Shave my back and call me an elf!

Oh Oghren, you so funny!

I'm having a great time playing Dragon Age: Origins  I hesitated a bit before starting this game thinking, "what a huge time sink, hope I don't get bored" but I don't regret a thing. I am skipping a lot of side quests because I'm trying to rush the game (played it before on PS3 so it's okay)... yet I keep searching every corner for all possible loot, haha. Point A to B tends to throw in C, D, E & F as well! 

Speaking of loot, something that has always made me laugh is how some armor looks on females.

Soooo... I'm just protecting the good bits, right? 

Last weekend my guy suggested that we play the very first Gears of War. I've only played the third one when it came out so I was happy to see its "roots". I assumed it was going to be a less refined clunky version of Gears of War 3 but I was pleasantly surprised how well the controls played out. I know it's all about the game engine so I jumped right into the great cover shooter. I snapped a quick pic while we were playing.

He has already played it before so we jumped right into insane difficulty. We were doing really well until one part just frustrated the heck out of me! I won't say exactly what since it'd probably be a spoiler, but if you've played it before you probably know what I'm talking about. 

So lately, during the weekdays I've been playing Dragon Age until the boyfriend comes home from work. A new playable character just came out for Borderlands 2 so we started a new playthrough. We both played Krieg until about level 12 or so, then I decided to switch to a siren. I'm not too fond of the new character, a lot of his talents don't seem that awesome to me. My favorite character overall is Gaige the mechromancer (she got corrupted when it froze during a loading screen, I was gutted ) because I love pet classes in any game. We have a great time not worrying about achievements, just blasting through a fun co-op game together.

Here was my guy before I swapped back to a siren. I'm not into melee characters in shooter games. It's not about me playing a female character vs a male character either, I honestly don't care... phaselock is just super fun.

Sharing time!

I just changed the background on my Xbox 360 for the first time in... forever.

What do you have as a background on your console? I'd love to know, feel free to share a pic if you like! 

Cleanup on Aisle RPG

Gaming ruts are never fun. No idea what to play next... I have a huge backlog yet nothing sounds good.
I went back through my already played games and found a few that I can cleanup. For some reason I just didn't feel like completing them 100%, probably due to boredom and being ready to move on to something else. RPGs are my genre of choice and they tend to be really time consuming. FFXIII is a game I'm satisfied with so doubt I'll go back just to put in another 20+ hours just for a couple achievements. However I did find a few RPGs I can return to and complete (hopefully) easily.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Winning the casino achievement put me off of completing this... why? I don't like odd numbered achievements. This seems silly now since it really doesn't matter. I didn't like the chocobo races and the slot machines were too random. The achievement to even this out is tied to paradigm shifting X number of times so I stopped playing because I didn't want to pop that w/o being able to win at the casino. I feel really silly now when I go back and read what I just typed, lol.

The Strategist achievement in Final Fantasy XIII-2 worth 29 pointsPerformed a multitude of paradigm shifts.

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom - All I have left in this game is related to the last character's special side quest. It's not an epic boss battle... the only fighting involved is a "duel". In this duel you have to determine where they will strike based on what they say, and it's your job to counteract it. There is a guide for the correct answers and I know it'll be easy. It just didn't sound like fun so I moved on. I'm sure I can play Netflix on my laptop while finishing this, It's turn based so no pressure to respond quickly.

The Marguerite, My Love achievement in Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom worth 78 pointsRaise Marguerite's favor to 100%

Enchanted Arms - Great turn based RPG... I almost reached the very end and just didn't feel like grinding anymore before fighting the final boss(es). My bf owns the JP and Asian versions of this game so if I complete this, perhaps I'll play it again for a stack. 

The The End achievement in Enchanted Arms worth 121 pointsDefeat Queen of Ice at the Ice Castle. (Secret)

Other RPGs I'm interested in playing (and haven't started yet) are Magna Carta 2, Risen 2, and Dragon Age Origins. I've played DA:O before on PS3 so I won't feel bad rushing it.

What HAVE I completed recently you ask? Well I did very much enjoy Poker Night 2 and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. 
My bf and I played both games side by side and had a great time together.

