Fez: A Timeless Puzzler!

Hello Friends!

This past month I have been playing a lot of PS4 and PS Vita! I wanted to pause on writing for a while to soak in some new gaming experiences and I'm excited to talk with everyone today about Fez. 

This game is a sophisticated puzzler that involves 3 dimensions in a 2- dimensional world. It's challenging but simple and the game mechanics are easy to figure out.

You play as small little cutie named Gomez. Gomez is just your average little.. guy but he doesn't have anything special about him - until he meets the Hexahedron. Gomez is then given a fez, and a grand task to save the universe! Collect all 32 cubes to reconstruct the Hexahedron by collecting Bits!

One of the coolest things about this game is the "shifting". You stand on a 2-D platform where you can move up, down, right, or left. But, by using the left/right trigger you can change perspectives and view the world from a different angle - giving you more potential routes to take. Again, this game is mind-bending, fun, brilliant, and gorgeous.

Fez utilizes its very unique gameplay style with beautiful 16-bit artwork perfectly in tandem. While this game is available on many different platforms it definitely thrives on the Vita. The Vita is the perfect console for it because of its portability and controls. It just feels so right!

If you want to give it a shot but you bought it on the PS3 or PS4? Never fear - cross buy is here! This game is available on all three devices and can be easily accessed through the PlayStation website.

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a complicated puzzler. The game starts off easy, giving the player a chance to get the feel of it and then throws you into a difficult world with many routes to take. Don't take this game lightly because it is not for the weak-minded or easily frustrated. Patience is important!

Please give this game a try and I promise you won't regret it. Thanks for reading!

Destiny Alpha: First Look!

Hello friends!

So last week Bungie released the alpha for Destiny and I got to play quite a bit. Here's a quick little review!

I should preface by saying that I am not a huge FPS gamer. Most of these games are uninteresting to me and so I generally stay away from them. Destiny though got me to consider it a little and I was still on the fence about it but the alpha totally changed my perspective.

You're dropped into a planet with small clusters of enemies and Peter Dinklage narrating. The controls are similar to COD but the feel of the game is definitely closer to Halo - which makes sense. It is not in any way just a skewed Halo remake. The game does have a very unique style.

Something that I really enjoyed about the game is that it plays sort of like an MMO. Your character has a level and levels up as you kill enemies. You can pick up money and gear, do quests, and customize your character to be uniquely your own. Likewise enemies have their own levels and it effects your ability to kill them as well as the experience you gain from them.

The game also sports a multiplayer pvp area called The Crucible. At first I was skeptical because of the differences there would be among levels of players but the game surprised me! The level of your character does not effect the matches. So a level 10 character against a bunch of level 5 characters wouldn't have a dramatic impact on the match.

The visuals of the game are great!! I just recently got my PS4 and have been very impressed with all of the graphics and look of the games I've been playing but staring off into the city and being able to see very minute details clearly took my breath away.

Overall, if you weren't able to play the alpha and you are on the fence, pre-order the game now and get your beta code so you can try it on the 17th. It's definitely a fun game and if you're not interested in the pvp - it's optional so don't knock it till you try it!

Don't forget to leave your comments below and thanks for reading!
As always you can find me on twitter @katieishh and my youtube channel is youtube.com/supernonsensegaming "Nonsense Gamers" and @nonsensegamers on twitter.

Weekly News!

It's Memorial Day! I have a puppy in my lap and I'm about to leave to get fabric for Anime Expo!

I wanted to cover the news for last week very quickly!

Xbox One has announced External Hard Drive Capability! If you have been grumpy about the small memory space on the Xbox One - be soothed by this news. Skype is now able to be used in tandem with playing a game. Now you can chat with your friends while you game together. BIG NEWS - the Kinect is being SOLD SEPARATELY! If you're paranoid about cameras, hate the voice control, or just don't use the Kinect enough to want to pay $100 for it, you're in luck.

PS4 is now offering beta for the PlayStation Now! This is the system Sony is going to be using so you can rent games on your console and try them out. Another big news story for Play Station is Far Cry 4 was leaked! Only plot overview was released but a lot of people are getting very excited about it.

PS Vita now has Child of Light coming on June 1st! Check this great JRPG out and take it with you!

Wii & DS no longer have wifi capability. Here is the link so you can check out the games that will be affected.

