Going to be a busy one

Morning folks,
Currently waiting on my PlayStation 3 to finish installing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, seriously forgot how terrible the load/install times can be. Reason I'm doing this is so I can redeem all the codes in my Anthology edition, spent the morning so far doing it for all different games since I keep putting it off and knowing my luck the codes will expire. Anyway while that is sorting out I thought it be a good idea to get a blog post up, especially with the fact my weekend was crazy and nothing was posted up. Plus this week will be a busy one since we have the Batman trailer going up today and of course the huge Xbox Reveal tomorrow.

Not sure how I'm watching the reveal tomorrow but I will be Twittering either way about my thoughts, then my plan is to copy all the Tweets onto a blog post to put up here. This is going to be test practise since this is what I was planning for E3, should be interesting to see how this will turn out.

So other then being excited to see what is revealed tomorrow I think it's time to update about my gaming adventures so far. Well in the multiplayer area I've got up to level 39 on Tomb Raider so getting close, of course it's taking more XP each level so it is dragging a little. Really cannot wait to hit level 60 so I can just focus on the kill achievements. On Gears of War Judgment I clocked the 10 wins on Team Deathmatchs in the week and now working on the 10 wins for OverRun, after that it just levelling up and working on the 100 kills for each Locust which will probably be a huge pain in the ass.

I did do some Call of Duty Black Ops 2 multiplayer this week, mostly because I redeemed my COD Ghosts weapon skins and wanted to see what they look like. Not bad to be honest just black with the white skull but the nice touch is the code gives the skin for every weapon in the game, thought it was just for the one gun so really happy about that. Had a few matches and laughs, in fact came top in my team on the one match which was shocking. I did plan to do some Battlefield 3 as well but Skyrim took over and well it was nearly midnight when I finished.

I bought a house in the game (cheer) and then took on another random Dragon who nearly had me, ok that's a lie the entire fight was not my best. So need to restock on health potions and find a better way to fight a Dragon because I struggle. Oh yeah I was in Windhelm and ran into a Orphan girl, as I walking past her I overheard her say that no one bought her flowers again.

Now folks when I heard you could have a family in Skyrim with the new patch I wasn't fussed about it, in fact I planned not too because my thoughts was "what is the point". I had a family in Fable and it just annoyed me, plus I love having the great warrior with no ties background. Anyway back to the Orphan story, so I over heard her saying she had not sold anything. Yeah who ever said that gamers are heartless and that video games cause violence have no clue because I had to turn around and talk to her. I thought buy a few flowers from her and help her to be nice (dang my good nature!), well I got the fully background history from instead. Both her folks are dead and she now selling flowers to buy food so she can survive.

Good lord my heart broke! damn myself for being nice and getting into stories too much. So I tried to adopt her but at the time I had not bought my house yet since I was still 600 gold short. Hearing her voice sound happy at the chance to be adopted then go sad when I don't have a house yet so I couldn't adopt her. Well as you can imagine I charged out to get more gold, of course I was so determined that ran right into a Dragon (the one I mentioned earlier) and was nearly a BBQ. Next time I load the game I will be adopting her, well I think I need to sort the house out first so she can stay there but that is the plan.

So that my friends is why I love games! because the story can really suck you in.

~Iznic

P.S. My plans for the week? other then watching a ton of new stuff being announced I will be working on my multiplayer games again, cleaning up lego Lord of the Rings and of course Skyrim.

More Gears of War Judgment DLC Incoming

EPIC have announced on their community forums that a new multiplayer DLC pack will be released in June. The Pack will be titled "Lost Relics" and with it comes a new mode, several maps and skins. In the way of maps Checkout is returning which was one of my favourite maps in Gears of War 3, not much has been said about the three new maps but they did say they will release details very soon. What we do know is they are called the following "Lost City", "Museum" and "Ward" plus the fact the last one is for OverRun mode only.

Hopefully there be some interesting maps to play because the selection right now is not very huge but I am happy they returning some of my favourites. Oh yeah they did give some information on the new mode to play, it's title Breakthrough and basically it reminds me of Rush from Battlefield. Two teams with one defending and one attacking. The attacks must carry a flag to a set objective and have a limited spawn number for their team to work with, while the defenders have unlimited resources to stop them with.

