Sega's Cool

I was in for a surprise when I launched a game from the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Collection on Steam today as I was greeted by a new user interface for the collection presented as a virtual room! I didn't know that the collection has been updated recently and I cannot believe that Sega is just giving us so much love. In a world where Nintendo is still being completely idiotic by staying in the console selling business, we have a developer like Sega who seem to have found themselves in a much better place where they can focus on actual, meaningful game development because you know what Nintendo? It's not just about the gimmick - you destroyed Star Fox Zero thanks to your obsession with gimmicks. Not only were we blessed by the new UI, Sega has even provided graphic enhancement filters as well as Steam Workshop support for all the games in the collection! Wow, I was shocked. Unbelievable. This means that they can all be modded! There is one that modded Streets of Rage 3 into the superior Japanese version of the game. There is another mod that replaces the characters in Streets of Rage 2 with Street Fighter 2 characters. Thank you Sega for your blessing to mod these classics. I cannot wait to see more creative stuff from the Steam community. Now Sega, please release more Genesis/Mega Drive games on Steam! I sure hope Nintendo will start doing the same as soon as their interest in the NX starts to wane, which something that I predict will take at most two years after the release of that sure to be doomed system...

I wish I could customize the room but still, this is so lovely.

Star Fox Zero: It Was a Remake?

Sometimes, avoiding exposure to a game that I look forward too can lead to amusing results. Take Star Fox Zero for the Wii U for example. I didn't really bother reading too much about the game after I have seen some footage of it in one of those Nintendo Direct videos. I remember thinking that things looked a little too familiar during the Corneria section but I thought it would be a given for such a landmark location to appear in the new game. Well, now that I have played the first two stages of the Zero, I come to realize that this game is merely a remake of the great Star Fox 64, only with occasionally better graphics and horrible, horrible controls. How could Nintendo and PlatinumGames get so unimaginative and most importantly, how could they not realize that mandating motion aiming using the Wii U Gamepad gyroscope is a bad, bad, BAD idea? I was hoping that this game could soothe some of that pain that I am experiencing in regards to the Wii U being abandoned too quickly by Nintendo and their next console/gimmick dream but things are looking rather grim. I would like to think that that this game will get better the more I play it but thus far, on top of the atrocious and disgusting controls, Zero actually manages to feel less epic than the original because they have replaced previously exciting sections into downright chore segments. What a disappointment.

This may end up being as bad as a typical Hollywood movie remake.

FIRST IMPRESSION: 2 out of 5

Update Note: 04/23/2016 - Played several more missions, oh my galaxy, this game is horrid. The motion control is impossible to love. Purposely limiting the scope and precision of the stick control to force players to use the gyroscope nonsense is beyond idiotic. They even made you use the gyroscope to turn left and right for some sections when the implementation of the right stick could have easily do the trick. It's like they were asking themselves, "How can we make Star Fox 64 much much more complicated?". You know when you ask a stupid question like that, you get horrible results. It hurts to say this but Star Fox Zero is easily one of the worst games I have ever played in my whole life. It's not only a disappointment, it is totally disgusting!

SECOND IMPRESSION: 1 out of 5

Worst Game Trailer: Dark Souls III

We all should know at this point that From Software can release an endless number of Dark Souls games in rapid succession even and they all will sell like hot cakes because a majority of gamers already bought the "difficulty" hype. But apparently, somewhere along the distribution line, there are still people involved in the process who feel that the target audience still needs to be reminded that the upcoming Dark Souls III will be an awesome experience by releasing a trailer that pretty much shows a large number of the game's boss fights and it may even include a footage of possibly the final boss. The first time I saw the trailer was while browsing channels on twitch.tv - an ad would load before you can watch the broadcast - and I was thinking to myself, wow, do they really think they couldn't sell this game with just a subtle, simple trailer like how they marketed the previous two games? I am not going to dignify that trailer by linking it here but what were they thinking? It's bad enough that Bandai Namco had distributed early access to a limited portion of the game to twitch.tv celebs, which I find to be overreaching and stupid: If you are a true Dark Souls fan, why would you even watch the broadcast and get the early part of the game spoiled for you? The marketing department clearly doesn't understand what Dark Souls is all about based on that reveal all bosses trailer and reveal too much gameplay broadcast campaign. Very strange indeed because this whole series is built upon mystique and player discovery. If I was From Software, perhaps it's time to end the relationship with Bandai Namco and go solo so that they can keep their dignity and protect their artwork from further desecration.

