December Deals

Tags

deals, games, ps4

I went a little crazy buying PS4 games between Black Friday and Christmas. The deals were so good, I just couldn’t resist. I started following Cheap Ass Gamer on Twitter, and browsing PS4 Deals on reddit, and it was not beneficial to my wallet. So now my backlog is a mile long, but I’m so pumped!

Here’s what I got:

1. Knack for $9 at Gamestop – I’ve started playing this and it’s actually pretty hard for a “kid’s” game on the higher difficulty settings!
2. Batman Arkham Knight for $25 at Gamestop
3. Far Cry 4 for $22 at Gamestop
4. The Evil Within for free at Gamestop with the buy two get one free deal
5. Uncharted Collection for $27 on Newegg
6. Fallout 3 for $10 on Amazon
7. Fallout New Vegas for $10 on Amazon
8. Bloodborne for $20 on Amazon
9. Until Dawn for $20 at Best Buy
10. The Wolf Among Us for $10 at Best Buy
11. Murdered: Soul Suspect for $3.75 at GoHastings
12. The Sly Collection (vita) for $6.50 at GoHastings
13. Dying Light for $20 at Gamestop
14. Saints Row IV: Re-elected for $10 on PSN
15. Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell for $7.50 on PSN
16. Wolfenstein Old Blood for $5 on Amazon

Wow, writing it all out like that is kind of shocking. But really that’s 19 games (counting 3 in Uncharted Collection and 2 in Sly Collection as I bought it used and can’t get Sly 3) for $205.75, which averages to $10.83 a game, which is pretty awesome. I won’t be needing games for a good long while!

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Video Game Review: Ether One

Tags

buggy, ether one, exploration, first person, glitchy, ps+, ps4, puzzles

Title: Ether One

Platform: PS4

Personal Trophy Completion: 100% (Platinum)

Rating: 7/10

 

I have never felt so conflicted about a game before. This was a free PS+ download, and it is one of my favorite genres: first person exploration games. I like being able to wander and piece together a story, without worrying about time or enemies or anything. I like puzzles, and I like mysteries. This game was all of that, with a mind blowing attention to detail that you can’t quite appreciate until you’ve finished the entire thing and reflected. However, the game was incredibly buggy. I actually played it AFTER the supposed fix, and still had trouble. At one point I thought I couldn’t load my auto-save and had lost most of my progress, but then I read online that the loading takes extremely long and just wait it out. Eventually, it worked (pro tip: NEVER fast travel between locations). Some of the puzzles were a little buggy as well. At one point I had to restart a section because a box wouldn’t open once I had solved the puzzle, and therefore I couldn’t access a piece I needed. Once I started over I did the exact thing over again and it worked. So that was frustrating. Additionally, the puzzles were extremely complicated and difficult. They are not necessary to finish the game, but I’m a completionist, so….. At the time I played it, there were very few full complete and *accurate* walkthroughs out there (even for the computer version), so I was forced to cobble together guides to find solutions that worked. There was a lot of trial and error and frustration.

BUT THE STORY, MAN. You are employed as a “Restorer” who is tasked with restoring memories of a patient with dementia in order to cure her. You physically enter the memories and can interact with almost everything in the environment. You can bring items back to the home base area to save for later, and explore tons of buildings and houses. The locations to explore include a mine, an extensive village area, and an industrial center. The only progression requirement is to collect 8 memory fragments in each area, but if you want you can also complete the aforementioned puzzles to gain even more background. There were so many things in the environment that I was like “why is this even here?”, but as I got to the end, everything makes sense and means something, and it was so damn ingenious that I can’t even describe it without giving away the main plot twist. The whole concept is just ridiculously clever, and I really enjoyed that aspect. It would’ve gotten a higher rating if it hadn’t been so buggy. This is absolutely a unique game that you will enjoy if you can put up with the technical issues.

Summer 2015 Goals Recap

Tags

2015, books, cooking, food, games, goals, movies, ps3, ps4, recipes, summer, tv

At the beginning of the summer, I decided to track the amount of new books, movies/TV, games, and recipes I had completed during my first summer off as a teacher. I initially set a goal of 5-10 games, and 25 of everything else. As you’ll see, I didn’t quite reach that, but I’m still satisfied with what I accomplished, considering the time I spent with friends, family, on vacation, and at the gym.