Could be fun in theory but we will see, not a big fan of the new mode that took over for Horde (OverRun) since of the unbalanced issues with it. Besides there was nothing wrong with Horde and was one of the main reasons I loved Gears of War so much, such a shame they didn't keep it.

Anyway hopefully over the next few weeks more details and probably trailers will be released to show off this new DLC pack.
~Iznic

The weekend is here

Morning folks,
So Friday came around quickly and so I thought it be a good time to get a post before the weekend started off. In the ways of gaming I've not really done much with Skyrim this week since last Monday, I did kill my first random Dragon which was awesome but I really could do with picking up some more potions though. Hoping to get some time back in over the weekend and next week to try and sort an hour or two a day dedicated to the game.

Mostly this week I've been working on Lego Lord of the Rings in the ways of collecting all the red bricks I need to 100% the story levels. Doing alright so far but still got quite a lot of collectibles to find so it's still a long way off from the Platinum trophy. Also this week I've still been playing the multiplayer for Tomb Raider and Gears of War Judgement, clocked another four achievements in Gears and working on levelling up slowly. Might jump on the special event this weekend and play on the VIP list to get double experience points. Tomb Raider I've hit level 35 out of the 60 I need and slowly going up but taking it's time, might try and have a small session over the weekend and see how close I can get to 60.

Plans for next week will still be the same and that's continue with these four games for now, not adding a new game until one of them is finished. Oh that does remind me and yes I am still playing Minecraft but I need to get a journal post up about it. I will try and get that up in a second, sorry about the delay but it completely slipped my mind.

Speaking of Minecraft did you see the release of Terraria on consoles a month ago? I had ago at the trial and really unsure what to make of it. It's like a 2D minecraft but with a lot more action in the ways of more monsters, boss fights and lots of stuff to collect (e.g. armour sets).



Has I said I was really unsure what to make of it and I did play the trial, I will admit I was getting confused very quickly. Might have to try it again because it looks to be an awesome game and right up my street. If anyone has played it drop a comment on the post since I would love to hear some user reviews about it.

Now since I've seemed to have jumped the topic over to arcade games and trials I might as well stick with this topic for a little longer. I did download the Farcry 3 Blood Dragon trial to see what all the fuss is about. Yeah it's a very retro 80's scifi game and I got to say I love the old style cut scenes and dialogue for the game. Once I've clocked a few games I will be picking it up, I was going too but I know I wouldn't play it straight away since I'm working on a ton of things.

Ok I think that is it for ramblings in this post and I will leave you readers be for a bit, but before I do there is one last note I need to make. If you read my blog you know I've forgotten all about my two for one challenge I was working on a few months back. I did realise in a post a few weeks back and said I will sort it out, well I am going to it's just I need some more time to sit down and to update the list. Plus I need to work out what I've bought in the last few months so that will take a bit of time as well. Keeps your eyes open and I will put up a general post once I've updated it so until then have a good one folks.
~Iznic

Free Gears of War Judgement Map

From today for the next two weeks you can download the new map Dreadnaught for free, another MAXIM sponsored map like Haven from the launch day. This map is for the OverRun mode and after the two weeks will cost 160 Microsoft Points so if you miss out don't worry too much. Below is the official trailer for it and the background story if into learning a bit of history.



"In the months immediately following Emergence Day, the COG managed to capture some Locust Berserkers. Thinking that a ship at sea would be safe from an underground enemy, the COG decided to transport their prize to a secure research facility via the CNV Pomeroy. Little did they know that the Locust had waterborne beasts from the underground rivers of the Hollow, or that the Locust soldiers would use them so relentlessly to rescue the captured Berserkers. The Pomeroy was corralled into a narrow channel and forced ashore, where the Locust sent a mass of troops to assault and overwhelm the beached vessel."

Just added mine to my download que and will be giving it a blast tomorrow as work towards my ten wins on OverRun achievement. 
~Iznic



Source: CVG

Start of the Week

Morning folks,
I've had a blast over the weekend and got plenty of gaming in, in fact I finally caught up with where I was on my first playthrough on Skyrim (not hard really) and now surpassed it. In fact I encountered my first random Dragon as well which was bit difficulty since I was designing my character to be full on melee plus I had not used a bow yet so that was interesting.

