12. “Where’d You Learn to Cook, Truck Driving School?”
Peach is being held captive in her own castle, which happens to be floating in the sky thanks to Bowser. Paper Mario puts you into Peach's shoes at the conclusion of every chapter. These generally weren't fun sections and the worst was one that had to do with cooking.
Peach sneaks around the castle in a deceptive attempt to be somewhat productive. One time, she meets Gourmet Guy. He debates whether or not to tell Bowser of Peach's activities but decides let's her go on one condition: She has to bake him a delicious cake.
This mini-game of sorts required memory skills, with knowing how much of a certain ingredient to get and timing skills, so you don't under or overbake the cake. You don't know how your cake turns out until Gourmet Guy takes a bite.
My first attempt didn't go over too well. He spit it right back out and started insulting my cooking skills. Contained in the tirade was something that made this terrible cooking portion worthwhile and then some. “Where’d you learn to cook, truck driving school?”
Out of context, that isn't exactly the funniest thing, but for some reason that struck a chord with me. Maybe it was due to being the only thing that got a reaction out of me during a mundane string of events. Maybe it's because I was 10 at the time and that moment just kept with me.
Whatever the case may be, this became my favorite quote and I don't expect anyone except for my sister to feel the same.
(an unlikely source of my favorite video game quote)
The Hydra King controls all the "small" Hydras, who in turn are causing havoc on the ship that Kratos happens to be traveling on. That's bad news for the Hydras because Kratos is a fearless, brutal warrior. After taking care of a few of the smaller versions in exhilarating fashion, Kratos finds himself in the presence of the puppeteer. He did not disappoint.
From the outset, it was apparent that this was going to be one hell of a fight due to the sheer size of the Hydra King and the room you had to work with. Though the mechanics of the fight were nothing to write home about, the fight was presented in a nice package of ass-kicking and impressive visuals that fleshed out the fighting style of Kratos. The fight reaches its conclusion when Kratos forces the Hydra King to impale itself on a whittled-down mast using his famous Blades of Chaos.
Before playing God of War, I was unaware of the sense of scale that games could attain in such a limited space as the one that Kratos fought the Hydra King. I look forward to playing my God of War Collection to see just how much better it all looks in HD.
(if you think he got it bad, the small Hydras' heads simply exploded)
Snowboard Kids features the rubber band AI effect but opposite of what traditionally happens. Usually, the AI goes on a tear when the player is in front. In Snowboard Kids, the AI that is in third place will become very slow then the player is in last place. This provided me with a new way to play the game that I called reverse snowboarding.
The speed board has one feature that the trick, all-around, and special boards lack, the board direction matters. With the other boards, you can switch board directions and nothing will happen. The speed board has one direction that allows it to race normally. The other makes the game think you are going in reverse and causes you to move much more slowly than normal.
What I do is I switch my board direction at the very beginning of the race. One of the three AI stays behind while the other two speed off like usual. Assuming the course has three laps, a few use different lap figures, they should be finished by the time you go on the lift to start your final lap. That's where the fun begins.
Instead of continuing to race in reverse, I set sights on trying to beat the AI that stayed behind by racing normally. This in turn will cause them to revert back to racing normally and makes the final lap a winner-takes-all ultimatum. This is the only way you can get a one-on-one match in the game and is a lot more tense as you focus on a single opponent instead of spreading that around three.
If everything goes well and I beat the challenger, I don't feel as if I got in third place. I feel as if I won.
(random screenshot because I didn't know what else to do)
I LOVE killing people with Oddjob's hat in Nightfire. My friend I played it with was always so shocked when out of nowhere he'd get nailed with a hat when I was on the other side of the level.
--
"Just drown them in maple syrup. Sticky maple syrup." - Taslion
From: StifledSilence | #507 I LOVE killing people with Oddjob's hat in Nightfire. My friend I played it with was always so shocked when out of nowhere he'd get nailed with a hat when I was on the other side of the level.
