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.

Batman: Arkham City. 'Nuff said.

Batman: Arkham City has arrived.

Time to kick ass.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter poofs home

While the second and third game still eludes me, I thought it would be no harm in getting Professor Layton and the Last Specter, seeing that the game's story is a prequel to the events from the first game in the Curious Village.  In fact, I've forgotten how fun these puzzle games can keep me enthralled, so it was a welcome change of pace to focus on elaborate puzzles instead of my usual gaming menu of violence and destruction.

Extra-Life - Hour 12: Uncharted 3 Multiplayer

I think I'm probably the 5% remaining players online that is still below level 10 in experience in the Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta.  Every online match is a crapshoot with me; I either run to survive, or make meager kills while everyone else is doing superbly and resting comfortably on the level 35 cap.

I did, however, progressed one level to level 9 and am quite close to hitting double digits and reaching the goal I've set during the Extra Life marathon.  Will have to come back to this, however, when I don't feel so defeated.

Extra-Life - Hour 9-11: Big Bang Mini...finished!

I never thought I'd get caught up in any single game during the Extra Life hours, but Big Bang Mini is just so easy to switch on and engage.  Plus, most of the time I'm away from the TV, so my portables are the way to go.  But the extra 3 hours is all I needed to finish the game!

And what a journey to finish the game it was!  There was this one random time when the game actually went to this completely random "retro mode" where everything was all in 8-bit, then exited saying that it may never return again.  I've done some research and found it's a rare occurrence, and that it truly comes at random.

Still have more hours to clock out!!

Gameritis Extra Life goal surpassed!! Gaming to still continue!!

Wow!!  I've only started my contribution 2 days ago in Extra Life with a goal of $100, something I wasn't sure I'd be able to achieve.  Well, not only did we reach the goal, but we surpassed it!  I clearly underestimated what could possibly be done in 2 days.  Imagine if I had started this earlier!  For certain, I'll be contributing to this next year, with an earlier setup and bigger goal.

All you gamers should be proud of yourselves!!  $123 will be going to the UC Davis Children's Hospital!  Thanks to all who donated!!

If you still haven't donated yet, there's still a little more than an hour left to contribute!!

Extra-Life - Hour 7-8: Disgaea 4

Thanks to Disgaea 4's lengthy level-up system with weapons, I've easily done another 2 hrs of upgrading my party stats.  At the average rate of half an hour to upgrade a weapon up 10-12 levels, I've successfully upgraded about 4 weapons during the 2 hours.

A third of the way there!

Extra-Life - Hour 6: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Quarter of the way so far, one dinner later, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game tops off the gaming stack so far.  I've capped the level for 3 of the 4 characters (not including Knives), so it's a good time right now to finish that off.  Was able to climb one more level before the hour mark, though.

Onto the next game!!

Extra-Life - Hour 4-5: Big Bang Mini

Gah, Big Bang Mini sucked me in again!  The levels are quick and fast, the gameplay dynamic and changing.

That, and the wife has the TV.  :/

Extra-Life - Hour 2-3: DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue

Spent the next 2 hours playing DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, a game whose original I couldn't put down for a while.  Perhaps because there wasn't much change in the sequel did I eventually tire of those long swarms of enemies time and time again that made me stop playing for a while.  But the past 2 hours reminded me of the fun of discovery as I trekked through new terrain and fine-tuned my combat skills!

Gonna have to pace myself.  Moving on to the next game!

Extra-Life - Hour 1: Big Bang Mini

Probably one of the bigger sleeper hits on this portable, Big Bang Mini is a modified bullet-hell SHMUP on the DS that has clever gameplay and an upbeat soundtrack (which was free last year but sadly their site is now down).  Plus, it's a game I haven't touched in a while, which is why playing this game easily sunk my first hour into the Extra-Life 24-hr challenge.

Each section contains 9 levels, with the last level being the boss.  During this time, I finished up the final 7 levels and boss of section 3, and completely finished section 4.

After you make a donation, pick up this game.  There's no excuse not to.  Big Bang Mini is probably in many bargain bins everywhere for roughly $15, and the game is just crazy fun overall.  I might just finish the game after another couple of hours...

Saved a lot on that video game? Why not donate that to charity?

I've been donating to Extra Life for 2 years now, and I figured I should just jump in like everyone else.  Really, we're ALL gaming at one point or another, so why not do it for a good cause?

Gamers unite! Donate to Extra Life and win fabulous raffle prizes!!

Let's face it, gamers nowadays are extremely frugal; we save money on any sale we can get, we buy used if necessary...heck, there's even a dedicated site for us cheap bastards.  Over the years, you've probably saved hundreds of dollars waiting for game prices to drop, price-matching incorrect ads, and finding the perfect combo to use that buy-two-get-one-free deal.

So there's no real excuse for not donating to a good cause, especially if it involves video games.

When cross-promotion goes bad...

Foot-longs and Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta

For a moment, let's ignore the debate of promotional tie-ins into non-related companies, and how product placement has nestled a place in video games.  What if I told you you can not only play Uncharted 3 multiplayer online, but you're able to transfer all your accumulated stats over to the game once it's released?  Cool, right?