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Monday Gaming Diary: I’m my stack of shame’s own worst enemy

September 1, 2014 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

Photo Mode is fun.

I had all these plans for my stack of shame this summer. My plans primarily revolved around Dragon Age Origins, since Inquisition releases this fall. I have both Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age Origins Awakening, and Dragon Age 2 to get through before DAI. Go on ahead and laugh at me, but I really thought if I buckled down this summer, all of this could be accomplished, especially since I was over halfway through DAO already and if I turned down the difficulty to super easy. The problem was that I kept getting distracted by so many other things.

My review schedule for work got far more hectic than I expected for the summer, so that didn’t help, but then I developed a serious Diablo III problem. Played it on the PS3 way too many times, then the Ultimate Evil Edition released and started the cycle all over again. That is 100% my fault. Cannot blame the real life job for that. I’m such a procrastinator it’s awful.

Since I’m not reviewing Destiny for either my real job or here, I’m going to do my best to kick my ass in gear and not play as much D3. Although it’s Monday night, which is D3 night. So tomorrow for DAO? I think “tomorrow” is the procrastinator’s mantra.

But I actually have been playing a little bit more than just D3. I also played around with Depression Quest and inFamous First Light. Both of which were disappointments to me, although I don’t know what I should have realistically expected from First Light. Maybe I was asking for too much, gameplay-wise, and while that could have been the case, it was still a disappointment. My review for both should go up this week at AT, and then of course I’ll talk more about them here.

So it was Labor Day weekend for many of you! How did you spend your 3-day weekend? I actually haven’t turned on a console yet this whole weekend. I went out with friends on Saturday and then our hot water heater burst on Sunday morning (because when else would that happen), so it’s been a little insane to say the least.

Monday Gaming Diary: Don’t Fear the Reaper

August 25, 2014 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

As you can guess, I spent pretty much every waking moment where I wasn’t being a mom, eating, or sleeping playing Diablo III: the Ultimate Evil Edition. I’ve played Diablo III so many times over the last few weeks, one would think I’d be bored playing it yet again, but man, that most certainly was not the case. I had a new class to try out, a whole new Act to run around in, and the Adventure mode to play with. How could I be bored?

Yet, I’m not done with the original Diablo III. I haven’t finished Hell mode, and I’m still planning on playing it with Chris and Blake until we reach level 60 or die trying. And then we’ll import our characters as soon as Chris caves in and gets a PS4. And it will be so glorious.

I’m also hoping I will get the Diablo III: the Ultimate Evil Edition strategy guide this week so I can hammer out that review quickly. I normally don’t like reviewing a guide without using it while playing the game, but unfortunately, I had to get through the game quickly for work reasons. I have plenty of questions for the guide, all of which I can’t wait to see if it answers.

Tomorrow the First Light DLC for inFamous Second Son releases, and I am very stoked to jump back into that world as a different character. The fact that the character is Fetch, who wields my favorite power of the game, makes it even better.

Soooo I haven’t played any Reaper of Souls in about 12 hours. I really feel the need to stop working and dive in for bounties.

Monday Gaming Diary: Let the Fall Rush Begin!

August 18, 2014 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

This week officially marks the start of the Fall rush on games that will deluge us all until December. My bank account is already weeping in anticipation. Tomorrow I will be picking up my copy of Diablo III: the Ultimate Evil Edition for the PS4, and hopefully my strategy guide will appear shortly thereafter.

I’m going to start a new character, most likely the Crusader, to properly review the game for AT and guide for here, but boy oh boy I cannot wait until Chris gets a PS4 and hangs around longer than 24 hours at a time so we can import our characters into the PS4 version and kick the Reaper’s ass. As much as I love playing Diablo III alone, it’s ten times more fun with Chris and Blake. I had a ton of school functions to do this weekend, and I told the lone gamer mom in the group about D3, and she went into how much she loved playing D2. Hearing me talk about D3 prompted her to text her husband and ask him to download it for her PC. Who knew a game about a devil could bring so many people together for non-religious reasons?

