PixlBit

In regards to Master Chief.  For me, it is all about the voice and the fact that he was my favorite radio DJ when I was commuting to school.

His voice is pretty cool. I’m thinking I missed his bigger moments. After all, Halo 4 and 5 take the focus away from him.

Stage Select: Overrated Games

1. Grand Theft Auto as a series. Disregard my Pixlbit user name, which was from the series but was more of a video game-related play on my real name than anything else. When GTA III came out, it was fun just causing havoc in the streets, especially when you could jack the wanted level up to 6 stars and steal a tank. The story was as goofy as anything from an anime. But from there, the novelty of its sandbox died. Vice City was fun for a bit, then the series got too serious and full of itself. They've focused more on creating ersatz versions of NYC and LA, which is ambitious but kind of sterile. Since GTA V still shows up on top 10 sales lists four years later, that is the direction the series will continue to use, and maybe I'm just full of you-know-what. But the sandbox stuff has fallen by the wayside. Even the sandbox veneer wore thin kind of quickly once you realized that you could instantly erase all the havoc you just created with a tank rampage by just driving into a Pay 'n' Spray. The gameplay mechanics in the series today are just as unwieldy as they always were. There are a lot of games which do sandbox play a lot better than GTA, like Bethesda RPGs and now Breath of the Wild. I'd also like the series to take its parody of American culture off of the coasts and roast Middle America in its next entry. And I'm not talking Chicago either, which has also been done to death in gaming. Let's see places like Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, or North Carolina skewered by Rockstar Games. I even wrote a blog on 1UP and on Pixlbit detailing a GTA treatment of Texas. Then I might be more interested in the next entry.

2. Metal Gear Solid series. I realize that Kojima is seen as something of a Japanese auteur and was a rare success during the lean era for Japanese games that was the 360/PS3 era. The games are unparalleled at stealth gameplay mechanics. And Kojima brings his experiences growing up into his games. The series just never really clicked for me, and I don't have the same reverence for it that a lot of my fellow PixlBitters do. I do tend to be a RPG guy, but I enjoy action games as well.

3. And now to really kick the hornet's nest. I enjoyed Final Fantasy VI much more than I did the game which shows up at the top of a lot of people's best-ever RPGs, Chrono Trigger. In fact, I honestly enjoyed the Lunar games, which were probably made on a budget a fraction of that of Chrono Trigger, more than CT. It's a great game with good design. I just enjoyed a lot of other RPGs more.

Please send all hate mail with regards to the above to: Andrew Tiberius "Rusty" Shackleford, 61923 Dead Weasel Road, Tent # 469, Kivalina, AK 99750.

Chrono Crossing (1988):

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. For a whole year or so, every video game my friends and I played was just a way to kill time until Zelda II came out. We checked the mailboxes daily for the next issue of Nintendo Power and groaned when we read stories about the supposed DRAM chip shortage that conveniently delayed the release of Zelda II into December of that year.

Zelda II is the black sheep of the series today because of its unusual design. Gameplay-wise, it was heavily inspired by Xanadu/Faxanadu and Ultima, with side-scrolling gameplay and RPG leveling mechanics. Given that A Link to the Past was (thankfully) a return to the top-down view of the original game, clearly the changes in Zelda II didn't take with fans. But Zelda II was a typical sequel of its time. Nintendo didn't want to simply rehash the first game, they wanted to make a bigger, better, and different game within the limitations of the NES hardware, and in the "bigger" and "different" aspects, at least, they succeeded. A lot of game designers wanted their sequels to be different from the original games in that way. A lot of times the changes didn't work out too well, but they were still interesting experiments in game design that are a contrast to the annual Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed iterations we were getting on the Xbox 360 and PS3. See also: Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA), Castlevania II, Final Fantasy II, Ultima II.

Ooooh, this is gonna be so much fun!

This is how I imagine this episode is going to go down.

I'm with you on GTA. 3 was amazing and I spent countless hours in that game but Vice City wasn't even close imo. I think the 70s (80s?) vibe threw me off. Then I skipped San Andreas. Played 4 but that gsme was crap. I didn't get the hype. Bought 5 and loved it though. I waited til it was $25 on Black Friday for PS4. Didn't think I'd get much out of it but it hooked me good. I didn't delve into the online portion though which seems to be its own cult or something, lol. 

We may have had a fight if you dis'd Chrono Cross, lol. Trigger is amazing but Cross is my favorite game of all time. Don't know if that game could ever be in an overrated conversation. It got much praise when it released but seems to be lost to time now. 

"The games are unparalleled at stealth gameplay mechanics"  Aww hell naw. Play Thief 1 and 2 and come back to that statement. MGS plays like Pac Man in comparison. That's the reason I'd say they are overrated. Stealth games where the stealth mechanics, except in the last game maybe, are paper thin and were behind the curve as soon as Thief, with its rich and detailed immersive sim approach, dropped the same year MGS1 came out.

