When you buy a cheap game, you take a small financial risk. Sometimes you find a hidden gem. Others, you are thankful for how little the game cost you. This game cost me about a buck or two, and even at that small price, I feel ripped off this time around.
I remember when this game came out, and the art immediately drawing me in. But it would be yet another game that would make it's way to the backlog with intrigue, but this was a game the dice literally refused to ever let it show... until I was picking games for this year's Extra Life marathon. I wound up only breaking for lunch before I finished this game, and overall... I was pretty impressed with what I played.
Well folks, another year is in the books, and while different, it was an absolute blast! For starters, I did have to delay my own weekend run due to family getting together and the idea of n hour drive either way after being up 24 did not sound like a smart or safe time. So last weekend like many others I sat back and watched the main stream over whatever else I was doing. And that weekend proved an amazing run as the charity raised over $3,300,000! Anyone who played that weekend should be proud to be a part of that.
But for me this weekend was my big day and we have on our end brought in $450. Now the charity event is not yet finished and if you would like to help us help the kids, I am honored and you can find my team page at https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutdown (and as always, thank you for helping us help the sick kids who really need it). But if you want a more detailed review, step on inside.
Curiosity killed the cat... or in this case the fox. I picked this game up years ago for that curiosity, and at first saw the promise remain. But as I played and got deeper, it became more and more clear that something was horribly wrong with the game itself and not just in it's world.
Hello everyone and welcome to the last major update before I do my own 24-hour marathon for Extra Life, and I will admit I am cutting it close here. For most people game day was last Saturday, making it 25 hours, but family plans put it on hold for me, so I will be getting to it this weekend instead! As it stands we have managed to bring in $400 so far, but of course we will be looking to increase this as game-day continues. I am hoping to see you there!
You can find our page at https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutdown and can even watch the stream from there!
I am planning to start at 8 AM saturday (11/13) and will be going till 8 AM the next morning if all goes according to plan. Thank you again for all your support and see you there!
When I open up a game to play on Steam, I have a habit of looking over the list of games recommended to me first before I play. Sometimes a game will be added to my wishlist (in gog if possible), or if it's a free game, it might get added right there to the backlog list. This would be one of those times as the trailer simply looked awesome. The stars aligned, and when I got to play it, I can truly call this a hidden gem of a game.
Here's a game that had a lot of promise. Based on the series it comes from, I had very high hopes of entertaining insanity to play with when this was announced. But when it did come out, I have to admit, I was concerned that it was only one part rather then a whole story. And while it does look like we will get the full story, I was right to be worried about this game. It feels more like an intro then a complete package.
It has finally happened! It took three damn games about traversing minds themselves but I finally found one not afraid to be dark and sinister with it! Have fun with this one!
Sometimes you pick up games because they just look different and intriguing. And usually I recommend the idea if you can get them for a cheap price. After all, who knows what you might find inside, right? It was with this attitude I picked up and put this game in my backlog so long ago... unfortunately, the answer to what we might find this time was "not exactly a lot" or what I was hoping for.
Today, we correct my gaming history by finishing a game I should have played way back on the Playstation 2. Back then, I had no idea what Shin Megami Tensei was and no real interest in the console vs the games I was playing on my Pentium II, so it had no chance of being discovered. In fact, it wasn't till Persona 3 that I took interest in the console at all. So when I found out the Persona games were a spin-off and part of a much bigger family of games called Shin Megami Tensei, it was already too late and this game was very hard (if possible at all) to come by. But sometimes, the world is kind and Atlus saw fit to release this one again before game 5 of this main series comes out. I bought and began playing very shortly after it launched. As I put the controller down, I am glad I finally did.
I have waited a long time for this one. Back in 2015, I played the first Axiom Verge the day it came out on PC and loved every second of it. And having bought it 3 times (twice for different physical editions), I almost couldn't wait to play this... almost. However, this case was special. While the game launched on PC, PS4, and Switch, it was a digital release only, but Limited Run promised it was going to produce a physical release for the consoles. Since I have other games coming that commanded I would get a Switch, I decided this game would be the one I start with.
