Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it *sobs* (1/27/14-2/2/14)

Monday 1/27

Call of Duty: Ghosts, Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS4), Disney Infinity (PS3) (Incredibles)-
There's nothing like sneaking downstairs before the kids are awake and playing a little Ghosts to make you feel like you're getting away with something. In total, I gained around 7 levels from the double XP weekend, going from 23-30. I started getting a better feel for the maps and posting some better scores, and felt like I was improving just enough to think, "yeah, I should totally get the season pass." I have a bunch of credit in various places (paypal, Amazon, PSN wallet), so we'll see.

Dearest Martha, 

I write you this letter from the homestead. The children are home again from school. 

AGAIN.

It is too cold to send them out of doors, so they must find other ways to pass the time.

Mostly it involves yelling. 

It is so very loud here, my dear. 

So. Very. Loud.

Since my oldest had absconded with my 3DS to play Mario & Luigi Dream Team during his allotted game time (Oh, the irony!), my middle son was left to wander aimlessly without his usual co-op partner. We finally decided on a little Lego Marvel Super Heroes and later some Disney Infinity. These two games provide a great contrast in how to do multiplayer co-op.

Now, it's not a fair comparison, since Lego is very mission/level based and Infinity has more open-world freedom. But, even though I will never tire of punching little Lego men in the face, I think Infinity does multiplayer better. And it's all because of the camera. Infinity simply cuts the screen in half. I do my thing (Missions, progressing the story) my little co-op partner does his (wandering, collecting toys, hoverboarding everywhere). Lego Marvel puts us both on the same screen, but whenever one of us starts to move too far away from the other, the screen (dynamically, arbitrarily?) cuts in whatever way it sees fit. So when I'm Hulk-smashing things on the ground and he's flying around as Iron Man, it can get a little nauseating. And he's ALWAYS flying around. Thank the gods for Lego Marvel's mid-level save points. We've had to stop on more than one occasion due to a little "screen-sickness." (Maybe it was the screen, maybe it was just the bickering. "Come over here!" "No, I need you over here!" "Stop moving!" "Switch to Thor!" "No, Thor!")


Tuesday 1/28

Lego Marvel, Final Fantasy Tactics-
More sub-zero daytime highs, more days off from school. A little more Lego Marvel, at the young Mr.'s request. We're getting through about 1% of the game per sitting, so we'll finish it. Eventually. I think we have Lego games from the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman, and now Marvel series'. The only ones I think I've finished to 100% completion are the original Star Wars games and Indiana Jones. And that was with my eldest. And of course there were no trophies on those...grrrrrr.

FF Tactics is really starting to pull me in. Probably to the detriment of other games. A decision needs to be made soon: continue on and beat this game again, or play another "tactical RPG" to get that same fix. I have saves from X-Com Enemy Within, Shadowrun Returns, and Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement that I could go back to. But I'm also remembering why this was a game I would leave work early to play. (Just by an hour or so. One quick battle before the wife gets home.)

Wednesday 1/29

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Final Fantasy Tactics-
Wow. Yeah. Beat Brothers, got 100% all trophies or whatever. But, as a father of two young boys of around the same age as the characters in the game, this game should come with a warning label or something. Emotionally devastating. But in a good way? Either way, I'm glad I played it and definitely understand what the hype was about.

Stab. Slash. Counter-Attack. Arrow. Potion. Potion. Phoenix Down. Slash. (Almost wanted to turn that into a Haiku, but those are played out, right?) I love these types of games because it's never about quick reflexes or memorizing the perfect route/line. It's about thinking through all of the variables and then deciding your move. So, if you fail, you can only blame your stupid brain and not your diminishing old-man reflexes.

Games finished YTD: 2

Thursday 1/30

Final Fantasy Tactics-
Optimization
I can spend hours, or days
Just in menu screens

Sorry, I can't resist the need to 'ku.

Friday 1/31

Call of Duty: Ghosts, Paint it Back-
Oh, Ghosts, you tricky so-and-so, you turned on the double xp in Extinction Mode just to taunt me, didn't you? I have already prestiged in this mode once, but a few more matches won't hurt none. I still haven't beaten it yet, but I don't see how that's possible playing with randoms. Too many lone-wolves, not enough cooperation and communication. It's still fun to shoot the aliens though. This mode may be what gets me to buy the season pass. I'm hoping the price is right on ebay.

