The Daily Grind Issue Three

Good Morning Folks,
Cannot believe how fast these weeks are going right now and I cannot believe its been a week since I planned out bringing back the Daily Grind. Think I will start this issue with the challenge results for last week and how it went with the week then go into my plans for this week.

Well as you all can remember from my last posts I wanted to focus on finishing off several games before I got myself into anything else. So I had a massive marathon over the several days and did clock the story for Marvel Superhero Squad Infinity Gauntlet and Plants vs Zombies (Vita).

Over the weekend I also put my full attention on Mass Effect 3 finally and I'm now very close to the ending, which I would say expect to see a finish post any day now. In fact it was all I did yesterday since my mate did not bother to turn up on the afternoon for our planned achievement marathon, was a bit gutted since I did not want to get into anything so I felt like I wasted some time waiting.

But anyway back to the point, Mass Effect 3 is awesome and I keep kicking myself for waiting this long to get into it. I really want to get the full galaxy ready achievement before I finish though. so might have to do a big multiplayer marathon to increase the percent before I do the ending. I have got the ios app game on the go as well to help me rise the percent up but still only just over 50% so far.

That was it for yesterday other then quickly jumping on Gears of War 3 for the latest weekend event, one more event and I've clocked the Silver Medal for the social events. Actually that was a lie I just remembered while I was waiting for my mate I did play several demo's and trials. I thought I would finally check out Sniper V2 and got to say "WOW", never been a huge fan of sniper games since well I suck at them and usually they poorly made as well. Anyway I failed straight away since I was sneaking through some ruins and did not see the guard but soon as I restarted I fell in love with the game. It's everything you expect from a sniper game, the harder the difficulty the more you have to take in (e.g. wind drift, distance etc). Since I suck at the games I tried out casual and I was amazed how great it was, the A.I doesn't instantly know where you are if you fire a shot. They panic and search around trying to find you, if you keep firing from a spot that's in their eye sight then yes they will spot you. Fire from a distance and behind lots of cover they have no clue and try to flush you out.

Kill cam was a also a nice gruesome feature, watching the x ray vision of the bullet going through them can make you a little queasy but satisfied at the same time for such a good shot. I will be putting a pre-order down later for the game since it's out Friday and I have no doubts I probably will be on it this weekend (I know I said I wouldn't buy any more or play any more until this lot is sorted but will explain later in this post).

After that I did try out the South Park Tenorman's Revenge arcade game, it's a lot like the Mario games to be fair. A side scrolling action game where most of the time you jumping on top of ginger kid terminators with Cartman, I did enjoy it but I wouldn't go out of my way to say brilliant well not yet anyway. Finally I did try out that Deep Water game I mentioned in my upcoming games but I died straight away in the tutorial, game as brilliant graphics and it's a third person shooter but think I've got a lot to learn but I can see it being a good game. Will be giving it another go in the week before I buy it so keep an eye open for a later Daily Grind post.

So it's about time for the stats for my challenge from last week, drum roll please....


Week 15 - This week
Starting Total: 135,364
To Earn: 1,848
Achieved: 0
Difference: -1,848

Week 14
Starting Total: 134,699
To Earn: 1,820
Achieved: 665
Difference: -1.155

Week 13
Starting Total: 134,359
To Earn: 1,778
Achieved: 340
Difference: -1,438

Total So Far -
To Earn: 22,086

Achieved:9,085

Difference: -13,001

Only a third of the required score achieved which is not that bad considering I did most of that with Marvel on one day, Mass Effect is giving me achievements but only a few 15g's at a time. Should get a nice boost when I finally clock the game, plus once I done that I'm jumping back on Batman Arkham City PC where the later levels give a lot so fingers crossed that this week could see me hitting the target.

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With that out of the way time to talk about this week and what I want to do, well I said I want to clock Mass Effect 3 but I really want to get the 100% theatre of war achievement and the go to war with assets so all depends how that goes first. Batman Arkham City PC will be next as well this week when I finish that or maybe even played on the side while I work on those achievements.

After nearly a week of thinking about it I've decided that I probably will trade in the games I would not want to keep when I finish them, the piles are huge right now and I just don't see myself playing most of them any time soon. GAME as still got it's trade in promotion on where you get extra £10 for every three games so I might as well take them in and get credit ready for all the new games. Can always rent them when I'm ready to play them or pick up them up again at later date only when I got the time to play them.

Also the credit can be used against Sniper V2 since I do want the game and I can see myself playing it this weekend, that's why I will be getting it. Anyway back to the plans this week and I've actually got quite a lot of time to myself this week, Wednesday I'm off so expect a longer MMO Night again. Friday and Saturday I'm hoping to do some more Red Alert 3 co-op with another mate and fingers crossed we can get the Japanese campaign finished on hard (Russian already done).

Expecting a good week for gaming and on that note I'm going to log off, get some gaming done today. Hope you all had a great weekend and got a nice week ahead of you, have a good one!
~Iznic

Free Darksiders 2 Avatar T-shirt

Morning folks,
Just a quick one but make sure to pop onto the Darksiders 2 facebook page and give them a like, you can unlock a very cool looking avatar t-shirt for the Xbox 360. The artwork is done by comic book legend Joe Mad, so make sure to get it ASAP since its while stock lasts.

Facebook link

~Iznic

Upcoming Games List

Good Morning Folks,
I've been promising to this list for a while now and so before I even have breakfast I'm going to get this post done finally. Going to start with Zavvi believe it or not, going back a few weeks I decided to take a look at the coming soon pages to see what was coming out and I stumbled across quite a few games I never heard of.

Deep Black

First one that took my interest was for the PlayStation 3, Deep Black (remember I mentioned it yesterday). Listed to come out on the 14th December the cover art peaked my interest. The description talked about an underwater action adventure mystery involving bio-terror, using advance weaponry and battling under the sea. Completely had me hooked and ready to pre-order until this week when suddenly it appeared on Xbox Live Arcade, well the first episode is anyway.

Got the trial downloaded ready to play so im assuming it's going to be a series of episodes that link into one big adventure, the disc version must be all of them together later on in the year.

Looking forward to giving this game a play and no doubt I will be on the trial later today.

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Next up is a surprise for me at this minute, I was just going onto Zavvi to get the other game names and found out Zone of the Enders HD Collection is arrving next week! how in the world did that get past me. Last time I checked it was not coming out until later this year around the November period, great now need to check my budget so I can get it. Basically the HD collection is bringing both games to current generation consoles, the game is based on the Anime tv series involving giant mechs. Storyline goes that a young kid on a colony gets trapped in a orbital frame (mech name) while the colony is under attack from rogue frames. I remember owning the first Zone of the Enders on PlayStation 2 where the save function would not work so I could never really get far into the game since I kept having to redo everything. It's also why I know so little of the main plot and I refuse to read up on it since of spoilers, either way though it was a decent mech game.

2nd Runner I was never able to get it since it was like gold dust so I'm really looking forward to the HD collection, just very surprised on the date being a lot sooner. Ah great I was just checking for some screen shots and read it's coming to the Vita as well. Cannot find any posts announcing this just a few sites listed the Vita version and Play-Asia saying a December release. Will keep an eye on that since I could do with some cool Vita games, anyway next week folks check out this great classic game.

