While the Xbox 360 arrived in 2005, its impressive next generation software did not hit stores until 2006. The year also saw the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, meaning a ‘new’ console generation had just begun. As usual, Sony’s system had an awful launch lineup, and thus, none of its games…
Category: Opinion
The Never Ending Realm features video game reviews, fan-fiction, fan-art, and more! Since 2003. Read all of our opinion pieces here!
TGIF: Which was the Largest “Next Gen” Console Leap?
I guess, if I asked someone the question of “what have been your favorite home console ‘next gen’ moments in any console generation?” The answer would be largely dependent on the age of the person being asked the question. To me, these special moments took place during the 32/64-bit era. The transition from 2-D to…
Games That Will Cost You a Kidney: Thousand Arms
Thousand Arms, like other games on this weekly feature, is not prohibitively expensive. If you are willing to gamble with your money on “resurfaced discs”, you can get the game on Amazon for about $189.00. This (the price point) is a whopping $169.00 more than I paid for my physical copy of the game about…
The Best Games of 2005 According to GameRankings
2005 is here! It brings the last hurray of the short PS2, GC, and Xbox console cycle. In the home console space, the Xbox continued to dominate critical reception with its high-quality titles and superior rendition of multiplatform ports. The PlayStation 2 continued to punch above its pedestrian hardware specs by showcasing some impressive late…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Re-Loving Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Vesperia is my favorite Tales game ever. After more than a decade without making a serious run through the game, I decided to give it another try last week. Basically, playing older JRPGs is difficult for me these days, because if I already know how the story ends, I quickly lose interest in…
Games That Will Cost You a Kidney: Alundra
Editor’s Note: We have read your comments from our previous “Games That Will Cost You a Kidney” features, and most have been positive, and thoughtful. However, some of our readers have complained that a few of these games “do not cost a literal kidney” because they could be found for much less than $600 in…
The Best Games of 2004 According to GameRankings
2004 was a star-studded year in gaming. The year is competitive with 1998 in terms of high-quality games. With this in mind, many great games missed the top ten listing. Games such as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, NFL 2K5, and Doom 3 all missed the cut. As always, we rarely consider…
Games That Will Cost You a Kidney: Suikoden II
Konami’s Suikoden is a respected franchise within the Japanese role-playing game genre. The series has been dead in the west for about a decade and a half as its last title Suikoden V was release in 2006 to little fanfare. As it often happens with dead role-playing game series, its older titles gain monetary…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Alundra is a Grown Up’s Zelda Game
This week, as I continued to play Elden Ring, I began to look back at what games were tough, or tougher than Japan’s newest poster boy. Some of the 2-D Castlevania games were very difficult. Even Castlevania 64 was quite challenging if you went for the good ending. Castlevania 64, in particular, did not…
The Best Games of 2003 According to GameRankings
If 2002 was a hallmark year for the Nintendo GameCube, then 2003 was an amazing year for Xbox owners. Out of the ten best games (as rated by critics), 4 were Xbox releases and only 2 were PS2 titles. At this point, Xbox games had started to surpass other consoles in terms of visuals and…