Give me something to buy: Xbox 360 DLC, iD super pack

(tags game, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, DLC, Soul Calibur)

I can't remember the last time Microsoft had a sale on DLC, but here's one lasting till the end of October. It's called Extended Play Download Days, and applies to Beautiful Katamari, Oblivion, Forza Motorsport 2, Lost Odyssey, and Mass Effect. Also Guitar Hero 3, but I mention it seperately because I don't have that game (yet?). There's nothing I really need, but I think I'll go for the Katamari stuff first. (Thanks Kotaku)

Soul Calibur 4 and (Japanese?) schoolgirl costumes. It's not yet done, Bandai-Namco, (hint hint Idolm@ster) but yer getting there.

Also, Steam discounted the "iD Super Pack" showcasing past seminal FPS titles including Quake and Doom. I blogged about this desireable last year, and now at this price I am reconsidering a purchase. At the very least, I recommended this to a friend who just bought a top-end video card.

Soul Calibur pantsu

(tags game, Xbox 360, DLC, Soul Calibur)

Namco-Bandai brought out that Soul Calibur 4 Costume Pack 2 "Maid wear" last Wednesday for 200 points, at least for the Japan region. According to the foreign hubbub, these are the costumes availalbe in the limited edition version of the game (not released in Japan). I can't seem to find descriptions for these DLC packs, so I link to this guy who describes them. With NSFW pictures of pantsu, um. He claims that this new pack adds nothing extra in comparison to the regular maid costumes already in the game

DLC from Namco-Bandai is not done until there is Idolm@ster stuff available. We are waiting. Normal people are probably waiting for Darth Vader DLC.

Three in a day: fight, shmup, tile rpg

(tags game, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Dual Screen, Soul Calibur, Geometry Wars, Shiren)

I started off the day realizing that I can't be moving forward in Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer without scraping the earlier levels for experience. Or at least that's the rationalization after losing my +8 sword of brilliance from a merely innocuous foray into the next area. To think that I hate games that lose more than 15 minutes of my progress, and here I am trying to play this game more. The DS needed battery charging so I let it sit out a day.

Geometry Wars 2 on the brain. Pacifism mode is the total bomb, worth the 800 XBLP alone. I have stick control, if only before my hand tremors set in. Yesterday, I scored my personal best, 140+ million. I really love "sticking a fork in it", which I describe the technique of "popping the dumbbell" when embedded in the blue diamond blob. This is totally risky play, of course. Geoms are the "crack" I can't stop picking up, and slipping through the gaps of incoming blue blobs is pure delight. The other modes are shoot shoot shoot which is nice, but my dissatisfaction with the tighter spray in comparison to GW1 irritates me. Then again in GW1, I always liked the tighter mode instead of the spray because the former was faster. Today, I have trouble breaking 70+ million so I let it slide after probably an hour of effort. Erratic performance.

And Soul Calibur 4. An online friend got all of the Achievement Points before me, which makes me irritated. Online is something I give up, but I can't figure out how he got through the Survival mode (I can only get to 5) and Mission mode (I can only get to 20). Or how he got all the goods. There must be some gold laundering scheme in the online, that's got to be it. In any case, I am continuing to unlock the swords and costumes in single player. At the same time I'm trying to set the Style level for each character to max. This is work, not fun. And I do it for the Achievement Points.

Soul Calibur cheaping

(tags game, Xbox 360, Soul Calibur, cheat)

After a while of playing Geometry Wars (I wish I knew how many hours), I'm back into playing Soul Calibur.

I see that there is another DLC character costume pack full of "maids" but at 200 XBLP instead of 100 like the first pack. I will get that soon. Probably I'll also get the 1200 XBLP soundtrack because I'm tired of hearing this music. Perhaps I should just use my own music via TVersity?!?

Actually I'm into mopping up the rest of the relatively easy Achievement Points. Since I'm now in my impatient mood, I turned to a Gamefaq to point me in the right direction.

