25,363 community articles
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Welcome, once again, to another episode of this The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer LP. We're three episodes in now, so if you're just joining us I'd highly recommended starting here , or using the table at the end of the blog to catch up with this playthrough as well as learn more about what a randomized Zelda game entails. When we last left him, Garflink had found what seemed l...
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Playing Florence was an interesting experience. If you haven't already heard about it, Florence is a mobile game (available on Apple stuff and also on Android) which focuses on telling a story about a young woman named… Florence. I had a few thoughts about it, so I decided to write them down. Mostly it'll be a rundown of the interesting bits in the game, so if you have not played it, be warned,...
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Usually, you play a game, and if you love it, years later you may look back fondly on the time that you'd spent with it. But what if love arrived late? What if it grew and fully formed by the time you were supposed to be feeling nostalgic about the game? What you have then is a weird experience and a special chance to love something for the first time while satisfying the yearning that is cause...
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I think that Horizon does some things right. The most obvious and most striking thing about it is that it’s downright gorgeous, and that’s coming from a guy who spends a lot of time playing PC games. Guerilla games have implemented some insane technical wizardry before, to make games like Killzone 2 and 3 look miles better than anything the competition could dream of, but this is something else...
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I was a little depressed those first couple months after getting fired, but in the end, it was a good thing. That event gave me the push I needed to do something more with my life. I'd already served ten years in the US Marine Corps and felt I had already made my impact on the world. Now I feel like that is still ahead of me, I've already got a job with an organization that focuses on environme...
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While most Western Sega fans are excited about some of the recent announcements at Sega Fes 2018 , such as Shenmue HD and the new Sega Genesis Mini , I am instead over-the-moon about one piece of news from the event that isn't being discussed by many English fans. A brand-new Sakura Taisen game was announced! While details are still scant, and we don't currently know the exact scale or nature o...
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As a series, The Sims has been a proud ambassador of expansion packs as a content format to the extent that its the first series a lot of gamers think of when you ask them about expansions. Many even argue that when it came to building out the aesthetics and mechanics of the series, EA and Maxis went overboard, drowning us under a torrent of optional extras, and there may be a fair argument the...
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Something you get exposed to on the regular when playing open-world games are fishing mini-games. They're not always present, but they're usually a common avenue for a means of bolstering the range of options you have to spend your time, and have different levels of engagement with the rest of the game: for instance, the rewards you obtain from fishing (mostly fish) can often be required for a...
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Oh boy, in retrospect I'm not quite sure I was in a good place for this one. However, The Cat Lady has something of a glowing reputation for being, let's say, a challenging game and not in the traditional sense. As I continue to expand my horizons as far as the Indie scene goes, and in particular adventure games of every conceivable stripe and color that emerges from same, Harvester Games 's ps...
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It’s playoff time, and surprisingly the Indiana Pacers are still playing. Even the most diehard Pacers fan wouldn’t have predicted anything better than fighting for the eighth seed. Instead, the team snagged the fifth seed, and came within a few games home court advantage in the first round. Their reward for this surprising season: a first round series against LeBron James and the reigning conf...
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Note: I have some limited releases from late last year that went wide(r) this year. 14. Loveless Andrey Zvyagintsev’s latest about divorced parents trying to find their missing son isn’t as good as his previous work, Leviathan. It’s oppressive and singular unlike Leviathan, which was heavy but had lighter and funnier moments that made it surprising, dynamic, and profound. What Loveless is is a...
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Welcome to the second part of this The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer LP! I simulpublished (real word) the first two episodes, so if you found this one before Episode 1 be sure to start over here for an explanation of what's going on. At the end of the first episode, Garflink finally made it out of Hyrule Castle's sewers after trying and failing to bash his way through with a us...
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Hello, happy Hyrulians, to a new Tuesday feature: a The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer LP! Ever since watching the dramatic LTTP randomizer race at this year's Awesome Games Done Quick event, I've been fascinated by the idea of jumping into one without that scary level of complete memorization that speedrunners possess for their chosen games. How would someone fare if they had,...
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Hey there folks. A few days ago I posted a blog asking people to vote on potential ideas for my contribution to the upcoming Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run VIII . If you're unfamiliar with the GBCER, it's a fantastic community initiative that raises funds for Pencils of Promise , a charity dedicated to providing education to children in developing countries. First and foremost, thanks to th...
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When we last looked at The Sims, I talked about the stats that make up a character, how different spheres of characters' lives interact, and how sims communicate with each other. However, the game's systemic interactions don't just happen within and between sims, but also between sims and their homes. To understand The Sims in its entirely, we need to plumb the depths of the Buy and Build Modes...
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For the kids! It's that time of year again. The days are getting longer, the weather is improving, and the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run is just around the corner. I'm sure most of you know the drill by now, but just in case you don't, the GBCER is a community-led charity fundraising initiative. Now in its eighth year, members of the Giant Bomb community take to the interwebs to livestream...
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The AV Club recently put out an article delineating the history of the burgeoning Indie game market, choosing Jonathan Blow's Braid as its "definitive" example and the turning point for the popularity of smaller, downloadable games which has continued to grow unabated to this day. I have a few misgivings with that hypothesis, which lead me to consider two things: a list of what I would consider...
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Between this and Sutte Hakkun this week, I've been burning brain cells like nobody's business. Infinifactory is, like its sister games SpaceChem and Opus Magnum , a puzzle game from Zach Barth (of Zachtronics ) that leans heavily on building assembly lines and constructing logic circuits with which to take multiple components and fuse them together to create a desired composite structure. It's...
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After the past two years being so jammed-packed with excellent releases, looking at the release calendar for this year is a little discouraging. So I’ve been digging around to see what I can find. One particular “Metroidvania” genre seems to be brimming with potential in lieu of not much else appearing to be all that exciting this year. That’s not to say there isn’t potential elsewhere, but I’v...
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The SNES Classic had a sterling assortment of games from Nintendo's 16-bit star console, but it's hardly all that system has to offer a modern audience. In each installment of this fortnightly feature, I judge two games for their suitability for a Classic successor based on four criteria, with the ultimate goal of assembling another collection of 25 SNES games that not only shine as brightly as...
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Kung Fu was one of the first NES games we ever got. A rather simplistic side scrolling action game now, at the time I remember its bright colors, difficult gameplay and pretty cool soundtrack. Being an NES game (and a kid) I'll never forget the likes of the families nicknames for 'stick guy' 'bomerang man' and of course the sinister Mr. X. I'm not surprised the creator of Kung Fu went on to cre...
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The sounds of birds can be overwhelming to the feet of freedom. Calling to the soul of a better man, we cannot be earlier then the rest. We will all die in the grasp of sadness while reaching to wipe away our sins. These words are spelled out in front of me while running on this god damn wheel. The days bleed into each other and my brain becomes more and more conditioned to believe there is now...
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Donate! https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraiser/1355168 After the first year I joined in on this event I promised myself that I would turn it into a 3 day event each time. Cause if I’m going in I might as well go all out in a respectable manner. Although that means my ability to beat all of these games in the time allowed is quite suspect but I’ll try my best. So let's go over each da...
