Gaming Nostalgia #1: Memories of the past

Sadly enough, I’m afraid that I’m getting a little bit sick lately. I hope it’s something that flies over. Since the less time I waste being sick, the more time I can spend studying and maybe have some time left over to write an article so Q doesn’t have to write something to have an article each week. Anyways, I was reading my buddy’s theCredibleHulk’s latest article and he talked about my article once more. Yeah, he did. While I honestly disagree with his claim that Indiana Jones and The Infernal Machine is “crap”, he said he likes to read articles about nostalgia. And being a blogger that talks a lot about nostalgia and old games… Hey, perfect combo no? Let’s talk young NekoJonez

Gaming history

I have a pretty good memory when it comes to my childhood. One of the first times I got in touch with games was when I visited my cousins in the Netherlands. They allowed me to play on their computer. Well, play as in drawing things with paint. As a young child, this was an awesome game in my eyes.

If I remember correctly, around the age of 7, my parents got a computer in their house. And I still remember that my mom allowed me to play a copied version of Tarzan on that machine. And that game drew me into gaming for good.

I’m on the hunt to buy this game, and if I see it at a garage sale, I’ll buy it and play the -bleep- out of it. I remember not getting extremely far and dying left and right, but I still enjoyed my time. But then, everything changed.

I got my hands on my aunt’s gameboy. That grey brick one. The only game we had was Tetris but it was enough to make me addicted to play over and over again. And that brings back fond memories of playing Tetris DX against my grandmother and my aunts. Oh, those were the days.

I can talk ages about my gaming history but I have to save more for other articles about this subject, so let’s talk about something different shall we?

Blast from the past

While I’m struggling with how I’m going to present these articles, a few idea’s are floating in my head right now. This segment is “blast from the past”. Where I’m going to talk about a game I really remember from my childhood.

Wikipedia entry

As a kid, I was never really good at a certain game. While my PvP skills have improved, I’m still a derp and multiplayer hasn’t been something I often do. But something I really like doing was sharing my opinion on games. This was one of the first games I made a video on.

My first way of expression my opinion was making YouTube video’s of poor quality. Since I wanted to show the people how the game really looked like on a gameboy screen. I knew I could record with fancier devices, but now I was sure that nobody could say that I tricked the footage.

But as a child I even uploaded stupid video’s, which I thought were awesome. I remember a video where I talked about importing a video from your camera into Windows Movie Maker and then exporting it. Then the video was smaller in size. Of course, that’s logical. It’s called rendering a video. But as a child I didn’t knew better.

I actually never really owned the game legit back then. Now I have my legal copy but I played the game back then on those fancy 100 in 1 games. Where you have only 10 games in one with the save feature ripped out. So, I had to replay the game couple of times before I could continue making footage.

Another memory was me playing the game on one of my various trips to the France or Austria. We drove there by car. And it was a drive of nearly a whole day. And my gameboy held me company for the whole road. And man, I nearly finished this game with my child like mind. I was so proud of myself.

Talking about this game and listing to childhood music makes me want to write more about this game. And I might, if I ever replay it in a holiday.

Gaming skills

How good am I at games? Well, most of kids in my time tried to be the best in the game that was hot at the time. The progressed at a rapid speed and they knew the game from front to end. And I was the weird kid on the block. I didn’t do that.

I looked more at the inner working of the games. Why was it so much fun and what was actually creative? Yeah, the critical sense was kind of developing back then. Together with my love for writing, I actually started reviewing games instead of trying to get good at them.

I saw games as a way to pass time. Not to be the best at it and defeat everybody and brag around the neighborhood. Games where a way to express my idea’s, feelings and opinions to others by using YouTube and my own blog.

And years later, nothing hasn’t really changed. My core personality of reviewing games and trying to be creative with the given tools is still here. You are reading an article about it.

But these days, I try to explore each and every game to it’s full extend. Even going as far as replaying games with cheats enabled to find spots and area’s where the devs hid something. And I’m not afraid to use mods. To see what other people have done with the game. I’m now into Pixelmon. I posted an image of a stronghold, that’s floating across a ravine, on my twitter earlier. I found that while playing Pixelmon 3.1!

