CYBORG HAVEN UPDATE For August 24

The following item has been added to the list titled Video Games I Look Forward To:

• NiGHTS into Dreams…!!!!!!!!!

This is why:  Dreams Do Come True! SEGA Announces The Return of NiGHTS into Dreams...

I am so happy that I know I will be able to play NiGHTS into Dreams, even if it is going to be on my computer instead of a console.  I think it would be fun to play NiGHTS on my computer and use the mouse to point NiGHTS to the direction I want to go…at least that’s what I hope is going to happen.  I hope I don’t have to click the mouse for NiGHTS’s movement to count.   How do you play NiD with a video game controller, anyway?

 

If there is one PC video/computer game I’ll ever play, it’s going to be NiGHTS into Dreams.

MY JAK X: COMBAT RACING DISC HAS THE MEMORY CARD GLITCH

It happened.  Again.

And I found out I’m not the only one with this problem.  Many other players of Jak X: Combat Racing had this problem as well, preventing some of these guys from ever playing the game or forcing them to buy another copy.  I read the reviews for the game from Amazom.com, and then the Wikipedia page for Jak X to learn more.

I was one of those people who, for some games, HAD to get it soon after it was released in stores.  Jak X was one of these games.  I was excited about it being a nice change from the adventuring that was in the Jak and Daxter trilogy.  I’m not interested in ANY other racing game.  This game was the only racing game I would ever buy, because it had a story and the lovable, familiar characters I’ve come to know sharing the story together.

I played the game into 30% of its completion.  There were no saving problems.  Then, one day, after leaving the Garage part of the menu, the Save icon didn’t go away; it kept on flashing.  I went to the Stage Select screen and it was still flashing.  I played one race, and the entire time the Save icon still flashed non-stop.  I made a mistake of trying to save the game manually while the game was trying to save automatically, and it just froze up the progress.  I didn’t know what else to do; the only way to get out of it was to reset the game.  It corrupted my card, everything that was in there: Chaos Legion, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2, Jak 3, my progress for Jak X, Sonic Mega Collection Plus, all of it.  Finished games, gone.

So Tuesday I try Jak X again.  I got through the tutorial all right.  Then I finished one full race, in which I earned a Silver Medal on the first try.  Then after saving, I wanted to check the garage, since I got two new vehicles.  The game auto saved, even though I did not make any changes to the race car whatsoever.  And the Save icon kept flashing.  And kept flashing.  And kept flashing.  I stood up from my seat and paced around the room figuring out what to do.  I haven’t backed up the data from Jak and Daxter R2 and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier.   I was afraid I was going to lose data again.

Funny what happened though.  I tried to Load my profile to hopefully “counter” the stuck-on-auto-save mode.  I left it like that for over thirty minutes.  Nothing changed, and I had to reset the game or nothing else would happen.  But actually, when I browsed the data in the memory card, the data was still readable.   The first time Jak X corrupted my data, the data files in the memory card showed up as gray cubes and a verbal indication that the data was corrupted.  The PS2 did not recognize the memory card’s data and the icons for each game didn’t show up.

This time, the data icons DID show up:  for Jak and Daxter: TLF, Jak and Daxter, and Jak X.  It was a relief to see that two of the icons showed Daxter and Jak X had its title logo there.  I may have saved my game data from a horrible fate.

I would buy another copy of the game but I want to see if I can do what Wikipedia suggests for this particular “Memory Card Glitch.”  Keep the memory card out and just put it in when you want to save, and then save it manually from the Main Menu screen.  I wouldn’t mind doing that; the auto save feature just doesn’t help for this game exactly like it should, huh?

Meanwhile, if the data for Jak and Daxter: TLF is okay, I should back it up somewhere else and delete it from this memory card so that this glitch won’t happen again.

Here is the link to the Wikipeida page for Jak X: Combat Racing: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jak_X:_Combat_Racing

Go to the section that says “Autosave Memory Card Controversy” and read up on it.  If this happened to you, I suggest following the “workaround” advice.  It may be a bother, but at least you don’t have to go buy a new copy of the game, and you can keep your currently non-corrupted memory card.

