It's fun to go down the Metacritic [MC] list, so I'm doing it again for the stuff I played in 2010. 

I got to 35 hack 'n' slash games in March. The early ones go quick and some later ones just stopped me dead at some point with confusing mission objectives, difficult mechanics or some other dumb thing I couldn't stand. I have been trying to stick to each game as long as I can, pushing beyond my limits. I'll try even harder next month. There's nothing like actually finishing a game. I think I finished exactly 6 of these - all mentioned below.

The month is basically over, and so I'm wrapping up my hack 'n' slash games and getting ready to start my platform game theme for April. Here's the last stuff I played this week. 

As much as Nintendo struggled with third party support on the N64, especially in Japan, they did have a fair amount of support from one major publisher, Konami. Konami developed and published some of the best output on the system that wasn't made by Nintendo's in-house developers, though they were not without their stinkers.

I played a little of my Christmas present, Spyro Reignited Trilogy today and I absolutely love it so far, save for a couple spots where I just barely miss a landing out of a glide. It's pretty relaxing overall, focusing much more on exploration than anything else, and with one-or-two-hit enemies occasionally mixed in with the collectibles. There's a lot of personality here and it even looks like a modern day cartoon show with better animation. 

I've been playing a lot of Castlevania lately and considering I've now played all of the 2D games (the former is unavailable period and the latter frankly is too expensive for me to spend on an original Gameboy game), I thought I'd make a list ranking these games. I'm going to keep it limited to the 2D games and exclude the aformentioned games. Before I begin, I'll be leaving these games out:

Games Beaten

In my last blog post, I talked about how game publisher Konami and it's superstar producer, Hideo Kojima, were in the midst of some sort of breakup, resulting in corporate restructuring and Kojima's probable departure from the company once development on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is complete.  This also resulted in the cancellation of their highly anticipated game Silent Hills and the removal of its teaser, P.T., from the PSN store (Konami also took the extra step to ensure that it cannot be redownloaded once it is deleted from the PS4 hard drive even if it's still in a user's library, so don't delete it if you ever want to play it again!).  While we don't know much about Konami's future plans in regards to game development, at this point it seems that they will focus more on their mobile and/or pachinko businesses, which apparently have much more room for growth and profitability, but less room for growth in the business of being loved and admired.  

You may or may not have heard, but apparently Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise, and Konami, Metal Gear's publisher, have had some sort of falling out.  If the reports are to be believed, then Kojima will be leaving Konami once MGSV: Phantom Pain releases later this year.  As it is, he's classified as an outside contractor now.  Kojima has always said he wanted to work on new things, but Konami's reliance on the series (and his inability to leave the series in other peoples' hands) has always led him back.  When he said that Phantom Pain would be his last Metal Gear, many fans rolled their eyes and took it with a grain of salt, but it looks like it may be true.  Not only that, but Konami has gone so far as to erase his name from everything he was a part of--his team, studio, credit on all of Phantom Pain's logo and marketing, even the game's twitter account.  And today, Konami announced that they were searching for a team to make a new Metal Gear, when they should be focused on the one that isn't even out yet.  This kind of stuff doesn't happen if there's an amicable split.

Truth be told, I don't really like writing this kinds of year in review type of blogs. They take a lot of thought and sometime I just get kind of nervous thinking about it. Which was one of the reasons why I didn't do one last year. Plus I'm kind of busy with work and most of the time its just pure laziness. Not to mention there is just a whole lot of games that come out late in the year, not to mentions games I've finally gotten around to playing from previous years. Speaking of games of previous years, that's probably were I'm going to start.

But I'm going to tell you something, I wrote a blog here a month ago. One that was going to tell you about the stuff that happen since my last blog back in June or July. Anyways, after finishing said blog; I pressed the post button. Only to discover that I lost my blog, after that I accepted my defeat and kind of put off this place for a while. Anyways, I started working at another place; still scaffolding although I don't know why, it just pays a little more than working behind a cash register. However it means that I stay in camp since I don't want to wake up at 4:00 am during a Canadian Winter every morning, drive to the bus to work, ride said bus for 90 minutes and work 12 hours.

