Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

Monday Gaming Diary: Not Enough Gaming. Boo.

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Ys: Memories of Celceta Skill Finish

I am going to get this Trophy even if it kills me.

I hope everyone who celebrated this past week had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Boxing Day, etc. We traveled to see my family and I was stoked and prepared for some serious handheld gaming. I had the Vita, the 3DS, and an N7 canvas bag with strategy guides, notebook paper, and a tablet. I was ready to rock out some gaming and get some strategy guides reviewed when everyone went to bed at 9 p.m.

And then real life happened. Man, what a bitch that is.

My baby son got sick the day we arrived. I’ve been suffering from a chest cold for the past two weeks, but I haven’t had a fever or really anything too serious, so I’ve been taking it in stride. My body decided to pass it on to my infant. Each day it got worse with deeper and deeper coughs, poor sleep, and lots of crying. Since he didn’t get much sleep, I didn’t get much sleep. My husband ended up sharing a room with our eldest son while I shared a bed with the baby. Of course, he couldn’t get settled down enough for bed until close to midnight.

Poor baby is going to the doctor today as the cough has gotten worse (I think it’s croup now). Hooray.

So, the only gaming I was able to accomplish was some Ys: Memories of Celceta on the drive back home. Yay for productivity.

As such, I’m not going to get my goal done for the end of the year in reviewing all of my 2013 strategy guides by the end of the year. However, I do have my strategy guide of the year picked, and I’m going to write that up following the new year. You know, when nobody really cares.

Keep your fingers crossed that what my baby has isn’t that serious.

I hope your holiday break was far less eventful and included far more gaming!

Monday Gaming Diary: Handheld Holiday Prep

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PS-Vita-Christmas-PresentThis year we’re trekking down to Houston to spend Christmas with my family (it’s really all about the baby to them), and I’m so stoked I have two handhelds with games (and a strategy guide!) I can take with me.

The Vita is perhaps the most important instrument at my disposal. Not only will I be able to play lots more Ys: Memories of Celceta with it, but I also plan to grind a little more in Dragon’s Crown to hopefully get past that damn dragon I’m having trouble with (stupid, stupid timed-levels), but I’m going to try out connecting with my PS4 back home. I haven’t played a lick of either Resogun or Contrast, and what better time to do it than when everyone else has gone to bed at 9 p.m.?

I’m also going to pack my 3DS, which, for this site, is the most important handheld. Along with it shall go The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and its corresponding strategy guide. Now that I’ve reviewed most of the strategy guides on my to-do list (the review for The Wonderful 101 should go up today), it’s time to focus on this beauty, something I deeply regret is just now getting my attention. Stupid fall launch and all of those games eating up my time.

I’m going to pack all of this in my special N7 calibration kit messenger bag. Handhelds, strategy guide, chargers…it may get quite full. Heck, I may even throw in the strategy guides for Wind Waker HD so I can start writing up that review. So excited to get these things done so I can start the new year somewhat fresh for strategy guides.

I hope everyone has safe holiday travels and a fantastic holiday, no matter which one you celebrate.

Monday Gaming Diary: Peggle-tastic Weekend

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Peggle 2

I admit that sometimes I am really spiteful and mean to my friends. I swear I only do it out of love, and I only do it to those who can take it. If I don’t like you, I pretty much just ignore you. So yes, go on ahead and feel sorry for my husband if you must. The recent victim of my spiteful love has been my podcasting cohort and fellow writer here, Blake Grundman.

Blake is a huge lover of Peggle and pretty much everything pinball. Peggle 2 released last week for Xbox One, a game I know he’s been clamoring for. However, the guy doesn’t have an Xbox One and probably won’t have one for a little while, no matter how much it kills him he can’t play his beloved Peggle.

So what do I do as the super supportive friend that I am? I check to see how many Xbox Points I still have, see I have enough to get the game for free, and then buy it. Just because I can and he can’t.

And I’ve been letting him know just that. I’ve even uploaded a couple of videos I recorded from the Game DVR to show it off specifically to him and show how terrible I am just to twist in the knife a little more.

I might have gotten the game for spite purposes, but I’ve ended up really enjoying it more than I thought I would. I played the first Peggle a little bit. I have in on my computer and iPhone, but I never got very far. Usually by the third Peggle Master I’d stop playing and move on to something else. After only two play sessions of Peggle 2, I’m almost done with the game. It is a little short, but I’ve gone through 4.5 Peggle Masters. I am having that much fun sucking at this game.

