Zach's Game Review

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Zach’s 2011 Top Games
Well the year of 2012 is upon us and believe it or not 2011 was a good year of gaming. So to close out 2011, I will have my own little award show here on the BlogSpot. Before I get to the actual games let me just say real quick that although only a few games will win, every game I mention is well worth a try. Every single one deserves to be recognized and should not be looked down upon. Well without further ado here are the games.
First we’ll look at the top fighting games of 2011 and the nominees are:
Mortal Kombat
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
After playing these games it was a hard choice to make between them but the Winner of Fighting Game of the year is……… Mortal Kombat!
Mortal Kombat didn’t have the best series of games after UMK 3 but showed promise after MK vs. DCU. It’s good to see it come back and completely destroying its past history and gives the MK fans what they want: good, bloody, fun. Not to mention the cool X-ray attacks that are a welcome addition to the franchise and are here to stay. If you don’t know what I’m talking about let me inform you. The X-ray attacks are a special move that allows major damage to the opponent and literally let you see the internal damage that is given. Plus the guest characters that are there are perfect for the game which are Kratos from the God of War series and Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street.
Next we’ll look at RPGs, so the nominees here are:
Dues Ex: Human Revolution
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Dead Island
L.A. Noire
So the winner for RPG of the year is…… Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Now those of you who know me you’ll already know how much I love creating my own character and with Skyrim I can go above and beyond. The game has multiple ways of creating your own character and you’ll feel new and refreshed. Not to mention the amazing graphics and unique style of duel wielding. Players can wield both a melee weapon and magic at the same time but you can also have two weapons or two magic gloves but it all ends with what you want. And that is basically how you play the game, HOW EVER THE HECK YOU WANT!!!! THAT IS PURE AWSOME RIGHT THERE!!
And now for the best Action game nominees
Batman Arkham City
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
And the best action game of the year was another hard choice but…….. Batman Arkham City!
Batman has always been a fan favorite of practically everybody. It was a close match between this game and Assassin’s Creed but I liked Arkham City just a bit more. You may disagree with me on the choice but you can’t deny that Arkham City is a blast to play and the Dark Knight is the best there is in the DC Universe. The reason I’m not describing the game like I did with the previous games is because I already gave a review on it and you can look at it anytime.
Next category is the FPS (First Person Shooters) and they are:
Battlefield 3
MW3 (Modern Warfare 3)
You should have known this fight was coming but the winner for best FPS game of the year is………Call of Duty MW3!!
So the winner between these two great games has finally been decided, by me anyway. The reason I picked Call of Duty was because the story was more interesting than in Battlefield’s and the online seemed more personal. By now you should know that I love customization and in MW3 the customization is a little more widely open than in Battlefield in my opinion. Plus with Battlefield it’s more realistic than MW3 and I like that but I prefer the feeling of walking into a room and wasting everyone in there like in MW3. It gives me that feeling like I’m invincible.
Next is Horror but there is only one nominee and winner which is…..
Dead Space 2!!!
Those who get frightened easily beware this game. If you can’t take the extreme content of blood and space zombies then read no farther. Dead Space 2 has really upped the scale of the franchise in terms of horror and good story telling. Isaac Clarke, Dead Space’s main protagonist, is becoming insane because of a strange artifact he found on the Ishimura of the first game. A red Marker that creates Necromorphs; a race of aliens that take over the bodies of the dead. And now a second marker has been brought to Titan Station near Saturn and another Necromorph outbreak is on the loose. Being haunted by the death of his girlfriend on the Ishimura, Isaac battles his inner demons while battling the outside ones as well, limb by bloody limb. It’s everything you want in a horror game and your mother is going to hate it!
Last but not the least we have the system exclusives. First for PS3 there is
Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
Little Big Planet 2
Infamous 2
And the best PS3 game of the year is ……..Infamous 2!!
I don’t know what is it about lighting based powers that is really fun but it just is. In Infamous 2 players will once again take control of Cole McGrath who is destined to defeat a beast that is intending to destroy the whole world. This is one of these games where you can choose to be good or evil but does so in its own way. You can get cool powers that you can use your lighting such as Lighting grenades, shockwaves, levitation, healing, or even rockets. There is plenty of karma moments where you choose on what you would rather do if a situation like that occur and you had lighting based powers. Pretty cool if you ask me!
Next are the Xbox exclusives.
Gears of War 3
Halo CE Anniversary
And the winner for best 360 exclusive is………Gears of War 3!
It was hard to believe that Epic games could top the first Gears with Gears 2 and now they’ve wowed us again with their goodbye game. Gears 3 take place 18 months after the events of Gears 2. People are trying to make a living but a new enemy known as the lambent are killing everyone and only one person knows how to kill them off once and for all, Marcus’ dad Adam Fenix. The whole story is based on getting to Adam and finishing off the lambent but there is still Locust that have survived and determined the finish off Humanity and the Lambent once and for all. There are plenty of new weapons at your disposal and online has improved a lot from the second game but still if you use anything but a shotgun, sniper, or Boomshot you’re not going to last long at all.

There you have it! My Top Games of the year 2011! Hope you enjoyed this little award show and sorry it took so long to be posted but as long as it gets up who cares. Better late than never right? Just a reminder Next review will be on The first majorly anticipated game of 2012, Street Fighter x Tekken! If you remember I did a preview on it earlier in the year but it comes out very soon so look forward to that. And as always Keep Playing, Keep Praying!

