Video Games

What I’ve Been Playing – Mobile Edition

One day I will get some sort of actual cadence going on these. I promise 🤞. Anyway, For whatever reason, I kind of dipped in and out of a few mobile card games recently. I came to a universal conclusion, I really don’t care for mobile card games.

Pokemon TCG Live

I don’t know what the actual name for this is, I think it’s rebranded a few times too. I came across some codes for this game that were unredeemed so I loaded it up. After playing the tutorial and playing a few rounds and trying to spiffy up my deck so it wasn’t so shitty, I uninstalled it.

Of the card games I have been playing, I wanted to like this one the most. And I hated it, the most.

I am sorry Pikachu, I tried, I wanted this to be a go-to game. I really love Pokemon in general, as a sort of underlying always there enjoyment. But I hate playing against human opponents and you have to proper vs AI mode.

Magic The Gathering

Like Pokemon, I had some codes to redeem. On Prime Day, I bought an actual set of M:tG cards in a two player starter set. It came with digital versions of both decks.

I enjoyed playing this one probably the most. Especially because it has a way to play vs AI, which I prefer. It’s not souch I dislike playing against people, it’s that I have no desire to play against people who are making out perfect strategies while I am just here being my casual ass self. Like in Pokemon, I had a game where every round my opponent was throwing out like 10+ cards and there was all this in and out of the discord pile and damage counters flying everywhere and I could not even manage to draw any damn energy.

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I actually used to vaguely play Magic like, 20 years ago. I thought I hady cards still but a coworker and I were talking about it and I went to find my cards and they don’t seem to be there anymore. I want to say a lot of them were from an early set, maybe even the original sets. Frozen Realms or Forgotten Realms or something. It was “Ice themed”.

Hearthstone

I have tried a few times to get into Hearthstone. I like the multiple minions aspect like Magic has, but I am not sure I like the hero aspects of the way energy/land/resources works.

Part of why I have been playing this one lately is that my Google Play Pass subscription includes a $5 off coupon all the time, so I have been building up a ton of “free currency”. (Roblox has the same thing, and sometimes PokemonGo).

Pokemon Go

I have finally made it to Level 40 in Pokemon Go. This was the original highest level. There is a bunch of task based stuff that is needed to get to level 50, the current highest, but at this point it’s all “end game” style play.

I am kind of considering stopping again. The experience needs feel huge and like most games, I have never been super into End Game Min/Maxing. I kind of got into that for a bit in World of Warcraft ages ago, around Pandaria, but they kicked it all up and I stopped caring.

Anyway, Pokemon Go recently added this Dynamax gimmick, which I guess is from one of the game I never really played. It seemed like a cool idea, you actually fight to capture Pokemon, but it’s not quite a raid, but then battles are stupidly boring. Plus to actually get anywhere on the Dynamax mechanics you need like a zillion candies.

Hard pass.

It seemed cool, it just… Too tedious.

Also, stop spawning Kanto Pokemon damnit. I need Sinnoh Pokemon fory research task.

Sky: CotL

There are like, 3 “events” happening at the moment, and it feels like 2 at any given time. I kind of like that the game is trying to be a bit more actually interactive. For a long while it was just starting to get dull and repetitious. I may or may not have allegedly been using tools to assist with that tedium, but have since stopped because many people were … having “issues” with it.

I never had any “issues” but I figured it’s better to stop while I was ahead and I was at least caught up on a bunch of traveling spirits.

I picked a heck of a time to stop though, one of the current events is the return of the Shattering Season spirits, and they need like 800 candles to finish out. I have decided to accept that I don’t need everything.

There has also been a new event centered around Riddles and the Moon. Usually these are based around holidays, but I am not sure what holiday this one is for. It’s a neat sort of event where you can leave and answer riddles, but it’s not great since, the riddle lanterns never seem to refresh each day, and half of them are not in a language I can read (well enough).

The last event is the regular seasonal event, the Season of Duets. I’ve finished that one off. I have seen a fair amount of people saying the season was lame but I don’t see it. It had several instruments and the music mini game feels like kind of a core part of Sky.

Fortnite Festival

Speaking of music, I have been playing a lot of Fortnite Festival still. The Rhythm game mode that is the spiritual sequel to Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I have backed off on it some since I finished the pass and I don’t super care about the bonus styles for the Keytar.

What I’ve Been Playing – Celeste Edition

Aug 25th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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Been a bit busy lately with other games actually. Part of it is that the Overwatch season ended, and I got frustrated with it again, almost immediately, so I blew some Mythic Currency on the Anubis Reaper then uninstalled and moved on.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Apparently over seas, this name.was used a lot, but for this moment, I am referring to the US version, I think maybe also called “Final Fantasy US” in some regions. I have had a vague urge to replay this game for a while off and on, and I finally just started doing it. I am up to the second world, I want to say there are 4 worlds and an end zone, it’s not a super long game.

It has a pretty rocking soundtrack too.

Fortnite

The new Marvel season dropped. I am not really pushing myself on this one and I have not even bought the pass, but will once I get closer to level 100+.

