Author: Michael Durr

Naturally, I played more Lego NinjaGo this past week but an odd thing happened, I got to 150 Gold Bricks, popped the achievement and then I haven’t played it since.  It almost felt as if that was all I needed to do even though I still have 70 left to go.  Maybe I just needed a break from the grinding out of gold bricks.  Also, I’m used to the Lego games that let you enable all of your red bricks for the end game.  This one, there are no red bricks, instead you get a very small map which sort of tells you where things are but I’m having trouble deciphering it as well as I need to.  At least it isn’t the races (minus one) that are giving me the trouble I suppose.  I am sure I will go back to it, but I was concerned about burn out.

Outside of that, I played some Solitaire (finished a few more hard boards) and did another few runs of Slay the Spire focusing on the Ironclad character.  The first three runs ended poorly.  The fourth, I got all the way to the third boss but it was not meant to be.  My hit points were right on track but I didn’t have that many relics and my cards weren’t quite as good as I hoped.  You would think I might give up on that game, but it keeps calling me back.

This Week’s Deals With Gold And Spotlight Sale Plus Deals Unlocked Sale

Please take a look at this week’s sale, the Deals Unlocked Sale actually started last week but I knew it was going to continue so I waited until now to report on it.  There is some good stuff in here and worth taking a look at.  I really hope for most of us we are trying to get back to a normal life.  I know it’s a strange new world out there, but maybe if we resume some of our usual activities, things won’t seem so bad.  Take care and enjoy.

Well, I certainly made some progress in Lego NinjaGo, beat the story mode, beat all of the dojos and now can concentrate on the infamous gold bricks.  Unfortunately I have about 120 left to complete which will get me the final nine achievements.  The only thing I feel like I’m missing at this point is the Gold Brick detector which is missing from the game (unless someone knows something I don’t).  But I have all of the major character types (including the guys with the dynamite) and theoretically should be able to complete this.  I know I won’t complete it in the next week, but the end of the June is something to shoot for (hopefully).

I also beat Slay the Spire with the Watcher finally (for the second time, the right way so I can get the achievement).  That will probably be my last hurrah with the game as I don’t have the gumption to play with the ascension levels or try to beat that Heart.  If it was a quicker game, I would probably be more interested but roughly an hour or so to get back to that final final boss if I do it right (not to mention the 3 or so failed tries in between) doesn’t really make me want to keep trying.

So we do have some, errr a couple of BC sales for this week.  I think these were carry-overs from the previous week as well but at bargain basement prices.  Unfortunately there is not much to see, at least the Xbox One has a few more games to tide you over if you really need to play something.  As for myself, I will be with the Gold Brick fever and desperately trying to forget the world outside.  Try to have a decent week.  Enjoy.

I pretty much seem to be alternating gaming wise between Lego NinjaGo, Slay the Spire and Spider Solitaire.  Solitaire, I’m up to 34 games completed, Lego NinjaGo, I’m about 2/3rds through the story mode and over half of the achievements, and Slay the Spire about the same darn place I was before.  Spire is an exercise in frustration but I am consistently telling myself to keep trying.

I am still very much digging Lego NinjaGo but I’m trying to stretch out the story mode as long as I can because I well know that the “100%” as it were is going to be frustrating and I can guarantee it will be because of the races.  I’ve completed a few that I’ve found but I know there are going to be a few that will pull out my hair (including one I already found on the beach that makes very little sense).

Anyway, moving on to the sales of the week.  We haven’t seen the Call of Juarez nor Prince of Persia series in sometime so this is a good break if you were hoping for something different.  A little Ghost Recon and Far Cry as well if you just had to have some shooters to run through.  Not a bad week.  As far as things to watch on this space for the coming week, I will have the Games with Gold for June later this afternoon.  Later this week, probably by Friday (or possibly the weekend), I will have the review to the Shout Factory remaster of Escape from LA that comes out today.  My pre-order should be here today and as a huge Kurt Russell fan, I feel obligated to put that out in short order.  Have a great rest of the week and enjoy.

