Weekly Update e.11

It's  been more than a week since the release of Civilization VI and Battlefield One, and time goes on. This week was a surprisingly packed week for Nintendo fans, including a very desired Nintendo Switch related date. Let's dive on in.

Nintendo Switch Announcements

We have already received the first look at Nintendo's next console, but there is actually quite a bit that we still don't know about it, including specs, price, and what games the system will have at launch. Nintendo's January 12 presentation seeks to clarify all of these burning questions. Until then, well I guess we'll have to keep hearing rumors and wait.

Pokemon Sun and Moon... again

The Pokemon Company has been releasing trailer after trailer after trailer trying to get Pokemon fans hyped for the seventh generation of Pokemon, and it certainly is working. Yet another Pokemon Sun and Moon trailer has released this week, detailing even more new features to the game and showing off a few new Pokemon as well. I won't go too much into this one, but the trailer includes the final evolution for the starter 'mons, the guardian deity for all four islands, and a new post-champion battle challenge that includes some Pokemon Trainer legends. Pokemon Sun and Moon are now only 18 days away.

Because why not? A Volcanion code!

GameStop had an event this month were you could go into their store and pick up a special code for a Volcanion in your OmegaRuby or AlphaSapphire Pokemon game, and I happened to come across an extra, so if you still need a code for this event-only Pokemon, here she is:

A6Z7 H4U4 USEL 6P6X

Enjoy your badass Volcanion, courtesy of GameStop and kcduckling.

I'm still looking to post some Civ VI gameplay hopefully soon, but school will be school, so probably I'll have to wait for the weekend. Until then kcduckling out.

Mic in Today

My mic just arrived in the mail today, so you can expect the kcduckling of the future to have a lot more impressions and reviews via microphone, a real treat for you loyal fans to finally experience my silky smooth voice into your ears. I'll come back soon with some Nintendo Switch impressions and hopefully my first Civ VI Let's Play

Weekly Update e.10

Back at it again with the weekly update, its me. And boy howdy was this a hell of a week for us gamers, with the release of Battlefield One, Civilization VI, a Pokemon Sun demo, AND the freaking goddamn Nintendo NX was revealed as the Nintendo Switch. Pretty cool stuff. Let's get into the details, shall we?

Battlefield One

I already touched on this a tad bit the other day, I've only played a few hours of the online multiplayer, and it was pretty damn excellent. Seriously good looking and pretty fun to play, it's worth checking out.

Pokemon Sun Demo

A very overshadowed little fella, the Pokemon Sun demo also came out earlier this week on Tuesday. It is an incredibly short demo that was very, very, very disappointing. I know it's just a demo, but seriously, put at least a little substance in it. The demo is literally you walk around in a city and then go to a trial and take a few pics and battle about 6 Pokemon with your type disadvantaged Greninja. After that, you unlock a Tauros for your PokeRide service and can do a few more things, but seriously, a really quick demo that offers a tiny taste of the game. Overall though, the game still is shaping up to be the biggest entry in the series to date, so look forward to its release come this November 18th.

Civilization VI

Seriously, wow man. Civilization V had dominated my play time on Steam and was easily my most played game in my whole library, so I was looking very much forward to its follower, Civilization VI. When it finally unlocked for me Thursday night at 11pm, I immediately jumped into the game and was not at all disappointed. As of now, the game has been out for 71 hours and Steam tells me that I have played for 35 of those, so I'm pretty hooked. My time has pretty evenly been distributed between a single player game as Gandhi and a multiplayer game as Montezuma. I've got about 300 turns in both and there are some really big things that jump out at me.

