Splatoon is the best example of what Nintendo can be. I’m critical of Nintendo these days. Pretend their handhelds are in a nice little protective bubble of awesome that is untouched by my criticism. Nintendo continues to mine an archaic business model and stagnant IPs with forced first party development. Add their horrible monetization policies for YouTube that they doubled down
The following is for posterity. I may need to refer back to it one day. The TellTale Games Jurassic Park is bad. It’s not horrible but it is decidedly not good. Sam and Max is really where they hit their stride and just about everything after has been gold. I’m not sure they’ll ever top their first Walking Dead game. Wolf
An article on the Official Wizards’ D&D site focused on introducing kids to D&D had me asking myself a single question: What if video games are preventing people from getting into tabletop RPGs? I’m already scheming ways to get my son to play D&D. It’s an elaborate plan that has his mother terrified. Before I even run that first adventure, I’m going to get him reading fantasy. I’ve already completed
There’s no denying the success of Hidetaka Miyazaki and From Software’s Souls Series. They did what any good business does. Identify a hole in the market, garner a fan base, and exploit it over and over again for profit. Two sequels and a handful of rereleases touting extra difficulty have made them more than enough money. This is usually the
These confessions have ranged from shameless self-exploitation to silly. This one is pure shame. The first confession I wrote was a rant about Pokemon and Skylanders. The real theme of the post was that Japan is good at selling crap to American children – by extension man-children. In general the video game industry has gotten fantastic at marketing nostalgia. I have a resistance
I’ve made fun of the dime-a-dozen, open-world survival horror games before. Well the folks at Coffee Stain Studios are doing it better. They’re releasing a DLC pack for their inexplicably addictive Goat Simulator. And the launch trailer says it all.
If you haven’t been paying attention the last decade, there has been a changing of the guard. Art, the internet, and entertainment are being sculpted by a new and powerful group of people. It’s not your fault if you didn’t notice. This new status quo has long prided itself on a shared experience of social marginalization. Yes, I’m talking about geeks. If you
I have a new name for Call of Duty fans. Dudies (pronounced doodies). It was a logical progression. Dudes are playing Duty. Dudies. The result was a double entendre that just makes sense. This isn’t just the casual CoD fan, mind you. It’s a very specific fan (pictured above). Basically they’re the Bronies of the Call of Duty crowd. They
Steam just informed me that a sequel to Killing Floor is in early access. I’m not willing to pay to beta test… but that doesn’t make me any less excited for the game. Simply put, my body is ready.
I haven’t done one of these in a while. And I just got a pitch rejected by the eScapist. So, it’s time. If you’re new around here, I’m a thirty-year-old stay at home dad. I work on a book. Run this site. And then there’s that whole raising a two-year-old that necessitates the staying home thing. It’s not a bad gig. My