Summer time is here and so is my vacation time. Spending time with my little one and investing some quality time with the wife at the beach will be a long overdue priority. During the wonderful two weeks off there is a backlog of games that I still need to finish, time hasn't been the most kind and the busy schedule of constant life necessary chores is always present!

Not to mention, we just got the Wii U! And we have been having a blast with Smash Brothers and Mario Kart 8! If you're up for occasional battle and friendly competition feel free to add me: Nintendo Network ID: Lt_Ashley

In all honestly, I am looking forward to Bayonetta 2, and both Zelda HD games, Pikmin 3 and Mario Brothers. Like my PS4 backlog wasn't enough as it is..

Speaking of PlayStation 4, I finally managed to finish InFamous: Second Son, fun game, albeit a little tedious with side missions. Overall pretty fun - absolutely loved running through the Seattle with Neon powers. Now, my other games are on the list to be finished:

- Resident Evil 2 Revelations series, only managed to finish the first episode and enjoyed it. That will be my next game to taggle.

- Ether One, only spent half a hour with it before completely forgetting about it. Still trying to figure out what kind of game it is really. It has my interest.

- Replaying Heavy Rain (PS4 version) after finishing the PS3 version few years back. In all honesty I don't see many improvements with the re-release. It looks almost identical to the PS3 version but I got it for 10$ with PSN Deal if you purchase Beyond: Two Souls which I never played on the PS3 so it was a great deal.

- Valiant Hearts, now here is a game I really want to dedicate the time to. It has excellent story and premise.

- Life is Strange, finished the first episode, enjoyed it very much. Game of Thrones needs to learn a few trick from it. The amount of freedom and things to do and explore is something Life is Strange exceeds.

- Final Fantasy VII (PS4 version), started playing FF7 once again simply because the nostalgia is still strong with me, not to mention I am very much expecting the remake. :P the ability to speed up 3x time helps push the game faster especially since I played it numerous times in the past.

- Bloodborne - After finishing the main game (superb!) I'm working slowly the The Old Hunters expansion. It's brutal! I'm level 124 new game + and I still have hard time in the opening area. Such a rewarding experience. Love the game.

- The Evil Within, half way through the game, got side tracked few weeks ago and didn't come back to it. I enjoy stealth approach survival horror games and it's very good. Look forward to continuing the story.

- Styx: Master of Shadows, same deal. Half a way through the game and need to continue. I enjoyed Of Orcs and Man and Styx (goblin) is a great wise cracking humorous little devil. The game has some problems with detection but overall, it's dark and gritty.

That would be the backlog that needs finishing. Now to add on top of that is my most anticipated release this May 31. : the final DLC for The Witcher 3.

I'm a huge fan of the wonderful books and the games are one of my favorite RPG games I hold pretty high in regard. I have little over 230 hours into the main and and Heart of Stone expansion combined, I have done every side quest and main quest with 80% completed ? marks around the maps. I literally only have Gwent cards to play which in all honestly I didn't even tried yet.

I'm also very interested in Dark Souls 3 but I won't pick it up until I'm satisfied with Bloodborne DLC first. I'm going to pick up Uncharted 4 in the next few days since I loved the original three games + PS Vita's version and I still have time until No Man's Sky releases. This game is my wife's most anticipated.

She compares it to Spore one of her favorite games and space exploration with discovering new planets is her thing.

That will do it for now, happy summer time. :P

Hearth of Stone continues the adventure of Geralt of Rivia further to the North West area which wasn't available in the original game. If you enjoyed the older quest like the "The Bloody Baron" this expansion in my opinion surpassed that quests on every level, especially with superb writing and two new individuals (one appears for the short time in the original game) who easily steal the show.

Olgierd von Everec leads the band of man and woman who will do whatever it takes to get the job done, you will interact with Olgierd often as he isn't what he appears when you first meet him and he is a major part of the story. Lets put it this way, once you finish the game, you will understand the title of the first DLC and its meaning.

Now, the truly fascinating character is so called Gaunter O’Dimm (or the Merchant of Mirrors) as he calls himself. Gaunter identity is unknown however he will be the key of game until the very end. Without spoiling anything, it's worth playing the game just to have interactions with him. One of the best writing I have seen in the RPG will come directly through his contact in your new adventure.

As for the game itself, there are a few side quests, not many and the focus is on the Hearth of Stone story arc. There are few new weapons and armor to acquire and the return of the old and improved Witcher gear set: The Venomous Viper. The level required is 39 and it's absolutely worth it. Especially the silver sword.

