Video games

Random Gaming Music Post

As I seem to have hit a bit of a rut over the past week in terms of writing on my blog site, I decided to take a bit of a detour from my regularly scheduled content(and I use the term “content” loosely…). I’ve also spent the last couple days not feeling entirely down about anything, but don’t feel necessarily…engaged or inspired. So, for today’s post I decided to share some music from various video games that I’ve been listening to lately or just whenever I feel like reverting to something less melancholic. I’ve arranged the music in order from more somber to lighter and more upbeat as you would envision the sunrise breaking over the dark horizon…

Keep Your Rifle By Your Side – Far Cry 5

The soundtrack from Far Cry 5 has become one of my favorite video game soundtracks, with several different arrangements of the “cult songs” you hear in-game. The song Keep Your Rifle By Your Side by the band Hammock who recorded an album of alternate arrangements of the original songs featured in the game starts slow and maintains a spa-like ambience that sounds as spacious as the Montana rockies.

Legend of the Eagle Bearer – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Another track that begins slowly and then keeps a steady relaxed pace, Legend of the Eagle Bearer is the main title music and over-arching theme for Alexios or Kassandra’s epic journey through ancient Greece in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. I love the loose, slightly buzzy timber of the strings to conjure the Mediterranean vibe of the theme.

Fodlan Winds – Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fodlan Winds is used as the main battle theme during Fire Emblem: Three Houses with an “airy” lightness in the string section that uplifts the (mostly)sober feel of the game. The entire soundtrack of Three Houses is wonderful and is one of many aspects that contribute to what may be my favorite game of 2019.

Press Play – Firewatch

I’ve always loved 80’s sounding synth-pop, so I naturally loved the song Press Play featured in the wonderful indie title Firewatch. The song is performed by fictitious 80’s band Cheap Talk and is featured early on in the game which is set in 1989. The song sounds eerily reminiscent to early Madonna – before the Pepsi Ads and Like A Prayer…

Pop Virus – Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima’s newest(and weirdest) game Death Stranding released this previous Friday and was one of the game I spent the weekend consuming. The game itself has proven quite divisive in terms of “fun” or “what the hell is it?”, but the game features some wonderful music, both licensed and original score. The catchy J-pop jam – Pop Virus by Gen Hoshino is a bit of sunshine in the gorgeous, yet desolate Death Stranding and has been one of my favorite songs to while I “play” as Norman Reedus relaxing and chugging Monster energy drinks in one of the Private Rooms.

That’s all for now, I always like seeing and hearing the pieces of music that others enjoy in their favorite games. What are some of your favorites on your “gaming playlist”? Let me know. Thanks for reading!

Geek Out Challenge – Day 8

For day 8 of the 30 Day Geek Out Challenge our next question involves what geeky hobbies do you have. I knew the answer for me would most likely being something involving video games, I then realized the geekiest hobby I have is precisely what I’m doing now…a blog about video games

What Geeky Hobby Do You Have?

Spending hours every week writing blog posts about video games is probably the geekiest hobby I have; I play a game and then write about what I liked about it. Video games have been an enormous part of my life since I was a kid and are some of my earliest memories, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman, as mentioned in my Day 1 challenge post. I started a blog as an outlet to be able to describe what gaming has meant to me and how it has affected my life. It began as mostly a challenge to myself as something I thought I could do, but didn’t really know what would become of it. I was never great at writing in school(or STILL 🙂 ) and quite honestly, hated writing papers, but it is something that I was hoping to improve at, especially when writing about something that I love as much as video games. I have been doing this for over five months now, mostly as a weekend hobby and it has been a great experience. I’m glad I actually took the step and tried something outside of my comfort zone, where the majority of my life has been spent; taking part in this 30 day challenge is yet another example of something I may not have normally participated in, but I’ve had a lot of fun doing. I have spent most of my blog posts rambling about various games I’ve played or just talking about which games I intend to play…nothing too impressive as of yet, but I do have lots of other things I would love to write about as it pertains to video games and not just “this game is fun!”. Another positive aspect of my time blogging has been reading and commenting on all of the other wonderful posts on here, it has been great to interact with others that have a lot of the same geeky interests as myself.

