PvZ Garden Warfare Variety Pack DLC

I haven't been able to play as much of this game as I want to, but I figured I had to squeeze it in last night, being that they released new DLC.  Best part about the new DLC?  It's price tag.  Zero Brains. That's right, FREE DLC.  Here are the major patch features thanks to the official Plants vs Zombies Facebook Page

"Major Features:

- New Map: Chomp Town – playable in Garden Ops, Team Vanquish and Gnome Bomb. Yes Crazy Dave IS riding a Chomper… Why??? Because he’s CRAAAZYYY!

- New Game Mode: Gnome Bomb – be the 1st team to destroy all three gardens or graveyards with the explosive new Gnome Bomb.

- Pirates have invaded Port Scallywag and Sharkbite Shores in Garden Ops

- New Abilities for all characters – new character abilities are tucked away in the sticker shop (hint: Crazy Pack and higher are your best bet to get them! Supremium Pack, Incredi-Plant Pack & Vengeful Zomboss Pack have the highest chances to get them)

- 125 new customization items added to the sticker shop – spread across all characters/rarities…

- Added Doom-shroom potted plant consumable for plants

- Added Barrel Pirate, Treasure Map Pirate consumable for zombies"

Now the patch also fixes a lot of little glitches and bugs.. However I still get kicked a lot..  They seem to be working on it though, supposedly.  I've had issues with being kicked since day 1.  Mainly with Garden Ops, but now it's everything.  It isn't super bad, just a bit annoying.  Also..  Do any other adults play this game?  Haha.  Maybe kids are just super fascinated with making noises and calling everyone stupid on their mics.. 

Anyways the new game mode Gnome Bomb is pretty cool.  Always nice to have a new mode to play.  Now come on Titanfall.. It's your turn!   I had a lot of wine while playing so I wasn't very good at it.  I played sniper Cactus.  I do LOVE me some Cactus snipe-age.  Probably my favorite character to play.  So yeah...  The new DLC is worth the freeness.  Hopefully they get their servers sorted out soon and they launch it for PC too.  I really want to play it on PC!

Yay for the Year of Luigi!

My Club Nintendo gift finally arrived!  Only 5000 pieces in the world and I was lucky enough to get one.  I mean I had to spend some extra money to get enough points to get it, but oh well!  It's awesome and I couldn't have passed it up.  Here are some shots of it!  I LOVE it!

5 Games I'd love to see revamped.

With the gigantic selection of beautiful, graphically inclined, games that come out these days, it's hard to want to look back at all of the graphically impaired, messy, blocky piles of cartridges stored away in a bin somewhere in your mom's basement.  Call me nostalgic, but I just miss some of that simple fun.  With all of the newer ways to get games out there today, I'd really LOVE to see some classics I used to play as a kid, revamped.  Not just re-released on Virtual Console either.. I want new!  Now I didn't always have the popular titles as a kid, so don't hate on my selection, but here are 4 games I think deserve a new life.  

1.  Duck Hunt- I thought for sure with the release of the wii, I would once again be able to enjoy my favorite NES classic of all time.  They released so many accessory guns and I just waited and waited.  I'm still waiting today.  I understand that Wii Play tried with the target shooting, but it just wasn't even close.  I'd even be ok with an NES remix game that had SOMETHING to do with Duck Hunt.  I mean it's iconic with the bright orange NES Zapper gun and the laughing dog you tried so hard to shoot.  And now...it all just sits there.. Useless due to new televisions.  It can't be hard to re-release this in 3d with some nice graphics and some added content.  Even if they release it as a download only game on the e-shop, it's still something.  I just feel it's too big of a game to just fade away into the abyss.

2. Q*Bert-  I never played much of the arcade version/nes version, but I grew up on Q*bert 3 for the SNES.  They released a theme-able version of the original for ios a while back, but it got taken off the app store and even if you still own it, you can't actually open it.  I think even if they only release a mobile version, it would still be really fun game that they can add so much to.  They've already done so much to pac-man, and the idea of Q*bert is a little more in depth.  I'd just love to see something more like Q*bert 3, even if it is the same game with new levels.  @!#?@!

