Good Morning!

How's it going folks? been a busy week again and I'm trying my best to cope with everything. Sorry that's it taking me so long to post but you know how it is when things go wrong or get busy.

Anyway enough with the excuses since I got plenty to talk about today, first up I just saw the blog as hit 8,000 pageviews!! very happy gamer here right now. Thank you ever so much to everyone who read my posts, without you guys this blog would had closed a long time ago. It amazes me to see that I have readers from all around the world, so again thank you.

I've finally spent a few minutes updating the stats page for 2012 and I'm happy to say a few more competitions was added to the list. Finished Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 on hard with my mate and I'm now working on the last few achievements to get the full 1,000 gamerscore. Also finished Spec Ops the Line the other day which was amazing, the story is really good but there are few minor things that got on my nervous. Still it's a game I would recommend to anyone to play and I'm going to be working on my second play through so I can get the full 1,000 gamerscore in that as well.

Still got plenty of games I'm currently working, right now on the weekends I'm playing on my Vita with Dynasty Warriors Next and Gravity Rush. I did start cleaning up the treasure hunting on Uncharted Golden Abyss as well but not done that since I've been back from my holiday. Also I'm still trying to get sessions on Warcraft to get ready for Mists of Panadaria, running out of time so I need to sort out a big session for that. It's going to be a interesting week and especially next week starting the launches of with Borderlands 2.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh that reminds me what did you guys think of the Wii U presentation?

After watching the videos I do want one and I am impressed with the console, it looked amazing and some of the games sold it to me. ZombieU was one of the shockers for me since I'm not a horror fan yet I loved the look of it, my character dieing and becoming a Zombie that I have to kill. Also the fact it will cause problems for my friends as well was a brilliant idea. Only problem I got with it is the date and price, seriously Christmas time and over £300!! what the hell!. I've placed an order but to be honest right now I'm going to wait and not get it on launch, I just cannot afford it since so much is already coming out that I want.

If anything I can see it being like the 3DS and a price drop appearing several months later, it would not shock me if it happens in the January sales or the week of Christmas. You will spend £300 on the console then it's £40/50 for one game, I can name about 4-5 games I want from the launch alone. Then lets not forget there is also a ton of games launching around the same time.

What about you my readers? will you be getting one on launch or will you will and see what happens with the price. What would be nice if they did a price drop before launch, I would be very tempted if the Premium was around £250/260 but don't think that will happen.

On that note I'm going to go get some gaming done so I have a good one folks and I will see you soon.
~Iznic

New Record

Morning Folks,
Thought I would get a quick general post up before work but just as I was about to click the new post button I noticed my archive list on the right of the blog. As of the last post I have done 165 posts this year which is a new record for me, last year was the best record with 155 for the year which beat both 2009 and 2010 put together. So to say I've beaten 2011 by ten posts and still got several months before the year ends, well I'm very happy.

Would had been a lot higher if I had done my posts on E3 but lessons learnt, next time I'm going to do the HUB right and have all posts as soon as I can. I don't want to be a news site but I want to talk about the latest announces that excite me, so yeah I will aim to do better and same for any other conferences as well.

Anyway back to the point, woot! very happy about the post count. So not much to talk about sorry to say after that since I've not really done any gaming this week. I did try out my new rental game which I was shocked to get, Tornado Outbreak. It was on my list as reserved and could not be sent because they had no stock, but some how they found some and sent it me. I love getting quick easy achievements but I'm at that stage that I really do not want to give the time of day to rubbish games anymore, so barely a few minutes in it came out the disk tray and back into an envelope to be posted back today.

Hopefully they will send me something better next time, anyway my goal for this week is start the fourth pile of games that I pulled out a few days back. Well not just start but try out everything so that is sorted so I can finally get back into normal gaming. I'm holding off playing anything until I finish trying out my old games, works out better in the end when I have more space and bit extra cash as well.

Speaking of games I don't know about you guys but me for "it" as started, when I say "it" I mean the mad rush leading up to Christmas. This week Sleeping Dogs and New Super Mario Bros 2 is out then on Tuesday Darksiders 2, then we hit September which is packed with loads of games. Hell I've even seem Christmas Cards up for sale in my local card shops, madness. Hoping I can cut back this year and spend less, got too much stuff already to play and most of the time when I buy loads they never get played. 

Anyone else the same ?
~Iznic

P.S. Feck just remembered the Wii U is out this year and I might get it, well I think it's out this year

Not to Plan

Morning folks,
Sorry about the lack of posts but thing's came up that kept me busy, seems I've woken up to Blizzard being hacked and that was not how I wanted to start my day. Seriously why do people do this, seems the EU only had e-mail compromised but still going to go change all the passwords in a minute.

Apart from that bad news it's been great the last few days since the last post, first up the patch finally downloaded and installed on it's second attempt (error message on the first). Took an over night download to get it done in the end, so I will be trying out the games again this evening as long as nothing comes up.

While the patch was downloading I did some MMO gaming and man was it great, first up I jumped onto Warcraft to play my main druid character. The Darkmoon monthly faire was running so I did a few quests and bing! achievement unlocked for archaeology, I just hit the 300 mark in it's progress. For those that don't play WOW each profession as stages that you can learn up to then you have to get trained in the advance version, max is 525 right now (until Pandaria). Since I need to get my character sorted for the new expansion, profession levelling is one of the things I need to do. I was chuffed to see I had hit 300 since it takes forever to level archaeology, plus with hitting 300 I can now go to Outland and do new dig sites.

Anyway when that popped up I thought I would check to see how the other professions are, Fishing done, First Aid done and Cooking done so only archaeology was left in the secondary sets (each play can have two main professions and as many secondary professions as they want). My character is leatherworker and skinner for his mains, skinning was max before I even hit max level and I found out I'm only 500/525 on leatherwork. Must had been working on it in the past so very happy with that, plus I got 600+ leather sitting on my alt character.

