PixlBit

does this combo come with fries and a drink?  

I'll read later!

Of course

That Hatsune Miku game seems somewhat interesting, especially if it comes with all that stuff.  I reviewed Dewey's Adventure.  It's pretty fun, but it's just another one of those 'tilt the marble around the maze' kind of games that frequented the Wii back in the day so much.

I played a little bit of Dewy's and I didn't like it. If it had straight forward controls it would have been a different story. I guess when something new comes along developers like to cram it into a game. I saw some this on the Vita. 

I love those macro shots of the cars. That shallow depth-of-field is kinda neat. 

I was trying to remember what Knack was about last time I was at Gamestop. I rewatched the trailer and now I really want to play it. 

I'm really enjoying the litle lenses I bought for my phone, and the quality on those shots are pretty good. 

Knack is a fun game, and easily a pleasant surprise for me. 

Since there are 5 bolded sections here, I'm gonna comment on one bolded section every day. Two today, since I didn't see this yesterday. By the way, it's actually getting warmer in Texas far as I can tell if you can believe it. Since it's Texas, you probably can, but still. I kinda wish we got white Christmases here. And then after the holidays were over it all melted, cause it's a bitch to deal with when you actually have to drive and work. I'm hoping Bill Gates provides the world with a weather controlling machine soon, like that one in the Cowboy Bebop movie. Of course, then crazy people with machine guns like Fey Valentine could just force the weather control people to make it rain ....

Two Games Off Mount Backlog

6.0% is pretty high for a Platinum trophy completion percentage. Arkham Knight is still trolling me since I have one thing left to do (complete however many different combat moves in a single free flow, I think 15?) to get Platinum on the main game. I keep having to address an attacker or getting hit and it ends up breaking my streak. 

NFS games are great for racing fans like myself though. Always loved playing as the cops. Planting spike strips in the road in GTA V took me back to my first NFS memories on PSX and PS2, despite the roles being reversed since I was the bad guys. I've actually been thinking lately how many games have a driving element to them and whether I'd want a dedicated racer, but the more I play other games with cars and races like GTA V and Arkham Knight, the more I get the itch for a real racing game.I actually talked about how satisfying it is to press R2 on the DualShock 4 in the podcast I recently did with Blake, Casey, and Jamie. lol

I didn't know the game allowed you to change how the car handles, but that's great. I hate the cars that turn way too hard in GTA V. I also have a hard time controlling cars in sim games like Forza or DriveClub. I don't get too mad at prodcut placement, since it's how games get funding. I know Jagermeister and Monster are essentially the official sponsors of heavy metal in America at this point. They promote every heavy metal show I've been to since 2008, but to be honest it's been a while. I'd still imagine it's about the same now though.

Yeah, I might wait until this game goes on sale or see if The Crew is dirt cheap yet, but I love NFS so chances are it'll be the arcade racer I get. I just can't get in to sim drivers. I can't really get into sim anything, to be honest. I play games for craziness, reality needs to keep work at work. 

Your description makes Knack sound like a game I'd love to play, but I remember seeing negative reviews? Maybe I am misremembering. I do love a good 3D platformer though. Man, you're just all about bringing up genres I've always loved and have a craving for in this blog. lol I miss the N64 days when farting would create a new 3D platforming game to try. 

And damn, after that endorsement and I think it's pretty cheap now, I'll have to at least play a demo or rent the game.

What Chris is Currently Playing ...

The Order 1886 is one I was really looking forward to, but got turned off to by poor reviews. I'm interested to read what you think when you get deeper into it.

I need a sports game as well, but since I really don't care about rosters and all, I just want a fun game, I'll just buy some dirt cheap one from a couple years back on my PS4. Unless of course one of my teams wins a championship this year. I'm still salty about the fact Dirk has never been on a sports game cover to my knowledge.

Is Simpsons: Tapped Out free to play? I've been thinking of getting a new phone and if I do, I'll play it.

I'm one of the odd folks who has never seen snow in person. The local tram that goes to the top of the mountain has snow already but the next question is do I want to drive to the tram. We shall see.

One bold section a day sounds good, except for Friday is another Quick Hits with many more bold sections. I should have a bold section within a bold section.

I remember looking through the Batman trophies and that one sticks out as a tough one. I guess you can probably have an easier time if you can find and corner an enemy. Good luck on getting that final trophy. It's odd that NFS's Platinum has a 6% completion, considering you can earn more than half of the trophies by just finishing the game. Forza can be tweaked so it plays almost like an arcade racer. I'm not into the point where the game becomes a pure simulation. I just want to race, win some races, and maybe spin out a car or two. I think the new Crew with the offroad DLC might be $40. Still a little pricey especially with everything in the game is so spread out. 

Knack is worth a try. It's not the deepest game, but for $10-15 bucks you can't go wrong. 

I didn't know The Order had poor reviews. I know its a game that I can't sit back and listen to podcasts while playing, so it will be a weekend game for me. 

If you buy an older sports game, check out Operation Sports for user made roster updates. They also have threads about slider settings, which are a good starting point in customizing the game to what you like. I tweaked the current Madden to play a bit like NCAA but I still need to get used to the faster DLine. I'm getting sacked like crazy in the game.

Tapped Out is free, but there are certain things that cost real money. You can have a fun experience if you just play through the game, collect donuts (the in game premium currency) and take part in the various events. 

I am honestly surprised you have never seen snow. We actually have had a few snowy Christmases here in Dallas some years, though it usually melts pretty quick and of course my extended family is in Wisconsin mostly. 

And true. I'll just do two more bold sections today, your pickups tomorrow since it's the biggest bold section anyway, then comment your Friday post.

