Wednesday, February 19, 2014

2013 Round up - Interesting year end posts

For this one, I was kind of inspired by a few other bloggers, gaming sites and videos to do a post where I highlight some of the more interesting 2013 year end or round up articles, videos and links. There are a lot of far more interesting and inspired bloggers out there and this is to draw some attention to them. A bit late in posting this...but better late than never, right? T_T

They are in no particular order, so enjoy!

http://www.thegaygamer.com/2013/12/my-favorite-games-of-2013.html

http://kotaku.com/the-best-video-game-concept-art-of-2013-1493559312?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOp8tl92OnM&feature=share&list=UU-i1YW_eA896znTcV5Owuqw&index=4 - a long one, but a good one from one of my favourite youtubers. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and he is really sceptical and realistic about the games he buys and the quality (or lack of) that he gets from them.

http://rpgamer.com/news/currents/2013/column/123013ts.html

http://tay.kotaku.com/2013-games-that-foreshadow-2014-trends-1493170891/@tinaamini?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

http://www.chic-pixel.com/2014/01/chic-pixels-best-of-2013.html

http://board.rpgamer.com/forum/showthread.php?21254 - One of the podcasts I listen to on RPGamer do a year end episode. I don't think they've posted a best games of 2013 article on their website yet.

http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2014/1011.html - I've not really been reading this site for a long time, but I thought I'd link this anyway. One of the main things that bugs me about the site is the fact that they seem to have a restricted range they can post review scores in. It seems to be 75-95%, with most of their stuff in the 80 percent range. Anyway....

http://operationrainfall.com/2013-oprainfall-awards-part-1/
http://operationrainfall.com/2013-oprainfall-awards-part-2/
http://operationrainfall.com/2013-oprainfall-awards-part-3/
Ok so I like this website. But...I still think they need to limit the content they churn out. Also I often have problems with the quality of the writing on the website. They need more proof reading and editors to look things over before it gets published if they really want to get to the next level. Saying that, its a cool website. Check out the different parts of their 2013 awards.




Sunday, February 16, 2014

Youtube Recommendations

So I thought I'd try a few videos in a new sub series of sorts. I've been listening to some podcasts and watching a lot of youtube videos recently. Most of which are gaming related, but I'll go into more detail in each post.

So the way it will work, each post I'll do in this mini series will have a certain theme, so it wont just be one channel or video in each one. I might be recommending a few different youtubers, all of which have a theme linking them together, or I might just be recommending a channel or video you absolutely must check out. It will hopefully evolve a bit as I do a few of these posts.

Youtube Recommendations #1 ~ Thrill of the hunt!

So for my first recent addiction on youtube, it is the 'game chasers' style of gaming videos. These are really interesting semi-vlog sort of videos where the hosts take you on their journeys to swap meets, car boot sales, flea markets, dusty old game shops, bargain shops and anywhere else they can find cheap (retro) games. The reason I like them is that I love reading and watching about games people manage to find 'in the wild', and the retro gaming scene is one that is really absent in Scotland where I stay. So its really cool to watch people picking all these cool games up for so cheap, and finding them so easily.

In no particular order, some of my favourites from this 'genre' of gaming youtube videos are linked below.

Channel 1: The Game Chasers, aka Captain 8 Bit

Subscribers: 41,561
Videos: 150
You may well have heard of these guys, they really skyrocketed in terms of exposure back a few years ago. They joined up with some of the retroware TV guys and have split their episodes into seasons (something which a lot of big site-linked youtubers do), even making DVDs available. Really cool stuff, and they seem like awesome guys to hang around with. When I was studying for my recent exams I got addicted to these guys again and caught up with their videos, working through a fairly substantial backlog of game hunting goodness. Check it out and you'll like it, I'm sure!

Channel 2: The Game Quest, aka Beatemups

Subscribers: 2770
Videos: 34
So when I first saw these guys, I have to admit, I thought these guys were just ripping off the Game Chasers. They even had some of the same effects, and quotes, but they really grew on me and I started to see them in their own light. They are really well edited for such a small channel. Which, by the way, I think is a travesty =p They should have a lot more subs than they do. Very good content, and entertaining to see some videos of game collectors from Australia, which I've heard about a lot. The new game industry is really expensive to be part of, due to the economy and importing (correct me if I'm wrong), and they have a lot of barriers in terms of censoring and whatnot. But the Australian culture is one that I think of as halfway between the UK and USA, which is interesting for me. I see a lot of parallels with the shops and culture in Australia to what we have in the UK. Does that make sense? If yes, check them out, if not...well...ignore what I said and watch some of their videos anyway.

Channel 3: The NES Pursuit, aka Retro Liberty

Subscribers: 14,923
Videos: 90
These guys have such a hilarious show in The NES Pursuit. They do quite a lot of collaborations with other youtubers they know. Some really cool guys like Gamester81 and NESComplex will often be in their videos, but the main reason to watch is the awesome editing and chemistry between Ricky and Aaron. They have such a random sense of humour, and their videos have, on average, had me laughing a LOT more than the majority of other channels. What I like as well, is the connection they have with their viewers and audience-they interact really well and seem really happy to be growing so quickly as a channel. And the variety of videos that they do; reviews, Q&As, a lot of randomness.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Lightning Returns

This is a pretty cool way for Square Enix to recap the story from the Final Fantasy XIII games so far (which is overly confusing and convoluted in a Kingdom Hearts-esque way.)





I have pretty average opinions of the Final Fantasy XIII games so far, but I'm quite interested to pick this final part in the trilogy up to see how the story will end.