Category / Incensum

by WetheGeek

“Go” play Eevee

Pokémon is a franchise that is no stranger to anyone. With many successful games, a tv series, a trading card game, a mobile game, and many cameos and references in other franchises, Pokémon has taken the world by storm. The latest installation in the series is a two-part one: Pokémon “Let’s go Eevee,” and “Pikachu.”

These two games both closely follow the story and plot of Pokémon Yellow, one of the gen one Pokémon games, which specifically takes inspiration from the show. However, there are a few differences.

One: the art is extremely upscaled from its 8-bit, black and white counterpart. The art style is closer to Legend of Zelda’s Windwaker art, and is extremely pleasing to look at as a result.

Two: the types and references to the outside world. In this game, they retained the modern Pokémon types, and there are npc’s just dying to get you to trade your Kanto Pokémon for their Alola Pokémon (the current gen). The game only has the original 151 Pokémon, but the alolan variants are there as well.

Three: the method of capturing Pokémon. I’m gen one, and in most mainline titles, you run into Pokémon randomly (and extremely frequently). In Let’s Go, that is not the case. The Pokémon appear in the overworld, which means you can avoid them, or target specific ones. Additionally, the capture method is not a battle, it’s the mobile app Pokémon Go’s method: throwing pokeballs at them. In fact, your companion Pokémon is caught in this manner, rather than professor oak just giving one to you.

I’ve been playing Eevee a lot lately, and have to say that as a casual Pokémon fan, and someone who’s played yellow, this game is definitely a fun one. I’m so glad I did end up picking it up.

-Incensum

#incensum #wethegeek #wethegeekincensum #pokemon #pokemonletsgo #letsgoeevee

by WetheGeek

Time to Smash

Super Smash Brothers is a series that resonates with a large fan base. It’s a fighter game, with an occasional storyline, and is casual enough to be played as a party game.

The release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate in late December 2018 was a huge victory on Nintendo’s part. The fans of the series had been hounding Nintendo to release a port or new game to the Switch since the switch had come out nearly two years earlier. The resulting game however, was more than what was expected. The game clocks in with 74 baseline fighters, as well as 6 DLC characters scheduled for release, as well as an absolutely MASSIVE storyline mode, 876 songs, and 1300 spirits to collect. It was a beast of a game, and it was a blast to finish.

When I say finish, I mean the story mode. I am not Jirard the Completionist, and it took even him up until this last week to fully complete it. I’m talking about the story mode.

To say that this game dwarfs any other in the franchise is an understatement. Everything has been streamlined and optimized, almost every previous style of fighting returned, and overall, the game was easy for newbies to pick up.

I will have to say that the release schedule for the DLC is disheartening, and the online was absolutely atrocious before the patch (and it still isn’t fully fixed), but most games have a few issues, and these are either mostly fixed or trivial.

Overall, SSBU is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of its creators, and a blast to play.

– Incensum

#incensum #ssbu #smashbros #wethegeek #wethegeekincensum

by WetheGeek

Block by Block

So today we break old ground. Not new ground, that would be out of character. No, today we discuss a game that most are quite familiar with: Minecraft.

The result of me saying the name of the independently made voxel-based crafting and survival game will elicit either a quiet smile, or a shaken head. Or, as normal people put it, you either hated that name, or loved it.

Either way, Minecraft is still a game that should be talked about. Many feel like it needs to disappear, the game having been released in “full” in 2011. However, the game grew year after year, and very much is still thriving with an astounding 74 million estimated active players (1). This is especially true since the Microsoft purchase of the game. The purchase itself was even hotly contested, encouraging Microsoft to simply let the team there do what they needed to, and just providing funding (at least as far as we can tell). Since then, there have been many updates to the game, and multiple console releases. Playstation, Xbox, Switch, PC, and Mobile devices now all have a version of the game, and in PC’s case, 2 (3 if you count the raspberry pi edition). With the move to consoles, Mojang, the developers of Minecraft pushed an idea: true cross-platform. Now, one of the first (if not THE first) games to be truly cross-platform with all current consoles and similar devices stands tall (if quietly), at the second-best selling game of all time (1), right behind Tetris.

Alongside the main game, there were many mods, modpack launchers, YouTubers, and spinoff games that pushed it to new popularity, and still do to this day.

Recently announced was a Minecraft dungeon-crawler, which looks to take inspiration from the community, and from games like Diablo, and promises to be interesting at the very least. I await it’s release, and will definitely talk more about it once it comes out.

Until then, as a longtime fan of the game, this is Incensum saying: “Thanks Mojang, for the [redacted] hours of pure entertainment.” And thank you, for reading.

