Bit by Bit: April 2014

With school coming to an end for another year, April serves as the start of more free time to relax and do things that were pushed aside during the school year like video games.  While I did get some time playing games between studying and working, it seems like the floodgates have just opened in these last couple of weeks.  Funny enough, the end of the school year coincided with finally completing Bravely Default after spending the last two and a half months working on beating the game.  Spending so much time with one game felt very limiting that now this feeling of freedom and choice is almost overwhelming.  The spring and summer months should be fun as I will be bouncing between games from my ever-growing backlog and brand new releases.  It should be a fun journey that will be chronicled right here on Silver Bit.  So stay tuned.

Game of the Month
Ever since I beat Bravely Default, I have been able to spend more time playing a wide variety of games.  In the few weeks since I beat Bravely Default, I have been playing Golden Sun, Resident Evil 6 and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and have completed shorter games like Rhythm Thief, SteamWorld Dig and Donkey Kong 1994.  As great of an achievement beating a long, gruelling RPG is, playing a game for over 100 hours can be exhausting.  The change of pace has been refreshing especially with one game in particular pulling me in more and more.  That game is Infamous: Second Son and it is the one game that has got me to play the PS4 on a rather consistent basis.  I have dabbled with the previous entries in Sucker Punch's superhero playground, but never for any considerable amount of time.  Compared to other open world sandboxes, Second Son's setting of Seattle may seem a little lifeless, bland and full of hilarious glitches.  Even with those drawbacks, I have had lots of fun just running around, completing side missions, collecting blast shards and beating up waves of DUP officers and drug dealers. The most fun to be had with Second Son comes from the new powers you get to play around with.  While the smoke and video powers are cool, the best power in the game is neon.  Zipping around Seattle at supersonic speeds, slowing down time to aim and sniping enemies with precise neon shots make for a power players will stick to throughout their entire playthrough.  Infamous: Second Son may not be the best open-world superhero game as Batman still holds that honour in my opinion, but it is definitely the best game on PS4 right now.  Second Son deserves to be in every PS4 owner's library.

Most Anticipated Game of the Month
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS are easily the two most anticipated games of 2014.  A new entry in the Smash Bros. series only happens every four years or more so any news or announcement about the newest entry is an event in itself.  Aside from Masahiro Sakurai's daily screenshots on Miiverse, there has not been a major dump of information about Super Smash Bros. since E3 2013.  Early this April, Nintendo and Sakurai took some time away from developing Super Smash Bros. to deliver a Nintendo Direct focused solely on the two games.  During the nearly 40 minute presentation, Sakurai touched on the release dates, included stages, online play, differences between the two versions, items, assist trophies and returning and new inclusions to the roster among a plethora of additional information.  It is impossible to capture the greatness of this Nintendo Direct in mere words.  It is incredibly produced, filled with tons of goodies that will make any gamer smile ear to ear and easily sold hundreds to buy a Wii U, 3DS or possibly both.  Personally, my excitement for Super Smash Bros. is at unimaginable levels.  Even thinking about the games makes me giddy with excitement.  Summer and Winter 2014 cannot come any sooner.


Video of the Month
Usually I never have a problem picking the Video of the Month, but this April has been the exception.  There has been so many great videos this month from the wacky Tomodachi Life Direct to Screwattack's epic interviews with the creator of Videoball Tim Rogers to Mega64's collaboration with Nintendo on the recent Nintendo E3 announcements.  While they are all incredible videos and deserve to your viewing, I have to give the Video of the Month to a video that got me thinking.  The Completionist's Final Fantasy VII Retrospective has been a month-long event where Jirard and a crew of Youtubers take an in-depth look at the impact that Final Fantasy VII has had on RPGs and video games in general.  This in-depth analysis of Final Fantasy VII really made me see the game in a new light and truly understand why people hold the game on such a high pedestal.  While the first two videos were released in March, the majority of this series has come out throughout April and deserves the recognition for how great it is.  I will share the first part here, but I highly recommend watching this series in its entirety.  It will give you a new appreciation of Final Fantasy VII as it has done for me.

