Up until Lies of P released, I thought it was impossible for anybody not named FromSoftware to make a great Souls-like. We’ve certainly seen plenty of teams adapt the formula to 2D successfully, but despite the similarities, those titles feel more like variants on the classic Metroidvania formula than a proper Souls-styled game. False Hero, though, leaves no question where it draws influence - this 3D Souls-like, the product of a single developer, is imbued with everything that made the Souls series great. It even manages to add its own twist to the formula, creating its own identity in the process.
I see the end of my 360 games in sight and so started putting my PS3 games in order for some serious PS3 action in a couple of weeks, probably.
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.
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.
One of my brothers got married a couple of weeks ago, hence the title of this blog. So congrats to him! And I also got married as well. Sort of. You’ll just have to read on to find out! Yeah, sorry to use clickbait on you all, but it’s fun when it’s fun. Anyway after all this wedding stuff are more 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. OK let’s begin!
I ripped through a bunch more on my quest to get through my collection and decide what stays and goes.
Idealized because I don't own all of these yet, at least, not in physical form.
It's time to run down the list of GameCube games on Metacritic. It's fun and brings up memories and helps me decide what stays in my collection and what I need to pick up. Here goes.
In Stephen King's memoir In Writing, a good piece of advice (regarding reading habits) that King made was to read in small sips as opposed to big gulps. Which is more accessible depends on the person, their schedule, and how much time they have during a given day.
Also played some Game Boy and a whole lot of Switch games.
I've returned to Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime and found it amazing. I don't know what I was thinking quiting it out of confusion years agoo. I think I just wasn't paying attention to the instructions. Now I'm really enjoying it.
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.
Back from a short vaca. Then played one day of gaming. Read some more. Bought themed socks.
It's the 90s for me this month and maybe for two months, we'll see. I got my Retron 3 and Genesis up and running so far. Here's what I got to this week.
Yes, scouring through the store on Xbox (and other systems) has its rewards. I never know what stealth released title I'll come across. My eyes bugged wide when I saw the following collections.
I got bored one day and started my 90s playlist for next month. I came up with a new solution to what always ends up being a gigantic list I can't possibly tackle. Here 'tis.
Really farmed a lot this week. Is that a real verb? Got me a Pokemon game for 50 cents too.
Mario Kart World was recently released as a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title. I was lucky enough to get a Switch 2, thanks to help from my family. So let’s take a road trip tour at all the tracks you can race on in the game. So grab your road trip snacks and let’s roll!
Lots of stuff this week, but it all comes down to Farm Together 2, which will be my friend and mine's obsession for the coming weeks.
The dreaded stealth gameplay got to me again in several new games I tried out this week. But I finished Doom Dark Ages, discovered some new Atari games, and got sucked into an old classic again.
I got another day, maybe, but I got a weird work schedule again this week and so am here recalling the day and half I spent so far.
So I'm trying to stick to the years 1995 to 1999 as the core of Console Generation 5, but it is often that i get tired of the retro and just do a genre search for the latest RPGS and see what I can play for free or cheaply.
So, that Acer Aspire laptop I blogged about last time? Screen doesn't come on. I've got to get this repaired (and hope that it doesn't cost too much) so until then, I'm using my trusty, won't-die Samsung Chromebook that I got back in 2017.