VIRTUAL BASTION

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #69

Hey, everyone! Are you ready for more highlights from Virtual Bastion’s YouTube channel? We are ready and raring to share, and we’re not just saying that because it’s Friday. (Though it is, and we are!) On tap today are further adventures in two amazing games: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and…

Top 5: Metroidvania Games that I’ve Not Played but Should

Having recently immersed myself in Ori and the Blind Forest, it’s reminded me of how much I enjoy (and occasionally despise but still enjoy) metroidvania games. Of late, it’s been hard for me to turn away from action/shooter madness and open world adventures, but games of Metroid and Castlevania once ruled the roost. Various titles…

Destiny 2: Solstice of Heroes Looks Interesting

Destiny 2’s brand new summer event, Solstice of Heroes, is now in full swing. The month-long event gives players access to new gear, remixed campaign missions, and new challenges to complete. This appears to be a special event aimed specifically at players who’ve stuck with the game through all the goofiness its gone through thus…

Vampyr and the Torment of Temptation

In some ways, Vampyr is very frustrating. It features frequent load times. It’s combat is kind of clunky and never quite allows the player to have the upper hand against their enemy; this leads to frequent defeats and sitting through the above-mentioned load times. Resources feel finite, and leveling-up comes with risks. Now, what if…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #68

Hello, one and all. Welcome back to our weekly share of highlights from our YouTube channel! We’ve got a lot to get to today, so let’s get to it! This past week, and once again the vein of “all good things must come to an end,” we bid adieu to Crash Bandicoot, but not before…

Jumping into Nothing: A Breath of the Wild story

This post contains location spoilers from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s nearing bedtime, and before my eyes get too heavy, I settle in for a short session with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I don’t have a set goal in mind, rather, the last time I played Link…

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Has a Hub City This Time

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is promising a somewhat different experience from that offered by the previous two games. The trailers shown thus far certainly show a darker story about (among other things) Lara (finally) being confronted with the consequences of some of her decisions. Pretty cool, no? Well it looks like the story isn’t…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #67

Another week down, another round of YouTube Highlights! Hello, good people! It’s time once again for us to celebrate our week on YouTube. While more is sometimes merrier, we’ve been keeping things simple by focusing on platformers old(ish) and new(ish), in this case, Crash Bandicoot: Warped (or Crash 3) and Ori and the Blind Forest….

Are We All Ready for Uncharted: The Movie?

Earlier this week, writer and director Allen Ungar released a short, live action (and non-monetized) film based on highly popular Uncharted video game series. Naturally, the film is titled “Uncharted.” Fans of the games will immediately recognize our hero Drake (Nathan Fillion), his mentor/look-out Sully (Stephen Lang), and, if briefly, Drake’s plus-one, Elena (Mircea Monroe)….

There’s No Escaping the Backlog

It wasn’t too long ago that I used to be a different kind of gamer. The kind of gamer who spent every moment of free time they had on finishing their next game. The kind of gamer who would play games through multiple times, and then revisit them every year to relive the experience. I…

Hopefully Conquering Final Fantasy 8: Part 4 – The Moment of Truth

My most recent playthrough of Final Fantasy VIII has been going swimmingly. Or, to be more accurate, it was. Because it has now come to an end. I pretty much completed every extra task, with the exception of winning Doomtrain back from the Queen of Cards’ son. He just wouldn’t use it. Except for this…

Even if Forsaken is Amazing, I Might Still Be Done With Destiny For Good

I haven’t played Destiny 2 since the first couple of weeks after it launched in September 2017. Even though I went in expecting it to be less than what the original Destiny was, but was still massively disappointed by the sheer lack of features and complete (and unnecessary) retooling of how everything worked. Over the…

Monstrum is a New Mesh of Roguelike and Survival Horror

Developed by Team Junkfish, Monstrum promises to combine the best elements of the survival-horror and roguelike genres. All the elements appear to be here, but the question is whether or not the team behind it can really pull it off.

Resonance: Fossil Falls

I know that I can’t say that Super Mario Galaxy is an objectively awesome game, but I really want to! I realize that it trades tight level design for worlds that are often a little too big, and getting Power Moons is altogether too easy. I can acknowledge that. It’s not a perfect game and…

Remedy’s New Game is Called “Control”

After the disappointing performance of Quantum Break, it looks like Remedy is back and ready to get back to what they do best: pairing third-person action with mind-bending phenomenon. It’s not that Quantum Break didn’t deal with potentially mind-bending subject matter, it did deal with time travel after all; it’s just that time-travel isn’t all…

Resonance: Rain

The Halo games have changed quite a bit over the past few years, and not always for the better. One could even argue that the series started going downhill right after Halo 3. I disagree. Without getting into it, the Halo series entered its prime with Halo 3 and only started declining with Halo 4…

Resonance: Kushi’s Ride

This is not the first time we’ve written a Resonance post for Okami. Why, way back in 2013, I wrote about a rather interesting tune called Giant Monster in Wait. Three years later in 2016, Hatm0nster discussed Battle of Orochi II. There’s a good reason why Okami has gotten so much attention, for it is…

Resonance: Don’t Think Twice

With all this E3 buzz in the air this week, I found myself drawn away from gaming’s past and focused upon what looks like an almost blindingly bright future. True, this year’s E3 didn’t have everything I wanted to see, but it did have a lot. Rage 2, Death Stranding, Prey DLC, Super Smash Bros….

