A Green Mushroom

After wrapping up A Link to the Past I fired up Link's Awakening on my 3DS Virtual Console almost immediately.  I was really excited to get into the next game, especially one that I hadn't played since the Game Boy Color days. And wow, it has not aged well.  I know I beat this game on Game Boy Color when I was a kid but it just doesn't hold up anymore.  The screen sizes are too small for anything super interesting to happen on any one screen.  I know that's a conceit to the Game Boy and Game Boy Color but even later GBC games like the Zelda Oracle games feel better than this. Not to mention the player messaging.  If it were just the screen size and graphics that make the game feel aged I could deal with it but the killer thing for me is the horrible player messaging.  It's super difficult to know where to go next or what to do next.  It completely killed my momentum and generally made me want to be playing anything else. So, I'm going to set ...

I've been playing a bunch of World of Warships lately and having a really good time with it.  I didn't think it would be a game for me but my brother convinced me to try it and I'm glad he did. Instead of being a game about fast twitch reflexes, World of Warships is about positioning, strategy, and skill.  It does take effort and skill to aim and fire but it's nothing like a FPS in terms of twitchiness. I loved shooting up the first few ranks and unlocking ships along the way.  Each ship feels distinct in a number of ways and I find myself jumping between different types of ships a lot just to change up the feel of the game. This is one of the better free to play games I've played in years.  I can feel my progression slowing down a bit now that I'm around tier IV and V for ships, but I've still felt no pressure to pay.  And even though my progress has slowed down I'm still playing fairly consistently. Mostly I just wanted to get this game on ...

The latest Star Wars novel, Ahsoka, came out in mid-October and I finished it in two days.  I always love picking up the newest Star Wars book and it's been really fun keeping up with all of the new canon since Disney pushed the giant reset button on the universe. Ahsoka was an ok book.  It didn't blow me away with awesomeness but it wasn't bad either.  It will definitely be for some people and not for others. To me, it felt like a long story arc from one of the TV shows, Clone Wars or Rebels, that has been moved over into novel format.  It bridges the gap between those two shows and reveals what happens to Ahsoka during that time period.  For that, I love it, just because I always want to expand my Star Wars lore. But, I feel like it would have been better in show format.  I could easier see this as a bonus story arc in either of the shows.  It's probably a consequence of the main character being a unique character to Clone Wars and Reb...

The Nintendo Switch Revealed In this episode: The   Nintendo Switch   is unveiled! And being the Nintendo fans we are, there was just no way that we could go a week without talking about it. Here’s what we know so far: It’s a handheld system AND a home console with detachable controllers that you can use in different configurations. They’re called JoyCons, but there’s also a Pro Controller available. There is also a spacer-thingy that connects the JoyCons into an almost-Pro Controller. You can also use the JoyCons double-handed like a Wii Nunchuck. There’s a kickstand on the main screen and a 3.5mm headphone port! It’s HD and cartridge based. We saw lots of games for it including a new 3D Mario game, a Mario Kart, some kind of basketball game (that neither of us know about, but y’all might), Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon, and Skyrim. And then we go into geeky-speculation mode, which is always fun. We talk expandable storage (because Void does all his games d...

The Order 1886 was super heavily marketed by Sony before it's release and then highly criticized after.  I thought it was time to check it out with my Gamefly subscription. The first thing I noticed about The Order 1886 is that it's highly cinematic.  It looks really good, has a style, and executes on that style.  It's a very cinematic game and the tech behind it must be impressive.  But, after that, everything else started to let me down. The controls are clunky and don't feel nice to use.  It's kind of vaguely like Gears of War in gameplay except not interesting at all.  It feels like a mediocre third person shooter that's not trying to do anything new except look pretty. And while the graphics are good at setting the scene... that scene just didn't appeal to me.  This is more of a personal preference than anything else but victorian London isn't usually a setting I enjoy.  Every once in awhile, but not usually.  Even though it's ...

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the first game in my "Zelda lite" playthrough of the series that I dug in deep with.  I had forgotten just how good this game is. I fired it up on Wii U Virtual Console and after getting past the intro for the first time in years and years... I was just amazed.  This game is still really good.  Even by modern standards.  Yeah, some modern conveniences are missing but nothing that truly hurts the enjoyment of the game (especially with built in save states on Virtual Console). This is the first Zelda game that feels fully formed.  It's the core of the series realized fully.  Exploring the overworld, uncovering secrets, slowly figuring out what to do in dungeons, getting more skillful at combat, finding new items to get around the world... it's all here. Not to mention the structure.  It's almost identical to the structure of Ocarina of Time.  A Link to the Past finds you needing to collec...

