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The Gaming Backlog! This is for people who enjoy reading commentary about video games and related topics and news.

Post-Divorce Bonding with My Daughter with Minecraft

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I actually don’t remember why I first bought Minecraft. The game came to Xbox 360 in 2012, when my daughter was only two years old. I noticed the game through YouTube videos, watched it grow and become more popular, but I didn’t really want to play it. It seemed like a game for kids. I didn’t understand how complex the game could get until I started seeing people post videos about how they were using Minecraft’s in-game tools to create things like working calculators. Sure, that’s nothing I need; I’m not going to boot up minecraft if I need to work out a budget. But the idea that the game would offer the tools to do something like that made me take notice. Maybe it wasn’t a game for little kids after all…

…Then again, my daughter did need a few new games to play. The only games that she really seemed to enjoy were a Nintendo Wii Zoo game and Red Dead Redemption (Yes, I let my daughter play Red Dead Redemption, and it was everything I hoped it could be). Maybe she’d like this digital version of Legos, and maybe I’d find something about the game to like, too. After all, I was still curious. The game had survival elements, and that was intriguing to me. Not only did I have to find resources to build a shelter, I had to hunt for food to survive! That seemed like a relaxing way to spend some time, maybe something to do while listening to music.

We got the game when my daughter was about six years old (I think). She was getting better at video games but still liked the easy stuff. We started the game, walked around for a while, punched some trees, and then something attacked! I don’t remember what it was, but it made a sound… probably a zombie wanting brains. My daughter screamed, tossed the remote, and ran away. Well, that worked like a charm! Back to Red Dead Redemption for my kid, a game that won’t be too scary for her (I know, it doesn’t seem like Minecraft would be scarier than Red Dead, but that’s the world we live in. It just is!).

Eventually, I somehow got my daughter to give Minecraft another shot. Actually, more than likely, she saw one of her friends playing Minecraft, realized she still had the game, and then decided that she wanted to play the game her friends were playing. That’s fine, I’m not jealous. I swear, I’M NOT JEALOUS! Regardless, when we started playing again, it was miraculous. It was the beginning of an ongoing adventure that a small girl-child and a fully grown man-child would both enjoy for years to come.

My child’s big idea was to create a zoo. She’d learned that she could spawn animals into the game while in creative mode. She also learned that monsters wouldn’t attack while we were in creative mode. Needless to say, we were basically in creative mode all the time. Her favorite animal was the wolf, because of Red Dead Redemption.

We decided to cut into a mountain and turn it into a “natural wolf habitat.” We cleared out enough space to spawn a few wolves, and then I noticed a mountain looming in the distance that made our little wolf sanctuary seem insignificant in comparison. Perhaps I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive, or maybe I’m just odd, but I immediately wanted to clear out the inside of that mountain and turn it into a hollowed-out luxury apartment complex. I got to work. As I cleared out the insides of the mountain, I assigned my daughter the task of making it appealing to all the animals that would live there. I built individual rooms and staircases. My daughter decorated the insides with colorful carpets and banners, placed furniture and paintings, and spawned wolves with special collars to help us recognize them. Her favorite wolf was named Magenta and wore a magenta collar. We built a monument to Magenta at the top of our colossal mountain.

It was beautiful.

Now let me tell you how this Minecraft file jumped the shark. It was my fault, of course. After seeing the wonder of our natural mountain tower, with all its inside and outside ornaments and splendors, I decided to create the biggest structure I thought I could handle: a skyscraper that stretched all the way to the Xbox 360’s build limit. This wasn’t a 10 x 10 box, either. It had enough room on the first floor for several roomy wolf hotel rooms, there was a giant red carpet leading to two matching majestic fireplaces, and staircases going up to the next floors. The project took weeks to complete. My daughter tolerated my obsession, but not without frequent breaks to take our wolves for walks around the island and to visit our mountain palace.

As I continued to build, I noticed one huge flaw; when I began the project, I thought I had started far away from all our other projects, but now the once-magnificent view from the mountain palace’s windows were obscured by a sheet of endless gray that went above the clouds. There was no view worth seeing. I floated the idea of exploding the gray monstrosity to oblivion, but my daughter was too invested in the project herself at that point. She had wolves living there! We had spent so much time building it! So there it was, a boring, gray, rectangular prism towering over our beautiful (but modest in comparison) mountain home.

