Wednesday, March 2, 2011

February Brewed, March Brewing - Coffees Consumed, Games Played



Coffee Beans:
     Well, February is over.  For those of you that are following the Reader Points each month, I have January's calculated, but I've made a few adjustments to the algorithm I use to calculate the points, so January and February Reader Points should be posted in the next 2 weeks.

     While I did get sick with the flu in the middle of February, I was able to play quite a few games, and drink some good coffees as well.
     I'm feeling better now, and hopefully with a new month upon us, there won't be anymore sickness!  So, before March takes over, let's take a look at the coffees I consumed and the video games I played during February!

Coffees Consumed in February:
  • Caribou Coffee Reindeer Blend(Medium Dark Roast) - This has been a slowly consumed coffee in our house.  I received it as a Christmas gift from Mrs. Coffee, and it's a 16 oz. whole bean bag.  I still have about half the bag left, so depending on how many tests I have this March, it may/may not last the month depending on that.  I enjoy this coffee blend, and our son has fun grinding the coffee beans in our coffee grinder with me at night sometimes, so that's probably why I'm consuming it slower than the regular big tubs of coffee we normally have.
  • Maxwell House Custom Roasted Dark Roast Ground Coffee - This was a 270 cup coffee tub, and we finished it during the last week of February.  It was kind of funny, because I knew we were running low, and I kept rationing my pots of coffee thinking, "Hmmm, I need this to last a few more days until Mrs. Coffee goes to the grocery store again."  Well, I was Mr. Unobservant and didn't notice the other 270 cup coffee tub Mrs. Coffee had already purchased and had sitting in the pantry!
  • Maxwell House French Roast Ground Coffee - This was the 270 cup coffee container my wife purchased us in February, that I didn't notice for a few days.  I believe this is a newer blend of the Maxwell House coffees we have tried, and it has a pretty solid flavor.

    Video Games Played in February:
    • Donkey Kong Country Returns - Mrs. Coffee and I completed Donkey Kong Country Returns with all the KONG letters found, and all the puzzle pieces found, on February 8.  We had an absolute blast playing through the game, and if I hadn't of gotten the flu, I would have finished my write-up about our play-through of the game.  Hopefully the write-up will be finished, and with more game-play footage, in the next 2 weeks.
    • GoldenEye 007 - I played some more of GoldenEye's single-player campaign, finishing another mission on the "Agent" difficulty setting.  I also hopped online early in February, and played some online multi-player matches: Golden Gun, Black Box, and Team Conflict.  I think I'll be playing GoldenEye less, until I finish(or give up) on my New Year's Video Game Resolution.
    • Greg Hastings Paintball 2 - I'm still working my way through the campaign in Greg Hastings Paintball 2 for the Wii.  The game becomes more challenging the further you get, and you have to make sure to trade players out, and/or train your team, to make sure they can compete against the higher ranked teams.  I honestly don't know how any "reviewer" of this game put up a review within a week of receiving the game.  I have put probably 15+ hours just into the campaign, and I'm only about 50% through it now.
    • Killzone 3 Demo - If you didn't see my FPS Friday that was on my time with the Killzone 3 multi-player beta, you can read my thoughts, and even watch a video I put together of an online multi-player match HERE.
    • Fluidity WiiWare Demo - I downloaded and played through the WiiWare demo for Fluidity, and think it's an interesting idea.  If you missed my data report, you can see how many game-play hours Fluidity debuted on the Nintendo Channel with in February, HERE.  The game only costs $12, and from the game-play hours reported, it appears most Wii owners are getting almost 9 hours of game-play from the game.  I think 9 hours of game-play for $12, is an awesome deal.
    • Dementium II - After finding where I "lost" my DS Lite, I started playing some more Dementium II.  I have put a little more than four hours into the game, and a little more than half of those hours were in February.  The game does keep to its atmosphere pretty well, and I'm enjoying it, though it does make me wish the DS(and soon the 3DS) had dual analogs.
    • Call of Duty: Black Ops - So, I finally beat Call of Duty: Black Ops on the PS3.  I completed the game's campaign this past Friday night, and I thought the campaign improved the further along it went.  The storyline was interesting, and it would make for an interesting second play-through knowing certain things now, but I don't think that will happen.
    • ExciteBots: Trick Racing - If you missed my post on Monday, "An Exciting Wii Racer - Ignored by Nintendo, Not Known by Wii Owners", I talked about how I think ExciteBots: Trick Racing is a game that has flown under the radar of many Wii owners since it released, simply because there was little, or no, advertising for the game.  I started playing ExciteBots again when a fellow blogger, Dustin from MyLittleGamer.Blogspot.com, said his son was going to be reviewing the game.  I was able to hop online one day and play a few races against against his son, Daemion, and Dustin as well.  You can see a video of two of our races in the post from Monday.  You can read Daemion's review for ExciteBots HERE.
    • Resistance: Fall of Man - This game is one of the many on my backlog, that I had not touched in months/years.  This was one of my first PS3 games I purchased, when it was on sale on Amazon.com for like $15 one day and I had a gift card to use.  I started playing Resistance: Fall of Man again, after completing Black Ops last Friday.  I'm actually enjoying the game's setting/story, and the game is turning out to be longer than I expected.  I don't know how many hours it will take to finish, but I've already played it more than Call of Duty: Black Ops, and still haven't finished it yet.
    • Rage of the Gladiator WiiWare Demo - Okay, this is probably the game on the list.  I own the full WiiWare version of Rage of the Gladiator.  I purchased the WiiWare version of Rage of the Gladiator the day it released on the service last year, yet when I saw the WiiWare demo for Rage of the Gladiator had been released last week, I went and downloaded it.  Why?  Well, I played through the demo to see what you will experience, and it's a pretty solid demo.  I think it offers you enough game-play, to give you a good idea of what to expect from the full version.  I highly suggest you all go and download the Rage of the Gladiator WiiWare demo for FREE, and give it a try.  Rage of the Gladiator is my most played WiiWare game so far, and if you enjoyed the old Punch-Out games, or even the new Wii Punch-Out!! I hear, you should enjoy Rage of the Gladiator.
    Thoughts/Questions:
         From my original list of ten games on my New Year's resolution list, I completed just Call of Duty: Black Ops in February, but played three others on the list.  Hopefully in March I can complete several more off the list, and perhaps even provide coverage/thoughts on the games that I complete.
         I really wasn't sure how February was going to go, but I ended up playing more games and game demos than I thought I was at the beginning of the month, with ten total for the month.

