2015 ended on a high note for me. Good time spent with friends and family, some of the best weeks of work I've had all year, plenty of vacation time, meaningful personal development, and a change of focus that I hope will lead to a joyful and productive 2016. You'll note one big absence on this list: GameCola.net suffered a catastrophic server failure early in the month—the day before the shortest review I've ever written got posted, as though the website couldn't cope with me writing anything of substance shorter than 700 words.
Normally we'd revert to a recent backup version of the site, but due to mysterious technical issues, the latest backup we had was from sometime in November. An executive decision was made to put the site on hiatus to give our webmaster time to look into recovering the lost data, but also to give the Editor-in-Chief time to work on GameCola 4.0, a revised version of the site with all the modern bells and whistles we've been missing. I'll no doubt write more about the situation as time goes on, but in the meantime, I've been devoting my free time to other side projects that have been languishing for too long.
Normally we'd revert to a recent backup version of the site, but due to mysterious technical issues, the latest backup we had was from sometime in November. An executive decision was made to put the site on hiatus to give our webmaster time to look into recovering the lost data, but also to give the Editor-in-Chief time to work on GameCola 4.0, a revised version of the site with all the modern bells and whistles we've been missing. I'll no doubt write more about the situation as time goes on, but in the meantime, I've been devoting my free time to other side projects that have been languishing for too long.
This Blog:
It's good to be writing again on a regular basis, and writing more positively, at that. In addition to the posts below, which hopefully represent a return to the kind of writing I used to do for Exfanding Your Horizons in its heyday, I was busy working on my Series Opinions for Star Trek: The Original Series and Enterprise, which I'll formally link to once they're complete.
- Retrospective: November 2015
- Star Trek Beyond the Point of No Return
- Always in Motion Is the Future
- Running With Superheroes
It's good to be writing again on a regular basis, and writing more positively, at that. In addition to the posts below, which hopefully represent a return to the kind of writing I used to do for Exfanding Your Horizons in its heyday, I was busy working on my Series Opinions for Star Trek: The Original Series and Enterprise, which I'll formally link to once they're complete.
- Retrospective: November 2015
- Star Trek Beyond the Point of No Return
- Always in Motion Is the Future
- Running With Superheroes
YouTube:
One GameCola contribution managed to slip through, despite the main site being out of commission. In honor of the new Star Wars movie, I kicked off a playthrough of one of my all-time favorite games, and it's been helping me refine my livestreaming style. The third installment of Jedi Knight and the second Backloggery Choice stream are two of my favorites so far (if nothing else, watch the Paperboy section of the first video below).
Of course, no mention of YouTube videos would be complete without a celebration of the true, final, real end of the Mega Man 7 recording saga. One of the funniest things I've ever released, according to me, and a joy to assemble.
Flashman85LIVE:
- Backloggery Choice #2: Crystalis, StarTropics II, Metal Storm, Paperboy
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 1: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 2: Elevator Action
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 3: Confusing the Commentator
GeminiLaser:
- Mega Man 7: Audio Outtakes
GCDotNet:
- Hacks'n'Slash #10: Mario & Sonic Christmas Special
One GameCola contribution managed to slip through, despite the main site being out of commission. In honor of the new Star Wars movie, I kicked off a playthrough of one of my all-time favorite games, and it's been helping me refine my livestreaming style. The third installment of Jedi Knight and the second Backloggery Choice stream are two of my favorites so far (if nothing else, watch the Paperboy section of the first video below).
Of course, no mention of YouTube videos would be complete without a celebration of the true, final, real end of the Mega Man 7 recording saga. One of the funniest things I've ever released, according to me, and a joy to assemble.
Flashman85LIVE:
- Backloggery Choice #2: Crystalis, StarTropics II, Metal Storm, Paperboy
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 1: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 2: Elevator Action
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Live Playthrough) - Part 3: Confusing the Commentator
GeminiLaser:
- Mega Man 7: Audio Outtakes
GCDotNet:
- Hacks'n'Slash #10: Mario & Sonic Christmas Special
The Backloggery:
December is always a bad month for my struggle against the evil Bak'laag. Between Christmas, winter sales on Steam and GOG, and holiday travels that take me near used game stores, my game collection always seems to inflate around this time. At least my patience has run out for games that aren't worth my time; I'm abandoning bad and unrewarding games with a vengeance nowadays, and I've decided to go back to playing only the games I think I'll like—anything that's culturally worthwhile but not worth the effort is something I can watch someone else play on YouTube.
New:
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (WiiU)
- Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition (PC)
- Final Fantasy X (PS2)
- Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
- Gun Metal (Steam)
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC)
- LEGO Jurassic World (WiiU)
- Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS (NDS)
- Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus (NDS)
- Rokko Chan (Brwsr)
- Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (PC)
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (WiiU)
Started:
- Final Soldier (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
- StarFox Assault (GCN)
- Wario Land 3 (GBC)
Beat:
- Final Soldier (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS)
Completed:
- Final Soldier (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
- Love (Steam)
- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS)
Removed:
- Wario Land 3 (GBC)
December is always a bad month for my struggle against the evil Bak'laag. Between Christmas, winter sales on Steam and GOG, and holiday travels that take me near used game stores, my game collection always seems to inflate around this time. At least my patience has run out for games that aren't worth my time; I'm abandoning bad and unrewarding games with a vengeance nowadays, and I've decided to go back to playing only the games I think I'll like—anything that's culturally worthwhile but not worth the effort is something I can watch someone else play on YouTube.
New:
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (WiiU)
- Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition (PC)
- Final Fantasy X (PS2)
- Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
- Gun Metal (Steam)
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC)
- LEGO Jurassic World (WiiU)
- Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS (NDS)
- Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus (NDS)
- Rokko Chan (Brwsr)
- Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (PC)
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (WiiU)
Started:
- Final Soldier (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
- StarFox Assault (GCN)
- Wario Land 3 (GBC)
Beat:
- Final Soldier (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS)
Completed:
- Final Soldier (VC)
- Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
- Love (Steam)
- The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS)
Removed:
- Wario Land 3 (GBC)
That about wraps it up for 2015! Off we go into another year.
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