Extra Life: February Update

Hello everyone and welcome again as we take a moment to stop and look at what is going on in the realm of Extra Life! For those of you new here, welcome aboard! If you don't know what Extra Life is, it's a charity event where gamers  come together to use our hobby to help sick kids in our local hospitals. If the idea of playing video games to help sick kids sounds like the perfect win-win to you, well, you're not alone. (Hint, I'm here with you.) So how does it work? Well it's very simple:

• Go to www.extra-life.org and sign up for an account. Be sure to pick the hospital you wish to play for.
• If you wish to join a team, find the one you wish to join up with. (Or even start your own!) Please keep in mind, a team's members can all play for different hospitals. It's just the team who will play together.
• Get out there and take donations. You can do this by streaming, hosting events, or just reaching out to people. The Extra Life website may have even more ideas.
• If you can, why not put a little of your own cash on the line too? After all it's for a good cause. 
• In November, get ready for all your efforts to culminate with a 24 hour gaming marathon.

Sound simple? It really is, and we are moving through the steps ourselves as our team starts to gather. As we speak I am running two weekly streams to raise awareness, raise some donations, and have some fun, so please feel free to join me! (All times are Eastern timezone)

Phantasy Star Wednesday:  Recently it occurred to me there are many series of games that deserve to be celebrated in their own right, and I decided I wanted to take this up, and started with an RPG series near and dear to me. As such Wednesday evenings I am taking a few hours around 6 PM (not absolute, life has a way of making things interesting) to crack open the series as we make our way across every single game within the series that came out in the states. Currently we are playing Phantasy Star III, and fairly early in the game. It's gonna be a blast so come on in!

Variety Hour Saturday: If a bit more randomness is your flavor, you may want to join me on Saturday afternoons! We start a bit earlier then Wednesdays (based on when I can get there, but usually closer to 3 PM), and games we play will differ every week. Basically if I am playing a game on my own that I haven't shown before, we will spend our time there. If not, I will literally pick a game at random from my backlog to show you all, and i we finish early, any extra time will go to whatever I am currently playing.

As noted above I am playing these to share the joy of the games, raise awareness of the event and maybe even to help my team raise some funds for the big event, so please come join us and maybe even come be part of the assist these kids could really need.

Now if you are wondering who's running Extra Life, that honor would go to The Children's Miracle Network. They handle all the details behind the scenes and their site will explain where everything goes as they support about 170 hospitals internationally.

If this all sounds good to you, consider this an open invite, both to join me on the streams and and get involved more directly, because that is kinda how I see it. See you out there, and game on!

- Megabyte

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (PC) Review

I know so many players who the moment this was announced were already ready to throw money at the screen. Maybe too many as I honestly expected to be playing just about nothing else for months between everyone I know who wants to play. But at the same time, my only real concern was being trapped in a single game for far longer then I would like as I do love my variety. The game itself already looked great. In fact my only real delay was that as a rule I wait a month to play anything with a major publisher behind it. (Don't blame me, blame how many games release as broken messes.) However, once I decided the game had enough time to bake I was in.... and for once, the AAA world made something I shouldn't have even waited that long on.

BROTHERS! TO BATTLE!

Doorways: Old Prototype (PC) Review

And we finally have reached a point where in order to show off something new for Extra Life over the weekend, I had to roll the dice over my backlog. It has been a while, but the dice were kind and offered an handful of titles that looked pretty good for the most part. And when this one came up, I was intrigued. After all, I do still have to play the main games, so a little window into what's to ultimately come sounded pretty good. Well the window was certainly small... but through it I can see some real potential.

Phantasy Star II (PC) Review

We have come full circle with the first Phantasy Star game I ever played. I did not play this on the Sega Genesis like so many others, however. Back in that day, I was much more of an SNES fan, so I missed this game until I had left consoles for PC entirely for a streak. Back then, I had stumbled on a CD-ROM called the Sega Smash pack which I picked up with the intention to play with Altered Beast more then anything else. But this game was also on the disc, and I fell in love with it the moment I started playing. So is it everything I remember it to be? Well, it's still pretty good, but... let's talk on it.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Secret Files (PC) Review

After the first game (and it's Christmas shareware episode) I can not say this is a franchise that started on the right foot with me. Between being way too zoomed in to run at the speeds the game wants you to and "clever" level design that served more either bounce the player around to take damage or send them a ways backwards, it just did not feel like a good game. However, it seems Epic Megagames learned from their mistakes the first time and released something that, while not spectacular, is certainly MUCH better this time around. Come on in.

Outlast: Whistleblower DLC (PC) Revew

As soon as I finished the first game, I knew I was coming back for more. It would be serendipitous to make this choice as gog put the whole series on sale, however, and a twist of fate I was NOT going to say no to. Now another chapter is complete, and this series is on an upswing! Come inside!

Deponia 2: Chaos on Deponia (PC) Review

It has been a LONG time since I played a Deponia game. Back then I had not yet reached a point of giving series I was in the middle of priority to continue, and to be fair, I'm honestly not 100% sure I would have had I been in those early days. But that did not mean a sequel would be bad... would it? Would it? Well... yes and... no.... kinda... you know what? This time, it actually is kinda complicated.

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!!

No I do not care how old this reference is... it fits the way we do this every year and now, we may truly begin. The Red Sector now has a team page on the Extra Life site, so yeah, our hat is officially in the ring. I still have a little tweaking to do since there is little customization on the page itself, but functionally we are up and my quest to show off games you might see on the big day continues.

This will take the form of two weekly games, though the times may vary (I'm sorry, I work and I have rather chaotic schedules for the most part:

• Celebrating the Series (Wednesday nights): Generally this will be at night after expected work hours, but I am making a point to highlight a single franchise at a time for a weekly game to both celebrate the ability to use these games to help sick kids as well as our past in gaming. Right now we are getting ready to wind up the second game in the Phantasy Star series (appropriately named Phantasy Star II) and you are welcome to come with me as we finish it up and get ready for round 3.
• Variety hour (Saturday afternoon/night): This was the original weekly game I began when I decided to stream during the year and show off games for the big event... and the rules haven't changed. Every week, we start with a game I have never played (my backlog or demo... I let the dice choose). If there is time after, we may take on a game I'm working through. Today we will be opening the demo of BioForge, a game I have zero experience with outside of testing to make sure my capture setup was ready.

And we will be getting to that second stream shortly after I post this entry. So come on in! Lets have some fun! You can find us on the above team page OR on the side panel where team member's twitch pages are listed.

Thank you for your time, and again, lets have some fun out there. - Megabyte

DanganRonpa V3: Killing Harmony (PC) Review

If you've been with me during my gaming journey you know I have enjoyed my time with this franchise. The previous two entries were both amazing, mixing the perfect blend of detective investigation and pure anime-esque madness to be something special. Even when I wondered if they could capture lighting in a bottle a second time, I had to ultimately say, yes. But this time? It looked like it just might pull a hat trick with the trilogy. At least until the very end.