PixlBit

Okay I hope I get some responses on this one. How many of you have trouble with the YouTube app on the Xbox 360? I know I do.

I got a new computer! After my old computer died on my at the end of the year, I've been using a small Asus notebook. Keeping up with news and writing reviews and such has been quite hard since the little laptop had a small screen and with only 1 GB of RAM, can't multi-task for shit. Now I have a custom built rig, courtesy of my friend Don, and it runs like a dream. It's not a top of the line computer but it's still pretty awesome. Its specs are as follows:

A pretty heavy topic that branches into other problems has been on my mind a lot recently. I have been unable to resolve it myself in my own head so this blog will serve as both an opinion piece that I hope will fuel a discussion and evoke a collection of different sets of opinions as well as a means for me to more or less dump all of my disjointed thoughts on this matter onto one place and make sense of them. So I apologize in advance if this blog is all over the place with no real concise point or focus.

I wasn't going to have a resolution this year. I can't remember ever fullfilling one ever in my life so what's the point? However, after the discussion I had with some other PixlBit staffers for last week's PixlTalk podcast, I decided to do one after all.

Hello PixlBitters! This is my first blog post in two weeks. It's hard not having my computer and all. Enough about that, though. You know, I still have so much trouble staying on one game and completing it. I'm about halfway through Bastion but I haven't played it in a week or so. Part of the reason is, sigh, I'm not crazy about the game. It's not a bad game by any means. The controls are solid, the gameplay is challenging and the art direction is beautiful. At the same time though, I think The Kid moves too slowly, the gameplay isn't engaging and the levels aren't expansive enough. Upgrades aren't too effective in my opinion either. I always forget about my special attack because I rarely need it. I'll try to keep up with it but although there's nothing wrong with Bastion, it's just not grabbing me. Ol' PixlBit papa Nick DiMola has expressed his opinion of believing that game is merely a 3.5 out of 5 and I think I might agree with him.

New Year, people! It's getting all 2012 in this hissy! I had a pretty damn good year in 2011 which I really liked since 2010 was awful for me and I'm positive 2012 will be another great year (famous last words). Not only was this year a good year for me but also for video games. A lot of great titles came out this year and in my opinion, it was the best year since 2007. That year gave us Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Halo 3, just to mention a few. It was the year that kicked off a lot of great franchises this generation. This year was like a culmination of that year with sequels that are the pinnacle of their respective series. 2011 gave us Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Bastion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. There are a lot more great titles that came out this year and that one bad thing about that is I can't play them all.

In our community of like minded individuals who enjoy the art of electronic entertainment, one aspect that seems to be a reoccurring subject for discussion is the lack of women in said community. Fans of video games tend to be young adult males and women don't usually tend to be thought of when you think of a gamer. Now, having said that, we now in large part know this is no longer the case. Although probably true 10-15 years ago, women have now become more prevalent in the video game community and some could argue that the audience is now around 50-50. Nonetheless though, those not aware of this change still see a woman who enjoys video games to be a rare thing. As such, we now have the term "Gamer Girl" instilled into the echelon. Furthermore, there are people, women, who are in the public eye that have been given this label.

After much consideration, I decided not to get a PlayStation 3. The main reasons for this decision was because 1) I got an Xbox 360 as a early Christmas present and 2) my backlog has gotten completely crazy. I have so much to play and not nearly enough time to do so. So I will not be getting a PS3 this Christmas. Sorry to those who were looking forward to playing with me online but priorities, man. Maybe when my birthday comes around this March...

Who loves SoulCalibur? I do! I remember playing the first in the series, Soul Blade, on the original PlayStation and it completely took me by surprise. I heard about it because of an advertisement on the back of the manual of Tekken 2. I rented it at Hollywood Video (they always had older titles whereas Blockbuster would get rid of them quickly) and bought it soon afterward used at Funcoland. The second title, SoulCalibur, was one of the first games I bought when I got my Dreamcast and I was addicted to that game. Although I missed the different weapons with different stats, the gameplay was more fluid and better paced. The removal of the weapon health bar and the 8-way movement was really what made that title above and beyond any other 3D fighter and it’s my favorite in the series. SoulCalibur II was something of a disappointment to me but my friends and I had a lot of fun playing that game and since it was released on multiple consoles as opposed to just one, SoulCalibur II is the game that truly propelled the series into the mainstream. SoulCalibur III was a better game but I could never get into it due to a game breaking bug I encountered that kept on corrupting my save file.

Remember when video games had these cool pictures on the cart or disc and just made it seem so much cooler? Look how cool that is! We've got a dude in green spandex and his wristband has this light coming from behind it and he's got on these slick rayband glasses and there's a beast man there, looking like he's going to attack you and there's this hot blonde chick who's like pointing to the game's title like she's Vanna White. Corny sure, but I was so pumped to throw down some Eternal Champions when I first saw this. You would pop this into your Sega Genesis and that image would be sticking out of your console, not only letting you know what you are playing but also giving your console style. You would leave the game in the cartridge slot because it looked so cool presenting the Genesis to you room. We don't have that luxury now because discs are always inside the console but that doesn't mean we don't like disc art.