SPOILERS in ROT-13 till the end of this post.

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Soul Calibur IV at 30 hours

(tags game, Soul Calibur, Xbox 360)

I was pumped up to play Soul Calibur IV some days ago, but that feeling is totally gone now. The single player modes like Tower ("hidden" mission mode and survival) are totally pwn my scrawny (well ok +50 physique) characters even with 200% health and stuff. I can't even get past level 24 and dungeon 5 respectively. Does it hurt that I use the Mitsurugi fighting style twice? I've done Story mode to death and it really is a cheap way to get Gold, despite all the time input.

I think the drop in Achievement Points rate unlocking is a big factor in my sudden diminishing returns feeling. Lame, I know.

Anyways, the in-game clock says I'm around the 30 hour mark. Some of the lingering Honors (Xbox Achievements) seem doable if I keep on hacking on it. I recently got the "Distance will not Betray" Achievement which is "10000 meters in total movement distance in battle". 30 hours == 10000 meters. Strange and wacky. One other Achievement, the 450_000 points in Arcade Mode, seems too hard. I probably have to win all the fights up to stage 8 with no losses, because there is a doubling bonus that rewards consecutive wins. 1000, 2000, 4000, ... etc. The Stage 7 Apprentice is hard though.

As far as the rest of the character weapon unlocking, I have, on the women's side, only Ivy to complete. Then its on to the guys' wear. Then, weapons. I have yet to unlock the Apprentice, though.

Make money fast through player customization: Soul Calibur IV

(tags game, Soul Calibur)

The Soul Calibur IV in-game clock says that I've been at it for at least 18 hours, so I must like this game. Then again, I've been doing the same repetitive offline stuff, like unlocking clothes parts and weapons. I am not going to join online, if ever.

My main stay now is the Mitsurugi-style. I like entering into the Relic and Mist stances as much as possible, since they combo into other moves fast enough. Poor Xianghua is not as powerful for my tastes. I say -style because of course all my characters are the female version. Who wants to play as guys?

Actually I think the female clothing unlocking has something to do with the style level of each of the characters. So after finishing all of the story modes (but there's no Achievement or Honor for that, grr), I'm back again trying to level up each of the fighting styles associated with the women characters.

And yes, I've already seen the no-clothing version of each of the characters (they are not nekkid), and played with the Physique/Musculature knobs. +50/-10, rawr (always 99 years old, here).

But after all is said and done, I have two groups of custom characters, a style group because the clothing matches (ooh a joker clothing set, rawr), and a play group for stats and horrific fashion sense. The latter is important because when doing the Story mode over and over again, it is important to have 200% health. This in turn jacks up my Story mode score so that I can get S ranks, which then translates into more Gold. Which means I can get the clothes and weapons faster. Eh he. ;-)

I've already purchased all the weapons for Xianghua (of course), Seong Yun, Amy, and Talim (there's one more but I forgot who). I'm going to concentrate back on the clothes again, but I already unlocked the "350 items collected" Achievement/Honor.

I am looking forward to playing more of this tomorrow.

A tale of overpriced DLC, eternally retold

(tags game, Soul Calibur)

The first game I wanted to play from yesterday's buying spree is Soul Calibur 4.

I am a bit disappointed with it though. The static graphics look stunning, but when things move, it feels a bit sluggish. I keep questioning if this game is the 60fps or the 30fps. Well, when I mean 60fps, I mean does it feel like Soul Calibur 1? Of course in a fighting game like this, limbs move too fast to track, and swords gleam like midnight racing taillights. Plus my fetish with eyes makes me dissatisfied with Xianghua. She looks totally uncanny.

I also checked the voice actress. Ryoko Shintani. Ugh. Shintani is no substitute for Aya Hisakawa. Actually, at first, everything was in English again, but Xianghua's lines sounded so laughable that I switched it to Japanese, thus encountering Shintani. Besides, I like the voices in Japanese anyway. Mitsurugi's taunts carry weight, and more importantly, I can tell what moves are going to be executed.

