Progress 10/12

I put Suikoden 4 in the Playstation 2. The story began in earnest last session, so I'm intrigued to see where it will go next. I'm back in the main headquarters in Razril, and after I leave my apartment, my scaredy-cat friend Snowe joins up with me, he wants to get medicine for the Commander, who was hurt. He wants me to join him.

Okay, I'll do it.

Along the way, people praise me and rank on Snowe. HAHA. I mean, hey, stop insulting my friend! We buy the medicine and I get some other supplies. Then we head back to base. Snowe excuses himself and I bring the medicine and dinner from the kitchen to the Commander's room. He compliments me for my actions in the recent battle, but then his arm starts all glowing from the rune he's now stuck with. I...er...excuse myself from the room before I get disintegrated. Yeeaaaah.

I head outside and BOOM! The Pirates assault the area! What the! Snowe takes command of a ship and I take command of another one.

SEA WARFARE COMBAAAAT!

Its our two ships against two pirate ships. Its a good fight, and in the end, we win! We smoosh them! Cut scene: The pirates start to flee, but Snowe breaks rank and chases after them, because he's overcompensating despite his own men telling him its a bad idea.

The pirates turn around and are about to destroy his dumb ass when I come to his rescue, and the pirates turn around and flee again.

We get called to the Commander's room. He compliments me for my actions and gives Snowe another right cross to the face and yells about teammwork. We leave the room and a bitter Snowe yells at me for getting all of the credit again. Then he apologizes and wanders off.

I go save the game. This is a story progression checkmark!
_______________________________________________________________________
Gran Turismo!  Time for a little race car action. I start off by acquiring the second B-1 License, which is stopping in time in a zone, this time in a faster, heavier car than in the first license acquisition. It takes me five times, I earn a Bronze. I decide that's good enough.

Time to go race. I try out the second track in the Beginner's League, but there are too many quick turns for my poor Miata to handle, and I am into the wall lots of times in the practice runs. So I head out of this, I'll need to buy handling upgrades before I can do it, and that'll take some victories in the first track.

A nice three lap race, and while I am challenged in the second lap, for the most part its smooth sailing for my first victory in this game. That's $1,000.00 for winning. I need about $3,500 before I can upgrade the handling, so obviously I'll be in this track for awhile.

That's a checkmark.
____________________________________________________________________
Time for some space strategy: Master of Orion 3! During the session, which encompasses about 20 turns, I encounter scout ships from three races, and discover where two of them have settlements. Unfortunately, I cannot communicate with races until I have a colony no farther than 2 solar systems away, and while I do establish two more colonies during this round, neither of them are close enough to establish contact.

Bah!

I develop some nice technologies including Extraction Mining, which allows me to go deeper into a planet's crust, thus increasing my mineral gains in Mining structures that use it. Nice. I also advance my nuclear warheads during this round, and create bases, system defense ships, and spaceships that use the new missiles.

Most of my planets are still in early development phases, so I can't put together a fleet yet. Its much more important to focus on planetary defenses early in case some alien race gets frisky.

Anyway, an hour played. That's a checkmark.
______________________________________________________________________

The Scoreboard for Round 3:

EPIC - OTHER GENRES 5 of 6 defeated

Kingdom Hearts - 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 3
Mercenaries - 2 (Super Long Ace Mission!)
Rogue Galaxy - 3
Star Ocean - 3
Xenosaga - 3
____________________________________________________________

Round 4 Scoreboard:

MIND TEASERS: 1 of 6

Chess Titans - 3
Gabriel Knight - 3
Mahjong Titans - 3
Sherlock Holmes - 3
Spider Solitaire - 4
World Series of Poker - 3 (I'm broke! Need to win in some cash games)

STRATEGY: 1 of 6
Civilization 4 - 3
Gladius - 3
Master of Orion: 4
Space Empires - 3 (45 minutes played)
Suikoden Tactics - 3
World of Mixed Martial Arts - 3

SHOOTER: 1 of 6
Crysis - 3
Fallout 3 - 4
Killzone - 3
Medal Of Honor - European Assault: 3  (5 sub-missions makes for a tough scenario)
Ring of Red - 3
Star Wars Battlefront - 3

PURE ACTION: 1 of 6
Devil May Cry - 3 (Which way do I go? Huh? Huh? Huh?)
God of War - 3
Gran Turismo 3 -  4
Madden Football - 3
Soul Reaver 2 - 3
Soul Caliber - 3

SWORD SLASHERS - 1 of 6
Champions: Return to Arms - 4
Dark Cloud - 3
Drakengard - 3
.Hack Infection - 3
 Oblivion: Elder Scrolls - 3
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams - 3

EPIC - FANTASY - 1 of 6
Dragon's Age Origin - 2
Dragon's Quest 8 - 3
Final Fantasy 12 - 3 (Level Grinding in Progress)
Suikoden 3 - 3
Suikoden 4 - 4
Suikoden 5 - 3 (Level Grinding in Progress)

EPIC - OTHER GENRES Locked
Kingdom Hearts - 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 3
Mercenaries - 2
Rogue Galaxy - 3
Star Ocean - 3
Xenosaga - 3

ROCKSTAR MISSION BASED - 0 of 6
Assassin's Creed - 3
GTA: Liberty City Stories - 3
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - 3
Manhunt 2 - 3
The Warriors - 3
Urbz - 3

GAMES THAT GOT THE BOOT DUE TO SUCKAGE

STRATEGY
1) Europa Universalis III

SWORD SLASHERS
1) Shadows of Rome

SHOOTERS
1) Freedom Fighters