Three games down and many more to go

Two posts in one day? Shocking I know!

Hello again readers I thought it was about time I actually did a general update instead of just news or unboxing posts. So I kind a caved this year and my back log of games has been growing quite quickly. Way too many new releases and sales been happening, plus you know what I’m like for buying new games. Also did not help I still have a few games from last year still play as well.

So the last two weeks I have been trying to put more time into getting some of these games clocked and its going well. I finished Lego Batman 3 on the Xbox 360 first along with all its expansions, picked this up last in the Black Friday sales and never got around to working on it. It’s one of my top five Lego games and would recommend playing it, it’s even the game that got me into the Lantern Corp and the reason why I picked up a Green Lantern graphics novel.

Same week I also completed Agatha Christie ABC Murders on the PS4, new release that has just come out. Got say I was bit disappointed with this game since it was really short, would say maybe two evenings or a day to complete it. The puzzles are not too hard and to be honest the story wasn’t that great. I like my puzzle investigating games and I probably will play it again to earn some achievements but I will not be running out to get it any time soon.

Not a bad for a week’s work to be honest, after that I did a take few days off and play some new releases but nothing with a 100% focus. I want to give full focus to games in my collection that once I’ve played I probably will trade-in. With so many new releases over the next few months, credit is always a help right now to pay for them.

This week I started Adventure Time Jake and Finns Investigations on the Xbox One. Few work colleagues had recommended me the show so when I saw this on sale for a good price earlier on the year I picked it up. It’s been sitting there for a while so I thought it was about time I give it a try and if I did not like it then it can be traded in.  Well I was quite shocked how much I did enjoy it to be honest, the game is a like Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes where you investigate the area to find clues and solve puzzles to progress through the story. Story is weird but funny and I enjoyed every minute of it and could not put it down, it’s got me interesting into watching the cartoon as well now. I would have no problem playing this again on a different console to earn some more trophies/achievements. 

Well that’s it folks for what I’ve been playing and completing, what’s next to play? well I’ve got a few games on the go at the moment. Nothing serious just yet but once I’ve got something solid I will do another blog post.

Think that’s it for this blog post and I really should go enjoy my day off with some good games. Need to keep completing some games since there’s quite a few new ones out this month. Expect a post about that soon, until then don’t forget to comment with what you been working on.

Until then have a good one folks,

~Iznic

P.S. Yes I did clock Minecraft Xbox 360 in between but I was only missing one glitched achievement so it wasn't like I did a full massive session to finish it off. Still another 100% though so that was a win. 

Summer Heat

Well it's finally cooled down in the UK today and less of a heatwave compared to the last few days. Since I'm no longer suffering I thought it would be a good time to do a update for the blog and to remind you I'm still alive.

So onwards to my gaming progress which is not a lot to report about this week, did a few levels of Company of Heroes 2. So far I'm really enjoying it but I don't feel the spark like I did with the first game, although the current mission I'm playing right now has opened more gameplay features so my mind might be changed soon.

Other then that I have put a few more hours into XCOM for the PS3, working my way through so far but man I'm struggling trying to keep one of my team all way through every mission I play. Started with four candidates and now I'm down to two, plus I'm not even close to half way through the game yet.

Final game I've been playing is Defense Grid the tower defence game on the Xbox Live Arcade, yes it was a free game for several weeks but I had purchased it years ago (just never got around to playing it). I have to say it's one of the best tower defence games I've played in a long time, really stuck into it and I'm about three to four levels to go from completing the story. I probably will go back and work on getting gold medals for every level but right now I'm just making my progress through the game.

That is it for my gaming progress, not a lot really but I have been busy and my spare time that I do have has been taken up trying to stay cold during the heat. My action plan for this week is, well ... I don't know really. I guess work on these games some more and see if I can clock something, I need to continue with Phantasy Star as well. I was really doing well with that but I stopped some time last week half way through a level, really should get back onto that before I forget the controls and need to start over.

