In console gaming, there is a legend known as the Third Console Curse. Most consoles are not successful enough to receive a follow-up. If they are, then a third console is still not guaranteed. It is a hard industry not only to break into, but sustain a market share in. Yet something happens with the third console every time. It fails to meet the company's initial goals. Maybe it still sells fine, maybe the console has a wonderful library of games. Even if that is the case, the company loses market share and is in a worse spot at the end of the console's life than they were going into it. It could be arrogance from success. It could be a lack of perspective from being too used to success. Maybe it's just rotten luck. But it's consistent.

I can't seem to find my draft of this blog right now, so I'm rewriting it hastily and with much less content due to time limitations. In any case, this is 2012, the stuff I played during Console Generation 7 and mostly not later, because a lot on the Metacritic list I played years later or literally in 2026. Let's go.

I ripped through a lot of stuff this week, being impatient to get through it all, the slightest annoyance sending me to the next game in my collection. But, I had a lot of good experiences anyway. I'll break these 360 games into two categories, physical and digital only (or, Xbox Live Arcade as it used to be called). 

A launch sequence ensues, Thunderbirds style. 

I didn't get a whole lot of gaming time on the holidays, which is kind of strange really, but I don't have a family that plays all that much. I did get a few half days with MK playing Army of Ruin though, and I'm gearing up for what I want to play in 2026. 

It's fun to go down the list of best of all time on Metacritic and make a personal list of favorites. Here are mine for the original Xbox. 

An imagined library of games I would have from the best of the 2010s. In order of rank on the Metacritic list for those years. 

Went to Retro Con last Saturday with my gaming buddy MadKrammer, bought some stuff, played a few NES games, and finished Farm Together 2.

I dabbled a bit in 360 games and Switch too. Check 'em out. 

I'm playing games from 2019-2021 this month (after I finish with ME: Andromeda), and so this is my 2020 list of favorities and ones I'd like to play if I get the time. The list is in order of release. It's as if these were the games I bought day-one - some, yes, but most no.

I've come up with a 2025 plan for my gaming. The goal is to put the entire history of video games into 12 parts so I can travel in time over the course of the year (I do this for music and literature as well). Here's what I came up with. 

Can't stop, won't stop. This is my playlist for upcoming November. Recipe: open Metacritic. Limit it to the years 2019-2021. Go from highest to lowest ranked, choosing games I want to play or replay. 

I never thought I'd be looking back at the Xbox One and needing it, but I finally found some games I can only play there. I can get one for $100 too, which is a nice price for a console. 

With such game lists as I have, I was surprised to not stick to anything until I hit a RPG on list three.

Only one more half-day game-day left for me this month, Monday. I've been deep into Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel this week but also other stuff. Here's 'bout. 

Looking forward because there's only one week left to this month. I'm making a playlist from the years 2016-2018. I've already changed my plan for next year, but I'm sticking to this 2024 plan until the end. So three year's worth for October seen through the lens of Metacritic's highest ranked games. Here's my first playlist taken from all the games rated 90 or better. It's short. 

My game session was interupted by a car repair and now a rain storm keeping me in the library for a while. I don't mind though because the library is my favorite place. So, anyway, I've changed up my gaming plan to simplify it all and started playing a few new and old things. 

In addition to Xbox stuff, I ran through a lot of 90s games to see what I wanted to use for trade bait, and what I wanted to keep. Here's what I have something to say about. 

It was fun trying out a lot of NES games this month thanks to the NES collection on the Switch subscription service and a few available on collections on Xbox. I also had a few cartriges too for the original experience. Here's what I got to this week plus new stuff. 

Ran the retro gauntlet again for console Gen 3 and started a new attack plan on modern gaming. 

In no paticular order, these are the games I played on my midweek weekend this week. 

Much more than just Shmups this week but I played a lot of Shumps and finally had my fill of getting beaten down. I think I'll put the Shmups aside for the rest of the month. So I've also been exploring games of the late 80s both from hits lists and my own lists. I've got the Switch, Retron 3 and Xbox Series S all running and sourcing whatever I can find. So here goes. 

I'm going to focus on the three titles that grabbed my attention, and most of my time, this week. Also a surprise new purchase at the end. 

I'm back with gathering rewards on Xbox. Hopefully the auto-redeem will work at the end of this month. And when retro and GP are done, back to current games.