Extra Life 2025 October update

Hi everybody! The time is flying! Soon we will all see each other, getting together at friends' houses or at a local hobby shop or even just online. But the time is near for Extra-Life game.... week? Yeah, that's right. This year there isn't a single day but a whole week where gamers will choose to play, and we are no different.

But if you don't know what Extra-Life is, well perhaps we should start there. Extra-Life is an international charity event held every year where gamers pledge to play for 24 hours (straight if they can... in pieces if not) to help raise money for the hospitals of the Children's Miracle Network. We have been working all year to bring in what we can (or even donate ourselves). To help these kids, and each one of us have done so in the name and for one specific hospital in this network. I myself play for Boston Children's Hospital as I have for MOST years of the event. And I don't say "my history" for a reason that I am honored as Hell to be able to say: I've been here since the beginning. Since before this was a CMN event, but instead one held with only a few weeks notice by a single (sadly now defunct) gaming site who wanted to something special in the name of a young cancer victim to help their hospital help more kids in her situation. But the site does a much better job telling Victoria's story then I ever will so if you want to hear how all this started, you can check it out here.

So where does that lead us today? Today the event has gone international with gamers from all over signing up, selecting a local hospital where everything they raise will go, and playing like hell to help the kids who need it most. Seriously, how awesome is it to help out like this using our hobby? Truly one of the best things ever, which brings me to our own little related announcements for the big event around here. 

First and most important, our own marathon will happen on:

SATURDAY: NOVEMBER 15

As we said earlier in this post, we are just a few short weeks before things begin and gamers will be playing 24 hours for the kids during the week of November 8th through the 16th, and we have picked our day, too. For us, that Saturday, starting at 8 AM, we will be gaming nonstop until 8 AM the next morning. It's brutal every year, but rewarding and I can't wait to join you all there. And join is the word since I plan to have several online games ready to go, starting with a continuation of our current adventure in Phantasy Star Online! All are welcome to join, and I can't wait to see you all. I may also sneak a few extra streams Friday while we get ready before resting up for the big event.

And we will be doing so from Twitch for ONE LAST YEAR. You see, I've never really had strong faith in the platform, but it's been shaken all the more watching how much they clearly do not care for their own community over the MANY garbage stories content creators came back from at Twitchcon this year. To that end, I made a decision: I myself am leaving. I've already had to make a rumble channel for this page so the videos of our sessions to help kids AND celebrate the various franchises I personally cherish will live on instead of Twitch killing them in a week.

But when to leave was the real question. If you are on our Discord (and you can reach it either in the site socials above or right here, you might have noticed a poll where we asked our community if we should leave Twitch before or after the marathon this year, and the community wanted to stay. So for one last year we will do this on Twich and we hope to see you there. I will have a much shorter post the night before, so if you forget all this, don't worry.

But now we get to the big question for YOU. How can you get involved. Well, it's never too late to join in, so why not sign up now? Just go the extra life site and follow the directions to register for an account, then it's time to ask people to help you help the sick kids... easy as that.

Of course not everyone feels they want to play themselves, and none of us can do this without those who donate to help us help the kids, so doing that is always welcome too. If you look in the about section of my twitch page, there is a panel that will take you to my team page where you can pick anyone on the Red Sector team to donate under the name of. Any help you can give is more then welcome and we are more then thankful for it.

SO once again, thank you for joining me and I hope to see you on the big day! From all of us here at the Red Sector, thank you.

- Megabyte

Alone in the Dark 3 (PC) Review

And now we close the book on a classic PC game trilogy, but can we really call it all classic? Probably not, as I can not claim to have even really liked the previous title. Still the first absolutely was amazing, and I walked into this hoping to get close to those highs again... Well, I'm not sure we did that, but we definitely moved in the right direction for it.

PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness (PC) Review

This game is an exceptionally moment for me. It was niether chosen because I was continuing a franchise, nor by the dice. Rather, this game was chosen by timing. In addition to my gaming hobby, I am also taking time to watch various shows and movies while I do my daily exercises, and this game takes place during the first season of the anime series Psycho-Pass. I have seen it before, but since I now have season 2, I chose to rewatch it, and this game would be played between seasons. I now put my mouse down and... well, I can't say I didn't enjoy the story, but I don't think everyone should bother with it.

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (PC) Review

As I put the controller down, we have reached a turning point of this franchise. For those of you who join me on Twitch, I have been on a campaign with this series, to both celebrate it in it's own right and raise money and awareness for Extra Life by playing literally EVERY US release of it. (I do this every Wednesday night.) And now we have finished the classic era.... and man did it go out with a BANG!

AI: The Somnium Files (PC) Reiview

Gonna be honest, this was not a game I was hyped for. I picked it up at some point as part of a steam sale which is how a lot of my backlog was built up. However it looked interesting enough so when the dice rolled it up, I was intrigued. Turns out, this was for good reason even if it comes with a bit of a downturn for the studio behind it. Come... step inside.

Extra Life 2025 September Update

Hi everybody! It's been a few months since our last talk but time is flying by as we get closer and closer to the big marathon in November. I have to admit, I am looking forward to it as I always do. But I have this bad habit of getting ahead of myself here. I don't even know if you are new here or have been keeping up with Extra-Life!

For those of you who are new here, Extra-Life is a charity event that I have been lucky enough to participate in since it was started in 2008. Back then, it was a lot smaller affair, and one sadly born from the pain of loss. From my own perspective, I was at the time a happy member of the Sarcastic Gamer community, spending time on the forums and listening to every podcast that came out talking about an overview of the gaming stories of the day. But one day that podcast would be one of the hardest things I would ever listen to. The founder, fondly known around the site simply as Doc, literally broke down and cried mid-stream as he had just gotten the news that a family he was friends with had lost their daughter, a young girl named Victoria, from cancer. But he would not leave her legacy to end in tears. Instead, he came to us collectively with an idea.

