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Gaming

September Releases

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And so it begins — September marks the beginning of the full-out assault on gamers’ wallets and time.

Xbox 360 banner

Week of September 6th
Driver: San Francisco – You know it’s going to be a good week when Driver looks to be the weakest title of the week.
Dead Island – While I may be a Dead Rising kind-of-guy, I’m willing to branch out. Dead Island, here I come!
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine – I’m not familiar with the Warhammer 40k mythos (we’ve got James for that) but I’ve been hearing about this chainsaw sword. I can get on board with a weapon like that.
Rise of Nightmares

Week of September 13th
Supremacy MMA
NHL 12 – Not a hockey fan myself, but I’ve heard this is a really good game this year.
Gunstringer

Week of September 20th
Otomedius Excellent – Normally, I’m intrigued by games that have titles that I can’t pronounce. Then I saw the box-art. I think I’ll be passing.
Tropico 4
F1 2011
Gears of War 3 – Gears of War is a force of nature. I always find myself inextricably drawn in. I won’t buy it, but I will play it.

Week of September 27th
FIFA Soccer 12
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 – Two soccer games in one week? This makes me wish for the old days of Madden and NFL 2k.
Oblivion Game of the Year Edition – Still priming that Skyrim pump.
X-Men: Destiny

Wii banner

Week of September 6th
Driver San Francisco

Week of September 13th
Bit.Trip Complete

Week of September 20th
Chuck E Cheese’s Super Collection

Week of September 27th
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny
X-Men: Destiny
FIFA Soccer 12

Nintendo DS banner

Week of September 20th
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 – At first it looked like the DS had been abandoned. Nothing but shovelware the first couple weeks. Then we come strong with this week, starting with some DQM
Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns – Then Harvest Moon (which means: time to link my Harvest Moon review! Which I wrote six years ago, to the day! That’s a lot of exclamations!)
Kirby Mass Attack

Week of September 27th
X-Men: Destiny
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter

Nintendo 3DS

Week of September 6th
Star Fox 64 3D
Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection – I think 3D pinball could be a KILLER 3DS app.
Driver: Renegade

Week of September 13th
Balloon POP 2
Bit.Trip Saga 3DS

Week of September 20th
Frogger 3DS

Week of September 27th
FIFA Soccer 12

PC banner

Week of September 6th
Driver: San Francisco
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters
Dead Island
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine

Week of September 13th
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Week of September 20th
Alter Ego

Week of September 27th
Dungeons: the Dark Lord
Air Conflicts
Janes Advance Strike Fighters
Oblivion Game of the Year Edition

PS3 banner

Week of September 6th
Driver: San Francisco
Dead Island
Resistance 3 – It’s going to be a good month to be a PS3 owner
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (Premium Edition) – A real good month.

Week of September 13th
Supremacy MMA
White Knight Chronicles II
NHL 12

Week of September 20th
F1 2011
Child of Eden

Week of September 27th
FIFA Soccer 12
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny
X-Men: Destiny
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Air Conflicts: Secret Wars / Game

PSP banner

Week of September 27th
FIFA Soccer 12

There’s quite a few choices this month. What are you picking up?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

Weekend Gaming

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Games, games every where but not a lot of time to play them. This past couple weeks the Buttonmashing Homestead has been a beehive of activity as we got ready to unload eight years worth of accumulated “stuff” in a garage sale. We were successful in getting rid of about 75% of it, with the rest going to Goodwill. We now have an empty basement and a feeling of accomplishment. But last weekend didn’t leave too much time for gaming. This week, however, we’ve been kid-free as they enjoy their last bit of summer vacation at their grandparents’ house while Mrs. Buttonmasher and I have a few days to ourselves. Which means, after the honey-do list is done, MORE GAMING!

So what have I been playing? I finding myself on a small screen (compared to my 50″ Samsung) and an even smaller screen than that. On the PC, I’ve been playing with a couple free-to-play (I have decided to eschew the F2P acronym that I despise) — Age Of Empires Online and League of Legends. I played in the Age beta but I’m a complete newbie to League of Legends (another acronym I refuse to use) and I’m not sold on it yet. I’ve played the tutorial twice and the first training battle twice and I’m not quite sure I get it. Yet, at least. I’m giving it a fair shake, though. I’m TheGreenDestiny if you want to play. I’m also playing a few iPhone games. I still can’t give up Tiny Tower, I’m loving Groove Coaster, and I’m trying to make a go at Trade Nations.