         So, what video games did you end up playing in February, and did any of you perhaps try a new coffee blend in February, that you perhaps hadn't tried before?

    5 comments:

    1. That's a pretty good list of games there. I thought the same thing about the single-player Black Ops story; it got stronger as I went. It only took like 2 afternoons of heavy play to beat, but it was a good time - though I haven't gone back to it to try a 2nd time through.

      Interesting about Resistance as well - it's been on my backlog forever it seems too. I bought a buddy's PS3 last year and he had a few games with it, and this was one of them.

      As for my games in Feb? Well, it's a long-long list that has gotten me a bit sidetracked from my blog for a bit. I'm hoping to wrap some of these titles up in March.

      Wii: Metroid: other M (beat it), Monster Hunter Tri (cool game but getting neglected due to the rest of the list)

      Computer: Faerie Solitaire (beat it), The Witcher, Kingd's Bounty - Legend, Magic: The Gathering Tactics (done with Campaigns, doing some online matches now)

      PS3: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, the new Pacman, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (beaten it a lot, still playing modes and unlocking achievements though) and Tiger Woods 2011

      Xbox 360: Risk Factions (beat it), Scott Pilgrim, Puzzle Quest 2 and the new Castlevania game and the first Left For Dead (beaten it several times since it's short sections)

      PSP: Kingdom of Paradise (beat it)

      Adding to my ridiculous backlog? I have a pre-order on Dragon Age 2 for the 360 (march 8th) and Mortal Kombat for my PS3 come mid-April.

      ReplyDelete
    2. u played some great game and posted some great stories this month. it's always a great read.

      this might sound funny, but over the last week or so i started drinking coffee(no sleep, lots of things to do).. i've had it a few times before in the past, but just never really needed the extra kick that it gave me(i go 100mph without it), and i could never get past the taste of it plain.
      anyways, do you have anything you would recommend to a new coffee drinker? keep in mind, when i do drink coffee, i douse it with milk and sugar.

      ReplyDelete
    3. That is a pretty good list there coffee. I've had my eye on goldeneye for awhile now, but hadn't taken the plunge. I think the only thing I played in Feb was some Super Mario World on VC. The remaining time was on work and some nostalgic gaming hunts. (finally remembering that Dungeon Explorer was the action RPG game I liked on TG16.)

      @My Little Gamer: It's all about half & half, not milk. :)

      While we're talking about coffee, hey @Coffee, how do you brew yours? I picked up a 12-cup french press earlier last year (bodum) and was all excited about making better coffee. Unfortunately no matter what I did it just wasn't that great and didn't stay hot long enough. I decided that I needed to change coffee or the grind which I didn't feel like doing.

      So it's back to the percolator and my usual Melitta classic roast. I know all the coffee snobs hate percs, but it tastes good and keeps it very hot for hours.

      ReplyDelete
    4. @Chalgyr:
      Did you just pick up Monster Hunter Tri recently, or have you had it? I can't remember if I've played with you online before, as I have several people on my friends list, and it's been a while since I've played with everybody on it.

      As for you adding to your backlog, I'm not even reserving games(though I reserved the 3DS before making my resolution) until I hopefully finish my resolution...or just break it!

      As for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, I've heard a lot of good about both games, but haven't played either one of them...perhaps one day!

      @My Little Gamer:
      "this might sound funny, but over the last week or so i started drinking coffee..." Nice!

      "keep in mind, when i do drink coffee, i douse it with milk and sugar."
      That's how I started drinking coffee, then eventually over the years I just stopped adding milk/cream and sugar to it, and drinking it black.

      @Robert:
      "It's all about half & half, not milk."
      If I was adding something to my coffee, half & half would probably be my choice...

      I actually brew my coffee with a regular drip brewed coffee pot. I know there are some people that prefer the French pressed coffee, but I've never tried it with a home French press.

      I would probably use a percolator, if we had one...just because of the great job they do with keeping the coffee hot for so long, without giving it a burnt taste like leaving it in a drip brewed pot.

      Thank you all for the comments and feedback on the games you've been playing and the coffees you've drinking! Perhaps I can start trying to arrange one or two days a month to try and play some games together online.

      ReplyDelete
    5. @Coffee

      MH Tri is a somewhat recent acquisition - I haven't actually played online w/ anyone yet, though my son has. I like it, keep meaning to put more time to it but getting derailed by other games. I really have enjoyed Drake's Fortune so far.

      As for the 3ds - really curious what you think when you get yours - I've waffled back and forth on it a ton, and finally decided against it for this year, but might re-investigate next year or whenever they inevitably come out with a 3DSi-lite-XL :P

      ReplyDelete

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