I look at myself as a sort of jack of all trades. I don’t have a specialty in  a genre. Apart from some exceptions, there aren’t a style of games I’m really good at. But I’m able to beat games of all genres if I sink my teeth into it. Puzzle games, I crack those puzzles. Adventures? Sure, I finish them. Action? I will beat you down, bad guys. RPG’s? How can I defeat this boss without using a lot of items?

There are only two genres I rarely play. Fighting games and racing games. I can’t get into them. Bit of a shame really since I have friends who really want to play with me and play almost exclusively those types of games. Oh well, one day maybe.

So, we have talked about the history of my life in games, a big game in my childhood and how my gaming style evolved over the years. Not bad for a first article. If you liked this article, please give it a like and share it. It’s a sign for me to write more of these style of articles. But I’m going to leave other stories for other articles. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope to catch you next time here on my blog.

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Review: Indiana Jones And The Infernal Machine (PC) ~ Overdosing Childhood Nostalgia

Wikipedia entry

“Time to go to work” is the opening of the game. Indy slides down a slope and lands on a stone platform overlooking a canyon. Now you’re ready to start the game’s tutorial. Well, I can try to write a billion introductions for this game, but I will never really be happy with it. I will always restart writing this article and after many tries, I just decided to write it. Since this game is filled with childhood nostalgia for me. I always try to replay it but with all broken copies, bad compatibility with later operating systems,  it’s a big pain. If you want to play this game, your safest bet is to either go and buy an ancient pc that runs Windows 98 or be lucky and play in a virtual machine. But the third option is that you go and buy the N64 version. I can’t talk much about that version since I only played the PC and Game Boy Color version. I still remember that one morning I woke up on my birthday at my aunt’s place, and she gave me Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for my Game Boy Color. Okay, enough nostalgia. Feel free to leave me a comment with your opinion on this article and or game. Let’s dive right into this. 

Overlooked gem

If you look around the internet, you find mostly an overdose of content about it. But this game got overlooked. My best guess is that it’s mostly compared to a cheap Tomb Raider clone. Whilst this is somewhat true, I think that if you look at this game as an entry into the 3D adventure game genre, it’s a pretty solid entry.

Let’s talk about the story. While it isn’t a deep story, and it only has enough characters to count on your both hands, I think it actually works in favor of this game.

All the characters are flat, and you barely got to know them. If I need to put aside my nostalgia, I have to admit that the story is weak. But then again, this is an action adventure game, so it’s a bit forgiven. Action games don’t need to have a deep story. While adventure games, a deep story is a must!

The story brings us through various locations. From Egypt to a boat in the middle of the sea. And every location is nicely introduced at the end of each level. And that’s the main function of the story, tying the levels together nicely.

The infernal machine

Thanks to some great voice acting, I personally can forgive the weak story. But the gameplay is where this game shines. And it truly shines.

First, there are around 15 levels in the game. Each level has a decent length. At best, you can finish this game after a few weeks of play.

Most area’s won’t give you any trouble. Not that this game has low difficulty, not at all. But the game is pretty straight forward. While some puzzles can stump you, it’s not that you can get stuck easily.

Each level requires you to kill enemies, jump from platform to platform and try to find the exit to advance to the next level. Basic adventure game stuff. But the execution is amazing. Since each area, while falling into the cliché area’s, feels unique and feels true to the Indiana Jones movies. It’s almost like you are playing an Indiana Jones movie.

A volcano, jeep, boat, pyramid or a tropical island level are present in the game and tons more. And the main objective in each area is different and fun. While some have fetch quests, they don’t feel boring or lazy in any way. Plus, the game isn’t extremely linear. Some areas can be finished with doing things in a different order.

Recommended

So, in each level you can find 10 treasure items. With these you can buy ammo, health packs and various other items at the end of every level. Some treasures are in plain sight, but some treasures ask some exploration of the open levels. A tip that I give to you guys is that in the Olmec Valley (level 10), there is a treasure hidden in a pond. That was one that took me a long time to find.

Visually, this game has aged quite poorly. The animations and graphics will look terrible to the modern gamer. But truth to be told, the design of every place is beautiful. For a retro gamer, this game is a jewel. A pearl in design.