 

Books

1. The Master Magician – Charlie N. Holmberg

2. The Ghost Bride – Yangsze Choo

3. River Secrets – Shannon Hale

4. Forest Born – Shannon Hale

5. Pioneer Girl – Laura Ingalls Wilder

6. Etiquette & Espionage – Gail Carriger

7. A Slight Change of Plan – Dee Ernst

8. The Will of the Empress – Tamora Pierce

9. Jackaby – William Ritter

10. All American Girl – Meg Cabot

I ended up reading 10 new books this summer. This was way lower than I anticipated, but I ended up also rereading quite a few books, so in a way it makes sense. The most notable new book I read was Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That book on its own took up a huge chunk of time, being so lengthy and stuffed with detail. I loved Wilder’s Little House series, and this was her autobiography intended for adults. I won’t say much more because I intend to make a blog post out of it, but it was great. Additionally, I had grand plans to attend book club this summer, but it never happened. The Ghost Bride was for one of the book clubs at the library, but I ended up having a schedule conflict and couldn’t attend. It was actually a good book though, and I’m glad I read it. I probably wouldn’t have if not for book club.

 

Movies/TV

1. Rear Window

2. A Streetcar Named Desire

3. Orange is the New Black Season 3

4. It Happened One Night

5. Gossip Girl Season 6

6. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

7. Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

8: Tron: Legacy

9. Property Brothers Season 1

10. Annabelle

11. The Fault in Our Stars

12. West Side Story

13. Property Brothers Season 2

14. Taxi Driver

15. House Season 7

As you can see, I watched a lot of Netflix this summer. I also watched a handful of movies on the AFI top 100 movie list, as we continue to make progress towards our goal. Numbers 7 and 8 were rented while babysitting my husband’s little brother, and 10 and 11 were new releases from the library we hadn’t seen in theaters. Nothing much to say about this, other than I was so pumped about Orange is the New Black S3. It was pretty good, even though I know it got a lot of criticism for being less intense than previous seasons. I still hate Piper.

 

Games:

1. The Swapper (PS4)

2. Never Alone (PS4)

3. Okami (PS3)

4. Ether One (PS4)

This category was a little disappointing. I spent a TON of time on Okami, and ended up getting the platinum, so that was a major accomplishment that I really enjoyed. But it caused me to get a bit burnt out on gaming, and so I didn’t play as many as I had planned. My backlog is getting huuuuuge. The first two were decent but unremarkable PSN games that were free with PS+. Ether One on the other hand…. It was another free PSN game, but oh my god it was both brilliant and horribly frustrating. I am planning to write a review on that as well.

 

Recipes:

1. Kale, Barley, and Feta Salad with a Honey-Lemon Vinaigrette

2. Chicken Merlot with Mushrooms

3. Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup

4. Kielbasa, Pepper, Onion, and Potato Hash

5. Healthy Kung Pao Chicken

6. Philly Cheesesteak Grilled Cheese

7. Asian Salmon in Foil

8. Tomato Bacon Spinach Quiche

9. One Pan Mexican Quinoa

10. Spicy Thai Noodles

This category I am proud of, considering all the time we spent eating out and traveling. I tried quite a variety of new recipes, and I’m pretty good at choosing them, because quite a few of them made it into the regular rotation. The majority were pretty healthy as well. My husband liked them all, and ate plenty of leftovers. I even took two weeks to make nothing but new recipes, which was an adventure! I definitely plan to keep this up throughout the year. Definitely check out some of the links.

All in all, this was a fun project for the summer, and I enjoyed logging my accomplishments. I probably will not do a play by play of the new things I read/play/watch/cook during the school year, but as always check the text on the right side of the blog to see what I’m currently up to!

Sony at E3 2015

Tags

e3, ffvii, horizon, playstation, ps4, sony, the last guardian, uncharted

So I’ll start by saying I’m a PlayStation person through and through. I just don’t care about Xbox. Nintendo is cool, and has some really enjoyable stuff, but I’m way too attached to my trophies and PS games to really play much of that system. I don’t play multiplayer games, or online, so I have 0 interest in any Xbox exclusives. Anything else, is either available on both platforms or is exclusive to PlayStation, which to me makes the choice of systems obvious. I own and use both a PS3 and PS4, plus a Vita that I haven’t played in ages. So every year at E3 I always try to hit up the Sony conference and see what’s coming. Sometimes I check out the individual conferences for Square, etc, but this year I didn’t get to it. I may watch later, but for now I wanted to discuss some highlights of the main conference.

