Elden Ring, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and the last four years.
It’s been a short few years. Here are some of the games we’ve been playing.
Four years. My last post here was in 2018. That’s a long time for lots of cool games to come out, new consoles and fun new accessories to hit the shelves and of course, lots of time between those to play the old stuff.
Just like many of you, I’m a big Legend of Zelda fan. However, I admittedly have only played a handful of the games. The originals on the NES, A Link to the Past and Link Between Worlds, Links awakening. There was one glaring omission in my Legend of Zelda game completion list. That was The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Up until I finally played it to completion just a few short months ago after its release on the Nintendo Switch Online, I had owned a copy of the game on just about everything it had come out on. Including the cartridge, the Wii virtual console, and the Wii U. I just never did get around to playing past the first time you enter Hyrule Field. My wife kept asking me to play it. It is her favorite game of all time. Sadly I just kept trying and it could never grab me. I’m happy to say I understand now. The game is one of the best of all time for a reason. Besides the visuals being pretty great for a game that came out in the mid-’90s, you have beautiful music, unique and challenging puzzles, and lots of room for exploration. It now holds a place as one of my favorite games of all time. And it’s all thanks to the Nintendo Switch.
The original Pokemon games on the GameBoy have re-entered my gaming rotation as well. After picking up a reproduction copy of Pokemon Green and playing it through to the end. It is a little tough to get back into the original Pokemon games though. After so many iterations on the series, the game has seen lots of quality-of-life updates that make the experience significantly better. However, the original Pokemon series holds a place in my heart that’s carved out just for them. The terrible renditions of how the creatures looked is amazing. The first time seeing Charmeleon again for over 20 years and thinking “What’s wrong with his face?”. So many great memories came back while playing though.
Finally, with the release of Elden Ring, I no longer have a life. Being well over 100 hours into the game and just finally venturing outside of the starting area of Limgrave. The game holds so much that I don’t think I will ever see it all. Elden Ring is for all intents and purposes, a soul-sucking game. Being constantly bombarded with a single screen saying “YOU DIED”, it really makes you want to just keep going. Finding better gear, upgrading it, and going out again for either trial and error or a quick victory. Elden Ring is one of the hardest games I have ever played, but also the most rewarding when you finally get through the tough bosses or area enemies (Some had me wishing I had hair to pull out) and move forward to find beautiful landscapes and even tougher enemies, having that moment of peace after a tough fight to see what the game offers besides brilliant gameplay. Truly one of the best-looking games I’ve seen on the PlayStation 5 so far.
Speaking of the PlayStation 5, I was so excited a year and a half ago to finally receive mine. Even though it is probably the worst-designed piece of hardware id ever seen. Playing Astrobots Play Room, Miles Morales and everything else I could get my hands on have been an incredibly smooth experience. While Sony didn’t exactly think of every little thing they could put in right away (we waited a good while for USB game support for old games) They still came really strong out of the gate. Virtually no load times in games, beautiful graphics engines, and one of the most fun “pack-in” games I have ever played. The Playstation 5 left little to be desired, and everything to find.
Thanks for sticking with P1-Start for the last four years. Despite not having a single post to leave. Let’s get back to it.
What have you been up to in the last 4 years in gaming?
- When Do You Find Time To Play Video Games? - October 20, 2022
- Is there room for repro games? - October 13, 2022
- Cloud Gaming is NOT Completely Dead. Stadia Sure Is Though. - October 5, 2022