I’ve own the Tomb Raider Cookbook for a while now. This past Sunday, I was committed to finally making something from the book. Took several pages before I found a recipe I thought I could a) make and b) get my picky wife and son to eat.
I went with the Bangers and Mash recipe. As who doesn’t like mash potatoes or sausage?
Turns out, my son doesn’t like mash potatoes (preferring fries) and my wife is certain she doesn’t like sausage. Which I of course, only learn once they are sitting down after prepping and cooking for an hour.
I couldn’t find any pictures online of the recipe, so in an attempt to make the Internet the space I want it to be, I’m writing this article to help the next person who wants to see what it looks like.
I thought they came out very well! Especially as this is going to be my lunch and dinner for the next two lunches.
8 pork sausages was too many, especially as I had to buy a 12 pack, so I have four to fry up probably this weekend or for lunch if I head home one of these workdays. 15 minutes seemed about right, plus the time they sat in the gravy. I have five cooked to enjoy so that’s nice. I should have just bought the five pack from Wal-Mart.
8 potatoes was also way too much for my smaller family. Four probably would have been just about right. 8 was also too much for my pot and kept getting water spilling out, so there was quite a mess afterwards that I got to clean up.
Cooking time wise, ten minutes was about right to get the potatoes tender enough to be pierced by a fork. I figured I wanted the potatoes to be as soft as possible and mashed them was so satisfying.
The biggest hit was the gravy!
Which I might just borrow again for a later recipe.
Pretty simple, yellow onion, halved and sliced thin. Melt some butter, fry the onion, pour the floor, and the beef stock, and simmer for 10 minutes. I didn’t add salt to any of this, but did add pepper to taste.
I did use two cups, but it would have been nice to either used a third cup as well or simply emptied the entirety of the 32 ounces of beef stock into the pan. Four cups doesn’t seem that bad, plus, with how much mashed potatoes I had, it would have been nice to have almost equal gravy.
I will have to look for another recipe in the book, but my first attempt went rather well.
I knew Resident Evil Biohazard was not going to be an option as it is currently on sale, but I really thought Days Gone was going to be the scary game of the month. I am excited to pay Vampyr, as it has been on my list and it is from Dontnod who brought us the Life is Strange series of games. I am hoping Need for Speed Payback is fun and for Walker Dennis’ sake, can just be a game where he can drive around to his heart’s content.
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PS Prices
Need for Speed Payback is typically $20, but has been as low as $4, for the base game.
Vampyr is typically $40, but has been as low as $12.
Which is a grand total of $16, which doesn’t seem amazing on paper. But combine that with the $218 in savings plus Call of Duty : World War II, that brings our total to $234! Which is truly incredible!
PS Store
Like Street Fight V the month before, Need for Speed Payback as a slew of DLC. None of it free.
$30 Deluxe Edition
$4 Aston Martin DB5 Superbuild
$10 All DLCs cars bundle
$10 Deluxe Edition Upgrade (which is a nice concept). Comes with the Story DLC, a NOS color, License Plate, Leaderboard Icon, 5 shipments, 5% rep bonus, and 10% discount on in-game content, plus the Platinum car pack including six cars.
$5 Fortune Valley Map Shortcuts
$2.49 Range Rover Sport SVR
$2.49 Alfa Romeo Quadrifogilo
$8 Speedcross Story Bundle (so two more dollars, gets you everything else from the Upgrade – decent deal)
$2.49 Infinity Q60 S
$2.49 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2
$4 Pontiac Firebird Superbuild; if it looked as slick as KITT, it would be an instant buy, but it doesn’t. It looks great, but the front is all wrong for what I would want it to be a substitute for.
$2.49 MINI John Cooper Works
$4 Chevrolet Range Rover and Alfa Romeo
. . .
Vampyr on the other extreme only has a Hunters Heirlooms DLC for $3, two weapons : Paulinus Aurelianus’ sword, Dragonbane, who was a mythical founder of the Brotherhood of Saint Paul Stole. The other being Carol Eldritch’s pistol, Baker, who was the secodn leader of the Guard of Priwen.
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Reads like most of the comments are stating how it is a pretty average month of games, but most have high hopes for November now.
Adam also makes some amazing Fortnite videos, if you are interested. I have been enjoying his tracking of the map every week, since we’re still playing Fortnite like crazy.
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Here are the links to PlayStationTrophies.org’s guides to the games :
I will probably not go for the platinums for these games, but I will at least knock out the four easy to get multiplayer trophies for Need for Speed, as those are my favorite kind. Just attempt to play ten races, beat your own speed once, and do a daily challenge. I will attempt to play the game proper, but once I hit a difficulty road block (pun intended!), I will probably be done with it.
Vampyr has collectibles and requires two playthroughs, one being a No Kill playthrough, and I can’t see myself playing it twice, so I will probably just play like I would naturally, and see what happens.
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I have been playing Fall Guys on Walker’s name, as he really wants to create his own Batman with the limited suits he can muster. I finally earned him a fourth crown, so we are waiting for the superhero top.
It isn’t Batman, but it has a cape, and that’s good enough for him. It costs three crowns, so now we are simply waiting for it come back around in the store. Hopefully for Season Two, they add a third row to the shop. There are pants too, but that would be another three crowns, so the priority is top first, and then we’ll see. It is pretty cute though.
Hopefully if they ever do more license suits like Batman, that it costs Kudos and not Crowns. I know the Portal and Gris suits have been crowns, but those are a lot more specific, whereas everyone will want Batman. At least do a Crown version and a Kudos version.
I finally spend five real dollars on the game for 12,000 Kudos, as they added a white duck to the game, after I just said the night before how they should add a cute yellow duck. Plus, I’m well pass level 40, so no free money was coming my way. Walker Dennis had enough on his account, so he bought it too.