SGC 3: Help Bring Back the Biggest Party in Gaming

If you have been following Silver Bit for a while, you already know that Screwattack is my favourite video game website.  I have been visiting Screwattack almost everyday for a good four years and I have highlighted many of their videos and other content on this blog many times.  Back in 2009 as part of a way to give back to fans, Screwattack put on the first ever Screwattack Gaming Convention (SGC for short).  More of a party than a convention, SGC was a huge success that spawned a second just as successful convention in 2010.  SGC played host to some incredible guests such as Brentalfloss, Keith Apicary, Angry Video Game Nerd, Nolan Bushnell, Uwe Boll and Jack Thompson, some incredible events such as the debut of Brentalfloss' song Corey, the Iron Man of Gaming tournament and the reveal of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 as the final game of the 2010 Iron Man of Gaming.  For 2011 and 2012, Screwattack could not afford to put on SGC.  During the absence of SGC for these two past years, everybody and their mother has been asking the crew at Screwattack for SGC to return.  Screwattack has heard it all and has thought of a way to fund SGC 3, Kickstarter.  The goal for this Kickstarter is 100 thousand dollars.  At the moment that I am writing this post, the SGC 3 Kickstarter has 401 (including yours truly) and has 40 001 dollars pledged towards it with 17 days left.  Like all Kickstarter projects, there are many tiers for the amount of money you pledge.  The lowest tier for the SGC 3 Kickstarter is 2 dollars or more with your being put on Screwattack's "supported by" page going all the way up to receiving tickets for the event and even receiving every piece of Screwattack merchandise ever made.  The fun does not end there.  Screwattack has built in stretch-goals to this Kickstarter, which could bring down the price of registation or fund other big events for SGC 3 and beyond, if the goal of 100 thousand dollars is met and/or surpassed.  Pledges start at a minimum of 1 single dollar.  So if you are planning on wanting to go to SGC 3 or want to support the great guys and gals at Screwattack, please support this Kickstarter.  Even though there is no possible way I could go to SGC 3 if it happens due to school and co-op, I have put five dollars in support of the website that I love and hopes of going to a future SGC.  If you are interested in helping, you can go to the SGC 3 Kickstarter at the link provided, www.kickstarter.com/projects/screwattack/let-throw-the-best-gaming-party-in-the-world-again.

Hump Day Video: Downloadable Cast

Yesterday was an incredibly slow day for the video game industry.  Yes, it was new release day, but other than Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for the 3DS no other new game was noteworthy.  Most of the gaming community did not care for The Secret World, EA and Funcom's new MMORPG, and Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, the newest entry in Atari's Test Drive series.  With no big release and no real motivation to do I post, I decided to put out two posts today.  Two posts that should help you get over the hump that is Wednesday.  First up is the Hump Day Video that you are reading followed by Hump Day Music just a little later.

Jirard Khalil is The Completionist.  As The Completionist, Jirard reviews games in a different way.  Giving games a rating of if somebody should take the time to actually complete the game or not.  You can catch Jirard's content on his Youtube page, ThatOneVideoGamer or on Screwattack.  It was actually through Screwattack that I started to watch Jirard's videos and subscribe to his Youtube page.  One of Jirard's newest projects is a weekly video podcast called the Downloadable Cast (DLC for short).  During this weekly podcast, which is recorded live in front of a live audience on Twitch TV, Jirard and a co-host, be it his partner in crime Greg Wilmot or a special guest, discuss big topics in the gaming industry.  Out of the three podcasts so far, my favourite has to be the lastest one as they discuss the future of Nintendo.  While you may not agree with each opinion, I know I have not always, it is a great one hour discussion that really hit some great points about Nintendo's immediate future.  If you have the time, watch the video provided below.  If you enjoy this video, watch all of Jirard's other videos and possibly subscribe to his Youtube page to show you support from great original content.