Nintendo also announced their Nintendo Figurines! Looks like they might be something along the lines of Skylanders but we probably won't know until E3 which is in two weeks!!

New Games Announced:
Batman Arkham Knight
Evolve
Minecraft (on new consoles)
The Wolf Among Us Ep. 4
Metro Redux
Arena Of Fate
Hunger
Half Life 3 (unofficial - maybe just another fake leak)
Left 4 Dead 3 (unofficial as well)
Maplestory 2
Halo 5: Guardians

Looking Forward to: 
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
The Witcher 3
Fable Legends
Last of Us Remastered
Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire

New Releases: 
Wolfenstein - The New Order
Transistor
Drakengard 3

My youtube channel will have a video up tomorrow recapping this and look out for my post this week!

Thank you!

YouTube News!

Hello Everyone! 

This week I will be posting twice! My first entry for the week is going to be about some upcoming stuff I wanted to mention that I'm really excited about! 

I have my own YouTube channel now! 

You can find me at Youtube.com/SuperNonsenseGaming or on twitter @NonsenseGamers

So, the layout of this channel is pretty simple. I have my show that will air on Tuesdays called "Whatcha' Gaming?" where I get people on to talk about what games they're playing, what games they want to play, and what their favorite games are! It's going to be a conversational video with many different types of people in and out of the industry. 

Our second video of the week will air on Friday's and it will be a weekly recap of video game news. We will be compiling information all week and then making a quick video about everything that's coming up so that you can keep up with the myriad of things that are going on. 

Over time we want to expand and do some more things with it and get more people involved but for now it is just me and my good friend Steven working on it. He's an indie video game developer and both of us have a lot of interest and investment in video games. 

You can check out our FIRST video this Tuesday ( 5/20/14 - time to be announced on our Twitter) and see if you like it! Please check us out and it would really mean a lot. If you are going to follow us on Twitter be sure to tweet at me! I'm super social so I always love connecting with new people. And maybe we can get you on for an interview!! 

Anyways, look out for my post this week! I am going to be talking about KRIS from Pokemon Crystal as the first part of my Fem Characters series. 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @katieishh and subscribe to my blog.

See you soon!

Hearthstone: A Card Game for iOS

Hello everyone! 

I had a crazy week finishing up costumes and then an amazing weekend at Wondercon and now I'm ready to write. I'm pushing for two posts this week but we will have to see! 

Today I want to talk about Hearthstone! 

If you don't already know what this game is, it's a new game that was just released last week for the iOS. It's made by Blizzard and has a lot of similar art and tone from the Warcraft games but is essentially a card game. 

The best comparison I can make is it's very similar to Magic the Gathering except it's a little simpler. I say this without hesitation because it doesn't hurt the game at all. While being slightly simpler than Magic, it doesn't lose any intensity. I played through the tutorial journey quickly and had no problem figuring out the mechanics and gameplay (mostly because I'm a regular player of Magic so I understood the concept) since it's an easy set up and doesn't give the player too much information all at once. You have 7 missions (I think this is correct and I would look it up but the server is down for maintenance..) and they spread the knowledge through those missions so that you can not only get the feel for the game but absorb the rules and how to play in increments. 

I won't go too into detail about how you play but here's a short synopsis: You are a hero (much like a planeswalker in Magic) and you have minion cards and spells. The goal of the game is to defeat the other hero by attacking them. You get one additional mana every turn and each card costs a certain amount of mana to use. Cards have various skills and attack/defense points and what I found kind of cool is that your minions lose life. What I mean is, instead of them having a set attack and defense number as other minions attack it the defense number goes down like hit points.

After completing the introduction missions and the final boss you are then available to sign in to Battlenet and play online. I had a difficult time logging in because..... I made my battlenet back in 2006 meaning that my password was some random combination of words that 15 year old me thought was hilarious but 22 year old me is shaking my head at. I was unable to recover this password because apparently I used a pseudonym as well.. Back on topic: Playing online is really fun! You play against people who are generally around the same level as you so you have somewhat of a fighting chance. You gain experience whether you win or lose (gaining more when you win and less when you lose) and you get "achievements" throughout (ie: playing 3 games online gets you a small prize) as well as collect new cards for your deck. Each hero deck you have has cards for that deck and each hero has a special skill. As you play with a deck you collect more cards for that deck to make it more powerful.

