Halo Announcements!

       I know I am not going to be blogging like this until the STG channel has officially launched, but I am very happy to hear that Halo 5: Guardians is now officially announced. As a huge Halo fan, the only thing disappointing is the idea that we'll have to wait until next fall to get our hands on the game itself. Speaking of announcements, I am hoping that this Halo: The Master Chief collection is real because I am dying for a First-Person Halo game on the Xbox One, especially if it allows me to replay Halo 3, my personal favorite Halo game. In 4 weeks we will have more news on the topic at E3 2014 but until then everything is more than likely speculation but I am finally getting around to reading the Halo: Primoridium book. The book is by author Greg Bear and it is the second of a 3 book series about the forunners and the didact. If you're a Halo fan I would highly suggest starting to read the novels, they are particularly interesting and make for a good read.

       As always I might as well throw up an update on the channel. Today I was testing our quality of video and audio for streaming, and the kinect is not a good audio piece so we're going to be more focused on a microphone which is how it is professionally done anyways. As I type we are working on the intro and the art was put up several days ago. We've had some complications in every which way but in the end it's looking very good! I'll be sure to keep the blog updated on small bits of news until the channel launches, and will post information on it as soon as I can. 

Recent News

       Well if anything, I really need to post about all these new announcements and my opinions. Well first I am going to talk about the new $399 Xbox without a kinect. Personally, I am a fan of the kinect. I know a lot of people don't care about it and then there's the "government always watching" excuse people will use, but I do use my kinect fairly often and I appreciate the minor benefits. I know it has no real influence over me but it does over the Skill Tree Gaming channel. One of our members was planning on getting a PS4, but this recent change has changed his mind. He is now planning on the cheaper Xbox One so I guess that is drastic. Alongside this was the pay-wall drops that still do not bother me, but the Games with Gold has me pumped. I only expect small cheap games for the beginning, but their still games and that has me excited. 

       Today it was also announced that this November will be the release date of Far Cry 4 which I'm hoping will be a great game just as Far Cry 3 was. It sucks but The Division has been postponed to 2015 though, which is disappointing. either way it just means more games for the spring and more time for games during the busy season. 

        The only other news I have to share is that we're getting closer and closer to the launch of the channel and we're all excited to post tons of content with a strong variety across Xbox and PC. More news coming soon along with a channel trailer!

Progress on the Channel

      As work on the Skill Tree Gaming channel continues, we seem to get closer and closer to the upcoming launch. We're currently examining the art we will use for the channel and the intro. What we are using I obviously cannot say, but it is looking quite professional I think. Unfortunately I've had to refrain from doing any videos or streams, but I'm sure when we begin soon enough I will be going right off the bat. Already I have several stream ideas and plans, but I also cannot talk about that. I cannot talk about much of anything in waiting for the channel, but this blog will kick off along side it.

Let's try this again!

       So I haven't written here for quite a while, mainly because of my lack of youtube-ing to coincide with it. Due to data limits and other causes, I was not able to fully involve myself in a dedicated channel, but that will be changing soon because I will work with a few of my friends on the Skill Tree Gaming channel to provide a strong and involved channel. We'll all be doing separate videos where we will occasionally do joint videos. We'll have different types of games, from PC, Xbox One, PS4, and probably last gen content as well. Personally I will be doing streams from Twitch.tv where I will then put those segments onto the channel. I will do a few short videos not from Twitch, but other than that I am going to continue on with this blog for my personal gaming content. So here's hoping that I consist as well as the channel.

Gaming lately

      Just a quick post about what is up and what gaming I've been doing lately. Recently I've been playing a lot of Lego Marvel Superheroes just trying to beat the story of that game. In no means is it a super long game but there is plenty of content there to play through and I definitely won't have the collectibles done anytime soon, but I want to try and finish that as well as play through some more of Deadrising 3 this weekend because of Tomb Raider Definitive Edition releasing next Tuesday.
       Another thing I tend to do is if a podcast comes out that I follow (Roosterteeth) I will play that from Youtube on my 3DS most of the time while playing a multiplayer in a game. I prefer to be fully invested into the game when playing the story so listening to a podcast gives me an excuse to just play some multiplayer for either grinding or because I love it (or both), as well as gives me an excuse to listen to the podcast while doing something else. Lately I've been trying to rank up in Ryse: Son of Rome's multiplayer because there are achievements for getting all the rewards of the gods meaning just play as a character worshiping each god for so long that you get a special item (a shield or a sword), and then there is an achievement to get to Rank 100 which is the max rank. I am currently Rank 19 which is not a lot but while listening to a podcast the other day I went from Rank 11 to Rank 19 and the xp needed to level up each time does not grow that much so I should be able to get through it soon. After that I can run through the stories grabbing the collectibles, then beat it on legendary difficulty and I'll be all good to remove it from the hard drive when I need to.
       The only other thing I really haven't been doing lately is playing a bunch of 3DS because whenever I'm at home and have time to game I go to the One and there hasn't been any real opportunities for me to take it some place and just try and beat some games like Sonic: Lost World, but nonetheless, I got plenty of games to work through.

Finally, this is a recent video I uploaded:

Favorite Games Video

Fall of 2013

       This past holiday season I was able to play a good variety games. I got some games at launch, and others for the holidays. Some of my favorites have been Ryse, Assassins Creed, and Call of Duty Ghosts. To put this past season in perspective, I'll do a quick rundown of the gaming I did this fall.

       Xbox One - It is technically not a game, but there is no way you can just skip over a new console. The console has been a fantastic upgrade from the previous generations. The games look a little better than the versions on the older games. The console plays fantastic with the controllers amazing rumble triggers. There is just so much that is hard describe despite the transition it takes to go from the different menus. 

       Call of Duty Ghosts - There isn't much to say besides Call of Duty is back and on the next gen console. It feels kinda similar with some small changes like squads, extinction, and some quick additions to the multiplayer, but it still feels like a fun call of duty. 

       Battlefield 4 - The problems with this game were never ending. When I tried to get into this game the first time, I got sent to the dashboard several times. After a few hours of trying I decided to not play the game until they patched it ... which unfortunately took much longer it probably should have. Once it was patched I jumped straight into multiplayer and fully enjoyed it. I'm almost rank 14 currently, and hope to jump into it once I get through all my games. The campaign was nothing to be excited for, especially because of how short it is. I still run into the occasional issues, so it should be better when I can fully invest my time into it. 

       Deadrising 3 - Now I've never been much of a Deadrising fan. I don't care for the series mainly because I just never get that addicted. This time around I found it to be ridiculous fun, but it was still just as easy to jump into another game and not have to go back. I still haven't completed Deadrising because of this, but it still has been an amazing game. It is completely addicting and there are a ton of collectibles that will take plenty of time. 

       Halo: Spartan Assault - This is a nice Arcadeish twin-stick shooter that plays pretty well despite it not being very long. If you hadn't owned it before it is $15 and it is really only worth it to the best Halo fans. Once you invest a good amount of time you'll think it's worth it but it takes quite a bit of time. It is a good buy and plenty of fun. This was my first game after launch, and having not finished it, I think it is pretty fun.

       Ryse: Son of Rome - There are a lot of complaints about how repetitive this game is, but it is so much fun that it truly does not matter. The character models could have done more work, but it is a launch game and it was so worth it. The multiplayer does feel much different than the story because it really isn't, but I feel like the game could have been amazing with a little bit of time. Without that it still makes for a really good game.

       Lego Marvel Superheroes - It is kinda hard to talk about this game when I've only played 2 hours before playing it. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist so unfortunately I'm going to have to go back and play a ton of this, but it has been fun so far. It just feels like a Lego game which isn't a bad thing. 

       Forza 5 - This is the game that easily looks the best of any games I have despite how good Assassins Creed and Ryse looks. I enjoy the game and have a ways to go seeing that there is so much leveling and buying and upgrading to do, but it's fully enjoyable. In the end, it's a good racing game.

       Assassins Creed IV Black Flag - To be honest, this was the surprise game of the year for me. It was fantastic after not really liking the third game. It was a ton of fun and really just a huge shocker. It was a good game for the series. It looked beautiful, played fantastically, and was such a good game. 

I'll have a video posted on youtube and this blog soon enough, but here is my 2013 fall in a whole for now.