When Star Fox Adventures originally released back in 2002, I skipped out. If you read my review on Star Fox, this might surprise you, given how much I love the series. But Adventures wasn’t really a Star Fox game, it was the Rare N64 game, Dinosaur Planet. It got an awkward Star Fox coat of paint, some poorly executed Arwing sections, and was dumped into the Star Fox universe, thanks to Nintendo leadership.
My trials and tribulations as I go through my PS3 collection. I'm still in the top 100 critically on Metacritic.
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).
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.
Yesterday, Sony dropped a few bombs on the gaming world - first, they are discontinuing support of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita stores by next year, at the latest, with support ending immediately in some areas. Second, they will cease production of physical games by January 2028 for all releases on PlayStation consoles, leaving only another year and half before you'll no longer be able to grab the latest games pressed to a disc.
It's my pleasure to present to all of you the latest iteration of PixlBit! It feels unreal to finally be launching this new version of the site - I've spent a lot of hours over the past few months building everything out and getting things in a state to launch. It's particularly unreal to be typing this in the brand new editor and getting this new content posted after such a long dry spell.
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'm happy to report that the PixlBit 3.0 implementation has been smoothly sailing along. I've been working on it nearly every night that I can muster the energy to do so. The progress has been very satisfying to see and I wanted to take a moment to share some more screenshots and give some details on what's done and what's yet to be implemented. If you're impatient and just want to see a big gallery of screenshots, you'll want to check here.
Happy New Year! Let’s start it off right with game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com! Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe please post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it! OK let’s begin!
When the Nintendo Switch 2 released earlier this year, one of the launch games was the download only Welcome Tour. It was set up like a museum, and you controlled a little person as they walked around a giant Switch 2 and its accessories. You could play mini-games, try tech demos, and take quizzes on facts about the new console. To me, it sounded like a lot of silly, quirky fun. And I love games that have museums in them, whether it be Namco Museums or Animal Crossing. There was only one problem. They charged you for it. It really should’ve come with the system, and that’s what it’s going to be known for from here on out. I really wanted to boycott it and not buy it to support that kind of behavior. But here’s the thing. I only believe in boycotting if it doesn’t hurt yourself. And the game still sounded interesting enough to me that I didn’t want to miss out on it. Life is too short to miss out on what you think is fun. So I got it. It was only ten bucks anyway, and I can spend more money than that on fast food! So I figured I’d take you all on a tour of the Welcome Tour!
We hit a big milestone with our podcast! It’s our 25th episode! Come celebrate with us as brother Jeff and I talk about our favorite things to do together over the years. But mostly about our favorite video games to play together. Please click on the link and give it a listen, and thanks for all your support! --Cary
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.
It’s time for my “Best Video Games of 2024 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!
I recently purchased a refurbished laptop (nothing fancy, one of the Acer Aspire models) after having spent so many years without a laptop (the Samsung Chromebook I own still works but its OS stopped receiving support two years ago). I don't know why I went so far like this. The idea was not to acquire a gaming PC/laptop but something good enough to handle jack-of-all-trades utilities. So far, it's worked out well for me.
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!
Recent reviews I’ve written over at GamerDad.com are blooming, so please click on the links below and read as many as you can and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!
Mini-consoles have been a thing for well over a decade now, thanks in large part to the Atari Flashback and all those ATGames Genesis consoles. Mini-consoles experienced a huge surge in popularity with the success of the NES Classic and SNES classic in 2016-2017. Suddenly, everybody was putting out mini-consoles - the PlayStation Mini, two interations of mini Genesises (the OG Genesis and the 1994 revision that came with Sega CD games), and even a TurboGrafx-16 Mini.
All good things come to and end, and by now you know that Nerds Without Pants has ended after over 11 years of pantsless podcasting. But that doesn’t mean Julian and Justin are done. Far from it! Introducing The Stage Select, a video game variety podcast launching in 2024. What we have for you here is a repost of the pilot episode, in case you don’t follow us on social media and didn’t know the show has had its soft launch.
This is the last week of Switch and, for that matter, all electronic gaming for me but just for January. I'm going to explore gaming in the first generation of consoles, which is to say, no consoles, because I don't have much interest in Pong or the Odyssey. I've got a gaming related puzzle, some origami paper, and several board games I'd like to try. But until then, this is the Switch stuff I did this week, which wasn't that much because I got obsessed with old 1930s serials like Buck Rogers on youtube (watched on Switch).
I was going to switcheroo last Monday but, in wrapping up my Xbox Series S, I had to do a few things and that led me to playing several games through Tuesday. I've been all Switch since then, but here's what I did to end my time with Xbox for a while.
I finally stopped playing Microsoft Solitaire Collection on Android in February. I got all the achievements that were fun to get, so I moved on to another game with Xbox achievements, Microsoft Sudoku. It's free but ad supported. Apparently it's not on Game Pass because that's probably how I got the premium edition of Solitaire. I know I didn't purchase it. Ads are annoying but not a game breaker for me.