Posted by Rob on December 31, 2011 – 2:25 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, co-optimus, collectibles, dead island, gamefly, platinum, skyrim, trine 2, trophies, trophy, wwe 12, x-men destiny
I would say that not only was X-Men: Destiny the easiest Platinum I ever received, it is also one of the “unplanned” ones. I rented the game because I knew it had a short campaign, and I wanted to get something nice and light from Gamefly. This would allow me to devote only a limited time to it and then I could get back to playing my own games while waiting for Gamefly to ship the next game on my queue.
I finished my first playthrough in under six hours, and I found it to be a pretty entertaining super hero button masher. I decided to keep it around for a second playthrough on the hardest difficulty just to get the gold trophy, check out the other faction (my first playthrough was with the Brotherhood) and to rock through the new game +. So eleven-twelve hours later I finished my second playthrough and looked at the trophy list. Much to my amazement I had 92% of the trophies, and was only missing some of the “kill X amount of Y enemies.” I jumped in to the level selects and played some of the later levels through just to kill the required number of enemies, and then bam! I was in Platinum paradise.
Read More »
Posted by Rob on December 2, 2011 – 12:59 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, big bad bob, bigbadbob, DVD, food lion, gamefly, harris teeter, movie, netflix, PlayStation 3, PS3, redbox, rental, saints row the third, video game, xbox
No more feeling guilty when you hand the video clerk a copy of “Disney Universe”
With my recent console dilemma I was stuck with PS3 games from Gamefly yet no PS3 to play them on. I only have a handful of games for the 360 so I wanted something new to play for a little bit to tide me over until Gamefly can send me a 360 game. Enter the Redbox. I had never used one before, and Netflix has always fulfilled our movie needs just fine. Now that Redbox offers games too I figured I would finally give the service a whirl.
In case you don’t know, Redbox is a giant vending machine located in certain grocery and pharmacy stores that dispenses movies and games. You select your title, slide your credit card through, and they pop the disc out for you to take home. You have until 9:00pm the next day to return it and only pay one day charge ($1.20 for movies, $2.00 for games). If you keep it longer it’s an additional days charge per day. The really neat thing I discovered is that you can go onto their website and see what each kiosk offers, as each one not only has a few different titles but you can also see which discs are available and which are currently being rented. You can even rent a disc off their website and have it reserved so you can pick it up later! Read More »
Posted by Rob on November 18, 2011 – 8:08 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, co-op, fallout: new vegas, gamefly, lord of the rings, mail, online, PlayStation 3, PS3, skyrim, war in the north
I generally love Gamefly, and most of the time they provide great shipping service. However, sometimes things take a bit slower than usual, and this week has been one of those times. I recently rented Lord of the Rings: War in the North and shipped it back to Gamefly. Now they had shipped it on a Monday (10/31/11) and I had the precious in my hands by Wednesday (11/2/11). A two-day shipping time is what I’m accustomed to with Gamefly. So after finishing it up I returned it on that Saturday (11/5). Then on Monday (11/7) my friend e-mailed me saying that Gamefly had just shipped his copy. I wanted to play the game online, so I decided to just re-rent it. They received my old copy on Tuesday (11/8) and on Friday (11/11/11 AKA Skyrim Day) I received the e-mail that they had sent out my second request for War in the North. Problem is that as of today, 11/18/11, I am still gameless. I contacted Gamefly yesterday and they responded today saying they would send out another copy of the game whenever it’s available.
You know somethings wrong when it takes over a week to receive a game. I don’t know if the game was lost at the facility, lost in the mail, lost at the mailbox, stolen, or whatever, but all I know is that I haven’t had a Gamefly game in two weeks. Thank the gaming gods that I had Fallout: New Vegas to occupy me until Skyrim arrived or I would have been going nuts!
So Gamefly…you messed up this time ’round. I don’t appreciate the fact that I’ve been gameless since November 5th. Pick up the pace!
Posted by Rob on October 20, 2011 – 2:43 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, co-op, competitive, dlc, gamefly, Gamestop, lord of the rings, multiplayer, online, online pass, PlayStation 3, PS3, PSN, rental, resistance 3, Sony, used, war in the north
Within the past few months, more and more games are requiring an “online pass” to play online. Granted, the code is provided in all new packages of the game. So you run into this problem when you either buy a game used or rent a game, in that you will have to pay $10 (every one I’ve seen has gone for $10 so far) in order to play online. Is this fair to gamers? The game companies think so.
