These Dice Are Pink

Posts Tagged ‘Xbox 360’

Harry Potter Breaks Hogwarts

This weekend I got Lego: Harry Potter.  This Lego game covers years 1-4.  I have to admit that I was a little nervous following Lego: Indiana Jones.  Indiana Jones just didn’t seem as remarkable as Lego Star Wars did or even Lego: Batman.  If you think a Lego game can’t hook you, try Lego: Harry Potter.  First, there is so much going on that you can literally spend hours in an area finding everything.  It’s a nice mix of a family game and a difficult collection game that will have more advanced gamers spending lots of time trying to do everything, see everything, and more of all collect everything.  All the charm of the Harry Potter movies was put into this game.  The scenes are very familiar and the areas you play are easy to recognize as moments from the movie.

New to Lego: Harry Potter is the ability to learn magic spells in lessons, just like they would in a school.  Because characters start with limited abilities and learn them as they move through the years of school, it’s easy to figure out what spells to use for various obstacles in the game.  I expected this game to be decent, like all Lego games, but they really outdid themselves in this one.  Everything is as near perfect as a Lego can get to representing the Harry Potter books/movies.  I’m not yet done with Year 4 and I have over half a game to go even when I just finish the storyline.  This is an excellent choice for playability and for having plenty to do for the money.

Not Much Going On

This weekend, it is a quieter weekend.  It’s the kind of weekend that came at the right time.  Last night, I didn’t do much but some World of Warcraft dailies and leveling my priest to 23.  I ended up spending much more of the evening drinking coffee, talking with friends, and watching the beginning of the Wolverine movie.  I had never seen this and just realized Ryan Reynolds is in this movie.  I love Ryan Reynolds.

As for the rest of the day, I think I’m going to pick up an Xbox game and go balls to the wall on it.  I haven’t decided what I might play just yet.

What Are You Buying?

Yesterday, I played some Dragon Age.  I feel like I can never find a merchant in that game.  I’ve been running around in circles trying to clean out my inventory for ages.  I also have no idea how to craft items.  It was probably in a tutorial I did in the introduction, but, I don’t remember it at all.  It’s a huge adventure just to find a merchant.  Others, well ahead in the game than myself, promise me that there is, in fact, a merchant somewhere in the town I’m in.  We’ll see.  I think there’s some sort of conspiracy going on here.

We raided Ice Crown Citadel through Saurfang last night.  It was a great run!  I’m only 11 Frost Badges away from getting my second piece of T10 gear.  I also tried my second Random Battleground and we won this one too!  The first one I did was Arathi Basin.  It was a close and excellent game, but, the Horde came out on top.  My second game was Strand of the Ancients.  I like Strand because it is fast moving and I like it more now that I’ve been learning the secret of strategy from people who are really good at it.  Overall, I’ve grown tremendously better at PVP on my hunter.  I know how to hold people up and how to get away better.

Star Trek Online and Monkeying Around

This weekend, I finally got my science officer in Star Trek Online to LC2.  Nothing super cool came with this, but, it was fun nevertheless.  I did a quest that earned me my first piece of blue gear in the form of armor.  I find STO to be a bit of a grind, but, it’s new and cool for now so I’m sticking with it about once a week.

I also picked up The Secret of Monkey Island for the Xbox 360.  I never played this originally so it’s new and different to me.  It’s a game of puzzle solving with items, but, it’s relaxing if you’re tired and you can play it while lying on the couch unlike some more active games.  I’m hoping I can solve all the puzzles, GASP!  I’m having a good time with that.

Bill and I also picked up Toy Soldiers but I haven’t had a chance to try it out.  I’m excited because the local player mode means Bill and I can play together!

End of Resolution Days

I have failed to update my blog as much as I like. I have been so behind on everything and this morning I made the effort to catch up. Let’s see how this goes! At the height of my attempts to balance everything, I was sleeping better at night and so much more active. Since December, we worked so hard on Firan for the Kinslayer War. The bulk of this has been resolved and we just officially finished Resolution Day yesterday. It’s such a good feeling. I think it proved if we could run that high and hot for 3 months that if we backed it off to medium…the game can still be interesting and fun without full burn out.

So what does one do now? I’ve been getting a renewed interest in World of Warcraft. I have lost the desire to grind out instances for badges, but, I did level a little bit and do some achievements. I think I’m going to work on Bennett’s mining some here; it can be relaxing to run in a circle gathering minerals. I got my Star Trek character to LC which means I get a cooler ship with keen powers. I haven’t had an opportunity to try them out, yet. I may wrestle the Xbox back from Bill, who is playing lots of Mass Effect 2, so I can continue my Overlord 2 game. I also have Quake 4 and Assassin’s Creed. Yes, there is a II. Yes, I am the slowest gamer in the world. I like the savor the experience, OKAY.

We are clearing to Saurfang Jr. pretty regularly now. I’m happy for that and the chest piece I got last night. I need to gem it before my Shaman leader gets angry. You wouldn’t want to see him angry.

Lego: Rockband

My parents got me Lego Rockband for Christmas. I’ve been kind of disinterested in the game guitars but now I am super excited. My Lego people will rock out!!!

