I’ve kind of had and RPGtastic week this past week with both Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and The Witcher 2. Sad to say, I’ve already gotten a bit bored with Reckoning just because the number of sidequests are not only overkill, but they’re virtually the same. They also rarely affect anything in the main storyline, so I decided to limit my sidequesting to just the faction quests and the main story.

They’re still boring. It sucks. The combat is really a lot of fun and I really want to like this game. I have a feeling, though, that the game is best played in short bursts and sporadically so that you aren’t spending hours at once playing the same quests. A Twitter friend said that Reckoning was incredibly padded, and I’m starting to definitely feel that. Such an incredible shame.

I broke it up a little bit to sample The Witcher 2 before I went on the EvilCast that night in order to discuss it a little with Ross. HOLY CRAP that game is hard. The combat is ungodly complex, and there’s so much to remember to do that the tutorial (that was specifically added for the console version) is almost worthless.

If it wasn’t for the guide, I never would have survived my first battle. Note I didn’t say first boss fight; I mean my first regular fight with grunt knights. I also need the guide just to remember how many spells Geralt has at his disposal. I’m so used to being led along and gradually introduced to spells and combat techniques. This one literally throws everything at you, kicks you out the door, and says, “Yeah, have fun out there!” This is going to be one interesting ride, that’s for sure.

Since I went out of town this weekend, no Halo 2 was accomplished, but I did manage to get some much needed Vita time. Finally checked out Escape Plan, a game I bought way back around the Vita’s launch but never got around to. That is one adorably frustrating game. I see the appeal, and it’s fun for the most part, but my lack of patience makes it very difficult for me to play it for long periods of time. I have to admit though…all the ways Lil and Laarg can die are quite hilarious.

I meant to play some Uncharted: Golden Abyss on the return flight, but instead, I zonked out while listening to music. Sad…maybe. But I really enjoyed that nap.

I received my review copy of Binary Domain last Saturday and pretty much worked on nothing except Binary Domain. It was hard, as The Witcher 2 arrived on Tuesday along with a copy of the strategy guide, but I remained vigilant. Even playing on Normal, the game does not take that long to complete, and it was officially conquered on Friday afternoon.

That game was far more fun than I expected it to be. With a name like Binary Domain, I completely expected it to be similar to The Syndicate, and I couldn’t have been further from the truth. It’s really more of a Gears of War game with robots and a touch of SEGA flair. The characters were entertaining, and holy crap was the story fantastic. Just when you thought you had one twist in the plot, it surprised you with another.

The game wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the means, but it was very enjoyable, and it’s a downright shame that it only sold 20,000 units since its launch in March. I have a feeling that it’s going to go the sad route of Vanquish, which never got the attention it deserved. Maybe it will become a sleeper hit, and then maybe a sequel will be made. The foundation has been laid for there to be a sequel, and it would be a shame to never see it come to fruition.

Due to the changes my E3 schedule has brought on, I started  Halo 2 this weekend. Holy cow that game looks terrible. I haven’t played a PS2 or GameCube game in ages, so blasting back to the early aughts was a bit of a shock. I’m sure it looked fantastic upon release–I remember the days of the Halo 2 flu epidemic–but it hasn’t held up well. On the plus side, there are virtually no load times.

Since there are no Achievements to obtain and I’m running on a tight schedule, I’m playing it on Easy and burning right through it. According to the guide, I only have about six chapters left to get through, so that should give you an idea how easy it really is. I’ll put it this way if you need better examples. I never have to take cover. EVER. I’ve had a shotgun to the face, and all it did was lower my shields. Easy almost means “win” in this case. I wish I could say that it means that I’ve never died, but once the Flood appeared (grumble, grumble) that statistic collapsed in a hurry. I fucking hate the Flood. Give me Covenant to shoot at; at least they’re entertaining.

I really don’t have an idea as to what is going on in Halo 2, but I’ve been told the story doesn’t become clear until Halo 3. Not sure what is up with that magical number 3, but whatever. At least it’s fun to play, and it was a little fun playing on the side of the Covenant, even though the Arbiter’s armor sucks monkey balls. I never died until I had to play as him. I guess that my friend Blake is right; Master Chief is a badass.

Shhhh…don’t let him know that he’s right about anything. It will just go to his head.

I’ve been in a gaming rut for awhile now; finding solace only in Plants vs. Zombies and LEGO Harry Potter. I forced myself out of my funk this past week–with the help of writing an article for Gaming Angels about it–and finally cracked open Syndicate. Holy crap is that game bad.

