First of all this is not a "Giantbomb now sucks" blog. No way. Was it better back in the day? Yes. BUT it still is one of my favorite places to get entertained. I love every single member of both the Beast and West teams. I will always support them in any way I can. What I tune in almost religiously is the podcasts but I like using the podcast app on my iphone to consume them. I might switch to YouTube since its something Ive always wanted them to have: video podcasts.
So what has changed? Well the biggest thing is this whole COVID19 thing thats going on and a whole lot of personal things like my house needing some remodling due to humity. Bottom line: I'm kinda broke. Not MC Hammer broke more like Martha Stuard broke (If you know that movie quote we are best friends btw).
Another factor that has slowly made watching and listening to the Giantbomb crew is that my best friend who I wont get into many details because I already wrote a blog about it, passed away a few years ago. He was my only friend who shared the love of this site. We used to go to PAX just to say hi to not only Jeff and the gang but also the community. It was so awesome. So now thats kinda gone for me. This feels like when Ryan died. At some point the forum thread had to be unpinned. This is me unpinning Giantbomb from my life. Its still there and I will always love everything about this site till the day that I die just like my best friend @gunrock
So Sonic Mania got delayed from May 2016 to Summer 2016.
I have two things to say about this: I am sad and I am happy.
So I am sad because I really want to play this game. Simple as that. I'm a huge Sonic fan and of course this game evokes the older Sonic games that we all can agree that were the best Sonic games. Some are even more hardcore and call them the only good Sonic games. I do like Some of the 3D games but of course as an older fan I gravitate towards the older ones with Sonic 3 and Knuckles being the best one in my opinion. Also a delay usually makes me nervous. I usually think that if you delay a game it means something is wrong so they need to work some more on it. The game seems to be in good hands though because its developed by fans who have made some good fan made games or mods. I'm not too sure about that because I haven't delved into fan made games at all.
Reasons to be happy are that this game will get some extra development time and therefore be a better game. Also May is a very tough month for me. Not only is Mothers Day important for me as I am Mexican and down here Mothers Day is serious business, but my wife and I just had a kid on January and that makes her a mom now. So we got that and there are so many birthdays in my family that month including my mom! Bottom line I am always broke that month.
Project Sonic 2017 is now Sonic Forces.
I like the name and what this game seems to be invoking. So the story we pretty much knew from the teaser we got a few months ago. It seems to be that Dr Robotnik wins and Sonic failed to save the day. Seems very familiar... oh thats right its SATAM! SATAM is a cartoon from the 90's just called: Sonic the Hedgehog. In it Sonic leads a team of freedom fighters against Dr Robotnik who has taken over the world. All I can say that this is awesome. Even the slight mention or nod to SATAM is taking Sonic in the right direction. That being said cmon Sega just or bring that show back or incorporate that into the games already. I know its nearly impossible at this point so I will take what I can get with this new game.
What I find weird / don't like: classic Sonic returns. Don't get me wrong I loved Sonic Generations but were getting classic Sonic already in the form of Sonic Mania. The only way I will accept classic Sonic is if the classic Sonic levels are BEFORE Robotnik wins and tells the story of how or why things got bad. Don't just shove or force (HA!) classic Sonic into this just because Generations was great.
I've also seen people saying that the Wisps are back from Sonic Colors. I didn't finish Colors but I didn't like those damn things. Screw them I don't like them they control weird keep those damn things away from me.
Anyways 2017 is looking SO DAMN GOOD for everyone. New Zelda, new Mario and 2 good looking Sonic games. It truly is the best time to be playing video games
Its mostly just a hobby of mine to talk about games as I'm sure most of you on this site will understand. I've always wanted to make videos about video games ever since the old Gamespot days when Jeff and the gang were there.
So thanks to Youtube any random idiot like myself can grab a mic and camera, record some gameplay footage and ramble on about video games.
Hope you guys like it and go easy on me I really am new at this. I don't write scripts for any of my videos yet so its all just live opinions of mine. I will try my best to make my videos better and better everytime I make a new one.
Anyways have a nice day everyone and hope everyone is enjoying Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild! I got the Wii U version. I ain't paying that much just for that game that looks almost the same as on the Wii U.
Ok so I'm no writer but I have some thoughts on Nintendo's new console.
What's in a name
First of all the name. I think it's fine and don't really have any other idea other than Snap. I'm sure that would be a bad idea though since Snap also sounds like something breaking. Also you know people would just not shut up about Pokemon Snap. I never played it so I really don’t care about it. The only console ever that I had a problem with is the Wii U. We all know why: it confused people and was part of reason for the downfall of the system.
Now you're playing with power?