Could do with some Warcraft time as well since I've got a brand new time card sitting on my desk waiting to be used, no doubt I've lost some items that I had in my mail. Really need to be a bit more organised with that. Actually speaking of Warcraft I wanted to talk about the new figurine sets and micro transactions that was announced this week.

This awesome figurine has turned up at Comic con this year and I really want it, I know from the size this thing will cost a small fortune but it would be so worth it. For those who don't play Warcraft this is Deathwing one of my the main bad guys in the lore, anyway I'm looking forward to seeing the painted outcome. Also announced was the first line of new micro transactions for the game, cosmetic armour helmets.

I like all of them but the Eternal Winter looks the best in my books, although they do look awesome the cost is not. £10 each is a ridiculous price for what you getting, it is cool that every character you own and any future ones you make will get this item. It's just hard to imagine paying £30 for all three which is the cost of the expansion at full price on day of launch. I really do wonder how many people have forked out the money for these items.

Anyway on that note let's change the topic to one more announcement before I end this post and that's a new game has been announced, well sort of anyway. Angry Birds Star Wars is finally coming to the consoles, took long enough to port it over. I'm really excited because it was announced that the PlayStation Vita will be getting it as well, this will be perfect for the Vita touch screen. Plus it's finally another game to get on the Vita but of course there is a bad side to this announcement. Europe release date is the 1st November 2013, yeah they launching it on the same day as Assassin's Creed 4 and Battlefield 4. Plus a few days after is Call of Duty Ghosts and any time around there the next-generation consoles. What a bad time to release a casual game like that, you would think they would aim for September/October or even wait until January/February next year. I would had got it on day one but since of the time it's going onto the wait list for now.


That's it folks for today so thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts, have a good one and I will catch up with you soon.
~Iznic

E3 2013 Microsoft Conference

Finally the last video is now up and it only took me a whole month after E3 to get them up, sorry for the delay folks. Anyway first is the conference video thanks to IGN and then of course below are my thoughts on the games I liked.



Of course let's start with Metal Gear Solid, not really played any of them to be honest so I cannot say I'm a fan really but my god that opening demo was impressive. I was really impressed with the graphics and open world that truly seemed to live around you. If I was to give Metal Gear a try then it would start with this game.

Next up the new Xbox Plus system, still cannot help but chuckle at this. I have no idea why they now jump on the PlayStation bandwagon and from the looks only until Xbox One comes out. Just makes no sense to me and the fact we talking really old games as well, why even bother. Of course I might take that back if they offer some amazing games next month or something. Fable 3 at E3 time was a nice touch just shame I already have it in my collection.

New Dark Souls 2 trailer looked amazing and the boss fight they showed off, dang what a fight and I'm still confused about the mirror shield. Was the character stuck in their? looked awesome none the less but still reminds me that I need to complete the first one and Demons Souls. I say that like it's easy when I know it could take months for each. Not sure I will get this on day of launch since I've not really touched the first two, bit of waste of money really but we will see.

Ok next up is Ryse the Xbox One exclusive and now at the start I was put off from the demo. It looked to massively linear and stuck in a small section where you have to fight one on one. Not my cup of tea that but then the demo opened up and it really got interesting, I love the formation scene then the huge battle in the tower where you see some brutal combo moves and of course more of a God of War style combat fighting. At this point I would get it on day launch but of course I would love to see some more footage to make sure it is the right game for me and that my first thoughts was not right.

Minecraft coming to the Xbox One ... not sure what to say to that to be honest, at first I was like so they just porting it over and making you pay again. But then they talk about larger maps and more online players, that got my interest straight away. If we are talking PC version multiplayer then giant time lapse projects could be possible on the console. My mind went into overdrive thinking of different projects I could do with my friends so yeah this went from "doubt I will buy it" to a "omg want".

