The opening to Uncharted 2 is simply breathtaking. Our hero awakes to find himself covered in blood, a victim of a terrible train wreck. As you guide Nathan Drake up through a train hanging off a cliff, there are several moments where you wonder if he is going to make it. Now of course he is going to make it because he is the main protagonist of the series…but still! I wish more games started off with such a fantastic opening scene to get things going. I guess though all games can’t be that way, after awhile such a thing would come across as contrived. Anywho, I am really enjoying Uncharted 2. Have a good Saturday everyone!
A mysterious mountain climber makes his way up the mountain. His goal, to make it safely back home before dusk. Trudging his way up the mountain, the climber navigates between crumbing precipices of doom. Will he make it home?
A friend recently asked me what type of game I would make if I was going to create a game. So, I described to him something very close to the above scenario. What if I wanted to proceed with developing this game? Where would I go to get the funding for such a mountainous endeavor?
8-Bit Funding might be a good place to start. Here I can go present my idea, and if it is deemed worthy by the “mob”, I will be added to the 8-Bit site to start receiving donations. A very interesting idea. I could even entice potential donors with the honor of being added to the games credits. Not a bad exchange if you ask me. Gamers supporting fellow gamers, welcome to the new digital frontier.
As a gamer with minimal time to invest in gaming, I want to make sure that I am getting the most bang for my buck. I also want to know if I am potentially going to waste 200 hours of my life on one game (something I like to avoid). So behold, below is a general list of completion times*. Use it to educate, amuse, and compete with your friends…if you have any. 🙂
Oh yeah, if you have any times to add to this list please comment away!
A
Alpha Protocol – 15 hours
Assassin’s Creed 2 – 19 hours
B
Banjo-Tooie – 15 hours
Batman Arkham Asylum – 11 hours
Bionic Commando –4 hours
Braid – 6 hours
Bully – 16 hours
C
D
Darksiders – 17 hours
Dead Rising 2 – 14 hours
Dead Space – 10 hours
Dead space 2 – 10 hours
Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga – 49 hours
Dragon Age: Origins – 41 hours
E
F
Fallout – 47 hours
Fallout: New Vegas – 38 hours
Final Fantasy X – 31 hours
Final Fantasy XIII – 60 hours.
G
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn – 22 hours
H
Heavy Rain – 7 hours
I
J
K
L
M
Machinarium – 5 hours
Mafia 2 – 11 hours
Mass Effect 2 – 32 hours
Metroid: Other M – 12 hours
Metroid Prime – 20 hours
Metroid Prime 2 – 22 hours
Metroid Prime 3 – 18 hours
Mirror’s Edge – 6 hours
N
O
P
Q
R
S
Sonic Colors – 7 hours
Splinter Cell: Conviction – 7 hours
Starcraft II – 14 hours
T
Trine – 6 hours
U
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – 12 hours
V
Vanquish – 4 hours
VVVVVV – 4 hours
W
World of Goo – 4 hour
X
Y
Z
Zeno Clash – 3 hours
*Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and completion times may vary.
Chrono Trigger is a game that has become something of an enigma to me. Over the years, I have unsuccessfully attempted to dive into this masterpiece. Each attempt has been oddly foiled as you will soon see.
Back in the days when Chrono Trigger was hard to obtain, which wasn’t long ago, I entered the shady world of emulation to get my fix—I did this back in high school…a decade ago.—. Serving me right, for not spending $100 on a physical SNES Chrono Trigger cartridge, I played the game up until the world of the grim future. It was then that I quickly discovered that the emulator I was using was busted! No matter how hard I tried to adjust the emulator settings, the world of the future was blurred by an unintentional fog. I was blind. With no way to go forward, my game was tragically over.
I only wish the emulator had displayed things as clear as the image above.
Fast forward through the Y2k “crisis”, well into the year of 2008, when Nintendo released Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS. My second attempt at completing the game was soon to begin. Armed with a charged DS, I spent Christmas of 2008 immersed in the world of Crono, Marle, and Frog. Unlike my earlier foggy attempt at completing the world of the future, I actually got passed it this time. Only to have the DS controls freak out on me unexpectedly. I still do not know what happened but suddenly I had no control over Crono (who was my lead party character). At a total loss and getting my butt beat over and over in battles, I decided enough was enough. So I put the tiny cartridge back in its case and closed it for two solid years.
Recently, I decided that there had to have been a setting changed or something. Suddenly loosing control of my main party member made absolutely no sense to me. Newly empowered, I restarted my earlier game only to be greeted by the game’s amazing soundtrack and setting.
Chrono Trigger represents what is perhaps the pinnacle of Japanese role playing games. The fusion of story, characters, and sound leave one with a truly memorable experience. Knowing all of this, I refuse to let Chrono Trigger be that game that got away from me.
JohnnyBGamer 