[Video] Opening Digimon Card Packs (Original 1999 Booster Packs, Japanese Promo Packs)

In this video I'll be opening some Digimon trading card boosters. I found some original ones from Bay for a good price, and on top of that stumbled upon all these Japanese ones which had some cool cards. Hope you enjoy this video, as I'd hope to do an another one at some point!

I Really Like Saints Row Reboot

I was so happy when the new Saints Row game was announced to be released in 2022. Saints Row: The Third being one of my all time favourite games I could not wait to play rebooted version of the series, especially when it looked as good as it did. And then the game released, reviews came in, and I kinda lost interest for a while – it seemed that Saints Row was a buggy mess and it would be better to wait some time before trying it out. And after that development team was fired. And the chronically online people started hating Saints Row's new direction (but what they wouldn't hate?). 

We're off to a great start.

Finally at the end of the 2023 I decided to grab the game from Playstation Store sale and try it out myself. I was scared. Is this game going to be bad? Waste of money? I booted it up and...

This is how I spent my Xmas.

I really loved my time with Saints Row reboot. Sure, it's not perfect. Game still has a lot of bugs and glitches, story feels little bit rushed and at times unfinished, and some missions are just chores. But on the other side there's a game that hit straight into my millennial humour, from joking about student loans to being surprisingly respectful towards different people – this is not the same game that made fun of everyone like bad South Park episode. I personally enjoy reboot's take on things more, showing that you don't need to make fun of others to get some laughs. It's what I appreciate about a lot of modern art, especially being a person who grew on this culture where humour a lot of time was and still is targeted against certain groups of people. 

This game captures my life perfectly.

There is a certain charm to this absurdity that reboot offers. NPC's are doing their own thing, living seemingly normally in a normal city while Saints just break havoc and murder anyone on their way. And even after the craziest, weirdest or most macabre events, life in Santo Ileso continues. No questions asked. Especially after Saints Row IV's alien / Matrix world building I did really find reboot's more grounded world refreshing. And fun. 

Back when I was young games were not this colourful.

And that's what I mean when I think this game is really good – it is a fun experience. There is lot of different activities to do, and in a real Saints Row style you get your hands on some crazy weaponry. Even wing suit, which is just previous entry's flying ability but more floaty, turned out to be a really cool concept after I learned to use it without crashing to every single building. 

And you can be a zombie. As usual.

Great party.

I can understand that bugs and glitches will turn some people out of the game, but for someone like me, who loves when games break, it gives an another layer to the experience. Of course it is a thin line between silly and unplayable, but at least now reboot is more on that silly and goofy side. And if some missions (like insurance fraud) just don't work as they are intended to, this game allows you to turn off time limits and stuff. I really hope that more games would do that – timed missions are probably my most hated cliché.

After about 40-50 hours characters just started casually t-posing. Or a-posing?

As this game is on a sale very often, I would really recommend you to try it out. It has very high highs and some low lows, but overall experience is on the positive side. And if somebody says that this game is bad because it is trying to be respectful, guess what? There is no need to listen those people. Just enjoy the game.

[Video] Silly Breath of the Wild Moments #1

Game is good. Enjoy these clips!

I wrote some words about Breath of the Wild a while ago: How Breath of the Wild Became One of My Favourite Games

[Video] Mario hates everything

Especially me :C

Anyway, this little video sums up my Mario Odyssey experience pretty well. Game is fun, but I am very bad at jumping.

Hopefully I get around to finish my Saints Row reboot post this week. It is pretty good if I say so myself. I also have plans to write about both The Last of Us game and TV series at some point, so stay tuned for that!

[Video] 18th Century Colonial America Petting Simulator

Bamboozled! It’s Assassin’s Creed III. Honestly, as much I enjoyed first two games of this series, this one is not the same. Colonial America as a setting just is not as interesting as old Europe – old the buildings are the same and I don’t really feel like walking in the snow on forest is what made those original games so special. But at least there are animals to pet!

[Video] Skyrim Experience II

And thus silliness continues. Long awaited sequel to Skyrim Experience is here!

Few Words About Tomb Raider I

Photo: https://laracroftonline.com/music/tomb-raider-one-soundtrack-1996.html

First obstacle with the original Tomb Raider wasn't any of the puzzles or platforming, instead it was getting it to run on Steam Deck and Linux in general. After one evening of irritation and fighting with different emulators I finally got it working without any bigger problems, except cutscenes didn't really work – there is sound, but screen is black. Thankfully you can watch them on Youtube, so that's exactly what I did.

After getting used to terrible (old-school) controls game surprised me by being fun. Of course it feels old and outdated, but that doesn't really matter because on its core Tomb Raider is a fantastic game. Atmosphere is unique and difficulty is just perfect for my stupid brain. I had so much fun trying to figure my way through the Indiana Jones styled obstacles while occasionally fighting some nightmare creatures (and dinosaurs). And thanks to very detailed walkthroughs at Stella's Tomb Raider Site I rarely got stuck on any puzzle for too long.

I especially enjoyed later levels with more macabre and grotesque designs – it truly felt that Lara Croft went from this pretty ordinary tomb raiding into something unsettling and unknown. PS1 era graphics and minimalistic sound design (though I think that at times music was bugged because it played only for a short time at random locations and stopped just like that) gave me at times horror vibes that modern indie titles that are trying to replicate original Playstation's looks can't reach – after all imitation isn't the same as the real thing in bigger picture. But that is a conversation to be had on an another blog post.

