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.

Got another batch of game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s begin!

I had a really good time with Xbox 360, or 3tricksy as I like to call it, this week. This is what I got to in my journey through all my 360 games.

2013 is really the start Console Generation 8, but to me it's still Gen 7 because the Xbox One and PS4 came out late in that year, and I didn't get either one until maybe a year later. Yes the Wii-U was out in 2012, the 3DS and PS Vita in 2011, but it really felt like Gen 8 fully to me in 2014. So this is the last year I'll review until I get past all the Gen 7 systems in my retro journey this year.

Knocked off a bunch more in the 360 collection. I was writing down all the digital only games I wanted to play on 360 and came across a lot of them. I own a lot more than I remember and there are ones I missed as well. This is just adding to my "collection" and making getting through 360 a real chore. I passed my usual burnout on year-long gaming projects a month ago, so I think I'm good for the distance now. Here's this week's plays plus a few buys.

I often make my own fun when I'm at MK's like I've half lost my mind. It's an enhancement to gaming I enjoy (singing in my head right now is Iron Maiden's, "Can I Play with Madness"),

For years Microsoft hoovered up more and more of the games industry. It was shocking when they purchased Bethesda - a huge third party publisher and development house. By the time they secured the deal to buy Activision-Blizzard, it was much less so, and it was clear that Microsoft believed they could buy all the properties they needed to make GamePass a success. It didn't take long to see that their strategy wasn't working.

In the last part of my PS4 tribute blog, we looked at the games I enjoyed on the PS4 that were classic collections or remakes.  And on this one, we’ll look at the more AAA titles (well as AAA as I get anyway), as well as the indie titles on the opposite end of the spectrum.  Like I said before, most of these games you can enjoy on other platforms, I just played them on PS4.

I got through a lot combining the end of last week's and all of this week's gaming. I'm clearly not going for complete runs. I just play to revisit and go as far as I stay interested. Here's the lot on Xbox 360:

It’s always nice to get to review a game I really wanted to play.  It happens less and less nowadays.  So as a big Bluey fan and genuinely interested in good games for kids, I’m glad I got to review this first game on my review blog list.  So please click on as many GamerDad game reviews as you can and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s do this!

Just a few but with some interesting death throes in most of them. 

Pengo was one of my favorite arcade games from the Golden Age of Arcades, right up there with favorites such as Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Centipede, and Joust. I also had the Atari 8-bit version of Pengo at home. 

Recently my wife and I got to go on a dinner date sans kids and afterwards we went to Draftcade, a local bar/arcade. It was a spur of the moment decision because we didn't realize it was so close to the restaurant we went to but I'm glad we went in! $10 each got us in and all the games were set to free play. It wasn't as big as I had expected but the game selection was excellent. Sure, I've played Donkey Kong as an arcade game before but they had both the sequels as well as Popeye! I got to play some well known old games that I had never actually played before, like Tapper, Dig Dug, Burger Time. They had a vector-based Astroids Deluxe. They had the orignal Mario Bros. and a bunch of pinball tables (I remain bad at pinball) and a decent smattering of fighting and beat-'em-up games.

I might have gotten confused, frustrated and dead in many of them, but I enjoyed them all. Who says you got to finish stuff? It's the journey not the destination, I say. 

This is my list in coordination with the all-time best OG Xbox games on Metacritic. I'm playing games in order of MC rating instead of release date this year. 

Happy Easter!  I’ve got some video game Easter egg reviews for you all to hunt.  When you find one, please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe even post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK, let’s begin!

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and I’ve got a pot of gold for all of you filled with game reviews I’ve recently written at GamerDad.com!  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it!  OK let’s begin!

The next 25 games on Metacritic for the GBA. I'll have my favorites, but I'll look up everything and see what's available to me to try out. 

I only have a few here I put on my must-play list, but I like to look at everything anyway and perhaps try something new if I can find it for cheap enough. Remasters are also of interest since sometimes they vastly improve the experience. So this is Metacritic's top PS2 games 26-50 with comments. 

After a brief time with Monster Hunter Stories, I really managed to focus this week on my PS2 stuff and get through a lot. Then I traded a bunch of them, but also picked up some new ones. 

Alongside my PS2 gaming is also me trying to play the handheld out at the time, GBA. I've had trouble getting to it, but this week I got super sidetracked on GBA games. I also touched on PS4 and XSS and bought a bunch of stuff both digitally and at my game stores. 

It’s time for my “Best Video Games of 2025 Awards Show!”  Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed.  And if a game isn’t on this list, it either just didn’t appeal to me as much or I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.  Ok with that out of the way, let’s begin!

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. 

It's sort of roughly so because in gaming it means to me the seventh gen consoles which really started in 2005, but it's more strictly so for my TV/Film and reading. So this week I set up my PS3, juiced my DSi XL and got to work.