After awhile, my friends wanted me banned from using Oddjob. I negotiated and came up with all of us alternating using him.
StifledSilence posted... I LOVE killing people with Oddjob's hat in Nightfire. My friend I played it with was always so shocked when out of nowhere he'd get nailed with a hat when I was on the other side of the level.
What's the level... the first one in the list of levels. Not skyrail, but it still had trams, and was in the snow.
Anyway, my brother and I would be playing on split screen. He was uphill on the castle roof sniping at me. I was down on the other roof, throwing a hat.
We were both looking at his screen through his scope, when he suddenly saw something flying towards him. He exited scope to run away, but it was too late.
The hat landed right in front of him, on the balcony. It didn't matter that I didn't get the kill, because the moment was so awesome.
--
'Two of the six slides at six flags I assume that is why it is named that for six being its slide number. ' - Whiskey Nick
There's a great chance that I won't be here until Friday morning or so due to various school and work duties. I may have an opportunity to give a write-up tonight, but don't count on it. Please keep this bumped if there isn't a post after 24 hours or so
ok, I should be on a decent schedule now. By the end of Sunday in my time, I should be able to get to the point that I want to where I will reveal my little contest details
Yeah, I know that the term "monkey business" probably died out in the '90s, but it was during that decade when I named what I am about to explain.
Reverse snowboarding in Snowboard Kids isn't even my favorite alternative way to race in a racing game. That belongs to trying to manipulate a constant in Super Mario Kart.
In SMK, depending on which character you choose, the cup that you race in will have a predetermined finishing order among the NPCs. However they line up at the beginning of the first race is how they will finish. The same goes for all subsequent races in the cup.
What I do is I try to mess around that order as much as possible. The crowning achievement is to try and get a complete reverse order This is very difficult to pull off given the low frequency of getting an item, the small odds of getting an item that will become useful in the plight, the fact that you have to finish in the Top 4 in a race, and several other factors that aren't in your favor.
Though I have only accomplished that once in all of my attempts, it was an incredible feeling to pull off something of that difficulty. Even if I fail in going all the way, it's still fun messing with something that Nintendo tried to make steady.
(game screen setup is integral to being successful in "monkey business")
If you saw all the Killer7 entries before, then you probably saw this one coming. You spent the entire game going to different locations across the globe encountering bizarre people, creatures, objects, and situations with only a loose direction: Defeat the Heaven Smiles.
One of the last locations, a school in Seattle, was where things took a (more) interesting turn. It was a front for a child assassin training ground led by Harman Smith. Information found here led to Garcian heading towards a hotel in Philadelphia.
Looking back, there were little hints about what was going to be revealed later on, but given the sheer complexity of the situation, is was hard to have a clear enough mind for the player was in store for at the hotel near the very end of the game.
While going through the various floors in the hotel, you see how each and every fellow Killer7 assassin met their end decades ago. The only people unaccounted for are Garcian and Harman.
Garcian finds Harman in a room near the top floor. Harman reveals that Garcian was the prodigy of the child assassination program, Emir Parkreiner. Emir killed all the other Killer7 personas while they were still alive in the hotel on an assignment. Emir shot and killed Harman without realizing it and committed once he did.
The entire Killer7 organization is a reincarnation of Emir but it's Garcian who resembles him. He finds this out when he sees a disoriented Emir on the roof. Emir reveals his third eye and Garcian pulls out his gun and shoots him there.
Emir drops to the ground and dies. Shortly after that, Garcian falls to his knees and screams in agony as the truth that he has recently learned overwhelms him, showing his transformation as person.
(I would be upset too if I realized I used to look like that as a kid)
Theoretically, video games should be the ideal medium for bringing the most out of fictional or non-fictional characters. You can have anything that literature, film, and television can do to portray characters but also add the element of interactivity that allows players to feel what it's like to be a character.
