Avoid The Void.

Dang, time really flies when you're not writing. Sheesh.

So last month I wrote about that all too familiar feeling of being in a funk. In fact, I've written about it quite often. To me it's a condition that comes about when you're A) a bad time manager and B) have too many game choices. This all leads to the indecisive funk where I want to play everything, I just can't decide what I want to play. It's all maddening really.

The List of Backlog was suppose to help alleviate that issue, but it really hasn't. Towards the end of April I got to a point in Space Hulk Ascension where I felt I had accomplished what I wanted with the game and I could confidently move on to something else. Problem is, nothing on The List was really grabbing me.

I kind of played this or that, messed around with some MMO's, nothing too serious. I even started replaying Borderlands 2, a game that I really enjoy. Then June hits and the 4th anniversary event for Marvel Heroes 2016 begins. And for a good two and a half weeks I played a ton of Marvel Heroes. To the tune of around 120 hours.

See, games like Marvel Heroes, Diablo 3, Battlefield, Paladins or any other online game are great for those times when you want to play something but can't decided which game you're going to sink time into. With a game like Diablo 3, at the start of every season I tend to play for about a month, leveling up multiple characters and grabbing loot. At the end of it I feel satisfied, I enjoyed myself and I don't feel like I was wasting time. Same with games like Battlefield and Paladins. I'll play them exclusively for a weekend or two to get my competitive juices flowing. And when I'm finished and I move onto something else, I know that I can go back to those games again and still enjoy them.

MMO's used to be that for me, they used to fill that void when game paralysis was beginning to take hold. I remember 10 years ago having a subscription to City of Heroes and the Sony Access which included Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Matrix Online and Vanguard. On my days off from work I would just play any one of those games, sometimes all of them. And that's what I did. Sometimes one game would have my interest most so I would spend more time in that one, but I was pretty good about playing them all to give myself some variety. Those were good times.

The downfall of all that really was digital distribution. As digital distribution became bigger, so did my collection of games. But that's a topic for another day really.

The Funk

While trying to tackle The Backlog seems like an insurmountable yet admirable task, it isn't without it's drawbacks. Mainly when nothing on that list seems interesting to play at the moment. Right now I am in a massive gaming funk. I remember reading a comment by someone when I was doing a bit of research on the backlog where they said it's game paralysis - a condition where there's too many games and you can't decide which to play.

Here's the problem - I had anticipated being wrapped up in Dawn of War 3 for quite some time. But that game has turned out to be a huge disappointment for me. Because of that I have little desire to play the game, which has left me in a state of trying to decide what to play next. The last few nights I've sat behind my computer watching videos or tv more than playing games.

The first step in over coming game paralysis (aside from not buying games) is to recognize that you are in a funk, which I have done. Now I think it's time to get refocused and re-energized by taking a bit of time off from games.

Every night after work I get home, I get my son situated doing homework, and then I sit behind the computer for the rest of the night. On the weekend it's not much different. I spend a lot of time playing games. I realized on Thursday that I was in the funk and that I'm just bored, and that's not fun. I will say that I am happy that I figured out that I'm in the funk now instead of realizing after sitting behind my computer for a week, or more, and then kicking myself for not taking that time to just play something.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - gaming is a hobby and should be fun and not feel like work. Unless your work is gaming, in which case I don't know what you do about that. So tonight I have a couple of Netflix movies that I can watch, including Blade Runner The Final Cut on Bluray which I'm excited to watch, and tomorrow I've got some things to do and a UFC fight to watch.

I love playing games, and as a gamer there's nothing worse then being bored with gaming.

The Crysis Is Over!

After finishing the previous Dawn of War games in preparation for Dawn of War III, I decided to try and use the time to knock out a few more games in The Backlog. Problem was, nothing on the list was really grabbing me all that much. But I powered through that and decided to play a couple of games I've had for ages, Crysis 2 & 3.

