TOMB RAIDER

When Crystal Dynamics announced that they would be rebooting the Tomb Raider series, it came with mixed reception.  Some fans were disappointed, as there has been a glut of overhyped "reboots" in recent years.  Others were glad to see the slate wiped clean, as Lara Croft's adventures had gotten pretty terrible in recent years (Angel Of Darkness, anyone?).  So with the team rebuilding everything from the ground up, how does this new game stand up as an origin story for one of the most iconic video game characters in history?


Pretty damn well.  

LIFE HAPPENS

There will be no Game-A-Week update this week.  Some major events have happened in my household this past weekend, completely shaking up my life and the lives of those I live with, in a terrible way.  I am not at liberty to explain what happened, but just know we'll pull through it and come out okay.  I'll be back to my cranky old gaming self in no time, I just have to heal from this.

So in the meantime, I need a week off.  From the site, the youtube channel, etc.  I might say something here or there on the facebook or twitter, but right now gaming is the last thing on my mind.  I will be back soon, I promise; I'm not going to leave my readers hanging.  I just need a little time.

Thanks folks, for reading and being here.  You guys are awesome.

GIMME ANOTHER DAY

Hey kids, just wanna let you all know I WAS going to post a review of the new Tomb Raider game today, but as I started into it, I realized I'd kind of actually like to finish the game first.  I'm nearing the end, and given that the spirit of the game is, first and foremost, a character arc for Lara, I want to complete that arc before I make any judgements. 

Stay tuned!

GAME-A-WEEK - MAGICKA

There are a lot of games out there with small yet dedicated fanbases.  Magicka, a wacky Swedish fantasy title from Paradox Interactive, hit with a splash in 2011 and has developed a cult following due to its never-ending litany of pop culture jokes, off-the-wall multiplayer, and a constant stream of DLC rivaled only by tower defense game, Dungeon Defenders.  After eyeing it for a long time, I finally decided to sit down and see what the fans were talking about.

THE ONE

Well, it's here...sort of.  Tuesday morning, Microsoft unveiled its next-gen console and successor to the XBox 360, called stupidly simply the "XBox One".  Unless you've been living under a rock (or aren't a gamer), you've probably already heard the criticisms laid against it, and heard the fan outcry.  Yeah, I honestly can't say as I feel a whole lot different.  But as a gaming blogger, I guess I'm kind of obligated to say something about it, right?

GAME-A-WEEK - METRO 2033

With last week's release of Metro: Last Light, I figured it was high time that I go back and play the original game, Metro 2033.  A bleak, dark survival horror FPS set primarily in the metro tunnels of post-nuclear Moscow, Metro 2033 is based on a series of novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky.  Reminiscent of both S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout 3, I wanted to see if the original would capture my attention enough to warrant checking out the sequel.

REVIEW - FAR CRY 3: BLOOD DRAGON

The year is 2007...the not-so-distant future.  After we nuked Canada and invaded Australia, a former soldier gone rogue has seized control of a remote island and is threatening the world with weapons of mass destruction.  You are Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt, a Mark IV cyborg supersoldier and hero of the Vietnam War II.  Together with your hacker buddy Spider, you must stop Colonel Sloan and his cyborg Omega Force soldiers, liberate the nerds scientists, and save the world...AND AMERICA.

(Warning...this review, like this game, has a lot of profanity in it.  But in a good way...)

GAME-A-WEEK - X3: TERRAN CONFLICT (PART ONE)

Sometimes we dive into something without looking, and we end up in over our heads.  The only thing that I knew about the X³ series was that they were in-depth space simulators, and that they had a small but rabid, passionate fan base. I had no idea how deep that rabbit hole went.  And so I'm going to have to do multiple reviews for this game; one preliminary first impressions, and one once I've explored more and really gotten a handle on the mechanics.

Let's take a look, shall we?

SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T GO BACK

I've cited Just Cause 2 as one of my absolute favorite dumb fun sandbox games, great for when you just want to bang around, blow stuff up, and have silly, wacky fun.  It's more serious than Saints Row, more open and free for destruction than GTA, and graphically one of the more beautiful games out there.  Sure, the voice acting may be legendarily bad, and the plot is a thin veneer that just gives a half-assed reason to blow shit up, but that's all insignificant.  I own Just Cause 2 on PC, PS3, and XBox 360, and have hundreds of hours clocked in between the three.

And yet, I'd never played the original.  When the first Just Cause went on sale on Steam this week for $1.75, I figured it was high time I explored this series' roots.   This isn't a review by any stretch, just a slightly baffling comparison, as I sit here and wonder how something so awesome came out of something so...not awesome.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 5/07/13

With yesterday's announcement of Plants Vs Zombies 2 from Popcap, I HAD to....    Enjoy!

NO GAME THIS WEEK

Sorry guys, it's been a really long week here in the Cranky Household.  I'm juggling work, looking for new work, household responsibilities, the YouTube channel, this blog, the twitter, and trying to have a personal life in there as well.  I've cranked out a few YouTube videos when I've had time, but I just have not had time to dedicate myself to a brand new Game-a-Week.  Only thing new I played was a couple hours of Brütal Legend, and not nearly enough to give it a full in-depth review.  

For the record, I AM still accepting requests!   Along the right-hand sidebar is my List of Unplayed Games.  That's what Game-A-Week comes from, if you're new to the site.  I had a giant pile of games I'd bought but never played, and GAW is an excuse to chew through them and play them.  If you read this blog and see something on the list you'd like me to play and review?   You can always email me at TheCrankyOldGamer@gmail.com with your picks from the list!

MY DISAPPOINTMENT WITH DOUBLE FINE

So the more I play of their games, the more I'm starting to rethink my opinion on Double Fine.  I have always considered their logo to be the mark of absolute, unerring quality.  I recently played and reviewed Costume Quest, and now I'm getting around to playing Brutal Legend.  Psychonauts is easily in my top ten list of my favorite games of all time.  I have played the first couple hours of The Cave, and I've played the entire demo for Stacking.  As I pull back and look at the bigger picture, I'm noticing a single thread of a trend that goes through all of them.  These are some of the most brilliantly conceived, creative, imaginative, clever, witty games I've ever played....but none of them are very fun to play.

GAME-A-WEEK - COSTUME QUEST

This week I finally get around to playing Double Fine Production's cute Halloween-themed game, Costume Quest.  When monsters come out to steal the neighborhood's candy and kidnap your sibling, it's up to you and a few new friends to don your costumes and save the day!

VIDEO: LET'S PLAY PATH OF EXILE - PART ONE

I am going to start posting some of my youtube videos on here, I think.  What I'll do is post specific videos, like my Indie Spotlight series I'm going to be making, and any Part One of a Let's Play series, but I won't post every single LP video as I put them out. 

So here's Path Of Exile Part One!  It's recorded in HD, so if you want to fullscreen it, you can.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 4/23/13

This was one of my favorite little moments in Bioshock Infinite.  It was very easy to pass right by it, but if you stop and listen...this is a gorgeous gospel rendition of Credence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son".

GAME-A-WEEK - BINARY DOMAIN

Sega's 2012 third-person shooter, Binary Domain, was sort of slipped into the gaming domain quietly as a sleeper title.  Featuring a science fiction plot and philosophical themes, the game boasted an intriguing blend of thought-provoking story and original, immersive functions in its gameplay.  However, sluggish sales quickly relegated this one to the bargain bins of many game stores.  So was this to be another lost cause, or a hidden gem?

