IX on the PSP. Now, Final Fantasy VIII has always been my favourite and most played Final Fantasy in my collection. I forgot how pretty FFIX was and how utterly bursting with charm it is. Sure I found Zidane a little annoying – just as much as Tidus and Vaan – and Eiko needed a slap in the face but the charm, style and sheer atmosphere the game radiates is such a treat to experience. If you haven’t played FFIX yet then please, I beg you to download it via the PSN store now!
Changing Servers
Excuse the mess! I’m currently transferring this blog from wordpress.com hosted to self hosted. The transition is going smoothly apart from one thing: The Domain!
There is an issue with the domain provider’s Name Server switch admin page which means I’ll have to wait until someone fixes this manually for me. LaurenWainwright.com will redirect to this blog soon enough and I apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please don’t do anything stupid! YOU HEAR ME!
In other news: If you enjoy the LIKE button on Facebook then you should click it on the Daily Girl Attack Panic Super HD Remix Page! I’d love you forever and you’d get your glorious mug on the facebook widget on the side bar. Getting your face on said widget will make you famous and rich beyond your wildest dreams*.
*It won’t. I’m a terrible lier. Don’t sue me please.
There is a massive post coming up soon about Survival Horror games. I hope you will all enjoy it and there are more things to come from LaurenWainwright.com/DailyPanicGirl.com soon.
Hands on with 3DS
While I’ll be holding back a more detailed account of my time with Nintendo’s 3DS for my written preview, I just couldn’t resist blogging about the latest upgrade. I mean, it’s 3D without the glasses. The future in our hands and everyone is getting excited.
I wasn’t initially happy with it when I first stood up in front of a panel of pretty uniformed Nintendo girls. It was suddenly 3D and my eyes just didn’t like it. It took some time to adjust the 3D screen, even after playing around with the depth meter. My main issue was switching between the two screens. It’s like your eyes begin to adjust to the new depth of field and then you look down at the touch screen, which is still in 2D, and get used to that which means when you look back up at the 3D screen your eyes go all out of focus.
Now, I’m sure this is something you will slowly get used to but I know this will turn a lot of people off instantly. I got worried and decided to walk around and check out some of Nintendo’s upcoming line up for the Wii and DS before returning to the 3DS and giving a final judgement. It wasn’t until I returned to watch a trailer for Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid on the 3DS did it all start to come together and become practically mind blowing. It’s 3D maaaaaannn!
There was a bunch of other stuff on show such as Just Dance 2, Epic Mickey, Wii Party, Metroid Other M, Goldeneye and Kirby’s Epic Yarn which turned out to be the show stopper! As much as I dis Nintendo for staying safe with their own IPs, I can’t deny the games they produce with them are not enjoyable or unique gameplay wise. Kirby’s latest adventure looks adorable and the co-op was fantastically addictive. I think I played the demo more than five times with several different journalists, jumping around arts and craft inspired levels. Again, more details for the preview but I just wanted to mention how amazing it was.
StarCraft II Launch Party
It’s about time StarCraft II released because I was starting to get fed up with people practically orgasming over each and every tiny morsel of news being revealed onto the net. Not that a little hype did anyone any harm but we’ve been waiting bloomin’ ages!
I was also getting a little twitchy each time someone replied “it’ll be out when it’s ready” whenever someone was stupid enough to ask for an estimated release date. That single statement has now become the “so Blizzard” thing to say about any future title they intend to release and I know it’s going to keep driving me insane. Actually it might drive me to the point where I just smash a sledge hammer into the face of any smug arse hat who feels the need to say it.
Breathe. It’s okay now, Lauren. StarCraft II is out. PC gaming is no longer dead and Korea can now evolve. Thank goodness.
I’m actually looking forward to playing some more StarCraft II. I managed to nab a copy at the launch party Blizzard held in London last night. The games press gathered in a swanky central London bar, sipping on Zerg cocktails and excitedly commenting on the StarCraft II light show that was projected onto the walls and tables. Everyone looked generally excited to get their hands on with the game and it wasn’t until walking down to GAME on Oxford Street did the buzz really kick off.
I felt a bit guilty walking past the crowds of fans who had been lining up since 10am to grab the game. I just walked on in, grabbed my press bag with the game and some goodies and stood around commenting on the stores décor, the poor model in the Queen of Blades costume – who looked amazing by the way – and how much I wanted that amazing collector’s edition.
As midnight approached and fans were slowly buying the first few copies of the game, I wondered outside and walked all the way to the back of the line. I had a spare goody bag and it was for the poor sod at the back who will be enjoying a long wait. After passing a few hundred people, I stumbled on a couple who were excitedly waiting in line and gave it to them. Then I walked back up chucking a few World of Warcraft goodies from the press kit into the crowd. I did keep some goodies for myself though: The game, puzzle, poster, stickers, magnets and other such wonderful SC2 merchandise.
It was a good night all in all. Got heckled by the crowds, questioned on the train and even recognised by people in line… which is still a very weird feeling. If you are a little bored and want to have a few matches on battle.net then my ID is atheistium at gmail dot com. I’m pretty rusty when it comes to RTS, so you’ll lack any kind of challenge for the moment. Now I just need to work out how to make a ZERG cocktail. They should have just called it a Zerg Rush. Missed opportunity there Blizzard bar staff.
I'm finally playing Dragon Quest
I’ve not really been avoiding Dragon Quest but it’s not a game I’ve ever felt compelled to play. Which is strange because I love Japanese RPGs and Dragon Quest essentially ticks all the traditional RPG boxes. So what has stopped me for so long? The art style.
Years ago, when I split my time between school, gaming and animé, I used to watch Dragon Ball Z. I eventually got tired of watching burly, blonde men look constipated for numerous episodes and ended up beginning to hate the series. Sadly this resulted in anything by artist Akira Toriyama getting the cold shoulder.
This means anything Dragon Quest got ignored. I ended up getting a copy of DQVIII as a gift and it was left collecting dust. I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan and it was only after reading an article about the popularity of Dragon Quest in Japan, I decided to give it a go. A little late to the party, I know.
Walking into GAME this weekend, I noticed Nintendo & Square Enix were running a huge Dragon Quest IX campaign. I ended up grabbing a copy at the counter and nervously reading the manual on the way home, hoping I hadn’t wasted the remaining credit on my gift card.
You can customise your own character in DQIX.
Now I understand the hype, the buzz and the total Tokyo meltdown when Dragon Quest comes out. It’s seriously addictive! After seeing modern day jRPGs lose their tradition bit by bit, Dragon Quest holds that tradition up and adds to it.
I think the major selling point was actually being able to create my own hero at the start and potential of multiplayer with friends. I’m a bit gutted that the multiplayer is local wireless rather than WiFi. Now I just need to find a bunch of people willing to quest up!
So my new obsession is Dragon Quest. I’m sorry if I start constantly tweeting about it, I don’t mean to be annoying… I’m just excited. This just means I got a huge back catalogue of games to check out. What are your favourite Dragon Quest games? Let me know so I can check them out.
I'm Lauren and I like video games. I try to write about my hobby as much as possible and you can check out my portfolio over at 
