Gaming off the Beaten Path

"You don't understand, you don't have kids." What a polarizing statement. Any time it comes out of anyone's mouth, the reaction is always the same: all the parents in the room express their approval while the non-parents roll their eyes. I swore I would never be one of those people that said that when I eventually had kids. But I do. And I do it a lot. Because believe me, it changes your perspective, even on things like your hobbies. I never thought being a parent would impact how I viewed and enjoyed gaming, but here we are. Much digital ink has been spilled over What Remains of Edith Finch, a game one might derisively call an "indie walking simulator" by developer Giant Sparrow, and the meaning behind it's story. Folks on the web have arrived at a number of different conclusions on its message, but it's generally agreed upon the game is rather...sad. And it is. If you have never had children, you are going to play WROEF, you will probably empat

 I can't believe it's taken so long. I've covered such a wide range of games and touched so many different franchises over the past two plus years. My reviews have spanned a wide range of IPs, from popular to obscure. I've covered series' I'm passionate about, ambivalent towards and even ones I dislike. And yet, this is the first time I've ever touched "The Simpsons." I've talked at length about how video game series' like Final Fantasy and Mega Man have impacted my life. But I'm not sure any media franchise has made the impact on me The Simpsons have. Anyone who knows me knows The Simpsons are kind of my thing. Those other franchises may define my taste in media. But the Simpsons have defined pretty much my entire personality, much to the chagrin of some. Oh what, you thought I was personable or I had a good sense of humor? Not really, pretty much anything I've ever said that made someone laugh is just a recycled Simpsons joke or r

In our last "Was it Really?" we took a look at the Virtual Boy, widely considered a complete bust of a console and one of the worst stains on the gaming industry. In the end, I determined that it wasn't nearly as bad as it's reputation, though it's still pretty bad. This time, I'm going to pivot from a console to an individual game, one that many gamers know and one I'm intimately familiar with. Silver Surfer, a shoot em' up for the NES, is widely considered one of the most difficult video games in history, so much so that it's become legendary amongst the internet gaming community. It was one of popular YouTuber "The Angry Video Game Nerd"'s first targets and if you go back and watch the video he made today, you'll see that his anger and frustration with the game, normally embellished, are as real as it gets. I can't say I blame him. This was one of the earliest NES games I ever played, my cousin had it and we spent HOURS try

 I want to start this week by talking a little bit about genre bias and its impact on video game ratings. There is a huge variety of different gaming genres out there and not every gamer is going to enjoy every type of game. Whether you are writing for a major gaming site or you are someone like me, you are bound to have personal feelings on which genres you like and which you don't. I have made it pretty clear I don't really like racing games and that RPGs are my favorite, so I kind of grade those genres on something of a curve, even if its only subconsciously. Some genres appeal to more gamers than others, mostly fringe stuff. One of those fringe genres, at least I consider it to be fringe, it point and click adventure. These games are very different than anything else out there, for better or worse, and I recognize they aren't for everyone. But if you like these kinds of games, or can even tolerate them, you need to play 2064: Read Only Memories right now. 2064 is not an

 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

I know I've been covering a lot of newer games recently, but I'll get back to the old school stuff soon. I guess Bulletstorm is almost 10 years old and I've covered 7th generation games before, so it still fits, right? Besides, this week's entry feels very timely and it's a logical continuation from some of the other stuff I've covered recently. In case the title didn't make it immediately apparent, Bulletstorm is a first person shooter, released originally for the PS3 and XBox 360 in 2011. I myself played the "Full Clip Edition" on the PS4, one of the many PS Plus games I downloaded yet never touched. But having just come off my playthrough of Goldeneye, I wanted to sink my teeth into a modern FPS as something to compare it to. Just as Goldeneye featured all the hallmarks of 90's FPS', Bulletstorm was a quintessential modern take on the genre. However, it also called to mind my review of Hollow Knight, as it also aped several film tropes.