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While I Was on Vacation (I Decided to Give Away a Duke Nukem Guide)

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Hachiko at Shibuya Station

We're with HachikoFrom left to right: Me, Hachiko, My Bestie

I had an incredibly awesome time in Japan. So much so, that if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t speak the language beyond polite phrases, I’d want to stay there. We did as much as we could in the two weeks we were there, including two ubergeek trips to Akihabara, where I rounded out my love for Kingdom Hearts and Mass Effect by buying the Japanese versions of these games (and this includes the Final Mixes for KH). We saw Kamakura, Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Gardens, Shinjuku (I found Square Enix!), Shibuya, Akihabara, Meiji Temple, Osaka, Nakano, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Hakone. We’re already making plans to go back so we can spend more time in Kyoto and try to visit Hokkaido and Fukuoka, the two opposite ends of the country. When that will happen, we don’t know, as we’re quite broke now, and we have plans to see other parts of the world as well.

As you can imagine, we rode trains A LOT, so I packed my 3DS with me everyday and my friend kept her PSP handy. From the long plane ride to the numerous train trips and bullet train trips to gaming downtime every night, I 100%-ed in LEGO Star Wars III and LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, and I finished Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. I also picked back up Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days thanks to rediscovering my love for the franchise, and I’ve progressed to Day 321. That would be so nice to finish this game once an for all. I may make that my goal and priority for the summer. Sorry, Dragon Age and Darksiders. I’ll get to you two eventually.

Of course now that I am back, I have a crap ton of guides to look at. I have inFamous 2, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and Dungeon Siege III. In addition, I have guide reviews to post for LEGO Pirates, Brink, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. I received guides for Duke Nukem Forever while I was gone. One is going to a reviewer, but the other one is going out to all of you!

What better way to celebrate my return than with a strategy guide giveaway? If you want the strategy guide for Duke Nukem Forever, you have three ways to enter:

Winners will be picked by 4:30 pm CST and announced here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. So what are you waiting for? GO GET SOME!

 

E3 Wrap-Up and Sayonara

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E3logoAs usual, E3 was absolutely insane. I mistakenly thought that since this year I would be making my own schedule that it wouldn’t have been as chaotic. Silly, silly me. I had meant to write up what I saw, who I met with, etc. here but as you can see, it most certainly did not happen.

However, if you want to see what I wrote about E3 and what my compadres at Games are Evil had to say, then please visit our E3 section. I’m sure the guys will be adding more over the days to come after they’ve had a few more hours sleep, so if you like what they have to say, please keep coming back for more.

I would like to personally thank the representatives from Future Press, Prima Games, and BradyGames for taking time out of their very busy schedules to meet with me and totally geek out about all things guides and video games. I had an absolute blast meeting you all.

And that is it for me for a few weeks. My flight to Tokyo leaves tomorrow morning at 7:30, and I am not bringing the laptop or the iPad. I will, however, be taking with me a number of strategy guides to keep me entertained and working a little during the very long 12-hour flights.

See you all after June 25th!

Vacation Notice Heads Up

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Hey SGR readers–over the next several weeks, you may notice a major drop in posts, as in, there won’t be any posts at all. Do not think that SGR is going anywhere or that I’ve abandoned this little adventure in the slightest. I’m just going out of town from June 4-25.

I will be attending E3 from June 4th-9th with my compadres over at GamesAreEvil.com. While I am there, I hope to have plenty of posts to share what I’ve seen and done, especially since I do have meetings with the big 3 guide publishers (glee!).

After that though, I will be completely out of touch as I will be in Japan from June 11-25. It’s a rough life, I know. Expect to be barraged with a slideshow of some sort when I return.

If any of you have any (professional) questions you would like me to ask BradyGames, Prima Games, or Future Press while I am there, feel free to leave them in the comments below or shoot me an email via my contact form.

Time to Take a Break from the LEGOs

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LEGO Pirates of the CaribbeanI’ve completed LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean up through the third movie, and as much as I know I should finish the game just for strategy guide review reasons…I need to take a break for a couple of reasons. For starters, I haven’t seen the fourth Pirates movie yet, and even though the LEGO Pirates game really doesn’t tell the movie stories very well, I still don’t want to see spoilers. Not to mention, knowing what is supposed to happen next makes playing the game a bit easier and the jokes mean more to you.

Secondly, I just need a break from the LEGO games. They’re a lot of fun, but I can only do the same things for so long and deal with the lack of talking for so long. I finished both LEGO Star Wars III games just a couple of weeks ago, started the LEGO Pirates game for the DS, and I’ve completed the console version about 75% (of the story). I’m worn out.

Since I’m about to start an insane amount of travel–more on that in another post–I figure it’s time to start clearing through my DS games. I’ve completed all of my PSP games, and since nothing is coming out for the handheld that tickles my fancy, it’s time to focus on the DS. I have a ton to play there: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Dragon Quest VI, Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light, and a bunch of other games I’ve started and I’m not sure I’m going to finish (LoZ: Spirit Tracks, Avalon Code, and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days). Hopefully I can make a sizable dent in this subset of my stack of shame, because when I return, I’m going to have two massive games waiting for me: inFamous 2 and Dungeon Siege III. Plus, hopefully my strategy guide for Two Worlds II will come in, and BradyGames was nice enough to send me the strategy guide for LA Noire after I sent my review copy to another writer, so I’ll be picking up that game too.

My summer looks to be busy gaming wise, which is not a bad thing. I just hope I get everything I want finished before the insane fall gaming season hits.

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