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The Corner of Randomness: Commence Con Season

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PAX-SouthIt’s that glorious time of year when conventions of all kinds start kicking off. Everything from geeky pastimes to boring “work” related subjects seem to have a special convention over the next few months. Heck, even the fearless Keri is off to PAX South this week….and I ENVY HER! I love this time of year!

I love cons. While I have never been to something as kick-ass as San Diego Comic Con or E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), I have been to Gen Con and a few smaller gatherings. From a spectator standpoint, I always get excited over the news, trailers, demos, and announcements that trickle out over the few days these events happen. E3, PAX, and SDCC always come with a great amount of excitement and anticipation, even if you’re not in attendance. Thank you online streaming for virtually putting me in places I couldn’t travel to.

The things I enjoy most about attending a convention is the connections and friendships that are forged there. The fact that hundreds, or thousands in some cases, of people with similar interests gather to celebrate their love of this or that is just so intoxicating. I stay up way too late, party beyond my limits, and soak in all the endorphins of bliss. It’s a time to enjoy that which I love without caring about the outside world. These events always reinvigorate my love of my pastimes. It is just plain fun!

I hope Keri has a great time at PAX South, and hopefully she can avoid the PAX Pox Plague. I look forward to chatting with her next week and hearing all the fun stories she will hopefully have to share. Now I am curious. What cons are you most excited for? Is there one that you refuse to miss? What do you most enjoy about something such as BlizzCon/E3/PAX/GDCC/SDCC and so on?

Monday Gaming Diary: Broke One Resolution for the Inquisition

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sep_29_-_keyart_groupWell that didn’t take very long. I resolved to not start any new games (other than what I have to for work) until I wrapped up the strategy guides I still need to review from 2014. After completing Dragon Age 2, the allure was just to strong for me to hold my ground. I had to play Dragon Age Inquisition, I had to know where the story was going, and I had to see if it would be as great as Dragon Age Origins. I never, never should have started up that game.

I only got about an hour and a half in (it took me nearly 30 minutes to build my character), and I know I’m in trouble. I ceased all desires to do anything else but play DAI. I had to force myself to save and turn it off to go pick up my kids after debating asking my husband to leave work early to do it for me. Even eating seems like it could get in the way of proper DAI time. When I got in review codes for work that included a hefty embargo date of Monday morning, I instantly became sad. I don’t want to stop playing for work! So I may get fired, but my boss will understand, right? It’s all in the name of Dragon Age! He’ll get it!

I ran it by him because I am a good little employee, and while he did understand, he said absolutely not. As a result, I have not touched DAI since I started it that one day. And I really want to today, like nothing else. I posted two reviews today and wrote a couple of news stories; that’s enough to call it quits for the day to play DAI, right? I mean seriously, Thedas ain’t gonna save itself…

The Corner of Randomness: Nostalgia

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AGDQLast week saw the return of the Awesome Games Done Quick marathon. This is a weeklong event that raises money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. It is essentially gamer’s speed running their favorite games, many of which are old school games. This event, combined with my recent trip to Arizona and playing GoldenEye 007 with my brother-in-law got me all kinds of nostalgic.

Last week I saw many games that I have cursed, raged at, thrown controllers to, and quit in anger just get utterly destroyed in record times. Heck, even my beloved Dark Souls II was no match as it was completed in under 30 minutes. Well, that was thanks to the use of glitches, but still. During this event, nothing was sacred, not even the highly beloved Final Fantasy VII.

I watch speed runners on Twitch.TV from time to time. Their skills and in-depth knowledge of the game always astounds me. While it is improbable that I’ll ever take up speed running myself, there is some joy in watching others obliterate games that I found too difficult or time consuming. On the flip side, watching various games of my childhood played also brings back so many memories. Last week was a great trip down memory lane, and a testament of just how awesome the video games, and gamer’s, are.

