Busy weekend, probably a busy week

Well, I definitely got some gaming in over the weekend.  That was the good news.  The bad news?  My son may have picked up something very not cool on my PC at home.  This morning there was some annoying error message about how my PC couldn't be verified and I'd have to reinstall Win 7, which is obviously pretty shady to begin with, but on top of that most of the functions on it are now running doggedly slow.  Poor kid - I'm annoyed with him, but he sorta knew he was in trouble too.  He was sitting on the couch looking like he was either sick, or someone kicked a cat, and he's like:

You're going to want to see the error up on your computer.

Considering how little I use that PC lately, he didn't even try brushing it off as something someone else might have done.  For about the last 3 months, it's been 95% him.  Amusingly, I did use it some Saturday, but only for a pair of Steam games.  So, I suspect I'll be spending some time this evening trying to smooth THAT mess out.  So I'm plugging this article together on a far less effective laptop for the time-being.

So, how about those games this weekend?

Lots of gaming.  First and foremost?  I finally beat Dragon's Dogma.  I should have a review up soon, but my overall impressions were favorable, if not amazed.  A lot of small bits and pieces taken from other games, with a storyline that did very little original until the very end.

I got some more Madden in - just online franchises.  I love the mode, but waiting on others does sometimes irk me a bit.  Especially if you can't seem to find a time to play that person.  I finally just set myself up to advance so that one of my matches could go forward, but now the other player has to do the same.  We're scheduled to play each other right now, but I haven't gotten any response from the player himself when trying to schedule a time. 

I fiddled with a handful of PSN Games, Rugby 2011, Double Dragon: Neon, Pure Chess and Bejeweled 2 to pass some time.

I also logged in couple of hours with Mass Effect 3's online multiplayer.  I completed my personal goal for the bonus weekend of a full extraction in under 20 minutes, so here's hoping that the community goal was also a success.  They are releasing more free multiplayer content this week and I for one have been really impressed at the way they have been keeping this mode active so far.

I recently reviewed Rage of Bahamut and still am playing that quite a bit - they have an event going through the end of today that has nabbed me some decent cards.  If anyone's interested in playing that at some point, let me know - I'll pass along my referral code.  Similar to that is Guardian Cross by Square Enix - another CCG style game (that also uses referral codes).  I believe both games can be played on iOS and Android, though I've only tried them out on iOS devices (iPads 1 & 3 and iPhone 4).

I have also had a chance to spend some time with War of the Roses on Saturday (you know, before my PC took a dive), and really was unsure what to expect going in.  At first it felt rather frustrating, but the more I played it, the more I liked it.  It sort of reminds me of Battlefield or Black Ops - War of the Roses is an online only made with deathmatch and king of the hill style modes, but using medieval equipment (bows, crossbows, polearms, swords, etc).  You can unlock new classes as you progress in levels, and you earn coins for doing things in the game too, which can be used to purchase various weapons, perks and armor.  I hope to get some more time with it in the very near future, but the game has really grown on me.

Also, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 has an expansion out now, coinciding with the new Return to Ravnica card set that just released.  I will be getting my first taste of the actual cards this evening when I play with my coworkers, whom all picked up a couple of boosters each (I have so far held strong - Christmas is coming, so I'll be living vicariously through their purchases for a bit).  The expansion offers five new decks to play with, but I haven't had a chance to try them out just yet.  I don't know if it's a bug or intentional, but when I played the game after adding my extension code, my campaign reset to brand new.  I had none of my unlocked content, though I still had loads of Steam achievements and global ranks.  Not sure what happened there.  That said, the new decks look interesting, with some focus on multi-color, which was one of my laments from the game's initial release (only 1 player deck had multiple colors in it).

So, how was your weekend?