Summer of Screams

Hullo all, after a month away I'm ready to get back into this blog. I finished up another term of school, and have just been relaxing since. Unless a job opportunity presents itself I'm looking at a couple of months of free time, and that will hopefully show here. Weirdly, I've been really in the mood for some spooky scary skeleton type of stuff, horror films, comics, games, whatever. Usually I like to wait until October to celebrate Halloween with spooky stuff, but at this point I'm beyond human reason. So through August expect sporadic posts about spooky scary skeletal horror material that sends shivers down your spine.

As per usual I don't have too strict of a plan heading into this, but I'm going to post normal blogs alongside any Summer of Screams entries. Like I said, I could talk about just about anything if it's spooky scary at all, and I have something to say about it. I already have a few really good ideas in mind as I just watched and read some pretty spooky things. If anyone happens to read this and knows of some good horror stuff I'd love to hear about it! If it's really unknown I'm more likely to write about it, but I'm sure there are plenty of more mainstream horror goodness I've managed to avoid somehow.

Thank you so much to anyone who reads and enjoys this blog! I hope you enjoy my romp down horror lane, hopefully we survive the trip!
-Adam

Games I Beat: Bloodborne

Bloodborne
Action Adventure
1 Player/Limited Multiplayer
System: PS4
Developer: From Soft
Year of Release: 2015
Beaten: May 7th, 2015

Bloodborne, the reason I picked up a PlayStation 4. I remember those first few moments I played of this at a friend's house, getting my ass kicked and feeling like none of my copious hours of experience with previous Souls games (yes this isn't technically part of that series, but come on) had transferred over to this one. That was the first of many shades of Demon's Souls I felt whilst playing. Eventually I managed to get over that initial difficulty spike, having adjusted to the new mechanics and made my way through Yharnam, purging the beasts from the land. I can't say it wasn't worth going through the trouble of purchasing a new system, but I don't know how much I'll find myself wandering back onto those crowded streets.

Freemium Perdition: Marvel Future Fight

Marvel Future Fight
Supremely Simplistic Beat 'Em Up
1 Player
System: Android
Developer: Netmarble
Year of Release: 2015

Another free to play game, and so soon. Sheesh. As a tie in to Age of Ultron Marvel released a simplistic beat 'em up called, you guessed it, Marvel Future Fight. In this game you control a small squad of three heroes and you go through incredibly basic maps beating up bad guys leading to a stronger boss character with all of your actions controlled by a stamina bar and progress being slower than molasses. As far as free to play games are concerned, you could do worse.

Pulp of a Dead Horse: Mario Kart 8

Mario Kart 8
Kart Racing
1-2 Players (Local) 1-12 (Online)
System: Wii U
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Year of Release: 2014
Beaten: July 20th, 2014

(Wow, this wound up being way larger than I expected. If you just want to see my opinions on the levels and the DLC overall the levels are bolded throughout, and the last few paragraphs are my actual criticism, plus a bonus?)

I haven't stopped playing this, I can't really put my finger on it, but something about this game has worked its way into my psyche and somehow I'm always up for a round of this game. I've always liked Mario Kart, but I've never really been too into them. I think DS is the closest runner up in terms of play time and interest. With 8 I found myself dreading three starring each Grand Prix as that meant a little less content to work through, contrary to some of my initial complaints. Before the latest DLC came out I was finishing up the game, I managed a three star on the final cup but I didn't want to stop. So I decided I'd go for some time trials, something I never really do, I had already done a cup and half's worth, so I figured I'd do about that many. In that sitting I wound up beating every single time trial available. In a desperate attempt to forcibly extend my play session, short of booting up some multiplayer (like a normal person), I decided to collect all the stamps, Miiverse exclusive things of no real importance, which unlock one by one by beating a Grand Prix in 1st as every character. Again, all in the same sitting. I fucking love Mario Kart 8.

Freemium Perdition: Final Fantasy: Record Keeper

Final Fantasy: Record Keeper
Turn Based Battle Simulator
1 Player
System: Android
Developer: DeNa
Year of Release: 2015
Beaten: April 11th, 2015

Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is a free to play game for smart phones. The basis of which is that you play the titular role of the Record Keeper (or work for him, honestly I skipped a lot of the introduction), but things have gone awry. Now it is up to you to team up with heroes throughout the multiverse to fix problems and keep the records straight. This is a weird game to write about. I quickly learned my lesson in regards to free to play games, so a game has to offer something unique or very interesting to lure me in while toting "premium currencies" or the like. For the most part Record Keeper doesn't abuse this payment model, as is so easy to do. Which is good because for a game with a premise like that to be squandered on ridiculous fees would be a shame.

Too bad being designed for phones does it no justice.

