Gears of War: Judgement (XBox 360) Review

I knew this day would come. When you have an Xbox LIVE Gold account, you get "free games" once a month. (This is not the place to argue if the game is free or not since you have to pay for the account, so for the sake of argument, roll with it.) Unlike the games for Xbox One X and up, when your account expires, the 360 titles remain available to you, both to play and download at a later date, so I made a point to collect some here and there. This was one of those games. I knew it had a reputation as being one of the lesser games in the franchise, but at the time, I did not have any other in the series, nor was I willing to buy any of them. (Again a discussion for another time.) YEARS later the dice picked this one, as I knew they would one day. I had hoped, however, it would at least be an interesting, if not particularly good experience.... I was so wrong.

Quantum Break (PC) Review

This is not a game I was ever going to buy on my own. It looked interesting, sure, but between tech issues as a game written in Microsoft's UWP platform and a single player game that demanded you use the network to stream videos, I was pretty soured on actually spending money on it. And while things did improve with the game moving to Steam, I still wasn't about to buy it without a huge discount. And thanks to Humble Bundle, I didn't have to. Now as I finish up, I'm glad the game just about literally fell into my lap. I would have missed out on one hell of an adventure.

Phantasy Star Online 2 (PC) Review

Another game that has been a long time coming. In this case, however, the control of that time was not exactly in my hands. About eight and a half years ago, Phantasy Star Online 2 launched in Japan. Originally for PC, Sega promised it's Western audience the game was coming our way as well. We waited as it made its way to the Sony Playstation systems and even the Nintendo Switch, but only in Japan.

Some grew impatient and hacked their way in. In fact there is a fan-made launcher which will download, patch the translations in, and let English players play the Eastern version of the game that was made out of this need to play. But I held off. After all, I had plenty of other games to play that didn't require such measures. Still, that did not mean I had given up all hope, at least at first. But I couldn't have been happier when the game finally showed up at E3 in 2019. Now what was once just a pipe dream was finally making it's way over, and when it became available in May of 2020 on PC, I was playing literally day 1.

Now almost a year later and with just shy of 200 hours under my belt, Im hanging up my mouse on this game. And while I am annoyed with Microsoft for milking the end of the game's story (it's been done for a few years already in Japan, so releasing maybe an hour of content a month is kinda dumb), I also walked away happy with the game in total. I had a great time in general, playing tons of general content, all the story available at the time I started writing, and having seen the absolute end of the game. It's just a good time to move on.

Alan Wake (PC) Review

 

I remember when this game was announced. Originally, it was supposed to be a PC game Remedy was making, but it wasn't long before Microsoft partnered with them, announcing it was coming out for the Xbox 360 as well, until finally it had migrated to being a 360 exclusive and released in 2010. It would arrive as a port on PC a few years later. By this time excitement for the game had come and gone, including my own, but my interest was still there to an extent. As such, it became another game to add to the backlog on a sale over the years. But now it has finally become time for the writer's story to shine. But did it? Well, kinda... but it's not that simple.

Windows 1.11 (Stranger Things) (PC) Review

I don't think I'm doing anything more then stating the obvious, but Stranger Things is an AWESOME series. When it was only going to be a single season show, that season came in with a bang and is arguably one of the best released on Netflix ever. So of course, they bought a few more to be produced. And this year, we got season 3.

But this time, we got more then just a show. Rather, two video games came out along side it, promising more insight and fun for the fans. The big game released is, like the season itself, named simply Stranger Things 3, which is basically available for all major gaming platforms. And I do plan on getting to this myself.

However, today we are looking at the "other" game. This one is a PC exclusive which Microsoft only hinted at as a simulator for their original launch of Windows and dropping it for free when the show aired. I could not resist this small detour.

Xbox LIVE Arcade Compilation (Xbox One) Review

There are two lessons to be taken from this experience. First and foremost is to make sure when you buy a game it’s what you want. When I picked this disc up at a local Gamestop several years ago, I was hunting for the collection that Super Contra was on. The game had been removed from XBL so that would be the only way to get the only home version this close to arcade-perfect. Needless to say, I picked the wrong disc.

The second lesson comes in the price of the game. While it now sells for about $5 on the Gamestop website, I picked it up for a mere $.99! Not sure if the game I wanted, I was more then willing to take the chance. Lesson number 2: you get what you pay for.

Now, since this is another collection disc that I had planned to use with my (then fully working) Xbox 360, I had decided to treat this collection as one big review. Each game is listed and linked separately below:

• Feeding Frenzy
• Boom Boom Rocket
• Luxor 2
• Pac Man Championship Edition
• Uno
• Bugs
• Overall

Windows 10 Store is WORSE the GFWL: A Gaming Rant

Gabe Newell warned us about this. Back in 2012, the man behind Steam warned us all that the new format (now evolved into the Universal Windows Platform or UWP) was nothing but harmful to anyone writing software for Windows.

Halo Master Chief Collection (Xbox One) Review

I can not say the Xbox One has been a great experience for me so far. At this time, I have bought two games for it total. The first was Destiny, which if you have read my review of that, you know I was not exactly thrilled with it. Still, I bought this machine to play with my brothers, and they immediately began getting excited about another game coming out, or rather four older games coming out together. Together, we pre-ordered Halo: Master Chief Collection.