Paint it Back is becoming my new go-to quick game. I wish it had a little more "stakes" to it. Picross has the timer and the five strikes before you had to try again. PiB just has the grim eventuality that I will conquer all puzzles. Just, one or two at a time over the next __ hundred days.


I had an Amazon Promo code that was expiring today, so I used it on Tomb Raider (on sale for $9. -$5 Amazon promo credit, -$4 Amazon trade-in credit = $0.) The new one, not the PS1 game. I still have that in the basement somewhere. (And, of course, I've never finished it.)
I'm still not sure if I should count this as money spent, considering I used the promo code and previous Amazon credit to get the game for free. I wouldn't have bought it without either of those.

YTD Spending: $18.25 (ACTUAL YTD spending, subtracting anything bought with any type of credit: $6.25)


Saturday 2/1

Lego Marvel, Paint it Back-
Chip, chip, chipping away at both of these.

Who had 20 Days in the Pool? (1/20-1/26)

Monday 1/20

Does it count as spending money if the money was already sitting in my Playstation Wallet? When Playstation Network sales look like Steam sales I tend to get weak in the knees.

Spelunky PS3, PSVita
Six dollars and twenty five cents. That's how much it cost for me to get Spelunky and Thomas Was Alone for the PS3 and Vita (Cross buy is one of the greatest ideas in video game history). Played some multiplayer with my boys, which was just as hilarious and confusing as you can imagine. They took more joy in dying and getting in my way than in actually progressing in the game, but hey, what are you gonna do? And yes, I'm fully aware that, like Don't Starve, I have another randomly generated game with infinite replayability now on my list/stack/whatever.

FIFA 14
At this point I try to turn on FIFA only a few times per week. I'll check on the newest FUT tournament, build or tweak a team for it and dive in. The march towards 100k begins again! Why? I have no idea...

$ Money spent on games YTD: $6.25

Tuesday 1/21

Warhammer 40k Space Marine
I finished it! Woo hoo! Something something evil devil tank-man. Blah blah blah, waves and waves of enemies. And the ending boss ended up like a God of War quicktime event. Only one in the game. So odd. The very definition of mediocrity. 3/5

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Mac
I only really got the game installed today, didn't get to spend any time with it. I've never really played any customizable card games, but I watched a few videos online and it looks pretty cool, so why not?

* Games Finished YTD: 1

Wednesday 1/22

Hearthstone
The 7 stages of Hearthstone: 1) Tutorial - Oh cool! Cards...Mana...Attack...Minions...Got it! 2) Practice Mode - I'm awesome! That guy stinks! I'm gonna play this game forever! WooOOOooo! 3) Play Mode - ohmygodohmygodOHMYGOD! I almost lost but then I won man that was close and wow what a rush! 4) First Loss(es) - Wow, he's good. Oooh, I see what you did there. Huh, what is that card?!? Oh, I need a better deck. 5) Deckbuilding - I'll take one of these and two of those and a whole lot of those and you're all gonna feel my wrath! Bwaaahh haha!!! 6) Crushing Defeat - Wait? What! Howthe! Whatthe! I didn't even get to! That's not! 7) Acceptance - *Shuts off Hearthstone*


Thursday 1/23

Hearthstone
After yesterday's rollercoaster ride through Hearthstone I decided to take a cold and calculating approach and give it one more shot. AKA, I looked at a FAQ and copied, card for card, some guys "can't lose starter deck." (Sidebar: Have you ever noticed how everyone, EVERYONE on the Internet is awesome at every game? They are all experts who play every game on the hardest difficulty, barely stifling their yawns of ennui the whole way through? Irritates the hell out of me.) Played three more matches (all against practice opposition) and was trounced in each and every one. Clearly, Wednesday was a fluke run of matches. And I have absolutely zero deck-building ability. As much as I'd love to work through my difficulties and try and improve at the game, I'm just going to cut my losses and move on. Otherwise it would make for a long and frustrating year. And there are already too many other games to play. Liiiiike:

