Return of the Revenge of the Son of Saying Hi to Josiah!

[Josiah]

Hi! Hope it goes well, BFC!

Nothing especially new to report here. Just spending time with Connie, working on a few side things, and playing some Bayonetta, Smash, and a couple music games when I can.

[shauni]

Playing the wolf among us, its a VERY good game. I've loved all of it. Watched my fella playing The Evil Within yesterday, the game is an odd mix of other horrors I've played.

Making a sand storm team on Pokemon Ruby ATM, So far got a Hippowdon and Mandibuzz. I got a Riolou I can use on wonder trade to, made up, It makes up for all the zigzagons I keep getting

[shauni]

Anyone actually still around?

[Silver]

I've just been lurking, haven't had much to talk about. Um... I've got an interview for management at the movie theater next week! So that's something! I don't really know what my chances are since I don't know who else applied though.

[Josiah]

Hi! I check the forums every day, though I tend to post less if other people aren't posting. Anyway, if you keep up on PV news posts, you'll see that I went hiking and to the circus on Sunday. But other than that it hasn't been a very exciting work. I've had a bunch of stuff to get done between work, side jobs, and my own projects. Not to mention errands... And Connie got a cold too. Still, it's been a fairly productive week. And Connie and I finished our Star Wars marathon (maybe that's not the right word, since we were only watching one movie per day). She didn't actually grow up with Star Wars, so this was her first time seeing them (she's into fantasy and sci-fi movies, but never really went back to watch the older films that she missed as a kid). Interestingly, she said her favorite is either II or III. In video games, we've started playing Super Mario 3D Land together. She's not especially great at platformers, but she's improving and I can always get us through. She seems to be enjoying it, and that's the main thing.

[Silver]

Hey Josiah, if you haven't already, I would highly recommend playing through Kirby's Epic Yarn together. The multiplayer's good* and the actual platforming is easy, mostly because you can't actually die. When you do "die" you don't have to restart the level, your score just gets reset but you keep playing like nothing happened. The level design is great, it's a breeze to just get through but it's is reasonably challenging to collect everything and there's so many little hidden secrets. Also it's really cute.

*In a lot of games, having multiple players can be difficult, since you might get in each other's way at certain points. Not only did that not ever occur in Epic Yarn, but having a second player actually made it easier since it gives you a second jump (Player 1 stands on player 2, player 2 jumps, then player 1 jumps off of player 2). I... don't know if the devs intended that though...

And for everyone else even if you don't have someone to play with I would recommend Epic Yarn because it's so happy and fun and the music is great. Like, I was recently putting together a playlist of random video game songs and I tried to just pick out a few favorites to put on and I ended up with the entire soundtrack somehow.

[Josiah]

Hi! I love Kirby's Epic Yarn. Beautiful art style, awesome soundtrack, really clever level design... Maybe a tad too easy, but that's nitpicking. Unfortunately, my copy is at my parents' place in Arizona right now. So yeah. Here's what I've done so far with introducing Connie to games.

Plants vs. Zombies
Choose it since it's fun and easy to learn, but something she could easily play by herself back when she was in China. She enjoyed it, completed the campaign on her own, and spent a while on the extra modes

Final Fantasy VII
Choose it because, going from her anime and movie preferences, I was pretty certain she'd like the story and there aren't many good JRPGs legally available on PC. She's got just about to the end of the Midgard section and enjoyed it, but had a lot of trouble figuring out the gameplay systems when playing by herself in China (unfortunately, VII was before every game started putting in good tutorials). I'm honestly surprised she made it as far as she did with how little of the mechanics she understood. I should probably guide her through a few hours, explaining things as she goes. Right now her play through is on hold due to the next entry...

Fate/Stay Night
She started watching Fate/Zero so I recommended playing FSN. She got hooked and is currently halfway through Unlimited Blade Works (putting her about 50% of the way through the entire thing). Hasn't been playing too much over the last few weeks though, since she's been busy with job searching, doing stuff with me, and having fun with my manga collection.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
I figured this would be a good one for us to play together, since it's simple and she loves the movies. I was right. She enjoyed it a lot, though I had to do most of the heavy lifting (she tended to stick to one character per level, leaving me to character swap as needed to solve any puzzles not specifically for her). She also had a lot of trouble navigating in full 3D, though she slowly improved as we went.

Flower
I decided to have her play through something simple, relaxing, and a bit different after we finished Lego Marvel. Took her a while to figure out the tilt controls, but she liked it, even if she never did end up holding the controller properly.

Super Mario 3D World
Another one for the fun and creative coop game category. Thought about New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, but I've already beaten that and she needs to get more used to moving around in 3D. I'm still carrying the game, but she's improving and having fun. She really like the cat suit.

