majormitch's Articles

2025 saw a lot of wonderful video games released, and a lot of them had wonderful music: we truly are at the point where video games just sound really freaking good. It’s one of my favorite parts of the medium, and every year I like to highlight my favorite soundtracks among games I played. That’s exactly what I’m doing here. Here are some great video game soundtracks that I enjoyed a whole lot from 2025.

Every year, I participate in ranking my top 10 video games of the year . Every year, I also play more than 10 video games. So, what of the rest of them? Here, in my annual “ranking the rest” writeup, is where I speak to those games, and thus the broader picture of my gaming year. As I wrote on my top 10 list, I think 2024 was a very good year for video games, with new releases I wanted to play...

I look forward to all the festivities celebrating our favorite video games every year, and one of my personal favorite such traditions is looking back on my favorite video game music from the year. We live in an era where video games by and large have wonderful soundtracks -- I'm blown away by their quality every year -- to the point where narrowing this list down to 10 is always a struggle. Ye...

Every year, we all gather to make our contractually obligated “Top 10 Games of the Year” lists. Also every year, many of us play well more than 10 video games. So what of the rest of them? The ones that didn’t make the elite 10? They’re games too! Thus, as I’ve done for a number of years now, here’s my way of speaking to those other games, in the form of ranking all the games from 2023 I played...

Video game music, huh? It’s pretty good! Great, even. Here we are nearing the end of 2023, which means it’s time for one of my favorite annual traditions: recognizing my favorite video game music of the year. I’d say it was a pretty solid year for music in games too, with a couple of these soundtracks joining my all-time favorites. It was a deep and varied year as well, so much so that I couldn...

SPOILER WARNING: This blog contains major story spoilers for The Legends of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It also contains brief spoilers for multiple other Zelda games, including Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Breath of the Wild. What does it take to topple a great evil? Especially an evil that has established a seemingly overwhelming power over those aro...

The idea of doing a top 10 list of games every year makes a lot of sense: it’s a clear, simple way to share our favorite video games from each year. But for many of us, the story of our gaming years is more than 10 games. So, as I have done for a number of years now, my way of telling that story is to “rank the rest” of the games I played from 2022. This gives me a chance to briefly touch on ev...

Oh hey, hello, hi. Somehow the end of 2022 is already approaching, which means it’s time for one of my favorite annual traditions: sifting through and showcasing my favorite video game music of the year. While I don’t know that 2022 was a banner year for video game soundtracks, I was reminded for the umpteenth time while putting this list together just how much good video game music exists ever...

I agree with the general sentiment that 2021 was a “weaker” year for video games in the relative scheme of things. Yet not only did I enjoy the 10 games on my GOTY list , I also think 2021 was a quietly deep year, with interesting and varied games well past my top 10 ( psst, every year has good games). I played more than 10 games that were well-made and/or did something interesting, but many of...

It’s time yet again for one of my favorite annual traditions: a look back at my favorite video game music of the year. And 2021 was another year full of varied, excellent, and just plain kick-ass video game music, including the 10 scrumptious soundtracks I’ve chosen to highlight below. Music is a huge part of what makes video games special to me, and each of these games were made much better by...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

OK, now for the bigger list: after making my top 10 list for 2020 , it's time to rank the rest of the games I played from the year. It's a tradition I've stuck to for a few years now, and it gives me a chance to briefly speak to all the new games I played over the year. It's fun, and hopefully paints a more holistic picture of my gaming year; though I should say that it's a fairly loose ranking...

Oh, hey, it’s December again. Which means it’s time for one of my favorite annual traditions, where I look back at my favorite video game music of the year. And regardless of everything else 2020 threw at us, allow me to make a bold claim: there was a lot of great video game music in 2020. Not just high quality, enjoyable music, but also music spanning all sorts of styles, genres, and game type...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

SPOILER WARNING: This blog assumes you are familiar with everything that happens in both Final Fantasy VII Remake as well as the original Final Fantasy VII . As such, there are massive spoilers below for both games (and this blog may not even make sense if you are not familiar with their plots anyway). Additionally, I give brief spoilers for the endings of the first Mass Effect , Star Wars: A N...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

The top 10 list is a fun tradition, but I always wonder, what about the rest? Most of us play more than 10 games a year, so what happened to the others? For the past few years I’ve taken to ranking the rest of the games I played in a given year, and use that as a chance to (very) briefly speak to them. It gives a more holistic picture of my gaming year, and I have fun doing it too. That’s exact...

It’s time again for one of my favorite personal annual traditions: looking back on the year in video game music, and sifting through my favorite soundtracks to share in a fun collection. It’s a testament to the strength of the medium that I can do this every year, and looking over this year’s list, I can’t help but marvel at the continued diversity and quality of video game music. There’s somet...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Hey duders! This past weekend I did my part for Extra Life 2019; I’m out of town on the actual game day, so I had to do it a week early. (For anyone interested, my Extra Life page is still up here , and I recorded my stream and uploaded it to YouTube here .) I thought my stream went very well; I for one had a good time and managed to (barely) hit my personal goal. Best of luck to all my Giant B...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

SPOILER WARNING: This blog speaks at a very high level about mid-to-late game happenings in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It's stuff that has been covered in other reviews and marketing materials, but I want to mention there are mild spoilers here just in case. About two-thirds of my way through Fire Emblem: Three Houses , as I walked through the emptier-than-they-used-to-be halls of Garreg Mach M...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

I recently posted my top 10 list for 2018 , which is one of my favorite community exercises every year here on Giant Bomb. But like most years, I also played well more than those 10 games. What about the rest? Where do they stand? Because as nice as it to distill it all down to a set of 10, there are always many more than 10 games that color my year. This, then, is my chance to speak to those a...

Say what you will about the games themselves, but I think 2018 has been a genuinely incredible year for video game music. It’s great to see developers experiment with all sorts of fresh styles, and the form is becoming so much more diverse and artful than I could have ever imagined. And it’s just high quality stuff across the board, in ways that elevate and empower the games we play. Even withi...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

Hollow Knight is a video game that first released in early 2017 for the PC . I played that initial release, and it ended up being one of my favorite games of 2017 . There’s a laundry list of things I love about it too: The world is incredibly well-designed and full of details I love exploring. The art style does a lot to bring the world to life, along with the diverse set of creatures you encou...

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...

So, I've been playing a lot of Into the Breach lately. It's a fantastic game, and highly recommended to anyone who enjoys turn-based tactical games, or puzzle games (which I might argue it's more of the latter). There's a lot of little details about it that I think make it an extremely well-designed game, but that's not what I'm here to discuss today. No, I'm here to talk about the game's diffe...

I really like making and reading top 10 lists every year: there’s a kind of solidarity in everyone distilling all of the games they played in a year down to the 10 they enjoyed the most. At the same time, there are well more than 10 games worth talking about in any given year, and I often play a good chunk of them. That’s true yet again for 2017, and since I’ve stopped regularly writing about g...

There’s been a lot of praise thrown around about 2017 in gaming (more on that later). But more than the games themselves, I think this has been an amazing year for video game music. Just wall-to-wall fantastic stuff throughout the entire year. I’m a big fan of video game music, and often feel the need to talk about how it's an important aspect to this awesome medium. This year though, I feel li...

SPOILER WARNING!! This blog contains spoilers for Pyre . I'd consider them minor, but they are definitely spoilers. What do you do when your life isn’t turning out how you thought it would? Or more importantly, how you wanted it to? When you feel like you’ve been tossed out, like nobody cares about you, that you will never be successful, and have reached rock bottom? You know, when life gives y...