So all I need to do with my druid is level up leatherwork, archaeology and clear out space in his inventory. Oh yeah I also need to clear some of the quests out of my journal to make space ready for the new ones. Not as bad as I thought it was and nearly forgot my mate put some more game time onto his account, good news for me since he was using a scroll of resurrection from me which means I get the new special spectral mount.

How cool is that!? was doing a little happy dance when I realised I had finally got it. I did not do much with my new Shaman character, think I did one more level so he's now level six and that was it. I was pushing for time and really want to play some Star Wars so I jumped over, had some fun there as well. Did some quests and a group quest which was great, grouped up with another bounty hunter and Sith to take some rebels down. Really want to play a Sith since the lightsabre animations look so cool, want to play a Jedi as well.

That was it for my MMO night and I had a blast, just need to get some more time on them both though hopefully this weekend but we will see.

Apart from that I did some gaming yesterday on Lego Batman 2 for the Vita, it's OK but not great still got plenty of problems but I will review it soon. Really stuck on the Justice area challenges so might need to look up what I'm doing wrong since I'm getting very frustrated with it.

Last thing my Nintendo Club leaf trophy arrived yesterday and I was over the moon with it, was a bit worried it would be cheap looking but as you can see by the picture it turned out great. I was a little disappointed to find out the shell trophy went up the day after I ordered this but no regrets, it's going to sit next my Old Republic statue soon.

Anyway that's it folks for now, I will catch up with you all later so have a good one!
~Iznic

Delays

Evening,
Well I'm assuming you are probably wondering where the post is with my progress getting through the latest batch of games, there is a delay thanks to an update for the second game. 3GB update to be more specific and my PS3 as decided that it needs an estimated time of 232 minutes, don't think that time is accurate because it's not changed since the start and it is now 15% done. Still going to be a while before I get on with the list though, so I thought I would get this post up to say sorry but I don't think the third pile will be done tonight at this rate.

On the other hand I did play a bit of Lego Batman on the Vita and I've finally set up my Vita grip, amazing accessory so far but I want more time using it. I will post up a review for it in fact at a later date once I've used it more.

Anyway I'm going to go jump into Warcraft or Star Wars for the rest of the evening, I know it won't help with the download of the update but I really don't care right now. The Darkmoon Faire is on in WOW so going to jump on my main character for a bit and do some of the quests there, then start to get my character ready for the expansion. Jump on my new Goblin character since I need to get all the pets out of the mail from the collector editions, then depending on time Star Wars with some levelling.

So have a good one folks and hope you all playing something awesome,
~Iznic

Taking A Break

Good Morning Readers,
Well I know the first pile of games was not posted up yesterday evening and that was because I took a break. Over the last week I've been stressing a lot and on Monday I was not well so I'm trying to chill, last night I just wanted a few hours break from everything. It was nice just to chill and read a book, watch some South Park and I even started my rental game. My plan worked and Lovefilm did send me Lego Batman 2 for the Vita, so far the game play/levels look and feel better then Harry Potter. They still got the horrible cut scenes again because they ported over badly, makes me cringe thinking that the Vita can do so much better.

Anyway I've got the games picked for the third clean up post ready so I will be doing the introduction post in a bit but first I wanted to get this general post up. Might take a breather later from the clean up and play on my MMO's since I'm still wasting money on them right now and I do actually want to play them. Apart from that I think that is everything I wanted to say, oh wait they did just realise the new multiplayer trailer for Black Ops 2 and it does look awesome.



But I did say the same about Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and I've still not got around to playing the multiplayer, I've still got the pre-order packs sitting on the side unused and no doubt the codes for the xp bonuses no longer work. I do have a deposit down on this game so if I am going to get it I really need to give the multiplayer ago this time around, need to get back onto Battlefield 3 as well since I've only done one match.

Hmmm need more time, just not enough in the day/week/month/year for my liking. So I better get on with my day since I do have work in a bit, as I said at the start the plan is continue the clean up, maybe get some time on the MMO's and hopefully do a little more on Lego Batman. Think that's a good plan for the day, what you guys up to? anything good?
~Iznic

A New Month

Good Morning...no sorry Good Afternoon,
I swear time is flying by right now for me but anyway it's time for another update on my adventures in the gaming scene. I'm happy to announce I've finally sat down and finished the story campaign for Resistance 3, I don't think it was good as the past ones but still an OK shooter. I'm glad that I did stick with it since I've completed all the other games in the series so far, felt a bit wrong not to finish the last one.

Anyway will have to wait and see what Lovefilm will send me next but I did sort out my rental list, there was quite a few games on there that I was not in the mood to play right now. In fact I think the list now consists of only two games, Lego Batman for the PS3 and Vita. No doubt I will get a message saying they cannot send them since there is no stock right now and that I need to add more games to my rental list.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what are my plans for this week? well I'm going to work on my collection, last week I was disappointed that Dr Lautrec turned out to be rubbish for me. Especially after all the information and trailers made it out to be a good game for me. So this week I want to go through my collection and play an hour or two on most of the games to see what they are like. There are plenty of games still sitting on the shelf sealed or not touched, like Dr Lautrec I'm under the impression they will be great when I do play them.

Any games I don't like can be traded in towards the Christmas fund which by the way I've started working on the list of games I want. At first it was quite small and I was proud of myself then yesterday I remembered a ton of games I forgot about plus I had completely forgot about the Wii U might be out this year. So I will be needed to go back to that list this week and see how bad it will be this year.

Back to the original topic of what I will be playing, so yeah I will be going through my collection to sort it out but there are some games I want to play as well. I need to put more time into the MMO's still, I was shocked to hear that Old Republic will be free-to-play soon since the low subscribes. It's a brilliant game but it was really was designed for singleplayer, still I want to get more time into it and get some group questing on the go.