About 15 years ago when I was working at Gamestop it seemed like and fps was release everyother day. Not so much these days. That's why when a game like Doom 2016 comes out and turns out to be pretty good, it's a big deal.

I remember when Crysis 2 released and the PC master race threw up there arms, grabbed their torches and pitchforks and began to crucify the game for it's console-itis gameplay and feel. There's no denying that it's much different than its predecessor, a game that I loved a ton, but Crysis 2 isn't all that bad.

Over the course of a long weekend I played and finished both games, and even played through Crysis 3 a second time. I think they are both very good games that start off amazing, but lose steam once you begin to fight the Ceph. Crysis 2 the story was a mess, I had a really hard time following the narrative nor caring why I was doing what I was doing. Crysis 3 at least had better characters and a protagonist that could finally talk.

Of the two I think Crysis 3 is a better game, but not by a huge margin. The story and characters really is what sets it apart for me. There some gameplay changes to that help - refinement of the suite powers, being able to use alien weapons, and that overpowered bow!

Overall I am quite satisfied with both games. While I think the graphics in Crysis are pretty overrated, the gameplay in that and Warhead is so good that I felt compelled to finish both games twice! I'm happy that I finally played through both Crysis 2 & 3, and maybe someday I'll even play them again, but for now notch two more games off the list!

The Money's Worth Conundrum

One aspect in regards to the backlog that I haven't talked about is the need for me to feel that I've gotten my money's worth out of a game. Many years ago I pre-ordered the collector's edition of Dead Space 2. While it's a great game, I was extremely frustrated and upset with how short the game was. So upset that I played through the game twice more in a row just to get my money's worth.

These days with digital sales being the norm I rarely pay full price for a new PC game so the need to invest as many hours as a game cost isn't as big of a factor for me as it was many years ago. Right now I find myself in a situation where I am playing Space Hulk: Ascension and replaying Just Cause 2, and I'm not sure I really want to but I want to feel like I got my money's worth.

JC2 I played years ago and I did play the faction missions and finished the story, but because of the size of the game I always felt that I was missing stuff in the game. Ascension is just a long ass game. I own four of the eight Space Marine chapters and there are six campaigns with at least fifteen missions if not more.

I have plenty of time before Dawn of War 3 is released to trim a bit off the backlog but neither of these games are really doing anything for me. I guess what's eating me is that I recognize these are two games that I probably won't play again, but I want to feel like I got my money's worth and satiate that feeling of completion so that I can remove them from the backlog list.

When I am suffering from that dreaded game paralysis, the backlog has been a useful tool to get me out of the funk. But I have come to the conclusion that I might not get my money's worth out of every game. Gaming is suppose to be fun, not a chore. When it comes to the list, it's something I have to often remind myself of.

A Lego Backlog Update

Last post I gave some detail about The List that I created for tackling the mighty stack of the backlog. I've come to discover that The List can be both good and bad. It's good because it has given me direction and motivation for completing those games that I purchased but never played. It can also be bad because not only can it be intimidating seeing all those games labeled as backlog, but there are actually some games on there that I might not want to actually play.

What I do is sort The List by category then go to the oldest game on the list and start from there. However, there are a few games that go way back that I am just not really wanting to play right yet. So the moral of the story is to be flexible, play what you want because gaming isn't suppose to be work. That is unless it is your job, in which case gaming is work.

I do have an update on the backlog - I finished Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga and Lego Batman recently. I've been wanting to play Lego Star Wars for ages and now seemed like a good a time as any to give that a go.

Turns out, I don't really like the game all that much. I am what you would call NOT a fan of platforming or puzzles, and when you mix the two together it's even worse. The Complete Saga is actually two games in one; the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. And boy do they play differently as well. The main difference for me is the original trilogy levels are longer and have more jumpy and puzzly bits in them.