Anyway I'm loving it and I cannot believe how big the game is, I've been walking around for hours searching and exploring. In fact I just stopped following the main story to go off and find different ores so I can upgrade my weapons and armour. I can see myself losing hundreds of hours to this game over the next few months but god it's worth it.

So other then that I have been playing Minecraft but I will cover that part in my Minecraft Journal posts, I've also finished the story levels on Lego Lord of the Rings. Now got to start doing the collectibles part which is probably the longest section of any Lego game. I picked up the X2 multiplier and now got to save up for the x4, so this is the boring part and that's working on saving up money until I've got the first few multipliers to help me. I will be working on that this week and fingers crossed that I will be able to get all the stuff I need so I can adventure out and 100% this game.

Hmmm what else, oh yeah I tried out the FUSE demo and believe it or not I was not impressed at all. Shocking to say how much I enjoyed watching the trailers and it looked right up my street but no I found the demo to be basic and annoying. You can play all four characters and switch between them mid game but there is no information what type of classes they are (if they have any) so it's trial and error. The effect weapons are well boring, you can see the black holes or spikes happen but honestly it's like watching a grenade go off. Once you since it once in game you really don't care, in fact the game felt very arcade style with the points from each kill flashing up.

A.I sucks since your team mates will barely pick you up and they didn't bother on the mini boss level, thank god you can switch characters so you can revive them yourselves. Also the bad guys have the run to you rule so expect them to charge at you a lot of the time, bosses too! as I said it was basic and boring. Try it out for yourselves you might like since every ones taste is different but I'm taking it off my want list which is good thing with how much I need to save up this year.

Other then the demo I have been putting a few more minutes into my multiplayer games again, in fact I clocked level 31 in Tomb Raider. It's going slowly but I'm getting to that 60 marker plus I'm spending all my salvage to buy the extra upgrades and characters. Same goes for Gears of War Judgement and I'm now level 20 and clocked quite a few of the starting multiplayer achievements, working on the 10 wins for each mode right now which is a lot of fun.

So my goals this week I will be still working on Tomb Raider and Gears of War multiplayer, I could do with getting some Battlefield 3 time in this week since I've only played a few matches. Continue Lego Lord of the Rings and of course Skyrim. There you go folks my plans for the week and I hope you having fun yourselves, on this note though I'm going to shoot since I need to get ready for work.
~Iznic

Gears of War Judgement Limited Edition Unboxing

Morning folks,
Thought I would start the weekend off with a small unboxing post and what better then the GAME UK exclusive Gears of War Judgement Limited Edition.

Gears of War Judgement Limited Edition (GAME UK Exclusive)

This was just a copy of the game with a exclusive steelbook plus some extra DLC for the multiplayer. The packaging was just an outer cardboard sleeve that wrapped around the standard box and the steelbook. The DLC that was included was the "Classic Hammerburst" and the "Emergence Era Marcus" character skin (also known as the Young Marcus), both are multiplayer items. Also included was a code for the original Gears of War game since that was a day one offer for everyone who purchased the game.

Standard game and Steelbook

As I said there was a copy of the standard game, the steelbook was one of the nicer ones with Baird being arrested on the one side and then on the back the Locust attacking the city. Inside the steelbook was a picture of the city with the COG flag burning.

Inside artwork

Outside artwork

So that's it folks for the Limited edition of this game, it was not exactly a huge collectors edition but still a nice steelbook none the less. Shame the game did not go full out like Gears of War 3 with the Epic Edition. Anyway until next time have a good one folks and take care.
~Iznic

Easter Thoughts

Afternoon readers,

It's been a busy few weeks for me and I've not had really much time to blog or even game in most cases but fear not since it's my day off!. Now before I dedicate the whole day to gaming and blogging I cannot since I've got a lot of jobs to catch up on, no rest for the wicked that's for sure but I am determined to least get two blog posts up today. Plus hopefully a rough draft or two for this weeks posts that I have planned.