I would be hard pressed to include a Castlevania title this year given how I did such last year with Castlevania Judgment. But given how the Wii U’s Virtual Console is getting a lot of Castlevania love this month with Castlevania: Dracula X, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, I thought this would be a good time to highlight a Castlevania title that might get overlooked by Wii U owners. I am hopeful that Wii U owners might be able to buy this WiiWare title that seems to have been long forgotten. I hardly hear anyone speak of this title, especially after the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. So hopefully you’re all in the mood to dust off your Nintendo Wii’s (or have the urge to enter your Wii U’s into Wii Mode to see if you can buy this little gem) for some retro gaming goodness with my number 9 pick for Octoberween 2014 – Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth.

So a lot has happened with me being in gamer-gate. Don’t worry, this will not be a piece bagging on Anita or Zoe as I feel like the movement (feels weird calling it that) has evolved so far beyond its’ initial roots it‘s no longer about them. If anything, I wish Gamer-Gate had started on a more positive note other than a hurting ex-boyfriend airing his girlfriend’s sex-life. Don’t get me wrong, overall I’m sure Eron is a nice guy but like the rest of us sometimes do, I think he did something kind of questionable in the heat of his emotions. The only good thing about The Quinnspiracy is it “did” bring up the issues of nepotism and cronyism. Everything else is throw away garbage for me.

Not that was the start of all this for me personally. I remember when Bob Mackey (a game journalist) first wrote “This Month In Misogyny” for 1up. It was the first time the “shame narrative” was in full swing and Bob seemed to take a perverse glee out of hitting gamers where it hurts. I recall him slandering J-rpgs especially, saying games like Hyperdimension Neptunia were just for pedophiles. (At the time I knew several female game friends who “loved” J-rpgs too, including the ones with racier, sexier, and cuter content.)  Rape-culture was used as a catchphrase a few times as well. Many 1uppers were offended or outright furious and I was one of the loudest voices against Mackey.

The feud between Bob and I continued on and off from that point on. Eventually Bob was so pissed at me he got members from the forum Bo News to descend upon my 1up blog. Yes, this was a professional journalist recruiting “mercenary friends” to troll me. Among them was K. Thor and his loathing of gamers seems pretty apparent even to this day.

To the credit of 1up, Jeremy Parish eventually stepped in, apologized, and put Mackey in his place. It’s a rare gesture I don’t see often (As in an editor siding with the readers) and though Jeremy and I had our disagreements as well I still respect him for trying to keep the ethical standards of being non bias and fair to everyone. Has Jeremy clung to those standards? I hope so though after I read Kat Bailey’s article comparing Lords Of Shadow 2 to Rape-lay, I simply could not stomach sticking around on US gamer any longer.

But if you think that’s my only initiation into how these people work you would be a bit wrong. Not too long ago I made a little rpg using rpgmaker VX ace.(With pixlbit's resident blogger Blake contributing some of the music) I’m certainly not endorsing it as anything special. It told the story I wanted it to yet was not that ambitious when it came to bells and whistles. Sure, I made original sprites for each character (Using a sprite editor) and chose a more urban modern setting but  the battle system was right out of the first Dragon-Warrior and once you collected all the soulmorphisis cards the difficulty became way too easy.   

 I released the game too early before changes were added later to make it more user friendly. This got me some very well deserved criticism and helpful feedback that I would later use to revise the project further. But even then the atmosphere was tense. There were complaints about my art being “objectifying to women” and once it was known my game dealt with rape and depression (And yes, I’m bi-polar irl) the sentiment was “Oh, it’s okay to address sexual assault and depression but we know you’re going to botch it up anyway because you’re a white cis shit-lord who has never known hardship in your whole life!’.

With that particular rpgmaker site being filled to them brim with cynicism and nepotism, I decided to give game-jolt a try. The people there were a lot nicer and Gutter-delve seemed to skate by on positive scores for awhile. Then came the whirlwind of negativity that is Gliz-Caldo. Gliz had done a whole series of videos mocking my game on you-tube. Granted, it was the earlier build so a good portion of his grievances were probably legitimate. However, he took his impressions from that early build and scored my updated game based on that. Eventually I convinced Gliz to do another review and get back to me. Had he been a reasonable person he might have complimented the improvements but instead he found new things to bitch about and the list goes as follows.