WTF Did I Just Read? The Spectre #1

The Spectre #1 "The Sinister Lives of Cap'n Skull"
Written by Gardner Fox
Art by Murphy Anderson
Published by DC Comics
Released 1967

Comics sure have changed a lot over the years haven't they? Wow. I really cannot prepare you for the plot of this issue, so I'll just introduce the Spectre. Honestly I'm mostly familiar with the Post-Crisis DC universe, so going back into the Silver Age is definitely different. Needless to say in this version of reality the Spectre seems to be just a ghostly crime fighter who works alongside Jim Corrigan, a police officer. I'm used to him being the vengeance of god made flesh possessing old Jimmy, but the 60's were a simpler time. Mostly appearing in random one off appearances in anthology comics this was the Spectre's first solo series. While it only lasted ten issues, today we are going to talk about just the first.

Double Feature: Hotline Miami/2: Wrong Number

Hotline Miami/Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Top-down Murder Simulation
1 Player
System: PC
Developer: Dennaton Games
Year of Release: 2012/2015
Beaten: March 15th, 2015

I suppose this game warrants a bit of a warning. While this game speaks to me in ways others games can't, I'm sure the message it's screaming at others is quite the opposite. This is a brutally violent game, it has insane characters committing deranged acts and the entire point of the game is to rapidly and dementedly kill as many people as you can. Needless to say, Hotline Miami is a perfect game.

Oh, also the hover text has been replaced with links to some of my favorite songs from these games, so enjoy!

Five Nights of Tedium: Kicking it with Freddy

Five Nights at Freddy's
Stress Simulator
1 Player
System: PC
Developer: Scott Cawthon
Year of Release: 2014

I feel like I really don't even need to say anything about this game. For some god forsaken reason I felt compelled to play through this series, though I don't know why as I'm already caught up on both how the game works and the plot behind the games. Honestly that's the only real reason I was even interested in the game. The gameplay looked like (and plays like) shit to me, but the idea of a haunted children's party place is really interesting to me. Plus the fact the developer allegedly made this game out of spite for people who insulted how his characters looked too much like animatronics in his older games makes me respect him a bit more. While I understand why this game blew up in popularity via internet videos, I honestly don't think it's necessarily deserved.

Games You Should (Maybe) Play: State of Decay

State of Decay
Zombie Apocalypse Simulation
1 Player
System: Xbox Live Arcade
Developer: Undead Labs
Year of Release: 2013
Beaten: January 2nd, 2014

In a move risking the integrity of this series in just the second entry I present to you State of Decay, a game you MIGHT want to play. While originally I meant for this series to showcase only truly outstanding games, I'm making a special case for this one due in part because I beat it so long ago and writing it as a "Games I Beat" entry feels disingenuous, more importantly though since reviving this blog I've talked plenty about Nintendo games, and a decent amount of Sony with a smattering of PC gaming getting mentioned too. Aside from other legacy consoles Microsoft was the only one getting the shaft on the console side of things. I've been meaning to make up for that for a while now, I have an unpublished document on here called "xbox games", yeah not even capitalized or anything. The list is... pretty small actually. A lot of the games I truly loved on Xbox were multiplatform, and I didn't want to represent a console based on a game that you can get somewhere else (ironically most of my Sony games are also multiplatform, but I argue that I started off with exclusives!). So we come to the State of Decay, an interesting, though flawed, experience unlike most similar games.

Games I (Mostly) Beat: The Basement Collection

The Basement Collection
Flash Game Collection
1 Player
System: PC
Developer: Edmund McMillen and His Amazing Friends!
Year of Release: 2012 (2001-2009)
Beaten: March 5th, 2015

Edmund McMillen has made two of my favorite games of all time. Super Meat Boy is one of the best platformer games I've ever played, frantic yet precise, the game quickly devolves into chaos as obscenities are shouted at the screen and countless meat boys carelessly throw themselves to their death all in the name of true love. The Binding of Isaac is a love letter to the original Legend of Zelda with a rouge-like paint and some possibly heavy religious overtones, though a lot of typically dark subject matter is addressed in the game it manages to handle it well and keep a lighthearted tone and feeling for the most part. Before these games McMillen made a lot of games using Flash that were posted to Newgrounds. I haven't even thought about that site in a long time, I used to visit it all the time. A lot of these games have truly unique ideas (or at least rarely utilized ideas) and for that reason might hold merit, but for the most part I found this to be a really disappointing collection. Also, this is a collection of FREE games that will cost you four dollars. On the one hand, you do get a bunch of extra content, and McMillen is interesting enough to warrant looking into this (if you're a fan), but on the other these are still freely available online. Needless to say that's a little awkward.