Been losing blogs due to being logged out? NEVER AGAIN.
Howdy PixlBit friends! Your friendly neighborhood director-man stopping in to lay a quick changelog on you regarding tonight's update. While there are certainly a number of items on the plate, I wanted to address this one first, based on some feedback I've seen scattered about the blogs.
Everyone's favorite Arian Ninja Returns.
As a fan of anime, I’ve played more than my fair share of iterative fighting games based off of my favorites, particularly the Dragon Ball Series. A common issue with those games is that they would often retell the same stories over and over, hoping that the changes in gameplay would warrant re-exploring the universe. Thankfully, the Naruto games haven’t suffered as much as the DBZ series since the story is still currently running. Though the games have largely been similar, the draw for me has been seeing my favorite moments from the anime and manga recreated in the beautiful engine used by CyberConnect2. Strangely though, upon getting my hands on the demo for the next title, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, I was pleased to see that there might be more than I bargained for in this package.
Namco Bandai's commercial failure was Ninja Theory's creative success.
While history always remembers the games with the perfect reviews and the record sales, sometimes the best examples of the industry’s work have neither and become forgotten to all but the few who recognized them for being something special.
Will Kratos' latest tale grow stale?
Upon learning about the direction of God of War: Ascension, I was hesitant to fully back this game. Instead of re-inventing the series, or continuing from the somewhat ambiguous ending of the third installment, Ascension was to be yet another prequel that would tell I was already familiar with. While the plot of the game still screams “useless filler” to me, my time with the game reminded me why God of War was so good to begin with. The absurdly high production values, a simple and stylish combat system, and larger than life set pieces in this thirty minute demo roused my interest in the series once again.
New features incoming!
Howdy PixlBit friends! As you know, the site is in need of a few upgrades to improve its usability. As such, I've been working hard to roll these features out as quickly as possible. Today's changelog isn't too hefty, but I think it's a good starting point for some of the bigger stuff coming down the line.
The controversial Japanese game developer leaves a legacy of genre bending titles.
Last week was kind of a crazy week of news for video game fans of all walks of life. Naturally the PS4 announcement took up the lion’s share of the attention, and with good reason considering how long the current console generation has lasted. Obviously big and sad news hit a lot of people close to this website with the announcement that 1up would be closing, and some excellent writers getting laid off. With all of that commotion it’s easy to forgive if you didn’t realize that Kenji Eno died last week, as well. You can also be forgiven for asking who that is, because although Eno was a legendary game designer to a lot of people, he was also an enigma that hadn’t been in the gaming news for over a decade.
No, seriously, we're raging over here.
They boys are back this week, and they mean business. Jesse ruffles some feathers early by declaring Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch overhyped (but still good), before professing his undying love for all things Fire Emblem. Then things get a bit ugly, as the boys prognosticate on the future of gaming, which may lead to some small amount of rage and depression.
Henshin-a-go-go, baby!
It’s been a while, but you knew this feature couldn’t stay away forever. That’s right, it’s about time that we had ourselves another installment of Missing in Action!
A great party never just happens.
If there’s one thing the Etrian Odyssey series requires, it’s time. Even though the games eschew the game clocks we’ve become accustomed to, most people who play through to the end (and beyond) estimate that they spend more than a hundred hours exploring the unforgiving dungeons. If you plow into a game of this scope with only the most basic of parties and expect to stay engaged for that amount of time, you’ll likely give up and walk away. Creating a party with unique tactics and strategies is pivotal to be successful and to have fun with these games since the story is minimal to the point of being a secondary concern.
Only with your help can we make PixlBit great.
I am humbled. It’s impossible to feel any other way at this particular moment in time. Well, maybe just a wee bit overwhelmed. I feel that too. After three and a half years of running the site, we’ve never seen a response quite like this. I too mourn the loss of 1up, but I couldn’t possibly feel more proud and honored to have all of you refugees claim this site as your new home on the Internet.