I don't know if cornering would work, but maybe that's something to try. I already looked on YouTube how to get it, just can't remember all 15 different moves I need to do when executing this. And yeah, I liked The Crew, but it didn't wow me to pay new game prices for it.

Didn't realize Knack was only $10. I'll have to look at my budget since I bought SNK Humble Bundle for same price, but as I said, love me 3D platforming.

Yeah, general consensus I saw was it was pretty, but shallow. I'm still interested in what you think cause it didn't look that bad to me. Maybe the developers just pissed off some games reporters? lol

I tried playing a recent Madden and got the shit sacked out of me, and it was on easy or normal. Seems the older games had much better O-lines. 

Quick Hits!

Congrats to your Aztecs! Yeah, I don't watch NCAA until playoffs unless it's a big rivalry game, I'm bored and it's on TV, or it's SFA cause I don't care to understand the seeding process. I kinda like objectivity in sports competition, and NCAA has too much subjectivity to it with who gets what rating/opportunities, etc.

Pictures

Hey look, you put a reality filter on a scene from GTA V! lol Can't get over how well they did LA in that game, though I wish your character could stay in an Airbnb next to cheap sushi and Scientology, so my experiece would match when I was actually there.

I like that your phone can get you some shallow depth-of-field shots like that. I always had my aperture set really high for most pictures I took cause I like focusing on the subject. 

Speaking of which, the one you took with your actual camera looks like it could be in a Christmas calendar. Good job, man!

Yeah it doesn't get cold enough here to get snow, even though I'm literally a half hour away from the stuff. At some point I'll make the trip to check out the hype.

I'm ok with a game if its shallow, as long as I find it fun, I'm good. Yeah it sounds like in Madden you need to tinker with the sliders. Slow down the CPU rush a bit until you get used to the speed and then slowly raise it, or just keep it at that setting. 

Thanks, and the streak continues of six straight bowl games. If our basketball team can continue to make it to the dance, and the baseball team making the post season, the longest streak of having all three go to the post season lives on for another year. The NCAA has too much politics within it between the Power 5 conferences and the rest of the FBS conferences. It'll be interesting to see how everything plays out in the coming years when conferences start adding teams to position themselves for better TV Deals.

GTA always seems to have solid universes for each series. I really should finish that game on PS4, so I can use that space for another game on the hard drive. 

The iPhone 6s has a really good camera but the depth-of-field goes to the swanky lenses I bought a couple of weeks ago. I wish I had a little more control but overall I do like how well they work.

Thanks man, I appreciate the kind words. That picture was one of my favorites when I was taking random shots of the table centerpiece.  

Idk how long it'd be interesting to just look at it, but it is a veryy pretty sight here in theDFW 'burbs, so I imagine the mountains will be something else. It's really what you do with the snow that makes it great though. That and time off.

I agree about "shallow" games. I really don't need a "deep" experience to get enjoyment out of it. I put that in quotes cause sometimes "deep" games just strike me as cheap fetch quests, grinding/stat building etc. disguised by "RPG elements" I could often care less about.

There's just no way to make that many colleges with such totally different financial assets and ability to draw eyeballs an objective thing imo. So I enjoy watching, but I don't keep track because I hate the political bullshit that goes into NCAA seeding.

Yeah, I never really played San Andreas or IV, but Iliked what little I played of III and Vice City before now.

You wish you had more control of iphone or camera camera?

No problem, it's a good pic.

Pickups!

Teehee, Ass Creed. What an abbrev! Is Darkness thatone based on a comic book where you have demon tentacles?

I could use another rythym action on my DS, loved EBA so much. That bowling game cover though ...

All I really have to say is you buy some random games on these sales. lol

I didn't realize you were a fan of shred. I can't really get into it most of the time, but there are a few sogs Vai, Satch and some others have done I like.

That Jennifer Lopez cover has me thinking .... so does Carmen Electra a little bit.

Oh man, Britney Spears. My middle school and junior high years that song was everywhere. lol

The Delorean is only DLC I've bought for a game outside of Arkham Knight. Love that Rocket League released it on BttF Day.

Everybody Dance now was early 90s wasn't it? Man, that song took a while to die down. Hadn't heard the Black Box one before. Dance Now had a very 90s video, and Black Box's is kinda weird. She has some legs though. lol

Good Christmas song. Hope Phil didn't pull a gun on Santa.

I would be the odd adult making snow angels, a snowman, and maybe throw a snowball at the finished snowman. I'd probably be over the whole thing in a half an hour. 

The college sports/mega TV deal bubble is about to burst. There is way too much content to justify spending so much on certain conferences. The one positive is that I can stream Aztec games that haven't been picked up by National TV, and the other stuff is on channels I have. That's the one thing the conference did right.

You have to try GTA San Andreas. I still had the most fun playing through that game out of the franchise. 90s, Lowriders, Gangsta Rap, and being able to drive to LA, Vegas, San Francisco, and random towns in between. If that game was to ever be remastered for PS4 I would buy it again.

If games are cheap I figure why not take a chance on some of them especially if its the same price as a rental.

I didn't know it was called Shred. Some of the solos are cool, but its something I won't listen to all the time. Its kind of like Metal, if the songs are good I'll listen to them.

Carmen Electra and Jennifer Lopez's single covers were big reasons I picked them up. Carmen's single is not good. I already have the JLo album and the song was a decent hit.

Yep I bought that Britney CD/NSYNC were huged for a bit, and they were everywhere. 

I wonder if I have Rocket League still on my PS4? That game was the big hit among my younger cousins

Yeah all those songs were early 90s, and always on MTV. 

Oh crazy Phil and his guns...

You know all the PS2 GTAs ARE on PS4 right? You can download them and I believe they are remastered. They cost $15 each though ... 

I listen to tons of metal, but am not so huge oin shred.