PixlBit

Well hello Pixlbit! It’s a breezy Tuesday here in SoCal and we had a time change? Sounds cool, right? An extra hour of sleep, but my body thought it would be funny to wake up an hour before my alarm goes off (I guess I’m still used to my old schedule). Since I was wide awake, I thought I’d do some racin’. Last weekend I decided that I was going to dive into the newly created lime green section of Mount Backlog by playing some 360 games, as well as finish off a certain Lego game. Well I did both and here are my thoughts about it.

 

Lego Marvel Superheroes – PS3

 

I finished the main storyline, but I won’t go into detail about it because some of you folks might not have played it, and I don’t want to ruin it for you, so I will give you some thoughts about the game that doesn’t include spoilers, cool? Cool!

Gameplay: I was shocked about how long the levels felt. This isn’t a bad thing, because I enjoy the game, but compared to the previous versions, it felt that like each section of the levels felt like an older game’s full level. The best part was that there was checkpoints, and a place to save your progress.

As for the open world portion, the map seems to be big with a bunch of places to explore and quite a few points you can race in. Think of it as a Lego version of the GTA World. I’ve played a couple of races and it reminds me of the races in Disney Infinity where you race against the clock.

Characters: There are a lot of characters to choose from. I do like that you get to use different ones throughout the story mode, and that kept it interesting. There are also a lot of characters to collect.

Visuals: The game looks really good, and the environment looks massive. There are a lot of things like junk that can fill the screen, and at a couple of times I thought they were studs I could collect.

Audio: I was not the biggest fan of having the characters talk, but after playing this game, I felt the creators did a really good job of using voice acting, and adding the little comedic scenes.

Overall the game is a lot of fun. Being a fan of Lego, I spent a lot of time saying things like “I have that set” and “I hope this is going to be released as a physical set”, and there were some cameo’s from some of the blind bag minifigures. I feel that this version of the Lego games is easily the strongest of the series, and if you enjoyed the previous games, you’ll like this one.

 

So when not playing through the story mode of Lego Marvel, I also started playing a couple of the games. To make this different from previous blogs I decided to place games in a couple of categories: Now Playing, A Couple Of Minutes, Casual, and Waiting On Deck.

 

Grid – 360

I’m a fan of racing games, and this one at first glance seems to fit my needs: fast cars, a “story mode”, and lots of different courses. I found the game to be fun, with some tough AI, but a couple of things got a little frustrating like spinning out when I am going straight, the AI doesn’t really follow the racing lines, and after a while the voice telling me about the race. I hit restart a couple of times, because the AI would put me into a wall during a turn.

 

My team name is Effin Fast and my one team car

Forza 2 – 360

My goal for this game is to actually finish a Forza game. I got more than halfway on the original X-Box, but lost interest, and I’m trying to avoid that here. The game is basically the same as the previous game, and I think one of the courses is a holdover from the previous game. I played most of the Proving Grounds section, and started the Amateur Cup. I would have finished Proving Grounds but I’ve been a little hesitant to buy a car to race the final two series in the class because I might need to purchase a car in Amateur.

 

Crackdown 2 – 360

Oh this game is pure blow ‘em up dumb fun. Shooting bad guys, voice in the sky talking you through things “I hope you know he had a wife and family” got me cracking up, and collecting randoms that upgrade my player is perfect for mindless gameplay. I find myself going all Matrix and trying to jump from one roof to another.

 

Bastion – XBox Arcade

I found this game by recommendation by one of you good people on Pixlbit (Thanks Again!). I started playing this because early Sunday Morning I woke up around 2am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Since I didn’t have a disc game in the 360, I decided to give this a try, and I am glad I did. The art style has quickly become a favorite of mine because it looks like an illustration from a book. I like that it doesn’t get filled in until you start moving so the environment is full of surprises. This technique reminds me of the Unfinished Swan on the PS3, except that one has actual book elements within the game.

The one funny thing for me is that the narrator sounds like the AM PM guy

 

NCAA Football – PS3

After playing one season as the Maryland Head Coach, and leading them to a Citrus Bowl win over Florida (I was ranked #1 heading into the B1G Championship game against Ohio State, losing on a field goal as time expired), the Virginia Tech job opened. Since I started this dynasty as the Offensive Coordinator for the Hokies, it felt fitting I go back and coach them. It also didn’t hurt that there are a ton of different helmets/jerseys/and pants.

 

 

 

Smart as… - Vita

I bought this last week, and I started playing the Daily Challenge. I’m a fan of these Brain Training games, and this one is enjoyable. The Challenge is set up to test your Math, Logic, Observation, and Vocabulary with one game from each section. Each game has four rounds and the training takes less than five minutes. My scores have been varied because I’ve been getting new games and I tend to speed through them, causing some time penalties.

 

I blame candy for the low score

For extra practice games are unlocked for free play, so you don’t become like me and try to rush through them. I’m disappointed I didn’t buy this game sooner, because along with Montezuma Blitz, it would be my perfect 1-2 punch of gaming.

 

Marvel Puzzle Quest – Android

I’m still playing one or two puzzles a day. I’m in the habit of upgrading my characters, but I’m sticking with three that have become my go-to team. I know I should advance all of them, but I probably will, and play through some defeated opponents.

 

Simpsons Tapped Out – Android

I’m happy that as a community, we unlocked all the prizes for Halloween. The most recent one being King Homer

 

I’m happy that it has been achieved, because I’m getting tired of collecting goo, and I’m ready for the winter skin when Mr Plow can be used again. Dang I’ve been playing this game for over a year.

 

 

Lumines – 360

I bought the three pack of games for the 360 last week, so I could play RezHD, but somehow I got sucked into playing Lumines….again. This disc isn’t going to get a lot of play unless its right before I call it a night, and even then I tend to do some reading.

 

Real Racing – Android

I wish I could add this to A Couple of Minutes a Day, but as it stands now, I burned myself out on the game on my old Nexus 7, and I don’t have the same drive to play this game every day. The game is a good racing game, but with so many racing games I haven’t played on Mount Backlog, there really isn’t a good enough reason for me to replay a game I played a bunch of at the start of the year.

 

Fairway Solitaire – iPad

Same reasoning with Real Racing. I love this game, but I was practically finished with it earlier in the year, but restarting it kind of killed the desire to finish it. I know if I actually played a round or two a day, I could be finished before 2014, but right now the drive isn’t there.

 

 

NBA 2K12 – 360

I stopped playing the PS3 version because I got caught up in the arcade goodness of NBA Live 10, so I wanted a fresh start on the 360. I want to start a full season but right now I don’t know if I want to go with a current roster of a bad team, or trade some rookies to a bad team and build a Dynasty.

 

Sega Rally Revo – 360

I love the Sega Rally games, and I played a bit on PS3. I tried a couple of races on the 360, and I want to jump into it, but currently my plate is full when it comes to racing games so this one is taking a back seat.

 

 

NCAA Football Uniform Update

So NCAA Football released two uniform update packs and I bought both knowing that my Aztecs were not included in the update. The worst part is that the update is for teams I never use, unless I want to restart a Dynasty with Western Kentucky (I thought about it).

 

Humble Bundle

 

This week’s Humble Bundle looks really good.

 

Vita Updates

 

So I got this message about my Vita, which is cool…I guess. I rarely use the message feature but it’s nice to know I have it. Also before playing my daily dose of Montezuma Blitz and Smart as… I needed to update and this nifty icon showed up

 

Interesting.

Well Pixlbit, it’s time we end our little blog here. Have a good rest of the week!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris