Minecraft . . . HARDCORE! ;p

Part of my "new thing" is kindly asking my wife (and family) to watch and comment while I play a video game that's loaded up on our computer . . . and it could even be one that I haven't touched in a long long time. It's like dusting off an old Record in your collection and rediscovering the awesomeness. A few weeks ago the video was Legend of Grimrock. I decided last week that it was going to be Minecraft! I finally got it all put together and uploaded to YouTube the other day, and here's the end result:



It's kind of my own spin on a let's play. Hope someone enjoys these someday. :)

Happy Dueling

Game Informer Collage July 2013

I'm a Powerup Gamestop member and because of this I get their Game Informer magazine, which I really do like going through. It's a pretty good publication to help keep me up to date on what's going on in the Video Game world (and especially in the console scene). Surprisingly enough, I would probably never buy or even try most of the games they have in the mag, but I will say that it has turned me on to a few really cool games that I probably wouldn't have gravitated to otherwise (unless I was bored and actively browsing the Xbox Live, PS Store, or WiiU Shop and just stumbled upon the games).

Journey is a good example of a game I've purchased that I first read about in Game Informer.

Most of the time though, Game Informer just ends up in the trash and I move on with my life. So in order to help keep these games in my mind and simultaneously toss away the extra clutter . . . behold my short list of interesting games that caught my eye from this month's Game Informer.


Surprise! 3 out of 4 of those are iPhone/iPad apps. Weird, right? I'm not even a big app purchaser. I'll have to see how much they're going for.

If you read the mag and you think I've missed something great, please let me know! Something looks missing in the top right hand corner . . . I'd love to put another game there. :)

Happy dueling!

Rediscovering the Legend of Grimrock!

I had fun recording my last two videos for DCUO for Spode, so I wanted to record another video with the Uber Wife watching and commenting (in fact the whole family joins in).

I wasn't sure what to record, but THERE . . . on my desktop is a game I haven't played for a long time *click* . . . here's what happens when we rediscover THE LEGEND OF GRIMROCK!



Happy Dueling

Tier 5 Challenge -- Test Subject #1 (Bizarro Instance) . . . for SPODE!

And now for your enjoyment . . . Part 2 of the DCUO challenge instances again recorded for Lord Spode of Team Spode. This time I brought along Uber Wife to add some commentary. If you stay to the very end, I even added some 4th of July fun for you ala DCUO style.



Happy Dueling!

DCUO Tier 5 The Hunt . . . for SPODE!

I made a YouTube Video for my friend, Lord Spode of Team Spode, since he wanted me to show him the way I do the DCUO Tier 5 instances . . . but I tell you that in the video. :) WATCH! ENJOY THE HAWTNESS!



Part 2 with Bizarro coming soon.

Happy Dueling

Clownvanity vs . . . Clownvanity!

Pulled this awesome cosmetic prize out of the vault today. :)



Imagine my surprise when the very same day, my Ace Chemical's Daily quest was this one. :)

So, to catch up, I'm sitting at CR86 now with a whole set of green gear. I've been steering away from the four player missions, but I've been debating giving them a spin. I'm really in no hurry to increase my CR at this point.

The single player Tier 5 missions are a bit of a bear to deal with, mainly because it takes you completely out of your comfort zone and gives you a whole new look, a whole new set of powers, and the bosses are heavy on the hitpoints. Of course, timing your blocks, rolling around, and using soder colas and heal barrels at the right time works wonders for helping make this a little easier.



On the Huntress mission you face off against three bosses and have a bit of rudimentary sneaking around to do. I failed against Cassamento the first time around, so I've been opting to let him live and cross my fingers while hoping Hush or Killer Croc show up as the alternate boss. If the alternate boss is Bane or Scarecrow, well . . . good luck. Definitely knowing how to use dual pistol combos is a blessing in this instance.

On the Bizarro mission you again face three bosses and just smash the heck out of stuff. As always, the rule is that you take out the easy adds before you move on to the boss. I really don't have too much trouble with this instance except for the final robot. Oh my . . . he's frustrating. I've never been able to just straight up fight him without running away for a bit to heal up and come back for more. Even more frustrating I've had the boss reset on me while I was hiding. You just can't let him get too far away from you and drop agro for a long time.



