Careful with this Steam

(tags game, Windows, Steam, Unreal Tournament, puzzle)

The end of the year Steam sale has me filling up my cart... but I haven't checked out and purchased. Yes I wanna buy more games, virtually even.

I fixed my problem with buying stuff through my Steam Client. It turns out that my overzealous security settings in Internet Explorer 7 were blocking the Steam's Store from recording my additions to the Cart. Now I can keep stuff in my cart while shopping! huh.

So I want to get the ID super pack, the Unreal Pack, the PopCap games, and one indie game:

I've already experienced much of ID. Unreal stuff goes without saying. My mom had lots of fun with the PopCap series. She demoed Peggle to me. Also I really liked my time with Bejeweled 2 and Insane-aquarium (sp?) which I previously bought for my now dormant Sony Palm Clie. Finally I wanna try out either World of Goo or Aquaria. The World of Goo was declared contender for Game of the Year by Coding Horror's star programmer and extreme gaming enthusiast Jeff Atwood, so it deserves a look.

In total, I'm looking at USD 150.00. That's a lot for things that doesn't have a real physical presence. But I really like the convenience of Steam. I recently confirmed that the games are tied to my ability to log in, not just to a specific computer. I can move around with freedom and sponteniety. I can play the low-performance games on my laptop, then switch to higher-performance desktop to play the FPSs.

But I still haven't purchased. I've got till January 2 to decide, right?

Finally I've been looking at Good Old Games for their DRM-free selections. Steam is good, but still DRM-laden. Currently GOG's selection is paltry, but there were able to snag Unreal Tournament and also Fallout 1 and 2, so they are worth watching. Hope still burns for Sinistar Unleashed, hint hint hint.

Digging for treasure: Boulderdash and others

(tags game, Dual Screen, GameBoy Advance, Xbox 360, RPG, shmup, puzzle)

Yesterday, I completed Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time in about 21 hours in-game time. There's not much left to do in it because there are really no side quests except for collecting more items of dubious worth. There aren't any more interesting enemies to fight either, so there's no sense in leveling up.

I collected 166 beans from the map, and probably won 1 from a mini-game. I need 450 beans (10 + 20 + 30 + 40+ 50 + 60+ 70 + 80 + 90) to get all the "ultimate" badges, but the only way to get more beans is to play "pachinko/slot machine" at 5 beans a win, for the remaing 283. That's not fun. M&L is over for me.

So I tried out some other games. Gradius Generations for the GBA kills me with cheep death but I managed to get to level 3 without continuing. I was buzzing out of habit.

Atari Arcade Hits for the GBA, ugh I still suck at Tempest. Oh wait I have this on the DS, gotta try that some time.

Boulderdash EX for the GBA? It's surprisingly engaging as a puzzler. I got this game a long time ago to make up for missing the Apple II version. Classic mode sure looks ugly.

And I popped in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, despite my dread. Right now the battles are easier than I thought. I am having fun without worrying too much about positioning and Laws. I was even Judgement Point scraping. What do you mean I can only reap 10 JP from this nearly dead guy here? But the item changing and job system doesn't make much sense to me. Also the GBA's small screen gets in the way of figuring out which item/weapon is better. It sure it more convenient to play M&L. Still, 13 hours in-game, so the clock says. And the music reminds me of Final Fantasy XII, but of course FFTA came first.

And this morning was a little bit of Hexic HD (Xbox 360). Every time I get rid of a bomb I say "GTFO". It's stress relief.

All of this to resist the thought of new game purchases. Yeah right. I'm going out today and tomorrow. Let the money flow freely. :-)

Not just a Halo 3 weekend: Hexic HD

(tags game, FPS, Halo 3, puzzle, Hexic)

Playing that Halo 3 Heroic Pack online was pretty fun. I like the maps "Standoff" and "Rat's Nest", but "Foundry" is too confining. Plus I played VIP on it too many times, ugh. I spent some time on the Ranked Team Slayer playlists, just to get my rank up. I'm tired of looking at arrowheads, but I am a long way off yet.

But that's not all I did last weekend. I played a whole lot of Hexic HD as well.

