Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

The Corner of Randomness: AGDQ 2017

By Leave a Comment

I’m currently sitting at my desk watching four gamers speedrun Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat thanks to the greatness that is AGDQ.  If you don’t know what AGDQ (Awesome Games Done Quick) is, it is a week long event where speedrunners (gamers who play games at a stupid fast pace) play a variety of games to help raise money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Games ranging from Super Mario Bros. to Dark Souls III are all at the mercy of glitches, save breaks, unintended wall jumps, and so on. I love this week!

What makes it even more fun is that I got Keri into watching this as well. We now text each other during certain games to express our disbelief as we watch our childhood get completely wrecked. I feel as though we now need to add attending AGDQ in the future to our bucket lists. I think it would be a fantastic time!

It’s always a sad time when the event draws to a close in the wee hours of Sunday morning. This sadness is tempered a bit with the excitement that comes with knowing that SGDQ (Summer Games Done Quick) is just a few short months away. Also, getting sleep again is nice.

At the current moment (Thursday afternoon), AGDQ has managed to bring in $665,669 in donations (Editor update: it’s at $812,736 Friday morning!). It’s certainly looking like a solid possibility that they will cross the $1,000,000 mark by the middle of Friday. Saturday is when the people rush to get their final donations in. I’m curious how close to $2,000,000 they will get. With all the hate and negativity that seems to be the norm as of late, it’s such a joy to see gamers coming together to do something fun and positive.

Gaming Diary: Defying Gravity and Decent Laws of the Gaming Camera

By Leave a Comment

Gravity Rush 2

I had the lovely opportunity to rush through Gravity Rush 2 for a review on PlayStation Lifestyle. The amount of extras was amazing for a game of this type, but thanks to a crazy embargo and limited time, I had to forego most of them to burn through a story. It’s not my preferred way to get through games, to say the least. Regardless, this is what I had to do, and I’m not sure the extras would have improved the game too much.

Gravity Rush 2 has some really fun gameplay, but there’s not a lot going on in the story. In fact, the story is a tried-and-true cliche for Japanese games, where the super rich overly oppress the super poor. It’s all over anime. It was one of the biggest themes of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and really almost every RPG ever. The rich live high up, the poor live down below in deplorable conditions. I’d probably feel more for this plot if I didn’t see it so incredibly often.

The game’s biggest offenders are the terrible camera and the stealth missions. Neither are fun, and both worsen the game’s experience.

I’m personally on the fence as to whether I liked the game or not. It was fun for the most part, but when I think about the camera, or how often I yelled at Kat for zipping past the target, I start to think I didn’t like it after all. Is it possible for a game to be both fun and frustrating as fuck? I think that’s where GR2 lies.

And now it’s on to Tales of Berseria, which does not appear to have a strategy guide coming. Considering all of the Tales games that received a strategy guide in the past, I’m disappointed. I’ll just stress out over possibly missing a side quest or not developing a character’s skill tree correctly. No biggie.

The Corner of Randomness: Greetings

By Leave a Comment

OMG! It’s an article from Chris. Hell must have frozen over. Well, maybe not Hell, but where I live it certainly has. Curse you winter and your frigid below zero temperatures. Anyway, based on the date stamp from my last article, I took quite the summer vacation. Some of that was planned due to extensive travel. Some of that was unforeseen circumstances of life. A bit of warning before I proceed. This will be much more life based than anything having to do with gaming. Hey, it’s my corner. I’ll do what I want!

Now, where did I disappear to the last half of 2016? Well, Keri and I both knew summer was going to be a hectic time. She would have kids at home thanks to summer vacation. I’d be on the road doing various things such as taking pictures, working weddings, and visiting family/friends. It was supposed to be a hiatus that lasted only through the summer. Then life threw some curve balls and I slid into a dark hole that I’m still trying to climb out of.

In August, my wife lost her job. My wife is the money maker here. She supports me. This was a rough blow to us. Some time ago we setup a savings account for just such an occasion, so we have been fine so far. However, there is now uncertainty in the air as we look at the possibility of having to pack and move yet again as the job chase struggle is real.

At the end of August, I was out in Colorado working a wedding with a friend. We had just finished working for the day. It was late. I sat down and checked Facebook for a moment and found a message that my step-father had but a few days left to live. The next morning, I packed up and raced home to snag essentials before racing off to hopefully see my step-father before he shed his mortal coil. That was some of the hardest 20 hours of driving I had ever done. I made it in time to make my peace. The morning after I had arrived, he passed away.

In September my beloved truck blew-up. Well, not literally exploding in a glorious ball of flame and smoke. However, the engine was broken to a point of needing a total replacement. This happened three days before I was slated to leave for Colorado to help lead a photography tour there. Thankfully, I have great friends who jumped to my aid without me even asking for any sort of help. I was flown out to Colorado. A friend rented a truck. The tour continued on. Fun was had. Memories were made. It was a distraction I needed.

The holidays came and went. They were clouded with regret and guilt. Dragged down by the things I cannot change. It was tough, but I’m still here.

Over the course of several months, starting well before any of this craziness happened, I started sliding into my own well of depression. The drinking accelerated. Life happened. I fell deeper and deeper into my sadness. Soon, I was just a walking, talking, hungover liquor store that just struggled to get through the day. Enjoyment ceased to exist in my world.

