To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little weird about the whole “video game” thing.

That’s not to say that I’m shutting down the site, or even *gasp* giving up gaming, it’s just that the industry feels weird now.

I keep all of my legacy consoles. I love a good arcade when I find one. I currently play things for my 3DS, Xbox 360 and Steam, as well as a few iOS games, but damn it all if I can’t figure out this new generation.

It’s like game consoles don’t want to be game consoles anymore. I really started thinking about this after the Xbox One reveal in relation to my own personal tastes in gaming. Granted, I like the idea of carry on my profile and Gamerscore legacy. I think that’s a natural fit, but there are some things I’m not liking. All of this digital ownership that makes it seem like the User doesn’t “own” anything anymore. The “always on” Kinect somewhat creeps me out, despite assurances that privacy will be the forefront of concerns. I don’t want ads directed at me over random, private conversations. I don’t want intimate moments Read the rest of this entry

I’m getting a little better on the whole posting thing. I don’t know what it is with me and this year. I barely have any time to write anything these days, much less on here.

But I have been busy on Twitter, of all things. I’m usually not the biggest Twitter enthusiast, but it just seems better to post bite-size chunks right now.

But I have been gaming again, which is good.

Let’s see, I’ve picked up a few games: Sonic Generations and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for Xbox 360, Epic Mickey 2 for Wii, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for 3DS, and took advantage of the Fall Steam sale, where I raked in a few Lucasarts point and click titles, Binding of Isaac, realMyst, and a few more. Again, where to find the time….

(Here’s my Steam profile, by the way, in case you wish to add me.)

Gaming interest wise, I’ve been on a Sega kick of late. It seems like Sega is getting back to embracing its roots again, which is refreshing. I loved the Master System, Genesis, and Dreamcast, and looking back, they really did provide some innovative content that Nintendo never did. That’s Read the rest of this entry

Tonight, I got to see a preview of Wreck-It Ralph in 3D.

If you want the short of it, it’s now one of my “Top 10″ Disney animated films.

The long of it, however, is best explained for a number of reasons. And you can start with the poster:

Basically, this is Toy Story for video games. What happens when the arcade closes for the night?

This movie has a TON of cameos, making Captain N: The Game Master look pale by comparison. You can spot dozens of games in the 30 year time progression of the arcade, from Star Wars to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to a virtual “Who’s Who” of classics. That’s nothing to say of the cameos of characters running around in “Game Central Station”. These two scenes alone are going to cause a lot of frame by frame scanning when it comes to home video. One cameo moment actually shocked me how “true to character” they were. I won’t reveal anything, but there are a few delightful nods. Surprisingly, however, is how devoid of Nintendo this movie is. Yes, Bowser is in there, and there are two other nods, but Nintendo was Read the rest of this entry

I’m still here!

Okay, granted, it’s been a while. A long while. But life sort of got in the way with massively spraining my ankle, a near two week vacation, and a constant hustle to keep gigs in. All of this hasn’t left me much time to play video games, and it’s kind of hard to write a video gaming blog when you aren’t constantly in the subject matter. I haven’t even picked up New Super Mario Bros. 2 yet.

But I’ve done a few things here and there.

For starters, the Classic Gaming Expo. came to Fremont Street at the Plaza this year. While not as big as the one in 2010, there were a few notable moments. For example, there was the usual collection of gaming goods:

I got to play Fix-It Felix Jr.:

I ran into a few old friends:

Yes, that’s Howard Phillips from the early Nintendo Fun Club/Nintendo Power days. I also met David Crane of Pitfall! fame, but he was a little strange about taking a picture with me, unless I went to his talk that he was holding later that day.

But not a bad day. Came out with a few Lynx games (Pinball Read the rest of this entry

The funny thing is, I was planning a Tron post as it was, and then realized that today was the 30th anniversary of the film. I figured I may as well blend my planned article with this bit of news.

I was six years old when I saw Tron in the movie theaters with my Dad. I was blown away by the vivid colors, the wild effects, the excellent score, and mostly, it was a film about digital warriors fighting inside of a computer. This whole life inside of an arcade game or an IBM. It made you reevaluate the idea of “Game Over” for the hundreds of Pac-Men and Space Invaders that fell by the wayside in the name of entertainment.

Looking back, Tron is a modern day Wizard of Oz set inside a tiny world of circuitry and microchips. E.T. beat it out for “Best Special Effects” because the use of CGI in a movie was considered cheating(!) – And it wasn’t that Tron had an easy time in remaining in the annals of movie or sci-fi history. Outside of a few toys from Tomy, two arcade games from Midway, and three Intellivision titles from Read the rest of this entry

Seriously. I am.

I know it’s been a long time since my last post. Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are that it took so long, but I feel it’s only fair to say what’s been going on.

I got busy.

And not just any standard issue busy. The sort of busy that you look up and realize that two months of your life have just up and disappeared. It’s been hustling for gigs, a change in job, a ton of requests from nearly as many people, some of my ideas for the site didn’t come through, and it just added up to the point where I barely had any time for myself, much less updating my content here. And let me tell you: My time away from here was apparently an open invite to blog spammers to dump their garbage in my comments section. 362 deleted messages later, and I’ve finally shooed those buzzards away.

But enough about me. The good news is that I have been doing a little bit of gaming, which means more reviews and content. I’ve been watching the new Tron Uprising series (which if you aren’t watching, you need to Read the rest of this entry