Hexic was the only free game bundled with my Xbox 360, a "50 MB" Xbox Arcade game. It's one of those falling block, 3 color clear games. I didn't understand how to play at first, but things began to click "into place", aw yeah. In fact, I was able to topple the game's (synthetic) end goal of clearing 3 "black pearls".

I scored... Huh huh huh. This game is totally addictive.

So there's just a few more Achievements I think I can complete. The timed games though aren't my style.

Whenever I'm bored with my computer (while it's compiling or whatever), I'll play this again.

More finger exercising: Skewb, Pyraminx, and 7 days book

(tags Rubik's Cube, puzzle, book)

There is a reason why I scope Toys 'R Us every week. Puzzles, physical puzzles that don't require electricity, portable physical puzzles.

I saw some alternative rotation shape puzzles on Rubik's Cube no hoshi. I thought, yeah that's nice. But then I found them at the store, so I picked up the "Skewb" and "Pyraminx", but passed on the more complicated "Dekaminx". The Pyraminx reminds me of my time in walking around with the family at the old Swap Meet. You know, people selling knock off stuff that maybe isn't licensed for over-the-counter sale. Back then I had a toy similar to the Pyraminx but my patience broke and so did the toy.

Let's see if I fare any better at trying to solve these by myself.

And then, by chance on one of my blogrolls I saw a link to this book Rubik's Cube 7 Days Concentration Training: Mastering Speed Cubing (ルーブックキューブ7日間集中トレーニング～スピードキューブ完全マスター) by Katsuyuki Konishi (小西克幸) (ISBN 978-4-88380-677-5). It seems to be a distillation or embellishment of the author's free site Planet Puzzle. The author himself is the current vice president of the JRCA (Japan Rubik Cube Association, 日本ルービックキューブ協会の副会長), and holds a number of contest records in the previous years. Amazon showed it as sold out, but my local Junkudo had it FTW.

This book is more promising that a previous Rubik's Cube book I bought because it teaches the basics of speed cubing, like Finger ShortCuts (FSC) and the pros and cons of doing the first step "blue cross" on the top, bottom, or side. There's even a "before you go crazy on the cube, make sure to do this" section, which starts off with "practice every day, even just 5 minutes" and "don't give up" which is good. But then there's more suggestions like "make sure to keep in good touch with your family" and "eat three meals a day" and "sleep good", which sounds kinda wonky.

Basically this book teaches you the LBL method that all the other recent books and puzzle supplements explain. The latter parts of the book do show the same endgame 57 OLL positions and 21 PLL positions, but the notation is different. It is possible that the moves are different as well, because some of the basic moves in the F2L are heavy on the F, R and U faces, unlikemy previous tutorials. The author suggests to "remember at the hyphens" within the notation, which really is helpful. In short, there seems to be more meat to chew on here. Plus the book readily references the videos available at the original site, so those who can't grok the Rubik's Cube notation aren't left out in the cold.

BTW, my average Rubik's Cube times are still hovering around 60 to 80 seconds. I measure them during my lunch break, but I only consider a 12 cube run an official time so no stats for now.

Rubik's Cube Mania is back again

(tags game, puzzle, Rubik's Cube, stunt)

It has been quiet around here, only because I have been playing more Rubik's Cube than video games. We've got skills to develop like "how to get faster", moves to remember like Ryan Heise's "no memorization" solution, notation to remember like OLL and PLL, software to check out like Jelinek's Java Applet for the Rubik's Cube Animation (which is better than Lars Petrus's Java Applet) and Gabbasoft's free Windows-based simulator that supports from 2x2x2 to 20x20x20 (!), and also Ryan Heise's amazing Speed Version Rubik's Cube Simulator. This latter software is written as a Java applet but there are single-solves there that are faster than even the world record! You solve it using the keyboard, not the mouse.

I am working on trying to get faster at basic cube operations, for example, solving the first two layers (first two layers or F2L). Basically it seems like I'm working on the Fridrich method which is F2L, OLL (Orient Last Layer) and PLL (Permute Last Layer). Most of the official guides that are packaged with the Cube or found in a bookstore have explained this as "the" speedcubing way. In Japanese its called the Layer By Layer or LBL method (LBL法). At the end though, there is a daunting 57 position list that I have to memorize for OLL and 21 position list for PLL. This will take a couple of months. But as I said in the beginning I'm trying to concentrate on the Heise Method, which starts like F2L.

