Another mega-batch of games as I forge ahead and try to wrap up my 360 revisit. I'll stick with the physical games first.
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.
I can't seem to find my draft of this blog right now, so I'm rewriting it hastily and with much less content due to time limitations. In any case, this is 2012, the stuff I played during Console Generation 7 and mostly not later, because a lot on the Metacritic list I played years later or literally in 2026. Let's go.
I'm getting closer to the end of my 360 games now, but it may be a few more weeks still before I move on to PS3 or Wii. I really can't wait to start those.
I ripped through a lot of stuff this week, being impatient to get through it all, the slightest annoyance sending me to the next game in my collection. But, I had a lot of good experiences anyway. I'll break these 360 games into two categories, physical and digital only (or, Xbox Live Arcade as it used to be called).
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.
My girlfriend and I am going on a short vacation to our old college in central New York this weekend. Among other things, I'll be looking to see if that arcade machine, Sky Shark, is still there in the pizza shop I used to go to. The odds aren't good after so much time. But anyway, I played a lot of games this mid-week-end that I have (I'm off wed/thurs regularly) trying to decide what to keep of my 90s game collection.
Went to Retro Con last Saturday with my gaming buddy MadKrammer, bought some stuff, played a few NES games, and finished Farm Together 2.
I dabbled a bit in 360 games and Switch too. Check 'em out.
I'm ending April this week even though there are a few more days left and moving on to my next theme. It was a grueling month for me who has so little patience for repeating levels and making that perfect jump; but I, like they do in special ops training, pushed beyond my limits as much as I could. I'll be putting up a blog of all the games I played over at wordpress very soon and a what-I-liked best of blog here. Here's what I got to this week before I decended into incremental games out of exhaustion.
My brother and nephew have just made their first “Let’s Play” style YouTube video, so I thought I’d share it with you here. They play an Xbox One game called Party Animals, where plush toy animals fight to the death. I’ve played it before with them, and while I don’t understand the appeal, my nephew just loves it! Anyway, click on the link below and watch it if you can!
Yeah, not doing any more 70s games but I will just mention Space Invaders Extreme 2 as being awesome before moving onto my theme for this month, twin-stick shooters.
I'm playing games from 2019-2021 this month (after I finish with ME: Andromeda), and so this is my 2020 list of favorities and ones I'd like to play if I get the time. The list is in order of release. It's as if these were the games I bought day-one - some, yes, but most no.
I've come up with a 2025 plan for my gaming. The goal is to put the entire history of video games into 12 parts so I can travel in time over the course of the year (I do this for music and literature as well). Here's what I came up with.
It's November and another shift to a new range of years I want to focus on in gaming. This month is 2019-2021. Nothing special about that, just 3 years in the history of gaming. I guess you could say the transition to our current consoles: Xbox Series X|S and PS5 in 2020 (Switch out since 2017).
I never thought I'd be looking back at the Xbox One and needing it, but I finally found some games I can only play there. I can get one for $100 too, which is a nice price for a console.
Looking forward because there's only one week left to this month. I'm making a playlist from the years 2016-2018. I've already changed my plan for next year, but I'm sticking to this 2024 plan until the end. So three year's worth for October seen through the lens of Metacritic's highest ranked games. Here's my first playlist taken from all the games rated 90 or better. It's short.
It's been an interesting week trying to work down the metacritic list for '95-'99, grinding for Game Pass Rewards points and beating Diablo IV. Details follow.
This is what my friend's Barbarian in Diablo IV says all the time as we're battling together. I can't resist repeating it whenever I hear it. He's got to work on keeping his rage meter filled. Anywho, I'm waiting for his cleaning lady to finish with his apartment before we game it up today (my day off). I thought I'd relate my progress on the late 90s Metacritic list I'm made.