Last Week

Morning folks,

It’s been a while since I’ve really last posted on here but the last few months have been chaos for me. It was coming to the point getting spare time to write out a blog post was becoming impossible. It’s even made it a struggle to get game time in the last few weeks as well. 

Anyway good news I will try harder to at least get one post done each week to keep you folks up to date, plus I really do enjoy talking about games here.

So I’m not sure what to cover in this post or where to start since there has been a ton of new announcements since the last time we spoke. In the end I’ve decided to focus on what my thoughts have been this week concerning my gaming life and go from there.

Of course this week is all about GAMESCON which has pretty much all I’ve been talking about this week with the new announcements. Started off with the Tomb Raider 2 announcement about it being exclusive to the Xbox next holiday season. That really shocked me and I was floored by the news, of course with the wording “holiday exclusive” it was crystal clear that it was a timed exclusive but still shocking. Keep hearing Crystal Dynamics was scared of Uncharted being released so it does make sense to target the Xbox market while Uncharted comes out then do a second release later on for the PlayStation fans.

Also on that day another item was added to my buy list and that was the amazing limited edition Xbox One console in Call of Duty Advanced Warfare theme. I love the three colour scheme with the gold trim and to be honest it doesn’t really look like a Call of Duty theme which is probably why I like it so much. Plus the added bonus of a 1TB hard drive is a must since I found out the day that my Xbox One hard drive is at 41% full. I’ve barely got anything on it and with so many games coming out in the next few months I think I will need the upgrade.

I’ve put the order down anyway and I can decide closer to the date if I need to cancel but right now I want to upgrade. After Tomb Raider and the Xbox One the last thing on my mind this week was the World of Warcraft announcement. Think every fan has been awaiting for the announcement for the release date and finally on Thursday we had it. 13^th November we will see the release of Warlords of Draenor along with the awesome looking cinematic trailer for the expansion.

All through the video I was shouting “you cannot do that”, so many questions to be answers and could we be seeing a full alternate timeline to play around with. Blizzard could go full force with this and bring the Burning Legion into it in the next expansion, messing around with time opens up so much stuff to play with for the future expansions I just cannot wait to see what happens.

Shortly after announcing all this the physical collector’s edition was put up finally after months of waiting, everyone knew it was coming but of course we had to wait. Although we did have to wait nearly a day to confirm that collector’s box matches the rest in the series. Check it out below but I will be picking this up on day of launch.

That’s it for me today folks so have a good one folks,

Iznic

Monday Thoughts

Morning folks,
Time for an update on what I've been up to in the world of gaming and that of course is all Watch_Dogs. Actually that's a lie I did play some Star Wars Old Republic yesterday for a few hours but yes Watch_Dogs took up most of my week. Have I finished the story campaign? no course not! been too distracted with the side missions and collectibles. Yesterday I finally completed Act 1 of the story after completing all the QR codes around the city. I will be working on the story more now that the rest of the collectible stuff cannot be finished without making progress into the story.

Night time drive

So what do I think of the game so far? I love it and give it a solid 9 out of 10 right now. Would I say game of the year? not yet and reason for that is I need to give it more time before giving it my final verdict. The game is stunning and graphics wise very impressive, check out some of my screen shots on this page that I took on the PS4 to see what I mean.

City view

City day

Game story is still too early to say and it's ok right now but I don't know, it's just not gripping me straight away. But then again if you look at Assassin's Creed with the first one, I love the game but it wasn't until mid/end game that I got sucked into the story. I think this will be the same and in fact I look forward to seeing where they take this new IP and hope to see a full series.

Lake view

So far though I'm really enjoying the game and as I said I will come back to it with my final thoughts once the story is completed. I did also pick up the Season Pass as well so I will talk about the content for that as well once I've tried it.

Causing chaos

Other than Watch_Dogs I don't really have much to talk about concerning what I've played since it took most of my week up. I will confirm that I unlocked the May 2014 card back in Hearthstone, I only hit rank 20 this month and did not play as much as I wanted to. Bit gutted about not making any progress since I really want to attempt to work my way up the ladder. I would like to try this month but it could be a interesting month. 