The Defense:
Game developers believe they have a right to charge people who did not purchase the physical game $10 to access the online co-op and multiplayer features. They argue that they should be properly compensated for the time and effort they put into creating and maintaining these modes.
My Argument: Read More »
Posted by Rob on October 19, 2011 – 4:14 pm
I’ve been nervous in regards to Gamefly’s delivery speed as of late. It took them seven days to receive the last game I returned to them, and I was expecting to wait four-five days for them to deliver Batman: Arkham City. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to find it waiting in the mailbox today (so I only waited two days). This has been one of my most-anticipated titles of the year and I can’t wait to dive in and punch some goons in the face!
The game is already in my PS3 and the updates are a-downloadin’. I probably won’t actually play until tonight, after I spike Shell’s ice cream with some of my patented “Nyquil Chocolate Sauce.”
Posted by Rob on October 19, 2011 – 10:42 am
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as batman: arkham city, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blast shard, dlc, festival of blood, gamefly, infamous, infamous 2, platinum, PlayStation 3, PS3, PSN, sucker punch, trophies, trophy, vampires, wwe 12
I’ve been on a gaming spree the past two days. With Batman: Arkham City coming in either today or tomorrow from Gamefly, I wanted to finish up my quest for the inFAMOUS 2 Platinum before it got here. So I put a good chunk of time into the game yesterday morning, afternoon, night, and then finished it up this morning. It was a lot of fun, and was one of my easier Platinums.
I took my time with my first playthrough, as a good guy, on easy. I did all the side quests, found every one of the 320ish blast shards scattered around the city, unlocked all the powers, played a bunch of the user-created missions, collected all the dead drops…I did it all. Since I played it on easy it was quite the cake walk, and I had a real blast running around and exploring the city stress-free. Oh, and back to blast shards…they are nowhere near as annoying in the first game. One of the last powers you can unlock is called “blast shard sense” and when you search for blast shards now the nearest one shows up on the map, regardless of how far away it is. So once I unlocked that I spent about two hours running back and forth through the city picking up the last few shards I had missed, but at least it was a sure-fire way to find them all painlessly. This is something I wish they had for the first inFAMOUS game… Read More »
Posted by Rob on August 31, 2011 – 8:13 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as amazon, big bad bob, bigbadbob, borderlands, co-op, competitive, dead island, dlc, gamefly, insomniac, left 4 dead, multiplayer, online, PlayStation 3, pre-order, PS3, Resistance, Resistance 2, resistance 3, zombie
Believe it or not, after thinking about my choices and talking with friends, I’ve decided to scrap my pre-order of Resistance 3, and instead go for Dead Island. That may be shocking to hear, seeing how I spent so much time talking about Resistance and I’ve barely said two peeps about Dead Island. But in the end, it came down to replay value, and Dead Island will give me more game for my money than Resistance 3 will.
Resistance 3 offers a campaign that can be played either solo or with a friend, as well as a couple of the usual competitive multiplayer modes. That’s right…the awesome eight player co-op mode from Resistance 2 has been scratched. Now everyone should know by now that I’m not a fan of the multiplayer scene (because I suck), so I won’t be touching that at all. That just leaves a campaign, and it’s probably not too time consuming at all. So all in all, I’ll probably go through two playthroughs at most and then be done with it. Then it will just sit around, collect dust, and eventually be traded in for less than half of what I paid for it.
Then there’s Dead Island. Read More »
Posted by Rob on July 13, 2011 – 6:44 am
Filed under Movies
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, blu-ray, DVD, gamefly, movie gallery, netflix, shit list, streaming, subscription, TV Shows
I’ve been a member of Netflix for…I don’t even know. I know I was using it before I started dating Shell, and that was almost eight years ago. I never really had a problem with them, except for that time they decided to delete profiles so you could no longer have friends and recommend movies to each other…that was a lame move! But this time, Netflix has gone too far.
I received a lovely e-mail from them yesterday indicating that, starting September 1, they were going to be changing their subscription options. I currently have the one DVD/unlimited streaming (with Blu-ray) for $11.99, which is probably too much to begin with, but once I got the HDTV I just had to watch a few Blu-rays to see the quality difference. Under their new plans, streaming and DVD plans will be separated, so in order to keep what I have I will have to subscribe to:
- $9.99- one DVD at a time with Blu-ray options
- $7.99- unlimited streaming
So my monthly payments will jump from $11.99 to $17.98 a month! They aren’t just raising the price by a dollar or two, but by six bucks a month! When you look at the annual breakdown, that’s $71 extra smackers a year. That is a HUGE difference!
