Daily Gaming Questions & Responses - 1/20/15-1/23/15

Here are the results from my daily gaming questions I asked on Twitter.  Enjoy!


Tuesday:What is the hardetst, "this is bullshit", rage quitingest stage, you ever played?

Responses: Super Mario Bros. 1-2 (my troll senses are tingling but listed it anyway), F-Zero GX (story mode), Halo 3 (Cortana), Killzone: Shadow Fall (stealth mission), Mortal Kombat (2011) (Shao Khan stage), Madden football (playing anyone - you need practice my friend), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) (water level), Ghosts N Goblins (stage 1), Twilight Princess (horse battle), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (no fighting in the War Room on Veteran), Assassin's Creed 3 (horse riding sequence).
My Response: Double Dragon (NES) (Willie)

Wednesday: What is your greatest gaming accomplishment?
Responses: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (no weapons and no armor), Psychonauts (Meat Circus), Ninja Gaiden Stage 6-2 (NES), Deus Ex (platinum trophy), Sonic 3 (getting all chaos emeralds and becoming super Sonic), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (water temple and a vote for finishing it), GoldenEye (invincibility cheat), Mortal Kombat (learn all finishing moves), beating Luigi's Mansion, Pitfall (20,000 points)
My Response: Beating Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out

6 Ways to Know if you are an Ass Hole Gamer

You only want to play maps you know like the back of your hand on first-person-shooters.

We get it, you have spent hours playing Havana in Call of Duty: Black Ops, can we play any other map other than that one?  Are you that unsure of yourself to try Jungle or Hanoi?  Let someone else have a chance to win.

You run up the score on any sports game when you are up by 50.

I picked the Bears, you picked Green Bay.  You have played longer and you have a better team.  You are up by six touchdowns...and you're throwing the deep bomb again to Jordy Nelson.  Fuck you.

You throw down my controller.

The NES and SNES days are over.  These things aren't indestructible.  In fact, they are expensive as hell.  Don't break my shit!

You hear yourself saying the words, "I pushed the button!"

No.  No, you didn't (unless you have been throwing down my controller every time something hasn't gone your way, in which case, you probably broke it (and you're an ass hole)).

You say things like, "you're beating me at Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U but you should see me on the GameCube version.  I'm awesome!"

We aren't playing the GameCube version.  If you wanted to play the GameCube version, you should have said something.  I have it.  It's right on the shelf right in front of you.  And, in all likelihood, I would whoop your ass on that one too.

You hang on to that "one time" you were the best.

I do remember that you beat everyone in the room that one evening two-and-a-half years ago.  We don't need a refresher course on your evening of triumph every time we play.

Daily Gaming Questions & Responses - 1/12/15-1/8/15

Here are the responses I got for this week's gaming questions:

Tuesday: You are stuck inside with the flu this weekend and can only play one game, what would it be?
Responses: Grand Theft Auto V, Tomb Raider on PC, Skyrim, Don't Starve Together 3, World of Warcraft
My Response: The Last of Us

Wednesday: With all the Nintendo hub bub today, what would you consider to be the best Super Nintendo game?
Responses: Chrono Trigger, Secrets of Mana, Super Metorid (x2), Super Mario RPG (x2), RC Pro Am, Clay Fighters, Breath of Fire, Super Punch Out (x2), Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (x2), Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, EarthBound, Donkey Kong Country 2, Starwing (x2), Street Racer, Super Mario World, Final Fantasy 2
My Response: Damn, I'm so up in the air between Super Metroid, Zelda, and Super Mario World.
Comments: Because of this post, last night, I decided to revisit Donkey Kong Country 2 since I only played it for a short time upon it's release. I think Twitter user @DoubleGXG was correct, that was much harder than the first but a great soundtrack. This video sums it up well.