Like many of you, I came away from E3 2017 extremely excited about Super Mario Odyssey . It's easily one of the coolest games I saw at the show (its only possible rival in my book being Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus ), and one of the things I really liked about the new Odyssey trailer was the song. Not only is it a super catchy and fun song, but I think that "swing" style works really well f...

First we ranked Super Mario . Then we ranked The Legend of Zelda . Now we're back, this time to rank the Final Fantasy games. This was the trifecta of game series that we always wanted to rank, and ironically enough, Final Fantasy was the original inspiration. My brother set out on a personal quest a few years ago to play through all the main Final Fantasy games. I had completed that same quest...

I’m climbing to the top of a mountain in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . Why am I climbing this mountain, you ask? Did the story dictate I do so? Is there a quest marker pointing me there, or a collectible to help me fill out a checklist? Is it simply in my way, an obstacle to traverse, as I head towards another required objective? There are a lot of reasons I’m climbing this mountain...

The dust is settling on another year in games, one which I thought to be a pretty good one for our favorite pastime here on Giant Bomb. I, like many others, propped up my own list of my 10 favorite games of the year , which turned out to be a pretty tough exercise this go-around. I ultimately feel very good about that list though, and am confident those are the 10 games I got the most out of in...

Has it really been a full year already? It feels like just last week I was listening to 2015’s best in effort to assemble a list of my favorite video game music from last year . And yet here I am, doing the same for 2016. Fortunately for me, as a big fan of video game music, it’s a process I greatly enjoy; I don’t need much of an excuse to go re-listen to a lot of video game music. In some ways...

Despite playing Persona 4 Golden over three years ago, I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot over the course of 2016. This has proven to be a introspective year for me in general; after a handful of ups and downs, and big life shake-ups, I’m at noticeably more stable place in life. That stability provides me with time to reflect and consider where I want my life to go next, what kind of per...

Editor’s note 1: Believe it or not, my friends and I had plans to do this, with this exact title, well before there was a Giant Bombcast of the same name . The timing of that Bombcast was pure irony for us ;) Anyway, just throwing it out there that this is not a response to the Bombcast (and our first ranking, titled Ranking of Marios , occurred before then). The TV show was not under considera...

This is an experiment I’ve wanted to try for a while now. Like many of us, I have an overwhelming backlog of games that I want to play, but will likely never find time for. I manage my backlog via a spreadsheet off-site, and over the past few years the number of games on it has hovered around 200. While it’s good that it hasn’t drastically grown over that time (and I periodically cull some game...

A few friends and I recently got in our heads that it would be fun to get together and rank our favorite (and least favorite) video games within a single franchise. And by rank I mean argue and jockey and ultimately "agree" upon some rough consensus ordering of said video games. Our first franchise to rank? Super Mario . Dude's been in a lot of games. Some better than others Thus we compiled a...

Welcome to the final, final part of “Metroid and Me!” The actual blog series wrapped up last week with part seven, but I figured why not have a little fun and write one more “bonus” entry? This part only tangentially relates to what came before it; it’s certainly about Metroid and how it relates to my personal tastes, but we’re done diving deep into all the details about why Metroid connects so...

Welcome to the seventh and final part of “Metroid and Me,” and the end of my personal examination of what makes Metroid such a special franchise for me. A big thanks to anyone who’s made it this far, and if you’re new I urge you to head on back to part one and start from there; you can find links to previous parts below. Before wrapping up, however, there is one final topic to discuss. We’ve co...

Welcome the the penultimate part of “Metroid and Me!” This is part six in a seven part exploration of my personal affection for this wonderful video game franchise. I’ve been taking a long, hard look at exactly why this series holds such a strong appeal for me, and if you’re stumbling across this blog for the first time I highly recommend going back and beginning with part one. You’ll find link...

Welcome to part five of “Metroid and Me,” where we find ourselves firmly in the back half of this seven part blog series. This is a lengthy, introspective look at why the Metroid franchise has resonated so strongly with me, and I highly recommend newcomers follow the links below to get caught up on previous parts in the series; there’s an intentional structure here that’s best digested in order...

Welcome to part four of “Metroid and Me!” This marks the midpoint of this seven part blog series where I explore why the Metroid franchise has been so resonant and influential for me. If you’re joining for the first time, I recommend beginning with part one and reading these in order. That will get you acquainted with what this series is about, and also get you caught up on the material I’ve co...

Welcome back for part three of “Metroid and Me!” This is my seven part blog series where I take a long, hard look at why the Metroid franchise has connected with me so strongly over the years. If you haven’t read the first two installments, I highly recommend doing so before tackling part three; you can find links to them below. Not only do they explain everything this series is about, but ther...

Welcome to part two of “Metroid and Me,” my lengthy, introspective blog series exploring why the Metroid franchise is such a resonant one for me. If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest starting with part one (link below). Not only does it explain what this blog series is, it also covers my personal history with Metroid, which I think provides useful context for what’s to come. Because now it’...

Welcome to the first part of what will ultimately be a seven part blog series! I've had the idea for this series in my head for a long time, and I’m excited to finally get it out there. So what exactly is it? Titled "Metroid and Me," this blog is a lengthy, introspective look at why the Metroid franchise has connected with me so strongly on a personal level. It's long been among my favorite vid...

SPOILER WARNING: Very mild spoilers for Dark Souls III ahead, mainly regarding its references to previous games in the series. I personally don't consider anything here spoiler-tag worthy, but some people are picky about this stuff. So here's your friendly warning! There's a moment near the end of Dark Souls III where it all came together. I stepped out onto a bridge in the final non-optional a...

The “top 10 games” list is a time-honored tradition here on good old Giant Bomb, and I’m deep in the throes of trying to nail down my own personal list for 2015; I have two more games to squeeze in before making my final decisions. It’s a fun (if sometimes difficult) process, and it always inspires me to make another equally fun “top 10” list to go along with it: my favorite video game music. I...

Note: Any release dates I cite are North American ones. It’s been roughly two years since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One came onto the market, in the fall of 2013, which means we are firmly entrenched in this “generation” of video game hardware. These two consoles weren’t the beginning of the transition though; in fact, they remain the newest, and seemingly final additions to the current batch...

I had to be somewhat of an opportunist with my gaming this month. I attended three weddings back to back to back, which ate up a lot of my weekend time. I was more than happy to support my friends of course, but it did leave me tired and in need of some genuine downtime more than once. I found that downtime in odd places when I could, and did get through some cool games during this hot, sticky,...

In a sense, June was a reboot for me; after a year of being back in school, followed by a needed month off, I’m back to the working world. I’ve settled into my new job nicely though, and am slowly getting back into a solid gaming rhythm. Still, I managed to sink a good chunk of time into a big ass CRPG, a handful of multiplayer games, and a few other oddities to boot. Not a bad month for games!...

Well, I am a working man once more. After having a welcome month off (I would welcome more time off if I could) I started my new job this week. I am excited about it though (and lucky to have it), so no complaints here! Before work gets into full swing, I do want to wrap up what I played during my month off. Unsurprisingly, I did get to a lot of games in May, and ended up breaking my roundup in...

Seeing as I have the month of May off, I’m going to shake things up and write not one, but two roundups this month. It’s a designated gaming month for me after all, which means I’ve been spending quite a bit of time catching up; if I saved it all for a single blog, it would be a lengthy one. Thus, here is my mid-month roundup for May, which covers the games I played during the first half of the...

Well, I’ve made it. After the busiest year of my life I have a brand new master’s degree, which is honestly a little bittersweet at the moment; for as busy and difficult as the year was, I know I’m going to miss it. Otherwise I have a whole month off before I start my next job, and I’m pretty excited to use that time to rest and catch up on some video games I’ve fallen behind on. Before I get t...