I can’t complain too much. My daughter thought it was funny to make fun of the missing view that we’d once appreciated so much. “Let’s see what’s going on outside, Daddy… yep, I still see a big gray wall!” And then we put a leash on our wolves and visit everything we’d worked on, beautiful, ugly, incomplete. My daughter was a huge fan of Katy Perry at the time, specifically the song “Double Rainbow.” We’d walk the wolves, explore the dark corners of our mountain, climb the floors of our skyscraper, and listen to “Double Rainbow” until we were both exhausted.

It was one of the best times of my life, even though it was also one of the hardest. All of this occurred in the years after my divorce, and these memories are some of the last I had when seeing my daughter was a regular occurrence in my life. Now it’s mostly phone calls and Face Time, but those moments built a lasting impression on me so strongly that I could feel their impact on me even as they were happening. I knew they were special. I knew that I would miss them when they were gone. I enjoyed them while I had them. Those memories help me look back at that time in my life with joy, and it was because my daughter and I found a game that we could both enjoy together. I think that’s one of the best things people can hope for: finding mutual interests and bonding over them.

I Let My Young (3 yr old) Daughter Play RDR because Barbie’s Horse Adventure was Trash

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When my daughter first started playing Red Dead Redemption, it was because her Barbie Horse game was basically garbage in comparison. No child of mine is going to have to tolerate a subpar horse riding game simply because she’s young and susceptible to marketing tactics that target children to sell them less-than-acceptable products. Having a well-known brand slapped across the box doesn’t make it good!

But hey, I’m a problem-solver, and I solved the problem of poor graphics and even worse gameplay by replacing that dollar-bin Barbie game with the Triple-A masterpiece that is Red Dead Redemption. I set rules and made sure to monitor my daughter as she began her adventure through New Austin at the age of three. My lord, she was barely able to lift a game pad, much less perform the nuanced Wii remote maneuvers that Barbie Horse Adventure required. She hadn’t developed the hand/eye coordination to zip through the cheaply animated landscapes of Barbie’s boring barnyard. But when she took that Xbox 360 controller to play Red Dead Redemption, she knew two things: the yellow button made the cowboy get on and off the horse; the green button made the cowboy and the horse go fast! She was a natural! I was watching a master at work!

Initially, there were a couple pitfalls. I’d had the idea not long after getting Red Dead Redemption, and I still wasn’t completely familiar with the game mechanics. I’d played long enough to know that I could expect a reasonable level of safety if I just rode the horse back and forth across New Austin. I turned the game volume off and replaced it with music I’d loaded onto my XBox 360’s hard drive, a created playlist made specifically for my daughter; no swearing. I told my daughter, “If one of the game characters tries to stop you, ride away. If you see a glowing spot on the map, that’s a movie scene; ride away. If wolves start to attack you, press the green button over and over again to ride away.” My daughter knew the rules, and she followed them.

… and then she rode her horse off a steep bank. It killed the horse, and she was sad. Okay, remember, I was still new to the game myself, and I had honestly never had the horse die. I’m not sure if I thought the horse couldn’t die, or more likely, I just wasn’t thinking about the horse falling and dying. If it got shot, yes. Attacked by wolves, sure. But now by tripping over a rock or rolling down a hill. Whatever it was, I didn’t expect it. But hey, Red Dead Redemption was just a game, and maybe the game would let me revive the horse. I walked up to the horse, saw a button command, and I thought, “Ah, there we go, I can bring the horse back to life with horse medicine, or whatever!” I clicked the button command without reading it. I was trying to prevent my daughter from feeling bad about the dead horse, so I wanted to hurry. But no, the command wasn’t to bring the horse back to life, it was to skin the poor animal… My daughter was both horrified and fascinated. I was also horrified and fascinated, but both were for different reasons. My daughter was horrified because the cowboy she’d been pretending to be was now skinning the horse she had been making him ride. She was fascinated because… well, she was three years old and faced with animated death and the realities of how leather is acquired. I was horrified because I’d pressed the button to skin the pretty horse, and I was fascinated at the level of realism Red Dead Redemption portrayed. Damn, what a great game!

My daughter quickly recovered in a matter of seconds. I’ve always been realistic with her: what’s real, what isn’t, etc. I’d already started reminding her that the video game horse wasn’t a real horse before I’d hit the button to skin it. I told her nothing had actually died, everything was fine, we could just reload the game, everything would be just like it was before and we can pretend like the horse never tripped and fell into a hole. It will be fine. So after I hit the button to skin the horse, I quickly reminded her it was just another pretend thing, created to show how cowboys would use animals to make clothes. She was satisfied. We restarted. Everything was fine. Everything was like new… except she was curious to see what else could happen in the game. She had realized that there were levels to this game that were far beyond her, and she wanted to learn what they were!