Monday Gaming Diary: Dragon Age 2 Was As Bad As Advertised

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Meredith_Orsino_interludeI ran through Dragon Age 2 far more quickly than I thought I would. My final time was 25 hours and I did almost every side quest available. I did all of the companion quests, anyway, even though I utterly despised most of my party. And when I say despised, I mean I tried to find ways to get rid of them. Like when Merrill killed the Keeper in her companion quest? I went through all of the dialogue options to find a way to turn her over to the elves to deal with. They didn’t want her either, dammit.

That said, I admit I had more fun than I thought I would…until the very last mission. My exact response has been immortalized on Twitter:

 

My jaw was on the ground for pretty much the rest of the game. I couldn’t believe it could go so badly and have so many plot holes. I also couldn’t believe how it continued to get worse.

I chose to side with the mages because 1) Hawke’s sister was a mage who had no part of blood magic and 2) I wanted to complete my romance with Anders even though he is a murdering a-hole. I did complete that romance, but I was ready to stab him in the face right after I unlocked that Achievement. You were so awesome in Awakening, man! How could you?

However, I am tempted to redo my ending and side with the templars, even though it makes absolutely no sense to do so with Bethany in the mages’ circle. I mean, it’s either that or Hawke is a mage and why would mage Hawke agree to kill all mages? Perhaps I should have done the playthrough where Bethany gets blighted and has to become a Grey Warden in order to side with the templars without killing my sister or being a total hypocrite. Oh well. I’m not going to go that far back in my playthrough to iron out the plot issues. After watching the First Enchanter turn to blood magic for really no reason, yeah, maybe all of you should be culled. And then when I played through the Legacy DLC and learned where the Blight first came from…yeah, mages seem to be the root of all evil.

Haven’t fully decided yet if I’m going to be that committed to seeing the different endings. I know it all goes the same in the end, but it’s a matter of how quickly the mage revolt spreads through Thedas.

Or maybe I’ll just shrug it all off, deal with letting Anders live and the crappiness of the mages and import that game into Inquisition when I play that…after I get through my 2014 guides. I’m going to try to keep that one resolution, by golly!

The Corner of Randomness: SGR Goals for 2015

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One day, you will be mine!

One day, you will be mine!

I’m not a New Year’s Resolutions kind of person. I’ve tried it once, and it didn’t really end well. Instead, I’m more of a goals fan. With goals, I easily come up with smaller achievements that help complete the end goal I set out to do. Also, at the end of the year I can look at all the steps I knocked out along the way, and regardless if that goal is done or not, I feel confident I honestly worked at making things happen. With that, I have some goals I am hoping to achieve for SGR this year.

Produce a better video/podcast
I know the SGR Coffee Break is just getting going, but I’d like to make it better. I’d like to improve the video and audio quality, and that will take some work to iron out. I’m aiming to come up with a consistent intro. I hope we can also release an SGR Coffee Break every week, even when one of us are traveling. This of course means that Keri and I will need to try and create a bit of a surplus of these, but it shouldn’t be too hard to do.

Finish strategy guides quicker
I carried over one guide review from 2014. I’m not doing my best at knocking it out either. THANKS ELITE: DANGEROUS! However, I would like to keep my backlog of guides to a minimum, all while providing solid reviews. I will have work harder at shunning the new shiny to make this happen, but having unfinished guides judging me while I play something else is a bit unnerving. Dang guides are so judgmental…and evil.

Keep SGR a place that celebrates all things video games
While I can’t control Keri and what she boots out the door for the readers, I hope to keep my articles positive, even in unhappy/drama ridden times. There are enough places on the Internet that spew vile and hate, and I don’t want my stuff on SGR to be the same. I plan to keep my articles focused on the things I enjoy about this industry. Yeah, I’m sure I’ll still have to judge a bad strategy guide here or there, but I feel there is a way to creatively criticize without being mean about it.

Platinum a LEGO game
Right, this one is more for me, but what the heck. I’ve never achieved platinum status in a LEGO game, and I hope to do that this year. I need to figure out which of the many LEGO titles I want to attempt this with, but they all seem pretty fun in some form. Maybe I can even document my progress towards getting that shiny trophy!

So there are my goals for SGR in 2015. Nothing overly complicated, but they all require some effort. Here is to a strong, and glorious, 2015!

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