Extra Life 2025 July Update


Hello everyone and welcome back to the Extra-Life updates. As we rush towards November and the big event, things have been, well... rather hectic here at the RedSector. Some reasons very happy... others, well... let's just say it's also been a very rough month over here.

But I am getting ahead of myself. If you are first hearing about Extra-Life with this post, all I can say is "Welcome in!" At the most basic level, this is a yearly run charity event where gamers gather, pick a children's hospital to play for, and all donations made in their name go specifically to there. Run by the Children's Miracle Network, we do our best to use our hobbies and help these kids throughout the year, and yes I said hobbies. Most of us use video games, but there are table-tops and board games. Card games and RPG games around a table with buddies. Basically if you can imagine it being a nerd's playtime, it probably fits in here.

However, the big day we all look forward to is in November when we get to celebrate with the major push with a 24/25 hour gaming marathon! I'll be honest, it's one of the big days I personally look forward to each year since the event began, and every year it has only gotten better each time. From it's it's humble beginnings drawn from a rather simple appeal to do something in the name of a young lady who lost her life to cancer, to the absolute behemoth of an event, I've had the absolute honor of watching this event grow to what it is from the inside. But I'm not exactly the best to explain that story. I leave that to the team at their site.

Still to focus on the past few months we have definitely had some personal highs and lows which have limited what I can do to draw to it... perhaps more extreme then I have ever seen happen for me. I have not been able to do the streaming I wished to for this event this month due to both medical and family reasons: My family tends to take one week a year to go on vacation, which limits a lot of what I can do streaming wise that week, but so does being sick to the point of going to the emergency room. (No I am not about to give details. to that, but having been there a few times this month, my schedule was pretty much killed.) I am still recovering some as I write this, but yes, I am ok and hoping to get back to my usual schedule soon... kinda.

I have every intention of continuing our adventure through the Phantasy Star series as soon as I can get back to it and on our usual schedule, but I may be increasing the rate at which I stream for this event before we get there, and not just through a random game of the week. While that was fun, I would like to share the adventure of what I'm playing with you all on my own, and to do that, streaming may become more of a "when I'm playing, we're here" like I used to do. This may be a development in progress, but we will see how things go. But the confirmed schedule is as follows as soon as I can get back to it:

  • Wednesday - Phantasy Star Day: As much as I love this series, I think my experiment to try to push it into Saturday as well wasn't flying so well for me... so I think we are returning to a weekly adventure here. We are still working on Phantasy Star 4 and in fact very early in the game, but we will let the game breath a bit more between runs. Generally this will be an evening stream around 7 PM Eastern, but as of right now I don't want to set an exact time while everything settles.
  • Drop in at Random: I wish I had more I can say, but where I plan to stream pretty much "whenever" I don't think a plan for Saturday is going to work any longer. Rather what I am hoping to do is to pop on the stream when I'm playing so people can just "join in" if they think what I'm playing is interesting. At the moment I am getting ready to start Shadowgate 2014: Not a new game for me, but I haven't played since it launched and I know it has had a LOT of updates since. If you want to join in the fun, please feel free to do so.
Of course joining me for a stream or two may be a fun way to see what Extra Life is all about, it's even better when you can actually get involved directly, and that can be done a few ways:
  • Become a participant! As always, the best way to help these sick kids is to step into the ring and play yourself! And it couldn't be easier to do. On the Extra-Life website, there is a sign up button which will guide you through the process, including the ability to pick which hospital you are playing for or even the team you want to join up with if you choose. From there it's a matter of collecting donations, and the site has ideas for that as well! The only detail after this is gameday itself, but we will get to that in a moment.

  • Donate in the name of your favorite player! If you don't think you can play or just want to back someone else playing, that is important to. After all, if it wasn't for donations made in the name of these players, we wouldn't be able to do what we have over the past 16 years and still will do again! Here you will also have a few choices.
    • If you are looking to support a different gamer's efforts, you can find them easily enough with the search on the header of the Extra Life page. Whether an individual or a team page, there will be a donate button right there that will make the process easy.

    • However, if you want to help us directly, I have to personally thank you for much the same reason. The process is the same, but I can supply you with a direct link to the Red Sector Team Page below. (We also have a link in the about section of my streams)
Once again, thank you for any help and support you offer to help these sick kids, but before I go, there is one more thing to cover: Gameday. To explain what it is, Gameday is the 24 hour marathon that highlights EVER Extra Life player's year, but until this year, it was always a single defined day on the webpage. Those who could not play on the big day (myself usually included) would pick a rain day to play instead. This year, there is no one Gameday. There is a Gameweek. I have not yet picked my own day, but Gameweek is from November 8th through November 16th and you can pick any one to join in the fun! When I have a date you will know, but it's gonna be a blast whatever day you (or I) pick!

But on that note, I have to thank you all and head out. You will hear from me again soon. Have fun out there.

- Megabyte

The Catacombs Pack (PC) Review

Now here is a franchise I have been looking forward to getting myself into for a long while. For most people, the name iD brings up images of fighting demons on a Martian base, or maybe Nazis in your bid for freedom from one of their prisons. Or maybe even being a kid on an inter-galactic adventure to save the world. But the developers behind these games did not start here. Before they were iD, they were already writing games and this collection gets a bit closer to their start. As such, I felt the need to delve back into history and see more of their original work. And while I was (for the most part) not disappointed, I do have to say, it is a starting place and clearly they only went up from here.

Now before we begin, there are many games in this bundle and as such the games will each be listed here to give you a quick way to reach any of them.

Alone in the Dark 1 (PC) Review

This has been yet another franchise I have been waiting way too long to get into it, if not without good reason. To be honest, I am known for hating tank controls. Seriously, if a game uses fixed cameras and pushing up on the controls made your character go in the direction they are facing rather then up or away from the camera, I bowed out. But I always had an interest in this franchise despite that. It's direct connection to the works of H.P. Lovecraft always made it stand out to me, so when a remake of the original was announced, I decided that was the sign to start moving through the franchise. So I took the time to start my adventures with Edward Carnby.

Now before we begin, this entry surprised me by the fact that it did not ship alone. When I fist loaded it up, I was offered a menu with two games: Alone in the Dark and Jack in the Dark, requiring me to split this review between them. To this end, the links below will let you jump directly to the one you want ot read, but the bugs and final score will before the whole package, not just one game.  

Necrophosis (PC) Review


I have been waiting a while for this one. Earlier this year Dragonis Games dropped a demo to show off what they were working on, and I was instantly hooked. So I put the game on my wishlist, eager to get to the main game. Now as the game has been out for a little while, my schedual around game series has opened up to let me pop this into my PC. And while it was shorter and perhaps easier then I would have liked, overall it did not disappoint. Where it mattered, this game delivered.