Well I just wrapped up playing the beta for the weekend, having reached lvl 20 with the Necromancer to get whatever free rewards they are giving for the full release. Overall I am very excited to play the full game and I do believe it has potential to be one of the best games of the year. I played on PS5 primarily, and did try it on my old PC. On my PC it runs but is very laggy so I will be getting the PS5 version. My PC is due for an upgrade very soon. The console version played great with virtually no lag, and with cross play I am able to play with my fiance while she is a PC player.

The core gameplay is mostly the same as D3, but I think the open world is fantastic. The area is big (and this is just even the first area). There are tons of dungeons to do and discover and loads of side content on top of the main quest line. I like alot of the streamlined changes such as equipment taking up one inventory slot no matter what size it is. I also found it very easy to compare gear and quickly see if a piece was better. I think overall the menus and such were a little more clunky in past games having come of playing D II Resurrected. I very much enjoyed how much more accessible overall the whole game has been.

The necromancer was a blast to play. By the end of my time in D 4 i had the ability to raise 8 minions and decided to focus on a strong blood lance build. Ive seen alot indicating that the classes all are not balanced perfectly with the rogue and necromancer being the best. My fiance didn't seem to think the Druid or Barbarian were good at all and need to be made way stronger for balance.

The visuals are also great too especially on the PS5 compared to me running it on low on the PC. It seems there is more of a focus on story and cutscenes as well compared to DIII which I am excited for as in the past Diablo has been mostly a gameplay heavy game with story kind of taking a backseat.

Overall it was a great experience, and it is just a shame the game comes out the same month as Final Fantasy and Street Fighter, so this summer will be full of awesome games. I sunk about 6 HRS into the beta and I do think that everyone should check out at least a demo of the game or try out the beta themselves. If you have been scared to jump into this genre of games I think D IV would offer a nice entry point especially to primarily console players.

I want to set some goals for myself to help me stay on track with gaming. I have a hard time keeping focus due to my large collection and backlog, plus all of the great new games coming out. My first goal was going to be Forma Excalibur in Warframe for my build but I already did that today since it is a double XP weekend in Warframe. April is also the start of my busy time at work so it is possible I will fail all of these lol. I will update my progress through blogs. This weekend is the Diablo Iv beta.

Main Game:

1) High on Life---This is my next main game playthrough up, I wanted something fairly quick (compared to FF VII which I just completed) My goal here is to beat the game and get all the achievements doable in about 20 hours or so of gameplay. 1000/1000 should be easy enough to get just taking a quick glance at the list. My first run I always will just do whatever and then go back for achievements or trophies. Giving myself a deadline to get 100% by the end of April. I can probably do that quicker but MLB the show is coming out this week plus other stuff I want to mix in here and there.

Secondary Games:

2) MLB The Show 23---Coming out this week, will play on gamepass. Looks like easy trophies/cheeves, but I will mostly play Diamond Dynasty First probably and other modes. No real goals here other than enjoying the game. My favorite and probably the best sports title out there every year.

3) Fifa 23--I already have most of the trophies I want in this, but I want to play a little more online before I shelf it. My online ranked record is 7-0 right now, I want to play another 25 games before the end of April and see what my record is. I have not enjoyed Fifa as much over the years. I would play 100's hours every year from like 06-2015 and since then its just gone downhill.

4) Missle Command---Atari/Evercade---I picked up an evercade vs and EXP but haven't played either yet. I want to set them up and try to set a high score in Missile command for the 2600. No real ending to the game so not sure how long this will hold my attention for, but I at least want to try and set a score.

5) Super Mario Bros--NES--I want to play this on the switch online (since I rarely play the switch) and beat the game without warps. I have never beaten the first Mario but of course played it a ton growing up. I enjoy SMB 3 more of course, but I figured I would run through the Mario games and here is where to start. I want to play at least once every other week and maybe get a beat run by the end of April

6) Crypt of the Necrodancer--Switch/PS4---I have both versions, I at least want to play it a couple times and try to put some runs together. A game I always wanted to play but never got around to it. I doubt I will get too many trophies on ps4 (they are tough) so might just play on switch. Want to play this 3-4 times before end of April.

