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Monday Gaming Diary: No gaming whilst on vacation

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Minecraft Card Game

So this is fun…

I packed up the PlayStation 4 and two games for my little trip down to see family for Christmas. I figured I would be wide awake at night since my parents go to bed at 9 and I’d have plenty of time to play some Just Cause 3. I didn’t count on the youngest staying up as late with me, the little devil. So while the PS4 was unpacked and set up, it was never turned on once. That was a little disappointing, but it’s not like I wasted any of that time.

Of course I spent time with family, but when everyone else went to bed and it was just me and the toddler, I read every night. I had a goal this year to read two books a month, and as of Sunday morning, I have read 23 books. It’s possible I could get that last book read in three days, but I’m not counting on it. With New Year’s and the kids still home from school, I’m not positive I’ll have all that time to start and finish a new book unless it’s 75 pages long. Maybe I should look for a novella and cheat a little.

The eldest and I did play a card game he received for Christmas, and we had a lot of fun playing it! It’s a Minecraft card game, and it’s one of those with rather complicated rules, but once you get it, it’s so easy to play. I kept trying to get him to play some more, but he got too frustrated after losing twice in a row. The kid doesn’t understand that it’s about crafting as much as you can to get points. Instead, he only wants to mine for rare materials and craft with those. As a result, by the time he collects enough to craft two items, I’m only two points away from winning. Naturally he’s so stubborn, he won’t listen to my advice. Surely he’ll learn eventually, right? I really want to play again.

We’ll be back on the road on Monday for home, where I plan to use the time the office is closed to wrap up a strategy guide or 10. I hope everyone had an awesome holiday! It’s hard to believe 2016 is just this week!

Monday Gaming Diary: Overwhelmed by Xenoblade Chronicles X

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WVW69ipemYgplUfOaMIf you watched my unboxing video of the Collector’s Edition of the Xenoblade Chronicles X strategy guide, then you witnessed first hand how blown away I was by how massively large this game is. Well, as I learned last week, that pales in comparison to experiencing how large the game is first hand.

I haven’t played much of the game thanks to other real life matters that no one cares about. However, in the two hours that I played (which yes, included over 30 minutes of character creation), I was more overwhelmed with the amount of exploration presented than I ever was with Skyrim. And like Skyrim, just because you can reach one area doesn’t mean that you should, as you won’t be powerful enough to survive any enemy encounters. My eldest kept saying I was terrible at the game, but I had to tune him out because I was so overwhelmed. I almost wished I was still on Xanax, as I needed a bit of a time out and breather.

I took some time out on Sunday, while I was recovering from my half marathon that morning, and read the strategy guide a bit to get more acquainted with the game. It’s not entirely the exploration that’s barring me; the combat also has a bit of a steep learning curve. I didn’t understand what I was doing, and I did not feel that the game adequately explained it either. The strategy guide’s primer was a big help in this regard, and it calmed me down about how large the game is. This book may be my personal security blanket while I get through this game.

I’m really ready to get back to that game today, as well as get a jump on the Halo 5: Guardians and Rise of the Tomb Raider strategy guide reviews.

This will be the last week of steady content for the holidays, so I hope everyone enjoys and has a great holiday!

Monday Gaming Diary – Just Cause 3 Just Cuz

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I played an absolute load of Just Cause 3 over the weekend. The game doesn’t take itself seriously, and it’s fun to play a game that encourages mass destruction. There’s even a line in the game where Rico’s friend tells him they can rebuild anything he destroys. Thanks for the free pass for as many explosions as I can handle!

I really wasn’t prepared for how big the game is, however. I knew Just Cause games were large, but my jaw fell open when I zoomed out to see the size of the map, including how many extraneous islands were just hanging out kilometers away from the large islands. This is going to take quite a while to clear out, but it will be a lot of fun to do so. Many claim that it’s repetitive, but it’s the same style as an Assassin’s Creed or inFamous game. If those type of open world games don’t appeal to you, then this certainly won’t either.

Me? I’m having a blast, a literal blast, mapping out where I need to go next to make things go boom. Even my eldest loves watching me play. He likes to point out what I need to shoot next, asks what I can blow up, and laughs at my crazy stunts and deaths.

I’d love to say more, but I’m supposed to be reviewing it tonight/tomorrow, so I’ll have to share what I think during this week’s podcast/vidcast.