Quantum Break, seriously what is this game about? a tv show mixed with a game? are they merged? seriously they show off some great trailers but really could do with the information and a proper demo being played while being explained. Until then I'm not even getting my hopes up for this.

Now let's talk about something I'm really excited about and that's Project Spark, when I first saw it I thought of something like Little Big Planet mixed with a few pc games. Then as they went on I really got excited about it, watching them place the village then start playing while still building was brilliant. The game reminds me a lot of Fable but that's a good thing, I really want this game right now and I've even signed up for the Beta. Using the smartglass features was a nice touch as well, I can see this being great for creating the landscape. So yeah this will be a must buy for me but like to know the difference between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions.

Talk about a teaser, Witcher 3 logo and a bit of information what they want to do with the next generation consoles and then a small teaser trailer. Could be good but need some gameplay plus again I really need to play the past ones, I'm sure I've got the second one for the Xbox 360 sitting on my shelf sealed somewhere.

Some more gameplay footage for Battlefield 4 but I'm at the point now that I've seen enough, hopefully they don't show any more extra stuff because at this rate I will have seen the entire game. It looks amazing and will be a must purchase this Christmas, hopefully it be a day one launch title for the new consoles as well.

New Halo game which to be honest I think everyone was expecting, not sure what to make of this weird flying robot though. I would love to know what this game is anyway since they all saying now its not Halo 5 so is it a spin off series? or something else. Either way the new CGI looks amazing so I have high hopes for the graphics and the game it self.

Some more Titanfall footage which is looking amazing and such a shame it's next year, I know there is plenty coming out this year but still I cannot help but want it right now. And on that note that is the end of the Microsoft conference and my thoughts.

Thanks for taking the time to check out all these posts and my ramblings, hopefully all of you enjoyed E3 and looking forward to all these new games. Think this year holiday season will be one of the biggest launches in gaming history and I cannot wait.
~Iznic

Success!

Afternoon folks,
Well yesterday was the first time in ages I was able to accomplish all my tasks that I had set out to do for the day, ignoring the non gaming stuff I did get the two platinum trophies yesterday evening like I had hoped. I was shocked because I really did not think the Ratchet and Clank QForce would appear for a while, but after two hours of grinding it popped on my second run. Had to take a break since it was getting to me watching Ratchet run around in circles and keep jumping off cliffs to hover safely down.

So I will be updating my blog stats again in a bit to add these two new completed games and now it leaves me with the difficult task of choosing some new games to play. I will be trying to motivate myself to play The Last of Us over the next few days but I need a game or two to play on the side when I'm not in the mood to play it. I've got plenty to choose from and I'm thinking I really need to work on games that I won't keep once I've finished them, the more trade-ins I've got the better. Plenty of new games and consoles coming out at the end of the year that I want so what not save some money using old games that I don't want anymore.

With that in mind I do have a few games that stand out to me, first is Phantasy Star Universe from Sega. Once I've played the singleplayer story I really cannot see myself sticking with it after, there are few achievements online but I tried that in the past and hated it. It's also an MMO so you have to pay for the subscription to play online, after getting two of the boss achievements trying to get the others was just too much of a pain for me (scratch that just saw the servers was shut down last September lol). Anyway so that's one game right there, next is the Tomb Raider HD Trilogy on the PS3. I picked it up cheap to play it again for trophies a long time ago and never got around to it, now I own the Underworld on digital thanks to the PlayStation Plus. Don't really need to keep it once I've finished it since I do have Anniversary and Legends on the Xbox 360 (special editions as well).

 
Final game that jumps out to me is Skylanders Spyro's Adventure, think I only did the first level or two and never been back since. Friend from work as told me it's a good 1,000 gamer score and not a bad game, the only problem is if I do complete it and like it I would want to keep my figures so I could work on Skylander Giants with them. Having a powered up character really should give you a advancing start.

