Gaming off the Beaten Path

  I always find it interesting to look back on how some of these game series ended up on my radar. It's true of any media really, hell, any "thing" at all. You hear about something through word of mouth or see it in a store or experience it because someone else is super into it and boom, all the sudden it's part of your universe. In a weird way, it's kind of a phenomena that doesn't really happen anymore. Nine times out of 10, you learn about something new from social media or via some targeted internet marketing blitz (or both). I grew up in a small town, in an era when the internet was still young and access to it was spotty at best. I did have a subscription to a handful of video game magazines. Almost all of these were console based and even when they did cover PC games, I usually ignored them. I had long since cancelled my subscription to PC gamer by the early 00's, so there was a brief period where that was a complete blind spot for me. And that was ...

  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...

  I really like reviewing 3rd generation games, but sometimes it's hard to find much to talk about with them. It's understandable, technology was so limited at the time and a lot of developers were still figuring out what players wanted and how to iterate on formulas that had proven successful. Think of how many games were just the same side scroller or platformer with a new license slapped on. How many seemingly simple mechanics were considered revolutionary back then. Being able to pick your stage order in Mega Man? Walking to the left in Metroid? These things seem ridiculous to call out as special now, but at the time they were a major deal. It was also the frontier days for developers and publishers, with small studios growing, changing and evolving alongside established companies in other spaces looking for a piece of the video game pie. Digger T. Rock: Legend of the Lost City, kind of encapsulates all of those things. It was published by Milton Bradley, known more for bo...

  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...

  The end of a console's life cycle was always a weird and interesting time. People talk all the time about how much innovation there is at the start of a new generation, but they rarely talk about how much innovation occurs at the end of one. Sometimes you are better off sticking with the best of what old technology can provide rather than the worst of what new technology offers. I think that's something that goes beyond just gaming and extends to most different kinds of media, or even hardware, but that's a different discussion for a different day. A lot of underrated, forgotten (and expensive) games come late in life cycles, most gamers just move on to the next generation without a second thought. By the end of 1995, everyone wanted to play with the shiny new toys, the PlayStation and the Saturn. Those games had some interesting and outstanding early titles, but the 4th generation consoles weren't ready to go quietly. There were a lot of notable titles that came out ...

It's been a long time coming, but it finally happened. I finished franchise mode. I had heard for years that it was possible but had never seen it happen. The mode ends after 30 years and I don't think I ever got past 15. I would usually get bored once the actual players all retired and you were just left with randomly generated guys. But this time I threw in a twist. I would also play NCAA football side by side and import my draft class in each year. I decided on doing this all on the '08 version of both games. The reason? It's the only year I had both games. Nice and simple.  Full disclosure, I am not going to finish my NCAA dynasty through to the end, that runs 60 years and it's just not going to happen. Honestly, I just don't like the NCAA games as much as I do Madden. For one, I, like any good Northeasterner, don't really care all that much about college football. Who am I going to root for, Rutgers? I used to live about 10 minutes from High Point Solut...