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Category: Video Games

Play-By-Post Games and Formative Play

On 31 March, 201916 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

As my post history should make fairly apparent, I love role-playing games, and the more role-playing-y, the better. Naturally, this extends well past just video games – probably my longest and deepest exposure to general role-playing is in the form of play-by-post forum RPGs.

Minit and Puzzle Hygiene

On 17 March, 201916 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video Games3 Comments

I love me a good puzzles in a game, especially in an adventure game, but it’s entirely possible to just… stumble through most of these. Minit strives to solve this – and it does so admirably.

God of War and Revisionism

On 17 February, 201916 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

I don’t believe that the recent God of War would be anywhere near as well-regarded nor widely-recognized if it wasn’t prepared to disassemble its own foundations and leave reams of material on the floor in favor of what makes it really work.

PAN-PAN and Implicit Direction

On 20 January, 201916 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

One of the very quickest ways to kill my interest in a game is to railroad me into a tutorial. Conversely, the fastest way to get me on board is to display trust in the audience. But Pan-Pan just takes it to the next level on top of that.

The Game Awards and Apples-to-Oranges

On 16 December, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

Obviously, I love looking back at movies, games, shows – darn near anything under the umbrella term “media” – and celebrating what makes it so memorable. Heck, that’s effectively the mission statement of this blog. Awards shows seem custom-built to do that, so in theory I should be completely and totally on-board with them. Not so much.

Digital: A Love Story and Interactive Fiction

On 18 November, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video Games1 Comment

Unfortunately, in the context of video games, it always feels like there’s some degree of separation between the fiction itself and the delivery method. which makes games that do bridge this gap well that much more notable. Games like Digital: A Love Story.

Bravely Second and Mechanical Pacing

On 21 October, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video Games4 Comments

Bravely Second is seemingly unafraid to utterly bury you in options for possible party builds and accompanying tactics. But it never really feels like too much at any point, owed to its fantastic pacing.

Kingdom Hearts and Sunk Costs

On 23 September, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

As an up-front qualifier to the rest of what I'm about to say, I absolutely adore the Kingdom Hearts series and (most of) its associated games. But here's the rub: I have serious doubts that I would start playing the Kingdom Hearts series if I heard about it for the first time today.

Nier Automata x OST and Conlang

On 29 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Music, Video GamesLeave a comment

One of those elements that instantly makes a setting feel fleshed-out and well-realized to me is the presence of conlang, or constructed languages. It's dead impressive that the invented "chaos language" in NieR: Automata is custom-made just to deepen the series' often-haunting and sometimes-thrilling soundtrack.

R.A.D. and So-Bad-It’s-Good

On 28 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video Games1 Comment

By any objective measure, Robot Alchemic Drive is a garbage game. Yet I love this rough little clunker so very very much.

Last Remnant and Software Extinction

On 25 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

Yesterday, it was announced that The Last Remnant would be discontinued for PC in a week and some change. For sales/support reasons? Some issue with licensing? Who knows! Point is, no new players on those games. This isn't even the first time this has happened by a long shot.

Saints Row and Variable Tone

On 24 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

Back in the college days, Saints Row 2 was our vice of choice. Yet even with our inbuilt good faith in in the series, I've barely spent a third of the time in Saints' Row The Third as I have its predecessor. So what happened here?

Bravely Demos and Succinctness

On 23 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video Games4 Comments

I love me a good JRPG. I have for about two-thirds of my life now. But here's the thing - I can only really play a very limited number of them.

Yakuza and Closed-World Environments

On 19 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

The Yakuza series of games has been gaining a lot of traction recently in the West . Like with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s sparse inventory space, its unwillingness to let the player off the proverbial leash works in its favor.

Shadow of Mordor and Genre Borders

On 16 August, 201816 February, 2020 By Data_ErrorIn Full-length Essays, Video GamesLeave a comment

Video games are a weird thing to think about as a category, and sorting them into different genres is tricky. The RPG label just might be the worst of them these days.

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