Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Backlog - 12/11/2010

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Dark Ruins)
PS2 - Beyond Good and Evil (after completion of first assignment)
PS2 - Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed (ongoing)

Recently Completed:
NES - BattleToads (reviewed at DVGI)

Sunday, December 05, 2010

The Backlog - 12/05/2010

Listed in order of urgency.

Immediate Backlog:
PS2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Kingdom of Argonia)
PS2 - Beyond Good and Evil (after completion of first assignment)
PS2 - Gallop Racer 2003: A New Breed (ongoing)

Recently Completed:
NES - BattleToads (reviewed at DVGI)
GB - BurgerTime Deluxe (reviewed at DVGI)

Communist Bloc+k

Advance Warning: My mind is just kinda drifting as I type this.  Don't read too far into it.

For quite awhile now I've been in a bit of a writing slump.  I don't seem to want to write for my own site or for the other outlets that I am obligated to do so for.  Then of course, are the blogs, which see maybe a post a year - at best.  I'll be honest when I say it, I really haven't felt like writing for Retrogaming Times Monthly in a long time.  I'm looking for a way to freshen up my duties there to inject it with some new energy but to me it just feels like a bit of a dark / slow time for the newsletter.  (if it is or isn't)  Of course I'm not helping it any by not contributing.

Granted I did write a review of BurgerTime Deluxe for DVGI back on November 7th of this year.  That actually felt really good to do.  I had been playing the game for quite awhile but basically sat down, played it for a couple hours, then wrote a review.  Lock, stock and barrel - that was it.  I recently forced myself to complete Battletoads and I plan on writing a review of it shortly... man how I hate that game, but that can wait.  Shorter, faster reviews are what I'm aiming for now.  I suppose the problem I have is that I always tried to make my reviews REALLY long.  Lately the descriptions run long and then the breakdowns (graphics, sound, etc.) are far shorter but perhaps that flows better in the end anyway.  We'll see how the Battletoads review works out.  I really should buckle down and write that one this Tuesday.

The visual novel I was working on has essentially been canceled so I can move onto a bigger and more interesting game.  However I don't have much more than a basic outline right now and it's really not something I wish to tackle while in such a slump.  Garbage in, garbage out I suppose.

It is a little scary to think that my best writing over the past five years has been on forum posts but that's exactly how I feel.  Not all the time, but when I think back to when the ideas were just bleeding out of my fingertips, that's where most of the best stuff ended up.

I've been playing Dragon Quest VIII again and I'll continue to say that I'm really enjoying it.  I'm not having as good a time as I did with Steambot Chronicles but damn if it isn't fun and engaging.  I've never been a fan of the meat and potatoes grind RPG - like ever.  How people can suffer through RPG games on the NES is beyond my understanding.  Hell, how people can suffer through many RPG games post NES / Famicom is beyond my understanding.  Yes, I've played through many RPG games.  My favorite in the genre is the original Grandia, which many will tell you is an incredible masterpiece.  I've tried my hand at a few NES and Famicom RPG's but often give up about 1/4 the way in.  I've played many of the so called SNES "classics" and found myself falling asleep.  (Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, etc. do not apply - those are great)  There have been PS1 RPG's that I gladly spent hours playing (Final Fantasy VII and VIII do not apply - those not so much great) and a few PS2 RPG's that weren't bad at all (namely Grandia III which was a refreshing change after the "don't give a crap about these characters" Grandia II on the Dreamcast).  I've given other Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior games a chance in years previous but Dragon Quest VIII is the first one I actually want to play and keep playing, which is saying a lot.  It's just flat out a ton of fun with a very realized world - feels both old and new, kinda like Steambot Chronicles.

Now I do have a back catalog, I always have a back catalog.  However it's nice to actually be playing some games again.  I suppose if anything will get me out of this slump, that's probably what it will be.  Next blog post will start something new, an update of my immediate back catalog as well as games I've completed that I should write a review of.  Two birds with one stone!