Thursday 30 January 2014

Game Diary: 30/01/2014

So after a few days of me getting some important shit sorted I finally sat down and played some games even though I still don't really feel like it.

International Superstar Soccer 2 (Gamecube)
The great thing about having a console bias is that you will play the shit no one else would dare play now. ISS 2 is outdated, it's old, it isn't anywhere near as good as Konami's classic Pro Evolution Soccer games but I can't deny that there is full to be had with the game still.
The difficulty curve is poorly tuned, you have 3 difficulty settings, the lowest gets you silly results like 8-2 wins and the medium difficulty gets you loads of draws and 0-1 losses, I'd hate to play the game on hard. I think I wrote a mini review of this once for a project that never got going, let me see if I still have it.
No I don't so I'll just have to go over my problems with the game again. ISS 2 is like playing football in slow motion on the default speed setting, only after you turn it up does it feel playable and even then it feels way too simple and fails to do the things you want out of a football game. The passing is a huge problem, most games pass to whoever is near to the direction you are facing, not ISS 2, it targets a player automatically and you have to wait for the game to change targets before you pass otherwise you end up passing to the wrong player and running your play, it's a huge shame really because had it not been for issues like that ISS 2 would have been a really good game. All things said I really like the main menu music.

Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business (PC)
This is really hard and the levels are creeping the hell out of me for some reason, I think it is the effect of the higher difficulty + creepy Egypt level revisited + more monsters = scarier than the original. I know calling Tomb Raider scary seems a bit silly but the game just piles on atmosphere and is really good at making you feel isolated. There are only 4 levels in Unfinished Business but they are really big, much better than the levels in the original game. That 50p Tomb Raider cost me is really going far.

Animal Crossing (Gamecube)
They couldn't keep him down. Today I finally completed my T-Rex at the museum which only leaves me with 4 bones left to find. Tom Nook went and stocked a gigantic UFO which I obviously bought. Tomorrow is raffle day and I have like 100 tickets to use.

Monday 27 January 2014

Game Diary: The 72 Hour Charity Marathon Weekend 24/01/2014-27/01/2014

So I've had a busy weekend, long story short the Video Game League at my University did a charity event where people played games non-stop for 72 hours, obviously I didn't do this because I actually value my health. So with a weekend dedicated to games there were a lot of game playing as you would imagine. My entire weekend was spent in this one place besides when I'd sleep, it was entirely dedicated to playing games, games like:

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Xbox)
So I read an online FAQ on how the secret factor works and I discovered I could get easy game points buy playing multiplayer matches, you can get a good 3000+ points in about 10 minutes work. I originally planned to do a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament but in the end all my plans went to waste because it turns out people would rather go and do their own thing, their own thing being spending the entire day playing Injustice and League of Legends, fair enough. Anyway I'm almost done with Marvel now, I only need Magneto and I'm done.
It's not all good news though, I played so much Marvel vs Capcom over the weekend that I broke one of the arcade sticks I bought for my Original Xbox, the joysticks now only goes left 50% of the time, what a massive waste of £15.

Capcom vs. SNK 2 (Xbox)
Had a quick play, lost interest very quickly when I realised no one gave a fuck about the fighting game tournaments I had set up, all that money I spent on Xbox fighters were a bit of a poor investment really.

Skullgirls (PC)
I played most of my fighting games but they couldn't keep my interest I guess I wasn't feeling it. I haven't talked about Skullgirls before, it's easily the best independently made fighting game out there by a mile. The hand drawn characters and Marvel vs. Capcom-esque. I put money down on getting the first DLC character, at full price no less because I though there would be a tournament for the game, it's not all bad though, if you own the game already the remaining DLC characters that are due to be released are free.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012 (PC)
Played this a few times over the weekend only one I really remember is when I played a few vs games on another persons PC. I got to hold some expensive sticks, one guy had bought a Street Fighter IV TE stick that had an octagonal gate fitted in, the thing is massive, has some weight to it and the buttons feel really good to press. Another guy has a SE stick that had been modded to have the same parts as the TE I had tried, not as big but still felt solid. One last stick I tried was an un-modded wireless Tekken 6 stick for the Xbox 360, it felt a bit thin compared to other sticks. Personally I'm happy to stick to my Hori EX2 even if it is a bit cheap.
Anyway I had matches against 2 people, one guy didn't play much, the other did and I could only beat him when playing as E.Honda, this guy was the one who owned the TE stick but he was playing with a pad which can only mean he is better than me.

Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (PC)
I've played this so much on my own that I'm starting to slowly learn how to play as the other characters. What I have learned since I last played Guilty Gear: Baiken is an awesome character for Dust aerial combos, the only character I've found to be better is Robo-Ky and that's only because of his daft helicopter-head move.

Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (PC)
The more I play this the more I warm to it, I doubt I'll ever warm up to Blazblue to the same level I warmed to Guilty Gear but I'm still enjoying it. I finally beat the arcade mode and moved onto the Score Attack mode which is a lot harder.

Yatagarasu (PC)
Had a go on this while I was still in the fighting game mood, all I can say is I'm really looking forward to when the sequel comes out because while Yatagarasu is a very good 3rd Strike-a-like it is still very basic with a very small character roster. I'd say get it but I'd say just wait for the sequel.

Worms Armageddon 1999 (PC) and Worms 2: Armageddon (PC and Xbox 360)
So the Gaming League did a Worms tournaments on the first night, so many people took part that we ended up putting on as many Worms games on as possible. I'll just give a quick summary of my tournament.
Game 1 (Armageddon 99): Came to a 1-on-1 situation where my opponent drowned his last worm trying to Ninja Rope across the map.
Game 2: Won fairly comfortably after my opponent teleported his last worm onto a small bit of bridge containing two item boxes, my horming missile took care of him.
Game 3: I had a Justin Wong moment and came back from a 3-on-1 to win after my opponent Ninja Roped into a mine which sent his last worm flaying into water. I celebrated with a very loud scream of "Justin Wong".
Game 4: My first turn was a massive fuck up, I used a bunker buster on my own worm thinking I was the blue team. What followed was a slow match with a lot of attempts to out smart each other, in the end he made the mistake of teleporting his second worm to the top of the map allowing me to using a homing missile to take it out, the opponents last turn saw him stuck because of a sentry gun I had placed to stop him getting to my Worms, the following turn Sudden Death was invoked and with two worms to one I charged a grenade and did the one HP damage needed for the game.
Final: It was pretty late in the night by the time this match took place, I can't remember what happened in the match but I know two things: 1) My opponent came up from the losers bracket and claimed he had played eight matches to reach the final, 2) I beat him and won the tournament.
I wasn't that interested in entering but I still won the tournament, I had luck on my side that day.

Animal Crossing (Gamecube)
Played this on Friday, got the Model Lighthouse from the Mayor for turning the Lighthouse on every week, I haven't played the game since.

No More Heroes (Wii)
I haven't played this in a while. I started a run on Bitter difficulty, I am out of practice, this used to be easy for me but now I find myself being beaten by Destroyman. My wiimote is showing its age, the sound effects are no longer coming out of the speaker meaning I can no longer listen to the phone calls you get before each chapter, shame that.

DOOM (PC)
I got sick of Fighting games in the end and decided to play this beast. I had a played though of Episode 1 on Ultra Violence, I've played though it before so I beat it pretty easily. Episode 2 was much harder but I got to the Cyber Demon in the end, what an Awesome boss, the boss itself isn't anything amazing but the build up towards that confrontation and the feeling of victory over the Cyber-Demon feels great. Episode 3 of Doom is crazy, like every Episode you start over with just the pistol which is an issue when your weaker and all the enemies are stronger. Episode 3 Mission 2 is crazy hard and I am actually proud of myself for beating it with a pistol start.

Tomb Raider (PC)
Tomb Raider is super outdated but it's still a really good game that does a lot of things better than most modern games do. It is a huge how in the year 2014 the 1996 Lara Croft feels like a really strong positive female character, I guess aging graphics and her pointy triangle tits help shake off the negative image thing. I finally managed to complete Tomb Raider after starting it last year, I found the ability to save whenever you wanted in the PC version helped a lot. I do think this game gets underrated a bit now, a lot of people look at the tank controls and are put off but in a way I think they are a necessary evil in what makes Tomb Raider what it is. You can bash the controls and combat mechanics all you like but the level design is really under appreciated, each level feels like a fresh challenge, there isn't a level in the game that doesn't test you in some way. The game has a really good atmosphere and feeling of isolation, at times it can even feel horror-esque. For a game that consists of exploring underground areas Tomb Raider still manages to feel varied and imaginative, the environments are not just obstacles they are part of the experience and that is a great thing.
I think I paid about 50p for the Steam Version so at 15 hours played I sure got a bargain.

Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business (PC)
I jumped straight into this expansion pack after I finished off Tomb Raider, it's more of the same really only much harder. I do like the concept of revisiting previous levels and seeing how they have changed. There are some things I don't like, Unfinished Business was not made by the team who made Tomb Raider, the levels in Unfinished Business are full of cheap enemy spawns that seem to only exist to surprise the player, I hate that.

Hotline Miami (PC)
A bunch of people were speed running this at the marathon so I thought I'd have a blast on it, I haven't played this in a while and I have gotten really bad at it, I decided to forget the full playthrough in the end.

Jet Set Radio (PC)
It's Jet Set Radio, it's awesome, it looks really good. I have one big flaw with it, the game options have some weird sound settings where turning the music volume up causes the sound effects to become muted, that's annoying. I don't use speakers because I don't want to risk sound complaints and my headphones don't have a volume switch so when I'm playing a game I'm going to turn the sound up to max.
This is a really good version of Jet Set Radio and it controls much better with the Xbox 360 controller than it ever did with the Dreamcast controller.

Cards Against Humanity UK Edition
This card game is amazing, on Saturday morning we had to turn all the electricity off due to a lightning storm, so I got out Cards Against Humanity and everyone instantly fell in love with it, they loved it so much we played for 4 hours straight, we had so many people playing that a 10 point game took 2 hours to finish, we played it again that night and didn't finished until after 3am, it's incredible.

So in many ways my weekend was pretty good, only one major downer, my car battery died again and I couldn't get anyone to jump start it, having to carry all my stuff back to my room wasn't fun.

Thursday 23 January 2014

Game Diary: 23/1/2014

Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Xbox)
IT NEVER ENDS! I'm getting so sick of playing this game that I'm starting to go backwards in skill. I have until 8pm Saturday to unlock everyone. What I have learned since yesterday: War Machine is a straight colour palette swap of Iron Man with his beam attacks changed to missiles.
On the upside my Xbox original component cable arrived in the post, oh my god my games look beautiful with this cable.

Animal Crossing (Gamecube)
Who gives a shit anymore. I have too much furniture so I had to move all my stuff from upstairs to downstairs.

Right now back to playing Marvel so I can unlock the last 10 characters.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Game Diary: 22/01/2014

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (PC)
So I've finally learned to play with an arcade stick without the need for a table, I know this sounds like a daft thing to open with but I use to have this silly preference where I could only play an arcade stick if it was on a flat surface or nailed down to something. Anyway now I'm playing like this I actually prefer it, as a playing method it feels a lot more casual.

Anyway BlazBlue, I've been asked by people in the past why I play this version, I know as a competitive game it is old and outdated but that's never really bothered me I can play anything really even if there is a newer version. If a game is good its worth shouldn't be diminished by something else.
So the PC version of BlazBlue isn't exactly popular, there are a long list of reasons for this, it isn't just the fact it was a year late, it isn't just the minor graphical glitches, it isn't just the obscurity of the port either, Games for Windows Live seems to be the big turn off for the majority of players. The PC isn't exactly the strongest PC platform but I'm sure people would have been more accepting of BlazBlue had it not been burdened with Games for Windows Live, a service that just so happens to be shutting down this year, what a shame, once GFWL shuts down I can never re-install the game unless someone happens to release a fix for it, good luck finding fixes for this game, the studio who made it don't want to know and you won't see many people willing to go out of their way to fix an old version of a game that only a handful of people still play.

All those things aside I really like BlazBlue as a 2D fighting game that does a lot different to other 2D fighting games. I had to change the voice acting to Japanese as some of the English voices are appalling. I should probably play BlazBlue more because I can't never think of a good way to convoy what I think about the game in words, it's just so different to everything else I've played.


