Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 29th and 30th
Platform: PS4

I played so much FFXV during the holidays...

Most of my time was spent with side quests and hunts, though I made some progress in the story too. While most of the side quests were pretty standard fetch quests, the hunts are what I enjoy the most. I fought a large variety of monsters through the hunts, each more dangerous than the last. The most memorable of these battles was against a trio of Cockatrices. These humongous chickens are nothing to laugh at, they were really quite difficult to beat.

I also spent a good amount of time hunting down weapons and weapon upgrades, but wasn't that successful. I managed to find the Bioblaster, a weapon I heard about from my brother, then upgraded it to become one of my most powerful. I gave it to Prompto, who blasts out it's dangerous poison in the middle of battle.

My upgrade tree is filling out quite well too, I upgraded most of the lower cost skills. I also found a couple of new outposts, which means new music for the Regalia and MP3 player. It also meant a few new weapons, but I am a bit disappointed in them. There was a sword and a lance, which were more powerful than what I had, but the problem is that they dealt holy damage. This is great against demons, but it sucks against everything else.

Once I had my fill of hunts and exploration, I progressed the story by riding with Iris to a little house outside of Cape Caem. We stopped a few times along the way for some pretty big missions though. The first was an Empire military base. I had to infiltrate it and capture a high ranking officer to interrogate him and gather information on the Empire. I trailed the guy by warping from catwalk to catwalk, then we captured him. That's when we were faced with two little boss battles in a row!

We battle against a powerful mech out in the wild

The first put me against a large bipedal mech, but it was much lower level than me and was easy to defeat. The second was against a new character, Aranea Highwind. She is a powerful fighter that uses lances, high jumps and even flies around a little bit. When we beat her (after a grueling battle), she quickly retreated, though it's clear that she'll be back. I don't quite know how she fits into the Empire, but I'm sure I'll find out. During these battles, the officer we kidnapped was rescued...

Then, as we continued towards Cape Caem, we stopped at a dungeon called Malmalam Thicket. This is a forest that is infested with insects and mandrakes. These mandrakes aren't very hard to kill, but it's lots of fun fighting against a humanoid plant creature. At the end of the dungeon, I fought a huge Bandersnatch, a very spiky, scary looking monster. Once again, this was a pretty tough battle, but magic worked well against it, and Ignis' Regroup skill was useful to keep us healed up without using items.

One thing that was really cool during the car trip with Iris is that she follows the party everywhere, even in battle or on chocobos. She rides a sexy red chocobo and even has a special technique in battle where she trips enemies. She also sits in a tight spot in the car between Noctis and her brother Gladio. I loved my time with Iris on our team. Unfortunately, it came to an end when we reached our destination, a small house outside of Cape Caem.

We met Cindy and Cid there, who are trying to fix up a boat of some kind for us. The thing needs a lot of work though, according to the mechanics anyway. I'm guessing a lot of the next story segments will have me find ways to fix it. I can't wait to get back in there and see what happens next!

Overwatch

Date played: December 27th and 28th
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is McCree.

Role: Offense
Difficulty: ★★
HP: 200
Armor: 0
Shields: 0
Total: 200

Favorite quote: "I'm your huckleberry."
Favorite map to play on: Dorado

Appearance
McCree is a pure-bred American cowboy. He wears a fancy cowboy hat, a sexy poncho and smokes a cigar all the time. His large belt buckle says "BAMF" for Badass Motherfucker. He's got one of the best voice actors in the game who plays a slick, suave cowboy. McCree holds his giant revolver in one hand. He also has extra ammo on his belt along with a flashbang grenade. 

Skills

• Peacekeeper & Fan The Hammer: McCree's main weapon, the Peacekeeper, is a powerful, 6 round revolver. It deals heavy damage at close and mid-range, while still being useful at long range. It has lots of recoil. Fan The Hammer is a way to shoot out all remaining rounds from the gun's chamber at once, but with much lower accuracy. 

• Combat Roll: McCree rolls in any direction, avoiding enemy fire and reloading his weapon instantly.

• Flashbang grenade: A quick fire grenade that stuns enemies at close range for a a very short period. It can interrupt Ultimate abilities.

• Ultimate - Deadeye: One of the game's hardest to pull off Ultimates. McCree moves slowly while aiming at all enemies in sight. The longer he aims, the more damage he deals. It can kill, and it can even wipe an entire team, but McCree is very vulnerable as he charges it up.

Strengths

• Similar to Widowmaker, McCree can be devastating when played by someone with great aim. His weapon hits hard as fuck and it's accurate, but aiming it isn't easy.

• Interrupting Ultimates is one of McCree's most useful skills. For example, when Reaper uses his Death Blossom, a flashbang to the face will stop him instantly.
• Deadeye can be very powerful when used at the right time. If it's done during a very hectic moment, and usually from a flanking position, an entire team can be wiped out. 

• When playing behind a Reinhardt shield, or even Symmetra's and D.Va's defenses, McCree is very powerful. He usually goes kind of unnoticed and can take potshots at weak or retreating enemies.  This works particularly well against Pharah and Mercy.

Weaknesses

• McCree has very low mobility. If he gets cornered by a Genji, Tracer or Sombra, it can be very difficult to escape or survive.

• The Peacekeeper is powerful, but it's really hard to aim it well. Of course, with practice, it gets better, but I don't know if I'm good enough to use it well.

• Deadeye is a very risky proposition. It's pretty rare that I pull it off well, simply because McCree is exposed, very visible and he shouts out a loud "It's hiiiiigh noon!" comment as he activates it. While there's a lot of power behind this ability, it's also one of the most difficult Ultimates to use.

• McCree is average in most situations. Unless you're an amazing shot, he's always going to be "good enough", but almost never the "best choice". 

Comments
McCree is a weird hero compared to the others in Overwatch. He's very traditional, kind of like Soldier 76 or Widowmaker. His saving grace is definitely the Peacekeeper pistol, which just might be the best weapon in the game. Unfortunately, that's almost all that he's good for. His stun is useful, but it has a long cooldown and very short range. His Deadeye Ultimate is powerful, but hard to pull off. His combat roll is mostly useless. Fan The Hammer is only useful against tanks at close range, or as a panic button. 

That's not to say that he's a useless hero! Far from that. In fact, in good hands, he can be very devastating, popping off headshot kills from range and picking off weak targets. His bullets hit instantly, similar to Tracer and Soldier 76, so he works great at dealing heavy damage at range. 