EXTRA LIFE CHARITY MARATHON - GIVING BACK TO THE WORLD

In my 30-something years of life, I've played a lot of video games.  They've brought me a lot of joy and happiness, inspired me, let me visit exciting and fantastical worlds, told me amazing stories, and allowed me to vicariously live exciting lives.  It's given me a lot.  However, I've never really known how I could give back with gaming, until now.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 4/16/13

Whoops!  Little late on this.  Long story.  Anyway this kid made a surprisingly awesome medley of gaming music throughout the years, using the Mario Paint composer.  It's really neatly done! 

GAME-A-WEEK - HOME

Home.  A tiny one-man indie game that bills itself as a "unique horror adventure".  Well, I love horror, and I love indie games, and it's better to be unique than be just another cheap knockoff, right?   Sounds good to me...I think?

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - THE WALKING DEAD COMICS

Okay, I'll admit this one's kind of a cheat.  My X-Media reviews were intended to be alternate media based on video games, not the media that video games are based on.  But I have very recently begun to play Telltale's Walking Dead game, and with all of the accolades and GOTY awards being hurled at the series, I feel that it's important to reflect on the source material to see where the game is coming from.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 4/09/13

Why?  Because I'm a sadistic bastard, that's why.

GAME-A-WEEK - THE MAW

Originally released on XBox Live Arcade in 2009, The Maw is a cute little cartoony action/puzzle game.  You play as Frank, an adorable alien captured by...er...other aliens and thrown into a menagerie of exotic species.  When the ship crashes onto an unknown planet, Frank must team up with a little one-eyed purple blob with a huge appetite named The Maw in order to escape.

THE ENDING

WARNING:

BIOSHOCK INFINITE 

ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD

“There's always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city.”

FAREWELL, OLD FRIEND

There will be no X-Media Wednesday post today, for I am in mourning.  This morning, an old beloved friend of mine was murdered by a rat.  Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013, Disney officially shut down LucasArts.  All current projects have been cancelled, including Star Wars 1313, which many people were greatly anticipating, as well as Star Wars: First Assault, which was meant to be a sort of precursor to Battlefront 3.  

Today is a black day in gaming.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 4/2/13

Today's Game Music Of The Week is one of those weird little songs that no one knows the lyrics to (there's actually heated debates as to whether it's even sung in a real language, or just nonsense), yet manages to get stuck in my head a lot.  It was actually a challenge, picking one track from Beyond Good & Evil, because the game has one of my favorite gaming soundtracks ever.  It's just so weird and wild and atmospheric.  Doesn't hurt that it's one of my favorite games of all time.

CLUSTERFUCK

Yeah, I got nothin today.  But if you click here, there is a cheap-assed excuse, and a picture of my kitty eating a grape freezer pop!

Read on, o ye faithful!

BIOSHOCK INFINITE

Sorry folks.  There was no Game Music Of The Week yesterday, nor will there be an X-Media Review this week.  Why?  Because one of my two most anticipated games of the year was released at midnight on March 26th (the other, GTA V, comes out in the fall), and it took priority over everything.  Like a man obsessed, I beat the game in two sittings, and while I'm still digesting it all, I think I'm ready to give my thoughts on it.

GAME-A-WEEK - DREAMKILLER

This week, I decided to take a look at a surreal indie first-person shooter, Dreamkiller.  Trailers for this one really caught my eye, and I really liked the concept of delving into people's dreams and combating their fears and nightmares on an ever-changing hypnagogic battlefield, inspired by each patient's individual phobias.  I just thought it was strange that I'd never really heard anything about it before...

PLANET EXPLORERS KICKSTARTER IS LIVE!

That's right folks, the Planet Explorers kickstarter is live as of today!   This is an absolutely incredible game that I've been playing for a few weeks now.  It's a huge open world voxel-based sci-fi action, crafting, building, exploring and everything under the sun kind of game.  Go check out their kickstarter for more information!

