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Monday Gaming Diary: Thank Goodness for Handhelds

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blackoutThis past weekend was nuts, and not exactly in a good way. Thursday afternoon, a monster thunderstorm rolled into our city and wreaked so much havoc it’s shocking to believe there were no tornados. Numerous trees were downed on power lines, and we were without power from the time the storm hit to Saturday. Some friends didn’t get it back until late Saturday, early Sunday. And then with the storm that hit this morning, many lost power again.

Naturally, this would only happen when I have two games to review.

So what is a gamer to do?

Well, to be honest, I actually read a bit while there was still light. It was a great way to ignore the eldest child and his whining about being bored without power. But when it got too dark to read without damaging my eyes, I pulled out the 3DS and jumped back into Bravely Default, a game I still have not finished. My son was rather upset that I was able to play a game and he could not, because he hasn’t quite figured out the nuance of letting his 3DS charge while he’s at school. As I’m a mean mother, I refuse to do it for him.

Unfortunately, the 3Ds battery doesn’t last too terribly long, even when you turn off the 3D. Plus, I have to remember that it wasn’t getting charged for most of the day when I finally cracked it open. Then when my 3DS’s battery did run out, my Vita was already dead dead dead. *shakes fist at Vita*

When power was restored, I did play a bit more of Hyrule Warriors, which is ungodly fun and it makes me want to finish Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time 3D. With all that spare time to game I have. Maybe I should pack up the GameCube for the Extra Life marathon in a couple of weeks. That could be a fun thing to work on while we’re up all night.

Monday Gaming Diary: So. Much. Murder.

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Believe me or not, I actually played no Diablo 3, either version, all weekend. The last time I played was during the EvilCast podcast, but I find I pay attention better if I play D3 than I do normally. Not sure why that is, but it’s given me a great excuse to play while podcasting. Ross already plays League of Legends and Chris constantly plays some indie game during the podcast, so I might as well get in on the action. It is a gaming podcast, after all. It only makes sense that we play games while we podcast.

I forced myself to buckle down over the weekend and plow through the games I’m supposed to review for work reasons. Maybe I’ll get to reviewing the Reaper of Souls strategy guide eventually, when I stop being such a terrible person. But for now, I had to focus on Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which is one of the better Professor Layton games I’ve played in a long, long time. I’ve been less than pleased with their games ever since the original trilogy ended, and this one felt like a call back to the earlier games. It also helped that the puzzle gameplay was broken up with the Phoenix Wright gameplay, which I didn’t end up hating as much as I did in the beginning. I was still terrible at it, and that’s where my hint coins went for the most part, but I embraced how they gamified the courtroom. Just please never think that’s how court procedure goes. It hurts my head to think that kids out there believe that’s how criminals are tried.

But the murder mystery-solving has not stopped there. I also started Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments on Sunday, which was far, far better that what I experienced at E3. As I’m under embargo, that’s all I can say at this point. I must finish that review today, no way out of it. I want to say that I’m loving it and it’s fantastic, but I’m not allowed to, you see.

Still waiting on the strategy guide for Hyrule Warriors, and Blake is going to review the guide for Disney Infinity 2.0. Maybe we’ll have those up in a far more timely fashion than I’ve done for Reaper of Souls. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get the Destiny guide? I’m kidding, BradyGames! Please don’t hate me.

Monday Gaming Diary: No Diablo 3 this Weekend

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Anomaly 2 3Believe it or not, I actually put down Diablo 3 over the last few days. No, I still haven’t touched Destiny, but it’s because I’m trying to be a good little reviewer. My official Fall sink starts this Friday with Hyrule Warriors, and I have three games to try to finish up and review before then. I turned in one review last night, so just two more to go! Huzzah!

The one I finished was for Anomaly 2, a tower offense game (yes, I said offense, not defense) that was originally a PC game ported to the PS4. I really had a lot of fun playing the game, and that’s all I’m going to say for now until my review goes up. Just…wait until my review before rushing out to buy it. I have a few caveats in there.

And I’m still plugging through Professor Layton v. Phoenix Wright. I have to devote more time to this, the length it’s taking me is ridiculous.  And I am enjoying it, I really am, I just have to hide my copies of Diablo 3 for awhile.