Brothers PS3
Another one of those consistent Game of the Year list residents. And this one was free with Playstation Plus! Also, I heard it was short. Like, 3 hours, play it one sitting short. Which usually means two or three sittings for me. We'll see. So far I've just finished the section helping the two giants reunite. I have no idea how much more there is, but I'm really enjoying how my brain gets split in two having to control each brother with each stick. I'll often find myself wondering why that brother is walking in circles or not following the other. It'll take me minute to realize that it's because my right thumb isn't doing anything or, more often than not, left thumb brother is on the right of the screen and my brain forgot that he's controlled with the left thumb, not right. It makes my focus better and concentrate more fully on what my hands are doing compared to what is on the screen. Really looking forward to finishing this one. Soon.

Paint it Back iPad
Great Picross knock off. Picross and Picross 3D are probably my two most-played Nintendo DS games. I've downloaded a few other Picross knockoffs in the past, but this one has the highest level of polish I've ever played. A great game to jump into for a few minutes when time allows. And since I paid for the full game upgrade ($3), totally finishable. But I'll probably take me time.

$ YTD Spending: $9.25 (I'll count the $3, but I have had over $40 in my iTunes account for over a year, so it's sorta free.)

Friday 1/24

Spelunky Vita
Like Paint it Back, I've found myself coming to this one on occasion when I want to play something, but don't have the time or interest to really get into something bigger. Today I finally tried the Vita version and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. It translates really well to the small screen, and the controls are just as tight as the console version. No gimmicky touchscreen business, thank the gods. Great for the 15-20 minutes after the kids are done with homework, but before I start making dinner. Definitely going to keep chipping away at this one.

Call of Duty: Ghosts PS4
Near the top of the list of my secret shames (along with enjoying the music of My Chemical Romance and the TV show The Mindy Project) is the fact that I've bought every Call of Duty game on or near launch since Modern Warfare 2. Which is really weird for someone who considers themself a pacifist and hates the 2nd Amendment. But as far as virtual stress relief goes, nothing beats taking out a roomful of guys in quick succession with my SMG and running over their corpses for more ammo. It's not to say I'm very good at it, but it's pretty mindless, and sometimes that's just what I want. And: Double XP Weekend!!!
(Call of Duty sidebar: I have yet to crack the code on this game. Since I started playing these regularly, I've slowly gotten better and better with my k/d ratio. MW2 was somewhere around .5, Black Ops was around .83, I dropped again for MW3 to .79, and really thought I figured it out with Black Ops 2. I was consistently over 1.0. (1.11. I just checked the Elite page for the full stats.) But, as far as Ghosts goes, I'm back down in the .6's. I hate the maps, prefer the loadout system in Black Ops 2, and haven't really found a favorite gun yet. BUT DOUBLE XP. Apparently I'm a Treyarch man. Who knew!)
Despite my misgivings about the multiplayer (haven't touched the Campaign, absolutely love Extinction), I keep jumping in on Double XP weekends waiting for it to click. Maybe one day it'll happen. But probably not.


Saturday 1/25

Don't Starve
My younger son (middle child) doesn't necessarily like playing Don't Starve as much as he likes to watch someone play and bark orders at them. So today, I obliged.
"Dad, go through that wormhole!" "Dad, don't walk through the swamp!" "Dad, stay away from the frogs!" "Why are you going by the frogs!" (He's yelling. Always yelling.) "Dad, go in that cave!" "Dad, get out of that cave!" "You're going insane!" "Eat something!" "You can't kill the shadows!" "Look out!!!" A little stressful, probably more so for him than for me, but enjoyable.


Sunday 1/26

Paint it Back

Call of Duty: Ghosts
A few more PiB puzzles, a few more levels gained in Ghosts. I give Call of Duty a lot of grief, but I do really enjoy the addition of Squads mode. It makes it easier to try a new loadout or weapon without the pressure of knowing you'll be a detriment to your team. Well, I always kind of know I'll bring the team down, but at least in Squads I know I'm not letting other jerk humans kill me.
I had a decent run there for a while (bless this empty house and the YMCA for having an indoor pool for the kids to swim in), gained 7 levels, had a handful of 1.0 or greater k/d. Corner turned??? (Probably not, since I'll be putting it down once double xp ends.)