About a week later, I noticed her slowing down when wolves would come close. I gently reminded her that if she wasn’t going to follow the rules, she wouldn’t be allowed to play the game. Stay away from the wolves. Ride away. Reluctantly, she rode away. She admitted that she was curious to see what would happen. I simply said, “They’ll bite your character and your character’s horse. The wolves are trying to eat, because wolves eat meat.” She seemed satisfied, and honestly, I don’t think she wanted to see that. Remember, she was still only three years old, maybe four… still young enough to genuinely not understand what might happen if the wolves caught her and still young enough to be afraid once I told her.

Then, one day, wolves appeared suddenly (remember, the sound was off, so we couldn’t hear the warnings. No growls or vicious barks, just Katy Miley Cyrus singing Wrecking Ball and Darius Rucker singing Wagon Wheel – It was a long time ago). The wolves scared my daughter. She tried to recover and save poor John Marston and his horse, Elsa (It was that long ago)! She handed me the controller and said, “Help!” But it was too late, the wolves had won. The wolves had killed John. I looked for my daughter’s reaction. She said, “Well, the wolves had to eat. That’s just wolves being wolves.” I made a note to encourage my daughter to start writing for a fortune cookie company, and then I reloaded the game. My daughter has been obsessed with wolves ever since.

One of the biggest takeaways I have from this experience is that Triple-A developers could easily create settings that let young children enjoy their games. I feel like I might dedicate an entire blog post to that topic, because it seems important to me for some reason. I think what bothers me the most is how manipulative developers for kids’ games can be… I mean, I think there is a lot of manipulation going on, regardless, but it seems particularly bad when children are the target. They rush out cheaply made games, put a cartoon on the box, and tell kids it’s fun and exciting when it’s really just cumbersome and ugly. I feel like Triple-A games could throw in just a few options (no swearing, no NPC interactions, just a free roam option) that would deal a huge blow to some of these easy-money cash-grabbing titles like Barbie Horse Adventure. And Barbie isn’t the only offender. There are plenty of well-known characters from children’s programming that are guilty of this. They know kids are easy targets, and they take advantage of it. I think it’s time for game developers who create high-quality content to take a chunk out of the kids gaming market.

GTA 6 Rumors: Release Date, “Trailer” Leak, Location, Characters, Everything We Know!

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Much of the gaming world is anxiously waiting for GTA 6 news, especially confirmation from Rockstar about what’s actually true and what will actually be in the next installment of their hit franchise.

Rockstar has “officially announced” GTA 6 was in the works, but I think most people probably already expected that. GTA 5 was released in 2013 (the first time it was released), so it’s been almost a decade since a new Grand Theft Auto has come out. However, we are probably getting closer to the time period when rumors start becoming more accurate. Yes, we always have to take rumors with a grain of salt, but the internet has a pretty good history with EVENTUALLY getting the information right.

An industry insider, named Tom Henderson, has speculated that the game will probably be released between 2024 and 2025. Since we’ve barely heard much official news about the game from Rockstar, I’m thinking a 2025 release date seems most likely. If an official trailer drops before the end of 2022, though, GTA might actually release by the holiday season of 2024.

Either way, that puts us somewhere near the beginning of prime rumor-gathering season. 

Speaking of game trailers, there was at least one bogus “leak” so far. This Twitter account claims that someone sent them a video of the GTA 6 trailer on Rockstar’s official YouTube account. But alas, Rockstar realized their mistake and removed the trailer before it was too late! Sure, bud. Some have pointed to the fact that the ESRB wouldn’t have been able to rate a game that’s still in development. That’s true, but I have to point out the idiocy of someone trying to break news by showing the absolute worst part of the alleged GTA 6 trailer. Seriously, who would show the rating instead of the gameplay? Why take a pic when you could record the entire trailer on your phone? Hell, why not just send a link to the video? The answer… It’s an obvious fake. There was never a link to any GTA 6 trailer to send. Myth busted.

Other rumors seem to have a bit more credibility. For example, people keep referencing a picture of a house with the palm trees out front. This one:

So what’s the big deal? It’s a house with some palm trees. Yes, exactly! That’s a clue to the possible location of GTA 6. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City took place in the 1980s, in the GTA equivalent of Miami, Florida. GTA 6 might not take place in the 1980s, but there’s a significant possibility that players could be back in Vice City for this next installment.

But why is the house significant? Why are people saying it’s a clue in the first place?

Because it’s a new addition to the GTA: San Andreas remake!