There you go then, those are some of the possible games I have to work on right now. Of course I got a ton from PlayStation Plus that I want to play which would help with me cleaning up my hard drive on my PS3 since it's currently full right now. Also lets not forget I have a ton of games that I want to play and keep afterwards, way too much to choose from. I will do another update in a day or two once I've picked what games I will be playing. 

One last thing I want to talk about before I do go though folks and that is the Next-Generation HUB for my blog, plus the Upcoming Games Hub as well. I'm looking into doing something different with them so if you wondering why they not being updated as I put my blog posts that is why, I will be doing a blog post about the changes in the next few days once I've finalised what I want from them. Now on that note I'm going to go and play some games, earn a few trophies/achievements and enjoy the sunny weather.
~Iznic

E3 2013 Ubisoft Conference

Finally doing another E3 post just took me nearly a month to sort it out, this time it's the Ubisoft conference which was great for games but terrible for the script (sorry but the horrible jokes really need to stop). The whole "look I play games too, I'm cool" is just not needed, talk about the new games and stop trying to "connect". Anyway enough with that and lets talk about the games, first here is the conference from Ubisofts Youtube channel just in cased you missed it or if you want to refresh your mind.



Don't forget I'm only going to talk about the games I'm interested in, sorry folks but this blog is about my gaming adventures. Ok first up is the new Splinter Cell Blacklist which is still looking awesome, shame they only showed a few minutes but I think that's because it's out next month so not too long to wait. Hoping the story is going to be pretty sweet and some of the game mechanics better then Conviction (really hoping anyway).

Next game was a surprise for me and that's the Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, looks like it could be a pretty sweet arcade game. So far though I've only heard about it coming to the PC (browser game?), seriously this would be an awesome arcade/PSN title or even a Vita/3DS game. Build up a castle with lots of traps to stop others from stealing your loot while you raiding their castle, who would not want to play it. Plus I love the CGI trailer for it, I do like my comedy films and it was spot on.

Rolling on another small clip for the South Park game which please god release this game, really hope nothing else happens because I really want to play the Stick of Truth. An RPG game based on the South Park TV series, how can this go wrong! the script looks hilarious. I'm just worried with all the delays and Publisher change over that it might not be as good as I hope, really got this game on a pedestal right now. Come on Ubisoft make sure to get it ready for Christmas and make sure it's brilliant.

I have noticed one thing with this conference that a lot of the major stuff I was interested in was only covered for a few minutes. Think it's because most of their games was covered in the main Microsoft/Sony conferences but you would think they would keep something for themselves.

Watch_Dogs and Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag both look impressive, I will cover them more in the other conferences but both games are on my top ten want list right now. Anyway last game of the conference I was interested in was the new announce of Tom Clancy Division. An RPG (well so they say) online shooter, drop in and drop out with your friends as you explore a world falling apart. The gameplay level they showed off looked good but I won't get my hope up too yet, I will wait to see more because all I keep thinking is "End War", good game but not as good as it should had been.

So that's it for me with the Ubisoft conference, was not the best one but it did show off some impressive stuff. They have quite a few games on my want list this year so hopefully they will be great, really looking forward to playing the new Assassin's Creed although I really wish I knew about the story with how its related to the present time.

Also got massive hopes on Watch_Dogs, man that game could be my game of the year for 2013 if it's done right. Anyway I need to go since I need to continue my gaming marathon so have a good night folks.
~Iznic

E3 2013 EA Conference

Morning gamers,
I've been struggling since E3 on how to write this post out, at first I had posts for each conference but I kept getting a writers block right at the start. In the end I decided to go with this and just write my thoughts plus dropping the twitter messages During the live streams I was posting my thoughts on Twitter, it was interesting to do but somethings I wished I could had change. Also it's a nightmare to copy and paste them over to the blog since everything has to be changed to work (font, text size etc.), plus after changing everything the blog post just went weird. Too much time waisted and it was just not worth it, you can see my thoughts anyway on my twitter account which is linked on the side.