The marketing department is staffed with twitch trolls apparently

who want to say, "Ha ha ha we are taking away your initial surprise

from encountering these bosses in the game! Sucks to be you!"

1CC Run - Contemplating Death

Ever since that incident in July last year, things just haven't been the same to me. Just to recap, I thought that I lost my husband when he didn't show up at the airport when I went to pick him up only to learn later that he was hospitalized the night before. Though he did return to me eventually, it was hard to forget that deep dark pit that I experienced when I thought that it was over. It's sometimes hard to sleep at night as I lie down next to my husband because I understand the eventuality of death and I really don't want to experience that incredible pain I experienced before. I am an atheist. I don't believe that my husband and I would be together again in death and that thought has been haunting me day and night. It is easy to see why people rather believe in the afterlife because the alternative is truly something else. I am not going to claim that I know how the universe works but I do know that I can only remember this life and this life only. People have been living on this planet for a very long time and my consciousness is bound to this particular period of existence.

When you accept love into your heart, you tend to forget about accepting love lost with it.

I remember my husband telling me that when he fell and hit his head, he saw nothing, everything was dark until he finally woke up at the hospital. "There was nothing there," he claimed. And I can recall telling him "Of course there wasn't." I have shared with him my personal experience with death. I almost lost my life in an accident when I was young and I had an out of body experience where I saw the doctor trying to revive my body below me as I was floating upwards. It could have been just simply trauma but it felt very real. It's not something I share with a lot of people but I think it's important to mention it here because even after experiencing that, I have always been borderline agnostic before settling comfortably into being an atheist. For the longest time, my view on death had been rather simple: when you die, you just go back to that place before you gain consciousness - nothingness. I don't remember wanting to live nor feeling pain nor happiness nor sadness. It's just that one simply doesn't exist. Death is only difficult for those who know the person who died and not the person him/herself. After finding the love of my life and almost losing him, things are not that easy anymore. I hate the thought of losing someone so dear in my life forever and I also hate the thought of slipping in nothingness without being able to be reunited somewhere, somehow. Humans are selfish creatures and I am not immune to selfish thoughts. Perhaps the reality of things just hit me harder than I ever anticipated it to be and I am just bitter about the whole thing.

Together only in our physical forms for we don't exist beyond that.

I have spoken to my husband in regards to this yesterday. We have had discussions about death in the past and both of us have always been clear about our love and commitment to each other as well as what death means to us individually. During the recent conversation, he told me that he used to feel like he wasn't ready for death, that now he's ready to face it because he's happy where he's at. He did express the fear of losing me for he still has no knowledge of how that would actually feel. I on the other hand, feel like I am not ready to lose him because of what I have felt before and neither am I ready to lose myself. I know when I pass on, I wouldn't be able to care about these things but I need to look deeper into my life so that I can accept the reality of the situation. I have been dealing with other depressing thoughts and this of course is just adding to my unhappiness. Video games may be at the center of my life but unfortunately, this is a situation that they are unable to help me with.

Games Played 03/19/2016

Session A: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Session B: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Session C:

Heroes of the Storm (PC)

Raiden III Digital Edition (PC)

King of the Monsters (PC

Session D: Hatsune Miku - Project DIVA F 2nd (PlayStation 3)

Session E: Audiosurf 2 (PC)

Session F: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Handheld Session : Yoshi's New Island (3DS)