The entire set will grant you excellent defense, medium armor and 100% resistances to poison.

New to the expansion are Runewords and Glyphwords. These new additions will add more abilities to your armor and weapons and while I personally didn't find the rewards to be anything amazing (which requires 5000. 10000 and 15000 orens) to upgrade for better versions worth it has it uses if you have the coin to spare.

On the finishing note, the Hearth of Stone took me around 10 hours to complete and reach level 40. This includes all the side missions and ? marks available to the Northern Realm. The DLC higher level enemies also appears to have gotten harder to kill and they dish out a lot more damage. Overall, the game feels harder in that regard forcing you to be on your toes no matter the enemy type. Bosses are also harder as well. Personally, it's a welcome change and more attuned to the lore and books where The Witchers had to prepare adequately when facing stronger foes.

For the price, content given, Witcher and RPG fans in general this is a very good DLC with excellent story worth your money.

Recommended.

It' has been a year since my last blog, work and family are keeping me busy and today I managed to put together long overdue PC upgrade. Little background first, my PC hasn't seen a hardware change since 2007 and as you can imagine, that would be a good amount of time in the world of computer gaming.

For my current build, I spent a good few days researching what has changed over the course of the last eight years in the respectable market.

Being on a strict budget (500$) I had to look around for deals via various places, being that I am stationed in Toronto, Canada - the prices are quite higher then our American neighbors, especially with our current Canadian dollar being quite low.

Either way, Newegg.ca, Amazon.ca, Tigerdirect.ca and Canadacomputers,com were all great source of deals. I primary used Maximumpc.com, tomshardware.com , pcgamer.com for additional information. For putting the parts comparability together and to make sure the components don't have any issue with each other, I primary used - pcpartpicker.com and simple looked for the my budget builds and making my own decision which parts I wanted.

Since my budget was at 500$ sacrifices had to be made in what I wanted (Titan!! :)) vs what was realistic on family run budget. So, the goal was to put together a machine that can play today modern games at 1920x1080p with mostly to all high/medium settings with as close to 60fps as possible but not mandatory. Anything above steady 30 frames would be acceptable. Also, the goal is to be able and upgrade the system in future with stronger video card, more memory , faster HDD and better CPU.

The end goal (with some lucky prices on sale) came to 485$ Tax included. The other 15$ were used to buy pizza and drink for my good friend who helped me assemble the updated rig. Now the only reason this price worked is because I managed to actually save money buy re-using my some of my old PC components, such as: My copy of Windows 7 64- (which is eligible for free Windows 10 upgrade as of the time I am writing this), my old 1TB 7200rpm HDD, Mid size Tower, 600watts power supply and my old but reliable DVD-RW drive for those of us that still use CD's once in a while.

Adding those items aside I needed 4 items to complete the build, I ended up wtih:

- AMD FX 6350 6-Core Black Edition CPU @ 4.00Ghz

- Mini-ATX AMD mobo which supports higher AMD CPU, 3.0 USB, HDMI and up to 32GB RAM.

- GeForce GTX 2GB 750TI Superclocked at 1150Mhz and- 8GB 1866MHz Dual channel FX Fury memory.

After testing the above build with Skyrim, Deus Ex: HR, Battlefield 4, Witcher 3, Bioshock Infinite, GTA 5, Metro 2033 and few other games (and my favorites like Counter Strike: GO, DOTA 2, Starcraft II) I was very happy to report, outside of Witcher 3 which had a excellent 40-50fps steady performance all other games were at steady 60fps and close to it without never dipping below 30fps even during the peak performance stress.

For the budget I was able to use, it's a very nice machine. I can't believe how well 80$ CPU is handling the current generation and the best part, I have to ability to upgrade down the line when needed and budget allows.

Having tested the PlayStation Now service in the closed beta and now the open status I believe that you also need a decent upload speed as well for things to work out.

Since the server is communicating back and forward to your console, it will need a decent upload speed as well.

Few months ago I had 15down/3upload speed and I had difficulty streaming movies in HD. During the movie the quality would fluctuate back and forward inconsistently.

Few weeks ago I upgraded to 60down/10up and no more issues.

So far I tested Dead or Alive 5, Of Orcs and Man, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XIII though PlayStation Now.

In all honestly, smooth like a butter, I couldn't even tell the difference in visuals from the disk version and the response was excellent, especially with fast paced games like Sigma and Dead or Alive.

It's a fantastic service that works, however I don't believe the speed of the Internet is yet properly established.