Read More »
Posted by Rob on July 12, 2011 – 5:13 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, ants, big bad bob, bigbadbob, bugs, classes, co-op, earth defense force: insect armageddon, edf, game review, gamefly, hector, jet pack, online, PlayStation 3, PS3, robots, spiders, survival, third person shooter, tier, wasps, xbox
When I first heard about Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (which will henceforce be referred to as EDF) I was totally unfamiliar with the game. I did not know what it was about, what type of gameplay it was, or that there was a predecessor on the 360. All I knew was that between three and six players could team up to shoot a bunch of giant bugs. It sounded like a pretty sweet game, and when my friend mentioned wanting to play through it together, I agreed and popped it on my Gamefly queue. My friend and I have played through the game and also put some time into the survival mode, and I have to say I came away pretty impressed with it.
The storyline behind the game is virtually non-existent. All you need to know is that there are a bunch of bugs and robots wrecking havoc on the city, and it’s up to you and your buds to stop them (the campaign is three players, and if your short a man or two, AI players will fill in.) The campaign in this third-person shooter consists of three chapters, each containing five missions. These missions are not very diverse…you go to each point on the map, kill all the bugs and robots there, and then move on to the next point and do the same thing. As you take on these enemies, make sure you take the time to witness your handiwork as the environments are virtually completely destructible, and most buildings will collapse with a couple of rocket hits. I’m sure you may think this sounds like it can be very repetitive, but the combat and the action are so overwhelming that I personally never got tired of it.
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Posted by Rob on July 1, 2011 – 5:51 am
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, co-op, deadstorm pirates, eye camera, gamefly, Gamestop, gift card, move, move shooting attachment, perfect shot, PlayStation 3, PS3, rail shooter, time crisis 4, time crisis: razing storm, Wii, wiimote
One game genre that I am a sucker for is rail shooters. Not only is it my favorite type of game to play on the Wii (and I have a hell of a lot of them) but it’s also the only genre of game that I would buy additional peripherals for. I scoff at the idea of buying plastic baseball bats and swords, but I’ll step right up to buying a plastic pistol holder for my Wiimote (Wii Perfect Shot) or PS Move controller (given the uncool name of the PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment.) Since I first got move in January, I’ve been trying to rent two rail shooters from Gamefly; Time Crisis: Razing Storm and The Shoot. After months of waiting, I finally received Time Crisis on Monday. I spent about twenty minutes playing it on Tuesday before I dropped it back into it’s packing slip and sent it on its way…not because it sucked but because it was AWESOME! I had a $25 gift card to Gamestop so it was actually cheaper for me to purchase from Gamestop as opposed to keeping it from Gamefly.
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Posted by Rob on June 19, 2011 – 11:17 am
Filed under My Personal Life
Tagged as alice in wonderland, alice: madness returns, big bad bob, bigbadbob, dungeon siege III, gamefly, moving, myrtle beach, new york, PlayStation 3, PS3, south carolina, work
It’s finally come…next weekend is the big move. Shell and I will be heading down to South Carolina and start the next stage of our adventure through life together. It also means that the next week will be close to chaotic as we rush to get last minute things figured out. We did take a day of rest yesterday and headed down to my parents house, where family and friends were gathered to wish us off. It was nice to be able to see my grandfather, aunts, uncles, and cousins one last time before we head south, since I don’t know when we’ll together again. I also got to see my high school buddy Pete one last time before the move, and it was good to sit back and shoot the shit with him again.
As for the rest of the week, it’s probably going to go by in a blur. Tomorrow I need to meet my dad again to get some last minute stuff done, so that will eat up most of my Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be home by myself getting stuff together here. Shell’s last day of work is Wednesday, but she will be saying goodbye to friends on Thursday. So that leaves Friday as pretty much the last day we have to get every last thing done. On Saturday morning our parents are coming up, we’ll load up the truck, and then we’ll be off for the long, long drive down to Myrtle Beach. Read More »
Posted by Rob on June 7, 2011 – 3:01 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, big bad bob, bigbadbob, chat, co-op, cooptimus, gamefly, gears of war, headset, hunted: demons forge, PlayStation 3, PS3, RPG, skype, voice chat, xbox
On paper, Hunted: Demon’s Forge seems to be the perfect co-op game. There are two characters to choose from, a male human who is best suited for melee combat and a female elf who plays best from a distance with ranged weapons. These two characters have the ability to cast spells on each other to buff them up and can also toss potions to each other for health and reviving. There are also plenty of puzzles that you and your partner will need to work together on in order to advance through the game’s levels. This fantasy RPG actually plays more like Gears of War, from the third person view to the need to duck and cover to take out ranged opponents to the ability to crawl to your partner when you are down for a quicker revival. All of these facts lead to appears to be, in essence, the perfect two-player game.