Unfortunately my plan to play that physical release would not happen as when I pre-ordered the cart, I found out it's not been produced yet, so it's at least 5 months out before I will have my hands on it. I couldn't wait and picked up the download on this console as well. I could jokingly say this was a much better first intro to Nintendo's now current console then the last one, but in all seriousness, this really was a great introduction to the machine.
Well here we are as another year towards Extra Life is drawing to a close. In just over a month we will be having the big 24-hour gaming marathon. And while things may still be complicated as we go though our second year of a pandemic, things are still looking up. At this point I am proud to say I've almost hit $400 on my own to help out at the Boston Children's Hospital, but I'm still looking to do more before we hit the big one. So I must ask as always if you can help us help the kids, anything at all is more then welcome and we are thankful for anything. You can find the team page for this webpage at https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutdown and thank you in advance.
But if you wish to play to help kids, it's still not too late to get involved! Signing up at https://www.extra-life.org will bring you into the event, and it is one hell of a great one. This is handled by the Children's Miracle Network and isn't limited to just video games. Got a D&D gaming group? Why not ask them to be a part of it? More into hobby figurine games or board games? All are welcome! Hell, you don't even need to stream to be a part of this.
But we do need everyone's help to push this year even farther then last year, so if you want to play or just donate, please do. We all, and I mean the kids, those trying to help them, and all us gamers around the world, thank you.
If you saw the trailers for this game, you knew this was only a matter of time. How could I resist the twisting world it showed us? Long story short I didn't and I started playing from my backlog a few weeks ago. And while it was intriguing, I am very happy I didn't get it at full price to find out just what the whole thing was about.
When I saw this game in Steam's recommendations for me, I was intrigued. Since it was free, I decided "why not" and added it to the list. Now that I've played it, I just might have more faith in Steam's recommendations. I have not played a horror game this good in a LONG time.
When the dice brought this game up as a possible choice, I smiled to myself. I had shown off the game for Extra Life previously as I played the demo on my Xbox, and I already had a good idea of what I was expecting. This game did NOT disappoint, even if it doesn't last long.
Sometimes you find a game that is more substance then style. You find yourself diving into layers and layers of lore or clever puzzles or even smooth as butter combat. Sometimes you find more style then substance and after you've played for a while, you start to get bored for how little is offered. And then you find a game like this... when there is this little content, literally all you have is style.
I knew this day would come. When you have an Xbox LIVE Gold account, you get "free games" once a month. (This is not the place to argue if the game is free or not since you have to pay for the account, so for the sake of argument, roll with it.) Unlike the games for Xbox One X and up, when your account expires, the 360 titles remain available to you, both to play and download at a later date, so I made a point to collect some here and there. This was one of those games. I knew it had a reputation as being one of the lesser games in the franchise, but at the time, I did not have any other in the series, nor was I willing to buy any of them. (Again a discussion for another time.) YEARS later the dice picked this one, as I knew they would one day. I had hoped, however, it would at least be an interesting, if not particularly good experience.... I was so wrong.
I can't say I have a history with this little game. Rather it was something I picked up cheap during a Steam summer sale because "why not?" These kind of purchases can be a bit of a gamble as I have found. Some turn out awesome, while others leave me wondering what the hell I was thinking. In this case, though, I think we have something more in the middle of the road. I may have liked it, but there really wasn't a lot there to like... or dislike for that matter.
Hi everyone. Time to check up on how we are doing for Extra Life! Now if you do not know what Extra Life is, I can explain it easily enough. In fact it started in 2008 to honor the life of a young lady who lost her fight to cancer. Back then it was a single gaming website (and perhaps the only site I ever saw as my online home) who's efforts all went to the hospital that had taken care of her and her story in full can be seen in a video on the site for the event. Doc, who ran the site, is a personal friend of the family and was absolutely devastated. I still remember listening to the podcast on my way into work that week, and it wasn't easy to hear him break down.
