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Providing informed, up-to-date information about video games means running all the big new names on my machines, keeping on top of every fresh release, and that's why I've been playing 1993's Side Pocket for the SNES. At least, it says "Side Pocket" on the title screen. Here's a question: How do we know when we have two distinct games and when we have two versions of the same game? I'm bringing...
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You can see I'm at 73% health because when I went to take the screenshot I was immediately shot. This is like five seconds in! Last night at around 1:15 am my time I downloaded and booted up Romero's birthday present to DOOM on its 30th birthday, SIGIL II. I whacked the difficulty on Ultraviolence, because I'm an idiot, and the picture above is what greeted me. Compare that to the picture below...
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Another week, another IGotW covering an explormer . You can set your clocks to it by this point. But hey, I can't help but be drawn to what I like. Not that Grime qualifies just yet, but I suppose it still has time to right the ship. Grime is one of those Souls ian-adjacent 2D explormers that have picked up speed in recent years with the likes of Salt and Sanctuary , Hollow Knight , Blasphemous...
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Video Games, Son. Around this time last year I drew up a huge list of games I wanted to play. Well, wanted may be a strong word. I filled it with titles that slipped through the cracks. Some of them I had started in the past and forgot for one reason or another. Others sat in my Steam account for a literal decade without ever getting installed. Throughout the year, I kept digging away at the mo...
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Preamble New look; same character gimmicks. Despite me inching ever so closely to writing four blogs about my thoughts about Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and its future, I have been relatively mum about my impressions about the rest of the series. As I laid out in my essay on the difficulty of returning to Portable via its Game Pass release , I maintain everyone's favorite Persona game is the...
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Let's talk about some games. I played so many games this year. Currently, my list sits at 47. No, they didn't all come out this year and also no, that isn't all of them. I didn't bother to count the Netflix edition of Dead Cells I just downloaded and played for an hour on my Retroid Pocket or the ROM hack of Super Tecmo Bowl I'm halfway through a season wherein I can play as Kirk Cousins and Ju...
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Intro Best Game I Did Not Finish (but I hope I will) Alan Wake II Old Game of the Year Monster Hunter Rise Top 10 Games of the Year 10. Planet of Lana 9. Wo Long Fallen Dynasty 8. Jusant 7. Super Mario Bros. Wonder 6. Risk of Rain Returns 5. Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon 4. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 3. Videoverse 2. Street Fighter 6 1. Baldurs Gate 3
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Alduin, the villain of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the next character to join my Video Game Hall of Fame. Next week's character will be from the Overwatch series.
justiceleaguecanada (Premium member)
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Welcome to the very last Mega Archive of 2023! It's not the last one for 1993, however, as we have only just reached the end of September and will be poised to start its fourth quarter whenever we next resume. A sobering thought: If I carry this feature into 2024 and maintain the current rate of ten Sega Mega Drive / Sega CD games per monthly update (give or take with the CD games) I'll only be...
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New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe has a stupid name and I don't like it. Either the name or the game itself. I got vaccinated Sunday and it knocked me flat on my back so I decided to finally finish Tears of the Kingdom, a game I played obsessively upon release but had to set down when life got too hectic. That took longer than I thought (and I think that the back end of that game's main quest is no...
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This week, let's dive into something that has excited, frustrated and intimidated many players over the years – the boss. From the early days of video games to the more recent classics, bosses and kicking their butts have become an integral part of gaming culture. They add a layer of anticipation, challenge but also narrative depth to video games as they present a clear antagonist to the player...
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Another eventful PUBG: Battlegrounds season has come to an end and what a tumultuous year it's been for its eSports branch, in particular. For one, the unification of the regular game and eSports settings means that maps are now more varied, both in their pool as well as in the things inside of them. Sandstorms on Miramar and blizzards in the snowy Vikendi tear through the landscape, as players...
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Hey guys, remember Q.U.B.E. ? It's back. Well, OK, so this sequel is already five years old at this point so it's not a recent resurgence, but if there's something I'll always have a soft spot for in this feature—besides the usual RPGs, 3D collectathons, and explormer s—it's the humble Portal -alikes, a.k.a. (by no-one) the Dopportalganger . The first Q.U.B.E. was assuredly that, launching in 2...
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This week, let's have a look at a classic mechanic that has stood the test of time and continues to shape popular titles: ability gating/tool gating. This concept is about overcoming obstacles by acquiring persistent abilities or tools, essential for progression. Usually these are gained through item pickups or completing specific objectives. More than a metaphorical key, using these involves t...
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This week, let's take a moment to appreciate one of the iconic features in games: the power-up. For this post I'm defining power-ups as items that grant your in-game character (player avatar) a temporary* change in their abilities or state when picked up or used. Power-ups can add some extra flavor, give the player a break, and/or even add a new layer of strategy to the gameplay. They can be a...
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Hey everybody. This week, let's dive into a topic that has become an expected part of most modern games but had humble beginnings and took a long time to take hold outside of certain genres – Character Creation & Customization! These innovations have added layers of personalization, player agency and immersion. They allow players to mold their in-game avatars to match their own preferences, eit...
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This week, it's time for an (eventually) revolutionary innovation that has fundamentally shaped how we interact with many games: Twin-Stick Controls. This was an important innovation in that it provided a more immersive, precise and flexible gameplay experience, particularly for 3D games and multidirectional shooters since it would let players move their avatar with one stick and aim with the o...
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This week, let's talk about something that has truly revolutionized the way we play video games - Network & Online Multiplayer. Online play in particular has become the norm ahead of local multiplayer and taking turns to play, a transformation that really became noticeable on PC during the mid-late '90s but - as with many other innovations - has much older roots. This innovation has transformed...
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Today, it's time for the innovation that let human make human in their own image - the human player avatar! The concept of a human player avatar was important because it allowed players to more easily project themselves into the game world. This not only added a personal touch to video games but also added another layer of immersion and engagement. Before this innovation, most games relied on a...
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For this week, I'd like to dive into a topic that captivates many players: Easter Eggs and Secrets. An easter egg is a hidden feature in a game or piece of software added as a bonus or joke (I'm excluding cheat codes here unless they're hidden and adding some frivolous feature like big head mode). These hidden gems in games have been around for decades. In fact the first one seems to be from Mo...
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Maze War from 1973 is seen as a precursor to 3D FPS games, but today I want to highlight another important feature that it introduced: the in-game map system! With simpler, repetitive visuals and the maze structure of this game's (and many other retro games) levels, you'd easily get lost without it. Maze War uses a separate map screen which shows the entire level layout with walkable paths and...
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For this week, I'd like to shine a spotlight on a feature that I think is more commonly associated with PC and strategy games: The Advisor NPC. This is a way to personalize a game's tutorial and immerse players into the game quicker, segmenting the learning process into smaller, easier to follow steps that tend to happen as a player is exposed to a new challenge. It can also be a way to present...
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The first example of this if asking ChatGPT is Chrono Trigger, which is also a popular example, however the feature actually predates that game by at least 25 years. The actual first seems to be High Noon (PC, 1970), developed by Ivan Vassilievich. It's a wild west-themed, gunfight duel sim of sorts, with turn-based combat. It puts players in the shoes of a sheriff in a small town during the er...
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This groundbreaking innovation first saw use in SpaceWar!/Space War (PDP-1, 1962), but they have been used in several genres afterwards such as Racing, Platform, Sports and more. Shoot 'em ups that use them are sometimes called Thrust-likes, after the 1986 game, though that game is heavily based on Gravitar from 1982. A shout-out to some other early examples: Moonlander (1973) Springer (ARC, 19...