I have to admit that reading all of the lore in the game makes me really want to try out the first two games. I know they’re PC only, but I’m that interested in what happened to the other lesser evils, Deckard Cain, and the rest of the history of Sanctuary. I have a feeling it would be painful to go back that far, but for the sake of killing hordes of enemies for absolutely no reason, I may just make that sacrifice.

Tales of Xilia 2 also releases this week, a guide that Chris will be reviewing as well as a few others. He loved the first Tales of Xilia game, so he’s pretty excited about this one. And then once September hits, Destiny will land, and I’ll never see Blake again except for online.

It’s a great time to be a gamer right now. Not so good for the wallet.

Tuesday Gaming Diary: Prepping for Reaper of Souls

August 12, 2014 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

In case you weren’t aware, Diablo III: the Ultimate Evil Edition is on the verge of releasing, like next week August 19th. As a console gamer, I’ll be able to play Reaper of Souls expansion for the first time. This has required a lot of prep, since I’ve been told that you need to be at least level 60 by the time you reach this fifth act. So this requires playing the game at least twice, if not more. Being a sad little Trophy junkie, I may play at least four times to get those Inferno trophies.

Chris and I finished the game on Normal this past Sunday, and he’ll be out at GenCon for the rest of the week, which forces me to act alone. I am trying to play as much as possible over the next several days so I can get my Demon Hunter up to respectable snuff. Next Tuesday will be here before I know it!

It would probably also help if I didn’t keep creating new characters to see if I find one I like as much as the Demon Hunter. I had high hopes for the Witch Doctor, just because the class is so unusual, but it’s not for me. Surprisingly, I’ve really enjoyed the Monk, almost as much as the Demon Hunter. Sill have not tried the Wizard, who I have heard is the most insanely powerful of the bunch.

We’ll see if I can squeeze that one in after my Ultimate Evil Edition arrives. I have to say, Diablo III has become my happy place with gaming. It doesn’t require much thought, you don’t have to really pay attention to the story after the first time, and you simply run around and kill things. Sometimes, that’s all I really need in life. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows provided that relief for me with the PS2, and Diablo III is filling that void for the PS3 and soon the PS4. We all need those little safe places that are randomly fun to go back to. Mass Effect on many levels will always fill that hole for me, but ME also requires quite a bit of commitment. With D3, I can just run around a dungeon for 15 minutes, kill things, and quit.

It’s nice to have another Gauntlet again.

Monday Gaming Diary: I have a Diablo III Problem

August 4, 2014 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

So over this past vacation, I’ve learned that I have a problem and apparently the only cure is more Diablo III.

As part of a birthday gift for myself, I bought a GAEMS PGE, and I took it with me on vacation last week. As my family likes to go to bed before 10 p.m., I knew I would want to play games at night like I normally do, so I packed the GAEMS case with me as well as a few LEGO games for the eldest son and Diablo III. A part of me thought of contacting my D3 team to see if they wanted to get together, but I opted to create a new character instead. I’ve played the game twice now as a Barbarian. Maybe there’s another class I would like as much or more?

Oh yes there is, and it is the Demon Hunter.

It’s amazing how much easier it is to stay alive when you don’t have to run into the thick of things. I have my DH loaded up with acrobatic skills and dual crossbows that just happen to set enemies on fire. I am having the time of my life.

And now I want to try out another class, like the Witch Doctor.

While playing last night, I realized that D3 doesn’t do anything groundbreaking. It’s a lot like Gauntlet in that it’s a dungeon crawler and you kill lots and lots of swarms of enemies. However, something about it is just so gosh darn fun. It’s like a little stress release for me; I don’t have to concentrate too hard on really anything other than killing stuff. I realize that the game should bore me as the story is hardly its strong suit, but it’s just some mindless fun. Sometimes it’s nice to not concentrate on who is shooting at me or biting my lip on solving a puzzle. Sometimes you just want to run through hoards of goat people and set them all on fire. It’s not asking for a lot.

Yeah, this doesn’t help me finish Dragon Age: Origins or even Bound by Flame, both of which I really need to snap my attention to soon. I know I keep saying that, but as I watch the calendar tick down, I see just how much I must do so. I’m such a procrastinator. Oh hey, it’s lunch time…maybe I can defeat Maghda with my DH over lunch.

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