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NIS announced a couple RPG's a while back saying they where coming to the Western market, of course nothing was really detailed but as I said before Zavvi seems to be on the know. The Witch and the Hundred Knights tells a tale of two powerful witches who have been battling for over a hundred years. But now the Swamp Witch has released the Dark Knights to destroy the Forest Witch.

The game lists that you can take control to either save the innocents or join in the ran sacking, the game is a over the top RPG and is coming out next year in January.

I like my RPG games and NIS make some great ones, just a shame I've never finished one yet. With the release date of next year maybe I can clock some before this comes out, anyway this is on my list to watch and waiting for a trailer.

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Again from NIS and coming this November, Mugen Souls and I'm not sure what to think of it so far. I like my Anime RPG games but some of them I don't get into, watching the trailer below puts me into two minds about it.



Love the ridiculous amount of damage you can do and the outline seems pretty cool, taking over worlds in a turn based RPG that's open world. The city locations look amazing it's just the art style and combat system that as me sitting on the fence, will keep my eyes on it but I would want to see a lot more before buying.

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Well that's it for now but no doubts in my mind that in a few weeks time there be another list of stuff I want, this year is getting packed.
~Iznic

Part Two of the Day

Evening folks,
Currently reading some bad news posted on MCV, seems Stalker 2 as now been cancelled since the development studio was closed down. I do own Stalker but never really gave it much of a chance so not that fussed about a sequel but I do feel for those people effected by losing their job. Seems to be a requiring event right now with studios, publishers etc all making cuts, first Bulletstorm 2 is canned then Prey 2 which is now been revealed to be still alive but will not be seeing day light until next year at the least. Hopefully things will start to turn around for the good again, anyway enough of the depressing talk and on with talking about great games.

Toy Soldiers Cold War as just got some new DLC "Evil Empire" and I just watched the trailer for it, looks pretty good and I do love the first Toy Soldiers. Yeah I not tried Cold War yet since not had time which is pretty much the same reason for everything else.



Speaking about Xbox Live Games I'm looking forward to Fable Heroes next week and Minecraft the week after, should keep me busy for a while and I did stock up on Xbox Points ready for them. Currently got the trials downloading for Defends of Ardania (fantasy tower defence game), South Park: Tenorman's Revenge and Deep Black Episode One.

I will be talking more about Deep Black in another post about upcoming games, South Park not sure what this game is about since the last I heard about a new South Park game was the RPG. I'm assuming this is not it but I do love the TV series so I will give it a shot. Of course it's not like I got ton of games already to play plus quite a few Arcade titles I've bought that still need to be played as well, damn my gaming addiction.

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Clocked quite few of the extra achievements on Marvel but just looking at the heroic feats is killing me, kill x using this ability and so on but all the abilities are pretty much triggered on full power ups which is bad enough as it is to get. They also don't last long and usually they only appear near the end of the fights so that really won't help.

Think I'm going to stop with this game for now and send it back, done the story and clocked quite a few achievements of it. I can always rerent it at later date or even buy it to finish it off later, just think if I spend any more hours on it I'm going to get annoyed.

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Well I'm back from work and it's late but that does no stop me from having a cup of tea with a doughnut. Going to hit the sack in a bit and read some of my book but before that I thought I would update this post before publishing it. Tomorrow my plan is to spend my day off saving the galaxy in Mass Effect 3 and then go stop some super villians with Batman Arkham City PC. Would like to also think the upcoming games post will be up since I keep meaning to write out for the last few weeks as well, so keep an eye open for that, anyway on that note have a good one folks.

~Iznic

Batman Game of the Year Edition + DLC

Looks like Batman Arkham City will be getting the same treatment as it's prequel with the way of a Game of the Year Edition. Trailer was posted up several days ago announcing it, the edition will come with all the DLC so far and includes the new Harley's Revenge DLC. The trailer is pretty sweet but what makes it special is the fact you can see a few seconds of the new DLC with Harley leading her new gang.



Bit shocked on how horrible the box cover art is though, no idea why it needs all those quotes and reviews across it. I won't be picking up this edition unless of course the achievement list is separate again then I be on it like a Mouse on Cheese.

 
The Game of the Year Edition as been listed as a September release which to me seems a bit odd for such a long wait, but I do wonder if they might be doing it that late so it's close to the Wii U launch since Batman Arkham City was meant to be coming to the new console. Could it be a launch title? that would be a epic start for this new console.

Anyway check out the trailer if you not got into Batman before, if you have played Batman before then still check it out anyway to see the new DLC content which is meant to be coming out at the end of May.

Oh just remembered (just watched the trailer again) that the Game of the Year edition in Europe won't be getting the Batman Year One movie from the looks, still waiting for a full comfirmation on that.

~Iznic

The Second Issue

Welcome to another Issue of the Daily Grind,
My gaming progress as improved a lot since Issue one a few days ago, happy to report I had a big marathon on the Marvel Superheroes game and did not realise I had only got the last level left. Tuesday night I had a small session on Plants vs Zombie's on the Vita while watching TV with the girlfriend, again ended with a few levels left. So yesterday after I finished my MMO night marathon I went for it and clocked both, so both stories are now done. I will mop up the other trophies on Plants vs Zombies at a later date but for now going to focus on Uncharted Golden Abyss, it deserves to be finished.

In the way of Marvel I've still got over the gamer score to go, its mostly doing the heroic feats, collectibles and challenges. I will be working on these for the time being mostly because it is a enjoyable game and I want the 1,000 gamer score, after that I might try out the expansion packs but will have to see on that part.

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Just updated the stats page for my 2012 Progress so far and it's looking good, I'm now up to twenty three games finished so far which is nearly half way to what I did last year. Not bad at all to say we not five months into the year so far and hopefully it will stay on track, all though I'm more concerned about enjoying the games then clocking them.

I've also sorted out my 2012 brought list and it now includes Plants vs Zombie's and the Welcome Park both for Vita, completely forget to add them and with that I'm now three out of elven so 27% of the new releases this year I've bought have been completed. I would say I'm aiming to get over half done but if last year is anything to go by it won't happen, too much came out in the last few months of the year and killed the percentage.

I know I keep saying I not worried about stats and just want to enjoy games, that is the truth and I use the stats just to see where I am. I hate having a back pile and I would like to think one day that there won't be a back pile, every time I buy a new game I can just sit down and enjoy it then done. Not thinking that I got twenty plus games waiting to be done after this, or I need to shelve it because it takes too long and I rather spend the time on a smaller game.

So with that sorted I think I might do a few posts that I keep saying I will put up then get on with some gaming, I have been thinking about some changes to the blog. New colour scheme with a new template, although the first thing I really need to do is a logo for the blog finally. There is so much to do and so little time for it, well I better get on

~Iznic

P.S. This post could be part one of two as I  might do a follow up later, I was thinking of just saving it in the drafts then adding later but thought its better just post it in parts. Anyway we will see what happens later.

Back to Normal

Evening folks,
Just currently waiting for the Old Republic to finish patching then I'm starting MMO night early, got a few hours extra compared to normal so it should be a better night and make up for last week. Going to start with Star Wars this time around since normally I do Warcraft then get too wrapped up in it leaving a small amount time left.

