Winter Break Gaming

So what games did you spend time on over the break? I'm going to go through the ones I've spent significant time on. I played more than this but these three definitely took most of my time.
 
Skyward Sword - Wii
This game is stupid long. It basically took me an entire week to get through my first playthrough. Still have to find the time somehow to do it again in Hero mode.
 
At first the controls felt a bit weird. I didn't expect to have the controls actually work. I'm so used to doing a wrist flick for every one of my motion inputs for a Wii game. This was a pleasant surprise to see the sword in Link's hand actually follow the actions of the Wii-mote. I've heard complaints about the controls and can understand them. While it's much better mapped than Twilight Princess it is still far from perfect. You have to be patient with the sword and not rush it in order for the Wii to read the movements properly. I've had that problem starting out trying to do too much at once and confusing the Wii. Once I slowed down and made cleaner inputs I never had an execution problem again.
 
Although I have no problems with the battle controls I kinda wish that I could speed up the cursor while in menus. After the initial calibration at the beginning the Wii sensor bar is never used again. That means in menus your cursor's position is dictated by the Wii motion plus gyroscope. It works just fine; I just wish I could increase the sensitivity a bit in the menus.
 
The map design received a large overhaul from previous 3D Zelda games. Instead of there being just a large open world to explore while going from one dungeon to the next it is mostly replaced by mini-dungeons to work your way through before going to one of the larger main dungeons. There's a bit of free roaming while flying around in the sky but is ultimately limited as there aren't that many floating rocks to land on. Even with the rocks given there isn't that much to do on them.
 
Story wise there isn't much to complain about. You're Link. You save Zelda. Go. For those who care this takes place before any other title in the main Zelda series. This becomes more obvious later on in the story.
 
 
Starcraft 2 - PC
Spent a good time of my break trying to do better at SC2. Basically before break began I was in Silver league being matched against other Silver league opponents. After spending time learning the game and my race I ended the break being top Gold being matched against Platinum players. Now that classes have started back up again I don't usually have as much time to dedicate to this game for now but I'm just glad to finally get a promotion.
 
Never really played SC or Brood War seriously so SC2 is my first really go at a competitive RTS. My race is Terran. :3 I didn't choose Terran because of how OP people claim it to be or because it was the main race used during the single player campaign. The reason I chose and stuck with Terran is because of the design aesthetic. I love the large and heavily armored units that make up the Terran's forces. Sure Protoss units have shields but shields are for pussies. :3 Large heavy armor plating is where it's at. I also love mechs in general so Terran is a natural choice.
 
There are mainly two things I worked to improve on in order to advance my skills:
1. Fucking Scout
2. Macro the Fuck Up
 
I tend to scout a bit more aggressively than most people seem to do. When sending my worker out at about 11 food I do a run around the opponent's base before sending the scout to a safe corner. I wait for a minute or two and send the scout back in again to see what kind of tech choices the opponent is going to make. Sure I could just use a scan but why bother when I still have an active scout. That leaves me with 1 more Mule. If for some reason the scout can't scout I'd just throw down a scan anyways just to check up on my opponent. What I usually check for first is if it looks like the opponent is going to go for any sort of cheesy play. If I can safely cross that out from his options I go to check for what is the tech route that is being taken. I try to adjust my build in order to respond to whatever the opponent does accordingly.
 
Learning to scout well didn't take me that much time to get a hang of. What really took time to get working was my Macro. I have a bad habit of not paying attention to my food count and whether or not I need to build more supply structures. As I practiced I tried to pay more attention to it and to stay on top of it so I don't have to call down emergency supplies. Being ahead of your supply allows you to continue to pump out workers and military units all the time which in turn lets you sustain a larger and better equipped force. Every now and then I forget to build a supply depot but I've got my early and mid game down well enough that I wouldn't have to worry about it for a good while. Not only that but I have to make sure I have enough production facilities to match what my bases can currently mine. Resources sitting in your bank are useless and you should try to keep them as low as possible.
 
Some other smaller issues I worked on was learning the timings of my opponent so I could be ready for whatever he has whenever he has it. This kinda ties into the scouting point but it's still a good idea to keep it in mind as you probably won't see everything that you would want to with a single scout or scan.
 
 
Katawa Shoujo - PC
Yes, I did play this. Currently playing it now even. Not done yet, only about 82% done. One route left.
 
For those who have no idea what this game is: Katawa Shoujo is an english Visual Novel. Visual Novels are a niche genre of gaming that really hasn't taken hold in the United States. Basically think of a Visual Novel as a choose your own adventure book, but on the computer with graphics and music and shit. They tend to be long and dense on story with relatively low amounts of interactivity.
 
This specific Visual Novel puts you in place of the main character as he learns that he has a weak heart and is prone to heart attacks. To keep tabs on his situation he is transferred to a special school that is designed for students who have varying types of disabilities. The school is well staffed by nurses so that the students can get the medical attention they need that a public school could never provide. While there you have to learn to deal with your own situation while trying to make friends with others who have their own issues to work through.
 
Compared to other Visual Novels this one isn't terribly long. On average it took me about 8 hours to fully complete a route. Still, I had fun playing this and dealing with the eccentric characters. In my opinion none of the characters were terribly clichéd but some did seem more predictable than others.
 
This isn't the kind of game I could really recommend unless you really like reading or something.