Also, the prices could use some work. I'm ok paying 5$ for 30 days renatal however, some newer games outright ask for 15$ or 20$ for the same month.

Mind you some of this games are older and can be picked up for cheaper in retail.

I would love to see subscription option added, similarly to Netflix where you can enjoy majority of the games at one yearly or monthly price. Not to mention, add PS and PS2 classics as well. :)

With proper internet connection PS Now works, extremely well. However, how much will it cost to consumer is another story.

From personal experience in close beta and now in the open, I wouldnt recommend anything less then 20 down/5up for good experience and higher for optimal gaming.

After spending the last two days with the new PS4 I have to admit it truly is a fantastic and powerful piece of hardware. Original set-up took me around 10 minutes in total and outside of the few tries getting the PSN to update 1.5 firmware, everything went properly.

One aspect of the PlayStation 4 console that really impressed me is the extremely fast and quick response from the new dualshock 4 controller and XMB which I will get into later. Obviously, the new system is expected to be fast but after using the PS3 XMB for the last seven years the difference is truly amazing. The new PS4 XMB feels familiar but also fresh, modern and new.

I was also presently happy to see PlayStation Network to finally be very responsive and quick. It's a breeze to navigate menus, download, stream and watch videos compare to the current PS3. Outside of the PS4 incredible overall speed due to new hardware, the redesign Dualshock 4 is a thing of beauty. New R2 and L2 triggers are finally improved, I found myself using them pretty much all the time in every game. The new controller also feels little heavier in your hands, which I don't mind at all. It adds a nice feel to the overall design.

The new clickable touch pad in the middle of the controller feels very responsive, during my play time with Killzone: Shadow Fall and Assassins Creed: Black Flag the touch pad was used in a light sense. Time will show how the developers will utilize the new gadget. I can see a potential with certain PC games, such as Real Time Strategies (RTS) make an appearance.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the PS4 hardware, it looks and feels next-generation, its has a lot of power behind it. The new re-designed DS4 feels very, very good and I believe it might even sway many gamer's towards the PlayStation 4 console, especially those who prefer First Person Shooters.

The console comes with the 500GB hard-drive, which realistically will give you 408GB of a free space. The rest is taken by the HDD itself and good portion also appears to be reserved by the PS4 for future updates.

If you are looking into upgrading, make sure you are purchasing laptop 2.5 SATA drive with no bigger then 9.5mm in size. It's a quick and easy process and it doesn't mess-up your PS4 warranty. Here is a simple, easy, step by step video on how to do so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp2CgTmUqbw

The only negative impact is the current mixed state of the PlayStation Network which is ON and OFF depending of the time of the day. Server maintenance is working things out and its expected for a launch of a new hardware. Server simply can't handle the large amount of people trying to use it all at once. I don't believe Sony themselves anticipated large amount of consumers. Either way, give them few days and the servers will be back to normal.

Some of my friends are still experiencing issues with online play with both Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4. At some times they are able to login and play and other times they are greeted with server down maintenance error.

The two games I had been playing so far, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and Killzone: Shadow Fall single play experiences are stunning. Reviews on those two games will follow up later on.

In the end, I'm very satisfied wit the PlayStation 4 and very much looking forward to the future games on the system. Kudos to the Sony team for a slick and future build platform, now work on getting the PSN back to normal. :)

With the recent PlayStation Plus offerings, I have finally decided to buy The PS Vita, I personally wanted one in the black color and the COD bundle wasn't the game I wanted so I simply purchased the portable system itself and 16GB memory card for 50$ which by the way is still ridiculously overpriced on its own..
Nonetheless, the system itself is a wonderful piece of technology:

After spending some time with very handy tutorial of how to use all the Vita's features I connected the Wi-Fi in less then a minute and spent some time browsing the Internet and PlayStation Store. It's all well implemented, the Vita's gorgeous 5" OLED screen is nothing short of brilliant. The touch screen is accurate and quick to navigate and the hand-held itself feels very comfortable.

The content manager software is very useful, I was able to transfer any PS3 purchased games via USB port quickly to the Vita and vise-versa. Uploading any saved game files to the PS+ Cloud was also not an issue.

So far, I started and played little bit of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Wipeout HD and Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus, which by the way is pretty amazing. 

In the end, I'm satisfied with the PS Vita hardware, it's powerful, comfortable with gorgeous OLED screen and the games look beautiful. The only downside I believe Sony made a mistake with would be the memory cards. You can only use Sony specific and they are very expensive.. Count in the PlayStation Plus for one year (to get those free games) and this brings the price of the hand held way over 300$ which I believe is too expensive.