I just found The Complete Saga to be a chore to get through. The first three episodes are actually tolerable, albeit annoying. But the last three episodes drove me nuts. My dislike for platforming and puzzles can be attributed to my very lack of patience. I'm not saying it's a bad game, it is neat seeing a franchise that I have grown up with and love turned into legos, but it just wasn't for me.

I admit that after finishing The Complete Saga that maybe I was a bit hard on the game, I decided to give Lego Batman a go. I actually got Batman for free because my son received a Lego Batman set that came with a free code for the Steam version. So right there I was already loving the game.

Lego Batman has two campaigns so to speak - the heroes and the villains. The hero side is of course, Batman and Robin. Aside from all the suite changing stuff that was required to progress through the levels, that portion was quite fun. Playing through the hero story missions was so enjoyable. There was very little platforming puzzle bits, just the suites and bashing bad guys. I loved it.

Then came the villain story missions. It wasn't bad, but the villain story missions were much more tedious, much like the original trilogy episodes from the Complete Saga. Overall Lego Batman was enjoyable and I'm really glad that I gave it a try. I have decided to play through the Lego games in my Steam library in order of release so I'm looking forward to playing one that has actual voice acting!

The List of Jayedub!

I've written about the all mighty backlog in the past. You know, that thing that we as gamers constantly have looming over our shoulders, taunting us, yet we continue to feed the backlog with holiday sales on a regular basis. Honestly, it really sounds like an addictive relationship!

But in my seemingly overwhelming quest to slay the backlog dragon I have done what I believe is a few things that will help break the painful cycle of buying endless games I won't play and once and for all kill that nasty monster called the backlog.

While I do have a number of games on physical discs, the backlog really started becoming an issue when I began to make digital purchases. As the digital retail market grew and holiday sales became the norm, I found myself buying loads of games. Games that I may not have otherwise played. And each time I defended my purchases with the thought that I was saving money buying whatever game now while it's on sale because someday I will play it.

Last year I made some great strides at not purchasing a game that I wasn't intending on playing right away but it didn't stop me from buying games and putting them on the virtual shelf. It may seem silly because gaming is suppose to be a hobby, not a job. But I often felt guilt knowing that I had this ever growing list of games that I keep contributing to but never actually playing.

So I decided to scour the interwebs to see how others dealt with such an issue. The first thing I learned was not to beat myself up. I had to accept that I may or may not play every game that is on my backlog and that it's going to take time and effort to get to a point where I feel that I have accomplished my goal. Once I came to that conclusion and I stopped beating myself up, I then had to figure a way to accomplish my goal. Believe it or not, it's as simple as making a list.

The most common advice on the webs was to make a list. My start date for the list began with January 5th, 2006, the day I downloaded Steam and installed Half-Life 2. To be fair, Half-Life 2 was actually a physical purchase, but it gave me a great starting point to begin my list. I created a list with every purchase made from an online retailer that could be redeemed on Steam, Origin, Uplay and GOG. 453 games later I have my list.

The next step I did for myself. I started tracking my monthly expenses and purchases that I make online or otherwise. The idea was to see exactly how I was spending my money and on what. This has actually been an eye opener for me. If you couldn't tell, my wife and I don't exactly have a family budget. Because I like buying games during holiday special sales, I lose track of when, what and how much when it comes to buying games. I already knew that I was not playing the games that I was buying, but to see it on paper really helped me to give more thought about my game purchases.

It probably sounds like I'm making a bigger deal out of this than I should, and I agree. Unfortunately I am a bit impulsive with my game purchasing and I needed something to help me gain control over an area in my life that I felt has been out of control for so long. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like chaos, and having a mound of unplayed games for me is chaos.

Ghost Recon Wildlands Open Beta Impressions

I will admit that I wasn't all that excited for a new Ghost Recon game, after both Advanced Warfighter 1 & 2 and Future Soldier I was pretty skeptical that Wildlands would be any good. You see, I really hate GRAW 1 & 2, and Future Soldier was enjoyable at times but quite frustrating most times. After spending the weekend in Wildlands I can safely say that it is a load of fun. Most times.

