All posts by cary

Gamer's Life, General Commentary, Questions

When the Music Misses the Mark

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Image by Flickr user Brian J. Matis (CC)
Image by Flickr user Brian J. Matis (CC)

While playing through Xenoblade Chronicles, I’ve been reminded of the synergy between a game and its music. This game is filled with lush, harmonious, and exciting sounds that play well off of whatever stage you’re in. From music that envelopes you in sweeping plains, ponders the existence of snow-capped hills, and mourns loss in valleys deep and wide, Xenoblade Chronicles has had, so far, a winning soundtrack.

Only then I hit the Mechonis Field, a vast, multi-leveled arena that’s essentially located inside a giant, robotic being. With robot enemies littering various machined structures within the field, the place looks like nothing less than a world out of a science fiction movie. With moving sidewalks and platforms, buttons to activate, and doors that slide open to reveal more things to do and/or fight, the entire level screams “I’m mechanical!” So imagine my surprise when, upon traveling through the Mechonis Field, my ears were treated to the soft/bright synthesized sounds of 1980s sparkles and chimes.

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Gamer's Life, General Commentary

Where to Start? A Question of Playing Games Series.

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Image by Flickr user Robert Kilman (CC)
Image by Flickr user Robert Kilman (CC)

At the fast rate video games are changing these days to the slow (becoming slower) wait between sequels, it’s a wonder that developers are able to keep us coming back for more fun with whatever set of characters to which we’ve become attached. Consider the Uncharted series. There was a mere two-year span between the releases of the first three games, and here we are waiting for Uncharted 4 to be unleashed next year, five years after Uncharted 3. (Granted, the first three games didn’t have to deal with the release of a new console.)  Also consider titles like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed where you get a new game every year or two that essentially follow the model of “same game, different place.” Then you have games series that follow their own rules, like anything that might involve Mario. He’s got a whole empire of various games series bearing his name, some of which are related (Mario Party), some of which are revamps (nearly anything Mario Bros.), and others of which are complete one-offs (Mario Paint). And what about series like Final Fantasy? This year (July 12th) marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy on the NES in the United States, and fans were treated to the recent announcement of a Final Fantasy VII remake. Like, in a sense, the Legend of Zelda series, these games offer unique experience under the same brand.  You get to spend time in somewhat familiar places with mostly familiar (and sometimes the same) people playing with familiar mechanics. But I’m not sure we’d agree upon whether or not everything that came after Final Fantasy (1990) or The Legend of Zelda (1986) were true sequels to those originals.

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Gamer's Life, General Commentary

Playing the “No Spoilers” Game

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WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD! (Though possibly not?)

Ever since I started giving into my online persona, both in terms of blogging and using social media, I’ve had to tread a fine line when it comes to games and spoilers. Sometimes, spoilers don’t matter, because there have been cases where they actually help build my interest in games that I might not have wanted to play before. But when it comes to games that I do want to play, it always seems that somehow, some way, even if I make the most brief of online appearances somewhere (like glancing through one of my Twitter lists), I’ll come across a spoiler…or ten. Then again, I have a pretty narrow definition of a “spoiler,” so maybe it’s my own fault for being too touchy. Yet, when I invest in a new game that, as usually happens, I’m not able to get to right away, there’s got to be a middle ground between comfortably being able to peruse the Internet and staying offline for a month.

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Gamer's Life, General Commentary

If Happiness is a Battle System, then Xenoblade Chronicles Makes Me Smile

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Image by cary. It's mine, I tells ya! MINE!
Image by cary. It’s mine, I tells ya! ALL MINE!

Though I might have conked out on my self-promise to complete Metroid Prime, I haven’t given up on a number of other challenges that persist in my backlog, one of which is finishing Xenoblade Chronicles. Long story short, back in 2013, I started Xenoblade Chronicles, only to give it up after realizing just how long it was. At 60+ hours just to beat the main story (and 100+ to complete everything), I simply didn’t have that kind of time to devote to a single game. This past February, a copy of the game wormed its way back into my life, and I couldn’t turn it away this time. I picked the game back up, right at my last save point from two years ago, a mere five hours into the game. I’m now just over 40 hours in, the stress of me actually finishing the game is palpable. In fact, me stressing over this is actually stressing me out more right now, so that’s why I’m not here to talk about unfinished games, extremely long RPGs, or anything of that sort. Instead, I’m here to talk about battle systems, because Xenoblade Chronicles, for all its flaws (and yes, it has some), has one heck of a great battle system.

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Collaborations and Projects, Commentary, Food For Thought

21 Years, 21 Stories #gamersonwatch

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Image by Flickr user Raúl (CC)
Image by Flickr user Raúl (CC)

This year marks E3’s 21st anniversary, and what a road this event with humble beginnings has traveled! To celebrate how far games have come in a mere two decades, I’m running down a year-by-year list of my history with game news and events since 1995, the year of E3’s first show. (Hence the throwback to the Sega Saturn above, which gets first mention below.) The stories on my list didn’t necessarily break at E3, but rather were introduced during their given years. Keep in mind that a little cheekiness may seep in here and there, because game news is still “news” after all, and not all of it matters all the time. :) So join me on this little trip through time, and be sure to let us know some of your favorite news stories of the past and present, either in the comments here, or as a post of your own to join our June writing challenge. #gamersonwatch

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General Commentary

It’s not what games have become, it’s what they are.

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Image by Flick user Satish Indofunk
Image by Flick user Satish Indofunk (CC)

You’ve probably read or heard this comment before.

“If this if what [x] has become, then [insert response like I fear for the human race or I don’t want to be a part of it].”

It’s a comment that, if you spend any time on the Internet, you’ve may have often seen in response to many of today’s games, and especially games that don’t fit someone’s personal definition of a “video game.”

We’ve covered the question of “what is a video game” on the site before, and quite frankly, what we found was that no two people described “video games” in the same way. Gaming may be a multi-billion dollar industry, but video games themselves remain deeply private affairs. No two people will ever experience the same game in the same way. That’s not to say that two people who have played the same game can’t find common ground – it happens all the time. And of course, those two people are also free to disagree on a game – it happens all the time too.

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Collaborations and Projects, News, Top #'s

June Writing Challenge: All About Gaming News #gamersonwatch

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Hello everyone and welcome to another UWG writing challenge announcement! What’s in store this month for all you #gamersonwatch? Read on!

June marks the start of the summer season — a time when big game releases start to dwindle, studios recover from the early-year rush, and players work through backlogged games large and small.  But this doesn’t mean gaming takes a break during the summer. If anything, with E3 just a couple weeks away, now’s the time when we get ready for what’s to come; when our feeds become rife with news, speculations, rumors, and that which is promised to make our short-term and long-term gaming futures better and brighter.

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