I can't recommend Blood Dragon enough. SO GOOD! The game made me laugh the whole time plus I really enjoy the gameplay of a sandbox shooter. It's just like Far Cry 3 with an 80s sci fi "futuristic" skin and over the top humor. It was worth the day one purchase to me... bonus was an easy fun completion. 
I did enjoy Poker Night 2! The humor was great but the AI were a bunch of lucky cheaters, lol. Good thing I was able to dashboard whenever I got a losing hand. Some of the humor was repetitive but the whole time playing I did hear new funnies, so the grind wasn't too bad. The avatar awards are also awesome (<3 GLaDOs). Wish more games gave out kick ass rewards like this one.

Well I suppose I should stop watching Netflix and boot up a game finally! Need some points for my GTASC team, Pixel Chicks!
A friend of mine made a banner for our team, check it out: http://www.gtasc.net/team-14.php 

Alright, everyone have a good weekend and GAME ON!

Extra Life 2012 Highlights Video

It's finally done!


I worked pretty hard on this... it was tough going through over 24 hours of video and cutting it down to 14 minutes.

Looking forward to next year!  Join me by donating and participating in the fun!  Cheers. ;)

Time to get the rear in gear...

I loves me some video games... I can sit for hours at a time with a controller, immersed in the story and gameplay of what's displayed on my television. There should also be balance of getting some exercise and staying healthy. Sitting for so long all the time just isn't good for a person. My diet is okay but it's time to get my rear in gear and get some exercise! It really feels like my body's endurance tanked while being sick and not moving much during that time. Now that my energy levels have returned, I'm determined to get into shape again.

So what's on the gaming menu? Well I've played the crap out of FFXIII... all that is left are 5-starring all of the cie'th stone missions (4 of 'em that I didn't get 5 stars on) and hold every weapon/accessory. Not sure how much more time I'll put into actually completing it, I'm just ready for a new game. Plus if I choose Kinect games, it'll help my goals of getting into shape again.

Which Kinect games you ask? Well, I can do some more Harley Pasternak's Hollywood Workout as an opener for the day. For a workout game, it's actually not that bad! I think it gets a bad rap because it's not a AAA title. The tracking works pretty well and I do work up a sweat after each session.

I do like that the game doesn't require a lot of floor space, you can stand fairly close to the sensor, closer than Dance Central games.  One day it'll work one set of muscles and a different set the next day, which is nice if you are sore from the previous workout.

Then, after I'm not horribly sore from those workouts, I'd like to move on to other games such as Mini Ninjas Adventures and Kinectimals. I did play Fantastic Pets a while ago and that game is actually good fun! Pretty easy too. I hear better things about Kinectimals (vs Fantastic Pets) so I've got my hopes up for a super cute and fun game. My boyfriend also gave me Wipeout 3 for Christmas last year... not sure if I'm brave enough to try it. He likes the tv show but I've never watched it... I'm scared!

While I'm taking it easy and not overdoing the exercising, I'd like to finish up Monster Island (WP) and possibly start Royal Envoy 2 Special Edition (Win 8). I'd also like another retail game for my "I'm too sore to move" downtimes. I love RPGs but something kinda short and action-y is appealing right now. Lollipop Chainsaw? Duke Nukem Forever? Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom? Maybe I'll just have to pick something from a hat. 

I've never played a LEGO game before so I rented Lord of the Rings. Watched a youtube review of it and it look pretty cute and fun. I'm a noob when it comes to platforming so I am a bit scared of getting frustrated. I can die a bunch of times on a boss when playing an RPG but if I fall because I miss a jump, I get all flustered.  The game is in my Xbox disc drive as I type this... I even installed it. Will I play it? No idea, lol. Maybe try it on a different profile to see how I'll like it.

This arrived yesterday:

I'm so excited! While I was sick I managed to lose my wallet in the house somewhere (I think my chair ate it). I just always kept a small one in the back of my pocket and it just poofed. I've never liked purses but now I feel like I need to start carrying one. What better way to make it awesome than with a cactuar charm? Cactuars have been in Final Fantasy games since FFVI and they are one of my favorite enemies. Here is one I snagged a pic of while playing FFXIII:

I think they are adorable.  I always giggle whenever I am in battle with one... until they shoot 1000 needles at me. 

Rain rain rain... it's springtime in Oregon! The trees are flowering and it's raining like crazy! Here's my front yard:

It's very green here but it's also very wet. I do love the weather where I live, the temperatures are mild compared to the rest of the country. Sun does happen here for a couple months mid-summer, lol. Looking forward to that so I won't drown when I want to go for walks outside.

Well I guess it's time for my first workout session in a long time... I like to play my own music (the music in workout games is never what I want to hear) so I'll probably start off with this song:

Hope I can survive the entire 40 minutes, lol. Happy gaming everyone!