In her honor, a day was chosen where the site would get together and run a 24-hour gaming marathon, the goal of which was to raise money to help these sick kids. How could I say no? I am still honored to have been there from the beginning, to support the cause, to be a part of this community coming together, and just to be part of that moment.
But that would just be the beginning, for everyone wanted to continue this work, and so we did. Long after the site was gone, we continue as a gaming community to come together every year to help these kids, and help we do. Since my last update we finally have the final numbers for the 2020 marathon, and despite everyone staying home and even the number of jobs lost because of of the pandemic, we still managed to break records and raise $17,400,000 to help! We still have yet to have a year that didn't break a record for the previous one. You can see a complete breakdown that's been shown off on Facebook here.
And so here we are again, moving froward to the next big marathon in November, my team included. For my own, we have managed $220 already, and while that isn't impressive compared to some of the big numbers out there, we are humbled to bring anything to the table, and we ask you to help as well. If you are inclined there are two major ways you can.
First and perhaps most important at this point is to get involved. Get over to the Extra-Life website and sign up! Once a part of the event, you can directly help your local hospitals and the kids within by the donations you can bring in. The site even has ways to suggest to get the word out. If you think you will be busy on the big weekend, it's always an option to pick another as many gamers do. And any help you bring will be appreciated by all of us. If your gaming is less video and more physical, that works too. True it may be a bit more difficult to get going in these times because people can't really get together yet, but that doesn't mean it's impossible... and gaming isn't just of the video nature.
But if you don't really game or would like to help out in another way, then just like I'm suggesting those who sign up do, we are looking to bring in donations to help the children in our local hospitals as well. Any help you send our way is more then humbling. We are all here to help these kids. The following link will take you to our team page where you can donate to anyone on the team. https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutdown. Thank you again and lets see if we can help even more kids with another record breaker this year!
When I finished the previous Corpse Party title, I have to admit, I felt like things were unfinished. To recall, the game did absolutely NOTHING to progress the story unless you got every ending and unlocked the secret last chapter, but even that was nothing more then a stinger leading up to this game. If I had not made a point to see that ending though, I would not have needed to finish things with this one. I should have just let it be.
Once again we are dealing with a game added to my backlog via my time subscribed to the Humble Bundle. In this case I was interested to see this as the early game in the month since all the buzz around it had my curiosity, but I wasn't ready to pick it up. Let me just say I'm glad that's how I got it because there is no way in HELL it's worth the asking price... and that the developer thinks it is is just the first hint of how up his own ass this developer must have been when making this. Let's step inside.
This is not a game I was ever going to buy on my own. It looked interesting, sure, but between tech issues as a game written in Microsoft's UWP platform and a single player game that demanded you use the network to stream videos, I was pretty soured on actually spending money on it. And while things did improve with the game moving to Steam, I still wasn't about to buy it without a huge discount. And thanks to Humble Bundle, I didn't have to. Now as I finish up, I'm glad the game just about literally fell into my lap. I would have missed out on one hell of an adventure.
Another game with some history with me, but not on the same level as other games. Rather it is through an MMO I need to get back to some day called The Secret World. This game was sold as a short story in it's universe, so of course I wanted in. And getting to play it as a show-off title to try to make more people away of Extra Life was an added bonus! But I finished it in a single session, and while I enjoyed it, this is probably for the best.
A few old memories lead me to this game. Back then my little brother had bought it, thinking it would be a good horror game to play chasing around ghosts like a bug-catcher. I don't think we played much of it, though, as we just wound up walking away confused. Looking back, I chalked it up to us being idiot kids who were much more into twitch-bang-shootie games then it actally not being very good, so I wanted to give it a fair shake. And since it was re released cheap on GOG.com, I decided to give it a shot again. It was absolutely awesome as it started up, filled with 90s cheese and actually intelligent puzzles to progress... but lets just call this a bubblegum game. It lost it's taste well before I was done chewing.