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Posted by Rob on April 22, 2011 – 6:05 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 2D, 360, 3D, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blood, fatality, fighting, gamefly, marvel vs. capcom, mk, mortal kombat, mortal kombat II, mortal kombat vs. dc, mvc, PlayStation 3, portal 2, PS3, scorpion, shao khan, street fighter, sub zero, x ray, xbox
Now I’m not a huge fan of fighting games, but I’ve been watching the new Mortal Kombat closely over the past few months. I think you can best describe the game as a “reboot” of the franchise. First off, the title, which is simply called “Mortal Kombat”, gives that very distinction. But there’s more…the slow dwindling of the series has been erased, and instead you are brought back to the days of MK-MK III, which is nothing but good stuff. So what’s so good about it?
- Violence- this is what MK stand out from Street Fighter and other fighters back in the day. The over-the-top violence has been missing in some games, particularly in the horrid “Mortal Kombat vs. DC”, but it’s back…with a vengeance! Not only are blood and fatalities everywhere, but the introduction of the new “x-ray attacks” is also a breath of fresh air. It is exactly what it sounds like…it’s a devastating move that actually shows an x-ray of the character as they are getting pummelled. One of my favorites was Sub-Zero, who freezes the heart, rips it out, and then clobbers the opponent in the face. Oh, and let’s not forget Baraka who stabs the opponent in the throat, and then right through the eye sockets!
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Posted by Rob on April 1, 2011 – 7:02 pm
Filed under My Personal Life, TV Shows, Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, co-op, dead nation, farscape, firefly, force unleashed ii, free realms, gamefly, job, mmo, netflix, north carolina, online, PlayStation 3, PS3, review, RPG, Star Wars, work, wwe allstars
So as you can see, it’s been pretty quiet around here lately. I blame the new job, which has definitely been kicking my butt since I have to get up at 2:45am. I usually don’t get home until after 12, so by that time I’m just so exhausted that I drag myself into the shower and then flop down on the couch. Yet it saddens my heart to see this blog not being updated, so today I started up on a few posts which will be finalized over the coming days.
As far as video games goes, my drought is finally over. For the past two weeks I’ve had nothing really to play, which was pretty sad. But this week has been nuts, and I’ve had a bunch of games thrown at me: Read More »
Posted by Rob on March 10, 2011 – 11:29 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, big bad bob, bigbadbob, demo, fighting, finisher, gamefly, goro, marvel vs. capcom, mk, mortal kombat, mvc, PlayStation 3, playstation plus, ps+, PS3, scorpion, sf, shaolin monks, street fighter, sub zero, x ray, xbox
If you were to ask me what fighting game franchise was the most important to the genre, I would say both Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. I grew up with both, and to me, they are both equally important and have paved the way for what fighting games are to this day. Growing up, while I played both, I heavily preferred Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat. The realism and the gore of MK just couldn’t compete with the bright, quick, and flashy gameplay of SF II, so while I would play MK if at a friend’s house, I actually owned SF II.
The MK franchise has done a lot to try and keep itself fresh over the years. MK eventually left the realm of a 2D side-scrolling world and the arenas began to be 3D, in that you could run about a circular arena. Weapons were also eventually brought in to try and liven things up. One of my favorite MK games isn’t even a fighting game, but the awesome co-op beat em’ up Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Then MK looked at the success of the cross over franchise Marvel vs. Capcom, and decided to do a similar cross over in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. That game didn’t do well at all, as it took the violence that the MK series is known for and toned it down to such a degree that the game, while an awesome premise, just couldn’t deliver like the MvC series can.
Read More »
Posted by Rob on March 9, 2011 – 5:35 pm
Gamefly sent me an e-mail informing me that they shipped Bayonetta on Friday, and I finally received the game today on Wednesday. Gamefly is continuing to put me through this four-day shipping cycle, and I don’t like it one bit. I want my two-day shipping cycle back!
On another note, I’ve heard that Bayonetta is a relatively short game, so I hope to finish it up by Friday so I can ship it out by Saturday. This way by the time I get back from Vegas there should be another game waiting for me. I put about an hour into it today, and I couldn’t believe the amount of downtime, especially when loading a level or saving a game. But the sheer awesomeness of the game makes up for that…I mean, what other game is there where demon witches turn their hair into giant monsters who eat even gianter bosses?!
