Browsing: Op-Eds

Fear is something that can excite and terrify gamers, be it the fear of losing to a boss on your final life, or fear that the creature stalking the halls will find you. Fear is something most modern day horror games claim to be able to invoke in their audience; however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Today I’d like to propose that a more sinister horror become more prevalent in gaming: cosmic horror, made popular by author Howard Phillips Lovecraft. I’m happy that, as of late, a few developers have taken the plunge into Lovecraftian horror and seen great success as a result.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Team Ninja’s latest crack at the long-dormant Ultimate Alliance series, is far from a perfect game. Still, the game as a whole just works, and not merely in the sense that its mechanics and systems function as intended; everything comes together conceptually, with the tone of the story and art style perfectly matching the chaotic ebullience of the gameplay. The game combines basic brawler systems with a cartoonish presentation and doesn’t try to be much more than that. Simply put, the game knows what it is and stays true to itself at all times.

When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took the gaming world by storm two years ago, it amazed players with its massive open world, improved traversal mechanics, weapon variety, and breathtaking scenery. … After playing Cadence of Hyrule, the latest Zelda spin-off, which uses the mechanics of Crypt of the Necrodancer, I now realize what was missing: the integration of music as a core gameplay mechanic (Kass doesn’t count).

I love The Witcher 3, but don’t like Dragon Age: Inquisition. I can’t get into most JRPGs, but I kind of like Paper Mario: Sticker Star. I’m a huge Legend of Zelda fan, but I’ve never loved the original. The Super Nintendo is my favorite console ever, yet I don’t think I’ll ever finish Super Mario RPG or Super Metroid. … Why am I like this?

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was officially unveiled during E3 this morning at EA Play. While there are bound to be plenty of observations taken away from the game based on its 15-minute, unedited gameplay segment, I have a few burning thoughts… and they’re not great.

What Happens When You Play a Game Decades After Its Height? Here’s something that everyone on this planet has experienced: Somebody is telling you a story with great enthusiasm hoping to elicit a certain response…

Daaaaaaaaamn, Nintendo, Back At It Again With the Sexist Design I love Fire Emblem. I really do. For all the plans I have for articles that will seem to contradict that, Fire Emblem is the…

Examining the Best and Worst of Romance in Games Happy February! Valentines’ Day recently came and went, and Anna and I decided to celebrate in the traditional fashion—arguing! We have pretty different opinions on romance…

Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate Can, and Should, Sustain Each Other Going Forward Genesis 6, the latest in the long-running Super Smash Bros. super-major series, came to a close at 3 a.m. Eastern on…

Big Predictions for the Biggest Night in Games Correction: Don’t expect to see The Last of Us Part II Thursday night, as Naughty Dog recently tweeted that they don’t be showing anything from the title at…