Category: Xbox 360 to One BC

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.

Well, after constantly not getting anywhere with the Watcher in Slay the Spire, I could tell I was finally burnt out on the game.  I’m not quite done with it I suppose but it’s certainly not the only game I’m going to play any longer.  I just kinda wish it didn’t take me roughly 60 hours of game time to figure it out.  But on the good side, I did start a new game or rather an old game remastered.  Final Fantasy IX.  Wait, another 80-100 hour game you say?  Yeah, I know…it seems to be the trend this year where as last year I was playing a ton of under 15 hour games.  I just have a lot of good memories with that installment of Final Fantasy and so far it is meeting that nostalgia factor.  We’ll see what happens.

This week we are getting a few more sales than usual which is nice to see.  Also, it includes DLC which is fantastic.  Lots of Castlevania, lots of Mass Effect and even a few titles that we don’t normally see (even if they aren’t necessarily backwards compatible).  There should be lots here to choose from whether you stick to BC titles or even venture off to the Xbox One stuff (I’m eyeing the Lego DC Villains Season Pass since I bought the game recently for all of $10).  Have a great week and enjoy.

Still in lockdown and I’m about at my breaking point.  If I was single, it probably wouldn’t be so bad but trying to keep this strong face for my wife and son can only go so far.  I know it sounds silly, but I don’t care….I just want to go browse the aisles at my damn local bookstore again.  That’s it.  Everything else is relative but I am sick of these walls, sick of staring at a computer or TV screen.  This comes from a gamer too, I have the hardest time even playing these days because the monotony is overbearing.  Yes, I am glad I have a job, a family, a roof over my head.  But is it too much to ask for something besides these walls?   *sigh*

Anyway,  did play some Slay the Spire and I finally beat the game with the Ironclad class (leaving me only the DLC Watcher class) on what was a pretty remarkable run.  Remarkable in the sense that I had twenty relics when it got to the final boss, Donu and Deca.  I also had Feed (which had enabled me to get to 144 Hit Points!)  but I was not able to land a finishing blow on Donu with it to get that achievement.  I mean I guess I could have waited a turn or two and maybe would have had my chance but since I never beat that pair before, I was too interested in finishing him off and then Deca.  I’m pretty burnt out at this point as getting the Ironclad over this hump took a ton of tries (probably about 15-20).  We shall see what the week brings.

Well I would love to tell you that there are plenty of sales for the Xbox 360 this week, but there are not.  In fact Alien Breed is the only 360 title on sale, and those are not backwards compatible.  So I’ll list them here to be fair but Xbox has to be aware that there are other horror titles on the 360 that are backwards compatible.  (Since that’s the theme they are going for)   Right?  I guess not, well there are some pretty good deals on the Xbox One side so be sure to check that out as well.  Be sure to enjoy your week, and stay safe.

Still playing Slay the Spire.  I did make some progress as I have now beat the game with the Defect as well.  So that leaves me with the Ironclad and the Watcher.  The Defect was fairly easy once you learned to work your focus to death and make sure you have adequate frost orbs.  Heck, I didn’t take a single hit point of damage on the final boss, that’s how much I was putting out for block.  While there is certainly skill to be had, a lot does focus on luck of cards and relics which can be frustrating.

Anyway, we do have some sales this week.  Most of these are the usual suspects, but it is nice to see Midway Arcade Origins mixed in there.  I still wish Final Exam had been added to backwards compatibility.  Maybe a Rayman or Splinter Cell titles will tickle your fancy.  Just give it a shot and there is always Bound by Flame and Far Cry 3 but neither of those are for the weak or so I’m told.  Enjoy your week among the mess going on outside and know that we are trying to do the same.  Take care.

Well, I have been playing a lot of Slay the Spire.  So much so, I feel like I’m in a rut for the most part.  I did beat a Daily Climb and have received a couple of random other achievements but it’s been very difficult.  I actually gave up on the Ironclad for the moment to focus on the Defect.  But I keep dying somewhere in the third act typically which is really frustrating when it takes about an hour to get to that point.  Even though I’ve already won with the silent, I will probably go back and play the game with him again this week as I just understand that character better (and maybe figure out a different strategy too to get some of the other achievements).

Anyway, we have a ton of sales this week.  I honestly don’t have the time (one of the problems with working from home is that you end up having to do more than you normally would from the office) to price them all out and give that to you so the link will need to suffice.  There are lots of good sales on both systems.  In this craziness that we are living through, maybe there is a title that you keep putting off that you end up pulling the trigger on.  For me, it seems to be a lot of Spire and reading to pass the time.  I’ve only gotten half-way through watching Wrestlemania personally (even though I have enjoyed it a lot so far).  It’s hard for me to get excited about anything lately but I am trying to look at the bright side in the last few days or so.  Stay safe, and keep gaming.  As I have seen a few people say, gamers have been training all our lives for a time like this, so stay inside and play another level.  Enjoy.