Well, I did find a new game to sink my hours into last week and to be honest it came up rather unexpectedly.  For those who are not aware, the Lego Ninjago Movie game is currently free in the Xbox Marketplace until the 21st I believe.  As long as you grab it when its free, it’s yours to download and keep.  Anyway, I played it over the weekend, went through a couple of story levels, messed around and got about a dozen achievements.  Like any Lego game, I’m pretty sure the races are going to frustrate me (the first one took four tries by itself to get the Gold) and there will be the end game where I’m trying to finish everything, but it will fun for about a month or so.  Hopefully I complete it like most of the Lego games in my history and not like Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Movie where I abandoned them both (mostly because they were terrible) before I could get anywhere close to 100%.

I also played Slay the Spire, and actually beat it with the DLC character, the Watcher.  Except I didn’t get the achievement because I went on to go against the Heart and get beat in basically one hit.  If I had not gotten all the keys and ended my game after I beat Donu and Deca, I would have netted the achievement which is frustrating.  I was so frustrated, I ended up switching to the Defect immediately after and playing on Ascension 1 (since I had previously won with him) and completing it on the first try (no, I did not get the keys at all, I completely avoided them).  So I guess frustration has its rewards.

Anyway, on to the weekly sales.  A lot of Sonic and a lot of Rayman so I reckon you will get your platforming goodness.  It’s really a shame that Final Exam and RAW never got to backwards compatible status but I guess I can always fire up the old 360 and give them a whirl.  So, enjoy your week, things are starting to open back up, and get in some sun.  I don’t know about your color, but I am as pasty as ever and being inside even with my video games is still giving me all kinds of fits.   Enjoy.

I’m playing that silly Solitaire game I mentioned last week.  Yeah, I have zero excuse as to why outside of I needed a diversion.  I really don’t have the kinda time I want to play Final Fantasy IX (even though I adore it) and Slay the Spire (I did do a couple of runs to go absolutely nowhere) seems to be in a big fat rut.  On the plus side, that Solitaire game does actually use some of my brain cells so I guess that’s a good thing?  I do expect to 100% it, but it will probably be an on and off game for the next few months or so (I have finished 20 of the 100 boards).

This pandemic thing is really messing with my enjoyment of any game or activity and I desperately want to find my norm again where I can be happy with a few things.   Except, it’s not there and I don’t see that changing.  If anything, it might get worse but I’ll hold on to hope and keep trying to make sure everything is okay for myself and my family.

Alright, enough of the depressing world of affairs and on to things like sales.  On one hand, we have a reasonable amount, on the other I hope you like Tom Clancy (or the Motocross games).  Every time I give a Splinter Cell game a try, it seems to go nowhere fast.  I did use to play both of the Rainbow Six games back when they were out and popular but alas that group I played with has moved on to other things and I was never really that good.  Anyway, have a good week, try to forget about your worries for at least a day and just live your life.  We’ll see if I can follow my own advice, take care and enjoy.

Good morning.  Well, I think I finally moved off of Slay the Spire.  It took going against the heart (I was playing the Defect at the time) and getting trounced to realize it.  I thought I had a chance especially after I beat the Time Warp boss for the first time, but no it certainly was not meant to be.  There is certainly a steep climb in difficulty from any of the third bosses to the Heart, the final boss.  Maybe I’ll try it again soon, but I’m not exactly dying to do it since it usually takes me 3-4 tries and some luck to get back to the same position.

But on the plus side, I did start Final Fantasy IX, a game that I played to death when I was a young adult about 20 years ago in fact.  I remember getting to somewhere on the third disc and just never finishing it.  I would like to say I hope that doesn’t happen again, but I know better than to make those kind of promises when dealing with an old school RPG that can probably take up to a hundred hours.  However, it has been fun revisiting an amazing game.

So I would like to say we have some amazing sales this week.  The one game that is on sale, Things on Wheels, isn’t even a backwards compatible game.  Which is probably good since I bought the Lego DC Villains season pass, and a couple of silly games last week (an Artifex Mundi title and a Solitaire game of all things).  The things I’ll get when it’s only three or four bucks.  Anyway, hope you find yourselves in a good week, I’m trying to stay sane and am just thankful that this little column is one of the things that keeps me that way.  Enjoy.