Plans for tonight is to finish all the old quests I missed on Star Wars and after who knows, see where my Starship takes me. On Warcraft I will do the normal round of daily quests then I'm going to the Twilight Highlands for the first time to start questing there and opening up the Wildhammers Faction since I need to work on them too.

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Great seems my friends have moved out of the guild and into a bigger one with a note saying to the rest of us to give a shout for a invite, would help if you they actually came online and not sure they even play anymore. Apart from that just got my cool new Tauntaun Ram pet (came with the latest giant patch) so got that following me around now, as I said before I loaded I want to clean up all the old quests on my starting planet (Hutta). I did miss quite a few since I was hurrying to get off planet so I could finally get my ship.

One feature I do love about this game is being able to send my companion off to sell all the junk items I've looted, lost count how many times I've filled my inventory so far tonight. I'm currently gunning my way through factories and swamps, it's not bad but as started to get a bit boring.

Wow I did not realise because I've got the scavenger profession I can loot items from droid/turret corpses, what luck that this factory is full of security droids.

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Think I found something super rare, I was currently working my way through an underground tunnel that links some of the factories through the swamp and discovered a datacron. Was all flashy and shiny looking, clicked the bugger and was told I got some kind of shard that goes toward a matrix or something?

Also unlocked an achievement codex entry telling me a story of the first humans on Coruscant, it's amazing how much I don't know about this game. I could sit for hours just reading through the codex entries I've been getting, Bioware as gone to town on the lore. Anyway guessing I need to make a note to look up datacrons before my next MMO night but that's it for now I've done about 5-10 quests and cleared hutta so I can now continue back onto the normal quests and continue my story next week.

Time for a cuppa then heading on over to Warcraft.

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I once caught a fish this big

Last week I left myself at Ironforge the Dwarf capital which I'm glad I did now, soon as I logged in I could jump straight onto the fishing and cooking daily quest. Been some interesting things so far, cooking wise I just had to hand out packed lunches of bear and meat for the local guards. Last week had me doing a keg run from the small town outside before the time limit was up, they wanted it fresh lol.

In the ways of fishing I had to make a new prototype Gnome lore that consited of a bear trap, poor fish had no chance. This week saw me trying to catch the local legend Old Ironjaw offspring Young Ironjaw, which was then put on display in the local muesuem (it was a slow month for them).

So after that it was portal to the elemental plane of earth to do the daily quests for Therazane then off to the Twilight Highlands for the first time.

Loved the opening quest which involved taking a sea plane from the dock to the new zone, was told since we need to get there fast that the pilot had taken out seatbelts and parachutes to lighten the load. That was the first worry, then we took off and the engine died so we nearly crashed into the city wall lol. Then he decided to burn up all the fuel at once for a boost and was told not to black out, course that happened and I wake up with the plane crashed into the mast of a ship and the horde attacking us. It's one of those days from the looks of things, scratch that just got worse. Involves me, a cannon, lots of gun powder and trying to board a zipplin, this Dwarf pilot will be the death of me!

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It was a fun night and I got to admit the opening quests for this zone where not bad, repel the invading forces then help take over a beach head to help bring in forces to the zone. I stopped there mostly because I need to hit the sack early tonight and I want an hour to finish off two games I've nearly completed.

Have a good one folks,
~Iznic

The Daily Grind - Issue One

Good Morning Folks,
I am pleased to report that the new and improved "The Daily Grind" is back for business once again, for those who don't remember or are new to the site. The Daily Grind was a series of posts about my gaming time each day, I went into quite a bit of detail about everything I was doing. Of course I did find myself spending too much time writing then playing so it did start to be reduced and then eventually I just stopped altogether.

So why a new improved version and what will it cover? well this year as been one big kick to the teeth and it's been getting me real down. No doubt you have noticed my rants when I do my weekly general posts since it's been effecting my game time. Yesterday I was writing the post for last week and it was pretty much just one big post of ranting and whining, after two attempts at the post I gave up on it.

But it then came to me it was a brand new week and think it was time for a new start, my pile of shame as got to the worst I've ever seen it. Just looking at the pile by my desk I'm counting roughly 57 Xbox 360 games, 35 PC games, 2 Wii Games and around 15 PS3 games, that's just pile one of many. It's coming to the point that I've been thinking about just grabbing the games that I would not keep after finishing and just trade them in right now since I doubt I got enough time in the year to work on all of them. But I don't want to go down that path yet and that's how this fresh start comes into play, this new series of posts will cover all the general stuff that I normally post but will also keep everyone updated on my progress on the pile. Plus it will be a great for motivating me as well, so welcome back to "The Daily Grind" and this is issue one of hopefully many posts.

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Think the best place to start this issue off is with last week gaming which you all probably know sucked a lot since I spent most of my time off in the middle of the week in bed with a bad head. But I was able to get in a good blast of gaming this weekend, while I was out I did a few more levels of Plants vs Zombies on the Vita. Love that game to bits but I did forget how hard it can be sometimes if you not prepared, especially the night times with a pool.

Sunday I was planning to get some jobs done but in the end I spent the afternoon and evening doing a giant Gears of War 3 marathon, started off with Act 5 on Insane complete. Felt very proud watching the final boss die on insane although most of the palace guards did not show up and after all that hard work to get the Vampire Mutator to help us. Anyway after that we just had a big session of Beast and Horde mode, nothing special to report there other then picked up a few achievements and grinding a few stats towards the Seriously 3.0 achievement (very long way off still).

On that note time to update the stats of my challenge:

Week 14 - This week
Starting Total: 134,699
To Earn: 1,820
Achieved: 0
Difference: -1.820

Week 13
Starting Total: 134,359
To Earn: 1,778
Achieved: 340
Difference: -1,438

Total So Far -
To Earn: 20,266

Achieved: 8,420

Difference: -11,846

Dang! I'm way off target for the year and to say I'm only a few months in the challenge that's crazy. Going to be a lot hard to get that 1,800 a week right now, pretty much two games fully clocked a week plus need to crawl back that 11k.

Not sure on how I'm going to do but if I played the games that I do have I probably could smash this challenge, speaking of that I might as well write out what I want to do this week and how I'm going to get through my pile of shame. I do read a lot of gamer blogs and follow several friends who have the same problem when it comes to games, I love seeing their solutions to their problems. Everything from playing one game at time until it's fully clocked up to having ten games on the go with new ones replacing completed ones.

Personally I've not decided on what I want to do yet but I do have the start planned out and it's based on three games. First one is Mass Effect 3 which I've put 28 hours into so far and I'm ashamed of myself for not finishing it by now, well I can understand why I had a late start but the last few weeks I've had plenty of time to work on it. I call myself a fan boy of the series and yet I'm letting the Reapers win. Second game is my rental from Lovefilm, Marvel Superhero Squad Infinite Gauntlet, it's not a bad game and it works a lot like the Lego games. So far I'm three or four levels into the game so about halfway through of course once the story is finished need to do all the collectibles, challenges etc.

Finally the last game I had completely forgot about until I was watching a trailer yesterday and that's Batman Arkham City on the PC. I was half way through the game earlier this year and I got no clue on why it was shelved, I want to say something came out but I cannot for the love of money remember what. Anyway these three games I want to finish up before I even start to think about doing anything else, after that then I can come up with a plan.