However, there's just too much that is hard to do with McCree. He can't escape, he needs to reload often and it's pretty tough to aim well with him. He also doesn't have anything to really help his team, he's really just a gun. Paired with Reinhardt, he can be very deadly as long as he hides behind the shield. If he's in good position, he can even protect healers in the back line, but I feel like he just needs a good player behind him to really use him well. I use McCree once in a while when we need consistent damage, but I'm never amazing with him.

Worst enemy: Genji
Best teammate: Reinhardt
Most satisfying kill: Soldier 76
Rating ★★★

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 26th and 27th
Platform: PS4

Man, this game is awesome.

Our little team is still looking for the Regalia, but first, they must follow in the Oracles footsteps and find magical stones that are related to the Ramuh, the God of thunder. I fought some enemies and found the three stones out in the world, then the mission took me inside a pretty bland dungeon with nothing of particular note. That's when we received a call from Cindy. She found our car, but it's inside a large Empire base.

Noctis earns the power to summon Ramuh

This whole next section was weirdly stealth-based. I had to navigate around the military base while avoiding enemies, or taking them down with stealth warp strikes. To be honest, it kind of sucked. It wasn't long before I was just fighting enemies head on instead. In fact, I battled some pretty big armored weaponry. At one point, things got way too overwhelming, and I was sure I was going to die. That's when I was given the ability to summon Ramuh himself!

Summoning Ramuh was absolutely spectacular! I mean, it's rare that a game wows me like this... Ramuh fills the screen as he gathers lightning energy into his staff. The fact that he's taller than anything I've seen in the game so far adds a lot to the sense of scale and spectacle. Not only that, this motherfucker is so strong, he killed all enemies in the base in one shot! We picked up the Regalia and drove out of there.

The next chapter begins with text that explains that our team has heard of a secret, underwater port in a town to the south. We must head there to get on the boat, but I think I'm gonna spend some time doing side quests and other fun stuff for a while. I did a few chocobo races and am making solid progress in there. One of the cooler events had me run through an obstacle course where I had to jump through hoops scattered around the track. I also attempted an event where I raced against all 3 of my party members, but I lost. I'll need to try again!

I spent a good amount of time just completing side quests and hunts too. Some of the hunts were really cool and required some strategy, since the monsters are starting to be hard to beat. I also upgraded my Engine Blade to be very powerful, at level 3. I took photos for the guy in town too, and collected some dog tags. I really like doing hunts... 

Pokemon Moon

Date played: December 27th
Platform: 3DS

I played a bit more Pokemon with my daughter again and we had a great time. We made our way to the game's first big city, though it's name escapes me. We battled 4 trainers at the trainer school, which went well. We then changed our clothes in town.

We spent a good amount of time just fighting in tall grass near the the city. My team is starting to have a few standout members. Popplio is obviously still my main fighter, but Grubbin is starting to make some room for himself on there. He's a ground/insect type that looks like horned beetle a little bit. I like him because he looks cool, and he's got some fun attacks. He also looks like he's gonna have interesting evolutions, but we'll see.

Grubbin is carving himself a spot on my team

The best part of playing with my daughter is when we decided to play against each other. We did a local wireless battle and I pulled no punches. We had pretty equal teams, and she knows her way around the game pretty well, so I didn't give her any chances. She won. She beat me, legitimately. I was very proud of her! 

Pokemon Moon

Date played: December 26th
Platform: 3DS

Santa Claus brought me and my daughter Pokemon Moon and Pokemon Sun! I am playing Moon, and my daughter is playing Sun. It was great because she's starting to read pretty well, so she is reading a lot of stuff in the game, practicing her reading skill. We progressed together, waiting for each other so that we're at the same spot in the game.

The new Pokemon games are set in the Alola region, an archipelago reminiscent of Hawaii. The kid and his mom have just moved there. It's not long before we learn about the island tour that all trainers aspire to complete. Basically, every Pokemon trainer tries to meet with the elder of each island and completes some challenges to "win" the island.

The starter pokemon are adorable! There's Rowlet, a cute little grass type owl with a bow tie. Then there's Popplio, a water type seal. Finally, there's Litten, a little fire kitten. I chose Popplio and my daughter chose Litten. We went through the first few sections of the game, fighting random Pokemon. We both have a full team of 6 Pokemon already!

Rowlet, Litten and Popplio

There's some story going on, but it's pretty light so far. There's this girl called Lillie who carries a mysterious Pokemon in her bag. We saved her from some attacking bird Pokemon, but it's not really clear what her role is yet.

There's a ton of small, simple changes since the last game that make everything so much easier. For example, selecting a move in combat shows if it's effective, super effective, not very effective or not effective before even using it. The interface is also a lot cleaner than before. While this might seem minor, it actually streamlines gameplay quite a lot.

I'm loving what I've played so far, and I can't wait to train and level up my Pokemon. Maybe I'll even be able to trade with my daughter...

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 25th
Platform: PS4

I've played a ton of FFXV last night. I began with a simple side quest to find some ore for Dino. He rewarded me with a powerful accessory, so I re-equipped all my guys. I also spent some time getting some new skills in the skill tree. I spent a few minutes completing some hunts near Galdin Quay, fighting some heavily armored goblins. I'm using magic a lot more often now in battle, since I'm more comfortable with the Elemancy crafting. For example, I was able to craft a Firaga spell with 26 uses by using the right materials during crafting.

I slowly headed towards the story mission to find the magical sword behind the waterfall. I stopped at a new outpost along the way where I picked up a couple of hunts. I chased down some Spiracorns and Mighty Shears. These battles were both rather difficult, but with careful planning and strong offense, I took them down.

We then reached waterfall which hid the entrance to a big dungeon behind it. This was a huge ice cavern, with many different pathways and dead ends. I fought a new enemy type, Ronin. Like the legendary samurai, it wields a huge katana and a cool robe. I loved fighting these guys. At the end of the dungeon, we found a new Royal Arm. Back in Lestallum, Noctis is getting more headaches, and the earthquakes are more frequent.