The level design is just pretty and provides quite the variation in gameplay and will not easily bore you. Even a couple of Easter eggs are hidden. I will reveal two of them. Both extremely close to each other. In one level, where you need to enter the mines, you will visit a control room. On the desk of the control room there is a picture of the Young Indy. If you press the action button, Indy will give a nice comment. After that, try to get on top of the control room. It’s tricky to do, but the boxes outside will help you. Once on top, light your lighter and somewhere in the middle you will see the name of one of the designers edged into the wood.

So, what haven’t I talked about? Oh yes, the music. While it’s mainly absent, I think that it’s a missed opportunity. The game could have benefited from a more extended musical score. But the sound design isn’t bad at all and gets a thumbs up from me.

Oh, before I forget, there is a big reward if you collect all the treasures. You will be able to buy something really special that will put a big smile on your face if you have seen the first movie. Just saying.

And to finish, let me talk about the cheats. Yes, there are cheats. From god mode to have each and every weapon in the game. But there are even Easter Eggs in the cheats!

So, I think I am going to leave it here for this review and go on to the conclusion. Don’t forget to draw everywhere on the walls with your chalk in the game! I haven’t talked about everything inside the game as usual, since I want you guys to have some discoveries in the game if you’re interested!

Conclusion

The bad:

– Tricky to get to work on modern system.

– Some weapons can crash the game if you have Windows XP or higher.

– The story is weak.

– This game could have benefited from more music.

The good:

+ The Easter eggs are truly worth finding.

+ The replay value is high.

+ The length is very great.

+ Nice sound design.

+ Epic visuals for retro gamers.

+ Nice voice acting.

+ Addictive gameplay.

Conclusion:

Phew, this was harsh to do. My nostalgia was always taking the best of me and pushing every bad thing I wanted to say, was pushed out of my head. The old warning I have to give is that this game is a pain to get working properly on modern systems. It even acts funny from time to time on my virtual machine. So, please, keep that in mind.

But this game was the cause I got truly addicted to gaming. It’s a very influential game in my eyes and I often reference it in my head when I’m reviewing or writing. Somehow it gives me inspiration.

Let me reveal a few things I haven’t talked about in my review. Like the adjustable difficulty, boss battles and a map system. Yeah, the game is pretty deep when I think about it. I had enough material for a long review for sure, but just because I felt like writing a review about this game and finally publish it, since I was always somewhat displeased, I kept it to my usual length.

Anyway, I’m writing a longer final thought then I should. Play this game for yourself and tell me what you thought of this game. I truly think it’s a masterpiece with a few flaws.

Score: 90/100

Review: Corpse Party – Book Of Shadows (PSP) ~ This Isn’t Right…

Official website – First impressions

Am I safe here? This darn school man. It’s haunting me. I’m trying to relax on my hiatus and getting my real life work done, but this school is stopping me from progressing in my goal. I simply don’t understand. Furthermore, I have to fight this. The creepy ghost children aren’t helping. Wait, wait, wait… Haven’t I seen this before? Like some first impression I have written a some time ago. About Corpse Party – Book Of Shadows: First Impression. Nah, that can’t be. This must be an unlucky coincidence. Otherwise, I could simply say that people could leave a comment with their opinion on the game and or this article. Hah! That would make life a lot easier. But no, I have to be trapped down here in this school. Again. Maybe my fate is different. Since I haven’t found the secrets. (Read, I haven’t played the secret episode. But I have finished the rest of the game.) So, I’m going to try to make a fair attempt here. Deep breaths. Avoiding spoilers and here we go!

Story

Now I’m quite sure I have … seen this before. This has an amazing story. Plot twists around every corner. This game actually got me off guard a few times and made me actually feel somewhat scared. And scared, as in it crawled under my skin.

It’s for sure better than the original. I feel that it has more depth and more interesting use of character. As if it were a sort of expansion pack for the original. You explore this hell forsaken school once more with different characters and their backstory gets more fleshed out. But where I truly applaud the creators here, is how one chapter actually took place outside this Heavenly Host Elementary.

