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Monday Gaming Diary: Still No Destiny

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So. Much. Fingerpointing.

So. Much. Fingerpointing.

I know it completely befuddles numerous friends of mine that I’ve had a copy of Destiny, the hottest game going on right now, since before the game hit store shelves and I haven’t played it once. I told thedailycrate.com that I would review it, but a few things have gotten in the way of pursuing the game further:

  • I’m a big procrastinator.
  • Diablo 3
  • I’m also reviewing Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright.

I am not far from platinuming in D3, so I try to take some time to play that every day because how else will I amass that gold in time? It also didn’t help that my eldest child said he wanted to play Diablo 3 with me, so we created a Monk for him (or as he calls it, a ninja) and I gladly ran around Sanctuary with him. He needed a lot of coaching, and he doesn’t completely understand the cooldown system yet, but he seems to have fun. The couch co-op is definitely a different experience in the game, and I wasn’t prepared for how LEGO-esque it was with the camera and pulling characters in directions. Of course, since he’s 6, he has the attention span of a gnat, so after 45 minutes, he was ready to go play with something else, whereas I was ready to keep going while the baby napped. Ah well. I had a dessert I had to make for a little dinner party anyway.

Last night, I decided it would be a great time to work on my review for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright while watching the Sunday night football game. Next thing I knew, I looked up at the clock and noticed it was 1:30 a.m. How did that happen?

I haven’t enjoyed the last two Professor Layton games, and this one feels like a call back to the first games, but with a bit of Phoenix Wright gameplay  thrown in. I’ve never played a Phoenix Wright game before, so this has been an entirely new experience for me, and one I’m not as adept at it as I am Professor Layton. I’ve used far more hint coins for help in the courtroom than solving puzzles.

And that’s all I want to play today. I mean, that is what I’m reviewing for work, so surely I could take off the rest of the day for more puzzle solving adventures? I can already hear my boss’s laughter.

Monday Gaming Diary: So. Close. To Platinuming Diablo 3.

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20140905_140403_AndroidI have a monstrous stack of shame. I have a game to review for work. And I received a copy of Destiny on Friday. So what have I been doing? I’ve been playing more Diablo 3. Seriously, someone needs to send help.

After I finished playing the game on Inferno mode, I wanted to see how hard it would be to get the main boss triumph challenges. I accidentally snagged all of the triumph challenges for Azmodan (cleverly called “Azmodone”), so hey, could I actually get the others? Turns out that when you’re a Paragon 3 and you turn the difficulty down to Easy, the other challenges are an absolute breeze to get. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Belial and the Butcher go down so quickly. Seriously, I think I fired off three crossbow bolts and set up only one turret before Belial went down, and the Butcher went down before I set the turret up.

Then I thought, wait…what other Trophies do I have left to try to get? There are a couple that will take awhile, mainly the one for collecting 5 million in gold. But I never once tried creating a hardcore character. I should at least try, right? Get those two trophies?

Well, I have three trophies left, and one is to get a hardcore character to level 30. My hardcore wizard (and the wizard is hellafun to play as, for the record) is at level 24. I can almost taste it. And then I’ll have to farm Act III on inferno mode several times for the gold. I can’t believe I’m going to do that, but the Platinum is RIGHT. THERE. It’s silly, I admit, but since I’m this close, I might as well go for it!

I can always work on my handheld review game while the family watches TV, right?

I’ll be wrapping this up soon so you guys won’t hear me talk about it anymore. Well, just not as much anyway. It’s in mah BLOOD, so it’s going nowhere.

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

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Photo Mode is fun.

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

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Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition (English)_20140823235909As 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!

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diablo-iii-ultimate-evil-edition-announced-for-ps4This 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.

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