My new addiction

So I've found my new addiction. It use to be Jewel Quest. It got so bad that I'd have to play one board in the morning before I left for work instead of having breakfast or I couldn't think straight the rest of the day. Or, after a long night playing Gears of War I would need a game to help me unwind all that pent up emotion I had so I'd start up Jewel Quest and ease my way into a restful (but very abbreviated) night's sleep. It hasn't gotten that bad yet, but it might.

My new addiction is Peggle. It's such a simple game. It's like pinball, but once the ball goes out of play all the pegs and blocks you've hit go out of play. The object is to get rid of all the orange colored pegs and blocks scattered throughout a bunch of blue ones. Simple and addicting. No matter how carefully you plan your shot and where you think the ball will bounce it will take a different hop and end up somewhere else.

There's lots of different levels and characters to play with. And a different special attack with each one. If you want to use the flippers you pick that character. A fireball? Choose that other character. And there's multiplayer action too.

Every so often I find a game that I just love to play and waste hours doing so. It's usually an arcade game because they're so easy to get in and play really quick without having to worry about save points and such. If it hadn't have been Peggle it would probably be Crystal Defenders. That game is a little harder to describe. But for now, it's Peggle. Simple. Addicting. And just a lot of good fun. And when you find out big, tough, burly men are falling in love with a game filled with rainbows, unicorns, and symphonic music from Beethoven you know it's addicting. But I'm not complaining.

Quest complete . . . or is it?

I finally completed Puzzle Quest. Yeah me! It took me long enough too.

Puzzle Quest was a game I downloaded the demo, played, but didn't really get the point of mixing a puzzle game with an RPG game. When I saw dain playing it, back when we still had a close race with our gamerscores, I just couldn't let him get the jump on me and score 200 points that I couldn't answer to. So I redownloaded the demo and gave it another shot. I liked it enough so I bought it. Then I played it and got hooked.

And that's the problem. Every now and then I get hooked on an Xbox Live Arcade game and I become obsessive about finishing it (i.e. getting all the achievements). It all started with Jewel Quest.

I became obsessed with finishing that game. And once I finished it I liked it so much that I wanted to play it again but without losing any lives on any of the levels. Unfortunately whenever I access my hard drive directly (to move my profile or game saves to a memory card) the game deletes the game save (even if I haven't touched it) so I have to start all over again. I like the game just not that much.

Then I became obsessed with Backgammon. Getting that 10 game winning streak consumed me for days because I was only willing to play one game a night so I would remain sharp. And finding someone to play online with was a chore. After Backgammon it was Carcassonne. Then Catan (I'm still having problems getting dropped from that game). Then Uno (I don't think I'd ever get to 40 wins if it hadn't have been for my friends). And lastly it's been Puzzle Quest.

Now that Puzzle Quest is over (although I'll still play from time to time as I unwind and relax) I need to find another Arcade game to obsess about. I've thought about Boogie Bunnies because I really like it but I think I might want a change of pace. Something a little different.

I've worked somewhat steadily on Luxor 2 and Zuma but only because I can't figure out which one I like best. I've tried to get back into Small Arms and I think I've got some friends that would help me with the online play stuff but I'm just too terrible at that game to ever have the hope of finishing anytime soon. Then there's old favorites like Root Beer Tapper, any of the Pac Man games or Gauntlet. I've played those games many times before so I know what I'm doing.

Or I could start obsessing about card games like Hearts, Spades or Lost Cities. Or stick with Band of Bugs since I miss playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and the games are similar. Or there are the racing type games like Mad Tracks or Novadrome. Now Novadrome is one game I'd like to see all my friends play online some time. Or I could finish up Feeding Frenzy, but I think I might want to do that only because my brother kaiakapero has more achievements in that game than I do (and because his four year old probably got those achievements).

And then there are what I like to call the "open maze shooting games" like Crystal Quest, Robotron and Geometry Wars. They're an "open maze" because there are no walls but there are bad guys (or mines) that you have to steer around. And they're shooters because you get to . . . well . . . shoot things in them.

I just don't know what I'm in the mood for. I need something I can turn to when I'm feeling anti-social or just need to unwind after a long day at work or an online match with my friends (Gears can be brutal when team kill in on). Or sometimes I like to have something to play when no one else is online. It gets kind of lonely then and it's nice to have a trusted game to turn to in the loneliness. I could just finish Crystal Quest and then I would have finished the "Quest trifecta" of Jewel Quest, Puzzle Quest and Crystal Quest. Then I suppose I could move on to the "Pac Man trifecta" (Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man and Pac Man CE). I'll take any suggestions you might want to offer. But that doesn't mean I have to follow them, just so you know. My Puzzle Quest-ing days might be over but the "quest" for completing another Xbox Live Arcade game has just begun.

Following in my brother's footsteps

You know when you see something really odd that you just have to stop and check it out. I had that moment a couple of days ago. I saw dain playing Puzzle Quest. And he had achievements in it.

