Video Game Trailers: Breath of the Wild - Video Game Month 2022 - Oct 20th 2022
 

Video Game Trailers
and also my favorite one

As some people enjoy seeing movie trailers, I get a lot of the same enjoyment out of watching video game trailers. Whether it's just a cinematic or actual gameplay, I always think it's fun and fascinating to see what sorts of things we can expect as technology and the ability to make games evolves. Sometimes they fall short and the expectation vs reality comes into play, sometimes harder than others. But...either way. Even if a game falls short of its expectations, I still think it's always a neat time to go back and watch the trailers for certain games. Which...I won't really be doing here. I'm just more-so giving a general consensus of why I want to talk about this in the first place. And i'll tell you why:

On this day, 10/20/2022, while we have had many many years of many many games since then, I still think that the Breath of the Wild trailer that was released on 01/12/2017 is still by far the best video game trailer I have ever seen. And again, I have seen very many since then, but none of them seem to have been able to not only capture the very essence of what it was representing, but to also allow such a thing to continue to capture that essence, even watching it now, 5 years later. It still gives me chills every time, and I have to proceed to watch it each time I pull it up for something like this, because it just brings me joy:

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - Video Game Month 2022 - Oct 21st 2022
 

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Developed by: Konami

I don't think in the history of this journal or any of my past journals have I talked about my absolute favorite Castlevania game, being Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I recently got the collection of Castlevania games on Xbox and have since played through all of them which was not the case prior to the collection being released. Hell, Circle of the Moon was the only one I actually had played out of all of them. But they are all fun in their own ways, however I still think I had some of the most fun with Circle of the Moon.

Growing up, I had played this game for the first time on Game Boy Advance, and I think I may have spent hundreds of hours getting through it because, as a kid I didn't really understand the concept of what was going on in some cases, but I understood overall that you have to fill up the map and find secrets etc. But to the extent of what I know now, the game is such a fun experience to go through and doing so once I got older just made that even more fun. The whole concept of playing a character with a whip and can upgrade with certain abilities found throughout your playthrough is a really cool way to present a game like this. I found the card system to be quite interesting however if you know this game well enough, you know about the exploit that is super easy to pull off with said card system, thus making it completely pointless to get cards in the first place.

While the other games are certainly of high caliber when it comes to quality, and while I did actually enjoy my time immensely with the other games, I think the nostalgia for the music and everything in Circle of the Moon is why I tend to go back to it more than the others. I'll always remember the music that starts when you first fall down in the hole into the cave and you start your journey. It just lets you know right off the bat that your in this alone and you have to figure out how to traverse this castle. Most of my fun in these types of games is the unknowing part, where every path you take is something fresh and new, and it certainly was back then as well as when I played it recently. Playing it on next gen consoles as well makes the experience even better since I can now play it on my big screen as opposed to a small Game Boy Advance screen. But, that was what it was for the time so it worked.

Even talking about it in this journal makes me want to boot up Circle of the Moon and just do a full on playthrough again, while using that little exploit to make the game a bit more interesting. Hell, I may do that actually.

I'm excited for...Gotham Knights - Video Game Month 2022 - Oct 21st 2022
 

I'm excited for...
Gotham Knights

Basically, I know little to nothing about this game other than the title and maybe a few minutes of gameplay that I saw on Youtube before I turned it off, since I realized that maybe this is one of those games that I want to have my own experience with, as the Arkham games have certainly given Batman a good light as far as video games go. And on top of that, knowing very little about this game, I hadn't even realized that it was actually released on the day of me posting this, though I had planned to write this for a few days now. So, maybe it's just a coincidence. Either way, I'm hopeful for this game as it seems like it'd be cool based on what little I have seen so far, and maybe it'll be a different scenario altogether once I put some time into it. I do know that, like Scorn, there will be a first impressions of this game if I decide to look into it further. And obviously I want to stay away from any reviews as like I said, the game came out today, so there will be spoiler reviews posted all over the place. And I would rather see what this game offers before I jump into reading other people's thoughts.

