My Xbox 360 Bucket List Part 2

Since I will be working six days this week, I am taking advantage of a "slow" period to write this week's blog, using my lazy topic.

Family Guy: I know this is supposed to be a really bad game, but I was a big fan of the series when it first came out. Although I quit watching it a couple of years ago, I'm interested in just how bad the game really is.

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse: This was one of the Genesis games that I just never got a chance to play. When I still had the system, it was always a bit pricey around here, even used. Now that I don't have a Genesis, I see the cartridge every so often for $2 - $3 at thrift stores.

Bureau: Xcom Declassified: I hated the original game on the PSOne. Just like Civilization, there were those annoying little built in cheats that the game could use against you, like letting the aliens take shots out of turn, or not letting your character even get a chance to move at times. In Civ II on the PSOne (and computer), the computer could move net to your territory or character, and not be penalized. If you run out of moves next to an A.I. character, you risk starting a war. This version of Xcom, however, gets rid of that nonsense, and gives you an FPS instead. I REALLY want to play this.

Batman Origins: I honestly thought it was going to come out on the One at some point. The last Tomb Raider did, so why not this one? Better yet, do an XB1 upgrade for the trilogy. But please, no Blackgate. I'm serious when I say I hate platformers, even Mario Brothers. No, ESPECIALLY Mario Brothers.

Aliens: Colonial Marines: Technically, this one shouldn't be on the list anymore, since I found it really cheap on Amazon recently. So cheap that technically, it was free. I was a couple of dollars short of free shipping, and this only put me about ten cents past the $35 minimum. It was still cheaper than paying for shipping without the game, too. So even if it's as bad, or worse, than I hear, I can sell it, and come out pretty close to even.

From Dust: I played the demo, and it reminded me of an old SNES and PC favorite, Populous. So much so, that I haven't bought it, simply because it's so much like Populous that I feel as if I already played it. Now, if I ever get it as a Gold freebie...

To Be Continued....

My Xbox 360 Bucket List - Part 1

Now that it looks like the 360 is winding down, at least for developers, it's time to shell out a few bucks, quit my job, and play some of these must play games. Please note that this list isn't complete. It does not have any of the many, many great indie games that I would have played by now, if they had achievement points. It also won't be the entire list, since there's so many of them.

And of course, this isn't a backlog list. This is a partial list of games that I do not have collecting dust on my shelf. The list will have some games that I expect to be clunkers, but I feel a need to experience their badness on my own. So, without further ado, here's some random games from my Xbox 360 Bucket list:

Braid: I HATE platformers. I truly, truly HATE PLATFORM GAMES! But I do believe in giving a game a fair chance. Since this game has had so many people say so many nice things about it, I want to give it a try. I want to give it every bit of consideration and open-minded game play that I would any other game. And then HATE it!

Monkey Island 1 & 2: Many, many generations ago, I played this on my old 8088 chip (that's pre Pentium to you younger readers) desktop. Back when a computer was as big as a suitcase, and weighed as much as a keg of beer. I believe it was an early CGA or VGA game (CGA meaning FOUR colors, VGA meaning 16). I don't recall liking, or hating, the game. I do want to see how it's game play compares to the original. I am under the impression that only the graphics have changed.

Stacking: I loved the demo years ago on the PS3. Unfortunately, I am just so cheap that I can't bring myself to buy a digital game, unless its $5 or less. I want to be able to trade it in when I'm done, but $5 I'm willing to loose.

Doom 3: I know I won't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the original Doom decades ago. I used to love all of the mods for the enemies (Daleks, Bevis & Butthead), but the game itself seemed repetitious. I don't know if I'll like the new game better, especially without god mode. But I'm willing to give it a try.

Death Spank: I've played a few of the demos. I like the humor that the games have. The game play is also well done. But again, I'M CHEAP!