That’s about all I have for now, what kind of geeky hobbies do you have or what’s something that you would like to try but haven’t? In reading some of the other posts for the Geek Out Challenge several others had the same reaction as myself in describing their blog sites as their geeky hobby, so I’m not alone! Tune in tomorrow…

Geek Out Challenge – Day 6

For day 6 of the Geek Out Challenge, the question asked is about other real-life geeks that inspire you. I have enjoyed the posts from others participating and hearing the stories of who they look up to and why.

What real life geek inspires you? – Hideo Kojima

In thinking the question over this afternoon, Hideo Kojima is someone I would definitely consider “geeky”. It’s been 16 years since I first played Metal Gear Solid 2 and since then he has been one of my favorite creators within the gaming industry. There are those within any artistic medium whether it be animation, film, music, or video games that have such a specific vision for their craft and what they are trying to create and for me Kojima-san certainly is one of them. The Metal Gear Solid games are among my all-time favorite games and will be remembered for the level of cinematic storytelling and grandiosity that video games are capable of. He is just one of the many that have shown us that video games CAN BE more than “just a game” and can provide experiences on par with that of a movie.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is my favorite Metal Gear game, and also one of my all-time favorites

What inspires me about Hideo Kojima is the love that he has for what he creates as well as the influences that inspire him. If you follow him on Instagram or Twitter, you will quickly see his affection for movies and music; his Twitter bio states “70% of my body is made of movies”. Biological accuracy aside, his social media feed contains numerous photos of the music and movies that he is currently enjoying or that has inspired him in some way. I certainly understand the style in which Kojima’s game are presented aren’t for everyone, but I love how the discussion of philosophical topics such as nuclear disarmament or genetic engineering are counter-balanced by the over-the-top action sequences. I have always admired artists that have, for lack of better phrase “make what they WANT to make” regardless of what they think its reception will be. In a world where something creative rarely equals profitable, it is refreshing to see that amount of passion Kojima puts into anything he creates. I, along with pretty much everyone else still have the faintest idea of what to expect from Death Stranding once it’s released this November, but I trust Hideo Kojima to provide an experience.

Another great geeky question from Megan at A Geeky Gal! Feel free to comment below on any of your inspirations or join in on the 30 Day Geek Out Challenge. See you tomorrow!

Geek Out Challenge – Day 5

We are currently in day number five of the 30 Day Geek Out Challenge, as started by Megan at A Geeky Gal. The month long challenge has already included questions such as your first and most recent fandoms, as well as most and least positive convention memories. I did not create a post for yesterday’s geeky question – What was your worst convention experience? I stated in my post for day 3 asking of your best convention experience that I had never attended any sort of convention, but listed some of the things about the prospects of going to any sort of convention that I would enjoy. I simply didn’t have anything to share for yesterday’s challenge question, so let’s jump into today’s Geek Out Challenge question…

What is the geekiest thing you’ve ever done?

After thinking it over, there are a couple things I came up with. The first thing that springs to mind is my younger brother and I, along with our next-door neighbor attempting( and failing miserably) to stage lightsaber duels…I can barely type that without cringing. We had a few of the battery-powered lightsaber replicas you could find in the toy department at Wal-Mart, and we would try to mimic those of the films. This was back during the time of the Star Wars prequels, and THANKFULLY before YouTube existed as I fear we may have had the brilliant idea to post videos online of us awkwardly swinging around plastic lightsabers, remember Lightsaber Kid from the early days of YouTube? It was pretty much like that….

The other geeky thing that came to mind isn’t quite as cringy as lightsaber fights, mercifully. In November of 2004, my brother and I drove to our nearest GameStop, which was still 90 miles away for the midnight launch of Halo 2. I remember sitting in the parking lot of the little strip mall where the GameStop was, anxiously waiting for the store to open up. We sat and waited in the car for about 30 minutes before deciding to brave the cold weather and stand outside as the line had begun to form around the store. I remember how excited everyone was in line waiting for the doors to open. The GameStop employees had moved a tv to the front window of the store and had an Xbox set up where they were playing a store copy of Halo 2, which at the time seemed a bit of a tease as we stood freezing outside. The doors did open however, and we were able to pick up the collector’s edition of the game we had reserved, the collector’s edition of Halo 2 that came in a steelbook case. This was before a steelbook case was available for seemingly every game, so it was extra exciting at the time. We grabbed some Taco Bell on the way home, finally making it home after 2 a.m. I don’t remember getting a lot of sleep or studying the next few days…;)

Day 5 of the Geek Out Challenge is complete! Thank you to Megan for initiating the challenge, and I look forward to more questions!

