Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 16 hours ago
Pre-orders in video games have been around for a long time. However, it feels like pre-orders have become riskier and riskier with each upcoming major release, to the point where I cannot recommend them in good faith. This is especially true for AAA video games. So in this video, I break down why that is the case unlike a decade or two ago.
00:00 Intro
01:51 Release Dates Are Almost Meaningless Today
07:42 Pre-Order Money Fuels Bad Practices
08:50 You're Paying Ahead Of Time To Own Nothing
Sources/Further Reading:
Fallout 76 Pre Order Editions: windowscentral.com/fallout-76-buyers-guide
Sony Pulling Cyberpunk 2077 From PSN Years Ago: ign.com/articles/sony-removing-cyberpunk-2077-from-ps-store-will-offer-refunds-to-playstation-players-who-already-bought-it
Starfield Pre Orders Topping Steam Charts: pcgamesn.com/starfield/pre-orders
EA College Football 25 Pre Order Sales: marketwatch.com/story/eas-college-football-25-brings-in-about-200-million-in-preorders-the-players-its-based-on-get-600-each-c568f1f5
Humankind Drops Denuvo Over Performance Concerns: arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/denuvo-drm-removed-from-upcoming-strategy-game-dev-blames-performance-impact
Music used: sonnov - ñ☽¸ďū
Pre-orders in video games have been around for a long time. However, it feels like pre-orders have become riskier and riskier with each upcoming major release, to the point where I cannot recommend them in good faith. This is especially true for AAA video games. So in this video, I break down why that is the case unlike a decade or two ago.
00:00 Intro
01:51 Release Dates Are Almost Meaningless Today
07:42 Pre-Order Money Fuels Bad Practices
08:50 You're Paying Ahead Of Time To Own Nothing
Sources/Further Reading:
Fallout 76 Pre Order Editions: windowscentral.com/fallout-76-buyers-guide
Sony Pulling Cyberpunk 2077 From PSN Years Ago: ign.com/articles/sony-removing-cyberpunk-2077-from-ps-store-will-offer-refunds-to-playstation-players-who-already-bought-it
Starfield Pre Orders Topping Steam Charts: pcgamesn.com/starfield/pre-orders
EA College Football 25 Pre Order Sales: marketwatch.com/story/eas-college-football-25-brings-in-about-200-million-in-preorders-the-players-its-based-on-get-600-each-c568f1f5
Humankind Drops Denuvo Over Performance Concerns: arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/denuvo-drm-removed-from-upcoming-strategy-game-dev-blames-performance-impact
Music used: sonnov - ñ☽¸ďū
![Metal Black [Arcade] - 1CC Playthrough 469,080 pts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Cd6Imzwrm_4/mqdefault.jpg "Metal Black [Arcade] - 1CC Playthrough 469,080 pts
Metal Black is a shmup released in arcades by Taito in 1991. This game is known for its unique atmosphere and its beam mechanic. It is also known for being one of the few games designed by Takatsuna Senba during his time at Taito along with Gun Frontier and Dino Rex and was originally intended to be Darius game. Though originally released in arcades, it received a port to the Saturn done by Ving in 1996 in Japan. The arcade version was re-released via the Arcade Archives series on PS4/PS5 and Switch in 2022 and the Saturn version was reissued on PC and Xbox One by City Connection in 2023 as part of their S-Tribute series, giving this game a new audience on modern consoles.
Metal Black honestly has some of the best atmosphere in all of shmups, past or present. While it shared some of the grittiness of some other Taito arcade games from this time such as Gun Frontier and Super Space Invaders 91, it managed to use its excellent art direction and amazing soundtrack to push a narrative of one man trying to save a post-apocalyptic Earth from an alien threat. The intro gives you a decent amount of backstory for an arcade shmup and the actual game builds upon that so well, telling the story after that without words. This game features some incredibly distinct environments and set pieces, accompanied by some of the best music Zuntata ever composed which is saying a lot. Theres even a psychedelic vibe going on, like on Stage 4. The imagery of this game from the first stage to the last boss is unforgettable. Even the good ending of this game is quite thought-provoking. You can also get a bad ending if you Game Over on the last stage.
As far as the gameplay goes, its hard to say that it matches the atmosphere, but the gameplay is still strong. The beam mechanic is actually great, but not necessarily because you get a beam to use. This beam meter also determines your shot power and spread. Also, when you max out that bar, you can even choose to use your beam as a bomb as long as you dont hold down the beam button. Using it as a bomb is more effective most of the time because its very useful for clearing a lot of smaller enemies on screen quickly.
One odd thing is that your damage per shot is at its highest at level 3 instead of 5, though you do get more protection at the front of your ship from your shot covering it if you do max out the bar. I liked using up my beam right before boss fights in order to grab enough power ups, known as Newalone, in order to get my shot to level 3 in order to kill bosses quicker. Also, youre going to want autofire for this one. I used 25 HZ autofire off of my Brook PCB for this one, with 30 HZ being even better if you have that as an option.
There are a couple of flaws with this game that I have to bring up. One is the scoring being a bit underdeveloped. The RNG in the bonus rounds after Stages 1 and 3 can have a big impact on your final score by the end of a run. Plus, scoring mostly comes down to grabbing Newalone and killing enemies outside of that. The second major flaw is that RNG gets a bit out of hand near the end of the game, especially on the last stage. The red star enemies are pure RNG in terms of where they go and some other enemies have RNG as well in terms of movement. It is down to luck in order to get a no-miss because of that. Even on this run, I got lucky right before the last boss with one of those red stars.