Guys... Duelyst is really good. I wrote about it awhile ago and said that it had potential but I would have to wait for the official release to see how it panned out. Well, it's been out for a few months and it's really good.  It's somewhere between Hearthstone and Hero Academy, two games that I loved.  I highly recommend it if you're interested in turn based strategy or new card game mechanics or even just good online competition. Duelyst has come a long way and it's completely free to play (unless you want to spend money).  Seriously, go check it out if you haven't.

Ugh, ok... so this is the game that made me hold off on doing this series playthrough for a long time.  This is the main game that made me make this a "lite" version of a series playthrough and made me give myself permission to not actually finish all the games. I do not like this game. I know it has it's fans and I know it's technically a main Zelda game... but it's just not.  It doesn't feel like a Zelda game should.  This is mostly a side-scrolling beat-em-up with Zelda trappings.  It doesn't have the freedom and open exploration of the original and it definitely doesn't feel like any other Zelda game out there. I wish I liked this game enough to actually finish it once.  But, I don't.  This is one of the few Zelda games that I've never finished.  At this point I've come to the realization that I never will and I'm ok with that. So please forgive how much I'm glossing over this one.  If you're a fan of it let me k...

I finally got around to watching X-Men Apocalypse and it was... alright.  I liked it more than First Class or Days of Future past.  But as for the movie itself it was just ok. The plot was entirely predictable from start to finish.  The bad guy was lame and never once interested me.  But the action was fine and the character development was good to see. Overall, I think it's a great movie for a different reason.  It has finally gotten away from the shackles of the original movie trilogy and it's cast.  By the end of X-Men Apocalypse we finally have our entire new cast of characters with new actors all assembled and they seem really good. I feel like the stage is finally set for the next X-Men movie to potentially be great.  I think this cast can do amazing things if given the right script now that they're finally free from all the baggage of the first three X-Men movies. So, while I don't think I'll be re-watching X-Men Apocalypse anytime s...

I've read a lot of books this year, just like I always do, but none of them were truly fantastic.  Most fell into the mediocre to ok range.  A few were good and a few were total duds. That changed when I read Ink and Bone.  It's easily my favorite book that I've read this year so far.  I knew almost nothing about it going in except that I had liked some of the author's work before and by the end of the book I wanted to know what happened next!  Rachel Caine does a great job kicking off a new series with Ink and Bone. Ink and Bone is set in a world where the library of Alexandria never burned.  It continued to grow in both scope and power until it controlled all knowledge in the world.  All technological advancement had to come from the library and so this alternate timeline finds a much different world than the one we live in. The printing press has been suppressed and instead people have to check out books into "blanks" that function similar...

Day-to-Day Technology In this episode: Being geeks like we are, our lives pretty much revolve around technology. Or maybe technology revolves around our lives. This week, we discuss what we’re using day to day and how it makes our lives both easier and more difficult at times. Some of it, you’d probably guess (iPhones, Macbooks, gaming consoles), but there are some neat ones, we think you’ll enjoy hearing about and looking into. Because we do use technology so much, the idea of disconnect or disengaging from technology has a lot of appeal to some people (Beej), while others tend to just shift their usage to maintain a normal, adult lifestyle (Void). It all depends on your personalities, and we discuss strategies that work for us so that you can see some healthy, real-world ways you may be able to adopt into your own routines. And then there’s the awesome technology that you think you’re gonna use a ton, but instead, it just sits on a shelf, all alone and abandoned. We talk a...

This is where the series starts and where my sampling of the series begins.  The Legend of Zelda is a game I played and loved as a kid.  I've beaten it many time, but none of them recently.  But hey, when you're a kid and don't have many games on hand you beat all the ones you own multiple times.  A few years ago, my brother and I took a day on Virtual Console to see how far we could actually get in the game.  We made it through five-ish dungeons before giving up.  This game is really hard. I can't believe how much I must have mastered it as a kid to be able to beat it on more than one occasion.  Sitting down and playing it yesterday was an exercise in frustration.  Yes, the core of the series we love is here... but it's still gameplay from the 80s.  It's difficult to make progress and even using the save states on Virtual Console it's still full of frustratingly tough section. I played through the first few dungeons last night just...