Capcom vs SNK 2 (Xbox)
Every Wednesday I go to a Video Game Club/Union ran by students at my University and every Wednesday I'm the one who goes the most out of his way, last week I took everything I had, my wii, my xbox, my desktop pc, 2 monitors and a big pile of controllers and arcade sticks, I don't know why I bother really because everyone just crowds around the 2 Xbox 360's to play Worms and Injustice.
Had one quick match against one of the union runners, was an easy match for me but the guy said it himself he only plays Injustice and Mortal Kombat, in other words the total opposite of me. I'm worrying a bit about the fighting game tournaments I have planned for the upcoming charity gaming marathon the union is running. The tournaments are going to be a bit crap if no one wants to play.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Xbox)
Nothing to see here. New characters aren't appearing in the games shop so I'm just buying new stages instead.

Warioware Inc. Mega Party Game$ (Gamecube)
I haven't played this in multiplayer since I was a kid which is a shame because it is one of my all time favourite party games. Warioware is great because it addresses all the things I dislike about the Mario Party series, the game is a lot faster, the characters are actually characters and the multiplayer modes are just straight out more fun than any mini game or board map the Mario Party games have ever put out.
The amount of fun you get out of Warioware depends on how good the people you are playing against are, there is no fun in rolling over people. Don't get me wrong there is a joy in seeing other people fuck up but that joy is boosted ten fold when the person fucking up is someone good at the game.

Animal Crossing (Gamecube)
I got some nice looking bookshelves, it looks like I'm going have to move all my furniture back downstairs, the upstairs bed room not longer has enough room to fit it all, I can't wait to get a blue corner so I can complete my wrestling ring. I don't even know why I want the wrestling ring, it's takes up loads of space and does absolutely nothing, you can't even climb into it.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Wii)
I had a quick blast on this at the end of the Wednesday Gaming Union meet, I own Accent Core Plus but forgot to bring it with me (not that it matters the game is near identical besides a few changes). I really like Guilty Gear, really like it. I've been nuts about Guilty Gear ever since I downloaded X2 #Reload from GOG.com, it's my perfect fighting game, it's really fast, it had dashes and the game has a big emphasis on offense.
Something bothered me while I played it though, so I faced I-No and lost for the one hundredth time and she did her win animation where she turns around and pulls her jacket off, this prompted a girl who had just walked in for the Table Top Games Session to talk about how she hates games that try to sell them selves with  big breasted female characters, referencing Tomb Raiders as the big example. It shouldn't bother me but it kind of does because while I love every aspect Guilty Gear I can see why someone would look at characters like I-No and Dizzy and just put Guilty Gear in the category of perverted video game thing.

Soul Calibur II (Xbox)
I've been so focused on unlocking everything in Marvel vs Capcom that I almost forgot that I need to unlock all the characters in this. I'm so used to playing the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur 2 that it feels weird to play it with anything other than a Gamecube controller, I gave the arcade mode a go with Spawn and I'm not very good with him, first round I played I killed myself with a rushing kick move where Spawn does a jump kick that caused him to jump over the other character and off the stage like an idiot. I'm sure Spawn is really good when you know how to use him but I'll just stick to Nightmare.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Game Diary: 21/01/2014

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Xbox)
The content locks are really getting on my nerves now, it isn't getting the points that is the issue its how the in game shop changes stock randomly so you have to keep going back there any buying characters until the game decides to switch to the next character set, once you unlocks most of the characters it becomes a case of playing the game until the shop changes to a new set of characters you can buy and even then it is random, I don't think I've seen Magneto on sale once since I've been playing this.
On the upside I completed the game on score attack mode with over a billion points which is good for me because it means I get 3000+ shop points. It good that I'm unlocking all these characters because I think I'd go crazy constantly fighting Amigo, Wolverine (both versions) and that mummy from Darkstalkers over and over. On the downside some of these new characters were probably best left for later (Sentinel is mega broke).


Animal Crossing (Gamecube)
Nothing happened today, Tom Nook has started mocking me by stocking items I bought 3 days ago, I'm best off plugging my Game Boy Advance into the game from now on just to have something to do. I can't wait for the end of the month to come so I can get rid of the 100 raffle tickets I have in my basement.


Air Gallet (Arcade version emulated via Final Burn Alpha)
So playing this made me realise, those arcade sticks I bought for my Xbox are pieces of shit, I mean you can get by with them in fighting games but with shooters you need to use a controller. It only took 2 minutes for my arm to strain from tapping the fire button, that's not me being weak that's the joystick buttons needing to be pressed harder because they feel spongy. It's a shame the original Hori EX sticks are so rare because I'd love to own them.
Air Gallet itself is a decent shooter but it's generic, if you were to put it up next to a strikers game or something I'd doubt most people could tell the difference. I'm sure shooter fans will say I'm ignorant but it didn't feel like a stand out to me. Not much else to say other than it features the voice work of the guy who did the voice for Master Hand and the Announcer from Smash Bros and Shaft from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.


Donpachi (Arcade version emulated via Final Burn Alpha)

Played this for like 5 minutes was feeling kind of bummed out so I just quit. I've played this many times before and on my day it is one of my favourite shoot'em up games, it's really well designed and the difficulty is balanced perfectly. The opening stage is enough to make sure you stay focused and it eases you in enough that after a few times it becomes easy for someone as useless as me to beat it without dying. I think the way the game starts over when you beat the 5th stage is cool too, it's like Ghosts n' Goblins or something but only you don't feel mega cheated having to start again because the game isn't unfairly difficult the first time around, the second time round though is crazy.

Monday 20 January 2014

Game Diary: 20/01/2014

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Xbox)
I'm still playing this, and by play I mean leave the console on and go out because the game gives you free points for minutes spent in training mode, technically not the quickest way to unlock everything but it is a hell of a lot easier than playing the game over and over, not to say I'm not playing it at all. I have this system with fighting games where I always use the score I get as a way of measuring my skill level, if I beat my old high scores by a large amount them I'm clearly improving, that said I beat my old high score by like 2 million points which is great for me, not so good for everyone else.
The last boss in this game is a bit shit isn't he? The first 2 forms are alright but the third form keeps going off screen so you can't see him, piece of shit, at least in the previous marvel games you could still see the boss when he mostly goes off screen, fuck Abyss give me Apocalypse and Cyber Akuma.

Capcom vs. SNK 2 (Xbox)
I used to play this all the time on Gamecube because it was the only 2D fighting game on the system and I got really good at it, I even lucked out and found a cheap 3rd party arcade stick for a fiver in a shop. Years later I play the xbox version and I am garbage at it, I can't even get Shin Akuma to appear, I used to be able to do it every single time. I'll be honest I really like the different fighting grooves the game has, I'm quite big on the A Grove because it lets you endlessly combo for a short period of time as long as you don't get hit, last week I pulled off a 40+ hit combo in training using the A groove, I ended up breaking one of the buttons on my cheap 3rd rate xbox original arcade stick. Awesome game but it has things that really annoy me, it has all the SNK characters I'm use to using but they've been tweaked by Capcom in a way where they aren't quite what they are in SNK's own games, I guess Capcom don't like aerial special attacks outside of Marvel vs. Capcom.

Animal Corssing (Gamecube)
Today I made an effort to talk to my neighbours, all they did was complain that I hadn't spoken to them in 2 weeks, some of them are dicks but some of them are fairly cool and gave me loads of free shit for no reason. One neighbour though tried to fuck me over super hard, they offered to give me an awesome item but to get the item I had to guess which hand it was in, the condition is if I fuck up I get a rubbish item, either way they get all my money, I am so glad I discovered the bank account system last night, had she walked away with 90,000 bells in exchange for conga drums I would have left a pitfall seed outside of her fucking house.

I came one step closer to getting all the fossils today only to then look at my fossil collection and realise that I sold 3 mammoth torsos recently thinking I had already donated one, I bet I won't find another one for 3 weeks now or something.

