Satoru Iwata Passes Away at 55

A legend of the gaming industry has left us. Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11^th, 2015. I couldn't write this right away, not even a week after was I able to really put my feelings about this event onto paper. Iwata had said “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.” This alone shows why so many people loved him, and how he could craft and help to craft games which spoke to so many people.

For me personally, I was growing up with Iwata's games and didn't even know it. From one of my favorite early NES games Balloon Fight, to porting the battle system for Pokemon Stadium on the N64. So many of my favorite games could have never seen the light of day without his work. I remember the joy I felt when playing Kirby's Dream Land for the first time, or when I saw my would be rival staring into the Professor's window in Pokemon Gold/Silver.

Nintendo as we know it may not even exist today if it was not for Iwata's business acumen. He took over as President in 2002, while the company wasn't quite as profitable as it had been. With his strategies to make games that were fun for everyone, and fostering a relationship between Nintendo and Capcom, Iwata was able to prove his worth as the first President of the company who was not related to the Yamauchi family who founded Nintendo. Iwata eventually took over as CEO in June of 2013.

More than anything though, I believe most modern day gamers will remember Iwata from his charming personality and humor in the Nintendo Direct videos and his Iwata Asks segments where he often would interview other Nintendo employees. This is one giant of industry who touched the hearts of gamers everywhere, and will be sorely missed. He is survived by his wife Kayoko Iwata.

Please understand, Satoru Iwata has advanced to the next stage.

Bit Brigade at the Blind Tiger

So I got to see Bit Brigade live for the first time, and I've got to say, it was pretty damn great.  For as many times as I've played parts of their albums on the radio or a podcast, it pales in comparison to catching these guys live.  Better yet, they've managed an awesomely entertaining speed runs through one of the classics (with perhaps one of the best soundtracks to boot): Metroid.

Fallout 4 concept art analysis

E3 has come and gone, and Bethesda left a lasting impression on veteran fans, new fans, and industry leaders alike. They blew all expectations out of the water with their press conference, finishing off with the 30 minute presentation of Fallout 4 by Todd Howard. Now, what’s interesting about the structure of their presentation is that it built from the ground up. Most other presentations had a gameplay trailer, additional features, and left the audience with tidbits of release info as well as minute factoids. Howard presented in a similar way, but with one significant difference: the concept art.

Late to the Party: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Price I Paid: $4.00

Available On: PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.

It's a humbling experience when I start raving about something only to change my tune before it’s over. It’s the same feeling I suspect new parents have after two months of insufficient sleep from a crying newborn. Understandably, you might think that you know what I'm going to say about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and stop reading now, but don't. It's not because I get paid when you click to read the full review (because I don't get paid anything for any of this), but because there was so much the game did right. Despite my wavering feelings for it after twenty-some hours, you may find it to your liking.

E3 2015 from the cynic's perspective

It was pretty easy to get swept up in the neigh-constant hype cycle that was E3 2015.  For some of us, there were downright groundbreaking announcements that we'd never thought would see the light of day.  For others however, this was just business as usual for the gaming industry.  Maybe we're getting too good at playing into these kinds of promo events.  At least, that's the viewpoint of some...

SONY had E3 announcements for the Vita all along!

Sony has had a strange relationship with their portable platform. They are no longer producing first party games, but the system is still getting tons of support from third party studios.

Vita sales pale in comparison to Nintendo's 3DS, but it still has a nice foothold on the market.
Check out the video below to see a few games coming to the platform. Most recently the platform has sold over 600,000 units in Spain, and that's nothing to scoff at.

The Friday Wrap-Up 6/19/2015

Sure, they official press shows had some excellent announcements this year, but there was a host of spectacular videos and news that got overshadowed by the hypetrain.  Don't miss out on the best of these.

E3 2015 Press Conference Review

With E3 going into wind-down mode, the folks here and Pixel Loadout decided to do a quick review and breakdown of each individual show and conference for this year.  We had some absolutely monolithic announcements to show for this year, but how does everything stack up when it's all said and done?

Fallout 4 Deep Dive: The Pip-Boy

It's no secret that we're big fans of Fallout here at Pixel Loadout.  Bethesda managed to drop a mountain of info on us with everything they showed at there press conference.  Slow down some videos and you can find a lot of interesting info.  With a release date set for November 10th of this year, it's pretty safe to say a lot of the systems being shown in trailers are probably pretty close to final.  With that being said, lets take a closer look at the SPECIAL system this time around, and what kind of attributes are being governed.  Keep in mind a lot of this is a best guess and general conjecture based on individual screens, as well as past Fallout games.  Anything mentioned here is subject to change when the game releases.

The Friday Wrap-Up 6/12/2015

It's our last Friday before E3 proper for 2015, and it's hard not to be excited with some of the potential announcements on deck.  More so than past years, it seems like a lot of companies are getting in front of the press conference proper in order to get better exposure before the hype machine goes into full swing.  Here are some of the best Pre-3 trailers shown so far, along with some other nifty articles and videos worth a read.