Anyway let's jump straight in with the first conference which was the best one in my books and that's EA. Why did I like this one the most? well I found I enjoyed all the games shown, it had some nice surprises and overall I did not have to keep cringing at the presenters script speeches.



So where to begin, well the Garden Warfare at the start was a nice shock. At first I really thought I would hate it when they started talking about it but once they started playing it, well it went on my list to buy when it comes out. I can see it being quite a laugh with a few friends and I really do enjoy Plants vs Zombies. Of course right now it is exclusive to Xbox One and PC which was interesting move on EA's part. Especially with the next game Titan Fall that was shown off again, another Xbox One exclusive. Seems EA are really backing up the Microsoft team this generation. Anyway Titan Fall looks amazing, multiplayer battlefield/future sci-fi with mechs.

I love the fact the mechs are not slow heavy machines, it will definitely make the game more interesting. Few things in the demo they showed off that got my interest the most was when the pilot jumped into the mech and it took seconds to boot up. Nice fast paced jump in and jump out which will work well for the multiplayer, also loved when they rip out a pilot from another mech. Brutal finisher move plus when they jump out their mech and climb on top of another one to blow the circuits in the head to blind them. Shame it's next year though but hopefully not to long into the year, but I would like to see more how the story campaign works since it seems to be integrated into the multiplayer.

Ok onto the next game which wasn't really shown but my god did it cause a riot on the Internet. A small teaser to the next Battlefront game! which will be using the Frost Engine 3 and being developed by the DICE team. Mind was blown when they showed this off and my twitter feed could not keep up with my friends. Really cannot wait to see what they will do with this game but I won't get my hopes up yet, no doubt it be the end of next year at the earliest if we lucky.

Let's see what was next announced, I'm currently watching the stream again while I'm posting so I can remember everything I wanted to talk about. Ohh yeah Dragon Age 3 which I would like to see more and in fact I really could do with playing and completing the first two before buying this. It looked good, it has everything I want from a fantasy game. Dragons, monsters, end of the world but I could not help but chuckle at the green meteors since they remind me of Warcraft 3. But anyway yeah it could be a great game but a lot more needs to be shown off first and as I said I need to play the first two before I start to get excited.

Final game for EA which stole the show for me was Battlefield 4, how amazing was that? 64 player multiplayer now for the next generation consoles. Having that demo level being shown off with the full 64 players playing was such a smart move. I know everyone was shocked on what they saw and it amazing, I loved watching them drop the road with the tank on into the tunnel. The skyscraper at the end was another amazing touch, in fact I watched a new video yesterday that explains when the skyscraper falls it creates rubble every where so it changes the landscape of the level. You now have more cover but at the same time it creates this giant dust cloud so vision becomes impossible in the area it was.

Also the commander option with the tablet was pretty sweet, I loved the missile launch system but I do question how many people will use it. I know it seems to be the big thing this generation to have phone and tablet support but still not so sure on it, but I've not had ago so it could be amazing for all I know.

Anyway folks that is my thoughts on the EA conference, as I said I was really impressed with it and the games. My want list has grown a little thanks to them and I really cannot wait to get my hands on these games, only a few months for some. Don't forget to drop a line with what you thought of this conference, I would love to hear your opinion on what you saw.
 ~Iznic 

E3 Downloads and Freebies

Right folks not sure how long these will be up for so make sure to download them today while you have the chance. First up on the 3DS you can get a special Mii character through spot pass, make sure you connected to your wi-fi and load up StreetPass Mii Plaza. Might have to leave your 3DS on for a while to pick up the spotpass first though. Anyway you get Iwata dressed up in a Luigi outfit for your trouble and of course if you not had a special Mii you will unlock the achievement as well, added bonus is that he has all the puzzle pieces so if you missing a super rare one here is your chance.

Now for a freebie, you can get Fable 3 on Xbox Live for free right now! not sure if this is a mistake or not but just search it on xbox live. There are cases that you have to click "add points" option to get it to appear up as a free purchase download. Great game just a shame the ending was not up to par with the rest of the game but still worth a download, cannot complain about it being free.