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So I start every morning playing Fall Guys, and I start my gaming night, either finishing Walker’s leveling up, and then straight into Fortnite! So I level Walker up once, then I level up myself after that. It takes longer for my name, plus, then I can move onto another game while still logged in as myself.
Walker just earned the Groot screen saver, and next is the Rocket Raccoon icon, then it is the Rocket Raccoon buddy for Groot to run around together on the map.
Fortnite just turned three years old, so getting all of those challenges done, really got him caught up to where I am in the Battle Pass. I just earned Storm’s emoji and next is her trail blazing, the part before the glider comes out. I am two challenges away from earning 80s Storm, but I am not sure I will be able to accomplish those as the weekly challenges are becoming a tad difficult. The two easier ones are to eliminate Iron Man three times, and get three eliminations in the Woods. I have now defeated Doctor Doom thricely, but from the few attempts at Iron Man, he seems much more difficult. Wolverine is finally coming up on the Wolverine Challenges this week, so hopefully he isn’t too difficult to earn.
I also got both of us Red She-Hulk, which is fun.
I have been regretting not participating in the Deadpool battle pass, but I am not sure if it was ran like the current Marvel one. I couldn’t justify the $20 for Captain America this time around, plus Walker said he would really want it as well, so I really couldn’t justify the $40 for two Captain Americas. I have made peace with him wanting Batman and buying the suit for him, and not doing the same for myself. If they ever release a Riddler, that one, I may have to spend real money on.
Thanks to the Battle Pass, we have earned V-Bucks, but not enough to warrant any cool purchases, and I will definitely be saving those V-Bucks for actual characters instead of weapons or dances.
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The game we are currently playing together, and is Walker’s new obsession, is Portal Knights, again. But this time, he is player one, and the game is finally clicking with me. Or I am just more committed to figuring it all out. We have two dedicated homes; Dusty Junction, a pleasant desert island, and North Point, a deadly winter island. Dusty Junction is the second island you visit, and Walker has really put a lot of time into turning one of the mines into a home, and it is super cute. North Point is a place where I have built essentially a war room of upgraded Workshop, Alters, Anvil, Furnace, and chests galore. I found out that if we built an Arcane Compass, it directs us to where Portals are. Though it is hard to determine if we have to build down or up, but I default to building down to mostly success. Sometimes it is just right around the corner on the surface, and those are always nice surprises. We both have iron weapons, I play as a Warrior and he is a Mage. We defeated the first worm boss and are trying to get to the second one, but we skipped over the key island for the second one, so we have to go back and figure out which island’s portal gets us there, but we also haven’t found the second grandbeast’s portal either, so we have time. I am having a hard time getting yellow shards to activate the portals, but it has been a real blast locating the portals and figuring out the locations. I really do like mining for gems, and building my staircases either downward or upward. This time around, we are building actual bridges to take us across gaps, so that feels good to be opening up the islands. We just have direction that we didn’t have the first time we played it, so the game is a lot better now.
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I finally completed my fifth playthrough of Erica, so I am two hours away from earning my 34th Platinum, and I meant to go straight into my sixth playthrough. Well, I did start one, but kept dozing off in the beginning, so I turned it off that night.
Then Rob with PlayStation Access released the Weekly Store video :
Wherein he describes a new game, Genshin Impact. It is a free RPG, which are two of my favorite things!
I am not that far into the game, and I am committed to playing it until I have earned at least one trophy. It looks pretty great, it reminds me a lot of Omega Quintet, which also reminded me that I had to go back to playing Omega Quintet as well.
I probably only played for about an hour or so, but I am really enjoying it. It looks great. I chose the lady twin, whose names are Lumine and Aether. We have the option to changing their names, but I looked it up to see if they had canon names, which I am glad I did as the brother clearly had a defined name. There was a moment where I was going to name her, Kristie, and be done with it, but there was a thought I had that I was pretty sure she had some fancy other worldly name, and she did.
I am very much still into Archers, so I looked it up and the game as three of them. Amber, Fischl, and Venti.
The game started off as a mobile game, so there is a wealth of information out there. Except for where the chest is located on the heart shaped rock, as that’s one of the trophies, and once I recruited Amber, I was going to go to that chest for trophy, but no one has written about the location yet.
That website is pretty great, but nowhere does it reference where we recruit the characters, so hopefully I can get a chance to recruit those two before I move onto another game.
Right now, I have completed one of the three temples, and going to the second temple, it looks like I will be recruiting at least two more characters from Amber’s Knight clan. I chose her temple first as I wasn’t sure if I was able to lose her, but I didn’t, and we’re definitely moving together to the second temple.
Gacha Gamer has been releasing a slew of helpful videos relating to the game, including this handy tier list.
He comes down pretty hard on Amber, saying she is in the lowest tier, but I have been enjoying her a bunch. We have met Venti, but only in passing, and I have yet to see Fischl. I want a team of Lumine and the three archers.
Gacha Gamer also has two great tips videos, but they made no sense to me prior to playing the game, so I would recommend playing for a bit to get familiar with the mechanics, and then watching those videos. That helped me as I had a better frame of reference then.
There are 18 characters, and I believe we create teams of four; which seems like a lot of options, maybe too many, but it is a free game, so they are probably providing a lot so we spend a lot. Though I haven’t needed to spend any money yet, so hopefully the other two characters are not behind paywalls.
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That heart shaped trophy is titled, Unswerving, and YouTuber, Nier Zero has a video up for it!
Thank you!
