Gaming Diary Archives - Strategy Guide Reviews

What I’ve Been Playing – I’m Never Leaving Greece

March 19, 2019 By Keri Honea 56 Comments

*blows dust off of website*

Dang, I really let the place go, haven’t I? I didn’t mean to, except I probably did. I was getting so swamped with work at PlayStation Lifestyle, and then Prima Games went belly up. I didn’t think I would ever find time to come back to this site, even with Future Press and Piggyback still going strong. I was prepared to pack it all in, even though I have guides to review, just because I was too busy playing other games and writing about them to keep up.

But then I was fired out of the blue by the corporate owner, so hey, no more playing games I don’t want to anymore, AMIRITE?

After the collapse of Action Trip in 2016, I knew that PSLS was going to be my last game writing gig. Let’s face it; I’m over 40, I have two school-age kids, and I do own two businesses. I’m tired and I just don’t have the turnaround like I used to. I’m in bed before 10 most nights. If I stay up later, it’s going to be ONE BAD DAY the next day.

I was fine giving PSLS my all (and believe me, I fucking was), but now that it’s over, I don’t have it in me to start over with a new site. I’m not going to stop gaming, naturally, but now I actually have time for these guides and the games I want to play. It’s crazy, I know!

Or, I would have the time for all of it if I could put Assassin’s Creed Odyssey down already. I am determined to do practically every little thing in this game. Kill all the Cultists. Hunt down all of the Legendary Beasts. Sail everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Unlock every Eagle synchronization point. Max out my ship. Become Arena champion. Become the top mercenary. Unlock all the trophies. I am so glad I turned down the difficulty after I turned in my review, because I know it would possibly double my current time. I played 45 hours on Normal. I now, as of Sunday, have 116 hours in total. And no, I’m still not done.

But I’m almost finished. I’m skipping a few side quests in the last few islands because, quite frankly, I don’t need the experience, items, or drachmae. I’ve also killed all the Cultists, so there’s nothing else these side quests could really offer me. I’m not ready to part ways with Kassandra, and yet I’m very ready for it all to be over so I can move on.

Move on to what, you say? Well I have a few options. I did buy the strategy guide for Anthem, but it sounds like it’s best to wait before opening up that game. Then The Division 2 arrived over Spring Break, and I’m dying to play that. Jumping from one Ubisoft open world game to the next could mentally break me, though.

And then there’s my Backlog Challenge from the guys at Nerds Gone Platinum. They had a huge Backlog Challenge last year, and I got to pick their “Not a Challenge” games for this year. They offered to pick games out of my Backlog for me as well, and, well, I was scared. I haven’t started them because game reviews and now ACOdyssey, but I really should start at least one of them very, very soon. Here’s what they challenged me to do:

Horizon: Zero Dawn
NieR:Automata
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Tiny, linear games, aren’t they? I’m so doomed.

Gaming Diary: Oh hey, I’m working on a game with a strategy guide!

June 11, 2018 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

*blows dust off website*

Testing, testing, is this thing still working? Has it really been SILENT here since April? Where did the time go? Everything just feels so silent. Not sure if it’s because we’ve been a little down on the strategy guide scene or what (Seriously, another strategy guide for Harvest Moon? Not Vampyr or Detroit: Become Human?), but I’ve been trying to turn the lull into something more positive.

You know, I do have a stupid crazy backlog when it comes to strategy guides. So I thought, why not finally sit down with one, like Dragon Quest Builders?

Dragon Quest Builders

Holy crap that game is addictive. I’m sort of seeing why my sons love Minecraft so much, but unlike Minecraft, there’s actually a story to behold here. My villagers are pretty darn demanding though. Sure, I’m the legendary builder, but does that mean I’m here to fulfill everyone’s whims? Build me my own room. Change the design of the blacksmith’s workshop because I don’t like it. Don’t you think you should build me a private kitchenette? Gah I just want to build a pretty garden without the monsters messing it up. Then I’ll get around to seeing why no one remembers how to create things. Is that too much to ask?