I only played online for a little while but it's definitely a great game and on the iPad it's just so accessable. You can also download on your computer (mac and pc) with ease. I definitely recommend this game as it's really fun and easy to pick up. It's FREE as well which is a huge plus. I'm a fan of some good games coming to iOS devices (with obvious exceptions) and look forward to more stuff like this being playable on my tablet. 

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments below! 

Animal Crossing: Part 4 - Welcome To New Leaf City!

Hi All!
This week's entry I'm going to be talking about Animal Crossing: New Leaf City.

Now as you already know I am a big fan of this series! This is the latest game in the series and in my opinion the best. It has all sorts of new features and visually new things so let's get into it!

The beginning of this game is just like any other. You are asked a bunch of questions, arrive in town, but wait- you're the mayor! A cool and interesting new way to play is you control the fate of your town. You character is given duties that involve keeping the town beautiful, adding new buildings and decorations to your town (which...I mean... thank god), and hosting major holidays. The whole town is your oyster!

Another great aspect that I love is the dream suite. The Dream Suite allows you to venture to another persons town in your dreams - therefore you can't muck up anything. This feature is useful because if your friend wants you to see something of there's (ie: the way their house is set up, a new project, or a special flower/fruit) you can go view it while they aren't playing. The Dream Suite is also useful in that you can get ideas, see strangers towns without having to be their friend (the Dream Suite uses a "Dream Code" that is still specific to a town but makes the player anonymous).

Something interesting that's come out of the Dream Suite are these "Horror Towns". I started reading about them a couple of weeks ago and it's really interesting. It started in Japan as just a way to set up your town so that it's spooky. Usually the bulletin board will have some message or story about what happened and then you get to explore the town and see scenes from whatever horrible story it is. I ventured into a couple (I'm very prone to being spooked..) thinking, oh how scary could they really be? TURNS OUT PRETTY SCARY! I mean, I never jumped or anything, but I definitely on more than one occasion walked into a room in one of the houses and went, NOPE. Also, you can make your character have a greeting and I ran into a lot that were something like, "I was just so lonely..." and in the Dream Suite the voices of people kind of echo and sound very eery. Overall this is a really really cool idea that people have adopted in their towns and I urge you to check it out. 

The animation in this game does change a tiny bit. Your character's body is a little longer now, which doesn't seem very important but after being so short and squat for all these years it's definitely refreshing. Nintendo is very much of the mindset that if it's not broken don't fix it, well Animal Crossing is definitely one of those titles where you see that. Minor changes are expected and the look of the game is so great that there's no reason for them to have to change much. I think that mentality hurts and helps Nintendo.. but I digress. 

This game is great because it's suitable for all ages (as were the last 3) and I wouldn't say it improves the series necessarily but it's definitely the best game out of them. The game has morphed little by little through each game and I love how it turned out. I play this game religiously and definitely addicting. 

If you haven't tried this game yet- do it. It's totally worth your money and has given me just about a year of enjoyment. 

Look out for next week's post where I talk about WOMEN IN VIDEO GAMES!

And don't forget to subscribe and leave comments below. 

Animal Crossing: Part 3 - Time to meet the City Folk!

Hello everyone!
Welcome to Part 3 of my Animal Crossing segment!
ONLY ONE MORE GAME TO TALK ABOUT AFTER THIS!

This week we'll cover the 3rd game in the series - City Folk for the Wii!

This game was - in my opinion - not as great. I didn't stick with this one for long but that isn't to say it wasn't worth playing. On the contrary there were many changes that improved the gameplay and a lot of users liked. For instance, there were new shops in the City. Players could take a bus to the city and visit the Happy Room Academy, get your shoes shined, and get a haircut or a makeover! Another cool new feature to this game was being able to rotate through tools with the D-pad on the wiimote. This is super convenient!! It was a pain in the butt opening the menu to try and catch a bug quickly.

The bundles of new animals and shops is really what made this game great. But as I said, it was missing something for me. Mainly I think it was that I was so hooked to my portable device that it was hard for me to sit in front of the TV to play again. Not to mention fighting over it with my sisters when they wanted to watch a movie or something.

Give this game a chance for sure. Just because I didn't latch onto it doesn't mean you won't. It's a fun time for sure if you liked the first two of this series.

Keep an eye out for the 4th and final portion of the Animal Crossing series segment. I will be posting soon since I missed a week.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to comment or subscribe!

