Blog Hiatus

Hello all,

Unfortunately this is going to be an extra short post and the last one for a little while. I just can’t seem to keep up with weekly content at this stage in my life. Particularly for something that I do for fun and for free. But lately writing for the blog isn’t fun. It’s just tedious. If any of my contributors want to write any articles they will 100% be posted on here but as for weekly content that;s just not something I can promise anymore.

But do not worry! The podcast is still going strong and I still thoroughly love making it. There are some big things on the horizon for the show and I cannot wait to share them all with you! On a side note. Last weekend I did record my first ever live episode of the podcast! I haven’t had much of a chance to listen to the audio yet but the event went well and I’m looking forward to doing more!

Sincerely thank you to anyone who took the time to read my ramblings on this page. Spelling errors and grammatical…. whatevers and all.

I would like to bring this blog back in the future. But for now I just don’t have to time to keep up with it.

I hope you all continue to listen to the podcast and I will see you all next time…

Super Mario Maker 2 Hype!

Holy crap it is almost here. Super Mario Maker 2! This weeks post is going to pretty much a Super Mario Maker love fest. I didn’t get to play a ton of the original but there was a solid week of my life that I devoted to just making levels. I was obsessed. It was an immense amount of fun figuring out new ways to create unique and interesting puzzles. I honestly don’t have much to say this week. I’m tired and busy but I am beyond excited for this sequel. So I’m gonna keep this short and sweet.

Here’s the trailer:

In this new game, a sequel to the original Wii U™ game, players can create the Super Mario courses of their dreams, with access to even more tools, items and features, including the new ability to create slopes for the first time. Super Mario Maker 2 launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch this June.

Now go play some freakin’ Mario!

NHL 19

NHL 19 has become my latest gaming obsession. I seriously am not into sports games. I honestly think they are a waste of time buying the new version of the same game year after year. NHL 19 may have changed my mind with that for the NHL series at least.

Seriously this game is way more fun than it should be. Lets start with the controls. They take some getting used to. Especially for people like me who are used old school NHL controls. I would also argue controls are the biggest barrier for entry due to this reason. But once you get used to it. You sit down and take your time. Allow yourself to be bad. Once you get used them it honestly makes the whole game feel more immersive. It makes each shot you take feel more effective. It makes each hit you land feel that much harder. While you have the puck you hit R2 to pass. Im playing on PS4 btw. You use the right analog stick to control the hockey stick of the player with the puck. So to shoot you bring the joystick to the side and whip it forward for a wrist shot. For a slap shot you bring it back to the bottom. Almost like you are winding up. And then snap back forward to complete a slap shot. I won’t bore you with more of the control details. but they seriously make you feel more like a hockey player than the older ones did.

Now I understand this type of control isn’t new to the NHL series. I only really played NHL 13 prior to this one and NHL 2002 prior to that. So there are so large gaps here. NHL 13 had a similar control scheme but it just never really felt right. This does.

The game also offers a plethora of game modes. Besides the random pick up game and franchise mode, you also get HUT Ultimate Team, NHL 3’s, Create your own player/career etc. So many different options. There is a lot of content in this so you will have plenty to play. My only real complaint is HUT ultimate team. And not that it’s bad but the stupid micro-transactions involved with it. To build your ultimate team you can buy card packs with actual money. The card packs behave like real life card packs where you don’t really know what you are getting. Well the odds are so stacked against you that it honestly doesn’t make it worth it. I’ve spent $60 on these fucking things and I can tell you it is not worth it. In fact the last $10 of that was an accident. I accidentally charged myself $10 more by mistake on PSN. So I spent it and it really was not worth it.

My 2 personal favorite modes are the create you own player mode and the Ultimate team. I like the feeling of you building towards something. Whether that is your individual players stats, or the make up of your ultimate team, it just feels fun.

So overall I just wanted to rave about this game for this week’s blog. I also have been crazy busy and it’s been getting harder and harder to make time for this. But I do plan to continue on! I’m looking for more contributors to help relieve the pressure on my end so that will help with this as well. There is big stuff coming with the podcast as well! So be on the look out!

Misplaced Nostalgia: Arcades

This week’s blog is going to be a little different. Normally I try to pick a specific video game and then dive into it and talk about what I like and don’t like about it. However, this week I want to branch off from that a little. You see I experience something called misplaced nostalgia. One of my favorite gaming podcasts (that is not my own of course) Retronauts did an episode a while back about the topic and I still think about it a lot. Not necessarily their specific points in the episode but more along the lines of the topic as a whole.