My Hylian Summer Vacation

Yesterday, I finally completed my quest to play through Breath of the Wild, completing every shrine and finding every. single. Korok seed along the way. I just happened to sit down to play some Switch and felt like playing Breath of the Wild. I had been meaning to play the game some more as, there was still plenty I could cross off the list from my first play through, such as the Master Sword Trials or the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 quest. I had also just finished a weekend blog listing some of my favorite Summertime Games and had mentioned BOTW as a game I distinctly thought of the summer months, as I spent the summer of 2017 playing through it my first time. So I decided to begin the game a second time with the thought that if nothing else, I would gain a deeper appreciation for the game. There are games that you always wish you could go back and experience for the first time all over again, usually epic games like Breath of the Wild, Fallout 3, GTA IV, etc. While I knew that you can never go back to your “first time” with a game, but I do enjoy going back and revisiting games like this and note what still stands out about the game or what is it that you still dislike; I seem to do this with Zelda games in particular as I played through Majora’s Mask a few months ago with that intent. I wanted to play through BOTW again to see what parts of the game stand out or plain irritate me a second time around. As someone who by nature(?), seems prone to making things more difficult than they would normally be, I had the brilliant idea, “I’m gonna finish every shrine…and get every Korok seed too!”. Here I am today, 26 days and roughly 140 hours of gameplay later – 4 Divine Beasts, 120 Shrines, and all 900 Korok Seeds. I also thought it would be interesting to take some notes as I go through the game and write up a summary of my experience afterward.

I spent the next few weeks playing Breath of the Wild, marking out areas on my Sheikah Slate locations of shrines and Korok seeds. I will make it perfectly clear that I was using the giant fold-out map of Hyrule that came with the player’s guide I got shortly after buying the game, as well as the interactive map from Zelda Dungeon(one of my favorite sites! ). There is no way I was going to be able to find every Korok seed completely on my own, some of the locations were incredibly cryptic and it’s a wonder how some of them were ever found in the first place. I also learned that you can only place 100 stamps on your Sheikah Slate map at any given time…yeah, ONLY 100. At one point I zoomed out a bit to look at the map and it was overrun with little stamps showing the location of seeds in a specific region, and noticed it looked a bit like a map from just about any Ubisoft game. I tackled one region on the map before moving on to the next, beginning with the Great Plateau and then making my way through the Dueling Peaks region. I approached the game like a job essentially, I would wake up and try to chip away what I could after I woke up and before I would go to sleep at night. I don’t want to make it sound like I was miserably grinding away, I truly enjoyed the many, many hours spent mindless chasing marked areas on my map. It was like I just couldn’t stop, one of the highest praises I can usually give a game.

Upon finally completing all the shrines you receive a new “quest” from the monks to go retrieve your reward from the treasure chests located at the Forgotten Temple located at the northern end of Tanagar Canyon. Your reward for completing all 120 shrines is the “Outfit of the Wild” which includes cap, tunic, and trousers that resemble Link’s attire from the very first Legend of Zelda game and looks pretty cool. The “reward” from Hestu however, for scouring every nook and cranny throughout Hyrule for all 900 Korok seeds is simply called “Hestu’s Gift” and appears to be several Korok seeds layered precisely in a way to make it look like a “poop emoji” …yup…that’s right. Upon further reading, I found that indeed, the joke all along is you were collecting Korok poo…umm…great? The symbol itself is known in Japan as Kin no unko, which translates to “golden poo” and is considered a good luck charm. Adding to this wondrous discovery is also a glitch that was found in the game which makes it possible to “collect” infinite Korok seeds, it’s a good thing I like the game that damn much upon realizing the goal of collecting all the seeds was simply a fool’s errand.