I am also doing all Bot matches like I used to do. It’s a lot more enjoyable that way. The new Marvel weapons are pretty neat, but the War Machine auto turret and Captain America Shield are both broken as fuck and seriously overpowered.

There was also a nice little music event for someone named Karol G. It really reminded me of the old ones they used to do when it felt like they gave a shit about these events.

Celeste

The “big one” as far as time spent. I have been meaning to play this game for a while and finally did.

And I finished it.

It was frustrating a bit because personally, I found the controls to be slightly less responsive and a bit more floaty than I would like, but it was fun and difficult in an “I can tell I am improving” way and not a “Ha ha cheap shots all around” way.

The story is 🤌 very nice as well. I have like 200 screenshots of just snarky dialogue options. So good. A nice little morality tale about dealing with self-doubt etc. All buried in this rather brutal platform game.

Alan Wake Remaster

I bought Alan Wake 2 back around the holidays because it was like half price and included the original remaster and some Fortnite skins. It was a super deal.

But I wanted to refamiliarize myself with the first game, which I have previously completed. So I am replaying it with the remaster. I know it’s a different sort of game, but after loving Control, I am really looking forward to AW2.

It’s surprisingly kind of tough, even on easy mode. I actually also may be stuck where I am at the moment because I am limited to flash-bang weapons only, and I kind of used up a lot of them taking a detour that went nowhere.

Fortnite Mobile

Aug 19th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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I’ve shifted back to Fortnite from Overwatch, Maybe. Probably. Anyway, the newest Fortnite Season is a pretty sweet Marvel themed season with a Marvel BP, which is way more exciting than the upcoming Overwatch BP, which is, kind of hodge-podgey, sort of Ancient Egypt?

Also, no Venture Skin for like 3 more seasons. What the fuck Blizzard?

AnywayI’m not really here to discuss Overwatch or the Marvel season of Fortnite. What also dropped this season is the return of Fortnite Mobile. Currently available in the EU on iPhones and on Android Phones anywhere, through the Epic Launcher. This is key, because you have to go get the Epic Launcher from Epic’s website separate from the Play Store.

The question is, is it worth while to do so?

Frankly, probably not. I will say, I did not play a regular BR match at all. I played a few creative maps to test things out and to get the 100,000 experience needed to complete a few quests for items. I started on one I’ve been using as filler on PC for the daily creative XP, Rainbow Run, which is simply, running in a straight line, collecting coins.

I moved on from here to a regular Deathrun map. I have played a ton of Deathruns on PC, and they are definitely my favorite type of custom games. I will say, I managed to finish the 200 level Deathrun I picked. It was definitely one of the easier DR maps I have played, and didn’t have a lot of the more tricky jumps and traps I’ve encountered across a myriad of maps. But they do require some precision in jumping and moving. I also died way more than I normally do on these, something like 60 times in the 200 level map. For comparison, I usually die like 5 times max, even on maps I have never played, and I am pretty sure I have finished this exact same map on PC in like 20 minutes or less with 0 deaths.

I needed a bit more experience for my 100k after finishing this one and moved on to another Dr map. Pretty much the same experience.

Overall though, it kind of felt pretty weird and janky. Framerates and graphics were fine. The controls left something to be desired, and I wasn’t even trying to shoot anything while moving. I had a lot of deaths because there is a sort of, autorun that seems to randomly trigger, and I would run off the edge into a spiked pit a lot.

I also had an issue where I would randomly open the “ping” menu near the controls, which would interrupt other inputs.

It’s less critical, but the quests menu is opened by clicking the mini map, which wasn’t present on one of the map I played, making the menu inaccessible.

It’s also just weird. I’m not a huge fan of 3rd person or FPS games on mobile at all. I can’t see ever using this again unless they offer more drops, or there is a skin I want to log in and get when I otherwise can’t do.

My Gaming Journey – Part 3 – 32/64bit Era

Aug 18th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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This era of gaming is where things started to get a little more varied. This would essentially be the Playstation/Saturn/N64 era of gaming. Though I am not sure I have ever even seen a Saturn, much less played one. Playstation definitely dominated this era of games, but for my part, I stuck with Nintendo. I also started really pushing into PC gaming as well, but I covered all my PC history last year.

The Nintendo 64 was the first console I bought with my own money. I was working by this time, and had plenty of free flowing cash. I forget exactly which store I bought it from, but I can say I got a branded carry bad for free when I bought it. The first game I got for it was Cruisin’ USA. I had been playing a lot of Cruisin’ USA at the arcade and wanted to be able to play it at home too, which I did, a lot.

I imagine the system also included Mario 64. Some of the notable titles I remember really enjoying for the N64 included

Cruisin’ USA
Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Mischief Makers
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Goldeneye

Man, Goldeneye was such a great classic game. It looks pretty janky these days with its blocky polygons, but it was so fun both single player and multi player.

But more notable maybe is Mischief Makers. I played the original, and it’s probably my favorite game on the system, but later I picked up a Japanese copy for fairly cheap while off at college along with a Japanese Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix. These are notable if only because they were the first time I actually “modded” a console in any way. Granted, it’s an easy mod. Nintendo games are region free, but the carts are shaped differently. The US consoles have these notches inside to prevent inserting Japanese carts. I could modify the carts, or modify the system, since I had two cartridges, it made sense to just chop the tabs out of the slot in the system.

