Monthly Archives: May 2014

Food For Thought, Gamer's Life, General Commentary

If I were to play Super Metroid for the first time today, would I like it?

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Image by Flickr user Mark Lehigh
Image by Flickr user Mark Lehigh

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I really like Super Metroid. It’s one of my most favorite games of all time and one that I can’t separate from my video game life. The game celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and I can still see myself, all those years ago, glued to my parents’ television set as I guided Samus on a path to victory.

The very first time I played Super Metroid, it didn’t go so well. It wasn’t awful enough that I never wanted to play it again, but it was difficult. I hadn’t played either Metroid or Metroid II, but the mechanics of the game weren’t completely foreign; it was more my silly impatience that got in the way. I died…a lot…mainly because I didn’t take time to plan my jumps and I was terrible at timing my shots during boss battles. But the more I played, the easier it became. Soon enough, I had had the entire game memorized, secrets and all, and I eventually became almost speed-run good at it. Super Metroid marked a singular moment in my experiences with video games, one where I felt at ease with the games that I enjoyed. Super Metroid became a good friend, one to which I could return over and over again with open arms and without judgment.

Continue reading If I were to play Super Metroid for the first time today, would I like it? →

Console

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 2-360 Boxes

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Image by Flickr User: ChipperMist
Image by Flickr User: ChipperMist

Not long ago, I published a post discussing what I like and dislike about the Wii, and seeing as the next console of this particular generation that I bought was the XBox 360, it makes sense for Microsoft’s console to be the subject of the second post in this series.  It’s a funny thing, though, how I got this console in the first place, because I am more of a PlayStation fan than an XBox fan, so it would stand to reason that I would have been much more inclined to purchase a console made by Sony over one made by Microsoft.  Unfortunately, at the time, the PS3 was much too expensive, and it didn’t have any games I really cared for yet that weren’t already on the 360 (this was obviously before I became a “Ratchet and Clank” fan…).  Since the games I wanted at that time were all on the 360, plus that console would also allow me to play any new “Halo” games, this became the next console I added to my gaming family.

And when I first started playing the 360, I was immediately impressed with the graphics, which were way ahead of the Wii, and even though the first two games I played were not as good as I was expecting (“Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts” and “Sonic the Hedgehog”, the 2006 version, shudder, gag, shiver), I did have a good time playing “Halo 3” (even though it was short) and “Final Fantasy XIII” (despite its flaws), the latter of which came with my console.  (I even got this little waste of time thing on one end of the console that says “Final Fantasy XIII” on it.  Jealous?)  Plus, I was just pretty thrilled that this new XBox had “Final Fantasy” games as part of its library now, as during the last generation, only the PS2 had such an honor.  My game collection was further improved with the addition of “Halo: Reach” and “Halo 4”, which were awesome, and I even had the pleasure of expanding my game library with over 40 Sega Genesis games on “Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection”.  In the end, I ended up really enjoying my 360, and I loved it way more than the original XBox.  And now, anymore of my thoughts on this console will be listed below.  (As usual, my main focus is on gaming, not the other features the 360 has to offer, and extra info was found on Wikipedia.) Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 2-360 Boxes →

Gamer's Life, General Commentary, Uncategorized

The Horrors of Banjo-Kazooie

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Image by Flickr User: Justin Taylor

Banjo-Kazooie is a bright and sunny game, we all know that, we all accept that. However, upon closer inspection I’ve realized the game could (maybe should) have been terrifying to those of us who played it as young children. It’s all there, and out of the game’s sunny context, all so very creepy! Continue reading The Horrors of Banjo-Kazooie →

Console, Review

inFAMOUS: Second Son Review – Enjoy Your Power

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Screenshot Taken by Derek Nichols
Screenshot Taken by Derek Nichols

There’s just something great about games that empower the player to be something more than ordinary. Sucker Punch’s inFAMOUS franchise is at it’s best when giving players the tools to go and do what they want in a big open city. With the highly anticipated Second Son now on store shelves, the franchise finally moves into next generation territory and with it comes a brand new game engine, character, abilities and setting for players to play around with. Even with all this new tech powering the title, morality and story have always been a major focus and Second Son is no different, introducing these elements through a more realistic tone and topics centered around the freedom vs security debate.

Is Second Son a worth successor to Cole’s legacy or should it be purged? Full review after the jump.

Continue reading inFAMOUS: Second Son Review – Enjoy Your Power →

Collaborations and Projects

(Mario) Partying with 1hour1sketch!

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Last month, United We Game got together with the creative minds behind @1hour1sketch and offered up the topic “Mario Party,” which was hosted for one week on the art-directed Twitter site. During that week, response to the topic was fast and furious…and utterly AMAZING! Seriously, it was incredible to see so many different interpretations on a single idea, and we really appreciate everyone who contributed to the effort. If you’re not doing so already, please to follow @1hour1sketch on Twitter to keep up with all the great artwork that’s being submitted there. And while you’re at it, say hello to A4man (@AdsTra) and Fredrik Skarstedt (@Fredrik_S), the proprietors of the 1hour1sketch project.

(If you missed out on this initially or are wondering what the heck is going on, check out our posts here and here about this group effort.)

Continue reading (Mario) Partying with 1hour1sketch! →

Console

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 1-Wii Look at the Wii

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Image by Flickr User: MrBeng
Image by Flickr User: MrBeng

You all remember how, when this blog first got started, I wrote a series about the pros and cons about the GameCube/XBox/PlayStation2 generation, don’t you?  Well, actually, you may not because that was a while ago.  But, believe me, I did.  And now that I have had a good amount of experience with the last generation of consoles (the Wii, XBox 360, and PlayStation 3, of course), I decided it was time to write a series of posts on what I find good and bad about these three awesome consoles.  To start, the console I’ve had the longest, the Wii.

Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 1-Wii Look at the Wii →

Console, Gamer's Life, General Commentary

Inevitability is Bad for Multiplayer

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Image by Flickr user: DavidHT

I had a thought recently; Just a passing notion as I was trying to decide which game to spend some time in that day. I had been enjoying Infamous: Second Son quite a bit and still needed to finish it, but it didn’t really feel like an Infamous sort of day. While looking over the ol’ replay stack, I remembered that I had gotten my hands on Titanfall a couple weeks ago. I’d sunk some time into it before and had found it to be a fun game, very fun actually. Even so, the idea was dismissed almost as quickly as it came and I settled on starting up good ol’ BioShock. It wasn’t until later that this struck me as odd; normally new always trumps old, so why BioShock instead of Titanfall? An answer sprung up immediately but was dismissed, and I settled on thinking that I simply a matter of just not feeling like playing it. The thing is though, I never feel like playing it, which has led to the first notion being the most valid. That though being that Titanfall simply wasn’t worth the time. More than that: that online multiplayer itself  wasn’t worth the time. Continue reading Inevitability is Bad for Multiplayer →