During one of these headaches, Noctis had a vision of the Disc of Cauthess, the burning meteor in the middle of Duscae. He also saw the face of a gigantic Titan named Archeon, who holds the meteor in his hands. We went to Lestallum's observatory to pick a route, when we were met by Ardyn, a mysterious man who always has a big smirk. He convinced us to travel to the disc with him, with the promise of helping us get inside.

We followed him as he drove his old car and he opened up the gate for us. We found another Royal Arm near the disc, which unlocked the ability to use Armiger. This gives Noctis immense strength for a short period. It's governed by a meter that recharges during combat. We then met with the Titan himself. He's very large and reminiscent of bosses from God of War in scale.

Archeon, the Titan

However, it turns out this dude wants nothing to do with Noctis, so he attacks us, swiping at us with his huge hands. We ran away from it, but had to fight it's hand a little bit. Using the Armiger, I was able to defeat it and shatter it's left arm. It wasn't enough to stop him though. Thankfully, Ardym showed up riding a Magitek armor transport to save us. We discovered that he's a high ranking person for the Empire, a chancellor.

After these events, the Regalia was stolen, probably by the Empire. This left us stranded without a car. Also, the entire Empire is looking for us... Cindy is looking for the Regalia, but she's had no luck yet. We were then visited by a mysterious spirit, a woman who was sent by Lunafreya. She gave us cryptic information, but it was enough to know that we need to head towards a big lightning storm. I think we're trying to summon Ramuh, the God of thunder. 

Paper Mario: Color Splash

Date played: December 24th
Platform: Wii U

I played through one level of Color Splash with my daughter this morning. We went through a new level where we had to climb a mountain to find the Mountain Sage. It begins hilariously, as the gatekeeper tells us we need a permit to climb, which we must get from the park ranger. This dude was funny... He was very depressed. His house was a drab-colored place of misery. It needed a bit of color! So of course, I painted the house for him. When I was done, he still wasn't quite out of his depression, he was missing his favorite chair.

A new mechanic was introduced, unfurling. When Mario hits a special block, he can then "unfurl" certain pieces of cardboard into more complex shapes, kind of like in the Lego games. This allowed me to unfurl a box into a beautiful chair for the park ranger Toad. He then agreed to give us the permit, and we climbed the mountain.

There was lots of combat here, and a few fun traversal segments where I had to use pipes to navigate to the end. We got a paint star, then replayed the level to find the second one. This led to the discovery that there Mountain Sage was nothing but a cardboard cutout where tourists take pictures. When we confronted the gate keeper with this information, we discovered that the Mountain Sage was the gate keeper all along! He lost his memory when a part of his head was erased, so when I painted it, he revealed that he was one of the Toads with a key on his head.

You can see the yellow mini-paint star at the end of this great level

That meant we were only missing one key Toad to open the big gates at the Crimson Tower. We replayed the level where the other key Toad was and got him to the tower. We were finally able to open the door! Unfortunately, Bowser's acolytes had drained all the color from the tower with a big bucket, now being transported in an airship.

When the crew of the airship made liftoff, they made a mistake and forgot to raise the anchor, so Mario took advantage of that to climb up to the ship. We took over the ship, but then pressed a button, which started an auto-destruct sequence! We jumped off, but the explosion was enough to recolor the Crimson Tower.

Next, we started climbing the tower to get the Big Paint Star. This was clearly a much bigger dungeon than usual. As soon as we entered, we met Morton, one of the Bowser kids. He's one stupid motherfucker, that's for sure. He can't really talk, and all he wants is to stop Mario and get to the paint star. We moved through the tower, battling monsters along the way. There was a new enemy type, a set of Goombas that folds itself into an accordion shape, then climbs up and down stairs like a slinky toy. They are tougher than most enemies, so I've been using slightly more powerful cards in battle.

That's when we had to stop, but we're real close to reaching Morton and the Big Paint Star!  

Overwatch

Date played: December 21st and 23rd
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is D.Va.

Role: Tank
Difficulty: ★★
HP: 200
Armor: 400
Shields: 0
Total: 600

Favorite quote: "Is this easy mode?"
Favorite map to play on: Lijiang Tower

Appearance
D.Va is a spunky South Korean teenager. She wears a skin-tight jumpsuit decorated with vivid colors. Most of the time though, D.Va is riding her awesome mech, a large robotic exosuit armed with rapid-fire shotguns, some booster jets and a defensive matrix barrier. D.Va rides it laying down on her belly. It looks really fucking cool!

Skills

• Fusion Cannons: Rapid-fire, rotating cannons that shoot pellets similar to a shotgun. They never need to be reloaded, but they slow down D.Va's movement when she firing. They are designed for short range combat

• Defense Matrix: A special technology that shoots down any projectiles in front of D.Va when active. It can be turned on and off at will, but their use is governed by a recharging meter.

• Boosters: These things launch the mech into the air for about 2 or 3 seconds. The mech can be manoeuvered quickly and it can kind of fly for a short period. It deals 50 damage when and enemy is bumped with it. Defense matrix can be activated during flight.

• Eject: When the mech is destroyed, D.Va ejects and walks around without her suit. She is only armed with a pistol, similar to Mercy's but a bit faster.

• Ultimate - Self-destruct: D.Va ejects from her mech and sets it to self-destruct, creating a huge explosion that will kill anything in it's line of sight. This can be used while boosting, which will carry the exploding suit further. The countdown for the explosion lasts 3 seconds.

Strengths

• D.Va is a real tank. Earlier in the game's life, she was a bit too weak, but following many balance changes, she is now a viable solo tank. Her large health pool lets her survive many attacks.

• Defense Matrix is very powerful, sometimes even better than Reinhardt's shield. While it doesn't last as long as the shield, it will absorb every projectile, making it perfect against Bastion or big Ultimates like Pharah's or Roadhog's. 

• Self-Destruct is kind of hard to use as a killing tool, but it's a wonderful area denial tool. Want people to stay away from the payload? Just make the mech explode on top of it! While it has many counters, it's still a great way to make some space.

• The boosters grant D.Va excellent mobility, and great rushing potential. D.Va is the kind of hero that can bust through a defensive chokepoint and survive.

Weaknesses

• Zarya eats D.Va alive. Zarya's beam is not a projectile, so it goes straight through the defense matrix, forcing D.Va to retreat or die. 

• The cannons are very difficult to use well. You really need to be right in someone's face for them to be dangerous at all.