Sunday 19 January 2014

Game Diary: 19/01/2014

Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox)
So I've been building up a collection of fighting games for a charity event my Universities Gaming League is holding this weekend from the 24th to the 27th, the people running the event are planning to play games non-stop for 72 hours, I'm not interested in ruining my sleeping pattern so I'm holding a series of fighting game tournaments over the weekend. Dead or Alive 3 isn't actually one of the games being played on the tournaments but I needed to buy because Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate has characters that can only be unlocked if your xbox contains a save file for Dead or Alive 3. Dead or Alive is one of the many fighting series that I like but only up to a certain point. For example I bought Dead or Alive 4 years ago when I first got my xbox 360 and I was not a fan of it, I put it down to 3 petty reasons I recently re-purchased DOA4 so I'll get to those reasons another time.

Back to DOA 3, I'm not going to say too much because I'll end up having to repeat it when I talk about my next game. What I will say is this, I like the stage design, I like the character design, I like the fighting system and I think the final boss is appallingly bad. The final boss is just mind bending levels of terrible, the game suddenly changes the camera for this one battle and it is terrible, it is playable and the boss isn't too hard but the way the game breaks its rules for that one battle isn't particularly enjoyable, still it isn't the worst boss in the DOA series.

Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate (Xbox)
So here is the Dead or Alive game that is getting played at the tournament, why not DOA5? Because I don't own it. Dead or Alive 2 is my favourite entry in the series with DOA2 Ultimate being a close second, I don;t know what it is but I just like the original version of 2 more it has more of a charm to it I think, it is also a game I associate with the Dreamcast (DOA 2 is one of my favourite Dreamcast games). Anyway DOA2 Ultimate not much I can say really other than it was where some of the things I disliked about DOA4 started to pop up, Ultimate came out around the same time as the atrocity that was the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and like Xtreme DOA 2 Ultimate has a lot of fan service, the boob jiggle physics are a lot more noticeable than in previous titles (if you exclude the first DOA) and there are a tonne of unlockable costumes, at best they are well thought out pieces of attire, at the worst they are things like swimsuits and Japanese school uniforms. I'm being a bit unfair to the alternate costumes, they aren't that bad but to me they are the things that signified the direction that the series was going to.
Ultimate has one more thing I take issue with but it is minor, I feel like the AI cheats the player far too much, one of the big mechanics in the Dead or Alive game is the counter hold attacks, they are a good idea but in this case the counter attacks do far too much damage and the AI will use them constantly and there is nothing you can do about it because the game is reading your button inputs, it knows what attacks you made before they can even hit, cheating bastard.

I'm being critical of DOA 2 but make no mistake I do consider it one of the high points of the franchise, the things I'm not mentioning are the things that work, the stages, the music, the fighting system, they are all sound.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Xbox)
I'm happy fighting games don't hold characters back any more, well they still do but now they are behind a paywall. Anyway back to my main point, I'm glad fighting games don't force me to play them over and over in order to unlock the characters I want to play as. I already own Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for my Xbox 360 but my Xbox 360 is at home, and I live away from home, what a paradox. Moaning aside having to play this to unlock characters has helped eased me into the game, I've never been very good at this series in particular, putting the game speed up to Turbo 2 probably isn't helping but if I'm going to play this I'm going to play it the way it was designed to be played.

Animal Crossing (Gamecube)
I have been playing this for just over a month now and I just wish the winter would end, I paid for every house upgrade swiftly by abusing the games stalk market and making millions, now I have a massive pile of cash to sit on and nothing to do with it other than walk into the shop once a day and see if there is anything I want, one thing I know I won't need to buy is clothing because the game gives you the best shirt from the start. So why am I still playing? I want to complete the fossil room in the museum but I keep getting the same fossils over and over because I have all but 4, also the town mayor asked me to turn the light house everyday between 6pm and 10pm while he is on holiday. It seems petty talking about a game in this way but that is the appeal of animal crossing it keeps doing things to make you keep caring about it. There is an odd urgency about timed events in animal crossing, when I first put all my money down on the stalk market there were a lot of nerves, I had a week to sell one thousand turnips before they went off and there was no guarantee I would make a profit, when you get that big profit your heart race and it is an awesome feeling of empowerment in a game that is about living in a village, it's weird. What is also weird was the sense of panic I felt when I realised I had 10 minutes to turn the lighthouse on.

The regular game has entered a state of limbo now for the rest of the winter, maybe I should plug my Gameboy Advance SP into the game and visit the tropical island while I wait for the Spring events to begin.