I've been kicking this around in my head for awhile and I think it's finally time to pull the trigger.  I'm going to work my way through the Legend of Zelda series and write up posts as I go. This is obviously based on my Final Fantasy project where I played every mainline game all the way through and wrote up impressions and reviews along the way. I'm not doing anything that in-depth this time.  There are some Zelda games I've barely touched and some I've beaten many times and just don't feel like going through the motions again.  There are also a few entries in the series that I just flat-out don't like.  So this is a lite version of what I did for Final Fantasy. I'm at least going to sample each game and play it for awhile.  I already know there are a few that I will bounce off of pretty quick.  But, there are also some that I never truly gave enough time to and I hope that some of those end up hooking me to the point where I play them t...

I've been watching and listening to a lot of live play D&D campaigns lately.  While my favorite are still The Adventure Zone podcast and Acquisitions Incorporated live games I branched out and checked out Force Grey: Giant Hunters. And you know what?  It was pretty good, and worth my time to watch through at least once.  And it's free on YouTube which is always nice. The DM is fantastic although a few of the players are kinda annoying.  If a few of the players were switched out it would take this production from pretty good to great. It's also obvious that since this was partially funded or supported by Wizards of the Coast (the makers of D&D) this show actually ties into some of the story hooks from Storm King's Thunder.  I think that's really cool. Anyway, I recommend you give it a shot.  They're edited down to 20-30 minute episodes instead of being massive multi-hour productions like a lot of live play games.  At least check out...

I recently picked up Storm King's Thunder and read through the adventure.  Although I've checked out a few D&D adventures before and found them interesting I haven't wanted to really run any of the those.  This is the first one that has a premise I think is super cool. Basically, without giving real spoilers, giants are running amok and the players get sucked into what's happening.  They have to figure it out and I love the twists and turns that happen along the way.  I already know how I would modify and streamline it if I were to be the DM to run it... but the core of the adventure is very interesting. I especially love that there are a few key paths you can take the story down that are fully fleshed out. Overall, if I ever do pull the trigger on getting a D&D group together and I don't feel up to trying out a homebrew campaign I would definitely want to run Storm King's Thunder.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the latest Gamefly game I sampled and I actually liked parts of it a lot.  I definitely enjoyed it more than the first game in this reboot of the series. The first few hours of the game are full of action and adventure interlaced with story.  I loved the time I was spending with it.  But after the first couple hours I hit the main chunk of the game and suddenly they reintroduced the gathering/crafting/survival mechanics from the first game in the series... and then I lost all the steam I had built up for it. The gathering in particular changed the way I played the game.  Now, instead of just pushing forward and enjoying the ride I had to constantly stop and search every corner.  I had to wait for my special survival vision to recharge and then activate it as often as I could so I didn't miss anything critical to advancing my character and gear. I hate that advancement was suddenly tied to gathering in such a tight way.  ...

The Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s flagship series, but surprisingly, it’s one of the few that actually does a lot better in the West than it does in Japan. Many may not realize the series was created by Miyamoto, the same genius who created Mario, though Aonuma has been in charge of the series since his major success with Ocarina of Time in 1998. Generally, we’ve played them all. Beej has only missed 3 of them, and they’re on purpose. Void has just completed a lite playthrough of the whole series, in which he ranked them all for current playability, rather than nostalgia. Do you guys remember the animated series? Beej sure does! We discuss the difference in 2D and 3D Zelda games, which kind of feel like two separate series of games, but with the same base mechanics. Zelda games! We don’t go in-depth for every one (because some just aren’t worth the time, honestly), but we do discuss our favorites, our memories, and just why some of them stand up fo...

It kinda released under the radar but three new Harry Potter novella came out digitally about a month ago.  I read them all and enjoyed them a lot. They weren't full fledged stories but instead little vignettes about various events and people in the world of Harry Potter.  It helped flesh out a bunch of the characters that are key to the series.  I especially liked the sections about different subjects of magic and how they work in the world.  Things like getting all the details about what it takes to become and Animagus or finding out more about potion making were really cool. I've read some of the other short tie-in books before but these were much better.  I can easily recommend them to any fan of the series.

