Extra Life 2026 HAS BEGUN!!!!

Hi everyone! If you've been here for a while, you probably were waiting for this announcement. After all, I've been part of this event since it began as a small event on the now defunct Sarcastic Gamer website, and I have absolutely zero intent of ever stopping any time soon. For those of you who are new, welcome aboard.

As for what it is, Extra Life is a charity event that has been going on since 2008. Back then, I was a regular listener to the podcasts of Sarcastic Gamer and enjoying the antics of our hosts. (If you can guess my name in the forums there, I will be impressed.) On this particular day, it would not be so fun. In fact it would be one of the hardest things I have ever listened to... a grown man crying over the death of a child.

To explain, the man who owned the site, affectionately known to the community as Doc, is a family friend with a now older couple who's child that day lost her battle with cancer. But he couldn't just let things end on that note, so to try to help other kids in similar fights and to thank the hospital who helped her during hers, he came up with an idea: within a few weeks, the site would get together and play video games to raise money to help the hospital do just that. Her story is told here better then I ever could and I sincerely recommend going to see the video.

It was an absolute success... so much so in fact the community demanded to do it again. And so we did the next year to even more enthusiasm. The next year after that would push it even further as Doc would gain connections in the Children's Miracle Network, allowing us to not only help this single hospital, but to raise money for our own local ones and help kids closer to home.

And here we are, 10 years after Sarcastic Gamer shut down and Extra Life is stronger then ever... and I am once again humbled and honored to take part again. I have already updated the link on the side of the website to point to our team page, so feel free to come in and help us help the sick kids!

For now though, I am honored to continue the coarse started last year to both help the kids and  celebrate the games that made my tastes. to that end, I invite you to join me on my twitch page (or the above link. You can come see me in both places)! You can find it here or in the list of links to the side of this site and I am there at the following times every week:

• Wednesday at 7 Eastern time: Phantasy Star Wednesday as we march through the entire franchise! We have already done the classic 8 and 16 bit games in the series and are currently working our way through Phantasy Star Online via the Ephinea private server. Come join us on stream or even in game! I run an open room with this site's name.
• Friday at 7 Eastern time: First Person Friday where anything wherw the camera is from the eyes of your character is up for grabs to be played. Lately I've been on an MS-DOS kick, having gone from Descent straight into Realms of the Haunting, a hybrid point and click and FPS title I loved in my earlier days. Once again, I invite you to join me as we rub elbows with a biblical apocalypse.

But on that note, I think it's time for me to go. I've said one hell of a lot for a post that was supposed to be just officially throwing our hat in the ring and welcome others to join us... no complaints, just an observation that I should probably get going.

See you all later and out there in the gamespace....

- Megabyte

Silver Chains (PC) Review

This title has been a few years coming. During the big yearly sales I make a point to add titles that have been sitting in my wishlist for a while to my collection, and so I wound up with this in my library a few years ago. And while first impressions were absolutely amazing, I have to say as I put down my mouse, I am glad I got it at that steep discount. The bones are very pretty, pretty enough in fact to justify the game even with so little to it... at least until the very end.

Warhammer Quest (PC) Review

Recently in my nerd-talk conversations with my brother, we spoke about Warhammer and Warhammer 40K games and he told me how most of them are pretty awful. Between the fondness of the old HeroQuest game first impressions of this reminded me of and wanting to be optimistic, I was hoping this would be a game to prove him wrong. After all I have collected but not played a ton of these games yet. But this game really just puts a notch in the point he made.

Descent (PC) Review

Now THIS is a game I have some history with. Way back in my high-school days, I found this game like most did: by the shareware version. I loved playing it immediately, getting very good at those first seven levels on my own. I even got together with kids in my class once a week to take over the school library and have 8-player matches against each other. It was a blast! And when I finally got a the official collection with this game and it's sequel late in the life of that 486 machine, I found myself loving everything that followed. But the game would ultimately fall to the side as I found my all-time favorite games on my next PC during the Windows 98 era, including the legendary Deus Ex.

So now as I play First Person games for Extra Life every week, I had planned to open up a much forgotten title I played long ago, only to have it have some serious technical issues I am still aging the fix to as we speak. So I needed a substitute. Looking back far further into my gaming past, my eyes fell on this gem. Does it still hold up? Well.. ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY!

But as a side note, I did not play the base game this time. Like so many FPS titles of the day, the game's code has since gone open source and as such there are several source ports you can use to make it run with some modern quality of life updates. I played this one using Dxx-Rebirth so my exact experiences may be different from yours. But I did include a link to get the port yourself if you wish. Just be aware I hold no responsibility for the software. Use it at your own risk and scan ANYTHING you download! Now with that out of the way, step inside.

Tales of Berseria (PC) Review

This is it, my first taste of the legendary "Tales" games. Its a series I've heard so much good about, and an entry where the main character had my curiosity, so when the dice called it out, I jumped in eagerly. But as I finish up, I look back and, well, if you know the phrase "more then the sum of it's parts" then you are looking at a game that feels like the absolute reverse of that. It has all the pieces, but somehow is less then what it should be.

The First Descendant (PC) Review

I have been watching this title since the first trailers were revealed. Right away the world itself pulled me in with an aesthetic that harkened to one of my favorite franchises, but with a realistic looking twist. So when this became the co-op game to play, I eagerly agreed. Looking back, it started with a bang and for a while did everything I could hope for. But as I put down the mouse for the last time, the game definitely feels like it ends with a whimper, especially compared to that strong start.

Warhammer 40K: Boltgun (PC) Review

Originally this was not the game I had planned on playing next for First Person Fridays (one of my streams I do weekly for Extra Life), but things both good and bad changed those plans. On the downside, the publishers who sell the game I was originally goning play are now on my shit list for their behavior around a very public murder and for the foreseeable future you will not see anything by them being added to my work: stream or review. But on the upward swing, my buddy Max Powers sent this my way, and how could I say no to a buddy? Having put the game down, yeah it was a great time for the most part, if not a perfect one.