February 2018’s Free Games With Gold for Xbox One/Xbox 360

Microsoft recently announced which games will be available to download for through the Games With Gold program in February on the Xbox Wire blog, and fans of chaotic car stunts should be pleased.

Shadow Warrior, a “juvenile” first person shooter,” and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, a side-scrolling spinoff of Ubisoft’s history-spanning saga, will be available for the Xbox One. Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Split/Second, a “Reality TV” racer, and Crazy Taxi, a re-release of Sega’s arcade classic.

I spent a lot of time playing Crazy Taxi in my youth, and it’s still pretty great today. It’s a great game to pass the controller and get a whole crowd involved in a game that’s technically only playable by one person.

Click here to learn more about Microsoft’s selections for Games With Gold in February 2018… Continue reading

Best Games of 2017 @ Library Journal

The new gaming columnists at Library Journal have published a look at some of their favorite games of the year:

LJ’s new gaming columnists have chosen their favorite games of the year. The titles include board games, video games, and a mobile title that will appeal to a wide range of patrons with differing interests and experience.

In addition to several board games, Bungie’s Destiny 2 and Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp were picked as two of Library Journal’s favorite video games from 2017.

Multiplayer Games for the Switch @ Games In Libraries

Even though it’s been available for less than a year, the Nintendo Switch already has a huge catalog of exciting multiplayer titles. If you’re looking to add a Switch to your library programming schedule, the ALA’s Games In Libraries blog has created a list of the best multiplayer experiences on the console:

Since its launch, Nintendo’s newest console, the Switch, has seen an explosion in titles available. Many lend themselves well to multiplayer – here is a list of some particular recent standouts, around which a library could provide a good social gaming experience.

The list includes nine titles, and I’m a big fan of both Snipperclips Plus and Enter the Gungeon for multiplayer gaming.

And if you’re interested in cooperative multiplayer gaming, you might want to check out a similar list that was recently published by Inverse Genius’s Games in Schools and Libraries blog.

Cooperative Four-Player Video Games @ Inverse Genius

There’s nothing quite like cramming four people around a video game screen and expecting them all to cooperate. And wouldn’t you know, the people at Inverse Genius’s Games in Schools and Libraries blog agree:

Do your gamers want to work together instead of compete? Do they want a challenge that is going to take everyone give their all to overcome? Cooperative games have players working together as a team to overcome the computer or some set challenge. There are so many great cooperative games out there. Here’s a list of some of our favorites!

Their suggestions run through some of the best four-player cooperative games on the PC and consoles today, including Overcooked, Pac-Man 256, Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (a VGL favorite), and more.

The Top Ten Best Games Ever @ Library Journal

M. Brandon Robbins has decided to step down as the author behind Library Journal’s monthly “Games, Gamers, & Gaming” column. But before he left, Robbins published a retrospective look back at his personal picks for the “Top Ten Best Games Ever.”

So head over to the Library Journal‘s site to see why he picked what he picked…

For five years, I’ve been honored to talk to LJ’s readers about games, the people who play them, and how bringing gaming into the library can help connect with patrons. Now, the time has come to pass the joystick to others. For my final play, this is the article I’ve been wanting to write since the beginning: my picks for the top ten greatest video games ever made.

10. Frogger
9. Tetris
8. Super Mario Bros.
7. Halo: Combat Evolved
6. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
3. Half-Life 2
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
1. [SPOILERS! YOU’LL HAVE TO READ THE ARTICLE TO FIND OUT]

It’s a good selection of games. Tetris is a tad too low for my taste, but definitely a good list.

Best of Gamescom 2017 Winners Selected by Gamescom Committee

gamescomEvery year, Germany’s Digital Gaming Culture Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur) supervises the Gamescom Committee, a small group of journalists who choose the best games that were present at the Gamescom expo. The Gamescom expo is held in the Summer, and serves as the European equivalent to the Los Angeles-based E3 Expo.

While most of these titles are still in development, you should keep them in mind when you add games to your collection this Fall and into 2018.

Super Mario Odyssey was named “Best of Gamescom,” and the full list of winners and nominees can be found below. Continue reading

A Weeklong Series at Waypoint Examines Gaming in Prison Libraries

Waypoint (the video game arm of Vice) has announced plans to publish “At Play In the Carceral State,” a series of articles this week about the intersection of gaming and prisons. It’s not a corner of the games culture that you hear much about, and part of their focus will be devoted to the way prison libraries play a role in giving inmates access to games during their incarceration.

Waypoint’s Editor-In-Chief, Austin Walker, laid out their mission for the series in a letter to the site’s readers:

When I’ve explained this series to people, one of the most common responses has been a sort of awkward bewilderment. Games and… prisons? Play and the… ‘carceral state’?

On first blush, they’re an odd pairing, but a closer look reveals that games are a natural locus for this contention. They are concerned with boundaries, limitations, and rules—the hand of cards you’re dealt; the empty energy meter that prevents you from using your powers; the invisible walls and infinite, uncrossable seas which border otherwise vast open worlds. Yet they also enable players to experiment, explore, and defy expectations as they respond to those limits. And it’s that tension where games are at their most powerful—perhaps even their most utopian.

The first article from “At Play In the Carceral State” is Inside the Gaming Library at Gitmo, America’s Controversial Military Prison, a look inside the Detainee Library at Guantanamo Bay by Muira McCammon:

Over the past 15 years, many detainees have requested and read books from the Detainee Library. Journalists have actively documented what titles appear on the shelves, and in recent years, the inventory has grown to include not only DVDs, but also PS3 games.

But the library remains a labyrinth, a facility full of thorny questions. This summer, Waypoint sent me to the Detainee Library, to figure out what happened to the games at Gitmo.

New articles will be added to the series all week.

Best of E3 2017 Winners Selected by Game Critics Awards

e3Every year, the Game Critics Awards, a collection of editors from more than 40 major publications that cover the video game industry, get together to choose the best games at the E3 Expo.

While all of these titles are still in development, you should keep them in mind when you add games to your collection this Fall and into 2018.

Super Mario Odyssey was named “Best of Show,” and the full list of winners and nominees can be found below. Continue reading