The eShop Releases are back once again with the first big Nintendo exclusive of 2019, Yoshi's Crafted World. A cardboard/craft-themed follow-up to 2015's wonderful yarn-focused installment, Yoshi's Woolly World, Crafted World looks to be every bit as charming and fun as its predecessor. It even brought back the greatly-appreciated local two-player option. Sounds like must-purchase material to us. Also out in the past 3 and a half months, a sequel to Inti Creates fantastic 2017 remake of the NES classic, Blaster Master; the decades long awaited arrival of Final Fantasy VII on a Nintendo system; and an incredibly awesome port of Sega's '80s arcade phenomenon, Out Run. A new Yoshi adventure unfolds! Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 16 weeks.

The New Steam Releases are back. Sorry about the lengthy hiatus. We had a series of issues over the past several months but those are, hopefully, now a thing of the past. The last several months have seen a number of high profile games hit Steam, including 4 very noteworthy titles from Capcom: Resident Evil 2, Onimusha: Warlords, the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle, and this week's own Devil May Cry 5. Sequel to the 2008 hit Devil May Cry 4, 5 finally resumes the story of Nero and Dante, and throws a new playable character into the mix as well. Word is that this is a worthy sequel so be prepared for some pretty satisfying action.

Also out in the past five months, Insomniac's previously Xbox exclusive action title, Sunset Overdrive; Irem's single greatest arcade release (as well as one of the finest shoot 'em ups) ever, R-Type (Dimensions); and one of the better entries in (Bandai) Namco's long-running Tales series, Tales of Vesperia. The Devil you know returns and it's gonna get crazy! Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last twenty-two weeks.

Well, it finally came. Many fans feared it never would. It only took close to thirteen years and 4 or 5 spin-off titles, but Kingdom Hearts III, the next numerical sequel in the beloved series, is finally here. In case you've been living under a rock for the better part of the last two decades, the Kingdom Hearts series is basically Square Enix's bizarre RPG mash-up of Final Fantasy and Disney. The first two were actually quite popular and well received. Considering how long it's been since their last series-proper release, here's hoping Square Enix still has a little bit of magic left in this kingdom.

Also out in the past three months, a pretty fantastic looking remake of Resident Evil 2 (using the Resident Evil VII engine), a multi-platform port of Onimusha: Warlords, and a brand new installment in the high-flying Ace Combat series. The ultimate battle for Kingdom Hearts is upon us. Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 98 days.

Happy 2019, everyone! Is it just us or do the years feel like they are flying by these days? Before we get too far into the new year, let's not forget to take a look back at the one that's just passed and make note of all the truly great gaming experiences we got out of it. As it turns out, 2018 was a pretty fantastic year for video games - and we have quite a bit of praise to heap on some of them. So without further ado, here are the 12 best games of 2018 (as presented by 12/12 Games).

It's been a while since we did a Nintendo eShop Releases post. Sorry about that. Luckily, we're back just in time for the single most important Switch game of the year, and one of Nintendo's biggest and craziest releases to date, Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Featuring every fighter ever to appear in a Smash game (and then some), Super Smash Bros Ultimate boasts the largest number of fighters we've ever seen in a single game. If you own a Switch, even if you still have the largely similar previous installment on the Wii U and/or 3DS version, there's really no good reason for you to not pick this up. The power of Smash compels you.

Also out in the past 5+ months, the pretty phenomenal SEGA Genesis Classics collection, the original Mega Man's 11th and latest outing, and the 4th (but only 3rd outside of Japan) entry in the fantastic Valkyria Chronicles series. Everyone is here. Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 23 weeks.

Well, it's another 12-year anniversary today and that means it's time once again for a retrospective of one of the great consoles of recent gaming history. This time around we have the distinct pleasure of taking a look back at the somewhat-remarkable run of Sony's PlayStation 3. Though news of its release came with lofty expectations, a series of unfortunate decisions over its lifetime (particularly at the start) did keep it from becoming the console titan it was meant to be. Despite this however, an extremely solid and varied library, along with a couple of strategically competitive moves allowed it to still finish out the generation neck and neck with the competition.

Coming off of the runaway successes that were the PS1 and PS2, it seemed as though Sony could do no wrong. Regrettably for them however, this was not the case. In the years and months leading up to the launch, Sony made a series of blunders that all contributed to a less-than-stellar start. For starters, they let Microsoft beat them to launch with the Xbox 360, a full year before the PlayStation 3 would be released. This gave the 360 plenty of time to carve out a decent foothold in the market and prove itself worthy of gamers hard-earned dollars. In addition, Sony selected the uniquely designed Cell processor for their system, which, while theoretically capable of delivering better graphics than the Xbox's more traditional Xenon processor, didn't really do so in practice. Making matters worse was the fact that the Cell's unorthodox design initially caused many third-party developers to struggle to deliver games that looked even as good as the 360 versions.