When I first saw GRW gameplay it instantly reminded me of The Division mixed with Far Cry. Turns out it's more akin to Future Soldier mixed with Far Cry but with the third person controls much like The Division. GRW plays so much better than the past few Recon games and is an awesome coop experience. Full disclosure: I played maybe ten minutes of the single-player so I cannot comment on that.

The game looks good, plays great and is a ton of fun when playing in a group with friends. The enemies are pretty relentless which keeps the game from becoming boring. We did run into a few bugs during our time over the weekend, the worst being unable to complete a story mission. Otherwise it was a blast.

I look forward to March 7th when the game is released and writing about my adventures in Bolivia!

Space Hulk: Deathwing....Sigh...

I am a big Warhammer fan - of both the 40k and fantasy variety. Now I've never played the miniatures game nor spent time painting little figures and setting up huge battlefields, but I have read some of the literature and played many of the video games since learning about Warhammer back in high school.

One of my fondest memories from high school was during the summer staying up late at a friends house with a group of buddies playing the Space Hulk boardgame. There's no one instance in particular that stands out from those times, just that we all had a great time.

So when I saw Space Hulk: Deathwing, naturally I was excited. So much so I went and even pre-ordered the game. Unfortunately Deathwing is not a very good game. That's not to say that it doesn't have its moments; for the first couple of days I was genuinely excited to come home and play the game. However, that feeling wore off quickly when I realized that there's very little substance to Deathwing. All you do is move slowly through a space hulk, killing waves of enemies while completing monotonous and arduous tasks. It's not a fun game.

Yes I did complete the game, but I did not want to spend hours upon hours to do so, so I used some cheats to get through the game as quickly as possible. Did I ruin the experience? I don't think so, if anything it made the game a bit more tolerable.

If Space Hulk: Deathwing is a game you're interested in but are unsure of, I highly recommend watching Atomic Facepalm's Played In Full Deathwing review. It's quite entertaining and spot on with how I felt about the game.

If you enjoyed the video then please visit Atomic Facepalm's Youtube page, give them a like and be sure to check out their other videos while there. You can even subscribe if you so desire.

Roses Are Red, And So Are The Glasses...

This post isn't about the supposed insurmountable pressure of the almighty backlog and how to overcome the guilt and depression it seems to paralyze gamers with. But I will mention that what I have done recently was to make a list of all the game purchases starting from the first time I had to install Steam. A couple of games on the list are Serious Sam The First Encounter HD and Second Encounter HD.

I actually still own the physical copies of both those games. I am a huge fan of the first two Serious Sam games and remember enjoy the heck out of them many years ago. So naturally when they did a HD makeover I had to buy them.

Actually, I didn't have to buy them. But I did, and this past weekend I decided to install them and give them a go.

Lately I have really been craving a single-player FPS experience. I've been playing Battlefield 4 and Rainbow Six Siege online, but I had a hankerin' for a game with lots of guns that I can just shoot people in the face. All from the point of view from my face! Because of that I did buy FEAR Platinum on GOG while on sale for only $2.50! But more on that in a bit.

I knew when I started playing SSFE that is wasn't a long game, but that it's more like backwards running simulator 2001. So I loaded up the cheats and just went to town. For the first three hours or so I was really enjoying the game. It's old school shoot shit and blow shit up with little story or dialogue, and, the remakes do look much better than the original classic versions.

But around the third hour something happened. I realized that I was kind of getting bored. It was at that point that I started keeping track of how much longer I had till the final level. Then I got to the final level, died and had to repeat a section that took about fifteen minutes to complete. It was at that point that I lifted the white flag and declared the game complete. I then promptly installed SSSE and didn't even make it to the second level before giving up and uninstalling the game.