It's Batman, and while I know the Arkham games are both loved unconditionally while also having some faults as the series progressed, I'm sure this one will do just fine in setting up a fun or interesting experience to play. I'm not necessarily expecting a masterpiece, though if you go into any game with that mindset, you're preparing yourself for disappointment. And maybe Gotham Knights will bark up the disappointment tree, though I tend to have a bit more of a relaxed approach when coming to new games. Ultimately, I just want to have fun and whatever this game does to achieve that, I'm on board.

I got that Castlevania bundle too and been playing some Aria of Sorrow, one of the best looking gba games of all time. Also recently beat Symphony of the Night for the first time and it was awesome.

I wholeheartedly agree. I was always interested in playing Aria back in the day solely on how it looked and playing it later still managed to keep that going. Definitely one of the best bundle collections I've come across, and there's been some good ones for other games in the past. Symphony of the Night is fantastic as well.

Games I'm Excited For [pt.2] - Video Game Month 2022 - Oct 21st 2022
 

Games I'm Excited For [pt.2]

A few more games to look forward to as the year quickly comes to a close, or at least that's how it feels. Hell, we're almost to the end of October, the year is basically done. And still, many different kinds of games coming out that could potentially be mind bogglingly good. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Sonic Frontiers
Developed by: Sonic Team
I'm no stranger to Sonic games as far as what people think about them, however I don't honestly remember the last time I actually put some real time into the Sonic games. Most of that definitely has to do with the fact that Sonic games in general typically don't do that well as far as what the developers delivered on and what the community thinks of it. Usually it's seen as a sort of joke when a Sonic game comes out, but based on what I've seen from trailers and the like, this looks like a sort of shift from the usual Sonic formula, however it does look like it's going towards another popular formula of bringing this franchise to an open world setting. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be bad, but I think a lot of people may not give it a fair shake solely based on that fact alone. But, like I said, i'm in it for the fun. I don't think it will be groundbreaking for the Sonic series, and honestly I just want it to be good. Give Sonic some form of redemption.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Developed by: Gearbox Software
As much as I would like to say that I enjoy Borderlands 3 as much as I enjoyed the previous two, I would be lying. Yes, Borderlands 3 has a lot of great stuff going for it, but it didn't feel like anything new or exciting, rather it felt like just a slightly improved version of Borderlands 2. Not the worst thing, surely. So, here comes Tiny Tina's Wonderlands ready to change all that. Initially this game was released back in March, so I haven't really been in a hurry to check it out, but it's on my list. The unfortunate thing about it, and i'm my own worst critic, is that I've allowed reviews to sort of keep me from dumping money on it. However, I think that will change once I've given some other games a good amount of time as I'm itching for something like Borderlands that isn't Borderlands as I feel I have played plenty of Borderlands to where I feel satisfied with it as a whole. So, we'll see. This game could potentially be good, but I won't know until I try.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Developed by: Ubisoft
I haven't even touch a Mario + Rabbids game and I already know that I'm excited to play this one. I remember wanting to play the previous one many many times but never found the time to get into it. And what sounds better than mixing Mario, Rabbids, and tactical strategy? Not many things. I don't know a whole lot about this series so I'll be excited to check this one out and of course the one that came prior.

I'm waiting for a price drop or a really good sale on Wonderlands but I've seen people on Reddit calling it the best Borderlands game and magic being an amazing replacement for grenades. The art design of the series is tailor made for campy fantasy anyway.

That actually sounds rather intriguing and I would be curious how it all works together so it may be sooner rather than later that I give it some time. I absolutely love Borderlands as a series so I'll definitely look forward to playing Wonderlands as well. But same for me, the current price isn't too steep but I'd rather wait for a reduced cost.

Yeah I simply have too many games to play to justify paying full price for anything unless I'm actively trying to support the devs cause I'm simping, like the new Saints Row or Mechwarrior 5.

Ooh saints row is on my list as well. The absolute craziness of Saints Row 3 and Saints row 4 brought me so much joy that I think it's time to jump into that world again. Mechwarrior 5 is also on my list but not quite ready to play it. And similarly I as well have many games going on though I regularly switch between maybe 1 or 2 if I'm really into something. And honestly I've been digging a lot of the games I've played recently. So things are good on that regard.

And...well, I suppose us talking about it convinced me enough to go ahead and buy Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and only played a little bit this evening but so far it's good. I plan to talk more in depth but I just want more time with it. So far the whole theme works well together so I'm curious as to how this game unfolds as I progress.