The first time Kratos and Atreus head into Svartalfheim, the story keeps you moving fast enough that a lot of side content slips by. The Myrkr Tunnels are one of the worst offenders. You come through them on your second trip to the realm, the story pulls you forward, and by the time you think about going back you have no idea how to get in again.
Not so many games really. Actually, my favorite thing this year wasn't games but audio recording. My best friend and I would get together in breaks from our different colleges and go on road trips. Our favorite thing was to record ourselves doing skits or other nonsense on cassette tapes while listening to our favorite music. I still have them, some 30 or so. I converted them to CDs in the early 2000s and stored them as files on a now defunct hard drive. However, MK and I would go to arcades still here and there. I watched a lot of movies as well.
1986 was the year I went to college which likely distracted me from the NES and SMS releases. I was most concerned with my Apple computer that year, but I'll go through all I've subsequently gotten into and some notable facts (notable to me anyway).
Continuing the share, my games of the 80s, maybe a few others if I'm into it. This is 1981.
The Nintendo Direct has concluded and Ocarina of Time was demonstrated for us by Aonuma-san, showcasing all of the new features and the slick new graphics. While I detailed my hopes in yesterday's editorial, unsurprisingly, the remake essentially amounts to a nice new coat of paint and a variety of quality-of-life upgrades. Of course, each area, NPC, and more, have been fully rethought and brought up to modern standards, providing lots of visual flourishes to feast your eyes upon.
(can't edit my title for some reason) How to obsess over PS3? List my favorite exclusives in order of critical acclaim! (I've got to think of something more interesting next time).
To be honest, I started Xbox 360 sometime in May. So it took around four months to go through everything in my physical and digital collection and play a few new ones too. Here's the list of stuff I ended with. Note that I've been playing in order of Metacritic rating, and so these are the lowest rated games I have (doesn't mean they're are actually that bad though).
Meaning, I'm almost done with all my Xbox 360 games. I think there's less than 10 left both digital and physical. Here's what I got to this week.
Got some time today (car repair again), so I'll finish up making notes on the list of best Wii games on Metacritic, now starting at those rated under 75.
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.
I'm currently playing Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure again for any remaining achievements and to look at my figure collection. Here's an overview of the complete figures for the game.
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'm diving back into Skylanders this week with the Giants game, the second in the series. There are 48 core figures (found on this list). I collected all of them back in 2015-6, but some are as variants like Legendary or LightCore. I got what I could from my area's GameStops when they were on sale at the end of the Toys-2-Life era, roughly 2011-2018.
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.
Around this time of year, I like to make a list of my best games SO FAR, because usually the AAA titles are released later in the year during the holiday season, and the titles that came out earlier tend to be forgotten. So here’s when those games get their due. 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!
Here's my "waiting for a car repair" blog about the 2011 games that I played relatively close to release date in order of Metacritic rating for that year. Also, I'm just noting the system I played the game on, not all available systems.
When a game console is considered “dead,” I like to write a tribute blog about that console and its games. While most people would probably consider the PS4 ‘dead’ for a while now, I’m still reviewing games for it. I guess a game console is really only considered ‘dead’ once you stop playing it. But since recently I wasn’t able to get simple games like LEGO Batman and Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection on the PS4, I figured it was about time. I’ll probably do a similar blog with the original Switch later towards the end of this year. Most of the games on this list you can play on other consoles as well, I mostly used the PS4 as a third party machine if I couldn’t play or review it on the Switch, or if I’d rather play it on the PS4. Anyway, there are so many games I’m going to split this up into two parts. And the first part is going to be all about classic game collections, and remakes of classics and styled games.
The first thing that comes to mind is changing my Xbox gamertag. I got one in 2004 when Xbox Live Arcade dropped but a mini-game on an Official Xbox Magazine demo disc was giving me trouble in '07, and I thought a new gamertag would solve it. Well, it did solve it, but I lost touch with my old gamertag over time, and now it's probably been deactivated along with the few games I bought under it. It'll be 20 years on my current gamertag next year. It could've been 23 years if I'd stuck with my original one.
'cause it feels so good. Stuff I played a lot in the 7th generation of consoles, 2005-2013ish.
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!
Idealized because I don't own all of these yet, at least, not in physical form.