March was the month where I finally started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. After a long, busy, and very tough year in grad school, graduation is only a month away. And realistically, most of the work will be done around mid-April. That means some genuine gaming time looms in the not too distant future, but March still carried a heavy workload for most of the month. In fact, I barely...

For years I’ve kept a running list of my favorite games . I prefer to think of it more as my personal “Hall of Fame”, to which I make a few inductions every year or two. There’s no science behind it, but I do put a lot of thought into every single game that goes on the list; additions don’t come lightly. I only add a game when it feels right, and every game on there has proven to be one that ha...

It’s been a long, stressful February for me in a lot of ways, which also meant my gaming time suffered pretty heavily (making this a shorter entry as a result). School was busy, the weather was busy (way worse than normal for my area), and I was also busy job hunting, preparing for post-school life once more. Some of those stressors are winding down, some are still going strong, and gaming time...

After last month’s gaming-fueled break, it was back to the grind this January. School picked up as if it had never let off, and my gaming time all but disappeared once more. Still, while I don’t have nearly as much to talk about this month as I did last month, I still managed to play a few (smaller) games here and there that are worth speaking to. So with that short preamble out of the way, let...

Man, what a month. School was as busy as ever for the first half of December, leaving me precious little time to play video games. Then for the second half I had a holiday break, which I took advantage of to plow through as many games as I could. This resulted in a whirlwind of Bayonetta 2 , Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor , The Fall , and Far Cry 4 ; I played through all four games in their ent...

As I attempt to plow through a few final games before scrambling together a top 10 list, I’ve also been thinking about the year in video game music. I won’t say that 2014 has been one of the better years for video game music (just like it hasn’t been one of the better years for the games themselves), but I still played plenty of games with excellent soundtracks. In fact, some of these soundtrac...

Not to sound like a broken record, but November was another busy month for school. I’ll spare the rhetoric though, and just leave it as a reiteration that my gaming time was very limited once again. I did find a few precious hours for games though, and am sharing those thoughts below. Like last month I also didn’t have as much time to edit this entry as I would like, so apologies if the quality...

This month's entry is going to be a bit more forcefully punctual than normal, as I simply didn’t allot enough time to perform my normal due diligence. It always takes me hours to write these things up, at least to the point where I'm satisfied with them (I do a lot of proofreading and editing), and I unfortunately didn’t make ample time for writing this week between my busy school schedule and...

Following last month’s short break, school raged on in September, becoming busier than ever. Only by pure circumstance am I able to keep up with video games at all; this fall looks to be the lightest fall in decades when it comes to video game releases. Still, keeping up is going to be a challenge, and I did what I could during the month. I played a few hours each of a few different games, and...

August was very much a month of two halves for me. The first half contained my summer break, which I used to cram as much gaming time in as possible. The second half saw school become busier than ever, which left me devoid of gaming time once more. I knew what I signed up for when I entered this program, however, and am prepared to deal with it between now and May; there will likely be little l...

To be honest, I didn't have a lot of time for video games this July, especially not single player games. School was very busy, and the vast majority of those precious free hours I had for video games were spent on multiplayer endeavors. Primarily, that time was spent on Pokemon X/Y . A friend recently took the plunge, and as he built his own team I found myself eager to build another team mysel...

June turned out to be a pretty leisurely gaming month for me, at least until the final week, as I’ve reached a point where I’m happy with my backlog. While there are always more games I would like to play, I’ve covered the ones I feel strongly about at this point. As such, I’m able to poke and prod at whatever I feel like playing without any time pressure attached. This month, that resulted in...

Things got a little “western” this May. Despite beginning with a few weeks off before school started, I didn’t have as much pure gaming time as you might think during that first half of the month, and a lot of that time was pretty scattershot. As a result, I ended up playing a small amount of a large number of “little” games that I’ve managed to acquire over the years: Super Stardust HD , Veloc...

April was somehow simultaneously a very slow and a very busy month for me. On the one hand, not a lot of new gaming releases meant I had time to breath and catch up a little. On the other hand, I left my job at the end of April (to go back to school) and spent a lot of the month planning for and making a big move. That made for a lot of logistics that took up a fair amount of time, but I did ma...

March’s annual onslaught might have been as strong as ever in 2014, and I did my best to keep up. After wrapping up my time with Bravely Default , I spent most of March bouncing back and forth between Titanfall and Dark Souls II ; I talk about all three of those below. I also spent a little time with both Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Threes! , which are a pair of fun, light games that ar...

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Samuel Beckett Next to video games, my favorite hobby is tennis, which I both play and watch a good amount of. The biggest pro tennis tournaments are dubbed the “Grand Slams,” and the most recent one -- the Australian Open in January -- produced an interesting twist on the men’s side. For those not familiar with the happe...

For the second month in a row it’s been almost all RPGs all the time. I’ve spent the better part of the first two months of 2014 playing a lot of RPGs, and looking forward suggests the trend isn’t going to change soon. Fortunately I’ve been enjoying them, and thus far they’ve also been distinct enough from each other to not wear me down. February’s primary culprits have been a pair of Nintendo...

January turned out to be a pretty solid “catch up” month for me, which is not a bad way to start the year. I managed to polish off practically all of 2013’s overflow, played the lone new release I was interested in for the month, and even shaved a little off my backlog while I was at it. I feel it was a successful gaming month, and one where I have quite a bit to talk about. Two games I played...

I’m going to issue an apology and/or a warning up front: this month’s entry might be a little too ranty with regards to Super Mario 3D World . I apparently had a lot more to say about it and stronger feelings on it than I originally thought, and the words just kind of came out in a single uninterrupted stream. I thought about trying to edit it down after the fact, but if that’s how I feel about...

As I continue gnashing my teeth trying to finalize my top 10 games of the year, I find myself reflecting on the great music that accompanied many of the year's best games. As an appreciator of not only quality music in video games, but also how a great soundtrack can enhance an otherwise good game, one of my favorite trends of recent years has been the influx of wonderful video game soundtracks...

The annual November deluge is now behind us: new consoles are out, and so are a ton of new games (on platforms both new and old). I’ve done my best to keep up with it all, but I can only do so much. I came out of the month with one of those consoles (a PlayStation 4 ) and a handful of new games, some of which I managed to play through. A chunk of The Wonderful 101 and the Dark Souls DLC (finall...

Life got a little busier than usual for me in October, but I still managed to squeeze some quality gaming time in. In addition to what I talk about below I also played 140 , which is a cool but short game. There’s not a lot to say about it, but I did enjoy it (check out Patrick’s actually quick Quick Look if you’re curious what it is). Anyway, on to what I spent most of my gaming time on in Oct...

2013 is an exciting year for games, a year of change and transition. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are on their way out, the Nintendo Wii U and the PlayStation Vita are fighting to find their place in the market, smaller games (primarily indie games) continue to grow in quality and importance, Valve is bidding to take over the world with Steam Machines, and, of course, the PlayStation 4 and Xb...

I went pretty hard on the games in September. In addition to the games I talk about below, I essentially powered through at least half a dozen other shorter games that were cluttering up my backlog, such as LocoRoco , Mirror’s Edge and Runner 2 , among others. It was nice to knock some things off the backlog, even if I don’t feel I have much profound to say about them. I did play a few bigger a...

August turned out to be quite a strong month for games. Between Papers, Please and Gone Home I played a pair of new releases as strong as any one month could hope to muster, and I haven’t even gotten into the meat of Pikmin 3 yet. Not to mention things like Mario & Luigi: Dream Team , Saints Row IV and Splinter Cell: Blacklist , all of which look like decent games, even if I don’t currently hav...