What comes next could depend a lot on whether she manages to find a job here (she has the skills, it's the visa sponsorship that's a pain) or ends up going back to China for a while. I've got plenty more coop games if she stays, but most of them are a decent bit more challenging so I don't know if she's ready for them yet (maybe she will be by the time we finish Mario). Plus I'm pretty certain she'll like RPGs a lot once she gets the mechanics down, so I may urge her to go back to FFVII either way (with my help). Or, if she does have to leave for a while, maybe I'll lend her my 3DS and get a N3DSXL. Though the 3DS power adapter doesn't work in China (found that out on my trip there), so maybe not.

On my end, between work and spending time with her, my personal game time has been pretty limited. I'm still working on the Bayonetta 1 portion of Bayonetta 2 for the WiiU. Currently on my fourth play through (Normal, then Easy (for an unlock), then Normal speed run (also an unlock), and now Hard). I was originally planning to unlock everything, since I have so much fun with it, but with how slow my progress has been I may stop after finishing Hard and move on to the actual Bayonetta 2. I'm also working in a bit of Project Diva F2nd and TFFCC here and there.

[shauni]

Flower was the first PS3 game I ever played. Loved it. Kinda reminded me of Snake on the old phones as the flower "dragon" used to get longer.

Good luck with the job interview Silver.

Speaking of events, I got a puppy on Saturday! His name is Harley and his teeth are like NEEDLES LOL. He has been rather well behaved but wont really sleep at night. He cries like a cross between a baby and an sea gull if you leave him alone in his cage. Were spending the nights with him but its tough trying to calm him, leave then he cries again. We cant go soft or he will never calm down on his own. Its all very traumatic as hes left his mum and all. We are giving him lots of love and cuddles but we gotta be firm as well.

[Josiah]

Hi! You know what I don't like in video games? Button mashing mini-games. Despite all the games I've played, I'm just not an especially fast button masher, which has proved to be a real problem from time to time (*cough*Metal Gear Solid*cough*). It's also the one thing keeping me from finish a handful of the hardest Project Diva songs on extreme difficulty. I simply can't keep up with the sections where you have to push the same button a zillion times really fast. I wonder if there's some type of exercise I can do to speed up my finger movement. Then again, I do plenty of typing and game playing, so maybe I'm just at my limit in that respect...

[Silver]

So... how's things with you guys? Everyone's Valentines day go well? I worked all day. Fortunately I was in the concession stand so when my old bosses came in I could pretend they were going to Spongebob and not 50 Shades. I was lucky; my poor, poor coworker got to sell tickets to her third grade teacher. It has been an interesting day.

[Josiah]

Hi! Connie and I did Valetine's a day early since it's on a Saturday this year. Except we're kinda splitting it across the long weekend. She got her flowers, chocolate, and Madoka shirt (totally an appropriate Valentine's Day present) on Friday and we cuddled and watched anime together and all that. But I'll be taking her out for a late Valentine's day meal on Monday, probably along with a hike and maybe beach time. Anyway, we've had a nice weekend so far, other than my house being extremely hot last night, making it rather hard to get to sleep. Not entirely sure what we're doing tomorrow. Maybe a movie, but if we do it'll be Jupiter Ascending, not 50 Shades.

[Stevenson]

Aloha! I also check in with relative frequency, I just don't have much to add. Valentine's was fun, I did in fact go to the movies (though to see Kingsman: The Secret Service). Otherwise I've been keeping busy with college!

[Josiah]

Hi! How was Kingsman? I've heard pretty mixed stuff about it.

Well, Connie and I finished Super Mario 3D World (except for the extra hard bonus levels, which I'm doing on my own) and now we're playing Puppeteer, which she's enjoying more now that her basic game playing skills have improved a bit. Though she still swings the controller when jumping to the side. Can't remember how long it took me to stop doing that when I first started playing...

[Silver]

Yeah, just from walking in and out of Kingsman on theater checks it seemed interesting... my co-worker Neal gave it a good review, but I would take that with a grain of salt because he just likes movies.

I'll certainly say that of what we have playing now at my theater... I would go see that before anything else. Maaaybe Spongebob? I'm... hesitant on that one.

[shauni]

Hello all! My Valentines was lovely, I went for a meal with Daz and then we did a bit of shopping. Were going out for another meal tonight as last weekend we were dog sitting so we didn't get out much.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Chines New year. I forgot until it was too late so missed doing anything, but still!

Next big thing on my calendar is Dad's Birthday and my 2 year old niece's birthday. Also mother's day in March, so I better start thinking of some presents. And waster....I need some money

Gutted I missed the Pre Order of The Fire Emblem Amiibo from the new wave. I got my Charizard ordered though!

Its a pity I don't have a Wii U or New 3DS. I just think there cool as figures for display.

I only have two atm, Marth and Lucario, and I only want three more.