Look at what I found at Target for $40 tonight! It’s an Atgames Sega Genesis mini console. It comes loaded with 80 games and can actually play Sega Genesis cartridges! It has ports for original controllers, but comes with two IR consoles (wireless). I’m looking forward to playing it. The reviews are pretty mixed on it, so we’ll see how those games stand up. I’ll let you know more as I play.
I was really into a couple of games before I went on vacation. I had a nice routine down and I was kicking butt. Since I’ve gotten back, however, I seem to be in one of those dreaded times for all gamers – the between games slump. I don’t really have a game that has my undivided attention at the moment. A big part of this is due to my desire to watch the Olympics, which is really cutting into game time, but I also need to find that next game.
This is so frustrating to me as I have over 1000 games to play in this house. More if you consider internet games and the GCW Zero ROMs. But no, my brain doesn’t seem to want to latch on to any of them right now, which makes me look and feel a lot like that girl in the picture. I do still play for maybe an hour a day, but that is a stark contrast to the six to eight I was putting in before vacation.
I just started The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so we’ll see if that one sucks me in. So far, not really. I try to give games a few solid hours of game play before making judgement, but it’s just not cutting it yet. Alas, I’m sure I’ll find that next one before too long. This is also usually the time when I break out some old favorites, so I won’t be surprised if I start playing Project Gotham Racing, Diablo 3 or a city builder or simulation game.
One of my favorite video game review sites is a bit…odd. You’ve got to have a quick wit to get all of his jokes as he goes really fast. The series is call Zero Punctuation and the site is located here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation
There are tons of video reviews on this page. He’s quite snarky and the illustrations are pretty funny as well. It’s crude and certainly not for the younger people. However, if you need something to waste your time for an afternoon, this definitely fits the bill. Enjoy!
Genre: Platformer
Platform: PC
Titus the Fox was a platformer from way back in 1991. We had it on our Windows 3.1 computer when I was a kid and I think this was my sisters’ favorite. At least, I hope so, because when I tried to copy it for a friend and rendered the disk useless due to some copyright code, they almost killed me. Let’s discuss why.
Titus was a cute game and took place somewhere in the middle east where magic carpets are the norm. You play as the fox and are trying to get to the end of each level in search of your female counterpart. But she’s always in another castle somewhere else and you need to keep running through a gauntlet of baddies. If I recall, your primary mode of attack is picking things up and throwing them – including the bad guys. If you could approach them from behind, you could throw them. There was usually some sort of stacking puzzle in the level as well.
It was a fairly standard platformer, but the graphics were pretty good for a 1991 computer game running on 3.1. The soundtrack was cutesy as well. I can see why my younger sisters liked the game and I would like to formally apologize for destroying it. I’m glad you’ve grown up without too much mental scarring as a result of my technical ignorance.
There are a lot of rumors floating around about Nintendo’s next console, code-named NX. I normally don’t pay that much attention to Nintendo’s consoles since they went away from the more traditional console to the Wii. I did have one for a short time, but the motion controls just seemed gimmicky to me and I preferred to play more traditional games. I think motion can add a lot to a game, such as with the Kinect, but I don’t want to be forced to use it on every game I play. Kids seemed to eat it up, though.
Next came the Wii U, which was innovative, but has just flopped with consumers. It offered a tablet as a controller, which is a cool idea, but I guess the execution just wasn’t there. They are discontinuing this in November, which is a very short life for a console.
The reason that I’m keeping an eye on the development project is because it may mean the end of the DS era. The Nintendo DS was the second-best selling system right behind the Playstation 2. Nintendo has always owned the handheld market, and the 3DS hasn’t been a slouch, either. It has sold nearly 60 million units, which isn’t too shabby. The rumor mills are spouting a potential handheld and console rolled into one. It is also speculated that they will be going back to the cartridge format, which isn’t so crazy when you consider a tiny micro SD card can hold 256GB of data now, which is way more than necessary for a video game. I actually prefer cartridges myself, as they seem to last a lot longer than DVDs and are just more collectible.
