Catching Up...

Both sticks up? Must be playing Katamari.

It's been a rough few months for blogging time. But I wanted to do a quick catch up post before I continued on my journey. In the past couple of fortnights I've played the following games:


Wind Waker

I recently re-purchased a Gamecube and I felt like I owed it to the little black box to give it the sweet load that is Wind Waker.

I beat this game in college, when I had gob bluths of free time, now the sailing sections seem like enormous wastes of time. I got through the first few temples and then put it away. I was really only playing it to hold me over until...

The Last of Us

The game I've been psyched about for over a year finally saw it's release last month. It took me a solid 20 hours to beat and it's one of the most memorable games of this generation - in both story and gameplay.  The characters are expertly written and the dialogue is fantastic.



Ellie is one of my favorite characters of all time - across any medium, and the late game villain, David is one of the greatest bad guys ever.

Get it, cherish it, cover it in honey and rub your weiner on it. It's that good.



Life Force

My absolute favorite game when I was a kid still holds the softest of spots in my gamer heart. For me, this is as perfect as the shoot-em-up genre gets. Tons of character and color. Wholly unique levels, terrorizing boss battles, and a difficulty curve that's just right. 

I beat this with a buddy a couple weeks ago using the thirty lives code, but I wanted to do it legit. I beat this thing without dying once. Because dying a single time means losing all your precious upgrades, and once that happens you might as well die in real life. Am I right? This guy knows what I'm talkin about.

It took me about two weeks of practice, but it was achieved! And it was awesome.


The Game Adventure is back, baby! But I have no idea what to play next. Give me some suggestions, spam commenter who's been sending me sexy links!

Absolutely Cannot Finish Beyond Good & Evil

So I reached the point where my memory card failed last time. I played another hour or so, and absolutely could NOT get through it. I don't know if the story just aged badly or the gameplay wasn't there, but I just couldn't muster the power to push through to the end.

I decided to break a big personal rule and just watch the ending on Youtube. It was a ten minute clip, and I bailed out at minute 3. I just did not care at all what happened to these characters. And it's a shame - Beyond Good & Evil is a unique game in an interesting world with non-traditional characters - My bias for non-traditional, mold-breaking games should force me to love this game above all others, but no, sadly, that's not the case.

Off to the trade-in shop you go, little one.

Up Next: Beyond Good and Evil. Again.

My third rate memory card took a dump all over my plans to finish this game the last time I tried. Well, thanks to a few trade ins, and a sweet local indie game shop, I got myself a Gamecube and for the first time in my life - a first party memory card. Hallelujah.

It's been almost three years since I tried to finish this game.

Let's do it!

Finished: Bioshock Infinite

This is one of the most finely crafted stories in all of video games. The symbolism, the twist, the way each new revelation changes everything you just experienced - it is an amazing achievement in the progression of video games as a story telling device.

Being terrible at shooters, I didn't particularly enjoy the gameplay - and really this game is just Bioshock 1 in a different setting - but it's been four days since I beat this thing and I'm still unraveling the details in my head.

You know how you felt after watching Momento or Inception? This is on par with those, except I would argue that Bioshock Infinite is an even richer, fully fleshed out experience.

Please buy this game. Vote with your wallet for more content like this - this is the direction the industry should be heading.

Thank you.

Love,
Brandon

Finished: Link to the Past

Completion Time: About 20 Hours
Completion Percentage: About 80%

Wow what a game. This is just about as perfect an experience you can get in a video game. Not a moment is wasted, there's like eleven temples - none of which are a stupid water temple - music is amazing, graphics are charming - it's literally one of the best games ever. This, Super Metroid and Cruis'n Wii are the best three games of all time.

It's an undisputed fact.

Still Playing: Link to the Past

Yes this is one of the highest rated games ever, but I'm interested in why it's so highly regarded. On a psychological level, the game constantly gives out little victories, giving you a perpetual sense of accomplishment. Every fifteen or twenty minutes, you find a hidden item, or finish a temple or upgrade your equipment.

One larger theme I picked up on this time was the fact that there are essentially two full quests in this game. In fact, there are three if you think about it.

F*** YEAH, SON!

The first thing you're asked to do, the very first thing, is rescue Zelda from the castle. Let me reiterate -  you save the princess within the first twenty minutes of the game. Welp, my job's done. I'm outta here, right? 

NO BITCH! YOU GOTTA GET DAT MASTER SWORD, SON!

Oh, right. Thanks Uneducated Poser White Guy. So you then go on a much larger quest to collect three medallions, from three separate temples to earn the Master Sword. That takes five to eight hours to accomplish, and this would have been enough to consider Link to the Past a finished game - it certainly feels like a huge accomplishment.

But then you're introduced to the idea that there is an ENTIRE OTHER PARALLEL WORLD essentially doubling the size of the game. This leads you to a quest to rescue eight maidens spread across eight different temples in the dark world, which will give you the power to ultimately overcome Ganon.

Light World - Dark World

So not only are you achieving two or three small victories every hour, you also have these larger major victories throughout the experience. 

Forget the legendary gameplay and air-tight mechanics, this psychological thrill ride of constant victories is what makes this one of the most fondly remembered games of all time.

Up Next: A Link to the Past

I never had this game as a kid. My entire community of friends all had Genesis, but that didn't stop my rampant jealousy when reading about games like this in the latest video game publication. I remember as a kid being dragged to a lot of parties with my parents. I was always very reluctant to go, unless host's kid had a Super Nintendo. Then I would have a countdown clock in my room, anxiously awaiting my chance to get my hands on the games I didn't have access to.

When I finally did get a Super Nintendo as an adult, I got Link to the Past, and loved it, obviously, but I never beat it. Why? Welp...

I had gotten through the entire game and was fighting the final boss. I'm talkin minutes away from seeing the credits. I died and my wife, who was reading a book, said she'd like to give it a try.

"I played Zelda on Nintendo" she said defensively when I gave her my best are-you-kidding look.

I reluctantly handed over the controller, but she was sitting too far away. When she grabbed it, she pulled the system with it, pulling out the wires from the back of the system.

No worries, I saved right before hand.

Power off.

Power on.

Title screen.

Press start. 

Save file is gone.

Start over.

Needless to say, I didn't feel like replaying the ENTIRE game all over, so I let it sit until now. That was five years ago.

Time to take down Ganon for good!

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Let's do it.