Speaking of lucky, this run got super dramatic toward the end. I almost didnt make it and it even got a bit hairy on the last boss where I almost got killed on my last life, but I managed to no-miss the last boss and finish up the run.
00:00 Intro
00:24 Stage 1 + Bonus Round
04:08 Stage 2
07:58 Stage 3 + Bonus Round
13:23 Stage 4
17:27 Stage 5
20:33 Stage 6
24:53 Ending + Credits
Further reading:
Hardcore Gaming 101 article: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/metal-black/
Small guide: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=30872
Takatsuna Senba interview: https://shmuplations.com/takatsunasenba/")
![Super Mario Bros 2 [NES] - 1CC Playthrough (Two Warp Strategy)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DSCw6As5bMU/mqdefault.jpg "Super Mario Bros 2 [NES] - 1CC Playthrough (Two Warp Strategy)
Super Mario Bros 2 is the odd one out of the Super Mario Bros games, mainly because it wasnt originally a Mario game. I hardly played it as a kid even when my brother still had Super Mario All Stars on SNES, but I decided to give it another shot back in 2023 with the original NES version and at the end of that year, I did this playthrough. I like using the 2 Warp strategy because it skips some of the weakest sections of the game IMO and makes getting to the end of the game within a single sitting much more feasible.
This run is almost all Mario and Peach, with Luigi only used to get to the big warp in World 5. I dont like Toad lol. Also, the controls are quite slippery, even with a slower character like Peach, contributing to quite a few mistakes of mine. I find the movement to be worse than something like Alex Kidd In Miracle World on the Master System, but it was the 80s before developers truly perfected controls for 2D games. I never felt 100% comfortable whether I was playing this game on a controller, my main fightstick with the Golden Lever in it, or even my mixbox setup which oddly enough felt worse for this game than the other two options.
The run went really well until the final world as I avoided deaths until 7-1, but thats when the run got sloppier. That being said, I still finished with plenty of lives.
Its a good game but definitely the weakest of the three Super Mario Bros games on NES in my opinion.
00:00 Intro
00:17 World 1-1
02:10 World 1-2
04:54 World 1-3
05:42 World 4-1
07:34 World 4-2
09:48 World 4-3
14:14 World 5-1
17:19 World 5-2
20:08 World 5-3
20:39 World 7-1
26:14 World 7-2
33:13 Final Boss (Success)
35:40 Ending")
![Alex Kidd In Shinobi World [Sega Master System] - 1CC (Full Game Playthrough)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ed3xYmij0gY/mqdefault.jpg "Alex Kidd In Shinobi World [Sega Master System] - 1CC (Full Game Playthrough)
It came down to my last life and my last piece of health, but I got the job done. Its not a hard game, but there are a few challenging points where the slightly janky controls just dont help.
The key is to get extends early so you can coast through the second half of the game. I got pretty sloppy starting with the second boss battle, but the extends I got earlier kept me going until the end.")
![Post Void [PC] - Complete Playthrough (All 11 Stages, Full Run)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/G500oO2inFQ/mqdefault.jpg "Post Void [PC] - Complete Playthrough (All 11 Stages, Full Run)
Post Void is a first-person shooter developed and released by YCJY Games for PC in 2020 on Steam. It is known for its extremely fast paced gameplay and roguelike elements such as randomized stage layouts and random powerups. It is also known for having an arcade-style scoring system.
Ive had this game for years, but I finally decided to focus on clearing it just recently and got the clear! The pace is just insane. Every stage feels like an adrenaline rush. You have to keep killing enemies to keep your idol filled up to stay alive. It kind of reminds me of an arena shooter like Quake 3 in terms of how fast it is, though the gameplay is quite different in many ways. Another comparison point would have to be Hotline Miami. It shares a similar aesthetic and penchant for fast but deadly gun-play, but the perspective here is first-person instead of top-down.
As mentioned earlier, there are roguelike elements to this game. One, the stage layouts do vary slightly from run to run for each stage. They dont vary dramatically and the types of enemies that are used in each level stay the same, but you still cant memorize every part of each stage in order to beat it. Youre better off learning how to deal with each type of enemy you encounter.
The weapon choices are not many, but there are enough to provide for some different playstyles. You always start out with the pistol, which is accurate but lacks in damage outside of headshots. You can get the shotgun, uzi, or knife later as a powerup after a stage. My personal preference was the shotgun. Its not great for your accuracy rating at the end of a run and it doesnt reload very fast, but it makes it a lot easier to kill enemies as it takes out anything in one hit with plenty of spread, headshot or not. When coupled with the explosive ammo and reload speed powerups, it becomes even deadlier. One tip is that its important to reload as soon as you shoot when using this weapon.
This game has eleven stages total and doesnt take long to finish if you can survive until the end. My run of this game was less than seven minutes officially. At the end, whether you survive or die, you get a final score based on your time, kills, headshots, and accuracy. This game has online leaderboards, which your best score is added to automatically.
Buy this game. Its only $3, even when its not on sale. One of the best bargains on Steam.
Game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1285670/Post_Void/
Strategy guide that was helpful: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2230481167
00:00 Intro
00:11 Stage 1
00:40 Stage 2
01:17 Stage 3
01:54 Stage 4
02:45 Stage 5
03:39 Stage 6
04:28 Stage 7
05:26 Stage 8
06:04 Stage 9
06:42 Stage 10
07:30 Final Stage")
