Gaming off the Beaten Path

When I first started writing about games, I was very hesitant to include PC titles at all. As I've said numerous times before, it's just not something I've ever really felt qualified to talk about. There are so many iconic PC games that were just blind spots for me as I never really actively sought them out. If it didn't come on a PC Gamer demo disc or I didn't hear about it through word of mouth, I didn't know about it. Does anyone else remember those PC Gamer demo discs? I had as much fun playing with the UI on them as I did any of the actual demos. Maybe if I spent less time clicking around the secret underground club and more on actually playing the games, I would have had more PC experience. Eh, I'm okay with the fact that while Fallout and Diablo weren't nearly as critical a part of my early gaming life as Coconut Monkey. Even when I did play and enjoy PC games, it was typically because I played the console versions first. Games like Doom, Command ...

  I've talked about "random shareware" quite a bit in the past. Those demos that everyone in the 90's seemed to have installed on their computers without any knowledge of how they got there. It's finally time to talk about the game that, for me personally, epitomized that phenomenon. I had absolutely no idea how the first episode of Heretic ended up on my computer back in the day, but I can tell you for a fact I played those levels over and over again. As is apparent to anyone who follows my content, I am a huge fan of Doom. But I've always been more of a fantasy nerd than a sci-fi nerd. So now you are telling me there's a game that's basically Doom but in a fantasy setting? Sign me up! It's funny how things come full circle, the mystery of how Heretic got on my computer has been in the back of my mind for longer than it probably should have been. Yet thanks to the research I've done for this post, I think it is close to being solved. Whenever ...

  This one has been a long time coming, but I think I'm finally ready. It's finally time to talk about Magic the Gathering: Arena. I started playing, predominately on mobile, during the pandemic and I've always kind of toyed with the idea of reviewing it. It's sort of a video game, sort of not. It's modern and not super obscure and I feel like there is already a lot of content about it already. But I finally decided that I wanted to give my thoughts about it, even if it would be just another reviewer screaming into a void. I play a lot of MTGA and I have a lot of thoughts on it and besides, card gaming is still gaming. And while I am still relatively new to Arena, I am most certainly not new to MTG. I was eight years old when I first saw kids playing Magic in the lunchroom and I knew immediately that I had to get in on that. One of my friends taught me how to play and I started trying to get cards any way I could. Using my allowance, asking for them as gifts, beggin...

  Let's start this week's entry with a little video game trivia. Your question: What title won Gamespot's "Game of the Year" award in 1998? I mean, there were so many great games that came out that year and thus, so many possible answers. Maybe one of the legendary console titles? The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? Metal Gear Solid? Perhaps a PC classic? Half Life? Star Craft? Baldur's Gate? Maybe something a little more out there? Xenogears? Panzer Dragoon Saga? Star Ocean: The Second Story? Well, your time is up and if you picked any one of those all-time great classics, you would be wrong. The answer isn't one of those games. It wasn't Resident Evil 2 or Parasite Eve. It wasn't Sonic Adventure or Spyro the Dragon. It wasn't F-Zero X or Street Fighter Alpha 3. No, in this absolutely absurdly, unfairly amazing year for gaming, Gamespot's Game of the Year went to a little title called Grim Fandango. I guess it really wasn't "lit...

  It's time to talk about something I've been meaning to address for a little while now. It's to the point where I have been at this for almost five years now and I've never addressed it. I think it's important because I feel like understanding the background of a game reviewer is important for getting the most out of their reviews. For whatever reason, I've never fully gotten into PC gaming, to the point that I almost considered not including computer games in the scope of my reviews. I ultimately decided against it, because I do have a handful of PC games I consider to be among my all-time favorites. Even then, many of those games I ended up playing on console despite the fact those versions were inferior. Deus Ex and Doom are both 10s for me and I spent as much time with the console versions of those games as I did the PC versions. For reasons I will get into, it was either that or nothing. I also consider Heros of Might and Magic III and Might and Magic VI a...

It's very rare that a developer gets it right on the first try. Look at my 10's list, or even a typical critic's list of the greatest games of all time and you will find very few inaugural titles. Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Resident Evil 4, Super Metroid, it's almost always a second, third, fourth, even fifth title in a series that's featured on those lists. I can only think of a few games where a series just knocked it out of the park on the first try. Deus Ex is one, we will definitely be discussing that at some point, probably next year. Chrono Trigger is another, I poke fun of the cult-like obsession with the game but that doesn't change the fact it's an all-time classic and one of the greatest video games ever made. But today, we are going to talk about the sequel to another all-time great series first: Doom. I think I've made my love for the original Doom pretty clear, it's one of my favorite games ever. It...

It’s been a fun month, but I’m all Final Fantasy’d out. And how do I follow up and entire month of borderline obsessive coverage of a super nerdy RPG?  By covering something even nerdier!  After all, what’s nerdier than Magic: The Gathering? I have played MTG for a very, very long time.  There was a time in my life that I was ashamed of that, but that time has come and gone.  I may not have the time or resources to dedicate to the game that I used to, but I still like to play any way I can.  That usually means playing digitally and unfortunately, I have always found Magic video games to be lacking.  They usually fall into one of two situations, either they require too much of a financial commitment or they deviate too far from the actual game to be any fun.  But now, Thanks to the (pun intended) “magic” of the internet, I have finally found the game I was looking for.  And the best part?  It’s abandonware, so it can be ...