Planet Explorers Kickstarter

EDITORIAL - BIOSHOCK PRSD: POST-RAPTURE STRESS DISORDER

There are not many games that I claim to be a fanboy for.  I mean sure, there are plenty of games that I love and adore, but only some really strike that nerve that electrifies me.  Bioshock is one of those few, special games.  However, Bioshock 2 is quite possibly the greatest gaming disappointment I've ever experienced in my life.  And so with Bioshock: Infinite less than a week away, my excitement is reaching a fever pitch... but my fear and apprehension are lurking close by.

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - RATCHET & CLANK COMICS #1-6

It's been a long week here in the Cranky household, with car troubles, job interviews, and games to catch up on.  So for this week's X-Media Wednesday, I needed something light, something fun.  And so I turned to comics.  Specifically, comics based around one of my favorite action platforming series from the PS2 era, Ratchet & Clank.  I have loved almost all of the games (we don't like to talk about All4One around here...), so how did the comics measure up?

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 3/19/12

In honor of my friend Kaylei Bristol's birthday yesterday, I asked her what her favorite Mega Man (her favorite series) music track was.  This was what she picked, after much deliberation.   Happy birthday Kaylei!

GAME-A-WEEK - SIMCITY 4

In the wake of EA's huge debacle with the newest SimCity game, I thought it'd be a good idea to boot up the last official iteration (we're not counting SimCity Societies), which was 2003's SimCity 4.  For all of the complaints about the new game's always-on DRM, awful server issues, and small build areas, I thought it would be refreshing to go back and see where the series peaked.  In doing so, I learned one very valuable lesson:

I am fucking terrible at these games.  

REVIEW - SONIC & ALL-STARS RACING TRANSFORMED

I've never liked racing games, as a whole.  I enjoyed F-Zero on the SNES as a kid, but beyond that they've never had much appeal to me.  I had more disdain for the cutesy mascot kart racing games, like Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing.  So needless to say, when I played the original Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, I was shocked.  For some inexplicable reason, I loved it.  Loved.  I had so much fun with this silly little kart racer.  So when the sequel, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, came out, I KNEW I had to get my hands on it.

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - SILENT HILL: REVELATION

This week, I sat down and watched Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (though confession: I did not watch it in 3D).   I have been a fan of the early Silent Hill games since the first game, and I actually thought the first film was halfway decent.  It missed the mark in a lot of ways, but it managed to hit a lot of the right notes.  From the trailers, I had high hopes for Revelation, but the early reviews were not kind at all.  Still, I felt that I should formulate my opinion on it, and so I gave it a watch.

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK - 3/12/13

Today's game music of the week comes from one of my favorite brutally hard indie games, The Binding Of Isaac. This is generally considered the theme of the game, and it's a big part of why I fell in love with it.  This music really sets the dark, disturbing tone of what's to come.

GAME-A-WEEK - SLEEPING DOGS

See?  Not ALL of the games I review are indie games, or older games from several years ago!  Today we have an actual AAA title that is less than 6 months old.  And a damn good one too!

I DIDN'T FORGET THE FRIDAY VIDEO!

I know I said I'd be doing a video on Fridays, and I haven't forgotten!  I've just been doing several videos.  I've fallen madly in love with Planet Explorers, the indie game that I did a video highlight of earlier this week, so in order to drum up some awareness, I've elected to do a Let's Play of the game.  I'm up to Part 3 as of this writing, and I'm not stopping anytime soon!

BREAKING FREE OF THE CONSOLE WARS

Since the dawn of home console video games, there has always been war.  Bitter rivals competing head to head for your living room space.  There were minor skirmishes early on, with Atari vs Commodore, and the NES stomped the Sega Master System into the ground.  The first real war erupted when the Super Nintendo went head-to-head with the Sega Genesis, and it was bloody.  Lines were drawn.  Friendships destroyed.  Controllers broken.  Blast processing overhyped.  In the end, the Genesis held on and fought the good fight, but the SNES eventually won.  Since then, every generation has had its console wars.  The past few years have mostly seen Sony and Microsoft in an embittered Cold War, with Nintendo ineffectually waggling its sticks around at them, menacingly. 

