Well, that was a year. Simultaneously a neverending nightmare and gone in a flash. But hey, we’re still alive!. Constantly exhausted and despondent at the current state of humanity, but still living. Hooray? The role of games in my life has changed due to the paranoia creep inflicted by the daily news cycle. Namely, I played fewer of them, made it a point to read more, stopped looking at Twitte...
There are few events that guarantee joy and excitement with more certainty than the World Cup. It doesn’t matter that FIFA is run by an openly corrupt cabal of capitalist power mongers, or that the tournament will be in the hands of human rights abusers until at least 2030, or that the United States, thanks to a mix of arrogance, incompetence, and a lack of actual talent, managed not to qualify...
There are so many reasons why a third season of Twin Peaks shouldn't have worked. David Lynch’s last movie came out in 2006. The reboot era has become progressively underwhelming, and judging by the mediocre numbers at the box office this summer, I'm not the only one bored by all the reimaginings. Season Two of the original Twin Peaks was a confused, dull affair that was lost sight of what made...
After 137 hours of playtime, I finally finished Persona 5. I mostly enjoyed my time with the game - the gameplay is multitudes better than the last game, the art and soundtrack are exemplary, Shibuya is vast and overwhelming and full of things to do. But I can only say I mostly enjoyed it because the game’s statements on self-discovery and belief ring more and more disingenuous the more I consi...
Ever since Nintendo announced that they were going to fully unveil their newest console a few months ago, I’ve been working to keep my expectations in check. The initial trailer seemed promising, but after the Wii U became the dampest of damp squibs, it was hard to get too hyped. Nintendo has been running headfirst into nonsensical decisions ever since the halcyon days of the Wii. It was truly...
2016 was a total disaster for anyone who cares about justice, equality, or not being a complete fucking monster. It was the kind of year that could convince one to spend the rest of their life in the fetal position under the whims of anxiety and terror. But at least the video games were good! Due to time, money, and stable Rocket League servers, I didn’t play as many games this year, so this is...
the oscars of videogames pic.twitter.com/6dPKkxI33s — james davenport (@My_beards) December 2, 2016 Awards shows are always productions of bloated, self-involved trash, but few shows inspire my body to recoil backward with white-hot intensity the way The Game Awards often do. There were a few pleasant moments: Geoff Keighley's speech to Hideo Kojima made me deeply uncomfortable, but it clearly...
I remember being intensely annoyed by how highly the games press rated Gone Home when it first came out in 2013. I was twenty at the time, and I internalized the game’s widespread adulation as an attack on myself and what games meant to me. “So you’re telling me this game where you just walk around a house is a game of the year contender? It’s really capable of standing on equal footing with th...
Subconsciously, I’ve known I should be more familiar with the discography of A Tribe Called Quest for a long while. I try to be knowledgeable about music from before my time, and knowing so little about one of the most seminal and revered rap acts of all time, is something I should’ve amended by now. That said, I’m only twenty-two years old, and I’m interested in many different genres. There is...
I was wrong. I thought America would laugh at the idea of a reality TV show host becoming the president. I thought that Bernie was the outsider we could believe in. I thought that Hillary was clever enough not to blow it. I thought (some) Republicans would have the balls not to support a monster. I thought telling blatant lies was a black mark on your character. I thought presidential candidate...
Remember demos? Releasing small sections of an unreleased game in an attempt to entice more people to buy the game was a common practice during the previous generation, the playable teaser has become more of a rarity. The advent of live streaming over the last few years has seemingly replaced the demo as part of the increasingly controlled pre-release hype cycle. And while I would never besmirc...
As much as I enjoyed Act IV of Kentucky Route Zero, I couldn’t but feel like there was something missing while I was playing it. The latest installment of Cardboard Computer’s low-key adventure game was released out of the blue last month after a two-year wait since the previous chapter. Just think about that for a second. An episodic game sold in installments went two whole years in between ep...
An intricately decorated ballroom. A pristine kitchen filled to the brim with fresh food and clean cookware. A bathroom. You wouldn't expect the first game from some of the minds behind the legendary Burnout series to take place in these locales, but Dangerous Golf is a fairly surprising game. There were many things to love about the seminal racing franchise (the blistering speed, the precise c...
I still look forward to E3 every year, despite its decreasing significance. This year, I decided to write about the most exciting things I saw during the press conferences. And with that, here are the things that caught my eye the most: Titanfall 2 I don’t own a Xbox One or a gaming pc, so I never played the original Titanfall. But I was super into the footage that they showed. Adding grappling...
So it’s that time of year. The weather sucks, it’s dark at 4pm, and all of the video games have come out. Looking back on this year, I was actually surprised at how many awesome games there were. Narrowing my list down to ten was pretty difficult, and I didn’t even play most of the pc exclusive games, since my laptop is kind of terrible for playing games. These games aren’t in any particular or...
I absolutely loved The Last of Us. The act of taking out the infected while trying to survive another day in the apocalypse was tense and engaging. The story of Ellie and Joel’s journey was incredible, and kept me going during the occasional times where the game drags. Unfortunately, the game’s final sequence squandered a lot of my goodwill for the game. I understand what Naughty Dog was going...
I thought that the demo was very disappointing. While the graphics and gameplay seem to be improved, the options the demo gives you are minuscule. The demo has 2-minute halves (way too short!) and only 2 teams (Italy and Spain). Given that every country in the world is in the game, EA should have put more teams in the demo.
Here are some of my thoughts on E3: Microsoft: Best Trailer: The Beatles: Rock Band. I don't like the Beatles or play music games, but that animated trailer is awesome. Best Demo: Splinter Cell Conviction. I'm interested in a Splinter Cell for the first time. Biggest Game Surprise: Left 4 Dead 2. Valve releasing a sequel after only a year? Hell has frozen over. Biggest Hardware Surprise: Projec...
http://www.digitalsomething.com/news/2257.html At least according to Nintendo Power. All of the videos make this game look like silly, stupid fun. Anyone else excited?
http://www.digitalsomething.com/news/2257.html At least according to Nintendo Power. All of the videos make this game look like silly, stupid fun. Anyone else excited?