Both Serious Sam First and Second Encounter are great games, but my taste in games has evolved the past 16 years since I played them. Realizing this I decided to play some FEAR because my FPS thirst wasn't quenched yet. Besides, I didn't like the game much before, maybe I'll appreciate it now. What a mistake that was.

I hated FEAR when it was first released and I absolutely hate it even more today. It has some nice lighting and particle effects, and the horror aspect is well done, but that game is super overrated. It looked ugly back then and it looks even worse today. The gameplay is dull, the story is ok, and worst of all, it's boring as shit. FEAR is a pile of turds and I hate it.

So after playing two Serious Sam games and forcing my eyes to look at the shit that is FEAR I came to a few conclusions -  games that we remember fondly as being super great, are not as good today as maybe they were during the time we originally played them. Not all games are like that, but for me the Serious Sam games are. I also learned that if you hated a game with a passion and thought is was horse shit, chances are it's still a pile of steaming horse shit.

Hello, It's Me...

Dear Blog,

It's been awhile since we've last talked. I hope you've been well, I myself have been really, really busy. In November of last year I started a new job as a Facility Manager for a very small self-storage company. Yeah, it's a good job and I am enjoying it thus far. In January I did a 21 day purification program that was suggested by my chiropractor. It was tough at first as I was literally starving after the first day. But I persevered and it changed my life. I lost almost 30 pounds and haven't felt this great in years. It also changed my perspective on my diet. I am eating better, cleaner and I really want to hit the gym to see if I can get into better shape!

I'm still playing games. I have gotten better at not buying more games than I can play, but the backlog is still an issue for me. After beating Dead Rising 3 in early January I've been in this funk - you know, the funk that I've written to you about a few times in the years past. I have so many games that I want to play but none of them are quite grabbing me. I end up just sitting in front of my monitor till I pick a random game. It really leaves me in an unsatisfied state honestly. The funk is one reason why I tend to play multiplayer games a lot. Like the couple of months at the end of last year when all I was playing when I came home from work was Star Wars Battlefront, and why I'm playing lots of Battlefield 4 and Rainbow Six Siege; even if I play a few matches I feel like I accomplished something game wise.

But enough about that, let's talk about us. I know I've been neglecting our relationship over the past few years. But I promise to spend more time with you, to be around when you need me. I've missed you, missed us. Till next time blog.

Love,

Jayedub

It's a Skyforge Thing!

The last few posts have all been about Marvel Heroes, a game that I love quite a bit. However, I have only played a total of three times since the release of Ant-Man. What could cause me to stop playing a game I love so much? Well it's a combination of working a new job and Skyforge. That's right, Skyforge.

Skyforge is a new free-to-play MMO from the Allods Team, the developers who made Allods Online oddly enough. Unlike games such as Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online or The Old Republic that started with a subscription model then moved to a f2p model, Skyforge was built from the ground up as f2p.

Why does that matter you might ask? Because those other sub to free games lock content behind a subscription; Skyforge instead goes the premium account route similar to what you find in World of Tanks, meaning players have access to all content all the time. It would be similar to The Secret World or Elder Scrolls Online, just without the initial purchase.

The difference didn't really sink in till I played TOR one afternoon after spending loads of time in Skyforge. The amount of stuff locked behind a sub or the Cartel Market is staggering. Don't get me wrong, I am not against TOR's f2p model, I was just surprised to notice the differences.

Well, that's enough about that. At some point I'll get back into Marvel Heroes, or some of the other games in my backlog. But until then, I am quite enjoying Skyforge.

New A.R.M.O.R. Incursion for Marvel Heroes!

It's another week and another event for Marvel Heroes. This week brings the revamped A.R.M.O.R. Incursion event. 

In the past you would get ARMOR drives as loot from bosses, random enemies and on daily mission. Those drives could then be exchanged for various items from the ARMOR vendor.

