PixlBit

I ripped through a lot of stuff this week, being impatient to get through it all, the slightest annoyance sending me to the next game in my collection. But, I had a lot of good experiences anyway. I'll break these 360 games into two categories, physical and digital only (or, Xbox Live Arcade as it used to be called). 

Physical Games

Project Gotham Racing 3 and 4 - I realize now that this series was replaced by Forza Motorsport as Microsoft's main racer. As much as I was intrigued by the PGR series recently, I am now realizing how much a simulation racer it really is, and, therefore, I am not about it. Being penalized for tapping a guardrail is intolerable to me who is used to the kind of wrecking racing in favorites such as Burnout and Forza Horizon. 
NHL 11 - The tutorial told me all I needed to know: too complex a sports game. Keep it arcade style for me please. Maybe Mutant League Hockey is the thing for me. 
Call of Duty: Black Ops - I really enjoyed it, absolutely rock solid aim-and-fire mechanics, but I got stuck on a battle in Vietnam that never seemed to end. I was probably not understanding the mission objectives for the area. But, in light of the fact that the objective wasn't clearly laid out, I bugged out. Good game though, if you can ignore the patriotic garbage. 
Diablo III - I made a new Monk and went to work on normal difficulty. This is like the fifth character I've made, and I've beaten the game at least twice before. I thought I would get sucked it for weeks, but I got killed in an early mission where the difficulty spiked for some reason I couldn't fathom. I think I did everything right: taking every side mission, grabing loot, equiping the best stuff. I was sad. My Monk character was a joy. I'll return to it and that character at a later date. 
Assassin's Creed III and IV - As much as I love the history of these games and their detailed period accurate environments, I just can't stand the gameplay. I didn't want to sneak around in Black Flag and had some serious trouble groking the weapon mechanics in ACIII (the American Revolution one). I thought the mechanics totaly unituitive and bizarre in ACIII. ACIV mechanically is perfect, but I just don't like to sneak around all the time. I need Discovery Mode in both of these. I really enjoyed that mode in later AC games. Maybe the ACIV remaster coming soon will have that? 
Forza Horizon - What the freak haven't I done already in this game other than play the DLC, which I can't get anymore. I discovered the series with FH2 around 2017 and the DLC for FH1 was already delisted by then. What's up with that? But, I tooled around in the game for a good long while anyway trying a few skill challenges I haven't beat yet - my weak point in this. I surprised myself by clearing a few more of them. 
Red Faction Guerrilla - On paper this should be my jam, but I was somewhat disinterested after a few missions. It's a good shooter and demolitions game. My one annoyance is that I'd like to demolish buildings in peace. Swarms of enemies bog you down once you take their buildings down. Come on! I need your scrap!

XBLA (or digital only games)

Pinball FX2 - I played the Deadpool table. Excellent. I wish the servers were still up so I can do tournaments. I find it rather dull without that. 
Joe Danger Special Edition - Like platforming with a motorcross bike. Interesting and pretty fun. Just, not my sort of thing to sustain me for long. 
Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun - I love me a shmup, but I was rather impatient this week with these. They do like to kill you a lot. How on earth do you avoid so many bullets? 
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Fun for a while, but it liked to kill you off quick on higher difficulty, which I was determined to play to do something different in this game that I've beaten before. 
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved - Includes the original Geometry Wars. I do love a multi-directional shooter, but this does get impossiblly hard pretty quickly. I wish they'd done a real arcade machine of this. I'd love to play it that way. 
Bastion - I thought I'd get sucked into this for a while, and did, but it does punish you a lot eventually. The fighting platforms are not large and damage is given out generously. Super fun though. I should play it on easy, but who does that? (well, me, but not this month).
Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light - I must've played this first on Xbox One because I didn't have any achievements for this even though I know I beat it years and years ago. It's really good but eventually broke my puzzle brain. I can only stand so much. 
Battle Block Theater - Oh man, this was fun. A good platformer by Behemoth who did Castle Crashers. If you put a cartoony art style, and things get combatitive in a platformer, I get into it. Buuuut, I had to do a time trial level and rage quit repeating it too many times. I'd return to it for sure though. 
Bionic Commando Rearmed - I wish you could jump in this. You have to use you bionic arm for every bit of movement aside from running. It's a neat mechanic, but let me jump a bit too. 
'Splosion Man - I got deep into this before wanting to pull my hair out. Make things explode in a platformer and I'll love it. By Twisted Pixel who did my favorite XBLA game, The Maw. 
Stacking - I've 100% finished this game years ago and loved it. It's still neato by DoubleFine, but I was all puzzled out by this time. 

Purchases

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax - Kind of a novel approach to RPGs I always wanted to try. Got it on the Xbox app on sale for $3 and downloaded it to my 360. 
Mutant Storm Empire - I'm way into muti-direction shooters since last year's deep dive into Robotron 2084. $3 on sale, downloaded it to my 360. 
Guitar Hero guitar for Xbox 360 - I found this at a Goodwill for $10 and couldn't resist. Now I can play the GTR Hero games that aren't compatible with Rock Band guitars on 360. 
Guitar Hero III - I just used some of that trade-in money for this at Classic Game Junkies. It was $12. This is one of those you can only play with the Guitar Hero guitars. 
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS) - I used trade-in money to cover the $24 at Classic Game Junkies. I guess I'm officially on a rhythm game bender now. 

Currently Playing

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) and Bulletstorm: Epic Edition (X360).