World of Warcraft is going to need a lot of time as well now that the expansion is out in less that two months. Need to clear out my bags, sort my characters out ready and level up my professions so I'm all set for the new stuff. Plus the fact I've started my new Goblin character although I am worried they will do some big changes to the classes so I'm wondering if I should just hold off on my new character. That way when the expansion is out start then so I'm learning the new stuff instead of have to learn the current build then have to relearn the new stuff when it's out. Does that that make sense?

Way too much to stuff to do right now and I have no idea where to start, plus I think this post is just me rambling on about this different subjects. Think I will call it for now and continue later on, hopefully you guys are having a great time gaming and I will catch you all later.
~Iznic

Too Early

Morning Folks,
Really did not want to get out of bed this morning, even if it was 8.30am it's still early for my liking but got work soon so I guess I better get up. Anyway I thought since I do have a bit of time before work that I would spend it updating the blog again, this would had been done sooner but the Olympics have kept me busy the last few days. To say I'm not a sports fan I've really got into the spirit of the game and I'm hoping for a gold today for Team GB.

So onto my gaming news and I'm happy to announce I actually played World of Warcraft yesterday, I went on to check my in-game mail since my characters needed to pick up the Diablo 3 Collector's Edition pet. Plus my new Goblin Shaman character needs to pick up all his pets out of the mail, every time I start a new character I will get all the collector editions pet sent to me by mail. Unfortunately when I did login into I had missed out by a day or two so they where all deleted, mail only lasts 30 days before it's deleted.

After a quick curse I restarted my character which was luckily that I had only got up to level 5, anyway I got back up to level 5 and left the starting zone to the new ship wrecked island so I'm only slightly ahead from last time. But least I still got my pets back now which are still sitting in the mail but I'm determined to put more time over the next week so I will open the mail next time.

Oh dear

Need to get some more gaming time in the week along with Old Republic so I can get my money's worth. I just remembered that I forgot to mention about my last post, I did not get too far with my gaming plans the other day but I did finish the first act of Diablo 3. The Skeleton King went down and I'm now on to Act Two which is awesome, I've been busy with the blacksmith making some cool armour for my Barbarian and I'm all set for what ever comes next.

So this week I want to make time for the MMO's, be very cool if I could start the second act for Diablo and I need to work on Resistance 3 my rental. I did do another level the other day and I'm struggling, it's not a hard game it's more wanting to play it. I'm finding that the game is starting to become boring to me but I keep hoping that it will turn around. I think I will give it another hour or two before I give up, speaking of giving up on games I did send back Neverdead.

Very weird game that does not really explain the story very well at the opening and I found the sword controls to be wrong. Basically you swing your sword with the right analog stick but it as to be in the direction your sword is aiming on the screen. Yeah it gets annoying really fast and the problem is the sword is pretty much the best weapon for dealing with the demons. So I really could not be bothered with giving it a chance so I sent back, rather spend my time on games I will really enjoy.

Well that's it for today's rant, I'm off to get ready for work so have a good one folks and I will try to get the site stats updated this evening.
~Iznic

Weekend Gameplay

Morning Folks,
Got plenty of plans for today involving Lot's of gaming, going to be heading over to Diablo 3 in a bit since it's been a while. Also I registered my collection edition codes in the week so I can now around with my angel wings, also my Warcraft time is now up to December. Later on I want to get back on Resistance 3 since I've had that game on rent now for a month so really could do with finishing it, think I was on level 10 the last time I looked. So far it's not been a bad game but I was expecting something a lot better, hopefully it will pick up for the last half.

Also I do have a second rental which is Neverdead, still unsure what to think about this game and I'm very close to finishing the first level. Some of the controls feel very awkward and the story is not that gripping, since the first boss fight is about to begin I'm going to attempt it later and let that be my deciding factor on if I should stick with playing it or send it back.

Really could do with sorting out my rental list because there are quite a few games on it that I'm not in the mood right to work on and knowing my luck they would be the next games to be sent. Anyway apart from that I need to find some time for Old Republic and Warcraft because it's been a few weeks now since my last session.

Speaking of Warcraft they announced the release date for Mists of Pandaria and it's the 25th September world wide, put my pre-order down for the Collectors Edition which was a no brainier since I have the last three expansion collector editions. Although I hate the date for it since it's right bang at the start of the Christmas line up and September was meant to be the quite month so I could save up.

Going to have to sit down and start working out what I want this year and what I can wait for, there is way too much stuff. So yeah plenty to do today and to be honest I think the days need to be longer so I can fit it all in, I've also got Minecraft on PC as well in the week so I want to get some time on that and I picked up Pokemon Conquest so I really want to start that as well. I think it's safe to say I'm currently screwed right now, at this rate I'm going to burn myself out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well I lost pretty much all morning and most of the afternoon watching the Judo Olympics then the Cycling at the end, cheered my heart out at the end when we got the Silver. Thank god for Lizzie getting our are first medal for Great Britain.

Anyway time I get on with some gaming, so first up Diablo 3 and time to take down the Skeleton King Solo. I did it with a friend co-op a few weeks back but because he had done it before it was kinda rushed so I want to see the story pan out properly.

So catch you all later and have a good weekend folks
~Iznic

Long Time No See

Hello folks,
It's a lovely summer morning here today which is unusual for England although personally I prefer the winter. So I better start with saying I'm sorry for the lack of posts over the last week and a half but it was my Birthday last week so I went on holiday for a few days. It was nice having a break but I'm back now and I got quite a few things I need to catch up on with the blog.

First up the big news which in a way should not be a shock if you read my blog regularly, I'm stopping my 200,000 gamerscore challenge. I've known and you guys should have known too for the last several months that hitting the 200,000 mark by end of the year was now impossible unless a miracle happened. At the start of this year I did say I would not do a challenge because it usually took over my gaming and I would not play anything else because I needed to get achievements. When I started the 200,000 challenge I promised myself I would not let this happen, well over a week ago I realised I was letting the challenge take over.