~Iznic

It Begins...

You can tell when E3 is right around the corner because every day leading up to it there are ton of announcements happening. Not many leaks this year though but still early days on that, I'm expecting it to go crazy by the end of the week. Anyway let's get back on topic and talk about the latest new announcements from the last few days.

So where to start, well Plants vs Zombies 2 It's about time has been given a new trailer. What's amazing is that the subtitle was not just a reference about fans waiting for so long, no in fact there will be time travel in this game.



Egypt, Wild West and the Future was mentioned in the trailer and so far there as been a screen shot for Egypt with a mummy style zombie. Love the new pea pod type plant shown half way through the trailer as well, but the biggest announcement was the fact the game will be a free-to-play one. Bit worried about that since I hate micro-transactions with a passion, really hope they don't expect to use to keep forking out for each type of plant or to access most of the levels. Guess we will have to wait and see, next week should clear up most of the details so not point in worrying too much yet.

Speaking of new games we do have details finally on the Halo Spartan Assault game, yes it was not the tv series after all. In fact it's a game for Windows 8 devices, so the phone, surface tablet and operating systems (laptops, PC etc). Bit of a shock there to be honest but I'm guessing they trying to make it worth while picking up a Windows 8 device. Check out the trailer below which was posted up this morning, this time we will be playing as a female spartan set between Halo 3 and 4.



Looks very interesting and there is unlocks and bonuses for Halo 4, the over top play is different but if done right could be great. Check out Xbox360achievements.org post about playing some of the levels, I'm definitely going to give the trial ago if they put one up. Not long to wait for it either since it's slated for a July release which is funny since Plants vs Zombies 2 is as well. Might have a busy summer of handheld device games with the way it's going.

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I did say there was a lot to talk about today and this is just a quick one, a mini teaser video as gone live for Deus EX the Fall. That's pretty much all we know about it, not sure if it's a game or DLC or even worse case scenario a book. A voice asks if we ready to begin then a date of tomorrow is shown (5th June 2013) so hopefully it will be cleared up tomorrow. I loved the Deus EX game and I would love to see a sequel some time this year or even a next generation game. In fact I really could do with playing through it again since I never did go through the DLC levels.



Anyway no doubt I will be posting tomorrow with whatever the announcement is, praying for a game and when I say a game I mean a proper console one not a handheld or mobile device one. Finally one more piece of information to talk about and then you can stop reading my ramblings.

Fable One HD as been confirmed today....no joke, I could not stop laughing this morning when I saw the news. After posting up that E3 list and talking about Fable 4 possibility I was thinking about that I've never had chance to play the very first one. Then within minutes of me thinking that the trailer goes up saying it's coming in HD format for the Xbox 360.



Love the hidethechickens hashtag at the end, my friends would always speak of kicking chickens when they talk about this game. So looks like I will be able to finally play the first one after all so I cannot wait to give it a try, wish they would stop with all the new releases though. This year is getting really expensive and we not even at E3 yet, god help me next week.

On this note folks I'm going to head off and play some games, have a good one and I will talk to you all later.
~Iznic

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.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

I was a big fan of the very original Wolfenstein game and was even a fan of the Return to Castle Wolfenstein (had a copy on both PC and PS2). Never really gave the latest one a try or though I did hear it wasn't too bad but of course too much came out at the same time so it never had a chance. Anyway seems Bethesda announced a new game in the series and looks to be changing quite a few things.



It's been confirmed for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 with next-generation consoles listed as well for Q4 this year. From all sounds of it this will be a reboot of the series in some ways and I am interested in the altered history story. The good news since the announcement that it will be singleplayer only which made me very happy, not every game needs multi player and I'm glad all focus will be on making a great singleplayer.