We tried to play it day one, but as anyone who either has the game or looks at gaming sites knows, it did not launch in a respectable form. Any kind of multiplayer was fucked up beyond being playable, co-op or vs. And while Co-op seemed to work to some degree in a few weeks, it took about a month for vs gameplay to be worth anything. I would honestly argue this is the single worst launch I have ever seen, and I was one of the day-one purchasers of SimCity 2013. But things are finally starting to settle and it seems like the multiplayer is finally working well enough to use from time to time, so it was time to pop the disc in and play!

Far Cry 4: The Disappearing Game

Wow, Ubisoft just can not catch a break, can they? Yesterday, reports were coming in to Ubisoft and Microsoft that Far Cry 4 was no longer available on Xbox LIVE as a download. Not only that, but anyone who had bought the game got a message asking if they own the game when they tried to run it. I can only imagine the frustration when a game you spent $60 on refuses to work anymore, and in fact behaves like you didn’t even buy it to begin with, but that is the issue they saw.

Shadow Complex (Xbox 360) Review

I have a confession to make. While I have made a point to get pretty much every system in the previous generation, there was one machine I never tried to get. I started with a PC and due to how different it played to anything I could get for it, my next machine was a Wii. Finally, the PS3 managed to build up enough of a library I was interested in that I couldn’t get on what I had already to make it worth picking up. But, despite having one of the controllers for it on my PC, I never found myself picking up a 360. It’s library was too close to the PC for me to give it much of a look, but it did have one game that I wanted to play. So when my brother moved out to his own place and left his 360 here, I decided I was going to get Shadow Complex for it. Now, as I finish it, I’m glad it didn’t spend the cash on the system, for I could not imagine this game being a system seller. But at the same time, I am glad I finally got the chance to play through what is ultimately a very good game on it’s own.

Crimson Dragon (Xbox One) Review

An Xbox One review from Joe’s Xbox Name:

Xbox exclusive and next gen launch title, Crimson Dragon casts players as a mystical dragon rider. Aided by your airborne reptile companion, your job is to blast everything and anything on sight as you progress through an eight to ten hour campaign alone or paired up with a wingman (Either an NPC of your choice or a buddy.) But does this game soar or never leave the runway?

Beaten Back: Microsoft Changing XBL Gold (mostly) for the Better

What the hell was that plopping noise? Why the hell did pig shit just drop from the sky? Do I really want to look up and risk the pig dropping another one? Well cause and effect time and the fact that this pig is flying can be shown in moves Microsoft is making. Incidentally, apparently it has become hockey season in Hell.

Well That Could Have Gone Better, Eh Machinima?

The news has been buzzing around for a day or so now, and bringing it up here will likely get me called some kind of fanboy, but… we really should talk about it, as it brings into question the value of anyone you don’t know’s word rather directly. So here we go. It appears that over the past few weeks, Microsoft and Machinima have had a backdoor deal in which the big Ms were paying off youtube channels to promote the Xbox One. Now this in itself wasn’t that big a deal, considering we see things like that all the time in movies, games, sporting events and many other public actions. A company or three will sponsor the event provided they get some positive publicity from it.

But the problem here arises in that the very terms of the event required the people doing it to not breath a word that about this sponsorship.

Can’t Trust Their Word

Guys, I know at least a few people who are going to be pissed to hear this, but there is currently a story going around we need to talk about: Apparently XBox One still has online DRM built into the system.

FINALLY! We have PSO2 news!

Sometimes, it pays to troll the internet and forums… and while so far E3 has not revealed anything for PSO2, we may finally have reason for this. According to PSO-world.com, Sega has confirmed that the North American release of the game has been delayed. However, they have not explained why. The good news is that this means it is still coming. But this could also me we are waiting on a new version to be developed….

The “Villainous” Used Game

Before I begin talking about this, let me be up front and tell you that I was inspired this morning watching Jim Sterling mix it up and give his own views in his latest Jimquisition. This is an amazing commentary series and one I highly recommend my readers keep up on. If you want to watch his latest, you can see it here. But this time, while I agree with a lot he has to say, I can’t say he covered the topic quiet as much as I would like… let’s begin, shall we?

We Called It….

We called it and this week, MS confirmed it. They are lined up to lose the new generation of gaming. Tuesday, they revealed their new system and… wow… not even armed with the information we had last time, could we predict this would go so wrong.

My Prediction: Microsoft Loses the Next Generation

Heavy words to say before the system comes out, but if IGN isn’t lying and really verified the information they just published, Microsoft could be starting knee deep in their own shit.

The Old Guard May have to Watch Out for the Ancient Guard

Well you guys heard me make the prediction. It wasn’t a hard one to make, but in my what-if article, I laid out that if what I expected happened, we would be looking at a PC/console hybrid from Valve… Linux PC in function, but console in form. They have now officially announced it. Now it’s time to see if they can succeed. I believe personally that this will be based entirely on the sales they can pull off (and depending on if you believe the rumors about Sony allowing publishers to block used sales or Microsoft going digital only, the path to do so may only be getting easier), but it would seem the 800 lb. gorilla of the PC world is not the only one looking to expand their empire.

Linux: A Possible Future?

A little while ago, Gamespy produced a short article in which they suggested we might, just might, be seeing the beginning of a shift in PC gaming from Windows dominating to Linux taking over. In the short article, they promptly asked at the end if we as gamers would embrace such a change. Today, we explore the possibilities… what if we are about to see the beginning of this shift? How would it happen, and how would we be effected? Join me in a little “future history” and see if maybe you could see this happening.