I Want to Play Journey…

This video game is just something I don’t think I should miss out on.  Unfortunately it is a PlayStation Network game, not a console game, and I DON’T HAVE A PLAYSTATION NETWORK ACCOUNT.

I’ve known about Journey for a while, and when I first saw videos of it (E3 or some other program like that), I was mesmerized by the desert terrain and the music.  The video game is about a light-weight, cloth-garbed character (which you control) whose story is to go on a journey to reach the mountain with light behind it.  But it is far away.  You can choose how you can get him there; as straight-forward as you want, or stop from time to time to enjoy the sights, explore the terrain or remnants of a village.  You can go alone or if you find another traveler, you may make a companion out of him and journey together.  On PSN, it would be possible to find others playing at the same time, even several players at once.

What is interesting about this game is that there is no spoken dialogue… which is fine, because I think the game doesn’t require a scripted dialogue anyway.  I think it is still possible to communicate with the other travelers.  According to a comment about the video game’s soundtrack on iTunes, you may communicate with Morse Code if you are familiar with it.  This makes me want to learn Morse Code, just to be able to do this… or just because I’m curious.   It is another language to learn.  I mean another alphabet to learn.  Better not make that mistake.

There is hope yet.  I found out that there is a Journey soundtrack available in iTunes, and I put it in my wish-list already so I don’t have to find it later.  I listened to a few music tracks from this album and oh my goodness, the music is so beautiful, I just want to imagine myself travelling around a desert as the background music plays.  I decided to look up this game on Amazon.com and I discovered that there is going to be a video game collection for the PS3, called the Journey Collector’s Edition.  The description on the page says that it includes three full games from thatgamecompany : Journey, Flower, and flOw.  I hope this means that I can play this game without needing to have an account for Playstation Network.

Unless…that just means that whatever parts of the game that had to be downloaded are all included in the game, except—and this kinda breaks my heart—it still might be a one-player game after all if I don’t have the internet on the PS3.  If I wanted to experience other Journey characters, I would have needed to sign up for a PSN account and WiFi this and Internet that, and I just don’t want to deal with that mess.  That’s me, anyway.  So, it turns out that I might make this journey alone.  Hmmm.

I like journey stories.  I have a couple of novels that are journey stories, in which the main character or characters are on a journey to a certain destination, and events and emotions happen along the way that make them grow as a person, and be enlightened and even at peace.  I am drawn to that kind of stuff.  Even Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was a journey, in a way.  It was certainly an adventure.  So the video game Journey is—what can I say—the very journey game I’ve been waiting for?

You can find a trailer of Journey Collector’s Edition on this Amazom.com webpage.  It is located under the image for the product.   Here's the link: Journey Collector's Edition

Cyborg Haven Update May 7th

The following items have been added to the list titled Video Games I’ve Yet to Finish.  They are:

 

• Sonic Generations (PS3)
• Mega Man X8 (with the REAL ending)

Currently I am playing Mega Man X8 on Normal Mode, with the Force Metals I had left over from Easy Mode.  I play the intermission stage for the snowy stage a lot, as a way to get more and more Force Metals and get more upgrades the three Maverick Hunters will need for the rest of the game.  I always choose Axl for that stage since he has non-stop bullets.

So yeah, apparently there’s this “other ending with Lumine” that others keep mentioning and my sister really wants to see it.  So…I’m gonna try to finish MMX 8 in Normal Mode, and see if that does anything.  We certainly didn’t get this special ending in Easy Mode.

Dreamed About a NiGHTS 3!!! (April 30th)

There was an ad in the form of a sticker that showed a pink-haired boy and brunette girl, with NiGHTS flying above them.  It was hard for me to believe but soon I hoped that there is going to be another sequel for NiGHTS.  I didn’t recognize those two perfect dreamers so I got excited (and genuinely felt so in the dream) that this was going to be a new NiGHTS video game yet to be released.