Before I end this post check out Xbox360achievement.org since they have two posts showing off some awesome images from the game, first one is here and the second one here. I will be waiting to see gameplay footage before I start to take a massive interest.
~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

The Minecraft Journal: Entry One

Well I had a blast yesterday on Minecraft yesterday and I got to say I've got quite a few ideas I want to work on now. I spent a few hours playing multiplayer with a mate on survival although we only got to build a small house with a fort wall around it, spent way too long dealing with creepers and had a few heart attacks with spiders.

Did get time to check out his world and my god does it give OXM a run for their money, mage towers, castles, huge houses, arenas, giant creepers and a giant Iron Man. It's amazing what you can do with the new creative mode and it's left me thinking about a lot new projects I want to work on. Thing is though I love creative mode but I like Peaceful more, I find it more rewarding having to find all the materials myself and having to make them or mine them. Of course this does limit you with what you got in the world and increase the time a lot to the point huge projects are near impossible.
Also some materials have to be harvested off monsters so survival will needed to be switched on as well, so yeah there are few issues but I still enjoy it none the less.

Last night I started up my Peaceful world, not sure yet what I'm going to build but I don't want there to be plans just log in and build. I did start making a small house to start with so I will get some pictures up later but it's nothing special, I just need a base of operations.

I do want to have several worlds on the go alongside my peaceful one, thinking a survival map and of course a creative map. Although I did have two projects I wanted to work on the week and only one that jumps out to me. Thinking a map that is taken up by a giant castle, I'm talking hundreds of rooms, corridors, towers and walkways. I want it to be huge and when you walk inside you get lost in a giant labyrinth. This could be my fourth map if I ever start it so yeah I've got plenty I want to do.

That's it for this post folks and yes I know it's short but I wanted only to do a quick introduction to my Minecraft Journal posts. I will be doing these Journal entries as I work on my projects and yes I will add pictures so you can see my progress on them as well, I might even open the world up to allow others come visit. Anyway until next time have a good one and hope you enjoying Minecraft!
~Iznic

Lots to Play

Afternoon folks,
Been one of those weird weeks this week so I'm happy to say I'm off for a few days now, time to chill and game of course!

So let's talk about my gaming last week and what I want to do this week, well my plans for Lego Lord of the Rings did not go to plan like I had hoped but it's not too bad. After my post last week saying I really need to work on this game I realised I've had the disc for nearly a month, well since I'm renting it this does increase the cost the longer I have it (still cheaper then buying it though). Anyway so my plan was to complete two of the story levels each day since the game as three movies with six levels, I had already done a few levels so with this plan I should had clocked the Fellowship of the Ring by the end of the week and nearly done the Two Towers. Then my plan was to have a long session on one of my days off to finish the story off, then that leaves the hard part of doing all the collecting which I could work on next week.

Of course things went wrong so yesterday I finally finished the Fellowship and today the Two Towers with the Return of the King still waiting to be played. Hopefully after writing this post I can get the last six levels done but I do have some gaming plans later. But good news is least I'm working on the game and made some progress.

So that's my one game I'm playing but my main game is Skyrim which yes I'm still playing, I'm like one quest hand in from catching up from when I first played it. Really enjoying the game but I am spending way too much time having to make trips back to the vendors to sell my loot that I keep gathering. I cleared out a mine the other day which had a bandit camp in, should be around a ten minute job to clear it out but I had to do four trips back and forth to sell everything I looted.

Having a great laugh with it anyway and again I'm hoping to get a small session in today, I really want to get the next quest done which will mean I've gotten up to where I was last time. But the reason I keep saying I hope to do things is because I have plans to play Minecraft with a mate later.

I want to start up a community map and make it a regular thing again, I had a lot of fun when the game came out with mates so I want to get it up again. Especially with it being the 1st Birthday for the Xbox version, I even have two projects I want to build on the side as well which I will talk about another day. Speaking of the Minecraft Birthday check out the video below for the Official Xbox Magazine server party, they have a dedicated xbox switched on most days with a map that's been running for a year. This video shows off the first part of the other night where they celebrated by building awesome stuff and of course doing a tour of the world they got. I love all the amazing projects that people have built and how they made a city to link them altogether, I want to do something like that.