E3 2012: One Week Away

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3 for short, is an annual trade show held by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) as a showcase of the biggest and best of the gaming industry.  E3 is normally held the first week of June at the Los Angeles Convention in Downtown Los Angeles, California.  It is the one week of the year when gamers, game journalists and stockholders all center their attention at one place, one location for the biggest news and most surprising reveals.  It is like Christmas for gamers as their are hundreds of games all being showed off for our attention.  With how E3 has exploded in popularity over the past six years, there is now a lot of ways to find out all the news, watch all the gameplay footage being showed off, even watch all the big press conferences live.  The more I talk about E3, the more excited I get.  It should and will be one incredible week to be a gamer.

Being only one week away, the anticipation for the biggest event of the gaming year is incredibly huge.  I personally booked Monday and Tuesday off work in order to watch all the press conferences.  On top of that, a lot of my free time will be spent constantly checking sites like IGN and Screwattack for the latest news and impressions, watching a lot of gameplay footage and trailers and watching the live streams from the show floor. Which leads into my next topic of what will going on next week here on Silver Bit, which goes into E3 mode.  Monday and Tuesday, I will be sharing my impressions on each and every conference from the Microsoft press conference all the way to the Nintendo press conference.  Wednesday and Thursday will be back to the regular schedule of Hump Day Music and On the Download.  Friday I will post Bit by Bit and on Saturday I will post my annual Top 10 Games of E3 list.  So I got a week packed full of content for everybody to enjoy.  Also stay tuned later this week as I will be posting my anticipated games and consoles of E3 2012.  Let the countdown begin.  We are only one week away.

Hump Day Video: Newsroom

If you have been following this blog for a while now, you probably noticed I really like Screwattack.  It is one of my favourite video game site on the World Wide Web and I enjoy everything this group of gamers does.  Yesterday, Screwattack launched a new monthly show by the name of Newsroom.  In Newsroom, Screwattack news editors Jared and Lauren perform a little skit on a big news story in the gaming industry.  The first episode was on the 40 second wait gamers have to "endure" to connect to Blizzard's servers for Diablo III and the disdain of most gamers.  This skit has Jared complaining to Lauren about waiting these supposedly long 40 seconds and Error 37.  After complaining to Lauren for the entire 40 second wait and receiving Error 37, Jared comes to the conclusion of complaining on the Internet.  The result seeing Jared immediately banned from the online forum.  Newsroom lasts under 2 minutes, but provides tons of laughs for any gamer.  We will have to wait until next month to see what news story Jared and Lauren parody next.  While you wait, watch the first episode a few times.

Hump Day Video: Death Battle

"It's time for a DEATH BATTLE!"  Analyzing combatants weapons, armour and skills, Death Battle masterminds, Wiz and Boomstick determine who would win a battle between two or more characters from any form of media, mostly video games though.  Structured much alike Spike TV's Deadliest Warriors, Death Battle starts off with Wiz and Boomstick listing each combatants' weaponry, armour and special skills.  Once they are down looking at each combat, the battle begins as all combatants fight until the death and an iconic KO.  Death Battle is a creation of Screwattack that has been going on for I believe two years now.  There has been 21 episodes in total with two Q & A episodes with Wiz and Boomstick.  In 21 episodes, Death Battle has covered heated rivalries such as Mario vs. Sonic and Goomba vs. Koopa, dream matches like Mike Haggar vs. Zangief and Dr. Wily vs. Dr. Robotnik and even a showdown between two pop stars in Justin Beiber vs. Rebecca Black.  Filled with a lot of humour and amazing sprite-based fights, no Death Battle has been disappointing in any way.  If you are a fan of video games, comic books and any form of sci-fi, you will definitely enjoy Death Battle.  If you would like a sample, just check out the most recent episode provided below.  It is Thor vs. Raiden.