Speaking of pile of shames, what about you readers? do you giant piles of games to complete and how do you cope with getting through it.

Just remembered I will be playing my handhelds on the weekend still since I cannot take my main consoles with me, but I will be doing the same with those in the ways of I need to finish Plants vs Zombies before I even think of doing anything else. Maybe after that work on Pokemon Rumble again or start Dr Lautrec, ohhh dang! I just remembered Uncharted on the Vita needs finishing and I started Pokemon White. See what I mean by needing to get my ass into gear, it's going to be a interesting few months.

Anyway I'm going to head off and start playing some games, I will be doing some more posts later so keep your eyes open for that.

Have a good one folks and hope you liked the first issue
~Iznic

Weekend at Last

Afternoon all,
I do apologise for the lack of messages the last few days and especially for the lack of MMO Night on Wednesday. I had a huge marathon planned since I was only working the morning shift but when I finished I suddenly had, well I can only describe it as a migraine and so I pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping it off. Even Thursday morning my head was still sore and I could barely look at a screen without it hurting.

Of course this did ruin my core time off that I had planned for several gaming marathons, I'm off for two days now (still waiting to find out about Sunday) but I got a ton of jobs to take care of first before I can even do any gaming. Will have to make up for it next week with a couple of marathons if I got some time off, anyway on to the gaming news in my life.

I treated myself to Pandora's Tower and the Last Story collectors editions, originally I was not going to get them until I had the time to play. In fact I was originally against Pandora's Tower but after seeing the reviews and watching the game play trailers I was very tempted, then I saw the detail gone into the artwork and collector editions box/steel book I could not resist. Also looks like I will be getting the coin set from Nintendo, if you register all three new rpg games on Club Nintendo (Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower and The Last Story) you are in for a chance for this.

Well hopefully I will get them, my message appeared when I entered the last game on the web page while most had a e-mail arrive saying so, fingers crossed anyway.

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Of course with all this buying that does mean now my 2012 games bought list as risen a lot and dropped my completion percent down to 11%. I would say I need to work on that but after looking around my room at all the games waiting to be played, well it's depressing and I need a time machine or something to stop time.

Kinda panicing about May since the list of games coming out that month is turning into Christmas 2, will be doing a post with the list later on.

Anyway I'm going to shoot since I need to get on with my jobs, so have a good weekend folks and I will catch you all later.
~Iznic

New Dishonored Trailer

So there I was minding my own business and playing Gears of War 3 when out of the blue my Twitter account starts going crazy, messages popping up about checking out Bethesda new game. So I guess no new Skyrim DLC then, yesterday a screen shot of a rough looking man was put saying "Tomorrow" and everyone thought it was DLC. Anyway I paid no attention since I was busy retro charging some horde when once again my Twitter was going off, this time friends where talking about it with the words "How did I not know about this game". Guess it was time for me to see what all the fuss was about, check out the trailer below...




Like my friend said "How the hell did I not know anything about this game", it rocks! I know that's just the cinematic game but it looks crazy ass good. Assassin Creed with magic and steam punk theme, looks amazing and the concept is great. Soon as I can pre-order I will, what do you guys think of it?

The next years worth of new releases is insane, going to be hard to get enough time for everything.
~Iznic

General News

Once again morning everyone,
Going back to yesterday I did say I have a lot to talk about and the fact I'm trying to catch up with my posts, well some of the new is too small really for it's own post so this post is going to be one giant post of random. Big sorry in advance but I will split the post up into sections like I normally do just to make it a little easier to read.

First up was the news that sadden me last week and that's Bulletstorm 2 was cancelled...



Cannot believe they not going to make another one, I loved that game and yes I know the reviews where not great and people didn't even give it a try. But the game is brilliant, over the top brilliant, I love running through and trying out the different kill combos and the writing was great. Lost track on how many times I could not help but laugh at the jokes between the characters. I've got my fingers crossed they will go back to it and start again.

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Next up is Game update 1.2 for Star Wars the Old Republic and my god it adds a lot of new stuff to the game, looks like the top level players are going to be over joyed.



The legacy system looks awesome with the fact you can now make a family using your characters and their "offspring" can have different features from both classes. I really do want a Sith and a Jedi character so I think this could come in handy and make some kind of hybrid with my Bounty Hunter.

I could go on and keep listing what I like and don't like but there is too much coming with this update so just check out the trailer above.

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Now I really want to post the screenshot here but since it's owned by another site I really do not want to get into trouble. Basically MMOChampion as been keeping everyone up to date with the stuff they find in the Beta for World of Warcraft Mists of Panderia and these babies where posted up a few weeks back

Panther Mounts

These are from the Jewel crafting proffession, how amazing are those, I so want one and I really do want to make an alt now to level up jewel crafting with. Been thinking about doing a Dwarf Shaman for a while now so I might just use this as an excuse to go for it finally.




So that's it for now folks, there probably is something I missed from the post but right now all I want to do is go play Mass Effect 3 so catch you all later.
~Iznic

Crysis 3 Announcement

Good Morning Folks,
Could not sleep so I'm up really early today (6.30am) and no doubt later I will be tired, always my luck. Anyway I thought I would get some posts on the go before I get into my day off and then I can spend the rest of my day gaming. Yesterday they finally announced Crysis 3, reason why I say finally is due to the fact images where leaked last week and all I see across twitter is "is true or rumour".

The screenshots that have been posted up for the game look beautiful, seems there are now domes in most major cities which where meant to keep the population safe from the alien threat. Instead they being used for world domination instead (as you do), so looks like you taking control of Prophet from the second game to become the worlds best hunter as you go out for revenge.

I love the new high tech bow and arrow but I do hope they get it right, animation and way it's used. I get the feeling a bow and arrow should be for a more stealthy option and my main worry is like most games when you do the first kill every idiot on the map knows where you when that arrow hits. Games need to take a notice of Batman Arkham City where if you stealth take down someone they have no clue and blind fire panic.

Anyway there as been a list of pre-order bonuses listed as well, three different packs giving access to multiplayer perks, early access to items etc along with a Hunter Edition of the game. Of course it's very early days so no idea who's doing what yet.

Hunter Edition

• Bow weapon and attachments
• Hunter nanosuit module
• Level 5 xp boost for multiplayer
• Unique bow skin
• Three additional dog tags

Seems like a good edition to buy and reminds me of the limited for Crysis 2 which just a couple pounds extra for a ton of extra items like this. Anyway here is the list of packs for the pre-orders:

Stalker Pack 

• Base game plus all the content from the Hunter Edition
• Multiplayer early access Semi-Auto Jackal Shotgun
• Unique silencer attachment
• Custom Weapon Skin
• Two exclusive themed dog tags

Overkill Pack

• Base game plus all the content from the Hunter Edition
• Multiplayer early access Typhoon Assault Weapon and skin
• Two exclusive themed dog tags

Predator Pack

• Base game plus all the content from the Hunter Edition
• Multiplayer early access Feline Submachine Gun
• Exclusive Camo (for the gun)

Stalker pack seems to be the best for the most stuff given but the Typhoon weapon sounds awesome, according to the announcement it fires 500 bullets a second. Not sure how that works but least now you know why its called the Overkill pack. Hopefully at E3 they will show off some footage and announce who is doing what so orders can be taken, still need to finish the second myself.