This is getting out of hand...

Games I own and still need to play...

I buy them faster than I can play them. 
Perhaps I should play a bunch of these before getting any more new releases. Some games in the pile are stacks (like Eternal Sonata, Saints Row 3) that I've played before.
I'm not as concerned about 100%ing games anymore so if there are any unobtainables it's no big deal.
Some I bought because they were really cheap (curse you gamefly sales lol), some I thought would be easy gamerscore, some are just for fun... 

There are also a ton of Windows Phone and Windows 8 games that I need to tackle. Shark Dash looks pretty easy and I have it on both platforms. I'm also kind of excited about playing some of the Kinect games because I've been pretty sedentary the past couple months from being sick. Don't want to develop Secretary Butt! http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_secretary_butt 
Plus I'm not getting any younger, gotta work harder to keep in shape. What better way than to get some achievements while doing it.  Plus the weather is getting nicer so I'm going to try and go for walks outside.

I've been on an RPG kick lately, tempted to grab Dragon Age II (JP version) stack because I enjoy the game so much... but there isn't a English language option so I'd be afraid of making wrong choices. Must resist... backlog getting larger... drowning in games... 
Guess I could play Dragon Age Origins, another game I originally played on PS3 and didn't replay when I switched to Xbox.

Right now I'm still working on FFXIII. I've already beat the final boss, skipping cutscenes made it go sooo much faster! (Don't worry I've played it before) 
I forgot how much of a huge grind it is working on completing all of the Cie'th Stone missions and grinding out CP to max out the crystarium for all characters. Also need to do the titan trials, not looking forward to the final boss for that. Still not sure how I feel about the next game in the series, Final Fantasy: Lightning Returns. Seems like every FF game is getting further and further from its roots, makes me sad. I just pretend they aren't FF games, lower my expectations, then they are pretty fun JRPGs. 

As a celebration of me feeling better, my bf surprised me yesterday by taking us out for a fancy Mexican dinner. Yeah I know it's annoying when people post dinner pics on social networking sites... but this was a special occasion!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes... I'm happy to be gaming again, it's part of who I am! 

Sorry if this blog post is all over the place... my mind is in 100 different directions today, lol.

Floaty Treasure Balls

I am easily amused.
Well you can't exactly call them treasure chests! 

Still Alive...

I know it's been forever since my last post... so in case anyone was wondering, yes I am still alive. I was pretty sick for a while and didn't have the energy to game much. A while ago I was diagnosed with a really awful infection that almost put me in the hospital. I'm okay now but the meds I still have to take make me tired. So feeling drained all the time isn't fun but I can at least concentrate enough to play some games now. Slowly but surely I'll be back gaming... like a boss!

This blog post will probably be fairly short. I'll post a couple pics of what I've been up to.
While sick I mostly slept or just watched Netflix. I did manage to play some phone and Windows 8 games like Yahtzee, Pac Man, and World of Keflings on Win8. LOVE LOVE Keflings games and I'll totally play any of them. I purchased Royal Enjoy and ilomilo on Windows 8 from the current sale so looking forward to those someday.

Right now I'm playing FFXIII. I've played it before on PS3 so I am just barreling through it again for some points... since I'm so tired I don't have to pay attention too much. 

My bf is playing Fez... and I'm totally distracted from my game because I'm watching his. I'm not a fan of platformers but it doesn't look like there's a penalty for falling and that's awesome. So I might play that next, it looks so cute and fun! 

As a late birthday present to myself I picked up:

The first Bioshock is my favorite game of ALL TIME so of course I had to grab Infinite. Great game but my brain was mush after finishing it! I didn't do any achievement hunting while playing it so will probably go back sometime and clean things up. Doubt I'll go for the full 1000 since 1999 mode sounds pretty tough.

I've grown tired of only playing a game if I think I can 100% complete it. What happened to just gaming for fun? Before achievements? Who only cares about points and ratios? I don't wanna miss out on cool games anymore just because it has a few near impossible achievements. I know completion is part of the challenge and can be fun but it shouldn't take away from playing stuff just for funsies. Yes, I say funsies and my bf thinks I'm weird.

My nails were nekkid for too long so I painted them black with pearlescent glitter on top.

Not the best job but hey it's... funsies. *insert giggle here*

Okay well time to rest up and get back into FFXIII... Cheers everyone!
(I'll keep writing blog posts if people are interested in reading them, let me know!)