I make a list like this just about every year. Most years its just a list.
“Here listen to this because I said so.” Continue reading
Entertainment
Ruining Everyone’s Fun: The Top 5 Film and Television Spoilers of 2015
I’m just going to put this out there so no one gets the wrong idea: I’m a spoiler addict. Continue reading
The year I lost the zeitgeist; Or, why I am wholly unqualified to write a 2015 Top 10 list
Little known fact: I am the person who conceived of ‘Backlog Adventures’. Continue reading
On why I will never review a free-to-play title again
With the week that was E3 gone and past I find myself with a wealth of article ideas, topics, and conclusions that can all serve as ammunition for my writing. Of course, that in and of itself is a problem as well: When given the choice to do anything I tend to lose the urge to do so at all. In an effort to avoid this sad complacency I thought the best course of action would be smaller reviews of mobile games.
Nintendo’s failure linked to technology, game sales, and indie developers
Nintendo’s recent financial troubles have opened the floodgates for discussion on where the gaming company went wrong. The recent stock price drop and projected decrease in sales numbers are just one of many woes in the wake of the release of the Wii-U. Nintendo’s third-party relationships have failed and a formerly strong user base has been left feeling alienated by a company that seems stuck in the past.
Where did Nintendo go wrong? The lack of first-party titles? Marketing the Wii-U as a family device and failing to show consumers a difference between the new console and the Wii?
Any of these and more are valid criticism. The biggest contributors to the failure of the Wii-U are a poor and misguided use of technology and the internet, the rise and prevalence of game sales changing how consumers view the worth of Nintendo software, and Nintendo’s outright snubbing of an independent game developer community in their own back yard.
On PlayStation Plus, the best value in gaming
Retro City Rampage, Mega Man 9 and 10, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, Darksiders, Guardians of Middle-Earth, Vanquish, Joe Danger 2: The Movie, Demon’s Souls, Zombie Tycoon 2, Sleeping Dogs, LittleBigPlanet Karting, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Saints Row: The Third, Battlefield 3, Bit. Trip Runner Presents: Runner 2, Resident Evil Chronicles HD Collection, Ico, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Shadow of the Colossus, Poker Night at the Inventory, Hotline Miami, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, Binary Domain, Grid 2, Borderlands 2, DmC: Devil May Cry, Bioshock Infinite, Resogun, Don’t Starve, Gravity Rush, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus, Plants vs. Zombies, Disgaea 3, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, Rayman Origins, Sine Mora, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD, Soul Sacrifice, Sonic & All Stars Racing: Transformed, Urban Trial Freestyle.
If I were to add up the cost of each of these games as they cost today on the PlayStation Network store, the exact total–and I did the math twice–would be $862.13. You may be asking yourself what is so special about this specific list of games. Why the unnecessarily tedious math?
These are the games I have received in the one year and two months that I have been a PlayStation Plus member. The cost of that membership thus far? $85, thanks to a Christmas discount last month on the typically 50 dollar a year subscription. This doesn’t even take into account the discounts I have received on games and DLC.
PlayStation Plus is by far the greatest value in gaming and may very well be why Sony is poised to take back the console gaming crown.
On “my weekend media wrap-up,” Jan. 10-12
I was reminded this past weekend of just how much my taste in media has changed, or at least how I choose to digest said media.
Four years ago I would have told someone asking me my favorite band to be Arcade Fire due to their large sound and bravado. In 2014 I find those same qualities to be the exact reason why I dislike that same band.
If one were to look at my gaming habits four years ago, a trail of big name, AAA titles would be on my shelf. Now you’re more likely to find my Steam library populated with smaller, more meaningful games where I feel like my time I am putting into them is being used in a more constructive manner.
Of course, people change, things change, and nothing stays the same. All of this may be a “Well, duh” statement on my part, but I’m just surprised by how my own tastes have changed right underneath my nose.
Enough quality reflection. Here’s what media I digested over the weekend.
On contextual storytelling, Dark Souls, and Don’t Starve
For my darling wife Rachel on her 26th birthday.
Some things are better left unsaid. Nothing is more true when it comes to the art of storytelling and the ability of a tale to not reveal all of the cards being held. The concept of letting a viewer or reader find their own way through a story or performance, left to their own devices to piece together plot, motive, and context is one of the oldest and most important fundamentals of storytelling.
Video games in the current era are getting in on the act, using the environment, items, actions, and sometimes a lack thereof all three in order to tell a story without telling the story.
Whether it’s a ragged doll in Dark Souls, a wrong turn down a stairwell in Bioshock Infinite, or the discovery of what beard hair and animal manure can do in Don’t Starve, it’s all part of contextual storytelling that allows players to find as much or as little of the details as they want.
Backlog Adventures 