• The incredible aggressiveness of the barbarians seems to be so much more powerful than in Civ V. In my multiplayer game, I foolishly expanded too far out of my reach and put a new city up on the same landmass as a barbarian encampment and for my first time in Civ history, the barbarians took my city from me and burned it to the ground. Pretty rude, if I do say so myself.
• The updated civics and tech trees are incredibly helpful and the integration into the game is incredible. Every tech and civic comes with a "Eureka moment" to speed its research, a feature that rewards players for playing the game with wit and really thinking through their moves.
• The unstacked cities too offer a fresh take on the Civilization gameplay that demands city planning, which tiles will become districts and which tiles will be saved for food and housing.
• Civ AI leaders definitely have not changed much from my experience. Even though leaders all have agendas now that should allow you to please them, they still make some pretty outlandish claims sometimes, like my multiplayer game where Gilgamesh of Sumeria denounced me because of my treasury size when I had 5,000 gold and he only had 195. Hypocritical much?

I'm thinking perhaps sometime this next week or weekend, I'll finally get that YouTube channel I've dreamed about up and running. For sure I'll try to stream a little Civ this upcoming week, we'll just have to see.

I feel like there was something else. I can't quite remember what it was, what was I thinking of? Oh, right.

A freaking new Nintendo console is on the way and not only does it look pretty freakin sweet, it also teased a new 3D Mario game for it which is enough to get that hype train rolling down the tracks. I'll come back later for some more detailed Nintendo NX impressions, but until then have a good week and kcduckling out.

Civ VI, Battlefield One Impressions

I too am surprised that I was away from video games enough this weekend in order to get this post out, but I have already logged about 12 hours in Civ VI and have also gotten to play about 3 hours of Battlefield One and both have been impressive.

Battlefield One
Seriously one of the prettiest games I think I've ever had the pleasure of playing. I don't own it, but I did get to play it for a few hours on my friend's PlayStation 4. The weapons are cool as shit, the game looks phenomenal, and the only gripe that I have with it is the seriously overpowered horsemen and snipers. But that is a small complaint. One of my friends said that Battlefield One is a good game but doesn't feel like a Battlefield game, which could disappoint some fans of the series. Still though, with an incredible story experience, Battlefield One is a good entry, at least as a first person shooter and not so much as a Battlefield game.

Civilization VI
It has been a little while since Civilization V and Beyond Earth just couldn't satisfy my Civ cravings, so thank god Civ VI is finally upon us. I have played about 12 hours, in one single player game as Gandhi and in another multiplayer game as Montezuma. 200 turns into the game as Gandhi and I can really feel all the changes that have been made, from feeling the wrath of crossing an AI's agenda to the relentlessness of the goddamn barbarians. I'll be back with a more in depth look at Civ VI, but just know this: Civ VI has improved in just about every way from Civ V, and that was a damn good game.

This is a little appetizer for tomorrow's post for the weekly update + Civ VI stuff, but I am also thinking about maybe recording some Civ VI and doing a little YouTube actin, but we'll just have to see. Until tomorrow, kcduckling out.

Nintendo Switch Announcement

At long last, the long awaited and infinitely hyped "Nintendo NX" was revealed as the Nintendo Switch. The reveal trailer is a little three minute video that shows off some games but mostly the versatility and the various features of the new system. The system will have tremendous third party support and will be launched in March of 2017. Unfortunately, I don't have much time right now to do any breakdown because of a project I have due tomorrow, but I will be back this weekend and I'll try to handle everything that's going on, between Pokemon and Civ VI and Battlefield One and now this too, its looking like a pretty hefty weekly update. Here's some stuff to look at:

Until next time, kcduckling out.

Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Revival

Hello all! I don't know what it is but I am inspired to post more this week! Just the other night whilst in the laundry room, I decided to play Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam! The game that I felt like hyping up a lot only to be let down. I hadn't played it since its release in January, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by it! I think I just burnt myself out after I got it, so I will be carrying on with it this week before Civ VI's launch and be back this later this week with a little review action. Until then, kcduckling out.

Mario Kart - ranked

Update (11.03.16) I reordered them because I live in a constant state of self doubt.