In a break from my ramblings of golden Korok poo, I have listed some of my favorite aspects of Breath of the Wild, as well as things about the game that I still don’t love and would like to see changed by the time the sequel to BOTW is released. The things I loved about BOTW…

Hyrule – I absolutely love the giant sprawling landscape of BOTW’s Hyrule! While playing there were many regions that reminded me of areas of Tamriel while playing Skyrim, but liked even more. The rocky coastal areas of the Akkala region, with its hills and cliffs overlooking the sea are my favorite. The Wasteland and Gerudo regions providing a mostly barren, arid landscape where you deal with temperature extremes and the occasional sandstorm, making travel difficult. I also loved the Lake region of Hyrule; one of my consistent favorite areas in any given Zelda game would have to be Lake Hyrule – I first fell in love with the idyllic scenery surrounding the giant lake in Ocarina of Time, where I spent much of my time fishing. In BOTW, the massive Bridge of Hylia spans the entire distance across the lake. I also really like the Faron region with the lush, tropical environment that really reminded me of Link’s Awakening and The Wind Waker (even if it’s home to many violent thunderstorms and lightning striking). The Hyrule that Nintendo created for BOTW is probably my favorite aspect of the game.
Intro/Setting – The opening of Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite of any Zelda game, beginning with Link’s awakening(get it?…ok, sorry) in the Shrine of Resurrection. You are then given first views of the Great Plateau and the vast land of Hyrule spread out in front of you, in one of many epic moments of the game. The overall setting of the game is great, providing a cryptic eerie sense as you survey the ruins of Hyrule after your hundred-year slumber, piecing together your forgotten memories of just what happened before you were placed in the Shrine of Resurrection. I loved just wandering around the ruins of forts and villages, risking attack by numerous enemies, including the dangerous mechanical Guardians. This reminded me a lot of the Fallout games where you emerge from a stasis chamber to a world completely foreign to you.
Combat – I know the combat in the combat has been ridiculed by some after the game was released, with the majority of that I believe rested primarily on the fact your weapons are breakable(still NOT a fan). I really enjoyed the combat and felt it does stress tactics and strategy in choosing which enemies to engage and which to simply avoid; rushing at an enemy and trying to hack your way through has a very low success rate in this gameI would come across a blue-maned Lynel and think, “no way…he’s WAY too strong of an enemy to engage at this point in the game” – as I’m already pecking away at it with arrows from my Boko Bow… that didn’t end well. As much as I hate using this as a reference for anything with the slightest difficulty curve, the combat in BOTW DID in many ways remind of Dark Souls.
Princess Zelda – There was a greater resonance to Zelda as a sympathetic character in Breath of the Wild than in other games. In other entries, she seemed essentially a priceless artifact to be rescued, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. In BOTW, she’s more of a three dimensional character; her frustration from the expectations placed upon her to contain the darkness threatening Hyrule and the consequences of failure to do so. We may have played the game through Link’s eyes, but the heart of the story was Princess Zelda. The irony that the title of the series has always been Legend of Zelda.

As for the things I still dislike about Breath of the Wild…there isn’t too many things. This is also some things that I didn’t hate about the game, but merely would prefer changed around a bit for the sequel announced back at E3.