The next game I must review before Friday (hopefully) is Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. I saw this game at E3, and it looked interesting. It has some moral twists in it as well, which always ropes me in. Plus, I love Sherlock Holmes. I read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories and novels, and who doesn’t love solving a good mystery? That’s pretty much what both Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright are all about in the first place.

Must wrap all of these Scooby-Doo mysteries so I can enjoy hack-n-slashing it up in Hyrule Warriors and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. This fall is going to be amazing, even if it does break my bank.

Monday Gaming Diary: Still No Destiny

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So. Much. Fingerpointing.

So. Much. Fingerpointing.

I know it completely befuddles numerous friends of mine that I’ve had a copy of Destiny, the hottest game going on right now, since before the game hit store shelves and I haven’t played it once. I told thedailycrate.com that I would review it, but a few things have gotten in the way of pursuing the game further:

  • I’m a big procrastinator.
  • Diablo 3
  • I’m also reviewing Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright.

I am not far from platinuming in D3, so I try to take some time to play that every day because how else will I amass that gold in time? It also didn’t help that my eldest child said he wanted to play Diablo 3 with me, so we created a Monk for him (or as he calls it, a ninja) and I gladly ran around Sanctuary with him. He needed a lot of coaching, and he doesn’t completely understand the cooldown system yet, but he seems to have fun. The couch co-op is definitely a different experience in the game, and I wasn’t prepared for how LEGO-esque it was with the camera and pulling characters in directions. Of course, since he’s 6, he has the attention span of a gnat, so after 45 minutes, he was ready to go play with something else, whereas I was ready to keep going while the baby napped. Ah well. I had a dessert I had to make for a little dinner party anyway.

Last night, I decided it would be a great time to work on my review for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright while watching the Sunday night football game. Next thing I knew, I looked up at the clock and noticed it was 1:30 a.m. How did that happen?

I haven’t enjoyed the last two Professor Layton games, and this one feels like a call back to the first games, but with a bit of Phoenix Wright gameplay  thrown in. I’ve never played a Phoenix Wright game before, so this has been an entirely new experience for me, and one I’m not as adept at it as I am Professor Layton. I’ve used far more hint coins for help in the courtroom than solving puzzles.

And that’s all I want to play today. I mean, that is what I’m reviewing for work, so surely I could take off the rest of the day for more puzzle solving adventures? I can already hear my boss’s laughter.

Monday Gaming Diary: So. Close. To Platinuming Diablo 3.

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20140905_140403_AndroidI have a monstrous stack of shame. I have a game to review for work. And I received a copy of Destiny on Friday. So what have I been doing? I’ve been playing more Diablo 3. Seriously, someone needs to send help.

After I finished playing the game on Inferno mode, I wanted to see how hard it would be to get the main boss triumph challenges. I accidentally snagged all of the triumph challenges for Azmodan (cleverly called “Azmodone”), so hey, could I actually get the others? Turns out that when you’re a Paragon 3 and you turn the difficulty down to Easy, the other challenges are an absolute breeze to get. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Belial and the Butcher go down so quickly. Seriously, I think I fired off three crossbow bolts and set up only one turret before Belial went down, and the Butcher went down before I set the turret up.

Then I thought, wait…what other Trophies do I have left to try to get? There are a couple that will take awhile, mainly the one for collecting 5 million in gold. But I never once tried creating a hardcore character. I should at least try, right? Get those two trophies?

Well, I have three trophies left, and one is to get a hardcore character to level 30. My hardcore wizard (and the wizard is hellafun to play as, for the record) is at level 24. I can almost taste it. And then I’ll have to farm Act III on inferno mode several times for the gold. I can’t believe I’m going to do that, but the Platinum is RIGHT. THERE. It’s silly, I admit, but since I’m this close, I might as well go for it!

I can always work on my handheld review game while the family watches TV, right?

I’ll be wrapping this up soon so you guys won’t hear me talk about it anymore. Well, just not as much anyway. It’s in mah BLOOD, so it’s going nowhere.

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