The Dopefish Lives! (Quake Edition)

Quake was calling my number tonight like a good ol’ friend in need of a chat. Even managed to get a few achievements! Rare ones even! So far I’m half way through the second episode. Still finding all of the secrets, maybe I’ll finish this ep during vacay. :v

Reflections of a Gamer Who Didn’t Grow Up With Metroidvanias

Cerberus is set ablaze by Nathan's endless whipping.
Cerberus is set ablaze by Nathan’s endless whipping.

We had a lovely summer like day today – too nice to waste at my desk, so it only made sense for me to take my Steam Deck from its case and venture into the Castlevania Advance Collection!

It’s kinda funny to reflect on, when I was a kid I didn’t really think much of Metroidvanias. As a child my Gameboy Advance mainly received Mario platformers, and one Mario Kart game. Apart from my GBA I didn’t grow up with any Nintendo, the closest I ever got to Nintendo consoles was through visits to friends and families houses who were lucky enough to have acquired them. Even then, they never had any Castlevania or Metroidvania games. It was always Mario Games, Final Fantasy and Mortal Kombat.

It also didn’t help that back then Metroidvanias weren’t really as common on PC, which had plenty of other genres going on, but very little in the way of Castlevania/Metroid likes. It would be several years later when I really begin get into the Metroidvania genre. Better late than never I guess?

In a room full of treasure you learn Double:Another jump can be performed while in midair.
Learning to double jump.

Thanks to Metroidvanias like Dust: An Elysian Tail, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and of course, the Shantae Series;  I’ve started to appreciate the genre and have come to understand it enough to brave the old school. In platformers you’re used to getting from Point A to Point B, whereas in a Metroidvania there is a lot of backtracking after you acquire different abilities and equipment. Tonight in Circle of the Moon (Castlevania Advance Collection) I learned to double jump, possibly one of the most satisfying abilities to learn in a good few of the Metroidvanias I’ve played thus far. There’s just something awesome about double jumping to areas that seemed unobtainable before, and in Circle of the Moon it felt like I was able to get this ability faster than the other Metroidvanias I played where it took me a good while.

A coffin housing infinite Mummies drops them off for Nathan to take care of.
Which one is Mummy Dearest?

Another thing that took me a good while to get was the control scheme. Tapping the D-Pad allows you to dash (if you have the dash boots), and holding down the action button lets you twirl your whip around like a fan of destruction. Until I figured that out some of the monsters felt cumbersome, but now that I’ve learned how to properly navigate the game even the poison worms are easy to avoid. The bones from the bone throwing skeletons on the other hand…

Outside the castle is a full moon in the night time sky.

I had just scratched the surface of the castle before calling it a night. But I’m glad to have made a nice dent in the game.  I’ve made Nathan stronger with extra hearts and jugs, uncovered a good few secret walls and even bested Cerberus himself. Overall I’d say a jorb well done! I’ll have to see about playing more of these during Spooktober! 😀

Throw Them Horns

Rocked out for a bit in DOOM tonight to the new bangin’ soundtrack they included. Really enjoyed listening to E1M4 (Kitchen Ace). Totally made it worth the replay! I’ve stopped on E1M6 for tonight so that I can rest and do the adulting thing tomorrow. Have an early morning of work, then some more work when I get home with video prep and the like… unless one of my friends drags me into the many worlds of resonite again. That seems to be a reoccurring trend lately.

A Day In The Half Life

I’m adding Half Life to the list of games I’d like to finish between systems. I installed it on my Steam Deck and as expected, it works perfectly. I also played it on Desktop tonight. Even at 4K it has a certain charm about it that I can’t quite describe. My only problem with some of these older games is the eye strain I get after awhile…

Forever DOOMed

Bethesda recently remastered DOOM and DOOM II for modern consoles… which means my Steam copies of the original got a free upgrade! I decided to check it out tonight. While I prefer GZDoom it does look like it has potential. You can load mods, it runs at modern refresh rates and more modern controls. Of course, the most important update obviously has to be the achievements.

From what I can tell not many have checked out the new shiny version of the old school. All the achievements I got tonight are still considered rare, even for the easiest tasks. Maybe that’ll change in time, who knows… I’ll probably install this on Steam Deck at some point for some portable progression.

Overcoming The Heart Of Darkness

Finished American McGee’s Alice tonight, overall I had a good time with it. Some of the game mechanics haven’t aged well, but the story, music and overall weapons made it all come together. I think my favorites were the deadly jacks. They did an incredible job with the idTech3 engine, I kinda wish they had a multiplayer deathmatch mode. 😛

Now I can properly begin Alice: Madness Returns next time I need to get my fix of Alice. Not sure if I’ll start a new game, or if I’ll continue on from the save I already had. Might be a good idea to do the latter to refresh myself on the controls. Save that for another time though, tomorrow I have a few digital science experiments to tackle, and maybe continue a video project.