Overall I would say that original Tomb Raider is great piece of history, that I'd recommend anyone who is interested in 90's gaming or gaming culture in general to check out. And as the remastered version just released, I think even more players are able to see what Lara Croft's first adventure was like. I need to try that new version myself at some point too as I am very interested in modern control scheme it has. But until then I will be continuing my Tomb Raider adventures with the original titles.

I'm trying something new: I will be uploading these blog post on a video from on Youtube from now on – just trying things out. Tell me what you think!

[Video] Borderlands 2 Co-op Madness (feat. eew)

Pew pew! Borderlands 2 is fun but it is even more fun when playing together. On Nintendo Switch. Which was meant for games like this. Oh well.

[Video] Skyrim Experience

I've bought this game only twice. And to be honest, playing it unmodded on Nintendo Switch while focusimg on everything else but the main story was probably the most fun I have ever had with Skyrim. Even with all the bugs and glitches. Those just make the experience more unique.

Doom (1993)

Photo: Steam

After all these years I finally tried and played through one of the most influential video games ever, id Softwares 1993 classic Doom. And what a game it is! This game is older than me but gameplay is so much fun, and shooting demons with different weapons while navigating maze like levels can sometimes be truly exciting – at times this old PC game captures better horror atmosphere than many modern survival horror experiences, which is truly unbelievable. But I think there’s a reason, and it is Doom’s now outdated, sprite based 3D graphics and simple textures combined with lo-fi sound design and midi music. It leaves more room for your own imagination, which is always a plus in my books.

Unfortunately everything is not perfect, not even in Doom. Some of the boss fights even on lower difficulties are such a bullet sponges that I just turned on god mode (which is easily accessible in the Steam version as are other cheats). id has really kept Doom alive with making sure it runs on modern machines with all bonus features (like those cheats) you'd hope for. Game preservation at its best.

As Doom is not too long of a game, I would recommend that anyone who is into FPS or game history in general play it through at least once in their life. It really makes you appreciate how far video games have come from mid-90's and how technology has developed rapidly to allow us to have modern gaming experiences from MMO's to VR. Or if you just enjoy shooting some demons with cool weapons, that is really a great reason to play Doom too.

[Video] Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is not weird at all

Title says it all…

I played through this game a while ago, you can read some of my thoughts from this blog post. Now I am playing Hacker’s Memory DLC, which is a lot of the same stuff with terrible, terrible story and some really stupid characters. But more about that on a later date…

[Video] FIFA 20 for Nintendo Switch is a buggy mess and I love it

 

I played this game for 600 hours so you don't have to. And it is… Well, the game works. Kinda. At the times. And sometimes you are just staring at the screen as your players are slowly trying to figure how to kick the ball. 

I would say that this is terrible version of this game. And EA released this same game like 4 or 5 times for Nintendo Switch. That is the real crime here.

Not recommended. But as I said, I played this for hundreds of hours so… I might be stupid. 

Few Words About Beyond Good & Evil

So, I’ve almost completed Playstation 2 classic Beyond Good & Evil. All I have left to do is the final part, but I’m too lazy to collect missing orbs to unlock last level so… To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll be up for that task for a while if ever. But that doesn’t mean that the game is bad in any way, quite the opposite: Beyond Good & Evil is probably one of my favourite games on PS2 and showed me what console game can offer on its best.

Beyond Good & Evil is a beautiful game for its time – it is hard to believe that it is released in 2003! Sure, there are some horrible frame rates and textures, but most of the time game is stunning, especially on outside areas. Character models are not as high detailed but art style helps with that. Art style works perfectly and captures this otherworldly yet familiar vibe of the game world. Locations are mostly interesting and surprisingly detailed and on so many occasions I'd just take a break from action and looked around, just enjoying the feeling of ''being there''. This game really takes you away from the real world at times.

Photo: The 100 Reviews

Gameplay is fine. There’s not too much fighting, and it’s pretty straight forward. Jade moves where you want most of the time, though there are moments when camera does its own things – which is kinda irritating. Using allies is fun and gives depth to the gameplay. Unfortunately age of the game shows in controls and action may get little bit clunky. Previously mentioned frame rates might drop during the most intense battles which might be also fault of the old hardware – I noticed that on PS2 slim game runs terrible compared to the ''fat'' version.

And that is what I think of Beyond Good & Evil. I don't really want to say too much about the story, even though it's two decades old game – some things are better to not be spoiled. That said, I really recommend that you try it if you haven't yet, especially if you are able to emulate it on more modern hardware with better frame rates. Such a great game.

[Video] In this game you mine blocks and craft tools (feat. eew)

Yes, it is Minecraft. I just didn't know how to name this video.

[Video] Very Musical Animal Crossing: New Horizons Experience (feat. eew)

Who is the best singer and why it is Cube?

I'm sharing my Youtube videos here too! Make sure to subscribe Juho's Gaming Blog :) These first videos will be ones that I've previously uploaded to Melancholic Zombie's channel but there will be brand new ones sooner and/or later!