First Post in March

As the title suggests, this will be my first post in March. My last post was last month, February 28, last Friday. A lot has gone on between then and now. We took an hour and a half trip out east to visit some friends and one was having a baby shower. Let just say, they are quite entertaining, plus we got to eat and the food was really good. We also had some free time on Sunday and was able to spend it with friends in our neighborhood. Not as much time was spent playing video games as I had hoped. Plus, a friend introduced me to a very addicting game on my phone.

The line-up of games played over the weekend include, Dying Light, GTA V, MH4U, Pokemon and AdVenture Capitalism. First up, Dying Light. This game is still holding my attention but every time I go to play it someone wants to play GTA V with me. I inevitably give in to the demands of playing the massive area of Los Santos for the rest of the night and tuck Dying Light away. One day soon, I am going to go invisible on my Xbox One and get a full days worth of gaming into Dying Light because the game deserves some play time. It is such a beautiful game. I find myself stopping and just watching how the grass moves or how the leaves on the tree sway in the wind until a zombie grabs me from behind and snaps me out of the moment.

Next on the list of weekend games is Grand Theft Auto 5. This game has been in my possession day one both times. From the last generation to this generation, it has held my interest as long as Skyrim and Fallout games do. This is a game that will be on the back shelf whenever I have my baby girl in the room and probably won't get much play time. Over the weekend, I played this game the most. I usually started off in single player or playing Dying Light when friends want me to jump over and play online missions with them. Now more than before because heists are launching on MARCH 10th. I think I need to say this again. HEISTS ARE COMING MARCH 10TH! *clears throat* In preparation, we are playing as much online as we can and amassing as much money as we can to buy all the cars and new guns. Sadly, I usually end up spending my money before I have a significant amount.

Pokemon took up some of my free-time during the baby shower. Most of last week was spent beefing up my current hand of Pokemon getting them ready to take on the first gym leader, Roxanne. I think I spent to much time leveling them because it took no time to defeat her. Mainly because all of my Pokemon were ten levels higher than hers. After I beat her it was on to the next area which I stopped my playing at for the weekend. My mission for the weekend was accomplished and that was to beat Roxanne.


Picking up from there, I swapped out Pokemon for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and was able to play one 2 star mission before it was time to head home. I am slowly progressing through this game only because playing a hand held usually means I get distracted easier. Being able to close it, go eat, pick it back up in 4 hours and be at the same spot hurts my playing time. With a console, I usually have to give more time dedication to it and having a controller and tv means less distractions unless my wife needs something which I immediately put the controller down. Games I can always come back to.

That's it for the exciting Baby Gaming Daddy's weekend. I will not be streaming tonight due to an influx of homework since we missed two weeks of class. Streaming should be possible another day this week. Follow me on twitter to stay updated @the_gaming_dad.

The Affordable Daddy Gamer

I am a guy who likes to find the most bang for my buck. Playing video games is a field where I can drop a large quantity of money without seeing much of my investment returned money wise. What I do get back is precious moments playing a video game where I get emotionally attached to a character, hate an NPC (non-player character), even have a good belly laugh that could last minutes.

As it stands we have next-generation consoles that are a little over a year old. I currently have an Xbox One and a Playstation 4 hooked up to my tv. I also have a Nintendo 3DS close by where ever I go for the quick gaming sessions. The Playstation 3 is also close by because a large amount of my games are on the PS3 and with the PS4 not being backwards compatible. That leaves me having to reconnect my PS3 to play the last-gen games I love.

PRICING

Lets talk about pricing.

Xbox One: $349.99 WITHOUT the Kinect Assassins Creed Xbox One Bundle

The Xbox One is my main console I play on when I get a few hours to play. It is where I stream mostly because my laptop does not like streaming with two graphics cards. This console is something I use for EVERYTHING. I have my media, video services (Netflix, Amazon TV, etc.), and of course, my gaming. This is the go-to console for all of my needs. There are a few glitches with party chat, but hopefully they will have a patch out to fix that soon. During the launch of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 I started out as a Xbox 360 fan but soon switched over to the PS3 due to free online play. Mainly because I was a kid/teen who didn't have any income and I didn't want to burden my parents with buying a console AND paying for a monthly subscription. With the next-generation launch I have a flexible income (for now until the baby is born) and can afford to pay a monthly subscription. Luckily, I have an amazing wife who bought me this bundle for Christmas WITH a year subscription to Xbox Live. For the price since they first came out, you can't get much better on pricing than here. For a little over $350 with tax it is still a little high for the affordable Dad but a must if you can swing it financially. This bundle also comes with Assassins Creed: Black Flag and Assassins Creed Unity. The series have been around for a while and this iteration has only been polished since their earlier games in the series.

Playstation 4: $399.00 WITHOUT the PS Eye The Last of Us Remasterd PS4 Bundle

At launch, Sony's Playstation 4 had the upper hand on pricing against Microsoft's Xbox One but after a year Playstation has fell behind with their least expensive bundle being $399. Playstation has always boasted being a gaming console more-so than Xbox One where they promote being an all-in-one entertainment system. In the category of just gaming, I would say that Playstation 4 comes away on top. The last generation for Playstation didn't see many exclusive games and privileges which was Microsoft's forte. This generation however we are seeing titles exclusive to Playstation and games like Destiny showing favor to the PS4 console with exclusive content. With this bundle, you are getting the remastered version of The Last of Us which is a great single player game, set to give your emotions a virtual roller coaster ride. For the affordable dad, the PS4 is still out of reach unless financially flexible.

Wii U: $269.99 Wii U Bundle with 3 Games

The Wii U, Nintendo's upgraded version of the Wii. Currently, I have a Wii and not a Wii U but it is a purchase that will be made in the future. For dads, this is a console you will want to look at when you play games with the kids. Nintendo has a good reputation for making decent kid friendly games.

Nintendo 3DS: $199.99 Nintendo 3DS XL with Mario Party

Next up is the Nintendo 3DS, a hand-held system that gets many hours of use for the price. It comes with Mario Party. Mario has been around for a very long time and Nintendo keep making ways to bring his endeavors to fruition every year. Almost all of the Mario games are enjoyable from Mario Tennis, to Mario Kart, and Mario Party. Other games I would recommend for this system include Pokemon, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and The Legend of Zelda. The current Pokemon games out are Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire which are remakes of the 3rd generation Ruby and Sapphire. There has been no announcement if or when the next Pokemon game will be. Pokemon is family oriented with parts that can interest adults as well. Pokemon isn't just for kids but is a complex system of numbers and charts for people to do battle with one another. Priced at $39.99

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is a game that is more geared towards teens to adults as there is an extensive customization and heavy slope learning curve to the game. It brings a fantasy game to life without the magic but focuses on melee and ranged weapons. There is no player level or stats to upgrade like traditional RPG but relies heavily on the customization of weapons and armor. Priced at $39.99

The Nintendo 3DS is a system I would highly recommend for the fathers and daddies to be. It is priced at a point where it doesn't hurt as much as a TV console and can be taken anywhere. There are many versions of the system that if you chop around you can find a better priced system or a 2DS which doesn't offer 3D capabilities at a better price. Owning the original Silver DS for many years I was finally able to convince my wife to let me purchase the 3DS and it came at the perfect time. I snagged a limited edition Pokemon Red X version see below and love every minute I spend on it. For the money, I have recouped it with the amount of time I have spent on the 3DS.

Altogether, I am looking at $1,218.97 plus tax for JUST the console bundles without shelling out $60 a pop per game that releases in the future. That is a lot of diapers. I own all but the Wii U and was able to purchase them over time and with a loving wife who understands my passion for gaming.