Animal Crossing: Continued - It's a Wild World After All!

Hello again! Thanks for stopping by again! 

This week I am going to be covering the second game in the Animal Crossing Series! 

Animal Crossing: Wild World

If you haven't read my post from last week concerning the first game to this series, don't worry! This game isn't one for spoilers. I would like to start off by reiterating that I love love love this game series. As mentioned last week - my two best friends and I all got tattoos to memorialize this game. 

So let's begin! 

This game was just what I needed. The Nintendo DS is one of my favorite consoles. My grandparents bought it for me for my birthday the year it came out and I was hooked again! I thought - how could this game get any better - what's the purpose of making a new one? 

In a world so simple and perfect the idea of change almost made me hesitate. I was mistaken though. 

This game exceeded all my expectations on how great this game could be. The quadrant feature was abandoned for a smoother and rounder world. This made the game a little less clunky. Also, the game opened up a multiplayer feature where the former police officers are now gate keepers - allowing and forbidding people to visit your town. This was AWESOME TO ME! I was in high school when this game came out and so naturally all my friends got it and we all chopped down each other's trees, smacked each other with nets, and barracaded you in a circle of holes. 

The adventure had opened up into an experience you can enjoy with friends - LIVE! I should note that in the first game you could also visit other towns but it was only by having a memory card with another village on it and you couldn't interact with other players. So the appeal in this is obvious. Finally this game is perfect. 

Now admittedly because the Nintendo DS still had work to do on graphics and stuff - looking back the game was visually "okay". The characters were difficultly rounded out, somewhat pixelated, and a little unclear. But that opinion is from someone who has been playing on a 3ds XL for a year or so. At the time- the graphics were great and I loved this game. 

Another cool function was that you could all live in the same house! This idea was disasterous for my sisters and I considering our age difference and commitment to the game. I was deeply invested in getting a perfect HHA score while my sisters didn't care and threw anything in their rooms. Eventually when they became disinterested with the game I was able to focus on decorating. I think there is a feature where you can move into your own separate house but I'm not entirely sure and looking it up wasn't much help... 

Overall, this game was a huge improvement in a surprising way. You'd think that the game was great the way it was and a lot of things that changed weren't necessarily a nuissance before so I didn't think to complain. 

Look out for next week's coverage of Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii! 

Thanks for reading and leave your comments below!

Best and Worst Nintendo Games of 2013

This is not my article but I figured I share it. It sums up all the Nintendo games this year in a cute little bow.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/2013-year-review-best-worst-nintendo-3ds-article-1.1550359

Here is the link.
I hope you enjoy it!

Video Game Characters: Part One!

Hello all!
I want to start an ongoing topic that I will cover over time. So this is Part One of my Characters segment where I talk about characters that I love and some that I hate. I won't get too philosophical with them because if I am being honest - I could talk about character personas for days. So I will keep these short and sweet! Hope you enjoy.

I am going to start with Mario!!!!  Let's-a-go!

So, Mario is an amazing character. His plot is simple. He needs to save the princess - so he does. It's a great goal because it's easy to understand for kids and the game itself is complicated enough that it won't bore an adult. As Mario evolves throughout the games his story changes. In Super Mario Sunshine (which I feel is one of the more underrated games) he has to clean up Delphino because baby bowser impersonated him and destroyed the town. You do have to save the princess in the beginning but once you save her the game continues. Mario's constantly chasing Princess Peach gives the player a mission without burdening them with layers and layers of back story.

A character in the Mario series that I cannot stand is Toad. He's constantly getting into trouble and then Mario mistakes him for the princess all the time. The only series where he is actually useful is in Luigi's Mansion where, when you find him - he is a save point. Then you're thankful to have found Toad because that means that you can continue on and worry less about dying and losing data.

Link: Protector of Hyrule!

Link is a fantastic character because he demonstrates the wise hero. Link doesn't speak much in his series (I don't know if you've noticed..) and his tacit heroism is something that I greatly appreciate.
Frankly, I don't like the American dubbed voices as much as I like the Japanese ones. Titus? Sucked. Ichigo? Lame. I feel that Link wouldn't be as successful a character if he had some wacky American voice.
Link's silence also gives off a sense of mystery. All the characters in the series find him very mysterious and I think this mystery is the reason Link and Zelda still aren't a couple. If we imagine for a moment that Link is a real person - he is obviously very thoughtful and probably very timid or shy. This makes me think that he would have a difficult time with women because he wouldn't want to make her uncomfortable. So Link stays forever friend-zoned because he's too passive and willing to serve princess Zelda (even if it means life or death).

