I apologize for my prior Spider-Man reviews because I kept forgetting the hyphen in Spider-Man. I believe The Modern Gafa pointed it out to me a bit ago, so when it came time to review Turf Wars, the newest DLC from Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PS4, I made sure not to forget it. It’s such a silly mistake, but I’m a human being and I’m capable of error. These new Spider-Man DLCs are intriguing and add more elements to the story and Turf Wars is no exception.

The focus of this DLC is on Spider-Man’s relationship with Yuriko (Yuri) Watanabe. I practically know nothing about characters in the Spider-Man universe, however after looking at the Marvel Wiki, I realized the game is accurate in its portrayal of her. Both Yuri’s father and grandfather served on the police force with her father being arrested for accepting bribes from the mafia. Yuri wanting to distance herself from the toxicity her father created, became a police officer dedicated to doing things the right way. I adore her relationship with Spider-Man as he’s the goofy one and she’s the serious character in their partnership.

Turf Wars, picks up with Spider-Man investigating stolen Sable International tech led by infamous criminal mastermind, Hammerhead. Yuri leads this investigation and unsurprisingly a shootout erupts. Many of Yuri’s men are killed ruthlessly which changes Yuri. Spider-Man is left to pick up the pieces of locating Hammerhead and preventing Yuri from performing an act that cannot be undone.

As always, there are side quests to do in this DLC like The Heist before it. I prefer completing these before going through the story. The bases are surprisingly difficult with the new appearance of different enemies for Spider-Man to fight. There are more of Screwball’s social media challenges which are annoying, but easy to complete.

I’ll be sad when the last DLC titled Silver Lining releases in December. I have gotten used to new content being added for this game. Eventually, I plan on playing New Game Plus which will keep me invested after I complete Silver Lining. I can’t recommend Marvel’s Spider-Man enough as it certainly is my game of 2018.

After unlocking all the trophies in Marvel’s Spider-Man, I was hoping for more content! I haven’t finished New Game Plus yet because I may want to return to the game in a couple months. To fill my Spider-Man void, I downloaded The Heist DLC featuring the Black Cat as the main protagonist in the game. I have to admit I found parts of this story to be more challenging than I expected, but I still finished the DLC in under six hours. This was a terrific addition to the main story.

Felicia Hardy aka. The Black Cat is the true definition of an anti-hero as she is a leather-clad Robin Hood stealing from the rich. In The Heist, Spider-Man is called to an art museum to stop crime boss Hammerhead & his crew from stealing expensive valuables. However, Felicia drops by and ends up stealing a flash drive from the back of a painting amidst Spider-Man’s pleas to her to do the right thing. Black Cat succeeds and Spider-Man is forced to chase her down throughout NYC to uncover her motives and stop Hammerhead.

The dialogue between Black Cat and Spider-Man was perfect. From my understanding, Spider-Man and Black Cat have a flirty, dynamic relationship which has its ups and downs. In the game, it appears Spider-Man had a fling with Black Cat before he got back together with MJ. The final mission in the game allows the player to direct the Black Cat to enemies she can eliminate. I found I was using Black Cat more for takedowns than Spider-Man during this sequence.

I highly recommend completing all the side quests as one features more background on Felicia Hardy’s family. There are also new crimes to complete such as activating the Spider Bot to defuse bombs underneath cars. Screwball, a lesser-known Spider-Man villain creates challenges for Spider-Man to complete which although easier than the Task Master challenges, I found these tasks bothersome to complete.

Ultimately, The Heist DLC is enjoyable and I hope Black Cat makes another appearance sometime soon. Better yet, why not release DLC where I can play as her for the entire game. There will be two other episodes to purchase for Marvel’s Spider-Man titled “Turf Wars” & “Silver Lining”. “Turf Wars” is released supposedly this month, but I’m not sure of the date. Marvel’s Spider-Man’s The Heist can be purchased on the Playstation Network for $9.99 or a season pass can be purchased for $25.00.

One of my bucket list items for October was to play in a horror D&D campaign. On Friday, October 5th I cooperated in a D&D Call of Cthulhu campaign held by a couple players in a Facebook Group I belong to. Besides playing D&D, I was able to visit a new game store I had never been to; the Gaming Goat in St. Paul.  I drove 45 minutes from my apartment to The Gaming Goat during rush hour traffic because I was looking forward to the story. Our session flew by and we ended up playing the campaign for five hours straight. Call of Cthulhu D&D is probably my favorite format because of the horror element of the game.