I also wrote a GameFAQs FAQ for that Disney Mix game, it may still be the only FAQ for that game.

I don’t remember owning a PS1 until later, I want to say I did most of my Playstation 1 gaming on the PS2, which I will get to next post. My friend had a Playstation though, so we played it some there. Most notably, there was a weekend where I borrowed it though, he was out of town, my parents and brother were out of town, I had the whole place to myself, because I had to work. But when I wasn’t at work, I played through a very large chunk of Final Fantasy VII.

I didn’t have time to finish it sadly, not on the Playstation. Eventually I got a copy for the PC, and played through it there. In case you are unaware, Final Fantasy VII is highly regulated by gamers as one of the greatest games ever made. And it definitely had me hooked.

I am sure I played a lot of other PS1 titles, but I can’t really remember many besides Metal Gear Solid and Mega Man Legends. I kind of just skipped the PS1 Generation in a way, though I did play catch up a bit later.

Unfortunately for Nintendo, this would be the last console I would own from them for a while. I got way more into PC gaming and went with the PS2 and Dreamcast during the follow up generation, but that’s for next week’s post.

My Gaming Journey – Part 1 – 8-Bit Era

Aug 4th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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Last year when I did Blaugust over on [BI], I dis a series of posts about my history of computer use. I wasn’t really going to try to go all “hardcore” at posting this year, but I decided it might be fun to try to parallel that series a bit with a history of my Video Game memories.

Also, I have no idea if these are all 8-bit systems, it’s just an easy way to segment things, don’t @ me.

Like my computer use, I’ve played video games, essentially my entire life. I’ve played a lot of games. My god it’s a lot. I covered some of the PC based gaming in the other series, so I’m going to stick more to consoles for this series, at least for a while. also the break points are a bit fuzzy because I generally just, keep playing games on every system. I have the same SNES and Genesis hooked up to my TV today that I had when I was a kid. I still own my original NES. I have all of the same carts too.

My gaming journey started earlier than that a bit, with the Commodore 64 and the Atari 2600/7800. I don’t recall my family ever owning an Atari, my friend had a 7800, I think my grandparents had a 2600. I never really understood the difference, I just knew that, for the most part, the games for one worked on another. My favorite games on the Atari included River Raid, Chopper Command, and the Olympic Winter Games. River Raid was my favorite, it is essentially an early top town shooter, you control a little jet flying through a ravine avoiding the walls and enemy boats. There was also a fuel gimmick where you had to pass over fuel cells to refuel. It helped a lot to hold down and slow down.

The Commodore 64 made up a lot of my early gaming as well. We played a lot of Park Patrol and Ghostbusters, even though I never understood how to actually accomplish anything in Ghostbusters. It was still cool because Ghostbusters! Park Patrol was just silly. You were a park ranger who had to wander around rescuing drowning swimmers and avoiding turtles and snakes.

The real gaming adventure started when my grandparents bought my brother and I a NES for Christmas one year. I’m not sure the NES was technically better than the other options, but it certainly FELT better. And it only got better over time. This is the system that basically created my real love for games, starting with that classic Super Mario Brothers. My friends all had a NES as well, and we often traded titles. And between the three of us, we had and played a lot of games, both single and multiplayer.

Notable titles, off the top of my head.

Super Mario Brothers 1,2, and 3
River City Ransom
Final Fantasy
Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road
The Legend of Zelda
RBI Baseball
Willow
Contra
Life Force
Dragon Warrior
Mega Man 3
Tecmo Super Bowl
Chip N Dale’s Rescue Rangers

I also had an NES Advantage controller as well. I absolutely loved that controller. For those unfamiliar, the NES Advantage was a large flat arcade sticks style controller, that included optional turbo button toggles. These turbo buttons were an absolute blast in Super Off Road. We would play for a while building up Nitro Boosts until reaching 99, the max you could carry. Then turn ont he turbo and jet around the track super fast. It was amazing.

Probably the game I most obsessed over was Final Fantasy. I never did beat it when I was younger, but my friends and I absolutely loved this game and we played it all the time. I also had a strategy guide from Nintendo Power that I obsessed over and probably memorized. It’s an obsession that would last for a very long time as well, Final Fantasy will definitely come up again in future installments of this series.

Speaking of Nintendo Power, that was another long term love developed from this era. I started on Issue 20, with the Mega Man 3 issue, the first to feature a square binding instead of a round binding. I would eagerly anticipate the arrival of every issue. Before the internet, this was how you got news about new games coming out. And the only way to get tips and maps and guides for games. Today you can just search and get it all, but when I was a kid, you had to really hope they would cover the game you were playing at some point. And sometimes, it wasn’t the featured game, it would just get maybe half a page of hints, without any maps.

I just want to close out this era with a nod towards the Sega Master System. One of my friends has a Master System, we never played it much, and I don’t remember anything about it other than if you turned it on without inserting a game, it would load a Snail Maze game. Which was kind of neat.