25,361 community articles
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With my second blog on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , I figured I'd shine a light on the game's expansive number of side-quests, activities, development tools, bonus objectives, and other non-combat features through the lens of all the overly-fastidious note-taking I've been doing. Most note-takers I know tend to open Google Spreadsheet or Excel if they have it, if the current Twitter trend of record...
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Friends and enemies of video games, Amidst the present unpleasantness, myself and the good people at Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run are thrilled to come together for another festival of livestreaming goodness! Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run X will run from 17-19 April , and I'm going to be a part of the proceedings! Yes, again! No, you can't stop me! I'll be live on my Twitch channel du...
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It's been a while since I last visited Daniel Mullins Games with Pony Island ( IGotW #10 ) and after playing his most recent game, 2018's The Hex , I have to wonder how draughty that dude's house is with every fourth wall missing. As in Pony Island, The Hex is predominantly a game about creating video games, and an imagined tumultuous relationship between a creator and his creations, with the p...
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As much as I love writing up games, the new releases I played this month didn’t lend well to full reviews. One is a puzzle game that doesn’t have too much to discuss, and the other two came out last week and I’m not through with them yet. So, they’re getting the anthology treatment as I wrap together my thoughts into one neat post. Murder By Numbers: Genre mashups are trendy in the smaller game...
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I was just a kid when I got my first pet. My first real pet, not counting some bunnies that my parents actually took care of, and I was really too young at the time to remember now. But this pet, a half Pekingese/half poodle I named Gizmo, I loved him more than anything else in the world. This cute little creature, who showed me nothing but love, and unbound kindness, it wasn't like anything el...
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Hello, Fellow Giant Bomb Enthusiast. I used to blog quite regularly, but have failed to do so for a couple of years now. Feel free to check out some of my previous writings at The O/C Gamer . One can only hope that I get back on the wagon now that COVID-19 has trapped me indoors.
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Finally continuing on my journey to be one with my nerdy background, here are my roving thoughts on episode 2 of TNG. I make no promises as to their clarity, lucidity, or validity, but they are what I'm thinking of, 2 pints in. Is there any logic for Stardates? Is that supposed to be a sexy voice from the Tsiolovsky? And are those noises supposed to be from the ship? Riker is a pretty boy That...
meant2live218 (Premium 64 member)
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There have been certain games from which I've had to ween myself off because it was affecting my productivity, as limited as it already was, but given the current circumstances I find I have a little more free time to fritter away on an endless cycle of Skinner box mechanics and little dopamine kicks. What follows are some groupings of games I could happily play forever, or at least until I eve...
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I meant to put this up a long time ago but never got to it. Now COVID-19 has given me some free time so I figure I might as well post my list now for anyone looking for a good way to pass the time while they are locked indoors. For more movie recommendations, you can see my favorite movies of 2018 here . For TV and videogame recommendations, my favorite TV shows of 2019 can be found here and my...
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I think we all need to slow down, cool off, and chill with a pleasant stroll somewhere remote, and that's what A Short Hike both promises and delivers. As melon-headed bird-person Claire, A Short Hike is not too dissimilar from Animal Crossing beyond some parallels with the character design: it tasks you with doing as much or as little as you feel like doing on its easygoing island, either chas...
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This was kind of an interesting read regarding microtransactions: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-03-18-the-developer-of-journey-bucks-the-trend-of-predatory-monetisation James Batchelor "As such, Thatgamecompany spent two years in the middle of development prototyping business models for Sky, which was originally designed as a premium title. The studio soon realised there was no wa...
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Preamble Look... let's just say "mistakes were made" and move on with the blog. Hello, Giant Bomb community! With the release of the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo and documentary, I thought it was high time for me to talk about the game and get my mind off of this global pandemic. After giving the demo a whirl, I have to say I left with a more favorable impression than I anticipated. It's a fla...
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I had to put something together when the crew was describing the PS5 audio slide deck reminding them of the Death Star.
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I wasn't a huge street fighter fan but even I recognize the importance of the hadouken.
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It's been some five years since Moon Studios bought us the splendid platformer of Ori and the Blind Forest in 2015. In those five years the Austrian studio has been hard at work on it's anticipated sequel and it's finally here. But does Ori's latest adventure manage to deliver us yet another magical experience or does he fall flat on his face? Due to a series of unfortunate events, Ori finds hi...
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I never got around to making a poll for 2019 for reasons but I figured I could at least write down my own Top 10 anime for everyone to read and acknowledge as the best. 1) Beastars Did you ever watch cartoons or read stories as a child with mostly (or only) animal characters and wonder how they felt about eating burgers, or where their ears rested on their head, or how carnivores resisted the u...
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I realize there's been something of a lugubrious global mood of late, and I've gone on record before in saying that since games tend to be effective emotional metronomes I generally stay away from any that cause more depression than I can handle, but despite all this I've nonetheless found myself booting up another game from the delightfully twisted minds at Harvester Games, they behind the (mo...
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Here's a great example: Why 'Destiny 2' Isn't Working, And How to Fix It VICE US by Doc Burford "Luke [Smith, Director, Destiny 2] makes repeated comparisons to Magic: The Gathering and its new card sets, but he forgets that this is extremely exploitative, that cards are something you can collect and sell for real money , and that most players actually play the legacy modes like Commander. Magi...
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There's a common apprehension against what are colloquially referred to as anime fighters for their surfeit of mechanical complexity, leading to a longer than usual learning curve, that will often have players - even seasoned fighter game pros - running for the hills after one air juggle super cancel tutorial or superfluous charge gauge explanation too many. It's not that these games are necess...
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As a self-proclaimed nerd, it had long been a mark of shame to admittedly know nearly nothing about Star Trek. Growing up, I'd picked up through cultural osmosis certain names, terms, and concepts. Picard, Kirk, and Spock; the holodeck and docking; phasers set to stun and various beamings up and down. However, the closest I'd ever been to Star Trek proper was having the J. J. Abrams movie on in...
meant2live218 (Premium 64 member)
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PAX East is the one near me. It’s also the only major games conference I’ve been to. 2020 is my third year attending, and this year I took more pictures than any year before. Mainly to remind myself of things I wanted to keep an eye on after I left, but also to give me some photos to fill an article such as this, highlighting some of the more interesting and exciting games I saw. Main attractio...
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It might surprise you all to learn that I played another explormer this week. In my defense, however, it's the sequel to a game that was decidedly not exploration or platforming focused. Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus (also known as Finding Teddy II) is a 2D explormer that, in addition to its genre roots, feels part Zelda II (the heroine can perform up-stabs and down-stabs), part Fez (t...
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It's always exciting to have a leap year February, even if it is still the shortest and usually least interesting month, and the game industry has been busier backing out of commitments more than confirming same. That we're seeing 2020's first big releases come out towards the end of March doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, though you could argue that this is the tide going out before the big...
