Tags: playstation network, scott pilgrim, strategy guides, xbox live arcade

It looks like I’m almost done bashing my way through Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (not the movie), but I’ve obtained enough information to build a mini-guide for it…more specifically, what you can get in the shops. If you’re familiar at all with River City Ransom, you’ll probably remember the shops scattered around town where you could buy things like food, CDs and stuff to boost your characters’ energy. The SP game has shops like that too, which show up around the first five stages. There weren’t any in the sixth or seventh, probably because you can always go back to the other shops by selecting them on the World Map if you have enough money. The first version of the guide is ready in the Game Guides section, and I’m not waiting for it to be approved or rejected by the GameFAQs staff.

The best items to be found in the game are sold in a hidden shop by the underpass in the first stage. If you go to where the star is, you’ll enter a secret shop that sells items that boost your stats by ridiculous amounts. You probably won’t be able to afford them once you start playing the game, but once you get $100 or so, remember that shop. If you want to stand any chance against the final boss, you ought to pick up at least one of the “Bionic Arm“, “Never-ending Fantasy” or “Speedy the Porcupine” items. Some other good places to stop in the game are Flatirons Books (their books give great XP and single-stat boosts), Dee’s Tex-Men (for health recovery), and The Frying Tengu (a good mix of everything).

Filed under: Video Games by WillyFourEyes on August 20, 2010 - 3:44 PM
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Tags: announcements, breaking news, brett favre, minnesota vikings, nfl, retirement

We can finally shut up about the speculation over whether or not Brett Favre will play for the Minnesota Vikings this season. He came to practice today, and in a press conference that I didn’t watch because I was busy getting started on Ys VII, he says that after this season is over, he’s done-diddly-doodly-done for. This will be Favre’s 20th season in the NFL, and he seems to agree that that would be a good place to stop. He probably won’t get that last Super Bowl ring to end his career like John Elway did, but at least he’ll be able to retire knowing that he’s going into the Hall of Fame, and that he’s going to be the sole holder of several different passing records.

Filed under: Sports by WillyFourEyes on August 18, 2010 - 5:25 PM
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Tags: chrome, firefox, internet explorer, opera, programming, scripting, world of warcraft, xml, xslt

In an effort to keep my programming cred (because this computer science degree has to be good for something), I’ve gone through the trouble of trying to keep my game catalog data in XML, and styling it up to look like regular HTML. I got the idea from the WOW Armory, which, like the main site, uses XML sheets to display just about everything. In fact, I’ve been using XML instead of standard databases for three reasons:

1. As I mentioned before, I’m trying to hone my code-fu, and need to continue practing by scripting things by hand.
2. XML seems to take up less space than traditional databases, and I can use it to nest items.
3. Being able to actually see my data in a format where it can be useful is always a plus.

I’ve tested the results of my XML + XSLT combo in Internet Explorer 8, Forefix 3.6 and Opera 10.6, and it all seems to work fine under those three browsers. For reasons unknown, I get a completely blank page when viewing it in Chrome. The one fix I tried applying to get it to display properly (Javascript) hasn’t helped at all. I wouldn’t want to leave any potential Mac browsers in the dark, but I’m weary of reinstalling Safari on my computer because I know I’m going to get that nag screen every week to install other Apple produce I don’t use all that often, like Quicktime and iTunes. Until Google comes up with a fix that allows me to show XSLT content without any kind of hacks, I’ll have to abandon it being fully cross-browser compatible for now.

Filed under: Computers, Internet by WillyFourEyes on August 16, 2010 - 2:28 PM
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Tags: earthworm jim, finished

Earthworm Jim HD is now complete. As usual, I had most of my trouble getting through the last level, Buttville, because of those stupid bugs that hide in the darkness and come out waiting to snap Jim in half (which is an instant kill if they do). The only way to get past them is to keep moving as fast as you can. If you hesitate for even a second, they’ll get you.

There are a couple of bonus levels that are pretty much handed to you as you play the game (though I notice that the remake doesn’t have “Who Turned Out The Lights?” from the original games, but I’m not complaining). I’ve completed the first two, but I’ve yet to do this third, which is just a boss battle against Keyboard Cat. Yeah, I’m kinda confused about the whole thing, too, but considering how bizarre Earthworm Jim is as a game, it’s not totally unexpected.

Keep in mind that I completed this on HD’s “normal” difficulty setting. “Original” is supposed to be as hard as the original game was, though I don’t expect much to change except enemies deal more damage. I may actually have to play through it in one sitting…I beat this one over a few nights.

Filed under: Video Games by WillyFourEyes on August 13, 2010 - 5:36 PM
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Tags: demo, first impressions, playstation 3, psp, scott pilgrim, valkyria chronicles

So there was this big football game released yesterday…I’m sure you’ve heard of it. For those of you who haven’t contracted “Madden Fever” (or have built up an immunity to it over the years), the PlayStation Store has pushed out two noteworthy demos this week, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PS3) and Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP).

(more…)

Filed under: Video Games by WillyFourEyes on August 11, 2010 - 5:59 AM
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