Breakable weapons – Let’s get this one out of the way first…I dislike breakable weapons in any game, I end up spending the majority of the game cautiously avoiding the better weapons I have hoarded to that point, out of fear that they’ll just break after a couple enemies(if that). I don’t think it ruined the game by any means, it’s simply something I have never liked in a video game.
RAIN! – I love the traversal in Breath of the Wild, then a rain shower inevitably comes along to bring any progress to a screeching halt. In specific areas like the tropical Faron region, I understand the frequent rainstorms, but it happening at nearly that frequency just about everywhere else got a bit tiring. This is probably my biggest annoyance in BOTW, more even than breakable weapons. You are encouraged to climb just about anything and explore the land, but it becomes incredibly difficult when it’s always raining. This made me appreciate the Gerudo, and Wasteland regions, I will gladly take a sandstorm over the rain.
Dungeons – I really like the Divine Beasts and Shrines throughout the game, however I would like to see a more traditional dungeon layout for BOTW 2. The length and sheer number of Shrines in the game don’t provide as much cohesion compared to other titles, like Twilight Princess or Majora’s Mask.
Boss Battles – This may be equal parts boss battles AND combat, actually. The boss battles in the game with the different “blight” incarnations of Ganon didn’t seem to be quite as memorable as other Zelda titles. Another thing I thought was strange in BOTW is how much easier the boss battles feel than some of the higher level Bokoblins, Moblins, or Lizalfos. The boss battles can be defeated primarily by spamming arrows, and occasionally using the Runes on your Sheikah Slate, whereas the sub-bosses like Hinox or Lynels, take a much more time and strategy to bring down. This makes certain elements of combat seem a little off-balance.
Fishing – One of my favorite and most enjoyable activities in Zelda games has been fishing. It was curiously absent in Breath of the Wild and I would love to see it implemented in the upcoming sequel.
Hookshot – A favorite weapon since A Link to the Past, I really hope to see it in the next game

Over the 140+ hours I spent playing Breath of the Wild, I kept track of some of my favorite moments of the game…

Master Sword – The moment you pull the Master Sword has been one of the defining moments of a Zelda game since A Link to the Past.
Typhlo Ruins – The Shrouded Shrine quest is located in the Typhlo Ruins just north of the Lost Woods. You land on a small island covered in darkness, you must feel your way around the island and light torches along the way. The path eventually leads you to the center of the island where you find the shrine orb, hanging around the neck of a sleeping Hinox. Finding my way through the pitch black with only the light from the occasional torch felt similar to the eerie, cryptic puzzles of early Zelda games.
Eventide Island – The Stranded on Eventide quest begins the moment you set foot on Eventide Island. The quest takes away all of your items and equipment and challenges you to activate three shrine pedestals which are being protected by an assortment of enemies. This shrine quest, as well as most of the Faron region provided many Link’s Awakening vibes.
Shield Surfing – Once I finally learned how to do it, the shield surfing in Breath of the Wild is a blast!

At the end of the day, was it worth it? yes and no. Experiencing everything the main game has to offer was as great as my first time through, if anything I have an even greater appreciation for what Nintendo accomplished in creating Breath of the Wild. If you’re the type of gamer into collecting Achievements and Trophies, then you will most likely be quite disappointed in what lies at the end of your journey to 100% the game; you’ve earned bragging rights if nothing else. I did also take a few pictures to remember my “summer vacation” in Hyrule.

Wow! that was a bit longer than I had planned. Has anyone else out there played finished every shrine and seed in Breath of the Wild? What other games have you played so obsessively you felt at times that you couldn’t stop? I am quite satisfied to have this completed and will be shortly setting my sights on the new Fire Emblem game next.

Keep on playing…

Geek Out Challenge – Day 2

For Day 2 of the 30 Day Geek Out Challenge we will be switch to the opposite of yesterday’s question “What was your first fandom?” and ask…

What is your most recent fandom?

I must admit that recently that of all the movies, tv shows, comics, or video games that I have been spent my spare time consuming, the only series that I would consider “new” as in I just hadn’t really gotten around to it yet would have to be the Far Cry game series. I played the first Far Cry game back in 2004 when it was first released, but for whatever reason just never really played any of the sequels. It wasn’t until this last January that I finally got around to playing Far Cry 5, which since then has become one of my favorites of this console generation. I have since that time played all of the other games in the franchise with the exception of Far Cry 2. This has also been a game series that has provided hours of enjoyment playing together with my wife in the evenings, as one of the greatest aspects of any kind of fandom is being able to share and enjoy with others. We have spent many hours talking about what exactly is it about the games that we enjoy so much, whether it be story, music, or simply the fun of running around blowing stuff up in an open-world setting fitting in an 80’s action movie, which clearly have provided much inspiration for the tone of the games. Ubisoft has done a great job in creating games that are all over the place in the best ways: nonsensical, serious, challenging yet fun to casually play all within the same game.