I wasn’t the DM, but I do know a couple of the mechanics in Call of Cthulhu. When you roll the dice, you want to roll under your skill. For example, my character, Dr. Tamela Wissler has a high biology skill of 70. In order to succeed, I would need to roll a 70 or under to pass. However, Dr. Wissler has a 5 in fast talk which makes it impossible for my character to talk her way out of a situation. A critical failure would be to roll a 99 or even a 90 may count as a critical failure. Therefore a critical success would be under 10.

To start the campaign, all of the characters were on a ship similarly built to the Titanic traveling to Massachusetts. Initially, all players could sneak items on the ship and I rolled to sneak a vial of acid in my pocket because Dr. Wissler is a scientist, and who wouldn’t want acid to pour onto a creature. As the days pass in our campaign, different characters go missing, are murdered, or pushed overboard. In between all of the missing passengers, I did roll a critical success to pour a drink and yell obscenities at Nazis which I was proud of.

As our players ventured out on the boat, we uncovered the ship captain performing a sacrificial ritual to a black tentacled octopus creature underneath our boat. All of the characters who were murdered were sacrificed to this creature. Thankfully, the group of players stopped the ship captain before we had to fight the ugly monster so we successfully survived our campaign.

A year ago, I participated in a Call of Cthulhu D&D session with the same group of people I played with this year. The DM still had my old character sheet from the previous year so I played as the same character from last year. That was an extra bonus to this session.

I enjoy the Call of Cthulhu D&D mechanics and would highly recommend it. It’s perfect for the month of October but can be played all year round. I’m attending another session next Thursday and I haven’t decided if I’m going to play as Tamla or as another in-depth character trying to stay sane in the Arkham universe.

It’s been a while since I had been anxiously waiting for the release of a new video game. Now I can afford video games unlike when I was a college student. It wasn’t appealing to look forward to a video game I couldn’t afford. Gaming is an expensive hobby to maintain, but worth it for me. When I watched E3 footage of Insomniac’s Spider-Man, I was blown away. I am happy to say Spider-Man is amazing and it’s my favorite release of 2018.

Spider-Man takes place eight years after Peter Parker received his powers. He quit the Daily Bugle to do neurological research with Doctor Otto Octavius. He assists Aunt May with volunteering at F.E.A.S.T. which is a soup kitchen in Peter’s neighborhood. Finally, Peter is trying to maintain a friendship with his ex-girlfriend Mary Jane. Peter has experience fighting crime, but he has so much to learn with regard to maintaining great relationships.

The game begins with Spider-Man taking on Wilson Fisk aka. Kingpin. This is also the tutorial that demonstrates how to fight as Spider-Man. Learning the controls for Spider-Man’s combat was more difficult than I had thought it would be. He’s weak because he hasn’t been leveled up yet. Ultimately, Wilson Fisk is put behind bars, but a new crop of criminals arises known as The Demons. It’s clear The Demons have some sort of supernatural power because they emit black & white energy from their weapons and bodies. Over the course of the campaign, Peter has battled The Demons while also fighting many of his previous foes.

Being able to explore NYC as Spider-Man is fantastic. I had just visited NYC for the first time in August and I felt I was reliving the trip throughout this game. Another positive to Spider-Man is the story itself. I love the intro to Miles Morales and Mary Jane Watson. I wrote my thoughts about MJ in a separate post which I have linked in case you missed it. Miles Morales had a big role in this game and I was happy about it. If there ever is a sequel, I would love to see Spider-Gwen included, or even Silk.

I could go on forever about how much I adored this game, but I have to end this post. Spider-Man deserved a great video game and this game does him justice. I’m excited to hear there are 2-3 more DLCs planned for this game including one released at the end of this month starring Black Cat. Spider-Man by Insomniac Games was everything I wanted it to be.

This weekend I stayed at home playing video games and watching shows on Amazon Prime. For the past month or so, I had been gone almost every single weekend and the introvert in me just needed a recharge. The timing is perfect because I had pre-ordered the new Spider-Man game for PS4 made by Insomniac Games. I had never been more excited for a video game release in my life. I had seen E3 footage of the game and the way Spider-Man flew around NYC was breathtaking. I wanted to share my first impressions of the game since I’m a couple hours in. I will not be providing spoilers for the story, but if you are someone who wants to play the game without any knowledge about it, this blog post may not be for you.

One of my first impressions of the new Spider-Man game is the graphics. The city of NYC looks amazing and after visiting NYC a month ago, this game allows me to explore the “Big Apple” again. Spider-Man effortlessly glides through NYC allowing for him to travel to each neighborhood quickly. It takes getting used to swinging around the city, but after playing for a couple hours it becomes easier.

