I love you, you love me...
Howdy folks! Julian here again. It's close to Valentine's Day, or Single Awareness Day as I like to call it. Last year, Patrick came up with a very smart, high-brow topic, but this year I decided to be super uninspired and talk about romance in vidya games. Join us, will you?
Step 1: Talk about video games. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit!
Hey there, folks. Julian here. So, I've been going through a lot of personal stuff for the past, oh, year or so, and it's starting to come to a head. What that means for you is we don't have a topic this week because I was too frazzled to come up with one. However, my pain may become your pleasure, because somehow we managed to have a two hour show with a ton of different little discussions that turned out pretty well.
He came in like a wrecking ball...
Welcome back to Backloggers! We're waist deep in Asura's wrath in this episode. Before listening you should have played up to the end of episode 9. Come join Julian, Angelo, and special guest Erika Szabo as we talk all about Asura.
Winners in our hearts.
Voting is a funny thing. It’s hard to argue with addition, but there are plenty of instances where some of the staff thought a title or two got overlooked. Even though our GOTY 2013 article used some inarguable mathematics to come to the PixlBit staff’s consensus opinion, some of us thought there were games that should have gotten a few more votes. To highlight some of the games that each of us took a particular shine to in 2013, we present our staff’s personal picks that didn’t make the cut.
Our staff's best games of 2013!
Video games had an exceptional year in 2013, with tiny indie teams getting attention for their creativity, and the usual budget behemoths stealing national headlines for their record-breaking sales. Two new consoles also hit the scene right at the end with a few titles that did their best to break into our top five.
I got 53,594 problems and a zombie ain’t one!
As Sony and Microsoft battle it out for a new generation of consoles, the place where things are most crucial is with the exclusive titles. With both consoles on a somewhat level playing field, everything comes down to the games, and the Xbox One has a strong first showing with Dead Rising 3, a title that gives a good look at what the new machine can do while also highlighting some things that could be improved.
A perfectly fan-serviceable, but mindless brawler.
Despite the variety of games classified as brawlers, they typically fall into one of two camps: Those that have deep, complex mechanics and require thoughtful, strategic combat decisions and memorization of enemy tactics, and those that are simple, fun, and generally don’t require a whole lot of thought. These are games like Streets of Rage, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Musou games like Dynasty Warriors. Senran Kagura Burst falls squarely into this second camp, but that doesn't mean it’s not a unique experience. Senran Kagura Burst is probably the most Japanese game I've ever played, and that’s really saying quite a lot.
In a complicated world of wacky demons, you sometimes feel right at home.
I would love to say that I’m a huge fan of the Disgaea series, however, I’ve never played a single title within the saga until Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness. If there was ever a game to make me fall in love with a series though; it would be this game. I entered this lengthy saga with my mind wide open, and I fell in love with a punishing and grindy game that continually made me go back for more. This colorful adventure (colorful in more ways than just its palette, I assure you) proves that a deep combat system coupled with childish and quirky humor can be crafted into something beautiful that will entertain for hours on end.
