Metroid
Metroid is the reason I love gaming. I am not exaggerating, I am not being sarcastic, the very first video game I ever owned, the first one that I ever played in my own home, with my own system, with my own time, was the original Metroid on Gameboy. I’d played games at the arcade, my grandad took me there when we went to the mall, and I’d played game at friend’s houses, but that was the first one that was mine. Unreality Magazine led me to a post on UpRoxx about the frustrating nature of Nintendo, how while they refuse to make any new titles that might bring them out of this tailspin, they also ignore core franchises that made them what they are. Metroid is their prime example. I’m not going to recap the article, go read it if you want to know why Metroid would be a smarter decision…
Twitch Plays Pokemon (or, in case you were wondering, the origin of Bird Jesus and All Praise the Helix Fossil)
My, that was definitely the longest title I’ve ever had. Joystiq has the best summary of what all this involves, but I am so damn proud that I couldn’t help but write my own post on this. A few weeks back, a single live edition of Pokemon Red hit the net. It is part of Twitch Channel (which I have no idea what is) but the idea is that it’s whoever is on giving commands to Red and driving him through the game. Imagine, 70,000-120,000 players all trying to play a game at once. Yep. But what has developed is one of the most surreal, and frankly, awe-inspiring moments in internet, gaming, and Pokemon. What is so fascinating is the forces at play here. Bird Jesus and Omanyte vs Flareon, Anarchy vs Democracy, the “death” (really the release, but pretty much the same thing) of cherished Pokemon such as Charmander….
Chrono Cross: Revisiting a Classic (Part I)
This could be really fun or really embarrassing. This is the first multi-part post I’ve tried to do and it’s about a video game near and dear to my heart. I wanted to wait until I was done with it, but as I’ve stated before, I tend to not finish video games. If that happens here, I want to at least get a bit out. So, if this is it, take it as it is. If I finish I’ll put up a part II. So here it goes. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about my android phone are emulators and roms. I started playing Pokemon FireRed a while back (probably need to write something on that all by itself) and that was a ton of fun. Eventually, I got bored with it but started thinking of some of the games that meant the most to me and how…
Irrational Games Has Closed (Pretty Much)
Irrational Games, the makers of BioShock is, for all and intents and purposes, done with. Ken Levine announced a few days back that he will be laying off all but fifteen of his employees. This is a huge blow to the gaming community. I remember, vaguley, hearing about Black Isle, the creators of Baldur’s Gate, closing down when I was a kid. I remember feeling somewhat upset, because I had wanted more games like that. But it was way in the back of my mind, I had come along to these late so they were already old to me. I assumed there wouldn’t be more. This is different. I may not have been there for System Shock, but I followed BioShock from announcement to release. I went by Wal-Mart on my way home from work (at five in the morning) to buy it then spent four or five hours diving…
Mass Effect 3 Rewrite
I…I don’t think I ever wrote about the ending of Mass Effect 3. Huh. I didn’t just sit up in bed and think that. Forbes had a post detailing a fan’s 118,000 word rewrite of Mass effect 3. To give you an idea, Sorcerer Rising is right around 125,000 words. Anyway, it is available as a PDF, a ridiculously large PDF, and does a really interesting job of bringing it to a similar, but different, conclusion. I’ll admit, I’m still torn over the ending. On one side, I want to respect the creator’s right to end their creative work however the wish. On the other, I think that same creator does have the responsibility to fulfill the promise they’ve made to their fans. And, frankly, if you were expecting a yee-haw, kick all them aliens to hell, go back and marry your alien princess (totally would have married Tali), well, you…