Paarthunax

This is a totally random character that I want to write about because - I feel this weird bond with him. So at the end of Skyrim you're supposed to kill Paarthunax for aiding in Alduin's regime. For whatever reason when I reached this mission I moved on and ignored it. I went back later - hoping to 100% the game and found myself with my bowstring drawn and unable to release the trigger. Why? I still don't know. This is what I think about the character.
For one, I don't trust The Blades. While I really want Max Von Sydow (Esbern) to like me (or he might exorcise me -- get it?) I don't feel connected to that group. Paarthunax's character to me seems resentful. He's the tragedy of Lucius Malfoy. He would do anything for his master, but when his master is gone he is left to face the crimes he committed. I feel like Paarthunax has redeeming qualities that make me like him. Also, I like talking to him because he has an awesome voice actor (who, oddly enough, is the voice of many many many Nintendo characters).

Do you have any characters that you love? Leave them in the comments below!
Also, tell me whether I should kill Paarthunax or not. I still can't decide.

See you next week and thanks for reading!!

Questionaire Answers - From me!

So I will be answering questions today from the questionnaire I made last week. :) I hope you enjoy!
1. How did YOU get started in gaming?
My cousin introduced me to Pokémon and Legend of Zelda when I was 6. I've been hooked ever since.

2. What is your favorite game?
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.

3. What was the first game you ever played?
Probably Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt! I was pretty young.

4. Which console is your favorite? (Any console not just current ones)
N64 was probably my favorite console. Now my 3DS is a close second.

5. What was the first console you ever played on? (Pseudo-redundant.)
NES!

6. What game are you playing currently?
Pokémon X, Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.

7. What's the next game you want to get OR what game that's coming out are you excited to get?
I want to finish Bioshock Infinite. And I want to buy and play Grand Theft Auto V.

8. What's your favorite movie/book turned into a game?
I think the Lego games are all pretty good games. I liked the Harry Potter ones a lot.

9. What's your favorite cutesy game?
Animal Crossing! Although I wouldn't say that this game is necessarily a childish game it definitely is very cute. :)

10. What is your favorite moment in a video game?
In the beginning of Bioshock Infinite when you are flying up into the sky and you're viewing Columbia and the giant statue. It took my breath away. It was definitely a beautiful moment.

11. What game (if any) has ever scared you so bad that you stopped playing. Whether for the day, week, or you never picked it back up again.
When Oblivion came out I began playing it and I was walking through a cave when the music started to get scary and all at once my torch went out and a zombie attacked me. I screamed and turned the game off without thinking. I didn't play it for a couple days after because I was so traumatized.

12. What game do you absolutely hate?
I did not like Super Mario Galaxy at all.

13. What game could you play over and over again?
Super Mario Sunshine, Skyrim, and Fable 2.

14. What games would you refer to a friend who has never played a video game? (Let's say that you want to leave this person with a positive response to video games.)
I think that Pokémon is definitely a good game for beginners but this decision definitely depends on the type of person.

I hope you enjoyed this questionnaire! Feel free to leave your responses in the comments! :)

Video Game Questionaire!

This week I am adding an extra post because I missed the last two weeks.
The reason behind this is because I have been very busy finishing the planning for my wedding.
It's a lame excuse but that's the truth. So now I wanted to do a more interactive post. I looked online for a little while to find a good questionaire. I wanted one that I would want to answer. So I thought of some cool questions that aren't frequently asked by general surveys that you can find online. I hope you enjoy them!

1. How did YOU get started in gaming?


2. What is your favorite game?


3. What was the first game you ever played?


4. Which console is your favorite? (Any console not just current ones)


5. What was the first console you ever played on? (Pseudo-redundant.)


6. What game are you playing currently?


7. What's the next game you want to get OR what game that's coming out are you excited to get?


8. What's your favorite movie/book turned into a game?


9. What's your favorite cutesy game?


10. What is your favorite moment in a video game?


11. What game (if any) has ever scared you so bad that you stopped playing. Whether for the day, week, or you never picked it back up again.