Rockstar has been known to hide clues and Easter eggs throughout their games in the past, so we can probably assume that it’s something they’ll continue doing. They’re a company with relatively intelligent staff who seem to understand how gamers think (most of the time). They knew the GTA Remakes would be scrutinized and studied by GTA fans, so they knew fans would start asking questions about this mysterious house.

GTA 6 is also rumored to have multiple playable characters. This should be a no-brainer. GTA fans loved being able to switch between three unique characters in GTA 5, so it makes sense Rockstar would keep this feature for GTA 6. I’ve heard different information about the specifics of the multiple playable characters, though, and I don’t trust the credibility of those specifics enough at this point. I’ve heard that we might have two playable characters, a brother and a sister who are kind of like opposing forces, perhaps even a good vs bad dynamic. I’ve also heard that we’ll get three unique characters again, basically the same thing as what we got with GTA 5, except different people. Again, the specifics are more speculative than the overall claim that Rockstar would want to use the popular mechanic of multiple playable characters again.

One last rumor I’d like to mention is the rumor that says GTA 6 will incorporate Bitcoin into their game in some way. To me, this seems like a strange feature to add, but perhaps Rockstar is willing to push the addictive nature of speculative “investments” on their player base. What?? Rockstar would be willing to manipulate their customers?? Shocking, I know!

Look, I love the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Love it. But anybody who denies the huge profit Rockstar has made through micro-transactions hasn’t been paying attention. There’s a reason they could afford to sit on the success of their most popular game for a decade; it was consistently raking in tons and tons of money.

They didn’t have to rush to make another game. They didn’t have to make additional single-player DLC. They struck gold by taking advantage of new marketing strategies within gaming. They’ve been milking their base. Love them or hate them, they’re a business, they want to make money, and they figured out how to do it. I’m not sure how Rockstar could implement actual Bitcoin transactions in GTA 6, but I don’t think it’s impossible. The worlds of Crypto and NFTs constantly make headlines, many of them not very good, especially now, considering the crypto market seems to be spiraling downward at a breakneck speed. Crypto and NFTs don’t have to be successful for Rockstar to benefit from them, they just have to stay trendy long enough for Rockstar to cash in. If there’s any rumors we can bank on, it’s that gaming companies will find a way to get theirs, and we might be left holding the bag. I’m interested to see how technology and gaming continue to mix worlds, but I hope it doesn’t continue down the path of psychological manipulation and greed (oh, what a naive young man I still am).

What do you think? Are any of these rumors true? Is it still too early to tell? Am I a millennial boomer who doesn’t understand Stonks, HODL, and going to the moon? Will Dogecoin make a comeback, because he’s such a good boy? Will Seth Green ever get his NFT apes back?

Let me hear from you! You can find me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1. Happy 4th of July! May the force be with you!

Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom

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There was a presentation of Doraemon Story of Seasons at the recent Nintendo Direct Mini. The game looks like it would be a fun and relaxing way to spend some, but I really don’t think this game seems unique enough to pique my interest.

There were parts in the extremely short trailer that made me think of the old Facebook game, Farmville. Since that time, we’ve received new games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing that scratch the itch of those specific vacation life and farming niches.

The visuals aren’t particularly impressive. They don’t have to be mind-blowing for the type of game this is, but the art direction of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing don’t look like cheap mobile game apps. Sorry, but that’s a huge mark against Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom.

Gawd, that name. I’m sorry, I know I’m starting to nitpick, but this game hasn’t earned the right to a fourteen syllable title.

Let’s get back to the mechanics: The characters move like I would expect a 10-year-old mobile game to move; the farming looks like one of the earliest non-black and white sequels to Harvest Moon; and some of the animations look like they were lifted from more popular franchises (like the character catching the fish and holding it up to the camera – most fishing mini-games do something like that, but this looks suspiciously close to how Animal Crossing does it)

I think the big question comes down to, why would I want to play this game.

“Well,” you might say, “maybe you wouldn’t want to, but I do!”

Okay, fine, Mr. Imaginary reader, you don’t whatever you feel like doing, but there are better games with shorter names that do exactly what Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom does, and they do it better! But I’m no hater! If you’re furiously pounding away at your KEYBOARD right now, explaining why I’m wrong in every way about this game (I should only hope for such a passionate response to my opinions), then go ahead and have fun! I know Stardew Valley is over six years old by now! I know Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a couple years old, too! Maybe you’ve got your value out of them and want something new. Hell, not everybody is like me! Some people play modern games and don’t take two decades to finish their PS2 games. I get it……

Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom launches on the Nintendo Switch sometime later this year.