Now I had that game downloaded as a demo and tried to play it once but I just didn't understand it. Was it an RPG or a puzzle game? It was too confusing and I gave up after about 5 minutes. I didn't delete the demo because I thought one day I would take some time to really concentrate on the game and see what it was about before I officially and permanently threw in the towel.

So what's so strange about dain playing Puzzle Quest, and that he had achievements in it? Maybe because I don't think dain is much of a puzzle gamer. I've tried to get him to play Jewel Quest, but he's never seemed interested. He says he's played Hexic, but he seemed reluctant to admit that. Is this a guy thing? I don't think so.

What I do know is that he does like what I'll call "outfitting games". Games where you can change the outfitting of a character or vehicle to fight a certain way in a battle. He loves building hounds in Chromehounds. I can't tell you how many matches we had to sit and wait for him to "tweak" his hound for just a little more speed, or more ammo, or more range. He's got a hound for every occasion but he doesn't keep them for very long because he likes to fiddle with them. Even the ones that work for him. Outfitting a character is the same thing. Every time we start a Rainbow 6 match I have to stop and look at dain to see what he's changed on his character this time. It might only be his weapons, but it usually is his hat, or armor or maybe some new tattoos. It really doesn't surprise me that he likes to do this. As he was growing up he always liked to rearrange his bedroom every couple of months it seemed. He might not have liked to clean it but boy did he like to rearrange it.

Dain's also a thinker. He likes games where he can think and plan. Carcassone and Catan are good Arcade games for that. And the Rainbow 6 games suit him better than Call of Duty type games. He'll sit and wait. Thinking and strategizing about the enemy's moves. Last night I think he was always the last one left alive in our terrorist hunt missions. He's patient. And while he's patient, he's thinking.

So when I saw dain playing Puzzle Quest I thought it was a demo like what I had. When I realized he was earning achievements (I'm not worried about him passing me any time soon - hee hee) I figured there must be something in the game that appealed to him. I figured if he liked it I should give it another try. I played the demo again and it was a little better the second time (partly because I stopped to read the instructions and hints). So I decided to follow in his footstep and download the full game. I was surprised to find it was 1,200 ms points. That's pretty steep. I had points to spare so I unlocked the full game and started playing.

At first I was still hung up on the the 'is it an RPG or puzzle game' that got me the first time. Once I figured out how to battle and plan what I'm going to do instead of just moving same colored shapes around I started to like it. The more I've played it the move I've liked it. The dialogue scenes between missions still annoy me some what because their jarring to the flow of game play. But I can see why dain would like the game.

You have to think about your moves. What's the best one for you? What move would you make that might give your enemy an advantage? What move could hurt him? For me I just want to play. Like I want to run into a room guns a blazin'. Dain, on the other hand, will sit outside the doorway and repeatedly peek into the room picking off anyone he see. He's a sneaky little devil that way. Give him something to think about or outfit for a battle and he's a much better player than I ever could be.

I'm not one of those people who only like a certain type of game and I'm not going to try anything else, thank you very much. I like trying new things, but only if I trust the judgement from the person who recommends it to me. He might not have recommended Puzzle Quest to me personally, but looking through his recently played games and seeing him play it is enough for me. When it comes to trying new games I trust my brother dain. So I'm glad I followed in his footsteps with Puzzle Quest. Now if he'll just trust on on Jewel Quest we can call it even.

What's a little competition between friends?

One thing I really like about my Xbox 360 is the Xbox Live Arcade. All you have to do is look at my recently played games to know that. But the reason I like it so much is that it made going to bed so much easier.

Eh?

I loved playing Star Wars Battlefront right up until bed time. Unfortunately when I crawled into bed my adrenaline was pumping and sleep was a long way off. I figured out if I played something like Bust-A-Move or other mindless arcade type game before I went to bed I could calm down enough that getting to sleep wouldn't require a hour or more of tossing and turning. Unfortunately that meant changing from my original Xbox to my PS2 every night. When the 360 came out and I had those type of games on the same machine it made things so much easier.

After a grueling session of Gears of War I could load up Pac Man and try a couple of levels while my heart slowed it's beating to a more normal level. And if Pac Man wouldn't do it for me there were numerous other games I could play. For some reason Jewel Quest seemed the best game for "powering down" late at night. Uno was another good one . . . until recently.

A friend of mine bought a replacement Xbox 360 while his is in the shop and it came with an Xbox Live Arcade compilation disk. Uno is on the of the games on it. So he started playing it. Myself and a couple of other friends would join him in a room and play away. And I have to tell you it's so much more fun (and faster) to play with a full group of friends.

Now Uno doesn't strike me as a competitive game. It certainly wasn't for me. And I didn't think it would be for anyone else. I also didn't think how much my "ultra competitive I'm going to shoot everyone" guys would do in a non-competitive game like Uno. They figured out a way to play the game. They made it competitive. If you stick them with a draw four card suddenly the game is personal. Throw in the stacking of penalty cards and the "draw until you play" option and the game can get pretty heated. Who knew Uno could be an intense battleground for gamers?