Only problem I have with this game is the fact it's not coming out until Spring of 2013,
~Iznic


P.S. Check out the web for a lot more screenshots, there are some sweet ones been released

Bucket Load of Trailers

As you can guess from the many posts over the last few days I'm trying to catch up with everything I wanted to talk about on here, normally when something gets announced I keep the page open on a new tab or make a note on my list. Right now let's just say my browser is full and my list is a mile long so I'm doing my best to work my way through since at the rate I'm going most of the stuff I want to post about will be out.

This post is to do with the god knows how many new trailers that have appeared over the last few weeks/months, you can tell it's getting close to E3 when everyone seems to be announcing something new. So let's start this post off with a great game that as finally been given some light, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. What's this game you ask? well its a Japanese RPG being made by Level 5 and the animation done by the all time greatest Studio Ghibli. So excited about this game I really cannot wait but I am hearing next year release, really hope that is a false rumour.



After watching that trailer I am speechless, this could be the first Japanese RPG I will start on day one and not stop until its finished. It's breath taking beautiful and it looks so much like the Studio Ghibli films, I can see the story keeping me enthralled for a good couple of weeks/months and next year cannot come fast enough!.

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So back to talking about awesome new games, last night I finally sat down and watched the trailers for Sleeping Dogs. I kept hearing this game name pop but I had no interest and no clue who was doing it or what it was about. Anyway by sheer luck I stumbled across a trailer for it and saw that Square Enix was making it so I thought I would give it a shot. First trailer is a live action one followed by an in game story one.

Looks very interesting and it was live action trailer that got me interested, I like the whole undercover cop concept in movies so it would be very interesting to see what they can do with this game. I will be keeping my eyes on this and hopefully get to see a lot more at E3 this year with plenty of more details.

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 Next up is Disgaea 3 Absense of Detention for the PlayStation Vita, going back a bit I remember looking into the Disgaea games to see what they where about. Japanese rpg with a grid based system that as a stupid amount of levels with a ton of characters and just weird story, well me being a Anime fan this was right up my street. So I picked up the PlayStation 2 version and tried out, think I did ten minutes then like always I got distracted by something else. Since then I have picked up Disgaea 3 and just recently 4 for the PlayStation 3, both still sealed and it would not shock me if I got the PSP/DS versions somewhere. This Vita version is basically the third game on the PlayStation 3 with all the DLC included plus two new characters and a ton of extra new story levels and content.

Yes you saw right, it's over the top and yes the 10 million hours play time could be true since I hear there are worlds inside items and it can just go on and on. The trailer me chuckle anyway and I will be picking this up, in fact I think its releasing this week. Think I could do with starting this game on the launch day if it takes that long to complete lol.

Right I'm going to end it here because I'm a little bit worried on how long this post is becoming, so I will split it and do the rest later. So did any of these game trailers get you interested? or was you just bored?

~Iznic

Two New Collector Editions Announced

Two collectors editions I want to talk about in this post, first up was last weeks announcement of the Hitman: Absolution Professional Edition. I'm a huge fan of the Hitman 47 games and I loved Blood Money, clocked it for the full 1,000 gamer score and even did it again on my second profile as well (an old challenge that was cancelled a few years back).

Was hoping to see a lot more DLC in the Professional Edition and maybe a cool item but it still looks sweet and I will be ordering it once I can. It contains this wonderful goodies inside:

• Slipcase shell (think the artwork looks better black then the red cover version)
• Hardcover Artwork book
• Making of DVD
• Agency Gun Pack DLC
• Agency Jagd P22G Pistol
• Agency HX UMP SMG
• Agency SPS 12 Semi-Automatic Shotgun

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The second collectors edition is for Darksiders 2 but unfortunately it has not been announced for Europe/UK yet just America.

Looks amazing right? it contains everything that is in the Limited Edition of the game plus a life-sized replica Death Mask. That is so awesome and I have a great space for it against my Halo Helmet and Pandora Box from God of War. Just need to wait now and see who might stock it in the UK then I will gladly order a copy, anyway for the time being here is the full list of what is inside:

• Darksiders 2 Limited Edition
• Basically a pre-order bonus version, normal game plus the first DLC "Argul's Tomb" which will be the first single player DLC for the game.
• Life-Size Replica Death Mask plus stand
• Art Book
• Digital Download Soundtrack
• Unique In-game armour set and weapon (enchances stats)

Well that's it for this post, there probably a lot more collectors edition been announced in the last few weeks that I have forgot about. Always the way for me but anyway these two right now are on top of my list, just hope I can get them both.
~Iznic

Good Morning Post

Morning folks,
Just updating the stats on my progress for the year along with the challenge stats, just archived the last four weeks of the challenges (link is on the challenge page, weeks 9-12). Cannot believe this is week thirteen of my challenge, it really does not feel like three months since I started this. Anyway last week was the worst week so far since I only gained 85 points for the entire week, this was due to fact I was working on Lego Harry Potter for the Vita which I did clock yesterday and got the Platinum for. So it was cool that I got my first Vita Platinum but at the at same time it was disappointing to get so little gamer score.

Week 13 - This week
Starting Total: 134,359
To Earn: 1,778
Achieved: 0
Difference: -1,778

Total So Far -
To Earn: 18,488

Achieved: 8,080

Difference: -10,408

So far I'm down by 10k for the year and my god that is a lot of points, it's amazing to think if I was on track I would be on 144k. This week I really want to hit that 135k mark since the last few thousands as dragged on for a while, I want to try and get a good score this week. But in truth what I really want to do is get some of my old clocked, my game collection is like a giant snowball that's rolling down a mountain and getting bigger every second. Right now Warriors Orochi 3 as just been released and I want it, this week sees Witcher 2 and Disagea for the Vita launching as well. Way too much stuff coming out and a lot more to finish off, could do with the year off to be honest.

Anyway back to the stats update, just updating the 2012 progress page now and Lego Harry was my 21st game to be finished this year. Very proud of the list so far and it was even better since it was launched this year so I've finally starting to clear the new releases, currently on one out of six (17%). Yes the list as increased to six since work as finally start to get new stock so when I went in on my last shift, right in front of me was Shogun 2 Total War Fall of the Samurai. My will power just went out of the window and it was bought, did play a skirmish game yesterday and my god was it hard but I did win in the end for it to only crash. Need to look into what caused that since my PC should be powerful enough to run it without trouble.

So that's it for the stats for the week, I will be working on a few games this week but knowing me I will start a few more on top of that as well. Have a good one folks and I hope you all had a good week too,
~Iznic

Results: Week 9-12

Total So Far -
To Earn: 18,488

Achieved: 8,080

Difference: -10,408

Week 12
Starting Total: 134,274
To Earn: 1,729
Achieved: 85
Difference: -1,644

Week 11
Starting Total: 133,974
To Earn: 1,694
Achieved: 300
Difference: -1,394

Week 10
Starting Total: 132,719
To Earn: 1,694
Achieved: 1,255
Difference: -469

Week 9
Starting Total: 131,549
To Earn: 1,680
Achieved: 1,170
Difference: -510

Review: Captain America Super Soldier

Story
The game is set in the middle of the film where Captain America and his team are out destroying Hydra bases around the world.

