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Gaming Diary: A Bit of Everything Across the Board

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One thing I really love about the Switch is that it’s a handheld console. It’s easy for me to pick it up and take it to the couch and play while my family watches TV. That way, if someone needs something, I can easily pause it and get up and help out. My consoles are all upstairs in my office, so if I go play on those in the evenings or on weekends, I feel like I’m abandoning everyone. Also, it’s not as easy for me to take care of little things like cleaning up a mess of spilled milk, fold laundry, or answer a child’s question. If I’m upstairs, that means people yell for my attention, and I’m not a fan of yelling up the stairs.

Splatoon 2

So in the evenings and on weekends, if there’s some gaming time, I’ll grab my Switch for Splatoon 2 action. After finally replacing my Vita charging cable (No idea where the other disappeared to. I know it’s not in Japan.), I’ve picked back up Tokyo Xanadu as well. I kind of want to finish that game, although it’s getting hard to want to when the story and gameplay grows stale. The Eclipse dungeons are becoming more and more puzzle platformers, and I’m not a fan of that style with my action-RPGs. It’s why I had to sadly abandon Ys: Oath in Felghana.

Speaking of Ys, I’m back on the Ys VIII train as well. I can only play that one during the day when I wrap up other work, and I think I’m 2/3 of the way finished with it. I have some areas I can’t explore yet due to missing adventure gear, but I’m hopeful I’ll come across it soon. I am nervous that I’m missing so much gear, however. I’m getting this distinct feeling that the story pursuit of the game is only 1/3 of what it really offers. I could have another 50 hours of exploration waiting for me, which, in reality, isn’t that bad of a thing. I like exploration almost to a fault.

Gaming Diary: We’re Back for Extra-Life!

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Our little core group from the EvilCast days has decided to get back together for one more reunion for the Extra Life marathon. One last hangout in Iowa before everyone officially parts ways from the state. Blake already moved out of the Buckeye State, but Chris won’t be there for much longer. This is our big hurrah together, and we can’t think of a better way to do so than to play video games for 24 hours and raise money for children’s hospitals.

Extra Life 2017

We have individual pages and a team page if you’d like to donate to us overall or individually. Or if you just want to cheer us on in our Twitch stream, link to be provided later, we’d love that too. We just want to play video games together and hopefully raise money for sick kids. Not sure exactly what I’m going to play, but I know it will be an RPG, that’s for sure. Jen might kill me if it’s not Dragon Age: Inquisition. My first Extra Life in Iowa was playing Dragon Age: Origins, so it might be fun to finish it with DAI.

This weekend, though, I finally played with my Switch! It’s so sad it took me this long to do it, but I played it most of the time when I wasn’t doing the motherly thing. I played Splatoon 2, which is a massive improvement over the first game. I should know, since I have to play the first game often as my youngest always wants to play it and well, he’s rather terrible at it. I have no problems letting him be terrible and recover from it, but he always asks for help and I can’t say no.

The strategy guide is a huge help when it comes to collectibles and boss prep. I’ll actually have a strategy guide review soon! Until then, I has more ocatarians to smother in ink.

Gaming Diary: A Pillar of the RPG Community

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The console version of Pillars of Eternity definitely has its share of problems, mostly from the translation to console from PC. However, it’s still great fun, and it’s almost more enjoyable the second time. Half of that is because I know a bit more of what is going on, and the half is because of the strategy guide. I had no idea how many side quests I missed completely the first go around. And do you know what side quests do? Rake in the XP. And what does that do? It makes the main quest ten times easier.

Pillars of Eternity complete edition

So uplifting.

I have a few gripes about the Pillars of Eternity strategy guide, but I’ll get into those in a full review.

More than anything, I’m just super happy that this incredible cRPG is now available for all gamers. The better experience is, by far, on PC, but not everyone likes playing on PC or even has a proper gaming PC. That’s one thing with consoles—you don’t need to worry about specs for your games. Just pop in the disc (or download it) and go. All RPG fans, especially those who enjoyed the classic cRPGs like Icewind Dale and Baldur’s Gate, should give this game a try.

As I continue my trek through the PoE strategy guide, I have to turn my attention to the next review and get back to Splatoon 2 strategy guide. Splatoon is a rather amazing little shooter, and the sequel does it justice. Although, I have totally forgotten about Link to the Past. I left off at the Ice Palace. I hope my rhythm isn’t too messed up to not continue. If I have to start this game over again, I know I’ll never finish.

Gaming Diary: Remember that Pillars of Eternity Strategy Guide?

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Pillars of Eternity strategy guide

I reviewed Pillars of Eternity when it originally released for PC in 2015. I hailed it as a fantastic return to the cRPG genre, and an overall wonderful RPG. My boss argued with me when it came time for GOTY awards. I demanded PoE be the RPG of the Year. It’s releasing for PS4 at the end of this month, and guess who is reviewing it? THIS GAL.

Not sure if I announced here that I’ve returned to video games writing, but I have. I’m back with PlayStation Lifestyle, but this time in a more editorial capacity. I’m their copy editor and SEO wizard, which is how I started at Kombo all those years ago. I happen to also be an occasional reviewer and feature writer. It’s so nice to be back, and even nicer to be back in a slightly less stressful capacity. Plus, I really love editing. That helps so much.

I’m excited to come back to PoE and review it for a couple of reasons. For starters, I’d like to actually finish the game this time. Secondly, I’m stoked I can use my Pillars of Eternity strategy guide that Prima Games sent me awhile back! I always meant to use it to review the PC game, but you know how that goes. This is how the stack of shame comes to life when you review games and/or have any sort of busy life.

So far, the book has been a fantastic companion. I used it for character creation as well as double-checking some of my route decisions. This time, I don’t want to miss picking up a character before tackling the stronghold. I did that when I first played on PC, and honestly, I should award myself a medal for defeating that first boss with only three people in my party. Yes, it took multiple tries. I nearly rage quit. I paused so much to dole out orders to my team. Imagine how stupid I felt (and yet proud) when I learned there are two other party members to recruit BEFORE tackling the stronghold boss. It’s amazing I’m allowed to play video games at all, actually.

Gaming Diary: What I Played on My Vacation

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Tokyo Xanadu

And I’m back from Japan! I’m jet-lagged as hell, and I’m doing practically everything I can to stay awake. The urge to nap is strong, especially when you work from home and your bed is just a few yards away. I’ve napped over the last two days, and I really need to buck the trend if I’m ever going to fully be on US time. International travel wreaks havoc on the internal clock. Good thing it’s all worth it in the end.

I brought all three of my handhelds with me—the 3DS, Vita, and Switch. Sadly, the Switch was never turned on, yet again. Both the other handhelds got plenty of use though, especially the 3DS. I carted it everywhere with me all in the name of Street Passes. Oddly enough, I didn’t get as many Street Passes this time as I did six years ago. I guess the allure of Street Passes has worn off in Japan as much as it has here. Plenty of Europeans vacationing there had the same idea as I, so I probably tagged as many of them as I did Japanese residents. I finished all of my Mii Plaza Puzzles, so that’s really all I cared about anyway.

Every night and while traveling on the Shinkansen, I played Tokyo Xanadu on the Vita. Such a fun little action RPG, and it’s ideal for pick-up and play moments, such as traveling.

When I returned, I had the Splatoon 2 strategy guide waiting on me. Now the Switch WILL be turned on! Can’t believe I’m finally finding time to play my new console. Life is ridiculous at times, I swear.

I do want to thank my fabulous partner-in-crime in this venture, Chris, for filling in for me while I was away. I couldn’t do this site without him.

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