The strategy guide, however, is a mixed bag to say the least. I’ll have to get more into that later. I’m having quite a few frustrations with it, but I’m still fairly early in the game. So, we’ll see.

In the meantime, E3 is this week! I’m stoked for Doom Eternal, more Wolfenstein, Gears 5, and Dragon Quest XI. Ubisoft is this afternoon, Sony this evening, and Nintendo tomorrow morning. Hopefully I’ll learn of some guide announcements as well!

Gaming Diary: Flowing with Flower

April 23, 2018 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

I played Flower years ago when it first released. It was my first real experience with the SIXAXIS controller, and I wasn’t much of a fan. However, I liked how soothing and calm the game was (until level 5, ya jerks) so I completed it. I think I scored two trophies, the two that are given to you after the first level, and I put it away, never to play again. However, it didn’t stop me from picking up the game when it re-released on Vita. If anything, I just wanted to support thatgamecompany for their unique perspective on games. I loved Journey, and I thought maybe I’d give Flower another shot.

Fast forward a couple of years later, and I decided this weekend was going to be that shot. I enjoyed it far better this time around than I did back then (call it gaming maturity, if you will), and I have 95% of the trophies. I’m not going for that last one, because fuck playing level 5 completely unscathed. I was so close and then an electrical wire crashed down on me in the canyon. Whoever decided to make that a trophy, you suck.

The coolest moment while playing, however, did not come from securing that last trophy I was seeking. It instead came from the credits level, where you bloom flowers to release credits names to the stars. I thought this was an awesome way to do credits back in 2009, and while I still think so, I found something far more intriguing.

One of the developers is the son of a friend of mine. My eldest son goes to school with this friend’s twin sons. The twins are my son’s best friends, so we see this family a lot. It helps they live really close by. One of the first times I visited their house, they asked me what I did for a living, and at the time, video games was my main job (back in those Action Trip days). The dad said, “Oh hey my eldest son works in video games. Have you heard of thatgamecompany?” I was pretty much, “Uh, yeah, I love that studio.”This past summer, they hosted a July 4th party and this game developing son was there, Nicholas Clark. He and I talked a bit about the industry, how awesome Austin Wintory is, and what he was doing now, since he had just left thatgamecompany.

When I picked up Flower over the weekend, I knew there was a chance I’d see his name in the credits, even though I had no idea when he started there. He might have only worked on Journey, for all I knew. Nope, there was his name, right by Jenova Chen’s flower!

I had my, “How cool!” moment and then continued on to release more names into the stars. It’s when I rolled into the Special Thanks section I nearly fell over in shock. Evidently Nicholas’s special thanks went to his sisters and brothers, who are listed in the top image. Alex and Jonathan are my son’s best friends.

I replayed the level almost immediately, called for my son to come watch, and then took as many screenshots as possible. How awesome is that a developer thanked his brothers and sisters? His dad was not in the credits, but knowing Jim the way I do, he wouldn’t have wanted to be mentioned in a video game. Alex and Jonathan, though? If they don’t know already, they’ll be thrilled.

So hey, if you get the urge to replay Flower, maybe these names will mean a little something to you now too.

Gaming Diary: Yep, I’m Just Pathetic. Pathetically Obsessed with Dragon Age

March 14, 2018 By Keri Honea 1 Comment

Here it is, Spring Break, and no kids in sight thanks to the in-laws. Look at all this time I have to work on my stack of shame! I just finished one old game (Dragon Age Inquisition), so now it’s time to finish a newer game, such as Assassin’s Creed Origins or Wolfenstein II. In fact, with zero kids around, the latter may be the best to tackle.

But what am I doing instead? Playing Dragon Age Inquisition. Again. Rolled a new character and everything. This time I’m a male elf mage who has his eyes set on Dorian.

I still miss Alistair and my Hero of Ferelden.

