Author: Michael Durr

So, I powered through the hardcore play through of Redeemer.  After that, I wasn’t too keen on playing it for a third time (even on Easy) to get the last two achievements (both specific to a certain level).  So rather than waste the time playing it again, I just decided heck I’ll try to do both of them on hardcore.  And I did, I got the Level 9 achievement fairly easily once I actually tried.  Now the Level 12 achievement took a little more work but I would say I got it down in about 3 tries.  So it’s done and on to something else.

I did start the 3rd episode of Tell Me Why, I think I’m about half way through but it’s not always easy to tell.  I am also taking a look at my physical disc backlog and decided to start a game called Brothers.  It’s supposed to be fairly easy and I went through the Prologue last night.  I might have a little problem with the dynamics of it but I think I can be successful.  We’ll see.  If I am still stuck in the early part of the game (say I’m still in Chapter 2 or something, then we know we got problems).

Sorry I did not post the sales yesterday, but here they are.

It’s a little bit of a shame that Sniper or some of these others were not made Backwards compatible.  Instead all we are left with is the semi-usual assortment of Far Cry and Sonic.  But we can’t expect too much more as we limp into the end of the year.  I would not be surprised if the 360 sales are abandoned with the new year.  Maybe we’ll get one or two more surprises but I kinda doubt it.  Take care and enjoy.

Time always seems so darn short it seems.  My only gaming last week was limited to running through a few levels of my hardcore run with Redeemer.  I’m about 2/3rds through but the later levels take so darn long typically that it could very well take me two more weeks to finish.  I will probably try to find a game that takes 2, 3 hours max and finish that in between to make Redeemer not feel like such a chore (which it is at this point with three achievements left).  Hopefully I get back to Tell Me Why within that time frame as well.

The sales this week are comprised of two things: Assassin’s Creed and Call of Juarez.  No, that’s really all there is.  Oh wait, this is confusing.  If you dig inside the actual Xbox One sale list, there are 360 games as well.  What’s worse, the link they use for those games goes to the Xbox One side of things, not the more reliable 360 side.  Get your act together guys, geez.  Lego Batman 2 and Mars: War Logs show up in the other list.  Forgive the list below (I did fix the links) if it doesn’t seem in order, I had to patch it together of sorts.  Anyway, hope you find a game this week that interests you.  Enjoy.

Sorry, about the lateness of this, I’m being hammered by work lately.  Well I did finish the second episode of Tell Me Why, it was not as gripping as the first episode was.  In fact, it felt more like it was pushing some sort of agenda as opposed to actual gameplay.  But I will pick it up again this weekend and start the third episode.  However, the third episode is dependent on playing the story twice in order to get all of the achievements, so I’m not thrilled about that.  The rest of the achievements do not sound difficult thankfully.

I also started the hardcore run of Redeemer, and I’m through the first four stages (out of 15).  I’m doing a lot of rerunning stages to level up my skills as I have a feeling that last few stages will be ridiculously hard.  After that, I’ll have two achievements left, but I can get those on an easy run and I’m not overly concerned about them at this time.

We don’t have any real sales this week, sad to say.  On the Xbox One side, there was an Artifex Mundi game for $1.49 that I didn’t have so I grabbed that.  It’s sad that these days I don’t have much time to play because I’m working so much and then I’m absolutely beat to heck once I turn my work computer off.  This pandemic has made me a work-a-holic and it stinks.  From a family perspective, from a gaming perspective, from a movie perspective too.  I listen to a good chunk of music during work and when I’m trying to fall asleep at night so that’s okay but everything else seems to be taking a toll.  Well, try to enjoy your week more than I do mine, and take care.

I would like to say I played plenty of games last week, that was certainly not the case.  I am not sure if it was bad luck or I was stuck in a rut but every time I tried to boot up Tell Me Why to finish off the 2nd episode, it needed a damn update of some sort.  And then yesterday I thought I could set aside some time finally and boom, Xbox update.  I made a tiny bit of progress on Redeemer but honestly it’s not worth going into detail for either.  I did finish a book I had been reading though, so I guess that’s the tradeoff, lol.

We do have a sale this week which does have plenty of Devil May Cry as well as Resident Evil, except one problem.  Neither of those are backwards compatible.  I take it back, there is that one RE title that is BC, but that’s honestly it.  This is a whole list of games (with a few exceptions) that for the most part are requiring you to have your Xbox 360 up and running which is harder these days.  Mine is okay last time I checked, but I also had to buy it used (it’s my second one after my first one was able to be repaired 3 times before it hit the dust).  So I’m guessing it’s running on borrowed time.   Used consoles aren’t what they used to be.  Have a great week and enjoy.