That’s all for round two of the Geek Out Challenge, I didn’t have a ton for today’s question but I’ve had fun so far! Here’s looking forward to the next question…

My Mario Maker 2 Courses

Today, I thought it would be fun to share some of my created courses on Super Mario Maker 2( The tutorials insisting they be called “courses” and not “levels” ). Mario Maker 2 has been out for a month now and was one of this summer’s Nintendo games I was looking forward to as I had only played the 3DS version which seemed to be a slightly watered-down version of one of the Wii U’s few games that got much attention. The ability to share created levels online was the highlight of the Wii U version and to not having that option on the 3DS version was disappointing. I have spent quite a few hours of Mario Maker 2 between Story Mode, which boasts 100 different pre-made courses and in playing other user-created courses online. I have also spent a few hours trying to muster any creativity in creating some courses of my own. It’s incredible seeing some of the leve…COURSES that others have created online and I have included a couple of my recent favorites that I’ve played. I ask in advance to please excuse the lame titles I have used for my humble creations 😉

Swinging Blooper Reel – Course ID – XB9-J2P-JHF

One of the first courses I created where the easiest thing to do I make a short course that can be completed in mere seconds, but will have a few tricky jumps thrown in here and there along with scattered enemies in an attempt to pose some sort of challenge. The first few courses I created I probably had some of the platforming sections of games like Mega Man in mind as I made a few of those so you would really have to time the jumps. You will need to swing your way through the grapple claws to reach the end before time runs out. There is an upper and lower path to take as you maneuver around the numerous Bloopers floating around.

Calamari Challenge – Course ID – J2N-D55-X36

I always loved the underwater levels in Mario game as a kid, so I wanted to try to create something similar to World 2 of Super Mario Bros. This time you need to defeat the 10 Bloopers around the area before heading for the finish. I worked in a different areas through the course via warp pipes and threw in a few Cheep Cheep to avoid as well.

Classic Castle Course – Course ID – L1T-T8T-TDF

Another creation where I wanted to bring the similar feeling to the castle levels of Super Mario World. There is nothing too difficult here, just a more straightforward trip through a lava-filled castle, complete with giant blades and Dry Bones. Bowser Jr is also waiting at the finish line.

Wintertime Coins – Course ID – RYQ-16G-GVG

The course requirement here is to collect five 30-Coins before completing. There’s nothing too difficult here, outside of a few Spinies and some falling icicles. I wanted to make an easy coin-collecting course for this one, rather than create something that makes you rage quit after dying fifty times in a row( **NOT from experience 😉 ).

Rock Wrench & Bullet Bill – Course ID – 6XG-5FQ-QQF

Mario 3 just may be my absolute favorite game, so I wanted to create a flying ship level similar to the ones you had to clear at the end of each world in Mario 3. As you would find in the game itself, there are Rocky Wrenches and Bullet Bills throughout the course as well as the giant flame burners that one would expect to find on a flying wooden ship. You will again need to defeat Bowser Jr. before completing the course.

I do go back and play through all of my created courses; I don’t usually make them with “how many people can I get to play these courses?” in mind. I wanted to make something that I would enjoy playing myself, and I have. In addition to some of my created courses, I have included a couple others that I have played online that I really really enjoyed.

20 Seconds: Cannonball Capers – User ID – bruhhhhhh Course ID – 9QD-V7X-2JF

Along with enjoying an easy stroll through a Mario Maker 2 course, I have spent a fair amount of time( and frustration) playing other user’s speed run courses, some of these are absolutely genius…and difficult.

Super Castlevania Bros – User ID – Nocturnowl Course ID – 5WW-0MF-TMF

I started seeing different “theme” courses online in Mario Maker 2 right away; some users have created everything from movies like Evil Dead to other video games like Metal Gear Solid. There are not surprisingly many levels where other users have re-created different worlds from Zelda games, such as the Great Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time. I came across this level and absolutely LOVE Nocturnowl’s creating of Dracula’s Castle from the Castlevania games. I definitely recommend checking out this one.

That’s about it for this week! I made the Rock Wrench & Bullet Bill course the other day and thought it would be fun to show some courses in a blog post. Have you played Super Mario Maker 2? if so, what do you think so far? Let me know in the comments. See…I HAVE actually played something other than Breath of the Wild this week! 😀

Keep on playing…