VIRTUAL BASTION

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #77

Hey everyone, are y’all ready for another spread of gaming goodness from our YouTube channel? We’re certainly happy to share, because there’s some really great stuff going on in our Let’s Play of Donkey Kong Country Returns – though let’s be honest, everything the Kongs do is pretty awesome (well, except that whole thing early…

Rare Scares: Spinal from Killer Instinct Gold

With spooky times on my mind, I’m thrilled to offer up my first “Rare Scares” post of the month! And I’m going to start things off by featuring a fearful figure from Rare’s frenetically fun fighting game, Killer Instinct. My time with this fantastic franchise began back in the mid-1990s with Killer Instinct Gold on…

Rare Scares: The Spooky Mumbo Portrait in Mad Monster Mansion

For October of 2018, we’re going to be focusing on Rare Scares, a delightfully spooky series that’s all about the scarier moments in Rareware games. To start out the Duck’s own posts on the topic, I thought it was only fitting to discuss something that has haunted me since ducklinghood. It’s creepy and just a…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #76

Happy Friday shout-outs to all! Thanks for returning once again for more highlights from the wonderful world of YouTube channel. This week we’re sharing more from our fantabulous Let’s Play of Donkey Kong Country Returns, as well as Ori and the Blind Forest, which only has a couple more weeks to go. If you want…

Castlevania Classics Coming to the PlayStation 4

On October 26th, PlayStation 4 owners who may have been craving a classic Castlevania experience will be treated to not one but two famous Castlevania games from the SNES and PS1 eras in Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood. The two games, which follow closely in terms of their story lines,…

The Collector’s Mentality

This particular post is something that I wrote…a long time ago, but never got around to publishing until today. It involved a question that arose about my gaming habits while I was replaying Kirby 64 several years back, and I thought it was about time I finally got around to voicing this question out loud…

Are You Ready to Live?!

It’s finally happening everyone! After 8 long years of waiting, Animal Crossing is finally, finally getting a new console release! What’s more, it’s been five years since its last entry on the 3DS! No matter how you slice it, it’s been a long time since we’ve had the chance to live the chill kind of…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #75

Greetings, good people! It is once again Friday, and that means it’s time for some gaming goodness from our YouTube channel. In case you missed it, we’ve started up an all-new Let’s Play of Donkey Kong Country Returns, which has been posting like hotcakes! Fans of the DKC games and awesome 3D platformers are definitely…

Playing through all the Uncharted games at once seemed like a good idea at the time, but…

…it turned out to be an AWESOME idea! Okay, almost awesome. I shall explain. With a PS4 becoming part of my console heard this year, I made it a personal goal to finally play Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. (For an excellent rundown of its story, see The Duck’s post here.) But I felt that…

Nintendo Switch Online is Now Live

With the exception of Fortnite, online play on the Nintendo Switch now requires a subscription to Nintendo’s newly-launched online service. Subscriptions range from $20 per year for an individual or $35 for the family plan. Subscribing gets a player access to online multiplayer for games like Smash 4 and Splatoon 2, cloud saves*, as well…

Star Fox Adventures and Some Deep Thoughts

I often feel as if video games double as a means to time travel. This is true of many things, like the hard strawberry candies that never fail to transport me back to my childhood, when my parents and I used to visit my great grandmother. Memories are a powerful thing that can make the…

Playing Forsaken While Eating My Words

I’ve not been kind to Destiny 2 or its developer, Bungie, for a good portion of this year. As I’ve said in several of my posts, I’ve been a Destiny fan for a long time, and I was particularly disappointed with Destiny 2 at launch. It was enough to get me to stop playing the…

YouTube Highlights, Weekly Edition #74

Happy Friday, one and all, and thanks for coming back for our regular look back on our week on YouTube! This week we’re super excited to announce the start of an all-new Let Play of…wait for it…Donkey Kong Country Returns! Yes, The Duck of Indeed is back with everyone’s favorite Kong in this wonderfully fun…

Saving the Water of the Wastes in Fallout 3

The goal I set for myself seemed to be reasonable enough: complete the main story of Fallout 3 over the course of a brief and final summer break. Based on my experiences with Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, I knew it was going to be a challenge, what with my tendency to become easily…

Hello Neighbor is Getting a Prequel

Some months back, the full version of a little indie game called Hello Neighbor was released. Though I had high hopes due to how interesting the Alpha and Beta versions of the game were, I was ultimately disappointed in the final game because it failed to successfully answer the questions I had going in (namely…

Still Feeling Cautiously Optimistic About Anthem

“Anthem looks interesting.” That’s more or less what I’ve been thinking ever since the game was announced. Plenty has been released about it; plenty has been shown, but I’m still not feeling all that much excitement for the game. This latest trailer, like all the others, shows a game that looks very promising. And yet…

Octopath Traveler is the Right Kind of Simple

I’ve been finding myself drawn to games that don’t require all that much thought lately. I mean that’s not exclusively what I’ve been playing, quite the opposite actually. Now that I’ve finished Vampyr (finally!), I feel like I can act on this attraction (such as it is). It’s kind of strange, but as my working…

Makers of ‘Until Dawn’ Trademark ‘Shattered State’

For many “Until Dawn” was one of the better horror experiences to come about during this console generation. Sure, it was more or less just a spooky walking-simulator peppered with QTEs, but that spookiness came across in a major way. “Until Dawn” sold its players on its atmosphere and managed to send a chill down…

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Might Just Live Up to Its Name

I usually don’t let hype get the better of me when deciding whether or not I should buy a video game. Trailers are still fun to watch, and I often talk animatedly with my friends about this announcement or that reveal. However, I still like to think myself as a rational gaming consumer most of…

It’s Official…King. K Rool is in SSB!

I’ll admit that, in recent times, I haven’t really bothered to keep up with gaming news. Life’s taken up too much of my focus, plus I haven’t felt the need to spend a large quantity of cash on the Nintendo Switch when it only possesses one game I actually feel like playing (Super Mario Odyssey,…

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…

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…

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…

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: 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,…

Sunday Video Round Up: Oct 7 – 13

Another week down means it’s time once more for the Video Round Up. As always, we’re bringing you the biggest and best trailers from the past seven days. We’re now midway through October and the trailers are coming left, right, and center. Here’s a small sample of everything that waits for you below the jump….

Sunday Video Round Up: Sept 30 – Oct 6

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another edition of the Sunday Video Round Up! As always, we’re bringing you the latest and best trailers from the week that was. There’s a lot to get to as we head through one of the busiest launch months in 2018, so here’s a brief look at everything waiting…

Sunday Video Round Up: Sept 23 – 29

It’s the weekend which means it’s time for another weekly edition of the Video Round Up! As always, I’m bringing you the best trailers and gameplay footage from the previous seven days. Here’s a few of the trailers waiting for you below, let’s get started! Another week, another bizarre but captivating trailer from Hideo Kojima….

Sunday Video Round Up: September 16 – 22

With October right around the corner, we’re in the thick of the fall release schedule. While that may be bad for all of our wallets, it’s definitely a good thing for those of us who enjoy watching new trailers and gameplay videos. Let’s take a look at all the content from this past week in…