Here's a brief overview of what to expect with the new ARMOR Incursion event:

• A.R.M.O.R. Defender Mission - Completing this mission will grant an Ultimate Upgrade Token!
• A.R.M.O.R. Drives - Collect Intel Powerup buffs, defeat the specified boss, and earn A.R.M.O.R. drives
• New Items & Artifacts - Now you can use your A.R.M.O.R. drives to buy more items and artifacts, including Howard the Duck's Big Freaking Gun
• New Enchant Recipes - A.R.M.O.R. drives can get you all-new enchant recipes for slots 1 - 5, featuring the new Alternate Reality Rune
• A.R.M.O.R. Incursion Achievements - 7 new achievements are now available, exclusive to A.R.M.O.R. Incursion!

For even greater detail, click here to read the forum post on the ARMOR Incursion along with other changes in the patch.

What has me excited are the new items and artifacts. For me there wasn't anything useful to purchase with ARMOR drives which means I have quite a few saved up. I have probably about 3k worth of drives saved, but it's an event that I viewed as a time to take a break from the game. It's not that I dislike the event, I had no use for drives. Till now!

Don't forget, this event brings with it a 100% server side boost to XP!!! 

Beware The Power Of The Ant!

That's right, Marvel Heroes newest hero Ant-Man has been released! Hard to believe Marvel Heroes has 49 heroes, so much content. Speaking of content, the Story Revamp also comes with this patch. Before there were three difficulty levels related to the story missions - Normal, Heroic and Super Heroic. If you were willing to play through each difficulty you might make it to level 60, I honestly have no idea as I only finished the story once. With one character.

There no longer are three difficulties, instead a person should be able to level 1-60 by playing through just the story. I am going to test this out with Ant-Man, however, because I have a lot of level 60 heroes I have a permanent 200% XP bonus. But that's not a bad thing. I will be interested to see at what point in the story I reach level 60, that should give me a good indication if the XP is scaled well and if boosts are needed or not.

Also with this patch comes the Odin's Bounty event. For a three hour span, bosses in one of three game modes will drop Chests of Odin's Bounty. Every three hours the game mode rotates. For example, as of this post, all bosses in Red, Green or Cosmic terminals are boosted. Afterwards bosses in Industry City will be boosted, then Midtown, and so on and so forth. You can check out the rotation schedule here.

The Odin't Bounty event is one of my favorites in Marvel Heroes; it's a great way not only to level up but to gear up a hero as well.

Midtown Madness 7/13/15

It's Monday which means it's Midtown Madness in Marvel Heroes! It also means I got an unexpected day off so I need to figure out what I'm going to play.

What is Midtown Madness you say? Glad you asked. All bosses in the Midtown Patrol zone will drop a Midtown Madness chest full of all sorts of goodies and a sizable XP orb. There's also a chance for a rare Midtown Fortune card to drop from all bosses as well. The Midtown Fortune cards are nice but I've never had them give me anything useful that I can remember.

Midtown on Monday's is great for leveling up and gearing heroes due to the nice XP orbs and cosmic and possible unique items from chests. Cosmic Chaos is still going on which means a 42% multiplicative XP boost as well!

Story Mode Revamp

Next week's Ant Man patch for Marvel Heroes is shaping up to be a significant game changer. Announced yesterday at the San Diego Comic Con was the difficulty mode consolidation change to the Marvel Heroes story mode. The complete FAQ can be read here.

There's some really nice information on the changes, but what caught my eye was the following three changes:

• Experience rewards for story mode have been greatly increased.
• Players can level from 1 to 60 in story mode alone, at a brisk pace if they wish.
• Several new optional story missions have been added in various chapters, with experience awards, to aid in leveling. More may be added in the future, as needed.

While I have played through the story once, I haven't touched it in ages since it's the least effective method for leveling a hero. I do love the change for a few reasons - it should help acclimate new players to the game and it gives an alternative to leveling instead of running constant terminals or patrol zones.