Misplaced nostalgia is the idea that you experience nostalgic feelings and emotions for things you never personally experienced. For example I never grew up with an NES however if you ask me about it would seem like it was the world to me as a kid (that was actually the N64 for me). Part of this idea also leads me into my “gaming sins”. Meaning games that I know I should like but for some reason I just can’t get into. Some of these gaming sins also line up with my misplaced nostalgia. The Mario Kart series has never been something I was that into. But if you were to talk to me about it I would end up feeling super nostalgic for it. I honestly can’t explain why. So for the rest of this week’s blog I wanted to talk about other games I’m super nostalgic for but don’t really have any experience with.

One of the major things I never really had experience with was arcades. The whole concept of the arcade just somehow feels magical to me. I know they still exist and you can go find some. Hell there are some retro arcades near me that I could go an experience some classic arcade gaming. But every time I go an play a game in an arcade. It’s always underwhelming. The reality of an arcade just never lives up to the image in my head. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen one too many movies about arcades (Tron anyone?) but it just doesn’t feel quite right.

I’ve listened to a ton of podcasts all about developer’s arcade histories as well. I am beyond fascinated with it. Seeing the progression of technology and game design is just amazing. It may be a little geeky but I like learning about the tech put into the old cabinets, even if I don’t understand it all fully. I also like seeing how developers learned from each other and competed off of each other. So maybe my nostalgia for it is less about the experience and more about wishing I could have experienced it when it would have had an impact on me.

The advent of home consoles always made me question why anyone would want to pay more money to play games in the arcade. I mean I can just go home and pop on a game I want and play it as much as I want. I don’t have to pay again when I lose. That was my thought process when I was a kid. I remember being on a field trip to an amusement park and all my friends spent the entire time in the arcade and I just went on rides with other people. I never understood the appeal then. But I guess I do now. I sincerely hope there is some way for arcades to attract my attention again. I would love to get hooked and make it like a weekly thing that I would go to and hang out at and just play video games.

What is something you have misplaced nostalgia for? Arcades are just one of mine. I plan on doing one post a month about something I have misplaced nostalgia for. Well until I run out of misplaced nostalgia of course. But I would love to hear from any of you on what yours is!

Red Dead Redemption: Part 2

It’s actually been a full week since I beat Red Dead Redemption on my PS3. And now that the dust has settled and I’ve had some time with my thoughts on the game I can definitively say. Holy shit what a good game. I’m not gonna lie, the game doesn’t quite live up the the hype or the expectation I had set based off of everyone’s opinions but damn was it still good. So once again. Before I go on. Spoilers out the wazoo on this one. So many spoilers… So here we go

My complaints with the controls in the first post never really went away. The controls are still not great. Not totally unplayable but still not great. There was one portion of the game that took me so many tries to beat because I was fighting the controls so much. It was the last horse wrangling mission. It was fucking impossible to lasso the horses, get off your horse and then tame it. You lasso the horse, the horse freaks out and then when you climb off your horse it magically gets away. But that aside, the controls are acceptable. But don’t expect precision movement or anything of the sort because the game does not give you that.

Ok…. I’m done whining about the controls. I’m good! I got it out of my system. Lets move on to the portion of the game that stands out, the story. I loved the story of this game. The voice acting left a lot to be desired but it didn’t hurt the story. In a nutshell the story of the game is about an ex criminal, John Marston, and his fight to get his family back from the US government. To do so he must hunt down the members of his former outlaw gang and turn them into the government. That’s the plot of the game really. There isn’t too many plot twists to it. You know the US agents are dicks so the “twist” at the end doesn’t come as much of a surprise. But in regards to the end of the game lets talk about it.

After you get the job done. You’ve done their dirty work. Your wife and child are let go and you allowed to go back to your farm. This was the moment when I was like “Is this game done yet? I beat the story…” And the game really makes wonder what is going to happen next due to the length of just nothing missions you’re required to complete. However, after a few missions those US agents come back and they are there for you. You fight your way out of your house leading you wife and son to the barn. You get them on horses and have them run. You then walk out the front of the barn, knowing who is out there for you. You are given one last chance to take out as many of them as you can. I spent that moment trying to find the SOB US Marshalls who betrayed me. Sadly I don’t think they are really there. The game ends with you playing as John’s son 3 years later. The “secret” ending of the game is finding the one last side mission and hunting down the the man who killed John. The man who killed his father.

This game took me places. A lot of people I spoke too didn’t see the death of John coming. I saw it coming a little so it didn’t hit me quite as hard. However, I don’t know if I would have been able to predict the ending 9 years ago when it came out. A lot has changed in the gaming landscape in the last 9 years. Storytelling has evolved a lot since then. Back in 2010 it was probably less common to have the finale of the game being your main character getting blown away by a bunch of US agents. But even with all that I found it effective.

I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t played this game yet to give it a try. Now that I think about it though I just spoiled the shit out of it for you. But if you don’t mind that I highly suggest trying it haha. The controls may have been bad but the game was still fun and the controls didn’t ruin the experiences. I’m looking forward to digging into Red Dead 2. Hopefully very soon.