I believe Kaeya is one of Amber’s friends I am about to recruit. Looks like a lot of effort is going to be put into getting this trophy. At least I know it won’t take ten minutes, just four. Though I wonder if we could just swim there? From the comment section, it looks like we need a co op partner to have the chest appear, so hopefully I can log Walker in real fast and get the chest. Also from the comment section, the second player does not get the trophy. I wish the map section was in the beginning of the video, but it makes sense to show it at the end. I may have to set another trophy as my goal.
Actually, the Beloved of the Anemo Archon trophy appears to be much easier and I know right where it is!
Thanks to YouTuber R o b for hosting the video!
I was totally tempted to climb that statue last night too! But I opted to not do so as I was way into seeing where the story was going, but I will go there immediately after starting the game. I’m pretty excited!
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Looking back, I do not believe I updated everyone that I finished the 2013 Tomb Raider game. It was such a great game, Rise clearly took everything that worked there, and just made it better. I found all of the tombs, and most of the collectibles. Multiplayer is dead, which I thought for three dollars, I would have found a like minded player, but I play super late at night, so the chances are pretty low. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is still new enough where the lowest price is $20, but if it ever dips below $10, I will definitely buy it.
VUDU and all of the other streaming services continue to refuse to stream 2018 Tomb Raider, so I keep checking on that. I recall there is a Need for Speed film with Aaron Paul. I can only imagine it is not very good, but I wonder if it is at least an enjoyable . . .
130 minute?! ooof, that seems like a lot of time, I wonder if it would have done better with a shorter length. I will see if I can stream it anywhere, and if not, add it to my list of films to check every Friday morning.
I feel I have played enough of both Street Fighter V and PUBG to write about them.
I achieved my main gaming goal with Street Fighter V in as much as I finally unlocked Guile for 100,000 in-game fighting points. I did not spend any real money to do so, and that feels pretty great. I had to resist spending four real dollars unlocking the rest of Guile’s suits, and another four dollars to unlock his special 30th anniversary outfit.
It looks pretty nice, but does it look four dollars nice? Not to me and my tightly kept PSN wallet.
After unlocking Guile, I completed a Survival run, on Easy, and finished his character story chapter, which unlocked several color alternative outfits. One of them was Green and Orange, so that was good enough for me.
I still pretty much jumped and kicked my way through my 30 plus online matches, but figuring out how to Sonic Boom was pretty satisfying.
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Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is a pretty fun game. I am not sure where all of the criticisms came from. Did I find weapons immediately? No, but did I find at least something usable within five minutes? Yes. I feel like I’m better at Fortnite, but if PUBG had a duo split screen, I would probably get a lot more out of it. My very first round, I got to ninth place without shooting a single person, so I earned the Pacifist trophy.
Then I proceeded to get eliminated pretty often without ever really getting a chance to fire at anyone. So I figured I would give squad a chance, let someone else do some heavy lifting, and in doing so, I earned a slew of trophies! I healed my partner, I killed at least three people, I got to put one of those victim’s clothes on, and outlasted my other teammates. I don’t have a microphone, but she was a great partner and was guiding me through everything.
I tried a few more solo rounds, but I think I experienced the game enough, and pretty much achieved my two goals of not killing anyone enough to earn a trophy, and then its opposite, of killing my first person, and that felt good enough. I never did come across a crossbow, but the chances of that were pretty small.
If they add split screen, I’ll jump back in with my buddy and really give it a shot.
The maps are used, and really played into my style. Which is to pretty much, find a good weapon, like an assault rifle, and then move deeper into the safety circle, find a nice building, and just patiently wait. No one ever came into my hiding space, and I was always killed as I was moving to the next area, but that is what happens when you get closed to the Top 10, usually the players with my skill are picked off relatively quickly and easily, but I was able to stealth my way around the map.
My problems are clearly that I’m not good enough for it, and I am sort of tempted to play at least 100 rounds or jumps out of the plane, and maybe I will after my next gaming goal has been achieved.
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Which my main gaming goal right now is to get to level 40 in Fall Guys! I am currently level 38, so I am so close and so I am only really playing Fall Guys at the moment. Even if I did earn level 39, I am 15 good episodes (at least 15 fourth rounds) until I reach level 39, then I’m just going to stick with it until I earn 40. Which would unlock a new celebration option, which when I equip it, and win an episode, I would earn a trophy. So at least, I want to earn level 40, and then maybe try a round every so often afterwards, but I feel I would be able to turn the game off for a good bit.
They changed their store policy, where it used to changed at least twice a day. So I would check it once I woke up, and once again when I could play again at night. Now the store doesn’t change except for once, so hopefully they go back to the twice a day, or at the very least, add a third row of items to purchase. Usually I see the row, and don’t want anything.
What I do want is the black face mask, and the pink face mask. The black one costs a crown, which I had none to spare the last time it was listed on the store. I really want all of the face masks, as I really like completing my bean with a full and proper look.
I have not earned the “buy 50 items” trophy yet, and since I am close to finishing the season, I am realizing I have all of this Kudos to spend, and so I have been buying any complete top and bottoms that the store offers at the same time, as well as any color combinations that don’t cost crowns or are less than 3,000.
I did buy today the egg pattern, and the hatchling top and bottom which cost 9,000 kudos for the complete outfit. A tad much, but it went well with the egg pattern, and I already had a yellow and white coloring, so it looks pretty cute.
So I will use this outfit for a fair bit going forward.
I sort of have no desire to use the pirate pattern once I earn it, so I’m mostly looking straight ahead of earning level 40.
Thanks to IGN for hosting the season two trailer.
It looks very whimsical and I am excited to get at least a purple dragon costume. Season Two does look like fun, and I will definitely look at the Season Pass items to see what else I would like to earn. It looks like they added some more working together rounds, so that should be interesting.