One remark has to be made though, some story parts are way too long. It asked nearly one full hour from me before I could start playing. While I adore long stories, this game could have dosed it a ton better. But with a healthy dose of humor, horror, heartwarming and thrilling parts… It’s forgiven.

The fact that you see unanswered questions get answered and how the characters are used to their full potential is just  mind-blowing to see.  I said it before, and I’ll say it again. This here, it nailed the story perfectly. I have barely any remarks to the story. And even if you have experienced the previous installment… This will have some quite unexpected turns.

Wait, what was that?

Son of a gun! I’m quite sure I heard something. Maybe it was one of the amazing music tracks from the amazing soundtrack. Too bad that some of them are quite short.

Or might it be one of the voices? Like the stunning voice acting some have. Which brings incredible atmosphere to the table. What am I talking about? Reviewing voices? Am I going insane?

But those sounds, they are crisp and clear. Yes, they make me feel extremely scared. I’m afraid to move. It’s almost like the sounds got me extremely drawn into the game…

Damn, I saw a ghost.

Potentially I’m seeing things. Possibly I’m not trapped in this school! Perhaps I’m too drawn into this game. That might be it. It was such an unbelievable entry into the series.

And the visuals in this game blew me truly off my socks. Creepy hallways and “nicely” decorated classrooms. Every place was nicely designed.

None of the places felt unfinished. Every location had such attention to detail and some had some neat additional dialogue.

The cutscenes, are underused. The game has only a nice cutscene at the start where there are a lot of images used. Here is the hard part, I barely can’t say anything about the animation of this game. Unless you take one new element into a count. The “corruption” level shall we say to avoid spoilers.

The more wrong moves you do, the longer you do to escape (a dangerous situation), the more red your screen becomes. It’s almost like you see a wave of blood passing in front of your face. And that is an amazing touch.

Gameplay

I think I’m safe. Thankfully. I knew that writing this article would have helped me. Now I’m sure that I’m a big fan of the Corpse Party series. And I waited on purpose with this article to give this game a special number.

And the gameplay of this entry didn’t disappoint one bit. Where you have a big limitation how you can move, you can explore every single bit of the school. Thanks to the new investigation system. It was truly such a nice thing to see.

There were also many tweaks to the game. Like the ability to replay voice acting! Yes, when you’re inside the menu, you can let the characters say their lines again in the “history” menu.

In addition to that, the amount of save slots. My lords, are there a lot of save slots. Maybe a bit too much, but I’m not complaining that much since you will need it. With the addition I mentioned earlier, you will need to save on certain locations since a screw-up can be easily made.

The game can be a bit hard, but exploring each and every room to make sure you haven’t missed anything is a great way to progress. Another helpful tip I give is, explore the previous game also extremely well. If you do that, there will be additional content waiting for you in this game.

The length of this game is just mind-blowing. I’m not going to lie that I was able to play this game for nearly a month. Admitted, I played various other stuff in that month in order to write some interesting articles for my blog. But to have it completed just recently, is just a great sign.

Where I have to applaud the developers here is the fascinating addition of the bonus content. There are no extra chapters this time around, apart from one, when you have seen ALL the endings; including the wrong ones. You can listen to all in game music, with a sort of clunky player, and you can hear some behind the scenes’ commentary from the voice actors.

And with that, I’m going to leave it here for this article. While I realize that I have been vague on certain parts, I encourage you guys to play this game to find out how big of a masterpiece this game truly is!

Conclusion

The bad:

– Sometimes story parts are a bit too long.

– Some music tracks should have been a bit longer.

The good:

+ Amazing story.

+ Epic audio work in both the music and sound parts that will really draw you in.

+ An amazing game with stellar visuals.

+ Great voice acting.

+ Nice bonus content.

+ Challenging.

+ ….

Final words:

This game truly held me in its grip. I can’t wait to replay the original Corpse Party in order to unlock everything in this gem. While I tried something different to present this 20th review of mine, I had a tough time reviewing this one. This game was perfect in my eyes and I could only nitpick.

I truly cross my fingers that XSeed games ships more of these developers overseas since they are truly worth the time and money. Since these two games were spot on classics for me. It even got me into watching anime and reading manga again. Something I stopped doing because of games.

