Yooka-Laylee: A Game with Good Intentions

Fans of the Banjo-Kazooie series have long-awaited a true sequel since Banjo-Tooie’s release on the Nintendo 64 in 2000.  When Yooka-Laylee was finally announced as a spiritual successor to the much-beloved pair of platformers, I’m sure every Banjo-Kazooie fan jumped for joy.  Many people, like myself, hoped that Yooka-Laylee would harken in a new era of great platformers in the style of those we had grown up with during the late 90’s.  Now that I have completed the game, what is my verdict?

Honestly, I don’t think we’re quite there yet.  Nevertheless, it’s a big, big step in the right direction.

Foxy Cosplay: The Finishing Touches

At long last, the long-awaited moment has arrived!  Foxy is complete, after nearly a year’s worth of work, not to mention blood, sweat, and tears.  Literally, as far as the blood is concerned.  Sewing needles are sharp.  The tears almost happened on a few occasions, during the more difficult parts of the project.  The sweat is just figurative.  That’s gross.  Anyway, self-indulgent rambling aside, the final steps are detailed below.

Day 16: The Game with the Best Cut Scenes

The 30-day game topics…thingy continues with a seemingly straightforward one.  The game with the best cut scenes.  At first, I took several things into consideration as I made my decision.  Games with the best graphics.  The best voice acting.  The best humor.  And my initial pick was Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time.  Following along with my original criteria, the game looks like a Pixar movie.  The voice acting is superb.  And the humor?  Hilarious!  Nevertheless, something just didn’t feel right.  This post…was too easy.  Was I really going to just settle with the obvious?  Or could I do better?

Turns out, I could, and after careful consideration, the game I choose is Portal 2.  Yes, I understand your confusion.  Portal 2 has no cut scenes.  In fact, no Valve game I’ve ever played has had cut scenes.  While that list encompasses a grand total of three games, Portal 1 and 2 and Half-Life 2, I still think that’s enough for me to throw out a little word here that I think describes Valve’s take on games pretty nicely.  Immersion.  What better way to break the illusion that a good game creates than a cut scene during which we have no control of our character and there are subtitles on the bottom of the screen.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t lose control of my body and see words floating before my eyes whenever I have an important conversation with someone.  That would…be weird, to say the least.

Foxy Cosplay: The Head Part 4

Now that Foxy’s head is nearly complete, all that’s left are the glorious details!  So let’s not waste any time!  First off, the creation of the tuft on the top of his head and the ears were pretty straightforward.  The tuft was carved from upholstery foam and covered in red “fur”.  It was a bothersome shape to work with, but it was a pretty simple affair otherwise, and I was able to attach it to the top of the head with super glue.  The main bulk of the ears were cut out of the largest scraps of upholstery foam I had left over (one ear even had to be made out of two pieces stitched together because I didn’t have a piece large enough for the whole thing), while the rim was also cut out of foam and sewn on.  After sewing on the fabric, the ears were largely complete, save for attaching them to the head, which will be described shortly.

The Duck’s Gaming Hoard Part 2

Hey there, everybodies, we’re back for part 2 of my video game collection tour!  In the previous episode, I showed off my PlayStation-related figurines from Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Ratchet & Clank.  If you haven’t checked it out, please do.  This video, on the other hand, covers all the random things I couldn’t fit into the last video, which mainly includes Nintendo and PC items.  Behold the Duck’s plushie collection, including my harmless plush versions of the Five Nights at Freddy’s characters.  Watch in awe as you witness one of the largest figurines known to mankind (probably not, but it sounds cooler that way), Scervo from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  And let’s not forget some iconic items from the Zelda series, like Link’s Master Sword and Hylian Shield!

The Duck’s Gaming Hoard Part 1

Thanks to my discovery of the wonderful thing that is a comic convention (a misleading name indeed when it covers gaming, movies, and TV in addition to comic books), I have been able to amass a semi-respectable collection of video game items, including figurines, plushies, and replica weapons and the like.  It also fueled my obsession to the point that I have felt compelled to purchase these things even when I’m not visiting the comicon.  I just can’t get enough gaming goodness!  Wherever these wondrous items came from, the point is, my collection is pretty sweet.  I guess.

Breath of the Wild: A Review

It is probably safe to say that The Legend of Zelda series is one of the most beloved in video game history.  With a history of 30 years and counting, it is only natural, then, that such a series would need to change, either to keep up with improving technology or to prevent itself from becoming stale.  For these reasons, the series has indeed undergone many changes in its long history, with varying levels of success.

Ocarina of Time was revolutionary for the series just as Super Mario 64 was for the Super Mario Bros. franchise, for the Nintendo 64 characterized the grand change from the 2D games of the Super Nintendo era to brilliant, albeit rather polygonal, 3D.  With the GameCube, we started seeing larger worlds with Wind Waker’s Great Sea and Twilight Princess’s expanded version of Hyrule.  Twilight Princess also remains, to my knowledge, the only T-rated game in the franchise (probably because of Thelma’s…upper body), as this was apparently the series’ attempt to become darker and more adult.  Skyward Sword for the Wii tried to mix things up further by placing some of the game’s challenges outside the dungeons and incorporating advanced motion controls.

A Triumphant Return to Final Fantasy XII

For the past several years, I have intended to return to Final Fantasy XII for my second playthrough.  But, as is often the case, what I intend to do and what actually happens are two very different things.  I repeatedly had other games to play, keeping the twelfth numbered installment in the Final Fantasy series on the shelf.  Plus, I have to admit that I always had a bit of a grudge against the game.  I remembered being pretty apathetic towards the characters, I wasn’t very fond of a politics-related storyline, and…  Now this last one is kind of silly, but…I thought the game was too big.

Too big, eh?  I like large open worlds to explore far more than I like cramped or linear stages with little freedom to move around.  I love searching through every nook and cranny and discovering new things, a task that is, naturally, far more rewarding in a large world than a small one.  And yet, I recall several times in the past saying I didn’t like FF12 because it was too big.  What’s the deal?

Gee, I sure hate that this game gives me more than my money’s worth.

Virtual Bastion is Coming

It was four years ago that I teamed up with Hatm0nster and Cary (from Recollections of Play) to create the collaborative gaming community known as United We Game.  It was here that viewpoints could be exchanged and opinions respected, as in the end, we are all a community, a community of unique individuals united by a singular passion.  Over the years, we have grown and have even expanded into Youtube to share our love of gaming in another medium with an even larger audience.

It’s time we took the next step.

Foxy Cosplay: The Head Part 3

Based on the number of posts covering this topic, Foxy’s head has obviously been the most involved part of the costume, and I suppose it makes sense.  A face is far more important than a leg or a foot, after all, and so I simply must make it perfect.  This is also the process I’ve been looking forward to since the beginning, adding the fur and other various details to the head.  Now he’s really going to start looking like more than just a foam blob.