I cancelled a MMO Night because I needed to earn some achievements for the week and it was the day after that I realised I needed to cancel the challenge. This of course does not mean I won't stop getting achievements, it's still a passion of mine to keep getting them but I do want to play other games on other consoles.

The 2012 Gaming Progress will be kept going and in fact I just updated the page yesterday, I'm happy to announce I finished Uncharted Golden Abyss on the Vita yesterday. Another great addition to the series and I hope they do more for the Vita, of course I want to go back and platinum all the Uncharted games. They all brilliant and you cannot beat a good treasure hunter story, I'm sucker for them.

This week my plans are to work on my rental games since I have two now, Resistance 3 which I did start before my holiday and got quite far into it. It's good but I'm not getting into it like the last lot, not sure why but I just don't seem to care about the story so far. Hopefully the story will pick up in the later game and give it a good ending.

The second game is Neverdead and I'm not really sure what to expect from this game, guess time will tell and I will post my thoughts once I've tried it. Not sure how a game with the main character being immortal works, how do you fail if you cannot die.

Also got the new patch for Minecraft (Xbox) which as added pistons to the work so I really want to muck about with it, I did start a new game yesterday and made a lovely one floor house with a giant moat around. Going to expand it soon and start hunting down slimes so I can make sticky pistons, that's going to be fun since I've never come across slimes before. My friends have started picking up the PC version since it's more advance and you can do a lot more with it, I'm very tempted and especially with the creative mode. Argh! there is too much coming out, I got Pokemon Conquest this week and I need to renew my Playstation Plus since it ran out a few days ago and the new free stuff as just gone up. Plus in a few weeks the 2012 lineup begins with Borderlands 2, why does everything have to cost so much.

On that note I'm going to end this post since I got quite a few things to do before work, I will try and get a few more posts up later or tomorrow since I've still got quite a few things I want to talk about.

So until then have a good one folks,
~Iznic

Knockout

Afternoon folks,
Well I just decided to start my latest rental game from Lovefilm "Resistance 3" and was told I need to download the latest update, not a problem I thought until it came up with "1/4" and as been stuck on 20% for the last 30 minutes. So in the meantime hello folks! Have you missed me? No? Oh well I'm back anyway.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last week but well it was one of those weeks in which I wished I stayed in bed, swear this year as to many of those weeks so far. Putting the bad week to the side I do have my holiday next week and I cannot wait for some time off, popping to Chester for a few days to go see the Zoo there and of course chill out. Also added bonus I will be levelling up to 27 and for those who don't get that it means my birthday next week, feel right old and that dreaded 30 is coming up closer.

Anyway you are not hear for that so time for some gaming updates, well how about two games completed?. Sat down with Resistance Burning Skies last week and got the Platinum trophy in two days without trying, the levels are a decent length but the game as only six levels so it doesn't last that long. Even with that I would still recommend it to everyone since the controls work! I mean they really work for a FPS which shocked me. Uncharted is a great game  but some of the aiming for me just annoys the **** out of me so I was shocked how Resistance seems to get it right and I really do hope everyone other shooting game takes notice.

After that I did finish the story for X-men Destiny finally, been saying for the last month I would sit down and play it. Well I got my ass into gear when I realised the disc had arrived back in May so I needed to get it down, I was shocked how fast I flew through the game to be honest. The levels are not that long but the entire game is the perfect length, the only down side had for the game was the story. I just could not get into it or want to care about the characters and I think it's because the story did relied heavily on people knowing the X-men Universe which I don't other than the newest movies. Anyway I cleared up the last of the achievements this morning but of course they don't count to last week's score but it does mean another game 1,000g.

On that note I think it's time to dig out the stats for my challenge:

Week 21
Starting Total: 139,434
To Earn: 2,422
Achieved: 215
Difference: -2,207

Total So Far -
To Earn: 42,981

Achieved: 15,283

Difference: -27,698

Honestly it was a good week last week with just hitting over 600 gamer score (see the challenge page for the archived results) but I'm getting to the point that I really don't care any more. Don't get me wrong I still love my achievement hunting and getting that 200k milestone but the challenge is longer possible. Also add in the fact I'm starting to get annoyed with myself that I'm putting other consoles because I need to get some achievements this week, so don't be surprised if I end this challenge soon.

So what will I be playing this week and that's a good question, well Resistance 3 of course since that is my latest rental and I'm thinking Castlevania Lord of Shadows on the Xbox 360. I did say I want to get this started since the second one was announced at E3 so why not, also need to sort out a handheld game to take on holiday with me. Might take Uncharted Golden Abyss since I've still not finished it off yet which is a sin in itself. Oh that reminds me I did pick up Theatrhthym for the 3DS, it was ok but I really did not see myself playing it enough. I did several series songs (basically it picks a game and does 3-5 songs from it in a row) then did some of the challenges and after a couple of hours I just could not see myself sticking to it so I've just traded it in yesterday with Resistance as well.

On that note I'm going to end this post off but I do have the pictures ready for my next unboxing post and my download is only at 64% on the first part so expect another post in a minute. Until then have a good one folks and I hope you all had a great week of gaming.
~Iznic

P.S. The Knockout title is reference to the fact I've clocked both Resistance and X-men, about time I got some gaming done.

Busy Week

Afternoon folks,
Been busy all morning playing Resistance Burning Skies, if you have a Vita then you need to pick this game up. I'm shock how well it's turned out with the controls, it works perfectly so far and I'm enjoying every minute of it but from the looks the game is short though with only around six/seven levels. Although the levels are pretty decent length hopefully the the last few will add more time, would hate to finish the game on the first day.