According to the book I recently bought about Rubik's Cube solving called Ketteiban atama wo kitaeru Rubik's Cube kanzen kaiseki! (決定版 頭を鍛える ルービックキューブ 完全解析！, ISBN 978-4-7966-5687-0), the method that I memorized from my childhood is called, in Japanese, the Tsukuda Method (ツクダ式). I don't what the name of it is in English, but it calls for solving the first layer then the third layer, and is heavy on center slice moves. This method is not good for speedcubing, but it is so simple that the book explains it without notation! Also it is not the Corners-First Solution Method. After 20 minutes of searching the Internet, I still cannot find a sample that explains it.

Currently I am walking to and from work with a Rubik's Cube in my left hand, practicing my moves without looking and trying to improve my dexterity. If I practice imagining a move set in my mind, perhaps I can speed up my brain. If I have my right hand free as well, then I practice F2L Heise. Even though I lubricated my cube before using it, I need to re-lube. Perhaps I should take more pictures of it. I think I need to go to the beach and dunk my cube in the sand. LOL

Almost bought a Revolution: Rubik's Cube fun

(tags puzzle, Rubik's Cube, game, Dual Screen)

No not a Wii, but the Rubik's Revolution. Luckily I read the box description after I noticed that it doesn't rotate. Then I read it: play 6 different modes of basically Simon Sez. That is not the mathematical wonder I found in the regular Rubik's Cube, so I didn't buy it. I can't believe I subscribed to the Rubik's Revolution blog for this.

On the same shelf there was an interesting new Rubik's Cube revision called the Speedcubing Kit (ルービックキューブ スピードキュービングキット). It is the regular 3x3x3 with almost the same decals but with removable face plates and screws with springs. It also comes with two screwdrivers and a "wax" for lubrication. Disappointed with the Rubik's Revolution, I bought that 2300 yen product instead. Here's a guy getting exciting with it: 「ルービックキューブ スピードキュービングキットがいい感じ（おばきい）」.

Also on the day I bought the Harry Potter (just 3 days ago, sheesh), I bought a mook-style Rubik's Cube solving book with big pictures. Perhaps I can learn about "speedcubing" though I doubt that remembering all the combinations will be easy. This book doesn't go in-depth into cubing, its just a set of instructions on how to solve it.

I also bought the Rubik's Cube and other famous puzzle games DS game (頭の回転のトレーニング ルービックキューブ＆超有名パズルたち). I tried it out and the control is horrible because of misinput. You would swipe your stylus intending one face rotation but it picks another face. Arg! When it works, it feels good, though. The devs put some effort into it with the sensible controls: L is keep viewpoint, D-pad is quick temporary cube swivel, R is undo, etc. You can set the handiness, so probably lefties will be able to grip and manipulate just as well. You can also play 2x2x2 all the way up to 6.x6x6. Crazy. I got 1 minute 50 seconds to do one layer, not fast at all.

And I just have the New Super Mario Bros. Rubik's Cube (NEW　スーパーマリオブラザーズ　ルービックキューブ) there to show off.

Slitherlink is not additive

(tags game, puzzle, Dual Screen)

My DS Lite has Slitherlink loaded. (I finished Sudoku Deluxe but I'll post that later). I find this game really frustrating in comparison to Sudoku. My best time for an easy puzzle is something like 01 minute 55 seconds. My worst time is 70 minutes. An easy puzzle is a 10 by 10 square.

I think the problem is that solving (guessing?) a part of the table doesn't add to solving the whole. You could be locally correct but it might not mesh with that part over there. Either than or I suspect I am used to the quicker validation in games like Sudoku.

Its thrilling to get a sub 4\ minute time, but then I tried a normal puzzle and the size of the board just scares me (18 x 10).

Slitherlink worming its way into my heart

(tags game, Dual Screen, puzzle)

I don't know why but I woke up in the middle of the night. I decided to try out Slitherlink because I thought it would be quick. I ended up playing 20 levels which took probably about an hour and a half. I am slow. Also I seem to be fighting the control scheme because either I mistap or the game misinterprets. I want the controls that mark the current box to be on the left (D-pad) instead of on the xyba buttons. I shouldn't have started it, but now that I have a taste I am trying to finish Sudoku Deluxe as fast as I can.