-Incensum

#Incensum #WeTheGeek #Minecraft

(1) according to Wikipedia and PCGamer (2018) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-had-74-million-active-players-in-december-a-new-record-for-the-game/

by WetheGeek

The Spy who Dumped Me (and didn’t disappoint)

Ok, I swear that I don’t go out to see movies all the time but this was calling my name when I first saw the trailor for it.
The movie is about a girl who finds out her boyfriend is a spy after he dumps her via text (seriously, how dare he 😒) and it is up to her and her “too much” friend to save the world.
I frankly enjoyed this film. It’s hysterical to watch these two besties try to figure out the world of spys and sabotage while also remaining their quirky selves. Not too much of a head scratcher, it certainly is one of those movies you sit back and just let the story wash over you. A great movie to watch with your bestie and glance at each other while thinking “that would be us”.
Be warned: there is a reason why this movie is rated R and includes: violence, swearing, crude humor, and nudity.
Happy Watching!
-Mabel

As a follow up: Hi! Incensum here! I also went to watch the movie, and had a few things to add!

The movie is firstly, a great example of timing in film. Many of the jokes landed because of the perfect timing of said joke. The acting was spectacularly believable, and the characters were likable. Went into the film thinking ‘oh, this’ll be another campy spy movie like all the rest,’ came out loving it. I highly recommend it, but do offer the same warning about rating.
Two thumbs up!
-Incensum

by WetheGeek

Return of the Fire Nation?

This month we were alerted to an interesting new development from Netflix: an Avatar the Last Airbender live-action show. This show would be directed by showrunners Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, a strong positive sign for the quality of the translation to live-action. The show is supposedly going to dive deeper into the cultures and lore of the world of Avatar, and the cast is reported to be pulled from the cultures each nation was based on (for example, the water tribe was based on the Inuit and Sireniki culture). The music will once again be done by the amazingly talented Jeremy Zuckerman, and the overall story will hopefully follow the themes and feel of the original.

The fact that this series is live-action has many fans pointing to the last attempt at a live-action adaptation by Shyamalan, not a great comparison to be made (as the ‘movie’ currently sits at a score of 20 on Metacritic, 4.5/10 on IMDB, and 6% on Rotten Tomatoes). However, the creators of the show had little if anything to do with the film, and efforts certainly seem to be in effect to remove that blemish from memory.

I personally am of two minds about this: On the one hand, I love the Avatar franchise, with its wonderful score, writing, characters, and worldbuilding, and would love to see that come to live-action and draw in a much larger audience. On the other hand, I for one haven’t forgotten the issues with the movie, and in fact, the issues with the other attempts Netflix has made of turning cartoons to live-action (let’s not even get me started on Death Note).

If this works, and I sincerely hope it does, I hope that Netflix and other companies learn from the success, and compare this show to other attempts that failed. The thing that can make or break this series’ success will be the involvement of those who truly care about the source material, but aren’t afraid to make something new. I don’t want EXACTLY the cartoon for this show, nor do I expect it. I do expect something different and new. However, I expect something GOOD.
Although, If Netflix avoids making more cartoon-to-live-action shows, I certainly won’t complain.

That’s been my opinion and update on the Avatar Netflix series, but please, feel free to comment with your opinion. As the man Phillip DeFranco always says “It’s a conversation, so let me hear what you think.”

-Incensum

by WetheGeek

MYST 25 Years Later

In 1991, two brothers in a small startup PC game company in Spokane, Washington were tasked with creating a unique and interesting game by their then parent company, Brøderbund. These two brothers spent hours, days, weeks, even months developing a world in which this game would take place. The game, as you can guess from the image above, is Cyan’s MYST. The game released in 1993 held the title for best selling Mac/PC game until Sims took the title from them in 2000. The creators were Robyn and Rand Miller.

Now, some may ask: “why are you telling us about a computer game from the 90’s? Wouldn’t that game be super outdated at this point?” As a matter of fact, yes. The game was released on almost every console and platform possible at the time, but at this point, you’d need an emulator, hard copy of the console version, or a Windows XP. There were some recreations of the game, such as MYST: Masterpiece (2000), and RealMYST (2004), but Masterpiece ran into the same issue as the original, and RealMyst was a different experience, as it was realized in 3D, and couldn’t run well on anything newer than Windows 7. Then, in 2014, RealMYST: Masterpiece was released; a full 3D modern version of RealMYST on modern computers. This was just the start.
On April 9th of 2018, a Kickstarter page was launched, named the MYST 25th Anniversary collection. It promised all 7 existing MYST titles as a bundle, all improved to work on modern computers. The time it took to reach it’s just under $250,000 goal, was 8 hours. As of May 24th, the kickstarter reached 1,100% of it’s goal, reaching just around $2.8 Million. The games will get a full re-release. As a huge fan of puzzle games, and this series in particular, I’m over the moon about finally getting to play all the titles straight through.
If anyone wants to check MYST out for themselves, the updates come out this month on Steam, and will be finalized on GOG as well. Look them up, and enjoy the game that (in my opinion) makes for the perfect introduction to how puzzle games done well look.


-Incensum

Cyan’s Website: https://cyan.com/