I haven’t done much video game related writing this year, for a number of reasons. Primarily, I wanted to get away from weekly writing; for as much as I can enjoy it, it simply takes too much time. Once a week is also a little too frequent to consistently say meaningful things about video games for a guy with a 40 hour job that has nothing to do with either video games or writing, and I don’t l...

Have you ever played a game that you felt shed light on how or why you live your life? People like stories. We inherently like stories of all shapes and sizes, in as many areas of life as we can get them. Naturally, this extends to the realm of video games, where stories have only become more and more of a focus for the medium as it’s grown in popularity over the years. A friend recently asked...

JRPGs Were Never Dead Despite claims to the contrary, JRPGs have been alive and well throughout the past generation of hardware. From Lost Odyssey to Tales of Vesperia to The World Ends With You to Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story to Radiant Historia to Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story , and the many in between, there’s been plenty of well loved JRPGs year-in, year-out. Simply put, t...

“Do you like turn-based strategy games, but find them a bit too rigid? Would you rather have the ability to move at your own pace than have that pesky grid system holding you down? Do you see a hex-based map as The Man?” -Taylor Cocke, IGN Skulls of the Shogun review One of my favorite sub-genres has long been that of the turn-based strategy/tactics variety, especially when RPG elements and cus...

I foolishly posted this on the Sunday before the new site launched. Needless to say, it got gobbled up... so here it is again! Eatin' Skulls I’ve been following Skulls of the Shogun’s development for quite a while (there’s been plenty of it to follow), and despite modest reviews I decided to pick it up and see for myself; I had to know. Ultimately, I think Skulls is a pretty sweet game. True to...

I dove head first into the Warhammer 40,000 universe recently, taking a whirlwind tour of its various video game offerings, all of which were developed by Relic Entertainment . I knew virtually nothing about the Warhammer 40k universe going in, but I did play a lot of regular old Warhammer (the tabletop game) growing up, so I’ve always been aware of its futuristic, space-faring alternative. And...

Preparing For Phase Jump Sins is a great strategy game from any number of angles. When Sins of a Solar Empire came out back in 2008, it was the one PC game that made me sad I didn’t have a gaming quality PC at the time (coincidentally, more on that below). I picked it up recently in one of the many Steam sales, and finally got around to giving it a shot. I’m glad I did too, because Sins is tota...

Survival Non-Horror Good atmosphere, bad combat. Continuing my recent foray into genres I don’t traditionally like (that’s what a backlog is for right?), I decided to give Lone Survivor a shot and recently played through it. Maybe this was a little naive of me, but I was kind of hoping that if something like Mark of the Ninja could make me like a stealth game, then maybe the same could be done...

Roguelike-likes Between Spelunky and FTL: Faster Than Light , I’ve played more games in the past year that can be compared to roguelikes than I ever have before. FTL has been the one occupying me recently, and like Spelunky before it I’ve had an up and down relationship with it. My first impression was fantastic, thanks to the game’s solid underlying mechanics. The balance it strikes between fi...

A few items of note before I begin. First, I was on a podcast with a handful of Giant Bomb duders last week to do our own GOTY deliberations. I think it turned out pretty well (and it was a lot of fun to do), and if you want to give it a listen you can find it over here . Secondly, this is my first attempt at replacing my “Weekly Roundup” writings I did last year. Bear with me and treat it as a...

I've always been a huge supporter of video game music, and have always felt that a strong video game soundtrack can elevate an otherwise good game to new heights. 2012 saw tons of games with great, memorable soundtracks; I feel like it's been a particularly good year for video game music. I've certainly enjoyed my fair share, and I'd like to give the soundtracks that have had the biggest impact...

This week has been largely spent playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown , as I plugged away at my attempt at beating the game on Ironman Classic difficulty. My first game (a few months ago) was on Normal, and it became pretty clear pretty early on that Classic is a substantial step up. The main differences I’ve noticed have been that my chance to hit enemies is substantially lower, and global panic levels...

SPOILER WARNING: I talk about The Walking Dead’s ending very vaguely here. I don’t think it really counts as spoilers, but anyone overly sensitive to that kind of stuff probably shouldn’t read the first three paragraphs. In theory, new releases should be slowing down heading into December, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. The first thing I made sure to do after Thanksgiving b...

So, maybe you’ve heard: the Nintendo Wii U is out! I was out of town during the past holiday week (hence no blog last week), and I spent a good chunk of that time at my brother’s apartment. The crazy guy pre-ordered a Wii U, which meant I got to spend a fair amount of quality time with the system up close and personal, and feel like I got a pretty good handle on what it’s all about thus far. I...

It’s the final stretch of 2012, and the games are coming in hot and heavy. This week I’ve been juggling a few of them, including finishing Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward . I managed to play through every ending, and fortunately the final, "true" ending did manage to be completely ridiculous like I had hoped. I think I like 999’s ending a little better, but Zero Escape’s does live up to the l...

In what turned out to be a crummy week for a lot of people on the east coast, I lucked out with Hurricane Sandy. Despite some strong winds I managed to not lose power, which meant that my gaming went along unhindered this week. In fact, I actually got an extra day out of the storm due to work closing. So what did I use that extra day for? Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward , of course. The Nonar...

Before I get around to what I actually played this week, I’d like to spend some time on Dishonored . I more or less blitzed through that game last weekend, and needed some time to gather my thoughts on it rather than hastily jot something (probably incoherent) down last week. I did allude to the fact that I didn’t like Dishonored last week though. That fact has not changed. It’s not any one thi...

I started off the week by finishing my first game of XCOM: Enemy Unknown . I talked a lot about XCOM last week , and covered most of the broad strokes. If you couldn’t tell from that, I really, really like XCOM, and am excited to play another game soon. I played my first game on normal, but I think my next go will be on ironman classic. That seems like the best way to play once you learn the ro...

There’s a lot to talk about this week, so I’m going to dive right in. Past hitting level 50 and finishing up “True Vault Hunter” mode in Borderlands 2 , the early part of my week was spent playing Tokyo Jungle . Needless to say, that game is completely ridiculous. I happen to be a fan of the ridiculous though, especially the Japanese kind, and I've been having fun with Tokyo Jungle as a result....

Borderlands 2 kept on going this week, and we finished our first playthrough. In fact, we’ve almost finished our second playthrough (level 49 with only a few story missions left), which has gone significantly faster than the first. Quick aside: being able to throw down two turrets, each equipped with rockets and a bubble shield is pretty rad. Anyway, I’ve talked a lot about that game over the p...

I got plenty of good, quality gaming time in this week, which hasn’t been the case for a few weeks now. It felt good to really get my teeth into some games, and it helps that there’s been some awesome ones out recently, with Borderlands 2 remaining my primary focus (here's last week's initial thoughts). The more I play it the more I remember why the first game sucked me in like it did, and the...

The last leg of my personal Zelda journey came to a close this week, though perhaps not in the way I would have expected. The final game I had to play was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link , and to cut straight to the point I didn’t enjoy the few hours I spent with it at all. I debated with myself if it was worth stubbornly pushing my way through a game that I actively hated playing solely for th...

I started off this week by finishing The Last Story . That game’s certainly not terrible, and it does have its moments every now and then. As I felt last week , my favorite parts of the game ended up being the characters and dialogue. There were a select few moments that were done surprisingly well, and Mistwalker almost makes pulling off a strong narrative look effortless on a few occassions....

The main games I played this past week were Sound Shapes and The Last Story . Sound Shapes is pretty short, and I was easily able to finish it early in the week. The best word I can think of to describe it is “neat”. I personally didn’t get all that into it though; the campaign is super short, and while it does a good job at showing off what the game is about, the bulk of its focus is on the le...