Maybe that dragon is a tad more blue than I remembered, but who knows. I saw a pink dragon and an orange dragon, so if blue is as close to a purple dragon as I can get, that will just have to be enough for me. October 6 is the last day of Season One, so it will be interesting to see how they end One and start Two. I would imagine they will get new face mask colorings, so I would want those as well. But I can also see myself just feeling like I have ran the course with the game. Pun very much intended.
I would still check in once in the morning and see what has been added to the store until October 1, but if I miss something, I won’t be too torn up about it. Unless I miss out on a turtle costume, then I would be pretty devastated. Hopefully it is one of the outfits that only cost one crown for both the top and bottom, as I barely have seven crowns right now.
There was a moment on evening where I was stuck in a forever loop of See Saw -> Slime Climb -> Fall Ball -> Finale, that was nice as it meant a quick turn around, but those games are pretty exhausting. And that is when my team won Fall Ball.
I learned a nice trick with Slime Climb, when at the two yellow rods, just walk onto them and then jump to the solo rod, then immediately jump dive to relative safety. I was jumping after centering myself on the first yellow rod, but that was just causing me to fall off of it instead of now I am in more control, which is nice. From there, I can pretty much make it to the finish line on my own. My hardest part is the two moving pillars below, usually due to the amount of people also trying to make it pass it, and then these two sets of yellow rods.
Another thing I am being annoyed by, is the force Fall Ball as the penultimate round of a game. Like, the game machine must have a team round, and so if I end a round with 10, 12, 14, 16, or 18, I pretty much know it will be Fall Ball. Maybe not 18, but 16 for sure.
Another instance of seeing how the machine works, if a round finishes with 15 or 17 qualifiers, I will most likely get Tip Toe, wherein five or seven people will need to be eliminated to force a 5 v 5 Fall Ball game.
I really miss playing Rock N Roll as a teams match, but I only have played it once in like three nights of playing. A lot of the matching game, thankfully that is only three rounds, as a fourth round would probably eliminate me every time.
Still a fun game, and I usually can earn 98 fame points each episode I attempt, but there are still a few where the first round or the second one can be surprisingly difficult with either obstacles or being grabbed, but I usually feel pretty confident with any of the rounds. Unless it is a team challenge, but even then, I do my part, but sometimes, like with Fall Ball, I am placed on the wrong team.
This is another game where if they added split screen, I would get even more enjoyment out of it.
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Which means I have put Tomb Raider Definitive Edition on hold for a bit.
Funny thing is is that I got to the same point Rob got when Kim was guiding him way back when the came first came out. I did not mean to, but then I opened the door at the end of the video, was extremely tired, and turned off the game once it saved. Then the next morning, I earned my 38th level in Fall Guys, and realized I just want to get 40 and not being obsessed with it.
Tomb Raider is great. Either I am not far enough in the game to start collecting furs, or that is not a feature like it was in Rise of the Tomb Raider. I have completed my first optional tomb (not shown in the PlayStation Access video), but it did not stop me from proceeding, so I did it. No guides, just looking around and figuring it out, so that was pretty nice. I also have killed more than five wolves, so that earned me a trophy as well.
I was able to upgrade my ax, and I still have one more category to unlock.
I am really enjoying the game, and the island is full of mystery and I can’t wait to really start exploring. I mean, I clearly can wait, but I do think about the game quite a bit. I probably will stop Fall Guys after leveling up to 39, and spend the next night playing Tomb Raider, then right back to Fall Guys.
Street Fighter V and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, for short.
The games are out now, I’m way late on this post, and more on that far below.
I haven’t played a Street Fighter game since Street Fighter II Turbo, or one of those branches of II.
PUBG, is one of those 100 person battle royale games, and from what I’ve seen, was the originator of the genre, but then Fortnite blew it would of the water. From what I have read, PUBG works better as a PC game than a console game, but I will give it a fair chance.
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PS Prices
Street Fighter V is typically $20 but has gone as low as $8 for the base game.
PUBG is typically $30, but has gone as low as $9.59.
The Plus titles games total running value thus far is $180, plus Fall Guys is a $20 game, brings the running value to $218, plus plus, Call of Duty : WWII. So we’re doing pretty great and it isn’t even October yet. I am going to be a tad annoyed if Man of Medan is the free title for October, but I would love to get it digitally. I have decided, as Man of Medan has gone on sale so many times, to just wait until Little Hope is a $15 game. Plus, it has online co-op, like Man of Medan, so the platinum will evade me again, and that’s just irritating to me. Also, I would want it digitally as well, so waiting is the route I will be taking.
PS Store
Street Fighter V has a slew of DLC!
There is a free ShareFactory theme and a free Shadow Falls Cinematic story level, that I had to download additionally. I am at 80% completion of Act 1, and it is pretty nice. For the story mode trophy, that is for the individual characters and not the cinematic story.
There are three pages worth of avatars, each for 49 cents. I treated myself to the Guile one, the proper one, not the 8-bit one, as I don’t need two avatars.
There is a $25 Champion Edition Upgrade Kit, that gets you everyone released, so that’s pretty nice and is the way to go.
$20 Capcom Pro Tour : 2020 Premier Pass
$20 Season 4 Character Pass
$15 Capcom Pro Tour : 2019 Premier Pass
$10 Capcom Pro Tour : 2018 Premier Pass
$10 Season 3 Character Pass
$10 Capcom Pro Tour : 2017 Premier Pass
$10 Season 2 Character Pass
$10 CPT Premier Package
$10 Season 1 Character Pass, it has gone on sale for $5 in the pass, and I was tempted to wait for the sale, until I was told I could just complete all of the characters stories.
So the $25 Upgrade Kit, really is the way to go for anyone who is downloading the base game.