As if those two shortcomings weren't bad enough, there were two arguably even bigger issues with Sony's system. At the time Sony announced the PS3 to the world, they were in the midst of a legal dispute over the vibration technology in their controllers. As a result, the PS3 ended up having to launch without it. At that point in time, vibration had already been an industry standard for nearly two generations and was utilized with both the PS1 and PS2. More importantly, the previous year's Xbox 360 had it (and even the upcoming Nintendo Wii was advertising it). Sony was eventually able to settle the dispute and release a vibration controller for their new system, but not until almost a year and a half after the PS3 had already been released.

Finally, the most egregious error Sony made was with the price. Whereas the 360 was competitively priced, the PlayStation 3 was anything but. Questionable design decisions, such as their risky gamble to go with their expensive new (and not yet industry standard at the time) proprietary Blu-ray disc format, as well as the inclusion of additional internal hardware to enable backward compatibility for PlayStation 2 games, drove production costs through the roof. This resulted in a significant price disparity between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, to the tune of 125 to 200%, depending on which models you were comparing. This means that in some cases Sony was asking for twice as much money as the competition, for a system that, to many gamers, was an arguably inferior offering.

Thankfully, despite these regrettable decisions, Sony was eventually able to turn the system's fortunes around. Shortly before correcting their embarrassing lack of a basic vibration controller, Sony pursued an aggressive (and costly) campaign to ensure that their Blu-ray technology did in fact become the industry standard. Then, starting in 2007, Sony also began selling PS3s with revised hardware configurations (such as the lack of an ability to read PS2 discs) in order to bring costs down. All of these measures together, in addition to the ever-increasing strength of exclusives available for the console, managed to change the PlayStation 3's reputation from a largely unnecessary exercise in extravagance to a genuinely compelling and competitive entertainment machine.

That library, in particular, is what we're here to talk about. And while it was a bit difficult to limit this list to just these 12, it's hard to argue that they're not all fantastic titles. So without further ado, here are 12 of the very best reasons to have owned a PlayStation 3:

Well, it's nearly that time again - my favorite holiday of my favorite month (in my favorite season). I love this time of year. A few years back I decided to mark the occasion by making a list for you featuring some of my favorite games I play to help get myself in the festive spirit. This year, like an undead creature of the night, I have emerged once again to bring you even more. While a lot of these selections are sequels to games on my original list, that shouldn't diminish their value any. On the contrary, I'm sure you will find that some of these games are equally effective at striking the proper tone. So without further ado, allow me to present you with more games to play when it's Halloween:

Well, it's the nearing the end of October and today finally saw the release of what is arguably the single most anticipated game of the year, perhaps even the decade. You already know what game I'm referring to but I'll type it out anyway, Red Dead Redemption II. Though technically the third game in the series, Red Dead Revolver (while pretty good in its own right) didn't exactly set the world on fire. The second one however, Red Dead Redemption, turned out to be one of the biggest games of the last generation. A game changer if there ever was one. Saying that this entry has a lot to live up to would be putting it mildly. Thankfully, Rockstar has made a bit of a reputation for proving themselves up to that task.

Also out in the past seven weeks, Castlevania - Requiem, the just-in-time-for-Halloween rerelease of the fan favorite, Symphony of the Night (which also includes the also great and seldom-seen-on-US-shores, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for good measure); a brand new sixth entry in the legendary SoulCalibur fighting series (which apparently also happens to be a reboot of said series); and Valkyria Chronicles 4, the long-awaited 4th installment (even more-so because we in the West were never fortunate enough to receive a localization of the 3rd entry) of Sega's critically celebrated Valkyria Chronicles franchise. "The end of the Wild West era has begun." Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 49 days.

It's hard to believe but it's already been over 30 years since the debut of Mega Man, way back on the Nintendo Entertainment System. In honor of the anniversary, Capcom has just released the 11th installment of the main series onto virtually every available platform. Mega Man 11 holds the regrettable distinction of being the first game not to include the involvement of franchise creator Keiji Inafune, though considering Inafune's recent critical miss Mighty No 9 (and Mega Man 11's own critical praise), it somewhat surprisingly seems that may not necessarily be such a bad thing after all.

Also out in the past three weeks, the long-awaited 4th entry in the much-loved Valkyria Chronicles series; CrossCode, a pretty fantastic new RPG in the style of an SNES classic; and the once-again-back-to-yearly-releases-that-nobody-asked-for Assassin's Creed franchise's latest rushed effort, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Mega Man is back! Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last twenty-one days.