The games do get intense. But in a much different way. Instead of adrenaline pumping action it's face grinning, laughing at others action. So much so that sometimes my cheeks hurt . . . and not the ones I sit on. We've laughed at others misfortunes and even laughed at our own. Although we tend to growl first before laughing when the game takes a sudden turn for the worse when you go from one card left to 16 cards all in one hand. This game is no longer the relaxing game I play before going to bed. It is a game we play to win. And hopefully screw the person to our right and left in the mean time. So, what's a little competition between friends anyway? Except now I've got to find a game I can play to calm down from playing Uno.

A benefit of playing games you've finished

Do you go back and play games you've already finished? You see the end credits roll but sometime later you've just got to put the game back in and play some more. I'm not talking about those "save+" games that let you keep all the stuff you've collected from the previous game so you have it available at the beginning of the new game for "a new experience". I'm talking about starting from scratch.

I've started Legend of Dragoon a couple of times. That's a great game. I've even started Final Fantasy Tactics Advance over (several times before I finished, but once since I've finished). And there's some Arcade games I've "finished" by getting all the achievements that I've gone back and played some more. But those games (Backgammon and Carcassonne) are games that don't really have credits that roll when the game's over. Jewel Quest on the other hand does . . . kind of.

My interest in Arcade games comes in fits. I become obsessive about a particular game and I have to play that game every day. Jewel Quest was one of those games. I made it to the end, got all my achievement points and I was done. I could have continued playing all the way back from the first level but I didn't think I would be playing that game again. Not because it's not a good game, but what else was there to see or do with it?

What I did learn while obsessively playing that game is that it's a very good decompressing game for me. When I get home from a very stressful day at work a level or two of that game and I'm more relaxed. And after an adrenaline filled night of shooting people playing that game kelps me calm down enough that when I do go to bed I'm not tossing and turning for hours before I fall asleep.

Some of my friends don't understand why I continue to play that game even after finishing it. And sometimes I don't understand myself. I just know that every now and then I just have to load it up and play a grid or two before moving on to something more serious. And since I don't have to worry about whether I’m going to make it to the next level or not, or what achievement points I need to pick up the game is very beneficial in many ways. My blood pressure goes down, my mood goes up and I don't have to feel like a loser because I came in last.

The Highs and Lows of Finishing a Game

I know I've been working on my favorite games for each system and I promise I'll get back to those lists. I have notes and all the games for the remaining systems but I've been thinking about others things. Maybe I'll do a second post today with a list.

One of the other things I've been thinking about is finishing games. Since that's what started this whole blog I think it's only natural that this topic comes up every now and then. Unfortunately neither my brother or I have finished the agreed upon games. I even had to restart Final Fantasy VII because I accidentally sold a materia that you can only get from one place . . . and I've lost access to that place. And since those Mega Materia (or whatever they're called) are only good if you've mastered all types of the same materia I had to start the game over so I could get . . . and keep . . . that missing materia. So although I haven't finish the designated games I have finished other ones.

Both of the games I've finished have been Xbox Live Arcade games. The first one was Jewel Quest. When I started playing I thought it was a fun game that I would return to every now and then. I certainly wasn't setting out to finish it, come hell or high water. But after playing one particular level and losing about 10 times I was damned if I was going to let a stupid game get the better of me. It became a mission to finish the game. Every time I got stuck on a level and burned through all my lives I screamed as my score was reset to zero. Each achievement unlocked was a thrilling victory for me over the computer. But the payout in the end wasn't as exciting as I would have liked.

About 2 levels from the last one I was burning through lives like crazy. I knew I was close to the end but I couldn't seem to get past this one level. When I finally made it past I figured the last two level would be even harder. The next level only took 2 attempts to get through and then I was faced with the final level. Only one grid stood between me and a finished game. Less than 2 minutes later I was done. I got through the last level on the first attempt and apparently triggered a cascading domino effect that almost cleared the whole board in a single move. Yes, I finished the game and after all my hard work on previous level it seemed a little anticlimactic.

The second game I finished was Hardwood Backgammon. Some of the achievements I unlocked without even knowing what they were. Some I unlocked through the normal course of playing the game and some I had to really work for. The hardest being the "win 10 games in a row." I tried doing this against humans but that was a complete mistake. So I set the AI to easy and tried grinding it out in single player. The problem I had was the longer I played the more careless I got. After winning 7 in a row I'd lose a game and have to start the streak all over again. I finally limited myself to playing only 2 games a night. It took awhile but eventually I got the 10 game and 25 game winning streak achievements.

And while it's great to finish a game, what about those games I won't be able to finish (or at least get all the achievements)? I don't have a vision camera so I can't get the face mapping achievement in Rainbow 6: Vegas. With all the boosting going on in Chromehounds I'll never get any of the Gold medals. And don't remind me that I missed a golden, and tiny, window of opportunity when Sal Kar's Secret Weapon came out. When will I get that chance again? Then there's achievements like "play this game online with someone who has 'the mingler' (or another special designation)" Hell, if I were a person who had it I'd never play that game online again. It's a rare achievement to get so why would I want to pass that along?

It's great finishing a game, but then I'm always reminded of all the ones I haven't finish and some I may never finish. I guess I have to take the highs with the lows when it comes to finishing games.