I’m still here. I’m slowly starting my crawl out of this damned hole. It’s not easy. I’ve almost gone cold turkey on the liquor. I’m fighting my demons. The nights are the hardest. When I finally stop to unwind for the day, I reach for a drink that isn’t there. The darkness fills my head. I fight with my emotions, most times well into the wee hours of the morning. Yet, I continue on.

I don’t really know if there was a real point to telling this story. Maybe I just needed to get it out of my head. Maybe this is just some form of catharsis and a part of getting back to a more healthy life. Either way, it’s now posted and it’s done. Next week I will get back to babbling on about gaming stuff like how AGDQ (Awesome Games Done Quick) is a damned glorious time. You do know AGDQ starts this Sunday, right? No!?! You do now! Here’s to you 2017. May you be vast a improvement to the dumpster fire that was 2016.

Gaming Diary: Time Traveler Turnabout Phoenix Wright DLC

By Leave a Comment

Phoenix Wright Time Traveler Turnabout

What, did you really expect me to stop with the Phoenix Wright? As if. I decided to replay Spirit of Justice and see how different it is to me now that I’ve played the first five. There are a lot of references I now get, that’s for sure, but that wasn’t enough for me to actually finish it a second time. I got through four episodes, which ended with Athena Cykes’ trial with Simon Blackquill. Playing Dual Destinies has now made that episode alone mean ten times more than it did before. Although now knowing Apollo’s background on his mother’s side, all I see are plot holes with Spirit of Justice in regards to Apollo’s family. The fifth episode of SoJ is by far the longest episode in PW history, and even with knowing all the answers, I didn’t want to go through that again.

Instead, I turned to the DLC episode, Time Traveler Turnabout. It took about three or four hours to complete, and I absolutely loved it. It’s the best episode in all of Spirit of Justice. It’s partly because there are a lot of throwbacks to previous games, such as the inclusion of Larry Butz. It was also lovely to see Wright and Edgeworth square off in the courtroom, especially since this time, unlike Dual Destinies, they didn’t have anything personally invested in the case. Wright has changed so much from the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, thanks a good dose of confidence. He and Edgeworth have never had a battle of words like they have in this DLC, and it was hilarious. All that was missing was Detective Gumshoe. Maya mentioned him, but that’s all we got. Could have used a bit of channeling Mia as well to complete the nostalgia.

What I really enjoyed with Time Traveler Turnabout was the romantic story. The levels of romance are what made Trials and Tribulations my favorite Phoenix Wright title. Of course, then I couldn’t help but think of Iris, Wright’s old girlfriend, who I guess is still in prison for aiding and abetting a murder among other charges. It’s been 9 years since her arrest; wouldn’t she be out with good behavior by now? I suppose it’s just wishful thinking on my part that she’ll ever come back and return to Phoenix’s life. Oh but how I want her to. And I really want her to make a new sweatshirt for him.

Phoenix Wright sweater

And with that, this should be my last Phoenix Wright post unless I get the DLC for Dual Destinies as well. But my son has reminded me that I have so many unfinished games to get to, not to mention Pokemon Moon.

Gaming Diary: Phoenix Wright Cases Closed

By Leave a Comment

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! With the kids out of school, I accidentally took an entire week off from doing pretty much everything. But I did play a ton of the Phoenix Wright games I have in my possession. I finished Apollo Justice and then moved right on to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. Because I was so determined to get it all done before Santa arrived, I finished DD rather quickly. It helped that this is, by far, the easiest of all the PW games. It also helped that the stories weren’t as deep as usual.

Overall, I give DD an “Okay.” It’s the weakest of the series, and coming off both Trials and Tribulations and then Apollo Justice really hurt it. T&T is by far my favorite with AJ at a close second. DD tried too much to be a repeat of AJ. A new attorney is brought in. They’re all struggling to solve a case in the present that is tied to a case from seven years ago. I really wish they picked a different number than seven, just to change it up a teensy bit. I also wasn’t a fan of the court cases revolving around the bonds of friendship, which then of course reflected back to Wright’s own law firm. Let My Little Pony tell the friendship stories, mmmkay? They’re pros at it and it’s not as hamfisted as this was. Remember how the first three games wove together the friendship between Phoenix and Miles? And that was subtle? That’s how to do it.

Other big complaints include lack of Miles Edgeworth, even though he did sneak in at the end. I wanted to yell at him and ask where he was and what he was doing those seven years Phoenix was disbarred. So he helped move along Wright’s bar exam; I guess that’s something. His noticeable absence in AJ, when Wright was completely down on his luck, bothered me to no end. Yes, it’s cool to see other prosecutors behind the bench, and I did like Gavin and Blackquill. I just wanted to see more Edgeworth in the background with Wright in some way.

Last complaint is the lack of Gumshoe. They dropped him like a bad habit after the original trilogy, and I don’t know why. He’s so lovable in his own way, and it’s adorable how he follows after Edgeworth like a lost puppy. There was a big reason why Gumshoe wasn’t present in DD, but I missed him in AJ as well. I honestly can’t remember if he was in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. I’ve been very very tempted to replay that one, especially since SoJ brings in even more of a twisted tale to Apollo’s background. I need to draw up a family tree to try to understand the ties to it. Or maybe I should just smile and nod and let it go.

After all, I do have so many other massive RPGs to play, including Pokemon Moon that arrived from Santa.

Top Posts & Pages