thirdworldgamer

  Space Quest - Interest in computers started with --- well, games lol. Sierra's 'Quest' games were really fun and just the idea of typing in a command and making your onscreen avatar do something, felt really amazing at the time. I think this introduced the idea of, instead of just watching an adventure unfold, you could be a part of it.  Contra - There was this video rental store near my house which I visited, and they had various Famicom's setup and you could play many games. This was one of them. Now while I could cite various other games and there are many, many great NES/Famicom titles, I just remember Contra is the only one you could really finish within a short afternoon, as the 30 lives trick made it possible to see the entire 'story' play out.  And it's the only one where Schwarzenegger and Stallone teamed up in their prime years to fight aliens! Who doesn't want that? Sonic 2 - I was one of the few people with a Sega Genesis and Sonic is as ic...

  Played more Onimusha over the weekend. As one who has completed Sekiro, I can definitely see the influence of that game. It feels like the Capcom staff played that game and thought, "We can do better!". With Capcom's knowhow on button timings and just that frame-by-frame precision they have on fighting games, you can definitely 'feel' it in Onimusha. It seems to me you have a cancel window before you parry, exactly like in Street Fighter, so if you commit to hitting the one handed strike but see your opponent is going for an armored move or something that is 'unblockable', you can still parry it within a window of time. It sounds scary and seems like something that is not casual friendly --- but every player should try it, it's really exhilirating and the reward of just watching Musashi do that parry animation (and the SCREECH- sound that a sword parry makes) --- is incredibly satisifying. Each parry even differs depending on what your opponent did. ...

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game about a world where, every year, a Monolith has a number which ticks down. Every time that number goes down, this triggers the death of everyone who is aged the same as the previous number. This has been happening for a long time now so this city of people have been sending expeditions to the Monolith to try and understand or stop what is happening.  The way the story is told is very Western-styled, but the gameplay is entirely influenced by Japanese RPG's. It uses turn-based combat but it is very unique in that, you still have to actively participate even if it's your opponent's turn. This is done in a very dynamic style so you're never  just passively sitting and choosing options like in older Japanese RPG's.  The story and the adventure in the game as the key points as they have a lot of great and unexpected twists and turns. The key question on why people are getting killed each year and how the people can stop this from hap...

You'd think that this game is all about ogling at the main character. Honestly, they didn't need to go this route but I think, given how hard it is to get attention with ALL the video games that you can buy, this was probably the only way for them to brand themselves or get attention. It does likely make a lot of people uncomfortable to buy the game since some may think it's X-rated or something, but I suppose it's a bit of an issue that doesn't really directly impact the game itself. That said, in a world where the USA is promoting not-very-pretty girls now due to some political stance or social justice warring, it is refreshing to see that Shift Up wanted to make sure that their heroine is actually alluring / has some sex appeal.  The game starts out a bit confusing, you're just thrust into this apocalyptic world with no idea what's going on, so when you play it, you're basically just trying to enjoy the gameplay. The main character, Eve, starts out re...

 I tweeted this out earlier and I think it's worthy of publishing --- The other day, I was looking for new podcasts to listen to... Very tiring to hear Xbox influencers trying to defend Xbox's multiplatform stance. So I tried out Sacred Symbols and Kinda Funny podcast. Here's what I thought. Sacred Symbols - Colin started by talking about some personal stuff for a good hour, just fast forwarded through that shit. I mean, ok I get it, the core audience might be ok with that, but as a new listener it was weird to listen to him talk about, essentially, himself Kinda Funny podcast - They were talking about the Capcom showcase this week and how it was 'unnecessary' and I was like --- huh.... what is up with these guys. Do they know that some players actually appreciate an update direct from the developer like that? They then spent the next few minutes laughing about some, what sounded like some equipment failure on their set or something, It was funny to them, but abso...