However, most games fail to do this mostly because that isn't one of their goals or they don't have the talented personnel to pull it off. Remedy Entertainment's Max Payne not only is the first to accomplish what no other video game studio and character have done before, but it may still be the benchmark.
Max Payne, the game, doesn't have much dialog. Letting the action do all the talking wouldn't make much sense for the film-noir approach that the game takes either. Instead, they use monologues and a lot of them. Not only is this a fresher way at providing important information to the player, but it also fleshes out the character of Max Payne in an extraordinary way.
Sam Lake, the game's writer, is very talented and among the best in the industry at what he does. He didn't use a plethora of fancy words or any other common way of writing that is used to help mask mediocre, or worse, writing. However, the way he describes the environment, events, and people through the eyes of Max Payne is nothing like anything I have ever encountered before.
Max Payne's stressful job, the murder of his wife and child, being blamed for the murder of his partner, and everything else that goes into the game are weaved into his thoughts, regardless if they are related to the matter at hand or not. You see unfolding before your eyes a man who begins with strong resolve yet not much direction into a man that starts to break down with physical and mental fatigue and just wants it to all end as things start to become clearer, yet drag on.
Max Payne to me is such a special character that his first game may be the only game where I wanted the gameplay sections to be short, despite being solid, because I wanted to hear more from Max. I wanted to learn more about Max.
His inner monologues are not only the driving force behind his ascension as one of the best characters in video gaming but also the quality of the game itself. Without them, this game would be as average as they come.
(Fun Fact: Max Payne's face in the first game was based off of Sam Lake)
From: KCF0107 | #515 In SMK, depending on which character you choose, the cup that you race in will have a predetermined finishing order among the NPCs. However they line up at the beginning of the first race is how they will finish. The same goes for all subsequent races in the cup.
What I do is I try to mess around that order as much as possible. The crowning achievement is to try and get a complete reverse order This is very difficult to pull off given the low frequency of getting an item, the small odds of getting an item that will become useful in the plight, the fact that you have to finish in the Top 4 in a race, and several other factors that aren't in your favor.
Now that I look at this, I realize that I didn't give enough information, or at least should have been more explicit.
Let's say Mario is supposed to place 3rd among the NPCs. If you force him to hit a banana peel or something near the end of the race and cause him to finish in 5th, he will race in the 5th position, assuming you don't mess with him any further, for any future race in that cup, regardless if his point standings are any place other than 5th.
If you forced Mario to hit banana peel right near the starting/finish line during a non-final lap and causes him to go from 3rd to 5th, he will not stay in 5th. He will go right back to 3rd.
That's what makes this incredibly difficult. It requires you to be able to do your dirty work effectively and as back-loaded as possible. It's easiest when done on a 50cc cup with two players. Even then, it's no walk in the park.
6. Playing the Game of Football the Way it Should Be Played (NFL Quarterback Club ’99)
Instruction manuals weren't being used by me for their intended use. Instead of reading them for helpful hints, I read them for entertainment. I blame Snowboard Kids' comics for expecting that out of instruction manuals. As a result, some games actually gave me some difficulty because I didn't know what the controls were and never thought to look at the instruction manual. The best example for this was with NFL Quarterback Club '99.
My favorite team has always been the Miami Dolphins, and that was mainly because of Dan Marino. I had played as him in several 2D football games, but this was my first time that I could control him in 3D. I was looking forward to passing with him every down and not even considering handing the ball off to Karim Abdul-Jabbar.
I don't exactly remember what my first play was, but I do remember that O.J. McDuffie had a post route and was focusing on him. He was open enough for me to feel comfortable throwing to him, but there was a setback. I couldn't seem to figure out how to throw. I ended up taking a sack via diving or sliding on the ground then being touched by a defender. I ran the same play and tried all other sorts of button combinations, but the play ended the same as before. For third down, I ran the exact same play as the previous two downs and still couldn't find out how to throw the damn ball. Unlike the other two plays though, it didn't end the same way. That's because I chose to do something else, run with a then-38 year-old Dan Marino.