1. Instead of being happier there were no more random battles Gliz complained the enemies seen on screen did not have aggressive enough AI to seem threatening and that they re-spawned after a few seconds. First of all, the enemy sprites are just there to eliminate the need for random battles. Their point is for gamers to touch them to be whisked into the battle-screen. That’s all, really. Had I made an action game Gliz’s critique would have been more valid but this was an rpg instead. Rpgs are known more for their story and they handle fights very differently from action games. (At least turn based rpgs do) Also, it takes awhile for the enemies to respawn, enough time for the player to move on with no troubles.

Perhaps Gliz’s oddest statement in all this was that he said he felt guilty killing the monsters because they were too easy. Yes, the “too easy” remark is a valid concern but feeling “guilt” over dispatching the enemies? The game is not violent. It has mature content and swearing but the battles are the least offensive thing in Gutterdelve. (Beyond the monsters saying some pretty messed up dialogue but that is meant to keep the player aware they’re fighting a dark force that represents the ills of humanity.)

2. At one point the female characters have a conversation in the kitchen. You would think this would not spark anything negative in the audience but Gliz tried to spin it as “They’re females in the kitchen=sexist symbolism!” And my gawd, it worked too. Soon other complainers mentioned this very scene and accusations were flung I simply cannot write female characters very well. Keep in mind these characters were introducing themselves to a new female character. They were not “making sandwiches” for their boyfriends or anything nonsensical like that.(The game even let’s you know earlier on the male character Liam is the best at cooking) It just so happened they were hanging out in the friggin kitchen!

3. Gliz complained the “new music” put in the game was “too generic”. Keep in mind he was the same guy to harshly get on my case for using copyrighted music when he first played the game so I changed it based on his feedback. Yeah,he made the game worse for himself! Beyond that, I’m happy with the new soundtrack anyway and I’m glad you-tubers doing let’s plays of my game will not get flagged. That’s the beauty of using open source music!

Regardless I was fucked after that. Once one asshole decides to shit on something it encourages other assholes to shit on something. Yet all through this abuse I did not flag comments or even flag Gliz’s videos.

Hello Pixlbit! I hope everyone enjoyed E3 this week! Many games were announced and I'm very excited to get my hands on them. Only problem now is the patience that I don't have to wait for them to release!! From all the craziness that Nintendo announced, I think it's time to buy a WiiU. I probably won't get one until the Zelda or Mario Kart WiiU bundles drop or there's a Smash Bros bundle. Which ever comes first. But of course I'm really excited to play the games announced for the PS4 and Xbox One!!

Imagine for a moment that you’re the world’s perfect predator, and you have an open and sprawling city that is now your playground after being at rest in the shadows for hundreds of years. You’re sneaking up on your prey, salivating at the heartbeat that is about to feed you when you suddenly step on a twig. The echo of this twig somehow alerts every known enemy of yours, and you’re suddenly flanked and flayed mercilessly without ever being given the chance to fight back. This is Lords of Shadow 2: everything sounds great in theory, yet nothing works the way it’s intended to do so.

This is what I'll be talking about.  I thought about taking the debate to Kat Bailey herself but in the end I do not have the heart to direct anger at someone I knew at 1up who wrote blogs about rpgs I really enjoyed.

Now that Christmas is over with, I figured that I would post one more time in 2013. So happy holidays to everyone. This post will not be a game blog like normal. Instead, I have decided to share a little about what went on with me personally. I usually don't like to do these, since my life is pretty boring, and I can be a negative person pretty easily. Although, I feel comfortable enough here to open up a little bit about myself.

First off, I'm sorry about the audio. Technical issues caused my feed to sound a little on the distorted side. It's not horrible, but it's noticeable. I believe I've found the cause of the problem and fixed it, but unfortunately this recording is what it is.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD reveals the story of some of Gabriel Belmont’s descendants, including Simon and Trevor Belmont, as they battle their own destiny only to discover their true, shocking fate. Trevor Belmont, a knight of the Brotherhood of Light, sets out to avenge the death of his mother by his father, who has returned from years of exile to take up residence in a mysterious castle. What was once Gabriel Belmont is now Dracula, a powerful vampire. Dracula has declared war upon the Brotherhood and thus the scene is set for a cataclysmic showdown between father and son. 

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection for PS3 and Xbox 360. The bundle will feature 2010 critically acclaimed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, both Reverie and Resurrection DLC and includes the Mirror of Fate game from the 3ds and the Lord of Shadows II demo the LOS game is physical and the rest is dlc codes but totally worth the price and is the entire collection until the February release of LOS 2.