Thursday: What is the hardest platformer you ever played?
Responses: Jetset Willy, N+, Contra, Super Mario Bros. 2 (not Doki Doki Panic/the Japanese one), Street Fighter 2010, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Battle Toads, Spelunker, I Wanna Be The Guy, Thexder, Karnov (arcade not NES), Hagane, Metroid (I disagree and digress), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Jaz Jack Rabbit 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Batman (NES), PageMaster (GB), Super Mario Bros. (NES)(Really??!!??), Geomon's Great Adventure
My Response: Ninja Gaiden (pick which one, they are all harder than hell)
Comments: Just ask James.

Friday: What game was the biggest let down when you finally played it?

Responses: First Light, Swapper, Duke Nukem3D, Ecco the Dolphin, Bubsy, Max Payne, Far Cry 3, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Fallout 3 (really??!??), Final Fantasy XIII, Watch Dogs, Skyrim (oh, c'mon!), The Evil Within, No Mercy, Persona 3, Out Run (PC), Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros 3DS, Madden 2013

My Response: Operation Wolf (NES)

Extra Life 2014 - Four Days Away - What I'm Playing

I was unable to do the national Extra Life day this past Saturday due to prior engagements (I sounds so important).  However, the October 25th event was weak since it was just 24 hours long.  Out in my neck of the woods, we have daylight savings time coming this Saturday which means after I have been at it for eighteen hours and 2 a.m. hits, I go back to 1 a.m.  The Midwest is unforgiving.

So, how do I plan to occupy my 25 hours of gaming.

First and foremost, it has been a good two years since I completed Super Mario Bros.(the original NES) so that is what I plan to start with.  I know the levels 8-3 and 8-4 are going to anger me to my core like I was eleven years old again, and that I look forward to.

I plan to follow that with Contra.  Yes, I am going to be weak and use the 30-lives cheat.  I have too many games I want to play and don't want to have to quit only a couple hours in to choke elderly walkers by with my NES cord out of frustration.

I will close out my NES time with Double Dragon.  I'm coming for you machine gun Willie!

Then, I will spend some time finally with Casltevania: Symphony of the Night.  I have been talking about that on Twitter for weeks and really haven't put in the time that game deserves.

I know I have multiple friends who are planning on stopping by, quite possibly bringing alcohol (which may infringe on my goals - but alcohol), so Grand Theft Auto V will be a requirement.

Finally, I plan on spending more time with Alien Isolation.   I have to get by the damn droids.  Those bastards kill me waaaay more than the alien has thus far.

Any other suggestion, tweet to me @bbradley1975.  Also, anyone else doing Extra Life that evening, let me know - we can keep each other company.

If you are a kind soul and wish to support me, here is my Extra Life page.  I am currently at $0 which is just damn embarrassing.  I will be contributing my own money on Friday but perhaps there are people out there who do not hate children.  http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=105003

Grass-fed Beef: Does it Matter?

The concept of grass-fed beef has become a huge trend the last decade.  In the early 2000's, it became the norm for television stations and articles to show thousands of cows placed, essentially, on conveyor belts waiting for slaughter in meat processing plants.  This led to a public outcry for safety and healthier options for getting better quality meat (the whole e coli outbreaks and mad cow disease during the past decade-and-a-half definitely played a role as well).  The answer to the outcry, grass-fed beef. 

America became abuzz from talk show hosts to our favorite cooking show personalities on the health benefits of eating grass-fed beef over the boring old grain-fed cattle.  These animals were, supposedly, treated more humanely, and the health benefits were to outweigh the larger price tags that went on the labels. 

Both grain-fed and grass-fed cows start out the same - on milk and grass when young.  Then the grain-fed are taken and fed out of feedlots whereas their grass-fed brethren continue to eat grass (as many pundits and Web sites I read state clearly, "as was intended").  The commercial consensus on grass-fed cows were that they contained more omega-3s, CLAs (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), were higher in Vitamin E, and contained higher concentrations of minerals like iron, zinc, and potassium.  It was all of these health benefits that manufacturers claimed was worth the hefty jump in price. 

