But enough about that, it’s getting late and I want to finish this before I have to postpone this to tomorrow morning again like last week. Things have actually been getting pretty hectic for me as of late, and that’s not generally the feeling you want for a summer vacation week. I know a few weeks ago I bitched about my cousins being around (well, not necessarily “bitching,” but you know…..airing my grievances so to speak). Well, since then, we’ve actually had a few more visits from them, plus visits from other relatives as well, so I haven’t exactly gotten the time to do much for myself besides filming editing (and even then I’m kind of behind). Again, as I’ve said many times, it’s not that I don’t love my family or anything like that, they’re just kind of hard to take in large doses for extremely lengthy periods of time, especially when the majority of them are younger than I am (I still remember when I was the youngest though =)). Now, it would be a lot different if they played the same type of games I played (big Wii fans across the family), that way I could show them the true power of my gaming skills. =D In the end though, there have mostly been positives, moreso than negatives, so I guess that is the important part.
Also in the past week, I managed to pick up some new old games from Game Stop. I picked up Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 for the Gamecube, Kirby Squeak Squad, and The Simpsons Game. I wanted to give Monkey Ball a try because many of my friends have recommended the game for me to try, and from what I played, I’ve enjoyed it, but not to the extent I figured I would. Some of the levels are actually pretty difficult. Also, I’ve been having a lot of problem with Monkey Ball 1. Since it was a used game, I can barely go a few minutes without having a disc read error. Thankfully with the Gamecube, you can just take the game out and put it back in, but still, it’s annoying to get out of your chair just to do that….especially multiple times in the course of 10 or 20 minutes. I haven’t played very much of Squeak Squad, but it seems just like the typical fun Kirby game. As for the Simpsons Game, I’m already getting some mixed messages. On the whole, I love the idea of the game and some of the execution, but I’ve played many other and better platformers with much more polished controls. The controls are honestly kind of bad. However, still haven’t had that much time with my games since I have been so busy, but you may see these games in a future “Game of the Week” section, that’s for sure. :P
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Youtube:
Still chugging away (not chuggaaing) with Majora’s Mask as I’m making progress through the Great Bay area. Cycle #5 may perhaps be the longest and most activity-based of any of the cycles I’ve done so far, and in terms of recording, I’m still not done with it. Oh well, I figured that this kind of thing would happen when I started the Let’s Play, so I guess I get what I signed up for.
Also, after two weeks of uploading at CSS, I can’t believe I’m actually 2 videos away from finishing my solo segment. Co-commentary videos with PowerToMario and MegaFreak400 will be this week and then we will start posting videos of the final chapter for the week following. It’s hard to believe how far this project has come, although, we have been working on it for almost 8 months now.
It’s also getting to the point where “late July” may cease to exist soon, so many people have started wondering about my next Let’s Play….when and what it will be. For now, I’m still not completely sure if I will even be ready for it. I still haven’t exactly recorded anything yet and I have my hands filled with Majora and CSS already (since I will be doing the recording for Chapter 8 (it just won’t be only me)). I’ll see what I can do, and for now, probably the earliest possible release of the new project will be August 1st.
On the subject of the false flagging thing I mentioned two weeks ago, I’ve also been getting a lot of different comments and messages about the situation. As I’ve said in a recent stream notification video, on Wednesday when I have my stream (2 PM EDT, btw), I’ll probably talk about that a little bit, which will be the first time I’ve addressed the issue vocally. If you couldn’t tell (although again, I mentioned this 2 weeks ago), I’ve been trying to stay silent about the issue in order to not draw any attention to myself, and while that has been working in theory, I don’t think in the long run that will really be a factor. It’s honestly gotten to the point where the flaggers don’t really care about who they are targeting, especially since videos can be flagged regardless if they are public or private. So yeah, I’ll talk about it during the stream and probably during next week’s entry.
Schedule for following week:
Monday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Tuesday: Majora’s Mask, Thousand-Year Door #81
Wednesday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Thursday: Majora’s Mask, Thousand-Year Door #82
Friday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Saturday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Sunday: Majora’s Mask(*), New LP #1(?)
(*)- Possible double upload day
(?)– May not happen
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Game of The Week:
Mostly due to my current LP, and me making stupid mistakes between the game and the game that came before it, I figured it was a good opportunity to make that game this week’s Game of the Week. This week we have perhaps one of the highest rated games of all time!