3.  Streets of Rage- I really miss the side scrolling, button mashing, beat em' up games.  Streets of Rage had it all.  Mainly Streets of Rage 2 that is, but I'd love to see the series revamped.  It was one of the most beautiful games of it's time.  Bright colors, detail, fun scenery and also a character who roller bladed.  Not sure why, but I was always Blade.  All around "cool" game.

4.  Congo's Caper's-  I'm sure a lot of people have never played this game, or don't even know what it is, but let me tell you... This game was awesomesauce!  Giant dinosaurs, devils, monkeys, super crazy flashy super jumping congo, slot machines, drunk cavemen... What wasn't there to like.  This was one of the few games I had for SNES,  and I'm really glad I had it.  I would have been out experiencing a true gem.  The game is all around fun.  I'd really like to see the series come back, but I know it will never happen.  One can only hope though.

5. Secret of Mana-  I got this game with Congo's Caper's actually.  I took over Congo, my sister took over this one.  I always admired the beauty of this game though.  The box contained a beautiful map and poster.  Actually I found it on google.. ----> That's the poster.  So green, so erie, so peaceful..  I was never good at this game when I was young.  I didn't really ever get what to do.  But I loved watching my sister play it and when I got older, I played it.  This series needs a definite revamp.  With today's graphics it'd have the power to be one of the best looking games of all time.  

PvZ Garden Warfare Review!

I've been waiting for this game since I initially heard about it at E3.  I've always been a huge fan of the series and when you put the series into a 3rd person shooter/ tower defense game, you can definitely count me in.  I pre-ordered this for PC, but couldn't wait until whenever they decide to release it, so I bought it for the Xbox 360.  I'm still waiting to buy a next gen console.  They just don't seem worth it right now.  Anyways.  I played PVZ GW a lot over the weekend.  I won't say that the game lived up to my expectations of it, but I'd definitely say it's worth picking up.  My biggest problem with the game is the lack of game modes.  I'll briefly run through the modes.. 

Garden Ops- This is a 4 player horde/wave mode.  You are the plants defending your garden from waves of hungry zombies.  There is a pretty neat slot machine feature to this mode that spins to choose what larger zombie doom you will have to endure.  You can also get a jackpot which will give you a lot of extra coins to spend on upgrades.  I can't wait to play this with friends.  

Welcome Mat-  This is where you go to learn the game without being slaughtered.  It really is just a training mode and so I don't really think it counts as a full mode.

Team Vanquish-  This is Plants vs. Zombies.. whatever team gets 50 "vanquishes" wins.  Like Team Deathmatch.  Simple as that.  Reviving your teammates will also take a kill away from the other team, so make sure you revive!  I don't think many people realize this for some reason. 

Gardens and Graveyards-  This is your typical capture a base and move on.  There are I think 7 bases that the zombies must capture from the plants. 

There is also a "classic" mode to each mode which doesn't allow upgrades.  And that's it..  

So 3 modes.  I personally found Garden Ops to be the funnest, followed by Gardens and Graveyards and then Team Vanquish.  I just feel they need more modes because the game will get boring after too long cycling through only 3 modes.  

Now where the game excels.  It's beautiful, really fits into the PVZ world, and plays really smooth.  There is a lot of content for characters too.  You can upgrade a lot and make your character look and play awesomely.  You can also use your earned coins to buy a pack of cards that give you reinforcements that you can plant in pots around the level to help your team out, or that help unlock new characters.

The characters include 4 classes on each side with several (maybe 5?) variants of each.  Unlocking them all will take a lot of time though.  You have to get pieces of each variant in the card packs until you get all of the needed pieces to unlock the character.  There are cheap and expensive card packs.  The expensive ones are of course the ones that will give you the best things.  You can gain more coins by completing little challenges such as 3 revives or healing someone 3 times.  

Overall my experience with the game was good.  There seem to be a few bugs (no surprise for a new game), but I'm not sure if they are happening with everyone, or just me.  After a defeat or completion of Garden Ops, before any score or anything is shown, I am immediately kicked.  I'd like to see how I did, but no.  Kicked straight to the main menu.  I also had a lot of trouble being able to join a Garden Ops game.  I'll try again soon though and hopefully they fixed it if it was an issue.  I'm also not sure how balanced the characters are.  