It starts of with a Allied camp under attack from Hydra who are using new types of advance weaponry, but as luck would have it Captain America jump in to save the day. Thanks to Stark they trace the materials used to make these new weapons to a remote village/castle where Hydra forces have established a secret base. Once again you saving the world from the Red Skull and Dr Zola who have a terrible plan in the works set here.

I found the story quite good even if I knew the out come since it was set in the middle of the film, as I made my way through the game I was kept interested with what was going on and found myself trying to piece together this secret world ending plan so the story did its job for me and kept me hooked.

It does help to get all the collectibles since they also give a lot of background history of whats been going on as well as in inside look to Dr Zola's terrible mind.



Controls
Very very good, in fact the combat controls pretty much remind me of Batman Arkham City. In fact if I was to describe the game I would say it's Batman AA/AC for combat with Prince of Persia for the climbing and an open world type man similar to Batman AA/AC as well.

It's not hard at all and in fact found myself really enjoying doing the fight sides with the combos, nothing beats doing a critical attack on a Hydra super soldier to then reflect a bullet from sniper two seconds later. You gain points from fights and destroying objects which unlock skills to improve your self, and my god does it feel great. You have warnings when someone is about to shoot and gives you a few seconds chance to hit the shield reflect which bounces the bullet right back. Same goes for melee as well there are plenty of different combo moves you can do to take down those harder enemies.

You also have a heightened sense that's like Batman's investigation mode to give you clues on what ledges can be used, the jump and climbing is just a simple button press at the right moment.

Overall anyone can play the game, it's not hard and I think that's what makes this game so good. 


Length
You can find yourself at least 10 hours plus in the game and there are plenty of collectibles too pick up, once you finish certain missions the map opens so you can travel around (again just like Batman AA). Also added is challenge list where you race around levels taking out bosses in a certain time or get as many collectibles as possible, they not really needed but they are nice addition to the game.

Overall I personally think the game was the right length for it, any longer and I think it would had got bit repetitive.


Graphics
Not sure what to write here since the graphics are just fine, they not ground breaking OMG look at that view but they not terrible either. They are bang on for what I expect from a current generation game


Gameplay
I was expecting the worse when I tried out this game, so far most of the movie tie in games have been appalling.  But my god was I shocked with what I got into it, the game reminds me so much of Batman and it worked. The combat flow was brilliant but how they worked in the reflect bullets with your shield senses was brilliant, you can be in a middle of a giant brawl then suddenly see the sense meter going off in the corner as a sneaky sniper takes aim to only quickly reflect it right back with you shield. Nothing beats watching that sniper get taken out by his own shot, actually you know what beats it? the fact you still in the brawl and how it all flows together.

The story keeps entertaining and wanting to continue, the map is easy to navigate and gives you plenty to explore. Overall if you love super hero films/games, or just super heroes, or enjoyed Batman AA then try this game out because you will not be disappointed. It's not as good as Batman AA but it is still a brilliant game and I would gladly play it again.

Full 10 out of 10 from me 



Captain America Super Soldier (Xbox 360)
Score: 10 out of 10
Gameplay: Good
Graphics: Good
Story: Good
Length: Decent
Controls: Good

Review: Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 (Vita)

Story
Pretty much everyone knows the story of Harry Potter and his adventures in Hogwarts, so I won't really go into detail on what the story is about. If you don't know anything about Harry Potter then I recommend reading the books or watching the movies since the Lego Games don't really go into too much detail (especially since the characters don't speak).

Anyway back to the point I would say the Vita version is broken when it comes to the story, it relies too heavily on the fact that people know the Harry Potter story and to be honest it felt like someone was being lazy. Whole sections are missing (main consoles have them) and cut scenes as well have seemed to vanished in the handheld version, some cut scenes are even ended early before they finish leaving me very confused on what was happening.

Example would be in year five where Hagrid takes the kids to meet his giant brother Grawp in the forest, cutscene starts with them walking into the forest and then shows Hagrid pointing ahead with the kids gasping. The scene changes to show what they looking at and ... its a flower by a tree ... then the level starts saying rescue Hermione from Grawp. I sat there for a few minutes trying to get my head around what happened and unfortunately this would not be the first time.

Next example would be year seven part one, the entire ministry of magic section is missing. The biggest part of that year is not in the game and in fact a lot of the camping parts is missing to. The ministry part shows a mini cut scene of Umbridge falling and Hermione catching the necklace then jumps to the tent then jumps to the underwater scene of getting the sword.

So to sum it up into one sentence, the story is a mess! a complete epic fail in my books and I'm very disappointed especially with how good the main console versions are.

Controls
They worked well which shocked me since the rest of the game seems to be one big rushed job. It's very simple to go between normal buttons controls and touch screen, even using best of both. The interface is exactly like the main console versions where the spell wheel is in the top right corner and with a click of button you can cycle through which spell to use. This time though with the Vita you can tap the wheel to change the spell, same for casting a simple button click or hold it down to cast a more powerful version. Vita control just means you tap on the screen or hold down as well, of course if you trying to manipulate a object you need to click it.

One of the things I did really like in the game was the duelling screen, it's completely designed for the Vita touchscreen. You cast spells left or right by touching the top of the screen on either the right or left, more powerful spells you need to hold your finger down. Be warned though if you hold it down too long the spell fizzles out and you just wasted several seconds which can be fatal.

To defend you press the lower right/left sections of the screen but this time it's all about timing. If the enemy spell is just about to hit you and you press to defend it can reflect the spell back which in most cases turns into a tennis match to see who slips up. If you press too early your shield pops up and bounces the spell off to the side which is all good but it's best to deflect.

Overall the controls worked really well and I got nothing bad to say about them.


Length
The game is very short and in fact the whole can be done in a few hours, a lot of levels are missing out the handheld version and there are lot less collectibles to pick up. The only thing that pads out the game is the new Duelling club which as you going up against pretty much all the characters in the game. This was just to pad the game out and attempt to make it look like it was worth buying, it would had been a nice addition to a more packed out game. Shame really because normally you can get 50+ hours on most Lego games and usually you get more money's worth from them.


Graphics
It's very hard to judge the graphics on this game because it's all over the place, one minute they are quite nice and next it's down right awful. The cut scenes a lot of the time are blurry and fuzzy like someone just done an VHS recording on TV, in one scene in year five when you recruit Dumbledore's Army it shows a fight of Harry fighting the Basilisk in year two to impress them. It was so badly done I could not make out the sword or Harry very well, same happens at the end of the year when Voldemort posses him. In the main game Harry looks up showing features of Voldemort on his face yet on the Vita it's so dark and blurry you can only just make out the eyes and mouth.
 
Check out my post that I did a few days back to see some screen shots on bad it can be, I know the Vita is an handheld but after playing Uncharted I expect a lot more then this, it's quite clear this was just an import. I really want to give it an average score for graphics but the fact how poor the cut scenes are, the fact that sometimes the level look like an old fashion handheld game I cannot give it any higher then Poor.


Gameplay
So my last thoughts on the game? well according to most forum posts it was just an import from the PSP, but after reading walk through guides for collectibles it's the same for the DS version as well. Cannot believe people have been accepting this for a game and I really cannot believe they ported it over to the Vita and slapped a £40 price tag on it. I was expecting something a lot more, in between the main console versions and the handhold's. It's the Vita which is basically a PlayStation 3 in your hands.

