Raptr Preservation

Yeah it's Halloween so what have I got up my sleeve for this evening? Something completely unrelated! Ha!

Anywho, it's been a week since I started using Raptr. In that time I've notched up over a thousand hour of game time.
Of course, this is only through me going back over my game files, over several consoles, and adding them to my Raptor profile. Thus the 1000+ hours is the product of seven years not seven days (so you can kindly cease typing out that email denouncing me as a loser).

Why go to all this trouble? Well I like the idea that this, Raptr, is there to serve as a record for one's gaming achievements - and not just XBLA achievements/PSN Trophies. I like the idea of Raptr being evidence of doing such things and it serving as a record that may last for years to come. Of course that may not turn out that way but I do like the idea of it being set in stone. Who knows? You come back in several years time and think: Yep, I did that :)

However me going back over my old gaming files does ultimately defeat the purpose of the reward system that Raptr is plugging. The rewards system seem more focused on more recent games not on the classics. There there is really nothing really gained from me putting in so much hours for classic eighties/nineties games. Still I must admit that it's kinda nice to be ranked the no.1 player for Adventures of Lolo, Final Fantasy 1, Secret of Mana, Super Mario Bros 3, Ogre Battle 64, and Burnout 3.

Of course the 1000 hours are the time-frames that I've been able to recover on my PS2, Wii and 360. I have invested many hours in other games on other gaming platforms but they're sadly lost to time. Indeed, I'd like to know how many hours I've blown in Baldurs Gate. However I don't WANT to know how many hours I've sunk in World of Warcraft....

Lol

Happy new year! Yes, here we are in 2011. A new year ahead, bringing with it more time to play games and to crap on about them in this waste of web-space.

Anyway, to get the ball rolling, some good news. And what better way to open this year than on a positive note?
Recently I had the satisfaction of striking another game from my Hall of Shame. This one being the Adventures of Lolo 2.

I've had a love for puzzle games, stretching back to such classics like Lemmings and Boulderdash. I downloaded the first Adventures of Lolo on a whim and found it quite entertaining. The puzzles were engaging indeed and, whilst the cutesy graphics and chipper music wasn't to my taste, the challenge factor was enough to hold my attention for a very long while.

So what can I say about Adventures of Lolo 2? It's more of the same. Great puzzles, annoyingly heroic music and a protagonist that looks at you with big eyes wondering what the hell you're going to do next. A minor graphical upgrade, along with a new concluding section, is all it takes to differentiate this game from it's predecessor and strangely, that's all it needs to do. So yeah, Lolo 2, whilst little more than an expansion disk(?) on the first game, is good fun

Anywho, that's another game done - and one less to deal with. And on that note, I did resolve to work on the Hall of Shame this year. True, no one really keeps any new year resolutions for very long but it would be interesting to see what happens in the months ahead.

Here's to 2011!

Additions to the Virtual Console

Some Virtual Console titles I recently added to my ever-growing library.

Adventures of Lolo 2
I downloaded the first one last year and I thoroughly enjoyed the mind-bending puzzles that make up this game (not to mention the irritatingly catchy theme tune). Sure the second may be more of the same but not that I'm complaining.

Ogre Battle 64
More of a curiosity: I know nothing of it apart from it being ace (apparently) so it would interesting to see what it can do.

Street Gangs
Or River City Ransom to those of you on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. I remember in the early nineties beat-em-ups were quite popular in arcades. So seeing this one, with RPG elements and a charmingly cartoonish presentation makes for a different, and indeed entertaining, romp.

Super Star Wars
Whilst movie-tie ins are nowadays looked down upon, this gem stands out, mostly because the amount of creativity and effort the developers put into it. Creative liberties may have been a puzzling move on paper but here it works wonders. There have been many Star Wars games made but this definitely stands tall as one of the best.

Super Empire Strikes Back
And if you're going to download Super Star Wars you may as well download Super Empire Strikes Back as well.

Seems a bit strange that I'm acquiring new titles when I have so many games unfinished but whatever....