Let me know what you think about it by finding me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1. I’m looking forward to building my community and hearing different opinions. I want to hear from you!

Sonic Frontiers

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I haven’t been excited about a Sonic the Hedgehog game since Sonic and Knuckles. The formula never looked right to me, and the reviews were all over the place. I’ve been informed that there have been good Sonic the Hedgehog games since leaving the Sega Genesis (Sonic Mania?), but I had my doubts.

Now, a new Sonic game, called Sonic Frontiers, is coming, and it’s getting some mixed reactions. I’ve heard some people say it looks “too much like Breath of the Wild.” Um, excuse me, but don’t people love Breath of the Wild? I know we shouldn’t encourage theft, but Breath of the Wild doesn’t own the rights to open fields and interesting landscapes! Let Sonic play in the yard, bay-bee! Thankfully, there are plenty of Sonic lovers who are ready to give Breath of the Hedgehog a chance.

One of the biggest reasons I think this game could work is the (new?) lock-on ability. I don’t think previous Sonic games have used lock-on mechanics, but I do know it saved The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Without Link’s lock-on battle mechanic, I really don’t think The Legend of Zelda would have translated as well as it did to the Nintendo 64. Open world 3D games with lots of action have to make sure the player doesn’t get confused and frustrated (I’m still looking at you, Epic Mickey! After seven years, I’m still not over it!). The lock-on mechanic for Sonic not only looks like it will make the game work, it looks addictive to play. Sonic seamlessly changes direction midair to attack different objects, and that has to be a satisfying experience.

 According to the recent Nintendo Direct Mini, Sonic Frontiers is set to release this holiday season!

Tell me what you think about Sonic Frontiers by finding me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1. I’m looking forward to building my community and hearing different opinions. I want to hear from you!

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

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Tactical adventures seem like something I should enjoy. I love turn-based RPGs, and I used to buy a lot of real-time strategy games (Age of Empires, Command and Conquer). Tactical games like Sid Meirer’s Civilization, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Mario + Rabbids should also have a place in the cold, dark recesses of my old gaming heart.

I almost… ALMOST, bought the original Mario + Rabbids while I was surfing through a recent Nintendo eShop sale listing. But then I thought about my frustrations playing Final Fantasy tactics, a game that is beloved by so many gamers, and decided Mario + Rabbids wasn’t a game for me.

After watching the new trailer for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope during the recent Nintendo Direct Mini event, I might reconsider my opinion about trying a new tactical adventure game, especially since this one includes some of my favorite characters (Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser).

I know I’ve watched reviews of the original Mario + Rabbids game before, but it just didn’t captivate me like the trailer for Sparks of Hope did. I think world exploration is a new feature, because I don’t remember it being in the original game. The different worlds seem unique and vibrant, each with their own personality. It makes me feel like I could spend a lot of time in each of them without getting bored too quickly.

The characters also look interesting and fun to interact with. We have the familiar cast of Mario characters, but we also have some weird looking humanoids (those must be the rabbids) that cosplay as some of the Mario characters.

Mario + Rabbids: Spark of hope lets your characters gain experience points to level up, which is wonderful for cheaters like me who love to cheese their way through games. Hey, listen, sometimes I just like to watch numbers go up. The numbers. Must. Go. Up.

If I do eventually grab a tactical adventure game, I’ll probably grab Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. It looks friendly enough to be approachable but deep enough to provide meaningful challenges. Then again, Final Fantasy Tactics is a lot cheaper than I thought it would be; I might be able to get a copy from EBay and find out what led to my frustrations so many years ago. Ahh, I just love torturing myself.

Tell me what you think about Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope by finding me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1. I’m looking forward to building my community and hearing different opinions. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Grand Theft Auto 6: Rumors I’m starting!

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This week has been pretty serious so far, and that doesn’t capture the entire spirit of this gaming blog. Sure, I love talking about gaming memories and, doing video game reviews, talking about first impressions, etc., but every now and then I feel the need to blow off a little steam. Today, I’m going to blow off a little steam by talking about Grand Theft Auto 6!

Anybody who’s on Twitter knows that there are plenty of GTA 6 rumors going around. It’s been that way for a couple years now, and it will probably be that way all the way up until GTA 6 finally releases (which, according to Twitter, will be when “me an da boys” are old men with gray hair).

