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.
Welcome back to Nerds Without Pants! Julian has a big announcement this week: the beginning of a project to upload and archive the entirety of NWP’s 11 year history on our channel! Then we talk about a ton of games before getting into some light headlines.
Expansion Pass 2 Game #10/Blog a Day #18
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was an odd beast for many reasons. It originally released in 2011 for the Wii, and had a lot of expectations to live up to, both from fans and from Nintendo's financial department. Unfortunately, it met with a sharply divided reception among both, in no small part because Skyward Sword often got in its own way with its design.
I've actually been playing a lot, thanks to the Genesis Mini (even booted up the SNES Mini to play Secret of Mana yesterday), GameFly, and Yakuza, so I'm just going to dump brief takes on all the games I've been playing.
I've stated on here repeatedly that I don't listen to Podcasts, but I'm trying - I've been subscribing to literature and a few classical music ones on my Apple app. I keep telling myself to listen to them, but I haven't yet. What will probably happen though is once I do, I'll get into the routine of it.
I was ready to type up this latest entry a couple of hours ago but I got caught up in cruising the World Wide Web, reading random articles, message board posts, and other time wasters and before I knew it, here we are. I had a couple of things to write about this week and I wanted to share my thoughts but when I was trying to organize them that’s when I got caught up in the time waster. So before I get caught up in a random YouTube video let’s get started!
One of the stand out games for me at the Microsoft E3 press conference was a unique little indie game called The Artful Escape. The papercraft graphics and emphasis on jamming on an electric guitar made me think of some heady melding of Gitaroo Man from the PlayStation 2 and last generation’s indie darling Journey. I knew it was one to watch, and I was happy to be able to try it out on the show floor.
I'm exhausted from our department's Super Media Bowl, but at the same time glad to have gone. The panelists all had great things to say that I can now relay to my non-extra-credit-getting students who didn't go depsite classes being cancelled. I understand not being able to show up to the whole thing (some students had legit excuses like test review in another class or doc appointment), but when an event meant to help you network and prepare for your career goes on from 9:30am to 4pm, you're excused from classes (I actually gave academic affairs a list of all my students to excuse them from EVERY class they had today) and given extra credit to go, why in the hell do you not at least attend the sessions happening during your now nonexistent class time? It's mind boggling how lazy that is.
The original Titanfall had such an amazing idea: Soldiers who can run on walls with jetpacks summon giant mech suits known as Titans. Normally I play a few matches of multiplayer before getting bored and back to the single player, but I took a gamble in Titanfall’s multiplayer only offering. And despite being too light on content, there was enough depth to keep my 200th match in Titanfall as fun as my second.
Hey. I like podcasts. I'm in one. It's terrible. Don't tell Joe I said that. This site also does a whole host of great podcasts up there where it says podcasts. Seriously, listen to them. Some of them are great.
The GameCube was the last home console that completely held my attention. It was, after all, the final "coming of age" console of my life, that pivotal moment when the dying boy inside of me grew a healthy beard and discovered the fabled real world. Drunken late-night Soul Caliber II tournaments with my roommates; going on a vacation every time I played Super Mario Sunshine; being sucked in to the intoxicating gameplay of Metroid Prime. If the Nintendo 64 lost my interest, the GameCube begged for it....but it also made me all the more aware of a problem that was bigger than Nintendo: a dearth of quality, third-party software.
It's certainly close to that time of the year, when the Steam Christmas sales have just begun, people now wait for a fat man to go down a chimney (or if you live in Colombia and some other Latin American countries, baby Jesus somehow being able to give gifts) and many media websites are just making, just made or are about to make their end of the year lists and video game media is no exception.
Well hello, there! Unfortunately it’s a two man band again this time, as Patrick was out for work reasons. Angelo and Julian hold down the fort by talking for FAR TOO LONG about mobile games, free to play philosophy, and Christmas shopping.
I really love both Bayonetta games. I love their combat, style, and the character Bayonetta. Arthur Gies of Polygon liked the gameplay for Bayonetta 2, but felt the character was sexist. He knocked the game down a few points because it was sexist. Now, some of you know my opinions on Gies, but these are neither here nor there. If he differs on my opinion, I really don't care. Even if he gives a game I love a good, but not great score, then it's just his opinion.
(Quick warning! For those who have yet to play this sublime adventure, there are many spoilers ahead. You have been warned!)
So I did finish Watchmen, like, two weeks ago or something (time flies!). It was really good! I was under the ending was going to be very dire—I mean, it WAS but not like I'd expected, though the fate of a certain character made me sad. If I had to choose one word to describe the book, though, I'd go with "gray." Well, how about "grey" because that's a cooler spelling 
Nothing is as simple as good and evil. Just look at who the villain was, what he did and why, and the fact that he questioned his own actions at the end (trying to avoid spoilers). Anyway, I enjoyed reading it and will definitely be picking up some more Alan Moore stuff in the future. I also plan to watch the movie. I've already picked it up from the library lol but haven't had time to watch it yet. It's 142 minutes! But I want to get to it while it's still somewhat fresh in my mind.
Even though the transition into the newest generation of gaming consoles has been a gradual, whimpering affair so far, it’s pretty clear that the previous generation is wrapping up its final encore. To look back at how the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS thrilled us for years, PixlBit brings you our Game of the Generation series. Our staff has picked their personal favorite, most influential, most impactful games to highlight as we bid adieu to what was.