This game series is one of my favorites. It deserves a spot on “my most influencing games of my lifetime” list. And pretty high on this list!

Anyway, it’s how I said before my conclusion, play it for yourself, and you will understand that this game is made with the gamers in mind. This adventure is one that will grab you and don’t let you loose until the end!

Score: 99/100

An introduction to Q

A very special Hi hi Hello to all my Arpegians, Nekos and BSF. If you don’t already know who I am don’t worry. My name is Qudduws or Q to most. I am a Host of the Buttonsmashers Podcast, Every !So! often Podcast, an Editor of the Buttonsmashers blog, and of course an Arpegian. As this is not the BSB you can now add backup writer for Nekojonez’s Gaming Blog. Hmm… So how should I go about this intro to me? What would you like to know?

Into to Q

Ok let’s start with why I am here. As you may know my bro Neko is going to be on a Hiatus from his regular Blogging updates and in some ways the internet from now till early September. Neko has kindly asked me to help keep the Nekojonez’s Gaming Blog active by the occasional update during his absence, a request and offer I am happy to oblige with. Now to be quite clear Neko and I have very different writing styles but I will try to keep any content I post here relevant to things that Neko and you the readers will approve of. My personal tastes in video games are RPGs and more so it’s sub-genre JRPGs. This is one thing Neko and I share in common so I’ll try to post update based on titles like Persona, Pokemon, and the Tales series. I can’t promise not to include the occasional cat picture update, lol sorry If I’m gonna be writing on Neko’s blog I’m gonna have to be a bit of a cat. Hmm I wonder if I should use a different Pen name here. How does NekoQ sound?
I am a National of the country Trinidad of the twin island (Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean). To quote Blake of the Knightcast “he’s a Pirate”. My nationality aside I have not done much traveling on this planet we call earth but I plan to change that pretty soon (sideways glace to Neko) 😉 . Ok that will have to wrap up the main intro to me, don’t worry we’ll get to know each other more as I continue to update here.

Favourite Games

Lol I feel like I’m filling out an online dating profile as I write this. 😉

· Persona series

· Golden sun series

· Pokémon series

· Mass Effect series

· Xenoblade Chronicles

· Inazuma Eleven trilogy on DS

· Harvest Moon: A wonderful life (<3 Nami!)

· Forza 4,5 (only because the Top Gear crew are a part of the game)

· Final Fantasy (3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, Bravely Default) “no other FF games were made”

· Zelda Wind Waker

That is just a short list but there are many other titles that I love playing that I didn’t add to the list because of relevance. If you would like to know what else I play you can check my Raptr account: Link

Favourite Cat?

This is an obvious answer: Sparta

Isn’t she just the cutest thing.

Super Sparta 😀

I think this should be able to serve as a good intro to me. If you have any questions then feel free to ask them in the comments below. 😀

Arpegi Exclusive: Liebster Award

Aw yeah! I won another award. It’s the 4th award I won. I won one award before with this blog. A link to that article is well, there. Then I won two awards as a member of the ButtonSmashers group. I understand that this is simply a “chain letter award”, but as blogger, I look at it differently! This is an opportunity to promote people and it’s proof that there are actually people reading your blog. It feels special to receive any award. Okay, any good award. So, thank you so much for this nice trophy! But let’s get into the part that you need to do with each one of these sort of awards. Write something about yourself and infect… I mean give it to others. (Totally meant as a joke there.)

Details

Given by: World Of Harley

Received on: 27th January 2014 (Blame my exams for the late article)

Article: CLICK HERE.

Rules

Well, I know this is lazy but here is the rules copy pasted from World Of Harley

So basically you follow some predetermined rules. I’ll post the actual rules below. I have to answer some questions that Airlia put to me, then nominate a further 10 bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It’s a shame it’s only 10 really, there are a lot of bloggers who I’d love to promote.

So firstly, I’d like to thank Airlia warmly for her nomination. It means a lot. If you’d like to check out her blog, you can find it right here. I’d recommend it!