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PUBG also has a free ShareFactory theme.
Like Fortnite and other Free to Play games, PUBG does offer exclusive and free Plus items. One of the biggest complaints I have read regarding PUBG being a Plus title, is that most people thought it was a F2P title, and realizing it isn’t.
So there is a Drop Pack free exclusive that I have downloaded along with the theme.
$10 Challenge Costume Pack
$15 Payback Costume Pack
$5 500 G-Coin package
$9 1,100 G-Coin package
$18 2,000 (+300 Bonus) G-Coin package
$45 5,000 (+1000 Bonus) G-Coin package
$90 10,000 (+3500 Bonus) G-Coin package
So that seems like things are pretty expensive within the game.
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Most of the comments are that PUBG should be free to play and it doesn’t run great on console and Street Fighter V’s biggest complaints is that bulk of the characters are behind paywalls and the online matches can be super laggy.
Ben made a good point about how both games have nearly impossible platinums to earn as they take hundreds of hours of an investment to earn all of the other trophies.
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Here are the links to PlayStationTrophies.org’s guide to Street Fighter V :
I’m hoping to earn the Solo victory trophy, but hopefully I could get carried to the Squads trophy, if I can get into a group with randoms.
I feel like I could maybe earn the Reach the Top 10 without killing anyone trophy, Kill a player by any means, I do like bows in games, so I’ll try for the Kill 10 players with a crossbow, if I can find one in the field, loot 50 items, Equip a ghillie suit for the first time, which I imagine is random where that would be. I hope my first trophy in the game isn’t jump from the airplane 101 times, but I guess it could work a a backup plan. I would hope I could revive a knocked-down teammate, wear the outfit of a dead player sounds like something I could do if I stumble across one.
Unlike Fortnite, PUBG doesn’t have couch co-op or split screen, which Fortnite and Rocket League has, so I won’t be able to get Walker Dennis into the game so we could potentially win a Duo. So I’ll try the game and see what I can do with a few rounds.
I really hope Fall Guys gets split screen at some point soon. Maybe for Season 2?
. . .
Since the games have been out, I have played Street Fighter V quite a bit. I really want to unlock Guile, who is part of the Season One DLC. Someone on reddit was nice enough to explain that all I would have to do to earn the in-game currency of $100,000, is to finish the story mode with all of the characters, which would take about an hour. So I have done five characters’ stories, and really enjoying how quick they are. Once I have Guile, I will do a few more online matches, and maybe check out a few other trophies, and call it good. I rather not spend the $10 and get all of the characters from season one, if I can avoid spending real money.
. . .
Walker Dennis and I have been playing Duos in Fortnite as the Marvel Universe has invaded and I gifted him the season pass, so he’s running around as Thor, hitting things. I figured, I would try to get to level 62, and earn enough in game credits to get the season pass to pay for itself, but I’m barely at level 14, and not seeing myself earn enough levels in time, but I’m also okay with not earning it. I mostly would want Storm, Mystique, and Wolverine, and those are very late game. I believe I could spend $25 or so and get everyone, but that seems like a lot.
Walker really wants Batman, and in November (once the Marvel event is over), DC comes back around for their event that will include both Joker and Poison Ivy, so I will probably be having to buy those characters too. Hopefully Batman and Catwoman come back for the event as well, as he really wants to play as Batman, as he’s all about Batman right now.
We have won Duos four times now, so we’re becoming quite the team. I mostly shoot people as he runs support and hits things with his hammer. He’s level 7, so he’s doing his fair share.
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Fall Guys, I have been earning some trophies. I have won three episodes, so that feels pretty good. I’m hoping they release a turtle costume soon. I’m at level 34, and I really want that blue mask as the Level 35 reward. Season One is the only season I will ever fully commit to, so I really want to reach level 40, and I should do it in the next 30 days. I have plenty of time. I really want every face mask they have, and I believe I only failed to buy the black one, so hopefully that comes back into the store.
Injustice, when Street Fighter V was announced, I picked up Injustice again and have completed the Joker portion of the story and next up is Green Arrow. Not sure when I will get back to it, but I am inching my way through the story mode.
Sadly, Chadwick Boseman lost his battle against colon cancer. Like most people, I’m sure, we watched Black Panther, and then I tried to play another level of the first Lego Marvel Superheroes game. Then I remembered Walker saved over my 100% completed file, so I ended up just playing a level with Tony and Cap getting Tony’s Iron Man suit back. Just having to redo everything killed my buzz to keep going forward, but if I do a level here and there, I’ll eventually get the game beat again.
I earned my 33rd platinum with Lara Croft Go! It is currently only $2, so well worth your time. I followed a guide and earned it after seven nights, of doing one chapter a night. I preferred it over Hitman Go, but I’m sure that has to do more with me connecting to Tomb Raider more than Hitman. Apparently there is a Deux Ex Go game, but it hasn’t come to PS4 yet. Once it does, and it is $2, I would be tempted to buy it, but that’s probably not enough of an incentive for Square Enix Montreal to port the game.
Hyper Scape, I had attempted to play the game a few weeks ago, and just didn’t click with it. PUGB was announced as a Plus title, and we were getting decent with Fortnite, that I figured I could commit a night or two to at least getting one kill in Hyper Scape. Then I got two kills, in two different games! I killed someone with an assault rifle (my preferred gun in Fortnite), and once I had that trophy, I committed to earning the melee kill trophy, and got that in my very next game. Then I promptly deleted the game. I keep running out of space on the PS4, and really could use an external hard drive.
Ratchet & Crank, VUDU finally had the Ratchet & Crank film on sale for $8, and I immediately bought it. That movie is literally the first hour of the game, and I can only imagine the last 30 minutes of the game. So I played one full level of the game, and on a planet to help Ratchet’s former boss’s brother on a water planet with another story planet waiting for me.
