Category: Meaningless Ramble

Gaming, Meaningless Ramble, Review

Apex Legends: A Mythical Geometric Vetrex

… and then a few weeks ago Apex Legends landed without any warning and made lots of people go “Waaahhhh!” – So why was that?

I originally wrote a whole dull paragraph here about my chequered past with PU:BG and Fortnite:BR, but that was far too long and can be summarised by saying:

“I like the concept of Battle Royale games, but I’m just not very good at them” 

That’s not to say that skill or ultimate placement correspond to fun, but playing a game that you can’t feel improvement or just generally show up to be an extra notch on someone else’s frag counter is rarely a rewarding experience. I want to feel as though I can at least hold my own, so my infatuation with both of the above titles gradually tarnished until I gave up and uninstalled them. Then Apex Legends showed up (apparently having something to do with Titanfall) and I got sucked back in to that Battle Royale play-loop; firstly out of curiosity but sticking around because it turns out it is actually fun. Continue reading “Apex Legends: A Mythical Geometric Vetrex”

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Gaming, Meaningless Ramble

Backlog: Embracing the Beast

… as I find myself in a post-Resident-Evil-2-Remake-World I’m floundering a little for another game to get stuck in to. The RE2Make has taken up a big chunk of my gaming enthusiasm recently from the pre-release streaming of the original, writing a number of Resi-Related pieces, and finally running through the various scenarios of the actual release. I think I’m at a point where I’m happy to put it down for a while; sure, I haven’t yet completed the 4th survivor, but for me that was never a big attraction (even on my well-worn disks of the original) and now I just don’t have the patience to work out the best strategy through each area looking for that elusive perfect run. So what now?

Well, it seems like a fitting coincidence that the wordsmiths of LaterLevels and LividLightning have announced that this is the official #LoveYourBacklog week 2019. It’s a week to embrace the unplayed titles on that ol’ waiting list in an effort to transform what is often considered a negative in to a celebration of your gaming passion. Continue reading “Backlog: Embracing the Beast”

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Gaming, Meaningless Ramble, QotM

QotM*: The Protagonist

*Question of the Month is a stack of pancakes whipped up by Later Levels and drizzled in Maple Syrup by OverThinker Y!

2019’s ‘Question of the Month’ format has been shaken up. Instead of individual gaming conundrums the dream-weavers in charge of this community chaos are focused on a much bigger goal: Coming up with the Ultimate Video Game over the course of this rotation around the sun. Each month they’re asking for entries to add to the growing structure of this fantastical game covering different aspects. For February the community have been charged with adding the main protagonist to the existing setting.

… still not entirely clear? Head here to see details of February’s challenge and read more about the overall concept…

I was thrilled to be picked as the winning entry in January’s challenge to define the setting of this game and, as I’m now part of the team, I’m no longer eligible to win in future months. This doesn’t mean however that I can’t just join in for fun and as I came up with the setting I thought I’d have a crack at trying to put a suitable protagonist in to it.

If you haven’t read my description of the Setting then click here to read that piece as it will give what follows much more context!

Of course regular readers might have noticed that I’m not one for just answering the question and I often take liberties with what actually constitutes an answer so the following is my own meandering extension of the piece I wrote covering the setting; I’m sure that many of you out there are much better at defining characters and I look forward to reading what everyone comes up with… but for now here’s my own take on who the protagonist could be…    Continue reading “QotM*: The Protagonist”

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Gaming, Meaningless Ramble, Resident Evil

Resident Evil 2: The Resident Evil 2 Perspective

Spoiler Warning & a Disclaimer: This article contains discussion of Resident Evil 2 (Remake, 2019) including plot spoilers… it also contains the uninhibited ramblings of my Original Resident Evil 2 fanboy brain compartment. Please note that I do consider the remake to be a darn fine game and excellent re-imagining of the original.

The Resident Evil 2 Remake…

Henceforth known as the Re2Make… not to be confused with the REMake referring to the GameCube version of the original, or the HD remaster of that game the REMakeHD….

… is excellent!