I’ve seen plenty of GTA 6 rumors, but I don’t think of rumors as a spectator’s sport. Hell, it’s not a sport at all! It’s more like art! It requires finesse, style, and a healthy dose of bull****. So, because the world loves lists, here’s the top 5 rumors I’m starting about GTA 6:

  1. The 3-character system of Grand Theft Auto 5 was so popular that GTA 6 is also going to make use of that system. You’ll get to switch between all the main characters, their closest relatives, and their pets. Rockstar teased this feature when they let us see the world of San Andreas through Chop’s eyes.
  2. Rockstar likes to use different decades and locations to define their entries into the Grand Theft Auto franchise. When CD Projekt Red was going through their Cyberpunk 2077 disaster, Rockstar decided to rub their noses in it by setting GTA 6 in the year 2077. Rockstar’s GTA 6 will be Cyberpunk 2077, except better and more fun.
  3. GTA 6 will let players build and custimize their own houses. Most GTA players will inevitably put their players into rooms and then delete the doors to watch their players starve to death. Maxis will cross their arms and say, “hey, they can’t do that, can they?” But yes, Rockstar will do that, because Maxis is run by a bunch of nerds and Rockstar likes being the badboy of game developers.
  4. RPG mechanics will be introduced. Fans of Elder Scrolls will abuse these mechanics to jump across the city and create game-breaking magic spells.
  5. Because the complete choas and ridiculousness of GTA Online made Rockstar stupid rich, they’ll use the same formula for GTA 6. The game will be a complete mess, and the abuse of microtransactions will make it a terrible experience. Many people will complain, but everyone will play.

Let’s check back here again in a few years, whenever the game comes out, and we can see if I got anything right!

Until then, follow me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1.

Finding my Gaming Blog, Reflecting on my Backlog of Games

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Follow me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1

Okay, so obviously the woman in the picture isn’t me (I’m a man, man), but that’s basically the expression I had when I found this blog again.

I have to say this upfront: this post is for me. If you’re not interested in me or my personal history with this gaming blog, then you’re not going to care about this post. There’s going to be a lot of reflecting and reminiscing, because reading through my old posts was a true trip down memory lane. It’s been over six years. Six years! I never thought I’d see this blog again. I thought it was lost to the blog abyss, never to be read again. But then I searched for one of my old books. That’s right, I wasn’t even looking for this blog, I was looking for some stories I’d written a long time ago. I wanted to find the cover art for one of my books! I found it. It was a random post that I’d made on this blog, basically saying, “hey guys, I know this isn’t a blog about creative writing, but here’s my horror book if you’re interested in reading it.”

So, I stumbled onto my old gaming blog, but I obviously couldn’t log into it, right… right?

First try. I was in. I checked the analytics, assuming that readership had completely died after I’d stopped posting six years ago. Nope, readership had actually grown for a couple years before starting to trend downwards, and I still had significantly more readers than I’d expected, even up to last year! You guys liked my content! You really liked it! People wanted to read my stuff! YES!

I started to read my old posts, and that’s when things started getting sentimental. I read my posts about the time I used to spend with my daughter, playing Epic Mickey, Kingdom Hearts, and Red Dead Redemption (Don’t judge me! Go back and read the post for yourself! It’s not as bad as it sounds!). I read about the games I’d like to play, except it’s six years later and some of those games have been completed and put away without proper reflections (which I intend to correct). Reading my old gaming blog really was like reading entries in a personal journal, reminding me of things I’d forgotten, inciting emotions, making me laugh, making me sad… It made me realize that I want to make sure I have something to look back on another six years into the future. I had to start writing again. I had to get the blog back in order. For better or worse, I’m going down this road, and hopefully I can even earn a few bucks along the way. If not, and if the work becomes too time-consuming to continue for free, I’ll always have my memories!

Let me now go back to the beginning. Blog #1. This is what I said:

“Around the time Xbox One came out, I took a long look at my backlog of video games, and noticed that I had A LOT of games that I’ve never finished. For a long time I’ve bought games on a whim, and they usually end up on a shelf, collecting dust. I have a lot of really great games, but I’ve barely beaten any of them. It’s time for that to change. In the spirit of having some fun, I’ve set a goal for myself. I won’t buy a new console until I earn the right to have one. Meaning, I need to beat some games!”

Such an optimistic young man I was, just barely scratching thirty years old, and my mission was a noble one! I set my goal at a modest 35 games. I would later change the goal to 50, because 50 is obviously more badass than 35. I explained why I wanted to undertake the challenge: I wanted to earn the right to play modern consoles. If I couldn’t beat the games I already had in my backlog, I had no business buying a new console and getting even more games.