To thank the hospital for their efforts, he rallied the site to have an event where for 24 hours we would all get online and play games as a fundraiser for this hospital. Needless to say, we were all in... site-wide. It wasn't a big event, but it was a successful one. And we were already hungry to do it again. it became a tradition of the site for a few years before Doc would leave, joining the team at Children's Miracle Network... and he took this event with him. No longer limited to a single (and sadly now defunct) website, the event could now expend to more hospitals, with more participants helping more children! And I have been incredibly honored to watch it grow through the entire process. But it's not fair to not let the event tell the tale for itself, so you can check out the about section here for their own take on it.

Today, Extra-Life is MASSIVE and has collectively raised well over $132,000,000 to help these poor kids who need it most, and it is truly an amazing thing to take part in and as I noted at the beginning of this post, I have been honored to be able to be there for since the very beginning.... and it's time for you to jump in too! So how do you do it? Well that's the easy part!

If you are a gamer, sign on up and get in here with us! You don't have to play video games, but really anything nerdy is good for this. Just get on the Extra-Life Website and click that signup button! The site will guide you the rest of the way including how to setup your own page, link any streaming channel you might wish to use for it, and even what team you want to play on. However the most important choice you will make is the hospital you are playing for. One of the unique points of this charity event is that what you bring in goes specifically to the hospital you are playing for. I myself an playing for Boston's Children's Hospital, but you can pick any hospital in the Children's Miracle Network you wish. With that in motion, you will have access to tips, tricks, and tools to help you kit up for the event, so time to get going and bring in what you can to help those kids. And all your efforts will culminate with a 24 hour marathon we all always look forward to in November.

In previous years this was date would traditionally be the Saturday of Daylight Savings in November, creating an actually 25 hour marathon, a lofty goal to play through indeed. But there was a problem with this: one weekend for every Extra Lifer can be a pain for many people's schedule. I should know. with family events almost always coming on the same weekend, it made tough for me to make it, which is why I was always thankful for the often used "rain date" the following weekend. But this year is different. The organizers have decided to try a new solution by letting us as gamers pick our days, defining a game week instead of a single day! This year, "GAME WEEK" will start from Saturday morning on November 8th and run all the way through Sunday night on November 16th. You pick when you put in your 24 hours to celebrate what we could do for these kids (as well as a final push the marathon represents). We here will have to pick our day still, but I will be updating here when we do.

And speaking of, that brings us to the other way you can partake in this event. If you can't or don't feel like you should be playing yourself, you can always donate under the name of your favorite gamers to help the hospital they play for. As noted above, I myself have chosen to play for Boston Children's Hospital, and if you would like to help me (or any other member of my team) thank you so much. We really can't do this without you. You can reach us three ways:

1. Look us up on the Extra-Life page: I am including this one first simply because it can be used for anyone you want to show support with, but in the page header, there is a "search for player" bar. Use it to find literally anyone you want to back.
   
   
   
2. Donate on our streams: When I stream, it is always for this event, as one of the two reasons for it: getting pictures for reviews on this little space online and (more importantly) to draw attention to this event so we can get more players and to offer an easy way to help us help the kids if you so incline. And while the reviews are why you never see me on screen (video, picture, anything really), you can find the panel below in the about section of the stream page. The donate button there will take you directly to our page where you can donate to anyone who is a member.
   
   
   
3. Click the button below! At the bottom of this message, I will leave a button to reach our team page as well. Feel free to use it if you just want to get there without any hoops.

As for when you can catch the stream, I finally have set a solid schedule for streaming games. Wednesday has remained the same, but I have reserved Friday nights as well, if for a different more action built franchise. In both cases we celebrate the gaming past, even as we try to help kids have a better future:

• Phantasy Star Wednesday: This has not changed, but every Wednesday around 7 PM, I am playing my way through the entire Phantasy Star franchise in order of release. Currently we are making our way through Phantasy Star IV, but it won't be much longer before we make the jump to the first MMO in the series.
• First Person Friday: Yes the games we play on Friday, beyond the franchise, will have a theme, as this is arguably where a lot of my favorite games live, but we are starting with one of the big Granddaddy of them all with Wolfenstein. As I write this, I have finished Spear of Destiny and our next stream will be to start our adventure in Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

But on that note, I think its time for me to get going as I have gotten very long winded today. Please join us for the fun and helping kids who truly do need it the most.

Thank you for listening,

Megabyte

Wolfenstein 3D (PC) Review

For many guys my age, this is where it all began. With these titles, they had their first taste of the new and exciting world of first person shooters, and we fell in love with it! Still that was over 30 years ago now (the first Wolfenstein game came out in the year of 1992) and the genre of similar games inspired here would grow and expand what they could do exponentially since. Hell even this team blew the tech side of this out of the water the very next year! Which begs the question to many today: Why go back and play such an old game? Well if you are like me, the memory of a truly legendary franchise alone is worth revisiting, but for anyone else is it worth it? Enthusiastically I have to say "YES! It ABSOLUTELY IS!" but... maybe with some tweaks.

What are those tweaks you ask? Well in the past 3 decades we have seen even the very key combinations we use to play games change dramatically from these ancient times. And to that end with iD having long ago released the code for these games as open source, gamers have taken the time to build new versions of the engine you can use to give the old games some quality of life updates without changing the core game. I put a link to the one I used in the system requirements below, but you are welcome to use any that suit you better.

And finally this is a dual review because if you buy this game today, you get both Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny as a bundle, complete with a menu to select which one to launch at startup. They are no longer separate. The links below will take you directly to the one you want to read.

• Wolfenstein 3D
• Spear of Destiny