News:

I played Persona 5 today. I got really involved in it. I played the first seven hours or so. It introduces you really slowly to all the mechanics of the game while delivering a compelling story and lots of well thought out characters. Even Mark got pulled away from his Bulletstorm to watch and follow the story.

I’m a little afraid the wealth of game mechanics will overwhelm me eventually in battles. I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible. I have my teammates set to behave independently so I can focus solely on my character. I set their tactics according to their personalities. I’m playing on Normal difficulty, the default. If it gets too hard I can lower it one level but I hope I don’t have to do that. The game has lots of visual and musical style. I’m enjoying the overall design.

Memory:

I’m thinking about Sega Bass Fishing for Dreamcast. It came out in 1999. It was an arcade game first and then ported to the Dreamcast, which became known for excellent arcade ports. Sega put out a fishing rod controller for this game. It had a motion sensor, rumble and a reel. You could tug the line to attract a fish, hook it by feeling the rumble, and bring it in turning the realistic fishing reel. The game’s announcer was a bit silly (appropriate for an arcade game) saying, when you caught a fish: “This one’s HUGE!”, or “Keeper size.”. I still quote those lines from time to time. Sega Bass Fishing reminds me how I prefer arcade style gameplay to simulation in most games, especially sports games.

Photo:  

                                   Team fire from Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure      

                                       Sunburn, Eruptor, Flameslinger and Ignitor.

Some interesting facts about them are:

Sunburn is half dragon, half phoenix. He can breathe flame and teleport.

Eruptor is a lava monster who spews and throws molten rock - pretty straightforward.

Flameslinger is an elf who has an enchanted flaming bow and arrow and flaming boots. Like Sunburn, he can leave a trail of flame as he moves.

Ignitor is a Spirit Knight who has an interesting back story. He was once a normal knight but was tricked by a witch into wearing enchanted armor that was supposed to protect him from dragon’s flame. What it did instead was turn him into a fire spirt and permanently attach him to his armor. He can, however, temporarily leave his armor to attack in his fire spirit form. And he has a cool flaming sword. He hates witches now, but I think he’s become pretty cool. He can’t eat breakfast normally now though. That sucks.