PixlBit

(Triple Triad from FF8)

You can call me a hypocrite all you want. I won't deny that there is a hint of truth behind it, well, when it comes to Review Sites anyway and how I feel about them-- they seem more like fanboy marketing departments for games companies rather than consumer advocates sometimes. I used to follow Joystiq.com but more recently read their MMO focused site Massively regularly. Recently Joystiq dropped reviews for their games because they caused controversy and didn't align with Metacritic rules or whatever, but I suspect the real reason was that their bad reviews for games was affecting the salaries of the developers. This I think is bullshit. If the game is bad then say it's bad, controversy or not. Reviews should help consumers know if a product is good or bad, and if a game is released buggy and unplayable, then it is bad. You don't give benefit of the doubt to Devs. 

Massively on the other hand is a really great MMO site and I have a lot of respect for them because they don't necessarily give MMOs reviews, but they play the hell out of MMO games for a long time, like years, and cover them with daily or weekly blogs, like ours on here on Pixlbit, because MMOs are always evolving and it just makes sense to have continued coverage. They've been covering every MMO release for years and I really appreciate the hard work that goes into doing that. It's pretty daunting. Their podcasts are very informative and they keep up to date with all the MMO news, patches, updates and even answer questions from followers and comments sections regularly.

So, it really pains me to see these two gaming sites go down. Although I have mixed issues about Joystiq, they did a hell of a job covering the gaming community for years plus their articles are more blog-like and personal which I enjoyed.  First it was 1up.com, now Joystiq and Massively. Part of the reason I started blogging regularly was to fill a void that was left behind after 1up went down. I was considering giving blogging/gaming a break for a while but now that two more sites have gone down, I feel like I should be blogging more regularly than before, especially since Massively went down, which I visited daily actually. 

Hopefully these sites will exist and live on in another format the way some 1up writers went over to USGamer. Speaking of which, USGamer has a new podcast which features Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey, plus Kat Bailey is doing an RPG podcast soon.  

As much as I like to complain about other sites, I still feel like the writing community is quite small and niche and I'd hate for more sites and their communites to disappear. Speaking of which the reason for the sites going down has some other bullshit to do with page views or something? I feel like more blogging is the best way to keep the game enthusiast fire alive.

What are y'alls thoughts on Joystiq, Massively and the AOL sites shutdowns in general. I feel like this is bigger news than Microsoft Hololens or whatever.  
-asreal  

Since the whole Metroid Prime Trilogy is on sale for $10 on WiiU eshop, I'd like to know if anyone played the game on Wii and what you think of motion controls? I'm disappointed that Nintendo didn't allow for Gamepad or ProControl support. I got to bust out the dusty old Wii Motes and look for batteries I guess. But, my God! $10 for all 3 games! OMG!

 

I scoffed at the idea of Dragons Dogma becoming a subscription based MMO, but as it turns out it will be Free To Play and you can play with up to 4 players online. It's supposed to come out on PC, PS3 and PS4 but I don't know about a western release.

(Don't be scared if you don't get this reference. If you do, then you are fuckin old too!)

First off, Happy New Years Everybody! Glad to see you all here again! 

As you know, winter is usually a dead spot for gaming, thus not too many blogs from me. Plus, I don't own an Xbox One or PS4, so that limits my choices a bit.

Anyhow, I saw this really stupid article up on Yahoo front page, actually the #1 article on Yahoo's front page titled this:

Do You Want To Know More About THE EVIL WITHIN...?

I was meaning to go over some of my favorite games this year with a more in depth hindsight point of view, and this post on NeoGaf showed up that pretty much explains what maybe I couldnt about the gameplay experience. That is that while you do power up while you progress through the game, the game also takes away as much as it gives to maintain a balance, making the whole experience kind of stressful from beginning to end. Most other games that let you power up your build basically let you become over powered to the point where enemies stop posing much of a challenge and you start striking everything down like a hot knife through butter, The Evil Within does not let you do this. The boss fights are cruel and inventive, and you always seem to have just enough ammo to get by, despite your strength.  Conserving ammo is necessary and adds to your strategy, not to mention  traps and confusing level navigation for extra challenge. 

If you haven't played the game and are interested in more details visit the NeoGaf thread.
I agree with most of the points, however there are a lot of naysayers in the comments. Interesting read nonetheless.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=960796

@asrealasitgets Top 10 List of 2014.


10. Endless Legend (PC)
One of the many games that weren’t on my radar this year but then captivated me after playing it was Endless Legend, the Civ style, Empire building/management simulator set on an alien planet. I was particularly drawn in by the beautiful visuals and the many options for starting races-- they all seem so unique with their own lore, histories and motivations for colonization. The planet you inhabit can be particularly hostile, complete with seasonal weather cycles that look really amazing. The whole game map seems impassible when it’s covered in snow during the winter, there even seems to be less light as well just to make things more visually interesting.  I don’t normally play these types of games and I had to visit several forums and wiki pages to figure out all the nuances in order to make a dent on my progress in the game. There is a very handy tutorial in the beginning that does a good job of leading you in to the game, but it honestly requires a bit more research than that which I didn’t mind doing. The game is just very beautiful. If a game in this genre managed to pull me away from MMOs and backlogs then it deserves a mention on my top ten of 2014!