Metal Gear Solid V – Phantom Pain, I finally did enough to earn D-Dog as a companion! Which felt great, until the very next mission required D-Horse, and I haven’t gone back, but that was my main game for like two weeks.
. . .
There is an Essential game sale going on right now and the original 2013 Tomb Raider game is only three dollars, so I bought that immediately. I’m really hoping to make it my next game I play once I have sampled the September games. It is all I think about!
. . .
On August 27, 2020, my mother-in-law, Leslie Brannman, passed away. She was an amazing woman and I could not have had a better mother-in-law. She really was an incredible woman.
To celebrate PlayStation Plus turning 10 years old, the July 2020 Free PS Plus Games are :
NBA 2k20, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Erica!
Apparently NBA 2k20 was recently four dollars, but I bought NBA 2k19 when it was three dollars, so I must have missed that other sale. One basketball game would typically be enough for me, but I’m looking forward to playing the latest version of NBA. Apparently 2k21 is slated to come out soonish. Which I forgot it was announced during the PS5 Future of Gaming event. To get back into the game, I redownloaded 2k19 and tried to get some of the easier trophies in MyNeighborhood. Once I got my character from Preclude to the Phoenix Suns, I’m pretty sure I didn’t even play one game as a Sun. Just having the jersey was enough for me. Looking into it, it is a real shame that 2k20 doesn’t have a Prelude, as I saw 2k18 did. It is a nice free DLC tutorial, but I get incorporating it into the game itself, if that is what they even did. My gaming goal for 2k20 will be to start a new character and get him to the Suns again.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the second sequel to the rebooted trilogy. I have been having Tomb Raider on my mind, since replaying Uncharted 4, and wanting to watch the Tomb Raider films again, especially latest one that I have never seen. Neither of the three films are available for streaming, but hopefully that changes relatively soon. I added 2013’s Tomb Raider to my psprices wishlist, and I see the Definitive edition goes on sale for five dollars, but I wouldn’t mind playing Rise prior to the first game, as that’s what I have.
Erica is a game I bought when it was five dollars. I had remembered it as I had completed two playthroughs and had been forced into making a decision I didn’t want to due to not getting the cursor to land where I wanted to in a third playthrough. Turns out, I had only completed the one playthrough and that had occurred in my third. So I completed my second playthrough last night, using the app, and it did seem to work out better than using the touchpad. I’m going to complete a third playthrough and keep the game in my game rotation for the month of July. There is only six playthroughs, so I should be able to do all six of them in July or August. Using the app did seem to give me a few additional seconds to make a choice, but I could be remembering it wrong.
Some people are complaining about these being the games to celebrate 10 years, but it seems like a pretty decent month to me, and I’m pretty happy that Erica is getting some attention that it deserves.
. . .
PSPrices
NBA 2k20 is currently a $60 game, but goes as low as $19.79, so maybe people are remembering 2k19’s amazing sale and not 2k20.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is typically a $30 game, but goes as low as $8.39.
Erica is typically a $10 game, but goes as low as $4.99.
Our currently running value of PS Plus is $131, with us considering Call of Duty WWII a bonus game. So we’ll round up and add $34 to the total to make $165, and that’s us now in the second half of the year, so I’ll say we definitely have gotten our value from the service for our $45 investment. Plus, hopefully the price doesn’t go up too much for the PS5, but hopefully it still goes on sale for either Black Friday or the holiday season.
PS Store
NBA 2k20 has the standard edition for $60, and the game is heavily influenced by microtransactions.
5,000 VC for $2
15,000 VC for $5
35,000 VC for $10
75,000 VC for $20
200,000 VC for $50
450,000 VC for $100
There is a Digital Deluxe edition for $80 and a Legend Edition for $100.
Free International Commentary so I’ve downloaded that already.
I’ve never been tempted to buy VC (the game’s currency), but you do earn a small amount with most things you do in the game. Just not as much.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 20 Year Celebration edition, so it comes with all five DLC.
Not sure what is happening with the Plus subreddit, they were trying to link to Twitter.
. . .
Here are my YouTube peeps :
Nathan of PlayStation Access :
Adam of PlayStation Grenade :
Ben of Platinum Chasers :
Ben has a fun little intro as the announcement came on a Monday instead of the traditional Wednesday, is like three months in a row of the announcement breaking from tradition.
Turns out, Walker Dennis is quite familiar with PlayStation Grenade thanks to Adam’s great videos relating to Goat Simulator.
. . .
Here are PlayStation Trophies.org’s guides to the games :
Hey, NBA 2k20 has a guide! I immediately checked and no one made a 2k19 guide, so I’m still just stumbling my way through getting those.
I apparently made some mistake in my first two playthroughs of Erica and did not earn Fall Out Girl, so hopefully one of the other playthroughs has me redo one of those activities, but it is pretty early on in the game, so it shouldn’t take too much and the recommended sixth playthrough is essentially play the entire game except do this one thing towards the end, so that’s when I will ensure I annoy each of the ladies then.
. . .
I’ve been making some great headway and keeping with my gaming rotation. I will have to modify it to include two new games, but it was fun during the previous cycle. It really just helps when I have so many episodic games to play.
I finally earn the Kifflom trophy in Grand Theft Auto V, which was one of the non-story related trophies I felt I was capable of earning. I believe I did what was necessary to earn my million dollars for Online, but clearly I never checked again. I will sometime around July 15, when I try to earn another million dollars. Then I will play another mission or so. I left the game where Michael is working for a movie producer and Franklin and Trevor are doing some mission Michael is not involved in. So I will do the Franklin/Trevor mission and another studio mission as that was fun, and call it good.