And I think I’ll finally settle in to some 360 gaming this weekend. I still have Bastion and Crysis 2 to play. What are you playing this weekend?

Torchlight II too big for Xbox Live Arcade

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I haven’t decided if I’m gutted by this news or if this is a “meh” kind of story. From Eurogamer:

Super-sized PC action RPG sequel Torchlight 2 is too big to fit on Xbox Live Arcade and will need to be “comprehensively redesigned” if it’s ever to see a console release, developer Runic Games has revealed.

I mean, Torchlight is a PC game at heart, that’s where I played it first and fell in love with it there. Sure, I’ve probably played the Xbox Live version more than on the PC, but that’s more of a convenience thing than a quality thing.

I will play Torchlight II on whatever platform it’s available on. If it makes it to the Xbox Live Arcade, that’s just gravy.

(via That Video Game Blog)

August Releases

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August, what have you done? Where is the marque game? I know Madden comes out, but it’s not till the end of the month! Deus Ex is a good start and everyone excited about El Shaddai but that’s it. I guess I’ll go play some more Bastion.

Xbox 360 banner

Week of August 1st
Saint’s Row Double Pack Limited Edition

Week of August 15th
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

Week of August 22nd
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Week of August 29th
Madden NFL 12 – I may pick up my first copy of Madden since I bought Madden 2003 for the Gamecube. All because of the cover athlete, Peyton Hillis, who plays for my team, the Cleveland Browns.

Wii banner

Week of August 1st
Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension

Week of August 29th
Gunslingers
Madden NFL 12
Sing4: The Hits Edition w/Microphone

Nintendo DS banner

Week of August 1st
Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension

Week of August 15th
Pucca Power Up

Week of August 29th
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 – The real question is: will someone play this for 700 hours?

Nintendo 3DS

Week of August 22nd
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked

PC banner

Week of August 8th
PC Railway Simulator

Week of August 15th
Age of Empires Online – This is probably my only other pickup for August. I really enjoyed the Beta and I was invited to get in early, so I’ll be jumping at the chance for that.

Week of August 22nd
Sail Simulator 5 Deluxe – If I’m going to list Rail Simulator, I gotta list Sail Simulator. I’d really like to meet someone who’s played the first four games. Can it be that popular that they’re working on #5?!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Lord of the Rings: War in the North

Week of August 29th
The Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles
Patrician IV Gold Edition
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
Tropico 4

PS3 banner

Week of August 1st
Bleach: Soul Resurreccion
Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension

Week of August 15th
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise

Week of August 22nd
Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Week of August 29th
Bodycount
Child of Eden
Madden NFL 12

PSP banner

There are a ton of Japanese Importsavailable for the PSP this month, but the only game I recognize coming out this month hits at the end of August:

Week of August 29th
Madden NFL 12

What are you picking up?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

DQ IX’s Marathon Man

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I recently located my previously-believed-to-be-lost cartridge of Dragon Quest IX. I loaded it back up and gave it a go just to keep my familiarity with the game fresh before it goes dormant again for another month or two when I pick it up to play it again for another couple hours and set it aside once again.

Anyway, I noticed that I had logged about 40 hours in the game. That’s quite a few hours for any game, but DQIX has a lot to do and see so it’s not uncommon for gamers to log quite a few hours playing it. But my 40 plus hours? That’s nothing:

Steve Tolin has been playing since the beginning, plucking away at the cartridge’s every nook and cranny. The last quest finally allowed him to complete his ultimate objective of exploring every part of the game.

He had originally projected this ambitious task to take him 100 hours. As it turned out, not quite.

It took him 773 hours–just over 32 days–of game time to cross the 100% completion threshold.

(via Giant Bomb)

In My Digital Hands

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So I had heard good things about Bastion from people I trust so I figured I’d pick up a copy as soon as I got a chance. Luck would have it that if you purchased it on the Microsoft Store online, you also got a free copy of The Maw:

And speaking of good deals, I also picked this up last week when it was half off:

Got to get my Dead Rising on whenever I can.

So I am once again stock piling games. I only grabbed a couple games during the Summer Steam sale, but I’m starting to get my inventory stocked before the cold rolls in in a few months.