So I bought this on the Switch a few days ago. I honestly dont regret my purchase, I think 8.99 was quite resonable in price for it. I also feel that the Switch was a good platform to play it on. The Switch doesnt have many Horror games on it and while its not gonna scare you really*It will gross you out a little and make you laugh* its still kind of itches that spot. Its a point and click with puzzles and not gonna lie, you can literally beat this in one sitting. Its not a long game and while a puzzle or 2 might stump you for a minute it is quite easy. The only time I had problems was with the final boss fight and the game glitched on one of the puzzles so I had to essentially restart the area. The house you go through seemed scarey, not to mention disgusting. I think the boss that grossed me out the most was the toilet one. It also had spiders and we all know how Nicole doesnt like spiders. 

So unlike my previous review for God Eater Resurrection this one will be shorter. Reason being that while this game does have differences and continues the story for the series it still is pretty similar. Watch, I say that and its like 5 paragraphs long.

So yesterday I had this blog planned out where I was going to write a bit, get my thoughts out there and then hit the gym. Instead I got halfway through it, decided I could do better, and then went to the newly reopened neighborhood gym. My gym has been closed for a couple of months because some yahoos decided to break the fire sprinkler system which caused the building to flood and ruin the entire clubhouse space. Its open 24 hours a day and when business hours are over the employees shut the door that leads to the rest of the space leaving only the gym, ping pong room, and pool room with mini library open along with a couple of bathrooms. Anyways it reopened last weekend and yesterday was my first shot at it. The gym is back to normal except the two treadmills are still down, and it seems like two pieces of equipment haven't returned. Also the card entry pad isn't working yet so the gym door is still open. It was fun getting a sweat on, realizing how long it has been since I stepped foot in there and I ended that trip with a couple of laps in the pool. That's what kept me from finishing my blog. Good excuse? Cool, let's get back in the swing of things with what I played.

I loaded up my 3DS with Project STEAM the other day. It plays a whole lot like Valkyria Chronicles, maybe exactly like it. The battle system is the same. It’s turn-based, but you move freely about the field. You can save your action points to use when it’s not your turn. This is called overwatch mode, just like in XCOM, and it lets you automatically shoot at targets that move into your line of sight. The world is steam-punk and you fight an alien menace. I’m liking it.

The animated Castlevania series on Netflix debuted Friday and my wife and I watched through it. Let me start by saying my expectations were pretty low. I mean, when was the last time you saw something based on a video game that turned out well? And it was by the studio that brought us Adventure Time...so this seemed kind of out of their wheelhouse. But the one thing that gave me some hope was that it was written by Warren Ellis. He would know what he's doing, right? Well I'm glad to say that I was impressed with the show all around.

Duke Nukem 3D: Played three episodes and got tired of it. Tried to play Duke Nukem Forever but found out it’s not backwards compatible on XBO. I could have sworn it was. It’s just as well, I don’t really want to play it again. Thus ends my retro revisits. Onto games of relevancy.

Let me explain. I have this long running music listening project I started this year. I’ve been focusing on a single year in music every month starting with my birth year, 1967. Well, I’m up to 1973 this July, and I thought I’d review what I added to my playlists, and then mention video gaming, because. . . well. . . why not.

Well, been an exciting few days. First of all, I've been playing Mass Effect and Crash Bandicoot. Crash Bandicoot is a lot of fun, and looks GREAT, but like Night Driver says, it involves doing the same thing over and over and trying to do it right, which can be annoying. However, it is also a lot of fun. In Mass Effect, I'm still exploring and colonizing - this game is endless.  

I tried to go through Halo Wars 2 again, looking to do a lot of the extra bonus objectives, but when I got to level 7 and finished it for the second time, the completion achievement still didn’t unlock. I found out there’s been a glitch with achievements in this game since it was released, and there doesn’t seem to be a solution to it yet. Weird. So I handed the game off to Mark, who wanted to play it and started in on my last favorite series from the list I made end of last year, Duke Nukem.

I played my rental today, Crash Bandicoot’s N Sane Trilogy on PS4. It took me about an hour before my patience wore out. I’m sorry, but platformers task me. I don’t like repeating levels for a perfect performance. It’s just not my thing. That being said, if you love Crash, you’ll love this collection. Vicarious Visions did a great job remastering these games. They looked and played great. The games themselves are great too. They have so many creative ideas and so much variety of gameplay. I really wanted to stick with them longer. I just didn’t want to jump on another box in just such a way. These games ask you to repeat precise moves over and over. I don’t like that. I liken it to multiplayer shooters where you seem to do the same thing over and over: you circle through the never changing arena and twitch kill noobs in ever more quick and precise ways. It’s not my thing at all.

