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Staring Stoically at Perfection: Mega Man X

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Mega_Man_X_Coverart.png

There's a joy to be had in perfection through simplicity. The kind of perfection that comes without dizzying highs. Revolution over evolution, etc. That's what I think of when I think of Mega Man X.

Mega Man 2 was my first NES game (along with SMB and, puke, Operation Wolf) and my imagination was ignited by the setting and concept. There's something elemental to the idea of killing an enemy to get his power. It's why ancient tribes ate the hearts of their enemies. This game allows you eat metallic heart after metallic heart until you have the power of a dozen tribes. Mega Man X perfected what Mega Man 2 started and that's why we chose it for the first episode of Watch... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/18/2012 at 02:14am

Like you Gary, I started with Mega Man 2 as well. Kind of glad I did because Mega Man 1 was pretty hard. That said, I could go on and on about Mega Man 2 and how much I love it so much.

Mega Man X is a really good game. I like you, dug the little things too. For me, the ability to have a cool ability from the start was pretty awesome. I didn't do much until the shot was fully charged up myself. Wall jumping was a nice addition because I felt like Mega Man jumps were pretty hard as is, now if you don't make it by just a bit you can wall jump to safety.

The music and graphics were good and the game came with more of a story than the others.

My only real negative on this game is the speed Mega Man travels. I would have sped him up a bit because he just felt... too slow? Its a minor gripe for such a good game though.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/18/2012 at 04:24am

Just found this: Mega Man X cosplay http://imgur.com/a/u1gZE

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 10/19/2012 at 08:49pm

That slow movement thing might be something I missed in my last playthrough. I do think it looks a little like he runs in place as he moves, which might contribute to that.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/20/2012 at 01:14am

That may be now that I think about it. If you play it again and it doesn't come to you then awesome, just something I noticed :D

Then again Mega Man was never really fast to start with.

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Zombies vs Wei Shen

Ever notice how adding zombies makes a game more fun?

Suffice to say that I am excited about Sleeping Dog’s DLC.

I kept telling my nephew (as we were playing it) that it would be cool if Sleeping Dogs had an undead upgrade. Guess what? It is now going to have one.

Just in time for Halloween, as this DLC is set to drop October 30th, consider your return ticket to China as fully punched.

If you’ve played Sleeping Dogs, then you realize that it has had some really lame DLC packs come out that don’t really help the game play at all (as far as extending it). I cannot imagine buying any of packs for any reason, and I kept waiting for a reason to get some DLC. If you have been... Read All

PRGE 2012 Video Recap

A good video recap of 2012's Portland Retro Gaming Expo. It covers the show floor pretty well as far as the whole vibe of the event.

If you are in the area for PRGE 2013, you should definitely attend. There might be a event in your local area as well, so check into that! Go, go, go!

GOOOOOOAAAALLL! Epic Dr. Mario Win!

Dr. Mario is one of my favoriate puzzle games and this video is an epic way to kick off Retro Tuesday! I sort of wonder if this video was an epic setup or just a random happening? Regardless, its fun to watch. Oh and stick with it until the end, thats when it goes straight to awesomeville!

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/17/2012 at 10:23pm

That was pretty awesome. To bad he doesn't get points for all that.

vdogmr25 wrote on 10/18/2012 at 05:41pm

I wish I was half as skilled as this person.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/18/2012 at 09:20pm

Vdog, this may be important part for you to notice. His video says TAS. TAS stands for Tool-Assisted Speedrun. It means he played on an emulator and he saved and reloaded until he had 100% perfection on every part. He also can do things like slow the game to and absolute crawl. TAS is still challenging and it's not cheating because there's a pretty big following of TAS on SNES games.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/18/2012 at 09:30pm

Assisted... That makes sense. The person had a ton of time to line up all the pills just right. Still, not shabby either way.

vdogmr25 wrote on 10/18/2012 at 10:13pm

Ahh, good to know. That makes a lot more sense.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/19/2012 at 04:42am

For some insight on exactly how helpful TAS is. Check out some TAS runs of megaman. They get every single shot perfectly through the whole level. They make it look so smooth and the bosses look like a joke. Of course this is they save. Check where monster is. Shoot like 10 different ways til they one shot him. Then start recording again (it doesnt show a pause) and it'll show him making impossible feats.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/19/2012 at 04:44am

It actually takes a lot longer. Still a lot of time invested. For this mario thing to work. He literally needed to record and play the whole level over like 9 times. Til he knew every single color that comes out. To perfectly line up each color he wanted. This probably took him ages with the amount of color manipulation and positioning.

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Captain Scarlett DLC Drops Today

Are you picking this up? If you have how does it play? Did you get it as part of the season pass or on its own?