7) Genshin Impact---I started playing Genshin a couple months ago and it really took a backseat to warframe/overwatch and other games. I would like to continue with it, and I am going to make an effort to play it once a week in april for at least a couple hours.

8) NHL 23/NBA 23---Playing through player careers in both games....they are both okay I enjoy the gameplay but some of the career storylines not so much. I just want to continue on, and I think NBA is a way better game so I will likely play some of that. I usually play these types of games while watching sports/videos ect. Or listening to tunes just to chill. No real Goal here other than to make more progress.

9) Overwatch 2/Halo Infinite/MW2----These have been my primary shooters/online games for the past 2 years lol...Im kinda over all of them, but not ruiling out that I will play some more of either one of these. OW2 is the best of these, Halo is pretty good, MW 2 is just meh. Im kinda over wasting my life on multiplayer games but might make an effort in the next month to play a couple times.

Happy Sunday everyone! It has been a blast watching March Madness BBall the last few days. I decided a few weeks back that i should start to get back to writing about my hobbies including gaming. I will try to post more blogs on here. Its been about 12 years since I last posted one LOL!

Lately I have been making more of an effort to finish games from my backlog (also while checking out newer games) and playign less multiplayer stuff as over the last couple years I have really hit the multiplayer games pretty hard pretty much putting my backlog to a stand still.

Ive Beaten/Completed 2 games so far in 2023.....Grabbed By The Ghoulies and Final Fantasy VII. Grabbed By The Ghoulies was interesting but very frustrating. My review was featured on the community spotlight on Giantbomb, which is another reason I wanted to blog again! I have a review up on here if you want to see my full thoughts. Final Fantasy VII of course is a classic and one of my all time favorites. I was replaying it after last playing through it completely about 12 years ago. I was glad to see the PS4/PSN version had trophies, and I just wrapped up the platinum trophy yesterday after about 48 HRS of gametime.

I am thinking about taking on a project similar to some others such as playing all the games from a console, series, or genre. As I review games already I rank them on a list. Will see what I come up with.

The next game I am going to play single player wise is Ugh, Balan Wonderworld. I picked it up for $5 from amazon for the PS5 and figure why not. Easy but time consuming platinum trophy so we will see how far I can stand it lol.

Peace Out

yay another sports game...just so happens ive been doing a lot of sports gaming this week and honestly im just getting a few out of the way

2011 Completed

NCAA Football 07 (360)

2011 Beaten

Call of Duty Finest Hour (Ps2)

Fifa 09 (Ps3)

next game im focusing on is FF VII crisis core on the psp so far its great and am really enjoying it about 6 hrs in but not too far

1) Finished Call of Duty Finest Hour...ended up doing the last mission on my first try tonight after struggling all night yesterday...hate when that happens

2) fifa 09...actually beat this earlier this month but never posted it...will be completing it pretty soon...backloggery is down to 92% unfinished games yay me

Had a busy few days here so I havent had time to play much...I did complete 1 goal and fail 1 goal. I prestiged to 3rd prestige in black ops (completed), but I failed to finish call of duty finest hour on the good ole ps2...the game is one of the worst FPS's ive played, finest hour that is....its so frustrating and difficult with horrible teammate AI, they seriously block you in at every turn. I am on the last mission, and I have been trying all night to get by it with no luck. The checkpoint system is awful and you die you have to play the whole mission over again. The game is just full of tediousness.