Oh, boy, do I wish it were for real!!

The weird thing was that, it was in my mom’s car, on her dashboard.  I had to ask her where she found that sticker.  I went on and explained what this game was about; every 100 years there are two perfect dreamers and they can only be young people.  They help out NiGHTS to save the dream world (Nightopia).  I spoke to her about the game with great passion.

I don’t remember if Reala was also going to be in the game or not.   I don’t think another NiGHTS game would be complete without Reala.

Jak 3 on April 26th

After about a couple of years, I resumed my second play-through Jak 3.  I finally got back to the mission where Jak and Damas were breaking through the ruins to get to the catacombs.  Jak has to break down these small blue towers to open the force-field doors.  It would usually take two or more to turn off the force field.  This mission was frustrating because I had to have Jak watch out for the Dark Precursors shooting at his vehicle, AND the missiles landing near or on him if I wasn’t careful.  I played through this game once already; I wasn’t going to just stop there when I knew there would only be two more missions left after this.  This was near the end of the game!

The mission after that featured riding through the catacombs in these yellow cars.  The mission is short but there are obstacles abound in this stage.  It took me a while and many of Jak’s deaths to realize that I can shoot at the obstacles so they won’t damage the car Jak rides in.  There are also two lasers that go around in a circle; these can take out half of the catacomb vehicle’s energy (or another way to put it is, it damages the car so much that two or three hits will totally destroy the car.  That happened to me twice and then I thought, “Oh, so that‘s what happens when I touch those lasers.  Okay Jak, stay away from those completely!”

The mission in the catacombs was shorter than I remembered, but as short as it was, there was so much trial and error to utilize until I got through the course.   Next is the scene/plot, and then the final mission: to destroy this…big…spider-crossed-with-a-dinosaur robot thing that Cyborg Errol rides into the Wasteland desert and towards the city of Spargus. 

Huh…Cyborg Errol…maybe I should write a short post about him in Cybernetic Dreams.

It was so funny, I was at the final FINAL boss of the game, and then I had to start from the beginning of this last mission…and then I was told that dinner was ready.  F@#K!  XD   Oh well, at least I just had that one more mission to go.  I’d have to finish it another time.

Edit:  Finished Jak 3…Again ^_^  April 29th

I watched the last scenes of the game like it was for the fisrt time.  I lost the data to this game when I accidentally corrupted my PS2 memory card that had Jak 3’s data.  That was back in 2006.  Now it’s been five and a half years and I watched it again and was in awe with how the story wrapped up.

Returning to Mega Man X8, April 7th

A certain someone wanted me to return to playing Mega Man X 8.  I wanted to play Sonic Generations, or at least give Sonic Unleashed another try.  But I went to MMX 8 instead, and it turned out to be a productive session of the game.

It was good to listen to the music from the game again as I was playing either Zero or Mega Man X and my favorite of the three, good ol’ gunslinger Axl.  The familiarity of the gameplay was actually relaxing, and in no time at all I remembered the game controls (except for the all-important Team Attack thing, I forgot for half the session that it was the L2 button that triggered that.)  Here are the goals I accomplished:

ü  Bamboo Pandamonium

ü  Gravity Antonion

ü  Arm Parts H

ü  Zero’s Fan Weapon/Shield

What’s So Great About Twisted Metal X????

I know, I can’t just criticize this game without having played any of it.   But I don’t understand what is great about this video game.  Does it have a story?   Is there an actual point to the game other than just riding on cars or motorcycles and committing crimes or killing other drivers?

Let’s look at another combat car game, Jak X: Combat Racing.

In my opinion, even though Jak X was a video game in a combat racing genre, at least Jak X had a story.  Jak and his buddies drink beverages that were poisoned without their knowing until it was too late.  In order to get the antidote for the poison, they had to win race after race, and try to survive all the while.   Winning to get the antidote is a very good motivation for the heroes’ racing.  There is a ticking clock.