12. What game do you absolutely hate?


13. What game could you play over and over again?


14. What games would you refer to a friend who has never played a video game? (Let's say that you want to leave this person with a positive response to video games.)


15. Got a game recommendation for me? Leave it here!


Leave your answers in the comments! I look forward to reading your answers!!!

This week: Fable 1, 2, & 3 - Also: Comikaze 2013 - see you there!

So lots of things are happening this week. We got Halloween on Thursday and then Comikaze on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My group of friends will only be going to Saturday and Sunday (mostly because we all work 5 days a week) so if you're there I will be dressed as Catwoman! 

I realized that since Stan Lee is the host he probably will want to see more Marvel heroes but ... oh well. 

This week I want to talk about Fable! I covered it a teeny bit last week but I want to go into detail. Fable was the first xbox game I played. My cousin let me play it when we stayed for the week at my grandmas for the Christmas/New Years break.

This game opened up a whole new world for me. Partially because it was a new system and a new controller and partially because it was definitely a more serious game. Even more serious than Final Fantasy I would say. 

I fell in love with the series but (as I sort of covered already) I wasn't allowed to play around my mom. She didn't like the violence and cursing (even though it's mild) and thought I should be playing more appropriate games. This was one of the first instances where my mom had to restrict me from a game. One of the other games that I played that year was Morrowind. Another game that my mom felt the need to keep me from playing. Although I will give her that one. I was prone to ravaging towns and stealing homes from innocent people. 

After that week of playing I never was allowed to play again. I didn't see my cousin for some time after that. Maybe because he was so much older than me and a boy... so my mom thought it was best to keep me from him because he was a bad influence. But I disagree. He was just sharing what he loved and since he was an only child for a long time he needed someone to share with when we were with family. 

I didn't play Fable again until a couple of years ago when my boyfriend at the time got a new xbox 360 and wanted a game. I recommended Fable 2 along with Oblivion and Fallout 3 but he chose Fable 2. He began playing it and quickly got addicted and then I found a copy of it for $5 so I picked it up myself. We literally only played Fable 2 for like 3 months (okay maybe not that long). Repeating the same quests over and over. Downloading the DLC and playing through those was the first time I actually downloaded a DLC. They were great DLCs and expanded the game a good amount. What I mostly liked about the game was that it reminded me of my formative years and reminded me why I love video games so much. 

And now my boyfriend (now my fiance) and I can play video games. I will point out that he is not as interested in video games as I am. The only game I can get him to play is Borderlands. There are some exceptions. But he just doesn't get hooked on much. 

Anyways -- when we finally got Fable 3 we were both really eager to play. We had to switch off playing because we only had one copy and we didn't live together (and still don't) so it was a little bit longer of a play through for me. Fable 3 was WAY more intense than Fable 2. At least for me. I found it sort of haunting at certain parts too. When you're running through the desert and that guy keeps popping up with no eyes in front of you scared the SHIT out of me. I'm kind of a wimp though when it comes to creepy things. I'll say it! I'm not ashamed! 

Fable 3 was also a bit more complicated. Forcing you to make tough decisions that decide the fate of the game. I failed. I was in millions of debt trying to help everyone and at the end everyone died... 

My boyfriend ended the game completely even. Doing the exact right amount of good and bad. I don't know how he did it honestly but oh well. 

Anyways, that will wrap up my post for this week! Be sure to follow me. You can find me on twitter and instagram @katieishh :) 

Comments below are welcome! Leave me lots of love and hate. 

Looking Back: The Legend of Zelda

Hello all!
This week I wanted to talk about one of my all time favorite games in existence.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
Now. You are probably wondering. Which one?
My answer is all of them.

Just kidding. I hate Adventures of Link.

I have a subscription to Game Informer and before Skyward Sword came out they released an issue featuring the series and had an article about each game. As I read I got really excited about the new game coming out and also realized how many of them I hadn't played. I thought - I have a month to get through all the games. I began with the original Legend of Zelda which I had borrowed from a friend for the gameboy advanced.

This game was pretty hard for me because I was not used to that sort of gameplay. Obviously this game is heavily puzzle-based rather than combat which the newer games have a little bit more of. But after probably 2 hours in the last dungeon walking around in the darkness I found my way to the final room and beat the game.

Adventure of Link really held me up. I didn't like it at all and it took me some time to figure it out. I finally gave up... I know... I'm a failure.