Hey Ya'll!!

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Hey Ranchonians!! How many of you are wondering how the Senior Trip went? I know that if I were you, I would be! The trip was great!! We had many adventures! The first of which was finding our camp site. WHOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEE talk about your high class ladies and gentlemen. We were housed at the ONLY KOA site in Kernville. Yeah. Whats up. We also headed into the heart of Kernville, where we were greated by the lovely inhabitants of Kernville. Many nice gentlemen spend their days in the riverside park, drinking and having merry talk alongside their trusty dog companions. Others like to sunbathe their white legs in flattering pairs of green shorts. Overall, the trip was quite an adventure. We will let you know whats up tomorrow, so tune in again! Tafferdee and Patters out!!!

I've been Marathon Momming

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I'm not gone, and I haven't forgotten my little blog.  But, I've been super busy with my mom duties!  It's just been a marathon of momness for the past couple of months. 

The oldest moved home from South Carolina at the end of September. Then she found a house to rent and moved in with her air mattress, a towel and a saucepan and spoon that she "borrowed" from my kitchen.  After a week in her empty lonely house, she flew to Connecticut to spend a couple of weeks with her husband.  He will be stationed out here beginning in December.  Katie will be back in San Diego next week. Yay!  We're going to pick her up at the airport and then "camp out" in her empty house.

Lexie and Charlie have been home more frequently, in fact, they stayed here all week this week. So nice to have them around more!  But, three little kids is sure a lot of work!  They exhaust me and I love it.  I'm so glad I get to babysit my grandson while my daughter works.  Since she's been working till midnight more often, she just spends the night instead of waking Charlie just to take him home.  Plus, since she doesn't have a car I would have to wake up the girls for the ride too.

Gracie and Libby are having so much fun!  Libby just had her birthday and then it was Halloween and then Thanksgiving, yikes, it's almost Christmas now!  It's really going that fast.  I've been taking them on lots of outings since it is cool out and has been kind of rainy, if I don't get them out they feel too cooped up. Besides, outings are fun.  We tried to get in as many outings as we could on nice days, just in case we didn't get another nice sunny day for a while. My mid-western mentality kicks in every fall.  Must hurry and get out before we are stuck at home all winter! I still forget that life in Southern California is different and I'm never really stuck at home.

My husband has the whole week of Thanksgiving off from work.  As soon as he was home from work on Friday, he packed up and headed out.  Off he went for a hunting trip to South Dakota.  He should be back Sunday evening.  Of course, he won't have any time to catch up on sleep before he goes back to work on Monday.  I imagine next week if we see him, he'll be snoring. 

If all of those excuses for not blogging more aren't enough, there's this:  I'm working on changing my blog.  It will include a name change and new pages.  Hopefully it will be more manageable for me and you all won't lose me when I shift it all over to the new one.  Exciting changes for my Momathon Blog!  I want to work on it a bit more before the unveiling. Stay tuned.

New Year's Eve

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We wanted to watch the last sunset of 2011 from the pier.  The fog was so thick, we could only see a short distance in front of us.  It was a different experience than we had expected, but still very cool.

Brittany really wanted to go get a Pizookie from B.J.'s, so we went and treated ourselves to some warm, gooey yumminess before heading home for our New Year's Eve party.

We ordered take-out chinese food for dinner and settled down to watch "Battle L.A." before Hannah's friends showed up.  Then Jonathan headed to the church dance and the rest of us went upstairs to play games while Hannah and her friends partied downstairs.  Matt, Brittany, Brett, Sarah, Caleb and I played a few games while munching on snacks.



Just before midnight, we dressed ourselves in glow sticks, armed ourselves with horn blowers and ran over to the park to dance through the fog.  We came home and watched the ball drop on t.v. Poppers, pop-its and a few small fireworks followed out front in the street.

Sarah, Brittany, Matt and Caleb put all the glowsticks on the trampoline and jumped around. It was a cool visual display in the darkness and fog.



We made our traditional New Year's toast and included Hannah's friends.

 

Last family photo of 2011.  So happy to have Brittany home!

Happy St. Patty's

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In the midst of our Stake Musical Production, we squeezed in this small holiday.  I had hoped to do something really festive this year, but our schedule was just so hectic.  I decided that at least the green eggs, green shamrock pancakes and beautiful flower arrangement made for a nice nod to St. Patty's Day.  My mom emailed me something on this day that I liked and thought was worth posting.
"Grandpa and I were studying about St. Patrick's Day to find out who he was. There is a huge cathredral in New York named after him so we looked him up in several history books. We thought you might like to know about this man and why we celebrate him.When he was 16 years old he was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave for 8 years. He escaped and went back to England where he studied Christianity and had a vision that he was to go back to Ireland and teach the people about Christ. He was one of the first Christian missionaries to teach about Christ in Ireland. He baptized over 12,000 people and built almost 400 churches. He designated the shamrock as the Irish Christian symbol, the three leaves stand for the Godhead - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost - 3 separate beings of the same branch. He was a great missionary for Christ. The color green for eternal life. This was around 400 A.D. Churches all over Ireland honor him and revere him as a saint.  Cool huh!!!"
Thanks Mom!  I like it!