May has been one interesting month. As we inch ever so closer to the biggest video game trade show of the year, the focus of game developers, publishers and journalists has slowly shifted to E3 2014. Every piece of information released or news story ran relates back to E3. Considering all the questions leading into the event, E3 2014 should be either an exciting onslaught of brand new games or a disappointing slog of new information for already announced games. Personally, I am hoping for the former because I want to see the games that will truly get people excited about spending over 500 dollars on the current generation of gaming. As of right now, all this generation has given us is shinier graphics and a massive drought of games. We will see what the future of gaming is next month, but before that let us take a look at the month that was May 2014.
Game of the Month
Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf: World Tour both came out on the same Friday at the very beginning of May and these are the two games that captured most of my time this past month. Out of these two game, there can only be one Game of the Month. The game that earns that title is Mario Golf: World Tour. It has been a long time since Mario Golf graced a Nintendo system and World Tour is a return to what gamers loved about Camelot's golf game now turned up to eleven. Early on your time will be mostly dedicated to the single-player Castle Club as you play in tournaments to improve your Mii's handicap, earn new attire and equipment and prepare yourself for online. After some time in Castle Club, you will be ready to hit the online links where the meat and potatoes of World Tour is. The online in World Tour is great as you play rounds against players around the world or in your region at your own pace. Once you complete a round, you can post your score to the tournament or play again and see if you can do better. The online is incredibly smooth and hardly caused a problem for yours truly. Scouring new tournaments each and every week easily will become routine for Mario Golf enthusiasts. Mario Golf: World Tour would not be some fun to play if the core mechanics of golf were not so well made and finely tuned. If there is one game to pick up this month, it is Mario Golf: World Tour. It has given me hours of enjoyment and will give plenty more thanks to online. Guess I will be seeing you on the golf course.
TV Show of the Month
I wanted to change some things up this month. Considering my most anticipated game of the month comes out at the very end of May and I have a whole article already drafted up and ready to be published this coming Friday, there really is no need to regurgitate what I will wrote here in Bit by Bit. So the TV Show of the Month is back for another go especially since May marks the month when most TV shows air their season finales. It seems like every week this past month there has been a major finale of some sort be it Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Survivor. Each person has their show they watch every week. As of late, that show has been Person of Interest for yours truly.
I knew of the show, but never watched it until I caught my dad watching the show this past Fall. Person of Interest has gripped me in a way that I have not experienced since Lost came to an end four years ago. Currently, I have watched all of seasons one and two and a part of season three and can say the show has gotten better with every season. Person of Interest is a show about the vigilante partnership between a computer genius Harold Finch and a burned CIA agent John Reese. Finch and Reese receive numbers from an America-wide security system simply known as The Machine. The number they receive indicates either a perpetrator or victim for a possible crime. During the course of the episode, Finch and Reese have to determine whether their person of interest needs to be saved or stopped. Interesting concept for a show that was initially a procedural. Over these three seasons, Person of Interest has become much more serialized with overarching stories and reoccurring threats such as the corrupt police association HR and the rogue security corporation Decima. In particular, Person of Interest perfectly walks the fine line between procedural and serial that makes it like nothing else on television today. The season three finale happened just about two weeks ago now and I cannot get over how amazing it was. The finale completely changed the course of the entire series going forward that I will not do a disservice in spoiling it here. The finale has to be seen to be believed, it is that good. With this finale, Person of Interest has sealed its place as must-watch television. I highly recommend checking Person of Interest out as it is the best show I have seen since Chuck ended in 2012.
Video of the Month
What do you get when you mix the superb music from the Ace Attorney series with popular musician Brentalfloss? Well, you get the newest "With Lyrics" video-- Phoenix Wright with Lyrics. Taking the song Cornered from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and adding lyrics that parody the tropes of this series such as the well-endowed women characters and extreme juxtaposition between charming wackiness and brutal violence. It is a fun song that fans of the series will thoroughly enjoy.
Showing posts with label S.H.E.I.L.D.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label S.H.E.I.L.D.. Show all posts
Monday, May 26, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
Bit by Bit: March 2014
March has always been a hectic month in terms of both gaming and schooling. March is the month that game publishers love dumping all the games that were not ready for the holiday. It is also the month, universities love dumping projects, tests and presentations on students as the semester comes to an end. Much of this month has been spent studying for a test or working on a project in between classes and shifts at work for yours truly. Even with all the craziness, I have luckily made time to relax by playing a game or watching some television. Although, relaxation was sometimes mixed with school work as I would do my anthropology readings during commercial breaks. While March is almost over, April will be just as crazy for this writer as things ramp up for final exams. Before we move on to the next month, let us look back at the month that was March 2014.