So next up, the rules of the Award are as follows:

1. Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
2. Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
3. Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
4. Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
5. Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.

Right, now for the questions. Hold tight!

Questions

1. Are you afraid of clowns? Why/why not?

I’m not actually. Do I like them? No, not really actually. To be honest, I don’t really care about clowns. I tend to be natural in this. I don’t mind if I go watch a show and a clown starts doing an act but it’s not that I would allow it to get close.

2. If you could learn any language you don’t currently know, what would it be and why?

Japanese. Because I’m a retro gamer lover and I’m a big fan of games that come out of Japan. I’m so bummed out that some games don’t get a proper translation.

3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully still writing articles. My short term dreams are finishing my studies and having a job.

4. Where do you see yourself in 20 years?

My long term plans, well let’s see. I honestly think that I will be happily married and have children. I have a job and I write on some blog because I never got bored of it.

5. If given the opportunity, would you visit space?

Depends. I wouldn’t want to go to space to explore. But if it’s to live there since we destroyed to much of this planet… Well, I would go. But I rather have both my legs… paws, since I’m a Neko, on solid earth.

6. Who/What inspires you?

Other creativity. When I see something that was “out of the box” or “well made” or just creative in general, I tend to like it. I get new idea’s then myself since I’m shown other angles for things. I honestly believe that when you look at things from different angles you can write more interestingly.

So, mostly life experiences inspire me. If I see something that might improve myself, I try to implement it in my life. I have some game developers who inspire me. Mostly indy developers who do something different with for example their Steam description.

7. Would you rather be rich or famous? Why?

Though question. I don’t want to be rich since then I have friends that only are friends because of my money. While being famous sounds interesting, I’m afraid that I won’t have any privacy then. I rather would be a bit famous and have some money. Enough money to be happy with my life.

So, I would rather have a balanced and healthy mixture of the two. But if I really had to choose, well… Give me the famous then. I think it would fit my life style better then being rich.

8. Hot weather or cold weather? Why?

A big no to cold weather. I get sick too quickly in cold weather. And yes, hot weather isn’t my favorite either. I enjoy myself in warm weather that isn’t hot. Like the sun gives those lovely mild temperatures and you have a soft breeze. Love it.

9. What is your favorite genre of music and why?

I don’t have one genre that I can say is my favorite but give me melodic electronic music and I’m happy. I enjoy game soundtracks as well. So, any dance, techno, hardstyle, hardcore… that’s more based on a melody then simply a bass get love from me.

The genre I listen the most to is Hardstyle. Euphoric Hardstyle to be exact. I call it melodic hardstyle myself. Since it’s origins are here in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Other music styles I enjoy are chiptune, 8bit, 16bit, electro, drum&bass, rock, techno, hardcore (tech), Japanese, Vocaloid, dance, eurodance, soundtracks, keygen music ….

Music styles I’m not really a fan off: dubstep, metal, any kind of music where they scream instead of sing …

10. Tell us your quote of the day?

Is this the last question already? Awn! Anyways, let me tell a few of my life quote actually.

Life can’t be said in a line, since it branches off too much.

The past is your soul, the present are your brains and the future are your shoes. Use these three to walk forward.

If life was a shit, would you flush it?

So, let’s wrap it up here for the questions. Let’s go on to the next section!

I give the award too:

I’m so sorry that I’m going to bend the rules a bit on this one. I don’t read a lot of blogs that have less then 200 followers. So, I gave this award to any blogger that deserves more attention in my opinion. Since that’s the idea behind this award, to promote small bloggers.

1. Beer and Joysticks: one of my first friends in the blogging world. It’s truly worth going to their website and follow!
2. Allahweh’s Domain: because I think she is truly worth it! I don’t need to explain more I think.
3. RetroNick: Retro gamer and collector. I recognize a lot of myself in you. So, you deserve this man!
4. TheCredileHulk: I mean, why not? He promoted an article of mine in his weekly recap!
5. Icesabel: Seeing her liking my posts on ButtonSmashers and reading her blog from time to time puts a smile on my face, she is worth it.
6. AfterDarkGaming: Go visit it now! Or are you scared of the dark?
7. Drakulus: Thanks for all the likes and having such an amazing blog!
8. What’s Your Tag?: Mine is NekoJonez, what’s yours?
9. Between Life and Games: He is a friend of a personal friend of mine. And he has a nice blog. Go and check it out!
10. Ryu Sheng: Hi man, we still need to make that RPG podcast/article thing.

