How to play Guild Wars 2 with a controller

UPDATE 1-12-2015: This bundle is now obsolete thanks to ArenaNet implementing Action Camera natively, something virtually identical to our solution for camera mode; and thanks to Hawkian making all the necessary modifications and putting together an amazingly explanatory guide, including a link to his newest bundle, here:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=182948453&postcount=939

Credit goes entirely to him as what little I contributed originally is now obsolete. :)


The rest of this entry will be kept for entirely historical reasons, Feel free to ignore it. :)


Aside from being an amazing game (singing its qualities would take me many hours and is well beyond the purpose of this post), Guild Wars 2 is by nature quite controller-friendly. The reduced ability palette, more action-based gameplay, dodge mechanic, key-based interaction with objects (as opposed to having to click on them), etc. make using a controller much less of a pain than it usually is in an MMO. Not surprisingly, several users have expressed interest in doing just that, for improved comfort. I was indeed among them, but it wasn't until this one post by Hawkian of the NeoGAF boards that everything started to fall in place for me:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37412777&postcount=4843

I played around using this setup as a base, going back once and again for inspiration, until I arrived to a configuration that is exactly what I want. Since then, some really major breakthroughs have been achieved, allowing for auto-centering of the mouse pointer, among others. In any case, this blog post intends to make things as easy as possible for those people, with everything you need in a single bundle, detailed instructions (including steps for those slightly paranoid like me who'd want to download all the programs off the net), configuration files, several control schemes each with a description of its bindings, a one-click start batch file, etc. Hope you all enjoy it!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwgV6PdDgkbBVHo1TW40aGF3Q00/edit?usp=sharing

(To download the entire .zip file, click "File" on the top left, then "Download").
(Last updated May 02, 2013).

100 Favorite Games (2011 Update)

I decided to update my favorite game list; it's been over a year since I wrote it and never updated it once :P .

Much like in the old one's case, so as to give myself the benefit of the perspective of time, I've only listed games that were released on 2009 or earlier. Games from 2010 onwards are put on a separate, "recently played" list after that.

All-time favorites

Xenogears

Okami

Devil May Cry 3

Final Fantasy VI

Zelda: A Link to the Past

Viewtiful Joe

Final Fantasy IV

Odin Sphere

Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Devil May Cry

Star Control II

Super Robot Wars Alpha (whole series)

Zelda: The Wind Waker

Super Smash Bros Brawl

Tekken (3 / Tag Tournament / 5)

Metal Gear Solid

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (1 / 2)

Katamari Damacy (1 / 2)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Starfox 64

Plants vs Zombies

Super Mario Galaxy

Super Castlevania IV

Resident Evil 2

Batman: Arkham Asyulum

Starfox

Chrono Trigger

Chrono Cross

Portal

Contra: Shattered Soldier

World of Warcraft

Braid

Super Mario Bros 3

Trap Door (ZX Spectrum)

Persona 3

Metal Gear Solid 3

Contra 3 (SNES)

Axelay

Super Metroid

Street Fighter 4

Zelda: Twilight Princess

Resident Evil Remake

Megaman X4

Warcraft III

Rez

Final Fantasy VII

Wario Ware Twisted

Wario Ware Smooth Moves

Guitar Hero

Ico

Kingdom Hearts II

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Might & Magic Clash of Heroes

Chibi Robo

Lego Star Wars Complete Saga

Pikmin 2

Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Nintendo 64)

Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy

Einhander

Gitaroo Man

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Secret of Mana (SNES)

Valkyrie Profile

D&D Arcades (Tower of Doom / Shadow Over Mystara)

Seiken Densetsu 3 / Secret of Mana 2 (SNES)

Legend of Mana (PSX)

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy IX

Shadow of the Colossus

Dark Cloud II

Ghouls 'n' Ghosts (Arcade / Genesis)

Um Jammer Lammy

New Super Mario Bros Wii

Yoshi's Island

Grafitti Kingdom

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Powerstone

Choukou Senki Kikaioh / Tech Romancer

42 All-Time Classics

Game Center CX 2 / Retro Game Challenge 2

Retro Game Challenge

Mass Effect

Machinarium

Jump Ultimate Stars

Kirby Super Star

Mario & Luigi - Superstar Saga

Paper Mario

Soul Calibur (Dreamcast)

Mario Kart (SNES / DS / Double Dash / Wii)

Megaman 2 (NES)

Legend of the Mystical Ninja / Ganbare Goemon (SNES series)

Phantasy Star IV

Metroid Zero Mission

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Puzzle Quest

The World Ends With You

Rhythm Tengoku (GBA)

Left 4 Dead 1/2

Aliens vs Predators (Arcade Beat'em up)

Recently played favorites

Mass Effect 2

Bayonetta

Super Meat Boy

Super Street Fighter IV

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Super Scribblenauts

Picross 3D

Heavy Rain

Metal Gear Solid 4

Little Big Planet

Brutal Legend

Currently waiting for

Mass Effect 3

Guild Wars 2

Marvel VS Capcom 3

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Venus Flytrap

This entry may be even less interesting than the others. It's not directly related to videogames, either, unless you're thinking of Super Mario or Plants VS Zombies (er, like me).

I recently bought a Venus Flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula, it cost me a mere 5€ in a Verdecora here in Madrid if you're interested). Cute little bugger, really. They are somewhat picky regarding a couple of things though: any fertilizer or even tap water can kill them. Also, you need to put them into dormancy in the colder seasons (which I have, or am trying to), or they end up dying after about three years.

I was supposed to be even remotely original picking a name for it, but since I'm also unbeliebably lazy, we ended up calling it Audrey, the most obvious and least original name ever for a flytrap. :P

In any case, I started taking pics of it every three-four days.

Edit: I've removed the individual pics and instead replaced them with an animated GIF, which seems more entertaining (not to mention it lets one appreciate changes better). In later months, the GIF is great to see the cycle of dormancy/regrowth. Click the thumbnail to see full-size and animated.

November 2011 edit: I stopped updating the GIF some time ago, as it was a quite time-consuming task. Audrey seems to have reached the maximum size for that pot, but transplanting it could prove somewhat difficult, as the peat moss carnivorous plants need is not easy to come by in Madrid at this time, for some reason...

Press Start

This is supposed to be a blog about gaming.

Recently, I've come to realize that sometimes, I feel the need to speak of things that most normal people wouldn't find interesting (or, to be less euphemistic, would be bored to death by). I've created this blog as a means to satisfy this need, and as such, is mostly addressed towards myself. Sometimes, I feel the urge to get some concepts out of my head, and to put them in written form so as to create some order out of the chaos.

I'm publishing most of this blog in English (even though Spanish is my mother language and that of anyone I personally know) for that reason: because I'm going to put in here only the kind of stuff that would only interest to an infinitesimal percentage of people. So as to not make this percentage straightaway zero, I'd rather utilize the, by far, most used language on the Internet. This also will serve as English practice, since it's been many years since I've written even semi-regularly in English and am incredibly rusty. For this, as always, I apologize in advance for any unintentional butchering of Shakespeare's language.

I'm not sure where this will be going; right now, I kind of envision having most entries in English, about more technical or abstract game concepts; and perhaps some entries in Spanish (or even bilingual) meant for broader audiences, such as gaming concepts explained to non-gamers. But this is my mood today and may well change tomorrow. In any case, entries will be tagged with their respective languages so as to not alienate non-bilingual readers, who'll be able to filter by them.