Yarrrr!

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/17/2012 at 10:23pm

Finally today I will be able to get the season pass. Pretty excited because I love pirate stuff.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/17/2012 at 11:26pm

Awesome, let me know how it plays. I think I am going to hold off on getting the DLC for a bit.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/17/2012 at 11:39pm

I bought the season pass, but I haven't installed the DLC yet. I think I'm going to hold off on this until I finish the main game first.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/18/2012 at 12:09am

DUDE MOAR SHINY, INSTALL INSTALL!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/18/2012 at 12:10am

But yeah, I got GOTY on PS3 and the DLC was on disc. I waited until way later to install it, just wanting to go through the game proper first. Close to the end I installed it for fun.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/18/2012 at 09:18pm

Ah well then I'm right with you guys in that respect. I am indeed installing it after I beat the game. However, that happened last night (on playthrough 2). My duo character of zero with my cousin having maya just hit level 50 yesterday. We didn't cheat or rush through or anything. We just played a lot.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/18/2012 at 09:29pm

Awesome Jacob! Gratz on beating it! Write up something on how your whole experience was sometime, id love to hear your thoughts.

Maybe not spoilers, but yeah, how was the ending as compared to BL1 :D

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Interview with GameDock Creators Cascadia Games

At this years Portland Retro Gaming Expo I was able to try out the new GameDock for iPhone, an awesome device that turns your phone into a console. The GameDock features retro styled NES controllers and using them makes iPhone games much more awesome to play. I was able to ask one of the Cascadia Games developers Chris some questions and he awesomely shipped me back some information.

Please friend, read on:

jdodson: So Cascadia Games started with iPhone games. I wonder at what point you decided, "Hey, we need to make the iPhone a console!"

Chris: I honestly don’t know when it clicked. I was in the middle of developing Cavorite 2. A lot of folks complained about not liking... Read All

Star Wars + Angry Birds = <3

Angry Birds Star Wars will be released November 8th! It makes sense this paring is happening as Angry Birds is now a huge household game. After Angry Birds space it makes sense that Star Wars comes afterward. I wonder what elements it will bring to the franchise besides John Williams music? Don't get me wrong, John Williams music is superb I am just wondering what else it will have.

If all it brings is the Star Wars music and art we all love I will have to say that's enough for me to play it! I have Angry Birds Space on my phone and still have yet to get past more than the first two levels. Look forward to knocking my birds into Storm-pigs, Wampa-pigs, Sand-pigs,... Read All

Starcraft 2 Creative Q&A & Brood War Information

Blizzard recently posted a two part interview with the Starcraft 2 creative team and I wanted to share a few interesting bits. I am excited about Heart of the Swarm and I am still awaiting my beta invite. And if anyone from Blizzard reads this, I would certainly love a beta key!

Some of these questions drop game lore which may contain some kind of spoilers.

"
Question: How do units like the mutalisk and banshee fly in space if there is no air?

Answer: Another great question that has been the subject of internal debate, hair pulling, and furniture throwing. Basically, mutas produce a gas that pushes against their own mass as it’s excreted. Even in a vacuum, this causes... Read All Blizzard recently posted a two part interview with the Starcraft 2 creative team and I wanted to share a few interesting bits. I am excited about Heart of the Swarm and I am still awaiting my beta invite. And if anyone from Blizzard reads this, I would certainly love a beta key!

Some of these questions drop game lore which may contain some kind of spoilers.

"
Question: How do units like the mutalisk and banshee fly in space if there is no air?

Answer: Another great question that has been the subject of internal debate, hair pulling, and furniture throwing. Basically, mutas produce a gas that pushes against their own mass as it’s excreted. Even in a vacuum, this causes propulsion, because the gas is pushing against the muta as it’s expelled. Maneuvering is difficult for a muta, but it can release the gas in a range of directions.

When mutas are in an atmosphere, they simply use their wings. The gas is reserved for space travel. And if anyone's wondering why they flap their wings in space? Instinct. Just like a dog pumping its hind leg when you scratch its belly.

For any terran or protoss unit, the answer is even simpler: it’s outfitted with standard propulsion equipment only for use when traveling in space.
"

"Question: In StarCraft, the Queen of Blades told Mengsk that she isn't interested in revenge. Why is killing him suddenly her life's purpose, according to the most recent trailer?

Answer: The Queen of Blades and Sarah Kerrigan are not quite the same person. The Queen of Blades is essentially Sarah Kerrigan under the influence of some devastating forces: incredible power, a dominating level of psi energy, and the presence of Zerg mutagen from the cellular level up.