Nintendo Didn’t Bring Much to E3, But Was Still Impressive

I’ll be honest, with the Switch such a good state, I was expecting quite a lot from Nintendo at this year’s E3. I was expecting Metroid news. I was hoping for Animal Crossing news. I was sure that I was finally going to see more news about that new Yoshi game they’re working on. Alas,…

Resonance: Snowy Mountain

For our next Resonance post, we shall be visiting one of the Duck’s favorite platformers, the original Jak and Daxter on the PS2. This game’s soundtrack is unique in that the music is almost…not there, in a sense. And that’s kind of what I like about it. There’s just something about this game that relaxes…

Resonance: Uphill Both Ways

So, anyone still remember Halo: Reach? Of course you do! I know I certainly do (…I’m not the only one, right?) I’ve often said that Halo 3 is my favorite of the entire series, and for the most part, that’s true. Halo 3 gave me some of my fondest gaming memories, and was my very…

Bungie Partners with NetEase to the Tune of $100 Million

The gaming community has been a buzz for the last few days over Bungie’s new partnership with NetEase, a Chinese tech and gaming company. In a post on Bungie’s official forum, the developer stated that they’ve entered into the partnership in order to move towards self-publishing smaller-scale games in the future. Of course, this announcement…

Resonance: Waterfall

It is no secret that the Duck adores Undertale. One of the many things I love about the game is its amazing soundtrack, which is easily one of my favorites from any game. I have already written a resonance post about Here We Are, which plays when you explore the True Lab, and today we…

Resonance: Time To Relax

It’s Resonance month everybody! This is perhaps our longest running series of articles, and since it’s our five year anniversary, why not take the opportunity to really dive into it for once, right? To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what song I should talk about to kick things off. I have plenty personal favorites…

Resident Evil 7 Coming to Nintendo Switch…Via the Cloud?

On Sunday, Nintendo and Capcom announced that the much beloved latest entry in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil 7, will soon be coming to Nintendo Switch. While most Switch-owning horror fans will certainly welcome this, the announcement is still surprising considering Resident Evil 7’s impressive visuals. It’s a game that shouldn’t be able to…

N-No Virtual Console for the Switch?!

Say it ain’t so, Nintendo! Say it ain’t so! Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just…a bit upset right now. It’s fine, really. But hey, did you hear, Nintendo is apparently not bringing the Virtual Console to the Switch! What is happening to my life! I am ill-prepared for this news; why, cruel world, why! (Oh,…

Octopath Traveler Introduces Final Two Characters, Reveals Features

Fans of the classic Final Fantasy games may have something to forward to this July. See, Square-Enix is releasing a new JRPG on the Switch that both calls back to the classic 2D JRPGs and advances the genre in significant, but somewhat subtle ways. This game is known as Octopath Traveler, an RPG that puts…

So Here We Are, Five Years Later

It’s amazing how the passage of years can feel depending on how you look at it. In one sense, five years can feel like almost nothing. While I can’t say that it feels like only yesterday that Cary, The Duck of Indeed and I were getting this idea off the ground, I can say that…

Nintendo Finally Gives Details About Switch Online Service

Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain (somewhat) on the online service they’re bringing to the console this September. For starters, this isn’t going to be the same kind of robust online service PlayStation and Xbox users have grown used to over the years. It’s actually rather bare bones compared to PSN and Xbox Live,…

Sunday Video Round Up: August 5 – 11

…bzzt… Hey, hello? Is this thing on? After an extended break due to the post-E3 malaise and the relative lack of major release in the month of July, the Video Round Up has returned from its long slumber! For the first time in a while, we had a number of exciting trailer drops which likely…

Is The Spyro: Reginited Trilogy Nostalgic Enough?

Remasters and remakes, as popular as they are, are odd products. For those unfamiliar with the original game, the remake/remaster might as well be just another release.. For those who were fans of the original though, it’s something else entirely. It’s a trip down memory lane that is, at the same time, also a new…

Crash Bandicoot 2: Top 4 Toughest Levels

I’ve made it through the second Crash Bandicoot game on the N. Sane Trilogy (and published the episodes on Youtube…). And seeing as this was yet another challenging platformer, it seemed fitting to create another list of the game’s most aggravating levels. As difficult as the first game was, I think getting 100% in Crash…