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Monday Gaming Diary: Overpowered in Diablo 3

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I introduced my eldest to Diablo 3 awhile back, and we played on the PS4 a couple of times, but ever since the baby figured out how to walk and get into EVERYTHING, it’s really hard to find time to play together. But he’s been insistent, and when the little one went down for a nap, I loaded the game up for us. However, I decided to play the PS3 version so he could help me with that extra 10% of gold drops to earn that final trophy. I’m not letting this go, I will get this Platinum and I will get it this year, so help me God.

I created a new character for him, a monk (because he’s like a ninja) that he immediately named “Dino Hunter.” I pulled in my Paragon 7 Demon Hunter to help out. I figured the kiddo wouldn’t understand that you don’t rush into every fight, and he needs a ranged fighter to help him out. I lowered the mode to Normal and the difficulty to Easy. Holy cow was I overpowered. In fact, I was so overpowered, overpowered may be an understatement.

I killed the Skeleton King in one shot. One. Shot. I did nothing but use my basic attack. Never pressed any other buttons unless I was dropping useless armor I accidentally picked up. My armor BROKE and I never died once. I wasn’t even aware that could happen. You know those fat enemies that explode with snakes or minions when you kill them? I killed them so hard, none of them exploded.

He had fun. I had fun. We laughed at how easy it was for me to kill everything. I let him pick up all of the armor, and then I’d have to explain why he has to sell it or recycle it and he can’t hoard it all. He was pretty excited about recycling, though, which turned into a lecture (him to me) on why recycling was important.

We only made it to the Skeleton King before he was too bored to go on. He’s six; his attention span can only go so long before he needs something else. Of course, then the baby woke up, so it was good timing. I promised him we’d play more together soon.

Perhaps he will be the one to help me get this last trophy. Yes…yes, I like this plan.

Monday Gaming Diary: Easter Gaming Break

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We took a fairly unplanned trip to visit my family over the Easter holiday because my sister had her baby a couple of weeks earlier than she planned. Earlier than she planned as in she had a scheduled c-section due to her first child drama and then her blood pressure caused her to have her second child sooner than even that. Good news is that new baby is all precious and happy and healthy. And super tiny. I got my tiny baby fix and happily handed her off to her mother when she got super cranky.

I debated bringing any electronics for gaming this trip as I am reviewing Axiom Verge for work and I have Majora’s Mask that I still haven’t touched. My eldest asked if I would pack up the PS4 in the GAEMS so he could play some LEGO Batman 3. I went back and forth in my thinking, and I ultimately decided to bring no games whatsoever on the trip. The GAEMS stayed home, the 3DS stayed home, and the Vita stayed home. I brought my Surface only because I may need to work while I was at my parents’ house, and the Surface has zero games on it.

At first I was afraid I would twitch from the lack of gaming, but it was nice to not have any pressure at all to play. And honestly, we were so busy the entire time, I’m not sure when I could have played.

My Mom and I did teach the eldest child how to play Go Fish!, and that was more fun than any of my video games could have been. Once he got the hang of it, he did not want to stop playing, even when he lost! That’s a huge deal for this kiddo, who unfortunately got my perfectionist streak with games and rage quits with his 3DS more quickly than I do with nearly anything else. When he noticed it got harder the more people who played, he also noticed it got way more fun! It made me so happy to have fun with him playing cards. I can’t wait to teach him Uno or Skip-Bo next.

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But now we’re back in town, and that means back to the grind. I’m already in the process of setting up a meeting with my boss for this afternoon (night his time) and planning out my reviews and articles for the week. Getting out of the routine was nice for a few days at least, but I think if I delay working on the strategy guide for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, I’ll have to get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness from Prima Games when I visit them at E3 this year. That and I’m getting the agonizing twitches of guilt from not finishing something I should have. I’m crazy, I totally admit.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter holiday!

Monday Gaming Diary: Taking a Break with Diablo 3

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boon-of-the-hoarder1The last couple of weeks have been a little insane for me at work. As I ended the week with turning in my review for Pillars of Eternity, I talked with my boss on Friday about working on Life is Strange over the weekend so I could get that review done. He ordered me to take off the weekend.

I looked at my workload. Yeah, I need to review the second episode of Life is Strange for work, and I also need to review the strategy guides for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and Pillars of Eternity. But I need some sanity time first.

