On a bit of a nostalgia kick lately, but as I sat down to boot up Earthbound on the Wii U Virtual Console I had a question burning in the back of my mind. Do I seriously have time to play this? Admittedly the amount of games I am able to play through has drastically decreased since beginning my teaching career 3 years ago. I manage to keep up to date with the hits, but recreational gaming has decreased drastically.
Time is a precious resource, and you need to find creative ways to do the things you like with the little amount of time you have.
ENTER: Grand Tour Gaming.
I couldn't justify sitting on the couch to play Earthbound while neglecting exercise time. For the past week i've been using this bike, and Earthbound to kill two birds with one stone. I usually do 30-45 mins of biking daily, and I can't wait to share the story with you all. So please, stay tuned for updates.
In Earthbound I just arrived at Twoson, and looking forward to providing updates to you all.
This year has been an odd year in gaming. Since the launch of the Playstation 4 my interest in gaming has decreased drastically. I purchased a tonne of games, and finished a couple, but I am increasingly becoming less satisfied with the experience. I find myself turning to the Wii U for fulfilment. This year countless launch day disasters, disappointments, and sub-par HD re-releases have plagued the current generation of consoles. The Wii U has been consistent. Furthermore, I finally landed a full time job in the career I was trained for. I took a job teaching in the remote Labrador Inuit community of Postville.
Within the first month I had my wife ship my Playstation 4 up to me with a number of games, and ] despite playing it I have yet to finish Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, and Bloodborne. The games keep piling up. This year saw my interest feign in gaming, and I saw a sub-culture divided by GamerGate. It is truly terrible what came out of that, and a scar on the industry as a whole, but through it I was introduced to a lot of writers with valuable opinions. I am sitting here writing this with the opening of Super Mario 64 echoing in my ear. A call back to simpler, but exciting times. A time when developers took some big risks entering 3d space, and those risks drove innovation. Sadly, with the advent of the current generation of consoles we are seeing the same games re-hashed, and slapped with another $60 price sticker. This has to be lucrative, right? Why else would they do it? Sure tonight, I bought Dark Souls II for the ps4 having already played it to completion twice. I know the problem with weapon durability. I know I am a big hypocrite, so why did I buy it? Well I have no idea. I was in the store (just browsing) and bought it.
Talking to the clerk he told me it was a wise choice, and in that brief moment I thought my purchase to be justified. I even said I have no idea why I am buying this, because I have Bloodborne waiting for me when I get home. We talked briefly about our Bloodborne experiences, and I remarked how faster paced I thought it was, and in that moment his demeanour changed. He jumped down my throat and said, 'I bet you fat rolled our whole way through 1, and 2, right?' I commented that I enjoyed the comfort of heavy armour. He laughed and told me I was playing the game completely wrong. See, now I am completely fed up with gaming in general. Who was he to discount my experience with a video game. As if his experience with a Dex build was better than my Str build. I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but I think that whole conversation pretty much summed up my experience gaming since the Playstation 4 launched.
A new platforming-adventure game from Double Fine and famed designer Ron Gilbert, which has the player traversing a sentient, talking cave and solving puzzles co-operatively.
Players take the role of Maritsu Evil Academy honor-student Mao in his quest to overthrow his father and take the title of Overlord of the Netherworld (PS3). PlayStation Vita port of the PS3 game.
Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion is an updated version of Tekken 6 for arcades, which has also been ported to PS3, Xbox 360 and PSP. The home console releases have been released simply as "Tekken 6".
Did not realize how short this game was. I enjoyed my time with it. Going to wait a little while before I go back and complete the second quest. I might pick up Zelda II over the next few days, but that could lead to me trying to complete the whole series, and that could be a costly venture. I've played the majority of the games in the series, but it would be nice just to slog through them all again.
Well it is 2013, and that means a whole new year of gaming is ahead of me. Started off this year playing a lot of Call of Duty Black Ops II. I am really digging the campaign so far. The changes they made to the story structure is a welcome relief and I look forward to playing that more. I picked up The Legend of Zelda for my 3ds, and I am almost finished it already. I may tackle the second quest as I hear that is where the true challenge is. Other then that I have been playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown off and on. I love personalizing my characters with the names of my friends. I know it is corny, but every time one of them dies I feel bad, and hover over the load game option probably longer then I should. I have Sleeping Dogs in the hopper ready to go after I complete the other two games, and I am picking away at Kid Icarus: Uprising. Demon's Souls is out on the PSN next week, and I think I may go back to it. I played the hell out of it when it first came out, but I do not believe I gave it its fair shake. Since Dark Souls, I have a greater appreciation for those types of games, and I want to give it another crack.
2012 has been an odd year for me. It marked a full year since my Mom passed, and I am struggling constantly with the idea that I am wasting my life. Mom died young, 58. I don't want that to be my fate, well, no one does, but you never know when your time is up. I finished my second degree this past year, and I am now a certified Teacher. I have not had one sub day yet, and that is hella discouraging. Because of this I picked up a job at Starbucks. I am digging it, but I am finding it hard to juggle work, and home life. I guess it means less time for video games, but that comes with territory.
After watching Giant Bomb's Quick Look of Dark Souls and the first part of IGN's Dark Souls' marathon I found the tutorial rather easy. Lucky for me I stopped watching shortly after that section. One thing that I did stumble upon though was the giant crows nest and the eggs asking me for something warm and something soft. Puzzled I continued on my journey past the tutorial area and rested at the first Bonfire in Lordran and decided to spend some souls increasing my Endurance and Dexterity. Flying by the seat of my pants. (More to Come)
As part of Giant Bomb's blog initiative...jesus.. I can't believe I am saying this... I will be blogging my way through Dark Souls so other users can follow along, make fun, add suggestions, or just laugh at my misfortune. I will try and get a few videos at key stages of the game to demonstrate my frustration. Should be a laugh... any thoughts?
Who cares. Despite the fact that these games are completely different there has been a strange lust for people to try and pick sides and defend their game. Of course, they are both dark fantasy so comparisons are gonna be inevitable, but the amount of tension people bring to either side is pretty sad. Hell, why can't we all celebrate the fact that there are two high profile dark fantasy games coming out this Fall? Personally, I can not wait to play the hell out of these two games and then make criticisms/compliments about these games. As a gaming community we must celebrate the fact that we live in a time where dark fantasy games are considered High Profile and have massive budgets thrown behind them. Frankly I contribute this success to the Lord of the Rings movies but hey, that's another blog post for another day.
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