Gaming off the Beaten Path

  With the amount of unique video games that exists, it's always surprising how certain subject matter just isn't represented all that frequently. There really aren't that many games about firefighters out there and it kind of feels odd. They do exist, but they are few and far between and it almost feels like there should be more. I mean, how many kids out there want to be firemen? How many towns have all volunteer fire departments? How many firefighter shows are on TV? It's not like the premise would be completely out there. And yet, firefighting games are few and far between and the few that do exist tend to be off the radar budget titles. Which brings us to Real Heroes: Firefighter. Originally released in 2009 for the Wii, it was updated and ported to the PS4, XBox One and Switch in 2020. The game has so many publishers and developers listed for it that I couldn't tell you exactly who created which version and when. What is immediately apparent is that RH:F was m...

  I'm not going to lie, I was extremely shocked to see this game available for download in the United States. Soccer, or even rugby, is one thing. I know of plenty of American soccer fans. I know a handful of rugby fans. I'm not sure I've ever met someone here in here in the States that has even a passing interest in Cricket. Wait, did you think this was going to be a 3D platformer about a cartoon cricket? No, this is actually a game about the sport of cricket, the one where you throw a ball at wickets while the opposition tries to hit it with an enormous, flat bat. I know I don't play modern games very much, but I had to give this a shot. Because honestly, I don't think I know a single thing about cricket other than the fact that it exists. I guess it's similar to baseball and I think both are based on a game called rounders, but I really don't feel like, looking it up. I talked a little bit about my lack of knowledge of auto racing or motocross in past rev...

We've talked quite a bit about remakes over the last few weeks, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to also look at a reboot. Reboots have some similarities to remakes, but they are most certainly not the same. Whereas a remake tends to stick with similar plot or gameplay mechanics from its original, reboots tend to change one or both of those things entirely. Moreover, they are created with the express purpose of doing so. A lot of video game series have done this over the years, Mortal Kombat is the first one that comes to mind. I have heard some folks say the Final Fantasy VII Remake is actually a reboot. It isn't, because reboots typically erase all previous cannon and FFVIIR doesn't, but it does feel like one in a lot of ways. I don't want to get too far into it, because we could go all day talking about hard reboots vs. soft reboots and other minutia like that. Instead, I want to focus on the 2013 reboot of Killer Instinct, a game that I always wanted to ch...

While I love retro games as much as the next person, I have mixed feelings about how the video game industry as a whole milks nostalgia for all it's worth. On one hand, it stifles creativity, as studios pump out never ending streams of remakes and remasters of the same games we played 20 years ago. It also prevents those games from standing on their own, almost as if they weren't worthwhile. On the other hand, it has led to some really, really great titles, like the Final Fantasy VII Remake. It has also brough us an almost-subgenre of games, games done in an old school style as homages to their classic counterparts. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night fits squarely into that almost-subgenre and it's easy to see why. The game was the brainchild of Koji Igarashi, a former producer for Konami who had a major role in the creation of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. After leaving the company in 2014, Igarashi couldn't escape fan requests to create a game similar to SOTN. S...

 If I'm not going to be able to review old school games, I may as well stick to games that are designed to look and feel like them. It's not like they're hard to find. I feel like in the last few years, there's been a huge increase of throwback style games released on modern consoles. It makes sense, people who grew up gaming in the 90's are now old enough to program their own games. Couple that with the fact that it's easier than ever for small teams of developers to get together, create a game and release it to a wide audience and its only logical that this would happen. I  think it's great personally, a lot of these games do a really good job of providing old school experiences while adding some of the better aspects of modern game design. 99 Vidas certainly fits into that category. Released in 2016, it's done in the style of an old school, 2D, arcade style beat em' up. Up to four players can get together, either in person or online, to battle the...

Every once in a while, a video game comes along that goes above and beyond. A title that reaches deep and forces you to reflect on something far bigger than just a game. A title that wants you to think critically about something truly important, whether it be something personal, societal or conceptual. Hollow Knight is not one of those games, despite how hard it tries to be. Stuff like this is common in film, critics like to call film equivelents to games like this "Oscar bait." You know exactly which kinds of movies I'm talking about, the ones where Martin Luther King, Cleopatra and the Pope meet in a timewarp and spend three and a half hours teaching super Commie Nazis not to hate people by using the power of long winded conversations, introspective monologues and Renoir's art, all to a moving score featuring an orchestra playing alongside whatever douchey indie rock band is popular at the time. This has been happening with film for a while now, but it's a relat...

So I figured I would start with one of the PS Plus games of the month for my first Gaming on a Budget column.  I mean, what’s cheaper than free!  Well, technically you pay for the service, but whatever.   Anyway, I always get excited to see which games will be available for download when the end of the month draws near.  Will it be a big time, A-list title?  An obscure hidden gem?  Who knows.  I have to say that for the most part, Sony does a good job.  Hell, in January we got the first three Uncharted games!  Those were all A-list titles and are important parts of Sony’s catalog.  Personally, I don’t love them, but they are good, solid, 8.5/10 games and if you haven’t played them, the price is right.  But everyone already knows about Uncharted, so I am going to focus on the OTHER game this month.   Which is...Goat Simulator?  I remember hearing about it when it was launched, but I thought it was...