Call of Duty Classic: I've basically weaned myself off of the CoD franchise. The first few games I loved. I used to hate FPS games as much as, if not more than, platformers. But CoD made me love them. I never would have given Borderlands a chance, if Activision hadn't done such a great job with the first few games. But after Modern Warfare 2, I lost all interest in the CoD universe. Instead of great single player stories, with reasonable challenges, the focus shifted towards "just shoot everything that moves." Stealth didn't seem needed, nor did strategy. I enjoy playing on-line matches, but if that's all CoD really has to offer me anymore, then I sadly have to move on. Bye, Nazi zombies. I'll miss you!

Duck Tails Remastered: Yeah, yeah. I hate platformers. But this one is really something. At least, the demo was. Maybe I'll change my mind about it once I get to the first or second boss, but I had fun with the demo. It made me laugh. It made me feel like a kid. The cartoon that the game was based on didn't come out until I was in my 20's, but Scrooge McDuck has been around since before I was born, and so were his comic books. So, yeah. I want to play this platformer, and I actually don't plan to hate it. At least, not for the first few minutes....

To Be Continued....

$2,730,000,000

$2,730,000,000. That's 26% of 10.5 billion. Why am I telling you this? The video game industry is a $10.5 billion dollar a year industry. 26% of gamers are 50 years old or OLDER. That means we older gamers contribute $2,730,000,000 a year into gaming.

And let me clarify. I am not talking about buying games for our kids or grand kids. I am not talking about looking for old Atari games on eBay. I am talking about current, AAA title (and lesser) games. Xbox, Playstation, Wii, Computer. We play them all.

What age do you think a person stops gaming? 30? 45? 60? During the beta testing phase of World of
Tanks, I came across a man and his daughter arguing in a local Target about the cost of games. As you may have already figured out, the man was the gamer. After all, I am writing this about older gamers. What you may not have been able to guess is the age of the man involved.

The man was (or rather, hopefully IS, since I'm hoping he's still alive) a veteran. Specifically, a Korean War vet. The man was 70 years old (as his daughter yelled at him several times), and was enjoying (and supposedly kicking butt) in the World of Tanks beta.I also know that he wasn't the only vet in his age group. I was also playing the beta, and came across several gentlemen that were "reliving" their glory days with the game. World War II vets, Korean, Vietnam, and the wars and actions that followed.

These men had started off gaming, much like myself, in the early days of gaming. And like so many people, they kept up with their hobbies as they grew older. When I was a kid, there was a running joke about model trains. Dads never actually bought them for their kids. They bought them just so they'd have a reason to play with them, without looking silly.

Of course, model trains have become a hobby that is often associated with older guys now. Probably
because the railroad industry isn't as "glorious" as it used to be. Few people travel on trains for leisure now. I don't even know if they still have sleeper cars for trips that take several days. But fans of Lionel trains have them in their collections.

And just as some older guys (and gals) have a caboose or two on a train board in their basement, there are many, many grandparents, even great grandparents, out there kicking butt on and off line, using their Xbox, Playstation, Wii, or PC/Mac. The butt they kick may even be yours. So the next time you get pwn'd, take a moment and try to figure out if that person was your age, younger, or older. Perhaps much older.

Oh, and by the way. Umeji Narisawa has played Bomberman EVERY day for the last 26 years. She's now 99. And the Guinness Book of World Records holder for the most perfect Wii Sports Bowling games, John Bates, is 85. 

Suddenly, I feel so much younger. Maybe I'll scrape the rust off of my old skate board. Or better yet, just play some Tony Hawk. Who happens to be 46, and still a brand name for video games.

https://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/meet-99-old-video-game-master-161546515.htmle

Shorter Clips

The last clip I posted at YouTube took around 12 hours to upload. I also noted that it had audio glitches that came from the editing software that I currently have. In an effort to eliminate both the amount of time posting and the glitches, I will not be doing entire missions of Thief, or other games with long missions. They will instead be posted in smaller parts.

An Interesting Article For My Fellow Old-Timers

I found this article at Gamasutra, about ageism in the gaming industry. Did you know that 26% of gamers are over 50?

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/238236/Im_still_creative__Game_industry_vets_rally_against_ageism.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29

What's Your Longest Gaming Session?

There are some hard core gamers out there that do little else besides game. Back in 2005, a South Korean man died from playing Starcraft for 52 straight hours. And I mean straight. No food, no liquids, no movements, even to get up for the bathroom. 52 straight hours hunched over his keyboard.

