Retail Video Games for the Rest of the Year (2015)

It is time again to look at which video game titles that i may want to pick up for the rest of the year.  Of course, i won't be getting any of these until the Black Friday shopping season.  There are an abnormal amount of Blu-Rays coming out during that time that i'm interested in anyway.  i would like to spend a maximum of $100 for the rest of the year (hoping for 3 retail games - including already released).  If i don't spend it maybe i can save a little for next year (ReCore, Quantum Break and Scalebound).

Some of these might have "Game of the Year Edition" versions coming later anyway.  This is, of course, assuming i don't win the lottery between now and then - how i hope that is a flawed assumption.

Xbox Ultimate Game Sale

Well, the Xbox "Ultimate" game sale started on July 7th (actually some were a day earlier).  It is slated to end around July 13th.   


I found this to be a disappointing sale.  Enough with the up to 50-60% off stuff.  Just say "20% or more off".  Overall, there wasn't really much that I wanted.  The big disappointment for me was that Ori and the Blind Forest was only 25% off with gold (not much of a sale is it?).  I refuse to pay $20 for an XBLA game (no, I will never think of these "indie" games as anything other than XBLA games) - that's why I was waiting for a sale. 


So, there wasn't much there that I really wanted.  Does that mean I didn't purchase anything?  No.


I ended up getting: Lego Batman 3, Tales from the Borderlands (telltale), Game of Thrones (Telltale, though I can't stand the boring show) and Ori and the Blind Forest.  The only game that feels like it was a decent deal was Lego Batman 3.  I could probably get the other games toward the end of the year for less (I could probably get Lego Batman a little cheaper too).  The one game that was a little tempting that I didn't pick up was Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition for $15 (maybe that will be cheaper later too) and I already beat it on the 360. 


So, why did I get these games now (when these weren't great deals)?  It is the way I do budgeting.  This was using cash from a previous period now so I still have my allotted amount to spend from now until next June.  I know it sounds crazy, but that is how I do things.   

Gamerscore: 101,001

101001, I wonder what that means (it seems like it should mean something). 


Well I finally broke the 6 figure Gamerscore mark (a couple of weeks ago) - more on that if I ever get around to it.  It is kind of strange having a Gamerscore ending in a 1.  I would like to thank a lack of a life, Games With Gold, Deals With Gold and increased Gamerscore for previously "Xbox Live Arcade" type games for helping me expedite this task (about a year sooner than I expected). 


Maybe i'll have a post breaking it all down in the future if I feel like it (not a sure thing)


I guess those hours spent on Neverwinter paid off (though I'm not really a fan of the game).  It isn't going to stay there for long (since they added some really easy achievements to Project Spark - especially since I still have Premium for another month).     

Game Room: The Final Leaderboard Post (i mean it this time)

i decided to take another look at the Game Room leaderboards.  I think these should be final since Game Room is no longer listed (I had to go to my download history to re-download it and the game packs).  I'm positive more games were sold than are suggested by the leaderboards (stupid leaderboard tiers - 10/100/1,000/10,000).  Taken on March 29, 2015. 

List of Games that i Will Never Beat (unless i do)

I decided, for no good reason, to post a list of games on my Xbox 360 and Xbox One (maybe someday my original Xbox) that for some reason I've given up hope on ever beating.  I define beating a game as beating story mode and seeing the credits (except for a few oddball games like Minecraft)


i'll try and include a "reason"/excuse) why (hint: too hard will likely appear often, all games should have an easy/casual setting - and some are even too hard at Easy).  There are a bunch of Games with Gold games (or at least deals with gold) that I started once then forgot about - or just never revisited. 

i Suck at Video Games... Let Me Count the Ways

Ever since i first started playing video games all those unspecified years ago i have had kind of a like/frustrated as hell relationship with them.  Yes, i have broken at least one controller by spiking it into the ground.  

It seems i have limitations that maybe i didn't used to.  i wonder how people look fondly on video game difficulty.  Difficulty = frustration, frustration does not equal fun (and i have a low tolerance for frustration).  i get no net satisfaction from lingering on a tough section - if i finally overcome it.  i hate the trend of masochistic games (Dark Souls and the like).  Every game should have an Easy/Casual mode (no, there is no such thing as "too easy").

List of Xbox One ID@Xbox games that seem remotely interesting to me

Now that GDC has come and gone, there have been some new ID@Xbox games that were announced.  There are some previously announced games that I hadn't looked into. I'm sure most of these will be out of my desired price range (why bother buying games at launch when they will be at least 20% cheaper in 3 months?).  i wouldn't go $20 for any game on this list (and these games will probably be too hard for me anyway).  I don't know enough about most of these.  Some of these will probably show up as Games With Gold