Game Guides & Articles
Articles about game design, games journalism, the games industry or maybe just games. Chill takes over hot takes, every time.
This one might be a little familiar since I was using it for an avatar for about two years! It’s by Andrew Stewart, and was my first commissioned artwork related to my avatar! I have a newer, more Yoshi’s Island-esque avatar I tend to use now, but that doesn’t mean I like this one any less.
See more fan art & commissions in the Fan Art Gallery!
This is an oldie but still a goodie, an artwork by Bamseper. This is from wayyyy back from Terraria’s 1.0 days or so. Bamseper’s been a fan for years and a pretty chatty one. It may not be new to me, but I’d like to share all the fan art I get and this one still warms my heart to this day.
You can see other art in the Fan Art Gallery!
Another silly fan art piece by @RadLegoWaffle! Thanks, and GETTA LOADA THIS!
Continue reading “Fan Art: Get a load of THIS! by Rad Lego Waffle”
On May 10th, MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies releases. It’s a multiplayer Neptunia spinoff focusing on Blanc (sigh, and Neptune…) that’s based on Neptunia U’s parts but with a new Multiplayer component, some Monster Hunter inspiration and some general retooling that makes it feel more like it’s own game. This title is from Idea Factory and Tamsoft, developers of Senran Kagura and also Neptunia U.
I’ve played both the Japanese and English releases, so let’s see how this multiplayer action spin on the Neptunia franchise stacks up.
Continue reading “MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies Review”
As a “Talking Points” (geddit I’m a spikeball cough) entry this will be a short little rant. Don’t take it too seriously but it is probably about something I find silly or frustrating.
Today on the way to work I witnessed an impressive sight. A car stopped at a right turn only, with a green light, simply…waiting. No traffic, no emergency vehicles, no reason to not turn. Yet, they didn’t turn. They waited out the whole green light, then the whole yellow light. Finally, when the light turned red, they turned right.
It was no ordinary display of idiocy. People mistakenly take a turn to find the lane is full, that’s understandable. But today’s idiot clearly knew what they were doing was wrong. And it wasn’t even convenient for them. They wasted their own time and effort sheerly in the pursuit of idiocy.
It’s a whole new level of being stupid. To do something on accident is one thing. To do something out of ignorance is understandable. But when one goes out of their way to produce something stupid, that is what I cannot abide by.
Continue reading “Talking Points: Going the Extra Mile to be Stupid”
I received a review copy of Trillion: God of Destruction and, while I haven’t quite beaten it in time for launch (and I don’t feel comfortable reviewing a game I haven’t beaten) I have enjoyed my time with it and I’ll give my impressions so far here.
I’ll follow up once I’ve completed the game to fill in my complete thoughts.
For now I’ve put this game on hold. Most of the impressions below still hold true, but I must note the game gets quite slow and repetitive. The game’s harem roots show far stronger in basically every character’s story other than Gluttony’s story, who I happened to pick first. All in all it’s a game with some really good ideas and good writing here and there, but it bogs itself down too hard with Harem tropes and a Raising Sim mechanic that is far too slow.
Continue reading “Trillion God of Destruction First Impressions Review”
Long story short, the dev of That Dragon, Cancer posted an emotional and controversial post about how Let’s Plays may have affected the game.
The general conclusion of the piece is that Let’s Plays did extreme harm to the game, and there’s a rather emotional backlash towards them.
I’m not entirely happy to write this piece, as I really do wish games like That Dragon, Cancer were commercially viable (or at least, a viable way to live and keep making games), I constantly show Alt Games and all sorts of experimental, noncommercial or generally out-there games on my channel, twitter and website. I love games like this, I want them to thrive.
However. There’s a great deal of problems with this piece that I can’t let go unaddressed. The conclusion that Let’s Plays are harmful, even for a specific type of game, is exactly the conclusion a lot of powerful players in the gaming industry love to latch onto and predictably this story has been making the rounds to show how awful, greedy, and draining these so called “Let’s Plays” are.
So let’s run through the various problems with the points made in this piece.
Continue reading “Let’s Plays didn’t kill “That Dragon, Cancer””
Senran Kagura Estival Versus releases today on PS4 and PS Vita, and while I didn’t quite (nearly) get enough time to finish it in time for release, I have beaten the Japanese release and have some strong opinions on the game.
So I thought I would present an interim “what I think/what to know” review in progress before I finish up the real ordeal, for anyone looking to decide day one. Instead of worrying about a nice format I decided to just lay out all the relevant its and bits for anyone on the edge of making a buying decision.
You can also check out my my Import Review for Estival Versus for my impressions of the Japanese release.
Continue reading “Senran Kagura Estival Versus Review in Progress”
I’ve been meaning to get into the rhythm of writing regularly (for this site and in general), so I’d like to introduce a new weekly(?) series of free game spotlights: Free Points.
Nested by Orteil (who happens to have made Cookie Clicker) is a free browser game about exploring nested elements. You start with a “universe” and you can dig all the way down to individual planets, animals, atoms…
I’ve been interested in Youtube Red since it’s announcement, and stayed somewhat optimistic when everyone wanted to hate it. Now it’s been out a few months, and more importantly, Youtube Red analytics have been added. With these tools a pretty clear picture can be painted: Youtube Red is a great potential source for income that, at present, is used much too rarely to be of notable real-world value to creators.
Continue reading “The State of Youtube Red (For a Medium Sized Channel)”