 It's true that, Xbox Game Pass basically lets you get all of the games from Xbox Game Studios at a low price. So economically, it saves you money. However, what I don't understand is how the Xbox hardcore fanbase is continuing to cheer on Xbox management while they are openly lying to their heavily invested installed base.  A few years ago, Xbox promised exclusive games that strengthens the argument that you and other people should buy Xbox hardware. A year ago, this promise was thrown out the window, in lieu of a massive 76 billion dollar loan that Xbox owes Microsoft management for buying Activision Blizzard.  So Xbox has pivoted, and now all the games they promised would be Xbox exclusive, are no longer exclusive. The narrative has changed, particularly from voices in the Xbox community that are supposed to be speaking FOR the community. "This is a good thing", "This gives MS/Xbox more money", "In the future, everything will be an Xbox anyway"....

Forza Motorsport 8 – What I’d like to see With the Xbox Series X upon us this holiday, a lot of the usual commenters online are speculating that Forza Motorsport 8 is a sure release alongside Halo Infinite this holiday season. I’m of the opinion that Microsoft is better suited to release Forza Horizon 5 alongside the XSX just due to the mass appeal of that game. That said, I do have thoughts on FM8 if Microsoft were to release that game at the end of this year. My feedback here is mostly based on Forza Motorsport 7 – a fine racing game, I think, which was LARGELY underappreciated. At the time of its release, the only topic amongst the usual commenters like the media and “hardworking” Youtubers is that the microtransactions ruined that game. The truth was, at release, yes there was a microtransaction system, but it did not have any effect on the actual racing. At worst, it made access to some cars more difficult, but the cars you already get with the base game were already ver...

I haven't followed NBA basketball in years. There was that one time I attempted to get into NBA stuff by buying a 2k game. I don't remember what year it was. But one thing that stood out for me back then was how difficult the game was. A lot was said about how 2k's games are more simulation-based so it's a lot harder to get shots in. That's the experience I had with a 2k game (that was back in the PS3 / Xbox 360 era), and I ended up selling the game about a week after i had bought it.  I enjoy basketball. When I was a teen it was a nice way to spend time after school, just shoot some hoops and have fun. Watching NBA games or even the local PBA games is a good way to bond with other friends and just talk about your favorite players and teams. Getting older, I stopped following basketball and sports in general. Life just got in the way, or....maybe, put simply, it isn't as easy now to just 'play basketball' as it used to be when i was in high school...

Everyone has a preference. Whether you like Coke or Pepsi, Honda or Ford, Golden State or Cleveland, Xbox or Playstation - preference is unavoidable. Now in online arguments, for many years now it's a free-for-all, no holds barred debate about one thing or another. I'd focus just on console preferences for now. Things have been heating up in online discussions because Microsoft is about to release its newest console, the Xbox One X.  This is bothering a lot of people who have invested a lot of money in their preferred platforms. In particular, Sony fans have been very upset. In the local gaming community that I visit, users who prefer Sony would come in and do one thing or another: - argue the point that Playstation has more exclusive games - argue the point that discussions are not being fair/neutral - outright attack other gamers by sending them hate-filled private messages Honestly, Xbox fans have had to deal with a lot of negativity for their preferred p...

For Honor is an incredible multiplayer game. It really feels like a whole new concept, and for the first time we're seeing an actual NEW IDEA for fighting games. And it's coming from Western developers Ubisoft. There's a lot of great stuff in For Honor and I'm sure a lot of other bloggers/Youtubers have already covered them. I'm just going to write some constructive feedback for the devs so that maybe they can make the game even better than it already is....because by itself, it's a really, really good game. And, I have to say this again  - IT'S A GREAT FIGHTING GAME! Requests 1) Please fix the disconnection bugs. If you can convince Ubisoft to switch to dedicated servers, that will really help this game keep its player base. Granted the P2P system you have is already quite good and generally works. But occasionally I still get disconnections and very odd glitches which I'm sure a lot of fans have already told you about (like the 'Require...

