It’s easy enough to imagine life as a roguelike game as they both share some commonalities, especially when it comes to random encounters. As with everyday life, you can have streaks of good or bad luck, depending on the conditions and how prepared you are for all eventualities. I’ve come to a realization that perhaps those who play roguelikes and other games that feature encounters and events that call for careful decision-making and may lead to either reward or undesired consequence. (more…)
Square Enix just released the announcement trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the sequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolution that is not a mobile or browser game (because to hell with Deus Ex: The Fall). As you can see from this website’s design (as of this posting), I quite like the look and feel of DX:HR. However, it was far from perfect as it had some “broken” parts that got in the way of immersion. These are my thoughts on what can be improved through the new game. (more…)
Talk about being late to the party. However, I actually took quite a bit of time to sort my thoughts out on what I think about the short film in order to come up with this post. Perhaps it was good that I posted this only now as Henshincon — a celebration of the tokusatsu genre that had been a part of Filipino childhoods during the 90s — gets underway. I myself grew up with Power Rangers and tokusatsu shows imported from Japan (and translated into Filipino), so it seems apt for me to start off a tribute of sorts by looking into someone else’s tribute. (more…)
Exactly a year ago, I posted the first part of a commentary on an old article I did for a gaming website (CheatMasters) called The Progression of the Western RPG. After all this time, I now continue my commentary with some new insight, which is perhaps my main excuse other than procrastination for taking so long to post this. (more…)
So this topic comes up again with what should be a bigger knee-jerk than the last time. Street Fighter is a bigger franchise due to its history and wider appeal, so there seemed to be more attention this time around compared to Rise of the Tomb Raider being announced as an Xbox One exclusive. With the announcement of Street Fighter V and its exclusion from the Xbox One, the waves of reactionary rage were more palpable, so much that I had to write this follow-up. (more…)
With the news of Rise of the Tomb Raider supposedly being exclusive to the Xbox One, plenty of people got miffed by it, especially those who had played the Tomb Raider reboot (myself included). However, this whole thing may be more than meets the eye, and it’s a look into business practices of gaming companies, as well as how consumers react to whatever the hell the “corporate suits” come up with. Some may think that there’s nothing new to discuss with this topic, but some still think that it’s a new thing even though it has been going on for as long as modern gaming has existed. (more…)
It has taken me a long while, but I’ve finally put my thoughts down on this little piece of fascination. Let me share something from EVO other than the games that I look forward to each year. Before every Top 8 Final for each game on the main stream, they play an intro video to get viewers hyped up. I personally am into these videos because I’m both a fan of fighting games and videography, so I would like to share my enthusiasm for this little part of EVO with you. (more…)
This post was previously titled “Gully Bell and the Infinite Foolishness,” which was my attempt at playing with the title of that Smashing Pumpkins album. Anyway, this isn’t about somber moods though, but more on a mix of grief and consternation that comes with the release of a Triple-A game, especially one that has so much hype behind it. It gets so much praise and wanton desire even before it’s released, but then becomes a letdown once it’s out and people start acting as if family members died. It’s a puzzling bit of human behavior in regards to consumerism. (more…)
There are a lot of issues regarding Steam that many have gripes with, from their front page listings to their Greenlight program. Among them, I see Early Access being the most deplorable as a consumer. I think it goes against the tenets of consumer rights and sensible business, despite understanding why it exists. It’s great for indie developers continue their efforts while ensuring their game’s place in Steam, but perhaps there are better ways that won’t screw over customers. (more…)
Recently, I rediscovered a rather half-hearted editorial I wrote for CheatMasters about the evolution of western role-playing games (WRPGs) just after the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on November 11, 2011. I personally favor WRPGs over Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) because they were what I had more fun with growing up. With that in mind, here is a commentary of what I had written in that editorial, pointing out what I had gotten wrong then, and more. (more…)
This entry is quite late as the news item cited in here is no longer that recent as of this posting. However, the observation made was just too apropos to not share. It’s fascinating, although not exactly uplifting bit of information. However, it does add quite a bit more intrigue to the backstory of such an unfortunate incident. (more…)
Commentary on the Progression of Western RPGs – Part 3
As I worked to conclude this series that may or may not have been worth writing about, I did start thinking that this had been dragged on for too long. Perhaps I was thinking that while western RPGs were worth talking about at length, the things I’ve mentioned in this series aren’t exactly new information and may even be full of holes. I do admit to those doubts, but I still have to finish what I started. (more…)