It's fully clear that this game was ported over and rushed to get a few quick pounds, hopefully Lego Batman 2 will be a proper game because if that turns out the same then I can safely say I will no longer be buying any more Lego games for the Vita, rent at best if I can put up with any more disappointment.

So what made me stick with it to the end? trophies was one reason, controls where enjoyable and I'm a big fan of the Lego games so I was enjoying the few levels. Duelling club was OK but it was very repetitive and needs work but least it was something unique.

I'm going to be generous and give it an average for the game play because at least they kept the way the game works same and they did not ruin that. Overall though I am very disappointed and I'm quite shocked I said that about a Lego game.
 
Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 (PlayStation Vita)
Score: 3 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Poor
Story: Poor
Length: Too Short
Controls: Good

The Return of MMO Night

The second MMO Night is upon me and I've been looking forward to getting some time online for the whole week, my attempt to get online Sunday was an epic fail followed by Monday's disaster as well thanks to work. So back to the matter on hand and that's to game my night away, well actually first I'm going to read my post from last week since I'm sure I wanted to do something important this week and I've completely forgot.

Ah ha! I was going to work on factions this week in World of Warcraft to get some cool enchants to boost my stats and clean up old quests on Star Wars with maybe some PVP for the first time as well. Will I do this stuff? who knows I rather just jump in and enjoy the game but it is nice to have something to work towards now and again. Actually I just remembered I cannot jump into the game straight away, need to activate my time cards first so small draw back. Could do with a drink too, ok so MMO night will start in ten-twenty minutes.

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Ok lets try this again, time cards are now inputted and I've got a nice glass of orange on hand so let the gaming begin!

I forgot to mention that yesterday morning the server was dead so I spent about an hour doing the Easter event getting all 500 chocolate eggs so I was able to get the new mount. Not exactly the best looking mount but at least it counts towards the mount achievement which unlocks a very cool Blue Dragonhawk mount. Anyway just looked into my standing with the factions I need for the enchants, I'm maxed out with Hyjal so thats the head enchant sorted but the rest still need work on. In fact the one I'm starting Neutral with them since I've done no quests with them yet, guessing they based in the Twilight Highlands since I've never been to that zone yet.

Going to start with the faction Therazane since my stance with them is Honored and very close to levelling up, they given an awesome shoulder enchant so I've been told. Wow just flicking through the achievements and found out there are daily cooking quests for all the major cities, I thought only Stormwind (major alliance capital) was the only one. For those who don't know me well I really love the profession side to MMO's, the daily quests are usually unique quests to help raise your level and usually pretty fun to do. Plus an achievement on top for added measure is always good in my books, guess I will need to take a detour to these major cities before I pop to see the Therazane.

Wonder what else I'm missing out, ohhh new fishing quests too as well in the cities, ok at this rate I'm not going to get anything done. So my plan is to do today's quests in each of the cities then go to the factions, won't be going into too much detail though so don't worry.

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Just did my first cooking quest at Darnassus (gathering jars, was ok nothing special) and the reward maxed out my cooking profession level so now I'm a Illustrious Grand Master Cook and got an achievement for the trouble. Then the fishing quest was pretty fun which involved me having to catch baby Octopus in the shallow water at the base of the city. Each city as five unique quests for cooking and fishing, of course they do repeat so it will take at least five days to get the achievements if I'm lucky. Not sure if I will keep coming back each day or just try my luck each MMO night and hope for the best.

Ok I thought I was losing it since just arrived at Ironforge the Dwarf capital yet no daily quests to be found so I've just looked into it and I can only do one cooking and one fishing quest a day. So I've done my allocation for the day at Darnassus so this is going to take a lot longer then I thought, on top of that while I was there I checked out the Druid trainer to find I got a ton of skills to learn. Now I really am behind in Warcraft to say I didn't learn all my skills.

Going to get on with my questing now and starting get that faction reputation built up, anyway going to stop writing less now and actually play

Therazane The Stone Mother

Just finished with Therazane for today and it was great, levelled my reputation up to Revered so one more level and I'm maxed out with them. I was also able to upgrade one of my rings so that's boosted my stats more and I have noticed I'm doing a lot more damage now in fights thanks to the new gear. Also during one of the daily quests I was able to dodge all the mushroom attacks from the boss which unlocked a Quest Achievement, so overall a good nights work but need to call it for now
or I won't have time for Star Wars.

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Last week I ended the game after doing the flash point Black Talon but I never did set up my new gear that I picked up so I've just tried on the gear. Looks a bit like a Stormtrooper to be honest but very cool none the less, check out the screen shot to the right.

Just sent my companion out on a mission to gather some Underworld materials (one of my professions), while shes off I'm going to do a space mission then head over to Hutta to clear up my old quests that I missed.

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Ending it for the night, I did clear up two quests after making my way to Hutta but I've got the man flu so my head is killing me. So going to hit the sack and try again next week. Hopefully next week I can give both games more time especially Star Wars.

~Iznic

My D5-Mantis Ship

E3 Pre-Thoughts

With E3 coming up soon and the few weeks before are usually full of rumours and leaks I thought it would be wise to get my post in sooner then later. So here it is, my thoughts and hopes of what I would like to see at this E3 conference.

Let's start with the next generation consoles the Xbox 720 and the PlayStation 4, both companies did say they would not announce anything this year and I hope they don't. If they do then it should be like last year with the Wii U where it's talked about need to wait until E3 2013 to see the full potential with a late 2013/2014 release. Personally I believe the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have only just got to showing off their full potential and with a huge line up of brilliant games coming out this year it would be crazy to over shadow all that with a new console release any time sooner. So as I said personally I'm hoping for no announcement or at least just a glimpse but they wait until next year for the main stuff.

Now that's out the way let's talk about the good stuff, this year I do believe Nintendo could be taking E3 Champion award thanks to the Wii U. The potential for this system is amazing for example you could play an RPG where the TV would just be the game with out any menus, just pure graphics and showing the beauty of the game then all your inventory and character bars on the pad. What they could do with it will be amazing, I just really really really really hope (yes that's a lot of really) and pray they do stick with what they promised it would do. There a lot of rumours going around saying it's not as good as they hoped, my fingers are crossed for it because I would be buying it on day one if they do it right.

So what do I want to see at this E3 for this new console, release date, price, that it is everything they promised it would be and finally a good line up of launch games to go with it. Oh and lets not forget with a nice line up of games for the first year, it's all good having a good start but you need follow up to keep it going.

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Sticking with the Nintendo for the time being I'm hoping to see a nice line up of more games for the 3DS and DS. I would be over the moon if they announced the release of the cross over of Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton for Europe and America. Also looking for dates on the following games since its pretty much a guarantee we will be getting them:

• Professor Layton 3DS
• Pokemon White & Black 2 DS

Ohhh the Monster Hunter 3DS being released in Europe would be another game to make my year, other then that I would like to see a few more unique games for the 3DS. It's the one thing I loved about the DS and that was the unique amazing games that really didn't get more attention but my god did they suck me in. Ghost Trick, Time Hollow, Phoenix Wright, Another code just to name a few of them and yes I saw the post saying there is another Phoenix Wright being made finally, some details would be nice at E3.