So where to begin well I've bought some more games again since there have been some awesome deals and sales going on. I think I posted up about Darksiders 2 and Skyrim Premium Edition PS3 both being £10 a few weeks back, well this week I picked up the Halo 4 Collector's Edition since GAME had knocked it down to £28 finally. Could not resist once I saw the steelbook inside which is one of the nicest steelbooks I've ever seen, plus having the season pass as well was the cherry on the top.

Of course trying to save some money this money went right out the window, especially when Amazon knocked the price of the Assassin's Creed Anthology Edition down from £99 to £48. All five games plus all the DLC for each game in a collectors box, steelbook and artcards. So I picked up the PS3 version since I've wanted to go through them again for trophies. Also means I've got plenty of Unboxing blog posts to do now, although I was already swamped with all the collector editions I picked up in March.

Anyway thank god it goes quiet for the next few months so I can start saving for the end of the year, it's going to kill me with all these new games being announced plus having new consoles as well. There is so much I want! I really have no idea where to start but I cannot wait! but enough about that let's talk gaming and what I've been up to.

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Well you will be happy to know that I've clocked Gears of War Judgement at the start of the week plus the Aftermath campaign was done as well. Was really pleased with myself since that means only God of War is left out of the March new releases, think that's the first time I've ever clocked all the new releases for a month. I'm also half way through God of War and so far I'm not seeing this really short game everyone was complaining about unless the next half goes real quick. I am disappointed with the game though since the camera is horrible in it, I know the game looks beautiful and the boss fights are meant to look epic but having the camera keep zooming out to show it off is a pain. Plus throw in the combat system that seems only want to work when it feels like it, well it's a recipe for disaster.

I'm hoping to put some more time into today so I can wrap it up but I do have a few games I'm currently working on. I picked up Defiance at the start of the month, so far I've only put a hour or two into it and well...it's kinda boring right now. The story is not dragging me into it and the quests are just repeating them selves, there is only a few different types that are just repeated over and over. Plus everyone looks the same! there is no really customisation to it yet at the start you spend ages making your character the way you want but once you in-game everyone is the same. 

Not going to condemn the game though yet, I'm only at the beginning and I need to pump some more time into. I picked up the Collectors edition so I really want to get my money's worth before I decide to give up on it, hopefully some patches will come out to spruce it up and with the TV show launching in about a week's time that might make it more interesting.

So yeah I will be putting more time into that this week and the final game I'm currently playing is Plants vs. Zombies on the Vita. Last time I posted I only needed one more trophy to clock the Platinum which is the Zen Garden, to get it I need all the plants in my garden is pretty much luck. I was annoyed because when I first checked out the trophy guide it just said that I needed to loot the plants and don't need to keep them but now it says all the plants have to be present at the same time in the garden for the trophy. So there's a lesson for you my readers and that's to keep checking any achievement/trophy guide for updates, it can cost you a lot of time if you don't.

Anyway I was down to eight plants left to get and yesterday out of no where I got six of the missing ones, then this morning the seventh one dropped finally so now I just need one more and that will be my third Platinum for the Vita. I expect to see me on this a lot the next few nights as I attempt to try and get it, fingers crossed it will drop in the next few days. 

So that's it folks for me now, I'm going to go and do some gaming then I will be back to write up another post I've been wanting to do. Until then have a good one and don't forget to comment with what you been up to.

~Iznic

P.S. to the right is a poll for the PlayStation 4, if you can spare a minute I would be very interesting to seeing how many of you will be getting it or not.

 

Gears of War Weapon Skin

Evening folks,
Hopefully got a few posts for you tonight but will see how things go since so far everything I've planned this weekend keeps getting cancelled. This is a quick post about a free weapon skin for Gears of War Judgement, it is limited so don't delay it too long to try and get one.

Xbox is having a competition on their facebook where you given a chance to win a console, a Kinect and of course a copy of the game. You will need to login with your Facebook details but just for entering you do get the Window Web Skin for your lancer in multiplayer.

Link is here for the site or just check out xbox 360 on Facebook.