• Self-Destruct is a great tool, but it's a bad weapon. Most players are good enough to get out of the way rather easily, unless it's combined with other abilities like Zarya's ultimate or Mei's freezing gun.

• When her mech goes down, D.Va can't tank anymore. She has to wait quite a long time to be able to get it again. This means that in matches where the enemy team hits hard, a second tank is usually required. 

Comments
D.Va was an off-tank for a very long time. However, when changes were made to her health and her defense matrix, she became one of the best tanks in the game. I've never played her very much, but with her new buffs, I use her once in a while. I'm not very good with her, but I am always happy to have her on my team.

D.Va is really great at pushing the defensive line, similar to how Reinhardt can bust through defenses. While her defense matrix is very powerful, it's kind of tricky to use well since it doesn't last very long. Still, it's good enough to protect her team long enough for them to do some damage.

While she's a great defensive hero, she's also very mobile. This means she can retreat back to the point quickly to defend it, or push forward to get on point past a chokepoint. She also works well when teamed up with flankers, such as Tracer, Genji, Sombra or Reaper.

To make her even scarier, just pair her up with Reinhardt. This means that together, they can stop almost everything by cycling between Reinhardt's barrier shield and D.Va's defense matrix. While her guns deal very little damage past a few meters, they still hit and never have to reload. This means that she can keep pressure on the enemy team from almost any range, simply by firing into a chokepoint or important path. She won't kill anyone, but it can scare people away relatively well.

One of my brothers is really good with D.Va, and I just love it when he uses her. D.Va is one of the best heroes in the game now, so she gets picked often and is really useful. I need practice with her, but I like playing her quite a bit.

Worst enemy: Zarya
Best teammate: Reinhardt
Most satisfying kill: Tracer
Rating ★★★★★

Mario Kart 7

Date played: December 23rd
Platform: 3DS

During a break at work, I got together with two of my friends and we played through the Mushroom Cup Grand Prix at 100 cc together. I picked Donkey Kong and my friends used Yoshi and Shy Guy. I won 3 of the races and placed 3rd once. It was relatively close in most races, but the more sinuous tracks were at my advantage. My two friends have a bit less experience with the game, so their cornering wasn't good enough for those tracks.

The race where I placed 3rd was the most fun, since I was able to use items other than bananas and green shells. I lost mainly because of a well timed blue shell and a couple of bad turns. I love playing Mario Kart with friends!

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 20th and 21st
Platform: PS4

I keep getting distracted with side quests and hunts... The first quest I did had me taking pictures of the Disc of Cauthess, which is basically a giant burning meteor that sits in the middle of Duscae. When I last visited the market in Lestallum, many of the vendors there had quests for me. The first of these sent me to Furloch farms to harvest some green beans. I had to beat some monsters that stood in the way, then I picked up the beans.

While doing some of these side quests, I discovered by chance that Chocobos can swim! I found it weird that Noctis couldn't swim, but now that I can use my trusty bird to do it, it makes a bit more sense. I also ran into a very powerful monster, a Coeurl. It was higher level than me, but I was feeling brave and attacked it. The giant, huge-whiskered feline was no fucking joke. In fact, after a few seconds of offense, Noctis got knocked out before I had a chance to heal him. I used a precious Phoenix Down and ran away... I'll get you one day Coeurl!

This Coeurl kicked my ass

My next side quest sent me to hunt Bulettes, heavily armored monsters. These were a ton of fun to battle with because they move relatively slowly, but they hit hard. I helped a vendor by finding a couple of delivery vans that he lost to monster attacks. I did a bit of fishing too, including a little side quest that rewarded me with a new, upgraded fishing rod. I also found some more dog tags, did some more farming missions, more photo missions and a couple of hunts. I even upgraded the Regalia to be more fuel efficient and resistant to scratches.

I think it might be time to move on with the main quest, since I'm now level 30 or so, and the main quest is tagged as like level 12... But I'm really liking all these side missions.

Overwatch

Date played: December 19th
Platform: PS4

I know I've still got a bunch of heroes to post about, but I have to talk about Symmetra's recent changes. She's almost like an entirely new character now! I've talked about her in depth before, but she's been changed so much, most of what I wrote doesn't apply anymore. There's a whole list of changes, so here are the patch notes for reference.

Symmetra has gone Super-Saiyan thanks to her new changes!

• New Abilities
  • Photon Barrier
    • Replaces her existing Photon Shield ability
    • Generates a large energy barrier in front of Symmetra that blocks enemy fire as it travels forward
  • Shield Generator (New Ultimate Ability)
    • Symmetra's Ultimate ability now offers a choice between her Teleporter and a new option: Shield Generator
    • Shield Generator places a device that grants additional shields to any ally within the its effective radius, regardless of barriers, walls, or obstacles between heroes and the Shield Generator
• Photon Projector (Primary Fire)
  • Range has been increased from 5 meters to 7 meters
• Sentry Turret
  • Number of turrets that can be carried has been increased from 3 turrets to 6 turrets
  • Cooldown has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds
• Teleporter
  • Decreased health from 200 to 50
  • Increased shields from 0 to 350
• Photon Shield
• Replaced with the new Photon Barrier ability

Last night, I played about 6 or 7 matches, all of them with Symmetra. She is WAY more powerful than before, and I've used her in all game types effectively. Her turrets can now be replaced quickly, thanks to the lower cooldown, so that makes her a lot more agile during battles. The longer range on her main weapon is also a huge bonus. I've managed to kill a lot more people in the heat of battle thanks to the added range. There's nothing as satisfying as melting a Zarya to death just after she popped her bubble....

Symmetra's little 25 HP shield is gone and has been replaced with a brand new ability, the Photon Barrier. That thing is a fucking game changer... It's very similar to Reinhardt's shield, but it's a projectile. So basically, she throws a giant shield that travels forward until it's center hits a solid object, or until it's shot down. It travels fast enough that it's rarely shot down though. I still have a lot to learn on how to use it, but it's been amazing so far.

Finally, she is now the only hero to have TWO ultimate abilities! In addition to her teleporter, she now has the Shield Generator. It's a device that is deployed the same way as the teleporter. It grants a large, 75 HP shield to all allies in range. The big thing about it is that it has a HUGE range, so it can be placed far from battle while still offering it's benefits. It also lasts until either a point is captured, or until it's destroyed. Adding 75 HP to all allies is fucking brutal, and it works really well.