Speaking of the 3DS I would really like to see more stuff for the street pass, I was really chuffed when they did the extra puzzles and the second Street Quest. It would be very cool if they announced more patches or even packs that you could buy, I wouldn't mind paying for extra levels, puzzles or even new games as long as I get my moneys worth. The Street pass concept is brilliant idea and I carry my 3DS every where to get new Mii's.

Anyway on that note that's it for Nintendo, I'm routing for them this year so I hope they don't let me down.

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Next up let's go with the PlayStation Vita, what would I like from this console at E3? games, games and guess what? more games!. In the next few months of there are only three games I want, well technically two since the third is Lego Batman 2 and I'm slightly worried about it after playing Harry Potter. After that the line up seems to be dead, what happened to all these rumours of Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed? so this year I want to see some games to back up the console and less sales stats. I don't want to think I got a £200 + paper weight like the PSP Go, yes I went there.

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Next the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 together, there is not really anything I want from these two other then release dates for games and maybe some more new game announcements. Both consoles are doing what I want and I really not fussed about any more new technology, actually I take that back I would like to see more support for Kinect and the Move. Some more games to make both of them worth while picking up because for me personally I'm not that fussed about getting either. I would love for something to be done about the space requirements for the Kinect as well since I have the smallest room in the house.

Anyway I could do a huge list of games I would like to see or get dates for but honestly I cannot be bothered to write out everything, just make this year's E3 great! and I will be happy.

Well only roughly two months to go so not long now,
~Iznic

Lost Planet 3 Announced

Looks like Capcom have announced Lost Planet 3 today after rumours been going around about it for the last few days, shame they did not wait until E3 but oh well. Check out the amazing trailer below thanks to Xbox360achievements.org



And I thought I was having a bad day today, looks like this time around the game will be a lot more story based unlike the second which just screamed co-op multi player then story. But this trailer just reminds me that I still need to do the first two *sigh*, I did start the first one and was enjoying it but something always comes along that distracts me. I did not get the second one until the Christmas sales mostly because I wanted to the finish the first one but I never did get around to it, so I'm now sitting on both and now the third one is on the way. Too many games to play and not enough time.

Anyway I will be keeping an eye on this one but what do you guys think? good or bad?

For the full story with some nice screen shots check out xbox360achievements.org

~Iznic

Lego Harry Potter Vita

You follow me on Twitter and Facebook you would had noticed me ranting this morning, I've finally sat down to play Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 on the Vita. Been waiting several weeks to play it and I know it would not be on par with the main consoles but I was expecting something good since how awesome the Vita is.

But alas all I got was this...

No the image was not uploaded wrong and no when the screen shot was taken it did not blur the picture, this is the quality of the cut scenes through out the game. One big blurred mess that's clearly been ported over wrong, you can imagine my shock when I started the game but it just got worse after that.

There is no camera control instead it automatically adjusts when you moving, so no idea why we went through all that trouble of moaning to get a second analog stick if game makers are not going to use it.

Levels are a lot smaller compared to the main console, talking a minute or two max and then are levels missing too! Started off with saving Dudley from the Dementers then jumps straight into the cut scene of being transported to number 12, no the flying level is cut out but whats worse it shows the cut scene of Tonks knocking everyone off the brooms and you clearly see them fall into the fountain with all the studs then cuts to the next scene.......wtf! it shows the start of the level then jumps it??? in fact the next level is the ministry and they could not even do the fire effects on the fireplaces, you know the simple green looking fire. Take a look at the Ministry fountain, you know with the giant golden statue oh wait they forgot it.

Actually the above screen shot shows you what the game looks like, does that look like a Vita game to you? if this is the 3DS version I be appalled because even that console can do better then that. Anyway we then jump to Hogwarts for the first lesson of Defence against the Dark Arts with Umbridge, remember that level? Draco throws a paper air plane and you got to make one to send back. Well the cut scene is exactly the same, shows Draco and the goons, Ron, Hermione and half dozen students then the level starts.

Hmmm hang on minute where did all the students go??? in fact where did Hermione and Draco go, quick someone check a broom closet.


Overall so far I've not done a hour into the game and it's such a disappointment, I'm really hoping that it picks up later but I'm not getting my hopes up. I really do hope that Lego Batman 2 is properly made for the Vita because if it isn't then they be lucky if I even bother to rent the game. It's amazing how different the game is compared to the main consoles, the Lego series is one my all time favourite games. Anyway that's it for now but I will do a full review once I've finished the game which at this rate won't be long if it keeps missing out levels.

~Iznic

Start of April

Morning folks,
Not exactly a good week last week for my gamer score challenge especially after the last weeks of earning 1,000+ each time. Reason for this was I spent a good chunk of my time finishing of Kane's Challenge on Hard Mode so I could clock the game, I have no regrets on that decision but it did knock my earning up over 1,700 now each week. So far this year I've earned around 9,300 (at this point of writing I've not updated my stats page yet) so if that is for four months of work I'm looking at hitting 37,000 for the year meaning I be on around 170,000. Actually that's not bad at all since I did not think I would hit 200,000 and was secretly hoping for 175,000.

Anyway back to the matter at hand and here is the updated stats for the week...

Week 12 - This week
Starting Total: 134,274
To Earn: 1,729
Achieved: 0
Difference: -1,729

Week 11
Starting Total: 133,974
To Earn: 1,694
Achieved: 300
Difference: -1,394

Week 10
Starting Total: 132,719
To Earn: 1,694
Achieved: 1,255
Difference: -469

Week 9
Starting Total: 131,549
To Earn: 1,680
Achieved: 1,170
Difference: -510

Total So Far -
To Earn: 16,759

Achieved:7,995

Difference: -8,764


No real big plans this week other then doing the Easter event in World of Warcraft, I have been working on Mass Effect 3 recently so I might continue from there.

That's it for now, I want to make this short and sweet since I need to get ready for work so take care all.
~Iznic

Happy Easter

Morning folks,
Hope you all having a good Easter and getting plenty of chocolate in the process, just an heads up but there are several Easter gaming events today.

Gears of War 3 as put up x2 exp weekend with classic horde set up, harder beast mode and the good old Easter shotgun match with the creepy Easter bunny masks again.

Mass Effect 3 as got another Operation running this weekend, Operation Beachhead is providing +25% extra experience to all matches so it's another good time to get some levelling done.

Finally World of Warcraft as started up Noblegarden for the week again, hunt down chocolate eggs for cool prizes and this year there is a new mount to be bought as well, so don't miss out.


Right I did this post really quick since I'm pretty much booked all day long, starting off with World of Warcraft this morning then I'm joining the Twitter crew for Mass Effect on the afternoon and then ending the day on Gears of War with some mates.

What's really annoying is that my Star Wars time card arrived yesterday along with Lego Harry Potter for the Vita, now I don't have time to play them today. Got the evening off tomorrow well what's left of it anyway, but I'm thinking of doing a second MMO night tomorrow along side the Wednesday one. Might jump on the Lego game as well in the morning before work because I've been dieing to play it since its launch two weeks back.

Anyway I'm off for a gaming marathon so take it easy everyone and catch you all later,
~Iznic