I got through A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening pretty easily. Then I replayed Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

I found that I was running out of time so I skipped the Oracles games and have yet to come back to them but I have them on my 3DS so I intend to play them someday. I played Four Swords with my friends, and replayed Windwaker.

I got Minish Cap on an emulator that would not save for some reason and decided to come back to it. I had missed Twilight Princess when it originally came out because I had to decide between that and Pokemon. My decision was Pokemon. When I played this -- I was taken aback by the amazing plot and features of the game. I regret picking Pokemon over this. Definitely a great game.

I got halfway through Phantom Hourglass when Skyward sword came out and I still have not touched Spirit Tracks. Skyward sword was an awesome game but I am upset that I have not finished it yet. When I was really busy with school I let a friend borrow it and haven't gotten it back. I know that it's not gone forever because the person who has it is my best friend. But I don't have a Wii anymore so playing it would be impossible anyways. I'll eventually get a Wii U once I move out and after I get the PS4 but for now I will just be sad.

Ocarina of Time quite literally changed my life. Without this game I think I would have given up on gaming a long time ago. It makes me so happy and helps me forget the adult things that people struggle with. I get to be a kid again when I play it and that's my favorite thing about it.


Well, that's it for me! Have a great weekend! If you like my blog subscribe or add to your reading list or favorite.. Whatever! Leave your love below! Or hate. I'm totally open to hate. Whatever....

The Beginnings: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Fable.

I decided to update a little early just to fill-in some stuff about me and all that.

Incase it was unclear why I want to write.

Like most gamers, (again I hesitate to use the word "hardcore" because I wouldn't describe myself this way) I grew up playing video games. I mostly played Nintendo systems up until my parents cracked and got the PS2 a year or so after it released after I insisted that we get one since my cousin had let me play Final Fantasy 7 one week when I stayed over.

Side note: My cousin and I were very close growing up and while I didn't see him often and he was a lot older than me we always bonded over video games. He was the major influence for me to play video games since my dad only liked racing games and my mom ONLY played Super Mario games.

So when I played Final Fantasy for the first time I was hooked. When I found out that FFX was out (or coming out?) I begged and pleaded that we get them. Insisting that it was a great system for racing games which pricked my dads attention. When we finally got one obviously the first game I borrowed from my cousin (because after all the whining they didn’t by me the game) was FFX and I played through it. Loving every moment of animation and soaking in the beautiful world. Then I discovered Kingdom Hearts. (*Note: I am being very careful to look up release dates of games as to not only avoid a lapse in memory but to make sure I have my timeline correct. There are so many games that I have played that I don’t want to butcher anything because I’m forgetful.*) Kingdom hearts was a great title for me because being raised in a somewhat controlling and conservative home Disney was often shoved down my throat. I won’t go so far as to say that I don’t enjoy Disney movies. But the combination of Disney into a serious teen-friendly game was perfect.  I never had to be nervous about what the characters would say and hope my mom didn’t hear.
 

When Xbox came out and released Fable, that was when I began the struggle with my parents. Fable wasn’t a gory game or violent or really inappropriate at all it just wasn't something my mom was comfortable with letting her daughter play. She wanted me to play more appropriate games. I stood my ground and continued to play games through high school. I played the sequels to games and new releases to some series. Eventually I got Halo 3 after a few guys around the neighborhood introduced me to the first two.

 

Anyways, this is all supposed to lead up to a introduction of my gaming history and now on to an introduction of ME! I really hate this part.

 

I'm 22-years-old as I've previously posted in my short introduction. I'm engaged to be married in January. Currently work as an assistant for an Interior Design company. I am also a writer for an up and coming company. Currently I am working solo on a script for a machinima. I also do some voice-acting for these small productions. Feel free to check out the youtube channel RoyalWe. Things have slowed down a little because we are all busy playing Pokemon and we all work fulltime since we are unable to create revenue so far. But we hope to one day open an office and work on short films and youtube series' fulltime.
It's exciting being apart of something that has generated so much success lately. I realize more and more how mainstream video games are becoming. I can't wait to one day give my child their first gameboy or 3ds and watch them experience playing pokemon for the first time and have (at least I hope) the same reverie and amazement that I did.

So! I think I'll leave this here. If you got questions - I got answers! Feel free to comment below. Thanks for reading!

Pokemon X!