I'm really enjoying the new Symmetra, and I feel like she's now a viable choice in all matches. She's a lot more fun to play, a way more active and much, much deadlier. In fact, I got gold medals for eliminations more than once, and I feel like I was very helpful to the overall team. Oh, and we won all matches but one.

Updated Rating ★★★★

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 18th
Platform: PS4

You know what? I fucking love this game!

I don't even know where to start... I spent about 3 hours playing, so a lot of stuff happened. I spent a shit load of time just completing little side quests. For example, I saved a few wounded Chocobos, I captured some frogs for the crazy lady, brought back ores to Dino in Galdin Quay and I found some dog tags for the soldier guy.

Along the way, I fought many battles against random enemies, including a pretty epic fight against a giant frog! I'm definitely getting better and better at combat. I'm getting new skills all the time for my team in the Ascension too, so that's been helpful. I also stopped to fish a few times because I enjoy it. While it's great that I'm catching good fish for cooking, I'm still convinced that there's more to this mini-game than meets the eye. It's rare that Final Fantasy has stuff like this where there isn't a hidden payoff somewhere.

One of the more interesting things I did was to compete in Chocobo races! I'm pretty sure I'm still missing some techniques or methods to succeed, but I still managed to win the first two races. These are one on one races against other party members. So far, I've beaten Prompto and Gladio on two different tracks. Prompto was easy, but Gladio took me a few attempts. It's really fun!

Later, I went on the most difficult hunt yet. I was tasked with killing 3 Mindflayers at night time. These creatures appear to be wizards of some sort. They deal lots of damage and are pretty resistant to attacks, but their key ability is to inflict a variety of status ailments on the party. I struggled to keep everyone alive, but after many careful attacks and a few more recovery items than usual, I beat them. It was a really cool moment.

Then, I finally decided to move on with the main quest a little bit. This meant traveling to Lestallum, a large city to the west. It was a long and enjoyable scenic drive. However, I wasn't prepared for the size of this city. I don't know why, but I assumed that all the cities in the game were small outposts, like Hammerhead. Lestallum is a large, sprawling city that is littered with shops, restaurants, a market, a hotel, a huge power plant and lots of traffic! I simply wasn't expecting this, but I'm really happy about it.

Lestallum is beautiful

We met with Iris, Gladio's little sister. She managed to escape the attacks and fled the city along with a few others to Lestallum. She was clearly very happy to see our crew, but she seemed particularly fond of Noctis... In fact, it quickly became apparent that she has quite a crush on him.

After learning more from her on the events following the attack, we rested at the city's beautiful hotel. The next day, Noctis woke up to find all his friends were gone to visit the city. Iris stayed behind and offered to give Noctis a quick tour of the city. I learned a lot of cool stuff about Lestallum. For example, only the women of the city work in the large power plant.

While that was all great and interesting information, it was pretty obvious that Iris was using the tour as an excuse to spend time with Noctis, and even flirted a little bit. Of course, Noctis has his own thing going on with Lunafreya, but I'm not quite sure he's in love with her, there hasn't been much said about their relationship.

Either way, after the tour, Iris left and Noctis regrouped with his friends. I spent a good amount of time shopping for new weapons here, since they had huge upgrades available to me. I also picked up a good amount of side quests, so I've got a shit ton of stuff to do. Finally, I got a hint from the others that escaped the attacks that there was a powerful sword hidden behind a waterfall somewhere to the west, so that's the next stop in the main quest.

Chrono Trigger

Date played: December 16th
Platform: Vita

Well, I did a shit ton of side quests yesterday! It began with a mission that takes place between 600 A.D. and the present. In some ruins, the ghost of Cyrus roams. Cyrus was a good friend of Glenn who was killed during the attacks from Magus in 600 A.D.. That's also when Glenn was turned into Frog. So anyway, we had to find a way to rid the ruins of the ghost in the present.

Back in 600 A.D., I hired some construction dudes to fix up some holes in the ruin floor. This would allow us to get deeper into the present day ruins. The fucking construction guys are pussies though, so they ran out every time they fixed a hole, waiting for me to kill the ghosts and monsters that lurk within. Eventually, I reached the tomb of Cyrus. There was a cool scene here which ends with the legendary Masamune sword being powered up to it's final form.

The next side quest I chose was in the desert of 600 A.D.. Apparently, the formerly lush forest was turned to a lifeless desert when I told a lady in 12 000 B.C. to plant a tree. We jumped into a vortex in the middle of the desert and found that monsters were preventing the forest from growing back. I had to bring Magus here to use water magic because that's all that really worked against the monsters. There was a boss too, and he was pretty tough. It was a giant skeleton, similar to the one I fought on the bridge earlier in the game.

After the cave was cleared, I spoke with Fiona, the lady who wanted to regrow the forest. She was grateful, but still didn't have much hope for the forest. Surprisingly, Robo offered to stay behind and use his robotic skills to mend the forest back to health! We then traveled to the present and found a beautiful, lush forest waiting for us. There was a new building too, a shrine to honor Fiona and Robo. Inside, I found Robo and booted him back up.

The next scene was one of my favorites in the game yet. The whole party set up camp in the forest and had a bit of a chat. Robo had a lot of time to think, and he now believes that the time gates were not made by Lavos. Instead, he believes that someone else is trying to revisit events of the past, though it's not too clear why yet.

The campfire scene

After the chatter died down and the crew went to sleep, Lucca woke up and used a nearby time game to travel to 990 A.D., ten years before the present. She went to her house to stop a horrible event... Her mother was always in a bad mood in the present, bitching about her husband and daughter often. It turns out, that's because she lost the use of her legs in 990 A.D. as a young Lucca watched in horror.

Lucca wants to save her mother's legs by traveling back in time to the event. There was a note on the floor that said the password was the mother's name. In the main room of the house, one of Tabban's machines is activated when the mother tries to clean it. I honestly had no idea what the mother's name was, so I failed horribly and had to watch the horrible scene. I usually don't do this, but I looked up the password in a guide. It turns out, her name is Lara, but I'm playing this on a Vita... So the password was actually L1, O, R1, O. That's bullshit.