May Unlock

We might actually be seeing the new singleplayer expansion being added. It's listed for summer time release which of course could be July/August as well but we could see it this month. If this happens I can see the arena plays being pushed to the side while I do the raid story. I will be going for rank 20 again since there has been another backing listed for unlocking this month. Check out the very colourful and unique rainbow card, no theme on World of Warcraft this time around.

June Unlock

Think that's it folks for my gaming, I do have some thoughts on upcoming games I want to talk about but I really could do with some lunch so I'm off to cook some Tomato soup.
~Iznic

Random Update

Morning folks,
I've been rather busy with Lego Hobbit for the last week and in fact it's took over pretty much. Finally got all the story levels completed to 100% so now it's just exploring the map to finish finding the open world collectibles. After that then it's just earning the last few trophies for doing certain requirements. Of course with this game taking up most of my time everything else has been pretty much pushed to the side. I have doubt's of clocking any part of my challenge now (see the last post for full details) since I have less than a month to get 4,000 gamer score and two platinum's. Not giving up though I will still try but I have my doubts.

Anyway onto good news and Child of Light is out tomorrow in the UK, really looking forward to this and I just hope it turns out great like I hope. If you not seen anything about this game check out the trailer below.



Normally I probably would not take notice of this game but I don't know, the artwork looks amazing and the platform style game play looks awesome. Plus I'm hearing there is a turn based RPG combat system now, the more I hear the more I want to play it. I'm also thinking this will be one of those gems you was not expecting (like the Unfinished Swan for me). Guess we will find out tomorrow when I start it.

So back to the topic of games I've been playing which of course is mostly Lego Hobbit but I was able to fit some time onto Hearthstone. I kid you not this game is awesome and I would recommend to anyone, in fact I'm not sure what happened but I'm on a seven win streak in the ranked matches. Lady luck was really on my side (probably not any more now that I've told people) and I'm now on the Rank 20 mark which was my goal since I will now earn the Season One card backing.

The game is addictive and so simple yet so complex its just brilliant for a free to play trading card game. Seriously give it a try on the PC or iPad! and don't just take my word for it, give it a go and see what you think. There is a expansion pack already in the works that I'm looking forward to since it's adding a solo campaign that like a MMO Raid. Cannot wait! and I'm already testing out some improved decks that I've built that will hopefully help me get further in the ranked leader boards. Anyway I better head off and get ready for work but before I go I will leave a trailer for the game play for you guys to check out.



~Iznic

The Great Clean Up

Morning folks,
Up early since I'm currently having a clean up with my pile of shame. Yesterday I decided enough was enough, I've still got quite a few games in my collection after all the trade-in's over the last year but I still got plenty that are not being played. I love my RPG's and I have tons sitting on shelf, some still sealed from over two years ago. My excuse being I will play them soon and that they would be hard to get again if I trade them in.

Well enough! there is plenty coming out that I really want and I can honestly most of the games I would not play this side of Christmas. Some even I cannot see myself playing after Christmas into 2014, so I'm going through the pile and pulling them out for trade in. Wondering how I'm deciding what to keep? well my most favourite games will be staying, my all time favourite stuff like Halo, Gears and Assassin's etc. Some stuff won't be worth trading in like the £1 and £2 so they will be kept on the side, once I've played them then I might trade them in.

But yeah anyway I'm working on it and all the funds raised will go to the next-generation console, right now my sights is set on the PlayStation 4. If I can raise enough funds then it be games next and maybe if I really do good (doubt it, highly doubt it) I would love to get the Xbox One as well. So yes folks over the next few days I will be busy tiding up and working on to reset my collection. It's not all cleaning though I am playing some great games as well.

First up I'm still working on Diablo 3 although I've not touched in the last few days due to other interests. I will be correcting that today since I really want to put some time into it and get it clocked, might even trade it in after I finish the story. Don't see myself being in the mood to work on the Platinum for a while, especially with so much coming out. That's my first game I'm playing and the second believe it or not is Payday 2. The other night I was watching some "Let's play" youtube videos and got to watch the game in action, it looked awesome.