The Last Guardian

Whoa. This is like the mythical beast of PS games, and I was shocked when Sony led off with it. This game is from the developers of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus (full disclosure, I’ve played neither but recognize them as great games and would like to get around to it at some point), and was announced way back in 2009. Since then, it was repeatedly delayed and I think most people pretty much gave up on it, like with so many other games – I’m looking at you, FFXV. But at E3 we got a gameplay trailer that was beautiful. It looks to be a puzzle platformer where you use the guardian to help you move through the levels. I’m definitely planning on checking it out when it’s finally released, probably 2016 at this point.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Holy crap. This is a new announcement, and it looks freaking amazing. The graphics are stunning, and the gameplay looked really unique. It seemed to be some kind of post apocalyptic RPG, where you are tasked with slaying giant motorized dinosaurs. The demo included killing some smaller enemies, but culminated in a long battle against a huge one, where the main character used a variety of weapons including electric arrows and ropes to hit the dino’s weak spots. It pretty much looked glorious and I definitely am going to be following this. Finally something different than generic shooters and traditional RPGs.

FFVII Remake

Ok, this sent the internet into a complete tizzy. I played FFVII pretty extensively when I was in high school. I never beat it, but I played until basically the end of the second disc, and the third disc is just the final boss battle. I explored the game to collect special items, optional party members, etc, so I feel like I had a pretty good feel for the game. And I love Final Fantasy, so I’m really excited about this. It will allow a new generation of gamers to experience it. I’ve seen a lot of feedback that people are going to be disappointed because it’ll never live up to the hype, but I disagree. In all honesty, I didn’t fully enjoy playing the original… because the graphics are so bad. I appreciate that they were revolutionary for their time, and that it has cultural significance, but it just was so clunky. So I don’t want it to be exactly the same. I’m not a diehard, so I just want a playable version with the important bits from the original.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

I love Uncharted. I think they are great games with an awesome story that are enjoyable to play. I think the dialogue is witty and often hilarious, and I seriously played the Vita version multiple times to pass the hardest difficulty for the platinum. We already knew this game was coming, but it was nice to see more. The demo was pretty funny, they obviously had a few technical issues that caused them to totally reset what was supposed to be their big finale. But I’ll be glad to see Nathan and Sully again soon.

What was your favorite part of E3 2015?

Video Game Review: Valiant Hearts – The Great War

Tags

2D, collectibles, history, ps plus free, ps4, psn, valiant hearts, wwi

2015-6-3-ValiantHearts

Title: Valiant Hearts – The Great War

Platform: PS4

Personal Trophy Completion: 100%

Rating: 7/10

This was definitely the most unique game I’ve played in a while, not to mention the most educational. This game takes place during World War 1, and switches between the stories of several characters who are participating in the war and relief effort, on multiple sides. I really didn’t have too much knowledge about WWI beyond the basic American History education stuff, but this game provides journal entries, artifacts, and historical fact sheets that really painted a picture of what it was like. There were fact sheets about everything from certain battles to the fact that to protect against the chlorine in some of the gases, men wore urine soaked handkerchiefs over their faces. That’s for sure something I never would’ve known.

The gameplay is really creative, it’s essentially a 2D scrolling game, where you have to solve puzzles to proceed. Each character has their own set of tools and talents, one has a shovel to dig, one has wire cutters, and there’s even a dog named Walt who can carry things and crawl into spaces you can’t reach to pull levers. The puzzles are satisfying and tricky, some require just the right angle or timing, but non of them were experience ruining hard. And the music is PHENOMENAL. It’s classic and moody and perfectly matches the tone of the scenes. There are also a lot of stealth sections that are very well done (coming from someone who hates stealth), at once point you’re carrying a scarecrow and stopping to duck behind it whenever the search lights come near!

Trophy wise, the majority are story completion and collectibles. While the collectibles were really interesting, I felt there were a few too many and the acquisition took a bit away from the storyline. The other notable trophies are skill based which was a nice change of pace, one was for completing a vehicle section without damage – something I’m normally TERRIBLE at but enjoyed here, and the other for perfectly completing a rhythm based “healing” section. That was a bit more challenging, but I still managed without wanting to tear my hair out.

This is a neat little game, and if you can get it for free or cheap like I did, definitely give it a shot – but only if you can handle the tearjerker of an ending.