Starmen.Net

It’s that time of the year, to look back at where we’ve been… at least when it came to gaming… as well as look ahead.

This upcoming Monday night (the day after Christmas) is when Gerritt, Ben, and myself will be recording our next final podcast of this year. And everyone’s input is definitely appreciated, for one last hurrah for 2011; feel free to share you favorite games of the past 12 months, along with any other notable game related moments, revelations, accomplishments, and headlines.

Also, any predictions for 2012? Note: we might save that for the next episode… BUT, what we’re mostly looking for everyone’s gaming new year’s resolution!

And as always, we always love playing voicemails, live on the air. Speaking of which, the upcoming podcast will also be simulcast via live-stream! No exact time has been set, but I’m assuming it’ll be around 9 EST/6 PST. Myself or one of the guys will be back with more info once we’ve figured something else out (or simply keep an eye out on our Twitter handle).

As for a ‘gaming resolution,’ I resolved last year that I would finally clear Solstice – the biggest skeleton in my closet. I didn’t even play it, it’s so hard to find a block of time to dedicate to it. So I’m going to resolve to clear Solstice again. And this time I’m slightly serious in a non-serious way.

Most of my fresh gaming in 2011 was for old games, mainly PSX. But I did pick up my two personal grails – E.V.O. and Ogre Battle both for SNES, so they win the year by default for me. I had my first playthroughs of FFIX, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, and Skullmonkeys – all of which I adored. It’s kind of been discovering the side of the fence I missed sticking with Nintendo as a kid. I picked up a Twin Famicom so I’ve been playing a lot of imports (such as the wonderful Otocky), and finally scored a copy of ToeJam & Earl for myself. So contemporary gaming has mostly been an afterthought for me.

My gaming resolution is to tackle one or more Game Clubs completely in 2012. I love listening to Game Club podcasts, even if I’m not playing through the game at hand. Game Club was what got me into Chrono Trigger, which now regularly switches places with Ocarina of Time as my favorite game of all time. Who’s to say that won’t happen again?

My gaming resolution is to also finish games that I start and to play more new games. I’m beginning to realize that I have a whole drawer of games that are only half-finished, and many of those games are on the Gamecube and earlier; there aren’t that many that are new.

My favorite game of the year probably has to be Link’s Awakening; if there wasn’t a Game Club for it, I wouldn’t have played it. Not only was it a great game, but it showed the depth that can be found in games. Some of the theories and such that were posted in the thread completely changed how I viewed it. Now, with subsequent games, I feel the need to dig deeper to find the reasons behind things.

A somewhat notable headline is the Zelda timeline that was revealed recently in the “Hyrule Historia” art book. It doesn’t exactly impact the gaming industry, but it’s a nice to finally have the convoluted Zelda history organized.

My gaming resolution for 2012 is to finish my Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei – Demon FAQ for GameFAQs. I started this last year when I had a kick to start contributing again, but right now I’m barely halfway through the first game. This wouldn’t be taking me so long if it weren’t for the fact that: a. I need to grind to figure out most of the fusions and b. there is SO MUCH DATA. 32KB and going strong!

I’ve got a few gaming resolutions for the new year, the most notable of which is to beat all the Zelda games ever, minus the CD-i versions, because those are stupid. I’ve beaten Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, Twilight Princess, and almost Skyward Sword, but there are some other minor titles that I want to clean up. Looking forward to that excursion.

On a completely unrelated note, I want to get Ayla to Lv. 99 in Chrono Trigger. I’ve got this New Game+ file with her at Level 91 that’s just gathering dust, so I want to see if I can get the Iron Fist or whatever it is once and for all. Can’t really feel complete without doing that.

I need to beat Hell in Cave Story. It’s always been an ambition of mine, and I always come really close, but never seem able to do it. I’m making progress, but not as much as I’d like. I used to always die on Heavy Press, even after using my Life Pot. Finally, I’m past that stage, but I just can’t seem to beat the third form of…um…the final boss. Bleh. That’s
something to get done. I really want to learn just how the story ends.

Somewhat-gaming-related is Pokemon Online, a battling simulator that started out as a hobby and quickly grew into an obsession. Now I’ve got metagame on the mind, and it’s not gonna leave me alone until I get that number one ranking on the beta server. I’ve hit as high as #2 before, but can never seem to take that final leap into the top slot. Seeing as I’m currently sitting at fifth, maybe that resolution/goal isn’t too far off…

And finally, I gotta buy a 3DS. Who knows, maybe that’ll happen before the new year (Christmas, anyone?), but I just know I’ve got to get my hands on one of those. I ignored it when I had the money in April, instead opting for a trip to VGC 2011 (yeah, more Pogeymanz). Now that decent titles are finally being released for the handheld, it’s time to pick one up. Can’t wait for Snake Eater 3D.

Well, those are my new year’s resolutions. I guess I’m in for an eventful 2012.

Edit: Where might one send Fangamer a voicemail?

Not necessarily my game of the year, but one thing I realized this year thanks to Game Club is just how much I like Cave Story. It’s one of those games that I can play over and over again and never get tired of it. I got Cave Story 3D for Christmas and that’ll make my third playthrough of the game this year since (and including) Game Club.

Gaming resolution for 2012:

Finish Okami.

I’ve been working on it ever since it was released for Wii, but unfortunately, I got bored with it about 1/3 or 1/4 (I thought I was a lot further along, but apparently there’s more. I hear it’s an 80 game. )

Favorite games of 2011? I haven’t finished Portal 2, so I can’t say that, so I’ll go with Deus Ex. I loved that game, absolutely loved it. I played through it twice, once non-lethal, and the other stealth, and I have to say that even though I loved the first play-through, I loved it even more when I played it on Hard in stealth. It was the first game I felt that I was actually good at it. It took patience and strategy, and I just loved waiting for an opening to be able to sneak past those guards.

(Despite it being my favorite game, I do have to acknowledge that I did not like the ending(s) at all. Everything else was so well done (yeah, I know, boss battles), but the ending had nothing good to it)

I also enjoyed Uncharted 3, most particularly the desert scene, when Drake is so lost. However, I still think Uncharted 2 is my favorite in the series.

I know this isn’t a 2011 game, but I played Heavy Rain for the first time this year. I loved how different it was, despite it’s controls being sh****t. My favorite moment there was when my favorite character, Scott Shelby, ended up being the origami killer. I know it was so obvious for other people, but I was really surprised! I liked him so much, how bad ass he was; I felt betrayed

I played inFAMOUS 2 this year, but did not enjoy it as much as the original (which I also played for the first time this year, right before I got inFAMOUS 2). Cole’s VA annoyed me, and I didn’t really care about either Nix or Kuo (especially Kuo). But it did have a moment at the end that really got me if you played evil when you had to kill Zeke. It was really hard for me to do it, and I couldn't at first.

Predictions? No, because I suck at them, but I do hope Quantic Dream comes out with another game. If they fixed the control issues in Heavy Rain, and did a new/different story, it would be amazing.