Ever since I got my Nintendo 3DS a few months ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about the original Nintendo DS, its legacy and what it’s meant to me personally. After realizing that’s it’s pretty easily among my favorite systems I’ve ever owned, I decided to write this article as a tribute to a great system that’s on its way out. So here’s to you, Nintendo DS. It’s been fun. When the Nintendo DS ca...

This week was a little erratic, but I started it off by finishing Darksiders II . I was pretty close to the end at this time last week, so everything I said a week ago still holds; if anything it’s even more true now. The endgame, to me, petered out with a whimper, punctuated emphatically by a sad excuse for a final boss. Even worse was a horrible late game shooting section that was as baffling...

I’ve spent the past week playing a pair of games, the first of which is Aliens: Infestation . I’ve had my eye on it since it came out last year, and I’m glad I finally got around to playing through it. Even better is that I really liked it. I sometimes get tired of the “Metroidvania” label getting thrown around as much as it does (often inappropriately), but I think in this case it works well....

This past week was a week of two halves. The first half was spent playing Vanquish , a Platinum Games joint that looked pretty cool when it came out that I simply never got around to. I really like Platinum and the way they go about things; they seem to be one of the few Japanese developers who really gets it. They’re able to find that balance between offering the kind of complete insanity that...

It’s been all Zelda all the time for me recently. After finishing Oracle of Ages the other week, I immediately dived into Link’s Awakening DX , blitzed through that pretty quickly, and then did the same with Oracle of Seasons . The Zelda train only moves forward! It’s all become a bit of a blur, which is only enhanced by the fact that all three of these games are very similar in a lot of ways....

When Darksiders came out in January 2010, the general consensus was that it was the gritty, mature Zelda game everyone had been wanting Nintendo to make for years. Nintendo themselves was never going to abide, so it was left to someone else (like Vigil Games ) to carry the torch. Darksiders II comes out next week, and while I’m sure there will be some changes from the first game, I’d be willing...

I tend to really enjoy lulls in the gaming calendar, so this summer has been a boon for me. Good games simply come out faster than I can play them, and I always have a giant pile of older games I’d like to play but never have time for. I’ve been able to chip away at a precious few of those games this summer, and the trend continued this week. To start things off I beat The Legend of Zelda: Orac...

You gotta love Timmy. I used to play a lot of Magic: The Gathering, and while I don’t play that much anymore (I try to keep up with it to some degree) I still think it’s a fantastic game. During the height of my Magic fever I regularly read the design columns on Wizards of the Coast’s website, and one article in particular always fascinated me. Titled Timmy, Johnny, and Spike Revisited (itself...

RTS? Tower defense? Or proof that genre labels don't really work? I started off this week by wrapping up a game of Civilization V: Gods & Kings , and then decided to take a break on Civ V for a bit and move on to some other games. That included, somewhat randomly, Swords & Soldiers . I was browsing through WiiWare games that have gotten good reviews over the years, since I’ve largely ignored th...

I don't care too much for the RPG part of this otherwise awesome game. I apologize in advance: this week’s entry is going to be a little long. There just happens to be a lot of games to talk about, starting with Theatrhythm Final Fantasy . I’ve more or less finished what I want to do in it, which primarily was getting an S rank on every song on every difficulty. It wasn’t quite as hard as I was...

So here we are, after 50 entries spanning nearly two years I’ve decided it’s a good time to end this blog series on video game music. As I explained in my “ Quickies 1 ” post, it’s all about time management. I’ve very much enjoyed doing this series, and there are still hundreds of great video game songs out there that I haven’t covered, but writing each entry does take a decent amount of time a...

If you like quirky rhythm games and Final Fantasy, Theatrhythm is pretty sweet. This has been a good week for games. After my vacation I came back to all sorts of fun new releases, and despite a slow start getting back into the swing of things, I’ve enjoyed juggling a handful of new games during the week. The game I’ve been playing the most is Theatrhythm Final Fantasy , which almost feels tail...

Metroid Prime: Menu Theme It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Metroid games and their music, and Metroid Prime’s menu theme has always been a personal favorite. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why, but something about it sounds quintessentially “Metroid” to me. Many of the sounds used feel somewhat biological, which meshes perfectly with not only the cellular imagery of the menu itself, but...

I don’t really have much to say this week, as I’ve been on vacation for the past two weeks (which was awesome by the way). I can still give a quick update though. The only gaming I did on vacation was Super Mario 3D Land , but I did manage to finish what I’m going to play of that, so I can give a few final thoughts. Not Mario's best game, but still a fun adventure. First, my status: I beat all...

I originally wasn’t sure I’d have much to talk about this week, but it turns out I got more gaming time in than expected. First and foremost, I’d like to give some quick final thoughts on Diablo III . I’ve played a lot of it over the past month or so (closing in on 100 hours), and have talked about it quite a bit already. I’ll probably continue to poke at it here and there, but the heavy liftin...

To be honest, there wasn’t a ton of gaming this week. I was out of town for the weekend, which is when a lot of my gaming typically happens, but I did get some in during the week. For starters, we tried pushing into Act II Inferno on Diablo III a little bit, and actually made some progress (we’re roughly halfway through the act now). Said progress came an inch at a time, and involved a lot of r...

To the Moon: Main Theme To the Moon has an absolutely beautiful soundtrack, and the Main Theme is easily among the highlights. The instrumentation is effective in its simplicity (I’ve always loved pianos), and conjures up some gorgeous chords that perfectly capture the game’s emotional journey. It does a great job of pulling at your heartstrings in all the right ways at all the right times. To...

I finally did it, I finally took the plunge. I am now the proud owner of a Nintendo 3DS . I’ve known for a while that I was going to get one, but I decided to wait until E3 was over to see if there would be any 3DS related announcements (price drop, hardware revision, etc.). I didn’t expect any, and it seems my instincts were dead on. Thus, the time felt right. I just got it yesterday, so I hav...

Shadow of the Colossus: To the Ancient Land One of my favorite things about the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack is how it successfully bounces back and forth between the extremes. It has tons of great, intense battle themes and an equally impressive suite of quiet, introspective ones. To the Ancient Land is perhaps my favorite among the later, as its peaceful combination of flutes, vocals and...

This week was a little all over the place. Diablo III remains the primary focus, and we’ve ventured forth into Hell difficulty. As of now my Witch Doctor is level 57 and we’re near the end of Act II on Hell. It’s nice to finally be challenged; Normal and Nightmare were both way too easy. It’s kind of ridiculous to be forced to play through a game twice just to get a decent challenge. Then again...

This past week was, unsurprisingly, a lot more Diablo III . We finished the game on Normal late last weekend, and have continued to push forward into Nightmare difficulty, which hasn’t felt like a huge step up to be honest. A few of the elite mobs can get a little tricky, but it’s still been pretty easy (Normal was incredibly easy). As of the time I write this we just finished Act III on Nightm...

God of War: Vengeful Spartan For all the awesome songs that are on the God of War soundtrack, I’ve always considered Vengeful Spartan to more or less be the main theme for the game, if not the entire franchise. It sets the tone for the series perfectly, with its meaty horns and manly vocals simulating the barbaric violence these games are known for. Just as impressive is how the rest of the ins...

Have you heard? Diablo III came out this week! I’ve been playing it! But yeah, Diablo III is pretty fun, and I say that as someone who didn’t really care much for Diablo II . I remember playing through the original Diablo way back when it came out and thought it was fine, and then tried my hardest to enjoy Diablo II. It just didn’t happen. I’ve never been the world’s biggest loot lust guy (whic...

Uncharted franchise: Nate’s Theme When I think of the Uncharted games, I primarily think of fun, action filled adventures driven by a lovable cast of endearing characters. That’s a lot of what I get out of the series’ primary theme song, Nate’s Theme, as well. The rolling drums and bold horns certainly speak of high adventure, and the strings give a nice touch that hints at the series’ more sub...

