If you only play one NieR game, Automata is the one to play. If you liked it enough to want a second helping, Replicant is probably the best form you can experience that in. It still feels a little more like medicine than dessert.
I can’t always find time to write long essays about games. I’m often busy playing them!
I figured I’d go ahead and share that gameplay with all of you, so I re-invigorated my Twitch stream. I haven’t streamed since Extra Life several years ago, so I’m shaking off the dust.
Check my channel out at http://twitch.tv/litagemini
I’m going to be live tonight. A few details under the jump…
This year I took a trip to PAX West, in Seattle, for a little talk among devs, a little R&R, and a little cosplay. I didn’t travel on a press badge, but I did get a few press invitations that nonetheless intrigued me. The one that interested me the most was an invitation to see a preview of the new Torment game, Tides of Numenera.
Let’s get the disclosures out of the way first: I’m a backer of the game’s Kickstarter campaign, Tap-Repeatedly’s Steerpike was previously involved with the game, and I personally know some people involved with the game, including writer Colin McComb, who I worked with at a previous job! I’m also gonna disclose that one of the reasons I went for the interview was just to catch up with Colin and see what the heck he’d been working on. What I saw of the game was really cool… and you can read about that more below!
The indie RPG that everyone is talking about this season is a Gamemaker game called Undertale. I really enjoyed this game and think it’s absolutely worth playing. But the fan enthusiasm came near to putting me off, as fan enthusiasm can do. So here is Thought One: If you think you may at all have an interest in a quirky indie RPG, play Undertale without reading any spoilers. I didn’t even watch the trailer, and I think that’s for the best. Don’t listen to any fans until you’ve finished the game, because they’re gonna get all weird about it on you.
Speaking of which, the other two segments of this article contain spoilers – the first, vague but meaningful spoilers – the second, slightly more. So if you haven’t played it, you can stop now like I suggest, or keep reading a little until you know if this is a thing you want to pick up. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has another take on it that actually tells you more about what the game is like.
Geralt of Rivia is a sullen man, unlikable even, but I like him because he’s cooler than me and because he always remembers my birthday. Which is today. I am forty.
So far it doesn’t seem much different than when I was thirty-nine, but the real test is whether I survive the next few days. I’m currently participating in a weekend-long birthday extravaganza thrown by my friends to celebrate the many late-May birthdays in our group. When I was younger, this sort of multi-day celebration was par for the course. Now that I’m forty it’ll probably kill me. In fact, I might already be dead. This post could be from beyond the grave!
I love Dragon Age Origins. I really do. And Mass Effect too. They are slick, engaging games that hold my attention, more or less through to the ending sequence. BioWare has delivered the goods recently, ladling out Mass Effect 2 and threatening to release a followup expansion to Dragon Age. What is there not to like? Well, a lot of things. The silly dialogue with its stilted choice system. And the story. Snort. Right. But …
I’ve been in a bit of a gaming slump over the summer and into the fall. Nothing has really caught my attention. I drove a Fallout expansion around the block earlier this summer but it just didn’t stick. I made another run at Guild Wars, buying up the last two releases, Factions and Nightfall, killing a couple of weeks grinding away before sputtering to a stop. Korsakovia was an interesting foray into the Half Life …
Review by Scout The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Developer Bethesda Softworks, LLC Publisher Bethesda Softworks, LLC Released 1996 Available for DOS Verdict: 3/5 Middlin’ “The game is much nastier than Morrowind. You are dumped in a dungeon with snarling monsters everywhere (rats and imps and bears and bats and skeleton warriors and thieves) with no armor or spells and just a sword. Good luck trying to get out. I died about every way possible before …
Review by Scout Fallout 3 Developer Bethesda Game Studios Publisher Bethesda Softworks LLC Released October 28, 2008 Available for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “Play Fallout 3 and you’ll not only be treated to what might turn out to be one of the best Bethesda games ever to come down the pike but you’ll also experience echoes of Deus Ex, Half Life 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and Bioshock. In the end this game …
Review by Mike “Scout” Gust The Witcher Developer CD Projekt Publisher Atari Released October 30, 2007 Available for Windows Time Played Finished Verdict: 4/5 Thumbs Up “For the perceptive gamer, the payoff is every bit as big as it promises to be at the outset.“