Annnnnnd . . . that's what I've been doing on DCUO for the most part! Our Sunday night group keeps plugging away but the universe keeps trying to stop us in our tracks with afk's, vacations, and real life. NO FAIR UNIVERSE!



OH! And one final thing . . . Fisherman Gear!



Happy Dueling

Whodoo that Voodoo that you do so well?

It's kind of funny, but I always hit this present in the vault as my last present.

Why? Well it's the one that awards the Marks of Triumph, and for some reason I have it in my head that this box will be more likely to award me a case of Marks of Triumph instead of just a single Mark of Triumph if I save it for last . . .

I KNOW RIGHT?! I can't believe I made up this little voodoo in my mind, but obviously people do it all the time. For instance, in Wizard101, my wife and her friends sometimes think that the order you enter the hatchery will have some kind of magical effect that will influence which pet you get as a result. It's crazy talk, but I've learned to not try to argue with their voodoo ways. :)

So here's a question, what kind of video game voodoo do you believe in? What's your virtual equivalent of a football player never washing his lucky jockstrap? Give me your craziness! I'd love to hear it.

Happy dueling!

Whazzat? CR 84? YES!!!

I have to brag a bit . . . not because I'm the first or last to make CR84, but because now I am one of the happy-to-have-made-it-to-CR 84 crowd! Check it out!



That ring I'm mouse'd over on that screenshot is what did it today. It's a rare beauty that fell into my lap courtesy of the daily Vault mission. With a CR 78 rating and a nice red slot in it, which I graciously put a Precision and Might 3 mod in for an additional 17 levels (!!!) of effectiveness, that little pastel orange lucky-drop pushed me right over the edge of CR 84! I was shocked when I saw that. I was so happy I felt the need to taunt my good friend Spode (who's sitting at CR 82) with an email message.

Getting CR 84 is one thing, but taunting your good friend with it is another. hehe. I fully expect retaliation of some sort later today.

Looks like I need to try out the Tier 4 alerts!

More on that later. :)

Happy Dueling!

Shot through the heart . . . and DCUO is to blame

I loaded up Marvel Heroes a couple days ago when it launched, and played through the first level. It was reasonably fun and very much everything everyone has said about the game . . . Diablo meets superheroes. If that's your thing, you'll dig this game.



My wife showed some initial interest, even overlooking the isometric view, and that made me kind of excited! Unfortunately when she found out you really couldn't fly around and make your own personalized character, she was instantly lost. I believe the direct quote was, "This is just another one of those dumb games your group can play for free on Sunday nights."

. . . and she left the room.

. . . and she was back to DCUO . . . as was I! I can't get enough of DCUO lately! Earlier this morning I crafted my first rank four mod. Check it out.



Oh man that 12 Exobytes component is a lot of flying around and collecting little glowing bits around the world.

It did manage to bring my total CR up to 81 this morning. I'm getting ever closer to the magical CR 84. I think it's eventually all going to come down to these augments to push me over the edge. What happens at the magical CR 84? I open up the next tier of missions in the On Duty menu of course! Yay!

Lately it seems like all the action in the game is taking place in the CR 94+ area of the game. I keep seeing shouts of higher geared players looking for "nexus" groups. I'd look up what that means, but for now I'm just happy grinding away on my Steelworks missions.



Shot through the heart, and DCUO's to blame . . .

I also spent some time last night completing a bunch of Tier 3 two-player missions with my good buddy Tony.



Tony and I have been gaming together for years. To think we met in Everquest well over 10 years ago . . . whoa *time warp jazz hands*. Anyway, he rose about 4 CR last night and we raked in about 350 Marks. Good times!

Happy Dueling

Looking Cool in DC Universe Online

One thing that must happen in a Super Hero MMO -- Your hero MUST look epic. What's a hero without a costume? Well, for one, invisible, for two, NO HERO AT ALL!

The character creation process in City of Heroes and City of Villains are stuff of legends, which makes it all the more sad that those two particular games have gone the way of the dodo. For me though, the newest Super Hero game is DC Universe Online--thanks to Team Spode! We've been having a blast as you can tell from Tipa's posts, but the first real comment I must make about the game (aside from the already stated point that DCUO isn't for kids) is how awesome the costume changes are in game. It's brilliant, actually. It's like I'm instantly carrying around several costumes that are able to be equipped on the fly . . . and all neatly collected without ever taking up any backpack space. Now THAT's customization!

