Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

Monday Gaming Diary: San Diego Comic Con or Bust

By Leave a Comment

My first trip to SDCC was three years ago, and I swore I would never go back. The con is fun, but there are too many people, too many lines, and I don’t have the desire or will to sit in a panel room for six hours to see the one panel I really want to.  When I went in 2012, I remember the line for the Futurama panel that was at noon the following day closing at 3 a.m. the night/morning before. 3 a.m.! People are nuts, yo.

I do have some decent appointments for games that I didn’t see at E3, so I’m very pleased about that and I have a few fangirl opportunities to interview voice actors that I have loved for many, many years. I just need to sit down and write out my interview questions so I don’t sound like a complete idiot. I’m going to sound like an idiot, that’s a guarantee.

I am going to make this a bit more of a vacation than E3, though. I’m not going to have wall-to-wall appointments, for starters. I will see some panels that I want to see. I will wait in line for games if I have to. I’ll bring books, comics, and my 3DS. I want plenty of vegging out time. If there’s a pool at the hotel, I’m going to take advantage of it. And I’m bringing my PS4 so I can get in lots of LEGO Jurassic World in so I can review that guide. It’s still a work trip, but I will have more fun this time than I did at E3, a/k/a more down time.

Chris is also going to be on vacation, so SGR may be a little barren this week. But I’ll post anything new and exciting if I hear more guide news at the show!

The Corner of Randomness: Unboxing the Ant-Man Themed Marvel Collector Corps

By Leave a Comment

Time sure does fly when you’re busy, as it seems like just a few days ago I was unboxing the Avengers themed Marvel Collector Corps box. However fast or slow time feels to have passed, another glorious Marvel Collector Corps arrived at my door. That means it’s time to crack open this box and see what kinds of awesomeness await. Let’s get to it!

Monday Gaming Diary: Bravely Dafuq?

By Leave a Comment

Bravely DefaultI have a mutant power when it comes to video games. I have the ability to avoid all spoilers of any game. It doesn’t matter if I plan on playing it or not; I can somehow blank out all discussion of any potential spoilers. I played the original BioShock several years post release and was still surprised by the ending. Even though Blake for a year kept saying, “Would you kindly” during podcasts, I never picked up on it. It’s a goddamn gift.

Thus, I’ve managed to avoid something that several people have complained about with Bravely Default over the last couple of years. This is one of those times that a gift can be a curse.

As I mentioned over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to play Bravely Default instead of tablet or phone games. I’ve been pretty successful, but on Sunday, during naptime, I hit something I didn’t expect: having to replay virtually the entire game. I’ve logged in over 35 hours of the game thus far in my party’s attempt to reawaken all of the crystals (Square and their damn crystals), and after reawakening the last one, I’ve gone back in time and I have to reawaken them all over again. I snarked on Twitter over it, and a friend replied that I’d have to do it more than twice. I looked it up on GameFAQs, and sure enough, I have to awaken the crystals a grand total of four times.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I can handle some padding in games, but this is ridiculous. I’m annoyed about waking them again. I have zero interest about doing it two more times after that. How little story is there to force this? If it is necessary for the story and plenty is revealed during these tedious and repetitive boss battles, then I have to wonder how awful the story is. I’m honestly debating quitting and reading an online wiki, because I am curious about the life of one character. But is that one character’s tale worth repeating this plot device? Ugh, I have trouble caring.

This is lazy, even for Square Enix standards. Next thing I’ll hear is that you can only see a “good” ending if you complete the game to 100% or something like that. Please don’t tell me if that is the case. I don’t need my world shattered any further.

Maybe I should just go back to Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance or Final Fantasy X; Square Enix games that don’t entirely Square Enix themselves.

I need help.

Monday Gaming Diary: Post-E3 Haze

By Leave a Comment

It happens every year I return from the show; I step off the plane in some sort of post-show fog that I can’t shake for several days. Last year it took about 3 months, but I was also working 3-4 jobs back then. Since I’ve cut that down to 2, I hope that I can cut the fog time down as well. I simply don’t have the time to be caught up in that haze.

It’s partly because I have San Diego Comic Con coming up, something that I get close to canceling each day. But I know if I do, I’ll miss something huge for the company and then I’ll feel all sorts of guilty and blah blah blah.

But the other part is that I have so much to review! LEGO Jurassic World arrived the day before I left, so I have that strategy guide plus The Witcher 3, a few other reviews will possibly come in, and then I still have Final Fantasy XIV that I have hopes of playing. I don’t know when, but I have hopes of playing it.

I played way too much at E3 to go over here, but I will talk about it on the podcast this week. I can say that Prima Games has some exciting stuff in the works for everyone, and I got a chance to say hi to both Prima Games and old BradyGames folks. Both groups genuinely appeared to be pleased with their new strategy guide situation, and I talked to both excitedly about what’s coming up. And then I talked to one good friend at Prima Games for waaaaaaay too long about the extended universe of Halo lore. Poor guy had no idea what he was in for when he asked me about the Halo books.

I did do more than play on my Street Pass this trip though. I got back into Bravely Default for a little bit, and I’m going to try to pick up that game when I’m on the couch instead of Mortal Kombat Kard Game. Since I find the gameplay overly tedious in Bravely Default, picking it up in bursts seems to be the best course of action instead of playing it for hours at a time. It’s hard to get too burned out on the turn-based random encounters when you only play them a few times a day. I do risk getting bored of looking at the same room all the time, but we’ll see how this goes. I feel the need to get this one finished so I can move on to Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. Gotta get that one done before KH3 never releases.

Huge thanks to Chris for taking care of things while I was away. He and the gang did a great job covering E3 discussions. I wish I could have joined in, but I was unbelievably busy and in a room with unbelievably too many people. May try to make up for it at SDCC if there’s anything exciting to talk about. If not, oh well. We shall all move on!

Fingers crossed that this fog leaves me soon. I still have two more E3 previews to write and zero motivation for any of it. Thank God for LEGO Jurassic World.

The Corner of Randomness: E3 Impressions

By Leave a Comment

The E3 press conferences are now nothing more than a fading memory. While Keri got to watch them in person, I had to deal with crappy Twitch streams. Still, a lot of greatness was dropped this year. I think it’s time to chat about it, but I refuse to babble on about all of it by myself. Thus, I got with Blake and Ross to tackle the crazy amount of news that dropped over two days. We got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started!

Audio:

Video:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Top Posts & Pages