I just ran to the right and went along the sidelines blazing past CBs, LBs, and Ss all the way into the endzone uncontested for a 75-80 yard TD. I don't remember if there were individual stats or a turbo button, but there was no way that what I did should have worked. From that point forward, I completely abandoned the passing game and relied on the running game with Dan Marino as my only runner.
Time after time, it worked. I would probably average over 10 yards per carry with him in every game. Me and my best friend would play games against each other and would see who could win the battle of most rushing yards with a QB. It was generally Marino vs. a 40-something Warren Moon. The results were commonly found in the 300-500 yard range.
This was only half of what made this game special to me.
Playing the Game of Football the Way it Should Be Played continued
Now that I had my own way of handling to offense, what was I going to do on defense? If you guessed be a dirty, penalty-drawing machine, you guessed correctly.
If my failure to look at the instruction manual for simple controls was of any indication, I didn't give a flying **** about rules. Though I probably received every penalty that I could possibly get that wasn't based off of anything outside of my control, late hits comprised of the majority of the penalties.
The first time I made a late hit, it was by accident. The animations of unsuspecting opposing players being toppled over were too funny to simply ignore the opportunity I had after every play, so I became addicted to delivering late hits after every down. I'm not exaggerating either. As a result, I gave up so many points and lost so many games because of how undisciplined I played on defense. It's a good thing I didn't care though.
I don't remember if there were injuries or not, but I remember me and my best friend constantly doling out late hits to each other's QB as a means of expressing our superiority and that we weren't afraid of the other person's QB. The person who delivered the greatest late hit won the moral victory and was one of three criteria to see who we believed won the game.
Those three criteria, as what has been talked about so far suggests, are: - Whose QB ran for the most yards - Who had the greatest late hit (subjective, but we were pretty fair on our collective decision) - Who won the game
Whoever won the majority of the three criteria was the true winner of the game because we acknowledged that the game of football is really about running with QBs who are old and with balky knees and dealing late hits to anyone that wasn't your own team member.
(see what happens when the Raiders decided to not run with Jeff George?)
In Halo: Combat Evolved, I treated the Marines like garbage. I grew weary of their incompetence and simply killed them off to not have to deal with them and to amuse me as their reactions were funny, in a sad way.
When Halo 2 came out, I thought that Bungie would have fixed the Marines' A.I., but I was wrong. The A.I. was improved but still poor. I gave them a chance but ended up reverting back to my old ways and killed them whenever they were sent to follow in my lead. That continued until I played the level Regret.
Not too far into the level, you are given a few Marines to help infiltrate a distant temple to find a Prophet. The corridors there are narrow and given the aforementioned tendencies of the Marines, that wasn't a good combination for me. I decided to ignore my Marine "ritual" for the time being as I took out the Grunts and Jackals that flooded the halls.
The Marines lucked out again when I entered the underwater elevator at the end of it all. The elevator offered a few moments of tranquility as the glass bottom showed some of the scenery.
With the Marines the furthest thing from my mind, I entered another room full of Grunts and Jackals. When I thought I had killed everything there, I decided it was time to part ways with the Marines. As I was about to pull the trigger, the Marines made the first move. The bullets missed me, and I was about to laugh at how they were constantly giving the Marines a bad rep when I heard the cry of a Jackal. I turned around to see a corpse on the ground. I was impressed with the two Marines and decided to delay their executions for a short while since they proved to have some worth.
We headed into a multi-level room with a somewhat open space in the middle. Jackals with Beam Rifles and Needlers, two of the more annoying weapons to have to deal with, were scattered around the place. I was too preoccupied with them to notice that Hunters entered the room. As I took care of the last Jackal, I hear fighting going on and looked down to see the two Marines try to take out the Hunter. I figured that I would just watch as the Hunter slaughtered the Marines, but I saw something totally different.