In the reveal trailer we see that a dude plays Skyrim from what I heard on the Internet since I never played any of the Elder Scrolls games. I know shocking. Anyways the point is that I have concerns when it comes to how powerful this thing is. Nintendo is now known for not really putting emphasis on a consoles horsepower, I get that. Lets look back at the Super Nintendo for a moment. As much as a Sega fan as I am, clearly it was a better system than the Genesis. There were just so many games that were not possible on the Genesis or the ports ended up being inferior. We all try to convince ourselves that graphics don't matter but really, they do. I’m not saying it's the only thing but it does.
Another thing to consider is that the Switch is replacing Nintendo’s portable and console at the same time. Thats huge. If I think about it replacing the Wii U I feel bad because it's what the Wii U should have been in the first place. Just like how I wish the Wii U should have been the Wii. Now the Switch as a replacement for the 3DS is great. I love my 3DS and it has been a hell of system. But it's time to say goodbye and I'm ok with that.
The power of reason compels you gimmicks!
Finally a "normal" console from Nintendo... Kinda. The Wii and Wii U had some major gimmicks that defined them. But really the best games on both these systems were the ones that barely or didn't use them at all. Even the 3DS while less intrusive with its share of gimmicks had them. The Switch gets back to basics and that's the way I like it. Good job Nintendo.
Pay the price
If this thing is more than 300 USD it's gonna have a bad time. Bad use of old memes aside it's gonna depend on how capable the Switch is.
Bottom line at the bottom
I have so many things to say but I’ll just add one last thought, well maybe two. First of all as of now I am not getting the Switch day one. Even if it ends up being super cheap like 250 bucks. It's a matter of principle. I bought a Wii U not at launch but when Super Mario 3D World came out and I loved it. I almost completed 100% that game and I don't do that anymore since I have a job and a kid on the way and blah blah you know, adult stuff. I really like the Wii U and its games. Just like the Gamecube we were promised a Zelda game (Twilight Princess) and I'm glad Nintendo delivered back then and I’m confident they will now with Breath of the Wild being made for both Wii U and Switch. I will remain faithful to the Wii U to the bitter end.
There is now no one on this planet that shares my love for Giant Bomb that is close to me. My cousin and best friend passed away due to cancer. He was only 31 years old. He was my Ryan Davis. I was his Jeff Gerstmann. We went to almost every PAX Prime together and we had a blast every time. Death is something that I thought would never come and pay me a visit. Distant family members have died on me and their loss while not a good thing my any means is not as painful. His death cut me deep. I can only find comfort in the fact that I believe in heaven and that he is waiting for me up there.
@gunrock Man why did you have to do this to me man? Why? We were going to grow old together man. We played so many games together, argued over dumb things but in the end all for good fun.
I wish I could write this huge blog and make it all fancy and stuff but I can't. Words and everything in life just seems like its empty.
I just wish I could find another friend that could come and be with me and that we could talk shop all about Giant Bomb. Talking about Giant Bomb is what we did best. Making jokes about the staff and laughing our asses off at all their shenanigans.
I miss you bro, the wait for when we meet again is gonna slowly kill me. I love you man.
Sonic Adventure 2 is still a game I enjoy to this day. I know haters are gonna hate. BUT just listening to the music of each stage gets me pumped to play it. With the release of the XBLA and PSN version I decided to try it out again. I don't do much these days so I decided to look back at something I had not done in a long time. Well actually two things: write about games I play and complete (100%) a game.
As I write this I only need 1 emblem in the game. There are 180 in total in the game. Once you obtain all these emblems you complete the game and unlock a special bonus stage.
Why did I do all this? Why is this game so important to me that I must complete it while there are so many great new games to play? The only answer that comes to me is nostalgia. I didn't grow up with the Dreamcast but it just made such an impact in it's short life.
I never owned a Nintendo 64 or a Playstation. So the Dreamcast was my first true 3D gaming console. It seems that even though I had seen those other consoles it just isn't the same when you own a system. Had I owned one maybe things would be different.
Back to Sonic Adventure 2. This game just fixed a lot of things wrong with Sonic Adventure and brought a lot of mechanics that are still in Sonic games today. The combo system that was implemented to reward you for killing enemies in a row is genious. Grinding feels great. Overall its a more focused and polished experience. Sure the camera can get annoying a lot of times but not always.
What I'm trying get across with this is that if you 100% a game, I guess you REALLY like it. Some games are better left to just our memories. You end up playing them again for like 10 minutes and say "What was I thinking!?!". After 40 hours of Sonic Adventure 2 I can honestly say: "Worth it".