Well, I know now that I would eventually give up on the goal. My failure would start right after stepping away from this blog. I would lose sight of the goal, because I was no longer digging into my backlog and writing about my experiences. Eventually, a Black Friday sale would drive me into GameStop for a steeply reduced PS4. I would walk through GameStop’s doors, skin burning as I dwelled in that cursed place, and I would happily walk out with my “current gen” console… Well, first, the guy working there would tell me that there weren’t any PS4s available. Then, he would go check and somehow find several PS4s that hadn’t been stocked yet… But he wasn’t aware of any Black Friday sales going on with the PS4s…. And then, as I was standing outside the door, looking on my phone to make sure I hadn’t been a dummy with incorrect information, one of the other customers came out and said, “hey, he found the sale.” I went back in and finally got my PS4. THEN I happily walked out with my “current gen” console.

(Oh GameStop, I hope you never get meme-stocked again. I wish you a peaceful future next to the last Blockbuster, an ode to media relics of the past.)

I also left the store with a copy of Red Dead Redemption 2, the long-awaited masterpiece that was truly the straw that broke this gamer’s back. I just couldn’t stand living in a world where I couldn’t ride the horses and be the cowboy. I had to have it.

Last year, my sister got tired of her Nintendo Switch, so that also came into my possession. I think I’d mentioned some of the games looking pretty fun, and she said, “You can have mine. I never play it.” And I said, “Well, I mean… only if you really don’t want it.” And inside my head, my brain screamed, “WHAT GAMES AM I GONNA GET WITH IT?!”

With a PS4 in my posession, I had failed my self-imposed challenge. But I don’t feel like the challenge was without value. It pushed me to complete many games from my backlog, and, more importantly, it caused me to reflect on them. I believe that thinking about the content we consume adds significant value to it. Most of us have become mindless scorollers, always looking for the next thing down the scroll bar (keep scrolling, please). The point is, every now and then we should stop and think about they stuff we’ve been reading/watching/playing/listening to, etc.

Several of the next posts in my blog, right after the introduction and explanation of my backlog challenge, were about my Backlog Game List, which I should probably update for those of you keeping score at home. There are games on that blog post that I’ve beaten, some that I’ve acquired, some that I’ve tested the waters with, and some that I just flatout gave up on. For example, the .Hack series; I owned the first game in that series, but I decided not to get into it because some of the other games were too expensive…. Just out of curiosity, hold on just a sec… Okay, thanks to the power of the internet time travel, my research is already finished: A complete English set of all four PS2 .Hack games (Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine) is selling on Amazon for $999. No thanks, that’s not for me. You can have those.

It would be interesting for me to go over the games I had in my backlog and see how successful I’ve been over the years. I’d still like to knock some games off my list, but I’m not even sure what the list looks like anymore. That will be something fun for me to do as I move forward with this blog.

I was initially going to share my thoughts about the various articles I posted so many years, basically as a way for me to collect and regroup my thoughts, but I see now that a task like that would not only be exhausting for me, but it would also be redundant and pointless. It would be redundant because I’m inevitably going to explore previously covered topics in a natural way and as I discuss what my gaming backlog currently looks like (what I’ve finished, what I’m playing, what I still want to play). It will also be pointless, because nobody is going to enjoy the reflections in the same way I’m going to enjoy them, and reading through the reflections will be enough for me. My writing time can be better spent with new content, instead of dwelling on old content. This post was a sufficient rehashing, and I feel better prepared to move forward now. There will still be an update of the current state of my gaming backlog for any interested parties, mostly because I’m curious to see what it looks like now.

If you enjoy this kind of transaction-free content, please follow the blog! I’ll be posting consistent daily content!

I’m trying to reach a blog milestone: Let’s see if I can get 5,000 views in a month! Please, like and share my content if you enjoy it! It really does make a difference!

Follow me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1. Tell me what kind of content you’d like to see, or tell me about your own gaming experiences! I’m looking forward to hearing from my gaming family again!

I’ll talk to you soon!

Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase 6/28/2022 – My Thoughts

Posted on by Gaming Backlog

Capcom opened the showcase with a trailer for a Monster Hunter Rise expansion called Sunbreak. I’ve always thought the Monster Hunter games were pretty interesting, and this one looks like it would be a lot of fun to play. I’m not sure what the soundtracks for these games have been like in the past, but the song from the trailer was cute. The Monster Hunter games can get grindy, so it’s a good idea to have a great soundtrack.

The Expansion is set to release on June 30, 2022.

The first free title update, Seething Bazelgeuse is coming in August 2022.

Free demo already available.

