PixlBit

 Before we start, yes, I am mildly ashamed of that title.

 As some of you may know, recently Casey, Catherine and myself played the original Castlevania for backloggers anonymous. It was... an experience, to put it lightly, and even though it made me angrier than common sense makes a Trump supporter, I was hooked.

 While I always loved the SotN style Castlevania's, classic-vania always eluded me. After playing 1 and starting Super Castlevania IV for next episode though, I needed more. So I've been playing Rondo of Blood on PSP which is the best classic-vania game in my opinion, and maybe the best Castlevania game full stop.

 The problem is that to get to it I had to play the infinitely inferior remake to unlock it. Now, I'm greatful this game exists because it means I get it, the original Rondo of Blood, and SotN for $5 and it also makes playing Rondo of Blood possible legally. The problem is that the remake looks  and plays objectively worse. The original has some fo the best spritework I've ever seen, with beatuiful backgrounds and creative enemy designs. The remake is a 2.5d psp game, which looks really compressed and ugly and runs at half the framerate.

 All was forgiven when I unlocked the original though, because holy shit this game is amazing. Branching paths, unlockable characters (Maria is best because double jump), and just phenomenal level design. I'm stuck at the 4th main boss though. His sword hitbox is really inconsistent as to whether it will damage you or not. I'm going to beat the fucker though since I can now finish that level without taking damage.

 God help me, I'm also really enjoying Destiny. Like, really really enjoying Destiny. Like, I can't stop playing the fucking thing. What I really like - apart from the endorphins and fashion aspect of it (I'M ONLY HUMAN!!!!) - is the combat. It reminds me of 2016's Doom mixed with Halo in that it's more about positioning and movement than firepower for the most part. Sure, you need decent equipment or you will fail but decent equipment will rarely win you a battle outright, and you need to be constantly keepiing up momentum and maximizing your abilities efficiency to win. It's the perfect game to play while listening to podcasts.

 To Halo players, I'm thinking of replaying them now since I like Destiny's combat so much. I'm thinking of setting up my 360 and playing through 3. Now, I've heard that I should absolutely play Halo on heroic difficulty, as that's when a lot of the interesting mechanics of that game truly shine. Is this true? I started playing through Halo 2 (which actually works on Windows 10 surprisingly) but the version I had was borrowed off a friend who'd used the key too many times and so I couldn't play past the first level unfortunately.