Killer is Dead Trailer Made Me Have An Existential Crisis

Okay, it didn't really cause me to have a crisis, but the first trailer for Suda51's Killer is Dead game did get me thinking very critically about my gaming life. It made me remember how incredible an experience playing Killer7 was back in 2005. It hooked, amazed, confused, and challenged my perceptions of games. I have rarely had such feelings with other games since. At the moment, I can't think of even one other time since, but I believe they are there.

Regardless, Killer is Dead is not a game I expect to bring back that spirit. It still seems closer to Suda's older works though (rather than his newer school "punk's not dead" credo stuff like No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw). Granted, it looks to have a large dash of NMH anyway, but what can you do?

The trailer is a bit risque in both sexual and violent content so keep that in mind before giving it a watch.

I Beat 29 Games in 2012

Last year was very interesting for me. Although I was writing reviews before, it really seemed that a new amount of responsibility was dropped on my shoulders in 2012. With that, I ended up reviewing a lot of stuff. So much, that it quickly became impossible to beat everything. Sure, I did my best to complete short adventure games or 10 hour adventures, but when things went on and on past 25 hours, my time became truly limited. Although I always made sure to have a grasp of at least 80% of the entire game before reviewing, it was just too much to be asked to complete each and every one.

Because of this sort of forced "gaming ADD", I beat far fewer games this year than last year. Still, any amount is sizeable to me. This is because, before joining Backloggery, I would barely finish any game unless it absolutely enthralled me. Only since I have been on that site have I been able to see my beat amounts per year sit in double digit territory. Still, my beat/unbeaten ratio on the site is quite paltry, but expected.

Regardless, here are the majority of games I beat this year. It's possible I may be forgetting a few, but my list will no longer be changed/updated. The reason no titles are included is because it would make the image too cluttered for my taste:

Here's hoping that 2013 is a year when I can beat this score!

2012 Reviews in Review

With 2013 beginning, it's hard not to reflect on the past year. 2012 was a very interesting year for me in regards to writing. It is probably obvious to see that my blog has been much quieter than it was at the start, and this is mostly due to the shift in reviewing habits. As the year went on, I reviewed more and more, and became more comfortable with it.

Although it is fun to review games, it did make me think about a few things. For one, with reviews very often on my plate, I felt that I was rarely able to enjoy games that I wanted to play "just because". Instead of flipping through my PS2 collection to find a new gem, I was usually forcing myself to play a game for review. Thankfully, most games I ever review are ones I'm interested in, but there is something to be said for free gaming time as opposed to gaming with a goal in mind. In this post I will share a couple charts which show off various stats for my year of reviewing and links to all my 68 reviews.