What does Twisted Metal X do?  It’s just pure combat and killing and destroying.  There is only a vague idea of what happened to the world, and so the characters (if there even are protagonists here) deal with it by combat driving.  And who likes murderous clowns?  I don’t. 

I’m sorry, I just don’t like video games where the only point to the gameplay is destroying things and extinguishing lives.  Count in committing crimes.  It’s why I have absolutely no interest in playing any of the Grand Theft Auto video games.

Playing Sonic Generations: City Escape Act 1 !!!!!

I returned to Sonic Generations and, I was excited about having another opportunity to feel nostalgic about something that came from the SEGA Sonic games.  And I gotta say, during this session the one that had the most nostalgic impact on me was Act 1 of City Escape.  It was quite the experience playing as Classic Sonic in City Escape, considering it is Classis Sonic in a Modern Sonic stage.   I love the Act 1 version of the City Escape song, and it has SEGA Genesis Sonic-game musical elements in it.  What blew me away was that the beginning of the second verse of the song had a different but familiar melody to it—one of the songs from the 2-Player mode in Sonic 3.   Hardcore Sonic the Hedgehog fans who’ve played the old Genesis titles will recognize it and get a kick out of this!   I certainly did J

 Songs I Unlocked:

ü  Green Hill Zone (Original)

ü  Emerald Hill Zone

ü  Sonic Boom

ü  PalmTree Panic

ü  [First Stage music from Sonic Spinball]

Stages I Beat

ü   Challenge: Sky Sanctuary Doppleganger Race

ü  Defeated Boss

ü  City Escape: Act 1 and Act 2

ü  Partner Challenge: Amy’s Piko Piko Hammer (helps Sonic do high jumps)

I left off at the Sonic Heroes first stage, Act 2.  Boy is it difficult! Most of the time when Sonic loses lives, it is because he falls into the water.  Okay, I can’t help making Sonic run faster than my brain can process and lose control of him, to the point where I don’t realize he’s doomed until it happens.  It does get frustrating, but I’ll get through it.  I just need fresh fingers, which means I need to start playing the game with this stage.

Playing Sonic Generations for the first time

So I finally finally finally started playing Sonic Generations last week and I gotta say, it blew me away as much as Sonic Unleashed did.   To elaborate, I had so much fun I could play on it for hours if I didn’t need to eat :D  The nostalgia factor was very strong; though of course it was different playing classic Sonic in a very 3D version of Green Hill Zone.  The colors in the game are very beautiful, of course…

I love how the music for Act 1 of the Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and Sky Sanctuary zones stayed true to their versions and were given only a slight face lift (or “sound-lift,” if you will).  Then for Act 2 of the zones, the music is made for the modern, green-eyed Sonic, and those versions of the songs aren’t all that bad.  I especially really like the Act 2 edition of the Chemical Plant Zone music.  As for the classic/Act 1 editions of music, the Sky Sanctuary Zone Act 1 is my favorite so far.

Another cool thing I noticed was that in the Chemical Plant Zone, in either Act when Sonic falls into the purple water, the zone music sounds as if you really are underwater.  It’s neat; it like letting you know that you are in the water and need Sonic to get to a big bubble or reach the surface for air.  What other video game even does that?!  It’s jenius! (I spelled the word “genius” with a “j” :D ).

The voice acting is okay.  I am not going to make a big deal out of the voice acting.  I dunno why some people have a problem with Sonic’s voice.

There are trophies for Sonic Generations too!  I’ve never earned a Trophy in my PS3 before (because I hardly play on it, besides Devil May Cry 4 where I’m stuck.  I don’t know if that video game even has trophies).

Classic Sonic doesn’t talk.  That is okay, you know why?  Classic Sonic never talked.  So it makes sense to me that he doesn’t say a word, and we players rely on his facial expressions and actions to read him.

