Approximately 17 years ago at the last E3, the folks over at Devolver Digital had their annual conference(?) in which they revealed among other things, Fall Guys. Looking at that initial trailer, I had no idea what to expect and immediately shrugged it off as some sort of Mario Party clone. Fast forward to just last week when it finally released on Steam and as a "free" PlayStation Plus offering, and it's completely blown up to the point where the servers couldn't handle the amount of people trying to play it. It turns out Fall Guys isn't a clone of a bad game from a bad franchise...
The Master of Disaster: The Descent – 14
I'll never forget the first time I played Dungeons & Dragons. It was a few summers ago and one of our friends offered to run us through a single session campaign, otherwise known as a one-shot. It was a ton of fun and is the event I attribute to getting me hooked on the game. … Continue reading The Master of Disaster: The Descent – 14
Exploring My Biases Against Certain Genres and Mechanics
Have you ever seen a trailer for a game and immediately knew it wasn't for you? This happens to me consistently, and all it usually takes is a trailer or screenshot for me to see the mechanics at play to know a game isn't for me. While I try to keep an open mind about every game, it's a challenge for me to look at certain mechanics or genres and still feel compelled to play it despite what the critical reception is...
Gut Check: Ghost of Tsushima
I went into Ghost of Tsushima knowing very little about what the game was outside of it being an open world action-adventure game set during a Mongol invasion of Japan during the 1270's. A cool premise to be sure, but a cool premise alone wasn't able to change the fact that I wasn't having much fun with the game itself...
Review: SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated
Towards the end of my time with SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated, my opinion of it had soured so drastically from how I felt when I began it. Being a 3D platformer from 2003, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that you're hopping from level to level, completing challenges and solving puzzles in order to obtain some sort of shiny object, which in this case are golden spatulas. Collecting enough golden spatulas grants you access to more levels, where you'll do more challenges and so on and so forth. It's a 3D platformer through and through...
Review: BarnFinders
BarnFinders is a game that I am deeply conflicted about. It's the exact sort of mindless, meditative gaming experience that I love so much, most of which involves you finding, repairing and selling various flotsam and jetsam at your own junk shop. It also is a game that is tremendously unfunny and at incredibly problematic in the way it represents various ethnicities and cultures...
Gut Check: Among Trees
There is no denying that Among Trees is cut from the same cloth as the countless other survival games that have existed over the years, but leaving it at that would not only be dismissive and reductive, but fairly inaccurate as well. While Among Trees is one of "those" kinds of games, it sands down some of the rough edges of other titles of its ilk that usually lead me to avoid the genre entirely. But there's something about this particular early access survival game that has me so fascinated and eager to continue playing it...
Gut Check: Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a game that might have been made with me and my proclivities in mind. In Hardspace: Shipbreaker, you play as an unnamed "cutter" for a company that dismantles and salvages derelict space crafts for various clients, while making sure to pick through everything in an effort to get a little extra bonus cash. It's currently in early access which is reassuring considering its various and completely understandable technical issues, that hopefully will be fixed as time goes on...
A Look Back at The Steam Game Festival
As we watch the corpse of E3 gently float down the stream with golden coins placed over its eyes for The Riverman to grant it safe passage, we find ourselves in the midst of constant press events that look to fill vacuum E3 left in its wake. One of these events came in the form of the now concluded Steam Game Festival, where developers could directly market their upcoming games via Steam and allow us to download demos of upcoming games. I played a couple of these demos and wanted to provide a little bit of insight into each of the games I got my hands on...
The Master of Disaster: Finding Your Style – 13
Recently my friends and I shuffled our roles, affording me the opportunity to play in a campaign rather than run one. It's been fantastic both from a gameplay standpoint along with freeing me up creatively to focus on other projects. Simultaneously another group of friends expressed interest in running a starter Dungeons & Dragons campaign, so being the masochist I am I obliged and started running them through The Lost Mines of Phandelver. And honestly, both games have been tremendous learning experiences that I desperately needed...
