2010 is here

Happy New Year everyone!!! We're already seeing some good looking games coming in 2010. Natural Selection 2, Metroid Other M, Pokemon HeartGold and Soulsilver...to name a few. 2009 has had some good games too, the most notable being New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Pokemon Platinum, The Legend of Zelda: Spririt Tracks, and others. This blog got started October 13th, so it has not been around very long, but I'll still continue to post the latest news, secrets and tips, and the Flashback that I've only done about twice now. I'll say it again...Happy New Year everyone!!!

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon Hard 5 tips

The word "merciless" next to the 5 stars when choosing a Hard difficulty on Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon...dude, it isn't called merciless for no reason. That difficulty is a video game player's nightmare. Not kidding. Despite my large amount of gaming experience, it proved to be too tough for me to handle. Therefore, you're probably gonna think these tips are slightly untrustworthy. Well, I have at least played through all other difficulties in the game, so you can trust me.
Rule #1...play through all the other hard difficulties first. Just jumping into the dreaded Hard 5, you obviously don't know what you're getting yourself into!
Rule #2...while playing through all other difficulties, figure out which characters are good and which ones are not good. Believe me, people like Ogma and Abel can and will make it easier. That's probably why I failed in the first place...
Rule #3...are you capable of doing online shopping? If so, then on weekends, go to the online shop and get a brave weapon. These weapons are very good, and will be useful. You can count on it.
Rule #4...While in most all the other difficulties you can save your strongest weapons for later, this one, you can't. Enemies with forged weapons come much sooner than in Hard 4 or 3. In fact, they first appear in Ch. 10! Kinda soon, huh? Therefore, equipment is vital. This goes back to online shopping. The online shop has silver weapons, along with killer weapons, mends, and other things. Get what you can. You'll need it.
Rule #5...Use those arenas! I know in the Ch. 4 and maybe 8 arena this it tough, since your guys are weak and the arena's guys are strong, but try your best. Always try to get at least 3 level ups. Heck, go further. Keep training till you feel ready to move on. This was another thing I failed to do. Don't make the same mistakes I did.
Finally...know your strength and weaknesses. For instance, I found out Cain reclassed into a Mymirod isn't so bad. He had higher strength than other characters of this class. However, I had to be pretty careful, 'cause his defense was pretty low too. In fact, by Ch. 10 I'm pretty sure his defence was still around 4-6. He at least had enough defence to live at least 1 attack (sad huh?), so I used him as a lure. It worked too, so long as only 1 enemy would attack him. Know your units stats, and use them to your advantage.
Playing Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon on Hard 5 is almost like playing chess against a computer. Those who have tried to do that know what I mean. If it becomes so tough that you just need to restart and try again, making sure you get what units and equipment you need, than you might as well do it. Heck, you may even play a different difficulty and get a little more game experience in if you must. I trust this difficulty on Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon will challenge you to play and think in a much more different way.

Flashback: Doom

I've never played Doom, and I doubt I will for a long time unless I want nightmares, given I can find it. Doom is noted for being the #1 video game. Quite a title indeed, which should be enough to convince someone to buy the game if they were deciding if they should or should not. The game is set on Mars, and the character you control, which is actually meant to be you, is a space marine. One day, some UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) experiments go wrong while on Mars, and quite a few things begin to happen. Computers on Phobos, one Mars' moons, malfunction, and Deimos, the other moon of Mars, disappears entirely, and "something fragging evil" pours out of the gateway of teleportation things. Reports go to the Martian marine and is sent to Phobos to investigate, where the player is left to guard the hanger with only a pistol, while the rest of the group proceeds inside. A few hours later, the player hears assorted garbled radio messages, gunfire, and screams, followed by silence: "Seems your buddies are dead".
Kinda creepy, right? Doom was so amazing that the first-person shooter was created. Without Doom, we may never have seen games like Halo, Call of Duty, or Half-Life.

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver versions

It's been almost ten years since any Pokemon trainer has set foot on Johto soil. That will change when Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver come out in the Spring of 2010. It will be released for the Nintendo DS and DSi systems. It is a remake of the original Heart and Gold versions released in 2000, so players of those games will be at least a little familiar with this. I would imagine that they have added some kind of GTS as seen in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, but no news on that has come out yet, but I would think they would, or at least something similar. Really, I'm only really making a big deal out of this because players of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum very well know by now that, without some kind of cheat code or something, it's virtually impossible to complete those Pokedexes. Not anymore. With these games being released, it will become much easier to catch them all. That's what I feel is the biggest reason for this game. Ho-oh will be found in HeartGold, and Lugia will be found in SoulSilver.