It's been a while since I've had anything to write about, now with the quest system and spare time I have all I need to blog away. I want to write about something I have been doing for the past 2 months and a half. I moved to Los Angeles and am attending the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood. Now I like movies but that's not what I signed up for. They have a Game Production program and I am in the third month. The course is only 14 months but it covers a wide variety of subjects that are all important for any person wanting to join the game industry. So far I strongly recommend it to anyone that lives in the area or anyone who has a strong pasion for games. I don't work for them or anything and this isn't ment to be some kind of publicity type crap. I just wanna share this really cool experience.
The first class we took was Global Game Studies. In this class we study games in a historical and cultural importance. It's kinda a history class but you actualy get to experience the games so you realize their importance. Here are some games I first played with this class: Spacewar!, Myst and Castle Wolfenstein. I had never played these games before but wow, their importance in history blows my mind. This class was just awesome and the instructor was also a real great guy, Martin Hagvall.
The second class was Analog Game Theory. Here we take a look at board games and reflect on their importance in game design. The final project was a real challenge. In a team of three, we created 2 board games. Our first game was called Stars of Olympus. The objective was to build constellations with a certain amount of resources. The other game was Doone 3000. Clearly a spoof of this game. The game was all about dexterity. You move your harvesters with "spize" cubes and make sure it doesn't fall off. This class was Mr. Hagvall's specialty, since he actually is a board game designer. At the end of the class we also had a game fair and showed a bunch of people our games. It feels real cool to show people your work even if they are gonna grade you on it.
At the same time as Analog Game Theory we also took another class that I really liked. This was Business of Games. It's pretty much what it sounds like. We take a look at how the games industry works. Giantbomb has been very useful and reading game sites like this one really give you an idea. However, the ones that publishers and other people in the games biz are looking at are Kotaku and Gamasutra. The discussion was my favorite part of this class. The class was given by Robert Bryant. He worked at Mattel and Crave but now publishes games in this own company I think.
Now this month we get into some more technical stuff. Game Art 1 is a class that so far has also been awesome. We learn the way developers work with textures. It turns out Photoshop is widely popular among game artists. We learned some vector art and we made a main character, level and even a boss battle. The instructor is really talented and shows us really cool tricks that game designers use to create certain illusions in games. He worked for Pandemic but wasn't there when it went under.
On monday we get to make some weapons so that will be cool.
Well that's all for now, check out the LA Film website to see all the course info if you decide game production is for you!
I wanted to celebrate this milestone in my gaming life with a special game. First it was gonna be with the expantion to Phantasy Star Universe since I already got all 1000 points of the singleplayer. But my girlfriend got me 50 cent: Blood on the sand and my plans changed. It was hard to choose what game would get that honor, I love both games. Jeff's review of the game so far is spot on, it's a very fun game and very funny as well. But I've been a big fan of the Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe games so that was my first option. So for those of you who reached 10k or more gamerscore: Did you celebrate with a certain game? Or did you just go meh?
Yeah...It's firmly established that Sonic has seen better days. We all know that and get that since well, some say he started slipping ever since he went 3D. I think that's n ot the case since the two Dreamcast games were really good and I should just stop repeating myself. I really didn't wanna try this game out but I had a free rental at Blockbuster and said: "well, I'm sure as hell wont pay to play this so why not".
Let's start with the presentation of the game. Sonic once again gets sucked into a storybook by one of the citizens that reside in a world filled with an evil that must be stopped. In this case the summoner is a young wizard named Merlina and the evil is the Black Knight. Again they take Sonic characters and put them in different roles like Tails is a blacksmith and Shadow is Lancelot for example. The story is once again pointless and really didn't keep me interested enough to play the whole thing. Thats really disapointing and See?sad since: 1) I'm a big Sonic fan and 2) The game takes like 3 hours to finish. I didn't finish the game, my brother did so I took a look at the videos and well they are as always very nice to look at.
Welcome backThe music is great, Crush 40 does most of it and that is a welcome change since well, they rock. The whole setting seems a little less dumb than the arabian nights I think but still, none of the characters look interesting except Merlina the wizard. She looks nice but really, Knuckles, Blaze and Shadow with armor? That just doesn't fit no matter how you look at it. The Black Knight looks very generic. Whats worse, he looks bigger than his ride (horse). Overall the presentation just got a little better.