Recently, I have gone back and started playing both Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii again and it has inspired me to take a look back and rank the Mario Kart games from worst to best. This series has always been very dear to me as Double Dash!! was the first video game I ever played and Mario Kart Wii was the first game I ever bought with my own money. Here goes:

8. Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Mario Kart: Super Circuit is the little known entry in the series for the Game Boy Advance. Not much can be said about this game, it was the entry that brought the series to handheld, but other than that the game is dull and isn't much fun to play.

7. Super Mario Kart

Nostalgia aside, Super Mario Kart is a flat, unexciting game with very little to no fun or exciting courses. The game did start the franchise, but the game itself isn't that great of an outing.

6. Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart 64 marks the point in this countdown where the games go from "not very good" to "good". Mario Kart 64 is a great game, don't get me wrong, but compared to the other games, Mario Kart 64 can't quite compete with the other games ahead of it in the countdown. Mario Kart 64 was the first 3D game in the series and featured incredibly memorable maps such as its Rainbow Road and Yoshi Valley.

5. Mario Kart 7

This here was a tough call, because Mario Kart 7 made huge leaps in the series by introducing car parts to assemble your own race car, flying portions of track, and underwater portions of tracks. Mario Kart 7 simply just doesn't compete with its predecessor because Mario Kart DS was much more revolutionary.

4. Mario Kart DS

Mario Kart DS introduced some of the biggest staples of the entire franchise, including the first game with online competitive racing and bringing back retro tracks remastered, which still remains in the series to this day and is a massive part of every modern Mario Kart game, greatly adding to the depth, variety, and replayability of the game. As far as how fun it is and how much I enjoyed it, Mario Kart 7 is definitely in front of Mario Kart DS, but this game was simply too ground breaking to leave any further behind.

3. Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii is by far one of the greatest multiplayer games for the Nintendo Wii and to this day holds up as a fantastic multiplayer experience. Mario Kart Wii was so damn successful because of its addition of bikes, half-pipes, and tricks to add a whole separate level of gameplay to an already enjoyable game. Additionally, the motion controls and the addition of the Wii Wheel is a welcome addition that really successfully utilized the motion controls of the Wii and was surprisingly not cumbersome. Overall an incredible game that takes the cake in the series for most hectic, just not the best.

2. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Double Dash!! is an incredible game and is the only Mario Kart entry to feature two player coop racing within the same kart, an incredibly fun feature to use with your friends while playing. Additionally, Double Dash!! has some of the most memorable courses in Mario Kart franchise history: Baby Park, Waluigi Stadium, DK Mountain, Wario Colosseum to name a few. Also, the All Cup Tour is such a fun way to play through all of the courses still in Grand Prix mode.

1. Mario Kart 8

Wow. Mario Kart 8 is just such a mind-blowingly great game that this was the easiest decision on the entire list. Mario Kart 8 carries over the flying and underwater sections from Mario Kart 7, as well as the car parts mechanic that allows racers to construct their own cars with no limits on size. Mario Kart 8 is by far, no question, the most gorgeous looking game I believe I have seen on the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 runs at a smooth 1080p, 60fps, and it is noticeable. Mario Kart 8 is beautiful game that manages to make even old SNES and GBA courses look incredibly good and its original courses are some of the best in the series, to site a few: Mount Wario, and who cares what else because FREAKING MOUNT WARIO. The one complaint about Mario Kart 8 is its god-awful character roster. I slam Mario Kart Wii for having Baby Peach and Baby Daisy forced in, but Jesus, Mario Kart 8 includes them as well as a Baby Rosalina, each and every one of the Koopalings, and a, I shit you not, Pink Gold Peach. Meanwhile, Diddy Kong and King Boo don't even make it in. This is one thing that I literally cannot stress in words: it baffles me to know what the hell Nintendo was thinking when they crafted this roster. It seriously confuses the crap out of me. Later DLC adds Link and Dry Bowser among others, which is great that they make it in, but seriously, where the hell is Diddy Kong? Bowser Jr.? Dry Bones? Apart from the character roster, and some item problems, (mostly the existence of a coin item) Mario Kart 8 is a flawless game.