This game is detailed specifically with Spider-Man’s suits. There are numerous suits to unlock including his suit in Secret Wars, the wrestling suit and so many more. With each suit, I can craft mods to the suit which provide benefits for combat. One suit allows Spider-Man to build focus faster so he can heal quicker while another suit protects him from melee attacks. Besides suits, the game provides plenty of detail with its collectibles. One of my favorite collectible items so far is Spider-Man’s backpacks which contain clothes and other memorable items he has stashed with his webbing across the city. I won’t list what any of these items are, but they tell his story whether that’s growing up in high school, memorabilia from fighting villains, or Spider-Man merchandise. It’s been fun to collect the backpacks and hear Peter’s explanation of what they mean. As a Marvel fan, this adds to the experience of the game.

This post is only meant to list my first impressions of the game, so I don’t want to go into too much detail. Honestly, I’m loving every single minute of this game! Spider-Man deserves a great video game and I feel this is it. If you haven’t purchased the Spider-Man game and you have a PS4, you’re truly missing out on the ultimate comic book/video game experience.

Since buying my PS4 last November, I have been trying to play the Playstation exclusives I missed out on. I purchased the Last of Us which I’m about a fourth of the way through along with the Uncharted remastered series. Uncharted was a series I dived into because I never get tired of shoot-out sequences in video games. I haven’t played Uncharted #4 A Thief’s End, but I wanted to rank the three Uncharted games based on how much I enjoyed playing them.

Developed by Naughty Dog, the series stars Nathan Drake, an orphan recruited at a young age by his mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan. Nathan believes he’s a descendant of Sir Francis Drake who was an English sea captain and explorer on behalf of Queen Elizabeth. All of the games somehow have ties to Sir Francis Drake’s past explorations.

1. Uncharted #3 Drake’s Deception

My favorite game of the series was the third game: Uncharted Drake’s Deception. In Drake’s Deception, Nathan Drake is searching for a lost city in the Arabian Peninsula titled “Atlantis of the Sands”. Katherine Marlowe (who could be Helen Mirren’s identical twin) is also searching for this city but has awful plans for the city once she reaches it. Drake and Sully must stop her and another guy named Talbot.

I liked this game the best for a couple different reasons. I liked how some in-game chapters feature young Drake as a child and how he came to meet Sully in the first place. It’s heartwarming to see how Sully saw his potential and gave him a better life than the one he had on the streets. It made me enjoy the relationship between Sully and Drake more when I played through these chapters in the game.

I thought out of all the Uncharted games, this game was the most difficult. There is one shootout where Drake is in the water and enemies are shooting at you from all sides. I would hop out of the water for cover, but the crates would crumble as enemies shot at me. I had to replay this shootout quite a bit because of the level of difficulty involved. It’s more satisfying beating this game with the challenge of the various shootouts.

The final positive feedback for this game is the hand-to-hand combat has improved. In the other Uncharted games, I wouldn’t have thought to run up to an enemy and punch them. In this game, the counters are more prominent which makes hand-to-hand combat easier.

2. Uncharted #2 Among Thieves

In Uncharted #2 Among Thieves, once again Nathan Drake is searching for a lost city, this time in Nepal titled Shambhala. In this game, Drake is battling with Harry Flynn, a former colleague who betrayed him resulting in Drake spending some time in prison. Flynn has tagged along with war criminal Zoran Lazarevic who’s a genuinely horrible person.

Overall, I thought Uncharted #2 Among Thieves was a great sequel, but the third game captivated me a lot more than the second one.

3. Uncharted #1 Drake’s Fortune

This game is probably the most important game in the franchise because, without this game, we wouldn’t have the others. However, Uncharted Drake’s Fortune is my least favorite game I played. I found that this game is slower-paced than the others and the locations don’t intrigue me as much.

However, this game is important because it’s how Drake meets Elena Fischer who ends up being his wife in the fourth game. Elena is a journalist who has made an appearance in almost all of the Uncharted games released. She’s always after the one story that can net her a Pulitzer Prize.

Uncharted was a great series I missed out on being an Xbox gamer throughout middle & high school. I’m glad it was remastered for the PS4 otherwise I probably wouldn’t have played it.

Last night I was playing through Uncharted Drake’s Fortune where I was exploring on one level to figure out how to climb this tower. While doing so, I uncovered one relic. There are 60 relics to find in this first game and I have found maybe 6? Looking back at my history in gaming, I have always been that gamer who would collect as many achievements or trophies as I possibly could before I moved on to the next game. Sometimes if I still had achievements left in a game to collect, I wouldn’t move on to the next game until I collected my achievements. Now, as I’m collecting these relics, I realize I just don’t have time to 100% games.

