Category: Gaming

The Sega Dreamcast – a beloved piece of gaming history. It was ill fated from the beginning, unfortunately. Several games were rushed to meet the launch of the console itself, and because of that, were found to have glitches. Mostly, the games from Midway in particular. This included games like Ready 2 Rumble, Mortal Kombat Gold, NFL Blitz, and Hydro Thunder.

The “HOT NEW” edition typically included bug fixes, but there are rumors that they also included feature enhancements Continue reading “Why are there “HOT NEW” stickers on some Dreamcast games?”

Last week, an absurdly, painfully gorgeous trailer for the upcoming game Star Wars: Battlefront was released to the internet. If you haven’t seen it, view it here before continuing to read:

So then, everybody said “oh man, this game looks awesome!” The beginning of the trailer even states that this is in-engine footage. Here’s what we learned: the Frostbite engine is powerful and beautiful. What we should learn from watching this trailer? The game isn’t going to be that nice.

The trailer shows what the engine is capable of, it does not show what the game is going to look like when we play it. This is only different from the old days of showing high-res cutscenes in commercials for games, only to have the game look far worse, in that these videos are being rendered in the same engine that the game will use. But these probably are not the same models, textures, animations, etc… that will be used in game. It is a joy to watch this trailer and see how movie-esque it is, but unfortunately, it’s just not going to look that good once you’re the one in control of the characters.

The Backorder was a feature I started in 2009. It was a way for me to declutter my list of games I need to play. For the last three years, I have been playing fewer and fewer “contemporary” games. For the last 18 months or so, I have been “in transition” – the majority of my possessions in boxes. I recently had the terrifying yet fulfilling experience of purchasing a home of my own. I’ll be paying on it for many years, but unboxing and settings things up, pulling out sealed game after sealed game the I still need to play – it’s lit another fire. The backorder list is HUGE, but I’ll be making my way through it sooner, rather than later. Not only contemporary games, but other gems I have picked up in the last few years and just tucked away, or PC games I’ve picked up on digital sales.

My back order list is as follows:

1. Gears of War Judgment – Xbox 360
2. Portal 2 – Steam
3. New Super Luigi U – Wii U
4. Spider-Man – Atari 2600
5. Uncharted 3 – Playstation 3
6. 7th Guest – Steam
7. 11th Hour – Steam
8. The Walking Dead (Telltale) Season 1 – 400 days – Xbox 360
9. The Walking Dead (Telltale) Season 2 – Xbox 360
10. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze – Wii U
11. Halo 2600 – Atari 2600
12. Bioshock Infinite – Steam
13. Wario Land – Virtual Boy
14. Grand Theft Auto V – Xbox 360
15. Perfect Dark – Nintendo 64
16. Castle in the Darkness – Steam

Not to mention all of the Xbox 360 GAMES WITH GOLD promotional downloads that came out in the last year or so, or other games that I would be interested in catching up on like The Witcher series of games. On top of that, the plans I have are finally moving forward for more content coming soon! But first, I’m going to POWER through these games as quickly as possible!

Below is the announcement, in full, from Nintendo of America, Inc. regarding the closure of Club Nintendo.  In short, you can still add coins to your account until March 31st, and you can purchase items from Club Nintendo by redeeming those coins until June 30th.  On July 1st, 2015, all coins will be deleted and products no longer available.  I have redeemed coins for a couple of small items over the years, and Nintendo has made available some new posters and cool 3DS XL Pouches, as well as new downloadable games and DLC, to help people use up their remaining coin balance.  The rest of this post contains the official Nintendo of America announcement:
Continue reading “Club Nintendo announces closure details – last days to redeem points!”