That being said, Dr. Stephen B. Smith from Texas A&M published two studies on the subject.  His findings didn't match the claims of the manufacturers and TV personalities.  To summarize his findings, he found no scientific evidence to support grass-fed beef being any healthier than grain-fed beef.  To expand, his research found no difference in cholesterol from grass-fed to grain-fed.  He did find that grass-fed were higher in omega-3s (linolenic acid) as claimed where as grain-fed were higher in omega-9s (oleic acid) (the two are good for you, linolenic acid is more prevalent in canola oil whereas oleic acid is common in olive oils).  Furthermore, his findings found that the grain-fed were in fact lower in saturated/trans fat.   

Overall, red meat is good for us (in moderation of course, don't go grabbing a triple cheeseburger every day and wonder why your cholesterol levels are through the roof) but science seems to have stumped the marketers where there is no reason to pay extra for grass-fed beef.  Oh, to editorialize a moment, the USDA does in fact recognize grass-fed beef but there is very little oversight on it.  Pretty much anyone can slap a "grass-fed" sticker on their product with little worry of any form of prosecution.  If you don't believe me, check out the American Grass Fed Web site http://www.americangrassfed.org/ and look at how many producers of grass-fed beef there are for your state.  I'm willing to bet it is not nearly as many as you would think compared to the number of "grass-fed" beef you see advertised at supermarkets and farmer's markets. 

References:  

"Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences." Animal Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2014. 

http://animalscience.tamu.edu/2013/12/07/ground-beef-from-grass-fed-and-grain-fed-cattle-does-it-matter/

Retro Tip: Beating Dracula in Super Castlevania IV

I was going to play Child of Eden last night but the realization that I needed to hook Kinect up in order to get the full enjoyment of it put a damper on that (because, well...I'm lazy).  So I decided to supplement Child of Eden with Super Castlevania IV.

I have beaten Super Castlevania IV twice in my life.  Once in the mid-90's and again about four years ago.  I always enjoyed the Castlevania series and since I am warming myself up for my anticipated copy of Symphony of the Night, I found this to be a fitting title for my Wednesday night gaming.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I was not so thrilled with my rusty abilities after four years of no Castlevania training.

So now, here I am at work pondering if I will be able to once again beat Castlevania IV prior to my copy of Symphony of the Night coming in (expected delivery is today).  I have plans this weekend so beating both games is out of the question - especially since I have not played SotN yet.  The conundrum, beat Castlevania IV for a third time or just move on to its successor.  

While I ponder this, I will admit that I did use a borderline cheat when beating Castlevania IV.  Dracula is just a pain to defeat without this little trick but I thought I would show anyone who doesn't know about it.  

What I'm Playing this Week - October 1, 2014 Edition

Since I am dedicated to writing a post a day, I thought I would start simple and just say what I am playing this week.  I took the kind word of my terrific Twitter followers and picked up this bad boy for Symphony of the Night.

Seeing as SOTN was released in 1997, I guess it is about time I play it.  Plus I get Super Contra and Frogger to boot.  I'm hoping Super Contra isn't as ridiculously hard as the NES version but I have a feeling it will be.

Also, I started to play one of my favorite Zelda games again, Link to the Past for SNES.  It's been nearly twenty years (holy hell, did I just type that) since I beat it and thought I would go ahead and give it another go.  I have to say, even though I am only through the first dungeon, it still holds up.  Above and beyond that, it doesn't look terrible on my big screen flat panel HDTV.  I still cannot stand the dungeon rooms that require a torch.  Come on already!

Which leads me to this evening.  Generally speaking, Wednesday nights are my night's to just chill with a bottle of wine and catch up on a few hours of gaming.  Since Symphony of the Night hasn't come in yet, I will be trying something new that I picked up this week.  

This was basically a random pick-up I made.  I know absolutely nothing about it other than the pictures on the back of it looked really cool.  If you have any info, recommendations, etc. let me know on Twitter.