On Monday Later Levels will be hosting a Gamer Blog Party! Come meet your fellow writers and network to your heart’s content.
From the Facebook event: ”Join us for the next blog party in June, where you can share your posts and meet some amazing bloggers in the community. This time there’ll be a ‘fancy-dress’ theme: change your WordPress profile image to your favourite video game character for the duration of the event!”
Stay tuned to Later Level’s blog and Twitter feed for updates, details, and the post location. Be there or be square!
One of the central themes of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is whether or not Blades should be considered a race of people rather than weapons or tools, or if it is fair to treat them as weapons even if it’s their nature. Are they slaves no matter how well their Driver treats them? Just because a Blade and Driver have a good relationship, even a loving one, does that make it right to use them? On the other hand, is it acceptable to leave them dormant forever, in effect unalive?
Trade ins. Dear lord, trade ins. Don’t get me started on those sports games that come out at the same time every year, like FIFA, NBA, Madden, etc. Folks would want to trade in last year’s Madden game and FREAK OUT when they saw the trade in value, having not realized that games depreciate like anything else.
Like, bruh. I’ve got 20 drawers of games back here behind the counter and FIVE of them are FULL of MADDEN, and then I have another shelf of them in the back room on top of that. I could literally put out a dumpster fire with the amount of Madden copies in this store — just dump them in to smother the flames. No one would miss them, and we would still have dozens left! Dozens!
The Red Strings Club is a fantastic little point and click adventure game by Devolver Digital that can be completed in one sitting. Running about three to four hours long but with great replay value, The Red Strings Club provides a quality, succinct cyberpunk package fortified with superb dialogue and sprinkled with the tendency to make your question your own opinions.
My boyfriend and I are currently living in a John Mulaney stand up bit right now. Our first flight was delayed yesterday so badly that it combo broke our two connecting fights and we had to reschedule for today. Delta is like the the EA of airlines, I swear. Our second flight today is delayed too so here we are, aging towards death one delay announcement at a time in Detroit International when we should be on the beach already. “Tragic – they were so young,” the police will say, shaking their heads sadly when they find our desperate skeletons clinging to the slowest charging ports on the planet, Subway and Starbucks litter scattered around us.
First world problems, am I right? Anywho, thought this would be a good time to show y’all my neat travel gear for my Switch. I found this lovely, if pricey leather Switch travel case from WaterField designs a few months ago and it’s amazing. There’s enough room to fit my Switch with an entire battery case on it, plus an extra set of joycons and a bunch of other little items. When I fly I like to move my wallet and essentials over to it and treat it like a purse, while my real purse gets smushed into the bottom of my carry on. The inside is felt with a suede section over where the screen sits. It gets mistaken for a purse with the matching strap I got for it and this pleases me. 🙂
Gwent! I used to play it a lot, the stand alone Witcher CCG. I have been admining a large gaming community Discord for two years that originally started as a Gwent group, then eventually branched into general gaming of all kinds. It’s called the Lodge of Sorceresses and we provide a woman-focused, LGBTQ friendly environment in which video game players of all types can improve their game and connect meaningfully with other gamers.
I wanted to extend a invite code to my new friends and readers in the video game blogging world. The Lodge of Sorceresses Discord community has a great base of friendly, active core members, with around 600 in the Discord total (only around 100 are active at once). We’re multicultural, international, and love intellectual discussions. The mod teams never censors controversial or sensitive topics as long as everyone is discussing civilly and respectfully with an open mind. Please note the server is 18+.
The Gwent cards and playing board I custom ordered for giveaways and spectator entertainment at a Gwent tournament I helped admin in Philadelphia last year. It was a blast! The maker is WolfSchool on Etsy, whom is a wonderful craftsman.
Why a Sphinx for the community logo? “It is who we are. All of us belonging to the Lodge, we are like the sphinx. Silent, strategic, perilous, hidden, mysterious, wise and occult. Strong and brave. Fearless, timeless and powerful. Yes, the sphinx should be the symbol of our Lodge.”
– Assire’s thoughts on the Lodge, The Tower of the Swallow
Originally released on the Xbox 360 and PC in 2007, BioShock has blown many minds with what is widely considered one of, if not the best narrative twists in video game history. It features the most well-integrated explorations of philosophy, morality, and ethics in a video game story to date. If BioShock is still on your to-play list, beware of the MASSIVE SPOILERS ahead. It’s time to revisit Rapture!
Also, I’ll be in Hawaii for two weeks starting on Saturday. Yay for being on a plane for 11 hours! That’s a lot of time to get some Switch games and reviews finished. My posts won’t be as substantial while I’m gone, but I have a few posts scheduled that I think you’ll like. Did anybody used to watch Zoids on Toonami back in the day?
I just wanted to thank everyone who follows my blog so far. You’ve help kick off Backlog Crusader to a great start! In only 5 weeks, it’s managed to earn over 130 WordPress and email subscribers, over 3,600 unique visitors, and over 7,700 views. That’s crazy, right? Thanks so much!
Final Fantasy XII is a game I wish I had been old enough to appreciate when it first released in 2006, but am very pleased to be playing now with its new coat of HD polish. The tale of Final Fantasy XII is refreshingly mature compared to past installment of the series; it does not involve stopping a global catastrophe right off the bat or a mysterious bad guy intent on world domination. Instead the plot is a bit closer to home for the characters, more true to life, and therefore feels very down to Earth (or rather down to Ivalice).
Backlog Crusader 