The ten questions for the winners to answer.

1. What drove you to start blogging?
2. What’s on your desk / writing area?
3. What would happen if you mix a rhetorical question with a joke?
4. Do you have or had pets?
5. How would you describe your own writing style?
6. What’s the most important thing in a game?
7. What are a few things that break a game for you?
8. Is there a story behind your gamertag?
9. Do you remember any funny answers you gave on a test or exam?
10. What’s your favorite style / genre of games?

Closing words

Now comes the time for me to inform everybody about this award. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Take a look at the blogs I nominated and spread the love.

So, that was everything for this 2nd and last article for today. Thanks again for the award and I hope the future content I publish will still be interesting enough to show that I’m worthy of this award!

NekoJonez: Game Diary #4: Sick day ~ PSP Games

It’s finally back! The blog game created by yours truly NekoJonez. I came up with this game when one day I realized that some game titles were generic words and they could be hid in a story. So, I played around with the idea in my mind and I forged this game. In this game, your goal is simple. I have hid 10 game titles in a made up story. Can you find them all? Don’t worry, I always mention a list from where I got the names so there can be no real debate. If I left one in that I didn’t mention in the solution, feel free to drop a comment. In this entry of Game Diary, I hid 10 PSP games. I created my list using this WikiPedia list. I admit this list is going to be tricky. Keep in mind that I used words that can be hidden in a sentence. That is a great tip to find some. So, feel free to leave a comment saying how many you found and which ones. And if you enjoy this, hop on over to my blog, I have more of them there. Anyways, here we go! 

The story

Dear diary

Today, I think I got infected with a virus. Not on my computer, thankfully. I got really sick today. Finally some rest after all these days. I was getting sick of the rush of every day. Trains, cars, motorcycles… It was giving me a serious headache. Besides, they had a strike in Brooktown High today, I couldn’t go to college anyways.

I couldn’t get into the flow of things. Of course, I was sick. My temperature gone up big time. I decided to try and play some games. But I couldn’t do it. My concentration was there. I switched on the TV and I noticed that I got some background noise.

The beats from the music from the neighbors next door was loud enough to play through my movie. The movie was about cars without a driver. A simple idea but I wish I could crush the music installation of the ones next door. But I wasn’t able to exit my home today to actually do it.

That’s all for today. I hope to write more later. When I’m healed.

Blaire.

Solution

Wow, this story was short. Well, that makes it a bit easier I think. Here follow the games in order of appearance.

1. Infected
2.  Rush
3. Cars
4. Brooktown High
5. Flow
6. Up
7. Beats
8. Driver
9. Crush
10. Exit

So, I hoped you enjoy this article and this game. I enjoyed writing this one a lot. It’s an old series that made it’s return. Hopefully I have new idea’s for future ones soon. Tell me from which library I should write a new article in this series.

Anyways, I’m going to try and write some nice new articles in my break so keep an eye on my Twitter feed for updates!

First Impression: The Walking Dead – Season 1 (PC) ~ Overhyped?

Official website

Deep breaths, Jonez, deep breaths. I might have to hide after this first impression or a horde of fanboys might come and attack and bite me. I’m scared to talk about my first impression with this game. I just finished the first chapter out of five from this game and it’s not what I expected. I’m going to warn you, this game might shock people, and this first impression might give me tons of bad comments. But please, keep in mind that this is my opinion on it and if you want to discuss my opinion, do it in a civilized manner. We have to stick together when we try to survive the horde of bad games lately. I got this game a week ago for an extremely low price. And it’s an adventure game from TellTale, a company that made the excellent Tales Of Monkey Island. And point-&-click / adventure games are my favorite genre ever. But does this game live up to the hype I created for myself or was this a big mistake to hype? Well, let’s make the harsh decision and let’s take a look at it. Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game or / and this article. 

The story, such a weird thing. 