This is one of my favorite lineups in Skylanders. There's a spider robot, a robot with a giant magnet for a head, a fighting wind-up toy, Sprocket in a tank, Trigger Happy riding a bomb like Slim Pickens and a living bomb. There's a lot of action in this crew. I like it. 

Ok so this is my fourth try at writing this blog. Fifth if you count my crazy idea of trying to blog on a plane, but I'm hoping when I am done typing this, I will be happy with it and I will hit post. On Friday I had one all written out, and I was editing pictures when I said “why”. I wasn't really happy with what I was trying to share with you good people, so I scrapped it. Saturday I tried again but after two paragraphs I figured out that playing a freemium game on my phone was a more interesting. Its not like I didn't want to write to you folks, I just felt that what I was writing wasn't worth sharing. So here we are, July the 3^rd or as I like to call it Fireworks Eve. By the way Happy Canada Day to you folks living above us here in the 48. Saturday afternoon the power goes out in my neighborhood and my neighbor's son in law comes over and asks if our Hydro is out. I figured he was talking about the power and I said yeah. He then wished me a Happy 4^th. Anyways let's get started with what I hope to be the Quick Hits I had in mind but didn't share.

Ok so Photobucket changed their service and they now want $400 a year...*clears throat* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Netscape and Friendster thinks this is a solid idea. Anyways I have a blog all written out but I am currently looking for a place that hosts pictures. Any recomendations? 

Fable Fortune (XBO, Win). I wish I could rent this, but it will be a downloadable title. A Fable themed anything, even a card game, is ok with me.

I bookended my day today with Halo Wars 2 and nearly finished it. In the middle was Minecraft, and I acquired Kane & Lynch 2.

I just got ME: Andromeda in the mail from GameFly, and am trying to think how I want to divide time bewteen it and Horizon: Zero Dawn. Not sure how Gamefly's system works, but I had Andromeda as my #1 in Q and it's been highly available for at least a month or so, and it took four or five other games being sent and returned to get here. They weren't all my #2 picks either. And in some cases, that doesn't seem to have been due to low availability of my higher picks. Odd. 

Games Beaten

Can you believe this year is already half over?  What I like to do this time of year is write about the best games of the year so far.  Everyone is all excited over recent E3 announcements, and most of the really good titles come out during the Christmas season at the tail end of the year, and the games that come out earlier tend to be forgotten.  So this is where those games get their due.  Keep in mind that no outside opinions went into the making of this list.  It’s just my own picks.  And if a game is missing from my list, it either didn’t appeal to me as much, or I just simply haven’t played it yet.  Can’t play all the games out there, you know!  Luckily I have to say that this year we’ve already gotten way better games than we did at this point last year, so that’s a good thing.  Anyway, without further ado, welcome to Cary’s Best Games of 2017 SO FAR Awards Show!

I couldn’t resist going after several more achievements in Minecraft today, but I managed to tear myself away long enough to finish Halo 5, play a few rounds of Capcom's arcade game 1943, and start the install for Halo Wars 2.  

I have started Stardew Valley ya'll.

I was going to get back to playing Halo 5 today, but when I heard there was new content and achievements in Minecraft, I went right back to it. By the end of my night, though, I was getting pretty tired of it, and I decided would put it down for tomorrow (my weekend right now is Fri-Sat).

I've been playing a lot of Xcom2, but it's also grinding on me. IT's so tough. But I am doing better in it than I ever have before... I have more good troops and am farther along than I have in the past. I think I'm gonna take a break and play some Andromeda again. I've also been thinking of playing PRoject Cars on PS4 which I bought on sale a long time ago but haven't had time for. Feeling like racing.  Elite came out for PS4 the other day, and I'm thinking about buying it. Can't really run it on my computer anymore, but I liked space truckin'.  

 If you're asking where I've been for the past few weeks, I'm not sure I know either. It's been a bit of a blur, and it honestly just feels like I've woken up from a really long sleep. I started smoking, because I'm a fucking idiot, and I started smoking weed just to further how much of a fucking idiot I am. I'm hoping this idiotic self destruction spiral ends soon, but cigarettes are so fucking good at combating my anxiety it could be a while.

It has been a very long time since my last blog. The beginning of the year was a bit rough for me up through May I had constant sinus infections/colds/allergies it was a mess. I finally opted to get sinus surgery and I am able to breathe SO much better than before and when I am congested my face does not hurt as horribly as it did before. I am still not 100% recovered but at least 50%. I should be fully recovered by mid to end of July. At least I am able to breathe normally and sleep now.