The Metroid series of games have carved out a weird niche in my memories. I’ve always felt that the games were really cool and I’ve always wanted to play them through to completion, but I never do. In many cases, I never get far at all.
video games
There’s A Zombie On Your Lawn
I have been dancing around Plants vs. Zombies for the longest time. In spite of the overwhelming positive response for the game, a love for PopCap Games after Peggle ate me alive and a personal endorsement from my girlfriend, I historically haven’t enjoyed the tower defense genre. I don’t like planning for 10 minutes and then spending the next 10 watching my defenses crumble to crap without the ability to fix anything until I fail and try again.
With Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap Games managed to create a tower defense game that not only addresses the things I don’t like about the genre, but create a wildly fun game that may be universally appealing to just about anyone. I still consider myself a tower defense hater, but I love this game.
War of Eustrath: If You Like Fire Emblem, Try This
Since the launch of the iTunes App Store, I’ve been longing for a Fire Emblem style turn-based strategy RPG to hit the iPhone. There have been no shortage of strategy games on the platform, but up until I found War of Eusthrath HD for iPad (which hit the App Store on June 11th), I hadn’t found one that was right up my alley. Having poured in close to 16 hours into the game in the past week, this game has sent me to strategy RPG heaven.
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Mike Tyson Ate My Children
Mike Tyson is famous for a lot of things. On top of being one of the greatest boxers of all-time, he’s also a legendary last boss in the world of video games. He’s so brutally hard, that Nintendo freely gave away the code to skip directly to Mike Tyson, if you dared. You may think, “Oh man! I can skip to the end; this will be a cake walk!” but then Iron Mike hits you with a lightning-quick punch you didn’t see and you instantly hit the canvas. It’s then you realize, you’re screwed.
Thoughts on the e3 Press Conferences
When it comes to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the main event has always been the press conferences by the major platform holders to start the show. Over the last few years, the major third party developers have begun hosting their own events, which I care little about to be honest. The “megatons” always come from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, so I make it a point to watch the press conferences no matter what.
This year was a bit weird, as I had to “work around my day job” to watch them. However, I saw them all and would like to share my impressions on those conferences with you. Did Kinect connect with the hardcore and mainstream audiences? Did Nintendo abandon the hardcore gamer for good? Did Sony ride its momentum to e3 2010 glory? Hit the link for my impressions.
Summertime Bits and Bites
Summer is about as close to an off-season for video games for me as it gets. Sure, I’ve dabbled a bit in a bunch of different games on different platforms over the past few weeks, but I’ve been very much caught up in the spoils of the season, such as good weather, outdoor parties and street basketball.
Gaming and writing about gaming have taken a serious nose-dive on my list of things-to-do of late. For the few people who follow my blog regularly, I apologize. I’m hoping I can write more in detail about what’s happened and what’s to come, but for now, I will give you some snippets of things that I’ve been up to gaming-wise and my thoughts on current gaming events.
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Why I Maintain a Blog About Video Games
Based on my Google Analytics stats, virtually nobody reads this blog. The majority of the hits are from myself, making sure my posts are formatted properly and don’t have any spelling mistakes. Every now and then I’ll get a few hits from random parts of the world. But for the most part, traffic to this blog is a joke. I admit, I haven’t tried very hard to promote it: I infrequently update the In Third Person Twitter feed, which has 0 followers as of this post, and outside of my girlfriend (whom I’ve kept this blog a secret for about 6 months) nobody I personally know even knows this exists.
In This Month’s Issue
1993 was a very big year in gaming for me. It was the year I got a Super Nintendo for my birthday and the year I read my first video game magazine. Both of those moments were key in making me the enthusiast I am today, for better or worse. I won’t talk about the Super Nintendo experience this time. I wanted to write about that magazine and how it completely changed my media consumption habits.
Married to the Mob
Before I invested in an XBOX 360, I was starved for core games as a Wii-only owner. I was going through a drought in games to play, and the Wii version of The Godfather was starting to pick up buzz. I had never watched a Godfather movie or played a Grand Theft Auto game before, the promise of being able to point my Wii remote as a gun or beat thugs down with swinging fist motions seemed really cool. Also, when you don’t have that many options to choose from, you’re more willing to step outside your comfort zone for some satisfaction.
Impressions on the Green Day: Rock Band Demo
I like Green Day. I like Rock Band. Therefore, Green Day: Rock Band should be a day-one purchase for me, right? Maybe not. I’m definitely starting to feel burned out on the music game genre, and I’m not sure I want 47 Green Day songs at once. Going into this demo, I was a bit skeptical about what I’d find.
In Third Person 