Backlog: The Embiggening – February, 2022
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/29/22 at 04:59 PM CT
The shortest month of the year is back with 28 days’ worth of crap.
For the second month in a row, there’s no blatant shovelware being dumped on the unsuspecting game-buying public. That’s good news! I wonder how long it can last...
As with last month, though, February isn’t letting off the gas in the slightest when it comes to ports, remasters, remakes, and whatnot. Indeed, the Nintendo Switch – the near-constant Port King for the last half-decade – is getting several ports of remasters: “Grand Theft Auto Trilogy” and “Assassin’s Creed: Ezio Collection.” But that’s not all the Switch is getting dumped on it; it’s also getting “Life is Strange: True Colors.” However, the Switch isn’t the objectively worst dumping ground for February, as the PS5 is getting both “Tormented Souls” and “King of Fighters 15,” is sharing a port of “Assetto Corsa Competizione” with the SeX, while the Playstation 4 and XBONE are getting a port of PC-centric …
WTF? Microsoft to Buy Activision
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/23/22 at 03:26 PM CT
The Triumvirate of Evil is about to become a duo. This week, Microsoft, the tech giant of operating systems and productivity software – and also-ran gaming platform holder – announced that they were going to buy Activision-Blizzard for nearly $69 billion dollars. No, that’s not a typo!
Microsoft has been on a buying binge over the last few years, fattening up the Xbox Games Division with the scattered remains of once-great Western videogame publisher, Interplay, along with a number of other smaller-and-Indie studios like Double-Fine. It was earthshaking when Microsoft bought Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks and id Software, last year, but buying one of the three biggest, evilest gaming publishing houses for more cash than most of us mere mortals can truly conceive of is positively earthshattering.
Microsoft representatives have made statements to reassure the fanboys of “competing” platforms that their favorite third-party multi-platform games …
New Year’s Backlog Ablutions 2022
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/16/22 at 02:20 PM CT
The MJ Crew is back from an extended holiday break, and the results of the last year’s re-re-revised New Year’s Backlog Ablutions are in. After tasting the bitter sting of failure and growing my own personal backlog by three penalty games in 2020, most of us buckled down and cleared our ablutions. I, of course, have never failed this challenge since we started it in 2019, but for 2021, I wasn’t alone, as both Chris and Erstwhile Matt managed to clear and review the three games allotted to them – even if it took constant badgering and ass-riding on my part to steer them away from failure.
That, of course, leaves Nick. While he actually did put some effort into clearing his three Backlog Ablutions in 2021, said effort didn’t actually manifest until December 30. Procrastination’s a real bitch, eh? So, alack, and alas, Nick failed the Backlog Ablutions challenge for the third year in a row, and since everyone else succeeded, he owes each of us a game off our wishlists …
Backlog: The Embiggening – January, 2022
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/08/22 at 04:41 PM CT
A new year is officially upon us, as 2022 roars in with… more COVID, more home-grown extremism on both fringes of the U.S. political spectrum, more economic woes, more China being China, more Russia being Russia, and generally no indication that things on the grand scale are going to improve any time soon. (Seriously, how is the U.S. bursting with Omicron Variant cases, while the Taliban puts no effort into public health and Afghanistan’s COVID situation never makes the news?) But what about GAMING? What about that most glorious form of escapism, where we can forget about how awful the real world is, and enjoy fictional scenarios where the Good Guys win, violence solves everything, and progress is inevitable? Neverending corporate greed is ensuring that gaming’s going to suck too. Let’s take a look at the new year’s opening releases to see just how hard it’s going to suck. After all, January sets the tone for the entire year!
We can, at least, rejoice in one small …
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