Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a Surprising Mess | My Gaming Landscape

I’ve been playing through the Prince of Persia sands trilogy since a new Prince of Persia game was just released. Despite me being a big fan of Sands of Time, I’ve never finished Warrior Within or Two Thrones. I’ve been playing them on the original Xbox, as I have the trilogy on that console and I just finished Warrior Within this past Monday. First off, I played through Sands of Time again and it’s still a great game. The combat does feel a bit shallow and the level design does feel obtuse to me (to open the door in a mess hall, you have to pull all these hanging lever switches, what?) but the story is intriguing, the platforming is top notch, and the game is fun to play. 8 out of 10.

Reminiscing About Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting / Turbo | Old School

Street Fighter II Turbo is where I really fell in love with the series. I played the Super Nintendo port collection first, which as I mentioned in my last post about Street Fighter, Turbo on the Super Nintendo is actually a collection of Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting on one cart. At first, I played it at my cousin’s house, who previously had the original Street Fighter II on Super Nintendo and then got this version later. The game had alternate colors, new moves, the stages looked different, it was a lot faster, and you could play as the boss characters now. I had so much fun playing, even though my cousins were way better than me at the time.

State of the Blog 2024

Peace and Love, gamers and players! Colorwind here and welcome to 2024!

I wanted to give a quick state of the blog post about what’s going to be going on here in the upcoming year. I am currently writing this from my new tablet and bluetooth keyboard which will allow me to write stuff away from my computer. This is good because it allows me to write and still do some work while rendering something on my computer or if I just want to be away from my office.

This means that I plan to write more and be more active on this blog than in recent years. I know this blog has turned into kind of a dumping ground for my video content, and I want to change that in 2024. I miss writing and that’s why I’m making active moves to allow myself to do it more often. I plan to do my typical beginning of the year posts over the next week or two and then get back to reviews, editorials, features, and more about video games as well as music, TV, movies, social issues, politics, and whatever else piques my interest.

That’s the plan going forward. Hopefully, I’ll see you around and you’ll enjoy my work. Colorwind out.

Dead Island 2 is…fine | My Gaming Landscape

I got Dead Island 2 from Gamefly. I’ve played the original but only for a few hours and I’ve never touch Riptide. However, I was interested since this game took over a decade to finish. I’ve played, maybe, two hours or so, and…it’s alright. The combat is really basic. It feels like something that was developed in the seventh generation of consoles. It’s easy to get tired of it really quickly. Dropkicking a zombie is fun the first 10 times or so but then it gets tiresome.

The upgrades you can get don’t feel that impactful and do little to change up the mechanics. Dodging and parrying doesn’t feel good either. The weapon crafting is at least a bit interesting but games like Dead Rising have done this in a much more interesting way. Still, finding materials is rewarding as it’ll allow you to upgrade your weapons with notable and useful upgrades.

The story is also indicative of a game from ten years ago, with thinly written characters, stereotypical motivations, beat by beat zombie story points, and an uninteresting, uncompelling plot. I guess it’s not terrible, but man, we’ve been here so many times. Many of the missions feel like busy work and lack a motivating incentive.

The graphics are a mixed bag. The zombies look terrifically gruesome and the way they fall apart and splatter into pieces. However, the faces of the humans are…off. They don’t look terrible but they got a bad case of the dead eyes. The graphical design isn’t anything special either. The game does look pretty good, with its bright colors and Hollywood aesthetic, but it’s unmemorable.

So far, that’s been this game in a nutshell. I’m going to continue playing it for awhile, as it’s not terrible, but it’s kinda boring. Which might be worse. Disappointing for a game in development for so long.

Reminiscing About Street Fighter II: Champion Edition | Old School

Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t second guess that this game had an update that required people to re buy the whole game again. My first exposure to Champion Edition I was unaware of because I’m pretty sure I played Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting on the Super Nintendo first. For those who don’t know, the Normal version of that game as oppose to the Turbo version is actually a port of Champion Edition. My true memories of Champion Edition begin with the Genesis version. It was called Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition and it was called that due to it also including Hyper Fighting. However, it was also because Capcom was forced to focus on the Champion Edition portion of the game rather than the newer Hyper Fighting due to Nintendo paying extra to have their version of the game, the previously mentioned Turbo, potentially sell better. It worked as many thought the Genesis version was based on the older update, even though it had a Hyper mode right in the main menu.

Dragon Wanted | My Gaming Landscape [August 1-6, 2023]

Weekly Gaming Landscapes are back! I’m determined to keep up this time and I’m doing it! There may not be a lot to say but I got to say it so let’s not waste anymore time and jump into it!

A Lot of a Little | My Gaming Landscape [July 2023]

Last month was a weird one. I kept putting off doing a Gaming Landscape because I didn’t have a lot to say about the games I had played. Now we’re at the end of the month and, honestly, I still don’t. I have a lot of games that I played but very little to say about most of them. In fact, there’s only one game I’m going to focus on so this won’t be as long as you think it will be.

Scrambling! | My Gaming Landscape [June 2023]

It’s been a month since my last Gaming Landscape and a big reason for that was due to Summer Games Fest and all of the presentations. Despite the fact that E3 is pretty much dead, I should just throw out June of every year and just dedicate it to presentations because they still happen. Some are announced a day before it happens so the entirety of June should just be me on alert. I’ll be going back to the weekly to bi-weekly schedule now but I need to do some catch-up so here’s a super-sized edition of My Gaming Landscape!

Reminiscing About Street Fighter II: The World Warrior | Old School

I can’t remember ever seeing the original Street Fighter II in arcades. I remember the marquee, the purple and back cheetah print with the yellow lettering. But I don’t know where I remember it from. Maybe I did see the cabinet but never had the opportunity to play it. I have played it since via numerous collections like the Street Fighter Collection II on the PlayStation 1 and the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection on the PlayStation 4 and emulation. Regardless, by the time I had gotten into gaming, which was in the beginning of 1993, the arcades had already moved onto Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting. And yet, that wasn’t my introduction to Street Fighter. No, I was introduced through Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo.

Sonic Shocks and Raziel’s Revenge | My Gaming Landscape [May 22-28, 2023]

Welcome to this week’s My Gaming Landscape, the weekly to bi-weekly series where I talk about the games I’ve played and acquired in the past week to two weeks as well as anything else gaming related that happened to me. Emphasis on that last part because I got a doozy for you today!