The problem is that we as gamers and consumers never really had options.  A console is a long term investment, a heavy chunk of change that would last you 5-7 years.  You could pick a side and become a raving fanboy (or girl), you could save up your money and buy multiple consoles, or you could just opt out, build a gaming rig, and become a PC gamer.  Either way, there was nothing in between.  There were very few alternatives to the mainstream, and those we had either flopped pathetically, or just became short-lived beloved oddities (We love you and miss you, Sega Dreamcast).  Even these oddities were an expensive investment.  We never had anything cheaper, smaller, or more convenient. 

Until now.   

GAME MUSIC OF THE WEEK (A LITTLE LATE)

Also, since it completely slipped my mind to post it yesterday, here's the Game Music Of The Week.  This song comes to us from the game Dishonored, and the song is freakin' amazing.  This song in the original trailer is what completely sold me on the game, more than even the gameplay itself.  It is haunting, powerful, and creepy.   Enjoy!

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - RAPTURE, BY JOHN SHIRLEY

It's no secret that Bioshock is one of my favorite games in the past decade.  Everything about the world of Rapture and the way it was slowly fed to us over the course of the game reeled me in.  But those who have played Bioshock know that the game takes place after the fall of Rapture.  We're handed small glimpses of what happened in the form of small audio diaries of the people that founded the underwater city, the people that lived through the fall.  But a lot of us have always wanted to actually see what happened, witness the fall of Rapture ourselves.  And that's what this novel is about: the rise and fall of Rapture, and that of Andrew Ryan.

GAME-A-WEEK - TOWNS

Have you ever played a game where you think to yourself, "Fuck I hate this game! Wait...why have I been hating this game for eight hours now and still can't put it down...?"

DOWNLOADABLE CRAP: MY TOP 5 DLC PICKS

My ass has a combover.

Downloadable content has had an interesting journey over the past couple of years.  It's taken for granted now; games are expected to have DLC.  Just a game alone isn't good enough for today's consumer!   But while add-ons and expansion packs have been around on PC for a long time, the ability to download and add on new material for a console game is actually fairly new.  It has been pretty much exclusive to the 7th generation of gaming.   Some companies have tried everything they could think of to get those couple extra dollars out of your wallet, while others genuinely added to and refined the experience.

NEW FEATURES AND AN ATTEMPT AT A SCHEDULE

So, welcome to the end of February.  So far, the Game-A-Week posts seem to be doing well, but I notice that I've made a habit out of only posting that throughout the week.  I want to post more, offer more content. Frankly, I'm still kinda balancing this blog, the Youtube channel, and the Twitter, and realizing just how much work is involved here.   But I want to keep putting out things for people to read and enjoy, so I'm introducing a few new features and some modicum of a schedule.  

Feedback is not just encouraged, it's practically begged for here.   Let's take a look!  

GAME-A-WEEK - SYSTEM SHOCK 2

Okay so, I kind of cheated.  This one is NOT on the List Of Unplayed Games like the GAW reviews are supposed to be.  However I have been dying to play this game for years, and it's finally been released in a playable build on GOG.com, so I couldn't resist. 

THE CRANKY OLD GAMER GETS CRANKY

I made a new video.  It's probably going to piss some people off.  I'm okay with that.

Enjoy!

LIVETWEETING THE BIG SONY ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey kids!   Uncle Cranky here.   In case you haven't heard, Sony has been hyping up a BIG press release for Feb 20th.   Well hey what a coincidence!  That's today!  General consensus is that this will be the official reveal of the Playstation 4.  Sony obviously hasn't confirmed this, but they've stayed quiet with a silent, implied wink-and-nod.* 

So if you follow my site, here's what is going to happen.   I'm gonna find me a stream of the video.   I know our friends over at Attack Initiative will be hosting a stream, or you can find a portal of your choice. Once you've found a stream, and I've found a stream, I will be hosting a livetweet of my thoughts as the conference goes on.   So if you HAVEN'T followed me on twitter, now is the time to do so!

https://twitter.com/CrankyOldGamerX

The big conference begins at 6pm EST!   See you there!




