January 12th, 2012
Double Jump Spirit
Some friends have started their own podcast and I need to take a minute to not applaud them but get some facts straight about my gaming reputation.
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January 11th, 2012
Minecraft plus one
We’re doomed. Jen likes Minecraft. I didn’t expect her to like it but she’s invested now, iPhone app and all. That’s all fine and well but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy playing with other people. Minecraft successfully straddles the gap between solo and multiplayer wonderfully.
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December 31st, 2011
Competition only makes you stronger
It’s true what they say, that competition only makes things better. To end what has been a pretty exciting year, my friend Jared and I competed in an all-day video game marathon. I ended up winning big but I owe it all to my opponent.
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December 19th, 2011
Four Score and Seven Pongs Ago
I finally get a chance to put my arcade gaming skills to good use as I try to defeat a friend in a year-end gaming marathon. If all goes as planned, you can even watch me win from the comfort of your own home.
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December 7th, 2011
The Xbox Metro update misses the mark
A new Xbox update came out this week and I was looking forward to it. I like the new Metro look that Microsoft is pushing, but when it comes to organizing information there’s still a long way to go.
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September 25th, 2011
Radiant Silvergun review
Radiant Silvergun, one of the most sought after shmups ever is finally available on Xbox . The game play and challenge is the stuff of greatness, but don’t think that will make it easy.
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August 1st, 2011
Bastion serves up RPG action
Bastion was the first game in Xbox’s Summer of Arcade and it turned out to be a wonderful way to start. A throw back to the SNES days, Bastion is an full-action RPG that looks great, plays great and just doesn’t disappoint.
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July 19th, 2011
Catherine promises to be a hard challenge
I’ve been reading about the upcoming game Catherine for a while. It’s received a lot of buzz thanks to the mature rating and tantalizing box art, but beyond that I didn’t know what type of game it was. My hope is always that it’s some sort of bullet hell shooter, but in this case, it’s [...]
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July 15th, 2011
Words with Friends is not about words
“Cheating” is such a strong word. Cheating suggests you’re doing something others can’t do to get an unfair advantage. Do I use help when playing Words with Friends? Yes, yes I do. Am I cheating? No, and here’s why.
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July 8th, 2011
Galaga Legions DX and Half Minute Hero review
As promised, my reviews of Galaga Legions DX and Half Minute Hero on XBLA. For the most part, both games lived up to my expectations. Two good games worth your time.
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July 1st, 2011
Minecraft dreams
I’m addicted to Minecraft. I didn’t expect it. In fact, I had already written off Minecraft as a game I didn’t like. However, thanks to some good old fashioned peer pressure, I’m now a Minecraft addict.
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June 28th, 2011
Galaga kicks off an arcade summer
The Summer of Arcade on the Xbox Live Arcade looks to be a decent line-up of titles, but if you ask me, the arcade summer starts this week with the release of Galaga Legions DX…and I have high expectations.
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June 13th, 2011
The stats game
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the announced Call of Duty Elite service, which is seemingly nothing more than a stat tracker, but as I analyze it more and think about what it’s doing, it made me realize that for many (most) games, the stats ARE the game.
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June 3rd, 2011
Call of Duty Elite, paying for your own information?
I like the Modern Warfare series of Call of Duty. The first Modern Warfare made me enjoy FPS again after years of burn out. I’m not very good at Call of Duty but that doesn’t mean it’s a not a lot of fun. However, not being a hardcore player, the announcement of the new Call [...]
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May 25th, 2011
Finally, some baseball I can enjoy
I used to be a huge baseball fan. I watched games, collected baseball cards and played regularly in a league. Of course, this was little league and by the time I got to high school my enjoyment of baseball had pretty much ended. Coincidentally enough, that was about the same time the MLB went on [...]
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May 24th, 2011
Why Modern Warfare 3 shouldn’t exist
Well it was fun while it lasted, Call of Duty Black Ops, that is. The first official Modern Warfare 3 trailer was released and has November as a release date, which means you have approximately six months to enjoy Black Ops before it goes dark.
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May 20th, 2011
Sega World Rally is not what it could be
I love arcade style games and I love racing games, and more often than not the combination of the two provides a lot of fun. So when I saw that a version of Sega World Rally was hitting the arcade I was looking forward to fast and furious racing action, but unfortunately my expectations were [...]
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May 13th, 2011
Trouble Witches Neo, cute and chaotic
With a new Xbox on my shelf and a “free” $20 to spend in the Marketplace, I treated myself to some fun. After a few Rock Band tracks, the the two arcade choices at the front of my brain were Outland and Trouble Witches Neo. One was sexy and cool, the other cute and chaotic. [...]
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May 10th, 2011
Chinatown Fair, an arcade documentary
Caught a post on Joystiq about Arcade, an upcoming documentary on a “legendary” New York arcade called Chinatown Fair. Not being in New York, it’s obviously just a name to me but seeing the trailer made me smile…and weep.
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May 6th, 2011
Three years, three Xboxes
I still have my original Nintendo and it still works. It’s more than 20 years at this point and has only required a single $10 repair. That’s about 50 cents a year in maintenance and that’s impressive. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my Xbox 360, of which soon I will be owning my [...]
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May 6th, 2011
Rush N Attack and Yar’s Revenge review
My review of the new Rush N Attack and Yar’s Revenge remakes on XBLA. One of them was awesome, one of them, not so much. Guess which one sucked?
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May 3rd, 2011
Don’t judge a game by its cover
It’s a long standing theory that graphics do not make the game. Sure, good graphics help but it’s just one of many factors that make a game good or bad. But if you ask Nintendo, this era of ultra-realistic graphics isn’t helping anyone, especially them.
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May 2nd, 2011
8-Bit Generation documentary
I’ve read a lot of books about the history of technology and video games. The internet, IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo, Atari, Chuck E Cheese…they’re all connected and it’s a wonderful story no matter how many times I read it. But if there’s one thing I like more than reading, it’s watching TV, and a new [...]
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April 27th, 2011
Feeling safe with Xbox Live?
Playstation’s network (PSN) has been down for over a week thanks to a super hack. While the hack has suspended playing any games online, it turns out user data was stolen. My first reaction was, “I’m glad I have an Xbox,” but then started to wonder what if this happened to Xbox Live?
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April 26th, 2011
More games “with Friends” please
I’ve lately been hooked on Words with Friends, a Scrabble clone on the phone that lets you play with friends across different platforms and it’s been great. Scrabble certainly lends itself to what could be slow, turn-based play…but there are so many other great games that can benefit from the same treatment.