I tried out Payday the Heist due to getting it free with PlayStation Plus and after two missions I was hooked. Picked up Payday 2 yesterday due to the massive improvements I saw in the video and yesterday I did three quick missions with the A.I. It was brilliant although I did make a rookie mistake during a deposit box robbery, shot the camera outside the bank setting the alarms off before even getting inside the place. Place was swarming with the Police before I had even setup the drill, lesson learnt be more careful!.

So that is my games I'm currently playing right now but I have got several I want to pick up, in fact next GTA 5 is out and it's on my radar now. I like the idea of setting heists and stuff so watching some more videos I want it, plus the idea of the huge multiplayer crew to help just made the deal a lot better. So next week I will be picking up that and I expect my time will be taken up by it, in fact I probably really give Diablo 3 a huge blast this weekend in attempt to try and get it completed it in time.

Busy busy anyway, plenty to play and plenty to tidy up so on this note I'm going to head off and continue with gathering my trade-ins together. Have a good one folks and thanks for reading my nonense!
~Iznic

Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm Collectors Edition Unboxing

Morning folks,
I did have planned to post up the unboxing for the Assassin's Creed 3 Freedom Edition but I cannot find the photos I took anywhere. So instead I've got next week's unboxing instead, say hello to the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm Collectors Edition.

Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm Collectors Edition

I love how much effort Blizzard put into their collector editions and this is one of my favourites, as you can see from the picture the box is designed like one of the security doors and opens up like one. The box is high quality cardboard and the scratch marks and dented in to give it that feel like the Zerg have attacked it.

As you can see the top part slips off and everything is slotted in, there is a holding area at the bottom so there is no loose items rattling about to get damaged. Like I said Blizzard go to town on everything they do and nothing feels cheap, it's made to last. So anyway onto what you get inside the box, well first up you get a nice artwork mouse mat (see below) and the soundtrack. Also you get a copy of the game of course, behind the scenes making off disc which for the first time comes on both DVD and Blu-ray. Not many collectors edition have Blu-ray discs for the behind the scene stuff, it's just showing how much the times are changing.

There is also quite a bit of in-game DLC included, most of the Blizzard stuff come with in-game items plus items for their other games as well. So for the Starcraft game you get three exclusive Portraits for your profile (zerg, zerg night elf and zerg pandarian). You also get a new skin for one of the units in the game, the Torrasque Ultralisk which can be seen below.
Looks awesome in the game but anyway that's what you get for Starcraft, for World of Warcraft you get a new in-game pet the Zerg Baneling to follow you around and to join in the pet battles with. For Diablo 3 you get the Queen of Blades wings for you character and a banner with Zerg logos and portraits.

So that's it for the extra DLC items and there is just one more item left to talk about and that is of course the awesome artwork book. Like I keep saying Blizzard go to town and this artwork book is not one of those small A5 paperback books that are only ten pages long. It's A4 hardback and around 140+ pages. Take a look below at the cover and yes the book is grooved so each spine and spike stands out. Every collectors edition so far done by Blizzard comes with one of these amazing artwork books and you can a few hours going through them easily. Check out below of two photos from the book to give you an idea on how nice the artwork is.

Artbook

So that's it folks for this unboxing and I do hope you enjoyed it, hopefully by next week I will find my missing photos and put up the Assassin's Creed 3 unboxing. If not I can also just retake them again but anyway on that note have a good one and I hope you enjoyed this post.
~Iznic

Future Plans

Good morning readers,
Hope you enjoyed watching the FUSE trailers in this mornings post and that I might have persuaded you to get another game, if not oh well there is always next time. So I have quite a few things I wanted to talk about today which is unusal for me since I only normally do a general blog post once a week and this will be the third one.

