Category: XBox

The best games I didn’t blog about in 2018

Happy New Year everyone! I have very few traditions on the blog but this is one I enjoy, always a fun way to kick off the new year. Alas here I am with preparing for my only end of the year tradition and I discover I didn’t even do one of these for last year, 2017! *sigh*

Never mind though and we’ll press on in the spirit of renewal. 2018 was a bit of an odd one: an unreasonably large number of the games I played in the first half of the year were disappointing. A lack of inspiring games is partly why I blogged very little – my socks just weren’t being consistently rocked by the stuff I was playing.

Then in the second half of the year things changed when I finally picked up a Switch. At the same time, reluctantly, I packed away my old CRT TV. Some weeks later I decided to re-dedicate myself to blogging, and since then I’ve been more thorough than ever before in terms of my output, writing about most of the games I played these past few months.

Given my journey this year and how consistent I’ve been with blogging lately, all of the games featured here I played in the first half of 2018, prior to my Switch purchase. Enough pre-amble, bring on the highlights! Continue reading →

How all the time in the world spoiled the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series

I’ve been trying to pin down the precise differences between console- and arcade-style games. I’ve never been especially confident in how to explain the appeal of personal arcade favourites like Time Crisis 2, House of the Dead 2, Metal Slug, and too many shooters to name, over the meatier games associated with consoles. It’s not that I don’t like console games – far from it! – but I associate the short, intense and replayable experiences of arcade games with gaming on a deep level. Analysing the qualities that make arcade games special is the main topic of this post, but it comes courtesy of an unlikely source: the console-only Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Continue reading →

Shitty platforming in Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)

These past few weeks I’ve become very intimate with the Game oveR screen in Ninja Gaiden Black on the original Xbox. I was already aware of its reputation of being hard as nails. What I wasn’t expecting is the plaforming, which is… utter shit. It pains me to say it, because platforming is not a huge part of this game – 10% of the levels? 5%? – but so far I’ve come across several platforming challenges where the game has taken more than its fair share of the piss.

Look, I get it. It’s trying to look cool, to be Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which came out just a few months before Ninja Gaiden. And there are moments when Ninja Gaiden pulls it off. But there are moments that are just plain awful. Continue reading →

The best games I didn’t blog about in 2015, part 2

Back again, and it’s the same deal as last time. After the last post, I felt even more strongly the importance of putting out these posts given some of the gems I experienced this year. Part two has arguably fewer interesting titles than part one, but I know I’d regret it if I failed to report on Disaster: Day of Crisis at least. Let’s go and save that girl! Continue reading →

Halo (Xbox) and the lure of dudebro

An interesting thing happened yesterday with my brand new, second-hand original Xbox. As I picked up the chunky controller (not the original Duke controller but the revised, smaller S-type which is still bulky) and sat down to play the original Halo for the first time, I suddenly felt transformed. Even the initial boot-up was an act of roleplaying in and of itself, because I could no longer see myself as a responsible adult indulging in a hobby. I was instead a teenager, grasping my hands around the enormous controller with its huge squishy triggers in order to make up for inadequacies in other arenas. Mission accomplished, Halo. Continue reading →