Backlog: The Embiggening - March, 2015
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/28/15 at 04:06 PM CT
Winter is officially over, but it sure doesn’t feel like it when temperatures are still frigid and so much of the United States is still covered in a thick blanket of never-melting snow. What kind of games will Spring bring to warm us up? Probably a hot, steaming load of manure!
There is surprisingly little shovelware coming in March. There’s a new ‘LEGO Ninjago’ game hitting both handhelds (the Vita and 3DS for those not paying attention) and a new annual release for “MLB: The Show.”
There are a few more ports and remasters than there are bits of shovelware, serving only to pad out the release numbers without adding anything new. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are having two compilation bundles dropped on their moldering corpses: The “Ultimate Action Triple Pack,” which contains “Just Cause 2,” “Sleeping Dogs,” and the rebooted “Tomb Raider,” along with the “Ultimate Stealth Triple Pack,” which contains the rebooted “Thief,” “Hitman: Absolution,” …
Should Nintendo Do Like Sega? The Final Word.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/22/15 at 02:53 PM CT
Nintendo, the developer/publisher/hardware maker that single-handedly saved gaming in North America during the 1980s has not been doing well lately. And by “lately” I mean “Since 1998.” With the exception of the Wii – the success of which now seems much more like a fluke, in the same manner as a viral video, than a repeatable formula for success – Nintendo has been struggling along since the N64, propelled primarily by their own first-party software and the legions of fanboys who think the company can do no wrong.
Unfortunately, it seems that everyone who isn’t a Nintendo fanboy is some sort of militant anti-Nintendo hater. The anti-Nintendo camp primarily relies on single-word arguments such as “kiddie,” “casual,” or “milking” to explain why Nintendo should just go out of business already instead of releasing consoles like the Gamecube or WiiU that don’t really have any third-party games. Of course, when the anti-Nintendo crowd talks about …
Nintendo’s Emulation Secret Revealed
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/15/15 at 02:11 PM CT
The friendly hackers of GBAtemp have, once again, laid bare the inner workings of a Nintendo gaming platform. Where Team Twiizers opened up the original Wii to homebrew and emulation via their fantastic Homebrew Channel, a homebrewer named Smealum is responsible for opening up the 3DS.
However, what is the most interesting about the news of the 3DS being hacked isn’t the fact that it is now possible to run homebrew on Nintendo’s latest handheld (provided one refrains from ever downloading official updates again). Instead it is the newfound knowledge that Nintendo has fully-functional emulators and has been holding out on us.
When the Virtual Console first launched on the Wii, many people assumed that instead of a garden variety emulator, such as the ones that have been floating around the Internet for over a decade, old games sold via the VC were encased in a custom wrapper that allowed them to work with new hardware. That illusion has been stripped away with the revelation …
Come Join the New MeltedJoystick Steam Group!
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/06/15 at 03:07 PM CT
With the massive disappointment of the nascent 8th Gen consoles and the massive improvements PC gaming has experienced over the course of the last 8 years, the MeltedJoystick crew has found ourselves moving from apathy or outright hostility toward PC gaming to picking Steam as our preferred platform for most things “AAA” and Indie. With the surge of PC game reviews coming from Chris and myself, it only makes sense for MeltedJoystick to jump on-board with Steam’s new game curation program.
Anyone with a MeltedJoystick profile can request to join the MeltedJoystick Crew Steam group and participate in discussions and heated banter (just send Chris a Private Message). Those without a profile can still follow MeltedJoystick as a Steam Curator in order to see our latest Steam recommendations as we review them. MeltedJoystick members who write Steam game reviews of a high enough quality to win the Featured User Review slot in our quarterly Review Roundups will also have the …
Backlog: The Embiggening - February, 2015
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 02/01/15 at 02:52 PM CT
Winter is almost over, and the money-spending rush of Holiday Season 2014 is long behind us. It’s February, and gamers who even bothered to make New Year’s Resolutions have probably abandoned them by now. What about the developers and publishers, though? Well, if they resolved to make more crap, then they’re doing a great job of keeping up!
The shovelware is beginning to creep back into production. Fortunately, it isn’t quite in deluge amounts, yet. February is bringing the world both “Spongebob Heropants” (to tie-in with the upcoming live-action/CG ‘Spongebob’ movie) and a new ‘Dragon Ball Z’ game (because ‘Dragon Ball’ fans just never get tired of it, apparently).
In the realm of ports, “Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires” for PS4 and XBONE has been delayed until this month (who knows, maybe it will get delayed again!), PC is getting “MX vs. ATV: Supercross,” and Nintendo is porting one of the worst ‘Zelda’ games to the 3DS.
Coincidentally, in …
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