 From what I can tell, at least on the internet, Adventure of Link is mad underrated. It was still more popular in its day than Wind Waker, which now people are claiming they always thought was one of the best to get their counter culture points. Revisionism at its finest.

Master Chief is fleshed out much better in the books. He was never the strongest, fastest, or best Spartan but he's a true leader with heart. An example from Fall of Reach (the best Halo novel imo and an excellent read for any sci-fi military fan) is when him and the other Spartans were young and training. They are all dropped off and are told to get to a evac point. Whoever is last has to walk all the way back to base in a very dangerous environment. He makes sure everyone gets to the evac point first so he can be the one that has to walk. 

Anyways, glad to see you all back. Another great episode. You all were missed while I worked in cold silence... On to stage select. My picks seem to be mostly recent probably since they are more vivid in my mind. 

Stage Select: Overrated games 

3. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The game is excellent and there are a few concepts that should find their way into many games in the future but I don't see it as the game of the Millenium like people proclaim. Dungeons were interesting but lacked the charm of past Zeldas. The story could have been fleshed out better. Ganon wasn't as epic as I would have liked. If they build on it I can definitely see BotW2 being that Millenium game though.

2. Bioshock

Would you kindly stop this game? It was fine but I got bored after about half the game. It seemed to drag on too long. Initially it was an amazing concept and the story had me very interested but that waned. Infinite was much better in my opinion. 

1. Inside: 

Damn do I not get the extreme hype for this game. It's just Limbo 2.0 and that's fine but not game of the year or anything. People made it out to be the second coming of Jesus which made me buy it immediately. In the end it was another good game but not much else. I don't think I've ever regretted buying into hype as much as I did with this one. 

Chrono Crossing: Gain Ground 

I didn't play Gain Ground until I saw it on the Sega Channel. It hooked me with its simple strategy and large cast of characters who had different weapons. It took years for me to find it again since I had long forgotten the name but when I did with one of those Genesis Classics on Xbox 360 I fell in love all over again. I hope to see a spiritual successor one day. 

Yeah, I really enjoy games that expand their worlds through other media. I have never been interested enough in the Halo lore to seek out any of the books, but I hear nothing but great things about them. I highly enjoyed the books for the Dragon Age and Mass Effect universes. 

Stage Select, in no particular order.

Bioshock - Everyone touts the story as fantastic, but it completely falls apart in the final act.  Also, the gunplay sucks and the hacking mini-game is the worst.

Half-Life 2 - Fancy physics engine is all this game really has, and even that hasn't aged well.  Gordon Freeman is the most boring protaganist, and crowbars are the most useless melee weapon ever.

Metroid Prime - A better version of this game was made years prior on the SNES.  Also, scanning everything sucked.

Agree with Half-Life 2, probably should have put that on my list. 

To be 100% clear.  These are 3 of my top 20 favourite games of all time.

Stage Select

1. 1) Super Metroid - No matter how many times I try to play this game, I just do not see why people praise it so much, it is boring to me. It always comes up in conversations about favorite games of all time and then I zone out. I got my SNES Classic in the mail yesterday so I will try it once again but the Metroid series (including Prime) have never been appealing to me. I played Prime for not even an hour and then put it on the shelf and haven’t touched it since. To be fair, I have also tried Symphony of the Night and same issue, it just doesn’t hold my interest. 

1. 2) Team Fortress 2 - Another game that I have tried over and over again to get myself into and I just cannot. I prefer the twitch type of shooter like the Call of Duty and Halo games. Class based shooter games are just not for me, which is why I will not be buying Overwatch any time soon. 

1. 3) Destiny - Game(s) has awesome graphics and the shooting is pretty good, but once you finish the campaign, there is nothing really to do afterwards. There needs to be a reason to keep going and raids are just not enough for me. I have not played the sequel but I bought the original when it first came out and then bought the Taken King retail version, so I really did want to get into the game, just not enough content for me to keep going. Maybe I will buy Destiny 2 when the price drops and give it another chance but right now I feel the series is overrated.

Chrono Crossing (1988)

Although Metal Gear (NES) was released this year and that is my favorite series in gaming, my pick is Jackal (NES). My brother and I played so much Jackal, we knew all the levels by heart and I still to this day enjoy the game. I remember renting this game but never owning it and I rented it a lot. Sometimes my brother and I would get Jackal mixed up with Silkworm, a kind of similar game. Great game and I recommend it to anyone who is into NES games that have not tried it.

Stage Select

3. The Witcher 3- I don't think this is a bad game, but I'm baffled as to why TW3 is considered one of the best RPGs ever. Every element is good, but has at least one flaw really holding it back. Novigrad (a huge chunk of the game) was an endless stream of boring fetch quests. And moral choices doesn't work on defined characters like Geralt. I like the game, I gave it a good review on Pixlbit. But it's nothing great or special.

2. Mortal Kombat- The only reason this game is successful is because of the gore. Take that away and there is nothing good about it. It's not even good gore either, we were just that desperate for some blood in the 90's. 

