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Monday Gaming Diary: So, uh, Skylanders…

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After watching my eldest play more Skylanders SWAP Force, I asked him if I could start my own game when he finished Sunday afternoon. That was a huge, HUGE mistake, as I now want Skylanders of my own. I don’t mean I want to collect my own toys, although yeah, I want my own of those too, as I like the dragons and he’s all about the silly-looking monsters. I’m actually considering picking up my own copy of the game for PlayStation 4, even though we can easily share one copy on the Wii U.

By having my own copy upstairs, I could, uh, get trophies (most important) and play whenever I want, not just when the big TV downstairs is free. Plus, we could share our Skylanders between one another, as I know we won’t have many of the same characters.

Okay, okay I admit I just want my own copy that isn’t on the Wii U because I’m selfish and I want those ridiculous trophies. And whenever he starts to play, I want to play as well. If I had my own copy, I could just go play. Or I could be the responsible and nice parent and sit with him and help him out whenever he needs it, as he does need it often.

It’s not as though I don’t have a ton of other things to play on all of my consoles already, last generation and new, so I probably shouldn’t look into a new game with toys just yet. Yet.

Right now I’m waiting on the delivery people to bring me two things so I can hammer out reviews before I run off to LA for E3: strategy guide for Watch_Dogs and a copy of Murdered: Soul Suspect. I’m still sadly dreading WD, even though I hear it is great. I’m beginning to think that open world games are just not for me after my dismal experience with Skyrim.

Must remember to keep an open mind. Don’t want to be another uneducated hater on the Internet.

Tuesday Gaming Diary: So the kid now has Skylanders…

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My eldest son’s sixth birthday party was last weekend with all of his friends, but my in-laws really wanted a family party, so they invaded over the weekend while my parents were also in town to throw Gabe yet another birthday party. His real birthday hasn’t happened yet, I must add.

One of the gifts he received was Skylanders SWAP Force, a game he really wanted because well, Skylanders. I knew nothing about the game as I have avoided it entirely. He has friends who have the game, so naturally he has seen it and heard about it every now and then. Every time we’ve gone to Toys R Us to buy a birthday present for one of the thousands of parties we have to go to, he always asks to just go look at the Skyanders.

Now he has the game and three starter Skylanders. Since he can’t read yet, I had to help him start up the game, and I folded laundry while watching him play. He was having an absolute blast. One thing I’ll say about Skylanders over Disney Infinity is that the game allows and encourages players to swap out the Skylanders whenever you want. If you swap out characters playing Disney Infinity and you aren’t in the Toy Box mode, it shuts down what you’re playing and switches modes, since each character has their own play arena. For a little boy, that’s hard to stick to just one thing at a time, especially when you have other toys you want to play with.

While I watched him play, something disturbing happened to me. I started to want to play Skylanders SWAP Force too.

The game is brilliant in so many ways. There’s combat, exploration, and unlockable exploration that requires certain abilities or certain Skylanders, which of course forces you to buy more toys if you want to get through those area. It’s absolute genius.

I’m actually looking forward to watching him play tonight. He still hasn’t gotten the concept down that he needs to break things to earn more money, but I think this is the perfect game to teach him how to loot.

Oh and I played and finished Wolfenstein: The New Order over the weekend. But more on that later.

Monday Gaming Diary: Oh yeah, Bravely Default is fun!

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I’ve all but given up trying to play console games on weekends. Unless I’m reviewing something, I just can’t get my butt upstairs to play, even at night. I’m too worn out from all of my kid’s social activities (yes, they ain’t mine) to stay up very late (or so I feel), and on Sunday night, I’m usually writing for another outlet until quite late so I don’t have to write as much there during the week. One would think this would open up time for my handhelds, but until this past weekend, I kind of forgot I had games to play on them.

My eldest son now has his own 3DS, thanks to my silly self buying the A Link Between Worlds-themed 3DS XL last year. I traded my 3DS XL with another friend who had a regular 3DS, and gave that one to the kiddo. Of course he doesn’t have any games for it yet (his birthday is right around the corner), but I was nice enough to let him borrow my copy of LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. When we weren’t at a teeball game or at a birthday party, he sat on the couch and quietly played with his new 3DS. As I watched the baby crawl around on the floor and entertain himself quite well, I pulled out my 3DS and started up Bravely Default for the first time in months.