Indeed, used a screenshot from GameSpot

Yesterday, I recorded a podcast with Q about this and I already talked about this. Because I was able to verify my fears, I think I can talk about this with more comfort. The story of the Walking Dead game isn’t as good as people claim it to be.

Don’t get me wrong. The setting and idea behind it is pretty nice but there are a few things that made me shake my head pretty bad. There are some major flaws with the story.

The first thing were this game falls flat on it’s face is the fact that you know that there is going to be a victim. Sometimes you have the illusion that you can choose while in reality, the outcome doesn’t change.

Some choices just give you a different dialogue part while the main storyline is pretty much the same.  I can be wrong on this but from what I have played, my impression isn’t the greatest in terms of story.

Most characters die a bit too quickly as well. You barely get any connection time and a poof, they are death. And that is just lame in my opinion.

The second thing that makes me not really like the story is the fact that it exists out of some cliche things. Arguments and zombie attacks. Some things happen to have some gameplay but don’t make sense story wise. There is a moment were you are a in heated argument, somebody collapses and you are allowed to take charge. Ehrm, is it just me or did we make an awkward jump in terms of story here?

Something else that bugs me quite a lot is the fact that you are on a quick time limit. I understand the idea behind it, in real life and at those moments you wouldn’t have time to think about it as well… But when you play through the game for the first time it’s just a annoying thing. Since you barely get any time to read each option. And by the time you have read them, you have to decide quickly before you stay silent or do nothing.

Is the story bad? No, it isn’t bad. It has it’s memorable moments. The writing is nicely done but the execution isn’t the best for a game. I always feel that some main story is taking place and that you simply decides which character is going to die now or later on the road.

And the rest?

Usually I keep my story segment short, but for this game, I made an exception. Honestly, I think that the story isn’t the strong point of the game. The gameplay is. The last thing I’m going to say about the story is that for what I have seen now, the characters are a bit … well, paper thin. Like in episode two, suddenly another guy popped up out of nowhere. No explanation at the start. Just poof, he is a part of the group.

Anyways, enough “ranting” about the story. Let’s talk controls. And they are awkward at best for adventure game veterans. The simple fact you need to scroll when you want to talk or use an item on somebody is unnatural. Nearly every adventure / point-&-click game have a handy inventory where you can drop and drop the items from.

It’s possible to get used to the controls but with some animation flaws, they aren’t pretty good. Try holding the arrow keys and walk into the wall. Yes, the old shacking screen is there. TellTale, you disappoint me here. I know you guys can do better!

Do I have different complaints about the Walking Dead? Yes, yes I have. I’m under the impression that this game is quite short. A normal adventure game takes you on a lengthy adventure that takes you in tons of different places. But after a small 1,5 hours I was done with the first out of 5 chapters. Hearing from a close friend of mine, who has beaten the whole first season, each chapter is around 1,5 hours long. And trust me, veteran adventure gamers won’t get stuck easily. So, a short 5 – 10 hour game. That’s something I finish in an afternoon, and that’s not such a good thing for an adventure game.

So, this first impression sounds extremely negative. It’s almost like I’m about to say that this is a bad game. And trust me, it isn’t. This game suffers from too much hype. Everybody talks how awesome and amazing this game is and don’t look at the flaws this game has. While this game has flaws, it doesn’t make this game a bad game. The charm of the game is that the flaws get hidden behind a well crafted game. I have to give TellTale that.

The story has good voice acting and is graphically extremely well done.

Thinking about it, this game is actually more meant to be discussed with friends. Also, watching to a let’s play of this game is a tad bit more enjoyable then actually playing it. Since the surprise of what’s going to happen is then lost. I’ll finish this game for sure and I’ll write a full review about it. By then my opinion might have changed. And then I will also talk about some other things I didn’t had the time to put in this article.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article. I’m working on a few new articles and I hope to see you guys there. Be sure to also check out the podcast I did with Allahweh! It’s the previous article.

‘The Gaming Goddess’ Podcast – Season 5, Ep. 3: “Neko’s Arpegi”

‘The Gaming Goddess’ Podcast – Season 5, Ep. 3: “Neko’s Arpegi”.