Anyway I've updated the stats on the blog and I'm happy to say this week I earned a decent amount of gamer score, of course I did not hit the week target but we all knew that from the beginning. I did finish off Lego Batman 2 yesterday and I got to say it's the best Lego game in the series so far, the voices work and I'm happy about that because I had my doubts to the point I thought it would ruin the game. Only problem I had through out was the amount of glitches in the game, several times it froze mid-game and I had to restart my Xbox plus characters getting stuck or levels not loading. I would had thought a lot of this would had been caught in the Beta since there quite a few people on the forums having the same problems. Oh well I guess you cannot get everything perfect but anyway that was 33 game for the year so far.


Week 24 - This week
Starting Total: 138,759
To Earn: 2,359
Achieved: 0
Difference: -2,359

Week 23 - This week
Starting Total: 137,974
To Earn: 2,296
Achieved: 785
Difference: -1,511

Week 22
Starting Total: 137,694
To Earn: 2,240
Achieved: 280
Difference: -1,960

Week 21
Starting Total: 137,364
To Earn: 2,163
Achieved: 330
Difference: -1,833

Total So Far -
To Earn: 40,622

Achieved: 14,608

Difference: -26,014


As you can see the increase this week is not too bad compared to the last few weeks although I think I will be taking a hit this week, well it depends on how short Resistance is. Once I've finished the game I will be finally working on X-men Destiny and yeah I know I've been saying that for the past month.

That's it really in the ways of this post I do have some new games I want to talk about but I will be saving those thoughts for separate posts, I also do have a MMO night planned for this week but still not decided if it will be on Wednesday like normal or tomorrow (tomorrow I would get a lot more time).

I will be getting the next unboxing post up as well probably around mid-week or end of the week in time for the weekend, have to see where I can get the time from. Still need to make a few hours spare so I can continue working on the blog and to do the E3 posts that I've been promising for the last month.

So much to do and yet so little time to do it, I better get on with it so have a good one folks and don't forget to drop a line with how your week's been.
~Iznic

MMO Night 2.0

MMO Night will be making a return tonight after several weeks of being absent thanks to my schedule being all over the place. I have a new Star Wars Old Republic timecard sitting on the desk ready to be inputted and there will be something new tonight, I'm making a new character on World of Warcraft. While I've being the daily quests to kill Lord Ahune I realised the new expansion could not be that far off, especially with how the beta is coming along so I started to question why should I spend tons of time getting all new gear that will be wiped out by the first quest reward in the new expansion. Of course I can still work on reputation and try out the zones I've missed to catch up with the story but I have been wanting to play some other classes for a while now.

What made me go for it was a post the other day on MMO-Champion where it was confirmed that quite a few mounts will now be account wide shared. I want the Jewelcrafter new Panther mounts and the Sand Dragon mount from Alchemy but my Druid is a leatherworker which I don't want to give up. So I will be doing a new character tonight with one of those professions and it will be a Horde character as well so I can see the other side's story.

Sandstone Drake - Alchemy Mount

Although tonight I will be starting of with Star Wars because you know what I'm like I will get into Warcraft and run out of time. So yeah make sure to check back later for a MMO Night post and I will be entering the Diablo Collector's Edition code so I will run around with the Witch Doctor Pet. For now though I might pop onto Lego Batman 2 for a tiny bit just to work on clearing up the game since I've finished the story now.

Oh and I forgot to mention Lovefilm have sent me another game since I had a free credit thanks to a competition entry, so now got Resistance Fall of Man 3 sitting on my desk with X-men Destiny. Starting to get a little overwhelmed with the amount of games I need to work on, does anyone else have this problem?


Anyway I better shoot since I will run out of time at this rate, have a good evening folks and I will catch you all later!
~Iznic


P.S. Also I have noticed the layout for my Diablo 3 Unboxing post as messed up slightly, I did have trouble posting it so I think something happened. I will look into it when I update it with the new pictures.

P.S.S Pokemon Conquest next month for the UK!! Finally have a date for it but gutted about it being next month since I got two holidays to pay for, was hoping after like September/October time. Bah too many good games and not enough money.

Limited Edition 3DS "Toad"

Jumping back to last Christmas there was a competition in the UK (maybe else where as well but not sure) with the Club Nintendo where if you enter two codes from selected new 3DS games you would be entered for a chance to win a limited edition 3DS. Three choices where available and they was Mario, Toad and Peach. Mario and Peach did not look good in my opinion since the Peach was just a pink colour with a small gem design in the middle and Mario was red with a blue trouser like design with two buttons (sounds good but it wasn't to me). So I picked the Toad edition which was red with white spots and that was that, several months later after deciding to check my e-mails finally I was shocked to find I was one of the lucky winners.

Now after months of waiting it arrived last week!! it was funny because the week before I had sent a e-mail to Nintendo to see what was happening since the quote was May. The reply had come the morning of delivery saying there had been delays from Japan since how rare the designs was. Was very shocked when I came home to find a parcel waiting for me, at first I thought I had messed up and forgot a pre-order.

The 3DS as turned out better then I thought and I'm happy Nintendo did not slack on it, I was expecting some kind of sticker to be honest. Anyway the 3DS is white with the top red with white spots, its also got the shiny finish on the top with the slight glitter look like the other 3DS's. I've also found the buttons more responsive compared to my old red design, were if I wanted to switch off I would have to hold the power button down for several seconds. With this one just a simple click and the turn off screen appears.

So yes I'm very happy and it's one of the few good things to happen this year which is about time. I've transferred everything over from my old red one which was a lot of fun, did not realise the progress bar for the transfer consisted of Pikmin carrying the data over.

I traded my red one in for a decent price and picked up some new games, yeah who did not see that coming. Picked up Gravity Rush, Resistance Burning Skies, Lego Batman 2 and a time card for Star Wars Old Republic. So I'm sorted for the time being now and ohh I played the demo for Gravity Rush, it was brilliant and I'm very pleased that I have now got a unique game for the year.

Was quite upset when nothing was announced at E3 this year, in the past I've always been able to find a unique weird handheld game that was a diamond in the rough. Timehollow, Ghost Trick, Phoenix Wright and Another Code just to name a few that blew me away with their great stories and gameplay. Was really hoping for something for the 3DS this year but nothing so far but least now I have a game for the Vita, I will go into more detail about it when I get a chance.