So anyway, next, I went to the future to look around with my flying Epoch. I stumbled upon a mysterious cavern. The only thing inside was the Son of Sun, a big, dangerous boss. In fact, this was easily the most difficult battle I've had in the game. It was really tricky... At first, I thought water magic would be the way to go, but it didn't work at all. Every attack resulted in a crushing series of counter attacks that deal fire damage... The boss himself is surrounded by 5 floating fires, so that hurt too. I died a few times here.

After my first death, I equipped some fire absorbing gear and whatever else I had to reduce fire damage. This helped, but it didn't solve the problem. I tried a bunch of different things until eventually, I found that single physical attacks were the key. I had to attack the fires until I found the "right" one. This would then deal damage to the boss directly. The fires rotate every few turns, so I had to repeat the process pretty often. I beat it and was rewarded with the infamous Moon Stone!

I flew to 65 million B.C. with the stone in hand and placed it in the Sun Shrine. I then traveled to 12 000 B.C., 600 A.D. and the present to check up on it. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the present, so I looked around for a while. I spent a lot of time talking to the residents of the various villages here with no success... That's until I saw a shiny, gleaming light on the mayor's house in the southern village. He had taken the stone because he found it interesting, but since he's now a really generous dude (thanks beef jerky!), he just gave it back to me.

In the future of 2300 A.D., I picked up the now fully powered up Sun Stone! Lucca was able to harness it's energy and create herself a new weapon, the Wondershot! This thing is weird, since it deals a wildly varying amount of damage with each shot. This makes it very powerful, but also very unreliable... It's good enough that I decided to make my new party Crono, Robo and Lucca.

I got a chance to try out my new and improved crew with the next side quest... When I was looking for the missing Moon Stone, I stumbled upon a dude named Toma, and later, in the present, his grave. He's on a mission to find a special Rainbow Shell. His ghost appeared and told me to explore an island to the North-West of his grave. It turns out, the island was home to the ancient ruins of Tyrano Lair!

Surprisingly, most of the dungeon was still intact. Even more surprising, it's filled with dinosaurs! I fought many of them, through many different levels. The monsters were pretty rough here, but my new team was great! Lucca's magic is powerful, even if it's limited to fire. The real challenge was the boss though. The giant T-Rex is back, and he's meaner than ever! I dished out my strongest attacks and kept my team healed up and we won, but it wasn't easy.

I got the Rainbow Shell for my efforts, which was stored in the castle in 600 A.D.. It seems like there's more to this quest, so I went to the castle in 1000 A.D., but the guards won't let me in... I think I might try bringing Marle next time, she might be able to sweet talk the guards, her being a princess and all. 

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 14th
Platform: PS4

I started with a simple Cindy mission and scored some paint for my efforts. I then spent a bit of time fishing, but didn't really see much point to it aside from good cooking ingredients. The team reached Chocobo Wiz, where they usually rent chocobos. The owner says he can't rent them because a monster has been hunting them. They call him Deadeye.

This was a pretty cool segment, where I had to tail a large creature in the swamp for a few minutes without being seen. I failed it a couple times, then passed. I then fought the Behemoth out in the open. There were large barrels in the path that are meant to be blown up with fire spells to damage the beast. It worked wonderfully.

Then.... CHOCOBOS!

OMG OMG OMG!

I love the chocobos in this game. They can be rented for up to 7 days for a small amount of gil. They run fast. They can jump. They can flutter their wings to slow down their descent. They are the cutest little birds in the whole wide world!

Excuse my gushing. Anyway, I completed a few more side quests, like taking pictures and hunting. I also had a cool little conversation with Prompto when we stopped at a hotel for the night. I love these little moments... 

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 13th
Platform: PS4

Things are starting to open up quite a bit more now...

I met with Cor at the tomb of the wise to better understand what's happening. I gotta be honest, there's many details of the story that escape me. Like, most of the time, I don't really know what's happening with the story, but it's still pretty enjoyable. The combat and exploration is so good that I don't mind the occasional confusion.

The tomb of the wise was my first real dungeon. It isn't part of the open world, instead, it is it's own enclosed area. I explored it all and found some interesting treasures, including a couple of "machinery" weapons. I definitely don't understand how to use these weapons just yet... I need to try them out again. At the end of the dungeon, I fought a giant spider thing, the first real boss in the game. It wasn't very difficult, but it was fun! My efforts were rewarded with my first "Royal Arm". These are extremely powerful weapons, but they drain HP when used.

The next mission had our little team assaulting an imperial blockade. I was split from the group for a short time, teaming up with Cor to attack one side of the blockade while my friends attacked the other side. We then joined up to fight a big boss! An imperial military leader hopped into a giant armored cuirass and attacked us.

This fight was easily the most interesting in the game so far. The area around the boss had platforms where a bunch of snipers were set up. On the ground, powerful foot soldiers protect the cuirass. I first took out the snipers by warping to them, then took out the ground troops, leaving only the boss. This guy hit real hard, so when I missed my dodges, I had to find cover. I even used a potion during this battle. It was fucking awesome!

After the boss, I began chapter 3. The world is a lot more open and I can now manually drive the Regalia anywhere. Apparently, the Empire is out to find us, and they've sent out Magitek armor to do it. So now, at random times, a large floating transport sends out a bunch of enemies for us to fight.

Driving the Regalia is a fun way to explore

I've taken advantage of my new found liberty by completing a bunch of hunts and side quests. I found more dog tags, I've hunted various monsters and I've explored the new areas a little bit. I also spent a few minutes fishing for a side quest, but forgot to turn it in when I caught my prize... I even fought my first Flan, a gelatinous monster that is vulnerable to magic and resistant to all weapons. While it wasn't too hard to beat, it was quite spectacular and it was lots of fun!

I really enjoy using magic in this game. It feels like it's powerful, and should be used sparingly, but when it's needed, it works really well. It's also pretty interesting that I can affect the type of magic I can wield by adding items to the crafting process. I'm also enjoying the upgrade tree. It's pretty flexible and has a lot of powerful stuff in there.

Speaking of upgrades, rather than advancing the main quest, I went back to Hammerhead to see Cid and Cindy. Cid was able to upgrade my first sword so that it's worth equipping again. As for Cindy, well she sent me to complete a few side missions, The missions were pretty simple, but they rewarded me for upgrades for the Regalia. I have new paint, new decals and even a special wax. The wax increases the car's speed! There's just so much cool stuff to do in this game, I love it!

