No Lives Left

The 0% was left in on purpose... I don't know the exact point where the joy that comes from playing co-op left me during my tenure in Outriders. Maybe it was the constant lag that was initially felt after the tutorial prologue. The lack of verifying that I was, in fact, doing any damage was quite the concern for me. It could have been my internet connection, but I normally don't have many problems with my connection. It could have been my friend's connection as well, but we all live in Southern California. The frustration was real. Maybe it was the constant crashing I experienced when I first purchased it on the PC that created that  negative (and lasting) impression. Maybe it was the guilt-inducing trauma of having to delay/impede my group of friends progress while I spent hours googling any potential fixes. The fact that we only played once a week made the whole stress of troubleshooting killer. It definitely led to my decreased enjoyment of the game. And despite hours of...

  Finally back for the new year. I know it's almost a month too late, but I finally got a chance to watch  Spider-man: No Way Home (in theaters by the way).  And while my last foray into the MCU left a sour taste in my mouth,  Spider-man  really helped cleanse the palette. And most of the reason I liked this movie was how it paid homage to Spider-man as a movie franchise rather than just a continuation the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The Spider-man franchise has proven that the MCU can have stories that don't need to  fit in  anywhere in the MCU general storyline. As I was watching  No Way Home,  I noticed how I was just enjoying the story that the movie was presenting. There were only a couple of references I had to make  that really required MCU knowledge or watching previous films.  All in all,  Spider-man: No Way Home  is a fun-filled, wild ride. It's a movie full of surprises that I wish I had never seen...

  There aren't many games I have played that struck me like Inscryption . It's hard to talk about most of this game without delving into spoiler territory, so read at your own risk. I'm probably not going to be going through a " What I Liked" and "What I Didn't Like" like I normally do since I really don't think there is much I honestly disliked  about this game.  I also wanted to discuss this game and how it sets itself apart from a lot of other games I've played this year. Long story short, this game deserves your attention.  This is how the game starts...Notice that the new game button can't be selected.  First things first, Inscryption is a very addictive card game.  They game has great mechanics right off the bat and it's eerily fun. Playing cards feels fun and gives a Yu-Gi-Oh! feel. The animations of each card are charming and detailed; they don't stagnate which is really cool. The mechanics are sound too. While the beginni...

Back in 2011, Tim Schafer from Double Fine Productions explored the idea of what a game would look like if every level was actually set in the minds of the characters in the game. When I played it, I immediately fell in love with the environments, characters, and story. The level designs were able to be super out there and weird but totally believable. The gameplay had the ability to blend with the story. Each enemy was related to what was going on inside the characters head at the time. Levels designs were able to dabble in the obtuse and imaginary. It's okay if there are endless pits to nowhere because you're in someone's mind and it sorta makes sense. The premise also kind of "cheats" in that you get all sorts of character development when you make the level in someone's mind. Psychonauts 2  continues Raz's adventure from his 2011 adventure. Almost the entire cast of characters come back in this entry. The game starts off hot with Raz going on a mission...

Metroid has always been a series near and dear to my heart. Exploring planet Zebes in Super Metroid  and the first opening moments of looking through Samus's visor in the rain Metroid Prime  are extremely hard moments to re-live. Those moments are some of my favorite in gaming. Games that can give me that feeling of wonder and exploration will rank up there in my list of great games.   Super Metroid is a classic. It's so good it has half of the genre named after it (Metroidvania). It's method of exploration and maze-like maps bore a whole series of amazing games that all owe their roots to this beloved Nintendo franchise. If you're a fan of video games, Super Metroid  is a must play. Just an amazing game that had no right being as good as it was. Because of it's great art design and pixel art style, it holds up to the test of time beautifully.  While the Metroid series has had critical acclaim, it's not as obscenely popular  as Nintendo's other big hit...

The Tales of series is like JRPG junk food. They've established themselves in the JRPG genre as light hearted adventures about saving the world (but with friendship!). Most of the series protagonists sport the cliché innocent, can do no wrong look and seem to struggle to understand  the difference between good and evil (but ultimately do). These stories are rarely anything to write home about. They aren't necessarily forgettable though, in fact most are really enjoyable. The Tales of s eries is the definition of the saying "it's not the end but the journey that is most important." The series has continuously evolved it's combat system while still keep the addictive action based combat in tact. I think most fans will cite the gameplay as the reason they continuously come back to each entry. Following close second is that interaction the characters have with each other over the course of the main story as well as the haphazardly placed "skits" that are...

  Sequelitis is the word that comes to mind when playing Axiom Verge 2. I'm not 100% sure of the origin. But I learned about it from a YouTube series by EgoRaptor (Arin Hanson). It's defined as the sequel of an original price of media not delivering on the same merits as the original. The idea being that the original had set bar that the sequel had to surmount. A sequel will always be judged by the piece of media that came before. And sometimes a sequel ends up failing to find critical and cult success if it is anything but better and bigger than the original in every aspect. Super Smash Brothers Brawl  suffered from sequelitis because of how much Sakurai (the creator of the beloved series) wanted to ensure his game didn't a have such a high skill ceiling as its predecessor. He wanted more people enjoy the Smash  series and wanted to give new fans (that came from the huge influx of Wii owners) an entry point. So he added random tripping and removed any expert skills that ...