PixlBit

Started the day with some XCOM 2. Made some progress on my restart of the game. I got a "Flawless" rating on one mission and I haven't lost a single soldier yet. I'm focusing on weapons upgrades and built a Guerilla Training Facility that gives rookies some skills before their first action. I'm beginning to figure out how to use Overwatch and how to move soldiers across the battlefield without getting caught in the line of fire. This game reminded me today of the board game Squad Leader I used to play. There's a lot of choices for types of action every turn and there are environmental hazards like fire. Note to self: don't take cover behind a buring car. Usually they blow up after a turn or two killing everyone. 

So I finished up with Skylanders Superchargers. I got every achievement except the one where you have to beat the game on Nightmare difficulty. I played several levels at that setting and it was fine until I hit a certain boss that seemed mostly unfair. The difficulty being just that you take much more damage from hits than other skill levels. I went through every Skylander I had and then played it again with my highest level ones first and still couldn't beat that thing. I can only imagine how bosses in the later stages of the game will be - nigh impossible. Of course, as you level up the portal, you gain abilities that help with Nightmare mode but I was well over level 70 and didn't feel like grinding a whole lot more. I did pull out all the Skylander characters I had and tried them out. That was fun. Each figure has very unique abilites that evolve as you level them up. I almost wanted to just level up all the figures just to see their special powers. Maybe with a half dozen level 20s (max level) I could handle Nightmare mode. It just seemed more work than I wanted to put into it. Maybe I'll dive in again someday when I want a serious challenge. I'm not trading in any of this stuff. I like them too much. 

My more regular schedule has left me with little time to blog, but I found some tonight (Sunday) and maybe I'll get into this habit every Sunday night while I do wash. I did manage to find time to game though. I'm making good progress in Dragon Quest VII on 3DS and I'm still gaming on the the weekends with my buddy Mark. And oh yeah! I went to a gaming convention, Retro Con. Here's a quick breakdown. 

I saw Kubo and the Two Strings the other day, Saturday. I really liked it. Lovely papercraft Japanese art style and lots of good messages not handled in a corny way. I didn't realize the film maker was the same who did Box Trolls. Now I really regret not seeing that one when it was in the theaters. I was so close to seeing it too. 

(Loverboy song reference 80's fans) So, on Friday, after a run and some study, starting at daybreak (new schedule for me), I did some more detox at Mark's place playing Minecraft.

Yes, out of work again. I guess I'm just mad. Or insane, or not mad, just annoyed - maybe stressed beyond tolerance, I don't know. Anyway, I needed to escape so video games to the rescue. Too stressed for serious stuff, so Minecraft it was.

Back to a normal schedule (for me anyway) with being off Sunday-Monday (Fri and Sat were total hell at work btw, but I listened to a lecture on Buddhism while knight driving and it actually helped me to power through it). Today I didn't have all day because of a family dinner but I played a few things: Pockey Card Jockey, Defense Grid 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. 

For my next day-one purchase, Dragon Quest VII [3DS], Sept. 16th, and the one after, XCOM 2 [XBO], Sept. 27th, I think I might trade in everything to defray the cost. I don't exactly mean everything though. For DQVII I think I'll trade in all my previous 3DS games. Why, because it seems like I'll never get to them at this rate; and anyway, they will still remain in my backlog, and if I do manage to get to them, I can pick them up again pretty easily. As for XCOM 2, I thought I'd trade in all my XBO and X360 games. I am keeping some of them though. Ones I think might be hard to find later or collections. Like, I think I'll hold on to Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Rare Replay because they have so many games on them and some of them are not far off on my backlog list. Wolfenstein: The Old Order too maybe, and Shadow Warrior; although, I watched my friend Mark get frustrated with that one. I think I'll have a lot to trade even with some hold-backs.

. . . with more Defense Grid 2 and Minecraft. Can I ever get away from these games to play something else? I hope so because I'm just about to get the last achievement in Defense Grid 2. And Minecaft? Well, something new always comes to me about how to play that game. I almost feel like I should banish it temporarily to get other games finished. Anyways, here's how it all went down. 

Just played some Defense Grid 2 today with Mark. We played the campaign levels co-op to get gold medals. I have two or three left now. I wish you could toggle the speed during co-op matches. These 35 wave battles take a good long time to complete at 1X speed. I changed the default speed in the settings to 2X but it didn't seem to affect online play. In single player, you can crank it up to 3X speed which is very nice. Defense Grid 2 is a somewhat laid back experience, which is all I could handle today anyway.