New Purchase - PS4 Pro

Guess what?

I bought a Playstation 4 Pro

Yes, I know I probably don't need a new gaming system but I couldn't resist and I'll tell you why.

I have a list of games I'd like to own for the PS4 and two of them came up as free games this month for Playstation Plus members.  Well, lucky me I'm one of them.

Bloodborne and Ratchet & Clank were/are the free games for the month of March 2018.  If I wanted to save some money, now would be the time to get a PS4 . . . except that getting one isn't actually saving me money since I would still have to pay money for the console.  But I couldn't pass up the opportunity especially since I got a nice boost in my paycheck with our year end bonuses coming through.

I got the PS4 Pro (1TB) and immediately downloaded those 2 games.  I also picked up some free to play games as well just so I'd have something else to play.  One of those games is Gems of War.

I have Gems for the XBox One and love it.  I'm about level 167 or so and I've put a large amount of hours in to that game.  Unfortunately I realized around level 80 or so that I did some things in the beginning that have hurt me later on in the game.  At the time I didn't know better because I didn't fully grasp how things would play out.  Once I did, I felt like a fool.  With getting the game again on PS4 I now have the chance to start over and take what I've learned and maybe be better at training, or faster at leveling up.  So now I'm playing the same game on two different consoles.

Of course just having have these few games wasn't enough.  Could I call myself a real gamer if I only have a paltry list of games for the latest system?  Not in my mind anyway.  I've since been on a hunt to find bargins and great deals on other PS4 games.  And my wish list is still growing.

I've picked up I am Setsuna and Horizon Zero Dawn.  I'm so excited about both of them.  I can't wait to play them.  The question now is: Which game do I play first?  I've got so many games on the go right now it's hard to figure out what to play out of those without adding another one to the mix.  But whatever game I pick I was going to record it and post to YouTube.  Except things haven't gone has planned.

Once I got the PS4 hooked up and downloaded an update, I turned on the Elgato and that's when things started to go wrong.  Even though one of the systems the Elgato is natively set to record from is the PS4 it wasn't recognizing the signal and freaked out like it does with my PS3.  (I still haven't figured out why I can no longer record from my PS3.  I've been able to do it in the past but it won't work any longer no matter what I've tried.)

Once I gave up on that and just started to play and enjoy my new system the power started freaking out and it would turn off and back on again randomly.  The thing with Gems of War is that if you are in a battle and lose connection (either you internet goes out or your power) you get "credit" for losing the battle and a loss goes on your record.  After this happened about 3 times I just turned everything off and went to bed.

I haven't given up yet on recording from my PS4, I just have to figure out what went wrong.  Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play from it again either.  Like I said, I've got a lot of games going at once.  More on that in a later post.

So if you've got a PS4 system and would like to recommend games to me to play/buy I'd love to see them in the comments below.  I've ignored the PS4 games for so long because I knew I wouldn't be able to afford the system for awhile so I really don't know what good games are out there; older ones or newer ones.  I could really use some suggestions.  Any games.  Any genres.  I'm open to trying new things.

1,000 Gamer score challenge completed

I did it!

I took a week off from work and went on vacation July 24th through the 31st and all I did (pretty much) was sit in the hotel room and play video games.  It was great.  I got 3 weeks worth of videos recorded in that week and I made my goal of 1,000 gamer score.

I'm not exactly sure which day I got the achievement that pushed me over the edge.  It was either Wednesday the 27th or Thursday the 28th.  Either way that is a month to get 1,000 gamer score.  If I hadn't have gone on vacation I probably wouldn't have done as well as I did.  I picked up 570 points just in that week alone.  I only needed 140 before I left and I got it.

During that time I played some games just for fun in addition to the ones I've been playing for my YouTube channel.  Below is a list of the games that I played while going for that goal and a list of games that I played while on vacation.

I would love to do that again.  Get away from the house that needs cleaning, the dog that needs to be taken care of and a roommate that is annoying and just play video games.  I've got another week vacation in September but I'm not planning on going anywhere so I'll just have to play games at home.

Even though I played a lot of games (or at least played them for a lot of hours) it really got me excited to play more.  And do other things I love to do.  Like read.  It's been a struggle sometimes to find time to read and I haven't been that in to the books that I was reading.  I don't know if it's a combination of the books I've read lately or this new energy to spend time doing the things I love (the bathroom can wait another day before I clean it right?) but I love reading again.  I've recently read The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan and The Scorch Trails by James Dashner.  I'm alternating back and forth between those two series (currently reading The Novice) and once I"m done I think I'll read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and start that series.  Now I've just got to find the time to do everything.

Games played to meet goal:
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Xbox One)
Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox One)
Peggle 2 (Xbox One)
Plants vs. Zombies (Xbox One)
Rayman Legend (Xbox One)
Ancients of Ooga (Xbox Arcade)
Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Xbox One)
Gems of War (Xbox One)
Assault Heroes (Xbox Arcade)
Costume Quest 2 (Xbox Arcade)

Additional Games Played While on Vacation:
Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)
Rayman Origins (Xbox 360)


I played Assault Heroes because I was in the mood to play a racing game as I was searching through my games and stumbled upon that one.  I know it's not a racing game, but it is a driving game and it would do (I was too lazy to look through the rest of my games and they are alphabetically).  I was very surprised to get an achievement in that game.

Gems of War is my new Jewel Quest or Puzzle Quest addiction.  They're just games that I play and chill out to.  They don't stress me out and it's easy to get in a match or two before doing other things.  I was playing it on vacation while I was waiting for videos to process and render.  It fit the time perfectly.

I play Rayman Legend when I want to remember how fun playing Rayman Origins used to be.  I haven't been having a lot of fun in that game for awhile.  I'll still make videos in it and finish it, but I can only play a level or two before I start to get really frustrated and want to chuck my controller through the TV.

Ancients of Ooga is a game that I had the trail version for a long time before I bought the full game.  I had tried playing it several times but just wasn't getting what I was suppose to do.  I still liked the game even if I found it frustrating.  I started playing it again for this challenge and for some reason things just clicked this time.  I figured things out and I was able to get through a bunch of level . . . and then I got stuck so I moved on to something else.

I keep trying to play Plants vs Zombies with friends but it never seems to work out.  They're getting offline just when I get online.  I usually end up just messing around in the Backyard stuff before moving on to something else.  I would really like to play some PvZ games with my friends.

Now that I'm pretty far ahead with my videos I have some time to really sink my teeth in to a meaty game.  I think I'm going to play Red Dead Redemption.  I've debated about if I will film the play through or not and I still haven't decided.  If I do it will be very light on the commentary because I just want to play the game and enjoy it.

Have you played any of those games?  How long would it take you to get 1,000 in gamer score?  It took me a month.  I think that's pretty good.  If I do the same time of thing for trophies on my Playstation 3 what do you think my goal should be?  Let me know in the comments.