Anyway back to the topic and finish this post off, how cool is that 3DS! so on that note I will catch you all later folks and have a good one.
~Iznic

Gaming Weekend

Morning,
Had a blast yesterday by spending the entire day with plenty of games, started off with World of Warcraft since the Midsummer Festival as started. Main part of the festival is Lord Ahune a giant ice lord trying to destroy Azeroth, every day you given one loot bag if you kill him which can give a rare item or two. I'm trying to get the last rare pet that I'm missing but so far no luck, but I have been racking up the justice points which I can use to buy new gear.

Followed by that I jumped onto the weekend event for Gears of War 3, another match of "team work" which really annoys me since they all bugger off to try and attempt the cool shoots which they always fail on. Yet if they just stuck together we could push the enemy back but no, they rather lose the game.

Anyway after that I finally sat down and played the multi player of Kid Icarus with my friend Lesley, the game is brilliant just a shame the camera is terrible for it. Think we did about five matches and my god it was a laugh, first few matches I spent pressing every button in attempt to learn the game. Got myself this nice new giant Black Club which can shoot a giant metal ball now and again, once I got it I was in the zone. Even had a turn playing as Pit which was comical since I took on the Dark Pit which did turn out well, I was down to 30% and he was on 5% then somehow he got some health back and I was down to 5%. Spent the next minute running around the map being chased with me shouting "don't kill me, oh god don't kill me", lucky Lesley and the CPU finished him off and we won. The whole game was brilliant and I cannot wait to get another session on the go.

After that well I played a bit of everything to be honest, I do have Lego Batman 2 now which is amazing! probably the best Lego so far and I cannot wait to see what they do with the Lord of the Rings one. My worries about voices was thrown out the window, it works really well and you have to laugh at some of the jokes.

Ended the night with some CO-OP with my friend Mike playing Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 on hard, it was really hard and frustrating with most of the levels. Wish you could have a save point in the middle of the game because it was getting annoying when we lost having to go back and do everything all over again. Especially this one level which was broken up into three long parts, think we died four times at least so was getting a little bit sick of doing everything over and over.

Anyway enough ramblings for me, I had a blast yesterday as you can tell and now it's time to see where I stand with my challenge for the year. Probably not good since I don't think I really did any achievement hunting at the start of the week.

Week 23 - This week
Starting Total: 137,974
To Earn: 2,296
Achieved: 0
Difference: -2,296

Week 22
Starting Total: 137,694
To Earn: 2,240
Achieved: 280
Difference: -1,960

Week 21
Starting Total: 137,364
To Earn: 2,163
Achieved: 330
Difference: -1,833

Total So Far -
To Earn: 38,326

Achieved: 13,823

Difference: -22,543

Dang that was a bad week for me with only 280 earned, OK this week will be good since I have Lego Batman 2 on the go and I should be working on X-men Destiny this week as well (my rental). So fingers crossed to see over a 1,000 hit this week, would love to think that I would clock both games but I'm going to be realistic about it. Also need to get back on Dynasty Warriors 7 Conquest Mode so I can clean up the game.

Before I end this post what do you guys think of the new look so far? thought I would go with the Dungeon like look since of the name and I love Minecraft. Still got plenty to do since I want to clean up the layout concerning the right hand side panel and I want to work on the different pages I've got as well. Also I will be looking at the facebook page and getting a proper logo picture sorted for it, might even get a Google+ page set up for the blog as well.

Anyway any thoughts, feedback, comments just post them below or on the Facebook page. Hope you all had a great weekend like I did, talk to you soon
~Iznic

A Great Week

Morning,
Last week was 100% without a doubt awesome, why do you ask? well not only did I finish the Shu Campaign in Dynasty Warriors 7 like I wanted to. But I also started and finished the Jin Campaign as well, so I've now finished all the story campaigns in the game. That makes it game number 31 for the year and I'm really happy with that result since my goal for the was just to get Shu done and start with the hopes of finishing. I will now be working on the Conquest Mode so I can try and wrap up the rest of the achievements that I'm missing which is worth about 80% of the gamer score.

Beside that I also clocked Ghost Recon as well which I really did not think would happen, when I posted last week I thought I was near the end only to find out I was barely half way through the game. I had a huge blast on Saturday and Sunday which was when I finished Dynasty Warrior as well. So that was another hopefully goal completed for the week so I hit everything I wanted too plus I can also now trade in Ghost Recon ready for Lego Batman 2. Don't get me wrong Ghost Recon is a good game but the online/co-op is really buggy for me and my mate so it's going to be a while before we do a co-op campaign together. Can pick it up again at a later date when I need it.

So time to update my challenge stats plus the year progress so far, I'm now up to 32 games on my list and one more to the 2012 new releases so on 35% done in that area as well.

Week 22 - This week
Starting Total: 137,694
To Earn: 2,240
Achieved: 0
Difference: -2,240

Week 21
Starting Total: 137,364
To Earn: 2,163
Achieved: 330
Difference: -1,833

Total So Far -
To Earn: 36,086

Achieved: 13,543

Difference: -22,543


Just had to laugh at Trueachievements since it says I'm only 15% done with my challenge and 43% of the time as gone, behind is a understatement at this point. But I think this week will turn out better since I will be working on my current rental X-men Destiny which I'm hearing is a good 1,000 gamer score plus so far I'm enjoying the game. Then end of the week See's the release of Lego Batman 2 which I cannot wait for, woot!! only down side is I just heard the Vita version is another port again so very disappointed to hear that. Going to rent it instead of buying because if it's like Harry Potter then  I really do not want to waste my money on it.

