I'm still building this library of essential media little by little. I have to come up with the list first and that's what this is all about. I'm going year by year, taking about five years a month to complete it all by the end of 2020. I wonder why sometimes, but it's fun and it motivates me to write, if only very casually.
So, I've recently been ebaying and going through Amazon to pick up Gamecube games. Now I already have a pretty decent collection. I've got Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Chibi Robo, Sonic Mega Collection, and Super Smash Bros. Melee etc.. Now I did of course sell some my gamecube and some other games way back when. Gone are my DK Bongos and Donkey Konga and Jungle Beat games. And I also sold my Metroid Prime 1 & 2 games as I picked up the trilogy on Wii.
So here I am, Sunday morning not out of bed and watching the last stage of the Tour de France. I was meaning to write this on Friday but I was tinkering with a project that I am still not finished with, and I had a CD Friday trip so I was busy with that. Saturday I was going to write but again I was still tinkering a bit before deciding the weekend is for sleep and being lazy, which leads us to right now. Here I am, watching folks on bicycles finish up one hell of a race. Let's catch up on the non gaming things Chris has been up to.
So let's recap the current situation: Gym reopens and I'm excited. It's a 1000 degrees outside, so I go work out in an air conditioned room, then I go to the pool where it's a 1000 degrees outside and swim a couple of laps. I sit for a bit to dry off, then jump in the truck for the two minute drive to my house, than into an air conditioned house to take a shower. A couple of days of this and I now have a cold. I'm currently typing this with a stuffy nose, slight headache, and sneezing up a storm. We'll see if I decide to venture out for CD Friday. I also find it funny that I have a cold when it is 1000 degrees outside. Anyways that some personal randomness let's get started with this week's Quick Hits.
When I reviewed 2013’s Hitman: Absolution for PixlBit, I talked about how I had to put aside my expectations of what I thought a Hitman game should be and instead look at what IO Interactive had actually made. Ultimately I enjoyed Absolution, but I was left hungry for a game that gave me the same stealthy thrills as Hitman: Blood Money. When it was announced that there would be a new Hitman game released episodically over the course of 2016 I didn’t know what to expect. Would it be a follow up to Absolution, or would it be a return to form for the series? Well friends, tighten your red ties and grab your fiber wire, because Agent 47 is back in a big, big way.
Well I promised it, so here it goes... I plan on showing off a lot of games. I figure 12 a day at 28 days would be meeting my threshold, plus my thoughts on the games themselves. I plan on doing a better set up with my camera with other games and experimenting with different ways to take pictures so let me know if 12 is enough or if I should just sprawl my mountain of wii games across my living room!
Last night, I finished the behemoth that is Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, in terms of its story mode and most (but not all) side missions. It lasted a little longer than I would've preferred but as an AC game in the current mode, it's quite the winner. It doesn't change a lot of the trademark mechanics although there was some nice additions to traversing buildings with the hookshot-like device (thanks for the fast travel points) and some of the more hated kinds of missions (follow some goobers as they have a conversation) have been trimmed down or made easier. I really was invested in the story line concerned the sibling assassins and thought they were great characters. I liked how both controlled differently: Evie is suited for stealth (my style) and Jacob is more confrontational and aggressive. Some of the side missions from famous dead white European males (Charles Dickens, Karl Marx) were incredibly dopey but not impossible.
So, this blog a day thing is proving to be interesting. I have things I am planning to write, of course. Some writing exercises, some stabs at narrative, and of course some thoughts about video games and the industry/hobby as a whole. But on a day like this, right before bed? I don't have the foggiest about what to write. So I think I'm going to resurrect something I used to do on my live journal back in the day: random thoughts. Yep, I literally just thought about that as I was typing this intro.
Good morning Pixlbit Nation! It is currently 7:57am here in overcast Southern California. We are currently having some rain, which is always fun. Thursday was filled with thunder, lightning, some of the wet stuff, and for some odd reason it was still warm outside. I can’t wait for when the temperature drops below triple digits and hopefully stays in the 70s or what I like to call “sweater weather” (don’t laugh, I see how you folks on the East Coast freak out over 90-100 degree weather.) Currently I am sitting here waiting for 11am EST so I can try and get a pair of the Supreme Jordan V’s. There is no way I’m getting a pair especially since its limited to 1,994 pairs per model but it’ll be fun to try.
I'll answer myself. I was basically where I am now, mostly nowhere, but I did enjoy the odd piece of media entertainment. So let's take a look at that.
Well good morning Pixlbiticans, it is a FREAKING WARM 72 DEGREES. Holy Cow, apparently that time change one hour brought an extra 20 degrees to the weather. I spent the past week sleeping with the window open and a fan going before yesterday losing the good fight and turning on the Air Conditioner. Oh yeah this is one of many things I like to blame on moving the clocks an hour forward. The only bright spot was that the majority of the midweek Swapmeet vendors were already setup by my usual time, and the sun was out. I hit the Swapmeet, visited a GameStop, and a Walmart all before the sun went down. I don’t know why that is a big deal, but it felt like one. So how are you Pixlbit? Are you good people ready for the weekend? I am happy it is here but I do have some work to do. I’m trying to create this border for a project, and I have some inspiration, which I finished, but I also need to place something in front of it to complete the look so I am drawing a blank. Hopefully I can think of something before I jump into my thinking room aka the shower. We shall see how it goes. Anyways let’s get started with this week’s Quick Hits!