New goals: Date January 25, Tuesday

1) Beat Finest Hour (need a few day break but hopefully i can get by it)

2) Fifa 09- Finish One Season of Be A Pro Mode

3) Gran Turismo 5-Finish a few special events

4) Pick Up Super Street Fighter 4 and try to get back into it

5) Play 3-5 hours of Halo online

6) Start Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core on PSP (once finest hour is done)

gonna try my hardest to stay away from black ops this week

first off thanks to some people like serbine, ebbderlict, hart, and the others that have been watching my game reviews and such on youtube. I really wish I could bring them over here to gamespot, but there upload restrictions are too harsh. Why cant they let us embed them :duh:. Hart and ebb both have youtube channels of there own so definitely check those out...i think harts is mjkurtzman, and ebbderlicts is ebbderlict

The reviews will continue and i have been lazy as of late in terms of doing contrasting videos such as the best games of 2010 ect. I havent played a whole lot this year though and feel that i should play some other stuff like heavy rain and mass effect 2 to make a full list. The best games of the year that I have played though are Black ops, FF 13, Gran Turismo 5, Bad Company 2, Super Street Fighter 4, Fifa 11, and MAG.

As I am sitting here looking at a stack of games I have to get through and make progress in I decided I might try to set some goals to get through some stuff...knowing I have a few hours each day to play something. I guess I will do a blog series on them called "Gaming Goals of 2011" and maybe they will be updated each day week ect

I wont have too much time to play this weekend since I will be gone all day sunday at the patriots game!

So for next Tuesday Night at 11:59 pm I have these two goals in mind

1) Prestige again on Black Ops....currently 7 levels away to hitting my third prestige level.

2) Finish Call of Duty Finest Hour-Ps2 on Normal..( I am on about mission 15 out of 20, but this game is brutally hard, and honestly pretty broken)

so ill update on wednesday and set some new goals....should also have another youtube vid up around the same time!

Hey guys....wanted to thank all of you that have been watching my youtube videos first off. As you may have noticed i amped up the number of videos I have been putting out and will keep getting 1-2 videos up a week. Most are mainly game reviews which will be the focus, but I am also doing top 10 countdowns, music, book, and other reviews, plus a monthly gaming show that will be debuting at the end of this month and will have so much content in it and will be close to a half hours length.

www.youtube.com/toolzz360

I also plan on updating people here on gamespot and on twitter. On here I will be doing daily updates as to what ive been playing for the day, what ive been reviewing and working on as well.

Today I have entered production of my review for Socom Confrontation on the Ps3....will be recording audio tonight and the video should be out around saturday....

So today ive been finishing up playing that game and will start looking at the multiplayer component of modern warfare 2 to continue my look at the call of duty franchise...I should be playing mw2 alot over the next few days while mixing it up and playing some other stuff..... after mw2 multiplayer review is done I will be doing the multiplayer review of the recently release black ops....after that I will do a different type of video....I plan on doing 3 reviews and then a top ten or other review to break it up so there isnt a hundred reviews.....

thats about it happy holidays!

black ops baby see you guys once i leave the batcave might be awhile

Fenurary:

Battlefield Bad Company-PS3-Beaten.....still need to getback to this one and complete it.....8.5/10

Final Fantasy VII-PS1-Completed.......one of my all time favorites......10/10

Just Cause-360-Completed............had an ok storyline but too many side missions for the C......7.0/10

March:

Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix-Ps3...........ok download got it on the cheap...........6.5/10

Top Gear Pockket 2-Completed-Gameboy Color.............didnt really like it.........5.5/10

Resident Evil 5 DLC-Completed-Ps3.....................Dlc was pretty good and old school..........9/10

Call of Duty 4-360-Beat.................cant complete it, really hard on vet......................9.5/10

April:

Blazblue Calamity Trigger-360-Completed...............game is above average...............7.5/10

September:

Demon Souls-PS3-Beat 6 times, Completed...................crazy good...........................9.5/10

Beowulf-360-Beat.....................not a very good game.............................5.0/10

As you can see I havent played video games as much this year as the past couple years.....i think i beat 28 games last year and so far this year ive beaten or completed 10 games.....there will be 2-3 more i can beat by the end of the year.....this year has been about multiplayer titles and longer games such as demons souls and ff VII

I just beat beowulf today, next game up after I try to complete it......Final Fantasy XIII