I have been working extra long shifts and straight days in order to take a weekend off to enjoy my 21st birthday. Which has left me feeling burnt out and pretty much in a dismal mood. However, I actually found myself pretty excited when I opened the mailbox up and found my newest Gamefly rental sitting in a stack of junk-mail....
I have Black Ops sitting here still but the intel was pissing me off just because I happen to be an OCD crazy person so collecting it all has to happen on the 1st playthrough. I get all nutso when it comes to collectibles and often I find myself burnt out on a game fast, which happened here. I'm hoping a few days off will do it justice otherwise it is going back to Gamefly and will be re-rented another time.
But back to the point, Monopoly Streets, yes I like Monopoly and this game didn't make me think or collect anything and has been a great way to relax after a long day at work(there are plenty of those happening lately I can assure you). In just a 2 short offline game(stupid CPU) and 1 very hard to arrange and find someone on the server online game I wound up with 650/1000. I sent it back tonight simply because I didn't want to fight with the online right now and would like a crack at something else from my giant list. But this game got me sitting down controller in hand and made me feel better at the end of the workday, which means I give this game my gratitude. It might not be the best in the world but it was enough to boost my score up some and de-stress me enough to get back to hardcore games.
Also, I'm hella pissed off at EA as there will be another 11 online servers shut down some of which for games that aren't even 18months old. Which means I will be under a time crunch to try to wrap up achievement lists or in some cases(ahem...MMA...ahem) start the game in general. It isn't until April 13th so I have some time but it isn't near enough to make me feel comfortable...
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
The Darkness 2
The Darkness 2, all I can say is wow. I wasn't expecting to like this game nearly as much as I did. I admit I bought the first one when it went on sale at Gamestop for about 4 bucks when I worked there, and then let it rot in my game library. I still haven't actually played it shame on me.
The talent tree expansion system really won me over. With some games this system gets incredibly annoying, but in this game I didn't find myself cursing and screaming when I couldn't find a portal to use. The gradual progression left me hungering for more ways to earn dark essence from kills and left me wanting to find all 29 collectibles in the game since they were worth a whopping 300 essence a piece.
The collectibles were not overdone and certainly didn't feel like a chore. Some games include hundreds of collectibles and can feel repetitive. The Darkness 2 avoids this as there are 29 different collectibles hidden in the levels and the best part is that on the pause screen the game will tell you how many collectibles are in the level and how many you have found. It leaves the guesswork that some other games have that often can drive people up a wall, me especially.
A New Game+ feature makes the achievement getting much easier as you can restart the game with all of your previously bought talents and then utilize them on a harder playthrough, which is especially useful for people looking to get the achievement for playing on the hardest difficulty accomplished. Also, this feature is great for completing all the talent trees, of which there are 4 to complete, in my first playthrough I collected all the collectibles and was able to finish 2 trees and get about halfway on the other 2 tress I had left.
The Vendettas campaign and Hit List is a great way to incorporate multiplayer into the Darkness. Giving 4 different characters with different abilities and weaponry really reminded me of the Left 4 Dead series especially with the drop in drop out play. Start a level alone and end with a full team beating the Brotherhood down in a sweep.
The experience was one that I wasn't sure I would enjoy when I rented this on a whim. I nearly didn't bother with this game and am now glad that I did. This game engrossed me in the content and left me wanting more after the end. The multiplayer didn't feel stale and old and the missions weren't so long that I wanted them to be over. The difficulty was spot on and with 4 different ones to choose from people new to games all the way up to old pros will find something to challenge their skills.
If you haven't played this I highly recommend you pick this up and give it a try, it is well worth the 60 dollar price tag, and for sure at least worth a 2.99 Blockbuster rental or a 2.00 Redbox night.
At the end of my 4 days with this game I got 31/50 achievements for 500/1000G. And I had a damn good time doing it too. I might start a new game before returning this tomorrow to mop up a few achievements I have left but I'm not sure yet. Time will see. I might find myself moving onto some of my backlog fodder to fill my time.