*- Of course, this COULD be like the Nintendo press conference a couple of years ago, when people thought they were going to announce the Wii U, and instead they revealed a couple of games no one cared about.   But we don't think so.

GAME-A-WEEK - DEAD ISLAND: THE RYDER WHITE DLC

I deliberately skipped Dead Island's "Bloodbath Arena" DLC, because I loathe arena gameplay.  But when the Ryder White DLC came out for Dead Island, giving players a chance to view the game's events through the villain's eyes, my interest was piqued.  I never found White to be very compelling or threatening as the sort of power-mad military antagonist, but I hoped maybe this would shine some light on his character, and give me an excuse to drop back into the zombie-plagued island of Banoi.

And yes, I realize last week I said I'm sick to death of zombies, and yet am doing two zombie games in a row.  Suck it.

GAME-A-WEEK - CONTAINMENT: THE ZOMBIE PUZZLER

Zombies.   Puzzle games.  If I had to pick the two genres least likely to mesh together, I think those might be it.  I've never played Tetris and thought about the undead horde.  Bejeweled never made me think the green gems might eat my brains.   However, apparently someone at Bootsnake Games thought it could be done, and set out to make it a reality.  So, do these genres band together for survival, or does this game need a headshot to put it down?   This week, I sat down to find out.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - DANCE OFF!

As I stated in my Game-A-Week review, the animations for the dancers in The Asylum, the goth club featured in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlust, were fairly accurate.  The girls danced like a lot of actual goth girls in real goth clubs.   Except for one guy...

So I had to throw this video together.

GAME-A-WEEK - VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - BLOODLINES

I'm not just cranky.  I'm also old and, as you may have deduced, I'm a gamer.  But what you may not know is that it hasn't always been just video games.  All through high school and into my early 20s, I was an avid pen-and-paper gamer.  I did some D&D here, a little Shadowrun there, even experimented with GURPS and Palladium games.

My heart, however, belonged to White Wolf.  Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, and occasionally even Changeling: The Dreaming.  These were my gaming bread and butter.  My purple Crown Royal bag overfloweth with 10-sided dice.  With all of the hours spent poring over sourcebooks and character sheets, I always wondered, how would our adventures in the World Of Darkness translate to a PC game?

ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES OF ALL TIME

I have to share this two-part video with you all.  As you know, I'm pretty fond of hearing myself talk, but this guy...this guy says everything I could possibly say and more.  I've loved this video for a long time now, and share it with friends often.  This game is one of my most beloved and cherished games, because it's so amazingly bad, but still manages to be some of the most fun I've had playing a video game. 

Once again, not my video...but that of someone who is of like minds with me on this game (Part 2 of the video after the break).

A SHOUT-OUT FOR ONE OF MY FAVORITE RESOURCES

Just a quickie post here, making a shout out to one of my favorite resource sites out there.  A lot of you know that about 80% of my gaming is on the PC, and one of those reasons is because PC gaming is so ridiculously cheap.  Online retailers like Steam, GreenManGaming, Amazon, GameFly, etc. have ridiculous sales all the time. 

CheapShark is the best way to keep an eye on all of these sales.  They do the scouring for you, posting the top sales of nine of the biggest online PC games retailers out there, so you don't have to go hunting or miss out on a great sale. 

GAME-A-WEEK - RECETTEAR, AN ITEM SHOP'S TALE

So, after the relentless brutality and unsettling violence of last week's Hotline Miami review, I decided to play something a little lighter and fluffier.  I chose Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale.

What the fuck was I thinking?