I know that reviews haven’t been that favorable, but I rarely reviews before I play a game because I like to go into playing a game with a fresh, open mind. In this case, I probably should have saved myself the trouble. Essentially, Syndicate is a Deus Ex: Human Revolution copycat. It’s not a complete clone by any stretch of the means, but the similarities are to prevalent for me to see anything else. Unfortunately, Syndicate executes nothing very well. The premise is kind of cool, but the delivery is full of fail. I played halfway through the game and decided that life was too short to continue to play something that I didn’t even find fun. My stack of shame is too tall for that.

So I went back to Kingdoms of Amalur, and of course I did nothing but side quests and faction quests for several hours. I know there’s a real story in here somewhere, but I’m having a lot of fun not progressing the story.

And then everything screeched to a halt on Saturday, when I received my review copy of Binary Domain. Yeah, I know it’s late, but better late than never. Binary Domain reminds me A LOT of Gears of War–it even has a character who looks and acts like Cole Train–just with robots instead of ugly creatures. However, the game’s premise is far more interesting than just shooting robots, albeit if that is all it was, I’d be happy with that too. I won’t get into it any further as I’m playing it for review for GA, but I will say that the three hours I spent playing BD greatly surpassed the 10 hours I committed to Syndicate. Gameplay is fun, dialogue is funny, and the story is actually intriguing. Such a shame that the game did not sell well. I’m hoping it will turn into a sleeper hit, because I don’t think SEGA gets enough credit for its shooters.

I finished Mass Effect 3, what, 2 weeks ago? At least. And yes, there is no strategy guide review to speak of as of yet. It is coming, I swear, I’m just having motivation issues in writing it. There’s nothing wrong with the guide at all, so please don’t think that. The problem lies with me, in that I’m so sick of discussing Mass Effect 3 and anything related to it.

I honestly thought I would never utter those words. Me, sick of discussing anything Mass Effect? That has to be impossible, right? Sadly, it’s true, and it started way back before I even finished the game.

As I’m sure you’re all well aware, less than a week after the game’s release, the Internet was on fire with those who hated the ME3 ending. Not only did they hate it, but they were demanding that BioWare give them a new ending. I’m all for criticizing media–obviously–but to demand a new ending? Really? No one has the right to demand a new ending. If we do, then I want a new ending to those Twilight books as well as those hours of my life back. In response to the Retake Mass Effect movement (was it really yours in the first place?), I created a support group for BioWare’s ME3 ending. It wasn’t about liking the ending; it was about respecting BioWare and their decisions on how to end their story, because let’s face it: it is their story.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t long before I became a complete babysitter for the group, stopping fights, banning trolls, and defending myself when I was called a complete idiot, accused of being in BioWare’s pocket, and told I wasn’t a real a fan. Right after I finished the game–and for the record, I loved the ending–I wrote my review for Gaming Angels and then took a nap for 3 hours so I could decompress everything Mass Effect.

And then I did two ME3 spoiler casts. And then I was asked to be on two others (of which I turned down). And then some of my other friends wanted to discuss the endings. And then my non-ME gamer friends were calling me, asking me what the hell was going on.

So you can see…I’m just really, really tired of talking about it.

It’s not a good excuse I know, and I owe Prima Games a huge apology for procrastinating. My goal is to write it this week. I already have the outline laid out for it, I have the scans completed, and I know what I’m going to say. I just need the power to turn off my ME3 apathy for an hour.

Thank you all for your patience.

Last week I did go on a paradox-ending spree with Final Fantasy XIII-2 during my lunch breaks, and I have gotten all of them except for the secret ending after the final boss. To get that, you need all 160 fragments first, and even though I only have 20 to go, I just don’t see that happening. I could see myself getting 159 of the fragments, but I’m fairly certain I will never get the fragment for adding every possibly monster into my datalog. As I’ve said before, it’s because I don’t really have that time to do so and because I don’t care. It’s mostly because I don’t care. There are a couple of other gold trophies I’d like to try to get, but if they don’t happen, they don’t. I shall survive.

So once I was done with that (last Tuesday), I started to use LEGO Harry Potter during lunch breaks. It’s really the best game for lunch, as each little sequence takes me about 30 minutes or less, depending on how many collectibles I’m able to get with just the story abilities. For the first time, I believe a platinum trophy is within my grasp. Okay, that’s not true. I could get a platinum in inFamous 2 or Uncharted 3 if I really wanted to, but eh, I’ve spent so much time with those games, I don’t want to spend any more just to try to get so many kills with this weapon or that. But with LEGO games, I usually 100% them anyway, so I should be able to do so for LEGO Harry Potter 1-4 and LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. Then I can consider getting the next LEGO Harry Potter game to fill in the next round of lunches.

Sadly, this past week kept me so busy at night that I was not able to work on any games I’m working on for guide reviews. Unacceptable, I quite agree. And I do need to get a move on, as The Witcher 2 releases for Xbox 360 in a couple of weeks. I will finish that game before Ross finishes his PC version; that’s a sports promise.