I even introduced the game to my eldest son, who now loves watching me play it so much, he asked if he could have it on his iPad. Watching him get so excited every time he hears “Ode to Joy” makes me tingle with glee. All I need is for him to not give up on Super Mario Bros. after dying on the first level and I’ll have unlocked that “Gamer Parent” Achievement.

As I said, I have uploaded a couple of Peggle 2 videos from the Xbox One’s upload feature, which is really a lot of fun to play around with. Here are two incredibly lucky shots I posted to my personal YouTube account. If you see any “thumbs down” on these videos, they’re most likely from Blake.

Monday Gaming Diary: Finally Done with Game Reviews (for now)

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Day One Achievement

Going to remove all Xbox friends who don’t have this.

Maybe reviewing video games right now when I have a needy baby isn’t such a great idea. So many late nights, so little sleep, and I’m too old to continue in this trend weekly when I have two little ones who constantly need something, the little jerks. But the point is that I’m done with the mad rush game reviews so I can get back on track with reviewing strategy guides, the main reason why I even bother sticking around with the internet.

I hope all my American readers had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I hope my non-American readers just had a great weekend. I finished Ryse: Son of Rome super late on Wednesday night and then wrote a review right after I returned home from the turkey coma. So glad I didn’t submit it that day, because the turkey coma made a chunk of it sound like it was a turkey coma.

But now that I’ve had some time with the Xbox One, I have to say that I am satisfied with my purchase. I don’t think the Xbox One is as innovative as the PlayStation 4, and that’s mostly due to the new DualShock 4 controller. The controller for the Xbox One isn’t pretty much the same as I’ve been playing with the Xbox 360. However, it’s weighted a bit differently, so it doesn’t feel weird in my hands the way the Xbox 360 controller did before I bought the keyboard attachment. Since the Xbox One doesn’t have cool smartphone/tablet connectivity like the PS4, I will buy a keyboard attachment for the Xbox One controller as soon as possible. For those who don’t know, you can link up your smartphones to the PS4 and use an app as the keyboard. It is so, so nice.

I also admit that I kind of like the Kinect connectivity. It’s stupid, but I giggle that I can turn on the Xbox by just walking into the room and telling it to turn on. I even like that it recognizes me, as creepy as that kind of is. Ryse implemented the Kinect voice commands as well, and I felt stupid doing it at first, but when your front line is getting hammered because you aren’t telling your archers to shoot, you get over that quickly.

This week the plan is to really buckle down with the strategy guides I have left to work on, and that means shoving my son away from the Wii U for some Wonderful 101. Okay, that’s not true. While he’s playing on the Wii U, I’ll work on A Link Between Worlds and then I’ll kick him off the Wii U when it’s close to bed time. My progress on the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 strategy guide is also coming along and I have so, so many thoughts on that. Not sure if that is good or bad.

Oh and I may be starting a new video game blog project. Because, oh, you know, I don’t have enough on my plate.

Monday Gaming Diary: We are in OVERDRIVE

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crunchSo somehow I’ve agreed to reviewing two next-gen games when I still have three other strategy guides to review. Oh yeah and I have one more coming in this week. I think it’s official I’m insane.

Or maybe we’re all insane here. In case anyone thinks we’ve had a dearth of content lately in terms of strategy guide reviews, let me first blame my new baby for that, and then present a list of what we have in the crockpot that will get posted by the end of the year.

And before you ask, of course I’m not doing all these myself. I’m not that insane.

Here’s what we have to come before New Year’s Eve 2013:

  • Battlefield 4
  • Call of Duty Ghosts
  • Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix
  • The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker
  • The Wonderful 101
  • Mario & Luigi Dream Team
  • Pokemon X & Y
  • Borderlands 2 GOTY Edition
  • Batman: Arkham Origins
  • Super Mario World 3D
  • Assassin’s Creed IV
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

No next-gen guides, and I’m sorry about that. I’m the only one on staff who picked up an Xbox One, and uh, Dead Rising 3 would possibly terrify me. I’m that much of a wuss about these types of games. I even turned down reviewing the game for money. That’s how much of a baby I am, and I’m okay with that.

Please wish me luck this week with both work and strategy guide reviews. My eldest son’s school is closed all week for the Thanksgiving holiday, so yeah, I may have some issues this week getting anything done, including taking a shower.

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