Final Fantasy XV

Date played: December 10th and 11th
Platform: PS4

Final Fantasy XV is finally here! After years and years of development, a couple of name changes and many controversies, the next game in the revered franchise has been released. I've been a fan of the series for a very long time. My first experience was with FFVI, known as FFIII when it was first released in North America.

In the PS1 era, I spent a lot of time with FFVII, FFVIII and FFIX. Then on PS2, I played FFX. Later, on other platforms, I went back to FFIII, FFIV and FFV. I skipped FFXI and XII... I played XIII and I just didn't like it that much, so I also skipped XIV and all the XIII sequels.

I was very skeptical of XV, since I didn't like the last few games in the series, but so far, I'm very impressed. The game stars four young men; Noctis, Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto. Noctis, the main hero, is the prince of the kingdom of Lucis. He sets out with his three friends to go to the kingdom of Altissia and find his fiance (I think?) Lunafreya.

Their fancy car, the Regalia, breaks down on the road so they push it to the nearby town of Hammerhead. That's where I met Cindy and Cid, a couple of mechanics. Cindy agrees to fix the car, but gives us a few jobs to complete while she works on the Regalia, and that's where the game really starts.

Final Fantasy XV is an open world, much like the older games in the series. While many areas are inaccessible for now, there's still a lot of land to explore. There are treasures, ingredients and other things to collect. There are many little towns, each with their own parking spot. There are plenty of campsites scattered around, which the party can use to rest. There's also fishing.

The Regalia is weird too. I can't actually drive it yet, and it can only stay on roads. It's also kind of slow. This makes travel a little bit tedious overall. Walking is also pretty damn slow, even when sprinting.

Each little town has a restaurant, and the cook will offer monster hunts. I spent a lot of my time with these and it was lots of fun. A big reason I enjoyed these is because I just love the combat in FFXV. After more than 6 hours with the game, I'm still wrapping my head around it,

At it's core, combat is relatively simple. There's a button to attack, a button to dodge and a button to "warp". Holding down attack will string a bunch of attacks together, while holding down dodge will avoid attacks while draining MP. Warp allows for some long range attacks at the cost of MP. It can also be used to retreat to safe spots to recover MP.

More damage is done when hitting from behind, and special link attacks can be triggered when fighting close to your party members. There are also multiple weapon types, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. There's also magic, but in this game, it's treated as a consumable item, so I typically use magic only on large groups of enemies.

Finally, there are special techniques that can be triggered. There is a tech bar that fills up during battle. When a special technique is used, it consumes a certain portion of the bar. These techniques are performed by Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto. So far, Gladio has been all about big, strong attacks. Ignis is more support, offering buffs and healing. Prompto specializes in guns that hit a single target.

The story gets crazy real quick. After a few side quests and lots of exploration, shit hit the fan. Reports from newspapers and citizens state that the capital city of Lucis has been invaded by the forces of Niflheim. The reports also say that the King, Noctis and Lunafreya were killed in the attacks. Obviously, Noctis is still alive, but his father's and Lunafreya's fates are unknown.

The team of young men turn back and head towards Lucis to see what really happened. It turns out, the reports were mostly true... The king is dead, and Niflheim has successfully invaded Lucis. They turn back and try to meet with the man who gave them information on the attacks, though I'm not quite sure how he fits into the picture yet.

There's a ton of wonderful things happening in Final Fantasy XV. It's a big game, with lots to do and lots to discover. I can't wait to jump back in...

Chrono Trigger

Date played: December 7th
Platform: Vita

I raided Ozzie's fort back in 600 A.D.. Ozzie, Flea and Slash have retreated there after we defeated Magus. Since then, Magus has joined my team, but the trio is still as fierce as ever. The fort was a really small dungeon, with most of it being boss fights and hilarious dialogue from Ozzie. I picked up some very strong equipment for Magus in a hidden back room too.

Ozzie, Slash and Flea must fend for themselves now that Magus is on my team

I had to fight Slash, then Flea, then Ozzie. These individual battles were really easy. Then I had to fight them all at once! They even had dual and triple techs going. I stole lots of good stuff from them with Ayla and defeated them rather easily. After defeating Ozzie for good, I went back to Medina in 1000 A.D. and noticed that the monsters who live there are super nice now!

A large floating structure floats above the world in every era past the Dark Ages. It's called the Black Omen and it's run by the Queen of Zeal. It's ominous presence and massive size were intriguing, so I went in. That was a pretty bad idea. I fought a ton of powerful enemies, the most powerful I've seen so far. I got lots of experience from it, and I've been getting Magus new techs.

I picked up incredibly powerful equipment along the way. I reached a save point and talked to a couple of Nu people. It became apparent that this might be a way to end the game, so I decided to get out of there to complete more side quests before continuing.

Following one of the hints from Gaspar, I tried finding a ghost in 1000 A.D., but after scouring every place I could, I didn't find him. I got the King really angry by giving him jerky though, so that was pretty funny. I think there might be new islands to explore, so I'll look around some more for the ghost.

Chrono Trigger

Date played: December 5th
Platform: Vita

Soooooo much stuff happened!

In 12 000 B.C., I explored the small island where the Earthbound Ones live and found none other than Magus himself! Remember when Janus disappeared? Well, it turns out, he was pulled into a time portal during the events surrounding the Mammon machine. He was transported to the Dark Ages of 600 A.D. and grew up. He became Magus.

Long story short, he joined our party and pledged to help us defeat Lavos and find a way to get Crono back. This led us to the End of Time. We also discovered that the old man who lives there is actually one of the sages from the Kingdom of Zeal who got sucked into the portal at the same time as Janus. He explained that the being who gave us the Epoch would know a way to find Crono.

Jump to the future of 2300 A.D. where we met with the weird creature who gave us the Epoch. He says that he can help us, but that he needs us to find a clone of Crono. He says there's a dude who hangs around festivals that can make one...

Jump back to the present of 1000 A.D. at the millennial fair. I found the guy, but he wants 40 silver tickets to even talk about making a Crono clone. So I fought the robot thing at the fair that rewards 15 tickets until I had enough, then went back to the guy.  I then had to complete a ridiculous minigame where I had to mimic the clone's actions by pressing buttons at the right time. I got myself a Crono clone and went back to the guy in 2300 A.D..

With the clone in hand, the weird creature presents us with the next portion of his plan. He gives us the titular chrono trigger. It's a device that is supposed to allow us to retrieve Crono by putting the clone in his place. To get it to work, we had to climb the nearby mountain called Death Peak.