Other things that seemed strange. There was an update for the game already. I got 5 Achievement Points just for boot up the game. I've been unlocking some strange Achievements, like "Numeric God: The last two numbers of total play time and remaining time in a victorious battle were the same." That was worth 20 points. Call it beginners luck.

I also get points for customizing an existing character and creating a new character. Yes I was busy mixing and matching clothing, and though I am hot for the zettai ryouiki, I've been covering up more skin than I expected. I found it disconcerting that knocking off my "Princess Dress" on Xianghua had her covorting with just her two-piece underwear, so now she goes out with chainmail undies. I thought I wasn't a prude.

I forgot how fighting games deprecate moves. Soul Calibur only reminds me that I can't use the moves from SC1 in SC4. Ugh.

Well I want to get back into it, so let me get to the point of this post. There is some DLC already. There are 17 tracks of music, 80 XBLP each or at a discount of 1200 XBLP for all. The other thing is some customize parts (pack 1) for 100 XBLP. Music as DLC, I did not anticipate. Is this good or bad in comparison to the DLC furor over Beautiful Katamari where at-cost new levels were about 400KB downloads?

A million dollars? Two games at the same time

(tags game, Xbox 360, Dual Screen, Soul Calibur, Rhythm Tengoku)

I finally have the desire to buy new games. Is this progress or a setback? :-]

Today I'm going to pickup Rhythm Tengoku Gold for the DS and Soul Calibur 4 for the Xbox 360. Actually I'm still waffling over SC4, since over the last couple of days I have newly played Beautiful Katamari and Geometry Wars 1 and 2 (demos only). There goes my nights and the weekend.

Three finger sparkle

(tags game, Soul Calibur)

I am playing Soul Calibur still. I get my kicks (or get kicked) with Ultra Hard Difficulty, Level 4. The CPU blocks and attacks pretty much at the most inconvenient times.

What I really want to know is what happens when I press A B and K at the same time. I sparkle. Do I also do more damage?

But the soul still burns: Soul Calibur 1 XBLA

(tags game, Xbox 360, fighting, Soul Calibur)

Okay, I succumbed. I purchased Soul Calibur 1 for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade for 800 cred. I just wanna post this picture:

It just too much fun to play this game. 60 FPS, sparkly crisp graphics and movement, and now no loading times. Aya Hisakawa voice for "Xianghua" is still the greatest. 「正義は勝つ！なっんちゃって」 "Justice will prevail! Just kidding!" Perhaps the state of the art has improved but this still looks and feels good to me. Still there's that uncanny green glow to the polygons.

I checked my past blog posts on the Soul Calibur series. Oh my. "Jigoku e iku no wa, omae ga saki da!!" (2003-03-30) 5 years ago (!) I was play SC2 with a joystick on the GameCube. I don't even remember when I played SC1, though. I know I have a guide book on SC1 for the Dreamcast somewhere around here, where is it.

I've only seriously played with Xianghua on this port. I surprised myself by getting 37 wins in Survival mode, not that that's all great but still that gets me ranked on the global leaderboard (which is Xianghua only Survival which no one will look at). And I got 50 Break for doing Guard Repel/Parry practice (when you only need 15 for an Achievement), but I only only lucked out because Sophitia is totally predictable.

I guess I'm going to spend some time on this one because some of the Achievements are doable.

This makes me seriously consider Soul Calibur IV coming out this month. Moves that knock off clothes?!? Yeehaw! But seriously, the demo movies show the in-game play at what feels like 30 fps. Ugh?! I'm going wait for an interactive demo.

Update: (09:32AM) I played until 3 in the morning. Xiangha vs Sophitia, Practice mode with Freestyle "Vs CPU @ Medium stage 6 difficulty". Tricky but fun.