The talent tree expansion system really won me over. With some games this system gets incredibly annoying, but in this game I didn't find myself cursing and screaming when I couldn't find a portal to use. The gradual progression left me hungering for more ways to earn dark essence from kills and left me wanting to find all 29 collectibles in the game since they were worth a whopping 300 essence a piece.
The collectibles were not overdone and certainly didn't feel like a chore. Some games include hundreds of collectibles and can feel repetitive. The Darkness 2 avoids this as there are 29 different collectibles hidden in the levels and the best part is that on the pause screen the game will tell you how many collectibles are in the level and how many you have found. It leaves the guesswork that some other games have that often can drive people up a wall, me especially.
A New Game+ feature makes the achievement getting much easier as you can restart the game with all of your previously bought talents and then utilize them on a harder playthrough, which is especially useful for people looking to get the achievement for playing on the hardest difficulty accomplished. Also, this feature is great for completing all the talent trees, of which there are 4 to complete, in my first playthrough I collected all the collectibles and was able to finish 2 trees and get about halfway on the other 2 tress I had left.
The Vendettas campaign and Hit List is a great way to incorporate multiplayer into the Darkness. Giving 4 different characters with different abilities and weaponry really reminded me of the Left 4 Dead series especially with the drop in drop out play. Start a level alone and end with a full team beating the Brotherhood down in a sweep.
The experience was one that I wasn't sure I would enjoy when I rented this on a whim. I nearly didn't bother with this game and am now glad that I did. This game engrossed me in the content and left me wanting more after the end. The multiplayer didn't feel stale and old and the missions weren't so long that I wanted them to be over. The difficulty was spot on and with 4 different ones to choose from people new to games all the way up to old pros will find something to challenge their skills.
If you haven't played this I highly recommend you pick this up and give it a try, it is well worth the 60 dollar price tag, and for sure at least worth a 2.99 Blockbuster rental or a 2.00 Redbox night.
At the end of my 4 days with this game I got 31/50 achievements for 500/1000G. And I had a damn good time doing it too. I might start a new game before returning this tomorrow to mop up a few achievements I have left but I'm not sure yet. Time will see. I might find myself moving onto some of my backlog fodder to fill my time.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Clearance Shelves: The best deals if you work for em.
Bulletstorm on clearance for 8.98 at Target. Damn right I bought it! I have been waiting to find this on clearance for awhile. I rented it when it first came out and now I can finish this and get the dlc. I got the code for the limited edition content out of the rental so I don't mind that this is the second printing.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Regular posting here I come!
Now that I have settled into a groove at work and things are calming down, I will be back to my normal posting schedule of every day to every couple days.
I have income again so I will be able to start pre-ordering games again and purchasing them on a more frequent basis. I am also upping my gamefly membership to more games out at a time. I am considering reinstating my Blockbuster combo pass again for unlimited rentals and of course will continue to redbox to my hearts content.
The plan is to keep racking up the score and achievements. I'm fast approaching my 2nd year of Xbox and want to hit 100k either before or shortly after.
It is gonna be a race to the finish but I plan on taking it head on and making it happen.
Also, the blog might be moving to its own domain here shortly, I am currently shopping around different urls and am trying to find one that suits me best.
I have income again so I will be able to start pre-ordering games again and purchasing them on a more frequent basis. I am also upping my gamefly membership to more games out at a time. I am considering reinstating my Blockbuster combo pass again for unlimited rentals and of course will continue to redbox to my hearts content.
The plan is to keep racking up the score and achievements. I'm fast approaching my 2nd year of Xbox and want to hit 100k either before or shortly after.
It is gonna be a race to the finish but I plan on taking it head on and making it happen.
Also, the blog might be moving to its own domain here shortly, I am currently shopping around different urls and am trying to find one that suits me best.
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