NPC AI, AN OFT-OVERLOOKED DETAIL

For the past week, I haven't so much been "playing" Far Cry 3, as much as "rabidly devouring".   I have barely touched the main questline, but I've already crafted everything possible, found over 60% of the collectables, done most of the side missions, and unlocked most of the map.  It's a freakin' great game, and I'd be lying if I said otherwise.   However, it has a lot of glaring flaws that I think almost stand out even more because the rest of the game is so well-crafted.  One flaw in particular has actually become something of a fatal flaw for a lot of modern video games, in my book.

The AI and dialogue for non-combat NPCs is dumb as shit.

GAME-A-WEEK - HOTLINE MIAMI

This week, I will be taking a look at one of the more controversial titles out there right now, Hotline Miami.  It's a hyper-violent action game that the creators proudly admit is heavily inspired by the movie Drive.  The game is being called a "murder simulator" by critics.  I have to admit, I wasn't really interested in playing this game, as much as I was curious to see what all the hype was about.

THE CRANKY OLD GAMER EPISODE 2 - 10000000

Hey kids, it's your ol' Uncle Cranky here with a new video for the Youtube channel! This week I am giving you a brief overview of a new indie title on Steam (also available on iTunes for Apple devices), called 10000000.

Fair warning, I've also started fiddling around with Windows Movie Maker, so enjoy some "professional" video effects at the beginning! Having header art and a logo gave me a taste, and now I'm hooked on making things look neater. Next thing you know, I'll actually have THEME MUSIC! Maybe. Someday.

Anyway, enjoy!

EDIT:   I stand corrected. In this review, I stated "I don't know that I would really play this much on the PC".   I was wrong.  I was so very, very wrong.  This game is like fucking heroin, and I have been completely unable to put it down all week.  I bought it on my iPhone and play it at work, or while I'm on the couch watching a movie.  It's addictive as hell, and I've absolutely fallen in love with it.

GAME-A-WEEK - KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING

When it was announced that Big Huge Games and 38 Studios were pairing together bestselling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore and toy designer and Spawn comics creator Todd McFarlane to make an epic fantasy RPG, the buzz was huge.  But a turbulent dev cycle, a massive change in scope from a MMO to a single player experience, and the hugely publicized collapse of Studo 38 after the game's release have put a pall over the game's reputation.  But once you push those factors away, how does Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning stand on its own merits?

GAME-A-WEEK - BULLETSTORM

This week I had the joy of kicking off the new year with a new game, selected by one of my readers.  She chose Bulletstorm, the controversial hyper-violent sci-fi shooter from Epic Games and People Can Fly.  I have to admit, I had my reservations on this one; reviews were not kind to it when it came out in 2011.  I mean really, how many dick jokes can you make in one game?  So after a week of playing through, how was it?

THE CRANKY OLD GAMER: NOW WITH VIDEO!

It's official, I now have a youtube channel to complement the blog.  I'm still experimenting with recording, editing, and compressing videos right now, but I have a first video up and running.   It's not the most exciting video on its own, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Check it out, subscribe, and I'll keep working on putting up videos!

R.I.P., THQ

For those who haven't read yet, once-massive game company THQ has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and been delisted from the NASDAQ.  While they may not be dead yet, this is essentially like saying "The doctors have pulled the plug, now we're just waiting for nature to take its course."   Now this great lumbering beast that has been churning out games since 1990 is breathing its last breath.


I'll kinda miss em.   I guess.  A little.

AND SO IT BEGINS

Just a quickie update here.  Kaylei Bristol, writer/reviewer for Attack Initiative and a very dear friend of mine, has picked the first game for me to play and review from the list. 

She has chosen Bulletstorm.  Or as she so eloquently phrased it, "You need the game with all the dick jokes in the world to be your next game."

I'm already two or three hours into the campaign, got some piping hot screenshots ready, and am forming my opinions.  Tune in Monday for the first review of 2013!