My zombie of choice would have to be the Mad Scientist, and my plant of choice has to be the Cactus.  Now I haven't unlocked many additional characters, but I plan to soon.  I just need a few more hours in the day or less games to play..

Final Verdict.. 7 brains out of 10. 

Diablo 3 Patch 2.0.1!

If there was an award for the one game that has consumed the most amount of my time, it would probably go to Diablo 3.  I won't say that all of that time was well spent, due to the fact that the game was super broken pretty much since launch, but I will say that I'm glad I've stuck it out because the newest patch has fixed 90% of everything that was wrong with the game.  With The D3 expansion, Reaper of Souls, set to launch on March 25th, I'm actually enjoying getting my character ready.  You can view the full change log HERE,  but I want to share my favorite changes.  I play as a Wizard and a Witch Doctor, but mainly a wizard named Jofftin!

So the first thing I'll go over is that they got rid of Nephalem Valor.  NV was one of their first attempts to fix the game/add more playability after you maxed out your level, granting 1 stack (up to 5) for each boss or event you beat.  It then boosted your magic and gold find and supposedly increased your chances of better loot.  Umm did it though?  You also lost all of your stacks if you changed any of your skills and you needed full stacks to pursue the keys for infernal machine quest (now only in Torment mode).  I never seemed to get any good loot from having 5 stacks of NV so it will bring me to my next favorite change.

LOOT 2.0!  Where have you been all my life?  This introduces "smart" loot.  Smart loot gives you a REALLY high chance to get your class items.  No more constantly getting stuff you can't use.  I played about 4 hours last night and got about 80% Wizard stuff.  The loot is also stuff you can use or just barely under!  WHAT?  Yeah I was able to use a lot of the stuff I picked up along with 3 legendary drops!  Yes 3 legendary drops in 4 hours.  One from a random small chest, one from a dead body, and one from the Skeleton King.  My fiance got 3 legendary items and a set item in the same time.  It's so fun playing when you are rewarded with items that are actually going to help you.

They also changed/fixed/boosted class skills and runes.  I really think it is a lot more balanced now.  They got rid of some skill runes and replaced them with better ones so definitely check out your skills and see what new ones there are.  Check the full change log for explanations and stat changes.

They revamped difficulties too.  No more dumb monster power,  No more Normal, Nightmare, Hell, Inferno.  Now you get Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment 1-6.  I played on Master and was rocking through it pretty fast.  I also gained about 4 levels of paragon.  They added Reflection Pools which boost XP by 25% for a set amount of time or until you die.  They also added Nephalem Glory like they have in the console version which gives you more damage and is stackable up to 3 times.

They updated the graphics a little by adding reflections.  It fixed the weird motion blur I was having, but then again my video card updated too so I'm not sure what happened but it looks amazing.  Also I'm not sure when it happened, but there are now fancy maps and waypoints.  :)

Took off enrage timers on bosses!  (Except in torment mode)  YES!  Nothing was more annoying than fighting the butcher when the entire floor just caught fire after 2 minutes.

They made changes to crafting materials where you don't have a million different ones now, and it also changed actual crafting to where you will have a way better chance to get stuff you need.

Elite and Champion mobs have like 5 new effects such as portals (wormholes I believe) and these little lightning shrine things.

All potions are just potions now.  60% to life.  No different sizes.

And last but definitely not least PARAGON 2.0!  Paragon is now shared between all of your account characters.  There is no cap on it and with each level you gain a skill point.  SKILL POINTS?  Yes, finally skill points.  The game always seemed way dumbed down without skill points.  Diablo 2 revolved around them and 3 felt so lame without being able to add points into areas that you felt you needed.  And also no worries if you already had a bunch of paragon levels.  Go to the inventory menu and click on paragon in the upper left.  You can add all of your points there.