Well, I plowed through Redeemer: Enhanced Edition as far as the story mode goes.  It had some difficult spots but once you upgrade your character sufficiently it becomes a lot easier.  I now stand at 33 of 40 achievements, 100% will mostly depend on whether I can beat the game at the highest difficulty (I played the first time on normal).

I’m also working through Tell Me Why’s second episode.  Taking a sneak peak at the third episode, it does look like I will have to play the game a second time though I figure after going through it the first time I can trim down my time significantly (since I’m doing a ton of extra exploring the first time around).  I still am enjoying the game as I do most point and clicks even if it’s trying to do be a bit political and stereotypical in how it treats a lot of the supporting characters.

There is a fair bit of sales this week but as usual, nothing mind blowing.  A whole heck of a lot of Call of Duty but as usual the prices aren’t where most people want since the discs are far cheaper.  Destroy All Humans is a fantastic game but is getting a Xbox One remaster but it is $4 so it’s still a good deal.  I hope everybody has a good week, this one hasn’t started off at all good for me but here is hoping that it picks up the pace.  Enjoy.

I did finish the first episode of Tell Me Why over the past week and I did enjoy it enough to continue with the other episodes as they become available.    It has a excellent story and the gameplay isn’t difficult but yet intriguing enough to keep me playing.  It’s also a gorgeous game with some of the best graphics I’ve seen.  Hopefully I get started with the 2nd episode soon enough.

I’ve also started another game called Redeemer: Enhanced Edition which is basically a beat em up with a bucket full of blood and a lot of hard hitting action.  It was originally a Windows game and ported over about a year ago to the various console systems.  I’m enjoying it so far, I’m about half way through the game in a mere week.  I don’t think I’ll be finished with it this time next week but I’m well on my way to trying to completing it (I think one or two achievements might require a little more effort).

We do have some sales this week, most of it is a carry over from the previous week.  There are a few new ones, mostly centered around Battlefield games which have never been a real interest to me.  However, I know there are many out there that have different tastes so there might be something worthy of your time.  Anyway, have a great week and hope you enjoy.

Sorry for not posting this yesterday, working from home is a lot rougher than I ever imagined especially when you put in roughly 55 hours a week.  Something has to be pushed to the side and unfortunately this column is sometimes the odd one out.  I finished Yoku’s Island Express last week, the last few wickerlings and scarabs weren’t so bad just time consuming.  Great game overall, had a lot of fun with it.  If a sequel came out, I would play it in a heartbeat.

I did start a new game which is actually new for once and not a game I’m calling new that might have came out a year or two ago.  That game is Tell Me Why which is the latest adventure game by Dontnod Entertainment who are of course the geniuses behind the Life is Strange Games.  So far so good, I’m really enjoying it.  If I have time, I stress if I have time, I might be inclined to do a review for this and then update the review as the episodes (3 total) come out.  Just something to keep me writing as the saying goes.

Anyway, we do have sales this week as usual.  Outside of the fact that Xbox Live Sales Guy can’t spell Assassin this week (I’ve corrected it below), it’s a fairly normal week.  Some good stuff, most of which we have seen a million times before.  Nothing really for me in that list.  However, please enjoy and have a great week.

I want to apologize for not posting this yesterday.  To be fair, I was more concerned about a Hurricane in my area and second, Xbox had not put up the 360 sales when I checked yesterday morning.  Thankfully, the Hurricane has shifted East enough to where it shouldn’t be an issue and the 360 sales are now up.  I also have a little more to talk about personal gaming wise.

As mentioned in the previous weeks, I had been playing Yoku’s Island Express.  I kinda hit a speed bump last week up until yesterday.  I was stuck nickel and dimeing wickerlings and scarabs and barely making a dent in end game progress.  I went even as far to put away the game (since I’m playing it from disc) and told myself I’ll touch it again in a month or so.  However, I hate giving up on a game and tried it one more time.  Much to my surprise, things started to click again, and it led to four achievements (up to 25 of 31) and all of the progress achievements (scarabs, wickerlings, wallet space, etc) are now between 70 and 80%.  Can I actually make this a 100% completion after all?  I’ll know more for sure next week.

So here are the sales for this week.  On the BC front, it’s really not much.  I’m actually interested to see the Games with Gold situation this month as last month was pretty close to a disaster when it came to games on both the Xbox One and 360.  But hopefully, the rumors of their demise isn’t quite in the cards as of yet.  Take care, have a good week and we will talk again soon.  Enjoy.