Nintendo itself has not released much about the system, but has said it will be released early next year. I hope that they don’t completely discontinue the 3DS as it is a solid platform and the 3D is now really good with the New Nintendo 3DS. I’m sure I’ll post more as official details are released.
Genre: Sports
Platform: 3DS
I don’t really like golf. But I do seem to like golf video games for some reason. You probably can’t really call any game with Mario in the title “hidden”, but this one was off my radar for a while. I popped it in my 3DS one day before a several-hour flight and played for several hours.
The golf game itself is solid. It’s not too challenging and is easy to learn. There are subtleties which will make you a better player overall, but it’s not completely necessary to play the game well. The act of driving the ball is fun and you get rewarding graphics and sounds when you make a solid hit. Putting is a little tricky at first, but once you figure it out, you’re on your way to birdie after birdie. You will have to contend with environmental factors such as wind and your typical golf hazards.
While Mario is on the cover (as usual), you can play with any of the major Nintendo characters. I typically pick Luigi as he is always in Mario’s shadow and is a bit goofier than his famous brother. And I like green. (Have you ever noticed that it’s the Mario brothers, indicating Mario is their last name? So are they Mario Mario and Luigi Mario?) There are many different courses to play on and they increase in difficulty.
As you play through, you earn coins which you can spend in the pro-shop for better items such as clubs. Mario golf has been around since the NES days with a game simply titled “Golf”. He’s come a long way and has improved dramatically. If you like golf games, check this one out.
I’ve really been cleaning up on Tumblestone lately. I have sat atop four of the leaderboards. In addition, I’m in the top 10 of three more. This game is just a blast and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It really stretches my brain in different ways, and I think that is why it’s so much fun. If you have an XBone, check it out!
Genre: RPG
Platform: XBox 360, PS3, PC
I had no idea what Fallout 3 was about when I picked it up. The back cover looked interesting, so I decided to give it a shot. I played it that night starting around 7PM and was still playing when Matt got up the next morning at 7AM. I had no idea what time it was and didn’t really care. This game will suck you in and keep you engaged until someone makes you stop or you pass out, hopefully not at the same time.
The game has a neat tutorial and character creation process. You start as a child who was just born. You are allowed to pick what you are going to look like when you grow up, but the character creation process doesn’t matter much as you will rarely ever see your character throughout the game. As you grow through your childhood, you select more attributes that shape your character. It’s pretty creative and a bit more fun than other tutorials.
Once you complete that, the story starts and you find yourself outside of your home, which as been a nuclear-safe underground vault. You leave this comfy home and are out in the wasteland and sure enough, it has been ravaged by nuclear war. You’ve got radiation to worry about as well as a myriad of mutated creatures. Humanity is few and far between, but the people that you will meet need help. They will send you out on missions and you will find the rewards helpful. They also seem to be stuck in the 1950s.
Once again, this game makes my list mostly due to the engaging story. You are trying to find your surviving family, but you get wound up in a fairly deep controversy. This game gives you a lot of choices and they matter later in the game. If you help one guy destroy a city, you’re going to make some enemies.
I am typically not a fan of first-person shooters (FPS), but this game has a combat system that takes out a lot of the “twitch” aspect. It’s called VATS and allows you to target specific parts of your enemy. It’s very clever and made me look forward to battle instead of dreading it. I would call the game more of an RPG than FPS, however, as you level up and pick attributes to strengthen your character. There are so many options to choose from that you will likely never create the same character twice.
There is a lot to this game including a basic crafting system. There are things to collect (yay!) and it is just a lot of fun. It’s also an open-world game, meaning that you can go and do what you want when you want. The game doesn’t force you down a certain path, although I do recommend playing through the main story. I’m including Fallout 3 New Vegas as well as all expansions in this Top 25 as they are all fun and add to this game. New Vegas is its own stand-alone game, but it runs off of this same engine. Look for a post on Fallout 4 later on.
The graphics in this game are great, the soundtrack is awesome and the sound effects add to the game. You will be singing music from the 50’s for a long time after playing this one. The controls are great and everything about this game feels innovative. This is by the same company that makes the Elder Scrolls series and I’ve been told it just feels like an apocalyptic version of that, but I think it feels different enough. I strongly recommend that you play this one.
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