Now the gameplay. Oh God does this game suck. It's just like Sonic and the Secret Rings only that the game uses the nunchuk so you can move Sonic more accurately so thats way better. There is one other big change in the gameplay and it totally eclipses what they got right with the nunchuk. It's the sword. You waggle the Wiimote to attack and make combo attacks. Why this is a problem is not that it's just button mashing, it's that this attack doesn't follow the enemies like the homing attack does. You can use the homing attack but it does harm the enemies! What the hell? What was wrong with the homing attack? Even in Sonic and the Secret Rings that was alright. Like I said, I have no problem with button mashing as long as it gets the job done, like in Gauntlet Legends. The missions are also really dull and boring as heck. Why did they not just make levels? Instead it's just like the other game: open up a new level, get new mission, beat mission, get more missions, beat those and get a new level. You end up playing the same damn level over and over again but with different missions. And its not like this is optional, no, you pretty much gotta play them all to get to the next level. The ones that really got me to stop playing this are the beat 50 or more enemies. Without the homing attack and the speed that Sonic runs in, it's freakin impossible to know if you beat all the badguys in a group.
Angel Island REPREZETNOk I gotta end this. Well, in conclusion: I WANT MY FREE RENTAL BACK. Really, like I said it's a slight imporvement over the first game on the Wii, but at this rate it would take them at least 5 games to get it right. That's like taking baby steps in a marathon. But I still hope, someday they do get it right. Heres to Sonic '20.
Video games and movies are a big part of my life. Movies stir the emotions in so many ways. You can feel romance, nostalgia or you just be flat out going huh? Those are the things that review what I saw this week in terms of movies. Three great movies that I think are worth checking out and you probably already have at some point. Past the point of no return...
Risky Business
Risky Business
First goes the movie that just grabbed me by the nuts and then let go of them real fast. Ok that was weird, in normal, that means it was a rush through the whole thing but just ended kinda abruptly. Risky Business is a movie that stars Tom Cruise in his quest to say "what the fuck" more often. The main guy here is a highschool student called Joel (Tom Cruise) who doesn't really take many chances in life. But all that changes when his parents go away in the longest weekend I have ever seen. Without saying more about the plot, the reason why this movie I think is so good, is that it's one of those movies that has the main character get in some real deap trouble. You just think, man, this guy is not gonna get outta this one and that makes for some real tense moments. I got this one in a Tom Cruise triple pack that came with Interview with a Vampire and The Last Samurai. Those movies are so good also I love them. But Risky Business was the only one that I had not seen yet so I said: "what the fuck". So when I got to the part when he lip syncs to the song Old Time Rock n Roll I was like: "Oh thats where this is from". I really had no idea, I had seen all the parodies and just thought it was funny. This movie is just so cool really, it just never stops with the weird moments and it's just crazy. I guess I give it 5/5.
Phantom of the Opera
Once again, another popular thing I was totaly unaware of. I mean yeah I know what the Phantom of the Opera is and all but, had I ever seen the musical? No. What about the other billion movie adaptations? Well...no. I gotta thank my sister for this one. We both love musical movies and musicals in general. So one day shes like: "Check this out, it's here, the phantom of the opera". All I can say is wow, this one is a real masterpiece. I had been missing something real special. The music is just AAA, creme de la creme man. The whole soundtrack is just one glorious song after another. The only bad thing I can think about the movie is the pace sometimes, it's kinda slow and has some moments that I think we could have done without. I had the chance to buy this one after I had rented it but thank god I didn't because I saw it later on Blu-Ray, lucky me. So of course I saw it again. Mmmm...genious. Another one for the ages. The funny thing is that it's directed by Joel Schumacher. No bat nipples here thank god. 5/5 baby.
Pinocchio
Last one. I had not seen this movie in years. My dad gave me this movie on a homemade VHS and I would watch it all the freakin time. So I kinda went through a "Pinocchio-ain't-as-good-as-all-the-newer-disney-movies-after-little-mermaid" phase. Maybe I was right but you know, this movie just took me way back. To the days when I had my good ol NES. When we used to tape all our favorite shows and movies on a 6 hour long VHS. That really warmed my heart. Aside from all that, something I thought was interesting is how the fairy in the movie sends a note to Pinocchio. The thing is that she sends it using a dove. A heavenly bright looking one. So wouldn't this clash with the whole theory of some christian pastors that claim Disney is the devil? I'm christian so I notice these things right away. Anyway forget all that other stuff, because the movie is great. There isn't that much I can say about this one. We all know it freakin rules, the music, the story, and just about everything. Also the movie tends to get kinda dark sometimes. The tone just does to freakin hell when the kids are all turned into donkeys. It's like a soft version of a bunch of brats getting sent to hell. Still it all for the sake of teaching kids right from wrong, and it does this really well. When Pinocchio is all getting wasted at the amusement park, you can see that he is in no way, having fun. I don't get though why the heck would they put this PSA kinda thing before the movie starts about smoking and what it does to you. Isn't getting turned into a damned jackass enough to get you to stay away from that stuff? It sure did work for me. 6/5.
Well thats it I guess. I next I'll do a top something good games I have. 1 Comments
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