This week I played through Enslaved: Odyssey to the West from start to finish. It wasn’t a long game, but I definitely enjoyed it overall. The highlight has to be the animations, particularly the faces. I know this game came out in a pre- L.A. Noire world, but in some ways its facial animations are just as good, if not even better. They don’t have that weird disconnect from the rest of the body...

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: Jib Jig Jib Jig is one of the many great songs from the Donkey Kong Country 2 soundtrack. Its main melody is a catchy jig that feels perfect for the lighthearted pirate setting that defines the game’s early stages. I can easily imagine a group of pirates gathering on deck for such a tune, and the added wind and rain effects only add to the atmosphere....

Skyward Sword is by far the longest game in this 25 year old franchise. A claim I’ve heard a lot in the past few years is that video games are too short now. I’m not sure what games those people have been playing; the video games I play are, on average, much longer than they’ve ever been. In the past year alone I’ve played Deus Ex: Human Revolution , Dark Souls , The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , T...

I finished The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings yesterday. That game is great. After playing one too many overly long and grindy RPGs, it’s nice to play one that actually knows how to pace itself and cover ground in a timely manner. The game wisely uses its narrative to propel the action, rather than the promise of more loot and/or experience, making it a lot more engaging to me. I expanded on why...

A striking art style guides a memorable adventure. This past week began with Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP . I don’t own an iOS device, so its recent Steam release was an opportunity to play a game that I’ve been interested in for a while. And man, that game is a trip. I mean that in the best possible way too; S:S&S EP is a game that walks its own path, and is infinitely more interesting f...

BioShock: The Ocean on His Shoulders One of the best things about BioShock is how it fully commits to its engrossing setting and atmosphere, and its soundtrack blends in wonderfully. I just love the violin usage usage throughout the whole game, especially in this main theme, The Ocean on His Shoulders. Something about it fits BioShock’s mood incredibly well, and seems to facilitate the idea of...

I played some more Xenoblade Chronicles last week, but I ultimately had to just stop. After spending many hours grinding through yet another zone full of boring, repetitive quests and enemies, I had another, stronger moment where I wondered why I was playing this game. I’m not a fan of MMO style combat in the slightest, and that’s where the vast majority of Xenoblade’s game time is spent. And h...

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty: Theme There’s a lot to like about the soundtracks of both StarCraft games, and in many ways the titular Wings of Liberty theme from StarCraft II brings it all together under one banner track. This is a lengthy song that hits all sorts of different, exciting notes. It has bold, bombastic action segments, complete with blaring horns and chanting vocals. It has its...

As I mentioned two weeks ago, a bunch of friends and family came up to visit last weekend. It was good times; we played a new board game I recently got (Small World, really fun), saw The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian, and capped it all off with a Video Games Live concert. The concert was fantastic, and I think the consensus favorites for our group were the God of War suite, L...

Okay, so I might have lied a little last time (unintentionally). After sitting down and actually listing out some songs I’d like to do, I think I’m going to shoot for an additional five entries past what I said last time. In other words, ten more total, including this one. Of course, that’s always subject to change, but I feel pretty confident that this will be the final number. Anyway, on to t...

I more or less finished three games this week, starting with Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War 3 . With ME3 I finished up my insanity run and grinded out that 5,000 kills achievement. That means I have a S-Rank on it for now, though we all know there will be DLC later. The last few missions weren’t as tough as I was expecting them to be on insanity; the game overall wasn’t that hard, but maybe tha...

When it comes to watching live competition, this past weekend was about as good as it gets for me. My two “sports” of choice are tennis and StarCraft , and both had major tournaments going on this weekend. For tennis it was the Miami Masters tournament, and for StarCraft it was MLG Columbus . I had streams for both events playing on my computer simultaneously for most of the weekend, and it was...

The Mass Effect 3 insanity run continued this week. Honestly, it hasn’t been hard at all so far. According to my achievement progress for “Unwavering” (which you get for completing all missions on insanity) I’ve done 21 out of 27 missions, so I’m making good progress. It’s actually been going faster than my initial “normal” playthrough, though I’m curious to see how the final missions are on in...

I’ve been doing these music entries for about a year and a half now, and given how much amazing video game music is out there I feel like I could potentially keep doing it forever. One thing's for sure; I won’t have to stop due to lack of good music to choose from. That being said, I personally can’t keep doing them forever. I love video game music as much as anyone, but I also have to prioriti...

This week was once again all about Mass Effect 3 , despite the fact that I finished the game early in the week. Not much has changed since I wrote about it last week; it’s still a hell of a game, and one I had a blast playing. I don’t like it quite as much as I like Mass Effect 2 (which will probably go down as my favorite game this entire generation), but it still has so many awesome moments,...

Mass Effect 3! It's here! It's really good! Unsurprisingly, it’s been all about Mass Effect 3 this week, and I’m really, really enjoying the game so far. I do feel it got off to a rocky start, however. The opening did a pretty poor job at bridging the transition from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3, and the way shit hits the fan immediately imparts a weird pacing on the entire game. It makes eve...

All medals acquired! This was a relatively low key week as far as gaming is concerned. The main item of note is that I finished up what I had left in Rhythm Heaven Fever , which wasn’t a lot. The last few levels got kind of crazy; the final stage, Remix 10, was just bananas. It took literally every minigame in the entire game and mashed them all together rapid fire. It took a little bit of extr...

The dying wish. It’s a common enough concept, and one that certainly has storytelling potential. Regrets, ways you would have lived your life differently, or things you never made time to do; it’s easy to imagine all the things you would wish for if you knew your life was near its end. What if you could be granted a single dying wish? What would you wish for? For Johnny, his dying wish is to go...

One of my favorite things about Super Mario Galaxy is its wondrously upbeat soundtrack. Its orchestrated tracks in particular are amazing, and none of them stand out as much as Gusty Garden Galaxy. Gusty Garden Galaxy opens up with an emphatic burst of energy, and never stops moving from there. It immediately settles into a basic rhythm governed by a combination of strings and drums that has an...

I finished Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on Monday, and the final few hours didn’t add much to the experience; it was pretty much what you would expect. I wrote a lot about the game during the past two weeks, and feel like I’ve pretty much covered everything I have to say about it. If there’s anything I want to reiterate as a parting comment on Reckoning, it’s that I simply feel that the game i...

Chrono Cross’ soundtrack sports so many beautiful songs, and its pair of world map themes stand among the best of them. They showcase an interesting contrast in both execution and tone that are not only pleasant to listen to, but also do a fantastic job at defining the game’s two parallel dimensions. First is Fields of Time (Home World theme), followed by On the Beach of Dreams (Another World t...

I played a lot of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning this week, and I mean a lot . I’ll probably finish it up tomorrow. Man, that game... I almost don’t know where to begin. Last week I talked about how I found the narrative boring, and thought the combat was good for an RPG but still not quite up to action game standards. All of that still holds. If anything, it’s more true now than it was a few do...

My MMO career didn't get the best start. The first MMORPG I ever played was Final Fantasy XI . I hated it. It took too long to do anything meaningful, everything felt repetitive and grindy, and combat was unsatisfying. In short, too slow, too repetitive and too boring. A year later, World of Warcraft was released to highly positive critical acclaim. It was to be the MMO that changed everything,...

Rise of the Martian Bear isn't just "more" Iron Brigade, it's also "better" Iron Brigade. This was a week of two halves. The first half was primarily spent playing Iron Brigade , wrapping up its Rise of the Martian Bear DLC. Honestly, I think I had even more fun with Iron Brigade this week than I did when I first played it. Some of that is because I was playing with four people this time instea...