Stages I’ve Completed

ü  Green Hill Zone, Act 1 and Act 2

ü  Chemical Plant Zone, Act 1 and Act 2

ü  Sky Sanctuary Zone, Act 1 and 2

ü  Sonic vs. Metal Sonic: The first Chaos Emerald

ü  2 Challenges = 2 Boss Keys

Where I left off: I am about to get the third Boss Key.

"Dumb Running Sonic" on Tumblr

Every time I see this website, there is always a funny GIF of Sonic to laugh at.  The great thing is, no one has to be a great artist to draw and animate Sonic the Hedgehog running like an idiot.  He could even be as abstract as a stick figure or crudely drawn animal, as long as he’s blue or is an animal with spikes.  I’ve laughed hard enough to get sick to my stomach, these animations are so funny.  I’d try a hand at this myself if I had a Tumblr account.  Thanks to NiGHTS into Dreams.com’s  TRiPPY on Facebook for sharing the Tumblr page, Dumb Running Sonic.  I don’t think I would have found out about this website myself. 

www.dumbrunningsonic.tumblr.com/

Getting Sonic Generations for the Holidays, plus Sonic Unleashed

As it turned out, I got Sonic Generations for the holidays.  And look at me, I haven’t even finished Sonic Unleashed, or even played any of Sonic Colors, for that matter (I don’t have that one).

That been said, after having played with NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for a little while, I switched to Sonic Unleashed to revisit the game that I haven’t resumed since October 29, 2009.  I had to get used to the controls of the game again because all these weeks I’ve only been playing either Final Fantasy Dissidia or Dissidia Duodecim.

I left off when Sonic needed to return to Adabat to complete a few Night Stages.  This was the one with the whirlpools that moved wooden platforms around that Sonic kept missing and falling into water he can’t swim in.  After a few more fails and losing a bunch of lives until I had maybe three left, I realized that when Sonic grabs onto the green poles, he doesn’t need to jump…he just has to drop down onto the platform (raft?), provided I time the move right.

It was the first time I tried Sonic Unleashed on the HDTV set.  Sonic Unleashed was a little too HD for me at this point considering that the Nintendo Wii was a next gen video game console (now a current gen console) that would go great with an HDTV.  But this game has really beautiful colors and animations.

NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on Christmas Day

Welcome to the New Year of 2012, everyone!  ^__^

It was Christmas so I figured if I played NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on Christmas Day there would be something Christmas related in the game, like I found out for the original NiGHTS into Dreams.  I tried it and unfortunately there was no Christmas-garbed NiGHTS in the game at all.   I was a bit disappointed, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to enjoy the game.  I started playing with the Chase Mission stage in Aqua Garden, the very first Nightopia I visited when I first played this game in June 2008.  No Christmas-garbed NiGHTS there either.  I got a C rating in the stage, which was lower than the B I got as my best score.

So next I went to My Dream.  And the Christmas NiGHTS version of Jingle Bells, titled “Dream Bells,” was playing in the background.  It was snowing, SNOWING in My Dream, for the first time.   I squealed with delight because I had recently given myself a chance to listen to the soundtrack to Christmas NiGHTS, and I recognized the song and was overjoyed!!  All of my Nightopians were wearing red Christmas hats in the spirit of the holiday—all 34 of them.  And they were singing along with the Dream Bells song, but just the first three notes, though.  Man, I wish I got this all on tape but I didn’t.  My camcorder’s battery wasn’t fully charged, which must be why I didn’t think about doing that.   A bunch of them were singing loudly and it almost drove me nuts!  Every once in a while I had Helen run to a quiet area with another Nightopian to get away from all that noise.  Cute, but annoying.  Some of them rode on sleighs, or played soccer, but most of them were close to musical boxes and singing, singing, and singing.

Next I played an Octopaw stage in the same Nightopia, Aqua Garden.  I was out of practice so I did terrible, got discouraged and stopped that.  So then I went to Helen's Sketchbook, and I love the version of "Dreams Dreams" that plays as I look at the concept art and sketches.  I stayed in Helen's Sketchbook for twenty minutes or more just to listen to the music.  So nice.