I started playing Ratchet & Clank, and kept just thinking to myself, what an amazing game! I really want to watch the movie now, but it isn’t streaming anywhere and I really don’t want to spend more than five dollars through VUDU and I want to say it was still asking $15 for it, and it came out in 2016 and I’m probably the only one wanting to watch it who hasn’t. Well, I guess they just announced Rift in Time, so the desire is probably coming back, but I will watch for a sale for it.
Just because I was already at VUDU, they want $18 for the Angelina Jolie two films, and $15 for Alicia Vikander’s 2018 remake. I do like how Lara Croft has been portrayed by two Oscar winners, she deserves that. Jolie won for 2000’s Girl, Interrupted, Best Supporting Actress, and Vikander for 2016’s The Danish Girl, Best Supporting Actress, so also fun that they both won for Supporting Actress, as well. $33 is a bit much for those three films, I’ll say. Shame VUDU isn’t doing a three movie bundle like they often do for other movies, but that’s probably a rights issue.
I left Ratchet & Clank on Gaspar looking for 60 brains, which was super annoying to me as I found 40 on my own, and can’t really fathom where the other 20 could be. Then I was reading the guide, and at some point, we earn a map that makes finding the brains way easier, so I’ll have to make progress and come back. I really liked the flamethrower weapon, the Pyro Blaster. I have it completely leveled up to 5, so I’ve taken it out of my weapon setup, but I’m missing it dearly, but I clearly won’t use other weapons otherwise. Well, that isn’t true, I was using Mr. Zurkon as well, who I also loved as our buddy buddy. I do wonder if Clank is jealous or annoyed by Mr. Zurkon. Mr. Zurkon gives these amazing quips and I also have him maxed at level 5, so he’s out of the rotation. The game is a lot harder without my main assets, but that’s on me, I should have been balancing them more. Turns out, in New Game Plus, I can raise these higher to level 10, so I’m excited about that possibility.
I really got into Detroit Become Human playing for several more nights than I was expecting. I was also surprised to see Connor come back, as I got him killed in the very first mission. My Connor, unfortunately, is not very good, he’s let Kara escape (as how could I let him capture her? She’s the best!), but he also failed to catch the bird Android person and also failed to figure out where murderous sex robot went, which he’s upset with himself almost as much as I’m upset with myself over it. The bird android, I get, as we lost track of him in that final stage, but the sex robot, we were doing everything possible, but I was having to talk to more androids than expected.
Kara and Alice are still save, and we got new buddy Lucifer now too. We’ve been to the abandoned amusement park. That mansion where we meet Lucifer was intense!
Markus has met his crew and I want to ship him and North so hard! Turns out, she’s played by Minka Kelly, so she’s giving Kara’s actress, Valorie Curry a run for her money. But I still like Kara more, especially as Markus keeps doing at least one thing that annoys North, but then she makes it pretty clear what she wants to have happen next happen, and I make those decision so easily, even if it annoys the rest of the crew. Valorie Curry was on Amazon’s The Tick, so now I really want to watch that show.
I meant to keep playing even more but then I was reading up on what skills I need in The Council and it made me really want to play that game. Seriously, I really want more people to play The Council. The first episode is free, and I love how it is a TellTale style of game, but with a skill tree. I love the act of finding out which skills I need, I make a list, when it comes time to pump skills into the tree, I find out which ones I really needed during the previous quest, and I raise those skills and see how it effects the next quest. I completed Episode 2, and just having a great time with this historical fiction. I can’t wait to jump into Episode 3!
I finally got around to playing Metal Gear Solid V : Ground Zeroes. I thought I was doing a pretty decent job at stealth, but I would blow my cover, but I eventually got my two buddies rescued. It got intense towards the end of it, but I figured out a path, and got her out of there. I hate to write this, as it may be controversial, but I think I much prefer Sniper Elite IV’s stealth to Metal Gear Solid V, but I was instantly taken by Sniper Elite IV, and I will give Ground Zeroes a couple more tries and try to get good with it.
I finished Chapter Eight of Uncharted 4, such a fun game. Here is another game where there is just a lot of fighting, and I forget that besides amazing set pieces, that the game is a cover shooter. Like, I forget all of the combat that is required to get through, just to get to the next place. I’m playing on Normal, and I’m sure the two lower difficulties probably has less enemies, but after completing a chapter, I usually feel pretty good with my progress.
I finished the second episode of King’s Quest. Still really enjoying the game. I had to do one full run of Episode 2, and then pretty much two thirds of a playthrough, twice, to get the other two endings. I recall reading Episode Four might be the same way with having to create saves to save time, but I’m still here for it. A fun game, the characters are fun, not enough of Amaya for my taste, but she was barely in the first episode as well. I doubt she becomes the future queen, but if she is, that would be amazing.
Doing these episodic games, I was reminded that we never completed the first episode of TellTale’s Back to the Future game. So I completed my run, and then I helped Walker Dennis complete his run. He started the second episode and the controls seem to be a tad better. There was a lot of back tracking in 1955 that I wouldn’t have minded so much, if when I press the left direction, Marty walked in the left direction. Because of camera angles, or not implementing a better control scheme, I was holding down to make him to across the screen in the right direction. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but I was running across the central area and going to the soup kitchen and the jail a bunch, and the controls could have been a tad better.
A game that has pretty much perfect controls is Batman : Arkham Aslyum. I finished the game with locking Harley up and moving onto the Botanical Gardens. I forgot how creepy those lunatics are, and two different ones jumps on my back and gave me quite the freight! That’s when I knew it was bed time. I meant to play more, but then the free games were announced I wanted to play Erica’s second playthrough and that took almost two hours, but I still had enough time to knock out some easier trophies in NBA 2k19.
