Extra-Life - Hour 13-24: Professor Layton and the Last Specter

Since I've already posted that I finished the game, I figured I'd use the last 12 hours to wrap up the remaining 12 hours of my Extra-Life gaming accumulation to Professor Layton and the Last Specter.  As difficult it is to believe, I've spent way more than 12 hours when trying to complete this game.

Uncharted 3: Collector's Edition arrives

A little late in posting this, but doing so before Thanksgiving wouldn't have mattered since my PS3 was still in the shop during that time.  But yes, I went for the Uncharted 3: Collector's Edition, with small statue figure, ring replica, and belt buckle.  I can't help it if I enjoy shiny things!

The figure itself is done well, with a loosely-draped attachments and gun.  It will go nicely with the mini statuette from Infamous 2.  Both the ring and belt buckle replicas are nicely made, and would've been perfect with any halloween or cosplay outing.

The game comes nicely adorned in a unique steelbook case, despite the minor flaw with its poorly-glued spine.  I'm gonna have to fix it one of these days, but not today.

All of this is in a nice displayable ornate case that is quite sturdily built.  It sits atop proudly on my fireplace mantle until GameritisGal (aka the wifey) wants it down.

Thanksgiving and PS3 Game Saves

Thanksgiving is a time of thanks and forgiveness, and is something I want to emphasize before I segway into the next topic: backing up your game saves.

The good news is that my PS3 system has been replaced.  The bad news?  My old PS3 hard drive can't be read with all my saves on it.  This is because Sony enables an encryption key that is unique between the hard drive and system such that, should the drive enter another system, it would be completely unreadable.

So now, I have a useless drive that can't be read by any device other than the original PS3, which was replaced.

I've certainly went through my "denial" stage, trying attempt after attempt to recover my old hard drive to no avail.  I've tried swapping the drive from the maintenance menu, I've tried to connect it to a windows or mac to access the files, and nothing.  I get nothing.

So that's it.  Gone are the hours spent in Disgaea leveling up weapons and items.  Lost are the unique levels I've spent days creating in Little Big Planet 2.  All the games I've only partially played through only to hope to finish at a later date...vanished.  I'm definitely wounded from the experience, but at this point there's nothing left to do but to get back up and start walking again.

Thankfully, I have a working PS3 system once more.  Thankfully, my progress still lives on in trophy achievements.  Thankfully, all my DLC is tied to my PSN account so that I can download them once more to my system.  Thankfully, I can return to playing the games I still yearn to play.  I don't have time to be stubborn, to waste time wishing I backed up files.  I've got games to play AND backup.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Super Mario Galaxy 2...completed!!

While my PS3 is in the shop, I'm left with my other consoles.  It's not like I have a shortage of games to play.  In fact, I went ahead and searched for the remaining stars left in Super Mario Galaxy 2.  I've forgotten how much harder it is to find these out-of-reach stars, made even harder by not having any clue where they are located.

PS3 + Yellow Light = no Uncharted 3

As everyone is well aware, Uncharted 3 has finally released this day.  And, like everyone else, I've been eagerly awaiting this moment since the end of Uncharted 2.  Unfortunately for me, however, my PS3 decided to breathe its last breath this past weekend and go YLOD (or "yellow light of death") on me, effectively halting all Arkham City playing and future Uncharted 3 gameplay.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter...finished!

I'm typically not the type of person that would play any game series out of order, but I found exception with Professor Layton and the Last Specter.  Since the game plays as a prequel surrounding Professor Layton and Luke's first time meeting each other and with the first game (Curious Village) under my belt already, playing this latest game was logically sound.

Now that this is done, I'll have to dive into the Diabolical Box and Unwound Future soon.