1. GTA IV- I've never felt like a sandbox game was working so hard against me having fun and I played Assassin's Creed 3. Every single element of this open world was a failure. A game called Grand Theft had driving controls are so awful that they feel unplayable. On foot, the Niko felt clunky and had that horrible "tap A/X to sprint" idea. Both of these made doing random crap, what made GTA popular, a chore. And those very rare instances where I started to enjoy chaotic GTA antics, Roman would ruin it with "HEY NIKO WANT TO PLAY DARTS?" The only redeeming element was the story, which still clashed horribly with the open world gameplay and GTA goofiness. It sucks as a GTA game and an open world game period.

Chrono Crossing

My 1988 pick is Phantasy Star. I can waver back and forth between that and the good version of Super Mario Bros 2, but at the end of the day, it's an 8 bit RPG that held my attention for over half an hour (much longer actually), so it gets the edge.

Stage Select:
3. God of War. I remember seeing this game and being impressed with it, but I was bored with it pretty quickly after that. I think visually for it's time it was very good, but that doesn't save the fact that Kratos is a terrible character. Julian has said he was sick of Kratos after God of War 3. I was completely tired of angry man doing angry things for reasons I didn't care about after about 2 hours of this game. Kratos is the Roman Reigns of video games, and I will never understand the people that think he's awesome. Also quick time events and mashing one button repeatedly does not make good gameplay. It's just boring.

2. Super Smash Bros. I like fighting games. I really do. I'm not the best at them, but I love them. Super Smash Bros is not a fighting game. It's just chaotic garbage. The amount of times I have played this with friends and died because I lost track of where my character was is just stupid. The concept is find the cheapest tactic you can and exploit it for an entire match. Nintendo nostalgia does nothing for me. I couldn't care less about some 12 year old's dream match between Captain Falcon and Pikachu. These games are not good... Or I'm just not fun to be around when I miss a jump and die IN A FIGHTING GAME!!!!! ...It's one of those two.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Yep. I'm one of these people. I think this game is a good game. It's perfectly fine for the most part, but I don't think it's the 10/10, all time great masterpiece that people make it out to be. Link is boring. The world of Hyrule is okay at best. The gameplay is fine usually. There's nothing mind blowing about it at all. Maybe I just don't get it. I mean... It's like a solid 7.5 - 8 game to me. Note to the internet: Please put the phrase "Ocarina of Time is mediocre" on my tombstone when I die after I am inevitably murdered for saying this.

Chrono Crossing: Super Mario Bros. 2. The first game where being a princess had a distinct advantage. This game was pretty fun as a kid so... that's my pick... I recently met a guy who dreamt Birdo was going to eat him as a kid and was deathly afraid of the song that would play at that part. I tested this by humming it around him... Am I an asshole? Probably.

My episode comment!: I missed you guys. I really did. It was a long enough hiatus that I actively forgot what I wrote for the episode. It was kind of fun hearing what I said for that reason. You guys have gotten into the emulation debate before on an older episode so I wasn't surprised by the passion that topic brings out. I loved it. So good job pantsless dudes. It was worth the wait!

Aww, it's nice to know we were missed! 

I'm back! I kept meaning to write (I'm especially kicking myself for missing the anime episode...), but I really couldn't miss this one.

3. Horizon Zero Dawn - This was a hard one for me. I picked up HZD because an action RPG with robot dinosaurs sounded awesome. What I felt like i got was... Amazingly bland. Immediately after the tutorial you are ham fisted into a story helping people whom have shunned and brutalized the MC most of her life. Why? Why are you helping these knobs? I had a plethora of issues with the game, but this one sticks furthest out in my mind.

2. Mario (The plateformer games) - I'm aware I'm probably wrong about this one. But I just can't seem to understand why the typical Mario games doesn't pull me in, and Lords knows I've tried. But I just can't seem to find any kind of enjoyment in the Mario plateformers. I enjoy a race or two in Mario cart and I had a good time with Super Mario RPG, but the plateformer Mario games almost always result in a resigned sigh followed by me debating picking up a game I know I'm probably not going to like.

1. Dragon Age: Inquesition - I love RPGs (I think most people can attest to that) and typically that includes the Bioware RPGs, except DA:I. The characters seemed bland, The combat was sluggish and bland. I just could not get into it.

Chrono Crossing: I was born in 1992 and quickly discovered I had only played one game from 1988, which is Final Fantasy 2. But I didn't have fun with that game so I decided to pick a game I think I would enjoy, which is Jaseiken Necromancer. Feel free to tell me if it sucks and I shouldn't play it.

This is the worst stage select to realize my comment didn't post for. Well, that sucks. I feel like I finally had an interesting response I didn't have to do "research" to think up. 

Well, still looking forward to the podcast anyway. I love hearing opinions that go against the mainstream conscious. It just feels fresh to hear perspectives the culture has almost made "objectively wrong" when "objective" shouldn't even enter into the discussion. 

Great stage select idea, in any case.