kevinski.com

Welcome to kevinski.com! Feel free to join the forums and discuss anything and everything in the world of gaming. I'm particularly fond of Castlevania, Illbleed and Valis, but feel free to share your own interests with myself and the rest of the community. And be sure to invite your friends, unless they're hackers from Ukraine, of course!

Site Registrations Fixed - Posted by kevinski at 03:35 PM

Not sure if you noticed or not, but there've been a lot of seemingly bogus registrations as of late. People would sign up and never post, ultimately resulting in their accounts being deleted by yours truly. It would seem that they simply never received their random passwords via e-mail. I've since fixed the issue, thanks to Primus_Ultimas. He's the only person among those affected who's taken the time to e-mail me about the problem.

Sorry to anyone who registered with the intent of participating. Feel free to register again.

Free Play: PETA's New Super Chick Sisters - Posted by kevinski at 02:39 PM

If you're looking for an interesting (for lack of a better word) take on the Super Mario Bros. formula, then you may want to check out PETA's New Super Chick Sisters. You can play as Nugget, Chickette and Pamela Anderson (once she's rescued and unlocked, anyway).

You're tasked with rescuing Princess Pamela Anderson, "along with the chickens who are tortured for McDonald's restaurants" (straight from the in-game text). The game plays a lot like Super Mario Bros., minus any sort of attack/speed button (unless you count pressing Down while in mid-air to perform a stomp, which grants you more points than a simple jump would.



Honestly, the game's pretty decent. While I understand that the point of the game is to inform people about McDonald's and its treatment of animals, I can't help but find it to be a tad funny just how blunt and detailed some of the descriptions are.

You can play it in your Web browser by going here.

Away for a Week or So - Posted by kevinski at 05:54 PM

Just so everyone's aware, I'll be away for around a week or so. I'll be flying out to the state of Washington to attend my older brother's funeral. He was admitted into the hospital this past week with pneumonia, but the pneumonia was taken care of, from what I understand. Originally, I was under the impression that he'd somehow died as a result of the pneumonia, but it would seem that he actually died when a clot (which likely formed as he was in bed at the hospital) dislodged. My dad will be looking into what happened to ensure that everything necessary was done to prevent clotting in the first place. I'm really hoping that everything that they should've done WAS done, because I'd hate to find out that this could've been prevented and only happened due to negligence.

Update #1: Actually, the cause of death was determined to be swine flu. Link

Update #2: Correction: He died due to the aforementioned clot. Complications with the swine flu resulted in pneumonia, which is why he went into the hospital in the first place. Holy Christ...confusing.

Top Ten: Things That've Made Console Gaming Worse - Posted by kevinski at 11:57 AM

Plenty of people who remember the good ol' days of console gaming will tell you that gaming just isn't what it once was. Now, why is that? Well, I'm sure that there are plenty of theories, depending on who you ask. Here's what you'd hear if you happened to ask me.


10) GAMES FOR GIRLS

While the idea of "games for girls" is absolutely appalling to me, this isn't really limited to games for girls. Developing games for any particular group just strikes me as ridiculous. A great game doesn't need any specific qualities to appeal to girls, nor does it need any specific qualities for the same game to appeal to gay people or black people. If you really play games solely because you can relate to the characters (and Heaven help anyone who relates to the Bratz), then you're playing games for the wrong reasons.


09) 2D-TO-3D ADAPTATIONS

This may not be a surprise to some of you, but not all video game series that originated in 2D form were meant to make the jump to 3D. Sure, it can work out some of the time, but - more often than not - I've seen far too many examples of poor 2D-to-3D adaptations.

And no, I'm not necessarily referring to games like Bionic Commando: Rearmed, because those games don't abandon their traditional game play styles. Such games, often referred to as 2.5D, generally aren't all that bad. They don't necessarily make the original concept better, but they certainly don't seem to detract from it.

Remember when Bubsy made his transition to 3D? If not, then I don't necessarily feel the need to explain why. Just be glad that you never had to play the abomination that is Bubsy 3D, which - as the title insinuates - basically just takes Bubsy and throws the poor bastard into a 3D world that's every bit as uninspired as the game's title.

And how about Sonic? I don't think that I need to say anything further.

Really, the worst thing about taking game play concepts from 2D games is the fact that it leads to...

Free Play: Canabalt - Posted by kevinski at 12:33 PM

One button is all that you need to play Canabalt, an auto-scrolling platforming game of sorts that manages to be very, very intense, despite its simplicity. You control a guy who jumps from rooftop to rooftop, avoiding obstacles (some of which kill you, some of which slow you down) and jumping from building to building. It's not as simple as simply making it from one roof to another, however, because you'll sometimes find yourself having to time jumps to allow you to crash through windows in order to pass THROUGH buildings.



Here's a game play video:



It's a very well-made game, and it'll keep you entertained for quite a while. You can play it in your browser by going here.