My 5 Christmas Wish List of 2019

Ahhh Christmas, our winter holiday season that everyone celebrates and having a good times with their families.
It's snowing outside, building up the snowman, decorating up the tinsels, setting up the Christmas trees, wrapping up the presents, getting the Christmas dinner prepared, singing jolly Christmas songs, watching our family favourites Christmas films, and finally meeting with Santa Claus is what the Christmas is known for over the decade.
I've been covering all my most wanted Christmas wish list in every last year where I've listed several of the video games titles that I wanted to get it on this Christmas season.
To keep you mind, these are not my proper top 5s because I don't rank up these items from 5 to 1, it's just these 5 things that I'm adding to my wish list that I'd like to consider to get these for Christmas Day as a special gift for myself.

So here is my 5 Christmas Wish List of 2019.





1 - Shenmue 3 (PS4)

     



















Back in my Dreamcast days where I spent time playing several of great category of Dreamcast titles the likes of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur, Power Stone, and Sonic Adventures. There are a game that had caught my attention was Shenmue, a mix of open-world adventures and interactive cinematic genres that revolutionised the gaming industry.
It was wider known cult-following titles for having story-driven plot and has cast of memorable characters that made me want to play it more to see how amazing the game looks on Dreamcast standards, so it has a huge open-world environments where you can able to explore around the realistic worlds, the game teaches you to master kung fu, collecting capsules from vending toys, and of course finding sailors is the reason why I loved the series so much.
While the series had garned highly acclaim reception, it also suffered with poor sales numbers which leading the SEGA and the creator Yu Suzuki had decided to put their franchise on hold due to struggles with their development hell.
Yu Suzuki finally makes the return for the newer sequel through the kickstarter campaign in 2015 and had gained over $6.3 million making it the fastest Kickstarter funding of 2015, and the game had finally got released in 2019 for PS4 and PC.

We been waiting for 18 years since the cliffhanger ending of Shenmue 2 because we wanted to see the continuation of Ryo Hazuki's journey to find his father's killer that the event had happened on previous entry of series.
I wanted to see how the sequel can manage well for its story continuation development, some new cast of characters, running on beautifully made Unreal Engine 4 for its quality graphics, more exploration and dialogue conversation, and better fighting system.



2 - Yakuza kiwami 2 (PS4)

 
   


















Yakuza is one of the SEGA's finest action-packed series that blew me away back then starting from Yakuza 3 to Yakuza Kiwami for Playstation platforms.
This franchise was known for having incredible storylines, memorable characters, and being overly violent brawling action which is the reason why I loved the series so much.
This series takes control of Yakuza's badass brawler named Kazuma Kiryu, who worked as Tojo Clan member, fights his way to deal with his rivalry that turned against him.
What makes the series fun is the mixed of open world action-adventures and brutally beat em ups genres where you can able to walk around the city of Japan while being enountered by groups of Yakuzas that wanted to pick a fight with you.
The game has many of story main which focuses on progressing story lines on each chapters, while side-quest missions giving you an extra quest which also rewards you with many character's upgrades for improved fighting skills and gaining more strengths.

I've previously enjoyed Yakuza Kiwami for PS4 which is a faithful remake of the original PS2 game, so I wanted to see another Yakuza action which is the remake of Yakuza 2 to see if this game does holds up more nicely to the original PS2 version such as improved fighting mechanics, more graphical enhancements, and newer story elements.



3 - Super Smash Bros (3DS)

 















Super Smash Bros is one of my all-time favourite fighting game series by Nintendo.
I remember back then where I had Super Smash Bros Melee for Gamecube and Super Smash Bros Brawl for Wii which is these game that really defines my gaming life.
It had cast of many favourite rosters including third-party guests, more brawling stages to battle, has many game modes to play, and it definitely has the best multiplayer battles in fighting game history.

Since I've stopped getting another Nintendo consoles after I had a Wii for over 10 years, my brother had decided to offer me a 3DS system after he got given up playing with the handheld game system, so I can now able to enjoy and play 3DS by myself.
It's been for very long time ago that I haven't played any of recent Super Smash Bros titles since Super Smash Bros Brawl for Wii because I got very busy with the Playstation 3 in 2011 which was the reason why I decided to focus more on different console brand rather than just being stuck with Nintendo console brand, but now I've finally had a 3DS with me and there's a chance for me to get a hands on with the Nintendo's epic fighting game.
I also heard Super Smash Bros Ultimate for Switch is definitely a much better fighting game on the system if I could end up getting the Nintendo Switch in the right future, but i'm still getting my hands on with the Super Smash Bros 3DS which is great for adding to my 3DS libraries.



4 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS4)

I grew up playing Konami's Gothic adventures known as Castlevania is a game series where you take control of vampire killer battling against Dracula to restore their mankind's homeland.
Theres one of the game that is totally different from the previous entry was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PS1 which was highly regarded as being not the only best Castlevania game in the series, but also being credited as one of the finest Metroidvania title, a genres that pioneered a similar formula to Metroid series.