. . .
Because I had filled the PS4 with my current game rotation and to make room for Erica and NBA 2k19, I had to delete Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank, GTA V (which was probably the only one I really needed to delete), and Detroit Become Human. It was fun to revisit those games, but removing those games freed up a bunch of space. Oh, and I deleted Final Fantasy XIV as well. I clearly was not coming back that game any time soon. So I should have enough space now for Rise of the Tomb Raider and I will delete NBAS 2k19, once I have 2k20. I thought progress carried over between games, but I also clearly never finished a season, so what would I be carrying over? I just checked and NBA 2k20’s demo is not the prelude, it does not have a story mode that benefits the game, so that’s pretty disappointing. So I will spend a night (hopefully) of running around the neighborhood to earn the Marathon Man trophy and delete 2k19 in preparation of 2k20.
I’m sure I will redownload Uncharted 4 and Ratchet & Clank again as the desire will return, especially Ratchet & Clank, as I’m sure Rise of the Tomb Raider will scratch the Uncharted itch.
. . .
My beautiful wife got me the best Father’s Day present ever! I am now the proud owner of a PlayStation Vita! I’ve been wanting one for so long! She also treated me to a 16GB SD card so I was able to fill the thing up with so many games, that I eventually had to delete a few as I got carried away with wondering how many filled up the 16GB as the first few games I downloaded, were super small. Turns out, and I’m still getting used to the store format through the Vita, but I did claim some additional games that I didn’t think I did. So that has been nice, and even one game I didn’t even know I had access too. That game is Super Mutant Alien Assault.
At first, I had no intention of redownloading games I have played on the PS4 that were cross play, but then I realized how silly that was as that eliminated like 20 games, and I decided against that policy when I realized I had 20 Vita games, when I thought I only had like six.
Every Wednesday, I’m going to check psprices (I do this regardless) to see the cheap Vita games and slowly start building my collection. Especially if the game is cross play as I like to give them a shot on the big TV before playing them on the Vita. I bought Blasting Agent : Ultimate Edition as it was $1.19, and worth a risk. I saw Cel Damaged was on sale for $3, but I think I can hold off on buying games until they are under $2, especially as I have so many new games I haven’t even played yet.
I did buy Demetrois : Big Cynical Adventure after reading it was a visual novel with a twist, and I think I really want to turn my Vita into a Visual Novel machine, as those seem to be perfect carry around and play type of games.
I write that but I have been playing King Oddball like crazy! To the point, where I want to reinstall it onto the PS4 as I’ve been making crazy progress, but I’m also okay with not doing that. Such a great game, if you want Angry Birds, but with a floating head that throws rocks using his tongue, King Oddball is the game for you!
I also been playing Sparkle 2 for a lot longer than I ever gave it a chance on the PS4. I am mentally committed to playing it until I earned the Play for 4 Hours trophy, but I’ll probably see it to the end.
Divekick is a very fun fighting game, either we jump or we are divekicking. I did one playthrough as the bear character and now I’m currently playing as Dive, brother to Kick. Though I am playing with the YOLO gem, so one kick to me, and I lose and I have to kick my opponent five times, one kick per round. It is for a trophy, and it like King Oddball, as a real “just one more go” feel to it.
Draw Slasher is not the Ninja Fruit clone I thought it was going to be, but I understand now where they make that comparison. It is more of a side scrolling fighting game, where we are constantly swiping our sword at opponents. Pretty fun, I beat the boss and felt good with my progress. I’m essentially just trying out a slew of games to see what I take too.
For instance, I did not take to Atomic Ninjas, there is a lot of depth and abilities to the game, maybe a few too many, and I’m just plain not good at it. Like, I felt good at the beginning of the tutorial, but then it goes on for like six additional abilities and then I try it for real, and I just end up bouncing around the area and shoving people into fire.
I sort of want to buy a 32GB SD card, but those things are so expensive but I just want to have access to all of my games. Which is silly a the PS4 has clearly trained me to only keeping like six games at any given time.
Blasting Agent : Ultimate Edition was fun until I got to the second boss fight. It took so many tries, but I did it, and felt I got my $1.19 out of it. It also served as a cautionary tale to maybe not just buy every dollar game out there.
I really want to get Uncharted : Golden Abyss, I rather not spend $15 on it, but I think I might just be getting to the point that I want to play one of the best Vita titles out there. I also saw there was Batman Origins Blackgate for the Vita, and I sort of want that game too. Hopefully with people’s interest in the Vita since that one moment in The Last of Us Part 2, sales for games will start kicking in. I saw there are already two company’s who are going back to developing games for the system, so hopefully that is a new trend.
I’m still no good at 36 Fragments of Midnight, but I feel like it could be a perfect Vita game. Usually I tuck Walker Dennis in at night, then I sit and play on the Vita until he falls asleep, which has been nice as there were a few nights (too many, to be honest), where I started getting sleepy myself, and either dozed off or became to sleepy to hang out with my wife. Now I am pretty alert and ready to hang out, so it has been worth it.
The Vita has a tutorial to learn more about its function, Welcome Park, and there were trophies associated with it, so I gave that a try. I’m no good at that jigsaw puzzle, but I’m never good with those where we are missing a piece and have to move all of the tiles along to form the puzzle.
I’m hoping Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross go on sale, they were on sale in March or so, and if I knew I was getting a Vita then (it was still a dream at that point), I would have bought them when they were $5 each, instead of $10. If they had trophy support, I would just buy them right now, but they don’t, so I’m holding out for a sale.
So a lot of gaming stuff is happening around me and I’m super excited for July!
Shadow and Flame with Magik 