I have problems. Deep problems. And yet I can’t stop myself. I don’t want to stop, while we’re at it. The last time I had such a deep connection with a game was—get ready for it—Mass Effect. Yet here I am with another BioWare title, obsessed to almost unhealthy proportions.

What strikes me the most about this go around is that this is the first time I’ve played any Dragon Age title as a different race. It’s the first time I’ve ever played as a mage as well. I’m curious how it differs with Dragon Age Origins, but in Inquisition, your race and even class changes A LOT. Now that I’m an elf, Solas is far friendlier to me. As a mage, I’m treated differently. As a Dalish elf, I’m treated even more differently. Different dialogue options open up. It’s simply amazing how much work BioWare put into this narrative. That’s one big difference between DA and ME; in ME your only choice was gender. There’s a big reason why you couldn’t choose a different race, but regardless of gender, people treated you the same. That is, unless you developed your Paragon or Renegade reputation to an extreme. If you went around punching reporters in the first game, reporters are rather skittish around you in the forthcoming games.

In DAI, however, I’m often mistaken for a servant. Non-mages are really wary of me. It takes longer to gain the trust of non-mages, whereas mages have no problems loving me immediately. As I said before, Solas really opens up far more than he ever did with my human rogue. Even Varric feels a bit more affection toward you because you aren’t a human. It’s all so very surreal, and it’s an amazing lesson in casual racism. While nobody cares what color your skin is, the same can’t be said for those with pointy ears or vertical challenges. This is part of why I really want to see this second playthrough through.

I am burning through this far more quickly than the first time, however. I’ve done all the side quests and collections the first time. I’m not doing this random fetch quest that doesn’t net me anything of real value. Treasure maps? Meh. Walking around a statue in a very specific way three times to summon a ghost? Forget it. Although I am still doing the astrariums, because dang those are super fun.

Gaming Diary: So Much Zelda

March 5, 2018 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

I’m in denial. The Trespasser DLC is the last DLC I have for Dragon Age Inquisition, so I’ve been putting it off. Oh I don’t have time this weekend. I have laundry to do. Oops, gotta train for that half next week. Yeah, I’ve pulled out all the procrastination excuses.

The first one was absolutely a joke, because I fit in time to play some old school Legend of Zelda. Once again, I was inspired from a randomizer speedrun tournament and decided to try to play that game once again. I’ve never finished that game. The farthest I’ve gotten is level 7 before I got bored and distracted. I really hope that doesn’t happen yet again. If anything, I may get overly frustrated, because good Lord I hate Darknuts and I’m super bad at this game. Nothing like using all of your bombs on Darknuts in a dungeon because your sword strats are just terrible, only to find a Manhandla guarding the Triforce piece. My death count before finishing the third dungeon is downright embarrassing. I gotta stop comparing my gameplay to these speedrunners, who make everything look so dang easy. Since I have the raft, I may jump ahead to level 4 for the ladder, and then run to level 6 for the wand. I need some ranged attacks against these stupid Darknuts.

I also finally finished Turtle Rock in A Link to the Past. Once again, those dang speedrunners make the Trinexx fight look so easy. I tried their strats of zapping Trinexx’s heads from behind, but I never hit it once. I died rather quickly. The second time, I gave that up for taking it slightly safer from the side. After the shell disintegrated, I foolishly thought once again that beating it with the gold sword would be easy. I have no idea how these speedrunners can manipulate where Trinexx runs, but it was having none of the easy sword swipes I see on Twitch. At least he went down and I finally have all seven crystals.

Now there’s just Ganon’s Tower and the big pig left. I have zero confidence in my ability to get through the Tower or the final boss fight. It kind of sucks, because when I got to this point in A Link Between Worlds, I was more than ready to take on the piggy. Perhaps it’s the old school controls with these games that stifle me, because I never got comfortable with them. Better pack up the potions and fairies for this trip up the tower. I have a feeling I’ll be taking multiple trips. I hope there are lots of rupee drops.

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