The Marines were getting hammered by the fist of the Hunter but just kept getting up and fighting back. I was mesmerized by their newfound determination, which they honestly should have had in them from the very beginning. They further surprised me by actually killing the Hunter, all on their own. I didn't know that the game's program even made that a possibility.
Those two Marines more than earned my respect as we went into a room that nearly mirrored the one where I nearly killed the Marines. The only differences now were the floor being flooded with water and the enemies were now invisible. It was business as usual and the enemies were taken out easily even with their cloak. If only I was right about taking care of all the enemies.
I was heading back to meet with my allies when I see one get cut down by a sword. Realizing that it was an invisible Elite with an Energy Sword, I tried to get in a position to kill it, but the stone obstacles were, well, doing their job. I didn't see it happen, but I knew what just went on when I heard a human-sounding cry.
I didn't have much time to think about it yet when the Elite was coming straight for me. A sticky grenade did the trick, and I quickly went to each body trying to convince myself that they could just get up and walk it off like they did against the Hunter. They would never get up again. I felt bad leaving their corpses in a pool of water in a place that would likely never be revisited again. I headed up the stairs and entered the elevator. It was the loneliest underwater elevator ride ever.
After the display of the Marines in Regret, I never mistreated allies in video games ever again. No matter how useless they may be, I will fight alongside them until the end.
All Ghillied Up almost felt like a tutorial mission. At the beginning, you only dealt with small amounts of guards and were supposed to take them out quietly, though it wasn't a requirement. The level progressively added more factors to the mix as it went on, but then Infinity Ward decided to drop the tutorial act and went into full-blown war mode.
Captain McMillan, your sole comrade for the mission, spotted an incoming enemy convoy heading through the field that the two of you currently in. He instructs you to go prone and try to crawl past the hundred or so soldiers who will be passing right over you.
It would be one thing if these were just foot soldiers, but there were about just as many tanks as there were foot soldiers. You were also prevented from going to the outside edges of the field because they were infected with nuclear waste from the Chernobyl disaster.
What began as merely having butterflies in my stomach upon seeing the frontline soldiers and tanks turned into anxiety as I saw dozens upon dozens of them covering every area that you could attempt to wait and hide. There was no other choice than to go through them.
If the thought of trying to crawl past soldiers who are scouting out the ground in the daylight doesn't make you tense, seeing tanks looming over you as you are at the mercy of their driver should.
By all means, my emotions should have gotten the best of me and caused me to make a poor decision that alerted the enemy of my location. If it wasn't obvious, doing so would have gotten you killed. Somehow though, I made the right intuitive moves to make it out of there in one piece on my first attempt. I was glad to get it over with, but like a child intimidated by a roller coaster at first, I wanted to do it again.
Experiences like this that cause us to be full of emotion allow us to be self-aware of our existence and truly feel alive.
(we may have had ghillie suits, as the level title suggested, but that didn't change our circumstances!)
From: KCF0107 | #221 Now that I look at this, I realize that I didn't give enough information, or at least should have been more explicit.
Let's say Mario is supposed to place 3rd among the NPCs. If you force him to hit a banana peel or something near the end of the race and cause him to finish in 5th, he will race in the 5th position, assuming you don't mess with him any further, for any future race in that cup, regardless if his point standings are any place other than 5th.
If you forced Mario to hit banana peel right near the starting/finish line during a non-final lap and causes him to go from 3rd to 5th, he will not stay in 5th. He will go right back to 3rd.
That's what makes this incredibly difficult. It requires you to be able to do your dirty work effectively and as back-loaded as possible. It's easiest when done on a 50cc cup with two players. Even then, it's no walk in the park.
wow, I knew that their finishing order was predetermined, but I didn't know that messing it up would make them stay in their new position for the rest of the cup!
I am going to be posting an updated list on what the entries have been so far, but I want to make a post before showing the games that will be mentioned in said list as a means of a spoiler warning.