It handles the original content with the care that such a widely beloved title deserves whilst managing to be an enriched journey back to that RPD Police Station. I have been captivated by the new experience; to see these locations brought back to life in such chilling ways, to see the characters grown though excellent writing and acting, and to see the genre of survival horror so clearly the core of the gameplay has been a delight. It’s difficult to shortlist highpoints of the experience as such a fan of the original: That first rainsoaked approach to the Police Station was jaw dropping, the Lickers (undoubtedly my favourite enemy in the series) are terrifying, The original locations that have been recreated are full to the brim with detail and atmosphere are beautiful…. yes, it’s quite the experience all round. As a full package it does something I almost thought impossible; it pleases old fans, new fans, and total newcomers. Continue reading “Resident Evil 2: The Resident Evil 2 Perspective”

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Editorial, Gaming, Meaningless Ramble

Editorial: February 2019 – Downstream

Wow! I’ve really hit the ground running this year with a crazy busy time blogging; I managed to fit in two bonus blog posts (but more about those later) along with following through on my promise last month to do some streaming.

The original idea was that I wanted to have one more revisit of Resident Evil 2 (PS1) before the remake landed last week and as it’s a game I know *ahem* pretty well I thought it would be nice to invite people along for the ride by streaming the event. Now, I have streamed in the past, most notably my dive in to Jurassic Park: Trespasser, but this felt a little different as I wanted to actually add some value with my narration rather than just laughing at the weird-legged dinosaurs. The goal was to share why I love this game so much and hopefully provide a few interesting crumbs of trivia along the way. I also managed to stream from the original hardware; yes, the stream featured my original copy of the game, original PS1, original controller, and even the original memory card that I dedicated to this game. Technically it was a little bit fiddly to set up and I discovered in a test (luckily) that you couldn’t stream the piracy warning stream without the whole thing falling over (I never worked out if this was OBS or the cheap USB capture device I picked up). Continue reading “Editorial: February 2019 – Downstream”

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Gaming, Indie Gaming, Meaningless Ramble, Nintendo Switch, Review

Nidhogg II: Get Eaten, Win Game

…with a deft flick of your wrist the tip of your rapier neatly disarms your opponent. They stand. Stunned for a second before you run then through, their body hanging momentarily from your sword, dripping purple. Then they crumple to the ground and you run. That was the last hurdle. All glory is yours… you are consumed by the Nidhogg in triumph… 

In a moment of impulsiveness over the festive break, I picked up Nidhogg II for the Switch. I own the original for PC and it is the sort of game that can be quickly wheeled out at a gathering for some fast multiplayer action if called upon. Given that the Switch is now our portable gaming unit of choice, picking up the sequel on that platform (with it’s handily built-in multiple controllers) seemed like a great way to both try it out and convince my friends to drop in for a round or two at some opportune moment. The concept and gameplay of the two titles are very similar, so for the uninitiated it works like this: Continue reading “Nidhogg II: Get Eaten, Win Game”

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Gaming, Meaningless Ramble, Resident Evil

Top 5 Lost Resident Evil Games

I know I’ve been hitting the Resident Evil themed pieces hard recently. I’ll try and resume my usual diverse range of topics after this one! 

One of the many things I found myself jabbering about during my Resident Evil 2 Revisit stream event … alpha dash plus special champion edition X… last week was the mythical original version of Resident Evil 2; known in the Resi-community (Resiumity?) as “Resident Evil 1.5”.

I also rambled about many other things and I’m likely to further unpack the four hour streaming experience in my February editorial – but overall it was super positive! 

Having reflected on the whole experience I keep coming back to my thoughts about RE1.5 and more generally how the ‘Resident Evil’ universe (Resiverse?) seems to be littered with unfinished games. It’s not unusual for a game to be quite different upon release to versions shown in expos or early trailers; there’s often content cut or concepts significantly revised, but Resident Evil has a history of entirely scrapping versions of games to either be abandoned forever or for designers to pick over as they scavenge for usable morsels of content. I guess, given the sheer volume of work under the Resident Evil banner, it’s not too surprising and I think many fans of the series would argue that some of the titles that were released should have by rights also ended up on the cutting room floor (I’m looking at you Umbrella Corps). Continue reading “Top 5 Lost Resident Evil Games”

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