Well I'm going to call it for now folks since I really want to get some gaming in before I jump into my marathon multiplayer session, so have a good one and I will try to get another post or two up tomorrow morning.
~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

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Evening folks,
Well it's the 1st May and the rumours about the next Call of Duty game was confirmed today but then we knew they would be. It was very unlikely for a Super Market to make a fake artwork and then stick up on their site for pre-ordering (Rumour post).

So what happened then, well they posted up a Facebook page with teaser images saying the Ghosts are Real then a teaser trailer finally went up on their youtube channel a few hours ago.



As I said it's a teaser trailer and not much is known about the game but saying that there is some interesting information in this trailer. First of more information is coming at the end of the month at the Next Generation Xbox conference, so this could mean a new partnership again with Microsoft. So far the last several games for the Call of Duty all the DLC map packs have been timed exclusive to the Xbox giving nearly a whole month or two before they see the light of day on the PlayStation.

Second bit of interesting news was once again it says "New Generation" instead of "Next Generation" for the Xbox, really want to know why they keep saying new and not next. Are they changing their console so it's not a console any more? all the patches and updates for the Xbox 360 have pushed it towards more of a full entertainment system then just a console.

Anyway I'm getting off track here and let's get back to the Call of Duty game, as I said there really is not much to go on right now. Some stores are already taking pre-orders and already GAME are offering a pre-order bonus, if you pre-order you get Ghost themed weapon skins for Black Ops 2 multiplayer.

So that's it for now folks, come back at the end of the month where hopefully we can see game footage and finally get some information about this new series for the Call of Duty franchise.
~Iznic

Midweek and Start of the Month

Morning gamers,
Thought I would get another post in before work and update you with my latest gaming news. So I've pre-ordered the DEDSEC Edition and the Vigilante Edition for Watch_Dogs, I'm still excited for that game. In the ways of gaming not much as happened since Sunday/Monday where I had a nightmare with Hitman 2 Silent Assassin.

The game is quite old now and back in the day it had quite a few bugs that I had forgot about, well they back since they just ported the game over and gave it a quick HD look. It took an hour to two just to finish the first level, I had everything happen to me like the game froze so had to reboot the PS3. Best one was the fibre wire would not work as in it just went through the guy and not kill them, buttons not registering is the best so trying to go into sneak mode quickly is luck based (lost count how many times I've failed mission because of this).

Oh and the beautiful one when I loaded up the level and got a warning that I had been spotted, yeah this guard on the other side of the map (two buildings, trees, fences walls etc in the way) somehow spotted me doing something bad. Loved to know what it was since I just loaded the level and not even moved, was quite comical really.

Anyway after two hours I've finally clocked it and got the Silent Assassin rating (pure luck), the second mission went a lot better and nothing to report wrong. So fingers crossed it was just the first mission that was the problem but it did leave me annoyed.

Other then that I did play Minecraft for a little bit on Monday, it's nearly been a year since the game came out on Xbox Live and got me addicted (9th May). So I thought about starting a new map/game as a Birthday Celebration, so far I've just got a small one room building made and had some bad luck with creepers on my second day. Will be putting some more time into this week and hopefully get some screen shots up for you with what I make.

That's it then folks for what I've been up to, I will be continuing Hitman and Minecraft this week. Oh there is a new game that as caught my attention, Zombie Tycoon 2 which is hitting the PSN today.



Zombie vs Zombie real time strategy game and it looks like a lot of fun, so might try the demo if they have one and give it a go. On that note I better go get ready for work so have a good one folks, hope you all having a good week.
~Iznic

P.S. Saw Iron man 3 yesterday evening, how great was that film!

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.