Holy cow I forgot how delightful that little RPG was. When the kids went to bed, I instantly took it out, saying I would only play for an hour as I had to get up early the next morning for church. The next thing I knew, it was nearly 1:30 in the morning, and the husband was demanding to know why in the world I was still up.

Any chance I had on Sunday to sneak in a few battles, I did so. It’s the perfect little game to try to spend a few minutes grinding or rebuilding Norende. I kind of hope I’m not done with it before E3 so I have something to entertain me while waiting in lines in addition to Street Passing the hell out of everyone.

I haven’t given up on Bound by Flame at all either. I’m still enjoying that and stressing out about every decision I make. I’m not sure I’ve played a game that seems to have so many pivotal decisions, and that includes Mass Effect. At least with Mass Effect, those choices were pretty obvious as Paragon or Renegade. With BbF, I have no clue if what I’m deciding is best for the world or even the character. Not sure if I will play again to change my choices at this point, but that’s only because I’m too busy to plan additional playthroughs. If I can’t find time to finish two of my Mass Effect 3 playthroughs, BbF isn’t going to get time either.

Monday Gaming Diary: Who Said Nothing Good is Releasing in May?

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kitten-in-peril-from-xbox-360-controllerMay may be my absolute craziest time of year for reviews, and I don’t have any strategy guides to review! Not sure what is up with that (I’m looking at you, strategy guide publishing companies) but I hope to get some more announcements when I harass them all at E3 this year. I will make super special time to bug everyone about summer and fall releases. I love them way too much to not do so.

But in the meantime, I’m up to my eyeballs in games to review. Last week I was up to my eyeballs in RPGs. Next week it will be randomness. At least I have this week off to, uh, sleep? Or something like that.

Last week I reviewed Child of Light and Bound by Flame, both of which I liked for very different reasons. CoL is one that I can easily recommend to many, many people who love RPGs, while BbF comes with several disclaimers. I really liked it, but you should be aware that…etc.

Even though I liked both games, I really don’t want to review back-to-back RPGs ever again. That was way too much in such a short period of time, and I’m too old to handle so little sleep these days. Today I’m going on 3 hours sleep thanks to a teething baby, and I’m already daydreaming of that special nap time I hope to take but probably won’t get to.

Next week it’s Nazi killing (hooray!) and another strange RPG from SuperGiantGames, Transistor. At least both should be fairly short. Shooters typically are, and if Transistor is like Bastion, it should only take 6-10 hours to complete. That’s a perfect way to swing back into reviewing a strategy guide for a massively large open world, right? Just before E3?

I suppose I’m never sleeping again.

Monday Gaming Diary: Ever heard of Gaems?

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GaemsI hadn’t heard of Gaems until I started writing for The Daily Crate. When I got my first LootCrate package, a coupon for a Gaems Personal Gaming Environment was inside. Being the primo investigator I am (go on ahead and LOL), I looked up what a friggin’ Gaems was.

OH. MY. GOD.

I need one of these. I need one yesterday.

I’d love to take my PlayStation 3 with me on my beach trip with the whole family. And for the Extra Life marathon…since I’m going to go to Iowa for the event, I’d love to take my own PS3 with me so I don’t have to use one of their machines. Oh my God, when I have to travel for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I am set. I won’t have to mess with anyone’s TV. I won’t have to disturb anyone’s TV-viewing. I can go off with my brother-in-law (on either side) and any kids and play games. Holy crap I must save up my money and buy one.

Before I can get too excited, however, I see a problem. A rather severe problem.

I have the original PlayStation 3, the “phat”one, if you will. A Gaems only covers the Slim version, because the phat one will crack the screen when you close the case.

WAAAAAAH!

I have some Xbox 360 games in my backlog, but not like my PS3, which still has games releasing for it. I don’t have many PS4 games, of course, and I think my Xbox One is currently just my TV viewing machine that I occasionally play Peggle 2 on.

I’ve searched for something similar for my PS3, but I’ve found nothing. I’ve found carrying cases, but I like the idea of using this whole system to play games on.

I tweeted my laments, and Gaems reached out, 1) explaining why their current cases won’t work for the PS3 and 2) teasing that maybe something is in the works for my poor fat system. I’m not holding my breath, but it would be cool if they thought of the older systems. Think of the fat kids, please! They need love too!

The day one gets announced, and I mean the nanosecond, I’m all over a preorder.

So naturally, that will happen after I finish all of my PS3 games.

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