Anyway first up pre-orders have started on Diablo 3 and not for the PlayStation 4 but in fact for the PlayStation 3. I honestly could not remember the announcement about this and was a little shocked, anyway I've put my order in mostly because GAME is offering a pre-order bonus. You get a in-game "Infernal Helm" which offers bonus xp when it's equipped and a giant poster (see below) which is doubled sided.

I love my poster collection so it was a must have for me so my pre-order is down, hopefully a few friends will pick it up as well so I can get a team together for a laugh or two. Speaking of upcoming games Sony posted up two trailers showing the unboxing of the Last of Us UK special editions, the Joel and Ellie editions. They are both exactly the same just focusing on one of the main characters, personally I've got my order down for the Ellie edition.





I was a bit uncertain about the canvas wrap box but after seeing it there I've changed my mind, it looks pretty sweet and perfect for this type of game. Also very happy to see the awesome poster is included as well, I've seen a couple of them in stores for display purposes and they look awesome.

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So that's for gaming news the last thing I want to talk about is the main topic title for this post and that for future things I want to do for the blog. I'm thinking about doing a round up post each week which will list all the posts I've done for the week with links to them. Of course if there are no posts for the week there won't be a round up post.

Another plan as to do with yesterday when I was on shopto.net website, I cannot remember for the love of life why I was on there but I was searching for a game that was coming out. Anyway as I was searching I was shocked on how many games I found that are coming out that I've not seen in ages, we talking last E3 and beyond. Plus plenty of games I've never heard about but the main ones that stood out to me was the games I remembered seeing that I had forgot about. So what I want to do is create a page on the top of my blog where it will list everything, bit like the next generation and E3 pages where the games will be listed in categories so like keep an eye and must buy.

I want to keep this list updated regularly so once a week or two weeks, of course adding new games as it happened. But this way I won't forget these awesome games that get forgot about because of the main triple A games come out and push them to the side.

That's my idea anyway for the next two updates/changes for the blog, plus I need to start something for Game of the Year this year. I've played through several new releases so far so I need to start a list on where I think certain games stand so far. Right I really could do with finishing this post and get ready for work, if you guys have any ideas you would like on the blog don't hesitate to comment or send me a message on the Facebook page or even my twitter account. Both are linked on the bottom right of the blog, I'm always up for hearing new ideas.
~Iznic

PlayStation 4 Games

Morning folks,
To start this weeks posts off I thought I would do a little post about some of the upcoming games for the PlayStation 4 which was shown on the reveal day. I would give them a post each but in the end I found them to be a really short post. So let's start with the new puzzling game, the Witness which looks to be a PlayStation Network game.



I'm a huge fan of puzzle games and stuff like Professor Layton and Portal are up there on my favourite list. This looks fun and pretty addictive, not much to say about the game though since the only information released is that you are on abandon island. Talk about being vague with the story but oh well least the puzzles look fun and I love the idea you get to explore the island, so no doubt I will be getting this on day one.

The second up game is Diablo 3 which I want to say I'm shocked to see coming to the console market but at the same time I'm not. There have been rumours for a long time now about Blizzard releasing a game so it was bound to happen. I own the PC version and I do have to say I do enjoy playing the game even though I'm not that far into it. Problem is the game had massive trouble at the start with online issues (needs constant Internet connection), graphics and lag issues. It kind put me off and I've not been back since, I do keep saying I need to go back and play but you know how it is.



I have my fingers crossed that the console version will have a lot less problems then it's PC counterpart. The game is huge and the maps are randomised so you might be exploring different dungeons each time you load up the same area. Plus plenty of loot to be add and I've heard now they done a huge levelling system after you finishing with plenty of extra hard bosses to fight.

Anyway next up is a new IP from Capcom called Deep Down, fantasy action adventure game that really does shown off the new graphics on the PlayStation 4.



Here is the thing though about this trailer, was that gameplay? because if you pay attention to the bottom left you will see a item menu select there. Of course this would not be the first time a fake ingame trailer is put together that looks amazing but turns out like nothing like the real product, but one can hope.

So on that note lets end the post with the Final Fantasy tech demo which looks beautiful and I really hope they will turn into a game.
~Iznic