Those games included so far are: - Super Mario World - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Tony Hawk's Underground - Okami - Rogue Galaxy - True Crime: Streets of L.A. - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Red Dead Revolver - The Saboteur - Hitman 2: Silent Assassin - Metal Gear Solid - Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Donkey Kong (Gameboy) - Halo 3 - Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - Pikmin - Killer7 - Far Cry 2 - Tales of Symphonia - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Project Gotham Racing 4 - Tales of Legendia - MVP Baseball 2005 - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Forza Motorsport - Fallout 3 - Assassin's Creed II - Metroid Prime - Super Mario 64 - Halo: Combat Evolved - Boxing - Assassin's Creed - Carmen Sandiego series - Bully - Doom II - Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne - Beavis and Butt-Head (SNES) - Portal - Donkey Kong 64 - Psychonauts - Secret of Monkey Island - Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild - Mission: Impossible (N64) - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Madden 2004 - Goldeneye 007 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - WarioWare: Smooth Moves - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - Counter-Strike: Condition Zero - Mario Kart 64 - Project Gotham Racing 2 - Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey - Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - Shadow of the Colossus - Braid - BioShock - Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - Grand Theft Auto III - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - James Bond 007: NightFire - Sly 2: Band of Thieves - F-Zero X - God of War - God of War II - Mafia II - Paper Mario - Snowboard Kids - Super Mario Kart - Max Payne - NFL Quarterback Club '99 - Halo 2 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
I have it down as 77 games being represented through 97 moments so far
From: WazzupGenius00 | #557 wow, I knew that their finishing order was predetermined, but I didn't know that messing it up would make them stay in their new position for the rest of the cup!
And here's the list so far (please pay attention to post #228 and the other disclaimer in #230 before looking at this as there are spoilers):
100. Super Mario World - Hill gets bandage in cutscene and stays on the world map 99. Metal Gear Solid 3 - Naked Snake's funny sneaking stance 98. Ghost Trick - The Panic Dance 97. Ghost Trick - Cabanela's smooth moves 96. Tony Hawk's Underground - Beating Eric Sparrow 95. Okami - Life restorations 94. Rogue Galaxy - Lilika's past 93. True Crime: Streets of L.A. - Fighting the North Korean general 92. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Beating Naval Piranha 91. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Meeting the Windfish 90. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Ending 89. Red Dead Revolver - Shadow Wolf's death 88. The Saboteur - Surviving a jump from the Eiffel Tower 87. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin - Completing a mission with a 100% stealth rating 86. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Ending 85. Metal Gear Solid 3 - Fight with The Boss 84. Metal Gear Solid - Ending 83. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Prison life 82. Donkey Kong (Gameboy) - Beating 3-1 81. Halo 3 - Scarab battles 80. 999 - Sub Ending 79. Pikmin - Ending 78. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - Interrogations 77. Killer7 - Mask de Smith headbutts a bullet 76. Far Cry 2 - Gazelle sets off a massive explosion 75. Tales of Symphonia - Beating the final boss under unusual circumstances 74. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Cucco attacks 73. Project Gotham Racing 4 - Taking out motorcyclists with a car 72. Tales of Legendia - Moses and Giet parting ways 71. MVP Baseball 2005 - Beating an MLB team with a AA team 70. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Midna's emergency 69. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Obtaining the Master Sword 68. Killer7 - Old man Harman busts out the rifle 67. Forza Motorsport - Purposely crashing an online jerk 66. Fallout 3 - A quibble between an insect lady and machine man 65. Super Mario World - The appearance of Chargin' Chuck 64. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Touchy a Dizzy 63. Assassin's Creed II - Pulling off a double hidden blade assassination 62. Metroid Prime - Looking at the landscape 61. Super Mario 64 - Jumping through a painting 60. Halo: Combat Evolved - Staring at the Halo 59. Boxing - Landing a punch 58. Assassin's Creed - Taking a leap of faith 57. Carmen Sandiego series - Catching Carmen Sandiego 56. Bully - Fighting the cliques 55. Doom II - Making the final level harder for me than it needed to be 54. Max Payne 2 - Mona Sax's death 53. Killer7 - Curtis and Pedro's scene 52. Beavis and Butt-head (SNES) - Using a boxing glove on a stick 51. Portal - The deal about the cake 50. Donkey Kong 64 - The DK Rap 49. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Turning into a pink rabbit 48. Psychonauts - The G-Men 47. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Battle with Stallord 46. Killer7 - Andrei Ulmeyda fight 45. Secret of Monkey Island - Insult swordfighting 44. Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild - Course transformations 43. Mission: Impossible (N64) - Knocking out a hired killer in the bathroom 42. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 - Playing an incredible game in terrible weather 41. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Shiek's identity 40. Madden 2004 - Playing as Michael Vick 39. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Blind's Hideout's captive's true form 38. Goldeneye 007 - Big Head Mode 37. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Ending 36. WarioWare: Smooth Moves - Wario's Dance Company 35. Beavis and Butt-head (SNES) - Hospital stretcher sections
continuation of list of entries so far (don't read without reading post #s 228 and 230 unless you want things to be spoiled)
34. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - Trainyard terrorist hunt 33. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero - Saving the hostages by myself 32. Mario Kart 64 - Gap in Wario Stadium 31. Project Gotham Racing 2 - Being the last man standing 30. Halo 3 - Ending 29. Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey - Fighting 28. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Outside gardens of the Forest Temple 27. Dragon Quest V - Hero's childhood 26. Shadow of the Colossus - Ending 25. Braid - Ending 24. BioShock - Meaning behind "Would you kindly..." 23. 999 - Axe Ending 22. Baten Kaitos: EWatLO - Protagonist's betrayal 21. Shadow of the Colossus - 5th Colossi 20. The Sabotur - Destroying anything Nazi related, including lives 19. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Big Smoke and Ryder's betrayal 18. Grand Theft Auto III/VC/SA - Listening to the radio 17. 007: Nightfire - Killing with Oddjob's hat 16. Sly 2: Band of Thieves - Controlling Sly in an open environment 15. F-Zero X - Ultra death courses in X Cup 14. God of War II - Sisters of Fate fight 13. Mafia II - Ending 12. Paper Mario - Gourmet Guy's reaction to a terrible cake 11. God of War - King Hydra fight 10. Snowboard Kids - Racing in reverse 9. Super Mario Kart - Messing with the predetermined order 8. Killer7 - Garcian's revelation 7. Max Payne - Inner monologues 6. NFL Quarterback Club '99 - Rushing with the QB and late hits 5. Halo 2 - Respecting the Marines 4. Call of Duty 4 - Crawling under the convoy
Now that everyone has a somewhat easier access to the full list, I am going to reveal my contest.
You are to guess my Top 3. I don't care about the order or anything but there's some rules and limitations:
1. Private Message (PM) only. I don't want them showing up in the topic and PM is the only way I can guarantee that I will see it. Subject line of PM doesn't matter.
2. You have up to 5 guesses. That does not mean you can send me 15 different moments (5 * 3), but 5 total.
3. Your contest entry must be into me by Tuesday, March 27th by 4:00 P.M. EST. This will give me some time to write the three remaining writeups and post them within hours after that deadline
Format of PM should look as followed:
Games that will be mentioned (Precaution for me in the event that someone mentions a spoiler that I have not encountered. I do not like to be spoiled and I hope you show the same courtesy that I showed everyone)
1. Game - Moment 2. Game - Moment 2 3. Game - Moment 3 4. Game - Moment 4 5. Game - Moment 5
The country where you currently reside (important for what kind of prize I can give out)
That's all. You can be as specific or general with how you word your moments.
I'm not going to reveal how many winners there will be or what kind of prizes are being offered because there are a lot of contingency factors that go into that, and I like building anticipation.
For people who care about spoilers like I do and did not look at the individual entries or condensed list, you may inquire whatever you need to know about what moments I have already included from certain games. Those people should not be at a disadvantage against those who couldn't care less about things being spoiler for them, so I am willing to accommodate for them.