Overall I feel a sense of accomplishment after playing the new patch for 4 hours.  Something I have not felt in some time.  I got some new items, I wasn't getting frustrated with way under leveled drops/ drops for everything but wizards, and I found legendaries which always add excitement.  They added/fixed enough to make me want to play a lot again and have me really excited for the expansion.

So is it too late, or do you think Blizzard may be able to redeem the lost fans with the new patch?  I haven't had a chance to read the hater comments yet, but right now I'm not regretting pre-ordering Reaper of Souls anymore.      

My Favorite Android Customization Apps

Lock Screen with Dashclock
and Hangout extension

Home Screen UCCW Widgets
and Tiny White Icon Pack

One of the many reasons I absolutely love Android is because it allows ridiculous amounts of customization!  After spending 5 years "learning" graphic design, I have of course developed a kind of obsession for neat layout and cool fonts.  Android's Google Play Store offers what they call "Launchers".  Launchers are applications that replace the stock interface or "UI" of your phone, with a more advanced one allowing new customization and basically giving you the freedom to make your phone look amazing.  I have received so many compliments on my home screen setup.  Now a Launcher is only your first step towards a great layout, but I'll kind of guide you through what all you will need.  And this is all without root.

The launcher I use is Nova Launcher Prime.  It's $4.00 I think. (Use those Google Rewards Credits!)  There is also a free version to try it out.  And I also use the Tesla Unread extension to show my unread email count.  I've sampled a few different launchers.  However I have not tried out Next Launcher 3d Shell which costs $16.99!  There is a free version though so maybe one day I'll give it a try.  I like the simplicity of Nova and how it is easy to use and offers a lot of great options.

Now on top of a Launcher you will need an app to make widgets with.  I myself use UCCW (free in the play store, but you really should donate because the app is fantastic!)  It takes a bit of time to learn how to use it, but once you do, the customization options are almost endless.  You can add any font from your Mac (using Android File Transfer) or PC too, which really has the potential to make your phone look great or "themed".  There are also a few pre made things to choose from.  You can also head over to mycolorscreen.com and possibly find some pre-made ones from the very creative community. You'll also be able to edit those and make your own.

If you don't really have the time (took me 3 hours, but I am a perfectionist!) or maybe you are intimidated to try and design an entire custom screen, then I advise using the Launcher "Themer".  It's in Beta still, but it allows you to use certain mycolorscreen layouts without having to make them yourself.  I tried out Themer and it wasn't very easy to change things around or add your own icons in..  I found it more satisfying to just start my own from scratch.  Themer is a really cool launcher, it just isn't my style I guess.

Finally the last thing you will need are icon packs.  You can find a lot of them in the Play Store.  My personal favorites are Stamped Purple (Also comes in other colors) and Tiny White Icon Pack.  This will allow you to change the icon of almost any app you have,  to match everything.

Also, If you would like a neater looking lock screen, I suggest enabling widgets on your lock screen and using the app "Dashclock"from the play store.  You can also add extensions to Dashclock which will really make your lock screen more useful.

My Gaming PC

Well it was my first build and it's almost 2 years old now!  Time really flies!  I built this PC especially for Diablo 3 on a poor woman's budget.  I bought parts every pay until I finally had a computer.  It has been a really great computer and I'm thinking about upgrading her real soon.  I actually have a fan going bad so it's a perfect time to do it.  It ran the Titanfall Beta very well, though.  So just in case you want to know what I play most of my games on.  It's this.

Before all of the messy wires!

Here's what's inside.

- ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX AM3+ ATX

-  AMD FX-6100 BLACK ED CPU

- ASUS NVIDIA GEFORCE 560 ti GPU  EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960 2GB

- 8 16 GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE PC3 12800 1600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM

- CORSAIR ENTHUSIAST SERIES 650-W 80 PLUS BRONZE CERTIFIED PSU

- CRUCIAL 64GB SATA 3 INTERNAL SSD RUNNING WINDOWS 7 64-BIT

- HITATCHI DESKSTAR 500GB 7200RPM SATA III 6GBPS HDD

- RAIDMAX SMILODON EXTREME BLACK/GREEN ATX CASE WITH MB FOLDOUT

I highly recommend the case I used.  It folds out for easy access to everything!  Made building so easy.