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Strategy Guide Resolutions 2016

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Happy 2016 everyone! It’s hard to believe that 2015 has already come to an end, and with the end of 2015 brings on the new year of gaming for 2016. In addition, a new year of strategy guides!

As long as strategy guides are still in print, and we hope that they continue to do so, we will still be here to review them and love on them. I started this site in 2009 on Blogspot, which I’m not sure is even around. Back then, even though I bought the domain, I wasn’t sure if I would like writing about guides enough to continue maintaining a full website, so I used a free Blogger.com address, strategyguidelove.blogspot.com. Oh yeah those were the days. I was using Blogger on my personal website as well, so the format was pretty easy to use and rather familiar to me. When Blogger decided that users could no longer use the CMS on self-hosted blogs, only on Blogger’s hosting, I picked up both sites and bolted for WordPress. Thanks to Blogger overhauling everything, I couldn’t even use their own plugin to transfer the site from Blogger to WordPress, and I lost nearly 2 years of content. I copied and pasted the reviews to WordPress and plugged in the original publication dates, and then I wiped the entire site from existence after Blogger tried to approach me about stealing their content. Gee, why don’t I use Blogger anymore?

So here we are, almost six years later (it will be six years this September). I never thought I’d be writing about strategy guides for as long as I have, and it honestly wouldn’t matter if I only had 1 reader. I seriously enjoy talking about and writing about strategy guides.

As I look into 2016, what do I resolve to do to continue to make this the best strategy guide site that doesn’t have strategy guides on the web? Well first, I’m going to look and laugh at my resolutions for 2015. Seriously, what was I thinking?

  • Will not start on any 2015 games or any new games from backlog until 2014 games and guides are finished.
  • Finish 2015 games and guide reviews in 2015.
  • I’m going to resolve to finish The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD.

OMG…laughing so hard at all of these. I think I kept the first one for a month before reality set in with work and my own inability to say no to shiny new toys. I came close to the second one, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that neither the guides for Just Cause 3 and Xenoblade Chronicles X are finished. I’m very close with JC3, but very close is not the same as finished. Damn open world games.

And the last one? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I never started WW. Not. Once. I need to stop swearing to finish Zelda games, because it rarely happens. As much as I love these games, I seem to hit a wall with them, whether it’s boredom or frustration. I shouldn’t include them in resolutions ever, unless I want to laugh at myself every January 1st.

What do I resolve for strategy guides in 2016? As much as I want to resolve to finish my 2015 guides before 2016 games, that just won’t happen. The next chapter in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles releases in just two weeks, and I will play that as soon as I get my hands on it. So instead, I propose the following three resolutions (I gave up on resolving 10 things, because really, changing 10 things about yourself never works):

One open world game at a time. I constantly try to play three or four open world games at once which always yields the same result: nothing is finished. Once Just Cause 3 is finished, it will be on to Xenoblade Chronicles X. And then Dragon Age Inquisition. In theory. The first two games are far more important for strategy guide reasons.

Finish all 2016 guides in 2016. Yeah, I said something similar last year, but it’s still a worthy goal. I came really close, if you don’t count the other open world games I never got around to because I’m a horrible person…

Don’t buy every new shiny game because it sounds exciting. I actually did well with this one in 2015, and I want to continue it in 2016. There are two games I nearly bought because of the hype: Star Wars Battlefront and Batman: Arkham Knight. I resisted both thanks to being a bit broke at the time, but I’m so glad I did, because as much as fun as many had with these, deep down I always knew I wouldn’t gel with them. It’s so easy to get on board the hype train for things, whether you like them or not. I need to do better at resisting, especially with my guilt complex.

May you all have a successful and happy 2016!

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: Mass Effect Makes Me Happy

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Chris and I have talked about this before with our Gaming as Medication vidcast, but Mass Effect is just one of those games that makes me happy. It’s my own personal group therapy–just me, Shepard, and the Normandy crew. I started a new Shepard on the original game recently thanks to a serious Mass Effect discussion with my boss. I remembered that the first game is one of the games that is backwards compatible with the Xbox One, and I couldn’t pop that disc in fast enough.

masseffecttitle

This Shepard I’m focusing more on actual role-playing than I have before. My Paragon Shepard did everything a paragon is supposed to do. For every conversation, the top dialogue choice was always selected, she always chose the charm options, and she never did anything untoward another being. I tried to make Renegade Shepard the full asshole he was supposed to be, but I chickened out with a few decisions in the second game. This time, Goth Shepard is Goth. She has black hair, black lipstick, even black-ish blush. I chose the hairstyle to hang in her face. I imagine she constantly blows the bangs out of her eyes. I also imagine her saying, “Cool story, bro,” to everyone, because she doesn’t care about what anyone has to say. The investigate option? She ignores it. She doesn’t give a fuck. She doesn’t care why she’s being sent to do this or that. Whatever man, just tell me what I’m shooting at. All of her dialogue choices stay in the middle too, further enhancing her no care attitude.

As a result she’s getting more Renegade points, which I find hilarious.

Am I skipping through the story and blowing past the side missions? Oh hell no! The best way to experience the Mass Effect therapy is to do it all. While it’s true she doesn’t care about much, she does like getting paid for side missions. That black lipstick ain’t free!

I know that this marks my third or fourth time to play Mass Effect, but I don’t care. The game just makes me so happy. As such, my Mondays are officially Mass Effect Monday. Judge away. Goth Shepard don’t care.

Rise of the Tomb Raider Strategy Guide Review

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Rise of the Tomb Raider strategy guide review Rise of the Tomb Raider is more than your typical action/platformer with lovely puzzles to solve; it’s about exploration, raiding tombs/crypts, and finding every last damn collectible. A lot of the collectibles are marked on the in-game maps when you near them, but not the coin caches and definitely not the challenges. The Rise of the Tomb Raider strategy guide, kindly provided by Prima Games, is the best source for getting that 100% completion rating with tombs, caches, and side missions.

How does one book fulfill that tomb raiding explorer inside? Let me show you…

SGR Rating: 5/5

Authors: Michael Lummis and Chris Burton
Editions: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Publisher: Prima Games
Review copy acquired via publisher.

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!

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