I'm looking forward to different games PS Vita has to offer and if you have PS3 and PS+ membership, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It complements the big brother very well and some games offer cross-play between two platforms. 

The last time I owned the handheld was GameBoy color.. To be perfectly honest, I'm not on the road and when I do travel my laptop is most of the time with me.

However, my wife is a Nintendo woman, she pretty much had all the Nintendo consoles and handhelds in the past, not to mention she is a big Pokemon fan.

So, with the announcement of the Pokemon X and Y, I decided to pick up brand new Aqua Blue 3DS.

While the handheld will be in my wife hands most of the time (:))I'm personally big RPG and Adventure fan. I never had the chance to play any Nintendo games past Super Mario back in the NES area. (I'm primary and PlayStation owner)

So, understading that my better half decided to introduce to me to some classics. So far, I'm planning on picking up Ocarina of Time 3D since I got a lot of recommendations and upcoming Fire Emblem.

After spending some time configuring the 3DS today, connecting it the online and updating the software for the system I have to admit, the handheld feels nice in the arms.

I still have to learn how the memory card works and just how big of the SD card do I need but otherwise I'm pretty happy.

3DS joins my Nintendo Wii and PS3 collection gaming hardware collection :)

If anyone has any advice or recommendations as to which games to play (DS and 3DS) I'm open to suggestions.

It all depends how much you really want the game to be honest and of course if money aren't much of a problem. (Which is not a case for many people this days, myself included.)

Take one of my current games I have been playing for the last month - Game of Thrones. I love the books and the TV series and was very interested in the game itself. Barely 2 months after the game originally released it was 30$ new, 25$ used.

After buying it and currently about half a way into it, 22 hours of gameplay, I'm having a blast and it really feels like money well spent. Of course the game has issues, however I'm enjoying it and I didn't break the wallet buying it.

The thing is, it's a smart idea to wait few months on certain type of games. I understand if it's Call of Duty or similar heavy community based online experience where it makes sense to buy it on the release day since you end up spending months playing it, otherwise 90% of the single player driven games drop their price within first 2-4 months significantly.

Another issue I'm noticing lately is the rise of the so called premium membership or value DLC prices (one time fees) on top of the already 60$ game...Recent;y - Call of Duty and Battlefield series are notorious for this... however, that's a matter of another topic I will eventually find some time to discuss.

On the other side, in my case specifically, RPG's and sometimes Action-Adventure (like Assassins Creed) are the only type of games I would spend 60$ on. This happens maybe 3-4 times a year, when superb RPG game is released. I value many hours of steady, non-rushing gaming and I feel I spend the money with satisfaction.

In the end of the day, it all depends on a person. I don't personally believe 70% of games released today warrant their price and I vote accordingly with my wallet, unfortunately, as we are nearing the next generation of consoles (with Wii U knocking on our door step) I believe the prices will rise to at least additional 10-15$ per title.

I hope we will see some kind of discount service (like Steam) when the new console arrive, otherwise - the budget vs quality game will be wider and only few games and developers will survive. Time will tell.

After spending little over half an hour with the new PSN store I have to admit, some specific re-design ideas are well implemented. I do enjoy new search functionality for example. It's easy and intuitive to use.

The design is good, it definitely resembles more of the mainstream media such as Smart phones and Tables.

At this point in time I would love to still see improvements to the download library page. It's still the same and it still takes some time to find old list of previous downloads. I have little over 540 items and it can get little annoying scrolling from top to bottom looking for specific game, or theme I wanted to play again.

Another little quirk I noticed is that it takes little longer to find new content quickly and efficiently. Previously, all that was needed is to select "What's New", be it PlayStation + or "Today" update folder and you will have a list of all the updated files. With the new re-design it takes some snooping around.

We do have more options now then before but it will take some time getting use to the new PSN Store. Overall it looks much better and its visually appealing, however the simplicity of the old navigationwe all had before to for the last few years will take some time getting adjusted to.

I personally don't mind it but I would love to see more work being done to improve the PSN store further.

It's been a very long time coming but I finally got my first Platinum.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was as fun as it gets with online FPS games. Having played Counter-Strike 1.6 and CS: Source for so many years, I guess it comes at no surprise that I was able to actually achieve it.

I never "hunt" trophies, not to mention Platinums but I have to admit, it feels nice, at least to have one. :)