To mix things up a little, I decided to bring party members that I don't use a lot. I picked Magus, Marle and Frog. Magus is a new party member, so I wanted to see what he can do. He's basically a powerful wizard that can use all magic types, making him very versatile. He also hits pretty hard with his scythe. He's not as strong as Ayla or anything, but he packs a good punch. Marle was a lot of fun to use also, mainly because she now has a haste spell. That thing is real fucking powerful. I didn't like using Frog so much. His tech skills seem weak, making Ayla or Robo a much better choice for me.

Death Peak was a pretty good way to level these guys up a little bit. Most of the enemies are rather weak here, with one exception. The Lavos Spawn are like little baby Lavos. They hit real hard... The trick is to only attack their head and ignore their shell, but it was still a good challenge considering I was using lower level characters. After lots of climbing, fighting and exploring, I reached the peak.

This might just be the best scene in the game so far. When we used the chrono trigger, we were transported to the exact moment where Crono disappeared during the Lavos battle. Everything was frozen in place though, as if viewing a picture. So we replaced Crono with the clone and returned to the peak of the mountain. When Crono wakes up, Marle embraces him warmly and explains everything that happened. It was a very touching moment. The rest of the party was also quite happy.

Welcome back Crono!

We went back to Gaspar, the old man at the End of Time. He explained that we could fight Lavos now, but it might be better if we completed a few more quests before that. He listed out a ton of events that are happening in different time periods, so I'll have to go and hunt for these quests. I started in 600 A.D. and found Ozzie's fort, so I think that'll be my first stop.

I fucking love how this game is presented and how I have a bunch of side missions to complete if I want to. I can't wait to see it all!

Forza Horizon 3

Date played: December 4th
Platform: Xbox One

I played a bit more Forza and did a few random things. I spent a good amount of time completing the championship I had already started, where I raced my trusty Ferrari Dino against some other Ferraris and some Lamborghinis. I was able to upgrade two festival sites and bought an Ultima GTR in the process. That car is super weird... It's smaller than a Fiat, but it's extremely fast and nimble. It's lots of fun to drive.

The Ferrari Dino racing in the middle of the night

I also raced in my trusty Ariel Nomad, the insanely cool off road buggy. As usual, it was a real joy to drive and race on the bumpy terrain. Along the way, I found a couple of barn finds. The first is a very old and famous Ferrari while the second is an odd Lamborghini SUV from the 80's.

Finally, I attempted a very difficult bucket list challenge that put me in the seat of a rally racing Audi. The event starts in the deepest parts of the Outback and tasks me with driving to Surfer's Paradise as fast as possible. I really must be off the mark because after about 5 attempts, I wasn't even close to the target time. I'm probably not following a good route, but it still seems really difficult.

Forza Horizon 3

Date played: December 3rd
Platform: Xbox One

It's been a while since I played this game, but I really felt like racing some cars so I booted up Forza Horizon 3 for a few races. I continued a championship in Surfer's Paradise that pits Chevrolet against Dodge. My trusty Camaro was the car for the job. It's a car that is really fun to drive overall... I started messing with gear ratios so that I had more acceleration on courses that had many corners, and more top speed for longer tracks.

I also did one event in an old Holden GTS. It's a fast car for it's class, but it's tires were a little too slippery for my tastes. After winning the championship, I unlocked a new showcase event. I was thrown in the cockpit of the incredible Lamborghini Centenario and raced against a motherfucking jet!

Jet vs Lamborghini

This was the coolest of the showcase events yet. The blaring jet engine would shake the ground as it flew just above my head. It left beautiful smoke trails in it's wake, making for a spectacular show. I loved this event quite a bit, particularly when I jumped over the fucking plane in slow motion. That shit rocks. 

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 30th
Platform: Vita

Man, some crazy shit happened in Chrono Trigger...

When I reached the bottom of the Ocean Palace, I had to fight the Golem Twins, similar to the Golem I fought earlier, but now there are two! I stuck to the same strategy I had before. I brought Crono, Robo and Lucca and simply alternated between my strongest magic attacks.

Once I beat them, I reached the Mammon machine, the Queen, Schala and the Prophet. It turns out, the knife Melchior gave us was none other than Masamune in disguise! The sword attempts to stop the Mammon machine, and Lavos, but it isn't strong enough. Lavos himself opens up a portal and attacks us... Also, it turns out that the Prophet is none other than Magus! I am not sure how he made it there, but clearly, the Queen wasn't aware.

We tried fighting Lavos but failed miserably. In the process, Crono somehow disappeared out of thin air, then Magus tried to stop Lavos. That also failed, but we managed to close the portal. Schala used the last of her power to send us back to safety, but Crono is still nowhere to be found.

We woke up in the Earthbound Ones' village. The entire Kingdom of Zeal has disappeared, crumbling under it's own weight as the Mammon machine's magical power was no longer available. The floating islands crashed into the sea and only one small island remains. The residents were happy to inform us that the Epoch survived the disaster, and Crono's pendant was somehow found at our side when we got teleported by Schala.

Unfortunately, Dalton is also still around. He barged in during a conversation and proclaimed himself the new ruler of the world. He even calls it the Kingdom of Dalton! He attacks us with powerful magic and steals the Epoch before we could even react.

The party wakes up in a strange room, with all their items, money and equipment gone. This turned out to be a prison cell inside the Blackbird, the giant aircraft that was being built by Dalton. It seems it survived the disaster of the Mammon machine and now rules the skies. I found a way out of the cell through some air vents and explored the dungeon to find my stuff.

Ayla, Robo and Lucca ride on the Blackbird's wing as the Epoch flies below

After beating a ton of enemies and recovering my belongings from treasure chests scattered about, we found our way onto one of the gigantic wings of the Blackbird. That's where I fought Dalton's last line of defense, the Golem Boss. He was ridiculously easy to beat...he barely even attacked me.

It turns out, Dalton had made some pretty significant modifications to the Epoch as it can now fly! He even renamed it the Aero-Dalton Imperial... He was flying it around under the Blackbird, so we jumped onto it, beat Dalton and reclaimed our time machine. Lucca blew up the Blackbird in the process by pressing the wrong button on the Epoch. I'm really curious to see what will happen next now...