Keeping the Gamefly train going, I tried out Rachet and Clank after hearing a bunch of positive things about it. I found it to be a highly polished and pretty... mediocre platformer/action game.  It felt like a PS2 game which I suppose makes sense since it's kinda a revamp and remaster of the first game from around that era. I feel like this is would be a really fun game for people with an attachment to the series but since I don't have that I bounced off of it fairly quick.  But seriously, if you're into the series and haven't checked this one out you probably should.

Just Cause 3 is another Gamefly trial game for me.  I kinda liked it... somewhat. See, the core gameplay loop of moment to moment traversal and exploding things is actually super fun.  I had a great time on the island where you play around while the game installs.  I had fun doing some of the open world as soon as I got control of my character in the main story part of the game. But then I hit a wall where I couldn't really play around any more until I did some story missions.  Those were a complete drag.  They didn't have an interesting narrative and they definitely didn't have as fun gameplay as just messing around. If there was a mode with infinite ammo and the entire world opened up for playing around in I might have actually used the keep it button and bought this one from Gamefly.  But as things were the story just got in the way of my fun.

God of War 3 Remastered was another Gamefly game that came and went pretty fast.  I remember loving the first two God of War games but I was a teenager at the time.  I thought the over the top hack and slash gory action was awesome. Coming back and trying to play God of War 3 as an adult... I find it much less interesting.  It's basically the same gameplay as it was before with the same old hack and slash formula.  It's not pushing any barriers or doing anything new.  It actually feels old and dated compared to more responsive modern hack and slash games. The story picked up right where God of War 2 left off but after so many years away from it I just couldn't find any interest anymore. It quickly became obvious that this one wasn't going to stick and I'm better off just waiting for the reboot coming for the series on PS4 soon.

Despite trying to get into a bunch of anime shows over the years I had never actually finished a full season of an anime until last week. A friend who knows my tastes really well recommended Attack on Titan (mostly for the pacing) and I ended up really liking it.  Although there were a few slow parts and I could see almost every plot twist coming from a mile away I still had fun watching. The premise is that humans live inside sets of walls and walls within walls to protect themselves from Titans.  Titans are giants that seem to only have one purpose... eating people.  So, humanity has lived safely within these walls for years but Attack on Titan kicks off with an attack on the walls that's successful.  Titans stream in and start killing people. The series continues from there and gets interesting once the main characters have a bit of a time jump and join the military to fight back. The action scenes were a lot of fun and actually had lots of movement. ...

I've been trying tons of Gamefly games lately and writing about them.  I intend to keep do so, but I just had a run of RPGs show up from Gamefly that just didn't click with me at all. Oh, by the way, we set up a Gamefly offer for listeners/readers to get you a free trial if you're interested.  I still love the service so if it's intrigued you at all while I've been talking and writing about it for the last month or so go check it out . But anyway I'm realizing it takes a lot for an RPG to impress me these days.  One has to grab me with it's setting, story, characters, battle, and progression systems.  It has to do it quickly too. The amount of RPGs without "Final Fantasy" in the title that have held my attention over the past few years is slim.  Persona 4 Golden is the most notable exception, followed by Bioware games, and then games like Bravely Default which might as well be called Final Fantasy. I keep hoping something else will break t...

Horror! In this episode: It’s October! And you know what that means? That’s right, geeks...HORROR! You see,Void thinks horror is dumb and boring. Beej thinks it’s awesome. Is the Beejmeister going to be able to convince the Voidenator that horror is worth his time? Beej taught a horror literature class for English majors a few years back, and he had a wonderful experience with horror in college because all of his friends loved it. So where he’s coming is different from where some fans are coming from. A lot of horror hits on cultural and societal fears, far more than personal. We can trace the entire 20th century’s outlook based on what horror media was being produced. Rarely does horror exist on its i.e. because of its nature. If the intent is to bring people a primal realization of a cultural or societal fear so they can deal with it, that’s not a genre. What you probably think of as “horror” is technically “gothic romance” Emotional connection to events. To situations. ...