Anyway that's it for my plans for the week well add in some Minecraft and Diablo 3 (really need to get a session this week), plus I want to kick start the MMO night back up again so keep your eyes open for that. I think that is it for me for this post, hope you all had a blast this week and don't forget to leave a comment on this post or facebook. Always up for hearing what you been upto! until next time folks have a good one.

~Iznic

Quick Weekend Update

Good Morning,
Thought I would give a few posts done this morning while I wait for my TV to stop recording, although I am thinking about doing some PC gaming and playing Pokemon on the DS. Sorry about the lack of posts lately but I've tried to put as much as my spare time into gaming so I can get some games completed finally. Still got all the E3 posts to go up along with the redesign of the blog that I have in mind, plus several other smaller posts that I want to do, plenty to do with little time to do it.

Don't forget folks to jump on Batman Arkham City for Calendar Man today, don't want to wait another year to do it legit. So my plans for today are Minecraft followed by trying to finish off the Jin campaign in Dynasty Warriors 7 and maybe another mission in Ghost Recon Future Soldier. I do really want to play Starcraft 2 on the PC since I've been watching several tournament videos but will have to see on the time.

So that is really it folks for me today, I might attempt to get some of those posts up today but will have to see. Hopefully you all have a great Sunday planned out with plenty of gaming involved, until next time have a good one!

~Iznic

Good Start

Good Morning,
No idea why I'm up so early but going to take advantage of the few hours I've got before work, thinking either some posts or some gaming (maybe both). Wow I just remembered I did not update the 2012 Gaming Progress page yesterday, better get that done now before I forget again.

All sorted now so where was I, oh yeah I was about to talk about yesterday and my awesome day of gaming. Started the day off on Diablo 3 which seemed to run fine with no problems (probably jinxed myself now) so wondering if that small patch that I downloaded had fixed the problem or was the graphic issues to do with CO-OP play. Either way I did the introduction part to the game and now ready to get on with the first act which I might play in a bit.

After that I had a huge black on Dynasty Warriors 7 and finished the Shu campaign, was a lot closer to the ending then I originally thought. Two nice achievements for my trouble and I did the opening first mission for the Jing Campaign, so that's one goal for the week completed. I also tried out Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 which was one of my games I wanted to test out and I was shocked how much better it was compared to the first, still confusing in parts but least now you can repair your armour and even redeploy.

Finally I ended the day with two more levels done for Ghost Recon which I'm really enjoying right now, I find it hard to understand why it's getting negative reviews. It's a decent shooter and I love the sync targeting with the group, anyway I'm thinking that I must be close to the end since the missions are getting longer and the story is starting to wrap up so I might get this game done by the end of the week.

So that was my day so quite proud of myself for getting a lot done, ohh forgot I got one more trophy in Plants vs Zombies on the Vita, just three more to get the Platinum but one is time consuming and the last two are luck based so might be a while.

Anyway that's it for this post, going to go explore some Diablo 3 and see if I can make some progress on the first act. Playing a Barbarian again since I love the melee class, might try a Demon Hunter next time in the future although who I'm kidding I probably will try out all the classes in the end. When I get back from work I am considering doing a MMO night again since it's been nearly a month since the last one and waste of two game time cards. Talk to you later about it anyway and hopefully you all had a great day yesterday.

have a good one folks!
~Iznic

End of my Holiday

Morning,
Well its the last day of my week off and actually it ended Saturday but my two days off for this week was well placed. Going to try and fit as much gaming in today as I can although deep down I know that won't happen since I've got a lot to do.

Just updated the challenge page since another four weeks as gone by and no shock I hit zero gamer score this week, too much Minecraft in the spare time I had but I'm not going to moan since I love the game. Of course this weeks challenge will probably jump higher then usually, hang on lets take a look.


Week 21 - This week
Starting Total: 137,364
To Earn: 2,163
Achieved: 0
Difference: -2,163

Total So Far -
To Earn: 33,923

Achieved: 13,213

Difference: -20,710


Not a bad target this week considering I hit nothing last week, doubt I will hit it this week too but I will be playing quite a few different games this week. My plan for this week is to finish the Shu campaign on Dynasty Warriors 7 since I'm over half way through it now and start the new Jing campaign (looking forward to seeing this story line for the first time), would be brilliant if I could also finish that campaign as well since then it will be playing the Conquest mode left (most time consuming part of the game).

With the CO-OP online for Ghost Recon being really bugged for me and my mate I would like to work on the solo for the time, get a few missions done this week as well. Again it would be awesome if I finished this game so I can then work on some other titles, still got X-Men Destiny to work on from Lovefilm. Also have several games calling to me as well, plus there are several games sitting on my shelves that I want to try out to see if I will like them or not.

Plus throw some Minecraft in there and that's my list for the week, going to end this post here and get to it with the rest of my day! plenty to do, have a good week folks and keep your eyes open for more posts soon.

~Iznic

The Daily Grind E3 Edition

Good Morning Folks,
Last night just as I was just about to close my eyes I suddenly realised that I did not do my weekly update about the challenge. Of course it could not be helped since it was in fact E3 week plus I'm on holiday as well so I'm pretty busy having fun, anyway so I thought I would do this Daily Grind post to catch up with everything as well as start my E3 posting with. There is so much to talk about and such little time, where does one start?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Let's start with last week and my 200,000 gamer score challenge, I did actually earn some achievements last week but not enough of course to hit the target. My new rental game arrived which was X-men Destiny which I'm actually enjoying, quite a easy and fun game and the story is pretty good so far. Have to wait and see what the rest of the game is like later on before I pass judgement on it but so far the achievements are really easy.

Week 20 - this week
Starting Total: 137,364
To Earn: 2,128
Achieved: 0
Difference: -2,128

Week 19
Starting Total: 137,039
To Earn: 2,030
Achieved: 325
Difference: -1,705

Week 18
Starting Total 136,874
To Earn: 1,974
Achieved: 165
Difference: -1,809

Week 17
Starting Total: 136,504
To Earn: 1,953
Achieved: 370
Difference: -1,583

Total So Far -
To Earn: 31,795

Achieved: 11,085

Difference: -20,710

Dang! that was a low score for last week and I really did think I was past the 500 mark, must had been earning achievements in my sleep. Think this week will be a lot worse since I can say as of right now I'm on zero, will be doing some gaming today so hopefully I can get at least one achievement .... hopefully!!