This is one of those games a lot of people look back on fondly. If you need any real proof of that, you just need to look at the crowdfunding campaign for the development of a sequel. However it was not a game on my radar at the time. Rather, this is one of those games that wound up in my backlog via my time subscribed to the Humble Bundle and was forced to wait in my backlog till the dice decided it was time to play. And when it came up, I shrugged and said "why not?" Well, the game certainly proved to be a good choice, but maybe not the best one. Come on in and see.
It's that time of year again! As the new year starts to move forward we are throwing forward again to take part in Extra Life. For those not in the know, Extra Life is a charity event that happens every year where gamers from around the world come together to help sick children in our local hospitals. Starting in 2008 with a single website and a single hospital, the event has grown to the point of breaking $16,000,000 last year alone to help these. And that is despite the current pandemic we still find ourselves in! And with the new year, the even has begun again. I have been honored to be a part of this since year zero personally and as of today setup the site so my team can begin again!
So how does it work? Very simply. Gamers sign up to the website and begin raising money for the hospital of their choice (all handled by the Children's Miracle Network) and in November we celebrate with endurance for our hobby... a 24 hour gaming marathon. Generally you will find most gamers will hold their event on the 6th this year, but of course, gamers are nothing if not adaptive, so expect some to pick different days, or even more then one!
Does this sound fun to you? Great! Then now's the time to go to the Extra Life website for more information and I can only hope to see you out there! However, if you are not a gamer or just want to help us help the hospitals we are playing for, first and foremost, thank you so much. Second, you can find our team's link right here: https://www.extra-life.org/team/RedSectorShutdown
Thank you again and hope to see you out there!
"Life is like a hurricane... here in... Duck Burg. Race cars, lasers, air-o-planes: It's a... duck... blur! Might solve a mystery... or rewrite history" If you sang this in your head, you already know you need to come on inside. You're childhood awaits.
Another game that has been a long time coming. In this case, however, the control of that time was not exactly in my hands. About eight and a half years ago, Phantasy Star Online 2 launched in Japan. Originally for PC, Sega promised it's Western audience the game was coming our way as well. We waited as it made its way to the Sony Playstation systems and even the Nintendo Switch, but only in Japan.
Some grew impatient and hacked their way in. In fact there is a fan-made launcher which will download, patch the translations in, and let English players play the Eastern version of the game that was made out of this need to play. But I held off. After all, I had plenty of other games to play that didn't require such measures. Still, that did not mean I had given up all hope, at least at first. But I couldn't have been happier when the game finally showed up at E3 in 2019. Now what was once just a pipe dream was finally making it's way over, and when it became available in May of 2020 on PC, I was playing literally day 1.
Now almost a year later and with just shy of 200 hours under my belt, Im hanging up my mouse on this game. And while I am annoyed with Microsoft for milking the end of the game's story (it's been done for a few years already in Japan, so releasing maybe an hour of content a month is kinda dumb), I also walked away happy with the game in total. I had a great time in general, playing tons of general content, all the story available at the time I started writing, and having seen the absolute end of the game. It's just a good time to move on.
In 2004, Valve would release one of the biggest hits they every made: Half-Life 2. Not only was it the sequel to their first breakthrough title, but the engine behind it named "Source" was already doing things most modern games of the time could only dream of with muscle skeletons and light sources. But they also listened to a request of their fans to port the then 6 year old original game to this amazing new tech.... maybe just a bit too literally.
Valve's way to grant this wish was to take the maps, models, and graphics from the original game and just push them through the new engine with little effort to take advantage of what could be done, and the results were about as underwhelming as you would expect. But if you can count on the PC gaming community for one thing, it's to take what is and create what they wish out of it and to force a merge between Half-Life and Source to live up to the potential they saw would be no exception. Over the years, this game would be developed, releasing initially as an ever-developing mod for Half-Life 2. But eventually it would evolve into it's own complete remake. And now, after a decade and a half of the kind of love and passion only a fandom can produce, Black Mesa has been finished. And while some complain the game isn't true enough to the original level designs, it definitely hit the nostalgia mark as I played, nailing a lot of the set pieces I remembered playing through myself... maybe even some that would have been better left behind in the past. Step on inside.