This week was an assortment of seemingly random games, most of them small and downloadable. I deliberately avoided starting anything sizable due to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’s imminent release. I’m really looking forward to that, and will probably spend a good chunk of the coming week with it. A few frustrating design issues will likely keep me from finishing Bit.Trip RUNNER. As for those s...

Not many action games boast soundtracks as bombastic as Jet Force Gemini. It has a fun, explosive vibe to it that makes it constantly entertaining, and perhaps no song represents this as well as the main theme. After a super brief and quiet intro (which is where the logos are shown in the game), the Jet Force Gemini Main Theme erupts into a glorious barrage of blaring trumpets. There’s nothing...

CoD continues to be a time sink. I didn’t make a lot of gaming progress in the past week, mainly due to the fact that almost all of my gaming time was spent playing multiplayer games such as Modern Warfare 3 and StarCraft II . Those juggernauts keep chugging along, though at this point it’s primarily Modern Warfare 3. StarCraft II play has been relatively infrequent over the past few months now...

Beyond Good & Evil is well loved for its soundtrack, and for good reason. Parts of it are absolutely beautiful, and Hyllian Suite (named after Beyond Good & Evil’s world, Hillys) is no exception. The song opens up very peacefully. The combination of flutes and strings (and various percussion instruments) is extremely soothing, and the pace of the song is incredibly relaxing. It sounds like some...

It’s been more Dark Souls and The Old Republic this week, which are the two games I’ve been playing for a while now. I did also wrap up the game of Civilization V that I started last weekend, however. I was testing out the recently added Sejong of Korea, and I have to say, I put him right up there with Gandhi as one of my two favorite leaders to use. I generally like going for a lot of science,...

Obviously, soccer is to blame. Big news of the week: my Xbox Live account got hacked. Someone got in and used all my Microsoft Points to buy silly FIFA 12 items. Microsoft has, of course, locked down my account, and who knows how long it will take for me to get it back. I don’t want to harp on it too much, because enough has been said about these kinds of things already; I don’t have to tell yo...

After being killed by the Taurus Demon about a dozen times, you’ve finally conquered him. Your hard work, patience and perseverance have paid off. Take a deep breath and relax for a moment. Not for too long though; that was, after all, only the first boss. There is much more work to do. Alright, ready to move on? Good. Just be careful, you’ve acquired a lot of souls. Wouldn’t want to lose them...

To cap off the first week of 2012, I finally finished my first playthrough of Skyrim this weekend! I wrapped up both the Mage’s Guild and Civil War questlines, thus earning the remaining achievements I had left (S-rank get!). I have to say, it feels pretty good to get that albatross out of the way. For as much as I have enjoyed Skyrim, I think I hit the burnout stage a few weeks ago. Yet, being...

I love Metroid music, and a big reason why is that it often does an amazing job at contributing to the thick atmosphere that the best Metroid games can create. In a lot of ways, that sense of atmosphere can be traced all the way back to the original Metroid’s title theme. It’s an iconic theme that sums up a lot of what the series as a whole is about, and we now have a wonderful remix from Shine...

I've been on GiantBomb since the beginning, and have posted a user review for pretty much every “new” game I’ve played since. That’s a whopping 118 reviews (don’t trust the number the site lists, it lies!) in about three and a half years, which, in retrospect, is kind of nuts. In that time I came up with a style that worked well for me, that focused on giving concise, fluff-free reactions on wh...

Regardless of how you feel about Final Fantasy XIII on the whole (it seems to be a popular game to give a hard time), it had some pretty darn good music. One of my personal favorites is, surprisingly enough, the battle theme, Blinded by Light. Blinded by Light starts out simply enough, as it’s very similar to most Final Fantasy battles theme openings. It kicks off with a low, steady beat that p...

I really enjoy all the God of War soundtracks; they all bring a slew of epic songs to the table that's practically unmatched by anything else out there. One of my personal favorites in the entire series is Typhon Mountain from God of War II. All of the songs on the God of War soundtracks are epic of course, and Typhon Mountain is no different. One of the things God of War II specifically introd...

Star Ocean: The Second Story is a fantastic game that too often gets lost among the horde of other similarly great JRPGs from that era. Not only was it a great game, but it had a few memorable songs that have stuck with me over the years, none of them more so than it’s main overworld theme, Field of Expel. Like many JRPG overworld themes, Field of Expel is grand and epic. It’s bombastic in a wa...

Meteos is a fantastic DS puzzle game, especially in those early days when good DS games were scarce. Still, it would hold up just as well today, and a lot of what made it stand out to me was the robust soundtrack. Each level’s theme was molded in part by your actions, but it’s the grand menu theme, The Path You’ll Travel, that takes the cake. The Path You’ll Travel is super energetic in all the...

I absolutely love Bastion’s soundtrack. Each song is fresh and imaginative, and they all fit their respective levels in the game perfectly. The songs that sick with me the most, however, are the lyrical ones, especially Setting Sail, Coming Home. It’s more or less a simple fusion of the other two lyrical songs, Build That Wall (Zia’s Theme) and Mother, I’m Here (Zulf’s Theme), so I’ll focus on...

I’ve always loved the upbeat, whimsical nature of a lot of Rare’s soundtracks, and the Banjo-Kazooie games are arguably the best examples of this. The latest (and hopefully not last) game in the series, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, has a wonderful orchestrated soundtrack that’s a ton of fun. One of the most memorable tracks to me is Banjoland. Banjoland is first and foremost a trip down memory...

I love it when a song can define a single, powerful moment. Be it in video games, movies, or even real life, the right song used at the right time can make an already memorable moment even more so. One of my favorite examples of this in video games comes in the form of Aeris’ Theme (I know it's technically "Aerith", but she'll always be “Aeris” to me!) from Final Fantasy VII. I should probably...

Super Mario RPG is awesome. So is its soundtrack. The game’s music may not do anything super special, but it’s a great example that you don’t always have to. Sometimes it’s just as good to offer up some simple, lighthearted tunes to supplement an incredibly fun game. That’s what songs like Rose Town and Nimbus Land are meant to do, and they do it well. Rose Town Nimbus Land The thing I love abo...

The Legend of Zelda games always have great music, and some of their most memorable songs occur in their various “overworlds”. With regards to Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, that would be Hyrule Field. Ocarina of Time Twilight Princess If I had to describe The Legend of Zelda franchise in one word, it would most certainly be “Adventure”. I personally think that’s why the games resonate...

The World of Goo soundtrack is one of my personal favorites. The pinnacle track, Best of Times, is one of the soundtrack’s more dramatic songs. It swells back and forth between various highs and lows, making for a moving piece that’s as memorable as the game itself. Best of Times opens up in subtle fashion, with quiet but clear piano beats. Vocal humming and/or chanting quickly comes in to give...

I love Katamari Damacy’s soundtrack. It’s completely over-the-top, eccentric and silly. The game is too, and I find it totally awesome that both the game and soundtrack go balls out with it, embracing the craziness. The game’s main theme, Katamari on the Rocks, is the perfect example of this. From start to finish, Katamari on the Rocks is full of energy. Frantic drums beats, blaring trumpets, a...

When I think of Final Fantasy music, the first songs that come to mind are almost always the epic ones or the touching ones. But there’s a lot more to the various Final Fantasy soundtracks, including some great action oriented themes. One of my favorite examples of this is Movin’ from Final Fantasy VIII. In a way, the name for this song says it all- it’s about motion . The song’s brief intro (f...

I generally find water levels to be kind of frustrating in games, but somehow they often seem to have really relaxing, really great music. Donkey Kong Country is no exception, with Aquatic Ambiance being one of my favorite songs in the game. To me, the ocean is a vast, mysterious place that's pretty fascinating. Aquatic Ambiance seems to embrace this notion. Its central chords are beautiful, an...

