Thanks to everyone for the love/kind words on the illustrations - had an absolute blast doing them and glad that you guys and gals like them! Big thanks to Yargz for putting together this guide to help beginners as we get our asses kicked all up and down Dragleic!
I would highly recommend that you checkout Red Dead Redemption at some point, in my opinion, it's definitely one of the best of this past generation, and the world & the boat load of content is an absolute blast to explore. And if it's a concern of yours, there is far more of an emphasis on morality in the game both narratively and in terms of play than GTA.
Agreed! SMW is an absolute masterpiece, and in my opinion it is still the standard to beat for platformers (I'd consider SMW 2: Yoshi's Island a very high contender in that category, as well). I don't think I've played a platformer before or since that can take its crown. In the immortal words of Ric Flair: "to be the man, you gotta beat the man!"
And yes, SMW > SMB3, hands down! That is probably one of the most impassioned debates in gaming history.
Having been fortunate to own both a Genesis and an Super Nintendo, I had the opportunity to play both Sonic and Mario's various titles in real time during the 16 bit era. While I played a lot of the first Sonic, it just didn't resonate with me the same way that Super Mario World did; SMW's gameplay just had a polish and a perfection that I felt Sonic, though entertaining, lacked.
I think this review has encouraged me to revisit the original Sonic titles after many, many years!
Great review, Jon. Your sentiments seem to echo my own; it seems that the CoD franchise has evolved into the gaming industry equivalent of the "Big Mac" - you know exactly what you're getting and it's a cash cow for the industry, but don't expect anything special. For me, the franchise is just kind of "there", and I would love for Activision to take some ballsy risks with the series (Revolutionary or Civil War might rekindle my interest), but I sadly don't see that coming with the amount of money that it continues to make them. At this point, it seems more likely they'll simply run the series into the ground and bleed it out fiscally before they take a bold risk to reinvent the series.
I remember playing Mario is Missing! as a kid and thinking "How the balls am I supposed to know the answer to this?!" It seems that game was made to be played with Google at arms reach, and sadly, that wasn't an option at the time.
Speaking as someone who grew up playing Nintendo and Super Nintendo (and still does to this day!) what really makes me scratch my head about Nintendo is their refusal to not learn from their succeess as well as their missteps. SNES is a beloved console which dominated the 16-bit era because of major first and third party support - its library is arguably the greatest of all time for this reason. If Nintendo had snuffed third party support in the SNES era, Sega would have likely won the console wars of that generation and we'd be looking at a very different gaming landscape today.
Nintendo has always been stubborn when it came to its dealings with third party software developers (perhaps never more so than for the original NES), but they need to learn that it is easy to maintain that stance when you're the only dog in the yard. Gamers today, casual and hardcore alike, will not be satiated by a Mario or Zelda every few years after dropping hundreds of dollars on a console. Nintendo has always marched to the beat of their drum, but their is a stark difference between being staunchly individualistic and living in a bubble with blinders on. The "blue ocean" approach has proven to be a sprint rather than a marathon; it simply is not a sustainable model. Most of the people who bought the Wii have absolutely no interest in making another investment because they aren't gamers.
I'm not saying Nintendo needs to fall in line with the rest of the AAA industry, a lot of which seems to be dead set on this "games as occassionally interactive film" notion. On the contrary - Nintendo has always been great at making video games; when they're at the top of their game, no one does it better. I wish they had more confidence to take chances (as you said, Jesse), because Nintendo's success rate when they are focused and ballsy is impressive to say the least. I hope they formulate a new approach soon, for the sake of not only themselves, but for us, the fans.
Having read the article in question, I can say I also found Kat's whole rape angle to be hyperbolic. As you said, yes, there is a sexual aspect to vampirism (there has been one since a least the 17th century!) but Kat's view seemed belligerent and illogical at best. Really, comparing a Castlevania vamp attack to a rape simulator? It's sad because this kind of schlock journalism does more to hurt the aspect of equality in gaming than the author probably realizes.
Also agree with the taboo themes of gaming's yesteryear not being an issue with people blowing whistles now. Christ, the themes in Silent Hill 2 were way more unsettling than Dracula grabbing a quick snack!
It never ends haha! It has become a bottom-less abyss for me to stare into while slipping slowly into madness!
On Christmas day me and my girlfriend went to her aunt's, and we got into a gaming conversation with my lady's dad, her uncle, and her cousin. We were pitched the question of "favorite game of all time", and her cousin responded with KOTOR 2 without much hesitation. That conversation put it back on my radar as a title I really need to play!
