Just a few days here from that day known as Christmas to many, Happy Holidays to others, and a few some four letter words that we try and refrain from using because we forgot to get that somebody special a Christmas gift. And it’s always that person that has not gotten you a gift in years but somehow decided to give you something this year. So therefore, you are scrambling around for something that makes sense but that’s not going to cripple your bank account. Anyway, moving onward and upward, let’s talk about other things.
Black Friday/December Shopping
Rather than spoil gifts for others, we will just describe what I splurged for myself during this holiday season. Most was done during the weekend of Black Friday and at ole Amazon.com. Let’s see:
For the XBox 360 (and probably the last year where I only buy 360 games): I procured The Evil Within ($20), Grand Theft Auto V($25) and Wolfenstein: The New Order ($20) as well as Murdered: Soul Suspect ($10 at Best Buy). Evil Within & Wolfenstein were planned purchases, I’ve been waiting on them for a while at a reasonable price. Grand Theft Auto V was an impulse of sorts since I was curious what the Lightening Deal was. As it turned out, $25 was enough for me to bite.
Finally, Murdered: Soul Suspect was a happy oh look you did not buy it during Black Friday ($20) and apparently nobody else did either. So, $10 from Best Buy thank you very much. That one was especially lucky since when you checked stock from online, there was none to be had anywhere. But my Best Buy did have two copies, so needless to say I grabbed one and walked briskly to the cash register to check out.
Blu-rays and DVDs was a much cheaper tale overall. Amazon tally first: Horrible Bosses ($3.96), In the Heat of the Night ($7.99), Amazing Spiderman 2 ($9.96) and Krull ($6.20). The first three were all Black Friday specials, two of which (Horrible Bosses & Spidey) were lightening deals and In the Heat of the Night was a price match from the FoxConnect sale.
Krull was a special case since it was a third party seller thru Amazon (and housed it there too) but the price was certainly right. Then there was a couple of others, one from Big Lots, Let the Bullets Fly for $2.88 and then the only dvd, Luther, Volume 3 for ~$8 after a 20% coupon, 50% off sale and $6.61 left on my gift card from Barnes & Nobles. I think that’s the holy trinity, isn’t it? Coupon, Sale and Gift Card? I’m a cheap bastard.
So let’s add this up. $75 bucks in Games(4) and we will call it $40 in Blu-Rays & DVDs (6). $115 dollars. Not too bad, really. I think I spent about twice that much last Christmas. Unfortunately, no Arrow Season 2 and no Guardians of the Galaxy. Arrow Season 2 was never $20 like I hoped (it is currently now $20 at Amazon but since there is a chance I get it for Christmas, I’ve handcuffed myself on purpose after Black Friday weekend).
Guardians of the Galaxy was a different story, I wanted the steelbook from Best Buy. It was sold out most places by 11:30 the day of release (9th) and I’m not paying the current price on Ebay ($50). I don’t know if I will just grab the regular release when it hits say $15 or what, but thankfully I saw that movie twice in theaters and I can wait a little while before grabbing it for good. It was my favorite movie of 2014 for sure.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
I have been spending a lot of time playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes for the Xbox 360. I started playing it at Thanksgiving at my nephew/nieces place. Once I got home, I then finished beating the main story which was not difficult save for a couple of minor places. What was actually difficult was what came afterwards, the Manhattan hub where all the little side quests for gold bricks and character tokens take place.
I have made some good work gathering as completing as many of these as I can. My math might be off, but I have ~165/250 of the gold bricks and ~85/113 of the character tokens among other notable stats. This makes for 66.7% completion and 34 of the 45 achievements. Sounds like I am zooming towards 100% huh? Well there is just one problem with that fabled completion.
It’s certainly not the fact that I haven’t completed Lego Games before. I’ve completed 3 of them to 100% and all achievements. The two Harry Potter games and Lego Lord of the Rings. I came really close on the first Lego Batman game but was messed by a glitch with the saving citizens which did not allow me to get all of the achievements.
What is it you ask? The &*^$*#&^ flying races. To some extent, the ground races too, but though just take some practice. Whoever invented flying control should be ran over by the Incredible Hulk, Abomination, Red Hulk and the Juggernaut for good measure. It’s wonky and the hardest part is flying downward without dropping completely.
Maybe, I am doing it wrong. I have always the hardest time with flying controls. Remember Top Gun for the NES? I never got the plane to land correctly once. How about Descent for the PC, the 360 degrees of control gave me headaches for hours. Even X-Wing or Tie Fighter for the PC despite being amazing games gave me fits. So why would I expect it to be any different? I dunno.
It’s frustrating because that’s the only thing that is keeping me from completing it. Right now, I still have plenty of other things to do for say the next 25 to 30%. But that last 5 percent? That will be my undoing. Maybe I will get the hang of it. Maybe.
Quick Hits
- Unfortunately I did not take the voice acting workshop that starts in January. As it turns out, I checked last week and there were no more spots to fill. I guess I could always do private sessions, but those are much more expensive. I want to continue to pursue it but I will need to think about my next step first.
- I’m pretty sure I mentioned this, but I am moving much closer to selling my home. I am in the closing period, and all snags at this point have been remedied. We still have to get the appraiser to take a look but hopefully that goes through. Closing date is January 30th, and if hear a yell of happiness on that date, that means I sold it. Otherwise, probably just grunting and more frustration. But I feel good about this one, I really do.
- In miscellaneous Skyrim news, I did beat the Civil War questline but due to Lego Marvel, I probably won’t play it for the rest of the year. Also, see four games above from the Black Friday sales which I would love to start one of those soon.
- My wife is awesome. You probably already knew that, but just in case there was a shadow of doubt from anybody, well she is. I’m glad that I was smart enough not to keep her waiting when the time was right. Probably the smartest thing I ever did. I take it back, smartest thing ever. By a longshot. Especially when you look at my body of work. Anyway, that’s it. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year if I don’t write another blog in the next week or so. Take care.