Uncharted is a game series I've always wanted to like but every time I tried it I found it feeling extremely generic.  But, I had only played it in demo form or in passing at friends' houses.  I thought that with my Gamefly sampling it would be a good chance to actually try to dig into the series. The Uncharted Collection has the first three games in the series in it, so I started with the first and quickly found that it hadn't aged very well.  I moved on to Uncharted 2 and loved the way it started.  Finding the protagonist hanging off the edge of a cliff on a train was awesome and I loved the sequence that followed.  Unfortunately it then jumped back in time and quickly became another generic feeling game (especially once you hit the jungle).  I followed a similar path with Uncharted 3 and then promptly returned the game. Overall, I played roughly the first 15-20% of each of the games.  When the story is moving forward and the set pieces are c...

Kingsglaive is the tie in movie for FFXV.  I gave it a shot and found it to actually be the best Final Fantasy movie so far. But, with that said, it's not actually a high bar to clear.  Advent Children and Spirits Within were both very meh. This ties in directly with Final Fantasy XV and it gave some really good context for what is happening offscreen during the early events of the game.  It is kind of weird that it's out so much earlier than the game itself but I suppose they're just trying to generate as much hype as possible before the launch of the main product. It's definitely not required watching to play the game but I was super happy with the added context I got from it.  I'm now much more interested in the magic system and political happenings in the world of Final Fantasy XV. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone but if you're a Final Fantasy fan or plan on playing Final Fantasy XV I would recommend watching this movie at least onc...

Persona 4 Dancing All Night is the latest entry in games I'm sampling via Gamefly.  It's basically turning into my Autumn of Gamefly around here. It's a rhythm game set in the same world as Persona 4 with the same characters.  Persona 4 Golden is now one of my favorite games ever so I really just wanted to see what this had to offer. It turns out it has a whole new story and some decent rhythm gameplay.  Symbols fly at the edges of the screen and you hit buttons in time with the music.  It works well enough and Persona 4 has great music to draw from.  My only nitpick with it is that the visuals on screen are so busy that it's often hard to see the notes coming.  I adapted to it fairly quickly but it still threw me off occasionally. I played it for a day or two but the reason I ultimately sent it back is because the story failed to engage me.  It's about idol culture in Japan (pop star idols) and an upcoming concert.  It turns out that to...

Bravely Second was the last game in my gaming backlog.  I picked it up for a trip a few month ago and just never got around to playing it.  Now I have! I have to say, the underlying systems in this game are great.  Everything I loved about Bravely Default is here and most of it has actually been improved upon.  The old systems have been tweaked in good ways and the new systems just add to the game.  I love everything they're doing from a mechanics standpoint. But... after five or six hours with Bravely Second the story still failed to grab me.  It's set in the same world with a bunch of the same characters and I think that's a major stumbling point.  They all had a complete story arc and now they feel shoehorned into another adventure.  The new characters interact with the old characters and I just fail to care.  Maybe if I buckled down and pushed on further it would change. For now I just need to set this game down and know I'll co...

Dark Souls 3 was another Gamefly game I checked out recently.  It's actually the most approachable game in this subgenre I've tried so far.  In the past I tried Dark Souls and Bloodborne but never got too far into either one because the difficulty just wasn't fun for me.  I like making progress in my games. But Dark Souls 3 was actually much more approachable than either of these.  The tutorial was quick and in-game.  I felt like I understood the basics in the first five minutes.  I had enough control to not die at all in the hour or so that I played.  I even beat the first boss on the first try! So, I thought maybe this would be my first true on-boarding into the series!  But alas, bad player messaging got in the way.  What I mean by that is that I actually couldn't figure out where to go next.  I felt like I explored every nook and cranny while killing all the enemies but the path forward was unclear.  It was super frustra...

Luke Cage is good!  If you're on the fence about trying it out, you really should.  It might not be for everyone, but I think it's a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Luke Cage is all about Harlem, coming to terms with your past, community, and culture.  It's also about street level superheroes and gang warfare. Just as much as Jessica Jones or Daredevil, Luke Cage is about it's villains.  They get at least equal screen time to the main hero cast of characters.  This character development on both sides makes confrontations and payoffs feel like they have true weight. Overall, Luke Cage has just made me even more excited for Iron Fist and The Defenders.  I can't wait to see all these New York street heroes come together to form a rag-tag team.  There are some nods to this in the story, especially with a recurring crossover character from the other Netflix MCU shows. I still think Jessica Jones is the best season of TV Marvel h...