If you have any other other questions, feel free to ask.
And the people who correctly guessed at least one of the top three are...nobody
The person who guessed the best moment that was not in my top three was...no one
Not a single person entered this contest. Maybe I should have said the prizes because I'm sure that I would get at least five people willing to take a couple minutes to fill out an entry. Hell, the prize that I would have given out to the person who guessed the best of the rest moment was pretty damn good given the circumstances!
Ocarina of Time is the last game that I recall my dad playing by himself. When he got around to making his own file, I was already playing as adult Link. He was just entering Dodongo’s Cavern when I sat down to watch him. He likes to take in the sights more than I do, so he would always use the first-person camera to get a good view of each new room when he was out of danger.
He made his way to the main hub room with the skeletal remains of a gigantic Dodongo. Nothing was there to attack him right away, so he went into first-person view to look around. He looked straight, left, and then right before writing stuff down in a journal, something that I used to do and sometimes still do. Then, he looked up and holy **** were we startled!
There taking up the entire screen was a Fire Keese literally inches away from Link’s face. There was nothing that my dad could have done even if the controller was still in his hands. The Fire Keese destroyed Link’s wooden shield, lost its fire capabilities, and went on its way like that was just how it greeted people who entered its home.
I don’t know if my dad ever played that game again, but as for me, I didn’t realize that the Fire Keese flying way above Link in that room could notice Link’s presence from that far away. Every time that I have gone through that dungeon since, looking up is the first thing I do when I reach that hub room.
(imagine seeing this except magnified to the point of only seeing its face covering the screen)
I don’t think that I was doing anything in particular when I spotted a nearby camp while driving along a river bank. I decided to park the jeep at a distance and enter the camp on foot. As expected, the camp was occupied and a firefight ensued. That wouldn’t have been a problem if it weren’t for patrol vehicles full of enemies spotting the commotion while making their rounds. A new vehicle would appear after every 45 seconds or so, making matters worse for me.
After several waves of reinforcements, I was getting overwhelmed by soldiers as the sun was setting. I had been fighting for over 10 minutes, forcing me to keep picking up rusty, jammed weapons that were worse than I had off any corpses that I could find. Taking a gamble, I decided to move the fight out of the camp and up north, I’m going to assume that’s the direction I went anyway, a bit.
The enemies cut back on their reinforcements due to the fight no longer taking place where there were roads, but it came at the cost of cover that I would likely need if I couldn’t finish this quickly. I held for as long as I could, but with the enemies all huddling together, I didn’t have an opportunity to pick up weapons or ammo. I eventually ran out of any means to fight except for some Molotovs. Unfortunately, I was gunned down before getting a chance to use them.
When my character opened his eyes, it was already night and Marty Alencar, who I talked about in a dishonorable mention, was there to pull me up. It was business as usual for him as he immediately took out his gun and started mowing down those who had harmed me. I still had my Molotovs on me, but I was struggling to find a gun on the ground. Once my search yielded something, I picked it up without any hesitation. It was a flamethrower.
Not wanting to potentially die from searching for another gun, I decided to just work with what I had. I turned around to face the direction that Marty was and was met with a raging wildfire. I was positive that was Marty's doing since that was his kind of style. With my flamethrower and Molotovs in tow, I figured that I would aid in Marty's efforts.
Knowing the limitations and unreliability of the flamethrower, I just ran to where the remaining enemies were located and just opened fire without even trying to pinpoint their locations. After exhausting all the fuel for the flamethrower, I chucked all the Molotovs I had on hand and decided to pull back and wait for the enemies to shoot back.
Outside of the wildfires, everything was silent. No vehicles, no orders being called out, no screams, and no gunshots. Everyone, outside of me and Marty that is, was dead. Marty came up next to me, mocked the dead, and went on his way, which I still never figured out where he ever went.
