I remember being at a game conference – E3 in 2010, if memory serves  – when Final Fantasy XIV Online was announced. My thought at the time was: yikes, actually, that game looks like crap. It turns out my instincts were correct. It was absolutely crap! This resulted in a complete rework of the game. The developers practically destroyed the original FFXIV, subtitled it as A Realm Reborn, and fixing its many problems.

Not many people have good memories of whatever vanilla FFXIV was. But some of my friends have been playing ARR for a long time now, and all of them recommended it to me. It finally became too difficult to resist the temptation when the rabbit-woman Viera race was added to the game. I could ignore the siren song of sexy catgirls, but now I could become an Amazonian warrior bunny? All right, SquareSoft, you finally got me.

This is a review of A Realm Reborn and A Realm Reborn only. This is what it’s like to be me, a noob, playing FFXIV: ARR, in 2019.

MomoCon in Altanta took place last week, with record crowds for the event peaking 39,000 attendees, in 95 degree heat.

I went to MomoCon last year on accident: I happened to be in the neighborhood, and followed a line of cosplayers to the event the way a hungry cartoon character floats on the scent of a cooling pie.

This year, I flew to Atlanta on purpose. I knew I had fun with my short time at the event the previous year. Critically, I wanted to attend the Devil May Cry panel at the con on Saturday, since the series evolved from a casual interest of mine into an obsession, at a pace that would give you whiplash.

This is a trip report.

“Variations on a theme” is a phrase I’ve employed to describe the games of Hidetaka Miyazaki, but it’s all a bit more complicated with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It shares ample DNA with the games that made Miyazaki famous—Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne—but it’s also much more distinct. Any particular SoulsBorne game is unique, but looks and plays basically like the others. Sekiro doesn’t. The result is a game that revels in its surprises while nonetheless feeling familiar as an old shoe, or a loyal dog that bites. Hard.

I could’ve predicted to you two months ago that this thing was going to be a sensation.

I could’ve and should’ve. I had the headline at least written, but then I got lazy and then I didn’t write anything. Then I played the game.

Devil May Cry 5.

2018 will place, respectably, just after 2017, but definitely before 2016, 2015 and 2014 as the second best year of the PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch generation (2019 TBD). Behold!

While everyone out there was getting psyched about the Resident Evil 2 Remake, and Kingdom Hearts 3 finally on the horizon, I was still lingering over one bit of sad news happening in gaming this week. On January 30, 2019, the Wii Shop Channel will close down… Forever.

Full Title: Games I Liked in 2018 and also in 2017 because I didn’t do a list last year but it’s okay; time is an illusion and it’s not like you can’t also still buy 2017 games in 2018

This is a big list of games that I played that had an impact on me. Most aren’t really listed in terms of objective quality. Consider this a list of my top two Games of the Year in indies, followed by a lot of other stuff I felt like talking about as a sort of two-years-in-review. Doing this exercise, I realize what a full year it’s been, but I only notice this now upon taking time to reflect. I also make a lot of comments about other game writing in this article. Even though I don’t get around to writing so much myself these days, I see a lot of what other people are saying about games and I have feelings about the things they say.

Lots of games and some snark below the jump.

I default to assuming the worst about Rockstar Games. That is a reasonable position because Rockstar is the worst. My years in the industry have shown me little to contradict the impression that Sam and Dan Houser are egomaniacal assholes who treat their employees like garbage and perpetuate a studio culture fueled with fear, run by a leadership that never hesitates to lie on record.

The Housers insist they’re making some of the best games in the world, conflating “best” with “most successful.” I appreciate Rockstar’s consistently excellent stories, writing, and cinematics, but I’ve never truly warmed to any of their work. Imagine my surprise, then, when I fired up Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that’s breathtaking in experience, masterful in design, and almost incomprehensible in scope.

Tap announcement time!

This weekend myself and friends are rocking PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, home of tabletop and board games.

Tomorrow, starting around 2 PM EST (but keep your eyes open) you’ll be able to watch the finale of our current Dungeons & Dragons adventure live from the show! Please tune in to Twitch.TV/Elliface which is our home channel for Dungeons & Dragons & Chicken – our ongoing campaign.

And if you’re at the show, then see you there!

The final episode is upon us and we’ve saved the best till last. Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I loved Witchball, ‘a post-reality racing game played by children in the year 2601’. Yeah. It’s very much doing its own thing which is exactly why it surprised us both so much.