With these changes I plan to start leveling Ant Man through the story mode to test the new revamp. However, I have a feeling that I will eventually out level the story content due to my permanent 200% leveling bonus.

A few other changes in the FAQ that were of interest was the removal of the difficulty in the story mode (Normal, Heroic, & Super Heroic) to make grouping easier and a possible Mentor Mode to down scale one's level lower to group with friends to be implemented in the future.

Also announced were a slew of new and updated costumes which is always nice. I particularly like the new Jean Grey costume! All-in-all, the Ant Man patch is shaping up to be a nice one for everyone!

It's Cosmic Time!

It's Friday which means it would have been patch day for Marvel Heroes, but that was done on Tuesday due to Gazillion bringing Marvel Heroes goodness to the San Diego Comic Con this weekend.

However, that does mean a new event starts today, it's Cosmic Chaos time! What is Cosmic Chaos you may ask?  It means more cosmic loot from bosses in Cosmic Terminals, Cosmic Midtown and ICP and double leveling rate for Cosmic Prestige. For us average players it's about the multiplicative bonus to XP, Rare Item Find and Special Item find of 42%.

Cosmic Chaos is one of my least favorite events in Marvel Heroes because I generally don't run cosmic terminals or patrols and the multiplicative XP bonus is kind of meh unless you intend to use lots of boosts to level. You do collect cosmic worldstones from bosses and random enemies that you can use to purchase items from Moondragon in the Avengers Tower.

Moondragon does have a few items that are worthwhile picking up if you have the appropriate hero that can use the item, such as the Doop Ectoplasm artifact and the Power Cosmic legendary. She does sell two recipes which are nice as well, Doop Inspiration and Power Doop. Again, good for a few select heroes, but nice none the less.

I would, however, recommend the first purchase from Moondragon be the Upgrade Epic Insignia to Cosmic recipe first because that will benefit every hero. It requires a level 60 epic insignia and adds a +1 to all powers which all heroes can use. Since you have to use Cosmic Worldstones to buy the Cosmic Upgrade Tokens and most likely the Doop Runes needed for the recipe, I would suggest making sure you have the best insignia for your character because you'll run out of worldstones pretty quickly.

Good insignia's can be hard to come by and if you're leveling say Human Torch, Ghost Rider, Cable or Psylock for example, then purchasing the artifact or legendary isn't a bad idea till you do find a good insignia.

This even should run through next Thursday till the Ant-Man patch that will likely come on Friday morning just in time for the movie.

Dead?

So it has been brought to my attention that I might have a blog and that it's been almost a year since my last post. I am thinking that maybe I might start blogging again, maybe a post here or there about stuff. I'm pretty sure I can come up with some uninteresting material about things no one cares about!

Back in April I started a new job. For a couple of weeks I worked both, then I left my old job and started working full time, 40 hour work weeks. That has unfortunately eaten up precious time that I could be playing video games. Or so I thought.

I use a program called Raptr to track my game playing time. I have no way of explaining why other than I just like to know what I've played and for how long. I rarely use Raptr for anything else honestly. One feature is I get a weekly email that tally's up my total time played and which games I spent that time playing.

When I saw this past week's summary, I was kind of blown away at how many hours I spent gaming.To be fair I had an extra day off this week thanks to having to work six days a week for the next month. Total time spent playing was 51 hours and 8 minutes. If you are wondering, yes, that is almost twenty more hours gaming then I spent at work.

I went back to the second week in April when I started work both jobs and was kind of surprised at how much time I have blown playing games. The past three weeks are not ordinary because I have had a couple of extra days off from work and I had this obsession with Dragon Age Origins. But after looking at all the numbers I would say my average game time falls somewhere between 20-25 hours a week.

Again, that is quite surprising. What that is telling me is that I am playing way too much on my days off when I probably could be doing something a bit more constructive, like working on the honey-do list. But, from this time forward I will not complain about having no time to play games, because it's obviously not been the case!