Last Minute Gaming: 2009

This year I spent a long time on Overlord.  Rearranging our schedules and priorities took a lot of precedence and I finally think I have a handle on it.  So in the last days of 2009, I decided to get crazy.  It started with the end of Loremaster in World of Warcraft.  It was such a relief to finish.  I felt like I had time again.  Time to do all these crazy achievements like explore the world, read all the books, and fish all the loots.  I was finished just in time to start enjoying the new Dungeon Finder tool.  It’s been so nice to jump into instances and get them done (PUG antics aside).

I decided that Overlord’s mechanics were just not enjoyable enough to keep plugging at.  Instead, I put in Overlord II that Brian got me for my birthday.  Man, it’s like the same game revived very much so.  I have to say that it’s an improvement /alone/ on the way they created the bread crumb quests, the money gains, and the new and different ways you can operate your minions.  So far, they’ve strayed from just killing a bunch of guys and picking up a bunch of objects.  Sure, it’s there.  But you don’t notice, because, much of it involves ramming things with boats, solving puzzles, or brainwashing people.  While I don’t think Overlord II has a plot that competes with Dragon Age, it definitely has a much better plot line than the original.  I find it twice as engaging.  Thanks, Brian!

My friends Diana and Jesse also introduced me to 1 vs. 100.  Man, this game is so good for a variety of reasons.  If you like trivia, it’s awesome for that.  More so, I find it is even more fun when the guy next to you in the crowd is really sure that “Let them eat cake” was quoted by Little Debbie.  The live version of the game  has opportunities for you to earn a spot in the mob of as the ‘one’.  Both of them have chances to win Microsoft points and swag.  It’s free if you are an Xbox gold member and worth checking out at least once.

I have a few more days left in this year.  I don’t know what wonders I will play during this time.  I have some more to say on some other gaming subjects but I have to run!

My Frustrations With Overlord I

I enjoy Overlord.  I’ve muscled through it to the Dwarven Brewery.  I like my little minions and gathering things.  I like the cheeky humor.  I’ve stuck with it because I’m not very good at games.  I like them, but, a huge PVPing monster who can defeat anything I am not.  Overlord I has been a beast.  I really enjoy it except for one really large fact.  The mechanics are often just brutalizing.  I don’t mean the intended game play, no, that would probably make one feel better.  No, so many times I feel my success is at the whim of whether or not the programming will do as you expect.  I’ve been running the gauntlet of dwarves to get the tower object for about 2 hours now.  I’m on the same section.  THE SAME SECTION.  I’ll admit that I am no expert.  My ability to adapt or figure out complicated moves is hugely damaging to me when I game.  But, the NPCs clearly have some wild unfettered code that really makes them not behave in any expected manner.  My first run, I die a lot.  This is mostly because there is a bomb guy in the main room.

Okay, you say.  This is easy, you can avoid the bomb guy.  And, I do, but on that run while I’m fighting the other tier of dwarves…the top tier suddenly runs down and attacks too.  I die a lot.  One of them is a flame thrower, so, this will hurt.  I think that’s okay because next time I will be prepared for them to run down and I will slow the pain and kill him like I did the others.  Oh no, the next time, they stay up there and refuse to come down.  They are out of line of sight for spells.  I have to taunt them out at which point they gain advantage because they can see me before I can target them and I die.

I’m sorry Overlord I.  This was terrible planning on your part.  Look, I know you were really excited when you programmed your little minions that you just seemed to stick a bunch of bad guys in a room by way of excitement.  I know that minions are really cool.  I think so too, but, a bunch of bad guys with bad rotations does not a game make.  You’re going to time out, my friend, and we’re taking your sister, Overlord II, to get ice cream instead.

Dragon Age

I picked up Dragon Age ages ago and found time to put it in and try it out last night. I have to say that the Mage story is one of the strangest. Apparently, the rest of them are not this bizarre from the get go. I expect I’m not the only person who started out as a Mage and felt like they were taking LSD and also needed encouragement to stick with it. That said, the combat system is intriguing. Now, I play on Xbox 360 so I am in no way a PC gamer which I am told is HARD CORE. Anyhow, the beginning of the story is nice and is suitable for an in-game tutorial. I felt I got into the action quickly and was not simply learning the whole time. The one thing that I liked about it is that it jumped me into lots of complex choices right off the bat. It is by no means a free-form game; it does lend itself, though, to feeling like you have several options and responses available to you. This is nice since on a bad day you just might want to go tell your medieval compatriot to suck a grub!
I haven’t found anything to nitpick on. As a console gamers, the controls are much like I would expect them to be. I did not finish through the origin story of my character so I did not have to deal with any party dynamics. I’ve heard some people complain about the sort of grey (what I called Everquest 2 style) colors. So far, though, they weren’t really noticeable as being too drab. Maybe this was because I was too distracted stealing everything from the mages that I could. Love that sparkle and glow that means there’s loot!

If you’ve been living in an underground bombshelter, here is the video:

Xbox Move

I haven’t played any Overlord lately. This is due to the fact that I’ve been crazy busy and sometimes this keeps me at the computer upstairs. We are finally moving the Xbox upstairs and I’m excited for the possibilities to earn more achievement points. I know it is lazy but it is much easier to be able to hang out with Bill when we can all be in the same room when we are both home. No more being far away from him when playing the Xbox. He and I can spend cooooopious amounts of time together. I’m sure he’s really pleased. He loves Katamari Damacy.