This isn't the only death related to video games, either. Some parents have let their children die of malnutrition, because they couldn't pull themselves away from their games long enough to take care of their kids. They were able to stop long enough to make the kids, however.

Now, I'm guessing that anyone reading this isn't that addicted. If you were, you wouldn't be reading a blog. You'd be playing a game. Still, I'm betting there's a few of you that have played some long sessions.

My personal best was a weekend bender back in the early 1990's. I had finally gotten the Buck Rogers game for the Sega Genesis, and spent a three day weekend playing it. I did take the occasional break for food or the bathroom (NASA hadn't started to sell their nine hour diapers yet.), but I was awake for the whole weekend. Come Tuesday morning, I took a three hour nap, showered, and went off to my crappy job.

So what is your longest streak? It's alright if you had to take a break for food, water, or to eliminate afterwards. As long as your break didn't include naps or leaving the game to do something else, the time counts.

Upcoming Reviews

I am going to try to review a new game or accessory on the last Wednesday of each month. The first one that I have planned is the EZCap HD Video Capture Device, which I have been using to make clips from both the 360 and The One. That review should get published on March 25th, 2015.

Future reviews will include Thief, Metro, and Titanfall, for the XB1. 360 games will include some older games, as I try to finish off my bucket list for the system. I am also open to requests for Xbox games, new and old, as long as they're affordable.

Cheap Xbox One Wired Controller

If you want to use a wired controller for your Xbox One, don't bother to buy a new one (unless you need an extra controller). The input port for charging your controller is a micro USB, the same size that most cell phones use. I found a 10 foot cable for $4.49 the other day, and it works perfectly. I took the rechargeable pack out first, to make sure the controller was getting 100% of its power from the cable. I even had several color choices.

You can then use the money you save to buy yourself a new (or used) game.

The Worst (Or At Least Stupidest) Game EVER

There has been much debate over the decades about which video game is the worst. E.T. on the Atari 2600? Bah! Aquaman on the original Xbox? Take out those pathetic submarine chapters, and the game's entirely playable (Superman should be able to fly as freely in his games as Aquaman swam in that game). Never Dead, on any system? Well, that one was pretty bad, but only because it was so glitchy. If the team put a bit more time into it, say a century, it could have been average.

Virtually every bad game could have been better, if only one or two minor (or major) things had been changed. But there is one game that is so far beyond saving, that even Atari historians rarely mention it. ANAGRAMS!

That's right, in the late 1970's, someone thought it was a good idea to put out a cartridge (the average price per game back then was around $30) that did nothing but scramble the letters of whatever word you entered. It didn't even make a new word, it just moved the letters around according to a logarithm. This meant that the 1st letter of any word was always placed in the same spot, followed by where the second was, etc. The only exception was a space. That never moved.

Why is this trivial cartridge so burned into my memory? This game came out when I was either a freshman in high school, or the year before.  I didn't have a license, and there weren't any buses that went to the nearest Sears in my area, since I lived in the wrong part of town for that. So whenever my friends and I wanted to play Atari, we would walk roughly five miles to Sears, and five miles back. Can you imagine how happy we were the first time we saw Anagrams?

For you younger readers, I should point out that the 2600 originally cost over $300 dollars. I'm not an economist, but I can guess that $300, back when the minimum wage was still $2.90, was worth a lot more to people than $300 is now, when the minimum in SOME areas is close to $10. Of course, taxes were also lower, gas was under $1.00, etc, etc. But that's beside the point.

There was no way to put any censorship into it, so you could type a dirty word, scramble it, and then wait for an adult to walk by and get upset. Especially a salesman. The salesmen hated us. That's when they started to put a plastic case around the game, so you couldn't reset anything. You could still play the games, however.

Maybe that was the redeemable feature of Anagrams. Entering a dirty word into it, scrambling it, then watching the salespeople get upset when they had to get the key to unlock the case after some little kid unscrambled it, only to have us put the word back in while he was returning the key.

Nah! The "game" ukscs.