It's A Cornucopia of Games.

Holy cow, this working full time is kicking the crap out of me. I work all day, go home and play games, then when I have a couple of days off I do whatever chores I need to and try to play as much on the computer as I can before having to go back to work. I really don't know how those of you who have full time jobs have been able to live like this for so long.

But like I said, I have been playing games in the evening when I get home from work. For most of June it has been Marvel Heroes, not only at night but on days off as well. I am really loving that game! I love the combat, I love the loot, and most of all I love how different each hero plays from one another. That is unless you play Taskmaster who plays like four different heroes! Oh yeah, I also love that there are soooooo many different heroes to play.

Before my massive ingestion of Marvel Heroes I decided that I wanted to play Splinter Cell Blacklist, but before I do that I wanted to play Splinter Cell Conviction again, a game that I think is underrated and really quite good.

It's not like I needed to play Conviction again, I had already finished the game twice before. No, it was the fact that Blacklist, a game I bought during the winter holiday on sale for about twenty-five bucks, was now on sale for a mere ten bucks. TEN BUCKS!!!! The game sat on a virtual shelf for nearly seven months. So after a couple more rounds with Conviction I finally moved on to Blacklist.

What a frustrating game for the first couple of hours. I'm pretty sure the A.I. is broke for the first couple of missions. That and the change in controls from one game to another really gave Blacklist this difficulty spike that I was not enjoying. But, once I finally got a grasp on the controls and picked up a few gadgets the game turned out to be really good. Not only does it look good, the story and voice acting are quite good as well. But once I finished that it was back to Marvel Heroes for more one year anniversary goodness.

That is till this past weekend. With Dragon Age Inquisition coming in October I had this crazy thought that maybe I'd play through Dragon Age 1 &2 again, especially DA2 since I love that game! Honestly I didn't think I would actually play DAO again; I find the combat to be tedious, it doesn't look all that great, and it's way too freaking long.

Yet after about an hour of checking out mods I fired up a new Human Noble and now I can't stop playing. I feel that DA2 has better combat, looks better, better characters and interactions, but the story in DAO is really good. Add in a few mods that improves the combat and speeds it up a bit and now I'm hooked!

This weekend will be all Marvel Heroes thanks to an increase in XP event, but I am eager to get back into DAO, because Ferelden needs its Grey Warden hero!

I Spread Butter Like Parkay...

Wow, I can't believe how long I've neglected the blog for, and only four posts all year, that's pretty bad. Well to everyone's dismay I am still around, I've just been too lazy to write anything.

So what's been going on lately you might ask? Back in April I started a new job. I went from working a 32 hr work week with three days off to a full time 40 hr, five days a week job with some crappy commuting on a few days. Needless to say it's been a challenge adjusting to not having so much free time. I still play games when I get home, just not for as long as I used too.

I've pretty much conceded to the fact that I have a difficult time using my free time wisely and now I have even less time to use. I feel the problem is World of Tanks. On most nights I still like the game. However, it's a time sink. Sure, you can play WoT casually, but if you want to get good and be competitive you need to invest the time and effort into it. Basically it's a game that takes time away from the myriad of games I wish I could or should be playing.

But even with less time I have been able to play games. There's been quite a bit of WoT, but also Marvel Heroes. I am in love with this game! It's Diablo with super heroes, what's there not to love! Speaking of Diablo, I did beat D3 with a monk in preparation for Reaper of Souls, then promptly finished that as well. Let me tell you, Reaper is amazing! I love the changes the expansion brought with it, so good!

I did play some Elder Scrolls Online as well, but not very much. The game just hasn't grabbed me like I thought it would. It looks good, the combat is fun, but I just don't like the classes. I actually get annoyed when I think about ESO's classes. Maybe some day I'll be able to put into words exactly what I don't like about the classes.

So that's about it I guess, maybe I won't neglect the blog as much going forward.