Well Happy Monday Pixlbit! I hope you all had a good weekend and for many folks are in Day 3 of their 3 Day Weekend. Blog a Day is back on and I am here to let you good people know two more games came off Mount Backlog last week, and I am currently working on another, which hopefully I will finish either today or tomorrow. How are you good people? Anything fun, or exciting happen this past weekend? After we last spoke I went to the local fair and did my usual of walking around looking at all the exhibits, looking for the mythical vendor who sold trading cards for super cheap (I decided against buying $1 cards last year for some crazy reason), eat some bad fried fair food on a stick, and I threw in a new thing I wanted to do this year, ride a camel. Yes the animal with a hump that likes to spit. I figured why not, the last time I rode one was when I was in like 4^th grade, so let’s do it again.

When I got to the camel pen the smell was bad and I quickly decided smelling like that for the rest of the day was no bueno so I decided to grab some lunch and people watch before I headed out. It’s actually fun to just sit, listen to some podcasts, and just watch random folks go about their day. Since this was the first day of the fair, entrance was free, but parking was $8 (and they closed my favorite freebie parking spots) so in total lunch with a big ass donut cost me around $25 but I did get to walk around and enjoy the sights. Anyways let’s get to our usual Monday topic of Video Games

Chris Beat These Games…

Battlefield 4 – PS4

Shoutout goes to Darth for telling me not to quit this game in a previous blog! I was a bit frustrated with a section of this level that seemed near impossible so I stopped playing for a day or two, and then jumped back in to get a fresh perspective. When I came back I decided to go for more of a slowed deliberate attempt of moving through the map and taking out the tank early. As I moved through the abandoned city I went through each building with my squad and cleared them before moving towards the park. The park was a little easier because all you had to do was cover take out a wave of enemies, rinse and repeat. Once that was finished it was all smooth sailing from there and before I knew it I completed the story mode. I went back and replayed the first two levels again and they were much easier than before especially now that I kind of figured out what to do in the game. As much as I hated the level I was stuck on, I think it made me a better player.

Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified – PS Vita

This game was a little different that I thought it would be. Instead of having an actual story mode, the user was presented with a series of scenarios that took place over the course of years. At first this didn’t make sense to me but it soon became clear that this approach actually works well with portable gaming. Instead of having a long drawn out mission with multiple save points, this game had you playing a relatively short scenario like rescue two sets of hostages or take out the targets as a sniper. Each level maybe took 3-5 minutes each, and for someone like me I had to replay many of the scenarios because the enemies were ruthless. There are no save points so no matter how far you progressed within the given objective you started from the beginning when you died. The one positive is that all the XP you collected would still be carried over to your ranking.

Another aspect to the game, which I found enjoyable, was the time trial modes where you would go into a training facility and take out bad guy targets. I wasn’t fast enough to get more than two stars out of three on any of the half dozen time trials but it was fun to get through each one. I didn’t earn a lot of trophies in this game because most of them involve going back in and hitting goals like 100 melee attacks or four consecutive head shots, items I really don’t want to tackle, but overall I am glad I repurchased this game to have in my collection

Chris Plays These Games…

Asphalt 2 – NDS

Yesterday I figured out how to view, which cars are needed for each group of races and I finished off two groups of races. Each group consists of six or seven sections that hold four races apiece. The races vary from normal, dual with betting, timed, and elimination. As of this blog I have three groups left so the end of either today or tomorrow I might complete this game. It all depends on how much of it I play on the couch.

There is also an arcade mode where you can play each of the world location races and earn cash and vehicles. I will probably tackle this after completing the Evolution (Story) Mode.

NBA 2K14 – PS4

The Super Knicks are 38-2 and have three members of the bench out 2-4 weeks each with various injuries. I have slowed down gameplay from the run and gun, to more set plays with a lot of inside scoring by Tyson Chandler to give my SG and SF breathers for the 4^th quarter. They have gone back to mid 90s Pat Riley grind it out teams, especially with teams with a young frontcourt. Might as well get their bigs in foul trouble to soften up the lane.

Daytona Rush – iPad

I spotted this game while browsing the App Store yesterday and decided to give it a try. Daytona Rush is a different take on the constant runner games. There are objectives to complete to move up in levels along with earning in game currency, to upgrade and buy new cars, and the best thing about this game is that there is no in-app spending. Yes finally a game that is free and not freemium.

The concept is simple, avoid the other cars and every lap hit the pit area to gas your car on the go. As you get deeper into the lap count the more congested the track becomes. You are allowed a certain amount of times to hit other vehicles before your car is knocked out. This meter can be replenished by grabbing wrench icons that show up on the track, which gives you a full meter to continue your race.

I do like the turns in the game because it changes the scenery and adds to the race vibe.

Each level is made up of four sections. Completing in game missions can complete each section of the level. A lot of these missions are simple like passing 100 cars in a race, or racing 30,000 meters total. Most of these missions can be completed early in a race before a lot of cars start appearing. 

By completing these missions you move up in level and are able to buy level specific cars. Each car is a significant upgrade over the previous car and you can earn more points to use to upgrade your vehicle.

Daytona Rush is good for what it is, and that is a fun racer/runner that doesn’t use real money to progress within the game. The graphics are solid, the sound effects seem authentic, and swipe controls are fine. If you want something to play while on the couch or on the go, give this game a try. There are no stamina limits, so you can play as much as you want.

WWE Immortals – iPad

I got sucked back into this game and I think I have a solid team. I’m currently working on trying to unlock the Gold Brock Lesnar Cyborg character, but going through the gauntlet of fights is brutal. I might have to just work on upgrading my current roster to complete. I have four silver characters that can hold their own but I’d like to at least upgrade one of them a bit more to equal out the playing field. I would have a lot more fun if the creators had charged $4 for the game for unlimited play instead of having the stamina meter.

Simpsons Tapped Out – iPad

The Simpsons released Sir Love-A-Lot from Love Day on Saturday as a freebie decoration. I actually like this more than last year’s Valentine’s game where you collected various Valentine’s Day themed items that were useless…except for the Choo-Choo Choose Me Train which I thought was hilarious. I’m currently on the check in every other day system for this game.

Well Pixlbit that is what I have been playing and the games I have taken off Mount Backlog. I see a big influx of games heading my way with the announcement of the two new Lego Franchise games as well as the next installment of MLB The Show. I need to finish off my NBA 2K season before I get sucked into baseball. Hopefully the Super Knicks can be healthy by the start of the second half of the season.

That’s all for now, more tomorrow!

-Chris

 EDIT: I saw this on SlickDeals while uploading my pictures and I figured I'd share it with you folks who are in the market for a WiiU

And here is the link to the eBay page