The success of the game has spawned with numerous of Castlevania titles for both GBA and DS, until the creator Koji Igarashi had left the company in 2014 to work on his indie project through kickstarter campaign which is a Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spritiual successor to Castlevania: SOTN, had gained over $5.5 million funding in 2015 and the game had finally got released in 2019 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC.
I'm looking forward to play Igarashi's brand new title that got me excited to play, as I previously enjoyed playing Castlevania: SOTN on my PS Vita (via Castlevania: The Dracula X: Chronicles as digital PSP games) which is my second favourite of Castlevania series next to Super Castlevania IV for SNES.
I can't wait to see how Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night can able to live up to the classic Metroidvania formula filled with non-linear 2D side-scrolling exploration and a variety of 2D gameplay mixed with combat and puzzle elements.
I also looking forward with a different storylines and characters, modernised 2.5D graphics, intense original soundtrack, discovering hidden secrets, battling against epic bosses and the best part of all is the free updates that adds ups nicely to the game at the launch release.



5 - Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (DS)

I've previously enjoyed playing some tactical RPGs titles the likes of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Valkyria Chroncles, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, and Codename S.T.E.A.M.
One of the game that got me interested to play was Advance Wars: Dark Conflict for DS, which was developed by a same team behind Fire Emblem series.
This game is much more rather on darker tone and more serious than the previous installiment which I think I liked it better for its crude atmosphere.

I wanted to give game a try to see if this game does have a great story presentation and has epic tactical gameplay depending on how good the strategy played on the single player campaign.
The game also featuring local multiplayer where I can able to enjoy battling with friends on just one single handheld.
It's really fun to have all on-foot solders, the tanks, and all units starts slaughtering the shit of each other during the dark battles is what makes Advance Wars so interesting to play.
I had to get enough DS libraries that are worth adding it to my gaming collection.

     


Honorable Mentions:

DragonBall FighterZ (PS4)
Hollow Knight (PS4)
Spider-Man (PS4)
Death Stranding (PS4)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Contra 4 (DS)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
Fire Emblem Awakening or Echoes (3DS)
WarioWare D.I.Y
Valfaris (PS4)
Resident Evil 2 (PS4)
God of War (PS4)



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Xbox Series X Reveal at Game Awards 2019 (My Reaction & Thoughts)

At the nearly the end of the eight generation console era, we get to see a new teaser of the next-gen Xbox console at the Game Awards 2019 called the Xbox Series X, which was also known as Xbox Scarlett as the project codename for the new Xbox system.
Over the last several months where I have learned so far about the new info of the next-gen Xbox's hardware specs which Microsoft had stated that their next-gen console will able to run 4 times lot powerful as their predecessor such as Xbox One X.
It features AMD's Zen 2 CPU architecture and RDNA graphics architecture, a custom-designed solid state drive, GDDR6 SDRAM, and support for real-time ray-tracing running up to 120 frames per second rendering, and of course 8K resolution that they adding to this next-gen consoles for its beautifully made graphics design for 8K gaming and reducing the numerous of latency input to improve the game's responsiveness while running on Xbox Series X.
As I watched the actual teaser footage of the new Xbox console which is kinda look promising to see how the next-gen gaming is gonna be like on 2020 as I liked the way the trailer looked showing off few upcoming games such as Halo Infinite and the system's graphics showcase using ray-tracing technology, but I do find the console name is kinda laughable because Microsoft always putting their silly random names that didn't fit right for the Xbox's console family, so I much rather prefer the console names ending with the numbers like what SONY did name their Playstation consoles in each numeral order from 1 to 5.
I don't really mind the design of the console that looked just like the PC Desktop system because we already know it's Microsoft, a computer company was known for having a bulky system design, but I do think the design of this console is kinda looked okay in my opinion.
I hopefully the company will able to confirm a actual price for next year console and I pretty sure they will add the fully backwards compatibility program in ability to play all existing previous Xbox console titles (such as XBONE, X360, and hopefully Xbox Original).
I also liked the small teaser of Ninja Theory's next AAA title such as Senua'a Saga: Hellblade 2, a sequel to award-winning dark-fantasy title Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which is going to be exclusivity for the Xbox next-gen console. I haven't played the original game before, but the actual trailer of Hellblade's sequel that shown on Game Awards 2019 is looking spectacular what the game had looked like when running on the next-gen console as I liked the feel of the dark-gritty mixed genres of the intense folklore and psychological themes which really adds up perfectly to the overall atmosphere of the game's presentation.       

There are some main concerns about the next-gen Xbox console is that they need to bring out all AAA exclusive titles that could save Xbox brands, so I'm pretty sure they got enough games developers that Microsoft had hired them to make more IP's, so they could able to bring enough more consumers to buy their product if the Xbox team had managed to pull their socks up and avoiding the same mistakes as their predecessor from 2013's reveal of Xbox One.
So far, I did enjoy watching the small teaser of the new Xbox console and hopefully I will see what SONY could do better with their next-gen PS5 next year.




Here is a teaser trailer of Xbox Series X down below:

Also check out Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 trailer down below:

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