That's it for this post folks but stay tuned for a few more in a minute of too, by the way as anyone played the game yet? I loaded up mine at the start but had to rush out. Seemed ok but I'm not expecting anything amazing from it. Hopefully the game will surprise me and be great, anyway drop a line with what you think in the comments or on Facebook.
~Iznic

Gears Season Pass Revealed

Morning folks,
Last night EPIC posted up the details of the upcoming season pass for Gears of War Judgement which is out on the 22nd March (less than a month to go! cannot wait!). The following as been confirmed to be included:

• Two Add-on packs consisting of:
• Six multi-player maps
• Two new modes
• New weapons
• New armour skins
• Early access to the new multi-player maps
• Five exclusive weapon skins
• Four exclusive armour skins
• Permanent double XP

This will cost 1,600 Microsoft points so not a bad price but in a way I do feel like this was just rushed to be put together. Was a bit shocked to hear the price last night since I thought it was a lot cheaper then the Gears 3 one then I saw the list of content. Only two packs? how fast will they come out? will there be more after? and I really hope the maps are good ones and not just generic ones with a new skin.

I loved the maps in the end packs for Gears 3, especially with the Easter eggs in them like finding elemental cleavers. Anyway they say it will save 20% if you bought the packs separate and I do love the Gears multi-player so I will be picking this up, The double XP is a really nice bonus and makes me wonder how long it will take to level up if they offering that.

Roll on March!
~Iznic

More thoughts for the day

Afternoon,
Well I did promise that I would return to finish off my posts for the day, so here I am and ready to write. What I did not get to finish off in my post this morning was the current update for my Two for One challenge. The stats have not been updated since Halo 4 and since then I've completed two more games, first I finally sat down and grinded out the last achievement in Saints Row the Third which I posted about and of course all the DLC was 100% completed. Then shortly after that I finally sat down and finished off my rental Lego Batman 2 for the PS3 which clocked me my first Platinum trophy for the year.

Of course completing these two games now allows me to buy another game, in fact from now on I'm going to call it a credit. Anyway so far for the challenge I've completed six games earning three credits but I did buy Saints Row the Third on the PS3, so I'm down to two right now which is perfect since next week sees Hitman HD Collection and Ni No Kuni launching. I am worried though since at the end of February/March a stupid amount of games will be released, it's like Christmas all over again.

Off the top of my head I know Dynasty Warriors 7 Empire comes out at the end of February, then at the start of March is Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm. Then in the month is Tomb Raider, Company of Heroes 2 (if it gets released since it was made by THQ), Gears of War Judgement, Bioshock Infinite, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, God of War Ascension and probably some others that I cannot remember at this moment in time. So that's what eight games I just named out so I need to clock, oh bugger! sixteen games over the next month. Plus I could do with saving some money since there is a high chance that at the end of the year we could see the new Xbox and PlayStation. I think I'm going to go bang my head against the wall for a little while.

I could go through all the games and be picky with which ones I want, but they keep releasing awesome new trailers. For example I was prepared to wait to pick up the new Gears of War game since there as been no real marketing for it or big shout out about it, then they release this trailer (see below) a couple of days ago and now I want to go to the lock in next month to play it.



The new horde mini beserker looks amazing! and the fact you can now use most weapons with the shield, it's heaven. I love the idea of a version of horde in the single player plus the challenges being thrown, gives it more replay value and the spawn changer was a nice touch. So yeah I'm now excited to play the game and there is no way I'm going to wait for this game.

I would like to say I have a plan but I really don't, every day I swear the industry announces a new game or collectors edition just to tempt me. In fact expect a few more posts over the next few days showing off the different trailers and games, I would put them all into one post but it would be too much awesome for one thing and could end the world. For example check out the cinematic trailer for Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm because that is one amazing trailer!



I'm really looking forward to playing the Zerg and seeing the story span out with the Queen of Blades, multiplayer really does not bother me since it's of my league. I love watching the E-Sport streams and live streams but I couldn't keep up if I tried, maybe if I practised with Skirmish mode and some mates I could attempt it. You never know but for the mean time I will stick to the story, anyway on that note I'm going to end this post for the day and get some gaming on the go. Thanks for spending the time to read this and hopefully you are having a better time manging the amount of games that are coming out.

Until next time have a good one folks!
~Iznic