This week (and probably for the next couple weeks) I am playing Pokemon X!

Before I say anything about the new game I just want to say that I have been playing Pokemon since 1998. My older cousin let me borrow it on Christmas (since the game had been out for a couple of months he had time to beat it) and at 8 years old I was hooked! For Christmas the following year I received Gold version from my parents - and enough christmas money to go out and buy the limited edition Gold/Silver gameboy color with Pikachu and Pichu on it. This was also the same year we obtained the N64 and I began my adventure/addiction with The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64. But I don't want to stray too far...

I was so young when I began playing Pokemon that I didn't really understand the game entirely and looking back at my old Red version years later to see pokemon named "Puppy" or "Cutie" made me laugh. Gold version was my favorite game despite my initial infatuation with Red. I was so excited to see Red hiding up in the mountain after I beat the elite four. It felt like I was in a way challenging myself. It was really meta looking back. This same year I met one of my best friends who I am still very good friends with and for her birthday (she reminds me that I promised her this if she would make me king of the tetherball court) I got her Crystal version. The first game you could choose to be a female in. We played pokemon all day together in school and often had sleepovers where we constantly got in trouble for staying up until 3 in the morning and playing together.

I wasn't as impressed with Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald or Leaf Green & Fire Red. I played them because I didn't want to miss them but overall they are sort of weak games. This deterred me from Pokemon for a while and I picked up playing more Gamecube games like Super Mario Sunshine, Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, and Pikmin.

My sophmore year of high school Diamond and Pearl came out while I was in Hawaii with school and I was ecstatic! I went to the closest video game store (which was at this giant shopping mall on Oahu and a maze!) and bought it along with a DS. Diamond and Pearl was the best game ever for a long time for me. I loved all the new animation and features and pokemon. A group of friends that I had all got the game too and we EV trained teams and created a pokemon league. It was WAY nerdy but I loved every minute of it. When Heart Gold and Soul Silver came out I was again ecstatic - excited to relive and revisit my favorite game and good ol' Lugia. Platinum was another great game that I enjoyed replaying.

After high school I was really excited for Black and White. I showed up at Gamestop at the crack of dawn (to find only myself there for a time - I guess I was overly excited) and played it for about 2 weeks and stopped. Again, I was super excited for the new pokemon and the graphics and everything but something was missing for me. I still can't explain why but I just didn't enjoy Black and White. Of course, when Black and White 2 came out I didn't even buy them. I was disappointed with the first ones so why buy both?

Now, on to my main topic!
Pokemon X is THE BEST Pokemon game yet. I obviously have experience with each game and I am just getting my mind blown by every new feature. So many things in this game that were a common nuissance for me were cleared up. The EXP Share is by far my favorite thing about the new game. It's so easy to keep your party relatively the same level. And the fact that you can turn it off makes it all the more wonderful for building a pokemon up to the level ground of your team. First gen starters? Yes please! Not only do you get a brand new generation starter but you get to pick a classic one too!Roller skates are sweet, catching Eevee in the wild is amazing, and all the new pokemon are awesome. I don't care what Pokemon elitists think. Fairy-type is just so darn cute that I don't know what to do with myself when I see one. Gah!


I think I may have rambled. Well, this is a good stopping point I think. I will probably post a second post this weekend talking about some news and expressing thoughts about some new games coming out.

Stay tuned! If you like my blog make sure to keep reading and comment your love below!

Introduction

Welp! Here I am!
Katie (Katherine), 22-years-old, California resident, and lover of everything cute and video games.

I am not going to say that I'm a hardcore gamer because realistically I am not. I just LOVE video games and love talking about them and going a little crazy everytime a new game comes out.
I am also a big-time reader. Literature is my major in college.
I also am a huge fan of cosplay! I am currently in the process of sewing a suit for the animated series Catwoman while my two best friends make their Harleyquinn and Ivy. We're preparing our Gotham City Sirens costumes for Comikaze coming up in a couple of weeks! Yikes!

Anyways, I will get to the point. I am going to begin blogging about video game news, opinions, reviews, and other junk going on.

So I think that as I am beginning this blog I am going to set weekly goals
1) Update on what I am playing!
2) Mention any news I heard via articles or podcasts that I find exciting.
3) Talk about games I like.

Every week I will feature a new game that I have played and loved or hated.

So! Look out for this weeks post!