Gaming off the Beaten Path

  Well, we haven't had one of these in a while. One of the phenomena I have always found interesting is how some series become major players during one gaming generation, only to be largely forgotten once new consoles are released. I found this to be especially prevalent in the 6th generation, especially with the PlayStation 2 and GameCube . I've already looked at titles like Onimusha: Warlords and Jak and Daxter, which were huge, heavily hyped 6th gen series that just disappeared after the 7th gen started. It's not like they haven't received HD remasters or ports or collection re-releases, but in terms of new games, there has been nothing. And no, mobile games don't count. Zone of the Enders fit perfectly into this category. It was a huge, huge deal when it came out and was extremely well received  critically. It came out in a time where game creators didn't get the director treatment they do now, but it was created by Hideo Kojima, one of the earliest people

Welcome Claire! Consider the area you're in a...special playground I have prepared just for you. Please try and keep me amused, and do not disappoint me by dying too soon! Halloween is here, so that means it's time to get spooky once again. It's been a while, but we're finally getting back to Resident Evil. I am not a huge fan of horror in general, but Resident Evil is one of my all-time favorite gaming franchises. It has the third most games in my personal top 100, behind only Mega Man and Final Fantasy, and is tied with FF for the most games on my 10s list (three apiece, for the record). Last year, I reviewed the absolutely incredible Gamecube remake on Halloween. Maybe next year I'll review Resident Evil 4, another 10/10 that just recently received a big budget remake. Both of those are all time classics, they are not only personal favorites but also important touchstones in the gaming industry as a whole. But, as great as they are, as revolutionary as they were,

  I always find it interesting to look back on how some of these game series ended up on my radar. It's true of any media really, hell, any "thing" at all. You hear about something through word of mouth or see it in a store or experience it because someone else is super into it and boom, all the sudden it's part of your universe. In a weird way, it's kind of a phenomena that doesn't really happen anymore. Nine times out of 10, you learn about something new from social media or via some targeted internet marketing blitz (or both). I grew up in a small town, in an era when the internet was still young and access to it was spotty at best. I did have a subscription to a handful of video game magazines. Almost all of these were console based and even when they did cover PC games, I usually ignored them. I had long since cancelled my subscription to PC gamer by the early 00's, so there was a brief period where that was a complete blind spot for me. And that was

It's been a long time coming, but it finally happened. I finished franchise mode. I had heard for years that it was possible but had never seen it happen. The mode ends after 30 years and I don't think I ever got past 15. I would usually get bored once the actual players all retired and you were just left with randomly generated guys. But this time I threw in a twist. I would also play NCAA football side by side and import my draft class in each year. I decided on doing this all on the '08 version of both games. The reason? It's the only year I had both games. Nice and simple.  Full disclosure, I am not going to finish my NCAA dynasty through to the end, that runs 60 years and it's just not going to happen. Honestly, I just don't like the NCAA games as much as I do Madden. For one, I, like any good Northeasterner, don't really care all that much about college football. Who am I going to root for, Rutgers? I used to live about 10 minutes from High Point Solut

  It's always crazy to look at deep cuts and early efforts from some of the more celebrated developers and publishers in the industry. When we think of Nintendo, franchises like Mario, Zelda and Metroid come to mind almost immediately. But does anyone remember Excitebike? Not going to lie, those of us of a certain age probably do, but it's not really top of mind as a Nintendo franchise. At this point, isn't F-Zero considered a deep cut Nintendo Franchise? I mean, more than 20 years without a new game, right? Maybe it's time for a new one? Anyway, every gaming company had to start somewhere. It's not like Nintendo just popped up one day and started cranking out Mario games, they actually made Hanfuda playing cards for almost a century before they started cranking out light guns for Magnivox and creating consoles like the Color TV Game. But we won't be talking about the Big N today. We are going much further into the alphabet to the big R, everyone's favorite

The early 00's were a very formative time for video games. This was especially true of console first person shooters. FPS' were dime a dozen on the PC, but it was still a bit of a struggle to get them right on consoles. The first real success, at least to me, came in the form of a handful of really solid Doom ports to the 5th generation consoles, as well as some noble efforts to port the FPS giant to 4th gen hardware (I played a tons of SNES Doom, and I still find it very enjoyable despite the fact it's definitely not the best way to play the game). Turok: Dinosaur Hunter gave way to Goldeneye, which gave way to Perfect Dark on the N64. And if those titles were the seed of FPS' as a viable genre on console, Halo was the tree they eventually blossomed into. Look, I don't like Halo nearly as much as most people do. But you absolutely cannot deny it was revolutionary in terms of graphics, presentation, gameplay and especially control scheme. Halo did for FPS on console

  You learn something new every day I guess. I was very much aware of Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Like, very much aware. I put tons of hours into that game. It barely missed out on being a 10's game. It's the only game I've ever played in any sort of semi-official competition (I won my first round matchup before getting absolutely smashed by someone who actually knew what they were doing in the second). And yet I didn't realize it was actually the third game in the Street Fighter III series. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's not like Capcom didn't have a penchant for doing this. Street Fighter II was essentially it's own series, there's World Warrior, Champion Edition, Turbo, Super Street Fighter II, Super Turbo, on and on, you get the point. So I guess it makes sense that they would do the same thing with SF III and I shouldn't have been too shocked to see that there were two other games, New Generation and 2nd Impact, that were rele