Play a Gamecube! Blogging is still like fresh paint here at Pixlbit (and I love the smell of fresh paint by the way), and so I only have a couple blogs up so far and will get more up. However last October I started blogging on 1UP.com and had a good start pumping out blogs about when I fell in love with games, my aspiriations in level design, and my favorite of all, a diary of my creations in Halo Reach's Forge. I presented and analyzed the first Forge level, but there are still others to write about. The reason why that particular series hasn't been around is because of the return of an old foe of mine...
Looks like a turret from Portal but it's not. This foe isn't cute or endearing whatsoever
For any of the kids out there lucky enough to have avoided the first generation of fat, white, self-destructive 360 consoles, good for you. Take your fresh, quiet, pretty little black 360 slim model and never look back! Save yourselves! For me however this red ring of death (RRoD) is my 3rd and it didn't surprise me. When the previous two RRoDs happened, I just sent the system in, they "fixed" it, and sent it back for free. This 3rd time I found myself in a very different situation. First of all I'm not in warranty, second it would be too expensive to send this piece of junk to Mircosoft to deal with (you're better off buying a new one), and finally the old 360 models aren't even in production anymore and I don't know how that transaction would go down. I'd rather save up money for a while and get a new slim model. I would love to get the red and black Gears of War 3 style slim model.
When the 360 died and I stuffed it in its box like a coffin, I realized I wasn't going to be able to play Reach, get my in-game pictures of my levels, and go through the process of writing blogs about them. So those blogs are on hold, for now. In addition I also realized, "Fuck I'm not going to be able to play Mass Effect 3, KoA Reckoning, Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2, and Halo 4! I found myself stuck in a pickle, like Captain Kirk in an unwinnable Kobayashi Maru situation. The Maru and her crew dying and waiting for rescue, Klingon Birds-of-Prey surrounding me, the Enterprise poised to get atomized, and myself looking like a real jabroni. Except I can't find a way to cheat the system and win like Kirk would.
Red Alert! Divert all power to...nevermind, were screwed
Luckily the panic was only momentary because I realized I still had my trusty Gamecube to hold me over. Life gave me lemons, the Klingons surrounded me, and I cuddled up to my Nintendo. The Klingons can go to hell anyhow, Vulcans for the win! I knew I didn't have a lot of games for my Gamecube so I decided I needed to start searching for old GC games and begin trying out oldies I never played back when the GC, PS2, Xbox console cycle was in full swing. Over the past month I've been doing research (consisting mostly of watching Let's Play videos on Youtube) of games that I might like, looking on Amazon for deals, and buying up old GC games to play. The first two games I bought were two Splinter Cells: Pandora Tomorrow and Double Agent. By purchasing those two games, my SC collection is up to date. I now have all the console SC games (Mine are all either Gamecube, Xbox, and 360 versions), with the exception of Essentials for PSP.
I never talk about Splinter Cell because I'm always too busy talking Halo, Mass Effect, Half-Life, Portal, Zelda, or whatever else, but the truth is Splinter Cell can pull it's weight and easily contend for a postion as my favorite gaming franchise in comparsion to everything else I love. If I was stuck on a deserted island (with electricity LOL) and could only choose to bring one collection of games with me, I might just pick my Splinter Cell collection.
Breakin necks, not cashin checks, and doing it all in a skin tight sneaky-suit
I've been playing Pandora Tomorrow first and I'm on the final level, so tonight I should finish and be starting Double Agent. I could spend an entire blog giving love to Splinter Cell and talking level design and mechanics (one will likely be on the way after this), but that's not what this entry is suppose to be about. As much as I love "Mr. Sneaky-McSneak-Sneak" Sam Fisher, crouching in shadows, figuring out the pathing of each enemy AI, sneaking up behind folks, and judo chopping them, I couldn't just stop there. Other games exist and I sought them out.
The next old GC game I bought was Super Mario Sunshine.
Here we go! Yippie! I make-a-da-pizza!
My story with Mario games is sad. I played all the platforming NES Mario games, as well as Super Mario World for SNES as a kid, but after that I stopped for no good reason and haven't played a Mario game ever since. I played a ton of the Mario Kart series but I don't count those as a real Mario game. When it comes to the real platforming ones, I haven't played one of those since Super Mario World. I missed out on Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy 1 & 2. So when the opportunity to get back into Mario by picking up Sunshine came along I couldn't be more excited. The second the first area started up I suddenly felt like a kid again and you would have to surgically remove the smile from my face and the happiness in my heart. After years of ridding the galaxy of the Covenant, the Combine, the Locust, and the Reapers, it was transcendant to be able to dive into the beautiful, childish, magical world of a Mario game.
Everything from the music, to the dialogue, the animations, and even the way Mario's arms and legs swing when he runs runs all remind of my gaming childhood and why games are so important to me. I would've loved to add screenshots of the game but when I googled them, all the screenshots look so horrible that they don't do the game justice at all. It was hard enough to find a decent picture of the cover artwork. Sunshine is a truly beautiful game in its presentation. It could've come out last year and I wouldn't have a problem with the way it looks. I've spent a few hours in Sunshine getting Shine Sprites and I'm honestly surprised at how open-world the game is. At the moment my Mario has several different levels to teleport to (and each level is replayable several times with new objectives) whenever I feel like it and I have no guidance as to where I need to go and what the hell is happening besides the fact that Peach has been abducted (what else is new lol). Surely I shouldn't need a guide for this game, right? We will see. Until then I'll be making the pizzas with my long lost Italian plumber buddy.
There are two other games I bought besides Splinter Cell and Mario, in fact I just ordered them yesterday and they are both in the mail on their ways to me. The two games I purchased yesterday are Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Beyond Good & Evil.
I assume none of these people make-a-da-pizzas, but I'm sure they're still awesome
My story with Final Fantasy is even worse than my history with Mario games. When I was just starting gaming on the NES I had a copy of the first FF game and I tried it for an hour or two. I was very young, knew nothing of RPGs, stats, turn-based combat, and when I played the first FF I got scared, frustrated, quit, and never played another FF game. Ever lol. It didn't make sense to me because I was wandering around, didn't know where I was going, why I was going, and battles popped up out of nowhere, I didn't understand the interface and commands, my party was dying constantly, and I gave up. For the last couple years I've been planning to give the series another chance. Before my 360 died I would've liked to have played FF XIII or XIII-2 maybe, but alas the 360 died. I watched quite a bit of a particular Let's Play of Crystal Chronicles to see the exploration, combat, how spells and attacks work, and even though it's not turn-based and it looks different, and seems completely different than all the other FF games I've ever heard about, I think it'll be really fun so I'm giving it a chance. I'll be my first Final Fantasy game I've played in earnest. I'm sure there's people who will scoff and say, "But Crystal Chronicles isn't a real FF lol." Well as far as I know, it is, and it looks pretty fun so I'm going to play it.
As for Beyond Good & Evil, back when this game came out, I didn't hear anything about it. BG&E seems to have pretty much pulled a Sam Fisher and hid in the shadows back when I should've been hearing about it. I've heard amazing things about the game and over the years I've noticed more than a few people begging for a sequel. What got me interested in the game and made me buy it was simple. I watched some gameplay footage of BG&E and I saw some stealth, action, and interesting environments as well as characters. I'm sold, and I'll be really excited to see what the game is all about when it gets here.
At some point I'm going to need to stop buying Gamecube shit and start saving up for a new slim 360, but with all these old GC games grabbing my attention, it might take a little longer.
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