Also played a bit more of Dragon Quest Heroes before my reviews director yelled at me for not playing Just Cause 3. It’s definitely DQ meets Dynasty Warriors, just with some RPG elements thrown in, including crafting and side quests. It’s a delightful game, and I’m having tons of fun with it.

The strategy guide for Just Cause 3 came in on Saturday (UPS has been horrible this last week with my deliveries, so who knows when I’ll get the guide for Xenoblade Chronicles X), and I have used it a bit, especially with the maps. I hope to get that guide done and reviewed this week as well.

It’s December, but the fun ain’t stopping yet!

Monday Gaming Diary: Finished Game Blues

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Since school was closed all last week, I had plenty of time to wrap up Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, which I did for the most part. The only things I haven’t done are the Queen Victoria missions you receive after completing the game, and the Dreadful Crimes DLC. Other than that, all collectible blips are complete.

Farewell, London. For now.

Farewell, London. For now.

On the one hand, I’m pretty darn stoked, because that means I can finally write up the review of the strategy guide, but on the other hand, I’m super bummed my time is pretty much over in London. I could do the Dreadful Crimes DLC, and I know I have other DLC coming with the Season Pass, but it’s time for me to move on. Jacob and Evie stopped the Templars’ evil plot, the present day story set up future games, and all secrets have been unlocked. There’s nothing major left for me to do.

When I realized it was pretty much over, I instantly became sad. I’m typically thrilled when I finish a game, but I enjoyed this one so much, I’m not ready for the overall story to be over. I have my fingers crossed rather hard that the Season Pass includes more story-based DLC, like Ubisoft provided with the Dead Kings DLC for AC Unity.

Although I suppose I should just suck it up and move on to Dragon Age Inquisition, The Witcher 3, or Mad Max, the other three massive open world games I have just waiting for me to finish. So many blips in those as well, and I have this mighty need to clear the blips. I did go back to DAI after Thanksgiving since I was kid-free for three days, and the desire to remove blips was strong once again. However, I was getting ideas on how Chris might approach certain situations as Vlad the Heartless, and the thought of starting a playthrough as a heartless bastard made me giggle. I may do that later as a Qunari, since they don’t seem to have many fucks to give. Naturally, I’ll be doing this with all of the spare time I have.

Monday Gaming Diary: While all the cool kids are playing Fallout 4

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Each time I fire up my PlayStation 4, nearly all of my logged on friends are playing Fallout 4. One is playing Tales of Xilia 2, because she has other issues, but most are lost in the Wasteland. I have different issues; I’m playing the hell out of Assassins’ Creed Syndicate.

CLEAR ALL THE THINGS!

CLEAR ALL THE THINGS!

Some of it is for strategy guide review purposes, and some of it is just for me. I really wanted to clear out all of the regions with my gang, and I was going to take the time to do that regardless. I still plan to do that with Mad Max eventually. I also wanted to get all of the collectibles, scratch that, most of the collectibles, and the strategy guide is helping me do just that. While you can buy treasure maps to highlight most of the collectibles, such as the pressed flowers, locked chests, and beer bottles, you have to use real money (or earn a crap ton of Helix points) to buy the maps marking the Secrets of London and Queen Victoria’s letters. Why use real money when I have a strategy guide? This is exactly how I looked into the reliability and usefulness of all of the book’s maps.

I have one more area I need to fully explore, and then I’m ready to review this one and move on to Halo 5: Guardians and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

I’ve been playing a lot of TriForce Heroes as well. When I say “a lot of,” I mean that pick it up a few times during the day to see if maybe this time is the one time I’ll get the Serpent Fangs to craft the Cozy Parka. I kept a tally of how many times I played level 2 of the Ice Caverns–Snowfall Ravine–and it was the 10th time that finally yielded the coveted Serpent Fangs. Now I’m ready to continue, and Garitt Rocha better be damn right about this Cozy Parka. I could probably play the Snowfall Ravine in my sleep at this point. The eldest watched me during one of my sessions and he commented how I was really good at the game (he happened to watch the one time I never once got injured). I replied that it’s amazing how good you are at something when you practice so much. Perhaps he will take that to heart for his own endeavors.

*Cue “the more you know” jingle*

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving (if you live in the US) this week. If you don’t, I hope you have a fantastic week! No vidcast this week, but I think Chris will be posting some of his videos from his Extra Life streams and I will be hard at work reviewing guides. Chris has said he doesn’t want to carry over any guides into 2016, and I’d love to do the same!

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