To be clear, the Queen of Blades is not a separate entity that possessed Kerrigan. Kerrigan is (certainly in her mind) responsible for the terrible things she's done. She has immense guilt for those actions, but she was not completely in her "right mind" in Brood War.

All of that is a roundabout way of saying the Queen of Blades felt no need to kill Mengsk. She did not see him as a threat. Sarah Kerrigan, on the other hand, knows that Mengsk wants her dead, and she very much holds a grudge for his abandoning her on Tarsonis."

"Question: At the end of Wings of Liberty, Mengsk's empire was collapsing. The zerg had overrun most of the fringe worlds and were encroaching on the core worlds. Raynor had revealed Mengsk's genocide of Tarsonis to all the people of the Dominion, and they were in open revolt and rioting out in the streets of the major cities, including Augustgrad. His son had then commandeered half the fleet in a desperate move to kill the Queen of Blades. How has Mengsk maintained control of the Terran Dominion with all this war and conflict?

Answer: With a mix of brutality, incredible intrigue, and old-fashioned cunning. Mengsk's empire at the time of Heart of the Swarm is by no means secure, but he is crafty and has many mechanisms to hold on to power. If the Swarm had been out to dismantle his empire, that would have been too much to withstand...or if the Kel-Morians had still been a viable enemy at that time, that could have been the tipping point. But remember, the Swarm was taking planets only to search for the artifact, and the Swarm fractured when the Queen of Blades disappeared. And the Kel-Morians were barely holding it together at that time.

Check the blog entries posted for all the Q&A you can handle. As more entries are posted we will keep up updated.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7493439/StarCraft_II_Creative_Development_QA_-_Part_1-10_8_2012
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7597722/StarCraft_II_Creative_Development_QA_-_Part_2-10_15_2012

When Gordon Met Chell

YouTuber Timtimfed recently posted one of his new creations "When Gordon met Chell." People have mused about a possible Portal and Half-life mashup and this video delves into that territory.

I think its pretty fun that both characters sign in the video to keep cannon with both games having silent protagonists.

All of The Things! Hoarders: Video Game Edition.

This comic gets at a little problem I have in games now.... Must loot every corpse... Must collect every item. I haven't played many hours of Skyrim but mu chest in Breezehome is already quite full. In Borderlands 2 even though I have full ammo I still open each case, locker and ammo container... Then again Eridium can be anywhere.

How much do you hoard in you games? Or do you breeze by corpses and chests with ease?

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/14/2012 at 04:38pm

I'm a huge hoarder in games. One of my complaints about games like Oblivion or Fallout is that I have a limit on how much stuff I can carry. I CAN'T loot every corpse and it kind of bothers me lol.

In Borderlands 2 I always open everything, but that's mainly to look for Eridium rather than ammo.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2012 at 04:47pm

It's fun when I hit triple Eridium at Moxxi's. All my money down the slots.

The new Pirate DLC seems to introduce another tradable unit too. Wonder how that will work.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2012 at 04:50pm

Right the Pirates Booty introduces Seraph Crystals. No mention of what they do yet.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/14/2012 at 06:55pm

How profitable is slots? I've heard you should start playing slots early because it's just going to get more expensive, but I don't want to end up screwing myself out of all my cash.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/14/2012 at 09:00pm

Slots are not profitable. It is exactly the same as real life gambling your likely to lose 99% of our money. However in return you will end up with lots of eridium. Possibly some guns but that just depends on luck.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2012 at 09:14pm

Typically I find it to be a good win. Last game with my friends we scored a ton of Eridium and I find that after a 6k slot pull ill walk away with a few blue guns that are better than what I can find in the vending machines.

Perhaps I am lucky or something, I don't know... But I find it to be one of the best uses of in game money. I don't find the vending machines to have that great of gear compared to drops so in the first game I just hoarded it all.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/14/2012 at 10:03pm

It for sure is a good use of the money because there is nothing else to use it on. But it is not a winning venture. Even if you get a blue gun a lot of the times its a handgun which is usually still worth less then what you paid to spin the slots.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2012 at 11:14pm

I do get many handguns but I still find it fun. I just wish they had 4 machines, in co-op only two people can get on them at any one time.

BOOO!

jaelte wrote on 10/15/2012 at 04:04am

Oh yeah, I have serious hoarding issues in every game with an inventory I've played. It really bugs me when I have to leave stuff on the ground due to weight/space issues.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/15/2012 at 05:19am

Someone getting super lucky at the slots: http://i.imgur.com/gYjr4.jpg

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/15/2012 at 06:38pm

And at level 8. Not fair! :P

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/15/2012 at 07:37pm

I know :)

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