So my plans for this week? well I have no idea what I will be playing sorry, what ever takes my fancy today but I am working on Plants vs Zombies still on my Vita. Think I've only got five trophies left to get the Platinum and I'm about to get two more in a few more levels. This will be second Vita Platinum so I am quite excited about it, so I have no doubts I will be on that this week especially with the fact the last trophies are time consuming luck based ones.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Think that's enough ramblings about my challenge for a week and before I wrap this post up I think it would be a good time to announce my winner of E3. Could do with a drum roll but oh well, winner as to be Sony in my opinion. The conference was everything I wanted, games and guess what more games! they took my breath away with how amazing Last of Us looks then adding a new IP Beyond Two souls. I really need to play Heavy Rain because I know I'm missing out but I will be playing Beyond on day one that's for sure, then lets not forget showing off Assassin's Creed 3 ship battling which really shocked me (big fan of Pirates and I have been waiting a while for a good game with ships).

Assassins Creed Liberation looks amazing on the Vita and let's not forget God of War, the whole conference was great and ohhh don't forget the ton of free games for PlayStation Plus members which is about time!. Of course there was things missing in my opinion but no conference is perfect but anyway Sony won followed by Ubisoft and Nintendo joint second then Microsoft and EA last. I will be doing a series of posts talking about the conferences and of course the games will be up separately as well so stick around for all that, in the mean time what was your favourite conference? I would love to hear!

~Iznic

Not Fully Awake

Morning Readers,
Seriously struggling to stay away right now since I stayed up playing games last night, I had one epic co-op session yesterday that involved Minecraft and Diablo 3. I would like to post up some pictures of what we built but we didn't really make anything other then explore the world and dig a huge mine with a mine cart going into it. It was fun non the less and we now have plenty of resources from the mines to build what ever we want, once decided that is.

Diablo 3 is awesome! mind blowing good but I had a ton of problems on my machine, according to "Can I run it?" my machine can only do minimum and not recommended. CPU/Motherboard and my Graphics Card need upgrading, I was right annoyed until I remembered that my last big upgrade was over four years ago so yeah it's been a long time needed. So need to look into saving some cash so I can do a new upgrade and when I do expect blog posts of me building my nice new gaming machine. Anyway I got most of the bugs sorted but now and again I do get a black screen for a second with a freeze then it jumps back into the game, I can bare with it for the time being since its not that often.

Was playing a Barbarian and got up to level 10, as I said I'm really hooked and need to start a solo character to play on so I can enjoy the story line since it was rushing through the dialogue. I do have regrets now for not getting the collectors edition, especially when my mate is running around with the angel wings on that you get in the box.

Apart from that nothing else to announce, actually wait that's a lie right there I forgot I never posted on Friday or Saturday about the new releases. Yeah I blew my entire amount of my gift cards to pick up all these lovely goodies, think it cost me 12p in cash after my gift cards was used.

So far I've only started Ghost Recon which so far I'm really enjoying, I've got to the third mission and I do have to admit that it as got a lot more linear compared to the past ones. But the graphics, story and game play make up for it in the ways that is awesome, I love the tagging system where you mark enemies and your squad lines up the shot and await your command to fire. Makes life a lot more easier and I am getting into the story, won't spoilt it but it is good so far and easier to follow.

Need to try out the multi player since that is what I bought it for, the Ghost Recon series was one of the games that got me into co-op. In fact it was Splinter Cell Pandora's box that really started it off, playing co-op with my mate Adam. Anyway I'm determined this week to get some time on Dragons Dogma and Rune Factory so stay tuned to see some information about them later this week.

On that note I think its time to update the blog stats and see how I'm doing on my challenge this week, don't expect anything amazing but I did get a few achievements in Ghost Recon and I did start Dynasty Warriors 7 too.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gutting I forgot to add Diablo 3 to the 2012 list next so with these three as well now I'm up to twenty games bought for the year, dropped down to 30% completed so far from 38%. Not worried yet since still got over half a year to clean up, of course November will kill me like normal lol.

Oh my god I forgot to say I clocked Captain America in the week, yes my rental is finally done woot! so another Platinum for my collection. Cannot believe I forgot all about that, so yeah that was my fourth Platinum trophy for the year and xx for all time, also it brings my score up to 29 games completed this year so getting there. Although one of my friends on twitter posted up they just did their 54th game, seriously how much free time they must have ... actually probably more like no Minecraft addiction lol.

Time for the week 18 stats to be done then and I'm expecting this week will finally hit the 2,000 gamer score a week mark.

Week 19 - This week
Starting Total: 137,039
To Earn: 2,030
Achieved: 0
Difference: -2,030

Week 18
Starting Total 136,874
To Earn: 1,974
Achieved: 165
Difference: -1,809

Week 17
Starting Total: 136,504
To Earn: 1,953
Achieved: 370
Difference: -1,583

Total So Far -
To Earn: 29,765

Achieved: 10,760

Difference: -19,005


Ouch! knew I would hit it this week but was still dreading to see it, I'm getting close to ending this challenge and just continue to play and enjoy games while trying to get some completed. Next week should see me behind by at least 20,000 gamer score as well, just getting crazy now lol.

So my plans for this week is to play my new releases, least put an hour on each one then I think my focus will be split across a multiple of games. I would go into detail but not sure what will happen so keep an eye out for future posts, although it probably will be Ghost Recon and some Dynasty Warriors 7 at least.

Anyway on that note I'm going to shoot and finish updating my stats page then going to play around on some games, have a good one folks and I hope you all had a great weekend.
~Iznic