TV Show of the Month
Well, I spent the majority of my game time playing Bravely Default this past month. As it took up the majority of my time, it is easily my Game of the Month yet again. Instead of repeating myself by talking about Bravely Default (I will save it for the review hopefully), I wanted to share another facet of my passions this month--television shows. As I have grown older, my time watching television has cut down to just the shows I want to watch such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Persons of Interest and Reviews on the Run. I barely spend time endlessly surfing through channels anymore. As I gravitate to the shows that interest me the most, there a few I do not get to watch when they first run or they never make it to television in the first place. One of those shows is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime which adapts the story of the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga into glorious 2D animation. Brotherhood follows Edward and Alphonse Elric on their quest to acquire the legendary Philosopher's Stone in order to restore the bodies they lost when trying to resurrect their deceased mother. Ed and Al's journey is not an easy one as they get caught up in a conspiracy that engulfs the entire country of Amestris. I watched the first half of Brotherhood years ago when Funimation started releasing them as 13-episode DVD sets, but never got the second half of the series because how expensive each set was. Then I got the second season of the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist series for Christmas. After watching that series over again, I got this huge urge to finish Brotherhood. When I found the Complete Collection Two for 30 dollars at The Beat Goes On, I did not hesitate to buy it. A week and a half later, I watched all the 31-episodes included in the set and it was well worth it. While I already knew the entire story of Fullmetal Alchemist from reading the manga, watching the same story play out in motion was just unbelievable. The mix of excellent voice acting, superb music composition and incredibly beautiful animation just made everything feel brand new. The devilish twists and turns of Fullmetal Alchemist's endgame were perfectly adapted for the animation. There were moments in the anime that just work better in motion than in the panels of the manga. I was literally blown away by Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. While I do not watch many animes, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is among the best I have ever seen and I highly recommend watching it.
Most Anticipated Game of the Month
I have shared my love for Mega Man here on Silver Bit on multiple occasions. Among the many Mega Man series Capcom has created over the years, the Mega Man Zero games are some of my favourites. Considering Capcom would rather keep the Mega Man franchise dormant than develop new titles starring the Blue Bomber, Mega Man fans have had to look elsewhere. In particular, they have gone to the Father of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune himself, to get their fix with Mighty No. 9, but it is not the only Mega Man-like title Inafune has in the works. Announced at the beginning of March, Azure Striker Gunvolt is a new 2D action-platformer from Comcept and Inti Creates coming to the 3DS Nintendo eShop this summer. Azure Striker Gunvolt looks very similar to the fast-paced action of Mega Man Zero just with a brand new character to control, psychic powers to acquire and crazy bosses to battle. As somebody who has fond memories of the Mega Man Zero series, I am really looking forward to what Comcept and Inti Creates has in store for Azure Striker Gunvolt.
Video of the Month
Ken Kutaragi was a dashing young man with a dream to revolutionize gaming. That dream was the PlayStation, but Kutaragi's dream was challenged by the corporate powers of Nintendo. The short film Kutaragi's Way from Mega64 chronicles the totally true personal story of Ken Kutaragi's trials and tribulations in becoming the Father of the PlayStation entirely filmed with classic 80s film grain. Enjoy.
TV Show of the Month
Well, I spent the majority of my game time playing Bravely Default this past month. As it took up the majority of my time, it is easily my Game of the Month yet again. Instead of repeating myself by talking about Bravely Default (I will save it for the review hopefully), I wanted to share another facet of my passions this month--television shows. As I have grown older, my time watching television has cut down to just the shows I want to watch such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Persons of Interest and Reviews on the Run. I barely spend time endlessly surfing through channels anymore. As I gravitate to the shows that interest me the most, there a few I do not get to watch when they first run or they never make it to television in the first place. One of those shows is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime which adapts the story of the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga into glorious 2D animation. Brotherhood follows Edward and Alphonse Elric on their quest to acquire the legendary Philosopher's Stone in order to restore the bodies they lost when trying to resurrect their deceased mother. Ed and Al's journey is not an easy one as they get caught up in a conspiracy that engulfs the entire country of Amestris. I watched the first half of Brotherhood years ago when Funimation started releasing them as 13-episode DVD sets, but never got the second half of the series because how expensive each set was. Then I got the second season of the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist series for Christmas. After watching that series over again, I got this huge urge to finish Brotherhood. When I found the Complete Collection Two for 30 dollars at The Beat Goes On, I did not hesitate to buy it. A week and a half later, I watched all the 31-episodes included in the set and it was well worth it. While I already knew the entire story of Fullmetal Alchemist from reading the manga, watching the same story play out in motion was just unbelievable. The mix of excellent voice acting, superb music composition and incredibly beautiful animation just made everything feel brand new. The devilish twists and turns of Fullmetal Alchemist's endgame were perfectly adapted for the animation. There were moments in the anime that just work better in motion than in the panels of the manga. I was literally blown away by Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. While I do not watch many animes, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is among the best I have ever seen and I highly recommend watching it.
Most Anticipated Game of the Month
I have shared my love for Mega Man here on Silver Bit on multiple occasions. Among the many Mega Man series Capcom has created over the years, the Mega Man Zero games are some of my favourites. Considering Capcom would rather keep the Mega Man franchise dormant than develop new titles starring the Blue Bomber, Mega Man fans have had to look elsewhere. In particular, they have gone to the Father of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune himself, to get their fix with Mighty No. 9, but it is not the only Mega Man-like title Inafune has in the works. Announced at the beginning of March, Azure Striker Gunvolt is a new 2D action-platformer from Comcept and Inti Creates coming to the 3DS Nintendo eShop this summer. Azure Striker Gunvolt looks very similar to the fast-paced action of Mega Man Zero just with a brand new character to control, psychic powers to acquire and crazy bosses to battle. As somebody who has fond memories of the Mega Man Zero series, I am really looking forward to what Comcept and Inti Creates has in store for Azure Striker Gunvolt.
Video of the Month
Ken Kutaragi was a dashing young man with a dream to revolutionize gaming. That dream was the PlayStation, but Kutaragi's dream was challenged by the corporate powers of Nintendo. The short film Kutaragi's Way from Mega64 chronicles the totally true personal story of Ken Kutaragi's trials and tribulations in becoming the Father of the PlayStation entirely filmed with classic 80s film grain. Enjoy.
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