Gaming off the Beaten Path

After last week's lousy game, I figured I would take some time to discuss something I've had on my mind for a while. The phrases "overrated" and "underrated" get thrown around a lot, like, A LOT, when it comes to video games. I hear those two words way more often when referring to video games far more often than with film, television, books or any other type of media (maybe music is a close second). Often, they are fighting words, leading to long winded online conversations and overly defensive social media posts about whatever game is being referenced. I actually decided to cover this topic after I got way too invested in a back-and-forth discussion on one of the many gaming groups I follow online. The original poster wanted to express his love for Chrono Trigger, something that isn't uncommon in retro gaming groups. But one user had to use the O word, expressing his opinion that while the game is excellent, it was a tad overrated. What followed was an ...

  Time to check another console off the list. This time, we are going to go with something a little more modern. As I've alluded to in previous posts, I consider the 7th console generation to be very much modern, even if it is going on 15 years old. It was a very interesting time in gaming, a time where online play was becoming the norm and video games were reaching new audiences outside the standard "gamer" stereotypes. The "bit wars" were over, this was the first generation of consoles I never once heard referred to by the number of bits they had (it largely stopped in the previous generation, but early media surrounding the Dreamcast and PS2 did refer to those consoles as "128-bit"). A war that started between Sega and Nintendo ended with two new powers, Sony and Microsoft, at the top of the gaming industry. The former decided to take itself out of the console market, electing instead to become a 3rd party software developer. The latter was on the d...

  Great, now I have to talk about something I've been dreading for the last three years. It's time to talk about my absolute least favorite genre of games, bar none. I know I've talked at length about my general dislike of racing games, but there are plenty of titles in the genre I like. I mean, I F-Zero GX is tied for my highest score ever and I certainly didn't hate games like Chocobo Racing or even NASCAR '99. I don't love racers, but there are plenty of them I like, and I understand what people see in the genre. But you already knew this wasn't a racing game as soon as you saw "007" in the title (there actually does exist a 007 Racing game, which I will try to track down, but this isn't it). No, instead, everyone's favorite super spy is going to force me to discuss a genre I absolutely loath: cover-based 3rd person shooters. I may have to put an asterisk on this one like I did Jet Grind Radio, because I don't think I've ever ...

  Let's make it a tradition. Once again, we're kicking off a new year with an old sports game. It almost feels wrong not to jump into some of the older Madden games, considering his unfortunate passing a few weeks ago. John Madden truly did transcend football and he deserves a lot of credit for introducing the game to people who otherwise wouldn't have cared in the slightest. The Madden titles weren't the first sports games, not by a longshot, but they are the most culturally relevant. Now, of course, EA essentially has a monopoly on the video game football market. But that wasn't always the case. I've already talked about Sony's NFL Gameday and the Tecmo Bowl series is considered classic for good reason. But neither of those series', or any of the countless other football titles on the market, really ever made the folks at EA sweat. They were content to compete with these other franchises, believing they had the superior product. Sometimes they were rig...

Hey all, welcome to my third, seriously third, Year End Review. It seems like just yesterday I was playing through Shadow Madness, thinking to myself "I need to keep up my writing skills, I should do a review of this butt-ugly, totally weird RPG and post it on the internet." Now I have more than 200 followers on Facebook. I know that's a drop in the bucket, but as someone with limited time to promote or market myself I will take it. I think next year I want to try and grow things a bit bigger while branching out to more kinds of content, but who knows what will happen. I know I've said that before, but I mean it this time. Anyway, the end of the year means it's time for the 3rd Annual GOTBP awards, where I award my best game, worst game, most surprising and most disappointing. This year, I'm going to add a 5th category for game I'd most like to see receive a modern upgrade or remake. As usual, 10's games aren't eligible, nor are any other non-video...

You know, for all the racing games I've covered over the years, I think last week was the first time I ever played a simulation racing game. This week I'm going to re-visit another genre I haven't touched in a while: arcade sports titles. Arcade sports games are a love it or hate it kind of thing. In some respect, it's difficult to pin down what exactly an arcade sports title entails. At its most basic level, it's a sports game that isn't a simulation of the sport it represents. But I personally would take it a bit further. It's any sports game that doesn't even attempt to simulate the sport it represents. Obviously, RBI Baseball on the NES isn't anything close to a simulation by modern standards, but it was the best they could do at the time. Would you consider that sim style or arcade style? At any rate, I think it's safe to include any over the top, ridiculous sports titles in the arcade side of things. Games like NFL Blitz and NBA Jam are som...

So it looks like it's we're back into "this is totally and completely countercultural for me" territory. I'm just going to come out and say it, I know next to nothing about NASCAR. I know it's incredibly popular, but it's just not something I grew up with. I'm from the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line for that. But it's more than just regional. Racing just wasn't something my parents or anyone I knew paid attention to. As little as I know about NASCAR, I know even less about F-1 or rally racing or drag racing or whatever other competitive kinds of racing are out there. My extent of knowledge of the sport comes from not changing the channel when SportsCenter showed race footage between football highlights and coverage of MLB trade rumors. It's not that I don't have respect for NASCAR drivers, in fact I don't understand people that refuse to call them athletes. "They only make left turns!" Have you ever made a left turn go...