Life has been incredibly busy the past month, but I’m happy to finally be back writing another one of these things :) One of my favorite things about the Mass Effect soundtrack is how it sticks so closely to the source material. Every track oozes a thick sci-fi vibe, which does wonders for the atmosphere. The most iconic song on the soundtrack is creatively named Mass Effect Theme. Mass Effect...

Final Fantasy VI is certainly one of my favorite games ever, and one of its best features is undoubtedly its all encompassing soundtrack. There are numerous standout songs, and the awesomely epic Terra’s Theme is easily among them. Terra’s Theme has two purposes in Final Fantasy VI. As the name suggests, this is the “character theme” for Terra, but it also doubles as the overworld theme. It fun...

The main thing that comes to mind when I think of Cave Story is how enthusiastic the game is. Perhaps nowhere is that enthusiasm more apparent than in the game’s soundtrack, especially its main theme. Cave Story is a game that’s constantly exuding charm and energy, and its main theme is no different. This is an upbeat song that simply seems happy to be a song. It has that special joie de vivre...

When done well, there’s something special and transportive about a classic fantasy setting. The Elder Scrolls games have arguably been among the best video games at creating such experiences, and their music has been as instrumental as anything in establishing such an iconic environment. Perhaps my favorite theme from the series is the Morrowind Main Theme. When I think of a fantasy setting, I...

In addition to directly showcasing original video game music, I’d like to occasionally give a nod to some of the awesome work done by the good folks over at OC ReMix . They do an awesome job at presenting their own unique interpretations of a large variety of video game music, and come up with some pretty fantastic stuff. Today’s example is one of my favorites: Sunken Suite, a “remix” of Dire D...

Strategy games probably don’t come to mind too often when you think of awesome video game music, but a handful of them have some great stuff. StarCraft is one such example, the theme affectionately known as Terran 1 being the stand out track. I’ll never forget my first experience with StarCraft, and this theme goes right along with it. The opening missions of the game (where you play as Terran)...

I really like a lot of the music from Final Fantasy IX and feel that its unique soundtrack often gets overshadowed by the other giants from the franchise. One of my favorite songs is Freya’s Theme. I’ve also heard this song called Gizamaluke’s Grotto, as that’s the area of the game where it plays. For unknown reasons, Alexandria has invaded Burmecia, and you pass through this grotto as you head...

Sometimes you want music that isn’t deep, epic, or emotionally heavy. Sometimes you just want something light and fun, and that’s exactly what you get from Yoshi’s Island. Athletic Flower Garden I chose to do a double feature simply because these two songs are awesome in similar ways. They evoke the exact same vibe, so what I have to say about one applies to the other. And I couldn’t live with...

Valkyria Chronicles is a great game that I highly recommend to any PS3 owner, and its soundtrack was one of the many aspects that made it such a memorable experience for me. The Main Theme is perhaps my favorite track. The central theme in Valkyria Chronicles is war, and it covers just about every aspect of that heavy topic by the time all is said and done. It's an epic tale that does a great j...

Shadow of the Colossus is a very unique game, and has a very unique soundtrack to match. It constantly toggles back and forth between quiet, mellow songs and exciting, action packed ones. One of my favorites among the action oriented songs is Revived Power. Your fights with the titular colossi in Shadow of the Colossus are some of the most intense, epic encounters I've ever come across, and son...

Perhaps the most underrated aspect of Metroid games is their fantastic music. This is certainly the case with Metroid Prime, one of my favorite tracks being Phendrana Drifts. I’ve always thought there’s a certain ambiance to Metroid music. To me, the best songs in the franchise are often ones that don’t initially jump out at me. They blend in with the surrounding environment perfectly, helping...

One of my favorite things about Modern Warfare 2’s campaign is the action packed soundtrack, but the musical moment that sticks with me the most is when Going Loud rears its head in multiplayer. Every time you start a multiplayer match it opens with a few seconds of music and a short voice clip before reverting entirely to in-game sound effects. The purpose of those initial seconds is to get yo...

There are a ton of great, memorable songs from Final Fantasy VII, one of my favorites being the main theme that plays primarily on the overworld (I’m also providing an orchestrated version for better sound quality). Original Orchestrated This has always been the theme of Final Fantasy VII in my mind. It’s easy to get caught up in some of the game’s flashier tracks (such as Aeris’ Theme or One-W...

For anyone not in the know, Freedoms Fighters was a fantastic game, and had an even better soundtrack. I love all of the songs from this game, one of my favorites being Leader of the Resistance. Freedom Fighters takes place in an alternate history where Soviet Russia straight up invades the US, and the entire tone of the game aims to capture the fear and paranoia one typically associates with t...

Like most Rare games, Banjo-Kazooie has a fantastic soundtrack. On of my favorites is Click Clock Wood, and I especially love that it has its own variation for each season. Winter Spring Summer Fall The actual Click Clock Wood level has four different versions, one for each season. While it's the same basic level each time, there are plenty of subtle, thematic changes that not only make each ve...

If you know anything about my video game music tastes, you know that Chrono Cross’ soundtrack is one of my personal favorites. And if you know anything about said soundtrack, you know that Time’s Scar is its pinnacle track, and is completely amazing. Time’s Scar is the opening song in Chrono Cross, and does a great job at setting up what the game is all about. It’s major theme focuses on how ma...

The soundtrack for God of War is as epic as they come, and perhaps no song exemplifies this as much as Minotaur Boss Battle. Prepare to crap your pants: From the second the songs kicks off with some in-your-face vocal chants, you know you’re in for the fight of your life. A large portion of the God of War soundtrack is characterized by such chanting, and it’s all revved up to Mach 10 here. It’s...

One of the cool things about the music from The Legend of Zelda franchise is how a handful of themes are expertly remixed to fit multiple games. One such theme is the one for Hyrule Castle, which appears multiple times in the series. I’d like to focus on three specific versions, the first being the one from A Link to the Past (I'm including an orchestrated version if you prefer some better soun...

One of the best things about the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack is that it has a great, thematic song for each party member, and perhaps my favorite such song is the one for Tali. Not only it this an action packed song that's just a ton of fun to listen to, but its nature walks hand in hand with Tali’s character (as seen primarily through her loyalty mission, the details of which I won't elaborate on...

A staple theme in Japanese RPGs is the "town" theme. You know the extremely chill, peaceful music that always plays when you're visiting a small, uneventful town off the beaten path? Yeah, that song. I like that theme in most JRPGs. It's subdued nature is a nice contrast, and a nice break, from the otherwise constant barrage of overly epic melodrama that defines the genre. One of my favorite ex...

Alright then, let's start this show with a show stopper. Stickerbrush Symphony (or Bramble Blast, if you prefer) from Donkey Kong Country 2 is without a doubt one of my absolute favorites. First thing's first- if you haven't heard it before, have a listen. I think the setting of the level itself is the primary key to appreciating Stickerbrush Symphony. The entirety of Bramble Blast takes place...

I've always felt that one of the most overlooked, under-appreciated qualities of video games is their audio. Video games are meant to transport us to an alternate world, and they do so by engaging our various senses. Touch (controller interface) and sight (graphics) seem to receive the majority of the attention, though sound can play an equally important, if more subtle role. Take a moment to t...

It seems to me that most people have varying notions on what a video game review is supposed to be. As such, I feel it helpful to give a good idea on what I deem to be the purpose of my reviews, as to better give any reader of them a better sense of where I am coming from. Here you will find what I consider when writing my reviews, which will hopefully lead to them making more sense, as well as...