I’ve been playing Dragon’s Dogma recently and rediscovering the feeling of slow-and-steady exploration in a fantasy world. It’s been awesome. It’s hard to find games that feed you that sense of discovering things in an organic way, so to speak, since most will railroad you into a main quest (that’s not always that interesting) or some other content, and the …
Tag: video games
I miss handheld consoles
Smartphones as gaming devices will never have the longevity, or reliability, that handheld consoles have I never really had a “proper” smartphone until last year. My last “good smartphone” was a Nokia E95 (I miss that design and clicky keys) more than 10 years ago, and since then I only bought low-to-mid-range smartphones because I never used them for anything …
Sacred 2 was a diamond in the rough
Sacred 2 is a not-so-hidden gem that showed what ARPGs could be, given the chance, time, and money Note: this was originally published on Medium. It was edited to be published here. Revisiting this old gem is like meeting an old friend: weird at first, but surprisingly nice. There are some games you just can’t play enough, they always make …
The “games as a service” philosophy is not that great
The concept of “games as a service” might be detrimental to the game industry as a whole in the long run Note: this was originally published in 2019 on Medium. It has been now reviewed and edited to be posted here. Many things changed in the industry, but I think the point that drove me to write this article still …
Open world in video games
In open-world games, traveling should be a core part of the design, instead of treating the map just as a background setpiece Note: this was originally posted on cohost in a thread about open-world games and in-game traveling, and edited before being posted here. Like many people, I consider Morrowind to be Bethesda’s pinnacle, and it’s all due to its …
A short, personal, and wordy essay about gachas
Most gachas have predatory practices, but there are a few that can be played as normal games I’m over 30, and as I get older(TM) and real life(R) start to creep up on my free time, I’m starting to value mobile games more and more. I always liked handhelds (I’m salty to this day about how Sony treated the PS …
Using “AI”-translated content is a bad idea
In some ways, I could be considered a Luddite, I guess I’m not against it because I fear for my job. I actually would embrace any new technology that made things easier, but that hasn’t been the case here. The issue with “AI” – and I use quotes because it is not a true AI, despite its hype – is …
Video game reviews
Sometimes I like to talk about games that I like, and sometimes I like to write about games that I like. There’s an indie video game digital magazine I collaborate with from time to time, and I wrote two articles for them this year: one was about Caves of Qud, a roguelike/RPG that’s pretty cool and expansive; the other was …