You know what I still haven’t done yet with Diablo 3? Gotten my Platinum trophies.

And that is what I did during all of my game time this weekend: played Diablo 3 on the PS3 to farm that gold. I’m at 2.6 million, so I’m over the halfway hump. With the armor my Barbarian has, and the ring that will occasionally summon a Treasure Goblin to appear, I think it will happen this summer if I can keep devoting time. I may just make Fridays my official Platinum Trophy day to work on any games I need to Platinum, unless I have a review I really need to work on for work.

I have to say, it was really nice to game just to game and not for any review, even if it is a game I’ve played countless times. I also would like to finish Dragon Age Inquisition sometime this year, not to mention several other games I started but never finished last year. However, this was about taking a break with something familiar and relaxing. I can’t imagine a better game to do that with.

But the weekend is over, so it’s back to work. My goal is to get Final Fantasy Type-0 HD done this week, which shouldn’t be too hard with only 2-3 chapters left. I have to admit that I wept a little bit looking through the guide and seeing everything I missed in the earlier chapters. I suppose that means I’ll just have to play again sometime.

Monday Gaming Diary: Adventures in PC Gaming Continue

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PC-rage

It was just last month when I wrote about my woes dealing with PC gaming, my sad PC, and Homeworld Remastered. Well, the fun continued over the weekend.

I have a review copy of Pillars of Eternity, and I did not want to play it until my husband could set up the new graphics card. I got in maybe an hour’s worth of gameplay before the PC stopped recognizing the graphics card. As my husband went to work on my PC once again, I decided to try playing the game on my Mac. Oh wait, what’s that? My processor isn’t up to the speed the game needs because I didn’t buy the $2500 MacBook Pro. Silly, silly me. Guess I’ll continue waiting for my husband to finish his surgery on my PC. He worked on it for nearly five hours before he gave up. I asked him if I should buy a new motherboard. He showed me that a whole new computer would be cheaper.

So off I went to Best Buy at 9:30 at night with a credit card in tow. I mean, this review has to get done. I can’t email my boss and Obsidian’s PR with a sob story about how much my PC sucks. Well I could, but then I might lose my job, or worse, earn disappointment from my boss and Obisidian may cross our site off of their press list for reviews and other information. It’s only money, right? Who needs it, really?

I now have a new shiny PC that can easily run Pillars of Eternity, Homeworld Remastered, and probably most else thrown at it. I’m not sure it could handle The Witcher 3, though, as that game seems to be a beast. I wouldn’t play it on PC anyway; I’ll probably always prefer a controller on a console game over mouse and keyboard. I’m so ill-equipped at that control scheme with PoE, it’s rather pathetic as it is.

That said, though, now that I am playing PoE, at about 5 hours in, I really like it. Of course, we all know that 5 hours in to a hardcore RPG like this one is diddly squat.

Monday Gaming Diary: I don’t like playing Final Fantasy without a strategy guide

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feature-final-fantasy-type-0I was fortunate enough to get a review copy of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for work, and I played it most of last week and over the weekend. The whole time I played it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, and it wasn’t just because the story is as convoluted as FF games come. I felt unsure of myself, unsure of what I was supposed to be doing, where I should go to explore, who I should talk to to get the most out of the game, and which tasks should I bother completing for the best rewards. I felt naked, as if I wasn’t wearing a ring that I normally wear every day.

Then it hit me: I was missing the strategy guide.

No wonder I was so stressed about where to go and what to do! I’ve never, ever played a Final Fantasy game without a strategy guide of some sort holding my hand along the way. I constantly glanced over at my review table for the guide, knowing full well it wouldn’t be there.

Obviously I was able to get through the game on my own intuition and “talent,” but I can’t help but feel I’ve missed out on a lot. Well, in looking at my trophies, I know I missed out on a lot of Knowing Tags, for starters. Or is it that they can only be fully collected if you play the game multiple times? What chocobo breeding combinations did I miss to get the super rare chocobos? Where can I find certain colored phantoma?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT ONLY THE GUIDE CAN ANSWER.

I should be getting a review copy of the Final Fantasy Type-0 HD strategy guide this week, and I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what I was missing and how I could have improved my game.

In other news, since I liked the game, It’s been recommended that I look into Final Fantasy XIV, because I don’t have enough FF to fill my plate. Maybe after I finally finish Dragon Age Inquisition…

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