First you press Escape and select the Style option.

Once you're here, you simply open up each item and select which part of your costume you'd like to put on, and then select the individual item you want to wear.

Then you either lock in a particular style or unlock it, so if your character has an iconic thing about them that you feel is core to who they are . . . lock it. For instance, I just purchased a wing model for my character Stingite yesterday, and I'm thinking that is going to most likely be his iconic back item . . . that and his Mohawk, green lizard skin, and "S" for stingite emblem on his chest. :)

Everything else can shift around as I find new styles because that is truly one of the sub-games of DC Universe Online: collecting and unlocking all the styles the game has to offer.

Chaka Khan with a side of Chaka vs. Chakan

So I can't explain what happens to me every once in a while, but something grabs me, sits me down in front of the tv, pulls out a random old game cart, and switches on a nightmare from the past. Possession? Evil bunnies of death?

I ain't kidding here. Am I the only one that sees the evil bunny in that picture above?

Anyway, that evil bunny is from (and this weekend's distraction is called) "Chakan" ... Not to be confused with Chaka Khan as my friend Christina Ice Dreamer pointed out to me. Nor Chaka, the neanderthal boy from Land of the Lost. No, no, no this has infinitely less soul and beadier eyes.

Yes, that pixilated fella is Chakan--a bloodthirsty, dual-sword-wielding mortal turned immortal in 16-bit goodness. Who knew such bloodthirst came in such pixilated packages? Hey! This was some spooky stuff back in the day! :)

Playing Chakan now (and even back then) is a bit like eating nasty salty black licorice fish. Let me explain in inner dialog format: "YUCK, why did I put this in my mouth and is there ever any end to the disgusted pain I'm feeling right now? I'm still chewing on this nasty candy? Who do I sue and will someone hurry up with the legal documentation because . . . Wait a second . . . is this all that bad? Hmm, maybe I'll have another! This is the worst tasting candy I've ever eaten! I must share! Cripes, did I just eat the whole bag of that nasty stuff?"

(I think I just told a story within a story there . . . )

Here's the bullet list of agony:

- Chakan has no save option.
- Chakan has delightfully painful music.
- Chakan is an unforgiving finger masher that requires muscle memory to the Nth degree.
- Chakan gives you limited resources to pull off cool stunts (aka Alchemy) and makes you try to pull off the impossible (like beating a boss whose attacks you can't avoid (unless you're blessed with the finger dexterity of a concert violinist) when you don't have said resources.
- Chakan is a miserable game that . . . You must play! LOL!

When I first put in Chakan, I wasn't even wanting to play Chakan. You know what I wanted to play? Soul Reaver. That's right, a completely different game--I just had forgotten which game was which.

I did a little Internet digging after I started playing Chakan, and I found a few interesting nuggets out. Basically, the rumor from that link is that Chakan was going to have a sequel released on the Dreamcast but never got made. Instead what happened was some of the concept work for what would have been Chakan 2 went toward another game ... Blood Omen 2, which as it turns out is Part of the Legacy of Kain series of games including ... Dun dun dun ... Soulreaver, the very same game my psyche was hungering for in the first place. I wanted to play Soulreaver, not Chakan, but now I'm too far into Chakan to give up Chakan . . . Chakan Chakan CHAKAN!

I'm not going to go into the whole plot and background of this game, we'll let Wikipedia do that for us. Instead, I just wanted to say that I'm now in the Elemental Planes portion of the game.

That's right, congrats me (I'm sure it only goes downhill from here in a punishing spiral of difficulty)!

Yeah, I'm just really irritated with the lack of a save button on this game . . . was that common back in 1992? I guess so . . . wild . . . it just means my old Sega box is going to be left on for a couple days. Sigh.

After I finish playing out this Chakan nightmare, perhaps then I'll step into Soulreaver again on my old Dreamcast like I had originally planned. It's been far too long! I may even have to play through this whole vampire series that I missed! I didn't even know about the Blood Omen, Legacy of Kain series! Seems a bit spooky, but I'm good with Spooky.

Till then ...

Happy dueling