Neir: Automata: The End of Yorha Edition, was next. It portrayed a dystopian future where humans had to live on the moon. Apparently, the Yorha are an android army (probably not for long, considering the title). This edition of the game has previously unreleased content, like different game modes and extra costumes (I think I saw an Okami mask). The trailer looked nice, full of action and interesting art design. It focuses on the battles between machines and androids

Launches: October 6

Next was Lorelei and The Laser Eyes. It was billed as a “modern take on puzzle adventure games.” It looked fine for the kind of game it is. There’s nothing fancy going on here. You’ll either like the art direction or you won’t. I actually do like the use of bright bursts of color in an otherwise black and white game. However, I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games. If you are, this game is set to release in 2023.

Super Bomber Man 2 is coming, and it’s boasting a new “castle mode.” I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about Bomber Man, and this game doesn’t look like my cup up tea. If anybody wants to explain the appeal of this game to me, you can find me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1.

There wasn’t much in the middle of this Nintendo Direct that kept my attention. There was some stuff about Megaman and Mario Rabbids, but neither of those news bits seemed particularly interesting to me. Mindcraft Legends seemed interesting, but I’d like to learn more about it before discussing it.

Live a Live definitely looks like something I would play. It looks like an old school RPG with different time periods, and it gave me some serious Octopath Traveler vibes (HD-2D?). It’s coming out on July 22, but a demo with three playable chapters is already available.

What DID get my attention was Dragon Quest Treasures. By the look of some of those images, I could have swore this was going to be a microtransaction-heavy game. It still might be, and that would be a shame. It looks like it has the potential to be a cute base-builder game with all the trappings of Dragon Quest for fans of the series. You recruit monsters, find loot, and use your earnings to improve your loot-finding capabilities. Mmmmm, that sweet dopamine loop is calling to me. The game even seems to borrow some Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild mechanics. But if microtransactions rear their ugly little heads, then it’s a sad day for Dragon Quest fans!

I know I didn’t cover everything. I am but one man, unpaid and underappreciated. If there was something in this Nintendo Direct you’d like me to delve into, let me know on Twitter @JDtheWriter1.

Thanks for reading!

The Gaming Backlog Returns!

Posted on by Gaming Backlog

Wow, it’s been a long time since I said I was gonna take a break. I’ll go ahead and give you the details upfront:

D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

Covid.

Career Change.

But I’m back, and so is the Gaming Backlog! Coincidentally, this is my 100th post, so we’re primed for a special comeback! For my old friends who are still following this blog for some reason, what the hell are you doing? Didn’t you notice I’ve been gone for over six years? Also, thanks for sticking around. I promise to start providing CONSISTENT content for people who enjoy reading about gaming while sipping on their morning coffee. I’m not trying to sell you a course or post generic takes about the top 10 highest ranking SEO-optimized videogame results! I’m here to post my honest thoughts about games that interest me while (hopefully) building my family of devoted followers (don’t drink that kool aid! Not yet!).

We’re here to have fun, discuss gaming topics, and make up Grand Theft Auto 6 rumors (oh yes, we will!)

I’m not an egomaniac, so I won’t bore you with the usual “what I’ve been doing” commentary. We’ll get right back into the gaming topics like it’s 2015 and we never took the path down the bad timeline. Covid? What’s Covid? No way, man, that’s not in my gaming backlog!

However, there is a burning question on maybe 1 or 2 people’s minds right now! Did I finish 50 games before buying a new console? Did I complete my self-imposed Gaming Backlog challenge?

NOPE!

It was just way too many games!

So which new console(s) did I end up getting? I’m the happy owner of a PS4 and Nintendo Switch, now!

So, here I am, readers, smiling happily as a modern gamer, and I ehh….. PS5? Xbox Series X? Why no, I don’t don’t have either of those… Dear readers, I guess some things never change. I am proud to return to you again today one console generation behind as usual. Love ya!

Stay tuned! Follow this blog! I will be posting consistent daily content! Send messages, and tell me what kind of content you’d like to see. Tell me about your own gaming experiences! I’m looking forward to hearing from my gaming family again! Also, you might have noticed a slight re-branding of this site. Don’t worry! Information Overload is the name of the umbrella website that will host several different categories of blog content, but the gaming content can easily be found by clicking “Gaming” in the menu!

I’m setting my first blog milestone: Let’s see if we can get this thing to 5,000 views per month! Help me come up with a prize for reaching that milestone! For the love of classic gaming and content that doesn’t include micro-transactions (yet), like my content and share it if you enjoy reading my work! It really does make a difference!

Follow me on Twitter @JDtheWriter1 (that’s right, I have social media now!)

I’ll see you soon!