Here are my results for the first part, "introduction" (入門). Not very flattering.

Coming up empty: Lumines and Slitherlink

(tags game, Dual Screen, PlayStation Portable, puzzle, crack)

After the whole hubbub with the PSP demo crack for firmwares 3.10-3.50 on Sunday, I knew I should have gone to Sofmap quickly, but was only able to go today. And of course Lumines is nowhere to be found. Not that it would help, because even though the downgrader was announced, it only works with the EU and US versions.

Slitherlink was nowhere to be found either. I shouldn't buy it now, though, I still need to finish Sudoku 2.

Sudoku-killer? Slitherlink

(tags game, Dual Screen, puzzle)

When I mean "-killer" I mean just for me. I still haven't finished the Sudoku 2 for the DS. However this catchy post "Father of Sudoku says Slitherlink is the next big thing" by Joystiq is out there and it's got my purchase instincts started.

Slitherlink for the DS by Hudson

Game catchup: Puzzle Quest

(tags game, Dual Screen, hardware, puzzle)

I am only playing Puzzle Quest right now. I've been concentrating on beating the game, which means skipping optional stuff.

For a while there was one boss that was kicking me to the curb but I managed to clear it. Then from there it was smooth sailing. I think it's because I found a weapon that gives me extra damage because of my level and also I equip a ring that regenerates health. The enemies rarely regenerate health and they hit wimpy, so I am cleaning up.

Or I was until the final boss. That guy just owns me, with arbitrary spells and bonus. I ran away with my tail between my legs. I have no idea how I'm going to clear this guy, because frankly leveling up doesn't seem to do any thing.

There is part of the game that I am still unsure of, and that is the resistance points. How do I accumulate them and use them to my advantage?

I'm going to keep playing this game until I beat the end guy. It's proper.

How much 3 color-clearing games can I take? Puzzle Quest DS

(tags game, Dual Screen, puzzle, RPG)

I finally opened my copy of Puzzle Quest for the DS.

After a night and day of non-stop playing, I can say this game is alright. Certainly there's an inherent addiction to the puzzle part which is a lot like Bejeweled 2. But I've already played Bejeweled 2's Endless Mode for countless hours on my Sony Clie (Palm). Do I want to keep doing the same thing for this RPG-stat based game? One part of me says yes, the other part says no.

This game makes so much more sense on a touch-panel system instead of a D-pad system.

I am learning something new though. It was difficult for me to think ahead but now since my opponent is playing on the same puzzle as me, I must think about how the pieces fall and how not to give the good moves away.

This will be my commute game for this week. So long PSP, it was nice toting you.

So glad that I didn't buy Gripshift; Puzzle Quest for the DS

(tags game, Dual Screen, import, RPG, puzzle)

One of the themes of my trip to Akihabara was import gaming.

As I mentioned before, I was looking for Puzzle Quest for the Nintendo DS. I canvassed my regular haunts, Game Hollywood and Messe Sanoh Chaos but there was none to be found. Sure, there were plenty of copies of the PSP version, but who wants to play a Bejeweled clone with a DPad? Frankly I've already had enough time logged with my Palm version of the Bejeweled 2 to know the answer.

I kept my eye out, but still I didn't have any luck. Aso Bit City seemed to be very promising for import PC and console gaming, but they didn't have a copy. They did have some discounted games such as Gripshift for the PSP. (In the same bin there was a new import GBA Micro going for 2000 yen but I passed on it). I didn't know if this game was any good, and though 2000 yen is my insta-grab price, frankly I have enough to play with. So I waited to consult the Internet. My hotel had a free Internet terminal so "metacritic gripshift"... Given the comments, I decided to buy first thing on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning and there was no more copies.

On a chance that maybe I overlooked where they put the discount bin, I went to the store again at around 22:00 (no donuts, natch). But of course it wasn't there. However, Puzzle Quest was available!

I don't know why, but maybe they got a shipment late Sunday? In any case, score!

I'm not likely to open this game any time soon though, for reason I will reveal in another post.

Oh yeah, I already saw the video of some homebrew hacker giving himself the win with one touch.