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
When people think of this game, they think gaming perfection…..at least for it’s time. I have to be kind of honest here, I was never really one who thought that way. Don’t get me wrong, Ocarina of Time is a great game and it has had a very influential impact on gaming as a whole, and because of that, I have a lot of respect for it, but I never really saw the game as truly spectacular; just as another video game. In reality, I would actually rank 3 games higher than OoT, two of them being the games I have Let’s Played (or am currently Let’s Playing), and the third being Link to the Past. I still think 4th is actually a pretty good location considering there have been at least 10 games in the series (with another on the way).
I don’t think I have to go into much detail about what the game or series about since the game itself is really well known (plus I’m doing Majora’s Mask). If you are one of the few who have no idea about the OoT craze, basically, bad things are happening around the land of Hyrule, and signs seem to be pointing to a dark figure named Ganondorf. The chosen Hero of Time, Link, and Pricess of Hyrule, Zelda, try to work against his dark power, but at the time, are too weak to combat against it. Ganondorf proceeds to turn Hyrule into a twisted, dark world while Link has to take the test of time in order to become more powerful to fight the king of evil seven years into the future. It’s the typical “bad guy is dangerous, hero comes to kick his butt” storyline, with the classic Zelda twist.
When looking at this game with Majora’s Mask, there are three things that stand out between the two (besides the obvious fact they are different games (so rather, main things that stand out)); game length, difficulty, and sidequests. For game length, Majora’s Mask is obviously the shorter game, just because if you take out the sidequests, there really isn’t that much to it, especially if you know what to do. Ocarina of Time obviously sets itself up to be the longer game, but it doesn’t really expect you to do very much sidequesting. In the end though, with all of Majora’s side stuff, they are both pretty equivalent in terms of length. However, if you are looking for a decently-lengthed game to play through and just focus on the playing through part of it, Ocarina of Time probably wins out, but as I have said many times, Majora has a lot of charm by itself
. In terms of difficulty, Ocarina of Time is much easier than Majora’s Mask in a different variety of ways. For one, you really don’t have to worry about time as much as you do in Majora’s Mask, so you aren’t really required to rush through anything. Plus, since Majora’s Mask was kind of an OoT sequel, they tried to bring up the difficulty a tad, especially since it was a much shorter game (again, when not looking at side stuff). Also, from watching two blind playthroughs of both games, it seems like more people tend to have a better idea of what to do in Ocarina than in Majora, as Majora has a lot of “pay attention” moments. In a way, I would almost consider Ocarina of Time a beginner’s Zelda, to at least, you know, get the player used to the controls and mechanics of the game, and Majora more of an advanced Zelda game, one that expects you to pay more attention and solve slightly more complex puzzles.
As for sidequests, as you have probably seen from my LP, Majora is obviously, really about the sidequests. Without them, it would be a very short game. Ocarina of Time didn’t really have that many sidequests, besides the typical “collect a bunch of these” collectathons and random thrown along heart piece mini-games, which is fine, because they were obviously trying to focus more on the main quest, but in another way, it didn’t really make the people you met during the game (besides the main characters) or the locations you visited very memorable; just places you had to visit at least once for an item of sorts. With Majora, they actually got me interested in learning more about the characters and how their stories progress over the course of 3 days. I think if they at least tried to incorporate a little bit of that into OoT, it would have been a much better game (again, in my opinion).
Obviously as I have said before, it’s still a good game regardless, but when you look at how much they ignore in order to focus more on the main adventure, it almost makes the game seem kind of bland. Still though, you can’t really ignore the impact this game has had on the gaming world. Almost every gamer is familiar with Ocarina of Time in some way, and back in the days of N64, that was literally the game everyone talked about. If I had to give it a ranking, I would probably give it a 4/5 or 4.5/5, and not just for it’s influence. It’s a pretty solid game that has held up pretty well for today’s gaming standards…..I just don’t think it’s the best game ever like everyone else does. :P
LP Possibility: Honestly, I really doubt if I would LP this game, mostly because it’s a very common LP on Youtube and I don’t think I could really bring anything new to it. I just think it’s too overplayed at this point. I suppose it’s always possible in the very deep, deep, deep, deep future….but definitely not for now, even if I am doing Majora’s Mask.
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That's about it for this entry, see you guys next week for another one, and of course, see you for my videos and my stream. Later folks!