Posted by Rob on March 4, 2011 – 5:16 pm
About two weeks ago I took a look at my Gamefly history and determined that the service was a great one. Unfortunately, it seems I have jinxed myself, for the past two weeks with Gamefly have been pretty darn unbearable. The past two rental transactions have been a slow process, with it taking them forever to ship a game, and then it taking me longer than usual to receive a game.
On February 5th they sent me Legends of WrestleMania, which I did not receive until Feb. 10th. The nearest shipping center to me is Pittsburgh, and it usually only takes two days. For whatever reason, be it Gamefly or the post office, I didn’t receive the game for five days (technically four since Sunday doesn’t count.) I sent the game back on February 14th, which they received on the 17th. Sadly, my next game didn’t ship until the 22nd. Read More »
Posted by Rob on February 27, 2011 – 9:00 am
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, A.I., big bad bob, bigbadbob, bulletstorm, FPS, game review, gamefly, gretchen, heinrich, holda, killzone 3, knights contract, PlayStation 3, PS3, witch, xbox, xp
Last weeks new releases were mainly FPS (Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm) and I wasn’t feeling any of that. So I decided to gamble on a action beat em’ up that was getting little attention in the gaming media. I believed that I would enjoy this type of game over a FPS, but I was indeed wrong.
Knights Contract has a very interesting story/premise, but it just is not delivered well. You play as Heinrich, a knight who was charged with executing women accused of being witches. One of the witches you execute curses you, making you an immortal who just wants to die and move on. Eventually you meet up with this witch, Gretchen (who has returned from the grave), and the two of you become unlikely allies as you team up to take down the other resurrected witches who are trying to get revenge on mankind. The two of you will travel through a variety of bland environments where you walk to an area, beat up some enemies, walk to the next area, beat up more enemies, and rinse and repeat until you reach the boss. The catch in the game is that while Heinrich can’t die, Gretchen can, so you will be defeating enemies while ensuring that Gretchen is safe. If Gretchen dies, it’s game over. If you die (ie- lose your health), you will be downed for several seconds and need to rapidly pound on the x button to resurrect yourself and hope that Gretchen doesn’t die during this time.
Read More »
Posted by Rob on February 22, 2011 – 1:03 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, bulletstorm, enslaved, FPS, gamefly, God of War, killzone 2, killzone 3, knights contract, PlayStation 3, PS3
I’ve been waiting a few days for Gamefly to ship a new game to me, and I think it was disrupted a bit due to Sunday and Presidents Day. So I figured that instead of waiting for them to get one of the older games on my queue shipped out to me, I would just get one of today’s new releases. I had three choices: Killzone 3, Bulletstorm, and Knights Contract.
I tried Killzone 2 and did not like it. I’m very picky with FPS, and one of the only ones I really enjoy is Resistance. When the Killzone 3 demo launched last week I gave it a whirl, and could not complete it. It’s a very intense FPS, which ends up being too intense for me. I did enjoy the Bulletstorm demo, but I wasn’t sure it was a game I would enjoy. While it was a fun FPS, it felt to me that the game concentrated too much on massing up major bonus points by performing “trick kills.” This was even more evident when I read an interview by one of the developers, in which he said that co-op was taking out of the main campaign because they didn’t want people rushing through the level and not amassing major points. Bulletstorm just doesn’t sound like my kind of game.
That left me with Knights Contract. I hadn’t heard much about it, but the name sounded good enough for me to consider it. Researching it a bit online, I discovered it was an action beat-em-up of sorts akin to God of War as far as combat and Enslaved as far as having to protect another character throughout the game. That kind of game is more up my alley than a FPS, so I decided to give it a rent. I am a bit nervous about it since I don’t know much about the game, but we shall see. I’ll write up a review after I get some time with it.
Posted by Rob on February 15, 2011 – 5:39 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, aliens vs predator, amazon, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blockbuster, fable, fallout: new vegas, gamefly, Gamestop, Ghostbusters, lost planet 2, mass effect, movie gallery, nhl '11, PlayStation 3, PS3, smackdown vs raw 2010, spider-man, two worlds II, wedding, xbox
I was fiddling around on my Gamefly account today, and I was surprised to find that they had a full log of every game I ever rented from them, started from 2008 to the present. I decided to use this information to my advantage and factor in how many games I rented for the year 2010 and, based on the yearly membership price, determine if it was worth it. Below is a list of all the games I rented in 2010: Read More »
