I rarely play handheld games these days. But occasionally, I get the itch to thumb through my humble library of Game Boy Advance cartridges, and a flood of heartfelt memories ensues. In many ways, the Game Boy Advance is still the perfect handheld system for my needs. Released in 2001, its 32-bit hardware is incapable…
Prior to 2021, I had never broken a bone. But earlier this year, I made up for lost time by sustaining all sorts of fractures all over my body. The surgeries to correct those fractures took place while I was unconscious, and most bone breakage has since healed. However, I’d thought I’d chronicle some of…
Battlefield’s brand of large-scale, high-intensity warfare has kept me captivated for over a decade. In 2010, I was completely smitten with Bad Company 2, a game that subverted many multiplayer shooter conventions. Buildings were fully destructible, so you couldn’t run and hide forever. Bullets dropped, requiring you to consider the physics behind every squeeze of…
My Mom has always been a compassionate gardener. She had a garden in our backyard when I was little. In her spare time, she would toil away, fostering the growth of chives, oregano, thyme, and more. What I didn’t know at the time was that my Mom had another garden: Us, her three sons. Like…
My partner and I recently hit level fifty in Fallout 76. And with the celebration came some contemplation. In Fallout 76, fifty is the last meaningful character level threshold. Crossing fifty lifts all level-related restrictions, meaning you’re free to equip any weapon or armour piece and attend any event in-game. You can continue to earn experience and…
As early as ten years ago, one of my favourite aspects of buying media was its tangibility. Whether I had bought a new video game, movie, or CD, I loved running my fingers over the various packaging textures and poring over the included instruction manuals and liner notes. But in this new digital era, I’m…
Against all expectations, Fallout 76 has become a gaming staple around here. I’ve been playing it almost daily for over a month now, and it’s even managed to hold my partner’s interest for a similar amount of time. That’s especially impressive given the massive amount of choices one has for entertainment these days. My partner and…
A week ago, medical personnel herded me onto a systematized medical floor and into a small stall. There, I sat in a neat row amongst other fellow residents of my city. And one by one, we were each inoculated like cattle. It was my second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. So, in a few weeks,…
I distinctly remember the vortex of emotions I experienced when Bethesda revealed Fallout 76 back in 2018. The gameplay trailer, which showcased an idyllic golden Appalachian landscape littered with all manner of creatures and mutated biomes, left an unmistakably good impression. But as a multiplayer title, how would the game play? Fallout 4 had been…
I recently claimed a free month of Microsoft’s Game Pass service to check out Fallout 76. For the uninitiated, Game Pass is essentially “Netflix” for video games. It offers unrestricted access to dozens of games at a low monthly cost ($12.99 CAD). After activating the Game Pass trial, I proceeded to go about my merry way…
