Over the years, various video game trends have waxed and waned. Sometimes, the medium adopts objective improvements, such as higher frame rates and polygon counts. Other times, these trends are stylistic. Case in point: Video game blood. When I was younger, many games — such as Unreal Tournament and Halo — accompanied their carnage with…
Earlier last month, I had a strange, implacable itch for Star Wars stories. To get my fix, I turned to Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), an MMORPG revered for its story content. While I had played SWTOR back in 2011, I recognized that I hadn’t given the game a fair shot. So, I created…
Here’s something interesting about the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR): If the game had stuck with its original $15/month subscription model, it probably would’ve died a long time ago. Thankfully, Electronic Arts (EA) — the game’s publisher — saw the writing on the wall as early as 2012, a year after the game’s…
January 1st, 2012 was most likely a dreary, overcast winter day — and like the skies outside my window, a dense haze clouded my mind. I had most likely overdosed on cannabis at a New Year’s Eve party the night before. The drugs left me dazed and disoriented. Reluctantly, I emerged from bed and parked…
Uncharted took gamers on a series of thrilling, worldly expeditions. The Last of Us married brutal survivalist combat with emotionally charged storytelling. Both franchises are the latest proof of game developer Naughty Dog’s evolving talent. But despite their innovations, neither franchise is anywhere near as fun or as visually interesting as the studio’s preceding trilogy, Jak…
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…
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 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…
