Verdant Skies Review

I'm a big fan of Harvest Moon-type slice of life games. Stardew Valley was definitely the biggest revival of that genre. While you can argue that farming sims have always been popular for things like mobile or Facebook games, but something about the slice of life aspect of the game is a lot more fun … Continue reading Verdant Skies Review →

Replayability in Games

Replayability is one concern for gamers, mainly because not many people like to shell out sixty dollars for the next triple-A title. Most people tend to like movies they can watch several times and still feel excited. This is what I was thinking about as I started replaying The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild about … Continue reading Replayability in Games →

Survive – A Survival Simulation Game

On the app store for Android and iOS is a game simply tittled "Survive." I'm a fan of good game apps. 2048 was a fun one for me. When it was popular and new, I really liked Angry Birds. I wasn't a fan of Flappy Bird, but I know that others liked it. There's been … Continue reading Survive – A Survival Simulation Game →

Spec Ops: The Line, and Unreliable Narrators

Unreliable narrators in books is a catch all term for characters that are unable to accurately look at and description their environments, situations, and the other characters they interact with. Most characters could be described as this as, unless the piece is written in a third person omnipresent point of voice, you can't get an … Continue reading Spec Ops: The Line, and Unreliable Narrators →

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Making the Most of your World

The game, for the most part, gives you pieces of myth talked about as if they had happened recently or at least in the recent past. These feats of heroism, of divine intervention are talked about with a firm belief. Now, the Greek pantheon is largely considered myth and fun stories to retell rather than … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Making the Most of your World →

Skyrim: Favoring Chaos

In the ideal open sandbox RPG, you can do anything, go anywhere. Depending on the developers, the result of the game can favor lawfulness or chaos. For instance, in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you aren't given any missions that include stealing from others; you're not even given the option of killing NPCs. For … Continue reading Skyrim: Favoring Chaos →

Why did Fallout 4 Disappoint?

The mechanics were better, the graphics looked great, and the character customization was very responsive and creative! So why did it leave me with a bad taste in my mouth? I pre-ordered the game and bought the season pass for the DLC, spending way too much money on a game I'd end up hardly enjoying. … Continue reading Why did Fallout 4 Disappoint? →

Completionism

With speedplays on one side of gameplay styles, the other has completionist runs, in which the player attempts to do every little thing the game asks of them to do, and no other game prompts this style of play than the Pokemon series as it's built around the catchphrase "Gotta Catch 'Em All." I rest … Continue reading Completionism →

Dragon Age 2: Telling a Greek Tragedy in Video Games

I’ll keep saying it as long as it’s funny and relatively true: The Dragon Age series is a dating sim loosely disguised as an RPG. The big difference between it and actual dating sims is the level of story happening alongside it. Dragon Age II sticks out to me due to the callback to older story … Continue reading Dragon Age 2: Telling a Greek Tragedy in Video Games →

A Look at Turn Based RPG Storytelling

In this, I’m going to talk about two games: Fire Emblem: Awakening and The Banner Saga. While a lot of the comparisons I’ll go on to make can be chalked up to being developed in an established game developing company in a well defined series that’s taken its time to find the right formula for a fun game and the other … Continue reading A Look at Turn Based RPG Storytelling →