What was the last movie you saw? Was it good? Rate it out of 5. No spoilers.
Well Happy Friday Pixlbit Nation! The week has come to an end and I am ready to do nothing but…well actually I don’t know. I should go buy the last remaining Christmas gifts, and I missed the midweek Swapmeet because I got lazy, so I should go to the weekend Swapmeet. So what has been going on in your lives? Anything interesting? Currently it is a wet Friday here in normally Sunny Southern California. Yesterday was the start of this huge storm and which gave birth to what is easily my favorite hash tag #HellaStorm. Oh Nor Cal and your use of “Hella”. For those outside of California Northern Californians use the term “Hella” to add emphasis and replace the word very or really. Southern Californians get made fun of because we like adding the word “The” to the names of freeways. “Hey did you see The 405 is a parking lot today?” And that concludes the odd vocabulary of the different parts of California. Let’s start today’s Quick Hits
Happy Monday Pixlbit! This morning while finally deciding to read through the sports message board for SDSU Sports, just when I thought the yahoos who regularly post there couldn’t get any lower, they found a new floor. The “geniuses” that seem to live there want everyone fired, and all the players cut. Yes grown ass “men” take sports way too seriously because they know more about the game they pretend to love more than the folks who are pulling in a paycheck or scholarship. These are the same folks who a couple of years ago felt that the basketball team needed a new coach (2 Sweet 16s, beating the likes of Arizona, Kansas, and Gonzaga all on their home courts, and having a 30+ win streak within the state of California), and don’t even get me started on what they thought of about Tony Gwynn’s baseball team. Sometimes I do question the thinking of the vocal part of our fanbase.
It seems like there’s a fairly big movement to get back to the roots of first person shooters lately, with games like Toxikk, Xibalba, and even the Doom franchise returning to the mechanics and sensibilities that started it all. Wrack began this journey six long years ago and has almost reached its full release. If you have great memories of those early “Doom clone” days, share one with us in the comments and you can win a copy of Wrack on Steam! To get things started, some of the staff has shared their own. Just add your memory from those early corridor-stomping days in the comments, no matter how brief, before August 19th at noon Eastern time and you’re entered to win one of five Steam codes for Wrack!*
The school where I work observed spring break all last week and on Saturday, I drove out of town and arrived at my parents' home in under 4 hours. I haven't seen them since Christmas vacation. I also needed a much-needed break from a surprisingly punishing work week. I buffed school building floors, did detail cleaning in all 3 gyms and ended each night cleaning some offices for a local gas company (the employee in charge of this is still recovering from a bad fall she had back during one of February's icestorms).
I pulled out the Wii the other day to play some Data East Arcade Classics, having temporarily burned out on 100 plus hours of Borderlands 2 (my buddy is still playing it though). This is a no frills collection of 15 games, some of which are given their Japanese names like: Sly Spy is Secret Agent, Two Crude Dudes is Crude Buster, and Bump ‘N Jump is Burnin’ Rubber. The UI is very basic and also unintuitive as I had to fiddle around to find the menu describing the controls for each game. Majesco did a pretty uninspired and bare bones job on this collection. There is cabinet art and music in the extras, but no interviews or history. You have to unlock these by playing the games, but I played every one and only a few unlocked. What unlocks them? Who knows. Thanks Majesco (dripping with sarcasm).
In the early ‘90s, a new video game console was only as strong as its launch titles. When we look back at a console’s history and wonder what attracted us to it, often it’s those first games that we think of and say, "that’s why I fell in love with that system." Nintendo understood this concept when they released the Super Nintendo. Included among a shortlist of launch games was the flight simulation, Pilotwings. Beginning as an early tech demo in 1988 to show off the Mode 7 graphical capabilities of the 16-bit system, Pilotwings was developed into a full-fledged game that allowed us to take to the skies in a way never before possible on a home console.
Misogyny. It’s a word that’s been thrown around in tandem with Killer is Dead since the fated Gigolo Mode was first revealed. However, creator Grasshopper Manufacture has gotten a raw deal. This tongue-in-cheek mode (that only features two unique encounters) has thrown the stars completely out of alignment for the studio and the game at large. The fact of the matter is, Killer is Dead is quite similar to Suda51’s past works. Combining the frantic action of No More Heroes with the third person shooting from Shadows of the Damned and the darker atmosphere offered by Killer7, Killer is Dead is a fantastic fusion of some of Suda51’s oeuvre. The cryptic narrative that undercuts the experience further accentuates the charm of this excellent action game.
