A Piece of Riss: Okamiden

That pun in the title only works if you realize my name rhymes with piece. Heh.

ANYWAYS, the internet is all abuzz about the new Okamiden gameplay trailer. I’m a huge fan of the first game and even managed to live (mostly intact) through the epic waggle-fest that was the Wii port. I’ve put quite a few hours into that game, and plan on putting quite a few hours more when I decide to hunker down and do 100% completion.

This is why I have mixed thoughts on a sequel, even if it’s on handheld.

FF Marathon: Thoughts on Final Fantasy II

In this game Guy speak beaver.

I think I’ve made it clear how I feel about this game: pure unadulterated derision. Final Fantasy II is probably one of the more debated games in series due to it’s departures from it’s predecessor and lack of traditional leveling system. It’s still a miracle that I even finished it. This accomplishment wouldn’t have been possible without the encouragement and cheer-leading of my friends. I had to literally force myself to sit down and finish it, and I am glad that I did because it means that I don’t ever have to play this game ever again.

The Cookie Crumbles 02: Max Payne 2

It’s safe to say that the original Max Payne, for a lot of people, was quite the gaming experience. It was one of the few action games I played on any console that truly engrossed me with its story, narrative, and incredibly fun gameplay. But I’m not here to talk about that game, I’m here to focus on sequel, The Fall of Max Payne.

FF Marathon: My Thoughts on Final Fantasy I

I first played through Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls Edition years ago around when it came out and didn’t really get that far. I thought it was a nice diversion and was okay with the balance. Since I restarted it and finished it back in August, my opinions have since changed. For me, the Dawn of Souls version of this game is pitifully easy, aside from completely optional dungeons. I think the highlight of this game was the fact that I beat the final boss by setting up attacks with the “memory” option turned on, holding down the A button, and watching the television. About twenty minutes later the boss was down and I didn’t even make a second glance at the screen. I’m not even really sure if it took twenty minutes – it was just twenty minutes later I looked down at the screen and realized the battle was over.

The Cookie Crumbles 01: Resident Evil (GameCube remake)

Here’s the start of a new project that was planned for the blogcast, but now I think should be implemented in the main blog. Every so often (I was willing to say once a week, but with classes starting soon that might be a bad idea) I will use Backloggery’s fortune cookie feature to pick a random game in my collection for me to write about.

Since, for a ton of reasons, I don’t really own many older games (from before the PS2/GC/Xbox generation) , it might not be as exciting, but I hope to try to make it work with what I have. So without futher adieu, here’s the first of a hopefully successful series of posts.

My top ten favorite games of 2009 thus far

I can’t really say 2009 has been a great year for games so far, but it has certainly been better than I could have expected. We’re getting big name titles earlier on in the year, and the releases are becoming a bit more spread out. Technically, people do these kinds of lists halfway through the year. Sure, it’s more than halfway, but considering the fact that most of the biggest releases don’t come out until September, October, or November, it’s good to give the past eight months a nice look, just one last time.

What could go right and what could go horribly wrong in Arkham Asylum

Last week saw the release of the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum. It was a large download, yet the actual demo only lasted about 15 minutes tops. So it was just one giant waste of hard drive space. But it definitely gave the player a good idea of what to expect in the much anticipated release. My impressions? Well, I enjoyed the demo, but there are a couple of things I am worried about. Time to look at the good and the bad!

The times, they are a-changin’

Thanks again to everyone who participated in my “emotions and video games” post. And sorry to those (moku mainly) who never got a chance to post their own stories before I finished writing up the post. It was a lot of fun, and I do enjoy you guys sharing your interesting stories with me. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the post as well, and I hope what I included from everyone was sufficient enough.

Anyway, time for some news. As of now, thanks to colorninja in particular, I am apart of Snackbar Games. It’s a small, but more official gaming site for news, reviews, and features. My first feature, the “emotions and games” piece, is up on the site and hopefully will grab some attention there as well. I’ll be doing reviews as well as continuing to write features for the site.

What does that mean for this blog? Well, daily updates are no longer going to happen, but I do plan on continuing to post here. Most of my posts, particularly game impressions, reviews, and topics of discussion, will most likely end up over on Snackbar now. So I’m not completely abandoning this blog, but it’s definitely going to stay open for a post every now and again. I’d love to keep daily updates going (which I did plan on starting back up next month), but writing for Snackbar and this blog, especially once classes start back up, will be too much for me.

So I suggest everyone go check out Snackbar Games. It’s a bit slow right now, but hopefully soon it’ll have a lot more activity. And thanks to everyone who supported this blog by continuing to read it and leave comments, it means a lot to me.

Emotions and video games

Here’s a post I’ve been planning on writing for the longest time, something that I feel is very important as a gamer. Many people may think of this as silly, or a waste of time, but I think that video games, like any other forms of media, can emotionally involve the players just as much (if not more so). I really appreciate all of the comments I received on the previous post. I reference all of them here, and if you want to read their full comments, check this post. For a lot of comments, I had to cut a lot out, but I left the main point of the comment in tact. It was also to avoid spoilers, for those reading this and haven’t played those particular games. Anyway, after the jump is the actual post, so read and enjoy.

A simple poll: What games are you attached to?

Are there any games out there that you will always call a favorite because of some kind of emotional response? Something in the game that just can’t help but cheer you up, or even make you cry. Be it a specific level in a platformer, a scene from an RPG, or even a piece of music you remember that triggers the emotional response. What game is it that for you?

I’m interested in seeing what gamers would pick. This is leading into a blog post I’ve been wanting to write for a while now, so maybe some extra inspiration from any readers would be helpful. Pick a game you love, a game you feel some kind of emotional attachment to; it doesn’t have to be your favorite game. Give a specific moment in the game that made you say “wow” or evoked some kind of emotional response from you that you had never felt from a game before. As I said before, it could be a little catchy tune on a classic NES game that you could never get out of your head, or even a scene from a game that may have made you shed a tear or two. Even something that made you feel angry is acceptable. Perhaps a game’s story that went in a completely different direction and possibly ruined the entire experience for you? And I’m not talking being frustrated because of a game, I’m talking a real emotion, something you maybe never thought you could experience from playing a game.

Find any one game, and a specific moment from that game, and tell me about it. You don’t have to go into grand detail and write an essay, but a little detail would be nice. I guess I can’t say I’m expecting a lot of responses to this, but a good few to give me a general idea of the variety of games people will name. And if you can’t honestly pinpoint one game or one part of a game, name a few that stick out in your mind.

If anybody is confused by what exactly I am saying here, feel free to ask! Hopefully if I do get a few good responses, I plan on using them (or a sampling of them) for this upcoming blog post. It should be fun! And hey, it’s always nice to take a trip down memory lane.

Also, please mark any comments for spoilers, if you feel they are necessary.