This stems from having many different video games to play! I still have the second & third Uncharted games to play through. I also haven’t beaten Sexy Brutale or Last of Us. I’m also planning on pre-ordering the PS4 Spiderman game because it looks stunning. I find the more time I spend trying to 100% complete a game, I miss out on other video games being released.

Trying to 100% a game is time-consuming. When I was playing through Lego Marvel Superheroes, it took me four hours to go around and unlock characters, collect gold bricks, and play through all the bonus levels. 4 hours!! on a Saturday just to unlock achievements. Normally, I like to play video games for at least two hours in one sitting, but I realize I could have been cleaning my apartment or out at a brewery with a friend.

In high school or even winter breaks home from college, I had the time to sit down and achievement hunt in a game. With a full-time job, social life and exercise eating into my free time, I want to be able to experience as many games as possible, so I’m okay with not getting all the achievements I want to get if it means I can move on to the next game.

Are there any other gamers out there who have struggled with this?

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of driving to my uncle’s house for a classic tabletop gaming day. Most of the time we played Star Wars X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games, but after dinner, my uncle pulled out his copy of Doctor Who Time of the Daleks from his gaming shelf. I didn’t know a Doctor Who-themed board game existed and my uncle knows I’m a fan of the show. My group only got to play it for 10 – 15 minutes, but I was surprised by how difficult it was and how I was looking forward to playing it in the future.

To start the game, each player picks the First Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, or Twelfth Doctor. I automatically called playing the Eleventh Doctor because Matt Smith has a special place in my heart with his fish sticks & custard along with his bow tie. My uncle read the rules to help us understand the game. Our ultimate goal is to prevent the Dalek ship from reaching Gallifrey before we do. In order to gain companions, we can visit earth past, earth present, or earth future marked on the board. As our Doctors visit Earth along different timelines, we have to overcome dilemmas. This is where the game is difficult.

Each dilemma piece lists a series of colors along with symbols. This correlates to the dice associated with your doctor. Your Doctor & your companions each contribute dice to the overall dice pool. These dice are used to overcome dilemmas by rolling the correct color die with the correct symbol. If you pass the roll by getting all the symbols & colors needed, there’s a reward which could be moving the Dalek ship backward. However, if you fail… bad things happen like moving the Dalek ship forward.

As the Daleks move, they can set off time anomalies which can punish all the players. In the ten minutes we played the game, each of us failed a dilemma so the Dalek ship set off two-time anomalies and moved the Dalek ship five spaces beyond our Tardis pieces. The difficulty doesn’t turn me away from the game, it makes me determined to keep playing.

In the ten minutes, I played the game, there was a lot I liked. I enjoyed the characters they picked such as Eleven along with him being connected with Amy Pond. I like the difficulty, but I can see where other gamers might be turned away. I’m waiting for the expansion where they include the Ninth doctor.

Overall, if you consider yourself to be a Doctor Who fan, this is the board game for you. I think it works well with more than two players, but you could play it with your best friend or partner. I’m looking forward to playing this game for a full game on our next game night.

My video game guilty pleasure is I genuinely enjoy LEGO games. I think they’re a perfect distraction if you’re stuck in another video game and need a break from that game. I picked up LEGO Marvel Superheroes for the Xbox One many months ago. I was looking for something new to play and I saw it sitting on the shelf. I finished the story mode, but now I’m going back and getting all the achievements which are taking a while. I wanted to pick my favorite characters to play as in their cute LEGO Form.

LEGO Jean Grey 

It’s funny because I’m not a huge X-Men fan, but I like the X-Men Marvel Lego characters the most. Jean Grey’s powers are used a lot in side quests and to unlock items during the free-play mode. She’s a character I heavily rely on because she can fly in her bubble and pick up LEGO pieces.

LEGO Black Cat 

I only like playing her character because of her cute costume. As soon as I unlocked her, I bought her.

LEGO Hulk

The biggest stress release is coming home from work, playing LEGO Marvel Superheroes, and smashing LEGOs with the Hulk.

LEGO Magneto

Magneto flies around in his magnetic bubble and picks up Lego pieces for me, it’s super convenient.

LEGO Wolverine

Wolverine is great in battle because he doesn’t die and causes you to lose Lego pieces. Instead, he turns silver for a minute or two while he regenerates. I hate losing LEGO pieces when I die, so LEGO Wolverine is a nice character to play as.

Ultimately, I’m having a lot of fun collecting achievements for this game. Eventually, I will move on to more complex video games, but right now I like just having a mental break and unlocking all the Marvel heroes.