This is a game I never planned on buying. I saw it being demoed at E3 a few times. The more recent demos they had were a bit glitchy, and the premise wasn't too clear. I only tried that one demo they had, the Platinum demo, and it completely turned me off on buying this game.  I've been burned before by Final Fantasy. Full disclosure, Final Fantasy VI and VII are some of my favorite games of-all-time. From that point onwards, the series has been having a steep decline in terms of relevance. At some point the games just become way too Japanese in their strangeness and it can be hard to relate with a few of the later titles. Yeah, I even gave Final Fantasy XIII a shot. I never finished it because it just didn't pull me in. At that point, I realized that maybe Final Fantasy can never realize its past glory. It just didn't have that shot of inspiration which the older Final Fantasy games had. The series was just behind in terms of technology, storytelling and ga...

"Press LB to time travel". I'll never forget seeing that on my screen the first time. I was half expecting the usual FPS level (abandoned science lab....search for ancient artifact...). But I didn't see enough previews of Titanfall 2 to even expect THAT from the game when i was playing it. Titanfall 2. Where to begin. I don't really have a great relationship with this particular game in the beginning. The developers of the game, Respawn Entertainment, had conducted a 'tech test' a few months back. While I enjoyed the first game, Titanfall 1....trying out the tech test had given me immense doubts on whether the developers understand what made the first game so good. A few days after T2 got released, there was a lot of buzz on the internet about its campaign and its multiplayer mode. Initially I brushed these off as the usual paid shills on the internet doing marketing for the game....but eventually the opportunity arose to try it again, and I don'...

As a father of two who has to balance spending time with the family and also occasionally gaming, Forza Horizon 3 really fits the bill by respecting your time, letting you enjoy its various systems at your own pace. You can customize various aspects of your experience such as the driving difficulty, AI difficulty, etc, so you will have an experience that fits your skill level. There's also a lot of diversity in the environments. The game features Australia, which has a wide variety of locales like beaches, deserts and rainforests. It almost feels like an old Sega arcade racing game at times with all the amazing scenery you'd be whizzing past in whichever fantastic sports car you can pick from over 350 in the available stable.  Eventually you will complete the game but even the ending acknowledges that there's really no end to it....the game is meant to be enjoyed just like that. Feel like a quick race or two? Fire it up and just spend 30 minutes or so on a leisurely...

Hard to write a new review when busy with work. Nonetheless I'll be reviewing this game and Forza Horizon 3 at a later time. For now here's what i thought about Gears 4 after completing it within 3 days (a few hours a day so i think that adds up to about 10-15 hours of campaign play and a few hours of versus mode play). I'm reviewing it without having played Horde yet. Yep, it's hard to find time to play games when you got a job and two kids! Here we go: For the campaign the one thing that stood out for me was the AI. I was playing the game at HARDCORE difficulty, and the AI was doing some interesting tactics where they'll rush at you, they'll grab you from cover if you're nearby, they'll flush you out with grenades and more. Interestingly enough the AI of your squadmates is also pretty good and they'll do their best to help you when you're down. There was one act in the game with a major boss fight where I took a few tries to beat the le...

So there I was, staring in awe at the latest footage for Call of Duty Infinite Warfare out of E3. In the scene they had, the player would ride a spacecraft, fight through waves of enemies and capital ships, and eventually board one, switching from fighter ship controls to first person shooter in just a few steps. When I was watching this, I thought it was an innovative scene and something that I haven't experienced before....so it seemed interesting to me. Then a few weeks after Activision had shown COD:IW, I had installed Halo Reach on my Xbox One. I had finished this game years back and already forgot about most of its campaign missions. Then I arrive at one mission in the game which was about the same in concept as what COD:IW had shown at E3 2016. Of course, Activision's version was newer and shinier, but Bungie had already pulled off something similar years back, with hardware running on 512MB of RAM (now tiny by today's standards). Replaying Halo Reach, I reali...