This Week’s Topics:
Wherein I discuss a Chinese currency conundrum, some surprisingly restrained gams, the re;birth of a studio after a decade of darkness, and the death of one of the greatest mangaka.
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I often stumble onto musings from gaming enthusiasts who boast about their collections or hem and haw about physical clutter being an annoyance. I’ve been playing primarily on PC since 2013, so I don’t have much of a modern physical library, and I have long since given up any aspirations of keeping a presentable collection and chucked my games in assorted cases and disc binders years ago so they consume less space. Now everything roughly fits inside a shoebox! I still have the cases mind you, mostly in the event that I choose to sell off parts of my collection, which I would be willing to do, since I’m never going to hook up and play something on any of my older systems, but that would require actual work.
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Something that I tend to forget from time to time is that the video game industry is really just a large scale multi-billion dollar business run by companies that, above all else, are searching for ways to remain profitable in what is a rather turbulent market. While games are unquestionably art, they are sold as products and produced by studios with the goal of creating revenue likely surpassing whatever goals are held by the developers themselves. Yes, of course there is the independent scene where things work different, but when talking about industry, only the biggest players really warrant much attention.
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This game has been sitting in my “games to review” queue for quite a while now, and I’m not really sure why. True, I was not the biggest fan of Metro: Last Light, but I do have fond memories of playing the original Metro 2033 years ago and a remastering like this would ideally improve whatever shortcomings that game had. Ideally, but in trying to fix a few things, it turned what I recalled as being a delightful little experience into a far more annoying one. (more…)
So, I’ve been doing this for, what, three years now? I literally just remembered that I needed to post this within the past twenty minutes. Yeah, let that be a sentiment to how awful I can be at managing my various tasks and assignments, so long as they are self imposed at the very least. I mean, I never missed an assignment in school, and I didn’t even use an assignment notebook in high school, so why that diligence didn’t transfer over is beyond me. (more…)
For the record, the title is just a bit of a joke on my part, as are most of my Nigmabox Rundown titles. This E3 was pretty good as a whole, and had more diversity in general. More games of more types and there were some really nifty announcements as well. It was a fun time that did have some industry BS, but at least it was at a lower level than it had been the past few years. (more…)
If you put me on the stop at this very moment and asked me what my favorite franchises are in the realm of video games, I would probably ponder and stutter for a few seconds before spitting out Pokemon, Metal Gear, and Saints Row. The last one is naturally what I’m here to talk about, as while I do adore parts two and four, the first and third parts of this to be pentalogy are far lower on the totem pole of quality in my mind. While part one is the franchise before it really got its own identity, part three was where the franchise was established, became AAA to a certain extent, and had a staff that was 80% people who did not assist in building this franchise up. But that was three years ago, and I feel it is worth revisiting… That, and I was in the mood for a game with character creation, and this was the only one on my list of games I own which I ought to play. (more…)
I don’t know what’s more surprising, that I’ve been doing this video game review thing since Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which I don’t recall in the slightest, or how it’s taken this long for the first settlement of its lawsuit to happen. Yes, I understand legal systems take quite a bit of time, but it’s been over two years since I played that cold wet street trash! Now I’m nearly out of my teens and am potentially working two days a week while juggling school, this blog, and my novel. I’m not complaining, but I would appreciate if I had more than numbers to dignify that my existence is worthwhile, as the 60 or so Pageviews I accumulate daily are hardly what I consider to be reassuring that people care about my existence on the interwebs. (more…)
Funny story about how I got Metro: Last Light. I was just getting into the PC gaming in July when I was directed a link to snag the game for a penny… legally. The reasoning was that there was some error on Best Buy’s part and I managed to get the game before it was fixed. Why did it take me so long to get around to seeing as how I really liked the 2033rd? Well, I wanted to play the game in ranger mode, waited until it was on sale, played it, and realized that ranger mode was pretty terrible due to how it is impossible to know how much ammo you have. Backstory handled, so let’s talk the twenty-thirty-four! (more…)
I really do not have an explanation for what I decided to replay Saints Row 2, let along the vanilla version of a not very good PC port. I am aware that there is a supposedly awesome mod by the name of Gentlemen of the Row, but I forgot about it until I was nearly done with my 45 hour playthrough where I did just about everything I could do that wouldn’t be easily viewed as mindless busy work. However, this is not a review where I look back and question why I did not see faults with a title, but one where I actually come to terms with how I probably should have loved this title even more than I thought I did. Also, I want to review something happy on Christmas, unlike last year… (more…)
Let’s make this a dozen and keep this doom train roaring through the great plains of Acirema, the lands of the deities’ kin, and their devoured corpses. Falling from the sky for weeks before landing and altering the land with the fertile moist soil! Let’s make a cake to celebrate the- What am I talking about? I’ve got game news for this rag of an industry.
